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Giants Sign Tyler Heineman

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The Giants have signed catcher Tyler Heineman, he announced Monday on Twitter. It’s presumably a minor league contract for Heineman, who comes with little experience in the majors.

Now 28 years old, Heineman entered the pro ranks as an eighth-round pick of the Astros in 2012. The part-time magician has since been a part of the Brewers, Marlins and Diamondbacks organizations. Heineman owns a respectable .287/.353/.430 line in 1,004 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, where he has played almost all of the past few seasons and shown an ability to avoid strikeouts. And Heineman did debut in the majors last season with 12 plate trips to the plate in September as a member of the Marlins, but they outrighted him off their 40-man roster in the middle of October.

Heineman will now join a Giants roster whose starting catching job is taken by the venerable Buster Posey. They also have Aramis Garcia on their 40-man, while high-end prospect Joey Bart shouldn’t be too far off from the majors.

Angels Acquire Kyle Keller, Designate Jake Jewell

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The Angels have acquired right-hander Kyle Keller from the Marlins for catcher Jose Estrada, according to announcements from both teams. The Angels designated righty Jake Jewell for assignment in a corresponding move.

Keller’s the only player in the two-man trade who comes with major league experience. An 18th-round pick of the Marlins in 2015, Keller debuted in the bigs last season with 10 2/3 innings of four-earned run ball, in which he struck out 11 and walked eight. The 26-year-old spent the majority of the season at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 4.50 ERA/4.19 FIP with a whopping 12.17 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 over 54 innings. Although Keller was at least a useful minor league arm for the Marlins, they designated him Dec. 20.

Jewell, also 26, now finds himself in DFA limbo after struggling in both the minors and majors last season. An Angel since they used a fifth-rounder on him in 2014, Jewell threw a career-high 26 1/3 frames in 2019. However, despite an eye-popping 63.8 percent groundball rate, Jewell only managed a 6.84 ERA/6.67 FIP with 7.86 K/9 against 2.73 BB/9.

In Estrada, the Marlins are getting a 19-year-old who’s coming off his first pro season. Estrada took 176 plate appearances at the rookie level last year and batted .247/.335/.305 without a home run.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/4/20

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Baseball America has posted its traditional roundup of minor moves dating to the start of the offseason. We’ve already covered quite a few of the transactions over the past several weeks, but there are several additions on minor-league pacts that have to this point eluded detection …

  • The Braves have signed left-handed pitcher Chris Nunn to a minor-league deal that includes an invite to spring training, according to Robert Murray. Nunn, originally a 2012 draftee of the Padres, has yet to see Major League action since his professional debut, making stops in Independent leagues along the way. Now 28 years old, he’s played in the upper minors with the Astros and Dodgers organizations in the last two years. Last year, in 50 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, Nunn struck out 66 batters while walking 24. After posting a 1.33 ERA in Double-A, his numbers ballooned at the next level, though he largely maintained his bat-missing prowess.
  • The Padres signed outfielder Abraham Almonte. The 30-year-old switch-hitter saw action in 17 MLB games for the division-rival Diamonbacks in 2019. He was quite productive with the Snakes’ Triple-A affiliate in Reno last season, slashing .270/.382/.558. That dwarfs his prior MLB performance, though. In 1,138 plate appearances over the past six seasons, the center field-capable Almonte has compiled a .239/.298/.373 line (81 wRC+).
  • The Reds re-signed infielder Christian Colón and added catcher Francisco Peña to the organization. Colón, most known for his top five draft status and World Series heroics with the Royals, logged eight MLB plate appearances in Cincinnati last season. That rewarded a solid .300/.372/.443 line in extended action with Triple-A Louisville, although Colón was unsurprisingly bumped from the 40-man roster at season’s end. Peña tallied 202 uninspiring MLB plate appearances with the Royals, Orioles and Cardinals from 2014-18. He’s shown decent pop for a catcher at Triple-A, though; in parts of six seasons at the minors’ highest level, he has compiled a .259/.301/.469 line.
  • The Dodgers re-signed right-hander Justin De Fratus. The former Phillie has spent the last two seasons in the L.A. organization, but he hasn’t seen the majors since 2015. While all 191 of De Fratus’ MLB appearances have come out of the bullpen, he’s primarily been a starting pitcher in the minors in recent years, albeit with uninspiring results. The Dodgers also added hard-throwing lefty reliever Reymin Guduan. Guduan is still just 27 and had little trouble racking up strikeouts in the Astros’ organization, both in the high minors and at the MLB level. He’s always issued a few too many walks, though. Perhaps more concerning, Houston released Guduan in September after a team-imposed suspension for an undisclosed disciplinary issue.
  • The Rockies re-signed righty reliever Wes Parsons. The 27-year-old was claimed off waivers midseason from the Braves, but a dreadful MLB showing cost him his 40-man roster spot. Parsons logged a cumulative 5.45 ERA with more walks (29) than strikeouts (26) in 34.2 innings. Colorado also signed outfielder Michael Choice. The former top prospect, now 30, hasn’t logged significant MLB action since 2014. He’s spent the past two seasons in the Mexican League, but a strong 2019 effort there earned him another look in affiliated ball.
  • The Braves signed veteran infielder Pete Kozma. The longtime Cardinal has just a .215/.278/.291 career line (54 wRC+) in parts of seven MLB seasons. He hasn’t done much at the dish in the minors, either, but he’s a well-regarded defender around the infield.
  • The Angels signed former Cubs’ prospect Arismendy Alcántara. Alcántara hasn’t played at the highest level since 2017, and his career .189/.235/.315 line (49 wRC+) reflects the plate discipline woes that have done him in. He’s still just 28 years old, though, and his 2019 return to affiliated ball following a year in the Mexican League went well. The utilityman was productive across two minor-league levels in the Mets’ organization last season and showed better discipline than he has in his MLB career.
  • The Mets added former White Sox outfielder Ryan Cordell. Twice traded as a prospect, the 27-year-old fell flat in his first extended MLB look in 2019, with just a .221/.290/.355 line (73 wRC+). He’s capable of logging some time in center field, though, and he put together a decent minor-league resume between myriad injuries.
  • Finally, the Yankees brought aboard utilityman Rosell Herrera. Herrera logged fair MLB time with the Reds, Royals and Marlins the past two seasons. His resultant .225/.286/.316 slash (63 wRC+) won’t turn any heads, but Herrera has an 82nd percentile sprint speed, per Statcast, and has logged time at six different positions (short, second, third, and all three outfield spots) as a big leaguer.

Tigers Sign Alex Wilson To Minor-League Deal

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Longtime Tigers’ right-hander Alex Wilson will return to the organization on a minor-league deal, per a team announcement. He’ll receive an invite to MLB spring training.

Wilson pitched for the Tigers from 2015-18. In that time, he cemented himself as a solid, if unexciting, middle reliever. Wilson managed a cumulative 3.20 ERA while working 60+ innings in each of his four seasons in Detroit. He didn’t issue many walks and kept the ball in the yard, but a mediocre 16% strikeout rate over that span led Detroit to non-tender him last offseason.

The now 33-year-old caught on with the Brewers, but he was quickly jettisoned following a dreadful start. Over 11.1 innings, Wilson posted a 9.53 ERA. Ironically, he finally found an uptick in punchouts in his small sample of work in Milwaukee, but his walk and home run rates more than doubled, accounting for the disastrous results.

Wilson resembled his typical self in later Triple-A work with the Brewers’ and Cubs’ affiliates. Nevertheless, he didn’t make it back to the majors after April. With a strong spring, he should have a solid opportunity to reclaim a spot in an in-flux Tigers’ bullpen that was among the league’s worst in 2019.

Nationals Sign David Hernandez

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The Nationals have inked veteran reliever David Hernandez, according to the Baseball America transactions log. (BA stalwart Matt Eddy has handed the controls over to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle.)

Details aren’t available, but it’s surely a minor-league deal for the 34-year-old hurler. Hernandez is coming off of an especially trying campaign in which he carried a putrid 8.02 ERA over 42 2/3 innings with the Reds. He failed to turn things around in a late stint at Triple-A with the Yankees.

Thing is, little about Hernandez’s effort suggested those excruciating results. He racked up 11.2 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 while carrying career highs in swinging-strike rate (14.7%), chase rate (35.3%), and first-strike rate (65.2%). Hernandez allowed more homers than you’d like, but 1.48 per nine hardly stood out in a season of the long ball.

In large part, Hernandez seems to have been the victim of poor fortune. He allowed a hefty .393 batting average on balls in play and carried a meager 54.5% strand rate. Statcast measurements indicate that opponents didn’t hit the ball any harder than usual. He was kicked around for a .376 wOBA that dwarfed the .318 xwOBA that the contact quality suggested.

The Nats will see in camp whether Hernandez deserves a shot at turning things around. He’s surely a better option than his 2019 ERA would suggest, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll warrant a pen slot in D.C.

Marlins To Sign Pat Venditte

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The Marlins have a minor-league deal in place with reliever Pat Venditte, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link). It includes an invitation to the MLB side of Spring Training.

Venditte, 34, has thrown only 68 MLB innings to this point of his career. But as journeyman middle relievers go, he’s as interesting as they come. Venditte is a true unicorn of the game: a switch-pitcher who utilizes a customized glove to change his throwing hand depending upon the batter.

Things didn’t work out last year with the Giants, as Venditte received only two appearances in the bigs. But he did work to a 2.85 ERA in 47 1/3 innings at Triple-A, with a healthy combination of 11.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.

Giants To Sign Tyson Ross

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The Giants have agreed to terms on a minor-league pact with veteran righty Tyson Ross, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. He’ll earn at a $1.75MM rate in the majors with $1.75MM in available incentives.

Ross fell flat last year with the Tigers, making seven middling starts before he was sidelined with nerve issues in his neck. Those troubles were never resolved. It’s not clear at this point just when Ross will be available to work off the mound, though the Giants can afford to be as patient as necessary with this low-risk agreement.

While he hardly returned to his once-lofty levels of performance in a bounceback 2018 season, Ross did show that he had something left in the tank. But he never came close to his prior heights — Ross’s 2018 swinging-strike rate was about a third lower than in his prime — and the more recent struggles raise yet more questions about his future. The former Athletics and Padres hurler lost more than a full tick on his fastball in 2019.

Clearly, there are some significant barriers. But teams around the game obviously saw some reason for hope, as the Giants were compelled to include a fair bit of contractual upside to lure Ross back out west.

Rockies To Sign Chris Owings

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The Rockies have struck a deal with infielder Chris Owings, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). It’s a minors pact that would pay at a $1MM rate if the club adds Owings to the MLB roster.

Owings, 28, was once considered a highly promising young player with the Diamondbacks organization. But his offensive numbers dipped and then fell off a table over the years. He was dropped by the Snakes following a rough 2018 season.

Last year wasn’t quite the bounce back that Owings and the Royals hoped for when they hooked up on a one-year pact last winter. He ended up being cut loose and landing with the Boston organization. Over the past two seasons, Owings carries a brutal .180/.248/.275 slash through 505 MLB plate appearances. He did hit much better in his time at Triple-A last year, turning in a .325/.385/.595 batting line with 11 homers in 183 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.

It’s an easy, low-risk move for the Rockies, who need all the help they can get without committing cash. Owings could compete with Ryan McMahon and Garrett Hampson for opportunities at second base while serving as a reserve all over the field, if he’s able to crack the roster. The chances would increase significantly if the Colorado organization ends up moving a position player via trade.

Nationals Sign Will Harris

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JAN. 3: The Nationals have announced the deal.

JAN. 2: The Nationals have agreed to a deal with free agent right-hander Will Harris, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  The contract is a three-year pact worth $24MM, as per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (via Twitter).  Harris is represented by agent Gavin Kahn.

Reports from earlier today suggested that Harris could be nearing a signing, as he had multi-year offers on the table from more than one team.  Though Harris has a long track record of success, a three-year commitment is significant considering that the righty turned 35 last August, and only two other relievers (Drew Pomeranz and Will Smith) received three or more guaranteed years in free agency this offseason.  MLBTR projected a two-year, $18MM deal for Harris, as we ranked him 22nd on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents.

The three-year pact was a major factor for Harris, as he told Mark Berman of KRIV Fox 26 (Twitter links).  “The Nationals knew the importance of [the three-year deal] and they kept that on the table & made the decision that much easier,” Harris said.  “We agreed to terms last weekend.  From the beginning of the process the Nationals were pretty high on me.  The interest was mutual.”

While Harris’ age is a natural question mark, he has a pretty clean injury history, with only two IL stints (totaling around six weeks in 2017 due to shoulder inflammation) over his nine MLB seasons.  In that time, he has quietly posted some outstanding numbers, particularly as a member of Houston’s bullpen from 2015-19.  Harris has a 2.36 ERA, 4.38 K/BB rate, and 9.5 K/9 over 297 innings, averaging 59 frames per season.

As you might expect from an Astros pitcher, Harris had an outstanding spin rate (96th percentile) on his fastball in 2019.  His Statcast metrics also place him among the league’s best in curveball spin, hard-hit ball percentage, and xwOBA (.235, with only a .269 wOBA).  Harris has also been consistently good at keeping the ball on the ground during his career, with a 49.6% grounder rate.

Unfortunately for Harris, the most famous pitch of his career is one that he couldn’t keep out of the air — the low fastball that Howie Kendrick just got enough of, as Kendrick launched Harris’ offering off the right field foul pole for the homer that put the Nationals ahead in Game Seven of last year’s World Series.  In some unique baseball irony, Harris will now be joining the team that caused that bad memory, and he’ll even be sharing a clubhouse with Kendrick (who re-signed with the Nats on a one-year deal).

Clearly there aren’t any hard feelings on Harris’ part, and the Nationals are undoubtedly happy to add such a highly-touted reliever to their bullpen.  Washington’s relief corps was a well-publicized mess for much of last season, before Daniel Hudson’s late-season emergence helped stabilize the pen enough to take the Nats through the postseason.  Harris will lineup behind closer Sean Doolittle in 2020, and Harris’ presence now means that he’ll essentially replace Hudson in the District’s pen, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets.  The Nats were willing to give Hudson more than a one-year guarantee but not more than $6.5MM in average annual value, so they instead spent some extra money to land a more consistent reliever in Harris.

After re-signing Kendrick, Stephen Strasburg, and Yan Gomes, Harris represents the first major new face to join the Nationals this offseason.  The bullpen was unquestionably a major need for the Nats, who also have to figure out vacancies at third base in the wake of Anthony Rendon’s departure, second base, and first base, though Kendrick will be deployed around the infield in some manner and star prospect Carter Kieboom is expected to play a bigger role in 2020.

The $8MM average annual value of Harris’ deal brings Washington’s estimated luxury tax number to just under $184MM, as per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.  The Nats are still reportedly in the hunt for Josh Donaldson, whose market is now rumored to be in the four-year, $100MM range.  Landing Donaldson, therefore, would put the Nats either right up against or slightly over the $208MM tax threshold, though since the club got under the threshold last season, they would be taxed at only a first-timer rate if they surpassed $208MM this season.  The Nationals slightly exceeded the Competitive Balance Tax line in both 2017 and 2018, though they stayed in the lowest penalty zone (less than $20MM in overage).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Reds Sign Matt Davidson To Minors Contract

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The Reds have signed corner infielder Matt Davidson to a minor league contract, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (via Twitter).  Davidson will be invited to Cincinnati’s big league Spring Training camp.

Davidson didn’t see any MLB action last season, spending all of 2019 with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate and hitting .264/.339/.527 with 33 homers over 528 plate appearances.  These big numbers (posted amidst the most hitter-friendly season in Triple-A history, to be fair) could have inspired the Rangers to keep Davidson in his customary first base/third base role rather than further experiment with him on the mound, as Davidson pitched just one inning of relief work.  Davidson did indicate last February that his pitching exploits were likely to be more of the emergency mop-up variety than of any real attempt to make him a two-way player, following three innings of pitching with the White Sox in 2018.

Selected 35th overall by the Diamondbacks in the 2009 draft, Davidson was sent to the White Sox in a notable December 2013 deal that brought Addison Reed to the desert.  Davidson showed some promise in 31-game cameo with Arizona in 2013 and then hit .224/.291/.435 with 46 homers over 939 PA with Chicago in 2017-18, as his power potential didn’t make up for a lack of average and on-base skills.  There was a lot of swing-and-miss in Davidson’s time as a big leaguer, with 355 strikeouts over 1028 career PA.  Following the 2018 season, the White Sox opted to non-tender Davidson rather than pay him a projected $2.4MM through the arbitration process.

Turning 29 in March, Davidson projects to be a corner infield depth piece for Cincinnati on either their big league bench or at Triple-A.  The addition of a 26th roster spot gives Davidson a greater hope of winning a job in Spring Training, though with Eugenio Suarez and Joey Votto firmly locked into third base and first base duties for the Reds, Davidson doesn’t have much of a path to regular playing time.

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