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Elected Free Agency: Siegrist, Edgin, Hutchison, Locke, Bolsinger, Van Slyke, Maness

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The indispensable Matt Eddy of Baseball America provides an overview of a vast number of players electing free agency following the 2017 season in his latest Minor Transactions roundup. Eddy largely focuses on players with big league service time (significant service time, in some cases) that were outrighted off the roster that are now hitting the open market for the first time. (Players with three-plus years of service that are not on the 40-man roster at season’s end can elect free agency, as can any player that has been outrighted on multiple occasions in his career.)

While the vast majority of these players seem likely to sign minor league pacts this winter — they did, after all, go unclaimed by 29 other teams on waivers — a number of them are still intriguing with recent success in their past and/or multiple years of arbitration eligibility remaining. Eddy’s rundown also contains a number of re-signed minor leaguers and released minor leaguers without big league experience as well as Arizona Fall League assignments on a per-team basis, so it’s well worth a full look.

We’ve updated our list of 2017-18 MLB free agents accordingly, and here are some of the new names now checking in on the list…

Depth options in the rotation

Josh Collmenter, Asher Wojciechowski, Drew Hutchison, Jeff Locke, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Bolsinger, Christian Bergman, David Holmberg

Collmenter is just two seasons removed from being the D-backs Opening Day starter but hasn’t had much success of late. Hutchison had solid Triple-A numbers and once looked like a long-term rotation piece in Toronto before Tommy John surgery. He can be controlled for another three seasons in arbitration. Locke was injured for most of an ugly first (and likely only) season in Miami, and Kendrick made just two starts for the Red Sox.

Wojciechowski (6.50 ERA in 62 1/3 innings with the Reds), Bolsinger (6.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings with the Jays), Bergman (5.00 ERA in 54 innings with the Mariners) and Holmberg (4.68 ERA in 57 2/3 innings with the White Sox) all soaked up innings for injury-plagued pitching staffs. Bolsinger has had the most MLB experience of the bunch.

Corner Bats

Scott Van Slyke, Tyler Moore, Cody Asche, Conor Gillaspie, Jaff Decker

Van Slyke has long been a solid bat against left-handed pitching but appeared in just 29 games with the Dodgers and didn’t hit well with their Triple-A affiliate or with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate. (He was included in the Tony Cingrani trade to balance out the financial side of the deal.) Moore, also a right-handed bat, showed power but struggled to get on base.

Once one of the Phillies’ top prospects, Asche hit well in Triple-A Charlotte but flopped in a brief stint with the ChiSox. Gillaspie was unable to replicate his 2016 rebound with the Giants, while Decker showed some on-base skills in the Majors and minors but didn’t hit much overall. (He can play center but hasn’t graded well there in the Majors.)

Utility Infielders

Ruben Tejada, Phil Gosselin, Dusty Coleman, Chase d’Arnaud

Each of the four can play all over the diamond, but none provided offensive value in 2017. Tejada has the most big league experience but hasn’t received much playing time since 2015 (and hasn’t performed well when he has gotten opportunities). Gosselin has a solid defensive reputation but a light bat through 551 MLB PAs. Coleman hit four homers in 71 PAs in his MLB debut this year but logged a .268 OBP. d’Arnaud saw his fair share of 2016 action with the Braves but has never produced much at the plate.

Bullpen options

Kevin Siegrist (L), Josh Edgin (L), Seth Maness, Kevin Quackenbush

Siegrist and Edgin are intriguing names for clubs in need of left-handed bullpen help. Both have recent success on their track records, though Edgin wasn’t as sharp in 2017 as he was prior to 2015 Tommy John surgery. Siegrist’s control eroded in 2017 as he missed time due to a back/spinal injury and tendinitis in his left forearm, but he was one of the Cardinals’ top setup options in both 2015 and 2016. Both lefties are controllable through 2019.

Maness drew headlines for returning from a torn UCL in roughly seven months thanks to an experimental new “primary repair” procedure, but while he stayed healthy in 2017, the results weren’t great in the Majors and especially not in Triple-A (6.13 ERA in 47 innings). Quackenbush was excellent as a rookie in 2014 and solid in 2015-16 before imploding in 2017 (7.86 ERA in 26 1/3 innings). He was better but not great in Triple-A (3.90 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9). Maness could be controlled through 2019, while Quackenbush would have three more years of control.

Marlins Outright Four Players

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The Marlins have outrighted righties Javy Guerra and Vance Worley off their 40-man roster, along with first baseman Tyler Moore and outfielder Destin Hood, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports on Twitter. The Marlin’s 40-man roster now consists of 36 players.

Guerra, 31, had been a reliever for the Dodgers, White Sox and Angels before making it to Miami. He pitched in 16 games for the Marlins across the final two months of the season, compiling a respectable 3.00 ERA. However, he only managed to strike out 12 batters in 21 innings, and his larger body of work doesn’t point to significant upside.

Worley appeared in 24 games with the Marlins this past season, including 12 as a starter. The 30 year-old veteran pitched to an ugly 6.91 ERA in 71 2/3 innings, though some of it can be attributed to luck factors such as a high .378 BABIP and a low 64.5% strand rate. Worley’s greatest success during his career came with the Phillies and the Pirates, including an outstanding 2011 campaign in Philadelphia when he pitched to a 3.01 ERA and 8.13 K/9.

Moore, 30, was taken in the 16th round of the 2008 draft, and has since accrued 852 major league plate appearances with the Nationals and Marlins. He’s been 1.5 wins below replacement level for his career, with a lifetime .228/.278/.401 batting line and below-average defense at first base.

Hood, a former second-round pick of the Nationals, did not play in the majors this season. The 27 year-old outfielder has 25 career plate appearances at the MLB level, all coming last season with the Marlins. He struck out in 11 of those appearances while collecting six hits, including one home run. Hood chased 36.7% of pitches outside the strike zone, and only made contact on 38.9% of them, which explains a large portion of his offensive struggles.

 

Marlins Outright Tyler Moore

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The Marlins have outrighted first baseman/outfielder Tyler Moore to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, as MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro was among those to tweet. He was recently designated for assignment.

While the return of Martin Prado changed the roster calculus for the Fish, there’s still a need for a righty bench bat to pair with Justin Bour at first. (Bour is hitting just .167/.270/.315 and has a poor track record against left-handed pitching.) That could mean Moore will return to the majors at some point this year.

The 30-year-old slugger saw only 11 plate appearances before he was designated for assignment and failed to make it to the majors last year, so there’s not much of a recent track record to go on. From 2012 through 2015, he slashed .228/.281/.401 and hit 24 home runs in 660 plate appearances with the Nationals, so there’s plenty of pop in the bat. But Moore hasn’t reached base enough and offers little in the way of defensive value, limiting his usefulness.

Marlins Designate Tyler Moore For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they’ve reinstated third baseman Martin Prado from the 10-day disabled list and designated first baseman/outfielder Tyler Moore for assignment in order to clear a spot on the active roster.

The 30-year-old Moore, long a member of the division-rival Nationals, was in his first season with the Fish after signing a minors deal in the offseason and breaking camp with the club. The right-handed-hitting Moore logged 11 plate appearances with Miami, collecting four hits along the way. In parts of five big league seasons, Moore is a .230/.282/.402 hitter. Unlike many right-handed bats that have long occupied a part-time role, however, Moore has actually fared slightly better against righties in his career.

Prado, 33, opened the season on the DL due to a hamstring strain that he sustained while playing for his native Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. He just concluded a four-game rehab stint in the minors and will suit up for the 2017 season on the heels of a .304/.359/.417 batting line in 2016. The 2017 campaign marks the first season of a three-year, $40MM extension that Prado inked last September in lieu of testing the open market; he’d been slated to hit free agency before signing that deal but now will continue on as a leader in the Miami clubhouse through the 2019 season.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/2/17

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Sunday’s minor moves…

  • The White Sox have selected the contracts of three offseason minor league signings – infielder/outfielder Cody Asche, catcher Geovany Soto and right-handed reliever Anthony Swarzak. The 26-year-old Asche was once a well-regarded prospect with the Phillies, but he scuffled to a .240/.298/.385 line in 1,287 plate appearances with the club from 2013-16. Soto, who’s in his second stint with the White Sox, has typically served as a capable offensive catcher, and has thrown out would-be base stealers at a league-average rate, though his pitch-framing numbers have declined in recent seasons. Swarzak, meanwhile, has created intrigue this spring with an uptick in velocity. The 31-year-old threw harder than usual with the Yankees last season, and he logged terrific strikeout and walk rates of 9.0 and 2.03, respectively, per nine innings. However, a bloated home run-to-fly ball ratio (27.8 percent) led to a 5.52 ERA in 31 frames.
  • The Twins have selected catcher Chris Gimenez’s contract and placed reliever Glen Perkins on the 60-day disabled list, according to Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (Twitter link). The 34-year-old Gimenez has a history in Cleveland, including last season. His time there helped him land a minor league pact with the Twins, whose new front office head, Derek Falvey, used to work for the Tribe. Gimenez, a lifetime .218/.297/.335 hitter in 776 PAs, has garnered slightly negative reviews as a framer and will back up the defensively adept Jason Castro in Minnesota. As for Perkins, the Twins’ former (and future?) closer, the three-time All-Star is continuing to rehab from the shoulder surgery he underwent last June. Perkins threw just two innings in 2016.
  • The Indians have released left-hander Tim Cooney, who sat out of all last season because of shoulder problems and has dealt with a forearm strain this spring. Cleveland claimed Cooney off waivers from the Cardinals in November, a year after Cooney debuted in the majors and impressed across 31 1/3 innings and six starts. All told, Cooney registered a 3.16 ERA, 8.33 K/9 and 2.87 BB/9.
  • The Orioles have selected veteran outfielder Craig Gentry’s contract. The 33-year-old’s fate was reportedly tied to Rule 5 outfielder Aneury Tavarez, whom the Orioles returned to the Red Sox on Sunday. Gentry’s reemergence looked highly improbable a couple years ago, when he contemplated retirement after suffering a sixth concussion. He also only picked up limited major league experience over the past two seasons, and the Angels released him last year after he dealt with a spine injury. At his best, Gentry brought a solid blend of offense, defense and baserunning as a member of the Rangers from 2012-13. The right-handed hitter will now serve as a platoon option for a Baltimore team with lefty-swinging corner outfielders in Seth Smith and Hyun Soo Kim.
  • The Mets have selected the contract of infielder Ty Kelly, who’s back on their 40-man roster after the team designated him for assignment in February. Kelly could have ended up elsewhere at that point, but he ultimately cleared waivers. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with New York last season, hitting .241/.352/.345 in 71 trips to the plate.
  • The Reds have selected the contract of outfielder Patrick Kivlehan, who joined the organization as a waiver claim last September. Kivlehan debuted in the majors last year and picked up 24 plate appearances between San Diego and Cincinnati. The 27-year-old has mostly played at the Triple-A level, where he has slashed .255/.308/.477 in a combined 915 plate appearances with the Seattle, Texas and San Diego organizations.
  • The Marlins have selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Tyler Moore, whom they signed to a minor league deal in December. Moore spent 2012-15 as a member of the NL East rival Nationals, with whom he hit .228/.281/.401 in 649 PAs. The 30-year-old was with another of the Marlins’ division rivals, the Braves, last season, but he didn’t make it to the majors. Instead, Moore was with Triple-A Gwinnett, where he batted just .229/.276/.375 over a small sample of PAs (106).

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/14/16

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Let’s catch up on the latest minor moves:

  • The Padres have agreed to minors deals with non-tendered players Jose Pirela and Hector Sanchez, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports via Twitter. San Diego will also bring in outfielder Rafael Ortega and righty Andre Rienzo on minor-league deals. Of this group, Sanchez has the most major league experience and seems most likely to have a chance to reaching the bigs in San Diego. He has seen time in each of the past six major league campaigns, compiling a .241/.278/.354 batting line across 691 plate appearances. Ortega, though, saw the most time in 2016, posting a .232/.283/.292 slash in 202 plate appearances with the Angels.
  • Righty Stephen Fife and first baseman Tyler Moore are the newest additions to the Marlins organization, per Eddy (on Twitter). Fife, 30, saw time in three years for the Dodgers and owns a 3.66 ERA in his 91 major league frames. After missing time for Tommy John surgery, he returned to make ten Triple-A starts in the Cubs organization in 2016, working to a 4.58 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Moore, meanwhile, spent parts of four years in the majors with the Nationals, but struggled in limited action last year at the Braves’ top affiliate.
  • The Astros agreed to terms with 26-year-old southpaw C.J. Riefenhauser, Eddy tweets. He’ll likely end up as a depth piece, as he did last year with the Cubs. Riefenhauser does have twenty major league innings under his belt — all with the Rays, and with a 6.30 ERA — but spent all of 2016 at Triple-A (with Fife), where he posted a 4.71 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9 over 28 2/3 frames.
  • The White Sox have added outfielder Caleb Gindl on a minors pact, Eddy further tweets. Despite showing some promise upon reaching the majors in 2013 with the Brewers, Gindl fell off badly in each of the ensuing two seasons. He ended up playing indy ball last year, but showed enough with the Lancaster Barnstormers to return to an affiliated club.
  • Outfielder Lane Adams is headed to the Braves on a minors pact, also via Eddy (on Twitter). The 27-year-old has exceedingly brief major league time, but has spent the past several seasons in the upper minors. Last year, with the Yankees and Cubs organizations, Adams put up a .266/.342/.388 batting line and swiped 44 bags to go with ten home runs over 481 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A.
  • The Orioles added infielder/outfielder Sean Coyle on a minor-league deal, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. Now 24, Coyle was once seen as  solid prospect in the Red Sox’ system. But he struggled badly last year in the upper minors, posting a cumulative .181/.269/.293 batting line over 426 plate appearances. He was claimed in mid-season by the Angels, but ended up being dropped from the team’s 40-man.
  • The Phillies outrighted righty Michael Mariot, who was recently designated for assignment.

Braves Notes: Grilli, Moore, Lefty Relievers

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Here’s the latest out of Atlanta…

  • Jason Grilli’s return from a ruptured Achilles tendon and the 93-mph fastball he’s displaying in the Braves camp has generated trade buzz, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes.  Grilli was enjoying a very strong season as Atlanta’s closer last season (2.94 ERA, 4.5 K/BB rate, 45 strikeouts in 33 2/3 IP) before hitting the DL in early July.  Were it not for that season-ending injury, Grilli could very well have changed uniforms at the trade deadline since several teams were rumored to be interested in his services.  Cafardo speculates that Grilli could be a fit for the Red Sox now, as manager John Farrell is a fan of the reliever and Carson Smith is on the disabled list.
  • The Braves will be responsible for all of the $900K owed to the newly-acquired Tyler Moore in 2016, James Wagner of the Washington Post reports (Twitter link).  Moore got his first taste of arbitration eligibility this offseason and agreed to the $900K deal with the Nationals well before figures had to be exchanged.
  • Atlanta’s trade for Eric O’Flaherty may not be the only move the club makes to add a lefty reliever, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman hints.  Alex Torres is the only other southpaw reliever still in the Braves’ big league camp, and the club isn’t even sure if Torres is a fit for the Opening Day roster.

Nationals, Braves Trade Tyler Moore For Nate Freiman

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The Nationals announced that they have acquired minor league first baseman Nate Freiman from the Braves in exchange for infielder/outfielder Tyler Moore.

Freiman, 29, signed on with Atlanta in December after having a disappointing year for the Athletics’ Triple- A affiliate.  In 305 plate appearances for Triple-A Nashville, the first baseman slashed just .220/.279/.321.  His last major league stint came in 2014 when he appeared in 36 games (93 plate appearances) for the A’s in 2014, slashing .218/.269/.448 with five homers.  Freiman had hoped to crack the roster in Atlanta, but he’ll now look to get back to the big leagues with the Nats.

Moore was put on waivers and then outrighted by Washington earlier this week, so it was pretty apparent that the out-of-options Moore was no longer in the team’s plans.  In four years as a bench bat in D.C., Moore hit .228/.281/.401 over 649 PA, with virtually equal numbers against both lefty and righty pitching.  Moore has played almost exclusively at first base and left field during his career, though he’s also appeared in nine games in right and worked out briefly as a third baseman this spring.

Nationals Outright Tyler Moore

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TODAY: Moore has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, per an announcement from the club.

YESTERDAY: The Nationals placed first baseman/outfielder Tyler Moore on waivers yesterday, James Wagner of the Washington Post reports on Twitter. It’s not immediately clear if the club is seeking release or outright waivers, but Moore would not be able to refuse an assignment if outrighted, as he’s accrued less than five years of service and has never previously been removed from the 40-man.

Moore, who is out of options, had agreed to a $900K salary in his first season of arbitration eligibility.Washington will remain on he hook for about one quarter of that non-guaranteed amount (45 days of pay, or approximately $221K). Moore had seemed in line for a bench bat role, but obviously the organization decided to go with another alignment.

The Nationals have utilized Moore in a bench role in each of the previous four campaigns, though he’s never exceeded 200 plate appearances in a single year. All told, he owns a .228/.281/.401 slash with 24 home runs over 649 trips to the plate at the major league level.

Moore played his way into the organization’s plans with a strong 2012 effort, but has fallen shy of league average production in each year that’s followed. He has generally hit well in the upper minors and obviously has intriguing power, but he’s not a natural outfielder and doesn’t represent a platoon option at first base. With four solid outfield options on hand and a variety of potential bench pieces with greater versatility, it seems that Moore was the odd man out.

To some extent, the move represents a vote of confidence in the health of Ryan Zimmerman, as Moore would likely have stepped into a time share with Clint Robinson had Zimmerman been deemed unready for the start of the season. Of course, he might well still take such a role, if he clears waivers and is stashed at Triple-A. Any team considering a claim of Moore would need to take on his arbitration obligations, and Moore’s anemic spring batting line could make that unlikely.

NL East Notes: Klentak, Marlins, Maddux, Moore, Drew

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Here’s the latest from around the NL East…

  • Phillies GM Matt Klentak has already been through rebuilding (while with the Orioles) and spending on big free agents (while with the Angels) in previous front office jobs, and he tells Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer that he hopes both experiences will help him in the initial and latter stages of the Phils’ rebuild.  Perhaps Klentak’s best example of a successful rebuild, however, is how his own team rebuilt in the early 2000’s to form the core of the squad that won five NL East titles and the 2008 World Series.
  • Edwin Jackson is battling some younger arms to win a spot in the Marlins rotation, and the veteran righty tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that he has unfinished business as a starting pitcher.  “I still look at myself as a starter.  There’s still something I want to prove to myself, not to anyone else,” Jackson said.  Pitching exclusively as a reliever in 2015, Jackson posted a 3.07 ERA, 1.9 K/BB rate and 6.5 K/9 over 55 2/3 innings, though advanced metrics indicate he was perhaps a bit fortunate to manage such a low ERA.  Still, it was a big improvement over Jackson’s rough previous two seasons in the Cubs rotation and now he’s hoping to rebound in Miami.
  • In another item from Jackson, Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill expects big things from his lineup, saying he’d “put our position player talent against anybody in the National League.”  Miami scored the second-fewest runs in baseball last season, yet Hill expects a big improvement thanks to Barry Bonds’ contributions as hitting coach, more development from young players and better health (most notably in the case of Giancarlo Stanton).
  • Pitching coach Mike Maddux may prove to be the Nationals’ best offseason acquisition, the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell writes.  Hiring the very well-regarded Maddux represents a new step for the franchise, as Boswell notes the Nationals have rarely invested much money in managers or coaching staffs.
  • Tyler Moore took some grounders at third base seemingly just as a routine drill, though as MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman writes, versatility at a new position could help save Moore’s job.  Moore is out of options and faces a roster crunch to make the Nationals’ Opening Day roster.  Learning the hot corner is easier said than done, of course, especially since Moore has never played anywhere besides first, left or right in his eight-year professional career.
  • Stephen Drew knows how being a qualifying offer free agent can impact one’s market, so the new Nationals infielder tells MLB.com’s Bill Ladson that he sympathizes with what Ian Desmond is going through as the former Nat continues to look for a new team.  After rejecting the QO in the 2013-14 offseason, Drew didn’t find a contract until May, re-signing with the Red Sox (notably, the only team that weren’t required to give up a draft pick to sign him).  As you might expect, Drew is all for changes to the qualifying offer rule in the upcoming collective bargaining talks.  “The union has to do a good job going over that rule and check out what we can come up with. As players, we probably want to get rid of it. We need to really take a look at the way the logistics are,” Drew said.
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