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Giants Considering Outside Additions

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With the Aug. 1 trade deadline getting closer, the Giants are considering acquiring outside help for their outfield, bullpen and starting rotation, reports Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). They won’t make a panic move for a right-handed-hitting outfielder, tweets Schulman, which comes as no surprise for a 43-26 team that holds a seven-game lead in its division.

San Francisco’s outfield took a significant hit earlier this month in losing right fielder Hunter Pence, who could be shelved until at least August after undergoing surgery on a torn hamstring. With Pence temporarily out of the equation, the Giants have been relying on Gregor Blanco, who has followed up a few solid seasons in a row with an uninspiring .260/.329/.353 line in 169 trips to the plate this year. Brewers star Ryan Braun, whom the Giants have been connected to since Pence went down, would be a clear upgrade over Blanco offensively. However, the Braun-related discussions the Giants and Brewers had didn’t advance beyond a preliminary stage. The Giants are also potential suitors for Cuban free agent Yulieski Gurriel, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported Saturday. The 32-year-old Gurriel – a second baseman/third baseman – might be able to step into the outfield, per Rosenthal, after the right-handed batter slashed .335/.417/.580 with 250 home runs in 5,491 combined plate appearances between Cuba and Japan.

[Related: Updated Giants Depth Chart]

On the reliever front, the Giants’ top four innings leaders – Cory Gearrin, Santiago Casilla, Hunter Strickland and Derek Law – have each performed well this year. All four are righties, though, which would help to explain why the club was mulling the pursuit of dominant Yankees southpaw Andrew Miller as of earlier this month. The Yankees remain in the thick of the American League playoff race, so it’s debatable whether the Bombers would move Miller if they stay in the hunt. In the event the Yankees do make Miller available, he’s likely to draw plenty of interest from contenders. Thus, the demand for his services could price the 31-year-old out of the Giants’ range.

San Francisco’s rotation, meanwhile, doesn’t call for a Miller-esque acquisition – not that a starter of his caliber is likely to be on the market, anyway. Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija have excelled this year, giving the Giants an enviable top-of-the-rotation trio. And while the overall numbers for Jake Peavy and Matt Cain aren’t pleasing, they have mostly served as usable back-end options since beginning the season in brutal fashion. Cain went on the disabled list earlier this week with a hamstring strain, however, and it’s unclear how much time he’ll miss. In his absence, the Giants are turning to Albert Suarez – who allowed three earned runs on five hits (including three home runs) and two walks in 4 2/3 innings of a 6-4 win over the Rays on Saturday.

NL Notes: Brewers, Braun, Reed, Lagares, Urias

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Brewers owner Mark Attanasio says that his club is “not actively shopping” either Jonathan Lucroy or Ryan Braun, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwakee Journal-Sentinel reports. Both have drawn their share of trade speculation; indeed, the pair landed atop my recent list of 15 top trade candidates. (To be clear, that ranking is a subjective analysis based upon MLBTR’s assessment of both value and potential availability.) When asked about the volume of chatter thus far, Attanasio said there has been “very little, actually, for whatever reason.”

Here’s more from the National League:

  • Speaking of Braun, the Giants reportedly have at least had some contact with the Brewers about the slugger. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle took a look at that concept, reporting that talks were “cursory” and citing a team source as saying: “It’s far-fetched to go from a conversation to a trade.” As Schulman goes on to explain, there are a whole host of reasons that a match likely won’t come to fruition.
  • The Reds announced that young lefty Cody Reed will be promoted to make his MLB debut on Saturday. The 23-year-old was one of three southpaws who came over in last summer’s Johnny Cueto deal. He has impressed in his first run at the Triple-A level, working to a 3.20 ERA in 64 2/3 innings with 8.8 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9. At this stage of the year, future Super Two qualification is not a major concern. For more on Reed, check out this scouting report from Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper.
  • Mets outfielder Juan Lagares is headed to the 15-day with a sprained left thumb, the club announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Ty Kelly. New York suffered another scare tonight when infielder Wilmer Flores was hit on the hand by a pitch, but it appears that he escaped any significant damage.
  • Dodgers phenom Julio Urias has followed two iffy starts with two good ones, but his time in the majors doesn’t seem long — for 2016, at least. As Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter, manager Dave Roberts said today that Urias will get two more starts before the team assesses his status, with the focus on watching his innings tally. The 19-year-old is up to 58 frames on the year between Triple-A and the bigs, and has not yet topped 87 2/3 total innings in a single season as a pro.

Giants, Jean Machi Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants and right-hander Jean Machi have agreed to a minor league contract, as Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News tweeted earlier that the two sides were close to finalizing a deal.

Machi, 34, is a familiar face for Giants fans, having spent pasts of the 2012-15 seasons with San Francisco. Machi was particularly effective from 2013-14, logging a combined 2.49 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in 119 2/3 innings for the Giants in that span. He struggled through 35 innings with the Giants in 2015, though, and ultimately wound up being claimed off waivers by the Red Sox. His results in Boston — a 5.09 ERA in 23 innings — weren’t any better.

Machi signed a minor league pact with the Cubs this offseason and had been pitching reasonably well with Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate, but he was released last week and then encountered some legal trouble. As the Des Moines Register’s Tommy Birch reported, Machi was arrested for public intoxication and public urination at roughly 2:00am last Thursday morning.

Draft Signings: 6/16/2016

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There are a lot of notable draft deals to work through from the last two days. Among them:

  • Blue Jays second-rounder Bo Bichette announced that he’s signed a deal, which Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets is for a $1.1MM bonus. A son of long-time big leaguer Dante Bichette, the high-school shortstop landed above the $978,600 value at the 66th overall pick. Fellow second-rounder J.B. Woodman inked for $975K, Callis adds on Twitter. An outfielder from Mississippi, he also will deliver some savings to Toronto. The 57th selection came with a $1.124MM slot value. The Jays also added third-round pick Zach Jackson, Callis tweets. The Arkansas righty signed for $540K, leaving the team with $45,100 in savings.
  • Another second-round pick who’s ready for a minor league assignment is C.J. Chatham, who goes to the Red Sox for $1.1MM, per MLB.com (via Twitter). Chosen 51st overall, the Florida Atlantic shortstop rated just outside the top 100 per Baseball America. His signing saves the club $132,800 against the slot value.
  • The Brewers agreed with second-rounder Lucas Erceg for $1.15MM, Callis reports on Twitter. The Menlo College third baseman rated 47th on the draft board of ESPN.com’s Keith Law. He was taken 46th overall, which came with an allocation of $1,386,900.
  • The Twins are in agreement with second-rounder Ben Rortvedt on a $900K bonus, per another Callis tweet. Minnesota saves $241,600 against the slot value while adding the Wisconsin high school backstop. Cotillo tweets that Twins third-rounder Griffin Jax, a righty from the Air Force Academy, has agreed to an at-slot, $645.6K bonus.
  • The Dodgers agreed to a $590,800 bonus with second-round pick Mitch White, MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets. The Santa Clara righty ended up going for over $400K less than the 65th pick’s pool allocation, so Los Angeles can put that money to work in other areas.
  • Rays third-round choice Austin Franklin signed for a $600K bonus that falls a bit shy of the $676,200 slot value, Callis tweets. Franklin is a high-school righty out of Florida.
  • The Royals have an above-slot deal with third-rounder Khalil Lee, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets, though the exact bonus isn’t known. Taken with the 103rd selection, the Virginia high school outfielder rated 121st on BA’s board.
  • The Athletics have locked up third-rounder Sean Murphy for an at-slot, $753,100 bonus, Callis tweets. Baseball America had rated him 63rd among draft-eligible prospects, but Oakland got him with the 83rd pick.
  • Bryson Brigman appears to be in agreement with the Mariners for $700K, just under the $708,200 slot value, per a tweet from Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. A shortstop from the University of San Diego, Brigman went 87th overall.
  • The Giants have given an at-slot, $625,900 bonus to Heath Quinn, Callis tweets. The power-hitting Samford outfielder was taken with the team’s third-round selection.
  • The Cardinals signed fourth-rounder Jeremy Martinez, a catcher from the University of Southern California, for $600K, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. That lands over the $421,600 allocation that came with the 136th selection in the draft.
  • Brewers fourth-round selection Corbin Burnessigned for a slot bonus of $536,400, Callis tweets. A righty from St. Mary’s, Burnes took the 57th slot on the Baseball America draft chart on the basis of improving velocity and the possibility of sticking as a starter.

Matt Cain Returns To DL

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  • Giants righty Matt Cain is headed back to the DL with a re-aggravation of his hamstring strain, as Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area was among those to tweet. San Francisco will recall Chris Stratton for the time being, but the move raises yet more questions about the back of the rotation. Cain is still just 31, but it’s far from clear whether he’ll be a reliable member of the Giants’ staff this year or beyond. In 118 innings over the past two seasons, he has managed only a 5.57 ERA as he has dealt with a growing list of injury troubles.

Giants, Brewers Have Briefly Discussed Ryan Braun

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JUNE 14: The Brewers and Giants have thus far had only one “minimal” discussion surrounding Braun, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal reminds that the Giants are one of six teams to which Braun cannot block a trade (along with the Angels, Dodgers, D-backs, Padres and Marlins, as Rosenthal initially reported back in March), but there are nonetheless obstacles to a deal. Chief among them is that Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is more concerned with ensuring that the Brewers receive premium talent than he is shedding a portion of Braun’s notable contract. The Giants’ farm system is considered below average in recent rankings from Baseball America (19th in baseball) and ESPN’s Keith Law (21st), so other teams may be able to offer a better package to meet those demands. Rosenthal also notes that the Giants will need to restock their bullpen after the ’16 season, and spending heavily on Braun limits their ability to do so by pushing them considerably closer to the luxury tax threshold (even with the aforementioned contracts coming off the books).

JUNE 13: With Hunter Pence on the disabled list due to a torn hamstring, the Giants are “looking everywhere” for another outfielder, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports (on Twitter). To that end, they’ve had preliminary discussions with the Brewers about Ryan Braun, according to Nightengale, though he also cautions that there’s nothing imminent between the two teams.

Braun’s name has been mentioned frequently as a potential trade candidate — he sat at No. 3 on Jeff Todd’s most recent trade candidate rankings here at MLBTR — in large part because he’s having one of the most productive seasons of his career on a rebuilding Brewers club. The 32-year-old is batting .316/.378/.541 with 11 homers, 11 doubles and five stolen bases through his first 217 plate appearances this season.

That production aside, the common consensus surrounding the controversial slugger is that the Brewers would likely have to absorb some salary in order to move him. Braun is in the first season of a five-year, $105MM contract extension that was tacked onto his initial eight-year, $45MM deal back in 2011. He’s earning $19MM this season (with about $11.5MM remaining) and is owed a total of approximately $87.52MM through the end of the 2020 campaign. From a contractual standpoint, the Giants can likely afford Braun; Angel Pagan, Santiago Casilla, Gregor Blanco, Jake Peavy, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez are all free agents at season’s end, and the team has an extremely affordable arbitration class with only George Kontos ($1.15MM in 2016) and Cory Gearrin (pre-arb) looking at raises.

That massive extension for Braun (the largest in Brewers franchise history) came before his 2011 NL MVP Award and also before a messy PED scandal in which Braun accused a test collector of tampering with his urine sample before publicly admitting to steroid use more than a year later in the wake of the Biogenesis investigation.

While Braun certainly comes with some past baggage, he’s regained much of his production and hasn’t failed a test since serving a 65-game suspension to close out the 2013 season. With both Pence and Pagan on the disabled list, the Giants have been relying on a combination of Gregor Blanco and rookies Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson to flank Denard Span in the outfield corners. None of that trio, however, is enjoying a particularly productive 2016 campaign to date. Pagan has hit well when healthy enough to take the field, but he’s also spent three weeks on the DL with a hamstring injury and missed 10 days earlier this season with that same injury.

What remains unclear at this time, though, is the Giants’ sense of urgency in getting a deal done. Pence tweeted that he underwent his operation last Thursday, and the Giants may not want to make a drastic move until having a clearer picture of his ability to return to the field. Indeed, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle notes (links to Twitter) that the Giants are hoping to hold down the fort until Pence’s return, making a more incremental trade likelier in the short-term. ESPN’s Jim Bowden discussed a Braun/Giants scenario earlier today as well (Insider subscription required), writing that it shouldn’t be a surprise if the Giants pursue Braun and linking prospects Tyler Beede and Christian Arroyo to the Brewers, though it’s not entirely clear if those names are mentioned in speculative fashion. Like Schulman, Bowden implies that a significant move for the Giants would happen at the deadline as opposed to seven weeks in advance, where we presently stand.

Giants To Sign Ruben Tejada To Minors Deal

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The Giants have inked infielder Ruben Tejada, Connor Grossman of KNBR reports. It’s a minor league deal for the 26-year-old.

Tejada was recently cut loose by the Cardinals, who had signed him to a $1.5MM deal as they looked to fill in at shortstop. Previously, Tejada was tendered a contract by the Mets but then released before his $3MM deal became guaranteed. They owe him $491K after that move.

For San Francisco, Tejada provides another middle infield option for the organization. He’s a steady but unexciting player who generally rates just below average at the plate and with the glove at short. He struggled early in St. Louis, slashing just .176/.225/.235 over forty trips to the plate.

How The Giants Pursued Cueto, Samardzija

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  • The Giants and Dodgers both pursued some major free agent arms last winter, and the results of that hunt are being seen this season, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times writes.  After missing out on Zack Greinke, the Giants pivoted to Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, who have both been workhorses for the club.  The Dodgers weren’t interested in either Cueto or Samardzija at the price of their respective contracts with the Giants, and according to Cueto via an interpreter, the Dodgers never offered him a contract at all.  “They were telling me to wait,” Cueto said.  After missing out on Greinke, L.A. made two less-expensive signings in Kenta Maeda and Scott Kazmir, though as Shaikin notes, the Dodgers’ main issue this season has been a lack of offense.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/9/16

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • Padres corner infielder Josh Satin has retired, Michael Mayer of Metsmerized Online first reported (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has seen action in four seasons with the Mets, compiling a .243/.346/.351 slash line in 292 big league plate appearances. He has scuffled in limited playing time this year at Triple-A, though, with just eight base knocks in 49 trips to the dish.
  • The Giants have acquired outfielder Shawon Dunston Jr. from the Cubs, as he himself tweeted (h/t to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, via Twitter). It’s a cash deal for the son of the former big leaguer, who also went from Chicago to San Francisco in the mid-nineties. Of course, the younger Dunston hasn’t yet cracked the majors; far from it, in fact. Signed to a significant bonus after being picked in the 11th round of the 2011 draft, he has yet to advance past the High-A level at 23 years of age. Over 128 plate appearances there this year, he owns a .219/.299/.342 batting line with seven steals.

Giants, Chris Denorfia Agree To Minors Deal

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The Giants and veteran outfielder Chris Denorfia are in agreement on a minor league contract, pending a physical, according to Baseball Essential’s Robert Murray (Twitter link). Denorfia is a client of Pro Star Management, Inc.

The 35-year-old Denorfia hasn’t suited up at the Major League or Minor League level this season, although he was in big league camp with the Yankees back in Spring Training before opting out of said deal on March 27.. Denorfia also appeared in 103 games with the Cubs last season, posting a .269/.319/.373 batting line with three homers in 231 trips to the plate. He has long graded out as a plus defender on the outfield corners and has plenty of experience in center field if he’s needed there in a pinch. He somewhat curiously struggled against left-handed pitching with the Cubs in 2015 — an oddity considering the fact that he’s a lifetime .285/.353/.419 hitter when holding the platoon advantage over a lefty.

The Giants currently have both Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence on the disabled list, and while Pagan may be nearing a return, Pence required surgery to repair a torn hamstring and is expected to be out for at least two months. As such, adding some veteran outfield depth to the mix is a logical course of action for San Francisco, who also agreed to a minor league pact with former Giant Travis Ishikawa yesterday.

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