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Minor Signings: Barnes, Peterson, Stassi, Webster

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Here are the latest minor signings of note from around the game, courtesy of Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America …

  • The Orioles inked righty Danny Barnes. He’s a 30-year-old reliever who has spent his entire career to date in the Blue Jays organization. Barnes saw only limited action last season but was in the majors for each of the three prior campaigns. In 120 2/3 career frames at the game’s highest level, he carries a 4.33 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9.
  • Outfielder Dustin Peterson has joined the Angels. Still just 25 years of age, Peterson has a bit of MLB experience but has spent most of his time in recent seasons in the upper minors. The former second-round pick carries a .267/.320/.389 batting line in 1,107 total plate appearances at Triple-A.
  • The Athletics have signed first baseman/outfielder Brock Stassi. He got a shot in a reserve role with the Phillies in 2017 but wasn’t able to take advantage, slashing just .167/.278/.295 in ninety plate appearances. Stassi has kicked around the indy ranks, Mexican League, and upper minors since.
  • Former MLB righty Allen Webster is on board with the Nationals. He’ll be looking to crack the majors for the third-straight season at 30 years of age. The former top prospect has never managed to carve out a steady role at the game’s highest level, but he has registered 134 1/3 total innings, working to a cumulative 6.03 ERA.

Cubs To Add Colin Rea To 40-Man, Outright Allen Webster

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The Cubs have added righty Colin Rea to their 40-man roster, as first reported by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). That move will allow the organization to retain his rights, rather than losing him to minor-league free agency.

Righty Allen Webster was outrighted, the club added in its announcement. As was already a given, the team picked up its $16.5MM option over first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Rea inked a minor-league deal with the Cubs and spent the entire 2019 season at Triple-A. In 148 innings there, he pitched to a 3.95 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9. The Cubs will be able to control Rea for the league-minimum salary in 2020; while he has enough overall MLB service time for Super Two status, he didn’t spend any time on the active roster last year and is therefore ineligible.

Cubs Activate Xavier Cedeno, Place Allen Webster On IL

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The Cubs have activated left-hander Xavier Cedeno from the injured list to make his 2019 debut, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). In a corresponding move, right-hander Allen Webster takes Cedeno’s slot on the injured list with radial nerve inflammation in his throwing arm.

Cedeno split 2018 between a pair of Cub rivals in the Brewers and White Sox, pitching to a combined 2.43 ERA across 48 games. Cedeno, 32, put together back-to-back solid campaigns for Tampa Bay after being DFA’ed by the Nationals early in 2015, but a forearm injury cost him most of 2017, leading to another non-tender prior to 2018. He bounced back successfully for the White Sox and Brewers, pitching without a real platoon split as right-handers mustered only a .212/.316/.288 line versus lefties who hit .207/.281/.293 against Cedeno. Still, the Brewers rarely used Cedeno for more than a batter at a time, and he got as many as four outs in an appearance only thrice last season.

Webster, meanwhile, already hit a career high in appearances with 12 so far this season in Chicago, though his 11 total innings have a ways to go before catching the 59 innings he threw as a starter for the Red Sox back in 2014. Results have been underwhelming for Webster in 2019, 4.91 ERA to 5.48 FIP while surrendering 11.5 hits per nine innings.

Cubs Option Carl Edwards Jr. To Minors, Send Mike Montgomery To IL, Promote Kyle Ryan And Select Allen Webster

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In a relatively surprising development out of Chicago, the Cubs will option Carl Edwards Jr. to Triple-A Iowa, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times (via Twitter). Mike Montgomery, meanwhile, has been put on the injured list with a left lat strain, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers (via Twitter), who also announced the Edwards Jr. move on ESPN 1000 this morning, and MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (Twitter link). Bastian was among those to report that the club has promoted lefty Kyle Ryan and selected Allen Webster from AAA Iowa. Righty Jen-Ho Tseng was designated for assignment to make room for Webster on the 40-man.

Edwards’ decline, while not wholly out of character, took a sudden downturn this season after he had entrenched himself as a key piece of Joe Maddon’s bullpen since 2016. Edwards Jr. no doubt has wipeout stuff, but he has long struggled with loss of command in stretches, never more clearly than in the early stages of this season. In four appearances spanning just 1 2/3 innings, Edwards has surrendered 6 earned runs, 2 home runs and 5 walks (32.40 ERA). Still, the move must come as somewhat of a shock to the system for the “Stringbean Slinger,” who has averaged 66 appearances per season over the last two seasons with a 2.81 ERA and 12.2 K/9 to 5.3 BB/9.

With the Cubs losing six in a row after a win on Opening Day, changes were clearly in store for the Northsiders. Edwards’ had one option remaining, which could be a consideration here, as the only other pitchers on the staff with options remaining are lefty Randy Rosario (1) and starter Kyle Hendricks (3). Hendricks is clearly going nowhere, while Rosario has been one of the few strike-throwers out of the Cubs’ pen so far this season.

Montgomery, meanwhile, has similarly struggled through the first week of the season, appearing four times with a 16.88 ERA over 2 2/3 innings of work. He has been a key swingman for the Cubs over the last three seasons, appearing in 82 games, 33 of them starts since his acquisition from Seattle in the middle of 2016. As you may recall, Montgomery relieved Edwards Jr. to get the save in the game seven of the Cubs World Series win in Cleveland – his first career save.

Webster, 29, was a former top prospect in the Dodgers and Red Sox organizations, and was a key figure in the blockbuster waiver deal that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett to Los Angeles in August of 2012. He struggled mightily in Boston, with both arsenal and command, and was quickly shipped to Arizona, where the troubles worsened. The former 18th-rounder’s been a reclamation project in the Chicago farm since last Spring, and the club will hope he can suddenly regain his long-ago form.

Ryan, 27, has appeared in 86 big-league games with the Tigers since his debut in 2014, posting a 3.87 ERA/4.29 FIP/4.50 xFIP over 128 innings. He rarely misses a bat, having struck out just 4.92 men per nine since his debut, though is typically adroit at keeping the ball out of the air (54% career ground-ball rate). Ryan’s been much more effective against lefties (3.39 FIP against) than righties (4.76 opponents’ FIP) in his four-year career thus far.

Tseng, a 24-year-old righty who appeared in three games for Chicago over the last two seasons, was hammered in 24 starts for Iowa last season (6.27 ERA/5.13 FIP).

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/28/19

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Here are Monday’s minor moves from around the game…

  • The Cubs have re-signed righty Allen Webster to a minor league contract, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Webster resurfaced in the big leagues late in the 2018 season with Chicago — his first MLB action since the 2015 season. Webster tossed just three big league innings and managed only 17 minor league frames in an injury-shortened season. Webster posted a 2.64 ERA and 24-to-3 K/BB ratio in those 17 innings, and while most of them came all the way down at Rookie ball as he worked his way back, Cubs internal evaluators were clearly encouraged by what they saw based on bringing Webster to the Majors and now bringing him back to the organization for a second look.
  • Left-hander Chris Nunn announced on Twitter that he’s agreed to a minor league pact with the Rangers. Originally a Padres prospect, the 28-year-old split last season between the Astros organization and the St. Paul Saint of the independent American Association. Nunn turned in a 1.80 ERA and a 23-to-8 K/BB ratio in 20 innings with Houston’s Double-A club last season, and he posted solid numbers on the indy circuit as well. Nunn garnered some attention when Rob Friedman tweeted out some recent bullpen sessions in which the lefty was hitting 97 to 99 mph. The Athletic’s Robert Murray tweets that the Rangers’ plan for Nunn is for him to open the season in Triple-A.

Cubs Non-Tender Ronald Torreyes

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The Cubs have non-tendered recently acquired infielder Ronald Torreyes, per a club announcement. Also non-tendered were non-arb-eligible players Justin Hancock and Allen Webster.

It’s not entirely clear why the Cubs decided to pick up Torreyes days ago, only to set him free. It could be, though, that the club wanted the added insurance while deciding what to do with Addison Russell, who was tendered earlier today. And several other teams have done the same with certain players, so it’s hardly a one-off situation. It seems clear the utilityman could end up in the Chicago organization, though perhaps only if he is willing to sign a minors deal.

Cubs Select Allen Webster, Transfer Brandon Morrow To 60-Day DL

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The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Allen Webster and moved Brandon Morrow to the 60-day disabled list to open a roster spot, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Chicago had announced yesterday that Morrow would not return in 2018.

Now 28 years of age, Webster once rated as one of the game’s top overall prospects but has never lived up to that considerable potential. The journeyman righty has spent time in the Majors with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks and has also appeared in the upper minors with the Dodgers, Rangers and Cubs. Beyond all that, he spent the 2016 season pitching for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization, albeit with generally unfavorable results.

Webster hasn’t been in the Majors since 2015 but has been excellent since debuting for the organization this summer, in an admittedly tiny sample of work. Through 17 innings, he’s pitched to a 2.65 ERA with an outstanding 24-to-3 K/BB ratio, one homer allowed and a ground-ball rate near 60 percent.

Cubs Shut Down Brandon Morrow

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The Cubs have shut down Brandon Morrow for the remainder of the 2018 season, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein announced to reporters Tuesday (Twitter link via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune). Morrow has been out since mid July due to a biceps injury.

Signed to a two-year, $21MM contract on the heels of a resurgent 2017 campaign, Morrow was nothing short of excellent for the Cubs when healthy enough to take the field. In 30 2/3 innings, he racked up 22 saves and posted a 1.47 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.59 HR/9 and a career-best 51.9 percent ground-ball rate.

With Morrow out, right-hander Pedro Strop has gotten the majority of the Cubs’ save opportunities, although Strop himself has recently been hobbled by a hamstring injury and isn’t expected to return until the postseason. Right-handers Steve Cishek and Jesse Chavez have each found their way into save opportunities late in the year, and it seems likely that manager Joe Maddon will go with a matchup-based committee approach down the stretch.

Gonzales tweeted earlier in the day that right-hander Allen Webster could be a candidate to come up to the Majors if Morrow is unable to return. The top prospect-turned-journeyman hasn’t been in the Majors since 2015 but has been excellent since debuting for the organization this summer — albeit in a small sample of work. Through 17 innings, he’s pitched to a 2.65 ERA with an outstanding 24-to-3 K/BB ratio, one homer allowed and a ground-ball rate near 60 percent.

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/2/18

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We’ll track the day’s minor moves here:

  • The Cubs have added righty Allen Webster on a minors pact, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). Now 28, Webster was once a highly regarded prospect. But he struggled to a 6.13 ERA in 120 1/3 MLB innings between 2013 and 2015. And he has been knocked around over the past two seasons in stints with Korea’s Samsung Lions and the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate. In his first crack at the game’s highest level, with the Red Sox, Webster showed a 95 mph four-seamer and 94 mph sinker. But he lost two miles per hour on both offerings over the next two seasons. And though he has shown some ability to get swings and misses, control has been a big problem for Webster, who was in the zone on just 40.3% of his pitches in the majors. Here at MLBTR, Webster is perhaps best known for being included in both the August 2012 Dodgers-Red Sox blockbuster and the rather less memorable 2014 Wade Miley swap that sent Webster from Boston to the Diamondbacks.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/17/16

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Cardinals have signed right-hander Kendry Flores and outfielder Todd Cunningham to minor league deals with invitations to Major League Spring Training, tweets MLB.com’s Jen Langosch. Flores, 25 next week, made one appearance with the Marlins in 2016 and has totaled 15 1/3 innings in Miami over the past two seasons, logging a 4.02 ERA with 10 strikeouts against seven walks (one intentional). He has a career 3.78 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 150 innings at the Triple-A level and has made 124 minor league starts, so he can give St. Louis some rotation depth with a bit of MLB experience. Cunningham, meanwhile, spent the 2016 season with the Angels but posted just a .438 OPS in 29 MLB plate appearances. The former Braves prospect, who will turn 28 in March, hasn’t hit much in the Majors but is a .274/.349/.368 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons and can play all three outfield positions.
  • The Rangers announced this week that they’ve signed right-hander Allen Webster to a minors deal and invited him to Spring Training. Webster, 27 in February, was a big-time prospect with the Dodgers and Red Sox but never found his footing in the Majors. He went from L.A. to Boston in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford blockbuster and then from Boston to Arizona alongside Rubby De La Rosa in exchange for Wade Miley. Through 120 1/3 Major League innings, Webster has a 6.13 ERA and a 76-to-66 K/BB ratio. He spent last season with Samsung Lions in the Korea Baseball Organization and didn’t fare much better, posting a 5.70 ERA in 12 starts.
  • Left-hander Evan Grills has agreed to a minor league deal with the Rockies, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (on Twitter). The Canadian-born southpaw has spent his entire career in the Astros organization to date and pitched at three levels in 2016 (Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A), working to a combined 3.71 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9 in 135 2/3 innings.
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