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AL Notes: King Felix, Tigers, Angels, Richards

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Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez’s contract expires after next season, but he doesn’t expect it to be his last deal. “Oh yeah, I’ve got more years to play. I’m not going to retire,” Hernandez told Jon Heyman of Fancred, adding that he has an affinity for Seattle and would like to continue his career in the only major league city he has ever called home. Whether the Mariners feel similarly is up in the air, as Hernandez has fallen off in recent seasons since inking a seven-year, $175MM extension prior to the 2014 campaign. Hernandez was among the game’s best starters then, but he’s now sporting a career-worst 5.11 ERA over 100 1/3 innings in his age-32 season.

More on a couple other AL teams:

  • Tigers center fielder Leonys Martin is headed to the 10-day disabled list, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets. Martin departed Detroit’s game on Sunday with a left hamstring cramp – a similar injury to the one that sent him to the DL in early May. Hamstring troubles aside, Martin has been a solid contributor for the Tigers this year, having hit .257/.327/.431 with nine home runs and 2.2 fWAR over 303 plate appearances. The 30-year-old looks like a logical trade candidate as a result, as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote this week, but that’s up in the air given Martin’s health issues.
  • Injured right-hander Garrett Richards could return to the Angels’ rotation as early as Wednesday, per Ian Quillen of MLB.com. Richards went to the DL on June 15 with a left hamstring strain, and he’s among a slew of injured Angels pitchers who are currently on the shelf. Thanks in part to their host of injuries, the Halos are amid a slide in which they’ve fallen to 11 1/2 games behind AL West-leading Houston and 10 1/2 back of a wild-card spot. The 30-year-old Richards, a pending free agent, did his best to keep the Halos in the hunt before going on the DL, as he recorded a 3.42 ERA with 10.27 K/9, 4.21 BB/9 and a 50 percent groundball rate over 68 1/3 innings.
  • Although 39-year-old Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez is struggling, the fact that this may be his last season means manager Ron Gardenhire will continue to give him opportunities (via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). “We all know what’s going on with him. It’s the last year of his contract,” Gardenhire said. “Right now he feels really good, he’s feeling great, so we’re letting him play. We’ll get him more breaks as we go along. But like I said, if this is his swan song, or whatever you want to call it, I’m going to make sure he gets as many opportunities as he needs here as we go along. Hopefully he’ll keep having quality at-bats.” While Martinez has been an offensive standout for most of his career, he’s now in the throes of his third subpar season in the past four years, having batted a meager .238/.293/.321 with the majors’ fifth-worst ISO (.083) in 290 trips to the plate. He’s in the final season of a four-year, $68MM deal.

Trade Candidate: Leonys Martin

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Teams in a rebuilding posture still frequently invest in some veterans, with part of the rationale being that those players can turn into trade assets in the middle of the season. For the Tigers, the most visible offseason spending took place in the rotation, with the club pouring $10MM into starting pitching (Mike Fiers and Francisco Liriano).

Detroit made just one other winter investment of consequence: a $1.75MM promise to center fielder Leonys Martin. (The deal also includes $1.25MM in available incentives, topping out at 500 plate appearances.) The club needed a solid piece in the outfield and got a 30-year-old who has generally been a useful big leaguer but had trouble holding onto a MLB roster spot last year. Needless to say, it wasn’t a highlight of the offseason.

Thus far, however, Martin has been one of the fifty or so most valuable position players in baseball. There are certainly some limits to his appeal, but he also looks to be quite a useful potential trade piece for the Tigers.

Notably, Martin was dealt to a contender in the middle of 2017 despite his struggles last year at the MLB level. He’s an up-the-middle defender who has always been an outstanding baserunner, which explains why the Cubs picked him up and ended up putting him on their postseason roster.

Now, the profile is much more interesting. Through 291 plate appearances, Martin carries a .261/.333/.444 batting line with nine home runs and seven stolen bases. His output includes a 9.3% walk rate that’s easily the best rate of his career. Martin is posting a personal-high .184 isolated slugging mark, and has done so without increasing his strikeout rate (at 22.3%, it’s almost exactly at his career mean).

That’s not exactly world-beating offensive work, but it’s above-average output from a player who is best known for his defensive and baserunning skills. UZR is more bullish on his work in center this year than is DRS, but Martin has long drawn positive (or even outstanding) grades on the outfield grass. He’s also still receiving high marks on the bases, another area he has thrived traditionally.

All things considered, if the work at the plate seems sustainable, Martin could be a notable piece for the right team. Is it?

Martin’s advancing walk rate is certainly promising. And it’s quite interesting to note that the power seems to be coming from a notable change. Entering the year, Martin had a career launch angle of just 9.4 degrees. Thus far in 2018? It stands at 17.1 degrees, which has helped drive a newly robust power output. Better still, Statcast measures indicate that Martin has actually struck the ball even better than the results suggest. He owns a .334 wOBA but is credited with an eye-popping .384 xwOBA. Martin has a career hard-hit rate of 27.6% but is sitting at 40.1% at present.

So, what’s the catch? The biggest knock on Martin, beyond the need to discount his new profile somewhat based upon his prior track record, is the fact that he still doesn’t hit lefties. He’s delivering some pop (.190 ISO) so far in 2018, but carries a meager 55 wRC+ against southpaws. The spread is much wider this year than it has been historically, but he has long been more effective when hitting with the platoon advantage.

Teams likely won’t go wild for Martin, then. But the still-developing trade market doesn’t figure to have loads of quality outfield options available. And Martin is not only affordable but controllable for 2019. His struggles last year left him just shy of reaching a new service-year threshold; he had 4.161 years entering the current campaign. That leaves one year of arbitration still to go, though his representatives will argue that the salary ought to build off of a prior high-point (he earned $4.85MM in 2017) rather than his 2018 earnings.

Of course, that extra season leaves the Tigers with some options, too. The club might prefer to hold onto Martin, who’d be a useful piece for an organization that has received somewhat better-than-expected results from its roster this year. Or, he could be dealt over the winter. The Tigers’ plans aren’t really clear just yet; the point, though, is that there are options and some leverage here for GM Al Avila.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Central Notes: Dawson, Martin, Dickerson, Machado

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Bob Nightengale of USA Today provides an interesting look at the post-playing career of Hall-of-Famer Andre Dawson, the slugging outfielder best remembered for his time with the Cubs and Expos. The Hawk now operates a funeral home with his wife in the Miami area, a surprising turn for a legendary ballplayer. Fans of the former great will certainly want to read the entire piece, which paints a compelling picture of Dawson and his new line of work.

Here’s the latest from the central divisions:

  • The Tigers announced that outfielder Leonys Martin is going on the DL, with fellow outfielder Mikie Mahtook taking his place on the active roster. A hamstring strain is the cause of the placement for Martin, who had been off to a solid start in Detroit. Thus far, he has amply justified the team’s $1.75MM investment, turning in a .294/.355/.508 slash in his 138 plate appearances. Though he has not been as effective on the bases as usual, that may just be a short-sample blip for a player who has long been excellent with his legs. And metrics view him as a quality defender in center. That could make Martin a useful trade chip come July if he’s able to get back to health and continue producing.
  • Over at Fangraphs, Jeff Sullivan examines the excellent work turned in thus far in 2018 by new Pirates outfielder Corey Dickerson. It really has been a fascinating showing to this point, as Dickerson is not just producing good numbers — a .333/.371/.550 slash — but is doing so while making vast improvements in his contact rate. Bucs fans will certainly want to give a full read to understand why and how the 28-year-old has thus far managed to change his approach and boost his productivity so significantly.
  • The summer trade picture is only just starting to take shape, but Manny Machado obviously represents a key component. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote recently, it is hard to imagine the Orioles won’t end up trading him before he reaches free agency at season’s end. And the Cubs are shaping up to be an interesting fit, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Indeed, per the report, the Chicago organization has plans to discuss Machado with the O’s once the trade window begins to open. Of course, that’s hardly surprising and hardly suggests that the Cubs are a favorite. As Wittenmyer notes, the club has a relatively diminished upper-level talent pool to draw from in making a deal; while indications are that ownership is willing to green-light an aggressive approach, it’ll still be tough to pull off a deal. And the Cubs surely won’t be alone in pursuing Machado, who could be seen as a difference-maker for numerous rosters around the game.

AL Central Notes: Cuthbert, Wilson, Martin, Salazar, Engel

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Rustin Dodd of The Athletic chronicles Cheslor Cuthbert’s improbable ascent to the Major Leagues from his humble beginnings in a fishing village of 6,000 on a small island off the coast of Nicaragua (subscription link). As Cuthbert explains as part of the excellent interview, when he moved from Corn Island to Managua (Nicaragua’s capitol), he actually didn’t even speak any Spanish. His hometown spoke a form of English Creole, making the move to Managua to pursue a career in baseball at the age of 15 all the more difficult. With no understanding of the language in Managua and no family in the city, the decision for Cuthbert to move wasn’t an easy one to make, but it paved the way for him to receive a $1.5MM signing bonus — the largest for any Nicaraguan player in history — just a few years later with the Royals.

Some notes from around the AL Central…

  • An MRI revealed that Tigers reliever Alex Wilson has a 95 percent tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot, reports Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). While that doesn’t sound like great news for the right-hander, the nearly complete tear isn’t actually as bad as one might think. One doctor to whom Fenech spoke pegged the recovery time for such an injury at a mere two to three weeks, creating some hope that the veteran righty could return in relatively short order after being placed on the DL yesterday. Wilson has managed just a 4.50 ERA in 20 innings this season, though his 16-to-6 K/BB ratio gives a bit more cause for optimism.
  • In a full column, Fenech adds that Tigers center fielder Leonys Martin is undergoing an MRI on his swollen left knee, per manager Ron Gardenhire. The issue seems to be related to a tendon in the back of Martin’s knee, though there’s no word yet as to how serious the issue or how much time he might miss. Through 138 plate appearances, Martin, who signed a one-year deal worth $1.75MM this winter, is hitting .294/.355/.508 with five home runs as Detroit’s primary leadoff hitter.
  • Indians right-hander Danny Salazar will  be shut down for at least the next week after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his ailing right shoulder (link via Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer). Salazar was moved to the 60-day disabled list last week and has yet to pitch in the Majors this season due to an impingement in that right shoulder. At this point, there’s clear indication as to when the Indians can plausibly expect him to return to the roster. Mike Clevinger has stepped up and filled Salazar’s rotation spot quite nicely, though the fifth spot in the Cleveland rotation continues to be an issue.
  • MLB.com’s Scott Merkin tackles several White Sox questions in his latest reader inbox, kicking off by discussing Adam Engel’s spot with the club moving forward. Per Merkin, the organization believes that Engel’s blistering speed gives him the potential for elite range in center field, but GM Rick Hahn has also been “forthright” in stating that the 26-year-old will need to produce more at the plate if he is to have any sort of long-term role with the team. The ChiSox have given Engel 423 plate appearances dating back to Opening Day 2017, but he’s posted a miserable .167/.237/.271 slash with a 33 percent strikeout rate in that time.

Tigers Sign Leonys Martin To Major League Deal, Sign Derek Norris To Minors Pact

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The Tigers announced that they’ve signed outfielder Leonys Martin to a one-year, Major League contract for the 2018 season. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter) that he’ll earn a guaranteed $1.75MM with the opportunity to pick up another $1.1MM via incentives.

Meanwhile, catcher Derek Norris, right-hander Enrique Burgos and outfielder Jim Adduci have signed minor league deals that contain invites to Spring Training, per the team. The Tigers also confirmed their previously reported minor league deal with first baseman Edwin Espinal.

Martin, 30 next March, should have ample opportunity to pick up at-bats with the Tigers, who enter the offseason with a thin outfield mix. Mikie Mahtook, JaCoby Jones and Nicholas Castellanos currently sit atop the depth chart in Detroit, though Jones has yet to establish himself in the Majors while Castellanos is a trade candidate. Martin could supplant Jones, and at the very least the two will compete for regular at-bats during Spring Training this year.

In Martin, the Tigers are adding a left-handed bat and a fleet-footed defender that can handle all three outfield spots. The former Rangers/Mariners outfielder hasn’t hit much in recent years, but Martin has consistently drawn top-notch reviews for his defensive work — most of which has come in center field. Defensive Runs Saved pegs him at +46 in nearly 4500 big league innings, while Ultimate Zone Rating has him at 30 runs better than average. Detroit outfielders, collectively, drew marks of -10 and -7 from DRS and UZR last season, so adding Martin to the mix should prove to be a significant boon, even if it comes at the expense of some offense.

Martin’s struggles with the bat have indeed been pronounced over the past three seasons, during which time he’s twice posted an OPS south of .600. Overall, in his past 1024 MLB plate appearances, Martin has batted .228/.283/.345. At his best, Martin does show some pop, and he’s always a threat on the basepaths as well. Martin’s batted-ball profile has been increasingly fly-ball oriented in recent years, and while many in the league have had great success in that regard, it hasn’t worked out for him. Perhaps a return to a more ground-ball-based approach and some work to curtail his recent uptick in punchouts can at least return his bat to serviceable levels.

As a bonus for the Tigers, Martin comes with just four years, 161 days of Major League service time, meaning if he does turn things around at all, he’ll be controllable through the 2019 season via arbitration. That could help both in making him a multi-year asset for a rebuilding Detroit club or by making him more appealing to potential trade suitors in the event of a bounceback.

Norris, 29 in February, struggled to a .201/.258/.380 line in 198 plate appearances with the Rays last season. He hasn’t performed well at the plate since a solid run with the A’s and Padres in 2013-15, though he at one point in his career showed a penchant for drawing walks and the power to post double-digit homer totals. He’ll compete for a backup catching job, though with James McCann and John Hicks in the fold, it seems likelier that he’ll head to Triple-A to open the year.

Norris was released by the Rays this past June, and his season formally came to a conclusion on Sept. 1 when commissioner Rob Manfred placed him on the restricted list for the final month of the year “based on the results of” an investigation into domestic violence allegations made by his former fiancee. Notably, it does not seem as though there were ever any criminal charges brought forth against Norris. He’s not facing any punishment from the league in 2018.

The 27-year-old Burgos has shown the ability to miss bats at the big league level, averaging 10.8 K/9 in 68 1/3 innings across multiple stints with the D-backs, dating back to 2015. He’s averaged nearly 96 mph on his fastball but has also issued five walks per nine innings as a Major Leaguer. He’ll vie for a spot in an unsettled Tigers bullpen and, if he can eventually put things together, is controllable all the way through the 2022 season.

Adduci, 32, returned from a strong stint in the Korea Baseball Organization this year and made his way to the Tigers’ big league roster, where he batted .241/.323/.398 in 93 PAs. Adduci has just 241 big league PAs, which have resulted in a .209/.283/.302 slash.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/12/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the game, all from Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise credited…

  • Leonys Martin is now a free agent, as he elected to hit the open market after being outrighted off the Cubs’ roster last week.  The veteran outfielder is looking to rebound from a rough 2017 that saw him post just a .513 OPS over 138 PA with the Cubs and Mariners, though Martin was still an above-average defender in the outfield.
  • The Royals re-signed right-hander Seth Maness to a new minor league deal.  Maness elected to become a free agent last month after K.C. outrighted him off its 40-man roster.  A workhorse out of the Cardinals’ bullpen in his first three seasons, Maness has been limited to just 41 1/3 IP over the last two seasons thanks to a torn UCL, though he opted for an innovative “primary repair” procedure that allowed him a much quicker return to action than the usual 12-15 month timeline for Tommy John surgery.
  • Catcher Tim Federowicz chose to become a free agent after being outrighted off the Giants’ 40-man roster.  Federowicz hasn’t hit much (a .558 OPS) over 318 career MLB plate appearances, though he has a very impressive .304/.374/.503 slash line over 1654 PA at the Triple-A level.
  • The Braves released right-hander Armando Rivero.  Atlanta chose Rivero in last year’s Rule 5 Draft but Rivero missed the entire season due to shoulder problems.  The Braves outrighted Rivero off their 40-man roster last month, so the Cubs officially declined the opportunity to take the righty back.  Rivero has a 2.70 ERA, 12.4 K/9 and 2.83 K/BB rate over 220 career innings in the minors, all as a reliever in Chicago’s system.
  • Catcher Erik Kratz elected to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, the Yankees announced earlier this week (via Twitter).  Kratz spent much of 2017 at Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate before being acquired by New York on August 31 to add some catching depth to the expanded September rosters.  Kratz only appeared in four games as a Yankee, but it officially made him a veteran of six different teams over parts of eight MLB seasons.  The 37-year-old has a .203/.250/.366 slash line over 649 career plate appearances in the bigs.

Cubs Claim Cory Mazzoni, Outright Leonys Martin

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The Cubs have announced a series of roster moves as teams around the league continue to trim rosters. Chicago claimed righty Cory Mazzoni off waivers from the Padres, adding a new name to the 40-man. Leaving the MLB roster is outfielder Leonys Martin; he’ll be replaced by righty Matt Carasiti, whose contract was selected.

Mazzoni, a former second-round draft pick who recently turned 28, has been shelled in minimal MLB time. But he put up some exciting numbers at Triple-A, allowing just two earned runs in 20 1/3 innings while racking up 31 strikeouts against just three walks. Despite those eyebrow-raising tallies, Mazzoni made it through much of the rest of the league on the wire.

As for Martin, he will have the right to elect free agency and seems likely to take it. He was a surprising mid-season acquisition for the Cubs after falling out of favor with the Mariners. Martin posted anemic offensive numbers all year long but still found himself onto the Cubs’ postseason roster. Given his well-regarded defense and baserunning, along with a history that includes some stretches of passable hitting, there ought to be a fair bit of interest in Martin, who is just 29 years of age.

Cubs Select Maples, Freeman From Triple-A; Rosario, Frankoff Designated For Assignment

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The Cubs have designated right-handers Jose Rosario and Seth Frankoff for assignment to clear roster space for righty Dillon Maples and infielder/outfielder Mike Freeman, whose contracts have been selected from Triple-A Iowa. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune tweets that another move will be on the horizon, as recently acquired Leonys Martin will join the team tomorrow. Martin is not presently on the 40-man roster.

Maples will join the Cubs’ roster having received his share of fanfare. He currently ranks 14th among Cubs prospects at MLB.com (albeit in a system that has been depleted by trades and by the graduation of many young talents to the big league roster). Maples was also highlighted by MLBTR’s Jason Martinez in his most recent edition of Knocking Down The Door.

The 25-year-old Maples has been a strikeout machine across three minor league levels in 2017, working to a combined 2.27 ERA with 14.2 K/9, 5.3 BB/9 and an enormous ground-ball rate (north of 62 percent). Control is obviously an issue for Maples, though Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com note that his occasionally triple-digit fastball and pair of plus breaking pitches make Maples a potential closer if he can ever find a way to more consistently repeat his delivery and improve his control.

Freeman, who recently turned 30, has been up and down with the D-backs, Mariners and Dodgers over the past two seasons. He’s batted a meager .123/.206/.193 in 61 big league plate appearances, but he’s a lifetime .312/.377/.420 hitter in nearly 1500 Triple-A plate appearances and can play all over the diamond. He’s primarily been a second baseman, but Freeman has significant experience at shortstop and in center field. He’s also seen time at third base, first base and in the outfield corners, making him a flexible bench option for manager Joe Maddon down the stretch.

Rosario has been limited to 17 1/3 innings this year because of injuries and has pitched just 50 2/3 innings above Class-A Advanced despite the fact that he just turned 27. Rosario missed the entire 2015 campaign due to Tommy John surgery and has a career 4.84 ERA with 7.9 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9 in the minors.

Frankoff, 29, made his big league debut with the Cubs this season but tossed only two innings. He’s spent the bulk of his career in the Athletics’ minor league ranks and has pitched to a 4.40 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 through 116 2/3 innings in Triple-A Iowa this year — mostly out of the rotation (21 starts, three relief appearances).

Cubs Acquire Leonys Martin

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The Cubs announced to reporters just before tonight’s deadline for postseason roster eligibility that they’ve acquired outfielder Leonys Martin and cash from the Mariners in exchange for a player to be named later or cash (Twitter link via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times).

Leonys Martin | Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY SportsThe addition of Martin will give the Cubs a fleet-footed reserve outfielder to serve as a pinch-runner and/or late-inning defensive upgrade, at the very least, over the season’s final month. While such players aren’t rostered throughout the bulk of the regular season, the month of September is its own animal; rosters expand to 40 beginning Sept. 1, allowing teams the luxury of having this type of highly specialized player on board.

Of course, Martin isn’t that far removed from being regarded in considerably better fashion. He logged a .247/.306/.378 batting line with 15 homers and 24 steals as Seattle’s primary center fielder in 2016. While that line checks in below the league average, Martin’s glove and baserunning prowess still allowed him to check in at 2.2 wins above replacement, per Fangraphs. And from 2013-14, Martin contributed more than six total WAR thanks largely to his speed and defense.

While those heights appear likely to be squarely in the past for Martin, he’s posted a strong .307/.348/.494 batting line with 11 homers and 25 steals in 87 Triple-A contests this season. He’s earning $4.85MM this year after avoiding arbitration last offseason, but the inclusion of cash from the Mariners surely indicates that they’re picking up the majority of the tab on that salary. Martin seems a likely candidate to join the Cubs’ big league roster in the very near future, where he’ll look to improve on the dismal .174/.221/.287 slash he’s posted through 122 plate appearances in the Majors this year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mariners Outright Leonys Martin

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Aug. 25: The Mariners announced on Friday that Martin has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma.

Aug. 23: The Mariners have designated outfielder Leonys Martin for assignment, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). Martin’s active roster spot will go to David Phelps, who was activated from the 10-day DL.

This represents the second trip through DFA limbo on the year for Martin, who was outrighted and later re-selected to the roster. The 29-year-old was much better in his second stint this season, but still managed only a .230/.266/.426 batting line in the 64 plate appearances since he returned to the majors in late July.

Martin is likely to clear waivers, given that he is earning $4.85MM for the season, and can elect free agency if he is outrighted. Doing so, however, would mean forfeiting the remainder of that $4.85MM payday — a sum of roughly $1.03MM. (Players do not earn the right to reject an outright and retain their salary until clearing five years of MLB service.) Martin is eligible for arbitration again this fall, but it seems all but certain he’ll be non-tendered even if he stays in the Seattle organization through the end of the year.

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