Rangers Designate Austin Jackson
The Rangers have designated outfielder Austin Jackson for assignment, per a club announcement. He had been acquired recently from the Giants but never reported to his new team, at its request.
As Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News explained at the time, the swap that brought Jackson and reliever Cory Gearrin to Texas was designed from the outset as a prospect purchase. “Our primary motivation was acquiring Jason Bahr,” GM Jon Daniels said of the deal. The Giants, who are just barely south of the $197MM luxury tax threshold, were willing to give up the young hurler in order to clear over $5MM in salary from their books as part of their own deadline maneuvering.
Jackson, 31, struggled badly at the plate this year in San Francisco. Over 165 plate appearances, he carries a meager .242/.309/.295 batting line. That power outage came along with a 35.8% strikeout rate that is far higher than the ~20% level Jackson has maintained in recent seasons.
It’s still possible, of course, that the Rangers will try to line up a trade involving the veteran outfielder. He did have a productive 2017 campaign, leading the Giants to give him a two-year, $6MM contract over the winter. But it seems unlikely that there will be much of a market for his services at the moment. Certainly, no other teams will have interest in taking on the salary, if any are even willing to give him a MLB roster spot.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/10/18
We’ll use this post to track the day’s minor moves …
- The Indians announced that right-hander George Kontos cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus. The veteran has enough service time to elect free agency but will instead remain with the organization in hopes of a return to Cleveland. Kontos, 33, tossed 5 1/3 innings and allowed a pair of runs in his brief run with the Indians at the big league level. He’s seen his velocity and strikeout rate fall off substantially in 2018 but has a lengthy track record as a quality reliever with the Giants and, more briefly, the Pirates spanning from 2012-17 (3.00 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 in 324 1/3 innings).
Earlier Moves
- The Yankees announced that righty David Hale has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers. He was recently designated by the New York organization for the third time this year. Hale will test the open market, but presumably remains a candidate to return on another minor-league pact, as he has done previously. In the aggregate, Hale has pitched to a 4.61 ERA with 5.3 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in his 13 2/3 total MLB innings this year. The 30-year-old has worked as a starter at Triple-A, turning in 55 2/3 frames of 4.20 ERA ball there on the year.
Phillies Select Trevor Plouffe, Designate Hoby Milner For Assignment
The Phillies announced a series of roster moves today, revealing that in addition to the previously reported promotion of right-handed pitching prospect Enyel De Los Santos, they’ve selected the contract of Trevor Plouffe. In order to create space for both De Los Santos and Plouffe on the 40-man roster, the Phils designated left-hander Hoby Milner for assignment and moved Pedro Florimon from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. Additionally, outfielder Dylan Cozens was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to create 25-man roster space.
Plouffe, 32, turned in the worst season of his career between the A’s and Rays last season, hitting just .198/.272/.318 in 313 plate appearances. However, the long-time Twins third baseman has shown signs of a rebound this season in Triple-A, hitting a combined .242/.371/.488 with a dozen homers and 15 doubles through 256 PAs between the Rangers and Phillies organizations. Plouffe has extensive experience at both infield corners, and his right-handed bat has long been a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching.
As for Milner, the lefty will be either traded, placed on outright waivers or released in the next week now that he’s been designated. The 27-year-old allowed four runs in 4 2/3 MLB innings this season but was considerably better in Triple-A, where he’d worked to a 2.39 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 4.8 BB/9 and 0.68 HR/9 with a 46.8 percent ground-ball rate. Milner has a pretty solid track record in Triple-A over the past three seasons and has multiple minor league option years remaining, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a club in need of a left-handed bullpen option take a look.
Orioles Select Jhan Marinez
The Orioles are set to select the contract of right-handed reliever Jhan Marinez. Rich Dubroff of PressboxOnline.com was among those to tweet the news, and Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun tweets that Marinez already has a locker set up in the Orioles’ clubhouse. Baltimore’s 40-man roster already had an open spot, so the O’s won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
[Related: Updated Baltimore Orioles depth chart]
Marinez, 29, is in the midst of a very nice season in Triple-A, having worked to a 2.78 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.99 HR/9 and a 42.5 percent ground-ball rate in 45 1/3 innings of work. He’s no stranger to the Majors, either, having logged 126 frames with a 3.43 ERA at the game’s top level.
Most recently, Marinez totaled 58 1/3 innings between the Brewers, Pirates and Rangers last season. He notched a 3.70 ERA along the way, though his 45-to-26 K/BB ratio, seven hit batters and six wild pitches all indicated that he was a bit fortunate to post that mark. Marinez doesn’t miss many bats and has long had somewhat shaky control, but he averages nearly 95 mph on his fastball and is good about keeping the ball on the ground and limiting hard contact.
Twins Release, Re-Sign Felix Jorge
The Twins have released and re-signed right-hander Felix Jorge, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press was among those to Report (Twitter links). Jorge had recently been designated for assignment.
Typically, of course, a player in this situation — being removed from the 40-man roster for the first time — would simply be outrighted after clearing waivers. As Berardino explains, though, there’s a slight twist and an obscure rule at play here. Because Jorge was on the disabled list upon his DFA, he had to be activated or released.
In any event, the result is the same, as the Twins will hang onto the 24-year-old prospect. That’s a positive for the club. Though Jorge was hit hard in a very brief MLB debut last year and has been out for all of 2018 due to injury, he has long been considered a quality starting pitching prospect.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained at some length upon the Twins’ decision to designate Jorge, there has long been hope that Jorge had a future as a back-of-the-rotation starter at the game’s highest level. Last year, at the Double-A level, he put up 134 2/3 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with 6.6 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9, along with a 50.2% groundball rate.
Mets To Designate Chris Beck
The Mets have designated righty Chris Beck for assignment, Tim Healey of Newsday reports on Twitter. That creates a roster opening for the activation of lefty Jerry Blevins, who had been on the bereavement list.
Beck, 27, landed with New York in a mid-season waiver claim after opening the year with the White Sox. He has worked to a cumulative 4.50 ERA in 34 MLB frames on the season, his fourth-straight campaign with some time in the bigs.
Though the bottom-line results have been better this year than in prior efforts — Beck entered the season with a 6.38 ERA in 96 career innings — the 2018 showing has not really been all that promising. He has allowed eight long balls already on the year while handing out twenty walks against just 21 strikeouts.
Tigers Release Junichi Tazawa
The Tigers have released veteran reliever Junichi Tazawa, per the International League transactions page (h/t Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, on Twitter). Also cut from the club’s Triple-A roster was fellow righty Mark Montgomery.
Tazawa, 32, signed with the Detroit organization in early June after he was cut loose by the Marlins. Unfortunately, his rough showing with the Fish followed him into the upper minors. In 7 2/3 innings for Toledo, Tazawa allowed eight earned runs while recording ten strikeouts against five walks.
It still seems reasonable to expect that the veteran will catch on somewhere on a minors deal. He has had plenty of success in the majors and the Marlins are on the hook for his $7MM salary (less the pro-rated minimum if he makes it back to the majors). But Tazawa has looked like a shell of his former self since making an ill-fated match with Miami. His velocity and swinging-strike rates are well off his prime levels.
As for Montgomery, the 27-year-old has long waited in vain for a MLB opportunity. In parts of six seasons at the highest level of the minors, he has thrown 182 1/3 innings of 2.71 ERA ball with 10.5 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9.
Phillies To Promote Enyel De Los Santos
The Phillies are set to promote promising young right-hander Enyel De Los Santos, as first reported by James Clark of the East Village Times (via Twitter). He’ll make his Major League debut when he starts Tuesday’s game. The promotion will require the Phillies to formally select De Los Santos’ contract, so Philadelphia will need to make a 40-man roster move, though they have a clear 60-day DL candidate in Pedro Florimon, who has already been out since May 30 due to a broken foot and has yet to begin a minor league rehab assignment.
De Los Santos, 22, was acquired from the Padres in the offseason trade that sent Freddy Galvis to San Diego. It seemed a fairly steep price for the Padres to pay in exchange for Galvis at the time, as De Los Santos is a generally well-regarded arm and was coming off a solid 2017 season in Double-A. This season, De Los Santos entered the year ranked as the Phillies’ No. 11 prospect, per MLB.com, and all he’s done since that time is elevate his stock.
Though De Los Santos is roughly four years younger than the average player in the Triple-A International League, he’s currently sporting a league-leading 1.89 ERA through 95 1/3 innings of work. He’s averaged 8.2 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and 0.94 HR/9 to go along with a 42.1 percent ground-ball rate through his 16 starts, and he was recently named to the MLB Futures Game.
Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com note in their free scouting report on De Los Santos that the righty sits 94-95 mph on his heater and can reach 97-98 mph at times. De Los Santos thrives on missed bats and weak contact with that fastball and a plus changeup, though his curveball is a less-effective third pitch and still needs work to be considered Major League average.
De Los Santos will step into the MLB rotation for now alongside Aaron Nola, Jake Arrieta, Zach Eflin and Nick Pivetta, though it’s not immediately clear if he’ll simply be making a spot start or if he’ll receive further chances beyond Tuesday’s outing while Vince Velasquez mends from a forearm contusion. The Phils are playing a doubleheader against the Mets today, and threw rookie Drew Anderson in his own MLB debut on Sunday, so their pitching mix is currently a bit jumbled.
Marlins Select Javy Guerra
The Marlins announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Javy Guerra from Triple-A New Orleans. In a series of corresponding moves, the Fish transferred left-hander Caleb Smith to the 60-day DL and placed righty Drew Rucinski on the 10-day DL due to a right groin strain. Additionally, J.T. Realmuto is headed out on paternity leave and has been replaced by Chad Wallach, who was recalled from New Orleans.
Guerra, 32, has rattled off 16 2/3 shutout innings with a 24-to-3 K/BB ratio and a 58.1 percent ground-ball rate in a dozen relief appearances with New Orleans so far in 2018. Once the Dodgers closer for a brief period, back in 2011, Guerra totaled just eight MLB innings from 2015-16 before returning a 21-inning stint with the Marlins in the second half last season.
Through 177 2/3 big league innings, Guerra has a strong 2.99 ERA, albeit with just 7.1 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 and a 45.1 percent ground-ball rate. Though he has generally had solid numbers in the Majors, Guerra’s career has been slowed by myriad injuries (elbow, shoulder, knee, oblique), and he also served a 50-game suspension in 2015 (for a drug of abuse — not a performance-enhancing substance).
Smith’s season was already known to be over after the promising young lefty was diagnosed with a Grade 3 lat strain that required surgical repair. Realmuto, meanwhile, can remain on paternity leave for up to three days before returning to the team.
Royals Release Justin Grimm
July 9: The Royals announced that Grimm has cleared release waivers and is now a free agent. He can sign with any club for only the pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any time spent in the minors, with the Royals on the hook for the remainder of his $1.25MM base salary.
July 7: The Royals have requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Justin Grimm, as Maria Torres of the Kansas City Star and other media members have reported.
After being released by the Cubs in mid-March, Grimm caught on with the Royals just a few days later on a one-year, $1.25MM contract. Between that salary and the $541K in termination pay owed to him by the Cubs, Grimm recouped much of the $2.2MM he was originally slated to receive this season after losing an arbitration hearing to Chicago earlier in the offseason.
Unfortunately for Grimm, he simply never got things together with the Royals, posting a 13.50 ERA over 12 2/3 innings and recording more walks (14) than strikeouts (eight). It has now been back-to-back rough seasons for Grimm, who had a 5.53 ERA for the Cubs last season thanks in large part to an ungainly 12 homers allowed over 55 1/3 innings.
Grimm’s peripheral numbers were at least decent in 2017, whereas things have been pretty ugly across the board for him this season. It’s fair to state that injuries have played a part in his struggles, as Grimm missed time with a back problem earlier this season and is currently on the Royals’ disabled list due to right shoulder impingement syndrome.