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Mets Exercise Club Options On Asdrubal Cabrera, Jerry Blevins

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4:02pm: New York has announced that it has picked up its options over both Cabrera and lefty Jerry Blevins.

Blevins, 34, was an easy call at a $7MM price tag (with a $1MM buyout). He has turned in consecutive sub-3.00 ERA campaigns for the Mets. In 2017, he ran up 12.7 K/9 (on a career-best 12.7% swinging-strike rate) against 4.4 BB/9 on the season, holding lefties to a miserly .195/.250/.205 slash with his fastball-curve combination. (Alas, Blevins was not so successful against right-handed hitters, who knocked him around for a .288/.447/.545 batting line.)

1:22pm: The Mets are set to exercise their $8.5MM club option over infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Reports over the past month have suggested that the team was likely to do so, though there’d yet to be a firm indication that the team had definitively elected to do so. Their alternative was a $2MM buyout, meaning it boiled down to a $6.5MM decision for the Mets.

Cabrera’s option looked fairly likely to be declined late in the season, but a blistering hot finish likely helped to bring about this outcome. As of Aug. 23, the soon-to-be 32-year-old’s OPS sat at a dismal mark of .705. However, over his final 132 plate appearances, Cabrera caught fire and turned in a .366/.435/.607 slash with five homers, a dozen doubles and a 20-to-15 K/BB ratio. The massive uptick in his productivity boosted his season-long production with the bat from 10 percent below average to 11 percent above-average, by measure of wRC+.

The switch-hitting Cabrera also demonstrated his value to the Mets by showing a willingness to play third base in the wake of injuries around the roster. While he didn’t necessarily shine as a top-flight defender, the Mets were reportedly pleased with his aptitude at the new position, and defensive metrics felt he was at least passable there (+1 Defensive Runs Saved, -2.5 Ultimate Zone Rating).

Given the uncertainty surrounding the Mets’ infield mix heading into 2018 — David Wright’s injury status is a complete unknown, while Neil Walker was traded in August and T.J. Rivera underwent Tommy John surgery — Cabrera gives the Mets some stability and some offseason flexibility. The fact that New York likely feels comfortable with Cabrera playing either second base or third base widens the range of targets the team can pursue this winter, rather than forcing GM Sandy Alderson and his staff to zero in solely on a third baseman or a second baseman.

Indians Exercise Club Options Over Michael Brantley & Josh Tomlin

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The Indians have announced that they have picked up the club options over both outfielder Michael Brantley and righty Josh Tomlin. The decision on Brantley, in particular, represents an important part of the team’s offseason puzzle.

Entering the winter, it seemed unclear whether the Cleveland organization would elect to retain Brantley at an $11MM price tag or pay him a $1MM buyout. While he’s one of their best players when healthy, shoulder and ankle issues have impacted him quite a bit in recent years. His ability to stay on the field will likely have a significant impact on the club’s fortunes in 2018.

Brantley, 30, emerged as one of the game’s most productive hitters in 2014-15, blending outstanding contact skills with good pop. But he missed almost all of 2016 and wasn’t quite as productive when on the field in 2017. Brantley still produced a strong .299/.357/.444 batting line with nine home runs and 11 steals over 375 plate appearances, but underwent a significant ankle procedure after the end of the season.

The decision on Tomlin didn’t require quite as much of a gut check. He’ll earn a relatively meager $3MM (rather than a $750K buyout) for his services in 2018 before qualifying for free agency. Cleveland can utilize him in the rotation or out of the bullpen, depending upon how things shake out.

The 33-year-old gave the Indians 141 frames over 26 starts in 2017, posting only a 4.98 ERA but carrying more promising peripherals. In particular, the soft-tossing control artist posted a solid 7.0 K/9 vs. 0.9 BB/9. That said, Tomlin will need to tamp down on the long ball (1.47 per nine in 2017).

Retaining Brantley puts the Indians at over $120MM in likely 2018 payroll as the offseason gets underway. (That rough estimate includes guaranteed contracts and projected arbitration payouts.) Cleveland will see Carlos Santana (assuming he declines an anticipated qualifying offer) and Jay Bruce hit the open market. With Brantley on the books, it seems unlikely that the Indians will be able to retain both of those players, though certainly it’s still possible to imagine one more significant position-player contract.

There are still plenty of moving parts in Cleveland. The team could conceivably line Brantley up at first base and slide Jason Kipnis into left. If Brantley stays in the outfield, then it’s unclear what’ll become of the veteran second baseman, who seems likely to be bumped off of his usual position by Jose Ramirez. Third base, too, is largely unresolved, though the organization has a few options there (including, perhaps, Ramirez — if Kipnis stays at second).

Pirates Exercise Club Option Over Andrew McCutchen, Decline Chris Stewart & Wade LeBlanc

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The Pirates have picked up their club option over outfielder Andrew McCutchen, per a club announcement. He’ll earn $14.5MM in the final year of his contract.

Meanwhile, the Bucs have declined their options over catcher Chris Stewart and lefty Wade LeBlanc. The team also adds that LeBlanc has been outrighted to Triple-A.

It comes as no surprise that Pittsburgh elected to retain McCutchen rather than paying a $1MM buyout. Stewart would have earned $1.5MM but will instead receive a $250K buyout. LeBlanc will take home a $50K buyout on his $1.25MM option.

McCutchen, 31, turned things around after a tepid start to the 2017 campaign. He ended the year with a .279/.363/.486 batting line with 28 long balls and 11 steals over 650 plate appearances. That didn’t represent a full bounce all the way to back to his prior, MVP-level output, but certainly constituted a turnaround after a worrying 2016 season.

The question remains though, whether the Bucs will end up keeping Cutch’s contract. He’ll be pursue by other organizations over the offseason, with the Pirates weighing a potential infusion of young talent against the loss of a high-quality and still-affordable player. Perhaps there’s still some faint possibility of the sides considering a new extension, but in truth that’s difficult to see happening.

Stewart could end up back in Pittsburgh on a minors deal, but won’t be retained as the backup catcher after turning in a woeful .183/.241/.221 slash line in 2017. The 33-year-old LeBlanc, a soft-tossing southpaw, was perhaps a bit unlucky to post a 4.50 ERA in his 68 frames, but did not show the Pirates enough for his contract to be guaranteed for another year. LeBlanc, who continued to post his typical reverse platoon splits, will have the righty to elect free agency.

Reds Outright Patrick Kivlehan, Deck McGuire

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The Reds announced Friday that infielder/outfielder Patrick Kivlehan and right-hander Deck McGuire have been sent outright to Triple-A Louisville after clearing waivers. Both can elect minor league free agency. Cincinnati also reinstated lefty Brandon Finnegan and righty Anthony DeSclafani from the 60-day disabled list, so their 40-man roster remains at 33 players for the time being.

Kivlehan, 28 next month, tallied a career-high 204 plate appearances but posted a bleak .208/.304/.399 batting line in that time. He showed some pop, hitting nine homers with five doubles and a triple, but the former Mariners/Rangers prospect also fanned in 30 percent of his plate appearances. Kivlehan has experience at both corner infield and outfield positions, and he’s a career .255/.308/.437 hitter in 223 Triple-A games.

The 28-year-old McGuire is a known name to some thanks to his No. 11 overall selection out of Georgia Tech by the Blue Jays back in the 2010 draft. He’s yet to live up to that draft billing, struggling greatly in Triple-A for the Jays, Athletics, Dodgers and Cardinals before landing in the Reds organization this past winter.

While McGuire spent the year in Double-A rather than the minors’ top level, he notched a strong 2.79 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 with a 38.8 percent ground-ball rate through 168 innings (27 starts). He made his MLB debut with the Reds in September, tossing 13 2/3 innings with 11-to-2 K/BB ratio and notching his first big league victory along the way.

Cubs Claim Randy Rosario From Twins

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The Cubs announced that they’ve claimed left-hander Randy Rosario off waivers from the Twins. Chicago’s 40-man roster count now sits at 33 players.

The 23-year-old Rosario was rocked in his big league debut with the Twins this past season (eight runs in 2 1/3 innings) but has been considered among the team’s 20 to 30 best prospects in recent years. A hard-throwing lefty out of the Dominican Republic, Rosario’s performance has deteriorated as he’s ascended through Minnesota’s minor league ranks. This past season, he tossed 57 1/3 innings with a 4.08 ERA and 7.1 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 with a 50.9 percent ground-ball rate in Double-A.

To Rosario’s credit, he was dominant at the Double-A level through the season’s first half. However, he collapsed in significant fashion from late July through season’s end, yielding 19 earned runs on 31 hits with a 13-to-11 K/BB ratio in his final 17 2/3 frames at the Double-A level.

Mariners Claim Zach Vincej From Reds

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The Mariners announced that they’ve claimed infielder Zach Vincej off waivers from the Reds. Their 40-man roster now stands at 37 players.

Vincej, 26, was the 1132nd pick of the 2012 draft — all the way down the board in the 37th round. He’s slowly risen through the minor league ranks and had a huge performance in last year’s Arizona Fall League before hitting .270/.325/.370 in his first taste of Triple-A this year. Vincej made his big league debut as a September call-up this season and went 1-for-9 with a walk and five strikeouts in just 12 plate appearances. He comes with a solid defensive reputation at shortstop but didn’t rank among Cincinnati’s top prospects. He’ll provide some middle infield depth for the Mariners if he sticks with the organization this offseason.

Marlins Decline Ichiro’s Option, Claim Chad Wallach From Reds

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The Marlins announced that they’ve declined a $2MM club option on outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and also claimed catcher Chad Wallach off waivers from the Reds. The pair of moves leaves Miami’s 40-man roster count at 34 players.

Ichiro, who turned 44 two weeks ago, will see his three-year tenure with the Marlins come to an end as the team’s new ownership begins to trim salary in a reported effort to shed $40-50MM off the payroll for 2018. The future Hall of Famer had a productive second year with the Marlins in 2016, hitting .291/.354/.376 in 365 trips to the plate. However, the 2017 season saw Ichiro receive the smallest amount of playing time he’s had in Miami — just 215 plate appearances — and resulted in a dreary .255/.318/.332 batting line.

The 10-time All-Star is a Cooperstown lock, but he’s had just one season of above-average production (by measure of OPS+) in the past seven years. While it’s natural to wonder if the beloved Ichiro is nearing the end of his playing days, he recently told Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he’d continue to play until he’s “at least 50” if he continues getting opportunities. He may very well have to settle for a minor league pact this offseason, but it’s not out of the question that a team would look to bring the veteran into its outfield mix — particularly an NL club capable of carrying a deeper bench.

Wallach, who will turn 26 tomorrow, was originally drafted by the Marlins in the fifth round of the 2013 draft. Miami shipped him and right-hander Anthony DeSclafani to the Reds in exchange for a one-year rental of Mat Latos in what now looks to be a lopsided deal (DeSclafani’s injury status notwithstanding).

The son of former big league infielder Tim Wallach, Chad turned in a respectable .240/.363/.410 batting line in 243 Double-A plate appearances in 2016. However, his bat took a big step back in 2017 upon reaching Triple-A Louisville, where he batted just .226/.280/.398 and saw his strikeout rate jump nearly seven percent in the same number of PAs (243). He did make his MLB debut with the Reds in ’17, going 1-for-11 with a single and five strikeouts.

Astros Exercise Club Options On Jose Altuve, Marwin Gonzalez

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In perhaps the least-surprising decision of the offseason, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow tells reporters that the team will indeed exercise its 2018 club options over Jose Altuve and Marwin Gonzalez (Twitter link via the Houston Chronicle’s Jake Kaplan). Altuve will earn $6MM next year, and Gonzalez will take home a $5.125MM salary.

Jose Altuve and Marwin Gonzalez | Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Altuve, of course, is one of the front-runners for American League MVP honors on the heels of a season in which he batted a ridiculous .346/.410/.547 with 24 homers and 32 stolen bases.

The 27-year-old superstar won his second consecutive American League batting championship and his third in the past four seasons. All told, he was a roughly eight-win player by both Fangraphs’ and Baseball-Reference’s version of Wins Above Replacement. In all likelihood, the American League Most Valuable Player Award will come down to a two-horse race between Altuve and Aaron Judge.

He’s led the American League in hits for the past four seasons, topping 200 total knocks in each of those years. Houston holds one more option over Altuve’s services for the 2019 season — yet another bargain at $6.5MM — before the five-time All-Star will be eligible for free agency in the 2019-20 offseason.

Gonzalez, 29 next March, had one of the most impressive and unexpected breakouts of any player in Major League Baseball. After hitting .268/.309/.413 in nearly 1200 plate appearances from 2014-16, the switch-hitting utility man erupted with a .303/.377/.530 batting line in 515 plate appearances. Gonzalez’s 23 homers and 34 doubles shattered his previous career-highs of 13 and 26, respectively. The former Rule 5 pick more than doubled his walk rate and also cut his strikeout rate by nearly four percent when compared to the preceding season.

Beyond his excellence at the plate, Gonzalez saw at least 130 innings at all four infield positions, including 281 at shortstop. He also played 331 innings in left field during the regular season before serving as the team’s primary left fielder in the playoffs. Gonzalez will be a free agent following the 2018 season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mike Minor To Decline Mutual Option

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Left-hander Mike Minor has declined his half of a $10MM mutual option and is now a free agent, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports (via Twitter). He’ll receive a buyout of $1.25MM as part of the two-year, $7.25MM contract he inked with Kansas City prior to the 2016 campaign. The Royals have interest in re-signing Minor as their closer moving forward, he adds, but he’ll first have the opportunity to gauge interest from other clubs now that he’s hitting the open market.

Mike Minor | Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Minor, 30 in December, missed the 2015 season due to shoulder surgery but landed a two-year pact in Kansas City, as they expected that he’d be ready to return to the mound as a rotation option in the first half of the 2016 campaign. However, lingering effects of that shoulder procedure kept Minor from taking the mound in the Majors at all in 2016.

Though he didn’t make good on the first year of that two-year pact, Minor nonetheless proved to be an immense bargain. Healthy in 2017, Minor shifted to the bullpen and climbed the ranks in the Royals’ relief corps, beginning with low-leverage innings but eventually serving as the team’s closer late in the year.

Minor was a genuine weapon working as a reliever. In 77 2/3 innings he averaged 10.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 with a 42.4 percent ground-ball rate en route to a 2.55 ERA. Minor allowed just five homers all season and was utterly dominant against left-handed opponents (.161/.228/.196) while also rendering right-handed bats largely useless (.221/.281/.383). That performance made the decision to walk away from a potential $10MM salary in 2018 (a net of $8.75MM for Minor when factoring in the buyout) an easy one, as Minor should have no problem handily topping that mark in free agency.

While some clubs will undoubtedly have some trepidation about the fact that Minor missed a pair of seasons following a shoulder operation, he showed no ill effects in 2017 and should be poised to command a strong multi-year deal. Bullpen help is in demand for all 30 teams each offseason, and left-handed relievers that can dominate both left- and right-handed hitters alike are rare commodities. That Minor exhibited an ability to work multiple innings throughout the year is a strong point in his favor as teams gravitate further away from rigid, one-inning relief roles.

Minor figures to draw interest both as a closer and as a setup option for teams that already have strict closers in place. He could also find some interest from clubs that are intrigued by plugging him back into the rotation, but he’d almost certainly be leaving money on the table right now by rolling the dice on a return a starting role. Whatever contract he signs may contain some incentives based on starts and total innings if that’s a route he’s interested in pursuing, but more than half the teams in the league will probably be interested in adding Minor to their bullpen. That’s the best route for him to maximize his earning power, which figures to be substantial. We ranked Minor 18th on yesterday’s Top 50 Free Agent list and pegged him for a four-year deal just south of Brett Cecil’s $30.5MM pact in St. Louis.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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