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Archives for September 2022

Reds Select Michael Siani

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Michael Siani. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster. Nick Senzel, who was already reported to be done for the season, will head to the 10-day injured list in a corresponding move to get Siani onto the active roster.

Siani, 23, was selected by the Reds in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He immediately jumped into rookie ball that year and onto Baseball America’s list of top Cincinnati farmhands. Since that time, Siani has worked his way up the minor league ladder without hitting much but earning tremendous plaudits for his defense. BA’s report from the start of this year highlights Siani’s excellent glove work and says he’s best center fielder the Reds have had since Billy Hamilton.

Siani has spent most of this season in Double-A, hitting 12 home runs in 121 games and slashing .252/.351/.404. That production with the bat was enough for a 102 wRC+, or 2% above league average. He provided excellent value with his wheels, though, stealing 49 bases in that time. He got promoted to Triple-A recently and played eight games there, adding another two long balls and swiping three more bags.

With Senzel’s injury, there’s an opening for Siani to get some work in the final two weeks of the season. With the Reds well out of contention, they can give him a shot at roaming big league outfields and facing big league pitching before the offseason arrives.

Rays Select Dusten Knight, Place Jalen Beeks On IL

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The Rays announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, selecting the contract of right-hander Dusten Knight. He will take the active roster spot of left-hander Jalen Beeks, who has been placed on the 15-day IL due to lower leg tightness, retroactive to September 18. To create room on the 40-man roster, right-hander Nick Anderson was recalled and placed on the 60-day IL due to plantar fasciitis.

The loss of Beeks will be a notable one for the Rays, as the southpaw has somewhat quietly been having an excellent season. After missing all of 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Beeks has thrown 61 innings here in 2022 with a 2.80 ERA, 28% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate. This is the second time he’s landed on the IL this year due to his leg and this one will keep him out of action until the final days of the regular season, at least.

Knight, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Rays in the offseason and has bounced on and off the roster since then. This is the third time the club has selected his contract, with the previous two instances resulting in him being designated for assignment before clearing waivers and being outrighted. He’s thrown eight innings in the big leagues with a 4.50 ERA but had a more substantial showing in Triple-A. He’s thrown 54 1/3 innings for the Bulls with a 3.48 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 48.5% ground ball rate, but an unfortunate 13.7% walk rate.

The move for Anderson is a formality, as it had already been reported that he would miss the remainder of the season. By placing him on the 60-day IL, the Rays have freed up a roster spot for Knight but will now pay Anderson a major league salary for the final two weeks of the season, with Anderson also earning service time for that stretch.

Garrett Whitlock To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery

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Sep. 21: The Red Sox announced that they have officially placed Whitlock on the 15-day IL, with righty Connor Seabold recalled to take his place on the roster. Since Whitlock won’t be returning this year, the club can transfer him to the 60-day IL as soon as they need his spot on the 40-man roster.

Sep. 20: Red Sox right-hander Garrett Whitlock will undergo surgery and won’t return for the rest of the season, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter links). Whitlock is expected to be ready for Spring Training. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the procedure will be arthroscopic hip surgery for a right hip impingement.

Whitlock, 26, went on the injured list due to hip inflammation in June and ended up missing just over a month. The issue never really went away though, with Abraham reporting a few weeks ago on Whitlock’s ongoing struggles to continue. The Red Sox were in the Wild Card race for the first few months of the season but have faded recently and are now 10 games behind the Mariners for the final spot, with three clubs in between. Given that there’s just over two weeks remaining on the schedule, their chances of climbing back into the race have evaporated, making it fairly logical to stop pushing Whitlock and start worrying about next season.

Despite the ongoing injury and unfortunate ending, it’s been another successful season for Whitlock. After being selected from the Yankees in the 2020 Rule 5 draft, he stuck with Boston through all of last year, registering a 1.96 ERA over 73 1/3 innings, along with a 27.2% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 49.7% ground ball rate.

Just as the 2022 campaign was ramping up in April, he and the Sox agreed to a four-year, $18.75MM extension that also comes with a pair of club options, cementing him as a key piece of the team’s pitching staff. This year, Whitlock eventually earned himself a spot in the rotation, making nine starts. However, since going on the IL with the hip issue, he has only appeared as a reliever. Perhaps Whitlock could be considered for a rotation spot again next year, if the surgery goes well and he’s able to return to full strength. While pitching around the issue for most of the season, he still registered a 3.45 ERA over 78 1/3 innings along with a 26.4% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.

Nick Martinez’s Looming Opt-Out Decision

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When the 2021-22 offseason commenced, Nick Martinez wasn’t even on the radar for most MLB fans. The right-hander had stumbled through an uninspiring four-year run with the Rangers from 2014-17, and while a big showing in Japan put him back on the radar of MLB clubs, it was still a shock to see him sign the 14th-largest contract of any pitcher last offseason. Martinez not only secured an eye-opening four-year term and $25.5MM guarantee from the Padres — he was also promised the opportunity to opt out of his contract after each season of the deal.

It’s an upside-laden contract for the player. Annual opt-outs of that nature tend to go to coveted free agents settling for shorter-term deals than they might otherwise prefer (e.g. Carlos Correa in Minnesota). It’s not an entirely new concept — Scott Kazmir got that treatment from the Dodgers as far back as 2015 when signing his three-year, $48MM deal — and it’s one that Padres president of baseball ops has now used to lure in a pair of players he played a role in signing and developing during his time with Texas; Jurickson Profar’s three-year, $21MM contract also contained an opt-out after each of the first two seasons.

Nick Martinez | Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Martinez’s four-year deal pays him a $2MM signing bonus and a $4MM salary in 2022. All three of his player options are valued at $6.5MM, and he’d receive a $1.5MM buyout if he decided to turn an option down and test free agency. In other words, Martinez’s upcoming option effectively is a net $18MM decision. The signing bonus, 2022 salary and option buyout are all but banked. The question for him is one of whether he can top $18MM in free agency this winter.

It’s fair to question whether that can be called a given. On the surface, Martinez’s 3.22 ERA in 100 1/3 innings has to be considered a roaring success. He entered the 2022 season with a career 4.77 ERA in 415 1/3 innings, all coming in that prior run with the Rangers — one that concluded with consecutive ERAs north of 5.50.

At the same time, Martinez hasn’t exactly dominated opponents. His 20.9% strikeout rate is below the 22.3% league average, while his 8.6% walk rate is ever so slightly higher than the 8.2% league average. Martinez induces grounders at an above-average clip (46.7% compared to 42.2%) but also surrenders home runs more frequently than the average pitcher (1.25 HR/9 compared to 1.10 HR/9).

The role — or rather, the roles — that Martinez has filled this year don’t necessarily help his cause, either. He opened the year as the Padres’ fifth starter but was part of a six-man rotation by May and was moved to the bullpen full-time in mid-June, after 10 solid but unspectacular starts (52 1/3 innings, 4.30 ERA, 20.4 K%, 11.7 BB%).

In the bullpen, things have gone better. Martinez has tallied 48 1/3 innings in relief and worked to a 2.05 ERA. His 21.5% strikeout rate in the ’pen is only moderately higher than it was out of the rotation, but to his credit, Martinez’s 4.7% walk rate as a reliever is miles better than it was coming out of the rotation. (Whether teams deem that to be sustainable is another open question.) He’s picked up eight saves and six holds for the Friars, but early on, the majority of his work came in lower-leverage situations. Even three of those eight saves were of the three-inning variety in long relief. He’s been used in later, higher-leverage spots as the summer has worn on, but Martinez will likely finish the season having spent only a couple months working in the critical leverage spots for which teams tend to pay top dollar.

There are other elements to consider, too. Martinez rates well in terms of his overall average exit velocity, yielding just an 86.6 mph average to his opponents. That checks into the 87th percentile among MLB pitchers. He also boasts above-average spin on his fastball and curveball alike, and Martinez has excelled at inducing chases on pitches off the plate. However, Martinez’s 37.2% hard-hit rate is barely better than the league-average, and the 8.2% barrel rate he’s yielded is well shy of league average (32nd percentile). Basically, when he does allow contact, he’s been much more prone to loud contact than one would expect when looking the mean results.

Martinez’s case is an interesting one. He didn’t thrive in a rotation role, even when facing hitters the first time through the order (.282/.311/.447). As is typically the case, those numbers worsened the second and third time he faced an opponent in a game. He’s been excellent the first trip through the lineup as a reliever, however (.201/.261/.289), even though he didn’t completely overhaul his pitch arsenal when shifting to bullpen work. At a time when relievers and even some starters are gravitating toward focusing on two plus pitches, Martinez’s approach is uncommon: he’s the rare reliever who deploys a five-pitch mix (four-seamer, cutter, sinker, curve, changeup).

MLBTR’s Anthony Franco wrote a few weeks ago that Martinez appears unlikely to opt out of the remaining three years on his contract, as it’s a stretch to envision him topping that remaining guarantee. There’s merit to that line of thinking. Martinez was unexciting in a brief run as a starter, has impressed but not dominated as a reliever, and doesn’t have the type of elite velocity, spin rate or whiff rate that serve as the portent to a breakout.

On the spectrum of outcomes, his 2022 season hasn’t been a best-case scenario but has been better than average. A 90th percentile outcome or better might have seen Martinez play a prominent role and pitch toward the top of the San Diego rotation; giving 10 serviceable starts before moving to the ’pen and slowly climbing into a leverage role has to rank somewhere in the 60th to 75th percentile of outcomes. The Padres are surely happy with the year-one results.

Martinez’s decision is made difficult because the very nature of the contract he signed sat outside the norms of conventional contract structures for typical MLB free agents. Generally speaking, free agents very rarely sign three- and four-year deals with average annual values in the $6-7MM range. Even back-end starters will crack the $8-10MM range on one- and two-year deals. It’s not uncommon to see a setup reliever sign a multi-year deal in this AAV range, but most recent examples have been of the two-year variety.

If Martinez hopes to beat the net $18MM on his contract, he’d need a team to value him in the $10MM range over a two-year span or an $8-9MM range over a three-year span. In the case of the former, that’d likely mean a team believing he can function as a starter on a full-time basis. The latter structure is typically reserved for some of the market’s most highly desirable relievers (e.g. Kendall Graveman’s three-year deal with the White Sox, Joe Kelly’s three-year deal with the Dodgers). It’s hard to include Martinez in that same category.

Still, there’s a logical disconnect between the idea that the market produced a $25.5MM guarantee for Martinez a year ago, when he was a total wild card, but might not produce better than an $18MM guarantee now that he’s proven himself capable of providing legitimate value to a contending MLB club. The source of that disconnect may simply be the allure of the unknown. There may yet be room for Martinez to take his game to another level, but some of the perceived upside stemming from the 1.60 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate he posted in his final NPB campaign has perhaps dwindled. That’s not to say he’s not a valuable big league pitcher — he certainly has been — but now that he’s more of an established commodity, that same upside might not be baked into a potential new contract.

Suffice it to say, Martinez’s opt-out looks like something of a borderline case. He can fill multiple roles, has shined out of the ’pen, held his own in the rotation but hasn’t dominated opponents at any step along the way. He’d need to be confident teams will view him as at least $9-10MM per year pitcher in order to opt out, because even though a $7-8MM AAV over a three-year term would be a win for him, that’s tougher to come by when you’re selling your age-32 through age-34 seasons.

If he sticks with the Padres, they’ll be happy to have him. Mike Clevinger and Sean Manaea are free agents at season’s end, and the Friars traded MacKenzie Gore to the Nationals in the Juan Soto deal. Their 2023 rotation depth is not as sound as this year’s was and is. In the bullpen, each of Robert Suarez, Pierce Johnson and Craig Stammen can become a free agent. Martinez provides some valuable substance to both groups. The $18MM question is whether that value is significant enough that he’ll again test his luck on the open market.

We can close this one out with a poll…

Buster Posey Joins San Francisco Giants’ Ownership Group

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The San Francisco Giants announced Wednesday that recently retired Buster Posey has returned to the famed organization, albeit as an owner. The 12-year veteran has purchased an unknown minority share in the Giants’ ownership group, recently valued by Forbes at $3.5B. Moreover, Posey will also serve on the Giants’ board of directors. Tyler Kepner of the New York Times first reported that Posey was joining the ownership group and being added to the board of directors.

When discussing the addition of Posey to the ownership team, Greg Johnson, the Giants’ chairman, told Kepner that the two of them want to bridge “the trust gap that exists because of the structure in baseball,” and that Posey is “somebody there that’s respected by the players and part of our ownership group.”

Posey reiterated this idea saying, “I want to be viewed as, like, pro-baseball … I’m not pro-player, I’m not pro-owner, I just love the game of baseball, and this is another opportunity for me to learn more about the game, more about the business and really commit my time to an organization in a city that I’ve grown to love.” Posey, however, clarified that he’s not “taking on any type of front office role” and that he’s going to take a more “hey, let me know where I can help and I’ll help there” approach with his new position.

Posey was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim in the 50th round of the 2005 MLB Draft but chose not to sign and attended Florida State University. Three years later, Posey would be drafted 5th overall in the 2008 MLB draft by the Giants and never looked back, making his Giants debut in 2009 and winning NL Rookie of the Year in 2010. Over the next 10 seasons, Posey would bring home an NL MVP trophy, three World Series rings, five Silver Slugger awards, a Gold Glove, and appear in 7 All-Star games, before retiring after the 2021 season with a career slash line of .302/.372/.460 for an OPS of .831.

Braves Outright Jay Jackson

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In an unsurprising move, Atlanta Braves’ relief pitcher Jay Jackson has passed through waivers unclaimed, as reported in MLB’s Transactions Log. Jackson was not on the active roster prior to his DFA, but was on the Braves’ 40-man while with Gwinnett. An early offseason addition for the defending champs, the 34-year-old Jackson was DFA’d by the San Francisco Giants and traded to the Braves. However, his start to the 2022 season was delayed by a right lat strain that forced him to the injured list. Once active, he was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett where he posted a 1.53 ERA in 17 2/3 innings with 20 strikeouts with a strong 29.4 K% and 4.4 BB%. Jackson finally made his season debut on August 29th, pitching one-third of an inning before following that up by pitching another inning on August 31st. In total, he pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up one hit and striking out a single batter.

Jackson has bounced around in his career prior to his latest DFA, having been a part of 7 Major League organizations in his 15-year career. Most recently, he spent the 2021 season with the Giants, pitching to a 3.74 ERA in 21 2/3 innings with a high 31.3 K%. Nevertheless, Jackson walked a fair share of batters posting a 13.3% BB%. Prior to his stint with the Giants, Jackson was with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan’s NPB from 2016-2018, coming back to the majors in 2019 with the Milwaukee Brewers, before returning to NPB with the Chiba Lotte Marines briefly in 2020.

As noted in a previous MLBTR article, Jackson was owed the balance of a $1.5MM major league salary, is not playoff-eligible for a new team,  and is a free agent after the season. By remaining in Triple-A he will receive the rest of his salary and be a depth option for the Braves. Regardless he will be a free agent after this season and will likely garner plenty of minor league interest, having had a strong showing in Gwinnett, with the Giants in 2021, and in NPB.

Six Teams Set To Pay Luxury Tax In 2022

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Six teams are set to pay penalties under the newly restructured competitive balance/luxury tax for their 2022 payrolls, per a report from the Associated Press. Each of the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Padres and Red Sox is currently over the threshold. That marks just the second time since the luxury tax’s inception that six teams will pay the tax.

This will be the second straight year paying the tax for both Los Angeles and San Diego. Each of the other four clubs was under the threshold in 2021 and thus counts as a first-time luxury tax offender.

The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement not only saw the tax thresholds increase by a relatively significant margin — it also implemented a newly created fourth tier of penalization. For a reminder, the new thresholds are as follows:

  • Tier One: $230-250MM (teams pay a 20% overage)
  • Tier Two: $250-270MM (32%)
  • Tier Three: $270-290MM (62.5% for first-time payors; 65% thereafter)
  • Tier Four: $290MM+ (80%)

For second-time payors (i.e. Dodgers, Padres), those rates jump to 30%, 42%, 75% and 90%, respectively.

While those sound like substantial penalties at first glance, the actual amounts to be paid by most teams in excess of the luxury tax is relatively minimal. Those clubs are only taxed on dollars over the threshold, leading to often trivial sums of money (by the standards of a Major League franchise, anyhow). The Padres, for instance, are less than $3MM over the threshold, per the AP, so even with an increased 30% tax rate they’re only set to pay a bit more than $800K. The Red Sox are roughly $4.5MM over the threshold, putting them in line to pay about $900K in fees. The Phillies ($2.6MM) and even the Yankees ($9.4MM) are also looking at generally small sums, relative to their annual payroll marks.

The only two teams set to pay substantial sums are the Dodgers, who fall just shy of the fourth tier of penalization, and the Mets, who exceeded that tier by nearly $9MM. The Mets are in line to pay as much as $29.9MM in taxes, per the AP, while the Dodgers check in just slightly behind that sum at $29.4MM.

What the AP’s report does not delve into, however, are the other penalties associated with the luxury tax — which some teams view as more detrimental than the fiscal penalizations. Any club that exceeds the first tax threshold by $40MM or more will see its top pick in the following year’s draft pushed back 10 slots, for instance. With regard to the 2023 draft, that applies to both the Mets and the Dodgers.

Tax payors are also subject to stiffer slaps on the wrist when signing free agents who have rejected a qualifying offer and to diminished returns when losing such free agents. CBT payors who sign a “qualified” free agent stand to lose their second- and fifth-highest selections in the draft as well as $1MM from their league-allotted bonus pool for international free agency (which typically represents anywhere from roughly one-sixth to one-quarter of the total pool). That’s in contrast to revenue-sharing recipients, who forfeit only their third-highest pick, and to non-revenue sharing recipients/non-CBT-paying teams, who lose their second pick and $500K from that international pool.

More interesting with respect to this year’s group of luxury payors is the fact that a CBT-paying club who extends a qualifying offer to a free agent only stands to gain a compensatory pick after the fourth round of the 2023 draft. For a team that does not receive revenue sharing and does not pay the CBT, that pick would fall after Competitive Balance Round B — roughly 60 picks higher.

For a team like the Red Sox, who exceeded the tax by just $4.5MM, that means they’ll see their potential compensation for Xander Bogaerts — a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer — shrink considerably. It also lessens the incentive to extend a qualifying offer to a more borderline candidate like Nathan Eovaldi, who’s been shelved for more than a month due to shoulder inflammation.

It also further welcomes scrutiny of Boston’s decision to hang onto veterans such as Eovaldi, Rich Hill and J.D. Martinez at the trade deadline. It’s certainly commendable that the club sought to remain in the Wild Card mix, but the Sox sent some mixed signals by trading Christian Vazquez (and to a much lesser extent, Jake Diekman) while simultaneously acquiring Tommy Pham and a paid-down-to-league-minimum Eric Hosmer. The Red Sox didn’t really commit to shattering the threshold in the name of an all-out postseason push in 2022 but also didn’t take the necessary steps to maximize their return in the event that Bogaerts departs in free agency. The result could be that their compensation for losing Bogaerts, a four-time All-Star who’s received MVP votes in four different seasons, will be a single draft pick somewhere in the 135 to 140 vicinity next summer. That’s not necessarily a franchise-altering outcome, but it’s also far from ideal.

At one point, the Padres might have faced similar considerations with regard to their own free agents, although they’ve sorted themselves out more organically. Joe Musgrove’s extension keeps him in San Diego and renders moot any considerations regarding a qualifying offer, though. Meanwhile, fellow starters Mike Clevinger and Sean Manaea looked like potential QO candidates at the time of the trade deadline but have struggled considerably in the second half, lessening the likelihood they’d receive a QO in the first place.

That diminished draft compensation, while not a deterrent for the Mets with regard to their roster construction, will be a reality they face this winter. With as many as four potential QO recipients — Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz, Chris Bassitt and Brandon Nimmo — they stand to see the return for those potential departures undercut in a meaningful way. Ditto the Dodgers, who’ll assuredly make a QO to Trea Turner and could at least ponder one for Tyler Anderson. The Yankees, too, have a slam-dunk QO recipient in their lineup (Aaron Judge) and borderline call in their rotation (Jameson Taillon). The Phillies don’t have much to consider with regard to potential qualifying offers.

All told, the six teams in question will pay a combined total of about $73MM in luxury fees, with the Mets and Dodgers accounting for the vast majority of that sum. The luxury tax will hit the Mets the hardest both in terms of actual dollars paid and in terms of return for recipients of the qualifying offer. Both the Padres and Dodgers were content to pay the tax in consecutive seasons, and given the extent by which the Mets exceeded the threshold this year, that’ll likely be the case for them in 2023 as well. Time will tell whether San Diego and Los Angeles are willing to incur an even steeper set of tax penalties as a third-time offender, and it’s certainly plausible that any of the Red Sox, Yankees and/or Phillies could look to dip back under the first tier of penalization next season, when the first-tier threshold increases to $233MM.

Nick Senzel Suffers Season-Ending Toe Fracture

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Reds center fielder Nick Senzel fractured a toe in his left foot during tonight’s loss to the Red Sox, he informed reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). The injury, suffered when he collided with the outfield wall, brings a premature end to his 2022 season.

The Reds have long since been out of the playoff picture, but it’s obviously not ideal to lose Senzel to another injured list stint. It’s unfortunately been a common occurrence for the former #2 overall pick. Senzel spent time on the COVID-19 list earlier this year, and he lost good chunks of the 2020 and ’21 seasons to physical maladies. He appeared in only 59 combined games over the prior two seasons, although he nevertheless started as Cincinnati’s Opening Day center fielder for the third straight year.

Senzel did manage a career-high 420 plate appearances over 110 games this year. The results, however, have been disappointing. He hit .231/.297/.306, connecting on just five home runs. While he only struck out in 18.1% of his plate appearances, he’s not drawn many walks and has gotten subpar results on batted balls. Senzel has just over 1000 plate appearances as a major leaguer and carried a .240/.304/.360 line into play tonight.

It’s theoretically possible tonight’s injury marks an end to Senzel’s time in Cincinnati. He’s arbitration-eligible through 2025, but he could be a non-tender candidate after another below-average campaign. He’ll only be due a modest raise on this year’s $1.25MM salary, and the Reds are likely to be in for another non-competitive season in 2023. The front office could use that as justification to give the former top prospect another opportunity to try to cement himself as a regular, but it’s fair to wonder whether they may look outside the organization for center field help this winter. Cincinnati has gotten just a .230/.293/.332 line out of the position on the season. That’s 25th among the league’s 30 teams by measure of wRC+, topping only the Astros, Phillies, Rockies, A’s and Guardians.

Harris: Tigers Plan To Hire General Manager

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The Tigers made their most important front office hire of the offseason yesterday, tabbing former Giants general manager Scott Harris as president of baseball operations. At a press conference this afternoon, Harris informed reporters (including Tony Paul of the Detroit News and Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press) he’ll look for a new GM who can serve as his top lieutenant in baseball ops.

“These jobs are increasingly large and complicated,” Harris said. “Every single year they get more complex. Having another bright and talented person to partner with in these jobs is critically important. I think it gives you an edge, bringing more talented people to this front office and empowering them to make decisions that ultimately can put out a better team on the field. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think a GM is going to be a big part of that.”

Harris himself had served in that role for the last three years, working as San Francisco’s GM under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The Tigers gave him both an elevated title — a common occurrence for front office hirings, since teams often deny employees’ attempts to interview for lateral positions — and the opportunity to lead an organization for the first time. He’ll now search for a person to work in the point role he occupied for Zaidi the past few seasons in the Bay Area.

Last summer, former GM Al Avila promoted both Sam Menzin and Jay Sartori to assistant general manager. That makes both potential candidates for a bump to GM if the club stays internal. Menzin, it’s worth noting, led day-to-day baseball ops on an interim basis for the roughly five weeks between Avila’s dismissal and Harris’ hiring. While Harris didn’t mention either by name, he noted that internal executives would be under consideration if they fit the criteria he desires. Petzold speculates that Diamondbacks special assistant Jason McLeod could also garner a look, no surprise considering McLeod worked alongside Harris in the Cubs front office before the latter made the jump to San Francisco.

There’s no specific timeline for the GM hire, but Detroit’s front office heavy lifting is not finished. Harris will have final decision-making authority regardless of who is eventually tabbed. One of his key early calls will be settling upon a second-in-command.

Kurt Suzuki To Retire After 2022 Season

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Longtime big league catcher Kurt Suzuki will retire once the 2022 season concludes, he tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. That comes the day after the Hawaii native’s 39th birthday.

“I feel like it’s time,” Suzuki told Fletcher. “I’ve had a great run, won a World Series, All-Star Game. Played 16 seasons. I’ve accomplished a lot of things I never would have dreamed of. I felt like it’s time for the next chapter. My three kids, all they’ve known is baseball.”

Suzuki began his professional career in 2004. A second-round pick of the A’s out of Cal State Fullerton, he made it to Oakland three years later. Suzuki debuted in June 2007 and cemented himself as the A’s primary catcher from essentially that point forward. The right-handed hitter topped 130 games every year between 2008-11, generally hitting at a slightly below-average level overall but better than average for a catcher. Suzuki’s high-contact approach made him a solid offensive backstop for much of his time in Oakland, and the A’s dealt him to the Nationals in the summer of 2012.

After finishing out that season in Washington, Suzuki wound up back in Oakland via trade in August ’13. He qualified for free agency for the first time after that year, signing with the Twins. Suzuki bounced back from a couple down offensive years to hit .288/.345/.383 and earn an All-Star nod that year, and Minnesota signed him to a two-year extension that summer. His production dipped during his final two seasons in Minnesota, but he rebounded with one of the best years of his career after signing with Atlanta going into 2017. He popped a career-best 19 home runs and hit .283/.351/.536 through 81 games, earning a midseason extension for a second season with the Braves.

Suzuki didn’t quite replicate his 2017 production, but he posted another above-average offensive season to wrap up his time in Atlanta. After hitting .271/.322/.444 with 12 longballs, he landed another multiyear deal in free agency. Heading into the 2019 campaign, the Nationals inked Suzuki to a two-year, $10MM deal to pair with Yan Gomes behind the dish. That contract paid off in year one, as the veteran hit another 17 homers with a .264/.324/.486 line in 85 regular season games. Suzuki saw his most extensive playoff action during the Nats run a World Series title that year. That included a go-ahead homer off Justin Verlander in the seventh inning in Game 2 of the World Series, the biggest play in a win that gave Washington a 2-0 series lead.

After another solid showing with Washington during the shortened 2020 campaign, Suzuki has played the last two seasons on successive one-year pacts with the Angels. He’s had a couple down years to wrap up his career, working primarily as a backup in Orange County.

Suzuki’s career totals won’t be finalized until the season concludes, but he’s not likely to change his ledger all that much over the final two weeks. As he noted, Suzuki has played in 16 consecutive big league seasons and surpassed 1600 games. He owns a .255/.314/.388 line with 143 home runs, 729 runs batted in and 594 runs scored. Suzuki made an All-Star game and played a key role on a World Series team. Baseball Reference values his career around 20 wins above replacement. FanGraphs, which factors in Suzuki’s below-average pitch framing metrics, pegs him around nine wins.

Independent of that discrepancy in value, there’s little doubt about the impressiveness of a major league career that lasted more than a decade and a half. It’s possible he’ll continue his baseball career in some capacity, as Suzuki indicated he’d be happy to discuss the possibility of assuming a non-playing role with Halos general manager Perry Minasian (with whom he’s also familiar from their overlapping stints in Atlanta). MLBTR congratulates Suzuki on his lengthy career and wishes him all the best in his post-2022 endeavors.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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