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Marlins Outright Four Players

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The Marlins have outrighted righties Javy Guerra and Vance Worley off their 40-man roster, along with first baseman Tyler Moore and outfielder Destin Hood, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports on Twitter. The Marlin’s 40-man roster now consists of 36 players.

Guerra, 31, had been a reliever for the Dodgers, White Sox and Angels before making it to Miami. He pitched in 16 games for the Marlins across the final two months of the season, compiling a respectable 3.00 ERA. However, he only managed to strike out 12 batters in 21 innings, and his larger body of work doesn’t point to significant upside.

Worley appeared in 24 games with the Marlins this past season, including 12 as a starter. The 30 year-old veteran pitched to an ugly 6.91 ERA in 71 2/3 innings, though some of it can be attributed to luck factors such as a high .378 BABIP and a low 64.5% strand rate. Worley’s greatest success during his career came with the Phillies and the Pirates, including an outstanding 2011 campaign in Philadelphia when he pitched to a 3.01 ERA and 8.13 K/9.

Moore, 30, was taken in the 16th round of the 2008 draft, and has since accrued 852 major league plate appearances with the Nationals and Marlins. He’s been 1.5 wins below replacement level for his career, with a lifetime .228/.278/.401 batting line and below-average defense at first base.

Hood, a former second-round pick of the Nationals, did not play in the majors this season. The 27 year-old outfielder has 25 career plate appearances at the MLB level, all coming last season with the Marlins. He struck out in 11 of those appearances while collecting six hits, including one home run. Hood chased 36.7% of pitches outside the strike zone, and only made contact on 38.9% of them, which explains a large portion of his offensive struggles.

 

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/21/17

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Sunday’s minor moves from around baseball:

  • Indians right-hander Carlos Frias cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A, per an announcement from the club. Frias, whom Cleveland designated for assignment Tuesday, has worked exclusively at the Triple-A level this year and posted a 9.00 ERA, 4.24 K/9 and 4.76 BB/9 in 17 innings.
  • The Mariners have signed outfielder Keury De La Cruz to a minor league deal. The 25-year-old played in the independent American Association last season after spending 2009-15 with the Red Sox organization. De La Cruz, whom Baseball America ranked as the Red Sox’s 25th-best prospect after the 2012 season, is a career .270/.318/.430 hitter with 58 home runs and 78 stolen bases (and 50 caught stealings) in 2,648 minor league plate appearances.

Earlier moves:

  • The Marlins announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Vance Worley, who will start their game against the Dodgers on Sunday. Worley hadn’t cracked the majors this year until now, having spent the first month-plus at Triple-A after inking a minor league deal in early April. The 29-year-old Worley hasn’t been great at that level, with a 4.43 ERA, 4.43 K/9 and 2.22 BB/9 in 44 2/3 innings. The well-traveled swingman has prevented runs at a respectable clip in the majors, though, evidenced by a 3.75 ERA over 595 1/3 career frames.
  • The Orioles have selected infielder Paul Janish’s contract from Triple-A, per a team announcement. He’ll fill in for reserve infielder Ryan Flaherty, who went on the disabled list with a right shoulder strain. The defensively adept Janish is in his third season in the Orioles organization, but he has collected just 28 plate appearances with the O’s to this point. While Janish got off to a .255/.364/.378 start this season in 118 PAs with Norfolk prior to his promotion, he’s only a .216/.284/.289 hitter in 1,277 major league trips to the plate.
  • The Royals have released left-hander Kyle Bartsch, tweets Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. This is the second time Kansas City has parted with Bartsch, whom it chose in the seventh round of the 2013 draft and then traded to San Diego for outfielder Reymond Fuentes a year later. The Padres released Bartsch last season, and he ended up back with the Royals and pitched to a microscopic .94 ERA (with 7.22 K/9 and 1.88 BB/9) in 28 2/3 Double-A innings. The 26-year-old has not pitched this season, however.

Marlins Sign Vance Worley To Minors Deal

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The Marlins have signed right-hander Vance Worley to a minor league contract, reports Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. Worley will open 2017 in their Triple-A rotation (Twitter link).

Worley, 29, hit the open market when the starter-rich Nationals released him Wednesday. The Marlins then “aggressively” pursued him, tweets Frisaro, and it seems he could crack their rotation sometime this year. Miami’s group of starters features plenty of question marks, while experienced depth options like Justin Nicolino, Odrisamer Despaigne and Kyle Lobstein don’t inspire much confidence.

Even though he’s neither a hard thrower nor a strikeout artist, Worley has generated decent results in the majors, having recorded a 3.75 ERA, 6.76 K/9, 2.87 BB/9 and a 45.7 percent ground-ball rate 595 1/3 innings. The majority of his 135 appearances (85) have come from the rotation. The former Phillie, Twin, Pirate and Oriole owns a 3.89 ERA in 490 1/3 frames as a starter.

AL East Notes: Scott, Rays, Worley, Blue Jays

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Red Sox skipper John Farrell announced to reporters today that left-hander Robby Scott will be on the team’s Opening Day roster in place of the injured Tyler Thornburg (Twitter link via the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham). Scott, 27, made his Major League debut with Boston last season and tossed six shutout innings after a standout season in the minors. In 78 innings with Triple-A Pawtucket logged a 2.54 ERA with a pristine 73-to-14 K/BB ratio.

A few more notes out of the AL East…

  • Rays right-hander Shawn Tolleson is likely to open the season on the 10-day disabled list due to a back issue, reports Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times. More concerning, Topkin notes that it “could potentially be a lengthy stay.” Mooney’s colleague, Marc Topkin, notes in a separate piece that right-handers Jumbo Diaz, Chase Whitley, Jaime Schultz and Austin Pruitt are candidates to step into the bullpen in the wake of the injuries that will sideline Tolleson and former closer Brad Boxberger to begin the season. The Rays inked Tolleson, the former Rangers closer, to a one-year deal with a modest $1MM base salary this offseason. This is hardly Tolleson’s first brush with back troubles; the righty missed much of the 2013 season with a back sprain and hit the DL late last August with a back injury that proved to end his season and his Rangers tenure.
  • Recently acquired Peter Bourjos made a strong impression in his debut with the Rays and fits “the profile that we’re looking for,” manager Kevin Cash tells Mooney. Tampa Bay has been on the hunt for a right-handed-hitting outfielder that can man center field, and Bourjos’ three-hit debut (which included a homer and a jumping catch at the wall) can only have helped his cause. The Rays picked up Bourjos in a trade that’ll send cash or a player to be named later to the White Sox recently, despite an excellent spring showing for Bourjos with the South Siders (.313/.340/.521 prior to Wednesday’s strong performance).
  • Right-hander Vance Worley and the Orioles have mutual interest in a reunion, reports Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. Worley certainly makes sense as a depth piece for the O’s following his recent release from the nearby Nationals. The 29-year-old Worley logged 86 2/3 innings with Baltimore last season and posted a solid 3.53 ERA, though his secondary stats were less impressive in nature; Worley averaged 5.8 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 with a fastball that averaged just over 89 mph and the worst hard-contact rate of his career (31.6 percent). Manager Buck Showalter sounded intrigued about the possibility of bringing Worley back to Baltimore, telling Encina: “It’s different with a guy like Worley because you have a prior [history] with him. It’s like he’s been through camp with us. In fact, he’s been through the fire of the season.”
  • The Blue Jays announced today that they’ve optioned right-hander Dominic Leone and catcher Juan Graterol to Triple-A Buffalo. Graterol has long appeared to be on the outside looking in when it comes to the Jays’ backup catcher role, which will go to veteran Jarrod Saltlamacchia, but today’s move effectively makes that outcome official. As for Leone, his demotion reduces the competition for the final couple of ’pen spots in Toronto to a three-horse race, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet points out (Twitter link). Left-hander Aaron Loup and righties Mike Bolsinger and Ryan Tepera are all still in the picture. Bolsinger is out of minor league options and has experience as a starte and multi-inning reliever, all of which could work in his favor (though that’s merely my own speculation).

Nationals Release Vance Worley

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The Nationals have announced the release of veteran righty Vance Worley. With several other pitchers re-assigned to minor-league camp, fellow righty Jeremy Guthrie is left as the only non-roster hurler in MLB camp, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post notes (Twitter links).

Clearly, Worley won’t make the club as a long man, though perhaps he could still be re-signed to serve as depth. Also missing on the Opening Day roster are veteran minor-league signees Jacob Turner and Neal Cotts, while young 40-man righties Trevor Gott and A.J. Cole have officially been optioned to Triple-A.

That seemingly leaves Guthrie as the team’s long reliever of choice — if, that is, the Nats decide to carry one. Alternatives include carrying a third lefty (the out-of-options Enny Romero) or an additional bench player (Wilmer Difo or Michael Taylor).

Worley, who’s still just 29, received a long look this spring, throwing 15 frames for the Nationals. But he allowed nine earned runs on 16 hits while recording as many walks as strikeouts (six apiece). Though Worley got results last year, compiling a 3.53 ERA over 86 2/3 frames in a swingman capacity for the Orioles, he’ll have to return to the open market in search of a better opportunity.

As for Guthrie, who didn’t pitch last season, reports of a resurgence were borne out in his spring stat line. Over 18 2/3 innings, he allowed just five earned runs on a meager ten hits while racking up 15 punchouts to go with five walks. Whether or not he can carry that success into the regular season in his age-38 campaign remains to be seen, but it could be interesting to see how the longtime starter fares in a relief role.

NL East Notes: Harvey, Nationals Bullpen, Conley

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With the level of concern increasing throughout the spring, Mets righty Matt Harvey turned around the narrative with his most recent outing, as Marc Carig of Newsday reports. While the results weren’t stellar, Harvey was sitting at 93 to 94 mph with his fastball and reached as high as 96, putting him back in his normal range. Plus, manager Terry Collins said, there were improvements to the veteran righty’s mechanics and command. That appearance has at least temporarily halted any clear need to consider keeping the 27-year-old in extend spring training to open the season, though Carig notes that approach could still end up as an option given the presence of three intriguing alternatives in Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, and Zack Wheeler.

Here are some more arms-related updates from the NL East:

  • The division-rival Nationals, meanwhile, are sorting through their own pitching decisions. As Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes, skipper Dusty Baker would like to carry a long reliever, though it’s unclear just who’d take that role. Minor-league signee Jeremy Guthrie has shown life with his fastball, and he’s joined in camp by fellow non-roster invitees Vance Worley, Matt Albers, and Jacob Turner as well as former top prospect A.J. Cole. Of course, carrying a multi-inning reliever would mean leaving behind someone else. 42-year-old Joe Nathan might be one of the top alternatives; as Zuckerman further writes, the team seems to be weighing his possible inclusion, having given him nine innings of action. Nathan has allowed just three earned runs, though he has only four strikeouts to go with three walks. Unless the Nats go with an eight-man pen, keeping any of the above-mentioned pitchers would likely mean parting with either veteran Oliver Perez (who’s guaranteed $4MM) or out-of-options newcomer Enny Romero, both of whom are currently projected by Jason Martinez of MLBTR and RosterResource.com to make the active roster.
  • Then, there’s the question of the closer spot for the Nationals. As MLB.com’s Jamal Collier tweets, Baker has trotted out Koda Glover for five-straight ninth-inning appearances, perhaps suggesting he’s testing him for the job. The veteran manager says he believes that the 23-year-old Glover has the arsenal needed to close, with the team assessing whether he’s ready to handle that spot at this stage. His top competitor appears to be Blake Treinen, who has been dominant in three spring frames (six strikeouts, no walks or hits). Glover has received a much more substantial showcase thus far, and has also impressed by allowing just one earned run on four hits and a single walk with 11 strikeouts over eight innings.
  • For the Marlins, there’s increasing unease with the showing thus far from lefty Adam Conley, as manager Don Mattingly said yesterday. (Video via the Sun-Sentinel.) The long-framed southpaw has struggled to “sync everything up” thus far, says Mattingly, leaving the club with at least a “little bit” of concern at this stage. Noting that the club is still considering the form of its Opening Day rotation, the skipper says that one major concern is Conley’s inefficiency, which has been a problem in the past. Last year, he managed only 133 1/3 innings over 25 starts.

Nationals, Vance Worley Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals have announced an agreement with free agent right-hander Vance Worley on a minor league contract. The deal, which features an invitation to spring training, comes with a $1MM major league salary and up to $1.65MM more in incentives, tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Worley is a client of Wasserman Media Group.

[Updated Nationals Depth Chart]

The 29-year-old Worley spent last season in nearby Baltimore, where the swingman tossed 86 2/3 innings in 35 appearances (four starts) and logged a 3.53 ERA. Worley’s run prevention success came despite underwhelming strikeout and walk rates of 5.82 and 3.63, respectively, per nine innings. The Orioles elected in December to non-tender Worley, for whom MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $3.3MM arbitration award.

While the Orioles weren’t interested in handing Worley a raise over his $2.6MM salary from last season, they did want him back in the fold at a lesser rate. In fact, general manager Dan Duquette revealed earlier Saturday that the O’s had made Worley a contract offer.

Worley will instead head back to the National League, where he began his career as a member of the Phillies from 2010-12. After a year with the Twins, he returned to the NL and pitched for the Pirates from 2014-15. The soft-tossing journeyman has never been a strikeout artist (6.76 K/9), though he has managed to post respectable walk and ground-ball rates (2.87 BB/9, 45.7 percent) en route to a career 3.75 ERA across 595 1/3 major league innings.

In Washington, Worley will join a team with an enviable starting rotation consisting of reigning NL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Roark, Gio Gonzalez and Joe Ross. Strasburg and Ross each dealt with serious injury issues last season, though, and the Nationals weakened their starting depth earlier this offseason in trading Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to the White Sox for outfielder Adam Eaton. Worley could factor into the Nats’ rotation at some point next season, then. Otherwise, barring injuries during the spring, he’s likely to vie for a bullpen role in camp.

Orioles Notes: Britton, Machado, Worley, Brach, Joseph

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Here’s the latest from the Orioles’ FanFest event…

  • Zach Britton and the Orioles haven’t been discussing an extension, though the ace closer tells MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli (Twitter link) and other reporters that there is mutual interest between the two sides on working out a new deal.  Britton and the O’s avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $11.4MM contract for 2017, and Britton has one more arb year left before entering free agency.
  • There also haven’t been any extension talks between Manny Machado and the O’s, the star third baseman told reporters, including Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun.  Machado reiterated that he hopes to remain with the Orioles and he understands if the club is focusing on other priorities right now rather than open talks.  Needless to say, negotiating a Machado extension will be a major task given the huge amount of years and dollars (ten years and $300MM is a ballpark figure) it would take to prevent Machado from hitting free agency at age 26 following the 2018 season.
  • The Orioles have made a contract offer to right-hander Vance Worley, executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette told reporters (including the Baltimore Sun’s Jon Meoli).  Worley was projected to earn $3.3MM in arbitration this winter and was non-tendered by the O’s last month.  The righty posted a 3.53 ERA, 5.8 K/9 and 48.1% grounder rate over 86 2/3 innings for Baltimore last season and has value as a long reliever and spot starter, even if the Orioles weren’t keen on meeting his projected price tag.
  • Duquette also stated (to Eduardo A. Encina and other media) that the Orioles are planning to go to hearings to decide their three unsettled arbitration cases with Kevin Gausman, Brad Brach and Caleb Joseph.  Brach and Joseph discussed their takes on the hearing process with MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, with Brach also talking about his name being mentioned in offseason trade rumors.

AL East Notes: Orioles, Bautista, Yankees

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The remaining offseason additions of the Orioles don’t figure to be too costly, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Kubatko again notes that GM Dan Duquette would like to add another left-handed-hitting outfielders with a good glove and some additional pitching depth before breaking down the Baltimore roster and a number of position battles for the final few spots on the 25-man roster. Rule 5 pick Anthony Santander is recovering from shoulder surgery and can be stashed on the DL early in the year, but fellow Rule 5 selection Aneury Tavarez could have a tough time making the roster. The door for a reunion with Vance Worley “remains open,” per Kubatko, and there are several in the organization that would advocate a return for right-hander Tommy Hunter as well. The Orioles possess a number of options for the final bench spot and the fringes of their pitching staff, and Kubatko’s column gives a nice, comprehensive overview as to how it could all shake out.

A few more notes from the American League East…

  • Jose Bautista is a polarizing figure among MLB fans and his peers around the league (to say the least), but many of his Blue Jays teammates are ecstatic to see him return, writes Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Marcus Stroman and Ryan Goins were among those to emphatically praise Bautista when speaking to Nicholson-Smith. Stroman, in particular, explained that Bautista is a critical resource for him when he’s studying opposing hitters and trying to determine how to keep them off balance. “He’s the first guy I go to because I feel like he has the best strike zone judgment out of anyone in the big leagues,” Stroman tells Nicholson-Smith. (Bautista’s 16.3 percent walk rate since 2011 trails only Joey Votto in all of Major League Baseball.)
  • Meanwhile, Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling writes that agent Jay Alou said at Bautista’s press conference that his client had larger offers elsewhere, though he declined to get into specifics. Certainly, there could be some semantics at play, as it’s not difficult to see a two-year offer at a considerably lower annual value offering less appeal than the hefty $18.5MM guarantee to which Bautista agreed. It’s unclear what type of other offers Bautista received (and probably will remain so), but a rebound at the plate would position him nicely in advance of the 2017-18 offseason, even if he’ll be 37 this coming October. Bautista added that he’s open to playing first base for the Jays next year as well, and if he proves serviceable, that’d also go a long ways toward boosting his stock (and would also offer the Jays a means of enhancing their 2017 outfield defense).
  • The Yankees’ system is flooded with well-regarded shortstop prospects (led by Gleyber Torres), and with Didi Gregorius continuing to elevate his game in the Majors, that gives the team plenty of options, writes ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand. GM Brian Cashman tells Marchand that he doesn’t think Gregorius has reached his ceiling yet and should continue to improve. If that’s the case, it’d be hard to displace Gregorius even when Torres is ready for the Majors, though Cashman didn’t sound the least bit concerned about eventually having a potential logjam. “If you have the physical ability to project to play shortstop at the major league level, that also means you have the skill set to play second, third, typically center, left or right because of your speed and the arm,” said the GM. “So, first and foremost, it provides a great deal of creativity and flexibility that you can have with that athlete.”
  • One player that could eventually be impacted by the glut of up-the-middle talent in the Yankees’ farm is Starlin Castro, though he tells Newsday’s Steven Marcus that he “[doesn’t] really think about” the possibility of being displaced or even traded. Castro notes a parallel between the Yankees’ current situation and the end of his Cubs tenure. “That’s the second time it happened to me,” he said of the Yankees’ upcoming wave of talent. “That happened my last year with the Cubs. All the younger guys coming to the team. Here, the same thing.”

AL East Notes: Yankees, Sale, Red Sox, Orioles

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Given their impressive contingent of young talent, the retooling Yankees likely could have put together a package to acquire ace Chris Sale, who’s now with archrival Boston after the rebuilding White Sox traded him for a prospect haul last month. Noting that “all of a sudden, you’re tearing down when you start to build up,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman unsurprisingly expressed an unwillingness to give up potential superstar catcher Gary Sanchez for Sale (via Randy Miller of NJ.com). Regarding auxiliary pieces, Cashman said, “Is it (a touted pitching prospect such as James) Kaprielian or Chance Adams or Justus Sheffield? It would probably be (Luis) Severino right now. So those are the two primers just to get the ball rolling with the other two players yet to be named to try to match up for Sale.”

Elsewhere around the American League East…

  • The Orioles’ Zach Britton has been a premier closer since 2014, but he only developed into a lights-out reliever after a difficult run as a starter. In 48 appearances (46 starts) from 2011-13, Britton flashed his signature ground-ball ability (55.5 percent), though he otherwise underwhelmed with a 4.77 ERA and 5.94 K/9 against 3.92 BB/9 across 254 2/3 frames. Britton “had flashes of brilliance” as a starter, ex-Orioles pitching coach Dave Wallace told David Laurila of FanGraphs, but Wallace doesn’t believe the 29-year-old would have evolved into a high-end rotation piece had he stayed in that role. “He doesn’t have the… I wouldn’t say mentality, but the wherewithal to navigate,” observed Wallace. “When you’re a starting pitcher, and you give up a run — give up something — you have to maintain your composure and still make pitches, knowing you have quite a bit of the game to go. A lot of guys can’t do that, and he was one of those guys.”
  • Although the Red Sox are making an effort to bolster their depth with minor league signings, they’re having trouble attracting players, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski explained to Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. “We keep trying to sign minor-league guys to contracts with big league invites,” Dombrowski said. “We haven’t been very productive. Not for a lack of trying, but guys are still at the point where, first of all, they’re looking for major league contracts if they can. You can see this past week, they finally started to click where, they were accepting some (minor league) invites. But they’re going to other clubs rather than ours, because they don’t like the chances of making our major league club as much at this time.” While Dombrowski “wouldn’t mind” picking up extra pitching and outfield depth, he’s content with his third base possibilities and is “hopeful” Pablo Sandoval will rebound from a forgettable two-year stretch.
  • As of earlier this month, Baltimore general manager Dan Duquette hadn’t ruled out signing the top starting pitcher available in free agency, one-time Oriole Jason Hammel. That was before the club re-signed pricey slugger Mark Trumbo, though, meaning it’s now more likely to add a cheaper starter, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Baltimore remains interested in re-upping swingman Vance Worley, per Kubatko, who hears that the right-hander’s price will have to drop for a reunion to happen. The Orioles non-tendered Worley last month in lieu of paying the 29-year-old a projected $3.3MM via arbitration in 2017. Worley managed to prevent runs at a respectable clip with the O’s last season in spite of a subpar K/BB ratio (1.6, well below the 2.53 league-average mark), as he pitched to a 3.53 ERA over 86 2/3 innings and 35 appearances (four starts).

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