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Anthony Gose

Indians Select Anthony Gose

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The Indians are selecting the contract of outfielder-turned-pitcher Anthony Gose, as first reported by Indians Prospective (on Twitter). The left-hander will be appearing in the Majors for the first time since 2016 — and for the first time ever as a pitcher.

Gose, now 31 years old, was a two-way star in high school and a second-round draft choice by the Phillies back in 2008. He focused solely on developing as an outfielder, and by the 2011-12 offseason, Gose ranked as a consensus top 100 prospect in all of baseball. He played the 2011 season as a 20-year-old in Double-A (about four years younger than the league-average age) and slashed .253/.349/.415 with 16 home runs, 20 doubles, seven triples and 70 stolen bases — the second 70-steal season of his young professional career.

In 2010, the Phillies traded Gose to the Astros alongside J.A. Happ and Jonathan Villar in the trade that brought Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia. Houston immediately flipped Gose to the Blue Jays for corner-infield prospect Brett Wallace, who’d been a first-round pick in 2008 and was a highly regarded prospect himself at the time.

Gose made his big league debut with the Jays as a 21-year-old in 2012 but never really found his footing in Toronto. He spent three seasons as an oft-optioned member of the Jays’ outfield but managed just a .234/.301/.332 output in that time. The Blue Jays and Tigers swapped Gose for second baseman Devon Travis in the 2014-15 offseason, and Gose only found marginally more success in Detroit. He batted .254/.321/.367 in his first season as a Tiger but played just 30 games in his second season (2016).

Those struggles at the plate carried over into Triple-A, and beginning in 2017, the Tigers gave Gose the opportunity to work off the mound all the way down in Class-A Advanced. The transition wasn’t particularly smooth, as one might expect. Gose appeared in 11 games, allowing nine runs in 10 2/3 innings. He fanned 14 of the 45 hitters he faced (31.1 percent), but the Tigers removed him from their 40-man roster and he opted for free agency at season’s end.

Gose signed a minor league pact with the Rangers in the 2017-18 offseason and was selected by the Astros in the Rule 5 Draft just days later. He didn’t make it out of Spring Training with the ’Stros before being returned to the Rangers. Gose made it to Double-A as a pitcher in the Rangers’ system and clearly intrigued the Indians’ baseball ops department enough to sign him as a minor league free agent the following offseason.

Gose has hung on with Cleveland ever since, but he hasn’t gotten a call to the big leagues until today. The lefty pitched for Team USA in the Olympics earlier this summer, and he’s had a generally solid season on the mound. Walks have been an issue since he made the move to the mound, and that’s true to an extent this season as well. Gose has worked to a 3.55 ERA with a hefty 34 percent strikeout rate but a bloated 19.4 percent walk rate.

However, most of those command issues came early in the season. Since returning from the Olympic team, Gose has yielded just one run in 14 frames. He’s walked six of the 52 batters he’s faced in that time (11.5 percent) and fanned a whopping 22 of them (42.3 percent). Given that recent run of dominance, it’s hardly a surprise that Cleveland is both rewarding Gose’s tenacity and also taking the opportunity to get a late look at him in the big leagues.

While Gose has appeared in parts of five big league seasons in the past, he has yet to even amass three years of Major League service time. As such, Cleveland would be able to control him all the way through the 2025 season — if he is indeed able to stick as a pitcher. Gose, by all accounts, has built his heater up to sit in the upper-90s and at times reach triple digits. Opponents are hitting just .172/.333/.328 against him so far in 2021 — including a .086/.192/.154 batting line since he returned from the Olympics.

It’s a frankly remarkable journey for Gose, who has been with four organizations in five years since attempting to reinvent himself as a pitcher. He’s pitched for clubs in the Puerto Rican Winter League and Dominican Winter League along the way after restarting his career as a 26-year-old in Class-A Advanced. He’ll now reap the benefits of that half-decade odyssey as he returns to the Major Leagues for what, in many ways, will be a second big league debut.

USA Baseball Announces Olympic Qualifying Roster

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11:10AM: The full roster has been announced by USA Baseball (Twitter link).  Beyond the names already mentioned, the roster also includes Clayton Andrews, Jonathan Bowlan, Brandon Dickson, DJ Johnson, Trevor Lane, Matthew Liberatore, Drew Parrish, Marc Rzepczynski, James Sherfy, Simeon Woods Richardson, Tim Federowicz, Mark Kolozsvary, Nick Allen, Eddy Alvarez, Logan Forsythe, Luke Williams, Eric Filia, and Jon Jay.

9:54AM: The United States Olympic baseball team will have its full roster announced later today, though MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link) reports that several well-known big league names will be part of Team USA.

Right-handers Homer Bailey, Edwin Jackson, and David Robertson will be part of the pitching mix, as will left-hander Anthony Gose.  Matt Kemp, Matt Wieters, and Todd Frazier are some of the veteran position players.  Bailey, Kemp, and Wieters all played in the majors as recently as 2020 and didn’t sign with a new team this past offseason, while Frazier appeared in 13 games for the Pirates just this season.  It was only back on May 13 that Frazier chose to become a free agent, after Pittsburgh designated him for assignment.

Beyond these experienced names, some notable youngsters will also be on the team, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted yesterday that Red Sox prospects Triston Casas and Jarren Duran are participating.  Rays right-handed pitching prospect Joe Ryan is also expected to be part of the team, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Any player not on a current 40-man Major League roster was eligible for Team USA, though naturally a team would have to agree to allow its minor leaguers to play.

Mike Scioscia will manage Team USA, and the team will take to the field on May 31-June 5 during a qualifying tournament in Florida.  The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela are the other seven teams involved, and the winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the Olympics.  The second- and third-place finishers will advance to a final qualifying tournament against Australia, Chinese Taipei, and the Netherlands on June 16-20 in Mexico, and the winner of that event will claim the sixth and final Olympic berth.

Japan, Mexico, Israel, and South Korea have already qualified for the baseball event at Olympic Games, which are scheduled to be held July 23-August 6 in Tokyo.  Originally set to take place in 2020, the Olympics were naturally postponed for a year due to the pandemic, and the Games are still slated to get underway in July despite a worsening COVID-19 situation in Japan.

Central Notes: Bryant, Odorizzi, Reds, Gose

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Kris Bryant has continued to express openness to a contract extension with the Cubs, but he reiterated today there’s not yet been any discussion between his representatives and the organization (via Patrick Mooney of the Athletic). The 29-year-old isn’t ruling out the possibility of a long-term deal coming together eventually, even though he’s currently on track to reach free agency after the season. “I’m not looking at it as my last year (as a Cub),” Bryant said (via Mooney). “Who knows what year it could be? I could have 10 more years here. Who knows? I could come back as a coach. I could live in Chicago. I don’t know.” Regardless of what happens after 2021, it’s clear Bryant will open the season with the Cubs after an offseason of trade rumors didn’t result in a deal.

Elsewhere in the game’s central divisions:

  • Jake Odorizzi is moving on from the Twins after a three-year run in Minnesota, but the right-hander said during yesterday’s Astros introduction that the Twin Cities “hold a special place” in his heart and left the door open for a return down the road (link via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Phil Miller). “I loved my time in Minnesota,” said Odorizzi, whose two-year deal with the Astros became official this week. “Maybe there’s a time to circle back after this stint [in Houston] is done.” Odorizzi noted that he originally hoped a new deal would come together, but he saw the writing on the wall when the Twins inked fellow free agent J.A. Happ to a one-year, $8MM deal earlier in the winter.
  • A few teams have announced their intention to start out with a six-man rotation. That doesn’t seem to be on the table for the Reds, who are going to open the season with a five-man starting staff, manager David Bell said (via MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon). Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle are obvious locks, while Bell suggested Wade Miley is likely to get a shot at a rebound season as a starter. That leaves Michael Lorenzen, Tejay Antone, Jeff Hoffman and José De León in a battle for the final job. The pitchers who don’t earn the season-opening rotation spot figure to start off as multi-inning relief options.
  • Reliever Anthony Gose is impressing the Indians as a non-roster invitee, writes Zack Meisel of the Athletic. Continuing to throw in the upper-90’s and now incorporating a slider, Gose has struck out four without issuing a walk through his first three Cactus League innings. The former outfielder has attracted the attention of a few teams since moving to the mound in 2017 but has yet to get back to the big leagues as a pitcher. Continued strike-throwing is the key for Gose, who walked an untenable 21.5% of opposing hitters during his most recent minor league action in 2019.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/17/20

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Padres have agreed to a deal with right-hander Parker Markel on a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp, Steve Adams of MLBTR tweets. Markel was a 30th-round pick of the Rays in 2010 who has since spent time with a few other organizations. The 30-year-old made his major league debut in 2019 and combined for a 7.77 ERA/7.30 FIP with 9.82 K/9 and 6.95 BB/9 in 22 innings between the Mariners and Pirates. Markel has a much better track record at the higher levels of the minor, though, including a stingy 2.57 ERA with 9.8 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9 over 101 2/3 frames in Triple-A ball.
  • The Indians have re-signed left-hander Anthony Gose and infielder Andruw Monasterio to minors deals, the team announced. Gose will be in spring training as a non-roster player. The former Tigers and Blue Jays outfielder transferred to the mound in 2017 and has since put up a 4.39 ERA with 10.0 K/9 in 65 2/3 minor league innings, owing in part to a blazing fastball, but Gose has walked more than eight batters per nine. Monasterio joined the Indians in their trade that sent catcher Yan Gomes to the Nationals in December 2018. While he’s still just 23, Monasterio got off to an inauspicious start with the Indians when he hit .217/.279/.253 with one home run in 279 Double-A plate appearances in 2019.

Indians Sign Dominic Leone, Anthony Gose

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The Indians announced a series of non-roster invitations to Major League Spring Training on Thursday, including veteran right-handed reliever Dominic Leone and outfielder-turned-reliever Anthony Gose.

Leone, a client of Frye-McCann Sports, spent the past two seasons with the Cardinals and has also logged big league time with the Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Mariners. The Cardinals picked him up in the trade that sent Randal Grichuk to Toronto, but things didn’t go as planned for Leone in St. Louis. After pitching to a 2.56 ERA (and 2.94 FIP) with 10.4 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in his lone season as a Blue Jay, the now-28-year-old Leone stumbled to a 5.15 ERA/4.77 FIP in 64 2/3 innings as a Cardinal from 2018-19.

In 2018, Leone was plagued by a nerve issue in his arm that limited his time on the field, but he does carry a lifetime 3.92 ERA with better than a punchout per inning in 243 1/3 big league frames. He’ll now look to earn a fresh start in Cleveland — the fifth organization of his professional career.

Gose, now 29, was at one point ranked among the game’s best outfield prospects but simply never was able to put things together as a position player. The left-hander was a two-way star at the time he was drafted and tried his hand as a two-way player a couple seasons ago before committing fully to the mound in 2019.

Gose, who is represented by CAA, split the ’19 season between the Indians’ Class-A Advanced and Double-A affiliates, showing an ability to miss bats but also demonstrating substantial control problems that may not have been entirely unexpected for an outfielder who is converting to the mound. In 29 innings this past season, he posted a sterling 2.48 ERA with 35 strikeouts but also yielded an alarming 29 free passes with six hit batsmen. Clearly, there’s some potential within Gose, but he’ll need to hone in his control of the strike zone if he’s to emerge as a viable bullpen option at the MLB level.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/8/18

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The game is afoot on the eve of the winter meetings, but more than just headline deals will play a role in shaping the coming season of major league baseball. We’ll use this post to track those minor moves from around the league today…

  • The Brewers have signed righty Deolis Guerra to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. The 29-year-old Guerra didn’t appear in the majors at all in 2018 after inking a minors pact with the Rangers last offseason. He did perform well as a member of the Rangers’ Triple-A club, however, as he notched a 3.75 ERA, 10.77 K/9, 2.43 BB/9 and a 48.3 percent groundball rate in 59 1/3 innings. Prior to 2018, Guerra saw major league action in each season from 2015-17 and combined for 95 innings of 4.17 ERA pitching, with 7.11 K/9, 2.08 BB/9 and a 40.1 percent grounder mark, with the Pirates and Angels.

Earlier moves:

  • Veteran lefty starter Tommy Milone signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners, per Pete Kerzel of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). The former National, Athletic, Met, Brewer and Twin has pitched parts of every season in the majors since 2011, working to a career 46-37 record, 4.42 ERA across 130 starts. Milone, 32 by Opening Day, saw limited big league time last year, pitching to a 5.81 ERA in 26 1/3 innings in his second stint with the Washington Nationals. He projects as dependable veteran depth for a Mariners team that has undergone major reconstructive changes this offseason, including the trade of another lefty James Paxton. Obviously, Milone is not a replacement for Paxton, though the latter’s absence may play a part in creating the right environment for a veteran lefty like Milone to see some innings in the majors. He hasn’t been used much in relief throughout his career, though that would be another possible path to major league playing time for Milone. He has actually performed with admirable consistency (3.52 xFIP) for a fringy big-leaguer who relies so heavily on a fastball that dipped to 86.9 mph last season. With his best secondary offering being a changeup, control (2.23 BB/9) and a sound ability to generate soft contact (86% career exit velocity) has helped Milone hang around the major leagues. Check in on all of the Mariners minor league signings from the offseason thus far (via Twitter).
  • The Cleveland Indians announced (via Twitter) the signing of lefty reliever Anthony Gose to a minor league contract. The converted outfielder has been transitioning to the mound over the last couple of seasons after spending parts of five with the Blue Jays and Tigers. Gose, 28, went 1-0 with a 1.37 ERA in a small-sample 7 games for the Down East Wood Ducks in High-A before moving up to the Rangers Double A affiliate in Frisco. Gose came out of the pen 21 times for the Rough Riders, working to a 6.52 ERA while struggling with his command (23 walks in 19 1/3 innings), though he also struck out almost a batter an inning while opposing hitters managed a .243 average against him. He has shown enough promise on the mound to keep the conversion effort going in Cleveland. There does not appear to be an invite to major league camp included in this deal.
  • Right-hander Pierce Johnson has announced (via Twitter) a new deal to pitch for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan. The exact terms of the deal are not yet known. Johnson became a minor league free agent in early November after pitching for the San Francisco Giants and their Triple A affiliate last year. The former first round pick of the Cubs has yet to see much of an opportunity in the majors, though he pitched well in the upper minors: 17 games, 3.57 ERA, 11.91 K/9, 3.97 BB/9 in Triple A last season. Pierce, 27, will be interesting to look for in coming offseasons, should he seek another opportunity to play in the majors. Recent expat Miles Mikolas enjoyed a productive return to the states in his age-29 season, while Merrill Kelly, 30, just received a nice payday after four years in Korea. A year or two in Japan would put Johnson on a similar timetable for a stateside return if he can put together a productive run with the Tigers.

Players Electing Free Agency

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Quite a few players will hit the open market this fall, and they’ll do so by way of varying mechanisms. The end of the regular season triggered a recent wave of free agents, consisting of a certain subset of players — namely, those who were outrighted from 40-man rosters during the season and accepted minor-league assignments at that time despite having the right to elect free agency. Players in that situation are entitled instead to hit the open market at season’s end, if they were not added back to the 40-man roster in the meantime.

As conveyed by Matt Eddy of Baseball America, who also covers quite a few other minor moves, these players have now elected free agency:

Athletics: RHP Raul Alcantara, LHP Danny Coulombe

Blue Jays: RHP Mike Hauschild, INF/OF Darnell Sweeney

Braves: LHP Rex Brothers, RHP Miguel Socolovich

Cardinals: LHP Tyler Lyons

Indians: RHP Evan Marshall, RHP Alexi Ogando

Mariners: RHP Christian Bergman, LHP Ross Detwiler, RHP Mike Morin, INF Zach Vincej

Marlins: OF JB Shuck

Mets: RHP Chris Beck, OF Bryce Brentz, RHP Scott Copeland, OF Matt den Dekker, INF Ty Kelly

Nationals: LHP Tommy Milone, OF Moises Sierra, RHP Carlos Torres

Orioles: RHP Jhan Marinez, INF Luis Sardinas

Padres: OF Matt Szczur

Phillies: INF Trevor Plouffe

Pirates: LHP Buddy Boshers, RHP Casey Sadler, RHP A.J. Schugel

Rangers: C Juan Centeno, LHP Anthony Gose, RHP Drew Hutchison, INF Tommy Joseph, RHP Chris Rowley

Rays: INF Brandon Snyder, RHP Ryan Weber

Reds: C Tim Federowicz, RHP Kevin Quackenbush

Tigers: INF Dixon Machado, RHP Jacob Turner

White Sox: RHP Tyler Danish

Astros Return Rule 5 Pick Anthony Gose To Rangers

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The Rangers announced today that they received Rule 5 pick Anthony Gose back from the Astros and assigned him to Triple-A Round Rock. He’ll join the Rangers in big league camp as a non-roster player. The Astros reportedly placed the left-hander/outfielder on outright waivers earlier this week.

Gose, a former big league outfielder, had been hoping to make a stacked Astros roster as a reliever. The former top outfield prospect converted to the mound last season after several years of difficulties at plate. Gose was a two-way star as an amateur but was drafted and developed solely as an outfielder. His arm strength from the outfield and his former pitching prowess have translated to the mound to an extent, as he’s reportedly been able to touch triple digits with his fastball.

Gose pitched 10 2/3 innings in Class-A Advanced in the Rangers organization last season and posted a 14-to-6 K/BB ratio in that time. It’s possible that the Rangers will continue to give him a look on the mound, though the team’s exact plans for him remain unclear. Rangers EVP of communications John Blake referenced Gose as an outfielder/left-handed pitcher in announcing the move, so perhaps he’ll continue to work on both elements of his game.

Astros Place Anthony Gose On Outright Waivers

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The Astros have placed lefty Anthony Gose on outright waivers, per Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (Twitter link). That will ultimately open a 40-man spot, though it’s not clear whether the organization has immediate plans for utilizing it.

Gose was taken in the Rule 5 draft back in December, meaning any claiming team would need to retain him on the active roster for all of 2018 in order to keep him permanently. Given his prior MLB experience as an outfielder, he would be arbitration-eligible after the season were that to occur.

If Gose clears waivers, he’ll be offered back to the Rangers, who had signed him to a minors deal last fall. The Texas organization took a low-risk shot despite the fact that Gose had only previously thrown 10 2/3 High-A innings, over which he allowed nine earned runs and six walks but also recorded 14 strikeouts.

Despite the limited track record, the 27-year-old Gose has shown a powerful throwing arm on the hill and could also bring value on the bases and in the outfield. But it seems his interesting time in Astros camp did not make the desired impression. Gose failed to record an out in his only Grapefruit League appearance, issuing walks to all three hitters he faced.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/30/17

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • Joining the Orioles on a minors deal is righty Perci Garner, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Soon to turn 29, Garner struggled in limited action in an injury-limited 2017 season. But he did show a 95 mph heater and 14.4% swinging-strike rate in his brief foray into the majors in 2016, and worked to a 1.83 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 78 2/3 frames in the upper minors that year. Notably, too, Garner’s innings tally came in just 41 relief appearances, suggesting that the former starter could have some multi-inning potential.
  • Infielder/outfielder Jimmy Paredes has joined the KBO’s Doosan Bears, as Korea’s Naver Sports reports (Korean language link; h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net, via Twitter). He’ll receive a $800K salary for the 2018 season. Paredes has seen just over a thousand MLB plate appearances in parts of six seasons, slashing only .251/.286/.369. He spent the 2017 campaign with Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines, where he produced a .219/.270/.364 slash with ten home runs in 289 trips to the plate.

Earlier Updates

  • The Tigers announced that they have completed their summer swap with the Cubs by acquiring cash rather than a player to be named. That deal sent Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes to Detroit in exchange for veterans Justin Wilson and Alex Avila. The amount of cash that’s now changing hands isn’t known. Obviously, the key to this deal from the Tigers’ perspective was Candelario. The 24-year-old had an impressive initial showing upon reaching the majors with his new organization, slashing .330/.406/.468 in 106 plate appearances.
  • Anthony Gose is joining the Rangers on a minors deal, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). He’s expected both to function as a left-handed reliever — as he did last year in the minors — and to play the outfield — as he long did previously, including at the major-league level. Gose, who’s still just 27, recorded 14 strikeouts and six walks while allowing nine earned runs in 10 2/3 innings at the High-A level in 2017. Elbow issues halted his season at that point. Though Gose never showed quite enough bat in the majors, which is why he ended up attempting the conversion, he does have a useful skillset — quality speed and defense — that would make him a hypothetically interesting roster piece if he can develop sufficiently on the mound.
  • Joining the Twins on minor-league pacts are outfielder Ryan LaMarre, catcher Bobby Wilson, righty Myles Jaye, and catcher/infielder Willians Astudillo, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. LaMarre has reached the majors very briefly in each of the past three seasons; he spent most of last year at Triple-A with the Athletics and Angels organizations, slashing just .247/.328/.300 in 194 plate appearances. The 34-year-old Wilson, an eight-year MLB veteran, hit .243/.318/.428 for the Dodgers’ top affiliate lat year and will likely head to Rochester for depth. Jaye, who’ll soon turn 26, struggled in his first chance at the game’s highest level last year but has also compiled three consecutive sub-4.00 ERA seasons in the upper minors. The versatile Astudillo — the only member of this group that hasn’t tasted the bigs — posted great numbers in limited action at Triple-A last year but is a lifetime .750 OPS hitter in the minors.
  • The Marlins have added righty Drew Rucinski on a minors deal, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). Rucinski, who turns 29 at the end of December, has seen minimal action in three MLB campaigns. He transitioned to full-time relief in 2017 for the first time since his earliest work in the low minors, with fairly promising results. In 63 frames at Triple-A, Rucinski compiled a 2.57 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9.
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