Cubs Hire Ehsan Bokhari As Assistant General Manager
The Cubs’ reshaping of the front office continued Monday, as they announced the hiring of Ehsan Bokhari as an assistant general manager. Bokhari, 38, has spent the past four seasons in the Astros’ front office — first as their director of R&D in 2018 and, more recently, as their senior director of player evaluation from 2019-21.
With the Astros, Bokhari contributed to player evaluation at the amateur, professional and international levels in addition to overseeing the entirety of the team’s research and development projects. He was one of the original members of the Dodgers’ research and development staff, serving as a senior analyst with Los Angeles from 2015-18. Bokhari holds a PhD in quantitative psychology and an MS in Statistics from the University of Illinois, in addition to undergraduate degrees in psychology and mathematics from the University of Arizona.
Bokhari will replace longtime Cubs executive Randy Bush as assistant general manager, as the 63-year-old Bush transitions into a consultant/advisory role with the Cubs, per Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). The Cubs’ front office has seen a good bit of turnover throughout the past calendar year, beginning with Theo Epstein’s decision to step down as president of baseball operations. Longtime GM Jed Hoyer was elevated to that vacant title, and earlier this month Hoyer announced the hiring of Cleveland assistant GM Carter Hawkins as the team’s new general manager.
Ken Griffey Jr. Joins Mariners Ownership Group
The Mariners announced Monday that club icon Ken Griffey Jr. has purchased shares in the franchise and joined the Mariners Partnership Group.
“On behalf of all of the partners, I want to welcome Ken,” said Mariners chairman and managing partner John Stanton. “Ken has been an icon of our franchise, on and off the field, for over three decades and we are thrilled that he is joining us as a partner. His knowledge of the game, love of the Mariner fans, his experiences as a player, his passion for community service and his desire to help grow our sport will be a welcome, and invaluable, additional voice.”
Drafted by the Mariners with the No. 1 overall pick back in 1987, Griffey Jr. made his Major League debut as a 19-year-old in 1989, finishing third in AL Rookie of the Year voting and taking his first steps of an iconic run with the franchise. Over the next 11 seasons, “The Kid” would be named to 11 All-Star teams, win 10 Gold Gloves, win seven Silver Sluggers and finish among the Top 5 in AL MVP voting on five occasions — including a first-place finish in the team’s 1997 season. During two of those seasons, 1990-91, he had the rare opportunity to team with his father, Ken Griffey Sr., even clubbing back-to-back home runs during the 1990 season.
Griffey was traded to the Reds in a deal that brought Mike Cameron to Seattle back in 2000, but he returned to the M’s to close out his career, playing his final 150 big leagues games back in a Mariners jersey from 2009-10. Griffey put the finishing touches on a Cooperstown career when he swatted a pinch-hit, walk-off single on May 20, 2010 — the last of his 2781 knocks at the MLB level. He announced his retirement just a few days later. In parts of 22 big league seasons, he batted .284/.370/.538 with 630 home runs — still the seventh-most in MLB history.
Griffey was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016, appearing on 437 of the 440 ballots and narrowly missing the honor of being the first unanimously selected Hall of Famer. The Mariners retired his No. 24 later that summer. Since retirement, Griffey has worked as a special consultant with the Mariners and, more recently, as a senior advisor to commissioner Rob Manfred, focusing on youth baseball development and diversity at the amateur levels of the game.
“As I said in my Hall of Fame speech, I’m very proud to be a Seattle Mariner,” the now-51-year-old Griffey said in a statement within today’s press release. “I’m excited for this incredible opportunity to join John and the rest of the Mariners Partnership Group. This is a dream come true because of the relationship I’ve always had with the team, its fans, and the city of Seattle. I view this as another way to continue to give back to an organization and community that has always supported me, and my family. I’m looking forward to continuing to contribute to this organization’s success in any way possible.”
Dodgers Notes: Roberts, Seager, Jansen
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times that he’s yet to discuss a contract extension with the team but hopes to do so this offseason. Roberts is under contract through the 2022 campaign already, so the team doesn’t necessarily need to feel any urgency to get a new agreement worked out, although it’s common for managers in good standing with their clubs to ink deals that avoid “lame duck” status (i.e. managing through the final season of a contract with no deal in place the following year). President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman tells Castillo that the Dodgers “fully expect [Roberts] to be a large part of our future success.” While the Dodgers obviously won’t repeat as World Series champions, they still won 106 games during the regular season and, as Castillo profiles, dealt with a significant slate of injuries to various key players throughout the regular season and the playoffs.
Some more notes o the Dodgers…
- Corey Seager will head into the open market for the first time in his career on the heels of a .306/.381/.545 showing across his past two seasons (147 games, 641 plate appearances, 148 wRC+). He missed two months this year after an errant fastball broke his hand, but his bat looks as good or even better than it did prior to 2018 Tommy John surgery. Seager spoke of the difficulty of facing the “unknown” that is free agency but also made clear he’d love to return to the Dodgers (video via Sportsnet L.A.). “Absolutely,” Seager replied when asked if he wants to return. “I grew up here. I’ve spent a lot of time here. I believe in what these guys do. I believe in how we go about it. Yeah, absolutely.”
- It’s a similar story for Kenley Jansen, who hopes to be a Dodger for life, writes Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times. Jansen’s decline in 2019-20 was a notable storyline for the Dodgers, but DiGiovanna explores how Jansen made some changes to his training regimen at the suggestion of director of team performance Brandon McDaniel. Jansen’s velocity and cutter movement rebounded in 2021, and he turned in a 2.22 ERA through 69 innings of relief. That said, Jansen’s strikeout, swinging-strike and chase percentages were at or below their 2020 levels, and his walk rate jumped to 12.9 percent — his highest rate since his rookie year back in 2010. Teammates Trea Turner (who faced Jansen as an opponent in the first half) and Clayton Kershaw discuss with DiGiovanna the manner in which Jansen has evolved as a pitcher since his days with a cutter-only approach. Another multi-year figures to be out there for Jansen, but given that he’ll pitch next year at 34, it figures to be a good bit shorter than the five-year pact he signed in the 2016-17 offseason.
Dipoto: Mariners Prioritizing “Adaptable” Free Agents
After spending the past couple seasons primarily in rebuilding mode, the Mariners enter the 2021-22 offseason with heightened expectations. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has already spoken about looking to add to his roster on the heels of a 90-win season, specifically citing a desire to deepen his lineup and add an infielder. ESPN’s Buster Olney recently explored the manner in which the Mariners are a good fit for many of the top-ranked shortstops in this year’s free-agent market, where Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Javier Baez and Trevor Story will all be available. Corey Brock of The Athletic took a similar look at the Mariners’ offseason, speculating that Semien would be a strong fit for what the Mariners seek.
As one would expect, the increased expectations and early speculation have generated some buzz in Seattle — enough that 710 ESPN’s Mike Salk directly asked Dipoto about the possibility of adding a marquee shortstop the mix (Twitter link, with audio). While Dipoto spoke with an open-mind, however, he also gave a substantial vote of confidence to incumbent J.P. Crawford, who took home a 2020 Gold Glove Award at shortstop and had a fine all-around season in 2021.
“One of the key elements is we have a shortstop that we love,” Dipoto said in reference to Crawford. “J.P. is our shortstop, and we feel like he is an anchor on our infield and an emotional leader for our team. So, one of the things that’s important to us is finding a player who is adaptable and willing to move around the field and maybe get a little uncomfortable.”
Interestingly, Dipoto specifically mentioned both Baez and Semien when pointing out that some of the offseason shortstop crop has done that throughout their careers already. Baez played plenty of second and third early in his career and recently slid back to second base for the final two months of the season in Queens, where Francisco Lindor was entrenched at shortstop. Semien played multiple positions early in his career before settling in as the Athletics’ primary shortstop. He shifted to second base in a full-time capacity this season and posted elite defensive marks as shortstop Bo Bichette‘s double-play partner.
It’s a bit unusual to see a top-ranking baseball operations executive name-check any free agents in this manner, although Dipoto’s comments still hardly guarantee that either Semien or Baez will land in Seattle (or that the Mariners will aggressively pursue either player). Similarly, his mention of Baez and Semien doesn’t preclude the M’s from pursuing one of the market’s other high-end shortstops (Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Trevor Story). And if the Mariners are indeed looking for versatile fielders willing to play a variety of positions, the market has two quality hitters well known for their defensive versatility: old friend Chris Taylor and longtime Cubs star Kris Bryant.
Dipoto calls “that kind of selflessness” a “big deal” for the Mariners as they parse the offseason free-agent market. Another key element for the Mariners will be players with postseason experience, per Dipoto, who plainly acknowledges that to be an element he’ll seek as he looks to augment his young core with veterans. “We know where we want to go, and the more we can add players who’ve been there, the better off we are,” he said.
The Mariners have some option decisions looming — most notably a $20MM club option on Kyle Seager and a $13MM player option for Yusei Kikuchi — but at present they project to have just shy of $60MM on the books. Regardless of what happens with Kikuchi and their longtime third baseman, Seager, the Mariners will be miles shy of their franchise-record $157.9MM payroll. It’s not reasonable to assume a full-throttle sprint back up to or even beyond that record level, but the Mariners also ought to have the payroll capacity to approach the offseason with a wide-open slate of possibilities.
Mariners Outright Shed Long, Four Others
2:55pm: In addition to Long, the Mariners announced that infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty, righty Darren McCaughan, outfielder Marcus Wilson and righty Ryan Weber were all outrighted from the roster. Weber was able to immediately declare free agency, as this is the second outright of his career. Long and Wilson will be free agents after the postseason concludes.
Haggerty had a nice season in 2020, but in a limited sample of just 13 games and 54 plate appearances. In 2021, he got to the plate 94 times but produced a meager .186/.247/.291 line, then went on the IL at the end of May with a shoulder injury but never returned. He’ll now look to get back to health and regular playing time in the minors in order to earn his way back to the bigs.
McCaughan made his major league debut this season but only got into two games. In Triple-A, he logged 115 1/3 innings over 20 starts with an ERA of 4.53. His strikeout rate was subpar at 20.9% but his walk rate was an excellent 3.6%. He’ll remain in the organization as depth.
Wilson was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox in August but was stashed in Triple-A and has yet to make it to the show. Between the two organizations, he got 437 Triple-A plate appearances in 2021, slashing .240/.364/.421 for a wRC+ of 110.
Weber is the most experienced of the bunch, with 167 big league innings to his name, with an ERA of 5.28. In 2021, he bounced between Boston, Milwaukee and Seattle but got the most action with Tacoma, Seattle’s Triple-A team. He logged 60 1/3 innings there over 10 starts, with an ERA of 3.58, strikeout rate of 25.1% and miniscule walk rate of 0.9%.
2:05pm: Long underwent a second surgery to repair the stress reaction in his shin last week, agent Nate Heisler tells Divish (Twitter link). The bone is expected to be healed over in one to two months’ time, which should afford Long enough time to be ready for Spring Training.
1:52pm: The Mariners are performing some early roster maintenance in advance of the offseason and are set to announce that infielder/outfielder Shed Long Jr. has been outrighted from the 40-man roster, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). That he’s being assigned outright off the roster means he’s already cleared waivers, and Long will now be able to become a free agent this offseason.
It’s been a tough couple of seasons for the 26-year-old Long, whom Seattle acquired in the three-team swap that sent Sonny Gray from the Yankees to the Reds and outfield prospect Josh Stowers from Seattle to New York. Long played much of last season through a stress fracture in his leg before ultimately undergoing season-ending surgery. The detrimental impact of that injury lingered into 2021, ending his season on Aug. 2 and helping to limit Long to just 34 games and 121 plate appearances at the MLB level.
At the time of his acquisition, Long was a well-regarded prospect seen as a potential everyday option for Seattle at second base or perhaps in left field. He looked the part of a possible regular in his rookie campaign in ’19, posting a .263/.333/.454 batting line with five homers, a dozen doubles, a triple and three steals through 168 trips to the plate. Unfortunately, in the two years since, he’s cobbled together a paltry .184/.250/.325 output through 249 plate appearances while struggling through that pair of leg injuries.
While Long was sidelined, the ever-active Mariners front office, led by president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, acquired a slew of players who have now left Long as something of an odd man out in the organization. Abraham Toro and Ty France are getting regular at-bats in the infield, while the future outlook in the outfield is quite promising with Mitch Haniger, 2020 Rooke of the Year Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, Julio Rodriguez, Taylor Trammell and Jake Fraley all in the mix. The Mariners are also expected to further add to that infield mix this winter, perhaps in significant fashion, as the team looks to turn the final corner and emerge from an abbreviated rebuilding process on the heels of a surprising 90-win season
Long will hit the free-agent market at just 26 years of age and search for a new opportunity with an organization that can offer a clearer path to playing time. He’ll still have a minor league option remaining in 2022, but the fact that he went unclaimed on waivers could well mean that Long is ticketed for a minor league pact in free agency.
Cardinals Claim Ljay Newsome From Mariners
The Cardinals have claimed right-hander Ljay Newsome off waivers from the Mariners, both clubs announced Friday. Newsome was on the Mariners’ 60-day injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this summer and, for the time being, will remain on the 60-day IL with the Cardinals, per the team. That’ll be a temporary move for the Cards, who’ll need to either pass Newsome through waivers themselves or clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster by eventually removing someone else.
Newsome, 24, has just 12 Major League games under his belt and has struggled in that time, pitching to a 6.53 ERA in 30 frames. His 18.2 percent strikeout rate is a good bit shy of the league average, but Newsome has walked just four of the 137 Major League hitters he’s faced (2.9 percent) — and one of those was intentional. During his last full minor league season, the former 26th-rounder pitched 155 innings across three levels, working to a 3.54 ERA with an outstanding 169-to-17 K/BB ratio: a 27.3 percent overall strikeout rate and just a 2.7 percent walk rate.
On top of a strong minor league track record, Newsome also has multiple minor league option years remaining beyond the current season. He obviously won’t be an option early in the 2022 campaign, but he could give the Cardinals (or another team, depending on the organization’s plan for him) a depth option either in the rotation or as a multi-inning option in the ‘pen. Newsome sat at 91.5 mph with his heater in 2020 when he worked primarily as a starter, but he made 13 of his 14 appearances in 2021 out of the bullpen and saw that average velocity tick up to 93 mph.
The Cardinals were bitten hard by a lack of rotation depth this summer when the majority of their rotation landed on the injured list at the same time. Those struggles prompted the Cards to bring in veterans Wade LeBlanc, J.A. Happ and Jon Lester in the weeks running up to the July 30 trade deadline. All three are free agents this winter, as is southpaw Kwang Hyun Kim, so it’s only natural to see the Cardinals looking to stack up a little extra depth. Next year’s rotation is set to include Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson, with younger candidates for that fifth spot including Matthew Liberatore and Jake Woodford (in addition to Alex Reyes, if he’s moved out of the bullpen).
Orioles To Outright Austin Wynns
The Orioles have outrighted backup catcher Austin Wynns off the 40-man roster, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. The team has yet to formally announce the move, but Wynns, who has previously been outrighted off the 40-man roster, will be able to elect free agency.
Wynns, 30, has spent parts of three seasons in a backup capacity with the O’s, appearing in a total of 115 games and batting .216/.255/.326 in 331 trips to the plate. While the offense isn’t much to look at, Wynns has a strong defensive reputation and has been quite adept at thwarting stolen bases, with a 32 percent mark in his career and a particularly impressive 38 percent mark in 2021 (11-for-29).
Catcher figures to be an area of focus for the O’s this offseason, although with top prospect and former No. 1 overall draft pick Adley Rutschman on the horizon, they’re not likely to be in the market for a high-profile name. Veteran Pedro Severino is also on the 40-man roster at the moment, but with a projected $3.1MM salary in arbitration, he’s a clear non-tender candidate.
Assuming the club eventually moves on from Severino, the O’s could look to bring in a veteran on a non-guaranteed minor league deal — a frequent tactic for them throughout their ongoing rebuild. It’s possible that could even be Wynns on a new minor league arrangement that doesn’t require a spot on the 40-man roster. The 2013 tenth-rounder has spent his entire career in the Baltimore organization.
Hiroshima Carp Could Post Outfielder Seiya Suzuki For MLB Clubs
The Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball could make top outfielder Seiya Suzuki available to Major League teams via the posting system this winter, according to a report from Yahoo Japan. The Carp have begun taking some of the necessary steps, per the report, conducting a recent MRI for updated medical records and beginning to put together the requisite paperwork.
There’s still no guarantee that Suzuki will ultimately be made available this winter, but the outfielder himself acknowledged his desire to eventually test his skills against Major League pitching during an August interview with Dylan Hernandez of the the L.A. Times. “I think everyone feels they want to play at the highest stage if they can get the chance,” Suzuki told Hernandez.
While reports of well-regarded NPB and KBO players potentially being made available to MLB clubs are common around this time of every year, Suzuki is a bit of a different case. Having recently turned 27 years old, he’s much younger than most players who are made available through the posting system or wait until accruing nine full years of service time to reach unrestricted international free agency. He’s also widely regarded as one of the best players in NPB.
Hernandez quotes a big league scout calling Suzuki a “five-tool guy” and “the best player in Japan the last few years.” Sung Min Kim, who’s written for both FanGraphs and The Athletic, tweets that several MLB Pacific Rim scouts have considered Suzuki the top NPB or KBO player with a realistic chance of being posted in recent years. Longtime Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, who’s spent the past two seasons playing against him in Japan, tweets that Suzuki is an MLB-caliber talent. Ted Baarda of Sports Info Solutions wrote last October that Suzuki fits the strong-armed, power-hitting profile of a prototypical right fielder.
While there’s a gap in terms of the quality of pitching he’d face, everything Suzuki has done in NPB indicates that he’s indeed one of the most talented hitters in that league. He made his NPB debut at just 18 years of age in 2013, and while it was only an 11-game cup of coffee, he’d cemented himself as a regular for the Carp by his age-20 season. Suzuki posted a .731 OPS that year (2015), and that was the last time he’s had an OPS south of .936 in any given season.
Dating back to 2018, the right-handed-hitting Suzuki has put together a combined .319/.435/.592 batting line with 121 home runs, 115 doubles, four triples and 44 stolen bases (albeit in 72 attempts) through 2167 plate appearances. That includes 38 home runs and 26 doubles in just 526 plate appearances this season. Since 2018, Suzuki has walked at a huge 16 percent clip that is almost a mirror image of his 16.4 percent strikeout rate. He broke into NPB as an infielder, but he moved to right field in 2016 and has gone on to win four Gold Gloves for his work there.
The recent track record of outfielders making the move from NPB to MLB hasn’t been great, as neither Shogo Akiyama nor Yoshi Tsutsugo has lived up to expectations with their respective contracts (three years, $21MM from the Reds to Akiyama; two years, $12MM from the Rays to Tsutsugo). That said, Suzuki’s case looks quite a bit more compelling. Akiyama was posted in advance of his age-32 season and had never matched Suzuki’s power. Tsutsugo had more comparable power, but he also had significant strikeout issues in NPB and was not considered a good defender.
If Suzuki is indeed posted for big league clubs this winter, he’ll be the youngest and one of the most intriguing options on the corner outfield market. Alternatives, at present, include Kyle Schwarber, Michael Conforto, Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario, Tommy Pham, Jorge Soler and (depending on where you’d play him) Kris Bryant. Nick Castellanos is widely expected to opt out of the final two years of his deal with the Reds, and Avisail Garcia seems likely to decline his half of a $12MM mutual option in favor of a $2MM buyout and a return to the free-agent market. Castellanos and Conforto will likely be tagged with qualifying offers, and it’s at least feasible (though less likely) that Milwaukee would consider the same for Garcia.
Suzuki wouldn’t come with the draft pick compensation as free agents who reject that QO, but as a posted player, he’d cost his new team more than just the base value of his contract. Under the latest iteration of the NPB-MLB posting system, all 30 clubs would be able to negotiate freely with Suzuki. The team with which he eventually signs would then owe a release fee to Suzuki’s former team, the Carp. That fee correlates directly with the size of the contract. Any team that signed Suzuki would pay a sum of 20 percent of a contract’s first $25MM to the Carp. The fee also includes 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any dollars spent thereafter.
The release fee would be on top of the actual contract for Suzuki. For example (and not to say this is the type of contract Suzuki will command), a $50MM contract would cost a big league team a total of $59.375MM — $50MM to the player and $9.375MM to the former NPB club. Option years and incentives/bonuses are also factored in if they are eventually unlocked (e.g. a $10MM club option tacked on top of that theoretical $50MM deal would require the MLB club to pay $1.5MM to the NPB team once it is picked up — 15 percent of the guarantee beyond $50MM).
The posting process for Suzuki wouldn’t begin until after the conclusion of this year’s NPB season. Posting windows last for 30 days, and the fact that negotiations with Suzuki would coincide with ongoing collective bargaining negotiations between MLB and the MLB Players Association could complicate matters. If the Carp decide against posting Suzuki, or if he is posted and does not agree to a deal with a Major League team, Suzuki would return to the Carp for his age-27 campaign next year. He’s still two years from unrestricted free agency, so if he doesn’t come to MLB via the posting system this winter, it’s possible yet that the Carp could post him a second time next winter.
Phillies Notes: Galvis, Bohm, Arbitration
Infielder Freddy Galvis makes no secret about his desire to return to the Phillies in an interview with Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. As Breen explores, Galvis had an immediate impact on the clubhouse and team morale and was generally beloved and viewed as a veteran leader — both by teammates who’d played with him during his original run with the club and by newcomers who knew little of Galvis before the Phils acquired him from the Orioles this past July. Fellow utilityman Brad Miller tells Breen he was caught by surprise to see the clubhouse excitement after the trade was announced, but he quickly understood why. “It’s the epitome of being a pro,” Miller said. “Like we say it all the time, ‘That guys a pro’ or ‘He’s a good teammate’ or ‘He’s a winner.’ All these little terms. That’s what it comes down to when you’re a major-league baseball player is having those traits. He’s prepared for everything.”
Galvis wouldn’t be a candidate to start for the Phillies, but he could serve as a versatile infield piece and perhaps a bridge to prospect Bryson Stott — if the Phillies don’t pursue one of the higher-profile names on the free-agent market this winter. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski plainly acknowledged the need to improve at shortstop after the season and said veteran Didi Gregorius is not assured the starting job in 2022.
More out of Philly…
- Newly hired hitting coach Kevin Long is already headed to the Phillies’ spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla., where he’ll get an early start on working with Alec Bohm, writes Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philly. Bohm, 25, looked well on his way to cementing himself as a mainstay in the heart of the Phillies’ order in 2020 when he hit .338/.400/.481 in 180 plate appearances as a rookie. He mustered only a .247/.305/.342 slash in 417 trips to the plate this season, however, and eventually found himself optioned to Triple-A. Long, previously the hitting coach for the Yankees, Mets and Nationals, notes that young players are “really, really important to big-market teams,” as they can offset the cost of high-priced free agents and arbitration-eligible players. Long calls Bohm “one of the best hitters in the league in 2020” and suggests that Bohm “is a big part of the Philadelphia Phillies and us winning a championship.” Dombrowski acknowledged at season’s end that Bohm probably won’t win any Gold Gloves at the hot corner (link via 97.3 ESPN) but can be a bat-first option for the team moving forward. “His key is he has to hit. If he hits well enough, you’ll live with the defensive aspect of it,” said Dombrowski.
- Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia took a look at the Phils’ upcoming arbitration class earlier this week, opining that Odúbel Herrera, Ronald Torreyes, Travis Jankowski, Roman Quinn and Andrew Knapp might all be cut loose this winter. None of Torreyes, Jankowski, Quinn or Knapp would cost much to bring back, but everyone in that group comes with performance and/or durability question marks. The Phils hold an $11.5MM club option on Herrera’s services for next season that comes with a $2.5MM buyout. Even if they decline the option, the Phillies could retain Herrera via arbitration, but his projected $11.6MM arb salary isn’t any more affordable (projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). That indeed seems like a steep price for a player who hit a fine but unspectacular .260/.310/.416 over 492 plate appearances this past season. Herrera underperformed early in the 2019 season, then was suspended for the remainder of that year after violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. He didn’t play in 2020, but the Phillies brought him back to the majors in late April this year.
Marlins Outright Four Off 40-Man Roster
The Marlins have outrighted infielders Eddy Alvarez and Deven Marrero and right-handers Preston Guilmet and Andrew Bellatti off their 40-man roster, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The Fish now have 36 players on the 40-man roster, but with seven players on the 60-day injured list, they’ll still need to clear three more spots to reinstate all of their injured players between now and the conclusion of the postseason. All four players will be eligible for minor league free agency.
Of the two infielders, Alvarez saw significantly more action in 2021, compiling a .188/.297/.328 line across 74 plate appearances. He also made a few headlines in both 2020 and 2021: first when he became the first Winter Olympic medalist to appear in a Major League Game (he won a silver medal in speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Games), then again when he became the third American to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics (he was a member of the silver-winning USA baseball squad in this summer’s Tokyo Games).
Marrero, a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2012, put together a similar .188/.316/.375 line across just 19 PAs. He’s seen big-league action in six seasons (three with Boston, one with Arizona, and two with Miami) but has never managed to put together an extended run of production. Across a career-high 188 PAs for the BoSox in 2017, he managed only a meager .211/.259/.333 triple-slash. He hasn’t managed much more in the minors (he has a .623 OPS across 490 games in Triple-A) but remains a plus defender and could get a chance to catch on elsewhere.
Like Marrero, neither Guilmet nor Bellatti saw much time on the field for the Marlins. Guilmet covered only two innings (4.50 ERA) in two appearances, while Bellatti was roughed up (13.50 ERA) in a tiny sample of 3 1/3 IP in three trips to the mound. Guilmet’s track record is much longer, appearing with seven clubs across five big-league seasons, but he’s never seen more innings than the 10 1/3 he covered for Baltimore in 2014.
Bellatti’s brief run in 2021 was his first in the bigs since he posted a strong 2.31 ERA (albeit with a 5.23 FIP) across 23 1/3 innings for the Rays in 2015 before injuries derailed his career. He was out of baseball entirely in 2017 and ’18 before latching on with the Yankees Double-A affiliate in 2019 (after a single outing with the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters) and ultimately getting the call from the Marlins this year.