The Opener: Braves, SP Market, MLBTR Chat
Here are three things we’ll be watching around baseball throughout the day today as the New Year approaches:
1. After extending Murphy, have the Braves maxed out their payroll?
The Braves agreed to a six-year, $73MM extension that could be taken to seven-years, $88MM if the Braves exercise a 2029 club option, locking one of the best catchers in the game up under team control for the rest of the 2020s. In inking Murphy to this deal, however, Atlanta finds itself projected to pay into the luxury tax for the first time in club history, per RosterResource. This isn’t entirely unexpected, as the Braves were reportedly considering exceeding the luxury tax threshold earlier this month, while ownership had previously mentioned fielding a top five payroll in the sport. RosterResource has Atlanta clocking in at the fifth-highest luxury tax figure in the majors after the Murphy deal, meaning they’ve already hit the point ownership has indicated to be comfortable spending by one metric, even though their actual projected 2023 payroll of $198MM ranks eighth in the majors. Should this be the upper limit of what the club’s budget will allow, that will leave Atlanta heading into the 2023 season with Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna, and Jordan Luplow sharing time between left field and the DH slot (perhaps with Travis d’Arnaud chipping in at DH as well). It’s hardly a group that inspires confidence, though, so it’s possible that the Braves would explore the trade market for ways to shed salary and open up payroll space for another bat in the left field mix if they are unwilling to go farther beyond the luxury tax threshold.
2. The Starting Pitching Market Continues To Thin
The already-thin free agent market for starting pitchers just lost its top remaining option last night, as the Rangers signed Nathan Eovaldi to a two-year deal worth $34MM in a move that likely pushes Jake Odorizzi to the bullpen when the rotation is fully healthy. Eovaldi wasn’t the only pitcher to sign yesterday, either, as Rich Hill will join the twelfth club of his career in 2023 after signing a one-year, $8MM deal with the Pirates. As many as half a dozen teams out there have been connected to the starting pitching market this offseason are likely still looking for an arm, whether they’re clear contenders looking for depth such as the Dodgers, Padres, and Cardinals or they’re a team still looking to fill out the rotation such as the Orioles, Diamondbacks, or Angels. With so many teams still in the hunt for a starter and both Eovaldi and Hill landed with teams who weren’t seen as locks to add another pitcher to their rotations, that could open the door for teams with starting depth to take advantage on the trade market. This includes the Marlins, as we discussed in yesterday’s Opener, but other teams could jump in to capitalize on the thin market as well. The Mariners, for example, have been rumored to be willing to deal either Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen to improve the club in other areas, while the Twins and Guardians are among other teams that could have enough starting depth that they could feel comfortable dealing a starter. Still, the free agent market isn’t completely barren yet, as players such as Michael Wacha, Corey Kluber, and Zack Greinke remain unsigned.
3. MLBTR Chat Today
Have the recent moves this offseason left you with questions burning in your mind? Are you looking for answers about your favorite team’s direction? Or perhaps you simply missed the holiday chat hosted by MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk on Christmas Eve? Whatever the case may be, you can tune in at 3PM CST today, when MLBTR’s Anthony Franco will be hosting a live chat and fielding questions from readers. You can submit a question in advance using this link, and the same link will take you to the chat when it begins if you would like to check back and participate in real time.
Braves Sign Sean Murphy To Six-Year Extension
The Braves tonight announced they’ve extended catcher Sean Murphy on a six-year, $73MM contract. The deal comes with a $15MM club option for 2029 which does not include a buyout. As part of the deal, Murphy will take home $4MM in 2023, $9MM in 2024, and $15MM in 2025-28. He’ll also donate 1% of his salary to the Atlanta Braves Foundation. Atlanta had only acquired the Rowley Sports Management client as the headliner of a three-team trade that included the Brewers and Athletics earlier this month. Murphy was first-year arbitration-eligible going into 2023, so this deal buys out his remaining three years of club control as well as potentially four free agent years.
The move continues Atlanta’s recent trend of extending their core of starting players, and Murphy joins Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider and Michael Harris as players on the current roster that have received long-term extensions while still under club control. That group of players can now be controlled by Atlanta through 2027, while only Acuna Jr. and Albies have deals that expire before 2029.
The 28-year-old Murphy has established himself as one of the best catchers in all of baseball in recent seasons with Oakland. At the plate, he’s hit 46 home runs and a combined .236/.326/.429 line across parts of four big league seasons. That’s been good for a wRC+ of 116, indicating he’s been 16 percent better than the league average hitter. He took a step forward at the plate in 2022 as well, knocking around 5% off his career strikeout rate and posting a .250/.332/.426 line over 612 plate appearances.
Defensively, he’s posted 12 Defensive Runs Saved since 2020 which places him in the top ten league wide. Fangraphs framing metric ranks him as the third-best pitch framer in the sport in that same period as well. That combination of strong defense and above-average offense has amounted to a career haul of 10.6 fWAR, with 2022 accounting for 5.1 of that tally.
Murphy’s form, Oakland’s rebuild and a thin free agent market for catchers made him one of those most hotly talked about trade chips in the sport going into the off-season. Sure enough, as many as nine teams were connected with him in the weeks leading up to his December 12 trade. It was a good old-fashioned blockbuster as well, as the Braves sent Royber Salinas, Manny Pina, Kyle Muller and Freddy Tarnok to Oakland, and William Contreras and Justin Yeager to the Brewers to complete the deal.
The match with Atlanta wasn’t always the most obvious fit on paper, given the Braves had a strong catching trio of Travis D’Arnaud, Pina and Contreras on the books moving forward. Clearly though, general manager Alex Anthopolous saw an opportunity to upgrade that group and shipped out Pina and Contreras to make room for Murphy.
It’s now the second-successive winter that Atlanta have traded for one of Oakland’s stars and immediately extended him. Last off-season, they acquired Olson and a day later signed him to an eight-year, $168MM extension. Olson has already established himself as a key part of the Braves’ core, and now it seems Murphy will do the same from 2023 onwards.
As mentioned earlier, a raft of extensions have established a strong core in Atlanta. As well as those, they also have Max Fried under control through 2024, rookie Vaughn Grissom through 2028, and Kyle Wright through 2026. For a team that won 101 games in 2022, it’s certainly heartening for Braves fans to know that much of that core – and now their biggest off-season addition – will be around long term.
Per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’ predictions, Murphy was slated to earn $3.5MM in arbitration this season, so he’ll take home only a $500K raise on that figure for next season. That is significant for luxury tax calculations though, which account for a contract’s AAV. In Murphy’s case, that’ll be an AAV of just over $12MM which pushes the Braves into the first tier of luxury tax, despite RosterResource estimating their actual payroll sitting at around $198MM currently (the first luxury tax threshold is $233MM). Of course, the Braves could look to unload salary to get below that mark, but it’d only be a small penalty on any overage at this stage. Further, they’ll have just over $50MM worth of club options (with no buyouts) on Charlie Morton, D’Arnaud, Kirby Yates, Collin McHugh, Orlando Arcia and Eddie Rosario to decide on next winter, which could comfortably get them back under the threshold.
Rangers Designate Nick Mears For Assignment
The Rangers have designated right-hander Nick Mears for assignment, the team announced. Texas needed a 40 man roster spot after signing Nathan Eovaldi to a two-year, $34MM deal tonight. Mears spent less than a week with the team, having been claimed off waivers from the Pirates on December 23.
Mears, 26, tossed 30 1/3 innings of relief for the Pirates over the past three years, working to a combined 4.75 ERA. He’s shown solid strikeout stuff, punching out batters at an almost perfectly league-average 22.7% clip. Walks were a problem though, as Mears worked to a well below-average 14.9% walk rate over the past three seasons.
Originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Pirates back in 2018, Mears came through their system posting big strikeout numbers as a reliever in the lower levels of the minor leagues. He struggled a bit once he reached Triple-A though, maintaining a good strikeout clip but seeing the walks rise. Over the past few seasons at Triple-A, Mears has worked to a 4.98 ERA over 43 1/3 innings of work.
Mears has just over one year of service time, and still has a minor league option remaining, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a team with 40-man roster space put in a claim for him as a bullpen depth piece.
NPB Signings: Leandro Cedeno, Courtney Hawkins
A couple of former minor leaguers have landed deals to play in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. The Orix Buffaloes have landed first-baseman/outfielder Leandro Cedeno – a former Cardinals and Diamondbacks prospect – for the upcoming season, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Cedeno will earn a base salary of $500K, with a further $350K available in incentives. Meanwhile, Courtney Hawkins will head to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, per Yahoo Japan.
Cedeno, 24, was signed by the Cardinals out of Venezuela in 2014. He made it as high as Double-A with St Louis, hitting .257/.309/.432 with three home runs in 81 plate appearances there in 2021. The Cards released him at the end of the season, and he joined Arizona on a minor league deal. He showed a huge power surge after joining the Diamondbacks, belting 30 home runs and hitting .310/.374/.563 in 479 plate appearances. That earned him some time in Triple-A, and in a 58 plate appearance sample size Cedeno hit .291/.328/.436 with two home runs before he elected free agency at the end of the season.
Although he spent most of his time in the outfield (and even some time as a catcher) earlier on in his career, Cedeno was almost exclusively a first-baseman/DH in the Diamondbacks’ minor league system last season.
Hawkins, 29, was a first round pick for the White Sox back in the 2012 draft. He showed tremendous promise as a minor leaguer, with Baseball America ranking him the 55th best prospect in baseball as a 19-year-old prior to the 2013 campaign. Unfortunately for Hawkins, that 2013 campaign would see him hit just .178/.249/.384 in 103 games at High-A. The numbers would never really recover, and Hawkins found himself a free agent after the 2018 season. Minor league stints with the Reds and Giants would follow, but neither came with any success and Hawkins has been playing independent ball since 2019.
He has found a bit of success there, mashing 106 home runs over 335 games in parts of five seasons, compiling a combined line of .301/.392/.619. The past season for Lexington, Hawkins slugged 48 home runs in 556 plate appearances for a .298/.399/.655 line. A center-fielder in his early days, Hawkins spent most of the past few seasons manning left-field.
Fred Valentine Passes Away
Former major league outfielder Fred Valentine has passed away, the Nationals announced. He was 87 years old.
Valentine, a Mississippi native, attended Tennessee State University. He entered the professional ranks in 1956 as a member of the Orioles organization. Three years later, he made his MLB debut with 12 games for Baltimore. The switch-hitter spent a few more seasons in Triple-A before briefly returning to the big leagues in 1963.
Following the ’63 campaign, the O’s sold his contract to the Washington Senators. Valentine played his first couple years in a part-time role with Washington before a breakout showing in 1966. That season saw him swipe 22 bases, collect 16 home runs and put together a .276/.351/.455 line across 578 trips to the plate. Valentine picked up some down-ballot MVP support during what proved to be a career-best showing. He hit .234/.330/.346 the following season, roughly average output during a year in which the league hit .242/.306/.357.
Midway through the ’68 season, Washington dealt Valentine back to the Orioles for pitcher Bruce Howard. Valentine wrapped up his MLB career with 84 games between the two clubs that year. He spent the 1969 season back in Triple-A before finishing his playing career with a year for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan.
All told, Valentine appeared in parts of seven MLB campaigns. He hit .247/.330/.373 through 533 games, connecting on 36 home runs while stealing 47 bases. Valentine drove in 138 runs and scored 180 times. After his playing career wrapped up, he helped found the MLB Players Alumni Association in 1982.
MLBTR sends our condolences to Valentine’s family, friends, loved ones, former teammates and those who knew him from his time with the MLBPAA.
Reds Sign Austin Romine, Alan Busenitz To Minor League Deals
The Reds announced this afternoon they’ve brought in catcher Austin Romine and reliever Alan Busenitz on minor league contracts. Both players will be in major league camp as non-roster invitees.
Romine, 34, returns to Cincinnati, where he spent the stretch run in 2022. Acquired in a deadline day trade with the Cardinals, the veteran played out the year in a depth role. He suited up 37 times for the Reds, hitting .147/.173/.263 across 99 trips to the plate. Cincinnati was one of three teams for Romine in 2022, as he also spent brief time with the Angels and St. Louis.
Between the trio of teams, the righty-hitting backstop posted a .155/.187/.248 line through 136 plate appearances. That was his most robust MLB workload since 2019, though he’s now appeared in the majors in 11 of the past 12 seasons overall. A longtime backup with the Yankees, Romine has played for five clubs since reaching free agency in advance of the 2020 season. He’s a .230/.268/.348 hitter in over 1400 career plate appearances.
Romine brings plenty of experience and some familiarity with the pitching staff to Reds camp. Cincinnati has already signed Curt Casali and Luke Maile to MLB deals this winter, bringing in a pair of depth options behind highly-regarded young backstop Tyler Stephenson. Barring injury, it’s hard to envision Romine cracking the Opening Day roster. He’s likely to start the season at Triple-A Louisville and remain on hand if the organization needs to call upon a veteran depth option.
Busenitz, 32, came out of the Twins bullpen 51 times between 2017-18. He worked to a 4.58 ERA through 57 innings. After the second campaign, Minnesota granted him his release to sign with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
The right-hander has spent the past four seasons in Japan, where he carved out a career as a solid late-game option. Busenitz pitched to a 2.83 ERA through 155 2/3 NPB innings. His 18.8% strikeout percentage was fairly modest, though his 8.6% walk rate is manageable. The Kennesaw State product returns stateside on the heels of a 2022 campaign that saw him toss 31 2/3 frames of 2.27 ERA ball with a 20% strikeout rate at Japan’s top level.
Diamondbacks Sign Zach McAllister To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Zach McAllister to a minor league deal, per Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. McAllister will presumably receive an invitation to major league Spring Training, though no official announcement has been made.
McAllister, 35, appeared in eight big league seasons from 2011 to 2018 but hasn’t made it back since. He spent most of that big league tenure with Cleveland before getting released in 2018 and then making three appearances with the Tigers. He was a solid starter for a time, posting a 4.24 ERA over 22 starts in 2012 and then a 3.75 ERA in 24 starts in 2013. He struggled in 2014, however, and was transitioned into a bullpen role.
He had a good three-year run of effective relief from 2015 to 2017, posting a 2.99 ERA in that time while striking out 26.1% of batters faced and walking 8.6% of them. Unfortunately, his ERA ballooned to 6.20 in 2018, leading to his release. He’s been pitching in the minors since then, spending 2022 in the Cardinals’ system. He tossed 67 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.99 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate. He’ll provide the Snakes with a veteran depth option who is coming off a season of solid results in the minors.
Enny Romero Signs With KBO’s SSG Landers
The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have signed left-hander Enny Romero (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Romero will make $800K with another $200K available in incentives.
Romero, 32 in January, made 137 MLB appearances from 2013 to 2018, spending time with the Rays, Nationals, Pirates and Royals. He has a career 5.12 ERA but was bombed for a 12.60 mark over 10 innings in 2018 and hasn’t been able to get back to the majors since then.
Romero has since pitched in Japan in 2019, as well as 2021 and 2022. With the Chunichi Dragons in 2019, he was given a rotation job, throwing 116 1/3 innings over 21 appearances with a 4.26 ERA. He didn’t pitch in 2020 but returned to Japan for 2021, this time joining the Chiba Lotte Marines. He was limited to just four appearances that year but had a more substantial showing in 2022, throwing 115 1/3 innings with a 3.36 ERA over 20 games.
For 2023, Romero will stay overseas but will jump from Japan to Korea in order to suit up for the Landers. He’s still young enough that he could return to North American at some point, but for now, he’s secured himself a salary a bit above the major league minimum, which will be $720K in 2023.
Pirates, Rich Hill In Agreement On One-Year Deal
The Pirates and left-hander Rich Hill are in agreement on a one-year, $8MM deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal is pending a physical. Hill is an ACES client.
Hill, 43 in March, has one of the most unique baseball stories. He had some success as a starter early in his career, which began with the Cubs. Back in 2007, he made 32 starts for the Cubbies, tossing 195 innings with a 3.92 ERA. However, injuries and underperformance led to an extended period of struggle for Hill. He didn’t reach 60 MLB innings pitched in any season from 2008 to 2015, often struggling with his health or command or both while bouncing to Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, the Angels and the Yankees.
Hill’s struggles were so pronounced that he wound up pitching for the Long Island Ducks for a spell in 2015, but he showed enough promise there to earn a minor league deal from the Red Sox. He got promoted late in the season and made four starts with an ERA of 1.55. That was enough for the A’s to take a gamble on him, as they signed him to a $6MM deal for his age-36 season. Hill cemented his improbable late-career comeback by posting a 2.12 ERA in 2016 over 20 starts and has continued to generally post solid results in each year since.
Hill isn’t a workhorse, as he hasn’t hit 160 innings in any season outside of that 2007 campaign with the Cubs. What he has been able to provide in recent years is generally strong innings on a rate basis. From 2016 to the present, he’s made at least 20 starts and logged at least 110 frames in five of the six full seasons, with 2019 being the lone exception when a forearm strain limited him to just 13 starts and 58 2/3 innings. In that time, he has a 3.39 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.7% ground ball rate, spending time with the A’s, Dodgers, Twins, Rays, Mets and Red Sox.
The southpaw hasn’t been quite as successful in the past three seasons, especially in the strikeout department. While he punched out 29% of batters faced from 2016 to 2019, it’s been just 21.6% since then. That’s pushed his ERA up as well, as he got to 4.27 with Boston in 2022, with a 20.7% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 40.2% ground ball rate this year. Nonetheless, he’s still found ways to be effective, as his hard hit rate was in the 79th percentile this year and his average exit velocity in the 56th.
Going into his age-43 campaign, Hill still garnered plenty of interest on the open market this offseason. The Orioles, Angels, Rangers and Red Sox all showed some interest, but it’s the Pirates that have secured his services for 2023. Hill is the second rotation addition the club has made this offseason, as they also added Vince Velasquez a few weeks ago. Those two should slot next to Mitch Keller, JT Brubaker and Roansy Contreras in the club’s rotation, bumping Bryse Wilson to a long-relief role in the bullpen. The club will have Johan Oviedo, Luis Ortiz and some other arms available as depth for inevitable injuries or future trades. For those clubs that missed out on Hill, the free agent starting pitching market is now topped by the likes of Nathan Eovaldi, Corey Kluber, Michael Wacha and Johnny Cueto.
The Bucs have been firmly in rebuild mode for a few years and are coming off a 100-loss season, but they’ve been fairly active in adding veterans for 2023. They acquired Ji-Man Choi in a trade with the Rays and have also signed Carlos Santana, Austin Hedges and Jarlín García, as well as adding Velasquez and Hill to the rotation. All of those players are lined up to be short-term additions, as they are each slated for free agency after 2023. Though those players could make the club more competent for the upcoming season, they’re also lined up to be trade candidates about half a year from now unless the Pirates suddenly take a huge leap forward in their rebuilding process. Regardless, they should all be able to impart some wisdom to the younger players from their years in the game, with Hill the most qualified to contribute in that capacity. The retirement of Albert Pujols leaves him as the oldest player in the majors.
Financially, this signing bring the Pittsburgh payroll up to $70MM, according to the calculations of Roster Resource. That puts the club well beyond last year’s $56MM, per figures from Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but well shy of their franchise record of just under $100MM. There’s no real long-term investment to speak of, as Ke’Bryan Hayes is still the only player under contract for 2024, but this winter’s crop of one-year deals represents the most aggressive additions for the team in a few years.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mets Designate William Woods For Assignment
The Mets have made their signing of reliever Adam Ottavino official, announcing it today. They also announced that right-hander William Woods was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Woods, 24 later this week, was on Baseball America’s list of top 30 Atlanta prospects in each of the past two seasons, with BA highlighting a fastball that has been reaching triple digits after the minors were canceled in 2020. Injuries limited him to just 10 2/3 innings in 2021 but the club still added him to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
He made his MLB debut this year but was only given the chance to make two appearances in the show. He tossed 25 1/3 innings at various minor league stops, but posted a disappointing 6.04 ERA, along with a 24.1% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate.
He was designated for assignment in November and was claimed by the Mets, who were facing a huge bullpen exodus at the time. Edwin Díaz was quickly re-signed but Ottavino, Seth Lugo, Trevor May, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez and Mychal Givens all became free agents. The Mets have since improved the situation by re-signing Ottavino, signing David Robertson and trading for Brooks Raley. Woods has now been squeezed off the roster and The Mets will have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He could stick with the organization if he were to clear those waivers, as he lacks the service time or previous career outright that would give him the right to elect free agency.