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Minor MLB Transactions: 2-15-16

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We’ll kick off the week with today’s roundup of outright assignments and minor signings from around the league…

  • Right-hander Chad Jenkins, whom the Blue Jays designated for assignment upon signing Gavin Floyd to a one-year deal, has been outrighted to Triple-A Buffalo, according to the Jays’ transactions page at MLB.com. The 28-year-old posted a 3.25 ERA with the Blue Jays in 97 innings from 2012-14 but saw just 3 2/3 innings in the big league bullpen last season. Jenkins, the 20th overall pick in 2009, instead spent the bulk of the season in Buffalo, where he logged a 2.98 ERA with a 60-to-26 K/BB ratio in 93 2/3 innings (11 starts, 30 relief appearances).
  • The Rockies have signed a familiar face, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy; infielder Chris Nelson is back with the club on a minor league deal. Nelson, now 30, spent 10 seasons in the Rockies organization after being selected ninth overall in the 2004 draft. He batted .279/.322/.416 in 212 big league games with the Rox from 2010-13 but went on to struggle away from the hitter-friendly Coors Field in stints with the Padres, Angels and Yankees.
  • Right-hander Clayton Mortensen, 31 in April, is back with the Royals on a minor league deal for the second consecutive season, according to Eddy. Another former top pick (36th overall in 2007), Mortensen was one of the players sent from the Cardinals to the A’s in the 2009 Matt Holliday trade. Mortensen posted solid big league numbers (3.59 ERA in 100 1/3 innings) from 2011-12 with the Rockies and Red Sox but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2013. He’s worked to a 5.12 ERA in 184 2/3 innings for Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate across the past two seasons.
  • The Rangers signed shortstop Doug Bernier to a minors deal last week, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter). Bernier, 35, won’t receive an invite to Major League camp, but the veteran infielder will provide some up-the-middle depth for Texas’ Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock. Bernier spent the past three seasons in the Twins organization and was a feel-good story for the 2013 team, as he reached the Majors that year for the first time a brief two-game appearance with the 2008 Rockies (at the time, his only prior MLB experience). Bernier appeared in 44 games with Minnesota from 2013-15 and tallied 79 plate appearances, hitting .231/.351/.292. He’s a career .255/.346/.345 hitter in nine seasons at Triple-A and is known for his solid glove at shortstop, second base and third base.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/13/16

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the game:

  • The Diamondbacks have outrighted lefty Will Locante, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. They designated Locante for assignment last week after he posted a 5.79 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 7.3 BB/9 in 42 rough innings of relief for Double-A Mobile last year.
  • The Indians have announced that they’ve signed 34-year-old catcher Guillermo Quiroz to a minor-league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. The light-hitting Quiroz has played parts of ten seasons in the Majors, but in the 2015 regular season he only appeared with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento, where he hit .247/.303/.292 in 99 plate appearances.
  • The Angels have signed catcher Lou Marson and righties Josh Zeid and Cody Satterwhite to minor-league deals, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy tweets. Marson, the former Indians backup, has played sparingly in the last several seasons due to injury. He has a lifetime .219/.309/.299 line in parts of six big-league seasons. The 28-year-old Zeid is perhaps best known as one of the pieces the Phillies sent the Astros in the 2011 Hunter Pence deal. He spent the 2015 season in the Tigers’ Triple-A bullpen, posting a 4.46 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9. The 29-year-old Satterwhite pitched last season in a tough pitching environment at Triple-A Las Vegas, posting a 4.38 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 72 innings of relief.
  • The Blue Jays have re-signed lefty reliever Colt Hynes to a minor-league deal, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets. Hynes pitched in five games for the Jays last season. He also pitched 47 1/3 innings combined at Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 3.47 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9.

Marlins To Sign Craig Breslow To Minors Deal

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The Marlins have agreed to a minor league pact with veteran southpaw Craig Breslow, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reports. He would earn $1.5MM if he can crack the MLB roster.

Though he had kicked around the idea of seeking a starting opportunity, Breslow will reportedly chase a pen slot in Miami. He also considered offers from the Cubs, Blue Jays, and Red Sox.

Working for Boston last year, the 35-year-old carried a 4.15 ERA over 65 frames with 6.4 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9. While the results were improved after a tough 2014, Breslow wasn’t able to show quite the same form that led to a 2.82 earned run mark over his first 402 MLB frames over the span of 2005 to 2013.

The veteran’s groundball rate is down and his home run susceptibility is up, and it’s reflected in advanced metrics, which do not put a positive spin on his past two seasons. While he has long outpaced ERA estimators, and did so again in 2015, they are increasingly sour on his work (5.27 FIP, 5.07 xFIP, and 4.51 SIERA last year).

On the other hand, Breslow still pitches with about the same fastball velocity (he averaged 90.0 mph with his four-seamer last year) as he always has. And he boosted his swinging strike rate into double digits for the first time since 2012. He ought to have every opportunity to earn a job this spring in a Miami pen that was in need of options behind top southpaw Mike Dunn.

Blue Jays, Josh Donaldson Reach Two-Year Extension

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The Blue Jays have announced a two-year, $28.65MM deal with star third baseman Josh Donaldson. He’ll earn $11.65MM in 2016 and $17MM for the following year.

The sides had been set for arbitration, with Donaldson filing at $11.8MM and the team countering at $11.35MM. While the gulf between those numbers is obviously a pittance compared to the overall value involved, the Jays employ a “trial and file” strategy that made a hearing inevitable after numbers were swapped — barring a multi-year deal. The sides could have worked out a deal to buy out all of Donaldson’s remaining arb years — he was a Super Two last year and is under control through 2018 via arbitration — if not a yet longer pact to lock up some free agent seasons, but chose the more straightforward option.

Josh Donaldson

Fresh off of an American League MVP award, Donaldson had enormous earning power at the arb table. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz broke down his case in January, noting that the projected $12MM salary would have represented a record $7.7MM raise. Obviously, both team and player agreed that was a bit more than was warranted, though even the Jays were willing to pay the same bump that the prior record holder received (Chris Davis, with a $7.05MM raise).

The new deal not only rewards Donaldson for his monster 2015 season with a nice salary in the coming season, but also promises him a second huge payday. It’s less than he might have earned with another strong season — and much less than a repeat MVP effort would have brought — but significantly reduces his risk in exchange for some potential cost savings and certainty to the club.

Donaldson, who came over from the A’s last winter, went to a hearing with his new club before he ever suited up. The club won, with Donaldson settling for $4.3MM — a fair sight shy of the $5.75MM that he sought. Of course, he’s now more than made up for it with this new deal.

There certainly weren’t any lingering effects from that adversarial proceeding on Donaldson, who exceeded already-high expectations last year. The MVP tab was well deserved, as the 30-year-old delivered a .297/.371/.568 slash and 41 home runs, helping to lead Toronto to an AL East pennant. With typically stellar defense mixed in, Donaldson tallied 8.8 rWAR and 8.7 fWAR.

Something of a late-bloomer, Donaldson represents a tough decision as a long-term extension candidate. There’s little chance he’d take a significant discount to give away free agent years, but he’s already under control through his age-32 season and has every right to demand a premium payday.

Toronto is, of course, already examining the possibility of buying up seasons of sluggers in their mid-30s, as pending free agents Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are on the docket for extension talks this spring. Having Donaldson’s salary for 2017 already on the books certainly removes a variable, though balancing the long-term checkbook still seems a matter that will require some care.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reported the agreement and approximate value. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported the precise guarantee (via the Washington Post).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Blue Jays Notes: Price, Donaldson, Bautista, Floyd

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Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro appeared on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM and spoke to Jim Bowden about the decision not to re-sign David Price this offseason (audio link). “Every team has a budget,” Shapiro began. “Every team has operating parameters. I don’t know why it’s not fashionable to just say the truth. David Price would’ve represented almost our entire offseason. It’s that simple, Jim. Almost no one would make that decision. … To me, it comes down to we had a very, very, very challenging pitching dilemma here in that we lost him, we lost [Marco] Estrada. We had zero Triple-A pitchers — not one, not a name to fill our rotation in Triple-A. We had to take the money, which was ample, and figure out how to both solve the Major League rotation, which was two spots in the rotation, along with solving a depth challenge. … Regardless of how great one pitcher is, you need to build a team around the guy, too.”

More from Shapiro and more on the Jays…

  • Within that same interview, Shapiro also said that he discussed multiple concepts with Josh Donaldson’s representatives before agreeing to a two-year, $29MM contract. The club explored long-term contract scenarios that would buy out free-agent years as well as three-year deals to lock in all of his remaining arbitration seasons and also just straight one-year deals. “Josh is a guy that not only performed at an elite level from a talent perspective but provided the energy, leadership and competitive edge that, to me, fueled this team last year,” said Shapiro of the reigning American League MVP.
  • With Donaldson’s contract situation now resolved, the club can turn its attention to Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Shapiro explained that the team has a clear desire to extend each player, but the question of what it will take to do so is significant. Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron attempts to price out an extension for Bautista, who will turn 36 in October and is thus considerably older than the typical extension candidate. Even elite position players in Bautista’s age class have been limited to a maximum of four years, writes Cameron, citing the contracts for Victor Martinez, Ben Zobrist and Carlos Beltran as examples of older stars that have taken four (or, in Beltran’s case, three) years on the open market. As Cameron notes, a good bit of decline will need to be expected over the term of the contract, and it’s likely that Bautista would look like an overvalued asset in a four-year deal’s final season. Ultimately, after making a four-year WAR projection and forecasting for some year-to-year regression, Cameron arrives at a four-year, $75MM pact as a reasonable price.
  • There’s some sense to that deal for both sides, to be sure, though I personally wonder if Cameron’s general hypothesis that Bautista would land at four years and $90MM on the open market next year undersells his earning potential. Assuming a characteristically productive season, Bautista could be the premier bat on a thin free-agent market, and age notwithstanding, a $22.5MM annual value isn’t the top of the spectrum for premium power hitters. I’d wager that a current Blue Jays extension would have to top $80MM in total value, as I can envision enough interest in his bat to push that earning ceiling closer to, or even north of $100MM on the open market, either via an increased annual value or via a club tacking on a fifth year (at a much lower rate) as a means of pushing its offer over the top. (For those interested in further reading on Bautista, MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk profiled his extension candidacy back in November.)
  • Gavin Floyd’s strong finish to the 2015 season in Cleveland impressed not only Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins (both were still with the Indians at the time), but a number of Blue Jays scouts as well, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Floyd’s fastball sat at 92 mph and touched 95 mph, writes Nicholson-Smith, and with three additional breaking pitches in his arsenal, Atkins, Shapiro and the scouting staff deemed him worthy of a 40-man roster spot if that was the final component needed to get Floyd to Toronto. “He has the make-up of a starter with a repeatable delivery and a four-pitch arsenal,” said Atkins. “We’ve also seen his work ethic up close and we know it’s going to be there.” As Nicholson-Smith notes, Floyd doesn’t need to provide much value to justify such a minimal investment.

Quick Hits: Wedge, Nathan, Draft, Roster Building

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A surprisingly large number of noteworthy veteran free agents are still available, a phenomenon that ESPN’s Buster Olney explores in his latest subscription-only column.  The signing drought extends to big-name free agents like Dexter Fowler and Yovani Gallardo to lower-tier players just looking for Spring Training invites.  “I understand that my guy isn’t what he once was, but nothing?  Not even a chance to come in and impress and beat out other guys for a job in camp? I just don’t get it,” one agent said.  Several executives and agents believe that tanking could be part of the issue, as teams looking for a higher draft pick in 2017 have little need for a veteran who could provide a win or two.  Other factors include an under-valuing of experience, and a greater reliance on both young players and trades to fill out a roster.

Here’s more from around the baseball world on Babe Ruth’s 121st birthday…

  • The Blue Jays have hired Eric Wedge as a player development advisor, the team announced.  The former Indians and Mariners manager is well known to Jays president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins from their time together in Cleveland, which included an AL Central title and a run to Game Seven of the ALCS in 2007.  Wedge had been rumored to join Toronto’s front office for several weeks.
  • Wedge’s hiring “has the feel of manager in waiting,” MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link) opines.  A managerial change would be rather a surprise in the wake of the Blue Jays’ AL East championship, though skipper John Gibbons has a well-known close relationship with former Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and it isn’t unusual for a new front office to install a new face in the dugout.
  • Dave Pepe, Joe Nathan’s agent, tells FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi (Twitter links) that his client is planning to pitch in 2016.  “He feels great…We are just going to look for the best opportunity and are not necessarily in any rush to sign,” Pepe said.  Nathan underwent Tommy John surgery (the second such procedure of his career) last April and said earlier this offseason that he was hoping to pitch by May or June.  Despite Nathan’s age and injury history, around 10 teams were checking in on him.
  • It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a high school pitcher be selected near the top of the amateur draft, Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron writes, with perhaps even the Phillies using their first overall pick on highly-touted southpaw Jason Groome.  While only a few of the high school arms taken with the top few picks have developed into productive big leaguers, Cameron notes that this year’s draft class doesn’t yet offer much in the way of standout hitting prospects or college pitchers who could be technically “safer” choices.
  • Some of the draft’s intriguing junior college prospects are profiled by ESPN.com’s Eric Longenhagen (Insider subscription required), including the children of some prominent former Major Leaguers.
  • Each team’s roster is broken down by Fangraphs’ August Fagerstrom to investigate how clubs acquire their players — whether by trades, international signings, free agent signings, waiver pickups, or the amateur or Rule 5 drafts.  Fagerstrom breaks down each category by fWAR to see where each club excels at deriving value, including some notable observations about the Giants’ unmatched wealth of homegrown talent and the Cubs’ strong run of recent trades.

Blue Jays Sign Gavin Floyd

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SATURDAY, 12:17PM: The move is official, as per a Blue Jays press release.

SATURDAY, 11:59AM: Floyd’s deal with the Jays is a Major League contract, Gideon Turk of Blue Jays Plus was first to report (via Twitter).  Floyd will earn a $1MM base salary and can get up to $1MM in incentives based on how many days he spends in the 25-man roster.  He’ll also receive $500K for 90 days on the roster, $250K for 120 days and another $250K for 140 days, per Jon Heyman (Twitter links).

THURSDAY: Right-hander Gavin Floyd “appears headed for [a] deal with [the] Blue Jays,” Jon Heyman reports (on Twitter). SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets that the Moye Sports client is indeed in agreement with the Jays, pending a physical.

Floyd, who turned 33 just last week, would serve as a back-of-the-rotation option for the Blue Jays, though it’s tough to imagine he’d be promised a spot in the starting five after throwing just 92 Major League innings across the past three seasons. The longtime White Sox righty underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2013 season and returned with a flourish with the Braves in 2014 (2.65 ERA in 54 1/3 innings) before missing the remainder of the season due to a fractured olecranon bone in his right elbow. Somewhat astoundingly, Floyd suffered the exact same injury in Spring Training with the Indians last year. He was thought to be lost for the season, although he did return to toss 13 1/3 effective innings of relief late in the year. Given the lengthy list of recent injuries, Floyd seemed like a candidate for a minor league deal, though details on his agreement with Toronto remain unclear.

At his best, Floyd has proven to be a highly capable mid-rotation arm, although it’s obviously been quite some time since he was healthy enough to display that over the course of a full season. Nevertheless, from 2008-12, Floyd averaged 190 innings of 4.12 ERA ball with 7.2 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 45.1 percent ground-ball rate. When adjusting for Floyd’s hitter-friendly home park and the heightened offensive output league-wide during that period, Floyd was about eight percent better than the league-average pitcher in terms of both ERA and FIP.

Clearly, president of baseball operations Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, both former executives with the Indians, think highly of Floyd, as this is the second time he’s signed with a team under that duo’s leadership. Floyd had reportedly drawn interest from the division-rival Orioles on a minor league pact earlier this offseason and had also been speculatively mentioned as a fit for the Rangers, among other clubs.

Floyd will look to crack a rotation that currently has Marcus Stroman, R.A. Dickey, Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ locked in place. Toronto has no shortage of candidates for the fifth spot, with Drew Hutchison, Jesse Chavez and Aaron Sanchez representing rotation options on the 40-man roster (to say nothing of non-roster invitees like Scott Diamond, Roberto Hernandez, Wade LeBlanc and Brad Penny as potential depth pieces to stash at Triple-A).

Blue Jays Designate Chad Jenkins For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have designated righty Chad Jenkins for assignment, as per a team press release.  The move creates roster space for Gavin Floyd, whose deal with the club was officially announced.

Jenkins was Toronto’s first round pick (20th overall) in the 2009 draft, though his big league career to date has consisted of 100 2/3 innings pitched, with 40 of his 46 MLB appearances coming out of the bullpen.  Jenkins has a 3.31 ERA, 1.96 K/BB rate and 4.6 K/9 over parts of four Major League seasons with the Jays, and he appeared in just two games last year.

As per the MLB Trade Rumors DFA Tracker, Jenkins joins four other players in awaiting their next assignment.

Jesse Chavez Wins Arbitration Hearing With Blue Jays

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Right-hander Jesse Chavez will earn $4MM in 2016 after winning his arbitration hearing with the Blue Jays.  The news was reported in a tweet from Chavez’s representatives at the Sosnick Cobbe Karon agency.

There was a fairly modest gap between the two sides, as the Jays had countered with a $3.6MM offer.  As a “file-and-trial” team, the Jays’ policy is to go to a hearing with any player that doesn’t reach agreement on a new contract before the arbitration filing deadline.  (The exception would be if the team and player are discussing a multi-year extension, such as is the case with Toronto and Josh Donaldson before the AL MVP’s hearing on February 15.)

Matt Swartz predicted Chavez to land an even bigger salary of $4.7MM in his arbitration projections for MLBTR, though the $4MM number still represents a nice bump for Chavez over his $2.15MM salary he earned in 2015.  This was Chavez’s third and final year of arbitration eligibility and he’s slated to hit free agency next winter.

Thus far, players who have gone to hearings this offseason are a perfect 3-for-3, as Chavez joins the Reds’ J.J. Hoover and the Rays’ Drew Smyly as players ruled worthy of their higher salaries.  The Blue Jays, meanwhile, have lost two of three arbitration hearings over the last two winters, losing to Chavez and Danny Valencia while winning last year’s hearing with Donaldson.

Chavez, 32, is entering his second stint as a Blue Jay after being acquired from the A’s in a deal for Liam Hendriks in November.  Chavez will compete for the fifth spot in the Jays’ rotation, though he could essentially fill Hendriks’ old job as the long man in Toronto’s bullpen.  In three-plus years in Oakland, Chavez posted a 3.98 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 2.80 K/BB rate in 363 2/3 innings (split between 47 starts and 54 relief appearances).

AL East Notes: Yankees, Betts, Bogaerts, Porcello, Chavez

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There are several big-picture reasons for the Yankees’ lack of free agent spending this offseason, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan writes.  With a new collective bargaining agreement looming, the Yankees may be hesitant to commit millions more in player salaries until they know what the new luxury tax and revenue-sharing formulas will entail.  Sources tell Passan that the luxury tax limit is likely to be raised from $189MM and New York therefore has a better chance of getting under the new threshold to lower its yearly penalty rate.  Between cutting down on luxury tax payments and losing several huge contracts (Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia, etc.) over the next two seasons, it could position the Yankees to splurge in the incredibly star-studded 2018-19 free agent market.  The crown jewel of this free agent class is Bryce Harper, who has long been considered a future Yankees target — “their future marriage is considered so inevitable by most in the sport,” Passan writes.

Here’s more from around the AL East…

  • The Red Sox may not be in a rush to sign Mookie Betts or Xander Bogaerts to extensions, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes.  Even if Betts and Bogaerts continue to blossom into superstars, waiting another year to explore extensions might cost Boston only a couple of million dollars, a negligible amount for a big-market team.  The two players may themselves have reason to wait, as Speier cites the argument from Over the Monster’s Matt Collins that Betts and Bogaerts may want to see what the next CBA holds before committing to long-term deals.  Given the huge recent free agent contracts signed by players in their 20’s, Betts and Bogaerts also might not want to sign away any of their free agent years in an extension when a much larger score could await them down the road.
  • In a recent podcast interview with WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford, Rick Porcello discussed the decision process that went into signing his four-year, $82.5MM extension with the Red Sox last offseason.  Without that contract, Porcello would’ve been a free agent this winter on the heels of a pretty shaky 2015 campaign.  Despite the righty’s struggles, Bradford notes that Porcello still could’ve found himself a healthy contract on the open market — Jeff Samardzija and Ian Kennedy both landed large multi-year deals despite coming off of rough seasons themselves, and Porcello is four years younger than either of those pitchers.
  • Jesse Chavez’s arbitration hearing with the Blue Jays took place Friday and a decision is expected today, according to the Associated Press.  Chavez is arguing for a $4MM salary in 2016 while the Jays countered with a $3.6MM offer.
  • Mark Trumbo is excited to be an Oriole, he tells MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, though he was surprised when the O’s acquired him from the Mariners since he didn’t know the club had interest.  Trumbo believes he’s a better first baseman than outfielder, though with Chris Davis now back at first for years to come in Baltimore, Trumbo says “it doesn’t matter to me one bit” where he slots into the lineup as long as it helps the team win.
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