Twins Claim Oliver Drake, Johnny Field
The Twins announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-hander Oliver Drake off waivers from the Blue Jays and outfielder Johnny Field off waivers from the Indians. Drake will step right into the MLB bullpen, while Field will head to Triple-A Rochester for the time being. Minnesota already had two open spots on the 40-man roster, so no additional 40-man moves were necessary to accommodate the pair of claims.
The 31-year-old Drake has already pitched for the Blue Jays, Brewers, Indians and Angels in 2018, making the Twins an incredible fifth MLB organization for which he’ll appear in a single season.
Drake has been rocked for a 7.57 ERA so far, but teams keep taking a chance on him, perhaps in part due to a strong 9.6 K/9 mark against 3.3 BB/9, as well as a healthy 13.3 percent swinging-strike rate. Drake also boasts terrific numbers in Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 2.05 ERA with 155 punchouts against 43 walks in 110 innings of work. He’s out of minor league options, so the Twins (or a sixth MLB team) will have to carry him on the 25-man roster or try, once again, to pass him through outright waivers.
As for Field, the 26-year-old has batted just .213/.253/.373 through 179 MLB plate appearances this season, but he’s displayed some power and a bit of speed with six homers and a .160 ISO to go along with four steals. He’s drawn positive marks at all three outfield spots, in an obviously small sample, and has a career .271/.325/.440 slash in parts of three Triple-A seasons.
Indians Designate Zach McAllister For Assignment
The Indians announced Friday that they’ve activated lefty Andrew Miller from the 60-day disabled list and cleared roster space by designating right-hander Zach McAllister for assignment. McAllister, who has been with the team since 2010, was one of the team’s longest-tenured players.
McAllister, 30, was traded to Cleveland by the Yankees eight years ago this month as the player to be named later in 2010’s Austin Kearns swap. While he never found his footing as a stater with the Indians, McAllister blossomed into a quality bullpen piece when taken out of the rotation in 2014. Over the next three seasons, from 2015-17, he pitched to a pristine 2.99 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 through 183 1/3 innings of work.
This season, however, has been another story entirely for McAllister. Through 41 2/3 innings, he’s limped to a 4.97 ERA with a diminished 7.3 K/9 mark against 2.2 BB/9 while serving homers at a career-worst rate (1.5 HR/9). He’s yielded seven homers through those 41 2/3 frames after surrendering only eight long balls throug 62 innings in 2017.
The 2018 season would’ve been McAllister’s last year of club control anyhow, as he’s now accumulated the requisite six years of Major League service time needed to reach free agency. Unfortunately for him, he’ll hit the open market on his worst full season as a reliever.
It’s still possible, of course, that another club could snag McAllister and plug him into its relief corps in the hopes that a change of scenery and some different coaching will foster a return to form. McAllister, after all, is still averaging just over 95 mph on his fastball with a near-identical swinging-strike rate to the one he posted in 2017, and his chase rate has actually jumped by nearly five percent. He’s only earning a $2.45MM base salary, with about $773K of that sum yet to be paid out, so he wouldn’t exactly break the bank for a team in search of a bullpen mercenary to close out the season.
If he ultimately is run through outright waivers and clears, McAllister does have enough service to reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency while retaining the rights to the remainder of his salary. At that point, he’d be a free agent available to all 29 other teams for only the pro-rated league minimum.
Mariners Release Kirk Nieuwenhuis
The Mariners have released veteran outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis from their Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, as tweeted by Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto,
Nieuwenhuis, 31 next week, has had a tough season in spite of an outstanding 14.8 percent walk rate, hitting just .214/.336/.336 in 324 trips to the plate. While he’s appeared at all three outfield positions with the Rainiers in 2018, the vast majority of his time has been spent in right field. The longtime Mets outfielder has seen his strikeout rates in the upper minors climb at an alarming rate over the past few seasons, culminating in this year’s career-worst 30.6 percent mark.
That said, Nieuwenhuis has a lifetime .253/.348/.441 mark in parts of eight seasons at the Triple-A level and comes with plenty of MLB experience as well. He’s logged just over 1100 plate appearances between the Mets, Brewers and Angels, hitting at a .221/.311/.384 clip. He averaged 80 games and 217 PAs per year at the MLB level from 2012-16 and appeared in 16 games with 31 PAs as a member of the Brewers organization in 2017. He’ll probably latch on elsewhere as a depth option for a club that’s thin on outfield depth, with the hopes of returning the bigs for a seventh consecutive season.
Blue Jays Sign Mike Hauschild
The Blue Jays have signed right-hander Mike Hauschild to a Major League contract, as first noted by Shi Davidi and Mike Wilner of Sportsnet (Twitter links). The Jays didn’t make a formal announcement of the move via press release or on Twitter, but Hauschild is on tonight’s lineup card. Furthermore, Davidi tweets that manager John Gibbons said Hauschild is expected to follow Tyler Clippard in a bullpen game of sorts tonight. It appears that infielder/outfielder Darnell Sweeney was the necessary roster casualty, as he’s not on tonight’s lineup card, and the Jays had a full 40-man roster prior to bringing Hauschild aboard.
Hauschild, 28, was recently released by the Astros after posting a 4.88 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.65 HR/9 and a 53.6 percent ground-ball rate. He has a bit of big league experience, having been a Rule 5 pick of the Rangers in 2016 and subsequently logging eight innings at the MLB level for them in 2017. He was ultimately returned to the Houston organization after surrendering 10 runs in that small sample.
Though Hauschild’s numbers in Triple-A this season weren’t his best, he still brings a career 3.97 ERA with better than eight strikeouts per nine innings and a ground-ball rate north of 50 percent at the Triple-A level to his new club. He’ll join the Jays’ bullpen for the time being, though all 76 of his career appearances at the Triple-A level have been starts. He could eventually emerge as a rotation option in Toronto, particularly if the team moves a veteran like Marco Estrada in the month of August.
Sweeney, 27, appeared in a pair of games for the Jays and went hitless in four plate appearances. He’s spent most of the season at Triple-A Buffalo, where he’s batted .235/.310/.398 in 255 plate appearances. The former Dodgers and Phillies prospect has a career .254/.322/.393 slash in 1718 career plate appearances at that level.
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/2/18
Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Mariners announced that veteran infielder Gordon Beckham cleared waivers and was outrighted off the 40-man roster to Triple-A Tacoma. He’d been designated for assignment Monday after Seattle acquired right-hander Adam Warren from the Yankees. Beckham, 31, appeared in 13 games with Seattle this season and batted just .200/.263/.229 in 40 trips to the plate. At the time of his DFA, he was playing with the team’s Tacoma affiliate, where he’d delivered a productive .305/.406/.469 slash through 315 plate appearances. Beckham has more than enough service time to reject the outright in favor of free agency. Seattle’s announcement didn’t indicate whether he’d accepted, though he’s stuck around with the Mariners on the heels of a DFA multiple times over the past two seasons.
Mets Designate Kevin Kaczmarski
The Mets have designated outfielder Kevin Kaczmarski for assignment, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Bobby Wahl, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Las Vegas. Additionally, the Mets have reinstated Todd Frazier from the disabled list and placed fellow infielder Phillip Evans on the DL due to a fractured tibia.
Kaczmarski, 26, made his MLB debut earlier this season but appeared in just four games and came to the plate a total of five times — going hitless in that small sample of work. He’s been terrific through 145 plate appearances in an admittedly hitter-friendly setting in the Pacific Coast League this year, batting .357/.421/.444 for New York’s Triple-A affiliate in Vegas.
A former ninth-round pick, Kaczmarski has hit for a solid average and posted quality OBP numbers at every level throughout his minor league career, though he’s done so without much in the power department and has never really proven adept when it comes to stealing bases, either. He has experience at all three outfield spots but has seen quite a bit more action in the corners, specifically in left field, over the course of his pro career. He does have three option years remaining (including this season), as his contract was selected for the first time earlier this year.
Rangers Sign Chris Tillman
The Rangers have signed righty Chris Tillman to a minors deal, per a club announcement. He’d recently elected free agency from the Orioles (following a DFA) after struggling throughout the entire season while playing on a one-year, $3MM contract. The Baltimore organization will remain responsible for the balance of the $3MM they promised Tillman over the winter, less any league-minimum earnings he obtains in Texas.
Tillman’s fall from the Orioles’ most consistent starters to his current status as a minor league roll of the dice was startlingly precipitous. As recently as 2016, he turned in a solid 3.77 ERA with respectable peripherals over the course of 30 starts and 172 innings of work. He, in fact, started the American League Wild Card game for the O’s that season.
Taking a further look back, from 2012-16, Tillman gave Baltimores 844 2/3 innings of 3.81 ERA ball, averaging 7.0 strikeouts and 3.1 walks per nine innings pitched. While he was never an ace, he was good for 30-plus starts per season and generally turned in quality run-prevention numbers during his peak years.
Shoulder issues torpedoed Tillman’s season in 2017, though, when he was one of the least-effective pitchers in all of Major League Baseball (7.84 ERA, 24 homers allowed in 93 innings). He returned to the only organization with which he has ever appeared in the Majors this offseason on a make-good deal, but to this point he’s been unable to do so. Tillman has made seven starts and been hammered for a 10.46 ERA in 26 2/3 innings with more walks allowed (17) than strikeouts recorded (13).
Now, Tillman will hope for an opportunity at a rebound in a new setting, though Globe Life Park in Arlington (if he ever reaches the Majors in Texas) is hardly an ideal setting for a homer-prone pitcher to return to form. The Rangers, though, have already traded Cole Hamels to the Cubs and has little in the way of stability among the current group of starters.
Veterans Bartolo Colon and Yovani Gallardo have eaten innings but pitched poorly on the whole, with the latter in particular struggling to keep runs off the board. Offseason signee Mike Minor has underwhelmed in his return to a starting role after dominating as a reliever in Kansas City last year, while southpaw Martin Perez has been the least effective of the bunch. Rookies Ariel Jurado and Yohander Mendez are candidates to make some starts down the stretch, but clearly depth is an issue.
Mets To Select Contract Of Bobby Wahl
The Mets will select the contract of reliever Bobby Wahl, assistant GM John Ricco said today in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). He’s one of the two players acquired in the pre-deadline swap that sent out veteran closer Jeurys Familia.
Wahl, a hard-throwing righty, has continued to rack up the strikeouts at Triple-A in four appearances since coming over from the Oakland organization. On the year, he has retired 73 batters on strikes while issuing 19 walks in 45 frames at the highest level of the minors. In that span, he has permitted just eleven earned runs on a meager twenty base hits.
Of course, Wahl has shown an interesting power arm in the past, and that did not prevent him from clearing waivers after a brief MLB debut in 2017. If the A’s were convinced he is a notable near-term bullpen asset, perhaps they would not have dealt him for the rental rights to Familia. That said, Wahl’s campaign last year was cut short by injury, which explains why he went unclaimed, and he has certainly bounced back with vigor in 2018. Perhaps he’ll provide a glimmer of hope for the Mets down the stretch.
In other news, the Mets are slated to activate third baseman Todd Frazier, per MLB.com’s Todd Frazier (via Twitter). He could perhaps become an August trade candidate, though there has been no rumor of trade talks to this point.
One active roster spot could be opened by sending starter Steven Matz to the DL. While Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets that Matz was cleared of structural concerns after undergoing an MRI, Mike Puma of the New York post suggests on Twitter that the southpaw may still hit the shelf. As Tim Healey of Newsday notes in a tweet, though, the club is still listing Matz as a probable starter this weekend.
Drew Hutchison Opts Out Of Dodgers Contract
Right-hander Drew Hutchison has opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers, tweets Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. The veteran right-hander, then, is a free agent and is now eligible to sign with any team.
Hutchison, 27, began the season with the Phillies and pitched to a 4.64 ERA with a 19-to-13 K/BB in 21 1/3 innings of work before being designated for assignment and ultimately landing with the Dodgers. While he never made it to the big leagues in L.A., he pitched brilliantly with Triple-A Oklahoma City, logging a 2.14 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 42 innings at that level. More impressively, Shaikin notes that Hutchison snapped off a 23-inning scoreless streak to end his tenure with the organization.
Understandably, after not being brought to the Majors on the heels of that type of success, Hutchison will re-enter the open market in hopes of finding a new opportunity with a clearer path to the big leagues. The right-hander has struggled to find his footing in the Majors over the past several years, but he looked like an intriguing long-term rotation piece with the Blue Jays back in 2013, when he pitched 184 2/3 innings of 4.48 ERA ball with a strikeout per inning, solid control and a 3.85 FIP.
Mariners Re-Sign Marc Rzepczynski To Minor League Deal
The Mariners have re-signed left-hander Marc Rzepczynski to a minor league deal, per Triple-A broadcaster Mike Curto (Twitter link). MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo first mentioned the reunion (also via Twitter).
Rzepczynski, 32, is technically being paid by the Mariners anyhow, as he signed a two-year, $11MM deal with Seattle in the 2016-17 offseason. However, after pitching poorly in each of the first season and a half of that pact, the veteran southpaw was designated for assignment and ultimately released. He landed with the Indians after that and notched 2 2/3 shutout innings before being designated for assignment and released for a second time.
Left-handed relief has been a need for the M’s for much of the season, in part due to Rzepczynski’s own struggles, and he’ll rejoin the organization as a depth piece. However, with James Pazos, Roenis Elias and the newly acquired Zach Duke — picked up in a Monday trade with the Twins — all in the big league bullpen, Rzepczynski won’t have much of a path to the Majors in the near future. In the event of an injury at the MLB level, though, or perhaps as a September call-up, he could potentially return to the big-league level with Seattle.
In 268 innings from 2011-16, Rzecpzynski worked to a 3.56 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9. In parts of 10 Major League seasons, he’s held left-handed opponents to a timid .227/.296/.305 slash in 857 plate appearances.