Braves Re-Sign A.J. Pierzynski
NOV. 12: The Braves have formally announced Pierzynski’s new contract, via press release.
NOV. 11, 7:33pm: Pierzynski gets a $1MM signing bonus, a $2MM base salary and another $1MM worth of incentives, tweets Rosenthal, who also adds that the veteran catcher had a more lucrative offer but chose to return to Atlanta instead.
7:13pm: Pierzynski will receive a $3MM base salary on his new contract with the Braves, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (via Twitter).
5:23pm: The Braves and veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski are in agreement on a one-year contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (links to Twitter). The Hilliard Sports Management client will return to Atlanta for his second season in 2016, pending a physical.
Pierzynski may be turning 39 years old in December, but he didn’t show his age last season with the Braves, hitting .300/.339/.430 with nine homers in 113 games as Atlanta’s primary catcher. Pierzynski also caught 24 percent of opposing base-stealers, which was below the league average but fell right in line with his career norms. Pierzynski earned a $2MM base salary plus another $700K worth of incentives, and it would seem that his strong 2015 play has positioned him to earn a raise in what will be his 18th Major League season.
The Braves have been rumored as a potential landing spot for Matt Wieters this offseason, but the re-signing of Pierzynski would seem to dampen the possibility of a match with the Atlanta and the former Georgia Tech star. The Twins were an oft-rumored destination for Pierzynski, having attempted to sign their former catcher to a two-year deal prior to the 2013 season and also having expressed interest at the trade deadline. However, Minnesota swung a trade to acquire John Ryan Murphy from the Yankees earlier today, presumably taking them out of the market for Pierzynski’s services.
Pierzynski, for the time being, figures to slot in atop the Braves’ depth chart at catcher, although the organization does have a highly touted young receiver in Christian Bethancourt. However, Bethancourt is coming off a disappointing season and has yet to establish himself in the Major Leagues. Reports have indicated that the Braves are interested in upgrades behind the plate, and they’ve been linked to younger catching options that could be long-term pieces behind the dish. As such, it’s probably wise to not yet rule the Braves out on adding further catching help, as Pierzynski could certainly profile as a backup given his advanced age, even if his bat still appears potent enough for regular starting duty.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/12/15
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- Indians infielder/outfielder Michael Martinez elected free agency after refusing an outright assignment, the club announced. The 33-year-old veteran hit .267/.290/.333 in 32 plate appearances with Cleveland this season and will seek a minor league deal elsewhere as a free agent. The longtime Phillie is just a career .187/.235/.256 hitter between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, though he can play several positions and has a decent Triple-A track record, making him a nice depth piece.
- The Cardinals announced that they’ve signed catcher Eric Fryer and right-hander Juan Gonzalez to minor league contracts. Fryer, 30, has spent the past three seasons in the Twins organization and received 124 plate appearances in the Majors, hitting .236/.323/.355. He has similar Triple-A numbers, and while he’s struggled to catch runners in the Majors, he’s done so at a 30 percent clip in the minors. He’ll give the Cards an alternative to the light-hitting Tony Cruz at backup catcher. As for Gonzalez, The 25-year-old posted a 1.62 ERA with 9.2 K/9 vs. 2.9 BB/9 in 50 innings split between the Dodgers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2015. That marked his first experience at the Triple-A level, though, so it did take him awhile to reach that point, considering he’ll be 26 early next April.
Mariners Acquire Joaquin Benoit
The Mariners announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Joaquin Benoit from the Padres in exchange for minor league right-hander Enyel De Los Santos and infielder Nelson Ward.
The 38-year-old Benoit, presumably, will serve as a ninth-inning option for rookie manager Scott Servais in Seattle. The Padres recently exercised a $7.5MM option on Benoit for the 2016 season, after which he’ll be a free agent.
Benoit is coming off yet another excellent season spent as a late-inning weapon, having logged a 2.34 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 and a career-best 46.3 percent ground-ball rate. Despite his advanced age, Benoit averaged better than 94 mph on his fastball for the third consecutive season while notching a 16.5 percent swinging-strike rate that was 6.6 percent better than the league average. Dating back to 2010, Benoit has a clean bill of health and has averaged 63 innings/65 appearances per season, working in mostly a setup capacity but also serving as the Tigers’ primary closer in 2013.
Peripheral ERA indicators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA are less optimistic than Benoit about his gaudy ERA totals over the years, and 2015 was no exception. However, Benoit has proven over the last several seasons to be able to sustain a BABIP that is well south of the league average and a strand rate that is significantly higher than that of an average pitcher.
The Padres will add a pair of minor leaguers to their system and save the $7.5MM they probably didn’t want to spend on Benoit in the first place given the escalating salaries around the rest of the payroll and the more affordable in-house options they had for the setup role (MLB.com’s Corey Brock tweets that Kevin Quackenbush, Jon Edwards and Brandon Maurer will be leaned on, and the team could look for external setup options as well, particularly if Maurer is converted back to the rotation). However, GM A.J. Preller correctly assessed that the Padres could receive some future value by exercising the option and trading Benoit. While neither De Los Santos nor Ward are premium prospects, the duo does give the Padres additional upside and depth in its farm system.
De Los Santos, 19, was one of the better prospects in a weak Mariners farm system, tweets Baseball America’s Ben Badler, and BA recently rated him as the 15th-best prospect in the short-season Class-A Northwest League. De Los Santos logged a 4.06 ERA with an encouraging 10.0 K/9 mark against 3.1 BB/9 in 37 2/3 innings (eight starts) this past season. De Los Santos features a 93 to 95 mph fastball that touches 97 mph, per BA. He also has an average curveball and a changeup that occasionally looks like a plus pitch but needs further refinement in addition to good control. At 6’3″, he’s tall enough to add some weight to the 170 pounds at which he is currently listed.
Ward, 23, was Seattle’s 12th-round pick out of the University of Georgia in the 2014 draft. He split the 2015 season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, batting a solid .278/.365/.436 with nine homers and 13 steals across the two levels. He spent most of his time at second base and at third base, though he did log five games at shortstop this season and 31 games there in 2014.
The Benoit trade marks Dipoto’s second significant trade of the young offseason, as he’s already picked up right-handed starter Nate Karns, lefty reliever C.J. Riefenhauser and outfield prospect Boog Powell in a six-player deal with the Rays. The Mariners have also re-signed Franklin Gutierrez and are said to be in discussions with free-agent catcher Chris Iannetta regarding a contract.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported seconds before the announcement that Benoit was headed to Seattle (via Twitter).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Phillies Sign James Russell To Minor League Deal
The Phillies announced that they have signed left-handed reliever James Russell to a minor league contract with an invite to Major League Spring Training. The former Cubs/Braves pitcher is represented by Octagon Baseball.
Russell, 30 in January, will compete for a spot in the Phillies 2016 bullpen on the heels of a season in which he struggled to a 5.29 ERA in 34 innings with the Cubs. Russell’s strikeout rate dipped to a career-low 5.3 K/9 in 2015, but he also showed some of the best control of his career (2.4 BB/9) and was plagued by an abnormally low strand rate (57.7 percent) and an unusually high BABIP (.336). Russell hasn’t traditionally dominated lefties, but he’s held them to a .239/.285/.404 batting line in his career and has shown the ability to retire right-handed hitters at various times throughout his big league career as well.
The Phillies are lacking in terms of quality left-handed relief options on the roster, with only Elvis Araujo serving as the only option on the roster that experienced any Major League success in 2015. The Phils do have Mario Hollands set to return from Tommy John surgery at some point in 2016, though he can’t be relied upon for Opening Day duties, which could open a door for Russell to win a role next March.
Yankees Acquire Aaron Hicks From Twins For John Ryan Murphy
The Yankees and Twins have announced a two-player deal involving important young players. New York will add center fielder Aaron Hicks in the swap, while Minnesota receives catcher John Ryan Murphy.
It’s somewhat surprising to hear that Minnesota has parted with Hicks, who finally seemed to turn the corner last year after previously having failed to gain traction in the majors. The 26-year-old is an exceptional defender who faced some questions with the bat. But he ended the 2015 campaign with a .256/.323/.398 batting line and swiped 13 bags on the year. That supported a tally of 1.3 rWAR and 1.5 fWAR over 97 MLB games.
But the Twins organization obviously has plenty of outfield talent coming, including top prospect Byron Buxton and the well-regarded Max Kepler. Eddie Rosario is another option, as are Oswaldo Arcia and Danny Santana, and the club appears increasingly interested in utilizing young slugger Miguel Sano in left.
The real motivation for the deal, from the Minnesota side, was the team’s reported interest in finding an upgrade behind the plate, where Kurt Suzuki had struggled. Murphy will obviously represent a long-term piece in that area, as he comes with five more years of control (two of which will be at a league minimum salary), though whether or not he’ll rate as a solid, full-time regular remains to be seen. Certainly, he figures to be given plenty of opportunity after the team made a significant investment to acquire him.
Murphy, 24, has seen at least some MLB action in each of the last three years, but saw his most extensive time last year. Over 172 big league plate appearances, Murphy slashed .277/.327/.406 — approximately league average overall and rather useful for a catcher. He’s never done a ton of damage with the bat in the minors, and tends to be described more as an average future player than a budding star. But Minnesota was looking for reasonably-priced, solid production in this deal, and Murphy could well deliver that.
The addition of Hicks is rather interesting for an organization that had been rumored to be weighing a swap of left fielder Brett Gardner. Hicks is a switch-hitter who is better from the right side and is capable of playing center, making him a useful piece even if Gardner is retained. (He could spell Gardner in left, Jacoby Ellsbury in center, and the aging Carlos Beltran in right.) But with the left-handed-hitting Dustin Ackley also a corner outfield possibility, Gardner certainly is much more expendable.
But New York will hope that Hicks can ultimately reach his ceiling as a quality, regular center fielder. GM Brian Cashman expressed just that sentiment , saying that the organization views Hicks as a future regular, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (Twitter link). While he was much better against left-handed pitching last year, Hicks did post a reasonable .235/.302/.359 slash when facing opposing righties.
If he can continue to mash lefties and manage even a palatable batting line from the southpaw side of the dish, Hicks probably has enough defensive and baserunning value to play every day. He’ll surely hope to play his way into just such a role over the four years of control he’ll bring to the Yankees.
Giving up Murphy probably didn’t come easily, as he was a well-regarded piece of the system for quite some time. But he was blocked by Brian McCann. The same fate befell Francisco Cervelli last year. GM Brian Cashman and co. obviously felt that Murphy had more value as a trade piece than with the club. The Yankees believe that young backstop Gary Sanchez can step in at the major league level behind McCann, GM said, as Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News tweets. And Austin Romine also represents an option.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres Acquire Jose Pirela From Yankees
The Padres have struck a deal to acquire infielder Jose Pirela from the Yankees, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reports on Twitter. New York will add minor league righty Ronald Herrera in return.
Pirela had been a factor in the New York second base picture, but he struggled in limited MLB time this year. The soon-to-be 26-year-old was much better in Triple-A, though, slashing a robust .325/.390/.433 in 259 plate appearances. He’s played all over the field in the minor, but has primarily featured as a second baseman in recent years.
While Pirela played shortstop early on in his career, he has not spent much time there as he’s moved up in the system. That makes it difficult to peg him as an option at short for San Diego, though the team has utilized far less obvious candidates there in the not-so-distant past (including Will Middlebrooks and Jedd Gyorko). Pirela might well serve as an affordable and versatile bench piece, however.
Herrera made it to the Double-A level last year at just 20 years of age. The Venezuelan native came to San Diego as the player to be named later in the trade that sent Kyle Blanks to the A’s. He worked 145 2/3 innings this year, split between High-A and Double-A, with a 4.08 ERA and 6.4 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9. Herrera is known as a polished but undersized hurler who could eventually find a place in a big league rotation.
Diamondbacks Acquire Chris Herrmann From Twins
The Twins announced that they’ve traded catcher/outfielder Chris Herrmann to the Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league outfielder/first baseman Daniel Palka.
The 27-year-old Herrmann will give the Diamondbacks some needed depth behind the plate, although he’s never been able to carry his minor league success over to the Major League level. Herrmann is just a .181/.249/.280 career hitter in 389 plate appearances and batted .146/.214/.272 in 113 trips to the plate this past season. However, he’s a .261/.336/.391 hitter at the Triple-A level. He’s caught 38 percent of opposing base-stealers in his big league career but also comes with below-average marks in pitch-framing.
Palka, 24, hit .280/.352/.532 with 29 homers and 24 steals at Class-A Advanced, though he was a bit old for the level. MLB.com ranked Palka 29th among D-Backs farmhands, praising power as his standout tool but noting that he’ll need to prove he can hit enough to tap into that raw power. MLB.com pegs the 6’2″, 220-pound Palka as more of a first baseman than an outfielder in the long run.
Cardinals Prospect Alex Reyes Receives 50-Game Suspension
Top Cardinals prospect Alex Reyes has been given a 50-game suspension after testing positive for marijuana, according to a team release (h/t to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, via Twitter). Reyes, who had been pitching in the Arizona Fall League, expressed regret at his own “inappropriate behavior.”
Reyes, a 6’3 righty, has streaked up prospect boards and now rates as a consensus top-20 youngster league-wide. His AFL stint is now over, but because he was a member of that league he’ll be able to accumulate some time served in the offseason.
From a developmental perspective, the suspension is not likely to cause much of an interruption. The 21-year-old had ascended to Double-A last year, but likely was set to spend more time in the minors both to finish his polishing and to build up innings on his arm (which, presumably, is why he was working in the AFL). And whatever one thinks about marijuana use, or the merits of the league testing/suspending players for its use, the drug is obviously less harmful and concerning than other banned substances.
Still, the suspension is obviously not preferable for Reyes or the St. Louis organization. He has shown enough pure stuff — with a big fastball and plus curve — that he could conceivably factor into the club’s plans this year (more likely at the end than the start). With a need to refine his third pitch (a changeup) and hone his command, per MLB.com, the lost opportunity to play early in the season could have an impact on his timeline.
Suspensions of minor leaguers relating to marijuana are not a new phenomenon, but Reyes’s profile — along with the increasingly widespread legalization of the drug — could bring more attention to the issue. As Nathaniel Grow of Fangraphs has explained in breaking down the league’s treatment of the substance, only minor league players are subject to year-round random drug testing and harsh enforcement of the prohibition against marijuana use. (Reyes is not yet on the Cards’ 40-man roster.) According to that account, Reyes would only have been hit with this ban if it were his second positive test, as a first-time offender is only required to participate in a treatment program.
Pirates Claim Guido Knudson From Tigers
The Tigers announced today that right-hander Guido Knudson has been claimed off waivers by the Pirates (Twitter link).
The 26-year-old Knudson, a 28th-round pick of the Tigers back in 2011, made his big league debut with the Tigers this past season but endured significant struggles in his first taste of the Majors. Knudson yielded 10 runs on 13 hits, including a staggering five homers, in five innings of work. However, he averaged a healthy 93.4 mph on his fastball in the process and comes with a nice track record at the Triple-A level, where he logged a 2.34 ERA with 44 strikeouts against 21 walks in 42 1/3 innings this season.
The Pirates have plenty of spots open on their 40-man roster — six, even after this waiver claim — so there was no 40-man move necessary to compensate for Knudson’s addition.
Red Sox Re-Sign Sandy Leon; Alexi Ogando Elects Free Agency
SUNDAY: Ogando has elected to become a free agent, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has learned.
FRIDAY: The Red Sox announced a series of moves this afternoon, including the re-signing of catcher Sandy Leon. Boston also outrighted several players off of its 40-man roster (joining Ryan Cook, who was claimed by the Cubs).
Leon was given a major league deal, but simultaneously was outrighted off of the 40-man roster to Triple-A. He’ll earn $534K in the big leagues and $273K in the minors, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter links). The move was obviously conceived of as a mechanism to keep him around as a back-up plan behind the plate without committing a 40-man roster spot.
Meanwhile, Boston has outrighted first baseman/outfielder Allen Craig along with relievers Alexi Ogando and Jean Machi. Craig, of course, is still playing under a significant extension and has now twice been outrighted off of the team’s big league roster. Ogando and Machi were both eligible for arbitration — with MLBTR projecting salaries of $2.4MM and $900K, respectively. Obviously, the club was not interested in committing to that level of pay to the pair of righties.