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MLBPA Rejects MLB’s 2020 Draft Proposal

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Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreed to the framework of a shortened 2020 amateur draft back in March. As of earlier this week, the event was reportedly set to take place June 10 and consist of five or 10 rounds. However, the union isn’t on board with how the league wants to handle the event.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the union turned down the league’s latest 10-round draft proposal. The MLBPA understandably wants as many rounds of the draft as possible to occur because it would benefit the players entering the pro ranks, so 10 instead of five would be a plus for the union. But as you’d expect, the two sides are at odds over money. The league’s plan is to keep slot values where they were last year in the first five rounds, but in six through 10, the values would be cut to 50 percent and there would be “a hard cap on the signing bonus at slot value,” Rosenthal and Drellich write. Moreover, the league would limit teams to signing five undrafted players for $20K apiece – the maximum they’ll be able to receive this year – but an unlimited amount at $5K or less.

While the union isn’t a fan of this proposal, the league could still go forward with what they agreed to a month ago. In the meantime, assuming the draft does still happen in June (it’s expected to, per Rosenthal and Drellich), both sides could continue to negotiate on changes. It would behoove the two to find as much common ground as possible and limit tension with serious talks on a new collective bargaining agreement not far away.

Teams Could Resume Spring Training At Their Home Ballparks

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It goes without saying that the 2020 Major League Baseball – if it happens – will be an unusual one. We’ve heard of plenty of out-of-the-box ways for teams to get back on the field if the coronavirus pandemic gets under control, one of the latest being cutting six divisions down to three. But before a potential regular season begins, the players will have to ramp back up with the resumption of spring training.

Players will need about three weeks to ramp back up in camp if spring training restarts. However, it might not take place at its typical sites in Florida and Arizona. Rather, each of the league’s 30 teams could play at their own stadiums, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. Four team executives informed Nightengale that the plan is under consideration.

One of the main benefits of this idea is that it would save teams money they’d be spending on hotels and per diem at their normal spring facilities. However, as Nightengale notes, a key downside is clubs would only have access to one field as opposed to the six available to them at their training grounds.

Whether this will come to fruition is anyone’s guess. While there has been recent optimism about a season getting underway, it’s going to be an enormous challenge for MLB to pull off, no matter how many different ideas it may have.

Latest On Potential Mets Sale

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Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon are considering selling the franchise, though they may not make out as well as they hope if a deal does come together. Rumored bidder Wayne Rothbaum does indeed have interest in taking the Mets off the Wilpons’ hands, but only at a reduced price, according to Thornton McEnery of the New York Post.

“I think he likes the idea of $1 billion,” a source told McEnery. “It’s a round number and the Wilpons are not holding any cards without SNY.”

That wouldn’t be an ideal outcome for the Wilpons, whose financial situation has taken a hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if half of a baseball season takes place this year, the Wilpons could lose up to $150MM, per McEnery.

Before the league shut down because of the coronavirus, the Wilpons nearly agreed to sell an 80 percent stake in the Mets to Steve Cohen for $2.6 billion, but those plans fell through. That transaction wouldn’t have included the SNY network, either. The Mets have recently been valued at $1.6 billion without SNY in the mix, writes McEnery, who hears that the idea of Cohen purchasing the team still isn’t off the table. A source told him “he’s the only one that makes sense” as a possible buyer.

Rothbaum, meanwhile, was part of the $1.2 billion bidding for the Marlins in 2017, but the team ended up going to a group headed by Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter. If Rothbaum does eventually land the Mets, it’s possible one of Jeter’s former teammates could be a member of his ownership group. There has been talk of Alex Rodriguez and fiancee Jennifer Lopez owning some portion of a Rothbaum-led Mets franchise.

J.D. Martinez, Alex Bregman … Jordan Luplow?

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Raise your hand if you know which three major league hitters had the most success against left-handed pitching last season. The first two names – Boston’s J.D. Martinez (242 wRC+) and Houston’s Alex Bregman (205) – don’t come as any kind of surprise. Everybody knows they’re elite offensive players. The same is not true of the third-place finisher, Indians outfielder Jordan Luplow, who put up a jaw-dropping 198 wRC+ and slashed .320/.439/.742 in 155 plate appearances versus southpaws. Nobody could have seen that coming when the Indians made a fairly under-the-radar trade for him before last year.

Heading into the 2018-19 offseason, Luplow was a Pirate who, in limited big league opportunities, didn’t produce much. At that point, the former third-round pick was the owner of a dismal .194/.274/.371 line (72 wRC+) in 190 trips to the plate. Unimpressed, Pittsburgh sent him to Cleveland in a deal that has gone the Indians’ way so far.

In exchange for Luplow and infielder Max Moroff, the Indians gave up infielder Erik Gonzalez and a couple minor league right-handers in Dante Mendoza and Tahnaj Thomas. Like Luplow, Gonzalez had been a replacement-level player and a non-threat at the plate in the majors when the trade occurred. Still, then-Pirates general manager Neal Huntington was happy to bring him aboard.

“Erik Gonzalez is an athletic middle infielder who plays solid defense and has the potential to be a productive hitter at the major league level,” said Huntington. “He gives us another quality option to play shortstop or in the middle of our infield this year and into the future.”

Gonzalez fell flat in Year 1 as a Pirate, though, as he batted an ugly .254/.301/.317 (59 wRC+) in 156 PA during an injury-shortened campaign. He’s 28 and controllable through 2022, so it’s too soon to throw dirt on Gonzalez’s career, but it’s not looking good so far. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Mendoza has struggled in the minors, where he logged a 5.82 ERA/6.06 FIP across 43 1/3 innings in rookie ball last season. If there’s a silver lining to this trade for the Pirates so far, it’s that they got a solid prospect in Thomas, 20. Formerly an infielder, Thomas ranks as FanGraphs’ No. 5 Pirates farmhand. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote of Thomas two months ago, “He may be the most anonymous 100 mph arm in baseball.”

Perhaps Thomas will one day go down as a player who got away for Cleveland. For now, the team’s benefiting from the deal at the MLB level, though it’s already out one-half of its return in Moroff. He was a non-factor in the bigs last year and is now a member of the Mets organization. And, of course, Luplow doesn’t come without question marks at the plate. The righty amassed 106 PA versus same-handed pitchers in 2019, hit just one of his 15 home runs off them and could only muster a .216/.274/.299 line with a wRC+ of 48. Those are in line with the numbers he posted against right-handers in previous seasons.

Despite his shortcomings, the inexpensive Luplow has already given the Indians a substantial amount of bang for their buck. As a 2.2-fWAR performed last year, FanGraphs valued his output at $17.6MM. At the very least, the Indians appear to have found a nice platoon hitter in Luplow — one who has experience at all three outfield positions. The fact that he’s still just 26 and controllable for five more years (including two pre-arbitration seasons) only adds to his appeal from the low-budget Indians’ perspective.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Replacing A Strikeout Machine

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The Diamondbacks and much-maligned former general manager Dave Stewart made a shrewd pickup six years ago when they acquired left-hander Robbie Ray from the Tigers in a three-team trade. Ray has been one of the most productive players on Arizona’s roster since then, but his time in the desert may be nearing an end. Regardless of whether a season takes place, the soon-to-be 29-year-old Ray may choose to test the free-agent market in the winter, when he’d rank near the top of the list of available starters.

[RELATED: Revisiting The Nats’ “Steal” Of A Deal]

The most appealing thing about Ray is that he fans hitters in droves, having struck out 11-plus batters per nine in four straight seasons. He ranked third in that category last year with 12.13 K/9, trailing only now-$324MM man Gerrit Cole and former teammate Max Scherzer. Problem is that Ray hasn’t kept runs off the board at elite rates like Cole and Scherzer have, nor has he been the innings-eating workhorse along their lines. Ray’s the owner of a lifetime 4.11 ERA/3.97 FIP and has never reached the 175-frame mark in a season.

Most recently, Ray pitched to a 4.34 ERA/4.29 FIP across 174 1/3 innings in 2019. That’s not ace-like production, but there’s nothing wrong with it at all, and the Diamondbacks might soon have to find a way to replace it. They’ve at least pondered it, as Ray has been the subject of countless trade rumors over the past couple seasons. No offer has gotten Arizona to bite thus far, though, and after a strong 85-win effort last year, the club doesn’t seem prepared to part with Ray in the near future. Rather, the Diamonbacks made a serious effort to improve their rotation in the offseason by signing ex-Giant Madison Bumgarner to a five-year, $85MM pact. The belief then was that there would be a season, and the hope was that Ray, Bumgarner, Luke Weaver, Zac Gallen and Mike Leake would form a tremendous starting five.

The potential is certainly there for the D-backs’ rotation to be a smash success in 2020. But it may well end up as Ray’s last season with the club. The same goes for Leake, who has an $18MM option or a $5MM buyout for 2021. A rotation devoid of Ray and Leake would still have a nice trio in Bumgarner, Weaver and Gallen, but what of the other two spots? Arizona just spent pretty big on Bumgarner, so maybe it would shop at the high end of the market again for someone like old friend Trevor Bauer, Jake Odorizzi, Marcus Stroman, Masahiro Tanaka, Mike Minor, James Paxton or Jose Quintana. Otherwise, at the mid- and lower-tier levels of free agency, there should be quite a few somewhat intriguing arms available. You also can’t discount the trade market, where Matthew Boyd, Jon Gray and Chris Archer are some of the hurlers who could soon be available.

As far as in-house options go, Arizona doesn’t appear to be loaded with immediate solutions. The Diamondbacks could keep Merrill Kelly for $4.25MM, but he may be a buyout candidate ($500K) after producing mediocre results in 2019. The team does have several other choices who have either pitched in the majors or are almost ready for MLB (Jon Duplantier, Taylor Clarke, Taylor Widener, J.B. Bukauskas and Corbin Martin are some examples), though nobody there has a proven track record of racking up outs at the game’s highest level.

If you’re the D-backs, one of the many reasons you’re hoping a season occurs is so what looks like a very good rotation can help you break a two-year playoff drought. But that rotation looks as if it will weaken soon, largely on account of Ray’s pending free agency.

A Battle Of NL East Superstars

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We’ve seen two of the brightest young offensive stars in baseball emerge in the National League East over the past couple years. The Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. and the Nationals’ Juan Soto have been enormously successful since they made their debuts in 2018, and the outfielders have played important roles in helping lead their clubs to prominence. The Braves have taken the division in each of Acuna’s two seasons, while Soto was among the reasons the Nationals won their first-ever World Series last fall. The two look as if they’ll be franchise cornerstones for the long haul, but if you can only have one, which player would you pick?

Going by production, there hasn’t been a huge difference in their careers so far. The 22-year-old Acuna’s a 9.3-fWAR player through his first 1,202 plate appearances and a .285/.365/.532 hitter with 67 home runs, 53 stolen bases and an excellent wRC+ of 133. The righty masher fell just shy of a 40/40 effort in 2019, when he smacked 41 dingers and swiped an NL-high 37 bags. Furthermore, Acuna has fared respectably as a defender thus far – including as the Braves’ primary center fielder last year – with 16 DRS and a minus-0.6 UZR to this point.

By measure of wRC+, Soto has been an even more effective hitter than Acuna. Soto, who only became old enough to legally drink as last year’s World Series was going on, owns a jaw-dropping 143 mark in that category. The lefty swinger’s a .287/.403/.535 batter with 56 homers and 8.5 fWAR through 1,153 PA, though he doesn’t come close to Acuna in terms of stolen bases (17). Acuna’s overall defensive output has also been better, but Soto did make strides in that area last season. After putting up minus-6 DRS and minus-4.2 UZR as a rookie in left field, he improved to zero and minus-0.7 in those categories as a sophomore.

The overall numbers Acuna and Soto have managed at such young ages have been astounding. But you can’t just consider production when comparing the two. One of the key facts about Acuna is that his team has already locked him up for the foreseeable future, as the Braves extended him to an eight-year, $100MM guarantee after his first season. With $17MM club options for 2027 and ’28, the deal could keep Acuna in place for almost the whole decade. That’s a lengthy commitment and a lot of money, but it has nonetheless always come off as a no-brainer move from Atlanta’s perspective.

The Nationals would surely love to sign Soto to a similar pact, but it’s hard to believe they’ll get him on such a team-friendly deal. At the very least, though, they do still have the right to control the Scott Boras client for the next half-decade, including one more pre-arbitration year if a season does take place in 2020.

The bottom line is that you can’t lose with either of these players, no doubt two of the greatest assets in the sport. But you’re only allowed to build around one of them, so take your pick…

(Poll link for app users)

Ronald Acuna Jr. Or Juan Soto?
Acuna 71.39% (3,923 votes)
Soto 28.61% (1,572 votes)
Total Votes: 5,495

When The Cardinals Almost Traded Away An Ace

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Right-hander Jack Flaherty has developed into an immensely valuable building block for the Cardinals since his first full season in 2018. He truly came into his own last year, a 196 1/3-inning showing in which he pitched to a 2.75 ERA/3.46 FIP with 10.59 K/9 and 2.52 BB/9. Flaherty was especially untouchable during the second half of the campaign, as he notched a stunning 0.91 ERA over 99 1/3 frames down the stretch to help the Cardinals to a National League Central title. The overall effort led to a fourth-place finish in the NL Cy Young balloting for the 24-year-old.

While Flaherty now looks like an irreplaceable member of the Cardinals’ roster, it wasn’t too long ago that they showed a willingness to part with him. Sure, the Cardinals invested quite a bit in him – they took Flaherty 34th overall in the 2014 draft – and he became a consensus top 100 prospect as a farmhand, but they considered moving him in an effort to bolster their offense.

When the Cardinals were trying to acquire outfielder Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins after the 2017 season, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that the Redbirds were open to dealing an “elite pitching prospect such as Sandy Alcantara or Jack Flaherty” to make the trade happen. A swap did not occur, though, as Stanton decided he would not waive his no-trade clause to go to St. Louis.

In hindsight, the Cardinals dodged a bullet. Stanton was coming off an NL MVP-winning season at the time, and though he’s still an effective player, injuries and a decline in performance have weighed him down the past two years in a Yankees uniform. And Stanton’s contract would have been a burden to the Cardinals, as he still had $295MM coming to him at the time and continues to be owed well over $200MM now.

The Cardinals couldn’t get the Stanton deal done, but their talks with the Marlins did lay the foundation for a notable trade between the teams. A few days after Stanton said no to St. Louis, it acquired fellow outfielder Marcell Ozuna from Miami. It was costly for the Cardinals, who gave up Alcantara and another young pitcher, Zac Gallen, as part of the package. Both of them have since turned into quality major league starters, so they’re missed in St. Louis. Ozuna’s no longer on the team, either, as he left for the Braves in free agency this past offseason after two solid years as a Cardinal. But at least he didn’t cost the team Flaherty, as Stanton might have.

Stanton wasn’t the only big bat whom the Cardinals considered trading Flaherty for heading into 2018. They also reportedly were willing to surrender him for then-Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, who was entering his final year of team control and was due $23MM. Thankfully for the Cardinals, the Jays declined their offer. That proved to be an enormous mistake by Toronto, which finished well below .500 in 2018 as Donaldson struggled through an injury-riddled year. The club did end up trading him to Cleveland that August, but it received a much lighter return in the form of righty Julian Merryweather, who’s now 28 and still hasn’t pitched in the majors.

There’s a saying that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make. That holds true for St. Louis in the two aforementioned cases. The organization was clearly fortunate to retain Flaherty, who has evolved into one of the most effective pitchers in baseball. And as someone who won’t reach arbitration until next winter, the Cardinals aren’t in danger of losing him soon, nor will he put a major dent in their payroll in the near future.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Jung Ho Kang

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Professional baseball may not have seen the last of Jung Ho Kang. The infielder has asked to be taken off the “voluntary retired” list for the Korea Baseball Organization, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News tweets. However, because Kang has been arrested for driving under the influence three times, it may be a while before he plays in the KBO. As Yoo notes, the KBO subjects players with three or more DUI arrests to at least a three-year suspension.

At this point, Kang may be waving the white flag on his major league career. Now 33 years old, Kang emigrated from Korea prior to the 2015 season, signing a four-year guarantee worth $11MM. The deal worked out OK for Pittsburgh on the field, as Kang batted a solidly above-average .254/.331/.466 with 46 home runs and accounted for 4.9 fWAR across 1,028 plate appearances over the course of four seasons. However, off-field issues were an unfortunate part of the package. Along with his problems with alcohol, Kang was accused of sexual assault in June 2016. He sat out the entire 2017 season after one of his DUI arrests in his homeland of South Korea.

Kang did return last season to log a decent sample of plate appearances (185), but he slumped to a .169/.222/.395 line. The Pirates then released him in the first week of August. The division-rival Brewers showed interest in Kang shortly after that, but it has been radio silence for the most part since the Bucs moved on from him.

Despite the good offensive numbers he has posted in the majors, it doesn’t seem likely that Kang will play in the league in the immediate future. Even a return to the field in the KBO could be out of the question if a three-year ban’s on the table. Kang was quite successful there earlier in his career, though, as he batted .298/.383/.504 in 3,560 PA.

MLBTR Poll: A 3-Division Plan

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Many ideas have been floated in regards to how a 2020 Major League Baseball season might work. We’ve seen two-, three-, five-, 10- and 12-state plans come to the fore. The possibility of every major league team playing in its home stadium without spectators has also been mentioned. The latest unconventional suggestion became public Tuesday, when Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported MLB could start sometime in late June or early July and scrap the traditional American and National Leagues for a season and shift to a three-division plan consisting of 10 teams apiece. Here’s how it would shake out…

East:

  • Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Nationals, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, Blue Jays, Rays, Marlins

West:

  • Dodgers, Angels, Giants, Athletics, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Rangers, Astros, Mariners

Central:

  • Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Cardinals, Royals, Reds, Indians, Twins, Braves, Tigers

The 10 teams in each division would only play one another during the regular season, so you wouldn’t see, say, the rival Mets and Braves match up. It’s a bizarre setup for those accustomed to a six-division league, but everybody’s health permitting, wouldn’t a weird baseball season be better than no baseball season at all? What do you think about this idea? (Poll link for app users)

Would you support 3-division realignment?
Yes 74.70% (6,392 votes)
No 25.30% (2,165 votes)
Total Votes: 8,557

Replacing An MVP-Contending Shortstop

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Because of the coronavirus, the Athletics are facing at least one very sad possibility: Shortstop Marcus Semien may never wear their uniform again. Whether or not any kind of season happens, Semien will be eligible to reach free agency next winter. He’ll be among the most coveted players available, and the low-budget Athletics have never been known for splurging on anyone. The largest guarantee they’ve ever given out still belongs to former third baseman Eric Chavez, whom they signed to a $66MM guarantee way back in 2004. And frankly, if any one player on the current A’s is going to exceed that amount sometime soon, third baseman Matt Chapman is probably a better candidate than Semien.

Now, saying Oakland will probably prioritize Chapman isn’t a knock on Semien. But Semien’s a couple years older – his 30th birthday is in September, while Chapman just turned 27 today – and the A’s have less time to lock him up with a potential trip to free agency looming.

Should Semien walk, he’d be an enormous loss for the club. Originally acquired from the White Sox in a 2014 trade, Semien has gradually evolved into an elite shortstop. He was a decent player for the A’s from 2015-18, a four-year, 2,311-plate appearance stretch in which he accumulated 9.1 fWAR, but was only a league-average hitter throughout.

Semien truly turned a corner last season during a near-American League Most Valuable Player effort. He slashed .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs and 10 stolen bases en route to 137 wRC+, the second-highest number among all full-time shortstops (only Boston’s Xander Bogaerts fared better). And while Semien’s work at short drew criticism in his younger days, 2019 represented his second straight resoundingly successful year as a defender. He put up 12 Defensive Runs Saved and managed a 6.7 Ultimate Zone Rating. The entire package was good for 7.6 fWAR, the fifth-highest amount in the majors and one that helped him to a third-place finish in AL MVP balloting behind Mike Trout and Alex Bregman.

It’s just about impossible to immediately replace what Semien brought to the table last season, but Oakland may soon have to make the attempt. The question is: How? As mentioned, the A’s aren’t big spenders. That said, it doesn’t seem crazy to think they could at least make an effort on Andrelton Simmons or Didi Gregorius, the next best free-agent shortstops in the upcoming winter’s class, if they only command short-term contracts. The rest of the market should be decidedly less inspiring at the position, but Oakland could plug in someone like Freddy Galvis or Jose Iglesias as affordable stopgaps capable of offering roughly league-average WAR totals.  As for trades, would the A’s dare be aggressive enough to push their chips to the table for someone like Francisco Lindor of the Indians or the Rockies’ Trevor Story, free agents-to-be after 2021 who would surely be rentals for them?

Alternatively, there’s the chance of adding a second baseman via trade or free agency and shifting an in-house player to short. The trouble is that the A’s, Semien aside, don’t have any proven shortstop options from within their ranks. Franklin Barreto was once a premium middle infield prospect, but he hasn’t panned out so far, and he didn’t play much short in the minors from 2017-19. Sheldon Neuse appeared in all of nine minor league games there last season. Jorge Mateo has quite a bit of minors experience in the spot, but he hasn’t inspired at the plate. Vimael Machin’s a Rule 5 pick, and seldom do they turn into valuable performers. Prospects like Nick Allen or Logan Davidson could eventually be the solution, though neither has even gotten to Double-A yet.

Every team is in a difficult position as a result of the pandemic, but Oakland ranks near the top. The Athletics are a back-to-back 97-win team who, as constructed, could compete for a World Series championship. Semien’s an important part of that, though, and nobody knows whether he’ll play for the club again. But regardless of whether a season happens, the A’s may be mere months away from facing the unenviable task of trying to replace a player who has become a star in their uniform.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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