Yankees Sign David Hale
The Yankees have signed righty David Hale to a minors pact, per a club announcement. He’ll report to the team’s top affiliate.
With the signing, Hale will return to the place (Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) that he opened the 2018 season. He has completed a brief tour of the majors since, appearing both for and against the Yankees over an eventful ten day stretch.
Hale, 30, owns a 4.56 ERA in his 183 2/3 career MLB innings. Most of those, however, came back in 2014-15. He has mostly worked in the upper minors since. In 81 2/3 total innings last year with the Dodgers organization, Hale carried a 4.08 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and just 1.5 BB/9.
Twins Place Miguel Sano On DL, Designate Dietrich Enns
The Twins have announced a series of roster moves today. Star third baseman Miguel Sano is heading to the 10-day DL with a hamstring strain, with infielder Gregorio Petit replacing him on the active roster after his contract was selected.
To create a 40-man opening, the Minnesota organization has designated southpaw Dietrich Enns for assignment. The club also announced that previously DFA’ed righty Tyler Kinley, a Rule 5 pick, has been returned to the Marlins.
The Twins had hoped to avoid a DL stint for Sano. After all, the last thing the team needs is another key player out of action. But his injury evidently did not improve enough to forestall the placement.
Petit, 33, is obviously not going to make up for the loss of Sano’s power bat in the lineup. The veteran utilityman has compiled only a .249/.291/.353 lifetime slash in 426 MLB plate appearances. But he’ll help round out the roster for at least a few days’ time.
As for Enns, who is nearing his 27th birthday with just four MLB frames under his belt, it seems the Twins were not optimistic that he’d be a notable contributor in the near term. Acquired from the Yankees in last summer’s Jaime Garcia deal, Enns had worked to a 4.50 ERA with as many strikeouts as walks (11 each) in his twenty Triple-A frames this year. He has previously produced outstanding results in the minors, though evidently teams do not quite anticipate him carrying that effectiveness into the majors.
Royals Release Clay Buchholz
The Royals have released righty Clay Buchholz from his minor-league deal, per a club announcement. He had been pitching in the minors in hopes of earning a call-up to the MLB roster after signing late in Spring Training.
Buchholz, 33, would have earned at a $1.5MM annual rate had he cracked the MLB roster. The contract also came with $250K in available incentives and a May 1st opt-out date.
Clearly, the Royals decided against bringing the veteran hurler onto the major-league roster. Buchholz, in turn, evidently felt he could find greater opportunity with another organization. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of opportunities he fields now that he’s back on the open market.
Buchholz, who has certainly had his fair share of success at the game’s highest level, has produced good results in the upper minors thus far. He has worked 16 innings over three starts, permitting just two earned runs on ten hits. But he’s also carrying a middling 9:7 K/BB in that stretch, and Rustin Dodd of The Athletic tweets that the team has “seemed less bullish about his stuff” over time.
Braves Promote Mike Soroka
The Braves have promoted top pitching prospect Mike Soroka to take the ball in tonight’s contest, per a club announcement. Though Soroka had to be added to the 40-man roster, there were openings available.
In a corresponding move that was completed yesterday, righty Chase Whitley was optioned to open a spot on the active roster. The Braves still have eight arms available in the pen.
Soroka, 20, entered the season as one of the game’s most-hyped pitching prospects. By consensus, he placed among the game’s top thirty-five or so pre-MLB players. Baseball America is among the most bullish outlets on the young righty, ranking him 27th on its board.
Thus far, Soroka has done nothing but increase the anticipation with his first four starts at the Triple-A level. In 22 2/3 innings this season for Gwinnett, he sports an attractive 1.99 ERA wih 9.5 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. He’s also drawing grounders on an eye-popping 69.0% of the balls put in play against him.
Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to be a Braves fan. The organization is off to a nice start and has already welcomed top overall prospect Ronald Acuna, who has knocked the cover off the ball early on.
Now, the club will get a look at perhaps its most exciting young arm. The 28th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Soroka has breezed through the Braves’ system. While he has not typically carried his current strikeout or groundball rates over full seasons, all the tools are there for a front-of-the-rotation starter.
It’s worth noting, too, that Soroka ought not to face many restrictions on his workload this year. He threw 143 frames in 2016 and 153 2/3 last year at Double-A, so he should be clear to handle about as many as the team likes in 2018. If he can hold down a MLB roster spot the rest of the way, Soroka would put himself on course to reach arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2020 season. Regardless, he cannot pass six years of major-league service until after the 2024 campaign, at the earliest.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/1/18
Here are some recent minor moves from around the game:
- The Rockies announced Monday that right-hander Zach Jemiola cleared waivers yesterday and has re-signed a new minor league deal with the club. Jemiola, 24, was a ninth-round pick of the Rockies back in 2012 but found himself protected from the Rule 5 Draft after turning in a pair of solid seasons in A-ball and Double-A, respectively, in 2015 and 2016. Jemiola faltered with a 6.48 ERA in 93 innings last season, however, though he did turn in a solid showing in the Arizona Fall League (2.74 ERA, 19 strikeouts, nine walks in 23 innings), perhaps creating additional optimism that he can yet be a contributor for the Rox at the big league level. Now on a new minor league contract, he’ll return to the only organization he’s known and serve as continued depth for the organization.
- Lefty Jack Leathersich will remain with the Indians after clearing waivers and being outrighted, the club announced. Though the 27-year-old has shown he can get swings and misses from major-league hitters, he has also struggled to control the number of walks he issues. Both aspects of the southpaw’s game have been on display early in 2018, as he compiled a 10:7 K/BB ratio in six innings at Triple-A. That showing caused the Cleveland organization to bump him from the 40-man roster, but also helped get him through waivers after he had been claimed several times previously.
Twins To Promote Fernando Romero
Twins skipper Paul Molitor announced today that the club would promote top pitching prospect Fernando Romero to join the rotation, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN was among those to tweet. He’ll take the ball on Wednesday night.
Romero, 23, has steadily moved up the ladder since entering the Twins’ system in 2012. He cracked the top-100 prospect lists of MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus entering the current season, following a year in which he threw 125 innings of 3.53 ERA ball, with 8.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 along with a 52.0% groundball rate, at the Double-A level.
The results have continued into the 2018 season, as Romero has now held opposing teams to a 2.57 earned run average through 21 frames in his first few outings at the Triple-A level. He’s continuing to get plenty of groundballs with his high-velocity sinker, though his 20:10 K/BB ratio isn’t exactly scintillating and may hint at the need for further refinement of his slider and change.
Some prospect hounds see some risk in Romero’s profile, particularly as to whether he’ll have long-term health issues and/or whether he’ll stick in the rotation. For now, though, they’ll bet on his talent with the organization badly in need of a shot in the arm after a 9-14 start to the season.
Fellow righty Phil Hughes will be bumped into a relief role to accommodate Romero’s move into the rotation, though a roster move has yet to be announced. Hughes was knocked around in two poor starts to open the year, and is coming off of two consecutive poor and injury-plagued seasons, so he’ll look to get back on track in the bullpen.
David Hale Elects Free Agency
The Twins announced Monday that righty David Hale cleared outright waivers after last week’s DFA and rejected an assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency. He’ll hit the open market in search of a new club after extremely brief stints with the Yankees and Twins thus far in 2018.
Hale, 30, signed a minor league pact with the Yankees over the winter and headed to Triple-A to open the season. After 14 2/3 innings there with a 5.32 ERA but a much more encouraging 10-to-2 K/BB ratio and 50 percent grounder rate, New York selected his contract to add some length to a depleted bullpen. He tossed two shutout innings for the Yankees but was designated for assignment anyhow, only to be claimed by the Twins and subsequently tagged (by the Yankees) for four runs in three innings of relief.
In all, Hale has totaled 183 2/3 innings at the big league level, most of which came with the Braves and Rockies. In that time, he’s posted a 4.56 ERA with 6.1 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 51.9 percent ground-ball rate. Though he doesn’t miss many bats, Hale has done a good job in terms of limiting hard contact (career 27.1 percent). He’s worked as both a starter and a reliever and has a minor league option remaining, so he could provide some depth for a club with more 40-man roster flexibility than either the Twins or Yankees has to offer at present.
Danny Espinosa Opts Out Of Blue Jays Deal
10:25am: Espinosa exercised an opt-out clause in his contract with the Jays, tweets Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.
8:25am: Veteran infielder Danny Espinosa has been released by the Blue Jays organization, per an announcement from Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo.
The 31-year-old Espinosa opened the 2017 season at the big league level with the Angels but has since bounced to four other organizations in that time. He saw brief stints in the Majors with both the Mariners and Rays (eight games apiece) before season’s end in 2017, and he was with the Yankees in Spring Training before being granted his release and latching on with the Jays on a minor league pact.
Espinosa has had a rough start to the Triple-A season with the Bisons, hitting .232/.271/.286 with 15 strikeouts against three walks in 60 trips to the plate. That inauspicious slash comes on the heels of a combined .197/.286/.344 batting line in 896 plate appearances at the big league level across the 2016-17 seasons.
Though the past couple years have been a struggle at the plate for the switch-hitter, he’s long carried a strong defensive reputation and is capable of playing both middle-infield spots. He’s also just a season removed from slugging 24 homers for the Nationals in 2016, indicating that there’s still some pop in his bat.
Toronto’s offseason pickups of Yangervis Solarte, Aledmys Diaz and Gift Ngoepe created plenty of middle-infield competition within the organization, and the promotion of international signee Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to the Majors only further impeded Espinosa’s path to a potential roster spot. He’ll now look to latch on with what will somewhat remarkably be his sixth organization of the past calendar year — presumably one with lesser middle-infield depth than the Jays have at present.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/30/18
Here are Monday’s minor moves from around the game, all courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy, unless otherwise noted…
- The Blue Jays have released southpaw Chad Girodo from their Triple-A affiliate. Once considered one of the more promising bullpen arms in Toronto’s system, the lefty made his MLB debut in 2016 when he tossed 10 1/3 innings with a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio and a 69.4 percent ground-ball rate en route to a 4.35 ERA. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster that year. Girodo, now 27, turned in a 3.02 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.57 HR/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate in 47 2/3 Triple-A innings last year. He’s served up three homers in 3 2/3 innings to open the 2018 campaign in Triple-A, though.
- The Reds parted ways with left-handed reliever Dean Kiekhefer, releasing him from their Double-A club. The 28-year-old tossed 22 innings at the big league level with the Cardinals in 2016, working to a 5.32 ERA with 14 strikeouts against seven walks (four intentional) and two hit batters in that brief time. Kiekhefer landed with the Mariners via waivers in the 2016-17 offseason but was outrighted off their 40-man roster shortly thereafter. Last year, he logged a 4.47 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9 and a 46 percent grounder rate in Triple-A. He opened the season with eight innings of one-run ball in the Cincinnati organization, albeit at the Double-A level.
Braves Release Peter Bourjos
APRIL 29: The Braves have released Bourjos, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets.
APRIL 25: The Braves announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Peter Bourjos for assignment. His roster spot will go to Ronald Acuña Jr., whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Gwinnett. Acuña will make his MLB debut tonight.
Bourjos, 31, has a longstanding reputation as a premium defensive outfielder but has struggled at the plate in recent seasons. The 2018 campaign was no exception, as Bourjos got off to a 3-for-25 start to the season, with a pair of walks against seven strikeouts through a total of 27 plate appearances. He latched on with the Braves on a Major League contract late in Spring Training after being cut loose by the Cubs, with whom he’d been playing on a minor league deal.
Atlanta will have a week to trade Bourjos, run him through outright waivers or simply release him. If he clears outright waivers, he’d have the option to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, given that he has seven-plus years of MLB service time — well north of the minimum three he’d need to exercise that right. Considering the crowded outfield situation with the Braves with Acuna, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis and Preston Tucker all on the big league roster, it’s quite possible that the veteran Bourjos looks to find another opportunity with an organization that has a less-solidified mix of outfielders in the Majors.