Phillies Outright Nick Martini
The Phillies have outrighted outfielder Nick Martini after he cleared waivers, according to a team announcement. He’s going to stay in camp as a non-roster player.
Martini, 29, was recently dropped from the menu in favor of new addition Kyle Garlick. They’ll end up competing to join the same outfield mix, though the former is a left-handed hitter and the latter swings from the right side.
This worked out well for the Phils, as they’ll get to keep the depth on hand for the rest of camp. Martini had a nice 2018 showing in the majors but drooped in the next campaign. He owns a .401 career OBP through nearly fifteen hundred career plate appearances at Triple-A.
Orioles Claim Andrew Velazquez, Designate Richard Urena
The Orioles have claimed utilityman Andrew Velazquez off waivers from the Indians, per a club announcement. To create roster space, the team designated fellow infielder Richard Urena.
Velazquez, a 25-year-old switch-hitter, has only minimal MLB experience. In 648 total plate appearances at the Triple-A level, he owns a .260/.316/.415 batting line with 16 home runs.
If Urena clears waivers, he’ll likely end up competing for a job with Velazquez … among others. Both of these players have similar backgrounds — including that they primarily came up as shortstops. Velazquez has greater experience at other spots, particularly the outfield.
The field is rather broad. Urena had himself been claimed off waivers recently. With that move, the O’s dropped Pat Valaika, who’s also still in camp — as is fellow recent addition Ramon Urias. Other utility candidates with MLB experience include Stevie Wilkerson, Jose Rondon, Dilson Herrera, and Jesmuel Valentin. Those and perhaps still other players will be looking to win spots in the bench mix, as the O’s appear set to go with a double-play combo of Jose Iglesias and Hanser Alberto.
MLBTR Poll: Can The Rays Take Down The Yankees?
Rays owner Stuart Sternberg just offered both a realistic and a hopeful assessment of the state of play in the AL East, as MLB.com’s Juan Toribio was among those to report on Twitter.
“Our division is going to be hard because we have the best team or the second best team in baseball that we’re competing against, which is the usual,” says Sternberg. “But I think we’re going to give them a run for their money.”
One imagines the owner of the low-budget Rays winking as he delivered that last line. Of course, what’s scariest about the Yankees — presumably, that best/second-best team he was referring to — isn’t their money, standing alone. It’s the fact that they’ve committed to a disciplined, altogether Rays-like process for spending it.
That’s not to say this isn’t a good time to strike. In fact, it may be as good a window as any for the Rays with the Red Sox dealing away Mookie Betts and the Blue Jays still ramping up. With former Rays exec Chaim Bloom now in charge of baseball ops in Boston, there’s another streamlined death star under construction. And the Toronto organization has a new slate of hopeful young stars, so it could soon also be a threat. The Orioles … well, they may be further off, but they’re undertaking their own modernization efforts.
Despite their financial limitations, the Rays have compiled yet another intriguing roster that’s loaded with flexibility. Is it enough to take down the Yanks? We know the Bronx Bombers will be the favorite in most quarters, so let’s approach the subject this way: what are the odds the Rays can win the division?
(Poll link for app users)
Odds Rays Win AL East
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10-20% 34% (4,091)
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20-30% 26% (3,098)
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30-40% 17% (2,017)
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40-50% 12% (1,379)
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>50% 11% (1,369)
Total votes: 11,954
Angels To Sign JC Ramirez
The Angels have a deal in place with righty JC Ramirez, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was among those to report on Twitter. It’s a minor-league arrangement.
Ramirez has gone through some ups and downs with the Halos already. The typically hard-throwing righty finally found a stable job as a reliever back in 2016, turned in a lot of solid starts in 2017, and then went down to Tommy John surgery in April of 2018.
Though he was tendered a contract and worked back to health in 2019, Ramirez has yet to recover his heater. He sat at 91 mph after working in the mid-to-upper nineties for much of his career.
Ramirez was ultimately outrighted by the Angels after five subpar MLB outings. He also struggled during his time at Triple-A. But Ramirez has perhaps shown a bit of a spark in Mexican winter ball, where he carries a 3.48 ERA with 29 strikeouts and eight walks over 41 1/3 innings.
Brewers Announce Brock Holt Signing, Designate Taylor Williams
The Brewers have announced the previously reported signing of utilityman Brock Holt to a one-year deal. It includes a club option.
To create roster space, righty Taylor Williams was designated for assignment. He has been with the Milwaukee organization since he was selected in the fourth round of the 2013 draft.
Williams received a long look in 2018, throwing 53 innings of 4.25 ERA ball with 9.7 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9. He didn’t get many chances last year. In 14 2/3 innings, he allowed a ghastly 16 earned runs — though half of those came in one forgettable appearance and Williams carried much the same peripherals as the season prior.
There’s actually some reason to think that Williams is a more interesting pitcher now than he was this time in 2019. He worked to a 2.83 ERA in 54 frames in the hitter-friendly PCL. And he produced a sudden surge in worm burners, drawing grounders on over half of the balls put in play against him at both the Triple-A and MLB levels without sacrificing strikeouts. Williams sports a ~96 mph heater and 12.8% swinging-strike rate in the majors, so the groundball capabilities add to an already interesting skillset.
MLBTR Video: The MLBPA & The Astros Scandal; Red Sox Still Discussing Wil Myers
What is the role of the Players’ Union in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal? Why are the Padres and Red Sox still discussing Wil Myers? MLBTR’s Jeff Todd has you covered in today’s video:
For further reading, be sure to check out Jeff’s article, How MLB & The Astros Dug Their Own Hole.
Red Sox, Padres Reportedly Still Negotiating Wil Myers Swap
FEBRUARY 19: The Pads are indeed interested in both Lindor and Senzel, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports (subscription link). It’s even possible that the Myers talks with the Red Sox could morph into a three-team arrangement involving the Reds, Lin adds.
FEBRUARY 18: Spring Training is now upon us. Prior talks failed to result in a deal. And yet the Red Sox are still holding talks with the Padres about a potential deal that would send first baseman/outfielder Wil Myers to Boston, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Details are about as firm as you could ever hope to see them in a rumor of a potential swap. As before, the Friars want the Sox to take over about half of Myers’s salary (total guarantee of $61MM) over the next three years. Young talent would go to Boston to sweeten the pot. Players that have been discussed include Cal Quantrill, Luis Campusano, and Gabriel Arias, though it’s not clear which would be included and the Sox wouldn’t be able to obtain all of them just to take on half of what’s owed Myers.
That leaves out one major component of the as-yet-uncompleted trade talks: what would come back from the Red Sox? The original chatter between these teams involved Mookie Betts, who is no longer in the Boston stable. There’s no real indication just yet as to what current Red Sox might pique the interest of Padres GM A.J. Preller.
Yet more intriguing? The real goal, per Acee, is to swing a blockbuster for a high-level talent. He notes Nick Senzel of the Reds and Francisco Lindor of the Indians as longstanding targets, but it’s not really clear whether either is realistically available at this point. There aren’t many other conceivable candidates to be acquired who’d meet the description of a “difference-making” performer.
It’s fair to hold some skepticism here, especially as to the possible second prong of this scenario. Then again, Preller once pulled off a trade for Craig Kimbrel just before the start of a season, so it’s tough to rule out any mid-spring fireworks.
Kris Bryant Expects To Remain With Cubs After Epstein Sit-Down
Kris Bryant recently reiterated his affection for the Cubs organization. He also noted it’d be nice “to be in the loop a little bit” if indeed the team is holding trade talks that involve him.
That seems to have taken place in a recent chat with president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Bryant says he was left with the impression he’ll be in a Cubs uniform for the entirety of the coming season.
Unsurprisingly, Bryant wasn’t given an unqualified assurance that he wouldn’t be traded. But GM Jed Hoyer acknowledged that Bryant had left with the right takeaway, saying it’s “certainly the expectation” that the star will remain in Chicago for the coming season.
While there has been an awful lot of chatter surrounding Bryant’s potential availability in trade, we never saw an indication over the offseason that a deal was particularly close. Whatever the explanation given by Epstein, Bryant came away feeling satisfied. The 28-year-old says it was a “great” meeting, indicated that he received “insight as to what kind of happened in the offseason,” and expressed excitement for the coming season.
All things considered, it would rate as quite the surprise at this point to see Bryant swapped before Opening Day. Epstein joined Hoyer in giving public indication that the front office doesn’t expect to pull off a swap. And that’s obviously the impression that was given to Bryant himself.
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Latest On Jed Lowrie
The first season of the union between the Mets and infielder Jed Lowrie couldn’t have gone much worse. Signed to a two-year, $20MM contract after back-to-back terrific seasons with the Athletics, Lowrie appeared in just nine games in 2019 while battling multiple leg injuries. There’s at least some that hope he’ll be able to contribute in the second season of his deal, though.
Lowrie’s wearing a leg brace at the outset of spring training, but he’s facing “no limitation” and “is full go in practice,” according to manager Luis Rojas (via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). However, there still isn’t a timeline for when he’ll be able to participate in regular-season games.
Even if Lowrie does wind up healthy enough to take the field for a sizable portion of 2020, it’s unclear how much playing time he’ll receive. The switch-hitting 35-year-old has spent most of his career in the middle infield, but the Mets already have second baseman Robinson Cano and shortstop Amed Rosario as up-the-middle starters. Likewise, Lowrie won’t get much of any time at first base because of the presence of Pete Alonso. He does have over 1,000 innings of major league experience at third, but the Mets have Jeff McNeil there, and they’re not giving up on J.D. Davis as an option at the hot corner.