Zack Britton

Zack Britton Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | November 20, 2023 at 9:08am CDT

Two-time All-Star Zack Britton is retiring after a 12-year career in the Majors. The left-hander himself announced the news in a terrific interview with The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli that fans of Britton, the Orioles and the Yankees will surely want to read in full. Within, Britton discusses the difficult decision to walk away, the toll that the game can take on a young family (and his subsequent appreciation for the support of his wife), some of the low points of his career, the best advice he ever received from Buck Showalter and much, much more.

A third-round pick of the Orioles back in 2006, the now-35-year-old Britton didn’t have a straightforward path to stardom. Though he ranked among the game’s 100 best prospects on most lists heading into the 2010 and 2011 seasons, Britton’s rookie campaign in ’11 featured 154 1/3 innings of 4.61 ERA ball. He struggled as a starter in each of the next two seasons, pitching to a nondescript 4.77 ERA from 2011-13.

After logging 254 2/3 innings of shaky work with sub-par strikeout and walk rates out of the rotation, Britton was moved to the Orioles’ bullpen. It proved to be a career-defining decision. Britton excelled immediately, and before long he’d cemented himself not as just one of the very best relievers in the big leagues, but as one of the most dominant lefties in recent MLB history.

Britton’s peak in Baltimore was the stuff of legend. His 2014-16 run, in particular, stands as one of the best three-year stretches you’ll ever find from a reliever. In that span, the southpaw logged 209 innings with a minuscule 1.38 earned run average, fanning 27.1% of his opponents against a 6.9% walk rate.

In addition to those strong strikeout and walk rates, Britton was perhaps the greatest ground-ball pitcher in our lifetimes (if not longer). Since batted-ball data began being tracked in 2002, Britton owns five of the top 14 single-season grounder rates of any qualified pitcher in baseball — including Nos. 1 and 2. Britton’s 80% ground-ball rate in 2016 and his 79.1% ground-ball rate a year prior are the top two marks of any qualified pitcher since the advent of batted-ball tracking. Opponents were simply unable to elevate the southpaw’s 96-98mph bowling ball of a sinker, and it showed. After moving to the ’pen in 2014, Britton allowed just 0.39 home runs per nine innings pitched for the remainder of his career.

Britton made the All-Star team in both 2015 and 2016, leading the league in games finished in both of those seasons and topping the American League with 47 saves in ’16. He picked up another pair of saves and a hold with the O’s during their 2014 run to the ALCS. Fans will no doubt remember the now-infamous Showalter decision to pitch Ubaldo Jimenez over Britton in the 2016 Wild Card game, but Britton effused praise for his former skipper, crediting Showalter for helping make his career what it was and noting that such an esteemed managerial career shouldn’t be defined by that decision.

As the Orioles’ run as one of the American League’s top teams tailed off, Britton found himself changing uniforms in a rare intra-division swap of significance. Baltimore shipped him to the Yankees in return for Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll and Josh Rogers at the 2018 deadline — one of former GM Dan Duquette’s final moves atop the baseball operations hierarchy. Though Britton was a rental at the time, his foray into free agency led him right back to the Bronx; he signed a complex three-year, $39MM contract that contained a club option for a fourth season but required the Yankees to make the decision on that option after just two years — lest Britton be afforded the opportunity to opt out of the deal. The Yankees wound up exercising the fourth year, though injuries derailed much of Britton’s final few seasons.

While Britton’s time with the Yankees wasn’t necessarily as dominant as his time in Baltimore, he was nonetheless an excellent bullpen weapon for them when healthy. The lefty appeared in 136 games for the Yankees during regular-season play, piling up 53 holds and a dozen saves while recording a 2.75 ERA. His strikeout and walk rates weren’t close to their peak levels, but Britton’s power sinker continued to produce ground-balls at historic rates throughout his time in pinstripes. The lefty notched sub-2.00 ERAs in both 2019 and 2020 before struggling to a near-6.00 ERA in an injury shortened 2021 campaign that culminated in Tommy John surgery. He returned to face nine hitters in 2022 — the final nine opponents of his excellent career.

All told, Britton will walk away from the game with a career 3.13 ERA, 154 saves, 61 holds and 35 wins. He pitched 641 innings during that time, adding another 23 postseason frames with a 3.13 ERA, two saves and seven holds. It could be years, if not decades before we see another reliever season quite like Britton’s career-best 2016 campaign: he logged a 0.54 ERA that year, saved 47 games, struck out 29.1% of his opponents (against a 7.1% walk rate), induced grounders at that best-ever 80% clip, made the All-Star team and finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting. He earned more than $87MM over the course of his dozen seasons in the big leagues.

While Britton indicated to Ghiroli that he isn’t ruling out a return to baseball in some capacity in his post-playing days, his immediate plans are to spend time with his wife and four children. Best wishes to Britton and his family in whatever the future holds.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History: Honorable Mentions

By Steve Adams | June 5, 2023 at 4:25pm CDT

The calendar has flipped to June, and more than one-third of the season is in the rearview mirror. While there’s still plenty of time for the standings to change in dramatic fashion — just ask the 2022 Phillies or 2019 Nationals — the “early” portion of the season is a bit behind us. As the weather heats up and playoff pictures begin to take a more definitive shape, the baseball world inherently turns its focus to a few things: the looming All-Star Game, the upcoming amateur draft and, of course, the annual trade deadline.

June trades of note are admittedly rare — particularly over the past ten years or so — but we’re fast approaching the portion of the season where trade needs, potential trade candidates and many other deadline-adjacent minutiae begin to crystallize. It’s common for fans of rebuilding and/or underperforming clubs to begin to wonder just what sort of returns their favorite team might be able to eke out for veteran players with dwindling club control.

Some of the most common questions we’re asked in chats at MLBTR these days center around what a team might be able to get for a certain player — rentals in particular. Names like Lucas Giolito, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery and Jeimer Candelario were just a few readers asked me about this past week. To be clear, it’s not a given that all or even any of those specific names will change hands in two months’ time (or sooner), but it’s obviously a hot topic that’s on people’s minds.

As such, it only seemed natural to take a look back through recent history and look at some high-profile trades of rental players and see which panned out the best for the team selling off the veteran player in question. Over the next couple weeks, we’ll roll out a look at the ten “best” returns for rental players in recent trade deadline history.

A few caveats of note! At times, it can take three, four, five years or even longer for a team to begin reaping the benefits from such a deal. An immediate return isn’t always apparent, particularly when you’re only selling two months of a player or players. As such, we’re not considering trades completed at last year’s deadline for our top ten, even though they could well prove excellent as soon as 2024 or 2025. It’s simply too soon to evaluate those swaps. Also, these rankings are subjective; they’re not based on a hard-and-fast WAR criteria or anything of the sort. If you think we should’ve ranked No. 7 higher and No. 4 lower, let us know. It’s all part of the fun.

While I said we’re omitting last year’s deadline from our top ten, that doesn’t mean we’ll completely ignore the results of the 2022 deadline. To kick off the series, here’s a quick look at three honorable mentions from 2017-21 as well as a handful of 2022 trades that will be worth keeping an eye on in the years to come. Present-day impact of these 2022 trades has either been minimal or nonexistent, but each brought the “selling” team some nearly MLB-ready help that could be impactful as soon as this season. These honorable mentions and 2022 swaps aren’t ranked — they’re just sorted alphabetically by the last name of the player who was traded.

Let’s begin!

Honorable Mentions

Orioles acquire RHPs Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll and LHP Josh Rogers from the Yankees in exchange for LHP Zack Britton (7/24/18)

Two-thirds of this return for Baltimore wound up making little to no impact, but the acquisition of Tate, a former No. 4 overall draft pick, wound up paying dividends. Though Tate isn’t the rotation piece the Rangers hoped for when drafting him or the Yankees envisioned when acquiring him for Carlos Beltran, he’s emerged as a quality setup man at Camden Yards. The O’s gave Tate just ten starts after the trade before moving him to the bullpen, and while his rookie effort in 2019 left plenty to be desired, he’s since pitched quite well.

Dating back to 2020, Tate has a 3.65 ERA in 158 innings of relief, adding 25 holds and eight saves along the way. Tate’s 19.1% strikeout rate is below-average, but his 6.8% walk rate is better than average and his 57.9% grounder rate is outstanding. In 2022, he pitched to a pristine 3.05 ERA through 73 2/3 frames, tallying five of those saves and 16 of those holds. A forearm strain has kept Tate out of action this year, however.

Tate isn’t peak Britton and likely never will be, but trading two months of an elite reliever and winding up with six years of club control over an above-average reliever isn’t a bad outcome for Baltimore. As for the Yankees, they got the tail end of Britton’s prime. He notched a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings down the stretch and re-signed on a three-year deal with a fourth year option (that had to be exercised after the contract’s second season to prevent a Britton opt-out). Britton posted a sub-2.00 ERA in both 2019 and 2020, but he pitched just 19 innings over his final two years in New York due to injuries.

Rays acquire LHP Jalen Beeks from the Red Sox in exchange for RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7/25/18)

Few could’ve predicted what an impactful trade this would end up being at the time it was made. At the time of the swap, Eovaldi was in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and had pitched 57 innings of 4.26 ERA ball for Tampa Bay. He’d long intrigued teams with his power arsenal but was inconsistent and carried a career ERA that more or less matched that season total.

Eovaldi took off in Boston, however, tossing 54 frames of 3.33 ERA ball as the Sox marched to the postseason, where he cemented his status in Red Sox lore. Eovaldi was a star that October, tossing 22 1/3 innings of 1.61 ERA ball with a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio. Those are impressive numbers on their own, but they only tell part of the tale. Eovaldi won his first two starts of the playoffs before moving to the bullpen and picking up a pair of holds. But it was Game 3 of the World Series, where Eovaldi gutted out six innings of relief in an 18-inning marathon and finished out the game, that many will remember. The Dodgers wound up winning when Eovaldi’s 97th (!) pitch out of the bullpen was deposited in the seats by Max Muncy, but he saved the Boston bullpen with six innings of one-run ball that night. The Sox went on to win the World Series in five games.

As for the Rays, they came away with a lefty who’d come up through Boston’s system as a starter but would be used in a jack-of-all-trades role in St. Petersburg. Beeks has served as a long reliever, a setup man and an opener in parts of five seasons with Tampa Bay, totaling 258 innings of 4.12 ERA ball along the way. He’s been the type of versatile arm whose value can’t be neatly encapsulated in what looks like an otherwise modest WAR total. Beeks has handled just about any role the Rays could ask, and he’s generally been effective in doing so. He’s not a star, but he’s been an important member of their pitching staff for a half decade now and is still under team control through the 2024 season.

Tigers acquire RHP Reese Olson from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Daniel Norris (7/30/21)

The 23-year-old Olson made his big league debut on Friday when he stepped into the Detroit rotation to take the spot of the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. As far as debuts go, it was nearly as good as a young pitcher could ask for. Olson carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before being tagged for a pair of runs and departing five frames of two-run ball in the books.

Olson isn’t regarded among the sport’s top 100 prospects and isn’t even universally considered to be among the Tigers’ top 10 prospects, but he’s missed bats consistently in the upper minors and is regarded as a potential long-term rotation piece if he can improve upon the command of his fastball. Scouting reports at Baseball America, FanGraphs, The Athletic and MLB.com praise Olson’s secondary pitches, particularly his changeup, which he’s begun using effectively even in right-on-right situations.

Detroit has seen a lot of turnover in the baseball operations department since this trade, but former GM Al Avila, AGM David Chadd and others will be in line for some praise if the Tigers get a viable big leaguer in exchange for two months of the veteran Norris, who was sitting on a 5.38 ERA in 36 2/3 innings at the time of the deal. Norris had been tough on lefties, and the Brewers surely felt they could coax a higher level of performance out of him with some tweaks. That didn’t happen, however, as Norris was rocked for a 6.64 ERA in Milwaukee, walking 15 of the 63 batters he faced (23.8%) and serving up five homers in 20 1/3 frames (2.2 HR/9).

2022 Deadline Swaps to Watch

Pirates acquire RHP Johan Oviedo, INF Malcom Nunez from the Cardinals in exchange for LHP Jose Quintana, RHP Chris Stratton (8/2/22)

Yes, technically this isn’t a pure rental. Stratton had an additional year of club control, and that surely factored into the return. But he was also sitting on a 5.09 ERA at the time of the deal, and this was largely a trade centered around getting Quintana to land some much-needed rotation help in St. Louis.

The Cardinals got just what they wanted out of this deal — and then some. Quintana stepped into the rotation and not only solidified the staff but pitched to a brilliant 2.01 ERA in 62 2/3 frames down the stretch. The lefty was so excellent that St. Louis wound up tabbing him as the Game 1 starter in last year’s National League Division Series. Quintana had signed a one-year, $2MM deal in the offseason and was acquired as a back-end starter but pitched like an ace. The script doesn’t get much better for the acquiring team.

That said, this trade also has the makings of a winner for Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old Oviedo has been inconsistent but shown flashes of brilliance with the Bucs. He’s throwing fewer fastballs and more breaking pitches — particularly more curveballs, which has been an extremely effective offering for him through 11 starts. Oviedo’s 4.50 ERA in 58 innings looks pretty pedestrian, but he’s upped his ground-ball rate and improved his velocity even in a rotation role. He’s allowed one or zero runs in six of his 11 starts this year. The Pirates can control Oviedo for four more years beyond the current season, and if he’s a legitimate starter or even a multi-inning relief piece, that’ll be a fine return for their modest Quintana flier. Nunez, meanwhile, hit .286/.381/.476 in Double-A following the trade and is at .255/.338/.369 in 160 Triple-A plate appearances this year.

Cubs acquire RHP Ben Brown from the Phillies in exchange for RHP David Robertson (8/2/22)

Robertson was one of the most in-demand relievers — or trade candidates in general — at last year’s deadline, and the rebuilding/retooling Cubs needed to get their return right. So far, it looks like they’ve done just that. Brown is out to a sensational start in the upper minors this year, pitching to a combined 2.63 ERA with a 35.5% strikeout rate against a less-appealing 11.7% walk rate. Baseball America ranked him sixth among Cubs prospects heading into the season, and The Athletic’s Keith Law called him a “heck of a get for two months of a 37-year-old reliever.” FanGraphs currently has him ranked 87th on their top-100 prospect list, and MLB.com moved him into its top-100 just this morning.

Despite Brown’s wide-reaching acclaim, the Phillies might not even regret making the swap. Robertson struggled with his command following the trade but still posted 22 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball and saved six games for Philadelphia down the stretch in a tight Wild Card race that saw them edge out the Brewers by exactly one win. The Phillies needed every single victory, and if they’d held onto Brown and targeted a different reliever(s), who knows whether they’d have reached the playoffs? Were it not for Robertson — who pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the playoffs — the Phils may never have experienced J.T. Realmuto’s NLDS inside-the-parker, Rhys Hoskins’ four-homer NLCS, or Bryce Harper’s iconic NLCS-clinching bomb.

Angels acquire OFs Mickey Moniak, Jadiel Sanchez from the Phillies in exchange for RHP Noah Syndergaard (8/2/22)

This trade might not have gone as well as the Phillies hoped. Syndergaard was decent down the stretch, pitching to a 4.12 ERA in 10 appearances, nine of them starts. He started just twice in the postseason and made one relief appearance. Syndergaard pitched like a fourth or fifth starter but saw his already diminished velocity and strikeout rate step even further back following the trade. Again, the Phils needed every last win to get to the playoffs, though, so it’s hard to say they’d definitively have done anything different. They won six of Syndergaard’s nine starts and also picked up the victory in the lone game they used him out of the bullpen, when he tossed two scoreless frames.

At least thus far, Angels fans can’t complain about the return. Moniak isn’t going to sustain a .429 batting average on balls in play, but he’s hitting .327/.340/.694 in 50 plate appearances. The BABIP and a 34% strikeout rate scream for regression, but the former 1-1 pick has already hit as many homers through 50 trips to the plate with the Halos (four) as he did in 167 with the Phillies. He’s played good defense, run well and given some hope that he can carve out a role moving forward.

Red Sox acquire INF Enmanuel Valdez, OF Wilyer Abreu from the Astros in exchange for C Christian Vazquez (8/1/22)

Trading Vazquez was part of a disjointed Red Sox trade deadline that saw Boston trade away their longtime catcher and lefty reliever Jake Diekman while also acquiring Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham. It wasn’t clear that their 2023 roster was improved, and the decision to hold onto other trade targets while adding Pham’s salary left them just over the luxury tax line (thereby reducing their compensation for qualifying offers extended to Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi).

Digression aside, the swap might prove beneficial to the Sox in the long run. Valdez has already made his big league debut, and although his bat faded after a hot start, he’s still sporting a passable .244/.292/.422 batting line (91 wRC+) in his first 97 big league plate appearances. He’s picked up four homers, four doubles and three steals (in four tries) while subbing in at second base in the wake of a slew of middle-infield injuries. Valdez posted absolutely massive numbers in 205 Double-A plate appearances last year (.357/.463/.649) before moving up to Triple-A and hitting .265/.327/.488.

Abreu, meanwhile, was added to the 40-man roster over the winter and is hitting .264/.379/.479 in 40 Triple-A games so far. He’s regarded as a potential plus outfield defender, and his success in Triple-A and status on the 40-man roster mean the Red Sox could possibly have two MLB contributors within a year or so of trading Vazquez.

It’s hard to say anything moves the 2022 Astros made “didn’t work out,” as the team won the World Series in the end. But Vazquez took a backseat to Martin Maldonado both in the regular season and the playoffs, hitting just .250/.278/.308 in 108 regular-season plate appearances following the swap (plus .235/.316/.235 in just 19 playoff plate appearances).

Brewers Have Shown Interest In Zack Britton

By Anthony Franco | April 13, 2023 at 10:04pm CDT

The Brewers are among the teams that have shown interest in free agent reliever Zack Britton, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman also reiterates the Mets’ long-standing ties to the two-time All-Star.

Britton is one of the more notable unsigned players. Heyman indicates the 12-year MLB veteran is being patient with his decision as he looks for opportunities with a contender. Both the Mets and Brewers expect to battle for a playoff spot this year, though there are presumably other competitive clubs that also have some level of interest.

The 35-year-old can no longer reasonably be expected to pitch at his peak level. Perhaps the best reliever in the game during his prime, Britton posted five sub-2.00 ERA seasons between 2014-20. He induced grounders on over 70% of batted balls in each of those years, handily topping the league in that regard annually.

Since the start of 2021, Britton has been sidetracked by elbow issues. He allowed 14 runs in 18 1/3 innings for the Yankees during the ’21 campaign, twice landing on the injured list. The second of those stints resulted in a Tommy John procedure that wiped out almost all of the following year. Britton improbably returned at the tail end of last season but walked six of nine batters faced before being shut back down. He’s held multiple showcases since the offseason began but has yet to settle on an opportunity.

The Brewers are a little light on left-handed relief options. Hoby Milner is the only southpaw in the big league bullpen. He’s started the year with five scoreless innings and posted a decent 3.76 ERA across 64 2/3 frames last season. There’s little question that Milner’s spot in the bullpen is secure. There’d presumably be some appeal in adding a second southpaw, though the Brewers could have a hard time finding room on the roster.

Milwaukee has eight relievers on the MLB roster. Milner and closer Devin Williams have spots locked down. Rule 5 draftee Gus Varland — who’s off to an impressive start — has to stay in the majors or be placed on waivers and subsequently offered back to the Dodgers. Meanwhile, each of Bryse Wilson, Matt Bush, Javy Guerra and Joel Payamps has exhausted their minor league options. They all have to remain on the MLB roster or be made available to other teams. That’d leave just one spot barring injury and Peter Strzelecki has opened the year with five scoreless innings of his own.

Former first-round pick Ethan Small and recent trade pickup Bennett Sousa are the top left-handed depth options in the bullpen. Each occupies a spot on the 40-man roster and is on optional assignment to Triple-A Nashville.

The Most Notable Remaining Free Agents

By Anthony Franco | April 6, 2023 at 5:14pm CDT

We’re now a week into the regular season and most of the attention amongst clubs and fans is on the games themselves. It’s a quiet time of year from a hot stove perspective. The offseason is finished and it’s far too early for teams to kick the tires on meaningful trades. Some extension talks might trickle into the season but otherwise, transactions this time of year typically take the form of waiver claims and internal prospect promotions.

Even at a relatively quiet portion of the season, there remain a handful of notable players on the free agent market. Gary Sánchez just came off the board on a minor league deal last week, for instance. Which other players — many of whom are late-career former stars — could still find interest as depth options, particularly if they’re amenable to a minor league contract?

Miguel Sanó

Sanó had a disastrous 2022 season. Right knee troubles kept him to 20 games and 71 plate appearances, in which he hit .083/.211/.133 with only one home run. That ended his time with the Twins, who made the obvious call to buy him out of a club option, but he’s only a year removed from hitting 30 homers. Sanó has topped 25 longballs on four occasions in his career. He won’t turn 30 until next month, making him one of the younger players who didn’t sign over the offseason. Sanó reportedly held a showcase for scouts in early February but there was no publicly reported interest from any teams thereafter.

Chris Archer

Like Sanó, Archer spent the 2022 season in Minnesota but was bought out at year’s end. He tossed 102 2/3 innings across 25 outings, posting a 4.56 ERA with a modest 19.2% strikeout rate and an elevated 11% walk percentage. It was the most hittable Archer has been in his career, but he still averaged 93 MPH on his four-seam and 88.7 MPH on his slider. He’s clearly not the upper mid-rotation arm he was when he made two All-Star games during his time with the Rays, but he’s probably the top unsigned starting pitcher. Archer hasn’t been substantively linked to any team since being cut loose by Minnesota in November. Last month, Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote that Archer had conducted a showcase for teams, though it isn’t clear when that workout occurred.

Darin Ruf

Released by the Mets earlier this week, Ruf is a right-handed hitter who has typically been an effective platoon first base/corner outfield option of late. He mashed at a .271/.385/.519 clip two years ago. At last summer’s deadline, he was carrying a .216/.328/.373 line over 90 games for the Giants. New York acquired him for a four-player package including J.D. Davis and Thomas Szapucki. Ruf’s production cratered in Queens but he’s not far removed from being a well-regarded offensive player.

Stephen Piscotty

Piscotty has tallied over 2800 MLB plate appearances split between the Cardinals and A’s. An above-average hitter through his first four seasons, he’s struggled significantly in the last four years. Piscotty was released by Oakland last summer and didn’t return to the majors after signing a minor league deal with the Reds. He caught on with the Giants and collected eight hits in 25 at-bats (.320/.370/.440) but didn’t land a job out of camp. San Francisco granted him his release on Opening Day.

Zack Britton

Britton was arguably the sport’s most dominant reliever during his halcyon days in Baltimore. He remained an elite ground-ball artist for much of his time with the Yankees, excelling in high-leverage innings through 2020. Poor health has intervened in the last two years. Britton spent time on the injured list with elbow concerns in 2021, struggling when able to take the mound. He eventually required Tommy John surgery, which wiped out virtually all of the ’22 season. Britton returned at the tail end of the season but couldn’t find the strike zone and was shut back down. He’s thrown multiple showcases in recent months.

Ken Giles

Much of what applies to Britton is also true of Giles. They’re different pitchers stylistically — Giles is a right-hander whose best days were fueled by huge strikeout tallies instead of grounders — but he’s also a formerly elite reliever who has fallen on hard times from a health perspective. Giles also required Tommy John surgery. His procedure came late in 2020 and cost him all of the ’21 campaign. He returned to the majors with the Mariners last summer and was let go after five appearances. Giles also worked out for clubs late in the offseason but has yet to put pen to paper.

Corey Knebel

Continuing with the run on relievers, Knebel is a former All-Star closer in his own right. He wasn’t as dominant as either Britton or Giles at his peak, and his career has frequently been interrupted by injury. Knebel was very productive as recently as 2021, when he posted a 2.45 ERA in 25 2/3 innings for the Dodgers. That earned him a $10MM deal with the Phillies, which was sidetracked by shoulder problems. He finished the year on the injured list after tearing his shoulder capsule.

Leury García

García spent a decade with the White Sox in a utility capacity. Never much of an offensive threat, he nevertheless endeared himself to multiple coaching staffs based on his defensive flexibility. García signed a surprising three-year deal with Chicago over the 2021-22 offseason. He had a dreadful ’22 campaign and was off to a rough start in Spring Training. The White Sox cut bait in spite of the two remaining years on his contract. García’s an affordable utility option elsewhere.

Mike Minor

Minor made 19 starts for the Reds last season, allowing a 6.06 ERA. He was hampered by shoulder issues at times and struggled significantly with the home run ball. Minor has allowed more than five earned runs per nine innings for three consecutive seasons, though his strikeout and walk rates were solid up until 2022. He held a showcase in February and drew some reported attention from the Cubs last month.

Dallas Keuchel

A former Cy Young winner who was effective for the White Sox during the shortened 2020 season, Keuchel has been hit hard over the past couple years. He played for each of Chicago, Arizona and Texas last season and was tagged for a 9.20 ERA across 14 starts. Keuchel was excellent over four Triple-A outings in the Ranger organization. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported a couple weeks ago that the Phillies had expressed loose interest in the two-time All-Star, though Philadelphia apparently didn’t put a formal minor league offer on the table.

Others of note: Archie Bradley, Kole Calhoun, Robinson Canó, Kyle Crick, Didi Gregorius, Michael Pineda, Garrett Richards, Aníbal Sánchez, Andrelton Simmons, Jonathan Villar

Mets, Nine Other Teams Attended Zack Britton’s Showcase

By Simon Hampton | March 18, 2023 at 9:26am CDT

The Mets were among the ten teams that attended free agent left-hander Zack Britton’s showcase on Friday, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. While the Mets have just lost their closer to a long-term injury, Heyman notes that the Mets’ level of interest in Britton is still unknown.

Britton, 35, was once one of the game’s top relief pitchers, but injuries have held him back in recent years, and he’s only thrown 21 innings over the past two seasons. That small sample was highly uneffective as well, as Britton owned a 6.16 ERA over those two seasons for the Yankees. Last year, in particular, was a frustrating one for the veteran, as Britton worked his way back from 2021 Tommy John surgery to throw, only to walk six of nine batters in his return and wind up back on the injured list for the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury.

With those injury concerns fresh in the memory, it’s tricky to predict just what sort of pitcher Britton can be moving forward. There’s no question about his dominance during his prime, as Britton put in year after year of consistently elite relief work between 2014-20, working to a 1.84 ERA over 367 1/3 innings.

With that sort of track record, a healthy Britton would make sense for a number of teams to take a chance, including the Mets. Brooks Raley is the only left-hander currently projected to make their bullpen, so another southpaw would make some sense. They do have TJ McFarland and Zach Muckenhirn as left-handers in camp with the team, but Britton would represent a clear upgrade on both. They’re also down a man after Edwin Diaz’ season-ending injury suffered in the World Baseball Classic. One case against signing a veteran like Britton is the fact that out of their currently projected bullpen, only John Curtiss and Drew Smith have minor league options remaining, so the team may prefer to add an arm with options remaining to allow for a bit more flexibility in the bullpen ahead of a long season.

Of course, that’s only looking at the Mets, and it’s worth remembering that nine other teams also attended his showcase and would have some level of interest. It’s also worth noting that attendance at a showcase is far from a confirmation of any firm interest in a player, and there’s no indication yet that the Mets are actively pursuing the two-time All Star, although they do make a fair bit of sense.

Zack Britton Throwing For Teams Again

By Steve Adams | March 16, 2023 at 1:51pm CDT

Free-agent lefty Zack Britton is hosting yet another workout for teams seeking bullpen help, as first reported by Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). The Mets will be in attendance, he adds. They’ll be joined by around seven other clubs, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic adds.

It’s at least the third time that Britton has auditioned for clubs this offseason. He held a broad-reaching showcase back in January and a narrower workout for six teams almost one month ago to the day. That session — reportedly attended by the Mets, Angels, Cubs, Giants, Rangers and Dodgers — either didn’t produce the big league offer Britton is said to be seeking or didn’t produce one that he found to his liking.

The Mets’ interest in Britton will take center stage, given Edwin Diaz’s likely season-ending knee surgery and the fact that Britton, not long ago, was considered to be perhaps baseball’s best reliever — just as Diaz is now. Previously, the Mets had been focused on bullpen help that had minor league options, not wanting to limit the flexibility of their relief corps with another veteran addition. Diaz’s inevitable shift to the 60-day injured list could perhaps change that calculus.

Of course, it can’t emphasized enough that it’s been several years since Britton was in peak form. The now-35-year-old lefty had his elbow scoped in March 2021, which cost him the first two months of that season. He returned in June but quickly went down with a hamstring strain that sidelined him another few weeks. The return from that balky hamstring proved similarly short-lived, as an elbow strain again sent him to the injured list.

In Sept. 2021, Britton underwent surgery to address that second elbow issue. The hope was that, like the arthroscopic procedure in March, removing some bone spurs would alleviate the issue. Instead, surgeons determined that Britton’s ulnar collateral ligament had suffered enough damage that a Tommy John surgery was required. He missed almost all of the 2022 season but did make an improbable late-September return. However, that amounted to just three games, during which time Britton walked six of nine batters faced before going back to the injured list yet again. He averaged 92.8 mph on his fastball in that time — nowhere close to the 94.9 mph he averaged during his last healthy season in 2020 (and even further from the 96.9 mph on his sinker at its peak).

From 2014-20, Britton notched a superhuman 1.84 ERA in 367 1/3 frames. He punched out 24% of his opponents against a 9.2% walk rate in that time, and Britton’s 76.2% ground-ball rate over that period cemented him as the best ground-ball pitcher since 2002, when batted-ball data of that nature began being carefully tracked. Britton posted a laughable 80% ground-ball rate in 2016 and was at 79.1% in 2015 and 77.2% in 2019 — the three highest single-season marks ever posted by a qualified pitcher.

It stands to reason that the group of clubs watching Britton throw this time around will be different in composition. Beyond the fact that there are as many as eight teams turning up this time, each of the Angels (Matt Moore), Rangers (Will Smith) and Cubs (Michael Fulmer) have all signed relievers since that time. The Cubs were still open to adding a lefty even after signing Fulmer, so they could remain in play for Britton, but both Anaheim and Texas are less clear fits following their deals with Moore and Smith.

With just two weeks until Opening Day, it’s unlikely that Britton could sign with a team and be ready to pitch by the time the season gets underway. The extent to which he’s built up isn’t known, but given that this is his third workout for teams since January, he’s clearly been on a throwing program for some time now. Even if he’s not ready come March 30, it’s feasible that he could join a big league bullpen at some point in April, health permitting.

Cubs Notes: Bullpen, Happ, Hendricks

By Steve Adams | March 7, 2023 at 9:52am CDT

The Cubs remain open to adding a left-handed reliever, writes Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, though it’s not a lock that they’ll ultimately strike a deal. The Cubs are reluctant to surpass the $233MM luxury tax barrier, and an incentive-based deal for former All-Star Zack Britton could push them past that point if he’s healthy and effective. Chicago has been “monitoring” Mike Minor as well, per the report, though his struggles in recent seasons are an understandable red flag.

President of baseball ops Jed Hoyer said just last week that he “wouldn’t be shocked” to see another reliever come into camp, although the Cubs saw a pair of options come off the board over the weekend when Will Smith signed with the Rangers and Brad Hand inked a deal with the Rockies. Chicago currently sits with a projected $225MM luxury tax figure, placing them $8MM shy of penalization. Even if a deal with Britton or Minor doesn’t come to fruition, that doesn’t necessarily close the book on the Cubs making any kind of addition. Many non-roster veterans throughout the league have opt-out provisions they could trigger if told they’re not making their current organization’s roster, and there will surely be a number of arms being designated for assignment and/or placed on waivers later this month as teams set their Opening Day rosters.

Cubs Have Shown Interest In Mike Minor

By Anthony Franco | March 2, 2023 at 7:55pm CDT

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this afternoon the team was still monitoring the market for left-handed relief. Patrick Mooney of the Athletic adds some specificity to that search, reporting that players like Mike Minor, Will Smith and Brad Hand have all been under consideration. Mooney also adds Zack Britton — whose appeal to the Cubs has previously been reported — as a player the club has checked in on.

Interest in Smith, Hand and Britton is fairly straightforward for a club seeking southpaw help in the later innings. They’re arguably the three top unsigned relievers of either handedness. They’re all former All-Stars with strong career track records and more recent question marks.

Smith had a rocky first half of the season in Atlanta but quietly impressed following a deadline trade to the Astros. Hand allowed fewer than three earned runs per nine innings with the Phillies last season, but that came with strikeout and walk marks that were a few percentage points worse than the respective league averages. Britton has barely pitched over the past season and a half after battling elbow issues that culminated in September 2021 Tommy John surgery.

Smith has only previously been linked to the Tigers this offseason. Evan Petzold of the Free-Press reported Detroit’s interest a couple weeks back but noted that Smith was also drawing attention from clearer-cut contenders. The Cubs are coming off a 74-88 season but were well better than Detroit in 2022 and have had a far more active offseason in an effort for immediate improvement. The only other team that has been publicly tied to Hand are the Twins.

Unlike that trio, Minor hasn’t had any recent work out of the bullpen. He pitched exclusively in relief for the 2017 Royals after two seasons lost to shoulder problems. Since then, the veteran left-hander has pitched essentially entirely as a starter. He has started all but one of 119 appearances in the last five years. Minor had quite a bit of success in that capacity with the Rangers between 2018-19. Things have gone downhill in the trio of seasons since then.

Minor has allowed more than five earned runs per nine innings in each of the past three campaigns. Between 2020-21, he at least stayed mostly healthy and served as a source of back-of-the-rotation innings. That wasn’t the case in 2022, however. Minor was limited to 98 frames over 19 starts during his lone season as a member of the Reds. He posted a 6.06 ERA with a career-worst 16.7% strikeout percentage while allowing an untenable 2.2 home runs per nine.

It’s possible Minor’s struggles are attributable, at least in part, to injury. The 35-year-old began the season on the injured list with a shoulder concern and didn’t make his season debut until early June. He finished the year back on the IL thanks to renewed shoulder issues. The former All-Star hinted at potential retirement last fall but has apparently decided to give things another go. He recently held a showcase for interested teams.

Minor could appeal to teams seeking to stockpile their rotation depth, though the Cubs are presumably eyeing him as a potential relief option. Chicago has Marcus Stroman, Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele and Drew Smyly penciled into their top four rotation spots. Hayden Wesneski, Adrian Sampson and Javier Assad headline the group competing for the final rotation job to open the year. Kyle Hendricks, who’d surely get a starting job once healthy, is reportedly looking towards May for a potential rehab stint after his 2022 campaign was cut short by a capsule tear in his shoulder.

The Cubs have been linked to a number of lefty relief options throughout the offseason. Brandon Hughes is the only southpaw assured of a season-opening bullpen job. There’s room for a second pitcher, though the club has slow-played that area despite an otherwise aggressive offseason that has brought in Taillon, Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger, Trey Mancini, Tucker Barnhart and a handful of right-handed ’pen arms.

There might not be much room left in the budget. Roster Resource projects the Cubs’ luxury tax number around $225MM, $8MM shy of this year’s base threshold. Mooney writes the organization presently views that tax marker “as a soft salary cap,” limiting the amount of flexibility for Hoyer and his front office. It seems unlikely any of the remaining relievers would secure an $8MM guarantee at this point in the offseason — Minor, in particular, might be limited to non-roster offers — but most teams prefer to leave a bit of payroll space for in-season acquisitions.

Whether ownership would approve a bump above the luxury tax if the team is competing for a playoff spot in-season remains to be seen. Owner Tom Ricketts spoke vaguely about the tax in January, saying there “will be times I’m sure in the near future where we’ll go over. But we’ll always keep in mind that there’s a balance there you have to always look to manage” (link via Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). The Cubs last paid the luxury tax in 2020.

Cubs Still Open To Signing Left-Handed Reliever

By Steve Adams | March 2, 2023 at 2:10pm CDT

Spring training is well underway, but the Cubs’ offseason work might not yet be complete. Patrick Mooney of The Athletic tweets that Chicago is still talking to some of the available left-handed relievers remaining in free agency, and president of baseball ops Jed Hoyer tells Mooney that he “wouldn’t be shocked” if he ended up bringing another arm aboard. Whether that’s on a big league or minor league deal remains to be seen.

At the moment, the only left-handed reliever on the Cubs’ roster is 27-year-old Brandon Hughes — a former 16th-round pick who wound up closing for the Cubs down the stretch on the heels of a strong debut campaign. The southpaw tossed 57 2/3 innings of 3.12 ERA ball, fanning a strong 28.5% of his opponents against an 8.8% walk rate. Hughes logged eight saves and four holds, seeing time in higher-leverage situations as the season wore on. With no set closer in place for the Cubs, he’s one of several arms who could again be in the mix for saves during the upcoming 2023 season.

As we’ve written on multiple occasions, the lone segment of the free-agent market that still has some remaining depth is left-handed relievers. Each of Zack Britton, Will Smith and Brad Hand remain unsigned, as does veteran swingman Ross Detwiler. (Lefty Jose Alvarez is also a free agent, but he’s recovering from Tommy John surgery performed last September and thus won’t pitch in 2023.) Britton recently worked out for six clubs, and the Cubs were among those in attendance.

The field for Britton might be even narrower than that sextet would suggest; since the former Orioles closer held that showcase, the Angels (who were also in attendance) have signed Matt Moore. Meanwhile, the Mets (another attendee) reportedly prefer relievers who can yet be optioned to Triple-A. The Yankees, also in attendance, are loath to add further payroll commitments and step into the fourth tier of luxury penalization. The Dodgers and Rangers were the other two clubs present for Britton’s workout.

It’s been a quiet offseason with regard to Hand, though his hometown Twins have reportedly shown some degree of interest. Hand, 33 in a couple weeks, posted a 2.80 ERA in 45 innings with the Phillies last year, although as MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald recently explored, a lot of the secondary metrics underneath that ERA stand out as red flags. Hand’s velocity, strikeout rate, walk rate, swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rate all clocked in at their worst levels since he became a full-time reliever, for instance. The broader track record is plenty appealing, but it’s been a couple seasons since he was a dominant late-inning force.

It’s a similar tale with Smith — another 33-year-old southpaw whose performance has dropped off in recent years. Smith’s three-year deal with the Braves didn’t go as Atlanta hoped — though he was a key figure in their ’21 World Series run — as he posted a solid but unspectacular 3.87 ERA in 121 innings after putting pen to paper on a contract that guaranteed him $40MM. His 2022 season in Atlanta was particularly shaky, as Smith walked 12.3% of his opponents en route to a 4.38 ERA, losing his grip on the closer’s role along the way.

Smith, however, enjoyed a strong rebound effort following a trade to the Astros, who made slight alterations to his release point and pitch selection (as we outlined here a couple months ago). The Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold reported last month that the Tigers had some interest in Smith but added that other clubs with greater postseason aspirations had also inquired on the lefty. The Cubs aren’t necessarily a clear-cut contender, though they stand a better chance of reaching the playoffs than a still-rebuilding Tigers club that’s recently undergone a front office overhaul.

At this juncture of the offseason, any of the remaining relievers would fall into what’s become the Cubs’ sweet spot for bullpen acquisitions. Since their ill-fated signing of Craig Kimbrel to a lucrative three-year pact, the Cubs have shied away from multi-year deals and hefty salaries for bullpen arms. Dating back to the 2019-20 offseason, they’ve signed veterans like Mychal Givens, David Robertson, Ryan Tepera, Brad Boxberger, Chris Martin, Daniel Norris, Brandon Workman and Trevor Williams in free agency — but all have been on one-year deals with guarantees randing from $1.75MM to $5MM. With limited demand for free agents on MLB deals, it seems feasible that any of Britton, Smith or Hand could be had for something in that general price range.

NL East Notes: Mets, Britton, Rizzo, Nationals, Fried

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 7:47pm CDT

The Mets are “unlikely” to sign Zack Britton, a source tells MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, though New York was one of six teams in attendance at Britton’s showcase earlier this week. Brooks Raley is the only left-hander slated for a role in the Mets’ bullpen, so Britton would’ve added some southpaw depth that seems necessary on paper. However, DiComo writes that the Mets like the flexibility offered by having relievers available with minor league options, since it allows the club to shuttle fresh arms back and forth from the minors when necessary.

Britton and the Mets were seen as a logical match for much of the offseason, both due to the Mets’ needs for left-handed relief help and the past history between Britton and manager Buck Showalter from their time with the Orioles. With multiple teams (even beyond the teams who had scouts at his showcase) still showing interest in Britton, the two-time All-Star seems bound to land somewhere in what will essentially be a comeback year after two injury-marred seasons.

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