Braves Sign Three To Minor League Contracts

Matt Eddy reports via twitter that the Braves are already restocking their minor league rosters.

#Braves sign free agents RHP Sugar Ray Marimon, LHP Greg Smith and C Eli Whiteside to minor league deals.

— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) November 7, 2014

The Pitchers

Both pitchers appear to be a repair projects who will work in the minor league pitching development and recovery program headed by Roger McDowell.

Sugar Ray Marimon

The Colombian born right hander signed with the Royals as an international free agent  in November, 2006 at the age of 18. He has strikeout stuff featuring a four seam fastball (92mph), sinker (91mph), curve (78mph) and mixing in an change (83mph) while posting K/9 rates around 7.2 over the past three years.

Marimon pitched for Columbia in the 2012 World Baseball Classic and held the Nicaraguan nine to just one run on a solo home run. Otherwise, Marimon was hard to hit. Colombia manager Eduardo Perez said that, “. . .(Marimon) did a good job today of attacking the zone . . .(and) has a good presence on the mound.  On the day Marimon threw five innings on four hits, striking out four without a walk with the homer the only extra base hit allowed.

He didn’t reach A ball until 2011mostly because he also gave up a lot of hits and his WHIP remains around 1.360.  At 26 Marimon should be reaching his prime but needs to miss more bats.

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Greg Smith

Smith was selected by the Diamondbacks in the sixth round of the 2005 draft and  worked his way up to AAA by the end of 2007. He seems to be around every time Carlos Gonzalez is traded but I doubt that’s an omen for the Braves.  In December of that year he was traded to the Athletics along with Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland and Carlos Gonzalez for Dan Haren and Connor Robertson.  (Another Arizona oops.)

In 2008 he started 32 games for Oakland throwing 192 1/3 innings while posting a 4.16 ERA (4.82 FIP) and a 1.345 WHIP mostly it seems due to a tendency to be wild. He allowed only 169 hits but walked 87 while striking out just 111.  In November he and Cargo hot the road again when the Athletics traded the pair along with Huston Street to the Colorado Rockies for Matt Holliday; he didn’t enjoy Coors field or the Rockies.

At the beginning of 2009 Smith made eight starts for Colorado, four home and four on the road. At Coors Smith allowed a lot of fly balls and line drives; that’s not a good thing and his walks made it worse. On the road he was better but his control was still an issue. He pitched against the Braves at the Ted on April 18th and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out 5 and walking 7 in his 5 1/3 innings.

In May the Rockies sent him down to AAA where he started 15 games and pitched to a 6.12 ERA, 1.573 WHIP in 75 innings at Colorado Springs.

Since  that time he’s bounced around the minors spending time with the Yankee, Red Sox, Angels, Blue Jays and most recently the Phillies organizations.  For Lehigh Valley (Phillies AAA) in 2014 he started 26 games throwing 157 1/3 innings while posting a 4.40 ERA/1.354 WHIP.

Brooks Baseball and Baseball Prospectus (subscription required) provides this summary of Smith.

Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2014, Greg Smith threw 3,563 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2008 and 2011, including pitches thrown in the MLB Regular Season and Spring Training. In 2011, he relied primarily on his four seam Fastball (85mph) and Slider (81mph), also mixing in a Change (77mph). He also rarely threw a Curve (73mph).

The Catcher

Eli Whiteside was selected by the Orioles in the sixth round of the 2001 draft and made his big league debut in 2005 but following that season didn’t see bi league action again until he landed with the Giants in 2009. He spent four years as backup catcher for the Giants putting up a slash typical of a backup catcher .214/.273/.338/.611.

Following the 2012 season Whiteside was claimed off waivers by the Yankees and spent the next two years splitting time between them, the Blue jays and the Rangers. Last year he signed as a free agent with  the Cubs and appeared in eight games with only 24 PA.  He’s not the backup catcher for next season but adds minor league depth.

That’s A Wrap

The new Braves front office wasted little time is signing experienced minor league free agents. Both pitchers need to improve their control and in Marimon’s case locate effectively too. Whiteside provides major league and pennant race experience but little else. At 35 he’s probably tagged as the emergency major league catcher at best. I haven’t seen Steven Lerud listed as released and personally would like him back in the Braves system but Whiteside’s signing might mean that won’t happen.

I don’t expect these names to have an impact in Atlanta next season but stranger things have happened. The real wheeling and dealing begins with GM meetings that begin Monday in Phoenix.  I expect teams to be proactive this year and not wait until the Winter meetings in San Diego on December 8. teams and players (except of course the wait until the last minute Scott Boras clients) like to know where they will be before Christmas.  The next month will be extremely busy for John Hart and his team. We’ll keep you up to date with analysis of the Braves moves as we learn about it here on the take.  If you have questions you’d like us to address drop us a line or catch me on Twitter.