MLB 2022-2023 hot stove

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The Dodgers added a duo of pitchers and a catcher on minor league deals, signing reliever Wander Suero, pitcher Kevin Gowdy and catcher Hamlet Marte to deals. Suero is the only one of the trio to have previous MLB experience, having previously pitched for the Washington Nationals between 2018-2021. After he was non-tendered by the Nationals at the end of 2021 (following a poor 2021 season), Suero signed a minor league deal with the Angels for 2022, and did not appear in the MLB. He was released by the Angels in July and finished the season in the Mexican League.

Gowdy is a 25 year old RHP who was drafted 42nd overall by the Phillies in 2016. He received a $3.5 million overslot bonus to buy him out of commitment to UCLA out of high school. He missed two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery and never went beyond High-A in the Philadelphia system. He was traded to the Rangers in 2021 and spent 2022 pitching out of the bullpen at Double-A Frisco, where he was destroyed by batters (9.90 ERA with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in 40 innings).

Marte is a career minor league player. He's been in various MLB organisations over the last 11 years, including the Dodgers in 2021-2022. He'll likely head to Triple-A Oklahoma City as a depth catcher.

 

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Miguel Andujar passed through waivers unclaimed and has been sent by the Pirates to Triple-A Indianapolis. Although Andujar has the right to reject the assignment and elect minor league free agency, he will receive an invitation to Pirates Spring Training as a non-roster player, suggesting that he has accepted the assignment.

 

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The Red Sox have expressed interest in signing free agent catcher Roberto Perez, notwithstanding the fact that they have already signed Jorge Alfaro and Caleb Hamilton. Perez spent eight seasons with the Indians between 2014-2021, and signed with the Pirates in free agency last off-season, but only played 21 games with the Pirates last season. He tore his hamstring in early May 2022 and missed the rest of the season due to surgery to repair the hamstring.

 

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The Arizona Diamondbacks have added a trio of pitchers on minor league contracts, signing RHPs Austin Adams and Eric Yardley and LHP Jesse Biddle.

Minor League Transactions: Jan. 10-25, 2023 — College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects - Baseball America

Transactions involving minor league players for the period Jan. 10-25, 2023. All transactions conveyed by Major League Baseball.

www.baseballamerica.com

 

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The Tampa Bay Rays announced that they have signed LHP Jeffrey Springs to a four year contract extension. He will be guaranteed $31 million over the course of the deal, and he is in line to earn incentives (the details of which have not been released) and the Rays hold a $15 million club option for 2027 with a $750,000 option.

 

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The Miami Marlins have signed reliever Enrique Burgos to a minor league deal with a non-roster Spring Training invitation. He has previously pitched for the Diamondbacks in the major league and also spent some time in the Atlanta organisation, but has been out of the MLB system for the last few seasons.

 

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The Tampa Bay Rays have signed reliever Jaime Schultz to a minor league deal. He was drafted by the Rays back in 2013, and also has spent some time with the Dodgers, A's and Mariners. He was not in any MLB organisation in 2022.

 

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The New York Mets and Jeff McNeil are in agreement on a four-year, $50 million extension, pending a physical.

 

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Fangraphs have published their Tampa Bay Rays Top 48 prospect list. Number 1 is Curtis Mead from Adelaide.

 

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The San Francisco Giants have reached an agreement with catcher Roberto Perez, apparently beating out the Red Sox, the Pirates and the Cubs to the signature of the 34 year old. Perez will join Austin Wynns as the top competitors for the backup catching job, with Joey Bart slated to start the season as the Giants' catcher. Perez is a two-time Gold Glover and Fielding Bible Award winner during his time with Cleveland, but he doesn't do much with the bat (putting aside his outlier 2019 season where he hit 24 home runs). Perez has been dogged with injury since the start of the 2021 season, playing only 65 games over that time period (including just 21 games with the Pirates last season).

 

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The Philadelphia Phillies are in agreement with infield utility man Josh Harrison on a one-year, $2 million contract. Although he's now 35 years old, Harrison will likely give the Phillies plenty of versatility across the diamond, having batted .256/.317/.370 with seven home runs and two stolen bases in 119 games for the White Sox last season. Harrison played second base, third base, shortstop and left field for the White Sox last season, but he has spent most of his career playing second base.

It will be the second time that Harrison has been with the Phillies, after they signed him to a minor league contract during the 2019-2020 off-season, only to release him just prior to the start of the COVID-shortened season. This time around, he has a guaranteed MLB deal with the Phillies, and he'll likely start the season on the bench, with Bryson Stott expected to be the starter at second base and Alec Bohm likely to be the starter for the Phillies at third base.

 

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The New York Yankees announced over the weekend that they have reached an agreement on a one-year contract with infielder Gleyber Torres, avoiding salary arbitration. It is reported that the deal is worth $9.95 million, which comes in at the half-way point between the $10.2 million sum requested by Torres and the $9.7 million initially offered by the Yankees. The new contract represents an increase of $3.7 million on Torres' 2022 contract. Torres hit 24 home run and knocked in 76 runs in 140 regular season games for the Yankees.

 

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The top remaining free agent starting pitcher, Michael Wacha, is said to be asking teams for a two-year contract. So far, only the Twins and Orioles have been reported as showing interest in Wacha, although the Twins' reported interest came before they traded for Pablo Lopez.

MLB teams have plenty of options left in free agent market

It’s a mystery why some fine lefty relievers Andrew Chafin, Matt Moore, Brad Hand and Zack Britton are still looking for jobs.

nypost.com

 

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The Seattle Mariners have released Jason Vosler, according to his MLB.com page. The Mariners had reportedly signed him to a minor league contract last week. The circumstances behind his release have not been made public, but it's typically the case that such player has received a guaranteed deal with a team in Japan or South Korea.

Jason Vosler Stats, Age, Position, Height, Weight, Fantasy & News

Jason Vosler Stats, Age, Position, Height, Weight, Fantasy & News

www.mlb.com

 

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Over the weekend, it was reported that the Tampa Bay Rays and INF Yandy Diaz were close to finalising a contract extension. The deal would be a three year, $24 million contract that would contain a club option for 2026. The extension would cover Diaz's final two years of arbitration control and at least one of his free agent-eligible seasons. Diaz and the Rays were scheduled for an arbitration hearing to determine his 2023 salary after the parties could not reach agreement on his salary for 2023. Diaz sought $6.3 million and the club offered $5.5 million.

 

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Former Boston Red Sox RHP Hirokazu Sawamura will return to the NPB after agreeing to a contract with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Sawamura is a veteran of the NPB, having played mostly for the Yomiuri Giants and the Marines before signing with the Red Sox after the 2020 season ended. Sawamura registered a 3.39 ERA and 50.9% ground-ball rate over 103 2/3 innings pitched for the Red Sox, but he had control issues (walking 13% of batters faced) and was not a particularly strong strike-out pitcher (26.3% strikeout rate in 2021, that fell to 18.1% in 2022).

 

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The Texas Rangers re-signed 1B/OF Elier Hernandez to a minor league deal, with an invitation to Spring Training. Hernandez signed with Texas during the 2020-2021 offseason and has mostly played at Triple-A Round Rock. After strong performance in the minor leagues, Hernandez was promoted to the MLB roster and played the last 14 games of the season for the Rangers, hitting .182/.200/.242 in 35 plate appearances. He was designated for assignment in August and then outrighted off their 40-man roster. Hernandez has played at all three outfield positions and has some experience at first base over the last two seasons. Hernandez joined the Kansas City Royals at age 17 in 2012, after signing as an international free agent the previous summer for $3.05 million bonus.

 

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The Baltimore Orioles have signed first baseman Curtis Terry on a minor league deal. It is not known whether Terry will receive an invitation to Spring Training. Terry has played 13 games of MLB with the Rangers in 2021, hitting .089/.146/.133 through his first 48 plate appearances. He was outrighted off the roster by the Rangers at the end of the 2021 campaign. He signed a minor league deal with the Twins and spent the entire 2022 season at Triple-A St. Paul.

 

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The Milwaukee Brewers have signed OF Skye Bolt and RHP Colin Rea to minor league deals. They will both receive non-roster invitations to Spring Training.



Bolt joins the third organisation of his professional career, having been drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the fourth round of the 2015 draft. He made the MLB with the A's back in 2019. He did not appear in the MLB in 2020, and then split the 2021 campaign between the A's and the Giants. In 2022, he played 42 games with the rebuilding Athletics, tallying 116 plate appearances, managing just .198/.259/.330 with four homers. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster at the end of the season by the Athletics.

Colin Rea most recently pitched in the MLB for the Brewers in 2021, having pitched for four different clubs across four big league campaigns. His most extended work came in 2016 (Padres and Marlins) where he pitched to a 4.82 ERA through 102 2/3 innings. However, since 2016, he has only pitched in 20 innings in the MLB. He played for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the NPB in 2022, pitching 100 innings in 23 games.

 

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Phillies are basically the Philadelphia Nationals with how many old DC players on their list.

 

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The San Francisco Giants have announced that they have signed RHP Joe Ross to a minor league deal, with an invitation to Spring Training. Ross underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2022 and likely won't be ready to play until mid-season at the earliest. Ross was a first round draft pick of the Padres in 2011 and was traded (together with Trea Turner) to the Nationals in a deal that sent Wil Myers to the Padres and Steven Souza Jr to the Rays. Over 2015 and 2016, Ross made 32 starts and three relief appearances, pitching 3.52 ERA in 181 2/3 innings.

Ross required Tommy John surgery in 2017 and missed the entirety of 2018. He came back to baseball in 2019 but pitched to a 5.48 ERA between the rotation, the bullpen and Triple-A. He sat out the 2020 campaign thanks to COVID-19 and came back to baseball in 2021, before being diagnosed with a second partial tear of his UCL in August 2021. He tried to rehabilitate the injury via non-surgical means but ultimately underwent the surgery in the summer of 2022.

 

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The Chicago White Sox have announced that they have claimed RHP A.J. Alexy off waivers from the Twins. The Twins had designated Alexy for assignment last week when they traded for Michael A. Taylor from the Royals. Alexy had spent the bulk of his career in the Rangers organisation, having been part of the 2017 trade that sent Yu Darvish to the Dodgers. He was designated for assignment by the Rangers in December and went to the Nationals on a waiver claim. The Nationals then designated him for assignment and traded him to the Twins. With Mike Clevinger under investigation for alleged breaches of the domestic violence policy, there is a spot in the White Sox rotation potentially up for grabs.

 

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The Phillies have formally announced their signing of INF Josh Harrison, designating Sam Coonrod for assignment to create space for Harrison on the 40-man roster. Coonrod was a starting pitcher as a prospect in the Giants' system before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018. Since returning from injury, Coonrod has primarily worked as a reliever. He made 51 appearances for the Giants in 2019-2020, pitching 5.74 ERA. The Giants traded him to the Phillies before the 2021 season and he pitched 42 1/3 innings for the Phillies with a 4.04 ERA. Unfortunately for Coonrod, he missed a big portion of the 2022 season thanks to a shoulder injury and was not able to return to the Phillies until August. He made 12 appearances as a reliever but gave up a 7.82 ERA.