Blue Jays Making Push To Re-Sign Edwin Encarnacion
The Blue Jays are making a push to re-sign slugger Edwin Encarnacion, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. According to Davidi, the two sides have already had some “fruitful” contract discussions that have “given [Encarnacion] something to think about.” Davidi notes, too, that Encarnacion’s preference is to remain in Toronto, which obviously works in the Blue Jays’ favor. He does caution, however, that an agreement between the two sides is no sure thing, even though there’s apparently been some progress in negotiations.
The Jays extended a one-year qualifying offer to Encarnacion and teammate Jose Bautista earlier today, though there’s never a great chance that either — especially Encarnacion — would accept the $17.2MM pact for the 2017 season. While the QO can have an adverse effect on the market for some free agents, Encarnacion’s status as arguably the top available bat of the offseason makes it unlikely that he’d run into much difficulty even with the burden of draft pick compensation hanging over him.
The 33-year-old Encarnacion (34 in January) is coming off yet another excellent season at the plate, having slashed .263/.357/.529 with 42 home runs in 702 plate appearances. Since breaking out with the Blue Jays a half-decade ago, Encarnacion sports a robust .272/.367/.544 line with 193 home runs in 727 games — an average of 44 homers per 162 games played. It’s not clear whether Encarnacion’s camp would forgo a lengthier trip through free agency in order to quickly re-up with the Jays, but it’s worth noting, of course, that Encarnacion has yet to even be granted the right to negotiate with other clubs. The exclusive window for clubs to negotiate with their own free agents ends tonight at midnight, though, so Encarnacion could quickly get a sense of how Toronto’s current level of aggression stacks up with the rest of the market.
Yankees Already In Communication With Aroldis Chapman
Already at this early point in the offseason, Yankees exec Brian Cashman confirms that the team has been in touch with former closer Aroldis Chapman, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News writes. Cashman has been in contact with representatives of other players as well, and seems to be focusing on pitching this offseason.
“There are certainly some names out there that are pretty good,” Cashman says. “It’s probably a thin starting pitching market, there are a number of different relievers in the market; certainly more relievers in this free agency than there are starters of quality. The trade route is obviously an area we’ll see what develops over time.”
The Yankees, of course, traded four players to the Reds for Cashman last offseason, and he posted a 2.01 ERA, 12.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 20 saves in 31 1/3 innings with New York before heading to Chicago for a package headlined by top infield prospect Gleyber Torres. Chapman was then even more dominant for the Cubs, becoming a key part of their route to the World Series.
The Yankees finished the season with Dellin Betances as their closer, and Betances struggled in the last few weeks of the season (although, like many players who started the 2016 campaign in the Yankees’ bullpen, he had a very strong year overall. Cashman says his interest in Chapman (and, perhaps, in other top relief targets) is not closely related to Betances’ performance as closer. Rather, Cashman says he just wants to add more good players. Last year’s excellent bullpen headed by Chapman, Betances and Andrew Miller perhaps shows that it’s hard to have too much of a good thing.
“I just want to bring in more talent,” Cashman says. “It’s too early to say who’s going to do what; it depends how the winter goes. [Betances] finished the season as our closer, so until or unless I find something better — which is pretty hard to do — he would be the closer if the season started today. But it’s not.”
Cashman also says he would like to add to the Yankees’ existing rotation talent, which includes Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia alongside a long list of less established possibilities.
“I’d rather have certainty,” says Cashman. “I’d rather feel like we have one of the best rotations in the game and I’d like to have one of the best bullpens in the game. It’s going to take some time, and in some cases, some growing pains.”
Angels Designate Cory Rasmus For Assignment
The Angels designated 29-year-old right-handed reliever Cory Rasmus for assignment, according to Taylor Blake Ward of Scout.com. Rasmus posted a 5.84 ERA, 6.2 K/9, 5.8 BB/9, 1.46 HR/9, and 30.4% groundball rate in 24 2/3 innings for the Halos this year.
Rasmus endured multiple DL stints for a groin strain this year, culminating in July surgery. He returned in September and made five appearances to close out his season. Cory, younger brother of free agent outfielder Colby Rasmus, was a first-round draft pick of the Braves in 2006 out of high school, back when he had a number two starter ceiling. Rasmus was a supplemental pick the Braves had gained for the loss of free agent Kyle Farnsworth. The Angels acquired Rasmus a few days before the 2013 trade deadline, shipping veteran reliever Scott Downs to Atlanta in a trade between GMs Jerry Dipoto and Frank Wren. His best year in the Majors was 2014, when he posted a 2.57 ERA in 56 innings, including six starts.
Braves, Josh Collmenter Avoid Arbitration
7:12pm: Collmenter will receive a $1.2MM base salary in 2017 and can earn up to $1.2MM via incentives as well, tweets O’Brien.
6:18pm: The Braves have agreed to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration with right-hander Josh Collmenter, reports David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). Atlanta acquired Collmenter in a rare September trade, and the longtime D-backs hurler spent enough time in the minor leagues this year to delay his path to free agency by a season. He’ll remain under control with the Braves into 2017 now and can serve as either a rotation piece or a swingman should the Braves add multiple arms to their rotation mix this winter, as general manager John Coppolella has stated as a goal. Details of Collmenter’s contract aren’t yet known, but MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $2.2MM salary for the Sparta Group client.
[Related: Atlanta Braves Depth Chart]
The 30-year-old Collmenter (31 in February) found himself released by the D-backs earlier this summer after recording a 4.84 ERA in 22 1/3 innings. Arizona’s 2015 Opening Day starter latched on with the Cubs on a minors pact and pitched well in four Triple-A starts for Chicago before Atlanta picked him up in a trade that didn’t grab many headlines but could yield benefits in the season to come. Collmenter went on to three starts for Atlanta in the season’s final weeks, posting a 2.37 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 42.3 percent ground-ball rate in 19 innings. In his career, Collmenter has a 3.50 earned run average, 6.3 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 36.1 percent grounder rate in 678 1/3 innings — all coming with Arizona and Atlanta.
As it stands, the Braves are set to enter the 2017 campaign with Julio Teheran atop their rotation, but the outlook behind him is decidedly less certain. Mike Foltynewicz has likely pitched his way into a spot, and former top prospect Matt Wisler logged 156 1/3 innings despite a lackluster 5.00 ERA. Fellow top prospect Aaron Blair also struggled in the Majors, so he’s probably not guaranteed anything heading into Spring Training next year. Other internal options for the Braves include John Gant, Tyrell Jenkins, Williams Perez and Rob Whalen, but as noted above, Coppolella appears set on deepening his team’s rotation picture with the addition of at least two starters (either via trade or free agency).
Cubs Claim Conor Mullee, Outright Three Players
The Cubs have claimed righty Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees, per announcements from the team. Chicago also selected the contract of righty Jose Rosario while outrighting three players: right-handers Dallas Beeler and Andury Acevedo as well as catcher Tim Federowicz.
Fresh off a World Series win, the Cubs will enter the winter in earnest with just 34 of its 40-man roster spots accounted for. That space allowed the team to take a flier on Mullee, who has had arm issues over the years and required elbow surgery in 2016.
Despite the injuries, and a less-than-inspiring (albeit brief) major league debut last year, Mullee has shown some intriguing numbers in the minors. Most recently, he ran up 37 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.19 ERA and 11.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
Chicago will presumably give Mullee a shot in camp along with the 26-year-old Rosario, who has yet to crack the bigs but has an intriguing power arm. Pitching at the three highest levels of the minors last year after missing 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, Rosario worked to a cumulative 2.50 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
Otherwise, the 27-year-old Beeler lost his roster spot after shoulder injuries cut his season short. Acevedo, who was signed to the 40-man last winter, missed almost all the year with a torn ACL. And the 29-year-old Federowicz saw time briefly with the Cubs, but didn’t have much of a shot at the roster in 2017 with a deep group of catchers ahead of him. After showing well at Triple-A, though, he’ll surely get a crack somewhere in Spring Training.
Mets Make Qualifying Offer To Neil Walker
The Mets have issued a qualifying offer to second baseman Neil Walker, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets. It’s no surprise to learn, too, that outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has also been extended the one-year, $17.2MM offer.
Walker was an obvious QO call before he underwent season-ending back surgery. But initial signs have been promising, with the veteran explaining that the procedure addressed a long-standing issue and ought to make it easier for him to perform going forward.
New York got exactly what it hoped for when it dealt Jon Niese to pick up the final season left on Walker’s deal. Now 31, the switch-hitting Walker provided 458 plate appearances of .282/.347/.476 hitting and popped 23 home runs on the year. It’s important to note, too, that Walker showed improvement in the field in 2016. Though he typically rates as a below-average defender, he ended the year with a neutral rating from DRS and a strong 11.1 runs saved by measure of UZR.
That overall output didn’t quite match the work of his predecessor, Daniel Murphy, who had a breakout year in his new digs in D.C. But it made Walker a quality everyday regular at a position of need, which is why he could end up returning. Whether the sides explore a multi-year arrangement over the coming week, while Walker considers the QO, remains to be seen, but a return could well make sense for both sides. If not, Walker will be an interesting free agent to watch, as teams weigh the injury uncertainty against his history of steady offensive production from an up-the-middle position.
Orioles Don’t Make Qualifying Offer To Matt Wieters
The Orioles have made a qualifying offer to slugger Mark Trumbo but have passed on the chance to do the same with catcher Matt Wieters. Baltimore’s decision on Trumbo was reported by Roch Kubtko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter), with Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter) reporting on the decision not to extend the $17.2MM, single-season offer to Wieters. (Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball first tweeted that it was unlikely Wieters would receive the qualifying offer.)
Trumbo represented an easy call after he launched a league-leading 42 home runs. The 30-year-old continues to strike out a ton and isn’t much of an on-base threat — he ran up a .316 OBP last year and sits at just .303 for his career. He’s also a dreadful defender in the outfield, though he generally rates well at first and delivers enough power to represent a regular DH option. Ultimately, the long ball plays well in free agency, and he’s young enough that he ought to find multiple years in free agency even after declining the QO (as is widely expected).
It was a somewhat trickier call with regard to Wieters, long the franchise’s top backstop. Baltimore was surprised when he took the QO last year, but perhaps wasn’t too disappointed with the chance to retain him on a one-year commitment. The immediate outlook still cries out for a veteran receiver — prospect Chance Sisco probably isn’t ready, and Caleb Joseph had a terrible 2016 season — but that doesn’t mean the club is interested in taking on that kind of salary this time around.
Wieters, 30, struggled through what may be his final year with the O’s. The switch hitter ended with a .243/.302/.409 slash line over 464 plate appearances. Though he did hit 17 home runs, he fell well shy of the above-average offensive numbers he posted in prior years. Wieters also didn’t receive strong framing reviews, though he was solid with his arm by measure of Baseball Prospectus.
Still, without the QO weighing him down, Wieters will have a chance at a strong, multi-year deal in free agency. With Wilson Ramos injured, Wieters and Jason Castro are probably the top two candidates for teams looking to fill in immediately behind the dish.
Ten Players To Receive Qualifying Offers
Major League teams had until 5pm ET today to extend qualifying offers to their impending free agents — a decision that could significantly impact the market for a number of players this winter. For those unfamiliar with the process, the collective bargaining agreement stipulates that teams can make a “qualifying offer” to free agents that spent the entire season on the roster — midseason trades and signings are ineligible — if they wish to secure draft pick compensation for the loss of that player. The QO is a set one-year value determined by averaging the salaries of the top 125 players in the league. This year, the value of that sum comes to $17.2MM.
A player will have one week to survey the market and determine whether he wishes to accept the QO or reject in search of a more lucrative free-agent deal. If a player accepts the offer — something that has happened only three times since the system’s implementation in 2012 (Matt Wieters, Colby Rasmus and Brett Anderson) — that player is considered signed for the following season at $17.2MM. The contract is considered a free-agent deal, and as such, that player is not allowed to be traded without his consent until June 15.
If the player rejects a QO, he’s free to sign with any team for any amount (including the team from which he rejected the QO). However, whichever team signs a player that has rejected a QO must surrender its top unprotected pick in the upcoming draft (unless the player re-signs with the team that made the QO). The first 10 selections are protected, so those clubs would only be required to part with their second-highest pick. A team that signs multiple players that have rejected a QO continues to forfeit its top unprotected pick for each subsequent signing. The team that lost the free agent in question, meanwhile, will receive a compensatory draft pick at the end of the first round. The order of comp picks, like the draft order itself, is determined based upon the previous year’s standings.
Last year there were a record 20 players to receive QOs (valued at $15.8MM based on 2015 salaries). There should be fewer this year, given the weak free-agent market, but there should still be a double-digit total of QOs extended. Here’s a list of who will reportedly receive qualifying offers thus far, and we’ll update this throughout the day and include the full list when the 5:00pm deadline has passed:
- Mark Trumbo, Orioles (link)
- Jeremy Hellickson, Phillies (link)
- Yoenis Cespedes, Mets (link)
- Neil Walker, Mets (link)
- Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays (link)
- Jose Bautista, Blue Jays (link)
- Ian Desmond, Rangers (link)
- Dexter Fowler, Cubs (link)
- Kenley Jansen, Dodgers (link)
- Justin Turner, Dodgers (link)
For a more in-depth explanation of the qualifying offer system, you can reference back to our post Explaining The Qualifying Offer System from last October. In the past, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has also spoken to both agents and general managers about the importance of avoiding the qualifying offer and the impact it has on teams’ decisions. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd, meanwhile, penned a pair of insightful posts in an effort to contextualize and assess the QO system and its purposes on the heels of the 2013-14 offseason.
Phillies Make Qualifying Offer To Jeremy Hellickson
3:56pm: Philadelphia has officially announced the offer to Hellickson.
10:33pm: The Phillies will make a qualifying offer today to right-hander Jeremy Hellickson, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). He’ll have a week to decide whether to take the one-year, $17.2MM offer or instead enter the free agent market with the requirement that a new team sacrifice a draft pick to sign him.
Depending upon one’s perspective, this move will come as obvious or as quite a surprise. All the chatter around the team of late has suggested that Hellickson was in line to be tagged with a QO — which became especially clear when the Phils decided not to move him at the trade deadline. But Hellickson has never been a frontline arm and perhaps doesn’t feel like the type of player who’d typically have this level of cash dangled.
Hellickson is coming off of his best season in some time, as he contributed 189 innings of 3.71 ERA ball to the Phils. His peripherals are in about the same range as usual, though, as he ended with 7.3 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 and a 40.7% groundball rate. ERA estimators weren’t particularly excited: Hellickson did post full-season career lows in FIP (3.98) and xFIP (3.99), though those are hardly stellar marks. His SIERA has landed between 4.04 and 4.15 in each of the last four seasons, and perhaps that’s the best indication of what teams can reasonably expect moving forward.
Ultimately, it’s not hard to see Philadelphia’s reasoning, especially given the runaway spending seen last winter on starting pitching and the thin supply available this winter. If he were to take the offer, it may be something of an overpay for a single season. But it would only be a one-year commitment, and this organization can certainly afford it — and might even welcome the chance to welcome back the righty after a sturdy campaign. If he rejects it, of course, Philly would line up to add a draft pick that could be quite valuable at this stage of the team’s rebuilding effort.
There’s something of a win-win in the decision for the team. From Hellickson’s perspective, the offer is not welcome, but there are silver linings as well. For one thing, it’s nice to have this kind of cash on the table, even if it’s only on a one-year rate. And the offer suggests that the Phils were impressed with him last year, which provides some information to the rest of the market. If Hellickson prefers to stay in Philadelphia, he could still negotiate a lengthier pact. But given the state of the pitching market, there’s good reason to think he can turn down the QO and still do just fine in free agency.
Angels To Exercise Club Option Over Yunel Escobar
Unsurprisingly, the Angels will pick up the $7MM club option over infielder Yunel Escobar, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports on Twitter. The team would otherwise have paid him a $1MM buyout.
Escobar, who just turned 34, continued to hit after heading to Los Angeles last winter in a deal that sent reliever Trevor Gott to the Nationals. He ended with a .304/.355/.391 batting line and five home runs over 567 plate appearances.
Ultimately, the veteran infielder isn’t a terribly exciting option. He doesn’t walk a ton but also rarely strikes out, and relies upon batting average to make up for below-average power. While he has carried a rather lofty batting average on balls in play over the last two years (.347 and .339, respectively), that’s supported in some part by the fact that Escobar keeps the ball on a line or on the ground much more than the league-average hitter. (He hit fly balls just 20.8% of the time, as against the league’s 34.6% rate.)
Though he was long a shortstop, Escobar isn’t considered a valuable defender at third. Both UZR and DRS have rated him as well below average at the hot corner in each of the last two seasons. Still, there’s value in the fact that Escobar can handle third reasonably, and also that he’d presumably be able to take residence at second if needed.
All said, it was an easy call for the Halos to make. The team recently added another one-year veteran in Cameron Maybin, and is looking to fill in needs on limited commitments wherever necessary. Locking in Escobar leaves the team looking to add a second baseman (or, perhaps, a third baseman) and build out the pitching staff. The future payroll situation remains unchanged thus far, maintaining some flexibility for the organization.