Indians Claim Jack Leathersich, Trade Rob Refsnyder To Rays
The Indians announced a series of moves this afternoon, including a claim of lefty Jack Leathersich from the Pirates. (The @RedSoxStats Twitter feed was first to report the claim earlier today.) A 40-man spot for Leathersich was opened by shipping infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder to the Rays in exchange for cash.
In other news, Cleveland announced that righty Jordan Milbrath — who was taken in the Rule 5 draft in December — was returned by the Pirates after clearing waivers. Finally, veteran infielder Adam Rosales is joining the Indians on a minors deal.
Refsnyder was out of options, and thus the Tribe at least managed to get some money back for him rather than simply losing the utilityman if exposed to waivers. Refsnyder had been battling for a backup infield job in camp, though it appears Erik Gonzalez has won that role. Cleveland looks to be carrying five outfielders, with right-handed hitters Rajai Davis and Brandon Guyer (if healthy) balancing out lefty-swingers Lonnie Chisenhall, Tyler Naquin, and Bradley Zimmer, with Michael Brantley eventually joining the mix once he returns from the disabled list.
Once a well-regarded prospect in the Yankees’ system, Refsnyder has yet to produce much over parts of three MLB seasons, with just a .233/.306/.311 slash line over 320 career plate appearances. He can offer a versatile glove capable of playing second base, first base, and both corner outfield slots, so he gives Tampa Bay another multi-position bench option next to Daniel Robertson. The Rays had been looking for a right-handed outfield bat, so Refsnyder fills that need, even if he has yet to display much hitting stroke as a big leaguer.
Rosales was recently released from a minor league deal with the Phillies and it didn’t take him long to catch on elsewhere, as Cleveland will replace Refsnyder with a more experienced utility infielder. Rosales has extensive work at all four infield spots (plus the odd appearance in left field) over his 10 seasons and 638 big league games. This versatility has helped Rosales stick around in the Show despite a lack of hitting (.227/.292/.365 slash line over 1786 PA), though he did burst out for 13 homers and an .814 OPS over 248 PA with the Padres in 2016.
Pittsburgh placed Leathersich on waivers yesterday, as he may have been an expendable piece in a Pirates bullpen that already includes Steven Brault and Josh Smoker tossing from the left side, plus Kevin Siegrist in camp on a minor league deal. Leathersich joined the Bucs via a waiver claim off the Cubs’ roster last September, appearing in six games wearing the black-and-gold. The 27-year-old southpaw has a 2.70 ERA in 16 2/3 Major League innings, and both his brief MLB stint and his much more expansive sample size of 278 1/3 minor league IP exhibit indicate a penchant for racking up big totals in both the strikeout and walks departments.
Milbrath was also waived along with Leathersich yesterday, and as per the regulations of the Rule 5 Draft, the righty had to first be offered back to his original team (Cleveland) after other teams had passed on claiming the 26-year-old. A 35th-round selection for the Tribe in the 2013 draft, Milbrath has a 4.33 ERA, 7.8 K/9, and 2.02 K/BB rate over 405 1/3 career innings in the minors, cracking the Double-A level in each of the last two seasons.
Diamondbacks Outright Albert Suarez
The Diamondbacks outrighted right-hander Albert Suarez after he cleared waivers, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic reports on Twitter. He has accepted the assignment, per the report.
Suarez was selected in the Rule 5 draft from the Giants in December. He did not have to be offered back to the San Francisco organization, though, owing to the fact that he had previously been outrighted.
For Arizona, the result is the chance to hang onto the out-of-options Suarez at Triple-A as depth when the season gets underway. Suarez has some MLB experience, having thrown 115 2/3 innings of 4.51 ERA ball over the past two seasons. He allowed nine earned runs on 15 hits and five walks while recording ten strikeouts in his 12 1/3 innings this spring.
Mariners To Sign Jayson Werth
The Mariners have agreed to a minor-league deal with outfielder Jayson Werth, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). Potential salary terms are not yet known.
Werth will open his time with the Seattle organization in extended spring camp, per Divish. It seems likely he’ll report to Triple-A Tacoma from there.
The 38-year-old, 15-season MLB veteran, found little interest on the market this winter. It’s still a bit curious that he waited until camp finished to take a deal, though that’s perhaps subject to multiple possible interpretations.
It has been a few years since Werth was a productive major-league hitter. He turned in a quality three-year stretch for the Nationals between 2012 and 2014, but has been a .233/.322/.402 hitter ever since. While he still runs the bases rather well, Werth isn’t much of a defender at this stage.
Werth has also dealt with quite a few injuries in recent seasons. Perhaps, though, he could still provide some value in a part-time role. There isn’t a terribly clear path even to a bench spot at the moment with the M’s, but the club already made a late move to add the ageless Ichiro Suzuki and does have some potential uncertainty in the outfield mix.
Twins Outright Kennys Vargas
The Twins have announced that first base/DH Kennys Vargas was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He did not have the choice of refusing the assignment.
Vargas was re-claimed recently from the Reds. The Cincinnati organization had snagged the power hitter off waivers and attempted to stash him on the farm and off the 40-man roster.
In the end, the result is as if Vargas had simply cleared waivers the first time around. He’ll head to Triple-A Rochester to open the season. The switch-hitter really does not have anything left to prove in the upper minors, but he’ll need to await a new MLB opportunity.
Over four seasons in the majors, Vargas carries a .252/.311/.437 slash with 35 long balls in 859 plate appearances. In his 764 trips to the plate at the highest level of the minors, he’s a .248/.370/.444 hitter with thirty bombs and 123 walks against 181 strikeouts — quite a different plate discipline mix than the 29.2% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate Vargas has in the majors.
Reds Outright Justin Nicolino
The Reds announced today that lefty Justin Nicolino has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He had recently been claimed from the Marlins.
In the end, then, the Cincinnati organization was able to grab and stash the 26-year-old, who’ll add to the team’s collection of youthful pitching depth. Nicolino obviously won’t factor into the immediate plans at the MLB level, but he’ll presumably have a chance to build innings and challenge for a place in the pecking order with a team that could well end up with a lot of chances available in the majors.
Nicolino has surrendered 4.65 earned runs per nine over his 201 1/3 MLB innings to date, all of which have come with Miami over the past three years. He has managed only 86 strikeouts in that span. While Nicolino has generated plenty of grounders and harmless infield flies in the minors, he has not excelled particularly in either area in the majors.
Diamondbacks To Extend Ketel Marte
TODAY: The deal is now official.
YESTERDAY, 4:26pm: Zach Buchanan of The Athletic has tweeted the full breakdown. Marte will receive a $2MM signing bonus and $1MM salary for the coming season, followed by $2MM, $4MM, $6MM, and $8MM salaries through the guaranteed seasons (2019-22).
The options are valued at $10MM and $12MM, each of which come with a $1MM buyout. Incentives (details of which remain unknown) could tack on another $4MM overall.
11:41am: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a five-year, $24MM extension with middle infielder Ketel Marte, Robert Murray of FanRag reports. The deal also comes with a pair of option years worth a combined $22MM, which could make it a seven-year, $46MM pact. Marte is a client of the Legacy Agency.
The Diamondbacks already had Marte under control for the next half-decade, including four arbitration-eligible years, but the extension means they won’t go through that process at all with him. The Phillies made a similar decision Sunday when they signed infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery to a five-year, $24MM guarantee of his own.
The 24-year-old Marte is about to begin his second season in Arizona, which acquired him from Seattle in a blockbuster November 2016 trade. Because the deal also featured Taijuan Walker, Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger, Marte flew under the radar at the time, especially after enduring a rough 2016 with the Mariners. Marte impressed his new team last year, however, even though he didn’t post eye-popping offensive numbers in the majors.
After spending nearly the first three months of 2017 at the Triple-A level, where he raked over 338 plate appearances (.338/.391/.514 – good for a 135 wRC+), the Diamondbacks promoted Marte in late June. The switch-hitter went on to bat .260/.345/.395 (89 wRC+) with five home runs and three stolen bases in 255 PAs. To his credit, Marte collected nearly as many walks (29) as strikeouts (37), and as Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs wrote in December, there’s data suggesting he could be in line for a breakout. Marte was somewhat of a Statcast darling last year, evidenced by his 19th-place ranking in sprint speed and a quality xwOBA (.342).
While Marte’s only a .265/.319/.361 hitter (84 wRC+) with eight homers and 22 steals in 968 major league PAs, the D-backs seem optimistic he’s indeed capable of more in their uniform. And they saw him fare nicely in the field last season, where he logged four Defensive Runs Saved and a 1.1 Ultimate Zone Rating in 507 innings at shortstop. Marte’s now likely to give up short in favor of Nick Ahmed, a gifted defender who missed most of last season, and move to second. It’ll be a relatively new position in the bigs for Marte, who hasn’t lined up at the keystone since logging 31 innings there as a rookie in 2015.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres Release Chris Young
Veteran right-hander Chris Young has been released by the Padres, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). Young triggered his opt-out rights after learning that he would not be added to the Opening Day roster.
The Pads had given Young a long look as a rotation candidate this spring, but ultimately decided against keeping the 38-year-old. He had been slated to earn a $1MM base salary in the majors, with a hefty potential incentives package that included up to an additional $6MM more.
Young had been hoping to bounce back with the Pads after a pair of miserable seasons. He has already shown he can be useful in his late thirties, with two sturdy campaigns in 2014 and 2015, but has stumbled to a 6.52 ERA in his 118 2/3 frames since the start of 2016. This spring, he recorded 15 strikeouts against four walks in his 14 1/3 innings, but also coughed up four dingers and a dozen earned runs.
San Diego’s decision to keep reliever Adam Cimber left no space in the bullpen and created additional 40-man roster pressure, leaving Young on the outside looking in. Presumably, he could still rejoin the organization on another minors deal if he’s unable to find a better situation elsewhere.
The decision means we won’t see Young pitch for the Padres for the first time since 2010. But it could suggest that another old favorite, Tyson Ross, will earn his way back onto the team after also joining as a non-roster player. Ross, whose career dove when shoulder issues arose, has reputedly looked good this spring and has allowed only five earned runs in his 15 Cactus League frames.
Minor MLB Transactions: 3/26/18
We’ll use this post to run down the day’s minor moves:
- After being designated for assignment yesterday, catcher Chris Herrmann was released by the Diamondbacks, per a club announcement. The 30-year-old won’t get a chance to prove he can return to the strong batting output he produced in 2016 — at least in Arizona. That effort earned Herrmann a career-high 256 plate appearances last season, but he managed only a .181/.273/.345 batting line. He has, however, enjoyed a solid spring, swatting two long balls and carrying a .300/.324/.567 slash in 34 Cactus League plate appearances.
- The Nationals have brought back Alejandro De Aza on a minor-league deal after releasing him to avoid the necessity of a $100K retention bonus, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Soon to turn 34, De Aza is at this point mostly an organizational depth piece, though he has at times in the not-so-distant past been a significant contributor at the MLB level. Indeed, he carries an approximately league-average overall offensive line through nearly three thousand major-league plate appearances, most of which have come since the start of the 2012 season. De Aza played only briefly in the majors last year with the Nats and hit .280/.368/.403 in his 212 Triple-A plate appearances.
- Also re-signing after being released was infielder Gordon Beckham, who’ll head to the minors with the Mariners, per Cotillo (via Twitter). The 31-year-old had a torrid spring but, like De Aza, has generally been on the downswing of late after receiving quite a lot of opportunities earlier in his career. Until last year, Beckham had played in at least 88 MLB contests annually since cracking the majors (despite minimal minor-league seasoning) in 2009. But his chances, which were already on the decline, largely petered out in 2017, as he made it into just 11 games in the majors. In his 355 plate appearances at Triple-A in the Mariners organization, Beckham posted a .262/.313/.393 batting line.
- The Diamondbacks have sent outfielder Ramon Flores to the Red Sox, Cotillo also tweets. It is not apparent what Arizona is getting back in return, or whether Flores might even be the PTBNL in the recent swap between the teams. Either way, it’s a minor transactions. Flores signed a minors deal with Arizona and has struggled this spring. He carries only a .204/.281/.256 slash line in 331 plate appearances, but has generally hit well at Triple-A. Last year, Flores hit .312/.409/.460 with ten home runs and 68 walks against 70 strikeouts in his 493 trips to the plate at the highest level of the minors.
Giants To Designate Jarrett Parker, Select Derek Holland
The Giants have designated outfielder Jarrett Parker for assignment, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). His roster spot was needed for the addition of lefty Derek Holland, who’ll make the rotation after signing over the winter as a minor-league free agent.
Parker, 29, has seen 382 total MLB plate appearances over the past three seasons and generally acquitted himself well. He has also been rather productive at the highest level of the minors and had a strong showing this spring, with a .220/.333/.561 slash (though also twenty strikeouts in his 48 plate appearances).
Still, the Giants elected to risk losing Parker rather than carrying him on the Opening Day Roster. It seems the organization will instead keep veteran Gregor Blanco as its lone left-handed-hitting outfielder to open the season, unless it goes instead with youngster Steven Duggar.
As for Holland, it has been clear for some time that he was destined to earn a job in San Francisco this year. As the Giants lost several rotation pieces, Holland worked 15 solid spring innings, over which he allowed seven earned runs and recorded 18 strikeouts against five walks. He’ll earn a $1.5MM salary with as much as $2.5MM more in incentives.
Brewers Release Yovani Gallardo
The Brewers have released veteran righty Yovani Gallardo, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (via Twitter). He’ll be owed $500K under the partially guaranteed MLB contract he agreed to over the winter.
This move had been expected, as the club determined over the weekend that Gallardo would not be on the Opening Day roster. That made it all but certain that the reunion would be short-lived between Gallardo and the organization he pitched for from 2007 through 2014.
Still, there had been at least some belief that he might end up being moved in trade. Instead, Gallardo will head back onto the open market in search of a new organization.
Gallardo, 32, was long an effective rotation piece. But he has struggled badly over the past two seasons. Injury certainly played a role, and Gallardo lost about a full tick on his heater in 2016. But even in a 2017 season in which he recovered some of that lost velo and revived his swinging-strike rate to its highest level since 2011, Gallardo limped to a 5.72 ERA in 130 2/3 innings by surrendering a career-high 1.65 homers per nine.
While the recent signs aren’t all that promising, the Brewers obviously felt Gallardo was worth at least a partial commitment. He was not particularly effective this spring, allowing seven earned runs in 13 1/3 innings while recording a 12:8 K/BB ratio, but may yet find a MLB opportunity to open the season. If not, odds are that Gallardo will be an in-demand depth piece.