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Diamondbacks Claim Caleb Baragar

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The D-backs have claimed left-hander Caleb Baragar off waivers from the Giants, per a club announcement. Arizona also confirmed its previously reported signing of Oliver Perez to a minor league contract.

Baragar remains in the NL West, as he’d spent his entire career to date with San Francisco. That includes stints in the big leagues in each of the past two seasons, over which time he’s combined for 45 1/3 innings in 49 games. The former ninth-round pick has an impressive 2.78 ERA in that time, but his underlying numbers haven’t supported that kind of run prevention. Baragar’s 18.8% strikeout rate is about five points below that of the league average reliever. He excelled at avoiding walks during his rookie campaign (5.7%), but last year’s 12.2% walk rate was much more problematic.

Walks and home runs proved a major problem for Baragar in Triple-A as well. He handed out free passes at an untenable 17.6% clip with the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento, allowing seven homers in 22 1/3 innings. That led to an 8.46 ERA at the minors’ top level, and San Francisco designated him for assignment last week.

The D-Backs will take a shot on the 27-year-old (28 next month) returning to form. Until last season, Baragar generally had a decent track record in the minors. He still has a pair of option years remaining, so Arizona can keep him with their top affiliate in Reno as needed. He joins Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson and swingman Caleb Smith as lefty relief options on the Arizona 40-man roster.

Twins Claim Jhon Romero, Place Randy Dobnak On 60-Day Injured List

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The Twins announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Jhon Romero off waivers from the Nationals and, in a corresponding move, placed right-hander Randy Dobnak on the 60-day injured list. Dobnak is still dealing with the effects of a strain in the middle finger on his pitching hand that he suffered last summer.

Romero has five big league innings under his belt, all coming with Washington within the final couple weeks of last season. The 27-year-old showed a three-pitch mix, averaging 94.5 MPH on his four-seam with a slider and changeup that both checked in around 85 MPH. While his big league body of work was too limited on which to draw any meaningful conclusions, he did have an excellent season in the high minors.

The Colombia native split the year between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester, spending the bulk of the season at the lower level. He tossed 55 cumulative innings across 38 appearances, posting a 2.62 ERA with an excellent 30.5% strikeout percentage and a minuscule 4.9% walk rate. That earned him a late-season call with a Washington club that had a very thin relief corps by the end of the year. However, he didn’t stick on the Nats 40-man roster all winter, as they designated him for assignment last week upon finalizing their one-year deal with Nelson Cruz.

The Twins will take a low-risk dice roll on Romero on the heels of his strong minor league campaign. He still has all option years remaining, so Minnesota can stash him with Triple-A St. Paul for the foreseeable future so long as they keep him on their 40-man.

Dobnak posted quality numbers through his first two big league seasons, combining for a 3.12 ERA despite a subpar strikeout rate on account of excellent control and ground-ball numbers. Minnesota signed him to a five-year, $9.25MM extension last spring, but his 2021 season was a disaster. He was tagged for a 7.64 ERA in 50 2/3 innings. Dobnak spent most of the second half of the season on the injured list with the aforementioned finger strain, returning for one appearance in September before going back on the shelf.

The hope had been that Dobnak would bounce back this year, but the team shut him down over the weekend due to continued soreness in the area. There’s no clear timetable for his return, but he’ll miss at least the first two months of the season.

Cardinals Claim Packy Naughton

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The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve claimed left-hander Packy Naughton off waivers from the Angels. The Cards had one open spot on the 40-man roster, which is now full.

A ninth-round pick by the Reds back in 2017, Naughton was traded to the Halos in the Aug. 2020 trade that shipped outfielder Brian Goodwin to Cincinnati. Naughton made his big league debut in Anaheim last season and wound up pitching 22 2/3 innings with an unsightly 6.35 ERA and more walks (14) than strikeouts (12).

That said, the 25-year-old has a solid minor league track record, having compiled 431 2/3 innings of 3.77 ERA ball with a 21.2% strikeout rate, a 5.7% walk rate and 42.1% grounder rate. Naughton ranked in the middle tiers of both the Angels and Reds farm systems over the years, per Baseball America, who noted that despite lacking a power arsenal Naughton possessed the durability and feel for pitching to profile as a back-end starter.

Indeed, made 28 starts in both 2018 and in 2019, pitching to solid ERAs (4.03 in Class-A and 3.32 between Class-A Advanced and Double-A) with low walk rates and below-average strikeout numbers. For a Cardinals team that’s largely built around an elite defense, he’s a sensible depth pickup. That depth is all the more crucial right now with ace Jack Flaherty and fellow righty Alex Reyes both expected to begin the season on the injured list. Naughton isn’t any kind of favorite to open the year in the Cardinals’ rotation, but he’s a 25-year-old with a pair of option years remaining, so he gives the Cards some nice flexibility.

Diamondbacks Sign Oliver Perez To Minor League Deal

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The D-backs have signed lefty Oliver Perez to a minor league contract, Perez himself tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter thread). Perez is a client of the Boras Corporation.

The deal with Arizona represents a change of plans for the veteran Perez, who’d previously been slated to play with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League for the upcoming season. Perez announced that he planned to retire after spending the season with the Toros, although that signing and the announcement by Perez came while the MLB lockout was still in place. For now, Perez will shift his focus and instead take aim at an incredible twentieth MLB season.

Perez, 40, has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, where he’s pitched to a combined 2.57 ERA in 94 2/3 frames of relief work. Perez, however, only tossed 3 2/3 innings in the Majors last year. He spent the rest of the season pitching with that same Toros club for which he’d been planning to play while the lockout was still ongoing.

At this point, the veteran Perez’s track record largely speaks for itself. After a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher from 2002-10, Perez moved to the bullpen with the 2012 Mariners and embarked on what has essentially amounted to a second career as a reliever. Working for a long time as the quintessential lefty specialist, Perez has made 489 relief appearances and totaled 350 innings of 3.42 ERA ball since that 2012 campaign began.

The implementation of the three-batter minimum wasn’t a great development for pitchers with specialized skill sets of this nature, but Perez had no trouble getting right-handed opponents out in 2020. It was an admittedly short sample, and his career numbers tell another story, but Perez held righties to a .229/.342/.286 slash in 41 plate appearances that year and was similarly effective in another dozen tries last year.

 

Reds, Brandon Drury Agree To Deal

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Another day, another new sighting in the Reds’ clubhouse. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets that veteran infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury has a locker with the Reds, signaling that the two parties have agreed to terms. Presumably, a deal with the Wasserman client will formally be announced once he passes a physical.

Drury, 29, spent the 2021 season with the Mets organization, appearing in 51 games at the big league level but primarily serving as a bench player. He logged just 88 plate appearances across those 51 contests and posted a strong .274/.307/.476 batting line with four homers and five doubles.

That was far and away Drury’s most productive showing in the past several seasons. The former 13th-round pick looked on his way to solidifying himself as a solid big league hitter with some defensive versatility back in 2016, when he hit .282/.329/.458 with 16 homers and 31 doubles in 499 plate appearances with the D-backs. He followed that with a solid enough .267/.317/.447 output in 2017, but Drury’s bat went dormant from 2018-20, when he mustered only a .205/.254/.346 triple slash through a combined 582 plate appearances.

Drury has played all over the diamond in the big leagues, although his most frequent positions have been second base (1264 innings) and third base (1082 innings). He’s also logged more than 400 innings in both outfield corners in addition to 139 innings at first base and 57 frames at shortstop.

The Reds are largely set at second base and third base, with reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India and veteran Mike Moustakas, respectively. Cincinnati also inked Donovan Solano to a one-year deal last week, and he can fill in at second, third and shortstop as needed. The outfield is a bit less certain following the trade of Jesse Winker, but the Reds still have Jake Fraley, Nick Senzel, Tyler Naquin, Shogo Akiyama and Aristides Aquino on the big league roster. That doesn’t leave a ton of room for Drury to win a roster spot — assuming this is a minor league deal, which seems likely — but injuries or further transactions could always open up playing time.

Padres, Thomas Eshelman Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Padres and righty Thomas Eshelman have agreed to a minor league deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the 27-year-old, who grew up just north of San Diego in Carlsbad. Eshelman, a client of the Ballengee Group, will vie a roster spot in camp and give the Friars some upper-level pitching depth if he doesn’t make the squad.

A second-round pick by the Astros out of Cal State Fullerton back in 2015, Eshelman went from Houston to Philadelphia as part of a trade package for Ken Giles in 2015. The Phillies flipped him to the Orioles in a 2019 deal that sent international bonus allotments back to Philadelphia.

Eshelman made his big league debut with the O’s in 2019, and he’s appeared in each of the past three seasons with Baltimore. While he’s picked up 98 1/3 innings of experience in the Majors, the righty has yet to find much success, pitching to a 5.77 ERA with an 11.3% strikeout rate, a 6.9% walk rate and a 34.1% ground-ball rate. Eshelman does have a more palatable 4.43 ERA in parts of four Triple-A seasons (355 2/3 innings), where he’s logged a 16.7% strikeout rate and a 4.8% walk rate.

The Padres are loaded with rotation options, with Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Mike Clevinger, Blake Snell, Nick Martinez, Chris Paddack, Ryan Weathers, Reiss Knehr, Pedro Avila, MacKenzie Gore and Adrian Martinez all on the 40-man roster. Given that depth, it’ll likely be tough for Eshelman to work his way onto the roster in the limited time remaining in camp, but he can still give San Diego some extra depth in Triple-A El Paso.

Mariners Sign Billy Hamilton To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners have agreed to a minor league deal with center fielder Billy Hamilton, tweets Corey Brock of The Athletic. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweeted earlier that Hamilton was in the Mariners’ clubhouse. The Wasserman client will surely be in big league camp and compete for a roster spot over the next few weeks.

Hamilton, 31, is one of the game’s fastest players and best defensive players but has never managed to provide much in the way of value at the plate. He did swipe at least 56 bases in four straight seasons with the Reds early in his career, even in spite of a dismal .297 OBP in that time, but his lack of production makes it difficult to plug him into an everyday lineup.

Hamilton spent the 2021 season with the White Sox, logging 135 plate appearances over the life of 71 games. Primarily used as a late-game sub, Hamilton walked in a career-low three percent of his plate appearances while striking out at a career-high 34.8% clip. He hit .220/.240/.378 overall in Chicago and is a career .240/.293/.397 hitter in 3260 plate appearances.

Lack of offense notwithstanding, there’s still a chance Hamilton could wind up making the Mariners’ roster. The starting trio of Jesse Winker (left field), Jarred Kelenic (center) and Mitch Haniger (right) isn’t exactly a standout defensive group, and while Taylor Trammell would give them a strong glove off the bench, the Mariners could want the former top prospect getting regular reps in Triple-A in hopes that he can rebound from a disappointing 2021 campaign.

President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told reporters at the time of the Winker acquisition that former AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis isn’t likely to be ready to begin the season as he continues to rehab a knee injury, which only creates further opportunity for a player like Hamilton. Seattle, of course, has one of the game’s top all-around prospects in outfielder Julio Rodriguez, but he’s yet to even take a plate appearance at the Triple-A level and only has 206 (dominant) plate appearances of Double-A ball under his belt. High as the ceiling with Rodriguez is, it seems likely that he’ll begin the year in Triple-A Tacoma.

The NHL Trade Deadline Is Today

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What’s already been a hectic week of trades and transactions is set to culminate today, as the NHL’s 2022 Trade Deadline is at 2:00 p.m. CT. Make sure to follow our coverage on Pro Hockey Rumors (@prohockeyrumors on Twitter!) to see what happens as teams have their last chance to move talent in and out before the end of the regular season.

We’ve already seen some gigantic waves this week, such as the Florida Panthers acquiring longtime Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux for an unexpectedly low price, and the Boston Bruins shoring up their defense by trading for and extending former Anaheim Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm.

There’s still the potential for blockbusters today, though. All eyes are on the Arizona Coyotes and defenseman Jakob Chychrun, as the 23-year-old defenseman is now the best man on the market, but it’s not a given that he gets moved out. The Anaheim Ducks may not be done yet after dealing away a good portion of their defense, as two-time 30-goal scorer Rickard Rakell is also on the market.

Make sure to continue to follow Pro Hockey Rumors throughout Deadline Day as all the action wraps up. You can also keep up with all of the trades on our Twitter.

Astros Sign Adam Morgan To Minor League Deal

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The Astros have signed lefty Adam Morgan to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Morgan is repped by CAA Baseball.

Morgan, 32, spent the 2021 season with the Cubs, pitching to a 4.26 ERA with a strong 25.9% strikeout rate against an 11.1% walk rate and a 44.8% grounder rate. It was the first season Morgan spent with any club other than the Phillies, who drafted him with their third-round pick back in 2011. Morgan spent the first six seasons of his career as a Phillie, originally pitching out of the rotation in 2015-16 before moving to the ’pen in 2017.

Since moving to a relief role on a full-time basis, Morgan has seen his strikeout rate and velocity increase, rising from 16.8% and 90.6 mph in 2015-16 up to 25.5% and 93.6 mph from 2017-21. He has a 4.13 ERA through 172 relief innings since making the switch. He’s shut down lefties to the tune of a woeful .198/.280/.305 batting line in that five-year stretch, but right-handed opponents continue to give him trouble, evidenced by a .281/.347/.528 output.

Left-handed relief depth has been an area of need for the Astros, and Morgan will give them some additional depth in that regard. Blake Taylor is currently the only southpaw expected to break camp in the Houston bullpen, though Morgan and fellow veteran Zac Rosscup have both signed non-roster invites to Spring Training within the past few days. Even if neither is on the Opening Day roster, it’s possible they could get get a look as the season wears on — particularly if Taylor incurs any type of injury or struggles.

Mariners, Andrew Albers Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners have agreed to a minor league pact with veteran left-hander Andrew Albers, MLBTR has learned. It’ll be the second stint with the Mariners for Albers, a client of True Gravity Baseball.

The 36-year-old Albers, originally a tenth-round pick by the Padres back in 2008, Albers has pitched in parts of five Major League seasons in addition to three years spent in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and one in the Korea Baseball Organization. He appeared in five games with the Twins in 2021, logging 19 innings but yielding 16 runs during that time.

In signing with the Mariners, Albers returns to the organization with which he’s had the most success at the MLB level. The 2017 Mariners acquired Albers from the Braves in exchange for cash in August and plugged him right into the big league pitching staff. He responded with 41 innings of 3.51 ERA ball across nine appearances (six starts, three relief outings) while posting a 20.8% strikeout rate and an excellent 5.6% walk rate.

All in all, Albers has pitched 139 2/3 innings at the big league level, during which he’s notched a 4.58 ERA with a 14.9% strikeout rate, a 5.6% walk rate and a 40.2% ground-ball rate. He’s also logged a 3.60 ERA in parts of five Triple-A campaigns — a total of 563 innings.

The Mariners’ rotation, as currently constructed, has four arms locked into spots: Robbie Ray, Marco Gonzales, Chris Flexen and Logan Gilbert. Prospects Matt Brash, Levi Stoudt and George Kirby could all be in line to make their debuts this season, though Brash’s presence on the 40-man roster might give him the inside track on a spot out of camp. In addition to those prospects, the Mariners can now have both Albers and fellow veteran Asher Wojciechowski as depth options in Triple-A Tacoma.

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