Dodgers To Sign Logan Bawcom
The Dodgers have agreed to a minors deal with righty Logan Bawcom, according to J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group (Twitter link). The 30-year-old is expected to provide some upper-minors depth once he’s ready to be activated.
Bawcom joined the professional ranks with the Dodgers after being selected in the 17th round of the 2010 draft. He was eventually shipped to the Mariners as part of the 2012 deal that brought reliever Brandon League to Los Angeles.
Though he has still yet to crack the majors, Bawcom has compiled a solid track record in the upper minors. He has seen time in six Triple-A seasons, pitching to a cumulative 3.70 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 over 384 2/3 innings.
While he has worked at times as a starter including last year with the Dodgers’ top two affiliates, Bawcom has primarily functioned as a reliever. It’d rate as a surprise for him to debut this year in Los Angeles, though it’s certainly possible he’ll pitch his way into consideration if a need arises.
Athletics Extend Khris Davis
Oakland fans have cause to celebrate. The Athletics announced Thursday that they’ve extended designated hitter/outfielder Khris Davis through the 2021 season. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (via Twitter) that Davis will earn $16.75MM in each year of the contract, meaning he’ll take home $33.5MM in new money over the next two campaigns. Davis, an Octagon client, would have been eligible for free agency following the 2019 season.
“Oakland has been a special place for me since I arrived,” said Davis in a statement accompanying the announcement. “I love playing here in front of our fans, and my teammates make this feel like a family. I never hid the fact that I wanted to stay in Oakland because that is how I feel and I’m glad that I can continue to call the city of Oakland my baseball home. This team has a bright future, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Davis, 31, has been a source of immense power and stunning consistency since coming to the A’s by way of trade from the Brewers. There may be no more remarkable piece of trivia in baseball than the slugger finishing four consecutive seasons with a .247 batting average. Of course, while that number doesn’t stand out as particularly impressive, Davis offsets that average with respectable on-base skills and elite power; he’s a .247/.322/.539 hitter since being acquired by the Athletics (this season included) and averaged 44 homers per year in each of his three full seasons in green and gold.
It’s not particularly surprising to see the sides line up on a new deal, especially in this year of the extension. The A’s have proven willing to commit multiple seasons to a DH in the recent past. Though they came to regret the Billy Butler signing, the club has had a lengthy opportunity already to evaluate Davis in person. He has proven capable of putting the ball over the fence in one of the game’s least homer-friendly ballparks. And he’ll continue to earn at the same level he is in 2019, a salary that the club obviously feels it can manage even with its typically bottom-barrel payroll.
From Davis’s perspective, the market has been distinctly unfriendly to defensively limited sluggers. J.D. Martinez hit free agency with a better track record and at a much younger age than Davis would have, but settled for $110MM over five years. And that’s the very top of the market. The aging but highly accomplished Nelson Cruz settled for one year and $14MM this past winter. He took down four seasons and $57MM when he hit the market in 2014, but things have clearly changed since that time.
If there was an upside scenario for Davis in the 2019-20 market, it was probably embodied in Carlos Santana‘s three-year, $60MM deal. Santana was a similar age to Davis; he lacked Davis’s power abilities but was a much bigger on-base threat. That contract came in higher than MLBTR predicted; it also quickly proved undesirable for the Phillies. Santana’s contract was one of several first base/DH accords to be swapped around the league this winter. Perhaps Davis could still have earned more on the open market, in AAV if not also years, but it’s understandable that he wasn’t anxious to test his luck.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blue Jays Designate Javy Guerra For Assignment
The Blue Jays announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Javy Guerra for assignment in order to open a spot on the active roster for righty Ryan Tepera, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.
Guerra, 33, appeared in 10 games for Toronto early in the season but was tagged for six runs on nine hits, four walks and a hit batter. He did manage 12 strikeouts in his brief stint with the Jays, although a well-below-average 6.7 percent swinging-strike rate and 25.7 percent opponents’ chase rate suggest he wouldn’t be likely to maintain that strikeout rate. In 223 1/3 innings at the MLB level dating back to 2011, Guerra has a 3.51 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9 and a 44.5 percent ground-ball rate, but he hasn’t had much success at the MLB level since 2014.
The well-traveled Guerra is hardly a stranger to the DFA process; this is the sixth time in his career he’s been designated for assignment. The Jays will have a week to trade him or run him through outright waivers, with the latter of those two outcomes seeming the more likely route. If Guerra clears, he’d be able to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency.
In Tepera, the Blue Jays will be getting one of their top late-inning arms back after a three-week absence due to what looks to have been a minor elbow injury. Dating back to the 2016 season, Tepera has turned in 160 2/3 frames of 3.53 ERA ball with 9.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. He’s earning $1.525MM as a first-time arbitration player in 2019. Assuming Tepera can demonstrate that he’s fully healthy over the next couple of months, he’ll likely be an oft-asked-about trade candidate for a rebuilding Jays club this summer.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/18/19
Some minor moves from around the game…
- The White Sox signed catcher Brett Nicholas to a minor league contract, per Baseball America’s Kegan Lowe. The 30-year-old is a career .252/.300/.456 hitter in a limited sample of 110 plate appearances, all coming with the Rangers back in 2016-17. Nicholas spent the 2018 season with the Padres’ Triple-A club and, as he’s done in the past, hit well at that level — particularly for a catcher. In 456 PAs last year, Nicholas hit .291/.353/.485 with 16 homers. He’s a lifetime .285/.337/.440 hitter in 2125 PAs at that level. He spent Spring Training with the Rockies but was granted his release late in camp after a rough 1-for-20 showing. Defensively, Nicholas has a marginally below-average 26 percent caught-stealing rate in his pro career, but his framing marks in Triple-A are consistently poor. He’ll give the Sox another depth piece behind Welington Castillo and James McCann.
Rangers Sign Jen-Ho Tseng To Minor League Deal
The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve signed right-hander Jen-Ho Tseng to a minor league contract. The former Cubs righty, who was designated for assignment released recently, will head to extended Spring Training begin a throwing program, per Rangers executive vice president of communications John Blake.
Tseng, 24, was a fairly high-profile signing for the Cubs back in 2013, receiving a $1.625MM signing bonus as an 18-year-old amateur out of Taiwan. He was considered one of the Cubs’ more promising young arms for years after his signing and breezed through much of his minor league tenure, posting quality numbers against older, more experienced competition en route to a brief cup of coffee with the big league team in 2017.
The 2018 season, however, was a disaster for Tseng. After logging a 1.80 ERA in 55 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2017, Tseng was tattooed for a 6.27 earned run average in 136 1/3 frames there last year. He allowed a career-high 2.9 walks per nine innings pitched and a career-worst 1.32 homers per nine frames in last year’s ugly showing. While Tseng’s modest strikeout rate made that 2017 ERA look ripe for at least some regression even at the time, few would’ve expected such a stark downturn in his performance. Spring Training wasn’t any prettier in 2019, as Tseng yielded eight runs on eight hits and two walks with just one strikeout in 4 2/3 innings in Major League camp.
Those struggles were enough for the Cubs to move on, but the Rangers, known to be on the lookout for rotation depth, are in a better position to give a chance to a young arm not far removed from success in the upper minors. Unlike the Cubs, the Rangers didn’t enter the season with legitimate postseason aspirations. Given the patchwork nature of their rotation (plus injuries to Yohander Mendez and Edinson Volquez), Texas not only has a need for depth but also a relatively clear path to an opportunity for Tseng if he can get out to a strong start once he joins a minor league affiliate.
Brad Miller Elects Free Agency
The Indians announced today that infielder Brad Miller has elected free agency after clearing waivers. Recently designated for assignment, Miller had expressed some frustration with the organization’s decision and preferred not to take a spot at Triple-A.
This move puts an interesting player back onto the open market. The 29-year-old is a fairly accomplished left-handed batter with some defensive versatility. He opened the current campaign with forty plate appearances of .250/.325/.417 hitting and ought to be ready to hit the ground running with a new club.
That being said, Miller may still need to take up residency with an affiliate for a stretch before returning to the majors. He could have been claimed had any team really wanted him on its active roster. After all, he was slated to earn only $1MM for the season under the deal he inked with the Indians. (Having signed an advance consent clause, the club must pay only for about a sixth of that amount.)
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/17/19
We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post …
- The Dodgers have a minor-league deal in place with lefty Chris Nunn, he announced on Twitter. Nunn, a former 24th-round draft pick of the Padres, has reached the upper minors in past seasons but hasn’t received many opportunities there. He’s now pumping triple-digit heat, though that wasn’t enough to convince the Rangers to keep him around after he spent camp with the Texas organization this spring. The 28-year-old has carries a 4.16 ERA in 257 2/3 minor-league innings, with 10.1 K/9 against 5.0 BB/9.
Phillies Option Nick Pivetta
10:07am: Reliever Tommy Hunter was pushed to the 60-day injured list, opening the needed 40-man spot. He will not be eligible to return to the majors until the end of May.
9:36am: The club has announced the move and selected the contract of infielder Phil Gosselin. He’ll take the open active roster spot but will also need a 40-man slot, meaning that another transaction is still coming.
9:19am: The Phillies have made an early-season change in their rotation by optioning down struggling righty Nick Pivetta, Matt Gelb of The Athletic is among those to cover via Twitter. He’ll be replaced in the starting five by just-recalled righty Jerad Eickhoff, with a corresponding roster move as yet unknown.
This is a notable move for a variety of reasons. Among other things, the team’s control rights are implicated. Pivetta entered the season with 1.129 years of service and now sits at 1.149. He’ll need to be on the active roster for at least 23 more days this season to pass into a new service class. The demotion all but ends any possibility that he’d be a Super Two player this fall.
Service time considerations surely didn’t drive this decision. The Phils are locked in an intense divisional battle and need every bit of quality they can muster on the MLB roster. Pivetta just hasn’t had it; through four starts and 18 1/3 innings, he has coughed up 17 earned runs on 31 hits with a 16:8 K/BB ratio. His swinging-strike rate has dropped from 12.0% last year down to 8.5% in 2019.
It makes sense to allow Pivetta some time to work things out; likewise, it’s understandable that the club wishes to give Eickhoff an early run in the rotation. He has already shown the ability to be a high-quality MLB hurler, with a 3.87 ERA through 385 2/3 innings. Injuries intervened, but the hope now is that he’s ready to return to his previously established ceiling.
Eickhoff, now 28, certainly had a promising season debut yesterday against the Mets. His velocity was back at its customary 91 mph level. Eickhoff threw four scoreless frames in relief, striking out six while allowing just three baserunners. That stood in contrast to Pivetta’s own, messier effort over the first five innings of a contest that turned out to be a rotation face-off.
This switch is notable, but doesn’t come with particularly high stakes for the team. Pivetta can always be brought back up; he’d be a fascinating multi-inning relief candidate if there’s no need or desire to return him to a starting role later this year. If neither pitcher is up to the task, there are alternatives. Enyel De Los Santos, Ranger Suarez, and Drew Anderson all have 40-man spots, prior MLB experience, and rotation jobs at Triple-A. The summer trade market should offer some opportunities. And there’s always a possibility that the Phils will come back around to still-unsigned veteran Dallas Keuchel, who was a reported target at times over the offseason.
Mariners To Sign Christian Bergman
The Mariners have agreed to a minors deal with righty Christian Bergman, according to the Mariners Minors Twitter account (link). He’ll head to Triple-A Tacoma, per broadcaster Mike Curto (via Twitter).
Bergman, who’s closing in on his 31st birthday, has seen MLB time in each of the past five seasons. That includes brief time in each of the prior two campaigns with the Mariners. Through 215 2/3 career frames at the game’s highest level, Bergman carries a 5.59 ERA with 5.4 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9.
Indians Select Mike Freeman
The Indians announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Mike Freeman from Triple-A Columbus and optioned fellow infielder Eric Stamets to Triple-A Columbus in his place. A corresponding 40-man move wasn’t required, as Cleveland had only 39 players on its 40-man.
Freeman, 31, has seen sparse action in the Majors in each of the past three seasons (including one lone plate appearance with the Cubs in 2018), hitting a combined .134/.211/.207 across 91 plate appearances. Lackluster as that small-sample output may be, Freeman is an accomplished Triple-A hitter, as evidenced by a lifetime .305/.372/.418 slash through 2030 PAs at that level. While he’s light on power, Freeman has consistently managed to hit for average and get on base at the top minor league level. He’s walked in 9.2 percent of those 2030 PAs in Triple-A and kept his strikeout rate to a relatively low 16.8 percent.
Track record aside, Freeman needn’t do much to give the Indians at least a modest uptick in offensive production. The 27-year-old Stamets made his big league debut on Opening Day this season and has seen regular work in 15 games. However, he’s collected just two hits and five walks in 48 trips to the plate, resulting in a disheartening .049/.149/.073 slash in his first look at MLB pitching. As a glove-first player, there’s perhaps hope that Stamets could eventually fill a utility spot with the organization, but he looked decidedly overmatched in trying to step into some enormous shoes with Francisco Lindor on the shelf.
Thankfully for Cleveland fans, there’s hope on the horizon with regard to Lindor; the star shortstop embarked on a Triple-A rehab assignment tonight.