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Archives for March 2021

Royals Place Adalberto Mondesi On Injured List

By Steve Adams | March 31, 2021 at 12:15pm CDT

The Royals announced Wednesday that shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. The move is retroactive to March 30. Fellow infielder Nicky Lopez is up from the team’s alternate site to take Mondesi’s spot on the Opening Day roster.

It’s something of an out-of-the-blue placement, as Mondesi played as recently as Monday and hasn’t been known to be battling any soreness in his oblique. The 25-year-old speedster turned in a .303/.343/.606 slash with two homers, a triple, two doubles and two stolen bases through 36 plate appearances this spring. He was limited early in camp after being hit by a pitch on his foot but had put that minor injury behind him.

It’s a sour note on which to start the season for Mondesi, who played in 59 of the Royals’ 60 games last season while slashing a combined .256/.294/.416 with a league-leading 24 steals. He’s battled shoulder and groin injuries in seasons prior, however, and will now be out at least a week early in the season — perhaps a good bit more. The Royals have yet to announce a timeline on Mondesi or the grade of the strain, but it’s common for oblique strains to sideline players for upwards of a month. The Royals will surely have more information on his status later today when skipper Mike Matheny meets with reporters.

With Mondesi sidelined for the time being, it’ll likely fall to the light-hitting Lopez to handle everyday work at shortstop. The 26-year-old is known as a strong defender but has managed just a .228/.279/.307 slash in 594 big league plate appearances.

For much of the offseason, Lopez was expected to be the Royals’ primary second baseman in 2021 — or at least to have a strong chance at winning the job in camp. However, his .118/.231/.147 batting line through 39 Cactus League appearances left him as an odd man out at the end of camp. Kansas City optioned him on Monday, deciding instead to move Whit Merrifield back to the infield to cover second base and leaving outfielders Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Isbel, Ryan McBroom and Jarrod Dyson in the mix for playing time in center and right alongside left fielder Andrew Benintendi .

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Kansas City Royals Adalberto Mondesi Nicky Lopez

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Dodgers, Steven Souza Jr. Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | March 31, 2021 at 8:47am CDT

The Dodgers have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran outfielder Steven Souza Jr., reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.

Souza, 31, spent the bulk of Spring Training with the Astros but didn’t make the team after going just 2-for-21 with 13 strikeouts in 27 trips to the plate. The former Rays slugger is still working to establish himself after a disastrous 2019 knee injury derailed his career.

Then with the Diamondbacks, Souza was lined up to serve as the everyday right fielder in Arizona when he tore the ACL, LCL, PCL and posterolateral capsule in his left knee on a play at the plate late in Spring Training. The gruesome knee injury obviously required surgical repair and unsurprisingly wiped out his entire 2019 campaign. Souza rehabbed into the summer of 2020 and wound up resurfacing in the big leagues with the Cubs, but he hit just .148/.258/.333 in 31 plate appearances last year before being cut loose.

At his best, Souza was a solid right field defender with above-average power and plate discipline. He’s always been prone to strikeouts (31.5 percent), but his 2017 campaign produced a .239/.351/.459 batting line and a career-best 30 home runs for Tampa Bay. Three seasons have elapsed since that time, and Souza has been dogged by pectoral injuries in addition to that horrific knee injury since that peak season. Assuming he heads to Triple-A with the Dodgers once that season kicks off, he’ll finally be able to continue his rebound efforts in a normal game setting — something that wasn’t possible in 2020 with last year’s lack of a minor league season.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Steven Souza

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White Sox To Select Andrew Vaughn

By Connor Byrne | March 30, 2021 at 10:58pm CDT

Prized White Sox prospect Andrew Vaughn has made the team’s Opening Day roster. He isn’t on Chicago’s 40-man, so the team will need to select him.

The White Sox could have gained an extra year of service time by keeping Vaughn down for the first few weeks of the season, but executive vice president Ken Williams said last week that wouldn’t be a motivating factor in their decision. The team was true to its word. If Vaughn doesn’t return to the minors, he’ll be controllable through 2026 and eligible for arbitration after 2023, though the White Sox could certainly extend him before then, as they’ve done on multiple occasions in recent years with offensive building blocks such as Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert.

General manager Rick Hahn stated Tuesday (via James Fegan of The Athletic), “Having Andrew around will be a positive for this offense.” The White Sox expect Vaughn to factor in at designated hitter, first base and left field, according to Hahn.

It became easier to envision Vaughn making Chicago’s season-opening roster when the club received the devastating news of Jimenez’s ruptured pectoral tendon last week. Jimenez underwent surgery Tuesday and remains likely to miss at least five to six months, Hahn said. The hope is that Vaughn will help fill Jimenez’s enormous offensive void.

Now 22 years old, Vaughn is a former University of California standout whom the White Sox drafted third overall in 2019 and then signed to a $7.2MM-plus bonus. Vaughn hasn’t gotten above High-A ball since then, but he has held his own in the minors, having slashed .278/.384/.449 in 245 plate appearances. He has also looked ready for prime time this spring with a .279/.375/.459 line and six extra-base hits (three doubles, two home runs and a triple) in 61 at-bats.

Along with Vaughn’s addition, the White Sox made a handful of other roster moves Tuesday. They optioned infielder Danny Mendick to their alternate site and reassigned fellow infielders Tim Beckham, Zach Remillard and Matt Reynolds, outfielder Nick Williams, and right-hander Ryan Burr. The club also made the previously reported release of catcher Jonathan Lucroy official.

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Chicago White Sox Top Prospect Promotions Transactions Andrew Vaughn Eloy Jimenez Matt Reynolds Nick Williams Ryan Burr Tim Beckham

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Central Notes: Tigers, Cabrera, Nunez, Cubs, Pirates, Ponce

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | March 30, 2021 at 10:38pm CDT

The Tigers will open the season with Miguel Cabrera lined up at first base, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters this morning (Twitter link via Jason Beck of MLB.com). “I think he gives us the best chance to win at first base,” Hinch said of the soon-to-be 38-year-old. Cabrera didn’t play in the field at all in 2020, serving as a designated hitter for the Tigers on 56 occasions. He did see some action there in 2019 before sustaining a season-ending biceps injury, but Cabrera hasn’t logged even 300 innings in a season at first base since the 2017 campaign. It’s not a permanent arrangement, but playing Cabrera in the field from time to time allows an outfielder to move to DH on occasion and makes it easier for the Tigers to carry Rule 5 pick Akil Baddoo on the Opening Day roster.

Some more notes from the game’s Central divisions:

  • Renato Nuñez will remain with the Tigers and head to the alternate training site to begin the 2021 season even after being informed that he didn’t make the Opening Day roster, writes Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. Hinch called the decision “great news for us” and said he expects Nuñez to eventually be up with the big league club. Nuñez, 27 on Sunday, slugged 43 homers with the Orioles from 2019-20 but didn’t exactly force his way onto Detroit’s roster with a spring they couldn’t ignore. In 13 games and 32 plate appearances, he slashed .194/.219/.355 with a homer and a dozen strikeouts (37.5 percent).
  • The Cubs have interest in catchers Tony Wolters and Jonathan Lucroy, reports Bruce Levine of 670 the Score (Twitter link). A deal with the left-handed hitting Wolters might be more likely, Levine notes, considering Chicago’s starting catcher, Willson Contreras, hits right-handed. Both Wolters and Lucroy were recently released from minor-league deals with other clubs (the Pirates and White Sox, respectively) after failing to crack the active roster. Wolters has spent his entire MLB career with the Rockies, while Lucroy briefly played for the Cubs in 2019.
  • Pirates right-hander Cody Ponce will not be available for Opening Day, GM Ben Cherington announced to reporters (including Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic). The 26-year-old “felt something…in his forearm area,” in the words of the GM. That sounds rather ominous but Ponce has at least been able to continue throwing on the side as he attempts to work through the injury. A former second-round pick of the Brewers, Ponce made his MLB debut with Pittsburgh last season, working to a 3.18 ERA/5.27 SIERA over five appearances.
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Chicago Cubs Detroit Tigers Pittsburgh Pirates Cody Ponce Jonathan Lucroy Miguel Cabrera Renato Nunez Tony Wolters

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Astros Notes: Odorizzi, Valdez, Baez, Scrubb, James

By Connor Byrne and Anthony Franco | March 30, 2021 at 9:51pm CDT

Astros’ brass met with reporters (including Brian McTaggart of MLB.com and Jake Kaplan of the Athletic) in recent days and provided updates on a host of sidelined pitchers. Righty Jake Odorizzi will make his regular-season debut sometime during the team’s initial homestand, which runs from April 8-14. The Astros inked Odorizzi to a two-year, $23MM guarantee in free agency, but he’s behind the 8-ball after sitting on the open market until earlier this month.

The Odorizzi signing came on the heels of Framber Valdez’s fractured finger early in Spring Training. At the time, there had been fear the left-hander would require surgery and miss the entire season. Valdez is attempting to rehab the injury without going under the knife, and it seems the early returns are positive. Pitching coach Brent Strom called the latest reports on Valdez’s health “very, very exciting and very good,” although the Astros have yet to provide word on a potential target date for his return.

Houston is also without a few key relievers due to health situations. Righty Pedro Báez – like Odorizzi, one of Houston’s offseason additions – won’t be ready for major league action for at least the first couple weeks of the season. The team hopes he’ll be back on the mound in late April. Báez, whom the Astros signed to a two-year, $12.5MM guarantee, has been on the COVID-19 injured list for three weeks. Fellow right-hander Andre Scrubb is looking at a mid-April return after leaving a recent Cactus League game with shoulder soreness.

Another righty, Josh James, is targeting late May or early June for a return of his own. The 28-year-old underwent surgery to repair a labral tear in his left hip at the end of last October.  The procedure initially came with a six-to-eight month recovery timetable, so it seems James is right on schedule.

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Houston Astros Andre Scrubb Framber Valdez Jake Odorizzi Josh James Pedro Baez

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Red Sox To Sign Hector Rondon

By Anthony Franco | March 30, 2021 at 9:14pm CDT

9:14 pm: Rondón’s deal comes with a $1MM base salary if he makes the major league club, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (via Twitter).

8:48 pm: The Red Sox are in agreement with right-hander Héctor Rondón on a minor-league contract, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link). The veteran reliever had been in Spring Training with the Phillies but was granted his release after failing to crack the Opening Day roster.

Rondón is most well-known for a productive run with the Cubs from 2013-17, part of which he spent as Chicago’s closer. The veteran reliever had a strong 2018 season with the Astros but regressed a bit the following year. The wheels fell completely off last season with the Diamondbacks, as the 33-year-old pitched to a 7.65 ERA/4.45 SIERA over 20 innings.

Rondón makes the second bullpen arm added to the Boston organization today. The Sox signed former Indians reliever Tyler Olson to a minors pact this morning.

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Boston Red Sox Transactions Hector Rondon

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NL East Notes: Mets, Conforto, Phillies, Marlins

By Mark Polishuk,Connor Byrne and Anthony Franco | March 30, 2021 at 9:11pm CDT

With the Mets still engaged in extension talks with Francisco Lindor, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets that the team is waiting to resolve things with Lindor before continuing negotiations with their other major extension candidate, Michael Conforto.  Lindor has made it clear that he wants to reach a new deal by Opening Day, whereas Conforto and agent Scott Boras have each expressed a bit more flexibility to talk during the season, though Conforto has said he would “ideally” prefer to also have a potential new contract finalized before games get underway.

More from the NL East…

  • The Phillies announced this afternoon they’ve reassigned outfielder Odúbel Herrera to the alternate training site. Adam Haseley has made the Opening Day roster. Herrera and Haseley were among the group competing for the Phils’ center field job. The latter was set back by an early-March groin strain but has apparently made a quick enough recovery to be ready for Thursday’s season opener.
  • In other Phillies news, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer) that top prospect Spencer Howard will work primarily out of the bullpen in 2021. It’s not a permanent switch, as Dombrowski stressed the organization sees Howard as a starting pitcher long-term. The Phils are being particularly cautious in monitoring the young righty’s innings after he worked just 71 minor-league frames in 2019 and was limited to 24.1 MLB innings during last year’s shortened season.
  • The Marlins have sold the naming rights to their ballpark, Danilo J. Santos of the Fish Stripes blog reported (Twitter link).  Mortgage company loanDepot purchased the rights, and thus the former Marlins Park will now be known as loanDepot Park, according to Fox Sports 640’s Andy Slater (via Twitter).  Terms of the multi-year contract haven’t been announced, though as the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson notes, the news concludes the Marlins’ long search for a naming-rights partner that has been ongoing since the stadium opened in 2012.
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Miami Marlins New York Mets Notes Philadelphia Phillies Adam Haseley Francisco Lindor Michael Conforto Odubel Herrera Spencer Howard Steve Cishek

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Mets Re-Sign Tommy Hunter

By Steve Adams | March 30, 2021 at 8:10pm CDT

MARCH 30: The Mets have re-signed Hunter to another minor-league deal, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link).

MARCH 25: The Mets announced Thursday that veteran reliever Tommy Hunter has been released. Newsday’s Tim Healey tweets that the right-hander had an opt-out clause in his contract today. Hunter will head back to the open market in search of a spot with a club that has a clearer path to the big leagues.

Hunter, 34, has been a rock-solid reliever for the past eight seasons but has battled injuries in recent years with the Phillies. A hamstring strain limited his time with the Phils in 2018, and a forearm strain wiped out nearly his entire 2019 season. He returned to the Phils on a low-cost, one-year deal last winter and performed fairly well, logging a 4.01 ERA and 3.57 SIERA with strong strikeout and walk percentages (24.5 and 5.9, respectively).

Dating back to the 2013 season, Hunter carries a 3.24 ERA/3.40 SIERA in 394 innings of bullpen work. He’s had excellent control throughout his career, but Hunter’s once-pedestrian strikeout rates have ticked upward in recent seasons. After punching out just 19 percent of his opponents from 2013-16, he’s fanned batters at a 23.5 percent clip from 2017-20.

Hunter’s sinker, which averaged 96.3 mph as recently as 2017 with the Rays, clocked in at a much more timid average of 92.7 mph with the Phillies this past season, so there’s perhaps some moderate cause for concern. But he still proved effective with that reduced velocity, perhaps in part due to a big jump in his curveball usage. His swinging-strike rate (10 percent) and opponents’ chase rate (34.8 percent) were both within striking distance of the levels he’d set in previous seasons as well, so it doesn’t seem as though the lost life on his sinker was a substantial detriment.

Hunter has pitched in five games this spring, allowing three runs on four hits and four walks with three punchouts through five innings of work. It’s not the most impressive body of work, but it is of course a rather small sample. The more important note for clubs seeking some veteran bullpen depth will be that Hunter has been getting in regular work this spring and should be largely built up for Opening Day readiness.

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New York Mets Transactions Tommy Hunter

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Offseason In Review: Oakland A’s

By TC Zencka | March 30, 2021 at 7:51pm CDT

The reigning AL West champs watched their double-play duo, closer, and left fielder depart in free agency over the winter. The A’s, however, are no stranger to the challenges of retooling on the fly. Oakland may have trouble repeating its .600 win percentage from 2020, but that won’t necessarily preclude the team from repeating in the AL West.

Major League Signings

  • Mitch Moreland, 1B/DH: One year, $2.25MM ($225K available in incentives)
  • Trevor Rosenthal, RHP: One year, $11MM ($3MM paid in 2021, $3MM in 2022, $5MM in 2023)
  • Sergio Romo, RHP: One year, $2.25MM
  • Mike Fiers, RHP: One year, $3.5MM
  • Yusmeiro Petit, RHP: One year, $2.25MM ($450K available in incentives)
  • Total spend: $21.25MM

Trades and Claims

  • Acquired LHP Adam Kolarek and OF Cody Thomas from the Dodgers for 3B Sheldon Neuse and RHP Gus Varland
  • Acquired SS Elvis Andrus and C Aramis Garcia from the Rangers for LF Khris Davis, C Jonah Heim, and RHP Dane Acker.
  • Acquired LHP Nik Turley from Pirates for cash considerations (later lost on waivers to White Sox)
  • Acquired LHP Cole Irvin from Phillies for cash considerations
  • Selected OF Ka’ai Tom from Indians in Rule 5 draft
  • Selected RHP Dany Jimenez from Blue Jays in Rule 5 draft (later returned to Toronto)

Notable Minor League Signings

  • Domingo Acevedo, Cristian Alvarado, Argenis Angulo, Matt Blackham, Reymin Guduan, Deolis Guerra, Montana DuRapau, Pete Kozma, Jed Lowrie, Frank Schwindel, Trey Supak, Jacob Wilson,

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

  • Jake Lamb, Marcus Semien, Tommy La Stella, T.J. McFarland, Robbie Grossman, Liam Hendriks, Mike Minor, Joakim Soria

Of all the players set for free agency after the 2020 season, A’s shortstop Marcus Semien was a particularly interesting case. The A’s somewhat surprisingly chose not to extend him a qualifying offer. In doing so, they signaled three things: 1.) They believed Semien might accept the $18.9MM qualifying offer; 2.) They were unwilling to pay him that sum; 3.) They were prepared to enter 2021 with a new shortstop. Ultimately, Semien signed a one-year deal below the QO value to play for the Toronto Blue Jays, and the A’s received nothing in return.

The very same day that Semien’s accord was announced, double-play partner Tommy La Stella signed a three-year deal with the Giants. La Stella’s time in Oakland was brief, but he was critical for the team down the stretch after coming over in a trade with the division-rival Angels. He slashed .289/.369/.423 in 27 regular-season games from the top of manager Bob Melvin’s order. Acquiring that performance came only at the cost of erstwhile top prospect Franklin Barreto. The goal is not to pay for past performance, however, nor for past value, so the A’s said their thank-yous and let La Stella move across the Bay at the reasonable AAV of $6.25MM per season.

At that point in late January, Liam Hendriks had already inked his new deal with the White Sox. Even Robbie Grossman had long since found his new home in Detroit. In Oakland, however, the winter was (again) in danger of being defined by the players lost in free agency. Executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane and general manager David Forst are as cold-blooded as they come, however. They were no doubt aware that something like, say, not having a middle infield would temporarily leave them in ill-favor with the public, but the end goal was not to have a middle infield in January. The A’s are generally at a disadvantage when it comes to resources, but they had as much time at their disposal as the other 29 teams, and they used it to enact a coherent offseason strategy.

On Feb. 6, the A’s offseason began in earnest. They and another division rival, the Rangers, completed an outside-the-box five-player swap centered on two out-of-favor veterans on hefty contracts. In its most basic form, the trade sent Khris Davis, Jonah Heim, and Dane Acker from the A’s to the Rangers for Elvis Andrus and Aramis Garcia.

For the A’s, this deal enabled them to shift money around. Oakland fell in love with Davis’ light-tower power, but he slumped to an 82 wRC+ over the past two seasons. Davis started only 14 games in the field going back to 2018, so if he doesn’t create value with his bat, he doesn’t create value. And yet, in the second year of a two-year extension signed prior to 2019, Davis would account for almost 20 percent of a payroll that was already without much margin for error. Turning that dead money into two years of a serviceable shortstop may end up as a decent sleight of hand on the A’s part.

Of course, Oakland had to give up more than just Davis. Heim has promise – Fangraphs gives him a 40+ future value score- but he’s also a 25-year-old backup at a position of organizational depth. If Garcia can’t step directly into Heim’s shoes as Sean Murphy’s backup, then Austin Allen can. Allen, though 27 years old, was actually ranked a spot above Heim in Fangraphs’ organizational prospect rankings entering 2020. The A’s are taking on some risk here, as Garcia and Allen profile similarly as bat-first backstops; furthermore, if Murphy goes down for any extended period of time, they might have preferred Heim’s defensive skill set as a long-term stand-in. But if all goes according to plan, Murphy will shoulder the load. In that case, either Garcia or Allen ought to suffice as a backup.

Acker is the true cost of doing business. He’s a durable college arm with a repeatable, clean delivery and a decent chance of making it to the Majors. He’s also a 2020 draft pick who has yet to make his professional debut. The A’s essentially had to tack on a fourth-round pick to make this deal work. All things considered, that’s hardly a backbreaking tax to burden when slashing $9.5MM off the payroll.

The crux of this deal comes down to whether or not you believe in Andrus as a two-year stopgap. His defensive metrics are all over the place, though it won’t hurt to play alongside Matt Chapman. Offensively, Andrus was a 76 wRC+ hitter in both 2018 and 2019. He admits to being slow to adapt to modern analytics at the plate. That makes him an interesting fit in Oakland. If he’s ready to change his approach, maybe the A’s feel they can unlock something for him, though the Coliseum is notoriously tough on right-handed hitters. With a lifetime .098 career ISO and groundball-heavy approach at the plate, he may have trouble hitting any of these new baseballs out of that yard.

For what it’s worth, ZiPS projects Andrus to re-spawn as a 1.2 fWAR player, which is roughly his production in each of 2018 and 2019. It’s probably safest to assume he can be a 1-2 WAR player, which makes his dollar count about right. Whether or not he can sufficiently replace Semien depends on which version of Semien you’re imagining. If it’s the 2019 version that notched 8.9 bWAR/7.6 fWAR, you can forget about it. But if you’re thinking about the 2020 guy who put up numbers that extrapolate over a full season to 1.35 bWAR/3.24 fWAR, well, now we’re getting somewhere. Andrus is not the ideal shortstop, but at $7.25MM per season for two years, he’s a better use of the money than Davis would have been. That’s the calculus that makes this deal work – if it works.

With the money saved, Beane and Forst went on a mini spending spree of their own. They brought back Mike Fiers just hours after the Andrus trade. They essentially replaced Joakim Soria with Sergio Romo on Valentine’s Day, re-signed Yusmeiro Petit five days after that, and capped their bullpen revamp with a big-ish fish in Trevor Rosenthal, whom they signed to a much-deferred one-year, $11MM pact.

Romo provides insurance for the bullpen, as does Fiers for the rotation. Neither hurler is a place to be a bell-cow arm, but they are trustworthy enough to hold the line. On the whole, the A’s free agent class would have been a real get after 2013. Present day, it’s not as splashy as, say, the White Sox, who signed Hendriks, but it could nonetheless be impactful. Rosenthal seemed to put himself back together in 2020 with 11 saves and a 1.90 ERA/2.22 FIP across 23 2/3 innings. He stuff is electric, and his walk rate returned to a palatable 8.8 percent. His 2019 wildness is looking less like decline and more like re-calibration after Tommy John surgery.

Of course, where in most cases we’re willing to throw out 2020’s numbers because of the pandemic, it’s a little convenient to take Rosenthal’s performance as proof of concept. Admittedly, then, there’s risk. Still, Rosenthal has 92 more career saves than Hendriks, he’s less prone to giving up home runs (6.4 percent HR/FB for Rosenthal to 10.2 percent HR/FB for Hendriks), and Rosenthal has a lower career ERA, FIP, xFIP, and SIERA. Hendriks outdoes Rosenthal in terms of control, and he does have two insane seasons out of the last two compared to one for Rosenthal.

Put aside all the noise of career numbers and Rosenthal’s messy 2019, and give in to last season’s numbers as the real McCoy just for a second. Rosenthal put up 1.1 bWAR to Hendriks’ 1.3 bWAR. Rosenthal had a 35.2 percent CSW (called strike plus whiff rate) compared to 31.0 percent for Hendriks. Rosenthal finished in the 99th percentile for fastball velocity, xERA, xBA, strikeout rate, and xwOBA. You barely even have to squint to consider Rosenthal a lateral move at worst (without the long-term financial commitment).

The A’s largely stuck with their internal options to replace La Stella at the keystone. Tony Kemp and Chad Pinder splitting time in a straight platoon is one potential eventuality. To open the season, however, it’s looking like old friend Jed Lowrie will share the middle infield with Andrus in his third tour of duty with the A’s.

The only Major League contract they gave out to a hitter this winter went to Mitch Moreland. The 35-year-old has only once produced more than 1.0 fWAR in a season, which is fairly stunning given that he’s now been in the bigs for 11 years. But he’s trending up over the last three seasons, especially in his specialty department (vs. RHP): 106 to 125 to 146 wRC+ from 2018 to 2020. He has enough glove to insure Matt Olsen at first, but given Olsen’s own glovework, Moreland’s only real job is to rake. In 2020, that’s exactly what Moreland did: .265/.342/.551, 135 wRC+, 10 home runs, a solid 21.1 percent strikeout rate, 9.9 percent walk rate, and .287 ISO.

Cot’s contracts pegs the A’s payroll to be $83.5MM by raw dollars, $100MM on the dot as far as the luxry tax is concerned. They’ll pay out even less than that because Rosenthal will receive just $3MM in 2021. Regardless, the A’s payroll is closer to zero than it is to the first tax threshold of $210MM. They’re about $11MM under their full-scale payroll from 2020, and if they remain at this current level, it’ll be their lowest payroll since 2018. They have occasionally taken on in-season money in the $10MM range, but they’re more likely to add $1MM-3MM, or even further diminish the payroll should things go sour. Oakland excels at identifying its weaknesses and finding reinforcements throughout the season in this way. Jake Lamb, Mike Minor and La Stella were the guys last year, and the A’s will probably look at that class of player again.

To accomplish that slimming of the payroll, Beane and Forst helped themselves with some low-cost additions to fill out the roster. Ka’ai Tom was a Rule 5 Draft selection from the Indians, and he’ll enter the season as their fourth outfielder. Pinder and Kemp are also capable of defending the grass, but Tom does provide left-handed balance to the A’s trio of right-handed starters: Ramon Laureano, Stephen Piscotty, and Mark Canha.

Skeptics might wonder why Tom would be left unprotected by a Cleveland organization that’s perpetually in desperate need of outfielders, and that’s a fair question. He’s undersized at 5’9″, almost 27, and only once ranked in Baseball America’s top 40 Indians’ prospects (No. 31 in 2016). His physical skills in terms of speed and power aren’t immense, but he’s succeeded at every level thus far, including a .298/.370/.564 line (132 wRC+) in 211 plate appearances at Triple-A in 2019.

If Tom is the “overlooked” brand of undervalued asset, former Ray and Dodger Adam Kolarek qualifies as the “specialist.” The southpaw is cost-efficient with four years of control remaining, he limits free passes (6.0 percent walk rate for his career), he gets the ball on the ground at a 62.7 percent clip, and he’s death to lefties, who hit just .176/.217/.248 off him.

The A’s biggest need this offseason might have been health, particularly in the rotation. Oakland’s starting staff can be the backbone of a contender. If Chris Bassitt and Fiers can excel in the Coliseum, so should Jesus Luzardo, A.J. Puk, Frankie Montas, and Sean Manaea. But health has been an issue, and the A’s will continue to manage the workloads of their young arms as they try to readjust to the slog of a 162-game season.

If you’re of the camp that thinks the A’s took a step back during the winter, it’s not hard to understand why. But the Astros took a step back too, the Angels face many of the same roster questions as usual, and the Mariners and Rangers have a ways to go before closing the gap. There’s reason to hope for a fourth consecutive playoff appearance out of Oakland. If it happens, it will be driven by Melvin’s ability to mix and match and get the most out of an imperfect roster. A return to health for Chapman and breakout seasons on the mound from Luzardo, Montas, and/or Puk wouldn’t hurt either. But those aren’t things you can secure in the offseason.

How would you grade the A’s offseason? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors iOS/Android app users)

 

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2020-21 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals Oakland Athletics

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Adrian Gonzalez Signs In Mexican League

By Connor Byrne | March 30, 2021 at 5:51pm CDT

Five-time All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez hasn’t played in the majors since 2018, but his professional career isn’t over yet. Gonzalez has signed with the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis of the Mexican League, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times relays. The soon-to-be 39-year-old did so in order to tune up for this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, in which he’s hoping to play for Mexico. The team has already qualified for the tournament.

As Shaikin notes, Gonzalez previously represented Mexico in youth ball, the Caribbean World Series and the World Baseball Classic. Gonzalez said adding the Olympics to that trio would be “like the grand slam of representing Mexico. That is the only reason I have not retired yet.”

Gonzalez struggled with the Dodgers in 2017 and then the Mets the next season, combining for a .240/.292/.363 line with nine home runs in 439 plate appearances. Despite those woes, Gonzalez said he has received and rejected minor league offers from MLB teams since the Mets parted with him in June 2018. The California resident hasn’t gotten interest from West Coast teams and would prefer to spend time there with his family instead of going to Florida for spring training, per Shaikin.

In all likelihood, we have seen the last of Gonzalez in the majors, but there’s no denying he was one of the game’s most imposing sluggers for a long stretch. Also a former Ranger, Padre and Red Sox, Gonzalez batted .287/.358/.485 with 317 home runs – including 30 or more in four seasons – from 2004-18.

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Uncategorized Adrian Gonzalez

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