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West Notes: Nevin, Giants, Angels, A’s

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The Padres reportedly have former Angels manager Phil Nevin among the finalists for their managerial position, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Nevin, 52, was hired as third base coach in Anaheim prior to the 2022 season but became the club’s interim manager early in June of that year following the firing of Joe Maddon. Nevin continued as the club’s interim manager for the remainder of the season and the club decided to retain him in the role for 2023. Ultimately, however, the sides parted ways at the conclusion of the regular season. Anaheim found their replacement for Nevin last week, hiring Ron Washington away from his role as third base coach for the Braves.

Upon former Padres manager Bob Melvin’s departure to manage the division rival Giants, Nevin quickly became a candidate linked to San Diego’s managerial vacancy. Reports indicated late last week that Nevin had interviewed with the Padres for the role, and now Morosi’s report places Nevin as a potential finalist for the position. That being said, Nevin is far from the only finalist with a chance to be San Diego’s next manager. A pair of internal candidates in bench coach Ryan Flaherty and senior advisor Mike Shildt interviewed for the position shortly after Melvin’s departure and have long been seen as likely favorites to ultimately land the role. Shildt, in particular, has been linked to the role very frequently in recent weeks as an experienced skipper with four seasons at the helm of the Cardinals under his belt.

More from around MLB’s West divisions…

  • The Giants have reportedly settled on a new bullpen coach to replace outgoing coach Craig Albernaz, who was recently hired away by the Guardians. Per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco has decided upon Garvin Alston for the role. Alston, 51, was drafted as a player by the Rockies in the 10th round of the 1992 draft and spent eight seasons pitching in the minors, eventually briefly cracking Colorado’s big league roster during the 1996 season. Since retiring from his playing career, Alston has served in a variety of coaching roles in Oakland’s organization, including as bullpen coach, in addition to spending the 2018 season as pitching coach for the Twins.
  • The Angels have begun to assemble a coaching staff under the newly-hired Washington, though despite suggestions to the contrary 19-year big league veteran Torii Hunter will not be joining that staff. Speaking to reporters (including Bill Shaikin of the LA Times), Hunter confirmed that he interviewed for the managerial position prior to Washington’s hiring and that the club subsequently reached out to gauge his interest in coaching, but that he declined to be considered for a coaching role. Nonetheless, Hunter spoke effusively of the Angels, noting that he would have been excited by the “challenge” of managing the Angels through what figures to be a difficult 2024 season, particularly if they are unable to retain franchise face Shohei Ohtani.
  • While Hunter won’t be coaching for the Angels in 2024, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman wrote recently that former Astros manager Bo Porter is a candidate to join the club’s coaching staff. While Porter’s hypothetical role on the staff is unclear, Porter has plenty of experience from his time as a big leaguer with the Cubs, A’s, and Rangers to his time as third base coach with the Diamondbacks, Marlins, Nationals, and Braves to his two seasons managing in Houston, though those Astros clubs struggled to a 110-190 record under his guidance. As Heyman notes, Porter has connections to Washington both from his time as a player in Oakland and also from his time on the coaching staff and in the front office with Atlanta.
  • The A’s announced their coaching staff for the 2024 season today, with a pair of new faces on the staff: Bobby Crosby, who won the AL Rookie of the Year award with Oakland back in 2004 and more recently has served as a manager in the minor leagues, as well as Dan Hubbs, who previously served as director of pitching development for the Tigers from 2020-21 and as a minor league coach with the A’s this past season. Crosby is replacing Mike Aldrete as first base coach as Aldrete moves into a hitting coach role, while Hubbs will replace Mike McCarthy as bullpen coach.

Pirates’ Johan Oviedo Being Evaluated For Elbow Injury

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An already murky Pirates rotation mix is now facing even more uncertainty, as Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that righty Johan Oviedo is dealing with an arm injury that’s believed to be serious. The team hasn’t announced details or a precise diagnosis, but Mackey writes that Tommy John surgery is among the potential outcomes, so it would seem there’s some degree of ligament damage at play.

Oviedo, 25, came to the Pirates in the 2022 trade that sent lefty Jose Quintana to the division-rival Cardinals. Prior to the revelation of this injury, the righty had been locked into a 2024 rotation spot after taking the ball 32 times and pitching to a 4.31 ERA over the life of 177 2/3 innings. It’s hardly elite production, particularly when coupled with sub-par strikeout (20.6%) and walk (10.6%) rates, but Oviedo at least looked like a solid fourth starter who could be relied upon to take the ball every fifth game and keep his club in the game more often than not. Obviously, the mention of even potential Tommy John surgery throws a major wrench into that projection.

That’s particularly problematic news for a Pirates team that is generally lacking in established starters. Longtime top prospect Mitch Keller took a step forward in 2022-23 and is the unquestioned leader of the staff, but certainty thereafter is minimal. Right-hander Roansy Contreras took a step back in 2023, while fellow righty JT Brubaker had his own Tommy John surgery. Deadline pickup Bailey Falter has had some past success with the Phillies but struggled between both Pennsylvania clubs in 2023. Young right-handers Luis Ortiz and Quinn Priester each made at least 10 appearances, but neither cemented himself as a big leaguer. Alternative options like Osvaldo Bido, Jackson Wolf and Kyle Nicolas are similarly unproven.

General manager Ben Cherington has already stated publicly that his focus has been on starting pitching. Cherington presumably knew of Oviedo’s situation at the time of those comments, so this may not necessarily add any urgency to that search, but the revelation of Oviedo’s injury adds context for potential trade partners and agents as the Bucs explore ways to add to the rotation. With such ample uncertainty beyond Keller, it’d be fairly surprising if the Pirates didn’t add at least two arms to the rotation group for the upcoming season (to say nothing of veteran depth on minor league deals and some potential pickups of 40-man starters with minor league options remaining).

As things stand, the Pirates project for just a $53MM payroll in 2024, per Roster Resource. Even by their bottom-of-the-league standards, that leaves ample room for the team to add some experienced arms to the staff. Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes are the only players under guaranteed contracts, while the quintet of Keller, Brubaker, Ryan Borucki, David Bednar and Connor Joe are eligible for arbitration. Pittsburgh’s franchise-record Opening Day payroll was just shy of $100MM back in 2016. They operated with a payroll a bit north of $70MM in 2023.

Oviedo isn’t even arbitration-eligible yet and won’t be until after the 2024 season. He’s currently under club control for another four years, so even in the event that Oviedo does require UCL surgery, the Bucs could potentially get another three years out of him (2025-27) before he reaches free agency.

Angels Select Jack Kochanowicz

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The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jack Kochanowicz. Tomorrow is the deadline to select eligible players in order to prevent them from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Their 40-man roster count is now at 39.

Kochanowicz, the club’s ninth-best prospect per MLB Pipeline, was a third-round pick by the Angels in the 2019 draft. He didn’t make his professional debut until 2021 due to the cancelled minor league season in 2020, and struggled badly in his first pro season with a 6.91 ERA in 83 1/3 innings at the Single-A level. Kochanowicz struck out just 19% of batters faced while walking 9.1% during the 2021 campaign. His performance improved during a repeat of the level in 2022, as his ERA and walk rate dipped to 4.99 and 7.3% while his strikeout rate crept up to 21.2%.

Assigned to the High-A level to open the 2023 campaign, Kochanowicz looked nothing short of dominant for five starts with a 1.52 ERA and 14 strikeouts against just 3 walks in 23 2/3 innings of work. That strong performance earned him a call-up to Double-A, but he struggled badly once again after his promotion with a 6.53 ERA across 70 1/3 innings of work. While his walk rate continued to improve with a 6.1% figure this season, Kochanowicz’s strikeout rate dipped to just 17% in 2023 while he allowed home runs in ten of his sixteen Double-A appearances, including eight of his eleven appearances that lasted longer than two innings.

All those factors make it seem possible that Kochanowicz is ticketed for relief work long term, despite exclusively being used as a starter in 2023. He’s had success in a relief role in the past, with a sterling 1.53 ERA and a 26.1% strikeout rate in 17 2/3 innings of work out of the bullpen during the 2022 campaign. Given that past success in relief and his excellent fastball, which touches the upper 90s and has helped him generate solid ground ball rates throughout his career, it’s understandable that the Angels felt the need to protect Kochanowicz from the upcoming Rule 5 draft; even if the club plans to continue trying to develop the young righty as a starter, it’s certainly feasible a rebuilding club could try and stash his high-velo arm in a major league bullpen for 2024 in hopes of unlocking his potential.

Tanner Bibee Earns Full Service Year With Rookie Of The Year Runner-Up

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Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee finished runner-up in this year’s American League Rookie of the Year balloting. While the honor went to Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson, the runner-up placement is an important development for Bibee as he will earn a full year of service time for the 2023 campaign.

In order to disincentivize service time manipulation, the MLBPA and MLB agreed to include a prospect promotion incentive in the collective bargaining agreement that was agreed to prior to the 2022 campaign. As a result of the incentive, players with less than sixty days of service time entering the season receive a full year of service time if they finish in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, so long as they were featured on at least two preseason Top-100 prospect lists from ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline. Bibee met those qualifications, and as such will earn a full year of service time for the 2023 season despite making his big league debut near the end of April. That leaves Bibee likely set to hit free agency after the 2028 season as things stand.

It’s certainly exciting news for Bibee, 24, who looked like a potential front-of-the-rotation arm for the Guardians across 25 starts this season. The right-hander posted a 2.98 ERA that was 40% better than league average by measure of ERA+, alongside a 3.52 FIP that was 17% better than league average by measure of FIP- in 142 innings of work. Impressive as Bibee was during his first season in the majors, there were some potential red flags in his performance, perhaps most notably a whopping 80% strand rate that was ninth-best in the majors among pitchers with at least 120 innings of work this year. His 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate were both right around league average, but his exceptionally low 36.8% groundball rate could leave him vulnerable to major changes in his home-run-to-fly-ball fortunes, particularly if he struggles to replicate his exceptional 6.1% barrel rate.

Still, Bibee figures to be a mid-rotation or better arm for the Guardians going forward even if he’s unable to keep up the incredible production of his rookie season. With Bibee now a year closer to free agency than he otherwise would have been, he figures to have a considerable amount of additional leverage should the Guardians look to engage with him in extension talks. After all, Bibee now figures to hit free agency a few months before his 30th birthday, and free agents who hit the market younger than 30 tend to be in much better position to seek long term commitments from clubs in free agency. Of course, free agency is still a long way away for Bibee and there’s been no indication of the Guardians looking to lock the youngster, who won’t be arbitration eligible until the 2025-26 offseason.

Bibee’s runner-up finish for the award will not earn the Guardians an additional draft pick in the 2024 draft, unlike Henderson’s first-place finish for the Orioles. Baltimore will earn the extra draft pick because Henderson both met the aforementioned criteria to be considered a top prospect preseason and would have qualified for a full year of service time after being on the MLB roster for at least 172 days in 2023. Bibee, meanwhile, was on the roster for just 158 days and would have fallen short of a full year of service time if not for his top-two finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Corbin Carroll Wins National League Rookie Of The Year Award

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Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll has won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Mets right-hander Kodai Senga came in second while Dodgers outfielder James Outman placed third.

Carroll was selected to Arizona’s roster in late August of last year, allowing him to get a taste of the majors but without exhausting his rookie status. He fared extremely well in that audition, hitting .260/.330/.500 in his first 115 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 131, indicating he was 31% better than the league average hitter in that time. The D’Backs felt confident enough in Carroll based on that showing, and his work as a minor leaguer, to give him an eight-year extension with a guarantee of $111MM.

They were hoping he would be an integral part of the club and help them make the postseason for the first time since 2017. He went on to have an incredible showing in his first full season in the majors, hitting 25 home runs and stealing 54 bases. His .285/.362/.506 line led to a 131 wRC+ and he also got strong grades for his outfield defense. He produced 6.0 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs while Baseball Reference had him at 5.4. The club did indeed break their postseason drought, snagging a Wild Card spot and eventually going all the way to the World Series.

While the award is surely thrilling for Carroll and the Snakes on its own, there are other implications of Carroll taking the trophy. The new collective bargaining agreement contains measures designed to combat service time manipulation through the prospect promotion incentive, or PPI. Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year. That won’t apply to Carroll, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #2 prospect on all three of those lists. Gunnar Henderson, who got the AL trophy today, was #1.

But players with PPI status can also earn extra draft picks for their clubs if they have less than 60 days of service time to start the season and earn a full service year the traditional way, as Carroll did, while also appearing on those preseason prospect lists. Players in that camp who finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting or top three in Cy Young or Most Valuable Player voting during their pre-arbitration seasons earn a bonus pick after the first round for their club. That means the Diamondbacks, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.

Senga also had a strong season, his first after coming over from Japan. He made 29 starts for the Mets with a 2.98 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate. Players considered by MLB to be foreign professionals, as Senga is, aren’t eligible to earn PPI picks for their clubs. Outman also had a solid campaign, hitting 23 home runs and stealing 16 bases. He struck out in 31.9% of his plate appearances but offset that somewhat by walking at a 12% clip. His .248/.353/.437 batting line led to a wRC+ of 118 and he also graded out well in the field. He wasn’t considered a top 100 prospect coming into the year and wouldn’t have qualified for a PPI pick even if he surpassed Senga for second place.

The voting was unanimous, per the vote tally at BBWAA, with Carroll getting all 30 first-place votes. Senga got 22 second-place votes and Outman got five. Other players getting votes were Nolan Jones of the Rockies, Eury Pérez of the Marlins, Patrick Bailey of the Giants and three Reds: Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Gunnar Henderson Wins American League Rookie Of The Year Award

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Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson has won Rookie of the Year for the American League, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Tanner Bibee of the Guardians placed second while Triston Casas of the Red Sox placed third.

Henderson got to make his major league debut last year as a September call-up, just a couple of months after his 21st birthday. Despite his young age, he held himself incredibly well. His 25.8% strikeout rate was a bit above average, but he also drew walks at a 12.1% clip. His .259/.348/.440 batting line last year resulted in a 128 wRC+, indicating he was 28% above league average in that time. That call-up gave him a chance to get a taste of the majors while maintaining rookie status, since he didn’t get to 130 at-bat or 45 days on the roster.

The O’s came into 2023 looking to firmly stamp out their rebuild and make the postseason for the first time since 2016. Henderson’s first full season helped them do just that, as he hit 28 home runs and stole 10 bases. His walk rate dipped to 9%, though that was still above league average. His .259/.348/.440 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 123. He split his time between shortstop and third base, getting strong grades at both positions. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 4.6 wins above replacement while Baseball Reference had him at 6.2. The Orioles, meanwhile, won 101 games and took the top spot in the American League East.

The award is surely gratifying for Henderson and the O’s in and of itself, but there are other implications of this news. The new collective bargaining agreement contains measures designed to combat service time manipulation through the prospect promotion incentive, or PPI. Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year. That won’t apply to Henderson, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #1 prospect on all three of those lists.

But players with PPI status can also earn extra draft picks for their clubs if they have less than 60 days of service time to start the season and earn a full service year the traditional way, as Henderson did, while also appearing on those preseason prospect lists. Players in that camp who finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting or top three in Cy Young or Most Valuable Player voting during their pre-arbitration seasons earn a bonus pick after the first round for their club. That means the O’s, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.

Bibee and Casas also had strong seasons, but not enough to catch Henderson. The former made 25 starts for the Guards with a 2.98 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. He wasn’t promoted until late April but will earn a full service year by getting second place in this voting. But since he didn’t get that service year the traditional way, the Guards won’t get a bonus draft pick. Casas hit 24 home runs and walked in 13.9% of his plate appearances, leading to a .263/.367/.490 batting line and 129 wRC+. He was in the majors all year, so the voting won’t impact him from a service time perspective, but he falls just shy of getting the Red Sox a bonus pick.

Henderson was a unanimous selection, per the full vote tally from the BBWAA, getting all 30 first-place votes. Bibee got 20 of the second-place votes while Casas got six. Other players receiving votes were Josh Jung of the Rangers, Yainer Diaz of the Astros, Masataka Yoshida of the Red Sox, Edouard Julien of the Twins and Anthony Volpe of the Yankees.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Wilking Rodríguez Elects Free Agency

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The Cardinals have sent right-hander Wilking Rodríguez outright to Triple-A Memphis, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com, though Rodríguez has elected free agency. It wasn’t previously known that the Cards had removed him from the roster, so this opens a spot on their 40-man, which is now at 39.

Rodríguez, 34 in March, was selected from the Yankees in the 2022 Rule 5 draft. This was fairly unusual as most Rule 5 picks tend to be players in their early 20s who have yet to crack the big leagues. But Rodríguez actually made his major league debut back in 2014, tossing two innings for the Royals. He spent much of the intervening time away from affiliated ball, pitching for teams in Venezuela and Mexico.

The Yanks signed him to a minor league deal in August of 2022, surely intrigued by his 2.01 earned run average and 43.2% strikeout rate in Mexico that year, but the Cardinals plucked him away a few months later in the Rule 5. The righty opened the season on the injured list due to right shoulder soreness and underwent surgery in May. He stayed on the IL for the full season and collected a year of service time but never pitched in a regular season game for the Cards.

Players selected in the Rule 5 draft cannot be optioned to the minors and have to stay on a club’s active roster or injured list for the full season. They need at least 90 days on the active roster in order to shed those Rule 5 restrictions, so Rodríguez would have carried his Rule 5 status into next season. It seems the Cards weren’t willing to keep him on the roster for now and have cut him loose. Tomorrow is the deadline to add players to 40-man rosters for the next Rule 5, so the Cards likely have some of their own prospects in mind that they want to use the roster spot on.

When Rule 5 picks are cut from the roster, they have to be offered back to their original club. Per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Yanks declined, which allowed Rodríguez to be outrighted. But since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to elect free agency, which he has done. It’s possible he returns to the Cards in some non-roster capacity as Goold reports they are interested in bringing him back.

Brewers Select Jeferson Quero, Bradley Blalock

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The Brewers announced to reporters, including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, that they have selected catcher Jeferson Quero and right-hander Bradley Blalock to the 40-man roster. Tomorrow is the deadline to select players eligible for the Rule 5 draft in order to protect them from being selected. The 40-man roster count is now at 36.

Quero, 21, was an international signing out of Venezuela, getting a $200K bonus in 2019. The minor leagues were canceled in 2020 but Quero has since made up for lost time by going through Rookie ball, Single-A, High-A and Double-A.

He spent all of 2023 with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers, getting into 90 contests for that club. He walked in 10% of his plate appearances while also limited his strikeouts to a 17.8% rate, hitting 16 home runs and stealing five bases. His .262/.339/.440 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 107, indicating he was seven percent above league average.

Quero is considered an excellent defensive catcher, so that ability to also provide some offense makes him a very exciting prospect. He’s currently ranked #29 in the entire league by Baseball America and #32 at MLB Pipeline. Back in July, Keith Law of The Athletic had him up in the #11 slot. Given that lofty reputation, it’s unsurprising that the Brewers didn’t want to risk losing him in the Rule 5 draft. It will be hard for him to get regular playing time at the major league level with William Contreras taking the bulk of it, so Quero will likely head to Triple-A next year and continue to develop towards his eventual debut. The Brewers don’t have any other catchers on the 40-man roster at present but could sign a veteran backup in the offseason.

Blalock, 23 on Christmas, was a 32nd round pick of the Red Sox in 2019 but came to the Brewers a few months back in the Luis Urías trade. He wasn’t able to pitch very much between his draft and this past year since the minors were canceled in 2020 and he missed all of 2022 while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. In 2023, he was able to make 15 minor league starts between the two clubs with a 2.82 earned run average. In his 67 innings, he struck out 27.7% of opponents while issuing walks at a 7.4% clip.

The righty has yet to reach Double-A but it seems the Brewers were nonetheless concerned that he could get picked up in the Rule 5. For now, he’ll add some long-term starting depth as he looks to take the next steps towards his major league debut. BA currently has him as the #24 prospect in the system while FanGraphs has him at #15.

Blue Jays Hire DeMarlo Hale As Associate Manager

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The Blue Jays announced that they have hired DeMarlo Hale as associate manager, working under manager John Schneider.

It’s a homecoming for Hale, 62, who was with the Jays as bench coach from 2013 to 2018. He then went to the Atlanta organization for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, working the first year in the minors and then joining the major league coaching staff in the second.

For the past three seasons, Hale has been the bench coach for the Guardians, working under Terry Francona. That has occasionally given Hale managerial opportunities on an interim basis, as Francona has had to step away at times due to health issues.

The Guardians are making some shifts to their staff this year, which will be their first without Francona in quite some time. He is stepping aside and the club hired Stephen Vogt to take his place, with Craig Albernaz also coming aboard as major league field coordinator. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reported last week that Hale was still deciding whether or not to return to Cleveland but it appears he will make the return trip to Toronto.

The Jays have also been doing some shuffling on their staff. Don Mattingly was the bench coach in 2023 and will continue in that role next year, though the club recently added “offensive coordinator” to his title. It isn’t exactly clear what Hale’s associate manager title will cover, but it’s possible some of Mattingly’s bench coach duties might fall to Hale if Mattingly is going to be doing some hitting coach-type stuff. Mattingly is also a candidate for the open managerial vacancy in Milwaukee, so perhaps Hale gives the Jays a fallback if the Brewers end up plucking Mattingly away.

Royals Avoid Arbitration With Taylor Clarke

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November 13: Clarke will make $1.25MM in 2024, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, a slight bump over the $1.15MM he made in 2023.

November 11: The Royals and right-hander Taylor Clarke have agreed to a contract for the 2024 season, the team announced, and thus the two sides will be able to avoid an arbitration hearing.  Terms of the deal weren’t revealed, but MLBTR’s Matt Swartz projected Clarke would earn $2.2MM in the second of three trips through the arb process.

The Diamondbacks non-tendered Clarke during the 2021-22 offseason, and he caught on with the Royals on a guaranteed deal for the 2022 campaign worth $975K.  After delivering a solid 4.04 ERA over 49 relief innings for Kansas City in 2022, Clarke took a step backwards this past season, posting a 5.95 ERA over 59 frames.  Clarke saw both his walk and home run rates increase substantially from 2022 to 2023, though his BABIP also shot upwards from .314 in 2022 to .364 last season.

With this dropoff in mind, Clarke was seen as a possible non-tender candidate again this winter, but K.C. has opted to keep him in the fold.  Despite Clarke’s struggles, he isn’t terribly expensive, and the Royals could be betting on improved batted-ball luck, if nothing else.  Clarke also had one of baseball’s best chase rates, even if his 24.4% strikeout rate was only slightly above the league average.

November 17 is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players, so the Royals now have six remaining arb-eligible players to consider over the next six days.  The list was initially eight players, but Clarke has now signed, and Taylor Hearn was outrighted off the 40-man roster in October, and Hearn then elected free agency.

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