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Royals Sign Kris Medlen

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The Royals announced that they have signed right-hander Kris Medlen to a two-year deal that contains a mutual option for the 2017 season. Medlen, who is represented by the Wasserman Media Group, reportedly receives an $8.5MM guarantee. He’ll earn $2MM in 2015 and $5.5MM in 2016. His mutual option is worth $10MM and contains a $1MM buyout that is guaranteed regardless of which side declines.

Kris Medlen

Medlen, 29, was one of the Braves’ best starters for much of 2012-13, but he fell victim to his second Tommy John surgery this past spring and wound up being non-tendered as a result. Medlen earned $5.8MM in 2014 and stood to earn something similar in 2015, although the Braves could technically have reduced his salary to about $4.65MM.

Tommy John surgery has been a significant detriment to the unquestionably talented Medlen’s career. He was enjoying a solid season in 2010 when his right UCL first gave way in August, causing him to miss nearly the entire 2011 season as well. When he returned in 2012, Medlen posted a brilliant 1.57 ERA down the stretch, and he followed that up with a 3.11 mark in 197 frames the following year.

Overall, Medlen owns a 2.95 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and a 46.2 percent ground-ball rate in 512 2/3 career innings. Sabermetric ERA estimators such as FIP (3.23), xFIP (3.39) and SIERA (3.68) all feel that he’s a perfectly viable rotation option when healthy.

While it may at first be puzzling to see the Braves let Medlen go, it’s also important to note that he had just one season of arbitration control remaining. Medlen may not pitch again until midseason and would have cost the club between $4.6MM and $5.8MM, and the success rate for second Tommy John surgeries is lower than that of the success rate for first-time patients. Atlanta was said to have discussed a two-year deal with Medlen at one point, but the team may not have been comfortable matching Kansas City’s guarantee.

The Royals figure to start the 2015 season with a rotation of Yordano Ventura, Jason Vargas, Danny Duffy, Edinson Volquez and Jeremy Guthrie, but Medlen could eventually slot in should one of those five get injured. He could also return to the bullpen, where he’s worked extensively in the past, as he builds up arm strength and looks toward a rotation spot in 2016. Guthrie is a free agent following the 2015 season, so there should be at least one opening for him to pursue.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the terms of the contract (Twitter links).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Red Sox In Active Trade Talks Regarding Allen Craig

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The Red Sox are in active trade talks with at least one club regarding first baseman/outfielder Allen Craig, reports Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Craig is said to be fully recovered from a painful Lisfranc fracture suffered in his left foot in August, Morosi adds.

Craig was acquired from the Cardinals along with right-hander Joe Kelly in the trade that sent John Lackey to St. Louis. The 30-year-old was having a down season at the time of the acquisition and was considered by many to be a buy-low option, but his fortunes worsened in Boston. With the Red Sox, Craig batted a woeful .128/.234/.191 in 107 plate appearances. While the foot likely played a role in those struggles, his overall season line of .215/.279/.315 was a far cry from the excellent production he showed from 2011-13. Over the course of those two seasons, Craig batted a hefty .312/.364/.500 — good for a 136 OPS+.

The Cardinals clearly looked at Craig as yet another late bloomer (he didn’t break out until he was nearly 27) and rewarded him with a five-year, $31MM contract that covered the 2013-18 seasons. The first year of the contract looked good, but Craig’s outlook has tanked after a rough 2014 that can’t be explained solely by injury. His strikeout rate jumped from about 17 percent to 22.4 percent this season, and his ground-ball rate soared to 54 percent. That mark ranked ninth-highest among qualified hitters this season and is a troubling trend for a player with little speed of which to speak.

Craig’s contract was heavily backloaded, meaning that an acquiring team will still be on the hook for the majority of the price tag. He’s owed $26.5MM over the next three seasons, including the $1MM buyout on his $13MM club option for the 2018 season. That sum doesn’t look appealing at this time, however if Craig returns to form and 2014 proves to be little more than a fluke, a team that bought low on his services could have a very nice value on its hands.

To this point in the offseason, both the Marlins and Brewers have been connected to Craig, although I’d imagine that Miami’s signing of Michael Morse takes them out of the picture. The Mariners are known to be seeking right-handed bats, and while they did just acquire Justin Ruggiano, he could be used in a reserve role with Craig seeing more regular playing time. Likewise, the Orioles have yet to replace any of the production they lost when Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz signed elsewhere. The Padres have been aggressively courting offensive upgrades and could feel that Craig represents a better long-term option than Yonder Alonso. Additionally, the Reds and Giants are known to be in the market for a left fielder.

All of those suggestions are, of course, speculative on my behalf. It should also be noted that Craig comes with some defensive question marks as a corner outfielder, so some teams without an opening at first base may be hesitant to acquire him (especially after his foot injury).

Angels, Dodgers Complete Drew Butera Trade

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The Dodgers announced today that they have acquired infielder/outfielder Matt Long from the Angels to complete last week’s Drew Butera trade. However, the team also announced that it has has immediately flipped Long and left-hander Jarret Martin to the Brewers in exchange for catcher Shawn Zarraga, essentially making the entire sequence into a minor three-team trade.

A 2009 30th-round draft pick, Long has never appeared on an Angels Top 30 prospect list (per Baseball America), but he does have a solid minor league track record. The 27-year-old has yet to reach the Majors but owns a nice career slash line of .279/.358/.442 in 1102 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

The 25-year-old Martin was previously designated for assignment and outrighted this past offseason. He spent the 2014 campaign with Double-A Chattanooga where he posted a strong 3.29 ERA in 54 2/3 innings of relief. While Martin’s 64 strikeouts in that time were impressive, he also walked a very troublesome 48 hitters. Control problems have long been an issue for Martin, who has averaged 6.1 walks per nine innings since being selected in the 18th round of the 2009 draft.

Zarraga is a 25-year-old catcher that was born in Aruba but attended high school in Florida and was selected in the 44th round by the Brewers in 2007. Zarraga was excellent at Double-A this past season, hitting .330/.440/.419 in 267 plate appearances, but he batted just .213/.304/.255 in 57 PA at Triple-A — his first crack at that level.

A’s Acquire Eury De La Rosa, Designate Fernando Rodriguez

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The Athletics announced that they have acquired lefty Eury De La Rosa from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations and designated right-hander Fernando Rodriguez for assignment.

The 24-year-old De La Rosa was designated for assignment last week to clear room for Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa, who were acquired in the Wade Miley trade with Boston. The A’s have acquired a lefty relief option that pitched to a strong 2.95 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 36 2/3 innings. However, the now-former Diamondback also turned in a reverse platoon split last year in Arizona, yielding a .309/.377/.418 batting line in a small sample of 61 plate appearances versus left-handed hitters.

Rodriguez, 30, appeared in seven games for Oakland in 2014 and allowed just one run in nine innings with four strikeouts and two walks. However, he’s yet to establish a track record of success in the Majors, having seen inconsistent playing time in the bigs dating back to 2009 and compiling a 4.62 ERA. He does throw relatively hard (career 93.3 mph average fastball) and did excellent work at Triple-A in 2014 (1.97 ERA, 10.4 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 in 45 2/3 innings), so another club could view him as a depth piece.

NL Notes: Markakis, Kendrick, Mets, Kemp, Padres

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Nick Markakis underwent fusion surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck yesterday, but the Braves expect their new right fielder to be 100 percent by Opening Day, writes MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. President of baseball operations John Hart spoke with surgeon Steve Wray, who performed the procedure, and came away with the impression that aside from some possible disruption of his pre-Spring Training routine, Markakis would be fine. He’s expected to be cleared for physical activity within a month’s time and to be fully agile in six weeks.

Some more notes from the Senior Circuit to kick off your Thursday morning…

  • The Rockies are interested in right-hander Kyle Kendrick as a potential back-of-the-rotation option, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. The 30-year-old Kendrick pitched a career-high 199 innings last season, and Crasnick notes that his career 46.1 percent ground-ball rate is of interest to Colorado. That mark isn’t too far above the league average, but it’s an improvement over Franklin Morales and Christian Bergman, each of whom logged significant innings in Colorado’s rotation last year. Kendrick’s upside is limited, but he’d be a relatively low-cost option to soak up some innings in a shaky rotation.
  • Wilmer Flores is still likely to open next season as the Mets’ shortstop, writes Marc Carig of Newsday, but a source tells Carig that the team does have interest in Stephen Drew and Everth Cabrera on low-risk, one-year deals. Previous reports have indicated that the Mets weren’t interested in Cabrera. The team hasn’t ruled out bidding on Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang, but they’re likely to pass due to concerns over his defense. Those same concerns have halted their interest in Asdrubal Cabrera from progressing beyond internal discussions.
  • In a video blog, ESPN’s Buster Olney opines that the Padres are in perfect position to try to squeeze some extra money out of the Dodgers in their deal for Matt Kemp. While the deal is expected to be completed, Olney notes that Kemp’s medicals are “ugly,” and the Dodgers need the trade more than the Padres do. The Dodgers are reportedly set to send $32MM to the Padres as it is.
  • The Padres aren’t done making moves even after striking deals to acquire Kemp and Wil Myers, writes Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. One possible minor addition, he reports, is veteran catcher David Ross, who is still “considering” the Padres.

Cardinals Sign Mark Reynolds

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DEC. 18: Reynolds can earn up to $800K of incentives, tweets Heyman. He will earn an additional $200K for reaching 250, 350, 450 and 550 plate appearances.

DEC. 11: The Cardinals have announced the signing of corner infielder Mark Reynolds.  The veteran slugger will get a $2MM guarantee on the one-year contract and he can earn more through playing time incentives, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter.  News of the agreement between Reynolds and the Cards was first reported by Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (Twitter link).

Reynolds, 31, hit .196/.287/.394 with 22 homers last season.  While the overall batting line was not his finest (in fact, his .681 OPS was a career low), he still gave the Brewers a good deal of power at the plate.  On top of that, the advanced metrics show that he turned in a stronger season defensively than he has in years past, as Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs recently noted.  According to Baseball Reference, Reynolds has earned roughly $22.5MM over the course of his career to date.

$400K NFL Contest At DraftKings

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Take your shot at a $400K prize pool in the NFL Flea Flicker Championship at DraftKings!  First place will take home a whopping $50K, and the top 18,995 entrants will get paid. The entry fee is just $5. First time depositors at DraftKings receive a 100% bonus up to $600, too.

The contest starts on Sunday, December 21st at 1:00pm eastern time.  It’s a salary cap style contest, where you use a $50K budget to select nine players. The roster will be 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, and 1 Defense. Here’s a look at my potential roster:

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Quick Hits: Braves, Ross, Cabrera, Kang, Aoki

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The White Sox, Yankees and Astros have spent heavily on relief help this offseason, and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick wonders if they’ll end up regretting their expensive contracts for veteran relievers. “In the last couple of years we’ve lost a lot of games late in the eighth and ninth inning,” says White Sox manager Ventura. “After a while you sit there and think, ’We have to have somebody who can come in and do this.’ Everything has its risks — and this is one of them — but we’re pretty confident we got a guy [David Robertson] who we can put in the bullpen and be a leader.” The reason for all the spending on players like Robertson, Zach Duke, Andrew Miller, Luke Gregerson and Pat Neshek isn’t so much that teams are trying to emulate the Royals’ ferocious 2014 bullpen, Crasnick suggests. Rather, it’s more that teams are loaded with cash and pitchers like Robertson and Miller are very good. Here are more notes from around the Majors.

  • The Braves continue to explore potential trades involving Justin Upton and Evan Gattis, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (Twitter links). The Braves have spoken about Upton and Gattis with five teams Wednesday, and continued to consider ways to include B.J. Upton or Chris Johnson in trades involving Justin Upton or Gattis. The Padres had previously looked like a potential destination for Justin Upton, but it would appear that their agreement to acquire Wil Myers today rules them out as a potential trade partner, at least for now.
  • Free agent catcher David Ross is deciding between the Red Sox, Cubs and Padres, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford writes. Meanwhile, lefty reliever Craig Breslow has spoken to the Red Sox and Cubs. Ross has played for the Red Sox, of course, and has a history with Jon Lester and Theo Epstein of the Cubs (although his signing with the Cubs would likely result in, or come as the result of, a trade of Welington Castillo). The Padres are in the process of trading both Yasmani Grandal and Rene Rivera, but are also in the process of acquiring Ryan Hanigan and Tim Federowicz, so it’s unclear where Ross would fit in.
  • Asdrubal Cabrera has drawn interest from the Giants, Athletics, Mets, Cardinals and Twins, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets. Heyman writes that Cabrera could play second base or third base as well as shortstop, although there have been rumblings that Cabrera prefers to play shortstop or second base only, and not third. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle would be surprised if the A’s are interested, as they’ve never shown interest in Cabrera in past years despite up-the-middle needs (Twitter links).
  • Those same five teams have asked about Korean middle infielder Jung-ho Kang, although the Athletics and Mets are downplaying their interest, Heyman tweets. A’s GM Billy Beane has stated on the record that reports of his club’s interest in Kang are inaccurate. Kang was posted earlier this week.
  • Heyman lists the Orioles, Reds and Mariners as possibilities for Nori Aoki, with the veteran outfielder potentially receiving two to three years at $7MM-$8MM per year. Aoki had previously been connected to the Orioles and Reds, with the Orioles mostly interested in him as a backup option. Heyman reported last week that Aoki was looking for a three-year deal. Earlier this offseason, we at MLBTR guessed he would receive two years and $16MM.

Reactions To US Move To Reestablish Relations With Cuba

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The United States’ move to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba could eventually have significant impact on the market for Cuban-born players within Major League Baseball, a market that has in recent years produced important talents like Yasiel Puig, Jose Abreu, Yoenis Cespedes, Rusney Castillo and Yasmany Tomas. “Major League Baseball is closely monitoring the White House’s announcement regarding Cuban-American relations,” says MLB in a statement. “While there are not sufficient details to make a realistic evaluation, we will continue to track this significant issue, and we will keep our Clubs informed if this different direction may impact the manner in which they conduct business on issues related to Cuba.” Here are a few links describing potential changes.

  • MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez notes that there could be changes to the laborious and often dangerous process through which Cuban-born players typically make themselves available to MLB teams. Players generally must defect from Cuba (often by traveling by boat to Mexico or Haiti), then establish residency in a country that is neither the US nor Cuba. The process is time-consuming and can be perilous. It’s not yet clear whether, or how, that process will change after today’s announcement (particularly since the United States’ economic embargo toward Cuba is still in effect and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future), but there’s hope that it might create a path toward something new.
  • The move to reestablish diplomatic relations paves the way for MLB teams to play exhibitions in Cuba, and for the Cuban government to let Cuban MLB players represent their home country at international events, FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi writes. It’s less likely that teams would establish academies in Cuba in the way they have in the Dominican Republic. “I don’t think that will happen,” Cuban baseball expert Peter Bjarkman tells Morosi. “Normalizing relations means things like travel restrictions. I don’t see Cuba giving up its economic system or opening the door to exploitation by foreign corporations.” (Via the Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore on Twitter, however, one team’s Latin American scouting director says his team has already considered the details of building a new Cuban academy.)
  • Baseball America’s Ben Badler suggests one future scenario (via Twitter): The Cuban government could sell their players to Major League teams, taking a share of those players’ salaries. The Cuban baseball league system’s relationship to MLB could therefore be like that of the Mexican League.

Reactions To The Wil Myers Trade

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Here’s a collection of early reactions to this afternoon’s massive Wil Myers trade between the Padres, Rays, and Nationals. The consensus so far seems to be that the Nationals have come out furthest ahead, thanks to the inclusion of shortstop Trea Turner as a player to be named from San Diego.

  • The trade is a risky one for A.J. Preller and the Padres, but the Padres need to take risks, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan writes. The Padres don’t have a high payroll and have been stuck in a rut for the last four seasons, but Preller has decisively added talent to the team by engineering the Padres’ end of the Myers and Matt Kemp trades.
  • ESPN’s Keith Law (Insider-only) calls Myers a “tremendous buy-low opportunity” for San Diego but writes that the Nats “seemed to make out like bandits,” getting two strong prospects in Turner and Joe Ross in exchange for Steven Souza and Travis Ott. The deal is a puzzling one for the Rays, Law writes, wondering why they didn’t simply trade Myers for Turner and Ross.
  • Executives within the game also feel the Nationals came out ahead, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. “I think the Nats must have pics on TB and SD!!” says one executive. “They are the clear winner. Not even close.”
  • MLB.com’s Corey Brock quotes an NL scout on Turner, who says Turner clearly profiles as a big-league shortstop. “Turner for me was one of the easiest everyday SS grades I’ve ever written,” the scout says.
  • Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel profiles the prospects involved in the deal, though, and notes that the highest-profile ones — Souza, Turner and Ross — all generate varying reactions throughout the industry. McDaniel feels that Souza (a key to the deal for Tampa Bay) could turn out to be a bit like recently-traded outfielder Matt Joyce offensively.

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