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Sandy Alderson No Longer Operating As Mets’ Team President

By Anthony Franco | February 20, 2023 at 5:11pm CDT

Sandy Alderson has officially transitioned from Mets’ team president to an advisory role, owner Steve Cohen announced this morning (relayed by Tim Healey of Newsday). It’s the culmination of a process first announced last September.

Alderson, the New York general manager from 2010-18, returned to the organization as team president once Cohen purchased the franchise from the Wilpon family at the conclusion of the 2020 campaign. Alderson and the club had a mutual understanding he’d spend a fairly brief amount of time in that capacity, with the sides agreeing last fall to transition the veteran executive to an advisory role around the time his original two-year contract expired.

Last fall, the organization indicated Alderson would remain the team president until the Mets settled on his replacement. They’d been conducting interviews for the role for some time but still haven’t filled the position. Cohen suggested this morning they could now leave it vacant for the entire 2023 campaign, though he didn’t rule out the possibility of making a hire. As of last September, most of the candidates under consideration came from business backgrounds rather than baseball operations career paths — with no indication the club was interested in curtailing the daily baseball operations responsibilities for general manager Billy Eppler.

Alderson, 75, has worked in baseball operations or the league office for the better part of four decades. He’s previously spent time with the Oakland and San Diego front offices. Alderson remains with the Mets, though he’s presumably ceded some of the responsibilities he’d taken on over the past couple years. Perhaps not coincidentally, Cohen has taken on a more active role with the club. The owner told Healey and other reporters that he’s now part of weekly meetings with his staff.

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Rene Rivera Announces Retirement

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 10:07pm CDT

Longtime big league catcher René Rivera took to Instagram to announce his retirement Friday morning. “In June 2001, I had the opportunity to make one of my dreams come true, to get signed as a professional baseball player,” Rivera wrote. “21 years later, I thank God for the career he has allowed me to have. Today I want to announce that I am retiring as a professional baseball player.”

The 39-year-old goes on to thank every organization for which he played. He also expressed gratitude to his family, coaches, representatives and fans before concluding he’s “ready for the next step of (his) career.”

Rivera, a native of Puerto Rico, was selected by the Mariners in the second round of the ’01 draft. He was in the majors a little more than three years later, debuting as a September call-up in 2004 not long after his 21st birthday. Rivera spent a few seasons as a depth catcher for Seattle, combining to appear in 53 MLB games over his first three years.

After the 2006 campaign, Rivera kicked off a nomadic path that’d define his entire career. He was out of the majors entirely between 2007-10, bouncing between various organizations’ upper minors affiliates and spending some time in independent ball. Rivera returned to the bigs with the Twins in 2011 for a 45-game stint and played the following year in Triple-A.

A brief showing with the Padres in 2013 set the stage for Rivera to improbably break through as San Diego’s primary catcher at age 30 the next year. He connected on 11 home runs over a career-high 329 plate appearances during the ’14 season, hitting .252/.319/.432. The following offseason, San Diego sent him to the Rays in the three-team blockbuster that moved Wil Myers to Southern California, Steven Souza to Tampa Bay and then-prospect Trea Turner to Washington.

Rivera played in a personal-high 110 games with Tampa Bay but couldn’t recapture his prior year’s success at the plate. He hit .178/.213/.275 over 319 trips to the dish with the Rays and was released before the following season. He quickly signed with the Mets and would see a decent amount of action in Queens over the latter portion of his career. Rivera played in 65 games for the Mets in 2016 before logging 74 contests between New York and the Cubs the next year. He split the 2018 campaign with the Angels and Braves, then returned to the Mets as a depth catcher from 2019-20. Rivera’s final major league action came in 2021, when he got into 25 games between the Indians and Nationals.

While Rivera was rarely much of an offensive contributor, his strong defensive reputation earned him repeated opportunities. He ultimately logged parts of 13 MLB campaigns over a professional career that spanned two decades, suiting up at the MLB level for ten different teams. Rivera played in 542 big league contests, hitting .221/.273/.354 with 43 home runs across 1629 plate appearances. He spent nearly 4000 innings behind the plate, posting consistently strong marks from pitch framing metrics and cutting down a fantastic 36.5% of attempted basestealers.

MLBTR congratulates Rivera on his lengthy run in the professional ranks and wishes him the best in his post-playing endeavors.

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Dana Brown Discusses Astros’ Extension Targets

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 8:49pm CDT

First-year Astros general manager Dana Brown took control of the front office on the eve of Spring Training, an atypically late GM hire. With the club’s offseason business mostly taken care of, he immediately turned his attention toward keeping some key players who are already on the roster.

Houston already extended Cristian Javier through 2027. Brown has spoken about seeking out long-term deals for Kyle Tucker, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman in recent weeks. He added star southpaw Framber Valdez to the mix, telling reporters yesterday the club had been in touch with the representatives for both Valdez and Tucker (link via Associated Press). Meanwhile, Brown stated he’s frankly told agent Scott Boras, who represents both Altuve and Bregman, the duo “should be in Houston for life.”

It’s a fairly quick turn of events with regards to Valdez, in particular. The hurler’s agent Ulises Cabrera told Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday he’d yet to have any conversations with the club. Brown predictably didn’t divulge specifics in negotiations and there’s nothing to suggest talks have made any notable progress within the first few days. Nevertheless, it’s unsurprising confirmation the team would like to keep Valdez around.

He’s already under club control through 2025 via arbitration. Valdez will make $6.8MM for the upcoming season and is likely to land a pair of solid raises if he goes annually through that process. The 29-year-old is coming off the best year of his career, one in which he secured a fifth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting thanks to a 2.82 ERA and incredible 66.5% grounder percentage through 201 1/3 innings.

Altuve and Bregman, of course, have been career-long Astros. The former has twice signed long-term extensions with Houston, with the most recent of those deals coming during Spring Training in 2018. That $151MM contract runs through 2024, paying him $26MM annually over the next couple seasons. The deal runs through his age-34 season. Altuve hasn’t yet shown any signs of tailing off, as he’s coming off a .300/.387/.533 showing with 28 home runs.

Bregman inked a $100MM extension a year after Altuve signed his second deal. He’s making $28.5MM in both of the next two seasons and also tracking towards free agency during the 2024-25 offseason. The former second overall pick would reach the market in advance of his age-31 campaign if he doesn’t sign an intervening extension. Bregman played at an MVP-caliber level between 2018-19; he’s “merely” been excellent over the few years since then, including a .259/.366/.454 line with more walks than strikeouts last year.

With all of these players under guaranteed contract or arbitration control for at least two more years, Brown and his staff don’t need to get anything done in the next six weeks. Houston’s list of upcoming free agents is comparatively modest: catcher Martín Maldonado, outfielder Michael Brantley and relievers Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek. Houston already has José Abreu, Lance McCullers Jr., Yordan Alvarez, Rafael Montero and Javier on eight-figure contracts for the 2025 season.

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Houston Astros Alex Bregman Framber Valdez Jose Altuve Kyle Tucker

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Phillies, Aaron Nola Have Recently Exchanged Extension Offers

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 7:26pm CDT

The Phillies and representatives for ace Aaron Nola have discussed a possible contract extension this spring, reports Matt Gelb of the Athletic. The numbers under consideration are unclear. Gelb adds the sides have exchanged formal proposals and suggests there’s optimism about the chances of getting a deal done at some point.

As things stand, the former seventh overall pick is on track to be one of the top free agents on next winter’s market. Rival clubs would surely love an opportunity to make a run at the All-Star. Nola expressed a desire to work something out with Philadelphia instead, though he noted he’s leaving most of the details to his agents at Paragon Sports International.

“My reps are handling it. I don’t really know, honestly,” Nola said about the status of talks (via Gelb). “I love it here. I think everybody loves it here.” Nola suggested his camp would table discussions until season’s end if no deal were in place by Opening Day. “I want to focus on the season, definitely. We’d have to reopen it after the season, for sure. But during the season, I want to stay focused on that: playing good ball, trying to win a championship.”

Nola is coming off another excellent year, one that landed him a fourth place finish in NL Cy Young balloting. It was the third top ten placement of his career and a fairly typical showing by his standards. Nola made all 32 starts and threw 205 innings. He posted a 3.25 ERA with an excellent 29.1% strikeout percentage and a 3.6% walk rate that was among the league’s lowest. That marked the third consecutive season in which he fanned upwards of 29% of batters faced while generating swinging strikes on at least 12% of his pitches.

In addition to his excellent rate performance, Nola has arguably been the sport’s predominant workhorse over the past few seasons. He’s respectively made 33, 34, 32 and 32 starts in each of the last four 162-game seasons and took the ball all 12 times during the shortened schedule. Since the start of 2018, Nola leads the majors with both 143 starts and 871 2/3 innings. He’s one of just five hurlers to surpass the 800-inning mark in that time. Aside from a brief stay on the COVID-19 list, he hasn’t missed any time since a 2016 elbow strain.

Nola and Julio Urías join two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani as the top starting pitchers on track for free agency. If he did hit the open market, it’d be the first trip of his career. Nola has spent his entire career with Philadelphia, signing a $45MM extension over the 2019-20 offseason. That deal came with a $16MM club option for the 2023 campaign, one the Phils made the obvious decision to exercise last fall.

There’s no question Nola is in line for a much more significant payday this time around — either via another extension or free agent deal. He turns 30 in June, so he’s still in position for a long-term pact despite his first extension pushing back his initial path to free agency by two years. Nola’s combination of performance track record, age and durability could make him one of the top free agent pitchers of the last couple seasons.

Jacob deGrom landed the highest guarantee of any free pitcher the past few years, securing $185MM over five seasons from the Rangers. deGrom is the best pitcher in the sport on a rate basis but headed into his age-35 campaign with 2021-22 injury issues. The more apt comparison point for Nola is Carlos Rodón, who secured six years and $162MM from the Yankees this winter.

Rodón is a few months younger now than Nola will be next offseason but the age gap is fairly minor. The Yankee southpaw has been more overpowering over the past two seasons, striking out almost 34% of opponents with a 2.67 ERA. Rodón throws harder and is arguably the more dominant pitcher on a per-inning basis while Nola has a significant edge from a durability perspective. Nola has topped 200 innings in his career on three separate occasions. Rodón, who missed extended chunks of action from 2018-20 thanks to elbow and shoulder surgeries, has never topped the 178 frames he threw last year.

There’s an argument for Nola’s camp to beat the Rodón deal, perhaps by a decent margin. The Phillies righty compares reasonably well to Stephen Strasburg over the three seasons prior to his seven-year, $245MM megadeal with the Nationals from the 2019-20 offseason. Over the last three seasons, Nola has thrown 457 innings with a 3.80 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk percentage. In the three years leading up to his contract, Strasburg had tossed 514 1/3 innings (an edge attributable to the shortened 2020 schedule) of 3.15 ERA ball with a 29.3% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk percentage.

Strasburg secured his contract — the second-largest pitcher deal in MLB history — on the heels of a stellar playoff run culminating in a championship and World Series MVP award. Nola doesn’t have that kind of momentum leading up to extension discussions, and it’s hard to envision the Phillies matching the Strasburg deal while Nola is a year away from the open market. Still, it serves as an example of the kind of heights a pitcher of his caliber can reach in free agency if he hits the market coming off a peak platform season.

The Phillies haven’t been averse to long-term commitments. Bryce Harper and Trea Turner each reached or topped the $300MM mark. The Phils went into nine figures to land Zack Wheeler and Nick Castellanos and to retain J.T. Realmuto. Wheeler will make $23.5MM in 2024, the final season of his five-year contract. Taijuan Walker is locked into the rotation for the next four years on this winter’s $72MM deal. Ranger Suárez is controllable via arbitration through 2025, while top prospects Andrew Painter and Mick Abel are viewed as long-term rotation building blocks.

There’s a fair bit of talent on the starting staff. That seems unlikely to deter the Phils from making a serious run at retaining Nola, however, considering how impactful he’s been over the past half-decade. Whether they can reach an agreement within the next six weeks is going to be a key storyline in camp.

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Cubs Sign Edwin Rios To Major League Deal

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 6:37pm CDT

6:37pm: Ríos is guaranteed $1MM on the deal, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (Twitter link).

6:24pm: The Cubs have signed corner infielder Edwin Ríos to a big league contract, tweets Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Reliever Ethan Roberts was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Ríos is represented by Excel Sports Management.

Ríos, 28, has played in each of the last four MLB campaigns as a member of the Dodgers. He hasn’t gotten more than 32 appearances in any individual season, a testament both to Los Angeles’ position player depth and Ríos’ personal injury history. The left-handed hitter has spent time on the injured list in each of the past three seasons. He lost some time in 2020 to a left hamstring strain and has missed significant chunks of the last couple years with respective right shoulder and right hamstring injuries.

Those maladies have disrupted what has been a promising start to Ríos’ big league career. He has 20 home runs, nine doubles and a triple in just 292 trips to the plate. A lofty 32% strikeout rate has worked against his batting average and on-base percentage (respectively .219 and .299) but he owns a very strong .492 slugging mark against MLB pitching. That power outburst included seven round-trippers in 27 games last season.

Ríos has been a quality offensive player over an even larger body of work at Triple-A. Through parts of four seasons at the top minor league level, the Florida International product carries an excellent .282/.349/.526 line with a decent 8.2% walk rate but a 31.1% strikeout percentage in a little under 1200 plate appearances. Ríos bat-to-ball skills are questionable, but there’s little doubt he has significant power upside.

That production intrigued the Cubs enough to guarantee him a major league roster spot. He’d been non-tendered by the Dodgers at the start of the offseason, with L.A. opting against retaining him on a salary projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz around $1.4MM. Financial terms of his deal with Chicago aren’t known, though it’s assuredly a low base salary. The more meaningful development is that he won’t have to work his way onto the 40-man roster.

Ríos does still have one minor league option year remaining. The Cubs can keep him in Triple-A Iowa for the upcoming season, though there’s also a path to securing regular playing time in the majors. Chicago’s third base situation is unsettled, with Patrick Wisdom, Christopher Morel and Nick Madrigal among those who could vie for reps.

Wisdom, a right-handed hitter, has been the primary option at the hot corner the past two years. He has slugged .533 against left-handed pitching in that time but posted a .209/.290/.438 line against righties. That makes him a potential platoon fit with the lefty-swinging Ríos. Morel and Madrigal also hit from the right side but could assume multi-positional roles off the bench and/or head back to the minors on optional assignment.

If Ríos carves out an important role and runs with it, he could be a long-term piece for the Chicago infield. He has a little over three years of major league service. He’ll be eligible for arbitration at least twice more after this season, and any optional stint in the minors could extend that window of control by an additional season.

The 25-year-old Roberts pitched in nine games last year after breaking camp as a rookie. He eventually landed on the shelf with shoulder inflammation and required Tommy John surgery last June. It’s possible he returns from that procedure at the tail end of the season, but there’s no chance he’d have been ready within the first two months. His IL placement was a mere formality whenever the need for a roster spot arose. He’ll be paid at the MLB minimum rate and accrue big league service time while rehabbing.

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Rangers Sign Robbie Grossman

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 6:16pm CDT

The Rangers announced agreement with veteran outfielder Robbie Grossman on a one-year major league contract. The deal will reportedly guarantee him $2MM and can max out at $5MM via performance bonuses. Grossman is an Alliance Sports Management client.

To create a spot on the 40-man roster, Texas placed reliever Brett Martin on the 60-day injured list. He underwent shoulder surgery last month and the club announced he’ll miss “a majority” of the upcoming season.

Grossman, 33, joins the sixth team of his big league career. He’s played parts of ten MLB seasons, suiting up with the Astros, Twins, A’s, Tigers and Braves going back to 2013. A switch-hitter, Grossman has carved out an outfield role at various stops thanks in large part to his quality production from the right-handed batter’s box. For his career, he owns a .279/.377/.413 line with an excellent 13.1% walk rate and modest 19.6% strikeout percentage against left-handed pitching.

The former sixth-round draftee continued in his lefty-masher capacity last season. He hit .320/.436/.443 in 149 trips against southpaws. He paired that with just a .163/.253/.256 showing over 328 plate appearances versus right-handed pitching. That resulted in a modest .209/.310/.311 line over 120 games overall, with Grossman performing at a below-average level both before and following a midseason trade from Detroit to Atlanta.

That points to Grossman taking on more of a situational platoon role, though he’s not typically a liability against right-handed pitching. While he’s consistently better against lefties, he owns a career .232/.335/.363 line against righties that isn’t too far below league average. Grossman has never hit for much power and strikes out more often from the left side of the plate, though he’s typically adept at working deep counts and drawing plenty of walks no matter the pitcher’s handedness.

Defensively, Grossman is limited to the corner outfield. He’s logged more experience in left field but has an extensive body of work at both spots, with public metrics rating him as a roughly average gloveman. He’ll primarily factor into the left field mix in Arlington, with Adolis García penciled into everyday work in the other corner position. Left field is much more of a question mark, one Texas GM Chris Young has suggested on a number of occasions he was hoping to plug externally.

Rangers’ left fielders combined for a .186/.253/.255 line last season. They finished at the bottom of the league in all three rate stats, with their slugging mark checking in nearly .080 points below that of the 29th-ranked Mariners. Grossman isn’t a huge power threat but should help the club rebound from an on-base perspective, particularly if manager Bruce Bochy deploys him more frequently in friendly platoon situations.

Left-handed hitting utilityman Brad Miller is going into the second season of a $10MM free agent deal. He had an awful first year in Texas, hitting just .212/.270/.320 while missing half the team’s games due to a hip injury. Miller posted a much stronger .250/.344/.487 line against right-handed pitching between 2018-21, however. Texas figures to give him a chance to rebound in left field, with Grossman on hand to take some at-bats against lefty arms.

Speedster Bubba Thompson and former infield prospects Josh Smith and Ezequiel Durán could all play their way into left field reps as well. None of that group made much of an offensive impact last season. That’s also true of Grossman on the whole, though he’ll at least add a solid career track record to a hodgepodge of left field possibilities. It’s certainly possible Texas looks to augment the group with a more established veteran in a midseason trade — particularly if they’re in the playoff hunt by July — but they figure to mix and match out there in the season’s early going.

Tacking on Grossman’s modest salary brings Texas’ 2023 payroll commitments around $198MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’s well into franchise record territory already, with owner Ray Davis and the front office kicking off consecutive offseason spending sprees to try to vault back to competitiveness. They’re currently sitting on a six-year playoff drought, tied with Baltimore for the fourth-longest active streak in the American League. Grossman’s deal takes them around $221MM in luxury tax commitments. That’s $12MM shy of the $233MM base threshold, leaving a decent amount of space for midseason acquisitions even if they want to dodge any overage fees.

Signing Grossman looks likely to take the Rangers out of the mix for any of the remaining free agent corner outfielders. Jurickson Profar is the top player still unsigned and his market now looks as clouded as ever. Ben Gamel and Tyler Naquin are among lower-profile role-playing corner outfielders still looking for jobs.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported Grossman and the Rangers were in agreement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported it was a one-year, $2MM guarantee with $3MM in additional incentives.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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The Angels’ Catching Competition

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 4:34pm CDT

The Angels have made a number of acquisitions this offseason. GM Perry Minasian and his staff addressed virtually every area of the roster in some capacity. Hunter Renfroe came in via trade to bolster the outfield. Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury were brought aboard as infield help. Tyler Anderson signed a three-year deal for the rotation. Carlos Estévez and Matt Moore step into the bullpen mix.

The primary exception is behind the plate. While the Halos were tied to top free agent backstop Willson Contreras at the start of the winter, they ultimately head into Spring Training with a trio of catchers who were on the roster to finish last season. That’s not especially surprising — catcher never looked like the biggest area of concern for the group — but it represents one of the areas that’s least solidified at the moment.

Manager Phil Nevin told reporters this week he views the catching situation as an open competition going into camp (via Sam Blum of the Athletic). With that in mind, it’s worth examining the options at his disposal.

  • Logan O’Hoppe

Acquired from the Phillies last summer in a surprising deadline deal that sent center fielder Brandon Marsh to Philadelphia, O’Hoppe is one of the sport’s top catching prospects. He’s been a minor leaguer of some regard for a few years running but took things to a new level last season. O’Hoppe spent the vast majority of 2022 with the Double-A affiliates for the respective clubs. He combined for a .283/.416/.544 line with 26 home runs, a massive 15.7% walk percentage and a modest 16.6% strikeout rate during his age-22 campaign.

At the very end of last season, the Halos rewarded O’Hoppe with his first MLB call. He appeared in only five games, far too small a sample upon which to draw any conclusions. The move was more about giving him an opportunity to get acclimated to an MLB atmosphere than in providing useable data for the front office to determine his readiness for 2023.

O’Hoppe is widely praised by prospect evaluators. Baseball America considers him the top young talent in the organization, placing him 42nd among prospects overall. The Athletic and ESPN each slot him towards the back half of their respective top 100 lists. All three outlets credit him for a well-rounded game with solid expected contributions on both sides of the ball.

He’s clearly far too advanced for Double-A. He has zero Triple-A experience and only a cup of coffee in the majors, though, so there’s certainly risk in turning over the primary job on a club that hopes to compete for a playoff spot right out of the gate. O’Hoppe is the organization’s hopeful catcher of the future. They’ll need to determine whether he’s ready to take that mantle immediately. He still has a full slate of minor league option years remaining.

  • Max Stassi

Stassi is much more of a known quantity. 32 next month, he’s played in parts of 10 big league campaigns. Stassi only started garnering legitimate playing time in 2018, his sixth year logging some MLB action. Between 2018-21, he looked like one of the sport’s more underrated catchers. Over that stretch, Stassi hit .222/.306/.382. That’s roughly average output for a catcher, though the cumulative slash is weighed down by an atrocious 2019 season. He was an above-average hitting catcher in the other three years, including a .241/.326/.426 showing for the Halos in 2021.

The veteran paired that solid offense with consistently excellent marks from public defensive metrics. He wasn’t especially adept at controlling the running game but garnered glowing reviews from pitch framing evaluations. The Halos signed him to a $14.5MM extension covering the 2023-24 seasons (with a ’25 club option) last spring. It seemed a firm commitment he’d be their primary catcher for the next few years, though that predated an underwhelming 2022 showing.

Stassi hit just .180/.267/.303 with nine homers in a career-high 375 plate appearances last year. His formerly excellent defensive grades slipped to almost exactly league average. His bat-to-ball skills and hard contact percentage each took steps back. It obviously wasn’t the kind of season he or the club had envisioned, meaning he’ll need a rebound showing if he’s to secure regular reps again. Stassi can’t be optioned to the minors, so he’ll be on the big league roster in some capacity. Whether that’s as the starter or reserve is up in the air.

  • Matt Thaiss

Thaiss was a catcher at the University of Virginia. A bat-first player, he was selected in the first round in 2016 and immediately moved to first base. Scouts questioned whether he’d have the receiving skills to stick behind the plate. The Angels didn’t give him the chance to work on his defense, instead hoping his bat would launch him quickly through the minor leagues.

The lefty-hitting Thaiss proved a fine but not exceptional minor league hitter. He paired quality plate discipline with above-average contact skills but never made the kind of power impact one would expect from a first baseman. In 2021, the Angels started giving him reps back behind the plate with Triple-A Salt Lake. He’s played 99 games there the past two years and started 11 MLB contests at catcher last season.

Thaiss owns just a .205/.299/.373 line over 278 MLB plate appearances, striking out at an uncharacteristic 30.6% clip. He only fanned in 18.4% of his trips with a robust 13% walk rate for the Bees last season, hitting .268/.364/.451 over 77 Triple-A games. He’s an interesting depth player but comes with questions about both his offensive impact and receiving ability behind the plate. Thaiss has exhausted his option years; the Halos have to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams via waivers or trade.

Outlook

Anaheim will also get looks at Chad Wallach, José Godoy and minor leaguer Anthony Mulrine in camp this spring as non-roster players. Mulrine has never hit in the minors and looks to be an organizational depth piece. Wallach and Godoy have played in the big leagues but typically function as third/fourth options on a depth chart.

The initial playing time will almost certainly be divided among some combination of O’Hoppe, Stassi and Thaiss. Carrying O’Hoppe in a reserve capacity feels unlikely. He should play regularly, either in the majors or at Salt Lake. Whether the Halos deem him ready out of the gate — and if they do, whether they feel there’s room to keep both Stassi and Thaiss on the bench — are key questions for the front office and coaching staff over the next month and a half.

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A’s, Greg Deichmann Agree To Minor League Contract

By Anthony Franco | February 16, 2023 at 10:42pm CDT

The Athletics have signed corner outfielder Greg Deichmann to a minor league deal, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. He returns to the organization that initially drafted him in the second round back in 2017.

A left-handed hitter, Deichmann played four seasons in the Oakland minor league system. He worked his way to Triple-A Las Vegas by 2021, hitting .300/.433/.452 over 60 games there. As the trade deadline approached, the A’s dealt Deichmann alongside another minor leaguer to the Cubs for Andrew Chafin. Oakland remained firmly in playoff contention that summer, while the Cubs had fallen out of the mix in July and moved a number of players off the MLB roster.

That afforded Deichmann a chance for his initial big league action a couple weeks after the trade. The Cubs promoted him for his MLB debut in early August. He made it into only 14 games, collecting four hits in 30 at-bats. Deichmann spent the remainder of the season on optional assignment to their top affiliate in Iowa. He couldn’t replicate the solid numbers he’d posted during the Triple-A season’s first half, hitting .227/.298/.403 in 34 games.

The LSU product held his spot on Chicago’s 40-man roster last offseason but was designated for assignment shortly after Opening Day. He went unclaimed on waivers and spent the bulk of last year in Iowa after being outrighted. Deichmann limped to a .214/.271/.335 showing over 78 games there. He hit just seven homers while striking out at a huge 32.3% clip. The Cubs released him in August.

It was a season to forget, but Deichmann’s still just 27 years old and has drawn praise for his power potential at times. He’ll return to an environment in which he’s had prior success. He’s likely to open the upcoming season back in Las Vegas, adding upper level outfield depth to the organization. Deichmann owns a .239/.329/.410 line over parts of five minor league seasons.

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Padres Remain Narrowly Below $273MM Third CBT Threshold After Wacha Deal

By Anthony Franco | February 16, 2023 at 9:55pm CDT

The Padres finalized their agreement with starter Michael Wacha this morning. That pact contained options from both the team and player perspective designed to meet the right-hander’s asking price while keeping the deal’s average annual value down for luxury tax purposes. It’s officially a four-year, $26MM guarantee, leading to a $6.5MM CBT hit.

That contract structure brings the Padres’ estimated luxury tax number around $272.2MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’s about $800K shy of the $273MM mark that delineates the third threshold of tax penalization. Public payroll figures are estimates, though Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic confirm with team officials the club remains narrowly below the $273MM figure. That’s no coincidence, of course, with the Padres’ front office intentionally structuring some recent contracts to add to the roster while staying under that threshold.

At the start of the offseason, the Friars signed Nick Martinez to a deal that was similarly built with dual club/player options and technically came out to an approximate $8.667MM average annual value. More recently, San Diego’s extension negotiations with Yu Darvish were shaped by the team’s CBT situation. The Friars signed the All-Star righty to a five-year, $90MM extension covering the 2024-28 seasons last week. That paired with Darvish’s preexisting $18MM salary for the upcoming season to result in a matching tax hit. Before the extension, Darvish had counted for $21MM against the luxury tax (reflecting the AAV of his prior front-loaded six-year, $126MM agreement with the Cubs). The extension trimmed $3MM off the team’s tax bill this year, which freed up breathing room under the $273MM mark for the Wacha money.

In the process, San Diego made a commitment to Darvish running through his age-41 season. Investing for that long in a pitcher of his age certainly isn’t without risk, though it’s one the Friars preferred to a shorter-term deal that could’ve come with higher annual salaries. Lin and Rosenthal report that Darvish’s camp initially broached extension talks seeking a two-year, $60MM deal. Instead, the Padres made a longer commitment that guarantees the veteran hurler an extra $30MM altogether but comes at a much lower annual value.

According to the Athletic, San Diego also pursued a multi-year guarantee with player options for Johnny Cueto before he signed with the Marlins last month. San Diego was known to be involved in the Cueto market. Rather than accept a deal similar to the ones Martinez and Wacha ended up taking, Cueto took a one-year, $8.5MM pact with a 2024 club option from the Marlins.

Ultimately, the Padres’ maneuverings allow them to open Spring Training a hair south of the third tax threshold. A team’s luxury tax number is calculated at the end of the season, not during exhibition play or on Opening Day. Depending on how much room exists below $273MM, the Friars could certainly wind up above that number — either by making a midseason acquisition via trade or waivers or simply by selecting the contract of a non-roster Spring Training invitee whose deal contains a base salary above the league minimum (i.e. Pedro Severino).

For the time being, however, the organization has an obvious desire to keep south of the $273MM figure. Finishing a season above the third tax threshold results in a team’s top draft choice for the following year (2024, in this instance) being moved back ten spots. It also subjects a team to higher payments. The Friars are set to pay a 50% tax on any spending between $233MM and $253MM and a 62% fee on spending between $253MM and $273MM. They’d be taxed at a 90% rate on spending from $273MM to $293MM. The latter penalties are ones they’re clearly looking to avoid right now.

San Diego heads into the season as one of the favorites in the National League. Perhaps they’ll eventually go beyond the third threshold to maximize this roster’s chances of contending. As of now, they project for the third-highest CBT payroll in the majors. The Mets are running away from the rest of the league in spending, while the Yankees are reportedly just under the final tax threshold at $293MM and reluctant to surpass that figure.

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Victor Martinez Joins Blue Jays’ Front Office As Special Assistant

By Anthony Franco | February 16, 2023 at 8:16pm CDT

The Blue Jays are hiring five-time All-Star Victor Martinez as a special assistant in their front office, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The longtime big league catcher has connections to Toronto president/CEO Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins dating back to their time together in the Cleveland organization during the 2000’s.

Martinez, a native of Venezuela, debuted with the Indians late in the 2002 season. He started with a nondescript year and a half before a breakout in 2004 at age 25. Martinez hit .283/.359/.492 that year, earning his first All-Star nod and Silver Slugger award. Martinez would remain one of the sport’s top catchers throughout his time in Cleveland, which ended at the 2009 trade deadline when he was dealt to the Red Sox. He spent a year and a half in Boston before signing a four-year deal with the Tigers in free agency.

That deal worked out beautifully for Detroit. Even as Martinez saw decreasing action behind the dish, he continued to mash into his mid-30’s. He led the American League with a .409 on-base percentage in 2014. A .335/.409/.565 showing earned Martinez a runner-up finish behind Mike Trout in that year’s MVP balloting. Martinez would re-sign with Detroit on another four-year contract the following winter, though his production tailed off throughout that contract.

After the 2018 season, Martinez announced his retirement. He concluded a 16-season big league career with a .295/.360/.455 line, 246 home runs and 1178 runs batted in over just fewer than 2000 MLB games. He’ll bring that wealth of experience to the Toronto baseball operations group.

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