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Archives for January 2012

Mariners Sign Oliver Perez

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The Mariners signed left-hander Oliver Perez to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Spring Training, the team announced. The Boras Corporation represents the 30-year-old, who didn't pitch in the Major Leagues in 2011.

Perez struck out 239 batters with a 2.98 ERA as a 22-year-old in 2004. After he struggled with his command for two seasons, the Pirates traded him to the Mets for Xavier Nady. Perez posted a 3.91 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 371 innings from 2007-08 and the Mets signed him to a regrettable three-year, $36MM contract. They got just 112 1/3 innings of 6.81 ERA ball out of the investment before releasing Perez last March.

Perez pitched 75 2/3 solid innings for the Nationals' Double-A club in 2011. He finished the season with a 3.09 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 15 starts.

Twins Agree To Sign Joel Zumaya

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The Twins and Joel Zumaya have agreed to a one-year contract, the team announced. MLB.com's Jason Beck first reported the deal, which could pay the Hendricks Sports client anywhere from $800K to $1.7MM based on incentives.

Zumaya, 27, told Beck that he was weighing "good offers" from three other clubs, but signed with the Twins because they offered him guaranteed money and not a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training. The Tigers were not on his short list, and earlier today we learned the Red Sox and Padres were among the clubs with serious interest.

The flamethrowing right-hander has not pitched since June of 2010 due a fracture in his throwing elbow, an injury he suffered at Target Field and the latest ailment in a laundry list of injuries. In the five seasons since his dominant rookie campaign in 2006 (1.95 ERA and 10.5 K/9 in 83 1/3 innings), Zumaya has undergone five surgeries, including two on his elbow, two on his shoulder, and one on his right middle finger.

A Twins official told Phil Mackey of 1500ESPN.com that they clocked Zumaya at 92-94 during his December workout, which was attended by 20 teams (Twitter link). Zumaya hopes join a Twins' bullpen that lost Joe Nathan but will return Matt Capps and Glen Perkins.

Cubs Sign Jason Jaramillo

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The Cubs completed their minor league deal with catcher Jason Jaramillo, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes has learned. MLBTR reported in December that the Cubs were nearing a deal with the 29-year-old.

Jaramillo has accumulated 366 big league plate appearances over the last three seasons with the Pirates, hitting .235/.293/.327. A former second-round pick of the Phillies, Jaramillo missed much of this season with an elbow injury. The switch-hitter will be a candidate for the Cubs' backup catcher job behind Geovany Soto, a role filled by Koyie Hill the last several years. Jaramillo is a native of Wisconsin. 

MLBTR's Tim Dierkes contributed to this post.

Astros Designate Craig Tatum For Assignment

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The Astros designated catcher Craig Tatum for assignment, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com tweets. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for the newly signed Jack Cust.

The Astros had claimed Tatum from the Orioles in October. The 28-year-old has three partial seasons of catching experience at the Major League level and isn't yet eligible for arbitration. He has a .223/.291/.264 line in 299 MLB plate appearances and has stopped 21% of stolen base attempts against him. In eight seasons as a minor leaguer, the 2004 third round pick has a .249/.316/.377 batting line and has stopped 35% of stolen base attempts.

MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Click below to read a transcript of today's chat with Tim Dierkes.

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Outrighted To Triple-A: Nevin Ashley

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Here's where we'll keep track of the day's outright assignments…

  • Rays catcher Nevin Ashley cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The Rays had designated the 27-year-old for assignment five days ago. He posted a .263/.358/.384 line in 444 plate appearances for the Rays' Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2011. Ashley, a 2006 sixth rounder, has a .260/.353/.378 line in parts of six pro seasons. 

Rangers Close To Deal With Yu Darvish

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The Rangers have a 4pm central time deadline to sign Yu Darvish today.  If they fail to reach an agreement with agents Don Nomura and Arn Tellem, the $51,703,411 posting fee will not be paid to the Nippon Ham Fighters and Darvish will return to Japan for the 2012 season.  The latest:

Gerardo Concepcion Close To Free Agency

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18-year-old Cuban lefty Gerardo Concepcion has established residency in Mexico, agent Jaime Torres told Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com.  He should be able to declare free agency and negotiate with Major League teams very soon.  The Yankees, Rangers, Cubs, White Sox, and Phillies are among the interested clubs, Rojas tweets.

Concepcion defected from Cuba during a tournament in the Netherlands last June, as did Aroldis Chapman.

Extension Candidate: Daniel Hudson

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The Diamondbacks' Daniel Hudson has a sweet resume for a starting pitcher with one year and 117 days of Major League service time.  He's already racked up 336 career innings (222 last year) and also has 25 wins and a 3.19 ERA.  What are his extension prospects?

Hudson

As I showed in my Madison Bumgarner post, pitchers with less than two years of service time don't get big bucks on extensions.  Hudson and Bumgarner currently have much better bodies of work than James Shields, Ubaldo Jimenez, Brett Anderson, and Wade Davis did, but they probably couldn't push the guaranteed money much past $15MM by signing now.  Instead, Hudson and Bumgarner may attempt to set a new standard for pitchers with between two and three years of service, one year from now.

The two-to-three record holder is Gio Gonzalez, who flew past the standard $30MM extension by getting a $42MM guarantee from the Nationals.  However, Gonzalez is not a good comparison for Hudson, as the former was a Super Two.  Hudson won't be.  The Proformance client will go to arbitration three times, beginning with the 2014 season.  

The typical 2+ pitcher extension is a four-year, $30MM deal, signed by Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Yovani Gallardo, Trevor Cahill, and Ricky Romero.  These deals included one or two club options.  Hudson will match this group in service time after the 2012 season, but he already matches them in overall statistics.  Hudson already has more innings and wins than Gallardo did and more strikeouts than Lester or Cahill.  If Hudson reaches his 2012 Bill James projections, he'll have at least a 185 inning, 11 win, 141 strikeout, and significant ERA advantage over any of those 2+ peers.  Hudson and Bumgarner will likely be in a class by themselves, and if they sign extensions a year from now they ought to be able to raise the bar to $40MM over five years for non-Super Two 2+ pitchers.     

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

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