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White Sox Outright Lane Ramsey

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The White Sox have sent reliever Lane Ramsey outright to Triple-A Charlotte after he cleared waivers, the team announced (relayed by Daryl Van Shouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). This is Ramsey’s first career outright assignment. Since he also has less than three years of major league service time, he does not have the ability to test free agency.

Ramsey remains in the organization that drafted him in the 23rd round in 2018 out of Oklahoma. He spent parts of five seasons in the minors before reaching the big leagues last August. Skipper Pedro Grifol called upon him 21 times in low-leverage relief. The 6’9″ righty pitched to a 5.85 ERA with a below-average 19.6% strikeout rate over 20 innings.

The 27-year-old missed more bats in the minor leagues. Ramsey punched out an impressive 28.6% of batters faced in 36 innings with Triple-A Charlotte last year. That didn’t translate to particularly strong results, though, as he surrendered 5.50 earned runs per nine. As has been the case throughout his minor league career, throwing strikes was a major problem. He walked more than 16% of opposing hitters for the Knights and has handed out free passes at a 10.6% clip in his minor league tenure.

That squeezed him off the roster last weekend. Chicago acquired Prelander Berroa and Zach DeLoach — each of whom are on the 40-man roster — from Seattle for closer Gregory Santos. Ramsey was designated for assignment as the corresponding transaction. He’ll likely get a non-roster invitation to MLB camp as he tries to reclaim a spot in a wide open Sox bullpen.

Orioles Claim Livan Soto From Angels

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The Orioles announced that they have claimed Livan Soto off waivers from the Angels. The Halos designated the infielder for assignment on the weekend. The O’s had a vacancy on their 40-man roster but it is now full after this move. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported the claim prior to the club announcement.

Soto, 24 in June, is generally considered a strong defender and solid contact hitter, but with little power to speak of. He made his major league debut in 2022 and hit a tremendous .400/.414/.582 in his first 59 plate appearances, though that was largely the product of an unsustainable .500 batting average on balls in play. He only received 12 big league plate appearances last year and hit .222/.417/.222 in those.

That’s a small sample of work and tough to draw conclusions from. Over the past three years, he has made 1,470 trips to the plate in the minor leagues. He drew walks in 12% of those but only hit 22 home runs, leading to a combined slash line of .247/.341/.356 and 87 wRC+.

As mentioned, he’s considered a strong defender, having spent significant time at the three infield spots to the left of first base. The O’s are looking for a left-handed hitting infielder to factor in at second base, per general manager Mike Elias, to pair with the right-handed hitting Jordan Westburg. To that end, they have acquired Nick Maton in a cash deal yesterday. Soto also hits from the left side and will likely factor into the competition for that part-time role.

Maton is out of options, which could give him a leg up in that competition but also could lead to him getting squeezed off the roster at some point. Soto has a couple of option years remaining and could be kept in the minors as depth until he’s needed in the big leagues. He’s still quite young and perhaps the O’s could find a way to coax some more power out of him going forward.

Dodgers, Chris Owings Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers signed veteran utilityman Chris Owings to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league spring training, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Owings, an ACES client, has already arrived at Dodgers’ camp today, he adds.

Though he’s appeared in each of the past 11 MLB seasons, Owings is still just 32 years old and won’t turn 33 until mid-August. He suited up for 11 games with the Pirates in 2023 — his sixth MLB club — and appeared in 11 games. Owings went 4-for-25 (all singles) with a dozen strikeouts and no walks. He fared better with the Bucs’ Triple-A club, slashing .241/.349/.449 with 15 homers in 371 trips to the plate.

Owings is a career .239/.286/.364 hitter in 2489 MLB plate appearances. He’s played every position on the diamond other than catcher and first base, though the bulk of his career has been spent as a middle infielder.

Given the infield depth the Dodgers possess already, it seems like Owings will wind up being stashed as a depth piece in Triple-A (or perhaps catching on with another club later in spring). Los Angeles has Freddie Freeman at first base, Mookie Betts at second base, a returning Gavin Lux at shortstop and Max Muncy at the hot corner. Veterans Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas offer versatile options from the bench, and former top prospect Miguel Vargas remains on the 40-man roster as an option who’s likely ticketed for regular at-bats in Triple-A to begin the season.

Red Sox, Michael Fulmer Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran right-hander Michael Fulmer, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Fulmer isn’t expected to pitch in 2024 after undergoing a UCL revision in his right elbow back in October. As such, it’s a two-year minor league pact, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Presumably, that’ll come with a 2025 spring training invite. The Red Sox didn’t formally announce Fulmer’s deal, but they did make their previously known minor league pact with Dalton Guthrie official, adding that he’s been invited to big league camp this spring. The Sox also announced minor league deals with non-roster invites to camp for infielder Joe Dunand and righty Melvin Adon.

Of the names in question, Fulmer is the most recognizable. Now 30 years old (31 in March), Fulmer was the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year with the Tigers when he pitched 159 innings of 3.06 ERA ball out of the Detroit rotation. A solid followup season in 2017 looked to have entrenched Fulmer on the starting staff in Detroit, but injuries have largely derailed that promising start to his big league tenure.

Since 2018, Fulmer has undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery, meniscus surgery in his right knee, Tommy John surgery and now a revision of that originally ligament repair in his pitching elbow. That doesn’t include oblique, shoulder and back strains that have also sent him to the injured list for various stints over the past six years. Since pitching 323 2/3 innings of 3.45 ERA ball over his first two MLB seasons combined, Fulmer has pitched a total of just 350 1/3 MLB frames in the past six seasons.

Some of that is due to a 2021 move to the bullpen. Fulmer looked to have found a second act in his career upon making that shift. He saved 14 games for the ’21 Tigers and from ’21-’23 pitched 190 1/3 frames of 3.55 ERA ball between the Tigers, Twins and Cubs. This latest procedure and another year lost to arm troubles again clouds his long-term outlook, although he’ll be just 32 years of age in 2025, so there’s still plenty of time for Fulmer to have a nice long run as a reliever if his arm can hold up. By virtue of this minimal-risk arrangement, the Red Sox will get to take the first look at his chances of doing so.

Turning to the 28-year-old Dunand, he made a brief MLB debut with the Marlins in 2022 (three games) but is best known as the nephew of Alex Rodriguez. Dunand went 3-for-10 with a homer and a double in his brief look with the Fish but has an uneven track record in Triple-A. The former second-round pick struggled greatly with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in 2021-22 before making some notable strides with the Braves organization in 2023. Dunand hit .268/.362/.481 (111 wRC+) with 17 homers in 403 Triple-A plate appearances last season, though his prior Triple-A struggles are reflected in a career .233/.325/.407 output at that level.

Dunand has played both positions on the left side of the infield extensively, though he’s appeared slightly more often at third base (1962 innings) than at shortstop (1810 innings). He’s also logged 506 innings at first base and made brief cameos in left field and at second base. He’s a right-handed bat who’ll give the Sox some depth at a variety of positions.

Adon, 29, has spent his entire professional career in the Giants organization prior to this signing. He ranked 17th or better among San Francisco prospects each year from 2017-19, per Baseball America, but has seen his stock fade due to persistent command troubles and recent injury woes (shoulder surgery, most notably).

Adon’s fastball has previously sat in the upper 90s and climbed as high as 102 mph, and scouting reports have touted a plus slider for him as well. Despite two plus offerings, he’s shown bottom-of-the-scale command in the upper minors, walking 13% of his Double-A opponents and more than 17% of his Triple-A opponents. He’s also plunked 25 hitters and thrown a whopping 67 wild pitches in just 457 professional innings. Adon has above-average strikeout rates in Double-A and Triple-A, but not to the extent one might expect based on the quality of his raw pitches.

Brewers To Sign Gary Sánchez To One-Year Deal

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The Brewers are reportedly signing free agent catcher Gary Sánchez to one-year deal with mutual option with a $7MM guarantee. The club’s 40-man roster is full and a corresponding roster move will be required when the deal is made official. The backstop is represented by MDR Sports Management.

Sánchez, 31, had a frustrating time getting a job last year but made the most of it when he finally got one. He initially signed a minor league deal with the Giants but opted out when that club wouldn’t give him a roster spot. He landed another minor league deal with the Mets and did get called up to the big leagues but was quickly put on waivers.

A claim by the Padres was the opportunity he needed. He went on to take 260 plate appearances over 72 games with San Diego, hitting 19 home runs in that brief time. His batting average and on-base percentage were low, as his fairly normal for him, but his .218/.292/.500 batting line in that time nonetheless translated to a wRC+ of 115 indicating he was 15% better than the league average hitter.

With Sánchez, the power has always been there, but his defense has been more questionable throughout his career. He seems to have improved over time, however. Defensive Runs Saved has given him positive grades in each of the past two years, including a +7 mark in 2023. Each of FanGraphs, Statcast and Baseball Prospectus considered his pitch framing to be a positive over the past two seasons. His throwing arm has always been considered strong with his blocking a weakness, though even his blocking grades have improved in the past few seasons as well.

His strong campaign in 2023 was cut short when he suffered a wrist fracture in early September. Between that and the late start, he only got into 72 contests with the Friars but still managed to produce 1.8 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs and 2.5 per the calculations of Baseball Reference.

In terms of intangibles, his tenure with the Padres overlapped with the breakout of Blake Snell last year. Through 10 outings last year, Snell had an earned run average of 5.04. But he posted a tiny 1.18 ERA over his final 22 starts, lowering his season ERA to 2.25 and earning himself a second Cy Young Award. Sánchez caught the first 18 of those 22 games, missing the last four due to the aforementioned wrist injury. Snell spoke positively of their relationship to Dennis Lin of The Athletic during the season.

Despite the strong season, there are concerns with Sánchez. As mentioned, he was a poor blocker earlier in his career. He’s never been a huge batting average or on-base guy, apart from the very early parts of his career. Strikeouts have occasionally been a problem, with his 26.8% career rate a few ticks north of typical averages. His power also eluded him in 2022, as he hit just 16 home runs in 128 games for the Twins that year.

But overall, the package has appeal. Apart from that power outage with the Twins, he’s always hit 20-35 home runs or has at least has been on pace to do so. The defense has been a struggle but has improved over time. In every full season dating back to 2016, he’s produced at least 1.3 fWAR. Even if you ignore the hot start to his career and look at 2018 to the present, he’s 10th among active catchers in fWAR.

He received interest from the Padres and Pirates this winter but will end up in an interesting landing spot with the Brewers. They already have a really good catcher in William Contreras. That perhaps suggests Sánchez will be a sort of backup catcher but part-time designated hitter. The right-handed-hitting Sánchez has fairly neutral platoon splits for his career but was excellent against southpaws last year. He hit .267/.304/.680 against lefties, 162 wRC+, but .194/.282/.406 against righties for a 90 wRC+.

The Brewers have a bunch of outfielders and Sánchez may have to split the DH time with them, but the platoon situation might work well there. Each of Christian Yelich, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick and Jake Bauers hit from the left side. Perhaps Sánchez can give Contreras the occasional breather behind the plate while also taking some at-bats away from that group by slotting in as the DH against tough lefties. This signing may perhaps bode poorly for Eric Haase, who was signed by the Brewers in December. He’s generally considered a bat-first catcher but struggled badly at the plate in 2023. He can also play the outfield but the Brewers have tons of guys battling for jobs out there. Since he’s out of options, he may find himself squeeze off the roster at some point.

The Brewers have been quite active in recent weeks, signing Rhys Hoskins before flipping Corbin Burnes to the Orioles for Joey Ortiz, DL Hall and a draft pick, then signing Jakob Junis and now Sánchez. The subtraction of Burnes obviously weakens their rotation, along with the loss of Brandon Woodruff, who was non-tendered after requiring shoulder surgery. But the additions of Hoskins and Sánchez, along with the impending debut of center field prospect Jackson Chourio, could have their offense making up some of the difference.

The club only allowed 647 runs last year, the lowest in the majors, whereas their 728 runs scored was middle of the pack. Perhaps they will allow a few more runs this year but also score a few more. Then again, based on how busy they’ve been in the past couple of weeks, they may not be done making moves. Roster Resource pegs their current payroll at $111MM, well below last year’s $126MM figure.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that the Brewers were signing Sánchez and added the $7MM guarantee. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that there was a mutual option for 2025.

Mariners Sign Casey Lawrence, Sean Poppen To Minor League Deals

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The Mariners announced their non-roster invitees to Spring Training this evening. A trio of players with MLB experience have joined the organization on deals not previously covered at MLBTR: right-handers Casey Lawrence and Sean Poppen and catcher/first baseman Michael Papierski.

Lawrence is a familiar face for Seattle fans. The righty has logged multiple stints in the organization as a swingman. He made 34 appearances as a Mariner between 2017-18, accounting for a little over half his big league experience. The 36-year-old has also pitched for the Blue Jays and Cardinals, logging 15 appearances in St. Louis a year ago.

In 27 1/3 innings of mostly low-leverage relief for the Cards, Lawrence posted a 6.59 ERA. He struck out a below-average 16.4% of opponents while averaging 90 MPH on his fastball. Lawrence had better results working as rotation depth in Triple-A. He started 21 games at the top minor league level, allowing 4.76 earned runs per nine through 104 innings. Lawrence fanned just under 20% of opponents while limiting his walks to a 6.8% clip.

Poppen, 30 in March, is a pure reliever. He compiled a 5.08 ERA in 63 appearances divided with four teams between 2019-22. The Harvard product spent last year at Triple-A with the Padres. He struggled with the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting, allowing a 6.33 ERA through 58 1/3 frames. Poppen had a subpar 17.6% strikeout percentage against a slightly elevated 10.3% walk rate. He has shown better swing-and-miss potential at the MLB level, where he owns a serviceable 22.3% strikeout rate for his career.

Papierski is a right-handed hitting backstop who had a brief MLB look with the Giants and Reds two seasons ago. He played the ’23 campaign in Triple-A as a member of the Tigers. Papierski had a solid offensive performance, hitting .266/.370/.422 with eight homers in 77 contests. He walked at a strong 13.8% clip across 305 plate appearances.

Seattle also said that right-hander Darren McCaughan is in camp as a non-roster player. According to his transactions log at MLB.com, he went unclaimed on outright waivers. The M’s announced that he was designated for assignment this afternoon as the corresponding move for their waiver claim of outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba. They’d apparently placed McCaughan on waivers before officially revealing his DFA. While the 6’1″ hurler had the right to elect free agency, it seems he decided to stick in the organization with the understanding he’d get a look in MLB camp.

Pirates, Brent Honeywell Agree To Minor League Contract

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Righty Brent Honeywell Jr. has agreed to a minor league deal with the Pirates, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com (on X). He’ll get a non-roster invitation to big league camp and will be paid at a $1.25MM rate if he cracks the MLB roster.

A former top prospect with the Rays, Honeywell logged his first extended MLB action at age 28 last season. He inked a major league contract with the Padres over the offseason. Honeywell broke camp with San Diego and held a roster spot until the trade deadline. He logged 46 2/3 innings through 36 appearances, working to a 4.05 ERA. That came with a modest 20.6% strikeout rate and an unspectacular 9.8% walk percentage.

San Diego’s deadline pickups squeezed Honeywell off the 40-man roster. The Friars lost him via waivers to the White Sox. He pitched four times with Chicago, was tagged for seven runs in 5 2/3 innings, and was cut loose. Honeywell cleared waivers after his second designation and finished the year in Triple-A. He chose minor league free agency at season’s end.

A horrible series of injuries — a 2018 Tommy John procedure, ’19 elbow fracture, 2020 nerve decompression surgery and another elbow fracture in 2022 — sidetracked Honeywell in his climb through the minors. While he didn’t turn in great results as a rookie, there’s surely some relief that he made it through the ’23 campaign without any trips to the injured list. He’ll try to crack the middle relief group in Pittsburgh to establish himself at the MLB level.

The Bucs have David Bednar, Aroldis Chapman, Colin Holderman, Ryan Borucki, Carmen Mlodzinski, Dauri Moreta and the out-of-options Roansy Contreras as strong bets to open the season in the bullpen. There might not be a ton of room in the season-opening group, but the Bucs will want to build their minor league depth. Ben Heller, Hunter Stratton and swingman Wily Peralta are also in camp as non-roster invitees. Honeywell is out of options, meaning the Pirates would have to keep him in the majors or DFA him if he earns a big league look at any point.

Orioles Acquire Nick Maton

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The Orioles have acquired infielder Nick Maton from the Tigers for cash considerations, both teams announced. Detroit had designated him for assignment on Monday when they claimed reliever Kolton Ingram from the Angels. The O’s now have 39 players on the 40-man roster.

It’s the second time in recent weeks that the O’s swung a trade for an infielder squeezed off the roster in Detroit. Baltimore brought back Tyler Nevin in a January cash transaction after his DFA as well. They’ll again send some money to the Tigers to jump the waiver order and add to their infield depth.

Maton, who turns 27 later this month, had a disappointing year in Detroit. The Tigers acquired him from the Phillies among a three-player return for hard-throwing reliever Gregory Soto last offseason. Maton got a decent amount of early-season run but struggled on both sides of the ball. He hit .173/.288/.305 with eight home runs through a career-high 293 plate appearances. He also had a handful of costly defensive miscues and rated as a below-average defender at both second and third base.

Despite the sub-replacement level production, it’s unsurprising that someone was willing to take a flier on Maton. He responded well to a midseason optional assignment to Triple-A, hitting .293/.414/.457 over 38 minor league contests. Maton has demonstrated a very patient offensive approach throughout his career. He took free passes at a 15.4% rate in Triple-A and walked in 13% of his MLB plate appearances with Detroit.

Baltimore already has a strong collection of infield talent. Nevin and Maton join Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn, Jordan Westburg, Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías on the 40-man roster. Baltimore shipped out Joey Ortiz in the Corbin Burnes trade but is expected to add Jackson Holliday to the MLB team early in the year, perhaps on Opening Day.

GM Mike Elias nevertheless told 105.7 The Fan yesterday (X link) that the front office felt there was room for a left-handed hitter who could factor in at second base. Westburg, a righty bat, is the projected starter. Adam Frazier, who worked as a lefty-swinging second baseman a year ago, departed in free agency.

Maton hits from the left side, so he could battle for that job in Spring Training. Like Nevin, he is out of minor league option years. Baltimore can’t send him to Triple-A without first trying to run him through waivers. There’s no guarantee he makes the team — it’s hard to envision both Nevin and Maton cracking the Opening Day roster — but there’s also little harm for the O’s in leveraging their vacancies at the back of the 40-man to add competition in Spring Training.

Nationals Sign Luke Farrell To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals have signed right-hander Luke Farrell to a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Rochester for now but might show up in major league camp.

Farrell, 33 in June, spent last year in the White Sox’ system after signing a minor league deal. He tossed 55 innings over 37 appearances, including seven starts, for Triple-A Charlotte. He posted an earned run average of 5.56 in that time, along with a 20.1% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 39.7% ground ball rate.

Though he didn’t make it to the big leagues last year, he does have prior major league experience. From 2017 to 2022, he suited up for the Royals, Reds, Cubs, Rangers and Twins, with an even ERA of 5.00 in 102 2/3 innings. His 23.3% strikeout rate in that time was around league average but he paired it with an 11.7% walk rate.

The Nats are set to go into 2024 with one of the weaker pitching staffs in the league. Young pitchers like Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin should continue to get looks in the rotation but the three of them each have career ERAs roughly midway between 4.00 and 5.00 thus far. Patrick Corbin has one year left on his deal but his ERA has been above 5.00 in three straight years now. Trevor Williams is halfway through a two-year deal but posted a 5.55 ERA last year. There are a few solid arms in the bullpen but the rebuilding club will be tempted to trade any reliever throwing well this summer.

Farrell has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career and did both last year. There’s a decent chance of the Nats needing to cover some innings throughout a long season one way or another and he may get tapped on the shoulder at some point. If he does get added to the roster, he’s out of options and would need to be removed from the 40-man if the club wants to take him off the active roster.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Blue Jays

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Arbitrators ruled in favor of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in his hearing versus the Blue Jays, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (X link). The slugging first baseman will be paid at the $19.9MM rate sought by his camp at PRIME. The team had submitted an $18.05MM filing figure.

Guerrero’s arbitration case was the most significant of any this offseason. Of the players who went to a hearing, he’s in line for easily the highest salary. The $1.85MM gap between his filing figure and the team’s proposed rate was the second-largest of the offseason; there’s a $1.9MM spread between the Rangers’ and Adolis García’s submissions.

This is the third of four trips through the process for the three-time All-Star. Guerrero racked up huge earnings early in the process. That’s partially because he qualified for early arbitration as a Super Two player during the 2021-22 offseason. It’s also a reflection of the monster numbers he posted early in his career, particularly during the ’21 campaign. Guerrero’s MVP runner-up season led to a hefty $7.9MM agreement for 2022. He and the Jays settled on a $14.5MM deal last winter but couldn’t find a mutually agreeable price point this time around.

That nevertheless works out well for Guerrero, who secures a $5.4MM raise relative to last season. While he’s coming off a good year, his production wasn’t what he or the team envisioned from one of the sport’s most talented offensive players. Guerrero hit 26 homers and 30 doubles with a .264/.345/.444 batting line over 682 plate appearances.

Toronto’s projected payroll sits in the $240MM range, as calculated by Roster Resource. They’ll go through the arbitration process with Guerrero once again next offseason. Winning his case this year establishes the platform for next winter’s discussions higher — a player’s previous salaries is a key factor in setting arbitration prices — and he’ll hit free agency in advance of his age-27 season.

Guerrero was the only Toronto player going to a hearing this winter. Players around the league have been victorious in six consecutive hearings after teams won the first two. There are 10 cases still pending.

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