Minor MLB Transactions: 2/29/16
Outfielder Andrew Brown, who had been in big league camp with the Angels as a non-roster invitee, has now elected to retire from baseball rather than embark on a 10th professional season, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez tweets. According to Gonzalez, the 31-year-old Brown decided he would rather spend time with his children than continue to pursue a playing career. Brown last appeared in the Majors as a member of the 2014 Mets. In parts of four big league seasons, the former 18th-rounder batted .220/.281/.390 with 14 homers in 362 plate appearances. Brown went overseas and enjoyed great success in Korea last year, where he batted .261/.360/.496 with 28 homers in his lone KBO experience. Best wishes to Andrew in whatever steps he takes following his playing career.
Here are the day’s minor transactions from around the league…
- The D-backs have signed former Pirates/Nationals/Twins closer Matt Capps to a minor league contract, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. Earlier this month, FOX’s Jon Morosi reported that Capps was eyeing a big league comeback after having been absent from the Majors since 2012. After being non-tendered by the Pirates and signed to a one-year deal by the Nationals prior to the 2010 season, Capps was traded to the Twins in one of the more lopsided swaps in recent memory, with Wilson Ramos heading to the Nats in exchange. Capps did go on to pitch well in his first half-season with Minnesota before struggling in 2011 and 2012. The 32-year-old has a lifetime 3.52 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 1.7 BB/9 and a 39.5 percent ground-ball rate in 439 2/3 innings as a big league reliever.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2-2-16
Here are the day’s minor signings and outright assignments from around the league…
- Right-hander Yoervis Medina has been outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the Pirates‘ transactions page on their web site. Medina delivered strong results for the 2013-14 Mariners, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 4.9 BB/9 and a 53.5 percent ground-ball rate before taking a significant step backwards in 2015. This past season, he logged a 4.71 ERA with an unsightly 16-to-11 K/BB ratio in 21 innings for the Mariners and Cubs. Notably, his fastball velocity, which had averaged 94.8 mph in 2014, sat a full two miles per hour lower at 92.8 in 2015, and his ground-ball rate dipped to 36.8 percent.
- The Angels announced that they’ve signed outfielder Andrew Brown and right-hander Yunesky Maya to minor league contracts. Both players most recently appeared in the Korea Baseball Organization — Brown with the SK Wyverns and Maya with the Doosan Bears. Brown, 31, batted .261/.360/.496 with 28 homers in 539 plate appearances in a strong season with Doosan. He’d previously spent parts of the 2010-14 seasons in the Majors, batting a combined .220/.281/.390 between the Cardinals, Rockies and Mets. Maya, formerly a fairly high-profile international signee with the Nationals, struggled tremendously in the KBO, yielding 62 runs in 68 1/3 innings. He last appeared in the Majors in 2013, though he threw just a third of an inning that season. Prior to that, the Cuban righty posted a 5.52 ERA in 58 2/3 innings from 2010-11. Both players were invited to Major League Spring Training.
- Sticking with players coming back over from the KBO, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports that the Yankees have signed right-hander Tyler Cloyd and third baseman Deibinson Romero, who spent the past season with the Samsung Lions and Doosan Bears, respectively. Cloyd, a former Phillies farmhand, logged 159 2/3 innings with the Lions but also posted a 5.19 ERA in the KBO’s extremely hitter-friendly environment. Prior to his KBO stint, Cloyd spent the 2014 season with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate and posted a 3.90 ERA with 6.4 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 166 1/3 innings. The 29-year-old Romero is a former Twins farmhand that batted .253/.328/.449 with a dozen homers in 305 trips to the plate.
- The Tigers have signed Cuban shortstop Leonardo Laffita to a minor league deal with a $250K bonus, according to Eddy. The 24-year-old Laffita spent a bit of time in the Mexican League last season, where he batted .280/.345/.360 in 57 plate appearances. Within Eddy’s piece, BA’s Ben Badler weighs in on Laffita, noting that he’ll have to move to center field or second base. Laffita stood out for his speed, hand-eye coordination and bat speed, per Badler, but he’s a free swinger with questionable plate discipline.
- Veteran catcher Miguel Olivo has a minor league deal with the Giants, per Eddy. A lifetime .240/.275/.417 hitters in 3993 plate appearances at the Major League level, Olivo hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2014, although the 37-year-old did bat .281/.347/.470 across 378 plate appearances in Mexico over the past year.
Three Former Major Leaguers Sign In KBO
Former Major Leaguers Michael Bowden and Hector Gomez have signed with teams in the Korea Baseball Organization, according to a report from Yonhap News’ Jee-ho Yoo. Additionally, Naver Sports’ Ji-hyun Kim reports that former Braves right-hander Sugar Ray Marimon has signed with the KT Wiz of the KBO.
Bowden, 29 hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2013 with the Cubs. He has a lifetime 4.51 ERA in 133 2/3 innings in the Major Leagues but enjoyed a very strong season split between the Triple-A affiliates for the Twins and Orioles, logging a combined 2.63 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in 123 innings of work. The Twins had interest in retaining the former Top 100 prospect, tweets 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson, but instead he’ll head to the Doosan Bears for a guaranteed $650K, per an announcement from the Bears. Bowden is a client of Turner Gary Sports.
Gomez, 27, will also receive a one-year, $650K deal to play in the KBO, joining the SK Wyverns, per another team announcement. Gomez picked up 134 plate appearances for the Brewers this season but batted .181/.212/.323 in that time with a homer and 11 doubles. Gomez played second base, third base, shortstop and left field with Milwaukee this season and is a career .298/.341/.512 hitter at the Triple-A level.
The 27-year-old Marimon made his Major League debut with the Braves this season, pitching to a 7.36 ERA in 25 1/3 innings. The Colombian right-hander has experienced far greater success in Triple-A, where he owns a 3.44 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 164 2/3 innings. Per the Naver report above, he’ll receive $600K guaranteed with the Wiz, who were an expansion team in 2015. Marimon is represented by Chris Fanta of Pro Talent Sports Group.
KBO clubs can roster three foreign players, one of whom must be a position player, per league rules. The Wiz were granted four foreign players for the 2015 and 2016 seasons due to their status as an expansion club. Yoo notes that the Wyverns retained American left-hander Chris Seddon ($500K) and right-hander Merrill Kelly ($750K) to round out their international allotment but did not re-sign outfielder Andrew Brown despite a nice first season in 2015. Seddon struggled to a 4.99 ERA in 74 innings with the Wyverns this season but has previously excelled there, logging a 2.98 mark in 187 1/3 innings in 2013. Kelly posted a 4.13 ERA in 181 innings for the Wyverns in 2015 — the first KBO season for the former Rays farmhand. Brown hit .261/.360/.496 with 28 homers in 539 plate appearances with the Wyverns — numbers that are slightly down from his lifetime production at Triple-A.
2014-15 American League Non-Tenders
Major League clubs have until 11pm CT tonight to tender contracts to players for the 2015 season. We’ll run down the list of American League non-tenders here, and update it as reports come in. 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. Click here for an explanation of the process, and be sure to check out this piece featuring some interesting observations from Tim regarding non-tender considerations.
- Slade Heathcott, Jose Campos, and David Huff have all been non-tendered by the Yankees, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports on Twitter.
- The Twins have tendered contracts to all arb-eligible players, per MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger (Twitter link).
- Third baseman Carlos Rivero is the only non-tender for the Mariners, the club announced. Rivero was not yet arbitration eligible.
- The Astros have tendered contracts to all arb-eligible players, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports on Twitter.
- The Royals have non-tendered lefty Francisley Bueno, Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star reports on Twitter. He was not yet eligible for arbitration.
- As expected, the Tigers have offered arbitration to all eligible players, Anthony Fench of the Detroit Free Press tweets.
- The Athletics have declined to offer arbitration to Kyle Blanks and Andrew Brown, the team announced. Both had previously been designated for assignment. Oakland will retain control over the remainder of its eligible players, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- As with several other clubs, the Rays will proceed without any non-tenders, the club announced (per a tweet from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).
- Likewise, the Orioles have tendered contracts to each of their eleven arb-eligible players, the team announced.
- The Indians have tendered contracts to all five eligible players, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). Cleveland had a fairly straightforward group. Indeed, Dierkes did not list any players as reasonable NT candidates.
- Scott Snodgress and Scott Carroll have been non-tendered by the White Sox, Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com tweets. Both players were pre-arbitration eligible, meaning that Chicago could have renewed them at the MLB minimum.
- The Red Sox have non-tendered third baseman Juan Francisco but will otherwise tender contracts to all eligible players, the club announced (h/t to Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com, via Twitter). Francisco had already been designated for assignment, making this one of the day’s least surprising moves.
A’s Acquire Ike Davis, Designate Andrew Brown
The A’s have acquired first baseman Ike Davis from the Pirates for international bonus slot money, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The A’s and Pirates have both tweeted confirmation of the trade, which also includes a swap of international bonus slots: the Pirates receiving the A’s first slot ($501.9K) in exchange for their third slot ($232K). The Pirates will net $269.9K in the swap of bonus slots (figures courtesy of Baseball America’s Ben Badler). To create room on the 40-man roster, the A’s have designated outfielder Andrew Brown for assignment.
Slusser tweets acquiring Davis, who was designated for assignment by the Pirates on Thursday, is a depth move and not an indication the A’s are preparing to deal any of their first basemen. The trade comes less than a week after Oakland signed Billy Butler to a three-year, $30MM free agent contract. The 40-man roster logjam at DH/first base now include the aforementioned Davis and Butler plus Brandon Moss, John Jaso, Stephen Vogt, Kyle Blanks, and Nate Freiman. With this surplus, Slusser notes the A’s now have the flexibility to make a deal if they are overwhelmed by an offer.
Davis struggled to start 2014 with just five hits, including one home run, in 30 plate appearances before being dealt by the Mets to the Pirates in April. The 27-year-old fared slightly better in Pittsburgh slashing .235/.343/.378 with ten home runs in 397 plate appearances. Davis is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.4MM in his second time through arbitration.
The A’s claimed Brown off waivers from the Mets on Halloween. The 30-year-old produced a .182/.245/.341 slash with the Mets in 49 plate appearances. Brown has spent parts of four MLB seasons with the Mets, Rockies and Cardinals compiling a batting line of .220/.281/.390 in 362 trips to the plate.
Athletics Claim Andrew Brown From Mets
The A’s announced that they’ve claimed outfielder Andrew Brown off waivers from the Mets. Additionally, minor league shortstop Tyler Ladendorf has been added to the club’s 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft in December.
Brown, 30, received 49 plate appearances for the Mets this season and batted .182/.245/.341 with a pair of homers. He’s seen action in parts of four big league seasons between the Mets, Rockies and Cardinals, compiling a batting line of .220/.281/.390. As indicated by that .170 ISO (slugging minus average), Brown does possess some pop that likely appealed to the A’s. His Triple-A numbers are indicative of that power as well, as he owns a lifetime .298/.380/.555 slash at that level.
Ladendorf was acquired from the Twins in 2009 in exchange for shortstop Orlando Cabrera. The Howard College product, Minnesota’s second-round pick in 2008, had never hit at the Triple-A level before this, his age-26 season. However, he slashed a strong .297/.376/.407 in 318 plate appearances with Triple-A this season, and Oakland has a clear need for middle infield options following the trade of Addison Russell and the free agency of Jed Lowrie.
Mets Sign Andrew Brown
The Mets announced that they signed outfielder Andrew Brown to a minor league contract that includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training (Twitter link).
Brown made his MLB with the 2011 Cardinals before the Rockies claimed him off of waivers from St. Louis. The 28-year-old spent part of the 2012 season with the Rockies, appearing in 46 games as a corner outfielder. Brown, a right-handed hitter, posted a .232/.302/.429 batting line with five home runs in 126 plate appearances with the Rockies this past season. He also appeared in 100 games at Triple-A, posting a .308/.364/.597 batting line with 24 home runs and 33 doubles. However, Colorado granted him free agency in November.
Today’s Outrights: LaPorta, Lillibridge, Rockies
Teams have until tonight at 10:59 PM CST to set their 40-man rosters before the Rule 5 draft, hence explaining the flurry of transactions around the majors today. Here are the players who have been outrighted off their teams' 40-man rosters, with the most recent at the top of the page (all roster moves were announced by the teams unless otherwise stated)….
- The Indians outrighted Matt LaPorta and Brent Lillibridge to Triple-A Columbus. According to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian (via Twitter), Lillibridge has the option to refuse the assignment and become a free agent.
- The Rockies have outrighted Andrew Brown and Matt McBride to Triple-A Colorado Springs.
- The Astros have outrighted infielder Scott Moore to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Moore has the option of accepting the assignment or electing free agency.
- Cubs right-hander Carlos Gutierrez has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa.
Rockies Claim Andrew Brown
The Rockies announced that they claimed Andrew Brown off of waivers from the Cardinals (Twitter link). St. Louis had designated the versatile 27-year-old for assignment over the weekend to create roster space for Lance Lynn.
Brown appeared in 11 games for the Cardinals this June, but spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he made the Pacific Coast League All-Star team. In 428 plate appearances with the Cardinals' top affiliate, Brown posted a .284/.382/.501 line with 20 homers. He played all four corner positions for the second consecutive season.
Cardinals Designate Andrew Brown For Assignment
The Cardinals have designated Andrew Brown for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Lance Lynn, according to Matthew Leach of MLB.com. Lynn, a right-handed pitcher, was tabbed by the Cards in the first-round of the 2008 draft.
Brown posted a slash line of .182/.182/.227 in 22 plate appearances for the Cards this season but he hit .284/.382/.501 with 20 homers in 428 plate appearances for Triple-A Memphis. The 27-year-old spent most of this season at Memphis playing in the corner outfield spots but has plenty of first base experience under his belt as well.