Brewers Sign Josh VanMeter To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have informed reporters, including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that they have signed infielder Josh VanMeter to a minor league with an invitation to major league Spring Training.
VanMeter, 28 in March, has appeared in the past four major league seasons, spending time with the Reds, Diamondbacks and Pirates. He first got the call in 2019 and spent that season being frequently optioned between the majors and minors for the Reds. His work in the majors was a bit below average, as he hit .237/.327/.408 for a wRC+ of 88. But in 49 minor league games, he hit an incredible .348/.429/.669 for a wRC+ of 175.
Unfortunately, VanMeter hasn’t been able to come close to that level of production in the three years since, either in the majors or the minors. He spent most of 2022 in the majors with the Pirates, hitting just .187/.266/.292 for a wRC+ of 59. He was designated for assignment and outrighted in September, reaching free agency at season’s end.
Though he hasn’t hit much in the past few years, VanMeter at least brings defensive versatility. In his time in the big leagues, he’s played the outfield corners, every infield position except shortstop, as well as an inning behind the plate and three innings on the mound. It’s also possible his bat gets a boost from the upcoming rules against extreme defensive shifts, as he hits from the left side and was shifted in 79.7% of his appearances last year.
The Brewers have a bit of fluidity to their infield picture since Jace Peterson reached free agency and signed with the A’s while Kolten Wong was dealt to the Mariners. The club received Abraham Toro back in that Wong deal and also acquired Owen Miller from the Guardians. Luis Urías could take over third base while prospect Brice Turang is an option to join Willy Adames in the middle infield, but Turang has still yet to reach the majors. Mike Brosseau is also in the mix. The addition of VanMeter gives the club an experienced player to add some depth without using a roster spot for now. If he earns his way back onto the 40-man, he’s out of options and will have to stick around or else be designated for assignment. He has between three and four years of MLB service time and could be retained for future seasons via arbitration if he can work his way into Milwaukee’s plans.
Phillies, Giants Swap Yunior Marté For Erik Miller
The Phillies and Giants made a trade today, according to announcements from both clubs. Right-hander Yunior Marté is heading to the Phillies with lefty Erik Miller going the other way.
Marté, 28 next month, he spent most of his career with the Royals but never cracked their roster and reached minor league free agency after 2020. The Giants then signed him to a minor league deal and saw him post a 3.49 ERA over 56 2/3 Triple-A innings in 2021. He struck out 24.6% of batters faced, walked 9.1% of them and got grounders on 49.4% of balls in play. That was enough for the Giants to add him to the 40-man in November.
In 2022, Marté made his MLB debut with a 5.44 ERA in 48 innings for the Giants. That came with a 20.6% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate, with both of those numbers being a bit worse than league average. He did get grounders at a strong 48.6% rate and might have had some bad luck with a 63.2% strand rate. Statcast found a lot to like in his work, placing him in the 97th percentile in terms of barrel rate, 84th in terms of average exit velocity and 94th in terms of fastball velocity, averaging 97.8 mph. He also tossed 25 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.16 ERA and a huge 37.2% strikeout rate, though his 38.8% ground ball rate was lower down there.
Marté still has a couple of option years, so he’ll give the Phils an intriguing arm that they could potentially keep in the minors until needed. The bullpen has been an area of focus for the team this winter, as they’ve signed free agents Craig Kimbrel and Matt Strahm, in addition to swinging a trade for Gregory Soto this weekend and Marté today. For the Giants, it seems like Marté was nudged out of their plans when they signed Luke Jackson today, requiring them to open a roster spot with this trade. Though it was surely tough to part with a talented pitcher like Marté, they are at least getting something in return.
Miller, 25 next month, was a fourth round selection of the Phillies in 2019. He’s been considered one of the better prospects in the Philly system since then, with Baseball America having him in the club’s top 30 in each of the past three years. Between the canceled minor leagues in 2020 and an injury-marred 2021, he hadn’t pitched much coming into 2022. But he seemed to get into a groove at Double-A, tossing 36 1/3 innings with a 2.23 ERA. He struck out 30.1% of batters faced but also walked 11.6% of them. He was promoted to Triple-A but his control problems worsened. In 10 games at that level, he walked 21.5% of opponents, leading to a 7.50 ERA.
Miller got some attention here at MLBTR as the Rule 5 draft was approaching but he ultimately went unselected. That means the Giants have now swapped one intriguing arm for another, with Miller not occupying a roster spot. Baseball America highlights that his fastball can reach 98 mph, with a plus slider and changeup as well. However, they note that a lack of consistency has kept him from truly reaching his potential thus far.
P.J. Higgins Elects Free Agency
Catcher P.J. Higgins has rejected an outright assignment from the Cubs in favor of free agency, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Chicago designated Higgins for assignment in late December in order to open a spot on the roster for newly signed Tucker Barnhart, and Higgins cleared outright waivers last week. It was the second time in his career he’d gone unclaimed and been assigned outright to a minor league affiliate, however, which granted him the right to reject that assignment and explore his opportunities elsewhere.
Higgins, 29, appeared in 74 games for the Cubs in 2022, batting .229/.310/.383 with six homers, 11 doubles and a triple in 229 plate appearances. He walked at a 9.6% clip and punched out in 25.3% of those trips to the plate. That marked just the second season in which Higgins has had big league experience, with the 2021 season — when he appeared in just nine games — standing as the only other.
A 12th-round pick out of Old Dominion back in 2015, Higgins has been a generally productive hitter in the minors but has never received a particularly long big league look with the Cubs — due in no small part to the presence of Willson Contreras in the Majors for the entirety of his pro career to this point. Higgins has torn through Triple-A pitching at a .338/.429/.535 pace, though that’s come through just 274 plate appearances in a generally hitter-friendly setting. Overall, he’s a career .279/.365/.378 hitter in parts of seven minor league seasons.
Higgins was touted as an average or better defensive catcher back when Baseball America ranked him 22nd among Cubs farmhands in 2017, but he had some struggles in the Majors this past season. Higgins threw out just 16% of runners who attempted to steal against him — well below the league-average 24% — and he ranked near the bottom of the league with his average “pop time” in such situations, per Statcast. Both FanGraphs and Statcast pegged him as a below-average framer, as well, and Defensive Runs Saved dinged him at -6 for his work behind the plate in 2022.
That said, there’s more to Higgins’ defensive skill set than just his work behind the plate. He was an infielder at Old Dominion and in his first season of pro ball, and the Cubs have continued to get him work at other positions throughout his career. Catcher has remained his primary position since 2016, but Higgins has a total of 732 innings at first base, 575 innings at third base and even 93 innings at second and 37 innings at shortstop. He’s unlikely to be viewed as a regular option at any of those infield slots, of course, but it’s a nice bit of versatility to be able to market to other clubs as Higgins looks for a new opportunity as a minor league free agent for the first time in his career.
Giants Sign Luke Jackson To Two-Year Deal
The Giants announced Monday that they’ve signed free-agent righty Luke Jackson to a two-year contract that includes a club option for a third season. He’ll be guaranteed $11.5MM that’s paid out in the form of a $3MM salary in 2023, a $6.5MM salary in 2024 and then a $2MM buyout on a $7MM option for the third year. Jackson, a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council, didn’t pitch in 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery back in April. The Giants didn’t provide a timeline, but given the date of his surgery, it’s likely Jackson will open the season on the injured list.
The 31-year-old Jackson had something of a roller-coaster tenure in the Atlanta bullpen, at times operating as the team’s closer and on other occasions being relegated to low-leverage roles while struggling through rocky results. He saved his best performance for last, however, dominating as the team’s primary setup man during their run to the World Series in 2021.
Jackson, who shook off a disastrous 6.84 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, pitched to an outstanding 1.98 ERA with a 26.8% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate for the Braves during the ’21 regular season. He was virtually unhittable in the season’s final couple months, recording a 1.35 ERA and 33-to-10 K/BB ratio with just one homer allowed over his final 26 2/3 frames that year.
For much of the postseason, the same was true. Jackson was unscored upon through his first six games in the playoffs — four NLDS games and two in the NLCS — before the Dodgers ambushed him for four runs in just one-third of an inning. The Braves lost that game (with Jackson taking the loss) but hung on to win the series. The World Series offered a chance at redemption for Jackson, and he seized it, firing 3 2/3 shutout innings with just one hit, no walks and four punchouts.
Looking at Jackson’s career from a broader perspective, the former No. 45 overall pick (Rangers, 2010) was a touted pitching prospect with Texas before being sent to the Braves in exchange for right-handers Tyrell Jenkins and Brady Feigl. Neither of those pitchers did anything for Texas, and while Jackson’s first season with the Braves in 2017 was rather nondescript, he began to turn a corner the following season.
It was 2018 when Jackson entirely shelved his changeup, scaled back the usage of his four-seamer and curveball, and began to throw his slider more than any other offering. Since that point, Jackson has seen his strikeout rate leap from an awful 13.4% to a very strong 27.1%. He’s averaged 95.5 mph on his heater along the way and also gone from a fly-ball pitcher to a robust ground-ball worker, keeping a whopping 55.8% of balls put into play against him on the ground. Command has been a frequent issue, evidenced by a 10% walk rate in his past 203 1/3 innings (2018-21), but Jackson’s ability to miss bats, induce double-plays and avoid home runs (0.93 HR/9) have helped him to offset that below-average ability to locate the ball.
Though he’s likely IL-bound to start the year, Jackson could still jump back into the big league bullpen before the season’s halfway point. Once he does, he’ll add some more swing-and-miss to what has become an increasingly sound relief corps in San Francisco. Lefty Taylor Rogers was signed for late-inning work alongside presumptive closer Camilo Doval, and the Giants will also have John Brebbia and Tyler Rogers (Taylor’s twin brother) in the mix for late-inning opportunities. The pitching staff has as many as seven capable starters — Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, Sean Manaea, Anthony DeSclafani, Jakob Junis — and the potential for two of them (Junis and perhaps DeSclafani) to pitch in relief only further deepens the bullpen.
Jackson’s modest $3MM salary in 2023 will push the payroll to a projected $192.2MM, per Roster Resource, while the Giants are now up to more than $213MM in luxury-tax obligations. That leaves plenty of room for some additional signings, whether to further deepen the relief corps or to add another bat to the lineup.
Brewers Sign Wade Miley
Jan. 9: The Brewers formally announced their one-year deal with Miley. This weekend’s trade of Justin Topa to the Mariners opened a spot on the 40-man roster.
Jan. 4: The Brewers are in agreement with veteran starter Wade Miley on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly a $4.5MM guarantee for the O’Connell Sports Management client. Miley will make $3.5MM next season and is guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2024 campaign.
The deal also contains various innings-based incentives that could max it out at $6MM. He’d earn an extra $150K by getting to 75 innings pitched, followed by $350K for getting to the 100-inning plateau and two $500K bonuses available at 125 and 150 innings. The deal also contains a $250K assignment bonus if Miley were traded.
Miley, 36, heads to his third NL Central team in as many seasons. He spent two years with the Reds from 2020-21, including a 3.37 ERA through 28 starts during the latter campaign. The Reds nevertheless placed him on waivers at the start of last offseason, as they’d evidently determined not to trigger a $10MM option on his services. Miley was claimed by the Cubs, who promptly exercised the option, and he went on to spend one year on Chicago’s North Side.
It wasn’t the kind of season the Cubs had envisioned. The 12-year MLB veteran began the season on the injured list thanks to inflammation in his throwing elbow. He made his team debut in early May, but that return proved short-lived. He went back on the IL after four starts, this time due to a strain in his shoulder. Miley wound up out of action for over two months, not returning until September. He pitched five times down the stretch, concluding his season with nine appearances.
To his credit, the crafty veteran remained effective when able to take the hill. The former All-Star pitched to a 3.16 ERA through 37 innings. He averaged only 85.1 MPH on the cutter that served as his primary pitch and struck out a below-average 17.6% of opponents. Miley has never overpowered batters, relying instead on solid enough control and the ability to avoid barrels.
That was again the case during his limited 2022 work. Miley induced grounders on a very strong 52.6% of batted balls. He held opponents to a subpar 86.7 MPH average exit velocity and allowed fewer than one home run for every nine innings pitched for a third straight season. While he hasn’t topped a 20% strikeout rate in a season since 2014, his heavy reliance on a cutter and changeup has allowed him to consistently keep away from damaging contact.
That track record is clearly of appeal to a Milwaukee club that plays in a fairly hitter-friendly home park. The Brewers already have six quality starting pitchers. Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff headline the group, followed by Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby. Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser are quality options at the back end. Miley has started 285 of his 292 MLB appearances, though it’s possible Milwaukee prefers to deploy him in a more flexible swing role considering his lack of innings in 2022.
If the plan is for Miley to secure a season-opening rotation spot, that could free up general manager Matt Arnold and his front office to market Lauer or Houser in trade. The Brewers could look for another bat to incorporate into the right field and first base mix, and it’s possible they bring in a veteran infielder to lessen the workload for Luis Urías or rookie Brice Turang. Dealing one of their incumbent starters would be a way to bolster a lineup that was middle-of-the-pack last season.
It’s Milwaukee’s first significant dip into major league free agency this offseason. Miley’s relatively modest salary brings the Brewers payroll projection to approximately $119MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. Milwaukee opened last year with a player payroll just shy of $132MM, so there should still be room for Arnold and his group to build out the roster as they try to close the gap with the Cardinals at the top of the division.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported Miley and the Brewers were in agreement on a one-year, $4.5MM deal that could max out at $6MM. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was first to report Miley would receive a $3.5MM salary in 2023 and that the deal contained a $10MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout; Nightengale was also first with the specifics of the incentive structure and the assignment bonus.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rockies, Fernando Abad Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rockies have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent lefty Fernando Abad, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Abad, a client of the MAS+ Agency, will be invited to Major League Spring Training.
Abad, 37, spent the 2022 season with the Mariners organization but didn’t reach the big leagues with Seattle. That marked just the third time since the lefty’s 2010 debut with the Astros that he did not pitch a single Major League inning in a season. That said, Abad was effective in Triple-A Tacoma, where he notched a 3.56 ERA with a 17.8% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate in 43 innings of relief.
The most recent big league experience for Abad came with the 2021 Orioles, although the results weren’t pretty. He tallied just 17 2/3 innings out of the Baltimore ‘pen and was knocked around for a 5.60 ERA with just a 12.2% strikeout rate against an 8.5% walk rate. Part of that was due to an inflated .344 average on balls in play, and it’s worth noting that Abad yielded just one home run and generally did a strong job of limiting hard contact by his opponents.
From 2013-19, Abad was a strong middle relief option in the Majors. He was never a team’s primary closer or go-to setup man in that time, evidenced by just a pair of saves and 30 holds, but Abad nonetheless pitched to a 3.18 ERA while fanning 21.2% of his opponents against an 8.2% walk rate.
The Rockies project to have a pair of lefties in the bullpen as things stand, with both waiver claim Brent Suter and homegrown Lucas Gilbreath nearly assured of spots, health permitting. Gilbreath does have minor league options remaining, however, and his command in the Majors has been shaky. Abad will give him some competition for a spot in camp, and if all three lefties pitch well, there’s enough uncertainty among the final few spots in the Colorado relief corps that all three southpaws could find themselves in the Opening Day ‘pen.
Mets, Tim Locastro Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mets have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Tim Locastro, reports Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated’s Fan Nation (Twitter link). The Warner Sports Management client will be invited to Major League Spring Training.
Locastro, 30, has spent the past season-plus with the Yankees, appearing in 47 games but logging just 69 plate appearances in that time. He’s given the Yankees some vital speed off the bench late in games, swiping eight bases in ten attempts while displaying sprint speed that’s ranked in the 99th percentile of MLB players, per Statcast.
Of course, Locastro’s opportunities at the plate have been limited because he’s struggled so considerably with the bat over the past two seasons. After a decent two-year stretch in Arizona that saw him bat .260/.367/.370 in 332 plate appearances (thanks in no small part to being plunked by pitches a whopping 26 times), Locastro has combined to slash .181/.257/.275 in his past 202 trips to the plate.
Despite his blistering speed, Locastro has a sub-par throwing arm that has contributed to below-average marks from both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. Statcast’s Outs Above Average thinks he’s been a bit better than average in 1046 innings, but the consensus among publicly available metrics is that Locastro isn’t the lights-out defender some might expect for a player with his wheels.
The Mets are slated to start Mark Canha, Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte in left, center and right, respectively, but Locastro could push for a backup role during Spring Training. Khalil Lee is the only other pure outfielder on the 40-man roster, although Darin Ruf has plenty of corner outfield experience. Locastro will join veteran Abraham Almonte as an outfield hopeful on a non-roster deal this spring, and he’ll give the Mets some speed to stash in Triple-A if he doesn’t make the roster out of camp.
Dodgers Sign Tayler Scott To Minor League Deal
The Dodgers have added some right-handed pitching depth, bringing in Tayler Scott on a minor league deal, per his MLB transaction log.
Scott, 30, appeared in eight games for the Padres last year, working to a 6.75 ERA over 12 innings. That came with a 22% strikeout mark and a 10.2% walk rate. In a more extended sample of work at Triple-A, Scott pitched 43 2/3 innings to the tune of a 4.53 ERA. He was claimed off waivers by the Phillies in September, but never made a big league appearance for them and was designated for assignment when the team announced the signing of Taijuan Walker last month.
One of two South African-born MLB players in history, Scott was drafted by the Cubs in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. He eventually got to the majors with the Mariners in 2019, but struggled that year across time with Seattle and the Orioles, working to a combined 14.33 ERA over 16 1/3 innings.
He spent the 2020-21 seasons in Japan, but returned last year on a minor league deal with the Padres. While the results in a small sample in the majors weren’t overly encouraging last year, he did combine a quality 30.4% strikeout rate with a 6.4% walk rate at Triple-A, so there might be some promise there for the Dodgers to try and tap into.
Mariners Acquire Justin Topa
The Mariners announced a swap of right-handers, as Justin Topa was acquired from the Brewers in exchange for minor leaguer Joseph Hernandez.
Topa has pitched in each of the last three MLB seasons, albeit in the limited fashion of 18 1/3 innings over 17 total games. The righty has an 8.35 ERA for his brief career, thanks to two particularly disastrous outings in 2021 that saw Topa charged with nine earned runs over 1 1/3 frames of work.
A flexor tendon strain sidelined Topa for most of the 2021 season, and flexor tendon surgery resulted in another trip to the 60-day injured list last season. Since the start of the 2021 campaign, Topa has thrown only 45 1/3 total innings in the majors and minors (10 2/3 IP in MLB, 34 2/3 in the minors). Injury absences have unfortunately been the story of a career that began as a 17th-round pick for the Pirates in the 2013 draft, as Topa has previously undergone two Tommy John surgeries.
Between all the health issues and even brief drops out of affiliated baseball (Topa played for indy ball teams for parts of the 2017 and 2018 seasons), Topa is a hard player to evaluate as he enters his age-32 season. However, he immediately drew attention as a possible late-blooming gem when he made his MLB debut in 2020, and posted a 2.35 ERA with 12 strikeouts and no walks over his first 7 2/3 innings. This performance earned Topa a spot on Milwaukee’s postseason roster, and he threw two scoreless innings in his lone appearance.
A hard-thrower who averaged 97.5mph on his fastball in that debut season, Topa’s velocity fell to a 95.7mph average over the last two seasons. While we’re dealing with small sample sizes all around in these three brief bits of Major League exposure for Topa, his injury situation explains the velo drop, and the next step will be seeing if he can regain any velocity now that the flexor tendon issue seems to be behind him.
The Mariners were intrigued enough by Topa to spend a 40-man roster spot on him, and Seattle also parted ways with a 22-year-old coming off a breakout season at single-A. Hernandez posted a 3.39 ERA over 116 2/3 innings in 2022, with an impressive 29.4% strikeout rate but an underwhelming 11.1% walk rate. This does at least represent some improved control from earlier in Hernandez’s career, and the righty’s swing-and-miss numbers indicated how dangerous he could be with improved command.
Hernandez started 22 of 24 games in 2022, and the Brewers will certainly continue to give the right-hander chances as as a starting pitcher. If the control problems persist, Hernandez’s ultimate future (and path to the big leagues) might come as a reliever, and he possesses an excellent slider that could be even more devastating in a limited role.
Masahiro Tanaka Re-Signs With Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have re-signed veteran righty Masahiro Tanaka to a one-year deal worth 475 million yen (roughly $3.6MM), according to the Japan Times and several other media outlets. This will be Tanaka’s third season back in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Golden Eagles, following his stint in MLB with the Yankees from 2014-20.
Now entering his age-34 season, Tanaka rose to prominence as an 18-year-old with the Golden Eagles back in 2007, and established himself as arguably NPB’s best pitcher over his first seven seasons in Japan. That success naturally made Tanaka a hot commodity when he chose to explore a move to the big leagues, as the Golden Eagles posted the right-hander prior to the 2014 season.
The Yankees landed Tanaka with a seven-year, $155MM contract (plus a $20MM posting fee to the Eagles), and he mostly lived up to the hype, posting a solid 3.74 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and a tiny 4.8% walk rate over 1054 1/3 regular-season innings in the majors, and then a 3.33 ERA over 54 frames in the postseason. Somewhat remarkably, most of that production came after a partial tear in his right UCL was discovered midway through the 2014 season, as the discomfort never became great enough for Tanaka to require Tommy John surgery.
Upon entering free agency in the 2020-21 offseason, Tanaka’s first choice was to re-sign with New York, but the Yankees’ chief order of business that winter was resetting its luxury tax penalties by getting under the tax threshold. The Yankees signed Corey Kluber to a one-year, $11MM deal that essentially closed the door on a Tanaka reunion, and the righty then chose to return to his home country rather than explore other options in North America. Tanaka inked a two-year deal with the Golden Eagles that had an opt-out clause last winter, but perhaps due to the lockout that ate up most of the MLB offseason, Tanaka chose to remain in his contract.
This latest pact represents a significant pay cut from Tanaka’s previous deal, as he reportedly earned 900 million yen in both 2021 and 2022. While Tanaka wasn’t quite his ace-level self from his initial stint in NPB, he still had a 3.16 ERA over 318 2/3 innings over the last two seasons, with a drop in strikeouts but continued elite control. Despite these numbers, Tanaka was most focused on his 13-21 win-loss record. As he said during an online news conference, “four wins (in 2021) and then nine (in 2022) are far behind the big expectations the club had for me and are a betrayal of the fans’ hopes too. It’s been a really undignified two years.”
Tanaka’s rather blunt self-assessment would imply that he views the 2023 NPB season as unfinished business, which perhaps explains why there wasn’t any public buzz about a possible return to the majors this offseason. Lack of wins notwithstanding, Tanaka still seems to be pitching well enough that MLB teams might have had interest, especially given the high price tags associated with so many other hurlers in free agency. Of course, it isn’t known if Tanaka was open to pitching in the majors whatsoever, and if so, anywhere besides the Bronx. The Yankees were already pretty deep in rotation options even before signing Carlos Rodon to a six-year, $162MM contract.