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Rene Pinto

Blue Jays Sign Buddy Kennedy, Rene Pinto To Minor League Deals

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The Blue Jays agreed to minor league contracts with infielder Buddy Kennedy and catcher René Pinto. Kennedy has already returned to Triple-A Buffalo and played there tonight. Pinto has yet to get into a game with the Bisons, but the MLB.com transaction tracker indicates he signed with Toronto on Monday.

Kennedy first signed a minor league deal with Toronto in July. The Jays called him in early August while Andrés Giménez was on the injured list. They kept him on the big league roster for a week and designated him for assignment when Giménez returned. The Dodgers were dealing with a few infield injuries and snagged him off waivers. Kennedy was on the L.A. roster for 10 days but lost his spot when Kiké Hernández came back from injury.

After clearing outright waivers, the former fifth-round pick elected free agency. He circles back to the Jays to serve as infield depth for the final few weeks of the regular season. Kennedy is a lifetime .178/.271/.274 hitter at the major league level. He owns a much more solid .278/.388/.429 line in parts of four Triple-A campaigns. Kennedy mostly plays third base but can factor in at both positions on the right side of the infield as well.

Pinto, 28, was granted his release from a minor league contract with Arizona last month. The Venezuelan backstop never played in the majors with the Diamondbacks. He appeared at the highest level with the Rays each season from 2022-24. Pinto hit .231/.263/.404 across 82 games. Tampa Bay gave him a brief look as their starting catcher early last year, but he struggled on both sides of the ball and spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A.

The right-handed hitting Pinto has shown some power in the minors. He has 57 career Triple-A home runs, slashing .256/.307/.493 in more than 1100 plate appearances at the level. That includes a .268/.324/.517 line with 11 homers in 54 games for Arizona’s affiliate. Toronto has Alejandro Kirk and Tyler Heineman as their only catchers on the 40-man roster. Their previous Triple-A catchers, Phil Clarke and Brandon Valenzuela, have no major league experience. If his deal was indeed signed on September 1, Pinto would not be eligible for the playoff roster but provides a more experienced depth option for the next few weeks in case Kirk or Heineman suffer an injury.

Diamondbacks Release Rene Pinto

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The D-backs have released catcher Rene Pinto, who’d been playing with their Triple-A affiliate in Reno, per the MiLB.com transaction log. He’s a free agent and can field interest from any teams seeking to bolster their catching depth in the season’s final month.

Pinto, 28, hasn’t played in the majors this season but saw big league time with the Rays in each of the past three seasons. He’s drawn solid framing grades in the majors but has struggled to control the running game and has drawn poor marks from Statcast for his ability to block pitches in the dirt. Pinto is a career .231/.263/.404 hitter with 10 homers but a 36.7% strikeout rate in 237 major league plate appearances.

While his big league numbers aren’t much to look at, Pinto has been far better in Triple-A. He batted .268/.324/.517 with 11 round-trippers in 225 plate appearances with Reno this season and carries a career .256/.307/.493 slash with 57 homers in 1132 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have been an issue in Triple-A as well, however. He’s fanned in 29.9% of his career plate appearances there.

There’s not much on the market for catching depth right now, so teams that have recently incurred injuries behind the dish could take a flier on the former Rays backstop. The Reds (Tyler Stephenson), Mets (Francisco Alvarez) and Nationals (Keibert Ruiz) all have catchers on the injured list at the moment, for instance. With rosters set to expand to 28 players on Sept. 1, it’s also possible that another club will look to use one of those extra spots to carry a third catcher, which could create further opportunities.

Diamondbacks Outright Rene Pinto

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Catcher Rene Pinto has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Reno by the Diamondbacks, according to Alex Weiner of AZ Sports. Pinto does not have the requisite service time or previous outright necessary to reject the assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization as non-roster depth going forward.

Pinto entered camp with Arizona in the mix to back up Gabriel Moreno alongside Adrian Del Castillo and Jose Herrera. The job ultimately went to Herrera, which necessitated the club designating Pinto for assignment as he had no minor league options remaining. The 28-year-old signed with the Rays out of Venezuela as an amateur and made his pro debut back in 2014. He’s spent his entire pro career in a Rays uniform prior to this winter, when the Rays DFA’d him in November and he was claimed off waivers by the Orioles. He stuck with Baltimore throughout much of the offseason but was DFA’d once again to make room for Charlie Morton on the club’s 40-man roster, at which point he was claimed by Arizona.

Pinto made his big league debut with the Rays back in 2022. The cup of coffee lasted only 25 games, and he hit just .213/.241/.325 during that time. Despite that meager performance in the majors, however, Pinto turned in a strong season at Triple-A as he slashed a strong .266/.320/.521 across 73 games at the level. That was enough to earn Pinto additional opportunities in Tampa, and he generally performed much better in them. 2023 saw Pinto appear in 38 games in the majors, hitting a respectable .252/.267/.456 with six homers in just 103 trips to the plate.

That intriguing combination of power and strong defense behind the plate was enough to make the Rays comfortable making Pinto their starting catcher to open the 2024 season. Unfortunately, Pinto didn’t last very long in the role. While he hit a respectable .214/.292/.429 that clocked in above league average over 19 games, those would be the only 19 games Pinto would play in the majors last year as he ceded playing time to a tandem of Ben Rortvedt and Alex Jackson. The catcher didn’t exactly go on to make a case for himself to get another shot in the majors upon being optioned to Triple-A, either, hitting just .191/.257/.373 in 53 games for the club’s Durham affiliate.

Now that Pinto has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the minors, he likely stands as the next man up to help out behind the plate in the event of an injury to either Moreno or Herrera. Normally, that role would appear more likely to go to Del Castillo given that he remains on the 40-man roster while Pinto does not, Weiner notes that Del Castillo has been placed on the minor league’s 7-day injured list. It’s unclear what ailment is bothering Del Castillo or how long he’ll be out of action at this point, but until he returns he won’t be able to serve as a fill-in catcher in the majors fro the Diamondbacks.

Diamondbacks Designate Rene Pinto, Select Shelby Miller

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The Diamondbacks announced that catcher Rene Pinto was designated for assignment.  The move opens up a 40-man roster spot for Shelby Miller, as the team confirmed reports from over the weekend that the right-hander’s contract was being selected to the active roster.  Arizona also officially announced its one-year deal with Jalen Beeks, and placed Jordan Montgomery (who is undergoing Tommy John surgery) to the 60-day injured list in the corresponding roster move.

The Pinto move was expected, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic wrote on Sunday that the catcher was “saying his goodbyes in the clubhouse” to teammates after not making the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day roster.  The D’Backs now have seven days to work out a trade for Pinto during the DFA period, or another team in need of catching depth could simply claim Pinto off waivers.  Pinto has already changed teams twice via the waiver wire in the last five months — after the Orioles claimed the backstop from the Rays in early November, the D’Backs claimed Pinto in January after Baltimore had DFA’ed him to make roster space for Charlie Morton.

A veteran of three big league seasons, Pinto has spent his entire MLB tenure with the Rays, hitting .231/.263/.404 over 237 career plate appearances in the Show.  As part of the ongoing revolving door that is the Rays’ catching position, Pinto was actually Tampa Bay’s Opening Day backstop last year, but he didn’t hit enough to earn much more regular playing time.  The D’Backs brought Pinto aboard to compete for the backup catching job, but Arizona will instead go with Jose Herrera as the secondary option behind starter Gabriel Moreno.

Pinto is out of minor league options, so the Diamondbacks had to first expose him to the waiver wire in order to move him down to Triple-A.  This out-of-options status could mean Pinto has more trips through the DFA process in his future, if teams continually see him as the proverbial last man on the roster, and just as a pure depth piece.

Diamondbacks Expected To Select Shelby Miller

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Shelby Miller has exercised an upward mobility clause in his minor league contract with the Diamondbacks, though the right-hander doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the D’Backs are expected to select his contract to the active roster.  Miller inked his minors deal just at the start of Spring Training camp, and he’ll now officially return for a second stint in a Diamondbacks uniform.

That first stint is something of a painful memory for both Miller and Arizona fans, as he posted a 6.35 ERA over 139 innings with the club from 2016-18.  Miller was acquired a part of a blockbuster five-player trade with the Braves in December 2015 that most prominently saw Dansby Swanson head to Atlanta, and Miller was viewed as an up-and-coming new fixture for the Diamondbacks’ rotation.  However, injuries plagued Miller’s tenure in the desert, as a Tommy John surgery cost him the majority of the 2017-18 campaigns.

Miller has yet to recapture his early-career form in the intervening seasons, despite stops with multiple teams and a move to relief pitching.  He had a very solid year in the Dodgers’ bullpen in 2023, but followed up his 1.71 ERA over 42 innings that year with an underwhelming 4.53 ERA in 55 2/3 frames out of the Tigers’ bullpen last season.

In Cactus League play this spring, however, Miller has a 2.70 ERA over 6 2/3 innings for the D’Backs.  He has also struck out 11 out of his 25 batters faced, with zero walks against that impressive number of whiffs.  Obviously time will tell if this performance can translate at all into the regular season, but it was enough to win Miller a spot in Arizona’s bullpen.  Kendall Graveman has battled back problems this spring and may start the season on the injured list, which could’ve opened the door for Miller to make the team.

A 40-man roster spot for Miller could be opened up if and when Rene Pinto is designated for assignment, as Piecoro writes (multiple links) that Pinto was “saying his goodbyes in the clubhouse” earlier today.  Pinto was claimed off waivers from the Orioles in January to add some depth to Arizona’s catching ranks, but it looks like Jose Herrera will indeed head to Opening Day as Gabriel Moreno’s backup.  Piecoro suggests that the D’Backs could look to trade Pinto as part of the DFA process, if he isn’t claimed away by a team in need of catching help.

In other Diamondbacks roster news, Piecoro reports that minor league signing Ildemaro Vargas won’t be making the team.  Vargas has the ability to opt out of his minor league deal and will first explore his options, though he’ll play with Triple-A Reno if another roster spot can’t be found in another organization.  The veteran utilityman is in his third stint with the D’Backs over his eight MLB seasons, but Garrett Hampson was selected to Arizona’s roster today, giving Hampson the win over Vargas in the competition for a bench job.

Diamondbacks Claim René Pinto

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The D-backs announced Friday that they’ve claimed catcher René Pinto off waivers from the Orioles. Baltimore designated him for assignment a week ago to create roster space for free agent signee Charlie Morton. Arizona already had two open spots on their 40-man roster, so there’s no corresponding move.

Pinto changes hands for the second time this offseason. Baltimore had claimed him off waivers from the Rays within days of the end of the World Series. Their subsequent signing of Gary Sánchez to an $8.5MM free agent deal indicated that Pinto’s tenure with the O’s could be brief. The 28-year-old is out of minor league options. Baltimore couldn’t send him to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers. The Orioles will go with Adley Rutschman and Sánchez as their duo behind the plate.

While Pinto has a better chance of holding his roster spot in Arizona, that’s by no means guaranteed. Gabriel Moreno is locked in as the starter. Jose Herrera has spent parts of three seasons as the backup. Herrera is also out of options. It’s unlikely that the Diamondbacks will carry three catchers into the regular season. The Snakes could let Pinto and Herrera compete for the #2 job during Spring Training.

Alternatively, Adrian Del Castillo could squeeze them both off the roster. He had a monster year in Triple-A (.312/.399/.603) and hit .313/.368/.525 in his first 25 big league games. Del Castillo isn’t considered an especially strong defender, however, so the Snakes could use him as a multi-positional bench bat rather than risk thinning their catching depth by waiving Herrera and Pinto.

Pinto is a right-handed hitter who has appeared in parts of three MLB seasons for Tampa Bay. He owns a .231/.263/.404 slash with 10 homers across 237 career plate appearances. Pinto showed some power in a small sample in 2023. That earned him the Opening Day catching assignment last season, but he struggled behind the dish. Opponents went 18-19 in stolen base attempts over just 135 innings. Pinto also committed a passed ball and was behind the plate for seven wild pitches.

Tampa Bay optioned him and kept him in Triple-A for the rest of the season. He hit just .191/.257/.373 over 53 games with their top affiliate and was never called back up. Pinto’s broader offensive track record in the minors is more impressive. He’s a .253/.303/.487 hitter across 907 Triple-A plate appearances spanning four seasons.

Orioles Sign Charlie Morton

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The Orioles announced they’ve signed Charlie Morton to a one-year deal. It’s reportedly a $15MM guarantee for the Wasserman client. Baltimore designated catcher René Pinto for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.

Morton, who turned 41 in November, joins the sixth team of his career in what’ll be his 18th MLB season. The two-time All-Star has spent the past four seasons with the Braves, where he combined for a 3.87 ERA over 124 starts. While Morton’s production has dipped slightly over the past couple years, he has avoided the kind of dramatic drop-off one might expect from a pitcher in his 40s.

The righty took the ball 30 times and worked to a 4.19 earned run average across 165 1/3 innings last year. He reached 30 starts and surpassed 160 frames in all four seasons during his late-career run in Atlanta. Morton struck out 23.8% of opposing hitters against a slightly elevated 9.3% walk rate. The strikeout rate was his lowest since his 2017 breakout in Houston but remained a couple points above the league average for starting pitchers.

Morton hasn’t lost much velocity despite his age. His fastball averaged 94 MPH last year, a tick below where it had been for the prior three seasons. His primary offering, his curveball, landed at its customary 81.5 MPH on average. Morton continues to generate elite spin and generally strong results against the breaking pitch. Opponents hit .200 against the curveball last season.

In aggregate, Morton’s 2024 production was that of a solid fourth starter. He ran into some trouble in the second half, though. Morton allowed 4.37 earned runs per nine while giving up a lofty .279/.357/.469 batting line after the All-Star Break. Morton rebounded in September following a shaky August, while his strikeout and walk marks held steady throughout the season.

Atlanta, seemingly working with strict budget limits, never appeared interested in keeping Morton for a fifth season. There’s annual speculation that he could retire, but it became clear last month that he planned to return for another year. The Athletic’s David O’Brien has written that Morton wanted to sign with a team that played Spring Training near his Bradenton, Florida home. The Orioles qualify. Their complex is in Sarasota. Morton won’t be as close to home as he’d been in Georgia once the regular season begins, but that’s evidently less of a concern than the Spring Training geography.

Morton is Baltimore’s second veteran rotation addition of the winter. His signing comes three weeks after the O’s inked 35-year-old Japanese star Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $13MM contract. Both pitchers project as durable back-end starters at this stage of their careers. The Orioles needed to add to their rotation behind Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez. Sugano and Morton each make sense in isolation, but neither brings anywhere near the upside they lost when Corbin Burnes walked.

The offseason is halfway complete. Baltimore has been tied to Jack Flaherty, the best unsigned starter. They’re an obvious fit for potential trade candidates like Luis Castillo and Dylan Cease. There’s no guarantee this is their final move. Through the offseason’s first couple months, however, they’ve shied away from making the kind of splash that many in the fanbase anticipated under new owner David Rubenstein. In addition to the rotation acquisitions, they signed outfielder Tyler O’Neill to a three-year deal that guaranteed just under $50MM and brought in Gary Sánchez as a backup catcher/designated hitter on an $8.5MM signing.

Eflin, Rodriguez, Morton and Sugano form the top four in Brandon Hyde’s rotation for now. Dean Kremer projects as the fifth starter. Albert Suárez, Trevor Rogers, and younger pitchers Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott are behind them. They’re building decent depth but arguably still need an impact arm to slot at the top of the staff.

Pinto, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Rays at the start of the offseason. He’s out of options and can’t be sent to Triple-A without clearing waivers. His spot on the 40-man roster seemed tenuous after the Sánchez pickup. Baltimore will have five days to trade him or put him back on the waiver wire. Pinto hit .231/.263/.404 in 82 major league games with Tampa Bay between 2022-24.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported the $15MM salary. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Orioles Claim Rene Pinto, Thaddeus Ward

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The Orioles have made a few tweaks at the back of the roster to start the offseason. Baltimore announced a pair of waiver claims: catcher Rene Pinto from the division rival Rays and right-hander Thaddeus Ward from the Nationals. Baltimore also sent veteran reliever Matt Bowman through outright waivers; he elected free agency. Finally, the O’s selected the contract of lefty reliever Luis González. That series of moves leaves them with 37 players on the 40-man roster.

Pinto opened this past season as Tampa Bay’s starting catcher. It didn’t take long before he lost that job. He only made 19 appearances before being optioned to Triple-A Durham. Pinto spent the bulk of the year in the minors and slumped to a .191/.257/.373 line over 230 trips to the plate. His broader minor league track record is quite a bit better. The Venezuelan-born backstop is a .253/.303/.487 hitter in his Triple-A career. He owns a .231/.263/.404 slash in 237 plate appearances against big league pitching. He joins Blake Hunt on the 40-man roster as options to back up Adley Rutschman, though an external acquisition still seems likely.

Ward, 27, pitched in 26 games for the Nats last year. Washington took him out of the Boston system in the Rule 5 draft. Like many Rule 5 picks, he struggled in his debut campaign. The UCF product posted a 6.37 ERA with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings. Washington kept him on optional assignment to Triple-A for the entire ’24 season. Ward started 28 games but allowed a 5.64 ERA over 119 2/3 frames. He walked an untenable 17% of batters faced.

Bowman bounced around the league via waivers before finishing the year in Baltimore. The sinkerballer posted a 4.40 earned run average through 30 2/3 innings between four teams. He had a strong year in Triple-A and should have no trouble landing another minor league deal this winter.

As for González, he earns a long-awaited selection to a 40-man roster. He turns 33 in January and has yet to pitch in the majors. The Dominican Republic native has pitched in Japan, Mexico and even Italy during his winding career arc. He worked his way to the Orioles on a minor league deal and tossed 60 innings of 4.50 ERA ball with Triple-A Norfolk this past season. González punched out nearly 29% of batters faced while walking fewer than 5% of opponents.

Those underlying numbers evidently impressed the Baltimore front office. Rather than allow González to hit minor league free agency, they’ll give him a spot on the 40-man for now. If he holds that all winter, there’s a good chance he’ll make his major league debut next year.

Rays Likely To Explore Catching Market

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The Rays dropped to fourth place in the AL East, finishing the season at 80-82. After missing the postseason for the first time since 2018, Tampa Bay baseball operations president Erik Neander spoke Friday about the need for more offense. He specifically pointed to catcher as an area where the club must improve.

“We’ve got to find a way to get more output out of that position than what we got this year,” Neander said (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). “We’ve got to find a way to be better back there, without question, and that’ll be a priority in terms of where our mental energy goes throughout this winter.”

While that’s not quite a definitive declaration the Rays will add from outside the organization, it’s clear they’ll examine the market. Tampa Bay had one of the lightest-hitting catching groups in the majors. The Rays got a .194/.272/.291 batting line out of the position. Only the White Sox had a lower batting average. Tampa Bay was 24th in on-base percentage and 28th (better than just the White Sox and Marlins) in slugging.

The Rays opened the season with René Pinto as their starter. That didn’t last long. Tampa Bay optioned Pinto after 19 games. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, where he hit .191 with a .257 on-base mark. Ben Rortvedt, whom the Rays acquired from the Yankees on the eve of Opening Day, ended up taking the majority of the playing time. The lefty hitter turned in a middling .228/.317/.303 slash over 328 plate appearances. Tampa Bay had Alex Jackson backing Rortvedt up from early May until designating him for assignment in September. Jackson hit .122 in a career-high 58 games. September call-up Logan Driscoll also struggled in his limited MLB work.

Like most clubs, the Rays have generally prioritized defense at the position. Rortvedt graded reasonably well as a receiver. Statcast credited him with better than average framing and blocking metrics. He also showed strong pop times, although his 16.2% caught stealing rate was subpar. Rortvedt presumably showed enough to hold an offseason roster spot. He’s out of minor league options, so the Rays would need to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams to open the season. Driscoll still has a full slate of options and seems likely to start next season in the minors.

Jackson already elected minor league free agency after clearing waivers last month. Pinto remains on the 40-man roster but may have a tenuous hold on that spot. He’ll be out of options next season. It’s unlikely the team runs things back with a tandem of Rortvedt and Pinto; the latter might find himself on waivers at some point this winter.

The free agent catching class is light at the top. That’s not a huge issue for the Rays, who probably wouldn’t have made a huge splash even if the market were stronger. There are a handful of right-handed hitting backstops who should be available on one- or two-year deals. Kyle Higashioka, Carson Kelly, Danny Jansen, Jacob Stallings (whose deal with Colorado contains a mutual option) and Elias Díaz are among the top options. Anyone from that group could be a realistic target to share time with the lefty-hitting Rortvedt. Each should at least provide more offense than Jackson managed in that role.

Rays Select Alex Jackson, Option Rene Pinto, Designate Colby White

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The Rays announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of catcher Alex Jackson from Triple-A Durham, reinstated outfielder Jonny DeLuca from the 10-day injured list, and optioned catcher Rene Pinto and utilityman Niko Goodrum to Triple-A. Right-hander Colby White was designated for assignment to open a spot on the roster for Jackson.

Pinto, the team’s Opening Day backstop, has posted a .214/.292/.429 slash with a pair of homers in 49 plate appearances. That’s technically 9% better than average, by measure of wRC+, but nearly all of Pinto’s production this season came in a single game. Pinto homered twice for the Rays back on April 14 but has batted .125/.300/.188 since. He’s since ceded the lion’s share of playing time to Ben Rortvedt, whom the Rays acquired from the Yankees just prior to Opening Day. Rortvedt is out to a strong start, batting .333/.419/.389 in 62 plate appearances (albeit with the benefit of a sky-high .500 average on balls in play).

The 28-year-old Jackson is a former top-10 draft pick — No. 6 by the 2014 Mariners — and longtime top prospect who’s played in parts of four big league seasons but hasn’t yet found any success. He’s a career .141/.243/.227 hitter with an enormous 48.1% strikeout rate in 185 big league plate appearances.

Jackson has generally hit well in the upper minors, particularly in 2021 with the Braves and in his current run with the Rays. He’s opened the season with a stout .282/.344/.612 slash in 93 trips to the plate, swatting seven homers, five doubles and a triple along the way. He’s only walked at a 7.5% clip and has struck out in 25.8% of his plate appearances. That walk rate is right in line with his career mark in parts of six Triple-A seasons. The strikeout rate is about par for Jackson since 2021 and marks an improvement over his earlier Triple-A seasons, when he would fan in around a third of his turns at the dish.

White, 25, was Tampa Bay’s sixth-round pick in 2019. He missed the 2022 season and much of the 2023 campaign due to Tommy John surgery but returned late last season to pitch 22 frames across three minor league levels en route to a 1.64 ERA. Impressive as that number appears, it came in spite of an alarming 19.5% walk rate that cast significant doubt on White’s ability to replicate his run-prevention numbers moving forward.

Regression, indeed, has come in abundance for White this season. He’s pitched 7 2/3 innings but been tagged for a whopping 15 earned runs on 10 hits and 10 walks. He’s issued a base on balls to nearly 22% of his opponents and plunked another pair as well. Command wasn’t an issue for White in 2021, when he notched a 1.44 ERA across four levels, striking out a superhuman 45% of his opponents against a tidy 6.4% walk rate.

Baseball America ranked White 15th among Tampa Bay farmhands prior to the 2022 season, but his injury and the astounding nature of his command issues has clearly dropped his stock. The Rays will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass White through outright waivers. If he clears, he’ll remain in the organization and continue to work to get his command back in the wake of his 2022 surgery.

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