KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Connor Seabold
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Friday that they’ve signed former Red Sox and Rockies right-hander Connor Seabold. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be guaranteed $900K with another $100K available to him via incentives, per Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
Seabold, 27, was a third-round pick of the Phillies back in 2017 and has twice been traded — first to the Red Sox as part of the deal bringing Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to Philadelphia, and second to the Rockies last winter in exchange for cash. Colorado released Seabold on the day of the Rule 5 draft, opening a spot to make a selection in the process.
Earlier in his professional tenure, Seabold ranked among the top pitching prospects in both the Phillies and Red Sox systems, but elbow and forearm injuries shortened his 2021 and 2022 seasons. Seabold came to the Rockies with a solid track record in the upper minors, but his lone season with the Rox proved nightmarish both in Colorado and with their Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque.
Seabold started 13 games and made another 14 relief appearances with Colorado this past season but was tagged for a gruesome 7.52 ERA in the process. He posted a sharp 6.9% walk rate but struggled with a well below-average 16.4% strikeout rate and a sky-high 1.96 HR/9. Seabold’s status as a pronounced fly-ball pitcher did him no favors at Coors Field, and he allowed hard contact a fair bit more often than the average big league pitcher (40.5%). Things didn’t go any better in Triple-A, where Seabold posted a 7.47 ERA in 31 2/3 frames.
As recently as 2022, Seabold tossed 86 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with Triple-A Worcester in the Sox’ system, striking out 24.7% of his opponents against an excellent 5.3% walk rate. The Lions will be hoping for something closer to that form, and if he’s able to replicate that performance, Seabold would likely position himself to be re-signed on a potential seven-figure guarantee. Given that he’s only heading into his age-28 season, Seabold is certainly young enough that an eventual return to MLB could be in the cards.
Oftentimes that requires multiple strong seasons in the KBO or NPB, although right-hander Erick Fedde, who’s three years older than Seabold, just parlayed one dominant KBO season (wherein he was named league MVP and won the KBO’s Cy Young equivalent) into a two-year, $15MM deal with the White Sox. That’s an ideal scenario for any player headed to Japan or Korea, and Seabold has enough prospect pedigree that if he can reinvent himself (perhaps with the help of a new pitch, as Fedde did), a similar path feels plausible.
Rockies To Release Connor Seabold
The Rockies are releasing right-hander Connor Seabold, per Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. In doing so, they’ll open a spot on their 40-man roster to make a selection in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft.
Seabold, 27, was a third-round pick of the Phillies back in 2017 and has twice been traded — first to the Red Sox as part of the deal bringing Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to Philadelphia, and second to the Rockies last winter in exchange for cash.
Earlier in his professional tenure, Seabold ranked among the top pitching prospects in both the Phillies and Red Sox systems, but elbow and forearm injuries shortened his 2021 and 2022 seasons. Seabold came to the Rockies with a solid track record in the upper minors, but his lone season with the Rox proved nightmarish both in Colorado and with their Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque.
Seabold started 13 games and made another 14 relief appearances with Colorado this past season but was tagged for a gruesome 7.52 ERA in the process. He posted a sharp 6.9% walk rate but struggled with a well below-average 16.4% strikeout rate and a sky-high 1.96 HR/9. Seabold’s status as a pronounced fly-ball pitcher did him no favors at Coors Field, and he allowed hard contact a fair bit more often than the average big league pitcher (40.5%). Things didn’t go any better in Triple-A, where Seabold posted a 7.47 ERA in 31 2/3 frames.
As recently as 2022, Seabold tossed 86 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with Triple-A Worcester in the Sox’ system, striking out 24.7% of his opponents against an excellent 5.3% walk rate. However, he’s also out of minor league options, so the Rox would’ve needed to carry Seabold on the Opening Day roster or else trade him, expose him to waivers or (as they’ll apparently do today) release him. Once he formally becomes a free agent, Seabold will be able to explore minor league deals with other organizations and perhaps gauge interest from teams in Japan and South Korea.
Rockies Moving Connor Seabold To Bullpen
The Rockies are kicking right-hander Connor Seabold to the bullpen, reports Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Colorado plans to recall righty Peter Lambert from Triple-A Albuquerque to start tomorrow’s game in Miami instead.
Acquired from the Red Sox over the offseason, Seabold has started 13 of 20 outings during his first year in Colorado. His 72 2/3 innings are easily a career high and he’s third on the team in starts behind Austin Gomber and the currently-injured Kyle Freeland. The Rockies have plenty of pitching uncertainty, so they’ve been able to afford the 27-year-old his first extended look in a big league rotation.
To date, Seabold hasn’t taken advantage of the opportunity. He carries a 7.63 ERA as starter. Seabold is throwing a fair number of strikes but has gotten hit hard. He’s striking hitters out at a meager 15.1% clip and has surrendered 16 homers in 59 rotation innings (2.44 HR/9).
Seabold had a solid three-start run in early June, but his results since then have been alarming. He’s allowed six-plus runs in three of his last five outings. He failed to get past the fifth inning in any of them. The Yankees tagged him for six runs on as many hits in 2 1/3 innings in a 6-3 New York victory on Saturday, spurring the role change.
Lambert, a former second-round pick, started 19 games as a rookie four seasons ago. Injuries (most notably July 2020 Tommy John surgery) essentially ruined his next three campaigns. He’s worked in long relief for Colorado this season, tossing 34 1/3 frames over 16 outings. Lambert has only a 6.29 ERA of his own, though he’s at least striking hitters out at a decent 23.5% clip. Colorado optioned him early in the month to stretch back out as a starter in Albuquerque.
The 26-year-old has thrown 56 innings between the MLB and Triple-A levels this season. Saunders writes that the Rox are planning to keep him in the 100-120 range for the year. He should have a few chances to try to stake an early claim to a spot in a wide open Colorado rotation for 2024.
Gomber and Freeland (assuming he comes back as expected from a dislocation and small tear in his non-throwing shoulder) are the only two pitchers who seem to have holds on ’24 starting spots. Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela both underwent Tommy John surgeries this year. Márquez will be a free agent once Colorado buys out a $16MM option for next season; Senzatela is under contract but might not pitch at all next year. Of the other Rockies’ starters, only Ryan Feltner has an ERA below 6.00; he’s allowing 5.86 earned runs per nine over eight outings.
Rockies Place Germán Márquez On IL With Elbow Inflammation
3:50pm: Márquez spoke to reporters about his situation today, including Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. He says that he thinks he will be out up to six weeks, though that seems to still be up in the air. Tommy John surgery is ruled out for now but he says he’s worried he’ll need it eventually. Further testing is still to come as he’ll see another doctor on Monday.
2:20pm: The Rockies announced that right-hander Germán Márquez has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 27, due to right elbow inflammation. Fellow righty Connor Seabold has been recalled in a corresponding move.
It’s been a frustrating season for Marquez, who made three starts before going on the injured list with a forearm strain. It seemed as though he avoided a significant absence when he returned this week and took the ball for Wednesday’s game. Unfortunately, he was removed after calling the trainers to the mound and revealed after the game that he had soreness in his triceps. He was set to get an MRI in Denver yesterday and it seems there’s enough concern to put him on the shelf for at least a couple weeks.
It’s still not known exactly how much time he’s expected to miss, but it’s a blow to the Colorado rotation nonetheless. Márquez is the club’s best starting pitcher, having a 4.41 ERA through 176 appearances. Since he plays his home games at Coors Field, ERA estimators tend to agree that he deserves better, with his career FIP at 4.02 and his SIERA at 3.96. He has a 22.9% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate.
Any club would prefer to avoid losing its best starter, of course, but the Rockies will be especially challenged since their rotation hasn’t been a strong suit for them. Kyle Freeland, Noah Davis, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner are the remaining four in the club’s rotation, with Seabold now potentially joining them or perhaps serving a long relief role of the bullpen. He has 12 major league appearances under his belt but with an 8.81 ERA thus far.
Márquez is in the final guaranteed season of the extension he signed with the Rockies back in 2019. The club will have a $13.5MM decision to make on him at the end of the campaign, as they can trigger a $16MM option for 2024 or take a $2.5MM buyout. If his injury ends up being minor, then it should be a pretty easy call to keep him around for one more year at that price, but a more significant ailment could perhaps make it a bit trickier.
Red Sox Trade Connor Seabold To Rockies
11:47am: The Rockies have announced the trade.
11:28am: The Rockies have acquired right-hander Connor Seabold from the Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later or cash, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter). Boston designated Seabold for assignment last week when finalizing their deal with free-agent starter Corey Kluber. The Rockies had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding transaction won’t be required.
Seabold, 26, was a mildly surprising DFA by the Red Sox, if only due to his recent status as one of the organization’s more promising pitching prospects. There are pronounced durability concerns about the right-hander, however, due in no small part to elbow trouble in 2021 and a forearm strain in 2022. Seabold has just 364 professional innings since being drafted back in 2017 — that modest total coming despite his status as a starting pitcher.
As far as his Major League work is concerned, Seabold has yet to find success. He’s tallied just 21 1/3 innings in the Majors, all with the Red Sox, and he’s been tagged for 25 runs in that time. Things have gone more smoothly in Triple-A, where Seabold pitched well as recently as this past season: 86 1/3 innings, 3.32 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate.
Despite concerns about his ability to stay on the field and a shaky MLB performance to date, Seabold is more or less a big league-ready arm who’ll give the Rockies some depth on the pitching staff, if not a player who could legitimately vie for a starting job this spring. Colorado’s rotation will be without Antonio Senzatela to begin the season, due to the righty’s ACL tear late last year, and the staff has little certainty beyond righty German Marquez and lefty Kyle Freeland (both of whom are looking for a rebound performance anyhow). Jose Urena, Ryan Feltner and Austin Gomber are the ostensible front-runners, but each posted an ERA north of 5.00 in 2022.
Seabold also has a minor league option year remaining, so if he doesn’t win a job out of camp, he can still be sent to the minors without first needing to clear waivers.
Red Sox Designate Connor Seabold For Assignment
The Red Sox have designated right-hander Connor Seabold for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Corey Kluber, per a team announcement.
Seabold’s DFA registers as something of a surprise, as the 26-year-old (27 later this month) is generally regarded as one of the better pitchers in Boston’s system. While he’s certainly older than most “prospects” at this juncture, each of Baseball America (No. 23), MLB.com (No. 21) and FanGraphs (No. 7) ranked Seabold favorably within the Red Sox’ farm as recently as midway through the 2022 season.
Granted, Seabold has been rocked for 25 runs in just 21 1/3 big league innings to this point in his career. However, the right-hander also turned in a strong 3.32 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate and an excellent 5.3% walk rate in 86 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball in 2022. That marked the second straight Triple-A season in which he’s pitched to an ERA in the mid-3.00s with average or better strikeout and walk rates.
Seabold, however, has battled injuries throughout his career — including some elbow troubles in 2021 and a forearm strain in 2022. Those recent arm troubles surely played into this decision, even if Seabold finished out the 2022 season in what appeared to be good health. Durability has been a concern that’s been cited on multiple scouting reports for the 6’2″, 190-pound righty. The fact that he’s tossed just 364 innings, between the big leagues and the minors combined, since being drafted in 2017 speaks to those concerns. Even accounting for a half season in his draft year and he lack of minor league games in 2020, that’s a fairly light innings total for a pitcher who’s worked as a starter over the course of four full professional seasons.
Durability concerns notwithstanding, Seabold is a more or less MLB-ready arm with a solid track record in Double-A/Triple-A and with one more minor league option year remaining. That seems likely to generate interest from another club, be it via a trade or waiver claim. The Red Sox will have a week to trade Seabold, pass him through outright waivers or release him.
Red Sox Place Connor Seabold, Christian Arroyo On Injured List
The Red Sox announced a series of moves, including the placement of right-hander Connor Seabold on the 15-day injured list and utilityman Christian Arroyo on the 10-day IL. Right-hander Phillips Valdez and infielder Jeter Downs were called up from Triple-A in corresponding moves. As reported earlier today, Boston also selected the contract of Kaleb Ort, while designating Michael Feliz for assignment.
Seabold has an extensor strain in his right forearm, which forced him out of last night’s game with the Yankees in the third inning. While extensor strains aren’t always a precursor to Tommy John surgery, any forearm-related injury is naturally a concern, and Seabold will undergo further examination before a recovery timeline is known.
With the injury bug taking a big bit out of the Sox rotation, Seabold was called up in late June and has made three starts. The results haven’t been pretty, as he has an 11.91 ERA over 11 1/3 innings — Seabold sandwiched a respectable one-run performance against the White Sox between a pair of seven-run blowouts to the Blue Jays and Yankees.
Chris Sale is slated to be activated from the IL on Tuesday, and the veteran southpaw will join a makeshift rotation of Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford, Josh Winckowski and top prospect Brayan Bello. However, the Red Sox have more than an entire rotation’s worth of arms on the injured list, as Seabold joins Sale, Garrett Whitlock, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill, and James Paxton. Eovaldi is tentatively set to return next weekend, but the Sox might have to wait until after the All-Star break to get any semblance of a healthy starting five.
The team will also lose bench depth, as the versatile Arroyo will miss time due to a left groin strain. Arroyo’s placement opens the door for Downs’ latest opportunity at the MLB level, as the star prospect made his big league debut with a single game earlier this season.
Downs has been on fire in the 14 Triple-A games since his return, as his offense has hugely improved since cutting down on his leg lift during his swing. (Hat tip to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.) His role on Boston’s active roster will be of some interest, as Downs has almost exclusively played shortstop this season, with only a single game at third base. Rafael Devers is currently battling a bad back, and with Downs now up, this could hint that the Sox are considering a precautionary IL placement for Devers. However, it is also possible Downs might get only another cup-of-coffee stint if Devers’ back heals up after a weekend off.
Red Sox Recall Kutter Crawford, Option Connor Seabold
The Red Sox swapped a pair of right-handers between Boston and Triple-A Worcester this morning, the team announced, optioning Connor Seabold and recalling Kutter Crawford. Seabold had made his third big-league start yesterday against the Cubs, tossing four innings of one-run ball.
The move gives manager Alex Cora an extra arm while his team deals with a spate of injuries in rotation: in addition to the long-term absences of Chris Sale and James Paxton, Rich Hill, Nathan Eovaldi, and Garrett Whitlock are all on the 15-day IL while Michael Wacha is, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, dealing with a dead arm that may require an IL stint. Because optioned players are allowed to return at any time if replacing a player headed to the IL, Seabold could return to start late in the week should Wacha — who last pitched on June 28th — need more time.
While Cora might have to make some uncomfortable decisions in the short term, there could be help on the way. While neither Whitlock nor Eovaldi is yet close to returning, Sale, who’s yet to pitch this season due to a stress fracture in his ribcage (and who’s covered only 42 2/3 innings since 2019, all of them last year), has already made one rehab start and is scheduled for another on Wednesday, and consensus top 100 prospect Brayan Bello appears likely to make his big-league debut the same day after Cora told reporters (including McCaffrey) that he’s probably the best option currently pitching in Worcester.
After hitting a bit of a rough patch in his first taste of Double-A last year, the 23-year-old Bello has tossed 85 innings 2.33 ERA ball across 15 appearances (14 starts) between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester. His excellent ERA is backed up by a stellar strikeout rate (33.7%), though his walk rate (9.8%) leaves a bit to be desired.
Crawford, who’s struggled while shuttling between both Boston and Worcester and bullpen and rotation this year, could also be an option to start, though he likely won’t be Cora’s first choice. In 21 2/3 career big-league innings, he’s logged an unsightly 7.89 ERA (5.66 FIP). He has consistently missed bats at every level in the minors, however, and given the tattered state of the Boston pitching staff, he may well get an extended opportunity to do so in the bigs.
COVID Notes: 9/12/21
The latest updates on coronavirus situations around baseball…
Latest Moves
- The Red Sox placed yet another player on the COVID list, as right-hander Phillips Valdez tested positive for the virus (MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo was among those to report the news.) Right-hander Brad Peacock will join the active roster in Valdez’s place after Peacock’s contract was selected from Triple-A Worcester. Between Pivetta’s activation and Valdez joining, Boston’s COVID list remains at 10 players.
Earlier Today
- The Red Sox reinstated right-hander Nick Pivetta from the COVID-related injury list today, and optioned righty Connor Seabold to Triple-A. Pivetta will get the start today against the White Sox after recovering from a case of COVID-19 that sidelined him on September 5. (As per league regulations, Pivetta was cleared to return after seven days because he was fully vaccinated earlier this season.) It has been something of an up-and-down season for Pivetta, and the righty is looking to bounce back after posting a 10.13 ERA over 10 2/3 innings pitched in his last three starts.
Red Sox’ Connor Seabold To Make Major League Debut
2:50 pm: Brad Peacock has been returned to Triple-A as the corresponding roster move, per Cotillo (via Twitter). Peacock made two appearances, allowing nine runs in 5 1/3 innings.
11:09 am: Right-hander Connor Seabold will be added to the Red Sox active roster to make his first career start tonight against the White Sox, per Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com (via Twitter).
Seabold will start in place of Nick Pivetta, who is on the COVID-related injured list. Seabold and Pivetta came to Boston together in a trade with the Phillies last August. The deal sent relievers Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman to Philadelphia – neither of whom remain with the team.
The 25-year-old Seabold was Boston’s 8th-ranked prospect by Fangraphs at the start of this season. He is their 12th-ranked prospect by Baseball America, who wrote in their scouting report, “Seabold’s three-pitch mix includes a 90-93 mph fastball that sometimes ticks up slightly higher, an excellent changeup with sink and fade and a below-average slider that plays up because of command and deception.”
The Red Sox currently hold the top wild card spot, but their grip is loose. The Yankees trail by just a half game, while the Blue Jays, Athletics, and Mariners are all within a game of New York. Seabold will be thrown right into the fire as the Red Sox continue to deal with a long list of positive COVID-19 tests.