Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Pirates, Jays, Rockies, Yankees, D-backs
This week in baseball blogs:
- Legends On Deck has a piece from free agent right-hander Jon Velasquez, who reflects on his baseball career to this point.
- Pirates Breakdown interviews Bucs righty prospect Mitch Keller.
- Clutchlings talks with Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim.
- Chin Music Baseball argues that the Rockies erred in not signing now-Rangers first baseman Mike Napoli.
- Camden Depot regards Orioles righty Kevin Gausman as a breakout candidate.
- Think Blue Planning Committee looks at the Dodgers’ roster in the wake of the Sergio Romo, Franklin Gutierrez and Chase Utley deals.
- Inside the ‘Zona previews the battle among Shelby Miller, Patrick Corbin and Archie Bradley for the final two spots in the Diamondbacks’ rotation.
- Pinstriped Prospects ranks the Yankees’ top 50 prospects.
- NYRDCAST projects Cardinals righties Carlos Martinez, Mike Leake and Lance Lynn.
- BP Toronto and Blue Jay Hunter analyze the signed Blue Jays’ signing of reliever Joe Smith.
- Outside Pitch MLB and District On Deck offer thoughts on the possibility of the Nationals acquiring White Sox closer David Robertson.
- Call To The Pen (links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) compares the Phillies to the National League East rival Marlins and Braves; ranks the NL East in a separate piece; focuses on the biggest positional logjams across the majors; and lists six unheralded Yankees pitchers primed to make impacts in 2017.
- A’s Farm projects the Athletics’ Opening Day roster.
- Jays From the Couch interviews Blue Jays right-hander Mike Bolsinger.
- The First Out At Third picks the Brewers’ starting rotation.
- Rotisserie Duck forecasts the best hitters of 2017.
- Two Strike Approach: A Baseball Podcast previews this year’s Yankees.
- World Series Dreaming touches on Major League Baseball’s potential pace-of-play rule changes.
- The Runner Sports (links: 1, 2, 3) lists the Yankees’ top five outfield- and designated hitter-related storylines entering spring training; previews the Yankees’ rotation; and profiles Astros righty Cy Sneed.
- The 3rd Man In talks with UC Irvine outfielder Keston Hiura, one of the highest-ranked prospects going into this year’s draft.
- Real McCoy Minors chats with Athletics pitching prospect Cody Stull.
- Jays Journal names four Toronto prospects set to make their big league debuts in 2017.
- Mets Daddy writes that left-handed reliever Josh Smoker needs to develop his slider.
- The K Zone is pleased with the Dodgers’ decision to re-sign Utley.
- MLB Reports highlights five teams that could either end up as contenders or pretenders this year.
- The Point of Pittsburgh assembles a staff based on the best pitching seasons of individual Pirates since 1989.
- Rascals Of the Ravine (links here) breaks down Dodgers fanfest.
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Cubs, Pedro Strop Avoid Arbitration
The Cubs and right-handed reliever Pedro Strop have reached a deal to avoid arbitration, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Strop’s 2017 salary will be $5.5MM – a little above the $5.3MM midpoint. As MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker shows, Strop had been seeking $6MM, while the Cubs’ $4.6MM offer came in well below that figure.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Strop would receive $5.5MM via arbitration on the heels of a third straight excellent season. Strop, 31, logged a sub-3.00 ERA (2.85, to be exact) and at least 20 holds (21) for the third consecutive year. He also posted tremendous strikeout and walk rates of 11.41 and 2.85, respectively, to go with a lofty 58.5 percent ground-ball mark. Injuries limited Strop to 47 1/3 regular-season innings, his lowest total since 2011, but he did get solid results over 5 2/3 playoff frames for the World Series champions. In postseason series wins over the Giants, Dodgers and Indians, Strop struck out three and yielded two earned runs on three hits and one walk.
With Strop’s salary now set for 2017, the Cubs have settled with all of their arbitration-eligible players. Strop could be entering his final season with the club, as he’s scheduled to become a free agent next winter.
East Notes: Marlins, Red Sox, Yankees
Unsurprisingly, Marlins president David Samson didn’t reveal much Saturday when asked about the rumored “handshake agreement” owner Jeffrey Loria has to sell the franchise to Joshua Kushner. “There’s obviously a lot of buzz, there’s rumors, there’s all sorts of stuff that happens all the time,” he told Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Are these rumors different than other rumors? Time will always tell what happens.” Samson, who added that Loria “loves being [in Miami],” also informed Joe Frisaro of MLB.com that the franchise is focusing on selling Marlins Park’s naming rights and amending its TV deal prior to 2018. On naming rights, Samson said: “There’s still three companies, and we cannot figure out which direction we’re going to go in. I still want to get it done before the All-Star Game. It’s such a long-term decision. I don’t want to make the wrong one.” The Marlins’ TV contract with FOX Sports Florida runs through 2020, but Samson noted that both parties know the “deal is in a place where it’s not commensurate with the revenue that should be coming to the team, given the content that we’re giving. That is no fault of anybody’s but mine.”
Now the latest from the American League East:
- That the Red Sox were able to acquire ace Chris Sale from the White Sox without giving up left fielder Andrew Benintendi could propel them back to the World Series this year, opines Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. Red Sox left-hander David Price called it “amazing” that the team landed Sale while retaining Benintendi, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski observed that “Andrew is not a player you’re ever looking to trade.” The 22-year-old Benintendi was terrific in his 118-plate appearance major league debut last season (.295/.359/.476) and enters 2017 as an AL Rookie of the Year front-runner. He’s also No. 1 on Baseball America’s just-released Top 100 prospects list – one spot ahead of second baseman/third baseman Yoan Moncada, who headlined Chicago’s return in the Sale trade. Right-hander Michael Kopech, the second-biggest piece the White Sox received, is 32nd.
- The Yankees left a great impression on closer Aroldis Chapman during his stint with them last year, which led him to prioritize re-signing with the club in free agency. Ultimately, he returned to the Bronx on a five-year, $86MM deal – a record-breaking pact for a reliever. “The first moment that I got here in Spring Training, the way that they treated me, the attention that I got,” he told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “The work ethic of this team, the clubhouse, the athletes that they have. Those things, all of them made me feel very comfortable. That for me was the most important thing, and I wanted to come back.” Chapman, who ended last season with the World Series champion Cubs, sees similarities between the way the Yankees are assembling their roster and how Chicago has built its juggernaut of a squad. “Chicago started doing the same thing, bringing young players in the beginning, combined with veterans,” he said. “It worked for them, and it’s a solid team. The Yankees are similar in that way. They’re trying to bring in some youth, athletes that are very gifted.”
Tigers, David Lough Agree To Minor League Deal
The Tigers have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder David Lough, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Lough, 31, spent last year with the Phillies and Marlins organizations. All 79 of his major league plate appearances came with Philadelphia, which designated him for assignment June 2 after he hit .239/.342/.313 there and .270/.331/.365 in 139 PAs with its Triple-A affiliate. Lough also struggled with Miami’s Triple-A club, albeit over a mere 32 PAs, with a .200/.226/.267 line.
In 820 trips to the plate with the Royals, Orioles and Phillies, the lefty-swinging Lough has batted .254/.300/.371 while garnering time at all three outfield spots. Detroit has two proven corner outfielders in Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez, but its only center field options – Tyler Collins, Mikie Mahtook, JaCoby Jones and Anthony Gose – haven’t established themselves. Neither has corner outfield reserve Steven Moya, so Lough could perhaps find his way to the Tigers’ bench at some point this year.
Indians Designate Austin Adams For Assignment
The Indians have designated right-handed reliever Austin Adams for assignment to make room for the addition of left-handed reliever Boone Logan, whose deal with the team is now official, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (Twitter link).
Adams, whom the Indians chose in the fifth round of the 2009 draft, has seen action with the Tribe in each season since making his major league debut in 2014. The results have been largely underwhelming, though, despite the fact that Adams possesses a fastball that averages 96 mph.
In 58 2/3 major league innings, Adams has logged a 6.29 ERA, 6.75 K/9 and 3.22 BB/9. A significant portion of the damage came last season, when the 30-year-old pitched to a sky-high 9.82 ERA across 18 1/3 frames. While Adams posted a career-high K/9 (8.35), he surrendered home runs on 25 percent of fly balls and allowed a .333/.386/.679 batting line and .439 wOBA (for reference, David Ortiz led the majors with a .419 wOBA). Adams, to his credit, has been a lot better at the Triple-A level, where he has managed a 3.47 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 103 2/3 innings.
Angels Sign Dustin Ackley To Minor League Deal
FEB. 7: Ackley’s pact features a $2.25MM major league salary and $1.4MM in incentives, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).
FEB. 4: The Angels have announced the signing of infielder/outfielder Dustin Ackley to a minor league contract. The deal comes with an invitation to spring training for Ackley, a Boras Corporation client.
[RELATED: Updated Angels Depth Chart]
It took Ackley just under three months to land anywhere after the Yankees released him in late November. That came on the heels of a truncated season in which the 28-year-old accrued a meager 70 plate appearances and hit an ugly .148/.243/.148 before undergoing surgery on a torn right shoulder labrum in early June.
Ackley was far more successful in 2015, a year divided between Seattle and New York, as he slashed a still-unremarkable .231/.284/.429 in 264 trips to the plate. All told, Ackley has posted a .241/.304/.367 line over the first 2,347 PAs of his career, which makes the lefty-swinger’s major league tenure a substantial disappointment after the Mariners took him second overall in the 2009 draft. Ackley then ranked as one of Baseball America’s 12 best prospects to conclude both the ’09 and ’10 campaigns.
On the bright side, Ackley has mostly earned plus defensive grades at second base and in left field – his primary positions – and comes with first base experience. Defensive Runs Saved (plus-19) and Ultimate Zone Rating (10.7) have liked his work in 2,514 innings at the keystone, while he’s at plus-2 DRS and 3.7 UZR in 1,588 innings as a left fielder.
In his return to the American League West, Ackley figures to vie for a bench role behind Angels second baseman Danny Espinosa, first base options Luis Valbuena, C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols, and outfielders Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun and Cameron Maybin. The club’s top bench choices entering the spring are light-hitting infielder Cliff Pennington and outfielder Ben Revere, whom the Angels gave a guaranteed $4MM earlier this winter.
Phillies, Chris Coghlan Agree To Minor League Deal
FEB. 7: Coghlan’s contract comes with a $3MM major league salary and $1MM in incentives, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman.
FEB. 2: The Phillies and utilityman Chris Coghlan have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (Twitter link). The deal includes an invitation to spring training.
[RELATED: Updated Phillies Depth Chart]
Coghlan is settling for a minors pact on account of a subpar 2016 spent between the Athletics and Cubs, with whom he won the World Series. The 31-year-old hit a meager .188/.290/.318 across 300 plate appearances (and went hitless in eight postseason PAs), which represented a sharp decline from his output with the Cubs from 2014-15. Coghlan combined for a quality batting line of .265/.346/.447 and 5.7 fWAR over that two-year, 935-PA stretch.
Prior to his first of two stints with the Cubs, Coghlan spent the initial five years of his career as a member of the Marlins, who selected him in the first round of the 2006 draft. The lefty-swinging Coghlan won the National League Rookie of the Year with the Fish in 2009 on the strength of a .321/.390/.460 showing in 565 trips to the plate, though he never came close to replicating that success over his final four years in Miami.
Defensively, Coghlan has primarily been an outfielder during his career – mostly left field – but he does bring some infield experience. Despite his versatility, he’ll seemingly face an uphill climb in securing playing time with the Phillies. While Coghlan’s a more established option than reserve outfielders Aaron Altherr and Tyler Goeddel, the team is all set in center field with Odubel Herrera, and it has added a pair of somewhat pricey corner outfielders this offseason in Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders. Philadelphia also has Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez locked in at third and second base, the two infield spots where Coghlan has most frequently lined up, and Andres Blanco as a backup infielder.
Red Sox Sign Mike Olt To Minor League Deal
12:38pm: As expected, it’s a minor league contract, per Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (Twitter link).
9:21am: The Red Sox have signed corner infielder Mike Olt, who announced the news on Instagram (h/t Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). It’s presumably a minor league deal for Olt, who didn’t crack the majors in 2016 after inking a minors pact with the Padres last March.
The 28-year-old Olt went to the Rangers in the first round of the 2010 draft and eventually topped out as Baseball America’s 22nd-best prospect after the 2012 campaign. The Rangers then sent Olt to the Cubs the next season in a trade centering on right-hander Matt Garza, but he failed to live up to his considerable promise in Chicago. In 2014, the only season in which Olt has seen extensive major league action, he batted .160/.248/.356 and struck out in 38.8 percent of his 258 plate appearances. All told, Olt has slashed .168/.250/.330 in a combined 400 PAs with the Rangers, Cubs and White Sox. He has been more successful, albeit not great, at the Triple-A level, having posted a .234/.318/.429 line in 774 PAs.
Primarily a third baseman, the Connecticut-born Olt, an ex-UConn star, will now return to his native New England and attempt to stick with the Red Sox organization. Boston does have questions at the hot corner, where Pablo Sandoval is aiming to bounce back from a horrid 2015 and a lost 2016. Brock Holt and Josh Rutledge are on hand as major league depth, while another of BA’s former top 100 prospects, Matt Dominguez, is in the minors.
Yankees “Have Checked In On” Travis Wood
With no established major league starters beyond Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia and Michael Pineda on their roster, the Yankees “have checked in on” free agent left-hander Travis Wood, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. However, the Yankees “don’t necessarily seem at the forefront of talks” for Wood, whose market has heated up in recent days.
Wood, who turned 30 on Monday, worked exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen last season, but “multiple teams” have offered him opportunities to return to a starting role this winter. That could include the Yankees, who are currently set to have Luis Severino, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Cessa and Adam Warren battle for their final two rotation spots during the spring. Those five have combined for just 68 big league starts, whereas Wood piled up nearly twice as many (133) with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15. Wood was fairly effective during that six-year, 776-inning span, too, as he recorded a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9.
While Wood is coming off a career-best season in terms of run prevention (2.95 ERA in 61 innings), he also had the good fortune of pitching in front of the Cubs’ all-world defense. His ERA masked a subpar K/BB ratio (1.96; well below the 2.53 league-average mark for relievers), and advanced metrics like FIP (4.54), xFIP (4.83) and SIERA (4.46) weren’t particularly impressed with his performance. Further, Wood generated ground balls at a meager 37.4 percent clip, and his careerlong trend of relying on fly balls – not to mention his below-average velocity and struggles against right-handed hitters – could make him a poor fit for Yankee Stadium and the AL East. To his credit, Wood has somewhat offset his lifetime 33.6 grounder percentage with an 11.9 percent infield fly rate, which climbed to a lofty 17.8 percent in 2016.
Regardless of whether it’s with the Yankees, Wood seems likely to land a deal soon. With spring training closing in and former Cubs teammate Jason Hammel now off the market, Wood is arguably the top starting-caliber arm available in free agency.
Royals Sign Brayan Pena To Minor League Deal
10:00am: Pena will earn at a $535K base salary if he cracks the majors, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). His deal also features $10K in incentives and opt-outs at the end of spring training and on May 1.
6:19am: Former Royals catcher Brayan Pena is returning to the organization on a minor league contract, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). The deal comes with an invitation to spring training for Pena, who previously played in Kansas City from 2009-12.
Pena, 35, had been sitting on the free agent market since the Cardinals released him Nov. 28. In doing so, the Redbirds had to eat the remaining $2.5MM left on the two-year, $5MM deal they awarded Pena in free agency last offseason. Lingering knee issues weighed down Pena during his stint in St. Louis, where he collected just 14 plate appearances.
As a member of the Royals, Tigers and Reds from 2009-15, the switch-hitter batted .262/.303/.355 in 1,805 plate appearances. Defensively, Baseball Prospectus has given Pena positive overall grades as a pitch framer, though he has fallen into the negatives in recent seasons. Pena has also thrown out 28 percent of attempted base stealers during his career – just above the 27 percent league-average mark.
Barring injuries, Pena is unlikely to see much major league action with Kansas City this season. The Royals’ starting catcher is eminently durable standout Salvador Perez, who has played at least 138 games in four straight seasons, and they gave backup Drew Butera a guaranteed $3.8MM in November.