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Minor Transactions: 1/28/20

By Connor Byrne | January 28, 2020 at 11:59pm CDT

A couple minor transactions from around the game…

The Athletics have signed utilityman Ryan Court to a minor league contract, Alex Coffey of The Athletic tweets. A 23rd-round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2011, the 31-year-old Court made his MLB debut with one of the A’s division rivals, the Mariners, last season. Court had difficulty over that 44-plate appearance showing, hitting .208/.240/.375 with 11 strikeouts. On the other hand, Court owns a much more productive .262/.355/.423 line in 1,187 PA at the Triple-A level, where he has seen action with the M’s, Red Sox and Cubs organizations dating back to 2016.
Former Mariners outfielder/infielder Stefen Romero won’t be returning to the bigs (or even Triple-A ball) in 2020. Romero has signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball, Jim Allen reports. This season will be the fourth in a row in Japan for the 31-year-old Romero, who batted .268/.332/.494 with 69 homers in 1,256 trips to the plate as a member of the Orix Buffaloes from 2017-19.

Tony Barnette Retires

By Connor Byrne | January 28, 2020 at 8:42pm CDT

Former major league reliever Tony Barnette is calling it a career. “I’ve thrown my last pitch,” the right-hander declared Tuesday on Instagram.

It’s almost a year to the day the Cubs signed Barnette to a $750K guarantee on Feb. 1, 2019. The low-risk move didn’t work out for either side, though, as shoulder issues stopped Barnette from pitching until late June. Once Barnette did take the hill with the Cubs, he made just two appearances and threw a meager 1 1/3 innings before going on the restricted list July 1 for family reasons. The Cubs had a $3MM option on the 36-year-old for 2020, but they made the predictable decision to decline it in November.

Prior to joining the Cubs, Barnette was at times a highly successful bullpen option with the Rangers. As a rookie in 2016, Barnette pitched to a sterling 2.09 ERA across 60 1/3 innings. That was the beginning of an up-and-down Texas tenure for Barnette, who struggled in 2017 but posted great numbers the next season; however, shoulder problems cut him down that year and held him to 26 1/3 innings.

Of course, it would be unfair to Barnette to ignore the overseas success he enjoyed during his professional baseball career. He was a 10th-round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2006 who, after spending a few years in the minors, joined the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball in advance of the 2010 season. Barnette was terrific in Japan, where he posted a 3.58 ERA across 316 1/3 innings, logged 9.6 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 and amassed 97 saves in six seasons before returning stateside.

Barnette only picked up two saves in the majors, but he’ll still end his MLB career with solid numbers – a 3.53 ERA with 8.17 K/9 and 2.66 BB/9 in 145 1/3 frames. MLBTR wishes him the best in retirement.

Royals, Greg Holland Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 8:24pm CDT

8:24pm: Holland can earn $1.25MM upon making the Royals’ roster with another $1.125MM available via incentive pay, tweets Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com.

7:53pm: The Royals have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Greg Holland, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’ll be in Major League camp this spring and look to secure a spot in the team’s bullpen. The agreement marks a reunion between the two sides, as Holland was a 2007 draftee of the Royals and starred in their bullpen from 2011-15 before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Holland’s return from Tommy John surgery in 2017 proved to be a success, as he anchored the bullpen for a Rockies club that secured an NL Wild Card playoff berth and paced the senior circuit in both games finished (58) and saves (41). Holland logged a 3.61 ERA and averaged 11 punchouts per nine innings that year, but he showed some worrying red flags late in the summer and struggled to find the type of lucrative deal he’d hoped in free agency.

The right-hander eventually signed an Opening Day deal with the Cardinals (where current Royals skipper Mike Matheny was managing at the time), locking in a $14MM salary for the 2018 campaign. Holland sprinted through a minor league tuneup and was in the big leagues just nine days after signing, and the veteran closer never seemed to find his footing. He posted a disastrous 7.92 ERA in 25 innings as a Cardinal before being released in a summer bullpen shakeup … only to latch on with the Nationals and rattle off 21 1/3 innings of 0.82 ERA ball. A once-again resurgent Holland landed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks last winter and posted a 4.54 ERA with 10.3 K/9 against an unpalatable 6.1 BB/9 before being released in August.

Kansas City is clearly hoping that the reunion will yield dividends, although five full seasons have elapsed since the now-34-year-old Holland turned in a full, dominant season of relief work. That said, the Royals’ bullpen is hardly a collection of juggernaut relievers, either. Starter-turned-closer Ian Kennedy is again in line for ninth-inning duties, but the entire setup is unproven. Hard-throwing Scott Barlow showed flashes of brilliance in 2019 but lacked consistency. Right-hander Kevin McCarthy was a durable middle man but struggled to miss bats. Southpaw Tim Hill has had mixed results in his two big league seasons but is coming off a quality ’19 campaign.

Other options in the K.C. ’pen include injury reclamation Jesse Hahn, waiver claim Randy Rosario, injury-prone former first rounder Kyle Zimmer and Rule 5 pick Stephen Woods. Suffice it to say, there’s plenty of room for Holland (and others) to force his way into the mix if he can impress Royals decision-makers this spring. It’s quite arguable, in fact, that the Royals should’ve done more to address such an uncertain unit this winter, although much of the relief market has already been picked clean.

Orioles To Sign Wade LeBlanc

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 7:22pm CDT

The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-hander Wade LeBlanc, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’ll be in Major League camp during Spring Training and would stand to earn an $800K base salary upon cracking the MLB roster.

Baltimore represents a prime location for a 35-year-old veteran on this type of contract to make a legitimate bid for a roster spot. The Orioles have already traded away Dylan Bundy this winter, leaving their rotation with a composition of John Means, Alex Cobb (health permitting) and journeyman Asher Wojciechowski. The Orioles’ only other rotation moves this winter have been to sign former Twins prospect Kohl Stewart to a big league deal and to select righty Brandon Bailey from GM Mike Elias’ former Astros organization in the Rule 5 Draft. Other internal candidates for starting gigs include right-hander David Hess, who struggled substantially in 2019, and left-hander Keegan Akin, who has yet to make his MLB debut.

It’s the sort of woeful rotation mix one would expect from an organization that is more intent on securing the first overall pick in the 2021 draft than on winning games in the upcoming season. And while that may not be good news for O’s fans, it does provide an avenue for a veteran like LeBlanc to seek out a bounceback opportunity.

LeBlanc was harmed as much as any starter in the game with last year’s juiced ball, as he yielded a staggering 2.1 homers per nine innings pitched and saw his ERA balloon by nearly two full runs over its 2018 levels (5.71 in ’19 versus 3.72 in ’18). In spite of the poor bottom-line run prevention (or lack thereof), the veteran southpaw still maintained similar K/BB tendencies to the ones he showed in a solid three-year stretch that preceded the 2019 season.

From 2016-18, LeBlanc tossed 292 innings (35 starts, 66 relief appearances) and pitched to a 3.91 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 1.4 HR/9 between the Mariners and the Pirates. His soft-tossing arsenal will face a tough task in the American League East if he does land on the big league roster, as he’ll be moving from the spacious T-Mobile Park and a division that generally skews a bit more toward the pitcher-friendly side of things to the cozier Camden Yards and hitter-friendly AL East. The lack of competition for a starting spot in Baltimore, though, should give LeBlanc a legitimate chance to land a roster spot this spring.

Twins Announce Several Minor League Signings

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 7:09pm CDT

The Twins organization has agreed to seven more minor league deals with free agents, Triple-A Rochester director of communications Nate Rowan announced Tuesday. Right-handers Juan Minaya, Austin D. Adams, Casey Lawrence, Parker Bridwell, Alec Asher and Joey Krehbiel all agreed to deals with the Twins, as did infielder Calten Daal.

Minaya, 29, spent the past four seasons with the division-rival White Sox and logged significant innings in each of the past three. From 2017-19, Minaya pitched to a 3.89 ERA (4.19 FIP) with 10.4 K/9, 4.7 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 in 118 innings of relief for the South Siders. His average heater was down about a mile per hour in 2019, sitting at 93.4 mph, but Minaya has a steady track record of missing bats while displaying sub-par control.

Adams, 33, made a pair of appearances with the Twins and tallied 14 frames with the Tigers but allowed 13 runs in 16 2/3 frames overall. He struggled in Triple-A as well, but this will be his third stint in the Twins organization, so the club’s decision-makers clearly see something they feel they can work with even if his recent results have been poor.

Bridwell, 28, pitched 121 innings of 3.64 ERA ball with the 2017 Angels, although his secondary numbers never really supported that mark. The righty averaged just 5.4 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 with an elevated 1.41 HR/9 rate and 38.1 percent ground-ball rate in ’17, causing FIP (4.84), xFIP (5.07) and SIERA (5.06) to view him in a less favorable light. Bridwell has an ERA north of 8.00 in a pair of injury-shortened Triple-A seasons since that time.

The 32-year-old Lawrence had a rough season in Japan in 2019 and returns to affiliated ball after just one year overseas. He spent 2017-18 in Seattle, where he soaked up 78 2/3 innings in a long relief/spot-starting role but limped to a 6.64 ERA along the way. Lawrence does have a respectable 3.73 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 262 2/3 Triple-A innings in his career.

Asher has just three MLB innings since 2017 and, in total, has a 5.42 ERA in 119 2/3 innings between the Phillies, Orioles and Brewers. The former Rangers prospect went to the Phils as part of the Cole Hamels deal several years ago, but he’s yet to find success in the bigs while serving mostly as a fifth starter/long reliever. The 28-year-old spent most of 2019 with the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, working to a 3.12 ERA in 37 1/3 frames.

Krehbiel, meanwhile, has just three big league innings to his name but has averaged just under 11 strikeouts per nine innings in his minor league career. Daal, 26, is a middle infielder who never cracked the Majors after seven seasons in the Reds organization. He’s consistently posted solid batting averages but limited on-base percentages and well below-average power numbers.

Cubs Sign Steven Souza Jr.

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 6:04pm CDT

6:04pm: The Cubs have formally announced the signing.

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets that he can earn the following incentives: $50K for reaching 200 plate appearances, $75K at 250 PAs, $125K at 300 PAs, $150K at 350 PAs and $200K for reaching each of 400, 450 and 500 PAs. Souza will also earn $200K for every 30th day on the active 26-man roster — up through 150 days.

3:50pm: The Cubs have finalized their one-year, Major League contract with free agent outfielder Steven Souza Jr., per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link). The two sides were first reported to be nearing an agreement on Friday. Souza, who is represented by ACES, will receive a $1MM base salary and can earn another $2MM via incentives, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com tweets. The team has yet to formally announce the signing.

It’s sure to be a low-cost deal for the Cubs, as Souza missed the entire 2019 season due to a devastating knee injury and hasn’t enjoyed a full, healthy year since a terrific 2017 campaign with the Rays. That year saw Souza turn in a .239/.351/.459 slash with career-highs in home runs (30), doubles (21), stolen bases (16) and plate appearances (617). Souza was traded to the Diamondbacks that offseason and immediately hit by injuries — namely a pectoral tear that wiped out more than half of his season and limited him to a .220/.309/.369 slash when on the field.

Bringing Souza into the fray gives the Cubs another option in what already looked like a somewhat crowded outfield mix. Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora Jr., Jason Heyward and Ian Happ are already lined up to share playing time as is. Third baseman Kris Bryant, too, has seen work in the outfield corners in each of the past five seasons. There are already plenty of question marks surrounding a potential trade involving Bryant — first and foremost centering around an ongoing service time grievance — and bringing another corner outfielder onto the roster will only spark some further speculation about other dealings.

The Souza pickup is the latest in a string of budget-friendly acquisitions from a Cubs front office that has been handcuffed both by the uncertainty surrounding Bryant’s status and by payroll constraints set forth by the Ricketts family ownership group. Chicago reportedly agreed to a tiny $850K deal with reliever Jeremy Jeffress earlier today and has otherwise made a string of minor league signings or non-guaranteed MLB deals (Dan Winkler, Ryan Tepera).

Red Sox Re-Sign Mitch Moreland

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 5:40pm CDT

Mitch Moreland will be back for at least a fourth season in Boston, as the Red Sox announced Tuesday that he’s been re-signed to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2021 season. The BASH Baseball client will reportedly be guaranteed $3MM in the form of a $2.5MM salary in 2020 and a $500K buyout on a $3MM option for the 2021 season. Right-hander Denyi Reyes has been designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster, per the Red Sox.

This marks the third time that Moreland, 34, has signed a free-agent deal with the Red Sox. Since signing in Boston prior to the 2017 season, he’s delivered a .247/.326/.455 slash with 56 home runs, 74 doubles and five triples. Most of that damage from the left-handed-hitting Moreland has come against right-handed pitching, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see right-handed-hitting Michael Chavis pair with him at the position.

Beyond his respectable contributions at the plate, Moreland is renowned for his defensive prowess at first base. Defensive metrics suggested that Moreland took a step back in his age-33 season, though most measures of his glovework still pegged him as a roughly average defender at the position, and his track record is quite strong overall. Given that he’ll come at such an affordable rate not only in 2020 but potentially in 2021, Moreland is a sensible re-signing even at a time when the Red Sox are striving to lower their luxury tax commitments.

Like fellow offseason pickup Jose Peraza, Moreland will count $3MM against the Red Sox’ luxury ledger in 2020. With Moreland back in the fold, Boston’s bottom-line payroll checks in at roughly $236MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. Their luxury tax commitments, meanwhile, exceed the $208MM threshold by more than $31MM now that Moreland is set to return.

As for the 23-year-old Reyes, he was added to the 40-man roster last winter as the Red Sox sought to protect themselves against losing him in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft. At that time, Reyes had wrapped up a standout season that saw him post a combined 1.97 ERA with a superlative 145-to-19 K/BB ratio in 155 1/3 innings as a 21-year-old between Class-A and Class-A Advanced.

Reyes turned in a 4.16 ERA (3.69 FIP) against older competition in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting this past season, albeit with a diminished 6.9 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and 32.1 percent grounder rate. New chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom apparently wasn’t as bullish on the right-hander as the prior regime, and the Sox will have a week to either trade Reyes, place him on outright waivers or release him.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the signing.

Giants To Sign Yolmer Sanchez

By Steve Adams | January 28, 2020 at 3:10pm CDT

The Giants and second baseman Yolmer Sanchez are in agreement on a minor league contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The MVP Sports client will be in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee and will vie for everyday at-bats at second base.

Still just 27 years old, Sanchez was cut loose by the White Sox in late November despite taking home Gold Glove honors for his work at second base in 2019. Sanchez racked up 11 Defensive Runs Saved and a 4.9 Ultimate Zone Rating, although Statcast’s Outs Above Average was a bit more tepid in giving him a +2 mark.

Defensive excellence notwithstanding, Sanchez has never shown that he can hit much at the big league level. A 2017 season in which he slashed .267/.319/.413 stands out as his best year with the bat, and in the two seasons since that time, he’s combined for a dreary .246/.311/.349 output in more than 1200 trips to the dish. In all, Sanchez is a career .244/.299/.357 hitter in 2438 plate appearances. If he’s able to make the club, he’d be controllable through the 2021 season via arbitration.

With the Giants, he’ll push up-and-coming Mauricio Dubon for the everyday nod at second base. Dubon, a rather well-regarded shortstop prospect acquired in July’s Drew Pomeranz deal, batted .274/.306/.434 in his big league debut this past season — a total of 111 plate appearances. He’s a career .299/.339/.474 hitter in parts of three Triple-A campaigns, though, and gives the Giants a longer-term option with more all-around upside at second base than does Sanchez.

Rosenthal indicates that Sanchez had Major League offers this winter but opted for a minor league pact in San Francisco to compete for a regular role. That, presumably, says more about the quality of said big league offers as it does about Sanchez’s chances of winning the job with the Giants. Sanchez was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $6.2MM in arbitration prior to being placed on waivers, and his rejection of MLB offers serves as an indicator that none were close to that range. More likely is that other clubs had eyes on using him in a utility capacity, and he’ll instead hope to parlay this nonguaranteed deal into a more prominent role.

Nationals Re-Sign Ryan Zimmerman

By Connor Byrne | January 28, 2020 at 10:59am CDT

JANUARY 28: This deal is now official.

JANUARY 24: The Nationals have reached a one-year, $2MM guarantee with first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, pending a physical, Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports. The deal can max out at $5MM with performance bonuses, and it includes a full no-trade clause. Zimmerman’s a client of CAA Sports.

It’s no surprise reigning world champion Washington’s bringing back Zimmerman, aka Mr. National and the first player the franchise chose after moving from Montreal. General manager Mike Rizzo and Zimmerman suggested on multiple occasions in recent months that agreeing to a new contract was a formality.

The fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft, Zimmerman began to establish himself as one of the majors’ premier third basemen in 2006. He remained a highly valuable player at the position through 2013, but injuries and an overall decline have cut him down in recent years and forced a position change.

The 35-year-old Zimmerman transitioned to first base on a full-time basis in 2014, and he posted excellent numbers as recently as 2017. Zimmerman remained effective in the ensuing season, but he struggled to produce during an injury-limited 2019. He slashed a less-than-stellar .257/.321/.415 with six home runs in 190 plate appearances, but the right-handed hitter abused lefty pitchers (as he has done throughout his career) and was one of the Nats’ many playoff heroes in the fall. Zimmerman’s three-run homer against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLDS will always count as one of the greatest moments in franchise history. He also smacked a solo dinger versus the Astros in the Nats’ one-run victory in Game 1 of the World Series.

The Zimmerman agreement is the latest in what has been a busy offseason for the Nationals. The club lost Anthony Rendon in free agency, and he’ll be extremely difficult to replace, but in addition to keeping Zimmerman, it has re-signed Stephen Strasburg, Howie Kendrick, Yan Gomes, Daniel Hudson and Asdrubal Cabrera. The team has also picked up outside free agents in Will Harris, Starlin Castro and Eric Thames. Zimmerman, Kendrick and the lefty-hitting Thames figure to get the lion’s share of playing time at first for the Nats in 2020.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nationals To Sign Emilio Bonifacio

By Jeff Todd | January 28, 2020 at 10:30am CDT

The Nationals have agreed to a minors deal with utilityman Emilio Bonifacio, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). There’s a Spring Training invite and potential $1MM salary in the pact.

It has been a while since we’ve seen the 11-year MLB veteran in the bigs. The 34-year-old last appeared in 2017 with the Braves. He received only 169 plate appearances over the 2015-17 seasons.

Bonifacio has mostly plied his trade in the upper minors of late. The versatile veteran did have a nice season last year at Triple-A with the Rays organization, slashing .286/.353/.475 (in an offensively charged International League). But he hasn’t exactly been a force in Dominical Winter League action (.267/.384/.350).

It’s possible the Nationals could carry Bonifacio as a final bench piece, though it’s far from assured he’ll end up with a roster spot. He’ll likely compete with Wilmer Difo, Adrian Sanchez, and perhaps others to serve as a shortstop-capable reserve.

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