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Royals Outright Hanser Alberto, Scott Blewett

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The Royals announced that infielder Hanser Alberto and right-hander Scott Blewett have cleared outright waivers and elected free agency. Kansas City’s 40-man roster tally now sits at 38, but they have an additional four players on the 60-day injured list who will need to be reinstated before the start of the offseason.

Alberto had been eligible for arbitration, so the Royals’ designation will function as an early non-tender. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected Alberto to land a $2.1MM salary in 2022, a price the club deemed too high after a below-average showing. It’s the second consecutive winter in which Alberto has been cut loose, as the Orioles non-tendered him last offseason.

Baltimore’s regular second baseman from 2019-20, Alberto signed a minor league deal with K.C. and cracked the Opening Day roster, locking in a $1.65MM salary. He spent the year in a utility role, starting games at each of third base, second base and shortstop. Over 255 plate appearances, the 29-year-old hit .270/.291/.402 with a pair of home runs.

Alberto has been one of the game’s tougher players to strike out in recent years, helping him post consistently strong batting averages. That has come with virtually no walks or power, though, capping his overall value. By measure of wRC+, Alberto was sixteen percentage points below the league average this past season, and his 1.4% walk rate was the second-lowest mark of the 362 hitters with 200+ plate appearances. He might be looking at another minors pact this winter.

Blewett was not arbitration eligible, but the Kansas City front office evidently determined they didn’t wish to devote him a 40-man roster spot all winter. Blewett was passed through outright waivers in April but re-selected to the big league club in September. He tossed five innings of one-run ball there, but he was far less effective with Triple-A Omaha.

The 25-year-old Blewett worked in a swing capacity for the Storm Chasers, tossing 69 innings in 23 appearances (including ten starts). He posted a 6.39 ERA, largely on account of the nineteen homers he served up. The Royals’ second-round pick in 2014, Blewett now hits the open market and could find himself in a different organization for the first time in his pro career.

Thyago Vieira Drawing Interest From MLB Clubs

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Yomiuri Giants right-hander Thyago Vieira is drawing interest from Major League clubs as the offseason approaches, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets. The flamethrowing righty appeared in parts of three big league seasons with the Mariners and White Sox, from 2017-19, before signing overseas in Japan.

Things have gone well for Vieira, 28, in Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s totaled 80 innings out of the Giants’ bullpen over the past two seasons, logging a combined 3.04 ERA with a 26.9% strikeout rate and a 12.4% walk rate.

Vieira averaged 97 mph on his heater during his brief big league run and has the ability to reach triple digits with that fastball — a pitch that drew 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale in reports at FanGraphs and MLB.com back in his prospect days. He doesn’t appear to have lost any life on the pitch, as Vieira hit 166 kilometers/103 miles per hour with that pitch earlier this year (YouTube link). Vieira has also drawn praise in the past for an above-average breaking ball, but command (or lack thereof) has generally been problematic. He walked 11.2% of his MLB opponents and 11% of the batters he faced in Triple-A.

Based on his work in NPB to date, those same command problems still exist, but the appeal of that huge fastball and some quality run-prevention numbers in Japan still seem to have drummed up some interest. Feinsand suggests as many as five MLB teams have interest, although the extent of that interest surely varies.

The looming offseason features a relatively thin market for right-handed relievers. Raisel Iglesias is the clear top name available, with pitchers like Kendall Graveman, Corey Knebel, Ryan Tepera and Mark Melancon making up the second tier. Vieira would have the top fastball of any reliever on the market, but it remains to be seen if interest will be substantial enough for him to come back from Japan. Given his success in NPB, he’d surely have some guaranteed offers to remain overseas, so a big league club would presumably need to make a decent offer on a Major League contract.

Front Office Notes: Mets, Angels, Rangers

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The Mets’ front office search has become a rather prominent storyline in baseball at the moment, as several notable executives have either removed their names from consideration or been denied permission by their current clubs to interview. Despite those struggles in pursuing rival GMs and presidents, SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the Mets are not considering some of the rumored former baseball ops leaders who are no longer running a department. Former Giants president Brian Sabean, former Marlins president Michael Hill and former Astros president Jeff Luhnow are not currently being considered, per Martino. Rather, current Mets president Sandy Alderson is still actively seeking permission to interview the No. 2 and No. 3 executives with various clubs as the Mets seek a new baseball ops leader.

Some more front office notes from around the game…

  • The Angels have hired Tim McIlvaine away from the Brewers to fill as their new scouting director, Kiley McDaniel and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN report (Twitter thread). McIlvaine, who was previously the Brewers’ assistant director of scouting, worked extensively with current Angels vice president of amateur scouting Ray Montgomery when both were in Milwaukee. Montgomery was one of the first hires by under new Angels GM Perry Minasian last offseason. The Angels removed former scouting director Matt Swanson from his post last week but offered him a position elsewhere in the organization. Swanson was hired by former general manager Billy Eppler and has overseen the Halos’ past five drafts.
  • Josh Bonifay is returning to the Rangers organization as their new farm director, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Bonifay had been the Phillies’ farm director for the past three seasons but was removed from that role and offered a spot on the team’s pro scouting staff for next season back in August. The son of former Pirates general manager Cam Bonifay, Josh has spent more than a decade in baseball operations, mostly in the Astros organization, but was also the Rangers’ field coordinator and a member of the Major League coaching staff with then-manager Jeff Banister in 2017. Bonifay has also spent time as a minor league coach and manager, a minor league field coordinator and was the Astros’ hitting coordinator in 2018 before being hired by Philadelphia.

Charlie Morton Undergoes Surgery To Repair Fractured Fibula

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Oct. 29: Morton underwent surgery to repair the fracture, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He’s expected to be ready for Spring Training 2022.

Oct. 26: Braves starter Charlie Morton fractured his right fibula during tonight’s game against the Astros, the club announced. He’ll obviously miss the remainder of the World Series, but the team announced that he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training.

Morton got the start in tonight’s World Series opener. He was struck in the leg by a Yuli Gurriel comebacker that turned into a groundout to lead off the second inning. That ball evidently broke Morton’s leg, but he incredibly remained in the game to strike out Chas McCormick and induce a Martín Maldonado line out. Morton even returned to the mound to start the bottom of the third, punching out José Altuve before swelling in the area made it impossible for him to continue.

The Braves will have to rely on their bullpen to finish off what they hope to be a series-opening victory. A.J. Minter has worked a couple innings in relief of Morton, with Atlanta holding onto a 5-1 lead midway through tonight’s game.

Atlanta will obviously have to navigate the rest of the series without their top starter. Max Fried is already lined up to start tomorrow’s Game 2, with Ian Anderson the most likely candidate to take the ball in Game 3. The Braves added Kyle Wright to their World Series roster, and he’s capable of working multiple innings after starting for the entire season. Wright has worked almost exclusively in Triple-A this year, though, so he’s not an ideal option to start a World Series game. The Braves will also be able to add another arm to the roster as an injury replacement, but they were already reaching into their depth after fourth starter Huascar Ynoa suffered a season-ending shoulder injury last week.

It’s a relief that the Braves’ immediate announcement noted that Morton is expected to ready for the start of next season. Still, it’s a disappointing conclusion to another strong campaign for the well-respected hurler. Morton will be back in Atlanta in 2022, having signed a $20MM extension last month.

Pirates Have “Had Dialogue” With Yoshi Tsutsugo

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The Pirates have interest in re-signing first baseman/outfielder Yoshi Tsutsugo and have already “had dialogue” with his camp, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters yesterday (Twitter link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Pittsburgh was Tsutsugo’s third organization in two MLB seasons. Originally signed by the Rays to a two-year, $12MM contract, the former Yokohama DeNA BayStars slugger was unable to find his footing in St. Petersburg or in Los Angeles, after being picked up by the Dodgers. The Pirates signed him midway through August and enjoyed a productive six-week stretch from Tsutsugo to close out the season.

[Related: Yoshi Tsutsugo Is Finding His Stride In Pittsburgh]

It was only a sample of 144 plate appearances, but Tsutsugo swatted eight home runs as a Pirate — matching his 2020 season output — and notched an impressive .268/.347/.535 batting line down the stretch (134 wRC+, 136 OPS+). After punching out in nearly a third of his plate appearances between the Dodgers and Rays, Tsutsugo curbed that to a much more reasonable 22.9 percent. Statcast credited Tsutsugo with 10 barreled balls in Pittsburgh — just one fewer than he’d turned in through 303 plate appearances between Tampa and L.A. in 2020-21.

It’s not clear just what role Tsutsugo would hold if he did return to the Bucs, though given their rebuilding state, it wouldn’t be hard to slot him into the lineup. Colin Moran is currently slated to play first base in 2022, although with a projected $4MM salary and an injury-marred 2021 showing, he may not be a lock to return. Bryan Reynolds is obviously a lock in center field, but the corners are a bit more open for now. Ben Gamel may have played his way into a 2022 role, but there’s a fair bit of uncertainty. It’s also quite possible the National League will have a designated hitter in 2022, which would make it easier for the Bucs to get Tsutsugo in the lineup.

From a payroll vantage point, there’s obvious space for a handful of offseason additions. The Pirates, somewhat remarkably, don’t have a single guaranteed contract on the books in 2022. They have 11 players up for arbitration this winter, headlined by Reynolds, but those 11 names come with a combined projected salary of just $27.9MM — and some will surely be non-tendered.

Blue Jays Have Considered Issuing Qualifying Offer To Steven Matz

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The Blue Jays will certainly be issuing qualifying offers to Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray in the coming weeks, but there is potential for a third name on the list: Steven Matz. “Internally, the Blue Jays have debated whether to extend Matz a qualifying offer,” reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.

The idea of extending an $18.4MM qualifying offer to Matz might come as a surprise to many baseball fans who weren’t paying close attention to the Blue Jays this year, and especially to Mets fans who watched him the year before. But the two campaigns could scarcely have been more different for the southpaw. In the shortened 2020 season, Matz missed a few weeks due to injury and ultimately threw 30 2/3 innings for the Mets with an awful ERA of 9.68. But after an offseason trade to the Blue Jays, Matz logged 150 2/3 innings for Toronto with an ERA of 3.82, accruing 2.8 fWAR in 2021, a personal best for him.

It now appears that 2020 is the outlier for Matz, as his 2021 numbers look very similar to those he talled in 2016, 2018 and 2019. In 2017, injuries limited him to 66 2/3 mediocre innings, but in four of the last six years, Matz has thrown between 132 and 161 frames with an ERA between 3.40 and 4.21, strikeout rate between 22% and 24% and walk rate between 5.7% and 9%. When healthy, he’s been a remarkably consistent mid-rotation arm. Considering his age (31 in May) and strong platform year, it’s possible this could be his best chance to land a big payday in free agency.

However, it seems like the chances Matz would accept a qualifying offer are high, considering that this would more than triple his annual pay. The lefty played 2021 on a salary of $5.25MM in his third and final arbitration season. A raise of that magnitude might be difficult to turn down, especially considering that he’d be attaching himself to draft pick forfeiture, thus putting a dent in his earning power. If he accepted, he would also return to the free agent market one year later, after the cloud of mystery around the next Collective Bargaining Agreement will have lifted. The current CBA expires December 1st, which creates a great deal of uncertainty as to how the offseason will play out. It would be entirely reasonable for a player to prefer to have their signature on a contract going into that vast unknown, as opposed to being untethered. The Blue Jays would likely have to give heavy consideration to how it would affect their offseason if the offer was both extended and accepted.

It was recently reported that the club expects payroll to go up next season, though it’s unclear exactly what kind of increase is possible. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource currently estimates next year’s payroll at just under $115MM, which is about $20MM shy of 2021’s opening day number, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Adding $18.4MM for Matz would immediately make up the majority of that difference, meaning that the front office would be left with whatever payroll increase they have been granted by ownership, while still looking to re-sign or replace Ray and Semien, as well as upgrading a bullpen that was the team’s achilles heel at times in 2021. That would seem to suggest that the chances of the team deciding to eventually extend the offer to Matz are low, but the fact that they are even debating it perhaps suggests that the payroll increase could be significant.

The club’s 2022 rotation looks a bit frontloaded, now that Matz and Ray are set to depart. Jose Berrios, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Alek Manoah make for a strong front three, with Ross Stripling, Nate Pearson, Thomas Hatch and Anthony Kay on hand as potential options for the backend. There’s certainly room for the Blue Jays to add to that group before spring training rolls around, and they won’t be lacking for options. This year’s class of free agent starters includes such varied names as Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Carlos Rodon, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Eduardo Rodriguez and many more.

Diamondbacks Hire Joe Mather As Hitting Coach

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The Diamondbacks have filled a key spot on Torey Lovullo’s staff, announcing the hiring of Joe Mather as hitting coach. The 39-year-old has spent the past two seasons as the assistant hitting coach of the Reds.

A former outfielder, Mather appeared in 229 MLB games between 2008-12. He played in the minors and independent ball through 2014 before transitioning into coaching. Mather’s first instructional work began with the D-Backs, as he coached and managed in Arizona’s minor league system up through 2019 before joining David Bell’s staff in Cincinnati.

Mather’s past stint with the D-Backs makes him a known commodity for Lovullo and the Snakes’ front office, as well as a handful of players now on the big league roster. He’ll be tasked with trying to coax improvements out of a D-Backs lineup that figures to incorporate plenty of younger players on the heels of an NL-worst 52-110 season.

Lovullo is returning for his sixth season leading the Arizona dugout, but much of his coaching staff remains unsettled. The D-Backs are still in the process of finding a new bench coach and pitching coach to replace Luis Urueta and Matt Herges, respectively.

Reds Extend Pitching Coach Derek Johnson

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The Reds announced this afternoon that they’ve given pitching coach Derek Johnson the additional title of director of pitching. He’ll remain the big league pitching coach as well as assuming this additional responsibility, which the team announced as “the development and communication of pitching philosophy/initiatives throughout the entire organization.” Previous director of pitching Kyle Boddy left the Reds last month.

Along with the new title, Johnson earned a contract extension, general manager Nick Krall told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). Johnson had already been under contract through the end of next season, but he’s now slated to be in Cincinnati beyond 2022. Krall didn’t specify the new contract length.

“We moved some things forward over the last couple of years. But at the end of the day, I felt D.J. was the best person to be in this role because I feel he’s one of the best pitching minds in baseball, if not the best,” Krall said (via Sheldon). “I think that from being able to drive the content and the curriculum from the Major League staff, and then working down through, was the best way to approach it. I thought he would be the best person to set it up to have success in the Minor Leagues as well.”

Johnson has served as Cincinnati’s pitching coach for the past three years, making the jump from the division-rival Brewers during the 2018-19 offseason. The Reds have done fairly well in that department during Johnson’s tenure, posting a 4.24 ERA that ranks twelfth leaguewide in spite of one of the league’s most hitter-friendly home ballparks. Cincinnati ranked 20th in ERA with a 4.41 mark this past season, although they finished middle-of-the-pack in SIERA (4.17) and strikeout/walk rate differential (14.6 percentage points).

Of course, Krall and his staff are making the decision to keep Johnson around (with more responsibility) based on far more than bottom-line results. Reds’ brass is obviously happy with Johnson’s communication skills in working with pitchers, and his new role should give him more of an impact on the club’s minor league pipeline. That could be particularly useful as a couple of the team’s top young arms approach big league readiness. Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo are each fairly recent top ten draftees and highly-regarded prospects. Both pitchers reached Triple-A Louisville at the end of this past season and could be in the majors relatively early in 2022.

Marcus Semien Switches Agencies, Hires Boras Corporation

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Marcus Semien has changed his representation just before he hits free agency, as the infielder is now a client of The Boras Corporation, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Semien joins a prominent list of Scott Boras clients on the open market this winter, including Max Scherzer, Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, Carlos Rodon, and another big-name shortstop in Corey Seager.

It remains to be seen if Semien will play shortstop, second base, or perhaps a bit of both following his year as the keystone for the Blue Jays, though needless to say, he’ll have plenty of options available after an outstanding 2021 campaign.  Semien hit .265/.334/.538 with 45 home runs over a league-high 724 plate appearances, setting a new MLB single-season record for most home runs hit by a second baseman.

After breaking out with a superstar-level year in 2019, Semien didn’t hit well over the first six weeks of the abbreviated 2020 season, leaving him with only a .223/.305/.374 slash line in 236 PA.  That proved detrimental to Semien’s market in his first trip through the free agent market last winter, and he chose to bet on himself by signing a one-year, $18MM deal with Toronto, in order to better position himself for a better long-term contract this offseason.

That strategy ended up working like a charm for Semien, and he has lined himself up for a healthy nine-figure deal this time around.  Even in a market loaded with top-tier shortstops, Semien is still projected to land one of the top contracts of any free agent in the 2021-22 class.  Semien is entering his age-31 season, but a guarantee of five or perhaps even six years seems feasible, considering how incredibly durable Semien has been throughout his career.

For Toronto fans worried that the agency change will make a return to the Jays less likely, it should be noted that the Blue Jays signed another major Boras client in Hyun Jin Ryu just two years ago.  Negotiating with Boras shouldn’t necessarily change the equation too much for the Jays, as the club already knew that re-signing Semien would come with a hefty price tag.  Team president Mark Shapiro recently said the Jays had interest in retaining all three of their top free agents (Semien, Robbie Ray, Steven Matz), and some more money is expected to become available in the form of a payroll increase.

Twins Hire David Popkins As Hitting Coach

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The Twins have hired David Popkins as their new hitting coach, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter).  Popkins will take over for Edgar Varela, who was reassigned from the position earlier this month.

Popkins has worked in the Dodgers’ minor league system for the last three years, including working this past season as the hitting coach for high-A ball Great Lakes Loons.  This represents the highest tier of Popkins’ coaching experience, though as teams have increasingly looked to expand the scope of coaching hires, prior experience on a big league staff or even in the upper minors is no longer the prerequisite it once was.

Popkins also brings a fresher perspective to the mix, as he doesn’t turn 32 years old until next month and isn’t far removed from his own playing days.  An undrafted free agent, Popkins caught on with the Cardinals and played in their farm system for three seasons, reaching as high as the Double-A level in 2014.  He then went onto play three seasons of independent ball before calling it a wrap on his on-field career.

The Minnesota lineup lacked consistency in 2021, as while hitters combined for a slightly above-average 101 wRC+ (ranking 11th in baseball), the team’s overall .241/.314/.423 left something to be desired.  Overall, the Twins still showed plenty of power in finishing fifth in the league in home runs, but finished around the middle of the league in several other offensive categories.  Getting more out of Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, and Trevor Larnach could be the top priority on Popkins’ list, though the Twins also have some very dangerous bats in Jorge Polanco, Josh Donaldson, and (when healthy) Byron Buxton.

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