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Orioles Select Wade LeBlanc, Tommy Milone

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The Orioles announced that they have selected the contracts of veteran left-handers Wade LeBlanc and Tommy Milone. Those additions give the Orioles 39 players on their 40-man rosters.

The 35-year-old LeBlanc and Milone, 33, signed minor league contracts with the pitcher-needy Orioles over the winter after spending last season with the Mariners. They’ll open 2020 in Baltimore’s rotation, Joe Trezza of MLB.com suggests.

LeBlanc has been a capable swingman for most of his career, which began in 2008 in San Diego. He was effective in Seattle as recently as 2018 (3.72 ERA/4.28 FIP with 7.22 K/9 and 2.22 BB/9 in 162 innings), but the wheels came off last year. LeBlanc could only manage 121 1/3 innings of 5.71 ERA/5.49 FIP pitching with 6.82 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 2019.

Milone has five seasons of at least 100 innings under his belt, even though the overall results haven’t been great. He piled up 111 2/3 a year ago and notched a 4.76 ERA/5.00 FIP, though he did post an impressive K/BB ratio with 7.58 K/9 and 1.85 BB/9.

Marlins Sign Supplemental 2nd-Rounder Kyle Nicolas

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The Marlins have signed supplemental second-rounder Kyle Nicolas for $1,129,700, Jim Callis of MLB.com tweets. That’s the full slot value of Nicolas’ pick, No. 61 overall.

The 21-year-old Nicolas attended college at Ball State, where he struggled to keep runs off the board in his first two seasons before coming into his own during a shortened 2020 campaign. Across 23 innings last season, he logged a 2.74 ERA with 14.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9. He subsequently entered the draft as a top 70 prospect according to FanGraphs (53), MLB.com (60), ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (64) and Baseball America (No. 68). FanGraphs, the most bullish of those outlets, calls Nicolas a relief-only prospect and writes that he brings a high-90s fastball and a promising slider/curveball mix to the table.

Nicolas joins first-rounder Max Meyer as the only 2020 draft picks the Marlins have signed so far. Second-rounder Dax Fulton, third-rounder Zach McCambley, fourth-rounder Jake Eder and fifth-rounder Kyle Hurt are still without the deals. The Marlins went into the draft with a $12,016,900 bonus pool. Between Nicolas and Meyer, they’ve spent just over $7.8MM.

Amateur Draft Signings: Red Sox, Yankees

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The latest amateur draft signings from around the league…

  • The Red Sox have inked fourth-round left-hander Jeremy Wu-Yelland, Jim Callis of MLB.com tweets. Wu-Yelland’s pick, No. 118, came with a recommended value of $487,900, but the Red Sox landed him on a below-slot deal worth $200K. Previously a reliever with the University of Hawaii, Wu-Yelland entered the draft as Baseball America’s 261st-ranked prospect. BA writes that he has “considerable arm strength” but may not have the strike-throwing ability to start in the majors.
  • The Yankees and fourth-round righty Beck Way have an agreement for $600K, according to George A. King III of the New York Post. It’s easily an above-slot payday for Way, the 129th pick whose selection was assessed at $438,700. Way, formerly with Northwest Florida Junior College, was MLB.com’s 95th-ranked player before the draft. He features a fastball-slider combo that could be effective as a reliever, per MLB.com, but there’s a chance he’ll start instead.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/14/20

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A couple of minor MLB moves…

  • The Dodgers have added infield prospect Kody Hoese to their 60-man player pool, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group reports. The 23-year-old went 25th overall to the Dodgers in the 2019 draft and is now considered one of their top 10 prospects (MLB.com places him seventh in LA’s system, Baseball America eighth, FanGraphs ninth). An elbow injury slowed Hoese to some extent during his first taste of Single-A ball last year, but he’s still seen as someone with the potential to emerge as a quality hitter in the majors down the line.
  • Left-hander Brian Flynn has elected free agency after the Rangers didn’t add him to their player pool, Steve Adams of MLBTR reports. Flynn joined the Rangers on a minor league contract in the offseason after appearing in the majors in each of the previous four years with the Royals. Thanks in part to a sprained UCL, Flynn could only muster 29 1/3 innings of 5.22 ERA pitching a season ago. To his credit, though, Flynn still managed a respectable overall mark of 3.76 during his 162 2/3-frame KC tenure.

White Sox Announce 60-Man Additions

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The White Sox announced the addition of 16 players to their 60-man player pool Tuesday. They’ll all head to the team’s alternate camp site in Schaumberg, Ill. Today’s additions include (* = non-roster invitee):

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Outfielders

As Opening Day draws nearer, the White Sox will option additional players to their alternate camp site. There are currently 43 players in big league Summer Camp with the South Siders, and they’ll need to trim that number to 30 by the time the opener rolls around.

Today’s list of additions contains several notable names, including 2020 first-round pick Garrett Crochet, whom the Sox selected 13th overall out of the University of Tennessee. Farm director Chris Getz isn’t ruling out the possibility of Crochet making his MLB debut sometime this year, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets.

Getz also spoke about another recent White Sox first-round pick in Zack Burdi, whom they took 26th in 2016, saying (via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times): ’We hope to build off how he finished major league camp. It’s the best we’ve seen him in a while. His last couple outings were very encouraging. It’s a special arm.”

Significant injuries have prevented the hard-throwing Burdi from realizing his potential or even reaching the bigs since the White Sox drafted him. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, barely pitched the following year as a result, and then succumbed to a ligament tear in his patella last season. Burdi’s still a well-regarded relief prospect, though, and may have a chance to factor into Chicago’s bullpen this season.

Cubs Make 3 Additions To Player Pool

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The Cubs have added three pitchers – right-hander Keegan Thompson and a pair of lefties in Justin Steele and Jack Patterson – to their 60-man player pool, per Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. They’ll report to the team’s alternate facility in South Bend, Ind., and will increase the Cubs’ pool to 54 players.

Thompson, now 25 years old, was a third-round pick of the Cubs in 2017 who has since climbed to the Double-A level. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Thompson as the Cubs’ No. 24 prospect last month, calling him a strike-throwing, “very stable fifth starter/swingman piece.” Thompson could be big league-ready right now, according to Longenhagen, so it’s possible he’ll make his debut during the shortened 2020 campaign.

Steele, also 25, entered the Cubs’ system as a fifth-rounder in 2014. He received his first extensive Double-A action last year, when he logged a 5.59 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 38 2/3 innings. Patterson’s another former Cubs pick (Round 32, 2018) who has maxed out at Double-A thus far. He threw 13 2/3 innings there last year, but most of his time was spent in Single-A and High-A ball. The 24-year-old was highly effective at all three stops, combining for a 1.69 ERA with 9.0 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 over 79 2/3 frames.

Braves To Sign Yasiel Puig

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5:35pm: Puig agreed to a one-year deal with Atlanta, per Charles Odum and Ben Walker of the Associated Press.

2:50pm: The Braves have agreed to a deal, pending a physical, with free-agent outfielder Yasiel Puig, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). The agreement brings to a close a lengthy free-agent saga for the mercurial Puig, who is a known commodity for Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos (formerly the Dodgers’ VP of baseball operations). Puig is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Yasiel Puig | David Berding-USA TODAY Sports

Puig, 29, was the most prominent name among unsigned free agents, having gone the entire offseason without agreeing to a deal and then enduring a league-wide transaction freeze during the pandemic that further slowed his path to a team. He reportedly received offers from the Marlins and Orioles along the way — as well as some interest from the Korea Baseball Organization — but Puig never found an offer to his liking it seems. It’s doubtful that he’ll command the sizable multi-year deal he sought over the winter in this new arrangement with Atlanta, but he’ll join a club with obvious postseason aspirations.

The Braves, of course, just lost one notable outfield option last week when veteran Nick Markakis announced that he will not play in 2020. Puig will give the Braves another accomplished bat who offered similar production to Markakis in 2019. While the Atlanta outfield was already largely set with Marcell Ozuna, Ender Inciarte and Ronald Acuna Jr., the addition of Puig will allow the Braves to rotate all their corner-outfield options (also including Adam Duvall) through left field, right field and DH while keeping everyone fresh. Acuna can also play center field in place of Inciarte, so we’ll surely see days where Ozuna, Acuna and Puig are lined up left-to-right in the outfield — perhaps with Duvall at designated hitter.

Puig split the 2019 season between Ohio’s two clubs, opening the year with the Reds before being moved to the Indians — while in the midst of an on-field brawl, no less — in the three-team blockbuster that sent Trevor Bauer to Cincinnati. While he was generally a solid bat, his offensive output didn’t quite mirror his past standards. Puig appeared in 149 games and, in 611 plate appearances, batted .267/.327/.458 with 24 long balls — albeit just two following his trade to Cleveland. In a season that saw enormous spikes in offensive output thanks to the altered composition of the ball, Puig’s line checked in right about at the league average (101 wRC+, 100 OPS+). That lines up quite similarly with Markakis (102 wRC+, 98 OPS+) but falls well shy of 2017-18, when Puig was roughly 20 percent better than a league-average hitter.

Given the difference in age, though, there’s more reason to expect a rebound out of Puig than there would’ve been from the 36-year-old Markakis. Adding Puig and Ozuna to an already strong core won’t make up for the loss of Josh Donaldson, but it’ll give the Braves an unquestionably deep reservoir of bats from which to draw as they look to nail down a third straight NL East division title.

From a defensive standpoint, Puig played an average right field last year according to each of Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average. His glovework in the past has ranged from passable to excellent in any given year, depending on one’s preferred metric. At the very least, though, it’s reasonable to expect Puig to be at least an average bat and an average corner defender, making him a nice pickup for Atlanta.

The Braves initially announced 56 players in their 60-man player pool for the 2020 season, although both Markakis and veteran right-hander Felix Hernandez can be subtracted from that number after opting out of the season. Atlanta has also had four players, including cornerstone Freddie Freeman, test positive for COVID-19. If any are placed on the IL as a result, they won’t count against the player pool. Even with no IL placements and after adding Bryce Ball to the player pool recently, the Braves will have space in their 60-man pool for Puig. The Braves also had a vacancy on their 40-man roster, so no corresponding move will need to be made to accommodate Puig’s presence on the roster.

Giants Add Jose Siri To Player Pool

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The Giants announced Tuesday that they’ve added outfielder Jose Siri to their 60-man player pool. They claimed him off waivers out of the Mariners organization back in March, just days before the league shutdown began.

Siri, 24, spent the 2013-19 seasons in the Reds organization after signing as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic. At one point he was considered one of the Reds’ best prospects and landed on the back of FanGraphs’ Top 100 prospects list, but the shine has worn off him in recent years. Siri raked at a .293/.340/.531 clip with 24 homers and 46 stolen bases as a 21-year-old in Class-A back in 2017, but in the two seasons since that time he’s posted a disappointing .238/.297/.397 slash between Double-A and Triple-A.

Following that pair of unimpressive seasons, Siri was designated for assignment when Cincinnati signed Nick Castellanos to a four-year contract this past offseason. Now with the Giants, Siri is a ways down the outfield depth chart; Hunter Pence, Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson, Jaylin Davis, Austin Slater and Steven Duggar are all likely ahead of him. Veteran Billy Hamilton is also in the Giants organization, but he was recently placed on the injured list. The Giants have top prospects Heliot Ramos and Alexander Canario in Summer Camp as well, but Canario hasn’t played above Low-A while Ramos has just 25 Double-A games under his belt. Neither is an immediate option, though Ramos is regarded as one of the game’s more promising outfield prospects.

The Giants initially announced 51 players in their 60-man pool, though they’ve since seen Buster Posey opt out of the 2020 season and shuffled the deck a bit, adding a few groups of players while also placing some on the injured list (which, if done for coronavirus-related reasons, opens additional vacancies in the player pool).

Orioles Add Dean Kremer To Player Pool

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The Orioles announced Tuesday that they’ve added right-handed pitching prospect Dean Kremer to their 60-man player pool. He’s reporting to alternate training camp at the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate in Bowie, where he’ll be joined by righty Hector Velazquez, whom the club has optioned out of Summer Camp (per that same announcement). The O’s also put Richie Martin on the 60-day IL and removed him from their 60-man pool, which formally ends his season. Martin is set to undergo surgery to repair a broken wrist tomorrow.

Kremer, 24, was one of the pitchers acquired from the Dodgers in the trade that sent Manny Machado to Los Angeles. The former 16th-round pick had a solid year in 2019, reaching Triple-A and pitching to a combined 3.72 ERA with 9.7 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 0.87 HR/9 and a ground-ball rate just shy of 40 percent. Kremer also showed quite well in the Arizona Fall League (five runs on 13 hits and four walks with 23 strikeouts in 19 innings), and he’s generally considered one of the better pitching prospects in the rebuilding Orioles’ system.

Kremer ranks 11th or better among Orioles farmhands at Baseball America, FanGraphs an MLB.com, and scouting reports on the 6’3″, 180-pound righty project him as a fourth/fifth starter. Given that he’s already reached Triple-A and is on Baltimore’s 40-man roster, it’s quite possible that Kremer will make his MLB debut in 2020.

Juan Lagares, Kyle Barraclough, Seth Frankoff Elect Free Agency

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The Padres announced Tuesday that a trio of veteran players have elected free agency. Outfielder Juan Lagares and right-handers Kyle Barraclough and Seth Frankoff are all returning to the open market and will now be free to sign with new clubs. None of the three had been included in San Diego’s player pool.

Lagares, 31, joined the Friars on a minor league pact back in February and, at least in the initial version of Spring Training, was seen as a legitimate candidate for the Opening Day roster. The organization’s thinking looks to have changed in the months since the March shutdown, and Lagares will now look for another club with interest in adding him to its player pool.

The longtime Mets outfielder posted a career-worst .213/.279/.326 batting line in 285 plate appearances last year, but Lagares remains a highly regarded defensive player who’d make a nice reserve option for any team with questionable outfield defense and/or an injury among the team’s starters. The Padres have a crowded outfield mix, however, and younger options they’d seemingly like to get a look at in this shortened season.

Barraclough, 30, was a quality late-inning arm with the Marlins from 2015-17, but he saw his production dip a bit in 2018 before completely cratering in 2019. In 33 2/3 frames between the Nationals and Giants last season, Barraclough was clobbered for 5.61 ERA thanks largely to allowing nine home runs in that short time. Control has always been an issue or Barraclough, who has averaged 5.5 walks per nine innings in the Majors, but he’s also never had a problem missing bats (11.4 K/9).

The 31-year-old Frankoff has just two Major League innings under his belt but is a veteran of eight minor league seasons and a pair of successful campaigns in the Korea Baseball Organization. Frankoff spent the past two seasons with the KBO’s Doosan Bears, pitching to a combined 3.68 ERA with 8.3 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and 0.6 HR/9 in 266 2/3 frames (50 starts). Like Lagares and Barraclough, he joined the Padres on a minor league deal this winter in hopes of earning his way back to the big leagues with a strong camp showing, but he’ll now need to find another club to give him that opportunity.

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