Nationals Designate Spencer Kieboom, Announce Joe Blanton Signing
The Nationals have designated catcher Spencer Kieboom for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot will go to righty Joe Blanton, whose signing was also announced.
Kieboom, 25, made it to the majors last year, though he received just a single opportunity to hit. He spent the bulk of the year at Double-A, where he slashed only .230/.324/.314 over 359 plate appearances. His younger brother, infielder Carter Kieboom, was taken by the Nats in the first round of last year’s draft.
For the elder Kieboom, there just wasn’t quite enough 40-man room for him to stick. Washington has yet to resolve its logjam behind the dish, which was created when Matt Wieters joined Derek Norris and Jose Lobaton as veteran options in camp. Pedro Severino and Raudy Read are also on the MLB roster.
Mariners Acquire Chase De Jong, Designate Mike Freeman
The Mariners announced that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Chase De Jong from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Drew Jackson and minor league right-hander Aneurys Zabala. To clear room for De Jong on the 40-man roster, the Mariners designated infielder Mike Freeman for assignment.
De Jong, 23, was the Blue Jays’ second-round pick back 2012 but was traded to Los Angeles alongside second baseman Tim Locastro in a swap that sent international bonus money to the Blue Jays.
The former No. 81 overall pick has raised his profile since joining the Dodgers organization and is coming off an impressive 2016 campaign that saw him reach Triple-A for the first time. De Jong tossed just 5 1/3 innings in Triple-A (allowing one run and striking out eight against one walk) but also delivered an excellent campaign at the Double-A level. With Tulsa, the righty logged 141 2/3 innings with a 2.86 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate.
Last offseason, Baseball America ranked De Jong 16th among Dodgers farmhands, praising his feel for a solid-average curveball. That scouting report noted that his 88-92 mph fastball, which can top out at 94 mph, is a bit straight. He also sports a fringe-average changeup, per BA, and could eventually surface in the Majors as a back-of-the-rotation arm.
De Jong will give the Mariners another upper-level arm to provide depth beyond a rotation that projects to include Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Drew Smyly, James Paxton and Yovani Gallardo. De Jong will join Dillon Overton, Rob Whalen, Ariel Miranda and Cody Martin — each of whom has been acquired by Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto in the past calendar year — as an upper level depth option. De Jong is merely the latest trade acquisition for the game’s most active general manager, as Dipoto is now up to 14 trades this offseason and 40 total since being tabbed as the Seattle GM following the 2015 season (hat tip: MLB.com’s Greg Johns, on Twitter).
[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners Depth Chart and Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart]
As for the Dodgers’ return, the 23-year-old Jackson rated 12th among Mariners’ farmhands, per MLB.com, and ranked 18th among Seattle prospects in the eyes of ESPN’s Keith Law (subscription required/recommended). The 2015 fifth-rounder spent last year at the Class-A Advanced level, where he batted .258/.332/.345 with six homers and 16 steals in 596 plate appearances. Jackson swiped 47 bags in Class-A a year prior, and the scouting reports from both MLB.com and from Law praise his speed, throwing arm and defensive prowess. His power is a question, though, as Jackson has just eight long balls in 862 pro plate appearances. Law noted that Jackson lacks power and hits the ball on the ground with regularity.
Baseball America was more bullish on Jackson this winter, ranking him seventh among Mariners prospects and calling him a potential everyday shortstop, though they too note that he’s routinely graded as a “fringe-average hitter with below-average pop.” Still, Jackson’s “double-plus” speed and arm create plenty of hope in BA’s scouting report (subscription required/recommended to read in its entirety).
Zabala, 20, spent the 2016 season in the Rookie-level Arizona League, pitching to a 2.88 ERA with a 28-to-15 K/BB ratio in 25 innings. He’s been used out of the bullpen exclusively in each of the past two years, and Law notes that he reached 99 mph in 2016. MLB.com rates him 22nd among M’s farmhands and puts a hefty 75 grade on his fastball, though he receives 40-grade control from that report. Zabala’s curveball draws praise from each report, though it’s not regarded nearly as well as his fastball. Low-level arms with this type of velocity are becoming more common in today’s game, but he makes for a nice long-term lottery ticket of sorts to add to a deep Dodgers farm system.
Losing his roster spot in all of this is the 29-year-old Freeman, who made his Major League debut in 2016 but received just 24 plate appearances between the D-backs and Mariners. Seattle claimed Freeman off waivers from Arizona shortly after the non-waiver trade deadline. In 503 Triple-A plate appearances last year, the former 11th-round draft pick hit .314/.285/.419 with four homers, 23 doubles and six triples. Those numbers, tallied across 104 games, bear a striking resemblance to the second baseman/outfielder’s career marks in 298 contests: .314/.376/.424.
The latest Mariners trade leaves Seattle with a full 40-man roster but does create an opening on the 40-man for the Dodgers, should they wish to make another move in the coming days. Alternatively, the Dodgers could simply keep the spot open to create the flexibility for some waiver activity throughout the remainder of Spring Training.
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Tigers To Sign Cuban Infielder Luis Valdes
The Tigers have reached agreement on a minor-league deal with free-agent Cuban shortstop Luis Valdes, according to Ben Badler of Baseball America. Bonus information isn’t known, but Valdes was not subject to international spending limitations.
Valdes seems to be more of a veteran utility option than an interesting prospect to watch. He’s already 28 years of age and ought to open his tenure with the Tigers in the upper minors, per Badler, but there doesn’t appear to be much reason to believe that he’ll ever challenge for more than a reserve role in the majors.
Over his seven seasons in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, Valdes owns a .275/.316/.392 batting line with 24 home runs over 1,267 plate appearances. Though his last season was by far his best, it also came way back in 2014. Whether his bat can keep up at the game’s highest level isn’t yet clear, Badler suggests, though Valdes holds greater promise in the field. Per Badler, the infielder “is a smart, fundamentally sound defender with an average arm that plays up because of his extremely quick release.”
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/28/17
Here are the day’s minor moves, courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy:
- The Marlins added infielder Steve Lombardozzi on a minors deal. He’ll serve as infield depth but doesn’t figure to have much of a shot at cracking the Opening Day roster. Lombardozzi, 28, last appeared in the majors in 2015. He split last year between the independent leagues and the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate.
- Another former MLB infielder, 27-year-old Nick Noonan, is headed to the Brewers on a minors pact. He has a fair bit less major league time than does Lombardozzi, but was able to reach the bigs last year with the Padres. Noonan spent most of the season at Triple-A, slashing .301/.338/.427 over 374 plate appearances.
- The Padres have inked righty Justin De Fratus to a minor-league arrangement. He’s looking to make it back to the majors after spending a portion of 2016 in the upper minors in the Nationals organization. De Fratus, 29, worked to a 5.23 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 over 20 2/3 innings.
- Righty Caleb Cotham has agreed to a minor-leaguedeal with the Mariners. He scuffled to a 7.15 ERA in 34 MLB innings over the past two seasons, but has shown more in the past in the upper minors. In 2015, he worked to a 2.21 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 over 57 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A.
- The Orioles have struck a minors deal with former farmhand Chris Jones. Now 28, Jones spent the 2016 season with the Angels organization, working to an unsightly 6.92 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9. He had performed better with the O’s, though he has yet to earn his way to the game’s highest level.
Nationals To Sign Joe Blanton
The Nationals have struck a one-year deal with reliever Joe Blanton, pending a physical, according to Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post (via Twitter). Blanton is slated to receive a $4MM guarantee with $1MM in available incentives, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets.
$3MM of that salary will be deferred, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter) and Barry Svrluga of the Washingon Post (Twitter links) report, with $1MM payable in 2018 and the other $2MM kicked to 2019. Blanton will take home an additional $250K apiece upon reaching fifty and sixty innings, along with a nice $500K payout if he gets to seventy.
Though he’s coming off of a second consecutive season of steady bullpen production, the 36-year-old had languished on the market this offseason. When catcher Matt Wieters joined the Nats, Blanton was left as the last available name on MLBTR’s list of the top fifty free agents.
[RELATED: Updated Nationals Depth Chart]
It’s easy to see the fit in D.C., where the bullpen has remained somewhat in flux after the organization missed on closer targets Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon. While Blanton doesn’t seem likely to factor directly into the competition for the ninth inning job, he’ll deepen the team’s late-inning corps.
It wasn’t long ago that Blanton seemed like he might be headed for retirement. His last full season as a starter came in 2013, when he scuffled to a 6.04 ERA with the Angels, and he sat out the following campaign. But the righty reemerged with the Royals in 2015, and thrived yet more upon moving to the Pirates that year in a mid-season trade.
The surprising showing of the newly minted reliever led to a $4MM deal with the Dodgers last year. That signing paid big dividends for Los Angeles, as Blanton worked to a 2.48 ERA with 9.0 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9. He carried a sturdy 80-inning workload, allowing just 55 base hits in that span.
It would be unwise to expect Blanton to continue generating a meager .240 batting average on balls put in play against him, but his other peripherals portend continued success. Though he drew far less grounders than usual (32.5% against a career average of 43.9%), Blanton tamped down the long balls that plagued him in the second half of his time working from the rotation. And he generated swinging strikes at an excellent 14.2% clip, representing an increase over his already-strong 2015 numbers (13.0%).
Beyond the ability he displayed, Blanton showed he’s still capable of carrying a heavy burden for a reliever while retaining his arm speed deep into his career. He averaged a career-best 91 mph with his fastball last year, with his slider and curve also rating as above-average offerings. While his change wasn’t as productive in 2016, Blanton’s starter’s arsenal also gives him some added flexibility. Though he surrendered free passes more frequently to the 111 lefty batters he faced than the 204 righties that came to the plate against him, Blanton held southpaw hitters to an anemic .186/.288/.258 batting line.
That’s not to say that Blanton comes without questions. He did falter in the NLCS, though he was aces for the Dodgers in their thrilling divisional series against the Nats, when he provided five scoreless innings over which he allowed just a single base knock and compiled five strikeouts against one walk. Of greater concern is his ability to continue succeeding while giving up a fair amount of hard contact (34.3%) while permitting many more flyballs (45.6%) than grounders (32.5%). And he did that while generating far fewer harmless infield pop-ups than he had in 2015 (15.2% versus 5.3%). If a few more of those flies end up in the seats — which is always possible when Nats Park heats up over the summer — then there could be some regression in store.
Regardless, it’s a solid value for the Nationals, who will add Blanton to a righty setup mix that also includes Blake Treinen, Shawn Kelley, and youngster Koda Glover. One of those three seems likely to take the closer’s job, though lefty Sammy Solis could also enter that discussion. Veteran right-handers Joe Nathan and Matt Albers now seemingly face taller odds in their bids to crack the Opening Day roster. It’s still tempting to wonder whether the organization will pursue an experienced closer before camp breaks, though the addition of Blanton likely draws down the available resources and reduces the likelihood of another significant move.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Orioles Release T.J. McFarland
TODAY: The Orioles have officially released McFarland, as per a team announcement. The southpaw cleared release waivers and can now be signed by any club.
FEBRUARY 19: The Orioles have designated left-hander T.J. McFarland for assignment, as per a club press release. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for the newly-acquired Vidal Nuno.
McFarland, 27, posted a 6.93 ERA over 24 2/3 relief innings for the Orioles last season, despite recording a 60.2% grounder rate. Always an extreme groundball pitcher who didn’t miss many bats (a 60.7% career GBR, 5.67 career K/9), McFarland recorded just seven strikeouts in 2016, and issued more walks (10) than strikeouts.
McFarland avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $685K deal with the O’s for the coming season, and he still has two remaining years of arb-eligibility. The lefty is also out of options, and CSNBaltimore.com’s Rich Dubroff speculates that McFarland is likely to pass through waivers and potentially stay with the Orioles, if no longer on the 40-man roster. Though any number of teams are looking to add left-handed relief options, McFarland has only solid numbers (.280/.326/.395) against left-handed hitters over his career, so clubs may look for southpaws with more extreme splits.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/25/17
Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.
- The Orioles have re-signed shortstop Paul Janish to a minor-league deal with a Spring Training invite, Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com tweets. Incumbent O’s shortstop J.J. Hardy has had back issues lately, but Buck Showalter told reporters, including MASN’s Roch Kubatko (via Twitter), that Janish’s re-signing is not related to Hardy’s status. The 34-year-old Janish appeared in 14 games with the Orioles in each of the past two seasons, but has spent most of the last two years with Triple-A Norfolk, where he batted .248/.333/.280 in 2016.
- Orioles lefty T.J. McFarland has cleared outright waivers and been placed on release waivers, Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun tweets. The Orioles designated McFarland for assignment when they officially acquired Vidal Nuno from the Dodgers. The Orioles remain interested in McFarland but would like to re-sign him for less than the $685K they would have had to pay him after settling with him for that sum in January, Kubatko tweets. McFarland has just over three years of service time and would have been eligible for arbitration had he and the Orioles not settled. The reliever is coming off a disappointing season in which he posted a 6.93 ERA with ten walks and just seven strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings in the big leagues.
Braves Claim Christian Walker From Orioles
The Braves have claimed 1B/OF Christian Walker from the Orioles, the Orioles have announced. The O’s designated Walker for assignment last week when they acquired Richard Bleier from the Yankees.
Walker was once a well-regarded prospect in the Orioles’ system, winning the team’s minor league player of the year award after a strong 2014 season spent mostly at Double-A Bowie. He has since struggled to get much traction at Triple-A Norfolk, however, batting a decent but modest .264/.321/.437 there last season. Walker had little chance at a roster spot with the Orioles once the team re-signed Mark Trumbo this past winter.
Walker does, however, have an option remaining, and he’s relatively young, at 25. While his Triple-A numbers haven’t been impressive, they also haven’t been horrific, so it seems possible he could yet emerge as a viable big-leaguer with a bit of improvement. If he does, his ability to play both first base and left field should give the Braves or some other organization at least a couple ways to use him. The Braves, of course, have Freddie Freeman at first, but it’s possible to see Walker helping the team out as a backup and in the outfield (where he could potentially serve as a right-handed caddy for Nick Markakis) at some point this season.
Cardinals Sign Jose Adolis Garcia
The Cardinals have announced the signing of Cuban free agent Jose Adolis Garcia. The outfielder will receive an invitation to MLB camp on the minor-league deal. He’ll receive a $2.5MM bonus, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter).
Garcia is the younger brother of Braves third baseman Adonis Garcia. He was listed at 24 years of age as of last August, when Ben Badler of Baseball America reported that he had left Cuba in search of a MLB opportunity. Garcia, a right-handed hitter, received clearance to sign in early December.
While Garcia is expected to be ready for an assignment in the upper minors, he’s not viewed as being quite ready for the majors. Despite excellent numbers in Cuba — he hit .315/.395/.517 over his 380 most recent plate appearances — he wasn’t exactly productive in his brief run with a second-level Japanese club.
Badler says there’s still some polishing left to be done before Garcia is ready for prime time. But he also emphasizes the impressive tools that Garcia brings to the table. He’s said to carry well-above-average speed, an outstanding arm, the ability to play center, and good bat speed. There are some offensive worries, though, per Badler’s latest write-up; namely: “his long swing, free-swinging approach and struggles to recognize offspeed pitches.”
There won’t be any impact on the rest of the Cards’ international maneuverings, as Garcia was able to sign free of international limitations given his age and experience. St. Louis will hope to strike once again on a slightly older Cuban prospect who signs for a substantial, but hardly massive bonus. The team hit it big in 2016, when Aledmys Diaz posted an outstanding rookie season after originally signing for $8MM in March of 2014.
Cubs Extend Pedro Strop
The Cubs have agreed to a contract extension with right-hander Pedro Strop, per ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers. The new deal will run through the 2018 campaign and comes with a club option for the 2019 season. That buys out one year of free agency for Strop, who was set to hit the open market next winter, and gives Chicago an option over what would’ve been his second free-agent season.
Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune tweets that Strop will be guaranteed $5.85MM in 2018, and the option season is valued at $6.25MM (with a $500K buyout). Paired with Strop’s $5.5MM salary for the upcoming 2017 campaign, the right-hander is now playing on a two-year, $11.85MM deal with a reasonable option for the 2019 campaign. Strop is represented by the Legacy Agency.
The 31-year-old Strop is the oft-unheralded second piece the Cubs received in the 2013 Jake Arrieta heist. But while he doesn’t generate the headlines and fanfare of his Cy Young teammate, Strop has nonetheless been an outstanding bullpen piece for the Cubs since being acquired from Baltimore.
Strop has never posted an ERA north of 3.00 in any of his four years with the Cubs, and he’s worked to an overall ERA of 2.68 in 211 1/3 innings in Chicago. Along the way, he’s averaged 10.8 strikeouts against 3.4 walks per nine innings pitched to go along with a 53.6 percent ground-ball rate and a fastball that has averaged 95.2 mph.
Given that level of excellence, it’s at least somewhat of a surprise to see Strop take a short-term extension when free agency was just around the corner. He’d have landed on the open market in advance of his age-33 season (he’ll turn 32 this June) and hasn’t worked extensively as a closer, so he wouldn’t have been in line for any of the record-setting mega-deals we saw earlier this offseason. However, the market for top-level relief help has become more robust in recent years, and Strop still could’ve had a chance at cashing in on a fairly significant multi-year deal in free agency.
There’s something to be said, of course, for taking a risk-averse approach to financial security, and Strop had earned fewer than $10MM in his career prior to this deal. He did also miss nearly six weeks with a torn meniscus in his left knee last season, and any lingering effects from that injury could have negatively impacted his earning capacity. By signing the new contract, Strop assures himself of an additional $6.35MM while also remaining in an environment where he’s comfortable and knows he has a chance to win over the life of the deal. That last part seems to have been a key factor for the righty, who told reporters that he recognizes he could’ve potentially been viewed as a closer in free agency (Twitter links via Rogers and via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times). “I like to win better than roles,” Strop told the media.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.