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Archives for 2024

MLB Announces Silver Slugger Winners

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MLB and Louisville Slugger announced the 2024 Silver Slugger award winners. MLB had announced the list of finalists last week. The results are as follows:

American League

National League

Reds Hire Brad Mills As Bench Coach

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The Reds announced today the coaching staff that will be working under new manager Terry Francona. One new hire that was not previously reported is Brad Mills in the bench coach position. Freddie Benavides, who got Cincinnati’s bench coach gig going into 2019, is listed today as bench coach/field coordinator.

Mills, 68 in January, is a familiar face for Cincinnati’s new skipper. Francona managed in Philadelphia from 1997 to 2000, in Boston from 2004 to 2011 and then Cleveland from 2013 to 2023. Mills was first base coach for the Phillies during those years and bench coach for the Red Sox during most of Francona’s time there. Mills left to manage the Astros from 2010 to 2012, but then reunited with Francona in Cleveland in 2013.

He started his Cleveland tenure as third base coach but moved to bench coach in 2014. He stayed in that role through 2019 but then sat out the 2020 season, which was played in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Mills actually stepped away from the game due to the tragic drowning of his 18-month-old grandson. For the 2021 season, Mills was reassigned to some unspecified non-coaching role with Cleveland, so this will be his first stint in the dugout in many years.

Francona himself was away from baseball in 2024 as he focused on his health. He will return in 2025 by taking over the managerial job for the Reds and has filled in the staff with some old friends. Chris Valaika had been the hitting coach in Cleveland from 2022 to 2024 but was whisked away to Cincinnati last month. Now Mills will be brought in to return to Francona’s side, with Benavides also sticking around, though perhaps in an altered role.

Nick Pivetta Unlikely To Accept Qualifying Offer

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Red Sox right-hander Nick Pivetta was one of the more surprising recipients of a $21.05MM qualifying offer earlier this month, but he’s likely to reject the offer in search of a multi-year deal, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who suggests that “at least” a three-year deal should be waiting for the righty, who’s heading into his age-32 season. Passan lists the Orioles, Cubs and Braves as potential landing spots.

Anything more than a three-year deal for Pivetta would register as a surprise and something of a precedent-breaker. In the past ten offseasons, only four pitchers have commanded a contract of four or more years when signing ahead of their age-32 season or later (link via MLBTR’s Contract Tracker): Jacob deGrom (five years, $185MM starting at age 35), Hyun Jin Ryu (four years, $80MM starting at 33), Zack Greinke (six years, $206.5MM starting at 32) and James Shields (four years, $75MM starting at 33).

Solid as Pivetta is, he doesn’t have the track record of any of those four pitchers. When healthy, deGrom has been the best pitcher on the planet. Ryu signed his four-year deal after a Cy Young runner-up. Greinke was opting out of a six-year, $147MM deal with the Dodgers and was one of the game’s best pitchers at the time he signed his six-year deal with Arizona. Shields was a clear No. 1 or 2 starter, having pitched 933 innings over the prior four seasons — 233 per year — with a 3.17 ERA and strong strikeout and walk rates.

Pivetta doesn’t have that sort of resume, though his high-end strikeout and walk rates have made him a candidate for a quietly strong deal. When preparing for our annual top 50 free agent rankings, we felt a three-year deal in the $14-17MM annual range was possible for Pivetta — at least before he received a qualifying offer. The right-hander has never turned in a sub-4.00 ERA campaign, but that’s largely due to a regular susceptibility to home runs, something that another club might feel can be curbed or improved with a tweak in mechanics, approach or pitch selection. Pivetta is durable, misses bats at a premium level and has improved his command three years running. He ranked 10th among 126 big league pitchers (min. 100 innings) in terms of his K-BB% this season (22.9%).

It still seems feasible that a three-year deal could be there, but suggesting anything more feels like a stretch, unless multiple teams feel Pivetta is untapped as a potential No. 1-2 starter and is willing to ignore historical norms for pitchers in this age bracket. That could well be the case, but Passan opines that Pivetta “is looking at one of the biggest deals of the winter for a starter,” which would surprise plenty of onlookers. That’s a subjective sentence, but no one expects Pivetta to top Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Blake Snell and Jack Flaherty, while others like Sean Manaea and Yusei Kikuchi should have greater per-year earning power on a three- or four-year contract.

Time will tell where the bidding lands, but the more immediate takeaway is that Pivetta apparently doesn’t feel inclined to lock in a one-year deal that would more than double his career earnings. That speaks to the strength of the market he and his agents at CAA are finding for his services thus far.

Nicky Lopez, Sammy Peralta Elect Free Agency

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The White Sox announced that both infielder Nicky Lopez and left-hander Sammy Peralta cleared waivers and elected free agency in lieu of accepting outright assignments. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 36.

There wasn’t any previous indication that either player had been removed from the roster, but it’s a common time of year for a bit of shuffling. The Rule 5 protection deadline is coming up on November 19, meaning that all clubs are likely going to be needing a few spots to shield young players from that draft. As that deadline date approaches, roster spots around the league will be at a premium, increasing the chances of a player being nudged off and then passing through waivers unclaimed.

Lopez, 30 in March, has a decent track record now as a glove-first utility player. He was acquired by the White Sox as part of the November 2023 trade that sent Aaron Bummer to Atlanta, then went on to appear in 124 games for Chicago this year. He hit just one home run in 445 plate appearances, leading to a pyramid-shaped slash line of .241/.312/.294. That production translated to a 77 wRC+, indicating he was 23% worse than league average at the plate.

That season brought his career batting line to .248/.312/.314, which equates to a 73 wRC+. Lopez has been able to bounce around the field, playing all four infield spots and even a small amount in the outfield, stealing some bases here and there as well. But the bat is clearly subpar, with seven career homers in 2,346 trips to the plate.

The Sox could have retained him for one more season via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $5.1MM, but it seems the Sox weren’t planning to do that. Lopez has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’ll head to the open market. He’ll likely garner interest from clubs interested in a depth infielder, either on a minor league deal or a major league pact with a modest guarantee.

Peralta, 27 in May, was first selected to Chicago’s roster in May of 2023, but he’s been on and off since then. He was designated for assignment in March of this year, went to the Mariners via waivers, but then came back to the Sox via another waiver claim in May. Shortly after coming back to the Sox, he was put back on waivers and cleared, getting outrighted to Triple-A. He was selected back to the 40-man in June but has now been outrighted for a second time.

Around those transactions, he has thrown 35 big league innings with a 4.37 earned run average, 17.9% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. His Triple-A track record consists of 125 2/3 innings over the past three years. He has a 4.80 ERA at that level, along with a 24.1% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate.

Since this is his second career outright, he has the right to elect free agency and has done so. He will market himself to other clubs around the league and will likely be looking at minor league offers.

D-backs Eyeing Back-End Relievers; Payroll Expected To Be In Same Range As 2024

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The Diamondbacks entered the offseason on the heels of a narrow postseason miss that saw their bid for a playoff spot last until the final day of regular-season play. It’s a bitter pill for any club to swallow, and general manager Mike Hazen didn’t shy away from acknowledging as much today in an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7’s Wolf and Luke Show (full audio of the 11-minute interview). Arizona’s GM sidestepped questions when asked about specific players who are currently free agents (e.g. Christian Walker) but did suggest he’ll be in the market for some upgrades to his late-inning relief corps this winter.

“I’ll beat you to the punch on this question,” Hazen joked with hosts Ron Wolfley and Luke Lapinski. “Where we get to the closer situation, in the end, I don’t know. I still feel like a back-end bullpen guy to help out with [Justin Martinez] and with [A.J. Puk] and those guys, I still see that. I thought when [Paul Sewald] was closing, we had the best version of who we were, frankly. … But, we know [Martinez and Puk] can close, too, so we’ll see.”

Sewald, as referenced by Hazen, was a key piece in Arizona’s bullpen after coming over from Seattle at the 2023 trade deadline. He opened the 2024 season on the injured list due to an oblique strain but was virtually unhittable upon activation, rattling off 16 2/3 innings of one-run ball while only yielding five hits and three walks with 15 punchouts. He hit a rough patch over the next seven weeks, however, yielding 18 runs in 23 innings before landing on the injured list to close out the season. When healthy, Sewald has been terrific over the past four years, logging 229 innings with a 3.18 ERA and 81 saves between the Mariners and Diamondbacks.

A reunion with Sewald could make sense on paper, though the D-backs will have various other options to consider both in free agency and on the trade market. Sewald will turn 35 next May and posted his lowest average fastball velocity since 2019, so while his track record makes him a clear rebound candidate, the Snakes and other clubs will hold at least some degree of concern about his ability to bounce back from this season’s injuries. He should still command a nice one-year deal at the very least, given how well he’s pitched since 2021, but he’ll also surely draw interest from other teams as well.

Alternatives on the free-agent market are plentiful, though many will be costly. Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez and Clay Holmes are among the top relievers in this year’s class, each with a chance to command at least a three-year contract. The D-backs have never committed three years to a free agent reliever at any point in the past 14 years — hat tip to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker — and haven’t committed more than the $14MM they gave Mark Melancon during Hazen’s time as GM. This winter’s market has several high-end arms who could be available for one year and an eight-figure salary (David Robertson, Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen and Blake Treinen among them), which could serve as a means of adding an impact arm without bucking that preference to avoid multi-year spending on premium relievers. The trade market is likely to include names like Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams, Ryan Pressly and Pete Fairbanks, among others.

As with all clubs, the extent to which the D-backs can pursue upgrades is tied directly to ownership’s appetite for spending. Arizona currently projects for a $149MM payroll, per RosterResource, which is about $14MM from where they opened the 2024 campaign. Hazen doesn’t expect a significant dip in payroll but also cautioned that there’s no guarantee that what was already a club-record payroll will climb even higher.

“I would expect we’re somewhere in the same area, plus or minus,” said Hazen when asked about his budget for the 2025 roster. “I don’t know exactly where that’ll all end up. We work through a lot of these decisions with [owner Ken Kendrick] and [president/CEO Derrick Hall] as players become available or as situations get presented to us via trade or via free agency. So, that number kind of fluctuates for us a little bit as we move through the offseason, but we’re going to have plenty of resources to have a winning team next year.”

The D-backs aren’t going to idle with regard to their lineup, but Hazen spoke more favorably of the position-player group, noting high expectations for Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Eugenio Suarez, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno, in particular. On the rotation side of things, Hazen downplayed rumors of a potential trade from his starting staff, noting that teams call all the time and it’s his job to listen — but that doesn’t mean a move is particularly likely.

KBO’s Kia Tigers To Sign Adam Oller

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Right-hander Adam Oller has agreed to terms with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Ari Alexander of Houston’s KPRC-2. It’ll be the Gaeta Sports Management client’s first stint overseas, and he’ll join the reigning KBO champs.

Oller, 30, has pitched in each of the past three big league seasons. Originally a 2016 draftee of the Pirates, he wound up out of affiliated ball by 2019 but parlayed stints in the independent Frontier League (2019) and in the Australian Baseball League (2020-21) into a minor league opportunity with the Mets. He made the most of that, pitching his way into prospect status with an outstanding age-26 season split between Double-A and Triple-A. The A’s were intrigued enough to acquire Oller and fellow righty J.T. Ginn as their return from the Mets in the trade sending Chris Bassitt to Queens.

Things didn’t work out for Oller in Oakland, however. He was in the majors early during his first season with the organization but hit hard in both 2022 and 2023, yielding a combined 7.09 ERA in 94 frames. The A’s tried to pass him through waivers in July of ’23, but the Mariners claimed him and optioned him to Triple-A Tacoma. He’d spend the remainder of the season with Seattle’s top affiliate, eventually clearing waivers and electing free agency after being dropped from the roster in October.

Oller caught on with the Guardians and Marlins on minor league deals in the year that followed, the latter of whom selected him to the majors this past July. He pitched another 42 1/3 MLB frames across eight starts but was tagged for a 5.31 ERA. Oller did have a handful of nice outings in Miami, but it was an up-and-down tenure with more lows than highs. He was passed through waivers again at the beginning of this month, elected free agency and will quickly find a new opportunity overseas.

Despite his lack of MLB success, there’s reason to think Oller could fare well in the KBO. He posted sharp numbers in Triple-A in 2021-22, struggled through a disastrous season with the Athletics’ Triple-A Vegas club in 2023, and then again pitched to a 2.88 ERA with the Marlins’ top affiliate this past season. His 6.22 Triple-A ERA in 2023 skews his career-long mark to 5.01, but he’s typically been a solid arm at the top minor league level. Oller averages 93.7 mph on his four-seamer, complementing the pitch with a curveball and lesser-used changeup.

It’s at least feasible that Oller could spin one strong KBO season into a big league return, though success overseas can also open further opportunities in Asia. It’s common for players who thrive in the KBO to re-sign for a pay raise in their second season or perhaps to draw interest from teams in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. However it plays out, the earning power for Oller overseas is surely greater than it would be on a minor league deal in North America, and for a pitcher who’s already turned 30 and is still not into arbitration, that’s a compelling selling point.

Tropicana Field Can Be Fixed For 2026 Season

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A damage assessment report on Tropicana Field was presented to St. Petersburg City Council members today, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Per that report, the stadium could be fixed in time for the 2026 season at an estimated cost of $55.7MM. It’s still unclear whether the city will actually want to pay that cost for essentially just two years of use, since the facility is slated for demolition prior to the 2028 season, when the club is hoping to unveil a new stadium.

About a month ago, the Trop was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton, with the roof appearing to be the part most affected. The takeaway from today’s report is that the building is structurally sound and could return to an operational state after some repairs, primarily to the roof. Fixing the roof is necessary because the field doesn’t have drainage. Given the frequency of rain in the area, playing without a roof would be logistically difficult, which is why it was built in the first place.

The city of St. Petersburg owns the stadium and has already filed an insurance claim. Per Topkin, the policy has a $22MM deductible and $25MM of coverage, though it had $100MM coverage as of March, when the city opted to save $275K in annual premium payments by reducing their coverage.

It’s a bit of an awkward spot. As mentioned, the plan has long been to build a new stadium on essentially the same plot of land that currently houses the Trop. As part of that plan, the Trop would be demolished and the new stadium opened in time for the 2028 season. With the extensive damage of the storm, a decision has to be made about whether it’s worth investing resources into a doomed facility. Presumably, the city has plenty of other repair projects that could use that money.

That leaves 2026 and 2027 sort of undecided for now. In the short term, it seems all but guaranteed that the Rays won’t be playing in the Trop in 2025. Though it’s not stated outright, that seems to be the implication of today’s assessment report. That’s not necessarily a surprise, as it already seemed unlikely the roof could be fixed so quickly, but it does seem to confirm that the Rays will be nomads next year.

That means the Rays will need to find somewhere to play their home games for at least one year and possibly longer. There’s little clarity on where that will be, though Topkin notes that both MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Pinellas County politicians have encouraged the Rays to stay in the area. That could perhaps be somewhere like BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, home of the Threshers, the Single-A affiliate of the Phillies.

That scenario or any similar proposal would have the domino effects of needing to find a new home for the displaced club or altering the schedule enough for the two clubs to share one park. Such logistical challenges and others will need to be smoothed out over time. For now, it seems a lock that Major League Baseball will have two nomadic clubs at the same time, at least for one year. The Athletics are leaving Oakland but their new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t slated to be ready until 2028, so they are planning to play the next three seasons in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, home of the Giants’ Triple-A club.

Wander Franco Arrested In Dominican Republic Following Gun-Related Incident

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November 12: Per Recio on X, The Attorney General’s Office of the Dominican Republic has provisionally accused Franco of “illegal use and possession of a firearm.”

November 11: Wander Franco has been arrested in the Dominican Republic, reports ESPN’s Juan Recio, who cites multiple police sources in writing that Franco’s arrest came after guns were drawn during an altercation in the parking lot of an apartment complex in San Juan de la Maguana. He and an unnamed woman are being held for questioning, per the report.

Franco, 23, is already facing trial in his native Dominican Republic after being formally charged with sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor, as well as human trafficking. That set of charges stems from accusations that Franco was in a sexual relationship with a then-14-year-old girl in 2022, when Franco was 21 years old. If convicted, Franco faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

While Franco’s bail agreement prevents him from leaving the country, he’s still free to travel within the Dominican Republic. Recio reports that Franco would still be legally permitted to carry a firearm if he had the appropriate license and the weapon were registered. Law enforcement officials have not yet said whether Franco had the appropriate licensing and registration for the firearm.

It’s not yet clear whether this latest incident will result in any additional charges being brought forth against Franco, who is on indefinite administrative leave from Major League Baseball while the legal proceedings unfold. He’s been on the restricted list since July, where he does not collect his salary and does not count against Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster.

Diamondbacks Hire Brian Kaplan As Pitching Coach

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The Diamondbacks announced that they have hired Brian Kaplan to be their new pitching coach. He will replace Brent Strom, who had been in that role for the previous three seasons. It was reported last month that the club would not be bringing the 76-year-old Strom back.

Kaplan has been with the Phillies since 2019. He spent his first three years with that club as integrative baseball performance consultant. For the three most recent seasons, he’s been the assistant pitching coach and director of pitching.

It’s impossible to separate player performance from the contributions of an individual coach, but for what it’s worth, the Phils have pitched well lately. Over the past three years, Philadelphia pitchers had a collective 3.95 earned run average, putting them 12th of the 30 major league clubs. Their 3.82 FIP is far kinder, putting them third, trailing only Atlanta and San Francisco. For that same stretch of time, Arizona had a 4.46 ERA and 4.26 FIP, both of those numbers putting them in the bottom third.

The Arizona pitching staff could get a shakeup between now and next season, as their starting rotation is drawing trade interest from other clubs around the league. However that plays out, Kaplan will see if he can help the Snakes find another gear when it comes to their pitching staff.

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