Zaidi On Giants’ Pitching Plans
While they’ve already done a fair bit of heavy lifting in the pitching arena, the Giants may not be done yet. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters, including Alex Pavlovic of NBC News Bay Area (Twitter link) and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (via Twitter), that the team is still looking for arms.
The rotation just picked up a new piece when the club inked Anthony DeSclafani to a single-season pact. He’ll join Kevin Gausman, who made good on his own one-year deal with the Giants and ultimately elected to accept the qualifying offer extended by the club.
Despite those additions, Zaidi says the Giants still “have room to add another guy” to the starting staff. That’s not exactly surprising, as the rest of the unit comes with questions. Diminished veteran Johnny Cueto will take one spot, while Connor Menez, Logan Webb, and Shaun Anderson are the current 40-man options to fill out the staff. Tyler Beede could challenge for a role, but he’ll first need to polish off his Tommy John rehab.
It’s certainly possible that the Giants could still pursue a significant player to buttress the rotation. The organization is said to have kicked around the idea of pursuing top available free agent Trevor Bauer. The market still contains a variety of hurlers with differing profiles and there are some interesting trade possibilities as well.
In the bullpen, it seems there’s less reason to wonder about a big strike — at least on the right-handed side. Having already plugged in one piece with Matt Wisler, Zaidi suggests the Giants will primarily be looking for value opportunities. The right-handed relief market is “probably an area where we seek to be more creative and out of the box,” he says.
Royals To Re-Sign Jeison Guzman
The Royals have agreed to terms on a minor-league deal with infielder Jeison Guzman, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (Twitter link). He had recently been non-tendered but will re-join the Kansas City organization.
Guzman only recently reached his 22nd birthday and hasn’t yet appeared above the Class A level. He was originally added to the 40-man roster in advance of the 2019 Rule 5 draft.
While the switch-hitting middle-infielder hasn’t yet conquered low-minors pitching, he’s considered a slick fielder and did get a chance to develop at the Royals’ alternate training site during the 2020 campaign. Despite a brief call-up to the active roster in August, he did not see any big-league action.
Guzman joins several other players in returning to the Royals after being dropped from the big league roster.
Brewers To Sign Luis Perdomo
The Brewers have a deal in place with righty Luis Perdomo, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). It’s a minor-league arrangement.
The 27-year-old Perdomo had been cut loose recently by the Padres. He’s expected to miss all of the upcoming campaign while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
It isn’t clear just yet whether the accord has any special provisions (such as an option) for future seasons. If nothing else, Perdomo will be eligible for arbitration once again at season’s end, so the Brewers could decide to add him to their 40-man roster and tender him a contract if his rehab progresses well.
If he can fully recover from his elbow woes, Perdomo will be looking for a chance to prove that he can deliver consistent results at the MLB level. He has a standout, mid-nineties sinker that reliably produces gaudy groundball numbers, but owns only a 5.19 ERA in his 444 1/3 career frames at the game’s highest level.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/16/20
The latest minor league moves from around baseball…
Latest Moves
- The Rays have signed catcher Joe Odom to a minors pact, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. A 13th-round pick of Atlanta in 2013, Odom stuck with the Braves organization through 2017 before joining the Mariners in the ensuing winter’s Rule 5 Draft. Odom did make it to the majors for the first time last season with Seattle, collecting 44 plate appearances, but the 28-year-old batted a meek .128/.209/.128 with no extra-base hits and 20 strikeouts. The Mariners outrighted him after that.
Earlier Today
- The Rangers signed right-hander Luis Ortiz to a minors contract, the team announced. Ortiz has a 12.71 ERA over career 5 2/3 innings in the majors (with the Orioles in 2018-19), and is making his return to Texas after being drafted 30th overall by the Rangers in 2014. He has been part of two notable deadline trades, included as part of the trade package sent to Milwaukee for Jonathan Lucroy in 2016, and then the Brewers shipped him to the Orioles in July 2018 as part of the Jonathan Villar/Jonathan Schoop swap.
- The Brewers signed outfielder/first baseman Dustin Peterson to a minor league deal, as originally reported by Ana Soriano of RIDA Sports (Twitter link). Originally a second-round pick for the Padres in the 2013 draft, Peterson has a .262/.316/.382 slash line over 2918 career minor league plate appearances in the Padres, Braves, and Tigers farm systems. At the big league level, Peterson has a .570 OPS over 49 PA with Atlanta and Detroit over the 2018-19 seasons. Most recently, Peterson posted big numbers for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters in 2020 and is currently tearing it up in the Mexican Pacific Winter League.
- Catcher Tim Federowicz has signed with the Dodgers, as Federowicz revealed himself on Twitter. This will be the veteran’s second stint in Los Angeles, as he spent his first four MLB seasons (2011-14) with the Dodgers. It’s probably safe to assume that it is a minor league contract, as the Dodgers have Will Smith and Austin Barnes in the majors and top prospect Keibert Ruiz in the wings after his Major League debut last season. Appearing in parts of eight seasons with six different teams, Federowicz has a .568 OPS over 443 career plate appearances and 163 games at the big league level. He didn’t see any MLB action in 2020 after signing a minors deal with the Rangers last offseason.
Yankees Notes: LeMahieu, Payroll, Tauchman, Stanek
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman once again indicated Wednesday that re-signing free-agent second baseman DJ LeMahieu is the team’s No. 1 offseason priority, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News relays. The Yankees are “certainly not dipping our toes in various waters until we get a feel for how declares himself,” Cashman said of LeMahieu. The club is at least keeping an eye on the free-agent and trade markets as it waits for an answer from LeMahieu, but Cashman seems fairly optimistic New York will be able to retain the 2020 AL batting champion and MVP finalist. “The atmosphere is good, the fact that he wants to stay and we’d like to keep him,” Cashman said. “But that doesn’t guarantee anything because in free agency, you know, anything can happen. So, you know, we’ll see what happens over the course of time but our intent is to try to find a way to make it happen.”
- Also from Ackert’s piece, Cashman stated he’s “confident” the Yankees will again boast the majors’ top payroll in 2021. There has been speculation that the Yankees will try to get under the $210MM luxury-tax threshold, which would mean a significant cut compared to last year’s budget, though Cashman declined to go into detail on how much the team will spend.
- The Yankees have gotten “a lot of calls” from teams on outfielder Mike Tauchman, according to Cashman (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). It seems unlikely the Yankees will part with Tauchman, though, especially with Brett Gardner currently in free agency. Tauchman’s under affordable control through 2024 and could be an important reserve for the Yankees next season, considering he’s capable of playing all three outfield positions. Of course, it’s worth noting that Tauchman’s offensive production plummeted last season after a terrific showing in 2019. The 30-year-old hit just .242/.342/.305 and went without a home run in 111 plate appearances.
- The team has shown interest in free-agent reliever Ryne Stanek, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweets. The Yankees are familiar with Stanek from his time as a member of the division-rival Rays, with whom he pitched from 2017-19. The hard-throwing Stanek held his own in a couple of those years, but he fell apart after the Rays sent him to the Marlins at the 2019 trade deadline. Stanek put up such poor production last season that the Marlins non-tendered him earlier this month.
Rays Re-Sign Mike Zunino
3:01PM: The Rays have announced the move. The escalators within the 2022 club option are broken down by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, as Zunino can increase the option to $5MM if he appears in 80 games. Ninety games played raises the price to $6MM, and it tops out at $7MM if Zunino appears in 100 games or if he gets traded.
12:26PM: The Rays have agreed to a new deal with catcher Mike Zunino, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter link). It is a one-year contract for the veteran backstop, with a club option for the 2022 season. Zunino is represented by Jet Sports Management.
Zunino will get $3MM in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets. According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter), that $3MM breaks down as $2MM in salary and a $1MM buyout of the club option. The exact value of that club option will vary based on Zunino’s playing time, but it will fall somewhere between $4MM-$7MM.
Tampa declined its $4.5MM club option on Zunino following the World Series, though there was mutual interest between the two sides in a new contract. Zunino will now return for a third season with the Rays, and he’ll help fill a sizeable void behind the plate, as the AL champions also parted ways with Michael Perez and Kevan Smith.
It’s probably safe to assume that the Rays will continue to look for more catching help even with Zunino back, as his lack of offensive production over the last two seasons makes him an imperfect fit as a starting catcher. Zunino has hit only .161/.233/.323 over 373 PA in a Rays uniform, though he did bolster that resume with a big performance in the 2020 ALCS to help Tampa Bay win the pennant.
Earlier in his career, it seemed as though Zunino would develop into an offense-first catcher if anything, as he slugged 90 homers with the Mariners from 2014-18. Apart from an overall strong 2017 season, however, Zunino generally posted low batting averages and on-base totals, and detracted from his power with a lot of strikeouts. Defensively, Zunino is well-respected as a game-caller and a handler of pitchers, but Statcast hasn’t been impressed with his declining framing ability over the last two seasons.
Zunino’s new deal removes another name from the list of free agent catchers. The Rays were one of many contenders known to be looking for catching, and while Tampa obviously wasn’t shopping at the top of the backstop market (i.e. J.T. Realmuto or James McCann), removing Zunino from the next tier down further narrows out an already pretty thin collection of available talent for teams in need of a catcher upgrade.
Yankees Sign Andrew Velazquez To Minors Contract
The Yankees have signed infielder Andrew Velazquez to a minor league deal, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Velazquez chose to become a free agent after the Orioles outrighted him off their 40-man roster at season’s end.
Claimed off waivers from the Indians back in February, Velazquez ended up playing in 40 games for Baltimore in 2020, which included 19 starts at shortstop due to Jose Iglesias‘ injury problems. Velazquez didn’t contribute much at the plate, hitting only .159/.274/.206 over 77 plate appearances. Prior to joining the Orioles, Velazquez appeared in 28 games for Tampa Bay and Cleveland during the 2018-19 seasons, receiving 36 PA.
The Bronx native now returns to his local team to provide the Yankees with some utility depth all over the diamond, but while Velazquez has played everywhere except pitcher, catcher, and first base over his nine pro seasons, the bulk of his experience has come at shortstop. Albeit in a small sample size of innings, Velazquez has gotten some solid defensive grades at shortstop, so the Yankees could be considering him as a competition for Tyler Wade for the backup infield role.
Mariners Sign Keynan Middleton, Designate Phillip Ervin
2:55PM: Middleton’s deal will pay him $800K in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets, with some incentive bonuses also available.
12:06PM: The Mariners announced that right-hander Keynan Middleton has been signed to a Major League contract. To create roster room, outfielder Phillip Ervin has been designated for assignment.
The hard-throwing Middleton had a very promising rookie season in the Angels bullpen in 2017, though he was limited to only 25 1/3 total innings in 2018-19 due to Tommy John surgery. This past season, Middleton threw 12 innings over 13 appearances for Los Angeles, posting a 5.25 ERA, 1.83 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9.
According to Statcast, Middleton has consistently delivered very good fastball spin rates over his career, and his advanced metrics indicated that he was somewhat unlucky to post such a high ERA in 2020. Nonetheless, the Angels non-tendered Middleton on December 2 rather than pay a projected arbitration salary of roughly $1MM.
Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto was the Angels’ general manager when Middleton was drafted by the Halos back in 2013, and the two will now reunite on what Middleton described as his “home team” (he hails from Portland, Oregon) in the Mariners’ press release. Even with the guaranteed salary of a MLB deal, the Mariners are taking what is likely a low-cost flier to see if Middleton can regain his rookie form now that he is healthy, and under somewhat more normal circumstances than the unusual 2020 season.
Ervin was picked up on a waiver claim from the Reds in September, and he managed only a .622 OPS over 47 plate appearances in a Seattle uniform. That was still markedly better than his performance over his first 42 PA of the season with Cincinnati, as Ervin had only a .324 OPS. Prior to 2020, Ervin has delivered just about league-average offensive production as a part-timer with the Reds, hitting .262/.326/.438 over 571 PA from 2017-19.
Picked 27th overall in the 2013 draft, Ervin has some decent minor league numbers and can play all three outfield positions, so he would seem like a decent candidate to land elsewhere on a waiver claim. Ervin is out of minor league options, however.
AL West Notes: Baker, Astros, Rangers, A’s
Dusty Baker is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards continuing to manage into the 2022 season, telling reporters (including The Associated Press) that it “Depends how I feel. Depends on how the team feels about me….You never know what changes are going to come about in life.” Hired last January in the wake of A.J. Hinch’s sudden firing, Baker guided the Astros to a wild card berth and then an unexpected run to Game Seven of the ALCS, falling just shy of the franchise’s third AL pennant in four seasons.
Baker is the first manager in baseball history to lead five different franchises to the postseason, adding yet another plaudit to a managerial career that has now stretched to 23 seasons. Last June, Houston exercised its club option on Baker for the 2021 season, though it remains unknown if an extension could be in the offing (Baker made no allusion to any negotiations during his media session). Baker also turns 72 in June, so he could potentially decide to retire after one more year in the dugout.
More from the AL West…
- Also from Baker, he told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that the Astros are focusing on adding pitching, with “our bullpen probably first. That’s a premium area right now, and then maybe you go to position players and you go to a starter, not necessarily in that order.” Recent reports linked the Astros to the Liam Hendriks market, which would arguably be the biggest possible addition any team could make to their bullpen this winter.
- The Rangers have been one of the offseason’s busiest teams to date, and GM Chris Young told reporters (including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jeff Wilson) that the club still has more items on its shopping list. The Rangers are looking to add starting pitching, catching, and third base help, with the latter position perhaps being the most interesting considering Elvis Andrus and Nick Solak are already on hand as internal candidates. Both are defensively suspect at the hot corner, however — Solak has limited career playing time at third base, and Andrus has never played anywhere other than shortstop over his 12-year career. Gold Glove winner Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be moving from third base to take over Andrus’ former spot at shortstop.
- Since the Athletics reportedly don’t have much available to spend this offseason, their chances of making any notable free agent additions or even re-signing some of their own free agents don’t seem great, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser writes as part of a reader mailbag. Signing a player like Ha-Seong Kim seems very unlikely given Kim’s expected price tag, and while the A’s have had some talks with Tommy La Stella‘s camp, Slusser would “be surprised” if a reunion actually takes place since La Stella should have enough suitors to take him out of Oakland’s price range. In terms of possible returns, Yusmeiro Petit or Joakim Soria might be the likeliest candidates among the Athletics’ free agents, and Mike Fiers could also be re-signed since the A’s might want some rotation depth or perhaps a swingman.
- In other AL West news from earlier today, the Angels and Mariners each signed new relievers, while the Rangers swung a trade with the Reds.
Reds Acquire Scott Heineman
The Reds have acquired outfielder Scott Heineman from the Rangers in exchange for infield prospect Jose Acosta, as announced (via Twitter) by Rangers executive VP of communications John Blake.
Texas designated Heineman for assignment earlier this week, coming on the heels of a previous non-tender and then a re-signing (to a split contract). The 28-year-old made his big league debut with the Rangers in 2019 and has appeared in 49 games over the last two seasons, hitting .189/.259/.331 over 139 plate appearances.
An 11th-round pick out of the University of Oregon in 2015, Heineman made a quick rise up the Rangers’ minor league ladder after hitting .303/.378/.475 over 1839 PA on the farm. He has experienced playing all three outfield positions and has also seen some time as a first baseman, so Heineman’s right-handed bat could be a potential complement to such Cincinnati lefty bats as Shogo Akiyama, Jesse Winker, or Joey Votto.
The 20-year-old Acosta was an international signing for the Reds in 2017. Over a combined 234 PA in the Dominican Summer League and with the Reds’ rookie ball affiliate in 2019, he exploded to hit .395/.481/.579. Acosta has split time between second and third base during his young pro career, and played a few games at first base and in the outfield.