10:15am: Tepera can earn an additional $800K via performance incentives and $150K via active roster bonuses, MLBTR has learned. The deal can max out at $1.75MM.
9:45am: Tepera is guaranteed $800K on the deal, tweets NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer. The deal is still pending a physical.
9:25am: The Cubs have reached an agreement to re-sign free agent right-hander Ryan Tepera, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). It’s a Major League deal, per the report. Chicago non-tendered Tepera earlier in the winter rather than pay him a raise via arbitration, but he’ll now return for a second season on a new deal. Tepera is represented by All Bases Covered Sports Management.
Tepera, 33, was a regular in the Blue Jays’ bullpen from 2015-19 before being non-tendered and latching on with the Cubs last offseason. Many have had fun with the fact that Tepera received a lone tenth-place MVP vote, and while that was surely unexpected, the righty did give Chicago a fairly strong season. Through 20 2/3 innings of relief, Tepera turned in a 3.92 ERA (3.51 SIERA, 3.34 FIP) with a career-high 34.8 percent strikeout rate and a 13.5 percent walk rate that he’ll want to curb in 2021.
This makes three Major League additions to for the Cubs’ bullpen this month, as the club has also signed righty Brandon Workman and lefty Andrew Chafin to help fortify the relief corps. It’s still a shaky looking group that lacks proven depth, but Tepera unequivocally gives them another solid option. He’s tallied 236 innings as a Major Leaguer and logged a combined 3.66 ERA with a 24 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate. That alone makes him a nice add for the Cubs, but if he can maintain last year’s huge boost in strikeouts while returning closer to that career walk rate, he’d be a substantial upgrade.
Tepera has five-plus years of Major League service time, so unlike last year when the Cubs signed him, they won’t have the option to keep him through arbitration this coming offseason. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end and return to the open market. That’s also true of Workman, Chafin, Dan Winkler and Craig Kimbrel — Chafin and Kimbrel have options that aren’t likely to come into play — so the Cubs will once again have some work to do to fill out their bullpen next winter.
A decent reliever.
I’ll throw in the obligatory: Could have helped the Phillies!
I was disappointed that the Cubs non-tendered him. Glad he’s coming back.
love the name change
didnt catch that at first. i approve.
Same
euh, low ceiling, may be out of options, might have injury issues. not sure if he would help, as crazy as that sounds.
DarkSide, agreed, although I mostly meant it half jokingly as every relief pitcher signing usually includes a comment about how he might have helped the Phillies pen. That said, if I was half joking, I might have been half serious!
Ol’ Recylcin’ Jed!
It is going to be hilarious when the Cubs are good this year and buying not selling.
Is hilarious the right word? Or extremely surprising?
Hey, nobody did anything in the Central except the Cardinals.
Well… Extremely surprising would be 2 words…
All they did was obtain Arenado and are running it back without Wong. The Cards are not heavy favorites.
thank you!! Arenado is no doubt a Big upgrade for the Cardinals but lets not write them as the clear cut favorites too. This division is going to be a tight race.
What did they do exactly, with the exception of Arenado? Let Wong and Fowler walk, signed 38 year old catcher and 39 year old pitcher. Did not address outfield, 2nd base, or back of rotation.
Well, they do have Edman, Carlson, and good pitching depth, but a lot will have to go right for them to make the postseason. Same for the Cubs and Brewers and maybe the Reds.
Exactly, I again hated dealing darvish but it’s looking like the return might wind up being pretty good. Preciado is already a top 100 w/o playing a gane states side. 17-19 yr old 6-4 ss with massive power and athleticism.
Anyway we still got Davies back in the deal to replace Yu in the rotation abd w//l wise I cld see them very similarly at the end of the year. Davies was a STUD last year. Also adding Zach Jake and Tyler Williams to a group that besides Yu leaving only really replaces Lester with Jake who still has a lot left in the tank if he’s healthy I see that as a pretty big upgrade. Azolay is a top prospect for a reason 96mph plus fb and a sweeping devestating nasty knuckle curve – slider he used during the last month where his era was under 1 and had like 20 ks w walks in limited innings. He’s gonna be a legit top of the rotation starter. Which leaves Millls and Williams for the 5 spot in a year where ur gonna need a 6th sp a lot so that’s a good thing. Next our bp is loaded with high ceiling guys whom a lot of which pitched great last year. Then our lineup has everyone back abd no one at all besides happ abd jhey did a damn thing last year abd we still won the division. I expect them all to have much better offensive years. Watch out I’m calling it now, this team wins the central as long as sp stays healthy.
Exactly!!! He’s a huge pickup no doubt but hrs not gonna translate to more than 5 wins by himself I guarantee that. Roster is full of question marks everywhere abd a rapidly aging or degrading rotation. Also no of at all, better hope Carlson explodes immediately.
The gap between the Cardinals and the rest of the division is bigger than a lot of people on here realize
Carlson has 110 career at bats. He hit .200. Anything but a sure thing. Edman seems more like utility guy than everyday player. Wainwright is 39. Carlos Martinez has not been consistent as a starter.
I didn’t realize that they signed the 2015 version of Arrieta and merely traded a guy who LOOKS like Yu Darvish to Sand Diego.
*San Diego.
**Sandy Eggo
I never got the hang of German.
It’s probably for the best. He really got in trouble for that last time with his wife.
That’s a good laugh! They’ll be selling earlier than you think!
Ryan Tepera: 1 2020 10th place MVP Vote- Jacob deGrom: No 2020 MVP Votes. This clearly proves that Ryan Tepera is better
And more expensive in arbitration
It was a literal misclick – the guy meant to select Trea Turner from a dropdown list
So he said…
He’s still a moron and disrespectful of the ballot for not double-checking before submitting the ballot.
He was solid out of the bullpen last year and most of his career.
MVP!!!! Surprised he didn’t get a top 10 AAV deal ngl
2019 MVP candidate!
*2020
Tepera is solid bullpen arm, good to see him back but this signing is due to Rowan Wick needing to start the season on the 60 days IL with Intercostal issues from last season which is a bummer.
Surprised at this late date they couldn’t have signed him to a minors deal pending a roster opening coming with someone to the 60 DL (a la Wick or another) or dropping an out of options guy or their rule 5 pick Fenter. Cubs have some out of options pitchers they need to figure out this month – Alzolay (who I thought a lock, maybe is now as a long pen guy, spot starter), Underwood, and Maples. Guess neither of the latter 2 will be crushing losses, can perhaps option them to AAA after they clear waivers. Lots of pitchers on that 40 man. Cubs are likely a club that carries 14 pitchers and 12 position guys.
Maybe there were contenders for Tepera so it took a majors deal – teams have now gotten a preliminary look at their pitching staffs so some fill in signings likely will follow over the next couple of weeks from the remaining FA pool.
Man, I don’t wanna hear Maples name anymore. This guy has forever been trying to “figure it out”. Just put him out of our misery.
2020 rules Pitchers capped at 13 until Sept 1. Doubt that’s changed. Expect to see 13/13 for every team.
Tepera not that bad. High punch out rate. Nice guy to bring in when a strikeout is needed. Surprised he was not signed by someone. Jesse Chavez got a contract from LAA. Rather have Tepera.
bizarre mvp voting. probably from some scrub Chicago writer. pitcher from milwaukee had better results than this clown.
The Vote was meant for Trea Turner but got the names mixed up.
@citizen——newsflash from about four months ago—-it was a ST LOUIS writer…he admitted his mistake. He meant to cast the vote for Trea Turner and scrolled incorrectly, hit the button and didn’t check his ballot before submitting. “Scrub Chicago” writers are better than that.
The St Louis writer may have been in a hurry to get the vote in before going to slop the hogs out back!
It was HOF writer Rick Hummel.
Right, like giving David Ortiz a gg with TWO games played at 1st base or David wright a gg even though he was the WOSRT fielding 3b. I could see how Ryan and Trea names could easily get mixed up. sound the same.
Turner/Tepera
Damn.
800K seems like an absolute steal, man.
That’s what Jonathan Holder got – for example.
Tepera was always a pretty solid middle reliever with Toronto. Cutter, sinker, slider guy.
Should definitely raise the floor of the Cubs middle relief. I still can’t believe how little they got him for, serious.
Good reliever, hes a battler. He doesn’t get shook up when runners on, good 7th inning reliever or set up man when hes on his game.
Desperate men make desperate moves – he needed a job. But likely with his incentives will do well better then $800K if he’s healthy and as productive as he has been lately
Yes.
I see the latest update. $1.75MM makes a lot more sense. He reminds me of Shane Greene another reliever who works with 5 pitches. Greene hasn’t been signed either. Clippard is a similar reliever & he just recently signed a pretty small contract.
I like how Jed is working in the margins this offseason. I didn’t like the Darvish/Caratini trade but the savings from that is paying for Davies, Arrieta, and Williams who are replacing Lester, Quintana and Chatwood (Ricketts are pocketing the $50 million off the books for them, though.) Joc over Schwarber, Marisnick over Almora seem like improvements and Tepera, Workman feel like good value reliever adds. Plus the Cubs have a whole slate of guys in their walk years. So, hopefully, that will light a fire in them.
If I were a Cubs fan I think that would be – more or less – my take as well @MrsPederson.
Sucks in some ways.
But I think they’ll be in the NL Central race at least. Obviously, for various reasons. Get to the postseason & anything can happen etc & so forth.
That’s true though.
Darvish is my favorite pitcher to watch. So that would’ve stung. But the Cubs have remained relevant. & a part of that is definitely the work done on the boundaries.
Upgrades are upgrades. Incremental, marginal, depth…better squad is better.
Darvish is absolutely one of the most entertaining pitchers to watch WHEN he’s ON. Had to use caps to avoid hearing about his Dodgers performances. Check out his stat lines from last season. Pitches going everywhere in the zone and out. Speeds from 75-97. Watching a hitter struggling to get timing on him is sometimes laughable. Great baseball. However if his arm is not sound the results are poor, just like any other pitcher. Which Darvish shows in SD? The 2018-19.5 one or the 2019.5-20 one that was better than Bauer?
He’s an absolute blast to watch throw. I’ll go out of my way to watch Darvish pitch. I’m glad he’s on the West coast. I’ll get to catch more of his starts.
Man.
Add Darvish to what Cashman did this winter & we could play with the Dodgers.
just yesterday i thought angels should bring him in. but then realized minasian wasn’t that smart.
They certainly could use some pen help.
Tepera will forever be known as the guy who got an accidental MVP vote
Surprising that a MVP-vote-getter had to wait this long to re-sign
MVP vote getter signed- World Series guaranteed
MVP!
The cubbies are on the way… wait a minute who the hell is Tepera ?
This shows how much you watch games.
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