Former Brewers reliever Mitch Stetter announced on Twitter last night that he has retired from baseball and accepted a coaching job with the Royals. Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish tweets that Stetter will be the Double-A bullpen coach. Stetter, 33, hasn't appeared in the bigs since 2011 after his career was cut short by hip surgery and a back injury. From 2009-11 with the Brew Crew, Stetter posted a 3.46 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9 in 75 1/3 innings. While his command was clearly lacking, the southpaw held opposing lefties to just a .194/.310/.335 slash line in his career. Best of luck in your coaching career, Mitch.
Elsewhere in baseball's Central divisions…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Royals will only be on the hook for about $575K of Emilio Bonifacio's salary if he clears release waivers tomorrow at 2pm ET and becomes a free agent. While a claim is unlikely, a number of teams are interested in Bonifacio, he adds in a second tweet.
- Cotillo tweets that as many as nine teams have interest in Bonifacio. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets that the Orioles are one of those teams, pointing out that Bonifacio has long been a favorite of manager Buck Showalter. Besides that, the Orioles lack a clear starter at Bonifacio's best position — second base. However, Kubatko also tweets that Baltimore isn't interested in him at his $3.5MM salary, so a waiver claim isn't likely.
- Twins GM Terry Ryan, who announced yesterday that he has cancer, is among the game's most respected general managers, writes Phil Rogers of MLB.com. Rogers recalls that Ryan displayed the ultimate selflessness a GM could show back in 2001 when, with the Twins facing contraction, Ryan turned down a chance to run the Blue Jays to stay with his club.
- Right-hander Rich Harden wants to pitch in 2014 but won't sign anywhere until he's further along in his throwing, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN. The Twins wouldn't rule out a return for Harden, even though the former ace never pitched for one of Minnesota's affiliates after signing a minor league deal with the club last offseason.
As a Jays fan, I’d just like to gently suggest that Second Base probably isn’t Bonifacio’s best position.
Certain metrics actually consider Bonifacio’s defense slightly positive. Perhaps he had trouble adjusting to a turf stadium?
Personally I think Bonifacio is a great buy low candidate and expected a team to claim.
What are you basing that on? Just checking right now I see that Bonifacio has negative career numbers by both Bref and Fangraphs advanced metrics. But either way, my point was about second base.
Bonifacio is a good pickup as a 4th OF / pinch runner. That’s his strength. It’d be a mistake for a team to give him significant playing time in the IF. He’d be good as a kind of Rajai Davis type. But at more than $3 million / year I’m not sure that Bonifacio is really a buy low candidate. his salary seems fair market value for his services – not overpriced, but not that cheap either.
+10 DSR
Obviously defensive statistics involve voodoo or astrology, but there is one he has a positive rating in, specifically 2B defense.
I agree. Nice guy as a person but he was awful defensively. Weak at plate, too. I wouldn’t add him to any club in any role…
As a Marlins fan? I’d 2nd that. True, it’s his natural position, as well as his “best” IF position, but he can play a bit better in the OF than at 2b.
Bonifacio will get more than $3.5m. Someone should claim him.
Doubtful. His defense is awful. If he was in high demand someone would have traded for him over the last 10 days. I like his potential and am sure a lot of teams could use him as a UT/PR/PH type bench player, but my guess is no more than 1.5-2M guaranteed if he were to clear waivers. Maybe someone likes him enough to overpay, but he’s certainly not a sure thing at any position.
How is Harden considered an “former ace”??
Agree. He has shown ace potential but he was never an ace.
He was the most dominant starter in baseball from 2005-2008. That has to qualify him as a former #1.
Huh? Roy Halladay, Johan Santana were still pitching then.
Bonifacio can play lots of positions (6 in his career) but he is only an above average defender in LF and RF. His bat is bellow average. Really he is a pinch runner/OF defensive replacement. Not worth 3.5 MM.
If his price comes down I see TB picking him up, Maddon love players that can paly multiple positions.
Is it fair to call Bonifacio’s bat below average? Only once (maybe twice) has he been called upon to play everyday and anchor a position on a regular basis. When he played in 152 in 2011 for the Marlins, he was not below average — 40 SB, a .296 BA, and .360 OBP is something I’d take everyday. If he’s expected to be your super-utility bench player and isn’t relied upon to drive the offense, Bonifacio could be helpful to nearly every team in the Majors. I think the Royals actually screwed up by not keeping Bonifacio at $3.5 million and trying to find a trade partner. Instead they flushed just shy of $600k and have nothing to show for it.
2011 was the only year Bonifacio had an above average bat and he happened to have a .372 BABIP, in 2013 he played 136 games posting a .243/.295/.331 that’s well below average even for an IF.
For what he is, a super utility guy, he’s a decent offensive player. To date, 2011 was his career year but he still should be in his prime and be able to help a team. He’d fit nicely on a Brewer team that has a veteran 3B with achy knees and a young 2B that could benefit by sitting against accomplished lefties. Of course that’s assuming they unload Weeks, who if he’s not starting provides no versatility coming off the bench. As long as a team carries another option to backup at SS, his defense isn’t that big an issue either. Compared to another career utility guy, Jeff Keppinger, who the White Sox would probably give away in a trade, Bonafacio provides the added benefit of speed and is considerably cheaper.
I think Showalter can give him the combination of drive and encouragement Boni needs to do well. he needs that. his 2 best years were the 3/4 of a season under Trader Jack and Yost last seasons. IMO Showalter would provide that same kind of drive and “yell” at him on the bases that Jack did to “go” if required to steal a base and get hard on him when he slacks off.. Bonifacio needs that it’s rough to say, but he can be an exciting type of player.
He cost them nothing to acquire, so worthwhile cost to get rid of someone they see with insufficient upside.
Clearly something changed with the royals pretty rapidly.
Could Boni not have been Non Tendered, Then KC. avoid ARB. at 3.5M
Something must be cooking in KC.
Bruce Chen’s salary basically replaces Bonifacio’s…so whatever was cooking is well past done.