Royals Re-Sign Zack Greinke
FEBRUARY 6: Heyman today provided more specifics of the incentives on Twitter. Greinke will get that $8.5MM guarantee, then $450K for getting to 90 innings pitched and every five innings thereafter up until 135. At 140 innings pitched, he gets a further $300K and keeps adding that amount at each five-inning interval until 185.
FEBRUARY 3: The Royals officially announced Greinke’s new deal. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link), Greinke will earn $8.5MM in guaranteed money, with up to $7.5MM more available in incentives.
JANUARY 30: The Royals have reached agreement on a one-year contract to bring back veteran starter Zack Greinke, according to Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand hears that the deal will be worth $8-10MM in base salary, plus performance-based bonuses. Greinke is a client of Excel Sports Management.
Greinke began his professional career with the Royals way back in 2002 as the No. 6 overall pick in that year’s MLB Draft. He made his big league debut in KC in 2004 and spent his first seven seasons there, highlighted by an AL Cy Young Award win in 2009. Following successful stints with the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Astros between 2011-2021, the eccentric right-hander returned to his old stomping grounds in 2022 and worked to a 3.68 ERA in 26 starts covering 137 innings.
His paltry 4.8 K/9 last year was a career-low and ranked as the worst K/9 of all 90 major league pitchers who logged at least 130 innings over the course of the 2022 regular season. But the 39-year-old showed terrific control (1.8 BB/9) and was generally able to induce more soft contact than hard contact to help pave over his diminished swing-and-miss stuff. Among the 585 total batters he faced during the 2022 campaign, Greinke surrendered only 14 home runs. That worked out to a 0.92 HR/9, putting him right around rising studs like Nestor Cortes, Logan Gilbert, Ranger Suarez and George Kirby.
Greinke can hopefully again serve as an innings-eater and clubhouse mentor for a Royals rotation that has undergone a few offseason changes but will still be relying on a lot of youth pushing forward. Brady Singer, 26, stands out as somebody who made significant gains in 2022, perhaps thanks in part to Greinke’s tutelage. Brad Keller, 27, and Daniel Lynch, 27, could use a similar type of molding.
Greinke figures to be named the Opening Day starter for the Royals in 2023, as he was last year. Singer and Keller project to fall in somewhere behind him, along with newcomers Jordan Lyles and Ryan Yarbrough. Kansas City finished 27th among all 30 teams in combined starter ERA (4.76) in 2022, despite Greinke’s contributions and Singer’s mini-breakout. KC’s combined starter K/9 of 6.9 ranked 28th.
Rangers Hire Ian Kinsler As Special Assistant
The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve hired four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler as a special assistant to general manager Chris Young. Kinsler is slated to serve as the manager for Team Israel in the upcoming World Baseball Classic but will begin his duties in this new role with the Rangers following the WBC.
Kinsler, 40, was a 17th-round pick by the Rangers back in 2003 and, despite that humble draft status, reached the Majors early in the 2006 campaign. He never looked back. Kinsler finished seventh in AL Rookie of the Year voting after turning in a .286/.347/.454 batting line with 14 home runs, 27 doubles, a triple and 11 steals in 120 games, and by 2008 he’d made the first of those four All-Star appearances.
Kinsler spent eight seasons in a Rangers uniform, hitting .273/.349/.454 with 156 home runs and 172 steals in 4791 trips to the plate. Traded to Detroit prior to the 2014 season, he went on to play another six years with the Tigers, Rangers, Red Sox and Padres. The Rangers inducted him into their team Hall of Fame this past summer — the 26th player to receive that honor.
In his new position, Kinsler will join a handful of former big leaguers — including some former teammates — in providing some insight to the baseball operations staff. He joins Michael Young, Darren Oliver, Colby Lewis, Nick Hundley and Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez as a special assistant to Young. The Rangers didn’t provide concrete details on Kinsler’s duties in his new role, noting only that he’ll assist Young “in many facets of baseball operations.”
Follow The NBA Trade Deadline At Hoops Rumors
The NBA trade deadline is just three days away (Thursday at 2:00pm CT), and our sister site Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors on Twitter) has all the latest news and rumors for each of the league’s 30 teams!
There was a blockbuster deal on Sunday, with the Nets agreeing to send Kyrie Irving to the Mavericks in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and draft capital. Irving, an eight-time All-Star point guard, is extremely talented, but has also missed extended time for various reasons in each of the past four seasons. It was definitely a gamble by the Mavs — particularly since Irving is on an expiring contract.
The Suns, Lakers and Clippers all reportedly tried to trade for Irving — will they be able to bolster their rosters ahead of the postseason? What about the defending champion Warriors? Reigning Finals MVP Stephen Curry is out multiple weeks due to partially torn leg ligaments, so their front office will surely be feeling pressure to make moves in order to defend their title.
In the East, everyone is wondering if the Raptors and/or Bulls will become deadline sellers and potentially deal away some of their top players. For Toronto, that includes Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby, while Chicago has a “big three” (DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic) that has mostly disappointed thus far in 2022/23.
For the latest updates on those stories and more, check out Hoops Rumors today! Last season saw a total of 20 in-season trades — including 10 on deadline day alone — and this season could be just as action-packed! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter – @HoopsRumors.
Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher And Current Scout Tim Fortugno
Tim Fortugno‘s path to a Major League life was an unlikely one. He’d played in high school, but didn’t seem to have much shot at the Majors. But as Danny Knobler told it in a Bleacher Report article, Tim threw around a tennis ball during his lunch hour on a construction job as a 20-year-old, which led to him joining the baseball team at Southern California College.
He was drafted multiple times, but didn’t end up signing due to shoulder pain. After a bout of acupuncture seemed to heal Tim’s shoulder, he landed with the Mariners on a $500 signing bonus.
Fortugno was eventually traded to the Phillies, who went on to sell his contract to the Brewers for $2,500 and 12 dozen baseballs. The Angels snagged the lefty in the Rule 5 draft, and in 1992 Fortugno made his MLB debut at the age of 30.
In his second big league appearance, Tim pitched the game of his life: a complete game, 12 strikeout, 129 pitch masterpiece against a vaunted Tigers lineup featuring Tony Phillips, Travis Fryman, Cecil Fielder, and Mickey Tettleton. Toward the end of that season, Tim gave up George Brett’s 3,000th hit – only to pick him off first base.
Tim bounced around after that, eventually finishing his career in Taiwan. Despite pitching only 110 1/3 innings over three seasons with the Angels, Reds, and White Sox, Fortugno can list Brett, Roberto Alomar, Don Mattingly, and Edgar Martinez among his strikeout victims.
After his pitching career, Fortugno moved into scouting. He spent seven years with the Rangers and 14 with the Mets, and has worked for the Rays since October 2019.
Tim chatted with MLBTR readers today, providing many interesting answers about a life in scouting. Click here to read the transcript.
If you’re a current or former MLB player, join us for a one-hour live chat! It’s easy and fun and you get to choose which questions you publish and answer. Click here to contact us.
The Opener: DFA, Extensions, Player Chat
With Spring Training set to begin next week, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Coonrod DFA to be resolved:
The Phillies decision to designate right-hander Sam Coonrod for assignment last week will reach a conclusion today. Coonrod, who was designated in order to make room for Josh Harrison on the 40-man roster, struggled to the tune of a 7.82 ERA (4.61 FIP) over 12 2/3 innings in a 2022 season that was mostly wiped out by a shoulder strain. That said, Coonrod was a useful middle reliever as recently as 2021, when he posted a 4.04 ERA (3.71 FIP) over 42 1/3 innings. If he goes through waivers unclaimed, Coonrod does have enough service time to reject an outright assignment. However, given his $775K arbitration salary for 2023 would be lost in doing so, it’s possible he could accept the outright assignment anyway rather than test free agency.
2. Are more extensions on the way?
The run-up to Spring Training is frequently seen as a time for teams and players to discuss extensions, with most of the heavy lifting done in terms of transactions and baseball activities not yet started up. This past weekend saw the Dodgers announce an extension with shortstop Miguel Rojas that will keep him in L.A. through at least the 2024 season, with a club option for 2025 as well. Rojas joins a handful of players such as Jeff McNeil and Yandy Diaz who have inked extensions recently, and it’s possible more deals could be on the way. Giants ace Logan Webb has reportedly discussed an extension with San Francisco’s front office. It was also recently reported that the Royals front office is looking into extensions for the team’s young core as well.
3. Player Chat today at 10am CT:
MLBTR’s Player Chat series will continue this week, and we’re excited to welcome former big league right-hander and longtime MLB scout Tim Fortugno to host a chat with readers today. Fortugno pitched in parts of three MLB seasons from 1992-95, suiting up for the Angels, Reds and White Sox along the way. He pitched a total of 12 seasons in the minors, three in the majors and another in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. Fortugno has since spent more than 20 years in Major League scouting departments, working for the Rangers, Mets and Rays, who’ve employed him since 2019. Tune in at 10am CT today to ask any questions you have and to read about Fortugno’s wide array of experiences in baseball!
Giants, Stephen Piscotty Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants are in agreement on a minor league contract with free-agent outfielder Stephen Piscotty, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The CAA client will be in big league camp this spring and would earn a $1MM base salary upon making the roster.
It’s a return to the Bay Area for the Pleasanton native, who’s spent the past five seasons in an A’s uniform. Piscotty’s first season in Oakland resulted in a terrific .267/.331/.491 batting line and 27 home runs, but he’s batted just .229/.287/.378 in four seasons since that time, tallying 891 plate appearances along the way.
Originally selected by the Cardinals with the No. 36 pick in the 2012 draft, Piscotty debuted with a flourish, hitting .282/.348/.468 with 29 long balls across 216 games in his first two big league seasons. The Cardinals signed him to a six-year, $33.5MM extension in April 2017, but the majority of the deal was played out in Oakland. Following the 2017 campaign, the A’s and Cardinals worked out a trade sending Yairo Munoz and Max Schrock to St. Louis and sending Piscotty to Oakland. The trade was largely driven by a desire to allow Piscotty to play closer to home, where he could be with his ailing mother as she battled ALS before sadly passing away in 2018.
Now back in the Bay Area, Piscotty will look to get back to his 2015-18 form and reestablish himself as a quality big league outfielder. The Giants signed both Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto this winter, though both have had their recent careers beset by injuries. San Francisco also has Joc Pederson back after accepting his qualifying offer and will see Mike Yastrzemski reprise his role in center field. Other outfield options on the 40-man roster include Austin Slater, Luis Gonzalez and prospect Heliot Ramos.
Mets To Hire Carlos Beltran As Special Assistant To The GM
Carlos Beltran is back with the Mets in a new front office role, according to Jon Heyman, Joel Sherman, and Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. Beltran will work as an assistant to Mets GM Billy Eppler, SNY’s Andy Martino tweets. Beltran hasn’t officially signed a contract yet, though “it’s far enough down the line” that Beltran felt secure in leaving his broadcasting job at the YES Network.
The news comes a little over three years after Beltran stepped down as the club’s manager in the aftermath of the Astros sign-stealing scandal, as Beltran ended up resigning without ever actually managing the Mets in a regular-season game. The scandal created plenty of fallout around baseball, with the Red Sox also firing Alex Cora (who was the Astros’ bench coach in 2017) from his managerial post, and Houston fired both manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow. However, more than three years removed from the scandal, only Luhnow has yet to resurface in a new baseball-related role. The Red Sox re-hired Cora after the 2020 season was over, while the Tigers hired Hinch as their new skipper in advance of the 2021 campaign.
For Beltran, he returned to the fold last year, covering the Yankees as part of the YES Network’s team. Marchand reports that YES was going to shift Beltran from calling games into a studio position for pre-game and postgame coverage heading into 2023, though Beltran recently told the network that he wasn’t returning next season.
In terms of on-field jobs, the Padres had some interest in Beltran for a coaching role last winter. There were also speculative rumblings about a possible reunion between Beltran and the Mets last year, and Heyman, Sherman, and Marchand write that Beltran was indeed under consideration to be New York’s assistant hitting coach.
Instead, Beltran will now be working in the Amazins’ front office. This marks the second front office job of Beltran’s career, as he worked as a special assistant to Yankees GM Brian Cashman in 2019. The Yankees also considered hiring Beltran as manager before Aaron Boone got the job in the 2017-18 offseason, which would’ve marked an even quicker transition for Beltran given that he had only just ended his playing career when the Astros won the 2017 World Series.
While it raised some eyebrows when the Mets hired a manager who had never managed or coached at any level before, it wasn’t an entirely shocking move, given how much respect Beltran commanded around the game. Even before he retired, Beltran was often cited as a possible future manager, or a future front-office executive after he took the advisory role with the Yankees. Of course, that natural leadership ability was a double-edged sword, given that Beltran was reportedly the player who had the biggest role in the Astros’ sign-stealing methods, both helping to mastermind the plan and influencing teammates to follow suit.
No Astros players faced any punishment for their roles in the scandal, as the league gave players immunity in exchange for their details and information about the sign-stealing activities. Of course, Beltran did end up being unofficially punished via the loss of his managerial job, just two months after being hired. It is also fair to assume that the scandal impacted Beltran’s first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot — while Beltran received a solid 46.5% of the vote and seems on pace to eventually be inducted, it is still a sharp drop for a player considered a shoo-in choice at the time of his retirement.
AL Notes: Ohtani, Angels, Vespi, Yoshida, Red Sox
Despite the busy Angels offseason, Shohei Ohtani‘s future remains the team’s biggest question in 2023, and Arte Moreno’s decision not to sell the Angels adds another layer of intrigue to Ohtani’s situation. Speaking with reporters (including the Associated Press), Halos GM Perry Minasian reiterated that the organization would love to keep Ohtani, and suggested that Moreno was willing to pay Ohtani the record-setting contract it might take to keep the two-way star in Anaheim. “[Moreno has] already invested in this club throughout his whole ownership. We’ve been top-10 in payroll for a long time,” Minasian said. “I don’t see that changing. Knowing [Moreno] and knowing how much he wants to win, I wouldn’t put anything out of the realm of possibility.”
Desire to win notwithstanding, Moreno’s ability to construct a winning team is the another factor, as the Angels are mired in a string of seven consecutive losing seasons. Unsurprisingly, Ohtani was openly disappointed by the Halos’ lackluster 2022 campaign, and any doubts he has about the Angels’ ability to compete might possibly result in Ohtani signing with a more proven contender next winter. Even if Moreno is willing to splurge on Ohtani and take the Angels into luxury tax territory, it might not be enough to sway Ohtani from a comparable offer from a winning team.
More from around the American League….
- Orioles left-hander Nick Vespi underwent hernia surgery in early January, and the reliever told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko that he is “cleared to throw, so I am starting to throw already and I’ll be ready for Opening Day.” There was some doubt as to whether or not Vespi’s recovery process might last into the early part of the season, and while it appears that might not be an issue, Vespi will miss pitching for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. Vespi made his MLB debut in 2022, posting a 4.10 ERA over 26 1/3 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen. Cionel Perez and Keegan Akin are Baltimore’s top southpaw options in the relief corps, though Vespi may face further competition from any left-handed starting candidates who don’t make the rotation.
- The Red Sox signed Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90MM deal in December, an investment that surpassed all projections for Yoshida as he made the move from Nippon Professional Baseball to the majors. That said, the Sox also feel “other teams were prepared to bid more aggressively for Yoshida than has been widely reported,” the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes. The Blue Jays and Dodgers were reportedly the other finalists for Yoshida’s services, though it isn’t known what those two clubs were willing to pay. The $90MM guarantee is also a sign of just how much faith the Red Sox have in Yoshida’s ability to continue his production against Major League pitching, which is a belief born from heavy scouting and evaluation of Yoshida in Japan over the last three years.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read the transcript of tonight’s live baseball chat
Rays Notes: Adam, Peralta, Extensions
The Rays and right-hander Jason Adam have had some talks about a multi-year deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports, in advance of Adam’s upcoming arbitration hearing. Adam is one of seven Rays players who couldn’t reach an agreement with the team before the filing deadline, though three of those players (Yandy Diaz, Pete Fairbanks, and Jeffrey Springs) have since signed longer-term contract extensions. This leaves Harold Ramirez, Colin Poche, Ryan Thompson, and Adam still without deals for the 2023 season, until either the arbiter makes their decision or unless the Rays and any of the players avoid arbitration by working out a contract.
Adam is in his first year of arb eligibility, and there isn’t a huge gap between the two sides — the 31-year-old is seeking $1.775MM while the Rays countered with $1.55MM. After intriguing but inconsistent results in his first four MLB campaigns, Adam signed with the Rays last winter and enjoyed the best overall season of his career. The righty posted a 1.56 ERA over 63 1/3 innings in Tampa, with one of the best sets of Statcast metrics of any reliever in baseball.
More from Tropicana Field…
- Also from Topkin’s piece, he writes that is still a “possibility” of a reunion between the Rays and David Peralta, as the club is still looking for a left-handed bat to add some balance to the lineup. Tampa Bay acquired Peralta in a trade with the Diamondbacks last July, and Peralta hit .255/.317/.355 over 47 games and 180 plate appearances with the Rays. This modest performance could have been injury-related, as Topkin reports that Peralta underwent a procedure this offseason to fix disc herniation in his lower back. The Rangers and Yankees have each been linked to Peralta this winter, though this injury situation might explain why the veteran outfielder’s free agent market has been relatively quiet. Prior to the trade, Peralta was enjoying a nice season with the D’Backs, hitting .248/.316/.460 with 12 homers in 310 PA for Arizona.
- The aforementioned spate of extensions allowed the Rays to cut down on their arbitration prep, while also having the obvious benefit of locking up players the club likes as part of a winning nucleus. “We’re always looking to keep players we really appreciate around longer, if we can….We think really highly of this group, and we believe in continuity when we can make it happen,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander told MLB.com’s Adam Berry and other reporters. “It’s often been hard for us to make that happen here with the right mix of players. I think we’re in a really fortunate spot where we can do that right now. And more than anything, extending the chance for this group to play together a little longer is probably the greatest benefit.” Since Tampa Bay had a somewhat slow offseason, it also gave the team more payroll space to afford the extensions.