We’ll use this post to track any notable 40-man roster additions that crop up as teams settle upon their Opening Day rosters:
- The D-backs announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever J.J. Hoover. He’ll fill the 40-man spot that was vacated earlier today when Christian Walker was sent outright to Triple-A. Hoover, 29, inked a minor league deal with the Snakes this offseason after spending parts of the past five seasons — the entirety of his Major League career — with the Reds. Hoover opened the 2016 season as Cincinnati’s closer but quickly lost that job and experienced a rapid decline that ultimately led to his outright off the 40-man roster. As recently as 2015, however, the righty tossed 64 1/3 innings of 2.94 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9. Hoover will walk his fair share of batters (career 4.2 BB/9 rate), but he’s also punched out 240 hitters in 242 1/3 Major League frames. As a rather extreme fly-ball pitcher, he may find Chase Field more problematic than some pitchers, though he’s no stranger to homer-friendly parks, thanks to his time in Cincinnati.
Earlier Moves
- The Indians are set to select the contracts of infielders Yandy Diaz and Michael Martinez, per a club announcement. Diaz, 25, enjoyed a strong season split between Cleveland’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, hitting .318/.408/.446 with nine homers and 11 stolen bases. The third baseman/second baseman/outfielder was terrific in Spring Training, hitting .429/.529/.667 with a pair of homers and four doubles during Cactus League play. The 34-year-old Martinez, no stranger to the Indians organization after spending 59 games and the postseason with Cleveland last year, had a similarly strong Spring Training. The veteran utility man batted .357/.379/.536 in 21 spring contests. In parts of six big league seasons, Martinez is a .197/.241/.266 hitter.
- The final two spots on the Phillies’ bench have been won by the well-traveled Daniel Nava and veteran minor leaguer Brock Stassi, per Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com (Twitter link). Nava hit .362/.455/.489 this spring and can serve as a backup to corner outfielders Michael Saunders and Howie Kendrick in the Phillies’ new-look outfield. He also has some experience at first base and could serve as a left-handed complement to Tommy Joseph at times, though the same could be said of the 27-year-old Stassi. A veteran of six minor league seasons and the older brother of Astros backstop Max Stassi, Brock Stasi was emotional in discussing what will be his MLB debut (Twitter video link via Philly Voice’s Ryan Lawrence). A former 33rd-round selection, Stassi reached Triple-A for the first time last season and hit .267/.369/.437 before posting an outstanding .333/.397/.702 batting line and six homers this spring.
- Righty Craig Stammen is back in the majors after being selected to the Padres’ 40-man, per a team announcement. The 33-year-old had long been a steady reliever for the Nationals before he required flexor tendon surgery early in the 2015 season. He didn’t earn a return last year after joining the Indians on a minors deal, but did show he was healthy in throwing 27 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball. Stammen turned things up a notch this spring, allowing just a single earned run on nine hits and five walks over 11 2/3 innings, recording a dozen strikeouts along the way.
Meh. Done.
Why? He has a mirco era .86 in the spring
Give him plenty of opportunities to pitch and flip him in July.
Seem like a cheap bounce back candidate who can be flipped for something if he shows signs of life.
He earned it this spring, good for him.
One last bullpen spot open between Phil Maton and Jose Torres. Torres is a better choice at this point IMO because he would be and early inning LOOGY with Hand and Bucther being late inning setup man options who are equally as tough on RH/LH hitters.
Torres’s ideal situation would be a righty starter which 4/5’s of the rotation is, struggling in the 6th with 2 on and 1 out and a tough lefty coming up, Andy Green can burn him early knowing that the other two lefties are still in the Pen for later. Gives the club more flexibility to yank a struggling starter which looks like will happen more times than not.
You’re using these for-instances as if this is a team that is trying to win games in 2017. That’s not the case. Stammen has had a few useful seasons as a major league reliever. I doubt he can be “flipped” for anything more than a very low-level prospect if he pitches well, but I suppose stranger things have happened. Like dealing Pomeranz for the guy who is now the Padres’ #1 prospect last season.
So you think professional players are just going to go out and tank just because the general public thinks they are? You make it seem like Andy Green isn’t going to make normal managerial changes during the game just because “this is a team that isn’t trying to win games”, cmon now. There are some really talented young kids on this team that are going to be very fun to watch, I would hate it for you if they are some-what competitive this year. You are always bad mouthing the Padres on here.
Losing a lot of games will not require specific intentional efforts by the players on the roster or the coaching staff this year. Just playing to their overall abilities will go a long way toward accomplishing that “goal”…
It won’t have anything to do with the offense. It’s just because the pitching, particularly the starters, who are horrendous. I think Renfore is a legitimate rookie of the year candidate.
It’s not badmouthing to say that a team that looks and projects to be bad is bad. It’s just the truth. They are projected to be one of the bottom teams in both the NL and MLB overall.
Their position players are projected to be the 4th worst group in mlb. They are a bad team with a very high chance of producing a bad record.
No, I think they are going to try their very best. But these guys aren’t good enough to win in the major leagues.
The starting shortstop is Erick Aybar. The starting centerfielder is a guy who can’t hit anything except singles. The opening day starter is Jhoulys Chacin. This is a collection of terrible players.
Renfroe and his, what, 3% walk rate? I think he’ll run into 20 homers and play good defense, but he’s Adam Duvall, just younger. The Padres window to contend opens in probably 2019 or 2020. Set back a year by the stupid “all-in” strategy from 2015. But I’m excited to see the young guys play, I just don’t think this is a team that can remotely contend for wins with actual major-league teams.
Remember that Jose Torres is already on the 40-man roster while Phil Maton is not.
True, give me an extra lefty in the bullpen anytime. Especially a young, high upside one like Torres in particular. It would also be sweet to make that Alonso for Pomeranz trade look that much better, could turn out to ultimately be Alonso for Espinosa and Torres.
good for Stassi. They guy has worked hard and earned a shot at sticking in the majors.
I guess Howie is effectively the second backup infielder when needed-
still would have preferred to see Quinn up and getting playing time along with Altherr.
Has Altherr recovered fully from last year’s hand of injury? Will the Phils ever again see him return to his 2015 level of performance?
The all in strategy didnt set them back.
The padres were still 2019 2020 away from contending
Wisler Hahn Peterson Eflin dont make the team better.
Turner off sets what wil myers brings to the team in terms of WAR.
Had they kept everyone the padres would still be 2019 2020 away from fielding a competitive team.
Had they kept everyone youd be seeing
Jankowski renfoe and someone in LF as margot wouldnt be with the team.
Schimpf turner solartr and whoever plays maybe grandal and hedges
And hahn eflin ross wisler isnt exactly a great rotation.
Solarte was also a part of a rebuilding trade (for Headley I believe)
Turner is a shortstop. Myers is a first baseman. Huge difference. The Padres haven’t had a legitimate shortstop in, what, ten years now? SOlarte isn’t a prospect. He’s turning 30 this year.
Trading Grandal,one of the best catchers in baseball, for a really expensive guy who couldn’t play at all and was out of shape besides was preposterous.
Jankowski is a fourth outfielder. Zero power. Nice defense and speed.
Grandal is “not” one of the best catchers in baseball.
To be that you have to bat more than 380 times a season.
Hedges with his defense and handling a staff…..and playing 125 games a season will surpass him shortly.
actually yes, he is. fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat�…
And those numbers don’t take framing into account, which grandal is really good at.
Have you looked at the state of catching in baseball? Grandpa is a good defensive catcher, an excellent framer and a good hitter. Most teams are running guys like Kurt Suzuki or worse out at catcher. Grandpa is easily upper third.
Ha ha. Grandal. Autocorrect.
I’m a Dodger fan and laughed my ass off when I saw you call him Grandpa. Goddamnit that was funny
He’s 28 grandpa
Hedges so far is .180 hitter so jury is out
on him
David “Grandpa” Ross now works for the Cubs FO and as an analyst for ESPN.
But he’d be the best catcher on the Padres right now.
Agree janko is peter borgois dude drove in 4 runs at Petco all of last year. Grandal is one of best catchers in game and trending up. Turner for what he makes and upside better than .210 91 K’s on road Myers. Gyorko hit over 30 terrible trade. Preller buried team with 80 mil owed to players Shield, Kemp, and Upton and throw in Weaver wasted 3 mil. Max Fried will also show his face and be another horrendous move by Preller. Preller has been a disaster plain and simple. Trading with teams now will also be issue since he’s a known snake.
Turner is the only one to this point Padre fans will miss and he just does not have a strong enough arm for Prellers taste.Grandals PED issue was not welcome in SD.
Good riddance.
Hedges will be a better defensive catcher than Grandal and much more durable.
We’ll know better after 2018 season as far as offensively.
Having Grandal in SD the last couple years would have been of no use anyway.
Jankowski isn’t there to drive in runs. He’s there to be the run that gets driven in. And no, trading with others teams will most certainly NOT be an issue for Preller. All contenders have needs and if the Padres have a player that can fill a need for a contender and they can’t get better value elsewhere they absolutely will make that trade.
It’s like there might be an alternative other than keep grandal in sd or trade him for garbage matt kemp. But you’re right, I’m sure there are no other mlb teams that would like a catcher like grandal other than LAD.
Jankowski has a 315 career obp.
Don’t complain about Solarte. Ask Yankee fans if they want a do-over on the trade for Headley, and 80percent would say yes.
Solarte is wonderful journeymen
Wonderful career Major League 3rd baseman*
Hahn, Eflin, Ross, Wisler isn’t a great rotation. Add Michael Fulmer to that and at least you have the beginnings of a good one. You know what really isn’t a good rotation?
Chacin, Cahill, Weaver, Perdomo and Richard. Only one of those guys is even likely to be on the team in two years.
I understand rebuilding from the ground up. I even sort of understand Preller looking at the farm system and being disappointed in the prospects he’d inherited. But taking on/signing a bunch of bad contracts seems like the exact wrong thing to have done.
When Epstein took over the Cubs he basically told the fans: this is a five-year plan. And they were awful his first couple seasons. The Padres in 2015 were supposed to contend and won something like 74 games. That’s a plan gone awry.
Michael Martinez has to be the worst position player in MLB. He’d ride the pines for me in AAA.
Having seen him emerge in the Grapefruit League back in 2011, he deserves the nickname Mister March. He teases you in exhibitions with skills that never quite emerge once the games count.
Great for Nava. As a Sox fan I still remember they paid a dollar for his contract and his first MLB at bay is on YouTube. A first pitch grand slam. how much better can it get? He was nothing but class. one who worked his butt off to get where he is. Good luck DN.
I second this
Completely missed the point by a long shot.
Had preller not traded anyone in 2015
Wed be looking at a line up of jankowski, renfoe, whoever is playing LF till dickerson comes back
Some combination of jace Peterson solarte schimpf spangenberg and whoever we get to play 1st maybe grandal with turner at ss and hedges at catcher
And a pitching staff relying on hahn wisler ross and eflin.
Thats not a much better team than they have now still a 90 loss team.
And they wouldnt be competing in 2017 or 2018 with that team.
2019 was still going to happen trades or not.
Sure. But why spend hundreds of millions of dollars in 2015? They’re still paying most of shields’ salary, they’re paying all of Melvin uptons salary, they’re giving hector olivera 30 million bucks for some reason. What was the point of that? A small market team is paying more in 2017 to players no longer on the team than to players on the team. That’s bad management.
The reason is simple. Get people in SD interested in baseball again with the all star game coming the following year… it worked too they sold way more Season tickets in 2015.
Yep, and those gains really sustained in 2016 and 2017, right? And that 2015 team finished worse than the 2014 team.
Agree
And the minor league system would not be “loaded” at the lower levels as it is now.
Most of that is international FA signings though. Padres didn’t trade for a lot of great talent in 2015; rather, they traded marginally talented minor leaguers for expensive major leaguers. They turned Kimbrel into talent but ended up eating it with Kemp, Norris, Upton, Shields, the other Upton, etc. plus preller didn’t pull the trigger on the Fulmer deal and he would look like a nice rotation piece right about now.
Yeah it would. None of the good lower minors prospects came from Prellerpalooza or from any of the players acquired during it except Logan Allen and that’s just one.
Loaded can we see how and when players develop?
You missed the point. No Prellerpalooza and the Padres would have either upgraded or stayed the same at every position except CF and 1st base, would at least be looking good at CF and OK at 1st, would have a lot more depth in the rotation and wouldn’t owe a bunch of money to guys who aren’t currently members of the Padres organization.
Would be competitive like Braves who are rebuilding correctly. Dickey, Colon, Garcia at top on short term contracts and not be laughable like Padres 2017
Preller’s biggest blunders were trading for Matt Kemp, trading away Trea Turner, signing James Shields to what was at the time the biggest contract in franchise history only to pay half his contract to get rid of him a little over a year later and (this is one he doesn’t get nearly enough heat for) failing to trade his pending free agents at the 2015 trade deadline. He had the chance to undo some of the damage caused by the Justin Upton trade when the Mets offered him Michael Fulmer for Upton’s last two months of control and he turned them down. And then he could have traded Shawn Kelley for SOMETHING instead of just letting him walk at the end of the season. Sure, the decision to hold onto Ian Kennedy looks like a smart one now, but it doesn’t make up for holding onto Upton and Kelley.
Yandy! Yandy! Yandy!
Michael Martinez: always remembered for making the final out in last year’s World Series. Random fact.
He will always be my favorite Indians player haha
To be fair, Martinez was a victim of some bad management which allowed him to be up in that crucial situation. Remember, he only entered the game as a defensive replacement for Coco Crisp in the previous inning. Martinez isn’t any kind of hitter but he has a strong outfield arm, but he was also the last player on the bench for Francona, because it was apparently vital for the Indians to carry eight relievers, two of which barely pitched in the WS (Manship and McAllister combined for 3 innings in 7 games).
So in that crucial at-bat, with the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate, Francona had to send up his worst hitter. Hell, Crisp might have been better but he’d been lifted in the top of the tenth for Martinez. Martinez performed exactly as could be expected in that situation. Carrying just four bench players in the World series was just bad roster management, especially when you waste one early (Naquin) as a pinch-runner.
Send up his worst hitter? Worst ‘hitter’ in all of baseball. Had no business even being on the roster in the playoffs. And even though Crisp has no arm I’d have preferred him staying in the game instead of replacing him with this stiff.
Exactly. As bad as Crisp is defensively, he still has a modicum of hitting skills. Even against a lefty I’d rather have seen Crisp up than MM
Look, if you’re going to hate on Martinez, I’m fine with that (as a phillies fan who constantly advocated addition by subtraction with the guy, I’m all over that). But calling him crappy bc of one at bat as hardly fair – even if it was the last ab of the ws.