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Minor MLB Transactions: 11/17/17

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Here are Friday’s minor moves throughout the league…

  • Joining the Reds on minors deals are outfielders Mason Williams and Rosell Herrera, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to report on Twitter. Once seen as one of the game’s better overall prospects, the 26-year-old Williams has seen scant action in the majors over the past three seasons — all with the Yankees, his only professional team to this point. At the highest level of the minors last year, Williams posted a .263/.309/.318 batting line and swiped 19 bags over 437 plate appearances.Herrera, 25, has himself received top prospect billing in the past and is also something of a change-of-scenery candidate (in his case, from the Rockies). He just wrapped up his first season at Triple-A, slashing .278/.351/.394 with twenty steals over 363 plate appearances.
  • The Mets have struck a minors pact with southpaw Matt Purke, the team announced. Purke, 27, was considered a significant amateur prospect but has never fully found his niche at the game’s highest levels while dealing with numerous injury issues. He cracked the majors in 2016 with the White Sox, but did not return last year even as the Chicago organization cycled through a number of arms. Purke arguably turned in his best work in the upper minors, though, working 65 2/3 frames of 3.84 ERA ball over 48 innings while compiling 11.0 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9.
  • Right-hander Angel Nesbitt has been hit with a 50-game PED suspension, Emily Waldon of The Athletic tweets. Nesbitt received a 24-game run in the majors in 2015 with the Tigers, but hadn’t made his way back and struggled in limited action in 2017. He is a minor-league free agent, meaning he’ll serve his penance upon signing with a new organization.

Earlier Updates

  • The Blue Jays announced last night that they’ve brought back former first-round pick Deck McGuire on a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Toronto selected McGuire, now 28 years of age, with the 10th overall pick back in 2010. The former Georgia Tech star tore through Class-A Advanced with the Jays but began to struggle upon reaching Double-A and was ultimately traded to the A’s for cash considerations in 2014. McGuire has since pitched in the upper levels of the Dodgers and Cardinals systems, and in 2017 he made his big league debut with the Reds after turning in a terrific season in Double-A. McGuire tossed 168 innings with a 2.79 ERA, 9.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 for Cincinnati’s Pensacola affiliate, and he impressed in a brief sample of MLB innings as well. Through 13 2/3 frames with the Reds, McGuire allowed four earned runs (2.63 ERA) on 10 hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts.
  • Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times tweets that the Dodgers are closing in on a minor league deal with left-hander Manny Banuelos. The 26-year-old Banuelos was once one of the most prized prospects in the Yankees’ farm system before elbow problems slowed his career. Banuelos had Tommy John surgery back in 2013 and has since undergone a second elbow operation to remove bone chips. His lone season with MLB experience came in 2015 when he tossed 26 1/3 innings with the Braves. Banuelos spent the 2017 season with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate and struggled to a 4.93 ERA with 8.1 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9 in 95 innings. It’s perhaps worth noting that he spent the bulk of 2017 as a reliever (nine starts, 30 relief outings) — his first career season working primarily out of the bullpen.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/6/17

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Here are the day’s minor transactions:

  • The Tigers have outrighted righty Angel Nesbitt to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, per a team announcement. Nesbitt, 26, was bumped from the 40-man recently to make way for the signing of Alex Avila. He has a bit fastball and drew grounders during his brief major-league action in 2015, but didn’t make it back to the bigs last year. Nesbitt ended up spending the entire season at Triple-A, where he worked to a 4.91ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over 47 2/3 frames.
  • Also outrighted, per the MLB.com transactions page, was Pirates first baseman/third baseman Jason Rogers. He, too, was designated to clear roster space for a new addition — in his case, righty Nefi Ogando. The bulky 28-year-old has seen scattered time in the majors over the last three years, and hit well in 2015 for the Brewers, but didn’t enjoy a productive season in his first go-round in the Pirates organization. Pittsburgh acquired Rogers in a deal that sent Trey Supak and Keon Broxton to the Brewers last offseason. But he ended up seeing just 33 MLB plate appearances and struggled to a .263/.338/.371 slash with four home runs in his 420 trips to the plate at the highest level of the minors.

Tigers Sign Alex Avila, Designate Angel Nesbitt

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The Tigers have signed catcher Alex Avila to a one-year deal, per a club announcement. He’ll receive a $2MM guarantee, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets. To create 40-man space, the club designated righty Angel Nesbitt for assignment.

Avila, who is the son of Tigers GM Al Avila, returns to Detroit after a one-year stint with the White Sox. The lefty swinging 29-year-old seems likely to function in a platoon role with James McCann, who has played in over 100 games in each of the last two seasons and may well do so again in 2017.

[RELATED: Updated Tigers Depth Chart]

Though it had seemed Avila might be too expensive for the Tigers, the sides have found a way to make it work. He hit a solid .213/.359/.373 with seven home runs over 209 plate appearances last year, though the University of Alabama product continued to be limited almost exclusively to facing right-handed pitching.

Avila carries huge platoon splits over his career, though that still makes him a plenty useful part-time piece, especially since he hits from the left side. All told, over his eight seasons of MLB action — seven of which have come with Detroit — he owns a .247/.357/.418 batting line against opposing righties.

 

There are some questions, though. Avila missed time last year with a hamstring issue and, more worryingly, has dealt with concussion problems. Avila’s defensive work, too, isn’t necessarily a strong suit, though that’s always difficult to assess for a backstop. He draws rather poor ratings as a pitch-framer, per both StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus (subscription link), and the latter publication also has traditionally graded Avila as a somewhat below-average performer in terms of throwing and blocking.

As for Nesbitt, 26, he’ll lose his roster spot after throwing 47 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball at Triple-A in 2016, where he averaged 7.9 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. He received 24 major-league appearances in the prior campaign, but managed only a 5.40 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Nesbitt did show a 93.9 mph average heater and manage a solid 48.5% groundball rate, but the results just haven’t been there.

Tigers Notes: Verlander, Holaday, Nesbitt

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Justin Verlander’s somewhat quiet resurgence over the final two months of the season played a significant factor in the Tigers’ offseason, GM Al Avila tells ESPN’s Jayson Stark. “Justin’s finish gave us the confidence and the hope that we could go for it again, and rebuild this team and try to win a championship,” said Avila, who spent more than $270MM on free agents this winter and also made several upgrades on the trade market. As Stark notes, the Tigers’ rotation no longer has the star power it held in the days of Max Scherzer and David Price joining Verlander atop the starting five, but the addition of Jordan Zimmermann and a return to form for Anibal Sanchez could go a long way toward revitalizing the Detroit rotation and fueling yet another postseason push.

More notes out of Motown…

  • The Tigers have “quietly prepared” to trade backup catcher Bryan Holaday ever since signing Jarrod Saltalamacchia to serve as the backup to starting catcher James McCann, writes Lynn Henning of the Detroit News. Though Holaday is in the midst of a big Spring Training performance and has seen time at both third base and left field in Grapefruit League action, the out-of-options catcher, whom Henning notes is beloved by teammates and coaches alike, is all but certain to land on another club at the end of the month. While Saltalamacchia isn’t as strong a defender as Holaday, the Tigers’ right-leaning lineup will benefit from Salty’s left-handed swing and power — traits that made him attractive to the club. The Tigers now consider the younger Miguel Gonzalez, who will head to Triple-A to open the season, as the third catcher in the organization, per Henning. As a career .251/.283/.340 hitter, Holaday’s value to other clubs isn’t exceptionally high, but he still offers a superior option to many internal candidates on clubs with more questionable catching depth.
  • Right-hander Angel Nesbitt, who has been aiming to make the Opening Day bullpen, will now be out four to six weeks with a right ankle sprain suffered during pitchers’ fielding practice yesterday, as MLive.com’s Chris Iott writes. Nesbitt is currently using crutches and a walking boot to get around the clubhouse. Skipper Brad Ausmus told the Detroit media that Nesbitt had been throwing well and looked to have regained confidence after a shaky 2015 season. Nesbitt, who turned 25 this winter, earned a spot in the Tigers’ Opening Day ’pen last season but struggled through 21 2/3 big league innings, posting a 5.40 ERA in that time. Nesbitt, who jumped directly to the Majors from Double-A after posting dominant numbers there, was sent to Triple-A and continued to struggle, logging a 6.25 ERA in 40 1/3 innings there. The hard-throwing righty will now, presumably, open the season at the Triple-A level and hope that better results yield a return to the Major League staff.
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