March 15: The Pirates are making a late addition to their outfield. Pittsburgh is reportedly in agreement with center fielder Michael A. Taylor on a one-year, $4MM contract. The outfielder is a client of the ALIGND Sports Agency. Pittsburgh has not yet announced the move and will need to open a spot on their 40-man roster once the deal is finalized. They may be able to do so by moving Dauri Moreta to the 60-day injured list.
Taylor, 33 later this month, has long been a defensive standout in the big leagues. He debuted back in 2014, giving him a decade of experience to this point. In that time, he has racked up 72 Defensive Runs Saved, 55 Outs Above Average and a grade of 41.1 from Ultimate Zone Rating. Each of those numbers place him in the top 11 among outfielders in that span.
Though he’s now into his 30s, he has continued to put up positive numbers in those categories, with 5 DRS, 8 OAA and 2.8 UZR last year with the Twins. He’s played all three outfield positions but the vast majority of that playing time has come in center: 6,428 innings up the middle compared to 373 1/3 in left and 162 2/3 in right.
His hitting has been less straightforward, as he has generally provided a bit of home run power but with limited on-base ability and some concerning strikeout levels. He’s coming off a year in which he hit 21 homers, a personal best, but his 6.7% walk rate was subpar. His 33.5% strikeout rate was much higher than league average and a personal high, outside of his cup-of-coffee debut in 2014 and an injury-marred 2019.
That led to a lopsided batting line of .220/.278/.442, which translates to a wRC+ of 96. Though that indicates he was 4% below league average at the plate, he also stole 13 bases and provided the aforementioned quality defense. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 1.7 wins above replacement while Baseball Reference had him at 1.9.
It was reported earlier this month that Taylor was viewing himself as comparable to players like Kevin Kiermaier and Harrison Bader. That’s a fairly reasonable comp since those guys are also defensive stalwarts in center field with average-ish offense.
Unfortunately, this offseason has been harsh to the players left standing at this late stage of the offseason. Various clubs have spent to their preferred comfort levels, with many pointing to significant competitive balance tax bills or uncertainty around their TV revenues. As such, various players have recently settled for modest deals that were undoubtedly below their expectations coming into the winter.
Since the start of February, position players like Adam Duvall, Enrique Hernández, Gio Urshela, Tim Anderson, Amed Rosario, Randal Grichuk, Joey Gallo and others have signed for guarantees of $5MM or less. Kiermaier and Bader each got $10.5MM around the New Year but Taylor lingered on the open market and will have to settle for a deal well below that.
Taylor drew fairly widespread interest this winter, with clubs like the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Reds, Dodgers, Angels, Padres and Twins connected to him at various points throughout the offseason. But many of those clubs went in different directions as time went on. The Jays brought back Kiermaier, the Red Sox traded for Tyler O’Neill, the Dodgers got both Enrique and Teoscar Hernández, the Angels added Aaron Hicks and the Twins grabbed Manuel Margot from the Dodgers.
In the end, it will be the Pirates who will be the beneficiary of Taylor staying on the market for so long. Last year, the Bucs moved Jack Suwinski from being primarily a corner outfield guy to center field. The results were mixed, as he was graded as being 10 runs below average by DRS but three above by OAA, while he got a mark of -1.7 from UZR.
That move pushed Bryan Reynolds into left field but now perhaps Taylor’s signing will push Suwinski over to right field. Coming into today, the Bucs had a muddled mix of options for right field, including Connor Joe, Edward Olivares and Joshua Palacios. Joe can play a bit of first base and may platoon with Rowdy Tellez there, while Olivares and Palacios each have options and could either be on the big league bench or in the minors. The Pirates were connected to Tommy Pham earlier today but that is presumably off the table now with Taylor in the fold.
It’s also possible to envision some platoon possibilities in the outfield, with Taylor hitting from the right side. Taylor has hit .256/.310/.436 against lefties in his career for a wRC+ of 99, but the split was even more drastic last year, as he hit .252/.313/.602 versus southpaws for a wRC+ of 146. Suwinski, a lefty swinger, has a .234/.344/.488 slash in his career against righties but just .164/.263/.300 against righties. Those splits lead to wRC+ numbers of 125 and 57, respectively.
How manager Derek Shelton plays it remains to be seen, but the addition of Taylor at a modest price certainly upgrades the club’s outfield defense. Taylor isn’t an amazing hitter but was great against lefties last year and has real pop in his bat when he makes contact, plus an ability to steal a base here and there.
The move brings the Pirates’ payroll commitments to just over $85MM, per RosterResource. That’s the lowest payroll in the league apart from the actively-moving Athletics, but it’s nonetheless a jump for the Bucs. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they opened last year at $73MM, which was itself a jump from the two years prior.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Pirates had reached agreement with Taylor on a one-year, $4MM deal.
]]>7:57pm: The Pirates are in agreement with Domingo Germán, as first reported by Mike Rodriguez (on X). Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets that it’s a minor league pact. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman tweets that the righty will get an invite to major league camp.
Germán reached the market after being placed on outright waivers by the Yankees. That ended a six-year run in the Bronx that included a fair number of highlights but was also marked by off-field issues. Germán broke through as a big league starter in 2019 when he turned in a 4.03 ERA across 143 innings.
That September, MLB placed Germán on administrative leave after he reportedly assaulted his girlfriend at a charity event. MLB finished its investigation that offseason and suspended him for the first 81 games of the 2020 season. That year wound up being shortened by the pandemic, so MLB reinstated him after he missed the entire 60-game schedule.
Germán returned to the Yankees in 2021. He missed parts of the next two seasons battling shoulder issues, combining for a 4.17 ERA over 170 2/3 innings. He held a spot in the New York rotation for the early portion of last year. Germán’s start to the year was middling and he was suspended for 10 games in mid-May after failing a foreign substance inspection.
He carried a 5.10 ERA through his first 14 appearances into a late-June start in Oakland. Germán turned in a legendary performance at the Coliseum that night, throwing MLB’s 24th perfect game, the first since Félix Hernández’s outing in 2012. Germán followed that up with a 4.61 ERA over five starts in July.
On August 2, the Yankees announced they were placing him on the restricted list so he could report to an inpatient treatment facility for alcohol abuse. Lindsey Adler of the Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that an apparently intoxicated Germán had argued with teammates and coaches in the New York clubhouse and flipped a couch amidst those confrontations. New York placed him on the restricted list and moved on from him at the end of the season.
Pittsburgh will give the 31-year-old another opportunity to pitch his way back to the big leagues. The Pirates have an open rotation mix behind staff ace Mitch Keller. The Bucs added soft-tossing lefties Martín Pérez (via free agency) and Marco Gonzales (through trade) over the offseason. That duo will hold down rotation spots, with righty Luis Ortiz also likely to be in the mix. Bailey Falter, Josh Fleming and former top prospect Roansy Contreras are all competing for swing roles, but none of that group was especially successful in 2023. Prospects Quinn Priester and Jared Jones (the latter of whom is not on the 40-man roster) could battle for jobs as well.
Germán joins Eric Lauer, Chase Anderson, Wily Peralta and Michael Plassmeyer as non-roster players who have big league experience. There may even be room for two members of that group to snag season-opening jobs if the Bucs don’t go outside the organization for someone like Michael Lorenzen or Mike Clevinger at this point in the winter. Germán has more than five years of major league service and could not be optioned back to the minors without his consent if the Bucs call him up at any point.
]]>Pittsburgh has Bryan Reynolds locked into left field and Jack Suwinski in center, but right field is more open at the moment. Connor Joe, Edward Olivares and Joshua Palacios could all see some time at the position. Each is on the 40-man roster and remains in camp. Pham has played far more left field than right field in his big league career, but he did log 78 innings in right with the D-backs just this past season. His arm strength clocked into the 69th percentile of MLB outfielders, per Statcast — well ahead of Reynolds (and thus making a shift of Reynolds to right field seem unlikely).
The 36-year-old Pham had a solid year at the plate in 2023, hitting .265/.328/.446 with 16 home runs, 27 doubles and three triples in 481 trips to the plate. He walked at a strong 9.8% clip and struck out at a 22% clip that was a bit lower than the MLB average. Despite being in his mid-30s, Pham also swiped 22 bases in in 25 tries (88% success rate) and landed in the 61st percentile of MLB players for his sprint speed, per Statcast.
The Pirates were one of MLB’s least-productive teams against left-handed pitching in 2023, hitting .246/.318/.383. That .383 slugging percentage was the fourth-lowest among all MLB clubs, and the 89 wRC+ resulting from that line ranked 25th among the league’s 30 teams. Pham’s career .271/.381/.453 batting lien against lefties (.245/.322/.465 in 2023) would help to address that deficiency.
Pham has been linked to several teams beyond the Padres and Pirates over the winter, though several of those clubs have since made other moves. The Twins acquired Manuel Margot from the Dodgers, adding the righty outfield bat they’d been seeking. Arizona paid Randal Grichuk a $2MM salary to fill their own need for a right-handed bat. The Braves signed Adam Duvall to a $3MM deal just yesterday. The Red Sox have been linked to a possible Pham reunion and haven’t added a right-handed outfield bat since that time — though they did bring righty slugger C.J. Cron aboard on a minor league deal. Boston also announced yesterday that fellow righty outfielder Rob Refsnyder would miss time with a fractured toe.
]]>As noted by Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, manager Craig Counsell indicated to reporters that Taillon was dealing with lower back tightness and that the right-hander’s back “locked up” while throwing warm up pitches prior to his scheduled start, though there hasn’t been imaging scheduled for the right-hander and Counsell indicated the club hopes to know more about Taillon’s status tomorrow. Sharma goes on to note that the Cubs are hopeful the issue was just a spasm and that Taillon has dealt with a similar issue previously in his career and that it often subsides after just a few days. Though Chicago is remaining optimistic that the 32-year-old will be able to avoid a trip to the shelf to open the season, the right-hander missing time to open the season would be a blow to the club’s chances in a crowded NL Central division.
Taillon figures to occupy the middle of the club’s rotation this season alongside fellow veteran righty Kyle Hendricks, behind southpaws Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga. The fifth spot in the Cubs’ rotation has not yet been determined but appears likely to go to one of Jordan Wicks, Drew Smyly, Javier Assad, and Hayden Wesneski as things stand. Taillon’s four-year deal with the Cubs got off to a rough start last season as he struggled to a 6.90 ERA in his first 13 starts with the club, though he settled in to provide mid-rotation results late in the season with a 3.57 ERA and 4.23 ERA across the season’s final three months. [UPDATE: Counsell told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and other reporters Sunday that Taillon “came in today pretty much the same as he left yesterday. Probably not the improvement we were hoping for.” While the manager admitted to “a level of concern for Opening Day,” Counsell doesn’t “think it’s a long-term absence for Jameson, so don’t think it’s one of those concerns.”]
More from around the NL Central…
Lauer, 29 in June, has been a viable big league starter at times in his career but is coming off a frustrating season. He opened the year in the Brewers’ rotation but struggled. He had a 5.48 earned run average through nine outings when he was placed on the injured list in late May due to an impingement in right, non-throwing shoulder. He was activated off the IL in mid-June but optioned to the minors.
Things didn’t go much better down on the farm as he posted a 6.39 ERA in 56 1/3 innings down there. He was recalled to the big league club for an outing in late September, after the Brewers had already clinched the division. But that turned into a nightmarish outing, as the lefty was tagged for eight earned runs in four innings. He revealed at that time that he had been battling shoulder and elbow issues throughout the year, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The Brewers could have retained him for 2024 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $5.2MM. But Milwaukee outrighted him off the roster in the middle of October, which was effectively an early non-tender.
The Bucs will be hoping that those health issues are behind him and he can return to his previous form. Over 2021 and 2022, Lauer tossed 277 1/3 innings for Milwaukee with a 3.47 ERA, striking out 23.8% of batters while giving out walks at an 8.7% clip. Lauer struggled in the shortened 2020 season but was also effective in the two seasons prior to that. With the Padres in 2018 and 2019, he posted a 4.40 ERA with a 20.6% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate.
Lauer’s never shown any kind of ace-level upside but he has a proven ability to be a back-of-the-rotation guy, which could be enough for him to be valuable to the Pirates. Their rotation is currently fronted by Mitch Keller but he is followed by a series of question marks.
Veterans Martín Pérez and Marco Gonzales were acquired this winter to serve as veteran stalwarts but each of them is coming off a frustrating campaign. Pérez struggled enough last year to get bumped out of the Rangers’ rotation and had some good results out of the bullpen but ultimately finished with a 4.98 ERA on the year as a starter. Gonzales required surgery for a nerve issue in his left forearm after logging just 50 innings over 10 starts.
There are two spots available at the back end, with guys like Jared Jones, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter and Kyle Nicolas in the mix for those roles. Everyone in that group is either fairly limited in terms of experience or struggled badly last year or both. JT Brubaker and Mike Burrows could be options in the second half but both are currently recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Given the general rotation uncertainty behind Keller, and the inevitability of pitcher injuries, there should be an opportunity for Lauer if he can get back into his 2021-2022 form. He averaged around 93 miles per hour with his fastball over 2021 and 2022 but was down to 90.8 mph last year, perhaps lending some credence to the fact that he wasn’t fully healthy and providing an explanation for his poor performance.
If things work out especially well for Lauer this year, he could also be kept around for the 2025 season. His service time count is currently at four years and 111 days, meaning he would come up shy of six years even if he made the team out of camp and spent the whole season on the roster. He is out of options, however, so the Bucs would have to remove him from the 40-man entirely if they want him off the active roster at any point.
Lauer will have to earn a roster spot before any of that becomes a concern, of course, but it’s a good fit for both sides. Starting pitching is an obvious weakness for the Pirates and Lauer could find some runway to launch a bounceback campaign for himself.
]]>March 5: Pirates right-hander Dauri Moreta exited his most recent spring training appearance with an elbow issue, and while the team is still in the process of gathering information and opinions on the issue, GM Ben Cherington is expecting an absence of some note for Moreta, tweets Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Stumpf noted Sunday that Moreta’s final fastball of the spring appearance in question clocked in at 89.9 mph; he averaged 95.3 mph on his heater in 2023.
While Moreta isn’t exactly a household name, he stepped up and cemented himself as a solid middle relief arm in Pittsburgh last season. Acquired in Nov. 2022 from the division-rival Reds in a trade sending infielder Kevin Newman to Cincinnati, Moreta pitched 58 innings out of the Pittsburgh bullpen and logged a 3.72 earned run average. It was a solid mark that was generally supported by fielding-independent metrics (3.25 SIERA).
With the Pirates, Moreta largely scrapped his changeup, dropping his usage rate on that pitch from 21.2% as a Red in 2022 to just 6.4%. He also roughly halved the usage of his fastball, throwing it at only a 26.4% rate last year. Both drops in usage were accompanied by a massive increase in the usage of Moreta’s slider, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of his pitches thrown in 2023. Moreta saw a substantial jump from an 11.1% swinging-strike rate to 13.8% as a result; his overall strikeout rate also climbed from 24.4% in 2022 to 31.8% in 2023. Moreta’s command took a turn for the worse, with his walk rate climbing from 8.1% to 10%.
The Bucs used Moreta primarily in low-leverage spots last year, though he worked his way into slightly more critical situations late in the season. He picked up just one save and five holds, but Moreta’s blend of velocity and missed bats made him an intriguing option to take on a more prominent role in 2024. While details remain scarce, any ascension up the bullpen hierarchy could be on hold based on this new elbow ailment.
As it stands, the Pirates will again turn to All-Star and Pittsburgh native David Bednar to close out games. Newly signed Aroldis Chapman will be his primary setup man, with righties Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski also on hand to serve as setup options.
Even if Moreta is out for an extended period of time, he’ll likely remain in the Pirates’ plans long term. He’s under club control through the 2028 season and won’t even be arbitration eligible until the 2025-26 offseason at the earliest.
]]>“If there are things we can do to make the team better, we’re gonna stay on that,” Cherington tells Mackey. “No guarantee those things happen. We’re mostly focused on the guys who are here.”
The Pirates have three slam-dunk members of their Opening Day rotation: Mitch Keller, Martin Perez and Marco Gonzales. Keller, who recently signed a five-year contract extension, will get the Opening Day nod. There are still a pair of open rotation jobs, however, and Cherington suggested there are six or seven options vying for those two opportunities.
The names currently competing include a mix of young prospects, rebound candidates coming off a down 2023 showing, and veterans hoping to win a spot. While the Pirates have already informed 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Paul Skenes that he won’t make the Opening Day roster, fellow top prospect Jared Jones (No. 74 on Baseball America’s top 100 list) is firmly in the mix. Jones may not have the same ceiling as Skenes, but Skenes pitched just 6 2/3 innings last year following the draft. Jones, on the other hand, logged a combined 3.85 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate in 126 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A in ’23. He’s pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in camp.
Jones, 22, was specifically called out by manager Derek Shelton as a candidate for a spot in the Opening Day rotation (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). He’d need to be added to the 40-man roster, which could potentially work against him. That’s not true of Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter and Kyle Nicolas, each of whom is on the 40-man roster. (Lefty Jackson Wolf is as well, but the Pirates already optioned him to Double-A in their first wave of spring cuts).
Contreras and Falter have the most experience of the bunch. Both are looking to rebound from ugly 2023 showings. Contreras looked like a potential rotation staple as recently as 2022, when he pitched 95 innings of 3.79 ERA ball with passable, if unspectacular, strikeout and walk rates (21.1%, 9.6%). However, he lost more than a mile off his heater in ’23 and took a step back in virtually every rate category of note. He’s still only 24 years old and is just two years removed from being a top-100 prospect himself, so there’s ample time for him to figure things out. He’s out of minor league options, meaning he’ll make the roster one way or another — be it in the rotation or in the bullpen. Pirates fans will want to check out Mackey’s piece in full, as it more fully details some of the gains Contreras has shown thus far in camp.
Falter was acquired at the 2022 trade deadline in a swap sending utilityman Rodolfo Castro to the Phillies. The 26-year-old was never as touted a prospect as Contreras was, but the two followed relatively similar arcs otherwise: brief MLB debut in 2021, solid back-of-the-rotation results in 2022, poor showing in 2023. Falter tossed 84 innings with a 3.86 ERA as the Phillies’ fifth starter in ’22, fanning 21.2% of his opponents against an exceptional 4.9% walk rate. Like Contreras, he saw his strikeout, walk, swinging-strike and home run rates all back up in 2023 as he finished out the season with a 5.36 ERA in 80 2/3 frames. Also like Contreras, he’s out of minor league options and will need to make the roster or else be traded or exposed to waivers.
Priester, Ortiz and Nicolas all have minor league options remaining and have all made their big league debuts (in quite brief fashion, for Nicolas). They all ranked within the organization’s top 15 prospects at Baseball America as recently as 2023. Priester and Ortiz both drew top-100 fanfare prior to their debuts. None of the three has established himself on the roster, however. Priester has the best minor league numbers of the group but has been hit harder than Ortiz in the big leagues. Ortiz throws the hardest but has displayed shakier command than Priester. Nicolas still hasn’t had much success above Double-A, so he seems likely ticketed for Triple-A Indianapolis to begin the year, particularly since he’s already been hit hard in camp.
The Bucs also have a pair of veterans who could compete for a job. Lefty Josh Fleming is on the 40-man roster after signing a split deal late in the winter. He’s out of options and can’t be sent down, but he’s spent the bulk of his MLB career as a swingman with the Rays and could be headed for a similar spot in Pittsburgh. Righty Chase Anderson is in camp on a non-roster deal. The 36-year-old hasn’t posted a sub-5.00 ERA in the big leagues since being traded by the Brewers following the 2019 season but has shown decently in Triple-A while bouncing around the league since then.
]]>“I’ve thrown 6 2/3 innings in pro ball,” Skenes said of the situation, per Mackey. “It’s just kind of how it goes. [Pirates general manager Ben Cherington] said it would be unprecedented if I started the year in the big leagues. Not that I don’t think I can do it, but I understand it.”
Though it was a long shot, there was an argument for Skenes cracking the big leagues out of camp this year. The argument against it is simple as he’s still just 21 years old, turning 22 in May, and only just entered the professional ranks last year. But on the other hand, he’s dominated everywhere he’s pitched and has been built up to something close to a starter’s workload.
With Louisiana State last year, Skenes tossed 122 2/3 innings over 19 starts. He posted an earned run average of 1.69 in that time, striking out 45.2% of batters faced while giving out walks at just a 4.3% clip. Those results led the Bucs to take him first overall last year, after which they put him into five minor league games at the Complex League, Single-A and then Double-A. He faced 40 batters overall and struck out 10 while giving out just two walks.
Given the quality and quantity of that work, it wouldn’t have been outlandish to think he could break camp right now and toss 160 innings or so out of the Pittsburgh rotation. That’s especially true when considering the current rotation, with is front by Mitch Keller but has plenty of uncertainty beyond that.
The club added Martín Pérez and Marco Gonzales to be veteran stabilizers in the middle or the rotation, but there’s no guarantee they can provide that kind of service. Pérez got bumped from the Rangers’ rotation last year and finished the year with a 4.98 ERA as a starter. Gonzales only made 10 starts and logged 50 innings due to a nerve issue in his left forearm which required surgery. Beyond that, the other options are fairly unproven young guys like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras or Quinn Priester. No one in that quartet has reached 200 big league innings pitched nor do any of them have an ERA below 4.73.
Despite that potential path to a role for Skenes, the club will keep him in the minor for now. But if he is putting up zeroes in the minors while the results in the majors are lacking, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him up at some point this summer. The club will potentially be getting JT Brubaker and Mike Burrows back midseason, as both underwent Tommy John surgery early in 2023, but Skenes could still seem like one of the five best options in the coming months.
When Skenes does finally get the call, it could have an impact for both him and the club. If he misses the first few weeks of the season, he won’t be able to earn a full year of service time here in 2024, at least not the traditional way. To combat service time manipulation, the current collective bargaining agreement allows a player to earn a full year of service regardless of when they were called up if they have less than 60 days of MLB service coming into the season, placed on at least two preseason Top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline and then finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year balloting. Each of those three prospect lists have Skenes in the top 10, so he would certainly qualify if he were called up midseason but with enough time to get into the top two of the ROY voting.
Not getting a full year of service time here in 2024 would have an impact on his trajectory towards free agency and potentially to arbitration as well. Players need six full years of service to become free agents, so Skenes would be slated for the open market after 2029 if he broke camp this year and stayed up for good. If he falls short of one year, then his potential free agency would be pushed back a year to after 2030.
In terms of arbitration, players need three full years for guaranteed qualification but can get in with less. Of the players between two and three years of service each year, the 22% with the most service time get to qualify early. The “Super Two” line oscillates from year to year based on who is in that 22% category. Going back to 2009, the line has gone as high as 2.146 and as low as 2.115, with a full year being 172 days. That means that Skenes has a chance to qualify for arbitration after 2026 even if he isn’t called up until a couple of months into this year.
]]>The Jays elected to have Gausman skip his scheduled throwing session on Monday. He’ll be reevaluated later in the week. There’s nothing to suggest his availability for Opening Day is in jeopardy at this point. It’s nevertheless a situation to which the Jays will pay close attention. Alek Manoah is also battling what appears to be minor shoulder soreness. They’re the bookends to a projected rotation that’ll include a middle trio of Chris Bassitt, Yusei Kikuchi and José Berríos. Right-hander Bowden Francis is probably the top option to step into the season-opening starting five if anyone from that group begins the year on the shelf.
A few other pitching injury situations early this week:
“We mourn the loss of Royals Baseball Academy graduate and 1980 American League Champion U. L. Washington and send our condolences to his family and friends,” the Royals said in a statement earlier today.
“So sorry to hear my friend my teammate UL Washington has died of cancer,” Hall of Famer George Brett said in his own statement on X last night. “He was a great player. I will always be thankful of our time together with the Royals.”
Born in Stringtown, Oklahoma, Washington played collegiate baseball at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma for one year before being admitted into the Royals Baseball Academy in 1973, which he attended alongside the likes of Frank White and Ron Washington. After spending several years in the Kansas City system, Washington made his big league debut at the age of 23 in 1977, though he was limited to a 10-game cup of coffee in the majors that season as the Royals went on to win 102 games before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS. Washington grew into a larger utility role with the club over the next two seasons, batting a combined .257/.304/.338 while playing solid defense at both second base and shortstop.
By 1980, Washington had developed into the club’s everyday shortstop and enjoyed the best season of his career to that point, slashing .276/.336/.375 in 153 games in conjunction with slick fielding. Washington’s first season as a regular saw the club reach the World Series, though they ultimately fell to the Phillies in a six-game set. Washington was a key contributor during the club’s postseason run not only in the field but also at the plate, where he went 10-for-33. After struggling somewhat during the strike-shortened 1981 season, the then-28-year-old returned to form in 1982 with a career year that saw him slash an above-average .286/.337/.412 despite missing a month due to injury. Washington came back down to Earth over his final two seasons with the Royals, batting just .233/.294/.310 in a combined 207 games despite recording a 40-steal season in 1983.
The switch-hitter’s tenure in Kansas City came to an end upon being dealt to the Expos in January 1985 in exchange for a package featuring southpaw Mike Kinnunen. Washington played in a utility capacity for the Expos, spending time at shortstop as well as second and third base while slashing .249/.301/.352 in 209 trips to the plate with the club. Washington hit free agency following the 1985 season, but did not sign with a club until partway through the 1986 campaign when he latched on with the Pirates. The then-32-year-old shortstop would finish his career in Pittsburgh, appearing in 82 games over two seasons with the club.
Washington finished his major league career with 907 games under his belt across eleven seasons, 757 of which came as a member of the Royals. A career .251/.313/.343 hitter, he stole 132 bases and clubbed 166 extra-base hits throughout his career while recording 5,864 1/3 innings at shortstop. Though Washington’s playing career in the majors came to a close in 1987, his time in the game was far from over. He began his coaching career as a manager in the Pirates’ system in 1989 before moving on the act as a hitting coach in the Royals, Dodgers, Twins, and Red Sox organizations. During his time as a coach, he worked with future stars such as Tim Wakefield and Mookie Betts.
MLBTR joins the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to Washington’s family, friends, loved ones, and former teammates.
]]>Born in Muncy, Pennsylvania in 1951, Ott was part of both the football and wrestling teams at his local high school although he did not play baseball there on account of the school not having a baseball team. Instead, Ott participated in American Legion Baseball during the summers as a third baseman before being drafted in the 23rd round of the 1970 draft by the Pirates, at which point the club converted him from the infield to the outfield. Ott spent three seasons as an outfielder in the Pirates’ minor league system before the club once again asked him to change positions, this time moving him behind the plate.
While Ott had previously made his major league debut in 1974 as a bench bat with a brief two-game cameo in right field, he’d spend the next six seasons of his career as a catcher for the Pirates. After making just 10 trips to the plate across his first two big league seasons combined, Ott impressed in a 27 game stint as an emergency catcher behind injured backstops Manny Sanguillén and Duffy Dyer. While his playing time remained limited, Ott made the most of the opportunity by slashing .308/.349/.359, an above average slash for the era. That winter, the Pirates shipped Sanguillén to the A’s as compensation for hiring away manager Chuck Tanner, a deal that opened the door for Ott to take on primary catcing duties in the 1977 season.
In his first season as a major league regular, Ott performed well with a respectable .264/.334/.395 slash line in 347 trips to the plate across 104 games while spending 712 2/3 innings behind the plate. That combination of reliability behind the plate and roughly league average offense continued for the rest of Ott’s time with the Pirates, as he slashed .268/.316/.383 across the next three seasons while appearing in at least 112 games during each season. Ott is most famous for his role as a key piece on Pittsburgh’s 1979 team, which won 98 games before sweeping the Reds in the NLCS and being crowned World Series champions after beating the Orioles in a seven-game set. It’s the fifth and most recent championship in franchise history. Ott went 7-for-25 during that postseason, knocking in three runs during the World Series and scoring the game-winning run against Baltimore in Game 2.
Ott’s time in Pittsburgh came to an end following the 1980 season when he was traded to the then-California Angels alongside southpaw Mickey Mahler in exchange for All Star first baseman Jason Thompson. Ott appeared in 75 games for the Angels in 1981, though he batted just .217 with .545 OPS before undergoing surgery on his rotator cuff that winter, causing him to miss the 1982 campaign. Ott spent the next two seasons in the Angels’ minor league system before retiring in 1984. Following his playing career, Ott went on to serve as a minor league manager in the Pirates organization and a big league coach with the Astros and Tigers.
We at MLBTR join the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to Ott’s family, friends, loved ones, and former teammates and colleagues around the league.
]]>The ninth-overall pick in the 2015 draft, Happ is entering the first year of the three-year, $61MM extension he inked with the Cubs early last season. The switch-hitter has settled in to become one of the club’s most reliable regulars in recent seasons, slashing a solid .259/.351/.435 (119 wRC+) across the past two seasons while earning his first career All Star appearance during the 2022 season and back-to-back Gold Glove awards in left field. In 2023, Happ posted a career-best 22.1% strikeout rate while walking at an impressive 14.3% clip. That strong plate discipline has left Happ as a key piece of the club’s core entering the 2023 season alongside the likes of Seiya Suzuki, Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson, and Nico Hoerner.
Losing Happ for any amount of time entering the regular season would surely be a blow to the Cubs, though Chicago has plenty of other options for its outfield mix available should their longest-tenured hitter start the season on the shelf. With top outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong expected to begin the season at the Triple-A level, the likes of Mike Tauchman and Alexander Canario figure to be the most likely options for a reserve outfield spot with the big league club to open the season currently on the 40-man roster. Veteran left fielder David Peralta is also in camp with the club after signing on a minor league deal last month, with slugging prospect Owen Caissie also among the club’s non-roster invitees.
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A native of the Dominican Republic, DeLeón entered the professional ranks in 1979 as a third-round pick by the Pirates. The 6’3″ right-hander pitched in four minor league seasons before reaching Pittsburgh. He had an impressive debut season, working to a 2.83 ERA and striking out 118 hitters in 108 innings covering 15 starts. He earned a seventh-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year balloting.
DeLeón would hold a spot in the Pirates rotation for a few seasons. He worked to a 3.74 ERA over 192 1/3 innings during his second big league campaign. He struggled to a 4.70 ERA with an MLB-leading 19 losses the next season. Midway through the ’86 campaign, Pittsburgh dealt him to the White Sox in a lopsided swap that landed future MVP finalist Bobby Bonilla.
Chicago plugged DeLeón into their rotation for the next year and a half. While he wasn’t anywhere close to as impactful as Bonilla became in Pittsburgh, he enjoyed a solid showing on the South Side. DeLeón turned in a 2.96 ERA in 13 starts after the trade in ’86 and logged 206 frames of 4.02 ball in 1987.
Over the 1987-88 offseason, Chicago flipped DeLeón to the Cardinals for reliever Ricky Horton and young outfielder Lance Johnson. He was a rotation fixture in St. Louis over parts of five seasons. DeLeón topped 225 innings in each of his first two years with the Redbirds. He had the best year of his career in 1989, pitching to a 3.05 ERA with a National League-leading 201 strikeouts across 36 starts. DeLeón again lost an MLB-worst 19 games in 1990 but rebounded with a personal-low 2.71 ERA over 28 appearances in ’91.
The Cardinals released him in August of the following season. DeLeón signed with the Phillies and remained in Philadelphia into the next year. He converted to the bullpen by 1993. The White Sox reacquired him for reliever Bobby Thigpen the next August. DeLeón reached the postseason for the only time in his career with Chicago, making two relief appearances in an eventual ALCS loss to the Blue Jays. He’d pitch in two more seasons, working with the Sox and Expos through 1995. DeLeón didn’t return to the majors thereafter, although he pitched in Taiwan until his age-37 campaign in 1998.
Over parts of 13 seasons, DeLeón tallied nearly 1900 innings while allowing 3.76 earned runs per nine. He struck out almost 1600 hitters with an 86-119 record. He surpassed 150 frames on seven occasions and donned five major league uniforms. MLBTR sends our condolences to DeLeón’s family, loved ones, friends and former teammates.
]]>Health is just one of many uncertainties hanging over India as he begins his fourth Major League season. Already the subject of frequent trade rumors due to Cincinnati’s plethora of up-and-coming infield talent, India looks to be moving into a utility role if he remains with the Reds, as he could be playing all over the infield, at DH, and perhaps in left field.
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Peguero, 23, got his first extended MLB run last year. He appeared in 59 games and tallied 213 trips to the plate. Peguero didn’t produce much, hitting .237/.280/.374 with dismal strikeout and walk rates (5.2% and 31.5%, respectively). It’s not all that surprising that he had a rough go against MLB pitching. Peguero only appeared in seven Triple-A games before being called to the majors. He had spent the majority of the season’s first half at Double-A Altoona, where he turned in a .260/.333/.453 showing with 11 homers, 19 steals, and a solid 10.1% walk rate against an 18.2% strikeout percentage.
Scouting reports on Peguero have credited him with a well-rounded physical toolset but raised questions about his strike zone judgment. He showed excellent speed in his MLB time but didn’t put things together consistently on either side of the ball.
Pittsburgh selected Gonzales, a New Mexico State product, with the #7 overall pick in 2020. He has drawn plenty of walks while hitting for power in the minors but hasn’t consistently made contact. That concern carried over in his first look at MLB arms. Gonzales hit .209/.268/.348 with a 28.1% strikeout rate across his first 35 big league contests.
The 24-year-old was a lot more productive with Triple-A Indianapolis. Gonzales hit .281/.379/.507 with 14 homers in 443 plate appearances at the top minor league level. He drew free passes at a 12% clip and hit for power, but a .369 average on balls in play masks a near-27% strikeout percentage. Gonzales isn’t regarded as a great defender, so he’ll have to take a notable step forward in his pure contact skills. Baseball America ranked him the #9 prospect in the Pittsburgh system this offseason.
Last year’s team leader in playing time at second base, Bae also had a tough rookie season. He hit .231/.296/.311 in 371 plate appearances. Unlike Peguero and Gonzales, Bae had roughly average plate discipline and contact metrics. His issue was a complete lack of power. He only homered twice with 17 doubles and a pair of triples. Nearly three-fifths of his batted balls were hit on the ground.
Bae is a plus-plus runner and stole 24 bases a year ago. He’ll need to contribute more offensively if he’s to play more than a bench role. Defensive metrics gave the 24-year-old below-average marks for his work at second base. The Pirates also gave him a fair bit of center field run and could use him in a utility capacity.
Of this group, Triolo had easily the best results against MLB pitching. The Houston product put up a .298/.388/.398 line over his first 209 plate appearances. He’d need to dramatically improve his contact rate if he’s to sustain anything like that production over a full season, though. No hitter can maintain anything like the .440 batting average on balls in play that Triolo posted last year. (Freddie Freeman led qualified batters with a .370 BABIP in 2023.) In order to offset the inevitable regression from a batted ball perspective, Triolo will need to cut a strikeout rate that sat above 30%.
While he’s clearly not a finished product, Triolo isn’t without promise. He had a strong minor league track record, including a .286/.412/.432 slash in Triple-A last season. He came up as a third baseman but doesn’t have a path to playing time at his natural position thanks to Ke’Bryan Hayes. Prospect evaluators raved about his glove at the hot corner in the minors. If he can carry that to multiple infield positions, he could compete for second base reps.
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It’s likely one of that quartet will get the bulk of the second base time in 2024, although there’s some chance the mix changes before Opening Day. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey has suggested the Bucs could dangle someone from the group in talks with the Marlins about right-hander Edward Cabrera. It’s far from a guarantee that any deal with Miami will get across the finish line, but the front office is still evaluating ways to add rotation help in some capacity before Opening Day.
Beyond this group, the Bucs have two other second basemen on the 40-man roster. Prospect Tsung-Che Cheng hasn’t played above Double-A and might not factor in until 2025. Alika Williams got to the big leagues last year but likely didn’t hit well enough (.198/.270/.248) to compete for the second base job. He played exclusively shortstop last year when Oneil Cruz was injured but could handle second base defensively. Williams’ bat is very light, pointing to a likelier future as a glove-first utility type than a regular.
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