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Yairo Munoz

Red Sox Outright Yairo Munoz

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The Red Sox announced Monday that infielder/outfielder Yairo Munoz has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Still just 25  years of age, Munoz joined the Red Sox back in March after a bizarre scene that reportedly saw him leave the Cardinals and fly home to the Dominican Republic without informing the club. The Cards responded by releasing Munoz, who apparently had been frustrated with the organization over playing time, amid other reasons.

Munoz had an impressive debut effort in 2018, batting .276/.350/.413 in 329 plate appearances while spending time at every defensive position on the field other than first base and catcher. His bat took a step back in 2019, and his playing time, accordingly, waned.

This past season, Munoz again hit well in a limited sample with the Red Sox. He came to the plate just 45 times but hit .333/.333/.511 with a homer, five doubles and a pair of stolen bases. Boston used him exclusively as a corner outfielder this season, although it’s easy to imagine that if he makes his way back onto the 40-man roster, he could be utilized all over the infield as well.

With the outright of Munoz, the Red Sox now have a pair of 40-man vacancies leading up to this week’s Rule 5 Draft.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 12/2/20

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With the non-tender deadline coming today at 7pm CT, expect quite a few players to agree to contracts for the 2021 season, avoiding arbitration in advance.  In many (but not all) cases, these deals — referred to as “pre-tender” deals because they fall prior to the deadline — will fall shy of expectations and projections.  Teams will sometimes present borderline non-tender candidates with a “take it or leave it” style offer which will be accepted for fear of being non-tendered and sent out into an uncertain market.  Speculatively, such deals could increase in 2020 due to the economic uncertainty sweeping through the game, although there are also widespread expectations of record non-tender numbers.

You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through today’s smaller-scale pre-tender deals in this post.  You can also check out Matt Swartz’s arbitration salary projections here.

Latest Agreements

Earlier Agreements

  • Twins righty Jose Berrios will earn $6.1MM with a $500K signing bonus in 2021, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports. Catcher Mitch Garver will rake in $1.875MM, per Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Center fielder Byron Buxton ($5.125MM) and reliever Taylor Rogers (terms not released) also agreed to deals, according to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.
  • The Phillies have deals with starter Zach Eflin ($4.45MM) and relievers Hector Neris ($5MM), David Hale ($850K) and Seranthony Dominguez ($727,500), Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Heyman and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com relay.
  • The Marlins and first baseman Garrett Cooper have a $1.8MM agreement that could max out at $2.05MM with performance bonuses, Craig Mish of Sportsgrid tweets.
  • The Brewers are keeping catcher Manny Pina in the fold for $1.65MM, according to Heyman. They’re also retaining first baseman Daniel Vogelbach for $1.4MM, Nightengale reports.
  • The Giants and outfielder Austin Slater have a one-year, $1.15MM deal, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.The club also reached a $925K agreement with lefty Wandy Peralta and a $700K pact with righty Trevor Gott, Heyman tweets.
  • The Cubs are bringing back hurlers Dan Winkler ($900K), Colin Rea ($702,500) and Kyle Ryan ($800K), Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Ryan’s agreement is a split contract that features a $250K minor league salary.
  • The Mets are retaining lefty Steven Matz for $5.2MM, Nightengale tweets. Matz had a brutal campaign in 2020 with a 9.68 ERA/7.76 FIP over 30 2/3 innings in 2020, but the Mets will give him a chance to rebound.
  • The Padres and lefty Matt Strahm have a one-year, $2MM deal, Nightengale reports. Strahm gave the Padres a 2.61 ERA/4.93 FIP in 20 2/3 innings in 2020.
  • Outfielder Guillermo Heredia, whom the Mets claimed from Pittsburgh in August, will earn $1MM in 2021, according to Nightengale.
  • The Astros and reliever Austin Pruitt have settled for $617, 500, per Heyman. The right-hander missed the season with elbow issues.
  • The Royals and outfielder Jorge Soler have agreed to a one-year, $8.05MM deal with $250K in incentives, Nightengale reports. Soler was a 48-home run hitter in 2019, but his production went backward this past season, in which he slashed .228/.326/.443 with eight HRs in 174 trips to the plate.
  • The Red Sox have kept relievers Matt Barnes ($4.4MM) and Ryan Brasier ($1.25MM) and catcher Kevin Plawecki ($1.6MM), per tweets from Nightengale, Robert Murray of FanSided and Heyman. Barnes has been a solid reliever as a member of the Red Sox, though he yielded more than five walks per nine and upward of four runs per nine in 2020. Brasier was more successful this past season, as he tossed 25 frames of 3.96 ERA/3.15 FIP ball and averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine. Plawecki had a nice year as the backup to Christian Vazquez, as he batted .341/.393/.463 in 89 PA.
  • The Giants and southpaw Jarlin Garcia have settled for $950K, according to Heyman. Garcia is coming off an 18 1/3-inning effort in which he posted a near-perfect 0.49 (with an impressive 3.14 FIP) and 6.87 K/9 against 3.44 BB/9.
  • The Marlins have agreed to a one-year, $4.3MM deal with first baseman Jesus Aguilar, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. The 30-year-old slugger put up strong numbers in his first year with the Fish, slashing .277/.352/.457 with eight long balls in 216 plate appearances.
  • The Giants and outfielder Alex Dickerson settled at a year and $2MM, tweets Nightengale. The 30-year-old slugger has a lengthy injury history but has been excellent in limited work with the Giants, including a .298/.371/.576 slash in 170 plate appearances this past season.
  • Luis Cessa will be back with the Yankees on a one-year deal, tweets Nightengale. He’ll earn $1.05MM. The righty notched a 3.32 ERA and 3.79 FIP with a 17-to-7 K/BB ratio in 21 2/3 innings this past season. Fellow righty Ben Heller will also return, the team announced, though it didn’t disclose financial details.
  • First baseman Matt Olson and the Athletics settled on a one-year deal worth $5MM, tweets Nightengale. The 26-year-old Olson’s .198/.310/.424 slash was an obvious step back from his 2019 campaign, but he’s still viewed as a vital part of the club’s future moving forward.
  • The Braves and righty Luke Jackson agreed to a one-year deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The 29-year-old was rocked for a 6.84 ERA in this year’s shortened slate of games but posted a 3.84 ERA and 3.24 FIP with better than 13 K/9 as one of the team’s steadiest relievers in 2019. The contract is valued at $1.9MM, per a team announcement.
  • The Brewers are bringing back catcher Omar Narvaez for one year and $2.5MM, Heyman tweets. Narvaez was a very good offensive catcher from 2o16-19 with the White Sox and Mariners, but he struggled last season after the M’s traded him to the Brewers. Thanks in part to a career-worst 31 percent strikeout rate, Narvaez could only muster a .176/.294/.269 line and a paltry two HRs in 126 plate appearances. Nevertheless, he’s in line to return to the Brewers for a second season.
  • The Brewers have agreed to a one-year, $2MM contract with shortstop Orlando Arcia, Nightengale relays. Arcia endured serious struggles on offense in prior years, but the 26-year-old managed a respectable .260/.317/.416 line with five home runs over 189 plate appearances this past season.
  • The Phillies and catcher Andrew Knapp have reached a one-year, $1.1MM agreement, per Nightengale. Typically a light-hitting backstop, Knapp batted a career-best .278/.404/.444 in 89 plate appearances in 2020. He’s currently the No. 1 catcher on a Phillies team that could lose J.T. Realmuto in free agency.
  • Pirates infielder Erik Gonzalez agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.225MM, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. It was the second year of arb eligibility for Gonzalez, whose glovework will earn him a contract despite a brutal .227/.255/.359 batting line in 193 plate appearances in 2020.
  • The Royals and Hunter Dozier agreed to a one-year deal worth $2.72MM in entirely guaranteed money, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports.  More is available to Dozier via contract incentives.  Dozier hit .228/.344/.392 over 186 PA after missing over the first two weeks of the season recovering from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
  • The Red Sox agreed to an $870K deal with right-hander Austin Brice for the 2021 season, as per Nightengale.  Brice posted a 5.95 ERA, 11.4 K/9, and 5.9 BB/9 over 19 2/3 innings in his first season in Boston, and was considered a potential non-tender candidate.
  • The Twins and righty Tyler Duffey agreed to a one-year, $2.2MM pact, SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson reports.  According to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, Duffey’s deal is fully guaranteed.
  • The Braves agreed to a one-year, $900K deal with southpaw Grant Dayton, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.  Dayton had a 2.30 ERA over 27 1/3 innings in 2020.
  • The Braves announced an agreement with utilityman Johan Camargo on a one-year, $1.36MM deal.  Camargo was thought to be a non-tender candidate after struggling to a .222/.267/.378 slash line in 375 plate appearances over the last two seasons, but he will return for a fifth year in Atlanta.
  • The White Sox and left-hander Jace Fry agreed to a one-year deal worth $862.5K, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Fry posted a 3.66 ERA, 2.00 K/BB rate, and 11.0 K/9 over 19 2/3 innings in 2020, and he has strong overall career numbers against left-handed batters.
  • The Orioles agreed with second baseman Yolmer Sanchez on a one-year deal worth $1MM, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).  Baltimore claimed Sanchez off waivers from the White Sox at the end of October.  A Gold Glove winner in 2019, Sanchez was non-tendered by Chicago prior to last year’s deadline, though after signing a minors deal with the Giants, he returned to the White Sox on another minors deal and appeared in 11 games on the South Side.
  • The Twins agreed to a one-year deal worth roughly $700K with left-hander Caleb Thielbar, The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman reports (via Twitter).  2020 marked Thielbar’s first taste of MLB action since 2015, as the southpaw worked his way back from independent ball to post a 2.25 ERA, 2.44 K/BB rate, and 9.9 K/9 over 20 innings for Minnesota.
  • The Dodgers and left-hander Scott Alexander have agreed to a one-year, $1MM deal, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link).  Alexander posted a 2.92 ERA over 12 1/3 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen this season, recording an equal number of walks and strikeouts (nine).  The southpaw was thought to be a potential non-tender candidate given his relative lack of usage and his non-inclusion on the Dodgers’ playoff roster, but the team will retain Alexander for his second arb-eligible year.  ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter) adds the noteworthy detail that Alexander’s $1MM salary is fully guaranteed, as opposed to the usual contracts for arbitration-eligible players that allow their teams to release them prior to Opening Day and only pay a fraction of the agreed-upon salary.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/31/20

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A round-up of some smaller moves with the trade deadline in the rearview mirror:

  • The Mariners announced they’ve transferred left-hander Nestor Cortes to the 45-day injured list with a left elbow impingement. He’d been placed on the 10-day IL August 15. The former Yankee long reliever was bombed in his five appearances for Seattle this season, surrendering 14 runs (13 earned) on six home runs with eight strikeouts and six walks in 7.2 innings. The move clears a space on Seattle’s 40-man roster.
  • The Angels announced they’ve selected the contract of catcher José Briceño. The 27-year-old saw action in 46 games for Los Angeles back in 2018, hitting .239/.299/.385 in 128 plate appearances. Briceño will step into the #2 catching role behind Anthony Bemboom. The Angels traded starting backstop Jason Castro to the Padres yesterday.
  • The Brewers have selected the contract of right-hander Justin Topa, the team announced. The 29-year-old will be making his MLB debut whenever he first gets into a game. Milwaukee signed Topa out of independent ball after the 2018 season, and he went on to put up a 2.63 ERA in 24 innings in Double-A in 2019. He’ll step into the bullpen void left by today’s trade of David Phelps to the Phillies.
  • The Red Sox announced they have selected the contracts of three players: infielder Yairo Muñoz, left-hander Mike Kickham and right-hander Robinson Leyer. Muñoz, 25, signed with Boston on a minor-league deal after a bizarre end to his time with the Cardinals. Kickham, 31, hasn’t pitched in the majors since tossing 30.1 innings with the 2013-14 Giants. Leyer, 27, has yet to make his major league debut. He has a 4.01 ERA in parts of five Double-A seasons.

Red Sox Sign Yairo Munoz

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The Red Sox have signed utility player Yairo Munoz to a minor league contract, according to their transactions page. The club assigned Munoz to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Munoz came available when the Cardinals released him March 7. The two sides’ relationship took an especially sour turn when Munoz, upset by the lack of playing time he received last season, flew home from spring training without informing the Cardinals. Manager Mike Shildt suggested then that Munoz, who was also dealing with a hamstring injury, would have been in position to earn an Opening Day roster spot in St. Louis had he stuck around. Instead, though, if we even get a baseball season in 2020, Munoz will have to work his way back via Boston’s minor league system.

Now 25 years old, Munoz was an effective hitter off the bench for the Cardinals when he debuted in 2018. He was a .276/.350/.413 batter with eight home runs and five stolen bases across 329 plate appearances that year. However, his production tanked during a 2019 campaign in which he slashed .267/.298/.355 with a pair of homers and eight steals in 181 PA. Munoz’s walk rate dropped by almost 6 percent, one of the reasons he wasn’t able to replicate his successful rookie showing.

Despite last year’s struggles at the plate, Munoz does at least bring defensive versatility to the table. He has amassed 20 or more lifetime appearances at three infield spots (shortstop, third and second) and has totaled double-digit games at all three outfield positions. The Red Sox are clearly set at third (Rafael Devers) and short (Xander Bogaerts), but Munoz could still see action elsewhere if he does land a spot on their roster sometime in 2020.

Cardinals Release Yairo Munoz

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The Cardinals announced this morning that they’ve placed infielder Yairo Munoz on unconditional release waivers. The move leaves an opening on the 40-man roster.

In an important detail, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch adds that Munoz “left the team, flew home” without notifying the Cardinals. Manager Mike Shildt told Goold and other reporters that Munoz frequently complained about playing time last season. That’s certainly an interesting twist to the story, and it seems clear that Munoz wasn’t released for any baseball reason, but rather as a result of his own decision to excuse himself from camp.

As a matter of fact, Shildt stated that Munoz “had an inside track to a roster spot” as the team’s utilityman, according to Mark Saxon of The Athletic. Munoz, 25, has fulfilled a similar role for the Cardinals in each of the last two years, and he’s by no means been an unplayable Major Leaguer. There’s value in a player who can capably man six positions on the diamond, and Munoz has been just that over his first two big league seasons. That said, it would be hard to argue that Munoz, who owns a .273/.331/.391 career slash line over roughly a season’s worth of plate appearances, is deserving of the expanded role that he apparently coveted.

That’s especially true given the presence of established veterans in the St. Louis infield, which is where Munoz fits best. He had little chance of unseating either Matt Carpenter or Paul DeJong, the incumbent starters at Munoz’s two best positions. That starting combination has garnered four All-Star selections between them. The path to playing time in an outfield corner was perhaps less crowded, but even so: the team surely prefers Tommy Edman to Munoz after the former’s standout rookie performance; Dexter Fowler showed signs of life last year, and top prospect Dylan Carlson is waiting in the wings.

Munoz has five years of team control remaining, and that youth coupled with his positional versatility could make him an attractive free-agent option for several teams. It seems unlikely that Munoz is widely viewed as a starter in the short-term, so he may have to settle for a role similar to the one he played with St. Louis. It’s also fair to ask whether teams will hesitate given the circumstances surrounding Munoz’s release.

Yairo Munoz Likely To Begin Season On Injured List

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Cardinals utilityman Yairo Munoz suffered a hamstring strain while running out an infield single on Saturday, manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other media.  According to Shildt, “it’s going to be a while” before Munoz returns to action, meaning an injured list placement looms for the 25-year-old.

Originally acquired from the Athletics as part of the December 2017 trade that sent Stephen Piscotty to Oakland, Munoz has been a valuable bench piece over his two Major League seasons, getting significant playing time at six different positions — shortstop, third base, second base, and all three outfield spots.  Munoz’s versatility has made him a nice part-time fill-in for injured or resting players, plus a late-game substitute on double switches.

While his minor league hitting numbers were decent but unspectacular, Munoz did some damage after being promoted to the Cardinals in 2018, batting .276/.350/.413 over his first 329 big league plate appearances.  Both the production and the playing time diminished in 2019, however, as Munoz hit .267/.298/.355 over 181 PA.  This dropoff put Munoz into a battle for a bench spot this spring, especially since the also-versatile Tommy Edman delivered an upgraded version (.850 OPS in 349 PA) of Munoz’s 2018 numbers in his own 2019 rookie year.

Edman can also play all over the diamond, and while St. Louis has him penciled into regular outfield duty for now, plans could change should one of the Cards’ many young outfielders — i.e. Tyler O’Neill, Lane Thomas, or even top prospect Dylan Carlson — step up to win a job.  Veteran Brad Miller was also signed to a $2MM deal and figures to factor into the backup mix, especially since Miller hits from the left side, unlike Munoz and many other of the Cards’ top bench candidates.

Cardinals Place Tyler O’Neill, Mike Mayers On 10-Day IL

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The Cardinals announced today that outfielder Tyler O’Neill and righty Mike Mayers are both headed onto the 10-day injured list. The former suffered an ulnar nerve subluxation in his right elbow while the latter has a strained lat.

A trio of reinforcements is headed onto the MLB roster: infielder Yairo Munoz along with righties Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos. This is the first call-up for Helsley. Outfielder Drew Robinson was optioned down to create the final opening.

The severity of the injuries isn’t yet known, but both come with at least some potentially for extended absences. Ulnar nerve issues aren’t necessarily huge problems, particularly for non-pitchers, but the Cards will obviously want to figure out the root cause and make sure that O’Neill is fully past the problem before bringing him back into the mix. In the case of Mayers, it’s impossible even to guess at a timeline without knowing the grade of the injury, but lat strains can be rather problematic for hurlers.

Cardinals Option Alex Reyes, Yairo Munoz To Triple-A

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The Cardinals have optioned righty Alex Reyes and utilityman Yairo Munoz to Triple-A Memphis, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Corresponding moves haven’t yet been announced.

Reyes will received “scheduled work” in Memphis, Goold notes, rather than his irregular deployment out of the Cards’ bullpen over the first week of the season.  This usage could be a reason for Reyes’ struggles. as the 24-year-old has allowed five earned runs over his three innings pitched this season for an ugly 15.00 ERA.  Reyes has allowed runs in each of his last three outings, including a rough frame of work on Friday that saw him surrender a Fernando Tatis Jr. homer as well as three walks, leading to three Padres runs.

One of the game’s most heralded pitching prospects, Reyes burst onto the scene with 46 innings of 1.57 ERA ball for the Cardinals in 2016, but has since barely pitched.  Tommy John surgery sidelined him for all of 2017, and Reyes only amassed 27 total innings in the minors and majors in 2018 after tearing a tendon in his right lat.

A more steady workload could be the best move for Reyes as he continues to get his career back on track, and it seems likely that he’ll be back in St. Louis at some point this season after he begins to string together some good results.  Whether that return would be as a reliever or as a starter may depend on the status of the Cardinals’ rotation members, though Reyes could again be seen as a potential multi-inning relief weapon for late in games.

Two pitchers are likely to be added to the 25-man roster, Goold writes.  Since the Cardinals were playing with a five-man bench, Munoz became expendable as the team looked to add an extra arm to the bullpen.  Munoz has five plate appearances over four games for St. Louis, making one start and mostly coming off the bench as a pinch-hitter and late-game defensive sub.  The 24-year-old Munoz was a valuable bench piece for St. Louis last season, hitting .276/.350/.413 over 329 PA in his rookie season while seeing time at six different positions.

Cardinals Notes: Gregerson, Munoz, Molina, Kelly

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Some items out of the Cardinals’ camp…

  • Righty Luke Gregerson is dealing with a minor hamstring problem and didn’t travel with the team for today’s Spring Training road game, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Twitter link).  Gregerson has been limited to just three outings this spring due to a minor oblique injury, and while the severity this new issue isn’t known, it can’t be a good sign with less than a week before Opening Day.  John Mozeliak’s recent comments about the Cardinals’ plans for a flexible approach to the ninth inning has brought further lack of clarity to Gregerson’s role, as he was initially slated to be the team’s closer when signed to a two-year, $11MM deal in December.  Dominic Leone, another offseason acquisition, has recently been mentioned as a potential candidate for saves, plus the Cardinals have been reportedly interested in Greg Holland, who still remains unsigned as we approach the end of March.
  • Yairo Munoz has made the 25-man roster, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza and others reported.  Munoz was acquired from Oakland as part of the Stephen Piscotty trade and wasn’t expected to contend for a big league job this spring, but Munoz forced the issue by hitting .375/.423/.625 over 52 plate appearances.  This red-hot bat and Munoz’s capability of playing virtually every spot on the diamond gave him the edge for a bench job over Harrison Bader and Luke Voit, who were optioned to Triple-A.  Munoz will be one of several multi-position players on the St. Louis roster as the Cards plan to regularly juggle their lineups to keep everyone fresh and regularly receiving playing time.
  • As part of a piece about Yadier Molina’s durability for The Athletic (subscription required), Bernie Miklasz observed that the Cardinals’ recent assignment of top catching prospect Carson Kelly to Triple-A means that Kelly won’t accumulate the MLB service time he would’ve received had he won the job as Molina’s backup.  This could make Kelly more attractive to potential trade suitors, as Kelly has just 102 days of service time accumulated and is controllable through the 2023 season.  Of course, the Cards’ primary reason for the assignment is also valid, as they want Kelly to get regular playing time rather than see him sit on the big league bench, as the durable Molina is showing no signs of cutting back on his workload even as he enters his age-35 season.  Molina is signed through the 2020 season, so there will inevitably continue to be speculation about Kelly as a possible trade chip.

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