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Mike Gerber

Rockies, Mike Gerber Agree To Minor League Pact

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The Rockies are in agreement with free-agent outfielder Mike Gerber on a minor league contract, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.

The 27-year-old Gerber spent the 2019 season in the Giants organization but didn’t find any success in a limited big league stint. The former Tigers farmhand went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants. However, Gerber did put together an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. He’d previously struggled quite a bit in limited time at the Triple-A level, but the Rockies will take a no-risk look as they gauge whether the strides he took were more attributable to genuine improvement or to this year’s video-game-esque offensive environment in Triple-A.

Both Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl are entrenched in the Colorado outfield, while Sam Hilliard impressed quite a bit in his brief MLB debut in 2019. Longtime prospect Raimel Tapia is out of minor league options, so stumbled through a rough 2019 showing, he seems likely to have a good shot at cracking the MLB roster. Garrett Hampson, meanwhile, struggled early in the year and has played more infield than outfield, but he was logging time in center during a torrid stretch September and could be in line for outfield time next season. Yonathan Daza, 25, represents another 40-man option that Gerber would have to leapfrog in order to make the roster, but there’s enough uncertainty on the Rockies’ 40-man unit at present that he could conceivably earn a look at some point.

Giants’ Mike Gerber Elects Free Agency; Ricardo Pinto To Sign With KBO Club

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7:52pm: Pinto’s deal comes with a $550K base salary, a $100K signing bonus and another $250K of incentives, MLBTR has learned.

5:12pm: The Giants announced today that outfielder Mike Gerber rejected an outright assignment and instead elected free agency. Additionally, per the club, right-hander Ricardo Pinto was released to pursue an opportunity with the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization. Both players had recently been designated for assignment.

Gerber, 27, went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants at the MLB level, though he did author an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. The former Tigers prospect had never hit much in Triple-A before that — he batted .213/.277/.411 in 316 plate appearances with Triple-A Toledo in 2018 — and he’ll turn 28 next summer.

Pinto, meanwhile, was a September waiver claim out of the Rays organization who never pitched in a game for San Francisco. He allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay this season in addition to 123 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA ball at the Triple-A level. The L.A. Sports Management client has appeared in parts of three Triple-A campaigns overall, working more as a reliever than a starter and pitching to a combined 4.47 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 219 2/3 frames.

Giants Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The Giants announced a flurry of roster moves, claiming infielder Kean Wong from the Angels and right-hander Trevor Oaks from the Royals. The Giants also formally announced their previously reported claim of righty Rico Garcia from the Rockies organization. In order to open space on for the trio of new additions, San Francisco designated outfielder Mike Gerber and right-hander Ricardo Pinto for assignment.

Wong’s time in the Angels organization will ultimately last barely more than a month. The Halos claimed him from the Rays near the end of the season, and the 24-year-old went hitless in four plate appearances in the lone game for which he suited up with the team. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut as a September call-up with Tampa Bay. Between his six games with the Rays and one game with the Angels, he went 3-for-18.

Wong spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Durham, where he logged his second consecutive above-average season at the plate. After hitting .282/.345/.406 with nine homers, 23 doubles, three triples and seven steals in 2018, he turned in a .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals in 2019. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A this season, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+. Primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong began logging time at third base and in the outfield beginning in 2018 as the Rays looked to enhance his versatility.

Oaks, meanwhile, is a known commodity for Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The 26-year-old Oaks was a seventh-round pick by Zaidi’s former club, the Dodgers, back in 2014 and was traded to Kansas City in a three-team swap while Zaidi was serving as general manager under L.A. president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman.

At the time of that trade, which sent Scott Alexander to Los Angeles, Oaks was ranked in the middle of the Dodgers’ farm system. He looked like a potential back-of-the-rotation option but has seen his prospect status derailed by hip surgery that wiped out his 2019 season. He was healthy enough to take the ball in the Arizona Fall League this year, though, where he allowed six earned runs on 14 hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 12 innings of work.

Oaks was hit hard in his MLB debut in 2018 but did put together 128 1/3 innings of 3.23 ERA ball with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate that season. Unfortunately, he averaged a dismal 4.9 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 along the way — though his 50.8 percent ground-ball rate was a bit more encouraging. For now, Oaks will add some upper-level depth to the Giants roster.

None of the three players claimed today, however, should be considered any kind of lock to survive the winter on the Giants’ roster. Zaidi and his staff have been known to aggressively claim players off waivers in hopes of successfully passing that player through waivers themselves shortly thereafter as a means of keeping those new talents without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

As for the players cut loose — neither is particularly surprising. Gerber, 27, went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants at the MLB level, though he did author an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. The former Tigers prospect had never hit much in Triple-A before that, however, and he’ll turn 28 next summer.

Pinto, meanwhile, was a September waiver claim out of the Rays organization who never pitched in a game for San Francisco. He allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay this season in addition to 123 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA ball at the Triple-A level. The Giants have seven days to trade, release or waive Gerber and Pinto.

Giants Designate Corban Joseph For Assignment

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The Giants made a number of roster moves today, with Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group reporting that the club has designated infielder Corban Joseph for assignment. Taking his spot on the 40-man roster will be Cristhian Adames, who had his contract selected. He’ll be joined on the Major League roster by Mike Gerber, who was also promoted.

After the Giants claimed him off waivers from the crosstown Athletics, Joseph only made 17 plate appearances with San Francisco, mustering lackluster numbers. He tallied a .180 OPS—albeit in just eight games—with the fourth organization of his career.

There’s a chance that number will grow to five, as rival teams will have a chance to claim Joseph on waivers, though he may be traded, released, or assigned outright if he goes unclaimed. He hasn’t yet gotten a real extended chance in the big leagues, as he hasn’t earned more than 57 plate appearances in a single season.

Giants To Select Mike Gerber, Designate Gerardo Parra

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3:01pm: This move is now official. In other news, the club has bumped catcher Erik Kratz to the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain to make way for the promotion of Tyler Beede.

2:19pm: The Giants are planning a bit of a shake-up in the outfield. They’ll select the contract of Mike Gerber, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). To create a roster opening, the team will designate veteran Gerardo Parra, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

Gerber, 26, had a miserable showing in his first taste of the majors last year. But the Giants saw enough to claim him from the Tigers, later bumping him from their 40-man roster but hanging onto his rights.

The low-risk move has paid off to this point. Gerber is off to a .357/.402/.655 start with six home runs over 92 plate appearances at Triple-A. He also has struck out 27 times while drawing only five walks, but the quality of contact remains intriguing.

Parra, who’s closing in on his 32nd birthday, is an eleven-year MLB veteran who settled for a minor-league deal with the Giants. It was widely expected that he’d claim a roster spot once camp closed, and that indeed proved to be the case.

Things haven’t shaken out as hoped to this point. Parra carries a meager .198/.278/.267 batting line through 97 plate appearances. He’s sure to hold appeal to other organizations as a depth piece, but will almost certainly have to spent some time at Triple-A for the first time in a long while (excepting a few short rehab stints).

It isn’t known whether Parra agreed to an advance consent clause before season. If so, the club would be able to cut him loose without paying him the full $1.75MM salary called for in his contract. If not, the obligation would remain (less any other big-league earnings he’s able to command later in the season).

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/30/19

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We’ll use this post to track the day’s minor moves …

  • Joining the Pirates on a minor-league contract is right-hander Vicente Campos, according to John Dreker of Pirates Prospects. The contract includes an invitation to MLB camp. Once a rather well-regarded pitching prospect, Campos ran into injury and performance issues just as he was reaching MLB readiness. As things stand, he has just one appearance at the game’s highest level and has thrown only 46 total frames over the past two seasons. Dreker writes, though, that Campos has been clocked in the mid-nineties and found some success this winter in his native Venezuela.
  • The Dodgers added outfielder Ezequiel Carrera on a minors deal, per reports. Now 31 years of age, Carrera has seen action in seven MLB seasons and was a frequently-utilized reserve with the Blue Jays from 2016-17. Last year, though, he struggled quite a bit at the Triple-A level with the Braves and Mets organizations and failed to get a look at the majors.
  • Outfielder Mike Gerber was outrighted after clearing waivers, per the Giants. He’ll remain under control of the San Francisco organization after being claimed and then designated for assignment earlier in the offseason. The 26-year-old Gerber is only a .224/.286/.428 hitter in 334 Triple-A plate appearances but had posted strong numbers at every other level in the Tigers’ farm system.

Giants Sign Drew Pomeranz

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2:55pm: The incentive pay is quite achievable, so long as the Giants keep Pomeranz on board and keep him in the rotation. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has the details (Twitter link).

Pomeranz gets $500K if he’s on the active roster coming out of camp and upon the season’s 150th day, in addition to a quarter million apiece for being on the roster 90 and 120 days into the 2019 campaign. He also receives $250K for reaching 25 and 50 innings, a provision which will be met early if he’s a starter and can still be triggered if he works from the pen.

The rest of the cash requires Pomeranz to open ballgames. He gets $125K apiece upon his second, fourth, sixth, and eighth start; $100K upon reaching 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 27, and 30; and a final $200K if he records a full 32-start campaign.

2:05pm: The Giants announced the move, with outfielder Mike Gerber being designated for assignment to clear roster space.

12:43pm: The Giants have agreed to terms with southpaw Drew Pomeranz, according to Larry Krueger of KNBR. Pomeranz will be guaranteed just $1.5MM, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com tweets. There are incentives that can push the total value to $5MM, though, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (Twitter link).

Pomeranz becomes the second veteran lefty to sign no in San Francisco this winter, joining Derek Holland in that regard. He’ll be looking to follow Holland in a different regard as well — namely, utilizing the opportunity to work in the spacious ballpark to help spur a career turnaround.

New Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi may have relied on the opinions of preexisting staff members in bringing back Holland, but he’s no doubt applying plenty of his own experience in securing a deal with Pomeranz. Zaidi was a key member of the Oakland front office during the lefty’s tenure with the Athletics.

At thirty years of age, Pomeranz could still author a second bounceback, having done so previously when he landed with the A’s after washing out with the Rockies. It wasn’t long ago, after all, that Pomeranz was wrapping up a four-year run in which he threw 499 1/3 innings of 3.24 ERA ball with 9.1 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9.

Unfortunately, Pomeranz’s final season with the RedSox — who gave up a top prospect to get him in a trade that ultimately came under scrutiny for the Padres’ failure to disclose medical info — did not go as well as his first full year in Boston. Making it through just 74 innings in an injury-ravaged 2018 season, Pomeranz worked to an ugly 6.08 ERA while allowing 5.4 free passes and 1.5 home runs per nine innings. Arm issues clearly nagged him all year long, with a flexor tendon strain and biceps tendinitis ultimately identified as specific maladies, as Pomeranz lost nearly two ticks on his average fastball.

All things considered, this seems like a rather easy and minimal risk for the Giants to take. It stands to reason that the club offered Pomeranz a clear path to a rotation job as part of its sales pitch, though the plans are not fully clear. If he does take a spot in the starting five, it would appear to bump fellow lefties Andrew Suarez and Ty Blach out of the prospective Opening Day rotation (at least on paper).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants Claim Mike Gerber

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The Tigers announced today that the Giants have claimed outfielder Mike Gerber off waivers. He’ll head onto the San Francisco 40-man roster — representing the first such addition of new president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

Gerber, 26, only briefly touched the bigs last year and struggled for much of the year at Triple-A. Previously, though, he had been a steady producer on the Tigers farm. Indeed, he produced .800+ OPS figures over each of his first four seasons as a professional.

Tigers Designate Drew VerHagen For Assignment

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The Tigers announced that they’ve recalled outfielder Mike Gerber from Triple-A Toledo and designated right-hander Drew VerHagen for assignment in order to clear a spot on the active roster. Gerber served as the 26th man in yesterday’s doubleheader but will now formally join the active roster.

VerHagen, 27, has struggled with the Tigers in each of the past few seasons, totaling 63 2/3 innings with a 6.25 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. The righty has a mid-90s heater that is averaging 96.1 mph this season, and he’s shown a knack for inducing grounders in his big league career as well (57.8 percent). But VerHagen was extremely homer-prone in 2017, surrendering 10 long balls in just 34 1/3 innings, and he’s out of minor league options, so the Tigers weren’t able to simply send him to the minors.

If he clears waivers, VerHagen will remain with the organization via an outright assignment, though that’s not a given. In addition to his velocity and penchant for ground-balls, he’s also notched a significant jump in his swinging-strike rate in 2017, spiking from a pedestrian 9.5 percent in 2017 to a considerably more impressive 15.4 percent in 2018. It’s a sample of merely 10 innings, of course, but VerHagen has punched out 11 hitters. The jump in strikeout rate and velocity have been complemented by VerHagen throwing his slider roughly twice as often as he did in 2017. Certainly, there are some elements to like about the 6’6″ righty, so perhaps he’ll generate interest elsewhere despite lackluster run-prevention numbers.

The 25-year-old Gerber, meanwhile, spent most of the 2017 season in Double-A, where he turned in a strong .291/.363/.477 slash with 13 homers, 22 doubles, two triples and 10 steals (in 16 attempts) before briefly reaching the Triple-A level. Detroit protected him from the Rule 5 Draft by placing him on the 40-man roster this past offseason on the heels of that quality effort. He’ll join an outfield mix that currently has JaCoby Jones in left, Leonys Martin in center, Nicholas Castellanos in right and Rule 5 pick Victor Reyes as a reserve option on the bench.

Given the team’s desire to hang onto Reyes, it’s likely that Gerber’s recall will be short-term in nature for now. But the rebuilding Tigers could potentially part ways with Martin and/or Castellanos this summer, and Jones is hardly an established fixture in left (though he is off to a very nice start in 2018). Gerber could eventually find himself with a opportunity to take on a greater role at any of the three outfield slots, as he does come with plenty of experience in center field.

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