Mark Polishuk | MLB Trade Rumors

NL West Notes: Marte, Rockies, Giants, Gott

By Mark Polishuk | September 26, 2019 at 4:21pm CDT

The Diamondbacks will take steps to try and keep Ketel Marte healthier in 2020, GM Mike Hazen told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, including “getting him off his feet at various points in time” during the season, and investigating “offseason/spring training type of regimens, physically, that we can help him strengthen to put himself in a better position coming into the season.” Something that doesn’t appear to be on the table is moving Marte back to second base, as while Hazen didn’t entirely rule out the idea, “I think how he fits onto the major-league team is a tremendous luxury.” Marte’s transition to regular center field duty went swimmingly from a defensive standpoint, as he posted an excellent +7 Defensive Runs Saved and +10.8 UZR/150 over 687 2/3 innings at the position. He also saw significant action at second base and a bit of time at shortstop, so between that versatility and a huge offensive performance (32 homers and a .329/.389/.592 slash line), Marte was one of the most valuable players of 2019 —- his 7.1 fWAR ranks sixth in all of baseball.

There was a bit of an injury cost, however, as Marte was shut down last week due to a stress reaction in his back. While the stress reaction wasn’t terribly serious, keeping the superstar healthy is of the utmost importance for the D’Backs. Hazen said the Diamondbacks won’t be “closing ourselves off to what the offseason will bring,” so Marte’s positional usage could perhaps be altered again should Arizona have the chance to acquire another regular center fielder (or second baseman). Marte seems like the best bet to be in center on Opening Day, however, given that landing a center fielder would likely come at a significant financial or trade cost to the D’Backs.

Mets Activate Dominic Smith From 60-Day IL

By Mark Polishuk | September 26, 2019 at 2:18pm CDT

The Mets have activated first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith from the 60-day injured list, as per a team announcement (via Twitter). Jeff McNeil will take Smith’s spot on the 60-day IL, as McNeil suffered a fractured wrist in last night’s game.

After a stress reaction in his left foot put Smith out of action back on July 27, he has made it back in time to add a coda onto what has already been a successful 2019 campaign. Smith has hit .278/.352/.506 with 10 homers over 196 plate appearances, with the bulk of that playing time coming against right-handed pitching. While Smith was much more successful (.882 OPS) against righties, he also managed a pretty respectable .281/.343/.406 slash line in his 35 PA against southpaws, which is a promising sign for the 24-year-old’s chances at becoming an everyday player.

Formerly a top-100 prospect, Smith’s first two seasons in the majors saw him hit only .210/.259/.406 over 332 PA. Smith faced criticisms about his conditioning (which he addressed last winter) and, with Pete Alonso on the rise as the Mets’ new first baseman of the future, there was speculation that New York could look to trade Smith since he seemingly didn’t have any other position on the diamond. Instead, Smith saw a lot of time in left field this year, though defensive metrics (-24.1 UZR/150, minus-2 Defensive Runs Saved) weren’t impressed by work.

It isn’t out of the question that Smith could be put on the trade market again, now that he has somewhat revived his stock by showing that he can hit MLB pitching. An American League team that can offer DH at-bats could be a better fit than a National League club like the Mets, plus New York also has a crowded corner outfield situation as it is. That said, Smith is still controlled for the next four seasons and isn’t arbitration-eligible until after 2020, so the Mets could prefer to keep him around as an inexpensive and useful part-timer.

Moises Alou Declines To Interview For Padres’ Manager Job

By Mark Polishuk | September 26, 2019 at 1:38pm CDT

Moises Alou has taken himself out of consideration for the Padres’ open managerial job, ESPN.com’s Enrique Rojas reports (Twitter links). Alou has been working for the Padres as a special assistant in the player development department since 2015, though he declined interest in the manager’s position for family reasons.

The former outfielder was reportedly one of several notable names already receiving consideration from the Padres as Andy Green’s replacement in the dugout. San Diego is looking both at managers with a lot of experience running a Major League team (i.e. Mike Scioscia, Ron Washington, and Bruce Bochy) and also former players without any managerial experience, such as Alou.

This isn’t the first time that Alou has been on the Padres’ radar, as he also decided not to interview for their last managerial opening back in 2015. He also turned down requests from other teams for managerial interviews last offseason. The 53-year-old simply seems content in his current role and, as he told Rojas, would prefer to spend time with his family rather than go through the travel and daily grind that comes with being a manager.

Best known for his outstanding playing career, Alou was a six-time All-Star and a .303/.369/.516 hitter over 17 MLB seasons. While he hasn’t managed himself, the job runs in the family, as his father Felipe managed the Expos and Giants over 14 seasons.

Marlins Extend Don Mattingly

By Mark Polishuk | September 22, 2019 at 8:39am CDT

Sept. 22: Mattingly’s new contract comes with a rather significant pay cut, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. While Mattingly’s previous deal came with a $2.8MM salary for 2019, this pact is believed to pay him $2MM or less annually. The Marlins declined to formally announce the terms.

Sept. 20: The Marlins have formally announced the extension. It’s a two-year deal with a mutual option for the 2022 season.

Sept. 19, 9:46pm: It’s a two-year deal with an option, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

8:38pm: The Marlins and manager Don Mattingly have agreed on a contract extension, as per Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (Twitter link). The deal will be officially announced tomorrow at a press conference.

Mattingly’s four-year contract was set to expire after the season, and there had been a great deal of speculation that the skipper’s time in Miami was coming to a close. Mattingly was a holdover from Jeffrey Loria’s ownership, and new CEO Derek Jeter said just last month that upper management hadn’t yet made a decision about whether or not to retain Mattingly beyond the 2019 campaign.

While Jeter and company have largely cleaned house within the Marlins’ organization since Bruce Sherman’s ownership group bought the team in 2017, some key personnel have been retained, most notably Mattingly and president of baseball operations Michael Hill. Their contracts could have played a role (Hill is also under a long-term deal that runs through 2020), though the fact that Mattingly is now staying is certainly acknowledgement that Jeter’s regime isn’t entirely doing away with holdovers from the Loria days.

Indeed, it’s hard to blame Mattingly for the 272-364 record he carries as the Marlins’ manager. A respectable 79-82 campaign in 2016 was marred by the tragic death of Jose Fernandez near the end of the season, 2017 was a 77-85 writeoff dominated by the impending team sale and rumors of yet another fire sale of the Marlins’ top players, and the miserable 116-197 record of the last two seasons have borne the results of that fire sale. The Fish are on pace to crack the 100-loss threshold for the third time in franchise history.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mattingly’s 636 games in the dugout already make him the longest-serving manager the Marlins have ever had, which speaks to the tumult this organization has more or less faced since day one. Mattingly’s retention will provide some sense of stability as the Marlins put together a new core group of young talent in their latest rebuild.

One of the game’s biggest stars of the 1980’s during his playing days with the Yankees, the 58-year-old Mattingly is about to complete his ninth year as a manager. Miami’s struggles brought Mattingly’s career managerial record (718-727) under the .500 mark, as he enjoyed five years of winning baseball with the Dodgers from 2011-15 that included three NL West titles.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Rusney Castillo Won’t Opt Out Of Red Sox Contract

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 8:09pm CDT

Caught in one of the more unusual contractual situations in recent baseball history, Rusney Castillo will remain with the Red Sox in 2020, as he tells Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated that he won’t exercise his opt-out clause for the final year of his contract. As per the terms of that original seven-year, $72.5MM deal, Castillo has the ability to become a free agent after this season, though in declining the opt-out, he’ll earn the final $13.5MM owed to him in salary.

There was no expectation that Castillo would opt out, given that he hasn’t appeared in a Major League game since June 16, 2016. “You’re not going to cancel something when you don’t have anything else,” Castillo told Apstein. It’s hard to argue with the 32-year-old outfielder’s logic, as he would surely have to settle for a minor league contract if he did opt out, even if such a non-guaranteed deal might be the only realistic way he plays in a big league game in 2020. Still, Castillo has continued to live in a Boston apartment, Apstein writes, out of a belief that he will eventually return to the Red Sox and the majors, and he makes a daily commute to Rhode Island for every home game for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox.

Castillo was outrighted off Boston’s 40-man roster in June 2016, and under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement (signed in the 2016-17 offseason), putting him back onto the 40-man at any point would have made his contract once again eligible to be counted for luxury tax calculations. This would have added an extra $10.357MM (the average annual value of Castillo’s deal) onto Boston’s tax bill for the remainder of Castillo’s contract, regardless of whether or not the Sox outrighted him again. As Apstein notes, even trading Castillo would have some luxury tax repercussions for the Red Sox, not that teams were exactly lining up to acquire Castillo and add his contract to their own books.

The end result is that Castillo has become a fixture at Triple-A Pawtucket, appearing in 389 games for the PawSox since being outrighted. He has continued to hit decently well (17 homers and a .278/.321/.448 slash line over 493 PA in 2019), but even with spectacular numbers, it’s unlikely Castillo would have been an option for a Red Sox club that was both facing major luxury tax concerns and also didn’t really have a need in the outfield with Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, and Jackie Bradley Jr. forming one of the game’s best trios on the grass.

Given that the new CBA also changed the nature of international signings, Castillo’s $72.5MM deal has remained the largest deal ever given to a player who defected from Cuba. Castillo arrived onto the MLB scene with a great deal of hype, though ultimately hit only .262/.301/.379 over 337 plate appearances with the Red Sox from 2014-16.

Stan Kasten: “I Am Completely Certain” Andrew Friedman Returns To Dodgers In 2020

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 6:57pm CDT

The contract status of Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has led to some speculation about the executive’s future in Los Angeles, though team president Stan Kasten left little doubt that he expects Friedman to stay with the team. When asked by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register if Friedman would continue to run the team’s front office in 2020, Kasten said “I am completely certain of that, yes.”

More details weren’t forthcoming, as Kasten cited team policy against discussing executive contracts. Friedman has also declined to talk about the impending end of the original five-year deal he signed with the team in October 2014.

Despite the lack of public knowledge about any negotiations, as Plunkett put it, “Kasten sounds like a man who knows a contract extension will be negotiated and announced soon enough.” In fact, it wouldn’t even be surprising if a new deal has already been reached (or at least mostly worked out), and the club is simply waiting until the end of the season to hold a press conference. Some teams don’t even publicize front office extensions whatsoever, though given the high-profile nature of the expiration of Friedman’s deal, one would expect some type of formal announcement.

Under Friedman, the Dodgers have won five consecutive NL West titles, winning no fewer than 91 games in each of those seasons. The club has advanced to the World Series in each of the last two years, and while the championship remains elusive, the Dodgers remain one of the heavy favorites to finally capture the Commissioner’s Trophy this fall.

While Los Angeles was already on a run of success before Friedman’s arrival, he has continued the organization’s calling card of drafting and developing homegrown stars — Walker Buehler, Will D. Smith and Gavin Lux were all drafted during Friedman’s time with the team and are already contributing to the current roster. Friedman’s front office has also shown a penchant for finding unheralded players (such as Max Muncy and Chris Taylor) who have broken out as regulars in L.A.

These factors and a general reluctance to overbid on free agent talent has caused the Dodgers’ payroll to drop from record highs at the start of Friedman’s tenure to a 2018 payroll that got the team back under the luxury tax threshold. The Dodgers are still among the league’s biggest spenders and the club hasn’t been hesitant to re-sign key players (i.e. Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner) to hefty contracts, though Friedman has brought much greater efficiency to how the team allocates its many resources.

If Friedman did have a desire for a change of scenery, he would immediately garner a lot of interest from around baseball, even from teams who already have a GM or baseball ops president but are looking to make an upgrade. The Red Sox are the only team with an open GM position, and they’d stand out as a natural suitor, as they would undoubtedly be keen to see if Friedman could replicate his success in keeping another big-market team in contention while trimming payroll.

Red Sox Part Ways With Frank Wren, Eddie Bane

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 4:45pm CDT

4:45pm: Wren was fired and Bane’s contract wasn’t renewed, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link).

4:31pm: In the wake of Dave Dombrowski’s firing as general manager, the Red Sox continue to make moves in their front office, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter links) reports that senior VP of baseball operations Frank Wren and special assignment scout Eddie Bane were among the names who are no longer in the organization. “Many more changes are expected” to come, Heyman writes, including “some reshuffling in the amateur department.”

Such moves as par for the course whenever a GM is replaced, and it wouldn’t be surprising if more new faces are brought in should the Sox hire a new general manager from outside the organization. The changes in the amateur department could reflect particular dissatisfaction with some of Boston’s recent drafts. While the Sox have enjoyed great contributions from homegrown players in recent years, almost all of those players were already in the system before Dombrowski was hired in August 2015. Mike Shawaryn is the only player on Boston’s current big league roster was drafted by Dombrowski’s front office, though naturally, it’s far too soon to judge the 2016-19 draft classes this early.

Wren wasn’t expected to continue in his role, given his longstanding ties to Dombrowski. Hired for the senior VP/player personnel role soon after Dombrowski was hired, it was the third time Wren had worked with Dombrowski, as the two were also members of the Expos and Marlins front offices when Dombrowski served as general manager of those franchises. Wren is best known for being a GM himself, overseeing the Braves’ front office from 2007-2014 and also serving a single year as the Orioles’ GM in 1999.

As Heyman notes, Bane’s chief claim to fame is his tenure as the Angels’ scouting director from 2004-10, specifically his work related to the 2009 draft. That was the year that saw Mike Trout selected 25th overall, which alone would’ve been a huge achievement for Bane and his staff, yet the Halos also drafted several other players (Randal Grichuk, Tyler Skaggs, Garrett Richards, Patrick Corbin) who went onto prominent MLB careers. Bane has worked in a variety of different front office and scouting roles for the last 35+ years, and was first hired by the Red Sox in October 2012.

Cubs Activate Craig Kimbrel From Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 4:34pm CDT

The Cubs have activated closer Craig Kimbrel from the 10-day injured list, the team announced. Kimbrel is set to pitch for the first time since September 1 (with an IL placement on September 5), after being sidelined with right elbow inflammation.

Reinforcements couldn’t come at a more welcome time for the Cubs, who are locked in a pitched battle with the Cardinals and Brewers for both the NL Central title and an NL wild card berth. Chicago is three games behind St. Louis as the two rivals begin a critical four-game series tonight, and are also set to meet in a three-game series on the final three days of the regular season. The Cubs and Brewers are tied for the second NL wild card spot, and with an increasingly comfortable cushion on other wild card contenders such as the Mets (three games back), Phillies (3.5 games), and Diamondbacks (4.5 games). Chicago and Milwaukee are also both 1.5 games behind the Nationals for the top wild card position.

While missing close to three weeks of this pennant race surely isn’t what Kimbrel had in mind, his injury absence could serve as something of a potential reset on his tenure with the Cubs. Kimbrel’s well-documented free agent sojourn kept him from signing until early June, and the former seven-time All-Star hasn’t shown anything close to that form in Wrigleyville. Over 19 innings this season, Kimbrel has a 5.68 ERA, a number inflated by both walks (5.2 BB/9) and homers (2.8 HR/9, four times’ Kimbrel’s career average).

If Kimbrel can recapture any of his past form, he’ll strengthen a Cubs relief corps that is pitching its best baseball of the season. Cubs relievers have a cumulative 2.35 ERA in September, the best of any team this month.

Mariners Notes: Felix, Dipoto, Long

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 3:25pm CDT

The latest from Seattle….

With Felix Hernandez likely approaching the end of his days in a Mariners uniform, The Athletic’s Corey Brock (subscription required) took a look back at the right-hander’s often-outstanding career. The piece covers Hernandez’s initial signing with the organization as a 16-year-old in 2002, noting that he rejected overtures from the Braves and Yankees because of his good relationship with Mariners scouts Pedro Avila, Bob Engle and Emilio Carrasquel. From there, Hernandez cracked the big leagues by the time he was 19, and then embarked on almost a full decade as one of the sport’s best pitchers. His production has slowed since he began his 30’s, however, due to both injuries and perhaps a hesitance to embrace changes to his conditioning and pitching repertoire. Hernandez (who turns 34 next April) has indicated that he wants to pitch next season, though it’s hard to see him landing a Major League contract this offseason in the wake of a year that has seen him post a 6.31 ERA in 61 1/3 innings while spending over three months on the injured list.
At a recent town hall event for Mariners fans, GM Jerry Dipoto pointed towards 2021 as the potential turn-around date for the team’s rebuild, Larry Stone of the Seattle Times writes. That said, Dipoto added “There is no scientific answer to the question. I can’t give you a decimal point or a dollar amount or a date and time when it’s all going to crest. But we feel like we’re building talent in a traditional way and we’re adding, let’s call it new, modern techniques of player development and player analysis that we feel make us a little bit different. You got to do something a little bit different in order to beat the teams that are out in front of us.” Dipoto is known far more for his penchant for trades rather than big-ticket free agents, and the general manager hinted that this reluctance to fully dive into the free agent marketplace will continue even when the M’s have more payroll available. “We don’t intend to go throw that [money] at the free-agent market, because quite frankly we’re not one player away, as you can see,” Dipoto said.
Shed Long is one of several young players who have been given a chance on the young Mariners this season, and Long is making a case for himself as an everyday player in 2020, Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes. With three more hits in today’s game against the Pirates, Long is now batting .284/.357/.466 over his first 129 career plate appearances, also filling a void for the M’s as a leadoff man. It’s been an impressive rookie season for Long, even despite the fact that his Triple-A development was slowed by seven weeks on the IL with a broken finger. While Long could bounce around the diamond between left field, third base, and second base, he has spent the bulk of time in Seattle as a second baseman, and could be the future at the position if the Mariners were to part ways with Dee Gordon this winter.

Orioles Outright Ty Blach To Triple-A

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2019 at 1:46pm CDT

The Orioles announced that Ty Blach has been outrighted to Triple-A, after the left-hander cleared waivers. Blach was designated for assignment on Monday, clearing roster space for the O’s to claim Eric Hanhold away from the Mets.

Blach was himself a waiver claim for the Orioles back in August, though after coming from the Giants, Blach didn’t add much help to Baltimore’s rotation. He posted an 11.32 ERA over five starts in an O’s uniform, surrendering six home runs over his 20 2/3 innings of work. Between those struggles and a similarly rough performance in his brief time on the Giants’ big league roster in 2019, Blach has a cumulative 12.00 ERA over 27 total innings.

It marked a big step down for a pitcher who looked like a serviceable swingman in 2018, after he delivered a 4.25 ERA over 118 2/3 frames for San Francisco while starting 13 games and coming out of the bullpen on 34 other occasions. Blach has never been a particularly hard thrower or a big strikeout pitcher (only a 4.91 career K/9), and while he had done a decent job of keeping the ball in the park in prior seasons, home runs became a larger issue for Blach both at the MLB and Triple-A levels in 2019. He was far from the only pitcher to suffer through such a homer spike this season, though Blach’s pitch-to-contact arsenal made him particularly susceptible to the long ball.

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