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Indians Re-Sign James Hoyt

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After being dropped from the Indians’ 40-man roster in advance of the non-tender deadline, righty James Hoyt has landed back with the Cleveland organization. Full terms aren’t known, but the contract does come with a MLB roster spot.

The 33-year-old Hoyt hasn’t yet proven he can deliver results in the majors, but has had no trouble getting swings and misses from big-league hitters. He has averaged a 16.8% swinging-strike rate at the game’s highest level, allowing him to carry an excellent 104:26 K/BB ratio over eighty frames. Hoyt has also allowed 14 long balls in that span.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the Indians can coax some quality MLB frames out of the slider-heavy hurler. He spent the 2019 season shifting from a four-seam to a two-seam heater — at least, as identified by pitch-tracking software — which may have helped him to limit International League hitters to three home runs in 42 Triple-A frames. But Hoyt did go on to surrender a pair of dingers in his 8 1/3 September innings in the majors.

Red Sox Re-Sign Marco Hernandez, Josh Osich

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The Red Sox announced today that they have re-signed infielder Marco Hernandez and lefty Josh Osich. Both had been non-tendered in advance of Monday’s deadline.

Both players are headed back onto the 40-man roster. The reason for this approach, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe explains on Twitter, was to enable the sides to agree to a different contract structure than would have been possible in the arbitration context.

Osich gets a split contract with a $850K MLB salary, according to Speier (Twitter link). He had projected to earn $1MM via arbitration after being claimed by the Red Sox from the White Sox in October. The 31-year-old worked to a 4.66 ERA in 67 2/3 MLB innings last year, recording 8.1 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 but coughing up 15 home runs.

As for Hernandez, whose re-signing was reported yesterday, he’ll have a split deal with a MLB rate of $650K MLB (also via Speier, on Twitter). He hasn’t done much damage with the bat in limited opportunities at the game’s highest level, but the organization obviously still thinks the versatile defender could be a valuable roster piece. Hernandez, who hopes to put his shoulder issues behind him in 2020, had projected to earn $700K via arbitration.

Red Sox, Marco Hernandez Agree To New Deal

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The Red Sox and infielder Marco Hernandez are in agreement on a new contract, Robert Murray reports (via Twitter). Boston non-tendered the 27-year-old yesterday.

Presumably, the two sides have struck up a minor league pact and an invite to Spring Training, as Hernandez was only projected to earn $700K in arbitration prior to being non-tendered — just $136K north of the league minimum. Hernandez has been up and down with the Red Sox over the past few seasons, seeing time at second base, third base and shortstop but struggling to produce much at the plate. In 271 plate appearances at the MLB level, Hernandez is a .265/.300/.342 hitter — including a .250/.279/.338 this past season in a career-high 155 plate appearances.

Padres Re-Sign Miguel Diaz, Pedro Avila

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The Padres announced that they’ve re-signed righties Miguel Diaz and Pedro Avila to minor league contracts and assigned both to Triple-A El Paso. Both right-handers were non-tendered yesterday and will quickly return to the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot.

Diaz, 25, has the most big league experience of the pair. The hard-throwing righty spent the 2017 season in San Diego’s bullpen after being selected out of the Brewers organization in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft. As one would expect for a 22-year-old jumping from Class-A ball to the Majors, it was a struggle for Diaz that year, as he was knocked around for a 7.34 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 5.4 BB/9 and a whopping 2.38 HR/9 in 41 2/3 frames.

After successfully navigating his Rule 5 rookie season in the Majors, Diaz opened the ’18 campaign in Double-A and pitched quite well through 65 1/3 innings there, logging a 2.35 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 56.4 percent grounder rate. Diaz was limited to just 36 2/3 innings between the the minors and the big leagues in 2019, however, as a torn meniscus in his knee required surgery and shelved him for much of the year. The Padres will now get another look at him while still gaining some 40-man flexibility.

Avila, just 22, made his MLB debut with a start against the D-backs in early April this season, allowing just one run in 5 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, an elbow strain wiped out most of his season, and he eventually underwent Tommy John surgery in a season that saw him toss just 29 1/3 innings. Acquired in a 2016 trade with the Nationals, Avila has still barely pitched above Class-A Advanced (just three Double-A starts in addition to his lone MLB appearance), and he’ll now be out until late in the 2020 season (if not the entirety of the year). He has a long road ahead of him before reemerging as a viable MLB option, but he won’t even turn 23 until January, so age is on his side.

White Sox Re-Sign Ryan Burr, Caleb Frare

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The White Sox have re-signed right-hander Ryan Burr and lefty Caleb Frare to minor league contracts and invited them to Major League Spring Training, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Both were non-tendered yesterday but quickly rejoined the organization on new minor league pacts that don’t require the Sox to allocate a spot on the 40-man roster.

Burr, 25, pitched 19 2/3 innings for the ChiSox in 2019 and posted a 4.58 ERA with a 20-to-8 K/BB ratio and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate in that time. He throws fairly hard, averaging 95 mph on his heater, but he wasn’t able to generate many swinging strikes in his limited time in the big leagues (8.4 percent). The Arizona State product was a star closer in college and has a strong minor league track record (2.02 ERA, 10.8 K/9 in 173 1/3 innings), so the Sox are surely glad to get him back in the organization as a depth piece.

Frare, meanwhile, has logged 9 2/3 innings with the Sox over the past two seasons with 12 punchouts against eight walks. The 26-year-old was acquired from the Yankees prior to the 2018 deadline in a swap that sent international funds to New York, but his 2019 campaign in Triple-A was the worst of his career. Frare whiffed an impressive 34 hitters in just 22 1/3 innings, but he also issued 19 walks, hit three batters and allowed five homers en route to a 7.33 ERA. He’s dominated up through Double-A in the minors and routinely posts big strikeout totals, however, so perhaps he can eventually unlock something more at the game’s top levels.

Athletics Sign Jake Diekman

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1:45pm: The Athletics have formally announced the signing.

1:21pm: The Athletics and free-agent lefty Jake Diekman have agreed to a two-year contract with a club option for a third season, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter links). The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be guaranteed $7.5MM over the life of the pact.

Jake Diekman | Aug 3, 2019; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Jake Diekman (35) stands on the mound during the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Diekman, 33 next month, inked a one-year, $2.75MM pact with the Royals last winter and was traded to the A’s prior to the July 31 deadline. The veteran southpaw pitched to a 4.43 ERA with 21 strikeouts but 16 walks and three hit batsmen through 20 1/3 innings with the A’s, continuing control problems that have plagued him for much of his MLB tenure. Diekman clearly made a strong impression on the Oakland organization, though, and he’s now in line to call it home for the next two seasons.

Control issues notwithstanding, the appeal in Diekman is easy to see, as his raw stuff is tantalizing. His 95.8 mph average heater is one of the fastest among all left-handed relievers in baseball, and Diekman’s overall 16.1 percent swinging-strike rate ranked 18th among 158 qualified reliever this past season. He’s averaged better than 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in his MLB career and fanned 28.2 percent of the hitters he’s faced in the big leagues. A look at his Statcast profile reveals that Diekman was one of the best in the game at limiting hard contact — specifically in allowing opponents to barrel up his offerings.

Diekman will pair with lefty T.J. McFarland, whom the A’s claimed off waivers last month and inked to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration yesterday, giving manager Bob Melvin multiple lefties to deploy in 2020. The Oakland ’pen will once again be anchored by emergent closer Liam Hendriks, with Yusmeiro Petit, Joakim Soria and rebound hopeful Lou Trivino adding to the setup corps as well.

The move to add Diekman comes just a day after Oakland traded Jurickson Profar to the Padres and non-tendered Blake Treinen, Ryan Buchter and Josh Phegley — substantially reducing payroll in the process; that quartet had been projected to earn a combined $17.6MM on a perennially low-payroll A’s club.

Some of those funds will be immediately reallocated to Diekman, it seems, but the Oakland payroll still projects to come in north of previous levels. Last year’s $92MM Opening Day mark was a club record, and the A’s projected to come in around $95MM even before bringing Diekman aboard. It’s always possible that they’ll move some veteran contracts, but the A’s at the very least appear poised for a second season above the $90MM mark, which is unheard of territory for the organization.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 12/3/19

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In the course of yesterday’s arbitration whirlwind, we covered quite a few players who reached agreements in advance of the non-tender deadline. But several others also struck deals last night (all projected salaries from MLBTR & contributor Matt Swartz) …

  • Righty Anthony Bass has agreed with the Blue Jays at $1.5MM, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Recently plucked from the waiver wire, Bass had projected to earn $1.7MM. The 32-year-old is coming off a season in which he threw 48 innings of 3.56 ERA ball with 8.1 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9. It was his most extensive MLB action since 2015.
  • Ben Gamel’s deal with the Brewers includes a $1.4MM salary as well as a $2.55MM club option for the 2021 season, also per Nightengale (Twitter link). The option functions as an earning ceiling for the outfielder. Gamel had projected at $1.6MM, so he’ll come in under that amount while giving up some upside in the event of a breakout. But the priority is surely to gain another opportunity at playing time. Gamel has hovered in range of league-average with the bat over the past several years but slipped to a .248/.337/.373 slash in 356 plate appearances last year in Milwaukee.
  • The Twins have agreed to a deal with righty Matt Wisler, the club announced. The salary isn’t yet known, but it’ll be guaranteed. Given that Wisler is out of options, he’s now rather clearly in line to take a spot in the Minnesota bullpen. The recent waiver claimee projected at $1.0MM. Anything in that range could be a bargain rate for a player that carried a sparkling 63:16 K/BB ratio in 51 1/3 relief innings last year. Of course, Wisler was also tagged for 32 earned runs and ten homers, so he’ll have to figure out how to avoid the long ball.
  • Infielder Donovan Solano has a $1.375MM deal with the Giants, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). That tops his $1.2MM projection, so obviously the club felt there was some risk that he’d be able to command a greater salary in the course of the arb process. Soon to turn 32 years of age, Solano produced one of the game’s least-expected breakouts in 2019. Long a light-hitting utilityman who struggled to establish himself fully in the bigs, Solano turned in 228 plate appearances of .330/.360/.456 hitting last year in San Francisco.

Dodgers Non-Tender Yimi Garcia

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The Dodgers have non-tendered right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports. Garcia had been projected to earn $1.1MM in 2020, his second-last season of arbitration eligibility.

In terms of bottom-line results, 2019 was a strong year for Garcia – which is more than you can say for several other Dodgers relievers. The 29-year-old, a past Tommy John surgery patient, logged a 3.61 ERA with 9.53 K/9 and 2.02 BB/9 over 62 1/3 innings, though those numbers came with a minuscule 29.6 percent groundball rate and a 5.19 FIP/4.90 xFIP.

While Garcia’s 2019 output didn’t impress the Dodgers enough to keep him, it was his best full-season showing since 2015. He’ll now head into free agency as a potentially intriguing option for other clubs.

Indians Acquire Sandy Leon, Designate James Hoyt

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9:18pm: Leon’s deal with the Indians comes with a $2MM salary with performance bonuses of $25K each for 75 and 100 games started at catcher, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets.

7:20pm: The Indians announced Monday that they’ve acquired catcher Sandy Leon from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league right-hander Adenys Bautista. In order to open a spot for Leon on the 40-man roster, Cleveland has designated right-hander James Hoyt for assignment.

Leon, 30, would’ve likely been non-tendered by the Red Sox but now seems likely to be tendered a contract by his new organization. The swap doesn’t exactly bode well for Kevin Plawecki, who’d previously been in line to serve as the primary backup to 2019 breakout catcher Roberto Perez. Leon is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $2.8MM in 2020, whereas Plawecki is projected to earn $1.5MM.

In Leon, the Indians are acquiring a switch-hitting veteran, although his value lies in his glove as opposed to his bat. Leon did have one standout season at the plate back in 2016, when he hit .310/.369/.476 in 283 plate appearances, but that output looks like an anomaly; in three years since that strong showing, he’s managed only a .199/.259/.312 batting line in 780 trips to the plate.

Leon has generally rated as an above-average framer and, with the exception of a 21 percent caught-stealing rate in 2019, has been excellent at controlling the running game throughout his MLB tenure (career 34 percent caught-stealing rate). Still, it’s at least somewhat of a surprise to see the Indians ostensibly swap out Plawecki for Leon, as Plawecki rated as the better defender in 2019, hit better than Leon over the past several seasons and was the cheaper option with two additional seasons of club control. Leon will be a free agent at season’s end.

Boston’s return isn’t particularly exciting — as one would expect when trading a backup catcher who was in line to be non-tendered. The 21-year-old Bautista has yet to advance beyond the Rookie-level Arizona League and has only pitched 43 2/3 innings of pro ball in total. He’s posted an ugly 5.98 ERA with nearly as many walks (31) as strikeouts (32) in that time and has demonstrated below-average ground-ball tendencies.

Hoyt, 33, has displayed huge strikeout numbers and passable control in his limited MLB chances. Through 80 innings between the Astros and Indians, he’s worked to a 4.16 ERA with 11.7 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 45.5 percent ground-ball rate. He’s been quite homer-prone, however, which has limited his results a bit. Still, a pitcher with those strikeout totals, a 16.8 percent swinging-strike rate, a 36.8 percent opponents’ chase rate and a fastball that has averaged 93.9 mph feels like he should be a more interesting commodity than he’s been to either the Houston or the Cleveland organization. Hoyt still has a minor league option remaining, which should only enhance his appeal to another club.

Teams Announce Final Non-Tenders

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We’ve been tracking the day’s arbitration decisions in the run-up to tonight’s deadline, which has produced a bevy of last-minute calls. In addition to those already covered elsewhere (with all projected salary figures from MLBTR/Matt Swartz projections) …

  • The Padres announced they have non-tendered Miguel Diaz and Pedro Avila. Neither hurler had yet been eligible for arbitration, so this amounts to no more than a roster cleanup. Avila had already been designated for assignment. Diaz, meanwhile, saw extensive action as a Rule V pick in 2017 but has only sporadically logged MLB time since.
  • Relievers Javy Guerra and Koda Glover were non-tendered by the Nationals, per a club announcement. Guerra would have cost a projected $1.3MM. Glover announced earlier today that he would retire.
  • The Red Sox non-tendered infielder Marco Hernandez and reliever Josh Osich, per a team announcement. Neither projected at big dollars — $700K and $1.0MM, respectively — but obviously the club felt it could put the roster spots to better use on other players.
  • The Blue Jays have non-tendered relievers Derek Law and Jason Adam, along with backstop Luke Maile. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter) and Scott Mitchell of TSN (on Twitter) were on the news. Law projected at $1.3MM, while Maile was in line for a $800K payday. Adam is still pre-arb eligible.
  • The Giants announced today that they have non-tendered outfielder Joey Rickard ($1.1MM projection), southpaw Tyler Anderson ($2.625MM), and righty Rico Garcia (pre-arb). Both Anderson and Garcia were claimed from the division-rival Rockies after the end of the 2019 season.
  • In addition to other moves earlier today, the Braves have non-tendered catcher John Ryan Murphy and outfielder Rafael Ortega. Each provided depth down the stretch in 2019 for the Atlanta organization. Murphy would’ve been owed a projected $1.2MM, while Ortega remains shy of arbitration eligibility.
  • A host of players were non-tendered by the Royals, per a club announcement. Righty Jesse Hahn was cut loose along with infielders Humberto Arteaga, Cheslor Cuthbert and Erick Mejia. Among these players, Hahn (projected $900K) and Cuthbert ($1.8MM) have the most MLB experience. With these 40-man trimmings, the K.C. org should be able to place some claims and/or make Rule 5 selections in the coming weeks.
  • Righties Ian Gibaut and Wei-Chieh Huang are each heading to free agency after being non-tendered by the Rangers. Neither is anywhere near the service time needed for arbitration eligibility, so this was just an opportune time for the Texas org to drop them from the MLB roster.

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