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NL Notes: Bumgarner, WGN, Cubs, Phillies

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Madison Bumgarner has made his last pitch of the 2019 season – and perhaps his career as a San Francisco Giant. The free-agent-to-be would have been in line to start Sunday’s season finale, but manager Bruce Bochy says they’ll watch the game together from the bench, per Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News. Sunday will be the last game of Bochy’s prodigious career as well, and it will be appropriate to take in the game alongside Bumgarner, with whom he won three world championships. If Bumgarner does move on this offseason, he will finish his career in San Francisco with a 119-92 record and 3.13 ERA/3.32 FIP across 1,846 innings – 8th on the Giants all-time bWAR leaderboard. Still just 30-years-old, Bumgarner wraps up 2019 with a 3.90 ERA/3.91 FIP while eclipsing 200 innings for the seventh time in his career. As the penultimate day of the 2019 season gets under way, let’s check in on a couple other teams from the senior circuit…

  • The Cubs say goodbye to WGN this week, the beloved television network known as the home of Cubs content for the last 72 years. The long-awaited Marquee Sports Network launches next year, but the revenue streams won’t provide real kickback for a couple of years, per Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. The long-promised “wheelbarrow full of money” won’t be arriving at Theo Epstein’s baseball operations department from day one, but neither does Epstein see the new television deal affecting baseball decisions. Said Epstein, “We want to win the World Series. But it’s not because of the TV network. That’s the goal. It’s unrelated. There’s a wall between baseball decisions and anything related to the TV network.”
  • Trust is a process, and first-year Phillies pitching coach Chris Young understands that process takes a little longer with suboptimal results, per The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and Meghan Montemurro (subscription required). Young’s job was made all the more difficult when players bristled at the dismissal of his predecessor Rick Kranitz. Young’s analytics-driven philosophy was in lockstep with manager Gabe Kapler, but Philly pitchers are taking longer to buy-in, in part from its perception as an inflexible top-down approach. It was a frustrating season on the whole for Philadelphia’s pitching staff as the team regressed to 2017 levels after taking a big step forward in 2018.

Quick Hits: Keuchel, Alvarez, Young

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Yesterday, Mets broadcaster and long-time MLB hurler Ron Darling announced on his personal Twitter account that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thankfully, the outlook seems to be good. Darling says he hopes to be back in the booth in around a month’s time, which is certainly quite promising to hear. I’ll be among the many fans looking forward to Darling’s return to action. He’s an attentive, thoughtful, and honest broadcaster and I always enjoy tuning in. MLBTR extends its very best wishes to Darling and his family for a speedy recovery.

  • Veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel discussed his never-ending free agency with Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports in an interesting interview. Keuchel says he is anxious to sign but won’t just settle for the lowball offers he has received to this point. He acknowledges that he may need to wait until after this summer’s draft, at which time teams will no longer need to give up draft compensation to add him. Keuchel says he wasn’t looking for this sort of standoff and wasn’t unrealistic in his asking price, noting that “it’s not just the front offices who have all these numbers” when it comes to understanding market value. He says he’d rather be pitching; agent Scott Boras has even advised him to settle and get back on the field. So why is Keuchel still available? “I told [Boras] no on numerous deals because it’s about principle. It’s about fair market value. And I wasn’t getting that.”
  • Another Boras client, slugger Pedro Alvarez, is also still on the open market — albeit under quite different circumstances. The left-handed power-hitter opted out of his minor-league deal with the Marlins late in camp and is now nursing an Achilles injury. But the 32-year-old isn’t calling it quits just yet. Alvarez turned in a middling showing at the plate in limited MLB opportunities last year. But he has long been an above-average performer at the plate (when limited to facing right-handed pitching, at least) and had a torrid showing in Cactus League action this spring.
  • Former MLB hurler Chris Young is thriving in his new career in the league offices, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. It’s an interesting look at the end of an uncommon playing career and the start of what could be an important new run in a management capacity. Young was hired as MLB’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy — a new role that deputy commissioner Dan Halem says was “expanded” to match Young’s skillset. The story is particularly interesting because it touches upon the changing labor dynamics in the game. Young says he only took the job after explaining that he “view[s] this as a partnership between the players, owners and fans” and emphasizing that he “want[s] what is best for the game.” Halem says that Young has brought “strong opinions on what is good and what we may have to change” and has been “really good at explaining the players’ viewpoint on things.” It seems that Young is operating more on the rules side at at the moment, but it’ll be interesting to see whether and how his presence ultimately impacts the league’s approach to the thorny collective bargaining issues that have arisen in the past several seasons.

Chris Young Undergoes Hip Surgery

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Angels outfielder Chris Young has undergone right hip surgery, per a club announcement. He will need an additional procedure on his left hip as well. Both are to address labral tears.

The 34-year-old’s outlook isn’t immediately clear, but it seems reasonable to guess it’ll be challenging for him to make it back this year. He has already been on the shelf for a month with a hamstring strain. With just two months of the season left to be played, Young may be looking at a return next spring.

Regardless, the Halos likely will not get value on the $2MM they invested in Young over the winter. That was certainly a reasonable amount to pay for the veteran reserve, who has mostly provided solid overall output over his 13-year career. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out as hoped.

In 128 plate appearances on the year, Young carries only a .168/.252/.363 batting line with six home runs. It’s fair to note that he’s only carrying a .183 BABIP, but Young is also producing soft contact at a whopping 38.5% rate and his strikeout rate has jumped to 28.9% after sitting in the twenty percent range in recent years. Plus, he has graded as a below-average defender in the outfield.

Young has been more effective against left-handers (85 wRC+) than against same-handed pitchers, but obviously he has lagged even in that regard. The expectation was that he’d provide something of a platoon partner for Kole Calhoun and a back-up for Mike Trout and Justin Upton, helping to form a highly productive outfield unit on a contending team. Instead, with the since-rejuvenated Calhoun embroiled in a miserable slump to begin the year, right field became one of the problem areas for a club that has fallen short of expectations.

Angels Place Tyler Skaggs, Chris Young On 10-Day DL

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The Angels have placed lefty Tyler Skaggs and outfielder Chris Young on the 10-day disabled list, per a club announcement. That pair will be replaced by righty Deck McGuire and outfielder Jabari Blash.

In more promising news, right-hander Garrett Richards has been reinstated from his own stint on the DL. He’ll take the active roster spot of utilityman Kaleb Cowart, who was optioned back to Triple-A.

Skaggs has been diagnosed with a strain in his right thigh adductor, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. His placement is backdated to July 1st. It is not clear at this point what kind of absence the Halos expect for Skaggs, but anything more than a brief respite would represent quite a disappointing turn of events.

It has to this point been a breakthrough campaign for Skaggs, who’s preparing to celebrate his 27th birthday later this month. In 92 innings, he owns a 2.64 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9. Unfortunately, health remains a major limiting factor for the talented hurler.

As for Young, he hasn’t been productive at all since joining the Angels on a one-year deal. But he has outperformed Kole Calhoun, who’ll now presumably be spelled against lefties by Blash.

Things had finally seemed to be clicking for the Angels earlier this year. But an ongoing run of injuries has contributed to a slide back to the .500 mark — good only for fourth place in a competitive AL West division.

AL West Notes: Young, Barnette, Carlson, Mariners

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Angels outfielder Chris Young is the latest Halos player to turn up with an injury issue. He left last night’s game with a left hamstring strain. While a full medical assessment likely won’t occur until today, at the earliest, it is likely “going to be a while” until Young is back, skipper Mike Scioscia told reporters including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Young, 34, has struggled out of the gates, posting a .168/.252/.363 batting line in 128 plate appearances. [Update: Young has been placed on the DL]

Here’s more from the AL West:

  • Similarly, the outlook is a bit concerning for Rangers righty Tony Barnette. He’ll be looked over today but is already believed to be dealing with a potentially worrisome shoulder strain, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Though the Texas organization isn’t contending, and can simply recall just-optioned righty Chris Martin, the potential loss of Barnette is still notable. The 34-year-old had pitched his way into a useful trade piece for the Rangers. Through 26 1/3 innings, he owns a 2.39 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 along with a 51.4% groundball rate. He’s earning only $1.5MM this year, making him a budget-friendly target — if he can avoid a lengthy DL stint in the run-up to the deadline. [Update: Barnette has been placed on the DL; Martin was recalled to take the open roster spot]
  • Mariners prospect Sam Carlson is going to be out for quite some time after undergoing Tommy John surgery, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. GM Jerry Dipoto explains that the organization made every effort to keep the 2017 second-rounder off of the surgeon’s table. Ultimately, though, there was no alternative to a full replacement of his ulnar collateral ligament. As Dipoto notes, the youngster will still only be twenty years of age when he’s nearing a return, though it’s certainly possible he won’t see competitive action until the 2020 campaign.
  • While the Mariners’ new commitment to Wade LeBlanc will surely have some impact on the team’s near-future rotation planning, Dipoto also says the just-announced extension won’t constrict the organization at the deadline, as MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. Though Dipoto says he’s rather bullish on LeBlanc’s ability to remain a quality rotation piece, he also says that the club will still consider additions to bolster its starting staff. At the same time, he didn’t sound like he feels compelled to add an arm. “I think if there is an opportunity for us to expand or augment our pitching group, wherever that is, then we’re going to be attentive to that,” says Dipoto. “If there is the ability to go out and find a guy who we feel like either takes some of the inning stress off our starters in the second half or can give us that late punch at the back end of our bullpen, then we’ll go that route. And if that opportunity doesn’t present itself, we probably won’t chase it.”

MLB Hires Chris Young As VP Of On-Field Operations

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Former MLB hurler Chris Young has joined Major League Baseball as vice president of on-field operations, initiatives, and strategy, per a league announcement. It seems fair to presume, then, that his playing days are over.

Young, who turns 39 later this month, spent Spring Training with the Padres. But he was released after triggering his opt-out clause when the team decided he would not crack the Opening Day roster.

The towering hurler pitched in parts of 13 MLB campaigns, working to a 3.95 ERA over 1,297 2/3 total frames. He spent a plurality of his time with the Padres after debuting with the Rangers. Young also pitched for the Royals, Mets, and Mariners. His best overall season came in 2007 with the Padres, when he earned his lone All-Star nod and ended with 173 innings of 3.12 ERA ball.

While he dealt with some injuries along the way, the former third-round pick from Princeton ended up with a quality major-league career. He tallied 16.7 total rWAR in the majors — leaving him with a narrow lead in that regard over his still-active, like-named contemporary Chris Young (the outfielder).

In his new job, Young will have input in a variety of areas. Per the announcement, he’ll deal with “play on the field, including the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.” The definition seems broad enough to suggest that Young’s role will likely take form over time.

Padres Release Chris Young

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Veteran right-hander Chris Young has been released by the Padres, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). Young triggered his opt-out rights after learning that he would not be added to the Opening Day roster.

The Pads had given Young a long look as a rotation candidate this spring, but ultimately decided against keeping the 38-year-old. He had been slated to earn a $1MM base salary in the majors, with a hefty potential incentives package that included up to an additional $6MM more.

Young had been hoping to bounce back with the Pads after a pair of miserable seasons. He has already shown he can be useful in his late thirties, with two sturdy campaigns in 2014 and 2015, but has stumbled to a 6.52 ERA in his 118 2/3 frames since the start of 2016. This spring, he recorded 15 strikeouts against four walks in his 14 1/3 innings, but also coughed up four dingers and a dozen earned runs.

San Diego’s decision to keep reliever Adam Cimber left no space in the bullpen and created additional 40-man roster pressure, leaving Young on the outside looking in. Presumably, he could still rejoin the organization on another minors deal if he’s unable to find a better situation elsewhere.

The decision means we won’t see Young pitch for the Padres for the first time since 2010. But it could suggest that another old favorite, Tyson Ross, will earn his way back onto the team after also joining as a non-roster player. Ross, whose career dove when shoulder issues arose, has reputedly looked good this spring and has allowed only five earned runs in his 15 Cactus League frames.

NL Notes: Padres, Brewers, Verdugo

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The Padres are in the process of finalizing their pitching plans for the start of the coming campaign. Righty reliever Adam Cimber has forced his way onto the Opening Day roster after turning in an unexpectedly excellent spring, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune reports on Twitter. The 27-year-old built off of a quality 2017 effort in the upper minors — over which he threw 80 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9 and just 1.1 BB/9 — by posting nine scoreless frames in the Cactus League. Meanwhile, veteran righty Chris Young will not break camp in the majors, Acee also tweets. It’s not known at this point whether he’ll exercise his opt-out clause, but that’s at least an option for the towering 38-year-old, whose spring (15 strikeouts but also four home runs in 14 1/3 innings) largely imitated his past two seasons’ output (116 strikeouts but also 35 home runs in 118 2/3 innings).

Here are a few more notes from the National League:

  • It seems increasingly unlikely that the Brewers will make a move to alleviate their evident logjam of bats. As Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports, that has left some eyebrows raised among the team’s players, some of whom still aren’t sure exactly how much playing time they’ll get once the season gets underway. It’s not exactly a new subject, of course, as the Milwaukee roster has been under a microscope all winter long. But it’s interesting to consider it from the player’s perspective, as Nightengale does. As third baseman Travis Shaw puts it: “Depth is a nice problem to have, but I’m sure it sucks individually for a couple of guys.” Meanwhile, skipper Craig Counsell says “there’ll be a lot of shuffling going on” early in the season, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports, but also notes that he anticipates some clarity to emerge as the season goes along.
  • Pedro Moura of The Athletic takes a long look (subscription link) at talented Dodgers prospect Alex Verdugo, who drew much better reviews in camp this year than he did in his brief MLB call-up in 2017. The change wasn’t to his swing mechanics, though. Instead, Verdugo impressed the organization by making strides with his work ethic and attitude. As Moura documents, those improvements were the result of intentional offseason effort, though Verdugo’s overall level of professionalism also surely remains a work in progress.

NL West Notes: Towers, Kershaw, Tribe, Shaw, Young, Mitchell

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The late Kevin Towers was memorialized at a “Celebration Of Life” ceremony today at Petco Park, with scores of Towers’ friends and colleagues from around baseball in attendance.  The Associated Press’ Jay Paris and the Padres’ Bill Center each have details on some of the memorials from the 22 speakers who shared their experiences and fond memories of Towers, whose 35 years in baseball included stints as the general manager of the Padres and the Diamondbacks.  “He was one of the guys that always brought all the GMs together,” said former Reds and Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty.  “Kevin loved life and lived it to the fullest.  He suffered a lot in the last two years but he always stayed positive and fought a brave fight.  There will never be another KT.”

Some more items from around the NL West…

  • Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi stated earlier this week that the team is keeping an “open dialogue” with Clayton Kershaw about a potential contract extension.  The ace southpaw seemingly agreed with that statement today, telling reporters (including MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick) that Zaidi’s description of the relationship is “a good way to put it.”  Kershaw also said that he is “on the same page” with Dodgers management.  Kershaw is signed through the 2020 season, though he can walk away from the final two seasons (and $55MM) on his contract if he exercises an opt-out clause after the coming season.  He turns 30 in March and injuries have limited Kershaw to only 324 innings over the last two seasons, though he has still performed to his usual elite level when healthy.  An extension would remove Kershaw from the 2018-19 free agent class, a group that is heavy on big names overall but potentially rather slim on the pitching side should Kershaw remain in Los Angeles.
  • Bryan Shaw’s decision to join the Rockies was helped by an endorsement from his former Indians manager Terry Francona, Shaw tells Fangraphs’ David Laurila.  “I talked to Tito a little bit about the teams that had interest in me.  I got his opinion of the organizations — the managers and others with roles within those organizations.  He had nothing but good things to say about Bud Black and the guys who are here,” Shaw said.  Cleveland’s front office also offered help with any questions Shaw might’ve had about other teams, a further sign of the good relationship between the right-hander and his former team.  Shaw said that he and the Tribe had talks about a possible contract extension midway through last season, “but from a numbers standpoint it never got there.”  In December, Shaw signed a three-year deal with Colorado worth $27MM in guaranteed money, plus a potential vesting option for the 2021 season that would pay him $7MM in additional salary.
  • Also from Laurila’s piece, he hears from right-hander Chris Young that multiple teams contacted the veteran about potential front office positions this winter.  The 38-year-old isn’t quite ready to retire, and in fact hopes to play two more seasons, though he is realistic that his on-field future could be decided within the next few weeks.  “This spring is going to determine that.  I’m either going to show that I’m back to being myself, or that my stuff isn’t playing.  If my stuff isn’t there and I can’t get outs, the time will have come to move on from the playing side,” Young said.  The Padres signed Young to a minor league deal this winter to see if he can rebound from a very rough pair of seasons; Young posted a 6.52 ERA over 118 2/3 innings with the Royals in 2016-17, allowing a whopping 35 home runs in that stretch.
  • After three years of shuttling between Triple-A and the Yankees’ big league roster, Bryan Mitchell is relieved to finally have a stable place in the Padres’ rotation, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes.  “It’s awesome….To know that now, I can set all my focus on Opening Day and working toward that.  I don’t have to put pressure on myself or worry about that,” Mitchell said.  “It’s just less stress, to be honest — to know that’s how they [the Padres] feel and I have that waiting on me.  I can just set my goals on that first start and have everything ready versus have everything ready and not knowing.  It eliminates the unknown factor.”  The Padres felt strongly enough about Mitchell’s potential that they were willing to take on the $13MM remaining on Chase Headley’s contract in order to acquire the right-hander from New York.

Padres To Sign Chris Young

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SATURDAY: Young’s incentives begin at five games started and 30 innings pitched, and they can max out at approximately 30 starts and 120 innings, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (Twitter link).

FRIDAY, 8:58pm: Young can earn a $1MM base salary if he makes the team, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. The deal also includes as much as $6MM in potential incentives, with games started and innings pitched providing the standard.

6:50pm: The Padres are adding another former starter on a minors deal after striking agreement with Chris Young, according to Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). The 38-year-old will join a Spring Training rotation battle that now also includes Tyson Ross.

Young, 38, opened the 2017 campaign with the Royals but was released in late June. He has rested up since, with reports indicating that he intended to ramp back up for another attempt at what would be his 14th MLB campaign.

At this point, it’s difficult to expect much out of Young, who stumbled to a 6.52 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 118 2/3 frames in the majors since the start of 2016. Interestingly, that slippage has occurred even with Young sporting a swinging-strike rate of over 11% — levels he had maintained over a full season only once in his career — by drastically increasing his slider usage. Then again, he has also been touched for 2.7 home runs per nine over the past two seasons.

Perhaps, though, Young can still find a way to be effective, particularly after a lengthy layoff. Before boosting his whiff rate, he had actually managed two consecutive seasons with excellent results. In 288 1/3 frames between 2014 and 2015, he worked to a 3.40 ERA. And he has continued to post above-average infield fly rates even as the other tinkering has left him prone to the long ball.

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