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Cubs, Pedro Strop Avoid Arbitration

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The Cubs and right-handed reliever Pedro Strop have reached a deal to avoid arbitration, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Strop’s 2017 salary will be $5.5MM – a little above the $5.3MM midpoint. As MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker shows, Strop had been seeking $6MM, while the Cubs’ $4.6MM offer came in well below that figure.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Strop would receive $5.5MM via arbitration on the heels of a third straight excellent season. Strop, 31, logged a sub-3.00 ERA (2.85, to be exact) and at least 20 holds (21) for the third consecutive year. He also posted tremendous strikeout and walk rates of 11.41 and 2.85, respectively, to go with a lofty 58.5 percent ground-ball mark. Injuries limited Strop to 47 1/3 regular-season innings, his lowest total since 2011, but he did get solid results over 5 2/3 playoff frames for the World Series champions. In postseason series wins over the Giants, Dodgers and Indians, Strop struck out three and yielded two earned runs on three hits and one walk.

With Strop’s salary now set for 2017, the Cubs have settled with all of their arbitration-eligible players. Strop could be entering his final season with the club, as he’s scheduled to become a free agent next winter.

East Notes: Marlins, Red Sox, Yankees

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Unsurprisingly, Marlins president David Samson didn’t reveal much Saturday when asked about the rumored “handshake agreement” owner Jeffrey Loria has to sell the franchise to Joshua Kushner. “There’s obviously a lot of buzz, there’s rumors, there’s all sorts of stuff that happens all the time,” he told Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Are these rumors different than other rumors? Time will always tell what happens.” Samson, who added that Loria “loves being [in Miami],” also informed Joe Frisaro of MLB.com that the franchise is focusing on selling Marlins Park’s naming rights and amending its TV deal prior to 2018. On naming rights, Samson said: “There’s still three companies, and we cannot figure out which direction we’re going to go in. I still want to get it done before the All-Star Game. It’s such a long-term decision. I don’t want to make the wrong one.” The Marlins’ TV contract with FOX Sports Florida runs through 2020, but Samson noted that both parties know the “deal is in a place where it’s not commensurate with the revenue that should be coming to the team, given the content that we’re giving. That is no fault of anybody’s but mine.”

Now the latest from the American League East:

  • That the Red Sox were able to acquire ace Chris Sale from the White Sox without giving up left fielder Andrew Benintendi could propel them back to the World Series this year, opines Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. Red Sox left-hander David Price called it “amazing” that the team landed Sale while retaining Benintendi, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski observed that “Andrew is not a player you’re ever looking to trade.” The 22-year-old Benintendi was terrific in his 118-plate appearance major league debut last season (.295/.359/.476) and enters 2017 as an AL Rookie of the Year front-runner. He’s also No. 1 on Baseball America’s just-released Top 100 prospects list – one spot ahead of second baseman/third baseman Yoan Moncada, who headlined Chicago’s return in the Sale trade. Right-hander Michael Kopech, the second-biggest piece the White Sox received, is 32nd.
  • The Yankees left a great impression on closer Aroldis Chapman during his stint with them last year, which led him to prioritize re-signing with the club in free agency. Ultimately, he returned to the Bronx on a five-year, $86MM deal – a record-breaking pact for a reliever. “The first moment that I got here in Spring Training, the way that they treated me, the attention that I got,” he told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “The work ethic of this team, the clubhouse, the athletes that they have. Those things, all of them made me feel very comfortable. That for me was the most important thing, and I wanted to come back.” Chapman, who ended last season with the World Series champion Cubs, sees similarities between the way the Yankees are assembling their roster and how Chicago has built its juggernaut of a squad. “Chicago started doing the same thing, bringing young players in the beginning, combined with veterans,” he said. “It worked for them, and it’s a solid team. The Yankees are similar in that way. They’re trying to bring in some youth, athletes that are very gifted.”

NL West Notes: Utley, Rockies, Pollock

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Chase Utley was one of many players this offseason — including Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner Rich Hill and Sergio Romo — to take less money to join or stay with the Dodgers, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register notes. The Dodgers already had players in Logan Forsythe and Turner who appear likely to take most of the at-bats at the positions Utley plays, but as Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman puts it, “You never say never with a guy like Chase,” who is well regarded in the clubhouse. Here’s more from the NL West.

  • Righty Jeff Hoffman, outfielder Gerardo Parra and catcher Tom Murphy top the list of Rockies who have much to prove in Spring Training, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. Hoffman is slated to compete with German Marquez for the Rockies’ fifth starter job and could provide the team with a jolt of upside if he lives up to the billing that made him one of the keys to the Troy Tulowitzki trade. Parra is coming off an extremely poor 2016 season in which he batted just .253/.271/.399 despite playing half his games in Coors Field; he’ll need to prove himself in the second year of the three-year, $27.5MM contract he signed with the team last January. And Murphy needs to show he can call a good game behind the dish so that he can Tony Wolters can make the Rockies’ catcher position an asset despite that duo’s lack of experience.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock is the game’s most underrated player, Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs writes. The broken elbow Pollock suffered in Spring Training in 2016 cost him most of the season, and since then he’s been under the radar, making him again underrated, as he was prior to his brilliant 2015 campaign. When healthy, Pollock is as well-rounded as they come — he hits and runs the bases well and is a terrific defender in center field. And unlike someone like Michael Brantley, the injury that limited Pollock last season shouldn’t be a major concern going forward.

NL Central Notes: Lorenzen, Kang, Gosselin, Cardinals, Gonzales

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Reds righty Michael Lorenzen’s August 19 home run soon after the death of his father Clif was the most notable highlight of the team’s season. But Lorenzen’s father was troubled by substance abuse, and their relationship was complex, as the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Zach Buchanan writes in a long piece about what that home run meant. After Lorenzen’s father left when he was 12, Lorenzen began getting into trouble himself, and his older brother, Jonathan, had his own pro baseball career derailed when the Dodgers released him after he allegedly had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl at their Spring Training site. Michael Lorenzen cites finding faith as a teenager as a turning point in his life. Now, Lorenzen looks back at his home run — which came in the seventh inning of a 9-2 win against the Dodgers — as evidence that his father’s death had a purpose, as he frequently receives messages from fans telling him that moment was an inspiration to them. Here’s more from the NL Central.

  • The Pirates expect that third baseman Jung Ho Kang will not attempt to move his February 22 court date in South Korea and will therefore miss the beginning of Spring Training, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. The Bucs’ acquisition of fellow infielder Phil Gosselin from the Diamondbacks on Friday was made with the expectation that Kang would be out indefinitely as he faces trial for driving drunk and leaving the scene of a DUI crash. Kang’s arrest in early December was his third DUI arrest in South Korea. The Gosselin trade “does serve as insurance (for Kang’s absence) if needed,” says Pirates GM Neal Huntington. “But we also have been looking for an extra right-handed hitter, and Gosselin is a guy who can play multiple positions.”
  • Cardinals manager Mike Matheny is unimpressed by Baseball Prospectus’ recent PECOTA projection that his team would finish a disappointing 76-86 this season, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. “That’s unbelievable. Yeah, I saw it. I hope the guys saw it, too,” Matheny says. “I just want to make sure our guys take a good look around and see what we really are and what we have. We’ve got guys who are motivated. Guys have an edge as to how it finished last year. We’ve got the makings of a fun, fun season.” Matheny says his team will pay increased attention to defensive coaching in Spring Training this year, and it seems part of his plan for improving in 2017 will be getting better defensive performances from his infielders. He notes that many of his infielders (such as Aledmys Diaz and Kolten Wong) enter the upcoming season with what could be valuable extra years of experience, and points out that other players, such as Jedd Gyorko and Randal Grichuk, played positions last season at which they had limited big-league experience. Gyorko could return to a roving role this year. The offseason signing of Dexter Fowler will bump Grichuk back to a corner outfield spot.
  • Cardinals lefty Marco Gonzales threw from a mound on Friday for the first time in almost a year, Hummel also notes. Gonzales had Tommy John surgery in April and also missed much of the 2015 season due to injury. The former first-round draft pick hopes to pitch in game action by May. That timeline (which presumably would include a rehab assignment) would have him back on an active roster (whether that’s in Triple-A Memphis or in St. Louis) by early summer.

Cubs Notes: Butler, Mills, Hammel

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The Cubs continued adding to their starting pitching depth in the past two weeks by trading for righties Eddie Butler and Alec Mills, both of whom had been designated for assignment by their old teams. Notably, the Cubs gave up prospects of at least modest value to acquire those players — righty James Farris went to the Rockies with an international bonus slot in the Butler deal, and outfielder Donnie Dewees headed to Kansas City for Mills. But the Cubs felt Butler and Mills were attracting enough interest to justify giving up talent to get them, according to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

“Both were getting phone calls,” Cubs GM Jed Hoyer said Thursday in an interview with ESPN 1000. “They have options. They can make starts for you. Finding guys who can make starts for you is very difficult and very expensive. We showed the appropriate urgency to get those guys.”

The fact that both pitchers had options was clearly important to the Cubs, as Rogers notes. But the team also thinks Butler, in particular, has a chance to be more than a depth starter.

“He’s an excellent change-of-scenery guy,” said Hoyer. “Our best example is Jake Arrieta. Sometimes a talented guy needs a change of scenery, and that was our logic with Eddie Butler.”

As Rogers notes, Mills was only designated for assignment when the Royals signed Jason Hammel, whose option the Cubs declined earlier in the offseason. The team’s pursuit of starting depth now raises the question of whether the team would have been better off had it simply exercised the option. But Rogers says a key reason the two sides parted ways was that Hammel had a conflicted relationship with manager Joe Maddon, who Hammel felt didn’t have appropriate faith in him and who frustrated him by pulling him out of games before he would have liked to depart. Though the option on Hammel’s contract was a team option, the Cubs allowed him to decide whether he wanted to leave, and Hammel made the call. Rogers’ sources tell him that was due primarily to his relationship with Maddon.

In any case, beyond Arrieta, Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and John Lackey, the Cubs now have Mike Montgomery and Brett Anderson, along with Rob Zastryzny, Ryan Williams and now Butler and Mills. Of the last four, it has yet to be determined who the Cubs will turn to first should they need extra rotation help in the big leagues.

East Notes: Top Prospects, Fernandez, Mackanin

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Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi is the best prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America’s new top 100 prospects list. Following Benintendi is Yoan Moncada, who would have given the Red Sox the top two prospects in baseball had he not been traded to the White Sox this offseason. In fact, what sticks out about Baseball America’s list and other recent top prospect lists is just how many top talents have been traded lately, including Moncada as well as the players at spots No. 3 (Dansby Swanson), No. 5 (Gleyber Torres), No. 21 (Anderson Espinoza), No. 24 (Manuel Margot) No. 25 (Lucas Giolito), No. 27 (Lewis Brinson) and No. 29 (Jose De Leon). Here’s more from the East divisions.

  • The families of Eduardo Rivero and Emilio Jesus Macias, who were killed in a boat wreck along with former Marlins ace Jose Fernandez last September, are suing Fernandez’s estate for $2MM each, Rafael Olmeda of the Sun Sentinel writes. Fernandez’s attorney says a settlement is “highly unlikely,” noting that he expects the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s pending investigation of the wreck to show that Fernandez was not driving the boat when it crashed. He also adds that there are indications Fernandez’s use of cocaine that night was “not voluntary” and that Fernandez might not have known he had the drug in his system.
  • Phillies manager Pete Mackanin’s contract runs through 2017 with a team option for 2018, but GM Matt Klentak remains mum on an extension or an exercise of Mackanin’s option, CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury writes. “We have time to do that,” says Klentak. “Obviously last year we talked about his status in spring training and I’m sure the time will come when we’ll sit down and talk about it again.” The Phillies signed Mackanin to his current contract last March. Salisbury points out that there’s no danger of Mackanin losing his job at this time after the Phillies improved from 63 to 71 wins in 2016, so Mackanin’s contract now qualifies as a “low-priority item.”

Reactions To Mike Ilitch’s Passing

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Here’s a roundup of remembrances of Detroit Tigers and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, who passed away yesterday at the age of 87.

  • Former Tigers manager and current special assistant Jim Leyland was “brokenhearted” that the team couldn’t win a World Series for Ilitch, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. “I can remember how bad we wanted it,” says Leyland. “That’s the one thing we were always brokenhearted about: That we didn’t get a World Series for him because he’s the guy that we wanted it for. We just fell a little bit short.” The Tigers reached the World Series twice in seven years with Leyland as manager and Ilitch in the owner’s box, but lost both times. Ilitch, of course, spent heavily to win a championship in that period. “He never one time interfered with me trying to do my job and I always had a great appreciation for that,” says Leyland. “But you always knew who the boss was.”
  • Former Tigers GM (and current Red Sox president of baseball operations) Dave Dombrowski says Ilitch was the reason he joined the organization, Fenech writes. “The reason why I joined (the Tigers) was because of him,” says Dombrowski. “He treated me well. He made me feel welcome and that part of it made me feel really good and it turned out to be a really great 14 years there.” That era ended when the Tigers parted ways with Dombrowski in August 2015, in the wake of the team’s near misses in the playoffs and World Series. “That was the thing in Detroit, that you always wanted to win a world championship for him,” Dombrowski says. “He did everything he possibly could to achieve it and we got so close. It hurt that we weren’t able to do that for him.”
  • Current Tigers GM Al Avila said Friday night in a statement that Ilitch’s impact on Detroit was “immeasurable.”  Said Avila, “He was always there to give us whatever we needed because he wanted greatness and happiness for all of us – especially the fans. Mr. I was truly one of the great ones. He was a friend and an inspiration and he will be deeply missed.”
  • Ilitch had huge ambitions, but he was first and foremost a native of Detroit, writes Fan Rag’s Jon Heyman. Heyman points to the Tigers’ 119-loss 2003 season as a key for Ilitch and the organization. Ilitch reacted by having the Tigers add superstars Ivan Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez, and the Tigers made it to the World Series in 2006. Those successful big signings encouraged Ilitch to continue investing heavily in the team, as he did for more than a decade thereafter.
  • Ilitch and the city of Detroit were like an aging married couple, writes Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown. “[Y]ou couldn’t ever be sure which was holding up the other,” but they were “good together,” he writes. Fans of many teams view their owners with suspicion, but Ilitch was a native Detroiter who proved his commitment to winning by repeatedly stepping up financially.

5 Key Stories: 2/4/17 – 2/10/17

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Here’s a look back at the key stories from this week of coverage at MLBTR.

Tigers owner Mike Ilitch passes away. News broke Friday that Tigers and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch had died at the age of 87. Ilitch also owned Little Caesars and was a former Tigers minor league infielder. Going forward, it appears Ilitch’s son Christopher will assume his role.

Jeffrey Loria reaches “handshake agreement” to sell Marlins. As of Thursday, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria reportedly had a “handshake agreement” to sell the team for $1.6 billion. New York real estate executive Charles Kushner — the father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared — was rumored to be involved with the sale, but the league quickly issued a statement that they had not heard anything about Kushner’s involvement. Other reports linked Charles Kushner’s son Joshua to the sale.

"<strongRoyals sign Jason Hammel. The Royals added veteran righty Jason Hammel on a two-year deal with a mutual option for 2019. Hammel received a surprisingly small guarantee of $16MM, suggesting the Cubs’ earlier decision to decline his $12MM option (a decision that had previously looked generous to Hammel) did not pay off for the pitcher. For the Royals, Hammel will help fill the void left by the tragic passing of Yordano Ventura earlier this offseason.

Sluggers find one-year deals. The market for 1B/DH power hitters has been notably slow this winter, but two of them did find homes this week, with Mike Napoli returning to the Rangers and Chris Carter heading to the Yankees, both on one-year contracts. Napoli’s deal, when it’s official, will likely pay less than $10MM (although he declined more money from the Twins to return to Texas), while Carter received a modest $3.5MM guarantee after tying for the NL lead in homers last season.

Dodgers make depth additions. The Dodgers agreed to re-sign second baseman Chase Utley to a one-year deal, and he’ll fit with them in a bench/platoon role, giving Logan Forsythe and Justin Turner rests against some righties. The Dodgers also added veteran outfielder Franklin Gutierrez on a one-year deal, and the right-handed hitter figures to play primarily against lefties.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Marlins Reportedly Have “Handshake Agreement” To Sell Team

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SATURDAY 8:49am: Charles Kushner’s son Joshua — Jared Kushner’s younger brother — is the person with the preliminary agreement to buy the Marlins, Steven Wine of the AP writes. Charles and Jared Kushner are not believed to be involved with the deal. The team could sell for far less than $1.6 billion after Joshua Kushner does due diligence, according to Wine.

THURSDAY 5:24pm: Kushner is “not involved” in the reported handshake deal, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag, and likely wouldn’t pass muster from the league’s perspective.

4:34pm: The league has issued a short statement on the matter (h/t Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, on Facebook): “Under Major League Baseball rules, the Commissioner’s Office must be informed of any conversations about a potential sale. The Commissioner’s Office has not heard directly or indirectly of any conversation involving Charles Kushner.”

3:55pm: New York real estate executive Charles Kushner is involved with at least one group making a bid for the Marlins, according to the AP and ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell, though it’s not clear how prominent a role he has or whether his party is the one referenced in this morning’s report. Assuming he is a part of the leading bid group, Kushner could complicate matters for the league. Beyond the cash shortfall noted by Ozanian, Kushner has a troubling criminal history, as this Bloomberg story details. And then there’s the fact that his son, Jared, is married into the family of and serves as a senior adviser to president Donald Trump.

10:27am: The Marlins have a “handshake agreement” in place to sell the team to a New York-based real estate developer for the price of $1.6 billion, reports Mike Ozanian of Forbes. Ozanian cites two anonymous sources that claim to have been told by Marlins president David Samson that the deal is in place. The $1.6 billion price tag would be more than 10 times the $158MM price at which owner Jeffrey Loria purchased the team back in 2002.

The hangup in the reported agreement for the time being is that the potential buyer does not have enough liquid assets to make the purchase, as the majority of his net worth is tied up in real estate investments. Allowing this buyer to purchase the team would require more debt than Major League Baseball would be comfortable with, per Ozanian.

As Ozanian points out, the Dodgers’ current ownership group took on an enormous amount of debt when buying the team for $2 billion, but Guggenheim Baseball Management also had hundred of millions of dollars in hedge fund money and a $6 billion television agreement that dwarfs the Marlins’ current contract with Fox Sports Florida.

Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald writes that he reached out to Samson in light of the Forbes report but was met with a reply of, “no comment at all.” There have been reports since December that Loria could consider a sale of the team, with Ozanian reporting at the time that Loria sought a $1.7 billion price tag. In Ozanian’s latest report, he notes that Solamere Capital considered purchasing the club and had been discussing a $1.4 billion price with Loria.

A sale of the Marlins would bring to a close one of the most controversial ownership tenures in recent history. Loria has been widely panned by both fans and the media for an unwillingness to spend on the on-field product, orchestrating multiple fire sales even after winning the World Series in 2003 and opening a new, taxpayer-funded stadium in 2012. As Vocativ’s Joe Lemire points out (on Twitter), if the sale of the team does ultimately go through, Loria will have paid just $15.5MM of the $325MM that is owed to star right fielder Giancarlo Stanton on his exceptionally backloaded 13-year contract.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/10/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the league:

  • The Rangers have added backstop Brett Hayes on a minor-league deal, as Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News recently tweeted. Soon to turn 33, Hayes has appeared in seven MLB campaigns, though he has accumulated just 464 big league plate appearances in that span. He compiled a .205/.250/.359 lifetime batting line in the bigs. Last year, Hayes failed to crack the game’s highest level but spent time at Triple-A in the Diamondbacks and White Sox organizations.
  • Also joining the Rangers on a non-roster arrangement is righty Anthony Bass, according to SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). Bass, 29, spent last year pitching in Japan, where he put up 3.65 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 over 103 2/3 innings split between the rotation and bullpen. He had appeared in each of the five prior MLB seasons — most recently with Texas — pitching to a 4.40 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 across 278 1/3 frames.
  • Lefty Luis Perez is heading to the Indians on a minors pact, the club announced. Like Bass, the 32-year-old Perez will return from a NPB stint. He struggled with his control in a brief run with the Yakult Swallows and hasn’t seen the big leagues since 2013. In his three seasons with the Blue Jays, Perez compiled a 4.50 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over 112 frames.
  • Outfielder Joey Butler is joining the Nationals on a minor-league deal, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Butler, who’ll turn 31 in March, scuffled last year at the Triple-A level with the Indians organization and never earned a call-up. But he had provided the Rays with 276 plate appearances of .276/.326/.416 hitting in the season prior.
  • The Twins inked a minors pact with outfielder Quintin Berry, Cotillo also tweets. The speedy Berry broke into the league in 2012 with the Tigers as a fourth outfielder, but hasn’t seen much big league time since. He appeared in every postseason round in both 2012 and 2013, receiving little in the way of playing time but nevertheless swiping five bases. Last year, the 32-year-old hit .261/.341/.313 and swiped 35 bags at the Triple-A level with the Angels and Blue Jays organizations.

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