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Indians Re-Sign Mike Freeman To Minor League Deal

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The Indians announced this morning that they’ve re-signed infielder Mike Freeman to a minor league pact and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Cleveland also inked righty DJ Johnson to a minor league deal and will bring him to Major League camp.

Freeman, 33, has spent the past two seasons in the Cleveland organization, working in a utility capacity and slashing a combined .270/.352/.377 in 256 plate appearances. He’s seen time at all four infield spots and in both outfield corners along the way, with the majority of his work coming at second base and at third base. While he doesn’t have much power, Freeman has a productive track record in Triple-A and a history of average or better walk rates. He could join Yu Chang in vying for a bench spot this spring.

Johnson, meanwhile, spent the 2020 season pitching in Japan between the Hiroshima Carp and the Rakuten Eagles. He had some struggles with the Carp but did pitch to a 3.07 ERA with a 16-to-6 K/BB ratio in 14 2/3 innings with the Eagles.

Prior to that NPB stint, Johnson saw big league action with the Rockies in 2018-19, logging a 4.88 ERA and 4.93 SIERA with average strikeout and walk rates but a 14.7 percent walk rate that was far too high for sustained success. Johnson has punched out a quarter of the minor league hitters he’s faced in his career, including exactly one third of the 453 hitters he’s faced in Triple-A.

Cubs Agree To Minor League Deals With Rex Brothers, Joe Biagini

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The Cubs have agreed to a handful of minor league pacts, Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle reports in his latest minor transactions roundup. Left-hander Rex Brothers, right-hander Joe Biagini, outfielder Nick Martini and corner infielder Patrick Wisdom have all joined the organization. Presumably, they’ll all be in big league camp.

Brothers, 33, tossed 3 1/3 innings with the Cubs last year and was tagged for three runs in that time. He spent the bulk of the season at Chicago’s alternate training site. Brothers looked the part of a potential lights-out reliever early in his career, logging a 2.82 ERA and 29.2 percent strikeout rate through his first 175 2/3 innings with the Rockies in 2011-13.

Brothers struggled through a brutal 2014 season, however, and he’s only pitched sparingly in the Majors since that time (37 1/3 total innings). Overall, the lefty carries a 3.84 ERA in the big leagues, but all of his success came in that early Rockies run. He’s punched out nearly 34 percent of hitters faced in parts of six Triple-A seasons, though, and his ability to miss bats continues to intrigue teams even if it’s paired with shaky control.

Biagini, 30, had a strong rookie season with the Blue Jays as a Rule 5 pick back in 2016. Toronto tried to move him into the rotation in 2017, though, and over the next two years he struggled in that role and in a return to the bullpen.

Biagini looked to have righted the ship in 2019, pitching to a 3.78 ERA through 50 frames before being traded to the Astros alongside Aaron Sanchez, but his brief tenure in Houston proved to be a nightmare. In 19 innings from 2019-20, he yielded 22 runs on 31 hits (seven homers) and 13 walks. He’s had success out of the ’pen on multiple occasions with the Jays, and he can perhaps give Chicago some right-handed depth in that regard.

Martini, also 30, has been an OBP machine in the upper minors and even in his brief time at the MLB level. From 2018-19 between the A’s and Padres, he slashed .269/.372/.380 in 288 trips to the plate. The left-handed-hitting Martini has had similar OBP-driven value at the plate in Triple-A, where he’s a .305/.401/.435 hitter in more than 1400 plate appearances. For a Cubs team that has wanted to cut down on its strikeouts, he’s an intriguing depth option to stash in the event of an injury at the big league level. Martini has experience at all three outfield spots but has worked mostly in the corners in recent minor league seasons.

The 29-year-old Wisdom was hitless with two plate appearances as a Cub in 2020 and carries a .218/.299/.397 batting line through 88 plate appearances over the past three seasons. The longtime Cardinals prospect has shown some power at the Triple-A level but has also been prone to strikeouts there. He’s a .252/.328/.478 hitter in parts of four seasons of Triple-A ball but has experience at both first base and third base.

Josh Phegley Announces Retirement

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Backstop Josh Phegley announced today that he is hanging up his spikes. He appeared in each of the prior eight MLB campaigns.

Phegley, who’ll celebrate his 33rd birthday later this month, opened and closed his career in Chicago but spent most of his time with the Athletics. He finishes with 1,203 plate appearances of .225/.268/.381 hitting and 35 home runs.

A first-round draft pick out of Indiana, Phegley debuted with the White Sox in 2013. He had yet to fully establish himself in the majors when he was shipped to Oakland as part of a memorable swap.

Phegley launched his career with the A’s with a strong showing in 2015, when he slashed .249/.300/.449 in 73 games of action. Unfortunately, that proved to be a high-water mark. Phegley served as a reserve until 2019, when he appeared in a personal-high 106 contests and posted a .239/.282/.411 batting line with a career-best dozen long balls.

In his first trip onto the open market, Phegley settled for a minor-league deal with the Cubs. He cracked the Opening Day roster but only saw limited action. Phegley will bow out of the game now rather than battling for another opportunity. MLBTR wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

Giants To Sign Zack Littell

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The Giants have inked reliever Zack Littell to a minor-league pact, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). He’ll receive an invitation to participate in MLB camp this spring.

Littell, 25, has thrown 63 2/3 total innings over the past three seasons, recording a cumulative 4.52 ERA. He has a pedestrian 49:23 K/BB ratio in that span.

It’ll be interesting to see if Littell can regain his footing with a new organization. He produced quite promising results in 2019, but lost his roster spot with the Twins last year after five of the 31 batters he faced went deep.

Orioles Sign Felix Hernandez To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles are signing right-hander Felix Hernandez to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Hernandez will earn a $1MM salary if he gets to the majors.

Hernandez is now the most accomplished of the Orioles’ pitchers, having earned six All-Star nods and won an American League Cy Young with the Mariners from 2005-19. However, King Felix’s production waned during his last few years as a Mariner, leading the team to cut ties with him.

Hernandez signed a minors pact with the Braves going into the 2020 campaign, and he looked like a realistic rotation candidate for the club, but he wound up opting out because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Hernandez could now stand an even better chance to grab a spot in the Orioles’ starting staff. The O’s “ace” is John Means, who put up a 4.53 ERA a season ago.

Indians To Sign Bryan Shaw, Heath Hembree To Minors Deals

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Former Indians reliever Bryan Shaw is returning to the team on a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. The Indians have also added fellow righty reliever Heath Hembree on a minors pact, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Hembree will earn a $1.25MM salary and could also make incentives if he gets back to the majors.

Now 33 years old, Shaw enjoyed his best seasons as an Indian from 2013-17. He was good for 60-plus innings per season then, totaling 358 2/3 in 378 appearances, and logged a 3.11 ERA/3.41 SIERA with a 22.5 percent strikeout rate and an 8.0 percent walk rate. Shaw parlayed that success into a three-year, $27MM guarantee with the Rockies, but his career has gone off the rails since then. He struggled mightily with the Rox and Mariners from 2018-20 and had been on the open market since October.

Hembree did well to prevent runs with the Red Sox from 204-19, but they traded him to the Phillies last August amid what was a rough season for the 32-year-old. He ended the campaign with 19 innings and a horrid 9.00 ERA (albeit with a much better 4.47 SIERA), after which the Phillies let him go.

Nationals Sign Gerardo Parra To Minor League Contract

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The Nationals have signed outfielder Gerardo Parra to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. He’ll earn a $1MM salary if he makes the majors, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

Parra has appeared with seven teams in the majors since debuting in 2009. He was most recently a member of the Nationals and Giants in 2019, when he batted .234/.293/.391 with nine home runs and eight stolen bases in 301 plate appearances. Parra became a fan favorite in Washington that year for his “Baby Shark” theme when he came to the plate. The Nationals, of course, won the World Series that season, though Parra hasn’t been in the majors since then. He spent last year with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

As a major leaguer, the 33-year-old Parra has batted .276/.323/.404 with 88 home runs and 96 stolen bases over 5,183 plate appearances. Parra has played every outfield position in the bigs, so he’ll now vie for a role as a backup to Nats starters Juan Soto, Victor Robles and Kyle Schwarber.

Angels Claim Robel Garcia

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The Angels announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder Robel Garcia off waivers from the Mets, who designated him for assignment Monday to clear roster space for trade acquisition Jordan Yamamoto. The Angels’ 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

The 27-year-old Garcia took an unconventional route (to say the least) to his 2019 Major League debut with the Cubs. The former Indians farmhand was out of affiliated ball from 2014-18 before the Cubs caught a look at him playing for a professional team in Italy. They brought him in on a minor league pact, and Garcia hit the ground running in Double-A. He earned a promotion to Triple-A after just 92 plate appearances and showed off mammoth power between those two levels, slugging 27 long balls in just 388 trips to the plate.

It took Garcia all of 98 games between Double-A and Triple-A to earn a call to the big leagues. In the span of a calendar year, he went from playing in the Italian Baseball League to starting at second base for the Cubs.

The Cubs gave Garcia 80 plate appearances in 2019. He responded with a tepid .208 average and .275 on-base percentage but still slugged .500 thanks to five homers, two doubles and two triples in that short time. Garcia also punched out in 35 of those 80 plate appearances, so while the raw power he possesses is plain to see, there’s some obvious work to be done on his approach at the plate. He still has a minor league option remaining, so the Angels can shuttle him between Triple-A and the Majors if he makes it to the end of Spring Training still on the 40-man roster.

Red Sox Designate Joel Payamps For Assignment

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The Red Sox have designated right-hander Joel Payamps for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Garrett Richards, whose previously reported one-year deal is now official after he passed his physical.

The 26-year-old Payamps was claimed off waivers out of the D-backs organization earlier in the winter and has not pitched in a game for the Red Sox. Payamps, who has just seven Major League innings under his belt, pitched just three innings in the Major Leagues with the D-backs in 2020 and otherwise spent the year at the team’s alternate training site.

In his last minor league action, Payamps struggled in a hitter-friendly setting with Triple-A Reno in the Pacific Coast League but was solid in Double-A Jackson in both 2018 and 2019. He’s worked as both a starter and a reliever in the minors, and he has a minor league option remaining for the upcoming 2021 season, which could lead to some interest from another club on the waiver wire. Boston will have a week to trade Payamps, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Red Sox Sign Garrett Richards

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Feb. 3: The Red Sox have formally announced the signing. Richards will earn $8.5MM in 2021, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link), and he has a $1.5MM buyout on the 2022 club option. The value of that option increases by $250K for reaching 20 and 25 games started, and would increase by an additional $500K if Richards starts 30 games. Richards, it should be noted, has made 30 starts just once in his career and has only reached 20 starts in a season on two occasions. His 2022 base salary would also increase by $500K if he’s traded.

Jan. 23: The Red Sox and right-hander Garrett Richards have agreed to a one-year, $10MM deal, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  The contract also includes a club option for 2022 that is also worth $10MM, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier (Twitter links), with escalators that could increase both the base value of the option beyond $10MM, and also increase the value of the buyout.  The deal will become official once Richards passes a physical.  Richards is represented by ISE Baseball.

Reports circulated yesterday that Richards and the Sox were making progress towards an agreement, and with Richards now in the fold, Boston has taken another big step towards strengthening its rotation.  Martin Perez was also re-signed last week, and between Richards, Perez, and swingman Matt Andriese, the Red Sox have added some veteran arms to the rotation mix and pushed some less-experienced arms (i.e. Tanner Houck, Chris Mazza) further down the depth chart.

Garrett RichardsOf course, the 32-year-old Richards also cannot be called an entirely sure thing, as he is less than two years removed from a Tommy John surgery that wiped out much of his 2019 season.  Richards did post some solid results in 2020, however, delivering a 4.03 ERA, 21.6K%, and 13.6K-BB% over 51 1/3 innings for the Padres, starting 10 games before being moved to the bullpen for his final four regular-season outings in anticipation for the playoffs.

Richards did have a 4.55 SIERA last year, and his Statcast numbers aren’t much to write home about apart from two key categories — a 99th percentile curveball spin rate, and a 97th percentile spin rate on his fastball.  Those types of elite metrics could hint at Richards reaching another level of production under the guidance of a more analytical front office and coaching staff, like the one chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has assembled in Boston.

Perhaps moreso than unlocking spin-rate potential, the biggest issue facing Richards and the Red Sox is just how much durability can be expected from a pitcher who has thrown only 198 2/3 total innings since the start of the 2016 season.  In this sense, Richards becomes another injury question mark on a team that already has Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez as its top two starters until Chris Sale makes his expected midseason return from his own Tommy John surgery.  The presence of Houck, Andriese, Mazza, Nick Pivetta and company allows the Sox some flexibility in the event of an injury, and if everyone is healthy, the club can get creative in resting pitchers or moving spot starters into the rotation to keep everyone fresh.

With Richards and the newly-signed Enrique Hernandez now on the books, the Red Sox have a projected (as per Roster Resource) luxury tax number of just under $198.5MM, putting them within shouting distance of the $210MM tax threshold.  If the Sox wish to stay under the threshold, some creativity may be required in carving out more payroll space, which could be part of the reason Andrew Benintendi’s name has been floated in trade speculation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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