Let’s catch up on the latest minor moves:
- The Padres have agreed to minors deals with non-tendered players Jose Pirela and Hector Sanchez, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports via Twitter. San Diego will also bring in outfielder Rafael Ortega and righty Andre Rienzo on minor-league deals. Of this group, Sanchez has the most major league experience and seems most likely to have a chance to reaching the bigs in San Diego. He has seen time in each of the past six major league campaigns, compiling a .241/.278/.354 batting line across 691 plate appearances. Ortega, though, saw the most time in 2016, posting a .232/.283/.292 slash in 202 plate appearances with the Angels.
- Righty Stephen Fife and first baseman Tyler Moore are the newest additions to the Marlins organization, per Eddy (on Twitter). Fife, 30, saw time in three years for the Dodgers and owns a 3.66 ERA in his 91 major league frames. After missing time for Tommy John surgery, he returned to make ten Triple-A starts in the Cubs organization in 2016, working to a 4.58 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Moore, meanwhile, spent parts of four years in the majors with the Nationals, but struggled in limited action last year at the Braves’ top affiliate.
- The Astros agreed to terms with 26-year-old southpaw C.J. Riefenhauser, Eddy tweets. He’ll likely end up as a depth piece, as he did last year with the Cubs. Riefenhauser does have twenty major league innings under his belt — all with the Rays, and with a 6.30 ERA — but spent all of 2016 at Triple-A (with Fife), where he posted a 4.71 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9 over 28 2/3 frames.
- The White Sox have added outfielder Caleb Gindl on a minors pact, Eddy further tweets. Despite showing some promise upon reaching the majors in 2013 with the Brewers, Gindl fell off badly in each of the ensuing two seasons. He ended up playing indy ball last year, but showed enough with the Lancaster Barnstormers to return to an affiliated club.
- Outfielder Lane Adams is headed to the Braves on a minors pact, also via Eddy (on Twitter). The 27-year-old has exceedingly brief major league time, but has spent the past several seasons in the upper minors. Last year, with the Yankees and Cubs organizations, Adams put up a .266/.342/.388 batting line and swiped 44 bags to go with ten home runs over 481 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A.
- The Orioles added infielder/outfielder Sean Coyle on a minor-league deal, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. Now 24, Coyle was once seen as solid prospect in the Red Sox’ system. But he struggled badly last year in the upper minors, posting a cumulative .181/.269/.293 batting line over 426 plate appearances. He was claimed in mid-season by the Angels, but ended up being dropped from the team’s 40-man.
- The Phillies outrighted righty Michael Mariot, who was recently designated for assignment.
Every time I see a post about Hector Sanchez I comment about it because I think he’s a pretty handy little player. He’s a switch hitting catcher that at times has shown promise and often hit in the clutch a LOT.
The biggest concern I think people have is that he seems to get injured every single game and they say it’s because he sits too high as a catcher. He’s had multiple concussions the poor guy.
I’d like to see him get some experience in at 1B or 3B and see how that affects his batting and health. SF did play him at 1B a few times and he did pretty well (in a small sample size) but they had Belt and Posey playing there.
Pretty handy little player should never be used to illustrate Hector Sanchez lol
Snap! Well said….lol
I bet once they cut him ur gonna say he never got his fair chance. Get a room!
Miami Marlins minor league pitcher Frank Garces signs with the Seibu Lions on a one-year deal worth an estimated 60 million Yen (522,000 USD in annual salary), and was assigned with the uniform number 59. Via: sanspo.com/baseball/news/20161214/lio1612141646000…
Michael Mariot is a right handed relief pitcher.
Yeah … yeah he is.
Marion is a pitcher
Bucholtz and brock holt to the Braves for Jace Peterson Wisler and Daniel Castro what are your thoughts?
No, just no. I don’t think that would fit into either team’s plans at all. Then you also have the fact that Castro was a minor league free agent and signed recently with the Rockie’s organization. Castro realized that he had absolutely no future other than emergency defensive infielder while he was in the Braves organization (and probably everywhere else too).
Michael Mariot has a weird stat split.
5 of his 25 appearance were vs NYM. He totaled 4.1 IP (of 21.2) – with 10 (of 14 total) runs, all earned; 9 (of 18 total) hits, 7 (of 14 total) BB and only 3 (of 23 total) Ks were vs NYM. So he had a 3.69 WHIP and an ERA of 20.77 vs NYM.
Against everyone else, his ERA was 2.08 and his WHIP was 0.92.
Maybe the Mets should sign him?
If I was a MLB player who had to sign a minor league deal I would go to the Padres first. Probably the easiest road to the majors at this point.
Nice fantasy. But guys get called up and sent down on a weekly basis on every team. If u have any starting potential why would u want to waste ur time in SD? If u were a major leaguer and had to sign a minor league contract u wouldn’t be a major leaguer anymore now would u?
Looks like a safe deal for the bravos.