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Justin Grimm Opts Out Of Deal With Indians

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Righty Justin Grimm has opted out of his minor-league contract with the Indians, the club announced. He’ll head back onto the open market in search of a new deal.

Grimm, 30, was looking for a chance to bounce back after a brutal 2018 campaign. He performed well in camp, allowing just one earned run while compiling nine strikeouts and four walks in 8 2/3 innings, but obviously didn’t show the Cleveland organization enough to command a roster spot.

While the results haven’t been there of late, Grimm was a solid pen arm for the Cubs not so long ago. Between 2014 and 2016, he compiled 171 1/3 innings of 3.36 ERA ball with 10.6 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9.

Matt Olson Undergoes Hand Surgery

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Athletics first baseman Matt Olson has undergone hand surgery, per a club announcement. The procedure “involved a right hamate excision,” according to the team.

Olson’s timeline to return to competitive action is not yet clear, though there are plenty of comparable situations to look to for precedent. Hamate removals are rather common for hitters; the typical prognosis is a return within six to eight weeks, though that’s only a general expectation.

Soon to turn 25, Olson was looking to follow up on a strong first full season of MLB action. He played in all 162 games in 2018, slashing .247/.335/.435 (117 wRC+) and swatting 29 long balls in 660 plate appearances.

Instead, he’ll be sidelined for a decent chunk of the early action. While it seems reasonable to hope he’ll be at full health for most of the season, hamate procedures are generally associated with some reduced power for a time once a player returns to action.

It’s not clear just yet how the A’s will fill in while Olson is sidelined. Mark Canha is the only other player on the 40-man roster with extensive experience at first base. Old friend Danny Valencia is still on the open market, as is Logan Morrison, if thought is given to outside additions. The organization may also look at players that are just now being made available by other organizations.

Royals Sign Lucas Duda

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The Royals have inked veteran first baseman Lucas Duda to a minor-league deal, per a club announcement. He had been cut loose recently by the Twins.

Duda, 33, played with Kansas City last year. Though he failed to return to his prior levels of output, he turned in a nearly league-average slash line (.241/.313/.418) and obviously left a good impression before he was traded late in the year to the Braves.

In 3,462 plate appearances with the Mets, the left-handed-hitting slugger put up a strong .246/.343/.457 output and knocked 125 home runs. He was a substantially above-average bat as recently as the middle of the 2017 campaign.

While things have turned south since, Duda still seems a reasonable candidate to reemerge as a quality option against right-handed pitching. That said, it’s tough to see where he fits on a Kansas City roster that features another left-handed-hitting first baseman in Ryan O’Hearn.

Astros Extend Alex Bregman

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MARCH 22: The deal has now been announced.

MARCH 21: Bregman will be paid $11MM annually from 2020-22 before earning $28.5MM in both 2023 and 2024, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). He also has a 10-team no-trade clause for the 2023-24 seasons.

MARCH 20: The deal includes a $10MM signing bonus, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). That’s unusual for a pre-arb contract; Heyman even suggests it may be unprecedented. Bregman can also boost his salary through escalators based upon MVP award finishes, the details of which are not yet known.

MARCH 19, 9:12pm: The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome clarifies (via Twitter) that the contract is technically a five-year, $100MM extension. The new contract does not override Bregman’s 2019 salary, but it does cover his three arbitration seasons and what would have been his first two free-agent seasons.

It’s a technicality but not an insignificant one; because Bregman’s 2019 contract is a separate entity from his 2020-24 contract, the extension comes with a $20MM luxury hit (the average annual value of the deal). Had it been structured as a six-year pact overriding his current salary, the deal would’ve come with a $16.66MM luxury hit.

However, signing Bregman to a six-year deal with that $16.66MM hit would’ve pushed Houston to just about $3.5MM shy of paying the luxury tax in 2019, leaving the Astros with minimal wiggle room for in-season additions on the trade market. Instead, they’re about $19.5MM shy of the $206MM threshold right now, which should leave them plenty of room to take on salary in midseason trades.

8:55pm: The Astros have agreed to terms on a six-year, $100MM contract with star third baseman Alex Bregman, reports Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston (via Twitter). That contract covers the current season, three arbitration years and what would’ve been the first two free-agent seasons for Bregman. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal had tweeted not long before that the two sides had been discussing an extension.

Alex Bregman | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Bregman, 25 at the end of the month, has rapidly ascended from No. 2 overall draft pick (2015) to one of the game’s premier players. The LSU product has improved in each MLB season, topping out with his first All-Star appearance and a fifth-place finish in American League MVP voting in 2018. Last season, he posted a brilliant .286/.394/.532 batting line with 31 homers, 51 doubles, four triples and 10 steals in a season that both Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs was worth about seven wins above replacement.

The contract extension comes just weeks after Bregman voiced “disappointment” with the fact that the Astros renewed his contract for the upcoming season at $640,500. “I understand that it’s a business,” Bregman told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart at the time, “but I feel like good business would be wanting to make a player who performed at a high level on your team happy and want to feel like he wanted to be kept and feel like they wanted him to play here forever.”

Whether Bregman was referencing a desire to sign an extension or merely felt he should’ve been compensated at the record pre-arb levels attained by Mookie Betts ($950K) and Kris Bryant ($1.05MM), the point is now moot. The nine-figure extension offer emphatically makes clear that the ’Stros view Bregman as a vital part of their future. At the same time, it also affords him the opportunity to reach the open market in advance of his age-31 campaign — enough time to perhaps lock in one more significant payday before reaching his mid-30s.

Historically speaking, Bregman’s contract is the third-largest deal ever promised to a player with between two and three years of MLB service time. Buster Posey’s eight-year, $159MM pact tops the list for that service class, although unlike Bregman, he was a Super Two player and already eligible for arbitration when agreeing to that deal. He was also coming off a 2012 season in which he was named National League MVP, and beyond that, he had a National League Rookie of the Year Award on his mantle as well.

As for non-Super-Two players with between two and three years of service, Mike Trout’s original six-year, $144MM contract still stands out as the high-water mark. Like Posey, he had a more impressive resume than Bregman through his first two-plus seasons before agreeing to that deal.

This marks the second extension for the Astros on what has been an apparently busy day for president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow and the rest of the front office. Houston agreed to a two-year, $17.5MM extension with reliever Ryan Pressly earlier tonight as well.

Bregman now joins 2017 American League MVP Jose Altuve as the only Astros locked up through the 2024 season. That pair will form the cornerstones of the Astros’ impressive nucleus for the next six years, and it’s still possible that others could be locked into longer-term pacts as well. Altuve, Bregman and Pressly are the only Astros players who are guaranteed any money beyond the 2020 season, and the team does have several important pieces up for free agency in the near future. Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Collin McHugh are all free agents at the end of the 2019 season, while George Springer will hit the open market after the 2020 campaign. Carlos Correa, meanwhile is arbitration-eligible through the 2021 season. No one should expect the Astros to lock up all of those players — even securing two would be an impressive feat — but the Bregman deal likely doesn’t put an end to the team’s extension efforts.

Angels Release Daniel Hudson

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The Angels have released righty Daniel Hudson, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times tweets. As an Article XX(B) free agent, Hudson would have commanded a $100K roster bonus had he not been added to the 40-man roster.

The Halos decided to go in a different direction after taking a look at the 32-year-old in camp. Hudson was touched for five earned runs and three long balls during his 6 2/3 innings in spring action.

Hudson got his career back on track in 2015 after a long run of arm issues. He has struggled since to produce results, but has continued to draw MLB opportunities by continuing to carry mid-to-upper nineties heat and strong swinging-strike rates (at least 12.0% in each of the past four years). Last year, he worked to a 4.11 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 46 innings for the Dodgers.

Latest On Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole Extension Possibilities

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4:27pm: Owner Jim Crane acknowledged that there are talks with at least some realistic possibility of a deal, as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports on Twitter.

“I don’t think anything is final, but if it’s going to get done it’s going to get done before we get out of here,” said Crane in reference to the conclusion of spring camp.

3:17pm: Cole seems to have snuffed out any possibility of a deal coming together in his case. He says “there have been no contract negotiations,” as Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports.

The hurler indicated some displeasure with the situation. He tells Rome that the team asked, and he gave permission to hold a discussion with agent Scott Boras. But there was never any talk beyond that per Cole, who says “this seems more like a phone call negotiation involving the media than anyone else.”

2:50pm: The Astros are currently discussing potential extension scenarios with both Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole — a development that The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal downplayed even as he reported it earlier today. In a follow-up tweet, though, Rosenthal says that deal with Verlander “is at least possible.”

That characterization seems to nudge up the likelihood of a deal. The plausibility is boosted further by the fact that Rosenthal puts out some numbers. It seems there’s some discussion and potential for a two-year extension worth over $60MM.

Verlander will turn 37 years of age before he throws a competitive pitch in the 2020 season. At that phase of a player’s career, lengthy commitments generally can’t be achieved. We’ve seen hefty two-year deals for superior performers, though not at the kind of top-of-the-market rates that seem to be under contemplation here.

It’s hard to argue that Verlander is worthy anything less than top dollar. He has been fantastic since landing in Houston late in the 2017 season, throwing 248 innings in 39 starts and compiling a 2.32 ERA with 12.1 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9. Even for a pitcher as great as Verlander, that’s a dizzying level of output.

Verlander has indicated that he’d like to keep pitching well into his forties. For now, he’ll have to decide whether to lock in two more years in Houston or instead wait to see what the open market offers next winter. As for the Astros, Rosenthal suggests they may need to dangle something approaching the current record average annual value for a starter (Zack Greinke’s $34.4MM) to secure a deal.

Giants Return Rule 5 Pick Drew Ferguson To Astros

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The Giants have returned Rule 5 pick Drew Ferguson to the Astros after the outfielder cleared waivers, Maria Guardado of MLB.com tweets. Ferguson was designated for assignment yesterday when the Giants acquired another pick in this past year’s Rule 5 Draft, Connor Joe, from the Reds.

Ferguson, 26, struggled in big league camp with San Francisco this spring, hitting just .111/.294/.111 over the life of 34 plate appearances. He enjoyed a strong, albeit somewhat shortened season in Triple-A this past year prior to being taken in the Rule 5, hitting .305/.436/.429 with 46 walks against just 61 strikeouts in 292 plate appearances. He’ll return to the Astros now and won’t be required to be placed on the 40-man roster.

Reds Reassign Nick Senzel To Minor League Camp

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The Reds announced a slew of players who’ve been reassigned to minor league camp Friday, headlined by top prospect Nick Senzel. Cincinnati’s decision to do so has prompted a response from Senzel’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, who spoke harshly of the organization’s decision to ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link).

“I don’t believe I’ve ever made public statements on this issue in my career,” said Wolfe, “but I feel compelled to do so in this case where it feels like a simply egregious case of service-time manipulation. We are well aware of the mandate from ownership for the Reds to win this year — and this seems to fly in the face of it. The NL Central was decided by one game last year. Every game matters. This is a shortsighted move that may be frugal now but could cost them dearly later.”

Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams, unsurprisingly, told C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic that the decision was not tied to service time (Twitter link).

The Reds’ Senzel decision is, at the very least, more defensible than some recent service-driven minor league assignments (e.g. Kris Bryant, Eloy Jimenez, Ronald Acuna). Senzel is learning a new position on the fly after being moved from the infield to center field, and injuries limited him to just 44 games last year while also preventing him from taking place in the Arizona Fall League.

That said, Senzel is hitting .308/.300/.462 with six doubles and four stolen bases in 39 spring at-bats thus far, and he batted .310/.378/.509 as a 22-year-old in his first exposure to Triple-A pitching last season. There’s an argument  that Senzel’s bat is ready for big league work, and the timing of his promotion to the big leagues will be an interesting situation to monitor in the coming weeks. The Reds would only need to keep Senzel in the minors for just over two weeks in order to secure an extra year of club control over the 2016 No. 2 overall draft pick.

Regardless of whether the move is service-driven, the Reds are well within their rights to make it and are arguably even wise to do so. The fact that they’re hoping to be more competitive and contend for a postseason berth in 2019, as Wolfe suggested, does muddy the waters a bit, and the Reds will unquestionably receive their share of criticism if they call Senzel up early in the season and narrowly miss the playoffs.

However, the current service time constraints were collectively bargained long ago and were not addressed in the latest wave of negotiations between the league and the MLBPA, thus maintaining a clumsy and antiquated system that is a disservice to virtually every party other than ownership. The game’s best young players are often held down longer than need be, slowing their path to significant earnings, while fans are deprived from seeing rising stars on the game’s biggest stage. Even front offices are left to make thinly veiled and often transparent statements to their fans, knowing full well that they’re setting themselves up to incur an angry backlash. It’s an out-of-date mechanism that would be better served to be restructured, and it’s likely to be a focal point as the league and union begin preliminary discussions well in advance of the next wave of the current CBA’s expiration.

In other Reds news, Cincinnati skipper David Bell announced that right-hander Tyler Mahle will open the season as the team’s fifth starter while Alex Wood heals up from back spasms that have plagued him throughout the spring (Twitter link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Wood’s injury isn’t expected to sideline him long, so he may only be in line for a small handful of starts before either shifting to a bullpen role or heading back to Triple-A to continue making regular starts.

Rich Hill To Begin Season On Injured List

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Dodgers lefty Rich Hill will open the season on the injured list with what the team has described to the media as a medial collateral ligament strain in his left knee (Twitter links via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). The team also revealed that lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Opening Day, with right-hander Ross Stripling is lined up to start the second game of the season.

Hill will join fellow southpaw Clayton Kershaw on the IL to open the season. Kershaw estimated Wedmesday that he’ll need 20 days to build up to game readiness after his latest throwing session (via Gurnick), while Hill will be out for at least a “couple weeks,” though the team hasn’t put forth a more specific timeline than that.

With Kershaw and Hill both out for the start of the season, the Dodgers will look to Ryu, Stripling, Walker Buehler and Kenta Maeda to start games in the early-going. It doesn’t appear as though the Dodgers have definitively determined who’ll open the year as the fifth starter, although Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that manager Dave Roberts acknowledged that Julio Urias might have to open the year as a starter rather than a reliever.

Braves Release Sam Freeman

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March 22: The Braves announced that they’ve released Freeman.

March 21: The Braves have outrighted left-hander Sam Freeman, per a club announcement. He has been assigned to Triple-A but will have the right instead to elect free agency.

Now 31, Freeman joined the Atlanta organization as a minor-league free agent in advance of the 2017 season. He ended up turning in a worthwhile campaign and being tendered a contract for the campaign that followed.

Freeman’s follow-up effort left some questions. He finished the 2018 season with 50 1/3 innings of 4.29 ERA ball, with 10.4 K/9 against 5.7 BB/9. Freeman allowed only three home runs on the year and maintained a healthy 52.1% groundball rate. He was as usual more effective against opposite-handed hitters.

The Braves ultimately decided to tender Freeman a contract once again, settling with him at $1.375MM. But it seems the team has decided to go in another direction at this point, preferring to drop the southpaw while it is only obligated to him for 45 days of salary.

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