Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Pirates have outrighted righty Dario Agrazal to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, MLB.com’s Adam Berry tweets. A control-and-groundball-oriented hurler, the 24-year-old Agrazal has yet to move past the Double-A level. In his 85 2/3 innings at Altoona last year, he pitched to a 3.99 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 along with a 49.6% groundball rate. Agrazal had been designated for assignment recently to open up a 40-man roster spot.
Earlier Transactions
- Per a team announcement, catcher Andrew Susac cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk after being designated for assignment by the Orioles. Set to turn 29 in March, Susac was once one of baseball’s premier catching prospects but has only managed a .221/.283/.373 slash in 300 plate appearances at the MLB level to date. He did hit .256/.405/.456 in a smallish sample of 158 plate appearances in Triple-A last year and has a career .248/.350/.438 line through 927 PAs at that level. He’ll remain on hand in the O’s organization as a depth option.
- The Nationals announced that infielder Matt Reynolds has cleared waivers after being designated for assignment. He was sent outright to Triple-A Fresno. Reynolds made just 14 plate appearances with Washington last season and has spent the bulk of his career with the Mets, for whom he batted .228/.300/.351 in 226 PAs from 2016-17. The 28-year-old Reynolds can handle shortstop, second base and third base, and he’s a career .283/.350/.420 hitter in nearly 1600 Triple-A plate appearances (although most of those came in an extremely hitter-friendly setting with the Mets’ former Las Vegas affiliate in the Pacific Coast League).
- Right-hander Jonathan Aro is headed to the Braves on a minor league contract, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports (via Twitter). The 28-year-old hasn’t cracked a big league roster since 2016 and has only 11 MLB frames under his belt in all. However, Aro does have a career 3.14 ERA with 8.3 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 0.6 HR/9 in 174 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. He’s spent the past two seasons with the Triple-A affiliates for the Mariners (2017) and the Padres (2018).
Hey Steve, looks like the Matt Reynolds link is to the pitcher, not the infielder.
that is correct
Nice depth move for the Braves, could see him ending up on the big league roster some this season
He’s probably nothing more than AAA depth. He’d have to jump a ton of arms to get time on the mound in ATL. Agree, solid move nonetheless.
Feel like they may try a veteran, before they would burn an option on a younger guy early in the season, if he has a good spring training showing.
Sterlids, it’s siddfinch from the mlb site chat board. We have some of the guys on twitter, and want you to join us. Get on twitter, follow me at @cletusmyman. When I see you follow me, I’ll follow you and then I can send you a direct message to tell you how to hook up with us.
I really don’t understand why some guys make it and some don’t. There must be something that various scouts and coaches have seen which makes them think he won’t be that effective in the majors. His minor league stats look great. His first year in the majors in 2015 wasn’t so hot but he only had 6 appearances. Since then he hasn’t been given a chance. The Braves seem to do the same thing as these other teams. A few appearances and if they don’t do well, they go back down. Apparently they figure that if a pitcher can’t get hitters out in one inning then they are no good. Something can be said for this but it does seem hasty.
He could be a decent reliever for the Braves.
Unlike a lot fans, teams aren’t basing their analysis of a certain player on a small sample of appearances. All of any team’s players have been watched closely and their strengths and weakness quantified. For a pitcher, how much movement does he have on his pitches? Are they flat? Do they have tilt? How well does he hide the ball? Is he deceptive? There are a ton of things. Besides velo, they know what his command is, and how good his location is. And teams have the experience to know what works and what gets hit. If a team does not show a lot of confidence in a guy it’s not because of some small sample. It’s because of what they know.
He has also done well in the minors…
low risk move that could pay off during the season. You can never have too many arms in the minors
SoCal, can’t find your other reply. Hit me on Twitter @cletusmyman or try again here.
Susac had alot of potential and then he just petered out. Perhaps playing behind Buster screwed up Susac’s mental game?
Doubtful. Catching is the hardest position in baseball, it takes the most time to learn, and projecting development is the hardest part of managing the farm. Teams have a hard enough time projecting development in corner out-fielders. There’s a ton of guys who were highly regarded, top prospects, that don’t develop. Matt Moore was briefly the #1 prospect. It appears Susac is just one of those guys.
Catching prospects rarely make it, simply because it’s the hardest position on the field defensively and then there’s the hitting aspect. He obviously didn’t have any luck with his organization; being a catching prospect behind the best catcher in the game is a pretty daunting assignment. Evenif Susac had been outstanding in the minors where would the Giants have put him? Susac is probably better than a dozen catchers currently on major league rosters; Thankfully he ended up on one of the teams with an unsettled catching situation.
With such a dearth of catching talent, had Susac been outstanding in the Giant’s minor league system, where to put him would not have been an a problem. A top catching prospect would bring back a decent return in trade.
Giants traded Susac to Milwaukee along with pitcher Phil Bickford for Will Smith on 8/01/16.. Susac was drafted in round #2 in 2011. He made it to AAA in 2014 and has always hit well in the minors – for a catcher. Perhaps he got stale behind Posey or there are defensive issues that have stunted his career. Still surprised that he isn’t picked up the times he he has been DFA.
Bickford, drafted by SF in round #1 in 2015, had an unspectacular year with the Brewers Advanced A team in 2018 and is not listed as a top 30 talent in their system..
If he could hit, that wouldn’t have been a problem. Plenty of catchers play 1st. Hell, Pablo Sandoval started out as a Catcher.
Few catchers hit well enough to play first. Even Joe Mauer, probably the best-hitting catcher of this generation, would have been far less valuable had he played his whole career at first base. If Yadi Molina had been a first baseman he wouldn’t have had a career.
He just can’t recognize pitches well enough.
In AA, mistake pitches happen every at bat. At AAA, mistake pitches happen every other. At MLB, you might get a mistake pitch once a game. In the minors, players can feast off mistakes if they’re patient.
Susac’s career swinging strike rate is way too high (13.7%) for a guy who rarely swings (46.3%) and virtually never swings on pitches outside the zone (22.4%). If he was just really patient, you’d still see really high contact rates when he does swing, but his overall contact rates are terrible (70.4%).
Susac doesn’t have much in the way of plate appearances at the MLB level, but the stats say he’s been badly outmatched when he’s had the opportunities with an inability to hit fastballs, tons of pop ups, lots of weak contact and lots of whiffs on the rare occasion he does swing.
He looked the part at the big league level in a very small sample size in 2014. It did not translate into lasting success, and he had some injury problems (wrist surgery, etc) over the ensuing years, as well.
When are the A’s going to make some minor league signings??