From Cuba with glove — Gurriel and Jays nice fit: DiManno

Lourdes Gurriel, a shortstop at heart from the royal family of Cuban baseball, is ticketed for the minors — but maybe not for long.

Gurriel was optioned to minor league camp Mike Wilner of Sportsnet.ca reports. He was never seriously considered for a spot on Toronto's Opening Day roster. Gurriel fared well in limited Grapefruit League action, going 2-for-7 with a homer, a double and four RBI, but he also battled hamstring and thumb injuries during his time in big-league camp. There has been nothing to suggest either issue will keep him from starting the minor league season on time.

Gurriel was removed from his minor-league debut when he came up limping while running the bases in Tuesday's game for High-A Dunedin, Robert Murray of Fan Rag Sports reports.
After appearing in a few spring training contests with the big-league club, the Jays' No. 7 prospect began 2017 in Dunedin on the seven-day DL. Tuesday's occurrence appeared to be a problem with the same leg that hindered Gurriel originally. The organization has no reason to push his recovery and risk long-term problems, so it wouldn't be surprising to see Gurriel land right back on the DL -- for an extended period -- in the coming days.

The Blue Jays agreed to a multi-year contract with Cuban infield prospect Lourdes Gurriel Jr., according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Gurriel, the younger brother of Astros infielder Yulieski Gurriel, is considered one of the top available international prospects and will receive a seven-year, $22MM contract from the Jays, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Gurriel is a career .277/.362/.426 hitter in Cuba and slashed an outstanding .344/.407/.560 in 245 plate appearances in his final season in Cuba — the 2015-16 campaign. That $22MM figure may seem like a relative bargain given Gurriel’s upside, but it’s worth noting that many Major League contracts of this nature allow the player in question to opt into arbitration once he is eligible.

DUNEDIN, FLA.—He is the princeling of Cuban baseball.

Youngest son of a living legend — spare (2) to the heir and the spare (1) spawned by Lourdes Gurriel, celebrated slugger and long-time manager of the national team.

But the only one from among mis tres hijos who carries the name Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Branded for baseball from birth.

“Of course I was,’’ the long and lanky hotshot Jays prospect says with an easy grin, even when acknowledging the fishbowl existence of being Gurriel royalty in a baseball-crazy country. “Because my dad and my two older brothers had already made their path, their career, and been successful.

“It happened a lot where I was not treated as Lourdes Gurriel — I was the son of, the brother of. So I had to live with that pressure.’’

Baseball was bred in the bone, however, and he never contemplated a different future, which would have been a waste of pedigree. “Since I’m 5, the only thing I saw and I did was baseball,” he says through an interpreter. “As soon as I had a chance to go to a baseball field and hit a ball, that was the only thing that I had in mind. That has never changed.”

Still son of. Still brother of. But an unpolished gem in the Toronto organization, in the estimation of a front office that made a seven-year, $22-million (including $3-million signing bonus) investment in the spindly 23-year-old, signing him to all that do-re-me as a minor-league free agent. At a showcase in Panama, essentially a freelance audition, scouts from every major-league baseball club turned up to assess the kid (though hardly a kid, as baseball development goes).

Toronto won the lottery when Gurriel picked the Jays in November over a similar offer from the Cardinals. Astutely, the young man waited until his 23rd birthday before inking, when he was no longer subject to international signing guidelines and could amplify his demands.

All that happened scarcely a few months after big bro Yulieski, widely considered this era’s best Cuban ballplayer, made his MLB debut as a third baseman with the Houston Astros. (He would go on hit .262 with three home runs and seven doubles in 130 at-bats with the Astros.)

“When we knew that we were going to go play in the States, playing together was just a plus,” says Gurriel. “If it happened, it happened. But we’re different people, different players. For us, it was more thinking about what would be best for each of us and not the fact of maybe playing together.”

So, a brace of Gurriels clandestinely transitioning away from their Communist homeland after so many years of apparent family contentment and — communism be damned — enjoying a more upscale lifestyle than most economically-strapped Cubans under the Castro regime.

This Gurriel shakes his head and smiles apologetically. “No, no, no.” That is, he won’t even answer a benign question about whether he’d ever met Fidel, back in the day. “No politics.’’

Which means, no discussion of Cuba in any context other than baseball. Because it appears Gurriel was chewed out, warned off, after revealing some of the details of his Cuba-to-Florida defection with Yulieski in a recent far-ranging interview with John Lott of The Athletic, including that the brothers had paid a seven-figure sum to human traffickers who arranged their escape.

Lourdes Jr. was just 16 when he started playing for his country’s national team — the squad which, a generation earlier in 1992, captured Olympic gold, with papa hitting .400 and leading the way.

But Lourdes the Younger will probably never represent Cuba internationally again, just as he hasn’t been wearing the colours at the World Baseball Classic, where a star-depleted team has advanced to the second round. Fidel Castro may be dead, finally, but his Cuba still won’t allow defectors to represent the island state which — in the pre-Castro era — sent scores of native-born talent to the majors.

The aspiring big-league shortstop put Cuba firmly behind him when he and Yulieski — nine years his senior — defected in February, 2016, during the Caribbean World Series in the Dominican Republic, crossing illegally into Haiti. The siblings — just like their father, who’d been trusted by the Castro regime to take the national club around the world and then bring everybody back — had been Castro patriots, at least to the extent of not attempting flight. Eldest brother Yunieski logged 16 seasons in the top-tier National Series with no apparent interest in chasing U.S. sanctuary. Yulieski had put in 15 seasons in the Serie Nacional and the national team.

But the younger brothers had grown impatient with the possibility of being allowed to immigrate to the States as the diplomatic cold war between Washington and Havana began to thaw in 2015, and President Barack Obama made a historic return to the island. Yulieski especially was running out of career time.

Everybody wants to leave Cuba, Gurriel has said, and he doesn’t just mean ballplayers. Had to take the plunge.

Gathered to Toronto’s bosom, Gurriel — who hit .344 with the Industriales in ’15 — arrived here with high big-league hopes, though he’s expected to start the season either in Class-A Dunedin or Double-A, general manager Ross Atkins told the Star Saturday. Atkins is enthusiastic about the possibilities, outlining why the Jays were so dogged in their pursuit: “Upbringing, family, baseball experience, all of them combined. But what we learned about him was his character, perseverance. Our best guess, best prediction, of how he would deal with the transition . . . was extremely encouraging. And there were obviously things about his talent and ability that projected very well.’’

Gurriel has played the outfield and infield, but is a shortstop at heart. Thus he was keenly eager to meet a professional hero: Troy Tulowitzki. “I really liked the Blue Jays even before I signed, but the guy I really wanted to meet was Tulowitzki. That was really exciting for me. I was following him even when he was in Colorado.’’

There was a minor setback out of the gate when Gurriel tweaked a hamstring in his spring training debut. Last week, in his first at-bat against the Orioles, he crushed the first pitch he saw, a hanging breaking ball. “Grinning ear to ear,” observed manager John Gibbons following the home run trot. He’s 2-for-6, the other hit a double.

In the clubhouse, Gurriel’s stall is next to Kendrys Morales, the veteran DH who made 11 attempts at fleeing Cuba before successfully crossing the Florida Straits on a crowded raft. Gurriel was just 8 years old when he first met Morales.

“From the first day I got here, he’s been very kind. Even before that, he texted me when he found out I’d signed with Toronto. He and (Ezequiel) Carrera, who has the locker on my right, have been helping me a lot, teaching me stuff, showing me how it works here. I’m grateful and lucky to have those guys around me.”

Of course he misses Yulieski. “As soon as the game’s done, we always call each other and text each other, to see how the other guy did. We’ve always been very close.”

He rubs a hand through fashionably hip-hop hair, flashes another smile.

“I’ve always dreamed to be in the big leagues. When I come here, every day my mindset is, I’m going to be in the big leagues tomorrow. Obviously I’ve learned that you can’t run without walking first. I know it’s not just throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball. But I also know what I need to get to the bigs. And when I do get there, I know I’ll be ready.”

Interview over, Gurriel says, in English: “Thank you.”

[ Lourdes Gurriel, yet another Cuban prospect that I wished were Cleveland bound. I could field my own minor league team with all these guys ]

New Update On Cuban Outfielder Luis Robert
April 27, 2017 By Ben Badler

Here’s the latest on 19-year-old Cuban outfielder Luis Robert.

In a private workout with Robert on Friday in the Dominican Republic, the Athletics had several team officials in attendance, including general manager David Forst. While there, Robert faced Cuban righthander Norge Ruiz, who signed with the A’s for $2 million in December, and Robert homered off his fastball.

On Tuesday, Reds general manager Dick Williams led a deep group of high-ranking Reds officials at a private workout for Robert at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo. Robert again hit a home run against live pitching. Those two workouts came after a previous private workout with the Astros where Robert also went deep against live pitching.

The Cardinals, Padres and White Sox are also expected to hold workouts with Robert at some point in the coming weeks before he becomes officially eligible to sign on May 20. Clubs are also expecting Robert to hold one more open showcase before he becomes eligible to sign.

All of those teams except for the White Sox have already exceeded their bonus pools for the current 2016-17 international signing period, which ends on June 15. That makes those clubs well-positioned to sign Robert, since they wouldn’t incur any additional future signing restrictions to sign him. If the White Sox were to sign Robert during the current signing period, that would push them over their bonus pool and trigger a two-year penalty of being unable to sign any international amateur players for more than $300,000 for two years.

Kia Tigers' slugger Choi Hyung-woo runs the bases after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against the Nexen Heroes at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Wednesday.

Tigers roar as Choi displays power hitting

By Baek Byung-yeul

The Kia Tigers became the first team in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League to reach 20 wins after the Gwangju-based team defeated the Nexen Heroes 2-1 on Buddha's Birthday Wednesday.

The Tigers reached the 20-win mark at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul thanks to its ace Yang Hyeon-jong who pitched seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.

This is the first time for the franchise to achieve such a record since the team changed its name to Kia in 2001 with an ownership change.

The biggest contributor to the team's winning drive is probably outfielder Choi Hyung-woo. The 34-year-old became a Tiger last offseason after he signed a four-year deal worth 10 billion won ($8.8 million), which is the second largest following Lee Dae-ho of the Lotte Giants, who returned to his old club in January with a four-year, 15 billion won deal.

Batting fourth, Choi has a batting average of .375 with 36 hits including 15 doubles and six homers as of Wednesday. He also has the league's fourth most RBIs with 22 and third most runs with 23.
Jeong Choi

Wyverns' Choi tops home run ranking

Among hitters, SK Wyverns' slugger Choi Jeong has been having one of his most prolific years. He displayed tremendous power last month hitting 12 homers with 24 RBIs. He currently tops the home run ranking.

The third baseman, who led the league in home runs with 40 last year, aims to do the same this season. This is because this season is the first time for the 30-year-old to hit more than 10 home runs in April since his debut in 2007. Given that Choi called himself a "slow starter," he is off to a career high pace of 66 home runs at the end of the season.

But it's too early relax as Choi is followed by his teammate Han Dong-min (11) and Xavier Scruggs of the NC Dinos (10).

Jeff Manship

Ex-MLB pitcher sets Korean baseball record for winning streak

Former major league pitcher Jeff Manship on Sunday set a record for the longest winning streak to start a career in South Korea.

Manship, who pitches for the NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization, won his sixth straight decision by holding the Kia Tigers to a run on four hits in six innings in the Dinos' 12-1 victory.

Manship, who appeared in last year's World Series for the Cleveland Indians, is now 6-0 with a 1.69 ERA in his first KBO season. He broke the tie with former SK Wyverns' pitcher Travis Banwart, who won his first five decisions to start his KBO stint in 2014.

Manship has defeated five different clubs during his current winning streak. The right-hander leads the KBO in wins (six) and is fourth in both ERA (1.69) and strikeouts (34).

Manship is also third in innings pitched with 37 1/3, one behind two co-leaders, Merrill Kelly of the Wyverns and Zach Petrick of the Samsung Lions. Manship has allowed just two extra-base hits all season.

The Dinos have won seven of their past eight games, and are now within half a game of the Tigers for first place.

Giants' Sugano hurls 3rd straight shutout

Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano fired his third consecutive shutout, blanking the Yokohama DeNA BayStars 5-0 on Tuesday night at Tokyo Dome.

It was a 135-pitch performance that seemed to come with a sense of achievement.

The moment Sugano (4-0) induced a groundout to second off the bat of Jose Lopez, he gave a fist pump.

Tossing three straight games without allowing a run brought back memories of a long list of Giants aces and equaled a feat former Giants hurler — and current farm team manager — Masaki Saito accomplished in the Central League 28 years ago.

“I struggled more [tonight] than in recent games,” Sugano said. “I just haven’t been in very good form.”

There have been times when his pinpoint control has been below what he normally delivers, and he has sometimes fallen behind in counts. But he was able to make adjustments, showing his depth as a pitcher.

In the fourth inning with the Giants up a run, he yielded back-to-back hits to put runners on first and second with one down. The next two batters — left-handed hitters Elian Herrera and Toshihiko Kuramoto — he retired with hard-biting sliders on the inner half that induced a ground ball to second and a popup to first.

In the fifth inning, he surrendered a leadoff single and a sacrifice put the runner on second before turning to his fastball to get a ground ball from Masayuki Kuwahara, while Takehiro Ishikawa popped up a 151-kph heater to shortstop to end the inning.

Sugano didn’t allow a hit from the sixth inning on.

“I had a good running fastball and that was the only thing that helped me,” Sugano said. “So I was able to pace myself well.”

He took a careful look at the way the batters reacted to his pitches and was able to rely on the fastball when he needed it.

Even Giants skipper Yoshinobu Takahashi praised his ability to make in-game adjustments.

“He’s able to gear things up when he’s in a jam and he’s great at getting out of trouble,” Takahashi said.

Even Yokohama batting coach Tomochika Tsuboi was in awe.

“He was a different guy when he got into trouble,” Tsuboi said.

The type of spin on his pitches and the timing on the break on his offspeed stuff have shown detailed focus that he has worked on since camp.

He works hard to prepare and takes the mound with the intention of going the distance.

Yomiuri head coach Shinichi Murata compared Sugano to the aforementioned Giants legend, saying, “He’s like Saito.”Speech

“Gone, just like the ex-girlfriend who will never return”: Taiwanese announcer on Manny Ramirez HR

http://awfulannouncing.com/2013/gone-ju ... ez-hr.html

<

That was four years ago. He's in Japan now, with an all-the-sushi-you-can-eat contract.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/04/01/221 ... r-a-single

I know. The article read 2013. As much as I follow Asian baseball, I never saw that clip before. I thought it was hilarious.

Han Dong-min

Slugger's comeback makes Wyverns stronger

By Kang Hyun-kyung

SK Wyverns' outfielder Han Dong-min, 28, is unstoppable.

Han Dong-min / Courtesy of SK Wyberns

He has so far produced 11 home runs in 26 games in the 2017 season and is second in hitting them following his teammate Choi Jung. Choi was last year's home run king with 40 homers. He has so far hit 12 this season.

Han is third in RBI so far with 26. It's hard to believe he just returned to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League after a two-year hiatus for military service. During those years, he played for the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps (KAFAC) under an alternative military service program. The KAFAC is part of the minor Future's League.

Han proved himself to be a key asset to the Wyverns in their recent three-game series against the Nexen Heroes.

Han hit Heroes' starter Cho Sang-woo's high-velocity ball (146-kilometer per hour) in the fifth inning to double to right field near the fence of the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Friday, sending two base runners across home plate to add two scores and help his team lead 3-0.

Baseball analyst Heo Goo-yeon said the Han and Cho face-off became "the Play of the Game" when the two fearless players confronted each other.

"The showdown between the Heroes' pitcher and the Wyverns' slugger is intriguing," he said. "As you can see, neither side backed down. Cho seems not to care much about the slugger and pitches just as he is dealing with an average batter, not a slugger who can hit a home run of him any time. Look at Han. He also displays no pressure about Cho's high-speed balls and seems to be ready to hit a home run against Cho."

Han has a slugging rate over 40 percent against high-velocity balls. He batted .400 against balls of 140-kilometer per hour or higher.

On Saturday, he doubled again to centerfield in the first inning against the Heroes and enabled his team to lead 1-0. In the second inning, he stood at bat and hit another double, sending base runners on the first and third home to gain two more scores. The Wyverns routed the Heroes 13-5 in the second game. The Wyverns rose to fourth out of 10 KBO clubs.

The Wyverns are home to sluggers and batters with power and hence earned the nickname, "the home run powerhouse."

Han pulled together four-game home runs in a row in early April in games against the Kia Tigers and the NC Dinos. His teammate Choi Jung produced three home runs in a game against the Dinos on April 8 and has since produced multiple home runs in several games.

Han's solid performance shows he has successfully adapted to the KBO League.

The left-handed slugger was drafted by the SK Wyverns and debuted in the KBO League in 2012 after graduating from Busan-based Kyungsung University.

His first year in the major league was marred by injuries. He suffered injuries to his shoulder since his third year in high school and the shoulder pain got worse after the outfielder joined the Wyverns.

He appeared in only seven games in 2012 and spent most of the season in the minor league for rehabilitation. Those trying days, however, turned out to be an opportunity to upgrade his baseball skills because he was able to fix his weakness — throwing.

He practiced hard under the guidance of pitching coach Kim Sang-jin and came to build confidence in throwing. According to his coach, Han returned to the Wyverns with his arms strong enough to become a pitcher. In the 2013 season, he batted .263 and hit 14 home runs with 52 RBIs in 99 games. Han was the first and still is the only Wyvern batter who produced 14 home runs in his second year.

His military service helped him upgrade his skills. He said he felt comfortable at bat and this helped him build confidence about his batting. He was a two-year home run king in the Future's League. He hit 21 home runs in 2015 and 22 the next year. Han earned the nickname "Dong-Minican" for his ability to hit with power just like s slugger from the Dominican Republic, with an exotic face and physical fitness.

His fellow athletes say Han likes that nickname.

The San Diego Padres Hunt for Luis Robert

JOHN CONNIFF

Former Cuban national team member Luis Robert is the last big name international free agent left. Will the Padres break open the bank one more time?

Since last June, arguably no major league team has done more to improve its minor league system than the San Diego Padres.

With Cuban outfielder Luis Robert, eligible to sign as of May 20, the Padres can put a big cherry on top of what is already the best single year of amateur talent acquisition in the team’s 48-year history.

Since he became eligible to sign, Robert has conducted several private workouts with individual teams. Tuesday, he was at the Padres’ facility in the Dominican Republic - an opportunity that Padres international scouting director Chris Kemp claims is critical for the evaluation.

“It provides us with a chance to get up close with the player and spend some time with him. He was out at our facility on Tuesday and we had chance to chat with him over lunch and get to know a little bit more about him as a person away from the field.”

But in-person time with him is hardly new for the organization’s talent evaluators.

“I’ve seen him over ten times and our cross-checker has probably seen him more,” Kemp said by phone from the Dominican Republic.

“Also, A.J. [Preller, the Padres’ General Manager] has seen him quite a few times too.

“We definitely like him as a player and a person. We can see him becoming a future big league player and we plan to be in the mix to get him.”

While the Padres spent more than $15 million in last year’s amateur draft, and are paying other teams slightly over $35 million for veterans traded for prospects, their biggest investment, by far, has been on the international market.

Since the current signing period opened last July 2, the club has signed 45 players for a total cost of close to $80 million in bonuses and penalty fees. The most notable additions have been from Cuba; left-handed pitcher Adrian Morejon ($22 million), outfielder Jorge Oña ($14 million) and $15.5 million total to three other pitchers.

Additionally, the team shelled out $8 million total for shortstop Luis Almanzar from the Dominican Republic and gave 12 of the top 50 international signing bonuses. The bonuses given to Morejon, Oña and Almanzar represent three of the four biggest outlays for amateur players in team history.

So, will the Padres make the final push and take a chance on Luis Robert?

“Because Morejon was a pitcher, it’s a little different on the number of looks that we saw,” said Kemp. “Oña on the other hand was in the Dominican for close to a year, so we saw him well over 50 times and obviously liked what we saw.

“Since the process started a little late with Robert – he’s only been in the Dominican for a few months – is the reason we’ve only seen him around ten times.”

Robert, 19, is a six-foot-three, 205 lbs. outfielder with the ability to play center field, but with a more likely destination on the corners. Before leaving Cuba in November, he hit .393 with 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases in Cuba’s top league and was considered not only the quintessential five-tool prospect, but one of the five best players in the country.

“They are in the mix for him, just how high is another question,” said Baseball America’s Ben Badler. “I do think they will be one of the teams that will be there in the end.”

“He’s a very athletic, physical player for his age,” said Badler. “He brings some impressive tools to the table and has a good record of performance against players older than him in Cuba. There is some risk due to the amount of swing-and-miss in his game, but he projects very well.”

“I’m not the guy at Baseball America that does the draft, we have quite a few who do that for us, but if Luis Robert was coming out he would fit comfortably in the first round.”

Under major league rules, when a player leaves Cuba, he must establish residency in another country to become eligible to sign with a major league club. On April 20, Major League Baseball cleared Robert, now legally resident in Haiti, to sign on or after May 20.

That is good news for Robert, because teams will face a hard cap on bonuses they can pay once the next signing period opens on July 2. That cap will likely be less than half of what Robert signs for in the next month.

It’s also good news for the Padres, who will be blocked from signing any player for more than $300,000 in the next two signing periods.

While theoretically, all 30 teams would be interested in Robert, the number of clubs that will actively participate in bidding for him is much smaller. The Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Royals, Diamondbacks, Angels, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays exceeded their bonus allotments in 2015 or 2016 and can’t sign any player for more than $300,000 in the current period.

Furthermore, teams that have not exceeded their bonus allotments but already have handshake agreements in place with players for the upcoming July 2 period are unlikely to bid for Robert either. Signing Robert now would trigger the two-year penalty and negate the work that their international scouting departments have already done.

So, the field will come down to teams that have already exceeded their allocations for this year. The Padres, Cardinals, Braves, Reds, Nationals and Athletics can all sign him without incurring any further penalty; if they are willing to pay major league baseball 100% of the signing bonus. The one outlier in the mix is the White Sox, who have not exceeded their signing bonus, but are said to be very much in the mix for Robert. However, for the White Sox to sign Robert they will also incur the same two-year penalties and have to pay double the signing bonus to MLB.

“I saw Robert at a tournament in Mexico City when he was 16 when he was on the same team with Jorge Oña, who was then 18,” said Badler. “At those types of tournaments, Cuba always tries to send their very best players and the fact that he was included on that team at such a young age says something.”

“I thought Oña was the best player on that team, but Robert was not far behind.”

According to Kemp, it was Morejon’s performance at the same tournament that started the Padres on the path they’ve taken internationally over the last year.

“If you are going to blow it out you need to get the top guy and he was it,” Kemp told MadFriars last July. “Before we could do that, we had to get everyone around the table and agree on what we needed to find out if we were going to invest in getting him.”

Once they were sold on Morejon, it made sense to sign as many quality international players as possible, and do it before the rules of the market changed to make it impossible to accomplish again. So A.J. Preller and crew acquired more quality players than any club will be able to under the new system.

If you are going to break the bank, this was the time to do it.

Signing Robert would be the knockout blow for a signing period that is already a win.

Ex-MLB pitcher extends record winning streak in S. Korean baseball

SEOUL, May 10 (Yonhap) -- Former major league pitcher Jeff Manship extended his record winning streak in South Korean baseball on Wednesday.

The NC Dinos right-hander in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) twirled five shutout innings against the Nexen Heroes at Masan Stadium in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, helping his club to a 3-0 victory.

Manship, who appeared in last year's World Series for the Cleveland Indians, has now won his first seven decisions to start a KBO career. The 32-year-old American first set the record by winning his sixth straight game on April 30, breaking a tie with former SK Wyverns right-hander Travis Banwart from the 2014 season.

Manship was voted the KBO's Player of the Month for April after going 6-0 with a 1.69 ERA.

And he picked up right where he left off in his first start of May, holding the Heroes to just three hits. He struck out four and walked none while lowering his ERA to 1.49.

The Dinos broke the scoreless deadlock in the bottom fourth on Xavier Scruggs' RBI double. They added two more runs in the bottom fifth, and that was more than enough for Manship and the bullpen.

Closer Lim Chang-min picked up his league-leading 11th save after a scoreless ninth.

Jon Daniels' trip to watch 'Japanese Babe Ruth' Shohei Otani could be an omen for the Rangers' future

ARLINGTON -- Let’s talk about “optics” for a minute.

On Wednesday night, free-agent-to-be Yu Darvish was making another quality start Wednesday night. His GM, Jon Daniels, was on the other side of the world, in Darvish’s home country of Japan, watching a different Japanese pitcher.

What’s that look like to you?

How’s this for an answer: Very possibly the future.

The Rangers are considering a future in which they don’t have Darvish, in which they possibly become trading-deadline sellers and then pursue the next big arm to come from Japan, right-hander Shohei Otani as a way to accelerate the rebuilding process.

Daniels, assistant GM Josh Boyd and two Japanese-based Rangers evaluators, spent Thursday in Japan watching Otani, 22, go through a workout. They could not watch him pitch. He’s been out for the last five weeks with a thigh/hamstring strain. He suffered the injury running the bases, which he does regularly as he’s one of Japan’s brightest hitting stars, too. He is considered the “Japanese Babe Ruth,” and was featured on 60 Minutes this spring.

“The only thing I know about him is what I saw on [60 Minutes],” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said Friday. “Inside [the show], they showed a tremendous athlete with a big arm who could really hit and hit it a long way. This is a premier athlete that’s a baseball player. He looked like a special person who really loved to play the game. Big fastball. He can really hit them.”

Oh, hey, one other thing about Otani: He’s expected to come to the majors for 2018.

And the Rangers appear to be all in on him at the moment.

It explains why Daniels watched him up close, rather than Darvish.

With the Rangers off to a rough start and Darvish a potential free agent at the end of the year, the Rangers need to have as clear a picture of the Otani situation as possible. They can’t negotiate with him now, nor can any team, but there are plenty of back channels to pursue and plenty of due diligence to do. In short, the Rangers need to know sooner or later just how realistic their chance at landing Otani is, should he opt to come to the U.S. this winter.

If the chances are significant and the Rangers don’t climb into the AL West race, it will provide Daniels with a green light to get aggressive with other major league clubs about a Darvish trade.

If the chances are not so great, it might push the Rangers to redouble their efforts to re-sign Darvish to a long-term deal, sooner rather than later. If they get a sense they can re-sign Darvish, he would be more attractive than any free agent that will hit the market this winter. Other than Otani, that is

Even if the club falls out of the race, it might make more sense to try to keep Darvish long-term rather than deal him at the deadline. He’s an established ace-caliber pitcher. The Rangers are thin on pitching. They aren’t going to get a Mark Teixeira-type haul for a rental pitcher. Even if they did, it took another two years after that deal for the Teixeira deal to start to pay real dividends. I don’t get the sense this team is willing to fold its hand this season and sit out the next two, as well.

The circumstances are different than they were nearly six years ago when the club won the rights to Darvish in the posting process. By outbidding other clubs in the closed-bid posting portion of the process, the Rangers won exclusive negotiating rights to Darvish. There will be no exclusivity this time around. The posting process has changed. Any team that submits the max bid of $20 million will be able to negotiate with Otani. That group will include some of the most deep-pocketed, iconic, big-market teams in the game. You can figure out the names.

The Rangers are likely doing all of the same relationship-building they did with Darvish before the posting process. Joe Furukawa, the club’s coordinator of Pacific Rim scouting, is along with Daniels on the trip. Furukawa built a strong relationship with Darvish and served as his interpreter for his first season in the U.S. But relationship-building is likely to take a slightly-lower profile this time around when real negotiating takes place. Nevertheless, the Rangers have become major players in Japan.

So, when Daniels and company walked into the workout Thursday, even though they explicitly did not make contact with Otani, it made front page news in Japan. It’s all about the optics.

The optics suggest Shohei Otani is the Rangers’ top pitching priority.

White Sox Favored to Land Prized Cuban Prospect Luis Robert

Jon Heyman told Mulley and Hanley he’d be surprised if Luis Robert signed somewhere else besides the White Sox. The outfielder could command over $20 million.

The Chicago White Sox appear to be the favorite to land Cuban prospect Luis Robert. At least that’s what Jon Heyman thinks. Heyman told Mulley and Hanley of 670 The Score he’d be surprised if the outfielder signed elsewhere. This would be a huge step for the organization and bring some much needed help to the outfield.

The price won’t be cheap. The estimate Heyman gives is over $20 million but it would be worth the investment. The outfield is a definite area of need for this team, and he could slide right in at centerfield. Robert should be a five-tool player, and one American League scout called him the best player on the planet.

That will be quite a reputation to live up to. Developmentally, Robert shouldn’t take long to hit the majors. He may just need some time to adjust to the pitching, but he has a great bat.

This is an exciting time to be a White Sox fan. We usually don’t see this team involved with such high-profile free agents. However, they do have a history with Cuban players. See Jose Abreu.

There’s no timetable yet for Robert’s signing. But he can sign as early as this weekend. This would be a huge win for the White Sox. Teaming Robert with Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada will make this team a force to be reckoned with. Offensively, they have struggled, but the bats of Moncada and Robert will instantly make the offense better.

Offense is still an area the White Sox struggle in. But it looks like they could sure that up quickly, if they’re able to strike a deal with Robert. Rick Hahn did a phenomenal job this past offseason. With the potential to sign Robert, this would just go to show that’s he’s serious about bringing the White Sox back to their former glory.

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 2 hours ago
Source: #Indians favorite to sign 6'3 182lbs 15yr old OF Alexfri Planez out of Venezuela. Planez unable to sign until he turns 16 on 8/17/17
Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 2 hours ago
Planez profiles as a corner OF with a nice approach at the plate. He possesses some raw power and future above average power. #Indians

Cuba's Robert finalizing deal with White Sox
Outfielder ranked No. 1 among international amateur players

By Oliver Macklin / MLB.com | 33 minutes ago + 1 COMMENT

The White Sox are finalizing a deal with Cuban free-agent outfielder Luis Robert, a source told MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez on Saturday. The club has not confirmed the information.

According to MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal, who first reported that an agreement is close, the deal is expected to be worth more than $25 million. Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada set the record for an international amateur when he signed for $31.5 million with the Red Sox in 2015.

Robert, 19, is considered the second-best international prospect behind Japanese dual phenom Shohei Ohtani. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound outfielder is a five-tool player who scouts believe can reach the big leagues quickly. Robert was ranked the No. 1 prospect on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 International Prospects list, which ranks the top players available during each signing period.

Robert, who was declared a free agent by Major League Baseball last month, hit .393 with 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases in Cuba's Serie Nacional, the island's top league, last season. The right-handed hitter, who profiles as a center fielder with plus power and speed, was described by one American League international scouting director as "the best player on the planet."