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Archives for March 2017

East Notes: Red Sox, Braves, Mets

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It didn’t surprise Clay Buchholz that the Red Sox traded him during the offseason, the right-hander told reporters – including Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald – on Sunday (Twitter links). Buchholz is now with the Phillies, though he expected Boston to send him to the White Sox as part of the Chris Sale deal. “This is probably good for me, getting out of Boston in general,” said Buchholz, who had been a member of the Red Sox since they selected him in the first round of the 2005 draft. “It stinks to say that but seems like more people remember bad things that happened rather than good things.” Buchholz had his down moments in Boston, including a rough 2016, but posted respectable numbers in 1,167 2/3 innings with the Sox (3.96 ERA, 6.93 K/9, 3.21 BB/9, 47.8 percent ground-ball rate) and had arguably his best season in 2013 as part of a World Series-winning club.

More from the East Coast:

  • The Braves have attempted to reel in free agent outfielder Angel Pagan, but it’s “highly unlikely” he’ll end up in Atlanta because he’s “seeking far more” than they’re willing to offer, according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Pagan wants a major league contract, unsurprisingly, but Atlanta’s among a group of teams that have offered him a minors pact. Judging by Bowman’s report, the Braves aren’t going to budge.
  • While the Mets’ Sandy Alderson is both the oldest general manager in the majors (69) and in a contract year, it sounds as if he aims to continue with the organization beyond the 2017 campaign. “I haven’t thought about how much longer I want to do it,” he told Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. “But I’d like to do it a little longer.” The Mets had endured four straight non-playoff seasons before hiring Alderson in October 2010, but they’ve gradually turned around their fortunes on the longtime executive’s watch. New York is coming off back-to-back playoff seasons, including a 2015 World Series berth, for just the second time in franchise history.
  • Red Sox reliever Tyler Thornburg’s lack of shoulder strength partially boils down to miscommunication, writes Silverman. After they acquired him from the Brewers, the Red Sox, who have their own shoulder maintenance program, sent Thornburg a list of exercises to perform daily. He misunderstood the directions, however. “I kind of figured that this is a list of the exercises they incorporated, I didn’t think this is what they do all in one day,” said Thornburg. “I thought, ‘here’s a list of exercises, learn them, pick five or six of them,’ because that was pretty much what we did in Milwaukee.” Teammate and fellow reliever Joe Kelly also had a difficult time adjusting to the program when the Red Sox acquired him in 2014, but he’s now on board with it. “It’s something that I didn’t buy into all the way when I first did it because it’s something new, something new you’re doing and you’re getting sore and fatigued, it’s something you probably don’t want to do,” Kelly stated. “It’s something I stuck with, and I tried it and ultimately it just felt great. It’s one of the things you’ve kind of got to get results first in order to believe.”

MLBTR Originals

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A roundup of MLBTR’s original content from the past week:

  • MLBTR contributor Brett Ballantini (links here) spoke with new Diamondbacks senior vice president and assistant general manager Jared Porter, who previously worked in the front offices of the Red Sox and Cubs. Porter discussed what it was like to be a member of those two organizations during their championship-winning, drought-breaking campaigns, and he addressed various subjects relating to the Diamondbacks, among other topics.
  • Another MLBTR contributor, former Cubs front office member Chuck Wasserstrom, chatted with ex-Blue Jays scouting director Tim Wilken about the team’s impressive 1997 draft haul. First-round pick Vernon Wells headlined the class for the Jays, who also selected three other players who became successful big leaguers in Michael Young, Orlando Hudson and Mark Hendrickson.
  • This year’s Offseason In Review series continued with Mark Polishuk analyzing the Red Sox’s winter and Charlie Wilmoth doing the same with the Brewers’.
  • Jeff Todd explained that this could be a make-or-break year for Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda, while I took a look at what’s at stake for Diamondbacks righty Shelby Miller.
  • Lastly, Jeff polled readers on which team will sign arguably the best free agent pitcher left on the board, righty Doug Fister. Out of the six clubs listed, the plurality of voters see the Yankees as the likeliest landing spot. However, “Other” has gotten the most votes so far.

Pitching Notes: Rangers, Astros, Marlins, O’s, Red Sox, Jays

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While it’s possible the Rangers will bring back right-hander Colby Lewis to compete for a spot in their banged-up rotation, there hasn’t been any movement toward re-signing the free agent, general manager Jon Daniels told Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News. The 37-year-old Lewis is unwilling to take a minors deal, reports Fraley, so the Rangers will have to remove someone from their 40-man roster if they hand him a major league contract. Nearly all of Lewis’ career has been spent in Texas, where he pitched his first three seasons (2002-04) and the past seven (2010-16). He threw 116 1/3 innings of 3.71 ERA ball last season, though his FIP, xFIP and SIERA each hovered around the 5.00 mark.

The latest on a few other American League pitchers:

  • No full-time reliever eclipsed the 90-inning mark in either of the previous two seasons, but several could do it this year, observes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. There’s “a growing desire” among GMs and managers to utilize certain relievers for multiple innings, relays Sherman, who writes that the Astros’ Chris Devenski and the Marlins’ David Phelps are prime candidates to serve as bullpen workhorses in 2017. “Not every reliever is built for a versatile role. [Devenski] is,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. The right-hander was sensational across 108 1/3 frames as a rookie last year, when he threw 83 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and delivered a 1.61 ERA, 8.98 K/9 and 1.26 BB/9. Phelps was great at preventing runs in both roles (2.22 ERA in 24 1/3 innings as a starter, 2.31 ERA in 62 1/3 relief frames), but the righty only worked an inning at a time from the bullpen. Miami’s now stretching him out to throw 50 pitches in a given appearance, if necessary. “I look at Phelps like Andrew Miller,” manager Don Mattingly told Sherman. “I can use him in multiple ways. I can pitch him a few innings or I can have him close a game. You can’t do it on a daily basis. He still needs his rest. You know in bigger situations in the fifth and sixth innings you can see him.”
  • One of the Orioles’ top starters, righty Chris Tillman, will open the season on the 10-day disabled list, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Tillman has been dealing with shoulder issues for the past few months, and he underwent a platelet-rich plasma injection in December. The Orioles won’t need a fifth starter until April 15, notes Kubatko, who lists Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson, Gabriel Ynoa, Jayson Aquino and Chris Lee as possibilities to slot into their rotation during Tillman’s absence.
  • Red Sox left-hander David Price threw Saturday for the first time since suffering a flexor strain earlier this month, per Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. Manager John Farrell came away encouraged, calling it “a good day for David,” but a return still doesn’t exactly seem imminent for the ace. “All of the early phase of throwing are going to be short, controlled effort and energy,” said Farrell. “We’re not even mapping out distances right now. We’re more interested in seeing how his arm responds to even the light throwing.”
  • Blue Jays southpaw T.J. House left the team’s game against the Tigers in an ambulance Friday after a line drive struck him in the head. Fortunately, he didn’t suffer any skull fractures and is “doing well,” GM Ross Atkins told Jayson Stark of ESPN on Saturday. The club will be “extremely conservative” in deciding when to clear House to return to the mound, Atkins added.

Nationals Place Derek Norris On Waivers

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The Nationals have placed catcher Derek Norris on waivers, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman. If no one claims Norris, the likelihood is the Nationals will release him, per Heyman. While Norris is slated to make $4.2MM this year, the Nationals will only be responsible for 30 days’ termination pay (~$700K) if they cut him.

Norris has had two stints with the Nationals, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2007 draft, but hasn’t been able to crack their big league roster. The Nationals traded Norris, then a prospect, to the Athletics in 2011 in a deal for left-hander Gio Gonzalez. Washington subsequently re-acquired Norris this past December from the Padres in a move that saw the Nationals send right-hander Pedro Avila to San Diego.

After the Nats reunited with Norris, the assumption was he’d end up as their starting backstop this year. But rumors that they’d sign free agent Matt Wieters persisted throughout the offseason, and that possibility came to fruition when the Nationals inked the longtime Oriole to a two-year, $21MM guarantee (with an opt-out after 2017) in late February. As a result, Washington has tried to trade Norris, who took its acquisition of Wieters in stride.

“It doesn’t change much for me other than the fact that it may or may not be the teammates I’ll be playing with,” said Norris. “So on my end it’s control what I can control. Go out there and play my games and get ready for a season.”

Considering no one has swung a deal for Norris, it’s clear his salary has been prohibitive on the heels of a disastrous 2016 season. In his second and final year in San Diego, Norris posted an ugly .186/.255/.328 line with a career-worst 30.3 percent strikeout rate in 458 plate appearances. Historically, though, Norris has fared respectably. Between his 2012 debut and 2015, he slashed an above-average .246/.336/.392 in 982 PAs with the A’s and Padres. The 28-year-old is also coming off his second straight season in which both Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner assigned him plus pitch-framing marks. It stands to reason, then, that teams looking to make improvements behind the plate before Opening Day will court Norris if he reaches free agency.

With Norris in the Nats’ rearview mirror, they’ll enter the season with Wieters and Jose Lobaton as their backstops. They also have Triple-A prospect Pedro Severino, whose name has come up in trade rumors.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Astros, Jays, Cubs, Bucs, Nats

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This week in baseball blogs:

Please send submissions to ZachBBWI @gmail.com.

Yankees Notes: Quintana, Refsnyder, Kaprielian

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In light of the Yankees’ decision to make outfield prospect Clint Frazier cut his hair Friday, this is a good time to revisit a piece from 1991 on the team’s longtime first baseman, Don Mattingly. Then with the New York Times (and now with the YES Network), Jack Curry wrote that Mattingly refused to obey owner George Steinbrenner’s hair policy, so New York benched and fined its captain as a result. That came two months after the Yankees denied Mattingly’s request for a trade. “Maybe I don’t belong in the organization anymore,” a frustrated Mattingly said at the time. “I talked to [general manager Gene Michael] about moving me earlier in the year. He said we’ll talk at the end of the year. Maybe this is their way of saying we don’t need you anymore.” Mattingly added that Michael wanted an “organization that will be puppets for him and do what he wants.” Michael fired back, saying: “He’s the captain and he’s got a big contract. If we asked the captain to get his hair cut, he should get it cut.”

Despite Mattingly’s dispute with the Yankees, he went on to spend the next four seasons with the club before retiring after the 1995 campaign. The Bombers were the only team for which Mattingly played, of course, in an excellent career that began in 1982. As for the Yankees, although Steinbrenner passed away in 2010, his daughter, part-owner Jennifer Steinbrenner, has kept her father’s rule in place, per Billy Witz of the Times. Many, including River Ave Blues’ Mike Axisa, aren’t happy about it.

Here’s more from the Bronx:

  • Trade rumors have connected the Yankees and White Sox ace Jose Quintana over the past few months, but no deal is brewing between the teams, reports Curry (video link). Nothing has changed since January for the Yanks, who were then loath to subtract from their loaded farm system to acquire Quintana and remain unwilling to trade a prospect haul for the left-hander as Opening Day approaches.
  • The Yankees are reportedly willing to listen to offers for utilityman Rob Refsnyder, and with that in mind, Curry notes that he’s going to have a difficult time cracking their 25-man roster. If New York goes with a four-man bench, odds are it’ll be Chris Carter, Austin Romine, Aaron Hicks and Ronald Torreyes who serve as their reserves, says Curry, who points out that Refsnyder does have a minor league option remaining. Thus, it’s not necessarily a must for the Yankees to trade the soon-to-be 26-year-old.
  • Although he missed most of last season with an elbow injury and hasn’t pitched above the High-A level, right-hander James Kaprielian has a chance to end up in the majors sometime this year, according to George A. King III and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The 23-year-old, whom the Yankees chose 16th overall pick in the 2015 draft, threw a three-inning simulation game Friday and could make his next appearance in a spring training contest, manager Joe Girardi told King and Davidoff. Girardi believes Kaprielian has “a ton of talent” and will have an opportunity to “move pretty quickly” toward the big leagues if he stays healthy.

West Notes: D-Backs, Simmons, Wolters, Toles

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Former Diamondbacks executive and interim general manager Jerry Dipoto (now the GM of the Mariners) tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that the biggest regrets of his tenure in Arizona are missed opportunities in the draft. “The (mistakes) that really gnaw at me and I still wake up thinking about are the ones in the draft,” says Dipoto. “Where you had a scout or multiple scouts in the room telling you, ‘This is the guy.’ You know, ‘We should take Chris Sale.’ We should have.” Of course, the D-backs were hardly alone in passing on Sale, who fell to 13th in the first round of the 2010 draft. Still, the D-backs’ selection of Texas A&M righty Barret Loux, who ultimately didn’t even sign due to medical reasons, stings Dipoto as a misstep to this day. Dipoto adds that he hopes he’s grown as an executive from his ealier days, when he’d “run renegade on a group” of scouts or let his voice “overwhelm the opinion of the group.”

More from the game’s Western divisions…

  • Mariners righty Shae Simmons exited today’s Cactus League game with the trainer, tweets MLB.com’s Greg Johns. While there’s no word on the specifics of the injury just yet, that’s a troubling scene for the newly acquired flame-thrower, who has already seen one season of his career wiped out due to Tommy John surgery. Simmons is competing for one of the final spots in the Seattle ’pen and, prior to 2015 Tommy John surgery, flashed quite a bit of potential in the Atlanta relief corps. The 2014 season saw Simmons rattle off 21 2/3 innings of 2.91 ERA ball with a 23-to-11 K/BB ratio.
  • The Rockies have been without catcher Tony Wolters since March 5 due to a hyperextended right elbow that he suffered on a swing, but he could return to the field on either Sunday or Monday, tweets MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The 24-year-old Wolters hit .259/.327/.395 in 230 plate appearances as a rookie last season and drew excellent marks for his pitch-framing skills. He’s expected to split time behind the dish with fellow youngster Tom Murphy in 2017 as half of the Rockies’ primary catching tandem.
  • Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles tells J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group that while he knew little to nothing of sabermetrics a year ago, his newfound fascination with modern metrics aided him in his rise to the Majors last season. Toles began teaching himself the new concepts on Fangraphs and admits that they changed the way he evaluated himself. “I think that’s it,” the 24-year-old said. “You don’t look at batting average, home runs, all that.” Toles cited director of player development Gabe Kapler and the Dodgers’ general willingness to break down exactly what they’re looking for as driving factors behind his embracing of advanced metrics and said that ultimately, the advice he received paid off. “I just pretty much did what they told me to do. I listened.”

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/11/17

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • Former big league right-hander Donovan Hand tweeted that he’s signed a minor league contract with the Mets earlier this week. The 30-year-old tossed 68 1/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball with the Brewers back in 2013 and saw another brief stint in the Majors with the Reds in 2015. More recently, Hand spent the 2016 season pitching professionally in Taiwan as well as in the independent Atlantic League back in the States. The former 14th-round pick seems likely to open the season with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, where he’ll serve as a depth option. In 372 1/3 innings of work in Triple-A, Hand has a 4.38 ERA with 6.2 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9.

NL East Notes: Scherzer, Lugo, Braves, Marlins

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Ken Rosenthal looks at the durability of Nationals ace Max Scherzer, who has had just one arm-related DL stint in his career (shoulder soreness in 2009) and leads all Major League pitchers in innings pitched across the past three seasons. Rosenthal spoke to Scherzer himself, former D-backs GM Josh Byrnes, former Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski (now in Boston) and Nationals GM Mike Rizzo (Arizona’s scouting director when the D-backs drafted Scherzer) about the two-time Cy Young winner. Byrnes said Scherzer deserves credit for being “very developmentally minded” as a prospect. “He wanted to find out what he needed to do to be the best version of himself, not take what was the quickest path to the big leagues,” said Byrnes. Rizzo noted that many perceived it as an overdraft when the Diamondbacks plucked him out of Missouri at No. 11 overall in 2006 and lauded Scherzer’s arm action, pitching IQ and demeanor on the mound. Scherzer offered some interesting insight on the toll that increasing workloads can take on a developing arm as well, making for a very interesting read.

Elsewhere in the NL East…

  • The Mets are “strongly” considering right-hander Seth Lugo for a relief role if he doesn’t claim the final spot in the rotation, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. While there’s been some thought that either Lugo or Robert Gsellman could head back to Triple-A to continue to work as a starter, but Puma notes that the bullpen is New York’s most pressing concern at the moment. The 27-year-old Lugo made his MLB debut last season and showed quite well, tossing 64 innings with a 2.67 ERA, 6.3 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 42.8 percent ground-ball rate in 17 appearances — nine of which came out of the ’pen.
  • Left-hander Eric O’Flaherty has rediscovered some of the sink on his fastball in Spring Training and, with righties Chaz Roe and Blaine Boyer struggling, has emerged as a legitimate option to break camp with the Braves, writes MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. “He’s throwing some good breaking balls and his fastball has a little more life than it did,” manager Brian Snitker tells Bowman. “We just need to stay with him. I think he feels good, so that’s just a good thing to just keep him out there. I think he’s feeling healthy for the first time in a while.”
  • Looking to the bench competition that is ongoing in Atlanta, Bowman tweets that the only two locks for bench spots at this moment are backup catcher Kurt Suzuki and utilityman Jace Peterson. The Braves are said to be eyeing a right-handed-hitting fourth outfielder that can handle center and have several other candidates in camp vying for bench roles (as can be seen on their depth chart at Roster Resource).
  • Though the Marlins have a notoriously weak farm system, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald spoke to a number of rival scouts and evaluators about which Miami farmhands could potentially make a Major League impact in 2017. The three most common responses for Spencer were right-hander Dillon Peters, infielder J.T. Riddle and right-hander Drew Steckenrider. Though small in stature, Peters has racked up impressive performances in the minors over the past two seasons and reached Double-A as a 23-year-old last year. Riddle, a glove-first infielder, could help the team’s bench/defense despite a light bat. And Steckenrider scrapped starting after Tommy John surgery and returned with a 100 mph heater out of the ’pen. Of course, as Spencer notes, with the Marlins’ deep bullpen, it could take awhile for him to be a big league factor.

5 Key Stories: 3/4/17 – 3/10/17

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The most notable story of the past week was the saddening news that Rockies right-hander Chad Bettis learned that the testicular cancer for which he underwent surgery last December has unexpectedly spread. Bettis is set to enter a chemotherapy regimen, and the silver lining in the otherwise disheartening news is that Bettis received a good prognosis from doctors — a 90 percent success rate given the current stage and treatment options. Bettis’ health obviously takes priority over any baseball-related implications, and we wish him a full and expeditious recovery.

This week’s top baseball stories include…

Sonny Gray

Sonny Gray will begin the season the disabled list. Sonny Gray hoped that his injury troubles were behind him after a disastrous 2016 season, but the right-hander learned this week that he’ll miss Opening Day and could sit out for much of the season’s first month. Gray was diagnosed with a lat strain that will prevent him from throwing for at least three weeks, which means he won’t even pick up a baseball again until the end of March. The diagnosis shocked Gray, who had been feeling strong this spring. The A’s have a number of in-house alternatives, and there’s been no word of Oakland pursuing external pitching depth. But, with Gray persistently being considered a trade candidate, yet another health issue won’t do his trade stock any favors down the line, if the A’s make him available.

Andrew Cashner won’t be ready for Opening Day; Rangers could look to add a starter. Oft-injured starter Andrew Cashner inked a $10MM one-year deal to serve as the Rangers’ fourth starter this season, but a bout of biceps tendinitis won’t allow that to happen from the outset of the season. Cashner appears DL-bound to begin the season, and with another former Padres righty, Tyson Ross, also not ready for Opening Day (though that was known at the time of his signing), the Rangers’ pitching depth looks shaky. Multiple Rangers reporters said this week that the team would at least consider free-agent alternatives. Old friend Colby Lewis, who’s spent the past seven years with the Rangers, and right-hander Doug Fister are the top two names that have yet to sign.

Jeffrey Loria likely to sell Marlins in 2017. The rumored sale of the Marlins to a Joshua Kushner-led new ownership group fell through last month, but Loria has reportedly decided it’s “time to move on from baseball” (via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald), and he’ll look to sell the franchise at some point in 2017. Loria has been one of the most controversial and frequently criticized owners in all of professional sports, and a new ownership group would figure to vastly alter the future of the Marlins. For years, the Miami front office has had to cobble together piecemeal rosters under extreme budgetary constraints (this year’s $114MM payroll notwithstanding), but a sale of the team could bring about changes in that regard. The Marlins, according to Jackson, are in active discussions with four potential buyers (none of which is the previous Kushner group).

Kris Bryant sets new pre-arb salary record. Pre-arbitration salaries aren’t typically of great significance, but Kris Bryant set a new high-water mark for players that have yet to reach their arbitration years or ink a long-term Major League contract this week. Bryant’s $1.05MM salary eclipsed the previous record, set by Mike Trout, by $50,000. That’s a pittance, relative to what Bryant will earn over the life of what looks to be a superstar career, but the symbolic gesture is of greater importance than the financial component itself. Bryant is, after all, a year away from what could be a record-setting arbitration payday. However, the good will established with the gesture will probably be minimal. It’s unlikely that Bryant and agent Scott Boras take any sort of notable discount in talks for a long-term deal, and the symbolic salary probably does little to soften the blow of the service time manipulation that’ll cause Bryant to fall one single day shy of qualifying for free agency at the end of the 2020 season.

Details on Angel Pagan’s market emerge. Angel Pagan is perhaps the top remaining free agent on the market, but it’s been mostly quiet on him this winter. This week, however, details began to surface. It was reported that Pagan has received offers from multiple clubs, including the Pirates and Braves. Not only that, but FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported that Pagan had a Major League deal with the Orioles fall through due to concerns with his physical. Baltimore is notorious for having a difficult physical to pass, but certainly that news could explain Pagan’s slow-to-develop market. The outfielder is playing in the World Baseball Classic and doesn’t sound keen on taking a minor league deal. Heyman noted that Pagan has sought upwards of $5MM for the 2017 campaign, though this late in the winter, he could have to accept a fair bit less than that sum.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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