Nationals, Evan Meek Agree To Minor League Deal
The Nationals have signed right-hander Evan Meek to a minor league deal with an invite to big league Spring Training, reports MLB.com’s Bill Ladson (on Twitter). Meek is a client of Relativity Sports.
The 31-year-old Meek isn’t quite as flashy as the Nats’ most recent pickup, but he is a former All-Star setup man. From 2009-11 with the Pirates, Meek posted a strong 2.74 ERA in 147 2/3 innings of work, though other metrics such as his 7.9 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and 3.58 FIP in that time indicate that he was likely overperforming a bit. A shoulder injury limited Meek to 12 innings in 2012, and he spent the 2013 season with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate (somewhat curiously starting 15 games despite spending nearly all of his career as a reliever).
Meek was with the Orioles in 2014, but he struggled after breaking camp with the team and found himself outrighted to Triple-A in early June. From there, he went on to dominate at the Triple-A level, posting a 1.94 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 0.9 BB/9 in 41 2/3 innings of work. That earned him a September call-up, but while he got better results in the season’s final month, he still finished with a 5.79 ERA in 23 1/3 big league innings. He’ll compete for a job in a Nats bullpen that features Drew Storen in the closer’s role in front of setup options such as Craig Stammen, Jerry Blevins, Matt Thornton, Blake Treinen and possibly Tanner Roark, who could be bullpen-bound following Washington’s addition of Max Scherzer.
Reds Sign Jason Marquis To Minor League Deal
The Reds announced that they’ve signed veteran right-hander Jason Marquis to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league Spring Training.
The 36-year-old Marquis, a client of ACES, spent much of the 2014 campaign recovering from Tommy John surgery and worked out in front of Reds scouts last May before ultimately signing a minor league deal with the Phillies. In 51 2/3 innings with the Phillies’ minor league affiliates, he posted a combined 4.1 ERA with a 43-to-13 K/BB ratio.
Marquis’ most recent Major League work came as a member of the Padres, with whom he spent parts of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Signed by the Twins in 2012, Marquis hurled 34 dreadful innings with Minnesota (8.47 ERA) before latching on with the Friars and working to a 4.05 ERA in 211 1/3 innings from 2012-13. In total, the sinker specialist has worked to a 4.56 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 50.7 percent ground-ball rate in 1921 career innings between the Braves, Cardinals, Padres, Twins, Cubs, Nationals, D-Backs and Rockies. And, as far as pitchers go, he’s respectable with the bat, as evidenced by a .196/.214/.278 career batting line. (The league-average pitcher hit .122/.153/.153 in 2014.)
The Reds have traded away a pair of starters this offseason in Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon, so it’s not surprising to see the club pursuing possible depth options in the rotation. Currently, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Mike Leake and Tony Cingrani project as the top four starters in Cincinnati’s rotation. Marquis, then, will presumably compete for the fifth spot in the rotation, going up against the likes of right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (acquired from the Marlins in the Latos trade), Dylan Axelrod and David Holmberg.
Minor Moves: Marlins, Johnson, Willis
These are the day’s notable minor moves:
- In announcing the team’s non-roster spring invites, the Marlins revealed a few new minor league signings. Among them are several right-handed relievers who could challenge for a pen spot. Vin Mazzaro, 28, had great results in 2013 for the Pirates but spent most of last year in Triple-A. 29-year-old Ryan Reid had a nice 11-inning run in 2013 but has otherwise spent much of his time in the upper minors. And Pat Misch, 33, will look to return to regular big league action. He last threw in the majors in 2011 and did not play in organized ball last year.
- The Orioles have agreed to terms with righty Steve Johnson on a minor league deal that includes a spring invite, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Johnson, 27, saw 54 innings with the O’s over 2012-13, with a strong first year followed by a rough sophomore effort. Last year saw Johnson scuffle at Triple-A, though a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery may well have been a primary culprit for those difficulties.
- The Brewers have struck a minor league deal with one-time star lefty Dontrelle Willis, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports on Twitter. Willis will receive an invite to big league camp, where he’ll attempt to earn a spot on an active roster for the first time since 2011. Once one of the game’s most exciting young arms, Willis faded quickly and has bounced around the league since a failed stint with the Tigers. Most recently, he has spent time in the Orioles, Angels, and Rangers systems, but has thrown most of his innings in independent ball.
Braves To Sign Kelly Johnson To MiLB Deal
The Braves have agreed to sign infielder Kelly Johnson to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports on Twitter. The 32-year-old is a client of Relativity Baseball.
Johnson spent his first ten years of professional baseball in the Atlanta organization, including parts of four seasons at the big league level. In the interim, he has played for the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles.
All said, Johnson has produced at an approximately league average rate at the plate, with a career .250/.333/.423 slash at the MLB level. He’ll deliver some much-needed punch to the new-look Atlanta lineup: his 131 lifetime home runs average out to 18 per 162 games, and Johnson owns a .173 ISO over his 4,471 plate appearances.
It is worth noting, however, that a large portion of those numbers are wrapped up in (and before) a big 2010 season. More recent figures are less encouraging, and last year was perhaps Johnson’s worst as a big leaguer. In 297 total plate appearances, he slashed .215/.296/.362 with seven home runs.
On the other side of the scorebook, Johnson has generally graded out as an approximately average performer at second base, where he has spent most of his time. Johnson has also played third, left field, and a touch of first base.
The Braves will presumably give Johnson a chance to earn a super-utility/bench bat role. He should have at least some chance of unseating presumptive starters Alberto Callaspo (2B) and Chris Johnson (3B) at some point during the year, depending upon how things shake out.
Rangers Acquire Carlos Corporan, Designate Gonzalez Germen
11:08am: The deal is official, per Rangers executive VP of communications John Blake (via Twitter). To create roster space, the club designated righty Gonzalez Germen, who was acquired only yesterday.
9:40am: The Rangers have agreed to a deal to acquire backstop Carlos Corporan from the Astros, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports on Twitter. Corporan was designated for assignment yesterday to create roster space for the signing of Colby Rasmus. Righty Akeem Bostick is headed to the Astros in return, Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram tweets.
Corporan, 31, is set to earn $975K in his first season of arbitration eligibility. That means that he’ll come with two more years of control. His role was occupied by trade acquisition Hank Conger, and the presence of the younger Max Stassi rendered Corporan a largely redundant piece for Houston.
The switch-hitter should, however, be more useful for a Rangers club whose big league options included Robinson Chirinos, who had never even seen 100 plate appearances in a big league season before last year, along with largely untested 23-year-old Tomas Telis and minor league non-roster invite Chris Gimenez.
Last year, Corporan put up a .235/.302/.376 slash and six home runs over 190 trips to the plate. That line is fairly representative of Corporan’s offensive profile in the majors: low-average, low-OBP, solid power. In a backup role in Houston, he has rated out as a reasonably capable option behind the dish.
Bostick, 19, was a (below-slot) second round pick out of high school in 2013. He seems a nice return for a player who was in DFA limbo, though Corporan’s market was surely active before he technically lost his roster spot. Bostick struggled to a 5.18 ERA in 92 Class A frames last year, though that may have been a somewhat aggressive assignment. Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs included him at the tail end (27th) of his recent list of the most promising Rangers prospects, explaining that Bostick has plenty of raw talent but is in need of refinement.
Red Sox To Sign Dana Eveland
The Red Sox have agreed to terms on a minor league deal with left-hander Dana Eveland, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. Eveland, a client of PSI Sports Management, will receive a split deal with an invite to big league camp.
The 31-year-old enjoyed a solid half-season with the Mets in 2014, notching a 2.63 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and a 53.8 percent ground-ball rate in 27 1/3 innings. That work represented his first in the Majors since 2012, when he struggled to a 4.73 ERA with the Orioles in 32 1/3 innings.
Eveland debuted as a 21-year-old reliever with the Brewers back in 2005 and struggled to establish himself in either the bullpen or the rotation with Milwaukee or Arizona over the next three seasons. Traded alongside Brett Anderson, Chris Carter and Carlos Gonzalez to the A’s in the Dan Haren blockbuster of 2007, Eveland registered 168 innings of 4.34 ERA ball in his first season with the A’s, but again fell victim to struggles the following season.
All told, he owns a lifetime 5.27 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 420 big league innings, though he did make some significant strides in 2014. Eveland has nearly scrapped his four-seamer entirely and now relies on a hefty dose of two-seam fastballs and far more sliders than he’s ever thrown. The results were positive, particularly against left-handed hitters, who batted just .241/.305/.296 against him last year.
Rangers Acquire Gonzalez Germen From Yankees
Rangers executive vice president of communication John Blake announced, on Twitter, that Texas has acquired righty Gonzalez Germen from the Yankees in exchange for cash considerations.
Germen, 27, has spent the past two seasons in the Mets’ bullpen, totaling 64 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball to go along with 8.9 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a 36.8 percent ground-ball rate. Germen throws reasonably hard — he’s averaged 92.9 mph on his fastball in his big league career — but his changeup is his best pitch. As Eno Sarris of Fangraphs noted (on Twitter) shortly after the DFA, Germen posted the best swinging strike rate on his change of any pitcher in baseball last season.
The Yankees originally acquired Germen from the Mets in December in exchange for cash considerations but designated him for assignment last week after acquiring Chris Martin from the Rockies (also for cash considerations).
Astros Sign Colby Rasmus
Just a day after trading Dexter Fowler to the Cubs, the Astros look to have found a replacement, as the team announced on Tuesday the signing of Colby Rasmus to a one-year deal. The Excel Sports Management client will reportedly take home an $8MM guarantee, and his contract does not contain any options.
Rasmus, 28, entered the offseason as one of the most intriguing available free agents. Though he struggled a great deal in terms of average and on-base percentage in 2014, Rasmus again showed solid power and possesses upside that much of the free agent class could not match at the onset of the offseason. Overall, Rasmus batted .225/.287/.448 with 18 homers in 376 plate appearances in a season that was shortened by a hamstring issue. He also lost some playing time late in the season as Toronto elected to see what it had on its hands in top prospect Dalton Pompey.
Houston has always seemed like a plausible landing spot for Rasmus, but the match really opened up with the recent trade of Fowler to the Cubs. The Astros have Jake Marisnick in hand as a right-handed hitting center field option, but could potentially pair him with Rasmus in some form of platoon. Though Rasmus has not played the corner outfield since his rookie year, he could presumably spend time there as well.
In essence, the Astros appear to have swapped out Fowler for a combination of Rasmus in the outfield, Luis Valbuena at third base(acquired in the Fowler deal and likely to replace Matt Dominguez) and possibly Dan Straily in the rotation (also acquired in the Fowler deal). The addition of Rasmus serves as another transaction with short-term ramifications for an Astros team that made a 19-game improvement in the win column in 2014. The club has also added Evan Gattis recently, and the team is also said to be in serious talks with Ryan Vogelsong, who is reportedly in Houston for a physical. However, in spite of last season’s improvement, it can’t be ignored that the team still won just 70 games overall.
One also has to wonder about the Astros’ apparent decision to load up on so many strikeout-prone players; Rasmus joins a group of regulars — Chris Carter, George Springer, Jonathan Singleton and Jason Castro — who whiffed at a 30 percent clip or higher. Though Houston projects to have an abundance of power throughout the lineup, Astros fans may again need to be prepared for a strikeout-prone offense and somewhat of a boom-or-bust approach at the plate.
As for Rasmus, a multi-year deal for him never appeared to materialize, so he will now look to make good on a one-year deal and hit the open market again next winter heading into his age-29 season. That’s still younger than the typical free agent, though Rasmus will have the unenviable task of stacking up against the likes of abnormally young free agents such as Jason Heyward and Justin Upton on the open market in the 2015-16 offseason.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that the two sides were talking (Twitter link). Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweeted that Rasmus was in Houston for a physical. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted that the deal would be one year once it was finalized. MLB Network’s Matt Yallof first reported the guarantee (Twitter link), while Jon Morosi of FOX Sports added that the contract contained no options.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Astros Designate Carlos Corporan For Assignment
The Astros announced that they’ve designated catcher Carlos Corporan for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for Colby Rasmus.
The 31-year-old Corporan hit .235/.302/.376 with six homers in 190 plate appearances for Houston last year. Over the past three seasons, he’s proven himself to be a competent defender (in terms of pitch-framing and throwing out base stealers) while exhibiting low batting average and OBP marks with respectable pop for a catcher.
Of late, Corporan has drawn trade interest from the Rangers, so it certainly seems possible that Houston will be able to move him before he must be exposed to outright waivers. Given Texas’ interest, I’d imagine that, at the very least, a deal for cash considerations could be reached, if not a trade to send a minor leaguer to Houston in exchange for Corporan’s services (be it from the Rangers or another club).
Corporan was arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason and agreed to a one-year, $975K deal with Houston just last Thursday. That might take away a bit of his trade value, although that sum is largely negligible for a big league club that would have interest in trading for him.
Giants Sign Nori Aoki To One-Year Deal
JAN. 20: Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Aoki’s $5.5MM club option will become a mutual option if he reaches 550 plate appearances (Twitter link).
JAN. 19: The Giants and outfielder Nori Aoki have officially agreed to a one-year contract with an option for the 2016 season, as first reported by John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links). In the club’s announcement, the option was described as a club option that can vest into a mutual option.
Aoki, a client of CAA Sports, receives a $4.7MM guarantee plus performance bonuses, via Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (Twitter links). He’ll earn $4MM in 2015, and his 2016 option contains a $700K buyout, according to Heyman, who adds that the contract can max out at $12.5MM over two years. Shea tweets that Aoki’s option is valued at $5.5MM, adding that he can earn up to $1.5MM worth of incentives in each year of the deal.
Aoki gives the Giants additional outfield depth and should slot into their starting left field spot, shifting Gregor Blanco into a fourth outfield role, although the two do have relatively similar skill sets. The 33-year-old Aoki should be plenty familiar with the Giants, having received an up-close look at the club in what was an excellent, seven-game World Series between the Giants and Aoki’s former club, the Royals, in 2014.
In his lone season with Kansas City, Aoki batted .285/.349/.360 with 17 steals but just one home run. Aoki has consistently hit for a solid average (.288, .286 and .285) in three years with the Brewers and Royals since coming over from Japan, and his OBP has steadily floated between .349 and .356 — all solid marks. However, after hitting 10 homers as a rookie and eight in his sophomore campaign, Aoki’s home run swing went absent in 2014, which likely hurt his market considerably. Some of the drop in power may be attributable to moving from Miller Park to Kauffman Stadium, but a move to the pitcher-friendlt AT&T Park doesn’t figure to bolster his home run output much.
Nonetheless, Aoki is a consistent source of on-base percentage and solid defense, creating a rather low-risk deal for the Giants. Aoki has graded out well in right field over his career, posting a UZR/150 mark of +5.3 and +13 Defensive Runs Saved in the Majors. That will represent a substantial upgrade over the poor defense of the departed Mike Morse, although Aoki clearly comes with significantly less offensive upside than the slugging Morse.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.