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Nick Ciuffo

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/22/23

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Catching up on some minor league moves from around baseball, with a tip of the cap to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America….

  • The Yankees released catcher Nick Ciuffo earlier this month, according to Ciuffo’s MLB.com’s profile page.  Ciuffo signed a minor league deal in March but didn’t see any game action in New York’s farm system.  Ciuffo has played in three of the last five MLB seasons, last appearing with the Orioles in 2021 and amassing 21 total games in the big leagues (19 with Tampa Bay).  The Rays selected Ciuffo with the 21st overall pick of the 2013 draft, but he has posted only a .248/.294/.348 slash line over 2053 career plate appearances in the minors.
  • The Marlins acquired left-hander Sean Nolin from the Twins earlier this month, and Nolin made his debut with Triple-A Jacksonville last Wednesday.  Nolin signed a minor league deal with Minnesota in February, after spending the 2022 season in the Korea Baseball Organization.  Nolin pitched with the Blue Jays and A’s from 2013-15, and then with the Nationals in 2021, spending time bouncing around the minors, the independent leagues, the KBO League and in Japan with NPB amidst his brief stints in the majors.  The 33-year-old Nolin has a 5.74 ERA over his 58 career innings in the big leagues.
  • Sticking with the Marlins and their Triple-A affiliate, Jacksonville announced earlier this week that right-hander Enrique Burgos had been released.  Burgos signed a minors contract in the offseason but struggled to a 16.20 ERA over 3 1/3 innings with Jacksonville.  Burgos’ MLB resume consists of 68 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks in 2015-16, and he has since mostly pitched in the Mexican League and in the independent Atlantic League, as well as regular appearances in winter ball.

Yankees Sign Nick Ciuffo To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have signed catcher Nick Ciuffo to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.

This is a nice birthday present for Ciuffo, who turns 28 years old today. Originally selected by the Rays in the first round of the 2013 draft, he was a notable prospect in their system for many years after that. Though he was originally considered a well-rounded prospect, he seemed to struggle at the plate when he reached the upper levels of the minors.

Since the start of 2018, he’s appeared in 167 minor league games with a batting line of .247/.299/.381, walking in just 6.8% of his plate appearances while striking out at a 28.8% rate. He’s also appeared in 21 major league games over that time, hitting .188/.259/.292 for the Rays and Orioles. Ciuffo spent last year in Triple-A with the White Sox but was punched out in 31.1% of his trips to the plate.

For the Yankees, it was reported last week that they were looking for some some extra depth behind the plate because of a rash of injuries at the position. Ben Rortvedt, Austin Wells and Josh Breaux each suffered injuries that will keep them out of action for at least a few weeks. The Yanks still have their primary catching tandem healthy in Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka, but the latter is participating in the World Baseball Classic and will be away from camp for a while. With all of those absences, it makes sense that they would look to bring in another receiver to help out with all the arms looking to get ready for the season.

If Ciuffo is able to make his way onto the roster at any point, he has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, meaning he could stick around as depth for a while if the Yankees would like.

White Sox Sign Nick Ciuffo To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox announced this afternoon they’ve signed catcher Nick Ciuffo to a minor league contract and invited him to big league Spring Training. The 27-year-old elected minor league free agency after being outrighted off the Orioles’ roster at the start of the offseason.

Ciuffo’s a former first-round draftee of the Rays (21st overall in 2013) who was regarded as one of the more promising prospects in a deep Tampa Bay farm system for a while. He’s struggled offensively throughout his career, however, and his prospect pedigree diminished as he moved towards the upper levels. He did make it to the big leagues in 2018 and he’s seen some major league time in three of the past four seasons.

The lefty-hitting backstop has tallied 56 MLB plate appearances, including six over two games with Baltimore last season. He’s a .240/.291/.370 hitter in 453 trips to the plate at the minors’ top level. The White Sox have Zack Collins and Seby Zavala as backup options behind Yasmani Grandal on the 40-man roster.

Orioles Announce Series Of Outrights

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NOVEMBER 5: The O’s formally announced the outrights of Severino, Diplan and Greene on Friday evening. Additionally, Baltimore announced that right-handers Chris Ellis and Spenser Watkins and catcher Nick Ciuffo have cleared waivers. Ellis has already elected minor league free agency, and Watkins and Ciuffo will also have that right.

Ellis made six starts for the O’s after being claimed off waivers from the Rays. He worked to a 2.49 ERA in 25 1/3 innings but did so with underwhelming peripherals after struggling in Triple-A. Watkins posted an 8.07 ERA over 54 2/3 frames during his first major league action. Ciuffo appeared in just two big league games at the very tail end of the season.

NOVEMBER 3: The Orioles have outrighted catcher Pedro Severino and right-handers Marcos Diplan and Conner Greene to Triple-A Norfolk.  According to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, all three players will elect free agency rather than accept the outright assignment.

Severino is the most experienced name of the trio, with parts of seven MLB seasons under his belt (the last three in Baltimore).  Severino was projected to earn $3.1MM in arbitration this winter, but was seen as a non-tender candidate following a season that saw him hit .248/.303/.383 with 11 home runs over 419 plate appearances.

The 28-year-old shouldn’t have much trouble catching on somewhere as a platoon partner or backup catcher.  As for the Orioles, Nick Ciuffo is the only catcher in the organization with Major League experience, but the O’s are expected to add another low-cost veteran backstop this winter, and star prospect Adley Rutschman is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2022.

Diplan made his Major League debut in 2021, with a 4.50 ERA over 30 innings out of the Orioles bullpen.  A veteran of seven minor league seasons with the Orioles, Twins, Brewers, and Rangers, 2021 was Diplan’s first season as a full-time reliever, though he had gotten an increasingly large share of bullpen work by 2019.  He showed some solid improvements to his strikeout and walk rates with Norfolk this season and even pitched in the Futures Game during All-Star week.

Greene also got his first taste of MLB action this year, posting a 7.11 ERA over 25 1/3 combined innings with the Orioles and Dodgers.  Beginning the season with the O’s, Greene was claimed on waivers by Los Angeles and then claimed back by Baltimore, all within the span of less than three weeks in August.  Greene has a live fastball, but he has yet to translate that heater into big strikeout numbers or even consistent results in the minors, with a 4.34 ERA over 729 2/3 career innings on the farm.

Orioles’ Keegan Akin To Undergo Abdominal Surgery

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The Orioles announced today that left-hander Keegan Akin has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Baltimore selected the contract of catcher Nick Ciuffo and recalled right-hander Joey Krehbiel from Triple-A Norfolk. Akin will undergo abdominal surgery in the near future, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Trezza. He’s expected to be ready for Spring Training 2022.

A former second-round draft pick, Akin has been regarded as one of the better young pitchers in the Orioles’ system over the past few years. He’s posted strong strikeout rates throughout his minor league tenure to earn his first big league look last season.

Akin has yet to carry that lower-level success over against MLB hitters. He’s tossed 120 2/3 big league frames over the past couple years, managing just a 6.19 ERA with slightly worse than average strikeout and walk rates (21.5% and 9.2%, respectively). Excepting John Means, the Orioles have gotten very little from their starting pitching options this season. That should give Akin another opportunity to stake a claim to a permanent rotation spot in 2022, assuming he’s back at full strength next spring as expected.

Ciuffo returns to the big leagues for the first time in two years. He’s a former first-round pick and highly-regarded prospect himself, but the 26-year-old wound up tallying just 50 MLB plate appearances with the Rays, his original organization. Ciuffo spent last season with the Rangers on a minor league deal but never landed a big league opportunity and reentered minor league free agency last winter.

The O’s added Ciuffo on another minors deal in December. He was assigned to Triple-A Norfolk but only picked up 58 plate appearances there after losing most of the season to injury. The left-handed hitter will get an opportunity to back up Pedro Severino and Austin Wynns for the season’s final few games. He’d be controllable well beyond this season if the O’s front office decides to carry him on the 40-man roster through the upcoming offseason.

Orioles Sign Nick Ciuffo To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve signed catcher Nick Ciuffo and righty Claudio Custodio to minor league contracts. Baltimore also confirmed its previously reported minor league deals with lefty Fernando Abad and right-hander Conner Greene.

Ciuffo, 25, was the No. 21 overall draft pick by the Rays back in 2013. He never graded out as a top prospect but made it to the big leagues with Tampa Bay in 2018 and 2019, hitting a combined .186/.250/.279 in a tiny sample of 50 plate appearances. Had he been healthy in 2019, he’d quite likely have gotten a longer opportunity to boost those numbers, but thumb surgery cost him 10 weeks of the season.

Ciuffo spent the 2020 season at the Rangers’ alternate training site but didn’t reach the Majors, where Robinson Chirinos, Jeff Mathis and Jose Trevino shouldered most of the workload before top prospect Sam Huff’s arrival. In seven minor league seasons, Ciuffo is a .250/.299/.379 hitter with a 45 percent caught-stealing rate. He’ll give the O’s some catching depth behind Chance Sisco and Pedro Severino, joining the recently outrighted Austin Wynns as a non-roster option in camp.

The 30-year-old Custodio once ranked near the back end of the Yankees’ top 30 prospects as an infielder, but he moved to the mound in 2015. Injury wiped out his 2017 campaign, and he obviously lost another year to the lack of a minor league season in 2020. Custodio spent 2019 in the Braves organization, where he pitched to a 2.48 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 83 1/3 innings between Class-A and Double-A.

Rangers Sign Nick Ciuffo, Wei-Chieh Huang To Minors Deals

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The Rangers announced that catcher Nick Ciuffo and right-hander Wei-Chieh Huang have been signed to minor league contracts.  The two players and utilityman Rob Refsnyder (whose signing was reported last week) will all receive invites to the big league Spring Training camp.

Chosen 21st overall by Tampa Bay in the 2013 draft, Ciuffo has yet to deliver on that potential, with just a .248/.293/.344 career slash line over 1844 minor league plate appearances and 19 MLB games on his resume.  That said, Ciuffo doesn’t turn 25 until March, and he has displayed a knack for throwing out baserunners and framing pitches.  He represents a no-risk depth option for the Rangers, though Texas already has multiple glove-first backstops in Jose Trevino and Jeff Mathis.

Huang returns to the Rangers after being non-tendered earlier this week, a move that was more about clearing roster space than saving money since Huang isn’t arbitration-eligible for several seasons.  The righty only just made his MLB debut in 2019, appearing in four games and tossing 5 2/3 relief innings.  Acquired in 2018 as a player-to-be-named-later in the trade that sent Jake Diekman to the Diamondbacks, Huang has some interesting potential as a relief or swingman piece, though he exhibited severe control problems as he climbed up the organizational ladder in 2019.  Huang issued 25 walks over 31 Triple-A innings, and five free passes over his brief time with the Rangers.

Reds Sign Nick Ciuffo To Minor League Deal

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TODAY: The Reds have officially announced the signing (via Twitter).  Ciuffo has been assigned to Double-A and placed on the seven-day injured list.

TUESDAY: The Reds are nearing a minor league agreement with recently released catcher Nick Ciuffo, per a report from Roster Roundup (Twitter link). Ciuffo, who is still recovering from early-June thumb surgery, was cut loose by Tampa Bay last week. Based on the initial 8-10 week timeline that accompanied his surgery, he should be healthy in late July to mid August.

In need of a 40-man roster spot late last month, the Rays opted to designate Ciuffo for assignment in order to open space. Because injured players can’t be passed through outright waivers, Tampa Bay was limited in its options and released Ciuffo. It’s most common in these situations for the player to simply re-sign with his original organization on a minor league deal, but it seems that Ciuffo found an opportunity more to his liking with the Cincinnati organization. If the deal is ultimately completed, the Reds will hope to find some success with a second castoff Rays catcher; Curt Casali has batted .265/.343/.412 in 316 plate appearances since the Reds acquired him from the Rays in exchange for cash last season.

Ciuffo was the No. 21 overall pick by the Rays back in 2013. The 24-year-old hasn’t found much success in either Triple-A or the big leagues, however. Ciuffo has a .228/.276/.350 batting line in Triple-A Durham this season and has mustered only a .529 OPS in a tiny sample of 50 big league plate appearances dating back to 2018. The South Carolina native carries a .250/.292/.369 hitter in 370 Triple-A plate appearances to go along with solid framing marks and a career 42 percent caught-stealing rate.

Rays Release Nick Ciuffo

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July 3: Ciuffo indeed went unclaimed and is now a free agent, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio tweets.

July 1: The Rays have requested unconditional release waivers on catcher Nick Ciuffo, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll become a free agent in 48 hours if he clears.

As I noted when Ciuffo was designated for assignment, a release seemed the likeliest outcome for him. Ciuffo underwent thumb surgery last month and could still be sidelined for up to six more weeks. Injured players can’t be passed through outright waivers, and it’s common in these DFA scenarios for the player to be released and quickly re-sign on a minor league contract. That’s not universally the case, of course, and if he does indeed clear waivers, Ciuffo will have the right to talk to other clubs.

Ciuffo, 24, was the No. 21 overall pick by the Rays in the 2013 draft, but his career hasn’t panned out the way that either he or the organization had hoped. He has a .228/.276/.350 batting line in Triple-A Durham this season and has mustered only a .529 OPS in a tiny sample of 50 big league plate appearances dating back to 2018. Ciuffo is a career .250/.292/.369 hitter in 370 Triple-A plate appearances and has a career 42 percent caught-stealing rate in the minors. Ciuffo has also posted above-average framing marks in Triple-A, and catcher is a generally thin position within the Rays organization, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him latch back on there.

Rays Designate Nick Ciuffo For Assignment

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The Rays announced Friday that they’ve designated catcher Nick Ciuffo for assignment. His 40-man spot will go to top prospect Brendan McKay, whose previously reported promotion to the Majors is now official. Tampa Bay also reinstated lefty Jose Alvarado from the restricted list and recalled Casey Sadler from Triple-A Durham. Lefty Jalen Beeks and infielder Mike Brosseau were optioned to Durham in a pair of corresponding moves.

The 24-year-old Ciuffo was a first-round pick back in 2013 but has yet to live up to the potential that came along with that draft billing. His DFA will come with somewhat atypical circumstances, as Ciuffo is on the injured list in the minor leagues after undergoing thumb surgery that was expected to sideline him for eight to ten weeks. There’s still another four to six weeks to go on that projected recovery time. Because Ciuffo is on the IL, he can’t be outrighted, which means the Rays will likely release him and then hope to re-sign him to a new minor league contract. That’s a fairly common outcome in the rare instances that an injured minor league player is designated for assignment.

In 134 plate appearances with Durham this year, Ciuffo batted .228/.276/.350. He’s posted a .529 OPS in a tiny sample of 50 big league plate appearances and is a career .250/.292/.369 hitter in 370 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level.

Alvarado, also 24, was on the restricted list after stepping away from the club for family reasons. He’s arguably Tampa Bay’s best reliever, having posted a 2.85 ERA (2.50 FIP) with 10.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 in 117 innings since making his MLB debut as a 21-year-old in 2017.

The 25-year-old Beeks has been excellent for the Rays in 2019, serving primarily as a followup pitcher to frequent opener Ryne Stanek. In 61 1/3 innings, Beeks has a 2.79 ERA (3.48 FIP) with 7.5 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9. Despite that strong performance, Beeks is a casualty of yesterday’s 18-inning marathon win over the Twins. Beeks pitched 3 1/3 innings yesterday and wouldn’t have been available for a couple of days. The Rays, in need of fresh arms, sent him down for some additional depth, but it’s likely that Beeks will be back once the 10-day minimum length of his optional assignment has been met.

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