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Giants Sign Aaron Sanchez

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FEBRUARY 21: The deal has been made official. The incentive structure breaks down as follows (per Maria Guardado of MLB.com): $250K apiece for reaching 16 and 18 starts, $500K each for starting 20, 22, 24 and 26 games.

FEBRUARY 17: The Giants have reached an agreement to sign righty Aaron Sanchez, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.  It’s a $4MM deal with another $2.5MM in incentives, adds Slusser.  Sanchez is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Sanchez, 28, was drafted 34th overall out of high school by the Blue Jays back in 2010 as a supplemental pick for the loss of free agent Marco Scutaro.  He was still a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday upon being drafted.  Sanchez’s path from Barstow, California to being drafted by the Jays was chronicled in this excellent read from Stephen Brunt of Sportsnet.ca a few years back.

Sanchez’s prospect status climbed as he ascended through the minors, with Baseball America praising his “premium velocity with an effortless delivery.”  The Blue Jays eased Sanchez into the Majors in 2014 via the bullpen, and he even picked up three saves in his 24 appearances that year.

Marcus Stroman’s unfortunate ACL tear paved the way for Sanchez to make the Jays’ rotation out of camp in 2015, but after a summer lat strain that year he returned to the ’pen.  The following year Sanchez again won the team’s fifth starter job out of spring training, and this time he ran with it.  2016 still stands as the best year of Sanchez’s career, as he posted a 3.00 ERA in 192 innings, making the All-Star team and finishing seventh in the AL Cy Young voting.  In a year where the average starting pitcher managed a 20.2 K% and 7.7 BB%, Sanchez fell right around those marks at a 20.4 K% and 8.0 BB%.  He did succeed in limiting exit velocity and keeping the ball on the ground.  Despite concerns about Sanchez’s workload, which wound up increasing more than 100 innings over the prior year, the Blue Jays couldn’t bring themselves to pull him from the rotation despite a yearlong flirtation with the idea.

Sanchez would be limited to just eight starts in 2017 due to a blister/split fingernail that required four separate IL stints.  Further finger issues held him to 20 starts in 2018, culminating in season-ending surgery.  Sanchez battled through similar issues in 2019, making 27 starts on the season but averaging fewer than five innings per turn.  Sanchez was not able to replicate his previous success, posting a 5.45 ERA, lackluster 18.6 K%, and unfortunate 11.7 BB% across 2018-19.  By the 2019 trade deadline, the Blue Jays had seen enough, trading Sanchez to the Astros with Joe Biagini and Cal Stevenson for Derek Fisher.  Fisher’s Jays story coincidentally came to an end this week with a trade to the Brewers.

While it was thought that the Astros might work magic with Sanchez’s curveball and its 91st percentile spin rate, especially after his debut for the club was the first six innings of a combined no-hitter, the righty quickly went down for shoulder surgery and was non-tendered after the 2019 season.  Sanchez wasn’t heard from again until October 2020, when he held a showcase for 20 teams in Miami.  Agent Scott Boras would go on to boast of a 2,700-2,800 RPM fastball, speaking of Sanchez’s intent to work as a starter in 2021.  Sanchez must have shown well at a second showcase held this month, given the $4MM contract with the Giants.  Indeed, Slusser notes that “the Giants have been paying attention to [Sanchez] all off season and took especial notice last week, when Sanchez hit 98 mph in a bullpen session.”  Here’s the proof of that from Sanchez’s Instagram.

After another reclamation project gone well, Kevin Gausman, accepted his $18.9MM qualifying offer, the Giants went to work on their rotation this winter by adding Anthony DeSclafani  for $6MM (a teammate of Sanchez’s on the 2012 Lansing Lugnuts) and Alex Wood at $3MM on one-year free agent contracts.  While Sanchez will presumably round out the team’s starting five, no team is getting by with five starters – not this year, and not with this group.  The club also added Nick Tropeano on a minor league deal today, and Logan Webb figures to be in the mix as well.  Tyler Beede is expected to become an option around May after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

With pitchers and catchers already starting to report to spring training, there are still several rotation-worthy starting pitchers on the free agent market, including Jake Odorizzi, Taijuan Walker, Rick Porcello, Cole Hamels, and Mike Leake.  It’s been an odd winter for starting pitching.  Aside from Trevor Bauer, who signed for three years and $102MM, no starting pitcher has landed as much as $20MM.  The last time fewer than three starting pitchers received a $20MM guarantee in an offseason was 2009-10,  when only John Lackey and Randy Wolf achieved it.

Giants Sign Shun Yamaguchi

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8:13PM: The Giants officially announced Yamaguchi’s signing.

10:44AM: The Giants and right-hander Shun Yamaguchi are in agreement on a contract, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). The deal is likely to be a split Major League/minor league contract, notes Slusser.

Yamaguchi figures to come with minimal financial risk for the Giants, as the Blue Jays are on the hook to pay him $3.175MM for the 2021 season. The Blue Jays recently released the Japanese right-hander to clear room on their 40-man roster for waiver pickup Joel Payamps.

The 33-year-old pitched for 14 seasons in Japan where he owns a 3.35 ERA over 427 games, which included 50 starts and 191 games finished. He signed a two-year, $6.35MM deal to join Toronto ahead of the 2020 season. The transition did not go as planned, however, as Yamaguchi pitched to a 8.06 ERA/6.43 FIP over 25 2/3 innings out of the bullpen with substandard strikeout (21.7 percent) and walk rates (14.2 percent).

Cubs Designate Phillip Ervin

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The Cubs have designated outfielder Phillip Ervin for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for Jake Marisnick, whose signing is now official.

This is the third DFA in less than six months for Ervin, who was first designated by the Reds at the end of August and then claimed by the Mariners.  The Cubs then claimed Ervin off Seattle’s waiver wire in December.  Since Ervin is out of minor league options, it’s possible he could be a frequent visitor to DFA limbo over the course of the 2021 season.

Selected 27th overall in the 2013 draft, Ervin didn’t blossom into an everyday regular in Cincinnati but he did contribute a solid .262/.326/.438 slash line over 571 plate appearances from 2017-19.  He badly struggled last season, however, hitting just .149/.292/.189 over 89 PA with the Reds and Mariners.  This included a brutal coda to Ervin’s tenure in Cincinnati, as he collected only three hits in his last 42 PA in a Reds uniform.

Ervin has hit well against left-handed pitching in his career and he can play all three outfield positions, though the Cubs seem to have tabbed Marisnick (who signed a Major League contract) as their top choice for the fourth outfielder role.  With Cameron Maybin also back on a minor league deal, Ervin looks like the odd man out of the right-handed hitting outfielder mix.

Cubs Sign Jake Marisnick

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TODAY: Marisnick’s deal has been officially announced.

FEB. 11, 9:12am: Marisnick and the Cubs have agreed to a one-year Major League deal with a mutual option for the 2022 season, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The contract guarantees Marisnick $1.5MM. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the guarantee will be paid out in the form of a $1MM salary in 2021 and a $500K buyout on a $4MM mutual option. He can earn another $500K in 2021 via incentives, Heyman adds.

8:15am: The Cubs and free-agent outfielder Jake Marisnick are in agreement on a contract, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Marisnick is represented by Reynolds Sports Management.

Jake Marisnick | Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Marisnick, 30 in March, has spent the bulk of his career with the Astros but was with the Mets in 2020. A pair of hamstring injuries limited the fleet-footed outfielder to just 16 games, although Marisnick was quite productive in his tiny sample of 34 plate appearances, hitting .333/.353/.604 with a pair of homers and three doubles.

That level of production, of course, shouldn’t be expected moving forward. Marisnick has been a below-average hitter for most of his time in the Majors, though he’s offset that sub-par bat with well above-average speed and excellent glovework. Over the past four years he’s a .234/.297/.441 hitter overall, though he’s fared better when facing left-handed pitching (.247/.313/.443).

Marisnick’s speed was down a bit in 2020, though the pair of hamstring strains surely contributed to that fact. Statcast measured his sprint speed at 29.2 feet per second from 2016-19 but had him down to 28.2 last year. That still ranked in the 84th percentile of MLB players, however, and Marisnick typically sits in the 94th percentile or better with those wheels. He also ranked among the 20 best outfielders in the game in Statcast’s Outs Above Average each year from 2016-19, and he’s been viewed as a similarly elite defender by Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating.

The Cubs already had a right-handed-hitting option to platoon with fellow newcomer Joc Pederson and right fielder Jason Heyward in the form of Phil Ervin, so it’s possible Marisnick will bump him out of the plans. Ervin is a much better hitter against lefties than Marisnick but doesn’t stack up as well defensively. Chicago could certainly carry both players on the roster and more aggressively utilize a platoon setup in the outfield. At the time of the Pederson signing, it was reported that he’d be given near-everyday at-bats, although playing him against lefties would mitigate much of his value.

However it shakes out, the Cubs are a much better defensive team now with Marisnick on board. Somewhat amusingly, they’ve also now in effect swapped fourth outfielders with the Mets. Albert Almora Jr., non-tendered by the Cubs earlier in the winter, signed with New York this past week.

Mets Sign Taijuan Walker

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TODAY: The Mets have officially announced Walker’s deal.  Noah Syndergaard has been placed on the 60-day injured list to open up a roster space for Walker.

FEB. 19, 8:14am: It’s a two-year, $20MM deal with a player option for a third season, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). The deal, which is still pending a physical, will pay Walker $10MM in 2021 and $7MM in 2022. The player option is at a base of $6MM and can rise to $8.5MM via escalator clauses based on Walker’s performance. There’s a $3MM buyout on the option, should Walker decline, making for a total of $20MM in guarantees.

7:04am: The Mets and free-agent right-hander Taijuan Walker have agreed to terms on a contract, tweets SNY’s Andy Martino. The Excel Sports client will step into the rotation alongside Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Marcus Stroman and David Peterson.

Taijuan Walker | Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Heading into his age-28 season, Walker was the youngest established starter available in free agency. The former top prospect made his big league debut with the Mariners just two weeks after his 20th birthday back in 2013 and solidified his place in the Seattle rotation in 2015 at 22 years of age. The M’s traded Walker to the D-backs in a high-profile 2016 deal also including Ketel Marte, Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger, and he went on to have his best season in 2017: 157 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball.

Walker went down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in 2018, however, and the resulting Tommy John surgery wiped out nearly his entire season. He was on the comeback trail in 2019, but those efforts were derailed by a strained shoulder capsule that limited him to one inning. After pitching a combined 14 innings in 2018-19, Walker was non-tendered by the D-backs and returned to the Mariners on a low-cost, one-year deal in free agency.

The signing worked out well for the Mariners, who parlayed five solid starts from Walker into a deadline trade with the Blue Jays that netted outfield prospect Alberto Rodriguez (currently Seattle’s No. 24 prospect at Baseball America). Walker made six starts with the Blue Jays and pitched to a pristine 1.37 ERA with a 25-to-11 K/BB ratio over the life of 26 1/3 innings.

Overall, Walker’s 2.70 earned run average in 53 1/3 innings last year looked quite sound. However, despite that impressive mark, his age and his former top prospect pedigree, Walker appears to have had a difficult time finding a club willing to meet his asking price this winter. There’s likely some good reason for that, as once looking past the ERA, the numbers aren’t nearly as appealing.

On his way to that 2.70 ERA, Walker benefited from a .243 average on balls in play and a slightly elevated 78.5 percent strand rate. His 22.2 percent strikeout rate was below the league average, as was his 39.1 percent ground-ball rate. The righty’s 93.5 mph average heater was down from its 95.1 mph peak, and his swinging-strike rate was among the lowest in the league (13th percentile, per Statcast). Fielding-independent marks like SIERA (4.60) and Statcast’s xERA (4.87) aren’t as bullish on Walker, who averaged just 4 2/3 innings per start in 2020.

Add in the elbow and shoulder injuries in 2018-19, and some trepidation from interested teams is understandable — but only to an extent. We’ve seen the free-agent market regularly pay upwards of $10-12MM per year on mutli-year deals to fourth starter types, and Walker ought to be at least that moving forward. His prospect pedigree, youth, velocity and raw stuff give him the upside to become quite a bit more than that as well.

With the Mets, Walker needn’t perform like anything more than a fourth starter, thanks to the talent they already have atop their starting staff. Of course, if he does take a step forward and pitch closer to last year’s ERA marks, an already impressive rotation will only look all the more formidable. With the newest agreement in place, the Mets have an enviable quintet of deGrom, Carrasco, Stroman, Walker and Peterson. Beyond that looms the return of Noah Syndergaard, who’ll ideally be ready for a summer return following his own Tommy John surgery last May.

Unlike in 2020, that group is backed up by considerable depth. Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, Sean Reid-Foley and Sam McWilliams were added to the 40-man roster via trade and free agency this winter, and prospects Franklyn Kilome and Thomas Szapucki will be able to work toward minor league readiness in a game setting. The Mets also added lefty Mike Montgomery and righty Jerad Eickhoff on minor league deals, and it’s conceivable that they could yet bring in some additional non-roster depth in Spring Training.

While it may not be quite the offseason Mets fans envisioned, it’s hard to look at the current roster and consider the offseason anything other than a substantial step in the right direction. New York’s marquee acquisition of Francisco Lindor and Carrasco will go down as its largest strike of the offseason, with free-agent acquisitions of Walker, James McCann, Trevor May, Jonathan Villar, Kevin Pillar, Aaron Loup and Albert Almora have deepened the roster.

The Mets didn’t shatter the luxury tax threshold as many expected when Steve Cohen purchased the team — they’d have done so had their near-deal with Trevor Bauer been completed — but Walker’s deal pushes their baseline payroll and their luxury-tax ledger both just shy of $200MM. It’s a franchise record for Opening Day payroll by a magnitude of roughly $40MM, setting the tone for future offseasons under Cohen’s ownership.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/20/21

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Let’s round up some minor moves from around the game…

Latest Transactions

  • The Cubs have outrighted infielder Sergio Alcantara to Triple-A, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports (Twitter link).  Alcantara was designated for assignment earlier this week, and has been invited to the Cubs’ Major League spring camp.  Alcantara only joined the Cubs earlier this month via a waiver claim from the Tigers, as the 24-year-old looks to compete for a roster spot after making his big league debut (10 games, 23 plate appearances) in 2020.  Over 2611 career minor league PA, Alcantara has hit .256/.340/.318.
  • The Rangers announced that right-hander Jimmy Herget has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, though Herget will still be invited to the big league Spring Training camp.  Herget was designated for assignment earlier this week.  Selected off waivers from the Reds last winter, Herget posted a 3.20 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 19 2/3 innings for Texas last season, but control was a major issue, as he also walked 14 batters.

Earlier Today

  • The Indians announced the signing of Ryan Lavarnway to a minor league deal. The 33-year-old catcher has received an invite to spring training. The former Red Sox farmhand appeared in five games with the Marlins in 2020, collecting four singles in 11 plate appearances. He has generally served as catching depth with occasional stints at the big league level, though he hasn’t seen more than a few games worth of action since 2015. Since debuting with Boston in 2011, Lavarnway has gone on to log Major League playing time with the Orioles, Braves, A’s, Pirates, Reds, and Marlins. For his career, he owns a triple slash line of .215/.272/.344 in 456 plate appearances over nine seasons, with a 6.8 percent walk rate and 24.1 percent strikeout rate.

Diamondbacks To Sign Ben Heller To Minors Deal

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Former Yankee Ben Heller has reached an agreement to join the Arizona Diamondbacks, pending a physical, per Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter). It’s a minor league deal, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). He has one option year remaining.

It didn’t take long for Heller to find a new home. He was released by the Yankees just over a week ago. Heller missed all of the 2018 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He returned, but only for a six-game sample in each of 2019 and 2020. Still, there was a good deal of interest in Heller, including from the Red Sox, notes Cotillo (via Twitter).

Heller joined the Yankees along with Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield as part of the Andrew Miller trade at the 2016 trade deadline. He was a 22nd round draft pick by the Indians in 2013.

Projections from ZiPS and ATC paint Heller as capable of an ERA in the 4.00-to-4.50 range next season. Because of the injury, Heller’s big-league track record is somewhat incomplete. Over 31 appearances that span four seasons and five years, Heller has a 2.59 ERA, but 5.57 FIP with a 40.9 percent fly ball rate, less-than-daunting 21.7 percent strikeout rate, and 10.9 percent walk rate.

Pirates, Todd Frazier Agree To Minor League Deal

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FEB 20: The Pirates have formally announced the signing of Frazier. He has received an invite to spring training.

FEB 19: The Pirates and veteran corner infielder Todd Frazier are in agreement on a minor league contract, longtime New York Post scribe Kevin Kernan reports (via Twitter). Kevin Williams of the Shore Sports Network writes that Frazier himself confirmed the agreement to him. Frazier, a CAA Baseball client, will head to Major League camp with the Pirates as a non-roster invitee. Frazier will earn a $1.5MM salary if he makes the club, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic tweets. The deal is pending a physical.

Frazier, who turned 35 last Friday, is a 10-year veteran who has appeared with the Reds, White Sox, Yankees, Mets and Rangers since his 2011 debut. He has consistently been an above-average producer at the plate, having slashed .242/.319/.448 (108 wRC+) with 218 home runs and 73 stolen bases in 4,909 trips. Frazier has also twice hit at least 35 homers in an individual season, earned a pair of All-Star nods and been a plus defender at third, where he has put up 20 Defensive Runs Saved and a 24.6 Ultimate Zone Rating across almost 9,100 innings at the position.

While Frazier has enjoyed an impressive career thus far, he had to settle for a minors deal with the bottom-feeding Pirates because of subpar production between the Mets and Rangers in 2020. Frazier hit a mere .236/.302/.382 (89 wRC+) with four HRs and a career-worst .146 ISO in 172 PA. Frazier also notched rather ugly Statcast numbers, evidenced in part by a .295 expected weighted on-base average that ranked in the league’s 15th percentile and barely outpaced his real wOBA of .281.

Although his production fell off last year, there’s no harm in taking a low-risk chance on Frazier from the Pirates’ perspective. Frazier could at least be a bench option for the team behind the projected third-first tandem of Ke’Bryan Hayes and Colin Moran if he earns a roster spot. If Frazier performs well in that role, the Pirates may be able to flip him elsewhere prior to the trade deadline.

Tigers Sign Ben Taylor To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed right-hander Ben Taylor to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. The club also signed righty Cale Coshow, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press tweets. Additionally, MLBTR has learned that yet another righty, Ricardo Pinto, is joining the organization.

Taylor threw 23 1/3 major league innings as a member of the Red Sox and Indians from 2017-18, in which he logged an ugly 5.40 ERA. But Taylor recorded a much more encouraging 3.94 SIERA and an above-average 24.8 percent strikeout rate during that time. The 28-year-old owns a 3.91 ERA in 126 2/3 Triple-A frames, but he struggled at that level with the Diamondbacks in 2019 and didn’t pitch professionally last season.

Coshow, also 28, is a former Yankees draft pick (13th round, 2013) who hasn’t gotten to the majors yet. He appeared in Triple-A in each season from 2017-19 and combined for a 4.89 ERA across 77 1/3 innings.

Pinto has a bit of experience in the bigs with the Phillies and Rays, with whom he posted a horrid 8.44 ERA with similarly woeful strikeout and walk percentages (15.8 and 11.9, respectively) in parts of two seasons and over 32 innings. The 27-year-old spent last season as a member of SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization, but he also had trouble keeping runs off the board there. While Pinto did amass 30 starts and 162 innings, opposing offenses lit him up for a 6.17 ERA.

Cubs Re-Sign Cameron Maybin

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The Cubs have re-signed free-agent outfielder Cameron Maybin, according to Jon Morosi of MLB.com. It’s a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, Morosi adds.

Maybin ended last year with the Cubs, who acquired him from the Tigers at the Aug. 31 trade deadline. The 33-year-old didn’t post great numbers as a Cub (.669 OPS in 56 plate appearances), but he was fairly productive in Detroit. Maybin ended the season with a .247/.307/.387 line with one home run and three stolen bases across 101 PA. Defensively, Maybin saw action at all three outfield positions, though most of his work came as a right fielder. He concluded 2020 with minus-2 Defensive Runs Saved and a plus-0.7 Ultimate Zone Rating in 209 1/3 innings.

Along with his defensive versatility, Maybin has typically provided OK offense, having hit .256/.324/.376 with 72 homers and 186 steals in 4,218 PA since he debuted in 2007. While Maybin never developed into the star many thought he would turn into when he was a prospect, he has at least been a useful reserve outfielder. However, Maybin could have his work cut out in earning a spot on a Cubs team that already has Ian Happ, Joc Pederson, Jason Heyward, Jake Marisnick and Phil Ervin among the outfielders on its 40-man roster.

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