Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Transactions

Cubs To Sign Jonathan Holder

By | at

The Cubs have agreed to sign right-handed reliever Jonathan Holder to a non-guaranteed contract, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. It’s a one-year, $750K deal, per Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. Holder will have a chance to earn another $150K in incentives, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.

The Cubs will be the second major league organization for Holder, a 2014 sixth-round pick of the Yankees who appeared in the bigs in each of the previous five seasons. Holder was at his best from 2017-18 – a 104 1/3-inning run in which he registered a 3.45 ERA/3.22 FIP with 8.54 K/9 and 2.16 BB/9. However, the 27-year-old’s production has declined precipitously since then.

In 60 1/3 frames since 2019, Holder has logged a 5.82 ERA/4.85 FIP, owing in part to an increase in walks and home runs. Holder is now coming off a season in which he recorded career worsts in K/9 (5.82) and BB/9 (4.57), which helped lead to an undesirable 4.98 ERA/5.22 FIP in 21 2/3 innings. The Yankees non-tendered Holder after the season in lieu of paying him a projected $900K to $1MM in arbitration, but he’ll now try to get back on track with the Cubs.

Royals To Re-Sign Jeison Guzman

By | at

The Royals have agreed to terms on a minor-league deal with infielder Jeison Guzman, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (Twitter link). He had recently been non-tendered but will re-join the Kansas City organization.

Guzman only recently reached his 22nd birthday and hasn’t yet appeared above the Class A level. He was originally added to the 40-man roster in advance of the 2019 Rule 5 draft.

While the switch-hitting middle-infielder hasn’t yet conquered low-minors pitching, he’s considered a slick fielder and did get a chance to develop at the Royals’ alternate training site during the 2020 campaign. Despite a brief call-up to the active roster in August, he did not see any big-league action.

Guzman joins several other players in returning to the Royals after being dropped from the big league roster.

Brewers To Sign Luis Perdomo

By | at

The Brewers have a deal in place with righty Luis Perdomo, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). It’s a minor-league arrangement.

The 27-year-old Perdomo had been cut loose recently by the Padres. He’s expected to miss all of the upcoming campaign while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

It isn’t clear just yet whether the accord has any special provisions (such as an option) for future seasons. If nothing else, Perdomo will be eligible for arbitration once again at season’s end, so the Brewers could decide to add him to their 40-man roster and tender him a contract if his rehab progresses well.

If he can fully recover from his elbow woes, Perdomo will be looking for a chance to prove that he can deliver consistent results at the MLB level. He has a standout, mid-nineties sinker that reliably produces gaudy groundball numbers, but owns only a 5.19 ERA in his 444 1/3 career frames at the game’s highest level.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/16/20

By | at

The latest minor league moves from around baseball…

Latest Moves

  • The Rays have signed catcher Joe Odom to a minors pact, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. A 13th-round pick of Atlanta in 2013, Odom stuck with the Braves organization through 2017 before joining the Mariners in the ensuing winter’s Rule 5 Draft. Odom did make it to the majors for the first time last season with Seattle, collecting 44 plate appearances, but the 28-year-old batted a meek .128/.209/.128 with no extra-base hits and 20 strikeouts. The Mariners outrighted him after that.

Earlier Today

  • The Rangers signed right-hander Luis Ortiz to a minors contract, the team announced.  Ortiz has a 12.71 ERA over career 5 2/3 innings in the majors (with the Orioles in 2018-19), and is making his return to Texas after being drafted 30th overall by the Rangers in 2014.  He has been part of two notable deadline trades, included as part of the trade package sent to Milwaukee for Jonathan Lucroy in 2016, and then the Brewers shipped him to the Orioles in July 2018 as part of the Jonathan Villar/Jonathan Schoop swap.
  • The Brewers signed outfielder/first baseman Dustin Peterson to a minor league deal, as originally reported by Ana Soriano of RIDA Sports (Twitter link).  Originally a second-round pick for the Padres in the 2013 draft, Peterson has a .262/.316/.382 slash line over 2918 career minor league plate appearances in the Padres, Braves, and Tigers farm systems.  At the big league level, Peterson has a .570 OPS over 49 PA with Atlanta and Detroit over the 2018-19 seasons.  Most recently, Peterson posted big numbers for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters in 2020 and is currently tearing it up in the Mexican Pacific Winter League.
  • Catcher Tim Federowicz has signed with the Dodgers, as Federowicz revealed himself on Twitter.  This will be the veteran’s second stint in Los Angeles, as he spent his first four MLB seasons (2011-14) with the Dodgers.  It’s probably safe to assume that it is a minor league contract, as the Dodgers have Will Smith and Austin Barnes in the majors and top prospect Keibert Ruiz in the wings after his Major League debut last season.  Appearing in parts of eight seasons with six different teams, Federowicz has a .568 OPS over 443 career plate appearances and 163 games at the big league level.  He didn’t see any MLB action in 2020 after signing a minors deal with the Rangers last offseason.

Rays Re-Sign Mike Zunino

By | at

3:01PM: The Rays have announced the move. The escalators within the 2022 club option are broken down by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, as Zunino can increase the option to $5MM if he appears in 80 games.  Ninety games played raises the price to $6MM, and it tops out at $7MM if Zunino appears in 100 games or if he gets traded.

12:26PM: The Rays have agreed to a new deal with catcher Mike Zunino, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter link).  It is a one-year contract for the veteran backstop, with a club option for the 2022 season.  Zunino is represented by Jet Sports Management.

Zunino will get $3MM in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.  According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter), that $3MM breaks down as $2MM in salary and a $1MM buyout of the club option.  The exact value of that club option will vary based on Zunino’s playing time, but it will fall somewhere between $4MM-$7MM.

Tampa declined its $4.5MM club option on Zunino following the World Series, though there was mutual interest between the two sides in a new contract.  Zunino will now return for a third season with the Rays, and he’ll help fill a sizeable void behind the plate, as the AL champions also parted ways with Michael Perez and Kevan Smith.

It’s probably safe to assume that the Rays will continue to look for more catching help even with Zunino back, as his lack of offensive production over the last two seasons makes him an imperfect fit as a starting catcher.  Zunino has hit only .161/.233/.323 over 373 PA in a Rays uniform, though he did bolster that resume with a big performance in the 2020 ALCS to help Tampa Bay win the pennant.

Earlier in his career, it seemed as though Zunino would develop into an offense-first catcher if anything, as he slugged 90 homers with the Mariners from 2014-18.  Apart from an overall strong 2017 season, however, Zunino generally posted low batting averages and on-base totals, and detracted from his power with a lot of strikeouts.  Defensively, Zunino is well-respected as a game-caller and a handler of pitchers, but Statcast hasn’t been impressed with his declining framing ability over the last two seasons.

Zunino’s new deal removes another name from the list of free agent catchers.  The Rays were one of many contenders known to be looking for catching, and while Tampa obviously wasn’t shopping at the top of the backstop market (i.e. J.T. Realmuto or James McCann), removing Zunino from the next tier down further narrows out an already pretty thin collection of available talent for teams in need of a catcher upgrade.

Yankees Sign Andrew Velazquez To Minors Contract

By | at

The Yankees have signed infielder Andrew Velazquez to a minor league deal, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Velazquez chose to become a free agent after the Orioles outrighted him off their 40-man roster at season’s end.

Claimed off waivers from the Indians back in February, Velazquez ended up playing in 40 games for Baltimore in 2020, which included 19 starts at shortstop due to Jose Iglesias’ injury problems.  Velazquez didn’t contribute much at the plate, hitting only .159/.274/.206 over 77 plate appearances.  Prior to joining the Orioles, Velazquez appeared in 28 games for Tampa Bay and Cleveland during the 2018-19 seasons, receiving 36 PA.

The Bronx native now returns to his local team to provide the Yankees with some utility depth all over the diamond, but while Velazquez has played everywhere except pitcher, catcher, and first base over his nine pro seasons, the bulk of his experience has come at shortstop.  Albeit in a small sample size of innings, Velazquez has gotten some solid defensive grades at shortstop, so the Yankees could be considering him as a competition for Tyler Wade for the backup infield role.

Mariners Sign Keynan Middleton, Designate Phillip Ervin

By | at

2:55PM: Middleton’s deal will pay him $800K in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets, with some incentive bonuses also available.

12:06PM: The Mariners announced that right-hander Keynan Middleton has been signed to a Major League contract.  To create roster room, outfielder Phillip Ervin has been designated for assignment.

The hard-throwing Middleton had a very promising rookie season in the Angels bullpen in 2017, though he was limited to only 25 1/3 total innings in 2018-19 due to Tommy John surgery.  This past season, Middleton threw 12 innings over 13 appearances for Los Angeles, posting a 5.25 ERA, 1.83 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9.

According to Statcast, Middleton has consistently delivered very good fastball spin rates over his career, and his advanced metrics indicated that he was somewhat unlucky to post such a high ERA in 2020.  Nonetheless, the Angels non-tendered Middleton on December 2 rather than pay a projected arbitration salary of roughly $1MM.

Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto was the Angels’ general manager when Middleton was drafted by the Halos back in 2013, and the two will now reunite on what Middleton described as his “home team” (he hails from Portland, Oregon) in the Mariners’ press release.  Even with the guaranteed salary of a MLB deal, the Mariners are taking what is likely a low-cost flier to see if Middleton can regain his rookie form now that he is healthy, and under somewhat more normal circumstances than the unusual 2020 season.

Ervin was picked up on a waiver claim from the Reds in September, and he managed only a .622 OPS over 47 plate appearances in a Seattle uniform.  That was still markedly better than his performance over his first 42 PA of the season with Cincinnati, as Ervin had only a .324 OPS.  Prior to 2020, Ervin has delivered just about league-average offensive production as a part-timer with the Reds, hitting .262/.326/.438 over 571 PA from 2017-19.

Picked 27th overall in the 2013 draft, Ervin has some decent minor league numbers and can play all three outfield positions, so he would seem like a decent candidate to land elsewhere on a waiver claim.  Ervin is out of minor league options, however.

Reds Acquire Scott Heineman

By | at

The Reds have acquired outfielder Scott Heineman from the Rangers in exchange for infield prospect Jose Acosta, as announced (via Twitter) by Rangers executive VP of communications John Blake.

Texas designated Heineman for assignment earlier this week, coming on the heels of a previous non-tender and then a re-signing (to a split contract).  The 28-year-old made his big league debut with the Rangers in 2019 and has appeared in 49 games over the last two seasons, hitting .189/.259/.331 over 139 plate appearances.

An 11th-round pick out of the University of Oregon in 2015, Heineman made a quick rise up the Rangers’ minor league ladder after hitting .303/.378/.475 over 1839 PA on the farm.  He has experienced playing all three outfield positions and has also seen some time as a first baseman, so Heineman’s right-handed bat could be a potential complement to such Cincinnati lefty bats as Shogo Akiyama, Jesse Winker, or Joey Votto.

The 20-year-old Acosta was an international signing for the Reds in 2017.  Over a combined 234 PA in the Dominican Summer League and with the Reds’ rookie ball affiliate in 2019, he exploded to hit .395/.481/.579.  Acosta has split time between second and third base during his young pro career, and played a few games at first base and in the outfield.

Angels Sign Alex Claudio

By | at

The Angels have signed left-hander Alex Claudio to a one-year deal worth $1.125MM, the club announced.  Claudio hit the open market after he was non-tendered by the Brewers earlier this month.

Between this signing and the Angels’ acquisition of Raisel Iglesias, the bullpen has been an early focus for newly-hired general manager Perry Minasian.  Left-handed relief was a particular need for the team, and that need that now been addressed with Claudio, who has held left-handed batters to a minuscule .202/.246/.310 slash line over 487 plate appearances during his career.

Claudio, who turns 29 next month, is a groundball specialist who doesn’t miss a lot of bats, as evidenced by his career 60.6% grounder rate and 6.27 K/9.  Something of a lefty specialist over his career, Claudio adjusted reasonably well to the three-batter rule last season, as he limited righty batters to a .268/.348/.390 slash line.  The increased exposure to right-handed hitters could explain why Claudio’s grounder rate dropped to only 46.6% over 19 innings last season, though that could also just be an anomaly of the 2020 season’s small sample size.

Lacking the big velocity or strikeout totals of most relievers, Claudio was non-tendered by Milwaukee in each of the last two offseasons (he was projected to earn between $2MM-$2.3MM in arbitration this winter), despite some pretty solid numbers throughout his career.  Over 311 2/3 innings for the Rangers and Brewers since the start of the 2014 season, Claudio has a 3.44 ERA, and he has also been one of the sport’s most durable relievers in recent years.  Claudio amassed 213 innings over 219 appearances in 2017-19, including a league-high 83 games pitched in 2019.

Orioles To Sign Fernando Abad To Minors Contract

By | at

The Orioles are working out the “final details” of a minor league deal with southpaw Fernando Abad, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports (via Twitter).  Baltimore also had interest in Abad last season, before he inked a minors pact with the Nationals.

The new contract is a nice early birthday present for Abad, who turns 35 tomorrow.  The veteran left-hander didn’t see any MLB action in 2020, as Washington released him in July and Abad didn’t receive a call-up from the Yankees after New York signed him to another minor league deal shortly after the start of the season.  Abad also had to deal with an asymptomatic COVID-19 diagnosis that caused him to miss the Nats’ Summer Camp due to quarantine.

A veteran of nine Major League seasons, Abad has posted some quality results during his career, including a 3.13 ERA, 2.58 K/BB rate, and 8.0 K/9 over 233 innings from 2013-17 with the Nationals, A’s, Twins, and Red Sox.  He had a minor league deal with the Mets lined up prior to the 2018 campaign, but that signing fell through after Abad was hit with an 80-game PED suspension.

Abad’s only big league action over the last three years was 13 innings of work with the Giants in 2019, so it remains to be seen if he has anything left in the tank to contribute to the Orioles bullpen.  There’s no real risk for the O’s, however, as if Abad is anything close to his prime form, he can provide some much-needed experience to a young Baltimore pen.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top