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Marlins Designate Kyle Keller For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they’ve designated right-hander Kyle Keller for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to right-hander Yimi Garcia, whose previously reported one-year contract with Miami is now official.

Keller, 26, was selected to the 40-man roster in advance of the 2018 Rule 5 Draft. At the time, he had just wrapped up an impressive 2018 season in which he logged 52 2/3 innings of 3.08 ERA ball across three minor league levels, averaging 13.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 along the way.

The 2019 season, though, wasn’t as successful. Keller tallied 54 innings of relief in Triple-A and maintained a strong strikeout rate (12.2 K/9), but his results didn’t match up to his 2018 output, due largely to an inability to strand runners (63.2 percent). Keller logged a 4.50 ERA in Triple-A and made his MLB debut late in the year, allowing four runs in 10 2/3 innings (3.38 ERA). But Keller also allowed three home runs in that brief time in addition to eight walks and two hit batsmen.

The Marlins will have a week to trade Keller or run him through outright waivers in hopes of keeping him in the organization.

Yankees, Erik Kratz Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent catcher Erik Kratz, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets. He’s represented by the Ballplayers Agency.

Kratz, 39, will return for a yet another stint in the Yankees organization and bring a highly respected clubhouse veteran to the team’s catching depth chart. New York originally acquired Kratz in a cash deal with the Indians back in 2017, and this marks the third time the Yanks have signed him to a minor league contract since that deal. With Austin Romine departing to the Tigers on a one-year deal, Kyle Higashioka is the expected backup to Gary Sanchez, but Kratz seems likely to vie for a roster spot in Spring Training.

The veteran Kratz has spent parts of 10 seasons in the Majors, logging a collective .205/.252/.354 batting line through 921 plate appearances. He’s halted 32 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in his career and regularly puts up strong numbers in terms of both pitch framing and blocking pitches in the dirt. He’ll turn 40 next June but nevertheless enjoyed a .299/.375/.500 slash in 176 plate appearances with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton last year. Given that Kratz and his family live close to the Scranton area, he’ll have the opportunity to continue playing close to home even if he doesn’t break camp with the Yankees’ Major League club.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/19

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Twins signed infielders Drew Maggi, Cody Asche and Jack Reinheimer to minor league contracts, per an announcement from Triple-A Rochester director of communications Nate Rowan. Maggi, 30, returns to the organization for a second season after posting a .258/.380/.407 slash in 516 plate appearances last year. He’s yet to crack the Majors to this point in his pro career. Asche was once one of the Phillies’ better prospects but never managed to cement himself as a big leaguer despite numerous chances. The corner infielder/outfielder is a .234/.293/.376 hitter in 1349 MLB plate appearances but a .275/.352/.467 batter in parts of six Triple-A seasons. Reinheimer, meanwhile, can play all over the infield and is considered a solid defender. The 27-year-old has a career .271/.338/.363 batting line in 1767 Triple-A plate appearances. Rowan also confirmed the Twins’ previously reported signings of lefty Danny Coulombe and Caleb Thielbar.

Earlier Moves

  • The Angels have signed shortstop Elliot Soto to a minors pact with an invitation to major league camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. A 15th-round pick of the Cubs in 2010, the diminutive Soto (5 foot 9, 160 pounds) hasn’t gotten past Triple-A ball among his three professional organizations – Chicago, Miami and Colorado. The 30-year-old Soto did, however, show well at the minors’ highest level last season in the Rockies organization, as he batted .305/.380/,480 (111 wRC+) with 10 home runs and eight stolen bases over 463 plate appearances.

Padres Sign Chih-Wei Hu

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The Padres have signed right-hander Chih-Wei Hu to a minor league contract, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.

Now 26, Hu fared respectably in the majors with the Rays over a small 23-inning sample size from 2017-18, during which he posted a 3.52 ERA/4.51 FIP with 8.22 K/9, 2.79 BB/9 and a mere 29 percent groundball rate. But Hu didn’t make it back to the majors last season, which he divided between the Cubs and Indians, and it wasn’t surprising when considering the trouble he had with the clubs’ high-minors affiliates.

Hu amassed 74 2/3 inning between Double-A and Triple-A ball in 2019, when he managed a woeful 6.87 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9. Nevertheless, the Padres are taking a low-risk flier on Hu heading into next season.

Padres Sign Jimmy Yacabonis To Minors Deal

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The Padres have signed right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis to a minor league contract, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).

Over his three MLB seasons, Yacabonis has seen action as both a starter and a reliever for the Orioles, though he hasn’t found much success in either role.  The 27-year-old has a 5.75 ERA over 101 2/3 career innings (starting 11 of 55 games), with a 6.6 K/9 and only a 1.32 K/BB rate.  Yacabonis has also been plagued by the long ball over the last two seasons in particular, with a 1.9 HR/9 over his last 81 frames of work.

Yacabonis does have a live arm and a 94mph fastball, so there’s little risk for the Padres in taking to him to Spring Training and seeing if they can unlock some potential in the New Jersey native.  Yacabonis will see some familiar faces from Baltimore, as former Orioles coaches Wayne Kirby and Bobby Dickerson and former O’s utilityman Ryan Flaherty are all on San Diego’s coaching staff, and of course former O’s star Manny Machado is now holding down third base for the Padres.

Rangers Re-Sign Volquez, Gibaut, Federowicz To Minors Deals

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The Rangers have re-signed right-handers Edinson Volquez and Ian Gibaut, and catcher Tim Federowicz to minor league contracts, as per club executive VP of communications John Blake (Twitter link).  All three players receive invitations to the Rangers’ big league Spring Training camp.

Volquez and the Rangers have been in talks for several weeks about a new minor league deal, as the veteran is looking to play in his 15th Major League season after considering retirement earlier this year.  Volquez missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery and then faced the threat of another surgery last year after suffering an elbow sprain in April.  At the time, Volquez indicated that he was just hoping to return for a final appearance or few appearances in 2019 before hanging up the spikes, but it seems like he’ll again look to win himself a spot on the Texas roster.

Volquez won’t be in line for a starting job now that Texas has revamped its rotation, though the 36-year-old can provide some depth in the event of an injury, and also work out of the bullpen.  Full-time relief work would be something of a new frontier for Volquez, who has started 273 of his 287 career appearances, though he performed well in the very small sample size of his 2019 pen work.  Volquez didn’t allow a single run in his seven games (6 2/3 IP) as a reliever last season, while posting an 11.57 ERA over 9 1/3 innings as a starter.

Gibaut wasn’t eligible for arbitration, though he was still non-tendered earlier this month as a way for the Rangers to clear some roster space.  2019 was Gibaut’s first season of big league action, as the 26-year-old posted a 5.65 ERA over 14 1/3 combined innings for the Rays and Rangers.  An 11th-round pick for Tampa Bay in the 2015 draft, Gibaut has a 2.44 ERA, 3.03 K/BB rate, and 11.2 K/9 over 221 2/3 career minor league innings, though that impressive track record was hit with some heavy control issues last season.  In addition to a 7.5 BB/9 over 18 total minor league frames, Gibaut also had a 6.3 BB/9 in his brief MLB tenure.

Federowicz hit .160/.213/.347 over 83 PA with the Rangers last season, and the veteran backstop will return as a potential Triple-A depth option, as Texas is known to be looking for upgrades to its lackluster catching situation.  Federowicz has appeared in parts of eight Major League seasons, and owns a career .568 OPS over 443 plate appearances with six different teams.

Red Sox Sign Martin Perez

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TODAY: The Red Sox have officially announced the signing.

DEC.12: The Red Sox have reached a one-year, $6MM agreement with free-agent left-hander Martin Perez, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The deal includes a $6.25MM club option for 2021. The buyout on that option checks in at $500K, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Perez is a client of OL Baseball Group LLC.

The agreement with Perez comes at a time when the Red Sox look to be shopping a much more prominent and far more expensive southpaw in David Price. As of now, though, the soon-to-be 29-year-old Perez is slated to join Price, Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi in a lefty-heavy Red Sox rotation.

Once a standout prospect with the Rangers, Perez is now amid a second straight offseason in which a team has turned down his club option for the following year. The Rangers cut Perez loose a winter ago on the heels of a horrid season for the hurler, while the Twins – who then inked him to a $3.5MM guarantee – did the same last month. Had the Twins retained Perez, he’d have earned $7.5MM. He’ll take home a bit less as a member of the Red Sox, but this still looks like a respectable payday in light of Perez’s showing in Minnesota.

While Perez did turn in 165 1/3 innings and 32 appearances (29 starts) as a Twin, he wound up with fairly pedestrian numbers. Despite career-high four-seam velocity (94.1 mph), the addition of a cutter to his repertoire and excellent hard-hit and exit velocity marks from Statcast, Perez finished with a 5.12 ERA and just 7.35 K/9 against 3.65 BB/9. ERA estimators such as FIP (4.66), xFIP (4.69) and SIERA (5.01) weren’t enamored of his work, though Perez did begin the year well. He owned a 4.26 ERA/3.71 FIP at the All-Star break, but the wheels came off during the second half of the season, in which Perez more closely resembled the pitcher the Rangers gave up on and notched a 6.27 ERA/5.94 FIP.

For the Chaim Bloom-led Red Sox, the agreement with Perez is the second one-year contract they’ve handed out Thursday. They previously inked infielder Jose Peraza to a $3MM guarantee. Both are modest signings in what most expect to be a low-key offseason for Boston, at least in terms of spending.

Photo courtesy of USA Sports Today Images.

Royals To Sign Maikel Franco

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The Royals have reached agreement on a one-year deal with third baseman Maikel Franco, MLB.com’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter).  MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reported earlier today that Kansas City “emerged as the favorite” among the teams vying for the infielder, and a deal could be coming shortly.  Franco will earn $2.95MM in guaranteed money, with another $1.05MM available in incentives, as per Heyman.  Franco is a client of the Octagon agency.

Once considered one of the game’s better prospects, Franco burst onto the scene by posting an .840 OPS over 335 PA for the Phillies in 2015, seemingly staking his claim to being Philadelphia’s third baseman of the future.  That hot start only led to intermittent success over the next four seasons, however, as Franco hit .247/.299/.427 with 88 homers over 2146 plate appearances from 2016-19.

With the Phillies impatient to return to contention and upgrade their third base situation, they parted ways with Franco this winter, non-tendering him rather than keep him on the roster.  Franco was projected to receive a $6.7MM arbitration salary in what would have been his third trip through the arb process.  He’ll now get less than half of that in Kansas City, though with the opportunity for some decent incentive bonuses and (more importantly) the chance to re-establish himself as a legitimate everyday player at the big league level.

The Nationals and Rangers were two other clubs known to have interest in Franco after he became a free agent, though since the Royals aren’t likely to be in contention this season, Franco will get a longer look than he would for other teams who might give him a shorter leash.

Interestingly, Franco’s addition would seemingly hint at a position switch for Hunter Dozier, who played 100 of his 139 games at the hot corner last season.  MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets that Dozier will move to right field, with Whit Merrifield moving to center field.  That would also seem to indicate that Jorge Soler is primed to spend much of his time as a DH next year, though Dozier also has experience playing first base.  (There’s also the possibility of a Soler trade, though the most recent reports suggest the Royals are more likely to hang onto Soler.)  Dozier was bound to remain a regular part of Kansas City’s lineup in the wake of his impressive 2019 season, though since he didn’t exhibit much glovework at third base, the Royals could now shift Dozier around between first base, right field, and DH.

White Sox Sign Cheslor Cuthbert

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1:35PM: The White Sox have officially announced Cuthbert’s signing.  It is a minor league deal, with an invitation to the team’s Major League Spring Training camp.

1:07PM: The White Sox have reached an agreement with free agent infielder Cheslor Cuthbert, according to reporter Robert Murray (Twitter link).  Cuthbert hit the open market in early December after the Royals chose not to tender him a contract.

Cuthbert was projected to earn $1.8MM in his second year of arbitration eligibility, though Kansas City decided to move on in the wake of a season that saw Cuthbert hit .246/.294/.379 with nine homers over 330 PA.  It was a performance almost exactly on par with the .250/.300/.378 slash line Cuthbert has posted over 1160 career plate appearances, all with the Royals from 2015-19.

Most of Cuthbert’s time in K.C. was spent as a third baseman, and he stepped into a virtual everyday role in 2016 when Mike Moustakas spent much of the season on the injured list.  Despite posting some solid numbers that year, Cuthbert’s production badly tailed off in the subsequent three seasons and he became little more than a bench piece.

Aside from his work at the hot corner, Cuthbert also has played a lot of first base and a handful of games at second over his career.  Second base could potentially be Cuthbert’s best path to playing time in Chicago, as while star rookie Nick Madrigal is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2020, the White Sox will need some kind of veteran stopgap until Madrigal is ready.  Yolmer Sanchez was non-tendered, leaving rookie Danny Mendick as the current top choice for the Opening Day lineup.  It seems likely that Cuthbert could be one of many veteran infielders brought into Chicago’s Spring Training camp to compete for the second base job, and Cuthbert’s versatility could give him a path to staying on the roster as a utility infielder once Madrigal is called up.

Brewers To Sign Justin Smoak

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9:38am: Smoak will earn $4MM in 2020 and has a $1MM buyout on a $5.5MM option for the 2021 season, Passan tweets.

9:27am: The two sides are in agreement on a one-year, $5MM contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. There’s also a club option for the 2021 season, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The deal is pending a physical.

9:09am: The Brewers are closing in on a contract with free agent first baseman Justin Smoak, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Smoak is represented by the Bledsoe Agency.

Justin Smoak | im Klement-USA TODAY SportsThis is the latest in a string of short-term acquisitions for the Milwaukee organization, which has almost completely turned over its infield over the past six weeks. The club has installed Eric Sogard and Luis Urias in the middle infield mix while picking up Ryon Healy and now Smoak to help cover the corners. Keston Hiura, of course, will factor prominently into the mix as well after impressing with the bat in his rookie season.

Beyond that, president of baseball ops David Stearns said after this week’s signing of Avisail Garcia that Ryan Braun will likely see some time at first base in 2020 as well (Twitter link via Andrew Wagner of the Wisconsin State Journal). It’s a layered collection of veterans and young upside hitters, and  the precise manner in which playing time will be sorted remains to be determined in Spring Training.

Smoak made a long-awaited break-out at the plate in 2017 and followed that up with a strong ’18 effort. In combination, he slashed .256/.353/.495 with 63 home runs in 1,231 turns with the bat in those campaigns. Unfortunately, he hit the skids a bit in the just-completed season. The switch-hitting 33-year-old is coming off of a .208/.342/.406 effort, but the underlying metrics on his season are far more interesting than his surface-level .208 batting average.

In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest that the Brewers could hit gold with this signing. As explored here at MLBTR back in September, Smoak’s .323 wOBA lagged the .366 xwOBA he registered with Statcast, indicating there could be some positive regression in the batted-ball department. He also drew walks at an exceptionally healthy 15.8% rate while striking out just 21.2% of the time.

As highlighted in that September exploration of his odd season, Smoak chased pitches outside the strike zone less than nearly any hitter in MLB, and he ranked among the game’s best in terms of pitches per plate appearance. He’s an extremely disciplined hitter who should make opposing pitchers work even if he continues to hit for a low batting average. And, supposing Smoak can turn balls in play into base hits at an increased rate — his .223 BABIP was certainly an outlier — he could bounce right back into being a productive hitter.

Milwaukee undeniably lost some key pieces this winter, with Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas departing for four-year deals with the White Sox and Reds, respectively. Eric Thames, meanwhile, was bought out and sent into the free-agent market. Smoak will in many ways replace Thames at a slightly reduced cost — likely bringing better glovework to the table but lesser production against right-handed pitching.

Smoak will come in at $1.5MM less than Thames would’ve earned — a slight savings that exemplifies the Brewers’ risk-averse mentality and focus on the margins when building out a roster. This depth-forward approach both safeguards against injury and allows for slightly reduced workloads that, in theory, lessen the overall risk of injury and keeps their position players fresher. It also leads to a great deal of turnover, which can be frustrating for fans at times but has resulted in three straight winning seasons and two consecutive postseason appearances.

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