White Sox Request Release Waivers For Dayan Viciedo
The White Sox have requested unconditional release waivers for outfielder Dayan Viciedo, the club announced. Viciedo had been designated for assignment, so this move primarily indicates that he will not bring Chicago any return via trade.
Unless he is claimed, Viciedo will enter the free agent market still shy of his 26th birthday and already having claimed 66 MLB home runs. Of course, in spite of that impressive power, he has failed to reach base at a reasonable clip (.298 career OBP) and is generally rated a sub-par defender.
Viciedo’s $4.4MM arbitration salary for 2015 surely provides a significant disincentive to otherwise interested clubs, and makes a claim unlikely. Chicago will remain responsible for about $733K of that sum.
This is surely not the end that either side hoped for when Viciedo signed out of Cuba as an international free agent, receiving a big league contract and $10MM guarantee. Another team will presumably take a shot on Viciedo, who comes with two more years of commitment-free control through arbitration and figures to be available for a minimal financial outlay.
White Sox, Angels Complete Gordon Beckham Trade
The Angels have sent righty Yency Almonte to the White Sox to complete last August’s Gordon Beckham swap, Chicago announced. Beckham has since reached free agency and re-signed with the South Siders, of course.
The Angels selected Almonte in the 17th round of the 2012 draft and went significantly over the $100K slot that applies to all picks beyond the 10th round, signing him for $250K. Baseball America ranked him 16th among Halos farmhands that offseason, noting in their scouting report that Almonte had generated some buzz heading into the draft before a dead arm cost him several weeks of the season and submarined his stock, to an extent. Per BA, his fastball sits in the low 90s and reaches 94, and he at one point showed feel for a breaking ball as well.
Durability concerns were a significant factor with Almonte, per the BA report, and two years later, they still appear to be a factor. Almonte began the season in the Class-A Midwest League but missed a month and had to rehab in Rookie Ball before rejoining the team. Overall, he pitched just 45 2/3 innings this season despite working exclusively as a starting pitcher. In 11 starts, he posted a 5.91 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.
Pirates Acquire Arquimedes Caminero From Marlins
The Pirates have acquired right-handed reliever Arquimedes Caminero from the Marlins in exchange for cash, Pittsburgh announced. Caminero had been designated for assignment by Miami.
Caminero has an enticing arm that has delivered an average of 11.0 K/9 (against 4.5 BB/9) in his nine years of minor league action. He has seen only limited action at the big league level, posting 19 2/3 frames of 5.49 ERA pitching (albeit with many of the credited runs coming in one rough outing last year).
As he was added to the 40-man roster in advance of the 2011 season, it would appear that Caminero has exhausted his optional assignment seasons. Pittsburgh will take a flier on his mid-90s heater, but it seems he will need to break camp with the big league club or face the waiver wire.
Rockies Designate Yohan Flande
The Rockies have designated lefty Yohan Flande for assignment, the team announced. His roster spot will go to righty Kyle Kendrick, whose signing was also announced.
Flande, 29, threw 59 innings of 5.19 ERA ball last year in his first big league stint, generating a healthy 58.2% groundball rate. He struck out 5.2 and walked 2.4 per nine over ten starts and six relief appearances.
The southpaw has never posted a sub-4.00 ERA over a full season in the upper minors, but ERA estimators all valued his work in the bigs at or below that mark last year. Nevertheless, Flande is probably best characterized as an organizational depth piece at this stage of his career.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: Tuesday
With more than 30 players still needing to settle arbitration situations (as of Tuesday morning, that is), word of agreements should continue to steadily pour in over the weeks. All of the outstanding situations — as well as those that have already been settled — can be monitored using MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker. For today’s minor agreements, we’ll keep track of them in this post as well, with all projections coming courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz…
- Miguel Gonzalez has agreed to a $3.275MM contract to avoid arbitration with the Orioles, Heyman tweets. That number lands just $50K over the sides’ filing mid-point, and less than $500K shy of the projected figure. Any way you cut it, it’s a handsome first-year arb-eligible payday for the 30-year-old righty, who took a circuitous path to establishing himself as a solid big league starter. As the arb tracker shows, Baltimore now needs to resolve just two cases: Zach Britton and Alejandro De Aza.
Earlier Updates
- Also avoiding arbitration with the Royals was outfielder Lorenzo Cain, who will earn $2.725MM next year, according to Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (Twitter links). Cain can also earn $25K for reaching 505 plate appearances and would pick up $50K with an All-Star selection. Cain had a breakout season last year, putting up about five wins above replacement on the back of a .301/.339/.412 slash, 28 steals, and outstanding center field defense. He had filed at $3.6MM in his first year of arb eligibility, with the club countering at $2MM. MLBTR/Matt Swartz had projected Cain to earn $2.3MM, but he lands slightly above that — aided in part, no doubt, by his quality postseason work.
- The Royals and Mike Moustakas have agreed to a $2.64MM contract for the 2015 season, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Moustakas, who had filed at $3.1MM compared to the team’s $1.85MM filing number, will come in a bit north of the $2.475MM midpoint between those figures. The 26-year-old Moustakas hit just .212/.271/.361 in 2015, though he did manage 15 homers and also tacked on five more in the postseason. His salary will fall just $60K shy of Swartz’s $2.7MM projection, though Heyman tweets that Moustakas can boost his salary a bit, as he’ll earn an extra $10K upon reaching 550 plate appearances.
- As the Arb Tracker shows, the Royals still have four remaining cases: Greg Holland, Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy and Kelvin Herrera.
Pirates Acquire Steve Lombardozzi From Orioles
The Pirates have acquired switch-hitting infielder Steve Lombardozzi from the Orioles in exchange for cash considerations, Baltimore announced. The 26-year-old has now been traded for the third time, all dating back to last winter.
Lombardozzi cracked the big leagues with the Nationals, serving as a regular utility piece for the club in 2012 and 2013. He was shipped to the Tigers and then on to the Orioles before the 2014 campaign, which he spent primarily at Triple-A. All said, Lombo owns a .266/.297/.341 line over 829 trips to the plate at the big league level.
The swap is unrelated to the clubs’ earlier Travis Snider deal, which includes a still-unnamed player heading to Baltimore, according to a tweet from Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Orioles To Sign Nolan Reimold
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Orioles have reached a deal to bring back right-handed-hitting outfielder Nolan Reimold, according to a tweet from Seamus Doyle. Reimold gets a minor league deal with a spring invite and an opt-out clause, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (Twitter links). The 31-year-old picked a return to his long-time stomping grounds over a chance to join the Indians, according to Kubatko. Reimold has a .251/.324/.439 career slash over six seasons and 1,134 plate appearances, all but 78 of which have come in an Orioles uniform.
Cardinals Acquire Michael Ohlman From Orioles
The Cardinals have acquired catcher Michael Ohlman from the Orioles in exchange for cash considerations, the clubs announced. Ohlman had been designated for assignment by Baltimore.
Added to the 40-man roster in the fall of 2013, the 24-year-old Ohlman played last year at Double-A, the highest level of the minors that he has reached. He slashed a disappointing .236/.310/.318 in 454 plate appearances, failing to follow up on his .934-OPS 2013 at the High-A level. A big-bonus 11th-round pick back in 2008, Ohlman had his share of ups and downs even before his rough 2014, as Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper detailed last March.
Rockies To Sign Kyle Kendrick
Free agent righty Kyle Kendrick has agreed to sign with the Rockies, sources tell Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The deal is for one year and $5.5MM, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. Kendrick, a client of Relativity Baseball, can earn an additional $500K if he logs 190 innings.
Colorado was said to be eyeing another starter addition, with Jayson Stark of ESPN.com tweeting earlier today that Kendrick remained a possibility. Though the Rockies added a rotation candidate recently via trade in David Hale, bringing in Kendrick should insulate the organization from feeling compelled to elevate any of its top prospects outside of its preferred timetable.
Still only 30, Kendrick has been a durable innings-logger over his career, missing only 15 games total on the DL. He has at times split time between the rotation and pen, but racked up 381 frames in 62 starts over 2013-14. Of course, the results have not always been there: he owns a cumulative 4.65 ERA over the past two seasons. More promisingly, Kendrick was good for a 3.61 earned run mark across 2011-12. But ERA estimators have consistently valued him in the low-to-mid 4 earned per nine range.
Padres To Sign Wil Nieves
FEB. 3: Nieves will earn $850K if he makes the Major League roster, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (on Twitter).
FEB. 2: The Padres have agreed to a minor league deal with free agent backstop Wil Nieves, Corey Brock of MLB.com reports on Twitter. Nieves will receive an invite to big league camp and should have a chance to challenge for a backup job, says Brock.
Nieves follows Gerald Laird off the board, leaving few options left among the veteran free agent backstops who saw some MLB time last year. The 37-year-old spent last year as the Phillies’ second option behind the plate.
Over his eleven-year big league career, Nieves has compiled a .243/.281/.317 slash in 1,246 turns at bat. He has actually outperformed that mark in the last two years, averaging a .661 OPS over 334 plate appearances, although he had a much stronger line in 2013 and benefited from a .340+ BABIP in both seasons.