Championship rings carry much greater import than financial gain during a postseason run, but teams that reach the playoffs get extra revenue that is divvied up into shares. The Associated Press reported the figures on the 2023 playoff pool earlier this week, and how the $107.8MM in playoff revenue was divided amongst the 12 playoff teams, with more money naturally going to the teams who advanced furthest. According to numbers released by the league, the Rangers got $38.8MM (split into 64 full shares, 12.56 partial shares and $48,000 in cash awards) and the Diamondbacks got 71 full shares and 11.49 partial shares out of their bonus of $25.9MM.
Diamondbacks Rumors
D-backs Acquire Eugenio Suarez
The D-backs and Mariners on Wednesday agreed to one of the first notable trades of the offseason, with Seattle sending third baseman Eugenio Suarez to Arizona in return for reliever Carlos Vargas and catcher Seby Zavala. Both teams have announced the deal. The trade gives the Diamondbacks the power-hitting third baseman they were looking for while the M’s pick up a controllable power arm, a backup catcher option and shed some meaningful salary.
Suarez, 32, has spent the past two seasons in Seattle after coming over from the Reds alongside Jesse Winker in the trade that sent Justin Dunn and Brandon Williamson to Cincinnati. While the trade was originally more about the Mariners absorbing the remainder of Suarez’s contract in order to acquire Winker on the heels of an excellent couple seasons at the plate, it was Suarez who rebounded and wound up providing the Mariners with the middle-of-the-order punch they’d been targeting.
Suarez clobbered 49 home runs back in 2019 — the second season of a seven-year, $66MM contract extension he’d signed with the Reds prior to the 2018 campaign. His bat tailed off considerably in 2020-21, however, and the Reds shopped him around as they looked to pare back payroll coming out of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which was played without fans and came with substantial revenue losses for all 30 clubs.
Upon landing in Seattle, Suarez was largely back to form. While still quite strikeout prone, he popped 31 long balls in 2022 and posted an overall .236/.332/.459 batting line that was about 30% better than league average after adjusting for home park and league run-scoring environment (by measure of wRC+). His 2023 season wasn’t as successful. Suarez posted very similar batting average and OBP marks, but his power dropped off considerably. He complemented this past season’s .232/.323/.391 batting line and 22 homers with his best defensive showing in quite some time (at least in the estimation of Statcast, who credited him with 11 Outs Above Average).
Suarez’s overall approach at the plate, however, is a profile from which the Mariners have voiced a desire to move on. Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said earlier this month at the GM Meetings that he was looking to add high-contact hitters to his lineup — an understandable goal after his team’s 25.9% strikeout rate ranked second in all of Major League Baseball this season. Finding a trade partner for Suarez, in that specific regard at least, is addition by subtraction; Suarez fanned in 30.8% of his plate appearances in 2023 and 31.2% in 2022.
The 2024 season is the final guaranteed year on that $66MM contract for Suarez. He’s owed an $11MM salary plus at least a $2MM buyout on a $15MM option for the 2025 season. In all, the trade trims $13MM of guaranteed salary off the Mariners’ books. It also creates a notable hole at the hot corner, however. Recent trade acquisition Luis Urias is one potential option for the M’s, but he’s coming off a down season and was picked up in buy-low fashion. Presumably, a win-now club like the Mariners would want a more solid option at the position. Time will tell whether the Mariners find that player via free agency or, more likely (at least based on Dipoto’s track record), via trade.
As for the D-backs’ end of things, even Suarez’s slightly diminished 2023 production would be an improvement over their third basemen this past season. Arizona third basemen combined for a dismal .234/.303/.340 line in 2023. Suarez probably isn’t going to help out in terms of batting average, but he should bring more power to the position at a relatively reasonable price point of $13MM. Arizona now projects for about a $114MM payroll, per Roster Resource, which checks in $10MM shy of last year’s mark and about $18MM shy of their franchise-record level, established in 2018.
The trade fills at least one immediate need for the Mariners, who watched Tom Murphy become a free agent at season’s end. Zavala gives them an option to replace him as Cal Raleigh’s backup behind the plate.
The 30-year-old Zavala has tallied 514 plate appearances in the big leagues but mustered a tepid .210/.275/.347 slash in that output. While he’s shown above-average power at times in the minors — including a 20-homer showing in 82 games of Triple-A ball in 2019 — Zavala’s output at the plate has been undercut by his own prolific strikeout rates. He’s gone down on strikes in 35.8% of his Major League plate appearances to this point in his career. He won’t come to the plate nearly as often as Suarez, however, so even though Zavala has his own contact issues, the swap could still prove to bolster the team’s overall contact skills, as has ostensibly been one of their goals.
Furthermore, Zavala grades out as a strong defender behind the dish. Statcast rates him as above-average in terms of blocking balls in the dirt, and he’s regularly drawn plus framing grades both at FanGraphs and via Statcast. Zavala’s 14% caught-stealing rate this past season was well shy of the league-average 20%, as is his career 17% mark. He nabbed a roughly average 24% of would-be base thieves in 2022, however, and he’s hardly the only backstop who struggled to control the running game in 2023, when MLB’s new rules regarding pickoffs and slightly larger bases dramatically increased stolen bases throughout the league.
Zavala doesn’t have any minor league options remaining, so he’ll have to open the season on the Mariners’ active roster or else be traded or placed on outright waivers. It’s always possible they add another backup catcher to supplant him, but for now he stands as the clear favorite to back up Raleigh heading into next season.
The piece of the trade with larger appeal for Seattle could very well be the flamethrowing Vargas, who made his MLB debut with Arizona in 2023. Vargas pitched in just 4 2/3 innings (allowing three runs) and had suspect surface-level numbers in Triple-A Reno: 7.02 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 15.1% walk rate. Grisly as those numbers may be at fist glance, however, there’s also a fair bit of intrigue around the young righty.
Vargas only just turned 24 last month, and in his brief time on the D-backs’ big league roster, he averaged 99.4 mph on his four-seamer and 98.8 mph on his sinker. Per Statcast, only seven of the 851 pitchers who tossed at least one inning last year averaged a better mark on their four-seamer and sinker. Vargas is one of the game’s hardest-throwing pitchers, and his sinker produced a massive 59% ground-ball rate in Triple-A.
When considering the substantial command issues that Vargas has shown not only in 2023 but throughout his professional career — he’s walked 11.5% of opponents in his overall minor league career — he’s clearly something of a project. That said, he’s also controllable for at least six seasons and still has a minor league option remaining for the 2024 campaign. The Mariners could see this as a similar bet to the one they made on Andres Munoz, who was a similarly live-armed but unproven young reliever with command issues when they picked him up from the Padres.
As it stands, the subtraction of Suarez still weakens the Seattle roster overall, so if there’s no subsequent move to add another third base option or at least to reallocate the $13MM in savings, this will still be widely viewed as a salary dump — even if there’s some legitimate long-term potential with Vargas. But the offseason is also quite young, and both the free-agent and trade markets have various options to consider at the hot corner or at second base, if Seattle is comfortable sliding another former Diamondback, Josh Rojas, over to third base.
A deal for Matt Chapman would be wildly uncharacteristic for Dipoto, who hasn’t signed a free-agent hitter to a multi-year deal since taking the reins in Seattle, but the market offers some more affordable options such as Gio Urshela and Justin Turner. The trade market is light on pure third basemen but has several shortstops, second basemen and/or multi-position names who could fit into the Seattle infield: Willy Adames, Jonathan India, Jorge Polanco, Kyle Farmer and perhaps Brendan Donovan among them.
Given the strong young core in Seattle and this past season’s narrow miss of the playoffs, there’s little reason to think the team is preparing for a notable step back. Dipoto has made a name for himself as perhaps the most active baseball operations leader in the game when it comes to the trade market, and is stands to reason that further moves will follow. With Suarez in Arizona, the M’s now project for a payroll around $133MM, per Roster Resource, which is about $7MM shy of last year’s total and about $25MM shy of their franchise record. There should be resources to further augment the roster in the days and weeks ahead.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported that the Mariners and D-backs had agreed to a trade involving Zavala and other players. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times broke the news that Suarez and Vargas were in the swap.
Angels Name Barry Enright Pitching Coach
The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Barry Enright as their new pitching coach. The former big league righty has spent the past two seasons on the D-backs’ staff, working as an assistant pitching coach under Brent Strom.
Enright, 37, pitched in the Majors from 2010-13, splitting his time between the two teams for which he’s now coached. Arizona selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft and gave him his MLB debut in 2010. He spent two seasons there and also had briefer stints with the 2012-13 Halos. As Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times points out, Enright’s final year with the Halos overlapped with Mike Trout’s rookie year in Anaheim.
Overall, Enright pitched 148 2/3 innings in the Majors. While his career on the mound didn’t yield the best results, we’ve seen time and time again that a successful big league playing career is in no way a prerequisite for a successful run as a coach or manager. His time with the D-backs surely proved quite instructive, as Strom is regarded as one of the industry’s top pitching minds.
Enright joins a revamped Halos coaching staff under incoming manager Ron Washington. Since the end of the season, the Angels have moved on from hitting coach Marcus Thames, pitching coach Matt Wise and catching coordinator Drew Butera. In their places, the Angels have hired Johnny Washington as hitting coach, Jerry Narron as catching coach and now Enright as pitching coach. The Angels have also added former big league infielder Ryan Goins as an infield coach and veteran coach/manager Bo Porter to be Washington’s first base coach.
Cardinals Name Daniel Descalso Bench Coach
The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve hired former infielder Daniel Descalso as their new bench coach. Last year’s bench coach Joe McEwing will join the Cardinals’ front office as a special assistant to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. The Cardinals still expect to make further additions to the coaching staff this winter, the team noted.
Descalso, 37, spent five years in a Cardinals uniform from 2010-14 and appeared in parts of 10 MLB seasons between St. Louis, Colorado, Arizona and Chicago (Cubs). He spent the 2023 season as a special assistant in the Diamondbacks’ baseball operations department. This will be his first professional coaching assignment.
It’s the third time in the past two offseasons the Cardinals have effectively installed one of their former players as manager Oli Marmol’s bench coach. The Cards briefly hired Matt Holliday in that role last November, but Holliday had a change of heart just months after being appointed to the post, citing a desire to spend more time with his family as the primary reason for his resignation. Holliday spent eight years playing for the Cards, of course. McEwing, meanwhile, played for the Cardinals in both 1998 and 1999. As with Descalso, Holliday was slated to be a first-time coach with the Cardinals. McEwing had spent more than a decade on the White Sox’ coaching staff.
In 1079 Major League games, Descalso tallied just shy of 2900 plate appearances and posted a .235/.320/.362 batting line. He played every position on the diamond other than catcher and center field, with the bulk of his time coming at second base, third base and shortstop (in that order).
National League Non-Tenders: 11/17/23
The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7:00pm CT. Here’s a rundown of fairly minor players on National League teams who have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month.
All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency without being placed on waivers. They’ll be eligible to sign with any of the league’s 30 teams. It’s not uncommon to see non-tendered players almost immediately return to their previous organization on a minor league deal.
The transactions:
Latest Moves
- The Giants non-tendered pitchers Thomas Szapucki, José Cruz and Cole Waites, reports Maria Guardado of MLB.com (X link). None of that trio had been eligible for arbitration.
- No team had a higher percentage of non-tenders than the Braves, who cut seven players loose. As reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on X), they’re moving on from pitchers Yonny Chirinos, Kolby Allard, Penn Murfee, Angel Perdomo and Michael Tonkin, catcher Chadwick Tromp and infielder Luke Williams. Murfee and Perdomo were recently claimed off waivers.
- San Diego’s non-tenders are covered here.
Earlier
- The Reds have non-tendered relievers Derek Law and Reiver Sanmartin. Cincinnati also confirmed the previously reported non-tender of Nick Senzel.
- In addition to Rowdy Tellez and Brandon Woodruff, the Brewers have non-tendered right-hander J.C. Mejía. He failed a PED test in September, the second such result of his career, and was suspended for 162 games.
- Former Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis was non-tendered by the Diamondbacks. He played in only 16 games after being acquired from the Mariners last offseason.
- The Cubs non-tendered relievers Ethan Roberts, Brandon Hughes and Codi Heuer. All three are recovering from surgeries.
- Right-hander Tommy Doyle was non-tendered by the Rockies. Colorado designated him for assignment when acquiring Cal Quantrill this morning.
- The Cardinals have non-tendered catcher Andrew Knizner, first baseman Juan Yepez and starting pitchers Jake Woodford and Dakota Hudson. St. Louis reportedly tried to deal Hudson this afternoon but evidently did not find a taker.
- The Mets have non-tendered relievers Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod and Trevor Gott. New York also cut loose infielder Luis Guillorme and confirmed the reported non-tender of Dan Vogelbach.
- Left-hander Josh Fleming was non-tendered by the Phillies, the team announced. Philadelphia just snagged the southpaw off waivers from the Rays a few weeks ago.
- The Marlins have non-tendered catcher Jacob Stallings and infielder Garrett Hampson, per a club announcement. Stallings spent two seasons as the primary catcher after being acquired from the Pirates at the 2021-22 offseason. Hampson signed a minor league deal with the Fish last season.
- The Pirates non-tendered Osvaldo Bido and Hunter Stratton, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Neither had yet been eligible for arbitration. Both right-handers made their big league debuts in 2023; Mackey suggests the Bucs will try to bring them back on minor league pacts.
- The Nationals announced they’ve non-tendered first baseman Dominic Smith and right-hander Cory Abbott. Both players were designated for assignment earlier in the week, making this an inevitability.
Diamondbacks, Tigers Interested In Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto has garnered the attention of many clubs around the league and Jon Heyman of The New York Post adds the Tigers and Diamondbacks to the list.
The incredible popularity of Yamamoto is due to a couple of factors. Primarily, he has utterly dominated hitters in his career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He has an earned run average of 1.82 over his seven seasons, including a ridiculous 1.21 mark in 2023. He struck out 169 of the 636 batters he faced this year, a rate of 26.6%, while his 28 walks led to a rate of just 4.4%.
In addition to the results, teams will be incredibly interested in the fact that Yamamoto is just 25 years old. Players that come up through the affiliated ranks need to get six years of major league service time before reaching the open market, meaning they usually are close to or beyond their 30th birthday by the time they become free agents. That makes it extremely rare to have an opportunity to sign a player that is both this talented and this young. MLBTR predicted him for a contract of $225MM over nine years.
A projected contract of that size would normally restrict a player’s market to the top spenders but his age might open the door to some surprise bidders. Yamamoto has indeed been connected to plenty of moneyed clubs such as the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Giants and others. But even teams that don’t usually come up in these rumors could perhaps be willing to stretch their usual spending habits and take a chance on Yamamoto since the chance of him suddenly succumbing to the aging curve would be far lower than other free agents.
The Diamondbacks clearly need starting pitching, despite having just gone on a run to the Fall Classic. Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt give them three arms for next year’s rotation but they clearly have a drop-off after that, as demonstrated by the fact that they deployed a bullpen game in the fourth contest of the World Series, allowing 11 runs that night. Slade Cecconi, Ryne Nelson and Tommy Henry are on the roster as options for the back end but a rotation upgrade would surely help them build off the momentum of this year.
Their track record doesn’t give a lot of optimism of them getting this kind of deal done, however. They gave a mega deal to Zack Greinke going into 2016 but that was under a different front office and seems to be the exception more than the rule. Leaving that deal aside, their largest free agent contract is the $85MM they gave to Madison Bumgarner. They would likely have to more than double that to land Yamamoto. The Greinke deal was for $206.5MM, though, so landing Yamamoto wouldn’t be completely unprecedented. And as mentioned, some teams may be willing to go beyond their comfort zones for an exceptional case like this.
They are currently projected for a payroll of $104MM next year, per Roster Resource. They have gone a bit beyond that in the past, with Cot’s Baseball Contracts listing their franchise high as $132MM. Teams sometimes spend a little more after a strong postseason run, with some extra cash on hand after hosting some lucrative playoff games, perhaps giving the Snakes a bit of money to spend this winter.
The Tigers have struck plenty of big deals in the past but Scott Harris has kept things on the modest side since taking over as president of baseball operations a year ago. Last winter, they kept themselves to one-year deals for Matthew Boyd and Michael Lorenzen.
There is perhaps an argument that the club is ready for more aggression, as they were above .500 after the All-Star break in 2023 and were able to climb into second place in the American League Central. With Miguel Cabrera’s onerous contract off the books, perhaps they could feel it’s time to make a splash. However, that was thinking a couple of years ago when the club tried to surge back into contention by signing Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez, which didn’t work out.
“This game has taught us time and time again,” Harris recently said, per Chris McCosky of The Detroit News, “Sometimes, teams overestimate their proximity to being a team that’s right on the verge of the playoffs, and they spend a lot of money and it doesn’t push them forward. It pushes them back.” He then said that the club is going in the right direction but “can’t do anything in free agency or in trades that sets us back. If we find an opportunity that’s going to push us forward and we’re confident of that, we’re going to do it.”
The club is only projected for a payroll of $79MM next year, per Roster Resource, with a couple of non-tenders likely dropping that even further. They have been way beyond that in past, per Cot’s, so there’s room for them to make a bold strike on Yamamoto financially. But given the comments from Harris, it seems there are things beyond the money that would have to align for something to come together.
As for the Yankees, there were reports this week that suggested that club’s chances of signing Yamamoto took a hit in a strange way. Cashman alluded to the injury history of Giancarlo Stanton in a manner that was apparently viewed as disrespectful. Since Stanton and Yamamoto both have Joel Wolfe as an agent, some worried that the kerfuffle with Stanton would have the domino effect of spilling into their pursuit of Yamamoto. However, Andy Martino of SNY recently reported that the Japanese righty wasn’t even aware of the squabble.
In addition to the sum guaranteed to the player, a signing team will have to send money to the Orix Buffaloes, his NPB club. The MLB team will pay a fee to the Buffaloes in proportion to the size of Yamamoto’s contract. They’ll owe the NPB club 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. Once he is officially posted, there will be a 45-day window for him to work out a deal.
Blake Snell Wins National League Cy Young Award
Free agent left-hander Blake Snell has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2023, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Logan Webb of the Giants finished second in the voting while Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks finished third.
Snell, 31 next month, has now earned a Cy Young award for the second time in his career. The first trophy was in the American League, with Snell winning as a member of the Rays in 2018. He is just the seventh pitcher to win the award in both leagues, joining Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martínez, Max Scherzer, Gaylord Perry and Roy Halladay.
The left-handed Snell hasn’t been the most consistent pitcher in his career, with both his health and performance wobbling over the years, but his two award-winning campaigns have been excellent. His first trophy came after posting an earned run average of 1.89 with the Rays and this second piece of hardware was earned by posting a 2.25 for the Padres this year. His most recent campaign saw him walk 13.3% of batters faced but he danced around those by striking out 31.5% of his opponents and keeping the ball on the ground at a 44.4% clip. He probably had some help from the baseball gods as his .256 batting average on balls in play and 86.7% strand rate were both on the lucky side of average, but his punchouts and grounders surely helped him somewhat as well.
Outside of those two campaigns, the results have been far more mixed. He got to 180 innings pitched in his award-winning campaigns but hasn’t reached 130 in any other season. He also hasn’t posted an ERA lower than 3.24 in any of them.
Of course, that doesn’t matter for the Cy Young voting. It’s a single-season award and his year-to-year consistency is not something for the voters to consider. Snell’s voting wasn’t quite unanimous but he got 28 of the 30 first-place votes. But his overall track record will be of concern to the clubs considering signing him as a free agent. Pitchers with multiple Cy Youngs don’t hit free agency every day but it’s also incredibly rare for a pitcher to put so many runners on base without allowing them to score. Regardless of those concerns, MLBTR predicted Snell to land a contract of $200MM over seven years and he’s already garnering plenty of interest.
Webb had a 3.25 ERA in 216 innings for the Giants this year, which got him one of the first-place votes and 17 for second. Gallen had a 3.47 ERA in his 210 innings, which led to one first-place vote and three for second. In the full voting, which can be seen here, votes also went to Spencer Strider, Justin Steele, Zack Wheeler, Kodai Senga and Corbin Burnes.
Diamondbacks Select Blake Walston, Outright Chris Rodriguez
The D-Backs announced they’ve added left-hander Blake Walston to the 40-man roster. That ensures he won’t be selected in next month’s Rule 5 draft. To clear a spot, the Snakes outrighted righty Chris Rodriguez off the roster.
Arizona drafted Walston 26th overall in 2019. The 6’5″ hurler was an upside flier out of a North Carolina high school. His minor league résumé has been somewhat mixed, although he still draws praise for his projectable frame and athleticism. Baseball America rated him as the #5 prospect in a quality Arizona system midseason.
Walston spent all of 2023 at Triple-A Reno. That’s an exceedingly difficult environment for a young pitcher. He posted a decent 4.52 ERA in 149 1/3 innings covering 30 starts. That came without particularly impressive strikeout or walk numbers, though. He punched out only 15.6% of opponents while walking 14% of batters faced.
Arizona just claimed Rodriguez off waivers from the Angels a couple weeks ago. They’ve succeeded in passing him through unclaimed, meaning he’ll remain in the organization without occupying a 40-man spot. A hard-throwing reliever, Rodriguez has battled shoulder and back injuries for the better part of three years. He has barely pitched since 2021. He’ll hopefully be able to put the injuries beyond him and compete for a bullpen job in Spring Training.
Corbin Carroll Wins National League Rookie Of The Year Award
Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll has won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Mets right-hander Kodai Senga came in second while Dodgers outfielder James Outman placed third.
Carroll was selected to Arizona’s roster in late August of last year, allowing him to get a taste of the majors but without exhausting his rookie status. He fared extremely well in that audition, hitting .260/.330/.500 in his first 115 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 131, indicating he was 31% better than the league average hitter in that time. The D’Backs felt confident enough in Carroll based on that showing, and his work as a minor leaguer, to give him an eight-year extension with a guarantee of $111MM.
They were hoping he would be an integral part of the club and help them make the postseason for the first time since 2017. He went on to have an incredible showing in his first full season in the majors, hitting 25 home runs and stealing 54 bases. His .285/.362/.506 line led to a 131 wRC+ and he also got strong grades for his outfield defense. He produced 6.0 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs while Baseball Reference had him at 5.4. The club did indeed break their postseason drought, snagging a Wild Card spot and eventually going all the way to the World Series.
While the award is surely thrilling for Carroll and the Snakes on its own, there are other implications of Carroll taking the trophy. The new collective bargaining agreement contains measures designed to combat service time manipulation through the prospect promotion incentive, or PPI. Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year. That won’t apply to Carroll, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #2 prospect on all three of those lists. Gunnar Henderson, who got the AL trophy today, was #1.
But players with PPI status can also earn extra draft picks for their clubs if they have less than 60 days of service time to start the season and earn a full service year the traditional way, as Carroll did, while also appearing on those preseason prospect lists. Players in that camp who finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting or top three in Cy Young or Most Valuable Player voting during their pre-arbitration seasons earn a bonus pick after the first round for their club. That means the Diamondbacks, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.
Senga also had a strong season, his first after coming over from Japan. He made 29 starts for the Mets with a 2.98 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate. Players considered by MLB to be foreign professionals, as Senga is, aren’t eligible to earn PPI picks for their clubs. Outman also had a solid campaign, hitting 23 home runs and stealing 16 bases. He struck out in 31.9% of his plate appearances but offset that somewhat by walking at a 12% clip. His .248/.353/.437 batting line led to a wRC+ of 118 and he also graded out well in the field. He wasn’t considered a top 100 prospect coming into the year and wouldn’t have qualified for a PPI pick even if he surpassed Senga for second place.
The voting was unanimous, per the vote tally at BBWAA, with Carroll getting all 30 first-place votes. Senga got 22 second-place votes and Outman got five. Other players getting votes were Nolan Jones of the Rockies, Eury Pérez of the Marlins, Patrick Bailey of the Giants and three Reds: Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
D-Backs, Reds, Angels Interested In Jeimer Candelario
The Angels, Diamondbacks and Reds are among the teams that have expressed early interest in Jeimer Candelario, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Giants are also in the third base mix, per Heyman, although it’s not clear if they’re targeting Candelario specifically.
Arizona is the most straightforward of the three teams. Evan Longoria hit free agency, leaving the Snakes with a third base group headlined by Emmanuel Rivera, Jace Peterson and rookie Jordan Lawlar. The latter is one of the sport’s most talented prospects but has only 30 games above the Double-A level. Neither Rivera nor Peterson bring much to the table offensively, with both having particularly poor second halves.
Candelario would be a clear offensive boost. The switch-hitter combined for a .251/.336/.471 line with 22 home runs in 576 plate appearances between the Nationals and Cubs this year. While a dismal year in 2022 led to a non-tender from the Tigers, Candelario has been an above-average hitter in three of the last four seasons. Going back to 2020, he sports a .254/.329/.437 mark. If Lawlar steps into an everyday role at third base or shortstop (pushing Geraldo Perdomo to the hot corner), Candelario could see action at designated hitter.
That production would also be welcome for the Angels, although their internal options have lengthier track records than do Arizona’s players. The Halos owe Anthony Rendon $114MM over the next three seasons. That could lead the organization to shy away from a notable free agent investment for another third baseman (although Candelario obviously won’t come close to Rendon’s $245MM contract). The Halos have Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo to split time between second and third base, perhaps taking extra at-bats if Rendon again misses time to injury.
Candelario also has experience at first base, where things are a little unsettled for the Halos. Nolan Schanuel held the job for the final couple months of the season. That he managed a .402 on-base percentage against MLB pitching within weeks of being drafted out of Florida Atlantic is remarkable. Yet Schanuel has all of 22 career minor league games and didn’t provide any kind of power in his first big league look. It’s not out of the question he could require additional time against minor league pitching. The Halos’ outlook at DH, of course, is dependent on the Shohei Ohtani decision.
A match with the Reds would likely be conditional on Cincinnati making a trade. The Reds already have an infield glut. Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte are all in the corner infield mix. Jonathan India and Matt McLain project as the starting middle infield. Cincinnati general manager Nick Krall cited a lack of playing time at first base as a factor in declining their option on Joey Votto, although the $13MM difference between the option value and the buyout was surely the biggest factor.
Starting pitching is the top priority for the Cincinnati front office. That could be accomplished by dealing away a position player. Speaking in generalities, Krall told Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic that the Reds have had conversations about dealing from their talented collection of bats.
