Shane Greene

Braves Recall Shane Greene

By Anthony Franco | June 6, 2021 at 11:32am CDT

The Braves announced this morning they’ve recalled reliever Shane Greene to make his first MLB appearance of 2021. Right-hander Jacob Webb was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett last night in a corresponding active roster move.

Greene pitched for Atlanta in the second half of 2019 and all of 2020. The 32-year-old worked to a solid 3.27 ERA/3.87 FIP in 52 1/3 innings over that time, albeit with just a 20.0% strikeout rate. After qualifying for free agency at the end of last season, Greene spent the entire offseason unsigned, with surprisingly little in the way of reported interest.

Despite the quiet free agency period, the righty maintained he planned to return to the field at some point. The Braves and Greene eventually found a mutual price, as he re-signed with Atlanta on a one-year, $1.5MM deal (prorated to between $1.1MM and $1.2MM) in early May. As part of the agreement, Greene consented to being optioned to Gwinnett to build himself into game shape.

He ultimately made four appearances with the Stripers, tossing 4 1/3 frames of one-run ball. Greene will now look to help an Atlanta bullpen that ranks just 27th in ERA (4.80) and 21st in SIERA (3.98) this season.

Braves Notes: Pache, Freeman, Greene

By Steve Adams | June 2, 2021 at 12:08pm CDT

The Braves announced Wednesday that outfielder Cristian Pache has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. It’s the second time this year the top prospect has been sent to Gwinnett for further refinement, which isn’t a surprise given that the 22-year-old has batted just .111/.152/.206 in 68 plate appearances. Pache is considered an all-world defender with substantial upside at the plate, but his offensive game is nowhere near as polished as his defense at this point. With Pache down and Marcell Ozuna both injured and facing assault allegations, the Braves’ outfield mix is comprised by Ronald Acuna Jr., Ender Inciarte, Guillermo Heredia, Abraham Almonte and Ehire Adrianza. Top prospect Drew Waters is hitting reasonably well in Triple-A but is striking out at a rather unpalatable 28 percent clip there.

Some more news and notes out of Atlanta…

Braves icon (and current assistant hitting coach) Chipper Jones weighed in on Freddie Freeman’s contractual situation in a chat with The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz. Jones stresses that he’s only offering his own opinion but wonders whether the Liberty Media-owned Braves are waiting to see what 2021 attendance numbers look like before making a market-value offer to Freeman. The Hall of Famer also calls Liberty Media an “absentee owner” that is “rooted in trying to make money off the franchise” more so than conventional ownership structures. Atlanta fans will want to check out the column for Jones’ full, lengthy quotes on the matter. Freeman, 31, didn’t start the 2021 season particularly well, but he’s hitting a much more characteristic .284/.411/.527 over his past 20 games (90 plate appearances). He’s scheduled to become a free agent for the first time this winter after the $135MM contract extension he signed eight years ago draws to a close.
Right-hander Shane Greene’s most recent schedule appearance in Gwinnett was pushed a couple of days due to soreness in his back, manager Brian Snitker told reporters Monday (link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). The veteran reliever was able to take the mound yesterday for his third appearance since re-signing with Atlanta, however. Thus far, Greene has rattled off 3 1/3 shutout innings with five strikeouts and one walk allowed. Snitker noted Monday that there’s still no timetable for when Greene is expected to join the Major League bullpen. After sitting out until early May, Greene is effectively going through a makeshift Spring Training in Gwinnett right now.

Pitching Notes: Greene, Ynoa, Braves, Twins, Kuhl

By Mark Polishuk | May 10, 2021 at 12:55pm CDT

Shane Greene’s long free agent wait ended yesterday when he re-signed with the Braves on a one-year deal worth a prorated $1.5MM. “It seemed early on that a return to the Braves was his preference,” SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson writes (Twitter link), as Wolfson notes that the Twins were willing to offer Greene more money. This focus on Atlanta could explain why it took until May for Greene to land a contract, as David O’Brien of The Athletic estimated back in mid-March that the Braves were only willing to spend in the neighborhood of $1MM on Greene — given the prorated nature of Greene’s contract, he’ll end up earning around $1.1 or $1.2MM.

More pitching-related items from around baseball…

Another Braves/Twins link is explored by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, regarding how Atlanta acquired breakout star Huascar Ynoa from Minnesota back in 2017. The Braves wanted to move Jaime Garcia at the trade deadline, and initially discussed a trade with the Yankees that would have sent Garcia to the Bronx for then-Yankees prospect Nick Solak. Once those talks fell through, Atlanta pivoted and sent Garcia to Minnesota, and the Braves “did not do as much diligence on Ynoa as they normally would on a prospect” since their top priority was just to dump the rest of Garcia’s salary. In fact, Ynoa wasn’t even Atlanta’s first ask from the Twins’ farm system, as Nick Burdi was initially part of the proposed trade. From being a rather anonymous rookie ball pitcher and an apparent “plan C” type of pickup for the Braves, Ynoa has become an unexpected stalwart of the Atlanta rotation in 2021. The righty has a 2.23 ERA/3.19 SIERA and an above-average 28.4% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate over 40 1/3 innings, plus Ynoa has augmented that pitching production with two home runs and a 1.267 OPS over 15 plate appearances.
Pirates right-hander Chad Kuhl threw a live batting practice on Saturday as he continues to recover from right shoulder discomfort. In a radio interview on 93.7 FM (hat tip to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington said Kuhl will return “before too long” but will first require a minor league rehab assignment. Kuhl has struggled in his first four starts of the year, posting a 6.32 ERA with more walks (16) than strikeouts (14) over 15 2/3 innings.

Braves To Re-Sign Shane Greene

By Anthony Franco | May 9, 2021 at 11:08pm CDT

The Braves are in agreement on a contract with free agent reliever Shane Greene, confirms MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Talkin’ Jake of Jomboy Media was first to report the deal (via Twitter). It’s a one-year contract worth $1.5MM, which will wind up prorated in the $1.1MM – $1.2MM range given the amount of time in the season that has already passed, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (via Twitter). Greene will begin with Triple-A Gwinnett to build back up into game shape, per Rosenthal.

Greene will return to the team with which he’d spent the past year-plus. Atlanta acquired the veteran righty from the Tigers at the July 31 trade deadline in 2019, and he spent the next couple seasons in manager Brian Sntiker’s bullpen. Greene has logged 52 1/3 innings of 3.27 ERA/3.87 FIP ball since the deal, cementing himself as one of the team’s more reliable relievers.

The 32-year-old reached free agency at the end of last season, but his market moved incredibly slowly. He was linked to the Twins before Minnesota signed Alex Colomé, but there were no other clubs specifically tied to Greene in recent months. That lack of reported interest was a bit puzzling, considering Greene has been something of a bullpen workhorse over the years. After moving to relief in 2016, the former Yankee and Tiger eclipsed 60 innings in each season through 2019. Last year’s shortened campaign obviously brought an end to that streak, but Greene still appeared in 28 of Atlanta’s 60 contests.

Generally, Greene has paired that durability with quality production. He’s managed an ERA of 2.66 or lower in three of the past four years, with a 5.12 mark in 2018 standing as the exception. While he’s typically been adept at keeping runs off the board, Greene hasn’t racked up the gaudy strikeout totals of most high-end relievers. That was particularly true last season, when he punched out just 19.3% of opposing hitters, a far cry from the 24.1% league average for bullpen arms (and down from the 23-25% range in which he landed each of the four seasons before). Greene’s 7.5% swinging strike rate and 4.51 SIERA in 2020 were likewise below-average.

That discrepancy between Greene’s strong bottom line results and his downturn in whiffs could help explain why it took until May for he and a team to find a mutually agreeable term. It’s not especially surprising he’ll return to a place with which he’s obviously quite familiar and where he’s had plenty of success.

The Braves’ bullpen hasn’t been especially productive to this point in the season. Atlanta relievers currently sit 22nd in ERA (4.56), 19th in strikeout minus walk rate (12.9 percentage points) and 21st in SIERA (4.09). A.J. Minter, Will Smith and Tyler Matzek have each pitched fairly well, but Josh Tomlin, Grant Dayton, Jacob Webb and Sean Newcomb are off to tougher starts. Luke Jackson has a shiny 1.50 ERA but less inspiring peripherals.

Even with Greene re-signed and Chris Martin soon to return from the injured list, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Atlanta bolster the relief unit at the trade deadline. Despite an underwhelming 16-17 start, the Braves remain right in the thick of the National League East race. Even after factoring in Greene’s salary, Atlanta’s payroll commitments check in just shy of $133MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That’s about $25MM south of the mark the Braves were slated to spend last season (prior to prorating), so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Liberty Media ownership group gives GM Alex Anthopoulos and company some leeway to make further midseason additions.

Shane Greene Drawing Interest

By TC Zencka | May 2, 2021 at 9:15am CDT

Though it’s surprising that right-hander Shane Greene remains on the free agent market a month into the season, the former Brave is engaged in ongoing deliberations with multiple teams, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter).

Heyman doesn’t give any indication as to who the interested parties might be, but there are any number of teams that could use another arm for the bullpen. Greene certainly has the experience to be an asset. The seven-year veteran owns a 4.38 career ERA/4.07 career FIP in 444 innings over 313 career games. He made 33 starts for the Yankees and Tigers over the first three seasons of his career, but settled in as a high-leverage reliever after that.

Though Greene saved 65 games for the Tigers from 2016 to 2019, the 32-year-old took on a setup role once transferred to a contender in Atlanta. The Braves deployed Greene most often in the eighth inning. In the year and a half since he was acquired from the Tigers for Joey Wentz and Travis Demeritte, Greene posted a 3.27 ERA/3.87 FIP over 51 1/3 innings for the Braves.

Quick Hits: Rockies, Cron, A’s, Mathias, Angels

By Anthony Franco | March 17, 2021 at 8:41pm CDT

C.J. Cron appears to be the favorite to claim the Rockies’ open first base job, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post as part of a reader mailbag. Signed to a minor-league deal in February, Cron is competing with Josh Fuentes and fellow non-roster invitee Greg Bird. Installing Cron at first would allow Fuentes to see action at multiple corner positions off the bench. That might make it tough to also carry Bird as a lefty bench bat, although Saunders notes there’s a chance all three players make the season-opening active roster, particularly if Brendan Rodgers is forced to start the year on the injured list after straining his hamstring. Cron and Bird would each need to be added to the 40-man roster if they make the team, although Colorado currently has one open 40-man spot.

Pitching Notes: Gallen, Greene, Braves, Pearson, H. Harvey

By Connor Byrne | March 12, 2021 at 6:35pm CDT

The Diamondbacks renewed right-hander Zac Gallen’s contract on Thursday, meaning he’ll earn roughly the major league minimum of $570.5K this season. That’s standard operating procedure for most teams when it comes to players who aren’t yet eligible for arbitration, though Gallen said it “wasn’t fair based on my performance last year,” Zach Buchanan of The Athletic tweets. While Gallen acknowledged there’s “a business side to this game,” he would like to see the pre-arb salary situation addressed in the next collective bargaining agreement because the system’s “not necessarily in the favor of younger players.” Whether or not you agree with Gallen, there is no doubt the 25-year-old has vastly outperformed his salaries since he debuted with the Marlins in 2019. So far, the 25-year-old has logged a 2.78 ERA across 152 big league innings. Gallen is not on track to reach arbitration until after 2022. There will be a new CBA in place by then, but it remains to be seen whether it will address Gallen’s concerns on this subject.

Righty reliever Shane Greene spent the previous year-plus as a member of the Braves, with whom he held his own, but he remains a free agent as the regular season nears. Greene could prove to be a late-spring bargain for someone, but it doesn’t appear the Braves will re-sign him for anything other than “a really cheap offer” in the $1MM range, David O’Brien of The Athletic writes. Unless Greene elects to settle for that type of deal, the Braves will be content to start the year with Will Smith, Chris Martin, A.J. Minter and Tyler Matzek as their main end-of-game options, according to O’Brien.
A groin strain has slowed Blue Jays right-hander Nate Pearson this spring, but manager Charlie Montoyo said Friday (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet) that he’ll throw a bullpen Saturday. Pearson will not have enough time to build up for a five-inning role by Opening Day, though the Blue Jays aren’t ruling him out for the start of the season, according to Montoyo. A healthy version of Pearson could play a major role in a Toronto starting staff that has little in the way of surefire answers after ace Hyun Jin Ryu.
Orioles righty Hunter Harvey exited his outing Friday with a left oblique issue. The severity isn’t known yet, but Harvey – who had been in line for a bullpen spot – is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day, per Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. It’s the latest injury-related setback for Harvey, a 2013 first-round pick who has dealt with multiple health issues (including Tommy John surgery) during his professional career. The 26-year-old has totaled 15 innings out of the O’s bullpen dating back to his 2019 debut.

Top Remaining MLB Free Agents

By Anthony Franco | March 7, 2021 at 4:57pm CDT

The Astros’ agreement with Jake Odorizzi on a three-year contract yesterday removed the top remaining free agent from the market. Even into the second week of spring training games, though, there are a few potentially valuable players available to teams.

Rick Porcello: MLBTR’s #46 free agent entering the offseason, Porcello made 12 starts for the Mets in 2020. His 5.64 ERA isn’t eye-catching, but Porcello logged a more respectable 4.45 SIERA. The 32-year-old isn’t a particularly exciting option at this stage of his career, but he’s been an extremely durable innings-eater, and we’re entering a year where reliable innings might be more valuable than ever coming off the shortened season.
Cole Hamels: Hamels is the other of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents still unsigned, having placed 47th on the list. 2020 was a lost season for Hamels, who was limited to a single start by shoulder issues. He was still plenty productive as recently as 2019, though.
Shane Greene: The rumor mill has been surprisingly quiet for the reliable Greene. His peripherals don’t support the 2.60 ERA he put up for the Braves last season, and it’s alarming that his strikeout rate fell by six points last year. Greene has been something of a bullpen workhorse in recent years, though, and he generally does a decent job avoiding hard contact.
Maikel Franco: The 28-year-old didn’t live up to expectations as the regular third baseman in Philadelphia. But he had a decent 2020 season after signing with the Royals, hitting .278/.321/.457 with eight home runs in 243 plate appearances. The Orioles are among the teams interested in Franco, whose market is now “heating up” after a slow winter.
Jedd Gyorko: Gyorko’s name hasn’t appeared on MLBTR’s pages since the Brewers declined his club option last October. That’s a bit surprising given Gyorko’s performance in limited playing time last season. The 32-year-old hit a very productive .248/.333/.504 and looks like a decent right-handed platoon option at the corner infield spots.

There are a handful more who could plausibly claim to be the top free agent remaining. Roberto Osuna, Yasiel Puig, Edwin Encarnación and Homer Bailey are among the others unsigned. How does the MLBTR readership feel about the remaining crop of free agents?

(poll link for app users)

Twins Interested In Colome, Wilson, Clippard

By Steve Adams | February 3, 2021 at 3:56pm CDT

3:56pm: Minnesota’s “expected” to sign Colome, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.

1:32pm: In addition to Colome, the Twins have shown interest in re-signing Clippard and in signing lefty Justin Wilson, Hayes further reports. Minnesota has also at least gauged the price tags of Shane Greene, Mark Melancon, Joakim Soria and Trevor Rosenthal, though the latter two could be seeking more than the Twins are comfortable committing to them, Hayes adds. It’s a wide slate of candidates, but the Twins could sign multiple relievers to bolster their relief corps.

9:07am: It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the Twins, but they’re still pursuing upgrades after finally agreeing to a new deal with designated hitter Nelson Cruz last night. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that the Twins have interest in adding Alex Colome to their bullpen and are still looking at options to fill out their rotation. Twins fans hoping to see the club roll the dice on a Mike Foltynewicz rebound after watching his recent showcase may not get their wish, though, as SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson tweets that a signing is “more unlikely than likely.” Wolfson does suggest that the Twins have a current offer out to a reliever.

This isn’t the first time the Twins have been tied to Colome. However, in the month since that initial link, they’ve spent a combined $31.5MM on Cruz, Andrelton Simmons and J.A. Happ, so maintained interest in one of the better relievers remaining on the market wasn’t necessarily a given. The Twins currently project to open the season with a payroll in the $123MM range, but they’d have been north of $130MM last year prior to prorated salaries.

Owner Jim Pohlad recently voiced a vastly different mindset than many of his counterparts throughout the league, telling reporters he’s not looking at ways to “make up” for lost revenue from the 2020 season by slashing payroll (link via La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune).

“We don’t really think of it like that,” Pohlad said in a Zoom call. “I’m not sure if we can ever make up for it. None of our objective includes trying to make up for what happened in 2020. It was significant. It was devastating. And you have to accept that as a loss going forward and not make it a goal to recover those losses either from fans or by affecting our payroll. That’s not the mind-set we have been in at all.”

The Twins’ recent activity reflects that outlook, and a deal with Colome would only further illustrate that stance. The 32-year-old spent the past two seasons as the closer for the division-rival White Sox. In 83 1/3 innings with the South Siders, he’s pitched to a 2.27 ERA and racked up 42 saves, although the rest of his numbers don’t look as dominant. Colome’s 20.9 percent strikeout rate is below-average in today’s game, and he’s registered a rather pedestrian 3.78 FIP and 4.42 SIERA.

With the White Sox, Colome leaned aggressively on a two-pitch arsenal, throwing four-seamers and cutters exclusively — the latter nearly thrice as often as the former. In 2019, he got away with that mix despite giving up far too much hard contact, but he seemed to improve his utilization of that two-pitch mix in 2020.

Colome’s hard-hit rate fell sharply, from 41.2 percent to 32.8 percent, and only two of the balls put into play against him registered as “barreled balls,” per Statcast’s definition. Opponents’ average exit velocity against Colome plummeted from 91.3 percent in 2019 — one of the highest marks in baseball — to a lower-than-average 87.2 mph in 2020. And, despite registering one of the lowest strikeout percentages of his career last season, Colome actually posted career-high marks in swinging-strike rate and in opponents’ chase rate, which surely creates some optimism about his ability to rebound in the strikeout department.

For all the focus on the Twins’ rotation this winter, it’s the bullpen that’s a more dire area of need at the moment. The quartet of Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda and Happ gives the Twins four solid options atop the starting staff, but the bullpen has quietly been depleted. Minnesota lost Trevor May to the Mets and Matt Wisler (who was non-tendered) to the Giants. Veterans Sergio Romo and Tyler Clippard, meanwhile, are both free agents and remain unsigned. Taylor Rogers is still the favorite for saves in Minnesota for now, although Colome would give manager Rocco Baldelli another ninth-inning option with some experience. The fact that Baldelli and Colome know each other well from their time together with the Rays can’t hurt the Twins’ chances at a deal.

Braves Win Arbitration Hearing Against Shane Greene

By Steve Adams | February 5, 2020 at 3:11pm CDT

The Braves have won their arbitration hearing against right-handed reliever Shane Greene, the Associated Press reports. He’ll now earn the $6.25MM salary figure submitted by the Braves rather than the $6.75MM salary for which he filed.

Acquired in a deadline deal that sent prospects Joey Wentz and Travis Demeritte to the Tigers, Greene was unable to replicate the dominance he’d shown in Detroit in his new setting. The 1.18 ERA he posted in 38 innings as a Tiger last year never appeared close to sustainable, as it was largely predicated on a .178 average on balls in play and a sky-high 85.2 percent strand rate, but the extent to which Greene regressed in Atlanta was nevertheless a bit surprising.

That’s not to say that Greene wasn’t a useful bullpen piece, but he punched out 28.5 percent of the hitters he faced with Detroit, only to see that number plummet to 20.8 percent with the Braves. Greene still notched a respectable 4.01 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 24 2/3 innings with the Braves, adding in another run allowed in 2 2/3 postseason frames in the NLDS.

This will be the final trip through the arbitration process for Greene, who is set to become a free agent at season’s end. The $500K gap over which the two sides argued seems trivial to most fans but is viewed in a vastly different light by teams and agencies. Hearings such as this one serve as a reminder that the actual immediate cost savings are typically trivial; rather, it’s in teams’ best interest to try to fight for every last dollar rather than make concessions, as future arbitration cases for similar players are based upon the cases of today. Conversely, if an agency is able to even push a client’s salary forward by a couple hundred thousand dollars, that becomes a data point for future comparables. MLBTR spoke to several league execs about the intricacies of arbitration a few years back, and the points discussed still ring true in 2020.

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