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Padres Release Jay Jackson To Pursue Opportunity In Japan

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The Padres have released righty Jay Jackson so that he can sign with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan, MLB.com’s Corey Brock tweets. Jackson had been on the Padres’ 40-man roster since September. This marks the second time this week that the Padres have lost a reliever to Japan — Marcos Mateo appears set to sign with the Hanshin Tigers.

The 28-year-old Jackson made his big-league debut in 2015, pitching 4 1/3 innings and striking out four while allowing three runs and one walk. The hard thrower spent most of the season with Triple-A El Paso, posting a 2.54 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 over 63 2/3 innings. Jackson, formerly a top prospect with the Cubs, is also a veteran of the Marlins, Pirates and Brewers systems.

Minor League Notes: Melotakis, Golson, Nationals

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The Twins hid lefty reliever Mason Melotakis from other teams during instructional league play, Phil Miller writes for Baseball America (subscription only). The idea was that Melotakis was recovering from Tommy John surgery, and the Twins didn’t want scouts from other teams to see him before the Rule 5 Draft. “We’ve got a lot of fields down there. There’s always an empty one,” says Twins vice president for player personnel Mike Radcliff. As it turned out, Melotakis looked so good this fall (throwing in the mid-90s) that the Twins decided not to take the risk of losing him, and they added him to their 40-man roster. “We’re not projecting what his stuff might be—we saw it, we know it’s back. He’s going to be a major leaguer very soon,” says Radcliff. Here’s more on baseball outside the Majors.

  • Former Phillies first-round pick Greg Golson writes for Baseball America that he’s not yet ready to give up the game. Since playing independent ball in the US in 2014, the 30-year-old Golson has played in Mexico, both in the last two winters and in the 2015 regular season. Golson writes that, after initially struggling to adjust to a new culture and to strike zones in Mexico, he settled in and began to enjoy playing in an environment in which his team was focused on winning, rather than on developing players for the Majors. “Not to knock the minor leagues or affiliated ball, but there is a focus on development there that takes away from the game,” Golson writes. “I fell in love with the game again because I was put in a position where the only thing that mattered was winning.”
  • Tyler Maun of MiLB.com’s look at the Nationals’ farm system features plenty of tidbits from Nats director of player development Mark Scialabba. As one might expect, Scialabba sounds particularly high on top prospects Lucas Giolito and Trea Turner. Of Giolito, Scialabba says, “He’s improving his fastball command. It’s getting to the point now where he has a lot of confidence in using the fastball to different parts of the strike zone. … He continues to work on the little things like holding runners and fielding his position.” Scialabba also praises 18-year-old outfielder Victor Robles, a Dominican who hit .352/.445/.507 in an outstanding first season in the US in 2015. “Just overall, his natural instincts as a baseball player [stand out],” says Scialabba. “There are great athletes that are very raw, that don’t have those sorts of baseball instincts at a young age, but he has a little bit of everything.”

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/26/15

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.

  • The Yankees have signed outfielder Cesar Puello, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy tweets. The deal would presumably be of the minor league variety. Eddy notes that Puello is the only player from the Biogenesis scandal who has not yet played in the big leagues. The Mets released the former top prospect in August after he missed most of the 2015 season due to a back injury. The 24-year-old batted .252/.355/.393 in hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas in 2014.
  • The Brewers have re-signed righty Tim Dillard, Eddy tweets. (Eddy also notes the Brewers’ signing of lefty Nick Hagadone.) The 32-year-old Dillard last appeared in the big leagues in 2012. Last season, he struggled in Triple-A Colorado Springs (which is, like Las Vegas, a difficult environment in which to pitch), posting a 5.50 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 54 innings. Those numbers were, however, severely skewed by six extremely poor outings as a starter; he posted a 1.72 ERA in 31 1/3 innings of relief.

Week In Review: 12/19/15 – 12/25/15

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Here’s a look back at the past week at MLBTR.

Key Moves

Trades

Extensions

Signings / Re-signings

Avoided Arbitration

Claimed

Outrights

Released

Retired

Key Minor League Signings

Rockies Extend Adam Ottavino

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DEC. 21: The Rockies have officially announced the deal (Twitter link).

DEC. 19, 1:55pm: The deal was actually completed earlier this week, Nick Groke of the Denver Post tweets.

12:44pm: The Rockies have agreed to terms with reliever Adam Ottavino to a three-year, $10.4MM extension, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links). The deal includes yearly salaries of $1.3MM, $2.1MM and $7MM and contains no options. Ottavino is a client of All Bases Covered.

USATSI_7335176_154513410_lowresThe 30-year-old Ottavino had Tommy John surgery in May and missed most of the 2015 season. We was projected to make just $1.6MM in his second year of arbitration eligibility, and he would have been eligible for free agency following 2017. The extension, then, provides him with a considerable guaranteed payday in exchange for delaying his free agency eligibility by a year.

Before his injury, Ottavino was a valuable cog in the Rockies’ bullpen, most recently posting a 3.60 ERA, 9.7 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 65 innings in a fine 2014 campaign. He was off to an even better start in 2015 before his injury, striking out 13 batters in 10 1/3 innings, posting an excellent 63.2% ground ball rate in a small sample, and increasing his average fastball velocity to over 95 MPH.

Needless to say, it might be awhile longer before he’s able to contribute at a top level again, which is perhaps one reason why the Rockies felt an extension made sense from their perspective — as it stood, Ottavino’s recovery period would have consumed a meaningful chunk of the remainder of the Rockies’ team control over him. Again via Heyman (on Twitter), Ottavino says he’s recovering well and will return at some point near the middle of the summer. Assuming he’s eventually able to return to something resembling his prior form, though, his $10.4MM deal doesn’t seem exorbitant given the rising costs of good setup men on the free agent market.

It’s possible that the terms of Ottavino’s extension were partially inspired by the White Sox’ recent deal with Nate Jones, which is similar in many respects. It’s the differences between the two hard-throwing righties’ deals, however, that are most striking. Like Ottavino, Jones had a recent Tommy John surgery (although Jones actually returned to action last season and pitched well, while Ottavino’s recovery is ongoing) and was in his second-to-last year of arbitration eligibility.

Jones, however, was projected to make less next season, which perhaps explains why Ottavino got a more significant guarantee ($10.4MM vs. $8MM) over three years. Jones’ contract also contains two team options, plus the possibility of a third if he continues to have UCL trouble; Ottavino’s deal does not include any such options. There are doubtless many differences between the two pitchers’ situations (perhaps including differences in medical reports to which we aren’t privy). But probably the most crucial one is that Jones’ injury troubles occurred before he entered his arbitration seasons, while Ottavino’s occurred after he entered his. The divergence between the two contracts, then, illustrates what a difference timing can make.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Quick Hits: Unsigned Free Agents, Opt-Outs

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There’s already buzz about what could be a brilliant 2018-19 free agent class, John Harper of the New York Daily News writes. That year’s market could include Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, Dallas Keuchel, Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey and Manny Machado. Also, Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Jason Heyward will have opt-out clauses. Of course, some of that first group of players could sign extensions, and there’s no telling if they’ll be as valuable then as they are now, but that looks like a stunning amount of talent. Harper notes that many of the Yankees’ bigger contracts will have expired by then, and he quotes an executive suggesting the Yanks could potentially use the intervening years to get under the luxury tax threshold and throw their weight around in 2018-19. Here’s more from around baseball.

  • A number of key free agents remain unsigned, and FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal cites a number of reasons why. The qualifying offer is one factor, but another is that some traditionally free-spending teams (including the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers and Rangers) have not spent heavily. The trade market is another element, particularly on the outfield and starting pitching markets. Of course, top free agents like Yoenis Cespedes and Justin Upton are highly unlikely to remain unsigned in a couple months, and Rosenthal points out that, for example, Max Scherzer and James Shields signed fairly late in last winter’s offseason. But he also proposes a couple of outside-the-box ideas to get unexpected teams involved in the market, including teams with protected draft picks signing top free agents and then trading them to teams without protected picks, thus somewhat circumventing the qualifying offer system.
  • Opt-out clauses have become increasingly trendy in contracts for top free agents, notes Jamal Collier of Sports On Earth. Price’s contract contains an opt-out after 2018, and Heyward’s allows him to opt out that year or (under certain circumstances) after 2019. Johnny Cueto’s deal allows him to opt out after two years.  Zack Greinke, of course, entered free agency after exercising an opt-out in his previous deal. Most players who have received out clauses in recent years (including Greinke, Alex Rodriguez, C.C. Sabathia, and several others) have exercised them, reflecting the degree to which revenues have grown within baseball.

West Notes: Dodgers, Blash, Astros

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The Dodgers’ luxury tax bill for the year came to $43.6MM, Ronald Blum of the AP reports. For luxury-tax purposes, the Dodgers had a payroll of $297.9MM. As luxury-tax offenders for the third consecutive year, they were taxed at a 40% rate for the amount by which they exceeded the tax threshold of $189MM. The Yankees, meanwhile, will pay $26.1MM, while the Red Sox owe $1.8MM and the Giants $1.3MM. The $72.8MM between the four teams amounts to the record amount of luxury tax collected in a season, Blum reports. That the Dodgers’ bill was so steep comes as little surprise, of course — their 2015 payroll, headed by large expenditures for players like Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, was the highest in MLB history. Here’s more from the West divisions.

  • Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune profiles new Padres outfielder Jabari Blash, who the Athletics selected from the Mariners in this month’s Rule 5 Draft and then traded to San Diego. The 26-year-old Blash looked like one of the best potential power sources available in the Rule 5 — he batted .271/.370/.576 and hit 32 homers between Double-A Jackson and Triple-A Tacoma in 2015. Interestingly, Blash grew up in the Virgin Islands, and one of the first offers of congratulations he received was from Callix Crabbe, a former infielder from the Virgin Islands who the Padres selected in the Rule 5 Draft in 2007.
  • The surprising package the Astros gave up to get Ken Giles from the Phillies reflects an industry-wide trend in which relievers capable of pitching high-leverage innings are valued more highly, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle writes. The Astros gave up Vincent Velasquez and Mark Appel in the Giles deal. They re-signed another reliever, Tony Sipp, to a hefty three-year, $18MM contract. The belief that good relievers are fundamentally less valuable than good starting pitchers or position players has long been widely held, but perhaps that’s changing, at least to a degree. “You’d have to say that as an industry, we’re valuing a team that’s in contention needs to have those guys at the back end of the bullpen,” says Astros GM Jeff Luhnow. “We’ve seen what the Royals have been able to do with a successful execution of that strategy, and the Mets with (Jeurys) Familia, and there’s good late-inning relievers on the teams that make it to and win in the playoffs.”

NL Central Notes: Heyward, Cubs, Cardinals, McCutchen

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Jason Heyward says one reason he chose the Cubs over the Cardinals is that the Cubs’ young core is likely to be with the team longer than the Cardinals’ core is. “You have Yadier (Molina), who is going to be done in two years maybe. You have Matt Holliday, who is probably going to be done soon,” Heyward told reporters, including Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. “I felt like if I was to look up in three years and see a completely different team, that would kind of be difficult.” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny says he believes in the core of his team and takes issue with Heyward’s comments, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. “I don’t blame him. But I don’t like it,” says Matheny. “I don’t think we have anything to apologize for in having a group like a Holliday, a Molina, a Wainwright. … [H]e’s a young player. But I can’t say I’m in any kind of agreement with that (Chicago) core being better than any kind of core that we have.” Here’s more from the NL Central.

  • Elsewhere in Hummel’s article, Cards GM John Mozeliak expresses a bit of frustration that the Cardinals’ biggest offseason targets — presumably players like Heyward and David Price — opted to head elsewhere. “Our success has really come from our pipeline, and I think we’re really going to lean on that. The last month has been trying to play in the big-boy pool, and unfortunately we just didn’t end up getting it done,” says Mozeliak. “Sometimes it’s not always about what you’re doing. You need the other party to want to be there, too.”
  • Jason Heyward’s mammoth deal with the Cubs got some reporters, including Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wondering how much it might cost a club to sign Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen if he reaches the open market after the 2018 season.  For his part, McCutchen doesn’t want to speculate on his own dollar value, but he did reaffirm his loyalty to Pittsburgh. “This is still a place I do want to be,” McCutchen said. “I love it here. If that’s something that they can do, that’s something they can do. I really can’t answer from their end. We’ll see what happens in the future.”  Of course, as Brink points out, Heyward in 2015 and McCutchen in 2018 are two separate cases.  Heyward got his monster contract, in part, because he is only 26 years of age.  Following the 2018 season, McCutchen will be 32.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Athletics Still Pursuing Scott Kazmir

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The Athletics are still among the contenders to sign free agent lefty Scott Kazmir, Joe Stiglich of CSNBayArea.com writes. Via Stiglich, A’s exec Billy Beane said earlier this month that the team might not have the flexibility to sign a free agent starter to a multi-year contract, but it appears it’s still a possibility that they will.

Late last week, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman wrote that Kazmir had at least two offers for three-year deals, likely in the $12MM-$13MM range. Heyman also indicated that a four-year offer for Kazmir would likely be enough to sign him. Other possible suitors for Kazmir include the Royals, Orioles and Dodgers, Heyman notes. Kazmir has also recently been connected to the Astros.

The A’s have loaded up on pitching this offseason, adding Rich Hill, Ryan Madson, John Axford, Liam Hendriks and Marc Rzepczynski to their staff and also working on an incentive-laden deal with Henderson Alvarez. Needless to say, a deal to bring back Kazmir (who ranked No. 18 on Tim Dierkes’ list of the top 50 free agents) would be the biggest of those additions — Kazmir’s performance with the Athletics before they shipped him to Houston in July was one of a small number of bright spots in a tough season for Oakland.

AL West Notes: Mariners, Rangers, Angels

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After re-signing Hisashi Iwakuma, GM Jerry Dipoto is satisfied with the Mariners’ rotation, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. The Mariners had already added Wade Miley and Nate Karns in trades this offseason. “Now if you line up a rotation with Felix (Hernandez) and Wade Miley and James Paxton and Taijuan Walker and Nathan Karns and add Hisashi Iwakuma, that gives us the kind of depth and innings we want to get out of our starting rotation,” says Dipoto. “We’re very happy with that group.” Dipoto notes it’s crucial to have more than five pitchers capable of making solid starts. He adds that, even though it had looked like the Mariners were already at their budget limit prior to the Iwakuma signing, it took “less than five minutes” to get the Mariners’ ownership to approve spending once Iwakuma’s deal with the Dodgers fell apart and it became clear he was available. Here’s more from the AL West.

  • In an offseason in which salaries for setup men have skyrocketed, the Rangers’ bullpen is talented and cheap, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. That means they could potentially use a reliever to upgrade elsewhere, or they could keep all their current talent to provide the team with a variety of strong relief options. Wilson notes that GM Jon Daniels said at the Winter Meetings that other teams asked him about ten different relievers. And even beyond closer Shawn Tolleson, the Rangers have plenty of other bullpen options with at least some closing experience, including newcomer Tony Barnette, who registered 41 saves for Yakult in Japan last season.
  • It might be in the Angels’ interest not to exceed the $189MM luxury tax threshold for next season, if only because of the headache it could cause this time next year, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes. Fans might argue that if the Angels exceeded that threshold for 2016, they could get back under it when Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson’s contracts expire after the season, meaning that they would avoid the escalating penalties for repeat luxury tax offenders. The problem is that they’re already committed to spend a significant amount in 2017 (and will have non-mandatory, but necessary, expenditures for arbitration-eligible players like Garrett Richards, Hector Santiago and Kole Calhoun). They’ll also likely have to spend to bolster their rotation, infield and bullpen.

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