Keynan Middleton posted a 1.88 ERA over 14 1/3 innings and 12 appearances after the Yankees acquired the right-handed reliever from the White Sox in a deadline deal. With those kinds of numbers, it isn’t surprising that the Bronx Bombers “have engaged about a potential reunion” with Middleton, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
About of a month of Middleton’s brief time with the Yankees was spent on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation, though he was able to return to pitch in one final game before the end of the season. Injuries have played an unfortunately large role in Middleton’s career, as he has been limited to 194 1/3 innings over his seven MLB seasons due to a number of health issues, primarily a Tommy John surgery that cost him almost all of the 2018-19 seasons. Middleton hadn’t shown much form since returning from that surgery until this season, when he had a combined 3.38 ERA over 50 2/3 frames for Chicago and New York and some elite strikeout (30.2%), grounder (56.6%) and hard-contact (31.5%) rates. While his walk rate remained below average, the 30-year-old Middleton might finally be back on track, and could again be a solid contributor to the Yankees’ bullpen.
More from around the AL East…
- The Red Sox and Angels have been the only two teams publicly linked to Adam Duvall this winter, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes that Duvall will “likely” wind up with one of those clubs barring a late bid from a new suitor. Duvall hit .247/.303/.531 with 21 homers over 353 plate appearances with the Sox last season, and his right-handed bat could serve as a nice complement to the lefty-swingers (i.e. Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida) that comprise much of Boston’s outfield mix. Then again, Duvall could find more playing time in Los Angeles, given Mike Trout’s injury history and the lack of a consistent MLB track record for either Mickey Moniak or even Taylor Ward in the Angels’ outfield.
- Since Adley Rutschman has quickly become a cornerstone player in Baltimore, catching prospect Samuel Basallo is often mentioned as a possible trade chip for the Orioles. MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes that rival clubs are indeed “checking on the availability” of Basallo in trade talks, yet it doesn’t seem likely that the O’s would move him for anything less than a spectacular offer. Basallo doesn’t turn 20 until August, and since he has only four games of Double-A experience, the Orioles can take their time with his development as both a catcher and as a hitter. Basallo has a strong throwing arm but evaluators are somewhat mixed on his future behind the plate, so if he ends up becoming more of a catcher/first base hybrid, Kubatko notes that there might be room for both Basallo and Rutschman to co-exist on Baltimore’s roster. One of many gems from the Orioles’ deep farm system, Basallo is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 46th-best prospect in all of baseball, while Baseball America puts Basallo behind only Jackson Holliday as Baltimore’s top minor leaguer.
I was really hoping Middleton could be the “middle man” in the Yankees bullpen.
Even though the Yankees are short on dependable lefty relievers, I hope they get Middleton back.
yeah he was pretty solid for them last year. would love to have him back!
Ditto!! I really liked what Middleton did with the Yanks & Blake. He should be a no-brainer pickup. Strengthen a strong bullpen, especially if they’re not going to further strengthen the rotation.
I believe the Yanks will stand fast until the regular season though, save for a Peralta reunion.
Clip,
Jomboy is going to have Boone at some event maybe you guys can grill him in person about bullpen usage, and just overall about the lineup lol
Haha! True, Acoss, but I’m probably on a No Entry list
Clip, your profile pic here is on the “No Entry List.” They’ll probably just ban Boonie. So if you wanna meet up with him there, he’ll be the guy on the outside yelling at security: “My guys are effing savages!!! And they can be down here in 5mins if you don’t let me in this dump!”
LOL!!! You’re right, Trumbo, I’ll look for him!
He’d be worth a ton in that middle role.
Easy to go adley is the guy so you can trade basallo. The question is how long will adley be on the Orioles.
Time is ticking on O’s to sign him to a long term deal that can be reasonable. Once he gets 1-2 years into arb that ship will have sailed.
It’s possible they keep basallo down in the minors for another couple of years and trade adley when he starts to cost a lot of money.
That’s what the Rays typically do, but the Orioles are more like the Astros in terms of their rebuild, and they can afford to sign players to extensions. Doing it now rather than later, of course, would be advantageous.
The Astros spend money, they seem more like the rays to me. Time will tell.
The Astros have never paid the luxury tax. They did sign FA to supplement their youth, and that’s where the Orioles are now. I expect them to sign a major FA SP if they can’t trade for Cease or Burnes.
The Astros are going to be paying the tax this year.
Astros estimated tax payroll is over 254m this year. I’ll have to see it to believe it that the O’s will run payrolls anywhere near that.
Astros paid luxury tax in 2019 when they acquired Greinke. And this year they are definitely in the luxury tax.
I think the team philosophies are similar as both the Orioles GM and Assistant GM are ex-Astros front office people. They will go over the tax when it’s time or they need a key piece.
Houston didn’t have half their market taken from them (WSH). Baltimore might have to copy Atlanta. Sign them early to keep them together. I doubt they will push the tax threshold.
They will pay this year, and it was suspended in 2020. However, they did not pay in 2019.
spotrac.com/mlb/tax/2019/
Basallo isn’t getting traded. Period.
Worst case scenario, he splits time at C, 1B and DH. Always need a backup catcher and McCann is gone after 2024.
Getting Duvall would just maintain status quo from last year.
Bringing back Turner makes more sense than Duvall for the Sox. He gives them the RHed bat and can give Devers and Casas occasional days off in the field. O’Neill, Rafaela and Refsnyder already provide enough RHed compliments for the OF.
Good point, but I don’t think Turner is as much of a power threat anymore, which I’m sure the Sox are looking for.
Yeah no playing time in that Boston outfield as long as those bastions of health Jarren Duran and Tyler O’Neill are on board.
I want Duvall back but John Henry seems to be thinking his team is the Boston Marlins from when he owned them 20+ years ago. The fans deserve so much better. I’m going on record by saying Yankee fans were right. I’d gladly give up the championships of the past to be consistently competitive. While Tom Yawkey didn’t bring a championship to Boston, he did his best for New England, Sox fans everywhere and most importantly was a big reason why the Jimmy Fund is able to help so many today.
As long as they cut those ridiculous ticket prices in half.
The Angels very well might do better without Ohtani than with him. It’s no slight to Ohtani, but tailoring your team around and relying on mainly one guy might not be the best way to go since MLB is still a team game.
… I’d prefer having the best player in baseball on my team.
Of course, but what good is it if you can’t afford to have good players around him? The Angels just added Stephenson and are in on Duvall, Bellinger, Snell and Brasier. Landing those four players changes the whole trajectory of this team. They couldn’t afford this if Ohtani was here at $700M.
“Can’t afford” – the Angels spent a lot of money in the wrong places. It had little to do with “afford” and much to do with confusion. Now some Angels fans are glad Ohtani’s gone? That’s precious. These the same Angels fans that applauded the bizarre trade deadline acquisitions last year? I guess we’ll hear this song again when Mike Trout is playing for the Phillies later this year. ‘Thank goodness Trout and Ohtani are gone’ – what a burden.
If they had Ohtani, but had used Rendon money more wisely . . .
LaFong……You can have everyone except Brasier!!! He’s coming back to where he’s loved( like a root canal) that’s all I have as a Red Sox fan heading into 24!!! ( love the handle!! He’s a railroad man and gets up very early) well he’s a chump!!!
Ohtani wasn’t at $700MM when he was with the Angels. They still couldn’t afford the extra help then.
When Arte walked out of the Winter Meeting with the two best players in Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon. He was a genius and a Hero owner. After that the players that the Angels signed like Pujols, Hamilton, and others just didn’t perform a thing close to their career norms. If anything my biggest issue was that they put too much emphasis on one a few players instead of building depth. Injuries cost them dearly and it showed! Nobody can predict the future. If you look at stats alone Pujols best year with the Angels would have been his worst year with the Cardinals.
Ohtani was high maintenance. Six man rotation and the DH spot locked up.
I’d love to have him., but there were drawbacks.
Having a 6-man rotation was terrible; throwing a bad pitcher every 6 days cancels out throwing a good pitcher (Ohtani). I’m actually looking forward to moving back to a 5-man rotation in 2024.
Exactly. It exposes the starters in the pipeline that aren’t ready and eventually exposes middle inning relief too much because those extra starters rarely got past the fifth inning. And the latter was already an on and off problem with their current young starters. But like Detmers has said publicly, pitching every fifth day might done them much better.
Reid Detmers explained how frustrating it was having to accommodate Ohtani as a starting pitcher. That’s been my reasoning for being fine with him leaving. How many more games might the Angels have one if their young rotation was able to pitch every fifth day and not have to expose more young starters that they probably would not have had to use nearly as much? Basically what @orange2001 said. Their young rotation might be further along had they been a 5 man without Ohtani.
Years ago, there were four man rotations and the lousy way the game is pitched today, starters usually don’t go long so they likely could have skipped Ohtani until his next start and just when needed to readjust use an opener. My guess is that’s what LA will consider.
Dewey the Dodgers have two starters used the extra day of rest. Well starting in 25 they will.
@mlb fan, they might do better this year, but it won’t be because Ohtani isn’t there. It will be because Washington is at the helm.
I’m a Braves fan that goes to a lot of Angels games because I love Baseball, live in Southern California, and the rest of my family are Angels fans (except for my dad, he is the black sheep of the family who is a Dodgers fan)
I wish Duvall signs with the Angels since a Braves reunion doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
He is unlikely to go Angels. Boston is the place since Cal. will take a huge bite out of his paycheck than Massachusetts.
I think you are right on with your observation. In many ways the Angels made a ton of money off of Shohei, but knew they weren’t going to pay for him, regardless of what they said publicly. They got the most out of Ohtani through profits, so now the Los Angeles will have to pay Ohtani for what he did on the Angels, because I don’t think he will ever be an effective pitcher again. 2 Tommy John Surgeries later and the Dodgers will be on the hook for $700 million to employee a DH. You need an entire team to win in baseball, and unless the Dodgers can print money, they will need a payroll of $400 million per season to put a full team together that’s capable of winning.
Really want Marlins to get Basallo
And the orioles would love luzardo
The Sox finally made public the spending will be less than 2023. That means the pitching accusations for 2024 will be Paxton and rich hill.Duvall should sign with angels to avoid the upcoming ugliness that will permeate 2024!
I could see how Duval could help the Angels. If so, the writings on the wall with an Adell trade. He’d platoon with Mickey and could DH some. I’d much prefer there DH be able to play 3b thou. Just me.
Basallo isn’t going anywhere.
Any fan of another team that thinks their team can pry him away in a trade is going to be disappointed.
Im just going to say this, yankees held to several cant miss prospects and decided to balk on trades that “might” have made the team better, backfired in expectacular fashion. Deivi, Justus, Frazier, Bird and many others. Orioles FO is cheap af, if you dont reinforce the current team with great veterans and missing pieces you gonna go the Jays way. And im not saying trade Basallo for a bag of baseballs, but if an Ace or a star is available you guys shouldnt think twice about, you guys are on win now mode, as soon as arb years are finished your ownership will let everyone walk away while keep making money.
The idea is to have new good young players to replace the good players who leave in free agency or are traded to replenish the pipeline and keep the window open, and the truly top shelf talents are crucial to that.
Basallo is one of those guys and he is most likely every bit as untouchable as Holliday (as he should be after his historically good 2023 minor league offensive performance).
Bringing in Duvall, but Anaheim is going nowhere, again. They should reset meaning trade Trout and play the kids .
Neto, Schanuel, Moniak, O’Hoppe, Rengifo, Detmers, Sandoval, Joyce, Soriano, Bachman… lots of kids will see playing time.
The team isn’t a contender but should supplement the young guys and make them competitive.
You can’t trade Trout, unless he has a resurgence. No one will touch that crontract. Anybody can say trade him and Rendon, but that anybody obviously doesn’t know anything about contracts. The annual salary of both players are more than some teams overall payrolls.
Duvall is ok but Justin Turner is a much better fit.
He can cover third, rest Schanuel against lefties, and has a better bat for DH and pinch hitting duties.
I’ll take Duvall over Tar-Stain-Turner any day. He can also play 1B because it isn’t that hard as Wash will undoubtfully tell him. Plus he can play CF and smash HR over that short porch on LF at the Big A
or trout and let him play for a contender and stock up on quality young guys.
Trout’s age, injury history, and massive contract destroy his trade value.
At this point the Angels would need to send cash out, and a lot of it, to get any decent talent back.
There is some truth to that, but something to explore. Perhaps wait to leverage e.g., a contending team that suffers an injury, .
Something the Orioles brass won’t admit is they weren’t planning to win yet. Especially when the last draft had 5 1-1s. Image what they could had gotten for their vets at the last deadline. I know everyone just thinks the Orioles are hoarding, but I think it’s more than that. They want to make sure they keep the right guys. Plus Holliday, Basilio, and Mayo are young and really good.
I genuinely appreciate O’s posters who have listened to what Mike Elias and his incredibly talented front office have been saying and doing to build the pipeline into Baltimore for a sustained window. The man has literally said everything he was going to do and has been eerily prescient in putting his plan into motion AHEAD of schedule. Remember when everyone clowned him for the “liftoff” statement. Crickets from those clowns as the O’s rallied to win the East in ‘23.
Basallo is the first major international signing of the O’s. Elias seems to operate without much emotion, but all things being equal, they want to be able to celebrate their international successes (and not see another team reaping the benefits of their international work). That is, they’d have to be blown away by an offer for Basallo.
Also, for those saying they need to trade prospects, the logjam is in the middle infield, not the catcher position.
Yeah I can see Basallo next year catching 60 games, play some first, maybe outfield, and some DHing. If he is a good enough backstop maybe even splitting time with Adley keep them both fresh. I honestly see Baseball heading this way. Multiple super utility guys on a team. Position flexibility
I guess Perry hasn’t got the memo on the importance of finding guys who make contact without a high strikeout rate. The new rules benefit teams that can get on base and run. Not to mention the fact Wash has already said this team will be running this year
If the Angels Pick up one solid starter, another reliever, and one more position player to rotate guys, for rest and DH spot. I could definitely see them make the playoffs and be better than they were the last few years. Having Ohtani was great, but the team didn’t have the depth in pitching and the field to absorb injuries. They might do better just because they will probably benefit from a 5 man rotation, and now players will be able to rotate through he DH spot. They definitely need to get more free agents to fill in for the lack of depth in the minor leagues.
Alexpulido7051 2 , I agree with you mostly. There is a lot more talent on the Angels than most people realize. I think perry added as much depth as he could , but when you have 2 pitchers as the Only ones from your opening day roster to not hit the disabled list. Most of the replacements got injured as well. On top of that most struggled for awhile around the time they got hurt. This young and old. The bullpen and lineup management as well as really poor performance in some areas really brought them down. I think Washington is the perfect guy for this team to change most of those problems. The injuries will have to slow down though . If they can have a more normal injury rate they could be very good. Not many Great teams can overcome everyone getting hurt. The Fangraph 2024 player projections without Ohtani and no additions this year had the Angels a 500 team. I think this speaks to what this team can do.
I agree with your statement about the Angels and the talent that they do have already on their roster. I still think they need some more free agent depth because it’s inevitable that injuries will happen (The Angels just had way more than every other team and to key players). Look at Texas, they lost arguably their best pitcher and still won the World Series. There are a lot of teams with potential talent and what ifs. A few more quality veterans in that clubhouse can push this team into the top playoffs. Once in the playoffs anything can happen. They could get hot and other teams that are projected to be contenders like Houston, Texas, Toronto, and NY could get cold or unfortunately get the injury bug just like the Angels have the last few years
Angels just feel like a team that is not good or bad. Could win 75-85. Stuck in that rut. When your picking 15-25th each year it’s hard to get that generational talent that often. I know they picked Trout there, but not much since.
I’d argue that Taylor ward does have a consistent track record. Three straight above average offensive seasons!
If Taylor award can just healthy for a full season, and batting in the middle of the lineup with a healthy Trout and Rendon. I could see him having a great season (maybe an MVP vote or 2)
Alexpulido7051 2 – I think your assessment of Taylor Ward is very good. He has great potential if he stays healthy. Assuming Trout can stay healthy for 120 games that would allow Ward an opportunity to have a big year. Rendon would be a bonus but I wouldn’t count on it.
I believe Taylor Ward is the best player on the Angels because he’s the one most likely to produce the biggest numbers. Trout is more talented but can’t play enough games to matter.
With the DH spot open guys like Rendon could rest up and hopefully stay in the lineup. Rendon is the type of guy that has gotten hotter as the season progresses (That was his track record when he was with the Nationals). One of my favorite players ever, Tim Salmon was known to heat up as the season progressed. I don’t see Rendon anywhere near Tim Salmon in talent or Character. Rendon is his own person. He has two years to redeem himself. Even when his batting average wasn’t that great. Rendon has a knack for clutch hitting. Just staying healthy would be huge, because with a full season that could pay huge dividends if they get into the playoffs. It takes a different mindset when the pressure is on and Rendon has proven to be better under pressure. I just wish that he wasn’t made of glass
Basallo is going to be playing 1B, back up catcher, and a little DH in 2025 for the O’s. McCann’s contract ends after this year. O’Hearn will be traded or DFA’d by 2025. Mountcastle will still be around but as back up 1B and DH. Infield is going to be stacked with Mayo (3B), Gunnar (SS), Holiday (2B), Basallo (1B), and Adley (C) starting 2025.
Basallo starting at 1b. IMO, makes better sense than starting at catcher. Awfully tall to start as a catcher. After McCann era is over, hoping Creed Willems (20 yrs old) develops enough to be able to support Adley at backstop.
Oh, Orioles do value Creed. Paid him a sizable overslot amount to get him.
I think Basallo is 2-3 shorter than Weiters. don’t think that’d automatically preclude him from backstop. Weiters had a fine career.
Hmm. Wieters. Good point. Plus the guy from Texas goes at least 6’4″ (Heim?). You’ve got me rethinking this one l. Cheers