Orioles Sign Maikel Franco, Place Hunter Harvey On 60-Day IL
The Orioles have made a late addition to their infield via free agency, signing former Phillies and Royals third baseman Maikel Franco to a one-year, Major League contract. The O’s announced the move at the top of the hour, placing right-hander Hunter Harvey on the 60-day injured list with an oblique strain in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Franco, a client of Mato Sports Management, will reportedly earn $800K in guaranteed money with another $200K available via incentives and a trade assignment bonus being factored into the deal as well.
Franco makes a logical roster fit for the O’s, who had been otherwise slated to turn to Rio Ruiz at the hot corner. The 27-year-old Ruiz has just a .229/.299/.393 line across 617 plate appearances (84 wRC+) over the past two seasons. He has shown roughly league-average power (21 home runs, .164 ISO), but his on-base deficiencies and slightly below-average defensive ratings at third have left him hovering just above replacement level overall.
It’s reasonable to expect Franco to offer an upgrade on that production. The former Phillies top prospect showed flashes of promise in Philadelphia but never amounted to expectations. After being cut loose by the Phils, though, Franco posted a decent season with the Royals in 2020. He played in all sixty of Kansas City’s games (starting 51) and hit .278/.321/.457. As with Ruiz, low walk rates and batting averages on balls in play have led to on-base deficiencies. Franco, though, strikes out less often and has hit for more power than Ruiz.
Franco will be rather behind schedule at this point, so he may not be ready to step into the lineup on Opening Day. The two sides seemingly prepared for that reality, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman indicated at the time of the agreement that Franco consented to being optioned to the Orioles’ alternate site early in the season, if need be, in order to continue ramping up. As a player with five-plus years of MLB service time, Franco can only be optioned to the minors with his approval.
Even amidst a full rebuild, there’s value for the Orioles in making improvements at the margins of the roster. Barring an unexpected breakout in 2021, it’d be hard to imagine Franco commanding a huge trade return. Still, should he sign, Franco would be a viable candidate to be flipped for something of future value at the deadline. Non-tendered by the Royals last fall, he’d surely come at a low cost.
Franco’s modest guarantee will have minimal impact on an already minuscule Orioles payroll. He’s promised a bit less than $300K more than the league minimum, pushing Baltimore’s payroll just beyond the $60MM mark, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. Franco joins shortstop Freddy Galvis (one year, $1.5MM) as Baltimore’s only major league free agent signees of the winter. It’s always possible the O’s could make another addition or two, particularly as veterans continue to opt out of minor league deals elsewhere around the league, but there’s no indication at this time that anything further is in the works.
As for Harvey, today’s IL placement is the latest setback for the now-26-year-old former top prospect. Baltimore tabbed Harvey with the No. 22 overall pick back in 2013, and he was at one point widely regarded as one of the game’s premier pitching prospects. Injuries have decimated his career to this point, and the O’s moved him to the bullpen in 2019, hoping the reduced innings total would help to keep him healthier. He’s pitched 15 innings out of the ‘pen over the past two seasons, working to a 3.00 ERA with 17 strikeouts against six walks.
Harvey had been expected to be in the ninth-inning mix for the O’s in 2021, but that won’t be the case — at least not early in the year. The 60-day IL placement can only be backdated to three days prior to Opening Day, meaning he’ll miss at least the first 57 days of the upcoming season. Harvey could technically return by late May, then, but there’s no timetable for his return at the moment.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman first reported that the two sides were in talks. MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko added that the Orioles had put a formal offer on the table. Heyman then reported the agreement and the terms.
Angels Select Junior Guerra, Option Brandon Marsh
The Angels selected the contract of 36-year-old Junior Guerra today, the team announced. By adding him to their 40-man roster, their roster is now full. This likely means that Guerra will make the opening day roster.
Manager Joe Maddon has a reputation for his outside-the-box thinking, but he can be fairly traditional in the way he leans on veteran contributors out of the bullpen. He knows Guerra well, having both made the NL Central home from 2016 to 2019. Guerra spent those seasons with the Brewers, for whom he moved back and forth from the rotation to the pen before finally becoming a full-time pen arm in 2019. He made 25 appearances covering 23 2/3 innings for the Diamondbacks last year with a 3.04 ERA/4.12 FIP and better-than-usual 50.8 percent groundball rate. Some of the underlying metrics don’t love Guerra’s work, as he finished with a below-average 20.4 percent strikeout rate and well-below-average 14.6 percent walk rate.
The Angels also optioned outfielder Brandon Marsh to the minors. The 23-year-old is a promising outfield prospect, but he has yet to play above Double-A, and he has dealt with a minor arm injury this spring. Furthermore, the Angels don’t have a ton of room to spare in the outfield with veterans Mike Trout, Justin Upton, and Dexter Fowler populating the roster and top prospect Jo Adell knocking on the door. Juan Lagares also remains in contention for a roster spot, while Jared Walsh or David Fletcher could see time in the outfield if need be.
White Sox Sign Billy Hamilton To Minors Deal
The Chicago White Sox added Billy Hamilton to their spring camp today on a minor league contract, per the Athletic’s James Fegan (via Twitter). Hamilton was recently let go by the White Sox’ division rival in Cleveland.
In the short term, Hamilton can plug the hole in center while Luis Robert gets himself back to full speed. Long-term, it will be interesting to see if Chicago decides to make room for the speedster. The White Sox already are facing a bit of a roster crunch. Their 40-man roster is currently full, and presumably, they’ll soon need to open a spot for Jonathan Lucroy if they plan on making him their backup catcher. Andrew Vaughn is also expected to receive playing time on the big-league roster at some point this season, and he’ll need to be added to the 40-man as well.
Otherwise, the White Sox are a relatively good fit for Hamilton. Broadly speaking, the White Sox are a more traditional franchise, and manager Tony La Russa might like having an NL-style speedster on his bench to play around with. As of now, Adam Engel is the team’s fourth outfielder, while Leury Garcia can also play with his cleats in the grass. Micker Adolfo, Luis Gonzalez, and Blake Rutherford are the other outfielders on the 40-man roster.
Brewers To Add Travis Shaw To 40-Man Roster
11:25 am: The Brewers have announced the move. Mark Mathias has been placed on the 60-day injured list because of a torn labrum in his shoulder.
8:28 am: As expected today, Travis Shaw informed the Brewers of his plans to execute an opt-out clause in his contract if the Brewers did not guarantee his contract for the 2021 season. The Brewers complied, guaranteeing Shaw $1.5MM in 2021 with an additional $1.5MM in incentives still on the table, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter). The Brewers 40-man roster is currently full, so they will need to make a corresponding move before officially adding Shaw to the payroll.
Shaw will likely open the season as the Brewers starting third baseman, though it’s reasonable to expect he’ll be rested against southpaws. With right-handers Luis Urias and Orlando Arcia competing at shortstop, plus another right-hander in Daniel Robertson as a potential bench bat, there are more than enough options to take the small side of a straight platoon. For his career, Shaw is a 110 wRC+ hitter against right-handers and a 79 wRC+ hitter against lefties. If Shaw is able to produce at that rate against right-handed pitchers in 2021, he’ll more than cover the cost of his salary.
Of course, averages don’t tell nearly the whole picture in Shaw’s case. His best seasons in the Majors came in Milwaukee as he posted a 3.5 fWAR campaign in 2017 and backed it up with a 3.7 fWAR season in 2018. His worst year came immediately after, however, as Shaw and the Brewers saw his production tumble to a shocking .157/.281/.270 line across 270 plate appearances worth -0.8 fWAR. He found more of a middle ground in his one season with the Blue Jays, slashing .239/.306/.411 over 180 plate appearances with a 8.9 percent walk rate and 27.8 percent strikeout rate. That’s a slightly below-average walk rate and slightly above-average strikeout rate, but he did, at least, cut down his strikeouts after striking out 33.0 percent of the time during his disastrous 2019 campaign.
Blue Jays Pick Up Charlie Montoyo’s 2022 Option
The Blue Jays have secured manager Charlie Montoyo for the 2022 season. GM Ross Atkins announced the move on a Zoom call today, per Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports (via Twitter) and others. Officially, Toronto picked up their option for the 2022 season. Through two seasons, Montoyo’s Blue Jays have a 99-123 record.
The Jays hired Montoyo from the Rays before the 2019 season to a three-year deal with an option for a fourth. With that option now executed, Montoyo heads into a fairly critical season. Expectations are sky high for the Blue Jays for the first time in Montoyo’s tenure. Montoyo helped Toronto end a three-year playoff drought last season. Speaking hypothetically, if the Jays under-perform in 2021 and finish, say, with 85 wins and outside of the money, the Jays would face a difficult decision on Montoyo heading into a lame duck season. If, on the other hand, the Jays are able to sneak past the Rays and Yankees to win the AL East, an extension could be in order for their 55-year-old manager.
Before taking over in Toronto, Montoyo spent 18 seasons managing in the Rays’ system. He spent three seasons with the Major League team as the third base coach before replacing Tom Foley as Kevin Cash’s bench coach for the 2018 season. Montoyo finished third in AL Manager of the Year award voting in 2020. Last April, Montoyo made history with Alex Cora of the Red Sox in the first-ever MLB match-up featuring two Puerto Rican managers.
Athletics Return Rule 5 Pick Dany Jimenez To Blue Jays
The Athletics announced that they have returned Rule 5 Draft pick Dany Jimenez to the Blue Jays. The A’s also reinstated fellow right-hander Frankie Montas from the COVID-19 injured list.
Jimenez, who turned 27 in December, was a Rule 5 pick in back-to-back offseasons (the Giants took him in 2019), but he has seen little major league action thus far. He pitched 1 1/3 innings with the Giants across two appearances last year. The Double-A level is the highest Jimenez has climbed in the minors, and he logged an excellent 1.87 ERA while averaging more than 12 strikeouts per nine in 33 2/3 innings there in 2019.
Now that he’s back with the Jays, Jimenez will report to major league camp as a non-roster invitee, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets.
Reds Claim Carson Fulmer
The Reds announced they’ve claimed right-hander Carson Fulmer off waivers from the Pirates. Pittsburgh designated Fulmer for assignment last week to create 40-man roster space after acquiring Duane Underwood Jr.
Fulmer has pitched parts of five seasons at the major league level and has yet to find much success. Over 105 career innings, he has just a 6.34 ERA/5.41 SIERA. Fulmer has posted worse than average strikeout (18.9%), walk (13.9%) and groundball (37.5%) rates.
In spite of the poor results, the 27-year-old has continued to attract interest around the league. Within the past eight months, the former eighth overall pick has been claimed off waivers by the Tigers, Pirates (twice) and Orioles. In each situation, the claiming team had been near the top of the league by waiver priority. Fulmer fell a little farther down the waiver order this time around, but he’ll find another landing spot nonetheless.
It’s hardly a surprise to see the Reds put in a claim for Fulmer. The Cincinnati organization has been rather open about their affinity for pitchers with high spin rates, and Fulmer certainly qualifies. The 27-year-old sat in the 91st percentile in fastball spin and 88th percentile in curveball spin last season, per Statcast. While that has yet to translate to MLB performance, there’s no harm for the Reds in taking a flier. Fulmer is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to either break camp with the big league club or else again be offered to rival teams.
Indians Release Billy Hamilton
TODAY: The Indians announced that Hamilton has been released.
MARCH 11: The Indians have informed veteran outfielder Billy Hamilton, who is in camp with them on a minor league deal, that he will not make the Opening Day roster, manager Terry Francona announced to reporters this morning (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Mandy Bell). The organization made the decision quickly and will “attempt to help him land” with another club, per Francona.
Hamilton always faced an uphill battle in making the Indians’ roster, given the presence of Eddie Rosario, Oscar Mercado, Josh Naylor, Jordan Luplow, Bradley Zimmer, Daniel Johnson, Amed Rosario and Jake Bauers on the 40-man roster. But Cleveland’s outfield picture got even more crowded not two weeks after Hamilton inked his deal with the club on Feb. 12, as the Indians wound up claiming Harold Ramirez off waivers from the Marlins.
It’s not clear whether Cleveland will quickly release Hamilton or simply try to find a nominal trade that could send him to another club with more of a need in the outfield. Either way, it seems likely Hamilton will be with another club before too long.
The 30-year-old speedster was a fixture in the Reds’ outfield from 2013-18 but has begun to bounce around the league in journeyman fashion since that time. He split the 2019 season between the Royals and the Braves before spending time with the Giants, Mets and Cubs organizations in 2020. (He did not appear in the Majors with San Francisco.) Hamilton remains one of the game’s fastest players and most gifted outfield defenders, but he’s batted just .237/.294/.317 across his past four seasons in a total of 1578 plate appearances.
Royals Roster Moves
The Royals announced a number of roster moves today. Daniel Tillo and Angel Zerpa were both optioned to the minor leagues, while a third southpaw, Eric Skoglund, was reassigned to minor league camp. Both Tillo and Zerpa are on the Royals’ 40-man roster.
Though both Tillo and Zerpa are on the 40-man, neither seemed particularly likely to make the roster out of camp. The 24-year-old Tillo made it as high as Double-A in 2019, throwing 23 1/3 innings for Northwest Arkansas with a 3.47 ERA/3.62 FIP. He has been rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, notes the Athletic’s Alec Lewis (via Twitter). Fangraphs has Tillo as the Royals’ 38th-ranked prospect. Zerpa, meanwhile, is a 21-year-old southpaw out of Venezuela who has yet to play above rookie ball.
Skoglund will be more familiar to Royals’ fans. The 28-year-old made a total of 27 appearances (22 starts) for the Royals from 2017 to 2019. Over those three seasons, he pitched to a 6.61 ERA/5.50 FIP across 109 innings with a 39.3 percent groundball rate, subpar 13.8 percent strikeout rate, and so-so 8.2 percent walk rate. Skoglund was served an 80-game PED suspension in January of 2019. He returned late that season to spend a little time in the rotation, but without much success. He was designated for assignment last season and brought to camp as a non-roster invitee.
Cubs Return Rule 5 Pick Gray Fenter To Orioles
The Cubs have returned Rule 5 Draft pick Gray Fenter to the Orioles, per an announcement from Baltimore. The O’s have assigned the right-hander to major league spring training as a reserve.
Fenter was a seventh-round pick of the Orioles in 2015 who joined the franchise for a massive bonus ($1MM) relative to his draft position. While Fenter has since pitched to a 3.21 ERA and struck out over 10 batters per nine in 230 minor league innings, the 25-year-old hasn’t climbed above the Single-A level yet. He also underwent Tommy John surgery in 2016, wiping out that season and a large portion of the next year for him.
Fenter had an excellent year during the most recent minors season, 2019, when he logged a 1.81 ERA in 94 1/3 innings in Single-A. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote last December that Fenter “sat 91-93 and touched 95” that season.