Here are five of the biggest stories this week at MLBTR.
Braves hire Brian Snitker as manager. The Braves dropped Brian Snitker’s interim tag, officially making him their full-time manager. They also hired former Rangers manager Ron Washington as their third base coach, and made third base coach Bo Porter a special assistant to GM John Coppolella. Washington left a coaching job with the Athletics in order to be closer to his family in New Orleans.
The 2017 qualifying offer will be $17.2MM. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that the amount of the qualifying offer will increase to $17.2MM this offseason, and will be included in the next CBA, albeit with some adjustments. That’s a boost of $1.4MM over last year’s qualifying offer figure. Last week, MLBTR’s Steve Adams listed Neil Walker, Michael Saunders, Wilson Ramos, Kendrys Morales, Mike Napoli and Matt Wieters as players who might or might not receive a qualifying offer; perhaps the increase of the qualifying offer figure will affect some of them.
Super Two cutoff to be between 2.127 and 2.131 years of MLB service time. MLBTR projected the Super Two cutoff for this year’s crop of players approaching arbitration. Kevin Kiermaier could become eligible for arbitration as a Super Two, while Rougned Odor, David Peralta and Dan Straily seem likely to just miss the cut. MLBTR also projected arbitration salaries for the 2017 season.
Pitchers receive injury news. Cardinals reliever Zach Duke underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2017 season. Injured Padres righty Tyson Ross, meanwhile, had surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome, and could be ready for Spring Training. The news was better for Angels righty Garrett Richards, who made only six starts in 2016. He’s set to have a normal offseason after avoiding Tommy John surgery.
Carlos Beltran to play in 2017. Rangers DH/OF Carlos Beltran says he’ll be back in 2017 for his age-40 season. Beltran, who batted a strong .295/.337/.513 with 29 home runs in 2016, figures to be a solid option for AL teams in need of an extra bat.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I think and hope that Beltrán will have a really solid year. Why wouldn’t he? He was an all-star this year, also there are tons of 40 year old players that have had great years. To name a few: David Ortiz, Ichiro Suzuki, BARTOLO COLON, Nolan Ryan, and the list goes on
*40 years or more