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Mets Sign John Curtiss To Major League Contract, Select Travis Jankowski

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The Mets are signing reliever John Curtiss to a major league deal, general manager Billy Eppler told reporters (including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and Tim Healey of Newsday). The team is also selecting outfielder Travis Jankowski to the major league roster for Opening Day. Curtiss will make $770K this season, and next year’s option is valued at $775K, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).

Curtiss isn’t expected to pitch for the entire 2022 campaign. The 29-year-old righty suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament while pitching for the Brewers last August, an injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery. Milwaukee had just acquired Curtiss from the Marlins at that summer’s trade deadline. He’d had an excellent first half in Miami, pitching to a 2.48 ERA in 40 innings with a solid 24.8% strikeout percentage and tiny 5.6% walk rate.

Milwaukee no doubt envisioned Curtiss serving as an important bullpen piece both down the stretch and over the next few seasons, but he only managed six relief appearances as a Brewer. They non-tendered him in November, electing against carrying an injured pitcher on the 40-man roster all winter. Curtiss only has a bit more than two years of MLB service, so he’ll be controllable via arbitration even beyond the 2023 option year. The Mets will take a low-risk dice roll to see if Curtiss can be a member of the big league bullpen next year and beyond. While rehabbing, he’ll pick up a big league salary and MLB service time on the injured list.

Curtiss will spend the entire season on the 60-day injured list, but the Mets first have to clear a 40-man roster spot to sign him to a big league deal. To do so, they’ve designated utilityman Travis Blankenhorn for assignment. New York claimed the left-handed hitter off waivers from the Mariners in June. That concluded a series of waiver claims for the former third-round pick, who bounced from the Twins to the Dodgers to Seattle and then Queens in a span of a few weeks.

Blankenhorn has only tallied 28 plate appearances at the big league level. He owns a solid .253/.361/.460 slash in a pair of Triple-A campaigns, though, and can still be optioned to the minor leagues for another season. That could lead another club to acquire Blankenhorn via minor trade or waivers in the next week.

Once Curtiss’ deal is made official, the Mets will place him on the 60-day IL and free a 40-man roster spot. That’ll go to Jankowski, who cracked the Opening Day roster after signing a minor league contract this offseason. He adds a fleet-footed player with experience at all three outfield spots to the New York bench. He has played 400+ innings everywhere on the grass as a big leaguer, with the bulk of that experience coming in center field.

The 30-year-old will serve as a speed/defense specialist behind the starting outfield of Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte and Mark Canha. The lefty-swinging Jankowski has never been much of a threat at the plate, as he owns a .239/.322/.318 line in a bit more than 1,100 big league plate appearances.

Jordan Hicks To Begin Season In Cardinals’ Rotation

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The Cardinals will open the season with former closer Jordan Hicks as their No. 5 starter, reports John Denton of MLB.com (Twitter link). The flamethrowing sinkerballer has appeared in 112 Major League games but will be making his first big league start whenever he takes the mound this year.

There’s been talk of bringing Hicks to camp and stretching him out as a starter dating back to late last season, but it’s nevertheless something of a surprise that he’ll be tabbed for rotation work to begin the season. Were it not for injuries to Jack Flaherty and Alex Reyes, Hicks may well have opened the year as a member of the St. Louis bullpen once again, but instead it seems he’s beaten out offseason additions Drew VerHagen and Aaron Brooks for the final starting job behind Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas.

Working as a starting pitcher isn’t an entirely foreign role for Hicks, it should be noted. He appeared in 37 minor league games before making his big league debut, and 34 of those came out of the rotation. The Cards are still in the process of building Hicks up, as Denton adds that the Cards are hoping he’ll be able to complete two to three innings his first time out against the Royals next Tuesday.

The move of Hicks into the rotation comes on the heels of a two-year stretch in which the right-hander has thrown just 10 Major League innings. The 25-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2019, sidelining him for the remainder of that season and setting the stage for a return in summer of the 2020 season. Of course, the 2020 season wound up not even beginning until late July. Hicks, who had experienced a slight setback in his rehab and was deemed a high-risk individual due to Type 1 diabetes, opted out of that 2020 season, citing health and safety concerns.

He returned to the mound early in the 2021 campaign but landed back on the shelf just a month into the season, due to soreness in his surgically repaired right elbow. Hicks was initially shut down from throwing for a six-week period, but he wound up unable to resume throwing until late August. At that point, the Cardinals opted for a cautious approach to his rehab rather than rushing him back and dropping him into the middle of a postseason push. Hicks did pitch in a pair of games in the Arizona Fall League, and he’s been healthy enough this spring that the Cards feel comfortable pushing him in a new role.

Whether the move to a starting role is permanent or not remains to be seen, but it’s easy to see why the Cardinals are intrigued by the idea of Hicks shouldering a larger workload. The right-hander is one of the game’s most electric talents, averaging a blistering 100.6 mph on a sinker that has helped him post a 63% ground-ball rate in his career. Hicks doesn’t rack up strikeouts quite like some might expect for a pitcher with his velocity (22.5% strikeout rate), and his 13.4% walk rate is a bit concerning. Still, a ground-ball pitcher with this type of velocity and the Cardinals’ all-world infield defense behind him could take his game to a new level if he’s healthy and able to work a notable slate of innings in 2022.

Diamondbacks To Select Oliver Perez, Designate Caleb Baragar

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The D-backs have selected the contract of veteran left-handed reliever Oliver Perez and, in a corresponding roster move, designated fellow southpaw Caleb Baragar for assignment, according to the team’s transactions page.

Perez, 40, joined the D-backs on a minor league deal on March 21 and has logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed thus far during Cactus League play. This will mark his second stint with the D-backs, for whom he also pitched in 2014-15.

Perez has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, pitching to a combined 2.57 ERA with a 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.8% walk rate over the life of 94 2/3 innings. Only 3 2/3 of those innings came in 2021, however. Perez was cut loose early in the year, and he spent the rest of the season pitching with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League. He’d been slated to return to los Toros in 2022, signing there during the lockout and announcing his intention to retire after the season. However, once it became clear that the season could get underway only about a week later than originally scheduled, Perez reversed course and signed on with a Major League organization.

It still seems as though this could be the final year of a lengthy and largely successful Major League career for Perez, who had a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher early in his career but reinvented himself as a reliever in his 30s. Since moving to the ’pen on a full-time basis in 2012, Perez carries a 3.45 ERA in 350 innings spread across five different organizations.

Turning to the 27-year-old Baragar, this marks his second DFA of the spring. A ninth-round pick of the Giants back in 2016, he’s seen Major League time with San Francisco in each of the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 2.78 ERA with an 18.8% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 21.7% ground-ball rate.

Despite that strong bottom-line run prevention, Baragar has now been designated for assignment both by the Giants and by the D-backs, who claimed him off waivers last month. Fielding-independent marks don’t paint as rosy a picture as Baragar’s more rudimentary ERA, due largely to his pedestrian K-BB% and an extremely low home-run rate — the latter of which doesn’t mesh particularly well with his sky-high 58.1% fly-ball rate.

Over the past two seasons, nearly 14% of the fly-balls put in play by Major League hitters have gone for home runs, whereas Baragar has seen just 5.3% of his flies clear the fence. Playing his home games at the spacious Oracle Park and inducing pop-ups at an above-average rate have both surely helped him, but it nevertheless seems inevitable that he’s in for some regression with regard to that minuscule homer-to-flyball ratio.

Baragar, who’ll turn 28 this weekend, has multiple minor league options remaining, so he could be looked at by another club as a possible depth option in the bullpen. He’s been tagged for an 8.01 ERA and surrendered nine home runs through 30 1/3 innings in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting, but he carries a 4.06 ERA and respectable strikeout and walk percentages in 421 minor league innings on the whole. The D-backs will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers.

Tigers Announce Several Transactions, Finalize Opening Day Roster

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The Tigers announced a landslide of roster moves Wednesday as they set their Opening Day roster. Most notable among them is the formal selection of top prospect Spencer Torkelson’s contract. It was already known that Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2020 draft and a consensus top-five prospect in all of baseball, would make the Opening Day roster, but his promotion to the big leagues is now official.

Detroit also selected the contracts of right-handers Drew Hutchison, Jacob Barnes and Will Vest. In a series of corresponding 40-man roster moves, Detroit designated left-hander Miguel Del Pozo for assignment and placed catcher Jake Rogers (recovering from Tommy John surgery), Spencer Turnbull (recovering from Tommy John surgery) and Jose Cisnero (strained right shoulder) on the 60-day injured list.

The Tigers also announced an additional series of placements on the 10-day injured list: lefty Andrew Chafin (groin strain), outfielder Derek Hill (hamstring strain) and righty Kyle Funkhouser (shoulder strain) are all beginning the season on the 10-day IL. Top outfield prospect Riley Greene is being placed on the minor league injured list after fracturing his foot late in Spring Training. The Tigers also announced that righty Elvin Rodriguez made the roster over infielder Willi Castro, and the team has assigned veteran right-handers Chase Anderson (Triple-A) and Wily Peralta (Class-A Advanced) to minor league affiliates to begin the year.

None of Hutchison, Vest or Barnes has an extensive track record of big league success, but they’ve all logged MLB action in the past and will give Detroit some bullpen depth early in the season, particularly while Cisnero sits out at least the first two months of the season mending a shoulder injury. That absence is perhaps the most surprising revelation in today’s sequence of moves. Cisnero was behind schedule to start camp and felt some discomfort in his most recent outing, but prior to today’s announcement there was no indication he’d require such a lengthy absence. It’s a notable loss for the Tigers, given the 32-year-old’s 3.45 ERA, 24 holds and four saves over the past two seasons.

Chafin, who signed a two-year, $13MM contract with an opt-out after the 2022 season will hope for a minimal absence. There’s been no indication from the club that he’s expected to require a long stay on the IL, but he’s been trending toward a 10-day placement since originally experiencing pain at the end of March. Hill has also been ailing since the final day of March, so his move to the IL doesn’t rate as much of a surprise.

As for the 29-year-old Del Pozo, he lasted the offseason on Detroit’s 40-man roster after allowing two runs on eight hits and no walks with four punchouts during a brief Detroit debut late in the 2021 campaign. He’s allowed a total of 20 runs in 18 1/3 Major League innings, however, and didn’t help his cause this spring when he appeared in two games and was tagged for a combined five runs in just one inning of work. Detroit will have a week to trade him or try to pass him through outright waivers.

Veterans Anderson and Peralta will give the Tigers some pitching depth in the minors to begin the season. Anderson joined the club on a minor league deal in mid-March and allowed three earned runs on nine hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts in five innings during camp. He’s struggled substantially in the Majors across the past two seasons but from 2014-19 was a solid back-of-the-rotation arm, logging a combined 3.94 ERA in 857 innings between the D-backs and Brewers.

Peralta seems even likelier to be added to the big league roster, despite his assignment to a Class-A affiliate. The right-hander had a strong showing in Detroit last year after signing a minor league pact, pitching to a 3.07 ERA across 18 appearances (17 starts) — a total of 93 2/3 innings. But Peralta was slow to get to camp, owing to visa issues, and he’ll remain at the Tigers’ Lakeland facility, where their High-A team plays, as he builds up toward game readiness. Peralta didn’t make it to Tigers camp until this past weekend and didn’t have time to get into an official spring game, but once he’s built up he’ll be an option to join the club’s rotation or pitch in a long-relief role.

Orioles To Select Anthony Bemboom, Chris Owings

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The Orioles have finalized their Opening Day roster, which will include non-roster invitees Chris Owings and Anthony Bemboom, manager Brandon Hyde announced to reporters this morning (Twitter link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). Both will need to be selected to the team’s 40-man roster, but the O’s have a pair of open spots, so no corresponding moves will be necessary (barring additional activity on the waiver wire, trade market, free agency, etc.).

Owings, 30, went 6-for-26 with a homer and three doubles in 26 plate appearances during Spring Training, though he also posted an unsightly 10-to-1 K/BB ratio. A lack of walks isn’t a new issue for Owings, who has drawn a free pass in just 5.4% of his 2396 career plate appearances at the MLB level. Owings briefly appeared with the Rockies in each of the past two seasons, hitting a combined .298/.372/.536 in a tiny sample of 94 trips to the plate.

Owings’ broader track record is that of an OBP-challenged utilityman with a bit of pop and above-average speed, evidenced by a lifetime .243/.288/.372 batting line, 37 homers and 78 steals. He smacked a career-high 12 home runs with the D-backs in 2017 and averaged 15 steals per year as a primarily part-time player in Arizona from 2015-18. Owings has experience playing each of shortstop, second base, third base and all three outfield slots. He grades out as a well-below-average defender at short but has average or better defensive marks at every other position, per Defensive Runs Saved. DRS pegs him as a plus defender at second base, though other metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average have him closer to a scratch defender there. Owings will likely hold down a utility spot with the O’s to begin the year.

As for Bemboom, he’ll serve as Baltimore’s backup behind veteran starter Robinson Chirinos. All eyes in Baltimore will be on top overall prospect Adley Rutschman, the 2019 No. 1 overall pick and the clear catcher of the future, but he was stalled in Spring Training by a triceps injury. He’s still ramping up toward game action and will likely require some minor league work before the O’s even consider bringing him up to the big league roster.

In the meantime, Bemboom will get some big league time for a fourth consecutive season. He made his big league debut with the Rays in 2019 before being traded to the Angels, where he’s spent a fair bit of time on the big league roster. In 54 total Major League games and 144 plate appearances, the 32-year-old Bemboom is a .178/.241/.287 hitter. He went 4-for-13 with a double during Spring Training and carries a career .252/.347/.398 batting line in parts of five Triple-A seasons.

Greg Holland Makes Rangers’ Roster

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The Rangers have informed veteran reliever Greg Holland that he’s made the Opening Day roster, per Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News. He’ll need to have his contract formally selected to the 40-man roster before Opening Day.

The 36-year-old Holland joined the Rangers on a minor league deal and made a strong impression in camp, firing five shutout innings with four hits, one walk and six strikeouts. Holland is the third non-roster veteran known to be breaking camp with the Rangers, who’ve already informed Charlie Culberson and Matt Bush they’ve made the club. Texas will need to make a trio of 40-man roster moves to accommodate this group.

A three-time All-Star and a pivotal cog to the Royals’ consecutive World Series rosters in 2014-15, Holland returned to Kansas City in 2020 after spending three years between the Rockies, Cardinals, Nationals and D-backs. He was outstanding in his return to K.C. during the shortened 2020 season but struggled more in 2021 as his strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates all trended in the wrong direction. On the whole, Holland posted a 3.86 ERA with a 23.7% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 44.6% ground-ball rate through 84 innings between his 2020-21 Royals reunion.

The Rangers will now become the sixth club for which Holland has suited up at the big league level. While Holland could eventually be in the mix for some saves in Texas, manager Chris Woodward told Hoyt and other reporters that the team isn’t planning to designate a set closer — at least not for Opening Day. Early-season performance will likely help to dictate the distribution of the late-inning workload, as will the respective rehabs of flamethrowers Jose Leclerc and Jonathan Hernandez, each of whom is on the mend from Tommy John surgery but expected to return in the first half of the 2022 season. Leclerc’s surgery came on March 30 last year, while Hernandez went under the knife just two weeks later, on April 12.

Holland’s contract reportedly came with a $2.1MM base salary upon making the club, so that’ll be locked in once the team formally selects his contract this week. With Hernandez and Leclerc slated to open the season on the injured list, Holland will join Bush, Joe Barlow, Josh Sborz and Brett Martin as late-inning options for Woodward.

Mets To Designate Jordan Yamamoto For Assignment

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The Mets have designated right-hander Jordan Yamamoto for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for left-hander Chasen Shreve, whose contract has been selected to the 40-man roster, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Shreve told reporters earlier this week that he’d been informed he’s made the roster.

Yamamoto, 25, joined the Mets last offseason in a trade that sent minor league infielder Federico Polanco to the Marlins. He only made two appearances with the big league club and tallied only 32 2/3 minor league innings while battling a right shoulder injury. Originally drafted by the Brewers, Yamamoto was part of the Christian Yelich blockbuster with the Marlins and made his big league debut with the Fish in 2019, pitching to a solid 4.46 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate in 78 2/3 frames.

The shortened 2020 season was a nightmare for Yamamoto, as he surrendered 24 runs in just 10 2/3 innings. That ballooned his career ERA north of 6.00, but Yamamoto has generally been a solid pitcher in limited work outside that outlier season. He carries a career 3.79 ERA with a 25.3% strikeout rate, a 6.9% walk rate and a 44.6% ground-ball rate in 495 2/3 minor league innings as well.

Yamamoto does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s certainly possible that another club in need of some rotation depth will take a chance on a still-young righty who has had plenty of minor league success and also some success in the big leagues (2020 aside). The Mets will have a week to trade Yamamoto or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he clears waivers, they can assign him to Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and he’ll continue to serve as depth in the upper levels of their system. Given that Jacob deGrom is expected to miss months and the Mets’ rotation has several other injury risks and situations worth monitoring, that’d be a welcome bonus for the organization.

With deGrom slated to start the year on the injured list, it’s looking increasingly like young righty Tylor Megill will be tabbed as New York’s Opening Day starter (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post). Max Scherzer has been slowed a minor hamstring issue but is back on track and looks ticketed for the season’s second game. Taijuan Walker recently had what the team hopes to be a minor knee issue pop up in his final spring start. Carlos Carrasco is looking for a rebound after an injury-ruined 2021 season, and righty Chris Bassitt, acquired from the A’s over the winter, is expected to round out the Mets’ rotation to begin the season.

White Sox Notes: Adolfo, Banks, Crick

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White Sox outfielder Micker Adolfo has been generating trade interest in recent days, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. The out-of-options Adolfo has, somewhat remarkably, ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America for eight straight seasons. Since signing as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic, Adolfo has slowly risen through the South Siders’ system, though injuries and the canceled 2020 minor league season have slowed his ultimate path to the big leagues. Adolfo has twice undergone right elbow surgery, including Tommy John surgery in 2018.

Now 25 years old, Adolfo split the 2021 season between Double-A and Triple-A, where he slashed a combined .245/.311/.520 with 25 home runs, 24 doubles and a triple. There’s little doubting Adolfo’s prodigious raw power. FanGraphs gives him 70 power on the 20-80 scale, while, MLB.com notes that even after the Sox’ signings of Oscar Colas and Yoelqui Cespedes, Adolfo might have the most raw power in the system. That said, Adolfo’s hit tool is lagging quite a bit behind his power. He’s fanned in a jarring 33.1% of his plate appearances, including a combined 34.1% in Double-A and Triple-A last year.

Chicago doesn’t have much room in its outfield mix for the 6’4″, 225-pound Adolfo, so trade speculation is only natural. Like Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, AJ Pollock, Adam Engel and Andrew Vaughn, Adolfo is a right-handed hitter. MLB.com touts his plus-plus (70) arm strength but notes that he doesn’t have the speed or range to handle center, likely relegating him to corner work.

There are plenty of clubs that could roll the dice on a slugging left or right fielder, and given Adolfo’s lack of options, some form of deal involving him indeed seems likely. The Sox would have to designate him for assignment and pass him and attempt to pass him through waivers before they’d be able to assign him to Triple-A Charlotte. Adolfo likely wouldn’t command a huge return for the Sox, but clubs like the Padres and Guardians, for instance, are known to be looking for some corner outfield help. It’d also make sense for rebuilding or retooling teams to take a look at Adolfo and see whether that power might outweigh the strikeouts at the MLB level. The Orioles, Pirates, Rangers and Nationals ought to at least have a bench spot available.

A move involving Adolfo seems all the more likely given that it became clear last night the Sox would need at least one additional spot on the 40-man roster. That spot will go to eight-year minor league veteran Tanner Banks, a 30-year-old left-hander whom the Sox drafted back in 2014 and has been informed he’s made his first big league roster (as first reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale).

Assistant general manager Chris Getz told reporters last night that Banks has seen a velocity jump this spring and is now sitting at 94 mph with his heater (Twitter link via James Fegan of The Athletic). With some extra life on his heater, a strong spring showing (two runs in 5 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks), and a newfound need for some bullpen lefties following Garrett Crochet’s looming Tommy John surgery, Banks finds himself on the cusp of making his big league debut.

The Sox can, of course, just move Crochet to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot, but Banks probably isn’t the only player for whom the Sox will need to open a 40-man spot. Veteran righty Kyle Crick, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times, appears ticketed for the big league bullpen and will need to have his contract formally selected to the 40-man roster himself.

Crick, 29, had a big showing with the White Sox’ Triple-A affiliate last year — one run in 10 1/3 innings with a 15-to-3 K/BB ratio — but didn’t make the Majors. He re-upped with the ChiSox on a minor league pact this winter and has continued that impressive showing in Cactus League play, ratting off seven shutout innings with just one hit and two walks allowed against five punchouts.

Formerly the No. 49 overall pick in the 2011 draft (Giants), Crick went to the Pirates alongside Bryan Reynolds in San Francisco’s ill-fated trade for Andrew McCutchen (a Pirates heist that is often overshadowed by Pittsburgh’s own regrettable Chris Archer swap). He had four mostly solid seasons in the Pittsburgh bullpen, working to a 3.62 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate but a bloated 13% walk rate. He’ll get a chance with the Sox to show that the command gains he’s displayed in Charlotte last season and so far in Cactus League play can be sustained at the MLB level. If that’s the case, Crick has the stuff to serve as an important bullpen piece for Tony La Russa — one who can be controlled through the 2023 season as he still has only four-plus years of Major League service time and would be arbitration-eligible next winter.

Astros, Ryan Pressly Agree To Extension

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The Astros and reliever Ryan Pressly are in agreement on a two-year, $30MM extension, per Robert Murray of FanSided. There is also a vesting option for 2025 that could take the deal up to $42MM. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Pressly will make $14MM in 2023 and 2024, along with a $2MM buyout on the 2025 option. (Twitter links) Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle relays that the $14MM option for 2025 will vest with 50 appearances in both 2023 and 2024. Pressly is represented by Scott Lonergan of the Ballengee Group.

This is the second time in Pressly’s career where he has signed an extension with the Astros while one year away from free agency. In March of 2019, the two sides agreed to a two-year extension that came with a $17.5MM guarantee, covering the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, along with a $10MM vesting option for 2022. Pressly needed to make 60 appearances in each of the 2020 and 2021 campaigns in order to vest the option, which he did. (In the shortened 2020 campaigns, all thresholds of this kind were prorated by 2.7, meaning Pressly’s 23 games were counted as just over 62 appearances.) Once again, Pressly has been locked up to keep him from hitting the open market.

Ryan Pressly |Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsAs noted by Murray, this deal makes Pressly one of the highest-paid relievers in baseball and is the largest contract ever given to an Astros reliever. The fact that the Astros are willing to commit to Pressly in this way is hardly surprising based on his performance. Just months prior to the first extension, Pressly was acquired by Houston from Minnesota in a 2018 deadline deal. After the trade, Pressly took his game to new heights, something he later credited to Houston’s analytics department. As a Twin in 2018, he pitched 47 2/3 innings with a 3.40 ERA, 33.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. Although those were already quality numbers, his post-trade work resulted in an ERA of 0.77 over 23 1/3 innings with a 38.1% strikeout rate and 3.6% walk rate.

Although Pressly couldn’t quite maintain the gaudy level of that small sample, he has still been one of the better relievers in the league since the signing of his previous deal. In the past three seasons, he’s logged 139 1/3 innings with a 2.45 ERA, 33% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. Among relievers with at least 130 innings in that time, his ERA trails only Liam Hendriks and Josh Hader, with that strikeout rate coming in seventh and walk rate coming in sixth.

Now 33, this deal will keep Pressly in Houston through his age-35 season, and possibly for another year after that with the vesting option. For the Astros, they set a franchise record last year with a payroll of $187MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. For this season, they’ve dropped down to around $174MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That’s largely due to letting certain players walk, such as Carlos Correa and Zack Greinke. When this extension kicks in next year, there could be even more payroll flexibility, as Michael Brantley, Yuli Gurriel, Jason Castro, Aledmys Diaz and Rafael Montero are all set to hit free agency. There are also various players who have options for next year, such as Justin Verlander, Jake Odorizzi, Pedro Baez and Martin Maldonado. That means that, prior to this extension, there were just four players with guaranteed contracts for the 2023 campaign: Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Lance McCullers Jr. and Hector Neris.

In the end, the Astros get one of the best relievers in the game for a few more years, while Pressley gets the biggest payday of his career, one that pays him like the elite pitcher he is.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays, Manuel Margot Agree To Two-Year Extension

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10:36pm: Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times provides the breakdown, with Margot making $7MM in 2023, $10MM in 2024, followed by a $12MM mutual option for 2025 that comes with a $2MM buyout.

2:21pm: The Rays are reportedly in agreement with outfielder Manuel Margot on a two-year, $19MM extension, pending a physical. The terms will begin in 2023 and buy out Margot’s first two seasons of free agent eligibility. The 27-year-old had been on track to hit the open market for the first time after this season. He and the club have already agreed upon a $5.6MM salary for his final arbitration-eligible year, and that reportedly won’t be affected by this extension. Margot is represented by Wasserman.

Margot has spent the past two seasons in Tampa after coming over from the Padres in a 2019-20 offseason trade. In both years, he’s posted slightly below-average numbers at the plate. Margot has tallied 623 plate appearances over 166 games as a Ray, posting a cumulative .258/.317/.375 line with 11 home runs. He’s done well to put the ball in play, only striking out in 15.2% of his plate appearances, but Margot has neither hit for much power nor drawn many walks.

While Margot has been an ordinary hitter for the bulk of his career, he’s an excellent defensive outfielder. Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating have pegged him as a plus gloveman in all five of his full big league seasons. That’s been true regardless of where he’s suited up. Margot is more than capable of handling center field, and he was downright excellent when moving to right field in deference to Kevin Kiermaier last season. No outfielder fared better than Margot in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, which pegged him at 16 plays above par.

Tampa Bay has run out strong outfield defenses for years. That’s in large part due to the presence of an otherworldly center fielder in Kiermaier, but players like Margot, Brett Phillips and Randy Arozarena have done well in their own right. The Rays front office seemingly places strong emphasis on outfield defense, so it’s not too surprising they’d like to keep Margot in the fold.

The Rays are set to open the 2022 campaign with a franchise-record player payroll in the $83MM range, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. There are only around $15MM in guarantees for next season, however. The Rays will have another hefty arbitration class, but Tampa Bay is never afraid to move arb-eligible players for younger, more affordable options. Last night’s trade of Austin Meadows to the Tigers fit that bill, and it afforded an opportunity for top prospect Josh Lowe to get an extended major league look.

Lowe, Margot and Arozarena now look to be in place as Tampa Bay’s primary 2023 outfield. Kiermaier is headed into the final guaranteed season of his contract. He’s controllable next year via $13MM club option, but the Rays could look to trade him or simply buy the option out if they’re content with Margot as the everyday center fielder. Tampa Bay has reportedly explored potential Kiermaier deals for a few seasons, but they’ve yet to pull the trigger on such a move.

Margot’s extension removes one of the better center fielders from the upcoming free agent market. Brandon Nimmo is set to headline that fairly thin class, with Kiermaier the second-best option if his option is declined. Beyond that duo, utilityman Enrique Hernández, Tyler Naquin (who’s a better fit in a corner) and veterans Lorenzo Cain and Jackie Bradley Jr. seem to be the top players available.

Tenchy Rodriguez first reported the Rays and Margot were in agreement on a two-year, $19MM extension. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times specified the deal would buy out his first two free agent seasons.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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