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Sorting Through The Orioles’ Rotation Options

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The Orioles headed into the winter intent on adding a pair of veterans to the rotation, and while there was a substantial layoff between their first and second additions, with Kyle Gibson signing a one-year deal back on Dec. 5 and Cole Irvin not joining the staff until last Friday’s trade. That gives the O’s a pair of veterans who are plenty capable of eating up innings while still also leaving a fairly wide-open window for several younger arms to pitch their way into the team’s plans.

In all likelihood, the Orioles will wind up using ten or more starters over the course of the season. It’s commonplace for teams to cycle through far more than the five (or six) members of the Opening Day rotation — particularly younger teams like Baltimore, where the rotation will be composed primarily of yet-unproven starters and/or prospects whose workloads will be handled with care.

Locks

Kyle Gibson, RHP: Whether by design or by happenstance, the decision to bring in Gibson over 2022 staff innings leader Jordan Lyles wound up being a cost-neutral gambit, which will lead to inevitable comparisons between the two. The Orioles bought Lyles’ $11MM club option out for $1MM, then turned around and invested the exact same $10MM they saved into a one-year deal with Gibson.

The 35-year-old Gibson, like Lyles, is a workhorse by today’s standards. He’s averaged 29.875 starts per 162-game season, dating back to 2014, and made a full slate of 12 starts in the shortened 2020 season. He has a below-average strikeout rate with solid command and above-average ground-ball tendencies. The O’s are going to count on him for 30-plus starts and 160-plus innings, although if they’re not in contention when the trade deadline rolls around, it’s easy to see them putting Gibson on the market.

Cole Irvin, LHP: For the second time in as many weeks, I’m listing Irvin as a “lock” in a team’s rotation while profiling their various options on the back end of the staff. As noted on that rundown of the A’s rotation, there was always a chance that Irvin could be moved, though a midseason deal felt likelier. The O’s instead jumped to add Irvin as a durable source of innings.

Over the past two seasons, he’s made 62 starts of 4.11 ERA ball with a well below-average 16.8% strikeout rate but a superb 5.2% walk rate as a member of Oakland’s rotation. That’ll be the type of production they’re looking for not just this year but for the next several seasons. Irvin is controlled for another four years and won’t even be arbitration-eligible until next offseason.

There’s some risk in acquiring Irvin, who’s had far more success at the spacious Oakland Coliseum than on the road. Dating back to Opening Day 2021, the lefty owns a 3.44 ERA pitching in Oakland, where opponents have batted just .243/.288/.355 against him in nearly 800 plate appearances. In that same timeframe, Irvin’s road ERA is a more alarming 4.88, and opponents have pounced on him for a .285/.330/.491 slash. The O’s recently made their left field dimensions quite a bit more pitcher-friendly, but Irvin will still be facing some righty-heavy lineups within the AL East.

Pitchers who made 15+ starts in 2022

Dean Kremer, RHP: Kremer, 27, finished second on the Orioles with 125 1/3 innings pitched and notched a tidy 3.23 ERA last season despite a tepid 17% strikeout rate. Kremer, acquired from the Dodgers in the Manny Machado trade, doesn’t miss bats or keep the ball on the ground, but he has a better-than-average walk rate. Any regression in his 0.79 HR/9 mark or his 77.8% left-on-base rate — he entered the season at 2.12 and 65.1%, respectively — could spike his ERA closer to his 4.54 SIERA. That said, Kremer at least looks the part of a back-of-the-rotation arm. And, now that he’s poised to take on a larger workload, he should at least be a decent source of average-ish innings.

Kyle Bradish, RHP: One of four minor leaguers acquired in the trade sending Dylan Bundy to the Angels, Bradish ranked third on the 2022 O’s with 117 2/3 innings pitched. He missed more bats and generated more grounders than Kremer but was also more prone to both walks and home runs. Bradish’s 4.90 ERA isn’t much to look at, but while fielding-independent metrics feel Kremer had some good fortune in ’22, the opposite is true of Bradish, whose FIP, SIERA, etc. are all quite a bit lower than his earned run average. Both pitchers seem capable of turning in an ERA in the low- or mid-4.00s over 150-plus innings.

Spenser Watkins, RHP: A former 30th-round pick by the Tigers, Watkins signed with the O’s as a minor league free agent in Jan. 2021 and debuted as a 29-year-old rookie later that season. He tallied 105 1/3 innings for the 2022 Orioles, posting a 4.70 ERA along the way. Among the 156 pitchers with at least 150 innings thrown since 2021, no one has posted a lower strikeout rate than Watkins’ 13.7%. His 7.9% swinging-strike rate is fifth-lowest among that group. Watkins has good command and has posted solid numbers in Triple-A over the past two seasons, but he feels like more of a depth option based on his big league work to date.

Tyler Wells, RHP: Baltimore’s most effective starter for much of the 2022 season, Wells carried a 3.09 ERA through his first 16 starts but needed a .225 average on balls in play to get there. That minimal BABIP and a 16.7% strikeout rate made the ERA look fairly dubious, and Wells indeed struggled mightily over his final few starts of the season. It should be noted that he missed more than a month due to a side injury and landed back on the shelf due to shoulder trouble to close out the year, but he nonetheless yielded a 7.39 ERA over his final 28 innings (seven starts). None of Wells, Kremer or Bradish miss bats at a particularly high level, nor do they possess elite command or ground-ball tendencies. They each have some appealing traits, however, and any of this trio could be a viable fourth/fifth starter.

Austin Voth, RHP: Continuing on that trend, Voth is another fly-ball pitcher with passable but not eye-catching strikeout and walk numbers. Claimed off waivers from the Nationals in early June, Voth made 17 starts and five relief appearances, pitching to a 3.04 ERA in that time. He’s not going to keep stranding 82% of the baserunners he allows — that’s 10 percentage points above the league average and above Voth’s career mark prior to 2022 — but he has the makings of a back-end starter, as he’s shown on occasion with the Nats in the past. Voth is out of minor league options, so he’s going to be on the roster either as a starter or as a swingman.

The Top Prospects

Grayson Rodriguez, RHP: The arm on which so many Orioles fans are pinning their hopes, the 23-year-old Rodriguez might have already made his big league debut were it not for a lat strain that sidelined him for half the 2022 season. Rodriguez, selected with the No. 11 pick of the 2018 draft, ranks among the sport’s top 15 overall prospects at each of Baseball America (6), MLB.com (7), ESPN (12) and The Athletic (15). A 6’5″, 220-pound righty armed with a four-pitch mix that’s headlined by an upper-90s heater and elite changeup, Rodriguez has genuine front-of-the-rotation potential.

Rodriguez is regarded as one of the sport’s five best pitching prospects, and now that the new CBA actually reward teams for promoting prospects via potential draft compensation based on Rookie of the Year voting, Rodriguez will have a legitimate chance to make the Opening Day rotation. The O’s may want to be cautious, as that lat strain limited him to just 75 2/3 innings in 2022 and a jump to a full season of MLB starts would probably more than double that total. Rodriguez might be the organization’s best starter right now, even though he hasn’t made his MLB debut. He posted a combined 2.62 ERA across three minor league levels and did so with a mammoth 36.6% strikeout rate against a 9.3% walk rate. He’s going to make his MLB debut in 2023 — it’s just a matter of when.

DL Hall, LHP: Unlike Rodriguez, Hall has already made his debut at the MLB level, although it didn’t go as the team had hoped. The former No. 21 overall pick pitched in 11 games — 10 of them relief appearances — but was tagged for nine runs on 17 hits and six walks. The resulting 5.93 ERA wasn’t particularly encouraging, but Hall fanned 19 opponents (29.7%) and issued walks at a lower clip in the Majors than he had in Triple-A (9.4% versus 14.2%).

Command issues have long been the primary flaw scouts see in Hall — a 6’2″ lefty with a heater that averaged 96.4 mph during that MLB debut and multiple plus or better secondary pitches. Baseball America pegs Hall’s fastball as an 80 on the 20-80 scale, while also crediting him with a plus-plus slider, a plus curve and a plus changeup. Unfortunately, all of that is accompanied by well below-average command. Hall has walked 13.4% of his opponents in the minors, and in his 18 minor league starts this past season, he completed six innings just once. Some of that is the Orioles being cautious with an arm they hold in high regard, but Hall averaged 75 pitches per outing despite averaging under four innings per start. Certainly, he could stand to be more efficient.

Last year’s 98 innings were a career-high for Hall, who’s also missed ample time due to injury in his pro career. Between the lack of innings and the shaky command, many scouting reports feel he’s likelier to be a dynamic reliever than a starter, but the O’s will likely give him some considerable leash as a starter because the ceiling is so high.

Other options on the 40-man

Mike Baumann, RHP: The 27-year-old Baumann was one of the organization’s best pitching prospects as recently as two years ago, but a flexor strain cost him time and he hasn’t topped 100 innings in either of the past two seasons. The O’s have begun working Baumann out of the bullpen more frequently, and given the number of rotation options the organization has, that could be a better path to the big leagues for him. There’s benefit to keeping him stretched out as a starter, of course, but Baumann made just 13 starts to 20 relief appearances last year.

Bruce Zimmermann, LHP: A local product the O’s acquired in the trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Braves back in 2018, Zimmermann has pitched in parts of three seasons for the O’s but never posted an ERA south of 5.00. In 145 MLB frames, he carries a 5.69 ERA (5.78 FIP, 4.43 SIERA) with a low 17.6% strikeout rate but a strong 5.7% walk rate. Zimmermann has averaged just 91.3 mph on his heater, and opponents have teed off on both that pitch and his changeup, clubbing an average of 2.23 homers per nine innings against the southpaw. Zimmermann still has a pair of option years remaining and has been good in Triple-A over the past two seasons, but he needs to find a way to curtail his issues with the long ball.

Drew Rom, LHP: The O’s selected Rom to the 40-man roster back in November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. The 2018 fourth-rounder split the 2022 season between Double-A and Triple-A, logging a combined 4.43 ERA with a 27.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and solid ground-ball tendencies. He’s not an overpowering lefty, but he’s pretty close to big league ready and the O’s clearly felt he’d have been poached in the Rule 5 had he gone unprotected. There are a lot of candidates for innings in Baltimore, but he’ll be in the mix to debut this year.

Recovering from injury

John Means, LHP: Baltimore’s best starter from 2019-21, Means logged a 3.73 ERA in 345 1/3 innings during that time and was named the Orioles’ Opening Day starter in 2022. He made just two starts last year before an elbow injury shelved him, however, and Means underwent Tommy John surgery in late April. That’ll take him out of the equation early in the year, but the O’s can hope for Means to return at some point over the summer. He only has two years of club control remaining.

—

As things stand, the Orioles have two veteran locks (Gibson, Irvin), a series of righties who achieved solid results despite middling K/BB and batted-ball profiles in 2022 (Kremer, Bradish, Wells, Voth) and a pair electric prospects (Rodriguez, Hall) — the former of which is arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball.

It’s a promising group, but the O’s will need to convert on Rodriguez and either see Hall improve his command or another young arm (e.g. Cade Povich) take a pronounced step forward in 2023. Baltimore’s system is rife with high-end bats but less stocked with arms. A rotation featuring Rodriguez (assuming he hits the ground running) and a host of No. 4 types is enough to compete, but it’s still a bit surprising that the team didn’t land a higher-profile arm this winter in an effort to bolster the starting staff. Perhaps the O’s are confident that an incumbent arm is on the cusp of a breakout, but right now Baltimore’s lineup looks more formidable than its rotation.

Pirates Sign Chris Owings To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates announced a series of non-roster invitations to spring training today, revealing within that they’ve signed veteran utilityman Chris Owings to a minor league pact. The ACES client will be in camp and vie for a bench job.

Owings is still just 31 but has appeared in each of the past 10 big league seasons, suiting up for the D-backs, Royals, Red Sox. Rockies and Orioles along the way. He spent the 2022 season with the Yankees and Orioles organizations, getting into 27 big league games with Baltimore but posting just a .104/.254/.143 batting line in 68 trips to the plate. That’s the opposite end of the small-sample spectrum from a similarly brief 2021 run with the Rockies, for whom he slashed a ludicrous .326/.420/.628 in 21 games/50 trips to the plate.

Overall, Owings is a career .239/.287/.366 hitter with 37 big flies and 79 steals through 712 big league games (2464 plate appearances). He’s played every position on the field, including 2 2/3 innings on the mound, although the bulk of his time in the big leagues has been spent at shortstop. Defensive metrics have never loved him at that spot, but Owings has average or better ratings at second base, at third base and in the outfield.

The left side of the Pirates’ infield is set with youngsters Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz at third base and shortstop, respectively. Rodolfo Castro, Ji Hwan Bae and prospect Nick Gonzalez (who’ll be in camp as a non-roster player) are in the mix for the second base slot. One of Castro or Bae could land a utility job on the bench, too, though it’s likely Gonzalez head to Triple-A for everyday reps, barring an upset win of the everyday job at second. The versatile Owings will join that competition for a utility spot off the bench. Owings is a lifetime .308/.347/.480 hitter in Triple-A, so he’ll likely give the Bucs some production in the upper minors if he can’t break the roster this spring.

Luis Arraez Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Marlins

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Newly acquired infielder Luis Arraez has won an arbitration hearing against the Marlins, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The MVP Sports Group client will be paid $6.1MM rather than the $5MM figure originally submitted by his now-former team, the Twins.

Miami acquired Arraez, 25, in the trade that sent right-hander Pablo Lopez, top prospect Jose Salas and minor league outfielder Byron Chourio to Minnesota last month. His win in arb hearing comes on the heels of a .316/.375/.420 batting line that netted him an American League batting title in 2022. Arraez notched career-highs in games played (144), plate appearances (603), doubles (31) and homers (8) this past season.

All of that surely factored into his win over his new team, and he’ll now receive a 187% raise over last year’s $2.125MM salary. This was the infielder’s second trip through arbitration as a Super Two player, and he’ll be arbitration-eligible two more times before reaching free agency after the 2025 season.

The Marlins acquired Arraez in something of a high-risk gambit, hoping that his improved offense will offset the inherent defensive downgrade of swapping him in at second base and moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. to center field. That’s not to suggest Chisholm can’t be a solid center field — he certainly has the tools and athleticism to handle the position — but he’s been a plus defender at second base in his career while Arraez has been below-average. And, Chisholm will now have to learn a new position on the fly. It’s a move that carries risk, but there’s no denying that Miami’s lineup looks deeper with Arraez hitting at or near the top than it did previously.

With Arraez’s salary now set, the Marlins project for a payroll in the roughly $103MM range, per Roster Resource. That still has a bit of room to change even without further additions, as the Fish still have two pending arbitration cases. Utilityman Jon Berti and left-hander Jesus Luzardo both exchanged figures with the club. Berti filed a $2.3MM figure to the team’s $1.9MM submission, while Luzardo came in at $2.45MM to the Marlins’ $2.1MM. Those are trivial sums to any team in the grand scheme of things, but as we’ve explored at MLBTR in the past, the battle over those sums is more about managing salaries years down the road — even for future classes of players, as arbitration is a precedent-based system — rather than present-day savings.

Mariners Notes: Left Field, Brash, Rotation

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The Mariners’ plans in left field have looked fairly straightforward since the team signed AJ Pollock to a one-year deal last month, but president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto nonetheless confirmed to reporters last night that the expectation is for left field to a platoon between Pollock and one of Jarred Kelenic or Taylor Trammell (Twitter link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

Both Kelenic, 23, and Trammell, 25, are recent top-100 prospects who at one point were candidates to hold down long-term spots in the Seattle outfield. Kelenic, in particular, was touted as a potential star but has struggled in the big leagues to this point despite a .302/.372/.574 output in 537 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. His struggles against fellow lefties have been particularly pronounced, but Kelenic did turn in a .249/.330/.503 slash against right-handed pitching in 2022 (Triple-A and MLB combined). Trammell, meanwhile, hit .274/.365/.527 against righties between Triple-A and MLB. There’s some understandable hope, then, that a platoon arrangement with one of Kelenic/Trammell and Pollock (.286/.316/.619 against lefties in 2022) could form a productive tandem.

Trammell was heralded as the superior defender of the pair during his prospect days, though neither he nor Kelenic has posted standout defensive grades thus far in the big leagues. Kelenic has more experience in the corners and has drawn above-average marks for his work there. He’s also been more apt to barrel the ball and has been less strikeout-prone, though his 29.9% mark in the big leagues is obviously problematic.

Both Kelenic and Trammell were featured in a piece by Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser, wherein he polled scouts for opinions on some recent top prospects who’ve graduated to the Majors but struggled to establish themselves. Kelenic drew more praise between the two, particularly for substantial defensive improvements, but scouts who spoke to Glaser offered fairly bearish views of both players’ swings at this point. However, Mariners GM Justin Hollander said yesterday that hitting coach Jarret DeHart has been working with Kelenic and gone through a motion-capture breakdown of his swing this offseason, and the results have been “over-the-top awesome” (link via Corey Brock of The Athletic).

Both Kelenic and Trammell are still young, and it’s fairly common to see a swing change or mechanical adjustment bring about major turnarounds in a player’s outlook. The Mariners clearly aren’t giving up on either player yet, though with both entering their final minor league option year, this is a crucial season for Kelenic and Trammell. Should they falter, the M’s have another lefty-swinging outfield bat who’s nearly ready for a Major League look; 25-year-old Cade Marlowe is on the 40-man roster and turned in a combined .287/.377/.487 slash between 120 Double-A games and 13 Triple-A games in 2022.

Kelenic and Trammell aren’t the only once-vaunted Mariners prospects who’ve turned in shaky big league results to this point. Righty Matt Brash won the fifth starter’s job out of spring training in 2022 but was tagged for 17 runs while posting a 19-to-17 K/BB ratio through his first 20 innings (five starts). That prompted the team to option Brash back to Triple-A Tacoma, and when he returned in July, he was used exclusively as a reliever.

That’ll be Brash’s role in 2023 as well, Dipoto confirmed (Twitter link via Divish). It’s easy to see why the Mariners are intrigued by the switch. Brash has been a starter for most of his career, but he returned to the Majors and obliterated opposing lineups while working in short relief last summer; from July 9 through season’s end, the 24-year-old pitched to a 2.35 ERA with a huge 33.9% strikeout rate. His 12.6% walk rate still needs refinement, but Brash’s heater jumped from an average of 96.3 mph in the rotation to 97.8 mph out of the ’pen and his 14% swinging-strike rate was excellent.

It’s always possible that there will be rotation innings for Brash down the road, but the Mariners look to have several spots locked up long-term. Ace Luis Castillo signed a five-year, $108MM extension after being acquired in a trade last summer, and left-hander Robbie Ray inked a five-year, $115MM in free agency last offseason. Young arms Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, meanwhile, are controllable for another five and six seasons, respectively.

Both Gilbert and Kirby have made good on their status as former first-rounders and top prospects, quickly cementing themselves as high-quality big league hurlers. And, as Dipoto tells it, the duo won’t be facing any hard innings limitations in 2023 (via Brock). Gilbert threw 185 2/3 innings over the life of 32 regular-season starts in 2022, while Kirby notched a combined 156 2/3 innings between Double-A, Triple-A and the big leagues. Both pitchers turned in an ERA in the low-3.00s with sharp strikeout and walk rates (Kirby, in particular). The pair might be eased into spring work, but the goal seems to be for each to make a five-inning start in the late stages of camp, setting the stage for them to work without limits once the season begins.

The group of Castillo, Ray, Gilbert and Kirby is among the best rotation quartets in baseball, but the fifth spot in the rotation remains a source of at least some uncertainty. Seattle has a pair of candidates in Marco Gonzales, a mainstay over the past five years, and KBO returnee Chris Flexen, who’s posted a 3.66 ERA in two seasons since signing in Seattle. Both pitchers have been floated as possible trade candidates throughout the winter. Gonzales is owed a combined $18.5MM from 2023-24, while Flexen will earn $8MM in 2023 before becoming a free agent in the offseason.

There’s been little indication of serious trade talks involving either in recent weeks, but it’s certainly possible that another club will show increased interest once early-spring injuries inevitably begin to arise. Then again, having both on hand gives the Mariners themselves an important safety net in the event of an in-house injury, so there’s little pressure to force a deal if the return isn’t meaningful.

Reds Sign Jason Vosler To Minor League Deal

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The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve signed corner infielder Jason Vosler to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. He’s a client of All Bases Covered Sports Management. The deal with Vosler comes not long after the infielder looked to have signed a similar pact with the Mariners, only to be released a few days later. Cincinnati also confirmed its previously reported minor league deal with utilityman Chad Pinder.

The 29-year-old Vosler has spent parts of the past two seasons in the big leagues with the Giants, batting a combined .228/.306/.421 with seven homers in 193 trips to the plate. That includes a robust .265/.342/.469 showing in 111 plate appearances in 2022. Vosler, however, posted inferior numbers down in Triple-A, with a .242/.311/.433 output in a much larger sample of 398 plate appearances.

Solid showing in the big leagues notwithstanding, San Francisco designated Vosler for assignment when setting their roster in advance of this year’s Rule 5 Draft and non-tendered him shortly thereafter. He became an immediate free agent and will now hope to work his way into a generally unsettled infield mix in Cincinnati. Vosler has played all four infield positions and both outfield corners in his career, although the four innings the Giants gave him at shortstop marked his first appearance there since 2015. He’s been predominantly a corner infielder dating back to 2019.

Cincinnati is a hitter-friendly spot for Vosler to land, and one with a fair bit of opportunity. The Reds have 2021 Rookie of the Year Jonathan India locked in at second base, but first baseman Joey Votto’s return date from last summer’s season-ending shoulder surgery isn’t yet clear. It’s possible he’ll be behind schedule in camp, as Votto himself said early last month that he wasn’t sure whether he’d be ready for Opening Day.

Third base, meanwhile, will likely be up for grabs, with prospect Spencer Steer the current front-runner. The Reds picked up Steer from the Twins in the trade that sent Tyler Mahle to Minnesota, and while he hit just .211/.306/.326 in 108 plate appearances down the stretch in ’22, he also turned in a stout .274/.364/.515 showing between Double-A and Triple-A. Looking elsewhere on the 40-man roster, both Alejo Lopez and Nick Solak have experience at third base, though it hasn’t been either’s primary position. Lopez and Solak both have more experience at second base, and Solak has played more outfield than infield in recent years.

Both Vosler and Pinder stand as potential non-roster competition for that group at the hot corner, and the added versatility each brings to the table could further their cause when it comes to securing a spot on the roster. Vosler, in particular, could hold some appeal as a left-handed bat on an otherwise largely right-handed-hitting roster.

Braves Sign Yolmer Sanchez To Minor League Deal

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The Braves announced their full slate of non-roster invitees to spring training Wednesday, noting within that they’ve signed veteran infielder Yolmer Sanchez to a minor league contract. The MVP Sports Group client will vie for a roster spot this spring. It’s his second stint with the Braves, having also spent the 2021 season with their Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett.

Sanchez, 30, has appeared in parts of eight big league seasons dating back to 2014. That includes a three-year run as the White Sox’ primary second baseman from 2017-19, which culminated in Sanchez winning a Gold Glove for his defensive prowess at the position.

While he had a roughly average year at the plate in 2017, when he batted .267/.319/.413 through 534 plate appearances, Sanchez’s overall offensive track record is lackluster. He’s a career .243/.299/.355 hitter, including just a .244/.316/.317 slash dating back to 2019. He totaled 44 trips to the plate between the Red Sox in 2022 but went just 4-for-37 at the plate in that stretch. He posted a heartier .246/.372/.394 slash in 396 plate appearances between the Triple-A affiliates for the Red Sox and Mets last year.

Sanchez has been primarily a second baseman in his career, but he has more than 2700 innings at third base and more than 2100 innings at shortstop under his belt as a professional as well. He’s posted plus defensive grades at second base (11 Defensive Runs Saved, 16.2 Ultimate Zone Rating, 6 Outs Above Average in 3581 innings) and at third base (12 DRS, 6.3 UZR, 9 OAA). He’s only logged 99 innings at shortstop in the big leagues, though, and the majority of his experience there came in the minors back in 2012-14.

The shortstop experience could still hold some appeal to a Braves club that let Dansby Swanson walk as a free agent and has opted to stay in-house to replace him. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has touted young Vaughn Grissom and veteran Orlando Arcia as the two primary options to replace Swanson. It’s doubtful Sanchez would be under consideration for a full-time look at short, even in the event of injuries/struggles from both Grissom and Arcia, but he could be an occasional option there if he snags a bench job. He joins fellow veterans Adeiny Hechavarria and Ehire Adrianza as non-roster players who’ll look to work their way into the infield mix in some capacity this spring.

Mets’ Khalil Lee Under Investigation Following Assault Allegations

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Mets outfielder Khalil Lee was named in a federal lawsuit filed by his ex-girlfriend this week, which alleges that Lee assaulted her physically and verbally last May, Anne Hayes of Syracuse.com reports. The alleged victim went to law enforcement the day after the purported incident, and Hayes writes that an arrest warrant charging Lee for criminal obstruction of breath was signed by a judge back in August. Hayes’ report has a timeline and more specific details on the allegations against Lee, which include choking and kicking the plaintiff during an argument.

SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that Lee is also being investigated by Major League Baseball under the league’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. That policy, jointly agreed upon by MLB and the MLBPA, affords commissioner Rob Manfred the authority to levy disciplinary action against a player even in the absence of a criminal conviction.

The Mets issued a statement acknowledging that the team “immediately notified MLB upon becoming aware of the allegations,” adding that they will “fully comply with MLB’s policy and cannot comment until the completion of the league’s investigative process.”

Lee, 24, is on the Mets’ 40-man roster. The team acquired him from the Royals in 2021’s three-team trade that sent Andrew Benintendi from Boston to Kansas City. Lee has spent the past two seasons in the Mets organization, appearing in 13 Major League games but spending the vast majority of his time with their Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse.

Dodgers, Matt Andriese Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers and veteran righty Matt Andriese are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first indicated on the transaction log at MLB.com. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will return stateside after spending the 2022 campaign with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Andriese, 33, pitched quite well overseas, albeit in a relatively limited sample of 44 1/3 innings. The former Rays, D-backs, Angels, Red Sox and Mariners right-hander notched a tidy 2.03 ERA in NPB, fanning 21.3% of his opponents against a very strong 5.6% walk rate.

The 2022 season marked the first time in seven years that Andriese didn’t throw a pitch at the big league level. He appeared in every MLB season from 2015-21, working as both a starter and reliever with the aforementioned five clubs. The bulk of that work — and the bulk of his MLB success — came with the Rays, for whom he posted a 4.30 ERA in 339 innings.

On the whole, Andriese has a lifetime 4.63 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate in 509 frames in the Majors. He’s started 50 games and made another 167 relief appearances; while he’s typically worked in multi-inning relief stints, he’s tallied eight rogue saves and 15 holds over the course of his time in a big league bullpen.

The Dodgers have a full rotation — Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Noah Syndergaard — with several top-ranked prospects waiting in the wings whenever an opportunity arises (e.g. Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, Ryan Pepiot). It’s a fairly similar story in a generally crowded bullpen mix. Right-hander Brusdar Graterol and lefties Alex Vesia and Caleb Ferguson are the only projected members of the L.A. relief corps that can be freely optioned to Triple-A, and they’re all coming off strong 2022 showings that likely give them an inside track on Opening Day roster spots.

That said, pitching injuries are an inevitability. Andriese gives the Dodgers a potential depth option whenever health woes pop up for either the starting staff or the bullpen. He’s a nice veteran insurance policy to have on hand in the upper minors to begin the season. He’ll join recent minor league signees like Jordan Yamamoto and Dylan Covey in that regard.

Royals, Ryan Goins Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Royals are bringing veteran infielder Ryan Goins back to the organization on a minor league contract, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Goins, an Octagon client, spent the 2018 season with Kansas City as well.

Goins hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since the truncated 2020 season, when he logged 14 games with the White Sox. He tallied only 10 plate appearances in that time, however, and went hitless in that small sample. He’s spent the past two seasons with the Braves organization, playing a combined 181 games for their Triple-A affiliate. Atlanta actually selected him to the Major League roster this past August but designated him for assignment and sent him outright back to Gwinnett before he ever got into a big league game.

The 34-year-old Goins didn’t hit much during his time with the Braves’ top affiliate, but that’s par for the course in his case. He’s long been a glove-first player, offering above-average defense all around the infield — but particularly at second base. In parts of eight Triple-A seasons, Goins is a .261/.319/.363 hitter, but he carries a lifetime .229/.278/.333 batting line in 1690 plate appearances as a big leaguer. The bulk of that experience came with the Blue Jays from 2013-17, but Goins has also spent time with the Royals (2018) and White Sox (2019-20).

Kansas City’s infield mix figures to give plenty of opportunity to younger players in 2023. Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto are expected to share time at first base and designated hitter, while young Michael Massey has an inside track on the primary job at second base. Bobby Witt Jr. should slot in as the team’s shortstop, though he spent plenty of time at third base in his rookie season in deference to defensive standout Nicky Lopez. The 27-year-old Lopez could log regular reps at shortstop or bounce around in utility fashion. He’s also drawn trade interest from the White Sox (and presumably other clubs). Hunter Dozier remains on hand as an option at either corner infield or corner outfield spot, while utilityman Nate Eaton could see action all over the infield and outfield.

Goins joins fellow veterans Johan Camargo and Matt Duffy as experienced infielders who Kansas City has signed to non-guaranteed deals in an effort to bolster the organizational infield depth. The Royals will surely want to get their young players as many looks as possible, but injuries are inevitable and Goins gives them a strong defensive veteran who can cover multiple spots should the need arise.

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