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Rays Select Jimmy Yacabonis, Designate Kevin Herget

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The Rays announced they’ve selected righty Jimmy Yacabonis onto the big league roster. Fellow righty Kevin Herget has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Tampa Bay has operated a revolving door with its last bullpen spot in the past few days. In rapid succession, the Rays have selected and designated each of Cristofer Ogando, Easton McGee and now Herget, whose most recent call-up came just yesterday. Yacabonis will now step into the bullpen as the Rays juggle low-leverage innings headed into the postseason.

The Rays nabbed Yacabonis off waivers from the Marlins in early August. He spent two weeks in the big leagues with Tampa Bay, appearing four times out of the bullpen. The 30-year-old allowed five runs (four earned) in 3 2/3 innings, striking out four while issuing a pair of walks. He was designated for assignment and cleared waivers before accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham.

Yacabonis has appeared in parts of five big league campaigns, suiting up with the Orioles, Mariners and Marlins in addition to his time in Tampa Bay. He owns a 5.92 ERA in 117 MLB innings, coming out of the bullpen for 57 of his 70 outings. He’s pitched to a 3.21 ERA in 33 2/3 Triple-A frames this year, and he’ll offer skipper Kevin Cash a potential multi-inning option for the last two games of the regular season. Yacabonis is technically postseason-eligible, although it’s unlikely the Rays will carry him on any of their playoff rosters.

Herget loses his roster spot after soaking up 4 1/3 innings in relief of Tyler Glasnow during yesterday’s loss to the Red Sox. The righty threw 77 pitches and certainly wouldn’t have been an option to appear in either of the next two games. With the Rays not planning on carrying him on the playoff roster, it’s not a surprise they promptly designated him for assignment. It nevertheless has to be a tough pill to swallow for the 31-year-old rookie, who has been DFA on three occasions dating back to mid-August.

In each of the past two instances, Herget went unclaimed on waivers and was sent back to Durham. He’ll land on the wire again in the next few days. Herget had a very impressive Triple-A campaign, working to a 2.95 ERA with a solid 24.4% strikeout percentage and a minuscule 3.9% walk rate over 97 2/3 frames. Even if he goes unclaimed on waivers and hits free agency — either via immediate rejection of an outright assignment or at the end of the year — that should draw him a fair number of minor league offers this winter.

Johnny Cueto Open To Return To White Sox

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The White Sox are wrapping up a season that’ll finish right around .500, a disappointing follow-up to last year’s 93-win campaign. Among the culprits for their middle-of-the-road showing was a rotation that ranks 15th in ERA (3.82) and 14th in strikeout/walk rate differential (14.6 percentage points).

While a league average rotation probably isn’t what general manager Rick Hahn and his front office had in mind, there were a few bright spots. Dylan Cease doubled down on last year’s breakout and could be a finalist for the AL Cy Young award. Michael Kopech tailed off in the second half but flashed the ability to be a productive big league starter in his move from the bullpen. The most surprising positive performance from a White Sox starter is probably that of Johnny Cueto, though.

The 15-season MLB veteran wrapped up a six-year contract with the Giants at the end of last season. He wasn’t coming off a bad year, pitching to a 4.08 ERA over 22 outings. Nevertheless, he did so with a mediocre 20% strikeout rate, and the league clearly had skepticism about his ability to repeat those decent results. Cueto went unsigned until just before Opening Day, when he inked a minor league deal with the ChiSox. The contract came with a $4.2MM base salary for any time spent in the majors, an atypically large figure for a non-roster pact. That suggested Cueto was a high-priority minor league signee and may well have had some MLB offers with a lower base value. Nevertheless, it also indicated no team offered him both $4+MM and an Opening Day rotation spot, and he had to work his way onto Chicago’s roster after building into game shape in Triple-A.

Cueto took four starts in the minors before the White Sox selected his contract in mid-May. He’s been a fixture in the starting five from that point forward, and he’s gotten his strongest results since his 2016 campaign in San Francisco. Over 25 outings (24 of them starts), the two-time All-Star tallied 158 1/3 innings of 3.35 ERA ball. He averaged 6 1/3 frames per appearance and allowed three or fewer earned runs in 21 games. By and large, Cueto kept the White Sox in the game when he took the ball, more than making good on his contract. He also set himself up for a better trip to the open market this time around, as he’ll head back to free agency a month from now.

After his final start of the season yesterday, Cueto told reporters he’d welcome a return to Chicago (via James Fegan of the Athletic). The 36-year-old indicated he believes he can still pitch for another two or three seasons, foreclosing whatever small possibility there may have been he’d retire at year’s end.

How replicable Cueto’s 2022 production can be is an open question. Concern about his lack of swing-and-miss remains, as he punched out just 15.7% of opposing hitters. That’s the lowest rate of his career and more than six points south of the league average. His 42% ground-ball rate is right around the league mark. He did a solid job at limiting hard contact but wasn’t elite in that regard.

Where Cueto did excel is in avoiding free passes. He walked only 5.1% of batters faced, his lowest mark since 2016. He’s long had above-average control, but he was among the sport’s best strike-throwers in 2022. The veteran righty also avoided the injured list for the first time in six years, and he told Fegan and others yesterday he was pitching pain-free for the first time in years (presumably since before undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2018).

Cueto certainly has locked in a big league contract during his upcoming trip to free agency. His 2022 season isn’t too dissimilar from Zack Greinke’s 2021 platform, which agent Bryce Dixon could point to as an optimistic comp. During his final year with the Astros, Greinke pitched to a 4.16 ERA with a 17.2% strikeout rate, a 5.2% walk rate and a 44.4% grounder percentage. Greinke tallied a few more innings since he was on the big league roster from start to finish, but Cueto soaked up a bigger workload on a per-start basis.

Greinke went on to secure a one-year, $13MM pact from the Royals heading into his age-38 season. A likely future Hall of Famer and a former Cy Young winner, Greinke has had a more accomplished career than Cueto, and he’d been far more consistently durable before his platform year. It seems unlikely Cueto will quite reach a $13MM base salary for those reasons, but their respective seasons before free agency are alike.

Wade Miley, another veteran control artist coming off an excellent year from a run prevention perspective, pitched to a 3.37 ERA with an 18.1% strikeout rate through 163 innings with the Reds last season. The Cubs claimed him off waivers at the end of the year and exercised a $10MM option on his services for 2022. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, as Miley didn’t have the benefit of an open market bidding the way Cueto will this winter. Yet it affirms that a team valued Miley, who was entering his age-35 campaign, as at least a $10MM player, setting that as the seeming floor for what his market value would have been had he gotten to free agency.

Precisely where Cueto’s 2023 salary lands will obviously be determined in the coming months, but there’s no question he proved a valuable contributor for the White Sox. It stands to reason Chicago will at least maintain contact with his reps this winter, as they’re facing a fair bit of uncertainty in the starting staff. Cease will be back at the front of the rotation, and Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn will get chances to bounce back from disappointing 2022 campaigns.

Kopech figures to be in the season-opening starting five, but he’s never topped 140 2/3 innings in any professional season and will be coming off surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee (albeit with an expectation he’ll be full-go for Spring Training). Davis Martin seems the in-house favorite for the #5 spot after eight decent starts to begin his MLB career, but he’s never been a top prospect and was quite homer-prone in the minors. Pushing Martin down a peg or two on the rotation depth chart with an outside addition seems likely, particularly since Chicago’s thin farm system doesn’t offer much in the way of obvious upper minors rotation pieces.

Twins Promote Simeon Woods Richardson

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Oct. 2: The Twins have officially selected the contract of Woods Richardson, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com. Right-hander Ronny Henriquez was optioned to open a spot on the active roster, while catcher Sandy Leon was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create room on the 40-man. Leon’s transfer is a mere formality, as it was previously announced that his season had been ended by knee surgery.

Sep. 30: The Twins are planning to promote pitching prospect Simeon Woods Richardson to the majors before the end of the season, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). Minnesota added Woods Richardson to their taxi squad this afternoon. It’s unclear specifically when he’ll be activated, but Park points out the club has yet to name a starting pitcher for Sunday afternoon’s matchup with the Tigers.

Assuming he’s indeed added to the major league roster, the right-hander will get an opportunity to make his big league debut in the coming days. A second-round pick of the Mets out of a Texas high school in 2018, Woods Richardson has been a well-regarded young arm since entering the professional ranks. He spent around a year in the New York system before he was dealt to the Blue Jays alongside Anthony Kay in the 2019 trade that sent Marcus Stroman to Queens.

Woods Richardson finished that season with the Jays’ High-A affiliate, and he cracked the back half of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list the ensuing winter. After not logging any game action in 2020 due to the cancelation of the minor leagues, he was assigned to Double-A to begin the ’21 campaign. Still seen by many evaluators as one of the better minor league arms in the game, Woods Richardson soon found himself involved in a huge trade for the second time in his career. At last year’s deadline, Toronto shipped him alongside infield prospect Austin Martin to Minnesota in exchange for José Berríos.

Amidst the pair of high-profile trades, Woods Richardson’s prospect stock has dipped a bit in recent years. He fell off BA’s top 100 entering the 2022 season, but he nevertheless entered the year ranked eighth in a solid Minnesota system. He checks in sixth in the organization on the outlet’s most recent update, with praise for a four-pitch arsenal headlined by a low-mid 90s fastball and a potential plus changeup.

Woods Richardson has generally had an impressive 2022 campaign. He began the year with Double-A Wichita, making 16 appearances before getting a bump to Triple-A St. Paul in mid-August. He started another seven games for the Saints and performed well at both stops. Between the top two affiliates, the 22-year-old pitched to a 2.77 ERA across 107 1/3 innings. He’s struck out an impressive 27% of opponents while limiting walks to a manageable 8.5% rate.

That solid showing against upper level hitters earns Woods Richardson a brief major league cameo. He’d have needed to be added to the 40-man roster at the end of the season regardless to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft, and the Twins have a number of players who can simply move to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man spot for the season’s final week.

Woods Richardson will be in the mix for a rotation spot next season. Minnesota is set to open the year with Tyler Mahle, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, a hopefully healthy Kenta Maeda and Bailey Ober in the starting five. With Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy each likely to depart in free agency, Woods Richardson should join Josh Winder, Louie Varland and any external additions in battling for additional looks.

Latest On James Click, Dusty Baker

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The Astros wrapped up the top seed in the American League last night, having already secured 102 wins. It’s Houston’s second straight AL West title and third playoff appearance in as many years under general manager James Click and skipper Dusty Baker. The Astros have advanced at least as far as the AL Championship Series in each of the past two seasons, and the AL road to the World Series will again run through Houston.

Given that immense success, it’d seem to go without saying that Houston was satisfied with the franchise’s trajectory. However, both Click and Baker are in the final year of their contracts, and some uncertainty about the organization’s leadership future looms. Click signed a three-year deal when he took over baseball operations in February 2020, while the club inked Baker to a one-year extension last offseason. Owner Jim Crane told Mark Berman of Fox 26 (Twitter link) last month he’s “aware both contracts are up and we’ll address them at the end of the season.”

While there’s no questioning the team’s on-field success, it does not seem a mere formality that both Click and Baker will be retained. During an appearance on the Houston Chronicle’s Texas Sports Nation podcast last weekend (Twitter link), Chandler Rome noted the contract status for Click and Baker “has been a topic that has been whispered about in the Astros organization, people both in and out of the clubhouse, since the beginning of the season.” Rome added that, particularly in Click’s case, “everybody that I talk to (emphasizes) that this is not just a rubber-stamp thing. This is not just, ’we’re going to extend him and everyone’s going to be happy and be merry.’ There is some real speculation, some real intrigue, that James Click is not going to be back with the Astros after this season.”

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic examined the situation yesterday, writing that some friction between Crane and Click could explain the organization’s hesitance to hand him a long-term extension. According to Rosenthal, Crane has taken on a very active role in baseball operations and tends to favor more bold additions than Click, whose approach to the roster is generally more restrained. Rosenthal notes that Click and Baker sometimes differ on the extent to which analytics should be integrated into in-game decisions but suggests that’s not as notable as whatever divide there may be between Click and Crane.

Both Click and Baker were brought in under unexpected circumstances. After the extent of the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing operation was made public during the 2019-20 offseason, MLB handed down suspensions for then-GM Jeff Lunhow and manager A.J. Hinch. Houston promptly fired both after the league’s investigation. Crane tabbed Baker as Hinch’s replacement, then hired Click out of the Rays front office a few days later. It was a reversal of the typical course of action, in which the front office head plays a key role in deciding on the manager.

Crane has maintained he had no knowledge of the team’s sign-stealing operation. It’s not clear whether he’s subsequently taken on a more active role in baseball operations as a direct response to the fallout from that scheme. Either way, Rosenthal writes that “Crane does not trust Click the way he trusted Luhnow, with whom he worked for eight seasons.”

To be clear, neither Rome nor Rosenthal suggests Click’s or Baker’s time in the organization is definitively nearing its end. The two have adeptly led the team past the sign-stealing fallout with little drop-off in performance. They’re as well-positioned as any club (aside from perhaps the Dodgers) to make a deep postseason run in 2022. Both Rome and Rosenthal point out that it’d seem unlikely Crane makes any changes at the top if the Astros find playoff success this year, particularly if they win the World Series.

It’s nevertheless notable that questions persist given the consistent excellence the Astros have maintained for the past three years. If ownership does decide to tie Click’s and/or Baker’s future to the results of this year’s postseason, there’d be a lot riding on the extremely small sample of a playoff series. That’s not a great way to make decisions of this magnitude, but the reported tension in the Minute Maid Park offices will at least lead to some speculation about the franchise’s direction until Click’s and Baker’s situations are decided at year’s end.

Yankees Select Jacob Barnes, Place Zack Britton On 60-Day IL

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2:56PM: Though Britton’s season is over, his time in New York could continue, as ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that “Britton and the Yankees are already engaged in preliminary conversations” about a new contract.

10:59AM: The Yankees announced they’ve selected reliever Jacob Barnes onto the major league roster. In a corresponding move, veteran southpaw Zack Britton has been placed on the 60-day injured list. His season is over after he left last night’s appearance with shoulder fatigue.

Barnes cracks a major league roster with a third different team of the 2022 campaign. The 32-year-old broke camp with the Tigers and pitched in 22 games, working to a 6.10 ERA through 20 2/3 innings. Barnes only struck out 11.2% of batters faced on a personal-worst 7.7% swinging strike percentage. Barnes did induce ground-balls at a career-best 51.5% clip, but the lack of swing-and-miss led the Tigers to designate him for assignment in June.

The veteran reliever signed a minor league deal with the Mariners and briefly made the major league roster in July. He spent a few days on the active roster but didn’t make an appearance before being let go. Barnes returned to Detroit on a minor league deal, spent a month in Triple-A and then was granted his release. He signed a minor league deal with New York at the end of August and pitched in ten games for their top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

While Barnes hasn’t had much major league success this season, he’s pitched 18 innings of 2.00 ERA ball at the Triple-A level. Barnes has punched out 32.9% of opponents there against a 9.2% walk rate, and he’s missed plenty of bats at the big league level in years past. He punched out upwards of 30% of opponents with the Angels in 2020 and had an above-average 25.8% strikeout rate as recently as last season.

Because Barnes was in the organization by August 31, he’d be eligible for the Yankees postseason roster. He wasn’t on the 40-man roster at the end of August, but New York can still petition the commissioner’s office for him to be playoff-eligible as an injury replacement for Britton. Injury exemptions are a common occurrence each season, so the Yankees shouldn’t have an issue carrying Barnes for the playoffs if they desire. Now that he’s back on a 40-man roster, Barnes is technically arbitration-eligible for next season, but it’s probable the Yankees will take him off the roster at the end of the year and allow him to hit minor league free agency.

It seems unlikely they’d carry Barnes given his struggles at the big league level this year, but the Yankees pitching staff is navigating a number of injuries. Closer Clay Holmes has a shoulder strain, manager Aaron Boone revealed last night. New York won’t place him on the injured list and rule him out as an option for the AL Division Series, but he’s not expected to pitch again in the regular season. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays that the Yankees are hopeful Holmes will be ready for the start of the ALDS, but it’s hard to know for sure whether that’ll be the case.

Meanwhile, trade deadline acquisition Frankie Montas doesn’t look as if he’ll be an option for the ALDS. New York placed Montas on the IL with shoulder inflammation two weeks ago, and Boone said this morning that it appears he won’t be ready for the Division Series (Hoch link). Montas is playing catch today and the Yankees haven’t officially ruled him out for the ALDS, but Boone suggested it’s more likely he’d return as a relief option for the ALCS if the Yankees qualify.

Britton is certainly no longer a playoff option, with the 60-day IL placement ending his year. It could bring an unceremonious end to his four-plus year tenure as a Yankee. Acquired from the Orioles midway through the 2018 campaign, Britton was an elite late-game weapon for his first few seasons in the Bronx. He pitched to a 2.14 ERA over 105 1/3 innings through the end of the 2020 season, including grounders at an incredible 76.3% clip. The Yankees preemptively exercised a $14MM option on his services for 2022 at the end of that year to prevent Britton from triggering an opt-out that’d have allowed him to test free agency.

While an understandable move at the time, that decision proved very regrettable in hindsight. Britton was tagged for a 5.89 ERA in 18 1/3 frames last season, battling injury issues throughout the year. He eventually underwent Tommy John surgery last September, an issue that kept him on the injured list until last week. Britton made it back on September 22 and made three appearances, but he walked six of the nine batters he faced before yesterday’s injury.

Britton will hit the open market this winter coming off two virtually lost seasons. His fastball velocity was down in his very brief look this month, and he obviously battled extreme rust from a strike-throwing perspective. The 34-year-old hasn’t seemed fully healthy for two years, which’ll obviously deal a hit to his market value.

Marlins Prioritizing High-Contact Hitters This Offseason

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For the second straight offseason, the Marlins will head into the winter needing to overhaul their offense. Miami added four everyday players to the lineup last offseason, signing Jorge Soler and Avisaíl García while acquiring Jacob Stallings and Joey Wendle via trade. The hope was that quartet would elevate the hitting enough to compete for a playoff spot behind their excellent starting rotation.

That hasn’t panned out. All four of those players underperformed, and Miami’s offensive performance has barely changed. After hitting .241/.308/.386 last season (excluding pitchers), the Fish carry a .230/.294/.363 team line into play Saturday. The dip in raw numbers is partially attributable to the league-wide downturn in offense. By measure of wRC+, the Marlins were 11 points below league average offensively last season; they’ve been 12 points below average this year. That’s obviously not what the front office had in mind, and it’s no coincidence they’ve lost more than 90 games for the fourth straight 162-game season.

Fixing the lineup is certain to be a priority in the coming months, and the Marlins are preparing to attack the offseason in a different manner. Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald report the team plans to prioritize adding high-contact hitters and faster runners to the roster. According to the Herald, the increased emphasis on bat-to-ball skills is rooted both in the team’s spacious home ballpark and the forthcoming limitations on defensive shifting, which will theoretically slightly improve the league’s batting average on balls in play.

Obviously, the Marlins won’t take so rigid an approach as to rule out adding power hitters entirely. Yet the club’s two big free agent acquisitions last year, Soler and García, are low-contact sluggers. Soler struck out at a roughly average 23.6% clip last year, but he’d fanned in over 26% of his plate appearances in each of the three prior seasons. He’s gone down on strikes 29.4% of the time his first season in Miami. García had struck out at a roughly average level every year from 2019-21, but that’s largely attributable to an extremely aggressive approach that often leads to early-count balls in play. He’d made contact on less than 70% of his swings in each of those seasons, well below the 75-76% league marks. García has struck out in a personal-worst 28.3% of his plate appearances this year.

Both players will be back in South Florida next season. Soler has two years and $24MM remaining on his deal. He can technically opt out after this season but certainly won’t do so after hitting .207/.295/.400 through 306 plate appearances. García is under contract for three more guaranteed years at $12MM annually and is also due a $5MM buyout on a 2026 club option.

Miami will need more production from that duo next season, but they’re not the only high-strikeout players in the lineup. Miami’s 24% team strikeout rate is the fifth-highest in the majors. Of the 16 players who tallied 150+ plate appearances for the team, 11 have struck out at a clip greater than the 22.4% league mark.

It’s sensible enough the Marlins would look for some more balance to their lineup, although it’s apparent that putting the ball in play doesn’t inherently make a player a good hitter. Of Miami’s five hitters with a lower than average strikeout rate, four (Wendle, Stallings, Miguel Rojas and Jon Berti) have been below-average hitters overall. Berti has stolen 38 bases, but he’s slugging just .330. None of Wendle, Stallings or Rojas have an on-base percentage above .300. The only of Miami’s high-contact hitters who has an above-average wRC+ is backup catcher Nick Fortes, who has played in less than half the team’s games.

In any event, it’s clear the Marlins have to find some way to improve the offense. Hopefully getting a full season from star second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. would be a great start, but the rest of the lineup has question marks. Soler and García will be back to factor into the corner outfield and designated hitter mix. Garrett Cooper has had another solid season when healthy and could be the primary first baseman, although he’s entering his final year of arbitration eligibility and figures to draw some renewed interest on the trade market after his name came up in rumors this past summer. Wendle, Stallings and Brian Anderson are all arbitration-eligible and could be retained, but they’ll be due raises on this year’s salaries ($4.55MM, $2.45MM and $4.475MM, respectively) if tendered contracts.

Berti seems likely to be retained but is a better fit for a super-utility role than as an everyday option at a specific position. Rojas is a team leader and under contract for $5MM, but he’s coming off his worst hitting season since taking over as the primary shortstop. Young players like Jesús Sánchez and Bryan De La Cruz have shown flashes of promise but been far too inconsistent overall.

Miami also faces annual payroll questions. While they’re expected to see a boost over this year’s $80MM mark, it isn’t clear how far owner Bruce Sherman is willing to push spending. With over $51MM in guaranteed commitments on the 2023 books and a hefty arbitration class, there may not be a ton of financial leeway for the front office to add in free agency. There’ll still be higher-contact bats available for relatively cheap, of course. Players like Ben Gamel, David Peralta and old friend Donovan Solano — who has reinvented himself as a bat-first utilityman after serving as a defense-oriented second baseman in Miami — will hit the open market and surely won’t break the bank. A run at someone like Brandon Nimmo or even Andrew Benintendi may ultimately prove beyond what the Marlins deem appropriate in free agency, particularly with Soler and García already on the books.

There’s also the likelihood of the Fish again turning to the trade market for help, of course. Miami is likely to explore dealing from its enviable starting pitching depth to address the offense. NL Cy Young favorite Sandy Alcantara won’t be moved — Jon Heyman of the New York Post unsurprisingly relayed this week that Alcantara is “as close to untouchable as you can find” — but players like Pablo López or Braxton Garrett could be dealt for controllable bats.

It’ll be a busy offseason for general manager Kim Ng and her staff. Ng is entering her third winter in that position, but she’s more firmly in control of baseball operations than ever with CEO Derek Jeter and vice president of player development Gary Denbo departing the organization in recent months. The departures of Jeter and Denbo could also explain some of the organization’s philosophical changes in roster construction.

There are additionally going to be some changes in non-playing personnel. The club has already announced skipper Don Mattingly won’t be back next year, and the team made a number of dismissals in their scouting and player development staff yesterday. Andy Slater of Fox Sports 640 first reported that director of professional scouting Hadi Raad was being let go (Twitter link). Jackson and Jordan McPherson at the Herald report that director of player development Geoff DeGroot and five additional members of the professional scouting department have been dismissed.

Braves Sign Charlie Morton To One-Year Extension

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The Braves announced this evening they’ve signed starter Charlie Morton to a one-year contract extension. He’ll make $20MM next season, and the sides tacked on a matching $20MM club option for the 2024 campaign with no buyout. The Braves are one of the few major league teams that announce contract terms.

Morton will stick around for a third season in Atlanta. Originally signed to a one-year, $15MM free agent deal over the 2020-21 offseason, he’s now signed late-season extensions in each of the past two years. In both cases, they’ve been a one-year, $20MM guarantee with a matching team option. Atlanta could’ve simply exercised the $20MM option for 2023 in Morton’s previous contract, but their preemptive agreement with the Wasserman client tacks on an additional option for the ’24 campaign.

There’s clearly a mutual comfort between the team and the 15-year MLB veteran. He’s been a durable and effective member of the starting rotation, avoiding the injured list during his first two campaigns in Atlanta and starting 63 regular season contests. He made another four starts during the 2021 postseason. That didn’t end the way he’d have hoped personally, as Morton broke his right leg during his World Series start and had to be scratched from the roster. The club went on to defeat the Astros to secure the title, though, and Morton was back in action by the start of this season.

During his debut campaign in Atlanta, Morton worked to an excellent 3.34 ERA across 185 2/3 innings. He’s not been quite that effective this year, tossing 167 2/3 frames of 4.29 ERA ball heading into his final start of the season. The two-time All-Star’s strikeout rate has been almost identical in each season (28.6% in 2021, 28.4% this year), and he’s not shown any signs of physical decline. Morton has averaged 94.9 MPH on his four-seam and 81.2 MPH on his go-to curveball this season, not far off last year’s respective 95.5 MPH and 80.6 MPH marks.

It’s a similar story on a pitch-for-pitch basis. Morton has generated swinging strikes on 12.3% of his total offerings in both seasons. That’s above this year’s 10.7% league average for starters, and Morton has held a swinging strike rate in the 12% range for five straight years. Even with his 39th birthday less than two months away, Morton hasn’t lost anything from his raw arsenal or his ability to miss bats.

The biggest contributor to his overall dip in production was an atypical struggle to throw strikes early in the season. Morton walked 11 batters in four starts in April, surrendering 14 runs in 18 innings. He’d mostly found his footing from a command perspective by the time the calendar flipped to May. In 26 starts since May 1, he owns a 3.97 ERA with a 29.9% strikeout rate and a manageable 8.2% walk percentage. He’s held opposing hitters to a .218/.301/.384 line over that span. Morton was excellent between June and August before hitting another rough patch this month, posting a 5.27 ERA in five September starts.

The Braves aren’t much concerned about either his early-season control woes or a couple recent tough outings at the hands of the Mariners and Phillies. Morton’s velocity and strong strikeout and walk profile give plenty of reason for optimism he can remain an above-average starter next season, even as his ground-ball rate has dipped to a personal-low 39.7% clip.

Morton, meanwhile, seems content taking a year-by-year approach to his playing career. A longtime back-of-the-rotation grounder specialist with the Pirates, Morton reinvented himself as a strikeout artist with the Astros in 2017. After spending two seasons in Houston, he signed a two-year free agent deal with the Rays before what’ll be at least three consecutive seasons as a Brave. He’s reportedly set geographic limitations during his recent potential free agent trips, preferring to stay in the Southeastern part of the country to be closer to his family.

Of course, the Braves have far more than just locale to make them an appealing place to pitch. Morton remains part of a stellar roster that has the team on the verge of 100 wins and firmly in contention for another NL East title. He’s among a strong rotation led by star rookie Spencer Strider, All-Star Max Fried and breakout hurler Kyle Wright. Veteran Jake Odorizzi has occupied the fifth rotation spot since being acquired from the Astros at the trade deadline, but Atlanta also has rookie Bryce Elder and prospect Freddy Tarnok as promising depth options.

That entire group could return for 2023. Strider, Fried and Wright are all under club control. Odorizzi has to decide whether to trigger a $12.5MM player option or take a $6.25MM buyout and test free agency. Elder and Tarnok are controllable, as are former top prospect and mid-rotation arm Ian Anderson, Mike Soroka, Kyle Muller and Huascar Ynoa (although Ynoa is unlikely to pitch next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery recently).

That’s a number of options, reducing the urgency for the club to look outside the organization for rotation help. Signing Morton to an extension also continues the front office’s habit of trying to preserve as much of the current core as possible. Atlanta has also signed Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Michael Harris II to long-term deals this year, in addition to previous extensions for Ronald Acuña Jr., Travis d’Arnaud and Ozzie Albies.

Locking in another $20MM to next year’s books brings the team’s guaranteed commitments north of $165MM (assuming Odorizzi exercises his option), in the estimation of Roster Resource. That’s before considering the possibility of extending impending free agent shortstop Dansby Swanson or accounting for arbitration salaries for Fried, Soroka and high-leverage reliever A.J. Minter. It’s virtually certain they’ll top this year’s franchise-record $178MM Opening Day payroll, but it’s evidently comfortable territory for the Liberty Media ownership group on the heels of last season’s title and another forthcoming postseason trip that’s certain to include at least two home playoff games.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Hector Lopez Passes Away

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Former major league infielder/outfielder Héctor López has passed away at the age of 93, according to a report from Julia Kreuz of MLB.com (Twitter link). A two-time World Series champion, López played in parts of 11 major league seasons.

A native of Panama, López began his professional career in 1952. He played three years in the Athletics farm system before reaching the big leagues in May 1955. That marked the first of four-plus seasons with the franchise back when it played in Kansas City. López saw most of his early action at third base, but he also logged time at second base, shortstop and in center field. He was a solid hitter immediately, hitting at least .273 in each of his first three MLB seasons and getting into double digits in homers for five straight years.

Over his time with the A’s, López hit .278/.337/.433 with 67 longballs and 99 doubles. The Yankees acquired him midway through the ’59 campaign, and he spent the second half of his career in the Bronx. López topped 100 games in six of the next seven seasons, increasingly seeing more time in the corner outfield later in his career. López often shared an outfield with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in the early 1960’s, contributing to a team that claimed five consecutive pennants between 1960-64. New York won back-to-back titles in 1961-62, with López collecting a homer and a triple in four games during the former season’s World Series.

Over parts of eight years in pinstripes, López hit .262/.324/.399 with 69 homers. He finished with the Yankees in 1966. After playing two more minor league seasons but failing to return to the majors, he retired. López finished his playing career with a .269/.330/.415 line in 1450 big league games. He collected 1251 hits, 136 home runs, drove in 591 runs and scored 623 times. Once his playing time wrapped up, he kicked off lengthy career as a minor league manager. He worked in affiliated ball for a few decades and managed the Panamanian team at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

MLBTR sends our condolences to López’s family, friends, former teammates and loved ones.

Charlie Blackmon To Exercise Player Option

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Rockies designated hitter/corner outfielder Charlie Blackmon plans to exercise his player option for the 2023 campaign, he tells Danielle Allentuck of the Colorado Springs Gazette (Twitter link). MLBTR has confirmed that the option value will be $15MM.

It’ll be the sixth and final year of the long-term extension he inked back in April 2018. Blackmon made $14MM in 2018, followed by successive $21MM salaries from 2019-21. He exercised a $21MM player option for this season, while his 2023 option had a base value of $10MM. That contained up to $5MM in escalators that were based on his playing time up to 575 plate appearances. Blackmon hit that highest threshold on Tuesday, triggering all the available playing time incentives. The deal also contained an additional $3MM that would’ve been attainable had Blackmon accrued any MVP support between 2018-22, but he won’t collect any of the awards bonuses.

Blackmon will be back for a 13th season in Colorado. A 2008 draftee, he debuted three years later. After a few seasons as a part-time player, he seized the primary center field job in 2014. Blackmon picked up an All-Star nod that season and kicked off an excellent run of both durability and productivity. He was an above-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, each year from 2015-19. That park-adjusted metric accounts for the favorable hitting environment in which he played half his games. He played 140+ games in each of those seasons, as well of 59 of the 60 contests in the shortened 2020 campaign.

While Blackmon has continued to be a fixture in the lineup over the past three years, his productivity has dipped. He’s not reached 20 homers or topped a .450 slugging mark since 2019. He’s also moved out of center field as his defensive metrics have declined, and he spent more time at designated hitter than in the outfield this season. Blackmon hit .264/.314/.419 across 577 plate appearances this season, which came to an early end when the Rox placed him on the injured list two days ago. He’s headed for surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee next week.

There was never any suspense as to Blackmon’s option decision coming off that down year. Yet even with his production falling in his age-35 campaign, he remains a key part of the Colorado organization. That the Rockies didn’t curtail his playing time late in the season — even as his continuing to rack up at-bats added an extra $5MM to next season’s books — is a testament to the franchise’s affinity for Blackmon and all he’s accomplished in their uniform.

As MLBTR explored in previewing the Rockies’ offseason yesterday, Colorado’s 2023 books are rather cluttered. They’re on the hook for around $112MM in guaranteed payroll commitments (not including projected salaries for arbitration-eligible players), and they’d owe the Cardinals an additional $5MM if Nolan Arenado declines to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of breathing room for outside additions before the team approaches its franchise-record $145MM payroll.

General manager Bill Schmidt and his staff have various areas of the roster they could look to augment this winter. The starting rotation seems the primary concern, but it’s possible they look for corner outfield help to continue to decrease the amount of time Blackmon needs to spend on the grass. He’ll presumably continue to play most days, if healthy, with skipper Bud Black splitting his time between DH and right field. Blackmon will be a free agent after the 2023 campaign, and he tells Allentuck he’s not yet considered what his future holds beyond next season.

Mariners Designate Phillips Valdez For Assignment

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The Mariners announced they’ve designated right-hander Phillips Valdez for assignment. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for backstop Brian O’Keefe, whose selection to the majors was reported this morning.

Valdez was claimed off waivers by Seattle in late July after the Red Sox designated him for assignment. The righty had been with the Red Sox since the 2020 season, when they claimed him off waivers themselves from the Rangers. For his major league career, Valdez has posted a 4.56 ERA and matching 4.59 FIP in 102 2/3 innings.

Valdez never made it into a game for Seattle this season, though he posted a 4.41 ERA in 16 1/3 innings with Boston this season. Otherwise, he has pitched at the Triple-A level this season, posting a 3.60 ERA across 39 innings split between the Worcester Red Sox and the Tacoma Rainiers. While his Triple-A numbers have been respectable this season, Valdez has seemingly struggled with his command during his time in the majors this season, walking seven while hitting another six batters.

Seattle will have 7 days to either release Valdez or send him through outright waivers. Should he be outrighted, Valdez will qualify for minor league free agency this offseason unless the Mariners add him back onto the 40-man roster. With Valdez off the 40-man, the Mariners still have Brennan Bernardino, Juan Then, and Justus Sheffield on the roster as depth options in the minors.

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