Braves Sign Preston Tucker To Minor League Deal
The Braves have signed Preston Tucker to a minor league contract, according to an announcement from Double-A broadcaster Chris Harris (on Twitter). It’ll be the second stint in the organization for the now 31-year-old outfielder, who appeared in 80 games with the Braves back in 2018.
That stint marked Tucker’s most recent as a major leaguer. He preceded his younger brother Kyle Tucker in the Astros outfield, breaking in with Houston in 2015. The elder Tucker hit a serviceable .243/.297/.437 as a rookie, but he mustered only a .164/.222/.328 mark in 48 games the following season. After spending the entire 2017 campaign in Triple-A, Tucker split the 2018 season between the Reds and Braves.
Over parts of three MLB seasons, the left-handed hitter owns a .222/.281/.403 line. In 2019, he made the jump to the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, kicking off a productive three-year run there. Tucker was one of the better players in the KBO during each of his first two seasons, following up a .311/.381/.479 debut showing with an even better .306/.398/.557 line in 2020.
Tucker’s production fell during his final season with the Gwangju-based Tigers. He managed just nine homers and a .113 isolated power (slugging minus batting average) in 539 plate appearances last season. His strikeout and walk numbers remained impressive, but Tucker’s results on batted balls evaporated en route to a .237/.334/.350 line. Nevertheless, Tucker still had a quality .284/.372/.466 mark in three KBO seasons.
He’ll now make the return to affiliated ball in hopes of getting back to the majors for the first time in four years. He’s strictly a corner outfield option, and the Braves already have Adam Duvall, Marcell Ozuna, Eddie Rosario and Alex Dickerson likely to receive playing time there. Travis Demeritte and the center field-capable Guillermo Heredia and Drew Waters are also on the 40-man roster (as, of course, is star Ronald Acuña Jr.). Tucker likely slots behind that group on the organizational depth chart, but he’ll have an opportunity to try to his play his way onto the radar with a productive high minors showing.
Sandy Leon Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With Guardians
Veteran catcher Sandy León has triggered an opt-out clause in his minor-league deal with the Guardians after being informed he would not make the Opening Day roster, tweets Zack Meisel of the Athletic. He’ll return to the open market.
It’s not uncommon to see non-roster veteran players either trigger opt-outs or request their release late in spring camp after being informed they won’t make the big league club. Most veterans of León’s ilk would prefer to scour the market to see if a more immediate big league opportunity awaits rather than head to Triple-A.
That said, León’s opt-out comes as a bit of a surprise — not that he didn’t accept a Triple-A assignment, but that he didn’t break camp with the major league team. The 33-year-old had seemed the favorite for the #2 catching job behind Austin Hedges to start the year. Luke Maile is expected to open the season on the injured list due to a strained left hamstring. That leaves 23-year-old Bryan Lavastida as the only other healthy backstop on the 40-man roster.
The Guardians could roll with Lavastida as Hedges’ backup, but he has just 36 games of experience above A-ball in his professional career. Cleveland’s #16 prospect according to Baseball America, Lavastida is a fairly well-regarded young player, but he’d probably stand to benefit from a few more reps against high minors pitching. León’s release leaves just organizational veteran Mike Rivera and 22-year-old prospect Bo Naylor — both of whom are coming off rough minor league seasons — as non-roster invitees in MLB camp. The Guardians could still look to acquire another veteran backstop via waivers or minor trade in the next week, but it seems as though Lavastida is now the favorite to break camp behind Hedges.
León, meanwhile, heads back to free agency in search of a new landing spot. He’s offered very little at the plate in recent seasons, but he’s earned a big league look in ten straight years based on his acumen behind the dish. León is coming off a .183/.237/.267 showing in 220 plate appearances with the Marlins.
Angels Sign Wander Suero To Minor League Deal
The Angels have signed former Nationals righty Wander Suero to a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. The REP1 Baseball client will provide the Halos with an experienced option to carry in Triple-A.
Suero, 30, is a veteran of four big league seasons, all with the Nats. He at times looked like a potential key piece in Washington but has yet to find the consistency needed to solidify himself at the big league level. Suero has twice posted sub-4.00 ERAs (2018, 2020), and he’s generally racked up strikeouts and limited walks at better-than-average levels.
Home runs, however, became a glaring issue for Suero in 2021, when he served up a whopping 11 round-trippers in just 42 2/3 innings (2.38 HR/9). That only exacerbated a longstanding issue in stranding baserunners, which he did at just a 59.7% clip in 2021. Suero ultimately yielded a 6.33 ERA last year, and the Nationals opted to non-tender him at the end of November rather than pay him a raise in arbitration.
Even with last year’s rough showing, however, Suero has a career 4.61 ERA with even better marks in FIP (3.80) and SIERA (3.78). He’s whiffed 25.4% of the opponents he’s faced in the big leagues against a solid 8.4% walk rate. He’s not a flamethrower, averaging just over 92 mph on his go-to cutter, but Suero possesses strong spin rates on both his fastball and curveball. And, prior to the 2021 season, he consistently limited hard contact at rates well better than the league average.
Suero has three years and 110 days of big league service time, so if he does make it to the big leagues with the Angels this season, he can be controlled for multiple years via arbitration.
Twins Sign Jake Petricka To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed veteran right-hander Jake Petricka to a minor league deal, tweets Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. It’ll be a homecoming for the Northfield, Minn. native and Fairbault High School grad.
Petricka, 33, appeared in seven games with the Angels last season but yielded 10 runs on six hits and seven walks with eight strikeouts through six innings of relief. It was a brief stay in his return to the big leagues, as he was designated for assignment about three weeks after being selected to the Major League roster.
Last year’s rough showing notwithstanding, Petricka has a decent big league track record. From 2013-17 with the White Sox, he logged 178 innings of 3.84 ERA ball while serving as a regular member of their middle- and late-inning relief corps. He underwent an ulnar nerve transposition procedure and a debridement of the flexor tendon in his right forearm and elbow following the 2017 campaign, however, and he’s bounced around the league a fair bit since.
The Twins will be Petricka’s fifth organization since that 2017 surgery, as he’s also spent time with the Blue Jays, Brewers, Rangers and Angels. He has just 59 2/3 innings under his belt since the 2018 season kicked off, during which time he’s been tagged for a 5.43 ERA. Petricka did post decent numbers in Triple-A last season, however, and he sports a career 59% ground-ball rate in 237 2/3 Major League frames. He’ll give the Twins some experienced bullpen depth to stash in Triple-A St. Paul to begin the season.
Brock Holt Granted Release From Braves
The Braves announced this morning that veteran utilityman Brock Holt requested and was granted his release. He’d been in camp on a minor league deal in hopes of winning a roster spot in Atlanta but will now return to the open market in search of a new opportunity.
It’s common for veteran players to exercise out clauses and/or request their release in this manner late in Spring Training. Manager Brian Snitker tells reporters that Holt had been informed he would not make the team (Twitter link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and the club honored his request to explore other options. Veterans Phil Gosselin and Pat Valaika are still vying for a utility spot, Toscano adds.
Holt, 33, spent the 2021 season with the Rangers and appeared in 77 games, batting .209/.281/.298 in 260 trips to the plate. That rough season continued a downturn at the plate that began in 2020, but Holt still isn’t too far removed from a productive 2018-19 stretch in Boston that saw him slash .286/.366/.407 in a larger sample of 662 plate appearances.
A left-handed hitter known for his defensive versatility, Holt’s jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none skill set has found him consistent opportunities at the big league level dating back to 2014. He’s played every position on the diamond with the exception of catcher, including 2 1/3 innings on the mound. Holt’s work in center field is limited to just 75 innings, but beyond that he’s played at least 224 innings in both outfield corners and at all four infield slots.
With rosters expanding to 28 players for the early portion of the season, a versatile veteran with Holt’s overall track record at the plate — he’s a .262/.332/.362 hitter in 2661 MLB plate appearances — ought to have interest from other clubs. For what it’s worth, he went 3-for-9 with a home run, a double and a walk in his limited time with the Braves this spring.
Twins Sign JC Ramirez To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed veteran right-hander JC Ramirez to a minor league contract, as first reported by Edgard Rodriguez, who covers baseball in Ramirez’s native Nicaragua. He’ll be in camp for the remainder of Spring Training, though Rodriguez adds that Ramirez is expected to begin the year in Triple-A.
Ramirez, 33, is a veteran of six Major League seasons, most of which came with the Angels. After initially joining the Angels via a 2016 waiver claim, Ramirez quickly solidified his spot on their roster, first with a strong showing out of the bullpen in 46 1/3 innings during the 2016 season and then as a member of the rotation in 2017, when he made 24 starts and racked up 147 1/3 innings. From 2016-17 with Anaheim, Ramirez worked to a 3.86 ERA with a 16.7% strikeout rate, a 7.6% walk rate and a big 52.1% ground-ball rate.
Unfortunately for both Ramirez and the Angels, that solid 2017 season ended in August when he was diagnosed with an elbow strain. Ramirez returned early in the 2018 season in hopes that an offseason’s worth of downtime had resolved the issue, but he was hit hard in his first two starts of the season. Ramirez went back to the injured list, and Tommy John surgery was recommended in early April. He missed the remainder of the 2018 campaign and a notable chunk of the 2019 season, although he did make it back to the mound for eight relief innings in the second half of that ’19 campaign.
Ramirez was removed from the Angels’ 40-man roster late in the 2019 season and elected minor league free agency after the year, though he was set to return to the organization as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training 2020. He’d hoped to vie for a roster spot, but Spring Training 2020 was ultimately canceled during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ramirez pitched in the Mexican Winter League in both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, logging a combined 2.61 ERA in 82 2/3 innings over 13 starts. He spent the 2021 season pitching first in the Mexican League and then with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. In 57 2/3 innings CPBL innings, Ramirez posted a 3.43 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate.
The Twins entered the offseason with a notable need in the rotation and have thus far added Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy on the Major League side of things. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey said after signing Archer this week that while the Twins remain open to additional trade scenarios, the limited time remaining between now and next Thursday’s season opener (plus the generally limited supply of available big league starters) might mean Archer was the final big league piece added.
If that’s indeed the case, the depth options the Twins have — both in terms of veterans like Ramirez and upper-level prospects like Josh Winder, Jordan Balazovic, Cole Sands and more — will prove all the more important this season.
Cardinals Outright Johan Quezada
MARCH 30: St. Louis announced that Quezada has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Double-A Springfield (h/t to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). He doesn’t have the requisite service time to refuse an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization.
MARCH 29: The Cardinals have designated right-hander Johan Quezada for assignment, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His roster spot will go to Albert Pujols, whose one-year deal to return home to St. Louis is now official.
Originally an international signee with the Twins back in 2012, Quezada didn’t surface in the Majors until 2020, after he’d signed with the Marlins as a minor league free agent and found himself selected to the MLB roster that summer. He tallied just three innings of work and yielded three runs — all coming on one swing of the bat from Rafael Devers. He’s since bounced to the Phillies and the Cardinals via waivers.
Although it’s been nine years since the now 27-year-old Quezada signed his first professional contract with the Twins, he’s been limited to just 207 innings between the minors and the big leagues. That’s partly due to his work in short relief stints but also due to various injuries and the absence of a 2020 minor league season. Quezada averaged better than 97 mph on his heater in his brief Major League look with Miami, but command issues have plagued him throughout his minor league career, where he’s walked more than 16% of his opponents.
Last season, Quezada split his time between the Cardinals’ Triple-A, Double-A and Rookie-level affiliates while spending considerable time on the minor league 60-day IL. He logged 24 innings when healthy but posted just a 6.38 ERA in that time. That said, Quezada fanned a quarter of his opponents, walked a much-improved 8.0% of them and posted huge ground-ball rates that generally align with his career mark of 56.7%. The Cardinals will have a week to trade Quezada, place him on outright waivers, or release him.
Brewers Select Jose Urena To Major League Roster
March 30: The Brewers have already selected Urena to the 40-man roster. McCalvy tweets that the initial structuring of the contract as a minor league pact was largely a mechanism to get Urena into camp and perform a closer evaluation of the right-hander. President of baseball operations David Stearns tells reporters that the club views Urena as more of a long reliever than a starter at present (video link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Jounal-Sentinel). He stopped short of declaring Urena a lock to make the Opening Day roster, but the right-hander is out of minor league options, so that seems likely, barring an unexpected health setback.
March 29: The Brewers announced this evening they’ve signed right-hander José Ureña to a minor league contract. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters he’ll receive an invite to big league Spring Training (via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com).
Ureña has seen a fair bit of rotation work in each of the past seven seasons. The native of the Dominican Republic spent the first six campaigns of his big league career with the Marlins. He never posted overwhelming strikeout totals, but he was consistently solid at keeping the ball on the ground and posted back-to-back sub-4.00 ERA seasons in 2017-18.
The lack of swing-and-miss has caught up to Ureña in recent years, however. He’s posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the last three seasons, two in Miami and last year with the Tigers. Ureña soaked up 100 2/3 innings for Detroit, but he managed just a 5.81 ERA with a 14.7% strikeout rate that’s about eight percentage points below the league average.
To his credit, Ureña did manage a career-best 52% grounder rate with the Tigers. He averaged just under 94 MPH on his sinker, and he’s held right-handed opponents to a modest .248/.320/.385 line over the course of his career. That could make Ureña a capable multi-inning relief option if Milwaukee considers deploying him in that role.
The Brewers have arguably baseball’s best starting staff, so the bullpen figures to provide Ureña a cleaner path to the big league roster. Milwaukee is set to open the season with a top five of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser and Eric Lauer, and top prospect Aaron Ashby seems to be next in line for rotation innings.
Padres Trade James Norwood To Phillies
The Phillies have acquired right-hander James Norwood from the Padres in exchange for minor league infielder Kervin Pichardo and cash, according to announcements from both teams. San Diego designated Norwood for assignment earlier this week.
Norwood, 28, tossed five scoreless innings of relief for the Friars last season and has 27 total innings of Major League work under his belt dating back to his 2018 debut with the Cubs. He’s logged a 3.67 ERA, albeit with a below-average 18.5% strikeout rate and a bloated 13.1% walk rate.
Norwood has a decent overall track record in Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 4.05 ERA in parts of three seasons. He whiffed 37.2% of his opponents in 44 2/3 Triple-A frames this past season, which surely held some appeal to the Phils. Norwood is out of minor league options, meaning he’ll need to either break camp with the Phils or be designated for assignment once again. Given that Philadelphia sent a minor leaguer to the Padres, as opposed to a simple cash transaction or waiver claim, it would seem Norwood has a decent shot of being included in Philadelphia’s Opening Day relief corps.
As for the 20-year-old Pichardo, he’s a Bronx native who joined the Phillies in June 2019 as an undrafted free agent. He spent most of his time at shortstop after signing in ’19 but played more third base in 2021. Pichardo logged just 35 total games across three levels last year and batted .247/.476/.466 with two homers, six doubles, two triples, two steals and a 32-to-28 K/BB ratio in 105 plate appearances.
Blue Jays To Sign Dexter Fowler
The Blue Jays are expected to sign veteran center fielder Dexter Fowler to a minor league deal with an invite to the remainder of Major League Spring Training, tweets Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. Sportsnet’s Arash Madani first noted that Fowler, a client of Excel Sports Management, had a locker set up in the Jays’ clubhouse.
Fowler, who turned 36 last week, spent the 2021 season as a member of the Angels organization but played in only seven games. The Halos acquired the veteran switch-hitter from the Cardinals in a surprising February trade, but Fowler suffered a torn ACL in early April that required season-ending surgery. He went 5-for-20 in 21 plate appearances prior to the injury.
It’s been several years since Fowler has been at his best. Following an All-Star 2016 season with the Cubs, he signed a five-year, $82.5MM contract with the Cardinals to taake over as their primary center fielder. Fowler kicked that contract off with a strong 2017 season, hitting .264/.363/.488 with 18 homers, 22 doubles and nine triples but was limited to 118 games (wrist strain, bone spurs in his heel). His offense cratered the following season in a disappointing season that culminated with Fowler missing the final two months of play due to a broken foot. Fowler rebounded to an extent in 2019 when he posted a .238/.346/.409 batting line (103 wRC+) in 574 trips to the plate. He had another unspectacular season at the plate in 2020 before last year’s injury-ruined campaign.
All told, Fowler played in just 396 games and batted .234/.334/.406 through 1521 plate appearances over the life of that five-year contract — a signing the Cardinals surely regret. It’s a far cry from the .270/.370/.436 output that Fowler logged in his 2011-17 peak.
The Jays will hope that a healthier Fowler can play his way into a bench role and hit closer to that 2011-17 form than he did in 2018-21. Toronto’s outfield is quite full, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr., George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Raimel Tapia all locked into spots. Fowler has been better as a right-handed hitter than as a left-handed hitter throughout his career, but he still sports a respectable .251/.352/.416 slash when batting from the left side of the dish.
If he can prove his health and impress with the bat, Fowler would give the Jays some extra depth in their outfield mix, even if he has to start the season in Triple-A Buffalo. Gurriel, Hernandez and Springer have all had multiple stints on the IL over the past few seasons, so there’s little harm in stashing a veteran who can help to balance the lineup and serve as an option at all three outfield slots.