Blue Jays Designate Preston Guilmet; Select Luis Santos, Rhiner Cruz
The Blue Jays announced some pitching shuffling in advance of today’s game. Righty Preston Guilmet was designated for assignment to facilitate the additions of righties Luis Santos and Rhiner Cruz, whose contracts were selected. An additional active roster spot was cleared by optioning lefty Tim Mayza.
The 30-year-old Guilmet had been plucked off of waivers earlier in the season from the Cardinals. Unfortunately, he has not been able to carve out a permanent role in his first MLB action since 2015. Through eight frames in Toronto,he allowed eight earned runs and four home runs while recording only five strikeouts against four walks.
Santos threw well last year in a brief debut stint for the Jays, but was bombed in his lone outing of 2018. He has gone on to pitch rather well at Triple-A since that time and now owns a 2.52 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 39 1/3 innings.
As for Cruz, he’s returning from an even longer MLB absence than was Guilmet. Now 31 years of age, Cruz allowed one earned run in 8 2/3 frames at Buffalo before earning the call. He previously appeared in 2012 and 2013 with the Astros.
Cubs Designate Chris Gimenez
The Cubs have designated catcher Chris Gimenez for assignment, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced by fellow backstop Victor Caratini, who has been recalled from Triple-A.
Gimenez, 35, has delivered nothing in the way of offense this year for Chicago. Indeed, he has just four singles and three walks in 32 trips to the plate on the season. While the club obviously brought him up for other reasons — namely, his solid reputation as a handler of a pitching staff — that minimal output proved decisive.
As for Caratini, he’ll look to improve on his own tepid offensive work from earlier this season. He has mashed at Triple-A since being demoted, as he did in 2017, so there’s little for him to prove as a hitter at the highest level of the minors.
Rays Select Ryan Weber
The Rays have selected the contract of righty Ryan Weber, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter links). Tampa Bay moved fellow righty Wilmer Font to the 60-day DL to create 40-man space.
In other moves, reliever Andrew Kittredge is also coming up to the active roster. To create the two needed openings there, the Rays have placed lefty Vidal Nuno on the 10-day DL and optioned righty Austin Pruitt.
Weber, 27, was up earlier in the year but only made one appearance before being outrighted. He has been successful at Triple-A, turning in 68 2/3 innings of 2.23 ERA ball. Though his combination of 5.8 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 aren’t terribly exciting, Weber has carried a 51.8% groundball rate and functioned in a multi-inning capacity — a consideration of particular importance given the Rays’ unusual staff usage.
Nationals Designate Tim Collins
The Nationals have designated lefty Tim Collins for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot was needed for the activation of Matt Adams from the 10-day DL.
With the Nats stuck in a brutal run of poor results, they’ll sacrifice some bullpen depth in order to increase their offensive options with the return of Adams. The first baseman had been on the shelf after suffering a minor finger fracture on a bunt attempt.
Collins, 28, has worked to a 2.77 ERA in his 13 innings on the year — his first frames in the bigs since way back in 2014. Unfortunately, he has also managed only eight strikeouts while issuing six walks.
There were some positive signs, too. Collins is working at 93.1 mph with his fastball, right near his career average, and has managed an 11.2% swinging-strike rate. He has been tagged by righties (.455 wOBA) but been equally dominant against lefties (.191 wOBA).
For the Nats, there were simply more pressing needs than another lefty reliever. With Matt Grace on hand and Sammy Solis in reserve at Triple-A, there are other options. Plus, the club could conceivably mix and match in the late innings rather than using southpaw Sean Doolittle exclusively as a closer. Whether another team will value Collins as a MLB roster piece remains to be seen; if not, perhaps he could end up back at Triple-A in the D.C. organization.
Royals Sign First-Rounder Brady Singer
The Royals announced today that they have signed first round pick Brady Singer, as Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com first reported on Twitter. Kansas City will spend $4.25MM, well over the $3,349,300 slot value for the 18th overall selection, to land Singer.
Singer will join teammate Jackson Kowar (who reportedly agreed to terms yesterday) in going from a powerhouse University of Florida staff into the K.C. system. The pair drew ample attention in the run-up to the draft. Both pitchers ended up being among the first six college hurlers to leave the board. (UVA product Daniel Lynch went to the Royals one pick after Kowar, at #34.)
Most draft pundits agreed that Singer was, at a minimum, among the twenty or so best prospects. But there was certainly a range of opinion as to just how rosy his future outlook is. MLB.com rated him second only to unquestioned top prospect Casey Mize among all draft-eligible players. ESPN.com’s Keith Law, meanwhile, had Singer at 21st on his board.
The optimists argue that Singer has just about everything you could want in a pitching prospect, with a good frame and track record of durability combined with good command, oft-lauded competitiveness, and a projection of three quality pitches. On the other side, Law questions whether Singer will shake out in the rotation at the game’s highest level, citing concern with his delivery and ability to maintain his best stuff.
The Royals obviously believe in Singer, who is the most visible member of the team’s draft class — the composition of which reflects a clear strategy to add advanced amateur arms to the system. All of the players the Royals selected in the first ten rounds of the draft are now under contract, as fourth-rounder Eric Cole has also agreed to terms.
Phillies To Sign Ryan Goins
The Phillies have signed infielder Ryan Goins to a minor-league pact, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll head to the team’s Triple-A affiliate.
Goins joined the Royals over the winter after wrapping up a five-year run with the Blue Jays. He ended up seeing 41 games of action before being designated for assignment, turning in a .226/.252/.313 slash in 120 turns with the bat.
While the thirty-year-old has long earned plaudits for his glovework, that offensive output is all too familiar. Goins is a .228/.274/.333 hitter through over fifteen-hundred MLB plate appearances.
Mariners Extend Wade LeBlanc
The Mariners have announced an extension with southpaw Wade LeBlanc. It’ll include a guaranteed salary for the 2019 season and a trio of club/vesting options thereafter. LeBlanc is represented by Joe Rosen.
LeBlanc, 33, will be guaranteed $2.75MM in total, according to reports from ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter) and Jon Heyman of Fancred (Twitter links). That includes a $300K signing bonus and $2MM salary for 2019.
The club options are priced at $5MM apiece and come with $450K in total buyouts. They’ll vest if LeBlanc reaches 160 innings in the immediately preceding season or 310 innings in the two prior years. If all the options are exercised and all potential bonuses and escalators are achieved, the deal could reach a total of $32MM over its four possible seasons.
For the Mariners, the move adds three seasons of control without much in the way of risk. LeBlanc was actually slated to be eligible for arbitration in 2019, so the deal will technically buy out an arb year and give the Seattle organization control over three would-be free agent campaigns.
Needless to say, this is rather an unusual contractual arrangement. Then again, LeBlanc isn’t a typical extension target. He’ll soon turn 34 years of age and is earning just $650K this year after joining the M’s in the middle of camp when he was released from his minors deal with the Yankees.
Indeed, it wasn’t long ago that LeBlanc joined the MLBTR podcast to discuss his search for another MLB opportunity. He has thrown 202 frames in the majors since that time, but it wasn’t until recently that he showed enough to make an agreement of this kind seem possible.
Thus far in 2018, LeBlanc carries a 3.38 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 72 frames for the Mariners. In addition to five relief outings, he has now taken the ball for 11 starts. That level of success isn’t likely to continue. He doesn’t throw a pitch that averages even 87 mph and has below-average rates of swinging strikes (8.8%) and groundballs (35.6%).
That said, LeBlanc has looked like a solid MLB hurler this year. Despite the frequency of fly balls, he has not surrendered too many dingers (1.13 per nine but on a below-average 9.8% HR/FB rate). And though he has likely been fortunate on batted-ball results, his spread of Statcast numbers (.337 xwOBA vs. .309 wOBA) isn’t particularly extreme.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Indians Sign First-Rounder Noah Naylor
The Indians have announced a deal with first-round draft choice Noah Naylor, as MLB.com’s Jim Callis first reported (via Twitter). He’ll receive a $2,578,138 bonus that lands just over the $2,332,700 allocation that came with the 29th overall pick.
Naylor, a Canadian high-school backstop, had committed to Texas A&M. A consensus top-thirty talent, he garnered particularly notable support from ESPN.com’s Keith Law. Naylor rated 14th on Law’s pre-draft board, owing to excellent overall hitting ability and a quality all-around toolset.
Those that aren’t quite as optimistic question whether Naylor really has much power upside and, particularly, whether he’ll add value defensively. Law believes that the youngster will settle in as a quality third or second baseman, while some scouts aren’t sold on Naylor’s potential with the glove. It’s still not entirely clear whether or not he will remain behind the plate to begin his career in the Cleveland organization.
Naylor will now join his older brother — Padres prospect Josh Naylor — in the professional ranks. The Cleveland organization also announced that it has signed all of its first twenty picks from the draft.
Orioles Place Colby Rasmus On Restricted List
The Orioles announced today that they have placed outfielder Colby Rasmus on the restricted list. He informed the team that he has decided not to continue playing, Jon Meoli of the Baltmore Sun tweets.
This is the second time that Rasmus has elected to leave his current team in the middle of the season. Last July, the Rays made a restricted list placement when Rasmus decided he would leave the organization. But he ended up pursuing a comeback with the O’s over the ensuing winter, signing a minors pact that included a $3MM salary and $2MM in potential incentives if Rasmus cracked the MLB roster.
It was long apparent that Rasmus would likely go north with the O’s out of camp, and that’s just what happened. But he went onto the disabled list only ten days into the season, with a hip strain that cost him a long stretch.
Unlike last year, when Rasmus was quite effective when on the field, he has struggled quite a bit in 2018. Through 49 plate appearances, he has just six base hits — only two of which went for extra bases.
It is a bit difficult to imagine that Rasmus will resume playing after this decision, though there’s no indication as of yet that he has formally retired. Prior to his more recent teams, Rasmus played with the Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Astros over a ten-year career.
If this is the end of the line, the former first-round pick and top prospect will wrap things up with a mixed record. On the one hand, Rasmus turned in a few substantially above-average seasons as a hitter and defender. That said, he rarely put it all together on a consistent basis and ended several of his stops on less-than-favorable terms. In the aggregate, Rasmus compiled an approximately league-average .241/.310/.436 batting line and hit 166 home runs over 4,119 career MLB plate appearances.
White Sox To Sign Nick Madrigal
TUESDAY: Madrigal receives the full slot of $6,411,400, Heyman tweets.
SUNDAY: The White Sox will sign the fourth pick in this year’s draft, Oregon State infielder Nick Madrigal, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets. The exact terms of his deal aren’t yet known, but the selection carries a slot value of just over $6.4MM.
Madrigal is coming off a championship-winning season at OSU, where he overcame a wrist injury to slash an eye-popping .367/.428/.511 in 180 at-bats this year. Thanks in part to his outstanding showing in 2018, Madrigal ranked among the top five prospects entering this year’s draft, according to FanGraphs (No. 2), Baseball America (No. 3) and MLB.com (No. 3), while ESPN’s Keith Law placed him at No. 11.
At 5-foot-7, 165 pounds, Madrigal is diminutive, but prospect experts have high hopes for his offense translating to the majors. BA, for example, contends that he “possesses arguably the best hit tool” in this year’s draft class, and adds that he could emerge as a legitimate stolen base threat in the majors. It’s not yet clear, however, whether Madrigal will line up at second base or shortstop in the pros. He has experience at both positions, but he manned the keystone in 2018 at OSU, which had fellow high draft pick Cayden Grenier (No. 37, Orioles) at short.