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Minor MLB Transactions: 1/12/21

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

  • The Giants agreed to a minor league deal and Spring Training invite with utilityman Arismendy Alcantara, reports Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Once considered to be among baseball’s top 100 prospects, the former Cubs prospect hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2017. The 29-year-old Alcantara has appeared in 167 MLB games, splitting time between the Cubs, A’s and Reds, but he has just a .189/.285/.315 batting line to show for it. Alcantara has experience at second base, shortstop, third base and all three outfield spots, and he’s a career .273/.326/.468 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons.

Phillies Acquire Sam Coonrod From Giants

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander Sam Coonrod from the Giants in exchange for pitching prospect Carson Ragsdale, according to ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan (Twitter link).

Originally a fifth-round pick in the 2014 draft, Coonrod debuted in the big leagues by posting a 3.58 ERA over 27 2/3 innings for the Giants in 2019, though advanced metrics weren’t impressed by his work.  That fortune turned in 2020, as while Coonrod’s advanced numbers improved, his ERA ballooned to 9.82 in 14 2/3 frames.  Overall, Coonrod has a 5.74 ERA, 18.9 K%, 7 K-BB%, and 5.05 SIERA over his brief Major League career.

Coonrod missed much of the 2018 season due to Tommy John surgery but he returned from that long rehab with plenty of heat on his fastball, averaging 97.1 mph in the bigs.  He was a regular starting pitcher in the minors prior to his surgery, but Coonrod could best be positioned to remain a relief pitcher for the foreseeable future.

While he may have been expendable for the Giants, the Phillies will surely take a live arm as they try to rebuild a bullpen that posted dreadful numbers in 2020.  Newly-hired Phils pitching coach Caleb Cotham and bullpen coach Jim Gott will now be tasked with seeing if they can turn Coonrod’s velocity and excellent curveball spin into consistent results for the 28-year-old.

Ragsdale was Philadelphia’s fourth-round selection in the 2020 draft, so he has yet to begin his pro career.  A product of the University Of South Florida, Ragsdale’s college career was interrupted by Tommy John surgery but he still posted a 3.75 ERA and a very impressive 33.6 K% over 50 1/3 NCAA innings, albeit with some control problems.  MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 30th-best prospect in the Phillies’ farm system, citing his promising fastball and curve but also noting that there is still a lot of uncertainty over Ragsdale’s potential as a starter due to the lack of games in the abbreviated 2020 NCAA season.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/8/21

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The latest minor transactions from around the game…

  • The Giants have signed right-hander Jay Jackson to a minors contract, MLBTR has learned. Marc Delucchi was first to report that the two sides were close to a deal.  Jackson has seen some action in the majors as a member of the Padres (2015) and Brewers (2019), with whom he has combined for a 4.67 ERA alongside a 33.6 percent strikeout rate and a 12.5 percent walk rate in 34 2/3 innings. But Jackson has been big in Japan, where he has spent parts of four seasons (including 2020 with the Chiba Lotte Marines) and recorded a superb 2.16 ERA across 183 innings in Nippon Professional Baseball. Jackson returned stateside with the Reds last August, but he didn’t pitch for them in 2020.
  • The Reds have signed catcher Rocky Gale to a minor-league deal with an invitation to MLB spring training, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (via Twitter). Despite having played in parts of four MLB seasons, Gale has compiled just 37 career plate appearances at the highest level. However, the 32-year-old (33 in February) has a serviceable .279/.316/.359 slash line in parts of nine Triple-A campaigns.

NL Notes: Kluber, Nationals, D’Backs, Peralta, Giants

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Some items from around the Senior Circuit…

  • The Nationals and Diamondbacks will be among the teams who will have scouts at Corey Kluber’s showcase on January 13, as reported by The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli and Zach Buchanan (both Twitter links).  Washington has a clearer need for starting pitching than Arizona, but given the potential upside of adding a former Cy Young Award winner if Kluber can stay healthy, the veteran righty makes sense for practically every team in baseball.
  • “The Cardinals have talked about acquiring” David Peralta in the past, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, and Goold feels it would be logical for the Cards to again consider acquiring the Diamondbacks outfielder.  Peralta began his pro career with St. Louis back in 2004 before being released in 2009, and he has since gone on to become a solid contributor over seven MLB seasons with the D’Backs.  Peralta’s name has been periodically mentioned in trade rumors as the Diamondbacks’ fortunes have gone up and down over the years, but Arizona locked Peralta up on a contract extension last spring.  That same deal now could make Peralta an affordable (he is owed $7.5MM in both 2021 and 2022) trade target for a team like the Cardinals, who are both in need of outfield help and are seemingly trying to limit spending.  While the D’Backs have dealt several of their higher-paid players in recent years, however, there hasn’t been any indication that Arizona is considering a similar move involving Peralta or any of its pricier veterans this winter.  If anything, indications are that the D’Backs are leaning towards bringing much of their roster back, with the sense that 2020 was an aberration of a season.
  • With all of the economic uncertainty surrounding baseball, the Giants “will be better positioned than almost any team…to weather whatever 2021 brings,” The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly (subscription required) writes in a breakdown of the team’s overall solid financial outlook.  This doesn’t necessarily mean the Giants will heavily spend on new players this winter, but it bodes well for the future — perhaps as soon as next offseason, once almost all of San Francisco’s expensive contracts are off the books.

Giants Sign Curt Casali

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The Giants have signed veteran catcher Curt Casali to a one-year major league contract worth $1.5MM, Maria Guardado of MLB.com was among those to report. To make room for Casali on its 40-man roster, the team officially sold left-hander Andrew Suarez’s rights to the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization. Casali is a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Casali became a professional when the Tigers used a 10th-round pick on him in 2011, but he has so far divided his major league career between the Rays and Reds. He was a Red for the previous three years, during which he posted a productive .260/.345/.440 line with 18 home runs in 485 plate appearances. As a defender, the 32-year-old Casali has thrown out a respectable 27 percent of would-be base stealers, but the all-around package wasn’t enough for Cincinnati to keep him in the fold. The team non-tendered Casali before the Dec. 2 deadline instead of paying him a projected $1.8MM to $2.4MM in arbitration.

Now that he’s on his way to the Bay Area, Casali seems like the front-runner to back up returning starter Buster Posey, who opted out last season over COVID-19 concerns. Casali will now reunite with right-handers Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani, whom he played with in Cincinnati.

Along with Casali and Posey, the Giants also have fellow catchers Joey Bart and Chadwick Tromp, but those two have all three minor league options remaining. In the event the Casali pickup works out well for the Giants, they’ll be able to keep him around in 2022, as he’ll be eligible for arbitration through then.

MLBTR Poll: Who Will Sign Tomoyuki Sugano?

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Tomoyuki Sugano arrived in the United States two days ago, according to The Hochi News (Japanese language link), as the right-hander and his agent Joel Wolfe plan for the final few days of Sugano’s 30-day posting window.  January 7 is the final day of that posting period, and with at least six MLB teams known to have interest in Sugano’s services, the odds seem to be in favor of Sugano pitching in the big leagues in 2021.

A move to North America is not guaranteed, however.  As noted in that Hochi News item, Sugano said earlier this month that he hadn’t yet fully decided on whether or not to make the jump to Major League Baseball, with the COVID-19 pandemic weighing as a factor in his decision.  As we just saw yesterday with outfielder Haruki Nishikawa, it isn’t uncommon for Japanese players to reach the end of their 30-day posting period without having reached a deal with any MLB teams.

Beyond that uncertainty, it’s also possible that Sugano’s market has been somewhat reduced in number.  Of the six teams linked to Sugano in rumors, two have made other significant pitching additions that may have removed them from the running.  The Rangers already made one foray into the Japanese pitching market by signing Kohei Arihara to a two-year, $6.2MM contract.  The Padres, of course, dominated headlines by swinging a pair of blockbuster trades for Yu Darvish and Blake Snell, and now headlines a rotation mix that also includes Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack, Adrian Morejon, Joey Lucchesi, and several impressive younger arms.

This isn’t to say that Texas or San Diego wouldn’t still have interest in Sugano, of course.  Even with Arihara’s signing, the Rangers could still conceivably add to their rotation considering that Kyle Gibson, Jordan Lyles, and Kolby Allard all struggled in 2020.  As for the Padres, they’re so clearly in win-now mode that they might see Sugano as another key piece for what they hope is a World Series contender.  Adding another starting candidate serves as a further guard should Lamet have an injury setback, and it could allow the Padres to potentially float one of their younger arms as a trade chip in another trade.

The Red Sox also made a recent pitching addition in Matt Andriese, but while Andriese will be given a crack at a starting job, he might end up as a reliever or perhaps a swingman.  Boston has enough questions in its rotation that signing Sugano would make sense even if Andriese did end up as a starter.  Likewise, the Giants have retained Kevin Gausman via the qualifying offer and signed Anthony DeSclafani since the start of the offseason, but San Francisco’s pitching staff would certainly still use further reinforcement.

The Blue Jays and Mets have respectively been linked to almost every free agent this offseason, so it isn’t surprising that they’re both in on Sugano.  Whether Sugano would be either team’s final major pitching addition is the question, as a case could be made that both Toronto and New York have enough arms on hand, or that another notable hurler (perhaps even Trevor Bauer) is required to really turn either rotation into a big plus.

With these options in mind, it’s time to open the floor to the MLBTR readership.  Where do you think Sugano will pitch in 2021? (poll link for app users)

Who will sign Tomoyuki Sugano?
Mets 21.99% (4,036 votes)
Giants 15.08% (2,768 votes)
Blue Jays 14.77% (2,710 votes)
Another MLB team 13.22% (2,425 votes)
Red Sox 11.98% (2,198 votes)
Nobody --- Sugano will remain in Japan 11.06% (2,030 votes)
Padres 7.93% (1,455 votes)
Rangers 3.97% (728 votes)
Total Votes: 18,350

Free Agent Notes: Sugano, Kluber, Naquin, Blue Jays

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The Giants are the latest team to be connected to Tomoyuki Sugano, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets that San Francisco is keeping an eye on the right-hander’s market.  This makes at least six teams known to have interest in Sugano, as the Giants join the Mets, Red Sox, Padres, Blue Jays, and Rangers.  Notably, Morosi omitted the Rangers from his list, so it could be that Texas is out of the running for Sugano after signing Kohei Arihara.

As with all of these pitching-needy clubs, Sugano would be a nice fit in San Francisco’s rotation.  The Giants’ pitching staff was bolstered when Kevin Gausman accepted the qualifying offer, and the club made a further addition in signing Anthony DeSclafani to a one-year, $6MM contract.  Sugano will require more money and a multi-year commitment, but it wouldn’t represent that big of an outlay for a Giants club that doesn’t have much payroll committed beyond the 2021 season.

More on some other free agents…

  • Corey Kluber was known to be planning bullpen sessions for scouts next month, and ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports that these sessions are tentatively scheduled for January 12 or 13.  Injuries limited Kluber to only 35 2/3 innings in 2019 and just a single inning of work last season, so there are plenty of questions surrounding the former Cy Young Award winner’s health.  Despite this lack of recent track record, one would expect most teams to send evalutors to Kluber’s showcase, as there is major buy-low potential if Kluber looks anything like his old Cy Young Award-winning self.  The Twins and Red Sox have already reportedly shown interest in Kluber this offseason.
  • Tyler Naquin is drawing interest from multiple teams, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, but it doesn’t seem like a reunion with the Indians is in the cards.  “The chances of [Naquin] re-signing were slim” after the Tribe non-tendered Naquin earlier this month, Hoynes writes.  The 15th overall pick of the 2012 draft, Naquin showed flashes of stardom (particularly in his 2016 rookie year) during five seasons in Cleveland, but injuries and struggles against left-handed pitching have hampered Naquin’s career.  Interstingly, Hoynes notes that “a couple” of teams are thinking about Naquin as a candidate to play center field, though Naquin hasn’t played the position since 2018 and his defensive metrics as a center fielder aren’t promising.
  • The Blue Jays have been seemingly connected to just about every major free agent, yet The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm makes the “bold prediction” that J.T. Realmuto will ultimately land with the team.  There’s some process-of-elimination logic here, as Chisholm feels that George Springer will sign with the Mets and DJ LeMahieu will re-sign with the Yankees, leaving the Jays without either of what seem to be their top two targets.  From Realmuto’s perspective, the Mets’ deal with James McCann may have already eliminated the most likely candidate for his services, as it isn’t yet clear if other potential suitors like the Phillies or Nationals are willing to meet Realmuto’s asking price.  With Realmuto in the fold, Toronto could then use its young catching surplus as trade chips to address other needs.

Quick Hits: Nats, Bell, Zimmerman, A’s, Giants, Codify, White Sox, Vaughn

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The Nationals accomplished a big part of their winter to-do list when they acquired Josh Bell from the Pirates on Christmas Eve. “He exemplifies everything we’re trying to do here in Washington,” GM Mike Rizzo told NBCSports’ Todd Dybas and others during a Zoom call this afternoon (via Twitter). Bell fits the clubhouse ethos the Nats work hard to maintain while being a near-perfect on-field fit to join Juan Soto in the middle of the lineup. Ryan Zimmerman could still return to the Nats, per the Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli (via Twitter), as Rizzo notes that a right-handed bench bat remains an area of need  [UPDATE: A new contract between Zimmerman and the Nationals “seems inevitable,” Ghiroli hears from sources.]

  • Michael Fisher is helping pitchers take a proactive approach to retiring hitters through his data-analytics firm called Codify, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Rather than telling pitchers what they’re doing wrong, he creates heat maps to help pitchers find the right areas to target. He focuses on where they should throw the ball instead of where they shouldn’t. Fisher’s approach works for a number of Oakland A’s pitchers like Jake Diekman, Jesus Luzardo, and Sean Manaea, Giants’ hurlers Tyler Beede and Logan Webb, as well as free agent closer Liam Hendriks.
  • Despite the additions already made this offseason, the White Sox could use some more rotation depth, a closer, and a designated hitter, writes Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. Andrew Vaughn could be called upon to fill that designated hitter role or to spell MVP Jose Abreu at first base. Vaughn figured to be a fast-riser when the White Sox made him the No. 3 overall selection of the 2019 draft, and he made it to High-A in his first professional season. Had there been a minor league season in 2020, Vaughn might be ready for the Show, but under the circumstances, the Sox could look for a stopgap solution to give Vaughn some seasoning time and further build their offensive depth.

Giants Sign John Brebbia

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The Giants have signed right-handed reliever John Brebbia to a major league deal worth $800K for next season, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group reports. It’s fully guaranteed, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.

Brebbia came available when the Cardinals non-tendered him earlier this month. They would have owed him a projected $800K in arbitration had they kept Brebbia, but after he missed all of last season because of Tommy John surgery, the Cardinals decided to go in another direction. He could be a member of the Giants for the next three seasons, as he’s under arbitration control through 2023.

Because he went under the knife in late June, Brebbia will not be able to help the Giants for at least the first couple months of next season – if it starts on time or anywhere close, that is. But the Giants are nonetheless taking a low-risk chance on a pitcher who posted terrific numbers out of the Cardinals’ bullpen from 2017-19. Brebbia, now 30 years old, combined for 175 innings of 3.14 ERA/3.39 FIP ball with 10.18 K/9 and 2.79 BB/9 during that span. Despite a paltry 28 percent groundball rate, Brebbia has allowed just 0.98 home runs per nine during his career.

Giants Sign Anthony DeSclafani

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DEC. 18: The Giants are deferring half of DeSclafani’s salary, including incentives, to the first quarter of 2022, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

DEC. 16, 4:06pm: The Giants have announced the signing. The deal comes with up to $250K in performance bonuses based on innings pitched, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.

3:27pm: The two sides have agreed to a one-year, $6MM contract, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. That comes in north of MLBTR’s one-year, $4MM prediction for DeSclafani.

3:08pm: The Giants and free-agent right-hander Anthony DeSclafani are nearing a deal, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. DeSclafani is a client of VC Sports Group.

This figures to be a buy-low pickup for the Giants, who are set to add a starter who has gone through an up-and-down career since it began in 2014. DeSclafani was a member of the Marlins during his first season, but he moved on to the Reds after that in a trade that sent fellow righty Mat Latos to Miami.

Cincinnati received rather impressive production from DeSclafani from 2015-16, during which he accrued 308 innings and notched a 3.74 ERA/3.79 FIP with 7.48 K/9 and 2.48 BB/9. DeSclafani missed the next season because of elbow problems, though, and didn’t return until June 2018. His production from then through 2019 was fairly respectable, but DeSclafani fell on hard times last season. Despite posting a career-high 94.9 mph on his fastball, the 30-year-old logged personal worsts in ERA (7.22), FIP (6.10), K/9 (6.68) and BB/9 (4.28) across 33 2/3 innings. He also had a rough year by Statcast’s standards, ranking closer to the bottom of the league than the top in most of its categories.

Although last season was no doubt a disaster for DeSclafani, the Giants have done well recently in signing starters to low-risk contracts. They added one of DeSclafani’s former Reds teammates, Kevin Gausman, on a one-year, $9MM pact last offseason. That couldn’t have worked out much better for the Giants, who were so impressed that they issued Gausman a qualifying offer a few weeks back. Gausman accepted that $18.9MM offer and will be atop their rotation in 2021. Along with picking up Gausman a year ago, the Giants signed Drew Smyly to a $4MM guarantee. Smyly also exceeded expectations, though he left for a raise with the Braves earlier this winter.

Assuming DeSclafani is part of the Giants’ rotation next year, he should join a group that will include Gausman, Johnny Cueto and likely Logan Webb. The other spot will probably be up for grabs, especially with Andrew Suarez nearing an agreement with a team in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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