Due to the lockout putting MLB business on ice for over three months, there are many players who don’t yet have a finalized salary for the 2022 campaign. Any arbitration-eligible players that couldn’t come to an agreement with their team will soon participate in a hearing as the season is in progress. The Phillies have one such player, right-hander Zach Eflin, who is hoping for a $6.9MM figure while the club will be arguing for the lower figure of $5.15MM. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected $6MM, a number pretty close to the midpoint between the two parties.)
Eflin recently spoke about the situation to Matt Gelb of the Athletic. “I know what I bring to this club every fifth day,” Eflin said. “And I see my true value more than what their offer was. So that’s really all I have to say. I’m curious to see what they have to say in a courtroom. So, it’ll be interesting, but I’m looking forward to it.”
If the pitcher is particularly motivated for this fight, it’s possible that he’s still holding a grudge from an incident in 2019. The Phillies optioned Eflin, despite the fact that he was pitching well, in order to get an extra bench player on the roster. They had a double-header coming up that week, which lined up with Eflin’s upcoming start. Since teams are allowed to bring up an extra player for double-headers, they were able to option Eflin, call him up as the extra man for the double-header and then call him up for real for the start after that. Because of these roster shenanigans, Eflin ended up missing out on nine days of MLB salary, costing him about $20K. (According to this Gelb piece from the time of the incident.) “Players don’t forget that,” Eflin said in today’s article. “I’m looking forward to the hearing and seeing what they have to say about me. I feel like I’m going to learn a lot about the business side of the game.” The 28-year-old is heading into free agency at the end of this season.
Some other notes from the Senior Circuit…
- After a disappointing 2020 season, Eric Lauer began 2021 at the Brewers’ alternate training site. “I wasn’t super happy about it,” Lauer told Will Sammon of The Athletic. However, the lefty used the opportunity to do some experimenting, taking some time in a bullpen session to mimic the mechanics of other pitchers, such as Aroldis Chapman and Tim Lincecum. To his surprise and delight, his velocity starting ticking up. That extra gas helped propel Lauer to an excellent bounceback campaign, as he ended up throwing 118 2/3 innings of 3.19 ERA ball last year, with a 23.9% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. The results are even better in Lauer’s four starts so far this year. Small sample caveats apply, but he has a 1.93 ERA with an incredible 36.6% strikeout rate and 5.4% walk rate. Brewers fans, or any baseball fan interested in the art of pitching, will want to check out the full piece for more details on Lauer’s tremendous turnaround.
- Cardinals’ infield prospect Nolan Gorman is off to a tremendous start to his season. The 21-year-old (22 next week) already has 11 home runs through 20 Triple-A games and is hitting .321/.372/.769 overall. That has led to a chorus of voices among fans in St. Louis for him to be called up, especially with a few of the big leaguers struggling. Shortstop Paul DeJong has been under the spotlight for his shortcomings at the plate for a few years now. His overall offensive production has declined in each season of his career, according to wRC+. After a 123 in his rookie year in 2017, he’s put up a 103, 101, 87, 86 and a 55 in 2022 so far. Prior to the 2018 campaign, the club signed DeJong to an extension that runs through 2023. Despite that, he doesn’t have unlimited rope with the organization. “We’re still trying to figure out what we have here with (DeJong), so we’re trying to give him every opportunity possible,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Katie Woo of The Athletic. “If things don’t change trajectory or direction, then ultimately we’re probably going to have to do something different. Nolan would get more of a maj0r-league opportunity at that point. I think we have to remind ourselves that we’re a month into the season; we’ve had an odd first couple of weeks with weather and obviously a truncated spring training. You’re seeing a lot of offensive stats down in general in this league, so we want to remain patient.” The plan to merely switch Gorman in for DeJong is complicated, however, by the fact that the Cardinals are an organization that values defense so highly. As noted in the piece, Gorman only recently switched from being a primary third baseman to playing second base, as he’s blocked at third by Nolan Arenado. Bringing Gorman up to man the keystone would involve sliding Tommy Edman over to shortstop, a position where he only has 17 games of MLB experience. For the time being, it seems Cardinals’ fans yearning for Gorman’s promotion will have to keep waiting.
$6.9 is a nice request.
Not if a period is involved…..
Eflin didn’t make his case last night.
It’s time for robo umps. More balls being called strikes than normal.
For 6.9M ? lucking out with Wheeler and Nola on the cheap clouds your perspective.
Gorman really couldn’t do much worse than DeJong. Give him a shot. Maybe his defense will improve being around all the gold glove players.
I think the change in defense between DeJong/Edman and Edman/Gorman is what is making them hesitant to call Gorman up, although they could work Gorman in at DH and not lose anything defensively.
That the thing though…they don’t want to make Gorman a DH guy…it will hurt his development as a defensive player…they would rather have him play everyday on defense
He can still develop defensively in majors as DH. They still practice in the majors everyday. He can DH part time and play second others. Not that complicated
It’s not possible because for the DH spot we already have Dickerson and Pujols.
Dickerson had been terrible. Honestly I would be fine to release him. Not sure he is a good enough reason to block a prospect.
It’s still only been less than a moth, so it’s too early to give up on someone like Dickerson who was a perfectly fine hitter last year. The reason everyone is so anxious about DeJong is because he also sucked offensively last year.
Moz would eat 5 million if they out right release Dickerson
De Jong is a very good defensive shortstop, but that can only carry you so far. His strikeout numbers continue to climb as well. It’s nothing personal towards Pauly D, the Cardinals just need more offensive production out of their shortstop.
He seems like a really good guy and a great player to have in the clubhouse, but like Mo says (relating to all players), “If you can hit, we’ll find a place for you somewhere.”
For a pitcher who has received a lot of money while doing nothing because of repeated knee injuries, eflin sounds like an egotistical jerk. Hopefully Phillies tell him good luck no thanks after this year.
Elfin is an average starter.
Eflin is a little better than average. He’s a #3 starter on 10+ teams and a 4th starter on the other 20 teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins his arbitration case given how much pitchers have been paid via the arbitration process in the past. It would make sense for Philly to settle with him but it sounds like Eflin is willing to take the gamble. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say if he ends up going to arbitration and loses his case. He might sound a little cocky but I appreciate his honesty when talking about his situation.
And average starters get 15M.
*average starters get overpaid
We need a moratorium on the word “super”.
DeJong is another Mo dud ! He signed his extension and can’t hit his weight since! I know he try’s! I knew Carp tried…Time to cut bait and send him down!
DeJong doesn’t have any options left so they Cards would have to DFA him and they’re not ready to do that yet. I’d love to see them figure out a way to get Gorman on the major league roster but that may be difficult right now with the cut down to 26 players today. Gorman should be on the roster sometime in June; most likely there will be an injury that allows them to call him up, or perhaps they’ll be ready to DFA DeYoung at that point if he can’t turn his season around. With a shortened spring training and less than 25 games played so far this year, it’s too early to DFA starters off of a team. He needs another month+ before making that decision.
Tell that to Cano!
the 40 year old injury prone roid user is in a much different scenario than a decently young very good defensive shortstop who forgot how to hit when he signed his extension
Trade him to the Yankees. The Yanks need a sure handed glove at shortstop. And—-He could actually learn how to make hard— consistent contact — under a new head hitting coach.
Hmmm… isn’t it a coincidence that the season following Paul DeJong’s last quality hitting season and the signing of his new contract———corresponds exactly to the time John Mozeliak made it mandatory for all hitters switch to Dave Alberts philosophy on Hitting?????
Maybe DeJong is afraid if he bucks Alberts—- he’ll be fired just Like Mike Schildt. Schildt wanted to replace Alberts. Instead, Mr. Mozeliak replaced Schildt.
And Carp was hitting better than DeJong
The Phillies seem like they would be better off keeping Kyle Gibson in the fold and upgrading Elfin’s spot. Then again, next year’s free agent crop is pretty bad outside of a few big fish.
heck no on Gibson long-term. his floor is low and he’s already in his mid-30s.
Gibson is at his peak now. I really like him, but DarkSide nailed it. This is all we’re getting from Gibson.
I wasn’t thinking anything beyond 1-2 years.
unless he can be had for less on this contract i still would fear that. the track record simply isnt there and he doesnt eat enough innings to justify the possibility of a rising ERA.
Maybe Lauer can talk to Willie Callhoun about putting in the work. Results speak for themselves
Only Willie tells Willie how to prepare for the season!
I say trade Gorman now for pitching depth and picks. Package with Flaherty would be fine.
Found the Cubs fan
Can’t trade picks except competitive balance picks
Can’t trade Gorman right now. Sosa is out and Edman is the only back up shortstop.
I’ve be for trading Flaherty. As his injuries keep mounting—- he’s beginning to remind me of all of the time and money the cardinals wasted on Carlos Martinez. Head case!!!!
Lauer finally getting a little love from the National media. This guy has quietly been one of the best starters in baseball since June of last season — 2.16 ERA, 12 starts of 5+ innings with 1 or fewer runs given up, both of which are top 3 in baseball.
BTV has him at an absurdly low $9.2MM, come on guys you can do better.
With Adrian Houser’s 2.25 ERA since June of last year, MKE, arguably has 5 of the top 30 starters in baseball all in the same rotation. With Aaron Ashby the 6th starter having the potential to eventually join that group.
It has been fun to watch and kudos to Lauer for putting in the effort. It’s gotta be fun for all of those guys to kinda try to push each other every game. You can almost feel them each put the team on their shoulders, looking for 6 quality innings or more each night, trying to put zeros up every inning, racking up strikeouts – a friendly competition that fans don’t see too often. If they can just get the offense going, this is a team that really earned a chance to get to the series.
DeJong haha…. Poor Cardinals.
Your summary of the Lauer article mischaracterises his “I wasn’t happy about it” comment. The summary makes it sound like he wasn’t happy about being at the alternative training site; it was actually a comment about his particular throwing session where he decided to try different deliveries. He said he wasn’t happy about the way the session went before he tried the alternative methods.
Perhaps he wasn’t happy about being at the training site; in fact, I’m sure he wasn’t. But I don’t think you should insinuate that he thought it was unfair of the Brewers to have him there.
Paul DeJong has the highest lifetime OPS against the Mets of anyone ever– McCovey, Stargell, you name it. So, other than that, his stats must really be terrible, and the Mets just somehow held him to one single in last week’s series.
Every team has injuries, and the Cardinals will be no exception. As soon as someone gets hurt, that’ll offer Gorman an opportunity to see what he can do.