Cardinals Expect To Retain Mike Matheny For 2017
Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. says that skipper Mike Matheny will remain at the club’s helm next year, as Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Matheny’s contract runs expires after 2017.
There had been at least some outside questions of Matheny’s status, given the Cards’ somewhat disappointing 82-75 mark with five games left to play. St. Louis is still battling for a Wild Card spot, of course — and the team has already qualified for the postseason in all four prior seasons of Matheny’s tenure — but never really competed this year in an NL Central that has been dominated by the rival Cubs.
“Mike’s done a really good job for us,” said DeWitt. “There’s no thought that we’re going to go in any different direction.” The owner went on to explain that Matheny remains “a great leader” who isn’t responsible for what has been “one of those years where things haven’t worked.”
GM John Mozeliak also expressed confidence in the organization’s dugout chief, saying that the 46-year-old Matheny can be unfairly blamed when things don’t go smoothly. “Mike takes a lot of heat, and I’ve defended him and I will continue to,” said Mozeliak. “I really feel like some of the things that we’re dealing with aren’t fair to put on the manager.”
It is certainly hard to argue with Matheny’s overall results, though obviously he was entrusted with a talented and veteran-laden ballclub. Still, the former big league backstop has received his share of criticism for in-game management, focused particularly on his use of the bullpen.
Clearly, though, the Cardinals’ top decisionmakers don’t feel that any shortcomings in those areas override Mathany’s track record and overall management of the club. That being said, it’s not clear that any new contract discussions will take place, and Matheny could enter the 2017 season managing for his future in the organization.
Indians Outright T.J. House
We’ll track today’s minor moves here:
- The Indians have outrighted southpaw T.J. House after designating him for assignment recently, the club announced. As the team notes, House is eligible to elect minor league free agency, meaning he could elect to test the open market. Though he has shown a fair bit of promise in his limited major league opportunities, House has struggled to return to form after losing much of his 2015 season to shoulder issues. He has pitched mostly at the Triple-A level this year, much of it out of the pen, with 72 1/3 innings on his ledger. Though House has posted a 3.98 ERA, he has done so while compiling just 6.2 K/9 against 5.4 BB/9.
Mozeliak: Cardinals Intend To Improve Fielding This Winter
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak called his team’s defense “porous” and suggested that the club would look to improve in that area this winter, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
This year’s St. Louis team has been one of the worst in baseball by measure of UZR. Mozeliak evidently agrees with that assessment, though it should be noted that DRS rates the Cards’ D as average. Apart from the matter of allowing unearned runs, the Cardinals landed in the middle of the pack at preventing earned runs, posting a 4.13 team ERA one season after running up a league-best 2.94 mark.
Clearly, there are other causal factors at play beyond the glovework. The pitching staff’s uninspiring performance is chief among them, but there was also some inevitable regression in store after the team’s hurlers outperformed the peripherals last year. Still, the runs prevented by stellar defense are just as valuable as those avoided owing mostly to pitching.
The question in bolstering the defense, though, is how to accomplish that goal without taking runs off the board by sacrificing productivity at the plate. “A lot of times it’s at what cost,” says Mozeliak. “To get better defense, we may have to take a step back offensively.”
There were some positives on an individual level this year. Kolten Wong and Jedd Gyorko both showed well, with the latter representing a pleasant surprise in a versatile role. The position-switching that the team ultimately employed to account for injuries and keep its best bats in the lineup may ultimately have contributed to the fielding malaise, Mozeliak hinted. (Indeed, Jhonny Peralta was panned by defensive metrics after his move to third base.) But, he added: “I still see clubs that have better defensive flexibility that have played better defense.”
It will be interesting to see what route the organization takes to improve its defensive effort in 2017. The infield seems largely set heading into the winter, but perhaps the outfield will be an area of focus. Matt Holliday remains a question mark — his option probably will not be exercised, but he could be retained — and the Cards could look to fill in with a defensively proficient replacement or instead pursue a new center fielder while shifting Randal Grichuk to the corner.
MLBTR Mailbag: Buchholz, Giants Pen, Dozier, Melancon
Thanks as always for your mailbag inquiries. We can’t get to ’em all, but you’re always welcome to try again in any of our three weekly chats: Tuesdays at 2pm CST with Steve Adams, Wednesdays at 6:30pm CST with Jason Martinez and Thursdays at 2pm CST with yours truly.
If his $13MM option gets declined, what is the free agency outlook for Clay Buchholz? – Jon R.
Well, this all begins and ends with the desperately thin starting pitching class available this winter — though that may be a bit overstated as a driving force for salaries. The low supply is probably more a matter of timing, and a reflection of extensions, than it is pure scarcity.
That being said, the low supply could well play a notable role, especially if several teams decide that Buchholz — moreso than, say, Andrew Cashner — is the bounceback candidate worth targeting. Even in a free agent class rich in pitching last year, plenty of guys got paid; there’s little reason to think that the market will fall this winter.
So, what’s the positive case for Buchholz? It’s fairly straightforward, really: the 32-year-old has had productive major league campaigns in the past, and carries a second-half ERA of 3.59 and has limited opponents to a .234/.302/.347 batting line over those 52 2/3 innings. Plus, it’s arguable that he might benefit from moving beyond the constant scrutiny and the saga-like rises and falls he has experienced of late in Boston.
I’m not quite ready to pin a number on Buchholz, but I do think he’ll sign as a starter and I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s able to command a multi-year deal if his option isn’t picked up. Of course, he may prefer to rebuild his value on a one-year pact; that’s a risky proposition for any pitcher, especially one at his age, but I’d expect he could secure a single-season contract for something in the ballpark of his option price.
It’s obvious the Giants need to upgrade their bullpen this offseason. With 3 (Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, and Santiago Casilla) all free agents at year end who do you see them targeting in free agency? – Michael C.
In some ways I have to dispute the premise of your question. The Giants’ pen has had some notable lapses, at the back end and at inopportune moments, but overall has been an approximately average unit with a 3.72 ERA. Apart from all those blown saves and a rather low strikeout rate — the San Francisco pen is one of only five with less than eight K/9 — it has been an unremarkable unit.
Now, that’s not to say that there’s nothing to do here. But I make the point because I’m not sure that the Giants are facing much more than a fairly typical number of bullpen openings for a hopefully-contending team.
That may not be as soothing to you as it is to me, but you can also take solace in the fact that most of the Giants’ best relievers this year remain cheap and controllable. And Romo, Lopez, and Casilla combined to earn $19.5MM this year, so there’s a lot of reliever salary coming off the books. All said, there’s a solid-enough base to add onto here, and it ought to be possible for Bobby Evans and co. to pursue a top-tier closer and bolster the remainder of the relief corps this winter.
Brian Dozier is having a career year and most GMs will see that. What would an expected return for him be? How many teams will even be in the market for a defensive deficient 2nd baseman with a little pop in his bat? – Thomas M.
“A little pop”?! Dozier has 42 long balls and a .284 isolated slugging percentage. He’s second in all of baseball in both categories, putting him in the company of lumbering sluggers like David Ortiz, Mark Trumbo, Edwin Encarnacion, and Nelson Cruz.
Dozier isn’t a premium defender, but UZR and DRS have both generally graded him firmly in the vicinity of average. So, imaging being able to take Encarnacion — look it up their batting lines are quite similar — and plug him in at second base, confident that you’d get sturdy glovework.
Sure, we can expect some regression, but he now has a new ceiling that you can’t ignore. Even with a step back, there’s a ton of value here. That’s all the more true given that Dozier is owed just $15MM over the next two years, which is not only enticingly cheap but also represents a very limited commitment to a player who won’t turn thirty until next May.
We will surely examine this question in greater detail and from many angles as the offseason gets underway, but for now, suffice to say that I see Dozier as a legitimately excellent trade chip. Realistically, he’s a good enough asset that many teams could pursue him even if they do not, strictly speaking, have a “need” at second base.
Mark Melancon is viewed by many as an inferior pitcher to Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen, but he is has been just as good in ERA and some other statistics, such as saves. Will he end up getting more money than thought because of this? – Nicolas C.
You can’t look past results and focus only on the peripherals, any more than you can do the opposite. I’m not going to argue that Melancon is better than Chapman or Jansen, but I’m also not going to ignore his 1.82 ERA over 287 frames since the start of 2013 — or the 2.26 FIP in that span which supports the results.
Ultimately, in terms of the comparisons, there is none — but that’s because of an entirely different factor. Jansen turns 29 at the end of this month, with Chapman not far behind him. But Melancon is already more than halfway between his 31st and 32st birthdays.
But your question, really, is a bit different. As I take it, you’re wondering if teams will reach for Melancon because of his gaudy results, even though he doesn’t carry the huge fastball or strikeout rate that we might prefer to see. (Remember, he also doesn’t walk anybody.)
I do think Melancon will be paid handsomely — I agree with MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk that he is a strong candidate for a four-year deal — but that’ll be a reflection more of the ever-evolving valuation of relievers than a return to some knee-jerk day of yore when saves paid. The bottom line is that Melancon remains extremely effective and has been for some time, and he’s going to get rewarded for that. The open market always carries the potential for inflating a given player’s salary, since it is a bidding situation (and one with nebulous organizational valuations and ownership prerogatives in the background), but I don’t see any reason to expect that Melancon will not be valued properly.
Giants Acquire Gordon Beckham
7:36pm: Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area tweets that the trade is now official and adds that the Giants will send minor league infielder Rich Rodriguez to the Braves in return. While it’s certainly surprising to see a player headed back to the Braves, Rodriguez spent the 2016 season, his age-22 campaign, at Class-A Advanced and batted .174/.209/.183 in 117 plate appearances.
MLB.com’s Chris Haft tweets that Nunez is expected to be out for the next two to three days, so the Giants ultimately may not lean on Beckham for more than a couple of games.
2:32pm: The deal is going through, with cash consideration to Atlanta, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets.
1:48pm: The Giants are “very close” to striking a deal to acquire infielder Gordon Beckham from the Braves, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. Presumably, the move would be made to help cover for Eduardo Nunez, who is dealing with a hamstring issue.
It’s obviously rare to see trades at this stage of the season, but hardly unprecedented. Beckham, 30, would not be eligible for the San Francisco postseason roster and is a free agent after the season. But the team evidently feels that it needs a boost to its infield mix over the final six games, as it clings to a Wild Card slot.
If Nunez is out, the Giants would be left with options such as Conor Gillaspie, Ehire Adrianza, and Kelby Tomlinson at third base. Beckham isn’t exactly a premium addition — he owns only a .217/.300/.354 batting line over 273 plate appearances on the year — but promises to bolster that unit. He has been somewhat more useful against left-handed pitching, so the club will pick up some flexibility if nothing else.
AL Notes: Kluber, Richards, Sandoval, Castellanos
As if the Indians needed another rotation injury question mark, ace Corey Kluber left yesterday’s contest with a groin strain. Fortunately, the matter does not appear to be of major concern, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports. Kluber was pulled mostly for precautionary reasons — with the division already in hand, Cleveland has little reason to push him. Instead, manager Terry Francona suggested, the aim is “to get him healthy” with the postseason beckoning.
Here’s more from the American League:
- Angels righty Garrett Richards will test his stem-cell-bolstered elbow out against live batters for the first time tomorrow, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. Richards is brimming with confidence in a joint that once seemed certain to cost him all of the 2017 season after already taking most of 2016. Now, he says, “I feel like I could go pitch in a game right now.” Assuming the one-inning simulated game goes well, Richards will throw two instructional league innings and begin ramping up his innings before shutting things back down for what he hopes will largely be a normal winter.
- While a postseason return to the Red Sox for Pablo Sandoval seems rather implausible, manager John Farrell said it isn’t off the table entirely in an appearance on MLB Network on Sirius XM (Twitter link). “He’s done a very good job in rehab,” Farrell said of Sandoval. “In the event of an injury he could be part of the conversation.” Turning to the 30-year-old third baseman, who has only appeared in three games this year and struggled badly ever since coming to Boston, would obviously be something of a last-ditch move. But it’s also quite promising to see that Sandoval is even drawing this kind of consideration, as it suggests that the team is optimistic in his progress — and could perhaps yet receive from value from his sizable contract.
- Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos is ready for an intrasquad game as he continues to work back from a broken bone in his hand, as MLB.com’s Kyle Beery reports. The 24-year-old may yet make it back by the end of the regular season, skipper Brad Ausmus said, which would represent a nice addition if the team is still pushing for a Wild Card spot. Castellanos has broken out this year with a .286/.331/.500 batting line and 18 home runs over 432 plate appearances, which has not only firmly planted him in the team’s plans for the coming seasons but has also set him up nicely for his first season of arbitration eligibility.
Marlins To Extend Martin Prado
The Marlins have agreed in principle to a three-year, $40MM extension with third baseman Martin Prado, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports. Assuming the deal goes through to completion, he’ll remain with Miami through 2019. Prado will earn annual salaries of $11.5MM, $13.5MM, and $15MM in sequence over the deal’s three seasons, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports (Twitter links), with a $1MM assignment bonus applying in the event of any trades.
While the Miami organization will obviously be glad to have retained a team leader, it’s hard to celebrate given that the team is still reeling from the death of star pitcher Jose Fernandez just days ago. Last night’s game was one of the most heart-wrenching experiences ever seen at a ballpark, with Prado among the Marlins players who took the field in extremely difficult circumstances. (You can find his emotional post-game interview here.)
Prado, 32, has long been respected as a hard-nosed, versatile performer. He joined the Marlins before the 2015 season in a trade that sent Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Jones to the Yankees and also delivered breakout righty David Phelps to Miami.
Of course, Prado is also quite an accomplished hitter. Though he has never been an abundant source of home runs — even less so now than before — Prado continues to put up steadily above-average overall offensive production. This year, he owns a .305/.360/.415 batting line in 644 plate appearances over 149 games, which is just a shade better than his career mark of .293/.342/.423.
The strong 2016 season came at an opportune time for Prado, who hasn’t been quite as useful with the bat over the last several years as he was earlier in his career with the Braves. He ended up being dealt from Atlanta to the Diamodbacks and then on to the Yankees before moving back to the NL East.
Had he made it onto the open market, Prado figured to receive wide interest. That’s due not only to his sturdy bat and reputation as a leader, but also for the defensive flexibility he possesses. Prado has delivered well-regarded glovework at third for some time now, but also has shown himself plenty capable of playing second, first, the corner outfield, and even shortstop in a pinch.
The major question seemed to be whether the Marlins would issue Prado a $16.7MM qualifying offer. Instead, the sides obviated the need to consider that scenario. The club may have been a bit squeamish at the idea of paying such a large single-season salary to a good but not great player, while Prado himself would have been tempted by such an offer given the alternative of entering the free agent market with draft pick compensation tied to his signing.
This contract seems to serve purposes for both player and team, with the organization locking up the third base position for years to come and the latter limiting his risk while picking up a pretty nice payday. Prado will end up receiving a bit more than second baseman Daniel Murphy got last year from the Nationals in free agency, after he declined a QO. The new contract also dwarfs the $11MM guaranteed to David Freese by the Pirates to keep him from reaching the open market, while falling a fair sight shy of Chase Headley‘s relatively recent four-year, $52MM pact.
If there’s a beneficiary here outside of the two parties involved directly, it’s the remainder of the free agent market. In particular, Justin Turner and especially Luis Valbuena now have much stronger market standing, especially since the Marlins might not have made a major signing had Prado left. Perhaps the same applies to Ian Desmond, who could receive interest from some of the same organizations that might have valued Prado for his versatility.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/27/16
Here are a few of the latest minor moves from around the game, courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy:
- The Orioles have brought back righty Franderlyn Romero, amongs other minor league re-signings. Romero, 23, hasn’t exactly prospered since joining the Baltimore organization in an early-season international signing slot swap. The 23-year-old moved up to the High-A level for the first time with his new team, but gave up 96 hits and posted a 6.16 ERA in his 76 frames there, with 6.4 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
- The Diamondbacks will take a chance on 25-year-old Mexican southpaw Armando Aguilar on a minor league deal. Per Eddy, Aguilar is a lefty specialist who was quite stingy against same-handed hitters, posting 9.2 K/9 and a 0.99 WHIP in fifty appearances this year for the Mexican League’s Leones de Yucatan.
Jered Weaver Still Mulling Future
Veteran Angels right Jered Weaver suggested last night that he is still not sure whether he’ll pitch in 2017 and beyond, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. Weaver says his focus at present is getting his back ready for one final start in the current campaign, which could be his last with the Halos as the open market beckons.
Weaver has largely been available this year for Los Angeles, turning in 31 starts, even if the results haven’t been there. And he tells Fletcher that he still feels capable of pitching at the major league level as a starter.
“I feel like I can,” said Weaver. “I feel like my body is responding to what I’ve been doing over the past year and a half, two years. I haven’t really thought about next year, to tell you the truth. I have been focused on getting through this one.”
While he may not yet have really drilled in on the question of whether he’ll carry on, the 33-year-old does seem to have given at least some thought to the process. “It’s a decision I’ll have to make in the next couple months,” he said, seemingly indicating that he won’t be rushing into any final call right at season’s end. Weaver had said that he’d sit down with the media this week to discuss his future, but Fletcher tweets that the session won’t involve any announcements of his intentions.
Weaver is currently sitting on a career-high 5.06 ERA over his 178 frames in 2016. That follows a rough 2015 season and ongoing questions about his velocity and back health. Before that, of course, Weaver was one of the league’s more reliable, top-of-the-rotation workhorses.
While the Angels and other possible suitors surely won’t look upon Weaver as much more than a back-of-the-rotation depth piece, there’s certainly reason to believe that he’d be pursued. Whether any club will promise him a rotation spot, or offer much of a guarantee, is less clear. Even as the results have improved somewhat over the second half of this year, Weaver has allowed a troubling .300/.350/.525 batting line to the last 331 hitters to dig in against him, which is actually a bit worse than his first-half numbers.
Joaquin Benoit Leaves Park On Crutches
Blue Jays reliever Joaquin Benoit left the ballpark last night on crutches, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). The veteran is suffering from a leg injury — suggestions are that the issue is in his calf — that arose during a bench-clearing dust-up in yesterday’s game.
It would obviously be rather disappointing if it turns out that Benoit will miss any significant portion of time. After all, the Jays need him not only for the final week of the season but for the postseason to come.
Things had been going quite well for Benoit in Toronto prior to this. Since coming over in the trade that sent Drew Storen to the Mariners in a swap of struggling relievers, Benoit has allowed only a single earned run over 23 2/3 innings of work while permitting just 17 hits and carrying a 24:9 K/BB ratio.
That turnaround has not only provided a huge boost to the Blue Jays, but has set up Benoit nicely for free agency. He had posted some rough results in Seattle over the season’s first half, but his work in Toronto is more reminiscent of Benoit’s consistently strong production over the previous half-dozen campaigns.