We’ll track today’s minor moves from around the league here…
- The Cardinals announced yesterday that right-hander Derian Gonzalez has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis. The 23-year-old pitched to a 3.51 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 4.1 BB.9 across three levels (Rookie, Double-A, Triple-A) in 33 1/3 innings during an injury-shortened 2018 season. That marked the first action in either Double-A or Triple-A for Gonzalez.
- Left-hander Hoby Milner cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A by the Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). He’ll head to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee in hopes of once again cracking the roster. The 27-year-old Milner (28 in January) owns a 3.03 ERA in 38 2/3 big league innings, but there’s a fair bit of smoke and mirrors at play in that regard. Milner has just 7.0 K/9 against 4.9 BB/9 in the Majors and has stranded an unsustainable 86.2 percent of the runners he’s put on base. Fielding-independent metrics cast a much less favorable picture than his ERA (5.30 FIP, 5.65 xFIP, 5.07 SIERA). To his credit, Milner has held lefties to a laughable .177/.292/.277 slash through 98 plate appearances.
- The Marlins announced that right-hander Ben Meyer and outfielder Braxton Lee have both cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A New Orleans and Double-A Jacksonville, repsectively. The 25-year-old Meyer made his MLB debut in 2018 but was hammered for 22 runs in 19 innings. The 2017 season was much better for the righty, as he worked to a 2.02 ERA with 10.8 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 in 111 1/3 innings — albeit against much younger competition between Class-A and Class-A Advanced. Lee, meanwhile won a Double-A batting title in 2017 but hit just .233/.316/.294 across three minor league levels in 2018 in addition to a weak showing in a brief MLB debut of his own (18 plate appearances). Lee received plus grades for his speed and above-average marks for his outfield defense in the past but has never shown any power.
- The Marlins have signed outfielder Harold Ramirez to a minor league contract, per John Dreker of PiratesProspects.com (Twitter link). The 24-year-old Ramirez spent a third consecutive season at the Double-A level in 2018 and put together a strong campaign, hitting .320/.365/.471 with 11 homers, 37 doubles and 16 steals in 505 trips to the plate. Ramirez was once considered to be on the fringes of the game’s top 100 prospects, but his stock has dipped in recent seasons — particularly in 2017 (.678 OPS in his second full season of Double-A ball).
- Australian righty Todd Van Steensel tweeted last night that he’s signed a minor league pact with the Padres. The 27-year-old has spent the past six seasons in the Twins organization, where he’s topped out at the Double-A level. Van Steensel has a career 2.11 ERA with 9.4 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9 in 110 2/3 innings at that level, with all but two of his 66 Double-A appearances coming out of the bullpen.
Not a bad depth pick up by SD. Sounds like he could be Radke part deux (though righty)
The next thing I want to hear from padres is: Will Myers is gone. He has no position. He is dumb…see Andy green rant broadcast on www. He should go to AL…be a DH. Get that contract off the books! Another Jackass (AJ) has made some horrible signings….Shields/Myers. I will give the Hosmer signing more time…I don’t get negative comments about his glove…
Clearly padres believe good pitching stops good hitting…we have lots of young pitchers coming…but it’s not fun to have 3-2 game every night.
Hosmer was a horrible signing for the moment he signed. It was bad because of the market it was signed in. Some of the worst contracts in the game were 1st base. Let’s not forget the plethora of options that were available. Not to mention now the Padres are trying to trade Myers because they gave his position to Hosmer. Hosmer signing that deal was one of the best jobs Boras ever pulled off.
Yes, Boras did a great job for his client. It seems like the Padres were bidding against themselves for Hosmer. Good for Hosmer. I hated the signing from day one – his awful season was just icing on the cake. I knew he was a Wally Joyner-type – a low-power first baseman with reasonable contact skills, but I didn’t quite realize how bad he was with the bat. Hosmer hits everything on the ground. I know the Padres and Hosmer realize this, as there was some talk mid-season about working with him to improve his launch angle but habits for pro athletes are pretty hard to change. I was distressed by his defense more. He is clueless on pop-ups, which is a fairly large problem for a first baseman who has to cover foul territory, but his range is just bad. His one skill – scooping throws in the dirt – basically provided almost all of his value (offense and defense combined) and for a player with his contract that is troublesome.
Yeah Hosmer is just BABIP dependent garbage. I want a terrible defensive 1B who is light on power and heavy on hitting worm burners. Sign me up for 7 years. The fact that he’s got like 4 gold gloves is an amazing testament to the farce that award has become.
If Tatis turns into the player we expect than the Shields trade turns out to be a great one.
Maybe we get the “next Tatis” for Myers?
If Tatis goes to his daddy’s trainer, Angel Presinal, and his daddy’s doctor, Anthony Galea, he’ll live up to some good potential. However, he may need to take some measures to get passed MLB testing.
Nice move by the Marlins. A former top prospect coming off a strong season. I’m also surprised Nobody claimed Milner. Lefties with past success usually have a million lives and always land on rosters.
Blue Jays may regret losing Ramirez, he’s dropped a bit from his initial projections, but he’s young and is solid depth to hide in AAA/AA for any team.
Also surprised that the Jays didn’t hold onto Ramirez. After that strong bounce back season I thought he’d be someone we’d be seeing in the majors at some point this year if things continued to go well.
That picture on the headline is kinda wack.
Blue Jays should have placed him on the 40-man and should have allowed him to compete for the 5th OF spot. But they didn’t. Maybe they will regret it, maybe not. He earned the right with his play to deserve better from the organization.
OK, Ramirez falls in line with the type of moves that the Marlins should be making. Load up on young guys that haven’t worked elsewhere. You’re bound to find some serviceable pieces through the pile of them.
I’m loving the Marlins efforts. We need to move Realmuto and Castro to get the additional pieces for our rebuild! Make it happen yesterday, but only for the right pieces.
Too bad we can’t find suckers for Chen and Prado.
I hope Ramirez gets a shot in SP or starts the season in AAA. Very nice under the radar pick up. Marlins need guys with some pop that can hit for average as well. His numbers in the minors seem pretty dam solid.
I am worried they are scaring teams off with the crazy asking price for JT. They need to maximize his return. The longer they hold on, the less value they will get.
At least Prado will be a FA at the end of the season! Chen on the other hand…. ooof, thanks Loria! -.-
RIP Gonzalez