Hyeon-Jong Yang Expected To Pursue MLB Opportunities This Winter
Kia Tigers lefty Hyeon-jong Yang is expected to explore offers from MLB teams this winter, Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency tweets. The former KBO MVP is wrapping up a two-year deal with the same Tigers club with which he’s spent the past 14 seasons.
If Yang’s name sounds familiar to MLBTR readers, it’s likely due to the fact that the Tigers posted the southpaw for big league clubs back in the 2014-15 offseason. That was in the days of a since restructured posting system between MLB and the KBO, wherein all 30 big league clubs had the option of submitting a blind bid on what release fee they’d pay a player’s club. Yang’s Tigers did not feel that the winning bid — believed to be submitted by the Rangers — was enticing enough to part with their top pitcher.
Yang returned to the KBO and even signed a pair of free-agent deals with the Kia organization, but he’ll now apparently gauge MLB interest this winter. As a 14-year pro, he’s exempt from international signing restrictions and can sign a Major League contract for any amount or length.
The 2020 season hasn’t been a strong one for Yang, however, as his 4.46 ERA is his highest mark since the 2012 season. That said, Yang also ranks 14th among KBO pitchers with a 4.02 FIP (min. 50 innings pitched), and this year’s 8.1 K/9 mark is his highest since the 2014 season that led to his original posting. Assuming he finishes out this season healthy, Yang will have averaged 30 starts per season over his past seven years. He’s pitched to a 3.52 ERA with a 1074-to-410 K/BB ratio in 1267 frames over that seven-year span.
Of course, clubs will be far more interested in what they project Yang to be in 2021 than in what he’s done since his age-26 season. He’ll turn 33 next March, meaning he’s on the wrong side of a player’s typical prime, but considering the perennial offseason demand for pitching, it’s easy to envision some big league clubs taking a speculative look at a durable, low-risk flier for the rotation. Yang’s countryman, Kwang Hyun Kim, signed a two-year, $8MM deal with the Cardinals last winter when he was two years younger and was coming off a better platform. It’ll obviously be a different market for pitching this year, but there’s little precedent for a pitcher of Yang’s age commanding a sizable Major League deal in his first bite at the apple.
KBO Posting Period Pushed Back Slightly
The period during which teams in the Korea Baseball Organization can post players for MLB teams to bid on has been pushed back by nine days, Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports. Posting eligibility typically falls between Nov. 1 and Dec. 5, but that will move to Nov. 10 through Dec. 14 in 2020 to align with shifts in the KBO schedule that were brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kiwoom Heroes shortstop Ha-Seong Kim will be the highest-profile name posted, though Yoo also notes that NC Dinos outfielder/designated hitter Sung-Bum Na is eligible for posting as well. Yoo previously reported that Na had hired the Boras Corporation to represent him during potential negotiations with big league clubs, and the outfielder spoke with ESPN’s Marly Rivera earlier this season about his desire to test himself in the Major Leagues. His ability to do so will depend on the Dinos’ willingness to post him, of course. He’s played eight full KBO seasons and would be eligible for free agency next winter, so this would seemingly be the time for the Dinos to make such a move.
Unlike the 24-year-old Kim, Na is closer to the tail end of his prime. He celebrated his 31st birthday just last week and, as Yoo points out, missed most of the 2019 season due to a knee injury. Neither of those facts will do his market any favors, but it’s also hard to overlook just how potent his bat has been when healthy. Na has posted a sensational .318/.387/.600 slash with 31 homers and 31 doubles this season — maintaining a gaudy line even as the offensive levels in the long-hitter-friendly KBO have come down in recent seasons. That checks in more than 50 percent better than league-average, by measure of wRC+, and the 2020 season would be the third time in four years he’s been at least 50 percent better than an average KBO hitter.
It’s easy to get excited by those numbers, though Baseball America ranked Na fifth among potential MLB talents in the KBO earlier this spring and called him a potential platoon right fielder. The left-handed-hitting Na has a strong arm that would fit the position, but his lofty strikeout rates (26.7 percent in the KBO this year) will surely give teams some pause in wondering how his bat will play against Major League pitching.
For those who need a refresher or who are unfamiliar with the posting process, the latest set of rules agreed upon between MLB and the KBO stipulate that all 30 clubs will be able to negotiate with a player who is posted. The posting fee paid to that player’s former team will be tied directly to the size of the contract he signs. It is a separate sum that is paid out to the KBO club as opposed to an amount that is subtracted from the player’s eventual contract. A signing team would pay 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and an additional 15 percent on any dollars guaranteed beyond $50MM.
With regard to contractual options and incentives, those clauses are also subject to subsequent fees. A Major League team would only be immediately responsible for posting/release fees on the guaranteed portion of the contract. But if a player’s new team in the Majors exercised a club option down the road, for instance, that team would owe a supplemental fee to the player’s former KBO club once the option is picked up.
Cardinals Expected To Discuss New Contract With Kolten Wong
The Cardinals, like many other clubs throughout the league, have a fairly robust slate of guaranteed salaries on the books for 2021 and could face limited financial flexibility this winter as ownership tries to recover from the revenue losses that swept the sport in the shortened 2020 campaign. To that end, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cards “are expected” to talk to second baseman Kolten Wong about a contract extension that would lessen the immediate cost of keeping him on the roster.
Wong, who turned 30 over the weekend, has just one year of control remaining, but that comes in the form of a non-guaranteed $12.5MM club option for next season. The option comes with a $1MM buyout, meaning there’s a net $11.5MM decision to be made when it comes to keeping the 2019 Gold Glover or cutting him loose.
Wong hit .265/.350/.326 this season. The on-base skills displayed by Wong were roughly in line with his previous three seasons, but the second baseman’s already limited power went up in smoke, as Wong connected on just one home run, adding four doubles and a pair of triples. His .061 ISO (slugging minus batting average) was the lowest of his career by more than 50 points. Defensively, he remained elite; his six Defensive Runs Saved were the second-most among second baseman and ranked 19th in Major League Baseball at any position.
The Cards have just shy of $110MM committed to next year’s payroll — not including Wong’s would-be $12.5MM salary — and have a rather substantial arbitration class that will feature Jack Flaherty, John Gant, Alex Reyes, Harrison Bader, Jordan Hicks and John Brebbia. They’ll also be forced into decisions on franchise icons Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, both of whom are free agents but have interest in returning for another go-around in St. Louis. And, of course, none of that group would do much to address the team’s frequently anemic offense, which will be a focal point for president of baseball ops John Mozeliak, GM Mike Girsch and the rest of the front office this winter.
On the surface, there’d be good reason for Wong to hold some mutual interest in a reworked deal. Beyond staying with the only club he’s ever known, the offseason market is expected to be rather frigid for mid-tier free agents due to the aforementioned revenue losses. The second base market, in particular, would also hold plenty of competition, most notably in the form of Yankees star DJ LeMahieu. He’s far from the only starting-caliber second baseman who’ll hit free agency this winter, however. Cesar Hernandez, Jonathan Schoop and bounceback candidate Jonathan Villar will all be on the market alongside myriad utility types who could capably hold down a second base gig on at least a part-time basis. The expected deluge of non-tenders should only add to the competition.
There’s no telling to what extent Cards chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. is willing to spend in the wake of revenue losses, but it’ll presumably be at a lower level than the rough $168MM projection (pre-prorating) that Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez put on their 2020 roster. DeWitt is the same owner who famously claimed that the baseball industry simply “isn’t very profitable” earlier this year.
Joe Biagini Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Joe Biagini has rejected an outright assignment from the Astros in favor of free agency, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan). He was designated for assignment late last month.
The move was all but a foregone conclusion after Biagini cleared waivers. Players with three-plus years of service time have the right to become free agents at the end of a season in which they’ve been outrighted off the 40-man roster, and there’s no reason for Biagini not to explore his opportunities under that setting. Virtually every three-plus service player who is outrighted goes this route unless they have a guaranteed contract they’d forfeit by taking free agency. That wasn’t the case with Biagini, who played out the 2020 season on a one-year deal after avoiding arbitration last winter.
Biagini, 30, was a solid reliever for much of his time with the Blue Jays but immediately struggled upon being traded to Houston alongside Aaron Sanchez in the 2019 trade that brought Derek Fisher to Toronto. Biagini served up a dozen runs in just 14 2/3 innings down the stretch in 2019, and he was clobbered for 10 runs in just four outings this year. Overall, he logged a 10.74 ERA in 19 frames as an Astro.
That (clearly) wasn’t what the ‘Stros had in mind when acquiring a righty who, through 50 innings in 2019 at the time of the trade, had pitched to a 3.78 ERA with a 50-to-17 K/BB ratio. Beyond those rudimentary numbers, Biagini boasted elite spin rate on his breaking ball as well as career-high swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates at the time of the trade. There was plenty for the Astros to dream on, but their high hopes for Biagini simply never came together.
Biagini will hit what is expected to be a tepid free-agent market and likely need to prove himself to a new club on a minor league deal. He carries a 5.07 ERA in 328 big league innings, although that mark is weighed down a bit by an unsuccessful attempt by the Blue Jays to work him into the rotation (6.08 career ERA as a starter). Prior to being traded to Houston, Biagini carried a 4.04 ERA in just over 200 inning of relief. Biagini has four-plus years of service, so if he latches on with a new club and rights the ship, he’d be controllable through the 2022 season via arbitration.
Whitey Ford Passes Away
The Yankees will head into Game 5 of tonight’s ALDS with heavy hearts. The team announced today that franchise icon and baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Ford has passed away at the age of 91.
A ten-time All-Star and the 1961 American League Cy Young winner, Ford stood as one of the last remaining members of a star-studded Yankees dynasty from the 1950s and 1960s. Ford missed the 1951 and 1952 seasons while serving in the military but took home six World Series rings as a member of the club — including World Series MVP honors for a 1961 series in which he hurled 14 shutout innings with just six hits and one walk allowed.
Ford, born and raised in New York City, spent all 16 of his big league seasons with his hometown Yankees, posting a sub-3.00 ERA in a dozen of them. He finished second in 1950 Rookie of the Year voting, and by the time he retired in 1967, he’d compiled a stellar 236-106 record with a lifetime 2.75 ERA and 1956 strikeouts in 3170 1/3 innings pitched.
The “Chairman of the Board” also racked up 146 postseason frames in his career, and his 2.71 ERA in that time was a near-mirror image of his regular season efforts. Ford twice led the league in ERA (1956 and 1958) and in shutouts (1958 and 1960), and he paced the American League in wins three times as well (1955, 1961, 1963). He topped 20 wins in two different seasons, including a 25-4 season in 1961 that saw him lead the Majors not only in victories but in starts (39) innings pitched (283).
Ford’s legacy with the club will forever be commemorated at Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, where his iconic No. 16 is retired among the organization’s all-time greats. Ford and lifelong teammate Mickey Mantle were inducted into Cooperstown together in the summer of 1974. No list of the best lefties — or simply the best pitchers, for that matter — in the game’s history would be complete without Ford’s inclusion.
We at MLB Trade Rumors join those throughout baseball mourning the loss of a genuine icon and extend our condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Ford.
MLBTR Poll: Who Will Win The NLCS?
The 2020 National League Champion Series is set, and for all the concern of a watered-down postseason field this year, we’ll see two of the league’s top three records square off when the 43-17 Dodgers take on the 35-25 Braves.
Atlanta and Los Angeles both feature powerhouse offenses, as the two were separated by just one run during regular season play atop the National League leaderboard; the Dodgers scored an NL-best 349 runs to the Braves’ 348. The Dodgers posted a team 122 wRC+ to the Braves’ 121.
It’s a different story on the pitching front, where an injury-plagued Atlanta club saw its rotation post an NL-worst 5.51 ERA to the Dodgers’ NL-best 3.29 mark. The Braves, however, have a pair of high-end arms fronting a top-heavy rotation: Cy Young candidate Max Fried and breakout rookie Ian Anderson. Former No. 5 overall pick Kyle Wright dominated in his postseason debut yesterday when he blanked the Marlins over six innings and piled up seven strikeouts. As for the bullpens? These are the National League’s two best in terms of both ERA and FIP.
Both teams swept a division rival in the NLDS. The Dodgers ended a breakout 2020 showing for the upstart Padres, while the Braves cut short a Cinderella season for a Marlins club that very few pegged as a playoff contender. The end result is a star-studded NLCS that will pit Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and the rest of the Dodgers against Ronald Acuna Jr., Freddie Freeman, Marcell Ozuna, Fried and the Braves. We’ve yet to see these clubs square off in 2020, but this best-of-seven series should pack plenty of intrigue.
We’re three days out from Game 1, which will take place on Monday evening. MLBTR readers, who are you taking? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors mobile app users)
Who will win the NLCS?
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Braves 50% (7,508)
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Dodgers 50% (7,444)
Total votes: 14,952
KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes To Post Ha-Seong Kim This Offseason
The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization will post star shortstop Ha-Seong Kim for Major League clubs this winter, MLBTR has learned. He’d previously voiced a desire to be posted, and the team plans to honor those wishes this winter. All 30 Major League clubs will have the opportunity to bid on the infielder, who’ll turn just 25 years old next week.
Kim’s youth sets him apart from most other players who have made the jump from the KBO (or Japan’s NPB) to the Major Leagues. Current rules in the KBO stipulate that a player cannot be posted until he has accrued seven years of service time. Unrestricted free agency is granted after nine years. Kim’s first full season in the KBO came at just 18 years of age, however, which has him on pace to become available to MLB clubs a few years sooner than most of his peers. He’ll still meet the minimum age (25) and experience (at least six years) requirements set by Major League Baseball in order to be considered a professional rather than an amateur, meaning he can sign a Major League deal of any length and any amount.
While Kim didn’t hit much in that aforementioned rookie season — not surprising given his age — he’s been an average or better bat each year since, by measure of wRC+. However, it’s been the past two years in which Kim has taken his game to a new level. Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser wrote back in early May that Kim would be a Top 100 prospect if he signed at that point, and that was before Kim built on his 2019 breakout with a .304/.396/.522 slash in his first 551 plate appearances in 2020.
Dating back to Opening Day 2019, Kim is a .306/.392/.505 hitter — good for a 141 wRC+. In 2020, Kim has slugged a career-high 27 homers, walked more often than he’s struck out (67 to 58) and gone a perfect 21-for-21 in stolen bases. Over the past two seasons, he’s swiped 64 bags in 68 tries. Kim has also won multiple Gold Glove Awards for his work at shortstop in Korea and has some experience at third base. Given his age and 2019-20 breakout, he should draw interest from a wide range of Major League teams.
For those who need a refresher or who are unfamiliar with the posting process, the latest set of rules agreed upon between MLB and the KBO stipulate that all 30 clubs will be able to negotiate with Kim. The posting fee paid to the Heroes will be tied directly to the size of the contract signed by Kim. It is a separate sum that is paid out to the Heroes as opposed to an amount that is subtracted from Kim’s eventual contract. A signing team would pay 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM to the Heroes, plus 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and an additional 15 percent on any dollars guaranteed beyond $50MM.
With regard to contractual options and incentives, those clauses are also subject to subsequent fees. A Major League team would only be immediately responsible for posting/release fees on the guaranteed portion of the contract. But if Kim’s new team in the Majors exercised a club option for the 2025 or 2026 season, for instance, that team would owe a supplemental fee to the Heroes once that option is picked up.
Kim’s forthcoming addition to the 2020-21 class of free agent shortstops adds some youth to a group that is headlined by Didi Gregorius, Marcus Semien, Andrelton Simmons and Jonathan Villar. Of that bunch, only Gregorius enjoyed a quality year by his standards, while each of the other three will be hoping for rebounds (to varying extents).
Reds President Of Baseball Operations Dick Williams Resigns
The Reds announced this morning that president of baseball operations Dick Williams has resigned from his post in order to “pursue personal interests outside baseball.” He’ll take on a role in his family’s company, North American Properties, per the team’s press release. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Williams met with owner Bob Castellini in August and informed him that he planned to step away after the 2020 season. General manager Nick Krall will continue to serve in his current role.
The Williams family has been ingrained with the Reds franchise for decades. Williams’ father and uncle are currently minority shareholders with the club, and his grandfather was at one point a partial owner of the franchise as well. Williams joined the team as director of baseball operations back in 2006, when Castellini purchased a majority stake in the team, and he’s steadily climbed the ranks to his current post. Krall, previously an assistant GM, was elevated to GM status in May 2018. He’ll presumably now shift to head up the entire baseball operations department.
“Dick has been an integral part of the Reds’ success from our first days of ownership in 2006 through our Postseason appearance in 2020,” Castellini said in today’s release. “He took the lead on modernizing every aspect of our baseball operations. Dick was the mastermind behind our incredible facility in Goodyear, drove advances in our scouting and player development systems, expanded capacity for analytics and established our sports science departments, just to name a few. … Dick has an incredible baseball IQ, and his gift for innovation came at the right time in history. We are enormously proud of the contributions he has made to this franchise.”
Much of Williams’ tenure as team president was spent in a rebuilding process that was embarked upon as former GM Walt Jocketty transitioned to an advisory role with the team. The Reds’ path to this year’s postseason berth wasn’t exactly straightforward, and it’s fair to point out that some of the biggest trades made during the Williams-led rebuild didn’t bear much in the way of fruit. The Reds were left with little to nothing to show for their trades of Aroldis Chapman, Todd Frazier and Johnny Cueto, for instance, as none of the younger talent acquired in those swaps contributed to this year’s winning club.
At the same time, Williams struck gold in the trade that sent right-hander Dan Straily to Miami and netted the Reds Luis Castillo. Both his decision to buy low on Sonny Gray and the corresponding contract extension look nothing less than brilliant at this point. Despite likely being out of contention in July 2019, the Reds under Williams took a big swing with an eye on 2020 and acquired NL Cy Young candidate Trevor Bauer in a three-team trade with the Reds and Padres. He was also in charge of baseball operations over the winter when the Reds hired president of Driveline Baseball Kyle Boddy to further a strong push into data-driven innovations in the organization’s pitching program.
Recent success notwithstanding, Williams spoke in today’s press release about a desire to spend more time with a young family that he does not see nearly as often as he would like.
“In order todo this job right, you are at a ballpark, either in the major or minor leagues, every single day, night and weekend from mid-February until deep into the fall,” Williams said. “That was a lot to ask of my young family, and they supported m every step of the way. It is time to pour some of that energy back into them.”
JT Riddle Elects Free Agency
Infielder/outfielder JT Riddle has rejected an outright assignment from the Pirates in favor of free agency, as indicated on the Triple-A International League transactions page. Pittsburgh designated Riddle for assignment last week, and as a player with more than three years of MLB service, he has the right to opt for the open market after being outrighted from the roster.
Pittsburgh signed Riddle to a one-year deal worth $850K over the winter, but the former Marlins utilityman scuffled through the least-productive season of his career — albeit in a small sample of just 63 plate appearances. As a Pirate, Riddle managed just a .149/.174/.224 slash with a homer, two doubles and a stolen base. Despite only playing 23 games with the Bucs, Riddle appeared at all four infield positions and all three outfield slots, demonstrating some of the defensive versatility that appealed to the Pirates in the first place.
Riddle, who’ll turn 29 next week, was a career .229/.269/.368 hitter with 18 home runs, 29 doubles and five triples in 718 plate appearances with Miami prior to signing in Pittsburgh this winter. He’ll likely find some minor league offers and Spring Training invites this winter due to that versatility and his career .284/.321/.457 slash in parts of five Triple-A seasons.
Previewing The 2020-21 Free Agent Class: Third Basemen
With the 2020 regular season having reached its end, there will be more and more talk about free agency during the upcoming weeks. MLBTR has already taken a look at the catchers, first basemen and shortstops due to reach the open market soon. We’ll now turn to the shortstop position, where a few household names are without contracts for 2021.
Top of the Class
- DJ LeMahieu (32): LeMahieu went a half decade between his 2014 appearance at third base with the Rockies and last year’s return to the position (on a part-time basis). He’s still only played 487 innings there over the past two seasons, but the way LeMahieu’s bat has exploded in the Bronx, a team would surely be comfortable moving him off his best position, second base, in order to get his bat in the lineup. Since signing in New York, LeMahieu has posted an outrageous .336/.386/.586 slash with 36 home runs, 43 doubles and four triples in 871 plate appearances. He’s also regarded as a plus defender at second base and has experience at first base and shortstop as well.
- Justin Turner (36): Turner will be 36 in November, but he just keeps on raking at the plate. He posted a 140 wRC+ in 2020, slashing .307/.400/.450 in 175 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+ he’s been at least 32 percent better than a league-average hitter in all but one season since 2014 — he was “only” 23 percent better in 2016 — and he carries an overall .302/.382/.503 slash in more than 3000 plate appearances since landing in Los Angeles. Durability is something of a concern, and Turner’s once-excellent glovework has begun to deteriorate, but he’s still an outstanding offensive player. Age probably limits him to a short-term deal, which will actually be seen as a perk for some interested parties.
Potential Regulars
- Tommy La Stella (32): La Stella has gone from light-hitting Cubs utilityman to an above-average hitter who teams might be willing to try as a regular at multiple positions. Since Opening Day 2019, he’s taken 549 plate appearances and delivered a .289/.356/.471 batting line while playing his home games in pitcher-friendly settings. That’s good for a 125 wRC+. La Stella isn’t a top-notch defender, but he can handle second and third base. He’s a much better hitter against righties, but La Stella did hold his own against southpaws in 2019.
- Jake Lamb (30): Multiple shoulder injuries relegated Lamb to “reclamation project” status when the D-backs released him this summer, but he immediately bounced back with the A’s. It was only 49 plate appearances, but Lamb looked like his old self, slashing .267/.327/.556 with three big flies in 49 plate appearances. At the very least, that showing could earn him a one-year, make-good deal that he can try to use as a launching pad into a multi-year pact next winter. Lamb can play either corner infield spot, although he fits best on a team who can give him a right-handed-hitting platoon partner.
Part-Time/Utility Players
- Ehire Adrianza (31): Adrianza was a solid utility piece for the Twins from 2017-19, but his bat cratered in 2020 when he hit .191/.287/.270 in 101 plate appearances. The bat has never been great, but he’s played everywhere except center field and catcher with Minnesota (including two innings on the mound).
- Asdrubal Cabrera (35): Cabrera isn’t a shortstop anymore, but he keeps hitting and is capable of playing second base as well as both infield corners. He’s commanded one-year deals the past few winters and will probably be in line for another one this winter.
- Marwin Gonzalez (32): Gonzalez hit well after a slow start with the 2019 Twins, but he never got into a groove in 2020. The veteran utilityman can play any of the four infield spots and both outfield corners, but he has rather unsurprisingly never replicated his 2017 season with the Astros.
- Josh Harrison (33): Harrison had a nice 91-plate appearance run with the Nats in 2020, hitting .278/.352/.418. He’s been inconsistent on a year-to-year basis, but Harrison has a mostly solid track record and can play all over the diamond.
- Adeiny Hechavarria (32): A glove-first utility option who can pick it at shortstop, second base or third base, Hechavarria hit .254/.302/.305 in 63 plate appearances with the 2020 Braves and is a lifetime .253/.291/.351 hitter.
- Brock Holt (33): The 2020 season was a nightmare for the versatile Holt. He looked like an underappreciated free agent last winter despite a .286/.366/.407 slash from 2018-19, and this year’s .211/.283/.274 output won’t help his cause.
- Brad Miller (31): Miller can play all four infield spots and either outfield corner. He hit well in 2020 and owns a combined .247/.329/.468 line in 595 plate appearances dating back to 2018. He’s slugged 27 homers and doubles apiece in that time, tacking on four triples.
- Joe Panik (30): Panik is a lifetime .269/.334/.380 hitter with a good glove at multiple infield spots, but his big 2015 season with the Giants looks like a clear outlier. Since he wrapped up that stellar campaign, he’s turned in a combined .255/.324/.366 slash in 2123 plate appearances. Injuries have played a part, but at this point he’s a glove-first utility player.
Players with 2021 Options
- Todd Frazier, $5.75MM club option with $1.5MM buyout (35): It’s hard to see the Mets picking up the Toddfather’s option after he hit .236/.302/.382 between Texas and New York in 2020.
- Jedd Gyorko, $4.5MM club option with $1MM buyout (32): Gyorko can play all four infield spots and batted .248/.333/.504 with nine homers with the Brewers. His option would seem likely to be picked up in a normal winter, but the Brewers made some surprising option decisions a year ago. With revenue losses throughout the league and several players expected to be non-tendered, Milwaukee might feel a similar skill set can be found more affordably.
- Eric Sogard, $4.5MM club option with $500K buyout (35): The Brewers aren’t going to pick this up after Sogard hit just .209/.281/.278 in his return to Milwaukee. Sogard had a very nice 2019 campaign between Toronto and Tampa Bay, but he looks like a rebound candidate again.