• The Padres have agreed to minors deals with non-tendered players Jose Pirela and Hector Sanchez, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports via Twitter. San Diego will also bring in outfielder Rafael Ortega and righty Andre Rienzo on minor-league deals. Of this group, Sanchez has the most major league experience and seems most likely to have a chance to reaching the bigs in San Diego. He has seen time in each of the past six major league campaigns, compiling a .241/.278/.354 batting line across 691 plate appearances. Ortega, though, saw the most time in 2016, posting a .232/.283/.292 slash in 202 plate appearances with the Angels.
• Righty Stephen Fife and first baseman Tyler Moore are the newest additions to the Marlins organization, per Eddy (on Twitter). Fife, 30, saw time in three years for the Dodgers and owns a 3.66 ERA in his 91 major league frames. After missing time for Tommy John surgery, he returned to make ten Triple-A starts in the Cubs organization in 2016, working to a 4.58 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Moore, meanwhile, spent parts of four years in the majors with the Nationals, but struggled in limited action last year at the Braves’ top affiliate.
• The Astros agreed to terms with 26-year-old southpaw C.J. Riefenhauser, Eddy tweets. He’ll likely end up as a depth piece, as he did last year with the Cubs. Riefenhauser does have twenty major league innings under his belt — all with the Rays, and with a 6.30 ERA — but spent all of 2016 at Triple-A (with Fife), where he posted a 4.71 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9 over 28 2/3 frames.
• The White Sox have added outfielder Caleb Gindl on a minors pact, Eddy further tweets. Despite showing some promise upon reaching the majors in 2013 with the Brewers, Gindl fell off badly in each of the ensuing two seasons. He ended up playing indy ball last year, but showed enough with the Lancaster Barnstormers to return to an affiliated club.
• Outfielder Lane Adams is headed to the Braves on a minors pact, also via Eddy (on Twitter). The 27-year-old has exceedingly brief major league time, but has spent the past several seasons in the upper minors. Last year, with the Yankees and Cubs organizations, Adams put up a .266/.342/.388 batting line and swiped 44 bags to go with ten home runs over 481 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A.
• The Orioles added infielder/outfielder Sean Coyle on a minor-league deal, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. Now 24, Coyle was once seen as  solid prospect in the Red Sox’ system. But he struggled badly last year in the upper minors, posting a cumulative .181/.269/.293 batting line over 426 plate appearances. He was claimed in mid-season by the Angels, but ended up being dropped from the team’s 40-man.
• The Phillies outrighted righty Michael Mariot, who was recently designated for assignment.

• The D-backs have outrighted left-hander Adam Loewen to Triple-A Reno following last week’s DFA. The 32-year-old has spent time as both a pitcher and an outfielder over the life of his pro career but has returned to the mound for the past few seasons. He yielded 10 runs in six big league innings with the D-backs this year but had a 3.43 ERA in 39 1/3 innings with Reno prior to the original purchase of his contract. Loewen has whiffed 44 batters in that time, but he’s also walked 28, demonstrating some significant control problems.
• Outfielder Daniel Robertson has been outrighted to Triple-A by the Mariners. He, too, was designated for assignment last week but, like Loewen, ultimately cleared waivers. The 30-year-old can handle all three outfield positions and has a solid .289/.361/.394 batting line in parts of five Triple-A seasons to go along with a .277/.322/.325 slash in 298 big league PAs.
• The Angels have outrighted second baseman Sean Coyle to Double-A after he was designated for assignment last weekend. The Halos picked up the former Red Sox prospect on waivers earlier this year, but his .140/.252/.237 slash in 110 plate appearances with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate led to the loss of his 40-man roster spot.
• The Angels also released fleet-footed outfielder Quintin Berry from their Triple-A affiliate. The 31-year-old Berry batted .270/.348/.325 with 35 stolen bases in 45 attempts over the life of 100 games/395 plate appearances this season. Berry’s wheels have landed him a big league job in each of the past three Septembers, and another club could look to add him to the 40-man roster when rosters expand in September in order to give its manager a late-inning weapon on the basepaths.
• Left-hander Josh Outman has been released by the Pirates. The 31-year-old inked a minor league deal with Pittsburgh earlier this summer and wound up posting a 4.95 ERA in 20 innings with the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. That number isn’t exactly eye-catching, but Outman did post a solid 15-to-3 K/BB ratio and, in 23 plate appearances, limited left-handed hitters to a miserable .100/.217/.100 batting line with eight punchouts, so perhaps a team in need of a lefty specialist will consider him for the season’s final month.

The Angels claimed Coyle from the Red Sox last month. The 24-year-old has never hit much (with a career .236/.317/.418 minor league line and a mere .159/.263/.274 performance in the high minors this season) and has never played in the Majors, although he does offer a bit of flexibility, since he can play second, third and center field.

Coyle once rated as one of the more promising farmhands in the Boston organization but struggled through a dismal 2015 season and hasn’t fared much better in 2016. The 5’8″ infielder batted .295/.371/.512 with 16 homers and 13 steals in 384 Double-A plate appearances as a 22-year-old in 2014 but hasn’t been productive since. After a poor showing in the 2014 Arizona Fall League, Coyle batted .193/.294/.341 in 52 games last season as he battled a trapezius injury throughout the 2015 season. In 64 games this year, he’s batted an equally disappointing .165/.263/.280, prompting his DFA.

The Halos, however, can use all of the middle infield depth they can get, and Coyle isn’t so far removed from his status as an interesting prospect that a rebound is out of the question. He won’t turn 25 until next January and already has a fair bit of experience at the Triple-A level, even if his results there have been unsightly to this point in his career. Coyle has always been strikeout-prone, but he saw a significant uptick in his whiff rates in both 2015 and 2016, so the Halos will hope they can generate more contact out of him and restore some of his stock following a change of scenery.

[Related: Updated Red Sox Depth Chart]

Coyle, 24, was originally a third-round selection in the 2010 draft. He had shown plenty of promise in the 2013-14 campaigns, when he posted .800+ OPS batting lines with double-digit home runs at High-A and then Double-A.

Things haven’t progressed quite as well since, however. Following a tough 2015 season, Coyle has posted a meager .165/.263/.280 slash over 250 plate appearances this year while splitting his time between the Double-A and Triple-A levels.

• A big part of the Yankees’ decision to not make an offer to David Robertson was the value they put on the compensatory draft pick they would receive, according to Jack Curry of the YES Network (via Twitter).  The closer agreed to join the White Sox on a four-year, $46MM deal late last night.
• The Red Sox and Reds have discussed deal that would send Yoenis Cespedes to Cincinnati, but there’s been no recent progress on that front, sources tell Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter).
• The Red Sox and Phillies have discussed a swap of Antonio Bastardo for Sean Coyle this offseason, a major league source with knowledge of the situation tells Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter).  It’s unclear if those talks are still progressing at this time, however.
• Red Sox manager John Farrell told reporters yesterday that he’s confident that Boston can sign Jon Lester, but not everyone agrees.  “I don’t see how the Red Sox get this done,” an official of one club who has been monitoring Lester closely told Jayson Stark of ESPN.com.

• Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said he has received calls on every one of the M’s young relievers as well as shortstops Brad Miller and Chris Taylor, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times (on Twitter).
• Dan Uggla intends to make a comeback and five teams are interested, agent Terry Bross tells Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).
• Padres GM A.J. Preller is hard at work at the Winter Meetings, but he’s also taking the long view of the winter, writes Corey Brock of MLB.com.  “The offseason is a long offseason, and it doesn’t end with the Winter Meetings,” Preller cautioned. “In an ideal world, we get something done this week that improves the team. But, ultimately, it may not be this week or this month.“
• When asked if he’s talking trade with the Rangers, Padres GM A.J. Preller said “Honestly, we haven’t talked players yet today,” according to Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego (via Twitter).
• The Pirates are working multiple angles, as Tom Singer of MLB.com writes.  “And it’s not just the top-tier free agents,” GM Neal Huntington said. “It’s also the guys who could be traded; a lot of pitchers are in their free-agent walk years, and there are various ongoing conversations in the industry. We’re engaged on a bunch of different fronts.”
• Trading Dillon Gee would give the Mets flexibility this offseason, opines Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.  The Mets could still shop Jon Niese or Bartolo Colon, but GM Sandy Alderson says that he likes Niese’s left arm and team-friendly contract, and that he isn’t trying to trade Colon.
• The Marlins are trying to fill one void without creating another, writes Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.

• Fort Washington, Pennsylvania product Sean Coyle is now represented by Sosnick-Cobbe Sports, tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.  The shortstop received a $1.3MM bonus from the Red Sox as a third-round draft pick out of high school this year.  Sosnick-Cobbe already represents the draft's other big-name Pennsylvania native in the Phillies' Jesse Biddle, who was drafted in the first round.  There may be another million dollar draft pick from the state next year in Derek Fisher, a high school outfielder hailing from Rexmont.
• Clay Buchholz would love to see Victor Martinez return to the Red Sox next year, according to Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
• Terry Francona tells MLB.com's Ian Browne that he was "thrilled" the Red Sox signed John Lackey last winter, and that he hasn't lost any confidence in the investment.
• A.J. Ellis' recent play for the Dodgers could put him in line for a bigger role next year, writes Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times.