The Chicago White Sox have continued their big offseason as they have agreed to sign outfielder Melky Cabrera to a three-year, $42 million deal, according to 670thescore.com's Bruce Levine and CBS Sports' Jon Heyman. Chicago has already signed Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke, and David Robertson, while also acquiring Jeff Samardzija this offseason. Cabrera represents yet another big addition for them, this time for their outfield. Right fielder Dayan Viciedo has reportedly been shopped, and now with the addition of Cabrera, it seems it is only a matter of time before he gets dealt. The Mariners showed the most interest in Cabrera throughout this offseason, while he also had been connected to the Reds, Giants, Orioles, and Royals. No team reportedly wanted to go over three years for Cabrera, so it was almost a given that he would ultimately sign a three-year pact. The outfield was a bit of a problem for Chicago last year. They finished 28th in baseball in fWAR from their outfield, while finishing 24th in wRC+. Their OPS ranked 25th. This year, left fielder Avisvail Garcia will get a full season's worth of playing time, center fielder Adam Eaton was excellent last year and is only improving, and now they get a veteran in Cabrera to help out in right. This White Sox team won just 73 games in 2014, but a really solid offseason should put them in the hunt in 2015. Every addition they have made this offseason represented an upgrade, and as the young guys in their lineup and rotation continue to get better, it appears as if they could sneak their way into the playoffs come next September into October. On the year, the 30-year-old Cabrera hit .301/.351/.458 with 16 home runs and 73 runs batted in over 621 plate appearances. He was worth 2.6 fWAR this season, while posting a 125 wRC+. Cabrera has never been the best defender in the outfield. He was worth -6 defensive runs saved this past year. The Dominican Cabrera was signed as an amateur free agent by the Yankees in 2001. Over his career, he has hit .286/.339/.415 with 88 homers and 520 runs batted in over ten big league seasons with the Yankees, Braves, Royals, Giants, and Blue Jays. He tested positive and was suspended for PEDs in 2012. --Devan Fink
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The Minnesota Twins have agreed to sign right-hander Ervin Santana to a four-year, $54 million deal, according to reports Thursday at the Winter Meetings. Santana had reportedly been close to signing with the Twins for the past couple of days, so it was only a matter of time before a deal got done. He finally gets the long-term deal he wanted last year after being offered, and rejecting, a qualifying offer from the Royals. The 2008 All-Star Santana got another qualifying offer this past year from the Braves, but still was able to find the deal he wanted. Santana represents just one of many starting pitchers to have changed teams during the Winter Meetings, joining the long list of Jason Hammel, Jon Lester, Justin Masterson, Wade Miley, Rick Porcello, and others. Santana, 32 today, went 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA and a 3.39 FIP this season in 196 innings pitched. He posted a 2.8 fWAR and a 179 to 63 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Santana is a workhorse and an innings eater, averaging 207 innings pitched since 2010. Santana will be joining a Twins rotation that includes the likes of Phil Hughes, Kyle Gibson, Ricky Nolasco, and Mike Pelfrey. Minnesota has been fairly quiet this offseason, with their lone major signing to this point being Torii Hunter. Santana adds to a rotation that posted the highest ERA in the major leagues in back-to-back seasons. The Dominican native was signed by the Angels as an amateur free agent in 2000. Over his career, Santana has a 4.17 ERA and a 4.26 FIP in ten big league seasons, with the Angels, Royals, and Braves. --Devan Fink The Miami Marlins have acquired Mat Latos from the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, according to reports. The teams have since announced the trade. In return for Latos, the Reds get really promising pitching prospect Anthony DeSclafani and catching prospect Chad Wallach. DeSclafani was ranked as the Marlins' second-best prospect this offseason and will help net them Mat Latos, a really solid, young starter. Latos, who just turned 27, has already spent six seasons in the big leagues, three with the Padres and three with Cincinnati. He missed about half this past season due to arm issues, but he is a fantastic performer when healthy. In 16 starts this season, Latos tossed 102.1 innings, posting a 3.25 ERA and a 3.65 FIP, resulting in a 1.5 fWAR. This is the first season with injury troubles for Latos, as he had tossed over 180 innings in all other full seasons he spent in the bigs. Anthony DeSclafani is a great return for the Reds. The 24-year-old posted an ugly 6.27 ERA in 33 innings in the majors this past season, but that was after already spending time in both Rookie, Double- and Triple-A. DeSclafani strikes out hitters at a high rate and posted a 3.49 ERA in 59.1 innings in Triple-A this past season. He should slide right into the Reds rotation. This is an interesting deal for Miami, who have dealt their second top pitching prospect in as many days. They acquired Dee Gordon yesterday for top prospect Andrew Heaney and flipped DeSclafani to the Reds today for Mat Latos. It looks like the Marlins are getting closer to contention and I would not be surprised if they made a run at a playoff spot in 2015. As for the Reds, this deal makes sense for them. Latos will be a free agent at the end of next season, and now they get DeSclafani, who still has six years of team control ahead of him. With the Reds not being serious contenders, they were able to sell Latos on the high and get a player with a high ceiling in return. Ultimately, they made the smartest move possible for their situation. --Devan Fink The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox have completed a trade sending outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Tigers in exchange for pitcher Rick Porcello, according to reports. Along with Cespedes, the Red Sox are trading righty Alex Wilson and lefty Gabe Speier to Detroit. This deal had been in the makings prior to the Winter Meetings, as it was reported that an offer for a Cespedes-for-Porcello deal was made. However, it never seemed to pick up steam, while the Red Sox did want to move Cespedes after signing Hanley Ramirez to play left field earlier this offseason. The 29-year-old Cespedes becomes a free agent at the end of next season, after a four-year, $36 million deal was signed with Oakland back in the 2011-2012 offseason. This past year, Cespedes posted the highest fWAR of his career, as he hit .260/.301/.450 with 22 homers and 100 runs driven in over 645 plate appearances. Cespedes was worth 11 runs in the outfield. Porcello is a fantastic return for the Red Sox, who have needed pitching after losing out to the Cubs in the Jon Lester sweepstakes. Porcello, who turns 26 soon, is a free agent at the end of next season. He has been so solid with the Tigers over his career. He posted a 3.43 ERA in 204.2 innings pitched last season, which goes along with a 3.67 FIP and 3.1 fWAR. The Red Sox have desperately needed pitching. Just last night and today alone, they acquired Wade Miley from the Diamondbacks, signed Justin Masterson, and acquired Porcello to give them a really formidable top three in the rotation. However, all three are either still young (Porcello, Miley) or coming off a poor season (Masterson), so the rotation could be the make-or-break for the Red Sox' 2015 season. With Torii Hunter gone to the Twins, the Tigers filled a much-needed outfield spot with a really good player in Yoenis Cespedes. While Cespedes is also a free agent at the end of next season, he was the odd man out in Boston, and the Tigers took advantage. While Cespedes is a free agent at the end of next season and cannot be offered a qualifying offer, it would not surprise me if the Tigers were able to lock him up longterm. Whatever the case, he fills a need with a team that is very much in win-now mode. --Devan Fink The San Diego Padres have acquired outfielder Matt Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to reports Thursday morning. The deal sends Kemp and catcher Tim Federowicz to San Diego for catcher Yasmani Grandal, right-hander Joe Wieland, and pitching prospect Zach Eflin, who has since been dealt to the Phillies to complete the Jimmy Rollins trade. The deal still needs to be approved by the commissioner because money is going from Los Angeles to San Diego along with Kemp and Federowicz. The Padres will be paying Kemp $15 million per season for the rest of his contract, which means that $32 million will be paid by the Dodgers. The 30-year-old Kemp played mostly in right field for the Dodgers this past season. He slashed .287/.346/.506 with 25 homers and 89 runs batted in. Kemp's homer total was the biggest since 2011, when he finished second in the MVP voting to Ryan Braun. He hit 39 homers, drove in 126 (both leading the National League), and posted a .324 batting average. Over his career, he has a .292/.349/.495 slash line in nine big league seasons, all with the Dodgers. The main piece the Dodgers do receive from San Diego is catcher Yasmani Grandal. The 26-year-old Grandal played his first full big league season this past year, hitting .225/.327/.401 with an OPS of .728, while slugging 15 homers and 49 runs batted in. Grandal is a former first round pick and is a below-average defender, according to both defensive runs saved and UZR. The Dodgers and Padres had been discussing a Kemp-for-Grandal centerpiece for a few weeks now, but some were unsure that they would be able to get it done. The Dodgers have mad a ton of moves at these Winter Meetings and this Kemp trade just adds to the reshuffling of the roster that Andrew Friedman has wanted to do since becoming the team's President of Baseball Operations earlier this offseason. As for the Padres, they finally acquired that bat they missed out on in both the Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas sweepstakes. While Kemp is a few years older, and signed through 2019, at $15 million a year he is definitely worth a shot for them. A.J. Preller, as the new Padres GM, has made a ton of noise, being interested in acquiring players the Padres have historically weren't able to. The acquisition of Kemp might just the beginning of the changing of the tide in San Diego. --Devan Fink |
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