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Latest On Sixto Sanchez

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Marlins right-hander Sixto Sanchez is “taking a bit longer” to recover from July’s season-ending shoulder surgery, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, which has pushed back his readiness to appear in a game setting. Obviously, with the entire season in limbo right now, Sanchez won’t be missing any immediate games, but Heyman suggests it’d be midseason before the touted 23-year-old would be ready to return. It’s a change in tone from when Sanchez himself went on record earlier this year to say he felt “100 percent” and expected to be ready to go when the 2022 season rolled around.

Sanchez was a bright spot for the 2020 Marlins, graduating from top prospect status to a successful big league pitcher at just 22 years of age. The centerpiece prospect in the trade that sent J.T. Realmuto to the division-rival Phillies, Sanchez logged 39 innings of 3.46 ERA ball with a 20.9% strikeout rate, a 7.0% walk rate and a massive 58.0% grounder rate. The strikeout rate was perhaps surprisingly low for a pitcher with Sanchez’s combination of pedigree and raw stuff (98.8 mph average on his heater, plus changeup) — but Sanchez was making the jump straight from Double-A to the big leagues. He also turned in a huge 12.8% swinging-strike rate and 38.7% opponents’ chase rate, both of which point to the possibility for more whiffs down the road.

Sanchez missed time early in the 2021 season, first due to a lengthy stay in Covid-19 protocols during Spring Training and later due to shoulder discomfort. The Marlins eventually shut him down until early summer due to that first bout of shoulder pain, and he was shut down again when the discomfort returned between bullpen sessions. Eventually, a small tear in Sanchez’s posterior capsule was discovered, which resulted in an early-July procedure that ended his season.

While there’s no concrete timeline for his return, the broader cause for concern is that a decelerated rehab program only causes further concern regarding Sanchez’s surgically repaired shoulder. It’s already been nearly 18 months since Sanchez pitched in a big league game, and while he couldn’t work out at Marlins facilities anyhow because he’s on the 40-man roster, it doesn’t sound as though he’d be ready to take the mound had Spring Training been underway as originally scheduled. At the time of the surgery, general manager Kim Ng announced that Sanchez would resume throwing in three months’ time but wasn’t likely to pitch in winter ball. That timeline now rather clearly appears to have been pushed back.

Even without Sanchez, the Marlins boast an enviable crop of arms, headlined by newly extended ace Sandy Alcantara, who signed a five-year, $56MM deal prior to the current lockout. He’ll be followed in the rotation by Trevor Rogers, Pablo Lopez, Elieser Hernandez and Jesus Luzardo, though Miami has plenty of arms beyond that top quintet. Righty Edward Cabrera is regarded as one of the game’s most promising pitching prospects and already made his MLB debut in 2021. Flamethrowing righty Max Meyer, the No. 3 overall pick in 2020, is also considered among the game’s best arms and could open the year in Triple-A.

Other depth options on the roster include Braxton Garrett, Nick Neidert, Daniel Castano, Cody Poteet and Paul Campbell — all of whom have pitched in the big leagues. Further down the pipeline are righty Eury Perez and lefty Jake Eder, the latter of whom will miss the ’22 season due to Tommy John surgery but is as highly regarded as any arm in the Miami system.

That deep reserve of pitching talent notwithstanding, Sanchez is a key piece to the Marlins’ future and, had he been healthy, would’ve been viewed as a vital rotation candidate for the upcoming campaign. The team isn’t likely to issue any kind of formal statement on his outlook while the lockout is going on, but his status will be a key storyline to follow for Marlins fans whenever the lockout lifts.

Moore: Witt Jr. Will Have Chance To Make Opening Day Roster

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We don’t know when Opening Day will be for Major League clubs, but Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore told reporters this week that when it does, top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. will have the opportunity to break camp with the team (link via Pete Grahoff of the Kansas City Star).

“He’s very talented and we’re going to give him that opportunity,” Moore said of his organization’s top prospect. Because Witt has not yet been required to be added to the 40-man roster, Moore is able to freely discuss him and Witt is able to interact with club personnel and make use of club facilities.

By now, most fans are quite familiar with Witt Jr. — the son of 16-year MLB veteran pitcher Bobby Witt. Selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 draft, the now-21-year-old Witt Jr. is regarded as one of the game’s top three overall prospects. He’s played primarily shortstop in the minors and figures to, before long, be given the chance to settle in as the Royals’ long-term option either at short or at the hot corner.

The 2021 season was Witt’s first full year of professional games, thanks to the canceled minor league season in 2020, but you’d hardly know it based on the numbers. Splitting the season between Double-A (61 games, 279 plate appearances) and Triple-A (62 games, 285 plate appearances), Witt batted a combined .290/.361/.576 with 33 home runs, 35 doubles, four triples and 29 stolen bases (in 40 attempts). That production came not only in spite of extremely limited pro experience but also in spite of the fact that Witt was three years younger than his average opponent in Double-A and five years younger than the average Triple-A player.

Even in 2021, there was some talk that Witt could be considered for an Opening Day roster spot, although that always felt like an extreme long shot, given that he’d yet to play above Rookie ball. Now, with a dominant season in the upper minors under his belt, Witt would seem to have a legitimate chance at making the roster, so long as he performs well in whatever iteration of Spring Training is put together.

Just where Witt will line up on the diamond remains to be seen, as the Kansas City infield is rather crowded. Nicky Lopez solidified himself as an elite defender at shortstop this past season, and while he’s no lock to repeat his .300/.365/.378 batting line, the glove should continue to play no matter what. Two-time All-Star and 2021 stolen base champion Whit Merrifield can handle either second base or any of the three outfield spots. The ultra-talented but oft-injured Adalberto Mondesi remains in the mix for playing time, be it at shortstop, third base or in right field. Corner infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier is entering the second season of a four-year, $28MM contract and will be looking to rebound from a dismal 2021 effort.

If the Royals prefer to leave Lopez, a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop, at the position where he broke out this past season, the natural move might be to slide Witt over to third base. The organization prepared for this to some extent last year, giving Witt 17 starts (and 18 total appearances) at the hot corner throughout the season.

The frequency (or lack thereof) of prospects of Witt’s caliber making their respective teams’ Opening Day rosters has been a key talking point in ongoing labor negotiations. The Royals, however, generally haven’t shied away from promoting top prospects out of the gate, rather than keeping them in the minors for a few weeks early in the season to secure a seventh year of club control. As recently as the 2020 season, the Royals gave Brady Singer a full year of service time, when keeping him at their alternate site for even a week would’ve delayed his path to free agency.

None of that is presented to spur debate on the merits of service-time practices that have become increasingly commonplace throughout the league. However, it’s notable context that Kansas City has generally taken up the stance that when the front office feels a player is ready, he’ll be added to the big league roster. Whether that means a full year of service in 2022 remains to be seen, as MLB and the Players Association will need to haggle over just how the canceled games will impact service time and pay.

Setting that aside, though, Moore’s confirmation of what was already widely assumed now gives Royals fans an additional reason to be excited for big league camp … whenever that may be. If Witt does indeed crack the Royals’ Opening Day roster and accrue a full year of service time in 2022, he’d be controllable via arbitration through the 2027 season before reaching free agency in advance of his age-28 season.

Lead Negotiators For MLB, MLBPA Meeting Today

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Deputy commissioner Dan Halem and MLBPA lead negotiator Bruce Meyer are expected to meet today at an “informal” one-on-one sitdown in New York, tweets Evan Drellich of The Athletic. It’ll be the first time since Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancellation of Opening Day earlier this week that representatives from the two parties have met in person.

What’s on the agenda isn’t clear, though it’s at least mildly encouraging to see two key representatives meet just days after the “deadline” set by MLB passed. After the last deadline (the expiration of the prior collective bargaining agreement), six weeks transpired before the league put forth a counterproposal to the union. At present, it’s the league that made its most recent offer, which the union unanimously agreed to reject.

Of note, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets that, moving forward, the two parties hope to reduce some of the very public back-and-forth nature of prior talks and keep negotiations closer to the vest. Both the recent week-plus of negotiations in Jupiter, Fla. and the 2020 return-to-play negotiations were public spectacles, to varying extents.

As things stand, the league has only canceled a week’s worth of games, though it seems quite possible (if not likely) that additional cancellations will follow. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently ran down where both parties sit on the issues at hand, for those looking for a quick reference point on the gaps that remain in need of bridging. Now, on top of those issues, the league and union will have to also discuss scheduling matters — the union has reportedly expressed a desire to reschedule canceled games; Manfred indicated Tuesday that would not happen — and the possibility of prorating pay and/or service time based on games missed.

Stripling: MLB Tried To “Sneak Things” Past Union Late In Negotiations

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There’s no indication when the 2022 season will start following a contentious set of labor negotiations that resulted in commissioner Rob Manfred canceling the first two series of the year. The general expectation is that further games are quite likely to be lost as well, given the acrimonious nature of talks to date.

On the topic of those negotiations, Blue Jays right-hander Ross Stripling lobbed some fairly eye-opening accusations toward ownership and the manner in which their proposal suddenly changed late in the game. Stripling tells Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet that, as the two sides spoke late Monday evening and into the early hours of Tuesday morning, MLB’s proposal suddenly included notable changes regarding the luxury tax. Stripling implies that the changes extend beyond mere alterations to the threshold levels and penalty rates — instead featuring completely new items that had not been previously presented.

“It got to be like 12:30 [in the morning] and the fine print of their CBT proposal was stuff we had never seen before,” says Stripling. “They were trying to sneak things through us, it was like they think we’re dumb baseball players and we get sleepy after midnight or something. … They pushed us to a deadline that they imposed, and then they tried to sneak some shit past us at that deadline and we were ready for it.”

Stripling went on to echo the sentiments broadcast by Giants lefty Alex Wood on Twitter yesterday, wherein Wood claimed that the reported optimism late Monday was “pumped to the media” by Major League Baseball as a public relations strategy. Wood and Stripling maintain that the players’ “tone” never changed Tuesday, as the league claimed via a statement from an anonymous spokesperson. Stripling, Wood, James McCann and several others have publicly stated that the union never felt the sense of optimism broadcast by the league and that MLB’s suggestions of a “change in tone” were an effort to cast blame on players for scuttling a deal at the last minute.

Stripling’s comments, to an extent, also mesh with concerns raised by union leader Tony Clark at yesterday’s press conference. Speaking in the wake of Manfred’s cancelation of games, Clark revealed that during the late stages of negotiations, the league sought to enact a series of rule changes for the 2023 season that would see defensive shifts limited, the size of bases expanded and the implementation of a pitch clock. While Clark noted that the players were not necessarily opposed, the fact that MLB raised them so late in the process left the union with little to no time to discuss them — an obvious point of consternation.

Stripling is hardly alone in his willingness to speak out and voice his displeasure with the manner in which negotiations transpired. Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic chronicled a series of player frustrations that were broadcast via social media, citing Wood, Evan Longoria, Anthony Rizzo, Michael Lorenzen, Kevin Pillar and others. As Ghiorli examines, the players’ ability to freely speak their minds — and share details like those laid out by Stripling, Wood and others — are fascinating new wrinkles to labor talks that did not exist prior to the social media age. While fans have understandably grown exhausted by the public jabs being traded (whether directly or via reports), the lack of any real momentum regarding a return to play and the general distrust between the parties only sets the stage for further exchanges of this nature.

Atlantic League’s Kentucky Wild Health Genomes Sign Moises Sierra, Brandon Leibrandt

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The Kentucky Wild Health Genomes of the independent Atlantic League recently signed outfielder Moisés Sierra and left-hander Brandon Leibrandt, according to the league transactions log. Both players have some big league experience, with the former having appeared in parts of four MLB seasons.

The bulk of Sierra’s big league work came in the first half of the last decade. A fairly well-regarded prospect during his days in the Blue Jays farm system, he debuted with Toronto in 2012 and would spend parts of the next three seasons north of the border. Sierra had some success during a 35-game stint in 2013, when he hit .290/.369/.458. He didn’t produce much at the plate in any other season, however, and he hit .243/.296/.383 in 449 plate appearances overall from 2012-14.

Sierra returned to the big leagues for 27-game run with the Nationals in 2018, but he’s otherwise bounced between various Triple-A affiliates and foreign pro leagues. The righty-hitting outfielder owns a .277/.342/.421 line in parts of six Triple-A seasons. He spent some time in 2020 with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and played with the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos last year. He hit .300/.385/.462 over 226 plate appearances there and will now try to work his way back into the affiliated ranks with the Genomes.

Leibrandt doesn’t have the same level of experience in the majors, but his MLB time was more recent than that of Sierra. The Florida State product made five outings and tallied nine innings of relief for the 2020 Marlins. Leibrandt spent last season in the upper ranks of the Miami system, combining for a 5.68 ERA over 88 2/3 innings between Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Jacksonville. The 29-year-old has had more success in past stints at the minors’ top level, where he owns a 3.61 ERA in parts of three seasons.

Rockies Interested In Michael Conforto

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Free agent outfielder Michael Conforto “is on [the Rockies’] list of possible free agents,” The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders hears from sources inside the Rox organization.  Conforto joins Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber as prominent outfield-capable names Colorado has been linked to since the start of the offseason, as the Rockies were known to be looking for some more pop in the lineup.

The 2015-20 version of Conforto would certainly fit that description, as the former All-Star hit .259/.358/.484 with 118 homers over that six-season run with the Mets.  Last year, however, Conforto was far less effective at the plate, hitting a modest .232/.344/.384 with 14 homers over 479 PA while also missing about five weeks of action due to a strained hamstring.

Apart from a dropoff in barrels and barrel rate, there wasn’t much difference in Conforto’s 2021 season from his 2015-20 seasons, from a Statcast perspective.  His .322 wOBA was much lower than his above-average .350 xwOBA, so Conforto might have simply had a hard-luck season at the worst possible time as he was about to enter the free agent market.

A move to a more hitter-friendly ballpark like Coors Field might spark a revival in Conforto’s numbers, though it remains to be seen exactly what his down year will cost him on the open market.  Saunders suggests that the Rockies would be open to inking Conforto to three or four years, yet it isn’t clear whether or not Conforto would necessarily want that type of longer commitment (at what would surely be less than top dollar) if he views 2021 as an aberration.  MLBTR projected that Conforto would take just a one-year pillow contract in order to re-establish himself and then test free agency again next winter, and Saunders writes that some executives around baseball feel the outfielder might indeed take this path.

The other wrinkle involved in this scenario is the draft pick compensation attached to Conforto, since he rejected the Mets’ qualifying offer.  If Conforto is only looking for a one-year deal, some teams may not be willing to give up a pick just for one season of his services — especially since the 2022 season now may be shortened due to the lockout.  While Conforto’s former teammate Noah Syndergaard landed a one-year deal from the Angels despite also rejecting a QO, it can argued that Syndergaard’s scenario was different in many respects.

Syndergaard is coming off essentially two lost seasons due to Tommy John surgery and wasn’t in great position for a longer-term deal, and an Angels team desperate for pitching felt giving up the pick was a risk worth taking if Syndergaard can help them finally end their playoff drought.  While the Rockies seemingly always think they’re closer to contention than they actually are, the club still faces a lot of competition within the NL West alone, to say nothing of the rest of the National League (even if more postseason spots are available).

Signing Conforto to a one-year deal and surrendering a draft pick in order to make a push in 2022 alone doesn’t seem too realistic, though the Rox might also feel they have something of a bonus pick to work with since Trevor Story is also a QO free agent.  Since the Rockies are a team that receives revenue-sharing funds, their compensatory pick for Story would fall just after the draft’s first round, assuming Story signed for more than $50MM.  Signing a QO free agent would cost Colorado its third-highest pick of the draft, for comparison’s sake.

The Rockies have plenty of room for Conforto in their outfield, as he could slot into either corner spot and even play center field in a pinch (though not on a consistent basis).  An already-inconsistent Colorado lineup will now be losing Story, and the outfield has been seen as a natural spot to add a big bat to the mix.  Charlie Blackmon will continue to get some time in right field, but could also get some DH time to accommodate Conforto if he is moved between both corner spots.

Over a dozen teams had some initial interest in Conforto at the start of the offseason, though only the Marlins and now the Rockies are the only known teams linked to the 29-year-old.  It isn’t clear whether or not Miami could still be in the running, as the Fish already signed Avisail Garcia, and recent reports (and the sudden departure of Derek Jeter from the organization) have hinted that the club might not be willing to spend much more in the wake of the lockout.

Reynolds: No Extension Talks With Pirates Prior To Lockout

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The Pirates probably won’t grab too many headlines of note in free agency once the lockout lifts, but the majority of Pittsburgh fans hope they’ll make another transaction of note: a long-term deal for All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds. Likewise, fans from just about every outfield-needy club around the league are hoping the Pirates move the 27-year-old Reynolds in exchange for what would figure to be a major haul of prospect talent. It’s not an either-or proposition, as Pittsburgh could just hang onto Reynolds and control him another four years via arbitration, even without an extension. Whatever path the team is planning, Reynolds himself tells Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he “didn’t hear anything” regarding his future from the team before MLB halted Major League transactions and barred players from communicating with their teams.

Reynolds was a focal point of the 2021 trade deadline, reportedly drawing sizable offers from the Braves and Brewers. The Mariners, Marlins and Yankees have each shown interest in Reynolds as well, and his market undoubtedly spans a good bit wider than just that handful of publicly known suitors.

It’s hardly a surprise that Reynolds has become such a coveted player. He followed a Rookie of the Year-caliber 2019 season with a rough campaign in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but Reynolds bounced back better than ever in 2021 and made that 2020 downturn look like an aberration. Reynolds has played three seasons in the Majors and, in the two full campaigns, has hit better than .300 with a near-.400 OBP and well above-average power. He made his first All-Star team in 2021 — a season that saw him finish out the year with a hearty .302/.390/.522 batting line. Reynolds belted a career-best 24 long balls, racked up 35 doubles and logged a career-high (and league-leading) eight triples as well. On the whole, the switch-hitter owns a .290/.368/.490 line in an even 1400 plate appearances.

Defensively, Reynolds has stepped up as the Pirates’ primary center fielder, although publicly available metrics provide lukewarm reviews of his glovework there. He registered +2 Outs Above Average this past season, per Statcast, but Reynolds also checked in with -5 Defensive Runs Saved and a -5 Ultimate Zone Rating. His overall defense in center rates closer to average when factoring in his entire career, but it’s also worth noting that Reynolds has 10 Defensive Runs Saved in the corners. Scouting reports based on the eye test surely provide a similar range of opinions, but it’s unlikely anyone views Reynolds as a major liability with the glove.

Reynolds is controlled through the 2025 season but will reach arbitration as a Super Two player this year, as he enters the season with two years and 163 days of service time (just nine days shy in that rookie season of reaching a full year). He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a $4.5MM salary for the coming season, and he’ll be in line for three more raises based on that first-time arbitration salary.

Historically speaking, there’s a wide swath of possible extension outcomes for players with between two and three years of MLB service time. Mike Trout (six years, $144MM) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (14 years, $341MM) are clear outliers that needn’t enter the conversation when trying to gauge a theoretical price point for Reynolds, but as can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, there have been quite a few outfielders to sign long-term while in this service bracket — including a few who were Super Two players themselves.

Back in 2015-16, it was common for outfielders in this position to sign in the range of $25-30MM over a five-year period, as evidenced by deals for Adam Eaton, Ender Inciarte and Odubel Herrera. All of those deals included at least one club option. Minnesota’s Max Kepler moved the needle forward a bit further with his 2019 extension — a five-year deal worth a guaranteed $35MM, plus a club option for a sixth season. Kepler, like Reynolds, was a Super Two player, and his $3.2MM projected 2019 salary was a good bit lower than that of Reynolds. Kepler’s deal paid him $25.5MM for his four arbitration seasons, guaranteed him $9.5MM for one would-be free-agent year and also gave the Twins a $10MM option for a sixth season. Reynolds has a superior track record to this point in his career, so it seems fair to expect that he’d topple that Kepler mark by a fair bit.

The other potential comparable for Reynolds, and one that his reps at CAA likely prefer as a target to surpass, is the six-year, $53.5MM deal signed by Kevin Kiermaier in 2017. Kiermaier was also a Super Two center fielder with above-average power. His defensive accolades had already begun to pile up — Kiermaier won Gold Gloves in 2015-16 and a Platinum Glove in 2015 — but he hadn’t made anywhere near the same level of offensive impact as Reynolds has. He’d tallied 1313 career plate appearances at the time of his extension and owned a .258/.313/.425 line that’s a good bit shy of Reynolds’ career numbers. There’s also the simple fact that Kiermaier’s deal — which paid him $27.5MM for his arbitration years, bought out two free agent campaigns at a combined $26MM and contained a $13MM club option for a seventh season — is now five years old, making for a slightly dated comparison point.

The possibility of a long-term deal for Reynolds is complicated by the Pirates’ organizational spending habits. The Bucs have rather remarkably never topped a $60MM guarantee on any player, and that contract was handed out to Jason Kendall more than two decades ago. Even by the Pirates’ consistent low-spending ways, the long-term financial outlook is wide open. They don’t have a single dollar committed beyond next season, and Reynolds is the only player on the roster who’d be likely to command a significant arbitration payout in 2023. There looks to be opportunity for the Pirates to build around Reynolds as a franchise player, but it may require the single biggest expenditure the organization has made — at least since Bob Nutting took over principal ownership of the franchise in 2007.

A good portion of the fanbase would be in favor of such a move, with Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes expected to be part of a long-term core for the Pirates as they continue with a massive rebuild. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic wrote over the summer that the Bucs weren’t inclined to trade Reynolds, instead “(intending) to build around him.” That might result in the front office opening talks whenever they’re again allowed to make MLB transactions, but that process apparently hasn’t yet begun.

Lockout Notes: TV Contracts, Miller, Scherzer, Stipends

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Major League Baseball’s lockout is entering its fourth month, and the first two regular-season series of the 2022 schedule have already been lost. Most fans have grown weary of the back-and-forth, the finger-pointing and name-calling, instead merely wanting to know when they can expect MLB to again be a part of their daily routines. The unfortunate reality is that there’s no firm answer to that question, as we can’t know firmly when an agreement will be reached — or even when talks will resume.

As Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic outlines, local television contracts don’t call for rebates from teams until roughly 25 games are lost. Jeff Passan of ESPN adds some specifics, writing that avoiding rebates requires broadcasting between 138 and 150 games (with slight team-to-team variation). That plays into the owners’ ability to hold out, as does the general fact that their wealth considerably outpaces that of the players. In cold-weather states, April is a relatively poorly attended month anyhow — at least after the early rush of the opening series.

On the players’ side of the equation, MLBPA executive subcommittee member Andrew Miller told reporters last night that union solidarity is stronger than he’s ever seen (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

“We’re prepared,” said Miller. “We’ve seen this coming in a sense. It’s unfortunate. This isn’t new to us. This is not shocking. Our communication, our willingness to see each other’s point of views and find solutions and fight for what’s right is not like I’ve seen before. I can tell you that.”

Both Miller and fellow subcommittee member Max Scherzer broadcast strength and a desire to improve conditions for future generations. Scherzer candidly said he was more than willing to “sacrifice part of [his] career,” noting that he would not be in position to have signed the contract he did without previous generations of players sacrificing portions of their career for him. At the very least, the MLBPA is putting up a strong front.

It’s easier for players like Scherzer, who have amassed hundreds of millions in career earnings, to sit out than it is for players with little to no MLB experience. However, as noted here at MLBTR this week, the union has been preparing for this worst-case scenario for some time, spinning off their licensing revenues into a separate company that allows them to take equity stakes in third parties.

The MLBPA offered $5,000 stipends to members for both February and March and, per Rosenthal and colleague Evan Drellich, will begin offering $15,000 monthly stipends on April 1. Most veterans won’t be applying for those checks, but for those playing closer to the league minimum — or, particularly, those expected to be collecting minor league salaries — it’s a reasonably notable sum. The union has the funds to last the entire season paying out those stipends, although the obvious hope is that a resolution will arrive far sooner.

Everything now depends on how quickly the two parties return to the table and whether one or both will blink in the face of historic levels of tension and public pressure. Clark’s suggestion that ownership cares more about “breaking the union” than about getting players back on the field speaks volumes about the rift that remains, and now on top of everything else, they’ll quarrel over potentially prorated salaries and service time.

Orioles Sign Three Players To Minor League Contracts

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The Orioles announced a trio of minor league signings, as left-hander Buddy Baumann, right-hander Wes Robertson, and catcher Andres Angulo have all been added to the roster.  All three were minor league free agents, and thus eligible to be signed during the lockout.

Baumann is the only one of the group with MLB experience, as the southpaw posted a 5.58 ERA over 30 2/3 innings with the Padres and Mets from 2016-18.  Baumann gave up five homers and 18 walks in that small sample size, with a 25.2% strikeout rate.

This stint in the majors seemed to be the peak of Baumann’s 11 pro seasons, which began after he was a seventh-round pick for the Royals in the 2009 draft.  After pitching in independent baseball in 2019, Baumann actually retired from the sport, and worked as the pitching coach for the Angels’ rookie ball affiliate last season.  However, it seems like Baumann will make a comeback attempt at age 34 and see if he can land one more ticket to The Show.

Angulo has spent his entire career in the Giants farm system, after signing as an international prospect out of his native Colombia in 2015.  The catcher has a career .235/.308/.333 slash line over 848 plate appearances, making it as high as San Francisco’s Double-A affiliate last season.

Double-A also represents Robertson’s highest step on the minor league ladder, as he tossed 2 2/3 innings with the Reds’ Chattanooga affiliate in 2021.  Unfortunately, it was part of a rough year overall for Robertson, who compiled an 11.51 ERA over 22 2/3 combined frames in rookie ball, A-ball, and Double-A.  It was Robertson’s first season in the Reds organization after the undrafted righty spent his first three pro seasons (2017-19) pitching in the Rangers farm system.

Orioles Had Interest In Donovan Solano Prior To Lockout

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The Orioles had interest in Donovan Solano earlier this offseason, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports.  The exact timing of the interest isn’t known, as since the O’s also signed Rougned Odor to a Major League contract just prior to the start of the lockout, Kubatko observes that Baltimore might have simply chosen Odor over the 34-year-old Solano to address its infield needs.

Then again, the argument can certainly be made that the Orioles might continue to have interest in Solano or other players, considering the many question marks around the infield.  Odor is penciled into the regular second base role, though he could also see some time at third base along with Kelvin Gutierrez.  Jahmai Jones and recent minor league signing Shed Long are also in the second base mix, plus the Orioles have several other prospects either competing for bench jobs, or are tentatively slated to receive big league promotions at some point in 2022.

With the O’s still rebuilding and the focus clearly on the younger members of the organization, Baltimore’s interest in veteran acquisitions has been limited to inexpensive short-term contracts.  Odor, for instance, won’t actually cost the Orioles anything besides a minimum salary — the Rangers are still responsible for the rest of the $15MM ($12MM in 2022 salary, $3MM for the buyout of his 2023 option) owed to Odor, as per the terms of Texas’ original extension with the infielder back in March 2017.

The price tag might’ve been a bigger factor than the on-field performance for the Orioles, as since wins and losses aren’t important for a team not trying to contend, obtaining Odor for virtually nothing might be preferable to giving more significant guaranteed money to Solano on a one-year deal.  While Odor has struggled badly for the better part of five seasons now, Solano is coming off three very solid years with the Giants.

One of the several unheralded pickups who blossomed in San Francisco, Solano hit .308/.354/.435 with 14 home runs over 775 plate appearances with the Giants from 2019-21, and won the 2020 Silver Slugger Award for NL second basemen.  His production did drop in 2021, however, though a pair of trips to the injured list likely contributed to some diminished power.  Still, Solano’s .280/.344/.404 slash line over 344 PA last year was still above average, as per OPS+ (103) and wRC+ (105).

Solano played mostly as a second baseman with the Giants, though he had a good chunk of playing time at shortstop in 2019 and a handful of games at third base.  Assuming he is still on Baltimore’s radar, the Orioles could use Solano and Odor interchangeably at either second base or third base, or even in a platoon situation.  (The right-handed hitting Solano did much of his damage against left-handed pitching over the last three years, though even his performance against righties has outperformed Odor’s recent hitting numbers.)  The Orioles would then likely use Solano, Odor, or other short-term veterans as trade chips at the deadline, in order to clear room for any prospects who might get the call for some big-league seasoning.

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