Eddy Julio Martinez To Sign With Cubs
Cuban center fielder Eddy Julio Martinez‘s free agency has been surrounded by controversy, but the 20-year-old has officially signed with the Cubs, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy.
Expectations for Martinez were high heading into this year’s international free agency period, with some outlets estimating that he’d sign a $10MM+ bonus. Martinez rumors went quiet for an extended period of time, though, before it was reported that he’d hired new representation and is now represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council. Martinez agreed to a $2.5MM signing bonus with the Giants — an agreement which GM Bobby Evans publicly acknowledged — but it was soon reported that Martinez wouldn’t sign with the Giants and instead sought a $3MM bonus.
That bonus materialized shortly thereafter, as the Cubs swooped in and reached a reported agreement. However, it was soon revealed that that Major League Baseball was determining whether or not the Giants’ agreement was binding. At the heart of the issue was that Martinez had multiple agents negotiating on his behalf, with his BHSC reps striking the deal with the Giants via a series of texts and emails. Martinez was also employing multiple “buscones,” or street agents, who brokered the deal with the Cubs. Had the agreement with the Giants been ruled to be binding, it would have superseded Martinez’s larger agreement with the Cubs.
That, clearly, was not the case though, as Eddy and MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez have both reported today that Martinez will go to the Cubs. He’ll add to an impressive crop of international talent signed by the Cubs, who spent $8.65MM on July 2. That means they’ll be taxed at 100 percent on their $3MM signing of Martinez, meaning they effectively paid $6MM to secure his services.
Barry Zito Announces Retirement
Left-hander Barry Zito officially announced his retirement from baseball today in an honest, insightful column for the Players Tribune. The 37-year-old spent his entire 15-year Major League career in the Bay Area, suiting up only for the Athletics and Giants.
Zito debuted with Oakland as a 22-year-old in 2000 just barely one year after being selected ninth overall in the 1999 draft. His rookie season yielded 92 2/3 innings of a 2.72 ERA and a sixth-place finish in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Over the next several seasons, Zito would use his signature curveball to establish himself as one of Oakland’s “Big Three” alongside fellow hurlers Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder — a formidable trio that kept Oakland in contention throughout much of the early 2000s. Zito took home AL Cy Young honors in 2002 with an excellent season that saw him post a 23-5 record to go along with a 2.75 ERA, 7.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 229 1/3 innings of work. An absolute workhorse for the A’s throughout his tenure there, Zito started 34 or 35 games each year from 2001-06 and averaged 223 innings per regular season in that time.
Following the 2006 season, Zito signed what was, at the time, one of the largest contracts in baseball history — a seven-year, $126MM contract with the Giants. As he explains in the column announcing today’s decision, that move came with plenty of mixed emotions. Zito described his baseball career as being “full of euphoric highs and devastating lows,” and many of the lows came in a 2008 season that saw him post a 5.15 ERA in 180 innings while leading the NL with 17 losses. Writes Zito:
The year 2008 was the toughest of my life so far. I was being told by strangers in public places just how terrible I was — my own fans in San Francisco yelling obscenities to my face while I was in the dugout. I even found myself ringing my mother at times because I was literally losing my mind and needed five minutes of solace with someone who understood me. But that year taught me something: If there was still a reason to smile at certain points throughout those painful days, and if everything I thought had defined me as a person was crumbling down and yet I was still standing, then maybe what I thought defined me truly did not. I came to realize that I was defining myself through my achievements on the field and through the opinions of other people. In reality, that was just the surface of who I really was.
Zito’s tenure with the Giants was certainly less productive than his time with the A’s, but he still contributed to World Series Championships in both 2010 and 2012. While it wasn’t as the front-of-the-rotation type of arm he was early on in his career, Zito still delivered a 4.15 ERA in each season, logging 199 1/3 innings in 2010 and 184 2/3 innings in 2012. He also turned in a dominant effort with the Giants trailing the Cardinals 3-1 in the 2012 NLCS and, after San Francisco rallied back to take the series from St. Louis, he started Game 1 of the World Series. Zito took home a victory after 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, which helped set the tone for a decisive sweep of the American League champion Tigers.
Zito returned to baseball — signing a minor league deal with Oakland — in 2015 after taking a year off in 2014. Though he spent the majority of the season pitching with Triple-A Nashville, Zito received a late-September call-up where he was given the opportunity to make the start against the Giants and his former teammate and “Big Three” member Hudson. (Hudson has also stated his intention to retire following the season.) The excellent gesture from a pair of non-contending clubs made for an emotional scene, with Mulder appearing as well. All three received a thunderous ovation from the Bay Area faithful — a fitting tribute to a group of players that made an unforgettable impact on baseball in that region.
All told, Zito will retire with a 165-143 record, a 4.04 ERA and 1885 strikeouts in 2576 2/3 innings at the Major League level. Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs value his career at 33.5 and 30.5 wins above replacement, respectively, and he earned more than $137MM in his playing career.
As he explained further in his column, Zito is “very excited to be a ‘rookie’ all over again” in the field of songwriting, and he looks forward to a seeing where his music career will take him. We at MLBTR congratulate Barry on an excellent, memorable career and wish him the best of luck in his new career path and in his post-playing days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 10/17/15
Here are today’s minor transactions from around the league.
- The Twins have signed C/1B/OF Joe Maloney from the independent Rockland Boulders, as J.J. Cooper of Baseball America noted last week (via Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press). As minor-league signings of lesser-known players go, Maloney’s is more interesting than most. The 25-year-old Maloney was drafted in the tenth round in 2011 and spent three seasons in the Rangers’ minor-league system, mostly struggling along the way. He blossomed in Rockland in 2015, however, hitting .337/.432/.559 in 433 plate appearances and earning Baseball America’s Independent League Player Of The Year award. The Twins hope Maloney could follow a path similar to that of Chris Colabello, who they also signed out of the Can-Am League and who just had a very good season in part-time duty with the Blue Jays. “I consider it more karma than comparison. Both are Cam-League MVPs. Both drive the ball to right-center field,” says Twins scout Billy Milos. “The advantage for Colabello is he never struck out much. But Joe does things Colabello can’t do. He’s way more versatile and a better athlete.” Berardino notes that Maloney is likely to begin next season with Double-A Chattanooga.
Outrighted: Rico Noel, Josh Wilson
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Yankees announced that they’ve outrighted Rico Noel off the 40-man roster. Noel received a September call-up from the Yanks based largely on his speed and appeared in 15 games down the stretch. Noel logged just two plate appearances but stole five bases in seven attempts. The 26-year-old outfielder has a career .248/.338/.300 in Triple-A and has stolen 51 bases in 61 attempts at that level.
- As expected, the Tigers have outrighted infielder Josh Wilson, the club announced. He has already cleared waivers and elected free agency, per the release. Wilson is a veteran of eight big league seasons, but the defensive specialist hasn’t cleared 100 plate appearances in a given year since 2010. He put up a career-best .316/.350/.395 slash in his age-34 season for Detroit, but that came in just 41 plate appearances and is not well-supported by his sub-.600 OPS career batting mark. Wilson slashed a more typical .252/.316/.347 in his 293 plate appearances at the Triple-A level in 2015.
Michael McKenry Rejects Outright Assignment From Rockies
Here are today’s outright assignments:
- The Rockies have outrighted three players, as Nick Groke of the Denver Post reports: catcher Michael McKenry and relievers Gonzalez Germen and Simon Castro. It appears that McKenry has already cleared waivers, as he tweeted that he’s now on the open market. The 30-year-old didn’t quite match his strong 2014 output in Colorado, but his .205/.329/.402 slash line was sturdy enough for a backstop even after being adjusted to account for Coors Field. Germen managed a sub-4.00 ERA over 32 2/3 innings, which is no small feat at altitude. But the 28-year-old righty, who was something of a waiver wire pinball last winter, also walked nearly as many batters as he struck out. Castro, 27, saw only 10 1/3 big league frames, allowing ten runs and striking out nine against five walks. He did throw 57 innings of 3.79 ERA pitching at the Triple-A level, though, with a promising 11.7 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9.
Dodgers Claim Brooks Brown, Designate Jim Johnson
The Dodgers announced that they’ve claimed right-hander Brooks Brown off waivers from the Rockies. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Jim Johnson has been designated for assignment.
Brown, 30, has spent parts of the past two seasons in the Majors with the Rockies, working to a 3.97 ERA with 6.3 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 53.8 percent ground-ball rate in 59 innings. Primarily a three-pitch pitcher, Brown complements a two-seam fastball that has averaged 93.6 mph in his career with a changeup and a slider, each of which clock in the mid 80s. The former D-Backs farmhand was selected 34th overall in the 2006 draft out of the University of Georgia but has struggled for much of his minor league career, working to a 4.31 ERA overall and a 4.76 ERA at the Triple-A level.
Johnson, of course, led the American League in saves while closing for the Orioles from 2012-13, but he faltered upon being traded to the Athletics in the 2013-14 offseason. After signing a one-year deal with the Braves this offseason, Johnson looked to have rediscovered his form in Atlanta, notching a 2.24 ERA with 6.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a huge 60.8 percent ground-ball rate. However, Johnson imploded upon being sent to the Dodgers in a 13-player trade on July 30, as he’d go on to yield 21 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings with the Dodgers.
Because he was a free agent at season’s end and not on the postseason roster, Johnson’s DFA boils down to nothing more than a procedural move; he’d have come off the 40-man roster upon conclusion of the postseason anyhow, so the Dodgers simply accelerated the timeline of his departure.
Minor MLB Transactions: 10/14/15
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Diamondbacks have announced that righty Kevin Munson has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers. Munson was designated and then outrighted earlier in the year. The former Rule 5 selection has shown promise at times, but scuffled through a 4.60 ERA campaign in 2015 while struggling badly with his command.
- Likewise, catcher Nevin Ashley has elected free agency from the Brewers, per a team announcement. He, too, had cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment. It was a milestone season for the 31-year-old, who made it to the big leagues for the first time after ten seasons in the minors. That stint was short-lived, but Ashley impressed at Triple-A this year, slashing .306/.374/.442 in 381 plate appearances.
Jo-Jo Reyes Clears Outright Waivers, Elects Free Agency
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- Angels lefty Jo-Jo Reyes has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, the club announced today. Reyes, 30, threw just one pitch in the majors this year, though he managed to pick up a win in the process. Spending most of the year at Triple-A, he tossed an even 150 innings of 4.32 ERA ball with 6.5 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9. He had been designated for assignment recently by the club.
Marlins Outright Five Players
Here are the day’s outright assignments:
- The Marlins have announced that five players were outrighted off of the 40-man roster. Preston Claiborne, Erik Cordier, Chris Narveson, Chris Reed, and Donovan Solano each lost their slots. With three 60-man DL placements, Miami says it has five open roster 40-man positions as things stand. Claiborne missed the entire season with a shoulder injury. Cordier, a 29-year-old righty, was strong at Triple-A. but allowed eight earned and posted a 7-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 1/3 innings of work in the majors. The 33-year-old Narveson marked his most extensive big league usage since 2011, but posted only a 4.45 ERA in 30 1/3 frames. Reed, meanwhile, made just two big league appearances after coming from the Dodgers in a minor mid-season swap. He scuffled at the Triple-A level in his first season of exclusive bullpen work. Solano is a 27-year-old utility infielder. He had seen extensive action in each of the three prior campaigns, but earned only 94 plate appearances this year. All told, he owns a .257/.307/.328 slash in his big league career.
Mets Designate Tim Stauffer For Assignment
The Mets have designated right-hander Tim Stauffer for assignment in order to clear space on the 40-man roster for infielder Matt Reynolds, the team told reporters, including the Record’s Matt Ehalt (Twitter link). The Mets needed to add Reynolds to bolster their shortstop depth after Ruben Tejada suffered a broken leg on a takeout slide from Chase Utley.
Stauffer began the season with the Twins after signing a $2.2MM free-agent contract but struggled greatly before being released in May. The longtime Padres hurler went the indy ball route following his dismissal from Minnesota, and his sharp work with the Sugar Land Skeeters led to a look with the Mets. Stauffer was excellent at Triple-A with the Mets, but his Major League struggles were even more exaggerated upon being recalled (admittedly, in a smaller sample).
All told, he’ll finish the season with a 6.97 ERA, 6.1 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in 20 2/3 innings between Minneapolis and Queens. Stauffer was a free agent again at season’s end anyhow and wasn’t on the NLDS roster, so his removal from the 40-man roster is more or less a formality at this point.