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Archives for March 2023

Rangers Re-Sign Dominic Leone To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed veteran reliever Dominic Leone to a minor league deal after his recent release. Texas also announced the signing of righty Robert Dugger to a minor league deal and optioned lefty John King to Triple-A Round Rock. Both Leone and Dugger have been assigned to Round Rock as well.

Leone, 31, is a veteran who has pitched in the past nine major league seasons. He has a career 3.69 ERA in 353 big league games. The past few years have been remarkably inconsistent, as he posted a bloated 8.38 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, but dropped that all the way to 1.51 in 2021. Last year, it evened out at a more reasonably 4.01 mark in 49 1/3 innings with the Giants. He struck out 23.4% of batters faced last year but also walked 10.8%.

That control has long been an issue for Leone, as he hasn’t posted a walk rate below 10% since 2018. Here in spring this year, he posted a 2.16 ERA over his eight appearances, but walked eight hitters and only struck out five. He wasn’t able to get himself a roster spot and the Rangers released him a few days ago, though they’ve evidently worked out a new pact to keep him around to get some work in Triple-A and serve as depth.

As for Dugger, 27, he has appeared in each of the past four seasons, suiting up for the Marlins, Mariners, Rays and Reds. He has a 7.17 ERA in his career over 27 games and 86 2/3 innings. Though his 6.19 ERA last year is roughly in line with his previous work, he did get an encouraging bump in the strikeout department. He had only punched out 14.4% of opponents in his first three seasons but got that up to 26.4% in 16 innings last year. Then again, he only struck out 18.4% of hitters in the minors, so that bump might be small sample noise.

It’s unclear whether the Rangers view Dugger as a starter or a reliever, but he’s done his share of both over the past few years. He can perhaps give the club a bit of depth in both areas of their roster. The starting rotation is already proceeding without Jake Odorizzi and Glenn Otto, as both are dealing with injuries, while the bullpen will be without Brett Martin for much of the season due to shoulder surgery.

Blue Jays Re-Sign Jay Jackson

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March 29: The Blue Jays announced the signing of Jackson to a one-year, Major League contract. He will indeed head to Triple-A Buffalo for now. Righty Chad Green, who’s still on the mend from Tommy John surgery, was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

March 28: The Blue Jays and righty Jay Jackson have agreed to a new split contract following the reliever’s release a few days ago, reports Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet (Twitter thread). Jackson, a client of Nello Gamberdino, will earn a $1.5MM salary at the MLB level.

The 35-year-old Jackson originally inked a minor league deal with the Jays over the winter. He enjoyed a strong spring, yielding only a pair of unearned runs on seven hits and two walks while punching out 13 hitters over the course of 9 1/3 frames.

That excellent spring effort in many ways marked a continuation of a strong run that Jackson enjoyed with the Braves organization in 2022. He tossed just 1 1/3 scoreless innings with the big league club in Atlanta, though his lack of opportunity was largely due to a stacked MLB bullpen. Jackson posted a 2.29 ERA with a 31.3% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate in 19 Triple-A appearances as well.

Jackson spent the 2021 season with the Giants organization, pitching to a 3.74 ERA with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate in 21 2/3 big league innings. He’s also spent parts of four seasons in Japan, split between the Hiroshima Carp and Chiba Lotte Marines, with a combined 2.16 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate in 183 innings there. It’s far from a typical career arc, but Jackson has had plenty of success from his late 20s into his mid-30s, and he could get a chance to continue that trend with the Blue Jays before long.

Yankees, Franchy Cordero Agree To Major League Deal

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The Yankees have signed outfielder Franchy Cordero to a Major League contract, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter thread). It’s a split deal that’ll pay Cordero $1MM in the big leagues and at a $180K rate in the minors. Yeimel Mendez first reported late last night that Cordero was nearing a deal with the Yankees.

Cordero spent spring training with the Orioles and fared quite well, turning in a .413/.426/.674 slash with a pair of homers, four doubles, a triple and a stolen base. He also fanned 11 times in 47 plate appearances and didn’t draw a walk. The Orioles apparently determined that he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster, however, and cut him loose earlier this week.

The 28-year-old Cordero has spent parts of six seasons in the Majors, tantalizing the Padres, Royals and Red Sox with off-the-charts tools but a lackluster approach and sub-par feel for making contact. He has immense raw power and speed alike but doesn’t get to that power enough in games due to his lack of selectivity and penchant for putting himself in disadvantageous counts. Cordero has connected on some of the most majestic home runs of the Statcast era, but he’s a career .221/.290/.386 hitter thanks in no small part to a career 34.8% strikeout rate. To his credit, Cordero slightly dropped his strikeout rate with Boston last season (33.5%, down from 35.7% previously) and upped his walk rate (10.2%, up from 8%).

Barring further additions, it now seems likely that Cordero will crack the Yankees’ Opening Day club, perhaps pushing out-of-options Estevan Florial off the roster in the process. The Yankees confirmed this morning that they granted outfielder Rafael Ortega his release — as MLBTR reported yesterday — which left Florial in line for the final outfield spot. The addition of Cordero, however, calls Florial’s role on the club into question.

On the defensive end of things, Cordero has experience at all three outfield spots, and the Red Sox gave him 427 innings at first base over the past two seasons as well. He doesn’t grade out as a strong outfielder by measure of Defensive Runs Saved (-8), Ultimate Zone Rating (-6.3) or Outs Above Average (-1), but he has 1100 innings of big league experience split across all three spots. At least in the early going, he can back up the trio of Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton while providing some lefty thump off the bench.

While Cordero’s contract is a split deal, that’s not likely to come into play right away. Cordero is out of minor league options, so the only way the Yankees could send him to the minors would be by first passing him through waivers. They could opt to do so when Harrison Bader returns from the injured list, but at least for now, the big league agreement seems to signal intent to include him on tomorrow’s 26-mnan roster. He’ll earn the prorated version of that $1MM salary for any time spent on the Major League roster and the prorated $180K for any time spent in the minors.

AL East Notes: Lukes, Hamilton, Mondesi

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Blue Jays manager John Schneider informed reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, than outfielder Nathan Lukes has made the club’s Opening Day roster.

Lukes, 28, will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. A 2015 seventh-rounder, Lukes has spent eight years in the minors, going from Cleveland to Tampa Bay in the 2016 trade that sent Brandon Guyer the other way. He reached Triple-A by 2019, then saw the minor leagues get cancelled by the pandemic in 2020. He spent another year at Durham in 2021 but wasn’t given a roster spot and reached minor league free agency after that season.

Lukes signed a minor league deal with the Jays last year and impressed them enough that they added him to their 40-man roster in November. He’s never been a top prospect because he doesn’t really have a standout tool, but he does seem to do a bit of everything with some success. For the Bisons last year, he hit 11 home runs and stole 20 bases, walking in 9.7% of his plate appearances while limiting strikeouts to an 18.4% clip. His .285/.364/.425 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 111, and he spent time at all three outfield positions.

The Blue Jays previously had a very right-handed heavy lineup but have addressed that imbalance this winter. Righties Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. were traded while lefties Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier were brought aboard. That puts a bit less importance on the left-handed bat of Lukes, though he does give the club a true fourth outfielder, perhaps allowing Whit Merrifield and Cavan Biggio to stay on the infield more often that not.

Some other notes from around the AL East…

  • The Yankees have reassigned right-hander Ian Hamilton, who was in camp on a minor league deal, to Triple-A. Per Joel Sherman of The New York Post (Twitter links), Hamilton has the ability to opt out of his deal and return to free agency, but agreed to move his opt-out date to April 5. Hamilton had a nice spring, tossing nine scoreless innings while striking out six batters and walking three. It seems the club doesn’t have room for him on Opening Day, but their bullpen depth is a concern. Tommy Kahnle and Lou Trivino suffered injuries during spring and will be starting the season on the injured list. Since starters Carlos Rodon, Frankie Montas and Luis Severino are also starting the season on the IL, the weakened rotation will put extra pressure on the bullpen. Hamilton will stick with the organization for at least one extra week to see if his services are needed, but he could wind up back on the open market after that. He spent most of last year at Triple-A in the Twins’ organization, posting a 1.88 ERA with a 32.1% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 51.6% ground ball rate.
  • The Red Sox will need to find a roster spot for outfielder Raimel Tapia, who is going to make the club’s Opening Day roster. There’s still nothing official but Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe reports that the corresponding move for Tapia could be infielder Adalberto Mondesi going on the 60-day injured list. Mondesi, 27, has shown tremendous talent in his career but is also frequently injured. He only played 15 games last year before being diagnosed with a torn ACL in late April that required surgery. Mondesi was expected to miss some of the start of the season but a trip to the 60-day IL would prevent him from returning until late May. The Sox picked him up from the Royals in a January trade sending lefty Josh Taylor to Kansas City. At the time, the hope was that he could help provide some middle infield cover in the wake of Trevor Story’s elbow surgery. Mondesi is in his final season of club control before reaching free agency for the first time.

Daniel Murphy Signs With Long Island Ducks

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Three-time All-Star Daniel Murphy, who announced his retirement in 2021, has launched a comeback bid and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, the team announced this morning. He’ll be reunited with former Mets teammate Ruben Tejada, who signed with the Ducks last month.

“This game is part of my soul, and my passion for playing grew as great as ever when I discovered certain things that I believe will enable me to be productive on the field again,” Murphy said in a statement thanking the organization for the opportunity.

Murphy, who’ll turn 38 this weekend, last saw the big leagues with the Rockies in 2020, when he batted .236/.275/.333 in 132 trips to the plate. That marked the second season of a two-year, $24MM deal he’d inked with Colorado, during which he posted a combined .269/.316/.426 batting line that fell shy of his prior standards with the Mets, Nationals and Cubs.

From 2011-18, Murphy was a consistently above-average to elite hitter, batting a combined .303/.346/.462 while striking out in just 11.6% of his plate appearances. His bat-to-ball skills were among the best in the game and were on full display during a career-best 2016 season in Washington that saw him slash .347/.390/.595 (154 wRC+) with career-highs in home runs (25), doubles (47) and triples (5) while fanning at just a 9.1% clip. Murphy finished second in National League MVP voting that season.

Certainly, a return to that level of play can’t be expected at his age and with two full seasons having elapsed since he last took the field. That said, Murphy is a supremely talented natural hitter, and it’s plenty common to see players remain productive at the plate into their late 30s. The odds are generally stacked against any player in this type of comeback bid, but Murphy’s production with the Ducks will be worth monitoring.

Leg injuries, most notably knee surgery in 2018, dogged Murphy throughout the latter stages of his MLB career. It’s conceivable that the time away from the field has led to better health in that regard. If he looks to have captured some semblance of his old form, it’s easy enough to envision a team in need of a left-handed bat at first base giving him a look at some point during the 2023 season. If not, signing with the Ducks will give him one last opportunity to bid farewell to New York fans who cheered him on for seven memorable seasons with the Mets.

The Opener: Rosters, Guardians, MLBTR Chats

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On the eve of Opening Day, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Last-minute roster maneuvering:

With Opening Day rosters due tomorrow morning, there’s sure to be a handful of last minute transactions and GMs around baseball prepare for the start of the season. Many teams have non-roster invitees who need to be added to the 40-man roster, whether they are veteran minor-league signings such as Raimel Tapia, who the Red Sox are set to select, or rookies such as Corey Julks and Cesar Salazar, who are set to be selected by the Astros. The Athletics are exploring trade scenarios involving out-of-options center fielder Cristian Pache. Minor trades to clear space on 40-man rosters are also possible, similar to Monday’s deal that sent utilityman Zack McKinstry from the Cubs to the Tigers.

2. Will the Guardians get more extensions done?

Yesterday, the Guardians agreed to a seven-year extension that will keep second baseman Andres Gimenez in Cleveland long term. Even after laying out nine figures to lock up Gimenez, reports indicate Cleveland may still not be done. The club already appears to be approaching an extension with reliever Trevor Stephan, who posted a sterling 2.69 ERA (143 ERA+) with an even better 2.19 FIP in 63 2/3 innings last season. The club also reportedly held some talks with outfielder Steven Kwan, right-hander Triston McKenzie, and shortstop Amed Rosario. Rosario is set to hit free agency after the 2023 campaign, while McKenzie is controllable through the end of the 2026 season and Kwan won’t hit free agency until the 2027-28 offseason.

3. MLBTR Chats today:

A pair of live chats with MLBTR readers are scheduled for today: MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald will be hosting a Yankees-centric chat today in conjunction with the Yankees installment of our Offseason in Review series. This link will allow you to submit a question in advance, participate live when the chat begins, or read the transcript after it’s completed. Later, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco will be hosting an evening chat with an MLB-wide focus. You can click here to submit a question in advance, participate live, or read the transcript.

Giants’ Chairman: Team Intends To Eventually Exercise 2024 Option On President Farhan Zaidi

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Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi inked a five-year deal over the 2018-19 offseason when he was hired away from the Dodgers to lead the front office. He’s now headed into the final guaranteed year of that contract, but his job security doesn’t appear to be at issue.

Team chairman Greg Johnson told Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic this week that Zaidi’s contract contains a previously unreported club option for the 2024 season. Johnson was unequivocal about the organization’s intent to keep the baseball ops president around beyond this season. “I can tell you that (Zaidi) is 100 percent here through the end of next season. We do have an option,” Johnson said. He added the team is interested in working out a longer-term extension with Zaidi “in the near future,” though he didn’t specify whether the sides have yet opened that dialogue.

San Francisco has only had one playoff appearance in the four seasons since Zaidi was hired. He joined the organization on the heels of a 73-win season, though, leaving an uphill path to immediate contention. After a pair of slightly below-average showings in 2019-20, the ’21 club broke out with one of the best seasons in franchise history. They won 107 games, snapping the Dodgers’ streak of eight consecutive division titles, before dropping a closely contested Division Series against their archrivals.

While the arrow seemed pointed straight up 12 months ago, the Giants disappointed with a .500 showing in 2022. A few games out of the playoff mix at last summer’s deadline, the club moved some role players but held onto key impending free agents like Carlos Rodón and Joc Pederson. Rodón, who’d signed a two-year deal with an opt-out in one of last offseason’s best additions, departed after rejecting a qualifying offer. Pederson accepted a QO and returns for 2023.

San Francisco entered this winter with an abundance of payroll space and an obvious desire to land a top-tier talent. Despite a spirited pursuit of Aaron Judge and their near-deal with Carlos Correa, they ultimately missed out on a top-of-the-market pickup. Instead, the Giants wound up spreading their resources around. Mitch Haniger (three years, $43.5MM with an opt-out after 2024), Michael Conforto (two years, $36MM with a conditional opt-out after 2023), Taylor Rogers (three years, $33MM), Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling (both two years, $25MM with opt-out chances) all joined the organization.

San Francisco has had success in the middle tiers of free agency, particularly with signings of Kevin Gausman and Rodón. The bullpen and position player group have been less consistent over the past couple seasons. A lineup heavily reliant on platoon matchups fired on all cylinders in 2021 but was a middle-of-the-road group last year. The Giants also had one of the worst team defenses in the league in 2022.

Whether San Francisco did enough to compete with the Dodgers and Padres at the top of the division remains to be seen. They’re generally viewed as a step or two below those other clubs, with both Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs projecting them around average this year.

Regardless of how competitive the club is in 2023, they should be well-positioned to again make a run at elite free agents next winter. It certainly seems it’ll be a Zaidi-led front office making those decisions again, although that won’t be official until an extension is reached or the team formally exercises the option. As Baggarly points out, manager Gabe Kapler is signed through 2024, so San Francisco can keep their leadership structure in place for at least two more seasons if ownership remains happy with the organizational direction.

Joe Mantiply To Open Season On Injured List

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The Diamondbacks will be without top reliever Joe Mantiply start the season. Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters the southpaw will open the year on the 15-day injured list as he battles shoulder fatigue (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Arizona will carry Kyle Nelson on the active roster in his place.

Mantiply had a breakout 2022 campaign. The southpaw threw a career-high 60 innings over 69 appearances, posting a 2.85 ERA. Mantiply racked up grounders at an excellent 53.5% clip while punching out more than a quarter of batters faced. Perhaps most impressively, he kept his walks to a microscopic 2.5% rate, the second-lowest mark among relievers around the league.

That secured Mantiply his first All-Star nod and pushed him into high-leverage innings. The Snakes set out to deepen their bullpen this offseason with additions of Miguel Castro, Scott McGough and Cole Sulser. They’ve already lost Mark Melancon and Corbin Martin for extended stretches this spring, and now they’ll be down arguably their top reliever headed into the year. The team hasn’t provided much clarity on Mantiply’s return date.

To backfill the bullpen, the D-Backs are turning to a few less proven arms. Right-hander Drey Jameson is moving to relief, the club announced over the weekend (relayed by Steve Gilbert of MLB.com). Ryne Nelson secured the fifth starter role and Arizona elected to carry Jameson out of the big league bullpen rather than send him back to Triple-A Reno. Jameson impressed over his first four MLB starts last season but has long faced questions from evaluators about whether he can hold up as a starter, due both to a rather slight frame and some inconsistency in his control.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old righty Carlos Vargas will get a season-opening bullpen job (as first reported by Eno Sarris of the Athletic). He’s already on the 40-man roster but hadn’t previously gotten a big league call. Arizona acquired Vargas from the Guardians back in November.

The Dominican Republic native split the 2022 season between Cleveland’s top two affiliates, combining for a 3.67 ERA with a decent 24.7% strikeout rate but an alarming 11.3% walk percentage across 34 1/3 innings. He managed a 13:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 10 1/3 frames of three-run ball while averaging north of 100 MPH with his fastball this spring. He’s a volatile but possible high-upside arm for Lovullo to call upon in the middle innings.

Offseason In Review: Seattle Mariners

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The Mariners swung some interesting trades to bolster their lineup, but took a very modest dip into the free agent market.  Will it be enough to push this roster from playoff team to World Series contender?

Major League Signings

2023 spending: $8.92MM
Total spending: $8.92MM

Option Decisions

  • None

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

It wasn’t surprising that “Trader Jerry” Dipoto swung one of the offseason’s first big trades, as the Mariners president of baseball operations made a quick move in November to land Teoscar Hernandez from the Blue Jays.  Erik Swanson was a huge part of Seattle’s bullpen in 2022 and he carries three years of arbitration control, but the M’s are betting their deep and talented relief corps can pick up the slack of Swanson’s departure, while the lineup was in need of a big bat.

Despite a pair of Silver Slugger Awards on his resume, Hernandez was still perhaps a bit overlooked in Toronto, given the presence of such higher-profile homegrown names as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.  The 30-year-old has a 132 wRC+ over the last three seasons, batting .283/.333/.519 with 73 home runs over his last 1337 plate appearances with consistently sky-high hard-contact rates.  The tradeoff to this production is a lack of walks and a lot of strikeouts, and public defensive metrics haven’t been impressed with Hernandez’s work as a corner outfielder.

Still, having Julio Rodriguez in center field will help cover some of Hernandez’s defensive shortcomings, and adding a reliable slugger as an everyday player immediately answered one of several questions the Mariners faced about their outfield heading into the winter.  While the M’s had several options to flank Rodriguez in the corner outfield positions, it was a list of players either short on proven MLB experience, or coming off underwhelming performances in 2022.

With Hernandez in place, the Mariners could pivot to unloading some of these other outfielders.  Kyle Lewis has played in only 54 games since winning AL Rookie Of The Year honors in 2020, due to both a concussion and recurring knee problems that might make him close to a DH-only player sooner rather than later.  While Lewis still hit well at Triple-A last season and has plenty of upside if he’s healthy, the Mariners instead opted to trade him to the Diamondbacks for a more versatile outfield option in Cooper Hummel.

In fact, this versatility extends behind the plate, as Hummel is a rare catcher/outfielder hybrid who can serve as depth at both positions.  Cal Raleigh is Seattle’s top catching option, and since backup Tom Murphy is coming back from a 2022 season cut short by shoulder surgery, Hummel gives the M’s extra flexibility with their catching mix.

The next outfield-related move also saw the Mariners address their need at second base.  The club’s explorations into keystone help included interest in a Gleyber Torres trade with the Yankees, and at least some interest in Trea Turner and the other top shortstops on the market, with the idea that one of them could be open to moving to second base (since the M’s preferred to keep J.P. Crawford at short).

Instead, the Mariners landed one of their other second-base targets for a player who seemed to have worn out his welcome in Seattle.  Jesse Winker was one of the Mariners’ prize pickups from the 2021-22 offseason, but lingering knee and neck problems seemed to sap his power — Winker had only a .344 slugging percentage in 2022, far below the .504 SLG he posted over his five previous seasons with the Reds.  There was also reportedly some behind-the-scenes discord regarding Winker within Seattle’s clubhouse, and so the M’s decided to move on by trading him and Abraham Toro (who was also expendable due to the Mariners’ other infield depth options) to Milwaukee for Kolten Wong.

2022 was also an uncharacteristic season for Wong, as while he had arguably his strongest year at the plate, his vaunted defense cratered.  Injuries were a factor in this situation as well, as Wong battled some leg problems that turned the three-time Fielding Bible Award winner into a subpar defender at second base.  Assuming Wong is now healthy, there’s plenty of potential for a bounce-back in Seattle, and perhaps even an opportunity for a career year if Wong can regain his defensive form and continued his improved hitting.

Wong isn’t expected to be an everyday contributor, as he’ll be spelled against left-handed pitching by platoon partner Dylan Moore.  While Sam Haggerty might fill this role while Moore recovers from an oblique strain, the M’s certainly consider Moore to be a key piece going forward, as the utilityman was signed to a three-year extension that gives the Mariners additional control over what would have been Moore’s first free agent year.

The last piece of the outfield puzzle was completed when AJ Pollock was signed to a one-year, $7MM deal.  Pollock’s signing sets up another platoon, as the veteran outfielder will be paired with Jarred Kelenic in left field.  This timeshare reflects Pollock’s reduced numbers against right-handed pitching in 2022, while also giving Kelenic regular (yet not full-time) work as he tries to establish himself in the majors.  The former top prospect hasn’t hit at all over his 558 PA as a big leaguer, but a big Spring Training performance has Kelenic and the Mariners hoping he just needed some extra time to adjust.

Between all these moves and the Mariners’ addition of another bounce-back candidate in Tommy La Stella, Dipoto took a measured approach to his lineup additions.  Hernandez, Wong, Pollock, and La Stella are short-term adds, all slated to hit free agency next winter.  Compared to some of the other names to whom the M’s were linked (i.e. Brandon Nimmo, Masataka Yoshida, Andrew Benintendi, and old friend Mitch Haniger), the club clearly opted against making any sort of big splash of a move.

In terms of spending, the Mariners finished 2022 with roughly a $116MM payroll, and Roster Resource now pegs their 2023 payroll at approximately $140.5MM.  That’s not a small increase, but also not a big one either, considering that last fall, RR had Seattle projected for around $131.5MM in spending based on estimated arbitration raises alone.  Hernandez’s $14MM salary for 2023 basically accounts for the rise to $140.5MM, as the Mariners saved a few extra dollars by parting ways with such arb-eligibles as Swanson, Lewis, Toro, Luis Torrens, and Ryan Borucki.

To this end, Dipoto noted during a radio interview in December that the payroll increase is, naturally, a sign the organization isn’t afraid to spend.  Dipoto also pointed to the pricey contract extensions the team reached with Rodriguez and Luis Castillo prior to the end of the 2022 season as further evidence to his point that “raising payroll is doing smart things that evenly balance a team.”  However, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times wrote in December that “multiple MLB sources have indicated that [Dipoto] isn’t operating with the payroll flexibility that was widely anticipated” heading into the offseason.

Since the Mariners’ payroll was in the $160MM range as recently as 2018, it isn’t clear why ownership might have limited spending.  It could be due to lingering after-effects from the pandemic, uncertainty over the Root Sports Seattle regional network even though the Mariners are still the majority (60%) owners, or perhaps just that stretching up to $160MM was something of an outlier for the franchise.  That said, it could be that the front office might be given funds during the season to pick up a needed trade deadline piece, or maybe the M’s are saving room in the budget for a larger pursuit down the road.  Since the Mariners were finalists for Shohei Ohtani when the two-way star first came to North America, it stands to reason the M’s would again have interest when Ohtani enters free agency next offseason, even if his contract demands approach or exceed the $500MM mark.

Speaking of pitching, the Mariners at least checked in on Kodai Senga before he signed with the Mets.  This might have been more of a due-diligence pursuit on Seattle’s part, as adding Senga would’ve given the M’s seven rotation candidates, and maybe forced the team’s hand in subsequently trading one of Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen.  As Opening Day nears, Gonzales and Flexen are still on the roster despite months of trade rumors, as there has been plenty of speculation the Mariners might deal from their rotation surplus.

It could be Dipoto simply never received an offer to his liking for Gonzales or Flexen, and it is fair to assume the M’s wanted a quality return in exchange for a starting pitcher (especially during an offseason that saw so many free agent starters land huge contracts).  After all, the Mariners were under no particular pressure to swing a trade, considering the obvious benefit of simply keeping both Gonzales and Flexen in the fold.  A rotation “surplus” can quickly diminish in the event of an injury or two, and while Seattle has an intriguing wave of pitching prospects on the verge of the big leagues, the club probably prefers having a veteran arm as the top depth option.  The M’s also dealt from their prospect depth in sending Adam Macko to Toronto as part of the Hernandez trade, even if Macko wasn’t expected to reach the majors in 2023.

As noted earlier, the Mariners will be mostly counting on their existing bullpen mix to account for Swanson’s departure.  Some more relief depth was added in the form of minor league signings and lower-profile trades and waiver claims, but the M’s did sign a reliever to a guaranteed deal by adding Trevor Gott for $1.2MM.  Gott posted decent numbers over 45 2/3 innings out of the Brewers’ bullpen in 2022, and while he won’t get the high-leverage assignments that Swanson drew, Gott will bring some experience to the back of the pen.

Seattle’s chances of a deeper run into October might hinge on how much of a step forward their lineup can take, given how the pitching staff still looks like a strength.  The first step for the Mariners is just getting out of the AL West, since the Astros will still be a powerhouse and the Angels and Rangers each made several moves to upgrade themselves over the winter.

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