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Carlos Perez

Orioles Notes: Catchers, Cobb, Hays

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Here’s the latest out of Baltimore:

  • Neither Andrew Susac nor Carlos Perez will make the Orioles’ roster, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports (Twitter links). The two out-of-options catchers had been vying for a roster spot on a team whose only 40-man catchers are Chance Sisco, the just-claimed Pedro Severino and the injured Austin Wynns. Even Sisco isn’t guaranteed a 25-man spot, as he may open the season at the Triple-A level, according to Trezza. That could open the door for fellow backstop Jesus Sucre, though there’s no word yet on his fate, per Trezza. The Orioles have to decide by Monday whether to keep Sucre, whose minor league deal includes an upward mobility clause. Should another team make Sucre an offer, he’d take it, Trezza suggests.
  • Thanks in part to the Orioles’ murky situation behind the plate, their entire Opening Day battery is in question. While right-hander Alex Cobb’s penciled in to start Thursday’s opener against the Yankees, he’s now dealing with a strained right groin, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com writes. Cobb’s no longer a certainty to take the ball in Game 1, though he indicated Saturday it’s not a serious injury, and he didn’t undergo an MRI. Cobb will throw a bullpen session Monday or Tuesday to determine whether he’ll be able to start Thursday. Whenever Cobb makes his initial start of the year, he’ll hope it’s the beginning of a bounce-back campaign. In 2018, the first season of a four-year, $57MM contract, he stumbled to a 4.90 ERA/4.80 FIP across 152 1/3 innings.
  • In other unwelcome news for Baltimore, outfield prospect Austin Hays suffered a left thumb injury Saturday, Dan Connolly of The Athletic relays. Expectations are that the 23-year-old will undergo an MRI on Sunday or Monday, according to Connolly. In the meantime, the O’s are left to cross their fingers this isn’t another costly injury for Hays, who endured a truncated 2018 because of ankle issue. While Hays’ production at Double-A last year was nothing to write home about as a result, he’s still one of the O’s most promising prospects, and he nearly hit his way to a major league roster spot this spring. The Orioles elected to option Hays, however, because they believe he needs more seasoning in the minors. Now, if Hays has to start the year on the shelf, it’ll further delay a big league promotion.

Orioles Agree To Minor League Deal With Carlos Perez

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The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent catcher Carlos Perez, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training and would earn a $650K base salary upon making the big league roster.

Perez, 28, appeared in 20 games for the Rangers and another eight for the Braves in 2018, hitting a combined .143/.178/.214 in a tiny sample of 75 plate appearances. Perez has never hit much in the Majors, though last year’s struggles were a new low point in terms of his offensive output; he’s a lifetime .215/.257/.319 hitter in 670 PAs — all of which came with the Angels with the exception of last year’s brief stints in Atlanta and Texas.

For all of his offensive deficiencies, Perez is a gifted defender behind the plate. He’s thrown out a terrific 38 percent of attempted base thieves in his MLB career and a similarly strong 36 percent in parts of 11 minor league seasons. He’s also regularly received average or better grades for his framing and pitch blocking abilities, per Baseball Prospectus.

Chance Sisco, Austin Wynns and Andrew Susac are the only catchers on the Orioles’ 40-man roster, and none of that trio has proven himself capable of producing at the game’s top level just yet. While there’s hope that Sisco, long one of the game’s top catching prospects, will take that step forward in the near future, it’s also not a surprise to see Baltimore add some defensive-minded insurance on the cheap, given the uncertainty that permeates the catching corps at present.

Rangers Decline Club Options Over Chirinos, Fister, Moore, Perez

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The Rangers have declined club options over catcher Robinson Chirinos and pitchers Doug Fister, Matt Moore, and Martin Perez. That’s a surprising move on the veteran backstop, though all three hurlers seemed destined to be sent onto the open market.

The Texas organization has also announced a long list of players who were outrighted from the 40-man roster. Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Clayton Blackburn, Brandon Mann, Carlos Perez, and Ryan Rua are all weighing outright assignments after seemingly clearing waivers.

Chirinos, 34, had seemed a fairly easy choice to remain behind the dish in Texas. His option had risen in value to $4.5MM due to plate-appearance escalators, Joel Sherman of the New York Post notes on Twitter, but the team will pay him $1MM just to walk away.

While Chirinos is not noted for his skill behind the dish — in particular, he slipped to dreadful framing ratings in 2018 — he’s a highly respected player. And he also has consistently delivered much more offensive than the average catcher, with a .233/.324/.438 career slash and 35 home runs over the 735 plate appearances he has accrued since the start of 2017.

All three pitchers will be looking for bounceback opportunities after forgettable seasons. Fister will receive a $500K buyout; his option was priced at $4.5MM. The Moore deal included a $750K  buyout, which he’ll take home in lieu of a $10MM payday. Perez, meanwhile, gets $1MM in total buyouts as the club passes on its chance to keep him in 2019 ($7.5MM) and 2020 ($9MM).

Rangers Select Carlos Perez

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The Rangers have selected the contract of catcher Carlos Perez after placing Hanser Alberto on the disabled list with a hamstring injury (first report: Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). In order to make room on the 40-man roster, they’ve recalled right-hander Nick Gardewine and placed him on the 60-day DL with a forearm strain.

Perez has been waiver wire bait multiple times already this season. The Braves designated him for assignment earlier this season, which is how he ended up with Texas in the first place. While the Rangers gave him a brief look, they ultimately outrighted him to Triple-A Round Rock in order to make room for lefty reliever Joe Palumbo after he’d fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. He’s spent the past six weeks in the minors waiting for his next opportunity.

Perez has never showed much talent with the bat in the majors; indeed he’s hit just .159/.197/.238 this season. His usefulness comes more from his defensive capabilities behind the plate, where he’s been well above-average. Still, despite his pathetic numbers in the majors, he’s been fantastic at clobbering minor league pitching across the past two seasons. He owns a .316/.368/.494 at Round Rock in 2018, and while those 87 plate appearances don’t serve as a significant sample size, he managed an even better .352/.423/.502 performance in Triple-A while with the Angels organization last season. If he can realize even a semblance of that potential in the majors, he’ll be a useful major-leaguer for the Rangers.

Rangers Outright Carlos Perez

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The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve activated catcher Carlos Perez from the 10-day disabled list and sent him outright to Triple-A Round Rock. In doing so, they’re creating a roster spot that’ll go to lefty Joe Palumbo who has been activated from the 60-day DL and optioned to Class-A Advanced Down East. Palumbo had been recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Perez, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Braves back in early May and appeared in 16 games with Texas before landing on the disabled list. In that time, he posted a lowly .167/.205/.286 slash with a homer and a pair of doubles in 46 plate appearances. He’s never been much of a threat with the bat in the big leagues, hitting a combined .218/.260/.322 in 663 PAs between the Angels, Braves and Rangers.

Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. He’s successfully halted 39 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.

Rangers Claim Carlos Perez From Braves

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The Rangers announced that they’ve claimed catcher Carlos Perez off waivers from the Braves. Texas has opened a 40-man roster spot by transferring injured shortstop Elvis Andrus from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. That move seemingly carries little impact on Andrus’ timetable for a return from an elbow fracture, as he was widely expected to miss around eight weeks with the injury anyhow. As Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets, Andrus can be activated on June 11.

Texas didn’t immediately reveal a corresponding 25-man roster move, as executive VP of communications John Blake indicated that said move will be announced tomorrow. However, it seems unlikely that the Rangers would carry three catchers on the big league roster, and Perez is out of minor league options, so it’s fair to speculate that current backup catcher Juan Centeno’s spot could be in jeopardy. It’s also possible, of course, that one of Centeno or Robinson Chirinos is dealing with a yet-undisclosed injury and could land on the disabled list, thus prompting the Texas organization to pick up some additional depth behind the dish.

Perez, 27, was traded from the Angels to the Braves on March 31 in the wake of an injury to Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers. He appeared in eight games with the Braves but went just 3-for-21 with a walk and six strikeouts in 22 trips to the plate. That lack of production mirrors Perez’s meager output from a near-identical sample of 21 plate appearances in 2017 with the Halos. Overall, he’s hit just .122/.163/.195 over the past two seasons and .221/.264/.325 in a total of 617 big league plate appearances.

Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. The Venezuelan-born backstop has successfully halted 38 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.

It’s been an ugly start to the season for the season for the 28-year-old Centeno, which only makes it easier to speculate on his potential dismissal. He’s posted a tepid .147/.171/.176 slash in 35 plate appearances as the backup to Chirinos, and while he’s yet to have an opponent attempt a steal against him, Centeno has just a 13 percent caught-stealing rate as a Major League catcher.

Braves Designate Carlos Perez

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The Braves have designated catcher Carlos Perez for assignment, per a club announcement. That move came as part of a series of decisions.

Fellow receiver Tyler Flowers will make his return from the DL, which left the team without a need for Perez. The Atlanta organization also elected to bring up righty Chase Whitley while optioning Matt Wisler back to Triple-A.

Perez had a chance to make a case to be retained by the Braves after being acquired from the Angels at the outset of the season. But he managed just three singles and a walk in his 22 plate appearances for the Braves. Though he has hit the ball well at times in the minors, Perez is just a .221/.264/.325 hitter over 617 total trips to the dish at the game’s highest level.

On the pitching side, the Braves will fill out their pen by calling upon Whitley, who was acquired from the Rays over the winter. He has thrown 12 1/3 innings of 3.65 ERA ball thus far at Triple-A, with ten strikeouts against three walks. A veteran of four MLB campaigns, two apiece with the Yankees and Rays, Whitley will be joining the Braves’ MLB roster for the first time.

As for Wisler, he raised hopes with a strong season debut in which he racked up eight strikeouts without issuing a walk in seven two-hit innings. But he coughed up three free passes, nine hits, and four earned runs without recording a single K in his next outing. For now, then, the former top prospect will head back to Gwinnett and wait for another opportunity.

After 310 total frames of 5.20 ERA ball in the majors, Wisler remains in a somewhat precarious roster position. That said the Braves have cleared several 40-man spots in recent weeks, so the pressure shouldn’t be felt immediately, particularly given the team’s ongoing need for rotation depth and the fact that Wisler’s first two outings at Triple-A were quite good.

Braves Select Contract Of Anibal Sanchez, Designate Miguel Socolovich

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The Braves announced on Monday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran righty Anibal Sanchez and designated right-hander Miguel Socolovich for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. Additionally, the Braves added trade acquisition Carlos Perez to the active roster and cleared room by placing righty Josh Ravin on the 10-day DL with a viral infection. The Braves acquired Perez from the Angels over the weekend in a straight-up swap for infielder Ryan Schimpf.

Sanchez, 33, will look to revitalize a career that has gone south in recent seasons. Signed to a five-year, $80MM contract by the Tigers in the 2012-13 offseason, the right-hander vastly outperformed his salary in the first two seasons of that deal, taking home an American League ERA title in 2013 and turning in a strong 2014 campaign as well. However, the final three seasons of that pact quickly turned into a disaster for the Tigers, as Sanchez’s effectiveness quickly evaporated.

From 2015-17 with the Tigers, Sanchez logged a total of 415 2/3 innings and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. The righty still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.

He’ll eventually slot into the rotation behind Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb and Brandon McCarthy and serve as a bridge to one of Atlanta’s many impressive young arms in the upper levels of the minor leagues. For now, though, Sanchez is likely to work out of the ’pen due to the fact that Atlanta doesn’t need a fifth starter for another week or so.

Socolovich’s time with the Braves will be extremely brief. His contract was only selected this past Friday, though reports at the time even indicated that it was likely to be a short-term move. Socolovich did get into one game with the Braves, during which he tossed two perfect innings with a pair of punchouts. Prior to this abbreviated Atlanta stint, the 31-year-old spent three seasons in the Cardinals organization, totaling 66 1/3 innings of relief. With the Cards, Socolovich logged a 3.80 ERA with 7.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 44.1 percent ground-ball rate.

NL East Notes: Kapler, Braves, Marlins

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The Phillies will receive a formal warning letter from Major League Baseball in the wake of an unusual situation from Saturday’s game, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets.  The league ruled that home plate umpire Jerry Layne was right to allow Phils reliever Hoby Milner some extra warm-up pitches after Milner was brought into the game seemingly without warning by manager Gabe Kapler, as Milner wasn’t even up in the bullpen.  The Braves objected to Milner being allowed any warm-up pitches after being called into the game, yet Layne felt the extra time was necessary for the sake of Milner’s health.  Kapler’s usage of his bullpen has already become a controversial subject in Philadelphia, as the Phillies used 21 pitchers over their first three games of the season.  “Any time we have a miscommunication it’s my responsibility so I take full responsibility for it,” Kapler told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salibury and other media after the game.

Some more items from the NL East…

  • The Braves are set to add both Anibal Sanchez and Carlos Perez to their 25-man roster for tomorrow’s game, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.  Corresponding moves have yet to be determined, as Atlanta still isn’t certain whether Kurt Suzuki could require some DL time after he was hit in the hand with a pitch on Friday.  Perez is out of options, so the newly-acquired catcher seemed likely to get an immediate placement on the MLB roster to avoid being exposed to waivers.  Sanchez was signed to a minor league contract two weeks ago and will make $1MM for reaching the Braves’ big league roster.
  • There could be quite a bit of roster-juggling for the Braves in the next couple of weeks, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman details in a reader mailbag piece.  Bowman actually wasn’t certain the team would go ahead with promoting Sanchez since the Braves don’t need a fifth starter until April 10, and there wasn’t any major need to use Sanchez out of the bullpen since the relievers weren’t overly taxed over Atlanta’s first three games.  (Plus, the Braves are off today and on April 5.)  Much will depend on Suzuki’s DL status or if Johan Camargo will be immediately activated when he is eligible to come off the disabled list on April 5, or if the Braves will give Camargo some time in the minors to get fully up to speed after missing three weeks.
  • The Marlins will purchase the contract of right-hander Trevor Richards from Triple-A New Orleans tomorrow in time for Richards to start Monday’s game against the Red Sox.  The 24-year-old Richards will be making his Major League debut.  After going undrafted out of Drury University, Richards pitched in independent ball before signing with the Marlins in 2016 and has done nothing but impress in Miami’s farm system.  Richards has a 2.52 ERA, 9.5 K/9, and 4.59 K/BB rate over 200 1/3 innings, starting 34 of his 38 career appearances as a Marlins prospect.

Braves, Angels Swap Ryan Schimpf, Carlos Perez

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The Angels have acquired infielder Ryan Schimpf from the Braves for catcher Carlos Perez, according to an announcement from Los Angeles. Schimpf will head to Triple-A, per the Angels.

Injuries likely played a part in this deal for both teams. The Angels sent second baseman Ian Kinsler to the disabled list on Saturday, while Braves catcher Tyler Flowers was already on the DL with an oblique strain. Flowers’ backup, Kurt Suzuki, took a pitch off the hand during an at-bat on Friday, though he won’t need a DL stint, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports. Nevertheless, that injury scare was all the more reason for the Braves to add depth in the wake of Flowers’ loss.

Schimpf, 29, lasted less than a month with the Braves, who acquired him from the Rays on March 5. He’s best known for a solid 2016 campaign in San Diego, where he batted .217/.336/.533 (130 wRC+) with 20 home runs in 330 plate appearances. Schimpf’s success that year (his rookie season) came thanks in part to both a 64.9 percent fly ball rate and a 12.7 percent walk rate. At the same time, Schimpf struck out in nearly 32 percent of PAs. His swing-and-miss tendencies carried into 2017, when he fanned 35.5 percent of the time and saw his overall production plummet. Across 197 PAs, Schimpf hit .158/.284/.424 (88 wRC+) with 14 HRs, but he continued to rack up fly balls (63.9 percent) and walks (13.7 percent).

The 27-year-old Perez lost his spot on the Angels when they designated him for assignment earlier this week to make room for Shohei Ohtani’s promotion. Perez amassed upward of 280 PAs with the Angels in both the 2015 and ’16 campaigns, but the addition of Martin Maldonado last year helped limit him to just 21 big league trips to the plate. Over 595 PAs with the Angels, Perez batted .224/.267/.332 (64 wRC+). On the defensive side, Perez threw out an impressive 38 percent of would-be base stealers (far above the 30 percent league average) during his Angels tenure, though he did draw minus pitch-framing marks from 2015-16. With no options remaining, Perez will have to go through waivers if the Braves attempt to demote him to the minors.

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