Xavier Scruggs Re-Signs With KBO’s NC Dinos
Former Cardinals and Marlins first baseman/outfielder Xavier Scruggs will return for a second season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced Wednesday (h/t: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net, on Twitter). Scruggs will earn a $1.3MM salary for the upcoming 2018 campaign, per the announcement.
Scruggs, 30, never carved out much of a role for himself in the big leagues, hitting just .227/.292/.303 in limited opportunities between the Cardinals and Marlins organizations — the only two MLB clubs with which he was ever affiliated. In all, Scruggs received just 130 plate appearances in the Major Leagues despite a strong body of work in Triple-A, where he slashed .271/.371/.485 in 1369 trips to the plate. Scruggs’ final season in Triple-A saw him turn in a huge .290/.408/.565 slash with 21 homers in 93 games — a performance that generated interest overseas.
The Dinos invested $1MM in Scruggs last offseason and were rewarded enormously for that show of faith. In 518 plate appearances, Scruggs posted a .300/.402/.595 batting line while drilling 35 homers and 24 doubles. The KBO, of course, is an extremely hitter-friendly environment, but Scruggs’ huge output still placed him among the league’s most productive hitters; Scruggs tied for third in the KBO in homers and ranked seventh in OPS, per Kurtz.
Scruggs is hardly the first hitter to take a strong Triple-A track record but limited MLB success and find stardom overseas. The man he effectively replaced on the Dinos’ roster, Eric Thames, is perhaps the poster boy for parlaying a strong run in the KBO or Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball into a big league opportunity. It’s not yet clear if or when Scruggs hopes to return to pro ball in North America, but if he can further improve his discipline and continue to post gaudy numbers in the KBO, it’s possible he could follow in Thames’ footsteps and draw free-agent interest from MLB clubs in future offseasons.
Xavier Scruggs Signs With Korea’s NC Dinos
The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization have announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder Xavier Scruggs, as Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net shares on Twitter. Scruggs will earn $1MM in the new arrangement.
Though Scruggs, 29, has reached the majors in each of the past three seasons, with the Cardinals and Marlins, the right-handed hitter has failed to gain much traction at the game’s highest level. All told, he has received just 130 plate appearances and slashed a meager .227/.292/.303 in the big leagues.
That being said, there’s also a lengthy backdrop of success throughout the minors on Scruggs’s resume. Most recently, in 2016, he posted an excellent .290/.408/.565 batting line and swatted 21 home runs over 382 plate appearances at Triple-A. While he has been plenty productive in the past, Scruggs had never hit at quite those levels. He has also delivered increasingly impressive plate discipline numbers in the upper minors, culminating in a promising distribution of 58 walks against ninety strikeouts in his latest campaign.
Scruggs will have some big shoes to fill in his first stint in Asian ball, as he’ll effectively be replacing perennial MVP candidate Eric Thames on the Dinos’ roster. Thames emerged as a superstar in the KBO over his three years in that league before testing free agency and latching back on in MLB by signing a three-year, $15MM deal with the Brewers.
Minor MLB Transactions: 10/24/16
Here are the latest minor moves, via Matt Eddy of Baseball America:
- The Marlins outrighted first baseman/outfielder Xavier Scruggs off of the team’s 40-man roster. He has seen brief time in each of the last three seasons at the major league level, hitting just .227/.292/.303 in his 130 total plate appearances. This year was his first with an organization other than the Cardinals. While Scruggs didn’t perform in his 24-game run with Miami, he did post an excellent .290/.408/.565 slash with 21 long balls over 382 plate appearances at Triple-A while walking in 15.2% of his trips to the dish (against a 23.6% strikeout rate).
- The Mariners re-signed lefty Brad Mills to a minor league pact. The 31-year-old has seen action in parts of six major league seasons, though he has compiled just 79 total MLB innings with a 7.97 ERA. Mills made nine starts at Triple-A in 2016, pitching to a 5.28 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 4.5 BB/9 over 44 1/3 frames.
- Catcher Jhonatan Solano will return to the Nationals on a minor league deal. The 31-year-old had cracked the bigs in each of the four preceding campaigns, but spent all of 2016 at Triple-A. He continued to struggle at the plate, as his .225/.286/.260 slash attests. With sturdy glovework behind the dish, though, he’ll function as organizational depth once again for the Nats — the only organization he has played for apart from a 2015 run with the Marlins.
Marlins Designate Chris Narveson For Assignment
The Marlins announced today that they’ve designated lefty Chris Narveson for assignment and selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Xavier Scruggs from Triple-A New Orleans.
[Related: Updated Miami Marlins Depth Chart]
The 34-year-old Narveson, a veteran of eight MLB seasons, pitched 8 1/3 innings out of the Miami bullpen in his second stint with the Fish but allowed eight runs on 10 hits, including three homers, to go along with a 6-to-1 K/BB ratio. The majority of his career has been spent with the Brewers, but he’s also appeared with the Marlins and Cardinals en route to a 4.71 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 in 435 1/3 innings.
Scruggs, 28, is a longtime Cardinals farmhand that has seen brief action with St. Louis in the past two seasons, hitting .246/.295/.298 in just 61 plate appearances. He’s a much more accomplished hitter in Triple-A, where he’s slashed .271/.371/.485 across parts of three seasons, including an enormous .290/.406/.565 batting line and 21 homers through 93 games (382 plate appearances) in 2016.
Marlins To Sign Justin Maxwell To Minors Deal
TODAY: Maxwell would earn a $1.1MM salary if he can crack the major league roster, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets. The deal also includes an opt out just before the start of the season that would allow Maxwell to seek a new opportunity if he’s not ticketed for Miami at the end of camp.
YESTERDAY: The Marlins have agreed to a minor league deal with outfielder Justin Maxwell, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports on Twitter. Also agreeing to terms with the Fish were first baseman Xavier Scruggs and righty Paul Clemens.
Maxwell played a bigger-than-expected role with the Giants last year as injuries impacted the club’s outfield alignment. He got off to a nice start, but faded over time and finished the year with a .209/.275/.341 batting line over 274 plate appearances. Maxwell did produce above-average slash lines in 2012 and 2013 as an oft-used part-time player.
Scruggs, who just turned 28, will be moving away from the Cardinals system for the first time. He’s received a quick taste of the big leagues in each of the last two years, but has spent most of his time in the upper minors. After a strong .281/.367/.490 campaign in 2014, Scruggs took a step back last year and finished with a .222/.323/.386 slash in his 601 plate appearances.
Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Clemens has thrown just under 100 MLB innings, all of which were logged over 2013-14 with the Astros. He carries a 5.51 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in that limited time. Last year, Clemens pitched in the Phillies’ and Royals’ systems, tallying 81 frames with a 5.44 ERA.
Cardinals Designate Xavier Scruggs For Assignment
The Cardinals have designated first baseman Xavier Scruggs for assignment, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Twitter). The move will clear room on the 40-man roster for catcher Travis Tartamella.
Scruggs, who’ll turn 28 in a few days, has seen minimal big league time in each of the last two seasons. He hasn’t done much damage in that minuscule sample, but does own a solid .264/.357/.456 slash at the Triple-A level since the start of 2014.
As for Tartamella, 27, he has carried rather anemic batting lines throughout his minor league career. But his glovework is held in high regard, and he’ll represent another depth option behind the dish with Yadier Molina set to miss some time.