Angels Designate Tommy Field For Assignment
The Angels have designated infielder Tommy Field for assignment in order to clear room on the roster for right-hander Vinnie Pestano, who was acquired from the Indians less than an hour ago, tweets Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times.
The 27-year-old Field hasn’t appeared with the Halos since last season, but he’s put together a strong campaign for Triple-A Salt Lake. The former Rockies farmhand has slashed a solid .285/.351/.440 with seven homers and five steals in 382 trips to the plate. Field is primarily a shortstop, but he’s seen some time at second base and third base as well this season. He could be of interest to a team in need of infield depth, as evidenced by the fact that he hasn’t been easy to sneak through waivers in the past. The Twins claimed Field off waivers from the Rockies back in 2012, only to lose him on waivers to the Angels a few weeks later.
Diamondbacks Designate Andy Marte For Assignment
The D’Backs announced that they have designated infielder Andy Marte for assignment and selected the contract of third base prospect Jake Lamb from Triple-A Reno.
The 30-year-old Marte, once regarded as one of the Top 10 prospects in all of baseball, went 3-for-16 with a homer in his brief cameo with the Snakes this season — his first big league action since 2010. Arizona is Marte’s third Major League club (along with the Braves and Indians), but he’s never delivered on his once lofty upside. The third baseman owns just a .218/.276/.358 batting line in 940 big league plate appearances.
Lamb, on the other hand, will seemingly be auditioning for a long-term role with the D’Backs. The former sixth-round pick and University of Washington product has absolutely mashed minor league pitching in 2014, slashing .327/.407/.566 with 15 homers, 39 doubles and five triples in 460 PA between Double-A and Triple-A (though just 21 of those PA came at Triple-A). There would appear to be a clear path to playing time for Lamb, following the trades of Martin Prado to the Yankees and Matt Davidson to the White Sox over the past calendar year.
Rangers Designate Chris Gimenez For Assignment
The Rangers have announced that they’ve designated catcher Chris Gimenez for assignment. He had been on the paternity list since Monday.
Gimenez collected 118 plate appearances for the Rangers this season, hitting .262/.331/.355. The 31-year-old journeyman has also played for the Indians, Mariners and Rays. Geovany Soto, who suffered a groin injury in July, is five games into a rehab assignment with Triple-A Round Rock, and the Rangers could soon reinstate him to take Gimenez’s spot on the Rangers’ active roster.
Minor Moves: Poulson, Norwood, Christiani, Carnevale
Though the 2014 draft is long in the rear view mirror, there have still been a couple notable signings of undrafted players of late. Lost in last week’s trade deadline shuffle was the Twins‘ signing of right-hander Brandon Poulson for a $250K bonus. Minnesota scout Elliott Strankman told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger about Poulson’s discovery, noting that the former art school student and independent league right-hander needed to throw just 18 pitches in order to convince Strankman to sign him. The 24-year-old Poulson reached a blistering 100 mph with Strankman in attendance, and of the 37 outs he recorded this summer prior to signing (12 1/3 innings pitched), an incredible 31 came via strikeout.
More on another undrafted free agent receiving a significant bonus and some minor moves from around the league…
- The Marlins have signed Vanderbilt outfielder and College World Series hero John Norwood for a $275K bonus, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter link). Norwood slashed .298/.368/.404 with three homers for the Commodores this season, and he blasted a game-winning homer off of first-rounder off Reds first-rounder Nick Howard. A good showing in this summer’s Cape Cod League helped Norwood go from undrafted talent to a six-figure signing, Callis notes in a second tweet. Norwood, who didn’t place on Baseball America’s Top 500 prospect list heading into the draft, hit .324 (23-for-71) with three homers and three doubles for the Cotuit Kettleers this summer.
- The Reds have outrighted right-hander Nick Christiani to Triple-A Louisville, according to the club’s transactions page. The 27-year-old allowed eight runs in 13 innings with the Reds this season and has struggled in Triple-A as well, posting a 7.71 ERA with 10 strikeouts against an unsightly 15 walks in 18 2/3 innings for Louisville.
- The Blue Jays have acquired minor league righty Hunter Carnevale from the Mets in exchange for cash considerations, reports Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. The 25-year-old was New York’s 33rd-round pick in 2010 and has struggled to a 5.59 ERA between Class A and Class-A Advanced in 2014. He has a career 4.17 ERA with 150 strikeouts in 138 minor league innings, but he’s never progressed past Class-A Advanced.
Rockies Designate Jason Pridie For Assignment
The Rockies have designated outfielder Jason Pridie for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for right-hander Brooks Brown, reports Nick Groke of the Denver Post. Brown’s recall was necessitated by yet another injury to Brett Anderson, who is on the shelf with a lower back strain.
Pridie, 30, went 1-for-4 in a brief, two-game stint with the Rockies. He’s spent most of the season at Triple-A Colorado Springs, where he owns a solid .275/.341/.426 batting line with 10 homers and 22 steals in 87 games. Pridie has long shown an ability to produce solid numbers at the Triple-A level due to a combination of pop and speed (more of the latter). At age 23, he was one of the three players sent from the Rays to the Twins in the Delmon Young trade (a deal that proved to be ill-fated for Minnesota).
Dodgers Designate Chone Figgins For Assignment
The Dodgers have designated infielder Chone Figgins for assignment, tweets Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
The 36-year-old Figgins inked a minor league pact with the Dodgers this offseason and made the club out of Spring Training to the surprise of many. He spent a good deal of time on the disabled list this year due to a left quad injury. Figgins had been on a minor league rehab assignment, but his rehab window expired yesterday, and the Dodgers chose to DFA him rather than reinstate him on the 25-man roster.
When healthy this year, Figgins tallied 76 plate appearances and posted a .217/.373/.267 batting line while seeing time at second base, third base, shortstop and left field. Though he was once an incredible valuable and versatile infield option for the Angels, it’s been years since Figgins hit well enough to justify regular playing time.
Minor Moves: Carpenter, Wall, Rapada
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Angels have outrighted right-hander David Carpenter to Triple-A Salt Lake, according to the team’s transactions page. The 26-year-old Carpenter, not to be confused with the Atlanta setup man of the same name, fired three scoreless innings this season in his lone appearance with the Halos. He’s struggled in a pair of prior stints — including a 39 2/3 inning tryout in 2012 — and owns a 5.23 career ERA in 43 frames. Carpenter was designated for assignment over the weekend.
- Right-hander Josh Wall has been outrighted to Triple-A by the Pirates, according to Pittsburgh’s transactions page. The 27-year-old Wall was designated for assignment on July 31 and has appeared in one big league game this season, though it came with the Angels, not the Pirates. Wall yielded six runs in one inning with Anaheim and was subsequently claimed off waivers by the Bucs. He’s been very good in 22 1/3 Triple-A innings with Pittsburgh this season, notching a 3.22 ERA with 22 strikeouts and just nine walks.
- The Orioles have released southpaw Clay Rapada to create roster space at Triple-A Norfolk for the newly-signed Joe Saunders, the club’s top affiliate announced on Twitter. Rapada has yet to earn a substantial stretch of time on a big league roster since his excellent 2012 season, when he posted a 2.82 ERA over 38 1/3 innings for the Yankees (8.9 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9). This year, over 38 1/3 frames (that’s a coincidence, not a typo) at the Triple-A level, Rapada has allowed 5.63 earned per nine.
Yankees Release Jeff Francis
The Yankees have released left-hander Jeff Francis, according to the team’s official transactions page. The veteran southpaw had been designated for assignment by the Bombers last week, with outfielder Zoilo Almonte taking his roster spot.
Francis has pitched for the Reds, A’s and Yankees this season, posting a combined 5.85 ERA with 15 strikeouts against three free passes in 20 innings. Francis hasn’t posted a sub-5.00 ERA since he fired 183 innings of 4.82 ERA ball with the 2011 Royals, though ERA estimators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA have consistently been a bigger fan of his work than his ERA. He’s been plagued by a below-average strand rate for the past several seasons, and his homer-to-flyball ratio has been considerably above his career norm over the past three seasons as well.
Teams in need of rotation depth could give the former No. 9 overall draft pick a look, be it in the rotation or in the bullpen. With the exception of his small 2014 sample, Francis has done a nice job of holding left-handers in check in recent years.
Indians Release Nyjer Morgan
The Indians announced that they have released outfielder Nyjer Morgan. The 34-year-old has been on the shelf for nearly three months with a sprained PCL in his right knee. Manager Terry Francona told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (Twitter link), that it was a mutual decision for the two sides to cut the cord.
Morgan appeared in 15 games for the Indians earlier this season, hitting a healthy .341/.429/.439 with a homer and three stolen bases in 52 plate appearances. That marked his first big league action since 2012, as he spent the 2013 campaign playing overseas with the Yokohama Bay Stars of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, where he slashed .294/.361/.434 in 108 games.
For his career, the sometimes controversial Morgan — also known as “Tony Plush” — is a .282/.343/.366 hitter in 2206 plate appearances between the Pirates, Nationals, Brewers and Indians. Cleveland has seen its center field depth take multiple hits this season, with Morgan and Michael Bourn both having spent significant time on the disabled list.
Nationals Acquire Matt Thornton From Yankees
1:54pm: The Nationals have in fact acquired Thornton after placing a claim, reports Heyman. It’s not yet clear whether or what the Nationals will send in return other than taking on salary, says Heyman. 
1:44pm: The Nationals have claimed Matt Thornton off revocable waivers from the Yankees, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter. Washington was awarded its claim on Thornton, which indicates that every club in the American League clubs and all National League clubs with a worse record than the Nats passed on the opportunity. (Be sure to read this primer on August trades if you have not done so already.)
This means that the Nationals have 48.5 hours from the point that the claim was awarded (which remains unclear) to work out a deal. If a trade cannot be arranged, the Yankees will have to decide whether to allow the Nationals to take on Thornton’s contract without compensation. (Having placed the claim, the Nats would be obliged to accept it.)
Thornton has been excellent this year, pitching to a 2.55 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 over 24 2/3 innings. He signed a two-year, $7MM deal over the offseason, under which he is promised a $3.5MM annual salary in each season. The Nationals have been said to be looking hard to add a southpaw pen piece, though it would be somewhat of a surprise if the Yankees moved a player who has been a fairly valuable contributor.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.