Jerad Eickhoff Re-Signs With Mets
4:40 pm: Eickhoff is returning to the Mets on a new minor league arrangement, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link).
9:27 am: Right-hander Jerad Eickhoff went unclaimed on waivers and has elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment to Triple-A, per the transactions log at MiLB.com. He can now sign with any club (or re-sign a new minor league deal with the Mets).
Eickhoff, who turned 31 on Friday, returned to the big leagues with a pair of starts for an injury-depleted Mets club last month. The righty saw Major League time with the Phillies each season from 2015-19, pitching to a combined 4.15 ERA with a 21.3 percent strikeout rate and a 6.8 percent walk rate. His best work, however, came in the first two years of that span, when he posted a 3.44 ERA in 248 1/3 frames. Eickhoff’s final three seasons with the Phils were marred by injuries — most notably surgery to address carpal tunnel syndrome in his pitching hand.
Eickhoff split the 2020 season between the Padres and Rangers organizations after signing a minor league deal with the Padres. San Diego even selected his contract to the MLB roster early in the 2020 campaign, but he was sent out before appearing in a game. He later inked a minor league pact with his original organization, the Rangers, but didn’t make it back to the big leagues before season’s end.
The 2020 season marked the first since 2015 in which Eickhoff didn’t pitch in the Majors. He’ll now look for a new opportunity after yielding five runs on 11 hits and four walks with six punchouts in 10 innings for the Mets. Four of the hits surrendered by Eickhoff in his brief time with the Mets’ big league club were home runs, which is cause for some concern, as are the struggles he had in Triple-A Syracuse before being called to the Majors: 44 innings, 5.32 ERA, 22.1 percent strikeout rate, 7.0 percent walk rate, 11 home runs allowed.
Chip Hale Leaves Tigers For Head Coaching Position At University Of Arizona
Tigers third base coach Chip Hale is leaving his position to accept a job as head coach at the University of Arizona, per an announcement from the school’s baseball department. Michael Lev of the Arizona Daily Star tweeted this morning that there were “strong indications” Hale would be the program’s new head coach.
This, rather remarkably, is the second time in the past month that the Tigers have lost a member of their Major League staff to a college program. Assistant hitting coach Jose Cruz Jr. accepted a job as the head coach at Rice University back on June 9.
Both Hale and Cruz were in their first season as members of AJ Hinch’s coaching staff in Detroit. Hinch, of course, is also in his first year as Tigers skipper after serving his suspension on the heels of the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal. Prior to taking his now-former post with the Tigers, Hale was the bench coach for the 2019 World Series champion Nationals. He also spent two years as the D-backs’ manager and has served as a bench coach and/or third base coach with the D-backs, Mets and Athletics.
Hale, 56, played his college ball at Arizona and was a 17th-round selection of the Twins back in the 1987 draft. He spent parts of seven seasons in the Majors (six with Minnesota, one with the Dodgers), serving as a utility infielder and batting .277/.346/.363 in 333 MLB games.
“I am very honored and excited to be the new head baseball coach at the University of Arizona,” Hale said in a statement released by the Wildcats. “We will work tirelessly to build on the success that has been established here and continue to coach and develop our Wildcats to be champions on the field and in the classroom. With the help and support of the University of Arizona and the Wildcat Family, we plan on making many trips to Omaha!”
The Tigers have yet to announce who will be taking over as their new third base coach in the wake of Hale’s departure.
D-backs Claim Jordan Weems, Designate Ryan Buchter
The Diamondbacks announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Jordan Weems off waivers from the Athletics. Veteran lefty Ryan Buchter was designated for assignment in a corresponding roster move.
Weems, 28, was designated for assignment himself over the weekend. He’s allowed three runs in 4 1/3 frames for Oakland this season and, dating back to last summer’s debut, has yielded a total of eight runs on 12 hits and 10 walks with 22 strikeouts in 18 1/3 frames.
A third-round pick of the Red Sox back in 2011, Weems never made it to The Show in Boston before reaching minor league free agency and latching on with the A’s. He posted solid numbers with Oakland’s MLB club last summer, albeit in 14 1/3 innings, but has been hit hard in a trio of brief stints at the Triple-A level: 6.67 ERA in 29 2/3 innings.
Weems averages better than 95 mph with his heater, however, and turned in a solid 13.1 percent swinging-strike rate in 2020. The Diamondbacks, starved for bullpen help, are surely hoping he can rediscover some of that 2020 form in a change of setting. Weems also has all three minor league options remaining, so he’s a flexible piece both for now and in future seasons if he indeed sticks on the 40-man roster.
As for the 34-year-old Buchter, he’ll now either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released in the next week. He’s tossed 14 2/3 innings of relief out of the Arizona bullpen so far but hasn’t had anywhere near the level of success he’s had for the majority of his big league career.
Buchter entered the season with a 2.90 ERA, a 26.8 percent strikeout rate and an 11.2 percent walk rate but has served up nine earned runs in 14 2/3 innings (5.52 ERA) with as many walks as strikeouts (19.1 percent apiece). His fastball, which averaged 92.6 mph in each of the past three seasons, is down to an average of 90.9 mph in 2021. Buchter’s 7.9 percent swinging-strike rate is also the lowest of his career.
Astros Outright Francis Martes
Right-hander Francis Martes went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Astros and will remain in the organization, tweets The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan. Houston designated him for assignment late last week.
Now 25 years old, Martes once ranked as one of the game’s premier pitching prospects. The big righty peaked at No. 15 overall on Baseball America’s Top 100 and also landed within the game’s Top 25 overall prospects at MLB.com and at FanGraphs as he rose through Houston’s minor league ranks.
That peak, however, came more than three years ago, and Martes has seen his stock plummet in the years since. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 before being hit with not one but two bans after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Martes was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for Clomiphene in March 2019, and less than a year later he was saddled with a 162-game ban after testing positive for boldenone.
Martes returned to the mound in 2021, but he’s been drilled for 14 runs (10 earned) on eight hits and a staggering 13 walks in just 8 1/3 frames. He hasn’t hit any batters but has unloaded three wild pitches as well.
Martes made his big league debut with the Astros as a 21-year-old back in 2017, though he struggled to a 5.80 ERA in 54 1/3 frames. In four years since that time, he’s only managed only 33 1/3 innings because of that injury and the pair of PED violations. It’s possible he’ll eventually work his way back into the mix for a big league spot, but given that he’s walked 29 percent of the batters he’s faced in his limited mound work so far in 2021, he has quite a ways to go before that happens.
The Mariners Have A Yusei Kikuchi Decision To Make
Yusei Kikuchi‘s first two seasons in the Major Leagues didn’t go as either the Mariners or the left-hander himself hoped. After establishing himself as one of the premier pitchers in Japan by pitching to a 2.77 ERA in parts of eight seasons (2.51 in his final three years), he tested international free-agent waters as one of the most coveted talents in recent memory.
Beyond his excellent numbers in Japan and his arsenal of what many scouts believed to MLB-caliber offerings, Kikuchi was a free agent at just 27 years of age. Unlike many of his countrymen, he was seeking his first opportunity in North America while firmly in the midst of his prime seasons. The level of interest and intrigue in the left-hander was readily apparent both in the size and the structure of his contract. Kikuchi hired the Boras Corporation to represent him as he looked to jump to the big leagues and eventually secured a four-year, $56MM guarantee from the Mariners.
Put rather simply, Kikuchi’s first year in the Majors went poorly in just about every regard. He remained healthy, but Kikuchi struggled in adjusting from pitching every sixth day in NPB to every fifth in MLB. The Mariners did, at times, find ways to get him an extra day’s rest, and they even gave him a few starts that were short by design. (He tossed just one inning in an April 26 “start,” for instance, as he adjusted to his new workload.)
The numbers weren’t there. He made 32 starts but pitched to a 5.46 ERA and 5.17 SIERA. His 6.9 percent walk rate was a good bit better than league average, but Kikuchi also had a well below-average 16.1 percent strikeout rate and was tagged for a whopping 36 home runs in just 161 2/3 frames. It was not a great debut. Mariners fans might’ve hoped that a second season would produce better results as Kikuchi overcame his adjustment phase, but he came back with a 5.17 ERA in 47 innings (nine starts). He understandably drew a fair bit of criticism.
However, there was also good reason to believe that Kikuchi’s 2020 season marked something of a turning point. While the ERA wasn’t great, the signs of a forthcoming breakout weren’t exactly hidden.
Kikuchi’s average four-seam velocity jumped from 92.6 mph to 95.1 mph in 2020, and he began using an effective cutter that wasn’t in his 2019 repertoire. His strikeout rate jumped from 2019’s 16.1 percent to 24.2 percent, and his ground-ball rate spiked from 44 percent in ’19 to 52 percent in 2020. The home run troubles that plagued him in 2019 were gone; Kikuchi yielded just three round-trippers in those 47 innings. Despite the improvements in many of his underlying stats, however, Kikuchi was hindered by an elevated 10.3 percent walk rate and a 59.9 percent strand rate that looked rather fluky.
Just as many of those indicators suggested, Kikuchi looks like a different pitcher in 2021. He’s started 15 games and ridden a 3.18 ERA, 25.4 percent strikeout rate, 8.5 percent walk rate and career-best 53.8 percent ground-ball rate to his first career All-Star nod. Kikuchi has allowed three or fewer runs in 13 of his 15 starts, with the lone exception being a pair of five-run hiccups in his third and fourth starts of the season. Over his past 11 trips to the mound, Kikuchi has logged a 2.33 ERA while averaging 6 1/3 innings per start.
The transformation is striking, although it’s worth noting that similarly to 2020, when he pitched better than his ERA indicated, Kikuchi probably isn’t quite this good. He’s benefiting from a tiny .221 average on balls in play and a huge 82.9 percent strand rate that, like his 2020 mark, looks unsustainable (just in the other direction). Still, if you combine Kikuchi’s 2020-21 results, it’s a pretty nice-looking pitcher without too many red flags: 140 1/3 innings, 3.85 ERA, 3.97 SIERA, 25 percent strikeout rate, 9.1 percent walk rate, 53.1 percent ground-ball rate. The combined .251 BABIP is a bit lower than should be expected, but few pitchers can boast that combination of missed bats, solid control and strong ground-ball tendencies.
All of this is particularly notable given the aforementioned unique structure of Kikuchi’s contract. He’s technically guaranteed $56MM from 2019-22, but the Mariners will have a pivotal decision at season’s end. They can choose to exercise a quartet of one-year, $16.5MM options all in conjunction with one another — effectively a four-year, $66MM extension. If not, Kikuchi will have a $13MM player option that he can decline in order to test free agency. (Seattle could make him a qualifying offer at that point.)
The Mariners are in the late stages of a multi-year rebuild and will surely be aiming to contend beginning in 2022. But while they’ve begun to see a growing number of position prospects emerge at the MLB level, the pitching looks far less certain. Justus Sheffield is still looking to settle in as a consistent producer. Logan Gilbert has looked sharp after a few rocky outings early in his MLB career. Chris Flexen has proven to be a shrewd signing thus far. Marco Gonzales has battled injuries in 2021 and taken a step back. Top prospects George Kirby and Emerson Hancock shouldn’t be expected to be too far behind Gilbert in terms of MLB readiness, but the rotation could certainly use some stability — which Kikuchi has provided to this point in the season.
As such, there’s good reason for the Mariners to want to keep Kikuchi around, though the question will be whether that four-year, $66MM price point proves palatable. The team has just $19MM committed to the 2022 payroll beginning in 2022, so Seattle can certainly afford to keep Kikuchi around and still make another notable addition to the rotation either via free agency or trade this winter. The $66MM price point is roughly in line with recent deals signed by Nathan Eovaldi (four years, $68MM), Miles Mikolas (four years, $68MM), Dallas Keuchel (three years, $55.5MM) and Alex Cobb (four years, $57MM). If Kikuchi continues pitching near his current level, a deal in that range wouldn’t be unreasonable in free agency.
That’s particularly of note, too, because if the Mariners choose not to pick up their end of the arrangement, Kikuchi currently looks like a lock to turn down that $13MM player option, given how well he’s pitched. He’d quite likely reject a qualifying offer as well, based on the strength of his performance.
Other teams could try to pry Kikuchi away from the Mariners with a strong trade offer, but if he’s pitching well enough to carry substantial trade value, that probably means he’s also pitching well enough for the Mariners to look favorably on that four-year extension. Trading a player with such a virtually unprecedented conditional option would also be immensely complicated. It’d be tough for Seattle to extract considerable value when the best-case scenario is having the exclusive right to extend Kikuchi at a fairly notable rate.
There’s also downside for an acquiring team that can’t be overlooked; were Kikuchi to incur a substantial injury in the months following a trade, he’d likely exercise that $13MM player option. The Mariners have already taken that risk in issuing the initial contract — but they weren’t parting with young talent in addition to taking that risk. Another club would be doing just that, which would weigh down the potential return in a trade.
We’re only at the season’s halfway point, so there’s still time for Kikuchi to make this decision look more straightforward — either with a continued run of dominance or a return to his 2019-20 form. But the fact that he’s begun to make the four-year option/extension route look viable in and of itself is a testament to the strength of his season. He’s gone from looking like a possible front office misstep to the potential rotation cornerstone the Mariners envisioned when signing him in the first place.
Neftali Feliz Elects Free Agency
JULY 3: Feliz has cleared waivers and elected free agency, the Phils announced.
JULY 1: The Phillies announced that they’ve designated right-hander Neftali Feliz for assignment and reinstated righty Brandon Kintzler from the injured list. It marks an abrupt end to Feliz’s tenure with the Phils after a four-year absence from the Majors.
Feliz looked razor-sharp in Triple-A this season, posting a 1.26 ERA and a 23-to-6 K/BB ratio in just 14 2/3 innings of work, but the bullpen-desperate Phils gave him a quick hook after his first two outings produced dismal results. Feliz faced just nine batters between his two outings, allowing six of them to reach on four hits (one homer), a walk and a hit batsmen.
Manager Joe Girardi called on Feliz with a man abord to protect a two-run lead in his Phillies debut, but he responded with a walk, a strikeout, a hit batter and a go-ahead grand slam off the bat of Nick Castellanos. Feliz again came in with a pair on and a one-run lead in his second appearance, but he surrendered a game-tying single and go-ahead double before picking up a strikeout to escape the jam.
It’s up for debate whether Feliz should’ve been immediately dropped into high-leverage spots after such a long absence from the spotlight of a Major League mound, but it’s certainly understandable that Girardi would want to try a different approach after such pronounced struggles from the Philadelphia relief corps of late. Turning to Feliz on a pair of occasions didn’t pan out, but that’s been largely true of the remainder of the bullpen as well.
The Phillies will now have a week to trade Feliz, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. There’s a chance, based on his pedigree and strong output with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, that another club might take a look. Feliz, after all, was the 2010 American Rookie of the Year and spent a few seasons as one of the game’s premier relievers before injuries derailed his career. Even if he goes unclaimed, he has the service time to reject an outright assignment and could land with another club as a free agent on a new minor league deal.
Feliz struggled mightily in his short time with Philadelphia, but the same has been true of Kintzler thus far in his first year with the Phils as well. The former Twins and Marlins closer has pitched 18 innings but been clobbered for 17 runs on a stunning 31 hits (five homers) and four walks. Kintzler’s 59.4 percent grounder rate is excellent, as is typical for him, but he’s been plagued by a .406 average on balls in play and been uncharacteristically susceptible to the long ball so far. In the offseason, the Phillies signed him to a minor league deal that came with a $3MM base salary, which he locked in upon winning a roster spot in Spring Training.
Mets Acquire Anthony Banda From Giants
2:22 pm: The Mets have announced the trade.
2:06 pm: The Mets have agreed to a deal acquiring left-hander Anthony Banda from the Giants in exchange for minor league third baseman Will Toffey, reports Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).
Banda, 27, was once one of the game’s top pitching prospects but has battled injuries and begun to bounce around the league in journeyman fashion. He’s spent the 2021 season with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, where he’s struggled to a 6.86 ERA with a 22.2 percent strikeout rate, a 9.5 percent walk rate and a 50 percent ground-ball rate. Most of the damage done against Banda in 2021 has come in three outings (a pair of six-run drubbings and a particularly rough seven-run game).
It hasn’t been a great year for Banda, but the same can be said of the 26-year-old Toffey, who has posted just a .178/.317/.386 batting line with a sky-high 38 percent strikeout rate in 123 Double-A plate appearances. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked him 28th among Mets farmhands heading into the season, noting that he’s a solid defender at the hot corner with a plus arm but questioning his lack of power and bat speed.
In Banda, the Mets will get a lefty with some big league experience — 51 1/3 innings, 5.96 ERA, 3.67 FIP — to help shore up their depth after a staggering number of pitching injuries have taken their toll on the organization. The Giants, meanwhile, are buying low on a prospect of a bit of note. Toffey has batted just .220 and slugged .379 in parts of three Double-A seasons, but his keen eye at the plate has produced a .354 OBP at that generally pitcher-friendly level.
Report: D-backs Telling Teams Ketel Marte Won’t Be Traded
Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte will be one of the most coveted names on this summer’s trade market, but unlike impending free agents Eduardo Escobar and Asdrubal Cabrera, Marte is far from a lock to be traded. To the contrary, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the D-backs have plainly told multiple clubs that Marte won’t be traded. It’s always possible there’s some posturing in such statements, and a large enough offer can make any team consider moving even the most “untouchable” of players. Still, it’s telling that to this point, Arizona apparently hasn’t seemed particularly inclined to listen.
In that same vein, D-backs assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye spoke with the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro about the team’s general approach at the deadline. Broadly speaking, Sawdaye expresses reluctance to trade any long-term, core pieces (e.g. Marte) while also noting that there could be “different dynamics at play in the offseason than there might be in the next three or four weeks.”
Just who the Diamondbacks consider to be core pieces can be debated to an extent, but Marte, who is signed through 2024, is clearly at the forefront of that group. Right-hander Zac Gallen is controlled through the 2025 season, while catcher Carson Kelly is controlled through ’24 and infielder Josh Rojas through ’26. Lefty Caleb Smith, who has pitched quite well since moving into the rotation last month, is perhaps more attainable given that’s controlled through the 2023 campaign.
While Marte is currently on the injured list thanks to a strained hamstring, it’s nevertheless been a brilliant season for the versatile 27-year-old. A switch-hitter capable of playing second base or anywhere in the outfield, Marte is out to a .370/.419/.556 start with four homers and 13 doubles through 148 plate appearances. He’s walked at a respectable (albeit slightly below-average) 8.1 percent clip while striking out at a 14.2 percent rate that is nearly 10 percent lower than the league average. This season isn’t a random outlier, either; Marte slashed .329/.389/.592 in a full season back in 2019 and has combined for a very strong .302/.362/.507 line in his past 1551 plate appearances dating back to 2018.
Marte’s play alone is enough to make him one of MLB’s most sought-after trade candidates, but the contract extension he signed prior to the 2018 campaign has sent his trade value through the roof. That five-year contract guarantees Marte $24MM in total and also includes a pair of club options valued at $10MM (2023) and $12MM (2024).
Those yearly salaries make Marte affordable enough for even small-market clubs, and the $4.8MM annual value is enormously appealing to clubs who find themselves in the vicinity of the luxury-tax barrier. To this point in the season, Marte has been speculatively linked to both New York clubs at length, though there aren’t really any contending clubs who couldn’t find a way to work Marte into their lineup and payroll.
Sawdaye’s comments, while somewhat vague, do suggest that the D-backs will be a bit more open to exploring trades of this magnitude (though not necessarily Marte himself) in the offseason. Trades of controllable, high-end players are typically complex in nature — the sort that teams are reluctant to rush while simultaneously juggling other trade negotiations (as the D-backs will be doing this month with Escobar, Cabrera, Merrill Kelly, David Peralta and others). A wider base of teams also figures to inquire over the winter, as current rebuilders and/or non-contenders look to change their fortunes in advance of the 2022 campaign.
As always, this sort of topic is one that shouldn’t be addressed in absolutes. Even the best and most valuable players in the game are only “untouchable” until the right return is offered. It’s notable that the D-backs aren’t planning to actively shop Marte themselves, though, and seems likely that an interested party would need to approach the Diamondbacks with a particularly sizable offer to even get talks rolling. Regardless of their current stance, other clubs will surely try to sway the Arizona front office’s mindset in the four weeks between now and the July 30 trade deadline — and if that doesn’t bear fruit, we can probably expect an offseason full of rumblings on the Ketel Marte front.
White Sox Promote Jake Burger, Option Yermin Mercedes
11:38am: The White Sox announced that they have indeed recalled Burger from Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago has also reinstated Adam Eaton from the injured list. In a pair of corresponding roster moves, they’ve optioned righty Zack Burdi and, most notably, designated hitter Yermin Mercedes.
The 28-year-old Mercedes was the talk of baseball when he started the season 8-for-8 and generally decimated big league pitching for the first six weeks of the season. Mercedes batted .368/.417/.571 through the season’s first 38 games, producing at a Herculean level even as hitters throughout the league struggled so extensively that MLB finally began to crack down on pitchers’ use of foreign substances.
In his next 31 games, however, Mercedes has seen his offensive production completely evaporate. The endpoint here, admittedly, is rather arbitrary, but Mercedes is hitting just .150/.220/.196 across his past 118 plate appearances. Understandably, the Sox have begun to cut back on his playing time, and he’s now Charlotte-bound, where the team will hope he can get a reset of sorts to round back into the form he displayed early in the 2021 campaign.
11:00am: The White Sox are calling up infield prospect Jake Burger for his big league debut today, tweets The Athletic’s James Fegan. Scott Merkin of MLB.com suggested last night (via Twitter) that Burger was likely to be with the club in Detroit this weekend, and the White Sox themselves have even tweeted a not-so-subtle indication that Burger is getting the call — though they’ve yet to make a formal announcement and reveal the corresponding roster moves.
It’s the culmination of a remarkable journey for the 2017 first-rounder, who has twice torn his Achilles tendon and endured grueling, months-long rehabilitations. Burger didn’t play in a single minor league game from 2018-19 (or in 2020, for obvious reasons). Making the jump from Class-A to Triple-A after a three-year layoff from competitive games is impressive in itself, but Burger has done far more than simply make that leap — he’s absolutely torn Triple-A pitching apart. In 185 plate appearances over 42 games, the former No. 11 overall pick has mashed at a .322/.368/.596 clip, swatting 10 homers, 15 doubles and a triple along the way.
Burger only recently turned 25, so despite the considerable injury hurdles he’s had to clear in his journey to this point, his age lines up nicely with the rest of an increasingly impressive core of young White Sox stars. He’s played primarily third base in the minor leagues, but the Sox began getting him some looks at second base when Nick Madrigal went down with a season-ending hamstring tear. For the time being, however, Burger could get a look at his primary position at the hot corner, as Yoan Moncada sustained a hand injury on a slide into third base yesterday.
Burger’s early performance could be pivotal for the White Sox. While they’re comfortably in command of the American League Central, they’ve still reportedly been discussing a trade centering around D-backs infielder Eduardo Escobar. While those talks have apparently slowed as other teams jump into the Escobar bidding, Burger’s performance could conceivably curb Chicago’s own interest.
If Burger storms out to a hot start and Moncada comes back healthy sooner than later, the Sox could just let Burger run with the second base role and forgo an infield upgrade entirely. Conversely, if Burger looks overmatched, the Sox might be more interested in pursuing a short-term upgrade at a clear position of need on a win-now club — be it Escobar or another trade candidate.
Multiple Teams Now Showing Interest In Eduardo Escobar
July 2: While a deal sending Escobar to the ChiSox was in the works recently, Heyman tweets that multiple other clubs jumped into the mix this week and began showing interest, which has slowed the process. An eventual Escobar trade still feels inevitable, given his status as a pending free agent on MLB’s worst club.
June 28: The White Sox and Diamondbacks have been discussing a potential Eduardo Escobar deal for the past week, and it seems as though talks could be accelerating. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who initially reported the talks between the two sides, suggests in his latest notes column that the D-backs are “on the verge” of starting a sell-off that will begin with an Escobar trade. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets this morning that the two sides have made “progress” in a trade that would send Escobar from the D-backs to the ChiSox — the organization that originally signed Escobar out of Venezuela back in 2006.
Escobar is a sensible target for a Sox club that has lost Nick Madrigal for the season and now faces a notable hole at second base. The 32-year-old Escobar has spent more time at third base in recent years but has logged 227 innings at second base in 2021 and carries 849 career innings at the position. He’s also emerged as a reliable source of power and, over the past six weeks, been on a tear at the plate.
The switch-hitting Escobar fell into a considerable slump in early May, with his OPS bottoming out at .655 on May 14. In 152 plate appearances since that time, he’s mashed at a .306/.342/.563 clip with 10 homers, five doubles and a triple. That hot streak has boosted his season batting line to a respectable .253/.298/.481 and bumped his 2021 home run total up to 17. Escobar’s walk rate is down to 6.1 percent — a drop of some note from its 8.2 percent peak in 2018 — and he’s striking out at a career-high 22 percent clip. That’s still below the league average in today’s brand of strikeout-centric baseball, however.
Escobar is earning $7.5MM in 2021 — the final season of a three-year, $21MM contract extension he signed with Arizona in lieu of his first trip to the free agent market back in 2018. There’s still about $3.9MM yet to be paid out on that salary between now and season’s end. While rental players aren’t always ideal for contending clubs, it’s a rather sensible route for the Sox to take with regard to their infield needs. Yoan Moncada is locked in as the long-term answer at third base in Chicago, and the White Sox expect Madrigal back in 2022.
If a deal does ultimately get pushed across the finish line, Escobar would figure to be the first of multiple additions for a White Sox team that is in first place despite several injuries to key contributors. Eloy Jimenez hasn’t played in a game this season after suffering a ruptured pectoral tendon during a Spring Training game, and Luis Robert has been out since early May with a Grade 3 hip flexor strain. Fellow outfielders Adam Eaton and Adam Engel, meanwhile, are on the shelf owing to hamstring strains — the second of the season in Engel’s case.
As for the D-backs, Escobar is one of many veteran pieces who could change hands between now and the July 30 trade deadline. Asdrubal Cabrera, another pending free agent, seems all but assured to move. Outfielder David Peralta and right-hander Merrill Kelly are both affordably signed through the 2022 season. Backup catcher Stephen Vogt and reliever Joakim Soria aren’t having their best seasons, but they’re both impending free agents with solid track records and reasonable $3.5MM salaries. Ketel Marte, of course, is the Diamondbacks’ premier trade chip, as he’s controlled all the way through the 2024 season. That said, he’s also dealing with a hamstring issue and is undergoing additional imaging today as the team continues to evaluate that injury.