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Bryan Holaday

Phillies To Sign Bryan Holaday To Minor League Deal

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The Phillies have agreed to terms with catcher Bryan Holaday on a minor league deal, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. Holaday is represented by Lagardere Sports.

Holaday is expected to compete for the backup catcher job in Philadelphia, Crasnick notes. Cameron Rupp currently is slated to start. The Phillies also appear likely to have 2016 Triple-A catcher Andrew Knapp in camp, along with top prospect Jorge Alfaro, with Holaday providing the team with a more veteran option. A.J. Ellis, who finished the 2016 season as the Phillies’ backup, recently signed a one-year deal with the Marlins.

The 29-year-old Holaday began the 2016 season with the Rangers, then headed to the Red Sox on a waiver claim. The Red Sox ultimately non-tendered him rather than paying a projected $900K salary. For the year, he batted .231/.281/.359 over 129 plate appearances, roughly in line with his career .245/.282/.346 marks in parts of five big-league seasons. He caught eight of 21 batters attempting to steal.

2016-17 American League Non-Tenders

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The deadline to tender 2017 contracts to players is tonight at 8pm ET. We’ll keep track of the day’s non-tenders in the American League in this post (all referenced arbitration projections courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)…

  • Infielder Gregorio Petit and lefty Cody Ege were non-tendered by the Angels, per a club announcement.
  • The Twins non-tendered pre-arb righty Yorman Landa, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweets.
  • The Rays non-tendered infielder Ryan Brett, who wasn’t eligible for arbitration, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.
  • The Yankees have non-tendered southpaw Jacob Lindgren, the club announced. His departure leaves the team with one open 40-man roster spot. The high-powered lefty has dealt with elbow issues in recent years.
  • Righty Blake Smith will head to the open market after he wasn’t tendered by the White Sox. The 28-year-old debuted briefly in the majors last year, but spent most of the year at Triple-A. He showed well there, compiling a 3.53 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 over 71 1/3 innings. Smith compiled those frames in just 39 appearances, suggesting that Chicago liked the idea of utilizing him in a multi-inning role — which other organizations may consider, too.
  • The Rangers announced that outfielder Jared Hoying will be non-tendered, making him a free agent. The 27-year-old made his major league debut last year, struggling through 49 plate appearances. He did have a solid run at Triple-A, though, slashing .269/.336/.474 with 78 strikeouts against 37 walks over 435 trips to the plate.
  • The Indians have non-tendered righty Jeff Manship, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets. The club’s remaining arb-eligible players will all be offered contracts. Manship projected at $1.2MM, but even that relatively minimal amount proved too great for Cleveland to take on. While the 31-year-old didn’t have sterling peripherals, he was solid last year for the Indians and posted a magical run for the team in 2015. All told, he contributed 82 2/3 innings of 2.07 ERA ball during his time in Cleveland, which ought to set him up for an opportunity with another organization.
  • Righty Vance Worley has been non-tendered by the Orioles, per a team announcement. All of the team’s other eligible players have been tendered contracts. Worley had been projected to command $3.3MM in arbitration as a 4+ service-class player, but will instead hit the open market. The 29-year-old pitched to a 3.53 ERA in 86 2/3 innings last year with Baltimore, functioning mostly in a relief capacity. He has plenty of experience as a starter, however, and remains a possible swingman (or back-of-the-rotation) option for other organizations. Over his seven major league campaigns, Worley has posted a 3.75 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9.
  • The Red Sox announced that they won’t tender a contract to veteran catcher Bryan Holaday.  The 29-year-old batted .231/.281/.359 with a pair of homers and seven doubles in 129 PAs between Texas and Boston this past season. The right-handed-hitting Holaday will bring a career .628 OPS and 28 percent caught-stealing rate to the free agent market as he looks to latch on elsewhere, presumably in a backup capacity. He’d been projected to earn $900K in arbitration this winter and comes with three years of team control to any club that signs him. Boston tendered contracts to all of its remaining arb-eligible players, tweets the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. Boston’s 40-man roster is at 39 players.

Red Sox Claim Bryan Holaday From Rangers

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The Red Sox have claimed catcher Bryan Holaday off outright waivers from the Rangers, reports Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Texas designated Holaday for assignment on Monday in the wake of its acquisition of Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress from the Brewers.

Holaday, 28, was acquired by Texas from the Tigers late in Spring Training and saw significant action early in the season following an injury to backstop Robinson Chirinos. Holaday was quite productive in the month of May but hasn’t hit much outside of that stretch and has a collective .238/.290/.405 slash in 94 plate appearances with Texas this season. Prior to the 2016 campaign, he’d spent his entire career in the Tigers organization, shuffling back and forth between the Majors and minors while serving as a backup to Alex Avila. The presence of James McCann and Detroit’s offseason pickup of Jarrod Saltalamacchia left Holaday without a spot on the big league roster, however, and he’s out of minor league options, which left Detroit with no way to carry him in the Majors.

That he’s out of options means he’ll have to go directly onto the 25-man roster for Boston as well, as Holaday cannot be sent to the minors without first clearing waivers. He’s a career .248/.285/.356 hitter with five homers in 376 plate appearances. Holaday has thrown out 30.2 of attempted base thieves over the past three seasons, though he rates as a well below-average framing catcher, per Baseball Prospectus.

Rangers Activate Robinson Chirinos, Designate Phil Klein For Assignment

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The Rangers announced today that they’ve activated catcher Robinson Chirinos from the 60-day disabled list and designated right-hander Phil Klein for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Right-hander Luke Jackson was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock to clear a spot for Chirinos on the active roster.

Chirinos, 32, has missed all but five games this season to date after suffering a fractured forearm when he was hit by a pitch in early April. His injury led the Rangers to pick up Bryan Holaday and Bobby Wilson via trade, and that pairing of journeyman has somewhat incredibly provided the team with an outstanding .274/.324/.472 batting line and eight home runs. The Holaday/Wilson tandem has been so productive, in fact, that Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Rangers are considering carrying three all three catchers (Twitter link). Chirinos and Holaday, he points out, can play other positions on a limited basis, as each is a former infielder.

While Chirinos isn’t a household name, he performed well for the Rangers while seeing quite a bit of work behind the dish last season; in 273 plate appearances, he batted .232/.325/.438. Combined with his work from the 2014 campaign and his brief time early in 2016, Chirinos has batted .236/.306/.430 with 24 home runs in exactly 162 games dating back to Opening Day 2014.

As for Klein, the 27-year-old gave Texas 19 useful innings back in 2014 but has struggled in the Majors in both 2015 and 2016, working to a combined 6.23 ERA in 26 innings. While he performed well at Round Rock last season (2.97 ERA in 63 2/3 innings), he’s struggled there as well in 2016 and will now be in limbo for up to 10 days as the Rangers have the option to trade him, release him or send him through outright waivers.

Rangers Notes: Mazara, Darvish, Catcher

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The latest on the Rangers, who lost to the Angels on Sunday but got the first major league glimpse of a player who could be a long-term linchpin:

  • Newly promoted right fielder Nomar Mazara, the aforementioned potential building block, began his career in red-hot fashion Sunday. Mazara – the youngest player in the league (20 years, 350 days) – went 3 for 4 with a home run in a 3-1 defeat, and Jim Callis of MLB.com believes he’s capable of rivaling the injured Shin-Soo Choo’s offensive production while providing superior defense. On Mazara’s offensive skills, manager Jeff Banister said (via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News), “He controls the strike zone. He can be patient, but he can jump on a fastball early if he needs to. Offspeed stuff did not seem to bother him that much this spring. He can hit when he’s down in the count.” That assessment proved true Sunday, as Grant writes.
  • In the next step in his recovery from March 2015 Tommy John surgery, Rangers ace Yu Darvish will throw live batting practice Wednesday, per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. “Now it’s time to turn him loose,” pitching coach Doug Brocail said. “He’ll throw some live batting practice and then get in games.” The Rangers plan for Darvish to throw three BP sessions and then have him begin a minor league rehab assignment toward the end of April. Darvish would then make six starts in the minors before rejoining the Rangers in late May, according to Sullivan. The Rangers will monitor Darvish’s pitch counts when he returns to the big leagues and want him to pound the strike zone with more fastballs. “I’m not asking [Darvish] to throw 25 percent more fastballs,” Brocail stated. “I’m asking him to trust it more to get more quick outs. Just more strikes so he doesn’t have to go deep in counts.”
  • In the wake of catcher Robinson Chirinos’ forearm fracture, general manager Jon Daniels said that he considered outside options Sunday morning, but it was merely “due diligence” (link via Sullivan). The Rangers ultimately called up Brett Nicholas to serve as the backup to Bryan Holaday, who will be their regular catcher for at least a little while. “We’ve got a good start with Holaday here,” Banister said after Chirinos got hurt on a hit by pitch Saturday. “We are working through all of our other options right now. We’ve got limited, but multiple options.” The Rangers have two other potentially useful catchers under control in Chris Gimenez and Michael McKenry, but the former is recovering from a bacterial infection and the latter is on the mend from an abdominal strain.

Robinson Chirinos’ Fractured Forearm Could Lead Rangers To Trade Market

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12:03pm: Chirinos will be out ten to 12 weeks, Grant tweets. Also, Shin-Soo Choo will miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 calf strain. Choo’s injury has led to speculation about the possible promotion of top prospect Nomar Mazara, but the Rangers have yet to make an announcement about possible roster moves.

9:18am: Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos got hit by a pitch Saturday night and has fractured his forearm, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. Chirinos will be out for at least a month. The Rangers have already had problems with their catching depth this year, leading to a spring trade for Bryan Holaday of the Tigers, and Chirinos’ latest injury could have them heading to the trade market yet again.

“We’ve got a good start with Holaday here,” says manager Jeff Banister. “We are working through all of our other options right now. We’ve got limited, but multiple options.”

Chirinos hit a solid .232/.325/.438 for the Rangers last season and was off to a good start in 2016, so his loss is a relatively significant one. Chris Gimenez and Michael McKenry would normally be possibilities to replace him in the short term, as Grant notes, but Gimenez is recovering from a bacterial infection and McKenry has an abdominal strain. Brett Nicholas, who has never played in the big leagues but who split time between catcher and first base at Triple-A Round Rock last year, is healthy, but would require a 40-man roster move.

Grant thinks the Rangers could look to the trade market, possibly re-acquiring Bobby Wilson (who they shipped to Detroit in the Holaday deal and who’s currently playing for Triple-A Toledo). There’s also the possibility that Chirinos’ injury could spur the Rangers to make a bigger trade for a higher-profile talent like Jonathan Lucroy or Derek Norris, in whom they’ve had interest in the past.

AL Notes: Furbush, Blue Jays, Athletics, Rangers, Holaday

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Mariners southpaw Charlie Furbush is undergoing a blood injection therapy to his shoulder in hopes of speeding his recovery, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports, but he might not return to action for “several months.” Furbush suggested that he could resume throwing in about three weeks’ time, but given his rotator cuff issues last year and continued difficulties, it certainly seems likely that the club will bring him along cautiously.

Here’s more from the American League:

  • We checked in earlier today on Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion, as he’s not expected to engage in further contract talks before the season starts. Jon Heyman of MLB Network joins Ben Nicholson-Smith in reporting that there’s nothing scheduled with Encarnacion (Twitter link).
  • Heyman also adds on Twitter that Jose Bautista could be willing to consider a four-year arrangement to stay in Toronto, despite his ask of five or even six years in an extension. Of course, that would be at a superstar rate of pay — Heyman suggests $30MM annually. The club, meanwhile, is believed to be interested in a three-year pact that might looking something like the Yoenis Cespedes deal.
  • The Athletics could continue to hold contract talks with outfielder Josh Reddick into the regular season, John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group reports. (Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle noted yesterday evening that talks between the two sides were “percolating a little bit.”)While previous indications were that there’d be a deadline at the end of the spring, it appears there’s a willingness to keep talking if negotiations are showing sufficient promise of completion. If a new deal can’t be struck, Reddick will reach free agency after the season. He currently sits at sixth among pending free agents on the pre-season power rankings by MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes.
  • Athletics righty R.J. Alvarez underwent a procedure to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Alvarez was roughed up in his twenty MLB innings last year and has yet to harness his command, but has generated some whiffs with his mid-90s fastball and slider combo.
  • The Indians have shifted Trevor Bauer into the bullpen to open the season, as Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal was among those to report. That leaves Cody Anderson and the just-extended Josh Tomlin as the four and five starters as things get underway. As Lewis notes, both Bauer and Anderson have displayed significant increases in their fastball velocity this year. Both president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and manager Terry Francona emphasized that Bauer remains in the rotation picture and will play a significant role — indeed, he had strong results this spring — but it’s certainly an interesting decision on a highly promising player who has yet to fully settle in at the major league level. It bears noting that the 25-year-old is all but certain to qualify as a Super Two after the season, so any loss of innings could have a significant impact on his future earnings.
  • Injured catcher Chris Gimenez will suit up for the Rangers on Wednesday in a “last-ditch effort” to make the team, Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram tweets.  Gimenez currently appears to be on the outside looking in after the Rangers acquired Bryan Holaday from the Tigers.  The catcher will now have to make a big impression on team brass while dealing with an infected left leg.
  • At one point, the Tigers would have asked for catcher Brett Nicholas and more for Holaday, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets.  However, the Rangers were able to acquire Holaday while hanging on to Nicholas.  Instead, they parted only with right-hander Myles Jaye and catcher Bobby Wilson. Meanwhile, Detroit plans on slotting the newly-acquired Jaye in their Double-A rotation, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets.  In the long term, he says, the club believes that Jaye can be a major league reliever.

Rangers Acquire Bryan Holaday From Tigers

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The Rangers announced that they have acquired catcher Bryan Holaday from the Tigers in exchange for right-hander Myles Jaye and catcher Bobby Wilson.  In a related move, the Rangers have designated left-handed pitcher Sam Freeman for assignment.

The Rangers have been on the lookout for a catcher this offseason and it appears that the asking prices for their more ambitious targets were too high.  Texas was connected to Brewers backstop Jonathan Lucroy as well as Padres catcher Derek Norris.  A little over a week ago, however, Rangers GM Jon Daniels said that he was prepared to go into the season with the catchers he already had in camp.

“At this point I anticipate both our catchers are in camp,” Daniels said. “We are open if there is a true improvement to the team, but we’re not going to change for change’s sake.”

Now, Daniels has found what he perceives to be a better understudy for Robinson Chirinos.  The Rangers will presumably use Holaday  as their No. 2 catcher instead of Chris Gimenez, Michael McKenry, or 2010 sixth-round pick Brett Nicholas, who was said to be having a strong spring.  Holaday is not as big of a name as Lucroy, but he came at a much lower cost than the Brewers catcher would have and is also more affordable (Lucroy will earn $4MM in 2016).

Holaday was out-of-options and didn’t have a spot in Detroit with James McCann and Jarrod Saltalamacchia ahead of him.  The 28-year-old TCU product has appeared in the majors in each of the last four seasons for the Tigers.  Over a combined 282 plate appearances, he owns a .251/.283/.340 slash line.   In parts of three Triple-A seasons, he has slashed .245/.305/.339.

Wilson, 32, spent time with the Rays and Rangers in 2015 and didn’t do much with his bat in 147 plate appearances (.189 /.255/.250).  Of course, Wilson isn’t known much for his offense and instead has built his reputation as an excellent defensive catcher.

Jaye is a 24-year-old right-handed starter.  A former 17th round pick of the Blue Jays in 2010, Jaye pitched to a 3.29 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 26 Double-A outings last year.

Freeman is out-of-options and the Rangers did not have a spot for him on their 40-man roster.  The 28-year-old seems likely to get picked up by a team in need of relief help.  For his career, Freeman owns a 3.23 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9 across four big league seasons.

Mets Seeking Backup Catcher

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MARCH 27th: The Mets are leaning towards having Plawecki open the season as the backup catcher on the big league roster, Rubin writes.  However, they have told scouts to keep their eyes peeled for an available backup catcher.  Rubin adds that the Mets are not all that interested in out-of-options Tigers catcher Bryan Holaday.

MARCH 13th: The Mets are telling teams that they are looking to land a backup catcher, a source tells Adam Rubin of ESPN.com. As it stands, the Mets have Kevin Plawecki slotted in as the backup for starter Travis d’Arnaud.

If Plawecki were to remain on the big league roster, he wouldn’t see a whole lot of playing time with d’Arnaud serving as the team’s primary backstop.  Team officials are mulling the idea of putting the 25-year-old in Triple-A to get some at-bats and, if they go that route, they feel it is necessary to go out-of-house to get a new understudy for d’Arnaud.  The source tells Rubin that the team is not happy with its other internal catching options, including Johnny Monell.

Over the weekend, Mets manager Terry Collins was asked where Plawecki could open the season and he indicated that things are fluid:

“We haven’t had that discussion as to where he’s going to fit the best, or what we think is the best for everyone involved. That has not taken place. What we’ve got to do is take what we think are the best 25 and get out of the gate and go from there. If the conversation goes to, ’Hey, look, we need to have this guy ready to be an everyday guy,’ he may have to go play [in Las Vegas]. If we think we’re better off being able to get him two to three games a week at times [backing up d’Arnaud], then he’s got a good chance of making the club.”

Plawecki, a first-round pick in the 2012 draft, saw 258 plate appearances for the Mets last season and slashed just .219/.280/.296 with three homers.  In parts of two seasons at Triple-A, the catcher hit .262/.318/.392.

Astros Looking For Catching Depth

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With backup Max Stassi sidelined for six weeks after hamate bone surgery, Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart) that the team is looking at catchers outside the organization.  While Hinch said he’s comfortable with minor leaguers Roberto Pena or Tyler Heineman as the backup to start the season, it only makes sense that Houston would explore the market for experienced help.  The team’s hopes that Evan Gattis could be an option behind the plate have been scuttled by Gattis’ hernia surgery, which could keep him out of Spring Training action altogether.

The Astros recently had a scout watching Tigers backup Bryan Holaday, McTaggart reports.  Holaday is out of options and is stuck behind James McCann and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, though there’s at least a chance Detroit will keep all three catchers since the club likes Holaday quite a bit.  Houston has also reportedly shown interest in Blue Jays minor league backstop A.J. Jimenez, another out of options player.

Beyond those two, McTaggart lists some of the other potential candidates who could be acquired or available on the waiver wire as Spring Training rolls on.  Possible targets include J.P. Arencibia, Carlos Corporan, Tim Federowicz, Ryan Hanigan, Austin Romine and the odd men out of the Rangers’ backup competition between Chris Gimenez, Michael McKenry and Bobby Wilson.  I’d also cite the Padres and Rays as teams who could be open to moving a catcher.

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