AL Central Notes: Civale, Buxton, Duran, Burger
The Indians‘ rotation depth has been tested already, and they could now be facing another injury. Right-hander Aaron Civale exited tonight with two outs in the fifth inning with an injury to his right middle finger. The Score’s Travis Sawchik notes, via Twitter, that the medical staff was testing the mobility of Civale’s finger as opposed to looking at a potential blister. There’s no official diagnosis, but for a Cleveland club that already has Shane Bieber (shoulder strain) and Zach Plesac (fractured hand) on the injured list, any injury scare for the club’s most proven starter is particularly noteworthy.
Cleveland has cycled through myriad young options in hopes of churning out another quality starter, as they’ve seemingly been able to do at will in recent years. However, each of Triston McKenzie, Sam Hentges, Logan Allen, Eli Morgan and Jean Carlos Mejia has an ERA north of 6.00 after multiple starts. Swingman Cal Quantrill gave the Indians a much-needed five innings of shutout ball his last time out but hasn’t had much success overall in four starts. The Indians are still nine games over .500 despite those injuries and an offense that ranks among the worst in MLB (88 wRC+), but it’ll be increasingly difficult to maintain that standing if questions about the rotation continue to mount.
More news from the division…
- Twins center fielder Byron Buxton just returned from the injured list, but he exited tonight’s game against the Reds after five innings. Buxton was hit by a pitch on the left hand in his prior at-bat and played a couple innings of defense before ultimately exiting the game. Minnesota has won four straight games and can ill afford to lose Buxton if the team wants to cling to any faint hope of clawing its way back into the race. It stands to reason that the club would likely have Buxton undergo x-rays, even if his removal were deemed precautionary. They’ll presumably have an update after the game on Buxton, who is 4-for-10 with a homer and a double since returning from the IL two days ago.
- The Twins have shut down top pitching prospect Jhoan Duran due to an elbow strain, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters (Twitter link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). He’s undergoing imaging to determine the severity of the issue. Minnesota has been attempting to weather injury troubles for two of its top three starters (Kenta Maeda, Michael Pineda) while getting awful results from fourth and fifth starters J.A. Happ and Matt Shoemaker. The Twins’ miserable rotation performance is perhaps the primary reason for their surprisingly poor record, and an injury to Duran would rob the club of a high-profile prospect who entered the season as a candidate to make his MLB debut this summer. Duran ranked as the game’s No. 83 prospect at The Athletic and No. 86 at FanGraphs, but he’s been limited to just 16 innings this season. Duran allowed one run with a 14-to-3 K/BB ratio in his first seven innings but has since been tagged for eight runs on 11 hits and an alarming 10 walks in nine innings.
- The White Sox are without Nick Madrigal for the remainder of the season, and while it appears they’re exploring the market for infield help, they’re also taking some looks at creative in-house options. Third base prospect Jake Burger is getting some work at second base in Triple-A, writes Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago. Burger, 25, is in the midst of his first season since 2017 after a pair of Achilles injuries wiped out his 2018 and 2019 campaigns. The 2017 first-rounder has left little doubt that he’s a talented hitter, batting .277/.320/.555 with eight homers, 12 doubles and a triple in 147 plate appearances in his first in-game action after a three-year layoff. The 6’2″, 230-pound Burger would be one of the larger players you’d see at second base, but manager Tony La Russa notes to Duber that with Yoan Moncada hitting so well at the hot corner, at-bats there won’t be easy to come by if Burger’s bat does force its way to the big leagues: “I think it’s really smart, and it’s smarter if you do it down there where it’s not such a microscope. … I like that they’re exposing him to second base down there.”
White Sox Reportedly Discussing Eduardo Escobar Trade With D-backs
6:20pm: Escobar, notably, is out of tonight’s lineup for the D-backs, though Lovullo called the injury a “slight” quadriceps strain and said Escobar is available off the bench (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan).
12:13pm: The White Sox and Diamondbacks have held discussions about a trade that would send infielder Eduardo Escobar to the Windy City, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link). It isn’t known if the two sides are deep in talks, or if this is exploratory on Chicago’s part as the Sox continue to look for second base help.
One immediate wrinkle is Escobar’s injury status, as he left yesterday’s game after four innings due to tightness in right quad, D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters. Escobar was scheduled to undergo tests today, and Lovullo noted that the removal was “precautionary” in nature.
Assuming Escobar is healthy, he is a natural trade chip. The D’Backs have the worst record in baseball and are mired in an unfathomable 17-game losing streak, so their focus has already moved to selling at the trade deadline. Escobar is in the final season of a three-year, $21MM contract that pays him $7.5MM in 2021 (roughly $4.12MM is still owed for the remainder of the season).
The White Sox, meanwhile, suffered a big loss at second base when Nick Madrigal underwent season-ending hamstring surgery last week. Danny Mendick has been filling in at the keystone since Madrigal was sidelined and utilityman Leury Garcia is also on hand, but installing a veteran like Escobar would more fully stabilize the position (especially since the Sox are also still dealing with multiple injury absences in the outfield). Escobar has been more regularly used as a third baseman in Arizona, but he has logged plenty of time at second base over the years, including 30 games at the position this season alone.
A trade would represent something of a homecoming for the 32-year-old Escobar, who originally signed with the White Sox as an amateur free agent back in 2006 and then played his first 45 big league games in a Sox uniform. Chicago dealt Escobar to the Twins as part of a deadline deal for Francisco Liriano in 2012, and Escobar was then a thorn in the side of his old team for years as he developed into a regular in Minnesota’s lineup.
After a rough 2020 season, Escobar has bounced back to be an exactly league-average hitter (100 wRC+, 100 OPS+) over 295 plate appearances this season, hitting .240/.288/.455 with 15 homers. The power numbers have helped boost his overall production, as Escobar’s 6.4% walk rate is his lowest since 2016 and he isn’t making much hard contact. The switch-hitter’s numbers against left-handed pitching have still been solid, but his production against right-handers has tailed off over the last two years.
Mets Activate Jeff McNeil; Robert Gsellman Out Up To Eight Weeks
5:35pm: The outlook on Gsellman isn’t good, as SNY’s Steve Gelbs reports (via Twitter) that a tear in his lat will cause the right-hander to miss anywhere from six to eight weeks of action. That’ll sideline him well into the season’s second half.
2:19pm: As expected, the Mets activated utilityman Jeff McNeil off the 10-day IL today, so he will take Gsellman’s spot on the active roster. McNeil has been out of action since May 17 due to a hamstring strain, and he now looks to resume his duty as New York’s regular second baseman. The former All-Star was off to a bit of a slow start prior to his injury, with only a modest .242/.336/.374 slash line over his first 113 plate appearances.
1:20pm: The Mets will be placing right-hander Robert Gsellman on the 10-day injured list due to a right lat strain, according to SNY’s Andy Martino (via Twitter). Gsellman last pitched on Saturday, tossing two innings as the opener in the second game of a doubleheader against the Nationals.
The injury is particularly ill-timed, as the Mets have another doubleheader today against the Braves, and then yet another doubleheader against the Phillies on Friday. Though there is a Thursday off-day in between, the losses of both Gsellman and Joey Lucchesi to the IL within the last couple of days will leave the Mets short on pitching depth for this busy week.
Gsellman has allowed five runs over his last 4 1/3 innings of work, souring what had been a pretty solid season, out of New York’s bullpen. The righty has a 3.71 ERA/4.47 SIERA over 26 2/3 total innings in 2021, relying on soft contact and a career-best 50.6% grounder rate to counteract a tiny 13.6% strikeout rate. It was a nice bounce-back for Gsellman following an injury-marred 2020 that saw him post a 9.64 ERA over 14 frames.
Brewers Designate Zack Godley For Assignment
The Brewers announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Zack Godley for assignment in order to create a spot on the roster for fellow right-hander Jake Cousins, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Nashville.
The veteran Godley has had a pair of stints with the Brewers this season but struggled in each — most recently yielding three runs in just a third of an inning at Coors Field. Godley’s production with Nashville in between MLB appearances was quite strong, as he pitched to a 2.40 ERA with a 34-to-12 K/BB ratio through 30 innings spent mostly as a starter.
Godley posted 333 1/3 innings of 4.10 ERA ball for the D-backs in 2017-18 but hasn’t managed to replicate those numbers since that time. He was hit hard to begin the 2019 season in Arizona, and while he rebounded with a solid showing out of the Jays’ bullpen late that year, his 2020 season was cut short by a season-ending flexor strain that likely contributed to last year’s poor results (8.16 ERA in 28 2/3 frames). It remains to be seen whether another club will take a chance on Godley via a small trade or a waiver claim, but the Brewers will surely be happy to hang onto the veteran pitching depth if he sticks with the organization.
As for the 26-year-old Cousins, he’ll be making his MLB debut the first time he takes the mound. The University of Pennsylvania product was a 20th-round pick by the Nats back in 2017 who landed with the Brewers in 2019 after being cut loose. He’s also spent time with a pair of independent clubs: the Frontier League’s Schaumburg Boomers and the American Association’s Chicago Dogs. Cousins has split the 2021 season between the Brewers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, where he’s pitched to a combined 2.55 ERA in 17 2/3 innings, with a huge 41.1 percent strikeout rate against a 6.8 percent walk rate.
Giants Notes: Wade, Outfield, Deadline, DeSclafani
The Giants announced Monday afternoon that they’ve reinstated outfielders Alex Dickerson and Darin Ruf from the injured list. Infielder Jason Vosler and, more surprisingly, outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. were optioned to Triple-A Sacramento to open space on the 26-man roster. It’s a tough break for Wade, who has hit quite well in his first season with San Francisco — albeit in a tiny sample of 94 plate appearances. Acquired in a lopsided deal that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota — the Twins already lost Anderson on waivers — Wade is hitting .265/.344/.470 with four homers, three doubles, a triple and a pair of steals in his limited time as a Giant.
That’s a far cry from anything Wade has done previously in the Majors or in Triple-A, particularly in the power department, and it’s worth noting that Wade has batted a tepid .220/.273/.390 over his past 11 games. Still, the overall numbers are solid and ought to earn the 27-year-old another look before too long. The Giants are quite active when it comes to roster turnover, and Wade only needs to be down for 10 days (or less, if recalled in place of someone going on the injured list) before he can return.
More on the Giants…
- Many Giants fans expressed immediate frustration to see Wade optioned out when hitting so well — particularly with veteran outfielder Mike Tauchman struggling so much at the plate. Tauchman hasn’t started a game since June 14, and he hasn’t tallied a multi-hit game since collecting three knocks in his Giants debut back on April 28 after he was acquired from the Yankees. He’s also out of minor league options, however, meaning he’d need to be designated for assignment and passed through waivers if the team hopes to send him down. Given Tauchman’s .171/.287/.271 slash through 150 plate appearances with San Francisco, there’s a straightforward argument that that’s the route the team should’ve taken, but clearly the front office isn’t quite yet to that point. As Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News points out, the Giants also have several left-handed opponents on the horizon, and the left-handed-hitting Wade’s production thus far has come entirely against righties.
- Giants CEO Larry Baer discussed the trade deadline on this week’s Giants Talk podcast (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). As one would expect from most MLB execs, Baer was a bit guarded and rather vague, so as not to reveal too much, but he made clear that ownership is prepared to greenlight the front office to make some additions to bolster the roster. Baer effused praise for president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi, GM Scott Harris and the rest of the recently reworked front office, stating that the group has quickly garnered “so much credibility” with ownership and expressed a desire to “do what’s right by the club and [the front office’s] recommendations.” While Baer didn’t foreshadow any potential target areas for the front office, it’s no doubt encouraging for the fanbase to hear ownership state that the “number one factor” at this year’s trade deadline will be: “how are we best set up to win this year?”
- Right-hander Anthony DeSclafani spoke with John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle about the league’s forthcoming crackdown on foreign substance usage. “I’m not a user, so they can come check me whenever they want,” the righty said. DeSclafani noted the extremely low spin on his curveball and said he’s tried in the past to increase the spin and do so legally, but without much success. It’s been interesting to hear various players around the league weigh in on the foreign substance policy, and DeSclafani had several quotes on the matter in his chat with Shea for those who are interested. Lack of spin notwithstanding, the 31-year-old DeSclafani has been nothing short of excellent for the Giants. Since signing a one-year pact over the winter, he’s started 14 games and pitched to a 3.01 ERA with a 22.1 percent strikeout rate and 6.9 percent walk rate in 80 2/3 frames. Like many of his rotation-mates — Kevin Gausman, Alex Wood, Johnny Cueto and the currently injured Aaron Sanchez — DeSclafani is slated to become a free agent at season’s end. (San Francisco holds a $22MM option on Cueto, though the accompanying $5MM buyout looks likelier at present.)
A’s Select Domingo Acevedo, Option Jesus Luzardo
3:15pm: The A’s officially announced the pair of moves.
2:47pm: Acevedo is indeed on his way to the big leagues, and Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News reports (via Twitter) that Jesus Luzardo is being optioned to Triple-A. Luzardo has struggled as both a starter and a reliever this season, posting a 6.87 ERA over 38 innings and surrendering 11 homers in that brief stint on the mound.
7:30am: The Athletics are planning to select the contract of reliever Domingo Acevedo, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Oakland already has a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move to accommodate his promotion.
Acevedo began his career in the Yankees organization. He didn’t sign until he was 18 years old (two years later than is typical for international amateur prospects) but he nevertheless quickly became one of the more well-regarded pitchers in the system. He drew praise for mid-high 90’s velocity and decent control but struggled to stay healthy. The 6’7″ righty spent time on the minor league injured list in each season between 2015-19, slowing his progress. Acevedo briefly earned a spot on New York’s 40-man roster but didn’t get into a major league game.
Oakland signed Acevedo to a minors deal over the winter, and he’s gotten off to a fantastic start at Triple-A Las Vegas. Despite pitching in a hitter-friendly environment, Acevedo has worked to a 2.76 ERA across 16 1/3 innings. More impressively, he’s struck out 27 of 64 batters faced (42.2%) while walking just three (4.7%). That strong showing earns him a place on the A’s roster, where he’ll be making his MLB debut if/when he gets into a game.
Boras Corp. Baseball Research Analyst Job Opening
From time to time, as a service to our readers, MLB Trade Rumors will post job opportunities of possible interest that are brought to our attention. MLBTR has no affiliation with the hiring entity, no role in the hiring process, and no financial interest in the posting of this opportunity.
Position: Baseball Research Analyst – Full-time
Location: Newport Beach, CA
Description:
The Boras Corporation has an immediate opening for a creative, well-organized team player with a genuine interest in a career in baseball. You will be working in an office-based setting with others responsible for handling a variety of research, statistical and analytical needs. The ideal candidate will have personal experience in a team-sports environment combined with ability to present complex information in a visual presentation.
Minimum qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university (or sufficient relevant experience)
- Prior baseball or team sports experience
- Proficient in Keynote presentations, visual graphics, and Microsoft Excel
- Outstanding communication, analytical, and organizational skills
- Able to operate under short deadlines in a fast-paced environment
Additional Qualifications:
- Fluent in Spanish (written and verbal)
To Apply:
Please send an email with the subject “Open BC Position” to borascorpcandidate@gmail.com by July 15, 2021.
The body of the email should contain the following, in this order:
- Your resume.
- In addition to the traditional resume information, please be sure to include any details about athletic experience and your ability to communicate in Spanish.
- Your full contact information.
- Personal and professional references
- How you obtained this listing.
- Your minimum annual salary requirement (needs to be a specific dollar figure).
Emails that do not contain all of this information will not be considered. Please do not send cover letters or attachments.
Royals Place Adalberto Mondesi On 10-Day IL
12:57PM: The Royals have officially announced the move, with Mondesi sent to the 10-day IL with a strained left oblique. O’Hearn has been recalled from Triple-A.
12:41PM: Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi looks to be going back onto the 10-day injured list with an oblique injury, GM Dayton Moore told the Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy (Twitter links) and other reporters. First baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn will likely be the Triple-A call-up that replaces Mondesi on the active roster.
Mondesi was removed after six innings in yesterday’s 7-3 Royals victory over the Red Sox due to discomfort in his left side. This latest oblique injury is on the opposite side of the body from the other oblique strain that sidelined Mondesi at the start of the season, delaying his debut until May 25.
Between that lengthy IL stint and another trip to the injured list for a hamstring strain, Mondesi has appeared in only 10 games all season. While Mondesi has made the most of that brief playing time by posting a 1.212 OPS in 38 plate appearances, it has thus far been a lost season for the 25-year-old.
Once one of baseball’s top prospects, Mondesi has shown flashes of that potential over his 318 career MLB games, including a torrid stretch last September that saw him post a 1.130 OPS over his last 93 PA. However, Mondesi’s hot streak was tempered by a miserable .440 OPS in his first 140 PA of the 2020 season, and he has been hampered by injuries both this season and in 2019. Mondesi has already displayed strong defense, speed, and baserunning skills, so it isn’t out of the question that he could still unlock some superstar-level production with more consistent hitting and if he can just stay on the field.
Cedric Mullins’ Emergence In Baltimore
The Orioles have torn their roster down as part of a massive rebuild over the past few seasons. The organization has acquired a collection of highly-regarded prospect talent the fanbase is certainly hoping will comprise the core of a contender down the line. In the interim, though, the MLB product has been quite poor. The Orioles went 126-258 (32.8% winning percentage) between 2018-20, and their 23-48 record this season is the worst in the American League.
This kind of rebuild does offer an opportunity for less-heralded players to get some run at the major league level, though. Most won’t take advantage, resulting in a lack of teamwide success, but an underrated player will occasionally perform at a high enough level to cement himself as a building block of the organization’s long-term future. This season, Cedric Mullins has done exactly that.
A 13th-round pick out of Campbell University in 2015, Mullins performed well enough in the minors to generate a bit of attention. Baseball America twice ranked him among the O’s top 30 prospects, suggesting he was most likely to settle in as a fourth outfielder. In 2018, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs noted that he had an intriguing toolset and minor league track record but suggested the consensus opinion among talent evaluators was that he’d be more of a role player than a true regular.
Mullins made his MLB debut late that season and performed in line with those expectations over the next couple seasons. Between 2018-20, he hit .225/.290/.342 (73 wRC+). He was always a good baserunner and made some improvements at the plate last season, but he still looked like more of a placeholder than a core piece entering the year.
Over the past few months, Mullins has changed that outlook by outperforming even the most optimistic projections. He’s hitting .319/.389/.552 (158 wRC+) with thirteen home runs across 304 plate appearances. Not only has he emerged as a force at the plate, he’s been one of the game’s rangiest defenders. Statcast credits Mullins with seven outs above average this season, tied with Brett Phillips for second among outfielders (Manuel Margot is plus-9). Advanced metrics that take arm strength into account (like Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating) have been a little less enthused, but all agree that Mullins has at least been above-average in center field this year.
Factoring in his contributions on both sides of the ball, Mullins has been one of the most valuable players in the sport. FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement metric places Mullins third among position players (fourth if you also include Shohei Ohtani’s pitching value), trailing only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. Baseball Reference’s version of the statistic slots Mullins seventh.
There’s room to debate where Mullins truly fits among players like Guerrero, Ohtani, Fernando Tatís Jr., Marcus Semien, Carlos Correa and Matt Olson this year. That he’s even in that conversation, though, is a testament to the campaign he’s had. Mullins will almost certainly be elected to the All-Star Game, and he’s tracking towards appearing on MVP ballots if he can continue to produce like this in the second half of the season.
Mullins probably won’t remain this good. His .363 batting average on balls in play is 73 points higher than the .290 league average. A quality runner, he should be expected to run a slightly better than average BABIP, but he’ll have a hard time keeping it quite so high. Statcast’s batted ball metrics suggest his results have outpaced the quality of his contact a bit, and his prior track record of subpar hitting can’t be completely discounted.
There’s plenty of room for Mullins to take a bit of a step back while remaining a decidedly above-average player, though. His defense gives him a strong floor to begin with, and the 26-year-old has made some substantive changes that suggest he’s turned a corner at the plate. Most notably, Mullins abandoned switch-hitting this year, hitting left-handed permanently. He’s been much better at hitting opposing southpaws left-on-left than he was stepping into the right-handed batter’s box. But that’s only come in 97 plate appearances, and he’s posting career-best production against righties this year too.
Mullins is striking out less than he did last year against pitchers of both handedness (albeit with a more significant drop against lefties), making more contact when he swings, and drawing walks at a career-best rate. He’s also almost completely stopped popping the ball up on the infield, even as his overall fly ball rate is higher than ever. Perhaps abandoning his right-handed swing to focus solely on hitting lefty has made Mullins more comfortable with his mechanics overall. Maybe his strong production against righties is completely unrelated to that decision. Whatever the reason, he’s made significant strides as a hitter.
There’s been plenty of attention on which players the still-rebuilding O’s might move before the July 30 trade deadline. Mullins, though, looks like a safe bet to stick around. He’s controllable through 2025 and won’t reach arbitration-eligibility until after next season. Even if there’s some regression forthcoming, he’s made enough process improvements to believe he’s truly taken his game to another level as he enters his prime years. Mullins looks to have legitimately broken out in 2021, and he’s the type of player the Orioles can build around as their top prospects matriculate to the big league level. Baltimore fans haven’t had much to celebrate in recent seasons, but Mullins’ emergence is a reason to continue to watch as the team scuffles in the near-term, and a sign of hope for the future.
Mets Owner Steve Cohen Discusses Luxury Tax, deGrom, Stroman
Mets owner Steve Cohen met with reporters (including Mike Puma of the New York Post and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com) yesterday to discuss the team’s outlook in advance of the July 30 trade deadline. Most notably, Cohen was asked whether he’d be willing to sign off on a midseason acquisition that pushes the team’s competitive balance tax outlay north of the first threshold of $210MM.
“It’s something to think about because there is a price to pay if you go over for the following year or the year after,” Cohen said. “I am not going to go over for a million or two million. That’s stupid, so if you are going to do it, you are going to do it, so we’ll see what’s available.”
Cohen is alluding to the escalating penalties for teams that surpass the threshold in consecutive seasons. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, a club that exceeds the lowest threshold for the first time is subject to a 20% tax on the overage. Exceeding that threshold for a second consecutive year subjects the team to a 30% tax on the overage, while the club would pay a 50% tax on excess expenditures for a third consecutive season (and beyond) above that mark.
To calculate a team’s CBT ledger, the league takes the sum of the average annual values of each contract on the books in a season- not the actual payroll in any given year. For the Mets, that figure comes in just under $197MM in 2021, in the estimation of Cot’s Baseball Contracts. (Cot’s pegs their actual payroll at approximately $195.4MM). If Cohen is unwilling to go beyond the first threshold, that’d leave New York a little more than $13MM in CBT space for midseason upgrades.
Cohen didn’t explicitly state he’d be unwilling to push the team’s CBT ledger north of $210MM. Rather, he implied that it’d take one (or more) marquee additions for him to deem that worthwhile, based on the belief that the cost of higher potential penalties in future seasons would outweigh the value of making more marginal upgrades. Of course, that assumes the current luxury tax system will remain in the next CBA, which is up for negotiation this winter. The Mets did not exceed the threshold last season under the previous ownership group, so they’d be subject to the first-time payor penalty if they were to do so this year.
New York’s owner also addressed the contractual status of starters Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman. Cohen confirmed the club engaged in preliminary extension discussions with deGrom in Spring Training. Those were never expected to persist into the summer, though, and Cohen indeed shot down the possibility of in-season negotiations. “I’m focused on this year,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the right moment (for extension talks). We’re focused on this year, so obviously it’s something we’re thinking about. We love Jacob.” deGrom is under contract through 2024, but his deal affords him the opportunity to opt out at the end of next season.
Cohen also suggested it was unlikely the Mets would discuss an extension with Stroman during the year. The 30-year-old returned to Queens on an $18.9MM qualifying offer over the winter, and he’s since worked to a stellar 2.34 ERA/3.66 SIERA across 84 2/3 innings. Stroman will hit free agency again next offseason, and the CBA prevents the Mets from tagging with a QO this time around.