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Minor MLB Transactions: 1/26/18

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Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the league…

  • Chris Cotillo of SB Nation has the news of yet another minors deal, this time a pact between the Twins and Andy Wilkins. The lefty-hitting first baseman has 72 plate appearances and one homer to his name at the big league level (with the White Sox and Brewers), though his career .124/.194/.224 slash line perhaps paints a better picture of his MLB performance thus far. And yet, taking into consideration the 29-year-old’s .254/.358/.474 performance with the Twin’s Double-A affiliate last year, there might still be cause for optimism surrounding his potential to provide value for Minnesota.

Earlier…

  • The Cubs have elected to bring left-hander Michael Roth to the organization on a minor-league deal, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports (Twitter link). Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports tweets that Roth will be paid a $560K salary if he’s able to crack their big-league roster. The former ninth-round pick is entering his age-28 season; he’s made 22 total MLB appearances out of the bullpen for the Rangers and Angels, along with a single start for the latter. He owns a career ERA of 8.50, though run-prevention estimators such as xFIP (4.46) and SIERA (4.04) suggest his actual skill set isn’t quite in line with those disastrous results. Roth has also spent time at the Triple-A affiliates of the Rays, Giants and Indians.
  • The Indians announced that they’ve signed right-hander Preston Claiborne to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training. The 30-year-old Claiborne tossed two innings for the Rangers in 2017 and has a total of 73 1/3 innings of Major League work under his belt — all but last year’s two innings coming with the Yankees in 2013-14. The former 17th-round pick has a career 4.05 ERA with 7.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 42.7 percent ground-ball rate. Claiborne owns a lifetime 3.09 ERA in 102 Triple-A innings, including a stellar 1.89 mark in 38 innings ith the Rangers’ affiliate last season.
  • The Rays have agreed to minor league deals with catcher Johnny Monell and righty Forrest Snow, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Monell, 32 in March, has 61 MLB plate appearances on his resume, most of which came with the 2015 Mets when he hit .167/.231/.208. He’s a career .278/.350/.460 hitter in part of five Triple-A seasons. Snow, 29, has never appeared in the Majors and carries a lackluster 4.84 ERA in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. However, he’s posted sub-4.00 overall ERAs in each of the past two seasons and thrived in the Venezuelan Winter League last offseason. Snow has significantly bolstered his strikeout rate and lowered his walk rate as well over the past two seasons. Both Monell and Snow will be in Major League camp with the Rays this spring.
  • Tampa Bay also picked up right-hander Ryan Weber on a minor league pact, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The 27-year-old has big league time with the Braves and Mariners. Weber logged a scintillating 0.85 ERA, 1.1 BB/9 and 72.5 percent ground-ball rate in 31 2/3 innings with Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate last year, though his 5.4 K/9 mark wasn’t nearly as impressive. Weber appeared in just six games (five starts) all season in 2017 thanks to a biceps strain that kept him on the disabled list for most of the year.

Brewers Outright Garin Cecchini, Jake Elmore, Andy Wilkins, Sean Nolin

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The Brewers have outrighted four players, per a club announcement, leaving the team’s 40-man roster with three openings. Milwaukee has dropped infielders Garin Cecchini and Jake Elmore, infielder/outfielder Andy Wilkins, and lefty Sean Nolin from the major league slate.

None of the moves are particularly surprising. Milwaukee is preparing for another winter in which the club figures not only to protect some of its own Rule 5 draft-eligible players, but also to seek undervalued assets that don’t stick with other organizations. The club lost outfielder Rymer Liriano via waivers earlier today as well.

Of course, some of the players now leaving the 40-man were brought in with hopes they’d thrive in a new environment. That is most apparent, perhaps, in the case of Cecchini, who was once a fairly highly regarded Red Sox prospect. He never earned a major league shot in Milwaukee after hitting .271/.325/.380 over 469 plate appearances at Triple-A, with 13 stolen bases and five home runs.

The 29-year-old Elmore is no stranger to this process. He has appeared in the majors in each of the last five years, every time with a different team. All said, he has produced a miserly .215/.297/.280 batting line in 478 trips to the plate, but continues to be seen around the league as a useful depth piece given his defensive versatility.

Wilkins, 28, has also bounced around a fair bit of late. He’s still looking for his first real shot at major league playing time, but hasn’t impressed at the Triple-A level since a strong 2014 campaign with the White Sox’ top affiliate. In 2016, he posted a .235/.321/.419 batting line with a dozen home runs in 374 plate appearances in the highest level of the minors.

As for Nolin, health problems have derailed his career. He had been acquired by the A’s as part of the deal that sent Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays, but Oakland gave up on him after one year and he was claimed by Milwaukee. The 26-year-old never ended up pitching competitively for the Brewers; after trying to stave off Tommy John surgery, he wound up going under the knife late in the summer. Nolin will likely miss most or all of the ensuing campaign.

NL Central Links: Brooks, Soler, Williams, Morse, Wilkins

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Newly-acquired Cubs righty Aaron Brooks is looking forward to playing for his new team, though as he told reporters (including MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat), he’s already run into some online confusion.  The Aaron Brooks who has played guard for the Bulls for the last two NBA seasons has dibs as the most famous Chicago athlete with that name.  “I’ve talked to [the basketball player] on Twitter before because everybody thinks I’m him,” the Cubs’ Brooks said. “People keep tagging me….All they have to do is look at the profile picture and they’ll know it’s not me.”  Here’s more from the NL Central:

  • The Padres, Rays and Indians all offered various pitching and outfield prospects to the Cubs in Jorge Soler trade packages, but Chicago decided to stick with the highly-touted outfielder, CBS Chicago’s Bruce Levine reports.  While Tampa and Cleveland were linked to Soler multiple times this winter, this is the first time the Padres have been mentioned in connection with Soler.  San Diego’s outfield currently features Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton and Jon Jay slated for most of the playing time with Travis Jankowski, Jabari Blash and Alex Dickerson in the mix for bench and platoon jobs.  Had Soler been acquired (depending on when the Padres/Cubs talks took place), it’s fair to assume that the Padres wouldn’t have acquired Jay from St. Louis and Soler would’ve been playing every day in either left or right field.  This is just my speculation, but since the Cubs were known to be targeting young pitching for Soler, I would guess Chicago floated the names of Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner in return.
  • From that same Levine item, Soler said he isn’t concerned about how the Cubs’ acquisitions of Dexter Fowler and Shane Victorino will impact his playing time.  “I will get my opportunity and chance. I will do my job and try to help the team,” Soler said through a translator.
  • In a recent talk with MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon and other media about the Reds’ trades of pricey veterans over the last year, Cincinnati GM Dick Williams stressed that “we’re not saving to create a profit, we’re saving to invest in the future, for sure.  We’ve got the biggest amateur signing pool this year, when you combine domestic and international….I talked about investing in the analytics and sports science. We’ll be investing in personnel, scouting personnel, new player development initiatives. I’ll be talking a lot about that over the course of this year as we roll things out, but we’ll put that money [to] work for sure.”
  • Mike Morse took some grounders at third base, though it’s safe to say he’s not expecting to do the same for the Pirates during the season.  “We’re not trying to get me to play over there — unless the game goes 28 innings and no one’s left,” Morse told reporters (including Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), noting that he routinely spends a bit of time around the infield every year in camp.  Morse has played nine games at third at the MLB level, though none since 2009.
  • If you’re wondering why it’s been over two months without a new Andy Wilkins transaction here on MLB Trade Rumors, it’s because he has seemingly settled down (finally) with the Brewers.  Wilkins discussed his wild 2015 with reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy) and how he coped with six different transactions that made him a member of seven different organizations — the White Sox, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Orioles, Mariners, Rangers and Brewers — within roughly nine months’ time.  Speaking of nine-month spans, these moves came while Wilkins and his wife were expecting their first child, who was born in December just two days before Milwaukee claimed the first baseman on waivers.

Brewers Claim Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Josmil Pinto, Andy Wilkins

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2:46pm: Milwaukee has made the claim of Niewhenhuis official and also announced two other additions off the wire: backstop Josmil Pinto, from the Padres, and first baseman Andy Wilkins, from the Rangers.

Pinto has shown some real upside at the plate at times, but has gone through rougher times more recently. And he’s always been raw defensively. But he certainly makes sense as a depth piece with some upside in Milwaukee.

With yet another claim, Wilkins is making a strong bid for most-moved player of the winter: Milwaukee becomes his sixth organization in 2015. A lifetime .274/.324/.490 hitter at the Triple-A level, he could compete to fill the role of the traded Adam Lind.

1:17pm: The Brewers have claimed outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis off waivers from the Mets, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reports on Twitter.

Nieuwenhuis has never really gained traction in his four years in the majors. New York briefly lost him to the Angels last year, then re-claimed him and outrighted him, only to call him back up for some time later in the season. After adding fellow left-handed-hitting outfielder Alejandro De Aza, it seemed unlikely there would be a place for Nieuwenhuis in New York in 2016.

For Milwaukee, meanwhile, the 28-year-old represents a possible part of the team’s outfield mix. Nieuwenhuis has played center field and shown some pop at times, and it’s arguable he has a bit of upside left given his relatively young age.

Rangers Claim Andy Wilkins From Mariners

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The Rangers announced today that they’ve claimed first baseman Andy Wilkins off waivers from the Mariners. Wilkins was designated for assignment last week when the club acquired Adam Lind from the Brewers.

Wilkins, 27, has bounced around the league quite a bit since making his big league debut with the White Sox in 2014. The former fifth-rounder hit just .140/.178/.186 in a minuscule sample of 45 plate appearances with the South Siders in ’14. This season, he was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays, who would eventually trade him to the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations. The Dodgers lost Wilkins to the Orioles on waivers in early September, who then lost him to Seattle in November. With this claim by the Rangers, he’s now with his fifth organization in the past calendar year.

Wilkins hits left-handed, so he doesn’t fit the Rangers’ oft-stated desire to add a right-handed bat. He does create some depth at first base, however, with his lifetime .274/.324/.490 batting line at Triple-A serving as an appealing track record for Texas (and, clearly, other clubs around the league). The Rangers’ 40-man roster now has 38 players, per a club press release.

Mariners Designate Andy Wilkins

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The Mariners have designated first baseman Andy Wilkins for assignment, Greg Johns of MLB.com reports on Twitter. His roster spot will go to just-acquired first baseman Adam Lind.

Wilkins was recently claimed off waivers, but the left-handed hitter was not needed after the acquisition of Lind. He’s produced big numbers at Triple-A but has yet to receive any substantial playing time in the majors.

Mariners Claim Andy Wilkins, Lose John Hicks To Twins, DFA Edgar Olmos

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The Mariners have announced an interrelated series of transactions on the fringes of the 40-man roster. Seattle claimed first baseman Andy Wilkins off waivers from the Orioles, designating lefty Edgar Olmos to create space. And the team lost catcher John Hicks, who was previously designated, when he was claimed by the Twins.

In Wilkins, the M’s are getting a left-handed bat who could factor into the team’s first base mix. He’s been passed around the league rather frequently of late, and has yet to receive a full audition in the majors (though he did have a brief stint in 2014 with the White Sox). Wilkins owns a sturdy .272/.324/.490 career slash at the Triple-A level.

Olmos, 25, has seen minimal time at the major league level, putting up some rough K:BB rates in a minimal sample. Last year at Triple-A, he tossed 33 innings of 3.55 ERA ball with 9.3 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9.

Seattle moved on from Hicks when it signed Chris Iannetta. The 26-year-old has had a cup of coffee in the majors but has spent most of the past two seasons at Triple-A. He has posted a .253/.295/.366 slash and hit eight home runs in 432 plate appearances there.

Orioles Acquire L.J. Hoes, Designate Andy Wilkins For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have re-acquired outfielder L.J. Hoes in a trade with the Astros and designated first baseman Andy Wilkins for assignment in order to clear room on the 40-man roster.

Hoes, who will turn 26 years of age in March, was initially acquired by the Astros alongside lefty Josh Hader in the 2013 trade that send right-hander Bud Norris to Baltimore. He picked up 333 plate appearances with Houston over the parts of three seasons he spent in the organization, batting a collective .240/.292/.332 with four homers and seven stolen bases.

A right-handed batter, Hoes has had good success at the upper levels of the minor leagues, including a .299/.388/.399 batting line in parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level. He typically has more success against left-handed pitching and will give Baltimore some much-needed outfield depth. The Orioles cycled through an alarming number of corner outfield options in 2015 as Adam Jones held down the fort in center field, so he’ll present GM Dan Duquette and skipper Buck Showalter with a possible platoon option in the event that a left-handed-hitting corner outfielder is acquired.

As for Wilkins, the 27-year-old has bounced around the league quite a bit since making his big league debut with the White Sox in 2014. The former fifth-rounder hit just .140/.178/.186 in a minuscule sample of 45 plate appearances with the South Siders in ’14. This season, he was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays, who would eventually trade him to the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations. The Dodgers lost Wilkins to the Orioles on waivers in early September, and he’ll again be in search of a new club now that he’s been designated by Baltimore. Wilkins launched 30 homers in Triple-A in 2014 and has a career .272/.324/.490 line at that level.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports first reported that Hoes was traded back to Baltimore (Twitter link). Roch Kubtako of MASNsports.com tweeted that the Astros would receive cash considerations.

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