Mariners Release Tom Wilhelmsen
The Mariners announced today that they’ve requested release waivers on right-hander Tom Wilhelmsen, who was designated for assignment last week as part of a flurry of moves that preceded the deadline to set rosters prior to the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. A team could technically claim Wilhelmsen off release waivers, though with a projected $3.8MM salary for the 2017 season, that seems unlikely.
The 33-year-old Wilhelmsen went from Seattle to Texas in last offseason’s Leonys Martin swap but was shelled in his limited time with the Rangers. Wilhelmsen served up an incredible 25 earned runs on 38 hits (seven homers) and nine walks in just 21 1/3 innings. Those alarming struggles, unsurprisingly, led to a release by the Rangers, and the former Mariners closer quickly re-signed in Seattle. Wilhelmsen went on to enjoy success over his final 25 innings of the year, posting a 3.60 ERA with a 17-to-10 K/BB ratio and a 52.8 percent ground-ball rate.
With the exception of his disastrous run in Texas, Wilhelmsen has performed pretty well over the past three seasons. From 2014-15, he logged a 2.67 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a roughly league-average ground-ball rate in 141 1/3 innings of relief with the Mariners. He averaged a solid 94.8 mph on his heater this season and, given his past success, should draw interest for teams looking for a short-term commitment to a bullpen arm. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has already spoken about the possibility of a re-signing Wilhelmsen, though he could certainly end up garnering big league offers elsewhere.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/22/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Nationals announced yesterday that they’ve signed former Blue Jays right-hander Dustin Antolin to a minor league deal and invited him to Major League Spring Training. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Jays in 2016, tossing two innings and surrendering three runs in his lone appearance. Antolin was tremendous during his time with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, pitching to a 2.04 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 53 innings. However, he didn’t reach the Triple-A level until his age-26 season and also displayed some control issues, walking 28 batters (4.8 BB/9) and hitting another three batters as well. The Hawaiian-born Antolin has a career 4.16 ERA in the minors and has averaged eight strikeouts against four walks per nine innings pitched.
- The Orioles announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder David Washington to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Washington, who turned 26 on Sunday, had a big year in 2016, hitting a combined 30 homers between the Cardinals’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. His .259/.359/.532 slash line is impressive, but Washington is no stranger to strikeouts, as he whiffed in a bit more than 34 percent of his plate appearances last season. Since being selected in the 15th round of the 2009 draft, Washington has punched out in 30.6 percent of his professional plate appearances. Still, his power is intriguing, and he’ll give the O’s a depth piece as they seek out potential options in right field.
- Shortstop Wilfredo Tovar appears to have signed what is presumably a minor league deal with the Cardinals, as the infielder himself tweeted a thank you to the organization for his latest opportunity. The 25-year-old Tovar came up through the Mets system and made a pair of brief MLB appearances in 2013-14, collecting three hits in a tiny sample of 22 plate appearances. Once rated as one of the Top 15 prospects in the Mets’ system by Baseball America (and thrice rated as that system’s best defensive infielder), Tovar spent the 2016 campaign with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate, where he served as their primary shortstop. Defensive prowess aside, Tovar doesn’t bring much to the table offensively; he hit .249/.301/.327 with one homer in 494 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, although he did chip in 29 steals (in 38 attempts) when he managed to reach base.
Rangers Sign Andrew Cashner
MONDAY: The deal is now official, per a club announcement.
FRIDAY: The Rangers are nearing a deal with free agent righty Andrew Cashner, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). It’s expected to be for a one-year term at $10MM, per MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan (Twitter links), who says the deal appears to be done.
If a pact is completed, it would make Cashner the fourth rather significant starter to reach agreement already this winter. Charlie Morton, Bartolo Colon, and R.A. Dickey all previously agreed to short-term pacts.
Texas was one of the organizations that made the clearest sense for Cashner, as MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes noted in his breakdown of the top fifty free agents — which placed Cashner 28th in earning power but predicted he’d pursue a one-year deal with hopes of rebuilding his stock for next winter. While we ultimately guessed that he’d head instead to the Pirates with an $8MM guarantee, this result certainly lands within range of expectations.
Cashner, 30, will look to get his career back on track in his native Texas. He delivers a big-time fastball and has long been seen as a premium talent. It’s important to remember, too, that he has been a quality big league starter before: over 2013-14, he worked to a 2.87 ERA in nearly 300 innings. But he hasn’t been able to sustain that, and the last two seasons have been rough.
Since the start of 2015, Cashner has compiled 316 2/3 innings with an ugly 4.72 ERA. His strikeouts did tick up to 7.9 per nine, but he has also walked 3.6 batters and surrendered more than a home run per regulation game. Things only got worse after a mid-season trade to the Marlins last year.
That being said, there are signs of hope. Cashner still induces grounders on nearly half of the balls put in play against him, and has been a victim of both high BABIPs (.330 and .315 in 2016 and 2017, respectively) and low strand rates (65.6% and 69.1%). Of course, this past year in particular, the quality of contact against him may have been more of a driving factor than poor fortune or bad defense. He generated just 12.5% soft contact in 2016 — worst in all of baseball among pitchers who logged at least 100 frames.
[RELATED: Updated Rangers Depth Chart]
It’s a calculated risk for the Rangers, who evidently felt that Cashner offered more promise than did Derek Holland. The club declined its option over the lefty, choosing to reallocate those funds to Cashner. Texas will surely hope that he’ll make good on the trust, as the organization still has a rather uncertain outlook in its rotation after top two hurlers Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish. At a minimum, the team needs Cashner to soak up some of the innings departing with Colby Lewis.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Photos.
Cardinals Sign Brett Cecil
NOV. 21: The Cardinals have formally announced Cecil’s four-year deal and introduced him at a press conference.
NOV. 19: The Cardinals have agreed to a four-year deal with southpaw reliever Brett Cecil, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). The deal will pay Cecil $30.5MM over the four seasons and includes full no-trade protection, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter links). The contract will be official when Cecil, an ACES client, passes a physical.
[Related: Updated St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
St. Louis was known to be interested in bullpen help this winter, and adding another left-hander was the more logical fit, as Kevin Siegrist was the only other healthy southpaw in the Cards’ bullpen. Tyler Lyons will miss at least the start of the 2017 season due to knee surgery, while Zach Duke will miss next season entirely after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
In Cecil, the Cardinals have landed one of the top setup men on the market this winter. In four years as a full-time reliever, Cecil posted a 2.90 ERA, 11.5 K/9 and 3.68 K/BB rate with the Blue Jays, with grounder rates of over 50% in three of those four years. Over his career, Cecil has dominated left-handed hitters, limiting them to just a .226/.281/.344 slash line.
Despite this solid track record, the thought of Cecil landing a four-year deal seemed pretty remote in mid-July. The lefty missed six weeks due to a tear in his lat muscle, and he had a whopping 6.75 ERA over his first 16 innings of action. Down the stretch, however, Cecil looked far closer to his old self, posting a 1.74 ERA over his final 20 2/3 innings of the year.
Cecil’s 3.93 ERA was his highest in four seasons, though a .344 BABIP and an inflated 20% home run rate can be partially blamed for that spike. Advanced metrics peripherals (3.64 FIP, 2.87 xFIP, 2.71 SIERA) take a more positive view of Cecil’s season, and he also posted a 11.05 K/9 and 1.96 BB/9. His grounder rate did drop to just 42%, however, and hitters were making very good contact — 37.3% of Cecil’s contact allowed was comprised of hard-hit balls, easily the highest total of his career.
MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes ranked Cecil 26th on his list of the winter’s top 50 free agents, and projected him to land a three-year, $18MM contract. The fact that Cecil ended up with a fourth year and $30.5MM in guaranteed money is both a nice win for his representatives at ACES and a sign of just how far the Cards had to go to win the bidding. The Mariners and Blue Jays were both known to be interested in Cecil’s services, with Toronto reportedly putting a three-year deal on the table to retain their longtime reliever. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that the Jays were one of multiple teams willing to give Cecil a three-year commitment.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports Images
Diamondbacks Designate Kyle Jensen For Assignment
The Diamondbacks designated first baseman/outfielder Kyle Jensen for assignment, the team announced. The move was made on Friday as part of Arizona’s 40-man roster maneuvering in advance of the Rule 5 draft deadline.
Jensen, 28, made his big league debut last season, appearing in 17 games and posting a .716 OPS over 34 plate appearance for the D’Backs. A 12th-round pick for the Marlins in 2009, Jensen signed a minor league deal with Arizona last winter. Over 3877 minor league plate appearances in the Marlins, Dodgers and D’Backs farm systems, Jensen has hit .266/.341/.488 with 178 homers.
Friday’s roster shuffling left quite a few players in ‘DFA limbo,’ so be sure to check out the MLB Trade Rumors DFA Tracker to keep track of all the designation situations from around the game.
Chris Gimenez To Elect Free Agency
Indians catcher Chris Gimenez will reject an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus and become a free agent, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (Twitter link). Cleveland outrighted Gimenez off its 40-man roster Friday, but the club is interested in bringing him back on a minor league deal, according to Bastian.
The soon-to-be 34-year-old Gimenez has had three separate major league stints with the Indians (2009-10, 2014, 2016), who selected him in the 19th round of the 2004 draft. He rejoined the Tribe in a May trade with the Rangers and ended up hitting .216/.272/.331 in 155 plate appearances, contributing to a lifetime line of .218/.297/.335 in 776 PAs with four different teams. Defensively, Gimenez earned mixed reviews as a pitch framer in 2016, but he did win the favor of right-hander Trevor Bauer.
If he re-signs with Cleveland, Gimenez will once again provide organizational depth behind fellow backstops Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez. Injuries helped limit Gomes to just 74 games this past season, thus leading to a career high in major league playing time for Gimenez.
Nationals Sign Four To Minor League Deals
9:07am: In addition to Snyder, Washington has signed left-hander Braulio Lara, right-hander Derek Eitel and infielder Corban Joseph to minor league pacts with spring training invitations, per a team announcement. The only member of the trio with major league experience is Joseph, who collected seven PAs with the Yankees in 2013.
8:38am: The Nationals have signed free agent utilityman Brandon Snyder to a minor league contract, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. The deal contains an invitation to big league camp, where Snyder will have a chance to compete for a roster spot on next year’s Nats.
Snyder, who played high school baseball in Northern Virginia, landed on the open market when the Braves outrighted him in mid-October. He was successful last season with Atlanta in a 47-plate appearance sample, though, posting an unusual batting line of .239/.255/.652 with four home runs. In a combined 205 career major league PAs with the Orioles – who chose him in the first round of the 2005 draft – Rangers, Red Sox and Braves, Snyder has slashed .242/.279/.459 with nine long balls. Snyder has seen far more action at the Triple-A level, where he has batted an uninspiring .259/.319/.411 in 1,837 trips to the plate.
The right-handed Snyder, who will turn 30 on Wednesday, could catch on with a Nationals team that currently has an unsettled bench, as Zuckerman notes. Most of Snyder’s major league time has come in the corner infield, though the Nats are set at third base as long as Anthony Rendon stays healthy. First base is perhaps a different story, however, as both Ryan Zimmerman and Clint Robinson are coming off dreadful seasons.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/19/16
The latest minor moves from around the baseball world…
- The Giants signed southpaw Michael Roth to a minor league deal, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Twitter link). Roth has appeared in parts of three big league seasons with the Angels and Rangers, posting an 8.50 ERA over 36 career innings. He spent most of 2016 pitching for the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate, and he managed a strong 2.97 ERA over 145 1/3 innings, starting 23 of 28 games.
- The Giants have also signed infielder Juniel Querecuto to a minor league deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports via Twitter. The 24-year-old made his major league debut in 2016, appearing in four games with the Rays. Since being signed out of Venezuela and beginning his pro career at age 17, Querecuto has hit .253/.311/.319 over 2112 minor league plate appearances.
- Former Mets utilityman Eric Campbell will sign with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to reports out of Japan (hat tip to ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin). The Mets outrighted Campbell off their 40-man roster earlier this month and he elected to become a free agent. Campbell, who turns 30 in April, has a .622 OPS over 505 career plate appearances in the bigs, all as a member of the Mets from 2014-16. Most of Campbell’s playing time has been at third base, though he has also seen significant time at first and left field, as well as limited action as a shortstop, right fielder and second baseman.
- The Mariners announced that outfielder Stefen Romero has been released so that he can pursue an opportunity to play in Japan. Romero appeared in 72 games for Seattle in his 2014 rookie season but just 22 since, amassing a .195/.242/.307 career slash line over 233 plate appearances. A 12th-round pick for the M’s in the 2010 draft, Romero showed some promise in the minors, posting an .875 OPS and an even 100 homers over 2567 minor league PA.
Nationals Re-Sign Chris Heisey
TODAY: The Nationals have officially announced the signing.
NOVEMBER 11: The Nationals have agreed to a one-year, $1.4MM to bring back outfielder Chris Heisey, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The contract includes various performance incentives as well.
[RELATED: Updated Nationals Depth Chart]
Heisey, 31, provided Washington with a solid, right-handed-hitting presence from the bench last year. He ended with a .216/.290/.446 slash over 155 plate appearances, with nine home runs. There’s a fair bit of swing and miss in his game — he posted a 28.4% K rate last year — and Heisey has been an essentially average fielder and baserunner. But he obviously impressed the Nats, and it probably didn’t hurt that he came up with a big home run in the NLDS.
Looking at the roster, locking in a right-handed-hitting outfielder probably doesn’t dictate many other moves. Heisey has traditionally carried reverse splits, and will be expected to play a relatively minor role as a spot starter and pinch hitter. The signing probably doesn’t help Michael Taylor‘s chances of cracking the Opening Day roster, and makes it appear somewhat unlikely that the club will sign a more significant fourth outfielder, but otherwise the primary needs remain the same.
Outrighted: Smith, Centeno, Brennan
As teams finalized their 40-man rosters yesterday in advance of the Rule 5 draft, here are a few more outrights…
- The Athletics outrighted right-hander Josh Smith, as per a team announcement. Oakland just claimed Smith off waivers from the Reds earlier this month. The 29-year-old righty has 92 1/3 career big league innings under his belt, posting a 5.46 ERA, 7.6 K/9 and 1.66 K/BB rate for the Reds over the last two seasons as both a starter and reliever.
- The Twins placed catcher Juan Centeno on outright waivers as part of their roster moves today, the club announced. Centeno hit a respectable .261/.312/.392 over 192 PA with Minnesota last season, easily the most playing time he has received during his four years in the bigs.
- The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Brandon Brennan to Triple-A, Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago reports on Twitter. A fourth-round pick for the Sox in the 2012 draft, Brennan has a 4.94 ERA, 1.90 K/BB rate and 6.5 K/9 over 347 2/3 pro innings, none above the Double-A level.