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Archives for January 2017

Cubs Claim Dylan Floro

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The Cubs have claimed righty Dylan Floro off waivers from the Rays, per a club announcement. He had been designated for assignment recently by Tampa Bay.

Floro, 26, reached the bigs for the first time last year, working 15 innings over which he struck out 14 and walked five. He showed a 92.5 mph average heater and drew plenty of grounders, so there certainly seems to be some promise in his future.

Indeed, the control artist was quite good on the year at Triple-A, where he threw fifty frames of 2.88 ERA ball with 7.2 K/9 and 1.6 BB/9. Long a starter, Floro had converted to being a full-time reliever after struggling in his first attempt at the highest level of the minors in 2015.

Jake Diekman To Undergo Surgery, Miss Significant Portion Of 2017 Season

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Rangers reliever Jake Diekman is expected to miss “at least half” of the 2017 season after undergoing surgery to “help alleviate ulcerative colitis,” according to Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter). That’s certainly frightening news for the 29-year-old; MLBTR extends its best wishes to him for a full recovery.

News of the surgery is most unwelcome for both Diekman and the Rangers. It’s a significant blow to the Texas organization’s late-inning bullpen mix. While there’s solid depth overall, Diekman is clearly the team’s top relief southpaw. Alex Claudio now stands as Texas’s top setup lefty.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic condition that can come with a variety of side effects, ranging from the unpleasant to the debilitating. Diekman has long battled the ailment, and it seems that a surgical course was finally deemed necessary. If you’re interested in learning more about the condition and Diekman’s charitable efforts involving it, click here.

Diekman had just agreed to a $2.55MM salary to avoid arbitration with the Rangers, and he’ll stand to receive all of that unless the team changes its mind before the start of the season. Odds are, Texas will take its chances on a return. The hope is, it seems, that Diekman will make it back in 2017, and he’s controllable for one more year through the arb process. Missing such a lengthy stretch will obviously dent his future arb earnings, it’s also important to point out.

Texas will no doubt miss Diekman’s presence for whatever stretch he is out. Last year, he worked 53 frames and posted a 3.40 ERA. Though he continues to struggle with command at times, Diekman is tough to square up. Relying mostly on a mid-nineties sinker, which he combines with a slider and little-used change, he typically produces plenty of groundballs and strikeouts. Diekman carries nearly a 50% grounder rate to go with 11.0 K/9 for his career.

 

Rangers Re-Sign Josh Hamilton

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12:09pm: Hamilton intends to try his hand at first base, as MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets. Presumably, he could also factor in the corner outfield and DH mix. The organization has been rumored to be pursuing alternatives at first and DH, where Joey Gallo and Jurickson Profar currently rate as the top options on the depth chart.

11:38am: Texas has announced the deal. Hamilton will earn at the league-minimum rate if he makes it to the majors, Heyman tweets. That’s not surprising, of course, as Hamilton’s free-agent deal ran through the 2017 season. Most of his $30MM salary will be paid for by the Angels, though the Rangers did also take on a total of $6MM (for the 2015-17 seasons) when they acquired Hamilton.

11:18am: The Rangers have wrapped up an agreement to re-sign one-time star slugger Josh Hamilton, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). A deal has been expected since late in 2016.

Hamilton’s minor-league pact will give him the right to opt out on April 1 if he has not yet been added to the MLB roster. He’ll obviously hope to earn a spot in the major-league mix during spring camp, but it’s not known whether he’d look to pursue an opportunity elsewhere if Texas doesn’t offer him a big league job to open the year.

There remain many questions facing the 35-year-old Hamilton, who was expected to play a significant role for the Rangers last year but ended up requiring consecutive knee surgeries. The veteran outfielder made a brief and largely uninspiring appearance with Texas in 2015, after he was acquired from the Angels, but hasn’t put together a full season since 2013.

While Hamilton didn’t maintain his All-Star-level production upon leaving the Rangers to join the Angels in 2013, he did manage to put up a .255/.316/.426 batting line — good for a 110 OPS+ — during his two years in Los Angeles. If he can return to that sort of hitting, he’d likely be a solid piece for the Rangers, though talent has never been the lone issue. Hamilton, after all, has long dealt with balky knees and battled substance abuse, and he’ll need to maintain his overall health in order to be a productive member of the organization.

 

Rangers Sign Dillon Gee

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The Rangers have announced the signing of righty Dillon Gee to a minor-league deal. He can earn $2MM if he’s in the majors, with a $1MM incentive package, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter).

Gee is still recovering from thoracic outlet surgery — as is fellow recent signee Tyson Ross. Last year, Gee joined the Royals on a minor-league pact and ended up making 33 major-league appearances, 14 of them as a starter. But even before the surgery, he had struggled. Gee worked to a 4.68 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 over his 125 frames with Kansas City.

Just what Texas can expect from the 30-year-old, given his health concerns and recent performance dip, remains to be seen, but he ought to battle for a roster spot in camp. Assuming Ross isn’t quite ready for the start of the season, Gee could compete with pitchers such as A.J. Griffin, Chi Chi Gonzalez, and Nick Martinez for opportunities.

Arbitration Records: Relief Pitchers

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We looked recently at some starting pitcher arbitration records (focusing specifically on one-year agreements), and today we’re turning to their bullpen counterparts. MLBTR contributor and arbitration projection system creator Matt Swartz has mined his data to help identify the top total earnings — and top year-over-year raises — to make this look possible.

Remember that you can keep tabs on all of this year’s arb action with MLBTR’s 2017 Arbitration Tracker. As things stand, here are the current high-water marks for one-year relief pitcher salaries via arbitration:

Records For Single-Season Salary

  • First-time eligible: Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox, $6.25MM (2009) — Papelbon was consistently and rather completely dominant during his first several years in the league, and was racking up 30+ saves from his first full season in the majors. That gave him unrivaled earning power among early-career relievers. Nobody has really come close to his first-year mark, though Trevor Rosenthal did earn $5.6MM last year. Breaking Papelbon’s record will take a big, multi-year push from a reliever who steps right into a closing role upon reaching the majors — say, Roberto Osuna or Edwin Diaz.
  • Second-time eligible: Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox, $9.35MM (2010) — There he is again. Papelbon racked up 68 innings of 1.85 ERA pitching with 76 strikeouts and 38 saves in 2009, allowing him to build off of an already massive starting point.
  • Third-time eligible: Zach Britton, Orioles, $11.4MM (2017) — The first blip for Papelbon came in his 2010 season, so we’ve seen several pitchers post higher figures in their third trip through the arb process. Britton’s history 2016 season allowed him to edge past Aroldis Chapman, who held the prior mark with his $11.32MM salary from 2016 — which itself just topped Kenley Jansen ($10.65MM). Those latter two pitchers, of course, have also now easily topped Papelbon’s long-standing record for a free-agent relief contract.
  • Fourth-time eligible: Jim Johnson, Athletics, $10MM (2014) — This class is limited to Super Two players, so it excludes some notable earners. Britton is certain to break the record of Johnson, who preceded him as an Orioles closer, unless he has a disastrous season that results in a non-tender.

Looking just at the final numbers is interesting, but year-over-year raises are perhaps more informative. Regardless of a player’s starting point, they can catch up fast with a big season or two at the right point in their career.

Records For Year-Over-Year Raises

  • First raise (second year of arb eligibility): Greg Holland, Royals, $3.575MM raise to $8.25MM total (2015) — A second-straight season of sub-1.50 ERA pitching with over 90 Ks and 45 saves landed Holland this major raise. Jeurys Familia came close to the mark ($3.325MM) and might have passed it had it not been for a serious offseason domestic violence matter that likely compromised his bargaining leverage.
  • Second raise (third year of arb eligibility): Zach Britton, Orioles, $4.65MM raise to $11.4MM total (2017) — The mark had just been set by Mark Melancon, who took home a $4.25MM raise from the Pirates last winter, when Britton’s amazing 2016 campaign allowed him to easily set a new record. This one will be hard to top for future challengers.
  • Third raise (fourth year of arb eligibility): Jim Johnson, Athletics, $3.5MM raise to $10MM total (2014) — Britton will easily beat this mark with a repeat of his 2016 season, but that’s hardly a given. He’ll certainly need to have a highly productive year to earn a bigger final bump than did Johnson, who in some ways punched his own ticket out of Baltimore with a 70 1/3 inning, 2.94 ERA, 50-save effort in 2013 that drove his earnings up to the point that the club dumped basically dumped his salary in an offseason trade to the Athletics.

Blue Jays, Jose Bautista Nearing Agreement

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TODAY: There’s still work left between Bautista and the Jays, and both Cleveland and Tampa Bay remain interested, Heyman adds on Twitter.

YESTERDAY, 6:45pm: Bautista is expected to take home more than the qualifying offer value ($17.2MM) if the one-year-plus-option scenario is indeed adopted in a finalized deal, Heyman tweets. Indications still are that the sides are leaning toward that arrangement.

2:07pm: Rosenthal tweets that the deal, if completed, will be a one-year contract with a mutual option.

9:38am: A one-year deal is also still a consideration, as are other scenarios tweets Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. Heyman tweets that the current expectation is that the two sides will agree to a deal worth about $37MM over two years, though there’s nothing final. Both the Indians and Rays have bid on Bautista recently as well.

9:15am: Passan reports that the two sides are in the final stages of working out an agreement that will pay Bautista close to $40MM over a two-year term.

7:50am: Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports hears that the two sides are discussing a two-year contract (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal agrees, tweeting that Bautista and the Jays are discussing a two-year pact in the $35-40MM range. That’s a departure from Passan’s report, though it should be noted that Passan’s tweets were around 2am, so there’s certainly been enough time for talks to have changed course.

JAN. 16, 7:13am: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that the two sides have discussed multiple iterations of a deal but are currently focused on a one-year pact (Twitter links). A deal isn’t quite done yet, but each side is optimistic that something will be completed.

JAN. 15: The Blue Jays have emerged as the front-runners for free agent right fielder Jose Bautista’s services and are nearing an agreement with the slugger, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (Twitter link). Details regarding the potential pact aren’t yet known, but Toronto hadn’t been willing to give the Octagon/Jay Alou client a deal worth more than the one-year, $17.2MM qualifying offer as of late December.

Jose Bautista (vertical)

Bautista has been on the open market since rejecting a qualifying offer from Toronto in November, though the 36-year-old’s venture into free agency hasn’t gone according to plan. Despite serving as one of the majors’ foremost offensive weapons since an out-of-nowhere breakout in 2010, serious interest in Bautista has been scarce this offseason. Bautista has been willing to consider a one-year deal as a result, but it seems having to surrender a first-round pick to sign him has scared off potential suitors.

It also hasn’t helped Bautista’s cause that he’s coming off a disappointing season, one that featured multiple stints on the disabled list and an offensive decline. While Bautista hit a more-than-respectable .234/.366/.452 with 22 home runs in 517 plate appearances, those numbers represented a stark drop-off from the ones he has typically posted as a Blue Jay. After toiling in anonymity with various teams from 2004-09, Bautista slashed a stellar .268/.390/.555 with 227 homers as a Jay between 2010-15.

Thanks to that otherworldly six-year run, Bautista was reportedly seeking a half-decade-long extension worth $150MM last winter. Toronto unsurprisingly balked at that asking price, and the club’s decision was clearly wise given Bautista’s production in 2016. It’ll look that much better if the team is able to bring back Bautista at what should be a palatable price on a short-term contract.

The Blue Jays have already lost one of the longtime faces of their franchise, first baseman/designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion, to free agency this offseason. Encarnacion landed in Cleveland, which knocked the Jays out of the playoffs last year and has also shown interest in Bautista. But it doesn’t appear the two will reunite this offseason, which is welcome news to a Jays club that’s in dire need of corner outfield help.

Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource is currently projecting that the light-hitting Ezequiel Carrera will man Bautista’s spot in right, while free agent pickup Steve Pearce is slated to start in left. Pearce is far better suited for first base, though, and the Jays could stand to upgrade over Justin Smoak there. Re-upping Bautista would enable them to shift Pearce and their most significant offseason acquisition to date, Kendrys Morales, between first and designated hitter and perhaps platoon Carrera and Melvin Upton Jr. in left.

While retaining Bautista would be a boon to Toronto’s offense (and likely the morale of its fans), he does come with drawbacks. In addition to his offensive regression last season, Bautista continued to fall off in the field, as he finished with negative grades in Defensive Runs Saved (minus-6) and Ultimate Zone Rating (minus-5.6) for the second year in a row. He also failed to provide value on the base paths, making Bautista a one-dimensional player at this stage of his career. That dimension is rather effective, though, and is apparently going to lead him back to Toronto, where he’s an icon. Keeping Bautista will cost the Jays the compensatory first-round pick they’d have netted had he headed elsewhere, but the club seemingly values what he could bring in future years more than that selection.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/17/17

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We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post:

  • The Mariners have added righty Josh Judy on a minors deal, per Robert Murray of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Soon to turn 31, Judy will return to a MLB organization after two years playing elsewhere — first, in the indy ranks and then in the Mexican League. Judy climbed the ladder quickly as a 34th-round pick, posting intriguing strikeout tallies and briefly reaching the majors back in 2011 with the Indians. But he struggled there and never regained his footing. Last year, though, he provided Mexico’s Tigres de Quintana Roo with 52 2/3 innings of 1.20 ERA ball, allowing only 35 hits and a single home run while posting 7.9 K/9 against just 1.4 BB/9.

Jhonny Peralta, Christian Vazquez Change Representation

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Veteran infielder Jhonny Peralta and young catcher Christian Vazquez have each changed their representation, moving to Melvin Roman’s MDR Sports, according to Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal (subscription link).

Peralta, 34, is entering the final year of his free-agent contract with the Cardinals. He has been mentioned as a possible trade candidate, though his focus figures to remain on securing playing time and engineering a bounceback after an injury-plagued 2016 season.

Though he had been a steady contributor to the Cards in the first two years of his deal, Peralta fell off last year. After returning from wrist surgery, he managed only a .260/.307/.408 batting line with eight home runs over 313 plate appearances. He also showed some erosion in his glovework, and did not draw strong ratings upon shifting to third from his native shortstop position.

One of Peralta’s most notable teammates, veteran receiver Yadier Molina, is perhaps MDR’s best-known current player. The agency has a long list of catchers on its rolls, including not only Molina but also players such as Robinson Chirinos, Dioner Navarro, Brayan Pena, and Rene Rivera.

Vazquez will join that group as he enters a key season. The 26-year-old will qualify for arbitration after the year, so long as he accrues enough service time in 2017 with the Red Sox. As things stand, he has logged two years and 31 days at the MLB level.

Certainly, Vazquez will need to boost his offensive productivity to set himself up as hoped. After missing all of 2015 with Tommy John surgery, he did manage to make a full return and is regarded as a highly talented defender. But he struggled last year to a .227/.277/.308 batting line over 184 plate appearances and will need to earn playing time this spring in a camp battle with Sandy Leon and Blake Swihart.

As always, you can keep up on the latest agency information with MLBTR’s Agency Database.

MLBTR Poll: Who’ll Sign Greg Holland?

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There has been a fair amount of reporting this winter on Greg Holland, the wild card on the closer’s market. While we won’t ever know just how much he’d have earned if his last two seasons had matched the three that came before — which would have made him the fourth top-end reliever available this winter — we will learn before too long just how much an organization is willing to commit to see if he can still return to being one of the game’s best relievers.

Holland is still working back from Tommy John surgery, but figures to be prepared for a full 2017 season, adding to the interest. Last we checked, he was angling for a one-year deal with a player option for a second (or, if you prefer, a two-year deal with an opt-out clause) — essentially, a fairly hefty guarantee with the chance to return to the market if all goes well. That he thinks he can command such a contract speaks to the level of interest.

At last look, the 31-year-old was engaged with the Brewers, Dodgers, Nationals, Rockies, Reds, and Rays, with the Cubs and Royals seemingly having fallen out of the race. If the Brewers finalize their reported push to sign Neftali Feliz, they may also be out of the hunt, though that’s still not certain.

For the time being, those other five organizations are perhaps the most likely suitors. Of the group, the win-now Nationals are in most obvious need of an experienced closer. But the Reds could give Holland the 9th, too, as might the Rockies and even the Rays — in the unlikely event that they strike a deal to move Alex Colome. Only the Dodgers seem clearly set to utilize a different pitcher in the closer’s role, though Los Angeles could certainly stand to boost its setup corps in front of re-signed reliever Kenley Jansen.

It’s still possible that a dark horse could emerge, but it seems reasonable to expect a signing before too long. So, it’s time to get your picks in: who do you expect to sign Holland? (Link for app users.)

Yankees Agree To Minor League Deal With Ji-Man Choi

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The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent first baseman/outfielder Ji-Man Choi, his agency in Korea told Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency (h/t: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net, on Twitter). Choi will be invited to Major League Spring Training and will compete for a roster spot. If he makes the big league club, he’ll earn a $700K base salary.

Choi’s representatives tell Yoo that he also received offers from 10 clubs, including the Brewers, Reds and Cardinals, but elected to sign with the Yankees, who had showed interest in Choi last offseason. Mark Teixeira’s retirement and the ability to compete for at-bats at first base factored into the decision, Yoo writes. As it stands, the Yankees have Greg Bird and Tyler Austin slated to compete for playing time in Teixeira’s absence.

Choi, 26 in May, spent the 2016 campaign in the Angels organization and struggled in his Major League debut, hitting .170/.271/.339 with five home runs in 129 plate appearances. He was designated for assignment when the Angels inked Ben Revere to a one-year contract. Rather than accepting his assignment, Choi opted to elect free agency.

Despite his lackluster bottom-line production in the Majors, Choi did walk in more than 12 percent of his plate appearances while showing respectable pop, and his 21 percent strikeout rate wasn’t outlandishly high. He’ll bring to the Yankees a lifetime .304/.399/.446 batting line and 13 home runs in 627 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He may have a hard time beating out Bird and Austin, both of whom are already on the 40-man roster, but the Yankees could theoretically give Choi a bench job and send one of Bird or Austin to the minors to get everyday at-bats early in the season in the event that one of the two struggles in Spring Training.

Bird missed the entire 2016 season due to a shoulder injury that required surgery. Austin, meanwhile, batted .294/.392/.524 with 17 homers between Double-A and Triple-A before making his MLB debut last year. In 90 PAs with the Yankees, he hit .241/.300/.458 with five homers. Both players have minor league options remaining.

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