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Royals Could Renegotiate Salvador Perez’s Deal, But Should They?

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The Royals plan to approach Salvador Perez soon about a new contract at some point soon, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan writes, citing a team source. Perez’s is currently in the midst of a five-year, $7MM deal that Passan aptly calls “the best bargain in the big leagues.”

The Royals signed Perez before the 2012 season, when Perez was still remarkably unproven and not the sort of player who would typically receive a multiyear deal. Via MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, at the time of the deal, just two players in recent history had received extensions while they had less service time than Perez did. Both those players, Evan Longoria and Matt Moore, were widely regarded as top young talents. Not only did Perez have just 158 big-league plate appearances to his name, but he also hadn’t been an outstanding minor-league hitter. Now, of course, Perez has made two All-Star teams and won two Gold Gloves, and he’s been a key part of the Royals’ last two successful seasons.

“When I signed my contract, I was 100 percent sure I wanted to sign it,” says Perez. “I didn’t want to feel like, ’Why am I doing that?” But I didn’t know what kind of player I was going to be like.”

At this point, there are plenty of valid reasons for the Royals not to negotiate a new deal with Perez, just as the Cardinals have not negotiated a new deal with John Lackey, another valuable player whose contract called for him to be wildly underpaid this year. Perez’s current deal calls for him to be paid $1.75MM in 2015, followed by $2MM in 2016. The Royals have options on his services for $3.75MM in 2017, $5MM in 2018 and $6MM in 2019, with the salaries in those three years increasing a total of $5MM based on awards bonuses. As Passan points out, those very low figures could allow the Royals to spend money elsewhere, money they might need as a variety of other players become eligible for free agency.

The Royals could, of course, renegotiate the deal as a gesture of goodwill. “I had nothing,” says Perez. “Where I’m coming from, they’re talking about a million dollars. And I don’t got nobody in that moment to explain to me how it’s going to be or how high it could be.”

Perez did have an agent, Gustavo Vasquez, however. And it wouldn’t be fair to the Royals to characterize the contract as the result of an opportunistic club taking advantage of a poor and naive young man, as Vahe Gregorian points out in the Kansas City Star. At the time of the deal, the Royals were taking a risk on a highly unproven young player, and it was a clear possibility that the Royals would get very little for their $7MM investment.

“I don’t think there was another catcher in the history of our game … that had been signed (to such a long-term contract) with that little amount of service time,” Royals GM Dayton Moore tells Gregorian.

Just as no one would have expected Perez to return a portion of his $7MM guarantee if he hadn’t turned out the way the Royals had hoped, then, the Royals do not seem morally obligated to give Perez more money now that the deal has worked in their favor. And from a baseball perspective, there are few reasons for them to do so. The possibility of controlling additional years is the only tangible benefit the Royals would likely gain from renegotiating Perez’s contract. But they already control Perez through his age-29 season, and there should be little motivation for them to try to control him beyond 2019, since projecting how a catcher might perform in five years and as he enters his thirties seems tricky at best. That’s particularly true in Perez’s case, given his size and his often heavy workloads.

AL East Notes: Orioles, Encarnacion, Yankees

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The Orioles have the No. 25 and No. 36 picks in the upcoming draft, and Baseball America’s John Manuel tells MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski he thinks high school pitching could be big for teams who pick in that range. Mike Nikorak (from Pennsylvania), Donny Everett (Tennessee) and Ashe Russell and Nolan Watson (both from Indiana) could all be possibilities at around that point in the draft. Injured pitchers Michael Matuella (Duke) and Nathan Kirby (University of Virginia) have connections to the Mid-Atlantic region and could also be possibilities. Here’s more from the AL East.

  • Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion will receive 10-and-5 rights this summer, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets. The Athletics claimed Encarnacion following the 2010 season, but he became a free agent and re-signed with the Blue Jays a month later, so he will have had five years of uninterrupted service time with Toronto. 10-and-5 rights, of course, mean that a player has at least ten years of service overall and at least five with his current team. Players with such rights can block any trade.
  • Stephen Drew and Didi Gregorius have been awful this season, but the Yankees will likely stick with them for now, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, says he does not believe his client is likely to be released, and GM Brian Cashman has said he still likes Gregorius’ potential. Still, the pair has been disastrous so far — Drew is hitting .173/.238/.345 (although he hit two homers yesterday), and Gregorius has only been a bit better, at .229/.289/.299.

Red Sox Notes: Cherington, Offense, Porcello

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Last night’s game between the Red Sox and Athletics was temporarily stopped in the second inning after a fan sitting near the visitors’ dugout was hit in the face by a piece of a broken bat. The woman is at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Hospital with injuries that apparently are serious, although there is currently no specific information on her condition, as the Boston Globe notes. “Our thoughts and concern and certainly our prayers go out to the woman who was struck with the bat, her, and her family,” says Red Sox manager John Farrell. “All you can think about is a family coming to a ballgame to hopefully get three hours of enjoyment and unfortunately with how close our stands are to the field of action . . . an accident like this tonight, it’s certainly disturbing.” We at MLBTR wish the fan and her family the very best in the wake of this very scary situation. Here’s more from Boston.

  • GM Ben Cherington appreciates the vote of confidence he received from Sox owner John Henry this week, according to an interview on WEEI with Dennis & Callahan. “I’m not worried about job security, just worried about trying to win games, so I appreciate what he said publicly. I think it was important for John Farrell, the clubhouse, and as we talk about good clubhouses and good teams having each others’ backs,” says Cherington. The GM adds that the team has no plans to platoon David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez at DH, since he doesn’t want to reduce two proven hitters to defined part-time roles.
  • The Red Sox’ season has been disappointing so far, but Cherington’s belief that the team can come back and win the AL East might not be off base, WEEI.com’s John Tomase writes. Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts have been productive lately, and so the key to the Boston offense will be the potential re-emergences of Ortiz, Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Meanwhile, Wade Miley has had a good run in his last several starts, and Clay Buchholz and newcomer Eduardo Rodriguez provide hope for the pitching staff.
  • Another starter, Rick Porcello, has struggled so far, and his peripheral numbers have been unusual this season, as Tomase notes. He’s increased his K/9 from a 5.6 career rate to 7.1, but his ground ball percentage has dipped from 51.6 for his career to 43.1. He’s allowed 11 homers so far and has a 5.01 ERA, although his peripheral numbers suggest he’s been somewhat better than that, with an xFIP of 4.13 and a SIERA of 4.01. Porcello says the $82.5MM extension he signed in the spring hasn’t negatively affected his performance thus far.

Nationals Promote Joe Ross

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SATURDAY: The Nationals have officially announced the move. To clear space for Ross on their active roster, they’ve optioned fellow pitcher A.J. Cole to Triple-A Syracuse. The clear space on the 40-man, they moved righty Craig Stammen to the 60-day disabled list.

FRIDAY: The Nationals will promote right-handed pitching prospect Joe Ross (the younger brother of San Diego’s Tyson Ross) on Saturday prior to their game versus the Cubs, according to a tweet from NorCal Baseball — Ross’ baseball league from his teenage years. Nationals manager Matt Williams has since told reporters, including MLB.com’s Bill Ladson (Twitter link) that Ross will indeed be starting against the Cubs tomorrow.

One of two key players acquired in the three-team trade that sent Wil Myers to the Padres and Steven Souza Jr. to the Rays (the other being Trea Turner, who is still with San Diego due to PTBNL status), Ross entered the season ranked as the No. 63 prospect in baseball, according to ESPN’s Keith Law (Insider subscription required). Baseball America and also considered him a Top 100 prospect, although they were a bit less bullish, ranking him 96th.

Ross has made pitching at Double-A Harrisburg look easy in his first year with the Nationals organization, compiling a 2.81 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 51 1/3 innings. The former 25th-overall draft pick is said by BA to possess a fastball that sits 91-93 mph but can be ramped up to 96 mph when needed. BA also calls his low- to mid-80s slider a plus pitch and notes that his changeup made a significant amount of improvement in 2014, giving Ross a chance to pan out as a No. 3 type starter in the Majors.

The Nationals have incurred a pair of notable injuries in their rotation, with both Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister on the shelf at the moment. Perhaps more troubling is the fact that neither pitched particularly well when healthy. Strasburg’s velocity and K/BB numbers remained strong, giving the team some hope, but Fister’s velocity was down around 85 mph, and his strikeouts have all but vanished. Tanner Roark has slotted into the rotation in their absence, and the highly regarded Cole has made a start as well. But Roark has not matched his 2014 success either; despite a 2.59 ERA, Roark has just 11 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings this year and a woeful 5.35 FIP.

None of this is to say that Ross is guaranteed to receive a prolonged look in the Major Leagues. Given his complete lack of experience at the Triple-A level, he could very well find himself back in the minors for more seasoning. Were Ross to remain with the Nationals for the duration of the season, however, he’d accumulate 122 days of Major League service time, which would, in all likelihood, leave him short of attaining Super Two status down the line.

Week In Review: 5/30/15 – 6/5/15

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Here’s a look back at this week at MLBTR.

Key Move

Signed / Agreed To Terms

Trades

Top Prospect Promotions

Claimed

Designated For Assignment

Outrighted

Released

Elected Free Agency / Opted Out

Key Minor League Signings

Amateur Notes: Gourriel Brothers, Martinez, Draft

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We’ve had a lot of news of players leaving Cuba of late, but two of the country’s most prominent names — brothers Yulieski and Lourdes Gourriel, rated first and fourth among the island’s players as big league prospects — have thus far not made any public moves towards the big leagues. As Ben Badler of Baseball America explains, however, both players are now set to miss the Cuban national team’s upcoming appearance in the Pan American Games. The younger of the two, Lourdes, was surprisingly left off the original roster, while Yulieski (the country’s biggest star) is said to have taken himself out of the tournament — after both recently seemed to have passed on chances to earn significant money playing in Japan. For now, it’s entirely unclear whether there is any movement afoot for the brothers to come stateside, but Badler notes that MLB clubs are watching with keen interest.

Here are some more amateur notes as we enter the final weekend before the draft:

  • As he prepares to join the professional ranks after being declared a free agent, Cuban outfielder Eddy Julio Martinez has moved into the top spot on MLB.com’s international prospect list, as MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez writes. It’s unclear as yet whether Martinez will sign in this period or the new one beginning July 2, but he’ll have to put pen to paper in short order if he’s to head to the Yankees or Angels. Those two clubs will be unable to spend more than $300K after this July 2 class closes, and they are among the teams who Sanchez lists with interest. The Cubs, Blue Jays, Nationals, Rockies, Tigers, Dodgers, and Giants have also reached out to Martinez’s camp, per the report. “I’m working hard to get to my goal to play in the Major Leagues, ” says the 20-year-old. “That’s what I have always wanted to do.”
  • The makeup of the amateur draft has changed over time, as Ben Lindbergh of Grantland explains. Mocking the draft is a more-or-less hopeless endeavor, says Lindbergh, but some trends have emerged. For one thing, the number of pitchers has continued to rise rather significantly. While this year’s class lacks premium talent, Christopher Crawford of Baseball Prospectus tells Lindbergh, some teams — the Rangers (who have the fourth overall pick) chief among them, based on their recent history — could well continue to stockpile arms. The Diamondbacks, who of course sit at first overall, have leaned toward position players recently, although they have an entirely new front office installed this time around. Meanwhile, the percentage of high school players taken has plummeted in the long run, but has jumped more recently. In particular, says Lindbergh, the Red Sox and Blue Jays have moved toward heavy drafting of prep players, who of course represent generally riskier but (in some cases) higher-upside investments. The Nationals have skewed most heavily toward college players — the spread is rather amazingly wide — though that could be due in part to draft circumstances. There are plenty more details in the piece, and I highly recommend a read to prepare for the coming draft.
  • Bonus allocations (which come with the penalty of stark limitations in future drafts) have had a marked impact on clubs’ total outlay on draft-eligible talent, argues Ronald Blum of the Associated Press (via the Denver Post). Draft spending has remained flat over the last three years, with Blum calculating that an analogous increase of total cash commitments to that observed in free agency — which was often the case prior to the new rules — might have delivered an additional $100MM to amateur players over that span. This area is obviously full of complicated questions, including considerations of an international draft, and it’s extremely difficult to identify clear-cut solutions. The piece is full of interesting quotes from notable figures around the game, and is well worth a full read.

Billy Beane: Crisp, Doolittle Both “A Long Way Off”

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Athletics GM Billy Beane gave a stark assessment of the timetables for both outfielder Coco Crisp and reliever Sean Doolittle in an appearance on 95.7 The Game (via SB Nation blog Athletics Nation).

“We have to be realistic that both Sean and Coco probably aren’t going to be playing a whole lot this year,” said Beane. “They could come back, maybe later but they’re a long way off and I think we have to keep that in mind with whatever we do.” As the post also notes, Doolittle’s own comments also indicated that he feels he could be in for a lengthy period of rebuilding strength and getting back to the hill.

While nothing has changed in these players circumstances, per se, the overall assessment is notable. Beane made clear that the club’s internal assessment is not promising regarding receiving much of a contribution from either player — at least not in time to impact the club’s AL-worst record before summer trade decisions must be made. And he will obviously be weighing that in deciding how to proceed.

Of course, it’s still too soon to label Oakland as a definite seller. They are within shouting distance of most of the division, and it remains to be seen whether the first-place Astros can continue to pace the American League. But it is notable that both Crisp and Doolittle play positions of clear need for the A’s, who have received the least production out of left field of any team in baseball while carrying the game’s very worst bullpen ERA (entering tonight’s action).

NL East Notes: Gee, Niese, Murphy, Marlins, Fister

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Here’s the latest from the National League East:

  • The Mets are “ramping up [their] efforts” to trade both Dillon Gee and Jon Niese, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports. New York indicated today that it’s likely the club will back off of its six-man rotation and return to a traditional schedule. With Noah Syndergaard now fairly firmly installed at the big league level, and Steven Matz not far behind him, it makes sense that the club would be looking to see what it can get out of Gee and Niese. Both have good track records of steady production and are controllable in the future at affordable rates, but unfortunately neither has matched their historical results thus far in 2015.
  • As they weigh rotation moves, which rate as good problems, the Mets are dealing with more troubling issues in the infield. The team has placed infielder Daniel Murphy on the 15-day DL with a strained quad, as Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com was among those to report. It’s not believed to be a serious injury, according to manager Terry Collins, but the club can ill afford any significant absence from Murphy. New York is already missing third baseman David Wright for an indeterminate stretch, while highly-regarded youngster Dilson Herrera is also working back from the DL (as well as backstop Travis d’Arnaud). An infield addition of some kind already seemed a plausible target for the Mets, though of course this injury is unlikely to have an impact unless it turns into something worse than expected.
  • While the Marlins continue to wait and see how to proceed at the deadline, the club is looking to build out its pen to give it the best chance at entering the contention picture, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports. Miami has discussed David Carpenter, who was recently designated by the Yankees and is about as intriguing an arm as you can hope to find at a reasonable price tag at this time of year.
  • Nationals righty Doug Fister is set to make his first rehab appearance this weekend at Triple-A, James Wagner of the Washington Post tweets. It would appear as if things have gone about as well as could be hoped since he hit the DL with forearm tightness after his start on May 14. He’ll be a welcome addition to the Nats rotation, assuming he can return after a few minor league starts, and can begin attempting to rebuild his free agent value.

Blue Jays Seek Pen Addition, Interested In Rafael Soriano

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We can officially add the Blue Jays to the list of clubs seeking pen upgrades. GM Alex Anthopoulos acknowledged that the team was looking at relief arms, including veteran free agent Rafael Soriano, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter links).

As a group, Toronto’s bullpen has ranked 20th in earned run average, though advanced metrics indicate that the unit has been every-so-slightly unlucky. Looking at individual arms, only rookie Roberto Osuna and journeyman Liam Hendriks have thrown enough quality innings to register as substantially above replacement level by measure of fWAR, though Baseball-Reference credits Brett Cecil and Steve Delabar with 0.3 rWAR contributions as well (utilizing alternative advanced pitching metrics).

It’s no surprise, really, to hear that the Jays would be looking to bolster their relief corps. The loss of Marcus Stroman for the season left a hole in the rotation, which has had a trickle-down effect, and the club is already trotting out many of its system’s best young arms. Lefty Daniel Norris has been throwing fairly well at Triple-A since his demotion, however, and could conceivably come back up — either entering the pen himself or bumping a starter.

The Blue Jays have struggled, in particular, to retire opposing lefties in the late innings. They’re hitting a robust .261/.346/.426 against Toronto relievers, with a good portion of that damage coming against two of the team’s most-utilized southpaws (Cecil and Jeff Francis). Of course, Francis has now lost his spot, and Aaron Loup has put up better numbers when facing same-handed hitters (while struggling mightily against righty bats).

Soriano, of course, would not be added to match up against left-handed bats, though he was actually slightly better against them last year than when facing righties. But he would potentially offer another option in the closer’s role, moving Cecil into a setup role. Of course, Cecil himself has not been terribly effective against opposing lefties since 2013, but it would not be surprising to see the club go after a LOOGY as well.

Whatever direction the team hopes to go in adding arms, it will need to do some work in the standings to make buying a reasonable option at the deadline. Though the Jays stand just four-and-a-half back in the AL East entering today’s action, they sit five games under .500.

Minor Moves: McGehee, McGowan, Schebler, Venditte, Marrero, Mooneyham, Demeritte

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • Several notable players are en route to the big leagues. The Giants have brought back third baseman Casey McGehee after he hit well in a brief Triple-A stint (having accepted an optional assignment). Fellow veteran Dustin McGowan, a right-hander, has been recalled by the Phillies; he had been outrighted off the 40-man earlier in the year. And the Dodgers have called up outfielder Scott Schebler, the organization’s minor league player of the year in 2013, who will see his first MLB action. He was placed on the club’s 40-man roster last year, though his numbers have fallen off somewhat early this season after two consecutive .900+ OPS campaigns in the high minors.
  • Most exciting of all, perhaps, is the news that the Athletics have announced that switch-pitcher Pat Venditte has been added to the big league roster. A nearly-unprecedented hurler, Venditte reverses the very idea of platoons by moving seamlessly between pitching with his right and left arms. He’s been outstanding this year at Triple-A, tossing 33 frames of 1.36 ERA ball with 9.0 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9. The 29-year-old has been particularly stingy when facing lefties, holding them to a remarkable .095/.136/.095 slash.
  • First baseman Chris Marrero has reached a minor league deal with the White Sox, Mike Ashmore of MyCentralJersey.com writes. The former Nationals prospect, now 26, had been playing with the indy league Somerset Patriots. He’ll report to Double-A for the Chicago organization.
  • The Nationals have released lefty Brett Mooneyham, who was their third-round pick in the 2012 draft, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Mooneyham, a 25-year-old Stanford product, has struggled badly with control and shifted exclusively to the pen at the A-ball level this year. He owned just a 6.41 ERA over 19 2/3 frames with 16 strikeouts against 13 walks.
  • Rangers prospect Travis Demeritte, a first-round pick in 2013, has been hit with an 80-game suspension for using banned substances, Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest reports on Twitter. The infielder was repeating the Sally League at age 20. Over 664 plate appearances at the level, he owns a .220/.320/.438 slash with 30 long balls and 16 stolen bases but a whopping 240 strikeouts.

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