Rockies Outright Chad Bettis, Tim Melville
The Rockies announced they have outrighted right-handers Chad Bettis and Tim Melville. They join a trio of players- Tyler Anderson, Sam Howard, and Pat Valaika– who were all lost on waivers this afternoon. Bettis has already elected free agency, the team announced, and Melville figures to do the same.
Bettis is the longer-tenured Rockie of the two, having been in the organization since 2010. At times, he was a key member of the starting rotation, particularly in 2016, when he logged 186 innings with a 4.79 ERA that is better than appears at first glance given the hitter-friendly environment which he called home. Unfortunately, Bettis was diagnosed with testicular cancer the following March. He made a heartwarming return to the mound that August and was a cog in the Rockies’ rotation as recently as 2018.
This season, however, was a nightmare in terms of on-field results. While Bettis was mostly healthy, save for a 10-day IL stint for a hip impingement in August, he was ineffective. Working mostly in long relief, Bettis pitched to a 6.08 ERA with a mediocre 14.6% strikeout rate. With a projected arbitration salary of $3.8MM, it is hardly surprising to see the Rockies part ways with the 30-year-old. He’ll surely attract some interest from teams looking for starting and relief depth, although he may have to settle for a minor-league pact and earn his way onto a 40-man roster.
Melville, also 30, started seven games for Colorado this season with underwhelming results. He struggled somewhat with home runs in the PCL launchpad over his 96.1 innings for Triple-A Albuquerque. Like Bettis, he’s capable of working as a swing depth piece.
Pirates Claim Sam Howard
The Pirates have claimed left-handed reliever Sam Howard off waivers from the Rockies, per an announcement from Colorado. Howard, 26, had spent his whole career with the Rockies after they selected him in the third round in 2014.
A slider specialist, Howard made his MLB debut in 2018 but got his first significant big league action in 2019. He tossed 19 innings in 20 relief appearances with a strong 25.3% strikeout rate, but problems with walks and home runs contributed to a 6.63 ERA. Howard showed better in 42 relief appearances in Triple-A Albuquerque, working out of the bullpen full-time for the first time in his minor-league career.
Howard comes with another option season, so he’ll give the club a flexible lefty relief piece with swing-and-miss stuff so long as he sticks on the 40-man roster throughout the winter.
Giants Claim Tyler Anderson
The Giants have claimed left-hander Tyler Anderson off waivers from the Rockies, per an announcement from the Colorado organization. It’s a disappointing end to the tenure of the former first-round draft pick.
Anderson landed with the Rox in 2011 as the 20th overall pick. He debuted in strong fashion in 2016, working to a 3.54 ERA over 19 starts. While Anderson’s earned run results stepped back in the ensuing two campaigns, he turned in 262 reasonably productive innings. Anderson carried 8.4 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 from 2017 through 2018, with xFIP (3.95, 4.21) and SIERA (4.14, 4.22) grading him as a strong back-of-the-rotation arm.
As with large swaths of the rest of the Rockies roster, Anderson seemed to hit a wall in 2019. He was tagged for eight home runs and 27 earned runs in just 20 2/3 innings over five outings to open the year. Anderson ended up requiring knee surgery in May and did not return to action thereafter.
The NL West-rival Giants are plenty familiar with Anderson; president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi saw him up close both with San Francisco and previously with the Dodgers. No doubt he’s intrigued by the lefty’s decent swing-and-miss ability (he managed about a 12% swinging-strike rate at his best).
The Giants have had success at tweaking the offerings and approaches of other hurlers; perhaps they have ideas in mind for Anderson to try out. First, he’ll need to show he’s at full health, but it’s not hard to imagine Anderson competing in camp for a bullpen or even rotation job with the Giants.
Orioles Claim Pat Valaika, Announce Four Outrights
The Orioles announced they have claimed infielder Pat Valaika off waivers from the Rockies. Additionally, the club outrighted four pitchers: right-handers Ryan Eades, Luis Ortiz, and Tayler Scott and left-hander Josh Rogers.
Valaika is the most notable name in today’s spate of transactions. The 27-year-old has taken 433 MLB plate appearances over four seasons in Colorado, starting games at all four infield positions (along with a handful of action in left field) in that time. All told, he’s only a .214/.256/.400 hitter, which translates to a dreadful 55 wRC+ when factoring in the run environment of Coors Field. He’s shown some ability to make hard, airborne contact, which surely attracts the Orioles’ front office, but his aggressive approach has not yet proven up to par at the big league level. Valaika will be out of options next season, meaning he needs to stick on the active roster next year or else again be exposed to waivers, assuming he remains on the 40-man roster the entire offseason.
The four pitchers have combined for fewer than 60 MLB innings. Eades, 27, worked to a 2.38 ERA in 11.1 innings in 2019, but his peripherals were far less rosy. Ortiz, still just 24, was once a well-regarded prospect but has fallen on hard times at the highest level of the minors. He started 14 games for Triple-A Norfolk in 2019 and pitched to a 6.38 ERA with unimpressive strikeout (15.4%) and walk (10.1%) rates, a trying season even in the explosive run environment in the International League.
Scott, like Eades, made his MLB debut this season at age-27. Split between Seattle and Baltimore, he worked 16.1 difficult innings, although he was quite good in the high minors. Rogers, meanwhile, was acquired as a secondary piece in the 2018 deal that sent Zack Britton to the Yankees. He started eleven games for Norfolk before going down with a season-ending left elbow sprain.
Because Rogers was on the 60-day injured list, today’s spate of transactions only clears two spots on Balitmore’s 40-man roster, which now sits at 38. The pending activation of Alex Cobb from the 60-day IL and free agency of Mark Trumbo will keep Baltimore’s roster at 38 entering the offseason, as Roch Kubatko of MASN tweets.
Royals Designate Trevor Oaks
OCT. 30: Oaks is likely to be outrighted, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (via Twitter). As a player with less than three years of big league service who has never before been outrighted, he would not have the ability to elect free agency. If he clears waivers, then, he’ll remain in the Kansas City organization.
OCT. 29: The Royals announced today that they have reinstated right-hander Trevor Oaks from the 60-day injured list and designated him for assignment.
Oaks, 26, was sidelined for all of the 2019 with hip labrum surgery but had returned to action in the Arizona Fall League, giving the organization a chance to evaluate him before issuing a decision. Over his seven AFL appearances, Oaks allowed six earned runs in a dozen frames with an 11:3 K/BB ratio. Clearly, the showing wasn’t deemed sufficient to warrant tying up a 40-man spot.
Acquired in a 2018 trade that sent Scott Alexander to the Dodgers and Joakim Soria to the White Sox, Oaks got his first brief taste of the majors in his first season with the Kansas City organization in 2018. He was knocked around in four outings in the bigs but carried a 3.23 ERA in 128 1/3 Triple-A frames last year — albeit with only 70 strikeouts to go with 44 free passes.
While Oaks’ prospect status has dipped from his days with the Dodgers — he was considered among L.A.’s 20 best farmhands at the time of the trade — he could still conceivably be brought back to compete for a job in Spring Training next year. He’d first need to clear waivers for that to happen, though his injury-ruined season increases the chances of that happening.
Alcides Escobar To Join NPB’s Yakult Swallows
Former big league shortstop Alcides Escobar has agreed to a deal with the Yakult Swallos of NPB, the team announced. (Japanese-language link to Sponichi story; h/t Kazuto Yamazaki of Baseball Prospectus, on Twitter.) The longtime Royal saw MLB action every season between 2008 and 2018.
Escobar is most famous for his run in Kansas City, where he logged eight consecutive seasons of 140+ games, including three years in which he entered all 162 contests. Always a below-average hitter, Escobar nevertheless carved out a few solid seasons thanks to his stellar baserunning and defense. In 2014, Escobar put together a .285/.317/.377 slash (93 wRC+) while playing shortstop every day, swiping 31 bags en route to a career-high 3.5 fWAR. That output was instrumental to a Royals’ club that won the AL pennant that year largely on the strength of defense, baserunning, and contact hitting. He wasn’t quite so productive in the Royals’ 2015 World Series-winning effort, although he at least offered durability and stability at shortstop for Ned Yost.
Unfortnately, Escobar’s already-tenuous offense cratered after 2015, and he hovered around replacement level the next three seasons. He departed Kansas City after 2018, signing with the White Sox on a minor-league deal. Escobar was generally solid at Triple-A in the Chicago organization in 2019, slashing .286/.343/.444, although the relationship seemingly ended acrimoniously in August. He didn’t suit up again this year after being released by the Sox.
Set to enter his age-33 season, Escobar still has plenty of time to make a return to the U.S. if he earns his way back. His recent track record hasn’t given much reason to believe he’ll do so, although perhaps his baserunning and glovework could inspire teams to take a look at him as a utility option. First, of course, he’ll have to put up some respectable numbers at the plate at the world’s second-highest level.
Ryon Healy, Keon Broxton Elect Free Agency
Mariners corner infielder Ryon Healy and outfielder Keon Broxton both elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment, the team announced. Both players went unclaimed on waivers and will be free to sign with any club this winter.
Healy, 28 in January, underwent August hip surgery that was expected to sideline him for four to six months. That makes the decision to outright him all the more understandable, though he’d have been at risk even if he were healthy. The OBP-challenged slugger spent two seasons in Seattle but managed just a .236/.280/.423 batting line with 31 home runs in 711 trips to the plate after being traded to the A’s in a now-regrettable deal for righty Emilio Pagan. (Oakland also cut bait on Pagan and traded him to Tampa Bay, where he blossomed into one of the league’s best relievers in 2019.)
A clear timetable on Healy’s return to baseball activities isn’t known, but he could draw interest from clubs looking for some right-handed pop this winter. Healy doesn’t walk often (just 4.7 percent of the time) but also doesn’t strikeout at an egregious rate (22.2 percent in his career). He has experience at both infield corners but is best-suited for first base/designated hitter work, making him a bit redundant for a Mariners team that has Daniel Vogelbach on the big league roster and first base prospect Evan White looming in the upper minors.
The 29-year-old Broxton, meanwhile, played on three different teams this season but couldn’t find success with the Mets, Orioles or Mariners. Broxton turned some heads with the Brewers back in 2016-17 when he showed an intriguing blend power, speed and center field defense while hitting .227/.318/.424 (including a 20-20 campaign in 2017). But strikeouts have been an enormous issue for Broxton, who punched out in an astonishing 45.6 percent of his 228 plate appearances this past season. Given that lack of contact, his ensuing .167/.242/.275 slash is hardly surprising.
Broxton has 17 Defensive Runs Saved, a 9.6 Ultimate Zone Rating and rates in at a whopping 34 Outs Above Average, per Statcast, over the past four MLB seasons. There’s little doubt that his glove is outstanding, but his 61.4 percent contact rate is the second-lowest among all MLB hitters in that same span.
Twins Claim Matt Wisler
The Twins have claimed right-hander Matt Wisler off waivers from the Mariners, per an announcement from the Seattle organization. Minnesota opened three roster spots yesterday when outrighting Ronald Torreyes, Ian Miller and Ryan LaMarre, so a corresponding move wasn’t necessary.
Wisler, 27, was once one of the game’s top pitching prospects and was even a key piece in the trade that sent Craig Kimbrel from Atlanta to San Diego. The 2011 seventh-rounder has never really found his footing in the big leagues, though, and was shifted from a starting role to a bullpen setting back in 2017. That change didn’t prove fruitful, however, and he’s since bounced from Atlanta, to Cincinnati, back to San Diego, to Seattle and now to Minneapolis.
This past season, Wisler totaled 51 1/3 innings between the Padres and Mariners but struggled to a 5.61 ERA in that time. Home runs were his primary undoing, as the former top prospect yielded an average of 1.75 long balls per nine innings pitched.
Be that as it may, however, Wisler nonetheless provided cause for optimism. He averaged a hefty 11.1 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 while posting a gaudy 14.9 percent swinging-strike rate and 37.7 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone. Wisler’s curveball ranked in the 72nd percentile among MLB pitchers in terms of spin rate, and while his 92.8 mph average fastball velocity isn’t exactly formidable in today’s game, it’s only slightly below the league average 93.1 mph.
If the Twins want to get a look at Wisler in Spring Training, though, likely need to be prepared to carry him on the 40-man roster all winter, as they can’t pass him through waivers themselves and be assured of keeping him. Even if he goes unclaimed on waivers a second time, he has the requisite service time to elect free agency. Wisler is also out of minor league options, so he’d need to break camp with the Twins or another club next year or else be designated for assignment.
Blue Jays Claim Anthony Bass, Designate Ryan Dull
The Blue Jays announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed right-hander Anthony Bass off waivers from the Mariners. In a corresponding roster move, Toronto designated fellow right-hander Ryan Dull for assignment.
Swapping out Dull for Bass on the 40-man roster is an upgrade for the Blue Jays, who pick up a 31-year-old veteran fresh off a 3.56 ERA through 48 innings of relief with this move. Bass has been inconsistent at the MLB level but has been sharp across the past two seasons with the Cubs and Mariners and is the owner of a career 4.38 ERA in 347 1/3 MLB innings. This past season marked his largest workload in the Majors since a 2015 run with Texas. In addition to his solid ERA, Bass averaged 8.1 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and 0.94 HR/9 to go along with a quality 51.6 percent ground-ball rate. His 11.1 percent swinging-strike rate was the second-best of his career, and his 31.1 percent opponents’ chase rate on out-of-zone pitches was a career-high.
Dull, who turned 30 earlier this month, has bounced all over the league (and the continent, for that matter) since the beginning of August. He’d spent his entire eight-year career in the Athletics organization until being designated for assignment on Aug. 3. Since then, he’s bounced to the Giants, to the Yankees and to the Blue Jays via a series of waiver claims. Toronto actually passed him through waivers unclaimed in September but quickly selected his contract again when needing some ‘pen depth late in September. Players who have more than three years of service or have been previously outrighted can elect free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment; Dull meets both criteria and will surely elect free agency if another club doesn’t claim him.
Dull was one of Oakland’s best relievers back in 2016 but has battled injuries over the ensuing three years and wasn’t particularly effective in 2019. He surrendered 18 runs in just 12 2/3 Major League innings this season and was also tagged for an ERA north of 5.00 in Triple-A. That said, he entered the 2019 campaign with a career 3.63 ERA and 155-to-44 K/BB ratio in 158 2/3 MLB innings and only just turned 30, so a return to form isn’t out of the question. He’ll just likely need to prove himself to a new club in the form of a minor league pact (again — if he clears waivers).
Mariners Outright Ryon Healy, Connor Sadzeck, Chasen Bradford
The Mariners outrighted three players today, per a club announcement. Corner infielder Ryon Healy is the most notable name departing the 40-man. He’s joined by righty relievers Chasen Bradford and Connor Sadzeck.
All three of these players finished their seasons on the 60-day injured list. They’d have required 40-man roster space all offseason had it not been for today’s decision.
Healy is dealing with quite significant health problems, including a diagnosis of spinal stenosis and ensuing hip surgery. It’s not clear at this point whether and when the 27-year-old will be able to resume his career. Healy projected to earn $2.5MM via arbitration, a hefty sum given the uncertainty. He’ll have the right to elect free agency by virtue of his MLB service time.
Bradford underwent Tommy John surgery two months ago, making it hard to imagine he’ll be much of a factor in 2020. The 30-year-old was a solid performer in his first two MLB campaigns but doesn’t carry the peripherals of a dominant relief pitcher.
There’s quite a bit more potential upside for Sadzeck, a live-armed 28-year-old who rewarded the M’s for taking a shot on him. He allowed just seven earned runs in 23 2/3 frames, racking up 27 strikeouts against 15 walks, before going down with flexor mass issues. He seemed like a potential find for the Seattle organization, but the club evidently decided that the arm issues and Sadzeck’s longstanding control problems were too great to tie up a roster spot on him all winter.