Rockies, Ty Blach Agree To Minor League Contract
The Rockies are re-signing lefty Ty Blach to a minor league contract with a Spring Training invitation, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams (on X). Blach turned down an opportunity in the Korea Baseball Organization to return for a third year with Colorado.
Geography surely plays a role in that decision, as Blach is a Denver native. He’s clearly comfortable with the Rox, as this marks a third straight offseason in which he has inked a minor league deal. Blach reached the majors early in each of the last two seasons. He logged 44 1/3 innings of 5.89 ERA ball in 2022 before tallying 78 frames — the third-highest workload of his career — last season. Blach allowed 5.54 earned runs per nine at the MLB level, leading Colorado to outright him from the 40-man roster at the beginning of the offseason.
The Rox will keep him around as a non-roster depth option. Blach doesn’t throw hard, averaging 89.3 MPH on his sinker this year. He has never missed many bats as a result, but the Creighton product has strong control. Blach has walked a little over 7% of opponents in his MLB career. He kept that to a 6.8% rate in the majors last season and handed out free passes to just 6% of batters faced at Triple-A Albuquerque. Blach posted a 4.40 ERA over 30 2/3 Triple-A innings, deceptively solid results in one of the toughest environments for pitchers in affiliated ball.
Now 33, Blach will look to earn a long relief or back-end rotation spot. Colorado only has three pitchers — Kyle Freeland, Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber — who seem to have an inside track at a rotation spot. The front office will surely add more starting pitching options this offseason, but Blach’s ability to work multiple innings has gotten him extended run on Bud Black’s pitching staff two years running.
Reds, Hernan Perez Agree To Minor League Contract
The Reds have signed infielder Hernán Pérez to a minor league deal, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. It isn’t clear whether the veteran utility player will get a look in Spring Training.
Pérez, 33 in March, spent part of the 2023 season in the Minnesota organization. He got into 32 games with Triple-A St. Paul, hitting .279/.351/.485 through 231 trips to the plate. That solid production in limited time — he also lost around two months to an undisclosed injury — wasn’t enough to crack a deep Twins infield. He returned to minor league free agency at season’s end.
The last time Pérez donned a big league uniform was in 2021. He appeared in 10 early-season contests with the Nationals before being outrighted off the roster. Pérez played the second half of that year in South Korea and has spent most of the last two seasons in Triple-A.
The Venezuela native reached the big leagues every season from 2012-21. The bulk of his MLB time came in Milwaukee between 2016-19, highlighted by 34 stolen bases with a .272/.302/.428 slash for the Brew Crew in 2016. While Pérez has been a strong baserunner and shown plenty of defensive flexibility throughout his MLB time, a very aggressive approach has resulted in middling offensive production. He’s a .250/.280/.382 hitter in a little more than 1800 big league plate appearances.
Cincinnati has plenty of infield depth, so it’s hard to see a path to an Opening Day roster spot. He’s likely to begin next season at Triple-A Louisville as experienced non-roster injury insurance.
Yankees, Nick Burdi Agree To Minor League Deal
The Yankees have agreed to a minor league pact with hard-throwing right-hander Nick Burdi, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network. The Apex Baseball client will be in big league camp this spring.
Selected 46th overall out of Louisville by the Twins back in 2014, Burdi joined the professional ranks as a power-armed closer who could potentially have a fast track to the big leagues. He’d obliterated the opposition in college, posting a 1.79 ERA while fanning a comical 47% of his opponents during his NCAA career. He looked the part of a big league reliever following the draft, too, climbing to Double-A less than a year after being drafted and posting gaudy strikeout totals along the way.
As is the case with so many flamethrowing young arms, however, injuries intervened. A bone bruise in his upper arm wiped out most of Burdi’s 2016 season, and his 2017 campaign was cut short by Tommy John surgery. The Twins lost Burdi in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft — the Phillies selected him and immediately traded him to the Pirates — and he made his MLB debut with Pittsburgh late in the 2018 season.
Because he spent the bulk of the year on the injured list, Burdi’s Rule 5 designation carried over from the 2018 season into the 2019 season. He pitched just 8 2/3 innings before undergoing thoracic outlet surgery and missing the rest of the year. Burdi returned in 2020 but pitched just 2 1/3 MLB frames before hitting the injured list with an elbow issue that eventually resulted in his second career Tommy John surgery. Burdi finally returned to the mound with the Cubs organization in 2023, but as if the slate of arm injuries hadn’t been difficult enough, he also missed a substantial portion of the ’23 campaign after requiring an emergency appendectomy in late May.
Although we’re coming up on nearly a decade since Burdi was drafted, he’s pitched just 15 1/3 innings in the Majors due to that stunning slate of injuries. The results haven’t been good, as he’s allowed 16 runs in that time. Burdi, however, has a 3.51 ERA in parts of six minor league seasons and has whiffed just shy of 33% of opponents in his professional career (big leagues and minors combined). His durability is an enormous question, of course, but his arm strength is not; in the tiny sample of three MLB innings with Chicago last year, Burdi averaged 98 mph on his heater and reached triple digits at times.
If he can remain healthy enough to emerge as an option for the Yankees, he still has all three minor league option years remaining, which would give New York plenty of flexibility in the ‘pen. He has to be viewed as a long shot to remain healthy, given his track record of injuries, but Burdi still looks to have plenty of fire in his right arm and deserves credit for grinding through a grueling slate of injuries that would surely have been enough for many pitchers to call it quits.
Yankees, Luis Gonzalez Agree To Minor League Deal
The Yankees and free agent outfielder Luis Gonzalez have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He’ll be in Major League camp this spring.
The 28-year-old Gonzalez has played in parts of three big league seasons between the White Sox and Giants, compiling a .253/.328/.368 batting line in 363 plate appearances. The 2017 third-round pick once rated as one of the better prospects in the ChiSox’ system, but he hasn’t yet found sustained success in the big leagues.
Gonzalez got out to a hot start in 2022, his first season with the Giants, after coming over from the Sox via waivers late in the 2021 season. Through June 21 of the 2022 season, Gonzalez was hitting .302/.361/.447 in 180 plate appearances, but a lower back strain shelved him for the next two and a half weeks. He was activated on July 9 but returned to the injured list with another back strain about six weeks later — this time missing the remainder of the season. Gonzalez may never have been fully healthy upon returning, as he batted only .204/.282/.270 in 170 trips to the plate between those two IL stints.
The back troubles persisted into the 2023 season, and Gonzalez eventually underwent surgery to repair a herniated disc. That procedure kept him out from mid-March through early July. He didn’t make it back to San Francisco’s big league roster but did suit up for 31 minor league games following the operation, during which he posted a .248/.350/.352 batting line in 123 trips to the plate.
The Yankees obviously have no room in the big league outfield after acquiring Juan Soto, Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo in trades this offseason. Soto and Verdugo will flank Aaron Judge, who’ll be the team’s primary center fielder, while Grisham will give them a lefty-swinging fourth outfielder with a plus glove to come off the bench late in games. Like Grisham, Gonzalez is a lefty bat with experience at all three outfield slots. The Yankees have a trio of depth outfielders — Everson Pereira, Estevan Florial and recent waiver claim Oscar Gonzalez — all on the 40-man roster ahead of their new signing. Gonzalez seems likely to open the year in Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre.
Jesus Aguilar To Sign With NPB’s Seibu Lions
Veteran first baseman Jesus Aguilar is set to sign with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The MVP Sports client has appeared in the Majors in each of the past ten seasons but will head overseas for the first time in his career.
Aguilar, 33, signed a one-year, $3MM deal with the A’s last offseason but struggled greatly through 36 games. In 115 plate appearances with Oakland, the burly slugger managed a tepid .221/.281/.385 slash with a 27% strikeout rate. It was a second consecutive lackluster campaign at the plate for Aguilar, and although he turned around a bit after signing with the Braves on a minor league deal, he never got a look in the big leagues with Atlanta. In 241 plate appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett, he hit .271/.373/.379 with a hefty 14.1% walk rate.
With the exception of a down season in 2019, Aguilar was a well above-average hitter from 2017-21. Even with a rough showing in ’19, his batting line over that five-year stretch checked in at .262/.338/.478, and he slugged 93 round-trippers along the way. Aguilar’s best year came with the Brewers in 2018, when he swatted a career-best 35 home runs and turned in a stout .274/.352/.539 batting line. The Lions will be hoping for that type of production, or something close to it, in signing the veteran slugger for the upcoming season.
Pirates, Jake Lamb Agree To Minor League Deal
The Pirates have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran corner infielder Jake Lamb, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The CAA client will head to big league camp this spring and compete for a roster spot.
Now 33 years old, Lamb is a veteran of 10 seasons at the Major League level — most of which came with the Diamondbacks. Earlier in his career, Lamb was a highly touted prospect who enjoyed a few seasons as the D-backs’ everyday third baseman, most notably slugging 59 home runs from 2016-17 combined. However, shoulder injuries have derailed his once-promising trajectory; Lamb underwent surgery to repair his rotator cuff in 2018 and has also dealt with a sprain of the AC joint in his problematic left shoulder.
The operation marked a clear turning point in his career. Prior to the injury and subsequent surgery, Lamb posted a .247/.332/.448 batting line (including a .248/.345/.498 showing in that 2016-17 peak, which included an All-Star nod). In 223 games post-surgery, Lamb is a .199/.306/.363 hitter.
While his recent track record in the big leagues is generally underwhelming, Lamb still hits the ball quite hard when putting it in play (90.6 mph average exit velocity, 44.7% hard-hit rate since 2019). That’s a notable caveat for Lamb, however, given an ugly 28% strikeout rate dating back to 2018. Still, he’s posted outstanding numbers at the Triple-A level both in 2023 (.289/.420/.454) and in 2022 (.290/.395/.537), and the pact in question carries no real risk for the Pirates.
If Lamb has a strong showing in spring training, he could make the club as a left-handed bat off the bench — one with ample experience at both infield corners and a bit of work in the outfield corners as well. If not, he’ll likely open the year in Indianapolis as Triple-A depth, where he could be an option to join the big league roster in the event of an injury to third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes or first baseman Rowdy Tellez.
KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Three Former Big Leaguers
The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Thursday that they’ve signed a trio of former Major Leaguers (English language link via Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency). Right-hander Raul Alcantara, left-hander Brandon Waddell and outfielder Henry Ramos all signed one-year contracts for the 2024 campaign. Alcantara and Waddell are returning after pitching for the Bears in 2023 as well. They’ll be guaranteed $1.3MM and $1MM, respectively. Ramos, who spent the 2023 season with the Reds organization but played for the KBO’s KT Wiz in 2022, is entering his first season with the Bears and will be guaranteed $600K. All three players receive six-figure incentive packages that can boost their earnings as well: $200K for Alcantara, $130K for Waddell and $100K for Ramos.
The 31-year-old Alcantara has steadily raised his profile since heading overseas to sign with the KBO’s KT Wiz in 2019. This will be his sixth season in Asia; after spending the 2019 season with the Wiz and the 2020 season with the Bears, he spent the next two years with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Alcantara returned to the Bears for the 2023 season and will now embark on his third season with them and fourth overall in the KBO.
Although he was never a top-100 prospect, Alcantara at one point landed as highly as fourth among Oakland farmhands on Baseball America’s ranking of their system. The A’s had acquired him and Josh Reddick from the Red Sox as part of the package sending Andrew Bailey to Boston. In parts of two big league seasons, he logged a 7.19 ERA in 46 1/3 frames.
Alcantara has found new life overseas, winning the KBO’s Choi Dong Won Award (their Cy Young equivalent) with the Bears in 2020 and parlaying that into his two-year run in NPB. Overall, he’s posted a 3.04 ERA in 563 1/3 innings, working out of the rotation between the Wiz and the Bears. The Tigers used him primarily out of the bullpen in NPB, where he logged a 3.96 ERA in 96 1/3 frames. It’s not the typical arc, but Alcantara has carved out a lucrative career for himself pitching in Asia’s top leagues; this new contract figures to push his career earnings between NPB and the KBO north of $5MM.
Similarly, Waddell was never a top-tier pitching prospect but is a former fifth-rounder out of Virginia who was once considered a fairly promising arm in the Pirates’ system. The now-29-year-old southpaw pitched in parts of two MLB seasons with four clubs (Pirates, Twins, Orioles, Cardinals), allowing eight runs in 12 2/3 innings.
Waddell has spent the past two seasons pitching overseas between the Bears and the Rakuten Monkeys of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. In 18 starts for the Bears this past season, he posted a pristine 2.49 ERA with a 23.4% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 70.4% grounder rate. Overall, Waddell owns a 3.30 ERA in 70 CPBL innings and a 2.92 ERA in 169 2/3 innings of KBO action. Now entering a third year pitching professionally in Asia, Waddell has established himself as a seven-figure pitcher and ought to continue garnering opportunities overseas, so long as he stays healthy. At 29 years old, he’s also still young enough for a potential MLB comeback if he continues to thrive in South Korea.
As for Ramos, he’ll head back to Korea after a brief 2023 big league run in Cincinnati. The 31-year-old outfielder (32 in April) appeared in 23 games as a Red and slashed .243/.349/.311 in 86 plate appearances. Ramos is a .226/.312/.306 hitter in 141 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, but he’s mashed at a .301/.362/.485 clip in parts of six Triple-A seasons, adding 55 home runs, 93 doubles, 11 triples and 27 steals over the life of 1700 plate appearances.
Ramos would have been looking at a minor league deal had he remained in North American ball, but he’ll now have the opportunity for everyday at-bats in a league where he’ll earn just shy of the MLB minimum over a full season — while also potentially positioning himself for a raise in the future.
Reds Sign Brooks Kriske To Minor League Deal
The Reds announced this morning that they’ve signed right-hander Brooks Kriske to a minor league deal. His contract contains an invitation to big league camp in spring training.
Kriske, 29, has appeared in parts of three Major League seasons, logging time with the Yankees, Orioles and Royals. He’s been tagged for 27 runs in a tiny sample of 21 2/3 innings, although he posted better results in a brief look with Kansas City last year when he held opponents to three runs on three hits and four walks with six punchouts in 6 2/3 frames. Kriske averages a bit better than 95 mph on his four-seamer, pairing that offering with a splitter and slider that sat at 84.4 mph and 82.2 mph, respectively, in his short time with the Royals.
While Kriske’s track record in the big leagues is obviously quite limited, he sports a career 2.91 ERA with a 33.8% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate in six minor league seasons. He’s also parts of two seasons in Japan, pitching to a combined 2.31 ERA in 35 innings between the Seibu Lions and Yokohama BayStars.
Walks and home runs have been issues for Kriske throughout his time in the big leagues. The latter of those two deficiencies is a particularly tough fit with the Reds’ homer-happy environs in Cincinnati, but Kriske throws relatively hard, gets decent spin on his heater and can miss bats in droves. On a no-risk minor league deal, he’s a fine flyer for a Reds club whose bullpen is lacking in established relievers beyond its top few names (Alexis Diaz, Emilio Pagan, Lucas Sims, Sam Moll, Tejay Antone).
Mets Acquire Adrian Houser, Tyrone Taylor From Brewers
The Mets have acquired right-hander Adrian Houser and outfielder Tyrone Taylor from the Brewers for right-handed minor leaguer Coleman Crow, per announcements from both clubs. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Houser and Taylor were going to the Mets for a minor leaguer. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that Crow would be that minor leaguer.
David Stearns is plenty familiar with Houser and Taylor, having spent many years calling the shots in Milwaukee before becoming president of baseball operations for the Mets a couple of months ago. In both cases, the player has had some major league success but had reached arbitration and was in competition for playing time in Milwaukee. Instead, they will head to a Mets club that has been primarily focused on depth moves this offseason, while allowing the Brewers to clear a bit of payroll.
Houser, 31 in February, has been a solid contributor for the Brewers in the past five seasons, mostly as a starter. From 2019 to the present, he’s appeared in 120 games, 97 of those being starts. In his 523 2/3 innings pitched, he has an earned run average of 4.04. His 19.2% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate aren’t especially strong but he’s kept 52.5% of balls in play on the ground.
He has just over five years of service time, meaning he’s slated for free agency after 2024. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a salary of $5.6MM next year. Houser might project as merely a back end starter with just one year of control, but that’s still a relative bargain compared to free agents. The Mets paid $13MM to get Luis Severino for one year, while other clubs have given out comparable deals. Jack Flaherty got $14MM, Kyle Gibson $13MM, Lance Lynn $11MM, Wade Miley $8.5MM and Martín Pérez $8MM.
In Milwaukee, Houser was slated to be behind Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Miley, battling pitchers like Colin Rea, Joe Ross, Janson Junk, Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser for starts. But instead, he’ll jump to a somewhat similar spot with the Mets. His new club has Kodai Senga, José Quintana and Severino in three spots, with pitchers like Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and José Butto options for the back end. The club has been heavily linked to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and everyone would move down one spot if they successfully land him, but Houser should be in line for a role at the back of the rotation either way. He will have a leg up on Megill, Lucchesi and Butto in the sense that they can still be optioned to the minors but Houser cannot, as a player with more than five years of service time.
Taylor, 30 in January, seemed to establish himself as a viable big leaguer in 2021 and 2022. He got into 213 games for the Brewers over that stretch, hitting 29 home runs and slashing .239/.300/.448 for a wRC+ of 104. He also got strong grades for his outfield defense in all three spots and produced 3.4 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.
But he dealt with an elbow sprain in Spring Training this year, which caused him to miss the first month of the season and then another month-plus in the middle of the year. He only got into 81 games and had diminished production when in the lineup, hitting .234/.267/.446 on the year.
He reached arbitration for the first time this winter and is projected to make $1.7MM, with two years of control beyond that. He was also going to be part of a crowded outfield mix in Milwaukee that includes Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Blake Perkins, Joey Wiemer and Chris Roller.
With the Mets, they have Brandon Nimmo in center but the corners are more questionable. Starling Marte was dealing with groin issues in 2023, missing roughly half the season and struggling when on the field. DJ Stewart finished the season on a hot streak at the plate but is a poor defender and better suited to be rotating through the designated hitter spot or pinch-hitting duties. Taylor’s righty bat could also potentially platoon with the lefty Stewart. Taylor has fairly neutral splits in his career but Stewart has been far better with the platoon advantage.
Crow, 23 later this month, was drafted by the Angels. He was traded to the Mets in the Eduardo Escobar deal in June but underwent Tommy John surgery in August, meaning he may miss most or all of the 2024 season. At the time of the Escobar trade, he was ranked the Angels’ #17 prospect at Baseball America and #8 at FanGraphs. He’s currently listed 25th in the Mets’ system at BA and 20th at FG. He tossed 128 Double-A innings in 2022 with a 4.85 ERA.
Aside from their pursuit of Yamamoto, the Mets have mostly been focused on adding depth this winter. They have claimed Penn Murfee, Zack Short, Tyler Heineman and Cooper Hummel off waivers. They have given one-year deals to Severino, Joey Wendle, Michael Tonkin, Jorge López and Austin Adams. They have also given minor league deals to Cole Sulser, Kyle Crick, José Iglesias, Taylor Kohlwey, Rylan Bannon, Trayce Thompson and Cam Robinson. Now they have bolstered their rotation and outfield with a couple of solid regulars.
For the Brewers, they are cutting a projected $7.3MM from their 2024 payroll. They are subtracting a bit of depth in the process but still have plenty of other options for their rotation and outfield even after this deal, while taking a flier on a long-term prospect in Crow.
Roster Resource currently pegs next year’s payroll at $104MM, well below last year’s Opening Day mark of $119MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. There have been plenty of trade rumors this winter surrounding guys like Burns and Willy Adames, but it doesn’t appear as though the club needs to make a move of either of those guys just for payroll purposes, assuming they are willing to have a similar payroll to 2023.
As for the Mets, they are taking on that $7.1MM but could end up paying more. RR currently has their competitive balance tax number at $298MM, just above the fourth and highest threshold of $297MM. As a third time payor, their tax rates in each bracket are 50%, 62%, 95% and 110%. But the tax isn’t calculated until the end of the year. If the club isn’t competitive at the deadline and they trade some players with notable salaries, they could change their final position. Though signing Yamamoto for something in the $250-300MM range would obviously push them even further beyond their current level.
Jose Espada Signs With NPB’s Yakult Swallows
Right-hander Jose Espada signed with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, he announced on X over the weekend. Espada had signed a minor league deal with the Padres in late November before being granted his release last week.
Espada, 27 in February, made his major league debut in the season’s final week. The Padres added him to the 40-man roster at the end of September. He pitched once, throwing a scoreless inning to punctuate a victory over the Cardinals. He struck out a pair while issuing two walks.
While he has only received that cup of coffee at the highest level, Espada has been in the professional ranks since 2015. He spent time in the Red Sox and Blue Jays organizations before joining the Padres out of independent ball in 2022. The Puerto Rico native had his strongest season this year. Working in a multi-inning capacity, he combined for a 2.81 ERA in 83 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A. Espada fanned an excellent 32.3% of opponents in the minors, although he paired that with a notable 12.5% walk rate.
San Diego was impressed enough with his minor league performance they were prepared to keep him around as non-roster depth going into 2024. The NPB opportunity affords Espada a chance to lock in a salary that’s surely above what he’d have made if he’d spent much or all of next season at Triple-A El Paso. He’ll get a look in what is generally viewed as the world’s second-highest level of professional baseball.