Minor MLB Transactions: 4/4/17
Here are the day’s minor moves from around baseball…
- The Mets have signed infielder Josh Rodriguez to a minor league contract, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The 32-year-old Rodriguez, who briefly appeared in the Majors with the 2011 Pirates, will be returning for his third tour of duty with the Mets, having also spent the 2012-13 seasons and the 2015 season in their system. Rodriguez spent the 2016 campaign with the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate, hitting .263/.381/.420 with nine homers in 342 plate appearances. The versatile Rodriguez has more than 4,000 career innings at shortstop, more than 2300 at second base and nearly 2000 at third base. He’s also had more brief stints in the outfield and at first base. He’ll head to Triple-A Las Vegas this season.
- The Athletics have released first baseman Rangel Ravelo, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (via Twitter). The 24-year-old Ravelo was one of four players the A’s acquired in the trade that sent Jeff Samardzija to the ChiSox, but he showed very little at the plate in 2016 despite spending the year in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League. In 416 trips to the plate, Ravelo batted .262/.334/.395 with eight homers and 23 doubles. Ravelo lost his 40-man spot over the winter when Oakland signed Matt Joyce to a two-year contract.
- Eddy also tweets that the Dodgers have released 2013 first-rounder Chris Anderson. The right-hander had a strong run in the Class-A Midwest League after being selected 18th overall back in ’13, but he struggled in each of the next two seasons and was shifted to the bullpen last year. In 67 1/3 innings between the Dodgers’ Class-A Advanced and Double-A affiliates, Anderson logged a disappointing 4.81 ERA with a troubling 51-to-46 K/BB ratio. His control worsened in the Arizona Fall League, where he was rocked for 22 earned runs on 28 hits and 12 walks with 11 strikeouts in 16 2/3 frames.
- Another former top pick, White Sox outfielder Keenyn Walker (No. 47 overall in 2011), was also released recently, according to Eddy (Twitter link). Now 26 years of age, Walker never climbed beyond the Double-A level in parts of six seasons in the White Sox organization. Last year, he slashed .240/.330/.340 in 374 plate appearances with Double-A Birmingham, and he’s a career .206/.303/.283 hitter at that level.
Mariners Claim Evan Marshall; Drew Smyly To 60-Day DL
The Mariners have claimed righty Evan Marshall off waivers from the Diamondbacks, per an announcement. Seattle has shifted lefty Drew Smyly to the 60-day DL to clear a roster spot.
Marshall, 26, was designated recently by the Snakes. Though he showed plenty of promise in his 2014 MLB debut year, Marshall has not been nearly as effective since. Last year, he was knocked around in 15 major league appearances and managed only a 4.59 ERA in his 33 1/3 Triple-A frames.
As for Smyly, the move likely doesn’t impact his timeline. A flexor strain was already slated to cost him six to eight weeks, and any length of rehab assignment would have extended that figure. While awaiting his return, the M’s will put his 40-man spot to use to ensure there’s adequate pitching depth on hand.
Rangers Agree To New Deal With Dillon Gee
APRIL 3: Gee will earn at a $2MM annual rate while playing in the majors and can achieve up to $1MM in incentives, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Also of note: Gee has agreed to a 45-day advance consent provision.
MARCH 31: The Rangers have agreed to a new contract with right-hander Dillon Gee, reports MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan (all Twitter links). Gee triggered the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with Texas earlier this week, giving the team 48 hours to add him to the 40-man roster or grant him his release. Gee is a client of SSG Baseball.
Instead, the two sides have agreed to a new Major League pact with the understanding that Gee will open the year as a starter at Triple-A Round Rock and have a chance to quickly emerge as the Rangers’ fifth starter, according to Sullivan. Gee will be on the 40-man roster — Sullivan notes that Chi Chi Gonzalez will likely head to the 60-day DL in a corresponding move — and could potentially be called upon when Texas first needs a fifth starter, on April 15. It’s not known if right-hander Andrew Cashner, who is currently dealing with biceps tendinitis, will be ready to take the hill at that time, but Gee represents a solid alternative in the event that Cashner isn’t able to pitch by that point.
The 30-year-old Gee enjoyed a very nice Spring Training with Texas, putting him in position to force a decision out of the Rangers. In 19 2/3 innings during Major League camp, Gee logged a 3.20 ERA with a stellar 18-to-3 K/BB ratio. While he’s been tagged for 25 hits, only one of those has left the yard for a home run. His final outing, which came against his former Royals teammates, included six shutout innings with just two hits allowed and nine strikeouts.
Gee underwent surgery in October to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome, though his high-quality Spring Training results suggest that he’s perfectly healthy now, of course. It’s not known to what extent that medical issue hampered Gee in 2015-16 (if at all), but the right-hander has struggled in the past two seasons with the Mets and Royals (4.97 ERA in 164 2/3 innings). Prior to that he’d logged a 3.91 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 639 1/3 innings for the Mets.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/3/17
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Angels announced that right-hander Austin Adams has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. The 30-year-old Adams, not to be confused with the 25-year-old righty of the same name who was also with the Angels until being traded to the Nationals in the Danny Espinosa deal, was designated for assignment over the weekend. The elder Austin Adams has seen action in the Majors with the Indians in each of the past three seasons. He performed well in 2015 (3.78 ERA, 6.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 46.8 percent ground-ball rate in 38 1/3 innings) but was rocked for 20 earned runs in 18 1/3 innings with Cleveland last year. The Indians shipped him to the Angels for cash or a player to be named later back in February.
Earlier Moves
- Infielder/outfielder Colin Walsh has signed a minor league pact with the Diamondbacks, as noted on the Diamondbacks’ transactions page and in Walsh’s own Twitter bio. A Rule 5 pick of the Brewers last season (out of the Athletics organization), Walsh made his big league debut in 2016 but struggled through 63 plate appearances, hitting .085/.317/.106 with 22 strikeouts. An on-base machine in the minors, the 27-year-old Walsh is a career .277/.394/.419 hitter in parts of seven minor league seasons, including a .264/.375/.368 line in 417 Triple-A plate appearances. Walsh has been primarily a second baseman in the minors but also has experience at third base and in the corner outfield, making him a potential bench piece down the line if he can carry some of his minor league production into the Majors.
Cardinals Extend Stephen Piscotty
The Cardinals have formally announced a new long-term pact with another key contributor: outfielder Stephen Piscotty has signed a six-year extension with an option for a seventh season.
Piscotty, who is represented by CAA Sports, will reportedly be guaranteed $33.5MM on the deal. That includes a $2MM signing bonus, salaries of $1MM in 2017-18, $7MM in 2019-20 and $7.25MM in 2021-22. There’s also a $1MM buyout on a $15MM option for the 2023 season. Furthermore, Piscotty will earn $500K if traded prior to the completion of the 2021 season and $1MM if he is traded thereafter. Performance escalators can boost the value of the option, giving him a chance to top out at $50.5MM over seven years.
The Piscotty contract marks the third notable extension since the end of the 2016 campaign for Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak and his staff. St. Louis has also extended burgeoning ace Carlos Martinez this winter, and franchise icon Yadier Molina wrapped up a three-year contract extension of his own over the weekend.
The 26-year-old Piscotty was the 36th overall selection in the 2012 draft and has blossomed from one of the Redbirds’ top prospects to their everyday right fielder over the past two seasons. In that time, Stanford product has established himself as a well-above-average bat, hitting a combined .282/.348/.467 with 29 home runs through his first 216 MLB games (905 plate appearances).
From a defensive standpoint, Piscotty has been four runs above average in right field per both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating to this point in his young career. He’s also demonstrated a bit of versatility, logging 76 innings in center field and 57 at first base over his first two seasons. While he’s probably not going to see much time in center field moving forward — Dexter Fowler is signed to a five-year deal, and left fielder Randal Grichuk would probably slide over in the event of a Fowler injury — the ability to occasionally spot Piscotty there or at first base certainly carries a bit of value for the Cards.
Piscotty has just one year, 76 days of Major League service time, meaning he wouldn’t have been eligible for arbitration until the completion of the 2018 season and wouldn’t have been a free agent until the 2021-22 offseason. Piscotty falls shy of the current record for a player in the one-plus service class, which is held by Andrelton Simmons at seven years and $58MM (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker). Christian Yelich‘s seven-year, $49.57MM pact is tops among all one-plus outfielders. Piscotty falls shy of both of those marks, though he’s also two to three years older than either of those players were when they inked their respective deals.
Today’s extension means that Piscotty can’t become a free agent until the completion of his age-31 season and, if he remains productive, that he likely won’t reach the open market until he is entering his age-33 campaign. That certainly limits his future earning power, though one can hardly fault a 26-year-old that is still five full years from reaching the open market and two years from reaching arbitration for electing to lock in his first eight-figure payday. Piscotty’s deal is the eighth-largest ever signed by a player with one-plus years of service, so while he didn’t establish any new sort of precedent, the deal falls within the range of reasonably plausible outcomes.
Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported that the two sides were progressing on a deal (Twitter link). FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted that the two sides had reached an agreement and also tweeted the guaranteed portion of the contract. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first suggested the six-year term (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal provided the year-to-year breakdown (Twitter links).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres Release Brett Wallace
The Padres have released infielder Brett Wallace, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. The Padres had reassigned Wallace to the minors last week after he batted .179/.273/.256 in Spring Training.
That showing continued a run of poor recent hitting from last season, when he batted just .189/.309/.318 in 256 big-league plate appearances. The Padres outrighted Wallace last November, then re-signed him to a minor-league deal a month later.
Wallace, now 30, was once a first-round draft pick of the Cardinals, as well as one of the keys to the 2009 trade that brought Matt Holliday to St. Louis. Since then, though, Wallace has struggled to get established in the big leagues as he hasn’t balanced his below-average defensive performances at the corner infield spots with the level of offensive production once expected from him. In parts of five career seasons spent with Houston and San Diego, he’s batted a modest .238/.316/.389 with 40 home runs and a cumulative fWAR of -1.4.
Brewers Sign Jared Hughes
The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed righty Jared Hughes to a one-year deal. Hughes will receive $950K plus a possible $250K in incentives based on games pitched, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Hughes is arbitration eligible for the last time next winter, meaning the Brewers have the ability to control him for two years. He is represented by SSG Baseball.
Hughes came available when the NL Central rival Pirates released him Thursday. Adding Hughes would give the currently shorthanded Brewers a full 25-man roster. The club is under the limit after demoting fellow relievers Rob Scahill and Tyler Cravy on Saturday.
In the 31-year-old Hughes, the Brewers would land a pitcher who has gotten positive results in the majors, having logged a 2.82 ERA and a 61 percent ground-ball rate in 309 1/3 innings. Hughes has done that in spite of a subpar K/9 (5.5), and he’s coming off a season in which his BB/9 increased from the mid-twos over the previous two years to 3.34. He also generated fewer swinging strikes than ever, though his 9.6 percent rate in 2016 wasn’t a significant drop from his 10.3 percent career mark. Nevertheless, he managed a 3.03 ERA over 59 1/3 frames and, based on his history of preventing runs, could give the Brewers an effective option alongside former Pirates teammate Neftali Feliz and Corey Knebel, among others.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com was first to tweet that Hughes and the Brewers were nearing a deal. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first tweeted that a deal had been struck.
Rockies Designate Miguel Castro For Assignment
The Rockies have designated right-hander Miguel Castro for assignment, thereby clearing a roster spot for left-hander Kyle Freeland.
Castro joined the Rockies in July 2015 as part of their Troy Tulowitzki trade with the Blue Jays, who also gave up righty Jeff Hoffman and shortstop Jose Reyes in the deal. At the time, Castro ranked as one of the Jays’ best prospects, but his stock has obviously dropped since switching organizations. Now 22, Castro debuted in Toronto prior to the trade and has since posted a 6.12 ERA, 8.35 K/9 and 4.16 BB/9 in 32 1/3 innings between there and Colorado. The hard thrower totaled just 30 1/3 innings last year, 15 2/3 of which came at the Triple-A level. He was even worse there, as he yielded 18 earned runs on 21 hits and seven walks.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/2/17
Sunday’s minor moves…
- The White Sox have selected the contracts of three offseason minor league signings – infielder/outfielder Cody Asche, catcher Geovany Soto and right-handed reliever Anthony Swarzak. The 26-year-old Asche was once a well-regarded prospect with the Phillies, but he scuffled to a .240/.298/.385 line in 1,287 plate appearances with the club from 2013-16. Soto, who’s in his second stint with the White Sox, has typically served as a capable offensive catcher, and has thrown out would-be base stealers at a league-average rate, though his pitch-framing numbers have declined in recent seasons. Swarzak, meanwhile, has created intrigue this spring with an uptick in velocity. The 31-year-old threw harder than usual with the Yankees last season, and he logged terrific strikeout and walk rates of 9.0 and 2.03, respectively, per nine innings. However, a bloated home run-to-fly ball ratio (27.8 percent) led to a 5.52 ERA in 31 frames.
- The Twins have selected catcher Chris Gimenez‘s contract and placed reliever Glen Perkins on the 60-day disabled list, according to Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (Twitter link). The 34-year-old Gimenez has a history in Cleveland, including last season. His time there helped him land a minor league pact with the Twins, whose new front office head, Derek Falvey, used to work for the Tribe. Gimenez, a lifetime .218/.297/.335 hitter in 776 PAs, has garnered slightly negative reviews as a framer and will back up the defensively adept Jason Castro in Minnesota. As for Perkins, the Twins’ former (and future?) closer, the three-time All-Star is continuing to rehab from the shoulder surgery he underwent last June. Perkins threw just two innings in 2016.
- The Indians have released left-hander Tim Cooney, who sat out of all last season because of shoulder problems and has dealt with a forearm strain this spring. Cleveland claimed Cooney off waivers from the Cardinals in November, a year after Cooney debuted in the majors and impressed across 31 1/3 innings and six starts. All told, Cooney registered a 3.16 ERA, 8.33 K/9 and 2.87 BB/9.
- The Orioles have selected veteran outfielder Craig Gentry‘s contract. The 33-year-old’s fate was reportedly tied to Rule 5 outfielder Aneury Tavarez, whom the Orioles returned to the Red Sox on Sunday. Gentry’s reemergence looked highly improbable a couple years ago, when he contemplated retirement after suffering a sixth concussion. He also only picked up limited major league experience over the past two seasons, and the Angels released him last year after he dealt with a spine injury. At his best, Gentry brought a solid blend of offense, defense and baserunning as a member of the Rangers from 2012-13. The right-handed hitter will now serve as a platoon option for a Baltimore team with lefty-swinging corner outfielders in Seth Smith and Hyun Soo Kim.
- The Mets have selected the contract of infielder Ty Kelly, who’s back on their 40-man roster after the team designated him for assignment in February. Kelly could have ended up elsewhere at that point, but he ultimately cleared waivers. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with New York last season, hitting .241/.352/.345 in 71 trips to the plate.
- The Reds have selected the contract of outfielder Patrick Kivlehan, who joined the organization as a waiver claim last September. Kivlehan debuted in the majors last year and picked up 24 plate appearances between San Diego and Cincinnati. The 27-year-old has mostly played at the Triple-A level, where he has slashed .255/.308/.477 in a combined 915 plate appearances with the Seattle, Texas and San Diego organizations.
- The Marlins have selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Tyler Moore, whom they signed to a minor league deal in December. Moore spent 2012-15 as a member of the NL East rival Nationals, with whom he hit .228/.281/.401 in 649 PAs. The 30-year-old was with another of the Marlins’ division rivals, the Braves, last season, but he didn’t make it to the majors. Instead, Moore was with Triple-A Gwinnett, where he batted just .229/.276/.375 over a small sample of PAs (106).
Indians Extend Roberto Perez
The Indians have signed catcher Roberto Perez to a four-year extension worth a guaranteed $9MM, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (Twitter links). The deal includes club options for the 2021 and ’22 seasons. A client of MDR Sports Management, Perez will make $550K in 2017, $1.5MM in 2018, $2.5MM in 2019 and $3.5MM in 2020. The options are for $5.5MM and $7MM, respectively, and come with $450K buyouts.
Cleveland has made a habit of extending players in recent years, having reached deals with Jose Ramirez, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, Yan Gomes, Brandon Guyer and Josh Tomlin. Gomes, who shares the catcher position with Perez, is controllable through the 2021 campaign, and the club has a top behind-the-plate prospect on the way in Francisco Mejia, as Bastian notes (Twitter link).
The 26-year-old Perez, who would have been eligible for arbitration next winter, is now potentially in position to remain with the Indians through his age-31 season. The Puerto Rico native joined the Indians as a 33th-round pick in 2008 and made his major league debut in 2014. Since then, Perez has hit .220/.318/.355 in 505 plate appearances, though a .183/.285/.294 showing last season weighs down his overall line. Perez’s walk and strikeout rates (12.5 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively) were in line with career norms last season, but his hard contact dropped and his infield fly rate rose, helping lead to a .229 batting average on balls in play and a lack of production.
Despite his offensive struggles in 2016, Perez managed to provide value behind the plate, where he graded as one of Baseball Prospectus’ best pitch-framing catchers. That has typically been the case for Perez, who also threw out an incredible 50 percent of would-be base stealers and earned plus marks as a blocker last year. Thus far in his career, Perez has halted 43 percent of attempted base thieves. Given his defensive brilliance, it’s no surprise that the Tribe jumped at the chance to lock Perez up through his prime to a bargain deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.