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Orioles Option T.J. McFarland, Designate Julio Borbon For Assignment

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AUG. 29: The Orioles announced today that McFarland has been optioned to Triple-A, meaning he’s been placed on the 40-man roster once again. It’s a fairly rare procedure, but McFarland had to technically be designated for assignment in order to clear optional waivers. Players that have options remaining but made their big league debut more than three years ago must first clear optional waivers before going to a minor league affiliate.

MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko wrote this morning that McFarland would likely be placed on optional waivers, but Borbon’s DFA is a traditional one. The team is hoping he’ll clear waivers and accept an outright assignment.

AUG. 28: The Orioles have designated left-hander T.J. McFarland and outfielder Julio Borbon for assignment, per a club announcement. They’ve also confirmed the signing of right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter and recalled fellow righty Oliver Drake from Triple-A Norfolk.

McFarland still has minor league options remaining, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets, but that didn’t stop the Orioles from designating him. The 27-year-old has endured a season to forget, having logged a 6.93 ERA, 2.55 K/9 and 3.65 BB/9 in 24 2/3 innings despite a 60.2 percent ground-ball rate. From 2013-15, McFarland amassed 105 appearances and compiled a 3.89 ERA, 6.12 K/9, 3.06 BB/9 and 60.8 percent grounder rate across 173 2/3 frames.

Borbon, 30, has spent most of the year with Double-A Bowie and has racked up just 15 major league plate appearances as a result. Those were the first trips to the plate in the majors since 2013 for Borbon, who has mostly been at the Triple-A level over the past couple years. Borbon has hit .273/.318/.347 with eight home runs and 47 steals in 878 major league PAs.

Which Of These Free Agents Will Get Four-Year Deals?

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Last offseason, 14 players received free agent contracts of four or more years, excluding international signings.  Some of the borderline guys, like Ben Zobrist and Darren O’Day, successfully obtained the guaranteed fourth year.  Others, such as Yoenis Cespedes and Daniel Murphy, were not able to get there, at least at an acceptable salary.  This winter, Cespedes and elite relievers Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen seem locks for four-plus years.  Everyone else, not so much.  Here are 13 cases to consider, and vote on:

  • Edwin Encarnacion, 34 years old in January.  Encarnacion is having a great season, sitting second in MLB with 36 home runs.  He’s hit 34+ home runs in each of the last five seasons.  His market will likely be limited to the American League, though there is precedent with Nelson Cruz’s four-year, $57MM deal.  Encarnacion is facing a lawsuit alleging he knowingly infected a woman with multiple STDs in February.
  • Ian Desmond, 31 in September.  Desmond has reinvented himself as the Rangers’ center fielder, though he has struggled offensively this month.
  • Jose Bautista, 36 in October.  Bautista recently finished his second DL stint of the year, and his production has been down this season.  He’s the oldest player in this poll.
  • Mark Trumbo, 31 in January.  Trumbo leads MLB with 40 home runs, but he also sports a .317 on-base percentage and has struggled on defense.
  • Wilson Ramos, turned 29 this month.  The Nationals’ catcher has age on his side, and is in the midst of a breakout season.
  • Justin Turner, 32 in November.  Zobrist signed his deal heading into his age-35 season, so surely his contract will be considered a precedent by Turner’s agent.  Turner has set a career-high with 24 home runs already, and is headed toward a career best in games played.
  • Neil Walker, 31 in September.  After being traded to the Mets in December, Walker is having the best season of his career.  Chase Headley’s four-year, $52MM deal with the Yankees in December 2014 suggests Walker can reach the same term.
  • Dexter Fowler, 31 in March.  Fowler ranks eighth in the NL with a .389 OBP, though a June hamstring injury may keep him shy of 130 games played for the third time in the last four years.
  • Michael Saunders, 30 in November.  Like Desmond, Saunders has re-established himself but scuffled in August.  As with a few others on this list, Saunders’ injury history will give teams pause.
  • Josh Reddick, 30 in February.  Reddick once seemed like a lock for four years, but he missed time earlier this year due to a broken thumb and has been terrible since joining the Dodgers in a deadline deal.  It’s fair to question whether four years will be on the table for him.
  • Mark Melancon, 32 in March.  Though not as dominant with strikeouts as Chapman and Jansen, Melancon has a 1.75 ERA in 272 innings since 2013, and he’s been great for the Nationals.  His agent will at least aim for four years.
  • Jeremy Hellickson, 30 in April.  Hellickson is one of the best free agent starters available this winter, and the weak market and his relative youth could theoretically push him to a four-year deal.
  • Ivan Nova, 30 in January.  Nova is a long shot for four years, but he’s been great since coming over to the Pirates, and teams can act irrationally in free agency.

Your turn: which of these free agents will get four or more years?  Check all that apply, and click here to view the results.  Those using our app or Safari on their cell phone can click here for the poll.

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Drew Stubbs Rejects Outright Assignment From Rangers

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The Rangers announced this afternoon that outfielder Drew Stubbs has rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A following his recent DFA. The 31-year-old has been placed on irrevocable waivers and will be a free agent if he clears. The timing of the move should give Stubbs the opportunity to latch on with a team in advance of Sept. 1, so he could potentially sign with a new team and remain postseason-eligible.

Stubbs has seen limited action with the Rangers and Braves this season but fairly well in that time, batting .259/.343/.414 with three homers in 67 plate appearances. While that’s a marked improvement over 2015’s ugly .195/.283/.382 slash in 140 plate appearances between the Rockies and Rangers, Stubbs’ 27 strikeouts in 2016 (40 percent of his plate appearances) remain concerning. Making consistent contact has never been his strong suit, and it’s led to some unsightly numbers at the plate throughout his career. Stubbs did enjoy an outstanding 2014 campaign, during which he batted .289/.339/.482 with 15 homers and 20 steals, but a great deal of that production looks to have been aided by Coors Field (.999 OPS at home, .616 on the road that year).

All told, Stubbs is a career .244/.314/.396 hitter that can play all three outfield positions and handles left-handed pitching quite well (.275/.349/.449). With a bit of speed and power as well as the capability of playing center field, he could make an attractive fourth or fifth outfielder for a club over the final month of the season.

Mariners Sign Al Alburquerque To Minors Deal

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Right-hander Al Alburquerque has signed a minor league contract with the Mariners, as was first reported by Triple-A broadcaster Mike Curto last week (Twitter link). The longtime Tigers reliever spent the majority of the 2016 season with the Angels but was released on Aug. 13.

Alburquerque, 30, logged a 3.80 ERA with a 26-to-13 K/BB ratio and a 44.9 percent ground-ball rate in 23 2/3 innings with the Halos’ Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake this season. Alburquerque also tossed two innings for the Angels at the Major League level this year, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks with a strikeout. He’s appeared in a pair of games for Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate and will hope to earn a promotion to the big league level when rosters expand on Thursday.

While Alburquerque hasn’t pitched much in the Majors this year, he was a regular contributor to the Detroit bullpen from 2011-15, continually demonstrating an ability to rack up strikeouts but also consistently showing below-average control. In 225 innings as a member of the Tigers, Alburquerque posted a very solid 3.20 ERA and averaged an impressive 11 strikeouts per nine innings, but he also averaged five walks per nine innings pitched over the life of his Tigers career. If he does end up making an appearance on the Mariners’ roster next month, Seattle will have the ability to control him through the 2017 season if desired, as he’s currently just shy of five years of big league service (a September call-up would push him over the threshold).

Mike Leake Placed On 15-Day Disabled List

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The Cardinals announced this morning that right-hander Mike Leake has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 22, due to shingles. Lefty reliever Dean Kiekhefer has been called up from Triple-A Memphis to take his spot on the roster.

Leake has been dealing with shingles for the past week or so, and manager Mike Matheny said yesterday that the team was considering a possible DL stint (via MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch). Top prospect Alex Reyes, who had been pitching out of the bullpen in his first taste of Major League action, started in Leake’s place on Saturday and could continue to get a look in that role with Leake now out until at least Sept. 6. By making the move to place Leake on the disabled list now, the Cardinals are able to add an extra arm to their bullpen now rather than waiting until rosters expand on Thursday.

Leake will join fellow righty Michael Wacha on the disabled list, meaning that the Cardinals will temporarily be reliant upon a pair of rookies — Reyes and right-hander Luke Weaver — in their rotation as they look to cling to a half-game lead over the Pirates in a competitive race for the second National League Wild Card spot. (The Marlins and Mets are each within 2.5 games of that Wild Card berth as well.) Leake had been doing some of his best work of the season prior to coming down with the virus, having rattled off three consecutive quality starts including a scoreless seven-inning gem on Aug. 21. It’s been an up and down season for the 28-year-old, who has totaled a 4.56 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and a 54 percent ground-ball rate in 152 innings. Lackluster ERA notwithstanding, Leake’s strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates have all improved over the 2016 season, leading to considerably more favorable reviews from ERA estimators like FIP (3.88), xFIP (3.73) and SIERA (3.87). He’s in the first season of a five-year, $80MM contract signed with St. Louis this past offseason.

Do Big Leaguers Have Favorite Teams?

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Burke Badenhop made his Major League debut on April 9, 2008 when he tossed a scoreless inning of relief for the Marlins. In the eight years that followed, he pitched 512 1/3 innings of 3.74 ERA ball with the Marlins, Rays, Brewers, Red Sox and Reds. He’s been a part of four trades (most notably the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis blockbuster), tested Major League free agency and been in more than a dozen Major League and minor league clubhouses. We are thrilled to have Burke bring some of that unique perspective to MLB Trade Rumors. This is his third offering; he has recently written about the importance of September roster expansion and the experience of playing the spoiler.

From kindergarten through eighth grade I grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. Greenville is tucked away in the eastern part of the state, situated between Raleigh and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s home to lots of barbecue spots, tobacco fields, and East Carolina University. Despite North Carolina’s love affair with college basketball, baseball is big in Greenville. I grew up loving Little League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves.

My parents are both from Ohio and neither had too much of a rooting interest in one particular big league team. Even though the closest big league city to Greenville at the time was Baltimore, I didn’t consider cheering for a team from up north. Folks from Greenville definitely fancied themselves Southerners and Atlanta, not Baltimore, was a better fit. Throw in the convenience of watching every game on TBS and a Braves fan was born.

As it turns out, I picked a very opportunistic time to enter the fandom of my new team. In 1991, when I was eight years old, the Braves were in the midst of their ‘worst to first’ season. There was a lot to love as a kid about that Braves team. They had exciting young starting pitchers Steve Avery, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Their outfield had the speed of Otis Nixon, the power of Ron Gant and the all around amazing-ness of reigning NL Rookie of the Year David Justice. The middle infield featured scrappy fan favorites Rafael Belliard and Mark Lemke. They even had a guy, Deion Sanders, who played in the NFL! What more could a kid want?

Despite finishing in last place the year before, the Braves battled for supremacy in their division that summer with the Dodgers. My Dad and I would check the paper every morning hoping for a Dodger loss that would tighten the standings. We watched every game down the stretch as the Braves crept closer and closer to LA, finally overtaking them and clinching the division on the next to last day of the regular season.

If the drama of the regular season wasn’t enough for my eight-year-old nerves, the postseason surely put them to the test. The Braves would win the NLCS in seven games and faced the Minnesota Twins in what most people would argue was the greatest World Series of all time. Since I was only eight, I wasn’t allowed to stay up late and see the finish of each game. I’d typically watch until the fourth or fifth inning before heading to bed. To add to the intrigue, before he left for work the next morning, my dad would write the score to the game on my bathroom mirror with a bar of soap. Just like the NLCS, that World Series went seven games. I raced to my bathroom the morning after Game 7 and couldn’t believe what I saw. Braves-0 Twins-1 10 innings. A World Series was obviously what I had hoped for, but I think that loss truly made me love the Braves even more. From then on, I called the Braves mine. That commitment lasted, ironically, until other teams began calling me.

During my junior year of college major league organizations began to scout me. Even though I was never a potential top round pick, everything relating to baseball just kind of changed for me. The dynamic between the big leagues and myself now shifted from lifelong fan to potential player, something I didn’t count on happening. In college, ‘baseball’ meant a scholarship to help pay for school, but it was now a potential post collegiate career opportunity. Did I hope that the Braves would show a lot of interest and draft me? Of course I did. My head would have literally exploded. Unfortunately, they never showed that much interest and I would instead get excited if a new team would call or send a letter to my coach. I was no longer focused on the one team I grew up rooting for since I hoped to attract the interest of all thirty teams. As other teams’ interest grew, the Braves’ interest never materialized and I was okay with that.

I was eventually drafted by the Tigers after my senior year of college and was traded to the Marlins three years later. I broke into the big leagues in 2008 with the Marlins, a team that just so happens to play in the same division as my once-beloved Braves. My third career start in the big leagues was in Atlanta, against the Braves. It wasn’t pretty. I managed to last 5 innings, but gave up eight hits and six runs. I walked a batter, didn’t strike anyone out and gave up a two-run homer in the first inning to Chipper Jones on his birthday. It was a surreal feeling to lose a game to the team I grew up hoping would always win. The ‘tomahawk chop’ was no longer something I wanted any part of. Once I passed that initial encounter, though, the Braves were just another opponent and business continued as usual. My favorite team became the one that I was lucky enough to wear the uniform of and my favorite players were the ones I called teammates.

So do big leaguers have favorite teams? The answer is yes, just not the current version of that team. I’m not a Braves fan now and I definitely wasn’t a fan of them as they pummeled me around Turner Field that April evening in 2008, but I love the Braves I grew up with. It’s that love for my favorite team that inspired me to become a big leaguer in the first place.

Marlins Sign David Lough

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The Marlins have signed outfielder David Lough to a minor league deal, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. He’ll be joined in the organization by infielder Danny Muno, who was also just inked.

Lough, 30, had been with the Phillies this year but was recently given his release. Over 79 plate appearances at the major league level, he compiled only a .239/.342/.313 batting line, though he did manage to accumulate 9 walks against only 8 strikeouts. The numbers haven’t been all that much more promising at Triple-A, where Lough carries a .270/.329/.369 batting line in his 156 plate appearances — including four games worth of action in the Miami organization.

Still, the Fish are likely not planning to ask much of Lough if and when he makes it to the majors. He has typically rated as a quality defender and baserunner, and might well add some value in a limited role once rosters expand in just a few days.

Yankees “Aggressive” On Waiver Wire

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The Yankees have been aggressive in making waiver claims, rival executives tell ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required). New York has traditionally made many claims during the August waiver period, sometimes in pursuit of late-season upgrades themselves or simply to block players from reaching other rivals.

This year, the club is in a somewhat different position, as a series of mid-season trades proved that the focus isn’t on 2016. Still, the Yanks have rather remarkably maintained a 15-10 record since the calendar flipped to August, and sit only 3.5 games out of Wild Card position and 6.5 back in the AL East.

Interestingly, Olney suggests that New York’s position just behind Baltimore — but ahead of its division-rival in waiver priority — has created problems for the O’s as they seek to make last-minute additions. The Yankees, it seems, have been able to open possibilities for their own new acquisitions while also cutting off the supply lines of their competitors.

All said, then, the Yanks could be juggling any of three primary sources of motivation in making any single claim: adding players for the final month of 2016, preventing A.L. rivals from doing the same, and/or picking up assets for 2017 and beyond. While there’s not much time remaining for the aggressive waiver wire strategy to work, it seems that New York has at least largely succeeded in maintaining the status quo — leaving the club in position to make a surprising late run at a Wild Card, if not the division itself.

Nationals To Add Mat Latos To Active Roster

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The Nationals have struck a slightly modified agreement with righty Mat Latos that will result in him joining the major league roster, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Though Latos could’ve opted out today if he was not promoted, he has agreed to stay in the minors until rosters expand on Thursday and will return to the majors at that time.

Because Latos is already in the organization, the delay will not have any impact on his eligibility for a hypothetical post-season roster. Of course, as things stand, it would be something of a surprise if he ends up representing an appealing option for playoff duty.

The 28-year-old has been on a roller-coaster ever since he was traded from the Reds to the Marlins after the 2014 season. There have been moments where he looked like the high-quality starter he once was, and others when he has been mediocre on the hill while representing a questionable clubhouse presence.

It’s a results-oriented business at the end of the day, and Latos hasn’t steadily delivered of late. Since the start of the 2015 campaign, he has compiled a 4.84 ERA over 176 2/3 innings with 6.7 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9.

ERA estimators suggest that he has been somewhat better than those figures would suggest. Trouble is, though, his peripherals and average fastball velocity have sagged more recently, raising renewed concerns whether he’ll ever regain the form that allowed him to average 200 frames of 3.27 ERA pitching over 2010 to 2013.

Latos and the Nats hope that he’ll thrive in his new environment, which represents something of a homecoming. The righty is from the Northern Virginia area originally, though he spent the bulk of his youth in Florida. More importantly, perhaps, he has done his best work as a big leaguer under the command of former Reds skipper Dusty Baker, who now helms the Nationals.

The preliminary results have been reasonably promising. Latos has permitted just two earned runs over 17 innings in three starts at the Triple-A level, though he has only ten strikeouts against seven walks in that span.

Whether or not Latos is able to contribute much down the stretch, then, is at best an open question. But the Nationals are in need of solid-enough innings as they look to ease Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross back into action in advance of the playoffs. With a healthy eight-game advantage in the NL East, the Nats can probably afford to take a risk on quality in favor of managing the burden on their existing staff. That ought to provide some opportunity for Latos to tally some MLB frames before he returns to the open market at season’s end.

Quick Hits: Orioles, Brinson, Blanco, Viera

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Let’s wrap up some news items as we head into the new week…

  • The Orioles have made a few notable August acquisitions during Dan Duquette’s tenure with the club, and Duquette tells Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun that he has again been looking at the waiver market.  “So we’ve been working on it….You want to make your bench as strong as you can make it, and also get as much pitching depth as you can,” Duquette said.
  • Since joining the Brewers organization, Lewis Brinson has been on fire, entering today’s action with a 1.099 OPS over 68 plate appearances for Triple-A Colorado Springs.  Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Brinson could be a September callup for the Brew Crew, though the club’s outfield is already pretty crowded.  Brinson was the centerpiece of the trade package (fellow top prospect Luis Ortiz and a player to be named later) Milwaukee acquired in the deadline blockbuster that sent Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress to the Rangers.
  • Cuban outfielder Dairon Blanco and right-hander Carlos Juan Viera will hold a showcase in the Dominican Republic on September 5, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (via Twitter).  Blanco, a 23-year-old described by Baseball America’s Ben Badler as owning blazing speed but somewhat raw hitting and fielding skills, still has to receive clearance from MLB to officially become a free agent.  Blanco is subject to international signing guidelines and the 27-year-old Viera appears to be as well, since he has only four seasons under his belt in Cuba’s top league, the Serie Nacional.

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