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Fernando Tatis Jr. Opens Up About Lost Season

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Fernando Tatis Jr. had an absolutely dismal 2022. He missed the first half of the year following March surgery to repair a left wrist fracture sustained in an offseason motorcycle accident and then got popped for an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension just as he was preparing to return to the Padres’ active roster in August.

There were a couple of other setbacks along the way — shoulder surgery in September and a follow-up procedure on his wrist in October — but the 24-year-old does seem to be in a good place both physically and mentally as the opening of Spring Training draws near.

“I’m really excited,” Tatis told Kevin Acee and Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I feel like this is one of the years there’s gonna be more emotion and I’m definitely looking forward to it. … I feel like a different story could have been if I was on the field. I feel like that was a stab to the team. I was apart from them. It was the first time I ever felt that. I was really heartbroken. I’ve always been successful in this area and now for the first time, I really (messed) up. And I really felt that. …  I know what people are gonna talk about out there and what people are gonna be talking about on the field. It depends on me — how I’m gonna approach it, how I’m gonna take it. And it’s gonna be up to me if I’m going to answer back.”

Tatis expects to be a full-go for spring workouts, and he anticipates being activated as soon as he is eligible to return from his PED suspension on April 20. For his newfound peace of mind and improving overall health, he credits diving into an underwater training program run by former Marine Raiders in the San Diego area. Tatis has been participating in these workouts with Joe Musgrove, who was one of the more vocal critics in the Padres’ own clubhouse back when the suspension news was first announced.

“He’s having to face something that he never has or never wanted to face,” Musgrove said of Tatis. “But he’s handling it really well. He’s been around Petco (Park) every day and the work ethic he’s putting in, he’s going to be ready. … Being the superstar and the face of baseball is a lot to take on. So he hasn’t put himself out there a ton in the past. And I feel like now you’re starting to see a little bit more of him open up.”

Tatis delivered a stellar .965 OPS with 81 home runs and 52 stolen bases across his first 273 major league games between 2019-2021. That works out to a 162-game average of 48 homers and 31 steals, to go along with 116 RBI and 125 runs scored. He landed a blockbuster 14-year, $340MM contract extension from San Diego almost exactly 23 months ago. Now he’s about ready again to live up to that high-dollar commitment and perhaps help the Padres claim the NL West crown for the first time since 2006.

Rays Continuing To Explore Market For Offensive Help

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Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander told reporters during his season-closing press conference back in October that the club wanted to add a big bat this winter — particularly of the left-handed-hitting variety — after Tampa Bay’s offense managed to score only one run over 24 innings in that marathon two-game Wild Card Series ouster versus the Guardians.

Rays hitters combined for a .686 OPS during the 2022 regular season, which ranked 25th among all 30 major league clubs. And against right-handed pitching, their combined team batting line was just .234/.305/.373 across a sample size of 4,580 total plate appearances.

Nothing overly exciting has come together for the Rays up to this point, and Neander acknowledged in a recent chat with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that it’s probably too late to make a meaningful offensive addition from what’s left on the open market.

“As the winter went on, and as we spoke publicly, I think the focus was more on an established player, ideally left-handed, being the right type of player for our group,” Neander told Topkin. “We feel really good about the assortment of breakthrough and bounce-back players we have on our roster currently. It was really more about adding an established, consistent offensive player, and there aren’t that many of them out there that are available.”

There was chatter about a number of possible pursuits to help the cause — the Rays were linked at various points to free agents like Josh Bell and Andrew McCutchen. They were also said to be in the hunt for Sean Murphy before the Athletics dealt him to the Braves as part of a three-team swap that also involved the Brewers. Topkin writes that Tampa Bay also made runs at Michael Brantley and Brandon Belt before those players signed elsewhere.

The hope is that a trade for run-scoring help might come together sometime this spring, or better yet before the Rays even roll into camp in Orlando, Florida. Neander also plans to keep his ear open for in-season moves in 2023, should those “breakthrough and bounce-back players” — think Wander Franco, Josh Lowe, and Jonathan Aranda — fail to come through over the course of the first half.

It’s all quite daunting in an AL East that features the Blue Jays (3rd in combined OPS last year at .760) and the Yankees (4th in combined OPS at .751), but Topkin suggests the Rays could have room to add to a roughly $70MM payroll as the baseball calendar moves toward the summer months.

Maybe there could be a circle-back with the A’s, who always seem to be open for business and would likely listen on Seth Brown even after he cranked 25 home runs in 150 games last year. Or perhaps there might be a match with Twins on Max Kepler given Minnesota’s recent addition of Michael A. Taylor from the Royals. One thing the Rays do have is prospects, both low-level and the more MLB-ready types, and Tampa Bay’s front office has certainly never lacked for creativity in finding ways to pull off under-the-radar improvements.

Aaron Slegers Announces Retirement

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Aaron Slegers announced his retirement from baseball on his personal Twitter account last week, citing an “ongoing shoulder injury” that has led to him “calling it a career” at age 30.

Slegers was selected by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Indiana University and went on to make his big league debut with Minnesota in 2017 before then bouncing between the Rays and Angels. The sinkerballer’s best season came with Tampa Bay in 2020, when he posted a 3.46 ERA through 26 innings during the shortened season. Slegers made three playoff appearances during the Rays’ run to an American League pennant, providing Kevin Cash with five innings of one-run ball during the postseason.

Over parts of five MLB seasons, the right-hander worked to a 5.46 ERA with 59 strikeouts and 28 walks across 89 total major league innings, operating mostly in relief. He induced grounders on a solid 51% of batted balls over the course of his career.

Slegers struggled with the Angels in 2021 and was outrighted off their roster in August. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays for 2022 but made it through only 2 2/3 innings in the rookie-level Florida Complex League before his shoulder began barking again. He threw his last pitch on July 2022 against the FCL affiliate of the Braves.

“I know baseball has blessed me with talents far wider than the skills on the field and has molded me into who I am as a person,” Slegers wrote in his retirement post. “Thank you to all who have supported me.” MLBTR wishes Slegers the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Twins Designate A.J. Alexy For Assignment

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After officially announcing their acquisition of Michael A. Taylor from the Royals, the Twins have designated right-hander A.J. Alexy for assignment.

Alexy was acquired from the Nationals earlier this month — on the same day as Carlos Correa’s thoroughly-covered physical with the Twins — but the 24-year-old is now off the 40-man roster in Minnesota and moves again into DFA limbo.

An 11th-round pick by the Dodgers in the 2016 MLB Draft out of a Pennsylvania high school, Alexy made his big league debut with the Rangers in 2021 and showed pretty well in his first cup of coffee before getting lit up for nine earned runs over seven innings last year with Texas. He was claimed off waivers by Washington in December but was part of that organization for less than a month.

Alexy’s stint on the 40-man roster in Minnesota lasted less than two weeks, though he could feasibly pass through waivers unclaimed this time around and would then have to accept an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul.

Cubs, Jordan Holloway Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs signed right-hander Jordan Holloway to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, MLBTR has learned.

Holloway was limited to just 2 2/3 major league innings with the Marlins last season — and he also logged only 23 2/3 innings in the minors — because of a fractured bone spur in his pitching elbow that was ultimately repaired by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in September. The 26-year-old has flashed a powerful arsenal when healthy, and the expectation is that he will be 100 percent when he arrives at Cubs camp in Arizona next month.

With experience as both a starter and reliever, Holloway could get tapped for a swingman-type role on the North Side of Chicago at some point along the way in 2023. A number of Cubs pitchers were used in that capacity, to a surprising level of success, down the stretch in 2022. It all aided in a post-All-Star break record of 39-31, guided by the third-best rotation ERA (2.89) in the majors over that span. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was given the go-ahead to make several aggressive moves on the offensive side this winter, but there would seem to be openings in long relief and for emergency starting help.

Holloway, a 20th-round pick by Miami in the 2014 MLB Draft, currently carries a career 3.92 ERA with 38 strikeouts (and 28 walks) through 39 total big league frames.

Matt Bowman Rejoins Yankees On Minors Contract

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Matt Bowman is returning to the Yankees on a minor league contract for 2023, per his MLB.com transactions log.

And maybe he’ll finally actually be able to pitch for them at some level following numerous stops and starts related to an elbow injury that was repaired via Tommy John surgery back in September 2020. The 31-year-old right-hander hasn’t appeared in any MLB-affiliated games since 2019, when he had a solid run as a member of the Reds’ bullpen.

Originally drafted by the Mets in 2012, Bowman made his MLB debut with the Cardinals in 2016 and holds a career 4.02 ERA with 149 strikeouts in 181 1/3 big league innings. When healthy, he can be an effective soft-contact-inducing reliever courtesy of an arsenal that tends to generate a lot of vertical and horizontal movement. During that 2019 stint with Cincinnati, Bowman held opposing hitters to a .212 batting average and .622 OPS with runners in scoring position. His career groundball rate sits at 56.6 percent.

He is probably going to be ticketed for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre out of Yankees camp, but Bowman can put himself in position for an in-season callup to the Bronx if his health simply cooperates.

Mariners Sign Mike Ford To Minor League Deal

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Mike Ford is back with the Mariners on a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, according to his MLB.com transactions log.

Ford played in 16 major league games with Seattle in 2022 while ultimately bouncing around between four different organizations — the Giants, Braves, and Angels being the other three. He took 149 total big league plate appearances and overall hit just .206/.302/.313 with three home runs and 40 strikeouts.

The now-30-year-old first baseman and DH burst onto the MLB scene with the Yankees in 2019 and posted a shiny .909 OPS, but he has struggled to a combined .570 OPS in 305 big league plate appearances since that promising debut campaign in the Bronx. Given his defensive limitations and age, the long-term outlook here isn’t exactly promising. Nor does the short-term outlook look good for him with A.J. Pollock, Tommy La Stella, and a large handful of better options vying for turns at DH in Seattle.

Ford has been part of the Mariners organization — Rule 5 drafted, let go, re-signed, let go, then re-signed again — a number of other times in the past. He will likely be returning as nothing more than a depth piece at spring camp for the M’s, who snapped the longest postseason drought in North American professional sports last season and are going to be aiming to chase down the reigning World Series-champion Astros in the AL West this year following yet another active winter piloted by hyperactive president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto.

Injury Notes: Acuña, Clevinger, Rockies

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Ronald Acuña Jr. had a relatively disappointing showing at the plate in 2022, coming off his season-ending right ACL tear in July 2021, but the dynamic three-time All-Star believes he will be back at full strength leading into 2023. “I’m feeling 100 percent and I’m ready to go back to normal, and I definitely don’t want to play DH anymore,” Acuña told Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday.

Acuña delivered a combined .925 OPS in his first 1,764 major league plate appearances between 2018-2021 before sinking to a .764 OPS in 533 plate appearances last year. He made 27 starts at DH for the Braves in 2022, after logging — or requiring? — only one total DH start across his entire four previous MLB seasons. In general, he’s averaged 38 home runs and 34 stolen bases for every 162 games played as a big leaguer. Last year: 15 homers, 29 steals in 119 games. As he moves further and further away from that knee injury, the reigning NL East champs should become all the more dangerous.

Acuña is going to DH in the Venezuelan Winter League finals, per Toscano, and he has also stated a desire to represent his native country in the Winter Baseball Classic. But the 25-year-old outfielder noted to David O’Brien of The Athletic that the Braves’ medical staff is unlikely to clear him to play in the upcoming WBC because it is more of a time and physical commitment than Winter League. Essentially, they just really want him to stay in camp.

  • Mike Clevinger signed a one-year, $12MM contract with the White Sox earlier this winter. Soon after, he received a platelet-rich plasma injection to aid in the healing of a knee injury that hampered him down the stretch with the Padres last season and led to a disappointing overall 4.33 ERA. With his knee on the mend, and his November 2020 Tommy John surgery fully in the rearview, the White Sox believe the 32-year-old right-hander can get back to being his old top-of-the-rotation self. “We broke down some biomechanics stuff after we signed him to kind of show him the differences,” pitching coach Ethan Katz told James Fegan of The Athletic. “Where he was different in all aspects of his delivery, which was probably in correlation to the knee … Now that he is healthy, he is working on it. His bullpens and the videos that I have seen, there’s been no kind of restrictions or anything that’s slowed him down from being able to be aggressive on that back leg.”
  • Ryan Rolison, the Rockies’ top selection in the 2018 MLB Draft and perhaps a big rotation piece for their future, is said to be 100 percent recovered from the left shoulder surgery that knocked his pro career off track last season. He did not pitch in MLB-affiliated ball at all in 2022 and ultimately went under the knife in June. “We are better than we were a year ago,” Rockies GM Bill Schmidt said to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post in a recent chat, making note of Rolison’s rebounded health. “We have created some competition for some guys,” Schmidt added. “And, overall, our organizational depth is better.” Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, and José Ureña would seem to be locked into the top three rotation spots for Colorado. Rolison could perhaps battle with Austin Gomber and Connor Seabold at the back end. Peter Lambert (elbow) is also expected to be healthy heading into camp and might get another look for MLB starts at some point in 2023.

Triston Casas Open To Extension Talks With Red Sox

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Triston Casas, viewed as a future cornerstone at first base in Boston, spoke to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford this weekend and expressed an openness to discussing a long-term contract extension with the Red Sox. Alas, those talks have not actually gotten underway in any form …

“No. None whatsoever,” Casas told Bradford. “I haven’t thought about it. Nobody has approached me about it. And my representatives have never even mentioned it to [Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom] or anyone in the front office. I’m just focused on playing this year and we’ll see where it goes. It it happens, it happens. I would love to stay in Boston the rest of my life. I love the city in the little taste I’ve got of it. I don’t know anywhere else and I don’t want to. We’ll see what happens in a couple of years. Hopefully we get something done, but if we don’t we’ll go from there.”

The idea here would be to secure Casas through all of his pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible years and to likely also buy out at least a couple seasons of free agency. Bradford makes note of the “flurry of deals of seven-or-more years” that the Braves have pulled off with the likes of Spencer Strider, Michael Harris, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, and Ronald Acuna Jr.

Many of those extensions were — and are — viewed as extremely team-friendly around the industry. And there’s not a natural comparison between any of them and what the Red Sox might be looking to do with Casas. He has appeared in only 27 major league games up to this point and will still carry rookie status into the 2023 campaign. Albies, for example, signed his bargain seven-year, $35MM pact with Atlanta in April 2019, having already logged more than 215 games at baseball’s highest level. Ke’Bryan Hayes, the Pirates’ long-term hope at third base, inked an eight-year, $70MM pact with Pittsburgh last April, exactly 120 games into his MLB career.

Casas flashed good power in his initial taste of big league action down the stretch in 2022, clubbing five home runs with a .766 OPS over 95 plate appearances. Granted, his batting average came in at just .197. Before his promotion on September 4, the 23-year-old consensus top-35 prospect registered a .273/.382/.481 batting line in 317 plate appearances at Triple-A Worcester.

Maybe something can get going on the extension front when Casas arrives at Red Sox camp in the spring. Or the wait could be quite a bit longer than that. But the goal is to ensure that he does not slip away from the organization like Xander Bogaerts did or build up the kind of negotiating power of a Rafael Devers, who commanded ten years, $313.5MM in new money from the Sox earlier this month.

A’s Sign Joe Wieland To Minor League Contract

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Joe Wieland has agreed to a minor league deal with the Athletics, according to his MLB transactions log.

Wieland, 33, spent the 2022 season in the Rays’ minor league system after bouncing around for a handful of years between Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization, and the independent Constellation Energy League. A former top-100 prospect after being selected by the Rangers in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft, he last appeared in a Major League Baseball game back in 2016 with the Mariners and currently carries a rough 6.32 ERA in 52 2/3 total MLB innings.

The journeyman right-hander will likely be nothing more than a depth piece for Oakland leading into the 2023 campaign, but he picked a favorable spot to perhaps get an opportunity to jump back into the bigs. In his time at Triple-A Durham last summer, Wieland worked to a 3.00 ERA with eight strikeouts across 12 frames.

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