Week In Review: 6/8/14 – 6/14/14
Here’s a look back at this week at MLBTR.
Key News
- The Twins signed DH/1B Kendrys Morales to a prorated one-year contract.
Trades
- White Sox — acquired OF Matt Tuiasosopo from Blue Jays for cash considerations
- Blue Jays — acquired OF Adron Chambers from Astros for P Alejandro Solarte and INF Will Dupont
- White Sox — acquired P Shawn Hill from Blue Jays
- Tigers — acquired C Manny Pina from Mariners for a player to be named
- Yankees — acquired P David Huff from Giants
Claimed
- Rays — P Angel Sanchez (from Marlins — link)
- Diamondbacks — C Jordan Pacheco (from Rockies — link)
Designated For Assignment
- Diamondbacks — 1B/OF Nick Evans (link)
- Yankees — P Wade LeBlanc (link)
Cleared Waivers
- Twins — OF Jason Kubel (link)
Outrighted
- Rockies — P Wilton Lopez (link)
- Padres — P Jason Lane (link)
- Yankees — P Alfredo Aceves (link)
- Rays — P Josh Lueke (link)
- Athletics — OF Kent Matthes (link)
- Phillies — P Cesar Jimenez (link)
- Mets — P Buddy Carlyle (link)
- Angels — P Jarrett Grube, P Michael Brady, P Brooks Raley (link)
Released
- Cubs — P Jose Veras (link)
Key Draft Signings
- Cubs — C Kyle Schwarber (link)
- Twins — SS Nick Gordon (link)
- Phillies — P Aaron Nola (link)
- Rockies — P Kyle Freeland (link)
- Padres — IF Trea Turner, OF Michael Gettys (link)
- Brewers — SS Jacob Gatewood (link), OF Monte Harrison (link)
- Yankees — P Austin DeCarr (link)
- Pirates — SS Cole Tucker (link), P Mitch Keller (link), P Trey Supak (link)
- Rockies — P Ryan Castellani (link)
- Angels — P Joe Gatto (link)
- Rays — 1B Casey Gillaspie (link), P Cameron Varga (link)
- Athletics — 3B Matt Chapman (link)
- Rangers — P Luis Ortiz (link)
- Tigers — OF Derek Hill (link)
- Marlins — C Blake Anderson (link)
- Mariners — OF Gareth Morgan (link)
- Astros — 1B A.J. Reed (link)
- Red Sox — P Michael Kopech (link)
- Blue Jays — P Sean Reid-Foley (link)
- Royals — P Foster Griffin (link), C Chase Vallot (link)
- Indians — P Grant Hockin (link)
- Cardinals — P Jack Flaherty, P Luke Weaver (link)
- Diamondbacks — OF Marcus Wilson (link), P Cody Reed (link)
- Rangers — SS Ti’Quan Forbes (link)
- White Sox — P Spencer Adams (link)
Key Minor-League Signings
- Yankees — P Heath Bell (link)
- Cubs — C Yorvit Torrealba (link)
- Red Sox — OF Andres Torres (link)
Quick Hits: Rodon, Iglesias, Yankees, Tigers
Five clubs now have new top prospects heading out of the amateur draft, writes ESPN.com’s Keith Law (Insider link). He lists the White Sox (Carlos Rodon), Angels (Sean Newcomb), Mariners (Alex Jackson), Tigers (Derek Hill), and Mets (Michael Conforto) as teams with a new man on top of their respective totem poles. Of course, none of these players have been reported to have signed with their new clubs.
Here’s more on Rodon as well as some other notes from around the game:
- The White Sox appear to have saved $385.6K with their round two-through-ten amateur draft signings, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. That would free the club to commit up to $6,107,100 to Rodon, the third overall selection of the draft, without incurring any penalties.
- Cuban prospect Raisel Iglesias, a right-handed pitcher, has been granted an extended signing window, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. By operation of several rules, Iglesias would have been required to sign by June 15 to avoid being subject to the next year’s July 2 bonus pools. Instead, he and three other, lesser-regarded Cubans (Jozzen Cuesta, Eduardo Rives, and Orestes Solano) will now be permitted until July 1 of this year to sign without being subject to changes in the international signing system. Last we heard, Iglesias (whose first name has been spelled in various ways in different reports) was set to put on a showcase in Haiti, where he has established residency. He is said to be capable of potentially joining a major league bullpen as soon as this year.
- In other international news, the Yankees have agreed to substantial bonuses with several top July 2 players, reports Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Dermis Garcia ($3.6MM bonus), Nelson Gomez ($2.8MM), and Christopher Torres ($2.6MM) are all said to be headed to the Yankees. Kiley McDaniel of Scout.com previously reported that the trio, among others, was set to sign with New York, though the indication at the time was that Garcia would land $3MM while Torres would get just $1MM.
- The Tigers could end up regretting their move to lock up Justin Verlander two years before his original extension was set to expire, Ben Lindbergh writes for FOX Sports. Though Verlander bounced back from struggles last year, Lindbergh explains that a variety of indicators suggest that the 31-year-old may no longer be the elite arm that he once was.
- In an interesting discussion of pitching risk regarding another key Tigers hurler, Max Scherzer, Dave Cameron of Fangraphs writes that the ace is showing the possible value of utilizing private insurance rather than opting for the two extremes of signing an extension or bearing the risk of reaching (and landing a big contract in) free agency. Cameron concludes that policies like Scherzer’s “are almost certainly cheaper [for the player] than taking the kinds of long-term deals that MLB teams have been offering of late.” You’ll want to give the fascinating piece a full read.
AL East Notes: Gausman, Yankees, Uehara, Drew, Lackey
Orioles righty Kevin Gausman has made a strong showing in his most recent MLB stint, and that could set him up for a more permanent big league assignment, reports Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun. The 23-year-old came into the year rated as the 20th prospect in the game by Baseball America. Having entered the season with 71 days of service to his credit, Gausman would line himself up for potential Super Two status down the line if he can stay up for most or all of the rest of the season.
- The latest injury news out of the Yankees‘ rotation is not promising, reports Jorge Castillo of the Star-Ledger. Manager Joe Girardi said today that C.C. Sabathia is not expected to return until after the All-Star break, while Michael Pineda will probably be out until August at the earliest. Those updates certainly seem to increase the already-strong odds that New York will be in the market for starting pitching help at the trade deadline.
- Red Sox closer Koji Uehara addressed his future recently, as Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports. He said that his approaching free agency has not changed anything about how he goes to work, and indicated that he is taking things year to year at this point. “If I could change how I perform based on my free agent year, I would,” said Uehara. “But I can’t, so I’m just going to pitch how I can pitch. It doesn’t really affect me because I’m an older player. Every year I consider my last year.” As Bradford notes, it is reasonable to wonder whether Boston will consider making Uehara a qualifying offer after the season. As with last season, there are several high-performing late-inning relievers set to hit the open market, including Uehara, the Yankees’ David Robertson, Sergio Romo of the Giants, and the Jays’ Casey Janssen. Though he is throwing in his age-39 season, the righty has been nothing short of outstanding since coming to Boston on a one-year, $4.25MM deal that included an option that vested for 2014.
- Boston CEO Larry Lucchino addressed several topics in an interview with WEEI.com’s Dennis & Callahan (story via WEEI.com’s Nick Canelas). Signing Stephen Drew made sense in part based on “the idea of paying money rather than paying prospects,” he said. While Drew is off to a rough start and is currently sidelined with an oblique injury, Lucchino says that the evaluation of the deal will still depend on how the rest of the year plays out.
- Lucchino also touched on the situation of starter John Lackey. The club owns a league-minimum option over the starter for 2015 by operation of a vesting clause in his free agent contract. The Boston CEO said that the expectation is that Lackey will be back next year, but that it may not be at the relatively meager sum of $500K. “It depends on the circumstances,” he said. “John Lackey has been a tremendous contributor to this team this year and last. And we love having him here, and we’d like to have him here for a longer period of time. We’ll see when the time comes to negotiate whether there should be a playing out of the contract, whether there should be renegotiation with an extension. We’re open to a variety of possibilities.”
Draft Signings: Cederoth, Gonzalez, Abbott
Here are today’s notable mid- to late-round draft signings from around the league, with all slot info coming courtesy of Baseball America…
- The Twins have reached agreement with third-rounder Michael Cederoth on an at-slot, $703.9K bonus, reports John Manuel of Baseball America (via Twitter). Though he profiles as a bullpen arm, Cederoth landed at 45th on BA’s list of the top 500 prospects and 59th on the rankings of MLB.com. Minnesota will surely hope to install him in its major league pen sooner rather than later.
- Orioles third-round pick Brian Gonzalez, whose signing was announced yesterday, will get a $700K bonus, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. That is $105.8K higher than the allocation for the 90th overall choice.
- The Angels have gone above slot to sign their x-round choice, Alex Abbott, tweets Manuel. He gets a $375K bonus, a decent bump over the 179th slot’s $244.7K assigned value.
Earlier Updates
- The Twins and fourth-rounder Sam Clay have agreed to a $400K bonus that will save Minnesota about $76K, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (on Twitter). Clay, a Georgia Tech left-hander, has run his fastball up to 95 mph at times and shows a hard slider when at his best, Callis adds.
- Callis reports (Twitter links) that the Mets have signed third-rounder Eudor Garcia for $305K — a savings of nearly $150K considering his slot value of $453,600. BA ranked the JuCo third baseman 160th on its Top 500. Overall, Callis notes, the team saved $517K on rounds 3-10, which allowed them to sign 13th-rounder Erik Manoah for $300K.
- Callis also tweets that the Rockies and third-rounder Sam Howard have agreed to the full slot value of $672,100. The left-hander out of Georgia Southern has a three-pitch mix and was ranked 122nd by BA and 158th by MLB.com
- Fourth-round pick Jeff Brigham has agreed to terms with the Dodgers, reports Callis (via Twitter). The Washington right-hander, whose sinking fastball has touched 96 mph, receives the full slot value of $396,300. BA ranked him 198th on their Top 500.
- The Cardinals have agreed to sign fourth-rounder Austin Gomber for the full slot value of $374,100, reports BA’s John Manuel (on Twitter). Gomber, a lefty out of Florida Atlantic University, ranked 82nd on BA’s Top 500 list and 100th on MLB.com’s Top 200 prior to the draft.
- Also note that Baseball America’s comprehensive Draft Database allows you to track the progress of your team’s signings and includes info on lower picks and smaller bonuses that aren’t noted here at MLBTR (players listed in bold font on the BA database have signed, and filters to search by round/team or exclude unsigned players are available on the right-hand sidebar).
Yankees To Sign Third-Rounder Austin DeCarr
The Yankees have agreed to go significantly over slot to sign third-round pick Austin DeCarr, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter link). DeCarr will take home a $1MM bonus, well above the $585.1K slot value for the 91st overall pick.
DeCarr is a prep righty from Connecticut who had been committed to Clemson. He did not make the top-100 list of ESPN.com’s Keith Law, but was rated at 68th by Baseball America and 70th by MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo. BA says that DeCarr works in the low-to-mid-90s and has a nice curve, but lacks another above-average secondary offering at the moment.
DeCarr was the only non-collegian chosen in the first ten rounds by New York. The Yankees entered the draft with just $3.2MM in available bonus pool money, the least of any club other than the Orioles.
Pirates To Sign Supplemental 2nd Rounder Trey Supak
The Pirates have agreed to sign supplemental second round choice Trey Supak for a $1MM bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). Tim Williams of PiratesProspects.com reported yesterday that the sides had agreed to terms. The compensation round B pick with which Supak was taken (73rd overall) comes with a $772K allotment.
The Texas high-school righty drew a wide range of opinion. ESPN.com’s Keith Law rated Supak as the 30th-best prospect available through the draft, citing the quality of his delivery, while Baseball America had him down at 99th. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis landed in the middle, ranking him the 62nd-best prospect. They say that he has good offerings but is most attractive for his projectability.
Pittsburgh has now signed both of its second-round choices after agreeing with Mitch Keller yesterday. Together, the pair has gone for $341.2K over slot. While Pittsburgh did save about $125.5K on first-rounder Cole Tucker, it looks like the club will have to come up with additional savings elsewhere to avoid paying a penalty.
Padres Sign First Three Picks
FRIDAY, 5:40pm: The Padres have announced the signings of Turner, Gettys, and Lemond.
4:50pm: Turner tweets that he has officially signed with the Padres.
He will receive a $2.9MM bonus that lands about $177K above the allocation for the 13th overall pick, tweets John Manuel of Baseball America. That is an unusual result for a collegiate player, Manuel notes.
1:40pm: Callis now reports that Lemond has agreed to a $600K bonus that will save the Padres about $31K (Twitter link). Turner is the only of their top three picks to remain unsigned at this point.
WEDNESDAY, 9:07pm: The Padres have reached an agreement with Gettys for $1.3MM, reports MLB.com’s Jim Callis (on Twitter). That’s about $217K over slot, and since Turner and Lemond don’t figure to come in on under-slot deals, it will likely have to be made up further down the draft board.
8:16pm: The Padres are nearing deals with each of their top three picks — NC State shortstop Trea Turner, high school outfielder Michael Gettys and Rice right-hander Zech Lemond — a source tells Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). The assigned pick values for the Nos. 13, 51 and 86 picks are $2.723MM, $1.083MM and $632K, respectively.
Baseball America ranked Turner ninth among draft prospects, while MLB.com ranked him 14th and ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him 18th. Turner is said by some scouts to possess 80 speed on the 20-80 scouting scale, and most feel that he has the instincts, range and a strong enough arm to handle shortstop. There are questions about his bat, as he could be a strong leadoff hitter if things break right or a bottom-of-the-order type if he doesn’t improve certain elements of his offensive approach.
Gettys (37th per MLB.com, 40th per BA and 45th per Law) is regarded as a true center field prospect with 70-grade speed and raw power but questions surrounding his hit tool. Lemond (36th per Law, 58th per MLB.com and 78th per BA) battled elbow inflammation this season and has spent time as both a closer and a starter in his college career. As Law writes, he could be a mid-rotation starter with improved consistency of his curve and changeup, but if not he should be able to carve out a career as a high-leverage reliever.
The Padres entered the 2014 draft with $6,098,600 to spend on their picks, per BA, and giving slot deals to each of their top three picks would use up about 73 percent of that budget.
Yankees To Sign Heath Bell
The Yankees have agreed to sign reliever Heath Bell to a minor league deal, reports Chad Jennings of LoHud.com (via Twitter). (Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News tweeted that a deal appeared to have been reached, since Bell was added to the roster of Triple-A Scranton.)
That makes Bell’s third AL East team on the season. He started the year with the Rays after coming over in trade from the Diamondbacks, and was signed to a minor league deal with the Orioles upon being released by Tampa Bay. But Bell opted out of his contract with the O’s.
The 36-year-old righty has had a rocky go of it in recent years, though advanced metrics suggested that bad luck had explained some of his poor results. But things went from bad to worse in 2014, as Bell owns a hard-to-sugarcoat 7.27 ERA through 17 1/3 innings with the Rays and a 4.22 mark in 10 2/3 frames with Triple-A Norfolk (the Orioles’ top affiliate).
Minor Moves: Clark, Hoffman, Sanchez, Fox, Yankees
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- Orioles right-hander Zach Clark has been released, tweets Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com. Clark, a knuckleballer by trade, tweeted a thank you to the organization today. The 30-year-old made a brief cameo with Baltimore last season — his only Major League experience to date. The University of Maryland alum has spent eight years in Baltimore’s system after signing as an undrafted free agent. He owns a career 4.21 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 869 1/3 innings in the minors.
- Twins Triple-A lefty Matt Hoffman has opted out of his deal with the club, the team announced via press release (hat tip: Phil Miller of the Star Tribune, who tweeted the news of the release, and the Pioneer Press’ Brandon Warne, who noted the Triple-A press release indicated it was an opt-out). The 25-year-old Hoffman pitched well at Triple-A, posting a 3.80 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 21 1/3 innings of work.
- Infielder Angel Sanchez has inked a minor league deal with the Dodgers and will report to Double-A Chattanooga, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (Twitter link). Sanchez, 30, has a career .254/.303/.307 batting line between the Astros, Royals, Red Sox and White Sox. He has experience at shortstop, second base and third base.
- The Phillies have acquired catcher/outfielder/corner infielder Jake Fox from the Mexican League, according to the team’s transactions page. The 31-year-old Fox had been destroying pitching in Mexico, slashing .307/.397/.605 with 16 home runs in 247 plate appearances. Fox hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2011 with Baltimore, but he’s a career .237/.288/.425 hitter with 20 homers in 534 PAs.
- The Yankees inked three undrafted college players following the 2014 draft, Baseball America’s Josh Norris tweeted earlier in the week: Liberty University right-hander Matt Marsh, USC catcher Jake Hernandez and Wright State right-hander Travis Hissong. The YES Network’s Lou DiPietro has more on each of the three players.
Jason Kubel Clears Waivers, To Refuse Outright Assignment
2:16pm: Kubel will refuse the outright assignment, according to an update from Zach (Twitter link). Minnesota is likely to release him, leaving the club on the hook for the rest of his $2MM salary.
Kubel also earned $300K in roster bonuses under the minor league deal he signed over the offseason.
FRIDAY, 1:23pm: MLBTR’s Zach Links reports that Kubel has cleared waivers (Twitter link). Reports earlier in the week indicated that Kubel would not accept an assignment to Triple-A Rochester in the event that he cleared waivers, so it seems likely that he will instead elect free agency.
SUNDAY: The Twins have designated Jason Kubel for assignment, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). The move will help create room on the 40-man roster for the newly-acquired Kendrys Morales.
Kubel, 32, signed a minor league deal with Minnesota in December and made the big league club out of Spring Training. Unfortunately, Kubel hasn’t been able to regain the form he displayed for much of his original stint with the Twins. In 176 plate appearances this season, Kubel has slashed .224/.313/.295 with one homer.
For his career, Kubel owns a .262/.330/.448 slash line across ten seasons for the Twins, D’Backs, and Indians. Kubel is represented by Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group, as shown in the MLBTR Agency Database.