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Astros Sign Jose Altuve To Five-Year Extension

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Jose Altuve is remaining in Houston. The Astros announced the signing of the former MVP to a five-year extension that covers the 2025-29 seasons. Altuve, a client of the Boras Corporation, is reportedly guaranteed $125MM. He’ll collect a $15MM signing bonus. Altuve’s previous deal called for a $26MM salary in 2024 that remains in place. He’s now due $30MM annually between 2025-27 and respective $10MM figures from 2028-29. He had been slated to reach free agency next offseason.

It isn’t exactly a surprise to see the two sides come together on a deal. Dana Brown was hired as the club’s general manager in January of 2023 and almost immediately spoke on the record about how he hoped the club would be able to lock up core players, including Altuve. Shortly thereafter, he said that Altuve “should be in Houston for life.” It was just a couple of days later that Altuve himself said “I hope to retire here, so I think we’re on the same page.” It was in March that Brown pushed the brakes a little, saying extension talks would likely be pushed to after the 2023 campaign, with a deal now coming to fruition. This new extension runs through Altuve’s age-39 season.

This is the third time that Altuve and the Astros have signed an extension, which has kept him with the team as so many others have come and gone. Fairly or unfairly, that has made him the face of the franchise, which is a double-edged sword. For supporters of the club, he provides a through line from their miserable rebuilding years at the start of the previous decade to their incredible run of recent success, which includes a pair of World Series titles and seven straight ALCS appearances. For many others around baseball, his accolades remain tarnished by the 2017 sign-stealing scandal.

However one feels about Altuve’s legacy, there’s no question he remains one of the sport’s best offensive players as he goes into his age-34 campaign. An atypically poor showing during the shortened 2020 season looked as if might signal the start of a decline. That hasn’t been the case. Altuve rebounded with 31 homers and a .278/.350/.489 showing in 2021. He has been even better over the last two seasons. He raked at a .300/.387/.533 clip with 28 homers through 604 trips to the plate two seasons ago.

A thumb fracture sustained when he was hit by a pitch in last year’s World Baseball Classic kept Altuve off the field for the first couple months of the 2023 season. He returned in the middle of May, and while his season was again paused in July by a mild oblique strain, he was no worse for wear when able to take the field. Altuve ran a stellar .335/.404/.544 line in the second half and finished the year with a .311/.393/.522 mark in 410 plate appearances. He concluded with another excellent playoff performance, knocking four home runs while hitting .286 in 11 games.

Since the start of the 2021 campaign, Altuve is a .294/.374/.513 hitter. That offensive productivity is 47 percentage points better than league average, as measured by wRC+. That’s easily the best hitting performance by any second baseman and a top 10 mark among all qualified batters. Altuve remains as difficult as ever to strike out and has posted his two highest single-season walk rates within the last two years.

To the extent that the eight-time All-Star has shown any signs of aging, that’s limited to the other side of the ball. Altuve has never been a great defensive second baseman. His glovework has dipped in recent years, although the extent of that drop-off differs depending on the metric. Statcast has graded Altuve around league average. Defensive Runs Saved, on the other hand, estimates that he has been a combined 28 runs worse than an average defensive second baseman over the last two years.

That’s not of much concern for Houston as they retain one of the best players in franchise history for what’ll likely be the remainder of his career. By the time the deal wraps up, Altuve will have spent parts of 19 years in a Houston uniform. Whether the Astros can maintain the kind of team success they’ve had over the last eight years for the rest of the decade remains to be seen. Houston has a number of key players approaching free agency within the next season or two.

Alex Bregman will hit the open market a year from now. Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez have two remaining seasons of arbitration control. They’ve successfully locked up Altuve, Cristian Javier and Yordan Alvarez on extensions and have three-plus years of control over the likes of Hunter Brown, Jeremy Peña and Yainer Diaz. There could be some turnover if Bregman, Tucker and Valdez were to depart, but the Astros are trying to ensure the window doesn’t close entirely.

Altuve’s extension won’t affect their salary commitments for 2024, but he’ll now add a $15MM signing bonus to their ledger. Houston already had a franchise-record level of spending with a projected 2024 payroll approaching $240MM, per Roster Resource. The signing bonus will push their actual spending obligations towards the $250MM mark.

Houston is already well into luxury tax territory, but the deal’s $25MM average annual value won’t count against their CBT obligations until 2025. They now have upwards of $115MM on the books for ’25 and over $100MM in commitments to Altuve, Alvarez, Javier, Josh Hader and Lance McCullers Jr. for 2026.

Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 first reported the $125MM guarantee. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the specific salary structure.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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Nationals, Stephen Nogosek Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals are signing reliever Stephen Nogosek to a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). He returns to the NL East, where he has spent the bulk of his career as a member of the Mets.

Nogosek, 29, was drafted by the Red Sox in 2016. Boston traded the Oregon product to New York the following deadline as part of a prospect package for veteran reliever Addison Reed. Nogosek pitched in parts of four seasons in Queens. He made a career-high 13 appearances last year, posting a 5.61 ERA in 25 2/3 innings. The Mets designated him for assignment in June.

The right-hander caught on with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal. As is the case for most pitchers, he struggled with Arizona’s Triple-A team in Reno. Nogosek was tagged for a 6.55 ERA across 33 innings for the Aces and didn’t get an MLB look from the eventual NL champions.

Rough stint in Reno aside, Nogosek has a generally solid track record at the top minor league level. He has allowed 3.76 earned runs per nine in 143 2/3 Triple-A frames. Nogosek has punched out 27.3% of Triple-A opponents, although he has also issued walks at a lofty 11.9% clip. He has roughly average strikeout and walk numbers in his 57 1/3 MLB innings, in which he has posted a 5.02 ERA.

Washington had a below-average bullpen a year ago, making them a decent landing spot for relievers looking to get back to the majors on minor league deals. Nogosek joins Richard Bleier and Robert Gsellman as recent non-roster signees.

Marlins Acquire Jonah Bride, Designate Jordan Groshans

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The Marlins announced the acquisition of infielder Jonah Bride from the A’s in exchange for cash. Miami designated fellow infielder Jordan Groshans for assignment to create a 40-man roster spot. Oakland had DFA Bride when they traded for Ross Stripling last week.

Bride, 28, has been with the A’s since they selected him in the 23rd round of the 2018 draft. The right-handed hitter has never been a highly-regarded prospect but has generally hit well in the minors. He owns a .288/.400/.459 line over the course of his minor league career. That includes a .322/.450/.553 slash over 401 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

While Oakland’s affiliate plays in one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly settings in Las Vegas, Bride’s production has been built around his strong strike zone awareness. He has walked in 17.2% of his Triple-A plate appearances while striking out at a modest 15.2% clip. That earned him looks at the major league level in each of the last two seasons, where he hasn’t found anywhere near the same level of success.

Bride is a .192/.296/.232 hitter over 98 MLB contests. He has walked at a strong 10.2% rate against a lower than average 18.2% strikeout percentage. He hasn’t done any kind of damage on contact, however. Bride has one homer and seven doubles in 293 plate appearances.

Primarily a third baseman, Bride also has experience at first and second base. He briefly dabbled with catching in the minors in 2022 but played exclusively on the infield last year. Bride has never played shortstop, so he won’t offer any cover at that position of need for Miami. He offers depth at any of the other infield spots and still has a minor league option remaining, so the Fish can send him to Triple-A Jacksonville next season without placing him on waivers.

The acquisition bumps Groshans off the roster, a disappointing development for the former first-round draftee. Selected by the Blue Jays, he was dealt to Miami at the 2022 deadline for relievers Anthony Bass and Zach Pop. Groshans made a brief MLB debut later that season, appearing in 17 games. He hit .262/.308/.311 in 65 trips to the plate.

Miami kept Groshans in Triple-A on optional assignment for all of last season. He had a lackluster .243/.339/.330 slash with six homers in 528 plate appearances. As with Bride, Groshans posted solid walk (12.5%) and strikeout (17.4%) numbers but made minimal power impact. First-year president of baseball operations Peter Bendix evidently feels Bride has a better chance of translating that approach into some amount of big league success. The Marlins have a week to trade the 24-year-old Groshans or try to run him through waivers.

Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase first reported the Marlins were acquiring Bride. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Jacob Webb Wins Arbitration Hearing Over Orioles

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Reliever Jacob Webb prevailed in his arbitration hearing against the Orioles, as first reported by Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (X link). He’ll make the $1MM sought by his camp at KHG Sports Management as opposed to the team’s $925K filing figure.

Webb has only spent a couple months in Baltimore. The O’s snagged him off waivers from the Angels in early August. The 30-year-old righty had a strong finish to the season, turning in a 3.27 ERA through 22 innings. He finished the season with a personal-high 53 2/3 frames between the two clubs. Webb struck out nearly a quarter of batters faced and worked to a 3.69 ERA behind an excellent 15.1% swinging strike rate.

Control remained an issue, as Webb walked almost 13% of opposing hitters. He hasn’t had great command at any point in his career, but he’s generally found success regardless. Webb has a sub-3.00 ERA in 130 1/3 big league frames between Atlanta, Los Angeles and Baltimore. That seems likely to earn him a spot in the season-opening relief group for the Orioles. Webb is out of options, so the O’s would need to trade him or put him on waivers if they decide not to carry him on the big league roster.

Teammate Austin Hays also won his hearing against the O’s this afternoon. Tuesday marked a strong day for the players on the arbitration side. In addition to Webb and Hays, Mauricio Dubón, Taylor Ward and Phil Bickford all came out ahead. After teams won the first two arbitration cases last week, the players have won five straight. Baltimore has one unresolved case. First baseman Ryan O’Hearn is seeking a $3.8MM salary, while the team countered at $3.2MM.

Phil Bickford Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Mets

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Reliever Phil Bickford won his arbitration hearing against the Mets, as first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post (X link). His camp at ET Sports successfully argued for a $900K salary; the team had filed at $815K.

New York acquired Bickford in a minor deadline trade with the Dodgers. He threw 25 1/3 innings down the stretch, working to a 4.62 ERA. The former first-round pick fanned around a quarter of opponents against an elevated 11.4% walk rate. Those were similar strikeout and walk marks as he managed in Los Angeles. He finished the year with a 4.95 mark over a career-high 67 1/3 innings.

The 28-year-old Bickford has topped 50 innings in three consecutive seasons. After working to a 2.81 ERA for the Brewers in 2021, he has allowed nearly five earned runs per nine in each of the past two years. The Mets nevertheless tendered him a contract even as they’ve brought in various relievers this offseason. Bickford is out of options, so they’ll need to keep him in the big league bullpen or put him on waivers.

Rockies To Sign Bradley Zimmer To Minor League Deal

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Outfielder Bradley Zimmer and the Rockies are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The ISE Baseball client will also receive an invite to major league Spring Training.

Zimmer, now 31, was once a first-round draft pick and top 100 prospect, with evaluators noting his potential to be a true five-tool talent. He has gone on to provide excellent speed and defense but he developed a strikeout problem as he climbed the minor league ladder that has prevented him from being a valuable contributor at the plate.

To this point in his career, he has 975 plate appearances at the major league level and has been punched out in 33.9% of them. That’s well beyond the league average, which was 22.7% in 2023. Zimmer’s 7.8% walk rate is also subpar, though only slightly. His combined batting line of .213/.298/.333 translates to a wRC+ of 74, or 26% below league average.

But the other parts of his game have generally lived up to the hype. He has 42 steals in 50 tries, with his sprint speed usually ranking near the top of league leaderboards. On defense, he has played all three outfield spots and racked up 14 Outs Above Average, 15 Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of 7.8 from Ultimate Zone Rating.

Those are some nice qualities, but the hitting problems have prevented him from carving out a meaningful role in the bigs. He was drafted by Cleveland and spent the first few years of his career with them, until he had exhausted his option years after 2021. He led to him bouncing around in 2022, getting traded to the Blue Jays, before being claimed off waivers by the Phillies and then going back to the Jays on another waiver claim.

He was non-tendered by the Jays and signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers for 2023. He was released in mid-May and signed another minors pact, this one with the Red Sox. Between those two organizations, he put up a batting line of .210/.326/.346 at the Triple-A level last year while striking out in 37.3% of his trips to the plate.

Despite his warts, Zimmer is a solid fit for the Rockies. It has been reported this offseason that they are looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder who can play all three outfield slots, which would apply to Zimmer. With Charlie Blackmon likely to be in the designated hitter slot most of the time, the club’s remaining outfield mix leans right-handed. Nolan Jones is left-handed but Kris Bryant, Hunter Goodman, Brenton Doyle and Sean Bouchard are all righties. Michael Toglia is a switch-hitter but hasn’t clicked in the big leagues yet and still has options.

Bryant is likely ticketed for regular work at first base this year, leaving two spots available next to Jones for that group. Doyle is fairly similar to Zimmer, in that he’s an elite defender and runner but has big strikeout issues. He received 431 plate appearances in the big leagues last year but was punched out in 35% of them while slashing just .203/.250/.343. He stole 22 bases and received excellent grades for his glovework but the offense is clearly a work in progress, and his Double-A and Triple-A strikeout rates are also above 30%.

As for the others, Goodman hit just .200/.247/.386 in his first 77 MLB plate appearances. He has hit well in the minors but is considered a poor defender who may end up at first base in the long term. Bouchard has some decent offensive numbers but missed most of last season due to injury, is considered a poor defender and is now about to turn 28 years old.

With neither of Goodman or Bouchard considered assets in the field, it would make sense to have Zimmer on hand as a late-game defensive replacement or pinch runner. His left-handed bat also could create some platoon opportunities, but he’s still not great at the plate even with the platoon advantage. He’s hit righties for a .216/.305/.350 line and 80 wRC+ in his career, compared to .204/.276/.285 and a wRC+ of 56 against southpaws.

DL Hall Planning To Compete For Rotation Role With Brewers

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The Brewers acquired hard-throwing lefty DL Hall alongside infielder Joey Ortiz from the Orioles in last week’s Corbin Burnes blockbuster. While GM Matt Arnold was noncommittal about Hall’s role in a chat with reporters in the immediate aftermath of the trade, the 25-year-old indicated the organization views him as a starting pitcher.

“When they called me, they asked me how my training had been going, what I was preparing for. Luckily, I was preparing to be a starter. They want me to be a starter,” Hall said in an appearance on Foul Territory yesterday afternoon (YouTube link).

That the Brewers still view Hall as a rotation fit isn’t surprising. If Milwaukee felt the 6’2″ southpaw was unlikely to stick as a starter, they might not have made him one of two key pieces in a return for their ace. That’s not a unanimous opinion among evaluators, however. Some scouting reports on Hall indicate he’s a better fit for the bullpen because of well below-average control.

Over parts of six seasons in the minors, Hall has walked 13.4% of opposing hitters. He handed out free passes at a similarly concerning 13.8% clip over 49 innings for Triple-A Norfolk a year ago. Hall worked in an abbreviated starting capacity early in the Triple-A season, typically going four to five innings in an appearance. He pitched in a traditional single-inning relief role there late in the year, aligning with his usage at the MLB level.

Other than a 3 2/3-inning start in his major league debut in August 2022, Hall has pitched exclusively as a reliever in the majors. He has a 4.36 ERA in 29 appearances, striking out 29% of batters faced. The former first-round pick has shown better control in that limited big league sample, walking a league average 7.6% of his opponents.

Expecting Hall to maintain a sub-8% walk rate over a full season as a starter is likely too optimistic given his minor league numbers. He will very likely need to cut his walks from the minor league levels if he’s to stick as a starter. Only two MLB pitchers logged at least 100 innings while walking more than 13% of opponents a year ago.

One of them, Blake Snell, won the Cy Young, so it’s not impossible to thrive with this kind of scattershot control. It requires absolutely dominating hitters when the pitcher is around the strike zone, though, with Snell fanning over 31% of opponents and holding batters to a pitiful .180 average. (The other pitcher with 100+ innings and a walk rate above 13% was Michael Kopech, who had a 5.43 ERA.) Hall is credited by prospect evaluators with as many as four plus or better pitches. He has the potential to overpower opponents, but he’d have to walk a very tight rope if he doesn’t get the free passes in check.

It’s worth noting that Hall’s comments about competing for a rotation spot came before Milwaukee agreed to a $7MM deal with free agent righty Jakob Junis last night. Even with Junis expected to take a season-opening rotation spot, it’s unlikely Milwaukee’s usage plans for Hall are any different. The Brewers still have one or two jobs up for grabs behind Freddy Peralta, Junis, and Wade Miley. Hall joins righties Colin Rea and Joe Ross and southpaws Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser in that competition. Prospects Carlos Rodriguez and Jacob Misiorowski could pitch their way into the mix during the season.

Hall still has one option year remaining. The Brewers can move him between Milwaukee and Triple-A Nashville for another season if he doesn’t stake a claim to a permanent rotation role on Opening Day.

Mariners Claim Collin Snider From Diamondbacks

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The Mariners have claimed right-hander Collin Snider off waivers from the Diamondbacks, per announcements from both clubs. The latter had designated him for assignment last week. The Mariners’ 40-man roster is now full with this move.

Snider, 28, spent his entire career with the Royals until recently. Drafted in 2018, he appeared in 62 major league games over the two most recent seasons. He tossed a combined 54 2/3 innings while allowing 5.93 earned runs per nine. His rate stats weren’t especially impressive, striking out just 13.4% of hitters while giving out walks at an 11.4% clip, though he did get grounders on 51.9% of balls in play.

In the minors, his results have been somewhat similar. He’s thrown 64 1/3 innings at Triple-A over the past two years with a 5.74 ERA, 18.3% strikeout rate, 15.7% walk rate and grounders on more than half of the balls in play.

He was put on waivers in December with the Diamondbacks making a claim, though he was nudged off the roster with the Snakes signed Joc Pederson and needed a roster spot. The Mariners recently freed up a spot on their 40-man roster when they traded Prelander Berroa, Zach DeLoach and a draft pick to the White Sox for Gregory Santos.

They’ll use that open slot to take a flier on Snider, who still has one option and can be stashed in the minors until needed. He has mid-90s velocity on both his four-seamer and sinker, even if he hasn’t yet parlayed those into many strikeouts. He has got plenty of ground balls and he did well at limiting hard contact in the big leagues last year. The Mariners could have him as Triple-A depth to see if he takes a step forward, or perhaps try to pass him through waivers at a future date.

The M’s have Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash and Santos likely taking their high-leverage bullpen jobs. Trent Thornton, Austin Voth and Mauricio Llovera are each out of options, which could help them in securing jobs to start the season. Beyond that, Snider joins a group of optionable relievers that includes Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo, Jackson Kowar, Ty Adcock, Carlos Vargas, Eduard Bazardo and Cody Bolton. Some of those guys may earn jobs out of camp but there will likely be a lot of fluctuation throughout the campaign.

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