Rangers Sign Julio Pablo Martinez
APRIL 19: Texas has formally announced the signing.
MARCH 6: The Rangers have agreed to terms with Cuban outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. The touted 21-year-old prospect, who became eligible to sign today, will receive a $2.8MM signing bonus, which will fully deplete the remainder of Texas’ 2017-18 international bonus pool.
Due to his age and lack of professional experience, Martinez was not eligible to sign as a professional. He’ll receive a minor league contract in addition to that $2.8MM bonus and join the Rangers as one of the game’s more touted prospects. Badler notes that Martinez will slot in at No. 60 overall on BA’s updated Top 100 prospect list. That places him two spots behind countryman Luis Robert, who in the final season of the 2012-16 collective bargaining agreement signed with the White Sox for a reported $26MM bonus that came with a 100 percent luxury tax under the previous international signing rules.
The discrepancy between the cost of acquisition for two somewhat comparable prospects is fairly staggering and also underscores the manner in which the latest CBA has restricted clubs from spending on amateur talent. Under the previous agreement, teams could make the tactical decision to exceed their league-allotted bonus pools by more than 15 percent in exchange for a two-year ban from signing international amateurs for anything more than $300K apiece. Many teams, including the Cubs, Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, Reds, Dodgers and Padres, among others, were willing to make that trade-off in exchange for signing splurges that completely shattered their pools but also provided an immediate talent infusion to their respective prospect pipelines.
Now, the league and union have agreed to a hard cap on international amateurs, and no club is allotted more than $5.75MM at the onset of a given international signing period. While teams can trade for up to an additional 75 percent of their initial pool allotment, the strategy of aggressive spending on the international front is not one that teams can employ anymore — at least not with the previously acceptable levels of vigor. The now-finite level of resources teams can utilize on the international market only makes those funds more coveted — particularly among rebuilding/retooling clubs.
Digression aside, the Rangers will add an athletic young center fielder to their ranks when the deal is finalized. Martinez will become the team’s third-ranked prospect, Badler notes, trailing only Willie Calhoun and Leody Taveras. The left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing Martinez hit .333/.469/.498 with six homers, 11 doubles, two triples and 24 steals (in 29 attempts) during his most recent professional effort in Cuba. More impressively, he drew 52 walks that season against just 30 strikeouts in 264 plate appearances. He also appeared in 57 games and tallied 255 plate appearances in the 2017 Can-Am Association — the same independent league that was previously home to big leaguers Chris Colabello, Andrew Albers, Craig Breslow, Steve Delabar and Tim Adleman, among others — where he hit .297/.345/.449 with seven homers and 20 steals.
Badler notes in today’s piece that Martinez’s present level of development should allow him to head to Class-A Advanced or Double-A. He’s also expanded on the talented young outfielder in a pair of prior columns — both of which those looking to learn more about Martinez will want to check out.
Braves Designate Lane Adams For Assignment
The Braves announced that they’ve designated outfielder Lane Adams for assignment. His spot on the 25-man roster will go to right-hander Matt Wisler, who has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett and will start tonight’s game in place of the injured Anibal Sanchez.
Adams, 28, has been a quality reserve outfielder in Atlanta since having his contract selected last season. Originally signed to a minor league deal in the 2016-17 offseason, Adams worked his way onto the big league roster and has since batted .270/.345/.460 in a total of 143 plate appearances. He’s also been a somewhat seldom-used piece, though, having started in just 14 of the 100 games he’s appeared as a Brave. More often than not, Adams has been utilized as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or late-game defensive replacement.
The Braves will have a week to either trade Adams or try to sneak him through outright waivers, though because he’s been outrighted previously in his career (by the Yankees in 2016), he’d have the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency anyhow. With Adams off the roster, the Braves will utilize an outfield mix of Preston Tucker, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis and Peter Bourjos for the time being, though obviously the potential promotion of top prospect Ronald Acuna is looming on the horizon.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/19/18
Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around the game…
- The Mariners have released right-hander Pat Light from Triple-A Tacoma, as Tacoma Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto tweets. The hard-throwing Light once rated among the better farmhands in the Red Sox system and was traded to the Twins in the 2016 Fernando Abad swap, but his control issues have prevented him from carving out a role in the big leagues. Light logged 16 2/3 innings between Boston and Minnesota in 2016, and while he struck out 16 batters in that time, he also issued 16 walks. Light’s strikeout rate plummeted with the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Mariners last season, and in three innings with Tacoma in 2018, he issued eight walks and hit two batters.
- The White Sox released former first-round pick Courtney Hawkins yesterday, as first tweeted by FutureSox.com. Now 24 years old, Hawkins was the 13th overall pick of the 2012 draft. The outfielder, who endeared himself to many fans with his draft-day backflip, showed promise through the Class-A Advanced level but has seen his bat stall out in several attempts in Double-A. Hawkins has spent parts of the past four seasons (including 2018) with Chicago’s affiliate in Birmingham, Ala. but has slashed just .209/.265/.355 in 1136 plate appearances there.
Mets Sign Vance Worley To Minor League Deal, Release A.J. Griffin
The Mets have signed right-handers Vance Worley and Scott Copeland to minor league contracts, as first reported at MetsMinors.net. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com adds (via Twitter) that the Mets have released fellow righty A.J. Griffin, who’d been pitching for their Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.
The 30-year-old Worley, a Wasserman client, turned in solid numbers from 2014-16 when he worked to a combined 3.38 ERA and 3.98 FIP with 6.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 269 innings between the Pirates and the Orioles. However, a 2017 stint with the Marlins yielded catastrophic results, as Worley was hammered at a .339/.408/.534 clip en route to a 6.91 ERA and 4.90 FIP in 71 1/3 innings of work. Worley had his share of misfortune in 2017, as evidenced by a career-worst .378 average on balls in play, but he also surrendered a career-worst 36 percent hard-contact rate.
Copeland is also 30 and was also with the Marlins in 2017, though unlike Worley, he spent the entirety of last season pitching at the Triple-A level and didn’t reach the Majors. Last year in New Orleans, Copeland made 26 starts and totaled 137 1/3 frames of 4.97 ERA ball, averaging 7.7 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in that time. Copeland induced plenty of grounders (54.8 percent) but also watched 20 percent of the fly-balls he allowed clear the fence for home runs (1.31 HR/9). He does have 15 1/3 innings of work at the big league level under his belt — all coming with the Blue Jays back in 2015.
Adding Worley and Copeland to the minor league ranks will replace some of the depth the Mets lost by cutting ties with Griffin. The Mets added Griffin on a minor league pact back in February, but the 30-year-old veteran was clobbered for 16 runs on 13 hits (three homers) and six walks in just three innings of work in Las Vegas. Over the past two seasons, Griffin has made 38 starts and 41 total appearances for the Rangers but limped to a 5.41 ERA and an even more troublesome 5.95 FIP in 196 2/3 innings of work.
Cardinals Promote Tyler O’Neill
April 19: The Cardinals have formally announced the promotion. Right-hander John Brebbia was optioned to Memphis in place of O’Neill.
April 18: The Cardinals plan to promote outfield prospect Tyler O’Neill, according to MLB.com’s Joe Trezza. A corresponding move is not yet known, but will occur before tomorrow’s scheduled contest.
O’Neill, who was acquired last summer in a swap that sent young pitcher Marco Gonzales to the Mariners, will receive his first shot in the majors. The former third-round pick was widely rated as one of the game’s hundred best prospects entering each of the past two seasons.
Though O’Neill only received a dozen plate appearances this spring owing to injury, he has certainly earned the chance after going on a tear to open the season at Triple-A. Over his 52 plate appearances, the right-handed hitter carries a .388/.385/.837 slash with six home runs. He carried .800+ OPS marks in the upper minors in 2016 and 2017, so there’s little left for him to show at the plate.
Of course, whether he’ll carry that productivity into the majors is the big question — as it is for any prospect. O’Neill draws walks at a decent rate but has shown some swing and miss. If he can make enough contact, O’Neill is viewed as having a chance at becoming an everyday right fielder at the game’s highest level.
It’s also not yet clear whether O’Neill is slated to receive a full opportunity to prove he belongs. He may just provide some depth while the club evaluates Tommy Pham‘s status after he experienced groin tightness in last night’s game. The Cards’ outfield mix currently includes three right-handed hitters (Pham, Marcell Ozuna, and Harrison Bader) and the switch-hitting Dexter Fowler, so there isn’t a clear opportunity in the near-term.
Regardless of how long he stays in the Majors this time around, be it for one day or for the remainder of the season, enough time has already passed that the Cardinals will be able to control O’Neill through at least the 2024 season.
*An earlier version of this post mistakenly identified O’Neill as a left-handed hitter.
Yankees Re-Sign Adam Lind
7:02pm: The Yankees have formally announced the signing.
5:04pm: The Yankees have agreed to a new minor league contract with free-agent first baseman Adam Lind, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links). Lind, who was with the club for a portion of Spring Training, is represented by ISE Baseball.
Lind, 34, was given his release by the Yankees on March 14 after it became apparent that he didn’t have a clear path to the big league roster. However, Greg Bird underwent ankle surgery shortly thereafter, and the Yankees will soon see Tyler Austin serve a suspension of up to five games following last week’s brawl against the Red Sox, though Lind may not be ready in time to help out in that regard. Cotillo adds that he’s expected to report to extended Spring Training, where he’ll ramp up in preparation after the downtime following his mid-March release.
The veteran Lind is coming off a strong season with the Nationals, having raked at a.303/.362/.512 clip and clubbed 14 homers in 301 plate appearances. He’s posted an OPS+ of 123 or better in four of the past five seasons — an ugly 2016 in Seattle being the lone exception — and batted a combined .282/.348/.473 through 2142 plate appearances in that time.
Of course, he’s not without his limitations. Lind has a disastrous .217/.263/.329 slash against left-handed pitchers over the course of 12-year MLB career and is largely limited to first base on the defensive spectrum. The Nats did trot him out to left field for 197 innings last season, though that marked his first work on the outfield grass since 2010, and he unsurprisingly did not rate well there in the estimation of defensive metrics.
Braves Promote Jesse Biddle, Place Jose Ramirez On 10-Day DL
The Braves are set to promote lefty Jesse Biddle to the big-league roster, per a club announcement. He’ll replace righty reliever Jose Ramirez, who is heading to the 10-day DL after experiencing shoulder inflammation.
It’s a long-awaited call-up for Biddle, who was selected in the first round of the 2010 draft and once regarded among the game’s hundred top pre-MLB players. Injuries disrupted his progress, however, and forced him out of the rotation.
Since landing with the Braves and working back to health, Biddle has shown well in the upper minors. He turned in 49 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball last year at Double-A, registering 9.6 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9. And Biddle was off to an excellent start in the highest level of the minors in 2018, allowing just three hits and no runs while running up eight strikeouts against a single walk in his 6 1/3 innings.
As for Ramirez, 28, this’ll be a much-needed reprieve after a brutal opening to his own season. He has also tossed 6 1/3 frames, all in the majors, but with much different results. Ramirez has not only coughed up a dozen earned runs, but has surrendered eight walks to go with his seven punchouts.
Braves Sign Jose Bautista
The Braves have announced the signing of veteran slugger Jose Bautista to a minor-league deal. Per the organization, he’ll head to extended spring camp and will line up at third base. The deal would pay him at a $1MM rate in the majors, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
While Bautista has maintained he still hoped to play in the coming season after sitting out Spring Training, this news comes as a surprise. The Braves have long been expected to fill out their outfield with top prospect Ronald Acuna, which seemed to make them an unlikely destination for Bautista.
In a twist, though, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos — who was with the Blue Jays when Bautista broke out and turned into a superstar — will give the veteran a chance to return to the hot corner at 37 years of age. Bautista certainly has spent plenty of time there, but the vast majority of his experience at third came in the distant past. Needless to say, this isn’t the third-base move that many anticipated at the start of the 2017-18 offseason.
Bautista will not only be looking to show he’s capable of returning to the infield after mostly plying his trade in the grass over the past nine seasons. He’ll also have to prove he can bounce back from a marked decline over the prior two campaigns.
Heading into the 2017 campaign, which Bautista spent with the Blue Jays after having to settle for a one-year deal in free agency, the hope was the his 2016 effort was just a blip. Bautista had experienced a big power drop, after all, but largely maintained his other-worldly plate discipline and still reached base at a healthy .366 clip.
But the most recent season did not go as hoped for the ever-confident veteran. Bautista hit 23 home runs but carried a miserable .203/.308/.366 slash in his 686 plate appearances. He also drew walks and went down on strikes at rates (12.2% and 24.8%, respectively) worse than he had since way back in 2008 — which is also the last time he spent the majority of his time at third.
It’s certainly an interesting gambit for the Braves, whose current plans at the hot corner involve riding out a Ryan Flaherty hot streak, mixing in Charlie Culberson, and waiting for Johan Camargo to return from the DL (while hoping he can repeat a surprisingly solid debut season). If Bautista can return to anything approaching the form he showed at the plate between 2010 and 2015, when he was one of the game’s very best hitters, he could boost a team that is playing solid baseball out of the gates but has cause to anticipate some regression from certain players.
Dodgers Acquire Ariel Hernandez From Reds For Zach Neal, Ibandel Isabel
The Reds and Dodgers have announced a swap that will send starter Zach Neal and first baseman Ibandel Isabel to Cincinnati. In return, the Los Angeles organization acquires recently designated reliever Ariel Hernandez.
Neal had already cleared waivers after being designated in the first week of April, so he won’t require a 40-man spot. He briefly appeared with the Dodgers after signing a minors deal in the offseason. Neal carries a 4.94 ERA with just 3.9 K/9 and 0.7 BB/9 in his 85 2/3 total MLB innings. The 29-year-old will presumably represent a depth option for the Cincinnati staff.
The Reds also pick up Isabel, a 22-year-old who has yet to move past the High-A level. He has produced some solid numbers in the low minors, though, including a .259/.327/.489 slash with 28 home runs over 492 plate appearances last year at Rancho Cucamonga. That showing did come with a rather unhealthy tally of 172 strikeouts, and the Dodgers obviously did not see cause to move him up the chain since he was back at the same level to open the 2018 season.
It’s certainly arguable that Hernandez is the most interesting player involved in this swap. He has huge stuff but hasn’t yet shown he can harness it at the game’s highest level. The Dodgers obviously are willing to place a bet that they can straighten him out. Hernandez worked to a 5.18 ERA with 29 strikeouts and 22 walks in 24 1/3 MLB innings in 2017.
Athletics Designate Trayce Thompson For Assignment
The Athletics have designated outfielder Trayce Thompson for assignment, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to tweet. His roster spot was needed with starter Trevor Cahill and reliever Lou Trivino coming to the majors.
Thompson has already bounced from the Dodgers to the Yankees and then on to the A’s via the waiver wire, so it’s possible he will again be on the move. If is not traded and clears waivers, Oakland will presumably look to stash him at Triple-A.
The 27-year-old outfielder only got into three games in his short time with the Athletics, striking out four times in his seven plate appearances. Thompson also struggled at the plate last year with the Dodgers and their top affiliate. He spent most of the year at Triple-A, where he slashed .212/.269/.363 with nine home runs in his 369 plate appearances.