Yankees, Andrew Bailey Agree To New Minor League Deal
The Yankees have declined the 2015 club option that came with their last minor league deal for Andrew Bailey and re-signed the former All-Star closer to a new minor league pact, reports Chad Jennings of LoHud.com (Twitter link). Bailey is a client of Excel Sports Management’s Jim Murray.
The 30-year-old Bailey hasn’t taken a Major League mound since July 2013 due to an injury to the labrum in his right shoulder that ultimately required surgery. He last appeared with the Red Sox after joining Boston as the key piece in the trade that sent Josh Reddick to the Athletics.
Bailey was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2009 and earned All-Star nods in his first two Major League seasons. In three full seasons with the A’s from 2009-11, he posted a brilliant 2.07 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 174 innings. Injuries were a problem for Bailey even prior to his pro career, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in college and microfracture surgery on his left knee in the 2009-10 offseason. He also an intercostal strain in 2010 and a forearm strain in 2011.
There’s no doubting Bailey’s talent, but he’s gone under the knife five times since 2005. He inked a minor league deal with the Yankees last offseason but underwent setbacks in his recovery that prevented him from reaching the big league club or even pitching in the minors. He’ll hope for better results this time around as he seeks to get back to the Majors for the first time in nearly two years.
J.J. Putz Joins Diamondbacks’ Front Office
The Diamondbacks announced that J.J. Putz, who spent the 2011-14 seasons as a member of the team’s bullpen, has been hired as a special assistant to president and CEO Derrick Hall. According to the press release, Putz will assist the team in both a baseball and business capacity. Some of the responsibilities outlined for him include attending community events, meeting with season-ticket holders, working with pitchers in Spring Training and visiting the club’s minor league affiliates throughout the course of the 2015 regular season.
“I am very excited to give back to the game that I love and have been fortunate to be a part of for 14 years,” said Putz in the press release. “To be a part of such a great organization is a blessing. My family and I have been so grateful to be a part of the Arizona community. It is a dream come true to work alongside a great man like Derrick. There are not enough great things to say about this organization. I am forever thankful.”
Hall expressed similar excitement about the opportunity to work alongside Putz: “J.J.’s performance on the field and popularity off the field make him a tremendous addition to the front office. His personality is a perfect fit for our culture and we are looking forward to him helping the D-backs in a number of different ways during this next phase of his career.”
While the press release doesn’t specifically state it, this most certainly appears to be the end of the 37-year-old Putz’s playing career. If that’s the case, Putz will cross the finish line with very strong marks. In 566 2/3 career innings, he posted a 3.08 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, a 1.15 WHIP, a 37-33 record and 189 saves. Putz’s best season came with the 2007 Mariners, when he posted an exceptional 1.38 ERA, 10.3 K/9, 1.6 BB/9 and recorded 40 saves while finishing a league-high 65 games. He earned $38.875MM over his playing career, per Baseball-Reference.com, and his 189 saves rank 51st all-time. If this is indeed the end of the line for his days on a big league mound, we at MLBTR wish Putz the best of luck in his new career path and congratulate him on a very nice playing career.
Minor Moves: Patton, Monell, Sands, Elmore
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- Free agent lefty Troy Patton has received an 80-game suspension for a positive amphetamine test, the league announced today. The 29-year-old lefty only threw 14 MLB innings this year after two full seasons with the Orioles, but had been solid in eight appearances with the Padres after a mid-season trade and surely would have found at least a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.
- Backstop Johnny Monell is headed to the Mets, he announced on Twitter. He’ll get a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp in the spring, per a tweet from Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com. The 28-year-old has only nine big league plate appearances, but has a combined .261/.343/.450 slash line over 724 Triple-A plate appearances.
- Previously designated for assignment, outfielder Jerry Sands has been outrighted by the Rays, according to the MLB.com transactions page. The 27-year-old has seen only a smattering of MLB time since a partial-season stint with the Dodgers back in 2011. At Triple-A this year, he slashed .268/.352/.474 with nine long balls over 219 plate appearances.
- The Reds have re-signed infielder Jake Elmore, with the news also coming via MLB.com. He had been outrighted after being acquired by Cincinnati in the middle of the 2014 season.
Angels Acquire Cesar Ramos
The Angels have acquired lefty Cesar Ramos from the Rays in exchange for righty Mark Sappington, Los Angeles announced. This mark’s the day’s second swap for the Halos.
Ramos, 30, has spent most of his time in the pen but did make seven starts in 2014 for Tampa. He ultimately threw 82 2/3 frames of 3.70 ERA ball, with 7.2 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9. Ramos has generally been better against lefties, but does not have huge platoon splits over his career. He was, however, much more effective working out of the pen.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects that Ramos will take home $1.3MM in his second year of arbitration eligibility, making him a cheap and controllable add for an Angels club that has rather a bare cupboard in terms of left-handed relievers. That he can provide swingman capability as well is a nice bonus.
Sappington, meanwhile, is a 23-year-old right-hander who came into the 2014 season rated as the Halos’ fifth-best prospect by Baseball America. He took a big step back, however, and struggled mightily in a starting role. A demotion and mid-season move to the bullpen revitalized Sappington, however, as Mike DiGiovanna wrote recently for Baseball America. A long-term move to the pen had always seemed a distinct possibility, and Sappington’s big fastball and biting slider make him a potentially valuable power arm. (Over 32 relief frames last year at High-A, Sappington struck out 49 and walked ten.)
Astros Acquire Hank Conger
The Astros announced that they have acquired catcher Hank Conger from the Angels in exchange for fellow catcher Carlos Perez and right-hander Nick Tropeano.
Conger, 26, split time with Chris Iannetta in Anaheim this past season but wasn’t a traditional backup catcher, as he received about 40 percent of the club’s plate appearances at the position. A former first-round pick, Conger batted .221/.293/.325 with four homers and is a lifetime .224/.294/.353 hitter in 768 plate appearances. Conger frequented top prospect lists prior to reaching the Majors, twice making Baseball America’s Top 100 (No. 79 and No. 84) and four times appearing on the Top 100 list of Baseball Prospectus (ranging between Nos. 81-89).
Though Conger’s bat hasn’t picked up at the Major League level to match his excellent Triple-A track record (.298/.371/.470), the Astros have plenty to like about his work behind the plate. He caught a slightly below-average 24 percent of base-stealers in 2014, but shined in terms of pitch-framing according to both Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner.com. Both metrics rated him as one of the four best framing catchers in baseball. The arbitration-eligible Conger is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1.1MM this season and can be controlled via the arbitration process through 2017.
As for the Angels, they’ll get the type of cost-controlled rotation option they spent much of last offseason searching for during the infancy of the 2014-15 offseason. Tropeano, 24, made his big league debut with the Astros in 2014 and posted a 4.57 ERA with a 13-to-9 K/BB ratio and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate in four starts (21 2/3 innings).
Baseball America ranked Tropeano as the No. 18 prospect in Houston’s system heading into the 2014 campaign and has praised his outstanding changeup multiple times in the past, grading it the best change in the Astros’ system in 2011-12 as well as the best change in the South Atlantic League in 2012. BA wrote in their scouting report that Tropeano sat 90-92 mph with a plus changeup and fringy slider that needed more work, but they also noted that he projected as a back-of-the-rotation starter or possibly more, depending on that breaking pitch’s development. MLB.com ranked Tropeano 13th among Houston farmhands following the season, also noting that he needed to further refine his slider.
As for Perez, he will give the Angels a near-MLB-ready replacement to back up Iannetta. The 24-year-old Venezuelan spent the past season at the Triple-A level where he batted .259/.323/.385 with six homers. He caught 32 percent of base-stealers last season in the minors and has caught runners at a strong 33 percent clip throughout his minor league career. BA ranked him 28th among Houston prospects prior to 2013, praising his defensive skills by calling him “fluid behind the plate” while noting that he handled velocity well and had quick pop times and a strong arm.
For the Angels, this trade allows them to add MLB-ready rotation depth without sacrificing either of Howie Kendrick or David Freese, both of whom have been rumored to be on the trading block. That the Halos have added a potential rotation piece without spending is significant; GM Jerry Dipoto and owner Arte Moreno have both stated a repeated desire to remain under baseball’s $189MM luxury tax threshold, and the team already has $140MM of guarantees committed toward that gap, to say nothing of arbitration eligible players and league-minimum players to round out the roster.
As for the Astros, their focus on improving the pitching staff will be aided by Conger’s excellent framing abilities. Incumbent catcher Jason Castro is also strong in that department, though it wouldn’t be a shock him and his projected $3.9MM salary shopped in an offseason featuring a free agent market that is painfully thin on catchers. While that’s just my speculation, the Astros could likely get by with a tandem of Conger and Max Stassi behind the plate while addressing other needs by dealing Castro.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Diamondbacks Outright Jordan Pacheco
Here are the day’s outrights and minor moves:
- The Diamondbacks have outrighted catcher/corner infielder Jordan Pacheco, per the MLB.com transactions page. Entering his age-29 season next year, Pacheco has not produced at the plate outside of a Coors Field-aided run in 2012, when he managed a 93 OPS+. He is, however, a fairly versatile player, as he is capable of playing at least passable defense behind the dish and in the corner infield. Over 165 plate appearances split between the Rockies and D’backs last year, Pacheco slashed .255/.299/.333.
Korean Pitcher Kwang-hyun Kim Posted Today
Korean lefty Kwang-hyun Kim was posted today by his KBO club, SK Wyverns, according to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com (via Twitter). The posting was expected, though its timing was unknown.
Since Kim is coming from the KBO, rather than Japan’s NPB, he will be subject to the old posting rules rather than the modified MLB-NPB process put in place at last year. As former MLBTR writer Ben Nicholson-Smith explained back in November of 2012, with regard to Hyun-jin Ryu, MLB clubs will participate in a blind bidding process. The KBO club will then have the chance to decide whether the high offer is enough to let the player go. If so, the KBO team allows the player to negotiate with the high-bidding MLB club.
If a deal is reached within the allotted 30-day window, the KBO team receives the posting sum; if not, no money changes hands and the player stays with the Korean club. MLB teams have four days to submit their bid from the date of posting, meaning that bids must be in by this coming Saturday.
Alfonso Soriano Announces Retirement
Longtime big leaguer Alfonso Soriano has annunced his retirement from the game, reports Hector Gomez of Dominican outlet Listin Diario (via Twitter). The 38-year-old played in parts of 16 MLB seasons, including thirteen as a full-time regular.
Soriano was once one of the most consistent power threats in the game. Between 2002 and 2013, Soriano averaged 624 trips to the plate per season, slashing .273/.324/.511. He hit 385 home runs (32 per year) and stole 243 bags (20 a season) over that stretch.
Soriano appeared in seven straight All Star games (2002-08). While generally subpar defensive marks hurt his overall value, Soriano was ultimately worth just under 40 fWAR in his career, though he checked in at less than 30 rWAR.
The Dominican native started and ended his career in pinstripes, joining the Yankees after an early-career stint in Japan. He was later dealt to the Rangers and then on to the Nationals, where he moved from second to the outfield, and ultimately signed an eight-year, $136MM deal with the Cubs.
That massive contract had its ups and downs, but Soriano ultimately swung an above average bat in every year except for a rough 2009. He spent the tail end of the deal back in New York after a deadline deal, delivering an excellent stretch of play late in 2013. But he struggled to get it going last year, and was ultimately cut loose by the Yanks in mid-season.
A’s Claim Taylor Thompson, Outright Bryan Anderson
The Athletics announced that they have claimed right-hander Taylor Thompson off waivers from the White Sox and outrighted catcher Bryan Anderson to Triple-A. Anderson will be able to elect minor league free agency.
The 27-year-old Thompson got his first taste of the Major Leagues this season with the White Sox but allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings. A former 44th-round draft pick, he pitched well at Triple-A this season, posting a 2.14 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 59 innings of relief.
Anderson, also 27, received one plate appearance with the A’s this season and has had four brief cups of coffee at the Major League level. He owns a .206/.261/.270 slash line as a big leaguer, having appeared with the Cardinals, White Sox and A’s. In parts of seven seasons at Triple-A, Anderson is a .261/.336/.400 hitter.
Indians Extend Terry Francona
The Indians announced that they have agreed to a two-year contract extension with manager Terry Francona that runs through the 2018 season. Francona’s new contract also contains club options for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Francona’s previous four-year contract with the Indians ran through the 2016 season, but the Indians will now have as many as four additional years of control should they choose. Francona just wrapped up his second year as Cleveland’s skipper, and in his two years on the job he’d led the team to 92 wins and a Wild Card playoff berth in 2013 as well as a solid 85-win campaign in 2014.
Best known for his role as Boston’s manager during their curse-ending World Series run in 2004 and their follow-up World Series victory in 2007, Francona has spent a total of 14 years as a big league manager. In that time, he’s posted a 1206-1062 record and taken home AL Manager of the Year honors. Somewhat surprisingly, his first Manager of the Year Award didn’t come until 2013 — his first with Cleveland.
Francona is regarded by executives, coaching peers and players as one of the most respected managers in the game. He’s the type of established and admired skipper that is an asset in luring free agents to come to a team. “You don’t bring a guy like this over here if you don’t plan on winning,” Nick Swisher said to reporters at the press conference to announce his signing.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.