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White Sox Discussing Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas Trades With A’s

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It’s been long suspected that the Athletics were going to undergo a roster teardown after the lockout. Those predictions have been coming true in recent days, as the club has already traded Chris Bassitt to the Mets and Matt Olson to the Braves. Among their most likely trade candidates, they still have third baseman Matt Chapman, along with starting pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas. When it comes to those pitchers, the White Sox are among the teams interested, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.

The Pale Hose already have an excellent front three in their rotation with Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease. However, there are some question marks in the backend. For one, Dallas Keuchel had a rough season last year, throwing 162 innings with an ERA of 5.28. As for Michael Kopech, he missed most of 2018 and all of 2019 due to Tommy John surgery and then opted out of the 2020 pandemic season. Last year was mostly about getting him re-acclimated to pitching and building up his arm strength. While he fared well, putting up an ERA of 3.50, he only amassed 69 1/3 innings. While he may be able to handle a starter’s workload this year, it’s certainly not a sure thing.

In terms of depth, the club has Jonathan Stiever and Jimmy Lambert on the 40-man. Both are optionable and likely to be in Triple-A until an injury creates a need for their services. Vince Velasquez was also just signed to bolster the depth, perhaps serving as a long man out of the bullpen to start the year.

Adding Manaea or Montas to this group and bumping everyone down a peg would surely bolster the staff as a whole. Manaea pitched 179 1/3 innings last year with a 3.91 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 5.4% walk rate. He’s scheduled to hit free agency at the end of the season and is projected to earn a salary of $10.2MM, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Montas, meanwhile, tossed 187 frames with a 3.37 ERA, 26.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. He’s projected for a $5.2MM salary and comes with an extra year of control.

One obstacle the White Sox might face is their farm system, or lack thereof. On Baseball America’s most recent Organization Talent Rankings, the club’s system came dead last. In order to pull off a major trade, they would have to further deplete what it already arguably the weakest system in the league.

However, the club will surely want to take advantage of what is a very strong MLB team that just made the postseason in back-t0-back seasons for the first time in their 120-year history. With the Twins and Guardians still aiming to compete and the Tigers making strong moves to emerge from a rebuild, the South Siders may be willing to take that hit to strike while their competitive window is wide open.

Mariners, Mike Ford Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Mariners are in agreement on a minor league deal with first baseman Mike Ford, as was first reported by MLB Transactions Daily (on Twitter). Ford has since confirmed the agreement on Instagram.

It’ll technically be Ford’s second stint with Seattle, as the M’s selected him out of the Yankees organization in the Rule 5 draft over the 2017-18 offseason. He partook in Spring Training with the Mariners but ultimately failed to crack the roster. Seattle returned him to New York a few days before Opening Day, and he spent that year with the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Ford would eventually get a big league look, though, as he was selected to New York’s MLB roster in April 2019. The left-handed hitter played in 50 games as a rookie and had an excellent showing. He popped 12 home runs in 163 plate appearances, posting a cumulative .259/.350/.559 slash line. He hasn’t managed to follow up on that strong start to his big league career, though. Over the past two years, he’s combined for just a .134/.250/.276 mark in 156 trips to the plate.

Amidst those recent struggles, the Yankees designated Ford for assignment last June. He was traded to the Rays but didn’t appear in the majors before Tampa Bay designated him themselves two months later. The Nationals claimed him off waivers and stashed him in Triple-A for the rest of the season. He struggled to a .202/.284/.337 line with their top affiliate, though, and never earned a big league call in the nation’s capital. Washington non-tendered the Princeton product at the end of the season.

Ford now needs to try and play his way back onto a 40-man roster. He’ll get a look in Seattle, which is set to open the year with Ty France at first base. Former top prospect Evan White remains on the 40-man but seems likely to start the season in Triple-A, where he’ll need to right the ship offensively. The 29-year-old Ford, owner of a .258/.350/.488 line in parts of four years at the minors’ highest level, adds some experienced depth to that first base/designated hitter group in camp.

Outfield Market Rumors: Laureano, Castellanos, Soler, Pederson

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While he isn’t drawing as many headlines as some of his teammates, Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano is among the team’s more popular trade targets, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Interest in Laureano is only natural, given Oakland’s willingness to listen on virtually any player and the dearth of center-field options remaining in free agency. That said, Laureano’s trade candidacy is a bit muddier than that of teammates like Matt Chapman, Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea and Lou Trivino.

The 27-year-old Laureano is currently in the midst of an 80-game PED ban that still has 27 games left to serve. Prior to the suspension, Laureano was on pace to reach free agency following the 2024 season, but the service time he’ll miss due to this suspension now makes it appear likely that his path to free agency will be pushed back until after the 2025 campaign. With a potential four seasons of control over Laureano as opposed to three, the A’s may be less inclined to part ways with him — or at least to ask a higher price in return.

Since coming over from the Astros as a generally unheralded prospect in the 2017-18 offseason, Laureano has given the A’s 313 games and 1257 plate appearances of .263/.335/.465 production while playing strong defense around the outfield. He’s swatted 49 home runs and swiped 34 bases in that time as well.

Some more notes on the outfield market as a whole…

  • In the hours after Derek Jeter left the Marlins, reports indicated that part of the rift that had grown between Jeter and principal owner Bruce Sherman stemmed from a shift in Sherman’s payroll expectations. Nick Castellanos, in particular, was a rumored target of Jeter, with MLB Network’s Jon Heyman suggesting that Jeter had been willing to green-light a five-year offer for the front office to put forward. While Sherman himself pushed back on those reports just this week and emphasized that the Marlins plan to spend money post-lockout, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets that the Marlins’ pursuit of Castellanos has indeed cooled off considerably. Ownership, according to Jackson, is no longer comfortable making that type of commitment to Castellanos. That said, Jackson emphasizes that the Castellanos shift is “not the main reason Jeter is gone” but rather one of many issues that contributed to the divide between Jeter and Sherman. Jackson writes that they’ve checked in with the reps for free agent corner outfielder Jorge Soler, who turned things around upon a midseason trade from the Royals to the Braves last season.
  • The Guardians are among the teams with interest in free-agent outfielder Joc Pederson, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Beyond center fielder Myles Straw, there’s little to no certainty in the Cleveland outfield. Highly-regarded prospect Steven Kwan appears ready for a look after a huge showing between Double-A and Triple-A last year, but he’s yet to actually make his MLB debut. Meanwhile, Bradley Zimmer and Oscar Mercado both turned in below-average performances at the plate. The Guardians seem all but certain to bring in some outfield help, and Pederson would make sense as a potential platoon pairing with Mercado, who batted .294/.381/.435 against lefties even in a down year overall.
  • Thomas Harding of MLB.com tweets that the Rockies have also shown some interest in Joc Pederson. Colorado has been linked to bigger-ticket outfielders in their search for offensive help, although it seems Pederson’s at least on the radar as a possible fallback option. The past two seasons have been fairly disappointing for Pederson, who looked like a middle-of-the-order caliber bat (at least against right-handed pitching) during his early days with the Dodgers. Since the start of 2020, he’s a .227/.304/.416 hitter over 619 plate appearances.

Jack Flaherty Undergoing Medical Evaluation On Throwing Shoulder

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Cardinals’ righty Jack Flaherty missed today’s camp activities and is undergoing medical evaluation on his throwing shoulder, per Derrick S. Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Although further details won’t be known until the review is completed, this is surely a worrying sign for the Cardinals and their fans. After developing into a front-of-the-rotation starter in 2018 and 2019, Flaherty took a step back in 2020 and then missed significant time due to injuries last year.

In that 2018-19 stretch, Flaherty made 61 starts, logging 347 1/3 innings with a 3.01 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. In the shortened 2020 campaign, he had a 4.91 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in the small sample of 40 1/3 innings. Last year, though he dropped his ERA to 3.22, his strikeouts also faded, dropping to 26.4%. In June, he went on the IL due to an oblique injury. Though he was able to return in August, he returned to the IL a few weeks later with a right shoulder strain. He did return from that injury after about a month, but only made three short appearances towards the end of the season. All told, he was only able to throw 78 1/3 innings on the year.

It now seems possible that the shoulder injury which plagued him last year might not be fully healthy, putting a significant dent in the St. Louis rotation. Flaherty was projected to be joined by Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson. Mikolas and Hudson are also unknown quantities this year, having each dealt with injuries last year themselves. If Flaherty or anyone else needs to miss some time, the club will have to consider other options. Drew VerHagen was just signed after a successful two-year stint in Japan. At the time of the signing, team president John Mozeliak suggested VerHagen could compete for a job in either the rotation of the bullpen. Zach McAllister and Aaron Brooks have recently signed minor league deals with the club. There’s depth options such as Jake Woodford and Johan Oviedo, as well as prospects like Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. There has been some talk of Alex Reyes or Jordan Hicks moving from the bullpen to the rotation, though Mozeliak threw some cold water on that idea recently. If the club is unsatisfied with those in-house options, there are still free agents available due to the lockout pushing transactions into Spring Training. Some of the top options still unsigned include Johnny Cueto, Michael Pineda and Zack Greinke.

Unvaccinated Mets And Yankees Not Currently Allowed To Play Home Games

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Members of the Yankees and Mets that are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are not eligible to play baseball in New York City, per a report from Stefan Bondy and Dennis Young of the New York Daily News. As noted in the piece, the Yankees and Mets will be affected by the city’s private employer mandate in the same way as Kyrie Irving, whose unvaccinated status has left him ineligible to play home games for the Brooklyn Nets or games hosted by the New York Knicks. (For separate reasons, Irving is also ineligible to cross the Canadian border to play the Toronto Raptors.)

A New York City Hall spokesperson tells the reporters that, although the mandates could change along with the reality of the pandemic, there will not be special exemptions given out to the teams.

This could potentially have significant on-field ramifications for both clubs. As noted in the piece, it is believed that each club has, or perhaps had, some key members still not having received a vaccine. If any of them decide to follow in Irving’s footsteps and refuse to get the necessary shots, they could find themselves sitting out half of their team’s games, or more, when Toronto-based games are factored in.

The Yankees released comment to various reporters, including Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, which reads, “On behalf of the Yankees, [team president] Randy Levine is working with City Hall and all other appropriate officials on this matter. We will have no further comment.” Adler also relays a quote from Aaron Judge, who is rumored to be unvaccinated, on the matter:

“I’m so focused on getting to the first game of spring training. So I think we’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Right now, so many things could change. So I’m not really too worried about that right now.”

It was recently reported that the new CBA contained a detail that players who miss games in Toronto because of vaccination status will not be paid nor receive service time for those games. Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports that the same would apply here. It’s perhaps worth noting that Judge currently has five years and 51 days of MLB service time, meaning he needs 121 more days to reach six years and hit free agency. If he were to miss more than half the 186-day season for vaccine reasons and not accrue service time, he would come up short, thus delaying his free agency by another year.

Marly Rivera of ESPN adds some more information, (Twitter links) saying that this has been known for about 48 hours now, with the players’ union and team both working with the Mayor’s office. Both camps are confident the situation will be resolved before Opening Day. The Yankees are scheduled to play their first home game April 7th, while the Mets won’t be at home until April 15th.

Padres Reportedly Interested In Freddie Freeman

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Earlier this morning, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported that the Red Sox had jumped into the bidding on star first baseman Freddie Freeman, and just hours later, Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes that the Padres, too, are looking into the possibility of signing Freeman.

The level of sincerity behind the Padres’ apparent interest isn’t clear. On the one hand, Freeman would unequivocally deepen their roster and bolster their lineup in a major way. On the other, the Padres already have a pricey first baseman, Eric Hosmer, whom they’ve been trying to trade in an effort to escape the remaining four years and $59MM on his contract. There’s also the fact that one of Freeman’s reported suitors, the Dodgers, just so happen to be a division rival for the Padres. Making an effort to drive up the price wouldn’t be out of the question.

That said, it’s worth taking a peak at just how a potential Freeman signing would impact the Padres, both in 2022 and in the long-term. The impact on the actual 2022 payroll would depend on contract structuring, but even a backloaded deal would boost the Padres’ currently $200MM payroll substantially.

Looking beyond the current season, the contracts of Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Fernando Tatis Jr., Drew Pomeranz, Ha-Seong Kim, Nick Martinez and Luis Garcia total about $114MM in guaranteed money. That doesn’t include player options for Jurickson Profar and Robert Suarez, which could be exercised — nor does it include arbitration raises to the likes of Dinelson Lamet, Austin Adams, Tim Hill, Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan. Factoring in all of that, a Freeman deal could take reasonable 2023 payroll projections north of $160MM.

The broader concern would be the luxury-tax obligations associated with a Freeman deal. If he is indeed seeking something in the vicinity of $30MM annually, that’d send the Padres back into luxury-tax territory for what would be a second straight season. The Padres currently have about $217MM in luxury obligations, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, and there’s no getting around the huge CBT hit associated with any potential Freeman deal.

In fact, even if the Padres were able to move the entirety of Hosmer’s contract — which seems unlikely without at least taking some money back on in return — the subtraction of that $18MM luxury hit would only narrowly drop the Padres below $200MM in total. In other words, even if San Diego somehow traded all of Hosmer’s deal and replaced him with Freeman, the new contract would still push the Padres right back up against CBT precipice.

It’d be a surprise to see San Diego draw up a five- or six-year offer at top-of-the-market dollars to bring in Freeman when they’re still trying to unload Hosmer’s contract, but Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is never one to shy away from an unexpected move.

Red Sox To Sign Jake Diekman

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March 15: Diekman’s deal with the Sox is a two-year, $8MM arrangement, according to Cotillo (Twitter thread). He’ll earn $3.5MM in both 2022 and 2023. The Sox hold a $4MM club option for the 2024 season, which comes with a $1MM buyout.

March 13: For the second time today, the Red Sox are adding a lefty to the bullpen. Boston and Jake Diekman are close to agreeing to terms, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). The deal is “believed to be a multi-year deal” though the exact terms are not yet clear.

Diekman is one of the top bullpen arms available on the market. The now-35-year-old was lights out for the A’s during the pandemic-shortened 2020. He appeared in 21 games, posting a microscopic 0.42 ERA/2.72 FIP spanning 21 1/3 innings, numbers-driven at least in part by an uncharacteristically high 61.6 percent groundball rate. For comparison, he posted a 34.8 percent groundball rate last year and owns a 47.9 percent rate in that department for his career.

The 10-year veteran initially came to Oakland mid-season in 2019 in a deal with the Royals that netted KC a pair of minor leaguers. He continued to be effective for the A’s last season, though not quite at the surreal level of 2020. He tossed 60 2/3 innings over 67 outings with a 3.86 ERA/4.46 FIP while notching seven saves and 14 holds. He also blew seven saves.

With a 31.7 percent strikeout rate, he differentiates himself from the other lefties in Boston’s pen with his ability to miss bats. In so doing, Diekman becomes the top southpaw in a Boston pen that added Matt Strahm earlier today.

Beyond their new pair, the BoSox can call on Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Austin Davis as potential southpaws out of the bullpen. Diekman is by far the most established of the bunch, however. He’s sure to team with Garrett Whitlock in the late game mix for manager Alex Cora.

Mets To Sign Mike Montgomery To Minor League Deal

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4:01 pm: If Montgomery cracks the big league team, he’ll earn a salary of $1.1MM, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

1:56 pm: Left-handed pitcher Mike Montgomery is signing a minor league deal with the Mets, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The deal is pending a physical and presumably comes with an invitation to big league camp.

Montgomery and the Mets also connected on a minor league deal a year ago, but he never cracked the roster. He opted out and ended up signing another minor league deal with the Yankees, which he also opted out of, before heading to Korea. He made 11 starts for the Samsung Lions, putting up an ERA of 5.37.

The southpaw spent the previous six seasons in the majors, appearing in 183 games from 2015 to 2020, making 70 starts and logging 541 innings with the Mariners, Cubs and Royals. His career ERA is 3.84, though it hovered around 5.00 in 2019 and 2020. His career strikeout rate is 18%, along with a walk rate of 8.8%. The highlight of that period, however, was Montgomery recording the final out of the 2016 World Series for the Cubs.

Now 32, Montgomery has worked both out of the rotation and bullpen in his career, meaning he could function as depth in either capacity for the Mets. The rotation is strong on paper but comes with loads of uncertainty. Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt and Carlos Carrasco figure to be the front four, though they all dealt with injuries last year to varying degrees. Taijuan Walker underwent knee surgery in January and may not be ready for Opening Day. If any of that core five need to miss time, the club could also turn to Tylor Megill, David Peterson, Jordan Yamamoto, Sean Reid-Foley or Yennsy Diaz, who are all on the 40-man roster.

The path to a job in the bullpen is much more open, however, as the club doesn’t really have a lefty on the roster projected to be part of the relief corps. Alex Claudio was signed to a minor league deal in January and would likely be Montgomery’s chief competition in that respect. The Mets could continue this wild offseason with another addition, though there aren’t many high profile lefties remaining on the free agent market, with Andrew Chafin and Tony Watson perhaps being the most notable.

Phillies Sign Dillon Maples To Minors Deal

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Right-hander Dillon Maples is in camp with the Phillies, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Presumably, Maples has agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to Major League Spring Training.

This will be just the second organization for Maples, who has spent his entire career with the Cubs up until now. Drafted by Chicago in 2011, he made his MLB debut in 2017 and has spent the past five years bouncing between Triple-A and the big leagues. His first four seasons weren’t especially encouraging, as he logged 23 1/3 innings from 2017 to 2020 with a 8.49 ERA. That came with an excellent 32.8% strikeout rate but ghastly 21% walk rate.

Last year, there were signs of improvement, as Maples got his ERA down to 2.59 over 31 1/3 innings. Although he still struck out 28.8% of the batters he faced, he also still walked 18% of them. That tiny ERA was likely deflated by a .203 batting average on balls in play, leading the advanced metrics to be dubious of it. All of xERA, FIP, xFIP and SIERA put him between 4.48 and 4.79.

Despite appearing in the last five seasons, Maples still has less than a year of service time. The 29-year-old can therefore be kept around for years to come if he should crack the big league roster. However, he is out of minor league options, meaning that he would have to hold onto his roster spot or else be exposed to waivers. The Phillies have been notoriously dealing with relief issues for some time, but have made numerous efforts bolster their bullpen for this year. Corey Knebel and Nick Nelson were added prior to the lockout, with Brad Hand and Jeurys Familia being brought aboard after.

Astros Sign Zac Rosscup To Minors Deal

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The Astros have announced that they have signed left-hander Zac Rosscup to a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training.

Rosscup, 34 in June, has seen sporadic MLB action in seven of the last nine MLB seasons. Though he has 86 2/3 career innings on his ledger, he’s never gone as high as 27 in any individual season and only logged three total MLB innings over the past two years. His career ERA of 5.09 comes with an excellent 29.3% strikeout rate but frightening 14% walk rate. In 29 Triple-A innings for the Rockies last year, he put up an ERA of 2.48, 33.1% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate.

As a southpaw, Rosscup is generally more effective against lefties, holding them to a paltry line of .155/.296/.297 in his MLB career. Righties, however, have produced a much more robust sample of .330/.413/.607. Given that wide split, the Astros will surely try to deploy him strategically in a way where he faces as few righties as possible. However, with the recent implementation of the three-batter minimum, that might not always be possible.

Houston’s roster is quite strong overall but the lack of lefty hurlers is one weak element of it. Framber Valdez will be in the starting rotation. Jonathan Bermudez was added to the 40-man roster a few months ago but has no MLB experience and will likely be in the minors. That leaves Blake Taylor as the only southpaw projected to be in the club’s Opening Day bullpen. If they don’t make any further additions in the next few weeks, there could be a path for Rosscup to earn his way back to the show.

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