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Phillies Release Luis Castillo

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The Phillies released second baseman Luis Castillo, tweets Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.  It was a brief trial for Castillo, who was picked up nine days ago after the Mets released him on March 18th.  All along, the understanding was that Castillo would make the Phillies out of Spring Training or be released. 

Phillies second baseman Chase Utley is dealing with chronic knee pain, and hasn't offered a timetable aside from saying he aims to be back before the All-Star break.  GM Ruben Amaro Jr. currently isn't thinking about putting Utley on the 60-day DL.  While he's out, the Phillies will apparently go with Wilson Valdez and some combination of Michael Martinez, Pete Orr, and Delwyn Young.  The Phillies opened a spot on the 40-man roster yesterday by outrighting Matt Rizzotti, which according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer means a spot is open for either Young or Mike Stutes (Twitter link).

Breakout Candidate: Edwin Jackson

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Edwin Jackson has had a pretty good career to date, with a 14-win season and a 3.62 ERA campaign on his resume by age 27.  He's made at least 31 starts in each of the last four seasons and topped 209 innings in the last two, so his ability to take the ball every fifth day alone will get him paid as a free agent.  If this is all Jackson will ever be, that's not bad.  But seven years ago, when Jackson was considered the fourth best prospect in the game by Baseball America, he was expected to become much more than a solid #4 starter.

Jackson reached the Majors as a 20-year-old with the Dodgers, outdueling Randy Johnson in his debut.  Since then he's been traded four times.  Jackson's career numbers are middling: a 4.62 ERA, 6.7 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9, and more hits allowed than innings pitched.  When he was traded from the Diamondbacks to the White Sox for Dan Hudson and David Holmberg on July 30th last year, he looked like the same old Jackson: mid-90s fastball, flashes of brilliance (including an eight-walk no-hitter in June), and disappointing statistics.

Something changed with the White Sox.  It appears that pitching coach Don Cooper helped Jackson make a few adjustments, as he was brilliant in 11 starts for Chicago: a 3.24 ERA, 9.2 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9 and 47.2% groundball rate in 75 innings.  Note that Jackson's groundball rate leap actually began with the Diamondbacks.

The Chicago sample size is small but tantalizing.  Jackson even had a three-start stretch in August where he struck out 32 against just six walks in 23 2/3 innings.  If Jackson's superb strikeout and walk rates hold up over a full season, he could become the best available free agent starter aside from C.C. Sabathia.  He'll reach the market as a 28-year-old with Scott Boras at his side, which could make three years and $30MM required just to begin the discussion.  Boras will just have to avoid Oliver Perez comparisons.

Marlins Release Dewayne Wise

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Outfielder Dewayne Wise exercised his out clause and has been released by the Marlins, tweets Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.  Wise was reassigned to minor league camp yesterday, losing the big league backup outfielder job to Scott Cousins partially because of a toe injury.

Wise, 33, hit .250/.282/.393 in 118 plate appearances for the Blue Jays last year, putting up a .270/.315/.511 line for the Phillies' Triple-A club before exercising his out clause.  Wise is capable of playing all three outfield positions.  He joins free agent outfielders such as Ryan Church, Randy Winn, and Gabe Gross.

Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Angels

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The Angels are next in our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings

Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

The Angels entered the offseason seemingly ready to spend; they were a strong fit for free agents Carl Crawford, Adrian Beltre, and Rafael Soriano.  However, they came up short on all major free agent targets, succeeding only in upgrading the bullpen.  Then GM Tony Reagins made matters worse by acquiring Vernon Wells, who has one of the worst contracts in baseball.

Wells

Wells has four years and $86MM left on his contract.  If we are to consider Juan Rivera to be dead weight, that's $5.25MM cleared, and the Blue Jays reportedly sent another $5MM.  The Angels' reluctance over the years to give playing time to Napoli unless they had to indicates they weren't fond of his receiving skills, and I'm guessing they didn't want to pay him $5.8MM in 2011.  Still, could have been non-tendered if the Halos didn't want him and he did have trade value by himself.  Since he wasn't a pure salary dump, I can't subtract Napoli's contract from Wells' burden even if Arte Moreno does.  Ultimately, it's as if the Angels gave Wells a four-year, $75.75MM free agent contract, with the bonuses of opening up an extra roster spot and not having to surrender a draft pick.

Wells isn't a $19MM player at this point in his career, though I am curious what kind of contract he would have gotten this winter as a free agent.  I think coming off one good year following a pretty bad one would have set his ceiling at four years and $52MM at the very most.  My comparison is Victor Martinez, another player who can handle a premium defensive position but is not regarded as good there.  So even with this generous comp, the Angels overpaid Wells by at least $20MM.  For the Wells deal to work out for the Angels, he'll need to improve defensively with the switch to left field and have offensive seasons resembling '08 and '10 rather than '07 and '09.  You can cherry-pick Wells' 2010 numbers either way, but it was a streaky season bookended by strong performances in April and September.  From May through August, he hit .251/.300/.449.  The ZiPS projection system calls for .260/.313/.432 in 2011 (and presumably worse in future years), which would make this trade a disaster.

As for lefty relievers Downs and Takahashi, the Angels certainly paid full sticker price.  But their bullpen needed the upgrade and such expenses are justified for big budget contending teams. 

On the plus side, the Angels have improved their outfield defense, which is crucial given their flyball pitching staff.  The Angels have serious offensive concerns, but all of the AL West contenders are flawed.  Despite a poor offseason, the Halos' fine rotation may still carry them to the playoffs in 2011.

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

Offseason In Review: Arizona Diamondbacks

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The Diamondbacks are next in our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

In hiring Kevin Towers as GM, the Diamondbacks brought in a veteran dealmaker to right the ship after a 97 loss season.  However, don't forget that interim GM Jerry Dipoto was behind the summer trades that brought in Dan Hudson, Joe Saunders, Tyler Skaggs, Pat Corbin, David Holmberg, and Rafael Rodriguez.  Towers furthered the makeover during the offseason, revamping the Majors' worst bullpen, adding a couple of starting pitchers, and signing a half-dozen veteran role players to big league deals.

For each of the 2008-10 seasons, Diamondbacks hitters finished first or second in baseball in strikeouts.  Reynolds was public enemy number one in that regard, though he was also the team's biggest power threat.  LaRoche was allowed to leave, though I don't think the D'Backs had the payroll space for him regardless of his strikeout total.  With .320 OBPs and SLGs under .500, Reynolds and LaRoche weren't all that productive in 2010.  Nonetheless, Mora and Blum represent a downgrade at the hot corner.  Over at first, Branyan is a less healthy, poor man's Reynolds.  The team has a more interesting candidate in Brandon Allen, so hopefully Branyan doesn't steal too many plate appearances. 

Putz

Towers' return for Reynolds was nothing special, and I wonder if the new regime should have waited for him to rebuild some value in a healthier 2011 season.  Still, Hernandez is a sleeper who may end up filling in for Putz in the ninth inning this year.  Putz (pictured) represented Towers' big free agent splash; the team had vowed to import a closer.  Putz is coming off a strong season and $5MM a year is the going rate, but he's a 34-year-old who must be handled carefully.  Why not just let Hernandez run with the job?  The Putz signing seems like an overreaction to last year's awful bullpen, a risky luxury the team didn't need at this stage.  I'd been expecting Towers to show off his shrewd bargain basement bullpen-building skills.

Towers used free agency to assemble a veteran bench.  No one was particularly expensive, but the main benefit seems to be leadership and other intangible qualities.  The Bloomquists of the world become a concern only if they start taking plate appearances from younger, better players.

The D'Backs acquired Duke and Galarraga to round out their rotation, though Duke is out until late April with a broken hand.  They amount to $6.55MM worth of rotation filler.  More interesting is a potential 2013 rotation fronted by Jarrod Parker, Tyler Skaggs, Dan Hudson, and Ian Kennedy.

The 2011 Diamondbacks are in an uncomfortable spot – right fielder Justin Upton is in his prime and shortstop Stephen Drew is only under contract for two more seasons.  They also spent over $25MM on short-term additions this offseason.  However, the team does not appear to have the talent to reach the playoffs this year or next.  Perhaps Towers should focus on restocking the cupboard to begin a sustained period of contending around 2013, starting with the #3 and #7 picks in the '11 draft.  Though Towers flirted with the prospect of trading Upton, the 23-year-old is under contract through '15 and should be a big part of the next good Arizona team.

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

Chad Billingsley’s Extension

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If Chad Billingsley had been looking to extract every last dollar from his big league career, he wouldn't have signed an extension this week. But he's 26 years old in a profession where career-altering injuries are commonplace and his employer offered him $35MM in guaranteed money. It's not hard to see why he signed a three-year contract with the Dodgers.  In fact, Billingsley pushed agent Dave Stewart to get a deal done now despite the agent advising he wait until after the season.

Billingsley

Though Billingsley will earn $9MM in 2012, a healthy '11 season would have positioned him for more given his career numbers to date. Two similar pitchers, Joe Blanton and Wandy Rodriguez, both asked for over $10MM heading into their respective final arbitration seasons though neither was as well positioned to ask for an eight-figure salary as Billingsley might have been. Blanton and Rodriguez started from lower base salaries than Billingsley's current $6.28MM mark and their ERAs sat more than half a run higher than than Billingsley's, so Carlos Zambrano may be a better point of reference.

Zambrano was working from a similar salary to Billingsley ($6.5MM) his second time through arbitration and had similar numbers to the ones now found on the back of Billingsley’s baseball card. Zambrano set himself up for a $12.4MM payday in 2007 with a banner '06 season, so an eight-figure salary would have been well within Billingsley's reach in 2012 with a typical showing in '11.

Billingsley's deal provides the Dodgers with a likely bargain on his first two free agent years as well. The contract pays him an average of $11.5MM for 2013-14, two seasons that could have been free agent years. The 25 extensions signed by arb-eligible starting pitchers since 2009 suggest the going rate for free agent years in multiyear extensions is $13.4MM, so the Dodgers appear to be getting a bargain of about $2MM per year.

There's a good chance that the Dodgers saved at least $6MM from 2012-14 by signing this extension. Billingsley has obtained $35MM in guaranteed money, however, and will be no older than 31 when he hits free agency for the first time. He has enough time for a major free agent contract after this extension expires.

Meanwhile, In committing to Billingsley, the Dodgers are taking on risk themselves. They're hoping that the right-hander's history of durability continues and that they save money, as expected. But they've invested tens of millions in a resource that's as fragile as it is valuable – starting pitching. With Clayton Kershaw approaching arbitration as well, it's a risk GM Ned Colletti may have to get used to.

Photo courtesy Icon SMI.

Quick Hits: Orioles, Montero, Silva

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We've seen four trades already today, but there's still more news on possible deals and free agent signings. Here it is…

  • Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli that there's no late trade in the offing this spring (Twitter link). Baltimore made late-spring trades in 2009 (Robert Andino) and '10 (Julio Lugo, Steve Lerud).
  • Yankees catching prospect Jesus Montero failed this spring, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Yankees wanted him to become their backup catcher and to pretend now that they didn't plan on that is disingenuous, writes Sherman.
  • Carlos Silva cleared waivers and is now a free agent, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter).

Giants Release Jeff Suppan

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The Giants released Jeff Suppan, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter). GM Brian Sabean says the decision was mutual, since Suppan wasn't going to make the team. The right-hander is now looking for a job elsewhere.

Suppan posted a 7.84 ERA in 15 appearances with the Brewers before they released him last year. He then appeared in 15 games for St. Louis and posted a much-improved 3.84 ERA for the Cardinals. Overall, he logged 101 1/3 innings and posted a 5.06 ERA with 4.5 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 40.3% ground ball rate.

Sabean signed Suppan in January to provide depth and insurance, but did not need him in the end. He could have earned $1MM for making the team.

Red Sox Designate Mark Wagner For Assignment

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The Red Sox designated catcher Mark Wagner for assignment to create 40-man roster space for newly acquired backstop Mike McKenry, the team announced.

Wagner has a .264/.349/.420 line in 1898 minor league plate appearances over the course of six pro seasons since the Red Sox selected him in the ninth round of the 2005 draft. For what it’s worth, the 26-year-old hit .224/.299/.328 in 156 minor league plate appearances last year.

Giants Notes: Belt, Lincecum, Posey

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The Giants' offseason moves may not have generated much hype, but the defending champs are sure getting their share of attention now that the season's about to begin. Here's the latest…

  • Buster Posey tops Jon Paul Morosi's list of candidates to become baseball's next superstar at FOX Sports.
  • Giants manager Bruce Bochy did not make an announcement on whether top prospect Brandon Belt will make the team, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter).
  • Jon Heyman of SI.com offers some predictions for the coming season and two young Giants, Posey (NL MVP) and Belt (NL Rookie of the Year) figure prominently into Heyman's prognostications. Heyman also says the Giants "will prove that they are no fluke, winning the NL West."
  • Tim Lincecum is one of the few true aces in baseball, according to baseball people who spoke to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. What differentiates aces from other good pitchers? Giants GM Brian Sabean says the best pitchers inspire confidence when they pitch. “There’s a difference in your clubhouse,” Sabean said. “People are thinking, ‘This is win day.’ ”

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