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Rangers Notes: Calhoun, Daniels, Martin

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The Rangers are not totally buried in the American League postseason hunt, but have already fallen eight games back of the division-leading Astros. Particularly with a variety of notable players on the DL, it’s increasingly difficult to see the Rangers contending in 2018. Here’s the latest from Texas:

  • Some Rangers fans are displeased with the fact that top prospect Willie Calhoun is plying his trade at Round Rock rather than with the Rangers. GM Jon Daniels bristled at the notion that Calhoun was being held down due to service-time considerations, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. Rather, says Daniels, Calhoun is still at Triple-A because “he’s still working on his defense.” It probably does not help that Calhoun isn’t off to the best start at the plate, though nobody doubts his bat is ready for the majors. Daniels says he’s “really encouraged” by what he has heard about Calhoun’s defensive work thus far, but indicated that it will need to get up to snuff before the call is made.
  • More broadly, Daniels certainly sounds like a man who’s well aware of the uphill climb facing his team this year. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports, the team’s top baseball exec acknowledges that “injuries have certainly eroded what depth there was.” That’s obviously sub-optimal, but he does say there are still benefits to the situation. “The upside is that a lot of guys are getting valuable experience they wouldn’t otherwise get,” Daniels said. “That doesn’t do a whole lot for the fans who want to see immediate returns, but long-term we’re going to benefit from experiences [young players] are getting.”
  • The Rangers have placed righty Chris Martin on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’s dealing with irritation in his right forearm. Fellow right-hander Nick Gardewine will take his spot on the active roster. That represents another blow to the team’s MLB roster. Though Martin owns a 5.14 ERA on the year, that’s due mostly to the disastrous recent outing that came in advance of the DL placement. Otherwise, he has generally been effective, carrying a solid combination of 8.4 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 while showing a mid-nineties fastball.

Rangers To Sign Chris Martin

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The Rangers have struck a two-year deal with righty Chris Martin, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Martin will receive a $4MM guarantee with $550K in annual incentives that can be reached if he reaches unstated games-finished thresholds. Martin is represented by SSG Baseball.

Though the 6’8″ Martin did not succeed in two brief MLB chances, he has gone on to produce outstanding results in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Over the past two seasons, he carries a 1.12 ERA with 9.3 K/9 against 1.3 BB/9 over 88 1/3 innings.

With the move, the Rangers have continued a long-established practice of bringing back pitchers that have found success in Japan after first failing to gain traction on this side of the Pacific. Another recent returnee, Tony Barnette, recently re-signed with Texas and will also factor into the current relief mix.

Martin will step into the club’s pen for the next two seasons, but will not be controllable beyond that point. His contract, Rosenthal notes, provides that the team will not be able to tender him a contract via arbitration after the 2019 campaign.

Miles Mikolas Interested In Returning To MLB After Thriving In Japan

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While Shohei Otani rightly draws the majority of headlines when it comes to international free agents potentially making the jump to Major League Baseball, there’s another interesting righty that could try to transition from Nippon Professional Baseball star to MLB starter. Right-hander Miles Mikolas is now a free agent after wrapping up a successful three-year stint with the Yomiuri Giants, and MLBTR has learned that he is interested in making his way back to the big leagues.

Mikolas’s name probably rings a bell with Padres and Rangers fans, but it’s been a while since he has factored into the discussion on this side of the Pacific. After failing to find his footing in parts of three seasons in the majors, Mikolas has spent the past three campaigns as one of the best starters in Japan.

Over 91 1/3 MLB innings from 2012-14, Mikolas managed only a 5.32 ERA with pedestrian peripheral marks: 6.1 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 along with a middle-of-the-road 44 percent ground-ball rate as a big leaguer. He’d shown impeccable control early in his pro career, but his walk rates spiked as he reached the upper levels of the game.

Mikolas began reversing that trend in 2014 — the same year he attempted to work from the rotation for the first time. While he struggled through 10 MLB starts, he also worked to a 3.22 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against just 0.6 BB/9 in his 44 2/3 Triple-A frames that year.

That performance caught some attention overseas, as Yomiuri purchased the rights to Mikolas from the Rangers in the 2014-15 offseason. The move allowed the Texas organization to clear some space on its 40-man roster and gave the righty a chance to earn more money while functioning as a starter overseas.

Mikolas impressed enough in his first campaign in Japan that the Giants re-signed him to a fairly notable two-year, $5MM contract. While that agreement looks modest by MLB standards, it’s a relatively sizable commitment overseas and certainly a life-changing figure for a pitcher who hadn’t established himself in the majors as he headed into his age-26 season.

Now 29 years of age (30 next August), Mikolas has posted video-game numbers over the life of his three-year tenure in Japan. He carries a 2.18 ERA through 424 1/3 innings with Yomiuri, and he really put things together in a 2017 season in which he spun 188 frames of 2.25 ERA ball over 27 starts. He not only struck out a batter per inning but also dropped his walk rate to 1.1 BB/9.

It isn’t entirely clear at this point just what kind of offers Mikolas might receive, but he should generate interest and could well command a 40-man roster spot. We’ve seen guaranteed money go to other pitchers who rejuvenated their careers in Japan. Colby Lewis, for instance, signed for $5MM over two years back in 2010. More recently, reliever Tony Barnette took home a $3.5MM promise over two seasons. Both of those pitchers landed with the Rangers, who along with the Padres are not only prior employers of Mikolas, but also figure to be among the numerous teams that will be looking to add rotation candidates this winter.

Mikolas will not be the only former big leaguer on the radar for a possible return. Reliever Chris Martin has also thrived in Japan, allowing just 11 earned runs on 46 hits over 88 1/3 innings across the past two seasons while carrying a 91-to-13 K/BB ratio. That translates to a 1.08 ERA in his two seasons with the Nippon Ham Fighters, and the fact that he’s been a teammate of Otani for two years means that big league scouts have had plenty of chances to determine whether the former Yankees/Rockies reliever can plausibly sustain some of that success in the Majors in what would be his age-32 season. Martin has just a 6.19 ERA in 36 1/3 MLB innings, but he had a solid 3.48 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 106 Triple-A innings before landing in NPB.

Beyond that duo, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has already reported that the Cardinals have interest in Orix Buffaloes closer Yoshihisa Hirano, who is also a free agent this year and can explore MLB opportunities without needing to go through NPB’s posting system. Even beyond Otani — whose pursuit has the potential to surpass the Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes in attention and drama — it’ll be an interesting winter to watch trans-Pacific player movement.

Yankees Release Chris Martin To Pursue Opportunity In Japan; Bailey Elects Free Agency

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7:47pm: Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that Martin signed a two-year, $1.7MM contract that contains $300K worth of performance bonuses (Twitter link).

5:51pm: The Yankees announced on Wednesday that they’ve released right-hander Chris Martin so that he can sign a contract with the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The Yankees will receive $750K from the Fighters as compensation, while Martin, a client of SSG Baseball, will sign a contract of yet-unknown length and for yet-unknown salary. Additionally, the Yankees announced that Andrew Bailey has elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment.

Martin, 29, logged 20 2/3 innings with the Yankees this season but recorded a disappointing 5.66 ERA. In 36 1/3 career innings between the Rockies and Yankees, Martin has a 6.19 ERA but a more encouraging 32-to-10 K/BB ratio in that time. Earlier this year, Ronald Blum of the Associated Press wrote about Martin’s unlikely journey to the big leagues, noting that the righty was playing slow-pitch softball and working in an appliance warehouse after he believed that a shoulder injury had ended his career. When his colleague broke out a catcher’s mitt one day, Martin threw to him and discovered his shoulder to be healthy, with his colleague, Jordan Bostick, telling Blum that Martin’s pitches “nearly took my thumb off.” Martin’s fascinating journey will now take another step, as he experiences baseball in a foreign country.

As for Bailey, the 31-year-old tossed 8 2/3 innings for the Yankees this season but allowed eight runs in that time. He’s spent the past two years in the Yankees’ minor league system, battling back from shoulder injuries that have halted the former Rookie of the Year and American League All Star’s career. Bailey notched a tidy 2.57 ERA with 10.8 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 35 innings across four minor league levels this season as he worked his way back to the Majors. He’ll hope for a more immediate opportunity in the Majors next year, though I’d imagine that he’ll need to sign a minor league pact and hope to break camp with a club in Spring Training.

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