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Seth Beer

Phillies Sign Seth Beer To Minor League Deal

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The Phillies signed first baseman Seth Beer and assigned him to Double-A Reading earlier this week. The deal was announced by the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, with which the former first-round pick had spent the past month.

Beer, 28, signed with the Ducks during the second week of April. He appeared in 14 games, hitting .239/.426/.565 with four homers and three doubles. He worked 12 walks but struck out 16 times in 61 plate appearances. Beer’s combination of plate discipline and power impressed the Phillies enough to get him another opportunity in affiliated ball.

A Clemson product, Beer was the 28th overall pick by the Astros in the 2018 draft. Houston traded him to the D-Backs as part of the Zack Greinke blockbuster. Beer appeared in 43 games for the Snakes between 2021-22, hitting .208/.294/.292 over 43 games. He spent last season in the Pittsburgh farm system. The lefty hitter divided his time between the top two minor league levels, putting up a .277/.354/.431 slash over a combined 99 games. While he has yet to get much of a look in the majors, Beer brings a career .278/.376/.475 minor league batting line to the Philadelphia organization.

Seth Beer, Mark Mathias Sign With Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks

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Former big leaguers Seth Beer and Mark Mathias signed with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League this week. The team announced both signings.

Beer, 28, was a first-round pick by the 2018 Astros who wound up being one of four players traded to the D-backs in the last-minute deadline blockbuster that brought Zack Greinke to Houston in 2019. The first baseman/designated hitter appeared in parts of two seasons with Arizona, hitting a combined .208/.294/.292 in a small sample of 136 plate appearances from 2021-22.

Though Beer hasn’t found much success in the big leagues, he’s a fairly accomplished hitter in Triple-A, where he’s slashed .262/.365/.463 with 40 homers across 1093 plate appearances in parts of four seasons. He’s walked at an above-average 9.3% clip there and has kept his strikeouts to a manageable 18.8% rate. The lefty-swinging slugger spent the 2024 season in the Pirates system, where he hit .277/.354/.431 in a combined 99 games between Double-A and Triple-A.

Mathias, 30, has a good bit more major league service time under his belt — more than two years’ worth — but much of it has been spent on the injured list. He’s suited up for the Brewers, Pirates, Rangers and Giants in a utility capacity, hitting a combined .246/.317/.391 in 199 plate appearances spread over 73 games. Injuries have been a major detriment to the former third-round pick’s career. He’s undergone two shoulder surgeries: one in college and another in 2021 to repair a torn labrum. That second procedure cost him the entire 2021 season.

As with Beer, Mathias has a strong Triple-A track record but more modest big league numbers in scattershot playing time. He’s a .288/.383/.454 hitter in three Triple-A campaigns, during which he’s tallied 919 plate appearances. Mathias has walked in an impressive 12.8% of his Triple-A plate appearances against a 21.5% strikeout rate. He’s spent the bulk of his pro career at second base but has more than 1000 innings of work at third base in 200-plus innings at shortstop and in the outfield corners.

2023 Rule 5 Draft Results

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The 2023 Rule 5 draft will begin at 1pm Central time today at the Winter Meetings in Nashville.

As a refresher, the Rule 5 draft is a way for players potentially talented enough for the big leagues but blocked by their current clubs to find opportunities elsewhere. Any players that were 18 and under at the time of their original signing and have played five professional seasons, and any players who signed at 19 years of age or older at signing that now have four professional seasons, who are not on a club’s 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.

The clubs will draft in reverse order of the 2023 standings, with no club obligated to make a selection when it’s their turn. If they do make a pick, they will have to pay $100K to the team they select from. The selected players must stay on the active roster (or injured list) for the entire 2024 season or else be placed on waivers. If they clear waivers, they must be offered back to their original team. They cannot be optioned to the minors. Last year’s edition saw some key players change clubs, such as Ryan Noda going from the Dodgers to the Athletics and Blake Sabol going from the Pirates to the Giants.

This post will be updated as the draft continues. Here is the order…

1.  Athletics: RHP Mitch Spence (Yankees)
2. Royals: RHP Matt Sauer (Yankees)
3. Rockies: RHP Anthony Molina (Rays)
4. White Sox: LHP Shane Drohan (Red Sox)
5. Nationals: SS Nasim Nuñez (Marlins)
6. Cardinals: RHP Ryan Fernandez (Red Sox)
7. Angels: pass
8. Mets: RHP Justin Slaten (Rangers); Mets later traded Slaten to the Red Sox for LHP Ryan Ammons* and cash considerations.
9. Pirates: pass
10. Guardians: 3B Deyvison De Los Santos (Diamondbacks)
11. Tigers: pass
12. Red Sox: pass
13. Giants: pass
14. Reds: pass
15. Padres: RHP Stephen Kolek (Mariners)
16. Yankees: pass
17. Cubs: pass
18. Marlins: pass
19. Diamondbacks: pass
20. Twins: pass
21. Mariners: pass
22. Blue Jays: pass
23. Rangers: RHP Carson Coleman (Yankees)
24. Phillies: pass
25. Astros: pass
26. Brewers: pass
27. Rays: pass
28. Dodgers: pass
29. Orioles: pass
30. Braves: pass

The minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft also occurred this afternoon. Those players will not go onto the selecting teams’ 40-man roster. A few former major leaguers changed uniforms. They include 1B Seth Beer going from the Diamondbacks to the Pirates while the Yankees took RHP Kervin Castro from the Astros.

* (Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Ammons was going to the Mets. Joel Sherman of The New York Post added that Ammons and cash were being exchanged for Slaten.

D-Backs Outright Seth Beer

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Diamondbacks first baseman/DH Seth Beer has been sent outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Beer has played parts of two seasons with the Snakes. The former first round pick was one of four prospects Arizona acquired from the Astros in the 2019 Zack Greinke blockbuster. He’d hit very well in the low minors after an incredible career at Clemson but came with questions about his lack of a defensive home. Beer continued performing at the plate through 2021, eventually reaching the majors towards the tail end of that season.

The left-handed hitter got into five games during his debut. He played a bit more last year, appearing in 38 contests and tallying 126 trips to the plate. He only hit .189/.278/.243 in his first real crack against MLB pitching. Beer spent the bulk of the season with Reno, putting up a solid but unspectacular .242/.361/.435 slash that was below his previous minor league production.

Arizona optioned Beer back to Reno to start the 2023 campaign. He’s been off to a rough start in his third crack at Triple-A, posting a .200/.266/.314 line over 79 plate appearances. Beer has homered just twice while striking out at a personal-worst 29.1% clip. Paired with the concern he could be limited to designated hitter, that slow start pushed Beer off the roster when the D-Backs promoted pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt last Wednesday.

No other team was willing to devote him an immediate 40-man roster spot in light of his early-season slump. This is the first outright of his career and he doesn’t have three years of major league service. As a result, Beer does not have the ability to test free agency. He’ll remain in the Arizona system and try to hit his way back onto the big league radar.

Diamondbacks Designate Seth Beer For Assignment

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The D-backs announced Wednesday that they’ve designated first baseman/designated hitter Seth Beer for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to top pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt, whose previously reported promotion has now been formally announced by the team. Righty Peter Solomon was optioned to Triple-A Reno to clear a spot for Pfaadt on the 26-man roster. Pfaadt will make his MLB debut and start today’s game for Arizona.

Beer, 26, was acquired from the Astros alongside Josh Rojas, Corbin Martin and J.B. Bukauskas in the 2019 deadline trade that sent Zack Greinke to Houston. He’s seen brief MLB time in the past two seasons but posted a .208/.294/.292 batting line in a total of 136 plate appearances.

Broadly speaking, Beer has a much more productive track record in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.370/.460 with 32 home runs, 55 doubles, an 18.2% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate in 916 trips to the plate. That said, the year-to-year breakdown of Beer’s Triple-A production is less encouraging. After posting a strong .287/.398/.511 batting line there in 2021 (128 wRC+), his numbers dipped to about league-average in 2022 and have fallen all the way to a .200/.266/.314 slash in 79 plate appearances to begin the current season.

Beer, the No. 28 overall pick in the 2018 draft, was always viewed as a bat-first prospect who’d need to hit at a very high level to justify his lack of speed and defensive upside. He did that up through the 2021 season, but the past two years have brought about a downturn. That said, he still has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, so a team in need of a left-handed bat with some power potential could view the 26-year-old as an intriguing buy-low candidate. The D-backs will have a week to trade Beer or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he were to go unclaimed, he wouldn’t have the ability to decline the assignment, as he has neither three years of MLB service nor a prior outright assignment in his career.

Diamondbacks Reinstate Sean Poppen, Option Seth Beer

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The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Sean Poppen has been reinstated from the injured list. He had been dealing with right shoulder inflammation. To create room for him on the active roster, first baseman Seth Beer was optioned to Triple-A Reno.

Poppen’s season got off to a good start, as he threw six innings with a 1.50 ERA. That might not be terribly sustainable, as he had just a 13% strikeout rate and 23.5% ground ball rate. He was likely being helped by a .222 BABIP, 83.3% strand rate and 0% HR/FB rate. However, that’s a very small sample size and it’s possible that Poppen’s shoulder was barking at him during part of that. Last year, between the Pirates, Rays and D-Backs, he had a 5.16 ERA but decent peripherals: 23.6% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 48.6% grounder rate.

As for Beer, his season got off to a tremendous start when he hit a walkoff home run in the club’s Opening Day game on National Beer Day. Unfortunately, the rest of the season hasn’t been able to live up to that moment, with Beer hitting .210/.301/.284 on the campaign, amounting to a wRC+ of 69.

Beer has limited defensive value, only playing three games at first base this year and the rest at DH. A designated hitter who doesn’t hit isn’t terribly valuable to a team, meaning the 25-year-old have to get his bat going again to earn his way back onto the roster.

D-Backs’ Seth Beer To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Diamondbacks first baseman Seth Beer will undergo left shoulder surgery this week, manager Torey Lovullo informed reporters (including Steve Gilbert of MLB.com). The 25-year-old dislocated his shoulder diving for a ball in a game against the Dodgers last week.

It’s unclear if the procedure will affect Beer’s readiness for Spring Training in 2022, but Lovullo said the recovery process will take “months, not weeks” (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). While the D-Backs have long since been playing out the string on this year, it’s discouraging news that one of the club’s more promising young bats might be impacted by health issues heading into next season.

Beer just recently got his first call to the majors, appearing in only four games before his injury. He’s gone 4-9 to start his major league career, including a home run off the Mariners’ Diego Castillo in his first big league at-bat. That came on the heels of a strong season with Triple-A Reno, where the lefty-hitting Beer put up a .287/.398/.511 line in 435 plate appearances.

Prospect evaluators have long questioned Beer’s defensive aptitude at first base, but there’s little debate he’s a promising offensive player. The potential introduction of a designated hitter to the National League in the upcoming offseason’s collective bargaining negotiations would figure to be a boon to his chances of playing regularly in Arizona. Barring changes to the service time structure in the next CBA, Beer will be under team control for at least the next six seasons — future optional assignments could push back that trajectory even more — and won’t reach arbitration eligibility until the 2024-25 offseason.

Diamondbacks Promote Seth Beer

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4:54 pm: The team has officially announced Beer’s promotion. Infielder Drew Ellis was optioned to Triple-A Reno in a corresponding move.

3:21 pm: The Diamondbacks are planning to select first base prospect Seth Beer to make his major league debut during this weekend’s series against the Mariners, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Arizona already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster after releasing righty Seth Frankoff earlier in the week.

Beer was a first-round pick of the Astros back in 2018. The left-handed hitter had a monstrous three-year run at Clemson leading up to the draft, and he’s continued to mash in pro ball. Beer has hit well at every minor league level over the past couple seasons, with that success continuing after he was traded to Arizona in July 2019 as part of the Zack Greinke blockbuster. (The three other players Arizona acquired — utilityman Josh Rojas and right-handers J.B. Bukauskas and Corbin Martin — have also reached the majors).

After spending last season at the D-Backs’ alternate training site, Beer was assigned to Triple-A Reno this year. Over 435 plate appearances there, the 24-year-old owns a .287/.398/.511 line with sixteen home runs. Those numbers are aided by a hitter-friendly environment, but Beer’s production still checks in twenty-six percentage points above the Triple-A West league average. Coupled with his previous track record of success, there’s little left for Beer to prove against minor league arms.

Despite his draft pedigree, Beer isn’t regarded as an elite prospect due to concerns about his limited defensive value. Baseball America slotted him seventeenth in the Arizona system on their midseason update, praising his offensive acumen while questioning whether Beer could develop into even a serviceable defender at first base. Many expect the National League to adopt the designated hitter in 2022 as part of the next round of collective bargaining negotiations, and few would seemingly stand to benefit more from a potential NL DH than Beer.

The Diamondbacks would have had to add Beer to the 40-man roster this offseason or else risk losing him in the Rule 5 draft. They’ll get an early look at a potential long-term option as they play out the string on a terrible year. Beer could seemingly take some playing time from the struggling Christian Walker, who has hit just .234/.308/.356 in 373 trips to the plate.

Diamondbacks’ Seth Beer Tests Positive For COVID-19

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Diamondbacks first baseman/outfielder Seth Beer has tested positive for COVID-19, manager Torey Lovullo told Zach Buchanan of The Athletic and other reporters. It’s unclear whether Beer is asymptomatic, Buchanan adds. Regardless, he’ll need to log two consecutive negative tests before he’s eligible to rejoin the Diamondbacks.

Arizona’s among the teams hit hardest by the virus in recent weeks. Prior to Beer, the club saw several players – outfielder Kole Calhoun, pitchers Junior Guerra and Silvino Bracho, as well as multiple unnamed individuals – test positive for the illness. The Diamondbacks also lost righty Mike Leake for the season, as he opted out of playing because of health concerns.

Beer isn’t on the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, but the team does have him in its 60-man player pool. The 23-year-old power hitter is a recent first-round pick, having gone 28th overall to the Astros in 2018, and joined the D-backs in the two clubs’ blockbuster Zack Greinke deal at last summer’s trade deadline. Beer accrued 533 plate appearances between High-A and Double-A ball in 2019, when he slashed .289/.388/.516 with 26 home runs.

Quick Hits: Cubs, Dominguez, Beer

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Some stray items from around the Show….

  • Can Theo Epstein’s front office get the Cubs back on track?  Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times explores the question in a detailed look at the challenges facing the team this winter, as the team’s overhaul has already led to the end of Joe Maddon’s managerial tenure but seemingly no major shuffles coming to the baseball operations department.  The Cubs’ lack of success in 2019 had arguably less to do with Maddon and more to do with the team finally paying the price after several ill-fated acquisitions clogged the roster and the farm system failed to produce much high-impact talent (especially on the pitching side).  Wittenmyer wonders if Epstein and top lieutenants Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod can guide the Cubs through this reload period now that “the industry has caught up” to some of the roster-building strategies deployed by Epstein and company in rebuilding the Cubs, or in building the Red Sox into World Series winners last decade.  To Epstein’s credit, his post-season remarks to reporters included several admissions that mistakes were made by his baseball ops group, and more significant change is on the way to the big league roster.  “If you want to say we were stubborn with this group, I think that’s fair. We had a real belief in this group.  That’s an area where I need to do a better job as a leader, letting go of the past and focusing on the future,” Epstein said.
  • “It’s never an easy thing to drop $5.1MM on one player, but he made it pretty easy,” Yankees international scouting director Donny Rowland told Baseball America’s Ben Badler (subscription required) about Dominican prospect Jasson Dominguez.  The 16-year-old Dominguez’s $5.1MM payday matched the highest bonus given to any player in this year’s international draft class, and his stock has only continued to rise now that he has seen some action in the Dominican instructional league.  Badler’s piece details how the Yankees’ international scouting staff first came across Dominguez, and how the youngster is already showing potential as a five-tool center fielder (not to mention a sixth tool of plate discipline).
  • While playing in the Arizona Fall League, Diamondbacks prospect Seth Beer is focusing on answering questions about his defensive future by improving his first base glovework, Baseball America’s Bill Mitchell writes.  The Astros selected Beer with the 28th overall pick of the 2018 draft, though he is best known for being part of the prospect package Houston sent to Arizona in the Zack Greinke trade deadline blockbuster.  Beer has carried the hitting prowess he displayed at Clemson into his pro career, but since sticking as an outfielder may not be feasible, Beer has seen a good deal of first base time in order to establish a position for himself.  Playing in an NL organization, he also doesn’t have the future comfort of a designated hitter spot.  On the plus side, Beer is “excited” to have a clearer path to the big leagues with the D’Backs than he did in Houston, calling the trade “a great opportunity for me in my career.”
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