Tigers Sign Travis Wood To Minor League Deal
The Tigers announced Monday that they’ve signed left-hander Travis Wood to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Wood was released by the Padres earlier this offseason. He’s represented by Frontline.
Wood, 30, signed a two-year, $12MM contract with the Royals last winter but struggled enormously both in Kansas City and in San Diego this past season. The former Cubs lefty posted an ERA north of 6.70 with both teams last year, working to an overall 6.80 ERA with 6.2 K/9, 4.3 BB/9 and a 1.8 HR/9 mark in 94 innings. He’s still owed $6.5MM in 2018, but the Royals agreed to pay the entirety of that sum when he was traded to San Diego, so Wood represents a lottery ticket for a Tigers staff that could use him in either the rotation or bullpen if he shows signs of returning to form in Spring Training.
Brutal as his 2017 campaign was, it wasn’t that long ago that Wood was an effective big league arm. From 2015-16, Wood totaled 161 2/3 innings with a 3.51 ERA, 9.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 between nine starts and 122 relief appearances for the Cubs. Overall, he logged a 3.94 ERA in just shy of 700 innings in parts of five seasons in Chicago. For a Tigers club that is short on depth in both the rotation and the bullpen, Wood is a reasonable enough roll of the dice.
The Tigers’ rotation currently projects to contain Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd, Jordan Zimmermann and Mike Fiers, though Wood could certainly seize a spot in the event of an injury or some early struggles from the yet-unproven Norris and Boyd. In the bullpen, manager Ron Gardenhire has lefties Daniel Stumpf, Blaine Hardy and Jairo Labourt to choose from, but Wood can certainly push that trio for innings if he shows well in Grapefruit League play.
Rockies Sign Brooks Pounders To Minor League Deal
The Rockies announced a host of invitations to Major League Spring Training on Monday, including a new minor league contract with right-hander Brooks Pounders.
Pounders, 27, has appeared for the Royals and Angels in the past two seasons, totaling a combined 23 innings but struggling to a dismal 9.78 ERA in that time. The former second-round pick has logged an impressive 25-to-8 K/BB ratio in that time, but he’s an extreme fly-ball pitchers (29.9 percent ground-ball rate, 51.9 percent fly-ball rate) and has been tattooed for a whopping 10 homers in his brief MLB tenure (3.9 HR/9).
A former second-round pick (Pirates, 2009), Pounders has posted markedly better numbers in parts of three Triple-A seasons. In his time at the minors’ top level, he’s worked to a tidy 2.94 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 131 2/3 innings. He’ll have a crowded bullpen picture to try to crack thanks to Colorado’s offseason signings of Wade Davis, Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw, but he’ll provide the team with some depth it can stash in the upper minors should injuries thin out the big league club.
Brewers Agree To Terms With Matt Albers
12:02pm: Nicholson-Smith tweets that Albers will have a $2.5MM base salary in each season of the contract, and his incentives begin kicking in with his 35th appearance. He’d max out his incentives by appearing in 65 games in each season of the contract.
11:50am: The Brewers and free agent righty Matt Albers have reached an agreement on a two-year deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Albers, a client of SSG Baseball, will be guaranteed $5MM on the contract and can earn another $1MM each year based on total appearances, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (Twitter link). The deal is pending a physical.
Albers, who turned 35 last week, was the most consistent member of the Nationals’ bullpen in 2017, pitching to a pristine 1.62 ERA with 9.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.89 HR/9 and a 51 percent ground-ball rate through 61 innings of work. It represented a terrific bounce-back campaign for Albers, who’d limped to a 6.31 ERA in 51 1/3 innings with the White Sox in 2016.
There are, it should be noted, some indications that Albers had his share of good fortune in 2017, as well, though. His 8.7 percent swinging-strike rate was below the league average and not what one would expect from a pitcher that whiffed better than a batter per inning — a feat he’d achieved in only one season prior to 2017 (with the Red Sox way back in 2011). Albers also benefited from a minuscule .203 BABIP, though while that mark is in for some regression, the extent of said regression may not be as great as one might think at first glance.
Albers posted a hefty 15.9 percent infield-fly rate in 2017, and his batted-ball profile was among the most encouraging of any reliever in the game. Albers allowed a measly 22.8 percent hard-hit rate against him, which was the third-lowest mark in MLB among qualified relievers. He also induced 30.9 soft-contact rate, which was good for the fourth-best in the bigs.
Since establishing himself as a regular big league reliever back in 2009, Albers has been a rather durable asset, appearing in 55+ games in seven of those nine seasons. He was limited to 37 1/3 innings in 2015, though that year was truncated by a broken finger rather than any sort of arm injury. Shoulder trouble kept him out of action for all but 10 innings of the 2014 season, but that’s been the only instance of a notable arm injury keeping him on the shelf for a prolonged period in nearly a decade’s time.
[Related: Updated Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]
Albers won’t factor into the closing mix in Milwaukee, where Corey Knebel is fresh off a breakout season in which he stepped into the spotlight as one of the game’s top strikeout artists. However, the veteran Albers will join lefty Boone Logan as a newly signed addition to manager Craig Counsell‘s relief corps, where he’ll pair with Jacob Barnes, Jeremy Jeffress and Josh Hader to help bridge the gap from the team’s rotation to Knebel at the end of the game.
It’s been an aggressive week for Milwaukee, of course, as GM David Stearns and his staff have also signed Lorenzo Cain and pulled off a blockbuster to acquire Christian Yelich within the past four days alone. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio gave signals over the weekend, too, that the Brew Crew still has the payroll capacity to add a top starting pitcher if Stearns & Co. feel the right deal presents itself.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 1/28/18
We’ll use this post to keep track of today’s smaller-scale MiLB transactions…
- The Cubs have signed first base/outfield type Efren Navarro to a minors deal, Anthony Fenech of Baseball America tweets. He’ll also receive a spring training invite. The Angels originally drafted Navarro in the 50th round of the 2007 draft, but his most recent MLB action came with the Tigers last season. During that campaign, he hit .230/.319/.377 while striking out a whopping 30.4% of the time across 69 plate appearances. If there’s any reason for optimism regarding Navarro, it stems from his 11.6% walk rate last season, which is a considerable improvement upon that during his time with the Angels (around 8%). The 31-year-old has also spent time in the upper minors of the Cardinals’ and Mariners’ farm systems.
Phillies Sign Francisco Rodriguez To Minor League Deal
The Phillies have signed reliever Francisco Rodriguez to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of FanRag reports (Twitter links). Rodriguez will make $2.5MM plus incentives if he earns a spot on Philadelphia’s roster.
The 36-year-old K-Rod brings 437 career saves and a lifetime 2.86 ERA to the table, though he’s now forced to rebuild his stock after a disastrous 2017 in which he managed the worst velocity of his career. In 25 1/3 innings with the Tigers, Rodriguez pitched to an unsightly 7.82 ERA despite passable strikeout and walk rates (8.17 K/9, 3.91 BB/9). A career-low groundball rate (30.1 percent) and home run issues (3.2 per nine) helped lead to Rodriguez’s undoing in Detroit, which released him in late June. Rodriguez caught on with the Nationals a few days later, though the organization cut him in mid-July after he totaled a mere five innings in its minor league system.
Although last year was a nightmare for Rodriguez, he’s not far removed from a quality 2016 campaign in which he logged a 3.24 ERA over 58 1/3 innings with the Tigers. That season also saw Rodriguez register the highest grounder rate of his career (54.7 percent) and convert 44 of 49 save opportunities.
Rodriguez recently topped out at 93 mph while throwing for scouts, easily trumping last year’s high-80s and leading to offers from the Phillies and other clubs, per Heyman. If those gains stick, Rodriguez could emerge as a useful piece for a Phillies team whose bullpen welcomed a pair of pricey free agents – Pat Neshek and Tommy Hunter – earlier this winter.
Brewers Release Wei-Chung Wang To Pursue KBO Opportunity
TODAY: NC Dinos has announced the signing (hat tip to MyKBO’s Dan Kurtz). Wang will receive $900K, with $200K coming in the form of a signing bonus.
YESTERDAY: The Brewers have cleared a spot on the 40-man roster by granting left-hander Wei-Chung Wang his release, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The move also creates a roster spot for Lorenzo Cain, who was re-introduced to Milwaukee at a press conference earlier today.
Wang will be pursuing an opportunity with a team in the Korea Baseball Organization. Sung Min Kim of River Ave. Blues recently tweeted that Wang had agreed to a deal with the NC Dinos. He’ll be the first Taiwanese-born pitcher to appear in the KBO, Kim adds.
Wang, 25, was originally signed by the Pirates back in 2011 but wound up in the Brewers organization via the 2013 Rule 5 Draft. Milwaukee carried him for the entire 2014 season despite the fact that he’d never pitched above the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Unsurprisingly, the lefty didn’t fare well in limited action that year, pitching to a 10.90 ERA in just 17 1/3 innings of work.
Though he didn’t return to the Brewers’ big league team until 2017 (when he tossed just 1 1/3 innings), Wang pitched quite well at Triple-A over parts of three seasons. Despite pitching his home games in an extremely hitter-friendly setting (Colorado Springs), Wang posted a 2.73 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9 through 89 innings across parts of three seasons for the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate.
Minor MLB Transactions: 1/26/18
Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the league…
- Chris Cotillo of SB Nation has the news of yet another minors deal, this time a pact between the Twins and Andy Wilkins. The lefty-hitting first baseman has 72 plate appearances and one homer to his name at the big league level (with the White Sox and Brewers), though his career .124/.194/.224 slash line perhaps paints a better picture of his MLB performance thus far. And yet, taking into consideration the 29-year-old’s .254/.358/.474 performance with the Twin’s Double-A affiliate last year, there might still be cause for optimism surrounding his potential to provide value for Minnesota.
Earlier…
- The Cubs have elected to bring left-hander Michael Roth to the organization on a minor-league deal, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports (Twitter link). Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports tweets that Roth will be paid a $560K salary if he’s able to crack their big-league roster. The former ninth-round pick is entering his age-28 season; he’s made 22 total MLB appearances out of the bullpen for the Rangers and Angels, along with a single start for the latter. He owns a career ERA of 8.50, though run-prevention estimators such as xFIP (4.46) and SIERA (4.04) suggest his actual skill set isn’t quite in line with those disastrous results. Roth has also spent time at the Triple-A affiliates of the Rays, Giants and Indians.
- The Indians announced that they’ve signed right-hander Preston Claiborne to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training. The 30-year-old Claiborne tossed two innings for the Rangers in 2017 and has a total of 73 1/3 innings of Major League work under his belt — all but last year’s two innings coming with the Yankees in 2013-14. The former 17th-round pick has a career 4.05 ERA with 7.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 42.7 percent ground-ball rate. Claiborne owns a lifetime 3.09 ERA in 102 Triple-A innings, including a stellar 1.89 mark in 38 innings ith the Rangers’ affiliate last season.
- The Rays have agreed to minor league deals with catcher Johnny Monell and righty Forrest Snow, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Monell, 32 in March, has 61 MLB plate appearances on his resume, most of which came with the 2015 Mets when he hit .167/.231/.208. He’s a career .278/.350/.460 hitter in part of five Triple-A seasons. Snow, 29, has never appeared in the Majors and carries a lackluster 4.84 ERA in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. However, he’s posted sub-4.00 overall ERAs in each of the past two seasons and thrived in the Venezuelan Winter League last offseason. Snow has significantly bolstered his strikeout rate and lowered his walk rate as well over the past two seasons. Both Monell and Snow will be in Major League camp with the Rays this spring.
- Tampa Bay also picked up right-hander Ryan Weber on a minor league pact, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The 27-year-old has big league time with the Braves and Mariners. Weber logged a scintillating 0.85 ERA, 1.1 BB/9 and 72.5 percent ground-ball rate in 31 2/3 innings with Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate last year, though his 5.4 K/9 mark wasn’t nearly as impressive. Weber appeared in just six games (five starts) all season in 2017 thanks to a biceps strain that kept him on the disabled list for most of the year.
White Sox Sign Xavier Cedeno to Minor-League Deal
9:17pm: A tweet from Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports reveals that Cedeno’s contract comes with a spring training invite, as one may have expected. He stands to earn $1.05MM if he breaks camp with the big league club.
8:21pm: The White Sox have agreed to terms on a minor-league pact with left-hander Xavier Cedeno, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports via a tweet.
The 31-year-old Cedeno has pitched at the major-league level in each of the past seven seasons. After he missed nearly all of 2017 due to a forearm injury suffered in April, the Rays elected to non-tender Cedeno rather than pay him a 2018 arbitration salary (he made $1.3MM in 2017). That’s hardly surprising considering Tampa Bay’s interest in trimming payroll this winter.
For his career, the southpaw owns a 3.98 ERA out of the bullpens of the Astros, Nationals and Rays. While he’s been a below average major-leaguer in terms of WPA (-0.85), his career 8.85 K/9 and 3.39 BB/9 suggest he could be a viable bullpen piece for his new club. That outlook only gets brighter when considering he’s a respectable lefty specialist; Cedeno has faced a left-handed hitter 320 times over the course of his MLB tenure, and they’ve batted a paltry .220/.286/.299 against him.
[Related: Updated Chicago White Sox Depth Chart]
It seems likely that the Puerto Rican native can earn himself a role in the White Sox bullpen. Outside of the recently-acquired Luis Avilan, the Southsiders don’t have much in the way of viable left-handed options for their relief corps.
Cedeno was originally a 31st-round selection of the Rockies back in 2004. He pitched exclusively as a starter up through the end of the 2008 season, when he reached the Double-A level for the first time. However, following a demotion to the Rockies’ High-A affiliate, Cedeno transitioned to a relief role. Though the Astros tried giving him another chance to start in 2011, his performance at the Double-A level that season wasn’t good enough to warrant a permanent shift back to the rotation. He’s pitched exclusively as a reliever since his MLB debut with Houston later that year.
Mets Re-Sign Jose Reyes
9:11pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports has the scoop on the incentives in Reyes’ contract. The veteran will earn an additional $250K after reaching 500 plate appearances during the 2018 season, and an additional $250K for hitting the 550 PA mark.
Jan. 26, 4:07pm: The Mets have announced the signing.
Jan. 25: The Mets have agreed to re-sign infielder Jose Reyes, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It’s a one-year, $2MM deal that also includes up to $500K in achievable incentives, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
While this move may not bring quite the impact Mets fans have been hoping for from an infield signing, it seems the plan is not to utilize Reyes as a regular. Instead, per Rosenthal, the club still hopes to find an everyday choice to line up at second base.
Presumably, then, Reyes will join Wilmer Flores as a roving infield asset. Both players could see time at second and third, while the former may also see action against lefties at first base.
Reyes, a 34-year-old switch-hitter who starred for the Mets earlier in his career, obviously has a strong relationship with the New York organization. After all, the team agreed to bring him back in 2016 after Reyes served a lengthy suspension for an awful domestic abuse incident. He’ll now open his third-straight season (and twelfth overall) with the Mets.
Last year, Reyes ended up seeing quite a lot of action as the Mets dealt with injuries and ultimately traded away several veterans. In 561 plate appearances, he slashed .246/.315/.413 (good for a 94 wRC+) with 15 home runs and 24 steals. It is worth noting, too, that he performed much better in the second half after a rough opening to the season. (Of course, that may mostly be explained by the shifting winds of fortune; Reyes carried a .222 BABIP through 323 plate appearances and .323 thereafter.)
Interestingly, defensive metrics split widely on Reyes’s effort last year, as he split time between short, third, and second. DRS viewed him as markedly subpar infielder, while UZR graded him as a more or less average performer. Accepting the marks of the Defensive Runs Saved system, Reyes was a roughly replacement-level player. Working from Ultimate Zone Rating, on the other hand, and mixing in highly-rated baserunning, led Fangraphs to credit Reyes with 2.0 fWAR in 2017.
Mets Designate Josh Smoker For Assignment
The Mets have designated left-hander Josh Smoker for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster for infielder Jose Reyes, as James Wagner of the New York Times first reported shortly before the move was made official (Twitter link).
Smoker, 29, averages roughly 95 mph on his heater and has averaged 11.7 K/9 in his two big league seasons. However, he also averaged more than five walks per nine innings in 2017 and has been tagged for 1.76 HR/9 in his two MLB seasons. Control is an issue for Smoker, but given his velocity, penchant for missing bats and the fact that he has a minor league option remaining could very well lead to intrigue from other teams around the league.
With Smoker off the 40-man roster, the Mets’ lone southpaw option for the bullpen is Jerry Blevins, so they’ll assuredly hope he clears waivers and can remain with the organization. If not, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Mets pursue some affordable left-handed depth options to compete for a spot in new manager Mickey Callaway’s bullpen in Spring Training.