Coaching Notes: Giants, Rangers, Pirates
Here’s the latest coaching news from around the majors…
- The Giants have hired Antoan Richardson to coach first base, base runners and outfielders, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Richardson previously worked as the Giants’ minor league outfield coordinator in 2019, and he’ll take over for Jose Alguacil in his new position. Now 36 years old, Richardson was a 35th-round pick of the Giants in 2005, though he never took a major league at-bat with the team. Richardson ultimately collected 21 MLB plate appearances as a Brave and Yankee in parts of two seasons, and he may be best known for scoring the winning run in Derek Jeter’s last AB at Yankee Stadium back in 2014.
- The Rangers are set to hire Doug Mathis as their bullpen coach, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. He’ll take over for Oscar Marin, who served in the role last season and recently earned a promotion to become Pittsburgh’s pitching coach. The 36-year-old Mathis will now return to the Texas organization, which used a 13th-round pick on him in the 2005 draft. He wound up spending parts of three seasons (2008-10) in the majors, all with the Rangers, and concluded his professional pitching career in 2014. More recently, Mathis worked as Toronto’s Triple-A pitching coach in 2019.
- Glenn Sherlock has joined the Pirates’ coaching staff, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets. He’ll assist with Pittsburgh’s catchers and the club’s run prevention efforts. Sherlock, 59, divided the previous three seasons as the Mets’ first and third base coaches. He spent 19 years as a coach with the Diamondbacks prior to that. Before his coaching career began, Sherlock was a catcher in the minors from 1983-89.
MLBTR Chat Transcript: 12/23/19
Click here to read a transcript of tonight’s live chat with Connor Byrne of MLBTR.
Free-Agent LHP Rich Hill Arrested
Free-agent left-hander Rich Hill was arrested Saturday in Foxborough, Mass., after his wife, Caitlin Hill, “repeatedly” tried to enter an NFL game between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills with an oversized bag, John R. Ellement of the Boston Globe reports. Although police ordered the Hills to leave the grounds, they refused to so.
Caitlin Hill was booked on disorderly conduct and trespassing, but Rich Hill allegedly attempted to stop the authorities from taking her away in a police transport vehicle. As a result, he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. However, the Hills’ charges have since been reduced to civil infractions. Rich Hill was fined $500 for a single count of disorderly conduct.
Hill then issued a statement, saying: “Despite Saturday’s events, my great respect for law enforcement remains unchanged. However, seeing my wife cuffed for a problem that started because of her fanny pack was extremely difficult to witness. This was all overblown and am glad to have it behind us.’’
It’s unlikely this arrest will have a serious effect on the market for Hill, who’s one of the most accomplished hurlers left in a consistently dwindling class of free-agent starters. If anything, the fact that Hill’s soon to turn 40, coming off primary revision surgery and won’t be ready to pitch again until the summer seem far more likely to weigh on teams’ minds if they consider signing him.
To Hill’s credit, although injuries have been a consistent problem since he unexpectedly revived his career with the Red Sox in 2015, he has pitched quite well when healthy. As a member of the Dodgers last season, Hill turned in a 2.45 ERA/4.10 FIP with 11.05 K/9, 2.76 BB/9 and a 49.6 percent groundball rate, though he did so over a mere 13 starts and 58 2/3 innings.
Indians Outright Mike Freeman
Dec. 23: Freeman accepted his assignment and will be a non-roster invitee to Major League Spring Training in 2020, the Indians announced Monday morning.
Dec. 20: The Indians have outrighted utility player Mike Freeman to Triple-A Columbus, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reports. The club previously designated Freeman for assignment last weekend when it traded right-hander Corey Kluber to Texas for reliever Emmanuel Clase and outfielder Delino DeShields.
Because the 32-year-old Freeman has been outrighted in the past, he has the right to reject the Indians’ assignment to Columbus in favor of free agency. They’ll know his fate by Sunday, Hoynes notes.
Although the Indians booted Freeman from their 40-man roster, he’s actually coming off a respectable season. Freeman amassed a personal-high 213 plate appearances in 2019 and slashed a playable .277/.362/.390 (good for a nearly league-average 99 wRC+), though he did benefit from an unsustainable .388 batting average on balls in play. Defensively, Freeman saw action at three infield positions – second, third and short – as well as left field. Freeman even pitched two innings for the team.
Considering his decent 2019 showing, it’s possible Freeman will return to the open market a little over a year after the Indians signed him to a minor league contract. Before joining the Cleveland organization, Freeman received big league at-bats with the Diamondbacks (who chose him in the 11th round of the 2010 draft), Mariners, Cubs and Dodgers. He’s a lifetime .232/.316/.332 hitter across 304 PA in the majors and a .305/.372/.418 batter in 2,030 attempts in Triple-A ball.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/21/19
A couple minor moves from around the sport…
- The Twins have signed infielder Wilfredo Tovar to a minor league contract, per an announcement from Nate Rowan, the director of communications for their Triple-A team in Rochester. The Minnesota organization’s already familiar to Tovar, who spent 2016 in Rochester, though he didn’t play a game for the Twins that year. Tovar has also garnered minor league experience with the Mets, Cardinals and Angels. The 28-year-old has picked up 110 plate appearances in the majors (including 88 with the Angels last season), but he owns an unimposing .188/.241/.238 line without a home run in the bigs. While Tovar has also put up below-average offensive marks in the minors, he is known as a quality defender.
- The Mets outrighted hurler Stephen Nogosek to Triple-A Syracuse after he cleared waivers, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. The club designated him for assignment earlier this week. The right-handed Nogosek, who will turn 25 next month, joined the Mets as part of the package they received from the Red Sox for reliever Addison Reed in 2017. Nogosek reached the Triple-A and major league levels for the first time in 2019. Although he logged encouraging results in Syracuse, evidenced by a 1.15 ERA with 8.62 K/9 over 31 1/3 innings, he walked almost four batters per nine and was the beneficiary of a 2.6 home run-to-fly-ball rate that looks out of whack in light of his 37.5 groundball mark. Nogosek wasn’t nearly as successful in a 6 2/3-inning cup of coffee as a member of the Mets, with whom he yielded eight earned runs.
NL Notes: Donaldson, Braves, Cubs, Bryant, Pirates, Reds
Third baseman Josh Donaldson, the No. 1 free agent left on the board, continues to contemplate his future. The Nationals, Twins, Dodgers and Braves (with whom he thrived in 2019) look like the front-runners for his services. All things being equal, though, it appears Donaldson would prefer to stay in Atlanta. The “belief” is Donaldson’s camp has promised the Braves he’ll let them make a final offer before he signs anywhere else, David O’Brien of The Athletic reports (subscription link). The problem, as O’Brien notes, is that the Braves may not want to give Donaldson, 34, four guaranteed years. Meanwhile, Washington and Minnesota are reportedly open to doing so.
More from the National League…
- The Cubs’ Kris Bryant could be a trade target for Atlanta if it doesn’t re-sign Donaldson, though it’s still unclear how much more team control the former has left. Bryant filed a grievance over service time against the Cubs, whose decision to delay the now-star’s promotion in 2015 earned them an extra year of control. That grievance was heard back in October, and briefs were due Friday, but arbitrator Mark Irvings’ ruling won’t arrive until sometime after Jan. 1, Evan Drellich of The Athletic tweets. For now, Bryant’s under control for two more years, but that figure will drop to one if he unexpectedly wins his grievance. The 27-year-old has been featured in trade rumors, but at least until the league knows how much more control Bryant has, it’s highly unlikely he’ll go anywhere.
- Rookie Pirates manager Derek Shelton has chosen Tarrik Brock as his first base coach, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This will be the second go-around as a major league 1B coach for Brock, who worked in that role for the Padres in 2016. He went on to serve as the Dodgers’ minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator from 2017-19. Now 45, Brock’s a former outfielder who saw brief MLB action in 2000 with the Cubs.
- The Reds hired Joe Mather as assistant hitting coach earlier this week, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. The 37-year-old Mather – who, like Brock, is an ex-outfielder – spent last season as the Diamondbacks’ minor league field and hitting coordinator. He’ll now work alongside new Reds hitting coach Alan Zinter.
MLBTR Poll: Time For Indians To Trade Lindor, Clevinger?
This has already been a winter of major change for the Indians. A couple months removed from their first non-playoff season since 2015, the Indians traded two-time American League Cy Young-winning right-hander Corey Kluber to the Rangers last weekend for reliever Emmanuel Clase and outfielder Delino DeShields. Cleveland did pick up at least one intriguing piece in the 21-year-old, heat-throwing Clase, though it was also a cost-cutting move for the small-market club to get all of Kluber’s $17.5MM guarantee for 2020 off the books.
To the Indians’ credit, they did win 93 games in 2019 with little to no help from Kluber, who slumped through an uncharacteristically poor month before succumbing to a season-ending broken forearm May 1. So, maybe getting rid of Kluber in favor of a Shane Bieber–Mike Clevinger–Carlos Carrasco–Aaron Civale–Zach Plesac rotation won’t have a deleterious effect their fortunes. Maybe they remain well-equipped to compete next year in the AL Central, which has multiple bottom-feeding teams and has seen its reigning champion (Minnesota) make no clear improvements since the offseason got underway. Or maybe the Kluber trade was the first monumental deal the Indians will make in an effort to cut money and look toward the future.
For Cleveland, there’s no bigger decision than whether to trade four-time All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor, who has popped up in many rumors over the past few months. Lindor’s one of the finest players in the game – no doubt the Indians’ best – but it seems inevitable they’ll trade him in the next couple years. A free agent a pair of offseasons from now, Lindor’s projected to earn $16.7MM in arbitration for 2020. That’s unquestionably a reasonable sum for what he brings to the table and an amount all teams (including the Indians) should be able to afford, but perhaps they’ll sell Lindor off now before his control continues to dwindle. It’s at least under consideration, as they’ve reportedly asked interested teams (the Dodgers, Padres and Reds are among them) for their best and last offers heading into the weekend.
Other than Lindor, the Indians have at least one other extremely valuable trade chip in Clevinger. Set to turn 29 on Saturday, the righty has been one of baseball’s most effective starters since his 2017 breakout. Clevinger still has three years of control left (and should make less than $5MM next season), so he looks like someone the Indians should keep if the goal is to push for a World Series in the near term. However, there’s said to be plenty of trade interest in Clevinger, meaning it’s possible we’ve seen the last of him in an Indians uniform if another team bowls them over with a proposal that’s too enticing to decline. The Indians, for their part, have understandably placed a “crazy high” asking price on Clevinger, per reporter Robert Murray.
While we don’t know exactly what teams have offered (or will offer) for Lindor and Clevinger, it’s fair to say both players are capable of bringing back a haul in a trade. Therefore, it’s reasonable to wonder what the Indians should do with the two of them going forward. Should they retain one or both and try to return to the playoffs next season, or is it time for the franchise to sell high?
(Poll link for app users)
What should the Indians do with Lindor, Clevinger?
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Trade both 34% (4,716)
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Keep both (at least for now) 33% (4,620)
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Trade Lindor 29% (4,064)
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Trade Clevinger 3% (393)
Total votes: 13,793
Checking In On MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent Predictions
At the beginning of each offseason, MLBTR publishes a list of the top 50 free agents on the board by projected earning power. It has only been a month and a half since this winter’s top 50 hit the site, but little did we know then that this offseason would move at such a rapid pace. We’ve already seen more than half of the members of this year’s list (27 players), including four of the top five, either sign new contracts or accept qualifying offers. With that said, let’s check in on how MLBTR has fared with its predictions thus far…
1. Gerrit Cole, SP – Predicted: Eight years, $256MM. Signed: Nine years, $324MM.
2. Anthony Rendon, 3B – Predicted: Seven years, $235MM. Signed: Seven years, $245MM.
3. Stephen Strasburg, SP – Predicted: Six years, $180MM. Signed: Seven years, $245MM.
4. Zack Wheeler, SP – Predicted: Five years, $100MM. Signed: Five years, $118MM.
6. Madison Bumgarner, SP – Predicted: Four years, $72MM. Signed: Five years, $85MM.
7. Yasmani Grandal, C – Predicted: Four years, $68MM. Signed: Four years, $73MM.
10. Jake Odorizzi, SP – Predicted: Three years, $51MM. Accepted $17.8MM qualifying offer.
12. Didi Gregorius, SS – Predicted: Three years, $42MM. Signed: One year, $14MM.
13. Will Smith, RP – Predicted: Three years, $42MM. Signed: Three years, $40MM.
15. Cole Hamels, SP – Predicted: Two years, $30MM. Signed: One year, $18MM.
16. Jose Abreu, 1B/DH – Predicted: Two years, $28MM. Accepted $17.8MM qualifying offer and then signed for three years, $50MM.
17. Michael Pineda, SP – Predicted: Two years, $22MM. Signed: Two years, $20MM.
18. Mike Moustakas, INF – Predicted: Two years, $20MM. Signed: Four years, $64MM.
19. Kyle Gibson, SP – Predicted: Two years, $18MM. Signed: Three years, $30MM.
20. Tanner Roark, SP – Predicted: Two years, $18MM. Signed: Two years, $24MM.
21. Julio Teheran, SP – Predicted: Two years, $18MM. Signed: One year, $9MM.
23. Drew Pomeranz, RP – Predicted: Two years, $16MM. Signed: Four years, $34MM.
24. Wade Miley, SP – Predicted: Two years, $16MM. Signed: Two years, $15MM.
26. Travis d’Arnaud, C – Predicted: Two years, $14MM. Signed: Two years, $16MM.
27. Chris Martin, RP – Predicted: Two years, $14MM. Signed: Two years, $14MM.
29. Avisail Garcia, OF – Predicted: Two years, $12MM. Signed: Two years, $20MM.
30. Howie Kendrick, INF – Predicted: Two years, $12MM. Signed: One year, $6.25MM.
31. Rick Porcello, SP – Predicted: One year, $11MM. Signed: One year, $10MM.
32. Brett Gardner, OF – Predicted: One year, $10MM. Signed: One year, $12.5MM.
40. Adam Wainwright, SP – Predicted: One year, $8MM. Signed: One year, $5MM.
42. Josh Lindblom, SP – Predicted: Two years, $8MM. Signed: Three years, $9.125MM.
47. Michael Wacha, SP – Predicted: One year, $6MM. Signed: One year, $3MM.
Total – Predicted: $1,327,000,000. Signed: $1,521,675,000.
A few things stand out here. First of all, special thanks to Braves reliever Chris Martin for making us look good by signing for the exact amount we said he’d receive. In the aggregate, though, we were obviously too conservative with this year’s estimates. However, in our defense, did anyone foresee such a spending bonanza this offseason?
When MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote this same piece a year ago, only one top five free agent and just 16 out of 50 had signed or agreed to take the qualifying offer. Furthermore, at that point, MLBTR’s projections were actually $20MM above the amount of money that had been handed out. Historic contracts worth $300MM or more were later given to outfielder Bryce Harper (Phillies) and infielder Manny Machado (Padres), the two highest-rated free agents available, but the MLBPA was nonetheless frustrated by the game’s second straight glacial offseason.
As a result of the union’s discontentment, speculation grew in regards to a potential work stoppage when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2021. Perhaps that will still happen, but executive director Tony Clark & Co. have to be much more pleased with how this offseason has unfolded in comparison to the previous couple. Regardless, judging by the billions that teams have awarded to free agents in under two months, it’s clear there is still plenty of money to go around in Major League Baseball.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/19
The latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Twins signed infielders Drew Maggi, Cody Asche and Jack Reinheimer to minor league contracts, per an announcement from Triple-A Rochester director of communications Nate Rowan. Maggi, 30, returns to the organization for a second season after posting a .258/.380/.407 slash in 516 plate appearances last year. He’s yet to crack the Majors to this point in his pro career. Asche was once one of the Phillies’ better prospects but never managed to cement himself as a big leaguer despite numerous chances. The corner infielder/outfielder is a .234/.293/.376 hitter in 1349 MLB plate appearances but a .275/.352/.467 batter in parts of six Triple-A seasons. Reinheimer, meanwhile, can play all over the infield and is considered a solid defender. The 27-year-old has a career .271/.338/.363 batting line in 1767 Triple-A plate appearances. Rowan also confirmed the Twins’ previously reported signings of lefty Danny Coulombe and Caleb Thielbar.
Earlier Moves
- The Angels have signed shortstop Elliot Soto to a minors pact with an invitation to major league camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. A 15th-round pick of the Cubs in 2010, the diminutive Soto (5 foot 9, 160 pounds) hasn’t gotten past Triple-A ball among his three professional organizations – Chicago, Miami and Colorado. The 30-year-old Soto did, however, show well at the minors’ highest level last season in the Rockies organization, as he batted .305/.380/,480 (111 wRC+) with 10 home runs and eight stolen bases over 463 plate appearances.
Latest On Francisco Lindor
11:54pm: Jeff McNeil, the Mets’ terrific infielder/outfielder, is someone the Indians “repeatedly” asked about during the teams’ Lindor talks, Tim Healey of Newsday reports. Unsurprisingly, though, the Mets weren’t willing to deal McNeil.
10:16pm: It might not be long before we see the Indians part with their franchise player, shortstop Francisco Lindor. The Indians have informed clubs that have pursued Lindor that they want their “best and final offers so they can make an assessment over the weekend,” Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes (subscription link).
The Indians don’t have to give up the 26-year-old Lindor, who has two seasons’ control left, but his value’s surely sky-high right now. Plus, having traded right-hander and fellow franchise icon Corey Kluber to Texas last week, the small-market Indians could be moving toward a rebuild. The Indians’ roster still looks better than average even without Kluber, but considering they’re unlikely to extend Lindor before he’s slated to reach free agency in a couple years, management may decide to take the best possible offer now at the expense of their near-term chances.
So far this offseason, the Dodgers, Padres and Reds have been prominently connected to Lindor in the rumor mill. The Mets also showed interest in him, but they’ve drifted into the background because of Cleveland’s exorbitant asking price for Lindor, Rosenthal reports. Even though Lindor’s team control is fading and he’ll make a projected $16.7MM in 2020, it’s understandable the Indians are demanding a significant return for him. After all, he’s a four-time All-Star, one of the faces of baseball and someone who has slashed .288/.347/.493 with 130 home runs, 93 stolen bases and 27.2 fWAR since his career began in 2015.