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Dodgers Re-Sign Ricky Vanasco To Major League Deal

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2:18 pm: Vanasco will make a salary of $900K in 2024, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group.

11:43 am: The Dodgers announced Thursday that they’ve re-signed right-hander Ricky Vanasco to a one-year, major league contract. He’d previously been outrighted and elected minor league free agency, but he’ll now return to the organization and secure a spot on the 40-man roster for the winter. Los Angeles now has 39 players on its 40-man roster.

The 25-year-old Vanasco has spent the vast majority of his career in the Rangers organization, but the Dodgers acquired him on June 1 after Texas had designated the former 15th-round pick for assignment. Once regarded as one of the more promising pitchers in the Rangers system, his career has been slowed by repeated health troubles. Vanasco posted an outstanding 1.81 ERA in 11 starts back in 2019 but didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and spent significant time on the minor league injured list in 2023 as well.

When healthy, however, Vanasco pitched quite well in the Dodgers’ system. In fact, after being removed from the team’s 40-man roster, Vanasco logged 28 innings betweeen Double-A and Triple-A while pitching to a pristine 0.64 ERA with a 42-to-10 K/BB ratio (36.5% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate). That showing was apparently enough for the Dodgers to offer up a big league deal in order to keep him in the system.

Although he has not yet made his big league debut, Vanasco spent the past two seasons on the 40-man roster in Texas and Los Angeles, which required him to be optioned at the end of spring training. As such, he’s exhausted two option years already. He still has an option remaining, and given his minor league injury history it’s possible he could eventually qualify for a fourth option year. For now, he’ll head to spring training healthy and perhaps on the verge of finally making his big league debut.

Cardinals Outright Connor Thomas

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Left-hander Connor Thomas went unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis by the Cardinals, per a team announcement. He’ll remain in the organization after being designated for assignment Tuesday, when the Cards set their roster in advance of the deadline to protect prospects from the Rule 5 Draft.

Thomas, 25, was the Cardinals’ fifth-round pick in 2019. He’s yet to make his big league debut but was selected to the roster last offseason when the Cards were setting their roster to protect players (Thomas included) at that same deadline. A rough 2023 campaign in Triple-A, however, dropped his stock and led the team to remove him from the roster.

In 21 appearances with Memphis this year — 17 of them starts — Thomas worked 94 1/3 innings of 5.53 ERA ball. That marked his third straight stint in Triple-A and his second with an ERA north of 5.00. Thomas notched a 3.10 ERA in Memphis back in 2021, and the Cards saw fit to protect him from Rule 5 selection last year in hopes that he’d rebound in a third look with their Triple-A club.

Instead, Thomas saw his strikeout rate plummet to a career-low 15.7%. He maintained strong command, although this past season’s 7% walk rate, while still better than the league average, was his highest in a full season. As a soft-tossing lefty with plus command and plenty of grounders, Thomas has profiled as a fifth starter at his best. He’s something of a throwback to prior generations in an era increasingly populated by power arms.

Thomas had previously ranked as highly as No. 19 prospect in the Cardinals’ system at Baseball America and No. 20 at MLB.com. FanGraphs pegged him 11th heading into the 2023 season. The Cards will hope to get him back on track this year, and given the general organizational need for rotation depth, they’re likely happy to stash him back in Memphis.

Wisconsin Legislature Approves Brewers’ Stadium Renovation Plan

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The Wisconsin state legislature passed a bill approving stadium renovations at Milwaukee’s American Family Field on Tuesday, as covered by Jessie Opoien of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While the bill still needs approval from governor Tony Evers to officially pass, he has already announced his intent to sign off.

Under this funding plan, the state is agreeing to pay just under $366MM to support the stadium upgrades through 2050. Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee will each contribute $67.5MM. The Brewers are expected to pay roughly $150MM — around $100MM of that via rent and approximately $50MM devoted to discretionary upgrades. In total, the public funding amounts to a little over half a billion dollars over the course of 26 years.

Once signed into law by the governor, the plan will put to rest any questions about the Brewers’ future in Milwaukee. The team’s lease at American Family Field, which had been set to expire after the 2030 season, will be extended through 2050. In August, team officials floated the possibility of relocation if a lease extension weren’t agreed upon this fall. That’ll no longer be a concern for Brewer fans, at least for the better part of the next three decades.

“We now can all go to sleep tonight knowing the Brewers are going to be here for the next generation in a great, beautifully maintained ballpark that is worthy of the fans’ support,” the team’s business operations president Rick Schlesinger told reporters (including Opoien) on Tuesday.

Some residents will surely have qualms about committing significant public funding to stadium upgrades. There was opposition among the state senate, with the bill passing by a narrow 19-14 margin.

The Brewers have played in Milwaukee since 1970. The franchise began as an expansion team in Seattle but spent only one season there before moving to Wisconsin. With the Rays and Brewers reaching agreements on stadium deals, the A’s are the only franchise that will be relocating in the near future. MLB’s owners unanimously approved the Athletics’ application for relocation to Las Vegas this morning.

GM: Angels Not Rebuilding, Plan To Be “Aggressive” In Offseason

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The Angels’ last-gasp push for a postseason bid with Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout on the same roster fizzled late in 2023. After an aggressive deadline highlighted by the acquisitions of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron, the Halos embarked on the equivalent of an August fire sale, placing nearly a quarter of their roster on outright waivers late in the month, in hopes of shedding some payroll and perhaps dipping under the luxury tax threshold. While Giolito, Lopez, Hunter Renfroe, Matt Moore and Dominic Leone were all claimed by other clubs and changed hands, the Halos still remained a bit north of the tax line.

Now faced with the possibility — if not the likelihood — of Ohtani signing elsewhere in free agency, there have been ample questions about the team’s direction. However, general manager Perry Minasian made clear at newly hired manager Ron Washington’s introductory press conference that he has no plans to take a step back, let alone embark on a full-scale rebuild (link via ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez).

“We’re going to be aggressive this offseason, and we’re going to make this team better,” Minasian said.

With Ohtani’s potential departure and the aforementioned slate of waiver departures late in the season, there’s no shortage of holes for the Angels to fill. That said, Minasian and his staff also have plenty of financial leeway to augment the club. Roster Resource projects a $152MM Opening Day payroll in Anaheim — roughly $60MM shy of the team’s franchise-record mark. Whether owner Arte Moreno will green-light a return to those heights remains unclear, but the Angels haven’t had an Opening Day payroll shy of $182MM since 2019. (Their prorated payroll in the shortened 2020 season was just over $71MM — the equivalent of about $192MM over a full schedule.)

Perhaps the most glaring area of need for the Halos, as has often been the case even during Ohtani’s stay with the club, lies in the rotation. The Angels’ starting staff ranked 19th in the Majors with a 4.47 ERA — and that included Ohtani’s 3.14 mark in 132 innings. The staff at present is slated to include Reid Detmers, Tyler Anderson, Patrick Sandoval, Griffin Canning and Chase Silseth, with younger arms like Sam Bachman and Davis Daniel among the depth options to already accrue some MLB service.

It’s a deep crop of free-agent pitchers this offseason, headlined of course by Ohtani — who won’t pitch next year due to elbow surgery but figures to return to the mound in 2025 — and a slate of intriguing arms. Blake Snell hits the market fresh off his second career Cy Young Award, while NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be posted for big league clubs and likely sign the largest contract of any player ever making the jump from Japan to North American ball. Others on the market include Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez and a second highly touted NPB arm: lefty Shota Imanaga.

For all of the Angels’ struggles, their lineup is set in many places. Trout has increasingly battled injuries in recent seasons but remains one of MLB’s premier hitters when healthy. Taylor Ward didn’t fully replicate his 2022 breakout but had a solid season nonetheless, while former No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak had a breakout of his own. That pair will presumably flank Trout in the outfield.

On the infield dirt, 2022 first-round pick Zach Neto had an excellent debut at shortstop but saw his production take a nosedive after a trip to the injured list. Neto graded as a quality defender at the position and batted .259/.338/.431 through his first 200 plate appearances prior to landing on the IL. If he can get back to that form, he looks every bit the part of an everyday MLB shortstop. Switch-hitting Luis Rengifo had a breakout year at the plate and figures to handle second base duties. Young catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who swatted 14 homers in just 199 plate appearances but missed most of the year with a labrum tear, is in line for a full healthy season in ’24.

The Angels even got an encouraging debut from their top pick in this past summer’s draft, as first baseman Nolan Schanuel sprinted to the big leagues and batted .275/.402/.330 in his first 132 plate appearances. If either Rengifo or Schanuel falters, veteran infielder Brandon Drury is on hand to take up a larger share of plate appearances. If not, he can split time with former star Anthony Rendon at the hot corner and/or log some time at designated hitter.

Rendon’s decline at the plate and frequent injury issues since signing a seven-year, $245MM contract are perhaps the single largest detriment to the Angels’ efforts to improve for the upcoming campaign. He’s owed $38MM annually in each of the next three seasons, making the contract all but immovable and leaving the Angels will little recourse but to hope for a rebound — if not to his former MVP-caliber output then at least to something resembling a solid regular at the position. Rendon did post a hearty .361 OBP and walk nearly as often as he struck out (13.7% against 14.8%) in last year’s 183 trips to the plate, but his power has largely eroded and he’s played in just 36.6% of the Angels’ games since signing his megadeal.

The Angels, then, are set to face a host of familiar problems. As has been the case for more than a decade, they’re saddled with at least one immovable megadeal gone wrong, while the farm system is once again regarded among the thinnest in the league. Minasian has the funds to make some aggressive splashes in free agency, but ending a playoff drought that dates back to 2014 is a daunting task — particularly when the Angels have been unable to do so even while rostering two of the generation’s premier talents in Trout and Ohtani.

Washington, for his part, voiced confidence and seemed unfazed by the challenges that lay ahead.

“If you remember now — I was in Texas, and guess what we did? We ran the Angels down,” Washington said in reference to his former stint as Rangers’ manager, during which he oversaw consecutive World Series appearances (and losses). Washington pointed to the irony that the script has now been flipped as he’s tasked with helping the Angels run down the Rangers before voicing confidence and declaring the Angels’ “whole focus” to be on returning to the top of the American League West.

Yankees, Mets Have Discussed Manuel Margot Trades With Rays

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The Yankees have “engaged the Rays in multiple conversations this offseason” relating to outfielder Manuel Margot, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It has recently been reported that the Rays have been discussing Margot with multiple clubs and Rosenthal reiterates that. Joel Sherman of The New York Post adds that the Mets are interested as well.

Margot, 29, has been a solid contributor to this point in his career, largely serving as a strong defender with offense just a bit under league average. Since getting traded from the Padres to the Rays prior to 2020, he has hit .264/.317/.375 for a wRC+ of 97. He also stole 41 bases in that time while generally producing above-average defensive grades: +16 Defensive Runs Saved, +21 Outs Above Average and a grade of +1.9 from Ultimate Zone Rating. Those numbers slipped a bit in 2023 but they can often be inconsistent on a year-to-year basis and Margot was recovering from a significant strain of the patellar tendon in his right knee in 2022.

Going into the 2022 season, Margot and the Rays agreed to an extension that runs through 2024. He’ll make a salary of $10MM next year and there’s a $12MM mutual option for 2025 with a $2MM buyout. Since mutual options are almost never picked up by both sides, teams will consider Margot to have one year and $12MM remaining on his deal. That’s a perfectly suitable price point for a decent regular. Jackie Bradley Jr. got two years and $24MM from the Brewers a few years back. Kevin Kiermaier got one year and $9MM from the Jays despite being 33 years old and coming off hip surgery. Eddie Rosario got two years and $18MM from Atlanta.

But the Rays have often traded away players as they approach free agency, both as a way to keep costs down and to perpetually restock their farm system. The club’s payroll for next year is currently slated to be $126MM, per Roster Resource. They’ve never gone beyond the $80MM range, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. A few members of their arbitration class will likely wind up non-tendered and the club seems to have some willingness to push payroll upwards next year, but it seems like some cuts are still going to be necessary.

There have been some rumors about Tyler Glasnow trades of late, unsurprising given his talent and $25MM salary in 2024, but a Margot trade would surely be more palatable from Tampa’s perspective. Their rotation suffered a large number of injuries in 2023, with each of Shane McClanahan, Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen set to miss some or all of 2024 while rehabbing from surgery. Subtracting Glasnow would leave the club with a rotation of Zach Eflin, Aaron Civale, Shane Baz, Zack Littell and Taj Bradley. They might be able to get by with such a group but it’s much stronger with Glasnow in it and the club is surely aware how quickly depth can evaporate due to injuries.

Subtracting Margot from the outfield, on the other hand, would not appear to be as risky. They would still have Randy Arozarena, Jose Siri and Josh Lowe as regulars, with players like Luke Raley, Greg Jones, Jonathan Aranda, Vidal Bruján and Harold Ramírez having varying degrees of outfield capabilities as well. Even if the club considers that group unsatisfactory, they could patch together some extra depth via minor league deals and waiver claims. The cost savings of flipping Margot would be less than half of a Glasgow deal but the former would be more appealing in terms of roster construction.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has frankly admitted that they need a couple of outfielders to be slotted next to Aaron Judge. They recently tried to insert Harrison Bader into their center field gap but he didn’t hit much and was often injured, eventually being placed on waivers as the 2023 season was winding down. Jasson Domínguez made his major league debut in Bader’s absence but required Tommy John surgery, leaving the club looking for answers there yet again.

Players like Jake Bauers and Estevan Florial are some of the options currently on the roster but the Yanks would surely like to upgrade there. Bauers hit .202/.279/.413 in 2023. Florial shows some exciting tools at times but he almost always strikes out around 30% of the time wherever he’s playing. Oswaldo Cabrera hit .211/.275/.299 last year in a utility role. Everson Pereira has similar strikeout concerns to Florial and hit .151/.233/.194 in his first 27 major league games.

Trades between division rivals can be tricky and the Yanks might also have caution about Margot’s injury history, something Rosenthal points out. The Yanks have been snakebit in recent years by seeing many of their acquisitions hitting the injured list, such as Frankie Montas hardly being able to pitch for them after being acquired from the A’s. Margot has gone to the injured list in each of the past four years, with his 125 games played in 2021 the only time he got into triple digits during that stretch.

As for the Mets, Starling Marte battled groin issues that kept him to 86 games of subpar production, making him an unknown going into 2024. Mark Canha and Tommy Pham were traded prior to the deadline and are no longer in the mix. Acquiring some outfield help to bolster the group around Brandon Nimmo makes plenty of sense. DJ Stewart went on a torrid hot streak late last year, hitting 11 home runs in 58 games, but he’s generally considered a poor defender. Acquiring a glove-first outfielder like Nimmo could push Stewart into a bench bat/designated hitter role.

The Yankees, Mets and other clubs with interest in Margot could also look to the free agent market for outfielders, but that would likely mean forking out more money than what Margot is set to make. Cody Bellinger is going to require a nine-figure guarantee while players like Teoscar Hernández and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. should get sizeable eight-figure deals. Even players somewhat similar to Margot, such as Kiermaier and Bader, are likely going to find multi-year deals somewhere.

MLB Owners Unanimously Approve Athletics’ Move To Las Vegas

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Major League Baseball’s owners have unanimously voted to approve the Athletics’ move from Oakland to Las Vegas, tweets John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. The approval was seen as something of a formality, with little — if any — opposition from the sport’s other owners anticipated.

The Athletics’ current lease at the Coliseum only runs through the end of the 2024 season, which leaves plenty of questions about where the club will play its home games in the interim. Among the potential scenarios that have been discussed are sharing the Giants’ Oracle Park, playing home games at their Triple-A stadium in Las Vegas, or temporarily extending the current lease. The current plan, while not yet final, could see them split their time between multiple sites, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The Athletics plan to build a $1.5 billion stadium with a capacity of 33,000 on the Las Vegas strip, at the site of the Tropicana Casino. That new home, however, is not expected to be ready until the start of the 2028 season.

With the valuation of the Athletics’ franchise slated to rise following the move, Nightengale further reports that the remaining owners included a provision with their vote that team owner John Fisher would be taxed “heavily” on any sale if he ultimately strives to sell the club for an immediate profit. The magnitude of the tax isn’t clear, nor is the length of time for which he’ll need to retain ownership of the team before he is exempt from said taxation. In such an event, the amount that he’s taxed would be divided among the other 29 franchises.

It’s the first relocation of any Major League team since the Expos moved from Montreal to Washington D.C. in 2005 (and, of course, became the Washington Nationals). The move from Oakland to Vegas, while still not yet 100% official — hurdles remain to be cleared with the funding and construction of the new facility — will bring a 55-year run in Oakland to an end and leave Northern California as the sole territory of the cross-bay Giants.

The Athletics’ stadium outlook and potential relocation bid has been an ongoing source of drama over the past decade-plus, as the A’s have sought a move from their dilapidated environs in the Coliseum. Previous efforts to move to San Jose were protested by the Giants, claiming that to be an infringement on their territory. The A’s had similarly explored new facilities at various spots around the city, including a new stadium at the current site and, most recently, a new waterfront development in Oakland’s Howard Terminal neighborhood.

Whether those efforts were explored in good faith is debatable; Oakland mayor Sheng Thao has vocally disputed assertions from both Fisher and MLB commissioner that the Howard Terminal scenario was pursued to its fullest extent — instead contending that Fisher never had interest in remaining in Oakland and had been intent on a Vegas move all along.

Regardless, at this point in the process it’s largely a moot point. The move to Oakland is overwhelmingly likely at this point, marking the third recent loss of a major sports franchise for the city of Oakland, which has seen the NBA’s Warriors move across the bay to San Francisco and the NFL’s Raiders move to Las Vegas. The city of Las Vegas, meanwhile, has seen an influx of professional sports teams in recent years. In addition to the Raiders and the likely move of the Athletics, the NHL’s Golden Knights expansion franchise joined the league in 2017.

Heading into the 2024 season, A’s fans will be in an odd position — knowing full well that the relocation they’ve dreaded now looms and facing limited opportunities to cheer on the club they’ve followed for more than five decades (their entire lives, in many instances). At the same time, many will be loath to offer their money to further support an ownership group by whom they understandably feel jilted and betrayed. Beyond that, the team made little effort to field anything resembling a competitive product in recent years, tearing down the core of a team that went 316-230 from 2018-21 and made the playoffs on three straight occasions — including consecutive 97-win campaigns in 2018-19.

That slate of trades hasn’t produced any meaningful level of talent, and payroll has remained near the bottom of the league. Last year’s A’s flirted with a pace for the worst record in MLB history for the season’s first few months, and there’s no indication that ownership will approve any pushes to remedy the situation by allotting more resources to its baseball operations staff this offseason. It’s a bleak time for the Oakland faithful, as the book on their stay in the Bay Area is now on the cusp of closing with an unsatisfying and tumultuous final chapter.

The Opener: MVP Awards, Relocation Vote, Trades

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As the early part of MLB’s offseason continues, here are three things to keep an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today…

1. MVP awards to be announced:

MLB’s awards season will conclude today with the reveal of the AL and NL’s Most Valuable Player award winners at 5pm CT this evening on MLB Network. In the American League, voting is expected to be dominated by Shohei Ohtani, the two-way superstar who won the award in 2021 and fell just short of repeating in 2022 with a second-place finish. Now perhaps the greatest free agent in MLB history, Ohtani slashed .304/.412/.654 — good for an MLB-leading 180 wRC+ — while leading the AL with 44 homers at the plate. On the mound, Ohtani was limited to just 23 starts due to injury but posted a 3.14 ERA with a whopping 31.5% strikeout rate over 132 innings of work. Though Ohtani’s excellence takes nothing away from Rangers up-the-middle stars Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the other two finalists for the award, it would be a shock if Ohtani didn’t take home the trophy in the AL.

The NL award is more competitive. The favorite is Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. who slashed an incredible .337/.416/.596 (170 wRC+) in 735 trips to the plate while crushing 41 home runs and swiping 73 bases. That performance gave him just the fifth 40-40 season in MLB history but also made him the inaugural member of the 40-50, 40-60, and 40-70 clubs. Still, Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts warrants plenty of consideration in his own right. Betts slashed .307/.408/.579 with a 167 wRC+, but perhaps the most interesting piece of his MVP case is his unusual versatility. Despite having just 228 innings of work in the infield at the big league level in his career entering the season (all at second base), Betts logged considerable time at both the keystone and shortstop this season, appearing in 86 games on the infield dirt while starting there in 74 of them. The third finalist, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, was incredible in his own right as he posted a 20/20 season while hitting a whopping 59 doubles, but appears destined for third place due to the excellence of both Betts and Acuna this season.

2. Owners vote on A’s relocation:

MLB’s offseason Owners Meetings are underway, and one major order of business is expected to be conducted today. Per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, owners are expected to vote on the A’s plan to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas today. That vote is expected to go smoothly, with the A’s proposal easily clearing the 75% threshold necessary for relocation to be approved. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has a news conference scheduled later today during which he’s likely to discuss the outcome of the vote and the A’s relocation plan. Importantly, one part of the A’s plan that is still unclear is where they will play following the expiration of their lease at the Coliseum after 2024, with their stadium in Las Vegas expected to be ready for the 2028 season. Some possibilities that have been floated include a short-term extension of the Coliseum lease, using their Triple-A affiliate’s stadium in Las Vegas, or perhaps even sharing Oracle Park with the Giants.

3. Will the trade market heat up prior to tomorrow’s deadline?

The early parts of the offseason have been fairly quiet this November, with the biggest trade of the offseason so far being an early November swap that sent outfielder Mark Canha from Milwaukee to Detroit. That being said, it’s possible that tomorrow’s non-tender deadline could spur some activity over the next day and a half. Last night saw the Brewers ship infielder Abraham Toro, who is projected by MLBTR’s Matt Swartz to make $1.3MM in arbitration this offseason, to Oakland. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco compiled a list of potential non-tender candidates late last month, any of whom could at least feasibly be shopped over the next day if their club is considering a non-tender.

A’s Acquire Abraham Toro

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The A’s have acquired infielder Abraham Toro in a trade with the Brewers. Minor league pitcher Chad Patrick is headed back to Milwaukee. Oakland already had four vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no further move was necessary.

Toro, 27 next month, has now been traded three times in his career. The former Astro draftee went to the Mariners in the Kendall Graveman deal at the 2021 deadline. Toro didn’t find consistent offensive success over a season and a half in Seattle. He hit only .213/.276/.342 in 605 plate appearances (roughly one full year of playing time) through the end of the 2022 campaign.

As a result, the Mariners looked to upgrade at second base. They sent Toro alongside designated hitter Jesse Winker to Milwaukee for Kolten Wong. The trade didn’t work out for anyone involved. Wong was released by August while Winker slumped to a .199/.320/.247 line before hitting free agency. Toro barely played for the Brew Crew, getting into just nine MLB contests.

Toro spent most of the season on optional assignment to Milwaukee’s Triple-A team in Nashville. The switch-hitter had solid numbers there, running a .291/.374/.471 batting line over 414 plate appearances. He only hit eight home runs but walked at an excellent 11.8% clip while striking out 17.6% of the time. Despite the solid numbers, Milwaukee stuck with light-hitting rookie Brice Turang at second base and rotated through a number of third base options. 26-year-old rookie Andruw Monasterio and scuffling veteran Josh Donaldson got looks at the hot corner instead of Toro.

That limited usage made him a non-tender candidate approaching Friday’s deadline. While his projected $1.3MM arbitration salary isn’t exorbitant, it’s almost twice the league minimum rate. Toro is also out of minor league option years. Milwaukee would have had to keep him on the MLB roster or designate him for assignment at the beginning of next season.

Oakland is apparently more willing to take that shot. The A’s have almost nothing locked down in the infield. Second baseman Tony Kemp hit free agency. A’s third basemen (primarily the since-traded Jace Peterson, Jordan Diaz and Aledmys Díaz) combined for dreadful .192/.271/.285 batting line. Toro has a solid minor league track record and is eligible for arbitration through 2026. The A’s can afford to give him some run in what’ll be another uncompetitive season to see if he can hit MLB pitching.

The move for Milwaukee is mostly about clearing the roster spot and projected salary. Rather than a straight non-tender, they’ll pick up a mid-tier pitching prospect. Patrick joined the A’s before the trade deadline in the deal that sent Peterson to the Diamondbacks.

A former fourth round pick, Patrick spent the 2023 campaign in the upper minors. He logged a 5.59 ERA over 124 innings between the Arizona and Oakland organizations. The Purdue-Northwest product struck out 23% of opponents while issuing walks at a slightly high 9.4% clip. He won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until next offseason, so Milwaukee can keep him in Nashville as non-roster rotation depth.

Diamond Sports Group Could Drop Guardians, Rangers Broadcasts

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The ongoing Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy could soon affect another two franchises. Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov of the Athletic report that the broadcasting corporation is considering dropping its in-market TV deals with the Guardians and Rangers before the 2024 season.

Diamond, which operates the Bally Sports networks, already severed contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during the 2023 campaign. MLB stepped in to handle in-market broadcasting for those clubs. Diamond had sought to pay reduced rights fees to the Twins, Reds, Guardians and Rangers during the year as well. The bankruptcy court eventually awarded those teams their full rights fees.

If Diamond officially drops two more agreements, the Cleveland and Texas organizations will have to find alternate means of broadcasting within their local markets. MLB could step in to ensure those games aren’t blacked out, as it did for the Padres and D-Backs. Perhaps the franchises could line up an agreement with a new regional sports network during the offseason. In any event, it’s a suboptimal situation — albeit one which team executives were surely anticipating at this point.

“Our intention is to broadcast almost all of (our) Major League Baseball teams next year,” one of Diamond’s attorneys said in today’s bankruptcy proceedings (relayed by Drellich and Vorkunov). “There are a few, a very few, for which we do not have agreements in place. And that, frankly, at this point, are too expensive for us to broadcast without concessions. I am told that those discussions are taking place, there have been reach-outs to both of the teams involved.”

Diamond has local broadcasting deals with 11 teams. That figure was 14 at the beginning of the ’23 season. In addition to the lapsed deals with San Diego and Arizona, Bally’s contract with the Twins expired at the conclusion of the year. Dan Hayes of the Athletic wrote yesterday that a new short-term deal with Diamond to carry Minnesota’s 2024 broadcasts hasn’t been ruled out.

The Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals and Tigers also have existing contracts with Diamond. Jonathan Randles and Steven Church of Yahoo! Finance write that attorneys for both Diamond and Sinclair — the media conglomerate which had acquired Diamond in 2019 — indicated in today’s court proceedings that Diamond might be liquidated entirely at the end of the 2024 MLB season. (Sinclair and Diamond now operate independently after Diamond accused Sinclair of siphoning funds from the subsidiary.)

The uncertain TV rights picture could impact the spending habits for those franchises. The Twins are scaling back payroll this offseason. Only the franchise’s ownership and front office know precisely how much that’s a result of the TV picture, but Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has called it a contributing factor.

While the Twins have run almost exactly average player payrolls, Cleveland and Texas have been on opposite ends. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Guardians ranked 25th in Opening Day payroll this year. The Rangers opened the season ninth and have the fifth-highest projected outlay for 2024 on the heels of their World Series win.

Padres, Cal Mitchell Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Padres are signing outfielder Cal Mitchell to a minor league deal, reports Britt Ghiroli of the Athletic (X link). He’ll be in MLB camp as a non-roster invitee.

It’s a homecoming for the San Diego native. A product of Rancho Bernardo high school, he was a second round pick of the Pirates in 2017. Mitchell hit well enough in the low minors to hold a spot among the top 30 prospects in the Pittsburgh system for a few years. He carried that offensive success as high as Triple-A, where he posted a .339/.391/.547 line in 63 games in 2022.

That earned the left-handed hitter his first MLB opportunity. Mitchell didn’t produce much in that initial look, posting a .226/.286/.349 showing across 232 trips to the plate. The Bucs kept him on optional assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis for the majority of 2023. He didn’t find the same kind of success as he had there a year ago.

Mitchell hit .261/.333/.414 over 78 Triple-A contests this past season. His strikeout rate doubled, ending at an alarming 29.4% clip. He played in only two big league games and was designated for assignment in September. Mitchell cleared outright waivers and became a minor league free agent at season’s end.

Still just 24 (25 in March), Mitchell will battle for a spot in the San Diego outfield in exhibition. He’s limited to the corners. San Diego has Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. there but limited depth otherwise. Taylor Kohlwey occupies a 40-man roster spot after hitting .276/.390/.437 in Triple-A.

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