Stephen Drew To Retire
Veteran infielder Stephen Drew is hanging up his spikes, he tells Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (Twitter links). The fifteenth overall pick of the 2004 draft, Drew ended up playing a dozen seasons in the majors.
Drew was in the Nationals’ locker room this evening to visit his former teammates. He ultimately finished out his career with two years in D.C. — a strong, bounceback effort in 2016 followed by an injury-plagued final go last season.
From the time he was chosen out of Florida State University by the Diamondbacks, Drew was on a fast track to the majors. He spent nearly half of the 2006 season in the bigs, turning in a productive debut effort that preceded several years of duty as the D-Backs’ regular shortstop. Drew’s output waned at the tail end of his time in Arizona, but he finished his stint there with over three thousand plate appearances of .266/.328/.436 hitting.
Dealt to the A’s in August of 2012, after a rough start to a season in which he was returning from a major ankle injury, Drew turned in a solid effort down the stretch. That led to a one-year free-agent deal with the Red Sox. After turning in 501 plate appearances of .253/.333/.443 hitting in Boston, Drew received and declined a qualifying offer.
The ensuing winter was one of note for the still-nascent qualifying offer system. Drew and Kendrys Morales each languished on the market after rejecting their offers, with organizations balking at the cost not only of salary but also of a top draft selection. With Drew prepared to wait until the June draft, at which time he’d have been freed of the compensation rules, he went back to the Sox on another one-year contract that promised him a pro-rated portion of the QO price (then $14.1MM).
Unfortunately, Drew’s second go with the Red Sox did not go as well as the first. He ended up finishing the 2014 season with the Yankees, moving to second base and then reprising that same role for the ensuing campaign.
When Drew hit the open market in the 2015-16 winter, he was coming off of a two-year stretch in which he slashed just .185/.257/.347 in his two stops. But he picked up a reserve utility role with the Nationals — whose GM, Mike Rizzo, had been the D-Backs’ director of scouting when Drew was taken — and rewarded the club with a .266/.339/.524 batting line and eight home runs in his 165 plate appearances.
Drew says his non-playing days will begin with a gig coaching his kids. MLBTR wishes him the best of luck in that and any future endeavors.
Dodgers Sign Daniel Hudson
The Dodgers have agreed to a minor-league deal with veteran right Daniel Hudson, skipper Dave Roberts tells reporters including Pedro Moura of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Since the Rays and Pirates are already paying Hudson’s $5.5MM salary for the coming season, he’d only cost the Dodgers a pro-rated portion of the league-minimum salary in the majors. He’ll also earn $25K monthly in the minors, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter), so there’s no financial pressure. But with multiple April opt-out opportunities, Hudson can push to receive a return to the majors.
All in all, this will basically represent a free roll for a Los Angeles club that always seems to find interesting relief arms in unexpected places. Hudson had a brutal spring (during which he was traded from the Pirates to the Rays) after managing only a 4.38 ERA in 2017.
That said, there’s some reason to believe Hudson could still harness the talent that has long been evident. The two-time Tommy John recipient was healthy, showed plenty of arm speed, and also generated a solid 12.1% swinging-strike rate last season. Though he has not managed to produce consistent results, Hudson remains an interesting pitcher.
Orioles Acquire Luis Ysla From Dodgers For Jesus Liranzo
The Orioles have acquired lefty Luis Ysla from the Dodgers, per a club announcement. Righty Jesus Liranzo is heading to Los Angeles in return.
Ysla had been designated and removed from the Dodgers’ 40-man roster at the end of the 2017 season. Accordingly, the transaction will leave a MLB spot open for the O’s.
Liranzo, meanwhile, had recently been designated for assignment. He will go to the 40-man for Los Angeles, which moved righty Tom Koehler to the 60-day DL to accommodate the acquisition.
Soon turn 26, Ysla has shown his share of promise with intriguing arm strength from the left side. But he has also not yet established that he can command the ball in the upper minors. Last year, he pitched to a 5.28 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 in 58 Double-A innings.
Really, the situation isn’t all the different for Liranzo, though he is more youthful at 23 years of age and obviously held more appeal for the Dodgers. Liranzo, who was generally rated among the twenty or thirty best prospects in the Baltimore system, worked to a 4.85 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9 over 65 Double-A frames in 2017.
Brewers Sign Andres Blanco
The Brewers have agreed to a minors deal with infielder Andres Blanco, according to a club announcement. He’ll head to Triple-A to take the team’s open third base job there.
Blanco, who’ll soon turn 34, had been cut loose by the Giants at the tail end of Spring Training. He was limited during camp by injury and never got much of a shot at a fairly crowded utility infield competition in San Francisco.
Between 2014 and 2016, Blanco provided the Phillies with a surprising .274/.337/.457 cumulative batting line. But he ran into a wall in 2017, ending the year with an ugly .192/.257/.292 output in his 144 trips to the plate.
Braves Select Contract Of Anibal Sanchez, Designate Miguel Socolovich
The Braves announced on Monday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran righty Anibal Sanchez and designated right-hander Miguel Socolovich for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. Additionally, the Braves added trade acquisition Carlos Perez to the active roster and cleared room by placing righty Josh Ravin on the 10-day DL with a viral infection. The Braves acquired Perez from the Angels over the weekend in a straight-up swap for infielder Ryan Schimpf.
Sanchez, 33, will look to revitalize a career that has gone south in recent seasons. Signed to a five-year, $80MM contract by the Tigers in the 2012-13 offseason, the right-hander vastly outperformed his salary in the first two seasons of that deal, taking home an American League ERA title in 2013 and turning in a strong 2014 campaign as well. However, the final three seasons of that pact quickly turned into a disaster for the Tigers, as Sanchez’s effectiveness quickly evaporated.
From 2015-17 with the Tigers, Sanchez logged a total of 415 2/3 innings and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. The righty still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.
He’ll eventually slot into the rotation behind Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb and Brandon McCarthy and serve as a bridge to one of Atlanta’s many impressive young arms in the upper levels of the minor leagues. For now, though, Sanchez is likely to work out of the ‘pen due to the fact that Atlanta doesn’t need a fifth starter for another week or so.
Socolovich’s time with the Braves will be extremely brief. His contract was only selected this past Friday, though reports at the time even indicated that it was likely to be a short-term move. Socolovich did get into one game with the Braves, during which he tossed two perfect innings with a pair of punchouts. Prior to this abbreviated Atlanta stint, the 31-year-old spent three seasons in the Cardinals organization, totaling 66 1/3 innings of relief. With the Cards, Socolovich logged a 3.80 ERA with 7.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 44.1 percent ground-ball rate.
Mariners Outright Cameron Perkins
The Mariners announced on Monday that outfielder Cameron Perkins has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma, thus reducing the team’s 40-man roster count to a total of 38 players.
Seattle claimed the 27-year-old Perkins off waivers from the Phillies back in December. A former sixth-round pick in Philadelphia (2012), Perkins made his big league debut in 2017 but struggled through 97 plate appearances, hitting .182/.237/.273 with a homer, five doubles and 23 strikeouts against five walks. Perkins is a career .270/.323/.393 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, and he has nearly 900 innings of experience in center field — in addition to more than 1300 innings at each corner slot.
Marlins Designate Severino Gonzalez For Assignment
The Marlins announced that they’ve designated right-hander Severino Gonzalez for assignment to clear a spot on the roster for right-handed pitching prospect Trevor Richards, who will make his MLB debut and start tonight’s game against the Red Sox.
Gonzalez’s stint with the Marlins will last just one day. Miami selected his contract yesterday to provide some pitching depth, but Gonzalez didn’t get into the game and now won’t have the opportunity to do so in the near future. The Marlins will have seven days to trade Gonzalez or place him on outright waivers. Because Gonzalez has already been outrighted once in his career, he’d have the right to elect free agency if he does pass through waivers unclaimed.
The former Phillies prospect has an unsightly 6.68 ERA in 66 big league innings — albeit with a considerably more impressive 62-to-14 K/BB ratio. Gonzalez hasn’t posted especially impressive ERA marks in the minors, but he’s long displayed very strong control numbers as he’s ascended through the minor league ranks.
Both MLB.com and Baseball America ranked the 24-year-old Richards as Miami’s No. 22 prospect. In 146 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A last season, Richards worked to a pristine 2.53 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 with a ground-ball rate well north of 50 percent. Both scouting reports on Richards peg him as a consistent strike-thrower who’ll pound the zone without overpowering stuff, and each suggests that he could settle in either as a back-of-the-rotation starter or a long reliever.
Diamondbacks Outright Yasmany Tomas
April 2: Tomas has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Reno, the team announced Monday.
March 31: The Diamondbacks have placed outfielder Yasmany Tomas on outright waivers, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. The move will open up a spot on Arizona’s 40-man roster, which had been at capacity.
A former star in Cuba, Tomas has been a letdown since immigrating to the majors on a six-year, $68.5MM guarantee entering the 2015 season. With around $46MM of that money still coming his way, the 27-year-old Tomas is a strong bet to clear waivers. Given that he has three years of service time, Tomas could refuse an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but as Piecoro notes, he’s unlikely to do so because it would mean vacating the contract.
The Diamondbacks previously optioned Tomas to Triple-A entering the season, even though they had just lost starting outfielder Steven Souza Jr. to the disabled list with a pectoral strain. That was clearly a damning sign for Tomas, who has struggled mightily in both the offensive and defensive facets of the game during his Diamondbacks tenure.
While Tomas did belt 31 home runs 563 plate appearances back in 2016, he still wasn’t far above the league average as a hitter that year, evidenced by a 109 wRC+. On the whole, the right-hander has slashed just .268/.307/.462 (98 wRC+) with 48 long balls in 1,169 PAs. He has been significantly worse in the field, meanwhile, having posted minus-30 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-23.3 Ultimate Zone Rating.
Tomas’ combination of underwhelming offense and horrid defense has led to a sub-replacement level career fWAR (minus-1.4) and likely a stay in the minors for the foreseeable future.
Royals Claim Abraham Almonte, Designate Miguel Almonte For Assignment
The Royals have claimed outfielder Abraham Almonte off waivers from the Indians and designated right-hander Miguel Almonte for assignment, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Cleveland had designated the former of the two for assignment when setting its Opening Day roster.
Abraham Almonte, 28, was on the outside looking in of a jam-packed outfield mix in Cleveland. He’ll have a clearer path to playing time in Kansas City, where Jon Jay, Alex Gordon, Jorge Soler and Paulo Orlando comprise the primary outfield unit in the Majors in the wake of Jorge Bonifacio‘s 80-game PED suspension. The switch-hitting Almonte had a strong half-season showing for the Tribe in 2015 but missed half the 2016 campaign due to an 80-game PED suspension and hit just .249/.304/.384 in 389 plate appearances from 2016-17.
As for Miguel Almonte, who’ll turn 25 on Wednesday, the hard-throwing righty has long ranked as one of the Royals’ top organizational prospects, but his star has faded in recent seasons. He’s tossed 10 2/3 innings in the Majors between 2015-17, but he’s yet to establish himself at the game’s top level. Injuries have played a massive role in stalling the younger Almonte’s development. Last season, he threw just two innings with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, and Flanagan tweets today that Almonte had been ticketed for the minor league disabled list to open the season due to posterior shoulder soreness.
Orioles Trade Stefan Crichton To Diamondbacks
The Orioles announced that they’ve traded right-hander Stefan Crichton to the Diamondbacks in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Crichton was one of four right-handers designated for assignment by the Orioles on Opening Day as they created roster space for veterans Colby Rasmus, Danny Valencia, Craig Gentry and Pedro Alvarez.
Crichton, 26, debuted with the Orioles last year, though he tossed just 12 1/3 innings in the Majors. In that brief sample, he yielded 11 runs on a whopping 26 hits and four walks with eight strikeouts and a 46 percent ground-ball rate. The former 23rd-rounder did average better than 94 mph on his heater in the bigs, though, and he logged a strong 3.02 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 0.38 HR/9 in 47 2/3 Triple-A innings. He has a pair of minor league options remaining, so the D-backs can shuttle him back and forth between Reno and the Majors this year and next, if they wish, without needing to worry about exposing him to waivers.