NL Notes: Crawford, Kim, Mikolas, Cecil, Johnson
Brandon Crawford gave the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea a rundown of his daily routine, as the Giants shortstop is busy balancing his time with his wife and four young children alongside workouts and engaging in whatever baseball activities he can manage from his house. On this particular day, for example, Crawford and the Giants’ team yoga instructor met via video conferencing for a session “based on baseball mobility and movements that we need,” Crawford said.
Some more from the National League…
- While Crawford is one of many players staying at home with his family during the shutdown, newly-signed Cardinals left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim is in St. Louis while his family is in South Korea. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) that Kim could potentially return to Korea while Major League Baseball is on hiatus. “I can only imagine the mental challenge [Kim is] under with his wife and children back in South Korea, trying to adapt to a new country, a new team, and then have all this thrust upon him,” Mozeliak said. “So we’re trying to navigate that as best we can, but…clearly this has not been easy for him, and I think all of us could understand why.”
- From that same teleconference earlier this week, Mozeliak also provided updates on some injured Cardinals players. Miles Mikolas continues to make progress after suffering a flexor tendon strain in February and receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection, as Mikolas will soon throw a bullpen session and is currently throwing from 120 feet. Brett Cecil recently took time off from his hamstring injury rehab for personal reasons, but Mozeliak said Cecil will resume the process next week. Cecil suffered what manager Mike Shildt described as a “fairly significant” right hamstring strain in mid-March, and while no specific timeline was put in place, it was thought that Cecil was facing “multiple weeks of treatment.”
- After pitching in Japan in 2019, Pierce Johnson signed a two-year, $5MM deal with the Padres this offseason to mark his return to North American baseball. As Johnson told Fangraphs’ David Laurila, “a few other teams kicked the tires” on the right-hander’s availability, and he also came “really close to taking” an offer to remain with the Hanshin Tigers. Ultimately, Johnson chose the Padres and MLB in order to bring his family back closer to home. Johnson posted only a 5.44 ERA over his 44 2/3 career Major League innings with the Cubs and Giants in 2017-18, though his season in Nippon Professional Baseball greatly elevated his stock, as the righty posted a 1.38 ERA, 14.0 K/9, and 7.00 K/BB rate over 58 2/3 relief innings for the Tigers.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/19/16
The latest minor moves from around the baseball world…
- The Giants signed southpaw Michael Roth to a minor league deal, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Twitter link). Roth has appeared in parts of three big league seasons with the Angels and Rangers, posting an 8.50 ERA over 36 career innings. He spent most of 2016 pitching for the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate, and he managed a strong 2.97 ERA over 145 1/3 innings, starting 23 of 28 games.
- The Giants have also signed infielder Juniel Querecuto to a minor league deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports via Twitter. The 24-year-old made his major league debut in 2016, appearing in four games with the Rays. Since being signed out of Venezuela and beginning his pro career at age 17, Querecuto has hit .253/.311/.319 over 2112 minor league plate appearances.
- Former Mets utilityman Eric Campbell will sign with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to reports out of Japan (hat tip to ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin). The Mets outrighted Campbell off their 40-man roster earlier this month and he elected to become a free agent. Campbell, who turns 30 in April, has a .622 OPS over 505 career plate appearances in the bigs, all as a member of the Mets from 2014-16. Most of Campbell’s playing time has been at third base, though he has also seen significant time at first and left field, as well as limited action as a shortstop, right fielder and second baseman.
- The Mariners announced that outfielder Stefen Romero has been released so that he can pursue an opportunity to play in Japan. Romero appeared in 72 games for Seattle in his 2014 rookie season but just 22 since, amassing a .195/.242/.307 career slash line over 233 plate appearances. A 12th-round pick for the M’s in the 2010 draft, Romero showed some promise in the minors, posting an .875 OPS and an even 100 homers over 2567 minor league PA.
Padres’ Marcos Mateo Likely Headed To NPB’s Hanshin Tigers
Padres right-hander Marcos Mateo took a physical for the Hanshin Tigers of Japana’s Nippon Professional Baseball today, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (links to Twitter). If everything checks out, Mateo will likely sign a contract with Hanshin, who would presumably send cash to the Padres in exchange for releasing Mateo, Lin adds.
Mateo, a former Cubs prospect, saw 44 2/3 innings with Chicago from 2010-11 and didn’t play in the Major Leagues until last season with the Padres. With San Diego, Mateo pitched 27 innings with a 4.00 ERA and 33 strikeouts against eight unintentional walks. Over the past three years between Triple-A, the Dominican Winter League and the Padres, Mateo has been outstanding, averaging well over 10 strikeouts per nine innings and yielding a combined 2.53 ERA across that variety of leagues. Mateo is primarily a fly-ball pitcher — 34.8 percent ground-ball rate in 2015 — that averaged 94.2 mph on his fastball during his most recent stint with the Padres.
Subtracting Mateo from the roster will thin out what currently projects to be a crowded bullpen scene, particularly in terms of right-handed pitchers. In addition to Mateo, San Diego has righties Odrisamer Despaigne, Kevin Quackenbush, Nick Vincent, Brandon Maurer, Cesar Vargas, Cory Mazzoni and Jon Edwards. The club also has three right-handers — Luis Perdomo, Blake Smith and Josh Martin — that it selected in the Rule 5 Draft. While each might be an unlikely candidate to stick with the Padres, they’ll be in camp competing for jobs nonetheless, and if one name particularly intrigues the Padres, they’ll have to keep him on the roster or risk losing him to waivers before offering him back to his former team.
Kosuke Fukudome Signs With Hanshin Tigers
Outfielder Kosuke Fukudome signed with the Hanshin Tigers earlier this offseason according to a Sponichi report passed along by Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker. The Octagon client received a three-year deal worth roughly $5.5MM.
Fukudome, 35, hit .171/.294/.195 in 51 plate appearances for the White Sox last year before being released at midseason. He signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and hit .276/.440/.378 in 166 Triple-A plate appearances to close out the season. Fukudome is a .258/.359/.395 career hitter at the big league level with the Cubs, Indians, and ChiSox.
Twins Rumors: McCarthy, Blanton, Dempster, Myers
Here's the latest on the Twins from Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN…
- So far, the Twins have reached out to free agents Brandon McCarthy, Anibal Sanchez, Joe Blanton, Ryan Dempster, and Brett Myers. They're interested in Myers as a starter. They've also reached out to Brandon Webb even though he hasn't thrown a pitch in the big leagues since 2009.
- The club continues to have regular conversations with Alan Nero, who represents right-hander Scott Baker. The two sides are working on a new contract after Baker's $9.25MM option was declined.
- The Twins have not shown any interest in Jon Garland and were not present when the right-hander threw for teams during an audition back in September.
- Talks with reliever Jared Burton about a contract extension are underway. Matt Swartz projects a $2.1MM salary for the right-hander next season, after which he'll become a free agent.
- The Twins have inquired about reliever Randy Messenger, though the Hanshin Tigers in Japan will not allow the right-hander out of his contract.
- The team has not contacted Bill Bray after he hit free agency. Special assistant Wayne Krivsky acquired the left-hander during his tenure as Reds GM.
Hanshin Tigers Eyeing Jeff Clement, Mauro Gomez
The Hanshin Tigers are looking at Jeff Clement and Mauro Gomez for next year, according to a Japanese report passed along by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker (on Twitter). Both players were recently called up to the MLB level after successful minor league seasons. The Tigers are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Japan.
Clement has appeared in 12 games for the Pirates since the end of August after posting a .276/.340/.486 batting line with 16 home runs in 459 plate appearances at Triple-A. The CAA Sports client has a .219/.279/.374 batting line in parts of four MLB seasons.
Gomez, who signed with the Red Sox in February, has appeared in 22 games with Boston this year. The 28-year-old corner infielder has a .299/.342/.448 batting line in 73 MLB plate appearances. He spent most of the 2012 season at Triple-A Pawtucket, where he posted a .310/.371/.589 in 426 plate appearances.
Quick Hits: Oswalt, Wilson, Dotel, International Draft
Here's the latest from around the league on a historic day, as Ryan Braun became the first player to successfully appeal a banned substance-related supension…
- "It’s strictly a money thing," said Lance Berkman to reporters (including Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com) when asked about Roy Oswalt (Twitter links). "The Cardinals [offer] … wasn’t enough to lure him out of Mississippi … I think he feels like that he can get the same money in half a season as he could in a full season and he’s probably right."
- "He's under control this year and next year, and we're in the monitoring stage for obvious reasons," said Giants GM Brian Sabean to Hank Schulman of The San Francisco Chronicle when asked about the future of Brian Wilson. "We're still in the wait-and-see period." Wilson can become a free agent after 2013.
Octavio Dotel will become the first player in MLB history to play for 13 teams when he appears in his first game with the Tigers, as Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press writes. Matt Stairs, Mike Morgan and Ron Villone currently share the record with Dotel, who hopes to retire a Tiger. - Commissioner Bud Selig spoke about an international draft in this piece by Josh Leventhal of Baseball America. "We'll watch the situation carefully and make the right decision," said Selig. "I can't say [when a draft would be put in place]. We want to see how [the process] works out."
- ESPN's Keith Law published his first list of the top 50 prospects in this year's draft (Insider req'd). High school outfielder Byron Buxton topped list, following by high school righty Lucas Giolito and Stanford righty Mark Appel.
Odds And Ends: Cubs, Matsui, Mets
More links for the afternoon…
- Don't forget about today's chat, coming up in less than two hours at 2pm CST…
- This Chicago Sun-Times article blames Jim Hendry for assembling an expensive group of under-performing hitters, but credits him for putting together some solid pitching.
- Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker passes on some comments made by a member of the Hanshin Tigers front office about the possibility of acquiring Hideki Matsui after the season, when he's a free agent. It sounds like the Tigers will keep an eye on him.
- Willie Randolph was fired a year ago today. Since then, the Mets have won 87 of 154 games under Jerry Manuel, who's a better communicator than his predecessor and a popular leader, according to Ben Shpigel of the New York Times.
- Darren Heitner points out that the first rounders to sign so far haven't obtained the recommended limit for their slots. (Hat Tip: THT)
Mench Completes Deal With Japanese Team
MLBTR reported this was going to happen, and now it has. Kevin Mench will be playing for the Hanshin Tigers in 2009.
The deal is for one year and is worth $1.8MM. Mench, 30, played in the outfield for the Blue Jays last season. He hit .243/.321/.357 in 131 plate appearances for Toronto.
Kosuke Fukudome Update
The Hanshin Tigers offered free agent outfielder Kosuke Fukudome roughly $18.5MM over four years. They’ve now withdrawn their offer, leaving the Yomiuri Giants as his only Japanese suitor. I’m assuming that means Fukudome’s former team, the Chunichi Dragons, is also out of the running. (By the way, the Hanshin Tigers have switched their attention to signing Lew Ford).
Fukudome should make at least $30MM over three years in the United States. The Rangers, Mets, Cubs, Giants, White Sox, and Padres may all have interest.