Angels Recall Jaime Barria, Designate Alex Claudio For Assignment
The Angels have designated lefty specialist Alex Claudio for assignment in order to create room for Jaime Barria, per the team. Barria will start today’s ballgame.
Barria broke out as a 21-year-old way back in 2018 by posting a 3.41 ERA across 129 1/3 innings. He hasn’t been able to replicate that output in the years since, however. He has just two appearances covering six innings this year while making 10 starts in Triple-A. He’s posted a 4.41 ERA in 49 innings with Salt Lake City.
Claudio, meanwhile, seemed like a solid, cheap addition this offseason. The sidewinding southpaw has been tagged for a 5.41 ERA/5.09 FIP in 41 appearances covering 32 2/3 innings. Signed to a $1.125MM contract, he’ll be a low-cost pickup for anyone looking to make a claim.
Lefties have uncharacteristically shelled Claudio this season with a .364 wOBA and .275/.333/.522 triple slash line. In his career, lefties have just a .258 wOBA against Claudio with a 21.2 percent strikeout rate and 4.4 percent walk rate. His strikeout rate is up against lefties, but he’s also walking more hitters than usual, regardless of their handedness.
Pitching Notes: Lamet, Claudio, Robertson, E. Cabrera, Oberg
The Padres had to go without breakout star Dinelson Lamet in the playoffs last year because of arm issues, but the right-hander told AJ Cassavell of MLB.com and other reporters that he’s healthy heading into the upcoming season. “I’m coming off that rest period, I did everything I needed to do, I feel well-prepared,” said Lamet. “I feel like I’m 100 percent myself.” That’s another excellent development in an offseason full of them for the burgeoning Padres, as Lamet was a 2020 Cy Young contender who pitched to a 2.09 ERA/3.16 SIERA in 69 innings and struck out more than 12 batters per nine. If healthy, he’ll open the season near the top of a San Diego rotation that added Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove in the offseason, and also has Chris Paddack in the fold as a holdover.
- Angels lefty reliever Alex Claudio is battling a hip infection that could delay his camp debut by at least one to two weeks, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com tweets. That’s unwelcome news for Claudio and the Angels’ bullpen, as the team’s counting on him to fill a regular role after it signed him to a $1.125MM guarantee in free agency. The 29-year-old spent last season with the Brewers and registered a 4.26 ERA/4.43 SIERA in 19 innings.
- Free-agent reliever David Robertson held his second showcase of the month on Friday, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. A dozen-plus teams were in attendance to watch Robertson, according to Feinsand, who writes that the right-hander “was said to look good.” Robertson’s fastball regularly checked in between 90-91 mph and hit 92 mph multiple times. The 35-year-old has averaged 92 mph on his fastball since his career started in 2008.
- Marlins righty prospect Edward Cabrera has an inflamed nerve in his biceps, and there’s no timetable on when he’ll be able to throw, according to Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. The Marlins will obviously be careful with the 22-year-old Cabrera, whom MLB.com ranks as the 68th overall prospect in the game. Cabrera didn’t pitch last year because of the lack of a minor league season, but he put up 38 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball at the Double-A level in 2019.
- Rockies reliever Scott Oberg hasn’t suffered any setbacks since he underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in September, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. The hope is that the procedure will help Oberg get over blood clots that have dogged him in the past. Oberg hasn’t taken a major league mound since Aug. 16, 2019, but the righty was highly effective out of the Rockies’ bullpen that season and in the prior campaign.
Angels Sign Alex Claudio
The Angels have signed left-hander Alex Claudio to a one-year deal worth $1.125MM, the club announced. Claudio hit the open market after he was non-tendered by the Brewers earlier this month.
Between this signing and the Angels’ acquisition of Raisel Iglesias, the bullpen has been an early focus for newly-hired general manager Perry Minasian. Left-handed relief was a particular need for the team, and that need that now been addressed with Claudio, who has held left-handed batters to a minuscule .202/.246/.310 slash line over 487 plate appearances during his career.
Claudio, who turns 29 next month, is a groundball specialist who doesn’t miss a lot of bats, as evidenced by his career 60.6% grounder rate and 6.27 K/9. Something of a lefty specialist over his career, Claudio adjusted reasonably well to the three-batter rule last season, as he limited righty batters to a .268/.348/.390 slash line. The increased exposure to right-handed hitters could explain why Claudio’s grounder rate dropped to only 46.6% over 19 innings last season, though that could also just be an anomaly of the 2020 season’s small sample size.
Lacking the big velocity or strikeout totals of most relievers, Claudio was non-tendered by Milwaukee in each of the last two offseasons (he was projected to earn between $2MM-$2.3MM in arbitration this winter), despite some pretty solid numbers throughout his career. Over 311 2/3 innings for the Rangers and Brewers since the start of the 2014 season, Claudio has a 3.44 ERA, and he has also been one of the sport’s most durable relievers in recent years. Claudio amassed 213 innings over 219 appearances in 2017-19, including a league-high 83 games pitched in 2019.
Brewers Non-Tender Ben Gamel, Alex Claudio, Jace Peterson
8:06pm: Reports of Knebel being non-tendered proved premature, as he’s been traded to the Dodgers, per announcements from both teams. (More on that transaction here.)
8:05pm: The Brewers have also non-tendered outfielder Ben Gamel, lefty Alex Claudio and utilityman Jace Peterson, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports.
The 28-year-old Gamel hit .237/.315/.404 while playing outfield spots in 2020, but the Brewers opted not to give him a raise on last year’s $1.4MM salary. It was a rough day for corner outfielders across the board, with several notable names hitting the market.
Claudio, 29 in January, posted serviceable results in 19 innings but saw his elite ground-ball rate trend more toward league-average levels this past season. Peterson’s non-tender isn’t particularly surprising given his status as a journeyman utility piece who has been on four teams in the past four seasons.
7:16pm: The Brewers have non-tendered right-handed reliever Corey Knebel, Robert Murray of FanSided tweets. He had been projected to earn more than $5MM in arbitration.
Now 29 years old, Knebel was one of the majors’ most dominant relievers for a short time. At his best, Knebel threw 76 innings of 1.78 ERA/2.53 FIP ball with 14.92 K/9 and 4.74 BB/9 en route to his lone All-Star nod in 2017. Knebel was again highly effective the next season, but he underwent Tommy John surgery before 2019 and wasn’t able to return to form this past season.
During his comeback with the Brewers, Knebel could only muster a 6.08 ERA/6.64 FIP with 10.13 K/9 against 5.4 BB/9 across 13 1/3 frames. Knebel also saw his average fastball drop from around 97 mph in his peak to 94.4 in 2020. That said, he should still draw a fair amount of interest as a buy-low, bounce-back candidate in free agency.
Central Notes: Reds, Miley, Cubs, Twins, Clippard
Wade Miley stood helplessly by as his Astros’ tenure crumbled behind a disastrous September. A rocky final month boiled over into his lone ALDS appearance, forcing Miley off the roster for the ALCS and World Series. The team supposed Miley was relying too much on his cutter and steering his changeup to the point of altering the arm action that makes the pitch effective. After the year was out, however, a former teammate reached out to alert Miley that glove position was tipping his pitches, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. That’s cold comfort for Astros’ fans, but those in Cincinnati can officially raise their expectations for the two-year, $15MM free agent signing. If the Miley that shows up to Great American Ballpark more closely resembles the guy who put up a 3.06 ERA through 156 innings prior to September (and if the offense rebounds), the Reds might finally live up to the dependable, high-quality performance the chamber of commerce had in mind when adopting the the nickname of the Blue Chip City.
- As much credit as Theo Epstein deserves for finally turning the Cubs into a winner, the blame falls at his feet as well for the current state of affairs. Something has clearly gone awry when the Cubs are so short of cash that they can’t even outbid the Brewers for low-cost free agents like lefty Alex Claudio, who signed for $1.75MM. The problem isn’t that the Cubs are cheap (they had the third-highest payroll last season), but Epstein hasn’t made the best use of their funds, per The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma. With one of the highest budgets in baseball, Epstein ought to have enough resources to maintain a winner in Chicago – instead he’s bargain hunting for the second consecutive offseason.
- The Twins finally made good on a decade-long courtship of reliever Tyler Clippard when they signed him to a one-year, $2.75MM deal, per The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman. He’s long been successful in this league, thanks largely to a north-south approach that’s come into fashion in recent seasons: a high-spin rising fastball set up by a splitter and changeup that move the opposite direction. The arsenal induces soft, airborne contact, especially against lefties. Besides being a reverse splits guy, he is also the rare pitcher who can be relied upon to consistently produce below-average batting average on balls in play. His career .239 BABIP is second-lowest all-time, Gleeman notes, and he’s only once let that number rise above .300, the average mark league-wide.
Brewers Re-Sign Alex Claudio
The Brewers announced today that they have re-signed lefty Alex Claudio to a one-year deal. The MDR Sports Management client was non-tendered by Milwaukee last week but will return on a lesser deal than the projected $2.2MM he’d been projected to earn. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that he’ll earn $1.75MM on the new arrangement. Claudio will remain arbitration-eligible next winter as well.
Claudio, 28 next month, was acquired from the Rangers last winter in a trade that sent a Competitive Balance draft selection from Milwaukee to Texas. He was used largely as a specialist, as evidenced by totaling 62 innings despite appearing in a league-leading 83 games. Claudio notched a 4.06 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a strong 57.9 percent ground-ball rate last season, holding opposing left-handed hitters to a .218/.301/.378 line through 137 plate appearances.
Claudio has consistently overwhelmed opposing lefties in his career, limiting them to a miserable .201/.245/.306 slash, but right-handers have typically had little trouble figuring him out. That was the case again in 2019 (.274/.357/.469), and it’ll be perhaps even more problematic for him next year when the league is expected to adopt a new rule that requires a pitcher to either face a minimum of three batters or finish an inning. Milwaukee was able to allow Claudio to face more left-handed batters than right-handed batters this past year (137 to 130), but that’s unlikely to be the case in 2020.
Brewers Non-Tender Travis Shaw, Jimmy Nelson, 3 Others
The Brewers have non-tendered a host of prominent players, per a club announcement. Third baseman Travis Shaw, righties Junior Guerra and Jimmy Nelson, southpaw Alex Claudio, and infielder Tyler Saladino are all being dropped from the roster.
That’s quite a lot to take in for the Milwaukee faithful. The organization has already seen several major players depart via free agency and will now bid adieu to a host of notable veterans.
There’s some major cost savings to be tabulated here. Shaw ($4.7MM), Guerra ($3.5MM), Nelson ($3.7MM), Claudio ($2.2MM), and Saladino ($1.0MM) were projected by MLBTR to earn a combined $15.1MM.
It’s also a pretty substantial outflow of talent. The club has relied heavily upon several of these players in recent campaigns. And some appeared to be solid values even at the estimated arb price tags.
The Brewers tried to hang onto Shaw, but weren’t able to work out a deal in advance of the deadline. Miserable as his 2019 season was, he was a well-above-average hitter and thirty homer contributor in each of the prior two campaigns.
Guerra and Nelson each provided the Brewers with a lot of good innings over the years. The former had quite a bit of success at times as a starter and was a solid relief contributor last year, though the club obviously felt it could do better for its money. Nelson probably would be the staff ace were it not for major arm injuries.
The Brewers rode Claudio hard last year, putting the groundball-heavy hurler in over half of the team’s games. Pending rule changes requiring every reliever to face three batters may have reduced his appeal, as Claudio was hit hard by righties in 2019. As for Saladino, the team hung on to him for some time but never really found him a niche. He’s coming off of a strong offensive year at Triple-A.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: National League
The deadline for players and teams to exchange arbitration figures passed yesterday at 1pm ET, and there has been a landslide of settlements on one-year deals to avoid an arbitration hearing. We’ll track those settlements from the National League in this post. Once all of the day’s settlements have filtered in, I’ll organize them by division to make them a bit easier to parse.
It’s worth mentioning that the vast majority of teams have adopted a “file and trial” approach to arbitration, meaning that once arbitration figures are exchanged with a player, negotiations on a one-year deal will cease. The two parties may still discuss a multi-year deal after that point, but the majority of players who exchange figures with their team today will head to an arbitration hearing.
As always, all salary projections referenced within this post are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, and we’ll also be updating our 2019 Arbitration Tracker throughout the day…
Today’s Updates
- Rounding out contract numbers for the St. Louis Cardinals, Dominic Leone will take home $1.26MM, Chasen Shreve will make $900K, and outfielder Marcell Ozuna will earn $12.25MM in his last season before free agency, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). Ozuna has the most high-impact potential as he looks to rebound from a still-productive season in 2018 that saw his power output hindered at times by a balky shoulder. He still managed 23 home runs and a .280/.325/.433 slash line while playing just about every day outside of a 10-day DL stint late in August.
- The Diamondbacks came to terms with a slew of players, per Feinsand (via Twitter), including Matt Andriese for $920K, Steven Souza Jr. for $4.125MM, shortstop Nick Ahmed for $3.6625MM, and potential closer Archie Bradley for $1.83MM.
- The Rockies and starting pitcher Jon Gray have come to an agreement on a $2.935MM deal, per Feinsand (via Twitter). Gray had an up-and-down 2018 that is generally considered to be more promising than the optics of his 5.12 ERA make it seem.
- The Pirates have come to terms on one-year deals with both of their arbitration eligible players, per Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Left fielder Corey Dickerson signs for $8.5MM, and reliever Keone Kela takes home $3.175MM. It’s a small arb class for the Pirates, whose list will grow next season as players like Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon, and Joe Musgrove, among others, reach their first season of eligibility.
- The Dodgers signed a couple of their remaining arbitration-eligible players yesterday, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter links). Utility man Chris Taylor has a $3.5MM deal, while outfield Joc Pederson settled at $5MM.
Earlier Updates
Pitcher Notes: Fiers, Sanchez, Brewers, Claudio
Free agent starter Mike Fiers is being courted by multiple clubs, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). Among those with interest are the Reds, Giants, Rangers and Nationals, none of whom should surprise given their collective desire for more pitching. Fiers, 33, had his best year as a pro in 2018, working to a 12-8 record with a 3.56 ERA across 30 starts for Detroit and Oakland. His peripherals don’t scream drastic transformation, though he did lower his walk rate to a career-low 1.94 BB/9. He also threw more sliders, a pitch he has steadily worked into his repertoire since 2015, which could signal sustainability for Fiers’ 2018 success. Park factors for Comerica Park and the Oakland Coliseum definitely worked in his favor, so it’s fair to wonder how his stuff will fare in the bandboxes of Cincinnati, Texas, and Washington, especially considering increased use of his slider corresponded with a similar decrease in sinker usage, leading to elevated launch angles and more flyballs (43.2 FB%). Fiers has been homer prone in the past, though it’s a delicate balancing act for the righty, as he has generally been more effective when keeping the ball in the air – a strategy that obviously holds more water in Oakland than it would in, say, Cincinnati.
- The opposite can be said of Anibal Sanchez, coming off a surprising comeback with the Atlanta Braves driven in part by a return to the wormburning ways of his early career. His groundball rate (45 GB%) returned to career levels after dipping below 40% for a two-year stretch that just so happened to produce career-high ERAs. Atlanta has interest in bringing the righty back for 2019, per Morosi (via Twitter), but they’re not the only club with interest. Given their similar price points, Sanchez and Fiers likely share suitors, though the Reds and Nationals have shown the most interest in Sanchez thus far. A year and a half older than Fiers, Sanchez will be 35 by Opening Day.
- It’s a little surprising not to see the Milwaukee Brewers listed as pursuers for the starters above, but a slow burn winter isn’t uncommon for the Brew Crew. They have made one notable move, sending a Competitive Balance draft pick to Texas for funky left-hander Alex Claudio. Interestingly, Claudio’s sidelong delivery may be more than an incidental quirk for the Brewers, per Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs. The Brewers now boast a relatively substantial stable of minor leaguers who rely on deception and unique throwing motions, enough of a sample to presume an organizational focus, or at least curiosity. Given the stirring ascendancy of Josh Hader, himself a non-traditional thrower, it’s interesting to see the Brewers potentially exploring a system-wide extrapolation of Hader’s success. From a player valuation standpoint, the one-for-one swap with Texas is noteworthy because of what it means about Milwaukee’s evaluation of college hurlers. The pick being sent to Texas likely lands somewhere in the 40s, where advanced college relievers are often available. Meanwhile, Claudio’s price is rising as a first-time arbitration player. One view supposes the cost-conscious Brewers must view the prospects available in that spot as less-than. The other view, of course, is that this deal is not a wholesale denunciation of the draft class, rather Milwaukee just likes Claudio and views his major league experience as present-day value for a team with legitimate pennant aspirations in 2019.
Brewers Acquire Alex Claudio
The Brewers have officially struck a deal with the Rangers to acquire lefty Alex Claudio, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter links). Texas will receive Milwaukee’s competitive balance pick in the deal, which will deliver the club a draft choice in the range of the 40th overall selection (with the final order yet to be fixed).
Claudio, 26, has made the most of his arsenal with impeccable command and an uncanny ability to generate groundballs and limit dingers. Over his five seasons of MLB action, the southpaw has averaged 6.2 K/9 against just 1.9 BB/9 with a hefty 62.5% groundball rate.
While he never seemed likely to hang onto the closer’s role he briefly occupied in 2017, Claudio has mostly been an effective relief arm. His lifetime 3.20 ERA, though, reflects a string of productive seasons that was followed by a 4.48 mark in 2018.
The Brewers will hope that most recent set of results was unduly influenced by a .366 batting average on balls in play. Claudio did allow more hard contact than usual (36.0%), but Statcast also felt he was unfortunate to carry a .352 wOBA, with the system crediting him with a .315 xwOBA. Though he doesn’t get many strikeouts, Claudio managed an 11.4% swinging-strike rate in 2018.
Though the Milwaukee relief corps already features one of the game’s most exciting lefties in Josh Hader, he’s utilized as a high-leverage asset. Claudio will presumably serve in more of a specialist role. He has held opposing lefties to a .191/.220/.278 slash over his career.
The Brewers will take over Claudio’s anticipated arbitration salary, which MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz project at an affordable $1.3MM. He’ll remain controllable for two more campaigns in the future as well.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.