Minor MLB Transactions: 9/29/18
The latest minor moves from around the game…
- The Diamondbacks have reinstated right-hander Shelby Miller from the 60-day disabled list and sent first baseman/outfielder Christian Walker to the 60-day DL with a facial fracture, per a team announcement. Miller may be in line to pitch again this season after missing most of the campaign with arm issues. After undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2017, Miller didn’t return until June 25 this year, and he then went down with elbow inflammation on July 11. Before he headed back on the shelf, the once-promising Miller logged a disastrous 11.40 ERA with 11.4 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 in 15 innings (four starts), continuing a nightmarish Diamondbacks stint that began in 2016. Arizona will have to decide over the winter whether to tender Miller a ontract for 2019, his fourth and final arbitration-eligible season. The soon-to-be 28-year-old is currently on a $4.9MM salary.
Rangers Purchase Contract Of Brandon Mann
The Rangers announced today that they have selected the contract of lefty Brandon Mann. He’ll join the team for its final series.
Mann, 34, has already had a season to remember, having debuted in the majors after first becoming a professional way back in 2002. Now, he’ll get a chance to suit up in Seattle, not far from where he grew up.
Though he was not terribly effective in his six MLB appearances this year, Mann got the job done at Triple-A. Over 52 1/3 frames in 36 appearances, he posted a 2.41 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9.
Blue Jays Select Jon Berti
The Blue Jays announced today that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Jon Berti. To create a 40-man spot, fellow utilityman Brandon Drury was shifted to the 60-day DL.
Berti, 28, will make his MLB debut after wrapping up his eighth minor-league campaign. He has spent all of those with the Blue Jays, excepting a portion early this year when he was traded to, then re-acquired from, the Indians.
Though he once earned an Arizona Fall League placement, and performed rather well there, Berti hasn’t generally shown much with the bat in the upper minors. This season, however, he posted strong numbers during his 72 games at Double-A. Through 316 plate appearances, he put up a .314/.399/.498 batting line with eight home runs and 21 steals. Berti has swiped 265 bags during his time in the minors.
Mets Reinstate David Wright From Disabled List
The Mets announced today that they’ve formally reinstated team captain David Wright from the disabled list. Their plans were made clear earlier this month when announcing that Wright would return for the season’s final homestand and make one start (this coming Saturday), but today’s announcement makes it official that Wright is an active Major League player for the first time in more than two calendar years.
The final six games of the season, particularly Saturday’s contest, promise to bring out plenty of emotional moments in Queens, as Mets fans bid farewell to arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Wright’s career has been tragically cut short by a series of injuries, beginning with a spinal stenosis diagnosis in 2016 that preceded eventual neck and shoulder surgeries. In a tearful press conference addressing his future earlier this month, the venerable third baseman acknowledged that playing baseball had become “debilitating” for him and that doctors simply could not forecast his condition improving to the point where he could continue his playing career.
Tickets quickly sold out for the final start of Wright’s career, so he’ll have the opportunity to soak in moment in front of what should be a capacity crowd at Citi Field. The franchise icon and World Baseball Classic hero will head into his final weekend as a Major Leaguer with a career .296/.376/.491 batting line, 242 home runs, 196 stolen bases, 390 doubles, 26 triples, 949 runs scored and 970 runs batted in.
Wright, now 35 years of age, won’t formally retire following the season, and he’ll continue to be paid out the remaining $27MM on his contract while spending the 2019-20 seasons on the 60-day disabled list. The Mets’ insurance policy on his contract reportedly covers 75 percent of his salary, so they’ll only owe him a combined $6.75MM out of pocket over the life of those two seasons.
Orioles Select John Means
The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander John Means from Triple-A Norfolk. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Baltimore recalled outfielder Austin Hays and placed him on the Major League 60-day disabled list. Hays underwent ankle surgery earlier this month.
Means, 25, split the 2018 season between Double-A (46 innings) and Triple-A (111 1/3 innings), working to a combined 3.72 ERA with with 7.4 K/9 against just 1.8 BB/9. He’s not considered to be among the organization’s top prospects, but he’d have been Rule 5 eligible this offseason after a solid season in the upper minors. Given the thin state of the team’s pitching depth, the Orioles likely would’ve added him to the 40-man roster this winter anyhow.
[Related: Baltimore Orioles depth chart]
Means has worked almost exclusively as a starter throughout his career since being selected in the 11th round of the 2014 draft, and he’ll quite likely be in the mix for a spot on the big league roster next spring. At present, Dylan Bundy, Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner are the three locks for rotation spots in 2018, health permitting, with Means, Josh Rogers, Luis Ortiz, David Hess, Jimmy Yacabonis and Yefry Ramirez among the names who’ll vie for additional opportunities. It’s also possible that Means could eventually be looked at as a potential bullpen piece; he held left-handed opponents to an awful .209/.246/.312 line in 2018 but yielded a .295/.331/.423 slash to opposing righties.
Diamondbacks Announce Signing Of Shumpei Yoshikawa
In a press release today, the Diamondbacks confirmed the rumored agreement between the club and 23-year-old Japanese amateur Shumpei Yoshikawa. The right-hander will report to Salt River Fields for instructional league play.
Per reports from Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic back in August, Yoshikawa will receive a signing bonus of $650K in an agreement that seems to violate the norms of player movement between Japan and MLB. Historically, MLB clubs have mostly given Nippon Professional Baseball teams the first right of refusal when it comes to signing Japanese amateur talent, so the deal could still be seen as controversial over a key technicality. Yoshikawa went undrafted by the NPB out of high school, but while pitching for a team in Japan’s industrial league, the righty had performed well enough to vault his stock into prospect status territory ahead of the NPB’s upcoming draft. There’s a debate as to whether the Diamondbacks violated protocol, or whether they simply made a savvy move and caught other MLB teams napping.
It’s worth noting that Yoshikawa wouldn’t have signed the deal if he didn’t want to leave the country. After all, his ceiling for potential earnings is higher in the US if he’s able to deliver on his potential, and every NPB team had a clear shot at him out of high school and chose to pass on it. And, technically, he isn’t the first player to make such a decision — as Piecoro points out, 16-year-old Kaito Yuki bypassed high school entirely to sign with the Kansas City Royals. It stands to reason that if this type of trend continues, and Japanese amateurs continue to be enticed by the earning potential of leaving for American baseball at a young age, it could have an impact on the quality of play in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Yoshikawa stands 6’1″ and has a three-pitch arsenal that includes a splitter, slider, and a fastball that averages in the low-90s, an American League scout told Piecoro. According to the scout, Yoshikawa “profiles as a potential back-of-the-rotation” type of starter in the major leagues.
Victor Martinez Will Conclude Playing Career This Weekend
Victor Martinez will take the final at-bat of his career this Saturday, per Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. Friday and Saturday against Kansas City will be the final two games of Martinez’s career.
It seems, then, that Martinez has put aside any remaining doubt as to his intentions. He said recently, in reference to the remainder of the 2018 season, that he was “pretty sure this is going to be it,” as Evan Woodberry of MLive.com was among those to cover. It’s now clear that Martinez will hang up his spikes after taking the final at-bat of his career in front of his home crowd in Detroit — which, as Woodberry tweets, is the way the veteran wants to wrap things up.
Martinez, a native of Venezuala, signed as an amateur free agent with the Cleveland Indians in 1996. After breaking into the majors as a catcher with the Indians in 2002, Martinez played his first full season as a 24-year-old the following season. Cleveland traded their star catcher to the Boston Red Sox at the 2009 deadline for a package of Nick Hagadone, Justin Masterson, and Bryan Price. After finishing out the 2009 season with a disappointing ALDS loss to the Angels, Martinez returned to Boston for the 2010 seasons – his last year of playing full-time at catcher.
As a free agent in 2011, Martinez joined the Detroit Tigers on a four-year, $50MM contract, where he became a primary designated hitter. The Tigers won the AL Central in all four seasons of Martinez’ initial deal, prompting the Tigers to re-sign him after the 2014 season to a second four-year pact, this one worth $68MM. That contract runs out at the end of this season.
The last two seasons have not been kind to Martinez, but he was legitimately one of the most feared hitters in the American League for a ten-year stretch from 2004-2014. His best season came with the Tigers in 2014 when he hit .335/.409/.565, leading the league with an impressive .974 OPS. For his career, Martinez slashed .296/.360/.455, with 246 home runs and a 118 OPS+, making the All-Star team five times and winning a Silver Slugger Award twice – in 2004 as a catcher and in 2014 as a DH.
Unfortunately, Martinez never won a World Series, but he was no stranger to the postseason, reaching the ALCS with Cleveland in 2007 and again with Detroit in 2011. Martinez missed the entirety of the 2012 season after tearing his left ACL during offseason conditioning, which was – unfortunately for Martinez – the year Detroit won the American League Pennant, getting swept by the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.
With 32.3 career rWAR, there’s a Hall of Fame case to be made for the switch-hitting catcher/1B/DH – but it’s unlikely. His 30.6 JAWS score puts him well below the average Hall of Fame score of 44.0 for catchers, but certainly impressive enough to receive some votes and remain on the ballot for a few years. Nevertheless, Saturday will mark the final playing time in a long and impressive career for Martinez, who turns 40 in December. Martinez will retire having made over $140MM across 16 major league seasons.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Tigers Select Harold Castro
The Tigers have selected the contract of infielder Harold Castro, per a club announcement. A roster spot was freed by placing injured starter Michael Fulmer on the 60-day DL.
Castro, 24, has not done much at all with the bat in the upper minors. Through 367 plate appearances this year at Double and Triple-A, he posted a .265/.283/.319 batting line with a pair of home runs and just nine walks.
Still, the Venezuelan could perhaps be a candidate to hold a 40-man spot through the winter if the Detroit organization feels he can contribute over time in a utility role. Castro has spent most of his time as a professional at second base, but has also lined up at short, third, and all three outfield positions.
As for Fulmer, the move doesn’t tell us anything new. It was already clear that he was done for the season when he underwent knee surgery yesterday.
Doosan Bears Place Scott Van Slyke On Waivers
The Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears have decided to part ways with former MLB slugger Scott Van Slyke, as Yonhap News reports. Formally, the club has requested waivers on Van Slyke.
It took only a dozen games for the Bears to sour on the outfielder/first baseman, who was added after things failed to work out with another non-Korean player, Jimmy Paredes. Now, the club says it will go without a foreign hitter as it tries to finish off a strong overall season.
KBO teams are allowed up to three foreign players under league rules. (A new version of the rules will impact signings, but will not change the number of roster spots.) Doosan already employs righties Seth Frankoff and Josh Lindblom, both of whom have turned in quality seasons in the hitter-friendly league.
Van Slyke, 32, joined the Bears after opening the season with a .248/.354/.467 batting line in 162 plate appearances at Triple-A in the Marlins organization. The former Dodgers platoon man has had some productive seasons in the majors, but hasn’t seen much time or been very effective at the game’s highest level since 2015.
Ultimately, Van Slyke struggled through his brief time in the KBO, carrying a meager .128/.209/.231 slash and one home run. It’s a short leash, to be sure, but perhaps it’s hard to argue given that the club leads the league in runs despite receiving paltry output from its non-Korean hitters.
Cubs Select Allen Webster, Transfer Brandon Morrow To 60-Day DL
The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Allen Webster and moved Brandon Morrow to the 60-day disabled list to open a roster spot, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Chicago had announced yesterday that Morrow would not return in 2018.
Now 28 years of age, Webster once rated as one of the game’s top overall prospects but has never lived up to that considerable potential. The journeyman righty has spent time in the Majors with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks and has also appeared in the upper minors with the Dodgers, Rangers and Cubs. Beyond all that, he spent the 2016 season pitching for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization, albeit with generally unfavorable results.
Webster hasn’t been in the Majors since 2015 but has been excellent since debuting for the organization this summer, in an admittedly tiny sample of work. Through 17 innings, he’s pitched to a 2.65 ERA with an outstanding 24-to-3 K/BB ratio, one homer allowed and a ground-ball rate near 60 percent.