Mariners Designate Matt Festa For Assignment
The Mariners announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Matt Festa for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to outfielder Jose Siri, whose previously reported waiver claim out of the Reds organization has now been formally announced by Seattle.
Festa, 27 next month, has pitched 30 2/3 innings of relief with the Mariners over the past two seasons, logging a 4.70 ERA with a 25-to-14 K/BB ratio and a 36.5 percent ground-ball rate along the way. Seattle initially selected him in the seventh round of the 2016 draft.
Festa has enjoyed solid numbers in Double-A and Triple-A, albeit in limited samples of work. The East Stroudsberg University product pitched to a 2.76 ERA with 12.3 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 in 49 innings in 2018 before logging a 2.64 ERA, 9.7 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 30 2/3 Triple-A frames in 2019. Festa doesn’t throw particularly hard (93 mph average four-seamer) and doesn’t have the type of gaudy spin rates that attract some clubs to pitchers who lack premium velocity. His success in the upper minors and the fact that he has a minor league option year remaining, however, could earn him a look with another club.
The Mariners will have a week to trade Festa, place him on outright waivers or release him.
Giants, Brandon Guyer Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran outfielder Brandon Guyer, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The ACES client would earn $1MM upon making the big league roster, but won’t open up in MLB camp, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (via Twitter).
The 2019 season marked the first time since 2013 that Guyer didn’t appear in the Majors. He might’ve eventually had that chance on a then-rebuilding White Sox roster, but the now-34-year-old Guyer opened the season in Triple-A Charlotte and spent most of the year on the injured list.
Guyer hasn’t had a full, productive season in the big leagues since 2016 and has long been something of a specialty player. The right-handed-hitting veteran has traditionally struggled against right-handed pitching but has tormented lefties with a .274/.375/.448 slash (130 wRC+) in 793 plate appearances. Guyer thrives at getting on base when holding the platoon advantage, in no small part due to his league-leading penchant for getting hit by pitches (as explored at great length by FanGraphs’ August Fagerstrom back in 2016).
Giants fans have been expecting some outfield additions since president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi said last week that deepening that mix was a priority. While this move probably isn’t as exciting as anything Giants fans might’ve hoped for, Guyer’s right-handed bat would seemingly pair well with a heavily left-handed outfield mix — Alex Dickerson, Steven Duggar and Mike Yastrzemski — if he makes the team.
Mariners Claim Jose Siri
The Mariners have claimed outfielder Jose Siri off waivers from the Reds, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. The Seattle organization hasn’t formally announced the move yet and will need to make a corresponding 40-man transaction to open space for Siri, who was designated for assignment last week when the Reds inked Nick Castellanos to a four-year deal.
Siri, 24, was considered to be among Cincinnati’s best farmhands just two years ago. FanGraphs, in fact, ranked him near the back end of the game’s 100 best prospects (No. 93 overall) heading into the 2018 campaign. At that point, he was a 22-year-old who was fresh off an impressive .293/.341/.530 slash with 24 homers and 46 steals in the Class-A Midwest League.
Since that time, however, Siri has turned in a pair of disappointing seasons, logging a combined on-base percentage south of .300 in 2018-19 between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A. This past season, Siri mustered a lackluster .237/.300/.357 showing through 517 plate appearances in the minors, and he’s struggled even more heavily in the Dominican Winter League (.196/.264/.411 in 125 plate appearances).
The addition of Siri comes not long after the Mariners learned that they’ll be without right fielder Mitch Haniger early in the season due to core surgery. Haniger recently suffered a setback when rehabbing from the ruptured testicle that sidelined him for much of the 2019 season and could miss up to eight weeks of action. With Haniger sidelined for what could be much of Spring Training, Siri will join an outfield mix consisting of Mallex Smith, Kyle Lewis, Dee Gordon, Jake Fraley and Braden Bishop. Siri has a minor league option remaining, so the Mariners can keep him even if he doesn’t break camp with the club.
Rays Sign Dylan Covey, John Curtiss To Minor League Deals
The Rays have agreed to minor league contracts with right-handers Dylan Covey and John Curtiss, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Both pitchers will be in Major League camp as non-roster invitees this spring. Tampa Bay also re-signed fleet-footed outfielder Johnny Davis, although he’ll report directly to minor league camp.
Covey, 28, recently elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment from the White Sox. He’s appeared in each of the past three seasons with the ChiSox, showing promise at times but ultimately posting unpalatable results. In 250 1/3 big league innings, he’s pitched to a 6.54 ERA with 6.2 K/9, 4.1 BB/9, 1.62 HR/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate.
The Athletics drafted Covey in the third round back in 2013, and he was Chicago’s Rule 5 pick in 2016 three years later. Like many Rule 5 pick, Covey had a brutal rookie year, but he survived on the roster, allowing the Sox to keep him in following seasons. The righty was impressive early in 2018, logging a 3.45 ERA/3.54 FIP with a huge 60 percent ground-ball rate through his first eight starts. That success quickly unraveled, though, and Covey struggled through the majority of his remaining time on the South Side. The Rays will hope they can help him rediscover that early 2018 form, although Tampa Bay has enviable pitching depth as it is with Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Ryan Yarbrough and Yonny Chirinos all in line to start games in 2020.
Curtiss, meanwhile, bounced from the Twins to the Angels to the Phillies on a series of waiver claims and minor league deals in 2019. The former sixth-rounder (Twins, 2014) was once a well-regarded bullpen prospect in Minnesota’s system but has yet to find success in the big leagues (13 runs in 17 1/3 innings). Curtiss was shelled in Triple-A in 2019 but was very good there in 2017-18, pitching to a combined 2.49 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 79 2/3 innings. Control has long been an issue for Curtiss, though, as even in that solid 2017-18 run in Triple-A, he issued 41 free passes (4.6 BB/9).
As for Davis, the Rays plucked him out of the Mexican League last August and rushed him to the big leagues as a September call-up/pinch-running specialist. He had a strong year in Mexico in 2019, slashing .300/.353/.392 and swiping 54 bases. That showing and his brief cameo in the Rays organization late in ’19 will earn him a look in the upper minors with the Rays in 2020, it seems.
Yankees Sign Dan Otero, David Hale
The Yankees announced a series of minor league deals with non-roster invitations to Spring Training on Monday, including previously unreported agreements with right-handers Dan Otero and David Hale.
Otero, 35 later this month, was brilliant with the Indians from 2016-17, pitching to a combined 2.14 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 1.3 BB/9, 0.6 HR/9 and a 63 percent ground-ball rate in 130 2/3 innings of relief. However, he’s become increasingly homer-prone over the past two seasons (1.83 HR/9), and this past season’s 53.2 percent grounder rate marked roughly a 10 percent drop for the sinkerballer. Otero’s ability to avoid walks remains among the very best in baseball — eight walks in his past 88 1/3 innings — but the 89.5 mph he averaged on his sinker in 2019 was the lowest velocity of his career.
Hale, meanwhile, is a more familiar face for Yankees fans. The 32-year-old has gone through multiple stints with the Yankees over the past two seasons and threw quite well in 2019. Hale racked up 37 2/3 innings in a long relief role in 2019 and notched a tidy 3.11 ERA with a 23-to-7 K/BB ratio and an even 50 percent ground-ball rate.
Incredibly, this is the fifth minor league contract that Hale has signed with the Yankees since Jan. 2018. He originally signed a minor league pact with New York on Jan. 30 that year. Hale had his contract selected that April, landed with the Twins on a waiver claim and was released not long after. He returned to the Yankees on a second minor league deal, was again released following a DFA two weeks later, and re-signed with the Yanks the following day. Hale then re-signed with the Yankees on a minor league deal last winter and has now put pen to paper with them yet again.
Both pitchers will compete for spots in a crowded Yankees bullpen alongside fellow non-roster veterans Tyler Lyons and Luis Avilan. The top end of the Yankees’ relief corps looks to be largely set, health permitting, as Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, Chad Green and Tommy Kahlne should all be locks. Others such as Jonathan Holder, Ben Heller and the out-of-options Luis Cessa will compete alongside the non-roster players in Spring Training as they hope to land a spot on the Opening Day roster as well.
Diamondbacks Sign Trayce Thompson To Minor-League Deal
The Diamondbacks signed outfielder Trayce Thompson to a minor-league contract, per a tweet from their Triple-A affiliate in Reno. He will receive an invite to MLB spring training.
Thompson, now 28, compiled 589 MLB plate appearances between 2015-18. He combined for a lackluster .206/.276/.389 line (78 wRC+) over that time. Thompson has shown some power, popping 22 home runs. Unfortunately, a career 28% strikeout rate has proven too much to overcome.
He failed to crack the majors in 2019. He instead spent the entire season with Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. It was more of the same for the right-handed hitter, who slashed .219/.294/.482 with 24 homers but an unpalatable 36.1% strikeout rate.
He has MLB experience at all three outfield positions and logged playing time relatively equally across the grass in Columbus last season. If the out-of-options Thompson cracks the Diamondbacks’ roster with a strong spring training, he’d have to remain on the club’s active roster or be exposed to waivers.
Phillies Sign Logan Forsythe To Minors Contract
The Phillies have agreed to sign infielder Logan Forsythe to a minor league deal, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Forsythe will receive an invitation to Philadelphia’s big league Spring Training camp.
This will mark the second minor league deal in as many years for Forsythe, though last winter’s pact with the Rangers translated into some pretty regular playing time (and $2MM in salary) at the MLB level. Forsythe played in 101 games for Texas and received 367 plate appearances, hitting .227/.325/.353 with seven home runs. Fueled by a .404 BABIP over his first 167 PA, Forsythe began his year with a scorching .307/.410/.486 slash line before his fortune turned, and he hit only .164/.255/.249 over his final 200 PA (with a .221 BABIP over that stretch).
The 33-year-old Forsythe will now look to win himself a bench job amidst a Phillies infield that has some moving parts. Philadelphia is set to go with Rhys Hoskins at first base, Jean Segura moving to second base, the newly-signed Didi Gregorius installed at shortstop, and Scott Kingery at third base. Kingery, however, is still expected to get his fair share of time in center field or elsewhere around the diamond, leaving room for another infielder. The Phillies will have Forsythe, Josh Harrison, T.J. Rivera, Ronald Torreyes, Neil Walker, and Phil Gosselin in camp battling for that job, with that entire group perhaps ultimately slated for pure backup duty if and when top prospect Alec Bohm is called up to the Show.
After excelling as the Rays’ regular second baseman in 2015-16, Forsythe has struggled at the plate over the last three seasons and gradually became a utility player with the Dodgers, Twins, and Rangers. He saw action at all four infield positions in 2019 and also has past experience as a corner outfield, so that extra versatility could give him a bit of a leg up in garnering a spot on Philadelphia’s 26-man roster.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/1/20
We’ll use this post to keep track of today’s minor moves around baseball…
- The Angels have signed right-handed pitcher Michael Kohn to a minor league deal, reports Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times. He won’t get an invite to Major League Spring Training, but he’ll return to the organization with which he played the first six years of his professional career. He spent last year in the Diamondbacks’ minor league system, pitching mostly at Double-A. He was a strikeout machine at that level, notching 41 K’s in just 22 2/3 innings of work. He’s played in the Majors in parts of five seasons (most recently in 2015), getting into 132 games and posting a solid 3.52 career ERA. In 115 innings of big league action, he’s struck out 111 batters and walked 79.
Cubs To Sign Jeremy Jeffress
FEBRUARY 1: The signing is now official.
JANUARY 28: The Cubs have agreed to terms with righty Jeremy Jeffress on a one-year MLB deal, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). It’ll pay him $850K and includes $200K in available incentives based upon appearances.
Jeffress will hope to regain his form in Chicago after falling flat last year with the Brewers. The sinkerballer was lights-out in 2018 but lost about 1.5 ticks of velocity in the ensuing campaign. He was dropped by the Milwaukee organization after throwing 52 innings of 5.02 ERA ball with 8.0 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, and a 48.4% groundball rate.
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride over the years for Jeffress. At his best, he has gobbled up grounders and limited the long ball and even on occasion recorded a decent number of strikeouts. The history of home run suppression (0.67 per nine for his career) is of particular interest in the era of the aerodynamic baseball. But Jeffress hasn’t always been consistent and had a worrisome DWI incident back in 2016.
For the Cubs, it’s a low-cost signing that has some relative upside. There’s really no reason to think Jeffress can replicate that ’18 outburst — his sparkling 1.29 ERA was certainly the result of good pitching, but there was some good fortune mixed in as well — but he doesn’t need to reach those heights to pay dividends. If he can regain some lost velo or learn to live without it, Jeffress could end up pitching a lot of high-leverage innings at Wrigley.
Twins To Sign Jhoulys Chacin
The Twins have reached an agreement to sign free-agent right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, according to Robert Murray. Chacin, who is represented by GSE Worldwide, will join the team on a minor league contract with an invite to big league camp, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman confirms. Per Daniel Alvarez of El Extrabase, Chacin will earn $1.6MM with an additional $1.5MM in incentives if he makes the Major League team.
Although Chacin, 32, is coming off a dreadful season that resulted in his release from the Brewers, he is only a year removed from a solid 2018 season in which he anchored the Milwaukee rotation. And while a minor league deal doesn’t guarantee anything, Chacin seems like a solid bet to crack the Twins’ opening day roster. The Minnesota club has made it known that they set out this offseason to bolster the rotation, but after striking out on top-tier arms like Hyun-Jin Ryu and Madison Bumgarner, they’ve had to settle for the more modest combination of Rich Hill and Homer Bailey.
But there’s no way around the fact that Chacin ranked as one of the worst starters in baseball last year. He only managed a 6.01 overall ERA, and a brief tryout with the Red Sox didn’t yield much better results than his Brewers tenure. For what it’s worth, he did see an uptick in his strikeouts during his stint in Boston: in 14 2/3 innings, he struck out 21 batters, good for an average of 12.9 K/9. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Chacin may have been one of the unluckiest pitchers in baseball when it came to home runs, which account for much of his dropoff from 2018 to 2019. Indeed, among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched, Chacin’s 21% HR/FB rate ranked as the eighth-highest, meaning that we might expect some of those home runs to turn into mere flyouts next year.
Despite the ugly on-field results, Chacin’s slider still graded as a solidly positive offering last year, and it’s the most important pitch in Chacin’s arsenal: its increased usage coincided with his 2018 breakout. Opponents did most of their damage against his sinker and four-seam fastball, so it should come as no surprise that Chacin has decreased his usage of those pitches each of the last two years. If he can rediscover his 2018 form, expect Chacin to push hard for a spot at the back end of the Minnesota rotation, which will be missing the suspended Michael Pineda for some time and currently has the inexperienced combination of Randy Dobnak and Devin Smeltzer penciled in to round out the starting staff.