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Jose Quintana, Jake Jewell Elect Free Agency

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Giants lefty Jose Quintana and righty Jake Jewell have both elected free agency, per the MiLB.com transactions log. Both are largely procedural moves. Quintana would have been a free agent after the World Series anyhow based on service time. Jewell, meanwhile, was outrighted off the 40-man roster for the second time in his career earlier this month — and a second outright grants a player the right to reject in favor of free agency.

Quintana, 32 this offseason, was a waiver claim late in the year as the Giants looked for ways to stockpile pitching depth after the trade deadline. He posted an ERA north of 8.00 as a starter, mostly with the Angels, but notched a 4.18 ERA with a 28.3% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 28 relief innings. Some clubs may want to give the once-steady Quintana another chance to bounce back in the rotation, but that K-BB% in 28 bullpen innings could generate some interest as a reliever, given a fairly thin crop of lefty relief options on the market this offseason.

Jewell, too, is a former Angel — though his time with the Halos didn’t overlap with that of Quintana. The 28-year-old righty was a fifth-round pick by the Angels back in 2016 and was considered one of the organization’s more promising arms for several years. He’s yet to find success in the big leagues, though, pitching to a 7.75 ERA in 38 1/3 innings — including a 9.90 mark in 10 frames this year.

Jewell fared much better in Triple-A this season, splitting time between the Giants, Cubs and Dodgers organizations and working to a combined 3.40 ERA in 45 frames. He also fanned nearly 27 percent of his opponents and allowed just four homers in an offensively-charged environment, albeit with a somewhat bloated 10.2 percent walk rate. Jewell averaged a bit shy of 95 mph on his heater in his brief big league look this winter and will garner some interest as a depth option on minor league deals.

Royals, Dodgers Complete Danny Duffy Trade

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The Royals announced they’ve acquired right-handed pitching prospect Zach Willeman from the Dodgers. The move completes the clubs’ July 29 deal that sent left-hander Danny Duffy to Los Angeles.

Willeman, 25, is a former 19th-round pick by Los Angeles. A starter early in his minor league career, he worked exclusively out of the bullpen this past season with Double-A Tulsa. Over 47 2/3 frames of relief, he pitched to a 3.78 ERA with an above-average 28.2% strikeout rate but an elevated 11% walk percentage. The Royals will need to add Willeman to the 40-man roster or leave him exposed in the upcoming Rule 5 draft. If he earns a spot on the 40-man, he could be a bullpen option at the big league level at some point next season.

The Dodgers ultimately got nothing out of their low-cost flier on Duffy. The veteran southpaw was on the injured list with a flexor strain at the time of the deal. Expected to return a few weeks after the trade, Duffy unfortunately had a setback and was shut down for the season. He’ll be a free agent this winter.

Justin Turner Leaves Game With Apparent Injury

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11:01pm: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, in a postgame scrum, announced that Turner has a grade 2 hamstring strain and seemed to imply that his season is indeed over. “I think that’ll be it for him,” Roberts said, according to Hoornstra and others.

9:51pm: Justin Turner left tonight’s NLCS game four matchup against Atlanta with an apparent injury, as relayed by several reporters, including J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group. Turner grounded into a double play in the bottom of the seventh inning and limped his way to first base, then didn’t return to the field for the top of the eighth.

It has been a frustrating series for the third baseman, as he has also been dealing with a neck injury of late that caused him to be held out of the starting lineup in game two. The severity of this new injury is unclear at this point, but this raises the specter of Turner’s season being over. There are, at most, three games remaining in the NLCS after tonight, which doesn’t leave him much time to convalesce before the World Series.

Losing Turner for any amount of time would be a blow to the Dodgers, as he has been one of their best and most-reliable hitters for eight straight seasons. From 2014 to 2021, he has been a mainstay of the lineup, with a batting average between .275 and .340 each year. His wRC+ has always been between 123 and 158 during that span. He was worth at least 3.3 fWAR in each of those seasons, except for the shortened 2020 campaign, where he put up 1.3 fWAR. In 2021, he slashed .278/.361/.471 for a wRC+ of 127 and 4.0 fWAR.

This year’s postseason has been a struggle for him, perhaps due to these underlying injuries. Going into tonight’s game, he was slashing just .097/.200/.194 through 35 plate appearances.

Quick Hits: Thames, Tsutsugo, Minors

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Eric Thames is planning on holding a showcase in Korea in November, according to a report from MK Sports relayed by The Athletic’s Sung Min Kim. The slugger previously played in Korea from 2014 to 2016 and parlayed his star turn there into a three-year, $16MM deal with the Brewers for the 2017-2019 seasons. He had a solid run over the length of that deal, playing 383 games, hitting 72 home runs and slashing .241/.343/.504. That production was 18% better than league average, according to wRC+. But it only amounted to 5 fWAR due to his defensive limitations. The Brewers passed on a 2020 option, leading Thames to sign a one-year deal with the Nationals. That turned out to be a miserable campaign for Thames, as he hit just .203/.300/.317. He then signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Unfortunately, as Kim notes, Thames missed all but one game this year due to a torn achilles. It’s unclear who will be invited to the showcase, but it stands to reason that interest from MLB teams will be limited, given how the past couple of years have gone. However, if this winter’s Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations lead to a universal DH, as has been widely speculated, that could theoretically increase the chance of Thames getting offers, though likely only of the minor league variety.

Some other items of note from the baseball world…

  • The Pirates have interest in re-signing Yoshi Tsutsugo, according to Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports.  Given how Tsutsugo performed (.268/.347/.535 with eight homers in 144 plate appearances) after signing with the Pirates in August, it isn’t a surprise that the Bucs would want him back in the fold.  Returning to Pittsburgh on a short-term (or one-year) deal makes sense for both sides, Stumpf reasons, as Tsutsugo would get a full season as a platform year for a bigger deal in the 2022-23 offseason, while the Pirates would get a relatively inexpensive player who could maybe be flipped at the trade deadline.  A few weeks ago, MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote about Tsutsugo’s breakout with the Pirates.
  • Over at Baseball America, in relation to the CBA expiring December 1st, J.J. Cooper answers a question about a theoretical work stoppage and how that would impact the minor leagues. Cooper reminds readers about previous stoppages and how the minor leagues continued essentially as normal. However, only players not on a 40-man roster were allowed to participate since the MLBPA includes every player who is on one. If the next strike or lockout follows historical precedent, that means baseball fans could get their fill with minor league ball while waiting for the big leagues to return. Cooper also relays that the 1994 Rule 5 draft took place during the most recent strike of 1994. This situation could theoretically pop up again, as the current CBA expires December 1st, with the Rule 5 draft typically taking placing a the end of the Winter Meetings, in the second week of December.

Daniels: Rangers Willing To Consider Long-Term Free Agent Contracts This Winter

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The Rangers will be one of the more interesting teams to follow over the next few months. Coming off two consecutive last place finishes (three in the last four years), Texas doesn’t look like an obvious spender at first glance. The Rangers’ long-term books are wide open, though, perhaps positioning them for a more exciting offseason than those of other clubs near the bottom of the standings.

Texas president of baseball operations Jon Daniels reiterated the team could be aggressive as soon as this offseason when speaking with reporters (including Jeff Wilson and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) earlier this week. “Ownership has given us a good range to work with this year with the expectation that (payroll) is going to grow over the next several years,” Daniels told reporters. “We will be in a different category than we’ve been the last couple years. The opportunity has got to line up. … We’re open to a longer-term deal on the right player.”

Those comments largely align with general manager Chris Young’s midseason proclamation that Texas would be “very active” in free agency. Like Young, Daniels didn’t delve into specifics about precisely how far the club might be willing to stretch the payroll, but the mere mention of “a longer-term deal” is notable given the Rangers’ place in the competitive cycle. Indeed, Daniels at least hinted at the possibility of playing at the top of the market, noting that while the Rangers “have kind of flipped past” the marquee names in recent offseasons, “it’s been good this year. The [scouts] have a lot of freedom to make recommendations and to really dig into players. It’s definitely been more enjoyable.”

An openness to a long-term deal doesn’t inherently mean the Rangers will sign one, of course. But that desire makes them a threat to land one of their top targets, since there does seem to be ample space on the books. Texas’ payroll maxed out north of $165MM back in 2017, in the estimation of Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but they’ve pared that number back under $100MM as they’ve rebuilt the roster.

Even after accounting for projected arbitration raises, the Rangers have just over $52MM on the books in 2022, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That leaves plenty of room for Daniels, Young and the rest of the front office to make a legitimate run at a priority target — particularly if ownership is willing to push spending back up above this past season’s range as Daniels suggested.

Texas probably isn’t going to add another $100MM to the books and push spending to franchise-record heights this offseason alone. The roster still has plenty of question marks, and even multiple impact additions wouldn’t make them a likely 2022 contender. Adding an external core piece or two this offseason with the anticipation of more upgrades and another payroll hike next winter seems more plausible, though, with the Rangers likely eyeing 2023 as a reasonable window of contention.

Daniels suggested this week (via Wilson) that position players will be the club’s focus. This year’s free agent class is famously shortstop-heavy, with Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Dallas-area native Trevor Story and Javier Báez all likely to land significant contracts. There’ll be some speculation about Story based on his ties to the area, but any member of that group would offer a noteworthy addition around whom Texas could build over the coming years.

Buster Olney of ESPN even hears from some rival executives that the Rangers could look into signing two members of that shortstop quintet with the idea of moving one of those players to another position. It’d be a surprise if any team — particularly one that’s not an immediate contender — ultimately landed two of Correa, Seager, Semien, Story and Báez, but that sentiment drives home the freedom the Rangers’ current level of payroll space affords the front office.

Of course, the Rangers needn’t pigeonhole themselves into the shortstop market specifically. Without established regulars virtually anywhere on the roster, Texas can identify targets around the diamond. Freddie Freeman, Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, Starling Marte, Kyle Schwarber and Michael Conforto are among the top non-shortstop position players slated to hit the open market.

Injury Notes: Grandal, Muncy, McCullers

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Yasmani Grandal recently underwent knee surgery, as the catcher himself relayed on Instagram, and passed along by The Athletic’s James Fegan. Fegan also says the club expects him to be ready to go for spring training.

Grandal spent almost two months on the IL this year due to a torn tendon in his knee, although it didn’t seem to hamper him at the plate at all. In 93 games, he hit .240/.420/.520, for a wRC+ of 159, easily the highest of his career. His defensive numbers trended downward in 2021, though that’s not terribly surprising given how important healthy knees are for a catcher. The switch-hitter is guaranteed $36.5MM over the next two years, making his recovery from this procedure incredibly important for the White Sox as they look to build on back-to-back postseason appearances.

More injury notes…

  • Max Muncy brought out the lineup card for tonight’s NLCS game four matchup against Atlanta and didn’t appear to be wearing a brace on his injured left elbow, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. This would seem to indicate at least some superficial progress, given that Muncy was using the brace even while sleeping as recently as three days ago. The narrative around Muncy’s return figures to continue for as long as the Dodgers’ season is still alive. He hit 36 home runs this year, a personal best, on his way to slashing .249/.368/.527. His wRC+ of 140 on the campaign placed him in the top 15 among qualified hitters in all of baseball. He has missed the entirety of the playoffs so far after being injured in a collision with Jace Peterson on the final day of the regular season.
  • Similar to Muncy, the status of Lance McCullers Jr. figures to be an ongoing question as long as the Astros are still playing. The latest update comes from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who says McCullers is “seen as not likely” to pitch in the World Series, should the Astros qualify. Since this bout of elbow tightness put the righty on the shelf, the Astros’ rotation has been shaky in his absence. Through the first four games of the ALCS, no Houston starter lasted longer than 2 2/3 innings. However, game five saw Framber Valdez turn that ship around by throwing eight innings of one-run ball. McCullers threw 162 1/3 excellent innings this year, with an ERA of 3.16, 27% strikeout rate and 56.4% ground ball rate. He then threw 10 2/3 innings in the ALDS with an ERA of 0.84 before landing on the shelf.

Evan Marshall To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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White Sox reliever Evan Marshall will undergo Tommy John surgery next month, reports James Fegan of the Athletic (Twitter link). He missed the final few months of the season with a flexor pronator strain in his right arm and had been trying unsuccessfully to rehab the injury without going under the knife. He’s almost certain to miss the entire 2022 season.

It’s a very unfortunate development for both Marshall and the club, as he had been enjoying a late-bloomer breakout with the Sox over the past few seasons. After a solid debut in 2014, Marshall became a stereotypical journeyman for a number of years. From 2015 to 2018, he played for Arizona, Seattle and Cleveland, never logging more than 15 1/3 big league innings in a season and never having an ERA that started with a number lower than six. However, after the 2018 season, the righty was signed to a minor league deal by the White Sox that turned out great for both sides. The club selected his contract May 1st, 2019, about two weeks after Marshall’s 29th birthday. Over 2019 and the shortened 2020 campaign, Marshall logged 73 1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.45. In 2019, he succeeded mostly as a ground ball guy, as his 19.6% strikeout rate was subpar. But in 2020, he shot that up to an outstanding 32.3%, while marginally improving his grounder rate at the same time.

Unfortunately, that trajectory didn’t continue into 2021. He went on the IL June 30th and never returned to the majors, although he did make five Triple-A appearances as part of a rehab attempt that ultimately proved unsuccessful. Before hitting the shelf, he threw 27 1/3 major league innings in 2021, with an ERA of 5.60. Perhaps owing to the injuries, his strikeout and ground ball rates went down, while walks and homers went up.

Marshall has logged just over five years of service time thus far in his career. The White Sox could control him for another year via arbitration, but that seems unlikely given that he’ll probably miss the entire campaign and would be owed a raise on his $2MM salary from 2021. More likely, he’ll be designated for assignment or released soon, or perhaps some kind of extension could be worked out that would cover the rehab process as well as a future season or two. Those contracts have been given out in recent years to pitchers such as Ken Giles and Tommy Kahnle, to name just a couple.

Even without Marshall, the White Sox bullpen should be in good shape. In 2021, the team bullpen produced 7.8 fWAR, the second-highest tally in the majors. They also fared well in terms of strikeout rate (2nd), walk rate (8th) and ERA (12th). The only notable member that will be departing via free agency is deadline-acquisition Ryan Tepera. Craig Kimbrel has a $16MM club option, although it was reported last week that the club’s plan in that regard is to pick it up and then shop Kimbrel around in trades. Even without Marshall, Tepera and Kimbrel, the unit would still feature a strong core of Liam Hendriks, Aaron Bummer, Garrett Crotchet and Ryan Burr.

Carlos Carrasco Undergoes Surgery To Remove Bone Fragment From Pitching Elbow

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5:51 pm: Carrasco isn’t expected to miss more than around one week of Spring Training action, reports Tim Healey of Newsday (Twitter link).

1:47 pm: The Mets announced that right-hander Carlos Carrasco underwent surgery yesterday in New York to have a bone fragment removed from his throwing elbow.  No specific timeline was given on Carrasco’s recovery, except that he will “resume baseball activities later this winter.”

2021 was already an injury-riddled season for Carrasco, who tossed only 53 2/3 innings over 12 starts after suffering a torn right hamstring during Spring Training.  Initially projected to miss between 6-8 weeks, Carrasco instead didn’t make his season debut until July 30, and then didn’t look like himself in posting a 6.04 ERA.  Carrasco’s 4.44 SIERA was more flattering, but his 21.1% strikeout was by far his lowest since the 2013 season (when Carrasco tossed only 46 2/3 innings in his first year back after Tommy John surgery).

It could be that the bone fragment was a factor in Carrasco’s lack of results, so with this procedure now in the books, the veteran might be able to return to his old form in 2022.  As non-descript as the wording of the Mets’ press release was, the fact that Carrasco will be able to do some type of offseason prep provides something of a positive view that he’ll be ready for Spring Training.

In the bigger picture, of course, another injury is naturally a concern for a pitcher who is entering his age-35 season and already has a significant history of health issues.  Beyond the Tommy John surgery, Carrasco missed three months of the 2019 season battling leukemia before making a stirring return in September as a reliever out of the Indians’ bullpen, and then pitching well as a starter (2.91 ERA/3.91 SIERA) over 68 innings in 2020.

Carrasco is entering the last guaranteed season of the four-year, $47MM extension he signed with Cleveland in December 2018.  The righty is set to earn $12MM in 2022, and the Mets hold a $14MM club option ($2MM buyout) on Carrasco for 2023 that vests into a guaranteed deal if Carrasco tosses 170 innings next season and finishes the year with a clean bill of health.  After acquiring Carrasco as part of the Francisco Lindor blockbuster last offseason, the Mets are certainly hoping for more in Carrasco’s second year with the team, especially since both Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard could leave in free agency this winter.

Braves Remove Huascar Ynoa From NLCS Roster Due To Shoulder Injury

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Major League Baseball announced this afternoon that it has approved the Braves’ request to scratch right-hander Huascar Ynoa from the team’s roster for the NLCS against the Dodgers. Lefty reliever Dylan Lee has been added in his place.

Ynoa had been slated to open tonight’s bullpen game, but he was diagnosed with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. MLB must approve any injury-related substitution from a team’s playoff roster in the middle of a series, and the league quickly granted the Braves request to remove Ynoa in favor of Lee. Players scratched mid-series are ineligible to participate for the remainder of the current series, as well as the next series should the club advance. Ynoa is thus officially done for the season, as he’d be ineligible to return even if the Braves make the World Series. Jesse Chavez will open tonight instead.

This season, the 23-year-old Ynoa tossed 91 innings of 4.05 ERA ball, starting seventeen of his eighteen outings. He missed a couple months during the middle of the year after fracturing his hand when he punched the dugout after a bad start. It was surely frustrating for the Braves to lose one of their more promising starters for a while in that manner. Still, the team has to be impressed with Ynoa’s performance, as he posted solid strikeout (26.9%), walk (6.7%) and ground-ball (47.3%) rates.

Lee is a 27-year-old rookie who earned a late-season call with an elite showing at Triple-A Gwinnett. He only has two big league innings under his belt, but Lee tossed 46 2/3 frames of 1.54 ERA ball with the Stripers this year.

Brewers Part Ways With Hitting Coach Andy Haines

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The Brewers won’t renew the contract of hitting coach Andy Haines for the 2022 season, according to multiple reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy).  Assistant hitting coach Jacob Cruz may also be on the way out, as the Brewers have informed him that he is free to look into other job opportunities.

Haines was initially hired in November 2018, while Cruz joined the Brew Crew following the 2019 campaign.  While Milwaukee has reached the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, the Brew Crew has often relied on pitching, defense, and a deep bullpen to bail out a lackluster offense.  Since the start of the 2019 season, the Brewers rank 18th of 30 teams in runs, 21st in wRC+ (93), 28th in batting average (.238), 13th in on-base percentage (.322), and 20th in slugging percentage (.413).  Milwaukee’s 24.7% strikeout rate is also the fifth-worst of any team over that three-year period.

Things seemed to come to a head in the Brewers’ NLDS loss to the Braves this October, as Milwaukee managed only 24 hits and six runs over the four-game series, with four of those runs coming in Game 4.  The Brewers also scored two runs in their two-game loss to the Dodgers in the 2020 Wild Card series, so all told, the Brewers have been shut out in three of their last six postseason games.

Haines and Cruz aren’t solely responsible for this lack of production, of course, as downturns from the Brewers’ two highest-paid players (Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain) have hampered the team’s ability to generate offense.  As well, Willy Adames exploded at the plate after being dealt to the Brewers in May, Luis Urias enjoyed some measure of a breakout season, and Avisail Garcia hit well this season after struggling in 2020.  However, the overall lack of consistency throughout the lineup didn’t leave much margin for error in putting runs on the board.

Prior to his three seasons in Milwaukee, Haines was the Cubs’ assistant hitting coach in 2017-18 and Chicago’s minor league hitting instructor in 2016.  Haines also has eight years of experience as a hitting coach and manager in the Marlins’ farm system, giving him a longstanding relationship with Yelich dating back to the former NL MVP’s prospect days.

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