White Sox Release 5 Players
The White Sox have released five players – infielders Matt Skole and Ramon Torres, right-hander Zach Putnam, and lefties Caleb Frare and Matt Tomshaw – according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Frare, Skole and Tomshaw spent time in major league camp during the first version of spring training, but the White Sox reassigned them to the minors in March.
The most big league experience in the group belongs to the 32-year-old Putnam, who was rather adept at keeping runs off the board with the White Sox from 2014-17. During that 139 1/3-inning span, he posted a 2.71 ERA/3.34 FIP with 9.62 K/9, 3.62 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent groundball rate. Putnam hasn’t pitched in the majors since then, though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and then, as a member of the Red Sox organization last year, battled a hamstring injury. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league contract in March.
Skole was once a solid prospect with the Nationals, and while he did slash .248/.384/.497 with 21 home runs in 391 plate appearances with the White Sox’s Triple-A team last season, he hasn’t seen much action in the majors. The 30-year-old owns a meager .567 OPS at the game’s highest level in 93 PA. Likewise, Torres, Frare and Tomshaw have shown well at times in the minors, but they haven’t made noteworthy impacts in MLB in their small sample sizes of work (Tomshaw hasn’t reached the majors thus far).
White Sox Sign Zach Putnam
The White Sox have inked righty Zach Putnam to a minor-league pact, the club informed reporters including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter). He’ll head to the minors side of camp.
It has been a while since we’ve heard from Putnam. The 32-year-old was sidelined in 2018 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. His attempted return last year was thwarted by a hamstring injury.
Putnam was quite an effective relief pitcher for the South Siders before the injuries intervened. Over 139 1/3 frames with the organization, accumulated between 2014 and 2017, he worked to a 2.71 ERA while carrying 9.6 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 along with a 47.6% groundball rate.
Red Sox, Zach Putnam Agree To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Zach Putnam, tweets MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. The right-hander missed the 2018 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Putnam, 31, was a regular in the White Sox’ bullpen from 2014-17 before going down with an arm injury that ultimately led to Tommy John surgery. Prior to that procedure, though, Putnam turned in 139 1/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent ground-ball rate. Putnam never lit up the radar gun, sitting at 90.4 mph with his fastball over that four-year stretch on the South Side, but he nonetheless posted a gaudy 16.1 percent swinging-strike rate in that time as well. Beyond that, Putnam excelled in terms of limiting hard contact, as evidenced by a 27.2 percent opponents’ hard-hit rate that ranked well below the league average.
Putnam joins the Red Sox organization with four-plus years of service time and will surpass the five-year mark if he logs any meaningful big league time in 2019. That means that if he’s able to return to the Majors and find success, the Red Sox will be able to control him through the 2020 season via the arbitration process.
2017 Non-Tenders
The deadline to tender 2018 contracts to players is tonight at 8pm EST. We’ll keep track of the day’s non-tenders in this post (all referenced arbitration projections courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) …
- The Giants non-tendered righty Albert Suarez, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. Suarez, 28, was not yet eligible for arbitration.
- Righty Tom Koehler and infielder Ryan Goins are heading to the open market after being non-tendered by the Blue Jays, per a team announcement.
- The Rays announced that lefty Xavier Cedeno has been non-tendered, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.
- The Cubs non-tendered catcher Taylor Davis, per a team announcement. He was not yet eligible for arbitration.
- Four Rangers players have not been tendered contracts, per a club announcement. Righties Chi Chi Gonzalez, A.J. Griffin, and Nick Martinez have been cut loose along with infielder Hanser Alberto. Griffin ($3.0MM projection) and Martinez ($2.0MM) were both noted as non-tender candidates by MLBTR. The other two players were not yet eligible for arbitration. Gonzalez was a former first-round pick who had struggled of late and underwent Tommy John surgery in July.
- The Diamondbacks have also non-tendered lefty T.J. McFarland, who had projected at a $1.0MM salary.
- The Reds non-tendered lefty Kyle Crockett, a pre-arb lefty who was only recently claimed on waivers, per a club announcement.
- Per a club announcement, the Brewers have non-tendered veteran righty Jared Hughes. He will end up being the only 40-man player not to receive a contract from Milwaukee. Hughes had projected at a $2.2MM arbitration value. The 32-year-old is a master at inducing grounders and has turned in repeatedly excellent results. He also averaged a career-best 93.9 mph on his sinker in 2017.
- The Mariners have non-tendered lefty Drew Smyly and righty Shae Simmons, per a club announcement. While the former was expected, due to Smyly’s Tommy John surgery, the latter rates as something of a surprise given his cheap $700K projection. Of course, it’s possible the club is not optimistic of his chances of bouncing back from arm troubles.
- The White Sox will not tender a contract to reliever Jake Petricka, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). He had projected to take home $1.1MM in his second trip through the arb process. Also non-tendered, per a club announcement, were righties Zach Putnam and Al Alburquerque as well as infielder Alan Hanson.
- It seems that righty Bruce Rondon will wind up his tenure with the Tigers, as the organization is set to non-tender him, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press (via Twitter). Rondon was long viewed as a potential late-inning arm for the Tigers, but had some notable run-ins with the organization, struggled with control, and never consistently produced at the MLB level. Though he projected to earn just $1.2MM, Rondon will be allowed to find a new organization. He will turn 26 later this month.
- The Diamondbacks will non-tender righty J.J. Hoover, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). Hoover projected at just $1.6MM, but Arizona is watching every penny as it seeks to return to the postseason with a tight payroll situation. The 30-year-old turned in 41 1/3 innings of 3.92 ERA ball in 2017 with 11.8 K/9 but also 5.7 BB/9 on the year.
- The Royals announced that they have non-tendered outfielder Terrance Gore. Though Gore was not eligible for arbitration, teams occasionally utilize today’s deadline to prune their 40-man rosters. Gore had quite an interesting run with Kansas City, scarcely playing at all during the regular season and then appearing as a speed-and-defense asset in the team’s two storied postseason runs. Now, though the fleet-footed 26-year-old is out of options. With an upper minors OPS that hovers just over .600, Gore just was not going to break camp with the club. It seems reasonable to think there’s a chance he’ll return to the organization on a minors deal, though Gore will also have a shot at exploring the broader market.
Zach Putnam Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
White Sox righty Zach Putnam has undergone Tommy John surgery, Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago was among those to tweet. He’s expected to miss at least one year recovering from the procedure.
Putnam, who’ll soon turn 30, was off to a very strong start to the current season before his elbow flared off. Through 8 2/3 innings, he had allowed just one earned run on two hits while recording nine strikeouts against just one walk.
That showing came on the heels of a strong 2016 — at least when he wasn’t dealing with elbow troubles. In fact, since landing with the White Sox, Putnam carries an excellent 2.71 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 over 139 1/3 frames.
While he doesn’t bring much in the way of velocity, Putnam wields a devastating split-finger fastball. That offering has enabled him to boost his swinging-strike rate in each of his four years with the South Siders, starting at a strong 14.0% rate and climbing all the way to 19.4% in his shortened 2017 campaign.
All told, the White Sox have reason to hope that Putnam can again be an impactful arm in the bullpen, if he can work back to health. But the surgery means that he’ll be on the shelf for one of his final two seasons of arbitration control. He’s earning just $1.175MM this year, though, so the club could decide to pay that rate again for each of the next two campaigns and hope that Putnam returns to health for 2019.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: American League
The deadline for players and teams to exchange arbitration figures has come and gone, and there have been dozens of agreements broken throughout the league today. So many, in fact, that I’ve split the list up into a pair of league-specific posts to avoid having 100-something names in this list. You can see all the NL players here, and both of these will be updated as quickly as we’re able.
Many teams use the arbitration exchange as a hard deadline for negotiations on one-year deals — a “file and trial” approach which effectively means that once figures are exchanged, the only option they’ll pursue before a hearing is a multi-year deal. (The Mets and Orioles are both adopting that approach this year, and other teams to use that strategy in the past include Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Marlins, Rays, White Sox, Pirates, Reds and Nationals.)
The most significant arb agreements of the day have been snapped off into their own posts already. We’ll continue adding the smaller-scale agreements from the American League right here (all projections referenced are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, and all arbitration agreements and filings can be monitored in MLBTR’s 2017 Arbitration Tracker)…
- The Rangers have announced agreement on a deal to avoid arbitration with lefty Jake Diekman. With today’s deadline having passed, the sides did exchange figures — $3.1MM versus $1.9MM — but obviously were already nearing a number. The high-powered southpaw projected at $2.6MM, and will receive $2.55MM, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter).
- The Mariners announced that they’ve avoided arb with all eight of their eligible players, which includes Jean Segura (reported last night), Danny Valencia, Jarrod Dyson, Leonys Martin, Drew Smyly, James Paxton, Evan Scribner, Nick Vincent. Numbers aren’t all in yet, but Valencia took home $5.55MM, per FanRag’s Robert Murray (on Twitter). Martin will earn $4.85MM, per Heyman. They were projected at $5.3MM and $6.3MM, respectively. Meanwhile, Dyson gets $2.8MM, Heyman tweets, which lands just over his $2.5MM projection. Smyly will receive $6.85MM — right at his $6.9MM projection — while Scribner gets $907,500, per MLB.com’s Greg Johns (via Twitter). Meanwhile, Paxton will land at $2.35MM and Vincent will receive $1.325MM, per Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune (via Twitter), both of which fall shy of their respective projections ($2.7MM and $1.5MM).
- Catcher Martin Maldonado will receive $1.725MM from the Angels, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter). That’s just over his $1.6MM projection.
- The Tigers announced that they settled with third baseman Nick Castellanos. He projected at $2.8MM, but will receive $3MM, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter).
- Jeremy Jeffress and Jurickson Profar have each avoided arbitration with the Rangers, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegarm (via Twitter). Jeffress receives $2.1MM, while Profar will receive $1.005MM. Also of note, the Jeffress deal includes incentives that can add up to $250K in incentives, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). He’ll get $50K apiece upon reaching 55, 60, 65, and 70 innings. He had projected for a $2.9MM salary, but his legal issues late last year certainly dented his bargaining power.
- The Athletics have avoided arbitration with catcher/DH Stephen Vogt, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports on Twitter. Vogt will receive $2.965MM, falling shy of his $3.7MM projection. Oakland has also reached agreement with starter Sonny Gray for $3.575MM, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter), which is just shy of his $3.7MM projection. Also, reliever Liam Hendriks has agreed to terms, per John Hickey of the Mercury News. He’ll get $1.1MM, per Heyman (via Twitter).
- Righty Adam Warren will get $2.29MM from the Yankees, per Baseball America’s Josh Norris (via Twitter). That’s just a shade under his $2.3MM projection. New York also announced deals with shortstop outfielder Aaron Hicks and lefty Tommy Layne, among other players whose arrangements were previously reported. Layne receives $1.075MM, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (via Twitter).
- The Orioles have avoided arbitration with second baseman Jonathan Schoop, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (Twitter links). He’ll receive $3.475MM, just over his projection of $3.4MM.
- Adding to their previously reported deals, the Red Sox have announced agreement with all but two of their arb-eligible players. Salaries were reported by MLB.com’s Ian Browne for the players avoiding arb: shortstop Xander Bogaerts gets $4.5MM ($5.7MM projection), utilityman Brock Holt receives $1.95MM ($1.7MM projection), righty Joe Kelly will earn $2.8MM ($2.6MM projection), catcher Sandy Leon takes home $1.3MM (the same as his projection), lefty Robbie Ross gets $1.825MM (just $25K over his projection), and new righty Tyler Thornburg will earn $2.05MM (just under his $2.2MM projection).
- Two moreplayers have avoided arbitration with the White Sox, per Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago (via Twitter). Among those not previously reported, starter Miguel Gonzalez gets $5.9MM and reliever Zach Putnam receives $1.175MM. That clearly indicates that Gonzalez and the Sox utilized his prior-years’ arb starting points, rather than his much lower earnings with the team last year. Putnam, meanwhile, had projected for $975K.
Earlier Updates
Injury Notes: Ross, Lowrie, Hahn, Putnam, Hanigan
Here are the latest injury notes from around the league.
- Nationals starter Joe Ross is still dealing with shoulder soreness and has been removed from his rehab assignment, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. Ross was in the midst of a solid first full season with the Nats, with a 3.49 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 95 1/3 innings, but he has not pitched in the big leagues in over a month. The team’s current rotation plans appear somewhat open-ended, although they have off days upcoming on Monday and Thursday and could potentially get by for the next week and a half or so with only four starters. Ross could make one more rehab start and then return right around the time the Nats need a fifth starter again.
- The Athletics announced before last night’s game that they’ve placed infielder Jed Lowrie and righty Jesse Hahn on the 15-day DL and recalled outfielder Brett Eibner and righty Andrew Triggs from Triple-A Nashville to replace them. (Eibner, who recently arrived from the Royals organization in a trade for fellow outfielder Billy Burns, homered in his Oakland debut last night.) Lowrie is dealing with a toe injury that could be season-ending if he undergoes surgery, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle recently explained. Max Muncy will play at second in his absence. Hahn, meanwhile, has a shoulder strain, although John Shea of the Chronicle tweets that Hahn does not believe the situation is serious.
- White Sox reliever Zach Putnam had surgery Thursday to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow, the team has announced. The team further notes that the ligament was intact, and that Putnam will begin rehab next week. Putnam was off to a great start this season, with a 2.30 ERA, 9.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 27 1/3 innings, but he went down with the elbow injury in late June and hasn’t pitched since.
- The Red Sox have placed catcher Ryan Hanigan on the DL with ankle peroneal tendinitis, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal tweets. The 35-year-old Hanigan has played sparingly this season, collecting 102 plate appearances and hitting just .158/.216/.221 while serving as a backup. He also missed significant time earlier in the season due to a neck injury. Bryan Holaday, who the Red Sox claimed from the Rangers yesterday, will now share catching duties with Sandy Leon.
Central Notes: Gordon, Kuhl, Putnam
The Royals have announced that they’ve activated Alex Gordon from the DL and optioned fellow outfielder Brett Eibner to Triple-A Omaha. (The move is now reflected in Roster Resource’s Royals Depth Chart.) Gordon had been out since late May with a broken bone in his wrist. He was hitting just .211/.319/.331 before his injury, but given his usual combination of a high OBP and excellent left field defense, he should be a major addition for the Royals, who are currently four games back of the Indians in the AL Central and a half-game back of the Blue Jays for the last Wild Card spot. Here’s more from the Central divisions.
- The Pirates recently reinstated Juan Nicasio from the restricted list and are moving him to the bullpen, as MLB.com’s Adam Berry explains. Nicasio has had an uneven year so far and relies almost entirely on a hard fastball and slider, so it’s easy to see the appeal of making him a reliever. Replacing him in the Pirates’ rotation will be Chad Kuhl, who appears likely to start Sunday against Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers. Kuhl, a former ninth-round draft pick, didn’t rate highly on Pirates prospect lists at the start of the year, but he’s in the midst of a strong season for Indianapolis, where he’s posted a 2.58 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 76 2/3 innings. His bread-and-butter pitch is a high-velocity sinker, which the ground-ball-obsessed Pirates organization surely appreciates.
- White Sox reliever Zach Putnam is considering his options after getting a second opinion Friday on his ulnar neuritis in his right elbow, and surgery is a possibility, CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes writes. “Still parceling through the options and at this point we don’t have a specific timeframe for him,” says White Sox GM Rick Hahn. When Putnam hit the DL Tuesday, he became the third key White Sox reliever to have a significant injury, following Jake Petricka (hip) and Daniel Webb (elbow), both of whom are now likely out for the season. Putnam’s absence, if it lasts, could end up being the most crucial of the three — with a 2.30 ERA, 9.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9, he’s been a key part of the team’s bridge to David Robertson this year. In any case, all the injuries have left the White Sox shorthanded, with rookies Matt Purke, Michael Ynoa and Chris Beck all now on the team’s active roster.
List Of 2016 Super Two Qualifiers
Presented below is the list of players who have qualified for Super Two status for arbitration purposes this year. (Service time in parentheses.) As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently tweeted, the service time cutoff is 2.130. You can find arbitration salary projections for these players right here.
- Dan Jennings, White Sox (2.171)
- George Kontos, Giants (2.171)
- Justin Grimm, Cubs (2.170)
- Arodys Vizcaino, Braves (2.168)
- Avisail Garcia, White Sox (2.167)
- Jurickson Profar, Rangers (2.167)
- Jedd Gyorko, Padres (2.164)
- Juan Lagares, Mets (2.160)
- Didi Gregorius, Yankees (2.159)
- Erasmo Ramirez, Rays (2.158)
- Chris Archer, Rays (2.156)
- Nolan Arenado, Rockies (2.155)
- Will Smith, Brewers (2.155)
- Jean Machi, Red Sox (2.154)
- Seth Maness, Cardinals (2.154)
- Scott Van Slyke, Dodgers (2.151)
- David Lough, Orioles (2.149)
- Chris Hatcher, Dodgers (2.146)
- Evan Scribner, Athletics (2.142)
- Nick Tepesch, Rangers (2.136)
- Zach Putnam, White Sox (2.135)
- Chris Withrow, Braves (2.132)
- Kole Calhoun, Angels (2.130)
- Jeff Manship, Indians (2.130)
- Anthony Rendon, Nationals (2.130)
Click here to read more about how the Super Two concept works. Note that, as the link shows, the originally projected service time cutoff moved down as things played out over the course of the season. That brought some notable names into early arbitration qualification — namely, Calhoun and Rendon — which could have a big impact on their earning power in potential extension scenarios.
It’s also important to bear in mind that several of the players listed above have already agreed to long-term extensions: Gyorko, Lagares, and Archer. Notably, the size of the guarantee provided by Archer’s contract is dependent upon his Super Two status. By reaching it (as had been expected), he keeps a $25.5MM overall guarantee. That total would have been reduced to $20MM otherwise.
That contract structure reflects the importance of reaching Super Two status. Doing so not only bumps a player’s salary a year early, but sets a higher floor for future paydays.
Cubs Outright McDonald, Dolis, Four Others
The Cubs announced that outfielder Darnell McDonald, catcher J.C. Boscan, and right-hander Trey McNutt have cleared waivers and were outrighted off of the 40-man roster. In addition, the Cubs activated right-handers Rafael Dolis and Zach Putnam and outfielder Thomas Neal off of the 60-day disabled list and subsequently outrighted them from the 40-man.
McDonald, 35 in November, slashed .302/.351/.434 in 57 plate appearances for the Cubs this season but spent the bulk of the year in Triple-A Iowa, where he hit .236/.307/.346. Dolis made 34 relief appearances for the Cubs in 2012, but pitched to a 6.39 ERA with 5.7 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 and saw just five games this season before a June injury. McNutt, 24, was rated by Baseball America as the 48th best prospect in the country prior to the 2011 season. The well-traveled Neal was claimed on August 5th and played in two games before suffering a separated right shoulder.
With the moves, the Cubs’ 40-man roster currently stands at 37 players.