Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for December 2017

Cubs To Meet With Yu Darvish

By | at

MONDAY: While the Cubs are evidently still looking at a number of rotation options, the interest in Darvish appears to be serious. Top Chicago execs Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are meeting with Darvish and his reps in Texas, according to Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com (Twitter link) and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter).

An in-person chat hardly suggests a deal is inevitable or even likely. But it’s a definite step beyond internal discussions or swapping texts with an agent. At the same time, to this point all indications have been that the Cubs are looking for the right price among a field of possibilities, with trade options and other free agents also in play.

SATURDAY: The Cubs have been very active on the pitching market this winter, and now they’re looking at the top free agent arm available. The club has interest in right-hander Yu Darvish, Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago reports. He’d be the fifth pitcher the Cubs have signed this offseason, joining two starters (Tyler Chatwood and Drew Smyly) and a pair of relievers (Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek).

As MLBTR’s No. 1-ranked free agent (notably, Tim Dierkes & Co. forecast Darvish to the Cubs entering the offseason), the 31-year-old would require a far bigger commitment than anyone else Chicago has added in recent weeks. For a lofty price, Darvish would provide the back-to-back National League Central champions with a replacement for fellow free agent Jake Arrieta at the front of their rotation, filling out a starting quintet that would also include Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana, Jon Lester and Chatwood. It’s worth noting that Smyly might not pitch at all in 2018, having undergone Tommy John surgery last year, while Mike Montgomery would likely slot in as a reliever (to his chagrin, it seems).

Darvish, who debuted with the Rangers in 2012 and underwent a Tommy John procedure two years later, has pitched to a 3.42 ERA/3.30 FIP combination and logged 11.04 K/9 against 3.32 BB/9 across 832 1/3 major league innings. He ended last year with the Dodgers, who acquired him at the trade deadline, and mostly performed well. Darvish even earned one of the Dodgers’ four wins over the Cubs in a five-game National League Championship Series, tossing 6 1/3 frames of one-run, six-hit ball and notching seven strikeouts against one walk in Game 3. While Darvish struggled mightily in two World Series losses to Houston, including in Game 7, it’s up in the air whether that will tamp down his earning power to any noticeable extent (if at all).

Because Darvish was part of a midseason trade, he was ineligible to receive a qualifying offer after the conclusion of the campaign. Consequently, the team that signs him won’t have to surrender draft-pick compensation in the process. That’s not the case with fellow free agent righty Alex Cobb, who rejected a QO from the Rays and whom the Cubs were aggressively courting last weekend. But it seems the Cubs cooled on Cobb during this week’s Winter Meetings, where they found his asking price “prohibitive,” Levine reports.

Red Sox Re-Sign Mitch Moreland

By | at

The Red Sox announced today that they’ve re-signed first baseman Mitch Moreland to a two-year deal that runs through the 2019 season. Moreland, a client of BASH Baseball, will receive a guaranteed $13MM, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston tweets that Moreland will earn $6.5MM in each of the next two seasons. He can earn another $1MM worth of incentives, per Crasnick.

Mitch Moreland | Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a surprising move for a Red Sox team that has been linked to Eric Hosmer and J.D. Martinez thus far on the free-agent market. The return of Moreland now makes a Hosmer signing decidedly unlikely, while a match with Martinez would now require an additional move elsewhere in the starting lineup (though that has long seemed likely to be the case). With Moreland back in the fold, he and his excellent defensive reputation figure to be at first base on a regular basis. The Sox will likely turn to Hanley Ramirez as their primary designated hitter once again in 2018.

While Moreland isn’t the big bat for which many Sox fans were pining, he’s coming off a decent season at the plate and another strong year with the glove. In 576 trips to the dish, Moreland slashed .246/.326/.443 with 22 homers and 34 doubles. He also turned in a stellar +10 mark in Defensive Runs Saved and drew a +4 rating from Ultimate Zone Rating for his efforts in 1170 innings at first base this past season. As always, Moreland was heavily shielded from lefties, though he held his own against them in 2017, hitting .247 with a .341 OBP against them in a small sample of 73 plate appearances.

Fitting Martinez or another slugger into the equation in Boston would now likely mean either trading an outfielder or cutting bait on the final season of Ramirez’s four-year, $88MM contract. Ramirez’s initial experiment as a left fielder in Boston was a flop, and the team quickly shifted him from the outfield to first base and DH, where he’s spent the past couple of seasons. Shoulder troubles limited Ramirez almost exclusively to DH duties in 2017, when he hit .242/.320/.429 in 553 plate appearances. The Sox have suggested that he’s healthy enough to play first base again in 2017, though his diminished offensive output suggests that there’s clearly room for an upgrade if the Sox are willing to eat the $22MM he’s owed this year.

If the Sox do ultimately stick with Ramirez, then the encouraging reports on his health likely mean that he could play first base on days when the Sox face a left-handed starter, shielding Moreland from those matchups once again. That’d create room for a right-handed bench bat to slot in at DH those days. Currently, Bryce Brentz would probably be in line to fill that role, though presumably that’s another area Boston will look to upgrade, whether with a dramatic splash (e.g. Martinez) or a more complementary approach (as they took two years ago when signing Chris Young).

From a payroll perspective, Moreland will push the Sox north of the $207MM mark (including arbitration projections and pre-arb players). The Sox, clearly, are in line to pay the luxury tax, though president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski has previously stated that he didn’t consider staying under the threshold to be a priority this winter. How much they’re comfortable blowing past that $197MM barrier remains to be seen, though Boston doesn’t figure to simply bring back the same club it trotted out in 2017, so it stands to reason that they’ll continue to push past that point between now and Opening Day.

As for Hosmer, the move eliminates one of his primary landing spots, leaving the Padres now as the primary team that’s been connected to him this winter. Kansas City reportedly still hopes to retain Hosmer even as it embarks on a rebuild, so it would seem that there are at least two clubs yet vying for his services.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Release Adrian Gonzalez

By | at

The Braves have formally released Adrian Gonzalez, tweets Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Gonzalez was acquired over the weekend in a stunning five-player salary dump and immediately designated for assignment. As David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, being designated and immediately released into the free-agent pool was actually a prerequisite for Gonzalez to waive his no-trade protection in the first place, as doing so gives him more say over where he’ll spend the 2018 campaign.

Gonzalez, 36 in May, was limited to just 71 games this season because of a significant back issue that has also clearly sapped his productivity at the plate. In the 252 plate appearances for which the five-time All-Star and former MVP candidate was healthy, he batted just .242/.287/.355 with three homers and 17 doubles. That, of course, is a far cry from the production Dodgers fans had come to expect after he hit .282/.344/.465 with 95 homers in 2577 plate appearances from 2013-16. Gonzalez ended his Dodgers tenure with a bang, though, belting a home run in his final plate appearance of the season (and, presumably, of his Dodgers career).

The release of Gonzalez underscores that Saturday’s blockbuster was a financial move for the Dodgers and Braves more so than a move that was motivated by interest in the players that changed hands. Gonzalez is still owed a total of $21.5MM for the 2018 season in the final year of a seven-year, $154MM contract and will be available to any team that has interest in him for the pro-rated portion of the league minimum (for any time spent in the Majors). That sum will be subtracted from the $21.5MM for which Atlanta is on the hook, but the remainder of the deal, nearly $20MM, will come out of Atlanta’s pockets regardless.

Of course, the Braves are fine with that outcome. The trade allowed Atlanta to dump Matt Kemp’s contract onto the Dodgers, freeing Atlanta of a multi-year albatross and paving a path for ballyhooed prospect Ronald Acuna to join the big league club once he’s deemed ready. Meanwhile, the Dodgers were able to dump a significant amount of 2018 payroll in exchange for spreading out that salary over the life of two seasons — and in doing so dramatically reducing their luxury tax payroll (which is calculated by average annual value).

AL Notes: Darvish, Mariners, Schoop, Kinsler

By | at

The Twins “seem determined” to sign one of the top starters on the free-agent market and are showing increased optimism about their chances of landing right-hander Yu Darvish, reports La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Minnesota thinks that Darvish’s relationship with GM Thad Levine and their emerging young core of position players will work in their favor in trying to lure Darvish to Minneapolis. That said, it doesn’t sound as if anything is close on the Darvish front, either. One Twins exec opined to Neal that Darvish could yet take another month to make his decision. Wherever he signs, Darvish’s contract will all but certainly represent a would-be record commitment for the Twins in free agency; the Twins have never signed a free agent for more than Ervin Santana’s four-year, $55MM contract, though Darvish seems unlikely to top the Twins’ franchise record for a contract (Joe Mauer’s $184MM extension coming off his MVP 2009 campaign).

More out of the American League…

  • Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto chatted with Larry Stone of the Seattle Times about his aggressive and active approach on the trade front, refuting the notion that he’s torn down the team’s farm system (a minor league system that was poor when he inherited it in the first place). “We have not emptied the farm system to go acquire veteran players to make a run at a postseason,” says Dipoto. “…[W]e have effectively moved players around the league to acquire players that are in their prime who are under team control, almost all of whom are in their 20s.” Indeed, Stone points out that the Mariners have quietly become the second-youngest team in their division, with only a few notable stars (Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano) much beyond the age of 30. “There are more ways to rebuild than ripping it down to the studs,” Dipoto says of his efforts to build a younger roster. I’d highly recommend a full read-through of Stone’s column, which is packed with quotes from Dipoto that provide insight into the Mariners’ process and his decision-making.
  • The Orioles have made surprisingly minimal efforts to extend second baseman Jonathan Schoop, writes Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. If the O’s don’t approach Schoop about a long-term deal prior to the start of the 2018 season, they’ll be in a similar spot with him to the one they face with regard to Manny Machado right now, Encina observes. MLBTR projects Schoop to top $9MM in salary this coming season, so if he enters this year without an extension, there’ll be little cause for him to seriously entertain a long-term deal next winter when he’s just one year removed from hitting free agency in advance of his age-28 season with more than $15MM already in his back pocket. Encina, though, points out that the O’s haven’t brokered an extension with any of their young potential core pieces since Adam Jones in 2012, instead shelling out massive commitments to re-sign Chris Davis and (to a lesser extent) Darren O’Day and Mark Trumbo in free agency. Of course, it’s also worth noting that they likely dodged some bullets by eschewing such contracts for players like Chris Tillman and Matt Wieters.
  • The Tigers preferred the package of prospects that the Mets were willing to offer for Ian Kinsler to the package they received from the Angels, writes Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press. However, Kinsler would only waive his no-trade clause to approve a trade to the Angels, forcing GM Al Avila’s hand. Though Avila could’ve waited, Fenech opines that the GM made the right call to act when there was a trade scenario on the table rather than to wait for something unforeseen to arise. Meanwhile, Kinsler tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that Justin Upton has been recruiting him since being traded to the Angels in August, and the Halos’ success in the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes caught his attention as well: “Making moves this winter to push for the next level … That motivates a player like me.”

Latest On Giants’ Interest In Evan Longoria

By | at

Over the weekend, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported that the Giants had some level of interest in Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, and following up on that report, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Giants have “keen interest” in swinging a deal for the Tampa Bay cornerstone. However, in order for any deal to work, Nightengale notes that the Giants would need the Rays to take the contract of either Hunter Pence or Denard Span back from the Giants in addition to whatever prospects San Francisco would send.

Taking on either of those contracts would be a fairly tall order for the cost-conscious Rays. Pence is entering the final season of a five-year, $90MM contract and is owed $18.5MM in 2018 — more than the $13.5MM that Longoria is set to take home this coming season. Obviously, taking on Pence’s deal would still provide the Rays with long-term cost savings — Longoria is owed $86MM over the next five years — but the short-term complications in that scenario are readily apparent.

Taking on Span’s deal would be closer to a cash-neutral proposition. He’s owed a $9MM salary plus a $4MM buyout in the coming year, though he will also reportedly be paid a deferred $3MM from his signing bonus come Jan. 20, 2018 as well, so even that scenario could require the Rays to take on some additional 2018 dollars.

Of course, if the Rays are to take on any salary in return, even a portion of one of those two deals, that’d give GM Erik Neander, senior VP Chaim Bloom and the rest of the front office greater cause to increase their ask in terms of prospects from a Giants system that is thin on upper-tier talent. At his current price tag of five years and $86MM, the 32-year-old Longoria isn’t exactly teeming with surplus value, though he remains a quality regular option at the hot corner.

Longoria hit .261/.313/.424 with 20 homers last season — the weakest offensive output of his career — but delivered excellent defensive marks at third base, leading to a season that was worth roughly three wins above replacement. The ever-durable Longoria has only missed 12 games since the start of the 2013 season and hasn’t been on the DL since 2012, though the downturn in his offensive profile in 2017 could create some cause for trepidation. Longoria’s ground-ball rate skyrocketed to 43.4 percent as his line-drive, fly-ball and hard-contact rates all fell. His infield-fly rate, meanwhile, trended upward for a fourth straight season.

Whether Longoria’s 2017 downturn was an aberration or the beginning of a decline remains to be seen but may also be a moot point in this instance. The Rays likely don’t relish the idea of taking on a negative-value asset in order to trade a player that has been the face of their franchise for nearly a decade, but the Giants can’t take on the $16.7MM luxury tax hit would accompany Longoria’s contract without pushing perilously close to the $197MM tax barrier.

San Francisco wants to avoid paying that tax for a fourth straight season and would love to reset its tax penalty — they’re currently set to pay a 50 percent tax on every dollar over that point this offseason and in subsequent years — making the Longoria scenario seem to be something of a reach.

If the Rays plan to trade Longoria at all, however, this would be the offseason to do it. He’ll gain 10-and-5 rights early in the 2018 season, which would provide him full veto power over any proposed trade.

J.T. Realmuto Reportedly Requests Trade

By | at

11:15am: Per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter link), the Marlins say they understand the reasoning behind Realmuto’s desire to be traded (the same goes for Christian Yelich), given the scope of the team’s recent rebuilding efforts. However, the Marlins still do not have any intention to trade Realmuto at present, Nightengale adds.

10:51am: Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that Realmuto does indeed want to be traded out of Miami.

10:46am: The Marlins haven’t been shy about blowing up the active roster, having traded away Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna. Those trades, obviously, aren’t likely to sit well with the remaining talent on the roster, and it seems that catcher J.T. Realmuto can be counted among that camp. Craig Mish of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM tweets that Realmuto has requested a trade out of Miami; FanRag’s Jon Heyman, meanwhile, more softly suggests that Realmuto has simply told the team that he “wouldn’t mind” a trade of his own, given what has transpired in recent weeks (Twitter link).

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that one of the remaining top-tier young talents in Miami would, to whatever degree, express to the front office and ownership that he’s amenable to a trade (or, more strongly, that he would definitively like to be traded). The Marlins’ moves to shed payroll and the unlikeliness that the saved resources will be invested into the 2018 product leave little chance that the team will be competitive next year.

Realmuto, 26, might not be a household name but has quietly emerged as one of the better all-around catchers in the game over the past couple of seasons. In 1124 plate appearances dating back to Opening Day 2016, Realmuto has slashed .290/.337/.440 with 28 homers, 62 doubles, five triples and 20 stolen bases.

He’s also thrown out 33.7 percent of would-be base thieves — well above the league average of 27 percent — and in 2017 ranked as an above-average pitch framer (after a pair of negative seasons in that regard). Realmuto also ranked among the game’s best in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt, and Baseball Prospectus’ overall Fielding Runs Above Average metric pegged him as MLB’s sixth-best defensive catcher in 2017.

Realumuto’s value, though, goes well beyond the fact that he’s established himself as an above-average contributor on both sides of the ball. He’s also highly desirable from a contractual standpoint, as he’s entering his first offseason of arbitration eligibility and remains under team control through the 2020 season. Realmuto will turn 27 in March, so any team acquiring him would be acquiring three affordable years of his physical prime; he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn an eminently affordable $4.2MM in 2018.

Heyman notes that the team’s response to Realmuto’s suggestion/request isn’t yet known. It’s worth noting that the Marlins are under no obligation to trade him even if he wants out. However, ticket sales in Miami already figure to be in the tank after their aggressive moves to pare back the payroll, and from a pure baseball standpoint, there’s an easy argument to be made that they should deal him now to continue adding young talent to what entered the offseason as perhaps baseball’s worst farm system. Three years of Realmuto should come with quite a bit of value even if there aren’t too many contending clubs in dire need of an everyday catcher. Speculatively, though, the Nationals, D-backs and Rockies are among the expected contenders that could use an upgrade behind the dish.

Manny Machado Rumors: Monday

By | at

Just days after the Giancarlo Stanton trade saga came to an end, the Orioles reportedly made Manny Machado available and began asking teams around the league for offers on the 25-year-old superstar. Here’s the latest chatter on Machado as the Orioles field interest in the best player in recent franchise history…

  • Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic takes a lengthy look at the market for Machado (subscription required and strongly recommended), reporting that trade offers from interested parties improved over the weekend and that a deal could happen this week. Specific details on each club’s offers, of course, aren’t fully known, though Rosenthal reports that the D-backs included young infielder Brandon Drury as part of their package. Rosenthal provides an overview of how seven Machado suitors could make a deal work, though he notes that there’s still a general doubt among his sources that Orioles owner Peter Angelos would green-light a deal sending Machado to the Yankees.
  • Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com paints a bit of a different picture regarding Angelos, writing that it’s possible Angelos could be swayed into approving a deal sending Machado the Bronx. Angelos, Connolly writes, solicits opinions from a wide array of trusted confidants and advisors — so many so that there are often conflicting opinions. A lack of consensus among that inner circle may have been what ultimately quashed this past July’s would-be Zach Britton trade to the Astros, per Connolly. However, Connolly hears that there’s a general sense within the organization that a deal will get done, and an organizational consensus could dissuade Angelos from interfering with any agreement, regardless of the trade partner in question. Within that same piece, Connolly also explores how the Machado situation could be slowing Baltimore’s other offseason endeavors.
  • The Cardinals have been oft-linked to Machado, though president of baseball operations John Mozeliak implied in an appearance on KMOX Sports radio in St. Louis this morning that he’d have a hard time making a deal for Machado (Twitter link via KMOX’s Tom Ackerman). Said Mozeliak: “If you’re trading away two to three prospects that have a combined 18 years of control… for one [year]? That doesn’t sit well with me.” That, of course, doesn’t preclude a deal from coming together — Mozeliak did trade four pieces for two years of Marcell Ozuna — but it does seem to suggest that the Cards would have a hard time deciding to outbid the field to secure the rights to Machado’s 2018 season.

Phillies Asked About Marcus Stroman, Danny Duffy

By | at

The Phillies have been aggressively shopping for controllable pitching this winter, as the team has “inquired on just about every young starter that could be traded this winter,” Matt Gelb and Matt Breen of Philly.com report.  This list of targets include their previously-reported interest in Chris Archer, and the Phillies also checked in with the Blue Jays about Marcus Stroman and the Royals about Danny Duffy.

It’s clear that Philadelphia is looking to take its rebuild to the next level, after signing Carlos Santana and even adding veteran relievers Tommy Hunter and Pat Neshek on multi-year contracts.  The rotation remains a major need for the club — Aaron Nola is the only member of a young projected starting five that looks like a solid bet for 2018.  It has been expected that the Phillies would try to land at least one veteran innings-eater this winter, though they’re apparently also setting their sights higher for a pitcher that could contribute when the team returns to contention.

Of the two new names mentioned in the Phillies’ search, Stroman is by far the less likely to be available.  The Jays are planning to contend in 2018, and moving Stroman would be an even bigger indicator of a total rebuild than even a trade of Josh Donaldson, given that Donaldson is only under contract for one more season.  Stroman, by contrast, still has three years of arbitration eligibility remaining.  MLBTR projects him to earn $7.2MM this winter through the arb process, and while Stroman’s price tag will continue to grow through his arbitration years, Toronto will happily shoulder that cost if Stroman keeps producing as he did in 2017.  Stroman posted a 3.09 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 2.65 K/BB rate and a league-best 62.1% grounder rate over 201 innings, cracking the 200-inning threshold for the second consecutive season.

Duffy, on the other hand, has already drawn a lot of trade attention this winter, with the Cubs, Yankees, and Orioles reportedly among the teams interested.  The Royals seem to be on the verge of a rebuild given all of their expected free agent losses, though they aren’t yet “aggressively shopping” Duffy’s services.  It was just 11 months ago that K.C. locked Duffy up on a five-year, $65MM extension with the hope that he would be one of the cornerstone pieces of the next era of Royals baseball, though it remains to be seen just how extensive a rebuild the Royals may have in mind.  If the team hopes to reload over a year or two, Duffy will still be an asset for when Kansas City aims to once again open a contention window.

If a longer rebuild is necessary, the $60MM remaining on Duffy’s contract makes him a logical trade chip.  The Phillies certainly have the open payroll space to accommodate his salary; Santana, Neshek, Hunter, and Odubel Herrera are the only players beyond the 2018 season.  Philadelphia has widely been expected to target the top stars of next year’s free agent class, though the team has gotten a jump-start on that plan now by landing Santana.  Given the Phillies’ payroll flexibility, they could try to land their desired pitching help by offering to take another big and/or undesirable contract off the the other team’s hands with little prospect capital going back in return.  (In the Royals’ case, for instance, the Phillies could offer to take on Ian Kennedy’s deal in order to land Duffy.)

Mets Rumors: Bruce, Kipnis, Tribe

By | at

The latest from Citi Field…

  • The Mets have been linked to a possible reunion with Jay Bruce all offseason, and a Mets source tells Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News that the free agent is looking for a four-year contract.  This represents a shift in Bruce’s asking price, as he and his representatives began the offseason in search of a five-year pact worth $80-$90MM and reportedly were still sticking to that demand at the start of December.  Of course, starting with a high number is a common tactic in any negotiation, so it isn’t surprising that Bruce has limited his demand, particularly since the free agent market as a whole has yet to truly kick into gear.  Even four years may be too long for the Mets’ liking — while Bruce would be a valuable contributor at first base or in a corner outfield spot, New York has Michael Conforto (once he recovers from shoulder surgery) and rookie Dominic Smith slated for those spots over the long term.  The Rockies, Blue Jays, and Mariners have also been linked to Bruce at various points over the winter, though Seattle’s acquisitions of Ryon Healy and Dee Gordon may have lessened their desire for Bruce’s services.
  • A source “expressed skepticism” to Newsday’s Marc Carig (Twitter links) that the Mets and Indians would be able to work out a deal involving second baseman Jason Kipnis.  New York has been connected to a wide array of players as it tries to address its hole at the keystone, though with other trade avenues seemingly closing up, it was looking like Kipnis could be the Mets’ top option.  With the Mets also apparently open to taking on salary instead of moving prospects in trades, Kipnis seemed like an even clearer target; one rival executive described Kipnis as one of “the most attainable” second basemen left on the market given that the Tribe seems eager to get his $30.5MM in remaining salary off their books.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/17/17

By | at

Here are the latest minor moves from around the baseball world…

  • The Twins signed infielder Taylor Featherston and outfielder James Ramsey were among those signed to minor league contracts, as per their MLB.com transactions page.  Featherston has a .477 OPS over 244 career PA with the Angels, Phillies, and Rays, and is best known as a defense-first player, primarily at second base but also seeing significant time at third and shortstop.  Ramsey, chosen 23rd overall by the Cardinals in the 2012 draft, was dealt to Cleveland in a one-for-one trade for Justin Masterson in July 2014 but has since struggled to live up to his early potential.  Ramsey has spent the last three seasons at the Triple-A level for the Indians, Dodgers and Mariners.
  • The Brewers signed left-hander Mike Zagurski to a minors deal, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports (via Twitter).  Zagurski pitched in parts of five big league seasons with the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Pirates, and Yankees, last appearing in the Show during the 2013 campaign.  Zagurski has since spent two seasons in Japan and pitched in the Tigers’ farm system in 2017.
  • The Giants announced their player development staff for the upcoming season, including the hiring of former right-hander Matt Buschmann in one of five Assistant Director Of Player Development positions (Buschmann will focus on run prevention).  Originally a 15th-round pick for the Padres in the 2006 draft, Buschmann spent 11 seasons in pro ball, though he didn’t pitch in 2017 after being released from his minor league deal with the Blue Jays in early April.  Buschmann’s career did include a brief taste of the majors, appearing in three games (4 1/3 IP) for the Diamondbacks in April 2016.  We at MLBTR wish Buschmann the best as he embarks on his post-playing career.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top