Mark Polishuk | MLB Trade Rumors

White Sox Sign Elvis Andrus

By Mark Polishuk | February 20, 2023 at 11:08am CDT

Feb. 20: The White Sox have announced the signing and confirmed the one-year, $3MM terms of the deal.

Feb. 19: The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). The contract will become official when Andrus passes a physical, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds that Andrus will earn a $3MM salary. Andrus is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Andrus returns to the south side of Chicago after hitting .271/.309/.464 over 191 plate appearances with the White Sox last season. Released by the A’s in August, the Sox quickly inked Andrus as a shortstop replacement for Tim Anderson, who ended up missing the rest of the season due to a torn hand ligament. While only over a small sample size, Andrus’ performance with the Sox marked his best offensive surge in years, as the veteran had struggled at the plate during the end of his tenure with the Rangers and for much of his two seasons in Oakland.

With Anderson now back and healthy, the White Sox will use Andrus as their regular second baseman. This is the first position change of Andrus’ 14-year MLB career, as he has exclusively played shortstop (with a handful of DH games) over his 1947 Major League games. Andrus has made exactly one professional appearance as a second baseman, and it happened way back in his first pro season of 2005 with the Braves’ rookie ball affiliate.

Lack of experience notwithstanding, there probably isn’t much doubt that Andrus can handle the new position, given that he was still posting quality defensive numbers (as per the UZR/150 and Outs Above Average metrics) as a shortstop as recently as 2022. It is certainly possible that Andrus’ glovework will be even better at an ostensibly easier position, which gives the White Sox a defensive boost heading into a season with new anti-shift rules coming into play.

The signing addresses a problem position for the Sox that has lingered all offseason. Chicago signed Hanser Alberto, Erik Gonzalez, and Nate Mondou to minor league contracts, yet neither represented any real upgrade to a second base position that generated only 0.3 bWAR for the White Sox over the entire 2022 season. With Andrus now in the fold, longtime utilityman Leury Garcia can now used in his usual multi-position role, and more inexperienced options like Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa can now compete for bench jobs or get more seasoning in the minor leagues.

The $3MM outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1MM, as per Roster Resource. This is a little less than the approximately $193MM the White Sox spent last season, though GM Rick Hahn indicated back in November that the club was planning to have around the same payroll as it did in 2022. Some reports suggested that the Sox would even try to cut payroll down to around $180MM, though that plan may have been abandoned in light of rising free agent costs and a relative lack of league-wide action on the trade market. If the Sox were in contention at midseason, owner Jerry Reinsdorf could possibly okay another payroll bump for a trade deadline addition, even if it’s probably safe to assume that a real spending splurge isn’t coming.

The Angels and Red Sox were the only teams publicly known to have interest in Andrus this winter, with Boston emerging in the wake of Trevor Story’s internal-brace surgery on his right elbow. There was obviously a lot of action on the shortstop market this offseason, but once the big names of Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson all signed their contracts, remaining teams with shortstop needs seemed more willing to test out internal options rather than pursue a veteran like Andrus. Becoming a second baseman might reflect the reality of the market for Andrus, or he might’ve just preferred an everyday role at a new position (and in a familiar environment) rather than remain a shortstop on a new team, but in more of a part-time capacity.

NL Notes: Marte, Stephenson, Dodgers, Taillon

By Mark Polishuk | February 20, 2023 at 11:05am CDT

Starling Marte underwent core surgery in November, and the outfielder talked with reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) today about the somewhat unexpected nature of that procedure. Marte ended up requiring surgery on both sides of his groin, providing an unwelcome answer to he’d been bothered by leg and lower-body problems for a big portion of the 2022 season. Marte played through quad and groin soreness but didn’t go on the injured list until he suffered a fractured finger in September, sidelining him until the playoffs.

Despite all the injuries, Marte’s first Mets season was a success, as he hit .292/.347/.468 with 16 homers over 505 plate appearances. Both Marte and manager Buck Showalter indicated that the veteran outfielder will be ramped up somewhat slowly in the early days of Spring Training, yet Marte is expected to be ready to roll for the Opening Day lineup.

John Henry Discusses Payroll, Offseason, “False Narrative” Around Red Sox

By Mark Polishuk | February 19, 2023 at 10:33pm CDT

Red Sox principal owner John Henry addressed several topics related to his team in e-mails with The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and The Boston Sports Journal’s Sean McAdam, and in both Q&A responses, Henry pushed back against criticisms of the club’s offseason.

“There’s been a false narrative that we somehow stopped spending — completely unsupported by the facts — that we no longer sign free agents, that we are uninterested in or incapable of winning despite our track record….I don’t think anyone realizes there are 30 teams in these sports every year that are all doing everything they can to win,” Henry wrote in his response to McAdam. “In a particular year some clubs are criticized because they aren’t ’going for it’ when they are going every single thing they can short of destroying their futures to win. You always have to keep an eye on the future. And every team (maybe not the Mets) has a budget. It’s so easy to fall as we did in 2022 to mediocrity. We needed to make changes but we haven’t lost our way.”

In regards to Boston’s own budget, Henry told McCaffrey that the Red Sox weren’t going to increase spending into the $300MM range as response to how teams have operated this winter. The Mets’ whopping $355MM projected payroll leads baseball, and the Yankees and Padres have also opened the checkbook to a large extent this winter, even if both teams are wary of hitting particular luxury-tax penalty tiers.

It has been a busy winter at Fenway Park, with a long list of notable players (i.e. Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill) departing in free agency. Bloom has been quite active in adding replacements, with such players as Masataka Yoshida, Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, Corey Kluber, Adam Duvall, Adalberto Mondesi, and Joely Rodriguez among the notable names brought aboard in signings or trades. In addition, the Red Sox also locked up a cornerstone piece in signing Rafael Devers to a massive extension that will keep the slugger in Beantown through the 2033 season.

Naturally, Henry pointed to the Devers deal as proof that the Red Sox were still open to extending their in-house stars, as well as making long-term commitments to players into their late 30’s. “Clubs, fans, media can all wish players had fewer options and that clubs had unlimited budgets, but players — including those you most want to extend — are often going end up going to free agency,” Henry wrote to McAdam. “Clubs need depth. Every MLB club faces these issues and it isn’t something we enjoy. I hated losing Xander as much as anyone on the planet, but players going to free agency isn’t a new phenomenon. We are faced with difficult choices each offseason.”

With an estimated payroll of just under $193MM, the Red Sox are hardly pinching pennies, and yet that total represents a significant drop from their 2022 year-end payroll of around $221MM. Boston’s luxury tax number is now down to roughly $217.8MM, under the $233MM threshold and also a reduction after the Red Sox just barely surpassed the tax line in 2022. The front office’s decision to stay over the tax line last season drew plenty of criticism, as the Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs, and their status as Competitive Balance Tax payors cost them in terms of draft compensation for Bogaerts and Eovaldi. Because the duo rejected qualifying offers, the Red Sox would’ve received compensatory picks sitting 61st and 62nd overall in the 2023 draft order. Instead, those picks are 119th and 120th overall.

Henry also used the “false narrative” terminology in his response to McCaffrey, saying that Bogaerts’ decision to sign with the Padres was one of “the biggest factors” in some of the discontent expressed by Red Sox Nation. In response to the widely-publicized incident of Henry, president Sam Kennedy, and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom being booed during the team’s Winter Weekend fan event, Henry seemed to imply that media negativity exaggerated the situation, rhetorically asking “did anyone report the standing ovation at the end?”

With all this in mind, Henry didn’t address or seemingly didn’t recognize the chief criticism most Boston fans have about the team’s offseason — not a lack of spending per se, but rather the nature of that spending. Rather than pursue another major name to replace Bogaerts, the Red Sox instead spread their money around to multiple veteran players on short-term contracts. The biggest deal to a new player went to Yoshida (an unknown quantity against MLB competition), and the size of Yoshida’s contract also drew surprised responses from multiple rival executives.

Time will soon tell if Bloom’s strategy has paid off, and obviously a lot of fan criticism will diminish if the Sox get back into contention in 2023. Henry wrote in both e-mails that “no one was happy with” with the team’s 78-84 record last year left, including ownership.

Going into the new season, Henry feels “we are in much better shape than we were after 2021,” when the Red Sox advanced to the ALCS. That year marked the one winning season of Bloom’s three-year tenure as chief baseball officer, but when asked by McAdam about Bloom’s job performance, Henry noted that “baseball operations is more than one person….So a better question is: how is the organization doing?”

“As I said, we haven’t gotten the kind of results you would have expected for the amount of resources deployed over the last four years with the exception of 2021. We’ve been building depth, but we saw little depth last year in the major leagues. You should see some depth this year and improvement. We have had setbacks with injuries already this season, but we expect to be competitive. We are at a different stage than the Yankees are, than Toronto this season….It will be interesting.”

MLBTR Chat Transcript

By Mark Polishuk | February 19, 2023 at 9:16pm CDT

Click here to read the transcript of tonight’s live baseball chat

Orioles CEO John Angelos Discusses Camden Lease, Ownership, Payroll, Extensions

By Mark Polishuk | February 19, 2023 at 6:42pm CDT

Orioles CEO/chairman John Angelos met with reporters (including The Baltimore Sun’s Nathan Ruiz and Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com) today to discuss a wide range of topics regarding the franchise, its offseason moves, and the bigger-picture question of the Orioles’ long-term future in Baltimore.

To the latter subject, Angelos reiterated his family’s commitment to the ownership of the Orioles, saying “I would say that there’s not a plan to change the principal ownership or the managing partnership and there would be no reason to.” While a new minority owner might be brought into the ownership group, Angelos noted that such a move wouldn’t necessarily be unusual, given that some of the original investors in the group “have transitioned out” in the 30 years since Peter Angelos (John’s father) first brought the franchise and become majority owner.

“It would be nice if we could attract strategic people who care about Baltimore, who care about the way we’re doing this now, who care about the example Camden Yards set and want to be part of it,” Angelos said. “That’s not necessary or a requisite, but we’re open to it. We have no plan to change or transition out of what we have today.”

Some of the questions surrounding the Orioles’ ownership situation were raised by a lawsuit filled by Louis Angelos (John’s brother), who raised the possibility that John and his mother Georgia could possibly sell the team, or move the Orioles to Tennessee. Earlier this month, Louis’ lawsuit and the countersuit from Georgia Angelos were dropped, bringing an apparent end to a legal dispute. Unsurprisingly, John didn’t get into specifics about the lawsuits, other than to say “those things are distractions, and it’s unfortunate whenever they arise, but all good things going forward now.”

Angelos noted his longstanding commitment to Baltimore and his desire to finalize a new, longer-term lease for the Orioles at Camden Yards. The current lease is up after the 2023 season, since the O’s passed on their opportunity on February 1 to trigger a five-year lease extension.

Despite this ticking clock, Angelos has confidence that a new deal will be reached, saying that “the actual facility use agreement, renewing a 30-year-old document, that’s really a minor sidelight” to the Orioles’ larger plans for a more fully developed stadium-village type of project, given that Camden Yards is right next to M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. The ideal would be a thriving downtown area that provides value to the city, state, and the franchise beyond just gamedays.

“I have no doubt that we will relatively rapidly move towards the renewal of the public-private partnership and I would be very disappointed if I’m not able to work with the governor and his team…to make that happen in the next six months. I’d love to have that as an All-Star break gift for everybody, really,” Angelos said. “There’s just no there there other than we’re going to get that done. That’s always been one of the things I committed to and I have no intention of not seeing that happen. I know the governor and his folks are just as keen on it as we are.”

Making reference to himself as “here for the long haul” with the franchise, Angelos used the same terminology to describe GM Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, implying some security with the contracts of both men. While specifics weren’t mentioned, Angelos said Elias and Hyde’s current deals aren’t “expiring in a year or two years or anything like that.”

Since the Orioles usually don’t publicize contract terms, not much is known about the nature of either agreement. For instance, Hyde initially signed a three-year deal as manager in December 2018, but he also inked an extension during the 2020-21 offseason — a fact that wasn’t reported until September 2021. Elias was hired a month before Hyde, and while terms were never released about the GM’s contract, it is fair to speculate that he might have gotten a relatively lengthy deal (say, four years) considering the wide scope of the rebuild project the Orioles were on the verge of entering. That said, Angelos’ comments hint that Elias might have signed an extension in the interim, keeping him in Baltimore through at least the 2025 season.

Locking up Elias and Hyde certainly seems like a no-brainer move given the progress the Orioles made in 2022. The first three seasons of the Elias/Hyde rebuild resulted in non-competitive seasons, but the O’s were a very respectable 83-79 last season. Star rookie Adley Rutschman has already established himself as a quality player, and Rutschman might be just the first of several top prospects the Orioles can hope can make a quick impact at the MLB level.

However, the immediate follow-up to this breakout season has been modest, since the O’s have had a relatively quiet offseason. According to Roster Resource, the Orioles’ projected $63.4MM payroll for 2023 is essentially the same as their year-end figure from 2022, since Chris Davis finally came off the team’s books following last season.

Angelos didn’t close the door on increased spending in the future, saying “Could payroll be double or triple what it is? Or could it be over 100 million? Yeah. We’re not there yet. We have a very young team that’s overachieved and overperformed because of the great work of our baseball folks.”

“Payroll, I think there’s a range there that Mike and his team have to determine. Do I have a role in that? Really only to make sure their recommendations are properly funded. We’re probably not going to have or is any other middle or small-market team going to have the payroll of the Mets or the Dodgers or even the Red Sox, certainly not the Yankees. That’s not an Oriole thing. That’s a small or middle-market team in this economic system.”

Citing other teams with notably lower payrolls, Angelos mentioned that the Guardians, Brewers, and Rays are teams that the O’s would like to emulate, since “we’re aiming for sustained success, and I think what you see in a place like Tampa, they have had sustained success….I would be disappointed if we’re not the next Tampa, which means being sustainably competitive and relevant.”

This might not be welcome news for Baltimore fans, who would certainly like to see their team become a regular contender but with the flexibility to spend at a much higher level than the Rays. The Orioles’ spending fluctuated when Peter Angelos had day-to-day control over the team, though the O’s had top-10 payrolls as recently as 2016 and 2017.

Astros Notes: Altuve, Gage, McCullers

By Mark Polishuk | February 19, 2023 at 4:19pm CDT

Dana Brown’s first few weeks with the Astros has already seen the new general manager sign Cristian Javier to a five-year, $64MM contract extension, and more long-term deals seem to be on Brown’s radar in the near future. Jose Altuve was one of several players cited by Brown as extension candidates, with the new GM making the particular point that the longtime second baseman “should be in Houston for life.” This is music to Altuve’s ears, who told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that “it’s really good to hear that” from Brown. “I hope to retire here, so I think we’re on the same page.”

Altuve has become a franchise icon over his 12 seasons with Houston, and has already signed one big-money extension with the club — a seven-year, $163.5MM deal that runs through the 2024 season. A new contract could overwrite the last year or two of that previous deal, of course, or the Astros might simply look to tack a few more seasons onto Altuve’s existing pact. 2025 is Altuve’s age-35 season, yet there isn’t any sign of slowing down, considering that Altuve’s 164 wRC+ in 2022 was the best of his career.

More from the defending World Series champs….

The Astros claimed Matt Gage off waivers from the Blue Jays earlier this week, and Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi adds some interesting details behind the transaction. Gage will receive a split contract with a $770K salary in the majors and $170K in the minors, and the Astros included a $125K signing bonus. The bonus was included in order to convince Gage to join the team, because Gage had the right to reject Houston’s claim and test free agency since the Jays placed him on release waivers rather than standard outright waivers. Before offering the signing bonus, Brown first had to contact the league office to confirm that the unusual tactic was allowed in release waiver situations.
Manager Dusty Baker gave a positive update on Lance McCullers Jr. yesterday following the news that the righty had been temporarily shut down due to arm soreness. Baker and Brown made similar statements today to FOX 26’s Mark Berman (Twitter links) and other reporters, with Brown noting that he is “not alarmed at all” by the “day-to-day” nature of McCullers’ issue.

Injury Notes: Marquez, Kopech, White

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 11:13pm CDT

German Marquez suffered a left hamstring injury during conditioning drills, though Rockies manager Bud Black told The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders and other reporters that Marquez was able to do some light running on Friday and play catch. The injury seems minor enough that Marquez expressed hope that he could still pitch for his native Venezuela during the second round of the World Baseball Classic, though Marquez will be sidelined for the first round of WBC play.

The right-hander is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022 campaign that saw him post a 4.95 ERA over 181 2/3 innings and some of the worst hard-contact numbers of any pitcher in baseball. Any kind of delay in his spring work won’t help in Marquez’s rebound efforts, and a pitching-thin team like Colorado certainly can’t afford seeing its ace miss any time. However, the injury may have taken place early enough that Marquez’s Opening Day status may not be in question — as Black put it, “we’re fortunate in a lot of ways, and German realizes this, that it’s the middle of February and not the middle of March.”

More on other injury situations around the sport…

Both Michael Kopech and White Sox manager Pedro Grifol think the right-hander is going to be ready for Opening Day, as they updated reporters (including the Associated Press) about Kopech’s status following an injury-marred end to his season. Kopech spent time on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation and a left knee strain, and his season came to an early end when he underwent surgery to fix a tear in his right meniscus. After an offseason of rehab work, Kopech is now “at a point where the knee’s feeling better, the shoulder’s feeling better. But it’s just kind of smoothing things out and getting back to 100 percent.” With Kopech tossing only 119 1/3 innings in 2022, his first full season as a starting pitcher ended up being somewhat limited, though he overcame some very shaky metrics to post a 3.54 ERA.
Mitch White told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson that he had a slight shoulder impingement in January that somewhat delayed his usual offseason routine, but the Blue Jays righty is now feeling “great.” White is close to starting to throw side sessions, and that might provide a clearer picture of whether or not White is fully ready as camp opens. Entering his first full season with Toronto, White struggled to a 7.74 ERA over 43 innings with the Blue Jays after being traded from the Dodgers, but White still enters camp in competition for the Jays’ fifth starter role.

AL West Notes: Maldonado, deGrom, Bleday

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 9:24pm CDT

Martin Maldonado played through a sports hernia and a broken hand for the latter part of the 2022 season, toughing it out to remain on the field and help the Astros win a championship. As a result, Maldonado admitted that he “felt a little sad” that the Astros looked at Willson Contreras and other available catchers this offseason. “We just won the World Series and I felt like I sacrificed my whole body playing through injuries for the team….But I understand the business,” Maldonado told The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome and other reporters. “I know as an owner, as a front office, they’re going to try to always get the best position players available and help the team get better. Willson was the best free-agent catcher out there.”

Maldonado has rarely hit much over his 12 MLB seasons, but he is beloved within the Astros clubhouse for his defense and ability to work with pitchers. A new addition doesn’t appear to be coming for now, leaving Maldonado atop Houston’s depth chart and youngsters Korey Lee and Yainer Diaz competing for the backup catching job. Maldonado’s health situation certainly spurred the Astros’ acquisition of Christian Vazquez at the trade deadline, but if Houston has any lingering feelings that an upgrade is necessary behind the plate, they’re certainly still a team to watch on the trade market throughout the season.

NL East Notes: Mets, Britton, Rizzo, Nationals, Fried

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 7:47pm CDT

The Mets are “unlikely” to sign Zack Britton, a source tells MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, though New York was one of six teams in attendance at Britton’s showcase earlier this week. Brooks Raley is the only left-hander slated for a role in the Mets’ bullpen, so Britton would’ve added some southpaw depth that seems necessary on paper. However, DiComo writes that the Mets like the flexibility offered by having relievers available with minor league options, since it allows the club to shuttle fresh arms back and forth from the minors when necessary.

Britton and the Mets were seen as a logical match for much of the offseason, both due to the Mets’ needs for left-handed relief help and the past history between Britton and manager Buck Showalter from their time with the Orioles. With multiple teams (even beyond the teams who had scouts at his showcase) still showing interest in Britton, the two-time All-Star seems bound to land somewhere in what will essentially be a comeback year after two injury-marred seasons.

Cubs Notes: Thompson, Alzolay, Hendricks, Hoerner

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 6:44pm CDT

Keegan Thompson and Adbert Alzolay aren’t part of the competition to be the Cubs’ fifth starter, as manager David Ross told reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) that the two right-handers will be working out of the bullpen. Thompson has pitched as a reliever for 38 of his 61 career games in the majors, with significantly more success out of the pen — the righty has a 1.95 ERA over 73 2/3 bullpen innings, as opposed to a 4.94 ERA over 94 2/3 frames as a starter. Alzolay has started 27 of his 45 career games, but worked exclusively as a reliever in his limited action last year, as Alzolay missed most of 2022 recovering from a shoulder strain.

Thompson also missed close to a month last season due to lower back tightness, so health concerns might have also been some factor in the Cubs’ decision. However, the team might simply be more excited by the idea of what Thompson or Alzolay could deliver as relief pitchers, particularly since the rotation has been bolstered by the addition of Jameson Taillon and the re-signing of Drew Smyly. Chicago hasn’t spent much on the bullpen in recent years, preferring to add veterans on one-year deals (i.e. this winter’s signings of Michael Fulmer and Brad Boxberger) and seeing what is available in terms of in-house options. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Thompson or Alzolay couldn’t still get at least some usage as a starter in 2023, or that the door is closed on either righty as a potential starting candidate down the road.

Headlines

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect