A’s Outright Craig Gentry, Fernando Abad
NOV. 30: Both Gentry and Abad cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A, the A’s announced (via Twitter). Each player has enough service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency.
NOV. 20: The Athletics announced today that they have designated center fielder Craig Gentry and left-handed reliever Fernando Abad for assignment. The moves clear space for the addition of second baseman Joey Wendle and left-hander Jose Torres to the 40-man roster.
Gentry, 32 next week, is a plus defender in center field but batted just .120/.196/.200 in 56 trips to the plate this season with Oakland. He brings good speed to the table and has a history of production versus left-handed pitching (.274/.354/.366), so he could draw interest as a trade or waiver-claim candidate. Some clubs may not want him at his MLBTR-projected $1.6MM salary, however. If he clears waivers, Gentry has enough big league service time to refuse the outright assignment and hit the open market.
Abad, 30 next month, was unable to replicate his outstanding 2014 results in 2015. After logging a 1.57 ERA with 8.0 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 57 1/3 innings, he regressed to a 4.15 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 in 47 2/3 innings this season. Abad’s 5.50 FIP was even gloomier than his ERA, and he was hit exceptionally hard by left-handers, yielding a .277/.315/.545 batting line to same-handed hitters in 2015. MLBTR projected Abad to earn $1.5MM.
Cardinals Sign Brayan Pena To Two-Year Deal
3:37pm: Pena’s $5MM guarantee will be spread out evenly, paying him $2.5MM in each season of the contract, MLBTR has learned.
3:35pm: Pena’s contract guarantees him a total of $5MM, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link).
3:11pm: The Cardinals announced that they have signed catcher Brayan Pena to a two-year contract. Tom Ackerman of KMOX in St. Louis first reported the news shortly before the announcement (Twitter link).
Pena spent the past two seasons with the division-rival Reds, where he batted a combined .263/.313/.339 with five homers in 739 plate appearances. The soon-to-be 34-year-old walked at a 6.6 percent clip and struck out in just 10.2 percent of his plate appearances during his time with the Reds. Pena is a switch-hitter but is markedly better from the left side of the dish.
From a defensive standpoint, Pena has typically thrown out a respectable number of baserunners, though this past season’s uncharacteristic 18 percent caught-stealing rate was the lowest of his career. That dragged his career mark down a bit, to 28 percent, though it should be noted that the pendulum swung the other way in 2014, when Pena prevented an excellent 43 percent of attempted thefts. Framing metrics tell a similar story, as Pena graded out as one of the worst pitch-framers in the league this past season but had previously rated anywhere from average to slightly above-average in his limited time behind the dish. The Cardinals will hope that the 2015 season was an aberration in terms of Pena’s defense, and he’s instead able to replicate the solid, if unspectacular defensive skills he showed prior to the most recent campaign.
This signing figures to supplant the arbitration eligible Tony Cruz as Yadier Molina‘s primary backup for the next two seasons. That makes it likely that Cruz, who is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1MM next season, will be either traded or non-tendered before this Wednesday’s deadline, as the club probably won’t have interest in carrying three catchers on the roster.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/30/15
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- Infielder Grant Green has signed a minor league deal with the Giants, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (on Twitter). Green, 28, is a former first-round pick of the Athletics that hasn’t panned out as hoped. Traded to the Angels back in 2013, Green has amassed a .249/.283/.335 batting line in 300 Major League plate appearances, spending most of his time at second base. He’ll give the Giants some depth at second and in left field.
- Eddy also tweets that the Reds have signed former big leaguer Brandon Allen to a minor league deal. The powerful first baseman hasn’t seen the Majors since 2012 and is a career .203/.290/.375 hitters in 389 PAs in the Majors. He’s crushed Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .276/.372/.502 batting line, however, making him a useful bat to stash at the team’s top minor league level.
- The Indians announced that outfielder Michael Choice has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Columbus. The former top 100 prospect will be in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee come Spring Training. Choice, 26, was designated for assignment when the Indians claimed Kirby Yates off waivers from the Rays. He’s a career .188/.253/.320 hitter in 300 big league plate appearances but has a more palatable line of .271/.356/.426 in Triple-A.
- The Red Sox have outrighted infielder Josh Rutledge to Triple-A Pawtucket, the team announced today. Rutledge, 26, was acquired from the Angels in exchange for Shane Victorino this past summer. He batted .284/.333/.338 in 85 PAs for the BoSox and is a career .261/.310/.398 hitter in the Majors, though some of that success is attributable to spending the early portion of his career playing his home games at Coors Field.
Phillies Claim Michael Mariot From Royals
The Phillies announced that they have claimed right-hander Michael Mariot off waivers from the Royals. Mariot was designated for assignment 10 days ago when the Royals set their 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft.
The 27-year-old Mariot logged just three innings with the Royals in 2015 but filled in for 25 innings in 2014 with less-than-stellar results. He has a 6.11 ERA with a 22-to-14 K/BB ratio in 28 total big league innings but has a considerably better minor league track record.
Mariot spent this past season at the Triple-A level, where he worked to an outstanding 2.32 ERA with 10.5 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in 62 innings of relief work. He hasn’t always enjoyed such success in Triple-A, but he’s shown an increased ability to miss bats at that level when compared to his results at lower levels. Mariot has averaged 9.9 K/9 in 150 2/3 innings of Triple-A relief after averaging six to seven strikeouts per nine innings when spending time in the rotation in the lower levels of the minors. He’s averaged 91.7 mph on his fastball in his brief big league time (92.6 mph in his very limited 2015 work) and also features a slider and changeup.
Mariot will join fellow Phillies waiver claims Dan Otero and A.J. Achter in competing for a bullpen job in Spring Training. The Phillies now have 38 players on their 40-man roster, so they could add one more player in the next 10 days and still have room to make the top selection in the Rule 5 Draft.
Twins’ Deal For Byung-Ho Park Likely To Be Completed Soon
NOVEMBER 28, 4:24pm: The Twins expect Park’s deal to be completed “soon,” a source tells Phil Miller of the Star Tribune. Park and the Twins have until December 8 to complete their deal, but Miller’s source believes it will be complete well in advance of that deadline.
9:23am: Park will head to Minneapolis on Sunday, with a brief stop in Chicago, Naver Sports reports (link in Korean; via Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press). In Minnesota, Park will meet with the Twins and take a physical. The Twins could potentially then announce Park’s signing next week. As Berardino notes, that suggests that, if Park and the Twins haven’t reached an agreement already, they appear to at least be fairly close.
NOVEMBER 9: In what has to be considered a surprise, the Twins were the team to submit the $12.85MM winning bid on Korean first baseman Byung-ho Park, reports Daniel Kim of KBS Sports in Korea (Twitter link). Minnesota will now have 30 days to negotiate a contract with Park and his agent, Octagon’s Alan Nero. If a contract cannot be reached, the Twins would be refunded the $12.85MM fee, and Park would return to Korea’s Nexen Heroes for the 2016 season.
Park, 29, is one of the top hitters in all of KBO, having slugged 105 homers over the past two seasons. He hit 53 homers in 2015 to go along with a batting line of .343/.436/.714, though it should be noted that the Korea Baseball Organization is a notoriously hitter-friendly environment. That didn’t stop Park’s former Heroes teammate, Jung Ho Kang, from posting strong numbers in his jump from KBO to MLB, however. Kang is the lone point of reference in terms of position players jumping from Korea to the Majors, and he went from a .356/.459/.739 triple-slash in Korea to an impressive .287/.355/.461 in his Major League debut (while playing in Pittsburgh, where PNC Park is a disadvantageous environment for right-handed power).
Park isn’t a perfect fit on the Twins’ roster, as Minnesota currently has Joe Mauer at first base and Trevor Plouffe at third base, which has relegated the highly impressive Miguel Sano (a third baseman in his own right) to designated hitter for much of his young career. However, Sano has recently worked out in left field, and there’s always the possibility that the Twins could trade Plouffe, whose salary is rising through arbitration and who has just two years of club control remaining before he hits free agency. That would leave third base open for Sano, freeing the Twins to rotate Park and Mauer (who has a full no-trade clause) between DH and first base.
Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote over the weekend that Park was unimpressive when facing Cuban pitching in the Premier 12 tournament this weekend despite the fact that he wasn’t facing plus stuff. That was a sample of just nine plate appearances, though the 1-for-7 result (plus a walk and a HBP) wasn’t as concerning for Badler as the fact that Park swung and missed eight times. Badler does praise Park’s defense at first base, suggesting that he looks capable of providing good defense there. Strikeouts figure to be a part of Park’s game if and when he jumps to the Majors, as he punched out in about a quarter of his plate appearances over the past two seasons in Korea.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of scouts who expect Park’s power to carry over to the Major Leagues. Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald tweets that he spoke to an evaluator who rated Park’s power an 80 (on the 20-80 scouting scale), though he did note that the right-handed hitter might struggle with inside fastballs (Twitter link). I recently spoke to a non-Twins scout that said there’s “no doubt” the power will play and called Park surprisingly athletic, suggesting that Park could deliver something along the lines of Mitch Moreland‘s 2015 production in the Majors. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports also tweets that he spoke to one team that pursued Park due to encouraging marks in his exit velocity and home run distances, which led the club to believe he could succeed in the Majors. MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince spoke to a scout that saw Park in Korea and graded his power a 70 and his defense at first base a 55 (Twitter link).
If Park ultimately lands with the Twins, he’ll add to a growing core of controllable position players. Sano burst onto the scene in 2015, hitting .269/.385/.530 with 18 homers in just 335 plate appearances. Minnesota no doubt would like to pencil Park and Sano into the middle of its lineup as a pair of formidable right-handed sluggers to anchor the lineup for years to come. That pairing would be complemented by Brian Dozier, who looks to be an annual source of 20+ homers at second base as well as the emergent Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario in the outfield. None of that includes top prospect Byron Buxton, who is of course widely believed to be the center fielder of the future in Minneapolis.
The larger question for the Twins this offseason will be whether or not they can sufficiently upgrade their starting rotation and bullpen in the same manner they’ve upgraded the lineup in recent years. While catching and shortstop are potential areas for upgrade this winter, the Twins will also certainly keep their eyes out for pitching upgrades. Their surprise win for Park’s negotiation rights figure to be just the first step in a heavily active offseason.
Mike Hessman Retires
Corner infielder Mike Hessman has announced his retirement, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America notes. Hessman initially tweeted that he was retiring to become a coach, although that tweet has since been deleted.
Hessman’s retirement is a move that is minor by definition but more noteworthy than that term suggests — among fans of minor league baseball, Hessman’s career will be remembered as legendary. No minor league slugger, in fact, has been more prolific — this season, the 37-year-old Hessman topped Buzz Arlett’s all-time record with his 433rd career minor league homer.
The Braves selected Hessman in the 15th all the way back in 1996 — a draft in which they also took Jason Marquis, Mark DeRosa and Marcus Giles, which gives a sense of just how long Hessman was in the minors. He reached Triple-A six years later and made his big-league debut in 2003.
Hessman ultimately played parts of five big-league seasons with the Braves, Tigers and Mets, although he never collected even 100 plate appearances in a single year. Instead, he bounced from one organization to the next, hitting one home run after another for various Triple-A teams and playing in over 2,000 minor league games. The team with which he’ll be most strongly connected is the Toledo Mud Hens, for whom he played from 2005-2009 and 2014-2015. Hessman hit 23 or more homers in his first six seasons in Toledo before finishing with 16 last season. Overall, he hit 20 or more minor-league homers 13 times in his career. He also helped the US baseball team to a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and in 2009 he attracted attention by playing all nine positions in a single game for the Mud Hens.
Blue Jays Sign J.A. Happ
7:48pm: Happ will receive $10MM in 2016 and $13MM apiece for the next two years of the deal, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter.
6:46pm: The Blue Jays have announced the signing of lefty J.A. Happ to a three-year, $36MM contract. Happ, 33, is represented by Dave Rogers.
With the signing, Toronto has brought back a pitcher who spent about two-and-a-half seasons with the club before he was traded away last winter. (That swap returned outfielder Michael Saunders.) During his first 291 frames with the Jays, from 2012 through 2014, Happ worked to a 4.39 ERA with 7.9 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9.
Things did not go terribly well for the veteran at the start of 2015. In his twenty-one outings with the Mariners, Happ posted a 4.64 ERA and carried a 6.8 strikeout-per-nine rate that fell below his career average.
But that all changed when the Pirates added Happ in one of the least-discussed moves of the trade deadline. In his final 63 1/3 innings of the season, the southpaw allowed just 13 earned runs, three home runs, and 13 walks while striking out 69 opposing hitters.
While the Blue Jays obviously won’t be expecting Happ to maintain a sub-2.00 ERA rate, it’s fair to wonder whether to what extent that mid-season turnaround will stick. Happ did not seem to benefit from a leap in velocity or major change in his offerings. Instead, the most obvious apparent differences before and after the trade were that he began relying much more heavily on his fastball, threw slightly more strikes, and lucked into somewhat more favorable matchups, as Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs explained late in the season. Happ hasn’t had any significant arm issues since 2010, and has mostly been healthy except for freak injuries, but he has never thrown more innings than the 172 he totaled last year.
Happ joins Marco Estrada (re-signed before the qualifying offer decision deadline) and Jesse Chavez (acquired via trade) as key pitching additions. President Mark Shapiro, interim GM Tony LaCava, and their staff seem to have preferred shorter-term commitments to veteran arms. Toronto obviously chose its targets and moved swiftly, as those represent three of the most significant moves of the still-early offseason.
It remains to be seen precisely how the Jays staff will be put together. Marcus Stroman and R.A. Dickey seem locks, along with Estrada and now Happ. It certainly seemed that Chavez would also take a rotation spot, given that the club parted with a cheaper, more controllable reliever in Liam Hendriks to add him. Drew Hutchison remains an option despite a rough 2015, as do youngsters Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez — both of whom were quality late-inning pen arms last year.
MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes predicted that Happ would land a three year deal, but saw him as more likely to land a $10MM annual guarantee. By signing early, though, Happ was able to maximize his price — aided, no doubt, by the fact that many other quality, mid-range starters came with lengthier contract requests and/or the need to sacrifice a draft pick.
Happ becomes the highest-rated player on that top fifty list (30th) to sign. It certainly bodes well for the rest of the pitching market that he was able to secure such a healthy deal. Hurlers such as Hisashi Iwakuma, John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Ian Kennedy, and Yovani Gallardo will all surely point to that contract as a floor.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Indians Sign Anthony Recker
The Indians announced that they have signed former Mets catcher Anthony Recker to a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training (Twitter link). Recker is a client of All Bases Covered Sports Management.
The 32-year-old Recker has logged significant time with the Mets as a backup over the past three seasons, hitting .190/.256/.350 in 432 plate appearances from 2013-15. Recker also has experience in the Majors with the Cubs and Athletics, who originally selected him in the 18th round of the 2005 draft.
Recker struggled to throw out runners in 2015, catching just one of the 11 men who attempted to steal against him, although those struggles were uncharacteristic; prior to 2015, Recker had caught 24 of 80 attempted base-stealers for a rate of 30 percent. His pitch-framing numbers, however, have come in consistently below the league average.
While Recker has been a serviceable backup for the Mets, he reached arbitration eligibility this year. The Mets, who have Travis d’Arnaud lined up to start in 2016, also have another highly touted young catcher in Kevin Plawecki and a backup alternative in Johnny Monnell — each of whom is making roughly the league minimum. As such, Recker was presumably deemed expendable. He’ll hope to win a job with the Indians this spring, although there’s a good chance he ends up serving as a valuable depth piece in Triple-A due to the fact that the Indians have a strong Major League catching tandem of Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/27/15
Here are today’s minor transactions from around the league…
- The Seibu Lions announced the finalization of their contract with former Indians right-hander C.C. Lee, who will earn just under $700K in his first season pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball (per Graveyard Baseball, on Twitter). The Indians announced last week that Lee was released in order to pursue an opportunity with the Lions, and they reportedly received between $350K and $500K as compensation for allowing him to depart. Lee has a 4.50 ERA with a 33-to-16 K/BB ratio in 34 career innings at the big league level. Graveyard’s Christian Gin has some video and translated comments from Lee’s press conference.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/26/15
Here are the latest minor league signings from around baseball, all reported by Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise credited…
- The Rockies signed right-hander Brian Schlitter, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. The 6’5″ righty saw significant action out of the Cubs bullpen in 2014 but threw only 7 1/3 innings last season while posting a 7.36 ERA. Schlitter has posted some strong minor league numbers over his career and (of particular interest to Colorado) he has a 60.7% grounder rate over the last two years in Chicago.
- The Cubs signed righty Drew Rucinski. Rucinski has a 6.28 ERA over 14 1/3 career IP with the Angels, and was both designated for assignment and then outrighted by the Halos last September. He has a career 3.88 ERA, 2.98 K/BB rate and 8.1 K/9 over 326 2/3 career minor league frames.
- The Indians announced that catcher Adam Moore has been re-signed. Moore has appeared in each of the last seven Major League seasons, though aside from a 60-game stint with the Mariners in 2010, he’s never appeared in more than nine games in any one campaign. This included 2015, when he played one game for Cleveland. The veteran catcher has posted a strong .291/.356/.465 career slash line over 2946 minor league PA.
- The Athletics re-signed catcher Carson Blair. Blair made his MLB debut in 2015, receiving 35 PA over 11 games with the A’s. The catcher posted some solid numbers over eight minor league seasons but struggled in his first taste of Triple-A action this season. Oakland outrighted Blair off its 40-man roster earlier this month.
- The Dodgers re-signed right-hander Matt West. Los Angeles originally purchased West from the Blue Jays in May. He appeared in two games for the Dodgers and spent most of 2015 in the minors, posting a cumulative 3.54 ERA over 53 1/3 innings but was hit hard in a stint at Triple-A Oklahoma City. West was a second-round pick for the Rangers in the 2007 draft.
- The Pirates signed righty reliever Curtis Partch. The 28-year-old owns a 95mph fastball but that heater has only recently translated to big strikeout totals on the minor league level, and he has a 4.74 ERA over 820 IP in the minors. Partch posted a 4.75 ERA, 24 walks and 22 strikeouts over 30 1/3 relief innings with the Reds in 2013-14.
- The Padres signed right-handers Johnny Hellweg and Daniel McCutchen. Once a notable prospect in Milwaukee’s system, Hellweg underwent Tommy John surgery in 2014 and struggled in 61 minor league innings last year after returning from injury rehab. McCutchen has appeared in one Major League game since 2012 and bounced around with a few teams before catching on with San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate last year.
- The Cardinals signed right-hander Deck McGuire, best known for being picked 11th overall by the Blue Jays in the 2010 draft. McGuire has a 4.57 ERA, 7.4 K/9 and 2.26 K/BB over 713 1/3 career minor league IP.
- The Royals re-signed veteran righty Roman Colon and catcher J.C. Boscan. Colon recorded 187 1/3 MLB innings from 2004-12 but hasn’t pitched in an affiliated minor league since 2013. Boscan will be returning for his 20th season of pro ball after spending last season with Triple-A Omaha. He’s received a few Major League cups of coffee over his long career, appearing in 17 games with the Braves and Cubs from 2010-13.
- The Braves signed corner infielder Brandon Snyder. Snyder, picked 13th overall by the Orioles in the 2005 draft, appeared in 83 career MLB games with Baltimore, Texas and Boston from 2010-13. The 29-year-old spent much of last season at the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate.