Orioles Reliever Chaz Roe Clears Waivers
12:47pm: Roe has cleared waivers, Crasnick tweets.
10:33am: The Orioles have placed reliever Chaz Roe on waivers after assigning him to Triple-A, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. Roe had been a candidate for a bullpen job.
Roe pitched 41 1/3 innings for the Orioles last season, posting a decent 4.14 ERA, 8.3 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9. It was, however, the 29-year-old’s first extended action in the big leagues, and he struggled down the stretch, posting a 6.91 ERA in 16 outings in the second half and missing time in August due to shoulder tendinitis. For his career, Roe has a 4.25 ERA, 9.0 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in parts of three seasons with the Diamondbacks and Yankees in addition to the Orioles.
AL East Notes: Red Sox, Rays, Kim
At $17.6MM and $11.3MM, respectively, Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo will give the Red Sox two of the AL’s three most expensive bench players this season, writes Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. (Those salary figures include portions of those players’ signing bonuses.) And in addition to Sandoval and Castillo, the Red Sox will also have Allen Craig, who has a $9MM salary, at Triple-A. The only more expensive reserve than Sandoval or Castillo will be Josh Hamilton, who will make about $26MM, most of it paid by the Angels. The Red Sox’ projected $48MM bench is almost four times more expensive than that of the average AL team. Of course, the Red Sox have enough money to have very expensive players, but the cases of Sandoval, Craig and perhaps Castillo are reminders of some of the organization’s past mistakes. Here’s more from the AL East.
- In the Rays’ additions of Hank Conger, Corey Dickerson, Brad Miller, Logan Morrison and Steve Pearce and subtractions of Jake McGee, Nathan Karns, Rene Rivera and James Loney, the Rays might be straying from their pitching-and-defense-first philosophy, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman says the team has merely made a slight adjustment to take advantage of what was available — making itself better by finding better offensive players that are capable enough defensively. Chris Archer, at least, agrees with their new approach. “You have to have balance,” he says. “We learned for the last eight years that just being pitching heavy is probably not the way to do it. You’ve got to have defense. You’ve got to have pitching — the teams that win get high-level pitching, starting and relief. But you’ve got to have offense, too.”
- The Orioles‘ situation with Hyun Soo Kim is “a mess,” Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com writes. The two sides currently disagree about whether Kim is ready to play in the Majors, but Kim has the right to refuse a minor-league assignment. This isn’t the first time the O’s have run into had a hard time due to an interaction with a Korean player, Connolly notes — they had to release pitcher Suk-min Yoon last year when it became clear they had little use for him, allowing him to go back to the KIA Tigers in Korea. And they were briefly banned from scouting in Korea after offering a deal to amateur pitcher Seong-Min Kim.
Offseason In Review: St. Louis Cardinals
This is the latest entry in MLBTR’s Offseason In Review series. The full index of Offseason In Review posts can be found here.
After a winter in which they dealt with several significant losses, last year’s winningest team will try to regroup for 2016.
Major League Signings
- P Mike Leake: five years, $80MM (plus 2021 mutual option)
- P Jonathan Broxton: two years, $7.5MM
- C Brayan Pena: two years, $5MM
- P Seung-Hwan Oh: one year, ~$5MM (plus 2017 option)
- SS Ruben Tejada: one year, $1.5MM
Notable Minor League Signings
Trades And Claims
- Acquired IF Jedd Gyorko and cash from Padres for OF Jon Jay
- Acquired SS Jose Martinez from Royals for C Tony Cruz
- Claimed P Jayson Aquino from Indians
- Selected P Matthew Bowman from Mets in the Rule 5 Draft
Extensions
- Kolten Wong, 2B: five years, $25.5MM (plus 2021 option)
Notable Losses
- Jason Heyward, John Lackey, Jay, Steve Cishek, Peter Bourjos, Randy Choate, Mark Reynolds, Carlos Villanueva, Cruz
Needs Addressed
A variety of departures and injury issues had the Cardinals playing catch-up this offseason. They tried to retain star outfielder Jason Heyward with an offer for a greater total value than the deal Heyward eventually received, but were dealt a serious blow when Heyward instead picked the Cardinals’ division rivals in Chicago. The Cards were briefly connected to Alex Gordon, but instead chose to focus on other needs, going with Matt Holliday, Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty in the outfield and Brandon Moss and Matt Adams at first.
In the rotation, one top starter, John Lackey, left via free agency. Then, in early November, the team announced that another top starter, Lance Lynn, had undergone Tommy John surgery. Those losses left the Cards with significant holes at the top of their rotation. They aimed high, making a serious bid for David Price, but they lost out to the Red Sox and ended up signing Mike Leake (pictured) instead.
$80MM for a seemingly mid-grade starting pitcher like Leake seems like a lot, but perhaps it isn’t in an offseason in which Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen and Ian Kennedy all received comparable amounts. (MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes predicted Leake’s $80MM contract exactly.) The 28-year-old Leake is easily the youngest of the four, and the Cardinals are effectively buying his late-prime years, at least in theory. Also, he has a strong health record, and his good control, ground-ball tendencies and strong hitting give him a high floor. Leake’s $80MM price tag reflects an escalation in starting pitcher salaries, but it’s also a reflection of Leake’s abilities, which are considerable, even if he isn’t as flashy as many of this winter’s other rotation options were.
The Cardinals’ other big-league signings were less significant, although they took steps to improve their bullpen. They re-signed Jonathan Broxton to a two-year deal after trading for him last July. The last several seasons of Broxton’s career have been spotty at times, and he struggled in 2015 with Milwaukee before being dealt to St. Louis, but he whiffed 9.4 batters per nine innings last year and still has mid-90s velocity. He should be in the Cardinals’ late-inning mix.
Joining him in that mix will be Seung-Hwan Oh, who’s making the leap to the US after nine seasons in his native Korea and two in Japan. Oh was a highly effective closer in both the KBO and the NPB, racking up a total of 357 saves between the two leagues and posting a career 1.81 ERA, 10.7 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. The details of Oh’s contract still haven’t been released, but it reportedly guarantees about $5MM, with the chance to increase to $11MM over two years if Oh clears his incentives and the Cardinals pick up his 2017 option. That price would be a relative pittance for an everyday player, but it’s a significant commitment for a reliever, so the Cardinals seem to be banking on Oh being a key contributor to their bullpen.
Between Broxton, Oh and whatever they can get out of Jordan Walden (who’s currently struggling with what appears to be a continuation of the shoulder issues that cost him most of last season), the Cards’ bullpen could look quite different in 2016 than it did for most of last year, though it will also feature holdovers Trevor Rosenthal, Seth Maness and lefties Kevin Siegrist and Tyler Lyons (who’s out of options). Rule 5 pick Matt Bowman will reportedly get an opportunity in Walden’s absence.
Elsewhere, the Cardinals dropped light-hitting backup catcher Tony Cruz and replaced him with Brayan Pena, a competent but forgettable second catcher who signed a cheap two-year deal. In Spring Training, a late-breaking thumb injury to starting shortstop Jhonny Peralta forced the Cards to sign Ruben Tejada to a one-year, $1.5MM contract. Tejada is hardly a world-beater, but for the Cardinals to get a decent defensive shortstop with on-base ability after losing their shortstop in March rated as a minor coup at the time — Tejada is a credible big-league starter who only became available once the Mets released him, and in many seasons, it would have been hard for a suddenly-injury-ravaged team to find someone as good as Tejada without giving up any trade assets. Of course, Tejada went down with a quadriceps strain this week and will join Peralta on the DL to start the season.
The Cardinals also signed second baseman Kolten Wong to a five-year, $25.5MM deal that begins in 2016 and includes an option for 2021. The deal allows the Cards to control Wong for an extra two seasons through age 30 (since he would have been eligible for free agency after 2019), while providing Wong financial security. Wong doesn’t profile as a star, but he’s a solid defender and a good baserunner, and he provides enough offense that ensuring two extra years of his services on a relatively cheap extension seems like a reasonably low-downside gamble.
More analysis after the jump.
Dave Stewart Interview, Part II
Over four decades in baseball, Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart has done nearly everything in baseball. He was a solid pitcher for 16 years, with 168 wins and a 3.95 ERA. Over four superstar seasons with the Oakland A’s, he collected 17.8 bWAR and four straight top-four Cy Young Award finishes. Upon retirement, he was a pitching coach and an assistant GM for multiple teams, and was a finalist to manage the Milwaukee Brewers upon Davey Lopes’s firing in 2002.
After failing to ascend to general manager in Toronto (with the Blue Jays instead hiring J.P. Ricciardi), Stewart formed a player agency and represented several stars, including Eric Chavez, Matt Kemp, Chad Billingsley and Chris Carter.
Years after Stewart had admittedly given up hope of ever being a big-league GM, Tony La Russa was hired to run baseball operations in Arizona and selected his former ace as the Diamondbacks GM.
Last week, we spoke to Stewart about his Diamondbacks team. This week, Stewart reflects on his career and his path to the big chair in this exclusive conversation.
—
You were drafted in the 16th round by the Dodgers in 1975, but you also had a ton of football scholarship offers, and played some pretty good basketball, too. Why did you choose baseball?
[Laughs] It was the sport that I was least likely to get hurt playing. There are obvious injuries that happen in baseball, but in football, even at 6’2”, 210 pounds, that’s not big enough to play the sport, for me. In basketball, there were some size restrictions as well. What’s great about baseball is that anybody can get on the diamond and show their skills. At the time, among the three sports, baseball was not my favorite, and probably not my best sport. But it’s just funny how things turn out.
Did you have any idea L.A. was going to convert you from catcher to pitcher?
No clue whatsoever [laughs]. Once I reported to [rookie ball in] Bellingham, Washington, the picture became clear what they were going to do with me.
You blossomed into stardom in front of your hometown Oakland fans, with four straight seasons for top-four Cy Young finishes. Meanwhile, your A’s teams made it to three straight World Series and not afraid to put somebody on their backsides to get there. But Oakland was under .500 in 1986, your first year in Oakland, and just .500 in Tony La Russa’s first full year as manager in 1987. When did the A’s develop their swagger?
We had a good group of players, [Mark] McGwire, [Jose] Canseco, Carney Lansford, Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson. And you look at the pitching staff of myself, [Bob] Welch, Mike Moore, Curt Young; our rotation was good, we had Dennis Eckersley on the back end, and Rick Honeycutt and others in the pen.
But what really makes the team is the guy who leads the team, the manager. Tony was a great example of what we should be and how we should play the game. His message went through our clubhouse. We believed we could win, and when we stepped on the field, we were going to win. That all started with Tony and his coaching staff, and the things they brought to us day-to-day as players.
Since retiring, you’ve been a player agent, a pitching coach, in the front office, and even have gotten consideration as a manager. You seem to have your choice of baseball gigs. Why GM?
The general manager has the most impact on an organization and a franchise. I get the opportunity to pick the manager and put the players in place. It’s the biggest responsibility in an organization. I like that kind of pressure. I like being in that situation. I’ve won championships as a player, now I want to win a championship in the front office. In this capacity now, I want to be able to shape and form an organization, and build a tradition during my tenure.
You’ve been outspoken about the role of race in your goal to become a baseball GM. Was there ever a point when you thought it just wasn’t going to happen?
No, there wasn’t a single point, because by a certain time I definitely didn’t think it was going to happen. But the thing about baseball, especially at the upper levels of management, if you get the right person in the right position, it can affect your life immediately, as this did for me. Tony La Russa is a guy I’ve had a relationship with for over 30 years, and once he was put in a position where he could hire me, he did. If Tony would not have gotten his opportunity, I wouldn’t haven’t have gotten mine.
As you say, in many ways you learned how to play winning baseball under Tony, have been friends for decades, have discussed your futures in baseball together. Is it ideal to be working toward a championship in Arizona with him?
I know enough about Tony to say that our friendship had nothing to do with giving me the opportunity to do this job. But having a friendship makes it easier to do the job. Our communication is wide open. We feel free to talk with each other about anything. Most of the time our conversations are good conversations. Sometimes they’re not so good. We both have some fire. And that’s the great part about it, whether it’s a good conversation or a bad one, we walk out of the room united.
You were fresh-faced in 1981, winning your first title with Los Angeles. You were a pitching stud in 1989 when you won a second title, with Oakland. A few years later, you got a third in Toronto. Is there a favorite?
They were all good, because they were all at different points in my life. In 1981, I was just a rookie coming into the game, so I had an opportunity to win one right off the bat, which was great. I wasn’t of great impact to the Dodgers, but I was able to help them get there. In 1989, as you said, I was in the middle of it, and I made a difference in winning that World Series. In 1993 it was my last one, at the tail end of my career. I was on my way out of the game, contributing any way I could, but still having impact. I was ALCS MVP that year. But they were all significant and good because they were all different parts of my career and my life.
Padres Place Dan Straily On Waivers
The Padres have placed righty Dan Straily on waivers, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. Straily was out of options.
The Padres, of course, acquired Straily for catcher Erik Kratz in a minor deal with the Astros earlier this week. It appears their interest in Straily wasn’t particularly strong, or at least that they didn’t have an immediate use for him. They could be hoping to use him as minor-league depth if they anticipate he’ll go through the waiver process unclaimed.
Straily was once a regular in the Astros’ rotation, but he appeared in only four big-league games last season. He spent most of the year at Triple-A Fresno, posting a 4.77 ERA but with 9.1 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 122 2/3 innings. For his big-league career, the 27-year-old has a 4.60 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9.
NL Notes: Jansen, Sky Sox, Braves
Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen won’t discuss an extension during the season, which means he’s highly likely to test free agency next winter, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times writes. Jansen says there are currently no discussions between the two sides. “I’m not going to talk about it,” he says. “I’ll just want to talk about that in October.” The Dodgers reportedly did not discuss a long-term contract with Jansen while they were reaching their arbitration-avoiding $10.65MM deal with him in January. As MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk pointed out at the time, top Dodgers exec Andrew Friedman tended to focus on cheaper relief pitching when he was with the Rays. The Dodgers do, however, have a much bigger budget, despite their relatively thrifty offseason, and their interest in Aroldis Chapman before revelations of his domestic violence issue this past winter perhaps indicates somewhat of a willingness to pay heavily for a top reliever. Jansen certainly fits into the “top reliever” category, given his 2.41 ERA with a spectacular 13.8 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 last year and his long track record of success. Here’s more from the National League.
- The Colorado Springs Sky Sox, currently the Brewers‘ Triple-A affiliate, will soon meet with San Antonio’s city council to discuss potential plans to move the franchise there, Brent Briggeman of the Colorado Springs Gazette writes. “If the City of San Antonio, the 37th largest TV market in the country, calls and says they would like to talk about a downtown stadium and the possibility of bringing Triple-A Baseball to San Antonio, it would be imprudent as business owners not to listen,” say the Sky Sox in a statement. The move would, apparently, be contingent upon San Antonio building a downtown ballpark appropriate for Triple-A baseball. The Elmore Sports Group, which owns the Sky Sox, also owns the Double-A San Antonio Missions, currently a Padres affiliate. The Sky Sox have been in Colorado Springs for nearly three decades, serving as the Rockies’ longtime Triple-A home most of that time before a recent switch to the Brewers.
- Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez expresses concern about the team’s bullpen in a three-part Q+A with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien (1, 2, 3). Gonzalez expresses confidence in the ability of both Arodys Vizcaino and Jason Grilli to close, and expresses a level of comfort with veterans Jim Johnson and Eric O’Flaherty. He does, however, hope that the team can improve its performance in the middle innings this season. Gonzalez says he doesn’t feel any more pressure than usual given that this will be the Braves’ last season in Turner Field before moving into a new ballpark next year. “I think you can do both – I think you can develop [young players] and I think you can win games,” he says. “I’m not going to say we’re going to go out and win 110 games or any of that crazy stuff, but as far as pressure I don’t feel any different from any other year.”
Quick Hits: Shields, Sandoval, Cardinals, Astros, Twins
On the notion of the Padres trading right-hander James Shields to the Red Sox for benched third baseman Pablo Sandoval, one scout told Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune, “James Shields is not good in Fenway Park in his career. Some people think he’s a National League pitcher at this point of his career. But it’s one fewer year (on his contract) than Sandoval. I think Sandoval would be better off outside of Boston. I think he’s been eaten whole there. That trade actually would make some sense.” Both players are coming off down seasons, albeit Shields was easily the more valuable of the two in 2015. Shields, 34, exceeded the 200-inning barrier for the ninth straight year and set a career high with a 9.61 K/9, but he also logged personal worsts in BB/9 (3.6) and FIP (4.45) to accompany a mediocre 3.91 ERA. Sandoval is a half-decade younger (29), though that plus is offset by a well-known weight problem and the fact that he had the worst fWAR in baseball in 2015 (-2.0). Moreover, the two carry undesirable financial commitments. Shields is due $60MM over the next three years, though he can opt out and become a free agent after next season. That would mean leaving $44MM on the table, however. Sandoval, meanwhile, is owed $70MM through 2019. Both players’ deals have expensive club options at the end that their respective teams surely won’t exercise, which will lead to buyouts ($2MM for Shields in 2019, $5MM for Sandoval in 2020).
More from around the majors. . .
- With president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in charge, the Red Sox are a meritocracy when it comes to putting together a roster, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes. That was evident in the team’s decision to relegate Sandoval, whom it signed just a year ago, in favor of Travis Shaw at the hot corner. The Dombrowski-led Red Sox began the trend of valuing performance over contract when they elected last summer to end the short-lived, disastrous experiment of Hanley Ramirez in left field, Speier notes. “My focus is on the guys that are in uniform, not what’s attached to them or what their contract states,” manager John Farrell said. “We’re all about evaluating and what’s best for our team.”
- The Astros have informed left-hander Wandy Rodriguez that he will not crack their Opening Day Roster, tweets Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle. Rodriguez, who inked a minor league accord with the Astros in the offseason, had been competing with James Hoyt and Michael Feliz for the final spot in the team’s bullpen. Rodriguez had an opt-out in his contract for last Saturday, per Evan Drellich of the Chronicle. With that deadline having passed, it’s unclear what the immediate future will hold for Rodriguez, but he could end up on the market and in search of a major league deal elsewhere. “Let me see what happens if somebody picks me (up),” he told Drellich.
- The Cardinals aren’t looking for outside help at shortstop in the wake of Ruben Tejada‘s injury, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Instead, the Redbirds will at least wait until they have a better understanding of Tejada’s status. He’ll start the season on the disabled list with a muscle strain in his left quadriceps, leaving Jedd Gyorko and Greg Garcia as the Cardinals’ options at the major league level. They also have Aledmys Diaz of Triple-A Memphis as a potential call-up.
- Nick Burdi, the Twins’ best relief pitching prospect, is “out indefinitely” with right forearm tightness and will begin the season on the DL, reports LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. Of course, forearm injuries sometimes portend Tommy John surgery. Burdi, who’s capable of hitting 99 on the radar gun, threw three scoreless spring innings for the Twins. The 23-year-old tossed 63 2/3 innings at multiple minor league levels last season and pitched to a 3.82 ERA with an 11.7 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9.
- Right-hander Roberto Hernandez is drawing interest from teams that want to sign him to a minor league contract, but he’s holding out for a major league deal, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. Hernandez, 35, opted out of his deal with Toronto earlier this week after the club didn’t add him to its active roster. In 84 2/3 innings last year with Houston, Hernandez worked to a 4.36 ERA with 4.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
- Lefty reliever Wesley Wright has garnered multiple Triple-A offers, per Cotillo (Twitter link). Wright, whom Arizona released Monday, has thrown 371 innings of 4.16 ERA ball to accompany an 8.6 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in his major league career. Those mediocre numbers belie his success versus left-handed batters, who have hit a paltry .234/.313/.334 against Wright.
AL Notes: Rays, Mariners, Royals
Given the Rays’ offseason maneuverings, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wonders if the club has shifted from its philosophy of building with pitching and defense to more of an offense-oriented approach. As Topkin writes, the Rays added the likes of Corey Dickerson, Steve Pearce, Brad Miller, Hank Conger and Logan Morrison at the expense of Jake McGee, Nate Karns, Rene Rivera and James Loney. Ace pitcher Chris Archer sees the changes in a positive light. “We learned for the last eight years that just being pitching heavy is probably not the way to do it,” he said. “You’ve got to have defense. You’ve got to have pitching — the teams that win get high-level pitching, starting and relief. But you’ve got to have offense, too.” Third baseman and franchise cornerstone Evan Longoria also approves, saying that the Rays are in “a really, really good spot overall.”
Here’s more from the American League:
- We learned Wednesday that Mariners reliever Charlie Furbush could be “several months” away from returning to action because of a shoulder injury. Two of his fellow Mariners relievers, Evan Scribner and Ryan Cook, will also continue to be out for a while longer. There’s “minimal hope” either will be back soon from their torn lat muscles, writes Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. “We don’t anticipate seeing either of them before the mid-end of May, thus the placement on the 60-day DL for Ryan,” general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “But Ryan appears to be on target to be in that zone, Scribner is just a little bit of the unknown.” Dipoto added that the M’s don’t have a timeline for either pitcher and could ultimately have Scribner join Cook on the 60-day DL. The team somewhat helped to make up for their absences when it acquired right-hander Nick Vincent on Thursday.
- After releasing Clint Barmes earlier this week, the Royals are working to bring back the infielder on a minor league deal, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (Twitter link). Barmes was an Article XX(B) free agent, meaning Kansas City would have had to offer him an active roster spot or pay him a $100K retention bonus by this past Tuesday. Instead, the team opted to release the 37-year-old and could now re-sign him to a new contract. Barmes, who has long excelled as a defender, owns a career .245/.294/.379 line in 1,186 major league plate appearances with four different teams. He spent last season in San Diego, where he was a replacement-level performer in 98 games.
- A report earlier this week indicated Rays left-hander Dana Eveland had a Friday opt-out. That’s not the case, per Topkin, who says that a decision on Eveland’s future might not come until the weekend (Twitter link). Eveland, who joined the Rays in December on a minor league deal, has made his case for a bullpen spot by going 10 1/3 innings without surrendering an earned run this spring.
Hyun Soo Kim’s Agency Says He Won’t Accept Minors Assignment
Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim will not accept a minor league assignment from the club, according to an announcement from his Korea-based agency (via Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News Agency and Daniel Kim of KBO Sports; Twitter links). His contract includes language preventing the organization from sending him down without his approval.
“Kim would like to see his contract honored and executed faithfully,” the agency said in a statement (link via Yoo). “He also hopes to receive fair opportunities to continue his career as a major leaguer with Baltimore.”
There had been some suggestion that Kim would consider opening the year at Triple-A, where he might gain some seasoning and ready himself for the majors. That now appears to be a long shot, however.
Kim, whom the Orioles signed to a two-year, $7MM deal during the offseason, is in this position because of a highly disappointing spring. The 28-year-old hit an ugly .182/.229/.182 with one walk and no extra base hits in 44 plate appearances. Kim’s offense isn’t the only concern, though, as a scout told Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com that his defense also leaves much to be desired (Twitter link).
The offensive numbers Kim amassed this spring are a far cry from the stats he compiled in the pitching-challenged Korea Baseball Organization, where he slashed .318/.406/.488 in nine seasons. One reason for Kim’s success in Korea was his outstanding plate discipline, and he was supposed to use that to serve as a high-OBP presence in Baltimore’s lineup. Kim’s inability to get on base this spring opened the door for Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard, who parlayed a .390/.463/.576 line into a big league roster spot. Despite their vastly different springs, general manager Dan Duqette called the move to carry Rickard over Kim “a razor thin roster call” (Twitter link via Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com).
Given their decision, the Duquette-led O’s are now in a tough spot. If Kim won’t relent and accept a place in the minors, the choices are limited. The team seems to have decided Kim’s not major league-ready, with Duquette saying that “the player needs more at-bats to prepare for the season.” Baltimore could next follow the route that got them out from under the failed contract of fellow Korean Suk-min Yoon by finding a KBO club to pick up some or all of the Kim’s contract. But it’s not clear whether there is sufficient interest in this case, and Kim expressed a desire earlier this week to continue his career in North America, as Roch Kubatko of MASN.com reported. Otherwise, the O’s would presumably have no choice but to eat the entire contract. Duquette, of course, hopes it doesn’t come to that and expressed optimism about Kim’s future with the Orioles.
“We all look forward to his contributions to the club after Kim has more time to adjust to his new surroundings,” Duquette said.
NL Notes: Cardinals, Guerrero, Pirates, Nolin
Cardinals shortstop Ruben Tejada left Thursday’s game with a muscle strain in his left quadriceps and will begin the season on the disabled list, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). As a result, both infielder Greg Garcia and outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker have made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com tweets. Tejada’s injury is the latest unfortunate news at shortstop for the Cardinals, who signed the ex-Met earlier this month to replace the injured Jhonny Peralta. With Tejada on the shelf, the Cardinals are expected to start Jedd Gyorko at short in their Sunday opener against Pittsburgh, Goold writes. Garcia, meanwhile, has dealt with his own injury – a sore knee – and put up a meager .289 slugging percentage in 52 plate appearances this spring. Hazelbaker has been far more successful at the plate, amassing a .300/.364/.500 line in 44 PAs. The 28-year-old, a longtime minor leaguer, will finally have a chance to see his first major league action since Boston took him in the fourth round of the 2009 draft.
Here’s more from the National League:
- Righty Matthew Bowman will join Garcia and Hazelbaker on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster, per Adam Rubin of ESPN.com. The injury to Jordan Walden helped clear a path in the bullpen for Bowman, whom the Cardinals took from the Mets in the Rule 5 draft last December. Bowman has allowed seven earned runs in eight innings this spring while striking out five and walking three.
- Dodgers third baseman/outfielder Alex Guerrero will start the season on the DL after an MRI showed “minimal damage” in his knee, manager Dave Roberts announced (Twitter link via Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times). The fact that Guerrero is DL-bound gives the Dodgers time to delay a roster decision on a player whose contract precludes them from sending him to the minors without his permission. The Dodgers reportedly tried to trade Guerrero over the winter, but they didn’t find any takers. If dealt sometime this season, Guerrero will have a chance to void the final year of his contract and become a free agent next offseason. The 29-year-old is slated to earn $5MM this season after compiling a dismal -0.2 fWAR in 106 games in 2015. In 21 plate appearances this spring, Guerrero slashed .238/.238/.571.
- The Pirates’ decision to give Juan Nicasio their last rotation spot over Ryan Vogelsong was an agonizing one for team brass, general manager Neal Huntington said. “It was the most intense conversation we’ve had,” Huntington stated (via Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review). “There were strong convictions on both sides.” In the end, Nicasio’s dominant Spring Training showing – 15 innings, no runs, 24 strikeouts, five walks – was simply too much for the Pirates to ignore.
- An MRI revealed Thursday that Brewers southpaw Sean Nolin has a left elbow strain, general manager David Stearns said. Nolin will get a second opinion before a prognosis is announced, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. If Nolin’s diagnosis proves correct, McCalvy expects the 26-year-old to avoid Tommy John surgery. Nolin was a candidate to serve in the Brewers’ bullpen before they had to shut him down earlier this month with the injury. He’ll begin the season on the DL.