Blue Jays Extend Manager Charlie Montoyo
9:00am: The Blue Jays officially announced Montoyo’s extension.
7:35am: The Blue Jays have agreed to a contract extension with manager Charlie Montoyo, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Montoyo, who’d been set to enter the final season of his contract, is now signed through the 2023 season on a contract that also gives the Jays club options for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Montoyo, 56, is entering his fourth season as the Blue Jays’ skipper. The former Rays bench coach replaced John Gibbons, who’d managed the Jays for six seasons (2013-18) in his second stint with the team. Montoyo inherited a Jays roster that was still in the finishing stages of a rebuild and posted the type of record one would expect from such a club (67-95), but the Jays have enjoyed winning a pair of winning seasons in Montoyo’s second and third years at the helm. The 2020 Jays reached the playoffs in 2020’s expanded 16-team field but did not advance beyond the first round of play.
Expectations for the Jays are wildly different now than when Montoyo was first hired. No longer are the Jays viewed as an up-and-coming postseason darkhorse. Fresh off a 91-win season, the Jays are buoyed by an explosive core featuring young stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Alek Manoah, in addition to veteran acquisitions such as George Springer, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Matt Chapman (among others). The Blue Jays are clear-cut postseason contenders in a stacked American League East, and anything shy of a postseason berth will be seen as a disappointment — particularly in light of the expansion from a 10-team field to a 12-team field (which would’ve been enough for the ’21 Jays to get into the playoffs).
MLB Umpires To Begin Announcing Replay Decisions
Major League Baseball announced this morning that beginning in the 2022 season, Major League umpires “will conduct in-park announcements during the replay review process.”
It’s an overdue update to a replay system that has often been confusing for fans viewing at home and, particularly, for fans at the the park. The NFL-style announcements regarding the nature of the challenge and the reasoning behind the umpires’ rulings will lend some clarity for all spectators. The league announced that training for this process is already underway both in Arizona and in Florida, where Spring Training games are being held. All indications are that the practice will be in place come Opening Day next week.
Under the prior system, viewers were at times unclear as to what specifically was being challenged, and it was not always immediately clear to viewers (particularly those at the park) whether a call had been confirmed or simply not overturned due to a lack of sufficient video evidence. The additional transparency provided by simply giving the umpiring crew with a microphone to explain the review and its outcome should be a welcome addition moving forward.
Jacob deGrom Undergoing MRI After Experiencing Shoulder Tightness
The Mets have officially scratched ace Jacob deGrom from today’s scheduled Grapefruit League appearance, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. He’ll instead undergo an MRI after experiencing tightness in his right shoulder while playing catch yesterday. While there’s no indication yet that deGrom is dealing with a major injury or expected to miss significant time, the mere fact that he’s been scratched in favor of imaging is an obvious source of concern.
Expected to pair with newly signed Max Scherzer to form one of the great one-two punches, the 33-year-old deGrom has already cemented himself as one of the most talented pitchers of this generation. If he does miss time with this shoulder ailment, however, it’ll mark a second straight season with an absence due to arm-related injuries.
In 2021, deGrom appeared well on his way to a third Cy Young in four years, pitching to an inhuman 1.08 ERA with a 45.1% strikeout rate against just a 3.4% walk rate through his first 92 innings. He hit the injured list with a forearm strain in early July, however. The injury wasn’t initially believed to be season-ending in nature, but after a series of setbacks and delays in his rehab work, the Mets eventually shut deGrom down for the season in late September.
For the time being, the Mets will send non-roster righty Felix Pena to the hill to make today’s spring start. Manager Buck Showalter is currently speaking with reporters on the matter and indicated that deGrom’s MRI will be conducted around 9:30am ET (Twitter link via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). No determination on deGrom’s availability for Opening Day will be made until that imaging is performed. DeGrom felt the tightness in his shoulder on the final few throws of a long-toss session yesterday, Showalter added.
The Mets are relying on deGrom, Scherzer, trade acquisition Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco to handle the bulk of rotation work this season, though they have several solid depth options beyond that quintet. Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Jordan Yamamoto are all on the 40-man roster already, while veteran southpaw Mike Montgomery gives them another experienced option who’s in camp as a non-roster invitee.
MLB, MLBPA Announce Rule Changes For 2022 Season
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association jointly announced a series of rule changes for the upcoming 2022 season Thursday. There are no real surprises, as all of today’s changes had already reportedly been under discussion. Among them is an amended designated hitter rule — already commonly referred to as the “Shohei Ohtani Rule” — that allows a starting pitcher to remain in the game as the designated hitter even after he has been removed from the game as a pitcher. Similarly, a two-way player can also be lifted from the game as the designated hitter but remain in the game as a pitcher (though instances of that figure to be less common).
MLB also unveiled some tweaks to the active roster limits in an effort to cut down on injuries following a shortened Spring Training. Rosters will expand from 26 players to 28 players from Opening Day (April 7) through May 1. During that time, teams will be permitted to carry 29 players on days that doubleheaders are played. (It’ll be 27 players per doubleheader day thereafter.) The standard 13-pitcher limit per roster will not apply from April 7 through May 1 but will resume on May 2, when rosters revert to 26 players.
While the minimum length of stay on the injured list for pitchers and two-way players is increasing to 15 days this season, that won’t go into effect until May 2, either. From April 7 through May 1, pitchers and two-way players can be placed on the 10-day injured list. Today’s release also indicates that optional assignments prior to May 2 will not count toward the newly implemented maximum of five optional assignments per player, per season.
Most controversially, the league and the union announced that the extra-inning rule automatically placing a runner on second base will remain in place “in an effort to preserve player health and safety during the condensed schedule.” Notably, today’s announcement specifies that this rule is remaining in place “for the 2022 season” and makes no mention of 2023 and beyond. Of course, it’s certainly possible the two parties will discuss its continuation down the line. Automatic runners who score will not count as an earned run for the pitcher; they’ll be treated as a player who reached on a fielding error (although no error will be credited to the opposing team).
Today’s release also specifies that last year’s new rookie eligibility thresholds will remain in place. Per MLB’s press release, rookie qualification is defined thusly: “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he had (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League Club or Clubs during the Championship Season (excluding time on the Injured List).”
Padres, Pirates Have Discussed Bryan Reynolds Trade
9:55pm: The Padres currently consider the Pirates asking price on Reynolds to be “prohibitive,” writes Dennis Lin of the Athletic. That’s hardly a surprise, given the reported lofty asks the Bucs have sought in Reynolds talks with other teams.
9:21am: The Padres and Pirates have had recent trade discussions surrounding All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Young pitchers Chris Paddack and Ryan Weathers have both been mentioned as possible pieces going back to Pittsburgh, he adds.
It’s important to make a few key distinctions here. First and foremost, talks between the two parties don’t necessarily suggest that a deal is nigh — nor do they indicate that Pittsburgh is actively seeking to trade Reynolds. The Pirates have fielded Reynolds interest from more than a half-dozen teams since last summer alone, and he remains in camp with Pittsburgh.
Secondly, Paddack and Weathers are surely just two of a wide range of names that have been discussed. Even if both are of interest to the Bucs, additional pieces would assuredly need to be added. Paddack, for instance, is controlled for less time than Reynolds (three years to Reynolds’ four years) and is coming off a poor 2021 season that ended with an elbow injury. Weathers, meanwhile, is a former top-10 draft pick and top-100 prospect, but he was knocked around for a 5.32 ERA through 94 2/3 innings during last year’s rookie campaign. He’s controllable for another five years, at least.
As Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets, San Diego’s interest in Reynolds is not a new revelation. However, if they are indeed discussing specific players that could go back to Pittsburgh, that’d mark a sign of progression over prior, more preliminary talks, Acee adds.
Reports last night indicated that the Padres are open to trading from both their starting pitching and catching surpluses in order to address their needs in the outfield. Padres skipper Bob Melvin just yesterday acknowledged that the lack of outfield depth is “a concern.” San Diego has been considering the possibility of playing top shortstop prospect CJ Abrams in the outfield early this season.
At the moment, the Padres have Trent Grisham and Wil Myers locked into outfield slots, but their left field situation is particularly dire. Newly acquired first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty could see significant time there despite grading out as a poor defender. Switch-hitting utilityman Jurickson Profar is the other leading leading candidate, but he’s coming off a miserable 2021 season at the plate and has spent the bulk of his career playing the infield.
Reynolds is about as high-profile a target that Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller could explore. That’s par for the course for Preller, who typically explores any and all opportunities to acquire a marquee player, however slim the chances may be. Preller and Pittsburgh counterpart Ben Cherington have lined up on a couple of trades over the past 13 months or so, however, as Pittsburgh traded both Joe Musgrove and Adam Frazier to San Diego in separate deals. As such, it’s likely that Paddack, Weathers and quite a few other Padres youngsters have already been discussed in previous trade talks between the two sides. Those prior talks could serve as groundwork to an extent, but evaluations and opinions of young players can change rapidly over the course of even just a few months’ time.
Reynolds has also been aggressively pursued by the Marlins, dating back to last year’s trade deadline. Other teams known to have interest in the switch-hitting 27-year-old include the Mariners, Yankees, Braves and Brewers, among others. It’s easy to see why when looking at Reynolds’ career .290/.368/.490 batting line and, in particular, last year’s .302/.390/.522 output. Reynolds is controllable all the way through the 2025 season, though, and between his elite performance and that long-term control, the asking price on him figures to be sky-high.
For instance, Craig Mish and Barry Jacksonn of the Miami Herald recently reported that the Pirates sought both shortstop Kahlil Watson and right-hander Max Meyer in talks with the Fish. Both recent first-rounders rank among the sport’s top-50 overall prospects. In past trade talks with the Mariners, the Bucs targeted uber-prospect Julio Rodriguez as the starting point and sought additional pieces beyond him, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. With regard to the Padres, those prior asks on Reynolds underscore that Paddack and Weathers would likely be seen as secondary pieces, at best.
As for the Padres’ general outfield search, if they’re not able to strike up an agreement with the Pirates regarding Reynolds, there’s no shortage of alternative paths for them to explore. The Twins are known to be seeking rotation help and have plenty of outfielders — both in terms of established players (Max Kepler) and young, MLB-ready options with upside (Trevor Larnach, Alex Kirilloff). The Yankees could use additional options on the mound and behind the plate, and they have a crowded outfield mix (which includes former Padres trade target Joey Gallo). The Angels are deep in young outfielders (e.g. Jo Adell, Brandon Marsh) and are always on the hunt for rotation help. The Mariners, similarly, could use another starter and have a deep collection of outfield talent on the 40-man roster. Preller could also look to Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins or Austin Hays, though Mullins in particular is a Reynolds-esque long shot to be moved.
Angels Sign Wander Suero To Minor League Deal
The Angels have signed former Nationals righty Wander Suero to a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. The REP1 Baseball client will provide the Halos with an experienced option to carry in Triple-A.
Suero, 30, is a veteran of four big league seasons, all with the Nats. He at times looked like a potential key piece in Washington but has yet to find the consistency needed to solidify himself at the big league level. Suero has twice posted sub-4.00 ERAs (2018, 2020), and he’s generally racked up strikeouts and limited walks at better-than-average levels.
Home runs, however, became a glaring issue for Suero in 2021, when he served up a whopping 11 round-trippers in just 42 2/3 innings (2.38 HR/9). That only exacerbated a longstanding issue in stranding baserunners, which he did at just a 59.7% clip in 2021. Suero ultimately yielded a 6.33 ERA last year, and the Nationals opted to non-tender him at the end of November rather than pay him a raise in arbitration.
Even with last year’s rough showing, however, Suero has a career 4.61 ERA with even better marks in FIP (3.80) and SIERA (3.78). He’s whiffed 25.4% of the opponents he’s faced in the big leagues against a solid 8.4% walk rate. He’s not a flamethrower, averaging just over 92 mph on his go-to cutter, but Suero possesses strong spin rates on both his fastball and curveball. And, prior to the 2021 season, he consistently limited hard contact at rates well better than the league average.
Suero has three years and 110 days of big league service time, so if he does make it to the big leagues with the Angels this season, he can be controlled for multiple years via arbitration.
Twins Sign Jake Petricka To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed veteran right-hander Jake Petricka to a minor league deal, tweets Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. It’ll be a homecoming for the Northfield, Minn. native and Fairbault High School grad.
Petricka, 33, appeared in seven games with the Angels last season but yielded 10 runs on six hits and seven walks with eight strikeouts through six innings of relief. It was a brief stay in his return to the big leagues, as he was designated for assignment about three weeks after being selected to the Major League roster.
Last year’s rough showing notwithstanding, Petricka has a decent big league track record. From 2013-17 with the White Sox, he logged 178 innings of 3.84 ERA ball while serving as a regular member of their middle- and late-inning relief corps. He underwent an ulnar nerve transposition procedure and a debridement of the flexor tendon in his right forearm and elbow following the 2017 campaign, however, and he’s bounced around the league a fair bit since.
The Twins will be Petricka’s fifth organization since that 2017 surgery, as he’s also spent time with the Blue Jays, Brewers, Rangers and Angels. He has just 59 2/3 innings under his belt since the 2018 season kicked off, during which time he’s been tagged for a 5.43 ERA. Petricka did post decent numbers in Triple-A last season, however, and he sports a career 59% ground-ball rate in 237 2/3 Major League frames. He’ll give the Twins some experienced bullpen depth to stash in Triple-A St. Paul to begin the season.
Brock Holt Granted Release From Braves
The Braves announced this morning that veteran utilityman Brock Holt requested and was granted his release. He’d been in camp on a minor league deal in hopes of winning a roster spot in Atlanta but will now return to the open market in search of a new opportunity.
It’s common for veteran players to exercise out clauses and/or request their release in this manner late in Spring Training. Manager Brian Snitker tells reporters that Holt had been informed he would not make the team (Twitter link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and the club honored his request to explore other options. Veterans Phil Gosselin and Pat Valaika are still vying for a utility spot, Toscano adds.
Holt, 33, spent the 2021 season with the Rangers and appeared in 77 games, batting .209/.281/.298 in 260 trips to the plate. That rough season continued a downturn at the plate that began in 2020, but Holt still isn’t too far removed from a productive 2018-19 stretch in Boston that saw him slash .286/.366/.407 in a larger sample of 662 plate appearances.
A left-handed hitter known for his defensive versatility, Holt’s jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none skill set has found him consistent opportunities at the big league level dating back to 2014. He’s played every position on the diamond with the exception of catcher, including 2 1/3 innings on the mound. Holt’s work in center field is limited to just 75 innings, but beyond that he’s played at least 224 innings in both outfield corners and at all four infield slots.
With rosters expanding to 28 players for the early portion of the season, a versatile veteran with Holt’s overall track record at the plate — he’s a .262/.332/.362 hitter in 2661 MLB plate appearances — ought to have interest from other clubs. For what it’s worth, he went 3-for-9 with a home run, a double and a walk in his limited time with the Braves this spring.
Royals Exercise 2023 Option On Manager Mike Matheny
The Royals announced Thursday that they’ve exercised their 2023 club option on manager Mike Matheny. He’d previously been set to enter the final guaranteed season of his original three-year deal.
Matheny, 51, is entering his third season as Kansas City’s skipper after succeeding longtime manager Ned Yost. The Royals have gone 100-122 under him since he took the helm, though the 2022 and 2023 seasons will be more telling in terms of the team’s record. Kansas City’s hopes for returning to contention rest in no small part on the development of top prospects like Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto, MJ Melendez and a host of young pitching options (e.g. Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, Kris Bubic, Jonathan Heasley). Everyone from that group figures to contribute at the MLB level in 2022 and certainly by 2023 — and the team’s performance in those pivotal seasons will be more reflective than their 2020-21 records.
That said, the Royals are an immensely loyal organization and could well explore a contract extension of more substance with Matheny before even seeing how the 2023 season plays out. Managerial performance is evaluated now, more than ever, on far more than just the win-loss column. Yost himself serves as proof of that, as even in spite of a 2014 World Series appearance and a 2015 World Series win, the Royals only had three winning records during his decade-long tenure (during which they went 746-839 on the whole).
The Royals hired Matheny as a special assistant to the front office and an instructor in camp a year before Yost’s retirement, suggesting that the former Cardinals skipper was being groomed as Yost’s successor well before the move became official. Matheny, who also managed the Cardinals for seven seasons, has a 691-596 record in nine big league seasons and was the runner-up in 2015 National League Manager of the Year voting. The Cardinals reached the World Series under him in 2013 but fell to the Red Sox in six games.
Twins Sign JC Ramirez To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed veteran right-hander JC Ramirez to a minor league contract, as first reported by Edgard Rodriguez, who covers baseball in Ramirez’s native Nicaragua. He’ll be in camp for the remainder of Spring Training, though Rodriguez adds that Ramirez is expected to begin the year in Triple-A.
Ramirez, 33, is a veteran of six Major League seasons, most of which came with the Angels. After initially joining the Angels via a 2016 waiver claim, Ramirez quickly solidified his spot on their roster, first with a strong showing out of the bullpen in 46 1/3 innings during the 2016 season and then as a member of the rotation in 2017, when he made 24 starts and racked up 147 1/3 innings. From 2016-17 with Anaheim, Ramirez worked to a 3.86 ERA with a 16.7% strikeout rate, a 7.6% walk rate and a big 52.1% ground-ball rate.
Unfortunately for both Ramirez and the Angels, that solid 2017 season ended in August when he was diagnosed with an elbow strain. Ramirez returned early in the 2018 season in hopes that an offseason’s worth of downtime had resolved the issue, but he was hit hard in his first two starts of the season. Ramirez went back to the injured list, and Tommy John surgery was recommended in early April. He missed the remainder of the 2018 campaign and a notable chunk of the 2019 season, although he did make it back to the mound for eight relief innings in the second half of that ’19 campaign.
Ramirez was removed from the Angels’ 40-man roster late in the 2019 season and elected minor league free agency after the year, though he was set to return to the organization as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training 2020. He’d hoped to vie for a roster spot, but Spring Training 2020 was ultimately canceled during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ramirez pitched in the Mexican Winter League in both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, logging a combined 2.61 ERA in 82 2/3 innings over 13 starts. He spent the 2021 season pitching first in the Mexican League and then with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. In 57 2/3 innings CPBL innings, Ramirez posted a 3.43 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate.
The Twins entered the offseason with a notable need in the rotation and have thus far added Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy on the Major League side of things. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey said after signing Archer this week that while the Twins remain open to additional trade scenarios, the limited time remaining between now and next Thursday’s season opener (plus the generally limited supply of available big league starters) might mean Archer was the final big league piece added.
If that’s indeed the case, the depth options the Twins have — both in terms of veterans like Ramirez and upper-level prospects like Josh Winder, Jordan Balazovic, Cole Sands and more — will prove all the more important this season.