Blue Jays, Randy Choate Agree To Minors Deal
Veteran left-hander Randy Choate will join the Blue Jays on a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, reports WFAN’s Sweeny Murti (via Twitter). The 40-year-old lefty specialist is represented by ACES.
Choate will compete for a job in a Blue Jays bullpen that is currently dealing with an injury to left-hander Aaron Loup. Choate has spent the past three seasons pitching for the Cardinals, limiting left-handed batters to a paltry .176/.270/.247 batting line in that time. Conversely, right-handers have roughed him up, slashing .333/.395/.416 in that same three-year stretch. Choate is among the most highly specialized relievers in baseball, as evidenced by the fact that the Cardinals allowed him to face just 23 right-handed batters over the life of the entire 2015 season (as opposed to 94 lefties). The market for Choate was fairly quiet for much of the offseason, though he’s known to have drawn some interest from the Astros, as well.
Brett Cecil figures to serve as the primary left-handed option in the Toronto bullpen, but there’s room for Choate to make the club, especially if Loup’s flexor strain in his left forearm proves to be more serious than currently anticipated. Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte represents another option that is currently on the 40-man roster, and the Jays also have veteran lefties Wade LeBlanc and Scott Diamond in camp as non-roster invitees.
International Notes: Gurriels, Gutierrez, KBO
Cuban brothers Yulieski Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., who defected last month and are in the process of being cleared for MLB free agency, will be represented by the Wasserman Media Group, reports Jon Heyman (on Twitter). Yulieski, the older of the two, is believed by many to be the top player in Cuba and will be exempt from international spending limitations due to his age (31) and professional experience. While the fact that he’ll turn 32 this June will limit his earning capacity when he is eventually declared a free agent, Yulieski still figures to command a sizable multi-year deal on the open market. Lourdes, on the other hand, is subject to international bonus pools, though he could very well command a pool-shattering bonus despite the fact that he’ll probably begin this next step of his career in the minors. There’s been talk that the two brothers could come as a package deal in free agency, though that’s obviously preliminary, and a number of factors will ultimately influence where each infielder signs.
A couple of other international notes…
- Cuban right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez will host a showcase for interested clubs on March 17 in Kissimmee, Fla., reports Baseball America’s Ben Badler (also via Twitter). The 20-year-old is subject to international spending pools but is one of the more promising young arms on the market and, unlike the brothers Gurriel, is free to sign with a club right now. Of course, Gutierrez could elect to wait to sign until after July 2, as there are probably teams that have interest right now but would be penalized for signing him and exceeding their bonus pools. Gutierrez reportedly switched representation recently and is now a client of the Legacy Agency.
- MLBPA executive director Tony Clark recently implied to Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (links to Twitter), that Major League Baseball could look to alter the posting system with the Korea Baseball Organization to more closely resemble the recently reworked posting system with Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. “We’re aware of considerations being discussed even as we speak that would be more reflective of that (Japanese) system,” said Clark. As it stands right now, when a KBO team posts a player for Major League teams, all 30 MLB clubs have the option of submitting a blind bid, and the team that submits the top bid is awarded exclusive negotiation rights with that player. The Japanese system used to work that way as well but was updated so that NPB clubs now set a release fee of up to $20MM, and any club willing to meet the release fee is then able to negotiate with the player in question.
Asdrubal Cabrera Shut Down For Two Weeks With Knee Injury
12:10pm: The Cardinals are indeed interested in Tejada, reports ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin, but the injury to Cabrera decreases the likelihood that the Mets will trade Tejada, he adds.
10:43am: The Mets announced that shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera has been shut down from all baseball activity for the next two weeks with a strained patellar tendon in his left knee. Cabrera is traveling to New York City today to receive a platelet-rich plasma injection in the injured knee. Per the Mets’ release, Cabrera will ease back into baseball activity “as tolerated” by his knee even when he returns to action. Cabrera initially suffered the injury while tagging up from first base in yesterday’s Spring Training contest, as he explained to reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo).
Suffice it to say, that puts Opening Day in doubt for the 30-year-old Cabrera, who signed a two-year, $18.5MM contract to serve as the Mets’ everyday shortstop this offseason. While it does appear that Cabrera has avoided a serious injury that would cost him a significant chunk of the regular season, the injury nevertheless comes with some potential roster ramifications. Ruben Tejada, for instance, has been rumored to be on the bubble of the 25-man roster this spring, but in the event that Cabrera will require a stint on the disabled list to open the season, his odds to make the Opening Day roster would seem to increase, as the Mets would likely deploy Wilmer Flores at shortstop and rely upon Tejada as their primary backup around the infield. The Mets had previously seemed like a logical trade partner for the Cardinals, should they seek an external replacement option at shortstop in the absence of Jhonny Peralta, but this injury would seem to diminish the chance of such a match.
NL Notes: Cabrera, Herrera, Cardinals, Joyce
Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera suffered a knee injury while tagging up from first to second base in yesterday’s Grapefruit League game, and while he initially told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that the injury was not serious, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets that Cabrera is traveling to New York City to undergo a second MRI. While the extent of his injury is unknown (the Mets have yet to disclose the results of yesterday’s MRI), it seems that there was at least some cause for concern on his initial test. Cabrera did note yesterday that he was walking without pain, so it seems unlikely that there’s any sort of ligament tear. The Mets are well covered in the event that Cabrera would need to miss some time, as both Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada represent viable backups. Cabrera is gearing up for the first season of a two-year, $18.5MM deal with the Mets.
A few more notes from the division…
- Puma also spoke with prospect Dilson Herrera and assistant GM John Ricco about the Mets’ decision to acquire Neil Walker this offseason despite the fact that some view Herrera as MLB-ready after hitting .327/.382/.511 in 81 Triple-A games last season. Herrera didn’t express any frustration, stating that he’s simply waiting for an opportunity. Ricco noted that Herrera might not be quite as big-league ready as his numbers indicate. “He’s not a guy we said, ‘He’s finished with Triple-A. He’s wasting his time down there,'” said Ricco of Herrera. “I don’t think you see that yet. With each of our top prospects the last few years, whether it be [Zack] Wheeler or [Matt] Harvey or [Noah] Syndergaard or [Steven] Matz, the deal was we want them to come up here and succeed, not just come up and here and have trial by fire.” Infield coach Tim Teufel explained to Puma that Herrera still doesn’t excel at turning double plays and “tends to throw without using his legs.”
- Cardinals GM John Mozeliak tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he’s not necessarily in a rush to add a shortstop in the wake of Jhonny Peralta‘s injury. “Everybody is sort of pounding on this — what are we going to do?” says Mozeliak. “I think I’d like to see what we have first and then determine what’s next. Our goal is to be competitive this year and if we feel we need to go outside the organization to improve on those odds then we will.” The top internal candidates to fill in for Peralta are Jedd Gyorko, Aledmys Diaz and Greg Garcia, though each comes with some questions. Should the Cardinals ultimately decide to look for outside help, the Cabrera injury mentioned above could potentially impact the trade market, as any notable absence for the Mets’ starter would likely make the club less willing to part with a shortstop (e.g. Ruben Tejada).
- Matt Joyce is in camp with the Pirates trying to win a bench spot on the club, but he told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times yesterday that he believed at one point this offseason that he was going to sign with the Padres (Twitter link). That match never came to fruition, for whatever reason, so Joyce will now look to reestablish himself in Pittsburgh instead. After batting a solid .251/.344/.434 from 2011-14 with the Rays, Joyce slumped to a dismal .174/.272/.291 batting line with the Angels last season.
Rays Sign David Carpenter To Minor League Deal
The Rays have signed right-handed reliever David Carpenter to a minor league deal, the club told reporters, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune tweets that Carpenter, who split last season between the Yankees and Nationals, will be in big league camp.
Carpenter, 30, was a huge part of the Braves’ bullpen in 2013 and 2014, pitching to a combined 2.63 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 37.9 percent ground-ball rate in 126 2/3 innings of work. That impressive performance was enough to pique the Yankees’ interest, prompting the club to part with left-hander Manny Banuelos to acquire Carpenter and left-hander Chasen Shreve on a New Year’s Day swap in 2015. Carpenter is no stranger to trades, having been sent from the Cardinals to the Astros in exchange for Pedro Feliz before joining the Blue Jays in the 10-player J.A. Happ/Francisco Cordero trade in July 2012. Toronto traded him to the Red Sox along with manager John Farrell in exchange for Mike Aviles a few months later, and he eventually made his way to the Braves via waiver claim, where he finally broke out as a quality reliever.
Inflammation in his right shoulder cost Carpenter a huge chunk of the 2015 season, however, limiting him to 24 2/3 innings and perhaps contributing to a lackluster 4.01 ERA when he was healthy enough to take the mound. Carpenter’s K/9 rate dipped to 5.5, though he didn’t see a marked decline in his fastball velocity (still averaging 95 mph) or his swinging-strike rate. The Rays will hope to land the 2013-14 version of Carpenter, though it’s worth noting that he’s already been released by the Braves this spring (albeit after throwing just one scoreless inning). If Carpenter is able to re-establish himself with the Rays, the club will be able to control him through at least the 2017 season, as he’s accrued only four years, 16 days of Major League service time and would thus be arbitration eligible following the season.
AL Notes: Astros, Alburquerque, ERod, Tazawa, Castro
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow addressed a variety of issues today with Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. He suggested that the club’s first base mix may not be fully resolved this spring, with the organization remaining open to making changes over the course of the season. He made clear that Houston won’t just be relying on metrics in reaching its decisions, but is paying close attention to how the various contenders look against advanced competition this spring.
- Meanwhile, Luhnow said, the Astros‘ back-of-the-rotation competition may result in some bullpen time for one of Doug Fister, Scott Feldman, or Mike Fiers. But he emphasized that he expects “all three guys are going to end up making a lot of starts for us this year.”
- The Angels are hoping that reliever Al Alburquerque will be able to bounce back after a tough 2015, and improved health is one reason for optimism, as MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. Albuquerque says that he was hobbled for all of the spring and much of the regular season last year after contracting the Chikungunya virus over the winter. His fastball velocity steadily increased over the course of the year, and Albuquerque says he feels “much better” in camp.
- The Red Sox now seem all but certain to go without young lefty Eduardo Rodriguez to open the year, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports. Though the swelling is down in his right knee, Rodriguez still hasn’t returned to the bump and manager John Farrell says there’s “still no time frame or date to get him on the mound yet.” With the club obviously exercising caution, and a full ramp-up still needed, it would appear to be surprising if he’s able to join the 25-man roster on Opening Day.
- In other Red Sox pitching news, Boston is hoping that the decision to shut down reliever Junichi Tazawa late last year will help him regain his form in 2015, as Tim Britton of the Providence Journal writes. Generally a highly reliable pen arm, Tazawa seemingly hit a wall late last year. Now, pitching coach Carl Willis says he sees improved “late action to his pitches,” cleaner mechanics, and better location. The 29-year-old’s ability to bounce back will not only be important to the club, but will also determine his market standing when he qualifies for free agency after the season.
- Reversing its prior stance, the Yankees don’t intend to prepare Starlin Castro to spend any further time at third base this spring, George A. King III of the New York Post reports. He’ll instead focus on settling in at second base and preparing to serve as the reserve shortstop, says manager Joe Girardi. As King notes, that could open up some additional opportunity for Rob Refsnyder to make the team as a utility piece.
Randy Wolf Retires
Veteran lefty Randy Wolf has decided to retire, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). Though a club recently called to inquire about his availability, the 39-year-old is uninterested in taking another shot at a return to the majors.
Wolf spent parts of 16 seasons in the majors with a total of eight different clubs. Most recently, he contributed 60 1/3 innings over the last two seasons for the Marlins and Tigers. He has also pitched at the Triple-A level for the Angels, Diamondbacks, Orioles, and Blue Jays organizations since the start of 2014, making for quite a farewell tour.
It had seemed that Wolf would break camp with the Mariners back in 2014, but he resisted the organization’s demands for an advance consent form that would have allowed Seattle to cut him loose without a full year’s pay within 45 days of the start of the season. As MLBTR’s Zach Links explored at the time, that decision highlighted a little-known but frequently-used approach for teams dealing with veterans on minor league deals.
There’s little question, though, that Wolf will be best remembered for his time with the Phillies, which accounted for about half of his total career (in seasons, innings, and starts). After breaking in at age 22 back in 1999, Wolf provided Philadelphia with 1,175 frames of 4.21 ERA pitching with 7.4 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9.
Those early-career numbers in Philly largely mirror Wolf’s overall stat line, which serves as a testament to his longevity. Wolf worked almost exclusively as a starter, with 379 of his 390 appearances coming from the rotation. Beyond his time with the clubs mentioned above, Wolf appeared in parts of three consecutive campaigns for the Brewers, worked for two seasons with the Dodgers, and appeared with the Padres, Astros, and O’s.
MLBTR congratulates Wolf on his long and productive career, and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
MLBTR Podcast: Reds Talk With C. Trent Rosencrans
C. Trent Rosencrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer joins host Jeff Todd to discuss the state of the Reds. It was a fairly quiet winter, but the club still has plenty of intrigue entering the season. Among the many topics considered are Cincinnati’s offseason trades, the status of some key players looking to bounce back from injuries or under-performance, and the team’s interesting crop of young pitchers.
MLBTR’s Steve Adams then hops on the line to discuss the ramifications of early injuries around the league. While we don’t often see many notable spring swaps, the forthcoming DL stints of players like Jhonny Peralta, Brett Anderson, and Carter Capps raise questions for their respective teams.
Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link. Download this episode directly here.
The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.
MLBTR Live Chat: 3/10/16
Click here to read a transcript of today’s chat with host Jeff Todd.
AL West Notes: Weaver, Parker, Hill, Mariners’ Bullpen
Angels right-hander Jered Weaver experienced tightness in his neck this morning and underwent an MRI that is being described as precautionary, tweets MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez. While a fair number of players have undergone such tests and checked out just fine early in spring, there’s been some added concern surrounding Weaver given the fact that his fastball didn’t top 80 mph in his second spring outing, during which he served up three homers and yielded a total of five runs on six hits and a walk without a strikeout in 2 2/3 innings. Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times was among the reporters to speak to Weaver following yesterday’s start, with Weaver telling the media, “I wake up every day hoping this is the day that it’s going to click, and it just hasn’t happened yet.” Weaver voiced confidence that he can retire hitters even with diminished velocity, but after averaging 83-84 mph on his heater last season, the former ace’s velocity figures to be an ongoing point of intrigue. Weaver is earning $20MM in the final season of a five-year, $85MM contract in 2016.
Elsewhere in the AL West…
- Jarrod Parker‘s uphill battle to return from a pair of Tommy John surgeries and a fractured epicondyle in his right elbow appears to have hit a snag, per Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee. The Athletics right-hander, facing live hitters for the first time today, left the mound “yelling in pain” after throwing a pitch, Kawahara tweets. Pitching coach Curt Young, somewhat surprisingly, told Kawahara (Twitter link) that he “thinks” Parker will be OK, though he declined to go into any detail. A bullpen role for Parker had been the club’s preference for Parker, club sources told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, but Young did term the incident a “setback,” and the A’s have announced the injury as a “lateral elbow impingement,” via John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). Parker is headed for an MRI, per Hickey. MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets that this injury is less severe than his previous maladies, as he currently has range of motion in his elbow.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports looks at the improbable (and that adjective is underselling the story) comeback of left-hander Rich Hill, who signed a one-year, $6MM contract with the Athletics this offseason on the heels of four brilliant September starts in Boston. Hill was granted his release from a minor league deal with the Nationals this past June and began working on throwing over the top for the first time after years of working more from a side-arm angle. Hill told his agent that he wanted an opportunity to start, and, finding no opportunities even with a Triple-A club, took to the independent Atlantic League to find a spot in the rotation. Hill parlayed that into a spot in the Red Sox’ Triple-A rotation and only received a call-up in September when Steven Wright suffered an injury. Four starts and a 1.55 ERA (with a 36-to-5 K/BB ratio in 29 innings) later, Hill says he received interest from 20 teams as a free agent and actually turned down an offer for more money than the $6MM he landed from the A’s.
- Mariners relievers Evan Scribner and Ryan Cook are likely ticketed for the disabled list to begin the 2016 season, reports Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Each right-hander is dealing with a strained lat muscle in his back, per GM Jerry Dipoto, who said the news was actually better than he’d been expecting.
- The outlook on Mariners lefty Danny Hultzen, however, is considerably less favorable, Dutton notes. The former No. 2 overall pick is again on the shelf due to shoulder pain, and manager Scott Servais said he “[doesn’t] see” when Hultzen could get into a game. Hultzen has been working exclusively as a reliever, but he experienced a setback recently, per Servais. One anonymous club official simply told Dutton that Hultzen’s status is “not good.” Dutton writes that the slew of injuries makes it easier for Joel Peralta to make the roster out of Spring Training, also reporting that Peralta is able to elect free agency late in camp if he is informed that he will not make the roster.