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Yangervis Solarte

Braves, Yangervis Solarte Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran infielder Yangervis Solarte, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter). The versatile switch-hitter will be in Major League camp this spring and will earn a $1MM salary if he cracks the big league roster.

Solarte, 32, was a productive utility player for the Yankees and Padres from 2014-16 but has seen his production tail off in the past three seasons. That decline culminated with a brutal .205/.247/.315 showing with the Giants this past season. And while that effort came in a tiny sample of 28 games/78 plate appearances, the collective .238/.293/.391 slash that he’s posted over his past 1096 MLB plate appearances highlights the extent of his troubles. Solarte joined Japan’s Hanshin Tigers after being cut loose last year but endured similar struggles in a small sample of games overseas.

That said, there’s no risk in bringing Solarte to camp to see if he can rediscover some of the 2014-16 form that saw him post a combined .271/.332/.419 batting line (109 OPS+) despite playing the majority of his games in the pitcher-friendly Petco Park. The veteran has experience at all four infield slots — primarily second base and third base — and has even dabbled a bit in left field.

Former Big Leaguers Playing Abroad: NPB Hitters Roundup

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It’s always fun to keep an eye on familiar players who’ve taken their talents across the pond. Now that the 2019 season is in the books, it seemed an opportune time to check in. Numerous former big leaguers and others of note are playing abroad, many of them thriving in Asia’s top leagues.

We’ve seen foreign stints help spur big league revivals from quite a few players. Eric Thames, Miles Mikolas, and Chris Martin are among those that played significant roles in the 2019 MLB campaign. Whether any of the players covered below will do so remains to be seen, but there’s certainly a path.

We started by looking at position players and pitchers in the KBO, the top league in South Korea. Now we’re headed to Japan to examine Nippon Professional Baseball, generally considered the highest-grade league outside of North America. Remember, teams in these leagues face limits on the number of non-native players they can carry on a roster. That creates a lot of pressure to secure big production from those roster spots, which often spurs mid-season change.

Here’s a 2019 wrap on some interesting NPB hitters …

  • Infielder Brandon Laird was never able to carve out a steady MLB job, but has found a home in NPB. This year, he slashed a healthy .248/.333/.483 with 32 dingers in 553 plate appearances for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He was joined mid-season by Leonys Martin, who found some NPB success of his own after being cut loose by Indians. Over 228 plate appearances, Martin slashed .232/.342/.495 with 14 home runs. The good vibes were not there for former Twins slugger Kennys Vargas, who turned in an oddball .179/.324/.274 slash line with one home run and 16 walks through 102 plate appearances at NPB’s top level.
  • Appearing for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, former Padres and Angels outfielder Jabari Blash finally turned his talent into production at a top level of play. In 527 trips to the plate, he slashed .261/.397/.540 with 33 homers. The 30-year-old could at some point be a candidate to attempt a MLB return. Teammate Zelous Wheeler, briefly of the Yankees, batted .243/.320/.418 with 19 home runs. That’s a fair bit shy of Wheeler’s first four seasons with the Golden Eagles, during which time he delivered a collective OPS north of .800.
  • Believe it or not, another short-lived Yankee whose name begins with Z also contributed to a NPB club. Zoilo Almonte only received 174 plate appearances at the top league level for the Chunichi Dragons, but slashed a robust .329/.362/.506 in that time. The Dragons also get nice output from Dayan Viciedo, the 30-year-old former White Sox outfielder, who went for a .315/.374/.496 slash in 594 plate appearances. Viciedo has uncovered previously absent on-base ability in Japan and could perhaps be of interest to big league clubs once his current deal expires in 2021, though he’ll be 32 at that point.
  • Former Mariners outfielder Stefen Romero appeared again with the ORIX Buffaloes. He bounced back from a down 2018 to post 331 plate appearances of .305/.363/.539 hitting and slugged 18 homers. Romero never showed much of a spark in brief MLB action but was a productive hitter coming up through the minor-league ranks. He’ll soon turn 31 years of age. Otherwise, Chris Marrero couldn’t capitalize on his chances with the Buffaloes, managing only a .211/.256/.317 output over 133 plate appearances. Former Tigers outfielder Steven Moya wasn’t much better after an early-season trade to ORIX from the Chunichi Dragons, with a .244/.278/.397 slash in 255 trips to the dish.
  • Wladimir Balentien made his annual assault on NPB hurlers, launching 33 home runs in 468 plate appearances and turning in a hefty .280/.363/.554 overall output. The Curacaoan slugger seems content with the Yakult Swallows, having been with them for nine years. Despite his perennial dominance — Balentien is a career .273/.378/.558 hitter with 288 home runs in Japan — he’s now 35 years of age, so it seems unlikely he’ll seek a move back stateside. Likewise, Nori Aoki is likely settled back in his native land after wrapping up a generally successful big league tenure. But it’s worth noting that he’s still a capable performer at 37 years of age, having just slashed .297/.385/.442 in 565 plate appearances for the Swallows.
  • Kosuke Fukudome had a similar career arc to that of Aoki, but his production slipped to .256/.347/.397 this season — his age-42 campaign and seventh with the Hanshin Tigers since returning to Japan. The Tigers received better results out of Jefry Marte, formerly of the Tigers and Angels. Marte put up a nice .284/.381/.444 batting line in 412 plate appearances. Other notable names had less of an impact: Yangervis Solarte had a forgettable 20-game stint, while Efren Navarro struggled through 15 games with the organization’s main club.
  • After wrapping up a combustible MLB tenure, former Dodgers infielder Alex Guerrero has settled in with the Yomiuri Giants. He hit .237/.337/.526 with 21 dingers in 333 plate appearances this year and just hit a big postseason home run. Fellow former NL West infielder Christian Villanueva struggled with Japan’s Giants, managing only a .223/.325/.386 slash over 235 plate appearances.
  • It has been quite a while since we’ve seen Jose Lopez stateside (2012), but he is still going in Japan. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars slugger launched 31 long balls and slashed .241/.295/.461 this year, a step back from his recent output.
  • Lopez’s teammate, Neftali Soto, was once a prospect in the Reds organization but has found a home with the BayStars. In his second season with them, the infielder slashed .269/.348/.554 with 43 long balls — his second straight 40-homer campaign. One-time Cubs farmhand Xavier Batista has emerged with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. In the just-completed season, he turned in 423 plate appearances with 26 home runs, slashing a sturdy .269/.350/.513 on the season. Former Braves prospect Ernesto Mejia has carved out a career in Japan, but he followed a tepid 2018 showing with a subpar .211/.286/.422 effort in 147 plate appearances with the Saitama Seibu Lions.
  • From the what might’ve been department, a pair of Cuban sluggers that never played in affiliated ball have been monsters for the Fukuoka SoftBank Haws. Alfredo Despaigne knocked 36 dingers and slashed .259/.355/.520 over 519 plate appearances, while Yurisbel Gracial turned in an eye-opening performance with 410 plate appearances of .319/.365/.595 hitting and 28 homers.
  • While he received at least some MLB consideration when posted by his Taiwanese club, and landed with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for a reasonably significant commitment, outfielder Wang Po-Jung had a forgettable first season in Japan. The 26-year-old slashed just .255/.321/.327 in 355 plate appearances.

Yangervis Solarte Will Reportedly Sign With Japanese Team

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Veteran infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte is less than a month into his Marlins tenure, but it appears it’s already over. Solarte is set to sign with a Japanese team, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com reports. The minor league deal Solarte inked with the Marlins on June 7 gives him the right to pursue opportunities in Asia, per Frisaro.

Solarte caught on with Miami a couple weeks after San Francisco released him. The switch-hitting Solarte wound up slashing .314/.345/.451 (93 wRC+) with one home run in 55 plate appearances as a member of the Marlins’ Triple-A team in New Orleans.

Now 31 years old, Solarte has appeared in the majors with four different clubs – the Yankees, Padres and Blue Jays prior to the Giants – since debuting in 2014. While Solarte was a useful offensive contributor earlier in his career, his numbers have cratered over the past couple seasons. He struggled enough with the Jays in 2018 for them to non-tender him, and even though Solarte parlayed a minors pact with the Giants into a season-opening roster spot this year, his production worsened.

Dating back to 2018, Solarte has batted a dreary .224/.273/.370 (72 wRC+) with 18 home runs and minus-1.6 fWAR in 584 major league attempts. It now appears if Solarte’s ever going to resurface in the bigs, he’ll first have to revive his career in Japan.

Marlins Sign Yangervis Solarte

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The Marlins have signed infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte to a minor league contract, Roster Roundup reports.

Miami’s the second team of 2019 for Solarte, who cracked the Giants’ season-opening roster after signing a minors pact with them over the winter. However, the switch-hitting Solarte didn’t prove to be part of the solution for San Francisco’s dreadful offense, slashing .205/.247/.315 (48 wRC+) with one home run in 78 plate appearances. As a result, the Giants released him in early May.

While the 31-year-old Solarte was a solid contributor with the Yankees and Padres from 2014-17, those days appear long gone. His struggles in San Francisco came on the heels of a difficult 2018 campaign spent in Toronto, with which he batted .226/.277/.378 (77 wRC+) with 17 homers in 506 trips to the plate. Solarte has continued to show defensive versatility even as his offense has tanked, though. Dating back to last season, he has logged double-digit appearances at second base, third and shortstop. He also picked up nine appearances in left field with the Giants.

Giants Designate Yangervis Solarte, Pat Venditte; Venditte Clears Waivers

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May 12: Venditte has cleared waivers, tweets Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. Venditte will remain in the Giants organization and will report to Triple-A Sacramento.

May 7: The Giants announced that infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte and ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte have each been designated for assignment. Their spots on the roster will go to outfielder Mac Williamson and infielder/outfielder Donovan Solano — each of whom was reported to be joining the MLB club earlier today. San Francisco also optioned outfielder Mike Gerber to Triple-A Sacramento and recalled lefty Williams Jerez.

Solarte, 31, made the club out of Spring Training after coming to camp as a non-roster invitee, but he hasn’t rebounded to form as the club hoped. From 2014-17 with the Yankees and Padres, the switch-hitter was a .267/.327/.419 hitter capable of playing multiple spots on the infield, but Solarte struggled through an awful 2018 season with the Blue Jays (.226/.277/.378) and was worse in 78 plate appearances with the Giants (.205/.247/.315).

Venditte inked a split big league contract this offseason but has been tagged for six runs on four hits, a pair of walks and three hit batters with two strikeouts in just 3 1/3 innings out of Bruce Bochy’s bullpen so far. Venditte has a 5.03 ERA in 68 big league innings and has never been able to stick at the MLB level despite considerable intrigue surrounding his ability to pitch both right- and left-handed. His best work has come as a left-on-left specialist, as he’s held opponents to a pitiful .179/.226/.349 slash through 115 plate appearances in such matchups.

Yangervis Solarte Elects Free Agency

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Utilityman Yangervis Solarte has elected free agency after being outrighted by the Giants, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic was among those to tweet. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Solarte, 31, has taken at least four hundred plate appearances in all five of his full seasons in the majors, topping five hundred in four of those campaigns. The switch-hitter was an above-average hitter for his first three years in the bigs, though that status has slipped of late.

The drop-off began in 2017, when Solarte’s numbers dipped a bit with the Padres. He stumbled to a .226/.277/.378 batting line last year with the Blue Jays, leaving him to settle for a minors deal with a Giants organization that needed some stability and hoped for a bounce back.

Things didn’t go as planned in San Francisco. In his 78 trips to the plate, Solarte posted a meager .205/.247/.315 batting line with a single home run and just four walks to go with 16 strikeouts.

Giants To Select Contracts Of Nick Vincent, Yangervis Solarte, Gerardo Parra

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The Giants have decided to carry a trio of veteran players who were in camp on minor-league deals, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic was among those to report on Twitter. Reliever Nick Vincent, infielder Yangervis Solarte, and outfielder Gerardo Parra are all headed onto the 40-man roster.

All three have had success at the MLB level, but were left to battle for jobs this spring. Vincent has thrown over three hundred frames of 3.17 ERA ball as a big-league reliever, with strong K/BB numbers throughout his career. As I examined upon his signing, Vincent is an interesting candidate to continue putting out solid numbers.

Solarte and Parra, each of whom is 31 years old, will take up important part-time positions in the lineup. At his best, Solarte provides infield versatility and an above-average bat. Consecutive down seasons have reduced his outlook, but he could still factor as a solid contributor. As for Parra, he just wrapped up a hefty three-year deal with the Rockies, over which he managed only a 81 OPS+ (.283/.320/.407). But he’s a well-regarded all-around player who posted a .270/.317/.541 slash in 41 plate appearances this spring.

Giants Sign Yangervis Solarte

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TODAY: The Giants announced that Solarte has passed his physical (The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly was among those to tweet the news).

FRIDAY, 9:50am: If he makes the roster, Solarte will earn $1.75MM and can make another $250K via incentives, tweets Jon Heyman of the MLB Network. That seemingly indicates that Solarte’s deal is of the minor league variety, though it could also be a non-guaranteed MLB pact that comes with a 40-man spot. The team has yet to announce the signing.

9:17am: The Giants and free-agent infielder Yangervis Solarte have agreed to terms on a contract, reports Robert Murray of The Athletic (via Twitter). The deal is pending the completion of a physical. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported yesterday that San Francisco had interest in the versatile veteran.

Solarte, 31, had a steady run of production between the Yankees and Padres from 2014-17 before seeing his offensive output unexpectedly crater upon a move from pitcher-friendly Petco Park in San Diego to the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre in Toronto. The switch-hitter didn’t debut in the Majors until he was 26, but he quickly acclimated himself and hit a combined .267/.327/.419 with 57 homers, 99 doubles and six triples through his first 2061 plate appearances.

Last offseason, the Padres flipped Solarte and the remainder of what looked to be a club-friendly contract — he was earning $4MM in 2018 and had a pair of club options worth a combined $13.5MM for 2019-20 — to the Blue Jays in exchange for prospects Edward Olivares and Jared Carkuff. The transition back to the AL East was a rough one for Solarte, however, and his season concluded with a disappointing .226/.277/.377 batting line in 506 plate appearances. Following that showing, the Jays declined his $5.5MM option, making him a free agent.

Though the 2018 season wasn’t a good one for Solarte, there were still some positives. He remained an exceptionally difficult player to strike out, whiffing in just 14.2 percent of his plate appearances. Solarte’s line-drive rate actually increased over his more productive 2017 season and over his career mark, as well. It’d be fair to attribute some of his poor showing to a major drop in his batting average on balls in play (.233), though it should also be pointed out that his low mark in that regard isn’t as unfortunate as it seems; Solarte’s 28 infield flies tied him for the sixth-most in baseball, and popping up at that rate will naturally reduce a players BABIP. Pop-ups have been an issue at times for Solarte in his career, but never more so than last year, when he held the dubious distinction of tying Mike Moustakas for the Major League lead in infield-fly rate (19.2 percent).

All of that said, Solarte isn’t long removed from being a reasonably productive bat, and he can help the Giants by serving as a depth option at any of the four infield positions, as he has at least 264 innings at each slot. While he’s not a premium defender at any of those positions, he doesn’t rate disastrously at any of the four, either. As a low-cost bench option for a team that has seen as many recent infield injuries as the Giants, Solarte is sensible addition. And, if he’s able to bounce back to his previous levels of production, the Giants could well find themselves with a tradeable commodity on their hands this summer.

Quick Hits: Giants, Harper, Iglesias, Severino

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Giants frontman Farhan Zaidi is still exploring trade opportunities, per Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter). The recent additions of Gerardo Parra, Craig Gentry, and Yangervis Solarte, after all, aren’t likely to form the backbone of the next World Series champion in the Bay. Still, they fit as puzzle pieces in Zaidi’s strategy to build the organization’s depth while maintaining future roster flexibility. They’re particularly high on Solarte, whom they see as a switch-hitter with above-average contact skills and 15-20 homer potential. His ability to play all over the field should keep him getting regular at-bats, Crowley writes in the Mercury News, and the Giants are optimistic about the potential returns. Per his word, Zaidi has focused on building depth and flexibility thus far, extending more than 20 invites to major league camp and avoiding any long-term roster obligations. Of course, Bryce Harper remains at large, and the Giants have emerged as a potential suitor. One would think Harper would be the type of foundational piece who could buoy the type of depth Zaidi is amassing, but Zaidi knows that even a talent like Harper isn’t a cure-all. For now, Harper remains one avenue among many open to Zaidi. In that sense, he fits Zaidi’s plan perfectly. Let’s check in on a couple other notes from around the league…

  • New Reds manager David Bell won’t assign the “closer” label to Raisel Iglesias, as the Reds are buying the new fad gripping bullpens league-wide of role fluidity, per the Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans. Put simply, the Reds plan on using Iglesias to help them win games. If that manifests itself through an appearance in the 7th or 8th, so be it. Still, the Reds anticipate Iglesias getting the bulk of save opportunities. Jared Hughes, David Hernandez and Amir Garrett could be called upon to close out games when Iglesias is unavailable. Traditional thinking has kept bullpen arms in well-defined roles in part because of the supposed psychological benefits of “knowing your role” – otherwise known as clear expectations. Bell and the Reds staff plan on communicating often with the bullpen crew, making sure that they are aware of their roles, even as those roles prove more dynamic than in year’s past.
  • It’s probably better for players overall if Luis Severino and Aaron Nola go year-to-year through the arbitration process, writes Joel Sherman of the NY Post, but therein lies the quandary for players weighing the risk/reward of securing their own long-term futures against market growth. While setting high arbitration annuals and reaching free agency at the earliest possible moment might technically be the best thing for the player market overall, Severino’s prudent personal decision to lock-in the first significant payday of his career makes a lot of sense from a personal standpoint. His future value was always going to be vulnerable to injury or further uneven performance such as his struggles at the end of last season. The competing interests of individual security v. collective wealth is a disadvantage the players’ union will face continually in the lead up to CBA negotiations in 2021. Yasmani Grandal represents the best recent example of the other side of this issue, as he took a one-year deal over multi-year offers in part to keep establishing higher AAVs for catchers. 

Giants Interested In Yangervis Solarte

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The Giants have interest in veteran infielder Yangervis Solarte, according to Alex Palovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link).

While this connection is decidedly less splashy than another recently reported expression of interest, Solarte seems to be a readily achievable target. He is looking for a new opportunity after the Blue Jays declined a $5.5MM club option and then non-tendered him.

A 31-year-old infielder, Solarte is capable of  lining up anywhere in the infield, though he has spent most of his time at third base and second base. Solarte has played some shortstop, though he has logged fewer innings there than he has at first.

If he’s a utility piece, then, the switch-hitter is more of a bat-first option who probably shouldn’t be relied upon too heavily at shortstop. That profile arguably suits the Giants well, given that they’ll likely play Brandon Crawford nearly every day at shortstop but could stand to find complementary pieces at second and third base to go with Joe Panik and Evan Longoria.

Solarte has at times been a solid overall contributor. From 2014 through 2017, he turned in over two thousand plate appearances of .267/.327/.419 hitting with 57 home runs. Defensive metrics have graded Solarte as an average or slightly below-average performer.

Last year, though, was a rough season in all respects. Solarte topped five hundred plate appearances for the fourth time in his five MLB seasons, but slashed a meager .226/.277/.378 while receiving his lowest-ever marks defensively. No doubt a .233 batting average on balls in play reflected some poor fortune, though Statcast was not particularly enamored of his batted-ball profile, crediting him with a .284 wOBA and .299 xwOBA.

Now in search of an opportunity to bounce back, Solarte will surely be looking for the best chance to carve out a significant role. If he lands in San Francisco, it stands to reason that Solarte would battle with Pablo Sandoval and Alen Hanson for a roster spot and/or position on the depth chart.

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