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AL East Notes: Blue Jays, Donovan, Nootbaar, Watson, Judge
Before signing Willson Contreras last winter, the Cardinals were known to be considering catching options on the trade market, which included talks with the Blue Jays about their then-surplus of Gabriel Moreno (who was eventually dealt to the Diamondbacks), Alejandro Kirk, and Danny Jansen. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shed some light on those past talks between the Jays and Cards, writing that Toronto had interest in Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan.
With Goold also reporting earlier this week that Dylan Carlson was on the Jays’ radar this winter, there’s plenty of reason to think that Toronto and St. Louis could line up on some sort of trade this winter. Nootbaar could slide perfectly into the Blue Jays’ left field vacancy, while Donovan’s ability to play almost any position would give Toronto lots of flexibility in figuring out how it wants to address its many needs around the diamond. Of course, several teams have also made calls about Nootbaar, Donovan, and Carlson, and it remains to be seen if the Jays could outbid the field, if the Jays have the available pitching that the Cardinals are badly seeking this offseason, or even if St. Louis dealt any of these particular players whatsoever.
More from around the AL East…
- The Rays hired Tony Watson for a job in their player development department, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Watson will be working under director of pitching Winston Doom. A veteran of 11 big league seasons from 2011-21, Watson retired in 2022 due to shoulder problems, and the 38-year-old is now moving into a new stage of his baseball career. Known mostly for his seven seasons with the Pirates, Watson was a former All-Star reliever who posted a 2.90 ERA over 648 1/3 career innings, and is MLB’s all-time leader in holds (246) since the statistic started to be officially recorded by the league in 1999.
- It isn’t any surprise that Aaron Judge is a big voice within the Yankees organization, and The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner writes that Judge and owner Hal Steinbrenner “have already met this offseason on multiple occasions.” Examples of Judge’s influence might extend to the job security of manager Aaron Boone and director of player health and performance Eric Cressey, as Judge (and perhaps the Yankees clubhouse at large) likes both. Kirschner notes the interesting dynamic this creates, writing that “Judge is seemingly on the second level of the team’s organizational ladder alongside” GM Brian Cashman, though Cashman himself earlier this week said he didn’t have any issue with star players like Judge or Gerrit Cole giving their input.
- For more from the AL East, MLBTR’s Nick Deeds compiled another set of notes from around the division earlier today.
Latest On Shota Imanaga’s Posting
It was already known that left-hander Shota Imanaga would be posted this offseason, and reports out of Japan yesterday indicated that the Yokohama DeNA Baystars have officially agreed to the left-hander’s request to explore the North American market. “If someone has a dream he wants to realize, and we think he has the ability to achieve it, we want to support that,” DeNA executive Tatsuhiro Hagiwara told the Kyodo News and other outlets.
To be clear, the Baystars have only agreed to post Imanaga, and haven’t yet officially posted the southpaw for MLB teams. Once Imanaga’s posting window properly opens, he’ll have 45 days to negotiate with Major League clubs. If no deal is reached within the 45 days, Imanaga will return to the Baystars for the 2024 Nippon Professional Baseball season, and he’d have to wait until next offseason to again vie for a North American contract.
The 30-year-old Imanaga is one of the more intriguing players available this winter, and MLBTR ranked him 10th on our list of the top 50 free agents of the 2023-24 class. We’re projecting a five-year, $85MM pact for Imanaga, befitting his status as one of Japan’s top pitchers of recent years. Imanaga is a two-time NPB All-Star, has a 3.18 ERA and 25% strikeout rate over 1002 2/3 career innings with the Baystars, and he won a gold medal with Japan’s championship team at this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Imanaga is subject to the MLB/NPB posting system, so a big league team would have to give the Baystars a posting fee on top of whatever they end up paying Imanaga. The posting fee is worth at least 20% of the guaranteed value of Imanaga’s contract, with the Baystars receiving more money depending on the total value. For instance, if Imanaga did sign for that projected $85MM, his new Major League club would owe the Baystars $14.65MM.
Despite this impressive resume, Imanaga is only the second-best NPB starter on the market, behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. MLBTR ranks Yamamoto third on our top 50 list and in line for a nine-year, $225MM commitment, based on Yamamoto’s ability and the fact that he is only 25 years old. Yamamoto is also tied to the posting system via the Orix Buffaloes, and interestingly, Imanaga’s reps at Octagon might be aiming to keep their client out of Yamamoto’s shadow. According to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, the Baystars might not officially post Imanaga until after Yamamoto has already signed.
This strategy carries some risk. For one, Yamamoto’s own posting window has yet to begin, though he is expected to be made available to MLB teams relatively soon. Even if the Buffaloes posted Yamamoto tomorrow, he would still have until December 26 to land a contract, and it seems possible he might take closer to the 45-day maximum to finalize what will likely be one of the winter’s larger contracts. For example, since many of the same big-market clubs are pursuing both Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto’s camp might see if Ohtani could sign first, thus providing more clarity on Yamamoto’s market.
Should this scenario occur, Imanaga might not be posted until sometime in January, creating a bit of a time crunch. A 45-day window would put Imanaga close to the start of Spring Training, if Imanaga and Octagon also needed time to negotiate with clubs to find an acceptable contract. This would leave Imanaga with less time to not just find a new team, but to acclimate himself to his new continent, new city, and new coaching staff prior to Spring Training, and it would make sense that Imanaga would want time to properly ramp up for his debut MLB debut.
On the other hand, it isn’t an uncommon tactic for an upper-tier free agent to wait until later into the offseason to sign. If Yamamoto and some other free agent pitchers and trade candidates are off the board by the time Imanaga is available to be posted, he might have fewer suitors in general, but the remaining suitors might be more desperate (and thus more willing to get into a bidding war) to land one of the few top-tier rotation options still unsigned.
Royals, Bobby Witt Jr. Have Had “Some Talks Here And There” About Extension
While the Royals’ rebuild hasn’t gone to plan overall, Kansas City does have at least one cornerstone in Bobby Witt Jr. The second overall pick of the 2019 draft has lived up to the hype in his young career, fully breaking out with a 5.7 fWAR season in 2023 that saw Witt hit .276/.319/.495 over 694 plate appearances with 30 homers, 49 stolen bases (in 64 chances), and a league-high 11 triples. The public defensive metrics are rather unusually split on Witt’s glovework, but at least in the view of the Outs Above Average metric, Witt’s +14 number makes him one of sport’s best defensive shortstops, to boot.
The future is very bright for the 23-year-old, and some level of discussion seems to have taken place between Witt and the Royals in regards to how much of that future will be in K.C. Witt told Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star that “I think there is some talks here and there” in regards to a possible contract extension, “so we’re just kind of waiting to see. I love this organization and love this team. It’s just kind of one of those things. If the time is right, the time’s right.”
Players and teams usually tend to keep contract negotiations quiet, especially since things between Witt and the Royals might still be somewhat in the embryonic stages. As Thompson noted, Royals GM J.J. Picollo said last month that the club was “working on” extending Witt, and that “it would be exciting to do so, as he is a special player. We want to keep special players in our uniform.”
To this end, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal hears from a source that the Royals are “at least entertaining the idea of approaching Witt” about an extension at some point this offseason, which implies that no formal offers have been issued or perhaps even floated towards Witt’s representatives at Octagon. It is worth noting that there isn’t a big ticking clock on either side to fully delve into talks, as Witt is under team control through 2027 and won’t even be eligible for salary arbitration until next winter.
That said, Witt’s price tag will only increase as time goes by. Witt is already looking at a sizeable set of increasing salaries through his arb seasons, so the Royals would surely like to gain some cost certainty for those years at the minimum. If a larger-scale extension can’t be worked out, Witt and the Royals might explore a shorter-term deal covering just the arbitration seasons, akin to the three-year extension Bo Bichette signed with the Blue Jays last spring.
Even that type of extension would be a relatively pricey endeavor for a Kansas City franchise that has never been big spenders. Salvador Perez’s four-year, $82MM extension prior to the 2021 season remains the largest contract in franchise history, and a long-term deal for Witt might be at least twice that amount, depending on the number of years covered.
For instance, the Rays inked Wander Franco to an 11-year, $182MM extension after Franco’s 2021 rookie season, which consisted of 70 MLB games. Like Franco, Witt was also a heavily hyped shortstop prospect, but Witt now has two full productive Major League seasons under his belt, so it would seem like Octagon could surely argue that a Witt extension deserves to top Franco’s deal, and approach or top the $200MM mark. The Braves’ Austin Riley inked a ten-year, $212MM extension when he was between two and three years of MLB service time.
Though the Rays have shown a (comparatively) greater inclination to spend lately, we haven’t yet really seen how far the Royals are willing or able to stretch their payroll under owner John Sherman. On the one hand, Perez’s extension did take place under Sherman’s watch, as part of a relative spending spree during the 2020-21 offseason that also saw a four-year extension for Hunter Dozier, as well as two-year free agent deals for Mike Minor and Carlos Santana. All of these moves were made with the intent of boosting what the Royals thought was a group of youngsters on the verge of a breakout, yet the team has continued to struggle. This cost former president of baseball operations Dayton Moore his job in 2022, elevating Picollo from second-in-command to the head of the decision-making pyramid.
Some other big-picture issues cloud the financial picture. While the bankruptcy of the Diamond Sports Group has yet to impact the Royals’ broadcasts on Bally Sports, Sherman said last spring that naturally the organization was monitoring the situation should the Royals’ TV rights payments suddenly come into question. As well, Sherman has been trying to get a new ballpark built in Kansas City, and in some instances, owners claiming that a new stadium is critical to a team’s ability to compete don’t want to perhaps undercut that argument by then spending $200MM on a player’s contract. That said, Rosenthal argues in the other direction, writing that a Witt extension “might help sway public sentiment” to get the ballpark project off the ground.
Even if K.C. probably aren’t going to be huge players in the offseason transaction market, the possibility of a Witt extension stands out as a notable subplot to watch — both for its importance on the Royals’ future, and as a benchmark for future extensions. Even if the two sides are in the proverbial “talking about having some talks” phase of negotiations, expect things to get at least a little more serious as we get deeper into Spring Training, as teams tend to focus more on extensions once their offseason business is complete.
Athletics Re-Sign Yohel Pozo
The A’s have signed catcher Yohel Pozo to a new minor league contract, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Pozo will return for a second year in Oakland’s organization, after hitting an impressive .306/.338/.523 with 18 homers over 391 plate appearances at Triple-A Las Vegas in 2023.
Despite some nice on-paper production at the Triple-A level over the last two seasons, the hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League tends to inflate Pozo’s numbers. An .826 OPS over 267 PA with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2022 translated to only a 104 wRC+, and Pozo’s 2023 numbers in Las Vegas were actually below average (99 wRC+) in comparison to the rest of the PCL’s hitters.
This is probably why Pozo still hasn’t gotten another look in the big leagues since his 21-game stint with the Rangers in 2021. Pozo hit .284/.312/.378 over 77 PA in his debut season in the bigs, which was the highlight of his nine years in the Texas organization. (The Padres briefly had Pozo signed to a minors deal during the 2020 offseason before Texas selected him back via the minor league version of the Rule 5 Draft.) The Rangers parted ways with Pozo last winter, allowing for the Athletics to make the signing.
In addition to catching, Pozo has also gotten a decent chunk of playing time as a first baseman during his pro career. Still only 26 years old, Pozo will return to a depth role in the minors, as Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom will continue to get the bulk of catching assignments on the MLB roster.
Red Sox Sign Mark Contreras To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox have signed outfielder Mark Contreras to a minor league contract, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Contreras is changing teams for the first time in his pro career, as he had been a member of the Twins organization since he was selected in the ninth round of the 2017 draft, and until Minnesota released him in August.
That time in the Twin Cities did result in Contreras’ first stint as a big leaguer, as he played in 28 games for Minnesota during the 2022 season, hitting .121/.148/.293 over 61 plate appearances. This lackluster output and the Twins’ crowded outfield picture meant that Contreras didn’t get any more MLB playing time in 2023, plus he didn’t force the issue by batting a modest .274/.352/.418 over 381 PA for Triple-A St. Paul last season.
Contreras (who turns 29 in January) has had a lot of problems avoiding strikeouts during his pro career, but he has posted decent numbers at the Triple-A level. A solid defender who can play all three outfield positions, Contreras’ speed has helped both his defensive efforts and his offensive threat level, as he has stolen 93 bases in 126 chances during his minor league career.
With two minor league option years remaining, Contereras gives the Red Sox some possible extra depth to be kept at Triple-A should a need arise in the outfield. Since the Twins outrighted him off their 40-man roster in August, Contreras now has the ability to reject any future outright assignments in favor of free agency, giving him a bit of extra leverage for the remainder of his career.
Cam Gallagher Elects Free Agency
Cam Gallagher has elected to become a free agent, according to the veteran catcher’s official MLB.com profile page. The Guardians designated Gallagher for assignment earlier this week and he presumably cleared waivers, and then opted for free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment to Cleveland’s Triple-A team. Because Gallagher has been outrighted before in his career, he has the ability to reject any future outright assignments.
Gallagher seemed like a pretty clear non-tender candidate even before the Guardians picked up Christian Bethancourt off waivers from the Rays, which was the move that led to Gallagher’s DFA. Over 149 plate appearances for the Guardians last season, Gallagher hit only .126/.154/.168 — this translated to an ugly -17 wRC+, the lowest of any player in baseball in 2023 with at least 140 PA.
Seven different players saw action at catcher for the Guards last season, a mess of a situation sparked when offseason acquisition Mike Zunino struggled badly at the plate. This led to a revolving door of backstops until Zunino was designated for assignment in June, and Bo Naylor was called up from Triple-A for good. With Naylor’s bat coming alive near the end of the season, the former top prospect looks to have solidified his role as the Guardians’ starting catcher going forward, hopefully adding some pop to a position that has long been an offensive black hole for Cleveland.
Between Naylor, Bethancourt, and utilityman David Fry able to catch once in a while, there wasn’t any room for Gallagher to vie for work as a backup. Gallagher is projected to earn $1.3MM via the arbitration process in 2024, but it seems likely that he’ll have to settle for another minor league contract and compete for a backup job in Spring Training.
Turning 31 next month, Gallagher is a veteran of 227 MLB games over seven seasons with the Royals and Guardians, with a .211/.266/.307 slash line over 618 PA. While the offense hasn’t been there, Gallagher is a pretty well-regarded defender, and 2023 was at least a very strong year for Gallagher with the glove. As per Statcast’s numbers, Gallagher was solidly above average at framing and blocking, and he threw out nine of 52 baserunners for his first-ever positive (+1) grade in the Catcher Stealing Runs metric.
Coaching Notes: Cora, Tigers, Johns, Rays, Albernaz, Guardians
The Tigers will be hiring Joey Cora for their coaching staff, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (X link) reported earlier this week. Cora has spent the last two seasons as the Mets’ third base coach, and he “is expected” to fill that same role in Motown, according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, who reports that current third base coach Gary Jones will remain on the staff in a new role. However, that new position won’t be first base coach, as Petzold suggests that Triple-A manager Anthony Iapoce might take over first-base duties from the departing Alfredo Amezaga.
The 58-year-old Cora has 16 seasons’ worth of MLB coaching experience, coming on the heels of his 11 seasons as a Major League player from 1987-98. Cora has worked as a bench coach and third base coach at the big league level, and is also known for his work as an infield instructor. This is the first time Cora and Detroit manager A.J. Hinch have worked together, though Cora’s brother Alex worked as Hinch’s bench coach with the Astros before the younger Cora was hired as the Red Sox manager.
Catching up on some other coaching hires from the past week…
- The Rays named Michael Johns as the club’s new first base coach. (Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the day before the official announcement that Johns was the “likely choice” for the job.) Johns will replace Chris Prieto as both the first base coach, and as a baserunning and outfield instructor. This will be the first time the 48-year-old Johns has worked on a big league staff, though he has a wide range of experience as a coach, coordinator, and manager within Tampa’s farm system since the 2007-08 offseason. Johns has managed five different Rays affiliates, including Triple-A Durham in 2023.
- The Guardians announced that Craig Albernaz has been hired as their big league coaching staff’s new field coordinator. Albernaz interviewed for the managerial vacancy that was filled by Stephen Vogt, though obviously Albernaz impressed the Guards enough to earn a spot in the organization. The 41-year-old Albernaz played with Vogt when both were minor leaguers in the Rays farm system, and Albernaz went onto a five-season stint in Tampa’s organization as a coach, coordinator, and manager in the minors after ending his playing career. For the last four seasons, Albernaz was the Giants’ bullpen coach.
Marlins Officially Hire Rays GM Peter Bendix As President Of Baseball Operations
TODAY: The Marlins have officially announced Bendix’s hire. Principal owner Bruce Sherman spoke glowingly of Bendix in a press release, saying that “Peter is an established industry leader with an extensive skillset and deep experience that will continue the momentum we have made on the Major League level, while also strategic building the foundation for sustained success.”
Nov 5: The Marlins are set to hire Rays general manager Peter Bendix as the club’s next head of baseball operations, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough (links to X). Rosenthal reported earlier tonight that Bendix was Miami’s “leading candidate” for the job, and Bendix has informed some Rays co-workers that he will be leaving for the Marlins job.
Bendix would become the latest in a long line of Tampa Bay executives hired away by other teams. Andrew Friedman (Dodgers), Chaim Bloom (Red Sox), Matt Arnold (Brewers), and James Click (Astros) all got rival front office jobs due in part to the Rays’ consistent ability to draft and develop talent, all while fielding competitive teams on small player payrolls. Other organizational attempts to replicate the Rays’ success has been somewhat mixed, though obviously Friedman and Click both won World Series titles with their teams.
The Rays’ track record is undoubtedly of interest to Marlins owner Bruce Sherman, who reportedly hasn’t been happy with how his team has been developing its younger talent. These concerns led to Sherman’s plan of installing a new head of baseball operations above general manager Kim Ng, which resulted in Ng declining her end of a mutual option on her contract for the 2024 season. It isn’t known if Bendix or any other candidates were already being targeted by Sherman prior to Ng’s departure, yet naturally Ng balked at the idea of suddenly being demoted after the Marlins reached the playoffs last season. Rosenthal reports that Bloom was also on the Marlins’ radar, but the former Red Sox chief baseball officer declined to be a candidate for the Miami job.
This will be Bendix’s first time in full command of a front office, as Erik Neander is Tampa’s president of baseball operations, and former PBO Matt Silverman is now the team president. Bendix has been a member of the Rays organization since starting as an intern in 2009, and worked his way up the ladder through multiple roles in the research and development department. The 38-year-old Bendix earned a VP title in 2019 as the team’s director of baseball development, and was promoted to general manager just under two years ago.
Sherman’s purchase of the Marlins franchise in 2017 has led to quite a bit of front office turnover in that limited timeframe. Michael Hill was kept on as the president of baseball operations, though CEO Derek Jeter was known to be making the bigger-picture baseball decisions as the team was going through a rebuild. Ng was hired to be the GM when Hill’s contract was up after the 2020 season, but the picture was shaken up again when Jeter himself left prior to the 2022 campaign.
Jeter’s public statement that “the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead” only led to more questions, and some reports suggested that Jeter wasn’t pleased with Sherman’s apparent desire to spend less on payroll, though that was apparently far from the only issue between the two. The Marlins have increased spending to some extent under Ng, up to a $92.5MM Opening Day payroll in 2023 that still ranked 23rd of 30 teams.
However, even with the Marlins securing a wild card berth this past season, Sherman still wasn’t satisfied. The hiring of Bendix now provides a full break from the Jeter era, and in theory makes it seem as if the Marlins will try to emulate Tampa Bay’s strategy of perpetual contention with modest spending. This doesn’t mean that Sherman couldn’t green-light higher levels of spending than the Rays are accustomed to, yet it also doesn’t seem like the Marlins will exactly be approaching the luxury tax any time soon.
Adopting “the Rays’ plan” is far easier said that done, of course, and the next step will be seeing exactly how the Marlins will operate under Bendix in 2024. Sandy Alcantara will miss all of next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Jorge Soler is a free agent after opting out of his contract, and it can be argued that Miami’s 2023 club might have gotten to the postseason due more to good fortune than to championship pedigree. The Marlins were outscored by a 723-666 margin, but enjoyed a whopping 33-14 record in one-run games.
As much as Miami fans would be exasperated at seeing another step back or some sort of rebuild, Bendix could be given perhaps at least a season to remake the team in his image, if restocking the farm system is a larger priority for Sherman than another playoff push. Or, since the Fish already have a good deal of talent in place, Bendix might try to hit the ground running by trying to compete and add some prospect depth at the same time.
From the Rays’ perspective, they’ll have to again fill a hole in their front office. Assistant GMs Chanda Lawdermilk, Will Cousins, and Carlos Rodriguez stand out as natural candidates to be promoted to the full general manager job as Neander’s new No. 2, though any number of candidates might emerge for a franchise that likes to promote from within.
Central Notes: Kiermaier, Twins, Anderson, Morel, Kantrovitz, Bloom
The Twins are interested in Kevin Kiermaier to address their need in center field, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Since Byron Buxton’s health and ability to play center field is still in doubt, the Twins are again looking for some help up the middle, as Michael A. Taylor (acquired last winter in a trade with the Royals) is now a free agent. Kiermaier would come at a higher price tag in free agency, yet the veteran offers equally stellar glovework, albeit with a pretty significant injury history in his own right.
With the Blue Jays managing Kiermaier’s playing time in order to keep him healthy, Kiermaier managed to almost entirely avoid the injured list in 2023, while hitting .265/.322/.419 over 408 plate appearances and winning another Gold Glove for his work in center field. If Buxton is able to play in the field at all, the Twins could conceivably platoon Buxton and Kiermaier in center field to keep both players fresh. Signing Kiermaier would add yet another name to a somewhat crowded list of Minnesota position players, yet Nightengale feels the Twins will aim to trade from this surplus to land pitching help
More from both the AL and NL Central…
- Also from Nightengale, the White Sox “desperately tried” to find a trade partner for Tim Anderson, but ended up just declining Anderson’s $14MM club option. A trade would’ve allowed the Sox to at least recoup something in return for their veteran shortstop rather than letting him go for nothing, yet any number of factors might’ve prevented a deal. We don’t know what Chicago was looking for in return, of course, or whether Anderson’s salary was a sticking point for either a new team to absorb, or if a suitor wanted the White Sox to eat some money to facilitate a deal. Now a free agent, Anderson figures to draw plenty of attention as a bounce-back candidate, probably on a one-year pillow contract worth less than $14MM, considering Anderson’s poor 2023 season.
- Christopher Morel is expected to draw a lot of trade attention this winter, as The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney write that rival teams scouted Morel thinking the Cubs would be more open to moving the utilityman in the offseason than at the trade deadline. Morel is something of a “master of none” type of utility player, as he can play multiple positions but isn’t real defensive plus at any spot, except possibly second base. But, this versatility and his above-average hitting numbers over 854 career PA makes him an interesting trade chip for the Cubs as they address other needs.
- Also from Sharma and Mooney, the Mets had interest in hiring Cubs VP of scouting Dan Kantrovitz “for a high-level job in their front office,” but Kantrovitz will be staying in Chicago. Kantrovitz has been with the Cubs for the last four seasons, after previously working as an assistant GM with the Athletics. In other Cubs front office buzz, Sharma/Mooney figure that the team will explore an external hire for at least one of their two assistant GM openings, as a way of bringing a fresh voice into the mix.
- “There are rumblings” that former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom might land with the Cardinals in an advisor role, Peter Gammons reports (on X). Not much had been heard about Bloom’s potential next step after he was fired by the Sox in September, before Gammons’ item and today’s news that Bloom turned down overtures from the Marlins about their front office vacancy. An advisory job would be an interesting way of Bloom to keep a foothold in baseball without committing to another full-time post, as Gammons notes that Bloom is prioritizing time with his family.
