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Rays, Brendan McKay Agree To Two-Year Minor League Deal

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The Rays are in agreement with left-hander Brendan McKay on a two-year minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Tampa Bay has also agreed to traditional one-year minor league deals with catcher Nick Dini and reliever Colten Brewer.

McKay is a former fourth overall pick who has spent his entire career with the Rays. A two-way superstar in college, he increasingly focused on pitching as a professional. An excellent strike-thrower, he moved quickly through the minor leagues and reached the majors by 2019. McKay started 11 of 13 games during his rookie season, showing promising strikeout and walk marks through 49 innings.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to throw a single major league pitch in the four years since then. He missed the shortened 2020 season on account of a shoulder problem that eventually required surgery. The rehab from that procedure kept him out of action until late June 2021. Just a few outings into a minor league rehab stint, McKay suffered a flexor strain in his forearm that again proved to be season-ending. He was then diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery to correct that issue last November.

McKay spent most of 2022 on the injured list recovering from the TOS procedure. He set out on a rehab assignment in mid-July and spent his allotted 30-day window pitching back to Triple-A. The Rays then formally reinstated McKay from the IL but kept him in Durham on an optional assignment. A few days later, he suffered a UCL injury while pitching with the Bulls. Tampa Bay announced in September he’d require Tommy John surgery, an injury that’ll cost him the entire 2023 season.

At the end of this year, the Rays outrighted McKay off their 40-man roster. They released him the following week, a quirk of the minor league service system. He’s spent parts of six seasons in the minors, and he’ll have reached a seventh in 2023. After the ’23 campaign, he’d have qualified for minor league free agency if not added to the 40-man roster anyhow. By releasing him and subsequently re-signing him to a two-year deal, Tampa Bay can keep him in the organization for the 2024 season without a 40-man spot, giving them a chance to reevaluate him after a hopefully successful rehab.

Brewer, 30, pitched in the majors in four straight seasons from 2018-21. He split that time between the Padres and Red Sox, with his most extended work coming for Boston in 2019. The righty has tallied 91 innings over 81 major league appearances, working to a 5.04 ERA. Brewer signed with the Royals for the 2022 campaign. He spent the season at Triple-A Omaha, pitching to a 4.76 ERA over 39 2/3 innings. He struck out a quarter of opponents with a higher than average 10.7% walk rate.

Dini has sparse major league experience, having suited up 20 times for the Royals in 2019. The right-handed hitting catcher played in the Kansas City organization through the 2021 campaign, after which he signed with the Mets. Dini spent the season at Triple-A Syracuse, putting up a .232/.323/.446 line with 11 home runs in 201 trips to the plate.

Roster Notes: Nationals, A’s, Royals

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Andrew Stevenson of the Nationals has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, per the team. Stevenson can provide solid defense and baserunning, but those aren’t particular needs for a Washington team planning to start Lane Thomas and Victor Robles alongside superstar Juan Soto. Yadiel Hernandez and Gerardo Parra are the pure outfielders remaining in camp with a chance to win the fourth outfielder spot, while Ehire Adrianza is also capable of playing in the grass. As for Stevenson, he will have 48 hours to accept his assignment or elect free agency. Let’s check in on  some other roster updates from around the game…

Royals Sign Colten Brewer To Minor League Deal

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The Royals have signed righty Colten Brewer to a minor league contract, per a club announcement. Presumably, he’ll head to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee whenever the lockout draws to a close. Brewer was outrighted off the Red Sox’ 40-man roster in June and was not added back prior to the end of the season. That allowed him to become a minor league free agent at season’s end (and thus allowed him to sign during the current Major League transaction freeze).

Brewer, 29, has spent the past three seasons in Boston, logging a combined 81 1/3 innings of 4.98 ERA ball with a 20.3% strikeout rate, a 13.3% walk rate and a 50.4% ground-ball rate. He was a solid and oft-used member of the Boston bullpen in 2019 (4.12 ERA, 54 2/3 innings) but has since been clobbered for a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings. He appeared in just one game with the Sox in the 2021 season, allowing four runs in a lone inning before being designated for assignment and clearing outright waivers.

While Brewer hasn’t had extensive MLB success, it’s easy enough to see why a team might be intrigued by a no-risk flier on the righty. He’s averaged nearly 94 mph on his go-to cutter over the past few seasons, shown strong spin rates on his breaking ball and boasted that well above-average grounder rate. For the Royals, in particular, that affinity for grounders is surely appealing; Kansas City has talented infield defenders such as Nicky Lopez, Whit Merrifield and Adalberto Mondesi already in the big leagues, with top prospects Bobby Witt Jr. and Nick Pratto expected to debut in 2022. They’re known more for their bats than their gloves, but both Witt and Pratto are well regarded defenders in addition to their prodigious potential at the dish.

Bullpen help figures to be one of the main priorities for the Royals post-lockout. President of baseball operations Dayton Moore spoke in November of building a “championship-caliber bullpen,” and while Brewer is little more than depth for the time being, most of the game’s best bullpens have unearthed a hidden gem or two on just this type of non-guaranteed deal.

Stockpiling bullpen options is only natural, and the Royals, who have also added former Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino in recent weeks, figure to take a few dice rolls of this nature in addition to pursuing some more notable veterans — once that is permitted. At present, each of Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, Jake Brentz and perhaps Domingo Tapia has a bullpen job locked down, but there should be plenty of competition to round out the remainder of the relief corps.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/7/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • Reds righty Hector Perez cleared waivers and was outrighted off their roster, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. Perez, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Sunday, had been in limbo since the Reds designated him on June 2. He began this year by pitching to a 9.35 ERA in 8 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level before his designation.

Earlier:

  • The Red Sox outrighted Colten Brewer to Triple-A after the right-hander cleared waivers.  Brewer was designated for assignment last Thursday.  After a pretty solid 2019 season out of Boston’s bullpen, Brewer has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 frames over the last two years, including a single inning of work this season that saw him allow four earned runs.

Red Sox Designate Colten Brewer For Assignment

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The Red Sox have designated right-hander Colten Brewer for assignment in order to create 40-man roster space for righty Brandon Workman, per a club announcement. Skipper Alex Cora announced earlier today that Workman would be selected to the MLB roster and Brewer would be optioned, but the Sox have now removed Brewer from the 40-man roster entirely.

Brewer, 28, has spent parts of the past three seasons with the Sox after coming over from the Padres in a trade that sent minor league infielder Esteban Quiroz to San Diego. He pitched just one inning for Boston in 2021, yielding four runs in his lone game of the season.

The 2020 campaign was also a struggle for Brewer, who was tagged for a 5.56 ERA in 25 2/3 innings last summer. He posted a respectable 4.12 ERA in 54 2/3 innings with the Sox back in 2019, but that year’s 13.4 percent walk rate was a red flag that made it fair to question whether he’d be able to sustain that level of run prevention.

All told, Brewer has pitched 91 innings in the Majors between the Padres and the Red Sox, logging a collective 5.04 ERA (4.94 SIERA) with a 20.3 percent strikeout rate, a 13.4 percent ground-ball rate and a 50.4 percent ground-ball rate. Brewer sits about 94 mph with his go-to cutter and has, at his best, missed bats at a solid level. The past few seasons have been a struggle both in the Majors and in Triple-A, however. The Sox will have a week to trade Brewer or place him on outright waivers.

Red Sox Select Brandon Workman

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The Red Sox are selecting the contract of right-hander Brandon Workman, manager Alex Cora announced to reporters this morning. Righty Colten Brewer is being optioned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding 26-man roster move. A 40-man roster move will be announced later today as well. Workman, who signed a minor league deal to return to the Sox after being cut loose by the Cubs, had triggered a June 1 opt-out clause in his Red Sox deal earlier this week. That gave the Sox 48 hours to either release him or add him to the big league roster, and they’ve chosen the latter.

Workman, 32, pitched just eight innings for the Cubs earlier this season, allowing nine runs (six earned) on a dozen hits and seven walks with 11 punchouts in that short time. He looked quite effective until being tagged for three runs in each of his two final appearances with Chicago. Workman was on a one-year deal worth $1MM, so the Cubs didn’t have a particularly long leash when he struggled early in the year. That he was even available on such an affordable deal was a reflection of similar struggles he endured following a trade from Boston to Philadelphia last summer.

Of course, Workman is no stranger to the Red Sox organization. Boston selected him out of the University of Texas with their second-round pick in 2010, and he spent his entire professional career in the organization up until last August’s trade. Things didn’t pan out for Workman as a starter early in his big league tenure, but a full-time move to the bullpen proved to be a career-changing decision. From 2017-20, Workman threw 157 1/3 innings out of the Boston bullpen and notched a 2.57 ERA with a hearty 29 percent strikeout rate against an 11.8 percent walk rate.

As evidenced by that elevated walk rate, control has long been an issue for Workman, but he’s managed to overcome his sub-par strike-throwing skills by missing bats at a high rate and keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average 46.8 percent clip. Outside of his rocky stints with the Phillies and the Cubs, he’s been a solid late-inning reliever. He’s unlikely to be thrown right back into the fire as the Red Sox’ closer — especially with Matt Barnes pitching so well — but it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Workman resurfaced as a viable setup option before too long. He has some work to do to right the ship, but his poor performance since last summer’s trade effectively amounts to a two-month slump.

Red Sox Designate John Schreiber For Assignment, Option Michael Chavis

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The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves Tuesday as they get closer to solidifying their Opening Day squad. Boston reinstated outfielder Franchy Cordero from the Covid-19 injured list and designated right-hander John Schreiber for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The Sox also optioned infielder Michael Chavis and right-hander Colten Brewer to their alternate training site in Worcester.

Schreiber, 27, was claimed off waivers out of the Tigers organization back in February. He didn’t get a long look this spring, allowing a pair of runs on five hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings through two appearances before being optioned two weeks ago. He’s spent time with the Tigers over the past two seasons as well, logging a 6.28 ERA in 28 2/3 frames at the big league level.

Obviously, those results aren’t much to look at, but Schreiber has a career 1.99 ERA in the minors — including a 2.28 mark in 59 1/3 innings of work at Triple-A. The sidearmer punched out 25.6 percent of opponents in the Majors against a tidy 6.2 percent walk rate, and right-handed batters managed only a lowly .192/.270/.311 output against him during the 2019 season. The Sox surely hope he’ll clear waivers and give them a depth candidate.

The 25-year-old Chavis is a former first-round pick who opened some eyes early in his debut campaign with the Sox but has struggled since. He hit .212/.259/.377 in 158 trips to the plate last year, and while he did belt six long balls this spring, his overall offensive game wasn’t without red flags. Chavis batted .250/.292/.600 in 65 plate appearances, striking out 20 times (30.7 percent) against just two walks (3.1 percent). High strikeout and marginal walk rates have persisted throughout Chavis’ career to date, so the Sox will send him down to continue to work on his approach.

With Chavis being sent down to begin the season, that likely means fellow infielder Christian Arroyo will make the club. The former top prospect is out of minor league options, which may have given him a leg up in the race, but he’s turned in a respectable .269/.309/.462 batting line with a trio of homers himself in 55 plate appearances.

The 28-year-old Brewer, meanwhile, has tallied 80 1/3 innings of relief for the Sox over the past two seasons, but he struggled in 2020 and saw his troubles continue in Spring Training. Brewer notched a respectable 4.12 ERA in 54 1/3 innings back in 2019, but he was tagged for 16 earned runs in 25 2/3 frames last year (5.61 ERA) and served up seven runs in 6 1/3 innings this spring.

The Sox also received some concerning news on righty Ryan Braiser, who is headed for an MRI after straining his left calf while working in a “B” game yesterday (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com). Brasier has been slowed in camp by a fractured pinkie but looked to be trending toward a return early in the season. The MRI will tell how substantial a setback this will be, but Brasier was on crutches this morning, and manager Alex Cora told reporters that the situation “doesn’t look too promising.”

Red Sox Notes: Pivetta, Prospects, E-Rod, Yorke

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Nick Pivetta will likely get a look late in the season with the Red Sox, but the team has kept its newly acquired right-hander at the alternate training site long enough to delay his path to free agency by a year, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe observes. Pivetta entered the year at two years, 94 days of MLB service, needing 78 more days to reach the three-year plateau. With each individual day of the 2020 season accounting for roughly 2.77 days of service time in this year’s prorated schedule, he’d have needed 29 days to get there. That won’t be possible based on his current trajectory, as Pivetta just started in a simulated game yesterday, meaning he won’t be an option to join the Boston rotation until next week.

It could all be a moot point if Pivetta doesn’t solidify himself in the big leagues, of course. The right-hander showed flashes of his potential at times with the Phillies and is able to miss bats in bunches. Consistency has eluded him, however, and the Phils flipped him to Boston in last month’s trade for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree. Pivetta can now be controlled through the 2024 season, but he’ll need to improve upon the 5.23 ERA and 4.64 FIP he’s posted over the past three seasons.

More on the Red Sox…

  • Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom spoke with Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald about player development and the decision to leave prospects like Tanner Houck down at the alternate site for much of the season — even as the big league roster saw continued struggles from journeymen who likely aren’t part of the long-term plan. Bloom cited a “big picture” approach to roster construction multiple times, suggesting that even if a prospect at the alternate site is a better option than someone on the MLB roster, that prospect’s development may not yet be finished. The remaining schedule is limited at this point, of course, but Bloom did indicate that additional young talent could yet get a look in the Majors. “There is one guy in particular I can think of that we’ve been building towards hopefully getting him an opportunity before the end of the year,” Bloom said without delving into specifics. (Speculate away, Sox fans!)
  • Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who did not pitch in 2020 after developing myocarditis as an after-effect of his bout with Covid-19, is in Boston for another wave of testing, manager Ron Roenicke told reporters today (link via MLB.com’s Ian Browne). The team has yet to determine how he’ll build up for his expected 2021 return. The club still doesn’t have a clear picture of when Rodriguez can resume baseball activities, though Roenicke expressed hope that he’ll be able to begin a strength program “within the next couple months.” The Sox might have to limit Rodriguez’s workload next year, pitching coach Dave Bush acknowledged. “For a guy like Eduardo Rodriguez, 200 innings last year and zero this year, we’re still figuring out exactly what we can expect from him next year and what’s a reasonable amount so he can pitch and be part of the rotation,” said Bush.
  • The Red Sox announced this morning that they’ve added 2020 first-rounder Nick Yorke to their 60-man player pool. The 18-year-old infielder obviously won’t be a consideration for the big leagues this season, but he’ll spend the final couple weeks of the season getting some development work in with the team’s staff. Right-hander Colten Brewer, who is on the 45-day injured list and already known to be done for the year due to a finger injury on his pitching hand, was removed from Boston’s player pool.

Red Sox Select Domingo Tapia

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The Red Sox have selected right-hander Domingo Tapia’s contract, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets. They also placed southpaw Josh Taylor on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Sept. 8, with left shoulder tendinitis and shifted righty Colten Brewer to the 45-day IL. Brewer’s season is now over.

The 29-year-old Tapia began his professional career as a member of the Mets, with whom he was a decently ranked prospect on multiple occasions (Baseball America placed him in the team’s top 20 three times). But Tapia didn’t get past the Double-A level with the Mets through 2016, his final season with the organization, and topped out in Triple-A ball with the Reds from 2017-18. He spent all of last year with the Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate, posting a 5.18 ERA/5.31 FIP with 7.09 K/9 and 4.36 BB/9 in 66 innings.

The Red Sox were counting on Taylor to fill  an important role in their bullpen when this season began, but his year has been a nightmare. While Taylor had a very good rookie season last year, his 2020 was a delayed as a result of a positive coronavirus test. Taylor debuted Aug. 17, but he has since surrendered eight earned runs on seven hits and five walks (with seven strikeouts) in 7 1/3 innings.

Red Sox Select Jonathan Lucroy, Dylan Covey

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The Red Sox announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contracts of catcher Jonathan Lucroy and right-hander Dylan Covey. Recent signee Zack Godley didn’t make the cut, nor did right-hander Chris Mazza, but both will report to the organization’s alternate training site. The Red Sox also recalled righties Colten Brewer and Phillips Valdez as well as southpaws Matt Hall, Josh Osich and Jeffrey Springs.

Lucroy, 34, gives the Sox another catching option alongside Christian Vazquez and Kevin Plawecki. He’s not the All-Star-caliber player he once was, but he’ll give the club plenty of experience to help out with a patchwork pitching staff.

The 2019 season marked the third consecutive year of what has been a precipitous decline for Lucroy. Once arguably the game’s best all-around catcher, Lucroy batted just .232/.305/.355 between the Angels and Cubs last season and has posted a tepid .248/.315/.350 slash in 1263 plate appearances since Opening Day 2017. His formerly vaunted pitch-framing skills have taken a nosedive and now rate below the league average, and Lucroy’s caught-stealing rate has dipped since peaking at 39 percent in 2016.

Covey, 28, has pitched 250 1/3 innings in the big leagues but has never cemented himself as a consistent contributor. He got out to a sharp start with the ChiSox in 2018, tossing 40 1/3 innings with a 2.90 ERA and a 35-to-16 K/BB ratio, but his results quickly went south and haven’t rebounded since despite several opportunities. All told, he has a career 6.54 ERA and 5.56 FIP in the big leagues.

Still, Covey was at one point a first-round pick and lasted less than two weeks as a free agent this winter when the White Sox cut him loose. Covey quickly caught on with the Rays, with whom current Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom worked his way from intern to senior VP of baseball operations. Bloom was already with the Red Sox when Covey landed in Tampa Bay, but it seems likely that the Rays had some interest in the righty dating back to Bloom’s days with the team.

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