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Archives for April 2022

Giants Claim Darien Nunez From Dodgers

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The Giants announced to various reporters, including Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, that they have claimed left-hander Darien Nunez off waivers from the Dodgers. (Reporter Francys Romero relayed the Giants-Nunez connection earlier today.) The Giants don’t need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move at the moment, as a couple of players have recently hit the Covid-related injured list and won’t take up roster spots until reinstated.

It was reported a few days ago that the 29-year-old would require Tommy John surgery, thus keeping him out of action for the remainder of this season and at least part of next year as well. The next day, he was designated for assignment by the Dodgers in order to open up a roster spot for Reyes Moronta. Nunez was in the minors at the time of his injury, meaning that the Dodgers could have merely placed him on the minor league injured list. However, in that scenario, he would continue to occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. They also had the option of placing Nunez on the major league 60-day injured list. Doing so would have opened up a roster spot, but also would have meant Nunez would earn an MLB salary and service time over the remainder of the year. In the end, they opted merely to cut him loose. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, meaning Nunez was on release waivers, before being claimed.

For the Giants, this is situation has many parallels with their acquisition of outfielder Luis Gonzalez. Last year, Gonzalez was injured while in the minor leagues with the White Sox. The Sox opted to designate him for assignment and place him on waivers. The Giants put in a claim and placed him on their major league injured list, thus earning him MLB pay and service time. The club non-tendered him after the season but were able to re-sign him on a minor league deal, with Gonzalez presumably appreciating the treatment he received from the team. He recently had his contract selected and has been playing well in his first few games as a Giant.

With Nunez, the Giants announced that he has been optioned to Triple-A for now. However, it seems likely that, whenever they need to open up a spot on the 40-man roster, they will move Nunez to the 60-day IL. He currently has 30 days of MLB service time, a number that will start climb once he’s on the 60-day IL.

An amateur signing out of Cuba in 2018, Nunez worked his way up the ranks and made his MLB debut last year, throwing 7 2/3 innings with an 8.22 ERA. In Triple-A, however, his ERA was a much nicer 2.42 over 52 innings, along with a 39.8% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. The Giants will surely be hoping that he can get back to that kind of production once he recovers from the surgery, and then carry it from the minors into the majors.

Nationals, Zack Burdi Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals recently signed reliever Zack Burdi to a minor league contract, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. He has been assigned to the team’s complex in Florida.

Burdi was released by the Diamondbacks in Spring Training. Arizona had claimed him off waivers from the Orioles last fall but elected not to keep him on the 40-man roster heading into the season. After passing through release waivers unclaimed, the 27-year-old will try to pitch his way back to the big league level with the Nats.

A first-round pick of the White Sox in 2016, Burdi was an elite college closer at the University of Louisville. The hope had been that he’d carry that success through the minors quickly and emerge as an immediate late-game weapon for the South Siders, but injuries have thrown him off course. The right-hander had run his fastball as high as 102 MPH in college, but he suffered a 2017 UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery and kept him out for all of 2018. Upon returning, Burdi’s velocity had fallen into the low-mid 90s. He’d rediscovered his arm speed by 2020 and made his MLB debut that year, but he’s struggled with both free passes and longballs over the past couple seasons.

Burdi owns a 7.79 ERA in 17 1/3 innings over 15 big league appearances with the White Sox and Orioles between 2020-21. He worked 28 2/3 innings of 6.59 ERA ball with those teams’ respective Triple-A affiliates last season, punching out an excellent 34.5% of batters faced but allowing nine home runs with an elevated 13% walk rate. He’ll look to bounce back from that rough 2021 showing and carve out a spot in a Washington bullpen that has posted below-average marks in both ERA (3.94) and SIERA (3.62) over the season’s first few weeks.

Offseason In Review: Minnesota Twins

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The Twins stunned the baseball world with one of the largest annual-value contracts ever given by any team but took a patchwork approach to bolstering a rotation that needed quite a bit of help.

Major League Contracts

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Extensions

  • Signed CF Byron Buxton to a seven-year, $100MM extension with significant annual incentives

Notable Minor League Signings

The most pressing order of business for the Twins this winter began months before the offseason commenced. July extension talks with Byron Buxton didn’t bear fruit, and the Twins seriously entertained the idea of trading their uber-talented but injury-prone center fielder. Minnesota hung onto Buxton in the end, and those summer talks ultimately served as groundwork for a seven-year, $100MM extension that comes with substantial upside for both parties.

Even a partial season of Buxton is often worth the $14.28MM annual base value on the deal, but Buxton can earn up to $8MM annually based on MVP voting and $2.5MM annually based on plate appearances. It’s a fitting middle ground between a homegrown player who stands out as one of baseball’s best raw talents and a mid-market team that has been perennially vexed by Buxton’s durability woes.

Buxton will earn $10MM this year and $15MM annually from 2023-28, enjoying full no-trade protection from 2023-26 before his 10-and-5 rights kick in and grant him veto power over any trade for the remainder of the deal. In essence, the deal locks the 28-year-old Buxton in as a Twin through age 35. Whether he’ll ever remain healthy enough to reach those MVP-based incentives is anyone’s guess, but the Twins’ payroll bar only figures to increase from this year’s $138MM mark over the life of the contract. It stands to reason that they’ll eventually be staking under 10% of their annual payroll on Buxton’s upside. Viewed through that lens, it’s a reasonable gamble to take.

Buxton negotiations aside, starting pitching was the Twins’ clearest need. Their only locks for the 2022 rotation were right-handers Bailey Ober, who quietly posted solid results as a rookie last season, and Joe Ryan, whom they acquired from the Rays in last summer’s Nelson Cruz trade. With a deep crop of free-agent starters available and several high-profile names on the trade market, it was a good offseason to be on the hunt for pitching.

If you’d told Twins fans in November that they’d spend a total of $116MM in free agency, most would’ve assumed nearly the entire slate would’ve been dedicated to pitching. Instead, the Twins gave the fourth-ever largest annual value to a position player and didn’t sign a free-agent pitcher for more than $5MM.

That $5MM sum went to right-hander Dylan Bundy — their lone pre-lockout addition. It’s a roll of the dice that might not have excited many Twins fans, but it was sensible enough. Bundy’s 2020 was outstanding, and he got out to a strong start with the Halos in ’21 as well before a series of ineffective performances cost him his rotation spot. Eventually, a shoulder strain ended Bundy’s season in August.

The extent to which his struggles can be attributed to that balky shoulder isn’t certain, but his time with the Angels was split evenly between good and bad. In 17 starts from Opening Day 2020 to early May 2021, Bundy totaled 101 2/3 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with a 27% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate. In 17 appearances from May 8 through his season-ending IL stint, Bundy logged 54 2/3 innings of 6.72 ERA ball with greatly inferior strikeout (17.6%) and walk (10%) rates.

It’ll be a bargain if Bundy pitches well — to their credit, so far so good on that front — and the fact that there’s an affordable $11MM club option for 2023 sweetens the pot. Still, it was nevertheless a notable surprise that the Twins didn’t do more pre-lockout. Adding Bundy to serve as a fourth or fifth starter is fine, but the Twins more or less idled as nearly every big name pitcher — Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Robbie Ray, Kevin Gausman, Marcus Stroman, Eduardo Rodriguez — signed elsewhere before the lockout.

That seemed to portend a focus on the trade market, which did indeed happen — but only to an extent. Minnesota struck quickly after the transaction freeze lifted, adding Sonny Gray and minor league righty Francis Peguero in a deal that sent 2021 first-rounder Chase Petty to the Reds. Gray looked like a solid next step after Bundy. Getting two years of him (plus a live-armed lottery ticket) in return for a high-risk high school righty who might be four to five years from MLB readiness made some sense for both the Twins and Reds, given the two teams’ trajectories.

However, the Twins didn’t match the Giants’ two-year offer for lefty Carlos Rodon, never had a chance on Clayton Kershaw, and were spurned by Zack Greinke, who took a similar offer from the Royals because he preferred to return to his origins in Kansas City. Eventually, they agreed to an incentive-laden deal with talented but oft-injured righty Chris Archer. As with Bundy, it’s a reasonable price in a vacuum. Archer’s $3.5MM guarantee is a drop in the bucket for most MLB franchises, and if he unlocks any significant portion of the hefty $9.5MM of incentives baked into the deal, it’ll be because he’s pitching well enough to justify that cost.

At the same time the Twins were closing that deal, the trade market was beginning to dry up. Reds GM Nick Krall all but announced that neither Tyler Mahle nor Luis Castillo would be traded, leaving the Twins (and others) to focus primarily on Athletics hurlers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas. The latter understandably proved more alluring, given his extra year of team control, but Twins fans (and many others) still raised an eyebrow when Manaea, a free agent at season’s end, was traded to the Padres for what was widely considered to be a light package.

That trade perhaps partially paved the way for the Twins to buy low on former top prospect and Rookie of the Year candidate Chris Paddack, whom they acquired from San Diego alongside Emilio Pagan and a player to be named later (later revealed as pitching prospect Brayan Medina) on Opening Day. That swap sent All-Star closer Taylor Rogers, who ended last year on the shelf with a ligament injury in his pitching hand, and corner outfielder Brent Rooker back to the Padres.

Rogers is a free agent at season’s end, whereas the Twins can control Paddack through 2024 and Pagan through 2023. Minnesota had a surplus of controllable corner outfielders, likely making it easier to part with Rooker. Viewed through that lens, it’s easy enough to see why the Twins would prefer three years of a buy-low rotation candidate with upside and two years of a reliever with an inconsistent track record to one of Rogers — no matter how excellent he may have become in recent years. The swap isn’t without risk, though, and some fans will justifiably wonder why the Twins didn’t make a stronger push for Manaea. Paddack’s 2021 season ended when he was diagnosed with a minor ligament tear in his elbow, which creates some clear downside moving forward. His overall performance has also fallen off since an outstanding rookie season in 2019.

If the Twins can get Paddack back to his 2019 levels, the trade could go down as a steal. But that’s three pitchers the Twins are hoping to rehabilitate in a season they have designs on competing: Paddack, Archer and Bundy. Gray, the most established name added, has had stints on the injured list for back, groin and rib-cage strains since Opening Day 2020, and he’s currently shelved with a minor hamstring strain. He doesn’t have a long history of arm troubles, but Gray also isn’t a 180- to 200-inning workhorse on whom the Twins can bank. Given that their other two rotation members — Ober and Ryan — came into the 2022 season with a combined 25 big league starts, it felt like an underwhelming slate of additions on the pitching side.

Part of that surely stems from the fact the Twins are deep in promising upper-level arms. Right-handers Jordan Balazovic and Josh Winder are among the sport’s best pitching prospects, and Winder cracked the Opening Day roster in a long relief role. Simeon Woods Richardson, Cole Sands, Louie Varland and Ronny Henriquez (more on him in a bit) have all reached the Double-A level at least. Flamethrowing top prospect Jhoan Duran made the bullpen and might stay there this year after an injury-shortened 2021 season, but he could get rotation consideration down the line.

That Duran and Winder are arguably the most notable bullpen additions for the Twins is another perplexing outcome — particularly given the trade of Rogers. Minnesota’s lone bullpen pickup in free agency was veteran righty Joe Smith. He’ll help, particularly against right-handed opponents, but there was ample room for multiple additions of note. The Twins, however, have generally been risk-averse when it comes to free-agent deals for pitching under president Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine, and that continued this winter.

That’s not to say the Twins were inactive on the whole, of course. Quite to the contrary. When looking to the position-player side of things, the Twins had one of the most frenzied and chaotic offseasons of any team in the Majors — and certainly the most shocking and unexpected winter in their franchise’s history.

Waiting this long to address the elephant in the room is burying the lede, but maybe that’s emblematic of the Twins’ offseason as a whole. In a winter that virtually everyone expected to center around pitching help, the Twins’ biggest acquisition was a jaw-dropping, 1:00 am stunner that saw them sign Carlos Correa to a three-year, $105.3MM contract that gave Correa — who perhaps not coincidentally is wearing No. 4 in Minnesota — the fourth-largest annual value in Major League history at $35.1MM.

It took a rather unlikely series of events to make that match possible. Pre-lockout, Correa sought a 10-year deal that would top Francisco Lindor’s $341MM total, reportedly spurning a $275MM offer from the Tigers that included multiple opt-out opportunities. That both Corey Seager and Marcus Semien signed with the same team — rather than filling multiple shortstop voids around the league — and that Seager received a $325MM guarantee likely only emboldened Correa, even as he entered the lockout unsigned. What Correa did not count on, however, was that the Yankees would essentially sit out the free agent market entirely and that the Astros would not budge from their maximum offer length of five years.

Other potential suitors had their own reasons for balking. The Mariners are committed to J.P. Crawford at shortstop and president Jerry Dipoto stressed that he planned to target free agents willing to play multiple positions. The Tigers, rather than reengaging, simply pivoted and signed Javier Baez for half of their reported offer to Correa. The Red Sox opted not to move Xander Bogaerts from shortstop, defensive shortcomings notwithstanding, and may never have been willing to offer ten years to any player. The Cubs spent most of their money elsewhere and were content to give Andrelton Simmons a cheap one-year deal. The Dodgers’ focus was Freddie Freeman. The Cardinals stuck with Paul DeJong. The Phillies, despite an obvious need at shortstop, embarked on a great experiment to prove that defense doesn’t matter.

Even amid all that market context, the Twins wouldn’t have been a fit were it not been for another stunning sequence of moves. Recognizing their need for a shortstop, the Twins flipped catcher Mitch Garver to the Rangers in exchange for two years of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and aforementioned pitching prospect Ronny Henriquez. The trade netted a glove-first bridge to prospects Royce Lewis and Austin Martin, plus a near-MLB pitcher who now ranks ninth in their system at FanGraphs and 14th at MLB.com.

That trade was a mild surprise but hardly a stunner. Falvey said shortly after the deal that the Twins felt they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a durable, Gold Glove-caliber defender at a position of need, even if it cost them Garver. But just hours after lauding Kiner-Falefa and his fit with the Twins, Falvey traded him to the Yankees alongside Josh Donaldson and catcher Ben Rortvedt in a headline-grabbing deal that saw New York eat the entirety of Donaldson’s contract while sending both Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez back to Minnesota.

It’s uncommon to see any player pinballed around the trade market as Kiner-Falefa was, let alone by a Twins organization that for so many years was so conservative in its transactions. The trade of Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa left the Twins with a net gain of more than $40MM in long-term payroll flexibility. It also added a solid replacement for Donaldson (Urshela) and a catcher (Sanchez) to split time with former top prospect Ryan Jeffers, who’ll play a larger role following the trade of Garver. Between Sanchez and Miguel Sano, the Twins could challenge some strikeout records, but there’s prodigious right-handed power up and down the lineup.

That net $40MM gain, of course, proved vital in making Correa a feasible option. He, however, was not the Twins’ immediate focus in the aftermath of the Donaldson swap. Rather, the team set their sights on fellow top free-agent shortstop Trevor Story, reportedly expressing willingness to commit a four-year deal worth more than $100MM (via Dan Hayes and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic). The Twins likely felt good about their chances until the Red Sox upped their efforts and showed a willingness to not only go to six years but include an opt-out opportunity. At that point, as Falvey and Correa explained at his introductory press conference, the agreement with the Twins came together in a matter of hours. Agent Scott Boras, hired by Correa during the lockout, reached out to the Twins’ front office and expressed an openness to a short-term deal. Twins owner Jim Pohlad supported the general framework.

Barring injury, it’s effectively a one-year deal for Correa, an All-Star shortstop with an MVP ceiling who’ll slot into the Twins’ lineup alongside the player selected immediately behind him with the No. 2 overall pick in 2012: Byron Buxton. Slow start notwithstanding, Correa substantially raises the ceiling of this Twins team. He’s arguably the best defensive shortstop in baseball and an All-Star caliber hitter. It’s at least of some note that Correa just this week publicly expressed openness to a long-term deal, though it’s hard to call that anything other than a long shot.

It’s the first time we’ve ever seen the Twins land a player of this caliber in free agency, and even if Correa goes the route of a one-year mercenary, as expected, his signing unequivocally alters the manner in which the Twins will be perceived in free agency. They still won’t be seen as favorites to shell out decade-long deals of $300MM or more, but the mere fact that they made a commitment of this nature will make them more credible threats for high-AAV, short-term veterans. The Twins had never topped a $23MM annual salary prior to this deal, so going to $35MM+ for Correa shows a whole new level of willingness to spend.

Whether the quiet pre-lockout period for the Twins was due to strong belief in the in-house group of arms, a desire to see whether the playoff field would expand, or some combination of factors, the end result is that they’re banking on internal development more than most would’ve expected. That Joe Ryan’s sixth-ever big league appearance came on Opening Day symbolizes that bet.

There’s no chance Correa was seen as a realistic target for the Twins early in the offseason, so kudos to their front office and ownership for adapting and taking the plunge when a unique opportunity presented itself. Only time will tell whether the decision to put so many of their eggs in that basket while eschewing more reliable rotation help can yield a return to the playoffs. But at the very least, the 2022 Twins have a postseason-caliber ceiling and will provide their fans with a look at the pitching staff’s future.

COVID Reinstatements: Sewald, Pinder

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A pair of AL West teams announced reinstatements from the COVID-19 injured list this afternoon.

  • The Mariners activated reliever Paul Sewald from the IL. Penn Murfee, who had been selected to take his place last week, was removed from the 40-man roster and returned to Triple-A Tacoma. Interestingly, that the M’s were able to return Murfee as opposed to outrighting him off the 40-man indicates they’d received permission from the commissioner’s office to designate him as a COVID “substitute.” That seemingly wasn’t the case for first baseman Mike Ford, who’d been called up to replace Luis Torrens a day prior and was designated for assignment when Torrens was activated earlier this week. That suggests that Sewald’s contracting the virus, which made him the third Seattle player in fairly short order to do so, was enough for the league to determine the M’s ability to field a competitive team was impacted. Murfee didn’t make an appearance with the big league club. Mitch Haniger remains on the COVID list but is expected to be back within a few days.
  • The Athletics announced that utilityman Chad Pinder has been activated from the IL. Infielder Christian Lopes was returned to their top affiliate in Las Vegas in a corresponding 40-man roster move. Lopes, who was selected as a designated COVID substitute himself, appeared in his first four MLB games. He went hitless in nine at-bats, although he did draw a walk. Jed Lowrie, Lou Trivino and Drew Jackson remain on Oakland’s virus-related IL.

Kevin Newman Expected To Miss 3-5 Weeks With Groin Strain

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Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman left last night’s game due to left groin soreness, and the team’s director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk told reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) this afternoon he’s been diagnosed with a strain. The issue is expected to keep him out for three-to-five weeks.

Newman will certainly be placed on the 10-day injured list, leaving the Bucs needing to fill in at shortstop. Newman has started 13 of the first 17 games there, with Hoy Park, Diego Castillo and Cole Tucker accounting for the other four outings. Tucker is on the COVID-19 injured list, so Park and Castillo figure to be in line for the bulk of playing time over the coming weeks. Manager Derek Shelton said it’ll be Castillo who gets the nod for tonight’s game against the Brewers (via Mike Persak of the Post-Gazette).

Castillo and Park both went to Pittsburgh from the Yankees in last summer’s Clay Holmes trade. Both players had solid numbers in the high minors last year, but they’re each already in their mid-20’s. Most public prospect evaluators don’t regard either as a long-term regular, although Castillo checked in 16th at Baseball America and 17th at FanGraphs during those outlets’ respective write-ups of the Bucs’ farm system this winter. Both noted that Castillo isn’t likely to be a long-term fit defensively at shortstop but praised his bat-to-ball skills and suggested he could be a useful bat-first utility type.

While a Castillo – Park pairing seems the likeliest outcome, the Pirates could look elsewhere to hold down shortstop in Newman’s absence. Ke’Bryan Hayes moved to the position from his customary third base spot for the final few innings last night, his first career action there. Hayes, widely regarded as a Gold Glove-caliber player at the hot corner, could probably hold his own at shortstop. It seems, however, the Bucs would rather leave him at third base, where they’re certain he can be a plus defender.

The Pirates also have top shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz on optional assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis. The 23-year-old made a brief big league cameo at the end of last year, but he was optioned to start this season. That seemed to be motivated, at least in part, by service time considerations. Cruz has now spent enough time in the minors that he wouldn’t automatically reach a full year of MLB service in 2022 even if he were called up for good today.

However, the new collective bargaining agreement grants a full season of service to top prospects who finish among their respective league’s top two in Rookie of the Year balloting. On the one hand, that’s a player-friendly provision; yet it can also disincentivize a team like the Pirates — amidst a full rebuild and not in position to compete in 2022 regardless — from calling up a player of Cruz’s talent level until deeper into the season to diminish the chances he compiles Rookie of the Year-caliber numbers to earn that bonus service year.

There’s also the simple matter of Cruz’s early performance in Indianapolis, which has not been good. He’s hitting .203/.288/.339 with just one homer through his first 66 plate appearances. It’s thus unsurprising Shelton didn’t sound as if the team were planning to bring Cruz up at this time. Asked if Cruz was an option to replace Newman, the skipper noted that “everybody in our system who’s on the roster at the upper levels will be given consideration” but added that “there’s still work (for Cruz) to be done. We’re focusing on what that work is” (Mackey links).

In other Pirates’ news, Shelton informed reporters that star outfielder Bryan Reynolds will be back on the roster tonight (via Persak). He hit the COVID list alongside Tucker yesterday, but it would appear he never tested positive and is currently asymptomatic.

John Means Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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APRIL 27: Baltimore general manager Mike Elias announced that Means’ surgery was successful. The team is hopeful he can return at some point before the All-Star Break in 2023 (via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com).

APRIL 23: John Means announced via Twitter that he is indeed going to need Tommy John surgery. This has been the feared outcome since the Orioles placed Means on the 60-day injured list last week. He will miss the rest of this season, and most likely, a large chunk of next season as well.

Means is unquestionably Baltimore’s top starter, having pitched to a 3.72 ERA/4.59 FIP over 353 1/3 innings since the start of the 2019 season. He’s the only O’s pitcher to even exceed 200 frames over that stretch, and no other Baltimore starter with 100+ frames in that time has an ERA below 4.79.

As the Orioles remain amidst a complete rebuild, Means has been a frequently-mentioned trade candidate. He might’ve found himself on the move last summer had he not suffered a June shoulder injury that cost him more than six weeks. The 28-year-old returned in July but wasn’t as effective during the season’s second half as he’d been earlier in the year. Reports over this past offseason suggested Means was available, but there was no indication the team came particularly close to pulling the trigger on a deal. He entered the season as a possible deadline target for pitching-needy contenders, but that’s off the table now that he will go under the knife.

Reds To Select Phillip Diehl

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12:45pm: The Reds announced the move, adding that lefty Justin Wilson is heading to the 10-day injured list with a soreness in his left elbow. With Wilson sidelined and Diehl up in the Majors, the Reds will still have just one lone southpaw option in the bullpen.

11:25am: The Reds are selecting the contract of left-handed reliever Phillip Diehl, reports C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (Twitter link). It’ll be the Cincinnati native’s first big league work since appearing with the Rockies in 2020. The Reds have an open spot on the 40-man roster at the moment, so no corresponding 40-man move was necessary. The team hasn’t yet announced the transaction, though, so it’s possible it’ll be accompanied by other roster moves.

Diehl, 27, is in his second season with his hometown organization. He spent the 2021 season with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate in Louisville, where he pitched to a terrific 2.47 ERA with a 33%  strikeout rate against a 5.6% walk rate in 54 2/3 innings of relief. Despite that showing, Diehl didn’t get a look in the big leagues with the Reds, who claimed him off waivers from the Rockies in early April and passed him through waivers a month later.

This season, Diehl has has yielded four earned runs on five hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts through eight frames. He’ll give manager David Bell a second southpaw option in a bullpen that had previously only included veteran Justin Wilson.

In 13 1/3 career Major League innings, Diehl has allowed 13 runs. He’s been outstanding at Triple-A dating back to last season, however, and has a long history of both missing bats (31.1% strikeout rate) and limiting free passes (6.7% walk rate) in parts of six minor league seasons.

Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays

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The Blue Jays continued to aggressively shop in both the free agent and trade markets, adding what they hope are the finishing touches on a postseason contender.

Major League Signings

  • Kevin Gausman, SP: Five years, $110MM
  • Yusei Kikuchi, SP: Three years, $36MM
  • Yimi Garcia, RP: Two years, $11MM (includes $1MM buyout of $5MM club option for 2024; option vests for $6MM if Garcia hits innings/appearance thresholds)
  • Andrew Vasquez, RP: One year, $800K
  • 2022 spending: $42.8MM
  • Total spending: $157.8MM

Trades & Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

The Blue Jays headed into the offseason with three of their biggest 2021 contributors entering the free agent market, and the entire trio signed with new teams before the lockout.  Marcus Semien’s seven-year, $175MM deal with the Rangers was the priciest of the bunch, with Robbie Ray also landing five years and $115MM from the Mariners, and Steven Matz receiving a healthy four-year, $44MM payday from the Cardinals.  There wasn’t much expectation that the Blue Jays would re-sign all three of these players, though it perhaps counted as a bit of a surprise that none of the three ended up returning.

Still, given how it was another “in on everyone” offseason for the Jays’ front office, it was clear the team had plenty of contingency plans in the event that all three free agents did indeed leave town.  Since Semien and Ray rejected qualifying offers, the Jays also netted two extra compensatory draft picks, so Toronto will now be picking four times within the first 78 selections of July’s amateur draft.

The Jays dabbled in the pool of qualifying offer free agents themselves, as Toronto was linked to the likes of Freddie Freeman, Corey Seager, Justin Verlander, Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Taylor, and Michael Conforto.  As for non-QO free agents, Kyle Schwarber and Seiya Suzuki were two of the more prominent names known to be of interest to Canada’s team.

Amidst all of these targets, the Blue Jays’ biggest pre-lockout strike was a player who had been on the club’s radar for years.  GM Ross Atkins had tried to sign Kevin Gausman in each of the past two offseasons, and the third time was the charm — at the cost of a five-year, $110MM contract.  Gausman would’ve obviously come much cheaper two winters ago when he was coming off a tough 2019 season with the Braves and Reds, but after two outstanding seasons with the Giants, he’d put himself into the top tier of available arms.  At least through four starts of the 2022 season, Gausman has continued to pitch like an ace, showing early signs that his good form can carry over to the tough AL East.

The Blue Jays also moved to lock up an in-house member of their starting staff, extending Jose Berrios for a seven-year, $131MM pact.  The deal kept Berrios off the 2022-23 free agent market, and reinforced the belief that the Jays already showed in the right-hander by giving up prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson to acquire Berrios from the Twins at last summer’s trade deadline.

Berrios and manager Charlie Montoyo were the only extensions of note during the Toronto offseason, apart from the club’s two-year pact with trade acquisition Matt Chapman over his two remaining arbitration years.  It seems as though the Blue Jays have yet to really dive into serious extension talks with either Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette, but with both players controlled through 2025, the clock isn’t ticking too loudly for a long-term deal to be immediately reached.

Once the lockout was over, the Jays added another piece of the rotation puzzle by signing Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year, $36MM deal.  It was an intriguing bet on a pitcher who was quite inconsistent over his first three Major League seasons, with the 2021 campaign acting as a microcosm of Kikuchi’s duality.  An outstanding first half earned the southpaw a trip to the All-Star Game, yet he struggled so much in the second half that the Mariners (who were fighting for a wild card berth) skipped him in the rotation in the last week of the season.

In essence, the Jays are hoping that pitching coach Pete Walker can straighten out Kikuchi in the same manner that Ray and Matz were revived after coming to Toronto.  As a bit of a hedge, the front-loaded nature of Kikuchi’s contract (he’ll earn $16MM in 2022) could make him a bit easier to eventually unload if he does continue to struggle.

Turning to the bullpen, the Jays made both a notable investment and a lower-cost signing that they hope will pay dividends.  Yimi Garcia was added for $11MM to bring some more experience to the Blue Jays’ fleet of setup men, while David Phelps offers some of that same veteran stature at the lower price of $1.75MM (after Toronto selected Phelps’ minor league contract).  2021 was another injury-marred season for Phelps, who missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery and was then limited to 65 1/3 innings over the 2019-21 seasons.

With some holes on the pitching staff filled, the question of how to replace Semien stood out as perhaps the biggest issue facing the Blue Jays after the lockout.  The Santiago Espinal/Cavan Biggio tandem was penciled in for either second or third base, depending on which infield position Toronto chose to address with a new addition.

That new add came at the hot corner, as the Blue Jays took advantage of the Athletics’ fire sale by picking up Matt Chapman for a package of four younger players.  Gunnar Hoglund was one of the top prospects in Toronto’s farm system, but since the 2021 first-rounder is coming off Tommy John surgery, the Jays might have considered him more valuable as a trade chip than as a building block.  The other three players dealt (Kevin Smith, Zach Logue, Kirby Snead) are controllable and more ready to play in the majors, with Smith standing out as an interesting pickup for Oakland considering his own high ceiling and prospect status.  Surely the bonus of those two QO compensation picks played into the Jays’ thinking in trading from their prospect depth, especially considering the MVP-candidate production Chapman displayed in 2018-19.

At his best, Chapman is one of the game’s best all-around players, combining Platinum Glove-winning defense with above-average offense.  That bat hasn’t been as dangerous in 2020-21, however, as Chapman has seemingly struggled due to a hip injury that required surgery in September 2020.  In the small sample size of the 2022 season’s first 18 games, Chapman isn’t walking much or generating huge power. He’s cut down on his strikeouts a bit, however, and his hard-contact rate and exit velocity are back in line with his pre-injury numbers.

Considering how many other notable position players the Jays were reportedly exploring, it will make some interesting “what if” debates if Chapman replicates his 2021 struggles.  For instance, Jose Ramirez was rumored to be a Jays trade target for years, and Toronto was never quite able to put together an offer that swayed the Guardians into dealing the All-Star.  (As it turned out, Ramirez stayed put entirely by signing an extension that stands as the largest contract in Cleveland’s franchise history.)

Adding a switch-hitter like Ramirez, or a left-handed bat like Seager, Freeman, or Schwarber would’ve made for a smoother fit at least from a lineup balance standpoint, considering how the Jays’ ideal starting lineup is almost entirely right-handed.  To address this issue, Toronto focused on adding left-handed hitters to its bench, trading for Raimel Tapia, Bradley Zimmer, and Zack Collins in a trio of swaps.

The Tapia deal was the highest-profile of the bunch, as he and infield prospect Adrian Pinto were acquired from the Rockies for Randal Grichuk and a little over half of the $18.66MM owed to Grichuk through the 2023 season.  Reports surfaced in December that the Blue Jays had also looked into moving Grichuk to the Brewers for Jackie Bradley Jr., another left-handed hitter (though known more for his standout defense).  Grichuk is off to a scorching (if likely BABIP-aided) start in Colorado, yet after three lackluster seasons in Toronto, the outfielder began to look like an expensive spare part.

If Grichuk does benefit from a change of scenery, the Jays are hoping the same is true for Tapia, Zimmer, and Collins, who were all well-regarded prospects who never broke out with their original teams.  As it has turned out, all three players have seen more action than expected in the early going, due to oblique injuries for both Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jansen.  Collins has in particular blossomed with this extra playing time, as he has even received some DH at-bats as the Blue Jays have endeavored to keep him in the lineup.

Losing Hernandez, Jansen, Hyun Jin Ryu, and Nate Pearson to the injured list hasn’t done much to slow the Blue Jays down in April, and the team is thus far living up to the high expectations shared by the players, the front office, and the Toronto fanbase.  Given how the Jays clearly have their eyes on a championship, it seems certain that more upgrades are still to come prior to the trade deadline, and the rotation already stands out as a potential area of need in light of Ryu’s health issues and rough outings on the mound.

In the same way that Chapman will be (fairly or unfairly) compared to other star players the Jays “could have” landed instead, Gausman and Kikuchi will be competing in some sense against Verlander, E-Rod, and such pitchers the Blue Jays reportedly discussed in trade talks, such as the Reds’ Tyler Mahle or Luis Castillo.  However, Toronto is hoping that Ross Stripling can fill in for Ryu, and that Pearson can eventually get healthy and provide some extra rotation depth — at least until more reinforcements can be added at the trade deadline.

The team’s approximate $172.3MM payroll is a franchise high, though also not too far beyond what the Blue Jays were spending as recently as 2017.  While a splurge into the $200MM threshold seems unlikely, there hasn’t been any indication that the Jays have hit the top end of their budget, so some payroll space will quite probably be available for more in-season additions.

The good news for the Jays is that even as presently configured, the roster looks like a contender.  While nothing can really be ruled out for a team in win-now mode, much of the heavy lifting has already been done over the offseason to reinforce an already strong core.

Top Draft Prospect Dylan Lesko Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Right-hander Dylan Lesko, one of the top prospects in the entire 2022 draft class, underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (Twitter link).

Even in spite of the surgery, McDaniel suggests that Lesko could still be the first pitcher off the board in a draft class that skews heavily toward position players. The 6’3″, 195-pound righty out of Buford High School in Georgia has a commitment to Vanderbilt and is regarded by both McDaniel and Baseball America as the clear top pitcher in this year’s class.

Earlier this month, when sharing video from one of Lesko’s outings (what proved to be his final start of 2022), McDaniel tweeted that Lesko showed a mid-90s heater with a plus curveball and the “best amateur changeup I’ve ever seen.” Carlos Collazo and Tom Lipari of Baseball America feel similarly, writing that Lesko has plus-plus (i.e. 70-grade) feel for his changeup and labeling him a “special” talent that “doesn’t come around very often.”

[Related: 2022 MLB Draft Order]

Because of the inherent risk associated with any high school pitching prospect, Lesko hasn’t been listed at the very top of draft boards — and the recent surgery likely ensures that he won’t be as the July draft approaches. McDaniel now has Lesko eighth on his draft list. Baseball America ranked him sixth prior to the injury. Notably, between high school outfielder Druw Jones (son of Andruw Jones) and shortstop Jackson Holliday (son of Matt Holliday), there are a pair of intriguing second-generation talents who are expected to come off the board in the first 10 picks of this summer’s draft.

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