Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Padres, Moises Gomez Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Padres agreed to a minor league contract with Moisés Gómez last month, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The 26-year-old corner outfielder had been outrighted and released by the Cardinals last season.

Gómez is working to get to the big leagues for the first time. He seemed on track after hitting 39 homers in the minor leagues in 2022. That earned him a 40-man roster spot with St. Louis. Gómez spent the entire ’23 campaign on optional assignment to their Triple-A affiliate. He popped another 30 homers but hit .232 with a .293 on-base percentage. That wasn’t enough to crack the MLB roster. St. Louis sent him through outright waivers last February.

The righty-hitting outfielder again opened the season at the Triple-A level. He hit .208 and saw his power production evaporate, as he only managed three longballs in 45 games before being released. Gómez closed the season in the independent American Association. He has mashed in winter ball in his native Venezuela this offseason. Gómez is hitting .273/.396/.613 with 15 longballs in 48 winter ball games.

San Diego will give him an opportunity to rebound from his difficult past two seasons. Gómez has big power, hitting 127 homers in parts of nine minor league seasons between the Tampa Bay and St. Louis systems. That includes 49 longballs in fewer than 1000 Triple-A plate appearances, though he’s a .236/.303/.452 hitter at that level. He has punched out in nearly a third of his trips to the plate in Triple-A.

Where Can Astros Turn For A Left-Handed Outfielder?

By | at

After last month’s Kyle Tucker trade, the outfield is the biggest question for the Astros. Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick are lined up to start in center and right field, respectively. Meyers is a defensive stalwart without much offensive upside. McCormick has been a very good hitter in the past, but he’s coming off the worst season of his career.

Left field is completely open. While Yordan Alvarez could get a few starts there, the Astros want to use him mostly as a designated hitter. Former top prospect Taylor Trammell, who started one major league game last season, is Houston’s projected left fielder at RosterResource. Trammell is coming off a strong season in Triple-A, but he’s 27 years old and has a .167/.270/.368 batting line over 359 MLB plate appearances. If not Trammell, utility player Mauricio Dubón would probably get the majority of the playing time. Houston still expects to compete for an AL West title. They’ll need to add at least one outfielder before Opening Day.

General manager Dana Brown has acknowledged as much. Houston is looking for a left-handed hitter, in particular, potentially allowing them to spell McCormick or Meyers. The Astros project narrowly above the competitive balance tax threshold and don’t seem likely to make a play for Anthony Santander. If they’re dealing with a tighter budget, where could they look?

Free Agency

Jurickson Profar: Profar might be out of their financial comfort zone as well. As of last month, the switch-hitting left fielder was looking for a deal of at least three years. He’s the best non-Santander outfielder available in free agency. Profar has had an up-and-down career but is coming off by far his best season. He hit .280/.380/.459 with 24 homers behind massively improved exit velocities. He’ll turn 32 in February, but the Astros have made three-year free agent commitments to much older hitters (i.e. José Abreu and Christian Walker). Profar is an ideal fit on paper, but the money could be an issue.

Alex Verdugo: For most of his Red Sox tenure, Verdugo was a capable if mercurial everyday player. He hit .281/.338/.424 across four seasons in Boston. The Sox traded him to the Yankees, who stuck with him as their regular left fielder amidst the worst season of his career. Verdugo finished the year with a .233/.291/.356 slash across 621 plate appearances. Almost all the positives came in the first month of the season. Verdugo carried a .267/.358/.446 line into May. He hit .225/.275/.336 over his final 501 plate appearances. Verdugo doesn’t turn 29 until May, so he’s a plausible rebound candidate, but that’d be less risky for a fringe contender than it is for a true win-now team like Houston. He’s likely looking at a one-year pillow deal, probably for less than the $10MM that Max Kepler received from Philadelphia.

Jesse Winker: Outside of Profar, Winker probably has the best offensive profile of this group. He hit .258/.366/.422 with 13 homers in 404 plate appearances against righty pitching last season. He’s a career .276/.379/.462 hitter with the platoon advantage. Winker isn’t a huge threat against lefties, but he can hit right-handers. The big drawback is the defensive profile. He’s a poor defender in left field who should primarily be a designated hitter. The Astros would either need to have him divide left field work with Alvarez or play Winker there regularly if they want to keep their superstar DH off his feet. Maybe they feel the Crawford Boxes and limited left field to cover in Houston makes that worthwhile. Winker might be able to get two years but shouldn’t be all that expensive.

Jason Heyward: Heyward finished the 2024 season in Houston after being released by the Dodgers. He hit four homers in 24 regular season contests and started one of their Division Series games against the Tigers. While it was a fairly strong finish, Heyward had hit .208/.289/.393 across 197 plate appearances with Los Angeles. He’s at best a strong-side platoon option and might be a better fit for a bench role going into his age-35 season. He’d be available for one year and a base salary of a few million dollars.

David Peralta: Peralta has a similar profile to Heyward. He’s a former above-average regular who has settled into a platoon role in his late 30s. He’s coming off a nice season for the Padres, hitting .267/.335/.415 across 260 plate appearances. The Astros would probably prefer to bring Heyward back if they’re going this route, but Peralta had better numbers in 2024.

Trade Candidates

Jesús Sánchez: Outside of Sandy Alcántara and the dead money owed to released outfielder Avisaíl García, Sánchez projects as the highest-paid player on the Marlins. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $3.2MM salary in his second of four trips through arbitration. That’s hardly exorbitant, but Miami has shown a willingness to move virtually anyone amidst their full rebuild. Sánchez is a former top prospect who has settled in as a low-end regular in the big leagues. He’s coming off a .252/.313/.417 showing with 18 homers and 16 stolen bases — his second straight league average offensive performance. He’s a roughly average defender in either corner. The 27-year-old may not have the upside that many prospect evaluators had hoped, but he’d be an upgrade over Trammell.

Mike Yastrzemski: The Giants seemed likely to deal one of their arbitration-eligible players at the start of the offseason. Yastrzemski, who agreed to a $9.25MM salary in his final year of club control, seemed the most logical candidate. San Francisco has been quiet since pulling off the Willy Adames deal, however, so they might not be looking to shed payroll to open additional free agent pursuits. Yastrzmeski is coming off a .231/.302/.437 showing with 18 homers through 474 trips to the plate.

Willi Castro: Castro is a switch-hitting utility player who has more than 800 innings of left field experience. He has had a solid two-year run in Minnesota, hitting .251/.334/.395 in 1044 plate appearances. Castro was a nice find for the Twins’ front office, who inked him to a minor league deal after he’d been non-tendered by the Tigers. He’s in his final winter of arbitration and projected for a $6.2MM salary. Minnesota highly values his versatility and clubhouse presence, so they’re probably not keen on moving him. Yet the Twins are working with an extremely tight budget and have done nothing in free agency. Trading Castro would be one way to open a bit of payroll space.

————————

There are a few other trade candidates if Houston wanted to take a bigger swing. Players like Wilyer Abreu, Jake McCarthy and Alec Burleson could be available. They’d require a stronger prospect return than any of Sánchez, Yastrzmeski or Castro, however. That seems unlikely considering the Astros dealt Tucker because they wanted to add talent to a very thin farm system without giving up on the upcoming season.

Angels, Sebastian Rivero Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Angels signed catcher Sebastián Rivero to a minor league contract last month, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. It’s unclear if he’ll be invited to major league Spring Training.

Rivero, 26, has two seasons of major league experience. He played in 34 games for the Royals between 2021-22, hitting .167 without a home run over 73 trips to the plate. Kansas City released him after the ’22 campaign. The Venezuelan-born catcher has spent the past two seasons in the upper minors, dividing his time between the White Sox and Braves organizations. He hit .186/.239/.249 in 75 games between Double-A and Triple-A in the Atlanta system a year ago. Rivero has been playing winter ball, where he’s hitting .182 in 21 games.

While there’s clearly not a ton of offensive upside, Rivero adds catching depth to the upper levels of the minors. He has started nearly 400 games and caught almost 3500 innings in his minor league career. Rivero has cut down around a quarter of attempted basestealers in each of the last two seasons.

Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud will divide the catching duties at Angel Stadium. Recent trade pickup Chuckie Robinson projects as the top depth option as the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. They hadn’t had any non-roster catchers with major league experience before signing Rivero, who could back Robinson up at Triple-A Salt Lake.

Latest On Max Scherzer

By | at

With the rotation market moving more quickly than the rest of free agency, the number of unsigned starting pitchers is dwindling. Jack Flaherty, Nick Pivetta and potential reliever conversion Jeff Hoffman are at the top of the class. Beyond that, teams are evaluating pitchers who’ll likely be limited to one- or two-year commitments.

Max Scherzer may be the most intriguing of those short-term targets. The future Hall of Famer was limited to nine starts and 43 1/3 innings during his final season with the Rangers. Scherzer has made clear that he has no plans to retire. He’ll be back for his age-40 campaign in hopes of a healthier, more productive season.

In a live stream for Bleacher Report this afternoon, Jon Heyman suggested that Scherzer is fielding interest from four teams. Heyman indicated that the market “is heating up a bit,” so it’s possible that the three-time Cy Young winner could come off the board in the relatively near future.

Scherzer opened the ’24 season on the injured list as he finished rehab from last December’s back surgery. Nerve irritation in his throwing hand delayed his return until late June. Scherzer made eight starts before going back on the shelf with shoulder fatigue. That kept him out into September. His season concluded after one additional start because of a strained left hamstring.

A pitcher battling multiple injuries, including back surgery, at age 40 is obviously going to raise concerns. Scherzer is only one season removed from starting 30 games and topping 160 innings between the regular season and playoffs. He’d surpassed 170 innings in every full schedule between 2009-21. Until last year, he’d been incredibly durable.

Scherzer remains productive when he’s able to pitch, albeit not at a Cy Young level. He turned in a 3.77 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate between the Mets and Rangers in 2023. Last season, he allowed just under four earned runs per nine with a diminished 22.6% strikeout percentage. Scherzer still got a ton of chases and whiffs on a per-pitch basis though. His 14.6% swinging strike rate ranked fifth among starting pitchers with 40+ innings. Only Blake Snell, Garrett Crochet, Logan Gilbert and Dylan Cease missed bats at a higher rate.

Aside from perhaps Flaherty, Scherzer arguably has the highest ceiling for next season alone of any unsigned starter. There’s also significant risk because of the recent spate of injuries. Scherzer will almost certainly be limited to a one-year contract, so the long-term downside is limited, but he should command a strong salary.

Alex Cobb landed $15MM from the Tigers coming off a season in which he combined for 23 innings between the regular season and playoffs. He recently turned 37 and doesn’t miss bats at anywhere near the rate Scherzer does. It stands to reason that Scherzer and his representation at the Boras Corporation will be aiming to beat Cobb money, perhaps in pursuit of a contract closer to $20MM.

Heyman’s report doesn’t specify any of the teams involved in the bidding. Speculatively speaking, the Braves, Orioles, Blue Jays, Cubs, Nationals and Mets are among the teams that could have some spending room and a desire for a short-term upside play. Scherzer isn’t going to sign with a team that doesn’t have a path to contention, but there are very few truly rebuilding clubs right now. Every team aside from Colorado, Miami and the White Sox may feel they have a path to a Wild Card spot.

Each Team’s Free Agent Spending Thus Far

By | at

The New Year serves as a symbolic halfway point of the offseason. It has been just over two months since the Dodgers knocked off the Yankees to win the World Series. We’re a little more than six weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training.

Twenty six of MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents have come off the board. Four of the top 10 remain unsigned, as well as Roki Sasaki (who was not ranked because his earning power is limited). More than half the money has been spent — Alex Bregman is the only unsigned player who landed within our top six free agents — but the offseason is proceeding at a relatively normal pace. It has moved a little more quickly than last winter, when 22 players from our Top 50 had signed by the time the calendar flipped to January.

Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, we’ll look through every team’s activity on the open market. We’ll stretch back to November 4, the date at which free agents were first allowed to begin discussing contract terms with every team. That excludes a pair of deals that were signed within the five-day exclusive negotiation window for teams to discuss contracts with their own free agents: the Reds’ $2.25MM deal with Brent Suter and the Royals retaining Michael Wacha on a three-year, $51MM contract.

This isn’t an exhaustive look at a team’s offseason activity. The Blue Jays (Andrés Giménez), Angels (Jorge Soler), Cubs (Kyle Tucker) and Yankees (Cody Bellinger) are among teams that have acquired highly-paid players in trade. The Dodgers signed Tommy Edman to an extension that guaranteed $64.5MM in new money. This is strictly a look at free agent activity.

For this exercise, we’ll take the total amount even if the contract includes deferred money. Teams are ordered by overall spending.

1. New York Mets

Total guarantees: $917.25MM

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

Total spending: $287MM

3. New York Yankees

Total guarantees: $235.5MM

4. Arizona Diamondbacks

Total guarantees: $210MM

5. San Francisco Giants

Total guarantees: $182MM

6. Texas Rangers

Total guarantees: $130.5MM

7. Los Angeles Angels

Total guarantees: $80.25MM

8. Baltimore Orioles

Total guarantees: $71MM

9. Athletics

Total guarantees: $70.95MM

10. Houston Astros

Total guarantees: $60MM

11. Boston Red Sox

Total guarantees: $52.3MM

12. Cleveland Guardians

Total guarantees: $42MM

13. Chicago Cubs

Total guarantees: More than $40.5MM

14. Detroit Tigers

Total guarantees: $30MM

15. Washington Nationals

Total guarantees: $29MM

16. Philadelphia Phillies

Total guarantees: $22.5MM

17. Cincinnati Reds

Total guarantees: $21.05MM

18. Toronto Blue Jays

Total guarantees: $15MM

19. Tampa Bay Rays

Total guarantees: $8.5MM

19. Colorado Rockies

Total guarantees: $8.5MM

21. Pittsburgh Pirates

Total guarantees: More than $5MM

22. Chicago White Sox

Total guarantees: $4.75MM

23. Atlanta Braves

Total guarantees: More than $360K

24. Miami Marlins

Total guarantees: $200K

25. Milwaukee Brewers

Total guarantees: More than $0

26. Kansas City Royals

Total guarantees: $0

  • None*

26. Minnesota Twins

Total guarantees: $0

  • None

26. San Diego Padres

Total guarantees: $0

  • None

26. Seattle Mariners

Total guarantees: $0

  • None

26. St. Louis Cardinals

Total guarantees: $0

  • None

* Counting Wacha as a free agent deal rather than an extension would push Kansas City to 12th in total spending

Jesus Luzardo Discusses Return From Injury

By | at

Phillies newly-acquired starter Jesús Luzardo chatted with the Philadelphia beat over Zoom on Monday. The southpaw finished the 2024 season on the injured list but indicated he’s going into next season at full strength.

“I feel 100%. I’ve felt 100% the whole offseason,” Luzardo said. “Last year, the back was really the problem. Now that we’ve got that all figured out, thankfully everything’s back to normal.” He added that he has had a typical offseason, so it seems fair to assume he’ll be a full go for Spring Training. A lumbar stress reaction sent Luzardo to the 15-day IL in the second half of June. It didn’t take long before Miami transferred him to the 60-day injured list. The Marlins shut him down for good in early August.

Luzardo’s final season with the Marlins was a disappointment. The 27-year-old lefty struggled to an even 5.00 earned run average over 12 starts. He struck out a slightly below-average 21.2% of batters faced. Luzardo missed a couple weeks early in the year with elbow tightness, but the back proved much more problematic.

A fully healthy version of Luzardo is a #2 or #3 caliber starter. He showed that upside in 2023. Luzardo turned in a 3.58 ERA while striking out 28.1% of opponents across 178 2/3 innings. Luzardo averaged nearly 97 MPH on his heater and missed plenty of bats with both his slider and changeup. His 14.1% overall swinging strike rate ranked sixth among qualified starting pitchers.

Philadelphia sent highly-regarded shortstop prospect Starlyn Caba to Miami as the headliner of the Luzardo trade. A return to his ’23 form would arguably give Philadelphia the best front five in MLB. He’ll slot behind Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola and alongside Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez in Rob Thomson’s staff. The depth isn’t great, though the Phils have added Joe Ross on a $4MM free agent deal to join Taijuan Walker as candidates for swing roles.

Pitching prospect Andrew Painter could eventually be a factor, but that won’t happen within the season’s first month or two. Philadelphia is being very cautious with the touted 21-year-old righty, whom they’ve seemingly kept untouchable in trade talks. Painter is working back from July 2023 Tommy John surgery. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including Matt Gelb of the Athletic) last week that the Phils won’t have Painter pitch in games during Spring Training. He’ll continue throwing on the side in the spring and will subsequently need to build into game shape in the minors.

Painter made six appearances and tallied 15 2/3 innings in last year’s Arizona Fall League. That’s his only game action since the conclusion of the 2022 season. The Phillies will need to keep a close watch on his workload and certainly envision Painter as a factor in a potential pennant race. It’s understandable they’d prefer to start him slowly and concentrate on saving his bullets for what they hope will be another playoff push. That’s especially true now that Luzardo is in the fold, allowing them to open the season with both Ross and Walker in the ’pen if their top five arms are healthy.

Craig Breslow Discusses Casas, Bregman, Devers

By | at

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with the Boston beat on Monday to discuss the team’s offseason. MLBTR has already relayed Breslow’s notes on Lucas Giolito and Roki Sasaki, respectively. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Alex Speier of the Boston Globe were among those to cover Breslow’s other comments.

Most notably, the CBO pushed back against trade rumors swirling around first baseman Triston Casas. “I’m not totally sure where it comes from. We’re not shopping Triston,” Breslow said. “We see him as a guy that can hit in the middle of the lineup for a really long time here in Boston. I’ve seen some of the speculation about what deals may or may not have existed, or what may or may not have been proposed, and there was nothing that was remotely close. We’re certainly not shopping him.”

Reporting has generally characterized the Sox as being open to a Casas trade without suggesting they’re actively trying to deal him. That has been most prevalent in the context of attempting to line up a deal with Seattle for a controllable starter. Ryan Divish and Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reported during the Winter Meetings that the Mariners had rebuffed interest from the Sox in swapping Casas for a young starter like Bryan Woo or Bryce Miller. Boston has seemingly not had interest in a Casas for Luis Castillo framework. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand wrote last week that the Sox would’ve wanted Seattle to take on the underwater Masataka Yoshida contract in that situation.

In any case, it looks increasingly likely that Casas will remain on the Red Sox going into next season. Boston has added Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler to a rotation that already included Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford. Giolito is shooting for an Opening Day return from internal brace surgery. That gives the Sox at least six viable starters, while Cooper Criswell and Richard Fitts are on hand as depth options. Garrett Whitlock is likely to kick back to the bullpen once he returns from his own elbow surgery.

While the rotation may no longer be a priority, Breslow highlighted two longstanding target areas: a right-handed bat and the bullpen. They’ve made progress in the latter area, bringing in Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson to strengthen the left side. Whitlock and Liam Hendriks could step in alongside second-year pitcher Justin Slaten in the late innings. Whitlock, Hendriks, and Wilson all come with some durability question marks. Chapman’s scattershot command makes him something of a wild card. Slaten, who is just one season removed from being a Rule 5 selection, might be the team’s safest reliever.

Relief pitching is tough to project, and the Sox have a more volatile bullpen than most contenders. There’s a decent amount of upside, but it’s not surprising that Breslow indicated they’ll look for another addition. The free agent relief market has barely moved. Only three relievers — Clay Holmes, Blake Treinen and Yimi García — have signed multi-year deals. Holmes is stretching out as a starter after signing a three-year contract with the Mets. Chapman and Nick Martinez (who accepted a qualifying offer from Cincinnati) are the only other relievers to sign for a guarantee above $10MM.

The slowly-developing relief market in part reflects a weaker than average free agent group. However, the top two relievers, Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman, remain unsigned going into the new year. Carlos Estévez, Kirby Yates, A.J. Minter and David Robertson are other relievers who have yet to sign. Ryan Helsley is the top name on the trade market, though the Cardinals seem to prefer to hold him until the deadline.

In contrast to the bullpen, Boston has yet to make a move for a right-handed hitter aside from a trade for backup catcher Carlos Narváez. The Sox lost Tyler O’Neill from a group that was already very left-handed. Breslow reiterated that the Sox wanted impact production from “a right-handed bat out of the middle of the lineup.” He left open the possibility of internal improvements but noted they’re “certainly also engaged in conversations for players that aren’t yet in the organization.”

The top remaining free agent, righty-hitting infielder Alex Bregman, has been linked to the Sox in recent weeks. Asked whether the Sox are still involved on Bregman, Breslow pointed back to the need for right-handed hitting generally. “As you probably can imagine, I’m not going to speak about specific pursuits. I can say that right-handed bats that we feel like could play well at our park are certainly of interest to us, and we remain engaged on a number of fronts.”

Breslow added that the Red Sox aren’t looking to move Rafael Devers off the hot corner. That doesn’t rule out Bregman, who’d be a massive upgrade over Boston’s internal options at second base (i.e. Vaughn Grissom, David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez). Switch-hitting outfielders Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar are speculative possibilities. Pete Alonso may be the best unsigned right-handed hitter, but he’d be a tough roster fit unless the Sox deal Casas or can offload most of the Yoshida contract.

Brewers Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group

By | at

The Brewers announced on Tuesday that they’ve reached agreement with Diamond Sports Group to handle in-market broadcasting for the 2025 season. Unsurprisingly, the team did not reveal how much they’ll make in rights fees.

It’s a reversal from plans announced in October. At the time, Major League Baseball announced that it would take over in-market broadcasting for Milwaukee. That came shortly after Diamond, the parent company of FanDuel Sports Networks (formerly the Bally Sports Networks), announced that it was abandoning its contract with the team. Diamond subsequently finalized a plan to avoid liquidation and emerge from bankruptcy to continue operations for at least one more year.

Evidently, Diamond and the Brewers had kept open communications even though Milwaukee initially intended to turn broadcasts to the league. They’ve found a mutually agreeable price point — presumably below what Diamond would have owed under their previous agreement — to stick with the company for another season.

Brewers business operations president Rick Schlesinger tells Adam McCalvy of MLB.com that the team could turn the rights to MLB as soon as the 2026 season. “Long term, whether it’s 2026 or thereafter, I do think MLB Media is the place where we’re ultimately going to land, and I think that’s going to be in the best interest of the fans and the teams and the league to get a model that provides for the widest possible distribution across the most number of platforms with the highest technology and the best economics for the league and the teams,” Schlesinger said. “But we are comfortable with the quality of the production that Diamond Sports, Ballys and now FanDuel are operating under, and we like the continuity. Our fans will find the games the same places they found it last year.”

It isn’t known if this will have any impact on Milwaukee’s player payroll. The Brewers have only made one major league free agent addition this offseason, signing lefty Grant Wolfram to a deal that presumably landed around the league minimum. RosterResource calculates their payroll around $118MM, narrowly above the approximate $116MM mark at which they ended the ’24 season.

Diamond is back up to eight MLB teams for which it’ll carry in-market broadcasts: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Royals and Tigers. The Guardians, Reds and Twins are turning broadcasts over to MLB. They’re following in the footsteps of the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies — each of whom was broadcast by MLB this past season. Diamond has also dropped its deal with the Rangers. The Texas organization is not expected to return to Diamond or to sign on with MLB. Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote this month that the Rangers were exploring ways to negotiate individual deals with various cable providers rather than contracting with an RSN.

Wolfe: “Market Size Isn’t A Factor” In Sasaki’s Decision

By | at

Wasserman’s Joel Wolfe, the agent for NPB star Roki Sasaki, tells SNY’s Andy Martino that “market size isn’t a factor either way” in the player’s decision. At the Winter Meetings, the agent opined that Sasaki may prefer going to a smaller market after clashing with media members in Japan. However, Wolfe stressed at the time that was his own opinion and that he and Sasaki had yet to discuss the matter in depth. It seems the pitcher isn’t giving that any weight.

Sasaki has conducted initial meetings with at least seven teams, most of whom are big-market franchises. Previous reports indicated he met with Dodgers, Rangers, Yankees, Mets and Cubs. The Giants are believed to have gotten a meeting as well. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports today that the Padres were also granted a meeting during Sasaki’s trip to the U.S. earlier this month.

Wolfe met with various reporters (including Tim Healey of Newsday and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) this evening to provide details on the process. He indicated that all in-person meetings occurred at Wasserman’s offices in Los Angeles. Wolfe declined to specify how many teams were involved. He said that 20 clubs sent initial presentations via PowerPoint, video or books to express interest.

It seems that each meeting followed specific protocols. According to Wolfe, Sasaki specifically requested that teams did not bring any players. He also limited each conversation to the same amount of time (less than two hours), ostensibly to keep every team on an equal footing. As planned, Sasaki then returned to Japan for the holidays.

It isn’t clear if any teams beyond the reported seven have met with Sasaki. Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said last week that Detroit made an initial pitch, though as of Friday, they hadn’t heard back on whether they’d get a meeting. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said this morning that Boston was in a similar position (relayed by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe).

Wolfe did not close the door on granting another team or two an initial sit-down, though the agent indicated that they’d soon start to narrow the field (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). Sasaki has not visited any team’s cities — aside from his stay in L.A. because Wasserman is headquartered there — but could do so after the New Year.

The signing period for international amateur free agents opens on January 15. That’s the date at which Sasaki is first eligible to sign. His 45-day posting window runs through January 23, however. Wolfe indicated that Sasaki may not have made a decision by the opening of the signing window and could take things right up to the posting deadline. While the agent didn’t highlight this as a reason, that would give MLB teams just over a week to trade for international signing bonus allotments that’d increase what they’re able to offer Sasaki. Teams can acquire up to 60% of the initial value of their respective bonus pools. Teams have varying initial pool allotments, all of which land between $5.1462MM and $7.5555MM.

Lenny Randle Passes Away

By | at

Former major league utility player Lenny Randle has passed away at 75. The National Baseball Hall of Fame confirmed the news on Monday evening.

Randle was a multi-sport collegiate star at Arizona State. He played on the Sun Devils football team in addition to his work as ASU’s second baseman. He stuck with baseball after being drafted by the Washington Senators in 1970. Randle jumped right to Triple-A after the draft and made his big league debut by his first full season. He remained with the franchise when they relocated to Texas and rebranded as the Rangers going into the ’72 campaign.

After a few seasons in a utility role, Randle broke through in 1974. He hit .302 and stole 26 bases (albeit with 17 times caught stealing) across 151 games. Randle played multiple positions and was a valuable enough part of the Texas roster to receive down-ballot MVP support. He had another strong season in 1975, hitting .276 with 24 doubles across 676 plate appearances. He divided that season mostly between second base and center field.

Randle didn’t play as well in ’76. He lost his hold on the starting second base job the following spring. Randle threatened to leave camp, which led to public criticism from manager Frank Lucchesi (link via MLB.com). Randle confronted Lucchesi and, after a brief exchange, punched the manager multiple times. Lucchesi was hospitalized with a fractured cheekbone. Randle would eventually plead no contest to battery charges, leading to a fine.

While teammates and Texas beat reporters said that kind of outburst was out of character for the generally soft-spoken Randle, the Rangers made the obvious decision to move on from him. Texas suspended him for a month and traded him to the Mets before the ban was lifted. Randle moved to third base in Queens, where he had a strong first season. He hit .304 with a career-high 33 steals. His numbers dropped again in ’78, after which he bounced around the league.

Randle had a cameo with the Yankees in 1979, played somewhat regularly for the Cubs the following season, then finished his MLB career with two seasons in Seattle. During his stint with the Mariners, Randle had the humorous play in which he blew a slow roller down the third base line into foul territory after realizing he didn’t have a play on the ball. Umpires awarded the hitter first base.

Over a 12-year big league career, Randle hit .257/.321/.335. He was never much of a power threat and only connected on 27 home runs. The switch-hitter picked up 145 doubles and 40 triples while stealing 156 bases. He collected just over 1000 hits and scored nearly 500 runs. MLBTR joins others throughout the game in sending our condolences to Randle’s family, loved ones, friends and former teammates.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top