White Sox Claim Owen White
The White Sox have claimed right-hander Owen White off waivers from the Yankees, according to announcements from both clubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week. The Sox moved left-hander Ky Bush to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding move. It was reported last week that Bush would require Tommy John surgery, so he’ll spend the entire 2025 season on the IL.
White, 25, is a logical pickup for the White Sox. He has had rough results for the past two years but was a top 100 prospect before that. The Sox aren’t expecting to be good anytime soon, with their 2024 season being historically bad. Of the 30 clubs in the league, they are the one best positioned to take a flier and hope for a bounceback. White also has one option year remaining, so he can be kept in Triple-A throughout 2025 as the club gets a close-up look at him.
Drafted by the Rangers with the 55th overall pick in 2018, White’s debut was delayed for a while. Tommy John surgery prevented him from pitching in 2019 and then the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. But despite that lengthy layoff, he went on to put up some eye-popping numbers once on the hill. Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he logged 115 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.42 earned run average. He had a strong 7.5% walk rate and a massive 34.1% strikeout rate.
Going into 2023, he was a consensus top 100 prospect, with Baseball America giving him the #59 spot. The Rangers added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. But as alluded to earlier, his results have tapered off significantly since then.
He has made his major league debut, which surely wasn’t what he dreamed of. In seven big league frames to this point, he has allowed 13 earned runs, giving him an ugly 16.71 ERA at the moment. His minor league numbers haven’t been great either. He threw 151 1/3 innings for Triple-A Round Rock over 2023 and 2024 with a 5.41 ERA. The Express play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he also didn’t impress with his 17.4% strikeout rate nor his 11.7% walk rate.
The Rangers did get experimental with White midway through 2024, giving him a shot at a relief role. In his final 13 Triple-A appearances on the year, he logged 18 frames from the bullpen. His 5.50 ERA still wasn’t impressive but he did strike out 25.6% of batters faced in that time.
That wasn’t enough for him to hang onto his roster spot. He was designated for assignment in December and traded to the Reds for cash. He was designated for assignment again in late January and put on waivers, with the Sox passing at that time. Given their record last year, they have top waiver priority, but he was claimed by the Yankees. But since then, the 60-day IL has opened up, which gave Chicago a bit more flexibility to make an addition such as this.
The Sox can bring White into camp and see how things go. Perhaps he can get back on track as a starter or find new life with a move to a relief role. As mentioned, they don’t need to give him a spot on the active roster this year. He still has less than a year of service time, so they could cheaply control him for years to come if things click while he’s on the roster.
Blue Jays Sign Jacob Barnes To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays announced that they have signed right-hander Jacob Barnes to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The righty is represented by the VaynerSports agency.
Barnes, 35 in April, is a veteran journeyman. He has suited up for nine clubs in his career, including a previous stint with the Blue Jays in 2021. Between the Mets and Jays that year, he tossed 28 2/3 innings with a 6.28 earned run average. He struck out 25.8% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.6% clip. Those were pretty decent rate states but he allowed seven home run in that time, which pushed some extra runs across. That’s why SIERA, a metric that normalizes home run rate, gave him a 3.67 mark that year.
His strikeout rate has dipped in recent years but he’s coming off a decent campaign regardless. He tossed 66 innings for the Nats in 2024 with a 4.36 ERA. He only struck out 19.9% of batters faced but his 7.2% walk rate was good and his 6.4% barrel rate was below the 7% league average. That was his third straight season with a barrel rate better than par. However, his 89% average exit velocity and 41.6% hard hit rate were a bit worse than league averages.
When combined with some work for the Tigers, Yankees and Cardinals, Barnes tossed 102 big league innings over the past three campaigns with a 4.85 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate.
The bullpen was a big factor in Toronto’s disappointing 2024 season, as their relievers had a collective 4.82 ERA that was better than just the Rockies. The club has made a number of changes to the group going into this year. They outrighted Génesis Cabrera and non-tendered Jordan Romano, with both of those guys having signed elsewhere. They acquired Nick Sandlin from the Guardians and signed free agents Jeff Hoffman and Yimi García.
They also added some veteran non-roster depth by signing Richard Lovelady and Amir Garrett. Those two might have a bit of an edge over Barnes since they are left-handed. The Jays have three lefty relievers on the 40-man in Brendon Little, Josh Walker and Easton Lucas but no one in that trio has even one year of big league service time. Regardless, Barnes will report to camp and try to earn a spot on the club.
Yankees Sign Rob Zastryzny To Minor League Deal
The Yankees announced Monday morning that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Rob Zastryzny to a minor league deal and invited him to join their major league camp. Zastryzny was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week and outrighted after he went unclaimed on waivers. However, the veteran southpaw had the right to reject that assignment in favor of free agency. The Cubs never formally announced that he did so, but this morning’s announcement from the Yankees makes it clear that’s how things played out.
Zastryzny, 32, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons and tallied nearly two full years of MLB service. He tossed 7 2/3 innings with the 2024 Brewers and allowed only one run four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He’s also seen big league time with the Cubs, Mets, Angels and Pirates, combining for a 4.30 earned run average in 67 innings.
Zastryzny has fanned 18.2% of his opponents against a 10.5% walk rate. His 44.8% ground-ball rate is only a couple ticks better than average, but he’s excelled when it comes to keeping the ball in the yard, limiting opponents to an average of just 0.40 homers per nine frames. Lefties have been particularly inept against him, batting just .189/.319/.232 in 113 plate appearances. Conversely, righties have torched the 6’3″ southpaw at a .311/.372/.447 clip. Zastryzny posted a 3.03 ERA in Triple-A last season and carries a career 4.69 mark in parts of eight seasons at that level (409 innings).
The Yankees’ only left-hander in the bullpen at the moment is Tim Hill, who re-signed in the Bronx on a one-year deal earlier this month. Zastryzny joins fellow veteran Tyler Matzek as a seasoned non-roster invitee in camp. He’ll compete for a spot alongside Hill in the ‘pen, though there are enough notable unsigned veterans that it’s possible the Yankees could still bring someone in on a guaranteed deal.
Diamondbacks Designate Seth Martinez For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Seth Martinez has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their signing of fellow righty Kendall Graveman, which is now official.
Martinez, 30, has never suited up for the Snakes. He was just claimed off waivers from the Astros in November, shortly after the World Series. He lasted on the roster through most of the winter but has been nudged off today.
All of his major league experience has been with Houston thus far. He was added to that club’s roster late in 2021 and spent several years as a fringe member of the bullpen, getting optioned to the minors 12 times since getting that roster spot.
Around those trips on the shuttle, he tossed 137 1/3 major league innings for the Astros, allowing 3.93 earned runs per nine. His 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 39.6% ground ball rate to this point are all close to average but a bit worse than the mean. He also tossed 105 minor league innings over the past four years with more intriguing numbers. He had a 2.66 ERA in that work, along with a 31.5% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate.
He exhausted his final option year in 2024, which means he’ll be less valuable from a roster flexibility standpoint going forward. That likely played a role in the Astros bumping him off their roster. The Diamondbacks were presumably intrigued enough by his minor league strikeouts to claim him and hang onto him for a while but he’s been squeezed off a roster yet again.
Martinez will now be in DFA limbo for a maximum of seven days. He will likely be put back on waivers, which is a 48-hour process, so the Diamondbacks could explore trade interest for the next five days. If any club acquired Martinez, he has a bit more than two years of service time, meaning he still hasn’t qualified for arbitration and can be theoretically controlled for four seasons. However, his aforementioned out-of-options status will give him a bit of a challenge in sticking somewhere.
Diamondbacks Sign Kendall Graveman
February 17: The Graveman signing is now official, with righty Seth Martinez designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
February 14: The Diamondbacks are reportedly in agreement with veteran reliever Kendall Graveman on a one-year, $1.35MM deal. The signing is still pending a physical. Graveman, a client of Sports One Athlete Management, will earn $1.25MM this season and has a $100K buyout on a $5MM mutual option for the 2026 season. The deal includes another $1.95MM in performance bonuses. Arizona will need to create a 40-man roster spot when the deal is finalized.
Graveman, 34, missed the 2024 season while recovering from shoulder surgery but had a strong run between the Mariners, Astros and White Sox across the three prior seasons. The former starter moved to a relief role late in the 2020 season after returning from Tommy John surgery and found fast success in a high-leverage role. From 2021-23, Graveman pitched 187 1/3 innings with a 2.74 ERA, 51 holds, 24 saves, a 24.5% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate.
Though last season was lost to shoulder troubles, Graveman was cleared to begin throwing late last summer. He progressed through a normal offseason throwing and conditioning program and is ready for spring training.
When he’s been healthy, Graveman has relied upon a power sinker sitting north of 96 mph, pairing that offering with an upper-80s slider and a lesser-used changeup that sits 89-90 mph. That heavy sinker has allowed him to consistently post ground-ball rates comfortably north of 50%. The right-hander lost a bit of life on all those pitches in 2023 and saw his command erode considerably in the season’s second half, following a trade from the White Sox back to the Astros.
It’s possible shoulder issues contributed to both those red flags, of course. It’ll be telling how he looks early in camp and early in the season. If Graveman is back to 96-98 mph with his sinker and can get his walk rate back down to the 9% range — it was at 12.4% in 2023 — he’ll be a formidable piece in what should be a strong Diamondbacks bullpen.
D-backs general manager Mike Hazen has been open about his desire to add a closer this offseason. While Graveman may not be handed the role out of the gate, he adds a talented and experienced option for manager Torey Lovullo to consider. If he can get back to 2021-23 form, it’s easy to see Graveman factoring into the ninth inning. Prior to this agreement, the Snakes appeared likely to lean on some combination of A.J. Puk, Justin Martinez and Kevin Ginkel in save opportunities.
The addition of Graveman pushes the Diamondbacks’ payroll a bit north of $195MM, per RosterResource. That’s a franchise-record mark by a wide margin, shattering the previous highwater mark of $163MM, set just last year. Prior to the 2024 season, the D-backs had never opened the season higher than $132MM. They’ve been heavily involved in both the trade and free agent markets in each of the past two offseasons, however, with no bigger strike coming than the club-record $210MM investment in newly signed ace Corbin Burnes.
Since Graveman only bumps the payroll by $600K over a league-minimum player, it’s at least feasible that the D-backs could remain engaged in the market for additional bullpen help. David Robertson and Kyle Finnegan both remain unsigned and have ample closing experience. Craig Kimbrel and Hector Neris are both still out there as well and looking to rebound from shaky 2024 campaigns, while Daniel Bard is an even more extreme rebound candidate as he looks to rebound from flexor tendon surgery that cost him all of the 2024 campaign with his 40th birthday looming in June. The trade market presents additional possibilities, of course, but Hazen said just yesterday that any forthcoming bullpen acquisitions would likely be made via free agency.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the D-Backs and Graveman had a one-year deal. MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert was first with the $1.35MM guarantee. Rogers reported the maximum $3.3MM value after incentives, while Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported the mutual option/buyout.
Padres Sign Nick Pivetta
Feb. 17: Pivetta passed his physical and has reported to Padres camp. The team has formally announced his four-year contract.
Feb. 12: The Padres are reportedly in agreement with Nick Pivetta on a backloaded four-year, $55MM deal. The CAA client receives a $3MM signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. He’s guaranteed $19MM, $14MM, and $18MM salaries over the following three seasons and can opt out after the contract after the second and third years. While the salary structure helps the Padres navigate short-term payroll constraints, the $13.75MM average annual value counts evenly against the team’s luxury tax calculation. The deal is pending a physical and has not been officially announced by the Padres, who have two openings on their 40-man roster.
Pivetta, who’ll celebrate his 32rd birthday on Friday, was the best unsigned starting pitcher. He had declined a $21.05MM qualifying offer from the Red Sox at the beginning of the offseason. That was a bit of a surprising decision that presumably played a role in holding up his market into Spring Training. He finds a multi-year deal with a much greater overall guarantee than he would have received had he accepted the QO, though he’s taking a notable pay cut for the upcoming season in the process.
The 6’5″ righty debuted with the Phillies in 2017. He struggled for most of his four-year tenure in Philadelphia. A 2020 deadline trade sending him to Boston turned his career around. Pivetta has been a mid-rotation workhorse over the last four years. He ranks 23rd in MLB with 623 innings since the start of the 2021 season. He owns a cumulative 4.33 earned run average and has allowed an ERA between 4.04 and 4.56 in each season.
Pivetta was a fixture in Alex Cora’s rotation over his first two seasons in Boston. He remained in that role early in the ’23 campaign, but the Sox kicked him to the bullpen in the middle of May. Pivetta was sitting on a 6.30 ERA over his first eight starts of the season. He had a fantastic turnaround in a long relief capacity. Pivetta allowed 1.98 earned runs per nine with an exceptional 36.9% strikeout rate over his first 17 relief appearances. Boston gradually stretched him back out to a rotation workload as the season progressed, putting him back in the starting five entering last season.
A flexor strain in his elbow sent him to the injured list in early April. That was remarkably the first non-virus IL stint of his nearly seven-year MLB career. Pivetta returned no worse for wear a month later and stayed heathy from May onwards. He wound up taking the ball 27 times and worked to a 4.14 ERA across 145 2/3 innings.
Pivetta’s run prevention numbers are those of a league average starter. That alone would be a significant boost to a San Diego rotation that needs reliable back-end innings. Pivetta’s strikeout and walk profile has been more intriguing than the bottom line results. He punched out 28.9% of opposing hitters against a modest 6.1% walk rate last season. That was the third season of the past four years in which he has posted a well above-average strikeout rate.
However, the swing-and-miss ability has been somewhat undercut by longstanding issues keeping the ball in the park. Pivetta has allowed a higher than average home run rate in every season of his MLB career. He gives up a lot of hard contact. While Statcast’s park factors grade Fenway Park as one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly venues overall, it has played around neutral for home runs over the past few seasons. Petco Park has been around average for home runs as well, though it broadly plays more favorably for pitchers.
Pivetta slots fourth on Mike Shildt’s rotation depth chart for the moment. He’s behind Dylan Cease, Michael King and Yu Darvish in what had been a very top-heavy rotation. It’s a lot more balanced now, as Pivetta can provide innings that San Diego lost when Joe Musgrove underwent Tommy John surgery last fall. That’d leave one spot up for grabs among the likes of Randy Vásquez, Matt Waldron and potential reliever conversion candidates Bryan Hoeing and Stephen Kolek.
That’d only be the case if there are no other moves before Opening Day. The Padres have been hamstrung all offseason by payroll restrictions. It’s the second straight winter in which the front office has had limited financial leeway. They’ve inked a trio of cheap one-year deals to plug holes at catcher and left field. They signed Elias Díaz for $3.5MM to start behind the plate while bringing in Connor Joe and Jason Heyward for a left field platoon at a combined $2MM cost.
Pivetta won’t make much more than that in year one. The bigger ramifications are from a luxury tax perspective. The Padres snuck below the tax line in 2024. They’ve seemingly preferred to do so again this offseason. The Padres had projected narrowly above this year’s $241MM base threshold. Pivetta pushes them close to the second tax tier. RosterResource calculates their tax number around $258MM. The actual fees are relatively small. They’re taxed at a 20% rate on spending between $241MM and $261MM. They’ll pay a $2.75MM tax on the Pivetta deal and are currently lined up for about $3.4MM in taxes overall.
While ownership may simply be willing to live with that relatively small tax bill, the front office could consider payroll-clearing trades in the coming weeks. Cease, who has a $13.75MM tax number himself for his final arbitration season, has been in trade rumors all offseason. King ($7.75MM) has been the subject of lesser trade chatter, while Robert Suarez and Luis Arraez have also been speculated about. Trading Cease or King would again raise questions about the rotation’s stability, though any such deal would almost certainly include at least one affordable MLB rotation piece in the return package.
The money isn’t the only cost for San Diego. They’ll surrender their second-round pick (#64 overall) in the upcoming draft, as well as $500K from their 2026 bonus pool for international amateurs, because Pivetta had declined the qualifying offer. The Red Sox get a compensation pick in the ’25 draft, which will land 77th overall.
Pivetta winds up being the only free agent starter of this offseason to sign a four-year deal. Michael Wacha, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino each signed for three years but pulled higher annual values. All but Wacha landed a larger overall guarantee. Severino and Manaea had also declined qualifying offers, while Wacha would have received one had he not re-signed with Kansas City just before QO decisions were due. Pivetta will collect $23MM over the next two seasons. His opt-out decisions will come when there are two years at $32MM and (if he doesn’t take the first out) one year at $18MM remaining.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report the signing and the salary breakdown. Image courtesy of Imagn.
NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows Sign Pedro Avila
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball have signed right-hander Pedro Avila, according to multiple reports out of Japan. Avila elected free agency in January rather than accept an outright assignment to the Guardians’ Triple-A team.
After posting a 2.70 ERA over the small sample size of 13 1/3 big league innings with the Padres from 2019-22, Avila received a larger role in the form of 50 1/3 frames in 2023. An excellent 58.8% grounder rate and a solid 24.5% strikeout rate helped Avila overcome a middling 11.4% walk rate, but a shaky start early in the 2024 season led the Padres to designate the righty for assignment in April.
The Guardians picked Avila up in a cash transaction a few days after, and Avila went on to become a workhorse within the elite Cleveland bullpen. Beyond logging 74 2/3 innings over 50 appearances, Avila also had a 3.25 ERA during his time with the Guards, though his K% slightly declined from 2023 and his grounder rate dropped to 45% (though he also cut back on the walks). He added to that solid performance with four shutout innings in the playoffs, and he was the winning pitcher in Cleveland’s only victory of the ALCS, a 7-5 walkoff over the Yankees in Game 3.
Such production would normally have given Avila a clear ticket to a roster spot on most teams, but he is out of minor league options, and the Guardians are so deep in relief pitching that Avila became expendable. As it turned out, the Guards designated Avila to create roster space when they signed another reliever, former Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.
Avila’s out-of-options status might have left him in a crunch when trying to break camp with another MLB team this spring, so he’ll now head to Japan for more of a guaranteed role with the Swallows. This is the first time the 28-year-old Avila has pitched professionally outside of affiliated baseball, apart from five stints in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Pirates Sign Tommy Pham
TODAY: The Pirates officially announced Pham’s deal, and moved right-hander Dauri Moreta to the 60-day injured list in the corresponding move. Moreta underwent a UCL surgery in March 2024 and will miss at least the first two months of the season rehabbing.
FEBRUARY 6: The Pirates and outfielder Tommy Pham are in agreement on a one-year, $4MM contract, per Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com adds, slightly more specifically, that Pham is guaranteed $4.025MM. The Vayner client can earn an additional $250K via incentives. Pittsburgh has a full 40-man roster already and will need to make a corresponding transaction to accommodate their latest signing.
Pham, 37 next month, split the 2024 season between the White Sox, Royals and Cardinals (his second stint with the team that originally drafted him). He’s suited up for nine teams in his 11-year big league career, including seven teams in the past three years alone, as he’s settled into a journeyman role player signing a series of affordable one-year deals that frequently render him a trade chip. The Pirates make an even ten teams as Pham heads into his 12th big league season.
Pham hit well for the White Sox last season, slashing .266/.330/.380 in 297 plate appearances before heading to the Cards as part of the three-team Tommy Edman/Erick Fedde/Michael Kopech swap between the Sox, Cardinals and Dodgers. His return to St. Louis sparked an immediate feel-good moment, as Pham belted a pinch-hit grand slam in his first plate appearance wearing Cardinal red since 2018. He followed that up with three multi-hit performances in his next four games and went on to pop his second Cardinals homer just a few days later. Through eight games back with his original club, he posted a Herculean .379/.400/.759 slash and looked to be just the jolt the lineup had needed.
The good vibes didn’t last, however. Pham fell into a deep slump that saw him go 3-for-39 as the Cardinals faded from contention. He was placed on waivers in late August and claimed by the Royals, who plugged Pham in frequently as they pushed toward their eventual postseason berth. He didn’t hit well in Kansas City overall but had a few big hits, including a three-run homer against the division-leading Guardians that proved to be a game winner. Overall, he finished out the season at .248/.305/.368 in 478 plate appearances.
Over the past four seasons, Pham has produced offense almost exactly in line with the league average. He’s a .242/.322/.391 hitter (98 wRC+) with 57 home runs, 94 doubles, nine triples, 51 steals, a 10.1% walk rate and a 23.7% strikeout rate in that stretch. He’s been a bit better against lefties (.238/.328/.413) than righties (.243/.319/.383) but has generally held his own in the batter’s box regardless of opponents’ handedness. He did see a notable dip in batted-ball quality (albeit with still-strong marks in exit velocity and hard-hit rate) as well as a notable dip in walk rate (down to 7.3%).
Results-wise, Pham’s 2024 output doesn’t look all that different from former Pirate Connor Joe, whom the Bucs non-tendered earlier this winter. He’d been projected for a $3.2MM salary. Like Pham, Joe is a righty-hitting corner bat who’s provided almost exactly average offense in recent years. He’s slashed .238/.330/.396 in 888 plate appearances from 2023-24. Pham provides more speed and a more natural outfield glove (Joe split his time between first base and the outfield corners.) Pham does have far better quality of contact, so perhaps that made the Pirates a bit more bullish on his outlook than the comparably priced Joe, but it’s nonetheless quite arguable that this is a lateral move.
With the Bucs, Pham can be expected to play frequently in a corner, perhaps forming a de facto platoon with lefty-hitting Joshua Palacios or Jack Suwinski. Both struggled against lefties in 2024, with Suwinski also struggling so much versus righties that he was optioned to Triple-A at multiple points. Given that neither is established as a consistent big league presence, it’s possible that Pham simply emerges as a regular alongside Bryan Reynolds and center fielder Oneil Cruz.
The Pham signing isn’t especially exciting but is emblematic of the Pirates’ free agent approach under owner Bob Nutting, who is staunchly against taking virtually any risk on the open market. The Pirates have never given a free agent more than Francisco Liriano‘s three-year, $39MM deal more than a decade ago. Russell Martin‘s two-year, $17MM pact (also more than a decade ago) is the largest free agent position-player signing the team has issued.
Under general manager Ben Cherington’s watch, the Pirates have never signed a free agent to a multi-year deal. Aroldis Chapman‘s $10.75MM pact last winter is both the largest signing for Cherington and the lone time Nutting has authorize an eight-figure free agent salary in the current front office’s tenure. The Bucs have spent more on extensions for Bryan Reynolds (seven years, $100MM in new money) and Mitch Keller (four years, $71.6MM in new money) but there has been no appetite for any meaningful risk when it comes to open-market spending.
On paper anyhow, the Pirates looked well positioned to dip into a solid crop of free agent first basemen and/or corner outfield bats as they looked to beef up a lineup that generally lacked punch in 2024. They’ve instead brought in a new first baseman via trade (Spencer Horwitz) and signed veteran role players Pham, Adam Frazier and Andrew McCutchen, with short-term deals to match on the pitching side (Tim Mayza, Caleb Ferguson). The Pirates’ hope seems to be that a young rotation anchored by Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Keller can make further strides in 2024, with rebounds and/or breakouts from Horwitz, Cruz, Suwinski, Nick Gonzales and other young bats (Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez, Billy Cook) can spur a more productive offense.
That’s a big bet to make, when the first full season of Skenes/Jones dovetails with the Cardinals taking a step back and the Brewers seemingly unable to add to their payroll whatsoever this winter. The Pham signing pushes Pittsburgh’s payroll to $83MM, per RosterResource, a few million shy of last year’s $87MM mark. The Pirates haven’t run a $90MM payroll since 2017.
Braves Sign Buck Farmer To Minor League Contract
The Braves have signed right-hander Buck Farmer to a minor league deal. The Nati Sports X account was the first to report the news, and Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Farmer will receive an invitation to the Braves’ big league spring camp.
Farmer was born in Conyers, Georgia and played his college ball at Georgia Tech, so the signing represents something of a homecoming for the veteran reliever. (Not to mention an early birthday present, as Farmer turns 34 on Thursday.). The Braves actually made Farmer a 46th-round pick in the 2009 draft but he elected to attend college instead, and his pro career didn’t officially begin until he was a fifth-round pick for the Tigers in 2013.
In terms of bottom-line results, his 2024 campaign was the best of his 11 big league seasons. Farmer posted a 3.04 ERA over 71 innings for the Reds, chewing up innings as a bullpen workhorse for the second consecutive year. His 3.94 SIERA was more reflective of his overall performance, as Farmer had an unimpressive 9.7% walk rate and roughly a league-average 23.4% strikeout rate, but he did a good job of limiting hard contact.
Since Opening Day 2018, Farmer has posted a 4.03 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, and 9.8% walk rate across 386 2/3 Major League inning with Detroit and Cincinnati. A rough 2021 season with the Tigers skewed those numbers upwards a bit, but it still represents some solid production and durability for Farmer, even if he lacked the standout secondary statistics to land a guaranteed contract.
Farmer is the latest in a long line of veteran non-roster invites battling for jobs in the Atlanta bullpen, and his track record could give him a bit of an edge within a busy competition. Jake Diekman, Chasen Shreve, Dylan Covey, Wander Suero, Jordan Weems, Enyel De Los Santos, and Enoli Paredes are also in camp on minor league contracts, not to mention the Braves’ in-house prospects and starter candidates who could be battling for relief work. The Braves had some holes to fill after losing several relievers in free agency, and Joe Jimenez to what might be a season-ending knee surgery.
Royals Sign Luke Maile To Minor League Deal
The Royals announced that catcher Luke Maile was signed to a minor league contract. Maile will receive an invitation to Kansas City’s big league Spring Training camp.
Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin are locked in as the catching tandem on the Royals’ active roster, so Maile projects as a depth piece for their minor league ranks if he remains in the organization. Perez, Fermin, and Brian O’Keefe are the only Royals catchers with any MLB playing time on their resume, so Maile’s nine years in the bigs adds quite a bit of experience to the depth chart.
Maile has played for five different teams during his time in the Show, usually acting as a backup or part-time catcher unless an injury to another catcher opened up more playing time. Maile spent the last two seasons with the Reds, and Cincinnati declined its $3.5MM club option on Maile for 2025 in favor of a $500K buyout.
Long considered a solid defender, Maile’s glovework dipped below average in 2024 in the view of both the Defensive Runs Saved metric (-5) and Statcast’s Catcher Defense metric (-4). His framing and caught-stealing numbers were also subpar, though Maile continued to do well in blocking balls. Maile has only rarely shown much production at the plate, and he hit .178/.268/.252 over 154 plate appearances with the Reds.
While Maile has the big edge in experience over the Royals’ other depth catchers, it should be noted that Perez and Fermin handled every inning behind the plate for the 2024 team, leaving no room for any other backstops to receive playing time. Obviously an injury could arise at any time, but if Maile isn’t comfortably acting as veteran depth at Triple-A, he could opt out of his contract closer to the end of Spring Training if a clearer path to MLB playing time opens up with another organization.