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Ronald Guzman

Giants, Ronald Guzman Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent first baseman Ronald Guzman, as first indicated on the transaction log at MiLB.com.

Guzman, 28, was considered one of the top prospects in the Rangers organization before making his Major League debut in 2018, but he’s yet to produce much in the Majors, slashing .225/.302/.411 with a 29.2% strikeout rate against an 8.8% walk rate in 832 trips to the plate. He spent the 2022 season with the Yankees organization, mostly playing with their Triple-A affiliate, where he slashed .255/.344/.478 (116 wRC+) in 105 games and 373 plate appearances. Guzman did receive a brief look late in the 2022 campaign as the Yanks dealt with injuries, but he logged just six trips to the plate in three games and went hitless along the way.

The depth chart in San Francisco has several players ahead of Guzman at first base, including LaMonte Wade Jr. and J.D. Davis, who could share time at the position in platoon fashion early in the 2023 season. Veteran utilityman Wilmer Flores is no stranger to the position either, having logged 1627 innings at first base, including 482 frames across the past two seasons. They’ll likely be the primary options at the position. Austin Slater could be more of an emergency option as well, given his 203 career innings at first, but he’s played exclusively in the outfield dating back to the 2020 campaign.

The Giants were lacking in first base depth in the upper minors, however, and Guzman will give them an experienced player with a track record of solid production in Triple-A. He’s spent parts of five seasons at the minor leagues’ top level, tallying 1150 total plate appearances and posting a solid .280/.360/.449 batting line with a 21.1% strikeout rate, an even 10% walk rate, 34 home runs, 61 doubles and four triples along the way.

13 Players Elect Free Agency

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With the World Series kicking off on Friday, we’re only a couple weeks from the opening of the offseason. It’s customary each offseason for dozens of players to hit the open market, separate from the players who reach MLB free agency at the end of the World Series based on the expiration of their contracts while having six-plus years of MLB service time.

Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of MLB service, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minor leagues has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group falls under that umbrella. The majority will take minor league deals over the winter, although one or two could find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

In recent weeks, we’ve provided periodic updates on players qualifying for minor league free agency. Here are the latest, courtesy of the MiLB.com transactions tracker.

Pitchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Yankees Designate Ronald Guzmán For Assignment

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Sep. 12: The Yankees announced that Guzmán was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Since he has over three years of MLB service time, he is eligible to reject this assignment and return to free agency, though it’s unclear if he has chosen to do so.

Sep. 10: The Yankees announced that they have designated first baseman Ronald Guzmán for assignment. Josh Donaldson was activated from the paternity list in a corresponding move.

Guzmán, 27, was just selected to the roster a few days ago to give the Yanks another option at first base when Anthony Rizzo went on the injured list. Since then, the club also placed DJ LeMahieu on the IL, further depleting the depth chart at first. The start at that position has gone to Marwin Gonzalez in each of the past three games as well as today, indicating the Yankees are evidently satisfied enough with his performance to let Guzmán go. Guzmán got six plate appearances in his short time on the roster but went hitless while striking out in five of them.

Despite that poor showing in a very small sample, Guzmán was having a much better season prior to his call-up. In 90 Triple-A games this year, he’s hit 12 home runs while walking in 11.8% of his plate appearances, leading to a .260/.357/.466 batting line that amounts to a 119 wRC+. The strikeouts were present there as well, however, as he went down on strikes 27.6% of the time.

Since the trade deadline has passed, the Yankees will placed Guzmán on waivers in the coming days. He has over three years of MLB service time, meaning he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Should any team decide to put in a claim, he can be retained for a further three seasons via arbitration.

Marly Rivera of ESPN reported Guzmán’s DFA before the official announcement.

Yankees To Place Anthony Rizzo On IL, Select Ronald Guzmán

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The Yankees were rained out today but will place first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day injured list prior to tomorrow’s doubleheader, per Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, relaying word from manager Aaron Boone. Fellow first baseman Ronald Guzmán will have his contract selected in a corresponding move. Marly Rivera of ESPN first noted that Guzmán was in the Yankee clubhouse. Guzmán is not currently on the 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding move of some kind will be required to open a spot for him there.

The 27-year-old Guzmán spent his entire career with the Rangers until this year. From 2018 to 2021, he got into 243 games, hitting 31 home runs in that time but striking out often and producing poor batting averages. He’s struck out in 28.8% of his career plate appearances thus far, well above this year’s 22.3% MLB average. His overall batting line is .227/.304/.414, production that was 16% below league average, as evidenced by his wRC+ of 84. He was outrighted by the Rangers at the end of last season and elected free agency.

In March, the Yanks brought Guzmán aboard on a minor league deal, sending him to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. In 90 games there this year, Guzmán is still striking out 27.6% of the time but he’s also walked in 11.8% of his plate appearances and added 12 long balls. In total, he’s slashing .260/.357/.466 for a wRC+ of 119. He’ll try to bring some of those improved results up to the majors, with his left-handed bat making a nice fit for the short porch in right field.

The reason the Yankees have opted to bring up Guzmán is due to the situation surrounding their regular first baseman Rizzo. Dealing with back problems for much of the season, he hasn’t played in a week after undergoing an epidural on Thursday. While it’s hoped that this will lead to greater relief for Rizzo in the long run, he’s dealing with some side effects in the short term. Yesterday, manager Aaron Boone told Andy Martino of SNY yesterday that Rizzo was dealing with some headaches after the epidural. In a video shared by SNY on Twitter, Boone says that the headaches are now keeping Rizzo from playing more than the back issue.

Rizzo is having a strong season overall but has slumped recently, with the creeping back injury possibly playing some role in that. Through the end of July, he was hitting .228/.348/.504 but has only hit .208/.299/.442 since the calendar flipped to August. Signed to a two-year, $32MM deal in the offseason, Rizzo can opt out of the final one year and $16MM this winter and return to free agency if he so wishes. With Rizzo out of action for the past week, DJ LeMahieu has seen most of the time at first.  However, LeMahieu needs some time off himself, with Adler relaying word from Boone that the infielder is dealing with a toe issue. The club will hope that Guzmán can step in and help make up for the absence of Rizzo and the banged-up LeMahieu. Leading the AL East by as much as 15 1/2 games earlier this year, the Yanks are now just 5 and 5 1/2 games ahead of the Rays and Blue Jays, respectively.

Should Rizzo return to health in a few days, Guzmán can’t be easily sent back down to the minors as he is out of options. Since the trade deadline has passed, if the club wants to remove him from the active roster, they would have to designate him for assignment and then put him on waivers. However, if he plays well enough to hang onto his roster spot, he could be retained for future seasons via arbitration.

Yankees Sign Ronald Guzman To Minor League Contract

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The Yankees have signed Ronald Guzman to a minor league deal, journalist Junior Matrille reports (Twitter link).  Guzman will be invited to the Yankees’ big league spring camp.

A notable prospect during his time in the Rangers farm system, Guzman couldn’t translate the hitting prowess he displayed in the minors over to his 826 PA in the majors, as he batted only .227/.304/.414 and struck out 238 times.  After three seasons of failing to truly break through as a regular in the Texas lineup, Guzman’s 2021 season was cut short after only seven games, as he suffered a torn meniscus while playing left field and had to undergo season-ending surgery.

Ironically, Guzman’s greatest day as a big leaguer took place in Yankee Stadium, when he hit three home runs to lead the Rangers to a 12-7 victory over the Bronx Bombers on August 10, 2018.  Perhaps Yankees GM Brian Cashman had a memory of that game in mind when signing Guzman, or maybe the club is simply taking a flier of a minor league deal to see if Guzman can unlock his potential in a new environment.

Should he perform well in Spring Training, Guzman’s left-handed bat could earn him some playing time on a Yankee roster that is deep in right-handed hitters.  In theory, Guzman could work as a complement to the right-handed hitting Luke Voit at first base, or Guzman could pick up some DH at-bats when Giancarlo Stanton is in the outfield.

Rangers Outright Ronald Guzman, Three Others

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Nov. 6: Ronald Guzman has elected free agency, per ESPN’s Enrique Rojas (via Twitter).

Nov. 5: The Rangers announced this afternoon that four players — first basemen Ronald Guzmán and Curtis Terry, infielder Anderson Tejeda and reliever Matt Bush — have cleared outright waivers. All four will be eligible for minor league free agency.

Guzmán came up as a well-regarded prospect and served as Texas’ regular first baseman for a good chunk of his first two MLB seasons. He didn’t hit for enough power to offset high strikeout rates, though, posting just a .229/.307/.415 line that checked in sixteen percentage points below the league average by measure of wRC+ from 2018-19. Guzmán hasn’t played much over the past couple seasons, missing almost all of the 2021 campaign after tearing the meniscus in his right knee in April.

Like Guzmán, Bush also barely played this past season because of injury. The 35-year-old suffered a flexor strain in April and missed almost the entire year, although he did return after a long rehab to pitch on the season’s final day. It has now been three years since Bush’s last extended action, as he also missed all of the 2019 and 2020 campaigns because of an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery.

Tejeda and Terry are career-long members of the organization with scant big league experience. The former has tallied 94 MLB plate appearances over the past two years, spending most of this past season at Double-A and Triple-A. The latter earned a thirteen-game major league cameo at the end of 2021 after hitting .275/.349/.533 with the Rangers’ top affiliate in Round Rock.

Rangers Select Hyeon-Jong Yang, Option Leody Tavares

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The Rangers have selected the contract of left-hander Hyeon-Jong Yang, the team announced.  In corresponding moves, Leody Taveras was optioned to the alternate training site, while infielder Ronald Guzman (who underwent season-ending knee surgery on Friday) was moved to the 60-day injured list.

After signing a minor league contract with Texas during the offseason, the 33-year-old Yang will now get his first crack at the major leagues, and also lock in a $1.3MM guarantee for reaching the Rangers’ active roster.  Beginning his career with the Kia Tigers in 2007, Yang has posted a 3.83 ERA and 19.77% strikeout rate over 1986 career innings in KBO action.

2020 wasn’t one of his finer seasons, as Yang had a 4.70 ERA over 172 1/3 frames and a spike in his walk rate.  However, at the cost of $1.3MM and a minors deal, the Rangers felt it was worth seeing what Yang could do in North American baseball, even if he can just eat some innings at the back of the rotation.  Yang has tossed at least 171 1/3 innings in each of the last seven seasons, and durability was only part of his appeal, as that seven-year stretch also included two league ERA titles, the KBO MVP Award in 2017, and a championship ring with the Tigers that same year as Yang won Korean Series MVP honors.

That said, it isn’t yet clear if the Rangers will use Yang in the rotation or if he’ll be deployed in their injury-riddled bullpen.  Texas already has several left-handers among their current relief options, though Yang could be used in a long relief or swingman role to get him accustomed to MLB hitters.

Taveras made his own Major League debut in 2020 and posted some respectable numbers over 134 plate appearances, but he hasn’t hit at all this season, with only an .087/.160/.087 slash line in 50 PA.  Taveras’ demotion should fully clear the way for more playing time for Adolis Garcia in center field.

Ronald Guzman To Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

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Rangers first baseman/outfielder Ronald Guzman will undergo right knee surgery and miss the remainder of the season, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to report. Guzman suffered a torn meniscus on April 12.

Guzman, who was playing his first-ever game in the outfield, had to be carted off after incurring the injury at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay. The Rangers immediately placed Guzman on the 10-day injured list, but the hope was that he would be able to rehab and return during the season. Instead, Texas will go the rest of 2021 without Guzman, who’s in his final pre-arbitration year.

Now 26, Guzman was a prospect of some note during his younger days in the Texas organization. But Guzman hasn’t produced much in the majors, where he has put up a .227/.304/.414 line with 31 home runs over 826 plate appearances. He finished with one hit (a homer) and a walk in 17 PA this year.

Guzman was splitting time at first base with Nate Lowe prior to the injury, and the latter has since commandeered the position. Lowe, whom the Rangers acquired from the Rays over the winter, has slashed .254/.346/.493 with five HRs in 81 trips to the plate this season.

Rangers Place Ronald Guzman On 10-Day IL, Select Adolis Garcia

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The Rangers have placed first baseman/outfielder Ronald Guzman on the 10-day injured list with a meniscus cartilage tear in his right knee, per a team announcement. In other moves, the team selected outfielder Adolis Garcia’s contract and transferred injured right-hander Matt Bush from the 10-day IL to the 60-day version.

It isn’t known yet whether Guzman will require surgery, but either way, it seems likely he’ll miss a fair amount of time. Guzman suffered the injury Monday during his first career start in left field and had to leave on a cart. It’s the latest tough development for the 26-year-old, who has generally struggled to produce dating back to his 2018 debut. Guzman took 17 trips to the plate this year before suffering the injury and batted just .063/.118/.250.

Garcia, whom the Rangers acquired from the Cardinals in 2019, saw brief major league action over the prior two seasons. He has hit .087/.125/.130 in 24 PA.

Rangers Announce Roster Decisions

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The Rangers are finalizing their plans for Opening Day, as manager Chris Woodward told reporters (including Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) about some roster decisions.  The team will select the contracts of Ian Kennedy and Matt Bush prior to the opener, and the newly-acquired Josh Sborz has also won a job in the Texas bullpen.  At first base, Nate Lowe will assume regular duties while Ronald Guzman will work as the backup first baseman and likely be in line for DH at-bats while Khris Davis and Willie Calhoun are on the injured list.

Kennedy and Bush were both signed to minor league contracts in the offseason, and the two veterans could now be the Rangers’ top options for save situations with Jose Leclerc, Joely Rodriguez, Brett Martin, and Jonathan Hernandez all ticketed to begin the season on the IL.  Sborz and Taylor Hearn might also get some looks in the ninth inning as the Rangers figure to be relatively fluid with the closer role unless one of the candidates is particularly dominant.

Once his contract is officially selected, Kennedy will lock in a $2.15MM salary for the 2021 season.  The 36-year-old joined the Rangers after five years with the Royals, with the last two seasons spent as a reliever rather than Kennedy’s customary starting pitching role.  He took well to the new assignment at first, posting an impressive 30-save campaign as Kansas City’s closer in 2019, but struggled over 14 innings last season before his season was ended by a left calf strain in late August.

Bush, meanwhile, hasn’t appeared in a Major League game since 2018 due to a pair of elbow surgeries (including a Tommy John procedure).  Texas signed Bush to a two-year minor league deal in the 2019-20 offseason to allow him to rehab throughout the 2020 campaign, with an eye towards making him available this season.  The first overall pick of the 2004 draft, all of Bush’s MLB experience has come with the Rangers, as he posted a 3.35 ERA and 23.4% strikeout rate over 137 innings out of the Texas bullpen from 2016-18, though walks became an increasing problem over Bush’s three seasons.

There wasn’t much doubt that Guzman would make the roster since he is out of options, though he’ll need to start performing quickly in order to regain a foothold as part of the Rangers’ future plans.  Guzman has hit only .230/.308/.417 with 30 home runs over 809 Major League PA, but given the relatively small sample size and Guzman’s still-young age (26), it isn’t yet out of the question that he could break out at the plate.

Wilson writes that the Rangers are leaning towards using their final remaining 26-man roster opening on a position player, but the team would need to carve out a 40-man roster spot to accommodate either Charlie Culberson or Adolis Garcia (both in camp on minor league deals).  The same would be true if Texas included an extra pitcher on the roster, with minor league signings Luis Ortiz, Hunter Wood, and Hyeon-jong Yang all candidates.

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