Giants Sign Tyler Heineman
The Giants have signed catcher Tyler Heineman, he announced Monday on Twitter. It’s presumably a minor league contract for Heineman, who comes with little experience in the majors.
Now 28 years old, Heineman entered the pro ranks as an eighth-round pick of the Astros in 2012. The part-time magician has since been a part of the Brewers, Marlins and Diamondbacks organizations. Heineman owns a respectable .287/.353/.430 line in 1,004 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, where he has played almost all of the past few seasons and shown an ability to avoid strikeouts. And Heineman did debut in the majors last season with 12 plate trips to the plate in September as a member of the Marlins, but they outrighted him off their 40-man roster in the middle of October.
Heineman will now join a Giants roster whose starting catching job is taken by the venerable Buster Posey. They also have Aramis Garcia on their 40-man, while high-end prospect Joey Bart shouldn’t be too far off from the majors.
Angels Acquire Kyle Keller, Designate Jake Jewell
The Angels have acquired right-hander Kyle Keller from the Marlins for catcher Jose Estrada, according to announcements from both teams. The Angels designated righty Jake Jewell for assignment in a corresponding move.
Keller’s the only player in the two-man trade who comes with major league experience. An 18th-round pick of the Marlins in 2015, Keller debuted in the bigs last season with 10 2/3 innings of four-earned run ball, in which he struck out 11 and walked eight. The 26-year-old spent the majority of the season at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 4.50 ERA/4.19 FIP with a whopping 12.17 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 over 54 innings. Although Keller was at least a useful minor league arm for the Marlins, they designated him Dec. 20.
Jewell, also 26, now finds himself in DFA limbo after struggling in both the minors and majors last season. An Angel since they used a fifth-rounder on him in 2014, Jewell threw a career-high 26 1/3 frames in 2019. However, despite an eye-popping 63.8 percent groundball rate, Jewell only managed a 6.84 ERA/6.67 FIP with 7.86 K/9 against 2.73 BB/9.
In Estrada, the Marlins are getting a 19-year-old who’s coming off his first pro season. Estrada took 176 plate appearances at the rookie level last year and batted .247/.335/.305 without a home run.
MLBTR Poll: Luis Robert’s Rookie Season
The White Sox recently made their latest bold move in a winter full of them, signing center fielder Luis Robert to a six-year, $50MM extension last week. Although the 22-year-old Robert has never played above the Triple-A level, setting his price for the foreseeable future came off as a worthwhile risk by the White Sox. Those types of gambles have become a trend for the club, which took the same approach before last season in inking left fielder Eloy Jimenez to a six-year, $43MM guarantee. Because Chicago was no longer concerned about Jimenez’s service time after extending him, he predictably cracked its Opening-Day roster. As expected, Jimenez went on to further establish himself as an integral long-term building block for the White Sox.
The team no doubt expects Robert to follow Jimenez’s lead this year in cementing himself as a foundational piece. Odds are that Robert, like Jimenez last year, will get a chance to do so from Day 1 of the season. Assuming that’s the case, he’ll take over for the White Sox’s most common center fielders from 2019 – Leury Garcia and Adam Engel – as their primary option. Garcia and Engel combined for a a passable 2.1 fWAR last season, though they didn’t offer much at the plate, totaling an unimposing .269/.308/.379 batting line with 14 home runs and 18 stolen bases.
Considering Robert has no experience in the majors, there’s no guarantee he’ll outproduce Garcia and Engel in his first taste of the majors. On the other hand, as en elite prospect (MLB.com ranks him third in the game) who has run roughshod over high-minors pitching, Robert’s a legitimate candidate to begin his career with a flourish. Robert hadn’t played above High-A ball until last season, when he destroyed Double-A (.314/.362/.518 in 244 plate appearances) en route to a promotion to Triple-A Charlotte. There was no shortage of offense in the International League, but the .297/.341/.634 slash Robert registered in 223 attempts was still 36 percent better than the league’s average hitter, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
It’s too much to ask for Robert to hit that well in the majors this season, of course. Nevertheless, projections on his rookie season are bullish. For instance, Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS system calls for 2.3 fWAR, a .265/.309/.455 line, 20 homers and 24 steals over 539 plate appearances. That would go down as a similar first full season to the one Nationals budding star center fielder Victor Robles recorded in 2019, an age-22, 617-PA campaign in which he posted 2.5 fWAR, slashed .255/.326/.419, swatted 17 HRs and stole 28 bases.
For the purpose of this poll, we’ll set the WAR over/under at ZiPS’ forecast, 2.3. Do you expect Robert to meet, exceed or fall short of that figure in 2020?
(Poll link for app users)
Over/Under: 2.3 WAR For Robert In 2020
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Over 57% (6,072)
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Under 26% (2,797)
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Push 17% (1,874)
Total votes: 10,743
Quick Hits: Cubs, Bryant, Tigers, Puig, Mets, Dellin
A service-time grievance and trade rumors have been dominant topics this offseason centering on Cubs superstar Kris Bryant. But Bryant, who will turn 28 on Saturday, would still prefer to spend his entire career with the Cubs, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score hears. That depends in part on whether the club would be willing to give the third baseman “fair value” in an extension, though. To this point, there hasn’t been any word about serious extension talks between the two sides. As of now, after his grievance hearing in October, the main question is whether Bryant has one or two years of team control left. The decision figures to have a significant impact on his future.
More from around the game…
- If free-agent outfielder Yasiel Puig ends up scoring a multiyear contract, which is far from a sure thing, it’s “unlikely” the Tigers will be the team that gives it to him, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com writes. That said, credible outfield possibilities in free agency are decreasing, and the Tigers look to be in desperate need of help there. Their projected 2020 trio of JaCoby Jones, Christin Stewart and Harold Castro combined for minus-1.7 fWAR in 2019.
- The Mets opened up a windfall of cash when they agreed to an amended contract with injury-laden outfielder Yoenis Cespedes two weeks ago. A few days later, the team reached a guaranteed $10.5MM deal with reliever Dellin Betances. However, according to general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, there’s no connection between the two transactions. “The specifics of Cespedes’ resolution didn’t necessarily drive this decision. It was more the desire to get this player,” said Van Wagenen, per Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Van Wagenen added that the Mets’ pursuit of Betances began at the general managers’ meetings in November, long before they changed Cespedes’ contract.
- It seems interest in outfielder Kim Jae-Hwan has been hard to come by since he was posted Dec. 5, but the free agent has every intention of riding out the process, his agent, Kim Pyung-ki, told Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Kim only has until Sunday to find a contract; otherwise, he’ll return to his Korea Baseball Organization club, the Doosan Bears, and won’t be eligible for another posting until November. So far this offseason, only the Marlins have been connected to Kim, but “they seemed lukewarm in their response after watching footage of Kim in action,” Yoo writes. And Miami has signed fellow outfielder Corey Dickerson, perhaps taking it out of the Kim sweepstakes entirely.
Oscar Colas To Seek MLB Deal
Cuban two-way prospect Oscar Colas has defected in hopes of landing a major league contract, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets. Francys Romero of Las Mayores first reported on Colas’ defection.
The 21-year-old Colas is an outfielder/pitcher who most recently played with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan, where he slashed .300/.353/.511 with 12 home runs in 295 plate appearances in 2019. As a left-handed pitcher, Colas is capable of hitting 95 mph, according to Passan.
It remains to be seen whether Colas will emerge as a two-way threat in the majors a la Shohei Ohtani, but nevertheless, it’s likely he’ll get “significant interest” from major league teams, per Passan. Colas could wait until at least July to sign with a big league club, however, as there appears to be less money available to him now that the current international signing period – which began July 2 – is almost a half-year old.
MLBTR Poll: The Starter Of The Decade
In case you missed it, I named my all-decade lineup for 2010-19 earlier this week. Pitchers were omitted from that piece, but now we’ll dedicate this post to the most successful hurlers from 2010-19, and I’ll leave it up to you select the best one from the previous decade. Realistically, there are only a few pitchers capable of emerging victorious in this poll, but it’s still worthwhile to run down the top 10 from several important categories (minimum 1,000 innings). Playoff performance isn’t listed, but if that factors heavily into your judgment of pitchers, it could affect your choice. Special thanks to FanGraphs for the below data…
ERA:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 2.31
- 2. Jacob deGrom: 2.62
- 3. Johnny Cueto/Chris Sale: 3.06
- 4. Justin Verlander: 3.10
- 5. Max Scherzer: 3.12
- 6. Madison Bumgarner: 3.14
- 7. Corey Kluber: 3.15
- 8. Stephen Strasburg: 3.17
- 9. Zack Greinke: 3.18
- 10. Gerrit Cole: 3.22
FIP:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 2.64
- 2. Jacob deGrom: 2.78
- 3. Chris Sale: 2.90
- 4. Stephen Strasburg: 2.98
- 5. Corey Kluber: 2.99
- 6. Gerrit Cole/Max Scherzer: 3.06
- 7. Zack Greinke/Justin Verlander: 3.26
- 8. David Price: 3.28
- 9. Adam Wainwright: 3.31
- 10. Madison Bumgarner: 3.32
fWAR:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 59.1
- 2. Max Scherzer: 55.0
- 3. Justin Verlander: 53.8
- 4. Chris Sale: 42.8
- 5. Zack Greinke: 41.6
- 6. David Price: 39.9
- 7. Cole Hamels: 36.8
- 8. Stephen Strasburg: 36.7
- 9. Jon Lester: 35.3
- 10. Felix Hernandez: 34.5
RA-9 WAR:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 66.4
- 2. Justin Verlander: 58.9
- 3. Max Scherzer: 56.4
- 4. Cole Hamels: 45.8
- 5. Zack Greinke: 45.6
- 6. Chris Sale: 42.2
- 7. David Price: 41.7
- 8. Jon Lester: 38.6
- 9. Johnny Cueto: 36.1
- 10. Felix Hernandez: 35.0
Strikeouts per nine:
- 1. Yu Darvish/Chris Sale: 11.12
- 2. Max Scherzer: 10.69
- 3. Stephen Strasburg: 10.6
- 4. Jacob deGrom: 10.25
- 5. Gerrit Cole: 10.06
- 6. Chris Archer: 9.84
- 7. Clayton Kershaw: 9.83
- 8. Corey Kluber: 9.8
- 9. Trevor Bauer: 9.51
- 10. Carlos Carrasco/Justin Verlander: 9.5
Walks per nine:
- 1. Bartolo Colon: 1.55
- 2. Dan Haren: 1.74
- 3. Masahiro Tanaka: 1.79
- 4. Jordan Zimmermann: 1.87
- 5. Phil Hughes/Mark Buehrle: 1.94
- 6. Corey Kluber: 1.95
- 7. Clayton Kershaw: 1.96
- 8. Mike Leake/Chris Sale: 1.97
- 9. Hiroki Kuroda: 2.0
- 10. Zack Greinke: 2.01
Cy Young Awards:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw/Max Scherzer: 3
- 2. Jacob deGrom/Justin Verlander/Corey Kluber: 2
- 3. Jake Arrieta/R.A. Dickey/Roy Halladay/Felix Hernandez/Dallas Keuchel/Rick Porcello/David Price/Blake Snell: 1
Innings:
- 1. Justin Verlander: 2,142
- 2. Max Scherzer: 2,063 2/3
- 3. Clayton Kershaw: 1,995
- 4. Zack Greinke: 1,984
- 5. Jon Lester: 1,979 2/3
- 6. Cole Hamels: 1,955
- 7. David Price: 1,877 2/3
- 8. Rick Porcello: 1,860 1/3
- 9. James Shields: 1,840
- 10. Madison Bumgarner: 1,836
Wins:
- 1. Max Scherzer: 161
- 2. Justin Verlander: 160
- 3. Clayton Kershaw: 156
- 4. Zack Greinke: 155
- 5. Jon Lester: 148
- 6. David Price: 139
- 7. Rick Porcello: 135
- 8. Gio Gonzalez: 122
- 9. Madison Bumgarner: 119
- 10. Adam Wainwright: 116
(Poll link for app users)
Who was the starter of the decade?
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Clayton Kershaw 64% (10,333)
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Max Scherzer 20% (3,181)
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Justin Verlander 12% (1,898)
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Other (specify in comments) 5% (768)
Total votes: 16,180
Top 10 Remaining Free Agents
Free agency has moved much quicker this winter compared to the previous couple offseasons. MLBTR ranked the top 50 players on the market at the beginning of November, and the majority of them have already found new deals. Two more familiar names came off the board Thursday with reliever Will Harris agreeing to join the Nationals and catcher Jason Castro heading to the Angels. There are still some stragglers from our top 50, though, so with January underway, let’s use that list to check in on the 10 highest-ranked players available…
5. Josh Donaldson, 3B (original prediction: three years, $75MM)
- Donaldson’s the lone free agent left with an elite track record. Even at 34 years old, he could command a four-year contract approaching $100MM. The Braves (his previous team), Nationals, Twins, Dodgers, Phillies and Rangers are among the teams that have shown interest in Donaldson this winter. Donaldson’s choice figures to affect the trade market, as the clubs that lose out on him could become more motivated to pursue the Cubs’ Kris Bryant or the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado.
8. Nicholas Castellanos, OF (original prediction: four years, $58MM)
- The Cubs would still like to re-sign Castellanos, but their aversion to the luxury tax could prevent that from happening. The crosstown rival White Sox, not to mention the Rangers and Giants, have also shown recent interest in the big-hitting 27-year-old.
11. Marcell Ozuna, OF (original prediction: three years, $45MM)
- Ozuna’s saddled by a qualifying offer, but that hasn’t stopped interest from pouring in. The 29-year-old’s most recent team, the Cardinals, as well as the Reds and Rangers are reportedly the leading candidates to sign him.
28. Daniel Hudson, RP (original prediction: two years, $12MM)
- Harris could replace Hudson in Washington, but the latter has replaced the former as the No. 1-ranked reliever without a deal. Hudson was one of the many heroes for the Nationals during their World Series-winning campaign in 2019, and multiple teams have reportedly been willing to offer him multiyear deals as a result. The hard-throwing 32-year-old hasn’t found one to his liking, though.
33. Robinson Chirinos, C (original prediction: two years, $10MM)
- Chirinos’ stay in free agency may be on the verge of ending, as he seems to be nearing a decision on where to sign. The 35-year-old has been a popular free agent this offseason, and that’s understandable when considering how effective he has been at the plate throughout his career.
35. Craig Stammen, RP (original prediction: two years, $10MM)
- While there was lots of interest in Stammen during last month’s Winter Meetings, it’s been radio silence in terms of rumors since then. But the 35-year-old brings an enticing mix of effectiveness and durability to the table. Dating back to 2017, Stammen has averaged 80 innings per season, put up a 50.6 percent groundball rate and recorded a 3.06 ERA/3.57 FIP. Stammen also walked fewer than 1.7 batters per nine a season ago and saw his average fastball velocity rise to a career-high 92.8 mph, though it’s worth noting his swinging-strike rate plummeted about 5 percent from 2018 to ’19.
36. Steve Cishek, RP (original prediction: two years, $10MM)
- Cishek reportedly hopes to sign with the Red Sox, but it’s up in the air whether they’re willing to meet the Massachusetts native’s asking price. Whether it’s Boston or someone else, the team that lands Cishek will be adding a hurler who has somewhat quietly enjoyed an excellent career. The soft-tossing, sidearming Cishek, 33, has registered a sub-3.00 ERA in seven of his nine full seasons, including last year with the Cubs. Although Cishek’s strikeout and walk rates in 2019 didn’t impress (8.02 K/9, 4.08 BB/9), he induced grounders at a 50 percent clip and thrived at limiting hard contact, ranking in Statcast’s 99th percentile in average exit velocity against and hard-hit rate.
37. Yasiel Puig, OF (original prediction: one year, $8MM)
- Puig’s still just 29 years old and has starred in the past, but he’s having a hard time on the market after a down season divided between Cincinnati and Cleveland. Those teams haven’t shown any reported interest in bringing Puig back, and the clubs that have been connected to him (the Marlins and White Sox) have gone in other directions to address their needs.
39. Alex Wood, LHP (original prediction: one year, $8MM)
- Another Red from 2019, Wood’s the sole starter on this list. Although the 28-year-old had a quality run between the Braves and Dodgers from 2013-18, he hit the market at an inopportune time. Back problems largely kept Wood off the mound last season, and during the 35 2/3 innings he did pitch, he slumped to a 5.80 ERA/6.38 FIP.
41. Brock Holt, UTIL (original prediction: two years, $8MM)
- Reported interest in Holt has been scarce, even though he’s coming off a nice run in Boston. While the 31-year-old possesses very little power, he has proved capable of mixing roughly league-average offensive production with defensive versatility. Holt saw action at six different positions (mostly second base) last season.
AL Notes: Yanks, Happ, Astros, Harris, White Sox, Robert
Here’s an early morning look around the American League…
- Even after losing right-hander Domingo German to an 81-game suspension for a violation of the league’s domestic violence policy, the Yankees “remain open to trading” lefty J.A. Happ, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes. The Yankees were of the belief German would serve a significant suspension all along, so the league’s decision hasn’t affected their plans regarding Happ. The big question continues to be whether they’ll be able to find a taker for Happ, who’s 37 years old, coming off a poor season and due $17MM in 2020. Happ also has a $17MM option for 2021 that will vest if he amasses 165 innings or totals 27 starts this year. He posted back-to-back 30-start seasons from 2018-19.
- The Nationals reeled in the top reliever left in free agency on Thursday, agreeing to a three-year, $24MM contract with righty Will Harris. The 35-year-old entered free agency off a long and fruitful run in Houston, but Harris explained to Mark Berman of Fox 26 that the Astros “were eliminated pretty early on in the process” because they weren’t prepared to approach his asking price. “They weren’t in that ballpark, no. They had kind of admitted to me they would’ve liked to have done more, but they weren’t able to.” Harris is now the latest key Astro to leave last season’s AL pennant-winning club, joining Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley. Robinson Chirinos could be the next to go.
- In another of Thursday’s major news items, the White Sox locked up center field prospect Luis Robert to a six-year, $50MM guarantee. The two sides began negotiations back in September, and those talks gained steam at last month’s Winter Meetings, according to general manager Rick Hahn (via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). Now that Robert’s long-term future is settled, there’s no reason for the White Sox to worry about his service time, so it appears likely he’ll crack their roster out of camp. Robert’s fully confident that will happen. “I’m 100 percent convinced I’m going to be on the Opening Day roster,” the 22-year-old said.
Latest On Josh Donaldson
The Braves could lose third baseman Josh Donaldson in free agency, but they’re not going down without a fight. They’ve made the longtime star a four-year offer, David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets. They join the Twins and Nationals as teams known to have made recent four-year proposals for Donaldson. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com said Thursday that all three teams seem willing to go to the four-year, $100MM range. The Dodgers and the Rangers can’t be counted out of the race, either, per Feinsand.
This has become an especially fascinating trip through free agency for Donaldson, who MLBTR predicted would sign a three-year, $75MM contract when the proceedings began. However, with fellow third baseman Anthony Rendon and a slew of other standout performers already off the market, the 34-year-old Donaldson is now easily the game’s premier player without a contract. And he partly controls the third base market, as teams that lose out on the Donaldson sweepstakes might pivot to a trade for the Cubs’ Kris Bryant or the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado with no other studs left in free agency.
In the Braves’ case, they could have the prospect capital to trade for Bryant or Arenado, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll go that route. The seven-year, $234MM Arenado’s still owed could prove too rich for their blood. Donaldson shouldn’t cost anywhere near that much in cash, nor would the Braves have to cough up young players for him, and they already know he can thrive in their uniform. The one-time MVP was an integral member of a 2019 Atlanta roster that took home its second consecutive NL East title.
Domingo German Suspended 81 Games
1:45pm: The league has issued German an 81-game suspension, Hannah Keyser of Yahoo Sports reports. The suspension’s retroactive to last September, meaning German will sit the first 63 games of 2020. He will not appeal the ban, Lindsey Adler of The Athletic tweets.
1:15pm: Yankees right-hander Domingo German‘s future has hung in limbo since Major League Baseball placed him on administrative leave Sept. 19 for a violation of its domestic violence policy. Now, almost four months later, a resolution is seemingly on the way. The league’s decision isn’t far off, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who reports German is facing a “significant suspension” that should last longer than a month.
The 27-year-old German was amid a solid season in 2019 before his off-field actions brought an end to it shortly before the playoffs. As part of a Yankees rotation that faced plenty of questions throughout the season, German was a stabilizing presence, as he posted a 4.03 ERA/4.72 FIP with 9.63 K/9 and 2.45 BB/9 across 143 innings.
Looking ahead to next season, it’s unclear which role German will fill should he return to the Yankees. They’ve added Gerrit Cole in free agency, and he’ll front a rotation that also counts Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka as locks. There appears to be room for German to vie for the No. 5 spot if New York welcomes him back, but J.A. Happ (if he’s not traded) and Jordan Montgomery (who missed almost all of 2019 while recovering from Tommy John surgery) look like the top options for that role right now.