Rangers Acquire Michael Roth; Kevin Jepsen Elects Free Agency
The Rangers have acquired lefty Michael Roth from the Cubs, according to a club announcement. He had been pitching on a minor-league deal.
In other Ranger reliever news, the club announced that righty Kevin Jepsen has elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment. He had been designated for assignment recently.
Roth, 28, last appeared in the majors — quite briefly — with the Rangers back in 2016. He has thrown 36 total innings at the game’s highest level. In 29 2/3 frames this season at Triple-A, Roth owns a 3.03 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9.
As for Jepsen, the 33-year-old will head onto the open market in search of another chance at returning to the majors. He had a less-than-promising showing this year in Texas, posting a 5.94 ERA with an 8:11 K/BB ratio in his 16 2/3 innings. Jepsen has had stretches of high-quality work in the majors, of course. In particular, he threw 215 1/3 innings of 2.93 ERA ball from 2012 through 2015.
Mariners Acquire Alex Colome, Denard Span
7:24pm: The Mariners will receive $4.75MM from the Rays, per Tim Booth of the Associated Press (via Twitter), an amount that rather significantly alters the math of the trade.
5:16pm: In a stunning early-season swap, the Mariners have acquired reliever Alex Colome and outfielder Denard Span from the Rays, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times originally reported on Twitter. Righties Andrew Moore and Tommy Romero will go to Tampa Bay in return, as Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter) and Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter) first reported.
An as-yet-unknown amount of cash is also going to Seattle in the swap. Reliever David Phelps, who is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was moved to the 60-day DL to open a roster spot.
M’s GM Jerry Dipoto has overseen his fair share of surprising swaps since taking the helm in Seattle, and this certainly rates near the top of the list. The club is off to a nice start (29-20), but just lost Robinson Cano for eighty games (and the postseason) due to a suspension and Dee Gordon for a stretch due to a broken toe.
Of course, the Cano suspension also freed up around $11MM in cash for the organization to deploy elsewhere. The new additions are earning $11MM (Span) and $5.3MM (Colome) for the season, so they are owed almost exactly that amount (around $11.2MM) the rest of the way. (There could still be some Cano savings left over, as we don’t yet know how much cash the Rays will send in the deal.)
Colome is surely the headliner of this deal. He has served as the closer in Tampa Bay for the past three seasons, racking up 95 saves in that span. He’ll be eligible for arbitration one final time over the offseason, so there’s some future value here for the M’s.
When he moved to the bullpen full-time in 2016, Colome looked like a star. But he wasn’t quite as exciting last year, when he carried a 3.24 ERA but managed only 7.8 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 for the year. Of particular note, his swinging-strike rate dropped to a less-than-dominant 11.6% level.
It has been something of the opposite story thus far in 2018. Colome sports only a 4.15 ERA but has struck out 9.6 and walked 3.3 batters per nine while carrying a 54.5% groundball rate. A low strand rate (65.4%) and high BABIP-against (.354) help explain the discord.
With Colome having returned to a healthier 13.9% swinging-strike rate and continuing to deliver his typical 95.5 mph heater and ~89 to 90 mph cutter, the Mariners will bet that he returns to more dominant results in a high-leverage role. Of course, they won’t ask him to handle the ninth, which will likely remain the domain of young fireballer Edwin Diaz.
Span has now been dealt twice in the final year of his contract. The 34-year-old no longer moves as well as he once did, but is still a polished hitter. He is off to an interesting start to the 2018 season, carrying a whopping 16.2% walk rate (well above his career average) and a typically stingy 13.9% strikeout rate. He’s producing at a solid .238/.364/.385 rate despite carrying a meager .259 batting average on balls in play and quality of contact estimates (.359 xwOBA vs. .332 wOBA) that suggest some poor fortune.
On the other side of the agreement, the Rays have again acted to shave a fair bit of salary obligations. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the ability to move Span’s contract — which itself was acquired only to offset partially the money the Giants took on in the offseason’s Evan Longoria swap — was a strong motivating factor.
Still, they’ll also recoup some talent here. Moore, 23, has had plenty of success in the minors and reached the big leagues last year. He’s not really regarded as a high-ceiling hurler, but could be a near-term option that fits the Rays’ current model that relies upon multi-inning relievers. Moore owns a 3.04 ERA in 50 1/3 innings this year at Double-A, allowing six home runs on 38 total hits while maintaining a 47:14 K/BB ratio.
Romero, 20, was a 15th-round pick last year. But he has shown well thus far as a professional. In his 44 innings in the current campaign, which have come over nine starts at the Class A level, Romero owns a 2.45 ERA with 11.0 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Rays Acquire Wilmer Font
The Rays have announced the acquisition of righty Wilmer Font from the Athletics. Minor-league righty Peter Bayer will go to Oakland in return.
Font had recently been designated for assignment by the A’s. His stop there hasn’t been any better than his opening to the season was with the Dodgers. In 17 innings this year, Font has allowed 24 earned runs on 31 hits.
Optimists will note that Font has managed 16 strikeouts to go with just five walks on the year. Those figures line up more with Font’s promising showing at Triple-A last year, when he worked to 3.42 ERA in 134 1/3 innings with 11.9 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.
Ultimately, it’s tough to look past the fact that opposing hitters have somehow managed to drive the ball out of the park a dozen times in Font’s first 24 MLB innings. But the Rays certainly have a need for arms and don’t mind taking the risk, so they’ll see if they can get the 28-year-old on track.
Angels Release Ryan Schimpf
MAY 25: Schimpf has cleared waivers and officially been released, per a club announcement.
MAY 22: The Angels have requested unconditional release waivers on infielder Ryan Schimpf, as per the team’s communications department (via Twitter). After being acquired from the Braves on March 31, Schimpf appeared in five games for the Angels, totaling seven plate appearances.
Schimpf, who just turned 30 last month, will again be on the move but this time have some control over his next destination. The infielder was traded three times in less than four months from December to March, starting with the Padres and then moving to the Rays and Braves before ending up in Anaheim.
Schimpf burst onto the scene with 20 homers in 330 PA as a rookie with San Diego in 2016, though even that early success revealed his all-or-nothing tendencies at the plate, as he racked up 105 strikeouts that season. In 534 career MLB plate appearances, Schimpf has 178 strikeouts and just a .195 batting average, though he could get on base at a decent (.318 OBP) clip. This extreme “three true outcomes” style made Schimpf less valuable given that homers aren’t hard to come by in the modern game, though it seems likely that another team will take a crack at signing Schimpf to see if it can iron out the holes in his swing.
Yankees Release Adam Lind
The Yankees announced on Friday that they’ve released first baseman/outfielder Adam Lind for the second time this year. Lind inked a minor league pact with the Yankees during Spring Training and was released to pursue other opportunities, though he ultimately landed back with the Yanks on a second minor league pact. That seems unlikely this time, as he’ll now search for a different opportunity with a better path to the Majors than he has with the Yankees, where Greg Bird is nearing a return and Tyler Austin is showing power at the big league level.
New York also announced that the organization has acquired the rights to catcher Wilkin Castillo. who’d been playing for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. He’ll head to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in place of veteran Erik Kratz, who was traded to the Brewers today.
The 34-year-old Lind has appeared at two levels with the Yankees thus far, slashing a combined .302/.362/.477 with three homers in 94 plate appearances. The bulk of the damage he’s done, though, came in an eight-game stint with Class-A Advanced, while his work with the team’s Triple-A affiliate has been less inspiring.
That said, there’s no reason to think that Lind won’t catch on elsewhere as a depth option in the upper minors at the very least, if not in a greater role. He’s been an above-average bat in four of the past five MLB seasons, has a long history of hitting right-handed pitching at an especially strong clip, and produced a robust .303/.362/.513 slash with 14 homers in 301 PAs for the Nationals just last season. He’d make sense as a Triple-A stash for any number of clubs, while clubs like the Rockies have seen their first baseman struggle in the Majors and others, such as the Twins, have recently incurred an injury at that position (Joe Mauer, concussion).
Castillo, meanwhile, received a small bit of big league experience with the Reds way back in 2008-09 but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since. He has just 22 games and 37 MLB plate appearances under his belt and is a career .244/.280/.352 hitter in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons. He should be a familiar face for those in Scranton, having spent 45 games there last season.
Brewers Acquire Erik Kratz, Designate Jett Bandy, Option Orlando Arcia
The Brewers made a significant series of roster moves on Friday, acquiring veteran backstop Erik Kratz from the Yankees in exchange for cash and designating Jett Bandy for assignment to clear a spot on the roster. Both teams have announced the trade. Additionally, Milwaukee announced that shortstop Orlando Arcia and righty Jorge Lopez have been optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs in favor of veteran infielder Eric Sogard and right-hander Adrian Houser.
Set to turn 38 in June, Kratz is off to a .269/.356/.538 start with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate. While he doesn’t have a lengthy track record at the big league level, he’s shown throughout parts of eight big league seasons that he possess some pop, homering 24 times in 649 plate appearances and notching a .163 ISO. Of course, Kratz’s overall .203/.250/.366 slash line in that time has been sub-par and serves to illustrate why his time in the Majors has been sporadic. To his credit, he’s halted 34 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in the Majors and has been similarly effective throughout his minor league career (32 percent).
As for Bandy, the Brewers will have a week to trade him, Ttry to pass him through outright waivers or release him. The 28-year-old showed a bit of promise early in his career with the Angels but has struggled in two seasons with Milwaukee, hitting just .202/.282/.326. While Milwaukee GM David Stearns has made his share of shrewd moves since taking over the team’s baseball operations department, the decision to flip Martin Maldonado to the Angels in exchange for Bandy likely ranks among his most regrettable swaps, as Maldonado has provided more with the bat and also took home an AL Gold Glove last season in his first year with the Halos.
Arcia, meanwhile, looked to have gone a long way toward establishing himself as a regular in the Milwaukee infield last season. After struggling as a 21-year-old in his debut back in 2016, the longtime top prospect hit .277/.324/.407 with 15 home runs and 14 stolen bases last season. The 2018 season, however, has proven to be a full course reversal at the dish.
Through 146 trips to the dish this season, Arcia has mustered a feeble .194/.233/.273 slash with two homers and five doubles. His walk rate is down two percent, his strikeout rate is up five percent, and his 28.6 percent hard-contact rate is considerably south of the league average. Arcia has contributed quality glovework, to be sure, but that apparently wasn’t deemed enough to salvage his spot on the roster for the time being.
Tyler Saladino figures to be the primary beneficiary of the Brewers’ decision to offer Arcia a mental reset of sorts, as he’s hit well in his brief time since being acquired from the White Sox and offers a solid glove in his own right. While the 28-year-old certainly doesn’t possess the same upside as Arcia, who once ranked as one of the game’s 10 to 15 top overall prospects, he’ll serve as a stopgap while Arcia seeks to remedy his swing and improve upon his plate discipline in a lower-pressure setting.
Red Sox Designate Hanley Ramirez For Assignment
10:34am: The Red Sox have formally announced the move via press release. Pedroia has been officially activated from the DL.
10:13am: In a surprising move, the Red Sox will designate first baseman/designated hitter Hanley Ramirez for assignment today in order to clear a spot on the roster for Dustin Pedroia‘s activation from the disabled list, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports.
Though the move is jarring considering the fact that Ramirez opened the season as Boston’s No. 3 hitter and showed quite well early on, he’s gone cold as of late and places some complicated financial constraints on the team. Ramirez’s contract contains a $22MM mutual option that would vest if he accumulated even 497 plate appearances this season, as MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk recently examined at greater length, and the organization surely doesn’t want that lofty salary to lock in. Keeping Ramirez on the roster but attempting to organically suppress his playing time would’ve been awkward and could have potentially even led to a grievance on his behalf if he felt the team’s motivation for keeping him out of the lineup were purely financial in nature. By cutting ties with him, albeit in surprising and abrupt fashion, the Sox spare themselves that difficult situation.
Still, such a move would’ve been virtually unthinkable not even four weeks ago. Ramirez looked resurgent early in the season, absolutely raking his way through April by hitting at a .330/.400/.474 clip as he distanced himself from last year’s shoulder woes in emphatic fashion. However, Ramirez’s bat has gone ice cold in recent weeks; he’s currently in an 0-for-21 freefall at the plate and, since the calendar flipped to May, has delivered a putrid .163/.200/.300 slash that has largely counteracted his terrific April. By measure of OPS+ (88) and wRC+ (90), his overall offensive output on the season now rates decidedly worse than that of a league-average hitter.
As with any player who has been designated for assignment, the Red Sox will have a week to trade Ramirez, place him on outright waivers or release him. Given the remaining $15.17MM on this year’s $22MM salary and that easily attainable vesting option, it’s all but certain that Ramirez will be released rather than sent elsewhere. At that point, he’d be free to sign a new contract with a new club that would only owe him the pro-rated league minimum and wouldn’t need to worry about the vesting provision in his prior agreement in Boston.
Looking ahead, the stunning decision to move on from Ramirez should lock J.D. Martinez in as Boston’s primary designated hitter and give Mitch Moreland and his superior glove regular reps at first base. The move also prolongs Blake Swihart‘s purgatorial stay in Boston, though perhaps by jettisoning Ramirez from the roster, the Sox will open up a few more opportunities to work the scarcely used former top prospect into the lineup.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Red Sox To Activate Dustin Pedroia
The Red Sox will activate second baseman Dustin Pedroia from the disabled list on Friday, manager Alex Cora told reporters this afternoon (Twitter link via Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe). While the team didn’t announce a corresponding move, Abraham notes that neither Eduardo Nunez nor Brock Holt seems to be in danger of losing his roster spot to clear way for Pedroia, based on Cora’s comments.
Pedroia, 34, has yet to take the field for the Sox this season thanks to offseason surgery to address a cartilage issue in his left knee. In his absence, Nunez has shouldered the bulk of the workload at second base, though he’s posted a disappointing .243/.261/.361 slash through 177 trips to the plate. As a whole, Boston second basemen are slashing just .241/.269/.361, so Pedroia’s return will be a welcome one, should he be able to manage anything even close to his recent levels of production at the big league level.
[Related: Boston Red Sox depth chart]
While Pedroia, of course, isn’t the superstar that he was early in his career when he won American Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player honors in successive seasons (2007-08), he’s remained a productive player throughout his early 30s, slashing .296/.360/.415 in 2195 plate appearances across the past four seasons. Last year, he slashed a roughly league-average .293/.369/.392 in 463 PAs.
It’s certainly possible that there’ll be some rust to be shaken off, as Pedroia went 1-for-14 with three walks in a minor league rehab assignment with the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket. Results aside, however, Pedroia has played consecutive days at second base on two occasions now and has clearly shown enough that the organization feels him capable of stepping back into the big league lineup. Off days may be more frequent for him early on as he eases back into the rigors of an everyday schedule, but provided his knee is indeed healthy, he should provide a notable boost to an already dangerous lineup once he gets back up to speed.
Nationals To Select Justin Miller
The Nationals are set to select the contract of veteran right-handed reliever Justin Miller prior to tomorrow’s game against the Marlins, reports Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. As Janes recently reported, the 30-year-old Miller had a June 15 opt-out provision in his minor league contract. The Nats have a vacancy on their 40-man roster at present, so they’ll need only to clear a space on the 25-man roster, which they achieved by optioning right-hander Erick Fedde back to Syracuse.
Miller enjoyed a solid season with the Rockies in 2015 (4.05 ERA, 38 strikeouts, 11 walks in 33 1/3 innings), but he has little Major League track record outside of that, owning a lifetime 4.99 ERA in 88 1/3 big league frames. That said, one would be hard pressed to suggest that the journeyman is anything less than wholly deserving a promotion to the Majors based on his utter dominance at the game’s top minor league level this season. In 13 2/3 innings with Syracuse, Miller is unscored upon and has turned in a ridiculous 23-to-3 K/BB ratio with a 45 percent grounder rate.
[Related: Washington Nationals depth chart]
Miller’s heater sat in the 93-94 mph range in his previous stints with the Rockies from 2015-16, though Janes notes that his velocity has trended up in the minors this season. And even if he’s struggled to prevent runs in the Majors to this point in his career, he’s never had much issue in the way of missing bats. Miller posted a 13.5 percent swinging-strike rate in that aforementioned 2015 season and carries a career 10.5 percent mark in that regard during his limited MLB time.
The Nats are currently carrying a seven-man bullpen, so the arrival of Miller will push the team to an eight-deep relief corps. He’ll join closer Sean Doolittle and a bullpen unit that also consists of Brandon Kintzler, Shawn Kelley, Sammy Solis, Tim Collins, Trevor Gott and Wander Suero for the time being.
White Sox Claim Dustin Garneau
The White Sox have claimed catcher Dustin Garneau off waivers from the Athletics, per a club announcement. Righty Miguel Gonzalez was bumped to the 60-day DL to create a 40-man spot.
Garneau had just been designated for assignment. Now, he’ll head to Chicago to help bolster a catching unit that just lost starter Welington Castillo for much of the rest of the season.
The 30-year-old Garneau hasn’t played in the majors this year, but has appeared in 87 games over the past three seasons. He hasn’t hit much in his limited opportunities at the game’s highest level, and is carrying a paltry .208/.263/.333 batting line in 80 plate appearances this season at Triple-A, but at times he has posted quality offensive numbers in the upper minors.