Rangers Re-Sign Bartolo Colon, Trevor Plouffe
The Rangers have re-signed right-hander Bartolo Colon and infielder Trevor Plouffe to minor league contracts, according to a team announcement. Both players will report to Triple-A Round Rock.
It’s not surprising that the Rangers brought back Colon, whom they were reportedly interested in re-signing when they released him on Saturday. The accomplished and well-liked 44-year-old will serve as depth behind the starting quintet of Cole Hamels, Matt Moore, Doug Fister, Mike Minor and Martin Perez.
Plouffe, 31, looked into other opportunities after the Rangers released him from his previous minors deal last week, but he apparently came up empty in that search. Once a quality regular in Minnesota, where he combined for 5.9 fWAR from 2014-15, Plouffe’s career has taken a terrible turn in recent years. He was especially poor in 2017 between Oakland and Tampa Bay (.198/.272/.318 in 313 plate appearances), leaving him to rebuild his stock this season in the minors.
Mets Claim Bryce Brentz From Pirates
The Mets have claimed outfielder Bryce Brentz off waivers from the Pirates, Adam Berry of MLB.com was among those to report.
The 29-year-old Brentz joined the Pirates via trade with the Red Sox in February, but he didn’t last long in Pittsburgh. The club placed him on waivers this past weekend. Because Brentz is out of options, he’ll have to go through waivers again if the Mets attempt to send him to the minors. If that doesn’t happen immediately, it likely will when star outfielder Michael Conforto comes off the disabled list. Assuming the other New York outfielders stay healthy early in the season, Conforto would be part of a contingent that features other well-known names in Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce, Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares.
Although Boston chose Brentz in the first round of the 2010 draft, he has barely played in the majors thus far. He collected just 90 plate appearances with the Red Sox, in fact. The righty-swinger spent all of last season at the Triple-A level and posted a healthy .271/.334/.529 line (138 wRC+) with 31 home runs in 494 plate appearances.
Phillies Release Cameron Rupp
The Phillies have released catcher Cameron Rupp, per a team announcement. They’ll save around $1.5MM in cutting Rupp, Matt Gelb of The Athletic notes. Rupp would have earned $2.05MM had he made the team.
Philadelphia has elected to open the season with Andrew Knapp as the backup to starting catcher Jorge Alfaro, which helped lead the club to designate Rupp for assignment on Sunday. The Phillies apparently couldn’t find a taker for Rupp via trade, but he could encounter interest on the open market at a minimum salary. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that Rupp had piqued the Rangers’ interest, and he suggested on Monday that they could pursue him on the open market. It’s worth noting, then, that Rupp is a Dallas native.
Rupp’s next team will be getting a 29-year-old who has taken 1,127 trips to the plate in the majors and slashed .234/.298/.407 (86 wRC+). Defensively, Rupp has struggled in the pitch-framing department, especially in 2017, but he has thrown out a solid 31 percent of would-be base stealers since debuting in the league in 2013.
Phillies Sign Alexi Amarista
The Phillies have announced the signing of infielder/outfielder Alexi Amarista to a minor league contract. He’ll head to minor league camp with his new club.
The addition of Amarista should help make up for the loss of fellow utilityman Ryan Flaherty, who opted out of his minors pact with the Phillies last week and then signed a major league deal with division-rival Atlanta. Amarista, meanwhile, exited the Tigers last week after a failed bid to earn a big league spot with them.
A veteran of the Angels, Padres and Rockies, Amarista has never posed a threat offensively since debuting in 2011. That was again the case last year as a member of the Rockies, with whom Amarista hit .238/.269/.351 (45 wRC+) in 176 trips to the plate. He did line up at every outfield spot and three more in the infield (second, short and third), however.
Despite his defensive versatility, the 28-year-old Amarista seems like a long shot to make an impact in Philly. The team just added highly touted prospect Scott Kingery to its roster Sunday, and he’s likely to move all around the diamond. Kingery’s part of an impressive array of starting-caliber position players in Philly, which also has Pedro Florimon and Roman Quinn as infield/outfield types on its 40-man roster.
Rays To Release Dan Jennings
The Rays will release left-handed reliever Dan Jennings, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. In doing so, they’ll pay one-fourth of Jennings’ $2.375MM salary (~$584K), a non-guaranteed arbitration award.
The Rays finished slightly below .500 last year (80-82), but they were in the playoff hunt in July, which led them to trade first base prospect Casey Gillaspie to the White Sox for Jennings. Despite both that decision and Jennings’ productive career to this point, he wasn’t able to earn a spot in Tampa Bay this season. The Jennings-less Rays will go forward with Jose Alvarado and Ryan Yarbrough as the only lefty relievers on their 40-man roster.
Jennings, who will turn 31 next month, debuted with Miami in 2012 and has since thrown a combined 279 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball with the Marlins, White Sox and Rays. While Jennings’ strikeout and walk rates haven’t been pretty (7.31 K/9, 4.09 BB/9), he has managed to induce ground balls at a 55.2 percent clip. And since 2015, Jennings has been among the game’s most effective relievers at generating infield pop-ups, having done so at a 15.8 percent rate – good for 15th in the league. Adding to his appeal, Jennings has been roughly as effective against both right- and left-handed hitters. He has a small reverse platoon split, in fact, as lefties have posted a .690 OPS against him and righties have logged a .687 mark.
Padres Outright Carter Capps
Padres reliever Carter Capps has been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso after clearing waivers, according to a team announcement. The move frees up a spot on the Padres’ 40-man roster.
Earlier in his career, the right-handed Capps looked like one of the game’s next great relievers. He was electrifying across 31 innings with the Marlins in 2015, when he recorded a 1.16 ERA/1.10 FIP with a ridiculous 16.84 K/9 against 2.03 BB/9. Capps then had to undergo Tommy John surgery prior to the 2016 campaign, keeping him out that entire year, and his career hasn’t gotten back on track since.
In July 2016, when he was recovering from surgery, the Marlins traded Capps to the Padres in a seven-player deal that also involved the likes of Andrew Cashner and now-Red Luis Castillo. Capps returned to the mound with the Padres last season, but the near-invincibility he showed in 2015 wasn’t on display. Thanks in part to a significant drop in velocity, Capps yielded nine earned runs on 12 hits and two walks, with just seven strikeouts, in 12 1/3 innings. He then underwent another serious procedure, thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, in late September.
Capps returned to action this spring and struggled again, allowing four earned runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. While Capps didn’t walk anyone, he only fanned four. Now, given that there aren’t any MLB teams that believe this version of Capps is worthy of a 40-man spot, he’ll have to rebuild his stock in the minors.
Mariners Re-Sign Hisashi Iwakuma To New Minor League Deal
The Mariners released right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma from the minor league contract he signed over the winter and immediately re-signed him to a new one, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. The club made the move to avoid paying Iwakuma, an Article XX(B) free agent, a $100K retention bonus. As was the case with his previous pact, Iwakuma’s new deal comes with a $2.5MM salary if he makes the majors and a chance at $6MM in incentives.
The 36-year-old Iwakuma has spent his entire major league career with the Mariners since leaving his native Japan prior to the 2012 season. Iwakuma has enjoyed a terrific career in Seattle, where he has pitched to a 3.42 ERA/3.87 FIP across 883 2/3 innings, but whether he’ll continue to be effective is in question. Right shoulder problems limited Iwakuma to six starts in 2017, when he posted a 4.35 ERA/6.42 FIP in 31 innings, leading the Mariners to decline his $10MM club option in favor of a $1MM buyout early in the offseason.
Iwakuma’s still on the mend from the arthroscopic shoulder surgery he underwent in September, so there’s no chance he’ll make it back to a big league mound during the first month of the season. When the Mariners re-signed Iwakuma in late November, the hope was that he’d be healthy enough to return to the majors by May or June. He’s seemingly on track to do that, as TJ Cotterill of the Tacoma News Tribune wrote over the weekend.
“This guy is far from done,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre told Cotterill.
If Iwakuma ultimately does rejoin the Mariners and perform well, it would be a significant gain for a team with some question marks in its rotation. Ace James Paxton, former ace Felix Hernandez and the steady Mike Leake represent a capable trio (though durability issues have beset Paxton and Hernandez in recent years), but the M’s don’t have any other proven MLB starters on their 40-man roster.
Pirates Place Jordan Milbrath, Jack Leathersich On Waivers
The Pirates have placed right-hander Jordan Milbrath and lefty Jack Leathersich on waivers, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
As a Rule 5 draft pick, the Pirates will have to offer Milbrath back to his previous organization, the Indians, if no one claims him on waivers. If a team does claim the 26-year-old Milbrath, it must commit to carrying him on its 25-man roster. Otherwise, he’d head back to the waiver wire and would have to be offered to Cleveland upon clearing.
The side-arming Milbrath struggled in camp during his spring training stint as a member of the Pirates, with whom he allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits and eight walks (with eight strikeouts) in 8 1/3 innings. He fared much better than that last year, which he divided between the Indians’ High-A and Triple-A affiliates, with a 3.02 ERA and 10.0 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9 in 56 2/3 innings.
Leatherich, 27, joined the Pirates last September after they claimed him from the division-rival Cubs. He then got into six of the Pirates’ games, working 4 1/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts against two walks. Overall, Leathersich has tossed 16 2/3 frames of five-run ball in the bigs since debuting with the Mets in 2015. However, he hasn’t been nearly that effective over a much larger sample of work at the Triple-A level, where he has offset a sky-high strikeout rate (14.5 per nine) with an ugly walk rate (6.9) en route to a 4.68 ERA in 100 innings.
Nationals Re-Sign Jeremy Hellickson To New Minors Deal
The Nationals have made a pair of on-paper transactions involving Jeremy Hellickson, as they released the right-hander from his original minor league deal and then re-signed him to a new contract with the same terms, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. The move was made to avoid paying Hellickson a $100K retention bonus that was due to him as an Article XX(B) free agent. Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post reported on Saturday that the two sides had previously agreed to this arrangement.
Hellickson has only been in camp with the Nats for a little over a week, and has thrown only four innings of work this spring. Beyond just saving the $100K, then, the Nationals obviously wanted more time to stretch Hellickson out and properly gauge whether he could be a factor in their rotation plans. A.J. Cole is slated to work as Washington’s fifth starter for now, though the club has amassed some young and veteran depth options (Hellickson, Erick Fedde, Austin Voth, Edwin Jackson, Tommy Milone) in the minors and as non-roster invitees to Spring Training. There has been some speculation that Cole will eventually be moved into a long relief or spot starter role once Hellickson is fully ramped up.
As per the terms of both the old contract and the new, Hellickson will earn $2MM if he makes the big league roster, and he can earn up to $4MM more in incentives. The deal gives Hellickson an opt-out clause on May 1 if he hasn’t already made the Nats’ 25-man roster, and he will receive further opt-out opportunities every 15 days thereafter.
Hellickson, who turns 31 on April 8, is looking to rebound from a rough 2017 season that saw him post a 5.43 ERA, 5.3 K/9, and an ugly 1.9 HR/9 over 164 innings with the Phillies and Orioles. While homers had always been something of an issue for Hellickson throughout his career, he had never allowed more than 25 in a single season before surrendering 35 long balls last year. Never a big strikeout pitcher, Hellickson’s swinging-strike rate dropped to only 8.3% in 2017, and he also saw spikes in his contact rates and a drop in his ground-ball rate. Still, Hellickson put up solid numbers as recently as 2016, so there’s still hope that he could revive his fortunes with a change of scenery.
Diamondbacks Designate Chris Herrmann For Assignment, Select Jorge De La Rosa’s Contract
The Diamondbacks have designated catcher Chris Herrmann for assignment, as per a team press release. In a corresponding move, the team also selected the contract of left-hander Jorge De La Rosa.
Herrmann enjoyed something of a breakout season in part-time action with Arizona in 2016, when he hit .284/.352/.493 over 166 plate appearances with the team. He was a particularly valuable part-time piece due to his ability to not just work behind the plate, but also to play some corner outfield if need be, not to mention a couple of games each in center field and first base. Unfortunately for Herrmann, his production took a big step backwards last season with just a .181/.273/.345 slash line over 256 PA, though a .207 BABIP certainly may have contributed to that dropoff.
With Alex Avila signed as the new regular catcher and Jeff Mathis still in the mix for backup duty, Herrmann become an expendable piece for the D’Backs. Though the club regularly used three catchers last season, John Ryan Murphy looks like the top choice for that role, perhaps due to his lower price tag. Herrmann avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.3MM with the D’Backs for 2018, though since arbitration salaries aren’t guaranteed, the team would only owe Herrmann 30 days’ worth of termination pay (just under $227K) if the catcher was released before Opening Day.
De La Rosa posted a 4.21 ERA, 7.9 K/9, and 2.14 K/BB rate over 51 1/3 innings for Arizona last season, his first full year as a relief pitcher. While it could be something of a waste using a durable former starter as a specialist, De La Rosa had such enormous splits last season (left-handed batters hit just .192/.253/.292 slash line against De La Rosa in 79 PA, while right-handed batters hit .262/.362/.458 against him in 140 PA) that the D’Backs could be well-advised to at least limit his exposure against righty-swingers. With Andrew Chafin and T.J. McFarland also projected to serve as left-handed options in the Snakes’ bullpen, the club has some flexibility to be creative with how it deploys its southpaw relief corps.
By making the Opening Day roster, De La Rosa will now earn $2.25MM in base salary, as per the terms of his minor league contract with the D’Backs. Another $600K is available in bonus money.