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Keury Mella

Recapping The CPBL’s International Player Signings

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Chinese Professional Baseball League teams are preparing for their spring camps, and the last several months have seen the CPBL’s five clubs adding some familiar foreign-born names to their rosters.  Under CPBL rules, teams are allowed to have a maximum of four international players on their active rosters, so with some teams opting to add a fifth or sixth player to keep in their minor leagues for replacement purposes.  However, replacing an international player isn’t as simple as a normal call-up — a foreign player must be released in order to be removed from a CPBL team’s active roster.

There isn’t an official limit on how many international-born players can be signed per team, so it is possible that more names could be added to this list in the coming days or weeks.  (The post will be updated to reflect such moves.)  Much thanks to the CPBL Stats website for their work in reporting on many of these signings.  Here’s the rundown…

CTBC Brothers
Jose De Paula, Shawn Morimando, Francisco Pena, Teddy Stankiewicz, Jose Valdez

Fubon Guardians
Xavier Batista, Yomar Flande Concepcion, Luis Escobar, Joe Van Meter

Rakuten Monkeys
Ryan Bollinger, Dylan Covey, Bradin Hagens, Henry Sosa

Uni-President Lions
Brock Dykxhoorn, Keury Mella, Logan Ondrusek, Wilin Rosario

Wei Chuan Dragons
Jake Brigham, Drew Gagnon, Telvin Nash, Ronny Rodriguez, Bryan Woodall

CPBL’s Uni-President Lions Sign Keury Mella, Logan Ondrusek

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Last week, the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League announced the signings of right-handers Keury Mella and Logan Ondrusek (h/t to CPBL Stats). They join former Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario as one-time big leaguers who’ll be suiting up with the Lions in 2022.

Mella has appeared in each of the past five MLB seasons, although he’s never exceeded ten innings in a given year. The 28-year-old has made 21 appearances in relief, totaling 28 2/3 innings of 7.22 ERA ball. A former Giants prospect, he was traded to the Reds alongside Adam Duvall in the July 2015 Mike Leake deal. Mella spent parts of three years in Cincinnati and has pitched with the Diamondbacks in each of the last two years.

Last season, Mella made two MLB appearances but spent the bulk of the year in Triple-A, splitting the season between the top affiliates of the D-Backs and Pirates. The Dominican Republic native had a 5.44 ERA over 48 Triple-A innings, where he fanned 24.5% of opponents against a 9.9% walk rate. At the end of the season, he elected minor league free agency and will now embark on his first stint in an Asian professional league.

Ondrusek has a bit more experience in foreign leagues, but this will be his first stint in the CPBL. A frequently-utilized middle relief option with the Reds from 2010-14, he also appeared briefly with the 2016 Orioles. Altogether, the Texas native owns a 4.03 ERA across 277 MLB innings.

Since his time in Cincinnati, the 36-year-old (37 next month) logged some time with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s bounced between a few Triple-A clubs, independent ball and appeared in the Mexican League. Ondrusek hooked on with the Giants on a minor league deal late last season, ultimately making nine appearances (including eight starts) with their top affiliate in Sacramento. He posted a 4.78 ERA with a slightly below average 21.8% strikeout rate but a strong 6.9% walk percentage across 43 1/3 innings there.

Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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We’ve seen dozens of players elect minor league free agency over the past couple weeks, and that has continued to be the case in recent days. We’ll round up a few more players who are hitting the open market here, courtesy of the Triple-A transactions trackers.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Each of this group of players has hit the market within the past week and not yet been covered at MLBTR:

Pirates Sign Keury Mella

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Keury Mella to a minor league contract, reports Jake Crouse of MLB.com (Twitter link). He has been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. Mella was released by the Diamondbacks last week.

Mella has seen big league action in each of the past five seasons, albeit without ever carving out a consistent role on a staff. He’s never logged more than ten MLB innings in a given campaign, and his overall body of work consists of 28 2/3 frames of 7.22 ERA/5.11 SIERA ball. The 28-year-old made two appearances with the D-Backs this season, allowing six runs in 1 2/3 innings before being passed through outright waivers.

Over parts of four Triple-A campaigns, Mella has worked to a 4.55 ERA across 201 2/3 innings, starting a little more than half his appearances. He’s worked exclusively in relief this season, though, tossing 29 innings of 4.34 ERA ball in a hitter-friendly environment in Reno. Mella’s 22.7% Triple-A strikeout rate is a bit below-average, but he’s done well in avoiding walks and induced grounders on nearly half the balls in play against him.

In other Pirates roster news, the club activated left-hander Steven Brault from the 60-day injured list, as previously reported. He worked four innings of one-run ball against the Brewers this afternoon in his season debut. To create 40-man roster space, Pittsburgh transferred righty Chase De Jong from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. De Jong is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his left knee last week.

Diamondbacks Select Noe Ramirez, Designate Keury Mella

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve selected the contract of righty reliever Noé Ramirez. To create active and 40-man roster space, fellow righty Keury Mella was designated for assignment.

Ramirez has been a member of three organizations this year. The longtime Angel was traded to the Reds as part of the Raisel Iglesias deal over the offseason. He struggled mightily in Spring Training, so Cincinnati released him before the regular season began to avoid committing to his entire $1.175MM arbitration salary. Ramirez quickly re-signed with the Angels on a minor league deal and Los Angeles added him to the big league roster in mid-May. Just five days later, the Angels designated Ramirez for assignment and passed him through waivers. He elected free agency and signed a minors pact with the D-Backs.

The 31-year-old didn’t find much success with Triple-A Reno. He was tagged for eight runs on as many hits (including three homers) and five walks in nine innings, although he did strike out twelve batters in that hitter-friendly environment. Before this year’s trials, Ramirez was a solid middle reliever, pitching to a 3.76 ERA/3.91 FIP from 2019-20.

Arizona just selected Mella to the MLB roster on Tuesday. He made two disastrous appearances in San Francisco this week, allowing six runs while recording just five outs. The 27-year-old has pitched 28 2/3 MLB innings over the past five seasons, compiling a 7.22 ERA/5.10 SIERA. Mella has already passed through waivers once this year and accepted an outright assignment to Reno, although he’ll again have the option to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed on the wire.

Diamondbacks Select Contract Of Keury Mella

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Righty reliever Keury Mella is returning to the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, according to The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan.  The club transferred Seth Frankoff to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot, while Taylor Clarke hit the 10-day IL to create an active roster opening.  Incredibly, the D’Backs are vying for their first road win since April 25th tonight in San Francisco.

Mella, 27, has logged 27 career innings for the Reds and Diamondbacks.  In his 11 appearances at Triple-A Reno this year, he punched out 24.4% of batters and walked 9.0%.  Mella averaged 95.2 miles per hour last year in the bigs, a bit above the average ’21 reliever figure of 93.8.  Two years ago as a Reds farmhand, Mella was considered to be a 45-grade prospect by Baseball America.  The Reds had acquired Mella and Adam Duvall from the Giants in the 2015 trade deadline trade of Mike Leake.  At the time, Mella was thought to have a plus fastball without a “true offspeed weapon.”  Mella was deemed expendable back in February, as Arizona designated him for assignment and he passed through waivers unclaimed.

As you might expect from the worst team in baseball, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has been pretty bad, with a 4.64 ERA.  But still better than three other NL teams!  Mella joins a D’Backs bullpen consisting of Stefan Crichton, Joakim Soria, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Buchter, Humberto Castellanos, Joe Mantiply, Riley Smith, and possibly Corbin Martin at present.  Clarke joins relievers J.B. Bukauskas, Tyler Clippard, Chris Devenski on the IL, with Devenski done for the season due to Tommy John surgery.

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/1/21

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Catching up on the latest minor league transactions…

Newest Moves

  • The Yankees announced that they’ve outrighted outfielder Greg Allen to Triple-A. Allen, whom the Yankees designated last week, will remain in MLB camp. The Yankees acquired Allen from San Diego in January, but he lost his roster spot when the team signed reliever Justin Wilson. Allen, 27, has batted .239/.298/.343 with eight home runs and 32 stolen bases in 618 plate appearances between the Indians and Padres.

Earlier Today

  • The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Keury Mella has been outrighted to Triple-A, and assigned to the team’s Major League spring camp.  Mella was designated for assignment earlier this week.  The righty has been action in each of the last four MLB seasons, though only for 19 games and 27 innings with the Reds and D’Backs.  After signing a minor league deal with Arizona last winter, Mella had a 1.80 ERA over 10 frames of work, with an even 10 strikeouts against three walks.
  • The Red Sox outrighted Marcus Walden to Triple-A after the right-hander cleared waivers, and Walden is remaining in Boston’s big league spring camp.  Walden was designated for assignment last week to create a roster spot for the newly-acquired Marwin Gonzalez.  A veteran of three MLB seasons and 106 innings in the Show, much of Walden’s experience (78 innings over 70 games) came during a workhorse of a 2019 season, as he posted a 3.81 ERA and 23.24K% out of the Red Sox bullpen.  Walden struggled badly last year, however, with a 9.45 ERA over 13 1/3 innings and almost as many walks (nine) as strikeouts (10).

Diamondbacks Designate Travis Bergen, Keury Mella For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks have designated left-hander Travis Bergen and right-hander Keury Mella for assignment, per a club announcement. Their roster spots will go to right-hander Tyler Clippard, whose previously reported one-year deal is now official, and to right-hander Luis Frias, who has been reinstated from the Covid-19 list.

Bergen, 27, was acquired from the Blue Jays last summer in the trade that sent Robbie Ray to Toronto. He tossed 6 2/3 innings with the Snakes and yielded just three runs, though he also issued eight walks in that brief time. Bergen, a former Rule 5 pick, has pitched 28 innings in the Majors with three different clubs, logging a combined 4.82 ERA with a 24 percent strikeout rate and an unsightly 14.9 percent walk rate.

It’s surely a disappointing outcome for the D-backs to ultimately receive little in the way of a return for one of the organization’s better arms in recent years. But Ray struggled immensely with Arizona in 2020, and his $9.43MM salary (prorated to about $3.4MM in 2020) only further weighed down his trade value. The Blue Jays did take on the majority of the $1.42MM that remained on Ray’s contract at the time of the trade.

Mella, also 27, signed a minor league deal with the D-backs last offseason and was called up for 10 innings of relief. He allowed just two runs in that time and struck out 10 of the 42 hitters he faced (23.8 percent) while walking just three (7.1 percent). Mella doesn’t have much of a track record at the MLB level otherwise, however. His only other big league work came with the Reds from 2017-19, during which time he allowed 15 runs in 17 innings of work.

Mella was at one point considered to be one of the better prospects in both the Giants and the Reds organizations. He and Adam Duvall were packaged together by the Giants in the trade that brought Mike Leake to San Francisco at the 2015 trade deadline.

The Diamondbacks will have a week to trade both pitchers or attempt to pass them through outright waivers. Mella is out of minor league options, while Bergen has multiple option years remaining. If either passes through waivers unclaimed, they can be retained by the D-backs and returned to Major League camp as non-roster invitees.

Diamondbacks Make Several Roster Moves

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The Diamondbacks announced that they’ve selected righties Artie Lewicki and Keury Mella and lefty Joe Mantiply from their alternate site. They also recalled infielder/outfielder Josh Rojas, placed righty Taylor Widener on the 10-day injured list with a strained right rib cage and transferred a pair of hurlers – righty Merrill Kelly and Jeremy Beasley – to the 45-day IL. After all of that, Arizona has 39 players on its 40-man roster.

Lewicki has been part of the Arizona organization since it claimed him off waivers from the Tigers after 2018, but he hasn’t pitched for the Diamondbacks yet, owing to Tommy John surgery. He last took the mound professionally in ’18 for Detroit, where he recorded a 4.89 ERA with 6.98 K/9 and 3.26 BB/9 in 38 2/3 innings.

Mella, formerly a Red and Giant, joined the D-backs on a minor league contract in the offseason. The 27-year-old logged 17 innings as a Red from 2017-19, though he carries a much bigger sample of work – 172 2/3 frames – in Triple-A ball. Mella has notched a 4.59 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 at the minors’ highest level.

Mantiply also became a Diamondback on a minors pact last winter. He has 5 3/3 innings’ experience as a Tiger and Yankee in his past, though obviously most of his action has come in the minors. Mantiply, 29, combined for 39 2/3 frames at three different minors levels as a Yankee and Red last season, when he recorded a 4.31 ERA and put up 7.5 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9.

Reds Outright Four Players

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The Reds announced Monday that infielder/outfielder Derek Dietrich, infielder Christian Colon, right-hander Jackson Stephens and right-hander Keury Mella all went unclaimed on waivers and were set outright to Triple Louisville.

Dietrich, 30, is the most notable name of the group and will surely reject the assignment to once again become a free agent. The former Marlin parlayed a minor league deal in Cincinnati this offseason into an Opening Day roster spot and went on one of the more memorable power surges in recent memory midway through the year. Dietrich launched a dozen homers over a span of just 68 plate appearances in May and carried a 1.000 OPS into June. However, he fell into a slump that was perhaps even more remarkable than that home-run binge; in his final 71 plate appearances, he hit just .071/.257/.179.

Mella, 26, was acquired from the Giants alongside Adam Duvall in the 2015 trade that shipped righty Mike Leake to the Giants. He was considered to be among the more promising pitching prospects in Cincinnati in the couple of years following that trade but has seen his stock dip considerably. The righty yielded 15 runs in 17 Major League innings across parts of three seasons, posting an uninspiring 13-to-12 K/BB ratio during those stints. At the time of his acquisition, Mella was averaging better than a strikeout per inning against older competition in Class-A Advanced, but in parts of three Triple-A seasons he has a 4.59 ERA with 6.4 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 in 172 2/3 innings.

The 25-year-old Stephens had a big year with Double-A Pensacola back in 2016 but has limped to an ERA north of 5.00 in three trips through Triple-A Louisville while struggling to a 4.83 ERA through multiple MLB auditions. He spent the 2019 season in Triple-A, where he logged a 5.14 ERA with an 80-to-37 K/BB ratio in 84 innings, mostly as a reliever.

Colon, once the fourth overall pick in the draft and a top prospect with the Royals, appeared in just eight games with the Reds and made eight plate appearances. He’s a career .256/.321/.218 hitter in the Majors and batted .300/.372/.443 in Triple-A with the Reds this past season.

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