Giovanny Urshela

Blue Jays Interested In Gio Urshela

By Mark Polishuk | December 30, 2023 at 12:26pm CDT

The Blue Jays had interest in signing Gio Urshela this offseason, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports. It isn’t known if Urshela is still on the Jays’ radar, as Nicholson-Smith notes that Toronto’s recent deal with Isiah Kiner-Falefa might’ve already addressed the club’s apparent need in the utility infield market.

There hasn’t been much buzz about Urshela this winter, which isn’t surprising given the injury-shortened nature of the infielder’s season. Urshela didn’t play after suffering a pelvic fracture in June, ending his 2023 campaign after 62 games with the Angels. Based on the initial timeline given for Urshela’s recovery, he should be ready by the start of Spring Training, though there wasn’t enough time remaining for him to both rehab his injury and ramp up prior to the end of the Angels’ regular-season schedule.

Urshela hit .299/.329/.374 over 228 PA with Los Angeles while bouncing around the diamond at all four infield positions. Most of Urshela’s action came at third base in place of the injured Anthony Rendon, and the vast majority of Urshela’s playing time in his eight MLB seasons has been as a third baseman. The Outs Above Average metric hasn’t been a fan of Urshela’s third base glovework while the Defensive Runs Saved (+10) and UZR/150 (+3.9) metrics have given positive grades to 4620 1/3 big league innings at the hot corner.

Urshela has also shown some quality at the plate, particularly when he hit .310/.359/.523 over 650 PA for the Yankees during the 2019-20 seasons. This rather unexpected breakout earned Urshela a regular spot in New York’s infield mix, though a somewhat injury-marred down year made him expendable, and the Yankees dealt Urshela to the Twins as part of their big five-player swap in March 2022.

While Urshela didn’t quite reach his offensive heights from his time with the Yankees, he still had a solid bounce-back year, hitting .285/.338/.429 in 551 PA in Minnesota. Despite these good numbers, the Twins dealt Urshela to L.A. last offseason, in part due to Minnesota’s crowded infield picture and in part due to Urshela’s escalating arbitration salary (a projected $9.2MM, which ended up being $8.4MM after he lost his arb hearing in search of a $10MM salary).

If healthy, the 32-year-old Urshela could be at least a decent signing for a team in need of infield help, with some higher-ceiling potential if Urshela can even replicate his 2022 numbers, let alone his two big Yankees years. It makes sense that the Blue Jays would’ve had him on their target list given their infield needs this winter, plus Toronto is quite familiar with Urshela due to his past time in their organization — he briefly played for the Jays in 2018, appearing in 19 games at the Major League level.

The Blue Jays’ plans at third base may hinge on whether or not the team can re-sign Matt Chapman, but if Chapman departs, it isn’t out of the question that the Jays could still pursue Urshela even with Kiner-Falefa already in the fold. IKF’s lack of offensive pop makes him an imperfect answer as a starting third baseman, so if Kiner-Falefa is viewed more as a utility piece, Urshela’s higher-caliber bat and still-solid glove could make him a better option for a regular third base role.

Angels Designate Chris Okey For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | June 24, 2023 at 6:45pm CDT

The Angels have designated catcher Chris Okey for assignment and transferred Gio Urshela to the 60-day injured list, according to Sam Blum of The Athletic. The moves completes a series of roster moves from earlier today that saw infielders David Fletcher and Eduardo Escobar added to the 40-man and active rosters.

Okey, 28, agreed to a minor league deal with the Angels back in April and made his team debut in May following injuries as the club battled through injuries to Max Stassi, Logan O’Hoppe, and Chad Wallach behind the plate. He appeared in just two games for the Angels, striking out in both of his plate appearances. Prior to his time in Anaheim, Okey made his big league debut in Cincinnati last June. He appeared in seven games for the Reds in 2022, slashing .167/.231/.167 in 13 plate appearances before being designated for assignment in July. Prior to 2023, Okey had spent his entire career in the Reds organization.

Though he certainly didn’t tear the cover off the ball in the minor leagues, Okey owns a career .233/.300/.362 slash line at the Triple-A level, including a .276/.325/.410 line in 33 games with the Angels’ affiliate in Salt Lake City this season. Those numbers could indicate that Okey has more to offer at the plate than his abysmal career wRC+ of -4 in the majors would indicate, though his numbers with the Salt Lake Bees are somewhat inflated due to the offensive environment in the Pacific Coast League.

Looking ahead, the Angels will have seven days to trade, waive, or release Okey. In the likely event that he clears waivers, Okey will have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment to the minors after being outrighted previously in his career, leaving him with the option to continue acting as catching depth for the Angels or attempt to catch on with another club on a minor league deal.

Gio Urshela Unlikely To Return In 2023

By Darragh McDonald and Anthony Franco | June 21, 2023 at 5:48pm CDT

Angels infielder Gio Urshela was placed on the injured list this week due to a pelvic fracture and now it seems like the issue might prevent him from returning again this year. Manager Phil Nevin relayed the news to reporters, including Sarah Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Times. Urshela won’t need surgery but he will need to be shut down for six weeks and then will require at least six weeks of ramp-up time after that. Given that timeline, it will be very difficult for him to make it back to the Angels this year.

Urshela, 31, was acquired in an offseason trade from the Twins, with pitching prospect Alejandro Hidalgo headed the other way. Urshela was coming off a solid season in Minnesota, hitting .285/.338/.429 for a wRC+ of 119 while providing solid third base defense. However, he was set to make a projected $9.2MM via arbitration in his final season before free agency, so the Twins flipped him to Anaheim. The latter club and Urshela eventually went to a hearing with the Halos emerging victorious, leading to the infielder making $8.4MM this year instead of his desired figure of $10MM.

The addition was a sensible one for the Angels, as they have often fielded a roster with plenty of star power but a lack of depth and complementary pieces. They opted to try to fill multiple holes by bringing in solid and versatile players like Urshela, Brandon Drury and Hunter Renfroe. Overall, the plan has worked quite well as the club is having their best season in years, currently 41-34 and currently in possession of a playoff spot. But they will now have to proceed without Urshela in the mix.

Zach Neto and Anthony Rendon have each landed on the injured list in recent days as well. That forced the Halos to turn to the likes of Andrew Velazquez, Michael Stefanic and Kevin Padlo in the short term. Upgrading the infield via trade next month seems a possibility. The Halos figure to be aggressive to capitalize on a chance to make the postseason in Shohei Ohtani’s final season of club control. Los Angeles enters play Wednesday at 41-34, tied with the Astros for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.

From Urshela’s perspective, it’s a brutally timed injury. He’ll likely close his platform year with a modest .299/.329/.374 showing in 62 games. While the projected timeline suggests he’s likely to have a more or less typical offseason, he’ll hit the open market coming off an injury-shortened year.

Next offseason’s free agent infield class appears very thin. Matt Chapman tops the group, but there aren’t many other productive regulars trending towards free agency. Jeimer Candelario is having a decent season in Washington, while Whit Merrifield is playing fairly well for the Blue Jays but entering his age-35 campaign. Amed Rosario is probably the top shortstop option, but he carries a .229/.303/.346 line in 65 contests.

Minasian: Angels’ Approach On Ohtani “Self-Explanatory”

By Darragh McDonald | June 21, 2023 at 5:28pm CDT

Angels general manager Perry Minasian spoke to the media yesterday and was asked how the club would approach the trade deadline in relation to Shohei Ohtani. “I think anybody that’s watched us play and where we’re at in the standings … I think it’s pretty self-explanatory with where we’re at,” Minasian said, as relayed by Sam Blum of The Athletic. When asked if the club’s performance over the next few weeks would impact that stance, he doubled down. “Pretty self-explanatory with where we’re at.”

The standings that he is referring to have the Angels currently at 41-34 as of this writing. That’s good enough to have them in position to secure one of the Wild Card spots in the American League. That would seem to mean that his “self-explanatory” comment is implying that, as a team firmly in contention, they will hold onto Ohtani rather than consider trade scenarios.

That’s a fairly understandable position to take, all things considered. Ohtani is a rental player, in that he’s slated to become a free agent at the end of this season. Players in that situation are often traded or featured in trade rumors, but they usually go from teams outside of contention to those who are in the hunt for the postseason.

Fans of rival clubs have naturally salivated over the possibility of an Ohtani trade for quite some time for a number of reasons. He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player alive and continues to rack up stunning accolades on both sides of the ball. He already has one Most Valuable Player award and is making a strong case for another this year. His 24 home runs lead the league and his batting line of .295/.379/.623 amounts to a wRC+ of 170. In addition to that, he’s made 14 starts as a pitcher and has a 3.29 ERA.

That kind of elite play on both sides of the ball would be an upgrade to every club in the league and it’s difficult to even quantify how much to value it since it is so unique. The Angels would undoubtedly be able to recoup a massive haul if they made him available in trade talks but they would also severely undercut their own chances of success this year. Some observers might suggest that making the long-term move would be wise, but it’s understandable that the appetite for that path would be minimal. The club hasn’t posted a winning record since 2015, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014 and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2009. Punting away their best chance in quite some time would be quite a tough pill to swallow.

That’s not to say that there’s zero chance of an Ohtani trade coming together. The club was willing to listen to offers last year when they were 42-57 and well out of contention. At that time, Ohtani still had a year and a half before his impending free agency. Ultimately, no deal came together and the club tried to compete again here in 2023 with Minasian firmly declaring they wouldn’t entertain Ohtani trades. They grabbed complementary players like Brandon Drury, Hunter Renfroe and Carlos Estévez and are now having their best season in recent memory. The club has also maintained that it would like to keep Ohtani beyond this season but hasn’t been able to get him to commit to anything thus far and will only have a harder time as he gets closer to the open market.

That would seem to create the possibility that there’s some scenario where the club plays poorly enough in the next six weeks that a deal becomes more likely, though Minasian understandably had little interest in entertaining such a hypothetical while the team is in a fairly decent place. It seems the most likely scenario is that the Angels will hold onto Ohtani through season’s end and hope that they can finally break some of their streaks of ineffectiveness. Doing so would still allow them to give Ohtani a qualifying offer at season’s end and receive a compensatory draft pick, likely just before the third round of the 2024 draft. Rivals teams would undoubtedly be willing to give the Halos a package far more appealing than that single draft pick, though it seems like that’s not something they are seriously considering as long as they continue to play well.

Quickly turning to non-Ohtani matters, Blum says that it appears Gio Urshela might have to miss the remainder of the season. The infielder was placed on the injured list this week due to a pelvic fracture and the club has yet to provide any kind of official estimated timeline for his absence. If it is indeed true that he won’t be able to return this year, that would be a blow to their infield depth. He has appeared at all four infield positions so far this year while hitting .299/.329/.374. With fellow infielders Zach Neto and Anthony Rendon also currently on the IL and other players struggling, the loss of a versatile defender like Urshela would be significant.

Angels Place Gio Urshela On Injured List With Pelvic Fracture

By Anthony Franco | June 16, 2023 at 4:43pm CDT

The Angels announced they’ve placed infielder Gio Urshela on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left pelvis. Michael Stefanic was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake to replace him on the active roster.

Urshela was forced out of yesterday’s win over the Rangers in the first inning. He was on crutches postgame and imaging has evidently revealed a fracture. The team hasn’t provided any kind of timetable but it seems likely he’ll be out past the minimal ten days.

It’s a brutally timed injury for team and player alike. The Halos lose a starting infielder for the second straight day. Rookie shortstop Zach Neto landed on the shelf last night with an oblique strain. Anthony Rendon isn’t on the injured list but is out of tonight’s starting lineup after being hit in the wrist with a pitch. Rendon finished last night’s game despite being in too much discomfort to swing because of the Halos’ lack of infield depth.

That’s not the case tonight — Brandon Drury was serving a one-game suspension for arguing with an umpire yesterday, while Stefanic is now on hand — but it highlights how quickly the Angels have been put in a precarious position. Losing Urshela likely thrusts Jared Walsh into everyday first base duty for the time being. The former All-Star has been off to a brutal start after returning from a season-opening IL stay. Walsh is hitting .119/.257/.186 in 27 games.

Urshela, acquired from the Twins over the offseason, has had a fine but unexciting first season in Orange County. He’s hitting .299/.329/.374 over 228 trips to the plate while splitting his defensive work between the two corner spots and occasional shortstop reps. He’s made plenty of contact offensively but is walking at a meager 4.4% clip and only has two home runs.

That’s a downgrade from the .285/.338/.429 line Urshela posted during his lone season in Minnesota. The injury will prevent him from building towards last year’s production for the time being. Depending on how long he’s sidelined, it could deal a hit to his market value. He’s slated to hit free agency for the first time in his career next offseason, making this a pivotal season for him.

The Halos enter play tonight with a 39-32 record. They’re four and a half back of Texas in the AL West and a game out of the Wild Card race. It’s shaping up to be an aggressive summer for Perry Minasian and his staff as they try to capitalize on Shohei Ohtani’s final season of arbitration control and push into the playoffs. Infield additions looked like a potential deadline goal even before the injuries to Neto and Urshela. That’d be all the more true if one or both is out for a long period of time.

The Upcoming Shortstop Class Looks Increasingly Bleak

By Anthony Franco | May 9, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT

The top free agent storyline of each of the past two offseasons was the respective star-studded shortstop classes. In 2021-22, it was Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Trevor Story and Javier Báez. Last winter, Correa was back on the market again, joined by Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson.

Next winter’s group was never going to rival that previous collection. The class in general is very light on star position player talent beyond Shohei Ohtani. It’s particularly barren up the middle of the diamond. It’s hard to imagine a more complete 180° turn than how things appear to be trending with the shortstop class, though. Virtually everyone involved is off to a very slow start.

The early-season performances from the impending free agents at the position:

Amed Rosario (28)*

While Rosario is not the superstar some evaluators had anticipated during his time in the Mets’ farm system, he’d been a solid regular for two seasons since landing in Cleveland in the Francisco Lindor blockbuster. Rosario’s solid batting averages helped offset his very low walk tallies. He hit 25+ doubles with double-digit homers in both 2021-22, playing on a near everyday basis. His cumulative .282/.316/.406 batting line was almost exactly league average. Public metrics were mixed on Rosario’s defense but the Guardians have been content to keep him at shortstop despite plenty of upper minors infield talent. Only 27 and without a ton of market competition, he entered the year in position for a strong three or four-year contract.

That could still be the case but Rosario is doing himself no favors with his early performance. He’s sitting on a .217/.262/.300 showing through his first 130 plate appearances. He has just one homer and is striking out at a 29.2% clip that’d easily be the worst full-season mark of his career if it holds. After making contact on 81.3% of his swings last season, he’s putting the bat on the ball only 71.5% of the time this year. He’s also committed six errors in 255 1/3 innings after being charged with just 12 in more than 1200 frames last year. Rosario is still the top impending free agent shortstop by default but he’s struggling in all areas right now.

Javier Báez (31), can opt out of final four years and $98MM on his contract

Báez is hitting .256/.318/.376 through his first 130 plate appearances. That’s an improvement over the lackluster .238/.278/.393 line he managed during his first season in Detroit. His 16.2% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career, pushing his overall offense near league average in spite of just three home runs in 32 games. Báez’s 2023 campaign has been fine but hardly overwhelming. It’s nowhere near what it’d take for him to beat the $98MM remaining on his existing contract. He’d need a torrid summer to put himself in position to test free agency.

Enrique Hernández (32)

Hernández has been pushed into primary shortstop duty by the Red Sox’ various injuries. The early reviews from public defensive metrics aren’t favorable, with Statcast putting him at seven outs below average in 199 innings. Hernández is off to an equally slow start at the plate. He’s hitting .236/.295/.362 over 139 plate appearances on the heels of a .222/.291/.338 showing last year. He’s been a valuable super-utility option and everyday center fielder at times in his career, including a 20-homer campaign in 2021. The past year-plus hasn’t been especially impressive, though, and Hernández has yet to demonstrate he’s capable of handling shortstop regularly from a defensive standpoint.

Brandon Crawford (37)

The career-long Giant had a tough April on both sides of the ball. He’s hitting .169/.244/.352 with a personal-high 28.2% strikeout rate in 21 games. His defensive marks through 173 2/3 innings are unanimously below-average. A right calf strain sent him to the injured list last week. Even if Crawford is willing to explore all opportunities next winter after 13 seasons in San Francisco, he’ll need much better production once he returns from the IL to find any interest as a starting shortstop.

Elvis Andrus (35)

Much of what applies to Crawford is also true for Andrus. He’s a 15-year MLB veteran with a couple All-Star appearances to his name but his offense has fallen off in recent seasons. Andrus was a well below-average hitter from 2018-21. He rebounded with a solid .249/.303/.404 showing last season but still didn’t generate much free agent attention. After settling for a $3MM deal with the White Sox, he’s hitting only .208/.291/.264 in 142 plate appearances this year. Andrus hit 17 homers last season but has just one through the first six weeks.

Nick Ahmed (34)

Another glove-first veteran, Ahmed is also off to a rough start at the plate. He carries a .227/.239/.318 line over 67 plate appearances. He’s hit only one home run and walked just once. Ahmed has always been a bottom-of-the-lineup defensive specialist, but his career .235/.289/.380 slash is much more tenable than the production he’s managed thus far in 2023. He lost almost all of last season to shoulder surgery.

Gio Urshela (32)

Urshela is hitting plenty of singles to start his time in Orange County. His .303 batting average is impressive but is paired with just a .325 on-base percentage and .345 slugging mark. He’s walking at a career-low 3.3% clip and has only three extra-base hits (two doubles and a homer) in 123 plate appearances.

More concerning for teams looking to the shortstop market is Urshela’s lack of experience at the position. He’s been a third baseman for the majority of his career. Since landing with the Angels, he’s assumed a multi-positional infield role that has given him eight-plus starts at shortstop and both corner infield spots. Even if he starts hitting for more power, he’s better deployed as a versatile infielder who can moonlight at shortstop than an everyday solution there.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa (28)

Kiner-Falefa lost his starting shortstop role with the Yankees towards the end of last season. He’s been kicked into a multi-positional capacity this year and hasn’t logged a single inning at the position in 2023. While Kiner-Falefa presumably could still handle shortstop if asked, he’s contributed nothing offensively in the early going. Through 72 plate appearances, he owns a .191/.225/.206 line.

Adalberto Mondesí (28)

Mondesí is young and has flashed tantalizing tools throughout his major league career. He’s also reached base at a meager .280 clip over 358 MLB games and battled various injuries. An April 2022 ACL tear cut that season short after just 15 games. The Red Sox nevertheless acquired him from the Royals over the offseason, but he’s yet to play a game with Boston. Mondesí opened the season on the 60-day injured list and won’t make his Sox debut until at least the end of this month. There’s a chance for him to play his way into some free agent interest. He’ll need an extended stretch of health and performance.

Players With Club Options

Both Tim Anderson and Paul DeJong can hit free agency if the White Sox and Cardinals decline respective 2024 club options. That seems likely in DeJong’s case but is reflective of the .196/.280/.351 line he managed between 2020-22. If he plays well enough to warrant significant free agent interest — he has been excellent in 11 games this season, to his credit — the Cardinals would exercise their $12.5MM option and keep him off the market anyhow.

The White Sox hold a $14MM option on Anderson’s services. That looks as if it’ll be a no-brainer for Chicago to keep him around (or exercise and make him available in trade). The only way Anderson gets to free agency is if his 2023 season is decimated by injury or an uncharacteristic performance drop-off, in which case he’d be a question mark as well.

Outlook

This was never going to be a great group. It’s comprised largely of glove-first veterans in their mid-30s. Players like Andrus, Ahmed, Crawford and José Iglesias — who’ll also hit free agency and has bounced around on minor league deals thus far in 2023 — don’t tend to be priority targets. That opened the door for the likes of Rosario, Báez and a potentially healthy Mondesí — younger players who have shown some offensive upside — to separate themselves from the pack in a way they wouldn’t have the last couple winters. No one has seized the mantle to this point. While there are still more than four months for someone to emerge, the early returns on the shortstop class aren’t promising.

*age for the 2024 season

Angels Win Arbitration Case Against Gio Urshela, Lose Against Hunter Renfroe

By Simon Hampton | February 18, 2023 at 2:15pm CDT

The Angels have won their arbitration case against infielder Gio Urshela, and lost their case with Hunter Renfroe reports Jeff Fletcher of SoCal News Group. Urshela will now take home an $8.4MM salary in 2023, rather than the $10MM salary he’d filed for. Renfroe will get $11.9MM from the Angels, who’d countered with an $11.25MM offer. Both players are entering their first season with the Angels this year.

Urshela was acquired from the Twins earlier in the winter, after enjoying something of a bounceback year in 2022. The 31-year-old posted a .285/.338/.429 line with 13 home runs for the Twins last year, his most productive season since 2019 with the Yankees. The key there was a seven percentage point drop in his strikeout rate from a year prior, as well as an uptick in his walk rate.

Renfroe was picked up in an early off-season trade with the Brewers. The corner outfielder slugged 29 home runs last year on his way to a .255/.315/.492 line over 522 plate appearances. That came with some solid outfield defense, as Renfroe logged 2 Defensive Runs Saved in right field.

He figures to be the team’s everyday right fielder, but the playing time allocation for Urshela is a little less clear. Urshela’s generally graded out well at third base, but Anthony Rendon looks set to get the majority of the reps there. Rendon has missed 219 games in the past two years, but if he’s fit you’d have to think he’d be in the lineup at third most days. That could leave Urshela to spend time at the middle infield spots. He played a handful of games at short for the Yankees in 2021, but apart from that has been used only sparingly outside of third, so it’ll be interesting to see where he fits in the Angels lineup.

Both Urshela and Renfroe are entering their last season of club control, and will become free agents at the end of the season.

Angels Acquire Gio Urshela From Twins

By Anthony Franco | November 18, 2022 at 3:56pm CDT

The Angels bolstered their infield depth on non-tender day, announcing the acquisition of Gio Urshela from the Twins. Pitching prospect Alejandro Hidalgo lands in Minnesota on a one-for-one swap.

It’s the second consecutive offseason in which Urshela finds himself on the move. Minnesota acquired him alongside Gary Sánchez in the Spring Training blockbuster that sent Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Yankees. The deal was in large part about offloading the final three years of Donaldson’s contract, but Sánchez and Urshela each played key roles on the 2022 club.

Urshela, 31, spent the year as the Twins’ primary third baseman. He hit .285/.338/.429 with 13 home runs and 27 doubles across 551 trips to the plate. It was a step up from the .267/.301/.419 showing he’d posted during his final season in the Bronx, particularly when one considers offense around the league dropped from 2021 to ’22. Urshela cut his strikeout rate from a career-worst 24.7% to just 17.4%, making contact on an above-average 81% of his swings.

The Colombian-born infielder now owns a .290/.336/.463 line in over 1600 plate appearances since breaking out in 2019. He’s a quality contact hitter with solid gap power who has twice topped 25 doubles in a season. Urshela has only once topped 14 longballs, when he hit 21 during a 2019 season that featured an especially lively ball, and he doesn’t draw many walks. Yet he consistently hits for solid batting averages with enough doubles to make a decent impact from a power perspective. Overall, his offensive production over the last four years has been 18 percentage points better than the league average, in the measure of wRC+.

Urshela has a strong defensive reputation, although he’s gotten mixed reviews from public metrics for his glovework. Defensive Runs Saved has typically been fond of his work, pegging him as a cumulative five runs better than average at the hot corner over the last four seasons. Statcast has been far more bearish, rating him as below average each season and pegging him a total of 14 runs below par. Its Outs Above Average metric has docked Urshela for his lateral range in both directions.

The general perception of Urshela’s glovework seems to lead more towards him being an average to slightly above-average defender. It’d appear the Halos feel similarly, as it’s possible he ends up assuming a more demanding position in Anaheim than he has in his previous stops. The Angels have Anthony Rendon locked in at third base, and while the two-time Silver Slugger award winner has battled his share of injury issues in recent years, he’ll surely be in the lineup most days when healthy.

That’d seem to point towards Urshela getting more action in the middle infield, particularly at shortstop. The Angels got almost no offensive production at shortstop this past season, with Andrew Velazquez taking the bulk of the workload. Anaheim has David Fletcher to man one of the middle infield positions, with the bulk of his MLB experience coming at second base. Urshela looks as if he’ll be penciled in as the primary shortstop, where he has just 288 career innings at the highest level. That’d push Luis Rengifo into a utility role, but Urshela would be capable of kicking back over to third base if Rendon battles renewed injury concerns.

Urshela’s a short-term solution, as he has between five and six years of major league service. He’s in his final season of arbitration eligibility and will be a free agent at the end of the 2023 campaign. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $9.2MM salary, which’ll bring the Halos’ projected payroll up past $181MM, per Roster Resource. That’s not far off their approximate $188MM Opening Day mark from this past season, which was a franchise record. With owner Arte Moreno exploring a sale of the franchise, it’s not clear how much budgetary space is available for general manager Perry Minasian and his staff. They’re clearly attempting to reload in an effort at snapping their playoff drought, previously adding starter Tyler Anderson on a three-year, $39MM free agent deal that also cost them a draft choice.

The Twins subtract from the big league roster, but they figure to allocate the money they would have had to commit to Urshela to upgrades elsewhere on the roster. As MLBTR explored last month, dealing the veteran to free some payroll space looked like a possibility in light of their infield depth.

Minnesota has young corner infielder José Miranda capable of stepping in at the hot corner after a .268/.325/.426 showing in 483 plate appearances as a rookie. The 24-year-old has some defensive question marks, but he came up through the minor league ranks as a third baseman. He spent the bulk of his innings at first base this year, but kicking him back up the defensive spectrum could allow them to incorporate players like Alex Kirilloff and Luis Arraez more often at first. It also opens the possibility of the Twins dipping into free agency or trade for a traditional first base/DH slugger.

Minnesota also adds a young arm to the lower levels of the farm system. Hidalgo is a 19-year-old righty out of Venezuela. He made 10 starts with the Angels’ Low-A affiliate in Inland Empire, allowing a 4.62 ERA across 39 innings. Hidalgo struck out an excellent 33.1% of opposing hitters, but a 10.9% walk rate demonstrates he’s still battling control issues common for teenage hurlers. Baseball America slotted him 18th in the Angels system midseason, praising a potentially plus curveball and writing that his fastball reaches into the mid-90s. He’s a lower-level developmental flier who’ll need to be added to Minnesota’s 40-man roster or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft at the end of the 2023 season.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Angels were acquiring Urshela for Hidalgo.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The Twins’ Third Base Decision

By Anthony Franco | October 17, 2022 at 9:13am CDT

The Twins were one of baseball’s most aggressive teams last spring, and they’re in for another active offseason over the coming months. Carlos Correa has already implied he plans to opt out of the final two years of his contract, as expected. How to proceed at shortstop may be the biggest question facing president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and his staff, but they’ll also have a call to make at the other position on the left side of the infield.

This past season, third base was primarily the purview of Gio Urshela. Acquired from the Yankees alongside Gary Sánchez in the deal that offloaded Josh Donaldson’s contract and sent Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Bronx, Urshela went on to start 131 games at the hot corner in Minneapolis. He stepped to the plate 551 times and hit at a solid .285/.338/.429 clip with 13 home runs and 27 doubles. By measure of wRC+, the Colombia native was 19 percentage points better than the league average hitter.

That represented a bounceback from a pedestrian final season in the Bronx, when Urshela hit .267/.301/.419 through 442 trips to the dish. He didn’t recapture his breakout 2019-20 form — a combined .310/.358/.523 mark — but he no doubt had a productive offensive season. He finished the year well, hitting .294/.343/.419 after the calendar flipped to September. Urshela doesn’t take many walks, but he makes contact at an above-average rate and has enough power to approach or exceed 30 doubles and 15 homers during his best seasons.

While Urshela has been an above-average hitter in three of the past four seasons, his defense draws more variable feedback from public metrics. Ultimate Zone Rating has consistently pegged him as an above-average third baseman, which aligns with the general reputation he’d had as a prospect. Defensive Runs Saved has varied in its enthusiasm for his work but comes in slightly positive overall, while Statcast’s Outs Above Average has rated him as a below-average defender in every season of his career. There’s a fair bit of variability in all public defensive metrics, but Urshela has proven particularly divisive across those measures. Consider his cumulative runs compared to average as a third baseman by each measure since he emerged as a regular with the Yankees in 2019:

UZR: +6.4
DRS: +5
Statcast: -9

The Twins’ internal evaluation of Urshela’s defense could go a long way towards determining how they proceed at third base. The 31-year-old is under club control for another season, and Minnesota could simply pencil him back into the everyday lineup. He’s a valuable player, and there’s something to be said for retaining stability. Yet the Twins will have to weigh his production against a fairly lofty salary; MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Urshela to receive roughly $9.2MM for his final year of arbitration eligibility.

That’s certainly not an outlandish figure, particularly if the Twins view Urshela as an above-average defender. At the same time, it’s not a completely insignificant sum for a team that entered this season with a franchise-record payroll in the $134MM range, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Assuming Correa opts out and the Twins exercise their option on Sonny Gray while buying out Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer, they’ll head into the offseason with roughly $51MM in guaranteed money on the books, according to Roster Resource. Minnesota’s arbitration class, led by Urshela, is projected for north of $37MM on top of that. Not everyone in the arb group will be tendered contracts — Emilio Pagán is projected for a $3.7MM salary and seems likely to be cut loose — but the Twins could have roughly $84MM in internal expenditures before looking to address shortstop, the bullpen and catcher.

An outright non-tender of Urshela would be a bit surprising. It’s easy to imagine the Twins entertaining trade possibilities, however, particularly with rookie corner infielder José Miranda an option to step in at third base. Miranda has always been a bat-first prospect, and he spent more time at first base than at third during his debut campaign. After hitting .268/.325/.426 through his first 483 MLB plate appearances, the 24-year-old Miranda is guaranteed a regular role somewhere in the lineup. Would the Twins feel comfortable turning to him on an everyday basis at third base, where he spent the majority of his minor league career? That’d leave more first base/DH at-bats for Luis Arraez, who’s not a good defender at either second or third, and potentially clear a path to at-bats for former top prospect Alex Kirilloff. Kirilloff will be returning from a second season decimated by wrist injuries and presumably has to earn his way into the lineup, but he has the offensive potential to do so.

Falvey indicated last week the team was at least open to Miranda playing more third than first moving forward (link via Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic). “We want to keep third base in his mix, for sure,” Falvey said. “We think he can play over there. It just worked out roster-wise that first is where he had to play a lot. I think our best team, our healthiest team, has Jose playing a lot of games at third, and some at first. But we want him to play both corners.”

The Twins’ baseball ops leader didn’t tip his hand as to whether that meant Urshela was likely to be on next year’s roster. “We’ll have some decisions to make, not just on him but a few others in the arbitration space,” Falvey said (via Gleeman). “He finished in a really good spot. He played really well down the stretch, and he was a great teammate, a great person in (the clubhouse). All of those are conversations we’ll start to have as we get closer to November and December.”

If the Twins did make Urshela available via trade (or non-tender), it’s easy to envision a few teams having interest. The D-Backs, Marlins, Cubs, Giants and Tigers could all look for third base help this offseason. There aren’t many obvious solutions available in free agency (particularly if Nolan Arenado sticks with the Cardinals by foregoing his opt-out clause or signing an extension), leaving the Twins to weigh their options with Urshela over the coming weeks.

AL Notes: Nevin, Angels, Strahm, Red Sox, Twins

By Mark Polishuk | October 1, 2022 at 9:29pm CDT

Angels interim manager Phil Nevin told reporters (including The Athletic’s Sam Blum) that he hasn’t yet had any talks with the front office about remaining in the job for the 2023 season. Nevin moved from third base coach to the interim skipper’s role after Joe Maddon was fired in June, and the Angels have a 44-57 record under Nevin’s stewardship, though between injuries and some imperfect roster construction, it can be argued that Nevin hasn’t had much to work with in trying to get the Halos on track.

The manager’s job is one of many questions facing the Angels this offseason, with the franchise’s possible sale acting as the overhanging influence on every decision. There has been some speculation that this uncertainty could benefit Nevin’s chances, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal has written that the Angels could prefer to just retain Nevin rather than sign another manager to a multi-year contract this winter (thus leaving a new owner with that deal on the books, when that owner might naturally prefer to make their own choice at skipper). The front office’s lack of contact with Nevin might not necessarily be a sign that he isn’t a candidate, as GM Perry Minasian and owner Arte Moreno might just be waiting until the offseason to conduct a proper search.

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