Diamondbacks Sign Fernando Rodney
DECEMBER 9: Arizona appears to have acknowledged the signing via Twitter, with a clever nod to Rodney’s post-save, arrow-shooting celebration.
Jack Magruder of Fan Rag tweeted the details of the incentives clause, which he says maxes out at $4MM. That includes $250K apiece if and when Rodney reaches 40, 50, and 60 appearances, with a $500K payout if he gets to 70.
DEC. 7: SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets that Rodney’s deal would max out at $5MM if all of the incentives are reached.
DEC. 6: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent reliever Fernando Rodney, Jon Heyman of FanRag writes (Twitter links). Rodney will receive $2.75MM guaranteed, plus considerable incentives, and he’ll open the year as the Diamondbacks’ closer. Heyman had previously tweeted that the Diamondbacks and Padres were in talks with Rodney, who is an Octagon client.
It was a tale of two seasons for the Rodney in 2016 — he was brilliant for the Padres to start the year, allowing just one earned run through 28 1/3 innings in San Diego, but then he allowed twice as many walks in 36 2/3 innings after a trade to Miami. His 5.89 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 in Florida led the Marlins to decline his 2017 option, which was effectively worth $4.5MM after incentives.
Where that leaves Rodney for 2017 is unclear — on one hand, he has closing experience, can still strike batters out and induce grounders, and managed to post a reasonable composite line in 2016 (3.44 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 5.1 BB/9). On the other hand, he faded down the stretch, walks too many batters, and will be 40 in March.
In any case, the Diamondbacks didn’t have an established closer, so the deal provides both player and team with an opportunity. Rodney can reestablish himself as a big-league closer. The Diamondbacks, who don’t appear likely to contend, can either keep him for the year or attempt to trade him, much as the Padres did last season — San Diego received a decent starting pitching prospect, Chris Paddack, when it dealt Rodney last June.
Tigers Sign Omar Infante, 13 Others To Minors Deals
The Tigers have announced a barrage of minor-league signings, most notably including a reunion with former Detroit infielder Omar Infante. Other players receiving Spring Training invites include pitchers Ruben Alaniz, William Cuevas, Logan Kensing, Dustin Molleken, as well as catcher Miguel Gonzalez.
Infante, who’ll soon turn 35, enjoyed two prior runs in the Motor City. His most recent stint came in 2012-13, with a strong final season leading him to land a four-year deal with the Royals. Things didn’t go well in Kansas City, where Infante scuffled to a .238/.269/.328 batting line over 1,179 plate appearances. He was cut loose in the middle of last year, leaving the Royals still on the hook for his $8MM salary this season.
The team also reached agreement on minors deals without a non-roster invite with a variety of other players: pitchers Johan Belisario, Endrys Briceno, Jeff Ferrell, Santiago Garrido, and Arcenio Leon along with infielders Argenis Diaz and Gustavo Nunez.
Padres To Acquire Rule 5 Picks Miguel Diaz, Luis Torrens
TODAY: Cincinnati will pick up infielder Josh VanMeter from the Padres in the trade for Torrens, per club announcements. The 21-year-old struggled after a promotion to Double-A last year, but earned that bump up with a strong .267/.355/.443 batting line over 401 High-A plate appearances. Notably, he ended up hitting 14 total home runs in 2016 — a rather significant tally for a player who had hit just three total long balls as a professional coming into the year.
YESTERDAY: The Padres will acquire the top two Rule 5 Draft picks, righty Miguel Diaz (in a trade with the Twins) and catcher Luis Torrens (in a trade with the Reds), MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo writes (Twitter links). (Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper tweeted that the Reds would trade Torrens to San Diego.) The Padres already had the third Rule 5 pick and used it to select infielder Allen Cordoba, so it appears they’ve ended up with the first three Rule 5 picks.
The Reds will receive a player to be named and cash from the Padres. The Twins will receive a player to be named or cash, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweets, and they’ll also get Rule 5 pick Justin Haley, who the Padres had previously acquired from the Angels. Diaz and Torrens were previously with the Brewers and Yankees, respectively. Haley had been with the Red Sox.
That’s all incredibly confusing, so here’s a different way of representing where each player went this morning:
Diaz: Brewers –> Twins –> Padres
Torrens: Yankees –> Reds –> Padres
Haley: Red Sox –> Angels –> Padres –> Twins
The 22-year-old Diaz ranked 21st on MLB.com’s list of the Brewers’ top prospects. He throws in the mid-90s from a three-quarters arm slot, and he has the makings of a good slider, according to MLB.com. He’s a bit small, at 6’1″ and 175 pounds, and he’s had elbow trouble in the past. He fared well for Class A Wisconsin in 2016, however, with a 3.71 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 94 2/3 innings.
Torrens, 20, ranked as the Yankees’ 17th-best prospect. The Yankees signed him out of Venezuela for $1.3MM in 2012. He hasn’t hit much, batting .250/.350/.337 in the lower levels in 2016, and his experience is limited, due to shoulder troubles that cost him much of 2014 and all of 2015, but MLB.com praises his work behind the plate. He seems hard-pressed to stick in the Majors all season, but perhaps it’s not out of the question he could make the Padres out of Spring Training as Austin Hedges‘ backup.
Braves Acquires Tyler Pike From Mariners As PTBNL
The Braves have acquired lefty Tyler Pike from the Mariners as the player to be named later in the recent trade between the organizations, per club announcements. The late-November swap sent righties Rob Whalen and Max Povse to Seattle in exchange for outfield prospect Alex Jackson, who’ll now be joined by Pike.
A third-round pick in the 2012 draft, Pike has twice reached the Double-A level, but spent all of 2016 at High-A Bakersfield. In his 125 2/3 innings there, Pike worked to a 4.01 ERA with 9.6 K/9 against 4.9 BB/9. While that’s obviously a rather hefty walk total, it’s actually just below his career levels. Clearly, he’ll need to lock in his command to earn a shot at making the Braves’ MLB staff at some point in the future.
Tigers, A.J. Achter Agree To Minor League Deal
The Tigers and right-hander A.J. Achter have agreed to a minor league contract with an invite to Major League Spring Training, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter).
Achter, a longtime Twins farmhand, will return to the American League Central after spending the 2016 season with the Angels organization. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with the Twins back in 2014 and has appeared in parts of each season since, but he received his lengthiest and most successful Major League stint with the Halos last year. In 37 2/3 innings out of the Angels’ bullpen, Achter worked to a 3.11 earned run average. Achter displayed solid control (2.9 BB/9) and posted a roughly league-average ground-ball rate, but he also showed an inability to miss bats at the Major League level. In his 37 2/3 frames, he picked up just 14 strikeouts (3.3 K/9). Achter entered the 2016 campaign with a career 9.1 K/9 rate in the minors and with 19 strikeouts in 24 1/3 Major League innings, but the extreme levels of contact against him led ERA estimators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA to each peg him well north of 5.00.
With a career 2.79 ERA and solid K/BB numbers in Triple-A, Achter is at the very least a solid depth piece to have on hand. He’ll have a homecoming of sorts in joining the Tigers — Achter is from Ohio and went to college at Michigan State — and hope to force his way to the bullpen of a Tigers team that is attempting to trim its payroll this winter.
Rangers Acquire Tyrell Jenkins, Brady Feigl From Braves For Luke Jackson
6:59pm: Texas has announced the deal.
6:11pm: The Rangers and Braves have agreed to a trade that will send lefty Brady Feigl and righty Tyrell Jenkins to the Rangers, according to reports from Tommy Stokke of Fan Rag (via Twitter) and Keith Law of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Righty Luke Jackson is heading to Atlanta, Law adds on Twitter.
It seems fair to characterize this as something of a change-of-scenery swap involving two similarly situated young righties. The 25-year-old Jackson and 24-year-old Jenkins each drew a fair amount of attention as prospects and reached the majors only recently. In both cases, limited exposure to the big leagues has led to questions as to whether (and in what role) they can stick.
Taken with the 45th overall selection in the 2010 draft, Jackson brings a big arm to the table but hasn’t yet found his bearings at the game’s highest level. Over 18 MLB innings in the last two years, he has allowed 17 earned runs on 27 hits and ten walks, while retiring just nine batters via strikeout.
Though he has shown swing-and-miss stuff at all levels of the minors, and delivers a mid-to-upper-nineties fastball, Jackson has also long struggled with control. He has walked 4.6 batters per nine in his minor-league career, and a full-time shift to the pen hasn’t really helped much. In his 46 1/3 innings at Double-A and Triple-A last year, Jackson issued 32 free passes, though he also racked up 59 strikeouts.
For Jenkins, who joined the Atlanta organization as a part of the Jason Heyward-Shelby Miller swap, the results have been good in the upper minors over the last two years. But that has come in spite of a lack of strikeouts and uninspiring peripherals. Last year, for instance, he struck out 5.9 and walked 3.8 batters per nine over 83 2/3 Triple-A innings. He did end with a 2.47 ERA, though, in large part because he limited opposing hitters to just three home runs.
The dinger suppression did not continue when Jenkins hit the majors. He was touched for 11 long balls in his first 52 MLB frames. Over eight starts and six relief appearances in 2016, Jenkins worked to a 5.88 ERA while allowing 33 walks and striking out only 26 hitters.
There’s another piece being chipped in by the Braves, in the form of the 25-year-old Feigl. An undrafted product of Mount Saint Mary’s University, Feigl has been limited to 72 1/3 professional innings — mostly in the lower minors — as he fought through Tommy John surgery. He has shown well when healthy, though, posting a 2.74 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/8/16
Here are the latest minor moves from around the game:
- The Rangers have signed outfielder Cesar Puello to a minors deal, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. The deal includes an invitation to major league Spring Training. Still just 25, and once a well-regarded prospect with the Mets, Puello spent last year at Triple-A with the Yankees. He didn’t flash much power, but reached base at a prodigious .413 clip in his 289 plate appearances.
- Also receiving a non-roster invite is Ramiro Pena, who’ll join the Giants, per Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area (via Twitter). The 31-year-old will remain with San Francisco, which gave him thirty games of action in 2016. Pena actually hit quite well, posting a .299/.330/.425 slash. He has also been productive at Triple-A in each of the last two years. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the seven-year MLB vet get another look at some point next season.
- Outfielder Matt den Dekker has joined the Marlins on a minor league deal, he announced on Twitter. The 29-year-old, who is a Florida native, has previously played with the Nationals and Mets. While he has received some major league time in each of the last four seasons, den Dekker struggled in 2016. He only received 39 MLB plate appearances, and posted only a .207/.292/.315 slash in his 421 trips to the plate at Triple-A.
- Catcher Johnny Monell is headed to Korea, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. He’ll join the KBO’s NC Dinos after wrapping up a two-year stint in the Mets organization. Monell never cracked the majors in 2016, but did hit a productive .276/.336/.470 with 19 homers in 461 plate appearances at Triple-A Las Vegas.
Red Sox Designate Williams Jerez For Assignment
The Red Sox have announced that they’ve designated lefty Williams Jerez for assignment. The move clears roster space for first baseman Mitch Moreland, whose one-year deal is now official.
The Red Sox drafted Jerez in the second round in 2011. They added him to their 40-man roster after the 2015 season, in which he posted a 2.54 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 while pitching in the bullpen at three minor league levels, ending at Double-A Portland. But he didn’t fare as well in a return to Portland in 2016, with a 4.71 ERA, 9.0 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 across 65 innings.
Yankees To Sign Aroldis Chapman
Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees have agreed on a five-year deal worth $86MM, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes (Twitter links). Chapman will receive an $11MM signing bonus and $15MM per season, FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets. He can opt out of the contract after three years, and he has a full no-trade clause through the first three years of the deal and a limited no-trade clause for the last two. He also cannot be traded to a West Coast-based team, ESPN’s Marly Rivera tweets. Since the Yankees traded Chapman last season, he was not extended a qualifying offer and thus will not cost the Yankees a draft pick. Chapman is a client of Magnus Sports.
[Related: Updated New York Yankees Depth Chart]
Chapman’s enormous $86MM guarantee destroys the previous record for the largest contract ever given to a free agent relief pitcher, topping Mark Melancon‘s recent deal with the Giants by a remarkable $24MM. The $17.2MM average annual value of Chapman’s deal also easily tops the previous high for a relief pitcher, set by Melancon ($15.5MM). Chapman’s deal is also the second largest for a free agent this winter, behind only Yoenis Cespedes‘ $110MM pact.
Still, the dollar figures of Chapman’s contract aren’t surprising — it had already been reported that Chapman had received a $92MM deal, a number that hardly seemed surprising given his talent. (It’s possible he elected to take a deal with a slightly smaller guarantee due to the opt-out.) We here at MLBTR predicted Chapman would head back to the Yankees on a $90MM contract. The 28-year-old Chapman has a well-earned reputation as the game’s most dominating relief pitcher, piling up strikeout after strikeout with ridiculous three-digit heat from the left side, as well as a slider that frequently touches 90 MPH. In his seven-year career in the big leagues, Chapman has struck out 636 batters just in 377 innings for an absurd 15.2 K/9, with a brilliant 2.08 lifetime ERA.
The Yankees and Marlins had each made five-year offers to Chapman, whose decision had turned into a linchpin of each team’s Winter Meetings activity. The Marlins had also been connected to Kenley Jansen, the other elite closer remaining, who will now likely head to Miami or back to the Dodgers.
The Marlins were, in fact, the runners-up to acquire Chapman, Rivera confirms, but Chapman says he wanted to return to the Yankees organization. “Every player dreams of being a Yankee, and if they don’t it’s because they never got the chance,” he says.
In the end, Chapman opted to return to the Yankees, for whom he posted a 2.01 ERA, 12.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 20 saves in 31 1/3 brilliant innings before heading to the Cubs in a trade last summer. Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances had combined to form the back end of what had been a devastating Yankees bullpen. Miller, of course, has moved on, but Chapman appears set to join Betances yet again in what should be one of the game’s best late-inning combos, with Chapman closing and Betances pitching in a setup role.
The Yankees spent the last half of the 2016 season retooling, shipping out Chapman, Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova while attempting to transition from a veteran team to a much more youthful one. The 2017 Yankees will also be without veterans Brian McCann (who was traded to the Astros) and Mark Teixeira (who has retired). With the additions of Chapman and Matt Holliday, however, the Yankees have plainly announced their intention to compete in 2017, and of course there will also be the expectation that Chapman can help well beyond that. In fact, the Yankees specifically targeted DH and closer as areas to upgrade because young players would not be blocked at those positions, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.
Chapman does come with significant baggage — he was suspended for 30 games at the beginning of the 2016 season due to violation of the league’s domestic violence policy. In October 2015, he allegedly choked his girlfriend, then went to his garage and fired his handgun eight times.
His contract also raises questions about how well he’ll likely perform over its duration. Long-term contracts for relievers infamously frequently turn out poorly. Still, Chapman is such a unique talent that it seems unwise to judge him based on the past troubles of significantly lesser pitchers. Also, the recent successes of pitchers like Chapman and Miller, as well as the 2014-15 Royals bullpen, demonstrate the impact terrific relievers can have on contending teams. Chapman’s new deal will only cover his age-29 through age-33 seasons, and if he can stay healthy, it’s easy to imagine him having success throughout its duration.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Brewers Trade Caleb Smith To Cubs
The Brewers have traded Rule 5 Draft pick and left-handed pitcher Caleb Smith to the Cubs, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes (Twitter links). The Brewers will receive a player to be named or cash.
The Brewers had selected the 25-year-old Smith out of the Yankees system. He pitched 63 2/3 innings for Double-A Trenton in 2016, making seven starts and 20 relief appearances, and posted a 3.96 ERA, 9.9 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. The Yankees selected him in the 14th round of the 2013 draft. He seems unlikely to stick on a stacked Cubs roster, but the Cubs had been looking for left-handed relief help.