Red Sox Announce Eight Minor League Signings
The Red Sox on Friday announced an octet of minor league signings, revealing that they’ve added catcher Jett Bandy; outfielder John Andreoli; left-hander Mike Kickham; corner infielder Jantzen Witte; first baseman/outfielder Nick Longhi; and right-handers R.J. Alvarez, Domingo Tapia and Robinson Leyer as non-roster invitees to Spring Training. Each of Bandy, Andreoli, Kickham and Alvarez has some MLB experience.
Bandy, 30 in March, was once viewed as a potential long-term option behind the dish for the Angels but hasn’t panned out as such. He’s logged 156 games in the big leagues between Anaheim and Milwaukee, posting a .218/.282/.365 batting line through 492 plate appearances. He’s adept at shutting down the running game (32 percent career caught-stealing rate) but has drawn more questionable marks for his framing efforts.
Andreoli, 29, has only collected 67 plate appearances at the MLB level but has been an on-base machine in Triple-A, where he’s put together a .262/.375/.416 batting line across parts of five seasons (2465 plate appearances). The right-handed-hitting veteran has seen ample time at all three outfield spots since being selected in the 17th round of the 2011 draft by the Cubs.
The 31-year-old Kickham hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2013-14 with the Giants and has allowed more runs than he has completed innings pitched in his short MLB career (37 runs, 30 2/3 innings). But Kickham has displayed strong control and pitched reasonably well in a tough pitchers’ environment with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in each of the past three seasons in addition to a strong winter ball showing in Mexico (1.96 ERA in 41 1/3 innings). He’ll give the club some depth that has experience working as both a starter and a reliever.
Alvarez, 28, hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2015 and was also with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in 2019. His bottom-line results in parts of five Triple-A seasons don’t immediately jump out, but he’s averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings pitched throughout his minor league career. Control has been an issue as well, however, evidenced by the fact that he’s yielded nearly five walks per nine frames en route to his lifetime 4.22 ERA in Triple-A.
Twins Sign Tyler Clippard
11:20am: Clippard will be guaranteed $2.75MM, ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets.
11:13am: The Twins announced Friday that they’ve signed veteran reliever Tyler Clippard to a one-year contract. Minnesota also made its previously reported one-year deal (plus a club option) with Sergio Romo official. The Twins’ 40-man roster is now up to 38 players.
Clippard, an Excel Sports client, spent the 2019 season with the division-rival Indians. After missing the early portion of the year due to a pectoral strain, he debuted near the end of April and generally enjoyed a solid year with the Cleveland organization. In 62 innings — including 5 1/3 unsuccessful innings as an opener — Clippard pitched to a 2.90 ERA (3.89 FIP) with 9.3 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 1.16 HR/9 and a 31.6 percent ground-ball rate.
Beyond those surface-level numbers, Clippard, 35 in February, excelled in a number of areas. He ranked in the game’s 98th percentile in terms of average exit velocity allowed, at a paltry 85 mph, and his opponents’ hard-hit rate (28.8 percent) landed in the 95th percentile among MLB hurlers. The .260 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to which he held opponents was also among the game’s best and was a near match for the .264 expected wOBA projected by Statcast.
Clippard is an extreme fly-ball pitcher, which likely appealed to a Twins club that deploys a strong defensive outfield but carries a more questionable collection of infielders. He was also lights out against left-handed hitters in 2019 (.123/.210/.255) and has generally held lefties within check throughout his career thanks to his plus changeup. Given both the dearth of quality lefty relievers in free agency this winter and the upcoming implementation of a rule that forces relievers to face at least three hitters (or finish the inning), adding a seasoned arm who lacks notable platoon splits is plenty sensible.
Clippard and Romo will slot into a setup corps behind 2019 breakout closer Taylor Rogers. They’ll join righties Trevor May, Tyler Duffey and Zack Littell among the favorites to bridge the gap between the rotation and Rogers as the Twins look to defend their first AL Central crown in nearly a decade.
Minnesota, of course, still needs to add at least one more starting pitcher to its rotation and is reportedly one of the most aggressive teams in pursuit of top free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson. But even with Clippard on board, the team’s projected payroll checks in a bit north of $107MM. That’s $23MM shy of their franchise record — a mark that has seemed like it could edge north this winter anyhow. GM Thad Levine said early in the offseason that the team’s 101-win season could serve as a launching point to approach owner Jim Pohlad “about being a little more aggressive” in terms of payroll in 2020.
Marlins Designate Kyle Keller For Assignment
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.