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Matt Kemp Hopes To Play At Least Four More Years

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He’s not the superstar he was in his heyday with the Dodgers, but Marlins outfielder Matt Kemp still believes he has plenty left to offer at the major league level. Kemp “wants to play at least four or five more years,” Steven Wine of the Associated Press writes.

“I’m for real. I can still do some damage out there,” Kemp said. “This is a redemption year. I had 40 at-bats last year, but I was an All-Star in 2018. Seriously, I can still play.”

Spending roughly another half-decade in the majors looks like quite a long shot for Kemp, who turned 35 last September. The former MVP candidate couldn’t even get a big league deal during the offseason, forcing him to settle for a minors pact with Miami in December. He’s now competing for a backup role in a corner outfield that also includes Corey Dickerson and Matt Joyce – two players who received guaranteed contracts over the winter – as well as Garrett Cooper.

Although Kemp’s defense has long been maligned, he has nonetheless spent his entire career in the DH-less National League, and he’ll try to return to the NL in 2020. As Kemp noted, he’s only two years removed from producing solid numbers in a Dodgers uniform. That year, Kemp batted .290/.338/.481 with 21 home runs in 506 trips to the plate en route to his third All-Star appearance.

While 2018 represented a nice bounce-back season, last year couldn’t have gone any worse for Kemp, whom the Reds acquired from the Dodgers during the previous winter. Thanks in part to a broken rib, he totaled only 62 plate appearances in Cincinnati and hit .200/.210/.283 with one HR before the club released him in early May. Kemp caught on with the Mets on a minors pact a few weeks later, though his rib issues continued, and he slashed miserable .235/.278/.324 in 36 tries at the Triple-A level. The Mets released Kemp in the first half of July, but he’s clearly of the belief that his career is far from over.

6 Potential Trade Targets For Yankees’ Rotation

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The Yankees’ rotation took a beating Tuesday with the loss of ace-caliber right-hander Luis Severino, who will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire season. This will essentially end up as the second straight lost year for Severino, who starred from 2017-18 before tossing just 12 innings last season on account of shoulder and lat injuries. The Yankees did just fine in Severino’s absence in 2019, winning 103 games and the AL East title, but the latest development on the 26-year-old is no doubt horrible news for the club. That’s especially true when considering the Yankees will open 2020 without left-hander James Paxton, either their third- or fourth-best starter, as he’ll be out until sometime in May or June after undergoing a back procedure three weeks ago.

In an ideal world, the Yankees would have began the year with Severino, Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ complementing Gerrit Cole. But they’re now left to choose from some combination of Jordan Montgomery, Jonathan Loaisiga, Deivi Garcia, Luis Cessa, Mike King, Chad Bettis and Nick Tropeano to fill out their rotation. That’s obviously assuming the Yankees stay in-house to address their issues. Free agency’s just about empty at this point, as general manager Brian Cashman suggested Tuesday when he said, “The winter marketplace this time of year, it doesn’t exist.” Finding a solution via trade at this juncture doesn’t seem much more likely, considering Cashman indicated he expects to rely on internal options to replace Severino and Paxton, but the Yankees are better off trying that route if they want to make a high-upside play before the season.

Admittedly, most (or all) of the below names probably aren’t available at the moment. Nevertheless, let’s explore some enticing starters the Yankees could potentially acquire in the coming weeks or at least consider taking a look at around the July trade deadline…

  • Jon Gray, RHP, Rockies: Colorado’s of the belief (delusion?) that it’s going to push for a playoff spot this season, making it unlikely Gray will go anywhere before then. But if the team flounders over the first few months of the campaign, he’s a candidate to end up on his way out. The 28-year-old has plenty of value as someone with two seasons of control left, not to mention an ultra-affordable $5.6MM salary in 2020. Gray averaged 96 mph on his fastball last year and notched a 3.84 ERA/4.06 FIP with 9.0 K/9, 3.36 BB/9 and a 50.4 percent groundball rate over 150 innings.
  • Chris Archer, RHP, Pirates: Pittsburgh probably won’t win anything this year or next (Archer’s last two seasons of control), so it would make sense to listen to offers. However, the team may prefer to keep the 31-year-old for now in hopes that he rebuilds his value after a nightmarish season and a half in its uniform. Archer turned in an awful 5.19 ERA/5.02 FIP with a career-worst 4.14 BB/9 in 119 2/3 innings last year. On the bright side, he fanned almost 11 hitters per nine, continued to average around 94 mph on his fastball and was much more effective in the second half of the season. And for what it’s worth, Archer has shown he can flourish in the Yankees’ division, the AL East, where he pitched from 2012-18 with the Rays.
  • Matthew Boyd, LHP, Tigers: Boyd has been a popular name in the rumor mill for quite some time, but the Tigers haven’t traded him because they’ve apparently placed an exorbitant asking price on the southpaw. That’s understandable with Boyd under control through 2022 and due a reasonable $5.3MM this season. At the same time, they seemingly haven’t worked to extend Boyd, so perhaps a trade will come together sometime this year. All that said, preventing runs has never been Boyd’s strongest suit. He posted a sterling 11.56 K/9 with a 2.43 BB/9 a season ago, but he still ran up a 4.56 ERA/4.32 FIP and continued a trend of logging low groundball percentages (35.6).
  • Caleb Smith, LHP, Marlins: Smith was already a Yankee once, but they traded him to the Marlins in a 2017 deal that netted them the aforementioned King. Although Smith was unproven at the time, he has turned into a decent piece for Miami. Dating back to 2018, Smith has pitched to a 4.41 ERA/4.73 FIP with 9.99 K/9, 3.63 BB/9 and an unsightly 26 percent grounder rate. Those certainly aren’t great numbers, though the fact that he has four years of control (including one more pre-arbitration season) helps make him pretty valuable. While the Marlins are still a ways from competing for a playoff spot, they’ve not shown a willingness to trade the 28-year-old Smith thus far.
  • Yu Darvish, RHP, Cubs: The Cubs were supposed to shake things up this offseason, partly in an effort to cut payroll, but they haven’t made any substantial trades yet. Getting rid of the four years and $81MM left on Darvish’s contract would help them duck the dreaded luxury tax, and there has been some interest around the league in the 33-year-old since last season ended. The Yankees were rumored to be among the teams in on Darvish when he was a free agent after 2017, but that doesn’t mean they’d want him now. Moreover, Darvish has a full no-trade clause that he doesn’t intend to waive. That NTC will become a 12-teamer sometime during the year, though, so he won’t have total say on his future for much longer.
  • Jose Quintana, LHP, Cubs: As with Darvish, moving Quintana would aid the Cubs in avoiding the tax, though it would also weaken their chances of competing in 2020. Quintana’s due $10.5MM this season, his last year of team control. The Yankees are familiar with Quintana, who belongs in the team’s “ones who got away” pile. He pitched in the Yankees’ minor league system several years back before blossoming into a quality starter with both Chicago teams.

Royals lefty Danny Duffy and Giants righties Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto are among other veterans who may be attainable via trade, but there’s a good case the Yankees would be better off relying on internal arms than pushing for either. Even most of the other names listed come with obvious flaws, so it would be reasonable if Cashman would rather see what he has in the organization for now before doing anything drastic in an effort to make up for the losses of Severino and Paxton. Remember, along with Paxton, the Yankees should get suspended righty Domingo German by the summertime, leaving them with a couple in-house reinforcements. But if the Yankees’ starting staff falls short leading up the deadline, it figures to be a key area of focus for the Cashman-led World Series hopefuls, and any of the above names may wind up on their radar.

Julio Teheran Dealing With Hamstring Tightness

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FEBRUARY 26: Teheran indicated he doesn’t see much cause for concern; in fact, he’s hoping to be ready to get back on the mound by Sunday or Monday, Fletcher tweets.

FEBRUARY 25: Angels right-hander Julio Teheran won’t make his scheduled start Wednesday because of left hamstring tightness, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was among those to report. Fortunately for the Angels and Teheran, an MRI came back negative.

Teheran appears to be OK, but this is still a situation worth monitoring for an Angels club that has dealt with an abundance of adversity in its rotation over the past couple years. Injuries have been a major problem of late for the club, evidenced in part by the fact that no Angel even threw 100 innings last season. Conversely, a lack of durability hasn’t been a problem for Teheran, whom the Angels signed to a one-year, $9MM contract in free agency.

The 29-year-old Teheran was a member of the Braves from 2011-19, a span in which he amassed 170-plus innings in seven seasons. Teheran didn’t turn into the front-line type of starter the Braves thought they had toward the beginning of his career, but he has nonetheless managed decent overall numbers. Most recently, he piled up 174 2/3 frames of 3.81 ERA/4.66 FIP ball with 8.35 K/9 and 4.28 BB/9 last year. The FIP doesn’t look appealing, but that particular statistic has never been bullish on Teheran, who has consistently found a way to outdo it in the ERA department. Teheran’s the owner of a lifetime 3.67 ERA – a number the Angels would surely sign up for in 2020. He’ll first have to get over this injury, though.

Pitcher Notes: Twins, Wacha, Mariners, A’s

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Veteran right-hander Jhoulys Chacin had to settle for a minor league contract with the Twins at the outset of the month, but he may be impressing the club enough to end up on its season-opening roster. Manager Rocco Baldelli said (via the Star Tribune) that Chacin has “done everything he can to this point to put himself in position to eventually win a spot.” As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored earlier this week, the 32-year-old Chacin is one of a few candidates in the running. Lefty Lewis Thorpe is also in the mix, but he tweeted Tuesday: “I’ve left camp for a week or 2 for personal matters. I’m healthy and excited for this year. I’ll be back shortly.” Baldelli wasn’t willing to divulge why Thorpe’s taking a leave of absence. However, he noted that the Twins do believe Thorpe will return “at some point during camp, [but I] can’t tell you when that’s going to be” (via Dawn Klemish of MLB.com).

  • The Mets reportedly aren’t sure how the No. 5 spot in their rotation will look this year, but righty Michael Wacha made a strong case for the job Tuesday, as Mike Puma of the New York Post writes. Wacha’s fastball ranged from 94 to 96 mph during his outing. “They told me I am a starter, so that is what I am here for,” Wacha said. The former Cardinal, 28, has worked almost exclusively as a starter to this point, but he did yo-yo between St. Louis’ rotation and bullpen during a rough 2019 campaign. The Mets then added Wacha for a $3MM guarantee in free agency, and he’s now competing against lefty Steven Matz for the last place in their starting staff.
  • Mariners righty Kendall Graveman has made good progress in his recovery from July 2018 Tommy John surgery, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times details. Graveman was with Oakland when he underwent the procedure, but he hooked on with the Cubs as a free agent for 2019 and didn’t end up pitching for the club. Now healthy, the 29-year-old Graveman – whom the Mariners signed for $2MM in November – figures to begin 2020 in the M’s rotation. It has been quite some time since Graveman turned in a full, effective season; at his best, he totaled 186 innings of 4.11 ERA/4.39 FIP ball with a 5.23 K/9, 2.27 BB/9 and a 52.1 percent groundball rate in 2016.
  • Athletics righty Daulton Jefferies is dealing with a biceps strain and will undergo an MRI later this week, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. However, manager Bob Melvin suggested it’s not an especially serious injury. The 24-year-old Jefferies, who originally joined the Athletics as the 37th overall pick in 2016,  was a standout in Double-A ball last season. In his first experience at the level, he posted a 3.66 ERA/3.19 FIP with 10.13 K/9 and 0.98 BB/9 in 64 innings.

Angels’ Brandon Marsh Could Miss Spring

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Angels outfield prospect Brandon Marsh is battling a left elbow strain that could keep him out all spring and possibly into the season, according to manager Joe Maddon (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). Marsh suffered the injury while trying to make a diving catch last Sunday, but the good news is that it’s to his non-throwing elbow.

Even if healthy, Marsh wouldn’t have been in position to make the Angels’ Opening Day roster, but this is still a disappointing development for him and the team. The 22-year-old has emerged as one of baseball’s top farmhands since the Angels selected him in the second round of the 2016 draft. MLB.com ranks Marsh as the 79th-best prospect in the sport and notes that he has an opportunity to debut in the majors sometime during the upcoming season.

So far, Marsh hasn’t even made it to the Triple-A level, and this injury will only make it more difficult for him to get to the majors in the near term. Marsh, though, was impressive last year in his first taste of Double-A ball, where he batted .300/.383/.428 with seven home runs and 18 stolen bases in 412 plate appearances. It remains to be seen when or if he’ll emerge as a major league option for the Angels, however, considering the team’s loaded outfield picture. The Angels have the best player in baseball, center fielder Mike Trout, another proven veteran in left fielder Justin Upton and an elite prospect who’s nearing the majors in Jo Adell as the most prominent outfielders in the organization.

Camp Battles: Giants’ Second Base Candidates

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Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi hasn’t been all that aggressive since he grabbed the team’s reins in November 2018. Zaidi has instead taken a more reserved approach with his rebuilding club, seldom making a notable splash via free agency or on the trade market. That said, second base has been an area of consistent change since the Zaidi era began, and the Giants have a quite a few choices for the position as the new season draws closer.

The Giants tried several different options at the keystone last year, but they had a hard time finding a solution at the spot. Joe Panik garnered more starts at second than any other Giant, though he had such a poor season that the club released him during the first week of August. Trade deadline acquisition Scooter Gennett lasted less than a month in San Francisco after bombing in its uniform. Similarly, fellow veteran Yangervis Solarte – who began the season on the Giants’ roster – wasn’t long for their roster.

On the other hand, the Giants did receive decent numbers from Mauricio Dubon, whom they picked up from the Brewers in another deadline deal, as well as Donovan Solano. It was rather surprising that Solano logged a .330/.360/.456 line with 1.3 fWAR in 228 plate appearances, as he hadn’t been especially productive with the Marlins and Yankees from 2012-16, didn’t appear in the majors from 2017-18 and joined the Giants on a minor league deal. The 32-year-old’s a candidate to see time at second yet again this season, but at least some skepticism is warranted in regards to his 2019 output. It was buoyed by an impossible-to-sustain .409 batting average on balls in play, after all, and Solano’s BB/K ratio (0.20) was only about halfway to the league average (0.37).

Dubon had similar struggles in the BB/K department (0.25), but it was just his first season in the bigs. The 25-year-old hit .274/.306/.434 in 111 PA between Milwaukee and San Francisco. He has also been a nicely regarded prospect for a while, so it stands to reason the Giants are hopeful he’ll emerge as a useful piece somewhere on their roster. That could mean making him their everyday second baseman or a utility player who moves all over the diamond.

Aside from the holdovers, the Giants have a few new faces vying for reps at second. That includes Wilmer Flores, whom they signed to a two-year, $6MM guarantee a couple weeks back. The former Met and Diamondback is another jack-of-all-trades type, having lined up at various infield positions since his career began in 2013. Offensively, the righty-swinging Flores is known for holding his own against lefties, but he hasn’t been a slouch versus same-handed hurlers. In fact, Flores has shown himself to be a viable option against all pitchers; between that and the value of his contract, he’ll get a lot of playing time for the Giants, though that doesn’t mean he’ll be their main pick at second.

Flores wasn’t San Francisco’s only second base-capable pickup in the offseason. The team claimed Kean Wong, brother of the Cardinals’ Kolten Wong, in November, and signed ex-White Sox second baseman Yolmer Sanchez to a minor league contract a month ago.

Wong’s still just 24 and coming off a couple of respectable Triple-A seasons, but he has almost no major league track record to speak of, and with three options remaining, the Giants could send him down without consequence. They don’t have the same luxury with Sanchez, a rare reigning Gold Glove winner who had to settle for a non-roster invitation in the ensuing offseason. Problem is that the switch-hitting 27-year-old hasn’t enjoyed much success at the plate, where he owns a .244/.299/.357 in 2,438 career attempts. As a result, he’s facing an uphill climb to open 2020 in the majors.

Sanchez’s goal is to win a second straight Gold Glove, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote Tuesday, but he’ll have to make the team first. As someone who’s not on the Giants’ 40-man roster, he’ll have his work cut out for him over the next few weeks.

MLBTR Poll: The Severino-Less Yankees

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Remember when the Yankees were supposed to have one of the most dominant rotations in baseball? That didn’t last long. A couple months ago, they were set to boast a starting five of newly signed $324MM man Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ. The shine has come off to a significant extent since the team won the Cole derby in December, however.

Severino – who, like Cole, is among the game’s premier starters – won’t pitch at all in 2020 in the wake of Tuesday’s news that he’ll need Tommy John surgery. Even before then, the Yankees were already reeling from the fact that the oft-injured Paxton will miss a significant portion of the season as a result of back surgery. The diagnoses Severino and Paxton received this month make it all the more fortunate for the Yankees that they added a legitimate ace in Cole, but their rotation (which doesn’t have clear answers in the No. 4 and 5 spots) looks decidedly worse than it did just a couple weeks ago.

At this point, it may be too late for the Yankees to find impact replacements for Severino and/or Paxton in free agency or via the trade market. But to the Yankees’ credit, they’ve shown an ability to overcome injuries and even thrive in the recent past. They seemed to lose one key player after another because of health woes last season (Severino, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Dellin Betances, to name just a few), yet they still found a way to win 103 games, earn their first American League East title since 2012 and get to the last round of the AL playoffs. And the team always has the financial advantage over just about everyone else in the game, meaning it should be able to bolster its roster by way of an in-season trade(s) if needed.

For now, with the Yankees’ rotation looking so much less imposing than it did a little while ago, their best chance may be to win games by beating the opposition into submission with their offense. The club’s hope is that Judge and Stanton will actually stay healthy; DJ LeMahieu, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Luke Voit and Brett Gardner will continue as quality complements; Miguel Andujar will bounce back from an injury-ruined season; and the likes of Gio Urshela, Mike Tauchman and Mike Ford won’t end up as one-hit wonders. A lot has to go right there, but if the Yankees’ offense does produce enough to give the team leads late in games, it’s in better shape than most with Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, Chad Green and Tommy Kahnle comprising the majority of its bullpen.

As horribly as 2020 has already gone for the Yankees, they still look like the favorites in their division. The Rays are outstanding, but the PECOTA projections “only” peg them for 87 wins (12 fewer than the Yankees, though that was before they lost Severino). The Red Sox are quite talented, too, but they don’t look nearly as tough as they did before they traded their previous franchise player – right fielder Mookie Betts – as well as lefty David Price to the Dodgers a couple weeks. The Blue Jays have definitely taken steps forward since last season ended, but they don’t appear to be in the Yankees’ class right now, and the Orioles are, well, bad. So, even despite the hardships the Yankees are facing as they head into a new season, they still have the makings of a playoff team. However, with no Severino at all and a limited amount of Paxton innings, just how formidable do you think they’ll be?

(Poll link for app users)

How many Yankees wins do you expect?
91-95 33.41% (3,844 votes)
96-100 32.86% (3,781 votes)
101 or more 16.45% (1,892 votes)
86-90 12.22% (1,406 votes)
85 or fewer 5.06% (582 votes)
Total Votes: 11,505

Camp Battles: Padres’ Second Base Options

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Minor league signings aren’t often that compelling, but the Padres did make an intriguing pickup on a non-guaranteed deal this past weekend. The club added to a crowded picture at second base by inking former star Brian Dozier to a low-risk pact. It was somewhat of a surprise outcome in free agency for Dozier, as even though he’s not the huge-hitting, base-stealing standout he was in his Twins heyday, he was still fairly productive in 2019.

As a member of last year’s World Series-winning Nationals, Dozier batted .238/.340/.430 with 20 home runs in 482 plate appearances. Those numbers essentially made the 32-year-old Dozier a league-average hitter (99 wRC+) and overall producer (1.7 fWAR). So, from the Padres’ perspective, there’s little to no harm in giving Dozier a shot on a deal that’ll only amount to $2.2MM if he makes their roster.

Second base was something of a sore spot in 2019 for San Diego, which received almost nothing from the now-retired Ian Kinsler and saw once-touted prospect Luis Urias struggle. Consequently, the Padres have reshuffled at the position since last season ended.

Well before the Dozier signing, the Padres traded Urias to the Brewers in a swap that sent outfielder Trent Grisham and righty Zach Davies to San Diego. A few days after that, the Padres replaced Urias in a different trade, acquiring Jurickson Profar from the Athletics for young catcher Austin Allen. Profar’s due to earn $5.7MM this season in his last year of arbitration control, but that’s not a guaranteed sum until the season begins. It’s unlikely to happen, but the Padres will be able to move on from Profar this spring if he flounders in their second base competition. Notably, the switch-hitting Profar, 27, hasn’t performed all that well since he debuted with the Rangers as an elite prospect in 2012. His difficulties continued last season in his lone year in Oakland, as he hit .218/.301/.410 with 20 homers and 1.3 fWAR in 518 PA.

Dozier was more productive than Profar in 2019, and so was fellow Padre Greg Garcia. He batted .248/.364/.354 en route to 1.4 fWAR over 372 trips to the plate. However, the lefty-hitting 30-year-old wasn’t an option against same-handed pitchers. Conversely, Profar owned lefties while faring poorly versus righties. As Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune notes, the plan had been for Profar and Garcia to platoon at second. That could still end up happening, but the addition of the right-handed Dozier – who has historically smacked lefties around – could throw a wrench into a Profar-Garcia tandem. Garcia doesn’t have a minor league option remaining, though, meaning he could wind up with another organization if he doesn’t make the Padres’ season-opening roster.

Dozier, Profar and Garcia are the main combatants in San Diego’s second base competition, though the team does have a few other possibilities in the mix. The versatile Ty France totaled 17 major league appearances at the keystone last season. His production wasn’t great in the bigs, whereas he utterly pulverized Triple-A pitching, hitting a video game-like .399/.477/.770 with 27 home runs (196 wRC+) in 348 plate appearances. He’s on the Padres’ 40-man roster, as is Breyvic Valera, whom they claimed on waivers a couple weeks ago. Valera has put up nice numbers in the minors, but the 28-year-old switch hitter has fallen flat in multiple MLB stops. Unlike France, Valera’s out of options, so he could head back to the waiver wire if he doesn’t hold his own in camp.

That group aside, the Padres also have other second base-capable players around (Gordon Beckham, Esteban Quiroz, Ivan Castillo and Hudson Potts, to name a few), but they’re all in camp as non-roster invitees. Odds are that they’re not realistically going to push for the second base job. On the other hand, even though Dozier’s a fellow NRI, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the accomplished veteran open the year in San Diego. In the meantime, the club’s in for an interesting keystone competition over the next month.

MLBTR Poll: How Good Are The Athletics?

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The Athletics will enter the new season fresh off back-to-back 97-win performances, and considering the chaos atop their division, they’ll be a popular choice to win the American League West. The Astros have taken it three years in a row – all seasons with 100-plus victories – but there’s serious skepticism that they’ll reign again in 2020. They’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a sign-stealing scandal that cost them their previous leadership and has dominated baseball headlines over the past several weeks. Oh, and they lost all-world right-hander Gerrit Cole to the Yankees in free agency.

Even with the mess it has created for itself, Houston remains an immensely talented team. But it may have a real challenger in Oakland, which overcame a slew of notable injuries in each of the previous two seasons on the way to playoff berths. The Athletics, like the Astros, haven’t been all that aggressive in upgrading their roster since last season concluded, so the A’s will go into the campaign with a roster that’s similar to the prior version.

The A’s position player group continues to brig an amazing left side of the infield (third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Marcus Semien), a high-quality first baseman (Matt Olson), a pair of underrated outfielders (Ramon Laureano and Mark Canha) and a couple bounce-back candidates (designated hitter Khris Davis and outfielder Stephen Piscotty) to the table. Likewise, Oakland’s pitching staff is rife with potential. Injuries and suspensions ravaged the unit last year, yet A’s hurlers still found a way to record the majors’ sixth-best ERA and eighth-highest fWAR. They’re now slated to get full seasons from left-hander Sean Manaea (injuries held him to five starts in 2019), breakout righty Frankie Montas (a PED ban limited him to 16 starts) and perhaps Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk. Two of the most talented young pitchers in the game, Luzardo and Puk missed almost all of last year as a result of injuries.

The A’s rotation, which also includes the durable and effective Mike Fiers, will hand off to a bullpen that was tough on the oppostion in 2019. That was thanks largely to Liam Hendriks, who – much like former Athletic Blake Treinen before him – emerged as a dominant closer for the club. Whether he can keep it up remains to be seen, though, as Hendriks is just two seasons removed from being outrighted off the A’s 40-man.

Although there’s plenty of talent up and down Oakland’s roster, the team could face a stiffer test in its division this year. The Astros are arguably in position to decline somewhat, but the Angels and Rangers worked hard over the winter to better their chances of competing for the crown this year. And for what it’s worth, the recently released PECOTA projections call for the A’s to take a considerable step back, predicting 85 wins and a third-place finish in the AL West. That’s a solid amount of victories, but it’s obviously not what A’s have in mind for 2020 after two consecutive stellar seasons. The question is: Do you expect them to remain among the AL’s elite for a third year in a row?

(Poll link for app users)

How many wins do you expect for the Athletics?
91-95 35.11% (4,000 votes)
86-90 27.87% (3,175 votes)
96-100 18.43% (2,100 votes)
81-85 10.57% (1,204 votes)
More than 100 5.68% (647 votes)
Fewer than 80 2.33% (266 votes)
Total Votes: 11,392

7 AL West Hitters Looking For Bounce-Back Years

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As the season draws closer, we’ll be examining several prominent players around the majors who are hoping for bounce-back years. Let’s start with a group of well-known American League West position players whose numbers dipped dramatically in 2019…

Justin Upton, LF, Angels: The 32-year-old Upton has been terrific for the majority of his career (otherwise, the Angels wouldn’t have given him a five-year, $106MM guarantee after 2017), but last season was a nightmare. A foot injury kept Upton out until June, and his season ended prematurely in September on account of a right knee issue. When Upton was healthy enough to take the field, he batted a disappointing .215/.309/.416 with 12 home runs and a career-worst 30.5 percent strikeout rate (5 percent worse than his lifetime mark). Compared to 2018, his fly ball percentage and launch angle went way up, but his average exit velocity dropped almost 4 mph, and his hard-hit rate plummeted. The banged-up Upton was even worse in left field, where he accounted for minus-13 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-5.2 Ultimate Zone Rating. Upton recently told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he’s healthy and aiming for a rebound. The Angels will likely need one from him if they’re going to break a five-year playoff drought; if they get one, Upton should form a lethal offensive quartet with Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and Shohei Ohtani.

Andrelton Simmons, SS, Angels: Like his teammate Upton, Simmons missed a significant number of games last year because of injury issues. Ankle troubles limited Simmons to 103 games, his fewest since 2012, and his effectiveness at the plate waned compared to the prior couple years. While Simmons has never been an offensive force, the defensive maven’s slightly above-average work with the bat from 2017-18 helped him combine for 10.4 fWAR in that span. Simmons only put up a .264/.309/.364 line in 424 PA last year, though he did continue to avoid strikeouts (8.7 percent), and his wizardry in the field helped him to a respectable 1.7 fWAR. However, he still finished near the bottom of the majors in several key offensive Statcast categories. For instance, Simmons’ xwOBA (.265) ranked in the bottom 2 percent of the league and fell 59 points from 2018. The ankle may have been holding Simmons back, but regardless, a return to form in 2020 would aid the Angels and the pending free agent’s bank account.

Khris Davis, DH, Athletics: Yet another injury case from 2019, Davis’ normally elite power was sapped during a season in which he fought hip, oblique and hand problems. After three straight 40-home run seasons (and four in a row in which he hit .247), he finished with a .220/.293/.387 line and 23 HRs over 533 PA. His ISO sunk like a stone, going from .302 in 2018 to .166 last year, and his hard contact went way down in the process. The 32-year-old has already been slowed by a calf injury early in camp, but indications are that it’s minor. Oakland will need that to be the case, especially considering the commitment the low-budget club made to Davis before last season. It still owes him $16.75MM on a two-year, $33.5MM contract that hasn’t worked out for the team so far.

Stephen Piscotty, RF, Athletics: The missed time theme continues. Piscotty’s 2019 ailments ranged from frightening (a melanoma on his right ear) to more conventional (knee and ankle injuries). The 29-year-old made just 93 appearances as a result, and he didn’t produce like the big-hitting, 3.0-fWAR player he was in 2018 when he did play. Piscotty hit .249/.309/.412 with 13 homers and 0.6 fWAR in 393 PA, though his hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity both increased. There may be hope for return to his career-best output, then, but Piscotty will first have to get over yet another health issue. He’s dealing with an oblique/rib cage injury that could jeopardize his status for Opening Day.

Mitch Haniger, RF, Mariners: Haniger was quietly great in 2018, but his playing time and his numbers sagged last season. He sat out 99 games after suffering a ruptured testicle at the beginning of June, didn’t play again after that and still hasn’t returned to health. Haniger just underwent his second surgery in the past few weeks – a microdiscectomy on his back – leaving it up in the air when he’ll debut in 2020. The 29-year-old is the Mariners’ best player, though, and if they can get a healthy version back sometime in 2020, he’s as logical a bounce-back candidate as anyone.

Mallex Smith, OF, Mariners: Smith looked like a quality pickup for the Mariners when they acquired him from the Rays after the 2018 campaign. At that point, the speedster was coming off a 3.5-fWAR, 40-steal showing in Tampa Bay. Smith amassed even more stolen bases in is first year in Seattle (46), but the rest of his stats tanked. The 26-year-old hit a weak .227/.300/.335 in 566 trips to the plate, while his defensive output was similarly poor (minus-12 DRS, minus-9.5 UZR).  The combination of subpar offense and defense led to a replacement-level fWAR for Smith, who also fell victim to a massive decline in batting average on balls in play. He logged an inflated .366 BABIP in ’18 and a .302 mark in that category last season, which partially explains the drastic difference in year-to-year production.

Rougned Odor, 2B, Rangers: If you’re a Rangers fan (or even part of the organization), you may be tired of Odor’s inconsistency. He has been a 2.0-plus-fWAR player three times in his career, most recently in 2018, but a replacement-level or worse performer twice. That includes last season – even though Odor walloped 30 homers, he was only able to slash .205/.283/.439 in 581 tries. Along the way, the left-handed Odor posted his worst strikeout percentage (30.6) and was eaten alive by righty pitchers, who held him to a dismal .190/.260/.417 line. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Odor was much better in the second half of the season, ending the year with a flourish after general manager Jon Daniels expressed frustration with his production in late August. The Rangers still owe Odor $36MM through 2022, making it all the more important for the club to receive at least passable production from him.

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