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Mets Claim Stephen Tarpley

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The Mets have claimed left-hander Stephen Tarpley off waivers from the division-rival Marlins, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. The Marlins designated Tarpley for assignment last week.

Tarpley entered the majors as a third-round pick of the Orioles in 2013, but he never suited up for them. Instead, Tarpley has pitched for the Yankees and Marlins, with whom he has combined for a 6.65 ERA with a 27.2 percent strikeout rate and a 13.6 percent walk rate over 44 2/3 frames. He struggled mightily last year during his lone season as a Marlin, allowing 11 earned runs in as many innings and issuing eight walks. The 27-year-old has, however, managed a stingy 2.88 ERA across 65 2/3 Triple-A innings.

While Tarpley hasn’t exactly thrived at the game’s highest level, the Mets are taking a low-risk chance that he’ll at least provide useful depth. Notably, the club has an obvious need for left-handers relievers, as Daniel Zamora is the only southpaw bullpen option on its 40-man roster.

Mariners Sign Roenis Elias, Paul Sewald To Minor League Deals

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The Mariners announced that they have signed left-hander Roenis Elias, righty Paul Sewald and infielder Jantzen Witte to minor league contracts.

This will be the third Mariners stint for Elias, who was previously with the team from 2014-15 and again from 2018-19. Formerly a starter, the 32-year-old has put up a 3.75 ERA over 377 innings in Seattle to this point. He has also taken the mound for the Red Sox and Nationals, though Elias has not pitched in the majors since 2019, owing in part to a flexor strain he suffered last season. Overall, Elias has logged a 3.97 ERA with a strikeout percentage of 19.7 and a walk percentage of 9.0 during his 388-inning big league career.

Sewald spent the first four seasons of his MLB tenure as a Met, but the 30-year-old struggled to a 5.50 ERA in 147 1/3 frames during that span. Witte, 31, has not played in the majors yet. The former Red Sox farmhand took 1,227 plate appearances at the Triple-A level for them and hit .261/.333/.370.

Tomoyuki Sugano Agrees To Four-Year, $40MM Deal With Yomiuri Giants

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8:03pm: Sugano has re-signed with Yomiuri on a four-year, $40MM contract, per Rosenthal. The deal includes three opt-out chances, so Sugano will have future opportunities to become a major leaguer.

4:05pm: Nippon Professional Baseball right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano did not reach an agreement with a major league team before his 5 p.m. ET posting deadline Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. That means Sugano will remain in Japan in 2021, though he will be eligible to come to MLB as a free agent next winter.

NPB’s Yomiuri Giants posted the 31-year-old Sugano for major league clubs a month ago, and with the likes of Kevin Gausman and Marcus Stroman off the free-agent board, Sugano looked like one of the most appealing starters available on the open market. As a result, several teams – including the Padres, Giants, Mets, Blue Jays, Rangers and Red Sox – vied for Sugano in recent weeks. The Padres were even in negotiations with Sugano on Thursday, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. In the end, though, neither they nor any other big league club could pry him from his homeland.

Sugano will remain a member of the Yomiuri Giants, with whom he has dominated since making his pro debut in 2013. Sugano owns a stellar 2.34 ERA over 1,362 innings with the Giants, and he has won two MVPs and a pair of Pitcher of the Year awards in Japan. He’ll make around $8MM with the Giants in 2021, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic relays. With another excellent season, though, Sugano could wind up in a major league uniform before the 2022 campaign.

Lindor Notes: Extension, Springer, Jays, Odorizzi, Yankees

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The Mets swung a massive trade Thursday when they unexpectedly acquired superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor and right-hander Carlos Carrasco from Cleveland. It’s the biggest story in baseball at the moment, so reactions have come pouring in over the past several hours. Here’s some of the fallout from the deal…

  • Lindor is only under control for one more season, in which he’ll make a projected $17.5MM to $21.5MM, though the Mets will try to keep him around beyond then. Mets president Sandy Alderson said the team will “broach in the next few weeks” an extension with the four-time All-Star, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. That’s not surprising news, as the Mets had to part with four young players (Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene) to get the deal done, and new owner Steve Cohen certainly has the money to pay Lindor on a long-term contract.
  • While the Mets may be willing to keep Lindor around for the foreseeable future, it never seemed realistic for low-budget Cleveland to sign him to an extension. The club knew last spring it wouldn’t be able to extend Lindor, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who reports that it offered the 27-year-old $200MM. That didn’t come close, though, as Lindor was then seeking upward of $300MM.
  • In the wake of the Lindor/Carrasco trade, the Mets aren’t necessarily finished making big-ticket acquisitions, though it’s “less likely” they will sign free-agent outfielder George Springer because of an unwillingness to exceed the $210MM luxury-tax threshold, Andy Martino of SNY writes. New York is in the $190MM payroll vicinity at the moment, and it would like to open the season around $5MM to $10MM under the $210MM mark, Martino reports. The Mets have been tied throughout the offseason to Springer, arguably the top position player on the open market. The former Astro wants a deal in the $175MM range, but the Mets have been short of that at around five years and $150MM, according to Martino. The Blue Jays, who have also been in on Springer, are in the five-year, $115MM range, Martino relays.
  • The Mets had interest in free-agent righty Jake Odorizzi earlier in the offseason, but getting Carrasco put the kibosh on that, as Martino writes that they’re no longer in the running to sign him. The Mets are slated to rely on Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Carrasco and David Peterson as their top four starters, at least until Noah Syndergaard returns from Tommy John surgery during the summer.
  • With DJ LeMahieu currently a free agent, the Yankees were speculative candidates to make a deal for Lindor. While the team did inquire about Lindor before the crosstown rival Mets reeled him in, the Yankees’ main focus has continued to be re-signing LeMahieu, Sherman tweets. Because they’re so locked in on LeMahieu, the Yankees only regarded Lindor as a fallback option.
  • Mets general manager Jared Porter told reporters (including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com) that they have five to six prospects whom they have no plans to trade. To no one’s surprise, Porter did not reveal any names, though DiComo lists shortstop Ronny Mauricio, righties Matthew Allan and J.T. Ginn, catcher Francisco Alvarez, third baseman Brett Baty and outfielder Pete Crowe-Armstrong as farmhands who probably aren’t going anywhere. They each rank among the Mets’ top six prospects at MLB.com.

Astros To Sign Ryne Stanek

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The Astros are signing free-agent reliever Ryne Stanek, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports. It’s a one-year deal, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets. Stanek will earn $1.1MM, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The right-hander is a client of MVP Sports Group.

The 29th overall pick of the Rays in 2013, Stanek made his major league debut four years later and gave the club especially good production from 2018-19. He was one of the Rays’ go-to opener options then, starting 56 games in 100 appearances, and managed a 3.17 ERA with a 28.9 percent strikeout rate and a 9.6 percent walk rate in 122 innings. However, the Rays moved on from Stanek when they sent him to the Marlins in a 2019 trade deadline deal that delivered stud reliever Nick Anderson to Tampa Bay.

Unfortunately for Miami, Stanek wasn’t able to maintain his effectiveness in its uniform. The 29-year-old had a rough season in 2020, when he threw 10 innings of 7.20 ERA ball with almost as many unintentional walks (eight) as strikeouts (11) and saw his average fastball dip from the 98 mph range to 96. The Marlins then non-tendered Stanek in lieu of paying him a projected $800K in arbitration.

The Astros could control Stanek through 2023 via arbitration, so this might be more than a one-year union between the two. And Astros general manager James Click, who was part of the Rays’ front office when they drafted Stanek and saw him flourish a few years later, is quite familiar with the hurler.

Stanek will now join a Houston bullpen that ranked a middle-of-the-pack 15th in ERA a season ago. The Astros have since lost relievers Roberto Osuna, Brad Peacock and Chris Devenski to free agency, and while none played big roles in 2020, the team has been looking to address its relief corps to a notable degree this winter. In fact, Mark Berman of Fox 26 tweeted Thursday that the Astros want more than one reliever and have interest in free agents Brad Hand and Trevor Rosenthal (along with the previously reported Liam Hendriks and Alex Colome). With that in mind, they probably aren’t done after the Stanek acquisition.

Dodgers Bullpen Rumors: Hendriks, Yates

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The Dodgers were in pursuit of free-agent reliever Liam Hendriks earlier this offseason, but that interest “has recently dissipated,” Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times writes. While Hendriks is viewed as the best reliever available on the open market, the former Athletics closer reportedly wants a four-year contract, and the Dodgers aren’t willing to sign him to that long of a deal, according to Castillo.

Although Hendriks appears to be out of the mix for Los Angeles, the reigning World Series champions do have other high-end relievers on their radar. Along with the previously reported Brad Hand, the Dodgers are eyeing right-hander Kirby Yates, per Castillo, who adds that they “have significant interest in him.” Yates shouldn’t cost as much as Hendriks or Hand, having missed almost all of last season with elbow problems, but the ex-Padres standout could be a relatively low-risk, high-reward pickup for any team that signs him. After all, the 33-year-old is just two seasons removed from posting a ridiculous 1.19 ERA with a 41.6 percent strikeout rate and a 5.3 percent walk rate over 60 2/3 innings. Yates also saved a National League-high 41 games in 44 chances that year.

A Yates signing for the Dodgers would be somewhat similar to 2020 additions such as Blake Treinen and Jake McGee, in that they’d be landing a proven reliever whose stock isn’t at an all-time high on a short-term pact. Both signings worked out well for LA last season, and the team was so impressed with Treinen’s work that it brought him back on a two-year, $17.5MM guarantee in free agency.

Justin Smoak To Sign With Yomiuri Giants

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JANUARY 6: The deal is now complete and will promise Smoak $6MM, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

DECEMBER 29: Free-agent first baseman Justin Smoak is nearing a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. Smoak will earn a guaranteed $6MM to $7MM if the deal goes through.

The 34-year-old Smoak divided last season between the Brewers and Giants (San Francisco, not Yomiuri) and posted a brutal .162/.250/.361 line with five home runs in 132 plate appearances. Smoak’s strikeout rate (31.8) was the second-highest figure of his career and a 10-plus percent increase over the number he recorded in 2019 with the Blue Jays. Considering his weak production from 2020, Smoak would have been hard-pressed to approach his agreement with Yomiuri in value had he stayed in the majors in 2021, so it’s no surprise the switch hitter is on his way to Japan to collect a larger paycheck and perhaps rebuild his stock for big league teams.

If this is the last we’ve seen of Smoak in MLB, though, he’ll go down as someone who had an up-and-down tenure at the game’s highest level. The 11th overall pick of the Rangers in 2008 and once among Baseball America’s top 15 prospects, Smoak has seen major league action with five teams (the Mariners are the other). Smoak was at his best in Toronto from 2017-18, when he slashed .256/.353/.495 with 63 home runs and a 128 wRC+ across 1,231 trips to the plate. He hasn’t come close to matching that form since then, however.

Tigers Outright Eric Haase

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The Tigers announced that they have outrighted catcher Eric Haase, who cleared waivers after the team designated him for assignment last month.

Haase is coming off his first season with Detroit, which acquired him from AL Central rival Cleveland last January. However, he only took 19 plate appearances and collected three hits (all singles) during his 2020 Detroit debut.

Last year’s offensive struggles weren’t anything new for Haase, who has posted an ugly .122/.170/.184 line with one home run across 53 PA since he first made it to the majors in 2018. To his credit, the 28-year-old does own a far more impressive .232/.302/.479 mark with 49 HRs over 886 trips to the plate in Triple-A.

AL Notes: Red Sox, Odorizzi, Tigers, Grossman, Duvall, Mazara, Orioles, Sulser

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The Red Sox are showing “serious interest” in right-hander Jake Odorizzi, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. This isn’t the first link between the two sides, who were connected in the rumor mill just a few weeks ago. Odorizzi endured a subpar, injury-shortened 2020 with the Twins, but he is an accomplished starter who has ties to Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. The hurler pitched in Tampa Bay from 2013-17, when Bloom was part of the Rays’ front office. Odorizzi had a good run with the Rays during those years and continued to pitch well in Minnesota from 2018-19. Based on what the 30-year-old Odorizzi has done so far, he would be a welcome addition to a Boston rotation that’s in dire need of help. Elsewhere…

  • The Tigers signed Robbie Grossman on Tuesday, but fellow outfielders Adam Duvall and Nomar Mazara were on their radar before then, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets. Both Duvall and Mazara became available when their respective teams (Braves, White Sox) non-tendered them last month. Neither player performed as well as Grossman did in 2020, however. Grossman’s tool aren’t flashy, but he’s a smart player who takes what he’s given. He owns a .359 OBP across the last six seasons, a skill he flashed again last season with a solid 10.9 percent walk rate. He also avoids mistakes in the field: as Beck points out, Grossman’s 231-game active errorless streak ranks second among outfielders. It should be noted, Grossman’s total package brings a decidedly different skill set from either Duvall or Mazara, both of whom are known more for their power.
  • The Orioles have reason to believe Cole Sulser can return to form as the guy they installed as their early-season closer in 2020, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. The 30-year-old Sulser was a casualty of a roster crunch in Tampa, and the Orioles benefited by claiming him off waivers. The season started well for Sulser as he became a multi-inning weapon for manager Brandon Hyde, but in a freak accident at home, Sulser broke some toes on his right foot. It wasn’t enough of an injury to keep him from the diamond, but perhaps it should have been as he struggled with his command the rest of the way. Sulser finished with a 5.56 ERA/4.91 FIP/5.87 SIERA and an unsightly 17 percent walk rate. Back at full health, the Orioles expect Sulser to once again be a weapon for them out of the pen.

Tigers Sign Robbie Grossman

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6:42pm: The Tigers have announced the signing.

3:40pm: The two sides have a deal for two years and $10MM, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Grossman could make up to $500K per year in performance bonuses, per Stavenhagen.

3:39pm: The Tigers are closing in on a two-year, $10MM agreement with free-agent outfielder Robbie Grossman, Cody Stavenhagen and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report. The pact will also include performance bonuses for Grossman, a Lagardere Sports client.

Detroit will be the fourth team for Grossman, a sixth-round pick in 2008 who has played in the bigs with the Astros, Twins and Athletics. Grossman played a small portion of his career in Houston under then-manager A.J. Hinch, who is now the Tigers’ skipper.

Grossman and Hinch will now reunite, and the 31-year-old switch-hitter will bring a lifetime batting line of .252/.350/.380 with 50 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 2,748 plate appearances to his new team. While Grossman has been a roughly league-average offensive player throughout his career, he hasn’t graded out as well in the outfield, where he has combined for minus-19 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-18.9 Ultimate Zone Rating among all three positions.

Last season may have been a career offensive year for Grossman, who batted .241/.341/.482 (126 wRC+), hit eight homers and stole eight bases across 192 PA to conclude his A’s tenure. The majority of Grossman’s season was spent in left field, where the Tigers mostly deployed Christin Stewart in 2020. But Stewart and primary right fielder Daz Cameron had rough years, leaving the Tigers with a need in the corners. The hope is that Grossman will provide it, and his track record of getting on base suggests he’ll improve an offense that posted the league’s third-worst OBP (.303) last season.

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