Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars Re-Sign Michael Peoples

By | at

The Yokohama DeNA BayStars have re-signed right-hander Michael Peoples to a new contract for the 2022 season, the team announced.  This will be Peoples’ third season pitching with the BayStars.

Originally a 14th-round pick in the 2012 draft, Peoples posted a 4.16 ERA and a 17.3% strikeout rate over eight seasons and 779 2/3 innings in Cleveland’s farm system.  Working primarily (126 of 166 games) as a starter, Peoples saw action at the Triple-A level over the last four of his seasons in affiliated ball, but never got the call to the majors.  Injuries played a role, as Peoples was limited to only 133 1/3 total innings in 2017-18 and kept him from a full Triple-A season until 2019.

Over his first two seasons in Japan, Peoples spent time with both the BayStars’ NPB team and its minor league affiliate.  The 30-year-old righty has a 4.55 ERA over 85 innings with Yokohama.  Tyler Austin, Edwin Escobar, Fernando Romero, and Neftali Soto are some of the former MLB players joining Peoples as the non-Japanese contingent in the BayStars’ spring camp.

NL Notes: Wieck, Gomes, Dodgers, Phillies

By | at

Brad Wieck has been limited to 59 2/3 innings over his four big league seasons, as the Cubs left-hander has been hampered by a series of concerning health problems.  After being treated for testicular cancer in 2019, Wieck has faced heart issues in each of the last two years — a cardiac ablation in 2020, and then surgery last year to address an atrial fibrillation.  “I’ve had to deal with a lot in my career, but it’s one more thing that’s made me who I am,” Wieck told Mark Gonzales of The Daily Herald.  “I take pride in what’s made me, and all I can do is continue to work.”

The good news is that Wieck was cleared for baseball activity, and said “as of now, I feel great” as he ramps up for the 2022 season with a series of bullpen sessions.  Despite a 14.1% walk rate last season, Wieck didn’t allow a single earned run over 17 innings of work, and the southpaw has an impressive 35.9% strikeout rate over his brief MLB career.  In a Cubs bullpen that is lacking in surefire options, Wieck certainly looks like a candidate to win a job, and perhaps serve as the Cubs’ top left-handed reliever.

More from around the National League….

  • Multiple teams have approached Brandon Gomes with interview requests over his five years with the Dodgers, but Gomes consistently turned down those other opportunities to remain in Los Angeles.  Speaking with Jack Harris of The L.A. Times and other reporters, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman noted that Gomes was being sought after for several different roles, and “there aren’t a lot of people that you can say that about, that really are qualified to do so many different things.”  This versatility will continue to apply to Gomes’ new position as the Dodgers’ general manager, as Friedman said that Gomes’ specific day-to-day duties will evolve and “we’ll figure out what makes the most sense at any given time.”
  • “Given their roster construction, no team wants the designated hitter in the National League in 2022 as much as the Phillies,” NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman writes.  The Phillies aren’t a strong defensive team, and they have several veterans who battled injuries in 2021 and could benefit from the partial off-day provided by a DH spot.  However, the universal DH might also lessen the chances of a reunion between the Phils and Brad Miller, as Miller will have even more job opportunities open to him in free agency should the 14 other NL teams all have need for extra position player depth.

CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys Re-Sign Dylan Covey, Ryan Bollinger

By | at

Last month, the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League announced that right-hander Dylan Covey and left-hander Ryan Bollinger had signed new contracts with the team for the 2022 season.  (Hat tip to CPBL Stats.)  Both pitchers will be entering their second season with the Monkeys, and for Bollinger, 2022 will be his fourth year of CPBL action.

Covey posted a 6.57 ERA over 264 1/3 innings with the White Sox and Red Sox from 2017-20, officially beginning his MLB career after Chicago selected him away from the A’s in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft.  The righty’s grounder-heavy arsenal didn’t translate well against Major League batters, as Covey had only a 15.4% career strikeout rate, and the long ball (18.4% home run rate) also plagued him.

While that strikeout rate only marginally improved in Covey’s first CPBL season, the overall numbers were much better, as he posted a 4.01 ERA over 58 1/3 innings with the Monkeys.  As noted by CPBL Stats, Covey joined the Taoyuan-based team in midseason and got off to a slow start, but posted a minuscule 0.58 ERA over his final five outings of the season.

Though Bollinger has been pitching in the CPBL for three seasons, he has only seen action in two of those years, as foot injuries kept him from appearing in even a single game in 2020.  Moving from the Fubon Guardians to the Monkeys last year, Bollinger had a nice rebound, posting a 2.80 ERA and 24.73% strikeout rate over 106 innings for the Rakuten squad.

Bollinger (who turns 31 in February) was a 47th-round pick for the Phillies back in 2009, drafted as a first baseman but quickly transitioning to pitching.  He never actually played in Philadelphia’s farm system, as Bollinger moved onto a well-traveled pro career that has included stops with several independent teams, the Australian Baseball League, and the CPBL.  The southpaw pitched in the affiliated minors with the White Sox from 2011-13 and with the Yankees in 2018, plus he signed a minor league deal with the Padres in the 2018-19 offseason but was released at the end of Spring Training.

Mets Announce Full Coaching Staff

By | at

The Mets have officially announced their 2022 coaching staff, with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner as the only returning member of the last year’s coaching corps.  Many of the new hires had already been reported in recent weeks, with hitting coach Eric Chavez, first base coach Wayne Kirby, third base coach Joey Cora, and bench coach Glenn Sherlock all joining forces on Buck Showalter’s staff for the veteran manager’s first year in the Mets dugout.

Joining this group are two other coaches, one a newcomer to the Mets organization and the other a familiar face.  Jeremy Barnes will become the assistant hitting coach, receiving a promotion from his previous role as New York’s director of player initiatives.  Craig Bjornson will act as bullpen coach, coming to Queens after most recently working three seasons as the Red Sox bullpen coach.

Phillies fans may remember Barnes as a member of the Philadelphia farm system from 2009-12, after Barnes was selected in the 11th round of the 2009 draft.  Barnes then moved on to play the next three seasons in independent baseball and in the Australian Baseball League, remaining in Australia for two more years to work for ACT Baseball after his playing career was over.  From there, Barnes returned to North America and spent four years working in the Astros’ farm system as a hitting coach and as a minor league hitting coordinator.

Bjornson also has ties to the Astros, working as Houston’s bullpen coach in five of six seasons from 2012-17.  Before his time with the Red Sox and Astros, Bjornson spent 13 seasons as a minor league pitching coach with four different organizations.

With Showalter’s staff now complete, the group represents an interesting mix of old-school experience and newer-school approaches.  Bjornson, Kirby, Cora, and Sherlock are all seasoned big league coaches, while this will be Barnes’ first time on a Major League staff and Chavez’s first coaching gig of any kind.  Even Hefner is still relatively new to the coaching world, as the 35-year-old has been the Mets’ pitching coach for the last two seasons and a Twins assistant pitching coach in 2019.

Quick Hits: Assistant GMs, Kjerstad, 2022 Draft

By | at

There’s plenty of ambition to be found within baseball’s front offices, and yet for an increasing number of executives, remaining in a secondary role is a nice place to be, The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli and Eno Sarris write.  Whether in an assistant GM role or as a general manager working under a president of baseball operations, these “top lieutenant” positions tend to involve more job security, increased pay in recent years as teams try to prevent other clubs from poaching employees, and a lot less public pressure than being the head of a baseball ops department.  As one former GM put it, “there’s so much scrutiny on it that people are like, ’Screw it, I’m happy making a nice living and can be around my kids and go out to dinner without being recognized.’ ”

On the other hand, if there is relatively less movement amongst front office personnel, that can also lead to a stagnation of hiring practices.  This makes it harder for minority candidates to get opportunities for a notable front office position, let alone consideration for a PBO or GM job.  As White Sox executive VP Kenny Williams has observed, teams are increasingly hiring front office personnel lacking in baseball-related experience, and yet that same lack of experience is often cited as a reason why women or minority candidates aren’t given promotions to larger roles.

More from around the baseball world…

  • Heston Kjerstad might receive an invitation to the Orioles’ big league Spring Training camp, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.  It is a welcome bit of good news for Kjerstad, who is now fully recovered from the myocarditis that has thus far kept the second overall pick of the 2020 draft from beginning his professional career.  Kjerstad has gotten in some work at Orioles minicamps and in the fall instructional league, with the early returns against live pitching already impressing team coaches and evaluators.
  • Speaking of high draft picks, the top of the 2022 draft class figures to be heavy with position players, with MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis predicting that “at least eight hitters will go in the first 10 selections.”  This seems due to both a lack of standout college pitchers and an above-average group of hitters at both the collegiate and prep levels.  High schoolers Druw Jones (son of former Braves star Andruw Jones) and Termarr Johnson rate particularly well with Callis, who puts Jones and Johnson behind only Bobby Witt Jr. as the best position player prospects of the 2019-22 draft classes.

Poll: What Is The Rays’ Future In Tampa Bay?

By | at

The Rays’ plan of splitting home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal led to quite a bit of debate and controversy since the club first floated the concept in 2019, though after the Rays asked the league for formal approval of the plan in November, the MLB Executive Council officially rejected the two-city proposal yesterday.

Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said the team’s immediate next step is to again revisit the idea of a new ballpark in the Tampa Bay area, even though multiple attempts at such a project have fallen short over the years.  Tampa mayor Jane Castor recently said that her office would be open to any idea that would keep the Rays in town, yet while the city would also be willing to explore alternate ways of funding a ballpark, Castor drew the line at using taxpayer funds, saying “the community’s appetite to pay for a stadium has left the train station.”

In short, it looks like the Rays may essentially be back at square one, given how Sternburg stressed that his organization had been so fully committed to the Tampa/Montreal plan.  In fact, Sternburg is still a believer in the two-city idea for not just the Rays, but for teams in both Major League Baseball and beyond, stating that “Partial seasons are going to be the wave of the future in professional sports.”

It isn’t yet known why the Executive Council vetoed the Rays’ idea, though the simple answer could be that there were too many logistical hurdles to make such a two-city concept work.  However, just to be purely speculative, it is possible that the league took issue with splitting games between Tampa and Montreal specifically, rather than necessarily vetoing a two-city concept entirely.  With more and more cities increasingly reluctant to commit much or any taxpayer dollars towards building new stadium projects, categorically ruling out a “sister city” plan or other creative ideas wouldn’t be logical for MLB, as the league obviously wants all of its teams in revenue-generating ballpark situations.

Maybe the Executive Council could’ve taken a different view of the plan if the Rays had pitched sharing Tampa and a more nearby city like Orlando, rather than a city 1500 miles away and in a different country.  In the bigger picture, the Council might also have balked at one team covering two distinct markets, especially since Montreal has often been mentioned as a possible landing spot for an expansion team, or for any other existing teams who might eventually look to switch cities.

In any event, the only option that seems certain is that the Rays don’t see Tropicana Field as a long-term option.  The team’s lease at the stadium expires following the 2027 season, and unless the Rays sign a one- or two-year extension to give Tampa or St. Petersburg more time to finish a new ballpark, there is virtually no chance the Rays will still be calling the much-maligned Trop home come Opening Day 2028.

Where does MLBTR’s readership think the Rays will eventually wind up after the 2027 season?

(poll link for app users)

NL Central Notes: Haudricourt, Pirates, Flaherty, Cardinals

By | at

Veteran sportswriter Tom Haudricourt announced his retirement yesterday, as the longtime Brewers beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will be officially stepping away within the next month or two.  Haudricourt has been with the Journal Sentinel for the last 36 years, following an eight-year stint with The Richmond Times Dispatch that launched his baseball career when Haudricourt covered the Braves’ former Richmond-based Triple-A affiliate.

Both Milwaukee fans and MLBTR’s readers have become very familiar with Haudricourt over the years, as he has broken countless transactions and news items related to the Brewers and the greater baseball world as a whole.  In addition to his work on the beat, Haudricourt has also authored several books on the Brewers, and regularly contributed to Baseball America’s coverage of Milwaukee’s farm system.  We at MLB Trade Rumors wish Haudricourt all the best in his retirement, and congratulate him on a terrific career.

More from the NL Central…

  • The Pirates lost a member of their coaching staff earlier this week, as Glenn Sherlock is set to become the Mets’ new bench coach.  Speaking about Sherlock’s departure with The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman and other reporters, Pirates GM Ben Cherington said that the team probably won’t “replace Sherls in a formal kind of way.”  Sherlock didn’t have a formal title on Pittsburgh’s staff, though his primary duties involved working with the team’s catchers.  Cherington noted that some of the Bucs’ other coaches with catching experience (such as Mike Rabelo, Radley Haddad, and bullpen catcher Jordan Comadena) can help fill the void left by Sherlock’s departure, and “there may be an opportunity to grow some people’s roles in that area.”
  • Jack Flaherty is scheduled for free agency following the 2023 season, but even with the Cardinals’ team control winding down, Ben Frederickson of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch figures the club will wait until next spring to really delve into extension talks.  After a big 2019 season, Flaherty ran into some struggles in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, and then tossed only 78 1/3 innings last year due to oblique and shoulder injuries.  Since any Cards extension offer in the near future is likely to be tempered by this recent track record, Flaherty himself would probably prefer to re-establish his value with a healthy and productive 2022 season before committing to a longer-term deal.  Flaherty is projected for a $5.1MM salary next year via arbitration, and even those shorter-term talks will be interesting considering Flaherty and the Cardinals went to a hearing (won by Flaherty) last spring.

NL East Notes: Phillies, Zauzmer, Mets, Lefkowitz, Braves

By | at

Earlier this offseason, the Mets denied the Phillies’ request to interview baseball analytics director Ben Zauzmer about Philadelphia’s assistant GM opening, SNY’s Andy Martino writes.  The Phillies instead went with another young executive for the role, hiring 27-year-old Anirudh Kilambi away from the Rays.

Like Kilambi, Zauzmer is also young (29), has a background in analytics, and already has amassed an impressive resume early in his career in baseball.  Zauzmer joined the Mets only last year after a six-year stint in the Dodgers’ analytics department, but quickly established himself as an important figure in New York’s front office.  This resulted in Zauzmer getting an assistant GM job with the Mets themselves, as the team announced the promotion in late December.

More from around the NL East…

  • Also from the Mets, Jason Lefkowitz had been a candidate for an assistant hitting coach position, but Joel Sherman of The New York Post tweets that the Mets are instead “going in another direction.”  A former scout for the Mariners and Astros, Lefkowitz runs a high performance baseball training facility.  Back in August, the NY Post’s Greg Joyce wrote about Lefkowitz’s work with Yankees prospect Anthony Volpe prior to the 2021 season, and Volpe delivered a huge year at A-ball that has put him in the conversation as one of baseball’s top prospects.  The Mets are still in the process of finalizing Buck Showalter’s coaching staff, though the lead hitting coach role was filled by Eric Chavez earlier this month.
  • When the Braves signed Manny Pina in November to share catching duties with Travis d’Arnaud, it immediately created speculation that either William Contreras and Shea Langeliers could be used as trade chips.  In the opinion of both The Athletic’s David O’Brien and an overwhelming 85.3% of respondents to a poll of Braves-related topics, Contreras seems the likelier of the two to be moved.  Both catchers are 24 years old and Langeliers has yet to debut in the majors, though he is a higher-rated prospect, garnering top-100 attention in each of the last two seasons.  Contreras has hit .225/.308/.405 in a small sample of 195 plate appearances at the big league level, though as O’Brien notes, defense is Contreras’ bigger issue.  There is no guarantee, of course, that Atlanta might deal any of its catchers, as d’Arnaud’s long injury history would seemingly require the team to have a bit more extra depth behind the plate.  The Contreras family are no strangers to trade buzz at this point, since William’s older brother Willson Contreras may also be available for teams in need of more established catching help.

Guardians Name Joe Torres As Assistant Pitching Coach

By | at

The Guardians officially announced their 2022 full coaching staff, with Joe Torres joining the mix as an assistant pitching coach.  Torres fills the role left open when Ruben Niebla left the Guardians in October to become the Padres’ new pitching coach.

The 10th overall pick of the 2000 draft, Torres pitched 13 seasons in the Angels (his original team), White Sox, Dodgers, Rangers, and Rockies farm systems, plus a year in independent ball.  Moving into coaching after his playing career was over, Torres has spent the last five seasons with Cleveland, working as a pitching coach with their rookie ball, low-A and high-A affiliates before working as the organization’s minor league pitching coordinator for the last two seasons.

The 39-year-old Bronx native now takes his first job on a Major League staff, joining pitching coach Carl Willis and bullpen coach Brian Sweeney as the Guardians’ pitching braintrust.  Torres and new hitting coach Chris Valaika are the only new members to join a largely stable Cleveland staff under returning manager Terry Francona.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top