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Wesley Wright

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/11/17

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The latest minor moves from around baseball:

  • Former major league reliever Wesley Wright has ended his playing career to take a job as a pro scout with the Twins, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Wright, 32, combined for 307 innings with five teams – primarily the Astros – from 2008-15 and posted a 4.16 ERA, with 8.65 K/9 against 3.96 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent groundball rate. The left-hander held same-sided hitters to a weak .234/.313/.334 line along the way. Wright spent part of 2017 with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate and got his release in July after struggling to a 4.88 ERA over 31 1/3 frames.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/31/17

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Here’s a wrap-up of some recent minor league moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post.

  • Right-hander Al Alburquerque cleared waivers and elected to become a free agent, the Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd tweets.  The Royals designated Alburquerque for assignment last week and requested release waivers on him two days ago; Alburquerque was previously DFA’ed earlier this season, though that time he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A.  The righty signed a minors deal with Kansas City last winter and has a 3.60 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 over 10 innings out of the Royals bullpen.
  • Infielder Nick Franklin cleared waivers and was outrighted to the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, the team announced on Twitter.  Franklin was designated for assignment two days ago, and it was his third DFA of 2017 — he was designated by the Rays in April and then claimed by the Brewers, then designated by the Brewers and traded to the Angels in late June.  After posting above-average production in a part-time role with Tampa Bay last season, Franklin has been unable to get things going this year, with a combined .179/.269/.283 slash line over 119 PA with the Angels and Brewers.
  • The Diamondbacks released catcher Hank Conger, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports.  Conger signed a minor league deal with the Snakes last winter and has a .239/.316/.394 slash line over 206 PA at Triple-A Reno.
  • Also from Eddy, the Rockies released outfielder Domonic Brown.  Colorado signed Brown to a minors contract in the offseason.  Once considered one of baseball’s top prospects when coming up in the Phillies system, Brown was an All-Star in what looked like a breakout season in 2013, though badly struggled in his next two seasons and hasn’t since returned to the big leagues.  Brown did hit a decent .304/.327/.449 over 171 PA at the Triple-A level this season, though in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
  • Earlier this week, the Marlins announced that first baseman Chris Parmelee had been signed to a minor league deal.  Best known for his stint as a part-timer with the Twins from 2011-14, Parmelee appeared in just eight MLB games last season (with the Yankees) and has yet to reach the Show this season after being released from a minors contract with the A’s in June.
  • Catcher Eric Fryer elected to become a free agent last week, the Cardinals announced.  Fryer was designated for assignment on July 21 and had been outrighted to Triple-A before opting to hit the open market.  The light-hitting catcher has played in parts of seven seasons in the bigs, most recently serving as Yadier Molina’s backup in St. Louis.
  • The Rangers released veteran southpaw Wesley Wright earlier this month.  Wright posted a 4.16 ERA in 307 innings over eight big league seasons from 2008-15, though he hasn’t been back to the majors since, plus he’s struggled at the Triple-A level in the Texas and Boston organizations over the last two seasons.
  • Earlier this month, the Dodgers signed left-hander Tommy Layne to a minor league deal, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  Layne posted good numbers out of the Red Sox and Yankees bullpens in 2015-16, though his career-long struggles with control plagued him this year, as Layne posted a 7.62 ERA over 13 IP for New York, with eight walks against just nine strikeouts.

Rangers Sign Wesley Wright To Minors Deal, Outright Brady Dragmire

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The Rangers announced on Friday that they’ve signed veteran left-handed reliever Wesley Wright to a minor league contract and outrighted right-hander Brady Dragmire to Triple-A Round Rock. Both players will be invited to Major League Spring Training, per Rangers executive VP of communications John Blake.

Wright, who turns 32 tomorrow, didn’t appear in the Majors in 2016 (the first year since 2007 that he hasn’t thrown a big league pitch). He did log 31 1/3 innings with the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate, posting a 4.31 ERA with 21 strikeouts against 13 walks.

Wright lost most of the 2015 season to injury (a strained left trapezius muscle, to be more specific), but from 2011-14 he was a quality contributor to the Astros, Cubs and Rays. In those four seasons, Wright logged a 3.25 ERA with 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings against 3.2 walks per nine. Over the course of his career, Wright has held opposing left-handers to a rather timid .237/.313/.334 batting line through 606 plate appearances.

As for Dragmire, the 23-year-old’s lengthy and tumultuous trip through the offseason waiver circuit will now end with the Rangers. Originally the property of the Blue Jays, Dragmire was designated for assignment in late September and traded to the Pirates, only to be claimed back by the Rangers in early December. Texas tried to sneak him through waivers two weeks later after signing Carlos Gomez, at which point the Pirates re-claimed him off waivers. As if that wasn’t enough movement, Dragmire was again designated by Pittsburgh and again claimed by the Rangers, who designated him for assignment yet again last week after signing Tyson Ross. The Rangers have now finally succeeded in passing him through waivers, meaning they’ll be able to retain his rights without committing a 40-man roster spot to Dragmire.

Last season, Dragmire logged a 4.38 ERA with 5.1 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 72 innings at Double-A New Hampshire (Toronto’s affiliate). While those numbers aren’t exactly eye-catching, Dragmire also logged a robust 63.6 percent ground-ball rate, which seems to have made him highly appealing to both Texas and Pittsburgh. He’ll hope to replicate that trait with some improved run prevention in the upper minors as he looks to make his way to the Major Leagues for the first time in 2017.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/20/16

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Here are the day’s minor moves, all via Matt Eddy of Baseball America:

  • The Red Sox have released lefty Wesley Wright, per Eddy. Wright, 31, had carved out a role as a useful pen piece, working to a 3.26 ERA in 173 2/3 frames over 2011 through 2015. But he has battled through some shoulder issues and has seen his velocity and strikeout rate plummet of late. Wright was carrying a 5.31 ERA at Triple-A Pawtucket.
  • Catcher Carson Blair has been released by the Athletics. The 26-year-old appeared briefly in the majors last year, and was outrighted off of the 40-man over the winter. He has struggled in limited action at the Triple-A level, but has handled Double-A pitching quite well (.288/.398/.514) in a slightly more robust sample of 136 plate appearances.
  • The Cardinals signed first baseman Efren Navarro, 30, to a minor-league deal. He was hitting just .243/.316/.362 on the year at Triple-A before being released by the Mariners. Navarro has not produced in limited exposure in the majors, but does own a lifetime .308/.371/.438 batting line in 2,672 lifetime plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.

Red Sox, Wesley Wright Agree To Minor League Deal

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4:45pm: Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports that Wright can earn $1MM in the Majors (Twitter link). He’ll head to Triple-A for the time being.

4:12pm: The Red Sox have signed left-handed reliever Wesley Wright to a minor league contract, per the MLB.com transactions page. The 31-year-old had been in camp with the D-backs but was released late in Spring Training when he didn’t make the club.

Wright split the 2015 season between the Orioles and the Angels, though he spent a good chunk of the season Baltimore’s DL due to a strained left trapezius muscle. The O’s had inked Wright to a big league contract in the offseason but designated him for assignment upon activating him from the 60-day DL in mid-July. Wright latched on with the Angels and was called up to the Major League club in September, tossing 5 2/3 innings and permitting a pair of earned runs to score across the season’s final month.

Prior to last year’s injury-marred campaign, Wright had spent 2012-14 in the bullpen for the Cubs, Astros and Rays, working to a combined 3.38 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 154 1/3 innings of work. He’s held opposing left-handed bats to a .237/.313/.334 batting line in parts of eight Major League seasons and will give the Sox some additional depth in their left-handed relief corps. Boston presently has lefties Tommy Layne and Robbie Ross in the ’pen, and the 40-man roster also includes lefties Roenis Elias and Edwin Escobar, each of whom is pitching at the Triple-A level to begin the season.

Quick Hits: Shields, Sandoval, Cardinals, Astros, Twins

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On the notion of the Padres trading right-hander James Shields to the Red Sox for benched third baseman Pablo Sandoval, one scout told Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune, “James Shields is not good in Fenway Park in his career. Some people think he’s a National League pitcher at this point of his career. But it’s one fewer year (on his contract) than Sandoval. I think Sandoval would be better off outside of Boston. I think he’s been eaten whole there. That trade actually would make some sense.” Both players are coming off down seasons, albeit Shields was easily the more valuable of the two in 2015. Shields, 34, exceeded the 200-inning barrier for the ninth straight year and set a career high with a 9.61 K/9, but he also logged personal worsts in BB/9 (3.6) and FIP (4.45) to accompany a mediocre 3.91 ERA. Sandoval is a half-decade younger (29), though that plus is offset by a well-known weight problem and the fact that he had the worst fWAR in baseball in 2015 (-2.0). Moreover, the two carry undesirable financial commitments. Shields is due $60MM over the next three years, though he can opt out and become a free agent after next season. That would mean leaving $44MM on the table, however. Sandoval, meanwhile, is owed $70MM through 2019. Both players’ deals have expensive club options at the end that their respective teams surely won’t exercise, which will lead to buyouts ($2MM for Shields in 2019, $5MM for Sandoval in 2020).

More from around the majors. . .

  • With president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in charge, the Red Sox are a meritocracy when it comes to putting together a roster, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes. That was evident in the team’s decision to relegate Sandoval, whom it signed just a year ago, in favor of Travis Shaw at the hot corner. The Dombrowski-led Red Sox began the trend of valuing performance over contract when they elected last summer to end the short-lived, disastrous experiment of Hanley Ramirez in left field, Speier notes. “My focus is on the guys that are in uniform, not what’s attached to them or what their contract states,” manager John Farrell said. “We’re all about evaluating and what’s best for our team.”
  • The Astros have informed left-hander Wandy Rodriguez that he will not crack their Opening Day Roster, tweets Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle. Rodriguez, who inked a minor league accord with the Astros in the offseason, had been competing with James Hoyt and Michael Feliz for the final spot in the team’s bullpen. Rodriguez had an opt-out in his contract for last Saturday, per Evan Drellich of the Chronicle. With that deadline having passed, it’s unclear what the immediate future will hold for Rodriguez, but he could end up on the market and in search of a major league deal elsewhere. “Let me see what happens if somebody picks me (up),” he told Drellich.
  • The Cardinals aren’t looking for outside help at shortstop in the wake of Ruben Tejada’s injury, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Instead, the Redbirds will at least wait until they have a better understanding of Tejada’s status. He’ll start the season on the disabled list with a muscle strain in his left quadriceps, leaving Jedd Gyorko and Greg Garcia as the Cardinals’ options at the major league level. They also have Aledmys Diaz of Triple-A Memphis as a potential call-up.
  • Nick Burdi, the Twins’ best relief pitching prospect, is “out indefinitely” with right forearm tightness and will begin the season on the DL, reports LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. Of course, forearm injuries sometimes portend Tommy John surgery. Burdi, who’s capable of hitting 99 on the radar gun, threw three scoreless spring innings for the Twins. The 23-year-old tossed 63 2/3 innings at multiple minor league levels last season and pitched to a 3.82 ERA with an 11.7 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9.
  • Right-hander Roberto Hernandez is drawing interest from teams that want to sign him to a minor league contract, but he’s holding out for a major league deal, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. Hernandez, 35, opted out of his deal with Toronto earlier this week after the club didn’t add him to its active roster. In 84 2/3 innings last year with Houston, Hernandez worked to a 4.36 ERA with 4.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
  • Lefty reliever Wesley Wright has garnered multiple Triple-A offers, per Cotillo (Twitter link). Wright, whom Arizona released Monday, has thrown 371 innings of 4.16 ERA ball to accompany an 8.6 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in his major league career. Those mediocre numbers belie his success versus left-handed batters, who have hit a paltry .234/.313/.334 against Wright.

Orioles Notes: Snider, Wright, Gonzalez, Kim

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Ryan Powell’s pro baseball career consisted of four seasons in independent leagues before becoming a scout in 2013, and his mother Wendy never got to see her son play his final game.  With Wendy now suffering from brain cancer, the Orioles arranged for Powell (the club’s head of independent scouting) to play an inning during the team’s intrasquad game on Tuesday with both his parents in attendance.  MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli has the full story, which includes information on how you can donate to various cancer charities by bidding on one of Powell’s specialty bats, autographed by several MLB players.  Here’s more from Baltimore…

  • While the Orioles may still add a left-handed hitting outfielder and a lefty reliever, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko doesn’t expect the club to bring back former Orioles Travis Snider or Wesley Wright.  Snider and Wright are both free agents after being recently cut by the Royals and Diamondbacks, respectively.
  • The release of Miguel Gonzalez wasn’t a popular move within the Orioles clubhouse, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun writes, as Gonzalez was extremely well-liked by his teammates.  There was “a lot of anger” about the move both yesterday and today, Ghiroli tweets, and “guys are upset, shocked by the whole thing.”  The transaction has logic from a business perspective, as Gonzalez hasn’t pitched well and the O’s could recoup around $4MM of Gonzalez’s $5.1MM salary by releasing him now (or they could get the entire salary off the books if the righty is claimed by another team).  Gonzalez also had a minor league option remaining, however, so Baltimore’s decision to release him instead of sending him to Triple-A “has to scare practically every player in that clubhouse,” as Encina writes.
  • The Orioles have had their share of messy situations this spring, Encina noted in another article, including the fact that $7MM investment Hyun Soo Kim likely won’t make the Opening Day roster.  Kim’s contract stipulates that he can’t be optioned to the minors, and while the Orioles got out of a similar situation with another Korean player in Suk Min Yoon two years ago, that move was helped by Yoon being able to find a higher salary with a Korea Baseball Organization team.  According to Encina, the O’s are having a tough time finding a KBO club willing to top Kim’s $7MM salary over the next two seasons.  Between Kim, Yoon and the Orioles’ controversial signing of pitcher Seong-min Kim a few years ago, Encina wonders if the team is hurting its chances of signing future Korean talent.

Diamondbacks Release Sam LeCure, Wesley Wright

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The Diamondbacks have released relievers Sam LeCure and Wesley Wright after the decision was made that neither would make the active roster to open the year, the club announced.

LeCure, 31, was hoping to get back to his days of being a sturdy pen presence. The righty topped 300 innings between 2010-14 with the Reds, compiling a 3.53 ERA. While he had good results in the majors last season after spending most of the year at Triple-A, he’s continued to see a drop in his velocity and strikeouts per nine.

The left-handed Wright, who’s also 31, was in much the same situation, having thrown less innings but compiled comparable results to LeCure over the four seasons leading up to 2015. But he dealt with shoulder issues last year, limiting his availability significantly.

The veteran southpaw did have a solid spring, at least, allowing only two earned runs and posting eight strikeouts against three walks in 8 1/3 innings. That wasn’t the case for LeCure, who surrendered seven earned and managed only five K’s in his eight frames.

 

 

Diamondbacks Sign Wesley Wright

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The Diamondbacks signed left-handed reliever Wesley Wright to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, according to a tweet from the team’s Triple-A affiliate. The Reynolds Sports client, presumably, will compete for a bullpen job in Spring Training with the D-backs.

Wright, 31 later this month, totaled just 7 1/3 innings in the Majors last season between the Orioles and Angels, as a shoulder strain kept him on the disabled list for more than three months. While 2015 was somewhat of a lost season for the lefty, Wright had put together a solid track record across the four prior seasons when he worked to a combined 3.25 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 166 1/3 innings between the Astros and Cubs.

Wright yielded a huge number of fly-balls in last season’s small sample of work, but he’s historically been more of a ground-ball pitcher, as evidenced by the 52.7 percent ground-ball rate that he recorded during that strong run from 2011-14. Wright doesn’t throw particularly hard, but his 90 mph fastball has enough life considering his handedness, and he’s held left-handed batters to a .237/.313/.334 batting line across parts of eight Major League seasons. Of course, on the flip-side of that equation, he’s yielded a .263/.353/.476 batting line to right-handed batters, so the D-backs would likely need to be cognizant of playing matchups in most situations were Wright to make the club.

The Diamondbacks have a number of right-handed arms that will compete for spots in the bullpen, but there’s a lack of left-handed options for manager Chip Hale in the bullpen. Andrew Chafin enjoyed a strong season in 2015 due in large part to his impressive ground-ball rate, but Matt Reynolds is the only other lefty relief option with notable Major League experience, and he struggled quite a bit in his return from 2014 Tommy John surgery. Elsewhere on the 40-man roster, Keith Hessler struggled in his big league debut last year, and Will Locante needs more minor league time before being a realistic option for the MLB club.

Angels Designate Alfredo Marte, Drew Rucinski

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The Angels announced that they’ve designated outfielder Alfredo Marte and right-hander Drew Rucinski for assignment in order to clear space on their 40-man roster for September callups (Twitter link). Among that wave of September moves is left-hander Wesley Wright, whose contract has been selected to the 40-man roster.

Marte, 26, has spent most of the season at the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a strong .313/.377/.465 batting line, albeit in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He received eight plate appearances with the big league club in 2015 and has spent time in the Majors in each of the past three seasons, totaling a .181/.249/.284 line in 170 plate appearances.

Rucinski, also 26, made four appearances (one start) for the Halos this season and allowed six runs on 10 hits and six walks with four strikeouts in seven innings of work. After an outstanding season in Double-A last year, Rucinski was hit hard at the Triple-A level in 2015, posting a 5.76 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 106 1/3 innings.

Wright, 30, began the season with the Orioles after agreeing to a one-year, $1.7MM free agent contract. He spent the 2014 season with the Cubs and enjoyed good success as a member of the Chicago bullpen, making him a somewhat surprising non-tender. Last year, Wright pitched to a 3.17 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 52.1 percent ground-ball rate while holding opposing lefties to a .273/.321/.273 batting line. He battled shoulder woes earlier in the season which limited him to 1 2/3 innings with Baltimore. He signed a minor league deal with the O’s in late July.

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