Orioles Designate Henry Urrutia For Assignment, Place Hyun Soo Kim On DL
The Orioles announced today that they have placed left fielder Hyun Soo Kim on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 11, with a strained hamstring. In his place, the club has selected the contract of outfielder Julio Borbon from Double-A Bowie and designated outfielder Henry Urrutia for assignment. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com first reported that Urrutia was to be designated for assignment.
[Related: Updated Baltimore Orioles Depth Chart]
The 29-year-old Urrutia received a $779K signing bonus when inking a minor league contract with the Orioles out of Cuba back in 2012 and has appeared in parts of big league seasons, hitting .272/.287/.337 in 94 plate appearances. Urrutia was an accomplished hitter in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, with a career line of .350/.426/.517, but he’s never tapped into that power with the Orioles organization. His work at the Triple-A level has yielded a .284 average and .333 OBP, but he’s slugged a timid .383 in that time (957 plate appearances).
Kim, 28, has come a long way since reportedly refusing a minors assignment in Spring Training. The O’s have brought him along slowly and the results have been excellent, as the man nicknamed the “Hitting Machine” in Korea has lived up to that billing with a .329/.410/.454 batting line in 173 trips to the plate. With that type of production, the O’s, who are clinging to a 1.5 game lead in the AL East, will hope that his absence is brief in nature.
The 30-year-old Borbon once looked like a potential catalyst atop the Rangers lineup but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2013. He’s a career .272/.318/.347 hitter in the bigs and has delivered a .289/.353/.373 slash with 20 stolen bases in 83 games for Baltimore’s Double-A affiliate this season.
Pirates Designate Erik Kratz
The Pirates designated catcher Erik Kratz for assignment, per a team announcement. Pittsburgh has activated fellow receiver Francisco Cervelli, precipitating the move. The Bucs also announced that Jameson Taillon has been activated, with fellow righty Chad Kuhl optioned to make way.
[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]
The 36-year-old Kratz has endured an awful year offensively, recording only eight hits in 87 plate appearances, and owns a lifetime .200/.248/.362 batting line at the major league level. Like many veteran receivers, though, he’s valued more for his work behind the dish. It seems likely that he’ll either stick with the Pittsburgh organization after clearing waivers or move on to provide depth to another club.
Reds Claim Abel De Los Santos
The Reds have claimed righty Abel De Los Santos off waivers from the Nationals, per an announcement from Washington. The Nats needed a 40-man spot to make way for the promotion of Reynaldo Lopez, who’ll take the active roster spot of the DL’ed Sammy Solis.
De Los Santos is a 23-year-old righty who came to the Nats in the 2014 trade that sent Ross Detwiler to the Rangers. He did reach the major league level briefly last year, but has spent most of his time in the last two campaigns in the upper minors.
This year, De Los Santos owns a 3.67 ERA with 10.2 K/9 against 6.0 BB/9 across 34 1/3 frames split between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. His walk rate has been creeping up as he has ascended the ranks, but generally he seems like a useful potential future reliever. Cincinnati will start him off on optional assignment to Double-A.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/18/16
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Giants have struck a minor league deal with righty Kyle Drabek, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. But there’s a twist: while Drabek may ultimately return to the hill, San Francisco also intends to try him out at shortstop. As Eddy notes, the 28-year-old was once viewed as a talented two-way player who would have been a legitimate infield prospect. He has solely worked as a pitcher since going in the first round of the 2006 draft, but that hasn’t worked out as hoped. Over 179 2/3 innings of major league action, Drabek owns a 5.26 ERA with 6.2 K/9 against 5.9 BB/9.
Angels Designate A.J. Achter
The Angels have designated righty A.J. Achter for assignment, the club announced. He lost his roster spot to make way for Sean Coyle, who was claimed off waivers today.
Achter, 27, had appeared in a long relief role for the Halos, tossing 20 1/3 innings in a dozen appearances. He owns a 3.98 ERA on the year, with 4.0 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9, though earned-run estimators took a much less favorable view. Achter is carrying a 6.21 FIP, 5.06 xFIP, and 4.72 SIERA for the season.
The former 46th-round draft pick has certainly performed beyond his draft status, and could represent a useful depth piece with Los Angeles or another organization. It’s fair to note that he owns a strong record in the upper minors, including a 2.94 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 over 174 1/3 Triple-A frames.
Marlins Release Craig Breslow
The Marlins have released veteran left-hander Craig Breslow from their Triple-A affiliate, reports WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (Twitter link).
Breslow, 35, tossed 14 innings for the Marlins’ big league club earlier this season and posted a 4.50 ERA but has struggled following a demotion to Triple-A New Orleans. In 23 2/3 innings at the minor league level this season, Breslow has fanned an impressive 29 batters but has also been tagged for a 6.46 ERA and averaged 12.9 hits and 4.2 walks per nine innings pitched. He’ll now look to latch on with another club and work his way back to the big leagues.
In parts of 11 Major League seasons, Breslow has compiled a 3.80 ERA and averaged 7.0 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 in 535 1/3 innings between the Red Sox, Twins, A’s, D-backs, Padres, Indians and Marlins.
Royals Claim Nick Tepesch
The Royals announced that they have claimed right-hander Nick Tepesch off waivers from the Athletics and optioned him to Triple-A Omaha. Oakland had designated Tepesch for assignment over the weekend. Kris Medlen has been moved to the 60-day disabled list to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Tepesch, 27, lost his roster spot when the A’s selected the contract of corner infield prospect Ryon Healy. The former Rangers hurler didn’t appear in a game for Oakland in the Majors and has made just one MLB appearance since 2014 — a start earlier this season with the Dodgers in which he surrendered five runs in four innings. The rest of Tepesch’s 2016 campaign has been spent at the Triple-A level, where he’s authored a 3.96 ERA in exactly 100 innings of work between the affiliates of the Rangers, the A’s and the Dodgers, averaging 4.9 strikeouts and 1.9 walks per nine innings pitched along the way.
Tepesch made 39 starts and totaled 219 innings with the Rangers from 2013-14, posting a combined 4.56 ERA with 5.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a roughly league-average ground-ball rate in that span of time. A nerve issue in his right arm cost Tepesch the entire 2015 season, however, and he was removed from Texas’ 40-man roster this offseason. Tepesch opened the season with the Rangers organization but was granted his release upon his request in early June, and he’s bounced around the league a bit since that time. He’ll now serve as rotation depth for a Royals organization that is hurting for quality innings from its starting staff. Kansas City has seen setbacks to Medlen and Mike Minor while also receiving considerably worse-than-expected contributions from starters Chris Young, Edinson Volquez and Yordano Ventura in the Majors.
Angels Claim Sean Coyle From Red Sox
The Angels have claimed minor league second baseman Sean Coyle off waivers from the Red Sox, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (via Twitter). The 24-year-old was designated for assignment by Boston last week.
Coyle once rated as one of the more promising farmhands in the Boston organization but struggled through a dismal 2015 season and hasn’t fared much better in 2016. The 5’8″ infielder batted .295/.371/.512 with 16 homers and 13 steals in 384 Double-A plate appearances as a 22-year-old in 2014 but hasn’t been productive since. After a poor showing in the 2014 Arizona Fall League, Coyle batted .193/.294/.341 in 52 games last season as he battled a trapezius injury throughout the 2015 season. In 64 games this year, he’s batted an equally disappointing .165/.263/.280, prompting his DFA.
The Halos, however, can use all of the middle infield depth they can get, and Coyle isn’t so far removed from his status as an interesting prospect that a rebound is out of the question. He won’t turn 25 until next January and already has a fair bit of experience at the Triple-A level, even if his results there have been unsightly to this point in his career. Coyle has always been strikeout-prone, but he saw a significant uptick in his whiff rates in both 2015 and 2016, so the Halos will hope they can generate more contact out of him and restore some of his stock following a change of scenery.
Astros Sign Yulieski Gurriel
SUNDAY: Gurriel will become a free agent at the conclusion of his contract, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links), even though the infielder will be short of the standard six years of Major League service time. The Astros (or whichever club controls Gurriel after the 2020 season) can issue him a qualifying offer, provided the QO still exists in the new collective bargaining agreement.
SATURDAY: The Astros have officially announced the deal.
FRIDAY: The Astros have agreed to a five-year, $47.5MM deal with infielder Yulieski Gurriel, Yussef Diaz of PelotaCubanaBlog.com was first to report. The 32-year-old infielder makes for an interesting pre-deadline addition for the streaking Houston franchise.
Whether or not Gurriel will make a major impact in the present season remains to be seen. That’s not due to developmental considerations — he has long been considered a top-flight talent who is more than ready for the majors — so much as the need for preparation. Gurriel hasn’t played competitively since the end of the 2015 season in Cuba’s Serie Nacional.
His most recent performance, though, only heightens the intrigue surrounding his MLB arrival. Long a star in the top Cuban league, Gurriel topped his own standards in a season for the ages. Over 224 plate appearances, he recorded a hit in exactly half of his at-bats, took 38 walks while striking out just three times, and knocked 15 long balls en route to a .874 slugging percentage.
Then, there’s the question of how the ‘Stros will deploy Gurriel. The organization already has a superstar combination up the middle, with Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve, which would seem to make Gurriel a fit at third. But highly touted shortstop prospect Alex Bregman is pressing for a call-up, and he too would seemingly command a spot on the left side of the infield.
It’s certainly possible that Bregman will beat Gurriel to the majors, as he is obviously already in mid-season playing form. But if the two both vie for time this year, it seems that Gurriel will be the choice at third, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that Houston sees him fitting at the hot corner. It’s impossible to imagine the Astros dealing Correa or Alture, while Bregman would be untouchable for anything short of a top-end, controllable starter, so there seems to be a bit of a logjam here. Either the youngster or (perhaps more likely) the veteran Cuban could ultimately end up in the corner outfield — whether this year or in the future.
Regardless of how that’s sorted, Houston obviously expects Gurriel to bring not only smooth glovework but also a big bat with him to the majors. Gurriel has spent most of his career knocking around Cuban pitching with a 1.000+ OPS. He did spend some time in Japan, though, which also helps to guide expectations. In 258 plate appearances in the top-level NPB back in 2014, Gurriel slashed .305/.349/.536 with 11 home runs and 40 punch-outs to go with 15 walks. That’s certainly excellent, but it’s not quite the superhuman output that he’s run up in his home nation.
The five-year term of the contract will include the present season, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag Sports (via Twitter). Gurriel is set to earn $3.5MM for that partial campaign, with salaries of $14MM, $12MM, $10MM, and $8MM lined up for the four years to come.
Houston has been in the process of ramping up its payroll after cutting it to the bare minimum in 2013. The club sat at $96.9MM as of Opening Day of this year but will now push past $100MM for the second time in franchise history (back in 2009). But with the league flush with cash, and the Astros turning out a compelling product on the field, that number continues to rise.
Notably, the ‘Stros had been committed to less total future spending than they just promised to Gurriel for the 2017-2020 campaigns. Houston was obligated for less than $20MM next year, another $8MM in the following campaign, and only a $500K buyout to Jonathan Singleton for 2019. Even with Gurriel on board, and big arbitration raises lined up for players like Dallas Keuchel, George Springer, Collin McHugh, and Will Harris, the Astros ought to have plenty of payroll flexibility to work with.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/17/16
Sunday’s minor moves from around baseball:
- The Dodgers have released outfielder Donavan Tate, whom they signed in December, tweets Matt Eddy of Baseball America. Tate went third overall to San Diego in the 2009 draft, but the 25-year-old still hasn’t gotten past the Single-A level, having hit an ineffective .226/.331/.321 in 1,229 plate appearances. At his peak, Tate ranked as Baseball Prospectus’ 29th-best prospect and Baseball America’s 53rd overall prospect entering 2010.
- The Royals have released right-hander Matt Alvarez, according to Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (Twitter link). Alvarez, 25, had been in the Kansas City system since 2013. He posted a 5.04 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 6.6 BB/9 in 157 minor league innings with the Royals.
- The Indians have released infielder Grofi Cruz, per Tribeinsider (Twitter link). Cleveland signed Cruz, then 16, out of the Dominican Republic for $400K in July 2012. Cruz didn’t pan out, however, batting .222/.271/.259 across a combined 498 PAs in Rookie ball and Low-A.