Archives for March 2020

Kris Bryant Notes: Grievance, Free Agency, CBA

By Mark Polishuk | March 5, 2020 at 7:17pm CDT

Kris Bryant’s service-time grievance became one of the offseason’s longest-running subplots, both because of the unexpectedly lengthy amount of time it took for the final ruling to be announced, and because of the perception that this extended wait may have impacted the Cubs’ efforts to trade the former NL MVP. Arbitrator Mark Irvings eventually ruled in favor of the Cubs, which kept Bryant under team control through the 2021 season rather than only the 2020 season, though the specific arguments behind Irvings’ decision weren’t known until Tuesday, when the Associated Press obtained a copy of Irvings’ 42-page ruling.

The Cubs kept Bryant in the minor leagues to begin the 2015 season, arguing that the then-prospect still had to work on his defense in preparation for his eventual MLB debut. Bryant was called up on April 17, a day after he would have gathered enough service time to become a free agent after the 2020 season. Instead, the Cubs gained a seventh year of control over Bryant, who earned a fourth arbitration year as a Super Two player but still couldn’t hit the open market until after the 2021 campaign.

It was widely expected that the Cubs would win the case, and indeed, Irvings ultimately felt “the [MLBPA] could not satisfy its burden of proving that the Cubs’ assignments of Bryant were done in bad faith to mask service time manipulation.” Irvings cited Bryant’s three errors during Spring Training 2015 as plausible evidence that his glovework was a concern for the team, and the specific timing of Bryant’s call-up coincided with injuries to regular third basemen Tommy La Stella and Mike Olt earlier in the week. Also, Irvings noted that Theo Epstein’s front offices in both Boston and Chicago didn’t place rookies on the Opening Day roster as a general rule, so it wasn’t as if keeping Bryant in the minors departed from Epstein’s established norm.

Irvings specified that his ruling applied only to Bryant’s case, and that “this decision does not address, the global issue of whether clubs have the right to manage service time to delay a player’s achievement of the service benchmarks for salary arbitration and free agent eligibility.” Bryant’s grievance is the most high-profile instance of a player challenging the increasingly common practice of star prospects being kept in the minors for (unstated) service-time reasons, yet it isn’t likely that this practice will be formally dealt with in any way until the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is negotiated between the league and the MLBPA.

As one might expect, Bryant sees early-career status as one of the key issues of the coming CBA talks. “I think we need to look at how early in your career you provide so much value to a team, and you’re a significantly huge bargain,” Bryant told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “And then when it’s your turn to fight for your value, people only want to see what you’ve done recently. I just feel like we should definitely change that structure where you’re paid earlier on, and are quicker to arbitration and free agency, stuff like that. Certain things we should totally fight for.”

Bryant gave his take on a number of current topics surrounding the game during the Q&A, including his thoughts on the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, his positive feelings about the new three-batter minimum rule for relievers, and his more measured view of other proposals (i.e. an expanded playoff structure, automatically placing a runner at second base during extra innings). While Epstein and Bryant recently had a meeting that left the third baseman feeling that he’ll remain with the Cubs at least through the 2020 season, he told Nightengale that was “over” worrying about trade speculation since “I don’t have any control over it, so what are you going to do?”

That said, it is perhaps telling that when asked about getting no-trade protection in his next contract, Bryant said, “I think that might be the most important thing to me. It just gives you clarity in where you’ll be. If you have that in your contract, you know the team’s 100% committed to you being there. You’re their guy. It’s never in your mind about being traded. That’s definitely a very comforting feeling.”

Phillies Looking At Ervin Santana

By Mark Polishuk | March 5, 2020 at 5:48pm CDT

We haven’t heard much about Ervin Santana since his minor league deal with the Mets was up at the end of last season, though the 15-year veteran recently threw for the Phillies, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). It isn’t known whether or not Philadelphia has continued interest in Santana in the wake of this workout, though adding an experienced hurler on a minors contract wouldn’t be a bad idea for a team with some question marks at the back of the rotation.

Though the Phils have a number of arms already vying for the fifth starter job, none of the current candidates have Santana’s track record. It was only back in 2017 that Santana posted one of the finest years of his career, tossing 211 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA ball for the Twins and finishing seventh in AL Cy Young Award voting. That season capped off a five-year stretch for Santana that saw him average 182 innings and a 3.52 ERA per year with Kansas City, Atlanta, and Minnesota from 2013-17.

Since then, however, Santana has thrown only 38 innings total over the last two seasons. Finger surgery kept Santana sidelined for almost all of the 2018 campaign, and he posted a 9.45 ERA over only 13 1/3 innings for the White Sox last season before being released. The results weren’t much better for Santana in the Mets’ farm system, as he managed just a 5.31 ERA over 95 total innings at the Triple-A and high-A ball levels.

Santana turned 37 in December, so his decline could be simply chalked up to age and wear and tear after the accumulation of 2421 1/3 Major League innings. He does want to continue his career, Heyman notes, and Santana is also hoping to pitch for his native Dominican Republic if the D.R. national team qualifies for the Olympics.

AL East Notes: Kratz, Dolis, Orioles, Nunez

By Mark Polishuk | March 5, 2020 at 4:15pm CDT

“The goal this year is to win a gold medal and win a World Series. That would be a pretty good year, right?” Erik Kratz rhetorically asked The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd (subscription required), as the veteran catcher is hoping to achieve what could be an unprecedented double in professional and Olympic baseball. Kratz was a member of the United States national baseball team’s roster last November, acting as both a player and an experienced mentor to a roster comprised mostly of minor leaguers and some of the sport’s top prospects (including Jo Adell, Andrew Vaughn, Alec Bohm and more). The U.S. team will participate in an Olympic qualifying tournament later this month, and while the roster has yet to be announced, Kratz would seem like a solid bet based on his performance last November.

If potentially participating in the Tokyo Games wasn’t enough, there is also Kratz’s role as a depth catcher for the Yankees, as the 39-year-old signed a minor league deal with New York during the offseason. Kratz is entering his 19th year of pro ball and is hopeful of getting some playing time at the MLB level, which would give him appearances in parts of 11 different Major League seasons. It might also get him a World Series ring, given how the Yankees are expected to contend for a title in 2020. A championship would be a nice milestone in Kratz’s career, though the journeyman plans to keep playing for as long as possible. “I know I appreciate every day. I’ve felt like it could be my last season for the last 12 seasons,” Kratz said.

MLBPA Has Expanded Grievance Against Pirates

By Jeff Todd | March 5, 2020 at 1:05pm CDT

The Major League Baseball Players Association has now expanded its grievance proceeding against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic reports (subscription link). The union is in both cases challenging the team’s use of revenue-sharing funds.

As the MLBPA looks for ways to spur teams to spend, it has targeted the ever-stingy Bucs. An initial grievance proceeding included the Pittsburgh organization as well as the A’s, Rays, and Marlins.

It seems the initial action covered spending over the 2017-18 offseason, with the new one relating to the winter of 2018-19. Biertempfel spoke with union chief Tony Clark, who didn’t weigh in on this particular matter but did state that his organization remains concerned with “revenue-sharing recipients who remain in that perpetual rebuilding mode.”

The Pirates, of course, claim not to be rebuilding. Newly hired GM Ben Cherington has spoken instead of a “build.” Parsing the terminology won’t change the substance. After a winter in which the team traded Starling Marte and didn’t add back much salary, the Bucs are presently slated to open the season with approximately $57MM in player salaries on their books. That marks the club’s lowest Opening Day payroll since 2011 and fourth-straight year-over-year decline.

This grievance is obviously only one part of a broader union strategy to push back against some broader trends, but ir remains unclear precisely what remedy the MLBPA can hope to achieve through this mechanism. A team is required to spend revenue-sharing funds “in an effort to improve its performance on the field,” though the collective bargaining agreement contemplates quite a few things beyond MLB salaries as fitting that definition. At the time the first grievance was filed, then-Pirates president Frank Coonelly called it “patently baseless.”

As Biertempfel notes, there’s some interesting potential interaction here between this story and the recent reports of extension possibilities for the Pirates organization. Investing in existing players wouldn’t change the immediate mix of talent, so perhaps it wouldn’t speak directly to the union’s position. But it would go some way towards quelling the understandable angst emanating from the ranks of Pirates fans over the organization’s spending.

Chris Sale Discusses Elbow Outlook

By Jeff Todd | March 5, 2020 at 12:03pm CDT

Red Sox lefty Chris Sale has avoided the worst case scenario — for now. That’s the good news. But the situation “sucks,” he acknowledged in a discussion with reporters including Ian Browne of MLB.com (links to Twitter).

Sale has not incurred new damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. But he’s still not in the clear. His most recent attempt to ramp up ran into yet more elbow trouble, casting doubt as to whether he can proceed without surgical intervention.

At this point, the veteran southpaw says, he simply doesn’t know what to anticipate. On the one hand, there’s still hope that he’ll be able to return relatively early in the 2020 season. Once the inflammation subsides in a few weeks’ time, he’ll attempt to start throwing again. If everything goes well, Sale might conceivably miss only a month or so of action.

And what if the elbow keeps barking? That would seem to put an end to the rest-and-rehab approach that he and the team have employed since last summer. Sale acknowledged that Tommy John surgery is a possibility. It isn’t entirely clear whether other surgical approaches may also be considered.

It’s a tough spot for the Red Sox, who have $145MM invested in the star southpaw for the next five seasons. Sale offered a tough self-assessment. “I was able to get through most of my career doing what I love to do and helping my team win,” he said. “For sure, over the last year and up to this point, I’ve done nothing but fall flat on my face.”

Those harsh words are surely a reflection of a trying situation. But it’s hard to fault Sale himself for the fix he’s in. He has long been durable, productive, and (by all indications) hard-working. Unfortunately, elbow woes are common for hurlers.

Yankees Scouting Starters, Still Unsure Of Aaron Judge Diagnosis

By Jeff Todd | March 5, 2020 at 10:10am CDT

Injury uncertainty has again struck the Yankees, who’ve gone without a few top starters and bats this spring. While the club isn’t going to panic, it’ll obviously have to make some unexpected decisions to finalize its roster.

GM Brian Cashman said recently that the Yanks haven’t put in calls to inquirer about potential trades to boost a rotation that has lost major pieces for all (Luis Severino) or part (James Paxton) of the coming campaign. That may well be — and it makes sense, given the time of year — but that doesn’t mean the organization is just sitting on its hands.

The Yankees have sent scouts to examine potential starting pitching targets, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). Just what level of hurler they’ll be trying to identify isn’t clear. The Yanks could certainly stand to add an established MLB arm, though that’s generally quite difficult to swing just before the start of a season.

More likely, perhaps, the New York org will be looking to acquire some depth. There are quite a few pitchers in camp on minor-league deals. Even those that show reasonably well in the spring may not end up earning 40-man roster spots with their present organization.

It isn’t as if the Yankees’ present options are without merit. As things line up at present, Jordan Montgomery and Jonathan Loaisiga would likely found out the rotation. There’s uncertainty, but both have shown real talent in the past. Veterans Chad Bettis, David Hale, and Nick Tropeano are already in camp for depth.

The Yanks could certainly enter the season with that mix, plus another addition or two, and then plan to adapt as the season goes along. The hope, of course, remains that Paxton will return before too long. And there’s always the summer trade period.

The situation is something of the opposite on the position-player side, where the need isn’t really yet known but the solutions are pretty obvious. Slugger Aaron Judge remains sidelined with a mysterious ailment in his shoulder/chest. There’s still no clarity as to just what the underlying issue is, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports on Twitter.

While it’s impossible to know at present just when Judge will be able to suit up — he says he’s still not ruling himself out for Opening Day, though that seems unlikely — the backup plan isn’t much in doubt. Mike Tauchman, Clint Frazier, and Miguel Andujar are first in line for expanded roles to account for the absences of Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Chris Sale Diagnosed With Flexor Strain

By Jeff Todd | March 5, 2020 at 8:50am CDT

March 5: Sale has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, Roenicke tells reporters (Twitter link via Mastrodonato). He’ll be shut down from throwing until next week and even then will be limited to simply playing catch. The next steps will depend on how he responds to that activity. Roenicke notes that Sale’s “UCL looks the same as the last image.”

March 4, 4:35pm: At this point, there’s no expectation that Sale will require Tommy John surgery, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets.

9:05am: We learned yesterday that star Red Sox lefty Chris Sale had undergone an MRI after he experienced elbow soreness, with Dr. James Andrews set to review the results. That has now occurred, but a diagnosis and course of treatment remain unknown.

Boston manager Ron Roenicke tells reporters, including Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (Twitter link) and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter link), that the club has sought another opinion. Another premier specialist, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, will review the imaging and weigh in with his opinion.

Presumably, the hope is to land upon a consensus after receiving the viewpoints of Andrews, ElAttrache, and the Sox’ own team medical staff. All involved are taking their time, says Roenicke, because there’s a “need to get this right.”

Sale will ultimately decide upon what course of treatment he deems best. But there’s a shared interest in arriving upon the best long-term approach to his as-yet-unclear elbow ailment. The Red Sox owe Sale $145MM over the next five seasons.

Roenicke says that fans and media shouldn’t read into the ongoing uncertainty. Sale isn’t necessarily staring down Tommy John surgery, it seems. Indeed, it’s not really even clear whether that is a possibility on the table at the moment.

What is known to this point: Sale was shut down and received platelet-rich plasma treatment in August after visiting Andrews. The southpaw said he had been cleared of ligament damage. He was cleared to throw over the winter; indications were that he’d be a full participant in Spring Training. Sale was delayed at the outset of camp, with the explanation given that he was dealing with a case of pneumonia, but began throwing recently without evident issue. But his elbow began barking after facing live hitters recently, prompting this new round of medical analysis.

Red Sox Sign Collin McHugh, Designate Hector Velazquez

By Steve Adams | March 5, 2020 at 8:45am CDT

8:45am: McHugh’s deal comes with $3.625MM available via incentives, tweets Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal. Heyman tweets that those incentives beginning at 30 innings pitched and run up through 115 innings pitched. McHugh’s roster bonuses begin at 15 days on the active roster and range up through 90 days.

8:22am: McHugh’s base salary will be $600K, tweets Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. He’ll be able to boost that sum by unlocking bonuses based on innings pitched and days spent on the active roster.

8:15am: The Red Sox announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Collin McHugh to a one-year, Major League contract. In order to open a spot on the roster for the Moye Sports client, Boston has designated righty Hector Velazquez for assignment.

Boston’s announcement on McHugh coalesces with growing uncertainty surrounding the status of ace Chris Sale, who this week underwent an MRI on a problematic right elbow that has since been assessed by some of the industry’s leading surgeons. While Sale is reportedly expected to avoid going under the knife for the time being, he’ll open the year on the injured list and be sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined period of time. Adding some depth in the form of McHugh is certainly a sensible approach and arguably would’ve been necessary even had Sale been healthy.

That said, McHugh himself isn’t a lock to step right into the rotation and contribute as a starter. The 32-year-old missed about a third of the 2019 season due to elbow discomfort and finished out the year on the injured list. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported last week that McHugh had been cleared to begin throwing after undergoing a non-surgical “tenex” procedure on his elbow over the winter. His exact timetable to get on a big league mound isn’t yet clear, but he may have to begin the season on the injured list himself if he’s only recently begun throwing.

McHugh made eight starts last year but spent the rest of the 2018-19 seasons in the Astros’ bullpen. His 2019 effort was dragged down by those elbow troubles, which surely contributed to the downward trends in his velocity, swinging-strike rate, opponents’ exit velocity and opponents’ hard-hit rate. McHugh tossed 74 2/3 innings for the ’Stros last year but turned in a 4.70 ERA that was his highest mark since 2013.

In 2018, though, McHugh was utterly dominant out of the Houston ’pen. Through 72 1/3 frames, he recorded a stellar 1.99 ERA with averages of 11.7 strikeouts, 2.6 walks and 0.75 home runs per nine innings pitched. And prior to that he was a steady rotation piece, racking up 606 1/3 innings of 3.70 ERA ball (3.60 FIP) with 8.4 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 from 2014-17.

The manner in which the Red Sox utilize McHugh has not yet come to light, though he could conceivably be deployed in a variety of roles. As noted, he has extensive experience both starting and relieving. With Sale sidelined, the Boston rotation currently has Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez locked into starting gigs. Boston has discussed utilizing one or even two openers in the remaining two slots, and manager Ron Roenicke recently revealed that the club will consider stretching left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez out to pitch in lengthier stints. McHugh could function as an opener, a bulk reliever who follows an opener or simply as a conventional starter, depending on the status of his elbow and on how the organization best believes his talents can be maximized.

For now, the Red Sox still appear likely to rely on a hodgepodge of journeymen and fringe prospects to round out their pitching staff, but the ability to eventually insert a health McHugh into the thick of that mix holds clear appeal.

As for Velazquez, he’ll either be traded, run through outright waiver or released within the next seven days. The 31-year-old right-hander was knocked around to the tune of a 5.43 ERA through 56 1/3 innings in 2019. And although he notched a 3.12 ERA with 5.9 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 47 percent grounder rate in 109 2/3 innings from 2017-18, Velazquez’s secondary metrics are less encouraging than that earned run average. His 4.28 FIP was noticeably higher, and he ranked near the bottom of the league in terms of spin rates, hard-hit rates and opponents’ exit velocity. He has a minor league option left and has worked as both a starter and reliever, so it’s possible another club will take him on as a depth piece.

Yoelkis Cespedes To Be Declared Free Agent

By Steve Adams | March 5, 2020 at 6:29am CDT

Outfield prospect Yoelkis Cespedes, the younger half-brother of Mets slugger Yoenis Cespedes, will be declared a free agent by Major League Baseball on March 18, Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). The 22-year-old left Cuba last June and is planning showcases for MLB clubs in Arizona and in Florida later this month.

Yoelkis has previously played in the Cuban National Series and for Team Cuba in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, but he lacks both the age and the professional experience to be exempt from MLB’s international bonus pools. Players who are younger than 25 and have fewer than six years of professional experience are deemed amateurs under MLB regulations and are thus only allowed to sign minor league deals. Amateurs can still receive signing bonuses, which are deducted from a team’s league-allocated bonus pool, but the most recent iteration of the collective bargaining agreement prevented teams from exceeding their bonus pools under any circumstances.

Because bonus pools are now hard-capped, it’s at least possible that the younger Cespedes will wait until July 2 to sign with a Major League organization. Most clubs have already spent the vast majority (if not the entirety) of their 2019-20 bonus pools, but the 2020-21 signing period will kick off on July 2.

As Sanchez explores in a more extensive pieces on Yoelkis, his top priority is signing with a club that can provide a clear and relatively expedited path to the Major Leagues. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, meanwhile, spoke with Yoenis about the difficulty he had in leaving his brother and his family behind when defecting from Cuba back in 2011. The brothers had to go roughly eight years without seeing one another. They were reunited in 2019 when Yoenis was cleared to return to his home country, and the two frequently worked out together in the Bahamas this winter. DiComo adds that Yoenis purchased a house about five miles away from his own Florida home for his younger brother.

Scouting details on Yoelkis are rather sparse. Sanchez notes that he’s listed at 5’9″ and 205 pounds, with some believing him to be a potential five-tool talent. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs credited Yoelkis with an 80-grade throwing arm and “loud” tools last summer. Kiley McDaniel called Yoelkis “more of a high six- or low seven-figure [signing bonus] type of talent” back in November. Of course, that’s subjective, and Yoelkis hasn’t been seen by MLB scouts in quite some time. He’ll have the opportunity to showcase himself to all 30 teams in the near future, after which we’ll gain a better understanding of his potential price tag and market. He’ll surely require some time in the minor leagues to refine his skills and get back up to speed after a lengthy absence from game settings, but his age and experience place him in much closer proximity to the big leagues than most international amateurs.

Quick Hits: Lindor, Galvis, C. Taylor, Olympics

By Connor Byrne | March 5, 2020 at 1:01am CDT

As recently as mid-February, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor called Cleveland “home” and expressed a willingness to stay with the club. No extension has come together yet, but Indians president Chris Antonetti said Tuesday that “neither side has given up trying,” per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com. However, Lindor noted he has an “early March” deadline on contract talks, so it appears the Indians are running out of time to lock him up in the near future (if they haven’t already). Odds have long been against the Indians finding a way to keep Lindor from hitting free agency when his team control runs out after 2021, as the 26-year-old is on pace to wind up with one of the largest contracts in the history of the game if and when he reaches the open market.

Reds shortstop Freddy Galvis suffered “a quad strain during a baserunning drill,” according to manager David Bell (via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Galvis underwent an MRI, but the severity of the injury isn’t known at this time. The Reds looked ripe for an upgrade at short during the offseason, but they instead stuck with Galvis, whom they claimed from Toronto last August and then retained by way of a $5.5MM club option during the winter. Now, if Galvis’ injury is severe enough to cost him regular-season time, it’s unclear who will fill in at short for the Reds. Alex Blandino and Kyle Farmer might be the most logical in-house choices, but neither brings much experience to the table.
Dodgers utility player Chris Taylor’s out of action for the moment after taking a pitch off the back of the left shoulder, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets. There’s no indication that it’s anything but a minor injury for Taylor, whom a fractured left forearm limited to 124 games in 2019. The versatile Taylor was a highly valuable player for the Dodgers from 2017-18, but his numbers dipped last season during a campaign in which he batted .262/.333/.462 with 1.7 fWAR in 414 plate appearances.
Major League Baseball and the MLBPA reached a deal with the world baseball governing body that will allow minor leaguers to participate in this summer’s Olympic Games, the Yonhap News Agency relays. The agreement will give national teams the right to select minor leaguers from MLB teams’ 40-man rosters to participate in the Olympics, but anyone on a 26-man roster will be protected. That means there could be some familiar names to baseball fans in the Olympics, which will include the sport for the first time in 12 years.

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