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Aaron Crow

Cubs Sign Aaron Crow, Release Luis Cruz

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The Cubs have signed reliever Aaron Crow to a minor league pact, the club told reporters including Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter links). Chicago also has released lefty Luis Cruz after he failed his physical.

Crow, a 29-year-old righty, spent last year with the Marlins organization after being acquired from the Royals. He was only available to Miami because he scuffled in 2014, with his strikeout and groundball rates plummeting along with his velocity. And as things turned out, Crow he never threw a competitive pitch for the team. He ultimately required Tommy John surgery, leading to a non-tender earlier this offseason.

Before that, though, Crow had done some quality work in the back of the Kansas City pen. Over 2011-13, he ran up 174 2/3 innings of 3.19 ERA pitching while carrying 9.0 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 and inducing grounders on more than half of the balls put in play against him. If he can make it back to anything like that level of production, he’d obviously make for quite a bargain for the Cubs.

The 25-year-old Cruz had been a member of the Astros organization for his entire career to date. But he lost his 40-man spot after throwing 116 innings of 4.27 ERA ball at Triple-A last year, with 7.2 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9. Chicago had picked him up on a minor league deal, but has now nullified that contract owing to the medicals.

2015-16 National League Non-Tenders

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Major League clubs have until 11pm CT tonight to tender contracts to players for the 2016 season. Remember that you can track all of the action using MLBTR’s Non-Tender tracker, and we offer a full list of non-tender candidates (in the estimation of MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes). Also important for reference is the set of arbitration salary projections from MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz.

We’ll run down the list of National League non-tenders here, and update it as reports come in.

  • Pre-arb outfielder Eury Perez was non-tendered last night by the Braves, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports on Twitter. The 25-year-old could, in theory, have served as Michael Bourn’s backup in center, but it appears that Atlanta will look for an alternative.
  • The Rockies won’t tender contracts to left-handers Yohan Flande or Jason Gurka for the 2016 season, per a club announcement. The team also announced that outfielder Rosell Herrera will be non-tendered. Flande, 29, is the most experienced arm of the bunch, having soaked up 127 1/3 innings for Colorado over the past two seasons, albeit with a 4.95 ERA.
  • The Dodgers announced that they’ve non-tendered righties Juan Nicasio and Lisalverto Bonilla. Nicasio is a mild surprise considering the fact that he logged a 3.86 ERA with a robust 10.0 K/9 rate and a 2.83 FIP in 2015. However, he also averaged 4.9 walks per nine innings and had what was almost certainly unsustainable luck in terms of home runs, yielding just one big fly in 58 1/3 innings. The hard-throwing righty should garner some interest on the free-agent market.
  • The Marlins announced that they’ve non-tendered Aaron Crow, who missed the 2015 season due to Tommy John surgery. The team also formally announced its previously reported decision to non-tender Henderson Alvarez (more on that controversial decision here).
  • The Nationals will not tender right-hander Craig Stammen a contract for the 2016 season, per a club announcement. He missed nearly the entire season due to a pair of torn tendons in his right forearm that required surgery.

Earlier Updates

  • The Cubs announced that right-hander Ryan Cook has been non-tendered. An offseason waiver claim, Cook never suited up for Chicago. The former All-Star setup man yielded an astounding 18 earned runs in just 8 2/3 innings this season between Oakland and Boston.
  • The Giants have also non-tendered backup catcher Hector Sanchez, per a club announcement, which additionally confirmed Petit’s non-tender.
  • The Giants will non-tender right-hander Yusmeiro Petit, MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports (Twitter link). The right-hander has recorded a solid 3.66 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 across 245 2/3 innings for the Giants over the past four seasons while spending time in both the rotation and the bullpen. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweeted that Petit was offered to at least one other club in a trade, but clearly nothing materialized, as he’ll now hit the open market in search of new club.
  • The Brewers announced that they’ve non-tendered utilityman Elian Herrera. The 30-year-old was not yet arbitration eligible, but Milwaukee clearly preferred to keep the rosters spot open. Herrera hit .242/.290/.395 last season in a career-high 277 PAs, and GM David Stearns has interest in retaining him on a new minor league deal, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
  • The Reds will not tender contracts to righty Ryan Mattheus, outfielder Ryan LaMarre, or righty Pedro Villarreal, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on Twitter and the club has since announced. Of those players, only Mattheus was eligible for arbitration. The 32-year-old, who threw 55 innings and posted a 4.09 ERA last year, projected for a $1.3MM salary. LaMarre, 27, just cracked the MLB roster last year but spent most of the year at Triple-A. Villareal, also 27, notched a solid 3.42 ERA in his fifty frames in 2015, but his strikeout rates fell and ERA estimators did not smile upon the quality of his contribution.

Marlins Likely To Tender Alvarez; Not Crow

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At this point, the Marlins are leaning towards tendering an offer to pitcher Henderson Alvarez, Barry Jackson of Miami Herald reports. However, Jackson writes that it is “less likely” that Miami extends an offer to reliever Aaron Crow.

Alvarez, Jackson writes, could be due to earn about $4MM in arbitration. The club’s decision, unsurprisingly, will come down to his medicals before the December tender deadline. For his part, Alvarez believes he’ll be ready to pitch by February 2016.  The 25-year-old underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a tear in his right shoulder in late July, ending his season prematurely.  He was Miami’s Opening Day starter, but wound up finishing the 2015 season with just 22 1/3 innings, four starts, and a dismal 6.45 ERA under his belt.

Originally acquired from the Blue Jays in the Jose Reyes/Mark Buehrle/Josh Johnson blockbuster in the 2012-13 offseason, Alvarez looked to be an increasingly important member of the Marlins’ rotation in 2013-14, as he tossed 102 2/3 innings of 3.59 ERA ball in 2013 and showed improved results (2.65 ERA) with an increased workload (187 2/3 innings) in 2014. The young righty’s season-ending no-hitter served as one of the bright spots to the 2013 campaign for the Marlins.

On April 7th of this year, Crow learned that he would have to undergo Tommy John surgery.  The Marlins sent left-hander Brian Flynn and minor league righty Reid Redman to the Royals to acquire Crow over the winter, but the former first-round pick didn’t get to throw a pitch in his new environment in 2015. Crow delivered generally strong ERA and strikeout marks for the Royals from 2011-13, working exclusively out of the bullpen, but he struggled in 2014; Crow’s ERA spiked to a career-worst 4.12, and he posted the worst K/9 (5.2) and ground-ball (43.2%) marks of his career.  Miami acquired Crow in the hope that it was buying low on a previously successful reliever with two years of team control remaining.   However, it sounds like his time in Miami might be coming to a close.

Aaron Crow To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Marlins right-hander Aaron Crow is slated to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery tomorrow, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro (on Twitter).

The unfortunate reality has been the expected outcome for Crow for about a week’s time now. Losing Crow for the year and losing Preston Claiborne for at least one month has thinned out Miami’s bullpen bullpen depth, and those injuries are likely a driving factor behind the team’s reported interest in adding a bullpen upgrade.

The Marlins sent left-hander Brian Flynn and Minor League righty Reid Redman to the Royals to acquire Crow this winter, but the former first-round pick won’t throw a pitch in his new environment this season. Crow delivered generally strong ERA and strikeout marks for the Royals from 2011-13, working exclusively out of the bullpen, but he struggled in 2014; Crow’s ERA spiked to a career-worst 4.12, and he posted the worst K/9 (5.2) and ground-ball (43.2%) marks of his career.

Miami acquired Crow in the hope that it was buying low on a previously successful reliever with two years of team control remaining at a not-unreasonable price. Crow is earning $1.975MM this year after avoiding arbitration for the second time. Speculatively speaking, the injury presents the possibility that Crow will be non-tendered next winter. Miami’s payroll is among the league’s lowest, so the preference may be to cut Crow loose and try to re-sign him to a cheaper deal. However, that also poses the team with the risk of losing Crow and receiving nothing from the trade that brought him to Miami in the first place.

The Royals selected Crow with the 12th overall pick in the 2009 draft, and while he didn’t develop as they’d hoped in the rotation, he’s spent four full seasons in a Major League bullpen. In 233 2/3 Major League innings, Crow has a 3.43 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, a 49.2 percent ground-ball rate and an average fastball of 94 mph.

Aaron Crow Likely Facing Tommy John Surgery

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Marlins right-handed reliever Aaron Crow will likely need Tommy John surgery after an MRI revealed a ligament tear, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com reports on Twitter. Miami added Crow in late November in a trade that cost the team lefty Brian Flynn.

Losing Crow would be a significant blow to the club’s bullpen, which had hoped to enjoy a return to form from the 28-year-old. After a three-year run in which he carried a 3.19 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9, with heavy groundball tendencies, Crow fell back last year to a 4.12 earned run mark while striking out just 5.2 and walking 3.7 batters per nine. He had put up more typical numbers this spring, however.

While Miami does have several options to step in for Crow, it is possible to imagine the team looking for an outside replacement. Whether that would mean picking up a veteran roster castaway or striking a deal, of course, remains to be seen.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: Friday

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With the deadline to exchange arbitration figures set for noon CT, there figure to be a large number of agreements to avoid arb today, as there were yesterday. All arbitration agreements can be followed using MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker, and we’ll keep track of today’s smaller agreements in this post, with all projections coming courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz…

  • Righty Henderson Alvarez agreed to a $4MM deal with the Marlins, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported earlier today on Twitter. Alvarez had been projected to earn $4.5MM after putting up a huge 187-inning, 2.65 ERA campaign entering his first season of arb eligibility.
  • The Athletics have agreed to a $1.4MM deal with righty Ryan Cook that includes, MLB.com’s Jane Lee reports on Twitter. Cook gets a slight increase over the $1.3MM he had been projected to earn. Oakland has also inked outfielder Sam Fuld to a $1.75MM deal, per Mike Perchik of WAPT (via Twitter). He too lands just above his projection, which was for $1.6MM.
  • Outfielder Collin Cowgill avoided arbitration with the Angels for $995K, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez tweets. He was projected to earn $900K.
  • Righties David Carpenter and Nathan Eovaldi both have deals with the Yankees, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports on Twitter. Carpenter will earn about $1.3MM while Eovaldi will take home $3.3MM
  • The Rockies have a deal in place with lefty Rex Brothers, tweets MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. Brothers was projected to earn $1.3MM but will take home $1.4MM, Harding adds via Twitter.
  • ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers reports that the Cubs have settled with both Travis Wood and Luis Valbuena (Twitter links). Wood will receive $5.686MM — a bit north of his $5.5MM projection, while Valbuena will earn $4.2MM, per Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald (on Twitter). Valbuena was projected to earn $3.1MM.
  • Mike Perchick of WAPT in New Jersey has a wave of arbitration agreements, starting with the Astros and Hank Conger settling on a $1.075MM, which is just $25K behind Swartz’s projection (Twitter link).
  • Also via Perchick, the Athletics and Brett Lawrie settled on a $1.925MM contract (Twitter links). Lawrie, who had been projected at $1.8MM, was acquired by Oakland in the Josh Donaldson blockbuster.
  • Rockies backstop Michael McKenry will earn $1.0876MM in 2015, via Perchick. McKenry was projected by Swartz to earn $1.5MM.
  • Michael Pineda and the Yankees settled on a $2.1MM salary for the upcoming season, Perchick tweets, which is a direct match with Swartz’s projection.
  • Domonic Brown and the Phillies settled on a one-year pact worth $2.6MM, via Perchick, which represents a difference of just $100K between Swartz’s projection and the actual figure. Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com tweets that Ben Revere has avoided arbitration as well, and the club now announces that he’ll earn $4.1MM — $100K north of his $4MM projection.
  • Red Sox setup man Junichi Tazawa agreed to a $2.25MM payday, according to Perchick. Swartz had pegged him for a $2MM contract.

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NL East Notes: Nationals Bullpen, Fister, Crow, Marlins

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Here’s the latest out of the National League East:

  • The Nationals are interested in adding a veteran right-handed arm to the pen, writes James Wagner of the Washington Post, who adds that the team is presently focused on other matters and has not fully engaged the free agent market. Wagner lists many of the better free agent arms as at least theoretical possibilities, and says that Washington has at least “shown some interest” already in both Casey Janssen and Jason Motte.
  • Doug Fister and the Nationals have not re-engaged on extension talks since they first took place last spring, reports Wagner. Fister has been mentioned as a hypothetical trade candidate as well, though presumably the club would only seriously consider dealing one of he and Jordan Zimmermann.
  • Just-added Marlins hurler Aaron Crow has worked from the bullpen for the last four seasons but could get a chance to return to a starting role in Miami, reports Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel. “It’s still early in the offseason and we’re not sure how the rest of the offseason will unfold in terms of what else we add to our pitching staff, but we love the flexibility,” said president of baseball operations Michael Hill. “We love the thought he could possibly be a starting option for us, but at a minimum we know he’ll be a valuable bullpen piece and just add to the overall depth of our staff.”
  • The Marlins’ front office is focused on achieving “sustainable success,” writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. Miami hopes to step its payroll up over the next few years, more or less in line with the raises in Giancarlo Stanton’s contract, by adding targeted pieces to supplement its young core.

Marlins Acquire Aaron Crow

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The Marlins have acquired right-hander Aaron Crow from the Royals in exchange for left-hander Brian Flynn and minor league righty Reid Redman, the teams announced.

Aaron Crow

Crow, 28, has considerably more big league experience than the 24-year-old Flynn. Crow has spent the past four seasons as a setup man for manager Ned Yost, pitching with great effectiveness from 2011-13. In his first three years with the Royals, Crow posted a 3.19 ERA, 9.0 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate north of 50 percent.

However, the typically hard-throwing former No. 12 overall pick struggled this year as his velocity dropped. Crow posted a career-worst 4.12 ERA with a career-low 5.2 K/9 rate against 3.7 BB/9 in 59 innings this past season. His ground-ball rate dipped to a career-low 43.2 percent as well. On the plus side, he didn’t miss any time due to injuries, so if the Marlins saw something in Crow’s delivery that they feel can be fixed, they could have a nice bullpen piece on their hands at a relatively modest price. Crow is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $2MM in 2015, though his struggles did make him a non-tender candidate. It’s possible that with today’s signing of Jason Frasor, the Royals felt they had found a cheaper solution to their middle relief needs. With exactly four years of service time under his belt, Crow can be controlled by the Marlins for an additional two seasons.

The Marlins originally acquired Flynn from the Tigers along with Jacob Turner and Rob Brantly in the trade that sent Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez to Detroit. Since being acquired by Miami, Flynn has seen a couple of brief Major League stints, allowing 24 runs in 25 innings with a 21-to-16 K/BB ratio. Those numbers aren’t the most impressive, obviously, but he has a considerably better minor league track record and has been a mainstay on Marlins top prospect lists. Heading into the season, Baseball America ranked him sixth among Fish farmhands, while MLB.com ranked him 10th on their midseason Top 20 list.

Flynn has a lifetime 3.44 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 277 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. In their scouting report, BA praised a fastball that sat 89 to 93 mph and touched 95 out of the 6’7″ lefty’s hand. Flynn features a four-pitch mix with his best offspeed offering being a slider, per BA, and he also features an average changeup and a show-me curveball that he mixes in less often. Flynn will provide the Royals with another Major League ready rotation option, but he could also fill a need in the bullpen, as the Royals are without a solid lefty relief option.

Redman, who recently turned 26, reached Double-A for the first time this season. Drafted by Tampa in 2012 as a third baseman, Redman has successfully converted to the mound since that time. In 90 professional innings, he has a 2.00 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the swap of Crow and Flynn, and the Marlins then announced that Redman was in the deal (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

AL Central Notes: Masterson, Ubaldo, Crow, Collins, Twins

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The Indians are kicking the tires on a familiar name, as Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports they’ve reached out to Justin Masterson about a potential return. The Indians are likely interested in Masterson only on a one-year deal, which, as Hoynes notes, may be the preferred option for Masterson anyway. Masterson pitched through a number of injuries last season, and if he’s healthy in 2015, he could be a prime rebound candidate and position himself for a much nicer deal on the open market in 2015-16.

More from Hoynes and more from the AL Central…

  • Hoynes also refutes previous reports that the Indians would have some interest in buying low on Ubaldo Jimenez. Though Jimenez had one of his best seasons in Cleveland under pitching coach Mickey Callaway, the organization isn’t interested in trying to fix the inconsistent righty.
  • Both Aaron Crow and Tim Collins are non-tender candidates for the Royals, but Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star reports (via Twitter) that the team is still considering tendering each a contract due to a lack of MLB-ready replacement options.
  • In his latest Twins Inbox, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reports that the Twins began their search for a pitching coach with at least 30 names and seem likely to go outside the organization to fill the role. He also discusses potential free agent targets for the Twins, noting that the team is expected to pursue second-tier starting pitcher options such as Brandon McCarthy and Jason Hammel or bounceback candidates such as Masterson and Brett Anderson. Bollinger also expects the Twins to sign a corner outfielder, though he notes Torii Hunter’s desire to play for a contender basically rules out a return to Minnesota.

Royals Avoid Arbitration With Aaron Crow

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The Royals have avoided arbitration with righty Aaron Crow, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Crow will earn $1.475MM and can tack on an additional $50K if he makes the All-Star team.

Crow has had three sturdy years for the Royals before reaching arbitration eligibility, combining for a 3.19 ERA over 174 2/3 innings with 9.0 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9. Crow's 2014 salary lands just under the $1.49MM midpoint between the two sides' filing figures. It falls a good bit shy of the $1.9MM projection from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. 

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