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Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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We’ve seen dozens of players elect minor league free agency over the past couple weeks, and that has continued to be the case in recent days. We’ll round up a few more players who are hitting the open market here, courtesy of the Triple-A transactions trackers.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Each of this group of players has hit the market within the past week and not yet been covered at MLBTR:

Diamondbacks Claim Zack Burdi Off Waivers From Orioles

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The Diamondbacks have claimed reliever Zack Burdi off waivers from the Orioles, both clubs announced. Baltimore also announced that reliever Travis Lakins Sr. has cleared waivers and been outrighted off the 40-man roster. Arizona’s 40-man roster is up to 38, while Baltimore’s 40-man tally now sits at 39. Lakins had previously been on the 60-day injured list and didn’t count against the 40-man.

Burdi is a hard-throwing righty who was selected by the White Sox in the first round after a dominant season closing at the University of Louisville. The hope had been that the Sox could fast-track Burdi to the big league ’pen, but his career was beset by injuries. He missed most of the 2018 season recovering from a Tommy John surgery, then wound up missing the final three months of the 2019 campaign.

Over the past two seasons, Burdi has tossed 17 1/3 innings of 7.79 ERA ball, allowing seven homers in that brief showing. His average fastball velocity sat just under 98 MPH in 2020. It was down two ticks last season, though, and Chicago lost him on waivers to the O’s in mid-August.

Even working with diminished arm strength, Burdi’s heater was still above-average. The D-Backs will take no-risk flier on that live arm which once made Burdi such a promising relief prospect. He still has a minor league option year remaining, so Arizona can shuttle him between the majors and Triple-A Reno next season if he sticks on their 40-man roster for the entire winter.

Lakins made 24 appearances with the O’s last season, his third consecutive year logging big league action. He worked 28 innings with a 5.79 ERA, striking out a below-average 19.5% of batters faced while walking an elevated 13.8% of opponents. Lakins ended the season on the injured list after undergoing surgery to repair an olecranon stress fracture in his elbow in early July, although the hope at the time had been that he’d be ready for Spring Training. He’ll remain in the organization without requiring a 40-man roster spot and hope to pitch his way back into the mix next spring.

Nationals Outright Three Players

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The Nationals announced they’ve outrighted three pitchers — righty Steven Fuentes and southpaws Sean Nolin and Alberto Baldonado — off the 40-man roster. Nolin, who has previously been outrighted in his career, has elected free agency. Fuentes and Baldonado didn’t have that opportunity at the moment, although they’ll both reach minor league free agency this winter as players with seven-plus years in the minors.

Washington has four players on the 60-day injured list, and three of them will need to be reinstated to the 40-man roster at the start of the offseason. Veteran southpaw Luis Avilán will hit free agency this winter anyways, but Washington will need roster space for each of Stephen Strasburg, Will Harris and Kyle McGowin over the winter. Today’s series of outrights clears the necessary room for those activations.

Fuentes was added to the 40-man last winter to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft. Unfortunately, he missed most of the season on the injured list and still hasn’t appeared in a big league game. The 24-year-old struggled mightily around those injuries, posting an 11.23 ERA over 37 2/3 frames across four minor league levels. Before the disastrous year, he’d been among the better pitching prospects in a thin Washington farm system.

Nolin pitched in the bigs with the Blue Jays and A’s from 2013-15 but didn’t get to the highest level again until this past August. The 31-year-old worked 26 2/3 innings of 4.39 ERA ball for the Nats across ten appearances (five starts), albeit with a below-average 16.3% strikeout rate.

Baldonado, a longtime minor league veteran, got his first big league call in September. The 28-year-old made fourteen relief outings down the stretch, allowing ten runs in 10 2/3 innings with twelve strikeouts and seven walks. It wasn’t the debut showing he’d been hoping for, but Baldonado earned that look with a solid 3.31 ERA over 32 2/3 Triple-A frames.

Jorge Soler Tests Positive For COVID-19; Cristian Pache Added To Braves’ NLDS Roster

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Braves outfielder Jorge Soler has been removed from his team’s NLDS roster due to a positive test for COVID-19, the league announced.  Cristian Pache has been approved as a substitute to take Soler’s spot on the roster.  Soler will be allowed to return the club once he clears COVID protocols.

The news comes less than two hours before the Braves look to close out the Brewers in Game 4 of their NLDS series.  Soler had been announced as Atlanta’s starting right fielder and leadoff hitter in the game, but the revised lineup now sees Joc Pederson slide from left field to right, Adam Duvall from center to left field, and Guillermo Heredia (batting eighth) added as the new starter in center.

Soler will be quarantined for at least five days, as per David O’Brien of The Athletic (Twitter link), and he has to cleared as non-infectious by a four-person joint health and safety committee (two doctors, and one representative each from the league and the players’ union).  If he is able to return after only that five-day minimum, Soler would possibly be in line to play by Game 2 of the National League Championship Series if the Braves advance past Milwaukee.

It has been a tough postseason for Soler, who has only one hit in 13 NLDS plate appearances.  Nonetheless, the veteran was a big reason why Atlanta won the NL East in the first place, as Soler hit .269/.358/.524 with 14 home runs over 242 PA after being acquired from the Royals in a trade deadline deal.  Soler had struggled over the first four months of the season, so his re-emergence with the Braves will surely help the 29-year-old’s case in free agency this winter.

The bigger issue at hand for the moment, however, is that the Braves now have a significant hole in their lineup.  The trio of Pederson, Duvall, and Eddie Rosario (along with Soler, all midseason pickups) now projects as Atlanta’s first-choice outfield, with Heredia, Pache, Terrance Gore, and utilitymen Ehire Adrianza and Orlando Arcia all providing additional depth.

Delino DeShields Jr. Elects Free Agency

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Reds outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. has refused an outright assignment and become a free agent, reports MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (via tweet).

The speedy outfielder bounced around a few organizations this year after signing with the Rangers on a minor league deal. Owing to a robust walk rate and strong base stealing numbers in their Triple-A affiliate, Texas found a trade partner in Boston to take in DeShields as outfield depth and a potential playoff weapon. Cincinnati found similar appeal in DeShields and plucked him from the Red Sox in an early August deal for cash.

DeShields’ minors production included solid numbers, including 21 stolen bases (in 24 tries) and a .750 OPS. With the Reds, however, he saw big league action for the first time in 2021 and had a nice showing in sample size of 25 games, producing a .255/.375/.426 slash (105 OPS+) with almost as many walks as strikeouts.

Despite solid production down the stretch, the Reds likely didn’t view DeShields as an indispensable part of their future. The 29-year-old could have been retained via arbitration but will instead head to the open market in search of more steady Major League work. With plenty to like about DeShields’ profile, there are plenty of teams, including the Reds themselves, who may come knocking in the offseason to fortify their outfield ranks.

Minor MLB Transactions: 10/10/21

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Catching up on minor league moves from around baseball….

  • The Cardinals outrighted Seth Elledge to Triple-A Memphis after the righty cleared waivers.  Elledge was designated for assignment prior to the Cards’ appearance in the NL wild card game.  The right-hander has pitched exactly 11 2/3 innings for St. Louis in each of the last two seasons, and also posted identical 4.63 ERAs in both campaigns.  Originally acquired by the Mariners for Sam Tuivailala in July 2018, Elledge has some solid numbers at the lower levels of the minors but has struggled in two seasons at Triple-A, with a 5.66 ERA over 70 innings for Memphis.

Ryan Meisinger, Kevin Quackenbush Elect Free Agency

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Right-handers Ryan Meisinger and Kevin Quackenbush have elected for free agency, as per the official transactions page for Triple-A West.  The two hurlers had been part of the Dodgers organization, and both had the option of becoming free agents since they have both been outrighted off 40-man rosters more than once in their careers.  Los Angeles outrighted both Meisinger and Quackenbush within the last two months.

The Dodgers claimed Meisinger off waivers from the Cubs in August but he never saw any big league action in Dodger Blue, though he did impress at the Triple-A level with an 0.84 ERA over 10 2/3 frames for the Oklahoma City affiliate.  Over 40 1/3 combined innings at Triple-A in 2021, Meisinger had a 3.35 ERA and a very impressive 34.6% strikeout rate, but also with an 11.17% walk rate.

Meisinger has had pretty solid numbers in the minors, except with steadily increasing walk and homer rates as he has moved up the ladder, culminating in some rough numbers over his brief big league career.  Over 31 career IP with the Orioles, Cardinals, and Cubs, Meisinger has allowed eight homers and issued 19 walks (against 30 strikeouts), resulting in a 7.26 ERA.

Quackenbush signed a minor league deal with L.A. in May and made it to the majors for one game, tossing a third of an inning in the Dodgers’ 8-2 win over the Angels on August 8.  This cup of coffee represented Quackenbush’s first MLB action since 2018.  A regular in the Padres bullpen from 2014-17, Quackenbush has since bounced around to a few different clubs, including a previous stint in the Dodgers’ farm system in 2019.  Like Meisinger, Quackenbush also pitched well at Triple-A this season, posting a 1.65 ERA over 43 2/3 frames of work.

CPBL’s CTBC Brothers Sign Shawn Morimando, Jose Valdez; Release Gabriel Ynoa

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TODAY: The additions of Morimando and Valdez will help make up for the loss of right-hander Gabriel Ynoa, who was released by the Brothers (hat tip again to CPBL Stats).  Ynoa has spent the last two seasons overseas, pitching in Japan in 2020 before inking a one-year deal with the Brothers last offseason.  A veteran of three MLB seasons, Ynoa had a 5.39 ERA over 163 2/3 innings with the Mets and Orioles from 2016-19.

OCTOBER 8: The CTBC Brothers of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League announced agreements with left-hander Shawn Morimando and right-hander José Valdez last week (h/t to CPBL Stats). Both Morimando and Valdez have appeared in the major leagues.

Morimando was in the majors as recently as this past August with the Marlins. The 31-year-old bounced on and off the Marlins’ roster a few times, ultimately making four appearances. He was tagged for eleven runs over 10 1/3 innings over his brief MLB look but had a nice 2021 campaign with Triple-A Jacksonville. Morimando made eighteen appearances (including sixteen starts) with the Jumbo Shrimp, tossing 89 2/3 frames of 4.32 ERA ball with strikeout and walk rates not far off the league average and a strong 50.4% ground-ball percentage.

The 2021 season marked Morimando’s second in which he picked up some big league time. The southpaw also worked 4 2/3 innings over a pair of outings with the Indians in 2016. He’s tossed fifteen frames altogether, allowing seventeen runs with fourteen strikeouts and ten walks.

Valdez has appeared in parts of four major league seasons. From 2015-18, he bounced between the Tigers, Angels, Padres and Giants. Overall, he’s worked 55 1/3 innings of relief at the big league level, posting a 6.34 ERA. Valdez has spent the past few seasons pitching in the Mexican League.

Ildemaro Vargas, Chris Devenski Elect Free Agency

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Utilityman Ildemaro Vargas and right-hander Chris Devenski have elected to become free agents, as reported by the official transaction pages for Triple-A West (for Vargas) and MLB.com (for Devenski).  The two 30-year-olds both finished the 2021 season with the Diamondbacks.

Vargas was outrighted off Arizona’s roster earlier this week, and since he’d been previously outrighted earlier this week, Vargas had the option of either accepting the assignment to Triple-A or choosing to become a free agent.  He’ll now hit the open market and could be on the move again after a whirlwind 14 months that saw Vargas play for three different teams (the Twins, Cubs, and Pirates) in between two stints with the D’Backs.

Vargas received 211 plate appearances while playing in 92 games with Arizona in 2019, hitting .269/.299/.413.  He hasn’t matched even that modest production since, posting only a .477 OPS over 137 total PA in 2020-21.

Devenski signed a minor league contract with the D’Backs last winter and made it to their big league roster, but delivered only an 8.59 ERA over 7 1/3 relief innings.  A tough season got worse due to Tommy John surgery around early June, and Devenski will now be sidelined until at least (in a best-case scenario) the 2022 All-Star break.

It is the second elbow injury in as many seasons for Devenski, who was limited to 3 2/3 innings in 2020 due to an arthroscopic procedure.  The former Astros reliever has been in decline since his 2017 All-Star season, and now faces a very uncertain winter.  Depending on when he recovers and is able to showcase himself for scouts, Devenski might conceivably have to wait until the 2022-23 offseason before landing his next contract.

Three Rangers Elect Free Agency

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Mike Foltynewicz, Hunter Wood, and outfielder Jason Martin have elected free agency, per the Rangers. The trio will now hit the open market.

Foltynewicz is the biggest name of the three, though it’s been some time since the right-hander seemingly broke out with Atlanta back in 2018. In his first and only season with the Rangers, Folty was given some leash, making 24 starts and adding four bullpen appearances for a total 139 innings. Folty pitched to a 5.44 ERA/6.02 FIP with a below-average 16.6 percent strikeout rate, though solid 6.1 percent walk rate.

Wood, formerly of the Rays and Indians, made just five appearances with the Rangers, tossing five innings and giving up a pair of earned runs. For his career, the swingman owns a 3.34 ERA/4.09 FIP across 91 2/3 innings.

Martin’s primary claim to fame comes via his inclusion in the trade that sent Gerrit Cole from the Pirates to the Astros. After appearing in the Majors with the Pirates in 2019 and 2020, he was granted free agency, signing with the Rangers. The 26-year-old saw the most playing time of his career in his lone season in Texas, slashing .208/.248/.354 across 154 plate appearances.

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