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Details On Today’s CBA Negotiations

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The owners and players met today to discuss core economic issues for the first time since the start of the lockout, even if today’s talks seemingly didn’t result in much (or any) common ground being found between the two sides.  Ronald Blum of The Associated Press reports that the session lasted roughly an hour, with the league presenting its proposal, and the players then agreeing to make an official response and counter-proposal at an unspecified future bargaining session.

As one might expect, reports have already begun to filter out about the players’ dissatisfaction with the league’s proposal well in advance of any official response the union might make.  For starters, MLB’s proposal didn’t address luxury tax thresholds or free-agent eligibility whatsoever, and the MLBPA has made clear their dissatisfaction with the current rules regarding both issues.

According to Blum, The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers, and other reporters, here are some of the proposals floated by the league in today’s talks…

  • In regards to the top pick in the amateur draft, the teams with the three worst records would be involved in a lottery, with the winner receiving the first overall pick.  This is similar to a previous league proposal, except this time, MLB added that a team wouldn’t be allowed to take part in the lottery for three consecutive seasons (to help address tanking).  The MLBPA has also wanted a draft lottery, except a larger process involving the eight teams with the worst records.
  • A draft for international players, as opposed to the current “July 2” international signing window and bonus pool system.
  • The elimination of the “Super Two” arbitration system, as players who would count as Super Two-eligible in the future would have salaries determined by a formula.  The league’s proposal offers some leeway, as players with even one day of MLB current service time would have the option of taking part in this new system or opting to remain in the old system.  Regardless of this grandfather clause for current union members, the MLBPA isn’t keen on the idea of any statistical-based calculation tied to salary, such as the league’s prior proposal to entirely eliminate the salary arbitration process.
  • If a team has a top 100-ranked prospect on its Opening Day roster, and that player finishes in the top five in voting for a major award (the MVP, Cy Young, or Rookie Of The Year) during one of his arbitration-eligible seasons, the team would receive a bonus draft pick.  The idea is to provide a benefit for teams so they won’t hold back top prospects for service-time reasons, as extra playing time might help a player earn an award like the ROY as soon as possible.  According to Passan/Rogers, players have some reservations about this idea, including concerns over how the list of “top prospects” eligible would be determined.  (MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes is more bullish on the concept, as outlined in this Twitter thread.)
  • An expanded playoff bracket, with 14 teams reaching the postseason.  The players have expressed an openness for a 12-team postseason in the past, though as Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith notes, an expanded playoff is “arguably players’ biggest bargaining chip” given how much the league and the owners want that extra postseason TV revenue.
  • The use of the DH in both the American and National Leagues.  The universal DH has widely been expected to be part of this CBA, and Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle writes that the players union seems agreeable to the idea as long as the universal DH isn’t “tied to something else as a bargaining chip.”

Angels Sign Magneuris Sierra, Kyle Barraclough To Minors Deals

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The Angels have signed outfielder Magneuris Sierra and right-hander Kyle Barraclough to minor league contracts, according to Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle.  Both players are eligible to be signed during the lockout since they entered the offseason as minor league free agents.

A veteran of five MLB seasons, 2021 saw Sierra receive his most playing time as a major leaguer, as he made 225 plate appearances over 123 games with the Marlins.  However, Sierra hit only .230/.281/.268, which roughly matched his slash line over his 315 previous career PA with St. Louis and Miami from 2017-20.

Though consistent hitting was hard to come by even in the minors for Sierra, he was still a well-regarded prospect based on his defensive ability alone, with Baseball Prospectus ranking him as the 56th-best minor leaguer in the game prior to the 2018 season.  Sierra came to the Marlins as part of the four-player prospect package the Cardinals sent to the Marlins for Marcell Ozuna back in the 2017-18 offseason, and while he did indeed show some solid glovework at all three outfield positions in his limited big league playing time, the Marlins outrighted him off their 40-man roster at the end of the 2021 campaign.

Sierra will now get an opportunity to earn a backup outfield job in Anaheim, or at least serve as minor league outfield depth at the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate.  Sierra will be joined by a former Marlins teammate in Barraclough, as the two were both on Miami’s roster in 2018 — which was also essentially Barraclough’s last effective year as a big league reliever.  The righty had a very solid 3.21 ERA and 29.8% strikeout rate over 218 2/3 innings from 2015-18 working out of Miami’s bullpen, if with the warning sign of a 14.3% walk rate.

Since the Marlins traded Barraclough to the Nationals in October 2018, however, he has managed only a 5.59 ERA over 46 2/3 frames, thanks in large part to a big spike in home runs allowed.  The past three seasons have been Barraclough pitch at the big league level with the Nats, Giants, and Twins, and he also was briefly a member of the Yankees and Padres organizations on minor league deals.  With the Angels in constant need of pitching help, there would seemingly be a path for Barraclough to win a job in their bullpen if he can show some improvement during Spring Training.

Diamondbacks Sign Braden Bishop, Keynan Middleton To Minors Deals

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The Diamondbacks recently signed outfielder Braden Bishop and reliever Keynan Middleton to minor league contracts, according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. Both players had qualified for minor league free agency at the end of last season after clearing outright waivers during the year.

Bishop has spent the entirety of his big league tenure with the Mariners. A 3rd-round pick in the 2015 draft, the speedy center fielder reached the majors in 2019. He’s tallied 99 cumulative plate appearances over the past three seasons, hitting .133/.188/.156. Seattle designated Bishop for assignment in May, and he landed with the Giants on waivers. Within days of claiming him, San Francisco DFA’d the right-handed hitter themselves, and on that occasion he passed through unclaimed.

Despite putting up an impressive .326/.388/.549 line across 320 trips to the plate with the Giants’ top affiliate from that point forth, Bishop didn’t make it back to the majors. The 28-year-old will try to play his way back into the big leagues with their division rivals in Arizona. The D-Backs have a glut of young outfielders on the 40-man roster, but none of Daulton Varsho, Stuart Fairchild, Pavin Smith, Cooper Hummel or Jake McCarthy has yet gotten settled at the major league level.

Middleton has pitched in the majors in each of the past five seasons. He’d spent his entire career in the AL West, beginning as a third-round pick of the Angels in 2013. He pitched for four years in Anaheim, including a 3.43 ERA in 80 appearances over his first two seasons. Middleton underwent Tommy John surgery midway through the 2018 campaign, however, and he wasn’t as effective upon his return from that procedure.

Cut loose by the Angels last offseason, the right-hander latched on with the Mariners (where he and Bishop briefly overlapped). Middleton worked 31 innings across 32 appearances with Seattle but didn’t find a ton of success, posting a 4.94 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk numbers (17.1% and 13.6%, respectively).

Recent struggles aside, it’s easy to see why the D-Backs would take a no-risk shot on Middleton in hopes he can rediscover some of his early form. The 28-year-old still averaged 95.6 MPH on his fastball last year. Perhaps of more interest, Middleton generated swinging strikes on a very strong 14.2% of his offerings — a surprisingly high number given his low strikeout rate. Arizona relievers had a 5.08 ERA and ranked dead last in strikeout/walk rate differential (9.7 percentage points), so Middleton should have a good chance at cracking the roster with a strong showing in Spring Training.

Royals Sign Arodys Vizcaino To Minor League Deal

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The Royals announced this morning that they’ve signed reliever Arodys Vizcaíno to a minor league contract. As a minor league free agent, the right-hander remained eligible to sign a non-roster deal over the course of the lockout. Should he crack the big league club, Vizcaíno would lock in a $1MM base salary with an additional $500K available in incentives, reports Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star (on Twitter).

Vizcaíno has appeared in parts of seven major league seasons, with the bulk of his time coming with the Braves. He debuted with Atlanta in 2011, making 17 appearances as a rookie. Vizcaíno required Tommy John surgery the following Spring Training and missed the entirety of the next two seasons. While rehabbing, he was traded to the Cubs. After making five appearances with the North Siders in 2014, Vizcaíno was flipped back to Atlanta, where he’d spend the next few years.

Between 2015-18, the Dominican Republic native was a generally reliable member of the Braves relief corps. He posted 30+ innings with a sub-3.00 ERA in three of those four campaigns, spending a good chunk of time as Atlanta’s closer. Vizcaíno underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in April 2019, though, and he hasn’t appeared in the majors since. Flipped to the Mariners for salary relief, he qualified for free agency at the end of the 2019 campaign. Vizcaíno went unsigned in 2020 and only made seven outings with the Mets Triple-A affiliate last year.

It has now been more than three years since Vizcaíno was a regular member of a big league bullpen. Yet there’s no harm for the Royals in taking a flier on a pitcher with some MLB success on his resume. Vizcaíno has sported a mid-high 90’s fastball in the past. If that velocity returns a few years after his shoulder procedure, it’s possible he’ll factor into the Kansas City bullpen at some point.

MLB’s Core Economics Proposal Not Well-Received By MLBPA

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JANUARY 13: Details of this afternoon’s meeting remain unclear, but both Passan and Nightengale (Twitter links) characterize the union’s response to the league’s proposal as unfavorable. It’s not yet known when the sides will meet again, which Passan suggests is dependent on how quickly the union makes a counterproposal. Passan ominously adds that an on-time start to Spring Training “is in peril.”

JANUARY 11: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have scheduled a collective bargaining negotiation session for Thursday, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). Notably, MLB is expected to present a core economics proposal to the union, marking the first development on the most contentious issues of the lockout since the league instituted the work stoppage on December 2.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today sheds some light on the upcoming proposal. The league is not expected to address the service time structure during this session. MLB is expected to put forth an increase in the league minimum salary to $600K, with further hikes to a height of $700K by the end of a potential CBA term, as well as alterations to draft pick compensation/forfeiture for signing free agents tagged with a qualifying offer.

Nightengale wrote Monday that the league was preparing to make its proposal within the next two weeks. In a bit of a surprise, they’ll come in at the earlier end of that timetable. Thursday’s conference will take place over video, tweets Evan Drellich of the Athletic.

Last-ditch efforts to progress on core economics before the previous collective bargaining agreement expired proved fruitless, culminating in a seven-minute session during the afternoon of December 1. Entering that meeting, the league had reportedly informed the MLBPA it would only entertain core economics discussions that didn’t involve changes to revenue sharing, six-year free agency eligibility and the existing eligibility requirements (for the most part, three years of service time) for arbitration. The union refused to accept those conditions, and the parties have been in a holding pattern since that point, with the MLBPA waiting for the league to bring forth another proposal.

It remains to be seen whether the league’s offer will meaningfully reignite discussions. It’s unclear to what extent MLB’s forthcoming proposal differs from its previous iterations, to which the union has not responded favorably. (MLB, of course, has been similarly unhappy with the PA’s offers). The possibility remains that the union will not consider this week’s offer sufficiently dissimilar from MLB’s past presentations to advance negotiations. Yet it’s at least notable that the parties are set to speak with one another regarding the most important topics for the first time in nearly six weeks. The sides have met a few times since the lockout began, but those discussions were limited to points outside of core economics.

Spring Training games are scheduled for February 26. In all likelihood, the parties will need to have a new CBA in place within the first half of next month to avoid any cancellations of exhibition play. That’ll require bridging the gap on a handful of key sticking points, like the service time structure, league minimum salary, competitive balance tax, playoff expansion, revenue sharing and the universal designated hitter.

Travis Snider Announces Retirement

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Former major league outfielder Travis Snider announced his retirement on Instagram this morning. “Thank you baseball. You have given me countless relationships and experiences I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Snider wrote as part of his statement. “I am so thankful that I got to live out my childhood dream and share it with the people I love and care about. I have contemplated this day for a while but the time has finally come for me to hang up the spikes. … To my teammates, coaches, trainers, front office, and clubhouse families, thank you for all the amazing memories.”

A first-round pick of the Blue Jays in the 2006 draft, the left-handed hitting Snider quickly emerged as one of the sport’s more promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him among the league’s Top 100 farmhands over each of his first three full pro seasons. That included a #6 overall ranking heading into the 2009 campaign, not long after Snider had made his big league debut at age 20 late in the prior season.

Snider would go on to spend the next three-plus seasons in Toronto. He never emerged as the middle-of-the-order slugger evaluators and the Jays’ fanbase hoped he’d become, but he hit around a league average level over his first few seasons. Snider struggled in 2011, though, and the Jays traded him to the Pirates for Brad Lincoln at the following deadline. He spent the next couple years as a platoon outfielder in Pittsburgh, posting a career-best .264/.338/.438 showing over 359 plate appearances in 2014.

The following offseason, the Bucs traded Snider to the Orioles for Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley. He didn’t perform well in Baltimore and wound up released in August. Snider hooked back on with Pittsburgh late in the season but was outrighted off the Bucs’ roster after appearing in 18 games.

That ultimately proved to be the final big league run for the Washington native, as Snider hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2015. He’s hung around the periphery of the majors as a high-priority depth option, logging Triple-A time with the Royals, Mets, Rangers, D-Backs and Braves over the past half-decade.

All told, Snider departs having appeared in eight big league seasons and suiting up in 630 games. Across 1,971 plate appearances, he hit .244/.311/.399 (93 wRC+) with 54 homers, 100 doubles and seven triples. Snider never blossomed into a star or even as a true everyday player, but he played in the bigs every year between 2008-15 and ultimately spent a decade and a half in affiliated ball. MLBTR congratulates Snider on his career and wishes him all the best in his post-playing days.

Seiya Suzuki Still Planning To Wait Out Lockout To Sign With MLB Club

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As it has for all major league free agents, the lockout has frozen the signing process for Seiya Suzuki. The Japanese star was posted by his NPB club, the Hiroshima Carp, in late November. That opened a 30-day window for Suzuki to come to an agreement with a big league team, but MLB instituted a lockout just ten days into the posting process.

MLB and NPB agreed to freeze Suzuki’s posting window for the duration of the lockout. Now six weeks into the work stoppage with essentially no progress on key issues, questions had begun to emerge about Suzuki’s future. NPB preseason camps open February 1, and there’d been some thought that he may choose to return to the Carp if MLB and the Players Association don’t make rapid progress over the coming weeks.

Suzuki’s apparently not considering that course of action, however. In an interview with Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic, Suzuki suggested he’s content to wait out an extended work stoppage. “I’m just going to wait until both sides agree,” the outfielder told Baggarly via an interpreter. “There’s no date I set on myself. In Japan, you don’t experience a lockout so it’s a first for me. At first, I was a little worried about it. But when you think about it, it’s going to end sometime soon. Just having that positive mindset that it will end sometime has allowed me to keep my head up.”

With ten days of the posting process already elapsed, Suzuki and his representatives at Wasserman will have 20 days after the finalization of a new collective bargaining agreement to hammer out a deal with a big league club. There’ll be no shortage of interest. Baggarly writes that between ten and twelve teams had reached out to Suzuki prior to the lockout. The Giants, Mariners, Rangers, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Yankees have all been linked to the right-handed hitter in past reports. Baggarly adds the Rays, Padres and Dodgers as teams expected to be in the mix.

Entering the offseason, MLBTR forecast Suzuki for a $55MM guarantee over five seasons. Evaluators with whom MLBTR spoke expressed varying opinions on his upside, but broad consensus was that he could be a well-rounded everyday right fielder in the big leagues. He’s coming off a monster showing at Japan’s top level, hitting .317/.433/.639 with 38 home runs across 533 plate appearances. That huge power production didn’t come with much swing-and-miss. He fanned in only 16.5% of his trips to the dish while walking at a robust 16.3% clip. (R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports provides some batted ball and plate discipline metrics from Suzuki’s last season in NPB).

Suzuki didn’t tip his hand regarding geographical or league preferences for his next destination. Yet he does offer some insight into his motivation for playing in the majors and on which players he models his game. Baggarly’s piece, which also includes tidbits from a few of Suzuki’s former teammates, is worth checking out in full.

MLBPA Takes Issue With Endeavor’s Purchase Of Minor League Affiliates

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The William Morris Endeavor Agency (WME) has made fairly rapid strides in MLB player representation over the past two years. Carlos Correa hired WME’s Jon Rosen in September 2019. In 2021, the company landed a few notable player reps formerly of established agencies like Excel Sports Management and CAA. (WME also briefly hired Billy Eppler between his stints as general manager of the Angels and Mets).

Last month, Endeavor also announced the purchase of a handful of minor league teams, including the Triple-A affiliates of the Cubs, Yankees, Braves and Cardinals (report via Business Wire). At the time, the company expressed a desire to buy additional minor league clubs — all of which are under the purview of Diamond Baseball Holdings, a subsidiary organization of Endeavor’s with a stated goal of “supporting, promoting and enhancing the sport of baseball through professional management, best practices, innovation and investment.”

That combination is apparently not sitting well with the MLB Players Association. Evan Drellich of the Athletic reports that the union, which is responsible for regulating player agents, has warned WME’s reps they’re in danger of losing their MLBPA agent certifications if they don’t divest themselves from Endeavor. Union regulations prohibit agents from acquiring or holding financial interests in professional baseball teams unless authorized by the MLBPA to do so.

Reached by MLBTR, a spokesperson for Endeavor declined comment. Drellich notes that MLBPA regulations do contain an appeals process for agent-union disputes, although it’s not clear whether the WME-MLBPA situation will eventually require such a development.

CPBL’s CTBC Brothers Sign Francisco Pena

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The CTBC Brothers of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League announced the signing of former big league catcher Francisco Peña (h/t to CPBL Stats). It’ll be the first experience in an Asian professional league for the 32-year-old, who has spent the past fifteen seasons in affiliated ball in the United States.

Peña has appeared in the majors in parts of five seasons, logging at least brief time each year between 2014-18. He broke in with the Royals but tallied just seven combined plate appearances with Kansas City’s pennant-winning clubs in 2014-15. The right-handed hitting backstop spent parts of the next two seasons with the Orioles before tallying a career-high 142 plate appearances as Yadier Molina’s backup with the Cardinals in 2018.

Over 202 MLB plate appearances, Peña owns a .216/.249/.311 line with five home runs. He’s spent the past few seasons in Triple-A, including the 2021 campaign with the A’s top affiliate in Las Vegas. He hit .250/.322/.459 over 447 plate appearances in that extremely hitter-friendly setting but will now make the jump to Taiwan. He’ll team up with fellow former big leaguers Shawn Morimando and José Valdez, each of whom signed with the Taichung-based club last October.

Jon Lester Announces Retirement

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After a 16-year major league career, Jon Lester tells Jesse Rogers of ESPN he’s made the decision to retire. “It’s kind of run its course,” the 38-year-old said of his career. “It’s getting harder for me physically. The little things that come up throughout the year turned into bigger things that hinder your performance. I’d like to think I’m a halfway decent self-evaluator. I don’t want someone else telling me I can’t do this anymore. I want to be able to hand my jersey over and say, ’thank you, it’s been fun.’ That’s probably the biggest deciding factor.”

Jon Lester | Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports

A second-round pick of the Red Sox out of a Washington high school in 2002, Lester entered pro ball as one of the more promising pitching prospects in the Boston system. Within a few years, the left-hander was ranked among the top farmhands in baseball and he made his big league debut at age 22 in June 2006. Lester was faced with incredible adversity just a few months into that run. He was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma late in his rookie season, cutting that year short and requiring chemotherapy treatments.

Lester beat the disease and made an inspiring return to the mound in 2007. He made 12 regular season appearances that year, then pitched in three playoff games during the Red Sox’s run to a championship. Making his first career postseason start in Game 4 of the World Series against the Rockies, Lester tossed 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. He wound up getting the win in what proved to be the title-clinching game, as the Sox wrapped up a sweep.

Entering 2008, Lester was cemented as a key rotation member on Terry Francona’s staff. Incredibly durable, he’d make at least 31 starts over each of his next six seasons in Boston. While Lester only had two seasons (2009-10) with excellent strikeout numbers, he consistently demonstrated strong control and proved one of the game’s hardest pitchers to square up. A pillar of high-end consistency, Lester posted an ERA between 3.21 and 3.75 in five of six years from 2008-13.

Lester’s run in Boston was littered with accomplishments. He tossed a no-hitter in May 2008, earned back-to-back All-Star selections in 2010-11 and finished fourth in AL Cy Young award balloting during a 2010 season in which he tossed 208 innings of 3.25 ERA ball. Perhaps of most importance, Lester was excellent during the Red Sox’s surprising run to another championship in 2013. He pitched to a 1.55 ERA over 34 2/3 postseason innings that year, including 15 1/3 frames of one-run ball to earn two wins as part of a World Series triumph over the Cardinals.

Ticketed for free agency after the 2014 season, Lester began the year stellar as ever. He tossed 143 innings with a 2.52 ERA for the Red Sox, earning his third career All-Star nod in the process. Yet with free agency looming and the Red Sox on their way to a last place finish, they traded him to the A’s at the deadline. Lester continued to excel over his final few months in Oakland, eventually getting the nod in the AL Wild Card game. The A’s were knocked off by the Royals in one of the more thrilling back-and-forth contests in recent memory, and Lester hit the open market for the first time shortly thereafter.

Ranked by MLBTR as that offseason’s #2 free agent, Lester commanded a six-year, $155MM deal with a Cubs team looking to emerge from a massive rebuild. That’ll go down as one of the best free agent investments in franchise history, as he picked up right where he’d left off upon switching to the National League.

Lester worked 205 innings of 3.34 ERA ball his first season, helping Chicago to the NLCS. The following year, he compiled a 2.44 mark across 202 2/3 frames. He finished second in NL Cy Young voting, earned a fourth All-Star nod, and was arguably the top pitcher on a 103-win team. As he had so often in Boston, Lester shined in the playoffs yet again. He was tabbed that year’s NLCS MVP after tossing 13 innings of two-run ball to knock off the Dodgers. Lester made three outings with a 3.68 ERA during the World Series, in which the Cubs erased a 3-1 deficit against the Indians to end the franchise’s legendary 108-year title drought.

The third World Series title of Lester’s career proved to be his final one, as the Cubs never had quite the same level of success from that point forward. That wasn’t much fault of the veteran southpaw’s, though, as he remained effective for the next few seasons. He paced the NL with 18 wins in 2018, earning another All-Star nod in the process. As he entered his late-30s, Lester’s production finally began to tail off, although he remained remarkably durable and took the ball every fifth day through the expiration of his contract after 2020.

Last winter, Lester hooked on with the Nationals on a one-year, $5MM deal. He made 16 starts with Washington before being flipped to the Cardinals at the trade deadline. Despite lackluster strikeout and walk numbers, he managed a decent 4.36 ERA over 12 starts in St. Louis, proving to be a much-needed stabilizing force for a Cardinals rotation that had been hit hard by injuries. St. Louis made a miraculous September run to a playoff spot, but they fell to the Dodgers in the Wild Card game. Lester didn’t appear in what’ll go down as the final contest of his career.

One of the league’s most reliable hurlers for more than a decade, Lester leaves a fantastic legacy in the game. He tossed 2,740 innings over parts of 16 MLB seasons. He pitched to a 3.66 ERA, won exactly 200 games and struck out just under 2,500 batters. The five-time All-Star was a key contributor to three World Series teams with two separate franchises, and he’ll be remembered by both Red Sox’s and Cubs’ fans as one of the more impactful players in each organization’s recent histories. Lester’s career was valued at between 44 and 46 wins above replacement by FanGraphs and Baseball Reference, before accounting for an incredible 2.51 ERA over 154 playoff innings. According to B-Ref, he earned just over $188MM.

Lester will likely garner some Hall of Fame support five years from now. Whether or not he’s ultimately enshrined in Cooperstown, there’s no question he had a long run of excellence and reliability. MLBTR congratulates Lester on his fantastic career and wishes him all the best in his post-playing days.

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