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Sheldon Neuse

NPB’s Hanshin Tigers Sign Javy Guerra, Re-Sign Sheldon Neuse

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The Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced this week that they’ve signed right-hander Javy Guerra for the 2024 season (Japanese language link via Yahoo Japan). Hanshin has also re-signed infielder Sheldon Neuse and right-hander Jeremy Beasley, per the team’s web site. It’ll be the second season with the Tigers for both former big leaguers and Guerra’s first overseas.

Guerra, 28, once ranked as one of the top prospects in all of baseball while rising through the Red Sox and Padres systems as a shortstop. After struggling at the plate as he climbed the minor league ladder, however, he moved to the mound and has now appeared in each of the past five big league seasons, splitting time between the Padres, Rays and Brewers. Guerra is one of the game’s hardest throwers, averaging 98 mph on his heater and at times climbing into triple digits, but he’s battled significant command issues that have hampered his results.

In 63 MLB innings, Guerra has walked 14.3% of his opponents. He hasn’t balanced that out with the type of gaudy strikeout rate one might imagine either, setting down just 15% of his opponents on strikes. The poor command of his power repertoire has contributed to an ugly 6.43 ERA in the big leagues, but Guerra sports a career 2.87 ERA, 28% strikeout rate and far more palatable 9.6% walk rate in 78 1/3 Triple-A innings across two seasons. He’ll look to match that form more closely with the Tigers. And, at 28 years of age, if Guerra can harness his power arsenal in NPB and improve his command, he’s young enough to parlay this stint into a big league return down the road.

As for Neuse, he’ll be a familiar name for fans of the A’s, Dodgers and perhaps the Nationals (who selected him in the second round of the 2016 draft and traded him to Oakland alongside Jesus Luzardo for both Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle). The now-28-year-old infielder hit .212/.262/.296 in parts of three seasons between Oakland and Los Angeles (420 plate appearances) and turned in a .240/.295/.328 batting line with Hanshin last season.

As for Beasley, the 28-year-old pitched 24 2/3 innings of 5.84 ERA ball between the D-backs and Blue Jays from 2020-22. He tossed 41 innings for the Tigers’ top-level club in 2023 (plus 44 innings with their minor league squad) and handled himself quite nicely, logging a 2.20 ERA with a 25.3% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate in that time.

Hanshin Tigers Close To Signing Jeremy Beasley and Sheldon Neuse

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The Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional League are close to signing former MLB players Jeremy Beasley and Sheldon Neuse, as well as former big league prospects Brian Keller and Johan Mieses, according to Yahoo Japan.  Meanwhile, the Tigers have renewed former Tiger, Angel and Pirate Kyle Keller’s contract for around $1.5MM, and the deal contains an additional $300K in possible incentives.

Beasley, 27 tomorrow, was recently released by the Pirates, but last pitched in the majors for the Blue Jays. He had a 4.80 ERA in nine relief appearances spanning 15 innings, and owns a career 5.84 ERA across 24 2/3 innings for the Blue Jays and Diamondbacks in the past three seasons. He’s shown the ability to punch out major league hitters, striking out batters at a 29% clip, although that comes with a 12.3% walk rate.

Neuse was a second round pick for the Nationals back in 2016, but made his way to Oakland in the Sean Doolittle deal a year later. Across three seasons with the Athletics and Dodgers, Neuse owns a .212/.262/.296 batting line with seven home runs in 420 plate appearances. He’s primarily spent time at second and third base, but has also logged time at first base, shortstop and both corner outfield positions.

Brian Keller was drafted in the 39th round of the 2016 draft by the Yankees, and made it as high as Triple-A with them. He was claimed off waivers ahead of the past season by the Red Sox, and spent the last year at their Triple-A affiliate. There, Keller pitched 113 innings of 3.27 ERA ball, making 20 starts and 11 relief appearances. He struck out a little over a quarter of the batters he faced, but walked batters just over ten percent of the time.

Mieses, 27, has bounced around the minor leagues a bit, spending time with the Dodgers and Cardinals before joining the Red Sox in 2021. The outfielder spent the past year at Triple-A, slashing an impressive .271/.387/.537 with 12 home runs across 60 games. All of those appearances came in right field or as the DH, although he has appeared at the other two outfield spots in previous seasons.

Kyle Keller, 29, spent the past season with Hanshin after being released by the Pirates at the end of the 2021 season. He turned in a 2.72 ERA in 49 2/3 innings with 64 strikeouts and just 12 walks. He struggled during his time in the big leagues, pitching to a 5.83 ERA across 46 1/3 innings for the Marlins, Angels and Pirates, but he seems to have found success in Japan so it’s not surprising to see him stick around for another season.

Note: A prior version of this post incorrectly stated Keller’s salary as approximately $1.3MM. MLBTR regrets the error.

Outrighted: Herget, Neuse, Sanchez

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A few updates on some recently DFA’ed players who passed through waivers, per the league’s transactions log at MLB.com…

  • Righty Kevin Herget, designated for for assignment Friday by the Rays, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Durham. Herget made his big league debut as a 31-year-old rookie this season after grinding through the minor leagues and independent baseball for more than nine years. He tossed just 2 2/3 frames and yielded a pair of runs in that time but also recorded his first big league strikeout. Even if Herget doesn’t get another look with the Rays in 2022, his excellent work in Triple-A this year should generate interest in minor  league free agency this winter. In 93 2/3 frames, he’s pitched to a 2.98 ERA with a strong 24.9% strikeout rate and an outstanding 3.9% walk rate.
  • Athletics infielder Sheldon Neuse cleared outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas. The 27-year-old logged a career-high 293 plate appearances in 2022 but recorded just a .214/.273/.288 slash with four homers, four doubles and a pair of triples in that time. Neuse has consistently produced at the Triple-A level, where he’s slashed .299/.353/.471 in 1559 plate appearances, but he’s only managed a .212/.262/.296 slash in 420 Major League trips to the plate. Neuse has spent the bulk of his pro career playing third base, but he does have just over 750 innings of experience at second base and at shortstop — in addition to brief cameos at first base and in the outfield corners.
  • Veteran right-hander Aaron Sanchez, whom the Twins designated for assignment Friday, remains in the organization after clearing waivers and being assigned outright to Triple-A St. Paul. Injuries, most notably shoulder surgery, have blown up the once-promising career of Sanchez, formerly the No. 34 overall draft pick by the Blue Jays and the 2016 American League ERA leader. Since tossing 192 innings with a flat 3.00 ERA in ’16, Sanchez has thrown just 524 1/3 Major League innings (plus another 103 minor league innings) in a span of six seasons. Still just 30, Sanchez has pitched decently in Minnesota this season, tossing 27 innings with a 4.00 ERA, 25-to-7 K/BB ratio and 53.8% ground-ball rate.

A’s Designate Sheldon Neuse For Assignment

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The A’s announced that they have designated infielder Sheldon Neuse for assignment in order to open a roster spot for infielder Ernie Clement, who was claimed off waivers from the Guardians yesterday. The move drops Oakland’s 40-man roster count to 39.

Neuse, 27, began this year in DFA limbo, as the Dodgers cut him loose on December 1, just as the lockout was about to begin. Shortly after the lockout ended in March, he was claimed off waivers by the A’s and has been oscillated between Oakland and Triple-A Las Vegas this year. He’s fared extremely well in Vegas with a .398/.407/.611 line across 25 games, but hasn’t been able to replicate that at the big league level. In 89 games for the A’s this year, he’s hit .214/.273/.288 for a wRC+ of 67.

This has generally been the story of Neuse in recent years as both 2019 and 2021 also saw him post above-average marks in Triple-A but substandard results when in the show. In 147 career MLB games, he’s hit .212/.262/.296 while striking out in 29.8% of his plate appearances. Since the trade deadline has passed, the A’s will have no choice but to put Neuse on outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days.

Another team might be tempted to put in a claim based on Neuse’s continued success at Triple-A. He is in his last option year and wouldn’t need an active roster spot for now, though he will be out of options next year. He also brings defensive versatility to the table, having appeared at all four infield positions this year, as well as spending some time in the outfield corners last year. If he finds a new home and clicks in a new jersey, he can be retained well into the future given that he just crossed one year of MLB service time here in 2022.

Athletics Release Elvis Andrus

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The A’s announced Wednesday that they’ve released veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus. Infielder Sheldon Neuse is up from Triple-A Las Vegas to take his spot on the roster.

Once Andrus wasn’t traded either in the offseason or at the trade deadline earlier this month, the writing was on the wall for Andrus, whose contract contains a vesting player option for the 2023 season that would become kick in upon reaching 550 plate appearances. The rebuilding Athletics unsurprisingly had no interest in allowing that option to vest, and the mere presence of that option has made the possibility of trading Andrus seem both complicated and frankly unlikely since this past winter. Now that he’s been released, however, it’s a moot point; the option won’t vest an Andrus will simply become a free agent at season’s end.

[Related: Vesting Options Updates on Flexen, Maldonado, Carrasco, Andrus]

Andrus can now sign a new deal that does not require a new club to pay him $15MM in 2023 if he reaches 550 plate appearances on the season. (He’s currently at 386 trips to the plate and would’ve needed another 164 to reach that threshold.) Any team that signs Andrus would need only pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the Major League roster; the A’s will remain on the hook for the rest of this year’s salary.

It’s been a decent season for Andrus at the plate and with the glove. The 33-year-old (34 next week) is no longer the hitter, but he’s turned in a respectable .237/.301/.373 batting line (97 wRC+) with eight home runs, 24 doubles and seven stolen bases. Defensive metrics on Andrus are something of a mixed bag this season; Defensive Runs Saved pegs him six runs below average, but neither Ultimate Zone Rating (2.6) nor Outs Above Average (-1) is quite so sour on his glovework. It’s fair to say that Andrus is clearly no longer the premium defender he was early in his career, when he was regarded as one of the sport’s top gloves at any position.

With Andrus out the door, the A’s will turn shortstop over to a player who has just that type of defensive prowess right now, in the early stages of his own career. Nick Allen, 23, has managed just a .215/.279/.316 slash through his first 173 trips to the plate in the big leagues, but he’s considered one of the best defensive shortstops in the minors and has a more palatable .266/.371/.358 slash in 206 plate appearances for Triple-A Las Vegas, where he’s walked almost as often as he’s struck out (13.1% versus 16.5%).

Allen will likely never hit for power in the big leagues, but with regular playing time, his walk rates, speed and bat-to-ball skills could lead to some 20-steal seasons with solid OBP marks and plus defensive contributions. If the lack of power proves too limiting for Allen to hit like an everyday player, the glove and above-average speed should make him a useful utility infielder who can provide excellent defense at shortstop, second base and third base.

Athletics Designate Parker Markel For Assignment, Select Matt Davidson

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The A’s announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated Stephen Vogt from the injured list, selected the contract of infielder Matt Davidson from Triple-A Las Vegas and designated right-handed reliever Parker Markel for assignment. Oakland also optioned infielder Sheldon Neuse to Las Vegas.

Davidson, 31, saw some big league time with the D-backs earlier this season but rejected an outright assignment following a DFA and inked a minor league pact with the A’s. He’s appeared in just 21 Triple-A games and tallied 88 plate appearances but already has seven home runs in Las Vegas. Davidson was mashing with the D-backs’ Triple-A affiliate in Reno, too, and he’s posted an overall .306/.389/.711 batting line with 15 long balls in only 139 Triple-A plate appearances so far this season.

Some caveats to that production apply, of course. The Pacific Coast League is a notoriously hitter-friendly setting, with Vegas in particular tending to inflate offense. Davidson has had his share of Triple-A success in the past as well — albeit not to this extent — with 146 home runs logged through 703 games at that level. He’s a .248/.320/.470 hitter in Triple-A but hasn’t quite carried that over in parts of six seasons in the Majors, where he’s a .222/.292/.433 hitter. He could still give the A’s more offense than they’ve gotten out of Neuse, a fellow right-handed-hitting infielder who has managed a tepid .228/.291/.305 output in a career-high 182 Major League plate appearances so far.

Markel, also 31, inked a minor league deal with the A’s over the winter and parlayed a 1.89 ERA in 19 Triple-A frames into his first big league action since 2019. The former Mariners and Pirates righty has a long track record of missing bats at a high level but also battling command issues, and both of those have been true in the Majors and in Triple-A this season. Markel fanned 35.4% of his opponents while pitching for Las Vegas but also walked hitters at a 12.7% clip. He fired three scoreless innings in the Majors with the A’s and picked up three strikeouts … but he also issued a walk to five of the 13 hitters he faced.

Even though he averages better than 95 mph on his heater and has a 3.09 ERA and 30% strikeout rate in 177 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, Markel has only ever logged 25 innings in the Majors. There’s no sugarcoating his ugly 14.1% walk rate in Triple-A, but the bat-missing ability and velocity are somewhat intriguing all the same.

Oakland will have a week to trade Markel, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’s been outrighted once before — by the Angels in 2020 — so even if he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the option of rejecting an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

A’s Claim Sheldon Neuse Off Waivers

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The Athletics announced that infielder Sheldon Neuse has been claimed off waivers from the Dodgers.  Neuse has been in DFA limbo since December 1, as the Dodgers designated him for assignment just before the lockout started.

It’s a reunion of sorts for Neuse and the A’s, as Neuse has spent much of his pro career in the Oakland organization.  A second-round pick for the Nationals in the 2016 draft, Neuse was part of the three-player package (along with Jesus Luzardo and Blake Treinen) sent to Oakland in the July 2017 trade that brought Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to D.C.  The Athletics then dealt Neuse to Los Angeles as part of a four-player swap in February 2021.

A pretty well-regarded prospect during his time in the minors, Neuse has a .291/.349/.459 slash line over 1446 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level.  Neuse has played mostly as a third baseman but has also seen a lot of time at both middle infield positions and a handful of games as a first baseman and corner outfielder.  There is some irony that Neuse is returning to the A’s on the same day that Oakland traded Matt Chapman to the Blue Jays, as Chapman’s presence at third base was one of the reasons the Athletics experimented with Neuse at other positions.

With the A’s now shifting into at least some kind of rebuild mode, it could open the door for Neuse to get a longer look at the big league level.  He hasn’t hit much in limited action, with a .207/.236/.314 slash line in 127 PA (61 with the Athletics in 2019 and 66 with the Dodgers last season).

Dodgers Designate Sheldon Neuse For Assignment

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The Dodgers are designating infielder Sheldon Neuse for assignment, tweets Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. The move clears 40-man roster space for Chris Taylor, whose previously-reported four-year deal has been made official.

The 26-year-old Neuse came over to the Dodgers via trade in February from the Athletics. While Neuse continued to post strong numbers in Triple-A, he struggled to find his footing at the plate while operating as a bench piece for the Dodgers. In 33 games, but just 66 plate appearances, Neuse hit .169/.182/.323 with an alarming 26 strikeouts.

The former second round draft pick will likely draw interest from other teams owing to his history of success in the upper minors, to say nothing of his versatility. Since being drafted in 2016 Neuse has played every position on the field except for catcher, center field, and pitcher. It’s not impossible Neuse returns to the Dodgers, of course, but if this is the end of his tenure in Dodger blue his LA supporters may take solace knowing the Oakland end of the trade has yet to bear much fruit either.

Every Team’s Initial September Callups

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The limit on active roster players expanded from 26 to 28 today, as the calendar flipped to September. Every team announced at least two additions to the big league club (some teams made three or more due to injured list placements). Here’s a recap of today’s spate of transactions:

Dodgers Activate Cody Bellinger, Zach McKinstry, Option DJ Peters And Sheldon Neuse To Triple-A

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The Dodgers got some good news today as Cody Bellinger and Zach McKinstry have both re-joined the team from the injured list, per MLB.com’s Juan Toribio (via Twitter). DJ Peters and Sheldon Neuse have been optioned to Triple-A to create the necessary roster space.

Bellinger has been out for all but four games of the 2021 season. He suffered a stress fracture of his fibula in the first week of the season. The former MVP had just 21 plate appearances before hitting the injured list. With his return, Chris Taylor can return to a super-utility role.

While the Dodgers are no doubt thrilled to get Bellinger back in the lineup, they haven’t missed a step with Taylor in Bellinger’s place: Taylor has posted a 146 wRC+ this season. The reverberant effects, however, have left the Dodgers a little short-handed at times, leading to the signing of Albert Pujols and continued use of Max Muncy at second base. Muncy has continued to prove himself capable at the keystone. Regardless, the Dodgers will enjoy the options available to them now that Taylor is once again freed up to move around the diamond.

McKinstry, 26, had been perhaps the story of the season for the Dodgers before he, too, went down with an injury. The infielder/outfielder was slashing .296/.328/.556 before landing on the injured list with an oblique strain.

On the whole, the Dodgers have had to flex their tremendous depth early on this season. They’ve done so successfully. With McKinstry and Bellinger back in the fold, they again appear to have perhaps the deepest and most versatile collection of position players in the game.

Peters, 25, will benefit from more regular playing time as he returns to Triple-A. In 34 plate appearances with the parent club, Peters hit .192/.382/.385, good for a 96 wRC+. Neuse, 26, has yet to figure it out at the dish this season, posting a 47 wRC+. Both players figure to find their way back to the bigs at some point this season.

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