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Athletics Sign Justin Grimm To Minor League Contract

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The A’s have signed veteran righty Justin Grimm to a minor league deal, according to Tim Hayes of The Bristol Herald Courier (Twitter link).  Grimm was eligible to sign during the lockout due to his status as a minor league free agent, as his previous minors deal with the Mariners expired at the end of the season.

Grimm posted a 4.37 ERA over 47 1/3 innings with Triple-A Tacoma last season, with a very impressive 33.6% strikeout rate but also a 9.8% walk rate and 11 home runs allowed over that small sample size.  It wasn’t enough for the Mariners to give him a call-up, and thus Grimm has now only seen MLB action in one of the last three seasons.  Grimm’s last big league exposure was a four-game stint with the Brewers in 2020 that saw him struggle to a 17.36 ERA over only 4 2/3 innings.

With some rough numbers in 2017-18, it has been some time since Grimm has been an effective member of a Major League bullpen.  Best known for his work with the Cubs, Grimm posted a 3.36 ERA and 28% strikeout rate over 171 1/3 frames from 2014-16, providing Chicago with a durable and largely effective relief arm.  After the high point of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship, however, Grimm began to decline, in large part due to an increase in walks and homers allowed.

There’s no risk for the Athletics in giving Grimm a look in Spring Training to see if he can recapture his old form at age 33, or if Oakland coaches can make a tweak to help the right-hander get back on track.  With the A’s perhaps still figuring out how to best manage payroll cuts without fully tearing things down, it has been a pretty quiet winter on the transactions front for Oakland, but the bullpen is an obvious area of need — Andrew Chafin, Yusmeiro Petit, Jake Diekman, and Sergio Romo are all free agents.  Given the Athletics’ budget crunch, they seem likely to target lower-cost options rather than invest heavily in relief pitching.

NPB’s Yomiuri Giants Re-Sign Thyago Vieira, Zelous Wheeler

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The Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball have re-signed right-hander Thyago Vieira and first baseman/outfielder Zelous Wheeler, according to reports out of Japan.  Both players will be entering their third season with the Giants, though Wheeler is a longtime veteran of NPB, having also played with the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2015-2019.

Vieira tossed 25 2/3 innings over parts of three seasons with the Mariners and White Sox from 2017-19, with a 7.36 ERA to show from this brief taste of the majors.  The hard-throwing righty found his groove after joining the Tokyo-based Giants  prior to the 2020 campaign, and he has a 3.04 ERA and a 26.9% strikeout rate over 80 relief innings in the last two seasons.  A 12.4% walk rate represents the down side of those numbers, as Vieira’s big fastball has been undermined by a lack of control both in American and Japanese baseball.

Back in October, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that as many as five big league clubs had interest in bringing Vieira back to North America, though no deal materialized prior to the lockout.  It could be that Vieira simply preferred to remain in a familiar environment rather than compete with a rush of other pitchers scrambling for contracts once the transactions freeze eventually ends, as there wasn’t necessarily a sure thing that Vieira would even have landed a guaranteed Major League deal.

Wheeler turns 35 next month, and though his only MLB experience was 62 plate appearances with the Yankees in 2014, the veteran is now set to enter his 16th season in pro ball.  A 19th-round pick for the Brewers back in 2007, Wheeler spent eight years in the Milwaukee, Baltimore, and New York organizations before embarking on what has become a lengthy stint in Japan.  Wheeler has hit .264/.339/.458 with 133 home runs over his 3107 plate appearances in NPB, bouncing back from a down year in 2020 to hit .290/.358/.477 with 15 homers in 439 PA for last season’s Giants club.

KBO’s Kia Tigers Sign Socrates Brito, Ronnie Williams

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The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed outfielder Socrates Brito and right-hander Ronnie Williams to one-year contracts, the team announced.  Reports out of South Korea last week indicated that Brito was joining the Gwangju-based team (hat tip to The Athletic’s Sung Min Kim).

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that Brito will earn a $600K salary with another $300K available in contract incentives, with the Yonhap News’ Jeeho Yoo noting that $100K of Brito’s guaranteed money is a signing bonus.  Also via Yoo, Williams will get a $300K salary and a $100K signing bonus, with $350K more available in incentives.

Brito has appeared in parts of four MLB seasons, hitting .179/.216/.309 over 218 plate appearances with the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays from 2015-19.  He signed a minor league contract with the Pirates in 2020 and played at the team’s alternate training site, but opted out of the season in September for tragic reasons, as Brito’s brother passed away from COVID-19.  Returning to the field in 2021, Brito hit .251/.315/.376 over 419 PA with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate.

This performance represented a notable step down from Brito’s usual strong Triple-A numbers, as he had always produced in his previous stops with the Diamondbacks’ and Jays’ top farm clubs.  Some dropoff isn’t unusual given a full year away from the game, though it was Brito’s first season outside of a Triple-A environment that was very favorable to hitters.  Arizona’s Triple-A team played in the Pacific Coast League, while the 2019 season (which Brito spent with Toronto’s Buffalo affiliate) saw offensive numbers explode all across Triple-A baseball.

A trip to the KBO League might be what Brito needs to get his career back on track, as he enters his age 29 season.  A noted prospect in his early days with the D’Backs, Brito can play any of the three outfield positions, though he has has more recently been deployed in the corners.

Williams turns 26 in early January, and the righty already has seven seasons of pro experience.  A second-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2014 draft, Williams spent his first six years in the St. Louis organization before the Giants claimed him off waivers last winter.  The Miami native has a 4.24 ERA and 21.41% strikeout rate over 409 1/3 career innings in the minors, pitching mostly as a reliever over his last three seasons.  Only 15 2/3 of those innings came at the Triple-A level, as Williams didn’t reach Triple-A until this year in the Giants’ system.

The $400K (and the incentive possibilities) represent a much higher salary than Williams would have earned in the minors this year, and it makes sense that he would take the guaranteed money now rather than roll the dice on signing another minor league deal and trying to finally crack a big league roster.  The Tigers deal also allows Williams for some chance at reinvention, and a chance to showcase his skills for either further opportunities abroad or for MLB scouts.

Chris Gittens Signs With Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

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First baseman Chris Gittens has agreed to a contract with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per a team announcement. Gittens was released by the Yankees at the end of November, just prior to the beginning of the lockout. At that time, it was reported that the Yanks had granted him his release in order to allow him to pursue an opportunity with an NPB team.

Gittens has spent the entirety of his professional career thus far in the Yankees organization, having been drafted by them in 2014. Gittens has always hit well in the minors, but has limited roster versatility due to the fact that he’s only ever played first base. In 2021, he played 45 games at Triple-A and absolutely crushed, slashing .301/.440/.644, for an incredible wRC+ of 185. He couldn’t translate that production to the major league level, as he hit .111/.250/.194 in his first season of MLB action. However, due to bouncing between the two levels and sustaining a few injuries, that was a small sample of 44 plate appearances in 16 MLB games.

Gittens was potentially facing a similar situation in 2022, as he still has option years remaining and didn’t have a clear path to playing time in the Bronx. Luke Voit is currently pencilled in at first for the Yanks, and they have also been connected to other first basemen this offseason, such as Freddie Freeman, Anthony Rizzo and Matt Olson. There’s also the potential of the club adding to another infield position and pushing DJ Lemahieu into some first base duty.

For Gittens, who turns 28 in February, he will now have greater certainty about his job status and likely an increase in salary as well. If he is able to hit NPB pitching at a level anywhere close to the level he’s shown in the minors, he should be able to garner interest from MLB teams in bringing him back to North America, following the trajectory of other sluggers who returned after overseas success, such as Eric Thames or Darin Ruf.

Ariel Miranda Re-Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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Coming off a dominant season that saw him win the Korea Baseball Organization’s Choi Dong-won Award (given annually to the best pitcher in the ten-team league), take home the league MVP award, and set a new KBO strikeout record, former Orioles and Mariners starter Ariel Miranda has re-signed with the Doosan Bears (via Yoo Jee-ho of Yonhap News). The deal will pay Miranda the equivalent of $1.9MM for a single season, freeing Miranda to re-evaluate his options next offseason should he wish to return stateside.

Indeed, following a season in which he posted a 2.33 ERA over 173 2/3 innings, the Cuban-born lefty would have been a certainty to generate some interest from big-league clubs. It’s unclear what role the MLB lockout may have played in his decision-making, but his record-setting 225 Ks (2 more than award namesake and KBO legend Choi Dong-won posted in 1984) will have turned at least a few front-office heads. Still, even if Miranda had hoped to take a second stab at the bigs, the $1.9MM he’ll make in 2022 represents a perfectly tidy consolation prize and leaves the door open for an MLB return in his age-34 season. It’s also a significant raise from the $800K he earned in 2021.

After defecting from his native Cuba in early 2015, Miranda signed a minor-league deal with Baltimore in May and made his big-league debut the following July, appearing in one game for the Orioles before heading to Seattle in a trade that send Wade Miley to Baltimore. In 223 innings across parts of three seasons, Miranda posted a 4.72 ERA (5.55 FIP). While his K- and BB-rates (19.9% and 9.1%, respectively) fell only just on the wrong side of league-average, his HR-rate of 5.3% made him a bit of a fringy play in limited action.

Though he consistently outperformed his peripherals (he had a 3.54 ERA against a 5.47 FIP in 56 innings with Seattle in 2016, for instance), the Mariners let Miranda go in 2018. It was then that he pivoted to Asian baseball, signing with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball less than two weeks later. He remained in Japan through the 2019 season before signing with the Chinatrust Brothers of the Taiwan-based Chinese Professional Baseball League for the 2020 season and the Doosan Bears for 2021.

Whether or not Miranda can repeat his stellar 2021 remains to be seen, of course. Across 133 2/3 innings at Japan’s highest level, he posted a solid (if unspectacular) 3.36 ERA to go with 75 walks against only 98 Ks — a similar line to his 3.80 ERA in 156 1/3 innings in Taiwan, though there he struck out 170 while walking 60. After finishing as the runners-up in the 2021 Korean Series, the Doosan Bears will certainly hope their prized Cuban lefty can hold on to whatever he found in 2021.

Dodgers Sign Tomas Telis To Minors Contract

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The Dodgers signed catcher Tomas Telis to a minor league deal earlier this month, as per the team’s official MLB.com transactions page.  Telis began the offseason as a minor league free agent, and is therefore eligible to sign during the lockout.

A veteran of five MLB seasons, Telis hit .230/.267/.298 over 267 plate appearances while playing with the Rangers and Marlins from 2013-18.  He has spent the last three seasons in the Twins organization but hasn’t yet appeared in a big league game for Minnesota.  Telis had his contract selected in April but was sent back down after a couple of days without seeing any action during his cup of coffee on the Twins’ active roster.

With Will Smith and Austin Barnes atop the Dodgers’ catching depth chart, Telis will provide some veteran depth in the minors, assuming he sticks with the club through Spring Training.  While the 30-year-old Telis hasn’t hit much at the MLB level, he has some very strong numbers at the Triple-A level, with a .306/.349/.426 career slash line and 43 home runs in 2262 PA at the top rung of the minor league ladder.  Telis’ production with Minnesota’s Triple-A club would likely have resulted in at least another look from most organizations, though the Twins’ own depth at catcher seemed to make Telis something of an afterthought.

Hyeon-jong Yang Signs With KBO’s Kia Tigers

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Left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang is officially returning to the Korea Baseball Organization, as the Kia Tigers announced that Yang has signed a four-year deal.  (Hat tip to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News.)  Yang will earn a signing bonus of roughly $2.53MM, and a little over $2.1MM in guaranteed salary over the course of the four-year deal.  A hefty array of incentive bonuses are also available, as Yang can almost double his salary (around $4.04MM) if he hits all of his bonuses.

Yang posted a 5.60 ERA in his lone season in Major League Baseball, tossing 35 1/3 innings with the Rangers in 2021.  After signing a minor league deal last winter, Yang ended up cracking the Texas roster and serving in a swingman role, starting four of his 12 games.  Not a big strikeout pitcher even in his heyday in the KBO League, Yang didn’t miss many bats in the majors (15.6% strikeout rate) and he had plenty of trouble with the long ball, allowing nine homers in his brief time on the big league mound.

The Rangers sent Yang back and forth from Triple-A on a couple of occasions before ultimately designating him for assignment in September.  Yang elected to become a free agent after the season, and early reports indicated that he was looking at returning to South Korea, and in particular a return to the Tigers, his longtime team.

As Yoo writes, there were a few hurdles to be jumped in negotiations between the two sides, with the larger amount of incentives reflecting the Tigers’ wariness about Yang’s struggles over the last two seasons.  Even before heading to MLB, Yang posted a 4.70 ERA over 172 1/3 innings with the Gwangju-based team in 2020.

This was the worst full-season performance of Yang’s 14-year stint with the Tigers, though given his long history of success with the team, it isn’t surprising that the Tigers were interested in a reunion.  Yang has a 3.83 ERA and a 19.77% strikeout rate over 1986 career innings in the KBO League (all with the Tigers), and he is a two-time winner of the Dong-won Choi Award as the league’s best starting pitcher.  Yang was also named MVP of the KBO League as a whole in 2017, as well as Korean Series MVP as he led the Tigers to the championship.

Yankees, David Freitas Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have signed catcher David Freitas to a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Like others who have signed during the lockout, Freitas was eligible to sign a minors pact by virtue of the fact that he ended the season as a minor league free agent.

Freitas has appeared in parts of three MLB seasons, suiting up with the Braves, Mariners and Brewers between 2017-19. The right-handed hitting backstop has only amassed a .200/.268/.288 line with one home run over 143 plate appearances at the highest level. While Freitas’ big league production has been modest, he owns a much more impressive minor league track record. Over parts of eight seasons at Triple-A, the California native sports a .322/.401/.472 line.

That impressive minor league resume caught the attention of the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes, who signed Freitas for the 2021 campaign. His stint in South Korea didn’t go as planned, though, as he hit .259/.297/.394 over 148 trips to the plate before being waived in June. Freitas caught on with the Rays on a minor league deal down the stretch. He hit well in a brief showing with Triple-A Durham but didn’t get a big league call and elected free agency at the end of the year.

Presumably, Freitas will get an opportunity to compete for a big league role in Spring Training. The Yankees look likely to again turn the bulk of the playing time at catcher to Gary Sánchez after tendering him an arbitration contract. Kyle Higashioka is the favorite for reserve duties as the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. Freitas and fellow non-roster invitee Rob Brantly are presently slated to function as the top depth options behind Sánchez and Higashioka.

KBO’s Lotte Giants Sign Charlie Barnes

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-hander Charlie Barnes. The former Minnesota Twins southpaw will receive a $610K guarantee, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap. (Brandon Warne of Access Twins was first to report Barnes was signing with Lotte).

A fourth-round pick out of Clemson in 2017, Barnes steadily progressed through the Twins system. He reached the big leagues this year, ultimately making nine appearances (eight starts) for Minnesota down the stretch. He posted a 5.92 ERA over 38 innings while only striking out 11.4% of opposing hitters. After the season, the Twins outrighted Barnes off their 40-man roster.

While it wasn’t an illustrious debut showing, the 26-year-old has generally been effective throughout his minor league tenure. He owns an ERA below 4.00 at every stop through Double-A, and while he struggled during a brief end-of-season stint at Triple-A in 2019, he’d been better there this past season. Barnes tossed 76 innings with the Twins’ top affiliate in St. Paul, posting a 3.79 ERA. That came with a below-average 19.1% strikeout percentage, but Barnes’ 7.4% walk rate and 46.7% ground-ball rate were each a bit better than the league average.

That showing was enough to attract the attention of the Busan-based Giants. While Barnes didn’t have the requisite service time to reject the Twins’ outright assignment, the organization evidently granted him his release to make the move to South Korea. That allows the South Carolina native to lock in a guaranteed salary for 2022 that’s better than he’d have made during his time in Triple-A. If Barnes performs well enough in the KBO to embark upon a major league return at some point down the line, he might also field MLB offers that surpass the near-league minimum salaries he’d have earned over his first few seasons had he remained with Minnesota.

In addition to the Barnes deal, the Giants also confirmed their previously-reported agreement with Glenn Sparkman. As Yoo points out, Barnes, Sparkman and DJ Peters are now locked in as the Giants’ three allotted foreign-born players. That officially closes the books on any chance of Dan Straily and Enderson Franco — both of whom pitched for the Giants last year — returning to the club in 2022.

Padres Sign Domingo Leyba To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have signed infielder Domingo Leyba to a minor league contract, according to the transactions tracker at MLB.com. As is the case with other players who have signed minors deals during the lockout, Leyba opened the offseason as a minor league free agent after being outrighted off the Orioles’ 40-man roster in August.

Leyba, 26, has suited up in a pair of MLB seasons. He broke in with the Diamondbacks in 2019 and appeared in 21 games that year. He missed the abbreviated 2020 campaign on the restricted list but returned with Arizona in 2021. He was designated for assignment in early June and claimed off waivers by the Orioles, but Baltimore waived him themselves and released him not too long after. While he hooked on with the Rangers on a minors pact for the stretch run, Leyba didn’t get to the big leagues in Texas.

Between the D-Backs and O’s, the switch-hitting Leyba has played in 55 big league games. Over 126 plate appearances, he’s managed just a .152/.238/.222 line with one home run. Yet the Dominican Republic native has a far better track record in the minors. He’s a .304/.346/.537 hitter in two Triple-A seasons and owner of a .279/.352/.404 mark across three years at Double-A.

Leyba will presumably get an opportunity in big league Spring Training to compete for a utility role. He’s got minor league experience at both middle infield spots, although he’s primarily functioned as a second baseman or third baseman in the big leagues. The Padres already have ample talent around the dirt, with Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar on hand to back up Jake Cronenworth, Fernando Tatís Jr. and Manny Machado. They’ve recently subtracted from that group by moving Adam Frazier to Seattle, though, and there’s no downside in adding to the organizational depth by bringing Leyba in on a non-roster deal.

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