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Athletics Claim T.J. McFarland

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The Athletics announced that they have claimed lefty T.J. McFarland off of waivers from the Diamondbacks. It appears the Arizona organization outrighted him from the 40-man after declining a club option.

It’s a bit of an unusual situation. McFarland’s 2019 arbitration agreement included an option value for 2020. The $1.85MM price was deemed too steep. But McFarland remained eligible for arbitration.

Now, the A’s will have a decision to make. McFarland actually projects to earn more than the option value, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz pegging his arb value at $2.1MM. That’s all subject to negotiation, of course. The Oakland org might seek to work out a deal at its price tag and move on if that can’t be accomplished.

McFarland was in many respects much the same pitcher as he was in a successful 2018 season, with the 30-year-old producing loads of groundballs and minimal strikeouts. But he allowed more hard contact and more home runs. The A’s obviously they believe McFarland can benefit from some positive regression and/or tweaks to his approach.

D'Backs Had Interest In Chih-Jung Liu

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  • A brief scouting report on newly-signed Red Sox right-hander Chih-Jung Liu is provided by former big leaguer Chien-Ming Wang to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe, as Wang has worked with the 20-year-old prospect.  Liu “needs to improve his slider and splitter to have a good out pitch” and “needs to build up his arm strength and pitch count,” Wang said.  These aren’t unusual criticisms for any young pitcher, especially for a case like Liu, who mostly played shortstop in high school and only recently got back into pitching.  Liu is also “bright” and “seems to be able to adapt to [a] new environment quickly,” Wang said, and he also noted that Liu asked him how to throw a sinkerball, Wang’s signature pitch.  Abraham reports that the Phillies and Diamondbacks were among the other teams who had interest in Liu before the Red Sox signed him for $750K.

Diamondbacks' Herges Not First Choice, But Not A Bad Choice

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Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo set out to hire a pitching coach with four specific qualifications, per The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan. He was looking for someone, obviously, with pitching knowledge, good communication skills, and the ability to work well with the team’s medical personnel, but Lovullo also wanted someone with the creativity and innovative instincts to stay up-to-speed with the changing shape of the game. Matt Herges may not be the picture-perfect candidate, but he’s the guy with the job. And while Arizona reportedly offered the job to Kirk Saarloos and Bryan Price before Herges, they are no doubt content with Herges and value the eagerness with which he has come to the role. Sometimes the right decision is as simple as hiring the person who wants the job most.

Jerry Narron Out As D-backs' Bench Coach

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  • Diamondbacks bench coach Jerry Narron has elected to leave the team’s staff, Steve Gilbert of MLB.com tweets. Narron spent the previous two-plus years as manager Torey Lovullo’s top lieutenant in Arizona, though the club moved Luis Urueta into that role after the season. It’s unclear at this point if Narron has an opportunity lined up elsewhere. Now 63 years old, Narron’s a former big league catcher who has managed the Rangers (2001-02) and Reds (2005-07).

Diamondbacks Decline Options On Flores, McFarland; Outright Almonte, Scott

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The Diamondbacks announced that they won’t be exercising their club options on either infielder Wilmer Flores or left-hander T.J. McFarland.  Flores’ $6MM option will be bought out for $500K, while McFarland will receive a $50K buyout rather than a $1.85MM salary for the 2020 season.  In addition to these moves, the D’Backs also announced that outfielder Abraham Almonte and lefty Robby Scott have been outrighted to Triple-A.

Though a right foot contusion cost him almost two months of the season, Flores’ first year in Arizona was a successful one when he was able to take the field.  The 28-year-old hit .317/.361/.387 over 285 PA, and while a particular power surge against left-handed pitching led to some significant splits (.337/.367/.615 against lefties, .304/.358/.404 against righties), Flores was still plenty dangerous against all types of pitching.

Flores was primarily used at second base last year, handling the keystone whenever Ketel Marte wasn’t in center field.  Given that the D’Backs will again look to move Marte around the diamond next year, retaining Flores for the extra $5.5MM wouldn’t have seemed like an exorbitant choice.  Then again, the team might not have expected Flores to duplicate his 2019 performance, given that Flores’ .362 wOBA far outpaced his .329 xwOBA, and he also had some notable batted-ball luck in the form of a .332 BABIP.

It isn’t out of the question that the Diamondbacks could look to re-sign Flores at a lesser price, though one would imagine he’ll get interest from multiple teams looking for a versatile infielder (Flores also saw a lot of action at third base during his time with the Mets) who can crush southpaws.

After posting a 2.00 ERA over 72 frames for Arizona in 2018, McFarland’s bottom-line numbers (4.82 ERA) came back down to earth last year, even though a lot of his peripheral statistics weren’t too dissimilar.  The grounder specialist ran into trouble when he did let the ball get into the air last year, as McFarland’s 17.1% home run rate was a career high.

Diamondbacks To Hire Matt Herges As Pitching Coach

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After running into some roadblocks with other candidates, the Diamondbacks have settled upon Matt Herges as their next pitching coach, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

Herges will join the staff of skipper Torey Lovullo after a pair of seasons as the Giants’ bullpen coach. The former MLB hurler replaces Mike Butcher in guiding the Arizona pitching staff.

Bryan Price, Kirk Saarloos Each Decline To Become Diamondbacks Pitching Coach

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8:41pm: The D-Backs also struck out when they offered the gig to TCU pitching coach Kirk Saarloos, according to Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (via Twitter). Saarloos, a seven-year MLB veteran, will evidently stay on for a seventh year at Texas Christian.

7:34am: Former Reds manager Bryan Price turned down an offer at a second stint as the Diamondbacks’ pitching coach, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). The 57-year-old Price managed the Reds from 2014-18 and spent the 14 previous seasons as a pitching coach in Seattle (2000-06), Arizona (2007-09) and Cincinnati (2010-13).

That Price even took the interview obviously suggests that he’s open to coaching again, though it’s possible he’s holding out hope of landing a role with a different organization or simply didn’t feel that a return to Arizona was the right fit after sitting down with the current regime. In addition to the D-backs, the Red Sox are also considering Price in their search for a new pitching coach, but it’s not clear that he’s any kind of favorite for that job.

Other pitching coach vacancies throughout the league include the Pirates, Phillies, Mets and Dodgers (although Los Angeles may stick internal and elevate Mark Prior to replace the newly retired Rick Honeycutt). The Angels had been searching for a replacement for Doug White, but they’re reportedly set to hire Mickey Callaway. Other vacancies could yet open up, as there are still several ongoing managerial searches — the outcome of which will assuredly impact the composition of those teams’ coaching staffs.

Mutual Interest Between Alex Avila, Diamondbacks

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The Diamondbacks and catcher Alex Avila “appear” to have mutual interest in working out a new contract, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic reports within an excellently laid out look at the team’s upcoming 40-man roster decisions and Rule 5 protection candidates (subscription required). The veteran catcher is slated to become a free agent this winter.

Avila, 33 in January, has spent the past two seasons in Arizona after signing a two-year, $8.25MM deal in the 2017-18 offseason. He’s been surpassed on the depth chart by standout young catcher Carson Kelly, but Avila’s patient eye and left-handed bat would make him a reasonable complement and veteran mentor to the up-and-coming 25-year-old.

Avila’s first season with the D-backs was a disaster, as he posted a miserable .165/.299/.304 batting line with an eye-popping 38.5 percent strikeout rate in 234 plate appearances. However, while he still posted an ugly batting average in 2019, he put the ball in play more often, drew more walks and showed more power. The resulting .207/.353/.421 slash (in 204 plate appearances) was one of the game’s more unusual lines but came out to roughly league-average overall output, per both OPS+ (100) and wRC+ (97).

Among the 360 players with at least 200 plate appearances in 2019, Avila’s gaudy 17.9 percent walk rate ranked third, trailing only Mike Trout and Brandon Nimmo. Strikeouts were still an issue, as Avila’s 33.4 percent rate was the 12th-highest in that same subset of hitters. Lack of balls in play notwithstanding, it seems that his power, on-base skills and defensive abilities are traits the Arizona front office hopes to retain. Avila has posted average or better framing marks in both seasons with the D-backs, and after throwing out a solid 30 percent of would-be base thieves in 2018, he nabbed 11 of the 21 men who tried to steal against him in 2019 (52 percent). Baseball Prospectus also rates his ability to block pitches quite favorably.

The Diamondbacks do have Caleb Joseph currently on the 40-man roster as a potential backup to Kelly, should a new deal with Avila ultimately fail to reach fruition for one reason or another. With a projected arbitration salary of $1.2MM (per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz), though, Joseph isn’t certain to be tendered a contract. Cutting ties with Joseph would only further create a need to bring in a veteran backstop — be it Avila or someone else — but Joseph batted just .211/.250/.263 in 41 plate appearances with the Snakes while batting .265/.324/.481 with Triple-A Reno. It’s also possible that the D-backs try to keep all three players, as Arizona has frequently carried three catchers under GM Mike Hazen. The addition of a 26th Major League roster spot for all 30 MLB teams next winter will only make it easier to do so, should the Diamondbacks wish to continue with that approach.

Position Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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Since the conclusion of the regular season, a number of players have elected free agency. That right accrues to certain players who are outrighted off of a 40-man roster during or after the season — namely, those that have at least three years of MLB service and/or have previously been outrighted. Such players that accepted outright assignments during the season have the right to elect free agency instead at season’s end, provided they aren’t added back to the 40-man in the meantime.

Here are the position players that have recently taken to the open market, along with their now-former teams (via the International League and PCL transactions pages):

Diamondbacks Notes: Ex-Dbacks, Rizzo, Offense, Marte

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The Diamondbacks surprisingly hung around the Wild Card race until mid-September this season, despite shedding the faces of their franchise over the course of the six months previous. The postseason has been a who’s who of important Dbacks of the last half decade, as Patrick Corbin has taken out the rest of the Dbacks former talent core, starting with A.J. Pollock and the Dodgers and Paul Goldschmidt and the Cardinals. He’ll take his best shot at Zack Greinke and the Astros in game 3 of the World Series, aka the former Dbacks ace bowl. Of course, Mike Rizzo, the Nationals GM, is also an ex-Diamondback. He served as Arizona’s Scouting Director from 2000 to 2006. Let’s take a look at some Diamondbacks news from Rizzo’s era up to the present day…

  • It’s unsurprising to realize Rizzo repurposed the team-building blueprint from the 2001 Diamondbacks champs in putting together his team in Washington, per MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. Mainly, that means two aces up front and a host of veteran hitters capable of putting together veteran at-bats. All in all, it’s a pretty uncannily accurate casting job on the part of Rizzo. Max Scherzer is Randy Johnson, Stephen Strasburg is Curt Schilling, Patrick Corbin is an evolved Brian Anderson, Anibal Sanchez is Miguel Batista. Many of the vets also fit the mold: Howie Kendrick can play Mark Grace, Gerardo Parra as David Dellucci or Danny Bautista, Ryan Zimmerman as Matt Williams, Asdrubal Cabrera as Jay Bell, Adam Eaton as Reggie Sanders, Matt Adams as Greg Colbrunn and Kurt Suzuki is Damian Miller. In the bullpen, Fernando Rodney is definitely Mike Morgan, Sean Doolittle is Matt Mantei (I guess?), Daniel Hudson is (gulp) Byung-Hyun Kim. Okay, perhaps it’s not 1-1 all the way through, but those Diamondbacks did win the World Series after a 92-win season – after a 93-win season in Washington, Rizzo hopes to replicate his old team one last time.
  • Despite two recent aces facing off for different teams in the World Series, the Diamondbacks offseason focus is the offense, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The Dbacks put together a middle-of-the-pack offense in 2019, but the bats went away in an 11-game stretch in mid-September. They went 3-8 and pretty much fell out of race while scoring less than 2 1/2 runs per game. Those are the games that stick out for GM Mike Hazen, who will be on the lookout for ways to diversify their offense. Parsing the profile of the type of hitter Hazen may target is more difficult, as Arizona’s offense didn’t really stand out in any which way. They finished below-average in home runs, but not by a lot, above-average in men left on base and GIDP, but again, not by much. They were exactly league-average in batting average and on-base percentage, while their team slugging (.434 SLG) was below average by .001 SLG – as close to average as any team in the MLB.
  • As far as Ketel Marte is concerned, the Dbacks aren’t making a decision about his 2020 defensive home until they build out the rest of the roster. Second base could be where they look to improve offensively, in which case Marte will head back out to center. Essentially, the plan remains the same, with Hazen and the Dbacks set to take full advantage of the versatility Marte affords.
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