Indians Designate Austin Adams For Assignment
The Indians have designated right-handed reliever Austin Adams for assignment to make room for the addition of left-handed reliever Boone Logan, whose deal with the team is now official, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (Twitter link).
Adams, whom the Indians chose in the fifth round of the 2009 draft, has seen action with the Tribe in each season since making his major league debut in 2014. The results have been largely underwhelming, though, despite the fact that Adams possesses a fastball that averages 96 mph.
In 58 2/3 major league innings, Adams has logged a 6.29 ERA, 6.75 K/9 and 3.22 BB/9. A significant portion of the damage came last season, when the 30-year-old pitched to a sky-high 9.82 ERA across 18 1/3 frames. While Adams posted a career-high K/9 (8.35), he surrendered home runs on 25 percent of fly balls and allowed a .333/.386/.679 batting line and .439 wOBA (for reference, David Ortiz led the majors with a .419 wOBA). Adams, to his credit, has been a lot better at the Triple-A level, where he has managed a 3.47 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 103 2/3 innings.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Angels Sign Dustin Ackley To Minor League Deal
FEB. 7: Ackley’s pact features a $2.25MM major league salary and $1.4MM in incentives, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).
FEB. 4: The Angels have announced the signing of infielder/outfielder Dustin Ackley to a minor league contract. The deal comes with an invitation to spring training for Ackley, a Boras Corporation client.
[RELATED: Updated Angels Depth Chart]
It took Ackley just under three months to land anywhere after the Yankees released him in late November. That came on the heels of a truncated season in which the 28-year-old accrued a meager 70 plate appearances and hit an ugly .148/.243/.148 before undergoing surgery on a torn right shoulder labrum in early June.
Ackley was far more successful in 2015, a year divided between Seattle and New York, as he slashed a still-unremarkable .231/.284/.429 in 264 trips to the plate. All told, Ackley has posted a .241/.304/.367 line over the first 2,347 PAs of his career, which makes the lefty-swinger’s major league tenure a substantial disappointment after the Mariners took him second overall in the 2009 draft. Ackley then ranked as one of Baseball America’s 12 best prospects to conclude both the ’09 and ’10 campaigns.
On the bright side, Ackley has mostly earned plus defensive grades at second base and in left field – his primary positions – and comes with first base experience. Defensive Runs Saved (plus-19) and Ultimate Zone Rating (10.7) have liked his work in 2,514 innings at the keystone, while he’s at plus-2 DRS and 3.7 UZR in 1,588 innings as a left fielder.
In his return to the American League West, Ackley figures to vie for a bench role behind Angels second baseman Danny Espinosa, first base options Luis Valbuena, C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols, and outfielders Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun and Cameron Maybin. The club’s top bench choices entering the spring are light-hitting infielder Cliff Pennington and outfielder Ben Revere, whom the Angels gave a guaranteed $4MM earlier this winter.
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Phillies, Chris Coghlan Agree To Minor League Deal
FEB. 7: Coghlan’s contract comes with a $3MM major league salary and $1MM in incentives, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman.
FEB. 2: The Phillies and utilityman Chris Coghlan have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (Twitter link). The deal includes an invitation to spring training.
[RELATED: Updated Phillies Depth Chart]
Coghlan is settling for a minors pact on account of a subpar 2016 spent between the Athletics and Cubs, with whom he won the World Series. The 31-year-old hit a meager .188/.290/.318 across 300 plate appearances (and went hitless in eight postseason PAs), which represented a sharp decline from his output with the Cubs from 2014-15. Coghlan combined for a quality batting line of .265/.346/.447 and 5.7 fWAR over that two-year, 935-PA stretch.
Prior to his first of two stints with the Cubs, Coghlan spent the initial five years of his career as a member of the Marlins, who selected him in the first round of the 2006 draft. The lefty-swinging Coghlan won the National League Rookie of the Year with the Fish in 2009 on the strength of a .321/.390/.460 showing in 565 trips to the plate, though he never came close to replicating that success over his final four years in Miami.
Defensively, Coghlan has primarily been an outfielder during his career – mostly left field – but he does bring some infield experience. Despite his versatility, he’ll seemingly face an uphill climb in securing playing time with the Phillies. While Coghlan’s a more established option than reserve outfielders Aaron Altherr and Tyler Goeddel, the team is all set in center field with Odubel Herrera, and it has added a pair of somewhat pricey corner outfielders this offseason in Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders. Philadelphia also has Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez locked in at third and second base, the two infield spots where Coghlan has most frequently lined up, and Andres Blanco as a backup infielder.
Red Sox Sign Mike Olt To Minor League Deal
12:38pm: As expected, it’s a minor league contract, per Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (Twitter link).
9:21am: The Red Sox have signed corner infielder Mike Olt, who announced the news on Instagram (h/t Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). It’s presumably a minor league deal for Olt, who didn’t crack the majors in 2016 after inking a minors pact with the Padres last March.
The 28-year-old Olt went to the Rangers in the first round of the 2010 draft and eventually topped out as Baseball America’s 22nd-best prospect after the 2012 campaign. The Rangers then sent Olt to the Cubs the next season in a trade centering on right-hander Matt Garza, but he failed to live up to his considerable promise in Chicago. In 2014, the only season in which Olt has seen extensive major league action, he batted .160/.248/.356 and struck out in 38.8 percent of his 258 plate appearances. All told, Olt has slashed .168/.250/.330 in a combined 400 PAs with the Rangers, Cubs and White Sox. He has been more successful, albeit not great, at the Triple-A level, having posted a .234/.318/.429 line in 774 PAs.
Primarily a third baseman, the Connecticut-born Olt, an ex-UConn star, will now return to his native New England and attempt to stick with the Red Sox organization. Boston does have questions at the hot corner, where Pablo Sandoval is aiming to bounce back from a horrid 2015 and a lost 2016. Brock Holt and Josh Rutledge are on hand as major league depth, while another of BA’s former top 100 prospects, Matt Dominguez, is in the minors.
Yankees “Have Checked In On” Travis Wood
With no established major league starters beyond Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia and Michael Pineda on their roster, the Yankees “have checked in on” free agent left-hander Travis Wood, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. However, the Yankees “don’t necessarily seem at the forefront of talks” for Wood, whose market has heated up in recent days.
Wood, who turned 30 on Monday, worked exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen last season, but “multiple teams” have offered him opportunities to return to a starting role this winter. That could include the Yankees, who are currently set to have Luis Severino, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Cessa and Adam Warren battle for their final two rotation spots during the spring. Those five have combined for just 68 big league starts, whereas Wood piled up nearly twice as many (133) with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15. Wood was fairly effective during that six-year, 776-inning span, too, as he recorded a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9.
While Wood is coming off a career-best season in terms of run prevention (2.95 ERA in 61 innings), he also had the good fortune of pitching in front of the Cubs’ all-world defense. His ERA masked a subpar K/BB ratio (1.96; well below the 2.53 league-average mark for relievers), and advanced metrics like FIP (4.54), xFIP (4.83) and SIERA (4.46) weren’t particularly impressed with his performance. Further, Wood generated ground balls at a meager 37.4 percent clip, and his careerlong trend of relying on fly balls – not to mention his below-average velocity and struggles against right-handed hitters – could make him a poor fit for Yankee Stadium and the AL East. To his credit, Wood has somewhat offset his lifetime 33.6 grounder percentage with an 11.9 percent infield fly rate, which climbed to a lofty 17.8 percent in 2016.
Regardless of whether it’s with the Yankees, Wood seems likely to land a deal soon. With spring training closing in and former Cubs teammate Jason Hammel now off the market, Wood is arguably the top starting-caliber arm available in free agency.
Royals, Cubs, Nationals Among Teams At Seth Maness Workout
TUESDAY: The Brewers, Reds, Indians, Orioles, Astros and Twins also sent scouts to observe Maness’ workout, according to Goold.
MONDAY: Scouts from at least 16 Major League clubs were on-hand today to watch free agent right-hander Seth Maness work out, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Instagram). Per Goold, the Royals, Cubs and Nationals were all represented at Maness’ audition.
Maness’ showcase is especially intriguing due to the circumstances surrounding his injury. The 28-year-old suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament last summer and underwent surgery in August, but he elected to undergo an experimental “primary repair” surgery that, if successful, could represent a potential alternative to Tommy John surgery. Not every pitcher with a torn UCL can turn to the primary repair procedure as an alternative — the operation is dependent on the location and extent of the ligament tear — but certainly a return to health for Maness in seven and a half months would pique the interest of others with similar diagnoses around the league. (Those who are interested in the matter and missed Goold’s column on Maness last month should absolutely take the time to read through his breakdown of the operation itself and the larger-reaching potential implications of the surgery.)
The 28-year-old Maness was a fixture in the St. Louis bullpen from 2013-16, racking up 237 1/3 innings with a 3.19 ERA, 5.8 K/9, 1.7 BB/9 and a hefty 59.4 percent ground-ball rate along the way. Last season, however, he logged a 3.41 ERA with career worst K/9 and BB/9 rates of 4.6 and 2.3, respectively. Following the August operation, the Cardinals non-tendered him rather than pay him a projected $1.6MM via arbitration (projection via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
As an added bonus for any club that ultimately signs Maness, if he is indeed able to return and pitch at a high level, he’d remain under club control not just for the 2017 season but through the 2019 season. Maness wrapped up the 2016 campaign with three years and 154 days of Major League service time, so he’d be arbitration-eligible in each of the next two winters before hitting free agency in advance of his age-31 season.
Royals Sign Brayan Pena To Minor League Deal
10:00am: Pena will earn at a $535K base salary if he cracks the majors, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). His deal also features $10K in incentives and opt-outs at the end of spring training and on May 1.
6:19am: Former Royals catcher Brayan Pena is returning to the organization on a minor league contract, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). The deal comes with an invitation to spring training for Pena, who previously played in Kansas City from 2009-12.
Pena, 35, had been sitting on the free agent market since the Cardinals released him Nov. 28. In doing so, the Redbirds had to eat the remaining $2.5MM left on the two-year, $5MM deal they awarded Pena in free agency last offseason. Lingering knee issues weighed down Pena during his stint in St. Louis, where he collected just 14 plate appearances.
As a member of the Royals, Tigers and Reds from 2009-15, the switch-hitter batted .262/.303/.355 in 1,805 plate appearances. Defensively, Baseball Prospectus has given Pena positive overall grades as a pitch framer, though he has fallen into the negatives in recent seasons. Pena has also thrown out 28 percent of attempted base stealers during his career – just above the 27 percent league-average mark.
Barring injuries, Pena is unlikely to see much major league action with Kansas City this season. The Royals’ starting catcher is eminently durable standout Salvador Perez, who has played at least 138 games in four straight seasons, and they gave backup Drew Butera a guaranteed $3.8MM in November.
Blue Jays To Sign Joe Smith
FEB. 7: Smith’s deal comes with a $3MM base salary and $500K in performance bonuses, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney.
FEB. 4: The Blue Jays have reached an agreement with right-handed reliever Joe Smith on a one-year Major League deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The signing, should it become official, will require a 40-man roster move by Toronto. Smith is represented by Excel Sports Management.
Smith, 33 in March, posted a 3.46 ERA, 6.9 K/9, 3.1 BB/9, 1.38 HR/9, and 50.3% groundball rate in 52 innings for the Angels and Cubs. In terms of peripheral stats, it was the veteran sidearmer’s worst campaign since 2010. The Blue Jays will look for Smith to recapture some of his excellence spanning 2011-14, when he was fourth among all relievers with a 2.25 ERA in 271 2/3 innings. Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro has a previous connection to Smith, having acquired him in December 2008 while serving as general manager of the Indians.
Early in the 2016 season, Smith became the top man in the Angels’ bullpen when Huston Street went down with an oblique injury. However, Smith hit the DL himself in June with a hamstring injury. Shortly after his return, he was dealt to the Cubs at the trade deadline. Smith’s time with the Cubs was particularly brief due to a recurrence of the hamstring injury, and he was left off the team’s playoff roster.
The Jays’ contract with Smith comes on the heels of a one-year pact signed with lefty J.P. Howell on Tuesday. Howell will fill the role of the departed Brett Cecil, who signed a four-year deal with the Cardinals. Holdovers in the Blue Jays’ bullpen include Roberto Osuna, Joe Biagini, and Jason Grilli.
With pitchers and catchers reporting in a week for some teams, free agent relievers Joe Blanton, Travis Wood, and David Hernandez are among those still looking for a home.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.