Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Transactions

Jose Martinez Signs With Mexican League’s Acereros De Monclova

By | at

Jose Martinez has joined the Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League, according to a team announcement.

Martinez broke into the big leagues in 2016 and built a reputation as a bat-first player. Though his defense at first base and in the outfield corners was clearly lacking, he could certainly hit. Spending 2016 to 2019 with the Cardinals, he played 398 games and got 1,288 plate appearances, hitting .298/.363/.458, wRC+ of 122.

Prior to the 2020 season, the Cardinals traded Martinez, Randy Arozarena and a draft pick to the Rays for Matthew Liberatore, Edgardo Rodriguez and a draft pick.  His production slipped a bit in the pandemic-shortened season, as he hit .239/.329/.388 for the Rays, before being dealt to the Cubs and not hitting at all in ten games there, finishing the season with a line of .182/.265/.295.

After the Cubs non-tendered him, he was signed by the Mets for the 2021 campaign. Unfortunately, he collided with an umpire in a Spring Training game, suffered a torn meniscus in his knee and never made it back to the big leagues. The club outrighted him at the end of the year.

This is the latest in a string of former big leaguers who have joined up with the Acereros. The club has also signed Josh Reddick, Pablo Sandoval and Keon Broxton in recent weeks.

Braves Sign Collin McHugh

By | at

The Braves have announced that they’ve signed right-hander Collin McHugh to a two-year deal with a $10MM guarantee. The 34-year-old will make $4MM this year and $5MM next year. There’s also a $6MM club option for 2024 with a $1MM buyout.

McHugh struggled in his first taste of MLB action with the Mets and Rockies, but then established himself as a quality starter with the Astros. From 2014 to 2017, he made 102 starts, throwing 606 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.70, 22.3% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate. In that last year, he missed the first half of the season with arm injuries, but returned in July to make 12 starts and appear in two playoff games out of the bullpen, as the Astros went on to win the 2017 World Series.

From there, McHugh transitioned into a bullpen role and found immediate success, frequently pitching more than one inning. In 2018, he got into 58 games and threw 72 1/3 innings with an ERA of 1.99, 33.2% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. In 2019, he tried returning to the rotation, making eight starts at the beginning of the season. That experiment didn’t go well, as he had an ERA of 6.37 in that time. But after transitioning back to the ’pen, he got things back on track, throwing 33 2/3 innings over the remainder of the season with a 2.67 ERA.

However, despite those positive results, 2019 finished with yet another arm injury as his last appearance was in August. In 2020, he signed on with the Red Sox but the elbow issues lingered and he ended up opting out of the entire season. The Rays signed him to a $1.8MM deal for 2021, which turned into a tremendous bounceback season for McHugh. Despite multiple trips to the IL, he got into 37 games and logged 64 innings with a 1.55 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate.

For the defending World Series champion Braves, their bullpen took a hit at the end of the season, as Richard Rodriguez, Josh Tomlin, Jesse Chavez and Chris Martin hit free agency, with Chavez and Martin both signing with the Cubs in recent days. McHugh will try to compensate for those losses, slotting into the bullpen next to other high-leverage options such as Will Smith, Tyler Matzek, Luke Jackson and A.J. Minter. The club will also be hoping for Kirby Yates, who missed last year due to Tommy John surgery, to join this group at some point.

Rays Re-Sign Cody Reed To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Rays announced this evening they’ve re-signed reliever Cody Reed to a minor league contract with an invitation to MLB Spring Training. Tampa Bay had outrighted him off their 40-man roster in November, at which point he elected free agency.

Reed has to pitch his way back onto the Rays’ big league club, but he’s appeared in the majors in each of the past six seasons. Originally a Royals draftee, Reed was traded to the Reds as part of the 2015 Johnny Cueto deal. He blossomed into one of the game’s top pitching prospects during his days with Cincinnati, but he never found consistent success in their rotation.

The left-hander debuted with ten starts for the Reds in 2016, but he was hit hard to the tune of a 7.36 ERA. He bounced on and off the roster over the next couple seasons, generally performing alright with Triple-A Louisville but never carrying that over into MLB success. The Reds moved him to the bullpen full-time in 2019, but he couldn’t carve out a permanent big league role there either. Cincinnati designated him for assignment in 2020, and Tampa Bay acquired him for pitching prospect Riley O’Brien.

Reed made 12 appearances with the Rays last season, allowing five runs in 9 2/3 innings. He struck out seven batters against six walks while dealing with a velocity drop, as his average fastball fell from the 94-95 MPH range to just north of 92 MPH. That may have been attributable to poor health, as Reed was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery in early June. That ended his season, but it was reported at the time of his surgery that he should be a full-go for Spring Training.

All told, Reed owns a 5.22 ERA in 136 1/3 career innings at the big league level. That’s inflated by his rough numbers as a starter, as he has a 2.77 mark in 47 relief appearances. Even when isolating to his performance out of the bullpen, Reed’s strikeout and walk numbers (21.5% and 13.7%, respectively) aren’t good. Yet he’s induced ground-balls at a huge 54.7% clip and held left-handed hitters to a .237/.329/.321 line as a reliever. He could again emerge as a situational option for skipper Kevin Cash if he’s now recovered from the thoracic outlet procedure.

Mariners, Mike Ford Agree To Minor League Contract

By | at

The Mariners are in agreement on a minor league deal with first baseman Mike Ford, as was first reported by MLB Transactions Daily (on Twitter). Ford has since confirmed the agreement on Instagram.

It’ll technically be Ford’s second stint with Seattle, as the M’s selected him out of the Yankees organization in the Rule 5 draft over the 2017-18 offseason. He partook in Spring Training with the Mariners but ultimately failed to crack the roster. Seattle returned him to New York a few days before Opening Day, and he spent that year with the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Ford would eventually get a big league look, though, as he was selected to New York’s MLB roster in April 2019. The left-handed hitter played in 50 games as a rookie and had an excellent showing. He popped 12 home runs in 163 plate appearances, posting a cumulative .259/.350/.559 slash line. He hasn’t managed to follow up on that strong start to his big league career, though. Over the past two years, he’s combined for just a .134/.250/.276 mark in 156 trips to the plate.

Amidst those recent struggles, the Yankees designated Ford for assignment last June. He was traded to the Rays but didn’t appear in the majors before Tampa Bay designated him themselves two months later. The Nationals claimed him off waivers and stashed him in Triple-A for the rest of the season. He struggled to a .202/.284/.337 line with their top affiliate, though, and never earned a big league call in the nation’s capital. Washington non-tendered the Princeton product at the end of the season.

Ford now needs to try and play his way back onto a 40-man roster. He’ll get a look in Seattle, which is set to open the year with Ty France at first base. Former top prospect Evan White remains on the 40-man but seems likely to start the season in Triple-A, where he’ll need to right the ship offensively. The 29-year-old Ford, owner of a .258/.350/.488 line in parts of four years at the minors’ highest level, adds some experienced depth to that first base/designated hitter group in camp.

Red Sox To Sign Jake Diekman

By | at

March 15: Diekman’s deal with the Sox is a two-year, $8MM arrangement, according to Cotillo (Twitter thread). He’ll earn $3.5MM in both 2022 and 2023. The Sox hold a $4MM club option for the 2024 season, which comes with a $1MM buyout.

March 13: For the second time today, the Red Sox are adding a lefty to the bullpen. Boston and Jake Diekman are close to agreeing to terms, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). The deal is “believed to be a multi-year deal” though the exact terms are not yet clear.

Diekman is one of the top bullpen arms available on the market. The now-35-year-old was lights out for the A’s during the pandemic-shortened 2020. He appeared in 21 games, posting a microscopic 0.42 ERA/2.72 FIP spanning 21 1/3 innings, numbers-driven at least in part by an uncharacteristically high 61.6 percent groundball rate. For comparison, he posted a 34.8 percent groundball rate last year and owns a 47.9 percent rate in that department for his career.

The 10-year veteran initially came to Oakland mid-season in 2019 in a deal with the Royals that netted KC a pair of minor leaguers. He continued to be effective for the A’s last season, though not quite at the surreal level of 2020. He tossed 60 2/3 innings over 67 outings with a 3.86 ERA/4.46 FIP while notching seven saves and 14 holds. He also blew seven saves.

With a 31.7 percent strikeout rate, he differentiates himself from the other lefties in Boston’s pen with his ability to miss bats. In so doing, Diekman becomes the top southpaw in a Boston pen that added Matt Strahm earlier today.

Beyond their new pair, the BoSox can call on Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Austin Davis as potential southpaws out of the bullpen. Diekman is by far the most established of the bunch, however. He’s sure to team with Garrett Whitlock in the late game mix for manager Alex Cora.

Mets To Sign Mike Montgomery To Minor League Deal

By | at

4:01 pm: If Montgomery cracks the big league team, he’ll earn a salary of $1.1MM, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

1:56 pm: Left-handed pitcher Mike Montgomery is signing a minor league deal with the Mets, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The deal is pending a physical and presumably comes with an invitation to big league camp.

Montgomery and the Mets also connected on a minor league deal a year ago, but he never cracked the roster. He opted out and ended up signing another minor league deal with the Yankees, which he also opted out of, before heading to Korea. He made 11 starts for the Samsung Lions, putting up an ERA of 5.37.

The southpaw spent the previous six seasons in the majors, appearing in 183 games from 2015 to 2020, making 70 starts and logging 541 innings with the Mariners, Cubs and Royals. His career ERA is 3.84, though it hovered around 5.00 in 2019 and 2020. His career strikeout rate is 18%, along with a walk rate of 8.8%. The highlight of that period, however, was Montgomery recording the final out of the 2016 World Series for the Cubs.

Now 32, Montgomery has worked both out of the rotation and bullpen in his career, meaning he could function as depth in either capacity for the Mets. The rotation is strong on paper but comes with loads of uncertainty. Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt and Carlos Carrasco figure to be the front four, though they all dealt with injuries last year to varying degrees. Taijuan Walker underwent knee surgery in January and may not be ready for Opening Day. If any of that core five need to miss time, the club could also turn to Tylor Megill, David Peterson, Jordan Yamamoto, Sean Reid-Foley or Yennsy Diaz, who are all on the 40-man roster.

The path to a job in the bullpen is much more open, however, as the club doesn’t really have a lefty on the roster projected to be part of the relief corps. Alex Claudio was signed to a minor league deal in January and would likely be Montgomery’s chief competition in that respect. The Mets could continue this wild offseason with another addition, though there aren’t many high profile lefties remaining on the free agent market, with Andrew Chafin and Tony Watson perhaps being the most notable.

Phillies Sign Dillon Maples To Minors Deal

By | at

Right-hander Dillon Maples is in camp with the Phillies, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Presumably, Maples has agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to Major League Spring Training.

This will be just the second organization for Maples, who has spent his entire career with the Cubs up until now. Drafted by Chicago in 2011, he made his MLB debut in 2017 and has spent the past five years bouncing between Triple-A and the big leagues. His first four seasons weren’t especially encouraging, as he logged 23 1/3 innings from 2017 to 2020 with a 8.49 ERA. That came with an excellent 32.8% strikeout rate but ghastly 21% walk rate.

Last year, there were signs of improvement, as Maples got his ERA down to 2.59 over 31 1/3 innings. Although he still struck out 28.8% of the batters he faced, he also still walked 18% of them. That tiny ERA was likely deflated by a .203 batting average on balls in play, leading the advanced metrics to be dubious of it. All of xERA, FIP, xFIP and SIERA put him between 4.48 and 4.79.

Despite appearing in the last five seasons, Maples still has less than a year of service time. The 29-year-old can therefore be kept around for years to come if he should crack the big league roster. However, he is out of minor league options, meaning that he would have to hold onto his roster spot or else be exposed to waivers. The Phillies have been notoriously dealing with relief issues for some time, but have made numerous efforts bolster their bullpen for this year. Corey Knebel and Nick Nelson were added prior to the lockout, with Brad Hand and Jeurys Familia being brought aboard after.

Astros Sign Zac Rosscup To Minors Deal

By | at

The Astros have announced that they have signed left-hander Zac Rosscup to a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training.

Rosscup, 34 in June, has seen sporadic MLB action in seven of the last nine MLB seasons. Though he has 86 2/3 career innings on his ledger, he’s never gone as high as 27 in any individual season and only logged three total MLB innings over the past two years. His career ERA of 5.09 comes with an excellent 29.3% strikeout rate but frightening 14% walk rate. In 29 Triple-A innings for the Rockies last year, he put up an ERA of 2.48, 33.1% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate.

As a southpaw, Rosscup is generally more effective against lefties, holding them to a paltry line of .155/.296/.297 in his MLB career. Righties, however, have produced a much more robust sample of .330/.413/.607. Given that wide split, the Astros will surely try to deploy him strategically in a way where he faces as few righties as possible. However, with the recent implementation of the three-batter minimum, that might not always be possible.

Houston’s roster is quite strong overall but the lack of lefty hurlers is one weak element of it. Framber Valdez will be in the starting rotation. Jonathan Bermudez was added to the 40-man roster a few months ago but has no MLB experience and will likely be in the minors. That leaves Blake Taylor as the only southpaw projected to be in the club’s Opening Day bullpen. If they don’t make any further additions in the next few weeks, there could be a path for Rosscup to earn his way back to the show.

Braves Sign Matt Olson To Eight-Year Contract

By | at

The Braves have signed newly acquired first baseman Matt Olson to an eight-year, $168MM contract that runs through the 2029 season, the team announced today. Atlanta also has a $20MM club option for a ninth season. Olson is represented by Jet Sports.

Atlanta, one of the few organizations that publicly discloses contract terms, further announced that Olson will earn $15MM this coming season and $21MM in 2023 before being paid at a $22MM annual rate in the contract’s final six seasons. Olson is also donating $1.68MM to the Atlanta Braves Foundation as part of the deal. It’s the third-largest contract ever signed by a player with between four and five years of MLB service, trailing only Joey Votto and Giancarlo Stanton.

Anthopoulos and his front office wasted little time in solidifying that Olson, along with Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies, is now one of the key building blocks for a team that hopes to build on last year’s World Series run. “He’s now part of this core,” president of baseball operations told reporters, adding that he and agent B.B. Abbott “worked all day and all night” on the extension as soon as the trade to acquire Olson had been finalized (video link via Bally Sports). The guaranteed portion of Olson’s contract expands even beyond that of Acuna, though the Braves hold club options on Acuna for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. Albies’ contract runs through at least 2025 and carries club options for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Olson had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $12MM this coming season, and he was owed one final raise in arbitration in 2023 before he’d been set to hit the open market. He’ll forgo six free-agent seasons on the would-be deal, likely securing somewhere in the range of $138MM or so for those six free-agent seasons. The new contract surpasses that of Olson’s predecessor, Freddie Freeman, for the largest contract in the franchise’s history.

The $168MM guarantee to Olson surpasses the Braves’ reported $140MM offer to Freeman, though it’s surely critical to the Braves and to ownership at Liberty Media that Olson is 27 years old (28 later this month). Freeman is 32, and he’d be 38 by the time a six-year deal — his reported asking price — wrapped up. Olson, meanwhile, is now signed through his age-35 season. That age discrepancy, and the considerably lighter annual value on Olson’s deal, were surely driving factors in the Braves’ comfort level with putting forth a commitment of this magnitude to Olson but apparently not going to six years on Freeman.

While Olson and Freeman will now be inextricably linked for the foreseeable future, Olson made clear yesterday that he doesn’t intend to compare himself to Freeman, whom he called a “hell of a player” (Twitter link, with video, from the San Francisco Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara). “I’m just going to go out there and do what Matt Olson does,” he added.

That’s good news for Braves fans, as there’s quite little that Olson does not do well. The lefty-swinging slugger belted a career-high 39 home runs in 2021 and took home a second Gold Glove Award at first base that is unlikely to be his last. Olson was strikeout prone earlier in his career, but he slashed his strikeout rate by more than 10 percentage points last season, finishing the year at 16.8% — not substantially higher than his gaudy 13.1% walk rate. Since Opening Day 2019, Olson’s 89 home runs are tied with Nelson Cruz for the third-most in MLB, trailing only Pete Alonso (106) and Eugenio Suarez (95).

With Olson now signed, the Braves’ payroll jumps to a projected $156MM this coming season — the highest total in franchise history. They already have about $84MM on the books in 2023, and as far out as 2026 they’ll have at least $43MM set in stone (likely rising to $50MM, assuming Albies remains healthy and has his $7MM club option picked up that season).

A year ago, a changing of the guard at first base like this would’ve felt unthinkable to Braves fans — and for many, that may still be the case. The Olson extension adds even more finality to the end of the Freddie Freeman era in Atlanta, and as the Braves look toward starting a new chapter in franchise history, they’ll do so with the Atlanta-born Olson manning first base and anchoring the heart of the order alongside Acuna and Albies.

Dodgers Sign Jake Lamb, Mike Wright To Minor League Deals

By | at

March 15: Lamb will make $1.5MM if selected to the big league team, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

March 14: The Dodgers announced this morning they’ve signed corner infielder/outfielder Jake Lamb and right-hander Mike Wright to minor league deals. Los Angeles also confirmed their previously-reported minors pacts with Yency Almonte and Reyes Moronta.

Lamb has spent the bulk of his career in the NL West, having been the D-Backs’ regular third baseman for a few seasons. That included a 2016-17 peak that saw the left-handed hitter combine for a .248/.345/.498 line with 59 home runs. Lamb earned an unexpected All-Star nod the latter of those two seasons and looked like a potential long-term building block in Arizona.

Unfortunately, he’s seen his production on both sides of the ball turn downwards following a 2018 shoulder injury that required surgery. He’s suited up for four teams — the D-Backs, A’s, White Sox and Blue Jays — over the past three seasons but owns a cumulative .193/.309/.358 mark in that time. His once-strong defensive metrics at the hot corner have tumbled as well, and he’s seen increasing time at positions further down the defensive spectrum (i.e. first base, the corner outfield and designated hitter).

Wright, meanwhile, spent a few seasons as a back-end starter in Baltimore. He made the jump to South Korea in 2020, working 157 2/3 frames of 4.68 ERA ball with the KBO’s NC Dinos. Wright didn’t post especially impressive strikeout or walk numbers there, but he induced ground-balls at a huge 53.7% clip. That was enough to attract the attention of the White Sox, who inked him to a minor league deal for the 2021 campaign.

The right-hander spent the bulk of the season with Triple-A Charlotte, pitching to a solid 3.40 ERA over 16 starts. He was selected onto Chicago’s big league roster in mid-August and worked in relief at the MLB level. In 18 innings across 13 appearances, he posted a 5.50 ERA with 11 strikeouts and walks apiece. The Sox outrighted him off their roster at the end of the season and he elected minor league free agency. He’ll offer the Dodgers some depth both in the rotation and/or long relief.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top