Red Sox Designate Carlos Peguero
The Red Sox have designated outfielder Carlos Peguero for assignment, the club announced (via Tim Britton of the Providence Journal, on Twitter). His roster spot will go to the just-acquired Alejandro De Aza.
Boston added Peguero just over a week ago, and he saw only six plate appearances with his new club. He’s always had plenty of pop — as his 30 Triple-A home runs last year attest — but Peguero strikes out quite a bit while walking only at the league average. Still, his left-handed power bat holds reasonable appeal, though it remains to be seen whether another team will be inclined to give the out-of-options slugger an active roster spot
Red Sox Acquire Alejandro De Aza
TODAY: Boston will pay around $1MM of De Aza’s remaining salary, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal report on Twitter. That’s no small amount, of course, but it does mean that Baltimore retains most of the financial burden going forward.
YESTERDAY: The Red Sox on Wednesday bolstered their outfield depth by acquiring an experienced corner option from the Orioles in the form of Alejandro De Aza, Baltimore announced. The O’s will send cash considerations to the Sox along with De Aza in exchange for Double-A right-hander Joe Gunkel. In order to accommodate De Aza on their 40-man roster, the Red Sox have transferred righty Brandon Workman to the 60-day DL, the club announced.
De Aza, added by the O’s at last year’s trade deadline, is owed $5MM this season, of which about $3.39MM remains. He’s a somewhat curious add for a Red Sox club that is already flush with outfield options and recently picked up fellow lefty-swinging corner outfielder Carlos Peguero in a trade with the Rangers. Boston also has Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez and Rusney Castillo on the roster as its starting trio in the outfield, with veterans Daniel Nava and Shane Victorino on the DL. (One would think that Peguero’s spot could eventually be in jeopardy when one of those veterans is nearing a return.)
The 31-year-old De Aza owns a meager .214/.277/.359 triple-slash in his 112 plate appearances thus far. But his track record is better; over the 2012-14 seasons, De Aza owns an exactly-league-average 100 OPS+ (and, if you prefer, a 100 wRC+). With average offensive production and strong defense, that has made him a solidly regular in the corner outfield.
As I noted when he was designated, the Orioles had ample reason to strike a deal to save what money they could. With more than five years of service, De Aza would have been eligible to reject an outright assignment (assuming he cleared waivers) and thereby become a free agent without sacrificing his rather significant guaranteed salary.
Gunkel is a 23-year-old who was pitching at Double-A in the Boston organization. He rated as Boston’s 26th-best prospect entering the year, per Baseball America, which says that he profiles as a reliever in the long run. Over 18 1/3 innings this year, he’s allowed eight earned runs with 22 strikeouts against eight walks.
That seems like a decent get for the O’s, though we’ll need to learn how much money has changed hands before really evaluating the deal.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the trade (on Twitter).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Dana Eveland Opts Out Of Red Sox Contract
Left-hander Dana Eveland has opted out of his minor league contract with the Red Sox, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The Page Odle/PSI Sports Management client is now a free agent.
The 31-year-old Eveland returned to Major League Baseball last season after spending the 2013 campaign pitching for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. His return to MLB was a successful one, as he made 30 appearances with the Mets and worked to a 2.63 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 27 1/3 innings. Despite that solid performance, Eveland settled for a minor league contract this past offseason. He’s pitched quite well in 23 1/3 innings at Triple-A Pawtucket this season, compiling a 1.54 ERA with 20 strikeouts and three walks.
Eveland’s big league track record is spotty, but he’s performed well in his past three stints between the Mets, Dodgers and Orioles. As I noted at the time of his signing with Boston, Eveland replaced his four-seamer with a two-seam fastball and more sliders than ever last season, and the results were positive. Given his recent success, Eveland seems likely to find another minor league deal with a clearer path to the Majors, or perhaps a more lucrative gig overseas, if he’s open to pitching in Asia for a second time.
Mariners Acquire Mark Trumbo In Six-Player Deal
With an offense that is again struggling to score runs in Seattle and a logjam of corner outfield types in Arizona, the Diamondbacks and Mariners have agreed to a rare, significant early-June trade that will send Mark Trumbo from Arizona to Seattle, the teams announced. Left-hander Vidal Nuno is also heading to the Mariners, who will send catcher Welington Castillo, right-hander Dominic Leone and prospects Gabby Guerrero and Jack Reinheimer to the D-Backs.
From the Mariners’ perspective, Trumbo will add significant power to a lineup that has struggled to score runs, as they rank 28th in the Majors with 191 runs. However, Seattle has thrived as a collective unit against left-handed pitching, which is where Trumbo does most of his damage. The 29-year-old is a lifetime .263/.311/.528 hitter against southpaws but owns a more pedestrian .242/.293/.444 line against same-handed pitching. Despite questionable OBP skills and his so-so numbers against right-handed pitching, Trumbo does figure to make the Mariners’ offense more formidable, though it may come at the cost of some defensive value. The acquisition of Trumbo also forces the team to either displace Logan Morrison at first base or utilize one of Trumbo or Nelson Cruz in the corner outfield, where both are regarded as defensive liabilities. Trumbo, who is earning $6.9MM in 2015 and is under team control through 2016 via the arbitration process.
Looking at the trade from Arizona’s perspective, it’s not difficult to see why the team felt the need to move Trumbo. The signing of Yasmany Tomas this offseason gave them a pair of slow-footed corner outfielders whose most appealing asset was right-handed pop. The D-Backs have been playing Tomas at third base while highly regarded prospect Jake Lamb is on the disabled list, but Lamb is nearing a return, and Tomas’ defensive work in the infield has not been particularly strong. With this move, Tomas can shift to right field in Trumbo’s place, joining A.J. Pollock and a combination of Ender Inciarte and David Peralta in the outfield. The move also saves the D-Backs some significant money; Trumbo is owed $4.68MM for the remainder of the 2015 season, compared to Castillo’s $1.43MM, making for a total savings of about $3.25MM.
Nuno has been told that he will be joining the Mariners’ rotation, the lefty himself told reporters, including MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert (Twitter link). The 27-year-old has struggled throughout his brief MLB career as a starter, but he’s pitched quite well in a long relief capacity for Arizona this season, posting a 1.88 ERA with a 19-to-5 K/BB ratio in 14 1/3 innings. Of course, that small sample consists of just three appearances, and Nuno’s larger body of work is relatively suspect. He’s tallied 196 innings at the Major League level between the Yankees and Diamondbacks, posting a 4.13 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 38.1 percent ground-ball rate.
As a fly-ball pitcher, his first stint in an expansive, pitcher-friendly environment figures to benefit Nuno, but his peripheral profile doesn’t exactly indicate that he’s been the recipient of much poor luck. Metrics such as FIP (4.36), xFIP (4.15) and SIERA (3.97) all feel that Nuno’s ERA are more or less reflective of his talent level. The Mariners will hope that he can produce improved results in a more favorable setting, however, and if not, he seems like he could at least be a useful bullpen piece. Nuno has stifled opposing lefties to this point in his career, yielding just .191/.271/.317 batting line in 190 plate appearances. The Mariners will be able to control him through the 2019 season.
Castillo is the most established player headed back to Arizona in the trade, and he will pair with Jarrod Saltalamacchia behind the dish to form the D-Backs’ new catching tandem. That’s a far more established duo than Tuffy Gosewisch and Jordan Pacheco, who have handled the bulk of Arizona’s catching duties this season. Arizona GM Dave Stewart stated on multiple occasions this offseason that he had no intent of adding a catcher, and he held to his word through Opening Day, but he’s since seen Gosewisch go down for the year due to a torn ACL, while a back injury has ended veteran Gerald Laird‘s season. Rule 5 pickup Oscar Hernandez is on the shelf as well, creating an even larger dearth of catching options for the Diamondbacks.
Arizona values prospect Peter O’Brien‘s bat quite a bit, but scouts have long questioned whether or not he can handle catching from a defensive standpoint. Late in Spring Training, those questions became even more pronounced when O’Brien developed an issue throwing the ball back to the mound. He’s seen more time in the corner outfield this season at Triple-A than he has behind the plate.
Therefore, Castillo and Saltalamacchia give the Diamondbacks a more experienced tandem without forcing them to try O’Brien at catcher before he is ready (if he ever is). Castillo is a career .250/.316/.392 hitter that posted a combined 105 OPS+ from 2012-13 before taking a step back in 2014. All told, his bat has been about five percent below the league average over the course of his career, which is solid offensive output from a catcher. Castillo has also caught an above-average 30 percent of attempted base stealers in his career, though like Saltalamacchia, he does not grade out well in terms of pitch-framing metrics. Castillo is under team control through the 2017 season.
In Leone, the Diamondbacks will acquire a 23-year-old reliever who was dominant in his 2014 rookie campaign but has struggled to repeat that success. Leone emerged from out of nowhere in 2014 to post a 2.17 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 54.7 percent ground-ball rate in 66 1/3 innings for the Mariners. Both FIP and xFIP pegged him at 3.07, while SIERA was more bullish at 2.81. Entering the 2015 season, Leone looked like a potential long-term bullpen cog. However, he’s seen his control erode dramatically, issuing nine walks in 11 1/3 innings against just seven strikeouts. The 94.6 mph he averaged on his heater in 2014 has dropped to 93.3 mph, leading to further cause for concern. His ERA to this point is a sky-high 6.35, while ERA estimators peg him for a mark in the 5.40 to 5.80 range. Put simply, Leone is a reclamation project for the Diamondbacks, but if he can return to anything close to his 2014 output, he’d be one of the most effective pieces in Arizona’s relief corps, if not the most effective piece.
Guerrero, 21, is the best prospect in the deal, despite a rough year at Double-A so far (.215/.262/.305). The nephew of famed slugger Vladimir Guerrero, Gabby has ranked among the Mariners’ Top 15 prospects in each of the past three offseasons, topping out at seventh this past winter. In their most recent scouting report, BA noted that Guerrero has plus-plus raw power, a plus-plus arm in right field (sound familiar?) and plus range as well, but he’s overly aggressive at the plate and swings too hard too often. Guerrero has baseball in his genes and is a high-risk, high-reward type of prospect; BA and other outlets such as MLB.com (where he ranks fifth among Mariners prospects) and Fangraphs (eighth) all feel that he could ultimately be an everyday right fielder, but the likelihood isn’t great without adjustments to his approach.
The 22-year-old Reinheimer reached Double-A for the first time this season and has slashed .277/.323/.351 thus far. Ranked as Seattle’s No. 17 prospect by BA, he also ranks 19th per Fangraphs and 14th per MLB.com. Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis at MLB.com call Reinheimer a singles hitter at the moment, noting that he has above-average speed and the range/arm to handle shortstop defensively. Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs agrees for the most part and comps him to Mariners shortstop Chris Taylor, noting that there’s very little power and a utility player might be the ultimate outcome.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that Trumbo and Nuno had been traded to Seattle in exchange for Castillo, Leone and two prospects (Twitter links).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Reds Release Donald Lutz
The Reds have released first baseman/outfielder Donald Lutz, the club announced. His 40-man spot was needed for the promotion of Ivan DeJesus Jr., who is filling in for the injured Marlon Byrd.
Lutz entered the year rated as Cincinnati’s 28th-best prospect, in the eyes of Baseball America, after reaching as high as 16th on that list in prior seasons. As C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes on Twitter, Lutz underwent Tommy John surgery a month ago.
While he’s only seen 113 largely unsuccessful plate appearances in the big leagues, and was off to a rough start this year prior to his surgery, Lutz has generally put up appealing batting lines throughout his minor league career. His primary strength is in the power department, and he owns a cumulative MiLB slugging percentage of .470.
Lutz is most notable, of course, for being the first major league ballplayer who was developed in Germany. While he was born in the United States, his family moved to Germany when he was just one year old, and he played there until signing as an international free agent back in 2007.
Pirates Outright Radhames Liz
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- Pirates righty Radhames Liz has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on Twitter. Liz will continue earning the $1MM annual salary he agreed to before the year. The club expressed hope that he would stay in the organization, and that guaranteed money likely ensured that he would. Liz has a 3.63 ERA and 18 strikeouts over 17 1/3 innings on the year, but has also walked ten batters and was viewed with less promise by ERA estimators.
Yankees Designate David Carpenter
The Yankees have designated reliever David Carpenter for assignment, the club announced. The move creates roster space for the activation of Masahiro Tanaka.
Carpenter, 29, came to the Yankees from the Braves along with lefty Chasen Shreve in an offseason trade that sent Manny Banuelos to Atlanta. The righty was a very solid performer in his two years with the Braves, but has struggled thus far in pinstripes.
Over 18 2/3 innings this year, Carpenter owns a 4.82 ERA. He has struck out just 11 batters in that span — after averaging about 10 K/9 over the two seasons prior — while walking eight. On the positive side, Carpenter’s fastball velocity is still sitting right at the 95 mph mark.
All said, Carpenter figures to draw a decent bit of interest from other teams. His $1.275MM salary is manageable enough, and his track record and maintained velocity offer a more promising combination than can usually be found this time of year.
Dodgers Designate David Huff For Assignment
Following the fist game of today’s double-header against the Rockies, the Dodgers announced that they have designated left-hander David Huff for assignment and selected the contract of right-hander Josh Ravin from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Additionally, catcher Austin Barnes has been optioned to Triple-A, and lefty Daniel Coulombe has been recalled in his place.
The 30-year-old Huff rejoined the Dodgers yesterday after making a spot start in April and being designated for assignment at that point as well. (Huff cleared waivers and remained in the Dodgers organization after being outrighted.) Huff worked a scoreless inning with a strikeout in today’s twin bill, but overall he’s yielded six runs on 11 hits and a walk with four strikeouts in six innings this year.
Huff has a good deal of Major League experience under his belt, as today’s frame was the 388th he’s pitched over the past seven seasons. Originally drafted 39th overall by the Indians in 2006, Huff debuted with Cleveland and pitched in parts of five seasons there (2009-13). Since that time, he’s appeared with the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers. Huff is no stranger to the DFA limbo in which he currently finds himself; this is the seventh time he’s been designated for assignment in his career.
The 27-year-old Ravin’s journey to the Majors has been a long one. A fifth-round pick of the Reds back in 2006, Ravin quickly found himself ranked 13th among Cincinnati farmhands by Baseball America. However, he struggled a great deal in the 2007 season and didn’t appear on another iteration of that top prospect list until 2012, when he ranked 31st. The Brewers claimed him off waivers in September 2013 but outrighted him a few months later. He signed with the Dodgers shortly after and has spent the 2014-15 seasons with their Triple-A affiliate. Ravin has touched triple digits with his fastball in the past and had a 2.25 ERA with a 30-to-8 K/BB ratio in 20 Triple-A innings this year.
Brewers Claim Hernan Perez, Designate Elian Herrera
The Brewers have claimed infielder Hernan Perez off waivers from the Tigers, Milwaukee announced. To clear a roster spot, the club designated utilityman Elian Herrera for assignment.
Perez, 24, has seen very brief playing time at the major league level in each of the last four seasons. In 647 Triple-A plate appearances, he slashed .280/.321/.387 while adding 21 stolen bases. The Venezuelan native has split his time as a professionally evenly between shortstop and second base.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Herrera has delivered a career .249/.304/.343 slash line in 470 turns at bat in the majors, all compiled in sporadic action over 2012-15. He is a true utility player, having spent time at all three outfield spots and every infield position left of first base. Herrera has had some success at the plate at the Triple-A level, where he owns a .307/.375/.431 batting line in just over 1,000 plate appearances.
Rays Designate Ernesto Frieri For Assignment
The Rays designated righty Ernesto Frieri for assignment after last night’s ballgame, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times was among those to report on Twitter.
Frier, 29, signed a one-year, $800K deal to join the Rays this winter. He could have picked up a $50K bonus had he reached thirty appearances, with other escalators also available, but he’ll have to be content with earning his base guarantee at this point.
Frier worked to a 4.63 ERA over 23 1/3 innings for Tampa Bay, striking out 7.3 and walking 4.2 batters per nine. That K rate is a far cry from the double-digit numbers he ran up during his run as the Angels closer, and ERA estimators suggest he may be lucky that the results have not been worse.
There could be room for improvement if a team can figure out the cause for Frieri’s significant loss of fastball velocity. After averaging about 94 mph over recent years, Frier’s heater has dipped into the 91-92 mph range in 2015.