Brewers Outright Eric Haase
Catcher/outfielder Eric Haase cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Brewers, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville. Haase has enough service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require forfeiting the $1MM base rate at which he’d earn in the big leagues, plus the potential for a $50K incentive he can unlock for every 25th game he plays in the big leagues. Presumably, Haase’s split major league deal also has a nice rate of pay at the Triple-A level.
The 31-year-old Haase was one of baseball’s hottest hitters during spring training. That he went unclaimed on waivers serves as a reminder that spring stats don’t carry much weight with big league clubs. Haase slashed .395/.465/.868 with five homers, three doubles, five walks and six strikeouts in 43 trips to the plate.
After signing his deal with the Brewers back in December, Haase appeared slated to open the season as the backup to William Contreras. But the Brewers came to terms late in the offseason on a one-year deal with veteran Gary Sanchez, pushing Haase down the depth chart. The nature of his contract likely helped him pass through waivers, and he’ll now serve as a nice depth option for the Brew Crew in Triple-A.
Prior to the 2024 season, Haase’s entire career has been split between Detroit and Cleveland. His 2023 season was a down year that saw him slash just .201/.247/.281, prompting the Tigers to make a change of their own behind the plate. But from 2021-22, Haase split time between catcher and left field for the Tigers and turned in a combined .242/.295/.451 line with 36 big flies in 732 plate appearances.
Last year’s downturn at the plate was in part due to a reduction in average on balls in play (.297 from 2021-22 but just .268 in 2023), however it also can’t simply be chalked up to poor fortune. Haase made hard contact at a far lower rate (45.1% in 2021-22, just 35.9% in 2023) and put the ball on the ground more often than in any full big league season prior. He also hit infield flies at the highest rate of his career and saw a career-low 5.6% of his fly-balls become home runs after enjoying an 18.8% mark in that regard in the two preceding seasons.
Defensively, Haase is something of a mixed bag. Last year’s 24% caught-stealing rate was actually three percentage points higher than the 21% league average, and he showed improved framing marks after struggling in that regard in previous seasons. He also graded poorly in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt, however, and his broader body of work behind the plate has drawn below-average reviews overall.
Royals Sign Brian O’Keefe To Minor League Deal
The Royals announced Monday that they’ve signed catcher Brian O’Keefe to a minor league contract. He’ll report to Triple-A Omaha tomorrow. O’Keefe spent spring training in the Twins organization after signing a minor league deal with Minnesota, but he was released late four days ago.
O’Keefe, 30, has appeared with the Mariners in each of the past two MLB seasons. He has only 25 big league plate appearances under his belt, during which he’s gone 3-for-22 with a pair of doubles. The former seventh-round pick (Cardinals, 2014) is a career .247/.333/.475 hitter in three minor league seasons — including a .238/.328/.504 slash (93 wRC+), 23 home runs and 25 doubles last season.
Behind the plate, O’Keefe has been roughly average in terms of controlling runners (career 25% caught-stealing rate; 18% in 2023). He’s regularly posted excellent framing marks in the upper minors, per Baseball Prospectus.
The Royals don’t have an immediate opening for help behind the plate. Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin are both on the big league roster and will handle the entirety of catching duties between them. Kansas City signed veteran Austin Nola to a one-year major league contract in the offseason and started him in Triple-A Omaha, but the Storm Chasers announced over the weekend that he’d been placed on the injured list. That created a need for some extra depth alongside Logan Porter and Tyler Cropley; O’Keefe will fill that role for the time being and give the Royals an experienced option in the event of an injury to Perez or Fermin.
Kendrick: D-backs Open To Further Payroll Increases At Trade Deadline
The Diamondbacks enter the season with an approximate payroll of $168MM (per RosterResource), shattering their prior franchise record of about $131MM. And while Arizona is among the many clubs to have been impacted by the recent bankruptcy filing of Diamond Sports Group, it doesn’t sound like concerns regarding the television outlook will prevent the club from adding further, if needed. Managing partner Ken Kendrick tells Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic that he’s “absolutely” willing to green-light further expenditures if needs arise prior to the summer trade deadline.
From a luxury tax standpoint, Arizona sits at a projected $216MM — about $21MM shy of the first-tier threshold. They shouldn’t have many, if any, limitations with regard to the competitive balance tax, as it’s quite rare for any team to take on that much prorated annual value at the deadline. Kendrick pointed to his team’s 2017 acquisition of J.D. Martinez as a prior example of an aggressive deadline approach and said he’ll be “prepared to do that yet again” if the right player is available this July.
Kendrick didn’t delve into this aspect of deadline shopping, but Arizona’s payroll is also well-positioned from a long-term standpoint. The Diamondbacks shouldn’t have an issues adding a player who is signed or arb-eligible beyond the current season. In fact, it could be argued they’d be wise to target such players, given the slate of high-profile free agents the D-backs have at season’s end. First baseman Christian Walker, closer Paul Sewald and left-hander Jordan Montgomery are all slated to hit free agency. Designated hitter Joc Pederson has a mutual option, as do reliever Scott McGough and outfielder Randal Grichuk. Mutual options are almost never exercised, so they’ll all likely hit the market, too.
That large slate of names coming off the books leaves the Diamondbacks with just $63.5MM on next year’s books, per RosterResource. That’ll jump when Kelly’s $7MM club option is picked up and when Gallen receives a hefty raise on this year’s $10.011MM salary in arbitration. But the rest of the D-backs’ arb class consists of middle relievers and first-time eligible players, meaning it shouldn’t be overly expensive. Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel, Joe Mantiply, Ryne Nelson, Geraldo Perdomo and Alek Thomas make up the rest of the class. Given this year’s new highwater mark and the comparatively minimal commitments on the docket in 2025, the Diamondbacks could add a player on a notable contract.
When we’re this far from the deadline, there’s no telling what exactly the Diamondbacks will be targeting — outside of bullpen help. That’s not a knock on Arizona’s relief corps, but rather just an observation that virtually every contending club shops around to deepen its bullpen at the deadline. The D-backs’ lineup is quite deep and largely set with established players. In the rotation, lefty Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to miss about a month with a lat strain and the aforementioned Montgomery is ramping up down in the minors. Once they’re both active, they’ll join Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt in what should be one of the most talented rotations in the game.
Injuries can quickly change that calculus and necessitate short-term acquisitions. Kendrick’s comments suggest he’ll be willing to be flexible in allowing GM Mike Hazen and his staff when they look to fortify a roster that hopes for another deep postseason run.
Free Agent Prediction Contest Winners Notified
In early November, we ran our annual free agent prediction contest here at MLBTR. We had 6,135 entrants, which I believe is an all-time record.
The contest concluded last week on Opening Day, with the unsigned Mike Clevinger and Brandon Belt excluded from the results. Tasked with predicting the destinations of our other 48 top free agents, one contestant managed to guess 13 players correctly for a .271 batting average. Congratulations to Jeff Freedman, who correctly predicted where Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Matt Chapman, Sonny Gray, Teoscar Hernandez, Lucas Giolito, J.D. Martinez, Jack Flaherty, Reynaldo Lopez, Jason Heyward, and Tim Anderson would sign. Jeff wins $500 for his prognostication abilities.
No one else exceeded 11 correct guesses, which was good for a .229 average. As for the MLBTR staff race, Leo Morgenstern and Nick Deeds beat the rest of us with an excellent nine correct. You can check out the leaderboard here.
The first, second, and third place finishers won cash prizes, and the entire top 15 snagged a free one-year subscription to Trade Rumors Front Office. All winners have been notified, so if you’re in the top 15 on the leaderboard be sure to check the email you used to sign up for the contest. Thanks for playing and we look forward to doing it again next winter!
The Opener: Jiménez, Injuries, Giants/Dodgers
As we enter the second week of the MLB regular season, here are three things to keep an eye on around the league:
1. Is Eloy Jiménez headed for the IL?
White Sox DH Eloy Jiménez left Sunday’s contest against the Tigers with what the team originally deemed “left adductor soreness” and manager Pedro Grifol later called “an adductor strain” (per Scott Merkin of MLB.com). The adductors are muscles that run from the pelvic bone to the knee along the inner thigh.
After the game, Grifol said, “We’ll see tomorrow how [Jiménez] wakes up. They’re going to do some testing on it… We’re not sure until tomorrow” (per Merkin). While we should know more about the severity of Jiménez’s injury sometime today, James Fegan of Sox Machine notes that the oft-injured DH previously suffered an adductor strain as a minor leaguer in 2018. That particular injury kept him on the shelf for two weeks. Fegan also mentions that Lenyn Sosa is being recalled from Triple-A, which seems to indicate an incoming IL stint announcement.
2. More teams waiting on injury updates:
The White Sox aren’t the only team waiting on injury updates today. Two Giants players exited yesterday’s action early, and the team said both would be reevaluated on Monday. First baseman Wilmer Flores suffered a shoulder contusion after falling into the dugout while trying to catch a foul ball. An inning later, starting pitcher Daulton Jefferies left the game himself due to right hip discomfort.
On the minor league side, Rays infielder (and star prospect) Junior Caminero suffered a quad injury at Triple-A on Sunday. It looked exceptionally painful as the young infielder limped to first base before dropping to the ground, but there is no word yet on the severity of the injury. Like Flores and Jefferies, Caminero will undergo testing today.
3. The Giants take on the Dodgers:
As the Giants wait for updates on Flores and Jefferies, they will head to Chavez Ravine to take on the Dodgers. San Francisco made a push to sign superstar Shohei Ohtani this offseason, and now the Giants will get their first look at the two-time MVP playing for their long-time rivals. San Francisco was also a finalist to land NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, although the Giants won’t see him this week in L.A.
For their part, the Dodgers get a chance to take on the new-look Giants. Although Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi didn’t land the two biggest fish of the offseason, he still transformed his team’s roster, adding Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler, and Matt Chapman to the top of the lineup and Blake Snell and Jordan Hicks to the starting rotation.