Rangers Sign Edubray Ramos To Minor League Deal
The Texas Rangers will sign Edubray Ramos to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, per the Athletic’s Levi Weaver (via Twitter).
Ramos – who turns 28 years old later this month – spent last season with the Dodgers, though he didn’t make an appearance at the Major League level. He did appear in the bigs in each of the four prior seasons with the Phillies.
In Philly, Ramos was a productive piece of the bullpen with a 3.71 ERA/3.72 FIP across 155 1/3 innings spanning 173 appearances. He made just 20 appearances in 2019, however, with a substandard 5.40 ERA/7.68 FIP and just 6.6 K/9. Though his slider is his primary offering, it’s a touch troubling that his fastball velocity has ticked downwards from 95.9 mph in 2016 to 91.5 mph in 2019.
Rockies Sign Chi Chi Gonzalez To Minor League Deal
The Colorado Rockies are bringing right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez back on a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, writes MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
Gonzalez will be 29 years old next season coming off a 0.1 bWAR effort in 2020 that spanned six appearances (four of which were starts). The right-hander was tagged with a 6.86 ERA/5.54 FIP in 19 2/3 innings with 7.3 K/9 to 4.6 BB/9. He was non-tendered last week, but returns now with a chance to make the 2021 team. He has an option remaining, which should help him stick with the organization through the 2021 season. The Rockies need as much pitching depth as they can muster.
Gonzalez was a first round draft pick of the Rangers, but an elbow injury sidelined his career. He made it back to the bigs in 2019, making 11 starts for the Rockies with a 5.29 ERA/5.64 FIP. He throws a five-pitch mix on the backbone of a high-spin, 92 mph four-seam fastball.
Phillies Announce Dave Dombrowski As President Of Baseball Operations
The Phillies got their guy. Loudly on the hunt for a veteran executive – for a personality big enough to match their sense of urgency – the Philadelphia Phillies coaxed two-time World Series winner Dave Dombrowski to leave his position in Nashville and answer the call.
The news broke yesterday, but today, the organization formally announced Dombrowski as their first-ever President of Baseball Operations. He signed for four years and $20MM, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca points out, that’s the most money handed out to a free agent so far this winter.
Dombrowski comes heavily decorated. He won the World Series in 1997 with the Marlins and in 2018 with the Red Sox. He built two pennant winners with the Detroit Tigers (2006, 2012). He has 31 total years of experience running an MLB franchise, and he’s the only general manager in MLB history to lead three different franchises to the World Series. That’s quite the feather in his cap. He’s also the only two-time winner of Baseball America’s Executive of the Year award.
In the press release, managing partner John Middleton said this of Dombrowski:
This is a great day for the Philadelphia Phillies. David Dombrowski is one of the most accomplished executives this great game has ever seen, and we are thrilled to welcome him to Philadelphia. Between David and Joe Girardi, we now have two of the best people in place to set us on the path back to where we want to be, and that is the postseason and contending for world championships.
Interestingly, the press release also made special mention of Dombrowski’s track record of success in the draft, listing Rondell White, Cliff Floyd, Charles Johnson, Cameron Maybin, Mark Kotsay, Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Verlander, Nicholas Castellanos, Josh Beckett, Andrew Miller, and Rick Porcello among the standouts. That’s noteworthy particularly in the context of previous comments made by team president Andy MacPhail back in October when they began their search, per the Athletic’s Matt Gelb. :
Our R&D department has been good with one exception. I’m just being blunt. I look at Tampa. They’re able to unlock the hidden value or potential in minor-league players that have been around a while that they recognize something that we’re not picking up on yet. I think that’s one thing that this franchise needs to improve on. Our R&D needs to obviously help with that.
Specifically, the Phillies were seeking someone with a track record of success in player evaluation. For more insight into Philadelphia’s thinking, let’s take a cue from Brad Pitt in Moneyball: What’s the problem? As Gelb helpfully reminds us, at the time of former GM Matt Klentak’s reassignment, Middleton said this:
I think the problem the Phillies have had for a hundred years is they don’t evaluate talent well.
Dombrowski’s win-now mentality is getting headline treatment, with assumptions being made about the free agent dollars Dombrowki will spend and the prospects he will trade away. The Phillies themselves, however, are underlining some other aspects of Dombrowski’s resume. Player evaluation plays a role in every aspect of roster building, of course. Still, it’s intriguing that system building has been at the forefront of Philly’s messaging in the early going.
Dombrowski will answer questions from the media this afternoon.
Wei-Yin Chen Agrees To Deal With Hanshin Tigers
Southpaw Wei-Yin Chen has agreed to join the Hanshin Tigers for 2021, per MLB Insider Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Chen’s MLB career began when the Taiwanese lefty signed a three-year guarantee worth $11.3MM with the Baltimore Orioles before the 2012 season. At that time, he was coming off five seasons starring for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan, where he posted with a 2.48 ERA. He returned to Japan in 2020 with 26 innings of 2.42 ERA baseball for the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines.
In between, he made his debut for Baltimore as a 26-year-old in 2012, posting a strong 4.02 ERA/4.42 FIP over 192 2/3 innings. He remained a member of Baltimore’s rotation for four seasons, finishing his tenure there with a 3.72 ERA/4.14 FIP across 117 starts totaling 706 2/3 innings. Those numbers were good for 9.4 bWAR, or 2.6 bWAR per 200 innings. While he was never a frontline starter for the O’s, he put together solid seasons in the middle of the rotation for a contender under manager Buck Showalter.
His four seasons with the Marlins were less efficient. He signed a five-year $80MM contract, but injuries marred his time in Miami. He was released prior to the final season of the deal in 2020. In the four years prior, he amassed a 5.10 ERA/4.54 FIP across 358 innings.
Phillies To Hire Dave Dombrowski As President Of Baseball Operations
Dec. 11: The Phillies have announced the deal.
Dec. 10: The Phillies are in “advanced stages” of talks to hire Dave Dombrowski as their new president of baseball ops, reports the Athletic’s Jayson Stark. Dombrowski has the job, Jon Heyman of MLB Network confirms.
This news come as a surprise. Dombrowski had been linked to the Angels’ front office position, but he was said to be content in his role with the Nashville group. Apparently, the role in Philadelphia was appealing enough to lure him from his responsibilities working to bring baseball back to Nashville.
Dombrowski boasts four successful runs with four different franchises throughout his illustrious career, which began in 1988 when he was elevated to the position of general manager for the Montreal Expos. Dombrowski went from farm director to assistant GM to general manager in the span of three years, matching the term length he’d end up with as the frontman in Montreal (1988-1991). From there, he went south to architect the Marlins run from expansion team to World Champion in 1997. He stayed in Florida from 1992 until 2001. From there, he rejuvenated a long-troubled Tigers franchise. He took Detroit to the World Series twice from 2002 to 2015 before leaving to join the Boston Red Sox.
With Boston, Dombrowski left a legacy of handing out large contracts to veteran players and running up a luxury tax bill – but his contribution was much more nuanced. His single-minded purpose to win and willingness to spend go against the fashionable trends of the day, and ownership didn’t appreciate the direction he was moving the team in 2019. That said, he has a history of successful trades, including in Boston where he sent out prospects to add Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, and Craig Kimbrel en route to winning the 2018 World Series. Despite the ring, Dombrowski was removed from his role in September 2019.
The Phillies have been looking for a new decision-maker since re-assigning Matt Klentak from his role as general manager. If there was any uncertainty about who was running things in Philadelphia, the hierarchy is now clear. Dombrowski is a hand-on executive who has enough experience in the game to set a clear direction.
Dombrowski’s history in the win-now tradition blends well with Philly’s stated direction. He not only matches the Phillies’ competitive ethos, but he’s about as accomplished an executive as exists in the game, having taken three different franchises to the World Series.
Assuming this hire goes through, it’s certainly a statement hire and a big win for what the Phillies were hoping to accomplish. But Dombrowski enters a fraught situation. He’s faced immediately with the J.T. Realmuto question – a pricey free agent that it hurts to lose. Dombrowski will have his work cut out for him in Philadelphia.
Still, alignment between ownership and the front office goes a long way to establishing the type of culture that wins World Series. Managing partner John Middleton clearly thirsts to bring a winner back to Philly, and he’s been walking the walk, beginning with the signing of Bryce Harper to a monster 13-year, $330MM contact. Middleton has put his money on the line, but the spending hasn’t spawned enough victories. The Phillies have been unable to get back to the postseason since their run of five consecutive postseason appearances ended in 2012.
Dodgers Acquire Corey Knebel
Dec 11: The Brewers are acquiring southpaw Leo Crawford to complete the Knebel trade, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand and others (via Twitter). The Brewers sent Knebel to the Dodgers just before the non-tender deadline. In Crawford, they’re getting a 23-year-old lefty who reached Double-A in 2019. Between High-A and Double-A, Crawford pitched to a 2.81 ERA across 121 2/3 innings with 9.9 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9. Some comparisons have been drawn to Brent Suter in terms of his deception and projectionable functionality as a starter who could work out of the bullpen depending on need.
Dec 2: The Dodgers announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Corey Knebel from the Brewers in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. The trade comes after Knebel was reportedly set to be non-tendered, but it appears that the Brewers instead found an eleventh-hour trade for the former All-Star closer. He’ll still be eligible for arbitration with the Dodgers.
Knebel, 29, struggled this past season in his comeback from 2019 Tommy John surgery. The 2017 All-Star was rocked for a 6.08 ERA with a 15-to-8 K/BB ratio in 13 1/3 innings — his first action on a big league mound since the end of the 2018 campaign.
There were plenty of red flags for Knebel in 2020, most notably a 94.4 mph average fastball velocity that sat three miles per hour shy of its 2017 peak. That said, Knebel’s velocity began to trend upward late in the season, which could have been enough to give the Dodgers hope that he’ll regain some of the life on his heater next year when he’s another season removed from surgery.
Knebel’s struggles in 2020 should prevent him from taking home much of a raise on his $5.125MM salary from this past season, so he’ll be an affordable, high-upside roll of the dice for a Dodgers club that hasn’t been afraid to take chances when it comes to buying low on formerly elite relievers.
From 2017-18 with the Brewers, Knebel racked up 55 saves while pitching to a 2.54 ERA and 2.74 FIP over the course of 131 1/3 innings. Along the way he emerged as one of the game’s premier strikeout artists, averaging an obscene 14.7 K/9 and punching out 40.2 percent of the hitters he faced on the whole.
Obviously, that was two years and one major surgery ago, but the Dodgers will hope for a return to form in what will be Knebel’s final season prior to free agency. If they can successfully round him into form, he’ll join a late-inning mix featuring Kenley Jansen, Brusdar Graterol and Joe Kelly, although the Dodgers figure to further supplement that group between now and Opening Day.
Casey Kelly Re-Signs With KBO’s LG Twins
Former Boston Red Sox prospect Casey Kelly has re-signed with the LG Twins of the KBO, per Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net (via Twitter). Kelly returns to LG’s rotation for $1.4MM. The contract amount had previously been reported to be a little higher, though the bigger news is that the deal now appears to be official.
Kelly was a consensus top prospect after being a first round pick of the Red Sox in 2008. Baseball America ranked him as baseball’s #24-ranked prospect prior to 2010. Around that time, he was included as a key piece of the trade (along with Anthony Rizzo) that brought Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres to the Red Sox. With the Padres, Kelly continued to rank among the best prospects in the game, appearing at #31, #76, and #45 in three subsequent seasons.
The Florida native debuted in 2012 with six starts, but Tommy John surgery early in 2013 wiped out his season. He didn’t return to the Majors until 2015, eventually seeing spot appearances for the Braves and finally the Giants in 2018. In total, he logged 85 2/3 innings spread across four seasons from 2012 to 2018 with a 5.46 ERA/4.43 FIP.
The former top prospect has found new life in the KBO, where he’s posted a 2.93 ERA in 353 2/3 innings across two seasons in the Twins’ rotation. Kelly helped the LG Twins to the playoffs this year, going 15-7 in 28 starts with a 3.32 ERA, 7.0 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Kelly led Twins’ starters in starts, wins, innings, WHIP, strikeouts, and walk rate. Kelly went seven innings with two earned runs, three hits, one walk, and 10 strikeouts in a playoff start against the Kiwoon Heroes. The Twins won that game in 13 innings, advancing to the next round where they’d be swept by the Doosan Bears.
The 31-year-old is definitely a candidate to keep an eye on, should he desire to return stateside after this season. Miles Mikolas, Merrill Kelly, Pierce Johnson, Eric Thames, and others have set a trend of establishing themselves abroad after meandering or false-started development years in the States. Matter of fact, in the Twins’ final game of the season, they were shut out over six innings by Chris Flexen, the most recent player to return stateside after a successful stint overseas.
If Flexen shines with the Mariners and Kelly posts another strong campaign in the KBO, he could return to an intrigued marketplace, should that be his desire. Keep an eye on Kelly, as he could become an interesting name to add to next year’s crop of free agent starters.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/11/2020
Rounding up some minor moves from around the baseball-sphere…
- The Dodgers are nearing a minor league pact with Carlos Asuaje, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). The 29-year-old utility-man appeared in 175 games for the Padres from 2016 to 2018 with a triple slash of .240/.312/.329. He saw 49 games of action with the Lotte Giants of the KBO in 2019. On a minor league deal, Asuaje is likely to get an invite to Spring Training, but he’s likely being brought on board primarily to serve as minor league insurance.
- The Red Sox have depth outfield Cesar Puello back into the fold on a minor league deal, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. The 29-year-old returns to Boston after appearing in five games last season. Puello has also seen Major League action with the Angels, Rays, and Marlins. He provides right-handed depth for the Red Sox with the ability to play all three outfield positions. He runs well, and he’s shown marked improvement in his command of the strike zone, walking at a 13.2% rate across 167 plate appearances while with the Angels’ Triple-A club in 2019.
Reds Trade Raisel Iglesias To Angels
DEC. 10: Infielder Leo Rivas is the PTBNL headed to the Reds, the Angels announced. The 23-year-old Rivas ranked as the Angels’ 25th-best prospect at MLB.com, which writes that the switch hitter has consistently “shown the ability to get on base, run and defend” throughout his minor league career. He owns a .252/.380/.362 line with 87 stolen bases in 1728 plate appearances in the minors. Rivas reached the High-A level in 2019. The Angels, meanwhile, are getting $900K in cash, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets.
DEC. 7: In an out-of-the-blue move, the Angels have acquired closer Raisel Iglesias and cash from the Reds in exchange for right-hander Noe Ramirez and a player to be named later, per announcements from both teams.
It’s the latest indication that the Reds are looking to cut costs. In addition to their surprising decision to non-tender Archie Bradley last week, the Reds have also reportedly been open to moving right-hander Sonny Gray, who is owed two years and $20MM on his contract. Iglesias is signed for $9.125MM this coming season and will be a free agent following the 2021 season.
This is the second notable trade for the Angels under new general manager Perry Minasian, who last week acquired shortstop Jose Iglesias from the Orioles in exchange for a pair of minor league pitchers. Iglesias will give the Halos a more clearly defined closing option after non-tendering a slate of five relievers, including Hansel Robles and Keynan Middleton, last Tuesday.
Iglesias, 31 in January, has been the Reds’ primary closer for the past four seasons. He had something of a down year in 2019 but saw both his velocity and his bottom-line results rebound in 2020. This past season, Iglesias tallied 23 innings of 2.74 ERA ball with a terrific 31-to-5 K/BB ratio, eight saves and a 41.5 percent grounder rate. Since taking over the ninth inning following countryman Aroldis Chapman‘s trade to the Yankees, Iglesias has been highly effective, pitching to a combined 2.95 ERA with 100 saves, 11.0 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 1.13 HR/9 and a 37.5 percent ground-ball rate.
A return of Ramirez and a PTBNL suggests that from the Reds’ vantage point, this move was primarily a means of jettisoning Iglesias’ salary. Ramirez is two weeks older than Iglesias with a fraction of the track record. He’s pitched to a respectable 3.76 ERA over the past two seasons but done so with more questionable peripherals and primarily in low-leverage spots. Ramirez’s fastball sat at a career-low 88.8 mph in 2020 as his K/9 mark dropped to a career-low 6.0.
To his credit, Ramirez did have a nice year in 2019, when he gave the Angels 67 2/3 innings of 3.99 ERA and 3.72 FIP ball with averages of 10.5 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. Statcast rated him in the 75th percentile or better in terms of average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, curveball spin and overall swinging-strike rate. It was a solid season, to be sure, but even that career-best year pales in comparison to the best efforts put forth by Iglesias.
Perhaps the Reds are hopeful that Ramirez can regain that form, and it’s certainly worth pointing out that he’s controllable through the 2023 season. However, Ramirez looked like a non-tender candidate just one week ago, and trading an established closer of Iglesias’ stature for a low-leverage reliever in need of a rebound looks like little more than a salary dump. If the PTBNL involved in the deal proves to unexpectedly be a prospect of note, the swap might look better, but the Reds have now jettisoned Iglesias and Bradley from an already problematic bullpen.
With Iglesias out of the picture, the Reds’ projected payroll drops from closer to $130MM to a bit more than $120MM. Lefty Amir Garrett and righty Lucas Sims are the in-house favorites to assume some of Iglesias’ high-leverage spots, particularly with Michael Lorenzen expected to move into the starting rotation. The Reds could still add some arms from outside the organization, but based on their activity to this point in the winter, it doesn’t seem likely that any additions will be especially high-profile in nature.
Marlins Acquire Zach Pop From Diamondbacks
The Miami Marlins have acquired Zach Pop from the Arizona Diamondbacks for a player to be named later, the Marlins announced. Pop was taken with the sixth pick of today’s Rule 5 draft from the Baltimore Orioles.
This marks the second deal made with players selected in today’s draft, following the Pirates acquisition of Luis Oviedo, which was announced just moments after the Mets made the selection. Oviedo was selected from the Cleveland Indians organization.
Pop, 24, came to the Orioles as part of the Manny Machado trade. He missed all but eight appearances of the 2019 season with Tommy John surgery, but he remains an intriguing bullpen arm. He boasts a sterling 1.34 ERA across three minor league seasons.
After adding Pop and catcher Paul Campbell from the Rays with their own pick in the Rule 5 draft, the Marlins 40-man roster is currently full.