Kevin Kiermaier went unclaimed on waivers, the center fielder tells Hazel Mae and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (X link). GM Ross Atkins informed Kiermaier of the news today.
The Jays placed the defensive stalwart on waivers earlier in the week. The development was reported yesterday, but it’s likely Toronto made the move on Wednesday. (The waiver resolution process takes 48 hours.) The Jays were hoping that another team would place a claim and assume the approximate $4.5MM remaining on his $10.5MM salary. All 29 other teams passed on that opportunity.
As a result, the waiver saga will likely amount to nothing. The Jays could technically try to assign Kiermaier to the minor leagues now that he went unclaimed, but there’s no real reason to do so. Kiermaier has way more than the five years of service time necessary to decline a minor league assignment while retaining his entire salary. If the Jays tried to send him to Triple-A, the four-time Gold Glove winner would surely elect free agency instead. Toronto would still owe him his salary, so all that’d achieve is opening a roster spot.
Instead, the Blue Jays are likely to simply keep Kiermaier in the majors. A team does not need to send a player down after passing that player through waivers. (As an example, the Angels retained Tyler Anderson and Randal Grichuk last season after unsuccessfully trying to offload their salaries.) Kiermaier is likely to continue serving as Toronto’s primary center fielder.
The 34-year-old will try to right the ship amidst the worst offensive season of his career. Kiermaier is hitting .191/.238/.295 with a huge 32.2% strikeout rate through 189 plate appearances. Among hitters with 150+ trips, he has the sixth-lowest OBP and is 19th from the bottom in slugging. Even with his customarily excellent glovework, Kiermaier’s overall production is hovering around replacement level.
Between the lack of offense and the fairly significant salary, no team was willing to plug Kiermaier into center field. The Jays could still try to trade him between now and the July 30 deadline, though they’d clearly need to pay down a portion of his salary to facilitate a deal. For the time being, he’ll try to help Toronto salvage their season. The Jays head into tonight’s series opener in Arizona with a 43-50 record that has them 8.5 games back of the Red Sox for the American League’s last Wild Card spot.
I’ve cleared waivers my entire life. No one has ever claimed me. Starting to think I might need to accept a minor league assignment.
@baseball_is_boring
Oh man, that is so sad. I got your back, bring it in for a .. just kidding, keep walking and don’t make eye contact with me.
You’d think the front office had better things to do…next thing on their agenda would be to relegate the home plate lady into the 500s….
They took a flyer.
That opportunity . lol
Never saw the fascination with this guy. Below average player his entire career.
Yeah, it sure seems like his defensive numbers dragged him down a bit.
HAHAHA
4 gold gloves including last year
Below average? Did you start watching baseball in 2022 or something? He’s had a 36 WAR career. That’s not HoF clearly, but it’s way above average. Various defensive stats have him somewhere around a top-50 all time outfielder.
Have watched since before you were born son. WAR is an overrated stat, as is defensive metrics in the outfield. You need to understand that different GMs value stats in varying ways. I believe he is below average, yes for what I value in building a roster.
Your last name wouldn’t happen to be Bowden, would it?
As a longtime Rays fan, the amount of runs this guy saved was unlike anyone I’ve ever seen in my life. Those defensive runs saved stat was made for him.
…asked of Redshtch108
KK was great. Even as a RS and JBJ fan, KK was better, though obviously less of an arm.
KK has a great arm.
WAR is the most useless, idiotic stat ever dreamt up. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
His defense and how hard he plays the game is why I like watching him. I also like that he has lasted for a decade in MLB after being drafted in the 31st round due to his work ethic. Those things make KK, for me, a much better than average player.
An extraordinarily stupid statement by someone who must think elite defence has zero value.
Kiermaier has been worth 36 WAR in his career, or 5.2 WAR/162 games. His biggest problem has been staying healthy. However, even with his history injury, and him getting on in years, he won a gold glove in 2023.
@terrymesmer
No such thing as WAR/162 games. WAR, for batters, is measured on plate appearances.
Agreed. Usually, it is WAR600, as in WAR per 600 PA.
@LaBellaVita
Yep. Terry likes to make up stats to support his narrative.
We don’t need you to troll in here with an insult. I do not think elite defense is a top priority in Major League Baseball unless it’s at shortstop or catcher. Defensive metrics for outfielders are vastly overrated in my opinion. Furthermore, above average outfield defenders who can’t hit are a dime a dozen while guys who can defend and with a high OPS are rare. You win games by scoring runs, especially in this era of low OBP and high strikeouts/PA. I also believe that WAR is a vastly overrated stat.
From a Jay’s fan….i agree!
Redstitch
“I do not think elite defense is a top priority in Major League Baseball”
That has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with how much a player contributes to winning, though.
“Defensive metrics for outfielders are vastly overrated in my opinion
…
I also believe that WAR is a vastly overrated stat.”
Present your evidence. You know, the reason that you believe what you believe.
“You win games by scoring runs”
Partially correct. You win by scoring more runs than your opponent. A run saved is a a run earned, provided your team scores at least 1 run.
You obviously have not seen KK play much in the OF. I do not need a defensive stat to see that he’s an all-time great CFer. Yes, I said all-time.
CG
“You obviously have not seen KK play much in the OF. I do not need a defensive stat to see that he’s an all-time great CFer. ”
One almost certainly does
I mean, most obviously, one hasn’t seen most other centerfielders, so how can one compare?
People think they know a lot more than they do. They are really using outside info, things like stats and the opinions of others, to formulate their opinions
CBeisbol, one reason I don’t love WAR is that it uses unstable defensive metrics in its calculations. Even the proprietors of DRS and UZR say they are unstable in single season samples. It’s obvious that it’s difficult to come up with good methodologies for defensive stats when results can vary greatly from one to the other. UZR, DRS, and OAA/FRV often disagree about not just the magnitude of a player’s contribution but even just whether a guy is good or bad defensively.
The models and math say CF defense is really important and I agree, however, I do think that unlike C and SS, it skews more towards tools over skills and therefore isn’t as difficult a position to fill if you don’t value the offensive contributions as well.
KK
“if you don’t value the offensive contributions as well.”
That would be completely foolish.
Like, what?
The greatest defensive CFer in history can still be a huge negative to your team if their hitting is bad enough.
As for WAR and defense, yes and no.
WAR should not be taken as an absolute. Of course.
However, it’s proven over and over through the years to be extremely accurate.
“As you can see, however, team wins and WAR wins are strongly correlated (R-squared value of 0.86). The line of best fit is y = 1.06 x – 4.61. So, if your team is projected to produce 100 “WAR wins” (47.628 + 52.372 WAR), they would be expected to win about 101 games. While the correlation does create some variance, the line of best fit demonstrates that the ratio of WAR to wins is pretty close to one-to-one, on average.”
beyondtheboxscore.com/2018/12/26/18155292/correlat…
Do this for any season, and you’ll see the same.
@Redstitch If you tries watching the guy play and not formulate an opinion based off of stats you would understand. He’s awesome with his glove and I’m the right lineup where a team can sacrifice batting he’s a huge asset to a team. Unfortunately for both him and the Jays offense they can’t spare much batting this season.
Tigers
“If you tries watching the guy play and not formulate an opinion based off of stats you would understand”
Almostcertainly wrong. Most people aren’t knowledgeable enough to simply watch a player and know how good they are.
Kiermaier cleared waivers. Meanwhile, water is wet.
I was under the impression that putting guys on revocable waivers was fairly normal and generally not something you see all over the press.
I think that happens in August after the normal trade deadline
There’s no more “other” trade deadline, so this is far less common than it was a decade ago
Not sure revocable waivers still exist? Some changes in the latest CBA.
There is no such thing as revocable waivers pre-trade deadline
Post-deadline it is basically a way for the worst teams to explore ways to get youth at bats, and to get headstart on offseason roster de-construction, and a way for playoff bound teams to address roster issues due to injuries and such. I equate it in a way to the NBA’s post deadline buyout period, cept MLB contracts can’t be amended like NBA players can in buyouts
During regular season pre-deadline there is just “Waivers”.
Cubs fans: Can we get Kevin Kiermaier?
Cubs: We have Kevin Kiermaier at home.
Kevin Kiermaier at home: baseball-reference.com/players/c/crowape01.shtml
The Cardinals have their own version with Siani.
@cruzich If you scroll down a bit on that link you ll see defensive statistics. They apply to the half of the game played with a glove.
PCA has been KKs equal more or less defensively. Better by 2 DRS and one less by FRV.
Not going to bring back anything but a nothing prospect but KK would be valuable to a lot of playoff bound teams if jays retain half his salary.
I think half his salary would be a good outcome for the Jays. It’s too bad to think that way as they have always been willing to retain salary to get the returns they want, but I do think getting below the CBT matters for a few reasons. One is that they likely have to go back over next year to just have a team that could have a chance to compete for a wildcard and it makes sense to reset if they aren’t competitive this year. Another is that they will have good draft position next year and the biggest penalties are felt in the draft. I guess that mostly only matters if they want to sign a qualified player or if for some unlikely reason they end up with a qualified free agent signing elsewhere (I can see a Jansen scenario as a slight possibility). But those things might matter this offseason.
He would be the typical Bran Cashman pick up!
I’ve got to think coming to work everyday is going to be a bit awkward for Kiermaier going forward, especially since Atkins flat out told everyone the goal was to get someone else to claim his entire salary
No better way to screw up morale than by telling someone they are surplus…wish someone would say that to Atkins….
When you re making $10.5M and hitting .197 he should ve already felt awkward. The team obviously signed him for his glove and lineup around him hasn’t helped. But ultimately a player has to carry his weight. Kiermaier has been around long enough that I’m sure he saw this coming.
Merrifield looked his tank had reached E this season. Much like Josh Harrison a year ago, he looked a player whom the Phils picked up a year too late.
Can he play short? If so, Giants should be all over this.
Jays executives are clueless. This type of maneuver to release Kiermaier, while being business, draws clubhouse moral down. Chemistry in a clubhouse and organization is very important. Hence we have Bichette recent hinting in the press about being traded.
Guess what? The BlueJays have had to pay higher and more term to FA players for tax reasons, foreign country reasons, and moron executive reasons.
Edward Rogers, please remove Shapiro from all baseball decision making and transfer him to business only. Transfer Atkins to the head of analytics, and fire Tony Lacava and James Click. Then hire an new President and GM of Baseball Operations named Derek Jeter.
let it be done, thank you.
@jimmer Instead the front office should sit by idle to appease players and try not to hurt their feelings?? When an everyday player is hitting .197 in July, this should be expected.
Awk-ward