Red Sox Acquire Ramses Rosario From Nationals
The Nationals announced today that they’ve traded minor league right-hander Ramses Rosario to the Red Sox in exchange for the No. 66 international bonus slot. That slot is valued at $327,700, per Baseball America.
Rosario, 19, was signed by the Nats in the 2012-13 international signing period and has worked exclusively in the Dominican Summer League from 2013-15. He’s posted a combined 4.11 ERA in 72 1/3 innings across 34 games (31 relief appearances) in that time, averaging 6.2 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9. Rosario did not rank among Washington’s top prospects per Baseball America, MLB.com or Fangraphs.
The Nationals’ $1,985,400 international bonus pool (also per BA) was the second-smallest in the Majors this year. The additional $328K will allow boost that figure to $2.31MM, which is more than enough to give them some breathing room to reach additional agreements beyond Dominican outfielder Juan Soto, who reportedly has a $1.5MM bonus agreed upon with the team.
The Red Sox, on the other hand, are restricted from signing an international amateur for more than $300K after absolutely shattering last year’s budget to sign Cuban phenom Yoan Moncada, so it makes sense to see them trading their slots.
Rays Designate Everett Teaford For Assignment
The Rays told reporters, including Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune, that they have designated left-handed reliever Everett Teaford for assignment following the second game of today’s double-header (Twitter link). Right-hander Andrew Bellatti has been reinstated from the disabled list in his place.
Teaford, 31, joined the Rays over the weekend when his contract was selected from Triple-A Durham. He pitched in both games of today’s twin bill, firing 1 1/3 scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. Overall this season — his first with Tampa Bay — he’s allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings.
The rest of Teaford’s U.S. career has come with the Royals organization, where he posted a 4.25 ERA with 5.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 106 big league innings from 2011-13. The former 12th-round pick also has experience overseas, as he spent the 2014 campaign pitching for the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization. Teaford logged a 5.24 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9 in the hitter-friendly KBO.
Rangers To Sign Cuban Free Agent Andy Ibanez
The Rangers have agreed to a deal with Cuban infielder Andy Ibanez, Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram reports on Twitter. Last we checked in, the 22-year-old had changed his representation to Relativity Baseball.
Ibanez’s deal with Texas is worth $1.6MM, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). That figure means that the Rangers have spent $4.2MM of the roughly $4.5MM they have to spend after acquiring the aforementioned bonus slots. Texas recently added to its international pool via trade, and it could well be that the club was lining itself up to add Ibanez, who is subject to the international signing restrictions.
Ibanez has been available for some time, but was somewhat surprisingly slow to sign. Generally credited as a solid all-around player who lacks any outstanding tools, Ibanez has long been expected to command a significant bonus, as Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote some time back. Ibanez put up back-to-back .800+ OPS years in his two most recent campaigns in Serie Nacional.
$1.6MM is quite an attractive price for Ibanez. Badler is on record with the view that Ibanez is a better prospect than $8MM man Roberto Baldoquin, who cost the Angels double that to sign (with penalties included) along with the sacrifice of future signing opportunities.
Astros, 11th-Round Pick Sandoval Agree To $900K Bonus
The Astros have agreed to a $900K bonus with 11th-round pick Patrick Sandoval, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (on Twitter). Sandoval, a high school left-hander out of California, is receiving an enormous bonus for a player selected this late in the draft. Under the current rules, bonuses for players drafted after the 10th round do not count toward a team’s draft pool so long as they are $100K or less. In other words, the Astros are taking an $800K hit to their bonus pool with this bonus.
Houston has, to this point, spent $17,040,000 of its $17,289,200 bonus pool (per MLB.com), so the Sandoval signing will put them over their limit. However, teams are allowed to exceed their draft pool by less than five percent without forfeiting future picks. The $249K remaining in the team’s pool plus the maximum $863K overage means that Houston is still about $313K shy of incurring the loss of a first-round pick in the 2016 draft.
Sandoval’s bonus, then, results in a $550,800 overage on the Astros’ behalf. That overage will be taxed at 75 percent, meaning Houston is paying $413,100 in luxury taxes to acquire Sandoval. In essence, his $900K bonus will actually cost the club $1.313MM.
In Sandoval, the Astros are acquiring a player who ranked as the 135th prospect in this year’s draft, per Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel. Callis and MLB.com colleague Jonathan Mayo ranked Sandoval 139th, while the Baseball America staff ranked Sandoval 392nd among draft prospects.
Callis and Mayo call him an athletic, projectable left-hander who sits in the 88-90 range with his fastball but touches 91 and 92 mph at times. Per their scouting report, Sandoval flashes an “absolute hammer of a curve,” but the pitch is inconsistent. BA notes that his arm action can get a bit long, leading to issues repeating his delivery and, therefore, with his control. However, those issues diminished in his senior year of high school, they add.
The Astros have a pair of tough-to-sign player remaining unsigned in their post-10th-round crop in the form of prep righty Luken Baker (Texas) and prep righty Cole Sands (Florida), but Callis feels that the $313K they have remaining before incurring draft pick forfeiture won’t be enough to entice either player to forgo his commitment to college (Twitter link). The max that either player could be offered is $413,660.
D-Backs To Sign Second-Rounder Alex Young
The Diamondbacks have agreed to terms with second-round pick Alex Young, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (via Twitter). Young, a left-handed pitcher out of TCU, will receive the full slot value of $1,431,400 that comes with his No. 43 overall selection, according to Callis.
Entering the draft, Baseball America ranked Young as the No. 32 prospect in the draft, while Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo ranked him 37th over at MLB.com. Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel rated Young as the draft’s No. 38 prospect.
As BA notes in their scouting report, Young jumped from the bullpen to the rotation in his junior year at TCU — a move that paid huge dividends for both team and player. He added an above-average changeup to an 89-92 mph fastball and knuckle curve, giving him a chance at three above-average pitches. Callis and Mayo note that while Young’s former teammate, Brandon Finnegan, has better pure stuff, Young has a better feel for pitching than Finnegan did at the same stage of his career. McDaniel feels that Young has the potential to move quickly through the minors and emerge as a fourth starter in the Majors.
The Diamondbacks have now agreed to terms with all of the players they selected in the top 10 rounds of the draft with the exception of No. 1 overall pick Dansby Swanson. Arizona has until July 17 to work out a deal with the Vanderbilt shortstop.
Tigers Designate Josh Wilson For Assignment
The Tigers announced (via Twitter) that they have designated infielder Josh Wilson for assignment in order to clear space on the 40-man roster for Marc Krauss, who was claimed off waivers from the Rays yesterday.
The veteran Wilson appeared in just 11 games for the Tigers but hit well while with the team, slashing .381/.435/.429 in 23 plate appearances. Those numbers, naturally, are well above his career line of .229/.281/.318 and were due to come back down to earth anyhow.
Wilson has appeared in parts of eight Major League seasons, also seeing time with the Diamondbacks, Rangers, Mariners, Rays, Nationals, Marlins, Brewers and Padres. Though he’s never hit much in the Majors, Wilson is valued by teams for his defensive versatility, as he’s capable of playing second base, shortstop and third base. He’s also made brief appearances at first base and in left field. Defensive metrics such as Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved are particularly bullish on his work at second base.
Rockies Claim Gonzalez Germen From Cubs
The Rockies have claimed righty Gonzalez Germen off waivers from the Cubs, Colorado announced. Germen, 27, has bounced around quite a bit in recent months.
It seemed that Germen had found a home with the Cubs, but he’ll instead head once more to a new organization. Germen will pitch at Triple-A Albuquerque, per the report.
Germen coughed up five earned runs in his six innings of work this year for Chicago, picking up eight strikeouts against five walks. Over 33 1/3 Triple-A frames, he’s put up a better-looking 3.78 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9.
Phillies Designate Kevin Correia For Assignment
The Phillies have designated righty Kevin Correia for assignment, the club announced. Fellow right-hander Severino Gonzalez has been recalled and will take a start on Thursday, per the release.
Correia, 34, spent time this spring with the Mariners and started the year in the Giants organization, ultimately opting out and signing with Philadelphia. He had solid results in his first several Triple-A starts, but has scuffled to a 6.56 ERA over 23 1/3 innings with the Phillies. Correia has struck out 5.4 and walked 3.1 batters per nine in that span. Never a hard thrower, Correia’s average fastball velocity is the lowest it has ever been, sitting between 88 and 89 mph.
Dating back to the start of his big league career in 2003, Correia has allowed 4.62 earned runs for every regulation game, putting up 5.7 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 with a lifetime 44.1% groundball rate. His best season came in 2009 with the Padres, when he was worth 3.0 fWAR over 198 solid frames.
Rays Designate Preston Guilmet For Assignment
The Rays have designated righty Preston Guilmet for assignment, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune reports on Twitter. In corresponding moves, the team has activated John Jaso and added Steven Souza to the DL.
Guilmet, 27, threw 5 1/3 frames for Tampa Bay this year, allowing three earned runs and striking out five batters while issuing two walks. This marks the third straight season in which he’s thrown at least a handful of innings. All said, Guilmet owns a 6.43 ERA in 21 innings with 7.7 K/9 vs. 3.0 BB/9. But he’s been much better (2.47 ERA, 9.8 K/9, 2.1 BB/9) in his time at the Triple-A level.
Phillies Outright Sean O’Sullivan
The Phillies outrighted right-hander Sean O’Sullivan after last night’s game, the club announced. His roster spot will go to fellow righty Hector Neris.
O’Sullivan, 27, has given up exactly six earned runs in each of his last three starts, including last night’s, thus precipitating the move. He owns a 6.08 earned run mark on the year, with 4.4 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 over 71 innings.
Of course, O’Sullivan was largely being utilized with the hope that he’d absorb some innings while providing acceptable results. Over parts of six big league seasons, he’s now pitched 302 1/3 innings with a 5.95 ERA. The Philadelphia staff has been collectively terrible, allowing a full third of a run more per regulation ballgame than the next-poorest staff.