White Sox Sign Bryan Shaw To Minor League Deal
The White Sox have signed veteran reliever Bryan Shaw to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training, the team announced. The CAA client will vie for a spot in Chicago’s bullpen over the next several weeks.
Shaw, 35, has spent the bulk of his career — including the past two seasons — in Cleveland. He struggled to a 5.40 ERA in 58 1/3 innings with the Guardians in 2022, thanks to one of the lowest strand rates of his career (66.3%) and one of the highest home-run rates he’s ever yielded (1.39 HR/9, 15.5% homer-to-flyball ratio).
Shaw was one of the most consistent and most durable relievers in the game from 2013-17, thrice leading the American League in appearances and twice leading all of MLB in that category. In that span, he tossed 358 2/3 innings of 3.11 ERA ball, which set the stage for a three-year, $27MM deal in Colorado that almost immediately proved regrettable for the Rockies. Shaw was tagged for a 5.61 ERA in two seasons with Colorado before being released and struggling with the Mariners the following season.
While things have gone poorly for Shaw dating back to 2018 — 5.23 ERA, 268 1/3 innings — his 2021 season offered a glimpse of his vintage form. He’s only one year removed from 77 1/3 frames of 3.49 ERA ball in his first of two seasons back in Cleveland. Even as he’s struggled, Shaw has maintained solid velocity (94.6 mph average four-seamer over the past couple seasons) and above-average ground-ball tendencies.
Shaw will give the ChiSox a durable veteran arm who can potentially be stashed in he upper minors, and if he’s able to round into 2021 form, he can help the Sox to weather the absences of Garrett Crochet (April 2022 Tommy John surgery) and Liam Hendriks (undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma). As things currently stand, Chicago’s primary late-inning relievers include Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, Aaron Bummer, Reynaldo Lopez and Jake Diekman.
Brewers, Luke Voit Agree To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have agreed to a minor league contract with free agent first baseman/designated hitter Luke Voit, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link). Voit, a client of Excel Sports, will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
For two-plus seasons, Voit was an absolute powerhouse in the middle of the Yankees’ lineup, batting a combined .279/.372/.543 with 57 home runs, 31 doubles and an 11.5% walk rate (albeit against a more troublesome 26.3% strikeout rate). That production came over the life of 892 plate appearances and included an MLB-best 22 home runs during the shortened 2020 campaign.
The past two years, however, have been nightmarish for the slugger — in no small part due to health troubles. Voit began the 2021 campaign on the injured last after suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee during spring training. That injury required surgery and kept him out of action into mid-May, but his return proved short lived. Just two weeks after returning to the field, Voit sustained a Grade 2 oblique strain.
While even Grade 1 oblique strains can often lead to month-long absences, Voit was still back on the field less than one month later. This return from the IL, in similar fashion, was brief in nature. Three weeks after being activated, Voit was back on the shelf due to inflammation and discomfort in his surgically repaired left knee. The Yankees shopped and nearly traded Voit at the 2021 trade deadline, but he was back on the active roster from Aug. 8 until Sept. 30 — when pain in that left knee again sent him to the injured list, formally ending his season. He closed out that year with a career-worst .226/.308/.402 batting line.
The Yankees traded Voit to the Padres just before Opening Day 2022, receiving righty Justin Lange in the swap. Voit hit .225/.317/.416 in 344 plate appearances with the Padres before being traded to the Nationals in the Juan Soto blockbuster. With Washington, Voit’s production took a step back, evidenced by a .228/.295/.381 slash in his two months down the stretch. Washington non-tendered him following the season, preferring not to offer him a raise on last year’s $5.45MM salary.
With the Brewers, Voit will look to get back on track in a more hitter-friendly setting than he played in during the 2022 season — if, of course, he makes the club. The Brewers already have Rowdy Tellez at first base, and outfielder Jesse Winker could be in line for DH reps, depending on how the rest of the outfield mix plays out. Christian Yelich is entrenched in left field (and in search of his own rebound), while center field and right field currently look as though they’ll be manned by Garrett Mitchell and Tyrone Taylor.
On the surface, Voit’s right-handed bat looks like a natural pairing for either Tellez or Winker in a platoon capacity, but that’s not necessarily the case. In his career, Voit’s production against left-handed opponents (.236/.329/.439) is inferior to his production against righties (.262/.347/.491). He’d still be an upgrade over either Tellez or Winker against southpaws, but using him primarily against lefties wouldn’t necessarily maximize his skill set.
For Voit to find success in Milwaukee, he’ll first and foremost need to pare back a strikeout rate that has spiraled in the wrong direction since that injury-ruined 2021 season. Over the past two seasons, Voit has fanned in 31.3% of his plate appearances — a far cry from the 26.3% clip at which he punched out during his Yankees peak and an even farther cry from his career-best 23.1% during that standout 2020 campaign. Voit still makes hard contact at a very strong clip (44.6% over the past two seasons, per Statcast) and barrels the ball at an elite rate (15%) — but that ability for loud contact has been undercut by his uptick in whiffing altogether.
If Voit makes the club and is able to return to form, he’d be a multi-year option for the Brewers, as he’s just shy of five years of Major League service time. As such, he’d be controllable one more year via arbitration. That’s putting the cart before the horse, but it’s a nice potential longer-term benefit if he can engineer a rebound with the Brew Crew.
Brewers, Tyler Naquin Agree To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have agreed to a minor league pact with free-agent outfielder Tyler Naquin, tweets Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The Excel Sports client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee. It’s the second non-roster deal with a notable veteran for the Brewers today, as they also signed Luke Voit to a similar pact earlier this morning.
Like Voit, Naquin will give the Brewers some potential power to add to the lineup. He’s clubbed 30 homers and turned in a solid .201 isolated power mark (slugging percentage minus batting average) over the past two seasons between the Reds and the Mets. In that time, Naquin slashed .252/.311/.454, drawing walks at a 6.9% clip against a 25.4% strikeout rate. He’s primarily played in the outfield corners over the past two seasons and is better suited for corner work, according to most defensive metrics, though he certainly has experience in center and can handle the position in a pinch.
Naquin, 31, has spent parts of seven seasons in the Majors, mostly coming with Cleveland, who selected him with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2012 draft. He’s been deployed largely as a platoon player in recent seasons and owns a career .274/.326/.468 batting line against right-handers (as opposed to a .210/.272/.339 output against lefties).
As things stand, the outfield situation in Milwaukee is a bit in flux. Christian Yelich is locked into left field, but the options in center and left have limited track records. Garrett Mitchell turned heads with a .311/.373/.459 batting line through 68 plate appearances in his MLB debut last season, but he needed a sky-high .548 BABIP to get there and also fanned in 41.2% of his plate appearances; without pronounced improvement in his strikeout rate, regression is inevitable. That said, Mitchell was a first-round pick in 2020 and posted quality minor league numbers in 2022, so it’s certainly feasible that he could establish himself.
Meanwhile, 29-year-old Tyrone Taylor could be poised for a career-high workload. He’s coming off a rather pedestrian .233/.286/.442 batting line, but he grades out as an above-average defender who’s capable of playing all three outfield spots. There’s also Jesse Winker, acquired from the Mariners earlier in the winter, though he’ll be in search of a rebound at the plate and could also see ample time at designated hitter.
Further down the depth chart, Milwaukee has top prospects like Joey Wiemer and Sal Frelick in the upper minors. Both reached Triple-A in 2022 and thrived there, albeit in sample sizes of fewer than 250 plate appearances apiece. Milwaukee also inked switch-hitting Blake Perkins to a Major League deal earlier in the winter despite the fact that he’s never played a big league game. He slashed a combined .246/.357/.456 between the Yankees’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2022.
With a big spring showing, Naquin could put himself in the running for at-bats in right field, where the right-handed hitting Taylor would make for a natural platoon partner. He could also win a bench spot on a heavily right-handed-hitting club, where the current favorites for reserve roles include Mike Brosseau, Keston Hiura and perhaps either Luis Urias or Brian Anderson (depending on which lands at third base more regularly — a situation that is dependent itself on how quickly prospect Brice Turang gets a look at second base).
Rangers To Sign Joe Palumbo To Minor League Deal
Left-hander Joe Palumbo took a physical today to finalize a minor league contract with the Rangers, tweets Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Assuming all went as planned, he’ll return to the organization where he began his professional career as a 30th-round draftee in 2013.
Palumbo reached the highest level with Texas between 2019-20. He combined for nine MLB appearances over those two seasons, starting four games. He threw 19 innings and allowed 20 runs, surrendering a staggering eight home runs. Palumbo struck out 26 hitters (an above-average 27.4% rate) but struggled with both walks and hard contact in that brief look.
At the beginning of the 2021-22 offseason, Texas took Palumbo off the 40-man roster. The Giants claimed him but almost immediately non-tendered him, sending him to free agency. Palumbo returned to San Francisco on a minor league pact but only pitched three times in Triple-A before being released. He’d barely pitched in 2020-21 either, spending most of that two-year stretch on the injured list.
All told, Palumbo has logged just 14 innings between MLB and the minors over the last three seasons. Prior to the injury concerns, the New York native had been regarded as one of the better prospects in the Rangers’ system. He slotted among the top 11 Texas farmhands at Baseball America each year between 2017-20, drawing particular praise for his curveball.
Palumbo is expected to be assigned directly to minor league camp once his deal is finalized. That suggests he’s not under consideration for an Opening Day roster spot but positions him to head to Triple-A Round Rock to open 2023. The 28-year-old has pitched in parts of nine minor league campaigns, carrying a 3.03 ERA with a 28.3% strikeout rate and a 9.8% walk percentage in a little less than 400 minor league innings.
Mariners, Kean Wong Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners are signing infielder Kean Wong to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. He joins older brother Kolten Wong in the organization.
Kean Wong, 27, is a former fourth-round draftee of the Rays. He split the 2019 campaign between Tampa Bay and the Angels, later suiting up with the Halos for 32 contests in 2021. Wong has 84 MLB plate appearances to his name, carrying a .167/.188/.218 line with 23 strikeouts and two walks in that brief look.
Like his brother, the younger Wong is primarily a second baseman. He has played nearly 5000 innings at the keystone over parts of nine professional seasons. Wong also has a decent amount of experience at third base and has logged some corner outfield work.
The left-handed hitter re-signed on a minor league deal with the Angels last winter after being designated for assignment. He spent the whole year with their highest affiliate in Salt Lake, tallying 565 plate appearances through 128 games. Wong hit .262/.342/.332 with a lofty 10.8% walk percentage and average 22.1% strikeout rate. His on-base numbers were solid but came without much power, as he connected on only three home runs, 18 doubles and four triples despite playing in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Wong did steal 41 bases in 47 attempts for the Bees, bringing him to 126 stolen bases over his minor league career. He’s now a .285/.352/.399 hitter over parts of five Triple-A campaigns. Wong joins Colin Moran, Drew Ellis and Mike Ford among the non-roster infielders with big league experience who’ll be in camp.
Cubs Sign Michael Fulmer
Feb. 20: The Cubs have formally announced the signing. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Codi Heuer was placed on the 60-day injured list. Heuer is recovering from Tommy John surgery
Feb. 15: Fulmer and the Cubs agreed to a one-year, $4MM contract tweets Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.
Feb. 10: The Cubs and free-agent righty Michael Fulmer are in agreement on a contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The deal is pending a physical. Fulmer is represented by BBI Sports Group.
In Fulmer, the Cubs are landing one of the few remaining quality relievers on the market. The 2016 American League Rookie of the Year broke into the Majors as a starter and thrived in that role before injuries — namely Tommy John surgery and a separate ulnar nerve transposition procedure — derailed his career. He returned to full strength in 2021 however, and after a few shaky starts early in the season, found a home in the Detroit bullpen.
From that point through the 2022 trade deadline, Fulmer was a rock-solid setup man and closer for a sub-.500 Tigers team. Detroit flipped him to the Twins prior to the 2022 trade deadline, receiving minor league pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long in return. Fulmer continued his smooth transition to the bullpen with a nice showing in Minnesota down the stretch, and he now touts a 2.90 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate, 39.2% grounder rate and 0.64 HR/9 mark in 111 2/3 innings since moving to a relief role on a full-time basis.
Fulmer had some command issues in the first half of the 2022 season, but those were largely ironed out following his trade to Minnesota, with whom he walked just 7.5% of the batters he faced. There are at least a handful of red flags on his 2022 season beyond the brief uptick in walks, however.
For instance, the 95.6 mph Fulmer averaged on his heater in 2021 dipped to 94.3 mph in 2022, while his 24.6% strikeout rate fell to 22.1% (and just 20.6% after the trade). The right-hander also went from one of the game’s best at managing hard contact (87th percentile average exit velocity, 76th percentile hard-hit rate) to just slightly above-average in 2022 (55th percentile exit velocity, 61st percentile hard-hit rate). Additionally, his strong 34.6% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate fell to 31.2% in 2022 — a career-low mark in a full 162-game season.
The extent to which factors like that combined to slow Fulmer’s market can’t be fully known, but it’s still a bit of a surprise that it took until the week before spring training for him to reach a deal. While financial terms of his contract haven’t yet come to light, the Cubs tend to wait out the market and scoop up veteran relievers at relatively bargain rates. Chicago hasn’t inked a reliever to a multi-year deal or even topped a $5MM guarantee for a reliever since signing Craig Kimbrel four years ago.
If that trend indeed continues, it could well prove to be a bargain for them. Fulmer isn’t a dominant, overpowering bullpen anchor, but he’s been a quality setup man with slightly above-average ability to miss bats, solid command and a knack for avoiding hard contact over the past two seasons. If his 2023 results fall in line anywhere between his 2021 and 2022 output, it’ll be a nice upgrade to a Cubs bullpen that is lacking in certainty.
Prior to the agreement with Fulmer, righties Brad Boxberger and Rowan Wick were the only relievers in the Chicago bullpen with even three years of Major League service time. The Cubs don’t have a set closer, so Fulmer figures to join Boxberger, Brandon Hughes and perhaps former top prospect Adbert Alzolay — who was excellent in a small sample of bullpen work last year — in competing for work in the ninth inning.
White Sox Designate Bennett Sousa For Assignment
The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve designated lefty Bennett Sousa for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to Elvis Andrus, whose previously reported one-year, $3MM deal with the team is now official.
Sousa, 27, made his big league debut in 2022 but struggled to an 8.31 ERA, yielding 19 runs on 25 hits and 10 walks with 12 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. He’s posted sub-4.00 ERAs with big strikeout numbers and strong ground-ball rates in the upper minors over the past few seasons, but he’s also battled command issues more often than not. Sousa did post a tiny 5.3% walk rate in 22 2/3 innings of Triple-A work in 2021, but that number ballooned to 10.3% in a comparable sample this past season.
Sousa has a pair of minor league option years remaining, which could appeal to other clubs in need of some left-handed bullpen depth. He also averaged a solid 94.3 mph on his heater in the big leagues last year, and his 11.7% swinging-strike rate (and history of missing bats in the minors) suggests there could be improvement on the horizon for a dismal 12.5% strikeout rate.
The White Sox will have a week to trade Sousa, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
White Sox Sign Elvis Andrus
Feb. 20: The White Sox have announced the signing and confirmed the one-year, $3MM terms of the deal.
Feb. 19: The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). The contract will become official when Andrus passes a physical, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds that Andrus will earn a $3MM salary. Andrus is represented by the Boras Corporation.
Andrus returns to the south side of Chicago after hitting .271/.309/.464 over 191 plate appearances with the White Sox last season. Released by the A’s in August, the Sox quickly inked Andrus as a shortstop replacement for Tim Anderson, who ended up missing the rest of the season due to a torn hand ligament. While only over a small sample size, Andrus’ performance with the Sox marked his best offensive surge in years, as the veteran had struggled at the plate during the end of his tenure with the Rangers and for much of his two seasons in Oakland.
With Anderson now back and healthy, the White Sox will use Andrus as their regular second baseman. This is the first position change of Andrus’ 14-year MLB career, as he has exclusively played shortstop (with a handful of DH games) over his 1947 Major League games. Andrus has made exactly one professional appearance as a second baseman, and it happened way back in his first pro season of 2005 with the Braves’ rookie ball affiliate.
Lack of experience notwithstanding, there probably isn’t much doubt that Andrus can handle the new position, given that he was still posting quality defensive numbers (as per the UZR/150 and Outs Above Average metrics) as a shortstop as recently as 2022. It is certainly possible that Andrus’ glovework will be even better at an ostensibly easier position, which gives the White Sox a defensive boost heading into a season with new anti-shift rules coming into play.
The signing addresses a problem position for the Sox that has lingered all offseason. Chicago signed Hanser Alberto, Erik Gonzalez, and Nate Mondou to minor league contracts, yet neither represented any real upgrade to a second base position that generated only 0.3 bWAR for the White Sox over the entire 2022 season. With Andrus now in the fold, longtime utilityman Leury Garcia can now used in his usual multi-position role, and more inexperienced options like Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa can now compete for bench jobs or get more seasoning in the minor leagues.
The $3MM outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1MM, as per Roster Resource. This is a little less than the approximately $193MM the White Sox spent last season, though GM Rick Hahn indicated back in November that the club was planning to have around the same payroll as it did in 2022. Some reports suggested that the Sox would even try to cut payroll down to around $180MM, though that plan may have been abandoned in light of rising free agent costs and a relative lack of league-wide action on the trade market. If the Sox were in contention at midseason, owner Jerry Reinsdorf could possibly okay another payroll bump for a trade deadline addition, even if it’s probably safe to assume that a real spending splurge isn’t coming.
The Angels and Red Sox were the only teams publicly known to have interest in Andrus this winter, with Boston emerging in the wake of Trevor Story‘s internal-brace surgery on his right elbow. There was obviously a lot of action on the shortstop market this offseason, but once the big names of Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson all signed their contracts, remaining teams with shortstop needs seemed more willing to test out internal options rather than pursue a veteran like Andrus. Becoming a second baseman might reflect the reality of the market for Andrus, or he might’ve just preferred an everyday role at a new position (and in a familiar environment) rather than remain a shortstop on a new team, but in more of a part-time capacity.
Red Sox Sign Marcus Wilson To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox have signed outfielder Marcus Wilson to a minor league contract, as per MILB.com’s official transactions page. Wilson has been assigned to Double-A Portland.
There is plenty of familiarity between the two sides, as Wilson was a member of Boston’s organization for most of the 2019-21 seasons. The Sox initially acquired the outfielder from the Diamondbacks in an April 2019 trade, and then designated him for assignment to open up some roster space for moves at the 2021 trade deadline. The Mariners claimed Wilson on waivers, and his time in Seattle resulted in his first taste of Major League action. Wilson appeared in three games with the M’s this season, and though he struck out in four of six plate appearances, he at least banked his first official hit, walk, and run as a big leaguer.
After opting for minor league free agency following the season, the 26-year-old Wilson is now back with the Red Sox. A second-round pick for the D’Backs in the 2014 draft, Wilson has experience at all three outfield positions, though he has spent much more time as a corner outfielder than as a center fielder in the last two seasons. He has posted respectable numbers at the plate in the minors (including a .230/.355/.441 slash line and 30 homers over 792 PA at the Triple-A level), but Wilson’s offensive productivity has been limited by his propensity for strikeouts.
Wilson gives the Sox a known quantity as minor league depth as the team sorts its outfield mix. Alex Verdugo and newcomers Masataka Yoshida and Adam Duvall look to earn most of the everyday at-bats on the grass, while utilityman Rob Refsnyder, top propects Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela, minor league signings Greg Allen and Raimel Tapia or (when they’re not in the infield) Christian Arroyo or Enrique Hernandez could all be in the picture for outfield work.
Brewers Sign Justin Wilson
The Brewers announced that left-hander Justin Wilson was signed to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2024 season. Since Wilson underwent Tommy John surgery last June, it isn’t known whether or not he’ll be able to pitch this season, but Milwaukee will retain control over his services when he is healthy.
The ACES client will make $850K in 2023 and the option is valued at $2.5MM with a $150K buyout; it’s a $1MM guarantee overall. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Milwaukee placed righty Jason Alexander on the 60-day injured list after he suffered a shoulder strain. He’ll be out until the end of May at the earliest.
Wilson will remain in the NL Central, as he had been a member of the Reds organization since he was dealt from the Yankees as part of a deal prior to the 2021 trade deadline. Wilson ended up posting a 2.75 ERA over his 19 2/3 total innings with Cincinnati, but his elbow problems limited him to only 3 2/3 innings of work in 2022. Wilson averaged 67 games and 61 innings per season from 2013-18, though he missed significant time in 2019 due to elbow soreness and then in 2021 due to a hamstring.
Through 11 MLB seasons, Wilson has a 3.41 career ERA, a solidly above-average 25.9% strikeout rate, and a subpar 10.7% walk rate. The free passes are the only real weak link on Wilson’s resume, as the southpaw has done well to induce grounders and limit hard contact over his career. The 35-year-old also has roughly identical career splits against both left-handed and right-handed batters.
This solid performance hasn’t prevented Wilson from bouncing around the league, as he has seen big league action with six different teams over the course of his career. The Brewers are certainly hopeful of being the seventh, perhaps as early as this summer if Wilson is on the short end of the usual 14-16 month recovery period for Tommy John patients. On the plus side, Wilson won’t require as much arm build-up since he’ll be working out of the bullpen, so it would seem like there’s a decent chance that he’ll be able to get on the mound before the 2023 campaign is over.
Hoby Milner is the only left-hander projected for Milwaukee’s Opening Day bullpen, and Alex Claudio, Thomas Pannone, and Robert Gasser are the southpaws in camp as non-roster invitees. Aaron Ashby might have also factored into the Brew Crew’s relief plans if he wasn’t kept stretched out as rotation depth, but Ashby is now going to be out of action for several months due to shoulder inflammation. While Wilson doesn’t provide any immediate help to the bullpen, he at least represents some left-handed relief depth down the road, while the Brewers figure out their plans for the start of the season.