Good morning! It’s been a few weeks since we’ve done a minor league free agent round-up, but today we’ll catch you up on all the recent signings from around the league. As always, we’re using the MLB Transactions page as our guide to officially inked deals. You can read the previous round-up here.
1/12/24
The Braves signed utilityman Charlie Culberson, but instead of playing as a position player in 2024, he will attempt to come back as a reliever. As a position player, Culberson threw 7.1 innings of relief with a 1.23 ERA. He’s hit close to 94 mph when working as a position player.
The Yankees signed right-handed reliever Nick Burdi. Burdi has played in parts of four seasons over the past six years, missing 2020 and 2021. Last season he had three games at the major league level, striking out 26.6 percent of the batters he faced, but walked 20 percent of them as well. | The White Sox signed right-handed reliever Joe Barlow. With a breakout 2021 season in which Barlow posted a 1.55 ERA over 29 innings, the 28-year-old has thrown just 44.2 innings since then. He has seen his strikeout rate decline each season, and the long ball has come to haunt him even more with each passing year.
Right-hander Elieser Hernández inked a minor league deal with the Dodgers. The former Marlin threw 9.1 innings in the Mets minor league system in 2023. Hernández always had a good slider, but allowed a .560 slugging percentage against it in 2022. It will be interesting to see how the Dodgers tweak the 28-year-old’s repertoire and take advantage of his high-carry fastball.
1/17/24-1/18/24
The Reds signed left-handed swingman Tyler Gilbert. Cincinnati hs added a ton of depth this offseason, adding four pitchers on major league deals, and four more on minor league deals. Gilbert, 30, throws five different pitches, with his cutter and splitter being his best two pitches. The Diamondbacks kept him as a starter until last season, and it’ll be interesting to see which role he continues. | The Dodgers signed right-handed pitcher Jesse Hahn. Hahn has had two stretches as a major leaguer, from 2014 to 2017 as a starting pitcher and from 2019 to 2021 as a reliever with the Royals. Since that 2021 season where he allowed five earned runs in 3.1 innings. In that offseason, he underwent shoulder surgery. While a Royal, Hahn was primarily a sinkerballer, with a curveball and slider being his two secondary offerings, with the curveball being his best pitch from a stuff and results standpoint.
1/23/24-1/24/24
The Orioles signed outfielder Daniel Johnson. Johnson appeared in 35 games over two seasons with Cleveland. The 28-year-old has a strong arm and registered a 28.3 sprint speed in 2021. Over the past two seasons, he bounced around the minors but settled in with the Padres in 2023. Between Double-A and Triple-A, he played in 126 games, hitting .271/.348/.469 which was above average overall.
The Dodgers shored up their pitching depth by signing lefty Stephen Gonsalves and righty Michael Petersen. Gonsalves had two brief cups of coffee in the majors in his career, 2018 and 2021. Over the past two seasons he has thrown just 41 innings, all for Cubs affiliates. Over those 41 innings, he struck out 34.9 percent of the batters he faced while walking 17.7 percent. Petersen, born in the U.K., worked as a reliever after missing 2020, 2021, and almost all of 2022. Listed at 6’7”, he pitched in the WBC last spring and was hitting 100 mph. The 30-year-old walks a lot of batters and only struck out 20.6 percent of the 102batters he faced in Triple-A last season. Hopefully, the Dodgers can get more out of him than Colorado could.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Down on the Farm to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.