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Yoan Aybar

White Sox Outright Yoan Aybar

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The White Sox have outrighted left-hander Yoan Aybar, tweets James Fegan of The Athletic. This opens a spot on the club’s 40-man roster, which should be filled tomorrow when their previously-reported agreement with Elvis Andrus will be made official.

Aybar, 25, bounced around a bit earlier this year, getting designated for assignment by the Rockies in March, getting claimed off waivers by the Yankees and again by the White Sox. Unfortunately, it’s been a dreary season for Aybar, as he’s registered a 7.67 ERA over 29 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s racked up strikeouts at a healthy 25.9% but has also given out free passes at a 16.8% rate.

Aybar was an outfield prospect in his earlier years, only converting to pitching prior to the 2018 season. Since then, he’s shown lots of strikeout potential but also a lack of control. It could have been reasonably assumed that he would deal with those control issues with more time on the hill, given his late conversion. However, that doesn’t seem to have come to fruition yet. Despite Aybar being claimed on waivers a few times earlier this year, it seems the other 29 teams passed on a chance to grab him this time around.

Players who have previously been outrighted or have more than three years of MLB service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Aybar doesn’t meet either of those requirements, meaning he will stick around with the White Sox as depth but without occupying a spot on the roster.

White Sox Place Jonathan Stiever On 60-Day IL, Claim Yoan Aybar

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The White Sox have placed right-hander Jonathan Stiever on the 60-day injured list, the team announced.  Chicago also claimed southpaw Yoan Aybar off waivers from the Yankees, just days after the Yankees themselves claimed Aybar off waivers from the Rockies.

Aybar’s velocity and strikeout potential got him as high as the Rockies’ Double-A affiliate last season, though he is still very much a work in progress as a pitcher, after converting to the mound from the outfield prior to the 2018 season.  As a hurler, Aybar has a 5.06 ERA and a 14.62% walk rate over 131 2/3 minor league innings, with a 24.9% strikeout rate.

The White Sox don’t have much left-handed depth in their bullpen beyond Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet, and the team has made a point of adding several southpaws to their Spring Training camp as non-roster invitees.  Aybar probably isn’t likely to be on the radar for a big league promotion, but he’ll add more depth in the minors and perhaps serve as a project.

Stiever underwent lat surgery back in August and was initially expected to be ready for Spring Training, though the 60-day IL placement gives him more time to get fully healthy.  Stiever was a fifth-round pick for the White Sox in the 2018 draft, and he has already gotten a brief taste of the majors, albeit in the form of three games and 6 1/3 innings over the last two seasons.  Over 247 IP in Chicago’s farm system, Stiever has a 4.26 ERA and 26.86% strikeout rate, starting all 56 of his games.  Once fully recovered, Stiever projects as a depth starter or potential bullpen long man for the Sox later in the season.

Yankees Claim Yoan Aybar From Rockies

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The Yankees have claimed left-hander Yoan Aybar off waivers, the team announced.  The Rockies designated Aybar for assignment two days ago, in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for Kris Bryant.

A longtime member of the Red Sox farm system, Aybar spent his first four pro seasons as an outfielder before converting to pitching in 2018.  He has a 5.06 ERA over 131 2/3 innings of minor league mound work, including a 6.22 ERA over 46 1/3 innings with the Rockies’ Double-A affiliate in 2021.  As one might expect for a player relatively new to pitching, control has been a particular issue for Aybar, as he has a 14.62% walk rate during his 131 2/3 IP.

Aybar does bring plenty of velocity, however, and the Yankees will now get a closer look at the 24-year-old to see if his stuff can be harnessed.  Double-A Somerset seems the likeliest destination for Aybar to begin the season, though the southpaw could potentially be headed back to DFA limbo if the Yankees make another roster move and need to make room on their own 40-man.

Rockies Designate Yoan Aybar For Assignment

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The Rockies have designated left-hander Yoan Aybar for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to outfielder/third baseman Kris Bryant, whose seven-year contract with the Rox has now been officially announced.

Aybar got his start in the Red Sox system as an outfielder but didn’t hit much. That led Boston to try him out on the mound, beginning in 2018. After a decent showing that year, he had an impressive season in 2019. Over 56 2/3 innings at A-ball and High-A, his 4.61 ERA wasn’t great, nor was his 16.2% walk rate. However, he racked up strikeouts at a 27.7% rate, showing enough promise for the Red Sox to add him to their 40-man roster after that season.

After the minor leagues were canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, he was sent to Colorado in a minor trade. In Double-A last year, he still got decent strikeout numbers at a 23.7% rate, but the walks were still high at 14.7% and his ERA shot up to 6.22.

Despite that rough season, there are reasons he could draw interest from other clubs. He’s still just 24 and has one option year remaining. Given that he’s only really been committed to pitching for four years, with one of those being wiped out by the pandemic, it’s possible a team could believe that there’s still a quality pitcher there, after smoothing out some of the rough edges.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/3/20

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Rays have signed righty David Hess to a minors deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The Orioles, who chose Hess in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, outrighted him in October. He debuted in the majors in 2018 and has since recorded a 5.86 ERA/6.41 FIP with 6.76 K/9 and 3.26 BB/9 in 190 1/3 innings.

Earlier transactions:

  • The Rockies announced that they have acquired left-hander Yoan Aybar from the Red Sox for infielder Christian Koss. Aybar, now 23, didn’t produce much as an outfielder through 2017, which led the Red Sox to move him to the mound. With a fastball that can reach triple digits, Aybar pitched to a 4.61 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 6.5 BB/9 in 56 2/3 innings between the Single-A and High-A levels in 2019. Koss, who will turn 23 in January, was a 12th-round pick of the Rockies in 2019 who hasn’t gotten past rookie ball. He did perform very well there during his first pro season, though, as he slashed .332/.447/.605 with 11 home runs in 238 plate appearances.
  • The Brewers tweeted that they’ve signed third baseman Zach Green to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp. The 26-year-old was a third-round pick of the Phillies in 2012 who spent the previous two seasons in the Giants organization. Green made his MLB debut in 2020 and totaled 16 plate appearances, though he picked up just two hits. However, Green isn’t far removed from an excellent 2019 showing in Triple-A, where he slashed .282/.380/.659 with 25 home runs in 297 plate appearances.
  • Right-hander Zach Thompson announced on Twitter that he has signed with the Marlins. It’s presumably a minors deal for Thompson, who had been with the White Sox since they selected him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. The 27-year-old topped out in Triple-A ball in 2019 with 70 1/3 innings of 5.50 ERA ball. While Thompson had difficulty preventing runs then, he did post impressive strikeout and walk numbers (10.0 K/9, 2.9 BB/9).
  • The Pirates outrighted first baseman/outfielder Will Craig to Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday, Adam Berry of MLB.com tweets. Craig joined the Pirates as a first-rounder in 2016, but his major league impact has been minimal to this point. He collected four plate appearances in his Pittsburgh debut last season, but he went hitless in that short span and the Pirates designated him for assignment last week. In his most recent minor league action, in 2019, the 26-year-old batted .249/.326/.435 with 23 homers across 556 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

Players Added To 40-Man Roster: American League

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We’re going to see a whole lot of players added to 40-man rosters in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. We will use this post to track those contract selections from American League teams that are not otherwise covered on the site.

AL West:

  • The Athletics made just one addition to the 40-man roster, righty Daulton Jefferies, which resulted in the DFA of righty Jharel Cotton (more on that move here).
  • The Rangers will add at least four players to their 40-man, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter). Infielder Sherten Apostel, outfielder Leody Taveras, and hurlers Demarcus Evans and Tyler Phillips are all reportedly set to get a slot. Taveras is the most exciting name of this bunch; by the reckoning of some observers, he’s one of the club’s best prospects. Apostel came over in the Keone Kela trade. The two pitchers are upper-minors arms who could contribute in 2020.
  • There’s 40-man movement elsewhere in Texas as well. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets that the Astros have tacked on four players: Taylor Jones, Cristian Javier, Enoli Paredes, and Nivaldo Rodriguez. The last of those is the one that came from the farthest reaches of the prospect map (half a season of High-A ball); clearly, the ’Stros see him as an up-and-comer and were worried other teams would as well. Jones had a strong season at Triple-A and could fight for a bench spot. Javier and Paredes could be in the MLB bullpen mix after running up the farm ladder with high strikeout rates in 2019.
  • The Angels have selected second baseman/outfielder Jahmai Jones and lefty Hector Yan, according to the club. Both players (Jones – No. 6; Yan – No. 17) rank among the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com. The 22-year-old Jones is a 2015 second-rounder who spent the past two seasons at the Double-A level, where he hit .234/.308/.324 in 544 plate appearances in 2019. Yan, a 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, rose to Single-A ball this past season and notched a 3.39 ERA/3.17 FIP with a whopping 12.22 K/9 against 4.29 BB/9 over 109 innings.

AL Central:

AL East:

  • Infielder Santiago Espinal and righty Thomas Hatch were the Blue Jays’ pair of roster additions on Wednesday. Toronto jettisoned Tim Mayza and Justin Shafer from the 40-man roster in a pair of corresponding moves, as explored at greater length here.
  • The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contracts of left-hander Keegan Akin, right-hander Dean Kremer, infielder/outfielder Ryan Mountcastle and outfielder Ryan McKenna. Mountcastle, a former first-rounder, has long been considered among the organization’s most promising minor leaguers. Akin posted a down year in Triple-A in 2019 but has generally been successful and is viewed as a near-MLB ready arm.
  • The Red Sox have added infielders C.J. Chatham and Bobby Dalbec, outfielder Marcus Wilson, and lefties Kyle Hart and Yoan Aybar to their 40-man, the team announced.The most hyped farmhand there is Dalbec, whom MLB.com ranks as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect. The 24-year-old reached the Triple-A level for the first time in 2019 after obliterating Double-A pitching, and he posted a .257/.301/.478 line with seven home runs and 29 strikeouts against just five walks over 123 trips to the plate.
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