Red Sox To Sign Jose Mijares
The Red Sox have agreed to terms with southpaw reliever Jose Mijares on a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Mijares will earn $1MM if he lands on the MLB roster, MLBTR's Zach Links reports (Twitter links), and could earn around an additional $1MM in incentives tied to games pitched. The deal includes an opt-out date in March, adds Links.
Mijares, 29, spent last season with the Giants. His 4.22 ERA in 49 innings was among the second-highest of his career, but Mijares had attractive rate statistics (9.9 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9). Mijares suffered from a staggering .410 BABIP, the highest mark in all of baseball among pitchers with at least 40 innings. Advanced metrics like FIP (3.05), xFIP (3.90), and SIERA (3.45) thought Mijares outperformed his ERA last year.
Mijares looks increasingly to be a lefty-on-lefty guy. Over his career, he has allowed a .818 OPS to righties and a .623 OPS to lefties. But those splits were even more pronounced last year, as Mijares gave up a .961 OPS to righties and .710 mark to same-handed hitters.
Orioles, Blue Jays Active On Starting Pitching Market
According to separate reports, both the Orioles and Blue Jays are active in the market for starting pitching. Both clubs have been fairly quiet in free agency to date, at least in terms of dollars committed. (Baltimore gave $4.5MM to Ryan Webb, but otherwise has not promised much above league minimum for any players; Toronto has given out only one MLB contract, guaranteeing $8MM to Dioner Navarro.)
The Orioles have had "recent, active dialogue" with several starters, including sought-after names like Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez, and Bronson Arroyo, according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter). As Connolly recently reported, the club's interest in closer Fernando Rodney may take a backseat to starting pitching in terms of priority.
Meanwhile, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos says that the club is "not done yet," as Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith reports. Noting that plenty of options remain, Anthopoulos expressed hope in making new acquisitions, but cautioned that, "at the same time we're not going to force anything." The Toronto GM said that the club likes the upside of several of its in-house starting options, including the rehabbing Brandon Morrow. He also warned that players with draft-pick compensation attached — which can refer only to Santana and Jimenez, among pitchers — could remain unsigned "into February and even into March."
With Masahiro Tanaka off of the market and Matt Garza seemingly close to following him, the starting pitching dam may finally have burst. As I noted on Tuesday, the long delay in Tanaka's situation has left an unprecedented number of substantial free agent business left to complete just weeks before the start of Spring Training — especially with respect to a number of quality rotation options.
Phillies Avoid Arbitration With Ben Revere
The Phillies have avoided arbitration with center fielder Ben Revere, agreeing to a one-year, $1.95MM deal, the club announced. MLBTR's Zach Links reports (via Twitter) that Revere can earn bonuses for awards such as an All-Star selection or Gold Glove, among others.
The deal delivers the 25-year-old a cool $450K more than was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz — a 30% bump over Swartz's $1.5MM projection. The higher mark also sets a nice baseline for Revere to work from. He will pass through arbitration three more times before qualifying for free agency in 2018. (Revere was a Super Two this year.)
Revere saw his 2013 season shortened when he broke his foot on a foul ball. Before the injury, he had a .305/.338/.352 line in 336 plate appearances. Promisingly, however, Revere had improved his OPS in each successive month of the season to that point (.456 in April; .712 in May; .805 in June; and .857 in July until the injury). Revere had also notched 22 stolen bases in that partial season of work. He has still yet to hit a big league home run after exactly 1,400 trips to the MLB plate.
Revere caps the Phillies' arbitration spending for the year. As MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows, the Phils paid out a total of $14.113MM, exceeding their total team projection of $12.7MM. The other Phillies to avoid arbitration were Kyle Kendrick ($7.675MM), Antonio Bastardo ($2MM), John Mayberry ($1.587MM), and Kevin Frandsen ($900K).
Orioles’ Deal With Tyler Colvin Falls Through
JAN. 24: Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets that Colvin's physical revealed that he still has back issues, causing the Orioles to reduce their offer from a Major League contract to a minor league deal. As such, Colvin will not sign and remains a free agent. Heyman points out that Colvin can now seek a big league deal with a club, knowing that he can sign a minor league pact with the O's as a fallback (Twitter link).
JAN. 22: A source tells ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link) that the Orioles found an issue with Colvin's physical, which could be creating an obstacle to the deal.
JAN. 15: The Orioles have agreed to terms with free agent outfielder Tyler Colvin, reports Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter links). Only a physical stands in the way of the deal, Connolly says, which is believed to be a guaranteed MLB contract. Colvin, 28, is represented by Relativity Baseball.
The left-handed swinging Colvin has seen MLB action in parts of five seasons. In 2012, his first year with the Rockies, Colvin posted a promising .290/.327/.531 triple-slash in 452 plate appearances. But he took a step back last year, earning only 78 MLB plate appearances and registering a meager .160/.192/.280 line in the process. He continued to hit at the Triple-A level, however, slashing .275/.377/.480 in 269 trips to the plate for Colorado Springs.
Colvin started his career with the Cubs before heading to Colorado in the Ian Stewart trade. The 13th overall choice in the 2006 draft, Baseball America considered Colvin the game's 75th-best prospect after the 2007 season.
Colvin joins a long list of outfielders that will join the O's for Spring Training. (The Sun's Eduardo Encina counts 12, on Twitter.) Other offseason outfield additions include Delmon Young, Quintin Berry, Xavier Paul, David Lough, and Francisco Peguero.
Four Teams Pursuing Fernando Rodney
FRIDAY: Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reports that despite reports that a match between Rodney and the Mets was "unlikely," the team is indeed in talks with the right-hander. Talks between Rodney and the Mets are believed to be about the closer's role, Rubin adds. He notes that this does not mean Bobby Parnell has had a setback in his recovery from surgery, but rather that there is at least some degree of uncertainty surrounding Parnell's health status.
Meanwhile, Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports also hears that the Mets are in, adding that the Orioles still have interest in addition to a pair of unnamed teams (Twitter link).
THURSDAY, 3:57pm: One source tells Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun that the Orioles haven't had dialogue with Rodney's representatives in weeks. While a match is still possible — the O's have money and no established closer — Connolly gets the sense that starting pitching is still their priority (Twitter links).
1:24pm: The Orioles are "making progress" with free agent closer Fernando Rodney, tweets Jonah Keri of Grantland.com. In addition to adding a closer, Baltimore is expected to make one additional "significant" move, Keri writes.
After dealing away incumbent closer Jim Johnson, the O's have been looking for a replacement. Baltimore originally agreed to terms with Grant Balfour on a two-year, $15MM deal, but ultimately declined to go through with the deal after finding issues with Balfour's medicals. With Balfour now settling in with the Rays, Rodney is clearly the premier name remaining among free agents with significant closing experience.
Indians Sign David Aardsma
7:37pm: Aardsma would earn $1MM upon making the roster out of Spring Training, according to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link).
10:47am: The Indians have signed David Aardsma to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation, the club announced via press release. The 32-year-old righty is represented by TWC Sports.
Last year, Aardsma saw fairly extensive action at the MLB level for the first time since 2010, when he was closing games for the Mariners. Throwing for the Mets, Aardsma pitched 39 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball in 2013, including 8.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9.
He is joined by several other veterans signed to minor league deals. Cleveland has also inked non-guaranteed contracts with right-handed relievers Scott Atchison and Matt Capps, along with longtime minor leaguer J.C. Ramirez and southpaw Mike Zagurski.
Marlins Want To Extend Giancarlo Stanton
The Marlins have told star Giancarlo Stanton that they wish to sign him to a long-term extension, GM Dan Jennings told Jim Bowden of Sirius XM MLB Network Radio (Twitter link). Miami hopes to work out a deal sooner rather than later, according to Jennings.
Needless to say, the contract situation of Stanton has been one of the most watched in the game. He recently agreed to a one-year, $6.5MM deal to avoid arbitration, but reports have suggested that extension talks were not underway. Stanton is currently set to reach free agency before the 2017 season. If the Fish can lock up their best position player, he would join young ace Jose Fernandez as a franchise cornerstone under team control for the foreseeable future.
Royals To Sign Jon Rauch
The Royals have agreed to terms with reliever Jon Rauch on a minor league deal, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. MLBTR’s Zach Links reported last night that the towering righty was close to signing.
Rauch, 35, struggled last year with a 7.56 ERA in just 16 2/3 innings with the Marlins. The Turner Gary Sports client has maintained a solid track record over his career, however, with a net 3.78 ERA in his 547 1/3 big league innings as a reliever, supported by a 2.80 K:BB ratio when working out of the pen.
Kansas City becomes Rauch’s eighth big league stop (he also played at the Triple-A level for the Orioles organization last year). He has only spent more than two seasons with one franchise — the Expos/Nationals, where he played for parts of five seasons.
Mets Tried To Land Balfour
2:24pm: A club official says that the team did not beat the Rays' offer on Balfour, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter links.) Though the Mets had "dialogue" with Balfour, the source said, only a "real creative" contract would have been possible for the club.
The Mets made an equivalent offer to that of the Rays, tweets Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com.
2:17pm: The Mets offered Grant Balfour a larger deal than the two-year, $12MM pact he signed with the Rays, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The closer instead chose Tampa because of its proximity to his Clearwater, Florida home, says Rosenthal, and may also have considered the impact of Florida's lack of state income taxes.
The news is most interesting for what it says about a Mets organization that has already guaranteed nearly $90MM in free agent signings. With Bobby Parnell expecting to resume his duties as closer to start the year, and the club seemingly already controlling enough pieces for the pen, the interest in Balfour rates as a surprise. That is especially so given that Balfour is already 36, and the Mets will play the coming year without ace Matt Harvey to help lead a renaissance. If nothing else, it would appear that the Mets still have money to spend on the market, if any other players carry sufficient appeal for GM Sandy Alderson.
Pirates Preparing To Enter Spring Without Burnett
Pirates president Frank Coonelly says that the club does not expect to have A.J. Burnett for the coming season, reports ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. This confirms the recent statements of pitching coach Ray Searage indicating that Burnett seemed likely to retire.
"We'd love to have A.J. back," said Coonelly, "but right now we've turned the page and we're heading to Bradenton thinking he's not going to be with us. But if he surprises us and calls up tomorrow and says he wants to pitch again, we'd love to have him." Coonelly confirmed that, if Burnett does indeed decide to pitch (and, presumably, agrees to do so at the Bucs' price), the team would still "have the flexibility to bring him back."