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Yadiel Rivera

Astros Sign Yadiel Rivera To Minors Contract

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The Astros signed infielder Yadiel Rivera to a minor league deal, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports (via Twitter).  Rivera will report to Houston’s Triple-A affiliate.

Rivera is a veteran of seven Major League seasons, with 111 of his 192 career games coming with the Marlins in 2018.  His seven-season resume also includes a few cups of coffee, as Rivera broke in with seven games with the Brewers in 2015, just one game with Miami in 2017, and four games with the Rangers in 2020.  He ended his brief stint in Texas on the injured list, as recovery from elbow surgery took up most of Rivera’s offseason and likely explains why he hadn’t signed with a new team until over a week into May.

With just a .175/.244/.217 slash line over 319 career PA, Rivera isn’t known much for his bat at either the MLB or minor league levels.  What he does offer is defensive versatility — Rivera has spent much of his career as a shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman, but he has also started at least one game at every other position except catcher and pitcher.  Rivera will provide the Astros with some infield depth (particularly at shortstop) down on the farm.

Minor MLB Transactions: 10/3/20

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A trio of players appear ticketed for free agency this offseason after being outrighted off clubs’ rosters yesterday, per the MLB.com transactions log:

  • Cubs’ reliever Josh Osich cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week. Chicago acquired Osich from the Red Sox at this year’s trade deadline, although he only wound up pitching in four games for them down the stretch. Osich combined for a 6.38 ERA in 18.1 innings for the two teams this year, although he did rack up an impressive 24:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
  • White Sox reliever Alex McRae also passed through the wire after being designated this week. McRae spent the first six seasons of his professional career in the Pirates’ organization before joining the Sox last offseason. He tossed three scoreless innings for the South Siders this year. McRae has a 7.50 ERA/7.09 FIP in 36 career MLB innings.
  • Also passing through waivers was Rangers’ infielder Yadiel Rivera. The 28-year-old utilityman was reported to have been designated for assignment in early September, but he instead reverted to the injured list after being diagnosed with an elbow injury. Rivera wound up having surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reported late last month, and is expected to be out for five to six months. Rivera has just a .175/.244/.217 line in 319 MLB plate appearances across six seasons.

Rangers Designate Yadiel Rivera, Select John King

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The Rangers have designated infielder Yadiel Rivera for assignment and selected the contract of left-hander John King from their alternate training site, per a club announcement. They’ve also added lefty Jake Latz to their 60-man player pool and assigned him to their alternate site.

Rivera, 28, appeared in just four games and went 0-for-5 in that brief time. The former Brewers and Marlins utilityman is a career .175/.244/.217 hitter in 319 Major League plate appearances and a .243/.280/.352 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. The Rangers will have a week to put him through waivers or release him.

The 25-year-old King was Texas’ 10th-round pick in 2017 and will be making the jump from Class-A Advanced to the Major Leagues thanks to the lack of a minor league season in 2020. King started 19 games between two Class-A levels last year and was dominant, pitching to a 2.40 ERA with a pristine 91-to-13 K/BB ratio and a huge 57.9 percent ground-ball rate in 97 1/3 innings. On top of that, King induced a whopping 23 infield flies.

Rangers Place Willie Calhoun, Elvis Andrus On IL; Select Yadiel Rivera

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6:50pm: Calhoun has a low-grade strain that will keep him out at least three weeks, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

5:54pm: The Rangers have placed outfielder Willie Calhoun (left hamstring strain) and shortstop Elvis Andrus (lower back strain) on the 10-day injured list, the team announced. They also selected infielder Yadiel Rivera’s contract and recalled right-hander Kyle Cody.

Calhoun and Andrus are notable names for the Rangers, though neither has produced as hoped for the 10-13 club so far in 2020. Calhoun finally began realizing the potential he had as a prospect last season, but the 25-year-old has stumbled to a line of .172/.206/.224 (5 wRC+) with no home runs in 63 plate appearances. He has mostly alternated with Shin-Soo Choo in left field and at DH, but the Rangers have also mixed in several other players in those spots.

Andrus, 31, has been a high-end contributor for the Rangers at times, but he’s now in the throes of a third straight abysmal offensive season. Eighty-two plate appearances in, he has batted .184/.244/.250 (28 wRC+) and joined Calhoun in failing to hit a homer. Andrus played every game for the Rangers through Aug. 16, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa has taken the helm at short since then.

The 28-year-old Rivera, who signed a minor league deal with the Rangers last offseason, brings some major league shortstop experience to the table. He lined up there with the Brewers and Marlins from 2015-19, but if history’s any indication, he won’t provide an upgrade over Andrus. Rivera has hit a meager .178/.248/.221 (33 wRC+) with one HR over 314 trips to the plate in the bigs.

Rangers Sign Yadiel Rivera

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The Rangers have signed infielder Yadiel Rivera to a minor league contract, according to their executive vice president of communications, John Blake. The deal includes an invitation to big league spring training.

Texas will be the third MLB organization for the 27-year-old Rivera, previously a member of the Brewers and Marlins. Rivera appeared in the majors in each of the past five seasons, but he struggled mightily to make his mark, evidenced by his dismal .178/.248/.221 line with a single home run and a feckless .043 ISO over 188 plate appearances. Strikeouts have been a significant problem for Rivera, who has fallen victim to the K just under 31 percent of the time during his brief MLB action.

Although Rivera has hit better in Triple-A ball, he hasn’t exactly crushed pitching there. In 1,358 PA at the minors’ top level, Rivera has slashed .243/.280/.352 with 22 homers. Rivera did bat a fairly productive-looking .293/.310/.477 in 312 PA with the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate in New Orleans last season, but his output was 16 percent below average in the offensively charged Pacific Coast League environment, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric. Furthermore, Rivera’s strikeout and walk rates were abysmal. He went down on strikes at a 26 percent clip and collected walks just 1.9 percent of the time.

Position Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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Since the conclusion of the regular season, a number of players have elected free agency. That right accrues to certain players who are outrighted off of a 40-man roster during or after the season — namely, those that have at least three years of MLB service and/or have previously been outrighted. Such players that accepted outright assignments during the season have the right to elect free agency instead at season’s end, provided they aren’t added back to the 40-man in the meantime.

Here are the position players that have recently taken to the open market, along with their now-former teams (via the International League and PCL transactions pages):

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/8/19

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Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around the game…

Latest Moves

  • The Marlins announced that infielder Yadiel Rivera cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A, after he was designated for assignment on Tuesday.  Rivera has seen action in each of the last five MLB seasons, but doesn’t have much to show for it at the plate, including a .183/.258/.217 slash line in 66 PA for Miami in 2019.

Earlier Today

  • The Reds announced that infielder Blake Trahan has been outrighted to Triple-A Louisville after clearing waivers.  Trahan was designated for assignment earlier this week.  The 25-year-old has spent much of his season at Louisville already, hitting only .230/.280/.324 over 323 plate appearances, continuing Trahan’s struggles at the plate during his five-year pro career (which included 11 games for the Reds at the big league level in 2018).
  • The Royals released 23-year-old first baseman Samir Duenez from their Triple-A club, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Duenez ranked as Kansas City’s No. 13 prospect, per Baseball America, as recently as the 2017-18 offseason. However, he’s endured a miserable season at the plate in 2019, batting a combined .199/.261/.307 in 361 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A. BA’s 2017-18 report on him tabbed him as a potential “impact power bat” with average glovework at first base and below-average speed. That outlook has clearly become more clouded with Duenez’s recent struggles, though as a 23-year-old who posted solid Double-A numbers in 2018 (when he was still rather young for the Texas League), he’ll likely find another opportunity elsewhere.

Marlins Designate Yadiel Rivera, Select Hector Noesi

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The Marlins have selected the contract of veteran right-hander Hector Noesi to start tonight’s game and designated infielder Yadiel Rivera for assignment in order to clear roster space, per a club announcement.

Noesi, 32, will return to the big leagues for the first time since 2015 when he takes the mound tonight. He spent the interim seasons pitching for the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization and throwing rather well; in 582 1/3 KBO innings, Noesi notched a 3.79 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.

The well-traveled righty has enjoyed a strong season thus far in a deadly Triple-A environment for pitchers, working to a 3.82 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 39.4 percent ground-ball rate. That 3.82 ERA might not sound like much, but Noesi, somewhat remarkably, is one of just seven qualified starters in all of Triple-A with an ERA south of 4.00. The adoption of the homer-happy big league ball in Triple-A has transformed an already hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League into a nightmare for pitchers, and the International League has become extremely hitter-friendly as well.

Noesi’s success has come, in part, due to some good fortune. He’s averaged a whopping 1.94 homers per nine innings pitched, but the majority of the round-trippers he’s yielded have been of the solo variety. He’s likely a short-term option for the Marlins anyhow, although the trades of Zac Gallen and Trevor Richards have thinned out the Miami staff somewhat.

The 27-year-old Rivera appeared in 34 games with Miami but made just 66 plate appearances. He managed only a meager .183/.258/.217 batting line in that time — a similar output to the .173/.269/.216 slash he logged last season in 160 plate appearances as a Marlin.

Marlins Expected To Place Martin Prado On IL, Select Yadiel Rivera

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The Marlins expect Martin Prado to miss some time due to a hamstring injury, per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. It’s not clear yet just how serious an injury he’s sustained nor how long he’ll be out, but Frisaro tweets that Miami is expected to bring infielder/outfielder Yadiel Rivera up from Triple-A in Prado’s absence. Rivera isn’t on the Marlins’ 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a 40-man move in order to formally select his contract.

Prado, 35, is in the final season of a three-year, $40MM extension that has not panned out as the organization had hoped. When he initially signed the extension, Prado was putting the finishing touches on a .305/.359/.417 campaign in which he took the field for 153 of the Marlins’ 162 games. Injuries, however, have not only limited Prado to just 142 total games dating back to the 2017 season — they’ve also dramatically reduced his productivity. He’s made just 519 plate appearances while playing on his current contract and has produced an unsightly .244/.277/.319 batting line in that time.

The 27-year-old Rivera appeared in a career-high 111 games with the Marlins in 2018 but was used primarily as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and defensive replacement. He accrued just 160 plate appearances in those 111 contests, batting .173/.269/.216. Rivera, though, is enjoying a strong start in Triple-A New Orleans, where he’s batted .318/.333/.516 in 233 trips to the plate.

Marlins Outright Yadiel Rivera, Brett Graves

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The Marlins have outrighted infielder Yadiel Rivera and righty Brett Graves, according to Wells Dusenbury of the Sun-Sentinel (via Twitter). That creates two 40-man roster openings in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

Rivera, 26, got his first extended look at the MLB level last year, but managed only a .173/.269/.216 batting line in 160 plate appearances. Graves, meanwhile, received his first major-league stint with the Fish in 2018. He threw 33 1/3 innings of 5.40 ERA ball with 5.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.

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