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Alex Torres

Giants, Alex Torres Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have agreed to a deal with left-handed reliever Alex Torres, reports Michael Mayer of Metsmerized Online (Twitter link). It’s a minor league contract, MLBTR has learned.

Torres, 28, spent the 2015 campaign with the Mets after coming over from the Padres in a Spring Training trade. He worked to a 3.15 ERA and struck out 35 batters in 34 1/3 innings of work, but he also averaged 6.8 walks per nine innings and was largely ineffective against left-handed batters, who hit .268/.406/.393 against Torres in 69 plate appearances. Despite a strong ERA, Torres was designated for assignment on Aug. 7 when the Mets acquired Eric O’Flaherty and subsequently outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. This offseason, he signed a minor league deal with the Braves, but he didn’t make the club after allowing four earned runs on six hits and five walks with seven strikeouts in eight spring innings.

The 2015 campaign marked the second straight season in which Torres had struggled considerably more against left-handed opponents than against righties, but he was outstanding against both in 2013 with the Rays. The Giants will hope that Torres can rediscover that form, though for the time being he’ll serve as a depth piece in the upper minors. Javier Lopez and Josh Osich are the club’s primary left-handed relievers. Those are the only two left-handed relievers on the club’s 40-man roster, though lefty Ty Blach is in the Triple-A rotation and could conceivably be an option as well.

Braves Release Alex Torres

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The Braves have released lefty Alex Torres, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. Torres had looked likely to take a bullpen role after Atlanta signed him to a minor-league deal in December, but it appears the Braves didn’t like what they saw in Spring Training, and they ended up dealing for fellow lefty Eric O’Flaherty instead. “Just not a good fit,” says GM John Coppolella of the match between Torres and the Braves.

Torres allowed five runs, four earned, while striking out seven batters and walking five in eight innings of work this spring. Last season, his 3.15 ERA with the Mets obscured a growing walk rate — he allowed 3.1 batters per nine innings and struck out three times as many batters as he walked in a highly effective 2013 with the Padres, but that walk rate went to 5.5 in 2014 and 6.8 last year.

NL East Notes: Mujica, Frieri, Francoeur, Foltynewicz, Gant

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Let’s take a look at a few spring roster battles out of the NL East to round out the evening …

  • Like most organizations, the Phillies have several opt-out dates approaching — particularly in their relief corps. As MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes, the Phils face potential decisions on Edward Mujica (Saturday) and Ernesto Frieri (next Thursday) in short order, with Andrew Bailey (May 1) and James Russell (June 1) to follow. Mujica seems destined for a big league job, says Zolecki, while it’s not clear that Frieri will make it onto the active roster after rough results thus far.
  • Members of Braves brass like Jeff Francoeur as a right-handed bench bat, which means the club could elect to give him its last outfield spot over Nick Swisher and Emilio Bonifacio, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Braves brought Swisher to camp with the hope that he’d show well enough to entice another team to trade for him. While Swisher has hit .294/.429/.382 in 34 at-bats, a deal hasn’t come along. Thus, the Braves could ultimately eat the 12-year veteran’s entire $15MM salary in order to get rid of him. Bonifacio, who’s due a much more palatable $1.25MM this year, is potentially movable. If not, the Braves will have an easier time eating his contract than Swisher’s.
  • Elsewhere, Mike Foltynewicz is favored to beat out Williams Perez and Manny Banuelos for the Braves’ fifth starter spot, per O’Brien. Regardless, the Braves won’t need a fifth starter until April 12, so they might start the season with an eight-man bullpen. That would ostensibly bode well, at least temporarily, for the out-of-options Jose Ramirez and Rule 5 pick Dan Winkler.
  • MLB.com’s Mark Bowman agrees that Foltynewicz is making a strong case for a rotation slot with the Braves. He has recovered quicker than expected from a scary bout with a blood clot. Meanwhile, John Gant has remained in the running longer than might have been expected. Per Bowman, the 23-year-old, who came over in last year’s Juan Uribe/Kelly Johnson swap with the division-rival Mets, may be in line behind Foltynewicz and Jhoulys Chacin.
  • Meanwhile, the Braves will be looking around for southpaw relievers as players begin to shake loose from other organizations, Bowman suggests. Ian Krol has underwhelmed and doesn’t seem likely to take a roster spot, leaving Alex Torres as perhaps the only southpaw currently in camp who’ll be on the Opening Day roster. One internal option that could re-enter the picture, he adds, is Hunter Cervenka, who has already been shipped down to minor league camp.

Connor Byrne contributed to this post.

Braves To Sign Alex Torres

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The Braves have struck a minor league deal with lefty Alex Torres, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports on Twitter. He’ll receive an invitation to big league training camp this spring.

Torres just turned 28 in December and has seen fairly consistent time in the big leagues over the past three years. But he was designated for assignment by the Mets last August.

At the surface, that was a puzzling move for New York, which had acquired Torres over the prior winter and received 34 1/3 innings of 3.15 ERA pitching with 35 strikeouts. But a closer look revealed the obvious cause: Torres also permitted 26 free passes in that span and was ineffective against opposing lefties, who touched him for a .268/.406/.393 batting line.

Atlanta will hope that Torres can return to the form he showed over 2013-14. While he was still wild at times — especially in the latter season — he did put up 112 innings of 2.49 ERA pitching while posting 9.1 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9.

The route back isn’t immediately clear. Torres hit the strike zone with just 41.0% of his pitches in 2015, but that was actually up from his 2014 campaign. The biggest issue, it seems, was a drop in his swinging strike rate — from nearly 13% in the prior two years to 9.2% — that occurred as batters made more frequent contact while chasing less of his offerings outside of the zone.

If the Braves and Torres can figure things out, there’s some potential future upside for the team — and not just through the possibility of a mid-season flip. Torres will enter the year with just 2.095 days of service, meaning he could be controlled for up to three more seasons via arbitration.

Rays Notes: Hickey, Torres, Prospects

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Here’s the latest from Tropicana Field, as per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times…

  • Most of the Rays’ coaching staff is under contract for 2016, including pitching coach Jim Hickey.  As Topkin notes, Hickey “would be a hot commodity as a free agent” given the Rays’ success at getting results from both highly-touted young pitchers and veteran reclamation projects.  Hickey has been Tampa’s pitching coach since November 2006.
  • The Rays didn’t have interest in bringing back Alex Torres.  The left-hander was designated for assignment by the Mets and then outrighted to their Triple-A affiliate after he cleared waivers.  Torres pitched well out of the Rays’ bullpen in 2013 before being dealt to the Padres as part of the multi-player deal that brought Brad Boxberger and Logan Forsythe (among others) to Tampa.
  • While the Rays are widely considered to have a strong player development system, Topkin notes that much of the club’s success in this area has come on the pitching side.  Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford are the only two homegrown All-Star position players in Tampa’s history, and only 26 position players in total have made their MLB debuts as a Ray after being drafted, signed and developed by the team.  The Rays’ “hit rate on position players is remarkably low and contributes to their need to constantly churn the roster,” Topkin writes.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/8/15

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.

  • Blue Jays outfielder Ezequiel Carrera has accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A, tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. The 28-year-old was designated for assignment after Toronto acquired Ben Revere at the trade deadline. Carrera has managed a solid .279/.327/.374 line with three home runs and two steals in 164 plate appearances.
  • Lefty Aaron Laffey has accepted the Rockies’ outright assignment and will head to Triple-A Albuquerque, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Colorado designated Laffey for assignment last week. He has pitched 7 1/3 innings for them this season.
  • The Phillies have released veteran righty Juan Gutierrez, MLBTR’s Steve Adams tweets. Gutierrez’s camp is negotiating with at least two teams, including one with whom it’s deep in talks. The 32-year-old Gutierrez has posted a 3.66 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 51 2/3 innings this season at two Triple-A affiliates. He spent last season in the Giants bullpen.
  • The Orioles have outrighted OF/1B Chris Parmelee, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun tweets. The O’s designated Parmelee for assignment when they acquired Gerardo Parra at the trade deadline. He hit .216/.255/.433 in 102 plate appearances with Baltimore.
  • The Mets have outrighted lefty Alex Torres to Triple-A Las Vegas, ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin tweets. The Mets designated him for assignment when they acquired Eric O’Flaherty last week. Torres has posted a 3.15 ERA and 9.2 K/9 in 34 1/3 innings with the Mets this year, but with 6.8 BB/9.
  • Catcher Eric Fryer has accepted the Twins’ outright assignment and will report to Triple-A Rochester, the Pioneer Press’ Mike Berardino tweets. The Twins designated Fryer for assignment on Thursday. He’s played very sparingly in parts of five seasons with Pittsburgh and Minnesota, batting .235/.316/.324 in 152 plate appearances in his big-league career.
  • The Diamondbacks plan to select the contract of righty-hitting infielder/outfielder Jamie Romak, agent David Sloane tells MLBTR. The 29-year-old Romak hit .289/.373/.554 with 22 home runs in 458 plate appearances for Triple-A Reno after the D-backs signed him to a minor-league deal last offseason. He played briefly for the Dodgers in 2014 but has spent most of the past several years in the high minors. In parts of 13 seasons, Romak has also played in the Braves, Pirates, Royals and Cardinals organizations, and he has a career .255/.344/.463 line in the minors. He has played outfield, first base and third base throughout most of his career, but this year he has also appeared in 24 games at second base.

Mets Acquire Eric O’Flaherty, Designate Alex Torres

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AUGUST 7: Righty Dawrin Frias will head to Oakland to complete the deal, the A’s announced. The 23-year-old has been hit hard at the Class A level this year, while also showing significant control problems.

AUGUST 4: The Mets announced tonight that they have acquired left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty and cash considerations from the Athletics in exchange for a player to be named later. Fellow southpaw reliever Alex Torres has been designated for assignment to clear space for O’Flaherty on the 40-man and 25-man rosters.

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The Athletics designated O’Flaherty for assignment over the weekend to clear a roster spot for trade acquisition Aaron Brooks. The former Braves setup ace was in the second season of a two-year, $7MM contract he signed prior to the 2014 campaign as he recovered from 2013 Tommy John surgery.

O’Flaherty, 30, was sharp in 2014 — his first year back from Tommy John surgery — working to a 2.25 ERA with 6.8 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 in a small sample of 20 innings at the big league level. His backloaded contract paid him just $1.5MM in 2014 due to uncertainty surrounding how much he’d be able to pitch and $5.5MM in 2015, with the A’s expecting him to be a significant piece in their bullpen.

That didn’t work out, though, as O’Flaherty has struggled to a 5.91 ERA in 2015. While a .354 BABIP has been a significant factor in the regression of O’Flaherty’s ERA, so, too, a marked step back in his control. O’Flaherty averaged just 2.3 unintentional walks per nine innings from 2009-14 after establishing himself as a quality relief option in the Majors, but he’s issued 12 unintentional free passes in 21 1/3 innings this season. On the plus side, O’Flaherty has a track record of success — he posted a 1.99 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 249 1/3 innings from 2009-13 with Atlanta — and he’s dominated opposing lefties in 2015, holding them to a .186/.286/.209 batting line.

O’Flaherty is owed about $1.86MM through season’s end, though the A’s appear to be picking up at least some of the tab there. He becomes the second reliever to make the cross-country journey from Oakland to Queens, as he’ll join former teammate Tyler Clippard in manager Terry Collins’ bullpen.

Torres doesn’t immediately look like a DFA candidate upon first glance, as he’s worked to a 3.15 ERA and struck out 35 batters in 34 1/3 innings. However, Torres has also walked 26 batters this year, and opposing lefties are hitting an alarming .268/.406/.393 against him in 69 plate appearances. Torres’ ERA is largely a product of a minuscule .233 BABIP and a bloated 83 percent strand rate — neither of which figures to be sustainable down the stretch.

A relatively quick DFA certainly isn’t what the Mets had in mind this spring when they traded Cory Mazzoni and a player to be named later (Brad Wieck) to the Padres in exchange for what they hoped to be several years of Torres’ services. Torres is not yet arbitration eligible — though he will be this winter — and enjoyed better performances from 2013-14 with the Rays and Padres, so perhaps a team looking for left-handed bullpen depth will give him a look if he’s placed on outright waivers. If not, the Mets will be able to outright him to Triple-A Las Vegas and keep him in the organization with the hope that some time in the minors will help to sort out his command issues.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. This post was originally published at 9:48pm CT.

Mets Acquire Alex Torres

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Jun 13: The player to be named later is left-handed pitcher Brad Wieck, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. He’ll now head to the Padres. The southpaw was the Mets’ seventh round pick in the 2014 Rule 4 draft. He has a 3.21 ERA with 11.89 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9 in 56 Low-A innings. FanGraphs prospect analyst Kiley McDaniel says Wieck’s fastball works in the low 90’s. The 23-year-old could move quickly as a situational reliever.

Mar 30: The Mets announced that they have acquired left-handed reliever Alex Torres from the Padres in exchange for Minor League right-hander Cory Mazzoni and a player to be named later.

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Torres, 27, will give the Mets a much-needed left-handed option in the bullpen. Josh Edgin, who had projected to be New York’s top southpaw reliever, underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this month, leaving the team precariously thin in this department. Since that time, rumors have circulated about potential matches for the Mets, who have been linked to Baltimore’s Brian Matusz as well as J.P. Howell, Paco Rodriguez and Adam Liberatore of the Dodgers. Colorado’s Rex Brothers was also suggested as a fit.

In Torres, New York receives a pitcher that has posted a 2.49 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 4.3 BB/9 and a 44.7 percent ground-ball rate over the past two seasons. Torres has benefited from a perhaps unsustainbly low homer-to-flyball ratio of just 3.1 percent, though Citi Field’s generally pitcher-friendly dimensions may help him to sustain an above-average rate in that regard.

Torres does come with some control issues, as he averaged 5.5 walks per nine innings pitched in 2014. That, combined with some correction for his good fortune on home runs, leads sabermetric ERA estimators to peg him for an ERA in the mid-3.00s rather than to sustain his sub-3.00 mark.

Somewhat curiously, most of Torres’ control problems come against left-handed hitters. Right-handers have batted a meager .175/.260/.251 against Torres dating back to 2013, while lefties have exploited his lack of control and gotten on base at a .341 clip against Torres. Of course, they’ve also batted just .213 and slugged .276, so if he can rein in his control, he could post dominant overall numbers.

With one year and 141 days of service time under his belt, Torres can be controlled via arbitration through the 2019 season. However, because he’ll end up with two years, 141 days next offseason (assuming a full year of service time is accrued, as one would expect), he’s a likely Super Two player, meaning he will be arbitration-eligible four times as opposed to three.

The 25-year-old Mazzoni was New York’s second-round pick back in 2011 and is generally ranked as the Mets’ 15th-20th best prospect, per Baseball America, MLB.com and Fangraphs. Mazzoni split the 2014 campaign across four levels, spending the bulk of his time at Triple-A where he worked to a 4.67 ERA with 49 strikeouts against just 12 walks in 52 innings. Mazzoni has spent much of his career as a starter, but most feel that he’s likely destined for relief work if he surfaces in the Majors, where his low 90s fastball will instead reach the mid-90s, serving as a complement to an above-average slider.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported (via Twitter) that the Mets had acquired Torres.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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