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Archives for July 2015

Phillies Sign Jhailyn Ortiz

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JULY 9: The Phillies have officially announced the signing. They also announced the singings of Venezuelan catcher Rafael Marchan and Dominican infielder Kuedy Bocio and lefty Manuel Silva. As Baseball America’s Ben Badler notes (on Twitter), Ortiz’s bonus is actually $4MM, which will help the Phillies to stay within their international bonus pool, which now stands at $5.28MM.

JULY 2: The Phillies have an agreement with Dominican first base prospect Jhailyn Ortiz, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reports on Twitter. Agreement is still being “finalized,” per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, who tweets that the bonus is for an estimated $4.2MM.

Ortiz ranked sixth on Sanchez’s list of top international prospects, with Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel ranking him 14th and Baseball America’s Ben Badler ranking him 18th. Already listed at 6’2″ and 260 pounds, raw power is Ortiz’s best tool. He’s currently a left fielder, but most expect him to move to first base. Ortiz as the type of power “that does not come around very often,” per Sanchez. McDaniel gives Ortiz 70-grade raw power and notes that he’s surprisingly fleet of foot at the time being, though he figures to eventually slow down some. Badler notes (subscription required and recommended) that Ortiz showed a lot of swing-and-miss at events in February and March, leading to some concerns among scouts. There’s a lot of risk, per Badler, but there’s 25-plus homer upside if Ortiz can make similar adjustments to the ones Nomar Mazara made after signing with the Rangers.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/9/15

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.

  • Somerset Patriots outfielder Scott Cousins has retired, Mike Ashmore of MyCentralJersey.com writes. The announcement was made as Cousins was removed from the Atlantic League All-Star Game on Wednesday. Cousins played parts of four seasons with the Marlins and Angels from 2010 through 2013, hitting .179/.230/.285 in 193 career plate appearances. He says he’d like to finish his college degree, then become a hitting coach or scout. “I’d love to be an area scout; it’s a simple lifestyle, I get to watch baseball and I get to mentor guys where I used to be,” Cousins says. “I’m not going to get rich at it, and I’m perfectly OK with that.”
  • Giants pitcher Brett Bochy is currently listed on the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats roster, so it appears he has been outrighted after being designated for assignment last week. Bruce’s son has produced a 4.30 ERA, 5.5 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 29 1/3 innings with the River Cats this season. He briefly appeared in the big leagues last year.
  • The Reds have acquired righty Miguel Celestino from the Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs broadcaster Mike Antonellis tweets. Celestino, 25, posted a 4.53 ERA, 6.7 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 45 2/3 innings at Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket. He’s spent most of the past three seasons pitching in relief. He did not rank in MLB.com’s list of the Red Sox’ top 30 prospects.

Steven Matz Dealing With Lat Injury

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7:25pm: The Mets have announced that Matz has a partial tear of his lat muscle on his left side. He will be shut down for three weeks, then be reexamined. Marc Carig of Newsday has tweeted the text of the Mets’ announcement.

7:08pm: Matz’ injury is “not serious,” a source tells ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin (on Twitter). It does appear, however, that the Mets will skip Matz’s next turn in the rotation.

6:51pm: Mets starting pitcher Steven Matz has a lat injury and will miss several weeks or more, Andy Martino of New York Daily News tweets. The Mets were using a six-man rotation, an arrangement with which ace Matt Harvey had already expressed displeasure, so they will presumably just go back to five.

Matz entered the season as a highly regarded pitching prospect and only enhanced that status with 90 1/3 dominant innings for Triple-A Las Vegas — he posted a 2.19 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in a notoriously difficult environment for pitchers. He made his big-league debut June 28 and allowed two runs in 7 2/3 while firing mid-90s fastballs and going 3-for-3 at the plate in a Mets win. He then pitched six shutout innings and struck out eight last Sunday.

Had Matz remained healthy, he might have met resistance at some point, and the Mets clearly have the depth to withstand a pitching injury. Losing a promising rookie for a significant period of time is, however, a blow to the Mets, who remain in the hunt for both the NL East and the Wild Card.

Braves To Sign Top Draft Pick Kolby Allard

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6:04pm: Law tweets that Allard will receive a bonus of $3,042,000, about $200K above the recommended pool value for the No. 14 pick. Such a bonus would not cause the Braves to lose a pick next year.

5:40pm: A tweet from California high school lefty and Braves top pick Kolby Allard strongly implies that he and the team have agreed to terms. “Headin’ out to Braves Country in a couple days, let the journey begin!” Allard writes.

Earlier this week, it appeared that Allard might spurn the Braves and instead head to UCLA. Allard was the No. 14 overall pick in the draft, and that pick comes with a pool value of $2,842,400. He would likely have been selected earlier and potentially gotten a bigger bonus, however, were it not for a stress reaction in his back. The Braves have signed all their other picks in the first ten rounds, mostly tracking fairly closely with MLB’s pool values for each pick, so they didn’t save a significant amount against their pool on those picks. MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted earlier this week, however, that since the Braves don’t lose a pick next year unless they go more than 5% beyond their pool, they could give Allard a bonus of up to about $3.47MM.

MLB.com ranked Allard the No. 16 prospect in the draft, praising his fastball (which sits at 92-94 MPH), curveball and low-effort delivery. Baseball America (subscription only) ranked Allard No. 18, while ESPN’s Keith Law rated Allard quite highly at No. 6, writing that, pre-injury, Allard ranked as the best high school pitcher in a weak draft for that player category.

Latest On Eddy Julio Martinez

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Top Cuban outfield prospect Eddy Julio Martinez remains unsigned a week after the beginning of the July 2 international signing period, but the Dodgers and Giants still lead the race to sign him, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez writes. Both teams have workouts scheduled for Martinez in the coming week.

The Cubs, White Sox, Rangers and Astros also have shown significant interest. Sanchez points out, though, that the Dodgers, Giants and maybe the Cubs have the edge, because Martinez’s bonus, likely to be eight figures, will incur maximum penalties for the team that signs him, including the inability to sign any player for more than $300K in either of the next two international signing periods. The Dodgers and Giants are already on pace to incur those penalties — the Dodgers’ expensive current class includes $16MM signee Yadier Alvarez, while the Giants’ includes $6MM signee Lucius Fox. The Cubs appear likely to incur maximum penalties as well. The White Sox, Rangers and Astros have not incurred such penalties, so they appear to have at least some incentive not to sign Martinez.

MLB.com ranks Martinez the No. 1 prospect available this signing period, comparing the 20-year-old to Andruw Jones and praising his power, baserunning and defense. Baseball America’s Ben Badler (subscription only) is less bullish, suggesting Martinez’s power leads more to doubles than home runs and noting that not all scouts believe he’ll stick as a starter in center field.

Pirates Could Try To Add Talent Ahead Of Deadline

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Pirates manager Clint Hurdle says Josh Harrison’s recent injury could lead to the Bucs being “aggressive with early opportunity to add” this month, MLB.com’s Tom Singer tweets. Harrison is set to miss seven weeks with a torn UCL in his thumb. Since Harrison could return by the end of August, acquiring offensive help earlier, rather than at the deadline the end of the month, would perhaps best help the Pirates best compensate for his absence.

The Bucs have a capable replacement in Jung-Ho Kang taking over for Harrison at third base, but the loss of the versatile Kang leaves the Pirates with an underwhelming bench of Chris Stewart, Sean Rodriguez, Steve Lombardozzi, Gorkys Hernandez and Travis Ishikawa. It already looked possible that the Pirates would consider pursuing an outfielder at the trade deadline, and that still looks like a possibility, even though young right fielder Gregory Polanco has shown signs of life lately — again via Singer on Twitter, Hurdle says left fielder Starling Marte’s side injury could force him to the disabled list if he doesn’t respond well to pregame tests. (Marte might not miss many games even if he’s placed on the DL, however, given that the All-Star break will cover several of the 15 days he’ll be required to miss.)

The Pirates could pursue a variety of possible third base or outfield options, then, likely leaning toward a right-handed hitter if they pursue help in the outfield. Purely speculating here, but one would think a player like the switch-hitting Ben Zobrist, who’s capable of helping in both the infield and the outfield, would be especially attractive. Aramis Ramirez could be another possibility at third, with Harrison potentially returning to a super-utility role once he’s reinstated from the DL.

MLBTR Podcast: Jon Heyman Chats Deadline

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Jeff runs down the week’s news, and then welcomes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports to the show for an overview of the market for key teams and players as the trade deadline approaches. Among the clubs covered are the Brewers, Padres, Twins, Rangers, and Rockies.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

West Notes: A’s, Kazmir, Machi, Ibanez

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The Athletics are in a “holding pattern” on trade talks as they continue to see how things progress in the coming weeks, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (Twitter links). Nevertheless, likely buyers appear to be taking a close look at Oakland’s roster, as Rosenthal counts the Blue Jays, Astros, Royals, Tigers, Nationals, and Pirates among the clubs that sent scouts to last night’s game.

  • Scott Kazmir threw for the A’s last night, of course, and left after just three innings of work with forearm tightness. Kazmir insisted after the game that it was not a major source of concern, and indeed Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle notes on Twitter that he was able to play catch today without apparent issue.
  • Giants reliever Jean Machi appears at risk of becoming a roster casualty when the club welcomes back Jeremy Affeldt and/or Tim Lincecum, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle notes on Twitter. The 33-year-old has produced outstanding results in each of the last two seasons, putting up 119 1/3 innings of 2.49 ERA pitching. But it’s been a different story in 2015, as Machi has suffered a notable decline in his strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.8 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9, presently) and owns a 5.29 ERA in 32 1/3 frames.
  • The Rangers got a bargain on recent international signee Andy Ibanez, writes Ben Badler of Baseball America. Texas landed the 22-year-old infielder for just $1.6MM, but Badler pegs him as roughly equivalent in value to a supplemental first-round or second-round draft pick.

Orioles Release Delmon Young

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The Orioles have released outfielder Delmon Young, the club announced. Young had been designated for assignment on July 1.

Baltimore had indicated that it was optimistic of finding a trade partner for Young, as it did previously with Alejandro De Aza. Despite the fact that the veteran is only owed a shade over $1MM the rest of the way, the O’s were apparently not able to find a taker for a piece of that contract.

Young will surely draw interest on the free agent market. Though the 29-year-old is in the midst of a mediocre .270/.289/.339 campaign at present, he slashed a highly useful .302/.337/.442 in part-time play last year.

Alex Gordon Out Two Months With Groin Strain

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10:51am: Gordon has a grade two-plus strain and is expected to miss eight weeks of action, manager Ned Yost told reporters, including McCullough (Twitter links). Surgery does not appear to be necessary, per Yost.

10:09am: While we are still awaiting news on the MRI results, the Royals have already gone ahead and added Alex Gordon to the 15-day DL. The outfielder left the club’s game last night with a left groin strain.

Kansas City will welcome the return of righty Yordano Ventura, who was activated as part of a series of moves. Lefty Brandon Finnegan was also recalled to the big league club.

Gordon, an easy All-Star selection after a typically excellent first half, took a scary spill while pursuing a ball hit to the left field wall. After the game, manager Ned Yost did not express much confidence, indicating that Gordon could be lost for a significant stretch.

Kansas City, which owns the American League’s best winning percentage, does have internal options. The speedy Jarrod Dyson figures to see a good piece of the action, while the right-handed-hitting Paulo Orlando provides a platoon mate.

Depending upon the prognosis, an outside addition remains possible, though the team may still prioritize starting pitching and/or second base. Adding a player capable of manning both the corner outfield and the keystone — Ben Zobrist being the best-known example of that archetype — would have obvious facial appeal.

For Gordon, 31, it’s not the best time to go down for a lengthy stretch, and not only because of team considerations. He faces a (rather easy) decision on his player option and pending free agency. Gordon’s value probably will not take much of a hit if he’s able to demonstrate a return to health later this year, though he already faces some age-related limitations on his earning power.

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