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Ty Tice

Braves Sign Ty Tice To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have signed right-hander Ty Tice to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com and Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. The righty will presumably receive an invitation to major league Spring Training.

Tice, 26, was a 16th round selection of the Blue Jays in the 2017 draft. The reliever worked his way up the minor league ladder quickly, spending 2019 in Double-A and Triple-A. He tossed 57 2/3 innings between the two levels with a 2.34 ERA and 25.5% strikeout rate. His 11.6% walk rate was certainly concerning but he still posted good results overall.

There were no minor leagues in 2020 due to the pandemic but Tice was added to the Jays’ roster in November of that year to protect him from Rule 5 selection. He ended up donning many uniforms in 2021, as he shuffled between the majors and minors for the Jays, Braves and Diamondbacks, going to the latter two clubs on waiver claims. He posted a 4.50 ERA in five major league appearances but an unsightly 9.14 earned run mark in the minors. The D-Backs outrighted him off their roster late in 2021 and he spent 2022 with their Double-A team, posting a 6.45 ERA over 22 1/3 innings, striking out 24.3% of batters faced but walking 10.3% of them.

It’s been a rough couple of years but Tice is still young and will try to get back on track to provide the Braves with some non-roster depth. If he can earn a 40-man spot again, he still has a couple of option years and less than a year of MLB service time.

Diamondbacks Designate Josh Reddick For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, most notably the designation of veteran outfielder Josh Reddick for assignment. Right-handers Taylor Clarke and Riley Smith and first baseman/outfielder Pavin Smith have all been reinstated from the injured list. Riley Smith and righty J.B. Bukauskas were optioned to Triple-A Reno. Meanwhile, reliever Ty Tice has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Reno.

Arizona signed Reddick to a minor league deal in April and selected him to the big league roster the following month. He’s seen a good bit of action in right field in Phoenix since then but struggled to a .258/.285/.371 line over 158 plate appearances. That was trending as the worst offensive output of Reddick’s typically strong career, as well as a downturn from the roughly league average hitting he managed with the Astros between 2018-20.

Reddick has more than enough service time to reject a minor league assignment while retaining what remains of his $750K salary. Assuming he clears waivers, he’ll almost certainly hit free agency — either via release or rejection of an outright assignment. The move clears an outfield spot for the league-worst Diamondbacks to continue to look at younger players — Pavin Smith among them — while freeing Reddick to explore opportunities elsewhere. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the 34-year-old hook on with a new organization via minor league pact over the coming days to serve as lefty-hitting outfield depth.

Clarke has been out since mid-June with a teres major strain. Before the injury, the 28-year-old was one of the more reliable relievers in a shaky Arizona bullpen. Clarke has worked 33 2/3 innings across 30 appearances this season, pitching to a 3.74 ERA with a slightly below-average 22.5% strikeout rate but a strong 6.3% walk percentage. Pavin and Riley Smith missed a few days as close contacts after Noé Ramirez and Stuart Fairchild tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday.

The D-Backs added Tice off waivers from the Braves a little more than two weeks ago. After succeeding in passing him through waivers themselves, they’ll keep him in the organization as non-roster bullpen depth. The 25-year-old hasn’t appeared in the majors for the D-Backs, instead making four appearances with Reno, but he did see brief MLB time with the Blue Jays and Braves earlier in the year. Tice has tossed eight innings of four-run ball in the big leagues but has a 10.67 ERA with thirteen walks and eleven strikeouts across 14 1/3 Triple-A frames.

Diamondbacks Activate Tyler Clippard, Claim Ty Tice From Braves

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve reinstated veteran reliever Tyler Clippard from the 60-day injured list. Additionally, Arizona claimed righty Ty Tice off waivers from the Braves. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, the D-Backs designated lefty Alex Young for assignment.

Arizona signed Clippard over the offseason. The generally durable righty went down with a capsule sprain in his throwing shoulder during Spring Training, though, and he’s missed the entire season to date. Clippard’s return should aid an Arizona bullpen that has been one of the league’s worst, although it’s obviously far too late in a lost season to make much difference in the standings.

In theory, a contending club could swing a trade for Clippard based on his strong track record. He won’t have much of an opportunity to demonstrate he’s back to peak form, though, with the trade deadline just nine days away. He’s playing out the year on a $2.25MM salary, just under $900K of which remains to be paid.

Atlanta picked up Tice in a small trade with the Blue Jays in early June. They’ll lose him a little more than six weeks later, with the reliever having made just one major league appearance in a Braves uniform. He’s thrown eight innings of four-run ball between Toronto and Atlanta this season, his first with any big league experience. Tice has a 4.20 ERA across 45 career innings at Triple-A, striking out a fine 24.0% of batters faced but walking a lofty 13.7% of opponents. The 25-year-old has a pair of minor league option years remaining beyond this season, so he can be kept in the high minors for a while so long as he sticks on the 40-man roster.

Young, who was selected 43rd overall in the 2015 draft, was one of the better pitching prospects in the Arizona system coming up through the minors. He made his major league debut in 2019, working to a decent 3.56 ERA/4.68 SIERA across 17 appearances (including 15 starts). The 27-year-old hasn’t managed to build off that fine initial showing to this point. Since the start of 2020, Young has tossed 88 innings of 5.83 ERA/5.91 FIP ball. While he’s thrown a fair amount of strikes, Young hasn’t missed many bats (19.4% strikeout rate) and has been plagued by the long ball (2.3 HR/9).

The D-Backs will have a week to trade Young or expose him to outright waivers. He still has all three option years remaining. If another club is willing to a 40-man roster spot, they could stash him in the minors as a depth option capable of working multiple innings.

Braves Select Jesse Chavez, Tanner Roark

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5:58PM: The Braves officially announced the roster moves.

5:50PM: Tanner Roark’s contract has also been selected, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (Twitter link).  Roark inked a minor league deal with Atlanta shortly after the Blue Jays released him in early May.  The veteran righty is looking for a fresh start after posting a 6.75 ERA over 54 2/3 innings for Toronto since the start of the 2020 season.  In corresponding moves, Atlanta optioned right-handers Kyle Wright and Ty Tice to Triple-A, while catcher Alex Jackson and lefty Tucker Davidson were moved to the 60-day IL to create space for Chavez and Roark on the 40-man roster.

12:26PM: The Braves will select the contract of right-hander Jesse Chavez to start a bullpen game against the Reds tonight, tweets Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Chavez signed a minor league pact with the Braves back in April.

It was already known that Atlanta would be going with a bullpen game Thursday after recently placing Max Fried on the injured list due to a blister and playing a pair of doubleheaders this week. The Braves have yet to formally announce the move themselves, though that announcement — and a corresponding 40-man roster move — figures to come along shortly.

Chavez, 37, is a 13-year Major League veteran who’ll now be in his second stint as a member of the Braves. He pitched in 28 games for Atlanta back in 2010 when he was still working to solidify himself as a viable big league arm. Things didn’t pan out the first time around, but Chavez has gone on to have a solid career as a well-traveled swingman. From 2013-19, he split time between the A’s, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs, working to a combined 4.12 ERA in 738 2/3 innings (77 starts, 230 relief outings).

The 2020 season was an ugly one for Chavez, who was tagged for 13 runs in 17 innings out of the Rangers’ bullpen. He’s bounced back with a strong showing for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2021, logging 20 innings of 2.25 ERA ball with a 27-to-8 K/BB ratio. He’s been particularly sharp of late, rattling off six straight shutout innings and punching out 11 of his past 22 opponents.

Chavez hasn’t thrown more than two innings or topped 35 pitches in any of his 13 appearances with Gwinnett this season, so it’s unlikely he’ll be tasked with pitching any more than three innings unless he makes particularly quick work of the Reds the first time through the order. Today’s outing figures to be a spot start, but Chavez has a solid overall track record in the Majors and could stick around to give the Braves some depth in the bullpen if he fares well.

Braves Acquire Ty Tice

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The Braves have acquired right-hander Ty Tice from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations, according to ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel (Twitter link).

Tice was designated for assignment earlier this week when the Jays selected the contract of the recently-signed Carl Edwards Jr.  In a sense, today’s transaction serves as a Tice-for-Edwards swap, as Edwards and the Braves parted ways after Atlanta DFA’ed him in early May, with Toronto then adding Edwards on another minors contract a few days later.

Tice was a 16th-round pick for the Jays in the 2017 draft, and the Arkansas native made his MLB debut this season with seven innings out of the Toronto bullpen (posting a 5.14 ERA).  Over 143 1/3 career innings in the minors, Tice has an impressive 2.07 ERA and 25.75% strikeout rate, though his 10.96% walk rate is on the high side.  He also has all of his minor league options remaining, giving the Braves some flexibility in shuttling him back and forth from Triple-A if necessary.

Blue Jays Select Carl Edwards Jr., Designate Ty Tice

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve selected the contract of reliever Carl Edwards Jr. Fellow righty Ty Tice was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Edwards signed a minor league deal with Toronto earlier this month. He’s tossed four scoreless innings with Triple-A Buffalo since, striking out three without issuing a walk. He’s now in line to appear for his second team of the season, having tossed a third of an inning of three-run ball for the Braves a few weeks ago. The 29-year-old once looked like a building block of the Cubs bullpen, but a series of injuries and increasing trouble with his control has thrown him off course over the past couple seasons. If he rights the ship in Toronto, Edwards could be a multi-year piece, as he’s controllable through the end of next season via arbitration.

The Jays will now have a week to trade Tice or place him on outright waivers. The 24-year-old has tossed seven MLB relief innings this season, his only big league experience to date. Those haven’t gone especially well, as he’s allowed four runs while striking out six and issuing four walks. The former sixteenth-round pick showed a three-pitch mix, headlined by a 94.3 MPH fastball. Tice struck out an intriguing 27.3% of opposing hitters in 2019 at Triple-A.

He also comes with some contractual flexibility that makes it possible another team looking to deepen the relief corps will acquire him via minor trade or waivers. The Jays added Tice to the 40-man roster over the winter, so he still has all three minor league option years remaining. He doesn’t have the necessary service time to reject an outright assignment, so if he clears waivers, he’d likely remain in the organization as non-roster bullpen depth.

Blue Jays Place Cavan Biggio On Injured List, Option Anthony Kay

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve placed third baseman Cavan Biggio on the 10-day injured list with a cervical spine ligament sprain. Additionally, lefty Anthony Kay and righty Jeremy Beasley were optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. To replace that trio on the active roster, infielder Joe Panik and reliever Anthony Castro were each reinstated from the IL, while righty Ty Tice was recalled from Buffalo.

Biggio’s IL placement is the most impactful of today’s spate of transactions. The 26-year-old has started 35 of Toronto’s first 42 games, with the bulk of his work coming at the hot corner. It’s been a difficult start to the year for Biggio, who has just a .205/.315/.315 slash with three homers across 151 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from the cumulative .240/.368/.430 mark (118 wRC+) he put up between 2019-20. Biggio’s impeccable plate discipline has remained intact, but he’s made contact on a career-worst 72% of his swings this season. (The league average contact rate is 75.2%). It’s no coincidence he’s striking out at a career-high 31.1% clip.

Panik and Santiago Espinal look like the best bets to handle third in Biggio’s absence. Neither has offered much offensively over the past few years, so the Jays will be anxious for Biggio’s return. It seems reasonable to expect him back in the short-term, as Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets that Biggio’s been playing through some neck stiffness recently and the team hopes a “few days” of rest will get him past the issue.

Kay has started four of his five appearances this season. He’s been hit around for a 6.62 ERA, although his peripherals suggest he’s been a bit unlucky to allow so many runs. Kay has stranded an unsustainably low 64.7% of baserunners and opposing hitters have managed a lofty .356 batting average on balls in play against him. A few more batted balls finding gloves and/or better sequencing could’ve resulted in an ERA closer to Kay’s 4.38 SIERA. Returning to the minors will give him a chance to work on his control; the lefty has walked a too-high 12.3% of batters faced this year.

The Jays will run a bullpen game to take Kay’s spot in the rotation for now, manager Charlie Montoyo said (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). Top prospects Nate Pearson and Alek Manoah are each performing well in Triple-A, though, and Kay’s demotion will only fuel speculation one or both of the vaunted young arms could get a look in the big leagues relatively soon. Pearson, of course, made a brief big league debut last season, while Manoah is pitching above A-ball for the first time this year.

Blue Jays Add 5 Players To 40-Man Roster

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The Blue Jays announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of catchers Riley Adams and Gabriel Moreno, right-hander Ty Tice, outfielder Josh Palacios and infielder Otto Lopez. All five are now protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Toronto’s 40-man roster is now full.

Adams, 23, adds another catching option to a roster already well stocked at that position. He topped out with a solid Double-A showing in 2019 and ostensibly isn’t too far from MLB readiness. The 20-year-old Moreno, on the other hand, hasn’t played above A-ball, although he hit quite well there in ’19.

Tice, 25, logged a 2.34 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in ’19 and racked up better than 11 K/9 but did so while walking nearly six per nine frames. Palacios plays all three outfield spots and is an OBP-over-power option who has seen some time in Double-A. Lopez, 22, hasn’t advanced beyond A-ball. He hit well there in 2019 and has experience at both middle infield spots and both corner outfield positions.

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