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Minor MLB Transactions: 8/7/18

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We’ll use this post to track the day’s minor moves …

Latest…

  • The Blue Jays will hold Darnell Sweeney on their active roster no longer. The club has announced that he cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A. Sweeney earned just four plate appearances with Toronto this season prior to being designated for assignment; it was his first taste of major league action since 2015, when the 27-year-old was with the Phillies. It seems as though the move was more motivated by projected potential than performance. Although Sweeney didn’t get a hit in his four trips to the plate, he did manage to draw two walks. He did, however, hit just .235/.310/.398 at the Triple-A level, and while that’s good for a nearly-average 98 wRC+, he also struck out in more than 30% of his plate appearances.
  • The Angels announced that they’ve placed infielder Luis Valbuena on release waivers. The 32-year-old is finishing up a two-year, $15MM contract with a 2019 club option, which clearly won’t be exercised. He’s long been a useful major-league asset, providing at least 1 fWAR across each of the past six seasons while with the Cubs, Astros and Angels. Unfortunately, this year has been an entirely different story, as he’s mustered just a .199/.253/.335 batting line across 288 plate appearances for the Halos while striking out a whopping 34.7% of the time. Valbuena’s performance has also suffered from a 6.6% walk rate that’s nearly four full percentage points below his career average of 10.5%.

Earlier…

  • The Twins have released right-hander Todd Van Steensel, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). It seems the organization simply ran out of room for the 27-year-old reliever, who has been with the Twins since 2011. The Aussie had spent the 2018 season at the Double-A level, working to a 3.07 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9 while allowing just 26 hits over 44 innings.

A Layman Attempts To Calculate WAR: An Introduction

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In 2018, WAR is everywhere.  Love it or hate it, the wins above replacement metric has changed the way we evaluate Major League Baseball players.  WAR is an attempt to encapsulate all tangible aspects of a player’s value into one number.  It allows for all players throughout MLB history to be compared on a single scale.  It’s a grand idea that has firmly taken root.

Whether it’s fans, baseball writers, agents, or executives, just about everyone citing WAR understands the general idea.  But I’ve long wondered how many of us are capable of pulling open a spreadsheet and accurately calculating WAR, with a reasonable understanding of each component.  Furthermore, how many can explain the limitations of the current WAR calculation?  And do we understand which subjective choices were made to get to the current formula?

For a long time, I’ve wanted to write this series.   I’m a reasonable candidate: I’m not bad with numbers, nor am I especially talented.  I know my way around Excel, but I’m not an expert.  If I run into roadblocks as I try to understand WAR, perhaps you will too.  If not, hopefully you can help educate me in the comments section.  Let’s crack open the hood and attempt to understand WAR from a layman’s perspective.

As you might imagine, the WAR calculation differs for position players and pitchers.  Plus, major sites like FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, and Baseball Prospectus have different formulas.  For this exercise, I’m going to dig into FanGraphs WAR.  That’s the version we use here at MLBTR.  I don’t have any evidence of this, but I feel that FanGraphs WAR might be the most commonly cited version.  Otherwise, I don’t have any justification as to why MLBTR should cite FanGraphs WAR and not someone else’s.  By the end of this project I hope to have a clear understanding of the differences.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll begin this exercise by examining position players.   From what I understand, there is a little more room for subjectivity in the pitching formula, so we’ll leave that discussion for later.  I’ll approach the subject by utilizing a case study, as that will keep us grounded in reality.  I’ll attempt to see how if I can reasonably arrive at the known WAR figure that was compiled, examining lessons that arise along the way.

So, here’s a quick preview of what’s coming. Our preliminary subject will be the 2017 season of Chris Taylor of the Dodgers. It’s an interesting year to look at, as he racked up an impressive 4.8 WAR while making defensive contributions at five different positions. It’s easy to see that Taylor made positive contributions in offense, defense, and baserunning. We’ll examine each of the three components in separate installments, beginning next time with Taylor’s work at the plate.

I hope that this exercise will offer plenty of opportunities for dialogue on a notable, sometimes misunderstood subject. I’m looking forward to plenty of respectful debate along the way.

DL Placements: Fried, Carle, Albers

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A trio of pitchers have hit the disabled list this afternoon… here are the details.

  • The Braves have placed Max Fried on the DL with a left groin strain, the club announced. It’s a notable loss for a pennant-chasing Atlanta club, as Fried’s been excellent in four starts (nine total appearances) so far this season. Despite walking a whopping 16 batters in just 26 2/3 innings, Fried’s managed to post a tidy 3.38 ERA thanks in part to 34 strikeouts and a 50.8% ground ball rate. He’s benefitted from an 80.5% strand rate, but his whopping 23.1% HR/FB rate suggests a bit of bad luck in that department. Fried’s injury suggest that Atlanta will likely return to a traditional five-man rotation for the time being, utilizing Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb, Anibal Sanchez and the newly-acquired Kevin Gausman.
  • Simultaneously, the Braves have lost a valuable righty reliever to the DL in the form of Shane Carle (shoulder inflammation). Carle’s been fantastic out of the bullpen this season, posting a 2.53 ERA across 53 1/3 innings. The righty’s been used for four or more outs a whopping 14 times in 2018, so the club will surely miss his ability to eat late innings for the time being. In the absence of Fried and Carle, the Braves have recalled lefty Adam McCreery and righty Wes Parsons from Triple-A Gwinett.
  • The Brewers have unsurprisingly added righty reliever Matt Albers to their disabled list, owing to a left hamstring issue. It’s been clear that something isn’t right with the 35-year-old veteran, as he’s allowed a cataclysmic 18 earned runs across his past eight appearances spanning 5 1/3 innings dating back to the start of June. In the season’s first two months, though, Albers had allowed just three earned runs across 25 innings; the club will hope to get him right in time for him to make an impact out of their ’pen down the stretch. Recently-acquired right-hander Jordan Lyles will take Albers’ place on the active roster for the time being.

Pirates Claim Buddy Boshers, Designate Chris Bostick

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The Pirates have claimed lefty reliever Buddy Boshers off waivers from the Astros. Paul Braverman (Communications Personnnel for the Fresno Grizzlies) originally announced the move, and the Astros have since confirmed.

Boshers, who has exactly 100 major league appearances to his name since his debut in 2013, has been stuck with the club’s Triple-A affiliate all season. There, he’s struck out an impressive 9.71 batters per nine innings against just 2.65 walks per nine across 41 appearances. The performance result is a 3.18 ERA (with a more ordinary 3.84 FIP), though that doesn’t entirely describe his value. Boshers has actually pitched 51 innings across those 41 appearances, implying he’s been relied upon to get more than three outs on several occasions.

The Pirates will be Boshers’ third team already this season. Though he began the year with the Twins, they barely waited half a month into 2018 before designating him for assignment (in order to make room for offseason signee Addison Reed). Though the Astros claimed him and used a 40-man roster spot to house him throughout the entire season, they evidently decided that he was either expendable or deserved a major-league opportunity elsewhere. Boshers has certainly proved that he warrants at least a chance to prove himself at the major league level once again.

Bostick, 25, made his major league debut only last season, when he collected eight hits and four walks in 32 plate appearances  while being hit by a pitch en route to a .406 OBP. Evidently the Pirates didn’t feel as though he’d be a useful piece this season, as they’ve given him just two major league at-bats in 2018 despite a respectable .295/.351/.436 batting line across 327 PA at the Triple-A level. Capable of playing second base and the outfield, it seems likely that the 5’10” right-handed hitter will latch on with another major league club following his placement on the waiver wire.

Brewers Acquire Sal Biasi

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In a swap of minor leaguers, Brewers announced that they’ve acquired A-ball righty Sal Biasi from the Royals in exchange for Triple-A right-hander Jon Perrin.

Biasi, 22, has only been a professional ballplayer for about a year; he was selected by the Royals in the 11th round of the 2017 draft. Though he managed ERA outputs below 2.50 at each of his first two stops throughout the minors, there was cause for skepticism based on his FIP figures (both above 4.00). Biasi hasn’t had the good fortune of out-pitching his peripherals at the A level; he’s been hit hard to the tune of a 5.08 ERA despite a 9.70 K/9 across 42 2/3 innings pitched so far on the season. Biasi’s pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, making 27 appearances.

Perrin, 25, is a towering 6’5″ righty who’s split the 2018 season between the Brew Crew’s Double-A and Triple-A levels. He’s chucked 47 1/3 innings thus far across 28 appearances (one start), and allowed 20 earned runs while notching 44 strikeouts against 20 walks. Despite that gaudy walk total, Perrin’s actually exhibited great control at previous levels of the minors. He’s never known any team other than the Brewers, who selected him in the 27th round of the 2015 draft.

Neither player is on the club’s 40-man roster, so this swap isn’t subject to the limitations beyond the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. However, it’s not outlandish to think that the teams made this trade with major-league roster ideas in mind. Perrin, after all, has proven capable of limiting runs at the minors’ highest level, and the Kansas City bullpen isn’t exactly overflowing with high-end talent. Perhaps we’ll see Perrin get a look in the majors at some point down the stretch, though that’s obviously no certainty. For the Brewers, they’ll get something back for a player who’d have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft in the offseason to come.

Brandon Drury Diagnosed With Fractured Hand

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Blue Jays infielder Brandon Drury has been diagnosed with a fractured left hand, the club announced. He’s heading to the 10-day disabled list, with infielder Richard Urena coming up to take his spot on the active roster.

Drury, who’s closing in on his 26th birthday, has struggled at the plate to open his tenure in Toronto. He came over with Billy McKinney from the division-rival Yankees in a late-July deal that sent J.A. Happ to New York.

The anticipated timeline isn’t yet known, but it seems reasonable to anticipate that Drury will be out for most or all of the remainder of the season. While that’s not necessarily of significant impact to a Blue Jays club who’ve already sold off assets and raised the white flag on the 2018 season, it certainly adds another moral blow to a frustrating season for the former 13th-rounder. Following back-to-back solid (if unspectacular) seasons with the Diamondbacks, Drury looked to have carved out a place on the club’s major league roster for years to come.

Things took an unexpected turn, though, as Drury was shipped to the Yankees in the offseason as part of the three-team trade that sent Steven Souza Jr. to the Diamondbacks. He figured to serve as a stopgap in the Yankees’ infield that would reduce the urgency to promote Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar, but blurred vision and migraines caused him to hit the DL in April, and Drury was optioned to Triple-A when he became healthy. From that point on, Drury was never truly able to get going, as evidenced by his .169/.256/.260 batting line across 86 plate appearances with the Yankees and Blue Jays.

The addition of Drury to the disabled list will thin out Toronto’s infield depth, leaving the uninspiring (and strikeout-prone) Urena as the club’s lone option to back up Yangervis Solarte, Aledmys Diaz and Devon Travis. The club has given no indication that they might add third base superprospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the major league roster any time soon.

 

Brewers Claim Ariel Hernandez

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The Brewers announced today that they have claimed right-hander Ariel Hernandez off waivers from the Dodgers. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Hernandez worked at 98.1 mph with his fastball and produced a 12.6% swinging-strike rate in 24 1/3 MLB frames last year with the Reds. But he also handed out 22 free passes in that span, which perhaps led the Cincinnati club to designate him for assignment early in the present season.

It’s also clear, though, that teams are intrigued at the idea of harnessing Hernandez’s stuff. The Dodgers had to give up some value to acquire him in mid-April, indicating that there was competition, and now the Brewers will tie up a 40-man spot (for the time being, at least) in the middle of a pennant race.

Thus far in 2018, Hernandez has posted a 2.52 ERA in fifty frames over 37 appearances in the upper minors. But he has also produced just 49 strikeouts to go with 29 walks on the year. Hernandez has struggled in particular at the highest level of the minors; in 42 1/3 total frames there over the past two seasons, he has retired 40 batters on strikes but issued 39 free passes.

Rangers Claim Zac Curtis, Designate Brandon Mann

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The Rangers have claimed southpaw Zac Curtis off waivers from the Phillies, per club announcements. In a corresponding move, the Texas organization designated fellow lefty Brandon Mann for assignment.

Curtis has held opposing hitters to just two earned runs in 9 2/3 innings on the year, but he has also permitted ten walks to go with his ten strikeouts. In 31 1/3 innings of MLB action spread over the past three years, he has worked to a 3.73 ERA but has matched this season’s ugly 1:1 K/BB ratio (26 apiece).

Of course, Curtis has spent most of the season at Triple-A. There, he has worked to a 3.00 ERA with 10.3 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 over his 42 innings. He’ll head to Triple-A on optional assignment when he reports to the Texas organization.

As for Mann, it has been a dream season even if things didn’t pan out fully with the Rangers. Remarkably, he made his MLB debut at 34 years of age, though he struggled through six appearances. Mann did turn in a strong effort at Triple-A on the year, posting 43 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball with 7.7 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9.

Jose Iglesias, Francisco Liriano, Jordan Zimmermann Clear Trade Waivers

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Three prominent Tigers players have cleared revocable trade waivers, according to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press. Infielder Jose Iglesias, lefty Francisco Liriano, and righty Jordan Zimmermann can all now be traded freely for the rest of the season.

Of course, deals need to be struck by the end of the month for any player to have postseason eligibility with a new organization. And any preexisting limitations — such as Zimmermann’s no-trade rights — remain in full force.

Of these players, the former two seem to be likely trade candidates. Both are pending free agents earning reasonably significant money. Iglesias, 28, is playing on a $6.275MM salary, while the 34-year-old Liriano is owed a total of $4MM.

Teams interested in upgrading their infield defense will surely consider Iglesias, who’s among the game’s best fielders at short. He’s also producing at a respectable rate at the plate for a defender of his quality, with a 88 wRC+ for the season. Liriano, meanwhile, likely won’t be pursued as a starter, as metrics don’t really support his 4.37 ERA. That said, he has handcuffed lefty hitters this year and it certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s stretched out.

As for Zimmermann, he’s earning $24MM this year and $50MM total for the following two seasons. That’s a big chunk of change. Plus, Zimmermann has full no-trade rights during the present campaign. (They’ll revert to partial rights at season’s end.)

While similar roadblocks did not stop the club from dealing franchise cornerstone Justin Verlander last August, Zimmermann hasn’t pitched well enough to force the issue in the manner of his former teammate. The 32-year-old Zimmermann has certainly fared better this year than at any prior point in his tenure with the Tigers, with a 4.31 ERA over 77 1/3 innings and improved mix of 8.5 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9. But he has also had some health concerns and still likely won’t be valued at anything close to his remaining contract. Plus, there’s still no reason to believe he’d be interested in waiving his no-trade protection, as geography played a role in bringing him to Detroit in the first place.

Jacoby Ellsbury Undergoes Hip Surgery

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The Yankees announced today that outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has undergone surgery to repair the labrum of his left hip. He’s expected to require six months of recovery time.

Ellsbury’s season is now over before it ever began. The 34-year-old has been on the disabled list all year with a dizzying array of injuries. He did not appear in game action at any level.

The veteran outfielder joined the Yankees on a monster seven-year, $153MM contract that has not turned out as hoped. It runs through 2020 and also includes a $5MM buyout on a $21MM option for an additional season. It is not clear whether or to what extent the Yanks insured the contract.

Ellsbury has fallen far short of expectations in the Bronx. He was a 3.5 fWAR performer in his first season, but hasn’t even reached 2 fWAR in any of the three ensuing seasons. Though Ellsbury has certainly been worthy of a roster spot, and has produced useful numbers against right-handed pitching, the overall production is nothing close to what the Yanks have paid for.

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