Mariners Claim John Andreoli, Select Joey Curletta
The Mariners have claimed outfielder John Andreoli off waivers from the Orioles, per club announcements. Seattle also added first baseman/outfielder Joey Curletta to its 40-man roster.
Andreoli, 28, debuted in the bigs last year with the Seattle organization before landing with the O’s via waiver claim. That’s now reversed, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll keep his roster spot throughout the winter. Andreoli did not hit much in limited MLB opportunities, but posted a .287/.397/.401 slash in 388 Triple-A plate appearances last year.
As for Curletta, 24, the move will prevent him from achieving minor-league free agency. Primarily a right fielder during his prior minor-league campaigns, Curletta appeared mostly at first base last year at the Double-A level. He ended up posting a career-best output, with a .282/.383/.482 batting line and 23 long balls over 556 plate appearances.
Brewers Exercise Club Option Over Jeremy Jeffress, Buy Out Jordan Lyles
The Brewers made the easy call today to pick up their club option over righty Jeremy Jeffress, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. He stands to earn $3.175MM for the 2019 season.
Meanwhile, the team declined a $3.5MM option over fellow right-hander Jordan Lyles, per Robert Murray of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll receive a $250K buyout.
Jeffress, 31, would have been eligible for arbitration for a final time, but agreed to a contract last winter that gave the team a pair of options. It was quite an unusual deal, evidently occasioned by the fact that Jeffress has struggled with substance abuse in the past and had thrived in the environment provided by the Milwaukee organization.
As it turns out, Jeffress reached $550K in incentive pay by virtue of throwing over seventy innings and finishing over twenty games. Added to his $1.75MM base salary, he earned $2.3MM — just a bit less than the $2.6MM he was projected for in arbitration.
Jeffress can reach up to $2.2MM in incentives for each of the following two seasons, though achieving all would mean reaching not only 55 games finished but also throwing over ninety frames. In addition to the $3.175MM he’ll earn for 2019, the final club option comes with a $4.3MM price tag.
To this point, the deal has worked out on the field — tremendously so, in fact. Jeffress worked to a minuscule 1.29 ERA in 76 2/3 innings in 2018, surrendering only 49 hits while compiling 10.4 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 along with a typically excellent 56.4% groundball rate. The strikeouts came as a pleasant surprise; Jeffress ended the season with a 13.5% swinging-strike rate that easily topped his prior high.
As for Lyles, the 28-year-old gave the Brewers 16 1/3 effective innings after coming over from the Padres via trade. He allowed only six earned on a dozen hits in that span, racking up 22 strikeouts against nine walks.
Obviously, the Brewers did not seen enough to think that was a sign of things to come. Lyles has thrown 768 2/3 major-league frames, after all, with only a 5.28 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 on his overall ledger.
Royals Agree To New Deal With Wily Peralta
The Royals have struck a “reworked” deal with righty Wily Peralta, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). He had been controllable pursuant to a $3MM club option.
This new deal seems to tweak things only slightly, perhaps simply as a means of delaying part of Peralta’s 2019 salary obligation. He’ll now take home $2.25MM for the season to come, per the report. In 2020, the deal calls for a $7MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout.
In addition to adding a bit of extra guaranteed money, Peralta can now earn a bit more if he remains in the closer’s role for the Royals. The deal will provide him another million dollars if he finishes 55 games, per MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (via Twitter).
Peralta, 29, ended up sliding into the ninth inning in K.C. after joining the organization on a minors deal and opening the year at Triple-A. In his 34 1/3 MLB frames, he worked to a 3.67 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and ended up recording 14 saves.
That said, Peralta also allowed a disconcerting number of walks — just over six per nine innings, in fact. The former Brewers starter did throw his four- and two-seam fastballs as hard as ever before, averaging over 96 mph on each, and reached a double-digit swinging-strike rate (an even 10.0%) for the first time.
Brandon Kintzler To Exercise Player Option
Righty Brandon Kintzler will exercise a player option to remain with the Cubs, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com (via Twitter). That had been the expected outcome for the veteran reliever.
Kintzler’s contract, signed last winter with the Nationals and traded to the Cubs at the 2018 trade deadline, included successive option clauses. The club first had a shot at a $10MM option. If that was declined — as it was, by the Chicago organization — then Kintzler got a chance to take a guaranteed $5MM salary rather than returning to free agency.
Given his struggles down the stretch, it’s no surprise that Kintzler elected to keep the money in hand. In 18 frames over 25 appearances, he coughed up 14 earned runs on 27 hits while managing just a dozen strikeouts against nine walks.
That’s not to say that there isn’t any hope of a rebound. After emerging as a late-inning presence with the Twins, Kintzler had been productive with the Nats. In his 68 2/3 frames in D.C., between the trade deadlines of the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, he worked to a 3.54 ERA. In spite of consistently marginal strikeout numbers, Kintzler’s heavy sinker has typically produced excellent groundball numbers and allowed him to avoid the long ball.
David Price Announces He Will Not Opt Out Of Red Sox Contract
Red Sox lefty David Price announced today that he will not opt out of the remainder of his contract with the Red Sox, as Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com was among those to report on Twitter. The 33-year-old starter, who is fresh off of a redemptive run through the postseason for the World Series victors, will earn $31MM for the 2019 season and $32MM annually for the three campaigns that follow.
It’s no surprise, certainly, that Price has elected to stay in the deal that he inked in advance of the 2016 season. Though he has certainly had plenty of success during his first three campaigns in Boston, there have also been plenty of low points along the way.
At 33 years of age, it’s tough to imagine Price doing better than the four years and $127MM he already has in hand. That said, he would still have been a major part of the postseason picture had he elected to return to the open market.
In the just-completed campaign, Price threw 176 innings of 3.58 ERA ball, registering just over a strikeout per nine while allowing 2.6 BB/9. That represented a bounceback from an injury-marred 2017 campaign and an improvement on his bottom-line results (3.99 ERA) from 2016.
Of course, Price had also logged 230 frames in his first season with the Sox, a number he won’t likely approach again. And his peripherals have eroded since that time as well. Estimators valued his 2018 output well below his actual ERA, with FIP (4.02), xFIP (3.95), and SIERA (3.82) suggesting Price is now more a solid rotation presence than frontline starter.
Price’s postseason performance — which featured four excellent starts in the ALCS and World Series after a rough divisional outing — certainly showed that he can still get the job done when needed … and that he can do it on the big stage. That reversed a long run of difficulties in the postseason though it won’t turn back father time. Over the course of the 2018 campaign, Price’s average fastball (of both the four and two-seam varieties) clocked in at a personal-low 93.1 mph, while his swinging-strike rate dipped to 9.6% after sitting over 11% for the prior three seasons.
In any event, Price’s decision to opt in to the remainder of his deal at one point seemed likely to be met by widespread complaints from the Boston faithful. Instead, he’ll be lauded along with his teammates today in the club’s World Series parade. And while the expectations for the remainder of the contract will necessarily be tempered, the Red Sox have good cause to anticipate that Price will continue to be a worthwhile member of their rotation for some time to come.
Marcell Ozuna Undergoes Shoulder Procedure
Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna underwent a “clean up” procedure on his right shoulder, per Craig Mish of Sirius XM (Twitter link). The work was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
It had not previously been anticipated that Ozuna would require any kind of procedure, though it also does not seem to be a particularly concerning outcome at this point. The rehab schedule is not expected to limit Ozuna’s ability to report for full participation in Spring Training.
Ozuna’s ailing shoulder was a significant problem for him over the course of the 2018 season. The issue seemed to place a drag on his productivity all year long, until a late-season cortisone shot that helped spur a strong run to finish out the campaign.
In the aggregate, the Cardinals did not get the kind of output they hoped for when they acquired Ozuna, who compiled a career-best .312/.376/.548 slash with 37 home runs for the Marlins in 2017. He completed his first of two seasons of club control for the St. Louis organization with a merely above-average .280/.325/.433 line and 23 long balls. Ozuna projects to earn $13.4MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility.
There are several questions going forward. For one, there’s still some reason to wonder whether Ozuna’s big ’17 campaign was truly representative. After all, he rode a career-high .355 batting average on balls in play. The Cards obviously felt the outburst was sustainable and now believe he can get back to that level in what will only be his age-28 season. But the team will first need to see whether Ozuna’s shoulder can recover.
That’ll depend in part upon Ozuna’s own efforts at rehab, of course, and that’s a subject that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak raised recently. As MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reminds, Mozeliak offered some notably public advice for Ozuna. “If he’s diligent and puts himself in a position to prepare and have himself in a place where his shoulder is not preventing him from playing at his full potential, then I think the sky’s the limit for him,” said the club’s top baseball ops executive.
Orioles Select Contract Of Branden Kline
The Orioles announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Branden Kline. He would otherwise have qualified for minor-league free agency.
Kline, 27, was a second-round pick out of the University of Virginia back in 2012. His path up the ladder in the Baltimore system was slowed by arm injuries, however. Kline missed most of 2015 and the entirety of the following two seasons owing to a terrible run of injuries.
Now that he has battled through a surgically repaired broken leg, Tommy John surgery, and other procedures, Kline will likely feature only as a reliever. But he showed quite some promise in that capacity in 2018, when he threw 65 2/3 innings over 44 appearances at the High-A and Double-A levels, working to a 1.64 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9.
Edgar Martinez Steps Down As Mariners Hitting Coach
Edgar Martinez has decided to step down from his role as hitting coach with the team, GM Jerry Dipoto announced today. Martinez will remain with the organization in a different capacity.
Martinez, the legendary former DH, is said to have requested a new opportunity within the Seattle organization that would allow “more flexibility” than his former gig. Accordingly, he and the club came up with a new role — organizational hitting advisor — in which he’ll serve as something of a roving instructor at all levels of the organization while also performing “special projects, including one-on-one coaching.”
The veteran slugger, who figures to be a popular Hall-of-Fame candidate this winter, had been the M’s hitting coach for about two-and-a-half seasons. Previously, the M’s had announced that Mel Stottlemyre would not return to his post as pitching coach. Accordingly, the club is now looking to fill two key vacancies on the staff of skipper Scott Servais.
Twins Decline Options Over Ervin Santana, Logan Morrison
The Twins have declined a pair of club options, per a team announcement. Starter Ervin Santana and first baseman/DH Logan Morrison will receive buyouts and become free agents.
Santana will receive a $1MM buyout in lieu of a $14MM club option. While it had seemed at times as if the club would likely end up deciding to keep him around for a fifth campaign, the veteran’s injury-limited 2018 campaign rendered that unlikely.
So long as he can show that his problematic right middle finger is healed, Santana ought to be a popular bounceback target on the open market. Though he’s now 35 years of age, he had turned in two consecutive stellar seasons before the forgettable season that just concluded.
As for Morrison, who signed on last winter in what seemed to be a highly team-friendly deal, injury issues also marred his season. The club will give him $1MM rather than picking up an $8MM salary for another.
The 31-year-old Morrison had settled for his contract with Minnesota after entering the market after a big platform season. Unfortunately, he found himself among the many defensively limited sluggers who didn’t find a lot of demand, and ended up requiring hip surgery after struggling at the plate with the Twins. He’ll surely also draw plenty of looks from clubs interested in finding a productive lefty bat at an affordable price.
Red Sox Exercise Club Option Over Chris Sale
In one of the easiest option decisions in baseball, the Red Sox announced today that they have picked up their option over lefty Chris Sale for the 2019 season.
His contract originally called for a $13.5MM salary for the upcoming campaign, with a $1MM buyout. Owing to his prior Cy Young placement, though, it was boosted to a $15MM final value. When the deal wraps up after the 2019 campaign, Sale will have earned a total of $58MM over a seven-year term.
Acquired from the White Sox before the start of the 2017 season, the 29-year-old Sale has continued to excel since swapping his pale hose for crimson stockings. He has thrown 372 1/3 regular-season innings of 2.56 ERA ball thus far in Boston.
If there are any questions, they relate not to the quality of Sale’s work on the mound, but his ability to stay there. It would be unfair to make too much of five-start absence in 2018, as he has mostly been an exceptionally durable pitcher, but the shoulder woes that cropped up this year certainly represent something to watch moving forward. Hopefully, an offseason of rest will allow Sale to enter Spring Training at full speed.