Rays Select Four Players
The Rays announced that they’ve added four players to their 40-man roster. The players being added are infielder Jonathan Aranda, infielder/catcher Ford Proctor, and right-handed pitchers Calvin Faucher and Tommy Romero. Following some earlier trades today, the roster is now full at 40 players.
None of this group cracked the Rays’ midseason top 30 prospects at Baseball America. Tampa Bay’s farm system is one of the league’s deepest, though, and it stands to reason clubs would’ve had interest in even some of the lower-ranked names in the organization.
Proctor, 24, is a former third-round pick who has posted strong minor league numbers over his pro career. He hit .244/.381/.419 in 381 Double-A plate appearances this past season. Perhaps most interestingly, he saw significant work behind the plate in addition to his customary middle infield role. Aranda mashed at a .325/.410/.540 clip over 322 Double-A plate appearances while playing all over the infield.
Faucher and Romero have both missed plenty of bats in the high minors. The former, who works primarily as a reliever, was acquired from the Twins as part of the Nelson Cruz trade this summer. The latter came over from the Mariners in 2018 as part of the Denard Span deal.
Rangers Outright Kyle Cody, Edwar Colina
The Rangers announced they’ve selected the contracts of infielder Ezequiel Duran and right-handers Ronny Henriquez and Ricky Vanasco. Additionally, righties Kyle Cody and Edwar Colina have cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Round Rock.
Duran was among the most important pickups from the Yankees in this past summer’s Joey Gallo trade. Baseball America ranked him fifth in the Texas system midseason, praising his bat-to-ball skills and power. The 22-year-old struggled with the Rangers after a scorching start in the Yankees’ system, but he always seemed like a lock to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. The Dominican Republic native hit .267/.342/.486 over 471 plate appearances at High-A this past season. Duran hasn’t yet reached Double-A, so he’s likely to spend most or all of next season in the minors.
Henriquez and Vansaco appeared on the back half of BA’s midseason top 30 Rangers’ prospects. Henriquez split the 2021 campaign between High-A and Double-A, struggling with home runs but posting quality strikeout and walk numbers at the latter stop. Vansaco missed the year recovering from Tommy John surgery but is regarded as a potential mid-rotation starter.
Neither Cody nor Colina have the service time to reject an outright assignment, so both will remain in the organization as non-roster depth. Cody owns a 3.71 ERA/4.58 SIERA over 34 major league innings since the start of 2020. Colina has pitched in just one MLB game and was recently claimed off waivers from the Twins.
Guardians Designate Seven Players For Assignment
The Guardians announced Friday that they’ve designated outfielders Daniel Johnson and Harold Ramirez; righties Justin Garza and J.C. Mejia; and lefties Kyle Nelson, Alex Young and Scott Moss for assignment.
Cleveland also added a whopping 10 players to the 40-man roster, headlined by top prospects Tyler Freeman and George Valera. Also added to the 40-man roster are Brayan Rocchio, Richie Palacios, Steven Kwan, Jose Tena, Cody Morris, Bryan Lavastida, Konnor Pilkington and Jhonkensy Noel.
Finally, the Guardians have also acquired right-hander Tobias Myers from the Rays in exchange for minor league infielder Junior Caminero, tweets FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen. Myers will also be added to the 40-man roster.
Johnson and Ramirez have been part of a revolving door in an uncertain Cleveland outfield in recent seasons. Neither has hit well enough to lock down a permanent roster spot, although Ramirez did start more than half the team’s games in 2021. Ramirez would have the right to elect minor league free agency if he clears waivers.
Mejia logged significant action as a depth starter this year but struggled. Garza, Nelson and Young saw some bullpen work, while Moss has yet to make it to the major leagues.
The massive turnover highlights the high minors depth Cleveland has stockpiled in recent seasons. The selection of ten prospects is highly atypical, but it’s a testament to the Guardians’ scouting and development staffs that they’ve managed to accumulate so much talent they’re afraid other teams might jump on. That’s particularly true on the position player side, with much of this group being hitters with advanced bat-to-ball skills who could factor onto the big league roster in relatively short order.
Freeman, Valera and Rocchio might be the most notable. All three appeared on FanGraphs’ Top 100 list entering the 2021 season. They’ve all topped out at Double-A Akron, where each posted above-average offensive performances despite being 22 years old or younger. Valera plays center field, while Freeman and Rocchio are middle infielders. Palacios is another infielder with great high minors numbers, while Lavastida is regarded as one of the better catching prospects in the minors.
Orioles Select DL Hall, Five Others
The Baltimore Orioles have added 6 players to their 40-man roster, the club announced. The names making their way to the roster include left-handed pitchers DL Hall and Kevin Smith, right-handed pitchers Félix Bautista, Kyle Bradish, and Logan Gillaspie, and infielder Terrin Vavra. These additions bring Baltimore’s roster up to just shy of full capacity, at 39 players.
A starting pitcher, DL Hall has been a frequenter of top prospect lists for a few years now in the Baltimore organization. The former first-rounder dominated in his first taste of Double-A in 2021, pitching to a 3.13 ERA with a ludicrous 43.8% of batters striking out against him through 31+ innings. The 22-year-old incurred a left elbow injury that ended his season prematurely, however.
Fellow left-hander Kevin Smith had a mixed season in 2021, flashing strong strikeout (35% strikeout rate) and run prevention numbers (1.34 ERA) in 26 Double-A innings but struggling upon promotion to Triple-A. MLB.com projects Smith as a serviceable Major League-caliber pitcher in the future, but he’ll first have to iron out the rough control issues (17.9% walk rate) that spoiled his Triple-A season.
The 26-year-old Bautista saw his stock sore after a brilliant 2021 season across three levels. Altogether, the right-handed reliever posted a minuscule 1.54 ERA through Triple-A, striking out droves at each level and surrendering just two home runs in 46 innings. If there was one nit to pick, it would be that Bautista’s command was wobbly, as his walk-rate rose as high as 19.3% at the Double-A level.
Right-handed starter Kyle Bradish followed a similar trend as the two most previously listed pitchers, as he dominated in Double-A before coming back to earth a bit after a promotion to the next level. After striking out nearly two batters in inning in 13+ scoreless Double-A frames, Bradish struggled to miss bats or hit the strike zone as often in Triple-A, putting up 4.26 ERA in 86 innings. All told the 25-year-old pitched to a 3.68 ERA and may find himself making his debut for a pitching-strapped Orioles squad in the near future.
Logan Gillaspie, a catcher-turned-reliever out of indie ball, pitched to a 4.97 ERA across 41 innings as he climbed to Double-A for the first time. That ERA may not be the best indicator of Gillaspie’s skills however, as the 24-year-old had a strikeout rate just under 30% to go with above average command and groundball-inducing abilities.
Terrin Vavra is last on the list, as the 24-year-old second baseman is being protected on the heels of a .275/.406/.449 showing. Injuries allowed Vavra to play in just 48 games during the 2021 season, but his patience and ability to play center field in a pinch clearly drew the favor of Baltimore evaluators.
Yankees Designate Clint Frazier, Rougned Odor And Tyler Wade For Assignment
The Yankees announced they’ve designated Clint Frazier, Rougned Odor and Tyler Wade for assignment. The moves create roster space for the selections of prospects Oswaldo Cabrera, Ron Marinaccio, Everson Pereira, Stephen Ridings and JP Sears to the 40-man roster. That keeps all five from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.
Frazier and Wade are arbitration-eligible, but the Yankees evidently determined they weren’t going to bring either player back. It’s easy to envision both attracting interest over the coming days, and New York will ten days to explore offers.
Frazier was a middle-of-the-order presence as recently as last year, when he mashed at a .267/.394/.511 clip. That came in a small sample of 160 plate appearances during a truncated season, but it was the kind of offensive upside talent evaluators have lauded for the former #5 overall pick. While Frazier’s a limited defensive player with swing-and-miss concerns, he also flashed a tantalizing blend of raw power and plate discipline.
The 2021 season was a disaster, though. Not only did the 27-year-old’s line fall to a miserly .186/.317/.317, he didn’t play past the end of June due to recurring vertigo-like symptoms. It’s certainly not how either he or the team would’ve envisioned his time in pinstripes coming to an end.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Frazier for a modest $2.4MM salary if he were to proceed through the arbitration process. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see another team roll the dice on his upside for that affordable sum, either via trade or waiver claim. If Frazier were to clear waivers, he’d have the right to elect minor league free agency.
That’s also the case for Wade, who’s projected for an affordable $700K arb salary. The 26-year-old doesn’t bring much power potential, but he draws a fair amount of walks, runs well and can handle multiple positions. Wade is coming off a .268/.354/.323 showing in 145 plate appearances, and it’d register as a surprise if he didn’t land elsewhere in the coming days.
The Yankees swung a deal to acquire Odor from the Rangers just before the start of the 2021 season. While the left-handed hitter had some timely hits, his overall production was lackluster. Odor managed just a .202/.286/.379 mark over 361 plate appearances. The 27-year-old will be guaranteed $12MM next season, the final year of his contract. Texas remains on the hook for essentially all of that sum, so any team that acquires Odor would only owe him the league minimum salary.
Turning to the prospects involved, Ridings may be the best known. The big right-hander already made his MLB debut this past season as a COVID replacement. While he only worked five innings of relief, he looked like a potential late-game weapon. Ridings averaged 97 MPH on his fastball and generated whiffs on a massive 18.9% of his offerings. The 26-year-old also posted dominant numbers in the high minors.
Cabrera is the highest-regarded of the group, according to Baseball America. BA’s #8 organizational farmhand, Cabrera is coming off a solid .256/.311/.492 showing with 24 homers over 478 plate appearances at Double-A Somerset. He’s regarded as a high-end defensive infielder with strong bat-to-ball skills and burgeoning power.
Pereira, a lefty-hitting center fielder, was limited to 221 low minors plate appearances by injuries. The 20-year-old probably isn’t a near-term big league option, but the Yankees didn’t want to chance another team taking a shot on his upside. A highly-regarded amateur coming out of Venezuela in 2017, he raked at a .303/.398/.686 clip when healthy enough to take the field this year. Neither Sears nor Marinaccio has ever made an organizational ranking at FanGraphs or BA, but both posted strong numbers in the high minors and could be big league options in 2022.
Diamondbacks Announce Several Roster Moves
The Diamondbacks announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of utilityman Cooper Hummel, outfielder Kristian Robinson and righty Ryan Weiss to the 40-man roster. In a trio of corresponding moves, the D-backs passed lefty Miguel Aguilar, righty Kevin Ginkel and right-hander Riley Smith through waivers and outrighted them to Triple-A Reno.
The 26-year-old Hummel came over to Arizona from Milwaukee in this summer’s Eduardo Escobar trade and has done nothing but rake in his new organization. In 92 Triple-A games, split at 46 apiece between both teams, Hummel mashed for to the tune of .311/.432/.546 with 12 home runs. Perhaps most impressively, Hummel managed that level of production while walking (63) more times than he struck out (61). The 18th-rounder has gradually started to cede playing time behind the plate due to subpar receiving abilities, but after seeing action at both infield and outfield corners this past season he should have plenty of avenues to crack the Major League roster soon.
Kristian Robinson’s selection to the team’s roster has more to do with the 20-year-old’s top prospect status than it does with any recent performance. Coming into the season, the young outfielder was ranked as high as the 15th best prospect in the game by Baseball Prospectus, achieving that distinction without the benefit of a full season of A-level ball.
However, Robinson’s status is complicated by legal issues that could impact his visa status. In August, Robinson — a native of the Bahamas — pled guilty to an assault charge that could impact his ability to renew his work visa in the United States. Zach Buchanan of the Athletic covers Robinson’s situation in a detailed piece that’s well worth a read in full. Both the organization and Robinson’s attorney remain hopeful that his immigration status will be resolved in his favor now that he’s completed the community service to which he’d been sentenced as part of his plea agreement.
Robinson did not play in 2021. Now that he’s been added to the roster to keep him from selection in the Rule 5 draft, he’ll revert to the major league restricted list, general manager Mike Hazen told reporters (including Buchanan). He won’t count against the 40-man roster while he’s on the restricted list.
A 4th-rounder back in 2018, Ryan Weiss made his Double-A and Triple-A debuts this season. Across 78 innings between the two levels Weiss pitched to a 4.60 ERA, seeing action out of both the rotation and bullpen. The 24-year-old struck out roughly 27% of opposing batters but will need to tamp down on the number of baserunners he allowed in Triple-A before Arizona can count on him as a member of their pitching staff.
After a layoff in 202o the left-handed Aguilar struggled in his first Triple-A and big league look, posting ERAs north of 5 at both levels. Right-hander Kevin Ginkel wasn’t able to replicate the success he found in Arizona’s 2019 pen, pitching to a 6.35 ERA in 28 innings. It was a similar story for the right-handed Riley Smith, who spun 18+ innings of 1.47 ERA ball last season before struggling to the tune of a 6.01 ERA in 67 innings this year.
Pirates Designate Michael Perez For Assignment
The Pirates announced they’ve selected four prospects — infielder Liover Peguero and outfielders Canaan Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty and Jack Suwinski — to the 40-man roster. To create space, the club designated catcher Michael Pérez for assignment.
A waiver claim out of the Rays organization last offseason, Pérez saw 70 games worth of action with the Pirates behind number one catcher Jacob Stallings. Unfortunately for both player and team, Perez continued to struggle at the plate despite providing serviceable defense behind it. Through 231 plate appearances the left-handed catcher produced at a .143/.221/.290 clip, though he did hit a career-best 7 home runs. He’s likely to latch onto an organization this winter as catching depth.
Liover Peguero, acquired in the trade that sent Starling Marte to Arizona, is ranked the #5 prospect in a solid Pittsburgh farm system. The speedy 20-year-old performed respectably last season across 90 games at the high-A level, setting a new high watermark in home runs with 14 to go with 28 steals (in 34 tries). The resulting .270/.332/.444 output, plus what scouts consider to be above average defense at shortstop, gave Pittsburgh ample reason to protect their up-and-coming prospect.
The 22-year-old Canaan Smith-Njigba was a 4th-rounder by the Yankees in 2017 before they traded him to Pittsburgh as part of the Jameson Taillon deal. A solid .274/.398/.406 led to a cup of coffee at Triple-A, and a terrific showing in the Arizona Fall League has the left fielder knocking on the Major League door.
Centerfielder Travis Swaggerty, a first-round draft pick by Pittsburgh in 2018 and a one-time top 100 prospect in the eyes of some evaluators, saw little action this past season. The left-handed hitter produced a decent .220/.333/.439 line in 12 Triple-A games before incurring a season-ending shoulder injury. Well-rounded tools at a premium position, plus his pedigree, will keep him in the Pirates organization for awhile longer.
Lastly, Jack Suwinski, acquired in this past summer’s Adam Frazier deal, had a decent 2021 season in his own right. The 23-year-old popped 19 home runs across 111 games at the Double-A level, culminating in a strong .262/.383/.485 slash. Though most of that production came prior to the trade, MLB.com lists Suwinski among the Pirates top prospects (#29) and projects him as a bat-first option in right field.
Padres Select MacKenzie Gore, Three Others
The Padres have selected the contracts of left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore, right-handed pitchers Efrain Contreras and Steven Wilson, as well as infielder Eguy Rosario per a team announcement. In a corresponding move, outfielder Jorge Oña and Reggie Lawson have been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso. Their 40-man roster is currently full following these transactions.
Gore’s stock has fluctuated wildly in recent seasons. The #3 overall pick in the 2017 draft out of a North Carolina high school, he dominated in the low minors and quickly emerged as one of the game’s top prospects. The southpaw has entered each of the past two seasons among the game’s top ten farmhands, in the estimation of Baseball America, with the evaluators suggesting he had the chance to be a rare #1 caliber arm.
Over the past two seasons, though, Gore’s stock has taken a rather significant hit. There were rumblings of control issues at the alternate training site in 2020, and Gore spent a good chunk of 2021 at the team’s complex facility trying to iron out his mechanics. He only logged 34 cumulative innings between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.
Certainly, there was no chance of the Padres leaving Gore unprotected in the Rule 5. But it remains to be seen how much they can depend on him going into 2022. The organization likely envisioned Gore as a potential rotation option coming into 2021, and his issues in the minors loomed even larger as the big league staff was crushed by injuries. Getting the 22-year-old back on track is no doubt one of the top offseason priorities for the club’s development staff.
Contreras missed the entire season recovering from a November 2020 Tommy John surgery. Baseball America nevertheless ranked him the Friars’ #18 prospect midseason, calling the 21-year-old a potential back-end starter with plus control.
Wilson, 27, was an eighth-round pick out of Santa Clara in 2018. BA ranked him 30th in the system, praising his mid-90s heater. He pitched to a 3.43 ERA with a huge 40.1% strikeout rate with Triple-A El Paso and could be a big league bullpen option next season.
Rosario, 22, is the #19 prospect in the system according to BA. He’s a hit-first infielder whose bounced around the diamond in the minors. Rosario posted a strong .281/.360/.455 mark with 12 homers in 481 plate appearances with Double-A Amarillo.
Turning to the outrighted players, both Ona and Lawson were once well-regarded prospects themselves. They’ve got little to no big league experience, though. Ona has just 15 plate appearances at the highest level (all in 2020); Lawson has topped out at Double-A. Both had injury-wrecked 2021 seasons in the minors and will now have to work their way back onto the 40-man.
Phillies Acquire Nick Nelson From Yankees
The Phillies have acquired right-hander Nick Nelson and catcher Donny Sands from the Yankees in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield and minor league lefty Joel Valdez, per announcements from both clubs.
Nelson, 26 next month, has seen action in parts of two big league seasons with the Yankees, pitching to a combined 6.43 ERA in a small sample of 35 innings. The former fourth-rounder has whiffed 23.8% of his career opponents against a problematic 16.1% walk rate in that time. It hasn’t been an illustrious start to his career, but Nelson has averaged 96.6 mph on his heater with a solid 12.5% swinging-strike rate — and he carries a solid track record in the upper minors as well.
Outside of a brief run in Rookie ball back in 2016, Nelson has posted at least a 26.2% strikeout rate at every level, topping out with a 4.07 ERA in 73 Triple-A frames to this point in his still relatively young career. The righty has also kept the ball on the ground at a 48% clip in the Majors while averaging just 1.03 HR/9. With a pair of minor league options remaining and extensive work both as a starter and a multi-inning reliever, Nelson can be a useful depth piece for the Phils for the next couple seasons at least — even if he doesn’t cement himself as a regular on the big league roster.
The 25-year-old Sands spent the 2021 season in Double-A and Triple-A with the Yankees, logging a combined .261/.326/.466 with 18 homers and 16 doubles. Sands also has corner infield experience — albeit mostly coming in the low minors — and he has the potential to step up as an immediate backup option to J.T. Realmuto now that Andrew Knapp is no longer with the Phils.
Rumfield, 21, was the Phillies’ 12th-round pick just this past summer, meaning he only just became eligible to be traded following the season. He was assigned to the Phils’ Class-A affiliate out of the draft, where he hit .250/.426/.263 with a double, 21 walks and 11 strikeouts in his first 107 pro plate appearances. Given his status as a recent 12th-round pick, he’s obviously not regarded among the Phillies’ best farmhands, but he’ll give the Yankees a lefty bat with some obvious plate discipline to plug into the low levels of their minor league system.
Valdez, meanwhile, has yet to advance beyond the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. He’s posted a 2.62 ERA with a 70-to-32 K/BB ratio in 75 2/3 professional frames, albeit against considerably younger competition. Valdez pitched this last season at 21 — more than two full years older than the average competition in the DSL.
At the end of the day, the move for the Yankees boils down to parting with some depth options to open a pair of 40-man roster spots and backfilling at the low levels of the system. Both Nelson and Sands give the Phillies some present-day depth options at positions where their own organization was thinner than the Yankees.
Red Sox Select Jeter Downs, Three Others
The Red Sox announced this evening they’ve added four players to the 40-man roster. Infielder Jeter Downs and right-handers Josh Winckowski, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford have all been added to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft.
Downs has been one of the game’s higher profile prospects for a while. A supplemental first-rounder of the Reds out of a Florida high school in 2017, he’s since been involved in two blockbuster trades. Downs was part of the package sent from Cincinnati to the Dodgers in December 2018 for Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp, then got traded to the Red Sox as part of the Mookie Betts deal the following winter.
Over his first few seasons, Downs offered a steady combination of bat-to-ball skills, power and second base defense. He’d projected as a potential everyday second baseman and twice ranked among the game’s top 100 overall prospects at Baseball America. But Downs struggled through an uncharacteristically poor 2021, leaving his stock a bit more uncertain. Over 405 plate appearances with Triple-A Worcester, the right-handed hitting Downs managed just a .190/.272/.333 mark with 14 home runs. Most alarming, he struck out in a massive 32.3% of his plate appearances — his first season fanning at greater than a 21% clip.
Winckowski has been involved in a pair of trades himself, both occurring last offseason. The Blue Jays sent him to the Mets as part of the Steven Matz deal, and New York flipped him to Boston in the three-team Andrew Benintendi/Khalil Lee swap not long after. A 16th-round pick by Toronto back in 2016, Winckowski has slowly climbed the minor league ladder as a starter. He split the 2021 campaign between Double-A Portland and Worcester, working to a cumulative 3.94 ERA in 112 innings with a below-average 21.3% strikeout rate but a quality 6.9% walk percentage.
Bello, a former amateur signee out of the Dominican Republic, is considered one of the organization’s more promising young pitchers. BA slotted the 22-year-old fifth in the farm system this offseason, praising his three-pitch mix and calling him a potential mid-rotation starter. Bello split this past season between High-A Greenville and Portland, working to a combined 3.87 ERA in 95 1/3 innings. He punched out a stellar 32.8% of hitters along the way against a solid 7.7% walk rate. Bello seems likely to start next season at Triple-A and could plausibly be an option for the big league club at some point in 2022.
Crawford made a two-inning cameo at the major league level in September, showing a five-pitch mix led by a 93.8 MPH fastball. The righty had been selected as a COVID replacement, though, so he was removed from the 40-man roster not long after. He’ll now stake a more longstanding spot on the roster after combining for a 4.28 ERA with great strikeout and walk numbers (34.4% and 5.2%, respectively) between Portland and Worcester.