Yankees Activate Mark Teixeira, Designate Ike Davis
The Yankees have activated Mark Teixeira, per several media reports. They’ve also designated Ike Davis for assignment in a corresponding move, as Sweeny Murti of Sportsradio 66 WFAN tweets.
Teixeira is making a quick return after hitting the DL earlier this month with a cartilage tear in his knee. It was initially believed that the injury could require surgery, but Teixeira returns to the Yankees after just three weeks.
The quick return is fortuitous for the Yanks, too, even though Teixeira has struggled this season, batting just .180/.271/.263 so far. The Yankees struggled to find first base help after a series of injuries to Teixeira, Greg Bird, Dustin Ackley and Chris Parmelee, leading them to sign Davis two weeks ago. The veteran played sparingly, batting 3-for-14. As Murti notes, a key to the decision to let Davis go was the play of Rob Refsnyder, who has now appeared in 16 games at first and has batted .286/.339/.393 in 63 plate appearances this season. Via Newsday’s Erik Boland (on Twitter), Davis indicates he might be willing to accept an assignment to Triple-A if he clears waivers.
Brewers Sign Fifth Overall Pick Corey Ray
The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed fifth overall draft pick Corey Ray, an outfielder from Louisville. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweets that Ray will receive $4.125MM, giving the Brewers a modest savings against the $4,382,200 slot value of the fifth overall pick.
MLB.com ranked Ray the sixth-best talent available in this year’s draft, with Baseball America rating him seventh. MLB.com noted that he provided the “best combination of hitting and athletic ability” available in this year’s draft, praising his combination of power and speed, which resulted in 15 homers and 44 steals in a .310/.388/.545 junior season at Louisville. He mostly played right field in college, although he seems likely to get a shot at center field as a pro.
In April, MLBTR’s Chuck Wasserstrom spoke to Ray, who said he imagined himself as a future leadoff hitter. He also described being selected by the Mariners in the 33rd round in 2013 and ultimately deciding to go to college. “That dream was knocking on my door, and those were some pretty tough conversations with my father. He told me I wasn’t ready. All I was seeing was the dollar amount and not the big picture,” Ray said. As it turns out, it looks like he made a good decision, as he’ll now get a multimillion-dollar bonus and an immediate spot near the top of the Brewers’ list of top prospects.
White Sox Sign First-Rounder Zack Collins
The White Sox have signed first-round draft pick Zack Collins, the club announced today. He’ll receive an at-slot bonus of $3,380,600, per Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago (via Twitter).
Collins was taken with the 10th overall selection out of the University of Miami, based largely upon his top-quality bat and outstanding results against strong competition in college. He is coming off of a season in which he not only took 69 walks while striking out just 48 times, but slashed .358/.534/.631 and swatted 13 long balls in 176 turns at bat.
That kind of hitting can play anywhere on the field, but it’s all the more impressive for a catcher. That said, many question whether Collins can stick behind the dish as a professional. The assessments vary somewhat, but it seems safe to say that it’s far from certain that he’ll end up donning the gear at the major league level — let alone that he’ll be a quality receiver.
Collins himself believes in his ability behind the plate, though, as he told MLBTR contributor Chuck Wasserstrom a few months back. “Obviously, I’m an offensive catcher,” he said, “but I’m working on my defense a lot lately. I think I’ve gotten a lot better defensively … I’ve worked a lot on my blocking and receiving and throwing and footwork – all that kind of stuff. We actually have a new catching coach down here in Miami (Norberto Lopez), and he’s helped me a ton.”
Despite the defensive questions, Collins’ bat was good enough to draw top grades from prospect hounds. He ranked as high as 14th among draft-eligible prospects, in the eyes of MLB.com. And he also landed within the top twenty names listed by Baseball America and ESPN.com.
Astros To Promote A.J. Reed
The Astros are set to promote highly-regarded first base prospect A.J. Reed, according to 1250 Sports Talk Radio. Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle confirmed the move via Twitter.
Reed, 23, is one of the game’s best-regarded first base prospects. A second round pick out of the University of Kentucky, he has steadily increased his stock with consistently excellent results as he’s climbed the ranks. He has reached base at a steady clip by combining a solid walk rate with a high-average bat that also delivers plenty of pop.
Things started slowly this year for Reed, who reached the Triple-A level for the first time. But he has turned it up of late and now owns a .261/.343/.495 batting line with ten long balls over 248 plate appearances. Reed doesn’t add value on the basepaths or with the glove, but MLB.com’s prospect team notes that his athleticism and big arm should help make him a sturdy option at first.
Entering the year, MLB.com rated Reed the 35th-best prospect in the game, while ESPN.com’s Keith Law placed him 44th. Baseball America, though, was even more optimistic, ranking him just outside the top ten. BA graded his hit tool at 60 and his power at 65, both well above average on the 20-80 scouting chart.
As Jason Martinez of MLBTR and MLBDepthCharts.com recently wrote in his “Knocking Down The Door” series, Reed could provide a boost to a streaking Astros club that has been trotting out utility infielder Marwin Gonzalez at first base. As useful as Gonzalez is, he doesn’t carry the kind of offensive upside that resides in Reed’s bat.
Mariners Option Nori Aoki
The Mariners have optioned outfielder Nori Aoki to Triple-A, the club announced. His service time means that he had to clear revocable option waivers first, but couldn’t elect free agency without sacrificing his guaranteed salary.
[Related: Updated Mariners Depth Chart]
Seattle is in need of pitching reinforcements and the roster space to fit them, but the decision was also tied to Aoki’s struggles — especially against lefties, per MLB.com’s Greg Johns (Twitter links). Aoki says he is on board with the move and is prepared to work his way back.
It’s an especially notable move given that Aoki, 34, has never spent time in the minors except on rehab assignments. He went straight to the big leagues after signing from Japan back in 2012. Aoki was also a fairly significant free agent acquisition for the M’s, who guaranteed him $5.5MM over the winter.
At the time, it seemed like a nice value on a sturdy veteran. After posting league-average or better batting lines over each of the past four seasons, though, Aoki has scuffled to a .245/.323/.313 slash over his 284 plate appearances thus far. Aoki has also been gunned down on seven of eleven steal attempts.
The struggles go fairly deep for Aoki. He has been dreadful against opposing southpaws, with a .434 OPS. He’s hitting more groundballs and less line drives than ever, and his infield pop rate has skied to an ugly 17.1%, so the contact profile looks quite a bit different than usual.
Braves To Sign Jordan Pacheco
The Braves have agreed to a minor league deal with catcher and utlityman Jordan Pacheco, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). Pacheco had elected free agency after being outrighted by the Reds.
Atlanta could conceivably deploy Pacheco in any number of ways if and when he’s needed at the major league level. He has spent time behind the dish and at first, second, and third base. Of course, the 30-year-old has never been much of a threat at the plate, as he delivers a solid batting average but doesn’t draw many walks or deliver a lot of power.
On the year, Pacheco has a .157/.157/.235 slash over 51 plate appearances. His best season came in 2012 with the Rockies, when he hit .309/.341/.421 in 505 trips to the plate — though even then, that rated as below league average in terms of overall productivity once accounting for hitter-friendly Coors Field.
Pirates Designate Cole Figueroa, Jorge Rondon
The Pirates have designated infielder Cole Figueroa and righty Jorge Rondon for assignment, the club announced. They lost their roster spots to make way for infielder/outfielder Adam Frazier and righty Juan Nicasio.
[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]
Figueroa, 28, saw limited action in Pittsburgh this year and has still yet to crack the century mark in major league plate appearances. But he’s a versatile fielder who owns a .288/.356/.376 batting line in 1,777 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
Rondon, who is also 28, has seen just 19 frames at the major league level over the past three seasons. The results have been less than stellar in that minuscule sample, but he too has had his successes in the upper minors. Across 238 2/3 Triple-A innings, Rondon owns a 2.72 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9.
Rays Acquire Oswaldo Arcia, Designate Andrew Bellatti
The Twins announced that recently designated-for-assignment outfielder Oswaldo Arcia has been traded to the Rays in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Tampa Bay has also announced the move, adding that right-hander Andrew Bellatti has been designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
[Related: Updated Tampa Bay Rays Depth Chart]
The 25-year-old Arcia is a former Top 100 prospect that batted .231/.300/.452 with 20 homers as the Twins’ primary right fielder as recently as 2014 (his age-23 season) but has struggled tremendously in each of the past two seasons. Since the beginning of the 2015 campaign, Arcia is batting just .236/.307/.373, and he actually hit worse following a demotion to Triple-A in 2015, slashing .199/.257/.372 in 311 plate appearances with the Twins’ affiliate in Rochester. The Rays will hope that a change of scenery can help the powerful lefty regain some of the promise he showed in 2014 and throughout his career in the minors, where he’s slashed .297/.358/.517 in spite of his 2015 struggles.
Arcia is limited to the corner outfield and is a liability even there, but he does have experience in both left and right, and the Rays have seen a slew of injuries deplete their outfield depth. Presently, the team is without Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Guyer, Steven Souza and Mikie Mahtook, as each is on the disabled list. Arcia is out of options, so the Rays won’t be able to send him down without exposing him to waivers once some of their other outfield options are healthy.
Bellatti, 24, made his big league debut with the Rays last season and posted a 2.31 ERA with an 18-to-10 K/BB ratio in 23 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. He allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings to open the season at Triple-A this season, however, and hasn’t pitched since.
Dodgers, Randy Choate Agree To Minors Deal
The Dodgers signed veteran left-hander Randy Choate to a minor league deal recently, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reported in his Minor League Transactions roundup this week. The 40-year-old ACES client was in camp with the Blue Jays back in Spring Training but was released on March 29.
Choate’s most recent big league work came with the Cardinals, who signed him to a three-year deal covering his age-37 to age-39 seasons. As a strict lefty specialist, Choate was deployed in a highly limited role with St. Louis and totaled just 98 2/3 innings over the life of the deal. In that time, he posted a 3.56 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9. Those numbers aren’t exactly dominant, but Choate was unhittable against lefties for most of his tenure with St. Louis, allowing same-handed batters to post a paltry .176/.270/.247 batting line. His numbers in 2013-14 were stellar, though it should be noted that Choate did slip up a bit in 2015 when he yielded a .259/.333/.361 line to left-handed hitters.
Choate hasn’t been playing since that spring audition with Toronto, so he’ll probably need to build up some strength before joining one of the Dodgers’ minor league affiliates. Once active, he’ll serve as a veteran depth piece that has long been a thorn in the side of opposing lefties. It’s conceivable that he could help out the Dodgers later in the year by matching up against some tough left-handed hitters, assuming he proves that he has something left in the tank at the minor league level.
Per Eddy’s report, the Dodgers also added right-hander Alfredo Figaro on a minor league pact. The 31-year-old spent the 2015 season pitching for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization and posted a 3.38 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 165 innings out of the rotation. He hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2014 with the Brewers, but Figaro has a fair amount of MLB experience. In parts of four big league seasons with Detroit and Milwaukee, he has a 5.04 ERA in 114 1/3 innings.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/23/16
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Rays have acquired outfielder Eury Perez from the Astros, per an announcement from Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate. Cash considerations will go back to Houston in the deal. Perez, 26, received a career-high 133 plate appearances last year with the Braves, slashing .269/.331/.303 and swiping three bags. The speedy center fielder does bring value with the glove and on the bases, though, so he is at least a useful depth piece. Tampa Bay has dealt with a variety of injuries at the major league level, and was obviously looking to fill out its roster at Durham and ensure that it has options on hand. Perez owns a .267/.298/.385 batting line with nine steals in his 146 plate appearances at Triple-A this year.
- Southpaw Darin Gorski has joined the Mets on a minor league deal, per an announcement from his independent league club, the Somerset Patriots. (Hat tip to Mike Ashmore of mycentraljersey.com.) The 28-year-old will head to Triple-A Las Vegas, which is where he spent last season. He moved to the indy ranks after putting up 137 innings of 5.52 ERA pitching there in 2015, with 7.1 K/9 against 4.5 BB/9. Those peripherals look about the same over his 60 1/3 frames for Somerset this year, though Gorski has tamped down the earned runs to under four per nine. New York originally selected him in the seventh round of the 2009 draft; this will mark his eighth season with the organization.