Minor Moves: Cedeno, Thompson, Accardo
Here are the latest minor transactions from around the league, with the newest moves at the top of the post…
- The Giants signed shortstop Ronny Cedeno to a minor league contract, according to the Pacific Coast League’s transactions page. Cedeno appeared in nine games with the Phillies in 2014, spending the large majority of his season at the Triple-A level for Philadelphia and Arizona. Over his 10 years in the majors, Cedeno has a .245/.289/.353 career slash line over 2792 plate appearances, seeing a few seasons in a starting or platoon role for the Cubs and Pirates.
- The Athletics moved right-hander Taylor Thompson to the 60-day disabled list due to a strain in his throwing shoulder, the team announced. In a corresponding move, Thompson’s 40-man roster spot will be filled by the newly-acquired Chad Smith. Thompson, 27, made his Major League debut last season, throwing 5 1/3 innings out of the White Sox bullpen. The A’s selected him off waivers from the White Sox in November.
- The Diamondbacks signed righty Jeremy Accardo to a minor league deal, as per the PCL’s transactions page. Accardo, an eight-year Major League veteran, last appeared in the bigs in 2012 and has since pitched in Mexico, Venezuela, independent league ball and for the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate.
Athletics Claim Chad Smith From Tigers
The Athletics have claimed right-hander Chad Smith off waivers from the Tigers, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press tweets. Detroit had designated the 25-year-old for assignment in order to clear space on the 40-man roster for the recently re-signed Joba Chamberlain.
Smith is a former 17th-round pick of the Tigers that made his big league debut in 2014, allowing seven runs on 15 hits and three walks with nine strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings. He has worked to a strong 2.68 ERA over his minor league career, averaging 8.8 strikeouts and 2.6 walks per nine innings pitched. After working as a starter for part of his first minor league season, he transitioned to the bullpen in 2013 and has posted solid numbers since, though he did struggle in 27 innings at the Triple-A level last year.
Wily Mo Pena To Sign With Rakuten Eagles
Free agent slugger Wily Mo Pena has agreed to a one-year deal with Japan’s Rakuten Eagles, MLBTR has learned. The contract includes a club option for 2016.
Pena’s strong 2014 campaign — he hit .255/.344/.486 with 32 home runs for the Orix Buffaloes — raised the possibility of a return to the big leagues, but that never materialized. The 33-year-old was only interested in signing with an MLB team if he could achieve a major league contract. While there was some interest, and plenty of minor league offers, Pena was ultimately never offered a 40-man spot going into camp.
A veteran of eight big league seasons, Pena swatted 84 long balls and slashed .250/.303/.445 in his 1,845 career plate appearances. Best known for his time with the Reds, Pena also saw action with four other teams. Ultimately, despite carrying above-average offensive numbers for much of his career, Pena’s defensive limitations and relatively low on-base figures held him back in the majors.
But he hit his stride upon moving to Nippon Professional Baseball in 2012 with the Fukuoka Softbank Haws. The Dominican native slashed a productive .280/.339/.490 in his first Japanese campaign, establishing his presence as one of the league’s premier power threats. After putting aside his injury-marred 2013 with his performance last year, Pena entered this year’s market as one of the more appealing Japan-based international free agents.
Pena recently became a client of Matt Sosnick of Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon. He will now join with fellow former big leaguer Gaby Sanchez to form what the Eagles will hope is a potent middle-of-the-order, first base/DH pairing.
Minor Moves: Ransom, McCoy, Diaz, Gaudin
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- The MLB.com transactions page lists a few new minor league deals. Infielder Cody Ransom has joined the Diamondbacks after spending some time in Japan last year. Ransom, 39, has seen action in eleven big league seasons, though he has broken the 100 plate appearance barrier only twice — in 2012-13, oddly enough. Ransom played well in that late-career run, putting up 505 plate appearances with a .207/.301/.414 slash and twenty home runs over those two seasons.
- The Padres signed utilityman Mike McCoy. Now 33, McCoy has yet to pass the 400 plate appearance barrier at the big league level and has struggled at Triple-A in the last two seasons, but does have a better prior track record.
- Catcher Robinzon Diaz, 31, is joining the Brewers on a minor league deal. Diaz last saw MLB action back in 2008-09 and has bounced around the upper minors since. In parts of eight seasons at Triple-A, Diaz has slashed .278/.305.387.
- The Dodgers will sign right-hander Chad Gaudin to a minor league deal, and he will be a non-roster invitee to Major League Spring Training, tweets MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick. The 31-year-old Gaudin sat out the 2014 season as he recovered from neck surgery but was quite good with the 2013 Giants, working to a 3.06 ERA (with a 3.34 FIP and 4.00 xFIP) in 97 innings. Gaudin has experience as both a starter and a reliever in parts of 11 Major League seasons — the bulk of which have come with the Athletics. He has a lifetime 4.44 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a 42.4 percent ground-ball rate in 836 1/3 Major League innings. Gaudin also worked out for the division-rival Diamondbacks recently.
Mark Ellis To Retire
Veteran second baseman Mark Ellis has decided to retire, he tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The 37-year-old played in twelve big league seasons.
Ellis spent his first nine seasons in the bigs with the Athletics, providing a steady presence at the keystone. He was at his most productive in Oakland, slashing .265/.331/.397 and leaning on excellent defense to put up approximately 25 wins above replacement (depending upon one’s favored WAR measure) in that stretch.
After a mid-season trade to the Rockies in 2011, Ellis inked a two-year pact to join the Dodgers and then a one-year pact last year with the Cardinals. Though productive with Los Angeles (in spite of a sub-.700 OPS), Ellis stumbled last year in St. Louis, slashing just .180/.253/.213 in his 202 plate appearances.
With that dozen years of action in the books, Ellis says he is ready to spend more time with his family and enter a new career path. The highly-respected big leaguer should have no problem getting back in the game in another capacity if he so chooses, and A’s GM Billy Beane already indicated that he hopes Ellis will do so for his longtime home club.
Josh Hamilton Facing Discipline For Drug Of Abuse
7:21pm: Hamilton’s meeting involves an admission to the league earlier in the offseason that he had used prohibited drugs of abuse, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (Twitter links). There are no indications that he failed any tests. Hamilton, of course, has a well-documented history of addiction, leading Heyman to characterize the event in question as a relapse.
As Heyman notes, the 33-year-old would seemingly technically qualify only as a first-time offender under the JDA (Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program) since his early-career suspensions occurred before he was in the big leagues. (Though, as MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez notes, Hamilton was on the 40-man at the point of his first failed drug test in 2003.) Were that the case, Hamilton would be handled under the first-time offender protocol. A treatment program would be established, with a 15 to 25 game ban standing by if Hamilton failed to comply with that program.
But as Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reports (Twitter links), that will probably not be the case here. Hamilton’s discipline will fall within the discretion of commissioner Rob Manfred, per the report, because his prior failed drug tests take him “outside [the] standard program.” Having been re-admitted to MLB “via Bud Selig’s discretion and terms” back in 2006, says Morosi, Hamilton is now subject to the discretion of Selig’s successor.
The JDA does include provisions for players who have been suspended for one year after more than four violations of their individualized treatment program. It provides that the commissioner may impose discipline “consistent with the concept of progressive discipline,” seemingly suggesting a more advanced punishment than those already levied. Of course, circumstances such as the time that has passed could presumably also factor in to the decisionmaking process, and it is not clear whether those provisions would hold sway in this case.
5:21pm: Angels slugger Josh Hamilton is in New York meeting with MLB officials regarding a possible disciplinary matter, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports. While GM Jerry Dipoto confirmed that Hamilton was in New York for the meeting, he otherwise declined to provide any information on the nature of the issue.
It appears that Hamilton is not facing any accusations of PED use: a tweet from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports indicates that some other matter is at play. The executive that Rosenthal spoke with labeled the apparent transgression “worse” than PED use, though of course that is rather an ambiguous label and is open to a range of interpretation.
While it would be wrong to speculate as to the basis for the possible discipline at this point, DiGiovanna does write that Los Angeles is “bracing for possible penalties.” Needless to say, any disciplinary action could have important ramifications for the Angels and Hamilton. The veteran is owed $23MM this year and $60MM over 2016-17 under the free agent deal he signed in December of 2012. Time missed due to suspension would not be compensated.
There is also the matter of potentially replacing Hamilton in the lineup. Though he is coming off of a rough 2014 season and was already set to miss the beginning of the year recovering from shoulder surgery, Hamilton possesses rare talent at the plate. The Halos do have some depth in place already in offseason addition Matt Joyce, who is expected to step in for Hamilton while he recovers from his procedure.
Orioles Sign Everth Cabrera
3:30pm: Cabrera’s incentives are tied to plate appearances, and max out with his 500th turn at the dish, Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com tweets.
8:17am: The Orioles on Wednesday announced that they’ve added some infield insurance by agreeing to a one-year, Major League deal with former Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera. The Scott Boras client will reportedly earn $2.4MM and has the opportunity to earn as much as $600K more via incentives.
That guarantee makes Cabrera the largest investment of the offseason for the O’s. He comes in just ahead of those given to the team’s two other major league signings this offseason: Delmon Young ($2.25MM) and Wesley Wright ($1.7MM).
Cabrera, 28, was non-tendered by the Padres earlier in the offseason. He is coming off of an undeniably rough stretch in his personal and professional life. A 50-game PED suspension cut short an otherwise promising 2013 campaign, and Cabrera is still facing possible jail time relating to a charge for resisting arrest. And when he was on the field last year, Cabrera largely disappointed, hitting a meager .232/.272/.300 in his 391 plate appearances and seeing his stolen base tally drop to 18.
Of course, those issues come with undeniable upside. Over the 2012-13 campaigns, the switch-hitter slashed .264/.339/.352 and swiped 84 bags in an even hundred attempts. With solid defense at short thrown into the mix, Cabrera has played at a 3+ WAR clip for the better part of a MLB season.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently noted, one attractive aspect of Cabrera is the fact that he comes with team control for another year. That effectively amounts to a club option, with the value to be determined through the arbitration process. Speaking of options, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com notes on Twitter, Cabrera can be optioned for one more season. That is another nice bit of flexibility, especially for an Orioles club that makes heavy use of the shuttle between the bigs and Triple-A.
Given that Baltimore has committed to J.J. Hardy for three more years, Cabrera would figure to provide competition at second base and another utility option. While Jonathan Schoop handled himself well at the position defensively, he struggled mightily at the plate. The two could be deployed in some kind of platoon capacity, of course, though Schoop bats from the right side and Cabrera has traditionally fared better against left-handed pitching. Baltimore also has used the left-handed-hitting Ryan Flaherty quite a bit over the past two years, but could find himself battling with Schoop for a roster spot.
Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun first reported that the deal was close (Twitter links). He also tweeted the financial guarantee. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported that the deal had been finalized and that it included incentives, via Twitter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Orioles Designate Alex Hassan For Assignment
The Orioles announced that they have designated outfielder Alex Hassan for assignment in order to clear space on the 40-man roster for infielder Everth Cabrera, whose one-year deal is now official.
Hassan, who turns 27 in April, has already bounced from the Red Sox to the A’s to the Orioles this winter and may yet find himself with a fourth organization if he doesn’t make it through outright waivers (which he’s already failed to do twice, albeit much earlier in the offseason).
The former 20th-round pick made his big league debut in 2014 with the Sox, collecting a hit and a walk in nine plate appearances. In a much larger sample of work with Triple-A Pawtucket in 2014, Hassan hit a solid .287/.378/.426 with eight homers and 31 doubles. That triple-slash line is fairly representative of what one can expect from Hassan based on his entire body of work as a minor leaguer; he’s a career .287/.393/.430 hitter who has only posted a double-digit home run total once (13 at Double-A in 2011) but has never recorded a single-season OBP lower than .375. Hassan has walked in 13.7 percent of his career plate appearances in the minors as opposed to an 18.1 percent strikeout rate.
From a defensive standpoint, Hassan is limited to the outfield corners, though he’s appeared in 28 games at first base over the past two seasons. In that time, the right-handed hitter has batted .328/.424/.525 with six homers in 236 plate appearances against lefties.
Cardinals To Sign Carlos Villanueva To Minors Deal
FEBRUARY 24th: Villanueva will earn $2MM if he reaches the majors, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter).
FEBRUARY 4th: The Cardinals have reached a minor league pact with righty Carlos Villanueva, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter. Villanueva will receive an invitation to big league camp.
The 31-year-old swingman spent the past two seasons with the Cubs, working to a cumulative 4.27 ERA over 206 1/3 innings (including twenty starts) with 7.6 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9. Though he was hit hard when working from the rotation last year, Villanueva held opposing hitters to a .226/.284/.364 slash in 237 plate appearances when pitching from the bullpen.
Villanueva looks to be a solid depth addition to a Cardinals staff that has plenty of talent, but also some important questions. It seems unlikely that he will crack the rotation out of camp, but could have a reasonable claim to a long-man/spot-starter role.
Rangers Claim Edgar Olmos From Mariners
The Rangers announced that they’ve claimed left-hander Edgar Olmos off waivers from the Mariners. Olmos, 24, was designated for assignment by Seattle when the team made its signing of Rickie Weeks official. Texas has moved Jurickson Profar to the 60-day DL to clear a spot on its 40-man roster for Olmos.
The Mariners had claimed Olmos off waivers from the Marlins earlier this offseason. The left-hander made his big league debut with the Fish in 2013, allowing four earned runs (nine total) in five innings on seven hits and a pair of walks. He fared much better between Double-A and Triple-A in 77 2/3 combined innings in 2014, working to a 4.06 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. Olmos held lefties to a .256/.330/.289 batting line between the Majors and Minors last season.
A former third round pick, Olmos has four times ranked among the Marlins’ top 30 prospects, per Baseball America. He’s ranged from Nos. 15 through 24, most recently coming in at No. 23 last offseason. BA noted that a move to the bullpen had his velocity up in the mid-90s, and he features a slider that is an average pitch at times and a changeup that can be a “true third offering.” Their scouting reports notes that he could become a situational lefty, though he’s gotten much better against righties since yielding a .942 OPS to them in 2011. Presumably, Olmos will compete with fellow lefty Alex Claudio for a spot in the Rangers’ bullpen.