Giants Sign Matt Joyce
The Giants announced Wednesday that they’ve signed Matt Joyce to a minor league contract. He’ll be in camp for what’s left of Major League Spring Training. Joyce is represented by ACES.
The Giants will be the second stop for Joyce this spring, as he spent the bulk of camp with the Indians before being granted his release after being informed that he wouldn’t crack the big league roster. He’ll now head to an organization with a similarly undefined outfield mix in hopes of a clearer path to the Majors.
Joyce, 34, had a rough 2018 season with the A’s (.208/.322/.353 in 246 PAs) and didn’t hit much in his limited time with the Indians this spring (5-for-27 with three walks and seven strikeouts). However, he’s only one season removed from batting .243/.335/.473 with the Athletics in 2017 and is a career .250/.351/.451 hitter in 3373 plate appearances against right-handed pitching.
San Francisco’s outfield seems likely to consist of sophomore center fielder Steven Duggar, out-of-options slugger Mac Williamson and veteran Gerardo Parra, who like Joyce is in camp on a minor league contract. Rule 5 pick Drew Ferguson is also an outfielder and could be in mix if he breaks camp, though he’s just 3-for-27 on the spring. Cameron Maybin is also in camp on as a non-roster player, but his DUI arrest earlier this month surely didn’t help his chances of landing a roster spot.
Even if Joyce doesn’t crack the 25-man roster out of camp, he could potentially head to Triple-A and serve as an early-season depth option given the Giants’ lack of established outfielders at present.
Twins Release Lucas Duda
The Twins have released first baseman Lucas Duda, as Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to report (Twitter link). The move comes in advance of the opt-out clause his contract provided on Saturday.
Duda, 33, has long been quite a productive MLB hitter, though he hit a wall late in the 2017 season and hasn’t recovered since. He’ll head back out onto an unforgiving free agent market for defensively limited sluggers.
While he hasn’t hit anywhere near his prior levels of late, Duda has remained an approximately league-average bat. That’s not enough, clearly, for a player who’s likely to be viewed at most as a platoon first baseman. But there’s still some reason to hope that he can be a useful member of the right roster.
Brewers Release Josh Tomlin
The Brewers announced today that they have released right-hander Josh Tomlin. He had been in camp as a non-roster invitee after signing a minors deal but opted out of his deal, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports (via Twitter).
That news gives some clarity to the organization’s rotation picture, though Tomlin had a tough path to a big-league job regardless. With so many potential candidates for the rotation, and Jimmy Nelson readying for an early-season return, the Milwaukee organization was obviously not willing to commit a 40-man roster spot to Tomlin.
Tomlin evidently did not show enough in camp to force the Brewers’ hand. He has allowed eight earned runs with nine strikeouts and two walks in his 15 spring innings. Since the start of the 2016 season, Tomlin has managed only a 4.93 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 1.1 BB/9 in 385 1/3 innings.
Tomlin will surely look around to see if there’s a more attractive opportunity elsewhere. If not, it appears the Brewers would consider re-signing the command artist to work at Triple-A, Haudricourt also notes on Twitter.
Astros Extend Ryan Pressly
TODAY: This deal is now official. The option vests with sixty appearances apiece in 2021 and 2022, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic tweets.
YESTERDAY, 8:35pm: The vesting option is based on appearances and is worth $10MM, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.
8:11pm: The two sides have an agreement in place, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets.
8:01pm: The Astros and right-hander Ryan Pressly are close to finalizing a two-year extension worth a guaranteed $17.5MM, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports. The deal would kick in beginning with the 2020 season, paying him $8.75MM that year and again in 2021, with a vesting option for a third season. He’s already earning $2.9MM in 2019 after avoiding arbitration and was set to become a free agent at season’s end. Pressly is represented by the Ballengee Group.
Pressly, 30, joined the Astros in a midseason that sent prospects Gilberto Celestino and Jorge Alcala to the Twins in July. Already in the midst of a strong season in Minnesota, Pressly became an all-out buzzsaw in the late innings with Houston. Pressly, who attributed his breakout to the Astros’ analytics department and its presentation of data to players, pitched to a 0.77 ERA with a 32-to-3 K/BB ratio in 23 1/3 regular-season innings following the trade. He tacked on another five innings and allowed one run in the postseason.
A former Rule 5 pick by the Twins out of the Red Sox system, Pressly steadily improved his K/BB numbers from 2015-18, and his improvement in ’18 has the look of a potential elite weapon for the Astros moving forward. No reliever in baseball topped Pressly in terms of curveball spin rate — Garrett Richards was the only pitcher in all of MLB to best him in that regard — and the spin rate on Pressly’s fastball ranked in the 98th percentile of MLB pitchers.
He also ranked in the top five percent of the league in terms of overall strikeout percentage and several Statcast metrics (including expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected weighted on-base average). Whether looking at traditional stats or newer metrics, Pressly was an overpowering force in 2018, and the Astros apparently had no interest in letting him get to the open market.
While that dominance hasn’t been sustained over a multi-year stint yet, there’s still an argument that Pressly could’ve reached free agency next winter as the market’s most desirable reliever. He hasn’t yet reached even $7MM in career earnings, so it’s easy to see why would take the security of a guaranteed payday worth two and a half times what he’s banked since his MLB debut. But, the relatively short-term nature of the deal and the $8.75MM annual rate could both have been topped with a similarly strong 2019 campaign; Adam Ottavino, for instance, parlayed a 2018 season that was not as dominant as Pressly’s into a three-year deal worth $27MM. Extensions are always a question of risk tolerance, though, and Pressly’s annual value is commensurate the annual rates attained by Ottavino and Joe Kelly (three years, $25MM with the Dodgers).
Rays Extend Brandon Lowe
TODAY: Tampa Bay has announced the deal. It could top out at $49MM in total value if both options are exercised and all incentives are reached, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported.
YESTERDAY: The Rays have agreed to a six-year, $24MM contract extension with infielder/outfielder Brandon Lowe, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). The contract contains a pair of club options that would buy out a pair of would-be free-agent seasons as well. Lowe is a client of the Bledsoe Agency.
Lowe has just 43 games of Major League experience under his belt but is widely regarded as one of the Rays’ most promising prospects. Baseball America rated him as the game’s No. 93 prospect this offseason, while Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs ranked him 46th overall.
The early returns on Lowe in the Major Leagues were relatively promising. The 2015 third-rounder reached the Majors for the first time at the age of 23 and batted .233/.324/.450 with six home runs, six doubles, a pair of triples and two stolen bases (in three attempts). Context-neutral metrics like OPS+ (112) and wRC+ (113) felt his bat was 12 to 13 percent better than that of a league-average hitter when adjusting for league and home park.
Lowe’s 25.6 strikeout rate was likely a bit higher than the Rays would prefer, but he showed power and drew walks at a 10.8 percent clip in his first crack at MLB opposition. That production came on the heels of a sensational .297/.391/.558 slash between Double-A and Triple-A, creating further optimism that Lowe can be an integral part of the Rays moving forward.
Defensively, Lowe has spent the bulk of his career as a second baseman, though he got his feet wet with more than 500 innings of work in the outfield corners last season (between the Majors and minors). Scouting reports have generally projected him as a potentially average defender at second, though he’s considered to be more of a bat-first player.
It’s unusual but not unheard of for teams to lock up players with such minimal MLB experience, and the Rays in particular have done so in past years with both Evan Longoria and Matt Moore. Lowe’s deal will line up identically to the Phillies’ six-year, $24MM deal with Scott Kingery — a contract signed before Kingery even played an MLB game.
There’s certainly risk to committing to a player so early in his professional career, but the $24MM risk is one all the more worth taking for a low-payroll club like the Rays that typically has a great deal of difficulty hanging onto quality players as their arbitration earnings increase. For Lowe, he could potentially have earned more over the course of his three arb seasons — and the option years are sure to be at an affordable rate — but the allure of locking in a sizable guaranteed payday when his first arbitration season is still three years away is understandable. If both of the club options on the deal are ultimately exercised, he’ll reach free agency a few months after his 32nd birthday.
Lowe now joins Kevin Kiermaier as the only Rays players to be guaranteed anything beyond the 2020 season. Charlie Morton, set to earn $15MM in both 2019 and 2020, is the only other player whose contract for the 2020 season is guaranteed at the moment. Of course, given the Rays’ wealth of young talent, it’s quite likely that they’ll explore further extension possibilities between now and Opening Day.
Brewers Sign Josh Fields
7:46pm: Fields’ contract comes with a $1MM base salary in the Majors, and it contains opt-out provisions on April 30 and June 25, per Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link).
5:13pm: Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns, who is familiar with Fields from their days together in the Astros organization, tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the plan is for Fields to open the season in Triple-A (Twitter link). He’ll be an option early in the season should the Brewers find themselves in need of bullpen reinforcements.
4:40pm: The Brewers announced that they’ve signed right-hander Josh Fields to a minor league contract. He’ll be invited to the remainder of Major League Spring Training and hope to earn a bullpen spot with the club — if not by Opening Day then early in the season. Fields, who was released by the Dodgers last week, is a client of the Boras Corporation.
Los Angeles’ decision to designate Fields for assignment and release him came as a surprise given Fields’ success in recent seasons and given the fact that he’d agreed to a $2.8MM salary in arbitration. Arbitration salaries are non-guaranteed, however, so the Dodgers only were required to pay Fields 30 days’ termination pay — a sum of about $451K.
In Fields, the Brewers are adding a 33-year-old righty who has tallied 117 1/3 innings of relief and pitched to a terrific 2.61 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 1.22 HR/9 since being acquired by Los Angeles back in 2016. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher, which will be more problematic at Miller Park than at Dodger Stadium, but Fields averages nearly 95 mph on his heater with strong swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates. With Jeremy Jeffress ailing, it’s not surprising to see the Brewers add some talented depth with recent big league experience to a bullpen that already features two of the game’s biggest strikeout arms (Josh Hader and Corey Knebel).
Athletics Select Nick Hundley’s Contract
The Athletics announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of catcher Nick Hundley. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, fellow catcher Chris Herrmann was placed on the 60-day injured list. Beyond those moves, the A’s placed outfielder Nick Martini and righty Jharel Cotton on the 10-day IL.
Hundley’s selection makes official what has long bee apparent: he’ll pair with Josh Phegley to comprise the primary catching tandem in Oakland following the departure of Jonathan Lucroy, who signed as a free agent with the division-rival Angels. Hundley originally signed a minor league pact with the A’s back in February, and he’ll now be paid a $1.25MM base salary after being added to the MLB roster.
Hundley, 35, batted .241/.298/.408 with 10 homers in 305 plate appearances last season for the Giants and posted a combined .243/.285/.413 slash with San Francisco in the two seasons he spent there. While he’s lacking in terms of on-base skills, he nonetheless has a bit of pop in his bat and will bring 11 years of MLB experience to an Athletics roster that figures to feature quite a few young arms over the course of the season.
Yankees Sign Gio Gonzalez
The Yankees have bolstered their pitching depth in a substantial way, adding veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez. General manager Brian Cashman announced to reporters Tuesday that Gonzalez has passed his physical and reported to camp (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch). Rather stunningly, the contract is a minor league deal that reportedly comes with a $3MM base salary in the Majors and pays Gonzalez an additional $300K per start (topping out at $12MM). He can also opt out of the contract on April 20.
This outcome was hard to foresee when the market opened. While Gonzalez hardly seemed likely to break the bank, he’s an accomplished, still-useful, exceptionally durable starter. MLBTR graded him the 27th-best free agent available and predicted a two-year, $24MM contract.
As it turns out, many mid-level free-agent starters have failed to land that second promised year. And Gonzalez will still need to earn his way onto the MLB roster. Even if he makes it, he’ll be playing on a base rate of pay that lags a long list of other rotation pieces that signed this winter.
Gonzalez, 33, was long a highly valuable starter with the Athletics and Nationals. While he was often chided for inconsistency on a start-by-start basis, he was one of the steadiest hurlers in the majors in the aggregate for a lengthy span. Between 2010 and 2017, Gonzalez threw over 1,500 innings of 3.41 ERA ball, only once failing to make thirty starts in a season.
As recently as 2017, Gonzalez was capable of a sub-3.00 ERA, 200+ inning campaign. Even then, his peripherals reflected a decline in his stuff. Over the past two seasons, Gonzalez’s fastball has sat just over the 90 mph line. He still generated a 9.5% swinging-strike rate last year, right at his career average, but surrendered more hard contact and more home runs than he did in his prime.
Despite the downturn, Gonzalez remained a sturdy MLB hurler in 2018. He contributed 171 frames and ended with a 4.21 ERA. Gonzalez struggled in two postseason outings but provided the Brewers with five useful starts down the stretch after a late-season trade.
While his earning upside was always going to be limited by his age and reduced repertoire, it’s hard to fathom this outcome. It’s certainly possible that other teams offered guaranteed deals with less overall earning capacity. Even that’s unclear at this point, though.
The Yankees, it seems, don’t necessarily even plan to utilize Gonzalez to fill in while Luis Severino works back from his injury issues. Per the New York Post’s Joel Sherman (Twitter links), the club seems inclined to rely upon a trio of young hurlers — Luis Cessa, Domingo German, Jonathan Loaisiga — before turning to Gonzalez. That could certainly change before the opt-out date. But it’s notable that the deeply established southpaw will evidently be working just to obtain an MLB opportunity, particularly with so many teams preparing to rely upon untested pitchers at the outset of the season.
It also remains to be seen just when Gonzalez will even be ready to join the Yankees’ rotation. Manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday that Gonzalez made 80 pitches in a simulated game just yesterday and could appear in the Yankees’ Grapefruit League game on March 23 (Twitter link via Hoch). He still isn’t likely to be ready for the season opener, though, which point to an early April debut, at the earliest.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the sides were close to a deal (via Twitter). Sherman reported that it was a minor league pact (Twitter link), while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal added financial details (via Twitter). Heyman added further details regarding the contract’s heavy slate of incentives (via Twitter).
Indians Release Matt Joyce
The Indians announced Tuesday that veteran outfielder Matt Joyce has been granted his release from his minor league contract, making him a free agent. The Cleveland organization informed Joyce late last week that he would not make the big league roster. Joyce will now have the opportunity to seek a landing spot with just over a week until the regular season commences.
The 34-year-old Joyce had a rough 2018 season with the A’s (.208/.322/.353 in 246 PAs) and didn’t hit much in his limited time with the Indians organization this spring (5-for-27 with three walks and seven strikeouts). However, he’s only one season removed from batting .243/.335/.473 with the Athletics in 2017.
Broadly speaking, Joyce has been a quality platoon bat in the outfield corners over the past decade, hitting right-handed pitching at an above-average clip while playing largely solid defense. In nearly 3400 plate appearances against right-handed pitching, Joyce is a .250/.351/.451 hitter.
Indians Sign Carlos Gonzalez
MARCH 19: The deal has now been announced.
MARCH 16, 6:31pm: It’s a minor league deal that includes an early April opt-out date, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The contract comes with a $2MM major league salary and $1MM in incentives, per Heyman.
6:16pm: The Indians are closing in on a deal with free-agent outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Jorge Urribarri first reported the connection.
Prior to Saturday, it had been a quiet few months for Gonzalez, a Boras corporation client who seemingly hasn’t drawn much serious interest since he reached free agency last November. The 33-year-old is coming off a mostly successful tenure in Colorado, though, having batted .290/.349/.516 with 227 home runs and 118 stolen bases over 5,069 plate appearances since 2009 – his first season with the Rockies. The three-time All-Star has typically fallen short outside of the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, however, evidenced by his .323/.381/.592 lifetime slash at home against a .251/.307/.420 showing on the road. Moreover, the left-handed Gonzalez has underwhelmed against same-sided pitchers, who have held him to a .261/.297/.434 mark.
It was more of the same in 2018 for Gonzalez, who slashed a decent .276/.329/.467 with 16 homers in 504 PAs but did most of his damage at home and against right-handed pitchers. Meanwhile, CarGo was a mixed bag in upward of 1,000 innings in right field, where he recorded a woeful DRS (minus-eight) but a strong UZR (4.8) and a respectable Outs Above Average mark (one). Historically, Gonzalez has performed well in the outfield, as shown by his 16 DRS and 26.2 UZR in 1,271 career appearances.
Gonzalez, who was with the Diamondbacks and Athletics prior to his Rockies stint, is now joining his fourth major league organization. Even though Gonzalez didn’t land a guaranteed deal with the Indians, he still may have a realistic shot to crack their roster early in the season. The outfield has been a glaring weakness in Cleveland for a while, after all, yet the club didn’t make any major additions to it before signing Gonzalez; further, the Indians lost Michael Brantley, Lonnie Chisenhall, Brandon Guyer and Melky Cabrera in free agency, and Bradley Zimmer is still on the mend from July 2018 shoulder surgery. As a result, the Indians are projected to open the season with the unspectacular Leonys Martin–Jake Bauers–Tyler Naquin–Jordan Luplow quartet, which seems to leave room for Gonzalez to work his way back to the majors in short order.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.