Minor MLB Transactions: 2/2/2019
We’ll use this post to track some of the smaller moves made around the MLB today…
- The Oakland A’s will bring lefty Wei-Chung Wang to spring training as a non-roster invitee, per the Athletic’s Melissa Lockard (via Twitter). Wang spent last season in Korea, where he earned a 4.26 ERA in 25 games for the NC Dinos of the KBO. He made brief appearances at the major league level for the Brewers in 2014 and 2017, but both cups of coffee returned disheartening results – a combined 11.09 ERA across 18 2/3 innings – including a somewhat noteworthy 2017 in which he recorded only 4 outs across 8 outings. Wang pitched well in the upper minors as recently as 2017, however, when as a then-25-year-old, he turned in a 2.05 ERA in 47 appearances out of the pen for the Brewers’ top affiliate.
Nationals To Sign J.J. Hoover
The Nationals have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty J.J. Hoover. Remaining terms of the pact are not yet known.
Hoover, 31, has thrown in parts of seven seasons in the majors, including a brief stint last year with the Brewers. He was bumped from the Milwaukee roster early in the season but never ended up joining another club.
All told, Hoover carries a 4.17 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 through 285 MLB innings. He sported a career-high swinging-strike rate of 12.0% in his last full season (2017, with the Diamondbacks), so there’s reason to believe he could be a big league contributor. For the Nats, Hoover represents a fairly notable depth piece to support the high-powered, high-risk relief unit they have compiled.
Twins To Sign Wilin Rosario
The Twins have reportedly inked catcher/first baseman Wilin Rosario to a minors deal, with Roberto Carlos Feble seemingly first to tweet the news. It comes with a MLB spring invite, per Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (Twitter link).
After running out of opportunities with the Rockies, Rosario took his slugging talents to Asia for the past three seasons. He thrived as a power-hitting first baseman in the KBO for two years before landing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2018. He struggled there, however, producing a meager .242/.285/.374 slash in 302 plate appearances.
Rosario remains most notable for his pop, which is significant enough largely to make up for his on-base deficiencies — or, perhaps more accurately, that was the case when he was still considered capable of serving behind the dish. Unfortunately, Rosario never impressed defensively as a backstop, so he’s now mostly limited to playing first base or serving as a DH. He’ll have to do better than his lifetime MLB 98 OPS+ if he hopes to carve out a role at the game’s highest level. Rosario turns thirty later this month.
Red Sox To Sign Brian Ellington
In yet another item on what has turned into Boston bullpen night here at MLBTR, the Red Sox have reportedly struck a deal with flamethrowing righty Brian Ellington. Per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link), the 28-year-old receives a minors pact; it’s unknown whether it includes a spring invite.
Like several of the team’s other recent, low-cost pen additions, Ellington is long on tools but lacks an established track record of success at the MLB level. He owns a 4.65 ERA in 102 2/3 career frames in the majors. Ellington was dropped early in 2018 by the Marlins and didn’t last long with the Diamondbacks organization after being added on a minors deal.
Ellington has averaged a whopping 98.5 mph with his average fastball in those innings, helping him to generate an 11.4% swinging-strike rate despite infrequent use of offspeed offerings. But he has also handed out free passes like candy in the majors (5.6 per nine). Both player and team will surely enter camp hoping to find a way to harness Ellington’s arm strength.
Red Sox To Sign Dan Runzler
The Red Sox have added reliever Dan Runzler on a minors deal, per John Dreker of Pirates Prospects (via Twitter). It isn’t yet known whether he’ll receive an invitation to participate in MLB camp.
A southpaw who’ll soon turn 34, Runzler has appeared in five big league seasons, though he hasn’t been a substantial contributor since 2013. All told, he owns a 3.89 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 over 76 1/3 innings at the game’s highest level.
Runzler has mostly toiled at Triple-A and in the Atlantic League over recent years, but did briefly crack the bigs with the Pirates in 2017. He possesses mid-nineties heat from the left side, but hasn’t consistently been able to command it. In 2018, he threw 48 innings of 2.81 ERA ball with the Sugar Land Skeeters, racking up 58 strikeouts but also doling out 27 free passes.
Boston fans clamoring for some bullpen help likely won’t be appeased by this addition, any more than they were by the club’s prior winter moves. Runzler joins Colten Brewer, Zach Putnam, and Jenrry Mejia as low-risk relief candidates that have been brought on board this winter.
Cubs Sign Tony Barnette, Outright Ian Clarkin
5:55pm: The deal also includes roster bonuses, with $250K available if Barnette breaks camp on the active roster and again if he lasts there for 155 days of the season, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). There’s also a quarter-million-dollar incentives package.
It’s worth noting, too, that if the Cubs do pick up the option, they’ll be required to release Barnette thereafter rather than tendering him a contract and offering arbitration.
3:04pm: The Cubs have now announced the Barnette signing.
2:40pm: The Cubs and right-handed reliever Tony Barnette have agreed to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2020 season, reports Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter links). Barnette will receive a $750K salary for the 2019 season and has a club option valued at $3MM for a second season, per Gonzales. Barnette is represented by Wasserman.
Additionally, Gonzales tweets that lefty Ian Clarkin cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa. That move wasn’t made to accommodate the addition of Barnette, though, as the Cubs already had a spot open on the 40-man roster.
Barnette, 35, pitched brilliantly for the Rangers in 2018 but had his season truncated by shoulder issues. The right-hander logged a 2.39 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.68 HR/9 and a 51.4 percent ground-ball rate in 26 1/3 innings but made his final appearance on July 3.
That season wrapped up an uneven three-year stint with the Rangers organization for Barnette, whose track record is among the more unique in today’s game. A 10th-round selection of the Diamondbacks in 2006, Barnette spent four years toiling in the Diamondbacks’ system before accepting an offer to go pitch for the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. That initial one-year offer was parlayed into a six-year run with Yakult, where Barnette emerged as one of the top closers in Japan. He saved 97 games there after ascending to that role and pitched to a 1.29 ERA in his final season there before signing a big league deal with the Rangers.
The righty justified the hype surrounding him with a 2.09 ERA in 60 1/3 innings during his rookie season, but he was clobbered for a 5.49 ERA a year later in 2017 as he also dealt with finger injuries. In all, Barnette comes to the Cubs with a long track record of success in Asia and a 3.50 ERA with a 132-to-43 K/BB ratio in 144 Major League innings — all with Texas.
The Cubs’ budgetary constraints this offseason are well known, as the team had to trade Drew Smyly and his $7MM salary to the Rangers simply to pick up their option on Cole Hamels. Since that time, the team’s only expenditures have been small deals for utility infielder Daniel Descalso, right-hander Brad Brach and now Barnette. While the limitations are an understandable point of contention for fans who’d hoped to see ownership support a run at a franchise-altering talent like Bryce Harper, the front office has seemingly done well in adding a pair of potentially useful setup men (Brach and Barnette) for a combined total south of $6MM.
As for Clarkin, he’s a former first-round pick (No. 33 by the Yankees in 2013) that has bounced back and forth via waivers between the Cubs and White Sox on multiple occasions this winter. Clarkin was hit hard in 68 innings of Double-A ball last year, turning in a 4.98 ERA with nearly as many walks (4.1 BB/9) as strikeouts (4.6 K/9), and he’ll now stick with his new organization and likely head to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.
Outrighted: Gavin Cecchini, Max Povse
A pair of players has been outrighted after clearing waivers …
- The Mets will retain the rights to former first-round draft pick Gavin Cecchini, who was recently dropped from the 40-man roster and seemed a plausible candidate to be claimed. Evidently, no rival clubs were intrigued enough to create the roster space that would have been required. Cecchini is still just 25 years old and has at times hit well in the minors, but he has never developed much power and was limited by injuries last year.
- Also heading to Triple-A after losing his roster spot is Mariners righty Max Povse. The writing was on the wall after Povse scuffled through his two seasons with the Seattle organization, though the former third-rounder still has some impressive physical tools. The M’s will presumably be glad to hang on to the 6’8 hurler. If he throws well in camp or at the outset of the season, it’s still possible he could find his way back to the MLB mound in the season to come.
Rangers, Matt Davidson Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with corner infielder Matt Davidson, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’ll presumably head to Major League Spring Training, and, interestingly, will work as both an infielder and a pitcher with his new organization, according to Passan. Davidson is represented by MVP Sports.
Davidson, 28 in March, more than doubled his career walk rate last season, walking in 10.5 percent of his plate appearances after doing so at only a 4.3 percent pace in 2017. That increase in plate discipline came at the expense of some of Davidson’s power, though, and strikeouts remained a severe issue (33.3 percent). Overall, he hit .228/.319/.419 with 20 home runs in 496 plate appearances last year and has 46 home runs in his past 939 PAs. He’s primarily been a corner infielder and, if he makes the MLB roster, would give the Rangers a right-handed bat to back up at first base, third base and designated hitter.
On the pitching side of the equation, Davidson is obviously even more of a work in progress. To his credit, though, he tossed three shutout innings of relief last season with a pair of strikeouts, one hit and one walk allowed. Davidson’s fastball sat at only 90 mph in that tiny sample, though one would imagine that with greater focus on pitching, that number could trend upwards.
Rangers Sign Jason Hammel To Minor League Contract
The Rangers announced Friday that they’ve signed veteran right-hander Jason Hammel to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training. Hammel is represented by ACES.
Hammel wrapped up an ill-fated two-year, $16MM contract with the Royals this past season and will head to the Rangers in search of a rebound on the heels of two of his worst big league seasons. As a Royal, Hammel struggled to a 5.59 ERA in 307 1/3 innings, averaging 6.9 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 with below-average ground-ball tendencies. Fielding-independent metrics felt he was marginally better (4.44 FIP, 4.95 xFIP), but the overall results were a far cry from the strong work turned in by Hammel from 2014-16 between the Cubs and the Athletics. Over those three years, Hammel logged a 3.68 ERA with 474 strikeouts against 173 alks in 513 2/3 innings.
The addition of Hammel is the latest depth move for a Rangers organization that has prioritized stockpiling inexpensive rotation pieces for much of the offseason. As was the case last winter, Texas made a three-year signing — this year it was Lance Lynn for $30MM; last offseason it was Mike Minor for $28MM — followed by a series of smaller-scale additions. Texas has added Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller to the rotation picture, too, and selected the contract of veteran Edinson Volquez to the Major League roster. (Volquez had previously signed a two-year minor league contract as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.)
Giants Claim John Andreoli, Designate Derek Law
The Giants announced Friday that they have claimed outfielder John Andreoli off waivers from the Rangers. Texas designated him for assignment earlier this week after signing Shawn Kelley to a one-year contract. In order to make room on the 40-man roster for Andreoli, the Giants designated right-hander Derek Law for assignment.
Andreoli split the 2018 season between the Orioles and the Mariners, posting a combined .230/.284/.262 slash in a tiny sample of 67 plate appearances. He has a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, as evidenced by his .264/.371/.408 batting line in nearly 2000 Triple-A plate appearances, and he’s knocked 34 homers, 83 doubles and 26 triples in that time while also collecting 121 steals. He’ll give the Giants a much needed outfield option, although with San Francisco reportedly on the hunt for additional veteran outfielders, it’s far from a guarantee that Andreoli will factor prominently into the organization’s 2019 plans.
As for Law, the 28-year-old burst onto the scene with a dominant rookie campaign in 2016 but has failed to approximate that year’s success in two subsequent efforts. Law was dominant as a rookie, recording a 2.13 ERA with a 50-to-9 K/BB ratio and a 50.3 percent ground-ball rate in 55 innings out of Bruce Bochy’s bullpen. Fielding-independent metrics largely supported that emphatic announcement of his arrival in the Majors, with FIP (2.53), xFIP (3.12) and SIERA (3.00) all concurring on his excellence.
Since that time, however, Law has been torched for a 5.68 ERA in 50 2/3 MLB frames. While his strikeout rate has remained constant, his 3.9 BB/9 mark over the past two seasons is two and a half times higher than his 1.5 mark as a rookie. His ground-ball rate, meanwhile, plummeted by more than 10 percent, with his home-run rate experiencing a corresponding spike. Law’s fastball velocity hasn’t depreciated, so perhaps another club will look at him as an intriguing bullpen reclamation project. He’s out of minor league options, so any club that picks him up (be it via trade or waivers) will need to carry him onto the Opening Day roster or else expose him to waivers.