Angels To Sign Chris Carter
The Angels have agreed to a minor league deal with first baseman Chris Carter, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. He’ll rake in $1.75MM if he makes the Angels’ roster and could earn up to $600K in incentives, Jon Heyman of FanRag reports.
The 31-year-old Carter could provide the Angels a replacement for fellow first baseman C.J. Cron, whom they traded to the Rays on Saturday. But Carter will have to spend the next several weeks rebuilding his stock in camp after he fared horribly in the majors with the Yankees last season. The powerful Carter hit just .201/.284/.370 with eight home runs and a .168 ISO over 208 appearances with New York before the club jettisoned him. Carter then caught on with Oakland on a minor league pact, but he didn’t return to the majors with the A’s. He instead took 154 PAs at the Triple-A level and batted .252/.357/.511.
Of course, the righty-hitting Carter isn’t far removed from leading the National League in home runs (41) as a Brewer in 2016, so he could emerge as a quality buy-low pickup for the Angels. While Carter has always been prone to strikeouts (he owns a career 33.3 percent K rate) and low batting averages, his .217/.312/.456 line across 2,853 big league PAs has still been 9 percent better than average, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric (Cron has been 7 percent above in 1,475 PAs). Carter’s power (.239 ISO, four seasons with at least 24 HRs) and patience (11.5 percent walk rate) are to thank for that.
In the event Carter does find his way to Anaheim, he’ll join a team whose first base/designated hitter options were among the majors’ worst last year. Albert Pujols and Luis Valbuena are the Halos’ most prominent holdovers at those positions from 2017, and they’ve since added DH candidate/potential ace Shohei Ohtani.
White Sox Outright Dylan Covey
The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Dylan Covey to Triple-A Charlotte, thus opening up a spot on their 40-man roster, James Fegan of The Athletic reports on Twitter.
A fourth-round pick of the A’s in 2013, Covey spent the first few years of his professional career in Oakland’s system before joining the White Sox in the December 2016 Rule 5 draft. The 26-year-old Covey ended up playing a fairly prominent role in Chicago last season, but he struggled mightily in his first taste of major league action.
Across 70 innings (18 appearances, 12 starts), Covey logged a 7.71 ERA/7.20 FIP with 5.27 K/9 and 4.37 BB/9. While Covey did keep the ball on the ground at a respectable clip (48.5 percent), the fly balls he allowed tended to lead to disaster. In fact, he surrendered 2.57 home runs per nine – the worst mark on the team and the third-worst figure in the majors among those who amassed at least 70 frames.
Red Sox Re-Sign Eduardo Nunez, Designate Ben Taylor
Veteran infielder Eduardo Nunez is headed back to the Red Sox, the team announced Sunday. Nunez has agreed to a one-year deal with a player option — essentially, then, a two-year guaranteed contract with opt-out — and will reportedly be guaranteed $8MM on the deal. Right-hander Ben Taylor was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, per the team.
The 30-year-old Nunez will be guaranteed $4MM in each season of the deal and can reportedly boost his 2019 base salary by $250K for each of his 250th, 300th, 350th and 400th plate appearance in 2018. He can further boost his 2019 salary by $250K by reaching each of those plate-appearance-based incentives again in the 2019 campaign. The 2019 player option comes with a $2MM buyout, so Nunez can earn up to $6MM this season if he re-enters the market next winter.
Nunez has long been mentioned as a target for the Sox, who could use the depth in the infield and are especially interested in finding a fill-in for the still-recovering Dustin Pedroia. While there’s some optimism that the team’s long-time second baseman won’t miss an extended period to open the year, he has been banged up a fair amount in recent seasons. Plus, the organization is also preparing to rely on the relatively unproven (but plenty talented) Rafael Devers at third.
Though Nunez has spent most of his career elsewhere, he made an impression during his stint in Boston after arriving in a trade deadline swap from the Giants. Nunez posted a robust .321/.353/.539 batting line with eight home runs in 173 plate appearances after the deal.
Unfortunately, Nunez was limited by a knee injury that ended up requiring a lengthy rehab period. Indications are, though, that he’s back to full strength as Spring Training gets underway.
Clearly, nobody will expect Nunez to continue producing like a middle-of-the-order slugger. But he has unquestionably raised expectations for the offensive side of his game after a tepid showing to start his career. Since the beginning of the 2015 season, Nunez owns a strong .296/.332/.443 slash.
The other elements of Nunez’s game are worth noting, too. He has also swiped 72 bags over the past three seasons and generally grades as a quality baserunner. And while he has never graded as a particularly good defender, he is capable of palatable handling of any infield position and has also spent some time in the corner outfield.
In his new deal with the Sox, then, Nunez can reliably be asked to handle second base early in the season while Pedroia is on the shelf before then returning to a utility role. That’s of additional importance given the yet-unproven presence of Devers at the hot corner; while the former top prospect impressed in his half-season debut in 2017, he’s yet to log a full season in the Majors and did cool after a hot start to his career. Nunez gives the Sox a plenty serviceable option at third base, should the need ever present itself.
The 26-year-old Taylor, meanwhile, was a seventh-round pick of the Red Sox in 2015. He saw his first major league action last season and tossed 17 1/3 innings of 5.19 ERA, notching 9.35 K/9, 4.67 BB/9 and a paltry 26.4 percent ground-ball rate along the way. Taylor was more successful in his Triple-A debut in 2017, albeit over an even smaller sample (13 1/3 frames), as he worked to a 2.70 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 3.38 BB/9 and a 45.5 percent grounder mark.
An earlier version of this post mistakenly suggested that Nunez had undergone surgery on his knee.
MLB.com’s Ian Browne first reported that there was momentum toward a deal (via Twitter). Robert Murray of Fan Rag reported the agreement (also via Twitter). Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston reported the structure of the deal and the incentives breakdown (Twitter links). FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported the specifics on his yearly salaries and opt out (Twitter link).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Twins Acquire Jake Odorizzi
The Twins have acquired right-hander Jake Odorizzi from the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter link). Shortstop prospect Jermaine Palacios is going back to the Rays in return, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports. Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported earlier tonight that the two clubs had agreed to some sort of a trade. In a corresponding move, Michael Pineda has been placed on the 60-day DL to create space for Odorizzi on the Twins’ roster.
Odorizzi has been widely mentioned in trade rumors this winter, with such teams as the Orioles, Brewers, Yankees, Angels, Phillies, and Nationals also noted as having some interest in his services. It’s probably fair to assume that just about every team in baseball with a need for starting pitching checked in on Odorizzi given his solid track record and his two remaining years of control. Odorizzi recently defeated the Rays in an arbitration hearing and will earn $6.3MM in 2018, making him a particularly affordable asset for a smaller-market team like Minnesota. The Rays and Twins had been talking pitching deals for much of the winter, with Minnesota focusing on both Odorizzi and Chris Archer, who carried a significantly higher asking price due to his team-friendly contract and four years of control.
[Updated Twins and Rays depth charts on Roster Resource]
Minnesota has been connected to virtually every available pitcher in the sport on both the trade and free agent fronts this winter, and in Odorizzi, the Twins have landed an arm that could be on the mound for them come Opening Day. Rotation help was a key need for a Twins team that had a lot of youth and question marks beyond Ervin Santana, and even his frontline status took a hit with the news that Santana will miss some time at the start of the season due to finger surgery. Odorizzi and Jose Berrios will now sit atop the Twins’ rotation until Santana returns, with Adalberto Mejia and Kyle Gibson lined up for jobs, Tyler Duffey and Anibal Sanchez battling for a fifth starter’s role and Phil Hughes also expected to return at some point during the season after recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.
There’s still a lot of uncertainty within that pitching mix, and it isn’t out the question that the Twins make another pitching acquisition (a signing or another notable trade) to further supplement the rotation. Conversely, the club could just make another depth signing or two, such as another veteran like Sanchez on a minor league contract.
More pitching reinforcements could be an option for Minnesota because it can’t be ignored that Odorizzi’s performance took a big step backwards in 2017. He was limited to 143 1/3 IP due to two separate DL stints for hamstring and back problems, and he posted a 4.14 ERA, 2.08 K/BB rate, and 7.97 K/9. While these numbers seem solid, ERA predictors (5.43 FIP, 5.10 xFIP, 4.90 SIERA) had a much more pessimistic view of Odorizzi’s performance, as a .227 BABIP likely helped keep his actual ERA in check. While he delivered a career-best 11.2% swinging-strike rate, Odorizzi also delivered the worst hard-hit ball (36.8%), home run rate (15.5%) and BB/9 (3.83) numbers of his four full MLB seasons. Baseball Reference actually judged Odorizzi as below-replacement level (-0.1 bWAR) last season, while Fangraphs rated him barely higher with 0.1 fWAR.
Since Odorizzi has been the subject of trade speculation for well over a year now, Tampa Bay could well face criticism that they waited too long to move the righty, especially given the fact that Palacios is a fairly lightly-regarded prospect within Minnesota’s farm system. ESPN’s Keith Law ranked the infielder 24th on his list of Twins prospects, with MLB.com rating Palacios 27th amongst Minnesota farmhands. The 21-year-old Venezuela native was signed in 2013 and he has a .290/.345/.426 slash line over 1303 pro plate appearances, 263 of those PA coming at high-A ball last season. MLB.com’s scouting report described him as “an offensive-minded middle infielder whose bat is a little bit ahead of his glove….He has some potential at the plate to hit for average and good extra-base pop.” Palacios’s defense got solid reviews, though the assumption was that he would eventually have to change positions due to the number of other good shortstops ahead of him in the Twins’ system; the same could be true for him in Tampa given Willy Adames‘ rep as the Rays’ shortstop of the future.
Between the Odorizzi deal and designating Corey Dickerson for assignment earlier tonight, the Rays have now moved roughly $11.2MM off their books, and that number could jump to $12.25MM if another team claims Dickerson or makes a trade for his services. With their projected payroll still in franchise-high territory even after those moves and the Evan Longoria trade, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the likes of Denard Span, Alex Colome, Brad Miller, Adeiny Hechavarria, and the newly-acquired C.J. Cron all shopped before Opening Day.
Even without Odorizzi, however, the Rays still boast a pretty strong pitching staff — Archer, Blake Snell, Jake Faria, Matt Andriese, and Nathan Eovaldi are the projected starting five, with top prospect Brent Honeywell waiting for a call-up at Triple-A. Some more work is likely necessary for the lineup and bullpen, however, and it will be challenging to both save dollars and add enough talent to remain competitive in a tough AL East.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Rays Acquire C.J. Cron, Designate Corey Dickerson
The Rays have acquired first baseman C.J. Cron from the Angels for a player to be named later, both teams annonuced. In a surprising corresponding move, Tampa also announced that outfielder Corey Dickerson has been designated for assignment to create roster space.
Cron had been noted as a potential trade candidate for much of the winter, especially after the Angels signed Shohei Ohtani and Zack Cozart. Ohtani’s presence in the DH mix meant more planned first base time for Albert Pujols, and Cozart’s installation as the everyday third baseman left Luis Valbuena floating between third and first. With Cron’s departure, the Halos can now use Pujols at DH and Valbuena at first base, with Pujols shifting to first a couple of times per week to give Ohtani a chance to hit. Jefry Marte is also on hand as inexpensive corner infield depth.
“With the construction of our roster and the personnel we have in place for this upcoming season, we have to place a premium on flexibility and maneuverability within our position player group,” Angels GM Billy Eppler told reporters, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Cron is only a first baseman and was out of options, leaving him the odd man out on a three-man Angels bench (necessitated by the likelihood of the team carrying 13 pitchers).
Never quite a regular in the Angels lineup over his four MLB seasons, Cron has hit .262/.307/.449 with 59 homers over 1475 career plate appearances. As per Fangraphs’ wRC+ metric, Cron has created seven percent more runs (107 wRC+) than the average hitter over that same stretch, despite a lack of on-base ability. He is also something of a reverse-splits hitter from the right side of the plate, with a career .772 OPS against right-handers and only a .716 OPS against southpaws.
[Updated Angels and Rays depth charts at Roster Resource]
These splits make Cron a something less-than-ideal platoon partner with Brad Miller, the Rays’ incumbent first baseman, given the left-handed Miller’s struggles against same-sided pitching. Cron could receive regular duty as either a first baseman or a designated hitter, though the Rays would have to be confident that Cron’s 2017 season (the worst of his career) was just an aberration due to foot injuries. Cron did increase his hard-hit ball rate to a career-best 35.8% last season, though his main issue was simply making putting the bat on the ball at all, as evidenced lowered contact rates and a career-worst 25.7% strikeout rate.
Perhaps the bigger headline here is that the Rays are prepared to entirely cut ties with Dickerson, who made the AL All-Star team just last summer. Dickerson hit .282/.325/.490 with 27 homers over 629 PA in 2017, though the large majority of that damage came in the first half of the season. Dickerson posted a .903 OPS in 370 PA before the break, and only a .690 OPS in 259 PA after the break. That dropoff notwithstanding, Dickerson was a 2.6 fWAR player last season, posted respectable defensive numbers in left field (+4.5 UZR/150, -1 Defensive Runs Saved), is still just 28 years old and is under team control for two more seasons.
As always with the Rays, financial elements played a key role. It was widely expected that the Rays were going to cut payroll this winter, with Dickerson and the team’s other priciest arbitration-eligible players standing out as the likeliest candidates to be traded. (Not to mention the Rays moving their biggest contract in Evan Longoria.) Dickerson is slated to earn $5.95MM in 2018 after avoiding arbitration with the team, while Cron is set to earn $2.3MM in 2018 and has two more arb-eligible years before reaching free agency after the 2020 season.
Dickerson’s salary is not guaranteed since he is an arbitration-eligible player, so the Rays would only owe him 30 days’ worth of termination pay if he ends up being released after the 10-day DFA period. A team that claims Dickerson or works out a trade with the Rays during the next 10 days would take on his full $5.95MM salary. If the Rays were willing to go to this extent to unload Dickerson’s salary, it wouldn’t be a shock to see other players (perhaps Miller or Adeiny Hechevarria, not more valuable trade chips like Jake Odorizzi or Alex Colome) also let go before their arbitration salaries become guaranteed.
Under normal circumstances, you’d think Dickerson would draw a lot of interest from several teams, though his market could be somewhat muted given the large number of power bats still available on the free agent market. One can assume the Rays have been shopping Dickerson for much of the winter and couldn’t find any takers, though it’s possible any interested teams could also swoop in now they could simply claim him without having to give up anything in return. A team could also hope that nobody else acquires Dickerson over the 10 days in the hopes of signing him to a cheaper contract.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/17/18
The latest minor league deals from around the sport…
- The Dodgers have inked right-hander Justin De Fratus to a minors deal, with the pitcher revealing the signing himself via his Instagram page. De Fratus is looking to make it back to the majors for the first time since 2015, when he posted a 5.51 ERA over 80 relief innings for the Phillies. The advanced metrics (4.28 FIP, 4.46 xFIP, 4.03 SIERA, .335 BABIP) paint a more forgiving portrait of that performance, and De Fratus has been a very solid reliever in his previous 114 innings out of the Phils’ bullpen dating back to 2011.
- The Marlins signed Eric Campbell to a minor league deal earlier this month, MetsMerized Online’s Jacob Resnick reports (via Twitter). Campbell signed with NPB’s Hanshin Tigers last offseason but only ended up playing 21 games in Japan. An eighth-round pick for the Mets in the 2008 draft, Campbell spent his entire North American pro career in New York’s organization, including 196 games at the big league level in 2014-16 that saw him hit .221/.312/.311 over 505 plate appearances.
Phillies Sign Fernando Abad
1:35pm: Abad’s deal comes with a $2.5MM salary if he makes the Phillies, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (Twitter link). Cotillo confirms that Abad could earn up to $3.1MM, as Heyman reported earlier.
8:10am: Abad has until March 22 to earn a spot on the Phillies’ roster, Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com reports. The deal includes a mutual option for 2019, Sanchez adds (Twitter link), which Heyman tweets is also for a potential $2.5MM.
7:48am: The Phillies have reached an agreement with left-handed reliever Fernando Abad, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag. Abad will receive a non-roster invitation to spring training, as Craig Mish of MLB Network Radio first reported, and will have a chance to earn $3.1MM if he makes the Phillies, per Heyman (Twitter links).
The 32-year-old Abad will join a Phillies relief mix which is light on lefty options, evidenced by the fact that Adam Morgan is the sole southpaw in the club’s projected season-opening bullpen. Abad may stand a solid chance to make the team, then, and if he does, he’ll bring a respectable track record to Philadelphia. The former Astro, National, Athletic, Red Sox and Twin has pitched to a 3.65 ERA with 7.68 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 40.7 percent groundball rate across 317 2/3 major league innings. Abad has limited same-handed hitters to a subpar .234/.287/.383 line along the way.
Abad was effective in 2017, his only full season in Boston, where he logged a 3.30 ERA with 7.63 K/9, 2.89 BB/9 and a personal-high 45 percent grounder rate over 43 2/3 frames. He was also tough on both righties (.250/.312/.384) and lefties (.224/.288/.348), though the majority of his work (34 innings) came in low-leverage situations.
Dodgers Re-Sign Chase Utley
SATURDAY: The Dodgers have announced the signing.
TUESDAY, 7:45pm: Utley’s deal will be for two years and $2MM when it becomes official, tweets Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times.
3:43pm: Utley has agreed to a two-year contract to return to the Dodgers, Heyman now tweets. Certainly, the multi-year deal comes as a bit of a surprise, given his age, though it seems likely to come at a relatively modest annual rate.
10:22am: There’s a deal in place, per Heyman (via Twitter).
10:14am: The Dodgers appear to be closing in on a deal to bring back infielder Chase Utley for another run with the organization. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reported last night that the sides were engaged in serious talks, while MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick tweets that Utley appears to have a locker set up at the team’s spring facility, lacking only a nameplate.
All indications of late have been that the 39-year-old would repeat his turn as a platoon piece. At this point, it seems only a matter of time before things are formalized.
If the sides do indeed wrap up a deal, Utley will presumably spend most of his time spelling the right-handed-hitting Logan Forsythe at second base. Long a high-end everyday player, Utley’s productivity had understandably waned with age. He was effective in a surprisingly robust 2016 season, over which he took 565 plate appearances, but slid into a part-time role last year.
Los Angeles skipper Dave Roberts was exceedingly careful both to limit the wear and tear and to deploy Utley against right-handed pitching last year. Utley saw time in 127 games but tallied only 353 plate appearances, as the Dodgers sought to utilize him in advantageous situations. He batted .236/.324/.405 with eight homers on the season as a whole, though he strode to the plate against lefties on just 28 occasions.
In each of the past two years, Utley has delivered just-below-average overall offensive output, with successive 96 wRC+ efforts. He still grades as a quality baserunner and average defender even as he closes in on his fortieth birthday. Clearly, part of the math here for the Dodgers is Utley’s oft-lauded, hard-nosed veteran presence.
Scooter Gennett Defeats Reds In Arbitration
Infielder Scooter Gennett has won his arbitration case over the Reds, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets. The ISE Baseball client will earn $5.7MM in 2018, as opposed to the $5.1MM the Reds proposed. Gennett’s arbitration case was the last of the offseason across Major League Baseball. The players came out on top in 12 of 22 decisions.
The victory for Gennett comes in the wake of a career year, his first with the Reds. Cincinnati claimed Gennett off waivers from the NL Central Brewers in late March, and the move paid off handsomely for the Reds. Playing his age-27 season, the lefty-hitting Gennett, a Cincinnati native, slashed a terrific .295/.342/.531 with 27 home runs and a .236 ISO across 497 plate appearances. Four of those homers (and 10 of his 97 runs batted in) came on a historic June 6 for Gennett, who enjoyed the game of his life in a 13-1 romp over the Cardinals.
Thanks in part to that performance against St. Louis, Gennett will make substantially more this year than the $2.525MM he earned last season. Gennett’s controllable through 2019, so he could be a Red for at least two more seasons, though it’s conceivable he’ll emerge as a trade chip for the rebuilding club. For the time being, Gennett’s likely to continue occupying second on a regular basis for the Reds, who have younger options behind him in Dilson Herrera and touted prospect Nick Senzel.
Diamondbacks, Jorge De La Rosa Agree To Minor League Deal
SATURDAY: De La Rosa will earn $2.25MM if he makes the Diamondbacks’ roster, Piecoro reports. He’ll also have a chance at up to $600K in bonuses.
FRIDAY: Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa appeared in the Diamondbacks clubhouse this morning, per multiple reporters at their spring facility in Arizona, indicating that the two sides had likely agreed to a reunion. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets that the D-backs have indeed worked out a minor league pact with De La Rosa to bring him back to the organization. He’s represented by TWC Sports.
De La Rosa, 37 in April, spent his first full season as a reliever with the D-backs in 2017, working to a 4.21 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.23 HR/9 and a 45.2 percent ground-ball rate in 51 1/3 innings. While it may not be especially predictive, De La Rosa thrived when coming into tight situations, allowing just one of the 33 runners he inherited to cross home plate. He also held left-handed opponents to a putrid .192/.253/.292 slash in 79 plate appearances, thought righties posted a hefty .262/.362/.458 line against him over a larger sample.
Prior to his work as a reliever, De La Rosa was arguably the most consistent starter in Rockies history, tossing 1141 1/3 innings with a 4.35 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 from 2008-16. He seems likely to work out of the ‘pen again in Arizona, given a full starting rotation consisting of Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, Patrick Corbin, Zack Godley and Taijuan Walker. But, De La Rosa could conceivably provide some depth this spring should an injury pop up.
At present, Andrew Chafin is the clear top lefty in the D-backs’ bullpen. De La Rosa will vie for a role as a second or third southpaw option for second-year manager Torey Lovullo, competing alongside 40-man options T.J. McFarland and Jared Miller as well as fellow non-roster veteran Antonio Bastardo.