With Friday’s deadline to sign 2016 amateur draft picks creeping up, the Red Sox and first-round selection Jason Groome are in a dispute over how much the left-hander is worth, reports Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball. Boston is currently offering Groome $3.5MM – which is $372K more than the 12th overall selection’s $3,192,800 slot value – according to Heyman, who adds that the 17-year-old had a pre-draft agreement with the Padres to sign for $5MM had he fallen to them at No. 24. The Red Sox have in the neighborhood of $400K remaining in their pool and could up their offer to Groome, Heyman notes, and he expects the two to eventually reach a deal.
Padres Rumors
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/11/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league, each courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted…
- Second baseman Cole Figueroa has elected free agency instead of an outright assignment to Triple-A from the Dodgers, per an announcement. Los Angeles designated the 29-year-old for assignment Friday after claiming him off waivers from the Pirates two weeks ago. Figueroa has picked up only 84 major league trips to the plate, but he has produced a respectable .288/.356/.376 line in nearly 2,000 Triple-A PAs.
- The Red Sox have outrighted outfielder Ryan LaMarre to Triple-A Pawtucket, tweets Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. Boston designated LaMarre for assignment when it acquired infielder Aaron Hill from the Brewers last week. Since the Reds took him in the second round of the 2010 draft, LaMarre has totaled just 32 major league plate appearances – six of which came earlier this year with the Red Sox. The 27-year-old has batted .265/.343/.379 over 2,469 trips to the plate in the minors.
- The Reds have outrighted Juan Duran off their 40-man roster. The 24-year-old outfielder got a late start to his season and has struggled to a .191/.235/.255 batting line through 15 games and 51 plate appearances this season. Duran ranked among BA’s top 30 Reds prospects from 2008-11 but hasn’t appeared on that list since.
- The Braves signed right-hander Maikel Cleto to a minor league contract. The hard-throwing 27-year-old has experience in parts of four big league seasons with the Cardinals and White Sox but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2014. He’s averaged an impressive 11.6 K/9 in the Majors but has also averaged six walks per nine innings and posted an unsightly 6.60 ERA in 45 innings. Cleto pitched 14 innings in the Mexican League and caught Atlanta’s eye it seems, perhaps due to a much-improved 16-to-1 K/BB ratio in that brief stint.
- Right-hander Vinnie Pestano has been released by the Yankees. The 31-year-old opened the season at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and enjoyed a strong April, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with 16 strikeouts and one walk in 10 2/3 innings but hasn’t pitched for the club since due to injury. Pestano has six seasons of big league experience and has worked to a 2.98 ERA with 10.8 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in 202 2/3 innings at the big league level.
- The Marlins traded left-hander Tim Berry to the Padres in exchange for cash considerations. Berry, who was outrighted off Miami’s 40-man roster earlier this season, began the year in Double-A and was hit exceptionally hard, but he’s righted the ship after a stint on the disabled list and some time at Class-A Advanced, posting a 2.78 ERA over his past 22 2/3 innings (including one appearance with San Diego’s Class-A affiliate).
The Best Minor League Signings Of 2016
Minor league deals often go unnoticed or are met with an eye roll from fans — the ever-witty “Championship!” comments abound following such deals — and more often than not, they end up as inconsequential moves that are quickly forgotten. Each year, though, a handful of minor league signings yield legitimate value for their new clubs. With the more than half of the season in the books and the All-Star break upon us, enough of the season has passed that we can discern which minor league deals have yielded the most significant dividends in 2016…
Position Players
- Robbie Grossman, Twins: Grossman wasn’t an offseason minor league signing, but he inked a minors pact with the Twins in mid-May and was brought up to the big leagues almost immediately thereafter. Since arriving in Minneapolis, he’s seen regular playing time and enjoyed the most productive stretch of his career. The switch-hitter is batting .289/.421/.465 with six homers and 10 doubles over the life of 195 plate appearances and has walked at an incredible 18.5 percent clip. Defensive metrics are way down on his work in left field, but the bat has been good enough that Fangraphs pegs him at a strong 1.1 WAR thus far. He’s controllable for another four seasons as well.
- Matt Joyce, Pirates: Joyce’s 2015 season with the Angels was awful, but he’s more productive on a per-plate-appearance basis in 2016 than he ever has been before. He’s been heavily platooned, as usual, and has posted an excellent .295/.420/.558 batting line with eight homers in 157 plate appearances as the Pirates’ fourth outfielder. He, too, has drawn poor marks from UZR and DRS, but he’s been productive enough at the plate that he won’t be settling for a minor league contract again this winter.
- Dae-ho Lee, Mariners: Lee didn’t generate as much interest as countryman Byung Ho Park, but he’s been the better player of the two thus far. Through 188 plate appearances, the former KBO and NPB star is hitting .288/.330/.514 with a dozen homers and four doubles. He’s been platooned quite a bit himself, but his numbers against righties are actually a bit better than his still-strong production against lefties.
Pitchers
- Fernando Abad, Twins: Some of the shine has worn off from Abad’s early dominance, as he’s yielded seven runs in his past six outings. In spite of that slump, though, Abad boasts a 2.83 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 46.7 percent ground-ball rate. He’s pitched 28 2/3 innings for the Twins and could be a trade chip this summer. He’s controllable through the 2017 campaign, which adds to his appeal.
- Matt Belisle, Nationals: A strained calf has limited Belisle to 19 innings with the Nats this season, but he’s been terrific when healthy. The veteran right-hander has a 2.37 ERA with 16 strikeouts against four walks (two intentional) with a 41.1 percent ground-ball rate in D.C. He’s helped to stabilize what has been a vastly improved Nationals bullpen in 2016.
- Ryan Buchter, Padres: The 29-year-old has been brilliant for San Diego in 2016, logging 38 innings with a 2.61 ERA and averaging 13 strikeouts per nine innings. He has some control issues, averaging five walks per nine as well, but he’s missed so many bats that the free passes haven’t hurt him often. He’d only thrown one big league inning prior to this season, so San Diego can control him for six years if he can maintain this breakout. (Apologies for leaving Buchter off the initial list; he was added to the 40-man back in January, which caused me to incorrectly remember him as a Major League signee.)
- Matt Bush, Rangers: That Bush even made it to a Major League mound after the trajectory his career took is astonishing on its own, but his performance thus far with the Rangers has been excellent as well. The 30-year-old has a 2.49 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 37.1 percent ground-ball rate through 25 1/3 innings out of the Rangers’ bullpen. With Shawn Tolleson’s 2016 struggles and a three-month stay on the disabled list for Keone Kela, Bush’s emergence has been critical for Texas.
- Dillon Gee, Royals: Gee’s 4.11 ERA isn’t exactly flashy, but he’s provided 57 serviceable innings in 13 relief appearances and five starts for the Royals. And, with Chris Young shifting to the bullpen, Gee could continue to get some starts for Kansas City following the All-Star break. The Royals can hang onto him for another season via the arbitration process, as well.
- Brandon Kintzler, Twins: The former Brewers right-hander has found himself in the closer role for the Twins following an injury to Glen Perkins and a disastrous season for Kevin Jepsen. Kintlzer doesn’t miss bats (5.5 K/9), but he’s walked just two batters in 26 innings and has posted an exceptional 64.2 percent ground-ball rate en route to a 2.42 ERA. Like his bullpen-mate Abad, Kintzler is controllable through the 2017 season and could be appealing to clubs in need of relief help.
- Chien-Ming Wang, Royals: Wang’s improved velocity was a big storyline in Spring Training, but he’s settled in at an average of 91.6 mph, which is right in line with his career mark in that regard. The 36-year-old’s sinker isn’t generating grounders like it used to, but he’s still managed a 3.68 ERA with 5.9 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 46.2 percent ground-ball rate in 36 2/3 innings with the reigning World Series champions this year.
Melvin Upton Increasing Trade Value
- Prior to this season, there was no trade interest in Melvin Upton unless the Padres took on the rest of his contract. After a .268/.315/.464 performance this year, though, that’s changing, at least to a degree. San Diego still owes Upton a little under $40MM through 2017, but teams are now willing to give up talent, with the Padres’ return increasing depending upon how much salary they’re willing to take on. The Padres might be motivated to deal Upton and/or Matt Kemp to clear space for former first-round pick Hunter Renfroe, who’s batting .335/.362/.611 for Triple-A El Paso. Austin Hedges has also hit well for the Chihuahuas, which means the Padres could also look to move fellow catcher Derek Norris to clear space in the big leagues.
Padres Won’t Trade Wil Myers; Could Deal Drew Pomeranz
Although the Padres haven’t made the playoffs since 2006, managing partner Peter Seidler told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times that he isn’t going to rush the franchise’s current rebuild. Seidler acknowledged that the Padres’ future-minded strategy probably won’t begin paying dividends at the major league level until 2019 at the earliest. That strategy has come into focus this year, with the team having outspent every other club on the international market this month.
After signing 10 top international prospects July 2, San Diego added another – 17-year-old Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon – for a sizable $11MM bonus on Friday. The Padres had already soared past their league-allotted bonus pool by then, meaning that they’ll pay a 100 percent luxury tax on the Morejon signing. As such, they effectively picked him up for $22MM and have now spent in the neighborhood of $60MM on international free agents this year. The Padres’ allocation of international cash is currently, in their judgment, “the smartest place to spend money,” according to Seidler.
“In the context of baseball, it’s two years of Zack Greinke,” he continued. “It’s two years of Clayton Kershaw. For us, we get 20 high-ceiling teenagers. Most of them ultimately are not going to make it to Petco Park. But if four or five of them are impact players at Petco?”
Eventually joining those players in the majors could be several prospects from this year’s amateur draft, in which the Padres had six of the first 85 picks – including three first-round selections.
“This franchise’s history in the amateur draft — as far as having impactful players play for the Padres in the major leagues — is probably as bad as it gets,” Seidler stated. “We have confidence that what we are building is going to completely reverse that.”
Shifting gears to the major league side, the 38-49 Friars have the second-worst record in the NL West and will no doubt look to sell as the Aug. 1 deadline nears. The team has already jettisoned right-hander James Shields and cashed in 39-year-old reliever Fernando Rodney for a prospect, and it hasn’t ruled out trading its best starter of 2016 – lefty Drew Pomeranz – writes Shaikin.
Pomeranz, 27, is making a paltry $1.35MM this season and has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, but the All-Star is scheduled to become a free agent when the Padres’ prospective window of competing, 2019, opens. Given his eminently affordable contract and excellent production – he ranks fifth in the majors in ERA (2.47) and 10th in strikeouts per nine innings (10.15) – Pomeranz could be one of the most appealing players available around the deadline. While the Padres aren’t against selling high on him, the same isn’t true regarding first baseman Wil Myers.
“He’s not going to be traded,” Seidler declared, and executive chairman Ron Fowler told Shaikin that Myers is “the type of guy we want to build this team around.”
As a result, Fowler is hopeful the Padres and Myers, a 25-year-old All-Star, can work out an extension. Myers is earning barely over the league minimum this year and is controllable through arbitration for three more seasons. The ex-Ray and former premier prospect has hit a tremendous .293/.358/.535 with 19 home runs in 371 plate appearances, also adding 15 stolen bases on 18 attempts. Thanks largely to his output at the plate and on the base paths, Myers has already been worth 3.5 fWAR – tied for the 11th-highest total among position players this year.
“The way we’re building this business is really straightforward,” said Seidler. “It’s all about building a core of high-ceiling, home-grown talent. That does go back to the way the best sports franchises in any of the major sports have always been run.”
Myers isn’t homegrown, but he’s clearly a high-ceiling player. And Seidler’s Padres hope Myers and a cavalcade of talented prospects can eventually lead the franchise back to relevance in the coming years.
Red Sox Have Talked Trade Scenarios With Padres
- Regardless of the Red Sox’ views on Rodriguez, the team figures to be in the hunt for at least one rotation arm. As Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports, Boston has been in touch with the Padres, who could market Drew Pomeranz and/or Andrew Cashner (though the latter had a really rough outing tonight). Also, senior VP of baseball ops Frank Wren is said to have watched both Rich Hill of the Athletics and Julio Teheran of the Braves recently.
Latest On Royals’ Search For Rotation Help
The Royals are known to be on the lookout for starting pitching, having been connected to the likes of Ervin Santana, Rich Hill and Matt Moore in recent weeks. Their needs have been accelerated by the struggles of Chris Young and injury setbacks for Mike Minor and, more recently, Kris Medlen. As Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star writes, Medlen suffered a Grade 1 strain in his throwing shoulder while pitching on a rehab assignment from rotator cuff inflammation at Triple-A Omaha and will be shut down from throwing for at least the next two weeks due to the injury.
With uncertainty permeating their rotation, Kansas City is casting a wide net in looking at trade candidates, writes MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Among the pitchers they’re considering are right-handers Jeremy Hellickson and Andrew Cashner as well as lefties Hill and Jorge De La Rosa, according to Morosi. Each of those names would constitute a strict rental, as each is a free agent at season’s end, though previous ties to Santana and Moore suggest that the Royals are possibly open to the steeper price (be it financial or in terms of prospect cost) of adding a player controlled beyond the 2016 campaign. Indeed, McDowell’s colleague Rustin Dodd linked Kansas City to multiple Rays starting pitchers just last night. GM Dayton Moore called the rotation an “area of vulnerability” and confirmed that he’s been “evaluating the landscape” of potentially available options, writes the Star’s Vahe Gregorian.
Royals starters currently rank 29th in the Majors in collective innings pitched at 455 2/3, and they’re a mere one-third of an inning ahead of the rebuilding Reds in that woeful distinction. More troublesome than that sum is the fact Royals starters simply haven’t pitched well even when they’re on the mound. The Royals’ excellent bullpen could perhaps cover persistently short starts if the team were regularly receiving quality five-inning outings from its starting staff, but Royals starting pitchers have posted a collective 5.02 ERA that ranks 25th in the Majors this season. The bullpen has helped to stop the bleeding, but the recent loss of Wade Davis has thinned out the relief corps, and even if he’s not on the shelf for long, they’re on pace for a lofty total of 556 2/3 innings from the bullpen this season.
With that in mind, Hellickson strikes me as the most logical target among the names listed by Morosi. He’s made 18 starts this season and, after a patch of struggles in late April/early May, has averaged 6 1/3 innings per start over his past 11 turns (nine of which have been quality starts). He’s been the most durable of the bunch and probably offers the best blend of affordability in terms of salary ($7MM in 2016) and prospect cost. Hill is earning $1MM less but has pitched considerably better when on the mound, so he should be expected to command a larger return than Hellickson in a trade. Cashner, meanwhile, is earning $7.15MM but has been limited to 59 innings by a hamstring strain and a neck strain. And De La Rosa, a former Royal (2006-07), is earning $12MM this season and lost his rotation spot in May before righting the ship and regaining his starting job recently.
For the time being, the Royals are relying on a rotation consisting of Yordano Ventura, Ian Kennedy, Danny Duffy and Edinson Volquez, with either Dillon Gee or Brian Flynn slated to step into Young’s spot on Sunday following Young’s move to the bullpen. While Duffy has been scintillating since returning to the rotation — a trend that continued last night — and Kennedy has given the club 100 solid innings (3.97 ERA), Ventura has struggled since April. Volquez, meanwhile, has been highly inconsistent, yielding four or more runs in half of his 18 starts this season.
Padres, Adrian Morejon Agree To $11MM Bonus
5:05pm: Badler has an updated scouting report on Morejon and some details on the contract. Morejon’s deal is structured as a 2017 contract, according to Badler, so he won’t play in any official games for San Diego this year. Rather, he’ll spend the next two months pitching in simulated games at the Padres’ academy in the Dominican Republic and then report to the instructional league in September. The structuring of the contract means that they’ll have an extra year before it’s necessary to add him to the 40-man roster as protection from the Rule 5 Draft. Despite his youth, Morejon could be pitching for one of the Padres’ Class-A affiliates next season, Badler adds. The free report has plenty of additional info on Morejon and some quotes from an international scouting director, so it’s well worth a full read-through.
3:55pm: The Padres have agreed to a deal with Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon that will pay the 17-year-old an enormous $11MM bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Morejon was formally declared a free agent by Major League Baseball just yesterday. Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote back in May that the Padres were the favorites to sign Morejon, and Sanchez said the same yesterday when reporting that Morejon had become eligible to sign.
San Diego has already soared past its league-allotted bonus pool, meaning that they’ll pay a 100 percent luxury tax on the signing. As such, Morejon effectively costs the club $22MM. The Padres last week signed 10 of international prospects (including a few of the top names on this year’s market), and while the terms of each agreement aren’t yet available, those expenditures topped $12.5MM. Morejon’s bonus is far and away the largest of the bunch.
Morejon was absent from the rankings of Sanchez and Badler due to the fact that he wasn’t technically a free agent when those reports were published. However, Sanchez notes in his tweet that he’d have ranked Morejon as the No. 2 prospect on this year’s market, and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen agreed when ranking the international prospects on Fangraphs’ sortable scouting board. Longenhagen’s projections give Morejon the chance to have three plus pitches — fastball, curveball and changeup — with above-average command. He currently sits 89-92 mph with his heater and tops out at 94, per Longenhagen, though given his age, he’s of course quite a ways from realizing that potential. Badler called him one of the best Cuban players available to MLB clubs back in February (Morejon had already left Cuba but was not yet a free agent at that point), writing that scouts to whom he spoke believed Morejon to be a more promising prospect than the considerably more-talked-about Lazaro Armenteros.
The Padres were allotted a bonus pool of $3.347MM, meaning they’ll be faced with more than $20MM worth of luxury tax penalties even if their spending stops today. Given the aggressive nature of their run at this year’s crop of international talent, though, it seems unlikely that the Padres will call it a day right now. They’ll be barred from signing any international amateurs for more than $300K in each of the next two signing periods due to their overspending, so it makes sense to continue to aggressively pursue talent between now and June 15, 2017, when the current international signing period comes to a close.
Padres Claim Jake Smith Off Waivers
The Padres have claimed righty Jake Smith off waiver from the division-rival Giants, per a team announcement. San Francisco had designated him for assignment and ultimately placed him on outright waivers.
Smith showed plenty of promise last year at the High-A level, spinning 84 1/3 innings of 2.35 ERA pitching and posting an impressive 12.2 K/9 versus 2.2 BB/9. But things have turned south in his age-26 campaign, as Smith has struggled after making the jump to Double-A.
Over his 20 1/3 frames thus far in 2016, Smith has been touched for 16 earned runs while permitting 23 free passes. On the positive side, he has struck out 26 batters and has only allowed 17 hits, so it seems that the control issues are the biggest problem.
Cuban Prospect Adrian Morejon Declared Free Agent
Cuban prospect Adrian Morejon has been declared a free agent, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). The southpaw is now free to sign with any team, but will be subject to international signing limits, which will have a major role in shaping his market.
Morejon left his native Cuba last October, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reported. At the time, it had seemed that Morejon might be cleared before the previous July 2 signing period, under a changed approach to MLB’s registration rules.
A rapid move onto the open market did not occur in Morejon’s case, as Badler recently explored. Per that report, though, Morejon isn’t expected to suffer much from the delay. That’s because he is anticipated to agree to terms with the Padres, who would’ve needed him to wait to sign anyway.
Morejon is considered a quality pitching prospect, though it’s important to recognize what type of player he is. At just 17 years of age, he has more in common with the young arms from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela who typically fall under the July 2 rubric than he does with older and more advanced players who have drawn huge bonuses out of Cuba.
That being said, Badler has opined that Morejon should be considered among the top names available among his class, and suggested more recently that the lefty has shown more of late. Morejon doesn’t have a big frame, but has run his fastball up to the mid-nineties. Badler also credits him with promising secondary offerings and “advanced feel” given his age.
