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AL East Notes: Alvarez, Davis, Red Sox

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The Orioles should strongly consider signing free agent slugger Pedro Alvarez, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com opines.  However, adding Alvarez could complicate things for the O’s should Chris Davis come back in the picture.  If Davis is re-signed and Alvarez is slotted in at DH, that would put Mark Trumbo in right field, and that’s a defensive liability that manager Buck Showalter might not be comfortable with.

If the O’s do not re-sign Davis, then Alvarez would make plenty of sense.  The 28-year-old would help restore the power in Baltimore’s lineup and his bat would be a good fit for the AL East since Camden Yards and Yankee Stadium are two of the best parks for left-handed home runs.

While we wait to see how things progress with the Orioles and Alvarez (and Davis), here’s more out of the AL East:

  • The Orioles showed Davis some loyalty by giving him his first chance to consistently play every day. He, of course, repaid that by turning into one of the league’s top home run hitters.  Now, Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com wonders if loyalty will play into Davis’ ongoing free agency.  Davis, 30 in March, is coming off a 47-homer season in which he batted .262/.361/.562 and is also the Major League leader in home runs dating back to 2012.
  • In today’s mailbag, a reader asked Ian Browne of MLB.com about his thoughts on when Yoan Moncada might make his MLB debut for the Red Sox.  Browne anticipates that Moncada will get to Double-A before the end of 2016 and reach Fenway Park at some point in 2017.  In the long term, third base could be a good fit for Moncada, but he has the athleticism to play elsewhere if needed.
  • Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald has three ideas to improve the Red Sox’s roster.  Among them: trading Rusney Castillo and signing Alex Gordon.

Latest On Cliff Lee

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Free agent pitcher Cliff Lee would need a “perfect fit” in order to leave home and make a comeback, agent Darek Braunecker told MLB Network Radio (audio link).  Braunecker also said that he isn’t certain whether Lee will do a full showcase workout for teams but whenever (or however) he does show his stuff, he’ll be 100% when that time comes.

Lee has drawn interest from at least half the league so far this season, according to Jon Heyman.  The veteran was said to be seeking a one-year, major league deal, but now it appears that he’s at least considering sitting out the 2016 season entirely.  If Lee does decide to pitch this year, the Marlins are one of the clubs known to have some level of interest.

Lee, 37, is looking to make his way back from a flexor tendon tear without surgery and while there’s no guarantee that he can get back to his old form, he offers unmatched upside among the free agent bounceback candidates.  It’s far from clear, of course, whether teams are willing at present to commit big dollars to Lee.  For what it’s worth, Heyman indicated earlier this offseason that Lee could command more than many would expect him to.

Though he only put up a 3.65 earned run average in his 81 1/3 innings in 2014, Lee carried a 6.00 K:BB rate and drew ratings from metrics that valued his effort in the 3.00 earned-per-nine range.  Of course, Lee also showed much more prior to that season. He racked up over 220 frames per season over 2011 through 2013, working to a cumulative 2.80 ERA in that span while striking out a batter per inning and walking less than one-and-a-half per nine.

Morosi On Nationals, Storen, Brewers

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Earlier today, we noted that the Padres are in active discussions with free agent shortstop Ian Desmond, as reported by Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.  From a purely baseball perspective, Desmond would make a world of sense for San Diego given the offensive pop he can provide at his position.  However, one has to imagine that the Padres are wary of the price tag Desmond carries.  The Padres also might not be crazy about forking over that kind of cash if they don’t believe that they can contend in 2016.

Here’s a look at a couple more items from Morosi’s Sunday article:

  • The Nationals are still working to trade Drew Storen, Morosi writes.  MLBTR projects Storen to earn $8.8MM in his final year of arbitration, a number that is probably more than they’d like to pay a set-up man and higher than suitors would be comfortable with paying.  Still, the Nats now have Shawn Kelley, Trevor Gott, Yusmeiro Petit, and left-hander Oliver Perez in the bullpen and there’s not a clear need for him there.  Storen, theoretically, would serve as Jonathan Papelbon’s set-up man, but that’s a role that he struggled with after the 2015 trade deadline.
  • Look for the Brewers to move Khris Davis at the July trade deadline or even before that point, Morosi writes.  The Brewers could, theoretically, move him now, but there are many quality free agent outfielders still on the board for teams with a need.  Davis, 28, slashed .247/.323/.505 with 27 homers across 440 plate appearances last season. The left fielder won’t be arbitration eligible until after the 2016 season.  First-year GM David Stearns appears set on a rebuild and moving the valuable Davis would be a good place to start.

Astros, Dallas Keuchel Have Not Talked Extension This Offseason

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The Astros and reigning AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel have not discussed a contract extension this winter, agent Darek Braunecker tells MLB Network Radio (via Twitter).  The two sides have talked about a new deal in the past, but that apparently hasn’t taken place in the last couple of months.

“At this point, we have not engaged the club in any sort of long-term discussions. It’s common knowledge that we had some discussion during the season last year and it was just preliminary seeing where one another stood. They approached us, kicked the tires, and got a sense where both parties were at that time,” Braunecker said.

The 28-year-old Keuchel was fighting for a rotation spot as recently as Spring Training 2014, but his remarkable transformation into a bona fide ace atop the Houston rotation was completed with a dominant follow-up to a breakout 2014 season. Keuchel led the AL with 232 innings (trailing only Clayton Kershaw’s 232 2/3 innings for the MLB lead) and worked to a pristine 2.48 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and an AL-best 61.7 percent ground-ball rate.

Keuchel is eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason and is set for a significant payout in 2016 thanks to his dominant performance in 2015 capped by a Cy Young award.  A deal could make sense for both sides, but Keuchel will be demanding a hefty pay day.  The hurler is currently slated to hit the open market heading into his age-31 season and the Astros, presumably, would want to lock down at least one of his free agency years. Delaying his free agency by even one year would probably put a five-year max on the free-agent deal Keuchel could secure, as teams rarely guarantee pitchers’ age-37 seasons in long-term deals.  Then again, the two sides could conceivably work out a deal that only covers Keuchel’s arbitration years, leaving his potential future free agent fortune unaffected.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Rockies, Cardinals, Blue Jays

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Here’s this week’s look around the baseball blogosphere:

Please send submissions to Zach at ZachBBWI@gmail.com.

Yankees Notes: Chapman, Miller, Betances

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The latest from the Bronx:

  • The Yankees bullpen probably won’t be any better in 2016, Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs opines.  The Yankees now have the most fearsome trio of relievers of any team in baseball with Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Dellin Betances, but Sullivan can’t fathom the ’16 bullpen actually besting the 2015 bullpen.  The Yankees were 66-3 when leading after six, and 73-2 when leading after seven innings, and there’s not much room to grow from there.  Still, the Yankees were projected to regress a bit in the bullpen area, so the Chapman acquisition made plenty of sense.
  • The Bombers head into 2016 with plenty of work to do, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com writes.  The Yankees may look to address their starting pitching as none of their starters topped 170 innings in 2015.  Still, they have plenty of names to work with as Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi, CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Bryan Mitchell are already in-house.   It appears that outfielder Brett Gardner and left-handed closer Andrew Miller could be available if the Yankees get an offer they can’t refuse, but that has not come along yet.
  • The Yankees’ bullpen trio could make history, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes.  No team has ever featured three relievers who recorded at least 100 strikeouts in a season and only six teams have ever had two pitchers reach the 100 K mark.  Cassavell stacked the three Yankees hurlers up against the 2014 Royals bullpen trio and also compared them to some reliever groups from the past.

Heyman On Cespedes, Parra, Davis

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There could be more great star free agents still available as we head into the New Year than ever before, in the estimation of CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. The question now is – where will they land?  Here’s the latest from Heyman:

  • Angels owner Arte Moreno has indicated that he’s not going to make a major free agent splash between now and Opening Day, but Heyman hears that the Halos have been in contact with Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and perhaps Alex Gordon as well.  It’s not clear how serious they are about signing one of the three, however.
  • Gerardo Parra is said to have “seven or eight” teams in on him and the Rockies are in “serious” pursuit.  Colorado has been considering trades involving Carlos Gonzalez and their other outfielders, so a Parra signing could be a part of a serious outfield overhaul for them.  Parra slashed .291/.328/.452 in 2015 and he boasts a strong reputation as a defensive outfielder, though his fielding statistics took a big step backward last season.  The Royals are also known to have interest.
  • When asked about free agent slugger Chris Davis, one person connected to the Astros said the player is “not in our plans.”  Davis would be a strong fit for Houston, in theory, but he is out of their price range.  The 29-year-old Davis is the top power bat on the open market, as he has led the Majors in homers over the past three seasons.
  • When approached, the Yankees asked the Astros for Lance McCullers Jr. in exchange for Andrew Miller, and Houston quickly rebuffed that attempt.  The Yankees are seeking a No. 1 pitcher in order to part with Miller, so it seems unlikely that he’ll go anywhere.
  • Word is that new Yankees reliever Aroldis Chapman is unlikely to serve a lengthy suspension for his alleged domestic violence incident.  Heyman reasons that the Bombers wouldn’t have made the deal if they felt that Chapman was in store for a long ban.
  • The Padres still need a shortstop but one person with Padres connections wondered whether an investment of  “$60MM to $70MM” (his estimate) made sense for them given that they are not expected to contend this year. However, Heyman notes that president Mike Dee and GM A.J. Preller are aggressive and they might not want to pass up on the chance to ink a player like Desmond at a sensible number.  Heyman also IDs the Rockies and White Sox as dark horse teams for Desmond.
  • The Cardinals were another club that downplayed the possibility of a major move, but GM John Mozeliak went out and signed Mike Leake after publicly stating that he wasn’t going to make any “dynamic” moves.  Could they have another significant move in store?  Heyman has heard buzz that the Cards may also be looking again at a big bat at first or in the outfield.
  • When asked about the possibility of Cespedes, one Nationals-connected person said, “Probably not, at least not at the moment.”  That doesn’t make a signing likely by any means, but it also doesn’t rule out a pursuit.
  • There are still “about six to seven teams involved” when it comes to Cespedes, Heyman writes.
  • The Dodgers are still looking around after signing Scott Kazmir, so they are not out on Japanese star Kenta Maeda.  The Yankees, meanwhile, can be crossed off the list as they are not interested.  Maeda, 28 in April, is widely considered to be one of the best pitchers in Japan. He just wrapped up a season in which he pitched to a 2.09 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 across 206 1/3 innings, marking his sixth consecutive season with an earned run average of 2.60 or better.
  • Marlins president president David Samson contends that owner Jeffrey Loria still has “no interest” in selling the club.

Braves To Sign Kyle Kendrick

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1:20pm: Kendrick’s deal will call for him to earn a $2MM base if he makes the big league roster and incentives can boost the total value to $6MM, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com tweets.

10:09am: The Braves announced that they have signed right-hander Kyle Kendrick to a minor league deal.  The pact includes a non-roster invite to spring training.

Kendrick, 31, is coming off a poor season with the Rockies after signing a one-year, $5.5MM contract last winter. As a fifth starter that doesn’t miss many bats, Kendrick and Coors Field always seemed like a poor fit, but he presumably went with the largest guarantee offered to him last winter.

In 142 1/3 innings with the Rockies, Kendrick limped to a 6.32 ERA. His K/9, BB/9 and ground-ball rates each trended in the wrong direction in his lone season in Denver, and he finished the year with respective marks of 5.1, 2.9 and 38.8 percent in those regards. While Kendrick’s season was easily the worst of his career and likely hampered his 2015-16 market, he did have a track record as a serviceable source of 25 to 30 starts per year in a different hitter-friendly environment: Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.

From 2010-14, Kendrick worked to a 4.33 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate near 46 percent in 835 2/3 innings. He missed some time this past year with inflammation in his right shoulder and has previously spent time on the DL (2013) for the same injury.

Earlier this month, the Pirates were mentioned as a club with interest in Kendrick and that pairing would have made a lot of sense given the club’s reputation for restoring the values of veteran pitchers who have stumbled.  Instead, however, Atlanta has picked him up on a low-risk deal.

Orioles Notes: Span, Kazmir, Kim

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Earlier this week, a report listed the Orioles as one of the favorites to land free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.  However, a team source later told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com that there’s no real chance of the O’s going anywhere near MLBTR’s projected $140MM price tag on Cespedes.  On the other hand, the Orioles have reportedly been willing to lay out a similar amount of money to retain Chris Davis.

While we wait to see if the O’s step up their pursuit of Cespedes or offer up more cash to Davis, here’s a look at the latest from Baltimore:

  •  The Orioles have done their homework on Denard Span, but Kubatko gets the sense that they are unlikely to go beyond a one-year deal for him.  Baltimore has concerns about Span’s durability and the club also wonders if he can pass their physical.  Span, who is coming up on his 32nd birthday, has been excellent when healthy, slashing a combined .301/.358/.421 over the past two seasons with 42 stolen bases in 943 plate appearances.
  • Dan Duquette’s disdain for opt-outs is understandable, but it will be interesting to see if he bends on his policy against them at some point, Rich Dubroff of CSNMidAtlantic.com writes.  Dubroff points out that the Orioles long refused to give four-year deals to free agent pitchers, but they folded for Darren O’Day and Ubaldo Jimenez.  The Orioles missed out on pitching target Scott Kazmir this winter when the veteran inked a three-year deal – including an opt-out – with the Dodgers.
  • On Wednesday, we rounded up some news on the Orioles, including an item on new Korean signee Hyun Soo Kim.

Orioles Sign Hyun-soo Kim

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DEC. 30: Sung Min Kim of River Ave. Blues reports (via Twitter) that Kim will earn $2.8MM in 2016 and $4.2MM in 2017. His contract allows him to become a free agent upon completion (as opposed to arbitration eligibility) and also stipulates that he cannot be assigned to the minor leagues.

DEC. 23: Baltimore has announced the signing.

DEC. 16: The Orioles have agreed to sign Korean outfielder Hyun-soo Kim, Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun tweets.  The deal, worth $7MM over two years (link), is pending a medical review.  Kim, he adds (link), is on his way to Baltimore from Korea tonight.

Kim, who’ll soon turn 28, just reached free agent eligibility after nine seasons with the KBO’s Doosan Bears. He reportedly received offers from multiple MLB clubs, though Baltimore was the first club known to make an offer.  The Orioles have long been said to be looking for one or more outfielders, and the $7MM commitment suggests that Kim will slot into at least a semi-regular role. Baltimore utilized a variety of platoon options in the corner last year, but Kim would “likely” feature in left if signed, Connolly said earlier this week.

Kim has put up a big .318/.406/.488 slash in the offensively robust KBO, and last year had his best-ever showing. Not only did he slash .326/.438/.541, but Kim also banged a career-best 28 home runs. But Kim’s real calling card is in the on-base arena. Unlike some other KBO players who have moved over to MLB (or have shown interest in doing so), Kim is a master of plate discipline. Last year, he struck out only 63 times while drawing 101 free passes.

At $3.5MM per season, Kim will be earning less than many had expected him to earlier this offseason.  At one point,Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports suggested that Kim could get paid “toward the top of the next tier of corner outfielders” behind the four major free agents.  Kim’s market didn’t unfold quite that way, but he did get a decent payday from Baltimore.  If Kim succeeds over the next two seasons, he could see a salary increase as he tries the market again before his 30th birthday.

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