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Minor MLB Transactions: 1/28/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…

  • The Cubs announced that left-hander Manny Parra has been signed to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to the team’s spring camp.  This is the second straight offseason that has seen Parra sign a minor league contract with the Cubs, though he didn’t pitch at all in 2016.  Originally a starter with the Brewers, the 34-year-old Parra posted a 3.91 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 2.9 K/BB rate over 115 relief innings for the Reds from 2013-15.
  • The Cubs signed right-hander Casey Kelly to a minor league deal, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (Twitter link).  Once considered one of the game’s better pitching prospects, Kelly has managed only a 6.39 ERA over 62 innings in the majors, though his career was interrupted by Tommy John surgery in 2013.  As Eddy notes, the signing reunites Kelly with Theo Epstein (who was the Red Sox GM when Kelly was drafted 30th overall by Boston in 2008) and Jed Hoyer (who was the Padres GM when Kelly was part of the trade package acquired for Adrian Gonzalez in December 2010).
  • Parra and Kelly were two of 24 non-roster invitees to the Cubs’ Spring Training camp, as announced yesterday by the club.  The list includes southpaw Gerardo Concepcion and righties Conor Mullee, Christian Villanueva and Zac Rosscup, who were all non-tendered by the Cubs in December to free up 40-man roster space.
  • The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Leonel Campos has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.  Campos was designated for assignment earlier this week when Toronto claimed Juan Graterol off waivers from the Angels.  Campos was himself claimed off waivers back in November following a season that saw him post a 5.73 ERA, 9.8 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9 over 22 relief innings for the Padres.  Control has been an issue for Campos throughout his entire pro career, as the righty also has a 5.0 BB/9 over 250 2/3 career minor league innings.
  • The Diamondbacks signed outfielder Jake Goebbert and catcher Willians Astudillo to minor league deals, Matt Eddy reports (Twitter link).  Goebbert has a solid .276/.363/.443 slash line over 3483 career minor league plate appearances, though he hasn’t been able to translate those results into much playing time in the bigs — his MLB resume consists of 115 PA with the Padres in 2014.  Goebbert spent 2016 with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate and struggled to the tune of a .661 OPS in 364 PA.  Astudillo, a 25-year-old catcher out of Venezuela, has hit .309/.348/.391 over 2026 minor league PA.  He spent his first six pro seasons in the Phillies system before moving to the Braves in 2016 and reaching the Double-A level for the first time.

2016-17 National 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 National League in this post (all referenced arbitration projections courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)…

  • Departing the Rockies’ 40-man are righty Matt Carasiti and infielder/outfielder Stephen Cardullo, the club announced. Neither was eligible for arbitration.
  • The Braves non-tendered righty Chris Withrow, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets.
  • The Pirates non-tendered lefty Jeff Locke, as had been increasingly expected, as Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets. Catcher Eric Fryer was also dropped; he was not eligible for arbitration.
  • The Cubs non-tendered four pre-arb players to clear 40-man space, MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat tweets. Lefty Gerardo Concepcion and righties Zac Rosscup, Conor Mullee, and Christian Villanueva were all taken off the roster.
  • Righty Louis Coleman was not tendered a contract by the Dodgers, per a team announcement.
  • The Reds have non-tendered three players, as C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. Catcher Ramon Cabrera, righty Keyvius Sampson, and outfielder Gabriel Guerrero were all dropped from the roster.
  • As expected, outfielder Ben Revere has been non-tendered by the Nationals. (The non-tender was first reported by the TalkNats blog on Twitter.) The club’s other eligible players — including shortstop Danny Espinosa — have been offered contracts. Revere projected to earn $6.3MM despite an abysmal 2016 campaign, his first in D.C. The 28-year-old still offers speed and defense, but will need to improve quite a bit upon his .217/.260/.300 slash. He has been a near-average bat in prior years, so there’s reason for some optimism, but at that rate it proved too costly.
  • The Cardinals have cut ties with righty Seth Maness rather than tendering him a contract, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch tweets. St. Louis has tendered all its remaining players with arb eligibility. While Maness, 28, has been a steady pen presence for the Cards, he underwent surgery on his UCL in mid-August. He did manage to avoid a full ligament replacement, and comes with another year of control, but evidently the price was too high for the Cards to roll the dice. Maness had projected to receive a $1.6MM salary and would have commanded at least that again in 2018.

Cubs Claim Conor Mullee, Outright Three Players

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The Cubs have claimed righty Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees, per announcements from the team. Chicago also selected the contract of righty Jose Rosario while outrighting three players: right-handers Dallas Beeler and Andury Acevedo as well as catcher Tim Federowicz.

Fresh off a World Series win, the Cubs will enter the winter in earnest with just 34 of its 40-man roster spots accounted for. That space allowed the team to take a flier on Mullee, who has had arm issues over the years and required elbow surgery in 2016.

Despite the injuries, and a less-than-inspiring (albeit brief) major league debut last year, Mullee has shown some intriguing numbers in the minors. Most recently, he ran up 37 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.19 ERA and 11.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.

Chicago will presumably give Mullee a shot in camp along with the 26-year-old Rosario, who has yet to crack the bigs but has an intriguing power arm. Pitching at the three highest levels of the minors last year after missing 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, Rosario worked to a cumulative 2.50 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.

Otherwise, the 27-year-old Beeler lost his roster spot after shoulder injuries cut his season short. Acevedo, who was signed to the 40-man last winter, missed almost all the year with a torn ACL. And the 29-year-old Federowicz saw time briefly with the Cubs, but didn’t have much of a shot at the roster in 2017 with a deep group of catchers ahead of him. After showing well at Triple-A, though, he’ll surely get a crack somewhere in Spring Training.

Cubs Claim Conor Mullee From Yankees

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The Cubs were busy winning their first World Series since 1908 on Wednesday, but that didn’t stop them from adding to their 40-man roster. The club claimed right-hander Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees.

Mullee, 28, had been a member of the Yankees organization since going in the 24th round of the 2010 draft. Injuries have been highly problematic during his professional career, unfortunately, as he missed nearly all of the 2011-13 campaigns because of various surgeries – including a Tommy John procedure. Remarkably, Mullee persevered through those issues to make his major league debut in 2016, tossing three innings of one-run ball with the Yankees. However, he once again underwent surgery – this time to repair a nerve issue in his elbow – thus ending his season in August.

Over 162 career minor league frames, including 40 at the Triple-A level, Mullee has pitched to a stingy 2.00 ERA with impressive strikeout and walk rates of 9.1 and 2.6 per nine innings. That terrific body of work has helped earn Mullee a place on the World Series champions’ 40-man roster, at least for now.

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