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Brewers Claim Tim Lopes

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The Brewers have claimed outfielder Tim Lopes off waivers from the Mariners, according to a Seattle press release.  Lopes was designated for assignment earlier this week to create roster space for the Mariners’ acquisition of Chris Flexen.

Lopes made his MLB debut in 2019 and saw quite a bit of action for the Mariners last season, appearing in 46 of 60 games as part of Seattle’s unsettled corner outfield mix.  Over 279 career plate appearances at the big league level, Lopes has hit .252/.315/.362, and he has also stolen 11 bases in 14 attempts.

The large majority of Lopes’ playing time at the Major League level has come as an outfielder, though unusually, he spent almost no time playing outfield in the minors, playing mostly as a second baseman with significant amounts of experience also at third base and shortstop.  As such, the 26-year-old Lopes can bring quite a bit of versatility to a Brewers roster that has a lot of unanswered questions around the diamond.  The Brewers have valued multi-positional bench types in the past, and Lopes could be seen as a potential super-utility candidate for Milwaukee’s bench.

Cubs Claim Phillip Ervin

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The Cubs claimed outfielder Phillip Ervin off waivers from the Mariners, as announced by both teams.  Seattle designated Ervin for assignment last week.

Ervin will return to the NL Central after spending four-plus seasons with the Reds, though his final act in Cincinnati wasn’t a pleasant one.  After a solid .262/.326/.438 slash line over 571 PA as a part-timer for the Reds from 2017-19, Ervin had only a .324 OPS over 42 PA for the Reds in 2020.  This led to a DFA in late August and a claim by the Mariners, as Ervin hit only somewhat better (.205/.340/.282) in 47 plate appearances for Seattle.

Ervin has experience at all three outfield positions, so he could be a useful bench piece for the Cubs as they figure out their new post-Kyle Schwarber outfield.  The right-handed hitting Ervin has good numbers against left-handed pitching over his career, so he could spell Jason Heyward or Ian Happ when a southpaw is on the mound.  Ervin could have an advantage in the battle for backup role since he is out of minor league options, so the Cubs would have to risk losing him on waivers if they wanted to send him down to Triple-A.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/20

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The latest minor transactions from around the sport…

Latest Updates

  • Earlier this week, the Rays signed right-hander Chris Ellis to a minor league deal, as originally reported by MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Originally a third-round pick for the Angels in the 2014 draft, Ellis was part of the trade package that brought Andrelton Simmons to Los Angeles back in November 2015.  The 28-year-old has a 4.80 ERA, 2.10 K/BB rate, and 8.5 K/9 over 645 1/3 career minor league innings for three different organizations (the Angels, Braves, and Cardinals), and he also had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with the Royals in 2019, appearing in one game.

Earlier Today

  • The Nationals have signed right-hander Jefry Rodríguez to a minor-league contract with an invitation to MLB spring training, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter link). The 27-year-old originally signed with the Nats as an international amateur from the Dominican Republic. He was traded to Cleveland in the November 2018 Yan Gomes deal. Rodríguez posted a 5.20 ERA with underwhelming strikeout (16.5%) and walk (13.3%) rates in 98.2 MLB innings from 2018-19. He spent last season at the Indians’ alternate training site, where he strained his shoulder in September. Cleveland non-tendered him earlier this month.
  • The Mariners announced they signed reliever Drew Steckenrider earlier this month (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The 29-year-old broke into the majors with a pair of productive seasons with the Marlins but went down early in 2019 with a season-ending flexor strain. He spent all of 2020 on the injured list and was outrighted off Miami’s 40-man roster in October. The right-hander turns 30 in January.

Mariners Assistant GM Joe Bohringer Resigns

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Joe Bohringer has resigned his position as the Mariners’ assistant general manager in order to retire from baseball, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Bohringer will remain with the team until the end of the year “to help guide in the transition” to a new hire.

Bohringer was promoted the AGM job prior to the 2019 season, following three-plus years as special assistant to general manager Jerry Dipoto.  Though Bohringer is only 50 years old, he has spent 31 seasons in pro baseball, dating back to his beginnings as an intern with the Pirates and Yankees front office while still a student at MIT.  Bohringer’s resume includes front office and scouting positions with the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Cubs, and a prior stint with the Mariners as an area scouting supervisor from 2002-06 before returning to Seattle in 2015.

Mariners Designate Tim Lopes For Assignment

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The Mariners announced that they have designated infielder/outfielder Tim Lopes for assignment to make room for the signing of right-hander Chris Flexen, who’s officially part of the team.

Lopes was a sixth-round pick of the Mariners in 2012, though he spent time with the Blue Jays a few years back before returning to the M’s on a minor league contract. He made his major league debut in 2019 and slashed a respectable .270/.359/.360 in 128 plate appearances, but the 26-year-old wasn’t able to offer that type of production over a slightly larger sample sample size last season. Lopes concluded with a .238/.278/.364 line in 151 trips to the plate.

Despite his struggles last season, Lopes could draw interest as someone who has played a handful of positions in the majors (second base, third and both corner outfield spots). He also has three minor league options remaining.

Mariners Sign Keynan Middleton, Designate Phillip Ervin

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2:55PM: Middleton’s deal will pay him $800K in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets, with some incentive bonuses also available.

12:06PM: The Mariners announced that right-hander Keynan Middleton has been signed to a Major League contract.  To create roster room, outfielder Phillip Ervin has been designated for assignment.

The hard-throwing Middleton had a very promising rookie season in the Angels bullpen in 2017, though he was limited to only 25 1/3 total innings in 2018-19 due to Tommy John surgery.  This past season, Middleton threw 12 innings over 13 appearances for Los Angeles, posting a 5.25 ERA, 1.83 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9.

According to Statcast, Middleton has consistently delivered very good fastball spin rates over his career, and his advanced metrics indicated that he was somewhat unlucky to post such a high ERA in 2020.  Nonetheless, the Angels non-tendered Middleton on December 2 rather than pay a projected arbitration salary of roughly $1MM.

Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto was the Angels’ general manager when Middleton was drafted by the Halos back in 2013, and the two will now reunite on what Middleton described as his “home team” (he hails from Portland, Oregon) in the Mariners’ press release.  Even with the guaranteed salary of a MLB deal, the Mariners are taking what is likely a low-cost flier to see if Middleton can regain his rookie form now that he is healthy, and under somewhat more normal circumstances than the unusual 2020 season.

Ervin was picked up on a waiver claim from the Reds in September, and he managed only a .622 OPS over 47 plate appearances in a Seattle uniform.  That was still markedly better than his performance over his first 42 PA of the season with Cincinnati, as Ervin had only a .324 OPS.  Prior to 2020, Ervin has delivered just about league-average offensive production as a part-timer with the Reds, hitting .262/.326/.438 over 571 PA from 2017-19.

Picked 27th overall in the 2013 draft, Ervin has some decent minor league numbers and can play all three outfield positions, so he would seem like a decent candidate to land elsewhere on a waiver claim.  Ervin is out of minor league options, however.

Mariners To Acquire Rafael Montero

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The Mariners and Rangers have agreed to a trade that will sent right-hander Rafael Montero to Seattle, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  Texas will receive right-handed pitching prospect Jose Corniell in return, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports (Twitter links), with Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram adding that the Rangers will also get a second prospect.  That other minor leaguer is a player to be named later, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Relief pitching was a major offseason target for the Mariners, and GM Jerry Dipoto will now add a talented reliever from within the AL West.  Montero posted a 4.08 ERA, 3.17 K/BB rate, and 9.7 K/9 over 17 2/3 innings last season, with ERA predictors painting a pretty solid view of his work (3.70 FIP, 4.85 xFIP, 4.00 SIERA), as his very low 49.4% strand rate was at least somewhat balanced out by a .227 BABIP.

2020 marked Montero’s first full (or as full as could be, given the shortened schedule) season back after he missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery.  Montero returned to toss 29 innings out of the Texas bullpen in 2019, looking very impressive in posting a 2.48 ERA.

Once a highly-touted prospect during his time in the Mets farm system, Montero never really clicked while pitching in parts of four (2014-17) seasons in New York.  Shoulder injuries, frequent shuttles up and down between Triple-A and the big leagues, and moving between both starting and relieving all contributed to Montero posting a 5.38 ERA over 192 1/3 innings in a Mets uniform.

The Amazins cut him loose following the 2018 season and Montero then inked a minor league deal with Texas, where he has gotten his career back on track.  The move to full-time relief work has unlocked some extra velocity for Montero even post-TJ surgery.  He has averaged 95.7mph on his fastball in 2019-20, after never topping the 93.7mph mark in his first four seasons.

Montero completed all eight of his save chances for Texas in 2020, and now looks to be the favorite to work as the closer in a Mariners bullpen that is lacking in ninth-inning answers.  Montero turned 30 in October, though while he isn’t all that young, he is still controllable for two more seasons, projected to earn between $1.4MM and $2.5MM in his second trip through the arbitration process.

The trade marks another step in the Rangers’ plan to get younger this winter, as the team embarks on a mini-rebuild.  (Moving Montero also clears a 40-man roster spot for the newly-signed David Dahl.)  Given the low cost involved in acquiring Montero, trading him for a couple of young prospects isn’t a bad return for Texas, especially considering the relative difficulty in offering bullpen help in trade talks given the large number of other relievers available in free agency.

Corniell is only 17 years old, and was brought aboard by the M’s when the 2019-20 international signing window opened.  He has yet to begin his pro career thanks to the minor league shutdown in 2020, but MLB.com ranks Corniell as the 24th-best prospect in Seattle’s farm system, touting a solid three-pitch arsenal of a changeup, a “power curve,” and a fastball that can hit the mid-90’s.

Mariners, Chris Flexen Agree To Two-Year Deal

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The Mariners have agreed to a deal with right-hander Chris Flexen, reports Mike Mayer of MetsMerized (Twitter link). The New York Post’s Ken Davidoff hears the same, adding that Flexen will be guaranteed $4.75MM over two years on the pact. The pact also includes a pair of options for 2023, per Davidoff. There’s a $4MM club option and, if Flexen throws 150 innings in 2022 or 300 frames from 2021-22, an $8MM vesting option. The O’Connell Sports Management client could also make an additional $1MM in performance bonuses, and he’ll earn $250K if he’s traded. The Mariners won’t be able to send Flexen to the minors without his consent, Davidoff adds.

Flexen, 26, was an up-and-down depth piece with the Mets from 2017-19 before signing with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears last winter. While Flexen – a former 14th-round pick – could only muster an 8.07 ERA and a 6.92 FIP in 68 innings as a Met, the right-hander put together a dominant season in South Korea, logging a 3.01 ERA/2.74 FIP with 10.2 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in 116 2/3 innings as a member of the Bears’ staff.

Flexen was exclusively a starter for the Bears, though most of his work in the majors so far (16 of 27 appearances) has come out of the bullpen. It’s unclear which role he’ll take for the Mariners, who have Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield and Yusei Kikuchi as locks to start next year. Justin Dunn, Nick Margevicius, Ljay Newsome and the just-acquired Robert Dugger represent other 40-man options. General manager Jerry Dipoto said at the outset of the season that he was targeting relief help, so if Flexen doesn’t win a spot in the M’s starting staff, he could be a factor out of their bullpen.

Mariners Claim Robert Dugger

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The Mariners announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Robert Dugger off waivers from the Marlins. Seattle also lost righty Ian Hamilton to the Phillies and righty Walker Lockett to the Blue Jays.

Dugger, 25, was an 18th-round pick of the Mariners back in 2016 but landed in Miami as part of the package that sent Dee Strange-Gordon to Seattle. He’s made a handful of appearances with the Fish over the past two seasons but hasn’t found much success, posting a 7.40 ERA and a 29-to-20 K/BB ratio in 45 innings. Dugger’s struggles have persisted in Triple-A, although he had a solid track record up through the Double-A level, where he owns a 3.60 ERA with 9.0 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 180 innings of work.

Lack of track record in the Majors and Triple-A not withstanding, Dugger gives the Mariners an optionable piece of rotation depth — perhaps one they feel will benefit from a change of scenery. Dugger also saw a pronounced jump in his four-seam fastball velocity from 2019 to 2020 (90.3 mph to 92.1 mph) and in his heater’s spin rate (2191 rpm to 2321 rpm), so perhaps the Mariners believe they can help him build upon those positive indicators.

Phillies Claim Ian Hamilton From Mariners

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The Phillies have claimed right-hander Ian Hamilton off waivers from the Mariners, per an announcement from Seattle.

This is the second time since September that a team has claimed Hamilton, as the Mariners did so when they got him from the White Sox. Chicago used an 11th-round pick on Hamilton in 2016 and then saw him turn into a decent prospect in its farm system, but the hard thrower hasn’t seen much action in the majors to this point.

Set to turn 26 years old next June, Hamilton has thrown 12 innings of seven-run (six earned) ball with 10 hits allowed and a 9:7 K:BB ratio. He owns a 4.85 ERA with tremendous strikeout and walk rates (10.1 K/9, 1.85 BB/9) across 42 2/3 innings in Triple-A ball.

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