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Tanner Bibee Earns Full Service Year With Rookie Of The Year Runner-Up

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Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee finished runner-up in this year’s American League Rookie of the Year balloting. While the honor went to Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson, the runner-up placement is an important development for Bibee as he will earn a full year of service time for the 2023 campaign.

In order to disincentivize service time manipulation, the MLBPA and MLB agreed to include a prospect promotion incentive in the collective bargaining agreement that was agreed to prior to the 2022 campaign. As a result of the incentive, players with less than sixty days of service time entering the season receive a full year of service time if they finish in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, so long as they were featured on at least two preseason Top-100 prospect lists from ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline. Bibee met those qualifications, and as such will earn a full year of service time for the 2023 season despite making his big league debut near the end of April. That leaves Bibee likely set to hit free agency after the 2028 season as things stand.

It’s certainly exciting news for Bibee, 24, who looked like a potential front-of-the-rotation arm for the Guardians across 25 starts this season. The right-hander posted a 2.98 ERA that was 40% better than league average by measure of ERA+, alongside a 3.52 FIP that was 17% better than league average by measure of FIP- in 142 innings of work. Impressive as Bibee was during his first season in the majors, there were some potential red flags in his performance, perhaps most notably a whopping 80% strand rate that was ninth-best in the majors among pitchers with at least 120 innings of work this year. His 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate were both right around league average, but his exceptionally low 36.8% groundball rate could leave him vulnerable to major changes in his home-run-to-fly-ball fortunes, particularly if he struggles to replicate his exceptional 6.1% barrel rate.

Still, Bibee figures to be a mid-rotation or better arm for the Guardians going forward even if he’s unable to keep up the incredible production of his rookie season. With Bibee now a year closer to free agency than he otherwise would have been, he figures to have a considerable amount of additional leverage should the Guardians look to engage with him in extension talks. After all, Bibee now figures to hit free agency a few months before his 30th birthday, and free agents who hit the market younger than 30 tend to be in much better position to seek long term commitments from clubs in free agency. Of course, free agency is still a long way away for Bibee and there’s been no indication of the Guardians looking to lock the youngster, who won’t be arbitration eligible until the 2025-26 offseason.

Bibee’s runner-up finish for the award will not earn the Guardians an additional draft pick in the 2024 draft, unlike Henderson’s first-place finish for the Orioles. Baltimore will earn the extra draft pick because Henderson both met the aforementioned criteria to be considered a top prospect preseason and would have qualified for a full year of service time after being on the MLB roster for at least 172 days in 2023. Bibee, meanwhile, was on the roster for just 158 days and would have fallen short of a full year of service time if not for his top-two finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Gunnar Henderson Wins American League Rookie Of The Year Award

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Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson has won Rookie of the Year for the American League, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Tanner Bibee of the Guardians placed second while Triston Casas of the Red Sox placed third.

Henderson got to make his major league debut last year as a September call-up, just a couple of months after his 21st birthday. Despite his young age, he held himself incredibly well. His 25.8% strikeout rate was a bit above average, but he also drew walks at a 12.1% clip. His .259/.348/.440 batting line last year resulted in a 128 wRC+, indicating he was 28% above league average in that time. That call-up gave him a chance to get a taste of the majors while maintaining rookie status, since he didn’t get to 130 at-bat or 45 days on the roster.

The O’s came into 2023 looking to firmly stamp out their rebuild and make the postseason for the first time since 2016. Henderson’s first full season helped them do just that, as he hit 28 home runs and stole 10 bases. His walk rate dipped to 9%, though that was still above league average. His .259/.348/.440 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 123. He split his time between shortstop and third base, getting strong grades at both positions. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 4.6 wins above replacement while Baseball Reference had him at 6.2. The Orioles, meanwhile, won 101 games and took the top spot in the American League East.

The award is surely gratifying for Henderson and the O’s in and of itself, but there are other implications of this news. 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 Henderson, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #1 prospect on all three of those lists.

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 Henderson 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 O’s, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.

Bibee and Casas also had strong seasons, but not enough to catch Henderson. The former made 25 starts for the Guards with a 2.98 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. He wasn’t promoted until late April but will earn a full service year by getting second place in this voting. But since he didn’t get that service year the traditional way, the Guards won’t get a bonus draft pick. Casas hit 24 home runs and walked in 13.9% of his plate appearances, leading to a .263/.367/.490 batting line and 129 wRC+. He was in the majors all year, so the voting won’t impact him from a service time perspective, but he falls just shy of getting the Red Sox a bonus pick.

Henderson was a unanimous selection, per the full vote tally from the BBWAA, getting all 30 first-place votes. Bibee got 20 of the second-place votes while Casas got six. Other players receiving votes were Josh Jung of the Rangers, Yainer Diaz of the Astros, Masataka Yoshida of the Red Sox, Edouard Julien of the Twins and Anthony Volpe of the Yankees.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blue Jays Hire DeMarlo Hale As Associate Manager

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The Blue Jays announced that they have hired DeMarlo Hale as associate manager, working under manager John Schneider.

It’s a homecoming for Hale, 62, who was with the Jays as bench coach from 2013 to 2018. He then went to the Atlanta organization for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, working the first year in the minors and then joining the major league coaching staff in the second.

For the past three seasons, Hale has been the bench coach for the Guardians, working under Terry Francona. That has occasionally given Hale managerial opportunities on an interim basis, as Francona has had to step away at times due to health issues.

The Guardians are making some shifts to their staff this year, which will be their first without Francona in quite some time. He is stepping aside and the club hired Stephen Vogt to take his place, with Craig Albernaz also coming aboard as major league field coordinator. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reported last week that Hale was still deciding whether or not to return to Cleveland but it appears he will make the return trip to Toronto.

The Jays have also been doing some shuffling on their staff. Don Mattingly was the bench coach in 2023 and will continue in that role next year, though the club recently added “offensive coordinator” to his title. It isn’t exactly clear what Hale’s associate manager title will cover, but it’s possible some of Mattingly’s bench coach duties might fall to Hale if Mattingly is going to be doing some hitting coach-type stuff. Mattingly is also a candidate for the open managerial vacancy in Milwaukee, so perhaps Hale gives the Jays a fallback if the Brewers end up plucking Mattingly away.

Cam Gallagher Elects Free Agency

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Cam Gallagher has elected to become a free agent, according to the veteran catcher’s official MLB.com profile page.  The Guardians designated Gallagher for assignment earlier this week and he presumably cleared waivers, and then opted for free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment to Cleveland’s Triple-A team.  Because Gallagher has been outrighted before in his career, he has the ability to reject any future outright assignments.

Gallagher seemed like a pretty clear non-tender candidate even before the Guardians picked up Christian Bethancourt off waivers from the Rays, which was the move that led to Gallagher’s DFA.  Over 149 plate appearances for the Guardians last season, Gallagher hit only .126/.154/.168 — this translated to an ugly -17 wRC+, the lowest of any player in baseball in 2023 with at least 140 PA.

Seven different players saw action at catcher for the Guards last season, a mess of a situation sparked when offseason acquisition Mike Zunino struggled badly at the plate.  This led to a revolving door of backstops until Zunino was designated for assignment in June, and Bo Naylor was called up from Triple-A for good.  With Naylor’s bat coming alive near the end of the season, the former top prospect looks to have solidified his role as the Guardians’ starting catcher going forward, hopefully adding some pop to a position that has long been an offensive black hole for Cleveland.

Between Naylor, Bethancourt, and utilityman David Fry able to catch once in a while, there wasn’t any room for Gallagher to vie for work as a backup.  Gallagher is projected to earn $1.3MM via the arbitration process in 2024, but it seems likely that he’ll have to settle for another minor league contract and compete for a backup job in Spring Training.

Turning 31 next month, Gallagher is a veteran of 227 MLB games over seven seasons with the Royals and Guardians, with a .211/.266/.307 slash line over 618 PA.  While the offense hasn’t been there, Gallagher is a pretty well-regarded defender, and 2023 was at least a very strong year for Gallagher with the glove.  As per Statcast’s numbers, Gallagher was solidly above average at framing and blocking, and he threw out nine of 52 baserunners for his first-ever positive (+1) grade in the Catcher Stealing Runs metric.

Guardians Hire Craig Albernaz As Field Coordinator

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  • The Guardians announced that Craig Albernaz has been hired as their big league coaching staff’s new field coordinator.  Albernaz interviewed for the managerial vacancy that was filled by Stephen Vogt, though obviously Albernaz impressed the Guards enough to earn a spot in the organization.  The 41-year-old Albernaz played with Vogt when both were minor leaguers in the Rays farm system, and Albernaz went onto a five-season stint in Tampa’s organization as a coach, coordinator, and manager in the minors after ending his playing career.  For the last four seasons, Albernaz was the Giants’ bullpen coach.

Guardians, Adam Oller Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Guardians have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Adam Oller, reports Ari Alexander of Houston’s KPRC-2. The Gaeta Sports client will receive an invitation to Major League spring training and reunite with former teammate and new Cleveland skipper Stephen Vogt with this deal.

Oller, 29, was traded from the Mets to the A’s alongside prospect J.T. Ginn in the 2021-22 offseason trade that sent Chris Bassitt from Oakland to Queens. He spent parts of two seasons with the A’s and logged 94 innings between their rotation and bullpen, but Oller was hit hard in that time. Big league opponents turned in a .294/.378/.556 batting line against Oller in spite of his pitcher-friendly home environs, and by the time Oakland designated him for assignment, he’d been roughed up for a 7.09 ERA. The right-hander has fanned 13.5% of his opponents against an 11.6% walk rate.

Major League struggles notwithstanding, Oller was sharp at the Triple-A level both in 2021 with the Mets (2.45 ERA in 44 innings) and in 2022 with the A’s (3.69 ERA in 31 1/3 innings). He struggled with the top affiliates of both the A’s and Mariners (who claimed him from Oakland) during the most recent campaign, but Oller’s overall minor league track record has the look of a potential depth starter or swingman if he can shake off a tough ’23 campaign.

The Guardians’ pitching staff experienced an enormous amount of turnover in 2023, but Cleveland’s nearly unrivaled ability to churn out quality arms remained on display. A series of injuries and poor performances led the Guards to call up top prospects Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Gavin Williams for each pitcher’s big league debut, and all three hit the ground running. That trio looks like the focal point of the rotation moving forward.

Cleveland surely hopes that impressive young righty Triston McKenzie will be back to full strength to join them after a teres major strain and a UCL sprain shortened his season. Former AL Cy Young winner Shane Bieber has another year of club control remaining, but he was limited by injuries as well and has been floated as a potential offseason trade candidate with just one year to go before he reaches the open market. Cal Quantrill, who struggled immensely in 2023, is also still under club control, while depth options like Xzavion Curry, Joey Cantillo and Hunter Gaddis are all on the 40-man roster, too.

Guardians Designate Cam Gallagher For Assignment

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The Guardians announced that right-hander Tanner Bibee was activated from the 60-day injured list, a procedural move since there’s no IL from today until Spring Training. To open a 40-man spot for him, catcher Cam Gallagher was designated for assignment.

Gallagher looked like a non-tender candidate entering the offseason. After signing last offseason, the right-handed hitter ran a .126/.154/.168 line across 149 plate appearances as a backup catcher. Even with a modest projected arbitration salary of $1.3MM, the complete lack of offense made it difficult for Cleveland to keep him on the MLB roster.

It became clear they’d move on once they claimed Christian Bethancourt from the Rays this afternoon. The Guards will now have a week to trade Gallagher or put him on waivers. Assuming he goes unclaimed, he’ll become a free agent.

Guardians Claim Christian Bethancourt From Rays

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The Guardians have claimed catcher Christian Bethancourt from the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The latter club had placed the backstop on waivers over the weekend. Cleveland has yet to officially announce the move.

This ends Bethancourt’s tenure with the Rays, which began a little before the 2022 trade deadline. Tampa Bay acquired the right-handed hitter in a deal with Oakland, sending a pair of minor leaguers to the A’s. The Panamanian catcher owned a .249/.298/.385 line with the A’s and provided similar production down the stretch in St. Pete, hitting .255/.265/.436 over 45 games.

That was enough to hold his roster spot into 2023. Bethancourt’s low on-base numbers became more of a problem this past season. Over 332 trips to the plate, he hit .225/.254/.381. The one-time top prospect connected on 11 home runs but walked at a 3.9% clip while striking out 27.4% of the time. His strikeout rate was pushing 30% in the second half, contributing to Tampa Bay’s decision to give an increasing share of the reps to René Pinto.

Once the season came to a close, it became apparent Bethancourt would no longer be in the Rays’ plans. He was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2.3MM salary if tendered a contract. While that’s not an outlandish figure, the Rays have a huge arbitration class and intended to look for a catching upgrade. Rather than wait until the non-tender deadline, they placed him on waivers a few weeks early.

Cleveland’s decision to place a claim indicates they’re likely to tender Bethancourt at that price. The Guardians have lefty-hitting Bo Naylor as their #1 option. Cleveland didn’t get much out of Cam Gallagher this year, though, making him a non-tender candidate. Bethancourt could take on the backup role as a righty-swinging complement to Naylor. Statcast pegs him as a below-average framer and blocker but credits him with excellent arm strength, a plus he has had dating back to his prospect days.

Bethancourt has between four and five years of service. He’d therefore be eligible for arbitration again next offseason if he holds his roster spot all year.

Guardians Hire Stephen Vogt As Manager

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The Guardians have their next manager. Cleveland announced the hiring of longtime MLB catcher Stephen Vogt on Monday afternoon. It’s reportedly a three-year contract running through the 2026 season.

Vogt, who recently celebrated his 39th birthday, made his big league debut for the Rays in 2012. He went on to play for five more organizations over his ten seasons in the majors, including six years with the A’s. During his time in Oakland, Vogt slashed .246/.308/.406 good for a roughly league average wRC+ of 98 and was named an All Star in both 2015 and 2016. He also played for the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Giants, and Braves throughout his big league career. Upon retiring from playing following the 2022 season, Vogt was hired by the Mariners to act as a bullpen and quality control coach in Seattle.

Vogt will now step into the shoes of the recently-retired Terry Francona as Guardians manager. It’s a remarkable achievement for the former catcher, who moves into the role just one year removed from his time as a player. As quick an ascent to the managerial chair as Vogt has had, it’s hardly an unexpected one. Vogt publicly voiced his managerial aspirations while he was still a player back in 2020, and he has long been regarded as up to the task among those in the game. Bob Melvin, who managed Vogt in Oakland and has since moved from the Padres to the Giants, noted even as Vogt was first retiring from professional play that his long-time player “definitely has a future in managing” while adding that his value in the clubhouse during his playing career was “immeasurable.”

Such a strong endorsement from a well-respect big league manager surely gives the Guardians assurance that he’ll be able to lead their roster into an uncertain 2024 campaign. After making a surprise run to the playoffs in 2022, Cleveland faced regression from many of their young players and injuries to key members of their pitching staff as they wound up finishing third in a weak AL Central with a 76-86 record. As the club looks to rebound next season, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti was particularly effusive in his praise of the longtime catcher in a statement today.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Stephen and his family to Northeast Ohio and to name him the next manager of the Cleveland Guardians,” Antonetti said in the statement, “Stephen earned a reputation as one of the best teammates in the game across his 16-year career as a player, and we’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know him over the past several weeks. Stephen has thought critically about the type of leader and manager he wants to be. His deep care for others, his ability to build meaningful relationships with those around him, and his open-mindedness and curiosity make him an ideal fit to lead our club moving forward. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Stephen.”

While the Guardians are clearly pleased to have Vogt in the fold, it’s worth noting that all indications have pointed to longtime Brewers manager Craig Counsell as the club’s top choice for the role. Counsell is a free agent for the first time since becoming Milwaukee’s manager midway through the 2015 campaign, and has received considerable interest from each of the Guardians, Mets, and Brewers already this offseason. While the thinking throughout the game has largely been that the Guardians were a distant third among the three in terms of likelihood to land Counsell, a Wisconsin native who had a strong working relationship with new Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns during their time in Milwaukee, Jon Heyman of the New York Post makes clear that Cleveland’s interest in Counsell was real, noting that the club made a “serious, sincere run” at hiring the 53-year-old.

Beyond the possibility of hiring Counsell, it seems that Cleveland’s preference in replacing Francona may have been a rookie manager. Setting aside Counsell, it seems that Yankee bench coach Carlos Mendoza was the runner-up for Cleveland’s managerial gig. The 43-year-old was reportedly a favorite for the role along with Vogt in the event that Counsell declined, and has also received interest from a variety of clubs with managerial vacancies this offseason including the Mets and Padres.

Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com first reported the Guardians were hiring Vogt. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported it would be a three-year deal.

Stephen Vogt, Carlos Mendoza "Favorites" For Guardians Job If Craig Counsell Declines

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That’s not necessarily a completely far-fetched scenario, however. After all, Counsell seems likely to have his pick between the Mets, Guardians, and the incumbent Brewers, all of whom appear to be prioritizing Counsell as their top option to lead their club in the dugout next year. It’s unclear where Counsell will ultimately land, reports have indicated that Counsell will at least offer Milwaukee a chance to match whatever salary offer he receives from New York and Cleveland. If Counsell does wind up returning to Milwuakee, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com relayed recently that the favorites for the job with the Guardians would then be Mendoza and Mariners coach Stephen Vogt.

That creates at least the possibility of a situation where the Brewers retain Counsell while the Guardians land Mendoza, leaving the Mets unsure about who their next manager will be. Cubs bench coach and former Padres manager Andy Green as well as current A’s manager Mark Kotsay have both been noted as possible candidates for the manager job in New York in the past, and the Mets are known to be searching for an external candidate, specifically.

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