Tigers Sign Miguel Del Pozo To Minors Deal
The Tigers announced that left-hander Miguel Del Pozo has been signed to a minor league contract. Del Pozo chose to become a free agent following the season, after he was outrighted off the Pirates’ roster during the summer.
Del Pozo has been hit hard over his 13 career MLB innings, with a total 12.46 ERA from 9 1/3 innings with the Angels in 2019 and then 3 2/3 frames for Pittsburgh last season. Del Pozo has more walks (13) than strikeouts (13) as a big leaguer, an extreme version of control issues he displayed early in his pro career, though he has seemingly gotten his walks under control as he rose up the minor league ladder.
Over 386 1/3 career innings in the Angels, Rangers, and Marlins farm systems, Del Pozo posted a 4.28 ERA, 25.8 K%, and 10.2% walk rate. He has worked almost exclusively as a reliever throughout his career, and he joins Locke St. John and Ian Krol as left-handed minor league signing for Detroit within the last month.
Brewers Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have signed utilityman Pablo Reyes to a minor league contract, according to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter link). The deal contains an invite to Milwaukee’s big league spring camp.
Reyes didn’t play during the 2020 season due to an 80-game PED suspension issued in February. He elected to become a free agent after the season, ending a nine-year stint as a member of the Pirates organization. After initially signing as a minor league free agent with the Bucs in 2012, Reyes hit .278/.351/.421 over 2587 plate appearances in Pittsburgh’s farm system.
This solid bat and the ability to play all over the field (though Reyes was mostly a shortstop and second baseman in the minors) got Reyes a look at the MLB level in both 2018 and 2019. Debuting with a strong .832 OPS over 63 PA in 2018, Reyes struggled at the plate in 2019, hitting only .203/.274/.322 in 157 plate appearances while also missing about a month of action due to an ankle injury. Reyes spent much of his time on the Pirates’ active roster as an outfielder.
The Brewers often prioritize multi-positional players, so the Reyes signing gives the team another versatile option to consider heading into Spring Training. Reyes is a right-handed hitter, which could make it a bit of an uphill battle for him to break camp considering the Brewers already have quite a bit of right-handed depth.
Twins Sign JT Riddle To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed JT Riddle to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, per MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Kim (via Twitter). Riddle spent last season with the Pirates.
Speculatively, Riddle could eventually help insure against the departure of free agent Marwin Gonzalez. Riddle plays all over the diamond, with his market advantage being capable glovework at both shortstop and centerfield. He has appeared at every position besides pitcher and catcher over his four year career, with a majority of his playing time coming up the middle.
Though he appeared in 23 games for the Pirates last season, the bulk of Riddle’s career was with the Marlins from 2017 to 2019. In total, Riddle owns a career triple slash of .222/.261/.355, just a 63 wRC+. Therein lies the rub for Riddle, as he has yet to come anywhere close to producing league-average offense. For his career, a 5.0 percent walk rate, 21.9 percent strikeout rate, and .133 isolated power mark all fall below league averages.
Justin Smoak To Sign With Yomiuri Giants
JANUARY 6: The deal is now complete and will promise Smoak $6MM, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).
DECEMBER 29: Free-agent first baseman Justin Smoak is nearing a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. Smoak will earn a guaranteed $6MM to $7MM if the deal goes through.
The 34-year-old Smoak divided last season between the Brewers and Giants (San Francisco, not Yomiuri) and posted a brutal .162/.250/.361 line with five home runs in 132 plate appearances. Smoak’s strikeout rate (31.8) was the second-highest figure of his career and a 10-plus percent increase over the number he recorded in 2019 with the Blue Jays. Considering his weak production from 2020, Smoak would have been hard-pressed to approach his agreement with Yomiuri in value had he stayed in the majors in 2021, so it’s no surprise the switch hitter is on his way to Japan to collect a larger paycheck and perhaps rebuild his stock for big league teams.
If this is the last we’ve seen of Smoak in MLB, though, he’ll go down as someone who had an up-and-down tenure at the game’s highest level. The 11th overall pick of the Rangers in 2008 and once among Baseball America’s top 15 prospects, Smoak has seen major league action with five teams (the Mariners are the other). Smoak was at his best in Toronto from 2017-18, when he slashed .256/.353/.495 with 63 home runs and a 128 wRC+ across 1,231 trips to the plate. He hasn’t come close to matching that form since then, however.
Tigers Outright Eric Haase
The Tigers announced that they have outrighted catcher Eric Haase, who cleared waivers after the team designated him for assignment last month.
Haase is coming off his first season with Detroit, which acquired him from AL Central rival Cleveland last January. However, he only took 19 plate appearances and collected three hits (all singles) during his 2020 Detroit debut.
Last year’s offensive struggles weren’t anything new for Haase, who has posted an ugly .122/.170/.184 line with one home run across 53 PA since he first made it to the majors in 2018. To his credit, the 28-year-old does own a far more impressive .232/.302/.479 mark with 49 HRs over 886 trips to the plate in Triple-A.
Yankees To Acquire Greg Allen From Padres
The Yankees are set to acquire outfielder Greg Allen from the Padres. Allen was recently designated for assignment by San Diego. The Padres will receive left-handed reliever James Reeves in return, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter).
Allen, a San Diego native, was traded to the Padres last August as part of the Mike Clevinger deal. The speedy outfielder appeared in just one game for the Padres, drawing a pair of walks, stealing a base, and scoring a run. For his career, Allen holds a .239/.298/.343 line in 618 plate appearances across four years with the Indians and Padres.
Reeves is a 27-year-old southpaw drafted by the Yankees in the 10th round of the 2015 draft. He has a 2.30 ERA across five minor league seasons, functioning almost exclusively as a reliever. He logged a 1.79 ERA across 55 1/3 innings for Double-A Trenton in 2019 with a 27.7 percent strikeout rate, 9.4 percent walk rate, and 43 percent groundball rate.
Reds Acquire Art Warren For Cash Considerations
The Reds have acquired right-hander Art Warren from the Rangers for cash considerations, both teams announced (Twitter links). Warren had been designated for assignment on December 26th, at which point it seemed fairly certain that Warren would latch on somewhere. The Reds make for a natural fit having moved out a couple of bullpen arms this winter, and it doesn’t hurt that Warren is an Ohio native. The 27-year-old will have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Cincinnati bullpen.
The Rangers had claimed Warren off waivers from the Mariners, but subsequently designated him for assignment to make room on their 40-man roster for Kohei Arihara. The Rangers had claimed Warren only as recently as October 21, 2020.
Warren spent one day on the Mariners’ active roster in 2020 but did not make an appearance. He made six big league appearances for Seattle in 2019 after recording a 32 percent strikeout rate in back-to-back seasons in Double-A. Warren posted a 60.3 percent groundball rate across 31 2/3 innings in 2019. Conversely, his groundball rate at the same level in 15 2/3 innings the year before was just 39.4 percent. There’s a fair amount of year-to-year variance in Warren’s minor league track record, but there’s certainly enough to make him an interesting bullpen candidate for manager David Bell.
Perhaps more importantly for the Reds, he’ll earn the league minimum. The Reds non-tendered Archie Bradley and traded Raisel Iglesias earlier this winter, removing two proven high-leverage arms from their bullpen stable, presumably for financial reasons. Adding Warren is a low-key move that doesn’t immediately move the needle for the Reds, but there is potential for Warren to make an impact in 2021
Pirates Sign Chase De Jong To Minor League Deal
The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 27-year-old right-hander Chase De Jong to a minor league deal, writes John Dreker of pittsburghbaseball.com. The 6’4″ De Jong has bounced around the league since the Blue Jays made him a second round pick out of high school in the 2012 draft. He never played in the Majors for Toronto, nor for his second organization, the Los Angeles Dodgers. After reaching Triple-A, the Dodgers traded De Jong to the Mariners, where he eventually made his debut during the 2017 season. He exceeded rookie requirements in 2020 with 0.110 days of service time in the Majors.
Despite just 15 career appearances, the California native has appeared in the Majors in each of the four seasons since his debut – never making more than seven appearances in a year. Overall, De Jong owns a 7.12 ERA/6.00 FIP in 54 1/3 innings, including 10 starts. At 27-years-old, De Jong is young enough to develop into something other than what we’ve seen of him thus far, especially being as he hasn’t seen much opportunity in terms of volume while appearing for the Mariners, Twins, and Astros. De Jong was a ranked prospect by Baseball America every season from 2013 to 2018, when he was the No. 16 ranked prospect in the Mariners’ organization.
Tigers Sign Robbie Grossman
6:42pm: The Tigers have announced the signing.
3:40pm: The two sides have a deal for two years and $10MM, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Grossman could make up to $500K per year in performance bonuses, per Stavenhagen.
3:39pm: The Tigers are closing in on a two-year, $10MM agreement with free-agent outfielder Robbie Grossman, Cody Stavenhagen and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report. The pact will also include performance bonuses for Grossman, a Lagardere Sports client.
Detroit will be the fourth team for Grossman, a sixth-round pick in 2008 who has played in the bigs with the Astros, Twins and Athletics. Grossman played a small portion of his career in Houston under then-manager A.J. Hinch, who is now the Tigers’ skipper.
Grossman and Hinch will now reunite, and the 31-year-old switch-hitter will bring a lifetime batting line of .252/.350/.380 with 50 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 2,748 plate appearances to his new team. While Grossman has been a roughly league-average offensive player throughout his career, he hasn’t graded out as well in the outfield, where he has combined for minus-19 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-18.9 Ultimate Zone Rating among all three positions.
Last season may have been a career offensive year for Grossman, who batted .241/.341/.482 (126 wRC+), hit eight homers and stole eight bases across 192 PA to conclude his A’s tenure. The majority of Grossman’s season was spent in left field, where the Tigers mostly deployed Christin Stewart in 2020. But Stewart and primary right fielder Daz Cameron had rough years, leaving the Tigers with a need in the corners. The hope is that Grossman will provide it, and his track record of getting on base suggests he’ll improve an offense that posted the league’s third-worst OBP (.303) last season.
Dodgers Re-Sign Blake Treinen
The Dodgers have re-signed right-handed reliever Blake Treinen to a two-year, $17.5MM guarantee that includes an $8MM club option or a $1.5MM buyout for 2023, Bob Nightengale of USA Today was among those to report. Treinen is a client of Apex Baseball. MLBTR predicted he would land a two-year, $14.5MM guarantee at the beginning of the offseason.
Treinen was something of a buy-low pickup for the Dodgers last winter, though they did have to guarantee the former Athletics standout $10MM. While he was then coming off a disappointing season in Oakland, the move paid off handsomely for the World Series-winning Dodgers, who got 25 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball with a 20.6 percent strikeout rate, 7.5 percent walk rate, and a tremendous 64 percent groundball rate from Treinen. The 32-year-old continued to average upward of 97 mph on his fastball along the way.
Putting aside his issues in 2019, Treinen has been one of the game’s most productive relievers throughout his career. In all, Treinen has pitched to a 3.02 ERA with a 23.3 strikeout percentage and a 9.4 percent walk rate in 425 2/3 major league innings. At his best, Treinen – also a former National – gave the A’s 80 1/3 frames of 0.78 ERA ball in 2018. While Treinen does have 72 saves on his resume, he has so far served as a setup man for the Dodgers, who continue to rely on Kenley Jansen as their game-ending answer.
Treinen should keep working as a bridge to Jansen in 2021, and the Dodgers will continue to feature a formidable bullpen even beyond those two. The Dodgers’ relief corps finished the 2020 campaign with a National League-best 2.74 ERA, and though Jake McGee turned in an excellent year and is now a free agent, they did add former All-Star Corey Knebel earlier this offseason.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.