CC Sabathia Undergoes Angioplasty
Yankees southpaw CC Sabathia recently underwent an angioplasty and had a stent placed, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link). Thankfully, “his prognosis is excellent,” per the report.
Angioplasties are utilized to clear blockages in a coronary artery, with the stent functioning to maintain a clear path for blood flow. It’s an oft-performed surgery, but one that’s not commonly performed on professional athletes.
Fortunately, Sabathia is not expected to face any particular impediments to his baseball career. He’s slated to pitch for one more season after signing a one-year, $8MM deal to return to the Yankees for the 2019 campaign.
Given the outlook, there’s no real reason to think the Yankees’ plans for the winter will be altered. That said, Sabathia will have been sidelined from part of his offseason work and still needs to be cleared to resume full activities, so there’s a bit of uncertainty. On the other hand, the southpaw is said to be feeling better physically than he did before the procedure, which (per Rosenthal) “figures to benefit Sabathia in his cardiovascular work.”
Angels Claim Parker Bridwell
The Angels have re-claimed righty Parker Bridwell from the Yankees, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). He had previously been lost on waivers to the Yanks, who later exposed him to waivers themselves.
Bridwell, 27, had a surprisingly effective 2017 run with the Halos but fell back hard in the following season. He only threw 34 2/3 innings at all levels in the 2018 season, with abysmal results when he was available. Bridwell’s forgettable season ended with surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow.
Clearly, the Angels still believe there’s hope that Bridwell can get back to where he was in the 2017 season. While his peripherals had suggested cause for skepticism, Bridwell’s overall track record suggests he’s at least least a worthwhile depth piece.
The Angels, like all teams, are understandably interested in ensuring they have enough innings on hand. But they’ll need to carry Bridwell on the active roster to open the season or again expose him to waivers, since he’s out of options.
Red Sox, Heath Hembree Avoid Arbitration
The Red Sox have avoided arbitration with right-handed reliever Heath Hembree, tweets Fancred’s Jon Heyman. He’ll take home a $1,312,500 salary that checks in north of the $1.2MM projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Hembree is represented by the Ballengee Group.
Hembree, 30 next month, pitched to a 4.20 ERA with 11.4 K/9, 4.1 BB/9, 1.50 HR/9 and a 39.4 percent ground-ball rate in 60 innings of relief. He also tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings in the postseason, albeit with five walks against three strikeouts in that time.
The 2018 season was Hembree’s least-effective year since establishing himself as a regular in the Boston bullpen, though his cumulative body of work over the past three seasons has been solid. In 173 innings he’s logged a 3.54 ERA and averaged 10 strikeouts and 3.2 walks per nine innings pitched. Hembree has taken on an increasingly high-leverage role over the years as well, tallying a career-high 20 holds this past season.
Hembree will return to a Boston bullpen that has already lost Joe Kelly and could very well lose fellow free agent Craig Kimbrel this offseason as well. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski still has a fair share of heavy lifting to do this offseason as he looks to piece the relief corps back together. At present, Hembree is slated to join Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes, Tyler Thornburg, Brandon Workman and Brian Johnson in bullpen.
Dodgers Sign Joe Kelly
1:27pm: MLBTR has confirmed that the contract breaks down as follows: $1MM signing bonus, $3MM salary in 2019, $8.5MM salary in 2020, $8.5MM salary in 2021 and a $4MM buyout on a $12MM option for the 2022 season. In total, the contract guarantees Kelly $25MM.
Dec. 21, 12:45pm: The Dodgers have formally announced the signing. They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move, though they’ve yet to announce what that will be.
Dec. 13: The Dodgers and free agent righty Joe Kelly are close to an agreement, according to Ken Rosenthal and Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Kelly is set to receive a three-year deal worth around $25MM, as per Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan (via Twitter). Kelly is represented by ACES.
The Dodgers received an up-close (and, at the time, unwelcome) look at Kelly’s ability during the World Series, when he tossed six shutout innings over five appearances to help Boston capture the championship. His work in the Fall Classic capped off an outstanding postseason for Kelly, who allowed just one earned run over 11 1/3 IP against the Dodgers, Astros, and Yankees.
If last October represented Kelly at his best, the righty hasn’t always been able to consistently deliver on that potential throughout his career. Kelly posted a 4.39 ERA, 9.3 K/9, and 2.13 K/BB rate over 65 2/3 innings in the regular season, and has had some issues avoiding walks over the last three seasons (4.6 BB/9 since 2016). His 9.2 K/9 over that same stretch is nothing to sneeze at, of course, though it still seems somewhat of an underwhelming total given the pure electricity in Kelly’s arm. He averaged 98.1 mph on his fastball last season, dropping just slightly from a 99 mph average in 2017.
Kelly is likely to fit into the setup role in the Dodgers’ bullpen, handling the eighth inning to set up closer Kenley Jansen. Given the amount of flexibility and potential starting arms that could see time in the pen, however, it also wouldn’t be surprising to see Kelly brought into higher-leverage situations earlier in games.
Between Kelly joining the Dodgers and Jeurys Familia going to the Mets, we’re beginning to see some of the offseason’s top free agent setup men come off the board. MLBTR ranked Kelly 25th on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agent, projecting him to land three years and $27MM (though we had the Anaheim native going to his hometown Angels, rather than the Los Angeles area’s other team).
Giants Sign Pat Venditte
12:27pm: Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that Venditte’s guarantee is a modest $585K that checks in just $30K north of the league minimum.
12:06pm: The Giants announced Friday that they’ve signed switch-pitcher Pat Venditte to a one-year, Major League contract. The addition of Venditte brings San Francisco’s 40-man roster to a total of 38 players.
Venditte, 33, is the game’s lone ambidextrous pitcher and is a familiar talent to new San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who was the Dodgers’ general manager last season when Venditte pitched for Los Angeles. Venditte threw quite well in his limited time with the Dodgers, logging a 2.57 ERA with nine strikeouts against three walks in 14 innings of relief. In his career as a whole, Venditte owns a 4.45 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 through 64 2/3 innings.
Venditte has generally fared better as a lefty facing left-handed opponents (.190/.291/.307) than as a right-hander facing righty bats (.259/.372/.472). Venditte’s fastball sat at just 85.6 mph in 2018, but his unorthodox delivery has helped him to find some success at the big league level. He’s also induced swinging-strikes at an 11 percent clip — a perhaps loftier rate than one might’ve otherwise expected from a soft-tosser of this mold.
With less than two years of Major League service time under his belt, Venditte won’t even be eligible for arbitration for another two seasons. As such, if he can prove himself a capable bullpen piece in what could be his best opportunity to seizing a regular role, he’d still be a pre-arbitration player next winter. Technically, he can be controlled all the way through 2023 if he cements himself as a definitively big league caliber arm.
Athletics Sign Joakim Soria
Dec. 21: The Athletics have officially announced Soria’s two-year contract. Their 40-man roster is up to 38 players.
In addition to salaries of $6.5MM (2019) and $8.5MM (2020), Heyman tweets, Soria can earn $250K apiece upon finishing 35 and 40 games. He’ll also have a one-time, $750K assignment bonus in the event of a trade.
Dec. 20, 11:38pm: Soria’s deal will pay him exactly $15MM over two years, tweets Jon Heyman of Fancred.
11:05pm: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the two sides do indeed have an agreement, in principle. Soria’s contract will check in with a total value in the $15-15.5MM range, tweets Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com.
10:51pm: The Athletics are closing in on a two-year contract with free-agent reliever Joakim Soria, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The right-hander still has to pass a physical, per Rosenthal, and there are still some final details to be ironed out before the deal comes to fruition. Soria is represented by Oscar Suarez.
The 34-year-old Soria just wrapped up a three-year, $25MM contract with the Royals — a pact which didn’t pan out well in year one of the deal but took a turn for the better in years two and three. This past season, Soria tossed 60 2/3 innings of 3.12 ERA ball between the White Sox and Brewers, averaging 11.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.59 HR/9 along the way.
In many respects, in fact, the 2018 season was one of the best, if not the best of Soria’s impressive big league career. He averaged personal bests in swinging-strike rate (14.4 percent) and opponents’ chase rate (34.3 percent), and his 2.44 FIP and 2.88 SIERA were among the best marks of his 12-year MLB career as well. Perhaps most impressively, the 83.6 mph average exit velocity that Soria allowed to opponents registered as the lowest of any pitcher in baseball (min. 150 batted ball events), per Statcast.
Much of the emphasis for the A’s this offseason has centered around the team’s rotation needs (with good reason), but adding Soria to the mix will give Oakland another quality reliever to join the likes of Blake Treinen, Yusmeiro Petit, Lou Trivino, Fernando Rodney and Ryan Buchter. That’s a solid collection of relievers, which figures to be more important for the A’s than most other clubs, assuming they plan to continue utilizing “the opener” tactic and piecing together the occasional game via “bullpenning.”
While Soria unequivocally improves the pitching staff as a whole, the A’s still have a clear, pressing need for some pitchers who can offer more innings than the aforementioned bunch. Oakland will be without Sean Manaea for the entire 2019 season due to shoulder surgery, while right-handers Jharel Cotton and Daniel Gossett will be on the mend from Tommy John surgery early in the season. The same is true of top pitching prospect A.J. Puk, and another rotation option, Andrew Triggs, will be recovering from thoracic outlet surgery.
At present, the Oakland rotation is a muddled mess, with the likes of Daniel Mengden, Frankie Montas, Paul Blackburn, Chris Bassitt, Aaron Brooks, Tanner Anderson and Grant Holmes among the options from which the organization can choose. The A’s, somewhat unthinkably, managed to win 97 games in a season where their most prominent starters beyond Manaea were Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Edwin Jackson and Mengden. That, however, seems highly unlikely to be a repeatable feat, and the A’s are expected to add some more experienced rotation pieces as the winter progresses.
A two-year commitment to Soria in the $15.5MM range is within reasonable proximity, albeit a bit shy, of the two-year, $18MM contract MLBTR estimated when ranking the game’s top 50 free agents in early November. Among participants in MLBTR’s Free Agent Prediction Contest, just 3.2 percent correctly pegged Soria to land in green and gold this winter.
Athletics Acquire Jurickson Profar In Three-Team Trade With Rangers, Rays
11:45am: The Rangers are receiving $750K worth of international allotments in the trade, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
11:22am: The teams have formally announced the trade. The international bonus allotments that the Rangers are receiving are coming over from the Athletics; the amount was not specified, though international allotments must be traded in increments of at least $250K, per the collective bargaining agreement.
10:15am: The Athletics, Rangers and Rays have reportedly come to an agreement on a three-team trade that will send infielder Jurickson Profar from Texas to Oakland. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan first broke the story. Right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan is headed from the A’s to the Rays in the swap, as is Oakland’s Competitive Balance Round A selection in next year’s draft (currently slotted in at No. 38 overall). The Rangers will send minor league right-hander Rollie Lacy to the Rays, as well.
In exchange for Profar and Lacy, the Rangers will receive minor league infielder Eli White from the A’s. Additionally, the Rays will send minor league left-handers Brock Burke and Kyle Bird and minor league right-hander Yoel Espinal to the Rangers. Texas will also receive international bonus allotments in the trade.
Presumably, the trade signals that Jed Lowrie‘s time with the Athletics has come to a close. The Oakland infield is currently full with Matt Chapman at third base, Marcus Semien at shortstop and Matt Olson at first base, meaning Profar’s likeliest spot with the A’s will be second base. The addition of Profar also brings into question prospect Franklin Barreto‘s immediate future with the organization, as he’d been the presumptive heir apparent at second base in the event that Lowrie signed elsewhere.
Profar, 26 in February, once rated as the game’s top overall prospect but saw is promising future put on hold when a pair of shoulder injuries cost him both the 2014 and 2015 seasons. He struggled in his 2016 return and was a seldom used utility piece in 2017, but Profar finally enjoyed a full, productive season with the Rangers in 2018. Last year, the switch-hitter appeared n a career-high 146 games and tallied a career-high 594 plate appearances, hitting .254/.335/.458 with 20 homers, 35 doubles, six triples and 10 stolen bases along the way.
Because Texas optioned Profar to Triple-A for much of the 2017 season, his overall level of Major League service time was suppressed a bit. As such, he has just under five years of service time, meaning the Athletics will be able to control Profar for both the 2019 and 2020 seasons before he reaches free agency. Profar is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just $3.4MM in 2019, so he’ll be an affordable means of filling the team’s second base need for the next two years — a key factor for the perennially cost-conscious A’s, who still need to address their rotation.
The only other Major League piece involved in the trade is the 27-year-old Pagan, who is joining his third organization in three years. He spent just one year in Oakland after being acquired in the trade that sent first baseman Ryon Healy to the Mariners in the 2017-18 offseason. Though he’s moved around a fair bit, Pagan has generally had useful big league results. In 112 1/3 innings a a Major Leaguer, he’s notched a 3.85 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.
Though Pagan shows good control and is able to miss plenty of bats, however, he’s not without his red flags. The right-hander is among the game’s most extreme fly-ball pitchers and has yielded an average of 1.6 home runs per nine innings at the Major League level — neither of which figures to become any easier when moving to the American League East and its cavalcade of hitter-friendly parks (though Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field doesn’t necessarily fit that description). For the Rays, the fact that Pagan is well-versed in multi-inning appearances was likely appealing, though. Pagan’s 112 1/3 MLB frames have come across 89 total appearances, and the Rays aggressively lean on multi-inning relievers as part of the burgeoning “opener” strategy that worked quite well for them in 2018.
The 23-year-old Lacy will join the Tampa Bay organization after spending only a brief time with the Rangers. Texas acquired Lacy in the July trade that sent Cole Hamels to the Cubs, though his results with the Rangers dropped off a bit from the numbers he posted in the Cubs’ minor league system. Some of that surely coincides with a move from Class-A to Class-A Advanced, and it’s worth noting that Lacy only totaled 28 1/3 innings in the Rangers’ system before the season ended, so it’s also a small sample of data. On the season as a whole, the right-hander worked to a 2.97 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate of nearly 60 percent through 109 innings between those two levels this season.
Looking to the Rangers’ return, Burke may well be the headliner in the deal. A third-round pick in the 2014 draft, the 22-year-old Burke was the Rays’ minor league pitcher of the year this past season and pitched to a 3.08 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 137 1/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. The Rays protected Burke from the Rule 5 Draft last month by selecting him to the 40-man roster, and he’ll now be added to the Rangers’ 40-man in place of Profar.
Bird, 26 in April, split the year between Double-A and Triple-A, where he pitched to a combined 2.39 ERA with 88 strikeouts against 35 walks in 75 1/3 innings of relief work. Like Burke, he was selected to the Rays’ 40-man roster last month, meaning he’ll join the Rangers’ 40-man and give the organization an immediate left-handed bullpen option for the upcoming season. Even if he doesn’t break camp with the club, it seems likely that Bird will get an opportunity at some point in 2019.
The 26-year-old Espinal spent the bulk of the ’18 season in Double-A Montgomery, where he boasted a huge strikeout rate but demonstrated his share of control issues as well. In 54 2/3 innings at the Double-A level, Espinal notched an impressive 1.98 ERA with 11.7 K/9 but 4.8 BB/9 and a below-average 32.2 percent ground-ball rate. He won’t be as immediate of an option as Burke or Bird, but with some Double-A experience already under his belt, he’s likely not that far off from MLB readiness.
White, meanwhile, is the lone piece headed from Oakland to Texas in the swap. An 11th-round pick by the A’s back in the 2016 draft, White took his already-strong OBP skills to new heights in at the Double-A level in 2018. In 578 plate appearances this past season, the second baseman/shortstop hit .306/.388/.450 with nine home runs, 30 doubles, eight triples and 18 steals.
Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reported that Profar had been traded to Oakland and eventually followed up with all of the names and pieces involved in the deal (all Twitter links). USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant all added some details along the way (all Twitter links).
Blue Jays, Eric Sogard Agree To Minor League Contract
The Blue Jays are in agreement on a minor league contract with veteran second baseman Eric Sogard, per Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll head to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. Sogard is represented by Octagon.
Sogard, 33 in May, floundered through the worst season of his career in 2018, hitting just .134/.241/.165 through 113 trips to the plate before being designated for assignment and subsequently released by the Brewers. He’s posted terrific defensive marks at second base throughout his career, though the Brewers played him more at shortstop this past season. He did give Milwaukee a strong performance in 2017, slashing .273/.393/.378 through 299 plate appearances.
In 1743 career plate appearances at the MLB level, Sogard is a .238/.309/.314 hitter whose value has been derived almost entirely from that aforementioned defensive prowess at second base. He’ll give the Jays a potential utility option following the trade of Aledmys Diaz to the Astros, the non-tender of Yangervis Solarte and the release of Troy Tulowitzki.
Yankees Sign Danny Coulombe, Rex Brothers To Minor League Deals
The Yankees announced Friday that they’ve signed left-handers Danny Coulombe and Rex Brothers to minor league deals with invitations to Major League Spring Training. Coulombe is repped by Elite Sports Group, and Brother is a client of Jet Sports. Max Wildstein tweeted the former signing, while Jon Heyman of Fancred had the latter (via Twitter).
Coulombe, 29, spent the past three seasons with the A’s, pitching to a 4.10 ERA with 8.7 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.09 HR/9 and a whopping 57.6 percent ground-ball rate. In that time, he’s held opposing left-handers to a weak .233/.298/.338 batting line through a total of 243 plate appearances. Coulombe’s FIP over those three seasons aligns almost perfectly with his ERA, though other fielding-independent metrics like xFIP and SIERA are more bullish, pegging him in the mid-3.00s.
Brothers, 31, made 28 appearances with the Braves across the past two seasons, though just one in 2018, and struggld across the board. The former No. 34 overall pick (Rockies, 2009) was once touted as Colorado’s closer of the future and even saved 19 games with a 1.74 ERA for the Rox back in 2013. Injuries have slowed Brothers’ career substantially, however, and he’s now looking to reestablish himself as a viable big league option after last experiencing success in 2015 (albeit in a small sample of 10 1/3 innings).
Cardinals Designate Ryan Meisinger For Assignment
The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Ryan Meisinger for assignment. His roster spot will go to left-hander Andrew Miller, whose two-year pact with the Cards has now been formally announced.
St. Louis claimed Meisinger off waivers from the Orioles just last week. The righty made his big league debut with Baltimore this past season, pitching to a disappointing 6.43 ERA with a 21-to-10 K/BB ratio in 21 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen. Meisinger did, however, enjoy a strong year between Double-A and Triple-A, where he pitched to a 3.13 ERA with averages of 10.8 strikeouts and 2.9 walks per nine innings pitched through 46 frames. Meisinger’s 91.1 mph average fastball velocity in the Majors this season checked in well south of the league average, though he still managed a solid 11.4 percent swinging-strike rate in that time.