The Reds have gotten some unfortunate injury news over the last few days, but it appears as though southpaw Wade Miley won’t miss any time after a hamstring strain forced him out of his last Spring Training outing. As per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link), Miley threw close to 35 pitches in a bullpen session yesterday and is now slated to start for the Reds tomorrow. After signing a two-year, $15MM contract with the Reds in the 2019-20 offseason, Miley’s first season in Cincinnati was a veritable wash, as he posted a 5.65 ERA and was limited to only 14 1/3 innings due to groin and shoulder injuries. Miley and the Reds are certainly hoping for a return to form, as Miley is expected to eat innings and provide some veteran experience at the back of the rotation.
More from around the league…
- Between Alejandro Kirk’s impressive 25-PA big league debut last season and his huge numbers this spring, the catcher is forcing the Blue Jays into a decision, The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm writes. Kirk looks to have more upside both in the present and future than incumbent backup Reese McGuire, but McGuire is out of minor league options, and thus can’t be sent down to the minors without being exposed to waivers. Chisholm makes the argument that adding Kirk to the MLB roster “seems like a no-brainer,” all things considered. The Jays have enough other minor league catching depth to arguably afford losing McGuire, and Kirk is a better fit for a win-now team like the Blue Jays, even to the point of sharing playing time with Danny Jansen rather than being just a backup catcher.
- A number of Giants-related topics are covered by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser as part of a reader mailbag, including a question about Buster Posey’s future. This is the final guaranteed year of Posey’s contract, but Slusser doesn’t think Posey is considering retirement following the 2021 campaign. If anything, Posey “looks rejuvenated this spring after” opting out of the 2020 season, “and goodness knows, he’s very competitive. I don’t think he’s lost an ounce of that fire.” Whether 2021 could be Posey’s last season in San Francisco is another matter, as the Giants don’t seem likely to exercise their $22MM club option on Posey for 2022, but may look to re-sign him to a less-expensive short-term deal with an eye towards transitioning him into an eventual post-playing role within the organization.
- From that same piece, Slusser feels Jake McGee looks like the Giants’ top choice for save situations, though the team probably won’t officially anoint McGee as the closer out of a preference to be as flexible as possible with reliever usage situations. The left-hander signed a two-year deal worth $5MM in guaranteed money back in February, and while McGee has closing experience in the past, he has mostly worked in a setup role over the last four seasons.
Never been the first to comment so this is what it feels like
Kind of underwhelming, isn’t it?
I was surprised the Braves signed Drew Smyly to a 1-year $11 million deal. I feel a little better now. If Wade Miley is worth a 2-year $15 million deal than Drew Smyly is worth at least a 1-year $11 million deal. The Miley deal is very recent and Smyly is so much better than Miley right now it’s not even a comparison. I would take Smyly at $11 million next season over the $7.5 million (or whatever) the Giants are paying Miley next season.
Yeah I don’t understand how Miley keeps getting decent contracts. I know he isn’t a complete scrub but so many other pitchers who have better track records seem to get equal or a bit less contracts. He is a lefty but so is Smyly, Lester, Hamels and Milone. I know he was a good pitcher back in his Arizona days but that was several years ago now. Michael Pineda is another one. He had a great rookie season in Seattle 10 years ago. Since then he has either put up middling numbers or has been hurt. Guy is made of glass but still gets $10 million a year. I would take Smyly over Pineda any day. Besides his good half year with Milwaukee back in 2018 Miley has pitched about the same as Wade LeBlanc yet LeBlanc has never broken a million dollars for a year. Decent pitchers like Porcello and Hamels are both holding signs on a freeway off ramp look for anything, Teheran, Gio, Chacin, among others had to take minor league deals and a proven winner like Lester only gets $5 million but Miley gets 2/$15m? Baffling..
It’s because he’s a lefty.
I’m last to comment
Not anymore
Cheers to Reese McGuire for not crawling under a rock for the rest of his life. Poor guy will never live that thing, ummm, that thing that happened to him, down.
Let’s just say he is a master of his own domain!
Seriously?
Why don’t you beat it, with the jokes.
I see what you did there.
Normal thing to do but why in a car in a public place.
Why not? Gotta keep the spark alive, even if it’s with yourself.
Isn’t his walk up music Dancing With Myself?
It used to be groundhog, but he switched it to the Divinyls for some reason.
If Posey has a year, guaranteed the Giants will pick up his 19mil net option. 100% no brainer.
Nooo, they will decline it and give him a new contract
yup totally agree I think if you can bring him on an inexpensive 1-2 year deal he can finish working with bart and bailey and exit gracefully – bringing him back in a coaching capacity would be great with a possible managing role in the future
Totally agreed @whor. If Posey is serviceable this year with the bat, I’d think the Giants would see if they can parlay that big option next year into a two year 25-28MM or so. He can mentor Bart more, be the back up in ‘22 and retire a “forever Giant” at that time
If the Giants are hoping to attract some top line free agents next winter, they will probably try to keep Posey at a lower rate. I would like to seen him retire as a Giant. But I would argue that Posey would likely see the team spend on a starter, not a reclamation project.
And they’re also going to need a SS when Crawford departs, and next year’s FA crop is a dandy.
Nuschler – Doubtful, but let’s see how his bat plays in 2021.
hmm, I wonder..19mil for declining production is quite steep..like what Pete’sView said, we’ll see how his bat plays out this season but it also seems like the Giants will make a strong play for 21/22 FA class so they might want to allocate some of that 19mil to sign another player..we’ll see
All good points and I agree that they’ll resign him to a lower aav, except that next year the Giants payroll will be so low even $19 mill won’t alter their plans much
And that’s a great position to be in.. I credit FZ, he’s made some great roster/payroll management moves while having the Giants position themselves in a playoff race the past 2 seasons..I was expecting them to be terrible those last 2 times
If he plays like it’s 2015, sure they’ll pick up the option. But what are the odds of that?
Oh man if Jake McGee’s gonna be their closer they’re gonna be sorry. He’s fine if he’s had a lot of rest (as he usually did last year with the Dodgers) but absolute trash if he’s pushed hard, as he was with the Rockies.
Most relievers are trash with the Rockies.
Relievers suck in Colorado. Dunn, Davis, Shaw and McGee. McGee is effective maybe not as a closer though. He was great in Tampa
And let’s see how Reyes Moronta comes back from his surgery.
He probably won’t have too many games to close out giants have no bats
Might wanna check the stats on that one, pretty sure the Giants had the 6th highest OPS and one of the better offenses in the game last year
Solano got a silver slugger, Yaz put up near MVP numbers, Dickerson and Flores were both awesome, Dubon was decent, even Belt was kickin butt
The offense is actually pretty good, it’s the pitching that’s gonna kill ‘em
Yeah! What @ABS said!!
His ERA was decent last year with the dodgers yet it feels like he gave up bombs constantly. I was pretty shocked that his numbers are that good
His HR/9 last year was 0.89 which is very good. So it seems your perception of his HR issues purely anecdotal and incorrect.
Read the article from Susan Slusser.
She has no special insight into what the Giants are thinking regarding McGee and even went so far as to say Kapler hasn’t said anything about him being closer, while simultaneously pointing out that “Kapler is all about openness and communication this spring”.
Will he close games? I’m sure he’ll get some chances; but so will other guys.
This “rumor” is the opinion of a beat writer covering a new team a thousand miles away trying to gauge what they’re doing over Zoom calls. Take it for what it is.
He can’t be a worse closer than Trevor Gott was.
Kirk doesn’t have any playing time in the upper minors. Since McGuire is out of options, I think they’ll send him to AAA for at least the first month or until they find a trade partner for McGuire or even Jansen.
I agree. I would also think with that pitching staff, McGuire’s defense will be more beneficial as a backup than a decent bat with very questionable defense.
That’s another thing to consider. The Jays need to get every advantage they can when it comes to pitching. They have enough good bats to play McGuire/Jansen so they can have better defenders/game callers behind the dish.
Yes but Jansen is a terrible game caller (that has trouble getting on the same page as the starters), he also can’t block or throw out runners and he can’t hit. So why have him on the roster? They should have brought in a veteran catcher to work with the other catchers until one of them steps up and takes the roll. Best case scenario now is to have Kirk and McGuire do the catching and send Jansen down or trade him.
So now it’s “Bobby” Nightengale?
Son of Sir Bob, come on buddy shouldn’t you know that
If Kirk makes the team, keep him far away from
Vladdy, Jr. come dinner time! Kirk is listed at 5’ 8” and 265 lbs. He’s not someone you want going to dinner with Vlad Jr., especially with all the hard work Vladdy did in the offseason to lose weight. Kirk is only 22 years old but they have to worry about his weight issues too, especially as a catcher. That much weight has to put a lot of strain on his knees.
They’re trading for Pablo Sandoval to serve as Vladdy/Kirk’s nutritional expert.
Not sure if Kirk has any knocks against a legitimate major league pitcher yet. Then again neither has Jansen. Kirk is a potential taxi squad candidate to start the season. Would be nice to see if the Jays can find a taker for McGuire, sign a veteran catcher to work with the Buffalo staff and Riley Adams. Have Kirk and Jansen in the majors.
Manoah was lights out and did it against some MLB caliber hitters. Manoah should be starting in Buffalo to give that phantom pitching depth some real prospect talent.
Kirk hit off Cole and off Snell in the playoffs!
And DanJan had the 2 bombs off Glasnow in the playoffs after the rest of the team stopped trying!
Jansen had the brutal start to 2019, then turned it around a bit, then seemed to run out of steam by the end. Looked real strong spring 2020 but the break didn’t help things. Slow starter type? or did the covid break really mess with his progress? Would be nice to see him get off to a strong start this year.
3 out of 5 starts for him. 2 for Kirk. With 1-2 at DH for Kirk if he doesn’t stop hitting.
Start with 3 catchers to allow the Kirk DH option to be less risky?
If Jansen started slow, it could shift to 3 for Kirk, 2 for McGuire by May? Then just wait until it’s time to go Sal Perez shopping??
Get Russ Martin on the AAA coaching staff?
Have been busy to follow much spring, some random ramble for ya, I’m sure you’ve missed getting a chuckle.
Vlad Jr. needs to help Kirk get on whatever regimen he was on this off season. Vlad is 6’2 and a corner infielder. Kirk is 5’8 and a catcher. He’s agile for his size, but that won’t last long behind the dish if he keeps above 250 LBS
Nonsense. If anything, it’s Kirk that should be helping Vlad. Vlad still needs to drop another 10-15. Vlad is also not 6 foot 2 no matter what the player’s card says.
Eh, I think Vlad Jr. looks better personally, but I haven’t seen much of either this ST. Though he has been listed at 6’2 since 2015 so unless he hasn’t gotten measured since then I don’t see a reason they’d be hiding his real height for 5-6 years. Regardless of his height, Vlad is definitley taller than Kirk. Kirk is still well over weight imo and Vlad definitley slimmed down a decent amount.
Not good enough to play 3B. And I’d bet he’s gained weight over the last month to six weeks. Kirk was way overweight last year. Badly. To your original point, Vlad is the very last person Kirk should be observing when it comes to regimen. Second year in a row Vlad looked better in December/January than March.
Vlad definitley looks 10x better than he did last season. I really don’t think he’s gained fat weight in the past month or so. It’s a very noticeable difference. Honestly, I think he looks slimmer now than in January. About third base though, he’s never been seen as a third baseman long term, regardless of how much weight he lost. Even in MLB Pipeline’s summary of him in 2015, they say that he may have to move to 1B long term.
There’s better catchers than McGuire available every year on the cheap. I wouldn’t worry, about losing him, especially with four other catchers on the 40 man, two with major league experience. He really hasn’t done much outside of 100 PA’s, even in the minor leagues. If Kirks bat is for real, I don’t think Mcguires defense makes up enough of the difference to justify carrying him over Kirk.
how cheap? McGuire is about as cheap as it gets, young, controllable, and has upside that justifies stashing him as your C2.
Gotta agree with DarkSide. McGuire isn’t a star or anything, but his upside and youth bring value. As much as I like Kirk, he hasn’t played at any level of the upper minors. I think you keep McGuire for now and use him as trade bait for pitching the call up Kirk after you trade him, or even Jansen.
If Jansen’s defense hadn’t slipped last year, I think it’d be easier to carry Kirk as the bat first backup, but Jansen took a real step back last year. McGuire might be their best catcher. If you could get Tyler Flowers or someone on a minor league deal, then you can hedge your bets a bit and go with Kirk while losing McGuire. For as deep as they are at the position, they are very inexperienced.
I wouldn’t mind the Pirates swinging a trade to re-acquire McGuire. Definitley Would rather have him as the back up catcher than Tony Wolters or Michael Perez. Maybe send Chris Stratton for McGuire+a 40-40+ grade pitching prospect?
there is no need to carry Kirk over McGuire unless you want to use that 40 man spot for something.
I hear the Orioles might sign Franco….Of course, Pete Angelos thinks he’s signing Generalisimo Franco….
I don’t know why everyone is ready to move on from Reese. He had an OPS+ north of 130 in his first two tastes of MLB action. Yeah last year sucked for him but it was also an odd season.
Because he never hit in the minors. We’re talking about a .672 minor league OPS in nearly 2000 at bats, a huge sample… and worse in AAA. 130 lucky MLB at bats before the pitchers figured him out didn’t mean anything. His ceiling has always been solid backup defensive specialist. Kirk is just a lot more interesting.
Don’t overthink this. Jansen and McGuire have underperformed, period. Kirk has clearly caught management’s attention and is deserving of big league time. Riley Adams is ready to breakthrough as well and already has a 450+ft home run this spring. McGuire would benefit from a fresh start with someone else but probably won’t generate any trade interest. Jansen might have trade value, especially for starting pitching, but you can’t suit up a .180 hitter with inconsistant defensive performances as a #1 option behind the plate (ask the Padres).