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Remembering The Tigers’ 3-Star Sale

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It seems like long ago, but the Tigers were one of the majors’ most successful teams in the first half of the previous decade. The club won four straight AL Central titles from 2011-14, a span in which it combined for a 366-282 regular-season record and took home a pennant (2012). Success has largely eluded the Tigers since that four-year run, though. Going back to 2015, they’ve posted just one winning season and are now only a couple weeks away from drafting first overall for the second time in three years.

During the summer of 2017, sensing his bottom-feeding team was a long way from contention, general manager Al Avila launched an aggressive rebuild. In a little over a month, he traded three of the Tigers’ veteran stars for a total of eight prospects. Here’s how those deals have gone so far…

July 18: Diamondbacks Acquire J.D. Martinez

Martinez was a failed Astro whom the Tigers scooped up off the scrapheap before 2014 and then saw evolve into one of the most dominant hitters in the game. As a Tiger from 2014-17, Martinez turned a remade swing into a line of .300/.361/.551 (145 wRC+) with 99 home runs in 1,886 plate appearances. However, with Martinez just months away from free agency, the Tigers parted with him in exchange for infield prospects Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara and Jose King.

Martinez finished the season on a rampage in Arizona and has continued to rake in Boston since 2018, but Lugo’s the only player in the package the Tigers received for JDM who has even played for them. It hasn’t been pretty, as the 25-year-old combined to hit .237/.270/.362 (63 wRC+) with minus-1.0 fWAR from 2018-19. FanGraphs likened Alcantara to ex-Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias a year ago, when he batted .247/.346/.296 in 378 trips to the plate in Double-A. Considering his lack of power, his well-regarded defense will have to carry him to the majors. King, 21, hasn’t advanced beyond Single-A ball, where he put up a meek .209/.283/.279 line in 193 attempts last season.

Aug. 31: Angels Acquire Justin Upton

Nearing the end of the August waiver trade deadline, the Tigers swung their first of two massive deals before the clock ran out. Upton inked a six-year, $132.75MM contract with the Tigers under 20 months earlier, and 2017 has been one of his most productive seasons yet. However, with the Tigers launching a rebuild and Upton weeks away from having to decide on an opt-out clause, they decided to let him and the remaining four years, $88.5MM of his pact go in exchange for righties Grayson Long and Elvin Rodriguez. The return hasn’t amounted to much so far – Long retired before he ever threw a pitch in the Detroit organization, though Rodriguez does have some promise. He logged a 3.77 ERA/4.06 FIP in 133 2/3 High-A innings as a 21-year-old last season, and MLB.com ranks him as the Tigers’ 27th overall prospect.

Aug. 31: Astros Acquire Justin Verlander

In one of the most famous buzzer-beating trades in the history of sports, the Tigers shipped off a franchise icon with moments to spare before the deadline passed. Verlander was regularly among the game’s superstar pitchers in Detroit since the first full season of his career in 2006, but as a then-34-year-old, his days as an elite hurler seemed to be in the past. Not the case, though, as Verlander rounded back into form down the stretch in Houston, which he helped lead to a championship in the fall, and hasn’t let up. In fact, he won his second AL Cy Young Award and earned his eighth All-Star nod in his age-36 season in 2019.

Although Verlander cleared waivers, he still could have used his full no-trade rights to reject the deal. In accepting the move, he cleared the way for the Tigers to receive three prospects in catcher Jake Rogers, righty Franklin Perez and outfielder Daz Cameron (Detroit also paid $16MM of Verlander’s remaining $56MM and gave up outfielder Juan Ramirez as a player to be named later).

Has anyone from the trio the Tigers landed contributed in the majors yet? Not really. Rogers debuted as a Tiger last season and hit a disastrous .125/.222/.259 (27 wRC+). Perez hasn’t pitched above High-A, and Cameron has had an awful time at Triple-A since he first arrived there in 2018. In fairness to these three players, they’re all still young – Rogers is 25, Perez is 22 and Cameron is 23 – so it’s far too early to write off their careers. In the cases of Perez and Cameron, it’s worth noting that they aren’t far removed from landing on top 100 prospect lists, so there’s still some intrigue in Detroit’s return for Verlander.

The Best Top 10 Pick Of 2012

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Before we revisit the top 10 picks of the 2012 Major League Baseball amateur draft, let’s begin with a reminder of a few notable players who fell just outside of it. Right-hander Lucas Giolito (No. 16), shortstop Corey Seager (18) and Marcus Stroman (22) weren’t deemed worthy of the top 10 at the time, but all three now look like above-average major leaguers. That’s more than can be said for some of those who were among the first 10 selections that year…

1.) Carlos Correa, SS, Astros:

  • Health has been the main issue so far for Correa, who has performed extremely well when he has been able to take the field. Since debuting in 2015, Correa has only appeared in more than 110 games in a season once (he missed 87 last year), but he has slashed .277/.356/.489 with 102 home runs and 18.5 fWAR. Correa also helped the Astros to a World Series championship in 2017, though that title has been sullied by a sign-stealing scandal.

2.) Byron Buxton, OF, Twins:

  • Buxton’s another player whom injuries have troubled to this point, and he also hasn’t been consistently productive. When Buxton’s right, though, he’s electrifying to watch. Buxton’s an elite defender in center field, where he has posted 42 DRS and a 25.8 UZR in his career, but his offense hasn’t come close to that level. He’s just a .237/.292/.414 hitter with 38 homers and 60 steals to date, but he may have turned the corner last year with a .262/.314/.513 line during a 295-PA campaign.

3.) Mike Zunino, C, Mariners:

  • Like Buxton, Zunino also hasn’t been able to put it together on a regular basis. Owing to a combination of defense and power, he was roughly a 4.0-fWAR player in two seasons (2014 and ’17) and a 2.0-fWAR contributor in another (’18), but he wasn’t very productive in his other campaigns. The 29-year-old is now a member of the Rays, who acquired him in November 2018 as part of a trade that brought outfielder Mallex Smith to Seattle, but his first season in Tampa Bay didn’t go well. Zunino ventured to the Rays as a .207/.276/.406 hitter. That’s not especially impressive, yet it trumps the .165/.232/312 line he put up a season ago.

4.) Kevin Gausman, RHP, Orioles:

  • Gausman has not evolved into a major league ace, but he has recorded a handful of respectable seasons. He managed a 4.22 ERA/4.16 FIP with 8.21 K/9 and 2.71 BB/9 in 763 2/3 innings with Baltimore from 2013-18 before the team traded him to Atlanta. Gausman was effective with the Braves then, but things went south last year, which led the club to cut ties with him in August. He finished the season on a solid run as a Reds reliever and then inked a one-year, $9MM deal with the Giants this past offseason. Not long ago, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco looked into Gausman’s chances of a full-blown bounce-back effort in San Francisco.

5.) Kyle Zimmer, RHP, Royals:

  • Injuries have played a significant role in torpedoing the once-promising Zimmer’s career. He finally made his MLB debut last season at the age of 27, but across 18 1/3 innings, he yielded 22 earned runs on 18 hits and totaled more walks (19) than strikeouts (18).

6.) Albert Almora, OF, Cubs:

  • Almora is coming off his third straight season of regular playing time, but he hasn’t made much of an impact in the majors yet. The 26-year-old has amassed 1,282 PA as a Cub and hit .274/.311/.403 with 2.1 fWAR dating back to his 2016 debut.

7.) Max Fried, LHP, Padres:

  • Fried didn’t pitch in the majors for the Padres, who sent him to Atlanta in 2014 as part of a blockbuster to acquire Justin Upton. But Fried now looks like a keeper for the Braves, as he gave the team 165 2/3 innings of 4.02 ERA/3.72 FIP ball with 9.4 K/9, 2.55 BB/9 and a 53.6 percent groundball rate in his first full season last year. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explained, the 26-year-old Fried may have even more to offer going forward.

8.) Mark Appel, RHP, Pirates:

  • The Pirates didn’t sign Appel, which entitled them a compensatory pick (No. 9) in the 2013 draft. They used that selection on outfielder Austin Meadows, who broke out last season with a .291/.364/.558 line, 33 homers, 12 steals and 4.0 fWAR. The problem for Pittsburgh is that Meadows’ success came in a Tampa Bay uniform. In what looks like one of the most regrettable trades in franchise history, the Pirates sent Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to the Rays for Chris Archer in July 2018.

9.) Andrew Heaney, LHP, Marlins:

  • Heaney only pitched 29 1/3 innings for the Marlins, who traded him to the Dodgers in a huge deal in 2014. And Heaney didn’t pitch at all for the Dodgers, as the club quickly flipped him to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. Since that chaotic sequence, Heaney has gone on to an up-and-down, injury-limited tenure as a member of the Angels, with whom he has totaled 408 2/3 innings of 4.34 ERA/4.36 FIP ball with 9.03 K/9 and 2.47 BB/9.

10.) David Dahl, OF, Rockies:

  • Yet another player whom injuries have haunted over the years, Dahl hasn’t yet appeared in more than 100 games in a single season. That said, at least the 26-year-old has been an above-average hitter when healthy. Even taking into account that he calls hitter-friendly Coors Field his home, he has logged a wRC+ of 111 thus far, having slashed .297/.346/.521 with 38 HRs in 921 trips to the plate.

How Nats Could Continue Benefiting From Jordan Zimmermann’s Exit

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It’s true that right-hander Jordan Zimmermann has fallen on hard times over the past few years, but it’s indisputable that he’s one of the top starters the Nationals have had since they moved from Montreal to Washington in advance of the 2005 season. A second-round pick two years later, Zimmermann debuted in Washington in 2009, but it took him until 2011 to break out. From then through 2015, Zimmermann logged five straight seasons of 3.0-plus fWAR, went to two All-Star Games, and posted a stingy 3.14 ERA/3.30 FIP with 7.26 K/9 against just 1.69 BB/9 in 971 2/3 innings. In yet another impressive accomplishment, Zimmermann threw the first no-hitter in Nationals history in 2014 (video here).

The year in which Zimmermann fired a no-no against the Marlins proved to be his penultimate season in a Nats uniform. He went on to parlay his success in D.C. into an expensive contract with the Tigers, who signed him for five years and $110MM before 2016. The Nationals haven’t missed him, though, while the Tigers surely wish they wouldn’t have taken such a big-money gamble. Zimmermann has never recorded an ERA below the mid-4.00s in a season in Detroit, where he has registered an overall 5.61 ERA/4.86 FIP through 508 2/3 frames in the first four years of his deal.

Considering how he has performed of late, not only does it look fortunate for the Nationals that they let Zimmermann walk, but doing so has a chance to continue benefiting the franchise for years to come. You see, by issuing Zimmermann a qualifying offer that he rejected, the Nationals received a high pick (No. 28) as compensation in the 2016 draft. They used that selection on on a Georgia-based high school shortstop named Carter Kieboom. There’s now a chance Kieboom will turn into a long-term linchpin at third base as the departed Anthony Rendon’s successor.

Now 22 years old, Kieboom has typically produced quality numbers in the minors – he batted .303/.409/.493 with 16 home runs in 494 plate appearances in his Triple-A debut in 2019 – and has rated among the majors’ highest-regarded prospects over the past couple seasons. In its most recent rankings, Baseball America (subscription link) placed Kieboom No. 1 in Washington’s system and 15th in all of baseball, calling him a potential “weapon” at the top of a lineup in MLB.

Kieboom was anything but a weapon during his first taste of MLB action last season, when he hit .128/.209/.282 in parts of April and May, but his woes only came over a 43-PA, 11-game sample size. The Nationals probably aren’t worried, though it remains to be seen how much of an impact he’ll make this season (let’s say one even happens). Kieboom hardly stood out in spring training, though you can take exhibition results with a grain of salt. Still, if the Nats don’t think Kieboom’s quite ready, they can plug Asdrubal Cabrera and perhaps Howie Kendrick in at the hot corner. Doing so likely wouldn’t stop the Nationals from believing Kieboom could be part of the solution over the long haul, and if he does eventually live up to the hype, it’ll be an added bonus for moving on from Zimmermann.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2010 Top 10: Any Future Hall Of Famers? How Many Busts?

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Even the very top of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft is a crapshoot. Looking back at the top 10 picks from 2010, you’ll see some players who have evolved into superstars, some who have turned into decent contributors, some who didn’t sign with their teams and have since washed out of the game, and others who simply busted. Take a look…

1.) Bryce Harper, OF, Nationals:

  • This was an easy pick for the Nationals, who selected one of the most hyped prospects in the history of the game. Harper delivered in Washington, where he slashed .279/.388/.512 (30.5 fWAR) with 184 home runs, 75 stolen bases, an NL MVP and six All-Star nods from 2012-18. The Nationals lost Harper to the division-rival Phillies before 2019 on a 13-year, $330MM contract – both record numbers for a free agent – but the Nats still went on to win their first World Series last fall.

2.) Jameson Taillon, RHP, Pirates:

  • Considering who went next, the Pirates might regret this pick, but Taillon has been a solid major league starter when healthy. The 28-year-old owns a 3.67 ERA/3.55 FIP with 8.09 K/9 and 2.26 BB/9 in 466 innings since making his debut in 2016. However, luck has not been on his side. He overcame cancer in 2017, but he missed most of last season as he dealt with arm problems. Taillon underwent Tommy John surgery last August, so odds are he won’t pitch in 2020 even if a season happens.

3.) Manny Machado, SS/3B, Orioles:

  • Machado joined Harper in cashing in prior to 2019 – the infielder inked a 10-year, $300MM pact with the Padres – but only after a marvelous run in Baltimore. As a member of the Orioles, Machado batted .283/.335/.487 (120 wRC+) with 162 homers, 47 steals, 27.7 fWAR and four All-Star appearances over parts of seven seasons. The Orioles, knowing they wouldn’t sign Machado when he became a free agent, traded him to the Dodgers in July 2018.

4.) Christian Colon, INF, Royals:

  • This is the first pick so far that hasn’t gone well with respect to regular-season production, but at least Colon’s responsible for one of the biggest playoff hits in Royals history (video here). He played with the club from 2014-17 and hit .263/.323/.329 (80 wRC+) with only one home run and 0.7 fWAR. Colon has since been with a few other organizations (the Marlins, Braves, Mets and Reds), but he has totaled a mere 56 at-bats since his Kansas City tenure ended.

5.) Drew Pomeranz, LHP, Indians:

  • Pomeranz never even pitched for Cleveland, which sent him to Colorado in a 2011 blockbuster that delivered righty Ubaldo Jimenez to the Indians. Jimenez didn’t perform well in Cleveland, though, and nor did Pomeranz in Colorado. Pomeranz did enjoy a nice run as a reliever/starter for the A’s, Padres and Red Sox from 2014-17, but he had an awful time in Boston and San Francisco during the prior two seasons. However, Pomeranz reinvented himself out of Milwaukee’s bullpen late last season, leading one of his previous teams – San Diego – to hand him a four-year, $34MM contract this past winter.

6.) Barret Loux, RHP, Diamondbacks:

  • Loux failed his physical with the Diamondbacks because of shoulder and elbow problems, thereby stopping the club from signing the former Texas A&M Aggie after spending a top 10 pick on him. While Loux went on to spend time with the Rangers and Cubs organizations from 2011-16, he never reached the majors. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks got a compensatory pick in 2011 (No. 7) for not signing Loux. They used it on righty Archie Bradley.

7.) Matt Harvey, RHP, Mets:

  • Harvey was magnificent in New York at the outset of his career, as he logged a 2.50 ERA/2.54 FIP with 9.28 K/9 and 1.66 BB/9 over his first 367 2/3 innings from 2012-15. His career has trended in the opposite direction since then, though, owing in large part to major injuries. As a Met, Red and Angel from 2016-19, the Dark Knight combined for 400 frames and stumbled to the majors’ third-worst ERA (5.65) among qualified starters. Harvey, now 31 and still a free agent, is hoping some team will take a chance on him once the game’s freeze on transactions is lifted.

8.) Delino DeShields, OF, Astros:

  • A highly disappointing pick for the Astros, with whom DeShields never played a big league game. They lost him to the rival Rangers in the December 2014 Rule 5 Draft. DeShields didn’t make much of a mark in Texas, but it was able to use him to acquire righty Corey Kluber from the Indians over the winter.

9.) Karsten Whitson, RHP, Padres:

  • Whitson didn’t join the Padres, instead deciding to reject their $2MM offer after the draft. Injuries ended up tanking the former Florida Gator’s stock in the ensuing years, and though the Red Sox did draft Whitson in the 11th round in 2014, that wound up as his only season of pro pitching. As for the Padres, they used their 2011 compensatory choice (No. 10) on infielder Cory Spangenberg, who rarely rose above replacement level with the club from 2014-18. He’s now a member of Japan’s Seibu Lions.

10.) Michael Choice, OF, Athletics:

  • In hindsight, this is yet another regrettable pick (or, in this case, choice). Choice totaled 19 PA with the Athletics (all in 2013) before they traded him to Texas in a deal for outfielder Craig Gentry and righty Josh Lindblom. He failed to establish himself as a Ranger from 2014-15, though Choice has since raked at times in Korea, Mexico and the Brewers’ minor league system. The 30-year-old signed a minors deal with the Rockies this past January.

—

Here’s a painful reality for the above teams that didn’t hit on their selections: In the next baker’s dozen picks, Yasmani Grandal (No. 12) Chris Sale (13), Mike Foltynewicz (19) and Christian Yelich (23) came off the board. It’s yet another bit of proof that you never know how a draft will pan out.

White Sox Release 25 Minor Leaguers

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The White Sox are the latest team to make significant cuts in the minors, per The Athletic’s James Fegan, who reports that they have let go of 25 players (Fegan provides the entire list in his tweet). The White Sox will pay all of their minor leaguers, including those they just released, through the end of June, Fegan adds.

As you’d expect, most of the names here aren’t especially familiar. However, there are at least a couple notable players, including outfielder Josue Guerrero, whom the White Sox signed to a $1.1MM million bonus out of the Dominican Republic in 2016. Josue Guerrero, the nephew of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and the cousin of the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., didn’t post inspiring numbers as part of the White Sox’s system. In 244 plate appearances in rookie ball from 2017-19, the 20-year-old hit .224/.282/.365 with five home runs.

The White Sox also said goodbye to left-hander Byron Andre Davis, who Fegan notes was part of the return they received from the Royals in a 2017 trade centering on outfielder Melky Cabrera. Davis, now 26, dealt with injuries over the past couple years and hasn’t pitched in the minors since 2017.

Did The Mets Rob The Astros?

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Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has come under fire at times since the team hired the former agent after the 2018 season, but BVW has nonetheless had his high points atop their front office. One of his best decisions in New York came in January 2019, when he acquired a player who’s now among the Mets’ most valuable hitters in a trade with the Astros.

Sixteen months ago, Van Wagenen and then-Astros GM Jeff Luhnow worked out a swap that sent infielder/outfielder J.D. Davis and INF Cody Bohanek to the Mets for the trio of second baseman Luis Santana, outfielder Ross Adolph and catcher Scott Manea. Nobody from that quintet looked like a high-end asset at the time, and Davis was the only member of the group with major league experience.

Davis, a third-round pick of the Astros in 2014, hit a miserable .194/.260/.321 in 181 plate appearances in their uniform from ’17-18. However, Davis did have his way with Triple-A pitchers, against whom he slashed .335/.400/.589 with 22 home runs in 450 trips to the plate.

Davis’ success at the highest level of the minors impressed the Mets, who now look as if they acquired a terrific hitter at a low price. Davis got his first extensive look in the majors last season, his age-26 campaign, and ran with it.

Across 453 PA, Davis batted a strong .307/.369/.527 (136 wRC+) with 22 home runs in his Mets debut. The righty swinger showed no vulnerability against either same-handed or southpaw pitchers in the process, and his Statcast numbers don’t suggest his success was fluky. On the contrary, Davis finished in the league’s 80th percentile or better in barrels, exit velocity, expected slugging percentage, hard-hit rate, expected weighted on-base average and expected batting average. His xwOBA (.383) outdid an already impressive real-life mark of .373 and ranked 21st in the league, placing him among a slew of big names.

As great as Davis’ offense was last season, defensive woes tamped down his value. He lined up at third and in left field, where he combined for minus-20 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-6.3 Ultimate Zone Rating. Still, thanks to his offensive breakout, the overall package was worth an above-average 2.4 fWAR. That’s especially good for someone who looked like a lottery ticket when the Mets got him, and for someone who made a minimum salary in 2019. Davis won’t be eligible to reach free agency until after 2024, which means he could be an important piece of New York’s offense for several more years (perhaps especially if the NL adds a DH).

Unlike Davis, Bohanek hasn’t shown a ton of potential so far, and the 24-year-old turned in fairly nondescript numbers at the High-A level last season. The Astros don’t seem as if they’ll miss him, but what about their return? Here’s how it has panned out through one season…

  • Luis Santana: The Mets’ 19th overall prospect at MLB.com when the trade occurred, Santana’s now the outlet’s 22nd-ranked Astros farmhand. The 20-year-old hit just two homers last season, batting .267/.339/.352 in 186 Low-A attempts and .228/.333/.263 in 66 PA at the Double-A level.
  • Ross Adolph: The 23-year-old outfielder combined for a .228/.357/.366 line with seven homers in 460 PA between Single-A and High-A ball last season. Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel recently wrote for FanGraphs that he could amount to a role player in MLB.
  • Scott Manea: The 24-year-old offered a .235/.347/.387 line with 12 HRs and 389 PA at the High-A level last season. He’s not regarded as a notable prospect.

This looks like anything but a can’t-miss package for the Astros, though it’s still way too early to throw dirt on the careers of anyone they picked up. The Mets, meanwhile, can’t be anything but thrilled with what they’ve gotten from Davis.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Will There Be A Major League Baseball Season?

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Go back to, say, Feb. 26, and a question like the one offered in this poll would have seemed unfathomable. Spring training was in full swing at that point, and there was no sign that a normal regular season wouldn’t happen. Now, because of multiple depressing realities, we’ll get a shortened Major League Baseball season at best or perhaps none at all.

If we rewind to March 13, MLB suspended operations as a result of the coronavirus. For the most part, expectations since then have been that the league’s return would depend on the health and safety of everyone involved, but now it could be money that plays a huge role in preventing a season from happening. The league and the union have recently been at loggerheads over revenues during a truncated season, and Tuesday didn’t deliver any breakthroughs suggesting they’re getting closer to a compromise.

MLB owners, who have not been open to an even split in revenues, presented a proposal calling for further reduction in pay for players. Those making the highest guaranteed salaries would lose the most money under the league’s plan, which has not gone over well with the other side. MLB’s offer left the union disappointed, and while there’s still time for the two to continue negotiations and ultimately reach a deal, it’s not a sure thing that the MLBPA will even want to pick up talks again after it feels it was slighted in this round of discussions.

Mets right-hander Marcus Stroman was among the league’s prominent players to publicly voice his distaste for the owners’ offer Tuesday. “This season is not looking promising,” he said in a tweet.

Do you share Stroman’s grim outlook? Or will both sides, knowing how much they have at stake, find common ground before it’s too late?

(Poll link for app users)

Will there be a Major League Baseball season?
No 58.07% (6,423 votes)
Yes 41.93% (4,637 votes)
Total Votes: 11,060

Blake Snell Hires Boras Corporation

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Rays left-hander Blake Snell has changed representation and is now a client of the Boras Corporation, Ken Rosenthal and Josh Tolentino of The Athletic report (subscription link). MLBTR has made note of Snell’s agency change in our database.

Snell’s switch to the game’s highest-profile agent comes long before he’ll be eligible to reach the open market. Coming off an AL Cy Young-winning season in 2018, he and his former agency, Apex Sports, scored a five-year, $50MM extension from the Rays in March 2019. That deal made for a record for players with fewer than three years’ service time in both length and total value. As a result of the pact, the 27-year-old Snell is slated to remain in Tampa Bay through the 2023 campaign.

As noted Monday here at MLBTR, Snell – the 52nd pick in the 2011 draft – has been quite effective for the Rays since he made his major league debut in 2016. However, aside from his 180 2/3-inning showing two years ago, he hasn’t eaten a great deal of frames in any season. Snell has averaged a bit over five innings per start in 97 outings, but the hard thrower has put up a sterling 3.24 ERA/3.42 FIP with 10.41 K/9 and 3.81 BB/9 along the way.

Quick Hits: Bowling Green, Maddon, Roberts, Gardner, Cards

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Current Diamondbacks special assistant, ex-major league right-hander and former MLBTR contributor Burke Badenhop is among those leading a spirited effort to save baseball at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. BGSU dropped its baseball program in a cost-cutting measure May 15, which sparked some of its ex-players – Badenhop and Indians Triple-A manager Andy Tracy, to name a couple – to begin raising funds to revive it, as Jack Carle of the Sentinel-Tribune and Jordan Strack of WTOL have covered. In the past few days alone, 120-plus people have contributed a total of $1.2MM over a five-year commitment, Badenhop informed MLBTR. The goal is to come up with at least $3.5MM, Strack reports. “There’s a lot of people that played Bowling Green baseball,” Badenhop told Strack. “While we’re not LSU, and we’re not a top program in the country, there’s a lot of people that have gone through and played at Stellar Field that Bowling Green baseball means a lot to them.” We at MLBTR wish Badenhop, Tracy & Co. the best in what’s certainly a worthwhile endeavor.

Now to check in on a few MLB teams…

  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people over the age of 65 and cancer survivors are among those who are at the highest risk of contracting the coronavirus. With that in mind, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times wonders if it will be safe for the Angels’ Joe Maddon (66) or the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts (Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor) to manage during a pandemic-shortened season. Maddon, who has lost 15 pounds via diet and exercise, explained to DiGiovanna he’s “on a mission” to get healthier. Roberts, meanwhile, received the go-ahead from one of the Dodgers’ team physicians, Dr. John Plosay, to continue in his current position. “I asked [the doctor] if I were to go back, does that put me in any different [risk] category, and he said absolutely not,” Roberts told DiGiovanna. “He didn’t really give me any details, and I didn’t really ask.”
  • Yankees mainstay Brett Gardner could become a free agent next winter, at which point he’ll be 37, so could this be the outfielder’s last season (if there is one)? Not likely, especially if the season’s canceled, George A. King III of the New York Post writes. For his part, Gardner doesn’t sound like someone who’s nearing the finish line. “In a perfect world for me, I stay healthy and have a good season, and they pick that option up and I come back and do it all over again,” Gardner said of his $10MM option for 2021 during spring training. New York can either exercise that option or buy Gardner out for $2.5MM, but the $10MM price tag doesn’t look unreasonable when considering what he brings to the table. The longest-tenured Yankee put up 3.6 fWAR last season and hit .251/.325/.503 (115 wRC+) with a personal-high 28 home runs in 550 plate appearances.
  • With catcher Yadier Molina potentially months from free agency, the Cardinals may soon have to find a long-term replacement for the franchise icon. That could one day be prospect Ivan Herrera, whom Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch profiles. Set to turn 20 on June 1, Herrera – the Cardinals’ fourth-ranked prospect at MLB.com – spent the majority of last season in High-A and batted .286/.361/.423 with eight home runs in 291 plate appearances. Although he’s not as advanced as a defender, there’s optimism he’ll keep improving that aspect of his game, as Goold writes. “We hear he has the aptitude to go along with the game plan behind the plate,” manager Mike Shildt told Goold.

How A Minor Signing Led To A Cy Young Winner

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Former major league outfielder Brad Hawpe was a more-than-respectable offensive player during his peak with the Rockies. While Hawpe had difficulty early on from his debut in 2004 through the next season, he combined to slash .288/.384/.518 (124 wRC+) with 99 home runs in 2,338 plate appearances from 2006-09. The last of those four years, an All-Star campaign for Hawpe, went down as his final truly effective effort as a hitter. After Hawpe got off a .255/.343/.432 start (94 wRC+) with only seven homers in 2010, the team released him late that August.

Hawpe, then 31 years old, drew a vast amount of interest when he reached free agency amid a pennant race. He ultimately signed a minor league contract with the Rays, who at the time were in a hotly contested fight for AL East supremacy with the Yankees and Red Sox. The Rays did end up with 96 victories and a division crown that season before falling in the ALDS, but their regular-season sucess wasn’t Hawpe’s doing. He debuted with Tampa Bay on Sept. 1 and went on to hit .179/.304/.333 with two homers in 39 at-bats in its uniform.

Hawpe didn’t participate in the Rays’ postseason series, and shortly after its conclusion, he rejected their arbitration offer in order to revisit the open market. Because he was a Type B free agent under MLB’s old system, the Rays were entitled to a compensatory draft pick for losing Hawpe. And they did watch him exit when he took San Diego’s $2MM guarantee in January 2011. Hawpe didn’t produce as a Padre or as a member of the Angels, with whom his career concluded in 2013, but the Rays have benefited immensely from his short-term run with them and stand to continue gaining from it over the long haul.

In essence, the Rays traded one month of Hawpe – who cost them very little money – for the 52nd selection in the draft. The Rays used that choice on a then-Washington state high school left-hander named Blake Snell. The year Tampa Bay drafted him, Baseball America wrote in his scouting report, “Because of his signability, his velocity and how well he has performed in front of crosscheckers, Snell could get popped as high as the supplemental first round, though on pure talent he would probably go a few rounds later.”

The gamble has worked out for the Rays, with whom Snell has been elite at times dating back to his first season in 2016. He spun 89 innings of 3.54 ERA ball then, and though Snell struggled enough the next season to earn a short-term demotion to the minors, he returned to MLB to finish with a decent 4.04 ERA in 129 1/3 frames. But it was 2018 when Snell truly took off; owing in part to a jump in velocity, he pitched to a 1.89 ERA with 11.01 K/9 and 3.19 BB/9 across 180 2/3 innings en route to AL Cy Young honors.

With injuries troubling him, Snell was unable to reign atop the AL again last year, when his ERA ballooned to 4.29 in 107 innings. However, that’s not to say he totally fell off the map. You’d be hard-pressed to find a team that wouldn’t sign up for the 3.32 FIP and 12.36 K/9 against 3.36 BB/9 he posted last season.

The Rays already extended Snell on a five-year, $50MM guarantee deal before the prior campaign, keeping a high-end starter under control through 2023. To think, it all started with the minor addition of Hawpe a decade ago. Not bad.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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