Anthony Ranaudo Signs With KBO’s Samsung Lions
Righty Anthony Ranaudo has signed a one-year deal with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Samsung Lions, the club announced (h/t Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net, on Twitter). The 27-year-old, who was released by the White Sox to pursue the opportunity, will earn a $1.05MM salary.
Once a top-100 prospect in the Red Sox organization, Ranaudo has seen action in each of the last three major league seasons. The results, though, haven’t been very promising. He owns a 7.01 ERA over 86 frames and has recorded both 44 strikeouts and walks.
Ranaudo spent most of the 2016 campaign in the White Sox organization after being acquired from the Rangers via trade in the middle of May. He ended up in Texas in the early 2015 swap that sent Robbie Ross Jr. to Boston.
While his struggles at the game’s highest level continued, Ranaudo was rather effective in 19 starts at Triple-A last year. He threw 110 innings of 3.19 ERA ball at the highest level of the minors, posting 6.8 K/9 against just 1.2 BB/9.
Astros Outright Jon Singleton
TUESDAY: Singleton has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A, Kaplan tweets.
SATURDAY: The Astros placed first baseman Jon Singleton on outright waivers yesterday, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter links). Kaplan expects Singleton to clear waivers when eligible on Tuesday, and Singleton will then be outrighted to Triple-A, and off the Astros’ 40-man roster.
Once considered one of the top minor leaguers in the sport, Singleton was the centerpiece of the prospect package sent by the Phillies to the Astros in July 2011 for Hunter Pence. Houston even signed Singleton to a five-year, $10MM extension prior to his major league debut in 2014, a deal that drew quite a bit of controversy given how it was perceived by some (including the MLBPA) as Singleton signing away quite a bit of future earning potential.
As it turned out, Singleton may have done well to lock down a big payday given his struggles over the last few years. He hit just .171/.290/.331 over 420 plate appearances in 2014-15 and he didn’t play in the bigs at all in 2016, instead spending the year at Triple-A Fresno and hitting .202/.337/.390 over 501 PA. That batting line is particularly concerning given that Singleton was playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
With A.J. Reed, Tyler White, Yulieski Gurriel and Brian McCann all looking like first base options on Houston’s major league roster, one has to wonder if Singleton’s time in the organization is coming to an end. As Kaplan noted, Singleton isn’t likely to be claimed by another team since the Astros still owe him $2MM in each of the next two years (plus a $500K buyout of his $2.5MM option for 2019).
Angels Claim Nolan Fontana, Designate Juan Graterol
The Angels announced today that they’ve claimed infielder Nolan Fontana off waivers from the Astros and designated catcher Juan Graterol for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Fontana, 25, long rated as one of Houston’s top prospects but has seen his stock decline steadily in recent seasons. Baseball America rated him 29th among Astros farmhands last winter, and by midseason, he’d fallen off MLB.com’s top 30 Astros prospects entirely. The former second-round pick batted a combined .203/.282/.273 in 451 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this year. While the ‘Stros once hoped that he could eventually man an up-the-middle infield spot, BA noted last winter that his ceiling now looked to be a utility infielder who draws plenty of walks but has bottom-of-the-scale power. BA did note that Fontana is a reliable defender at second base, even if he lacks the range or arm to handle shortstop on a regular basis. Fontana did hit .241/.369/.357 in a full season at Triple-A in 2015, so he does at least have a history of somewhat better performance at that level.
Graterol, 27, made his Major League debut and tallied 15 PAs with the Halos this past season. The former Royals farmhand spent the 2015 season in the Yankees organization before inking a minors pact with the Halos last offseason. He’s a career .274/.306/.338 hitter in parts of three seasons (95 games) at the Triple-A level.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of today’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Rangers Claim David Rollins
The Rangers announced on Tuesday that they’ve claimed lefty reliever David Rollins off waivers from the Cubs. Chicago had claimed Rollins off waivers from the Mariners last week and unsuccessfully attempted to sneak him through waivers.
[Related: Updated Texas Rangers Depth Chart]
The claim by Texas is a mild surprise, as the Rangers passed on claiming Rollins last week when the lefty fell to the Cubs in waiver priority. However, the Rangers now have a clearer picture of their 40-man roster after making some determinations in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. Texas may yet attempt to sneak Rollins through waivers themselves in similar fashion, though that’s just speculation on my behalf.
The 26-year-old Rollins (27 next month) is a former Rule 5 pick himself. Seattle selected him out of the Astros organization back in 2014, and Rollins wound up receiving an 80-game PED suspension before he threw a pitch for the Mariners during the regular season. In a bizarre way, that helped the Mariners keep him in the organization, though their selection of Rollins ultimately never paid dividends anyhow. The former 24th-round pick has a 7.60 ERA in 34 innings with the Mariners across the past two seasons and has averaged 7.1 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 with a 41.9 percent ground-ball rate. He’s been rather unlucky, as evidenced by a .379 BABIP, but even the most optimistic ERA estimator pegs him in the mid-4.00s (4.41 SIERA). Rollins does have minor league options remaining, so if he’s able to survive the offseason on Texas’ 40-man roster, the team could option him and use him as a depth piece in the ‘pen next year.
Mariners Release Tom Wilhelmsen
The Mariners announced today that they’ve requested release waivers on right-hander Tom Wilhelmsen, who was designated for assignment last week as part of a flurry of moves that preceded the deadline to set rosters prior to the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. A team could technically claim Wilhelmsen off release waivers, though with a projected $3.8MM salary for the 2017 season, that seems unlikely.
The 33-year-old Wilhelmsen went from Seattle to Texas in last offseason’s Leonys Martin swap but was shelled in his limited time with the Rangers. Wilhelmsen served up an incredible 25 earned runs on 38 hits (seven homers) and nine walks in just 21 1/3 innings. Those alarming struggles, unsurprisingly, led to a release by the Rangers, and the former Mariners closer quickly re-signed in Seattle. Wilhelmsen went on to enjoy success over his final 25 innings of the year, posting a 3.60 ERA with a 17-to-10 K/BB ratio and a 52.8 percent ground-ball rate.
With the exception of his disastrous run in Texas, Wilhelmsen has performed pretty well over the past three seasons. From 2014-15, he logged a 2.67 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a roughly league-average ground-ball rate in 141 1/3 innings of relief with the Mariners. He averaged a solid 94.8 mph on his heater this season and, given his past success, should draw interest for teams looking for a short-term commitment to a bullpen arm. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has already spoken about the possibility of a re-signing Wilhelmsen, though he could certainly end up garnering big league offers elsewhere.
Latest On Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce
There’s a growing expectation in the industry that Yoenis Cespedes will indeed get a five-year deal this offseason, writes Mike Puma of the New York Post, which could be problematic for the Mets. Puma cites an industry source in reporting that the Mets could be comfortable in the $100-110MM range over a four-year term, but the team’s comfort level with a fifth year and a total value approaching $130MM is considerably less certain.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson has previously said that he hopes to have resolution on the matter one way or the other by the end of next month’s Winter Meetings, and Puma notes that the Cespedes camp has a similar timeline. Whether the team is able to re-sign Cespedes or not will also have a significant impact on Jay Bruce‘s future, Puma writes, as the team could look to trade Bruce if Cespedes returns to Queens. New York is currently listening to offers for Bruce, he continues, though the Mets wouldn’t make any kind of move until they know the outcome of the Cespedes situation.
If Cespedes does sign elsewhere, that doesn’t preclude the Mets from moving Bruce, though, as Puma notes that Alderson and his staff could look at signing either Jose Bautista or Dexter Fowler as a fallback option. If they’re able to do so, then a trade of Bruce would again be back on the table.
It’s not entirely clear which clubs pose the biggest competition for Cespedes at this time. He’s been connected to the likes of the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees and Nationals, though certainly there are other clubs that have corner-outfield vacancies, including the Orioles, Rangers, Mariners, Blue Jays and Phillies, to name a few. And, unlike last season, Cespedes is now the top position player on the board, whereas last year he had to compete with a number of other corner outfielders, including Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon. While Cespedes does have a qualifying offer attached to him this time around, his status as top dog on the free-agent market (and yet another excellent season added to his track record) should yield a more robust market.
As for Bruce, the 29-year-old (30 in April) has long struck me as a curious fit for the Mets. With Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto both in the mix, the Mets already have two left-handed-hitting outfielders that should be limited to the corner slots. None of the three lefties handles lefties particularly well, either, and while there’s hope for Conforto to make some strides in that area it’s unlikely that either Bruce or Granderson will make any marked improvement at this point in his career. Shopping him around certainly makes some sense, even if Cespedes doesn’t return. It’s a tough market to do it in, as there are several free-agent alternatives, but Bruce has drawn interest from the Blue Jays in the past and would fit their current desire for a left-handed-hitting outfielder. The Giants, Rangers and Orioles each make varying levels of sense for Bruce as well, although those names are listed here purely in speculative fashion at this point. Bruce is owed $13MM in 2017 and batted a combined .250/.309/.506 with 33 home runs last season.
Rockies Interested In Extension For Carlos Gonzalez
There’s just one guaranteed year on Carlos Gonzalez‘s seven-year, $80MM contract, but the Rockies are interested in working out a longer-term pact to keep him in Denver, the outfielder himself tells Venezuelan journalist Wilmer Reina (Twitter link). Gonzalez said that while the Rockies want an extension, there’s still a lot to be negotiated.
Gonzalez, 31, has been with the Rockies since 2009 and established himself as a star there earlier this decade. While he didn’t follow up 2015’s 40-homer campaign with that same type of power, he’s coming off a season in which he batted .298/.350/.505 with 25 home runs and 42 doubles. That OBP was his highest since 2012, though Gonzalez’s walk rate, swinging-strike rate and contact rates all remained worse than the league average in 2016. The improved OBP was driven by a slight dip in strikeouts and a more notable spike in his average on balls in play. Gonzalez’s defense held steady at average to slightly above, in the estimation of metrics like DRS and UZR, though Gonzalez has a more favorable reputation around the game, as he was a Gold Glove finalist in right field this past season.
For the Rockies, though, they have a trio of left-handed-hitting alternatives in the outfield in David Dahl, Charlie Blackmon and Gerardo Parra, although the latter of that group struggled through a terrible first season in Colorado (.253/.271/.399). There’s been some talk of moving Gonzalez to first base, but as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding notes (Twitter links), that thought was due more to recent injuries than to a perceived need to move him for defensive purposes, and it also wasn’t necessarily an immediate plan.
Certainly, with four left-handed-hitting outfielders, it could be argued that Gonzalez is a somewhat superfluous asset for the Rockies, who should look to cash in on the still-productive veteran in a trade. (MLBTR’s Jeff Todd explored this more at length when previewing the Rockies’ offseason.) The Rockies, though, do seem intent on trying to contend in 2017, and Gonzalez is a better option in the outfield than Parra, so hanging onto him would make the team better. Beyond that, the return for a 31-year-old that is owed $20MM in his final year before free agency may not be as robust as many would expect considering Gonzalez’s name value. Considering the flooded corner outfield market, the Rox could feel there’s a chance to get a similar return if they explore a trade in July rather than moving one of their more productive bats before the 2017 season even opens.
Whether pursuing an extension is wise, of course, is entirely dependent on the price. Gonzalez would be 32 in the first season of a theoretical deal, and his bat is likelier to either continue at its solid-but-elite 2016 pace or to decline than it is to return to the form he showed in his mid-20s from 2010-13. Likewise, his defense figures to deteriorate a bit as he progresses into his mid-30s. For a team whose payroll is on the rise but still doesn’t compare to the most aggressive-spending clubs in the game, a misstep on an extension — even one for a player that is one of the faces of the franchise — would be a significant burden.
Certainly, with current holes at catcher, first base and in the bullpen (plus opportunities to add some rotation depth), an extension for Gonzalez wouldn’t seem like an immediate priority for GM Jeff Bridich and his staff. And while Gonzalez has voiced an openness to an extension quite recently due to the team’s improved play in 2016, today’s comments don’t make it sound like talks have progressed very far — if they’ve even begun at all. It seems likelier that an extension would be pursued later this winter, after some more of the club’s offseason shopping has been completed and after the team’s arbitration cases have been settled.
Yankees Notes: Tanaka, Chapman, Free Agents
Masahiro Tanaka‘s opt-out clause following the 2017 season looms large over any Yankees decisions on the pitching front this winter, writes ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand, as the team doesn’t have a reliable starter that is definitively under control beyond the current campaign. (Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia are free agents next offseason.) As Marchand notes, Tanaka’s situation illustrates the dangers that opt-out clauses present to teams; if Tanaka pitches well in 2017, he’ll have been a great four-year investment but will test the open market in search of a larger deal. If he performs poorly and/or gets injured, the Yankees will be stuck with the remaining three years and $64MM on the contract. And, of course, there’s no way to know which scenario will play out, thus making it more difficult to plan for the future as well. Marchand notes that the lack of arms locked in beyond 2017 could lead the Yankees to Rich Hill (though he comes with his own obvious uncertainties) but cautions that GM Brian Cashman is still not keen on using his newly bolstered farm to land someone like Chris Sale. Marchand also explores various bullpen scenarios that could play out for the Yankees this winter.
A few more notes out of the AL East…
- Aroldis Chapman tells NY Sports Day’s Ray Negron that he would “love to be a Yankee again,” expressing gratitude for the fact that the Yankees “took a chance” on him amid domestic abuse allegations. “The organization treated me first class, and the fans were like no other,” said Chapman of his time in New York. George A. King III of the New York Post reports that the Yankees have had multiple conversations with Chapman’s agent, Barry Praver, about a reunion, but to this point there’s been no formal offer extended by New York, nor has there been a proposal in terms of years and dollars from Chapman’s camp. It’s certainly possible that the Yankees — and many teams with serious interest in Chapman — are awaiting the results of the current wave of collective bargaining negotiations, which will reportedly bring a yet-unknown increase to the $189MM luxury tax barrier.
- The free agent market is presently flush with corner outfield/first base/designated hitter types, and the Yankees intend to closely monitor that market and take advantage, as the Orioles have done in the past, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. In recent years, we’ve seen the O’s wait out the first base/rightfield/DH market and land affordable contracts for players like Pedro Alvarez (one year, $5MM last winter) and Nelson Cruz (one year, $8MM prior to the 2014 season). With names like Carlos Beltran, Brandon Moss, Mike Napoli, Steve Pearce, Matt Holliday, Trevor Plouffe, Mitch Moreland, Adam Lind, Logan Morrison and Justin Morneau among the available corner names, is does indeed seem possible that the Yankees could end up with a bargain on their hands by exercising some patience. Olney tweeted last week after the Brian McCann trade that the Yankees’ focus was on pitching, though they would very much like to bring Beltran back to the Bronx.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/22/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Nationals announced yesterday that they’ve signed former Blue Jays right-hander Dustin Antolin to a minor league deal and invited him to Major League Spring Training. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Jays in 2016, tossing two innings and surrendering three runs in his lone appearance. Antolin was tremendous during his time with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, pitching to a 2.04 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 53 innings. However, he didn’t reach the Triple-A level until his age-26 season and also displayed some control issues, walking 28 batters (4.8 BB/9) and hitting another three batters as well. The Hawaiian-born Antolin has a career 4.16 ERA in the minors and has averaged eight strikeouts against four walks per nine innings pitched.
- The Orioles announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder David Washington to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Washington, who turned 26 on Sunday, had a big year in 2016, hitting a combined 30 homers between the Cardinals’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. His .259/.359/.532 slash line is impressive, but Washington is no stranger to strikeouts, as he whiffed in a bit more than 34 percent of his plate appearances last season. Since being selected in the 15th round of the 2009 draft, Washington has punched out in 30.6 percent of his professional plate appearances. Still, his power is intriguing, and he’ll give the O’s a depth piece as they seek out potential options in right field.
- Shortstop Wilfredo Tovar appears to have signed what is presumably a minor league deal with the Cardinals, as the infielder himself tweeted a thank you to the organization for his latest opportunity. The 25-year-old Tovar came up through the Mets system and made a pair of brief MLB appearances in 2013-14, collecting three hits in a tiny sample of 22 plate appearances. Once rated as one of the Top 15 prospects in the Mets’ system by Baseball America (and thrice rated as that system’s best defensive infielder), Tovar spent the 2016 campaign with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate, where he served as their primary shortstop. Defensive prowess aside, Tovar doesn’t bring much to the table offensively; he hit .249/.301/.327 with one homer in 494 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, although he did chip in 29 steals (in 38 attempts) when he managed to reach base.