Twins, Danny Coulombe Agree To Minor League Deal
The Twins have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. He’ll likely head to big league camp this spring in search of a roster spot. Coulombe is represented by Elite Sports Group.
A veteran of five MLB seasons, the 30-year-old Coulombe spent the 2019 season with the Triple-A affiliates for the Yankees and Brewers, where he posted huge strikeout numbers but was among the countless Triple-A hurlers to struggle with the juiced ball. Coulombe yielded nine long balls in 36 1/3 innings (2.2 HR/9) but also punched out an eye-popping 61 hitters in that limited sample (15.1 K/9, 36.0 K%).
Coulombe has never had great control — although he’s improved in recent seasons — but has a long track record of missing bats in the minors. Last year’s heights were unprecedented, however, and the Twins will hope they can continue to work with him in that regard — ideally at the MLB level eventually. In 143 1/3 innings at the MLB level, Coulombe has a 4.27 ERA (4.09 FIP, 3,73 SIERA) with 8.4 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9 and a hefty 56.8 percent ground-ball rate.
Left-handed relief is a clear area of need for the Twins, who have little in that regard behind closer Taylor Rogers. They’ve recently added Blaine Hardy and Caleb Thielbar on minor league pacts, and Coulombe will become the latest (and arguably most interesting) entrant into the Twins’ list of non-roster invitees to Spring Training. He only has two full years of MLB service time, so if he can piece things together, he’s technically controllable through 2023.
Diamondbacks, Kyle Crockett Agree To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks and left-handed reliever Kyle Crockett are in agreement on a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).
Crockett, who turned 28 over the weekend, was in camp with the Athletics last spring but didn’t make the team and didn’t pitch in affiliated ball during the 2019 season. A fourth-round pick by the Indians back in 2013, he blitzed through the minors and debuted with Cleveland barely a year after being selected. Crockett’s rookie campaign was nothing short of brilliant, too, as he tossed 30 innings with a 1.80 ERA (3.23 FIP) and turned in a 28-to-8 K/BB ratio out of the bullpen.
The University of Virginia product might’ve looked like a potential bullpen fixture at that point, but things didn’t play out that way. Rather, Crockett was given just 17 2/3 innings in the Majors the following year in 2015 and, in 28 2/3 Triple-A innings with Columbus that season, barely kept his ERA south of 6.00. In all, since that eye-opening MLB debut in ’14, Crockett has tossed 44 2/3 frames in the Majors with a 5.04 ERA. To his credit, his 45-to-17 K/BB ratio and mere two home runs allowed are encouraging aspects of his work in that time.
The D-backs could pick up some more experienced left-handed help in free agency or on the trade market, but as the roster is currently constructed, Crockett looks like he’ll at least have an opportunity to vie for a job this spring. Andrew Chafin is the lone left-handed reliever on the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, unless the team plans to move 2019 rotation member Alex Young to the ‘pen in 2020.
Nationals To Sign Fernando Abad
The Nationals are in agreement with lefty reliever Fernando Abad on a minor league contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Octagon client will presumably be in Major League camp once Spring Training opens.
Abad, who turned 34 yesterday, appeared in 21 games with the Giants in 2019, totaling 13 innings of 4.15 ERA ball with nine strikeouts against three walks. He was terrific in the exorbitantly hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League as well, logging a 3.07 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 0.8 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9 and a 44.4 percent ground-ball rate in 44 innings of work there.
This will be the second tour of duty with the Nats for Abad, who tossed 37 2/3 innings of 3.35 ERA ball over the life of 39 games for Washington back in 2013. Abad has bounced all over the league for the better part of a decade, pitching with the Astros, Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Red Sox and Giants in a career that began with Houston in 2010. He didn’t pitch in affiliated ball in 2018 thanks largely to an 80-game PED suspension.
While he’s never really settled in as a steadying presence in any one club’s bullpen, he’s generally been an effective reliever; Abad has a career 3.67 ERA in 330 2/3 innings as a big leaguer — including a 3.18 ERA (3.97 FIP) with 7.9 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 dating back to the aforementioned 2013 season. He’s held left-handed opponents to a lifetime .234/.238/.378 batting line, while right-handers have handled him a bit better with a .257/.338/.412 slash to show for their efforts.
Phillies, Mikie Mahtook Agree To Minor League Deal
The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Mikie Mahtook, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The CAA client will be in Major League Spring Training and would earn an $850K base salary upon making the big league roster.
Mahtook, 30, showed well through 115 plate appearances as a Rays rookie in 2015 and posted a solid season with the Tigers in 2017 (.276/.330/.457 in 379 plate appearances). Outside of those two efforts, however, he hasn’t performed well in parts of five seasons in the Majors. The former first-rounder is a career .235/.292/.405 hitter with a 6.1 percent walk rate and a 26.4 percent strikeout rate through 965 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.
Mahtook will give the Phils an experienced right-handed-hitting option at all three outfield positions — one who does have a more solid .269/.342/.441 career line in parts of five Triple-A seasons (1818 plate appearances). The outfield in Philadelphia will assuredly feature Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen in the corners, but center field lacks clarity after Odubel Herrera was suspended for half the season under MLB’s domestic violence policy. Alternative in-house options include Adam Haseley, Scott Kingery (if he’s not deployed at third base) and Roman Quinn.
Yankees Sign Gerrit Cole
The Gerrit Cole sweepstakes has reached an end just over a month after the start of free agency. The Yankees have agreed to sign the ace right-hander to a nine-year, $324MM contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. It includes a full no-trade clause and an opt-out clause after the fifth year, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
It’s a historic pact for Cole, a Scott Boras client who has landed the largest deal ever for a pitcher and the second-greatest payday in the history of major league free agency. Cole has smashed the seven-year, $245MM contract righty Stephen Strasburg signed with the Nationals earlier this week, and he nearly matched the $330MM guarantee outfielder Bryce Harper received from the Phillies last offseason. But Harper’s money will come in over 13 years, meaning Cole has easily eclipsed him in average annual value. Cole will take home a whopping $36MM per year.
For the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman, the addition of Cole brings to an end a years-long pursuit of the Southern California native, who was a fan of the club growing up. The Yankees selected Cole in the first round of the 2008 draft, but he elected to attend UCLA instead. It proved to be a wise decision for Cole, who further improved his stock as a Bruin and wound up as the No. 1 overall pick of the Pirates in 2011.
Cole, who debuted in the majors in 2013, generally thrived in Pittsburgh through 2017. However, the Pirates knew they wouldn’t be able to reach an extension with Cole, so they traded him to Houston prior to the 2018 campaign. The Yankees were among the teams the Astros upended to acquire Cole, which proved costly for New York. Thanks in large part to Cole, the Astros took down the Yankees in this fall’s American League Championship Series, though Houston fell to Strasburg and the Nationals in the World Series.
The Yankees couldn’t beat Cole, but he’ll now join them after he found another gear in Texas. Cole became a truly elite pitcher as a member of the Astros, with whom the flamethrower posted back-to-back 200-inning seasons of sub-3.00 ERA ball. He was particularly amazing in 2019, when he amassed a jaw-dropping 326 strikeouts with a 2.50 ERA/2.64 FIP across 212 1/3 frames. That performance wasn’t enough to defeat then-teammate Justin Verlander for AL Cy Young honors, but it was enough to help earn Cole an absolutely massive payday. This deal blows past the eight-year, $256MM that MLBTR predicted Cole would receive this offseason.
The Yankees now have a lights-out workhorse to accompany Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka as their top four starters, and the Cole signing indicates they and owner Hal Steinbrenner aren’t concerned about paying the luxury tax going forward. With Cole’s money factored in, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates the Yankees are on track to spend just under $250MM in 2020, which is without having made any other additions. If that holds up, the Yankees will exceed the highest tax penalty of $248MM next season. Doing so would subject the Yankees to a 42.5 percent overage tax for outspending the threshold by $40MM or more. It’s possible, however, that the Yankees will shave off some of their tax bill if they’re able to trade $17MM left-hander J.A. Happ, a rumored candidate for a change of scenery who now looks all the more likely to exit now that Cole is in the fold.
The Cole pickup represents an act of free-agency aggression that late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would have saluted. It’s also a sign the Yankees are all-in toward returning to the top of the major league mountain for the first time since 2009. Not only does Cole look as if he’ll greatly strengthen their roster, but it’s a major blow to their biggest AL competition, the Astros. Undoubtedly, Cole’s decision is also an enormous disappointment to both Los Angeles-based teams, who all along joined the Yankees as the most obvious-looking fits to sign him. Those two teams will now have to look elsewhere in a free-agent market that has moved much quicker than in recent years, and has already seen several of its best players sign in a matter of weeks.
While Cole should have a hugely positive effect on the Yankees’ near-term chances, it’s clear this deal presents a sizable risk for the club. Assuming Cole doesn’t opt out after the fifth season, the 29-year-old will pitch almost the entirety of his 30s on this contract. The good news for the Yankees is that Cole has never had anything as major as Tommy John surgery. However, he did miss a large portion of 2016 with injuries, including to his elbow. Cole has since bounced back with three consecutive 200-inning seasons, though signing pitchers to long-term, big-money contracts is nonetheless risky, which will leave the Yankees to hope he continues to hold up as he ages.
Should Cole exercise his opt-out provision in the 2024-25 offseason, the Yankees will have the opportunity to void that decision by extending him for an additional year and $36MM, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). Cole would need to be willing to walk away from four years and $144MM at age 34 for that clause to be relevant, and the Yankees would likewise need to be willing to pay him a total of $180MM for his age-34 through age-38 seasons to void the opt-out decision. It doesn’t seem particularly likely that the clause will come into play, but in the event that it does, Cole would earn $360MM over a decade-long term with the Yankees.
While all free agents bring some level of concern, that hasn’t stopped Boras from securing a windfall of cash for his clients this offseason. After helping get Harper his contract last year, Boras has seen Cole and Strasburg collect a combined $569MM this winter. He may help negotiate yet another $200MM-plus deal next for third baseman Anthony Rendon, who just took over as the No. 1 free agent available now that Cole’s off to the Bronx.
White Sox To Sign Ross Detwiler
The White Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-hander Ross Detwiler, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll return to the ChiSox after appearing in 18 games for them during the 2019 campaign.
Detwiler, 33, was once the No. 6 overall pick in the draft and, earlier in his career, was a fine back-end starter for some competitive Nationals clubs. His 2012 season included 164 1/3 innings of 3.40 ERA ball, and his overall body of work between the rotation and bullpen from 2010-14 was sound: 394 1/3 innings with a 3.61 ERA, 4.14 FIP, 5.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
Things have gone south for Detwiler since, however. He’s floundered through brief stints with Texas, Cleveland, Atlanta, Seattle and the White Sox, pitching to a combined 6.60 ERA in 182 2/3 innings of work since being traded away from the Nationals prior to the 2015 campaign. Detwiler did pitch well in eight Triple-A starts for the White Sox in 2019 and has had successful indie ball stints in 2018-19, but it’s been a half decade since his last solid run in the Majors. He’ll give the Sox some depth in both the rotation and in the bullpen for the upcoming season, but the Chicago front office surely remains in pursuit of more impactful additions.
Marlins Sign Ryan Lavarnway, Josh A. Smith
The Marlins announced a series of nine minor league signings on Wednesday, each of which contains an invitation to Major League Spring Training. In addition to confirming their previously reported signing of former All-Star Matt Kemp (more on that here), the Miami organization will bring two former big leaguers to camp: catcher Ryan Lavarnway and right-hander Josh A. Smith. Rounding out the list of non-roster invitees are catchers Brian Navarreto, Santiago Chavez and BJ Lopez; infielders Gosuke Katoh and Christian Lopes; and right-hander Aaron Northcraft.
Lavarnway, 32, has appeared in the Majors in eight of the past nine seasons — 2016 being the lone exception — but never tallied more than 166 plate appearances in a single MLB campaign. He’s a career .211/.270/.343 hitter in 445 trips to the plate at the big league level, and he owns a lifetime .272/.364/.426 batting line in 2055 Triple-A plate appearances spread across nine seasons. Lavarnway boasts a 31 percent caught-stealing rate in Triple-A but has struggled more in the Majors (20 percent).
Lavarnway has typically hovered around average in terms of pitch-framing in the upper minors (with the 2018 season being a notable outlier that saw him rate rather poorly). Miami has Jorge Alfaro and Chad Wallach on the 40-man roster but was thin at catcher beyond that, so the quartet of Lavarnway, Navarreto, Chavez and Lopez will add an influx of depth at the position.
Smith, also 32, pitched in 31 innings for the Red Sox in 2019 and has compiled 158 1/3 frames in the Majors between the Reds, A’s and Red Sox dating back to 2015. He has a career 5.40 ERA and a near-identical 5.37 FIP with averages of 7.5 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and 1.65 HR/9 to go along with a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate.
The overall profile on Smith isn’t particularly appealing at first glance, but his curveball may have caught the attention of the Marlins. Smith ramped up the usage of his hook to a career-high 23.1 percent in 2019 and logged a career-high 12.1 percent overall swinging-strike rate (15.3 percent on the curve). Statcast pegged the spin rate on Smith’s curve in the 95th percentile among MLB hurlers, so perhaps the Marlins will look to more aggressively utilize that offering in hopes of coaxing better results out of the journeyman 32-year-old.
Cardinals Designate Adolis Garcia For Assignment
The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Adolis Garcia for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim, whose two-year contract with the club is now official.
Garcia, 27 in March, appeared in 21 games with the Cards in 2018 but went just 2-for-17 in a tiny sample of work at the plate. Garcia signed for a $2.5MM bonus with the Cards in 2017 after leaving his native Cuba and was ranked ninth among St. Louis farmhands by Baseball America that winter. However, his blend of raw power, speed and arm strength has yet to generate the offensive results the Cardinals had hoped in the upper minors.
This past season, Garcia spent the entire year with Triple-A Memphis, where he batted .253/.301/.517 with 32 home runs, 22 doubles, six triples and 14 steals. While the counting numbers may look solid, the juiced ball in Triple-A led to a leaguewide home run spike that makes Garcia’s power output worth raising an eyebrow toward. He hit 10 fewer home runs in 100 fewer plate appearances a year prior. Beyond that, Garcia was highly inefficient in terms of stealing bases (14-for-24), and he struck out in 30.1 percent of his plate appearances while walking at a lowly 4.2 percent clip.
It seems clear that there’s some raw and perhaps yet-untapped ability in Garcia, who does have minor league options remaining. As such, he could hold appeal to another club in a minor trade or via a waiver claim if he reaches that point. The Cardinals have a week to deal Garcia or run him through waivers in hopes that he’ll clear and be able to continue on as a depth piece in the minors.
Even with Garcia subtracted from the outfield mix, the Cardinals still have a deep reservoir of options from which to draw — although much of the group is largely untested in the Majors. Dexter Fowler, Harrison Bader, Tyler O’Neill and Randy Arozarena are all options in 2020, as are more versatile infielder/outfielder types Yairo Munoz and Tommy Edman. The Cards also have a pair of well-regarded prospects on the cusp of readiness for a prolonged look: Lane Thomas and Dylan Carlson.
That said, adding a veteran to supplement that unproven mix still seems plausible. The Cardinals stand to potentially lose Marcell Ozuna to free agency, and their aggression in replacing him will speak volumes about the level of confidence they have in that internal slate of options.
Reds Sign Wade Miley
An already impressive Reds rotation became deeper Wednesday, as the team announced the signing of left-hander Wade Miley to a two-year contract worth a guaranteed $15MM. (The Reds, unlike most clubs, revealed the basic contractual terms themselves.) The pact also contains a club option for the 2022 season that is reported to be worth $10MM and comes with a $1MM buyout. Miley, a client of O’Connell Sports Management, will earn $6MM in 2020 and $8MM in 2021, and he can reportedly take home another $500K annually via an incentives package. The contract nearly matches the two-year, $16MM prediction MLBTR made for Miley at the outset of free agency.
Miley, 33, gives the Reds a southpaw option to add to a rotation that already included a highly talented quartet of right-handers: Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer and Anthony DeSclafani. At least on paper, plugging in Miley as the last member of the group upgrades the Reds’ rotation and improves their chances of breaking a six-year playoff drought in 2020.
Miley was also a free agent in each of the past couple offseasons, but this is the best the well-traveled hurler has done on the open market thus far. After settling for a minor league deal and reviving his career as a member of the Brewers in 2018, Miley joined the Astros for a $4.5MM guarantee last winter.
That proved to be a decent deal for both sides, as Miley — despite continuing to throw fastballs in only the 90 mph range — helped the Astros to an AL West title with 167 1/3 regular-season innings of 3.98 ERA/4.51 FIP ball with 7.53 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and a 49.7 percent groundball rate. He wasn’t without his warts, though, as a brutal stretch of starts in September eventually led to Miley being omitted from the Astros’ World Series roster. Nevertheless, Miley’s body of work over the past two seasons is undeniably solid and has clearly convinced many in the industry that he’s again a viable rotation piece.
For Miley, heading to Cincinnati reunites him with pitching coach Derek Johnson. It was Johnson, then Milwaukee’s pitching coach, who helped bring Miley’s career back to life a couple years ago. And now that the Reds’ rotation appears to be complete, they’re free to turn their focus to other needs (shortstop? Catcher? Outfield? Bullpen?) as they continue to seek a return to relevance.
From a payroll vantage point, the team should have some financial breathing room in order to further add to the existing roster. Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez projects a $124MM Opening Day payroll that is a stone’s throw away from last year’s Opening Day mark of roughly $126MM, but owner Bob Castellini and the Reds’ front office have preached aggression as they’ve moved from a longstanding rebuilding effort and shifted into a win-now mentality in what looks to be an increasingly vulnerable NL Central division.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand first reported the agreement and the terms (Twitter link). Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post added details on the incentives and option value (Twitter links).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Brewers To Sign Eric Sogard
The Brewers have struck a deal with veteran infielder Eric Sogard, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic ( Twitter links). It’s said to be a one-year, $4.5MM arrangement that includes an option for another campaign.
Sogard returns to Milwaukee after an up-and-down stint with the club from 2017-18. When last he suited up for the Brew Crew, Sogard proved unable to repeat a strong 2017 season in which he walked more than he struck out and delivered his first-ever above-average offensive effort.
After that disappointing turn, Sogard secured a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays. He earned his way up rather quickly and ended up producing an even more interesting season with the bat. Over 442 plate appearances, before and after a mid-season trade to the Rays, Sogard popped 13 home runs and delivered a .290/.353/.457 batting line.
Sogard’s surprising burst obviously coincided with a general power wave. He also benefited in particular from some wall-scraping dingers that he rode out with a much-steepened average launch angle. We examined the topic in the approach to the trade deadline. As it turned out, Sogard hit just three dingers and slugged .404 in his 119 plate appearances with Tampa Bay, so perhaps there’s added cause to wonder whether that will continue.
No doubt the Brewers have a good sense of how much power to anticipate from Sogard. They’re also amply familiar with his other qualities, including an exceptional eye and contact ability. Sogard delivers well-regarded glovework at second base, the ability to line up just about anywhere on the field, and a track record of adding runs with his legs.
The Milwaukee roster has seen quite a lot of change in the infield already this winter. Mike Moustakas, Travis Shaw, Eric Thames, and Hernan Perez all hit the open market. The club has now added Luis Urias, Ryon Healy, and Sogard as at least a partial slate of replacements.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.