Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Brandon Cunniff

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/6/18

By and | at

Here are Friday’s minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Braves announced that catcher Chris Stewart was outrighted after clearing waivers. He has accepted the assignment to Triple-A, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter). The 36-year-old opened as the third catcher in Atlanta but saw plenty of time in the first week of the season owing to injuries. Still, he was clearly on the chopping block at the first moment a roster need arose, especially once the club acquired younger receiver Carlos Perez. Stewart will remain on hand for depth if and when a need arises. He’s considered a sturdy presence behind the dish, but owns only a .230/.297/.292 lifetime batting line in the majors.
  • Outfielder Darrell Ceciliani and left-handed reliever Kevin Chapman have signed with the New Britain Bees of the independent Atlantic League, the club announced. The 27-year-old Ceciliani has spent parts of the past three seasons in the Majors with the Mets and Blue Jays, hitting a combined .190/.250/.300 in 109 plate appearances. However, he’s a career .282/.336/.459 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons. Chapman, meanwhile, logged innings with the Astros from 2013-16, pitching to a combined 4.09 ERA with 7.9 K/9 against 5.1 BB/9 in a total of 55 innings. The 30-year-old has averaged 11.1 K/9 and notched a 3.96 ERA in 231 2/3 Triple-A innings, though he was hammered for a 6.65 ERA between the Triple-A affiliates for the Braves and Twins last year.
  • Former Astros reliever Josh Zeid announced on Twitter today that he’s formally retiring as a player. The 31-year-old hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2014, but he’s logged plenty of Triple-A innings since spending two seasons in the Houston bullpen. Zeid also took pride in serving as the closer for Team Israel’s 2017 World Baseball Classic club, during which he tossed 10 shutout innings with a 10-to-6 K/BB ratio and notched a pair of saves. A former 10th-round draft pick out of Tulane (Phillies, 2009), Zeid retires with a 4.39 ERA in 650 minor league innings and a 5.21 ERA in 48 1/3 MLB frames.
  • Right-hander Brandon Cunniff, who tossed 52 innings of 4.50 ERA ball with 9.2 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 with the 2015-16 Braves, has signed a deal with the Mexican League’s Bravos de Leon, according to the team. The 29-year-old spent the 2017 season with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in New Orleans, where he worked to a 4.45 ERA with 54 punchouts against 28 walks in 54 2/3 innings out of the bullpen.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/18/17

By and | at

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

  • The Pirates have announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder Joey Terdoslavich to a minor-league deal that includes an invitation to MLB camp. The longtime Braves farmhand, now 28, spent parts of three seasons in the Majors with Atlanta from 2013-15 but batted just .221/.296/.324 across 162 plate appearances. Terdoslavich does have a better track record in Triple-A, where he’s authored a career .258/.331/.410 in parts of five seasons.
  • Joining the Indians on a minors pact is lefty Kelvin De La Cruz, per a club announcement. He will not receive a big-league camp invite. De La Cruz hasn’t performed well in the upper minors as of late and spent last season in the independent Atlantic League, tossing 116 innings with a 4.19 ERA and 6.8 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9. His 2013 season split between the Dodgers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates was strong enough for the Orioles to give him a Major League deal in the offseason despite the fact that he’d never pitched in the Majors, but his results from that time haven’t been encouraging.
  • Red Sox signed righty Erik Cordier and lefty Cesar Cabral, per Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The hard-throwing Cordier, 30, will return stateside after a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2016 (10 runs in 12 1/3 innings). Cordier has long battled control issues but has shown a consistent ability to hit triple digits with his fastball in the past. His last Major League stint came in 2015. As for Cabral, the 27-year-old former Rule 5 pick has averaged about a strikeout per inning throughout his minor league career but has yet to find success at the Triple-A level. He pitched just 8 1/3 innings last season, all with the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, and allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits and four walks. He’s logged 5 2/3 innings in the Majors in his career but has never been able to stick on a 25-man roster.
  • The Marlins have added former Braves right-hander Brandon Cunniff on a minor league deal, also according to Eddy. The 28-year-old has totaled 52 innings for Atlanta over the past two seasons, posting a 4.50 ERA with 53 strikeouts but an unsightly 31 walks in that time as well. Cunniff’s fastball sits around 93 mph, and he has a history of missing bats in the minors, although his overall results began to tumble when he reached the Triple-A level. He’ll give Miami an experienced option to compete for a bullpen gig at some point in 2017, though the team’s offseason additions of Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler make for a somewhat crowded right-handed relief picture behind A.J. Ramos, David Phelps and Kyle Barraclough.

Outrighted: Red Sox, Angels, ChiSox, Braves, Pirates, Giants

By | at

The seventh game of the World Series rightly dominated the baseball landscape Wednesday, but there were also several outrights from around the majors. Here are those assignments:

  • The Red Sox announced that they’ve activated Josh Rutledge from the disabled list and outrighted him off the 40-man roster. The 27-year-old hit .265/.345/.388 in 56 plate appearances with the Sox this season and is a lifetime .262/.312/.397 hitter in 1088 Major League PAs. Capable of playing second base, third base and shortstop, Rutledge should find opportunities to make a club as a bench piece next spring when he inevitably elects free agency following his outright assignment.

Earlier Updates

  • The Angels have outrighted left-hander Brett Oberholtzer to Triple-A Salt Lake. The club previously designated Oberholtzer for assignment Oct. 28, which came after he logged a career-worst 5.89 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 42.3 percent ground-ball rate in 70 innings between the Phillies and Angels this year. Overall, Oberholtzer has posted a 4.36 ERA, 6.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 39.3 percent ground-ball rate in 324 major league innings.
  • The White Sox have outrighted outfielder J.B. Shuck to Triple-A Charlotte. Shuck has over 1,000 major league plate appearances to his name, and 406 of those have come with the White Sox since last season. In 241 PAs this year, Shuck batted a woeful .205/.248/.299.
  • The Braves have outrighted right-handers Casey Kelly and Brandon Cunniff to Triple-A Gwinnett. Kelly placed anywhere from 24th to 76th in Baseball America’s prospect rankings from 2009-12, but injury- and performance-related issues have beset the former Red Sox and Padres farmhand. Notably, Kelly went from Boston to San Diego in 2010 in a deal involving then-Padres prospect and current Cubs superstar Anthony Rizzo. That trade brought first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox. The Padres then sent Kelly to the Braves last offseason for catcher/pitcher/outfielder Christian Bethancourt. The 27-year-old Kelly subsequently amassed 21 2/3 frames of 5.82 ERA pitching with matching strikeout and walk rates (2.91 over nine innings) this season. Cunniff has logged 52 big league innings – all with the Braves since last season – and recorded a 4.50 ERA, 9.17 K/9 and 5.37 BB/9.
  • The Pirates have outrighted infielder Pedro Florimon, catcher Jacob Stallings and southpaw Zach Phillips to Triple-A Indianapolis. The most notable member of the group is Florimon, a defensive specialist who has collected a combined 752 major league plate appearances with the Orioles, Twins and Pirates. Only 50 of those PAs have come with Pittsburgh since he joined the organization via waivers prior to the 2015 season. Stallings, whom the Pirates chose in the seventh round of the 2012 draft, took his first 15 major league trips to the plate this year. Phillips also got some work with the Bucs this season, impressing over 6 2/3 innings (two earned runs, six strikeouts, one walk). The 30-year-old previously racked up 15 2/3 total frames with the Orioles and Marlins.
  • The Giants have outrighted catcher Tony Sanchez to Triple-A Sacramento. Sanchez has accumulated just 155 major league PAs since Pittsburgh drafted him fourth overall in 2009. He divided 2016 between the Triple-A affiliates of the Blue Jays and Giants and combined for an ugly .201/.298/.317 line across 228 PAs.

Outrighted: Rondon, Monell, Cunniff, Robertson

By | at

In addition  to the large number of minor signings and waiver claims today, there have been quite a few outrights from around the league. Righty A.J. Achter has already been outrighted by the Angels, but here are the rest of the day’s outright assignments…

  • The Pirates have outrighted right-hander Jorge Rondon to Triple-A Indianapolis. While Rondon hadn’t been previously designated for assignment, the Buccos needed to clear a roster spot to make way for John Jaso and his new two-year contract, and Rondon was the 40-man casualty. Rondon carried a 2.23 ERA over 60 2/3 innings at Triple-A last year, with 7.4 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9. He was once rated among the top thirty prospects of the Cardinals, and has a track record of solid, if unspectacular, numbers in the minors.
  • The Mets have outrighted catcher Johnny Monell to Triple-A Las Vegas, according to ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin (Twitter link). Monell was designated for assignment last week when the team needed a roster spot for the recently re-signed Bartolo Colon. Monell, 30 next March, received his second taste of Major League action last season, collecting a career-high 52 plate appearances with New York. Prior to that, his lone experience in the big leagues was a brief eight-game stint with the 2013 Giants (nine plate appearances). In the Majors, Monell is a .161/230/.196 hitter across his small sample of 61 PAs, but he has a sound track record in the minors, where he’s put together a .279/.356/.455 batting line with 31 homers across 1012 PAs in Triple-A.
  • Right-hander Brandon Cunniff has been outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett by the Braves after clearing waivers, according to a tweet from the team. A former 27th-round draft pick by the Marlins, Cunniff spent three seasons in the independent Frontier League following his brief minor league career with the Marlins. The Braves plucked him from the indy circuit in June of 2013, and he rather quickly rose through their ranks over the past two years. Cunniff posted a brilliant 2.02 ERA in Double-A and jumped directly to the Majors, where he posted a 4.63 ERA with a 37-to-22 K/BB ratio in 35 innings.
  • MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets that outfielder Daniel Robertson has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A by the Mariners after being designated for assignment last week. Robertson lost his roster spot to the re-signed Hisashi Iwakuma but is clearly a player valued by GM Jerry Dipoto, who acquired him from Texas while serving as GM of the Angels and again picked him up from the Halos this winter after taking over the Mariners’ GM job. In 277 career plate appearances, Robertson is a .274/.324/.325 hitter. He also boasts a solid minor league track record and is capable of playing all three outfield positions, making him a valuable depth option for a big league team.

Braves To Designate Brandon Cunniff For Assignment

By | at

TODAY: Atlanta has made the moves official, with Cunniff departing the roster to make way for Bonifacio.

YESTERDAY: The Braves will designate right-hander Brandon Cunniff for assignment, reports MLBTR’s Zach Links (on Twitter). The move that necessitated Cunniff’s DFA remains unclear, though the club has yet to formally announce the reported agreement with utility man Emilio Bonifacio.

Cunniff, 27, made his big league debut with the Braves in 2015, working to a 4.63 ERA with an impressive 37 strikeouts in 35 innings of work out of the Atlanta bullpen. However, he also yielded 22 walks in that time, which contributed to his somewhat elevated earned run average.

A former 27th-round draft pick by the Marlins, Cunniff spent three seasons in the independent Frontier League following his brief minor league career with the Marlins. The Braves plucked him from the indy circuit in June of 2013, and he rather quickly rose through their ranks over the past two years. Cunniff jumped straight to the Majors from Double-A, where his numbers had been outstanding: a 2.02 ERA with a 51-to-20 K/BB ratio in 53 1/3 innings of work.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top