Last week, MLBTR took an early look at offseason option decisions facing teams in the National League. We’ll continue our division by division series by checking in on players in the AL East whose contracts contain club or mutual options for next season. The Rays are the only AL East team not slated to have any option calls to make.
Previous entries: NL East, NL Central, NL West
Baltimore Orioles
- Mychal Givens: $6MM mutual option ($2MM buyout if team declines, $1MM buyout if player declines)
Givens has bounced around in journeyman fashion over the past few seasons. The middle reliever returned to his original stomping grounds in Baltimore on a $5MM free agent guarantee. He hasn’t had any chance to get into a rhythm yet, however. He opened the season on the injured list with left knee inflammation. He was out until late May and made four appearances, allowing six runs in four innings while working with diminished velocity. The O’s put him back on the IL last week, citing inflammation in his throwing shoulder.
Boston Red Sox
- Corey Kluber: $11MM club option (no buyout)
Kluber signed a $10MM free agent guarantee with Boston over the offseason. He’d been a reliable innings-eating veteran for the Rays last year. Kluber hasn’t been a Cy Young-caliber pitcher for quite some time, but Boston envisioned him as a stabilizing mid-rotation presence in a starting staff full of unproven or injury-riddled options.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Kluber was tagged for a 6.26 ERA through his first nine starts. His strikeout rate dropped to a career-worst 17.7% clip, and he served up home runs at an untenable 2.38 HR/9 pace. The Sox bumped Kluber out of the rotation two weeks ago, pushing him into multi-inning relief. He’s tossed three innings of two-run ball in his first bullpen appearances in a decade.
An injury to Chris Sale could get Kluber another rotation opportunity, but he’ll have to pitch much better than he did in the first two months of the season for the Sox to entertain an $11MM+ option. The option price would escalate by $500K if Kluber makes 20 starts and an additional $750K apiece at 25 and 30 starts (which look unlikely based on the bullpen move).
- Joely Rodríguez: $4.25MM club option ($500K buyout)
The Sox signed Rodríguez to a $2MM free agent deal at the beginning of last offseason. He suffered an oblique strain in Spring Training and was knocked out of commission for six weeks. The 31-year-old has returned to pitch in four games but surrendered nine runs. He went back on the 15-day IL over the weekend with shoulder inflammation. This appears on its way to a buyout.
- Richard Bleier: $3.75MM club option ($250K buyout)
Rodríguez isn’t the only veteran lefty reliever who’s battling injury problems. Bleier landed in Boston via a change-of-scenery bullpen swap that sent Matt Barnes to Miami. While the soft-tossing southpaw is inducing ground balls at a strong 51.5% clip, that’s below the career 61.5% grounder rate he carried into the year. He’s never missed bats. The 36-year-old is a grounder specialist with elite control. He’s been uncharacteristically prone to hard contact in his early stint in Boston, contributing to a 5.85 ERA through 20 innings. The Sox placed Bleier on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation a couple weeks ago. It’s early but trending towards a buyout as well.
New York Yankees
- Josh Donaldson: $16MM mutual option ($6MM buyout if team declines)
Donaldson is playing out the final guaranteed season of the four-year free agent deal he signed with the Twins in 2020. The Yankees took on the contract in the 2022 trade that also brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. (That trade converted a ’24 club option into a mutual option.) It’s a move New York would like to have back, with both Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson underwhelming in the Bronx.
Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had his worst offensive showing in a decade last year. He hit .222/.308/.374 over 546 plate appearances while striking out at a career-worst 27.1% rate. Public metrics still loved Donaldson’s defense at the hot corner. Despite some offseason speculation the Yankees could try to offload some of his contract, they didn’t seem to come close to finding a taker and opened this season with Donaldson back at third base. He played only five games before suffering a right hamstring injury that cost him almost two months. The Yankees activated him from the IL over the weekend, and he promptly hit two home runs in his return — followed by an 0-for-4.
With a hefty $6MM buyout, there’s only a $10MM net call on the option. That’s not an outlandish price for a solid everyday player, but Donaldson’s offensive drop-off, age, and recent injury history all raise questions about whether he should be a regular on a team with playoff aspirations. Barring a summer offensive outburst from the three-time All-Star, the team is probably buying this out.
Toronto Blue Jays
- Chad Green: Team has three-year, $27MM option (if declined, Green and team have conditional options)
Green signed a complex free agent deal as he works back from May ’22 Tommy John surgery. He’s making $2.25MM this year. At season’s end, the Jays will have to decide whether to trigger three consecutive $9MM options (essentially a three-year, $27MM contract for 2024-26). If the team declines, the right-hander would get a $6.25MM player option for next year only. If Green passes on that, the Jays would have to make a call on a two-year, $21MM option for 2024-25.
With a year removed from surgery, Green recently progressed to throwing batting practice (via MLB.com injury tracker). A post All-Star Break return to MLB action is on track. While guaranteeing Green $27MM based on a couple good months after Tommy John surgery seems unlikely, the Jays were at least open enough to the possibility to sign him to the contract in the first place. There haven’t been any notable setbacks in the four months since they put pen to paper.
- Whit Merrifield ($18MM mutual option, $500K buyout)
The Jays acquired Merrifield from the Royals last summer. It was a buy-low move while the former American League hits leader was scuffling, and he’s gotten on track north of the border. Merrifield has a .292/.339/.413 batting line as a Blue Jay. That includes a .299/.349/.399 showing in 2023 that has locked him in as Toronto’s starting second baseman.
While Toronto has gotten what they’d wanted from Merrifield, it’s hard to envision them exercising this option. The $17.5MM price point is lofty, particularly when considering the market has tended to devalue contact-oriented second basemen. The Phillies bought out a $17MM option on Jean Segura last winter, for instance; he found a $17MM guarantee spread over two years from the Marlins on the open market. The Brewers did exercise a $10MM option on Kolten Wong but promptly traded him to Seattle in a buy-low flier for Jesse Winker. An $8-12MM per-year salary for Merrifield is more reasonable, particularly when considering that he’ll turn 35 next January.
- Yimi García: $5MM club option ($1MM buyout); option vests at $6MM with 49 appearances or 49 innings pitched in 2023
García signed a two-year guarantee with a club/vesting option over the 2021-22 offseason. The option would vest at $6MM if he combines for 110 innings or 110 outings between 2022-23. García threw 61 innings in as many appearances last season, leaving 49 more to check off.
He’s well on his way to doing so. García has made 26 appearances and tossed 24 2/3 innings entering play Monday. He’s 23 outings or 24 1/3 frames shy of triggering the vesting provision. Unless the veteran righty sustains a notable injury, he should clear that threshold.
Even if García doesn’t vest the option, it’s not out of the question the Jays would bring him back. There’d be a $4MM difference between the club option price and the buyout. García was solid in year one, working to a 3.10 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate. A massive .368 average on balls in play has led to a 6.20 ERA thus far in 2023, but García’s peripherals are strong as ever. He’s striking out 26.5% of batters faced while inducing grounders on half the batted balls he allows. He’s averaging 96 mph on his heater. His ball in play results figure to stabilize.
Note: Austin Voth signed an arbitration contract that contained a 2024 club option. He’d remain eligible for arbitration next season even if the option is declined and has accordingly been excluded from this list.
All Red Sox options: No
I’d like the option to go back and sign Eovaldi and Wacha to contracts for this year and leave Kluber off the club entirely.
Green – unless his arm blows up, I think they’ll pick it up
Merrifield – hard pass on that.
Garcia – wait and deal.
It would be nice if Merrifield and the Jays did stay together but 17-20 over 2 years not 1 is more like it
I don’t think I’d go for the two-year package. Considering how poorly he played with the Jays last year vs this year – makes me think he was sandbagging. What’s to stop him from doing that again if he gets an extended contract? He’d play hungrier if the Jays signed him for a single year at, say, 5.
“He’d play hungrier if the Jays signed him for a single year at, say, 5.”
That is assuming that the Blue Jays will be the only team interested in signing Whit Merrifield in this next off-season, which won’t be the case if he finishes at his current rate of production. Heck, the Kansas City Royals will top that number with at least $8 million/yr. just to welcome Merrifield back, and they’d probably throw in a new pickup truck off the assembly line as a bonus.
There will be multiple teams in place to offer Whit a two-year deal at at least 16 million to 20 million dollars total if his current numbers hold up over the entire season. Even putting that aside, I know Merrifield well enough to know that if he’s insulted by an offer, he’d just as soon retire if he had to do that. He’s already made, what, 26 million dollars? I had my problems (and still have problems, somewhat), with Whit’s anti-vax statements, but one thing that I will never question is Whit’s motivation, nor should anyone ever question that.
He didn’t play all that poorly last year for the Jays. It took him a few weeks to settle in but once he did, he was arguably even better than advertised. His overall 2022 Jays slash line of .281/.323/.446 and OPS+ of 121 was actually very good.
I have trouble with stats. They often don’t reflect what I see when I watch games every day. Teams wouldn’t inflate stats, would they? I’d have to study box scores every day to determine this, but I’m unwilling to put in the effort. I’m just saying seeing is believing.
The most interesting observation is recent memory was that of David Fletcher of the Angels. His reported batting average hovered around .300 yet magically, the Angels cut him loose and no one picked him up. I liked his play but never agreed that he was batting .300. Maybe .225.
So, you think teams would inflate literally publicly countable and mathematically calculatable using publicized formumla? Not to mention the fact that the stats aren’t published by the teams themselves but by the league and other independent third parties?
That’s like saying you don’t believe 1+1=2 but it should be 11 because your eyes put “1” next to another “1” and it looks like 11!
My friend, whatever you’re smoking, can I have some? It’s powerful stuff.
I agree, Murphy NFLD, with your assessment on a Blue Jays/Whit contract renewal. If you’re the Blue Jays, such a reunion is totally ideal. Their window to contend for a WS title is the next 2 years after the current season. That is when the contracts of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Jordan Romano, and Chris Bassett all expire. They’ve already invested heavily in George Springer, Kevin Gausman, and Jose Berrios with huge contracts. They are investing heavily in the arb. contracts of the likes of Bichette and Guerrero, Jr. Matt Chapman is coming off the books after this season; which frees up enough money for the Jays to retain both Merrifield and Kiermaier on short term contracts. Even if the Blue Jays do the unlikely, and ink Matt Chapman to a 130 million dollar plus extension (as someone will give him at least that), it only makes it more imperative for the Jays to retain all of their current pieces for the present 2. and a half year window to win it all.
I’d say 17-20 million dollars for Whit over two seasons sounds about right.
Obviously there is no way the Yankees are picking up the $16 million for next season for Donny, unless he either traded or released prior to next season.
How about for a move to fire Chaim Bloom for this disaster of a team he put together. He rides with Sale who has been hurt for the last 3 years, picks up Kluber with his 88MPH fastball, lets Wacha and Eovaldi go. Now you are depending on Paxton who no doubt will get hurt again. He has no shortstop with Kike back to the outfield and Story out for only God knows when. He let JD Martinez walk. This team is in dead last place in the division and 5 out of the wildcard in early June. This team cannot finish in last place again and have Henry, the Boston media, and the fans happy about it. This is his 4th year and I do not seeing it being better next year with his cheap dumpster diving moves he makes. This is not Tampa where the fans do not show up if they win it loose. I do not like Bloom or his antics. I don’t like what he did with Mookie Betts or Bogaerts when he could have signed both especially Bogaerts when he had the “window” to do it in. I hated the way he treated Christian Vazquez, trading him to a team they were playing that night. That was disgraceful to do that. I do not think he is as bright as he thinks he is
Prediction – he will be fired at the end of the year.
Tate injury was an off season blow to the health of the back end of the O’s bullpen. IMO, Os FO gambled that Givens could be a temporary fix to help get to Bautista until Tate comes back … and then maybe the two of them teaming up to help get to Bautista over course of season. Oof. Thank goodness Cano came along. So eventually Tate and Cano duo get the Birds to Bautista?