Brewers Sign Three To Minor League Deals
The Brewers announced Thursday morning that they’ve signed catcher Jakson Reetz, outfielder Garrett Whitley and right-hander Moises Gomez to minor league contracts. All three received invitations to Major League Spring Training as well.
Reetz, 26 next month, made his big league debut with the Nationals in 2021, appearing in two games and collecting a double for his first (and, to date, only) Major League hit. A third-round pick by the Nats back in 2014, Reetz ranked among Washington’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America each year from 2015-21, topping out at No. 14 (2015-16) and ranking No. 25 heading into the 2021 season.
While he’s regarded as a solid defender thanks to his receiving and pitch-blocking skills, Reetz has yet to hit much in pro ball. He posted a combined .189/.297/.317 slash in 300 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this past season and carries a career .230/.347/.355 batting line through 472 minor league games in total. Reetz showed some promise with a .253/.370/.441 and 13 homers in High-A back in 2019, but his return to competitive play and debuts in Double-A and Triple-A this past season didn’t go well from an offensive standpoint.
Whitley, 25 in March, has an even loftier draft status. Selected with the No. 13 overall pick by the Rays back in 2015, Whitley ranked among the top-10 farmhands (per BA) in a perennially loaded Rays system each year from 2016-18. Whitley hit .255/.370/.510 and walked at a 12.6% clip in 237 Double-A plate appearances this past season, but he also whiffed in 28% of his trips to the plate at that level. He struggled mightily upon a bump to Triple-A, where he hit just .172/.269/.301 and fanned in a third of his 108 plate appearances (against a diminished 8.3% walk rate).
Like Reetz, Whitley has drawn positive reviews for his defensive skills. He’s a center fielder touted for 60- or even 70-grade speed (on the 20-80 scale) with an above-average throwing arm. Large strikeout rates have plagued him throughout his minor league tenure, even as he’s generally walked at a strong clip. In all, Whitley is a .234/.343/.407 career hitter in pro ball.
Gomez, who’ll turn 25 in February, split the 2021 season between the Mariners’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, pitching well for the former but being hit hard with the latter. The gap between Gomez’s 1.23 ERA in 29 1/3 Double-A frames and 5.94 ERA in 16 1/3 Triple-A innings might not be as great as one would expect, however.
Gomez actually posted better strikeout and walk percentages in Triple-A (23.7% and 5.3%, respectively) than in Double-A (21.2%, 5.9%). However, the righty was blown up for a sky-high .392 average on balls in play during his brief run with Triple-A Tacoma, and his left-on-base percentage fell from 87% to 57.9%. A drop of that magnitude in strand rate is only natural when so many balls in play are falling for hits. The results in Triple-A certainly don’t look appealing, but Gomez has an upper-90s heater and has never posted an ERA north of 3.30 at any minor league level outside of last year’s 13-game cup of coffee in Triple-A.
KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Sign Yasiel Puig
Free agent outfielder Yasiel Puig is in agreement with the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Yonhap News (h/t to Yonhap’s Jeeho Yoo). It’ll be a one-year, $1MM contract, the maximum amount allowed under KBO rules for first-year foreign players. (Francys Romero of Las Mayores reported yesterday that Puig was nearing agreement with a KBO team).
Puig, who turned 31 years old yesterday, hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2019. After a league average offensive showing between the Reds and Indians that year, he lingered on the free agent market for the entire offseason. Puig looked as if he’d lined up a deal with the Braves coming out of the pandemic-driven transactions freeze last July, but his potential agreement with Atlanta was scuttled after he tested positive for COVID-19.
Puig didn’t wind up playing in 2020. During the ensuing offseason, a woman filed a civil action against him, alleging that he had sexually assaulted her in 2018. In March, John Barr of ESPN detailed the allegations, which Puig and his representatives denied. Criminal charges were never filed, and the parties settled the civil case out of court this past October.
While Puig continued to express interest in a return to Major League Baseball, he spent the 2021 season in the Mexican League. The right-handed hitter signed with El Águila de Veracruz. He hit .312/.409/.517 across 247 plate appearances and 62 games. He’ll now reportedly head to South Korea for his first career action outside of North America.
Puig has appeared in seven big league seasons, including star-level showings in each of his first two years with the Dodgers. He appeared on MVP balloting in both 2013 and 2014, earning an All-Star selection in the latter of those seasons. From 2015 onwards, Puig settled in as a solid but not elite offensive player, posting slightly above-average marks until his average 2019 showing. For his career, he’s a .277/.348/.475 hitter.
Orioles Sign Jacob Nottingham To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have signed catcher Jacob Nottingham to a minor league deal, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Nottingham spent some of 2021 in the big leagues with the Brewers and Mariners but was outrighted in June, thus making him eligible to sign a minor league deal during the ongoing lockout.
Although it’s a minor league deal, it’s noteworthy for the Orioles given their catching situation. They don’t currently have any catchers on their 40-man roster. In 2021, most of the time behind the dish went to Pedro Severino, who was outrighted at the end of the season and has since signed with the Brewers. Chance Sisco got some playing time in the first half of the year but was claimed on waivers by the Mets in June. Austin Wynns and Nick Ciuffo, who were also in the mix, were both outrighted off the roster at the end of the season.
The club has the consensus top prospect in baseball, Adley Rutschman, set to debut at some point in 2022 after he finished this year in Triple-A. However, they will need some other catching options on hand to cover the position until his call-up, or to act as backup to Rutschman later in the year. That means Nottingham has a decent path to some playing time in the big leagues next year.
Nottingham, 26, was selected by the Astros in the sixth round of the 2013 draft. In 2015, he was shipped to the Athletics as part of the trade that sent Scott Kazmir to Houston. A few months later, Oakland sent him to Milwaukee as part of the Khris Davis deal. He made his MLB debut in 2018 and spent three years as a frequently-optioned depth catcher, appearing in 38 total games over the 2018-2020 campaigns.
2021 saw Nottingham be the centerpiece of a game of hot potato between the Brewers and Mariners. Having exhausted his option years, he was designated for assignment by the Brewers in April. He was claimed by the Mariners and then designated for assignment again a few days later. Seattle traded him back to Milwaukee, who designated him yet again after less than two weeks. He was claimed by the Mariners a second time and then, just over week later, designated yet again. In the middle of June, he finally cleared waivers and was outrighted.
Over the past four seasons, Nottingham has only gotten into 53 games at the big league level, hitting eight home runs and slashing .184/.277/.421 in that time, with a strikeout rate of 38.5%. In 2021, amidst all that traveling, he got 45 plate appearances over 15 games. He hit three homers and slashed .150/.222/.400, with a strikeout rate of 44.4% in that tiny sample size.
Brooks Kriske Signs With NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars have signed right-hander Brooks Kriske. (Hat tip to Sung Min Kim.) When Kriske was released by the Orioles last week, it was reported that he may have been pursuing an opportunity with a foreign club.
It’s quite common for players on the fringes of a 40-man roster to head overseas, as such opportunities can often lead to earning more than they would bouncing between the minors and the big leagues or hitting the waiver wire. A successful showing in Japan can also lead to an MLB contract in the future, as evidenced by the recent signing of Nick Martinez, who spent the past four seasons pitching in Japan but has now agreed to a four-year deal with the Padres. The ongoing lockout could also play a factor, as a player in Kriske’s shoes might prefer the certainty of having a job pinned down for 2022, as opposed to waiting for a new CBA to be signed and then scrambling to find a job in the new year.
Kriske, 27, has spent most of his career with the Yankees thus far, being drafted by them in 2016. He cracked the big leagues in 2020 but only got to throw 3 2/3 innings. He logged another 7 2/3 innings for the Yanks in 2021 before being claimed on waivers by the Orioles in September. His big league ERA is a bloated 14.40 so far, but in a small sample size of just 15 total innings. His minor league numbers are much more appealing, however. In 2021, he threw 29 1/3 Triple-A innings with an ERA of 3.68. Though his walk rate was a bit high at 12.2%, his strikeout rate was an excellent 37.4%.
Cubs Sign Stephen Gonsalves To Minor League Deal
The Cubs recently signed Stephen Gonsalves to a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. The southpaw was removed from the Red Sox’s 40-man roster in September and elected minor league free agency at the end of the season, making him eligible to sign a minors pact during the lockout.
Gonsalves made three relief appearances with Boston this past season, his first big league action in three years. A well-regarded prospect during his early days in the Twins’ system, the former fourth-round pick ran into some strike-throwing issues upon reaching Triple-A and has yet to establish himself in the majors. Between 2018 and 2021, Gonsalves has worked 29 innings across ten MLB outings, posting a 6.21 ERA/6.27 SIERA.
The Southern California native has had a lot more success preventing runs in the minors. Gonsalves owns an ERA below 3.00 at every stop through Double-A, and he sports a 3.91 mark over 198 innings at the minors’ top level.
That includes a 4.68 mark with the Red Sox’s Worcester affiliate in 2021, where Gonsalves punched out a stellar 31.2% of opponents but issued walks at an alarming 15.8% clip. He has a fair bit of experience starting in the minors and could be a depth option for the Cubs’ rotation, but the 27-year-old’s continued control problems might hint at a future as a full-time relief option.
A.J. Cole Signs With NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows have signed right-hander A.J. Cole to a one-year contract worth roughly $800.4K. Though Cole has worked almost exclusively as a reliever in recent years, the Swallows have interest in using him as a starter, as per Yahoo Japan (Japanese language link).
Cole, who turns 30 in January, signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays last winter that ended up paying him a $1MM guaranteed salary when Toronto selected him to its active roster in May. However, Cole ended up pitching just eight innings, as neck tightness and then an oblique strain resulted in a lengthy stint on the injured list.
By the time Cole’s 30-day rehab assignment period was up, the Jays opted to just outright him to Triple-A, and Cole spent the rest of September in the minors before electing free agency following the season. He’ll now head to an entirely new environment in NPB, with the intriguing prospect of reviving his fortunes as a starting pitcher.
Cole drew plenty of top-100 prospect attention during his days in the Athletics’ and Nationals’ farm systems, to the point that he was swapped back and forth between the two clubs in a pair of prominent trades. His stock dimmed after struggling in both the big leagues and at Triple-A, in large part due to an inability to limit home runs. Cole’s problems with the long ball never truly went away even after becoming a reliever in 2018, but he at least posted some decent bottom-line results and some improved strikeout numbers working out of the bullpen. After a 4.26 ERA over 38 relief innings with the Yankees in 2018, Cole posted a 3.14 ERA over 57 1/3 frames with Cleveland and Toronto in 2019-21.
Since the start of the 2017 campaign, Cole has a 4.28 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate, and a 15% home run rate. As one might expect, the move to relief pitching helped add a bit of velocity to Cole’s fastball, and he has averaged 93.8mph on his heater over the last four seasons.
NPB/KBO Signings: 12/7/21
The latest on players inking contracts with Nippon Professional Baseball or the Korea Baseball Organization…
- NPB’s Hanshin Tigers announced earlier this week that right-hander Aaron Wilkerson has been signed. Wilkerson is a veteran of three Major League seasons, posting a 6.88 ERA over 35 1/3 innings with the Brewers from 2017-19. He didn’t see any action in 2020, and after signing a minor league deal with the Dodgers last May, posted a 3.86 ERA and some very impressive strikeout (27.9%) and walk (5.4%) rates over 112 innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City. This performance didn’t get Wilkerson another look at the Show, however, and the 32-year-old will now explore this new opportunity in Japan. Wilkerson came close to signing abroad last winter, as he had a deal in place with the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s Rakuten Monkeys before ultimately opting out of the contract.
- Right-hander Albert Suarez is making the jump from Japan to South Korea, as he has signed with the KBO League’s Samsung Lions. The one-year deal will pay Suarez $700K in salary, a $100K signing bonus, and another $200K is available in contract incentives. Suarez’s MLB resume consists of 115 2/3 innings of 4.51 ball with the Giants in 2016-17, but he has pitched considerably better since joining NPB’s Yakult Swallows prior to the 2019 season. Over Suarez’s three seasons with the Swallows, he posted a 3.00 ERA over 162 innings, culminating in his role in helping the Tokyo-based team capture the Japan Series this past season.
Jose Marmolejos Signs With Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have announced the signing of outfielder/first baseman Jose Marmolejos. According to Tacoma Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto (Twitter link), “multiple Japanese teams” were scouting Marmolejos last season.
Marmolejos turns 29 in January, and is coming off a season that saw him win MVP honors in Triple-A West. Over 83 games and 353 plate appearances with the Mariners’ affiliate in Tacoma, Marmolejos hit .338/.439/.672 with 26 home runs. Between this performance and some other big numbers with the Nationals’ Triple-A club in 2019, it seems as though Marmolejos doesn’t have much left to prove at the top minor league level, though he has yet to translate that production to the majors.
Appearing in 76 games with the Mariners in 2020-21, Marmolejos has hit only .183/.262/.362 with 10 homers in 237 PA against big league pitching. Seattle designated him for assignment and outrighted him off its 40-man roster twice last season, which allowed Marmolejos to opt for free agency after the season, and he exercised that right back in October.
It’s easy to see why NPB teams would have interest in Marmolejos’ services, and with the Eagles specifically, he could slide right into the role occupied by former big leaguer Brandon Dixon in 2021. (As per reporter Jim Allen, Dixon won’t be back with the Tohuku club next year after struggling last season.) Marmolejos could be in line for regular work as a corner outfielder, and could also see time as a first baseman depending on how the Eagles align their roster.
Giants Sign Mauricio Llovera To Minor League Deal
The Giants have signed reliever Mauricio Llovera to a minor league contract, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. The right-hander elected minor league free agency at the end of the season after being outrighted off the Phillies’ 40-man roster in August, making him eligible to sign a minor league deal during the lockout.
Llovera’s stint in San Francisco will be his first outside the Philadelphia organization. The 25-year-old has appeared briefly at the big league level for the Phils in each of the last two years, tallying 7 2/3 combined innings of relief. Llovera didn’t find much success during his six MLB appearances this past season, but he averaged a solid 94.5 MPH on his four-seam fastball.
The Venezuela native hasn’t amassed much of a track record in the majors, but Llovera’s coming off a 2021 campaign in which he logged 52 Triple-A frames across 32 appearances. His 3.46 ERA with the Phillies’ top affiliate in Lehigh Valley was solid, but his 21.4% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk percentage at the level were both a bit worse than average. Nevertheless, the Giants will take a no-risk flier to see if Llovera can pitch his way into the bullpen mix over the coming months. He has one minor league option year remaining, so San Francisco can shuttle him between the majors and Triple-A Sacramento next season even if he earns a spot on the 40-man roster.
White Sox Sign Yacksel Rios To Minor League Deal
The White Sox have signed right-handed reliever Yacksel Rios to a minor league deal, according to the transaction tracker at MLB.com. The ongoing lockout and transaction freeze doesn’t prevent teams and players from agreeing to minor league contracts.
Rios was selected by the Phillies in the 12th round of the of the 2011 draft and made his major league debut with the Phils in 2017. After two-plus seasons in Philly, he was claimed on waivers by the Pirates in 2019 but was outrighted after the 2020 season. 2021 saw Rios sign a minor league deal with the Rays, get traded to Seattle, selected to the big leagues, then traded to Boston.
Overall, Rios has 96 2/3 career innings in the big leagues over the past five seasons, with a 5.77 ERA, 21% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate, all of which are a bit worse than league average. He finished 2021 on a fairly positive note, as he had an ERA of 3.70 with the Red Sox over 24 1/3 innings. However, his strikeout and walk rates still held close to his career marks, coming in at 21.4% and 14.3% during that stretch. That coincided with .169 BABIP for Rios during his time with Boston, suggesting that the low ERA likely wasn’t sustainable, and the Red Sox designated him for assignment in September.
Rios, 28, will add some depth for a White Sox bullpen that features a number of high-profile righties, headlined by Liam Hendriks, Craig Kimbrel and recent addition Kendall Graveman.