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Socrates Brito

Recapping The KBO League’s International Player Signings

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With the lockout slowing MLB-related transactions to a crawl of minor league deals, transactions involving Korean Baseball Organization teams have taken more of a spotlight on MLBTR’s pages since the start of December.  These moves have included the signings of several names familiar to North American baseball fans, as the KBO League’s clubs have looked to address their allocated three roster spots for non-Korean players.  International-born players can only sign contracts worth a maximum of $1MM in total salary, and players new to the KBO League can sign only one-year pacts.

Though the Doosan Bears have one signing that still isn’t yet official, the other 29 slots have been filled.  It is still possible this list could be adjusted in the coming weeks due to a number of factors — injuries, players returning to North America (for personal reasons or a deal with an MLB team), issues related to the pandemic, or teams just changing their minds after seeing the players in training camp.  Here is the rundown of this winter’s international signings for the 10 KBO League franchises….

Doosan Bears
Jose Miguel Fernandez (deal not yet finalized), Ariel Miranda, Robert Stock

NC Dinos
Nick Martini, Wes Parsons, Drew Rucinski

Hanwha Eagles
Ryan Carpenter, Nick Kingham, Mike Tauchman

Lotte Giants
Charlie Barnes, DJ Peters, Glenn Sparkman

Kiwoom Heroes
Tyler Eppler, Eric Jokisch, Yasiel Puig

SSG Landers
Kevin Cron, Wilmer Font, Ivan Nova

Samsung Lions
David Buchanan, Jose Pirela, Albert Suarez

Kia Tigers
Socrates Brito, Sean Nolin, Ronnie Williams

LG Twins
Casey Kelly, Adam Plutko, Rio Ruiz

KT Wiz
William Cuevas, Odrisamer Despaigne, Henry Ramos

KBO’s Kia Tigers Sign Socrates Brito, Ronnie Williams

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The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed outfielder Socrates Brito and right-hander Ronnie Williams to one-year contracts, the team announced.  Reports out of South Korea last week indicated that Brito was joining the Gwangju-based team (hat tip to The Athletic’s Sung Min Kim).

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that Brito will earn a $600K salary with another $300K available in contract incentives, with the Yonhap News’ Jeeho Yoo noting that $100K of Brito’s guaranteed money is a signing bonus.  Also via Yoo, Williams will get a $300K salary and a $100K signing bonus, with $350K more available in incentives.

Brito has appeared in parts of four MLB seasons, hitting .179/.216/.309 over 218 plate appearances with the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays from 2015-19.  He signed a minor league contract with the Pirates in 2020 and played at the team’s alternate training site, but opted out of the season in September for tragic reasons, as Brito’s brother passed away from COVID-19.  Returning to the field in 2021, Brito hit .251/.315/.376 over 419 PA with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate.

This performance represented a notable step down from Brito’s usual strong Triple-A numbers, as he had always produced in his previous stops with the Diamondbacks’ and Jays’ top farm clubs.  Some dropoff isn’t unusual given a full year away from the game, though it was Brito’s first season outside of a Triple-A environment that was very favorable to hitters.  Arizona’s Triple-A team played in the Pacific Coast League, while the 2019 season (which Brito spent with Toronto’s Buffalo affiliate) saw offensive numbers explode all across Triple-A baseball.

A trip to the KBO League might be what Brito needs to get his career back on track, as he enters his age 29 season.  A noted prospect in his early days with the D’Backs, Brito can play any of the three outfield positions, though he has has more recently been deployed in the corners.

Williams turns 26 in early January, and the righty already has seven seasons of pro experience.  A second-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2014 draft, Williams spent his first six years in the St. Louis organization before the Giants claimed him off waivers last winter.  The Miami native has a 4.24 ERA and 21.41% strikeout rate over 409 1/3 career innings in the minors, pitching mostly as a reliever over his last three seasons.  Only 15 2/3 of those innings came at the Triple-A level, as Williams didn’t reach Triple-A until this year in the Giants’ system.

The $400K (and the incentive possibilities) represent a much higher salary than Williams would have earned in the minors this year, and it makes sense that he would take the guaranteed money now rather than roll the dice on signing another minor league deal and trying to finally crack a big league roster.  The Tigers deal also allows Williams for some chance at reinvention, and a chance to showcase his skills for either further opportunities abroad or for MLB scouts.

Yankees, Socrates Brito Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Socrates Brito, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The MAS+ client will be invited to Major League Spring Training.

Brito, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates last year and opened the shortened season in Pittsburgh’s 60-man player pool at their alternate training site in Altoona. However, Brito opted out of the remainder of the year in September following the tragic loss of his brother to Covid-19.

He’ll now join a Yankees club that has seen plenty of outfield injuries over the past couple of seasons, which could afford him another opportunity in the big leagues. Brito has spent parts of four seasons in the Majors between Arizona and Toronto, but he’s yet to replicate the solid production he posted in his first cup of coffee when he batted .303/.324/.455 in 18 games with the 2015 D-backs. Brito carries just a .525 OPS in 218 Major League plate appearances, but he’s notched a much more impressive .297/.345/.491 batting line in 1541 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

Socrates Brito Reportedly Opts Out Of Season

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6:04pm: Brito hasn’t officially made a decision yet, the Pirates announced (via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The Pirates did note there’s a “possibility” Brito will opt out.

5:38pm: Pirates outfielder Socrates Brito has opted out of the season, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Brito made the decision after his brother passed away of COVID-19.

This isn’t the first time the coronavirus has affected Brito, who tested positive for the illness in early July. Brito was able to return to the Pirates shortly after, though, and the hope is that the 27-year-old will be able to get back on a major league diamond next season. The former Diamondback and Blue Jay, who joined the Pirates on a minor league contract last winter, has seen action in four big league seasons since he debuted in 2015. He didn’t make any appearances with the Pirates this year.

Pittsburgh has now seen two of its players opt out of the season. Righty Hector Noesi previously decided not to play this year because of family concerns.

NL Central Notes: Cardinals, Pirates, Brito, Marin

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We’ll round up some news from the NL Central.

  • Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler sat out yesterday’s intrasquad game with back tightness, manager Mike Shildt told reporters (including Anne Rogers of MLB.com). He won’t take part in today’s Summer Camp work, either. Shildt categorized Fowler’s absence as merely precautionary, calling him day-to-day. Also sidelined today is utilityman Brad Miller, who’s dealing with heel soreness, per Rogers. As with Fowler, the Cards appear simply to be exercising an abundance of caution with Miller.
  • Pirates outfielder Sócrates Brito has returned to Summer Camp, tweets Adam Berry of MLB.com. The 27-year-old had tested positive for COVID-19, but fortunately is asymptomatic and has twice tested negative for the virus, per MLB protocols. The out-of-options Brito was once a well-regarded prospect in the Diamondbacks’ system, but he’s not found any MLB success in parts of four seasons. All told, Brito has a career .179/.216/.309 (33 wRC+) line in 218 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. The speedster has been much better in Triple-A, with a .297/.345/.491 slash in over 1500 plate appearances.
  • Pirates first-year pitching coach Oscar Marin brings a newfound fluency in pitch data and biomechanics to the position, players tell Berry. As Steve Adams of MLBTR explored in March, the previous coaching staff- predominantly manager Clint Hurdle and pitching coach Ray Searage- advocated a sinker-heavy diet for most players, even if their pitch movement data suggested a north-south, four-seam heavy approach could’ve been more effective. (Steve’s optimism that Chris Archer, in particular, could rebound with such an approach was dashed by the subsequent revelation that Archer would need surgery due to thoracic outlet syndrome, but the general point remains). While the Hurdle-Searage staff wasn’t entirely averse to data, reliever Nick Burdi tells Berry the club is “starting to utilize (analytical information) a bit more,” under Marin and new manager Derek Shelton.

Pirates’ Socrates Brito, Blake Cederlind Test Positive For COVID-19

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Outfielder Socrates Brito and right-hander Blake Cederlind have both tested positive for the coronavirus, Pirates manager Derek Shelton told reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).  The two players consented to be identified as having positive tests, though Shelton didn’t provide further details on their condition, saying only “there are some other things that they have to do medically before they can get back on the field.”

League rules dictate that Brito and Cederlind will be in quarantine for two weeks, and must then be symptom-free and test negative on two separate tests before rejoining their teammates.  While health is obviously the first and foremost concern in this situation, the two-week hiatus will make it harder for either Brito or Cederlind to make the Bucs’ Opening Day roster, though Mackey notes that “neither Cederlind nor Brito was expected to begin the 2020 season with the big club.”

Brito signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh over the winter, culminating a 2019 that saw him belong to four different organizations (Diamondbacks, Padres, Blue Jays, and finally the Pirates) within the calendar year.  Brito did suit up for 17 games last season, all with Toronto, managing just a .291 OPS and 17 strikeouts over 43 plate appearances.  The 27-year-old has only a .179/.216/.309 slash line over 218 career PA at the Major League level, though he has put up some good numbers in the minors and can play all three outfield positions.

Cederlind was a fifth-round pick for the Pirates in the 2016 draft, and ranks 28th on MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 30 Pittsburgh minor leaguer.  He didn’t produce much over his first three pro seasons, though Mackey notes that Cederlind’s fortunes changed after turning his 100mph fastball into a sinker — the right-hander had a combined 2.28 ERA, 8.3 K/9, and 2.29 K/BB rate over 59 1/3 combined innings at the high-A, Double-A, and Triple-A levels in 2019.  This performance put him on the radar as a potential callup at some point in the 2020 season, as the rebuilding Pirates can afford to give looks to any promising youngster.

Pirates Sign Socrates Brito, Miguel Del Pozo, Phillip Evans

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The Pirates have announced a series of minor-league signings. Outfielder Socrates Brito, southpaw Miguel Del Pozo, and infielder Phillip Evans have all received non-roster invitations, as has Hector Noesi, whose signing was previously reported.

Brito was once viewed as a quality prospect but hasn’t shown much in the majors. The 27-year-old carries a lifetime .179/.216/.309 slash in 218 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. But he did turn in a .282/.328/.510 batting line in 428 trips to the dish last year at Triple-A with the Blue Jays organization. New Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington is well-acquainted with Brito, having come over from Toronto.

The 27-year-old Del Pozo debuted in the bigs last year with the Angels after a mid-season claim from the Rangers. He didn’t exactly stake out a firm claim to a permanent job, allowing 11 earned runs on three long balls with an 11:8 K/BB ratio in 9 1/3 frames. But the southpaw works in the mid-nineties with his heater and delivered 68 strikeouts in 48 2/3 Triple-A innings.

As for Evans, also 27, he touched the bigs in the two prior seasons with the Mets but didn’t make it back in 2019 with the Cubs. He did see steady action with the Chicago organization’s top affiliate, slashing .283/.371/.470 in 539 plate appearances — good for a solid but hardly exceptional 106 wRC+ in the International League.

Blue Jays Option Teoscar Hernandez, Outright Socrates Brito

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The Blue Jays announced Thursday that outfielder Teoscar Hernandez has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo and that fellow outfielder Socrates Brito cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Buffalo following his recent DFA. Infielder Richard Urena is up from Triple-A in place of Hernandez.

Toronto has held high hopes for Hernandez since acquiring him from the Astros back in 2017, but while he’s shown flashes of his potential, the 26-year-old has yet to establish himself as a consistent producer. Hernandez treated the Jays to about a half season’s worth of production last year, hitting at an impressive .268/.319/.550 pace with 12 homers, 16 doubles and five triples through the season’s first 54 games (238 plate appearances). Hernandez routinely lit up Statcast leaderboards with premium exit velocity readings and hit some prodigious home runs, but he slumped badly in the season’s second half and has seen his quality of contact take a nosedive in 2019.

So far this season, Hernandez is hitting just .189/.262/.299 with a near-30 percent strikeout rate. He’s connected on three home runs but has seen his average exit velocity dip from a hearty 91.8 mph to just 89 mph in 2019. His hard-hit rate, as measured by Statcast, has plummeted from 45.9 percent all the way to 34.9 percent, and he’s seen both his ground-ball and infield-fly rates increase over last season as well.

The endpoint here is arbitrary, but dating back to the middle of last June when his struggles seemingly begun, Hernandez is hitting .206/.279/.366 with a 35.2 percent strikeout rate through 426 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from his encouraging first two and a half months in 2018, and the Jays will hope that some time against lesser competition in a lower-pressure setting can get Hernandez back on track. If he can rebound, there’s still room for him to be a long-term option in the outfield or at designated hitter, but he’ll need to pare back the strikeouts and rediscover the frequent hard contact he made last season when he was in the 97th percentile of all big league hitters in terms of barreled-ball rate.

Brito, meanwhile, was designated for assignment last week after hitting just .077/.163/.128 in 43 plate appearances with the Jays. He’s already bounced from the D-backs to the Padres to the Blue Jays in a series of DFAs, but he went unclaimed this time around and will join Hernandez in attempting to get back on track in Triple-A.

Blue Jays Select Javy Guerra, Designate Socrates Brito

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3:15pm: Buchholz is indeed headed to the IL, TSN’s Scott Mitchell tweets. The team says Buchholz has shoulder inflammation, though the righty had told Mitchell earlier that he was dealing with a minor lat issue.

3:01pm: The Blue Jays are making a series of roster moves today, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. The club will select the contract of reliever Javy Guerra, adding him to the 40-man and active rosters. Also coming up to the big leagues is outfielder Jonathan Davis.

Outfielder Socrates Brito was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Reliever Thomas Pannone was optioned yesterday, creating an additional active roster opening. He’s still on hand, however, in case Clay Buchholz requires a stint on the injured list. (Buchholz has been scratched from his start tonight.)

This’ll be Guerra’s second stint with the Jays this year. He was designated for assignment after working to a 5.40 ERA with 12 strikeouts and four walks in ten innings.

Davis, who is nearing his 27th birthday, struggled in his MLB debut last year but has been excellent thus far in 2019 at Triple-A. In 67 plate appearances, he’s slashing .306/.493/.633 with four home runs and a shiny mix of 16 walks against 13 strikeouts.

As for Brito, the Jays gave him a run after claiming him from the Diamondbacks early in the year. The 26-year-old has not impressed, producing a ghastly .077/.163/.128 slash and 17 strikeouts in 43 trips to the plate.

Blue Jays Notes: Roster Moves, Pitching Health, Prospects

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While there’s not much hope of the Blue Jays contending in 2019, that doesn’t mean it’ll be a quiet season. There has been some early-season roster maneuvering already in Toronto and more could ensue in the course of the campaign.

The latest:

  • With Alen Hanson and Socrates Brito reporting for duty, the Jays have a pair of new position players to work into the mix. Whether either or both have staying power remains to be seen, but the out-of-options players would need to be exposed to waivers if they’re not held on the active roster. To create space, the Jays optioned back outfielder Anthony Alford (who’s evidently not yet in line for a real look at the majors) and hurler Sean Reid-Foley. Lefty Thomas Pannone is jumping into the rotation vacancy, though he may ultimately just be keeping that spot warm.
  • The Toronto pitching staff will at some point feature bounceback candidate Clay Buchholz. As MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm reports (links to Twitter), he’s one of several hurlers on the mend. Buchholz has already built up to sixty pitches and may be ready for the majors in the next ten days or so. Relievers Ryan Tepera and Ryan Borucki are also working back from injuries; the former seems to be on Buchholz’s timeline while the latter could return by the end of April. Meanwhile, David Phelps has resumed throwing as he tries to work back from Tommy John surgery. His timeline is not apparent at present.
  • Much of the intrigue this year will come from the young talent trying to force its way onto the MLB roster. No player has more hype than Vladimir Guerrero Jr., though he’s only one of several top prospects with obvious ability and intriguing MLB bloodlines. Vladito is also still working back from an oblique injury. He’s set to launch a rehab assignment this evening, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets, with a Class A stop to open the season.
  • The possibility of an early (even pre-MLB) extension for Guerrero or other top Jays prospects seems interesting. GM Ross Atkins discussed that possibility recently, as Emily Sadler of Sportsnet.ca writes, though he didn’t really tip his hand on the likelihood of such a deal. If anything, he seemed to downplay such a scenario (at least in the immediate term). “It happens with a lot of discussion, a lot of interaction, a lot of back-and-forth,” said Atkins of extensions for younger players, “and what’s important to a player and what’s important to an organization has to line up and those risks are very different.” Regardless of contract possibilities, the Jays are still preparing to face multiple near-term promotion questions. On that issue, Atkins struck much the same tone he has previously, saying: “We want to have the most well-rounded and complete player as possible, but we’re not going to wait for that. We’re going to do the best of our ability to balance that.”
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