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Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Outfielder Chad Hermansen

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Chad Hermansen was drafted tenth overall by the Pirates out of Nevada’s Green Valley High School back in 1995, setting a club record with a $1.15MM bonus.  Hermansen started his pro career as a 17-year-old in the Gulf Coast League.  For the next five years as he worked his way through the Pirates’ minor league affiliates, he was considered a top-50 prospect by Baseball America, peaking at #13 before the ’98 season.

Hermansen made his MLB debut with the 1999 Pirates as a September call-up.  At the 2002 trade deadline, he was dealt to the Cubs, joining an interesting but bad roster.

After that season, Hermansen was traded with Todd Hundley to the Dodgers, bringing Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros to the Cubs.  Hermansen got a final taste of the Majors in 2004 with the Blue Jays.  Chad spent some additional time at Triple-A beyond that, playing in the Marlins and Mets organizations.

In the end, Hermansen tallied 541 plate appearances in the Majors from 1999-2004.  He popped 13 home runs in that span, including shots off Zambrano and Al Leiter.

After his playing career, Chad spent eight years scouting for the Angels.  He’s now focused on being a life coach for former athletes.  You can check out Chad’s website here and follow him on Twitter here.  He also has a podcast and YouTube Channel called Mental Edge Training Coach where he interviews current and former players, coaches, scouts, and parents on their baseball story and the mental game.

Chad held a very informative and interesting chat with MLBTR readers today, talking about dealing with high expectations, the mental side of baseball, how scouting has changed, getting traded twice in one year, how he spent his signing bonus, and much more.  Read the transcript here!

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Diamondbacks Shortstop Nick Ahmed

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Nick Ahmed was drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2011 draft out of the University of Connecticut after playing alongside George Springer and Matt Barnes.  After his first season of minor league ball, evaluators started recognizing his excellent shortstop defense, but Nick had the misfortune of being in an organization that employed Andrelton Simmons at the big league level.

In January 2013, the Braves traded Ahmed to the Diamondbacks as part of the seven-player Justin Upton deal.  The D’Backs used Didi Gregorius at shortstop primarily in 2013 and ’14, but then traded him in another big three-team deal in December of 2014.  Finally, the path was clear for the defensively-gifted Ahmed to compete for the club’s starting shortstop job.

Ahmed took hold of the Diamondbacks’ shortstop position in 2015, but endured hip surgery in 2016 and then suffered a fracture in his hand and wrist separately in 2017.

Known for his defense and leadership, Ahmed once again took hold of Arizona’s starting shortstop job in 2018, and he hasn’t let go since.  Ahmed broke out with 3.7 WAR in 2018, winning the Gold Glove award.  He nearly replicated the performance in ’19, picking up another Gold Glove while hitting a career-high 19 home runs.

In February 2020, Ahmed signed a four-year extension with the Diamondbacks, which runs through the upcoming season.

In each individual season from 2018 to 2021, Nick led the Diamondbacks in innings at the shortstop position.  That string was broken in 2022, as a nagging shoulder injury led to June surgery.  Last Friday, Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reported that Ahmed is at Salt River Fields, getting ready for the start of spring training.  Ahmed will celebrate his 33rd birthday in March.  According to Piecoro, “He does not expect to be limited when spring training begins.”

Ahmed’s defense remained the best in the game at shortstop in his most recent healthy season.  In the 2021 season, Ahmed ranked fifth among shortstops in the Statcast Outs Above Average metric.  And while defense is his calling card, Nick has 68 career home runs, including bombs off Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, and Stephen Strasburg.

Nick recently launched a new platform called 7 Pillar Health and Performance.  He explains, “Within this new platform I will be sharing everything I’ve learned about optimal health and peak performance on and off the field.”  You can check that out here, and follow him on Instagram and Twitter @NickAhmed13.

Nick took questions from MLBTR readers for over an hour today, talking about his faith, handling trade rumors, training to play defense, the elimination of the shift, and much more.  Read the transcript here!

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to host you for a live chat!  It’s fun and easy and you get to choose which questions to publish and answer.  Click here to contact us.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher Collin Balester

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Righty Collin Balester was part of the last-ever Montreal Expos draft in 2004, as the club took him in the fourth round out of Huntington Beach High School.  Though he came from a surfing family, according to Baseball America, Balester moved quickly through the lower minors.  By 2007, he was considered the Nationals’ best prospect and a future number one or two starter.

During the summer of ’08, Balester was deemed ready to join the rotation of the tanking Nationals club.  He made a career-high 15 starts as a 22-year-old rookie, putting up three quality starts in the process.

Balester eventually moved into a relief role for the Nats, but was traded to the Tigers in December 2011.  His career also included stops in the Rangers, Pirates, Reds, and Giants organizations, as well as a stint with KBO’s Samsung Lions.  Along the way, Balester underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2013, battling to get back to the Majors with the Reds in after a gap of more than three years.

Ultimately, Collin topped 200 total innings in the Majors in parts of six different seasons.  Along the way he managed to strike out Ken Griffey Jr., Buster Posey, Freddie Freeman, and Chipper Jones, among many others.  Now 36, Collin owns a juice shop with his wife called Local Roots, and also does logistics for an expedited shipping truck company.  Give him a follow @Ballystar99 on Twitter.

Collin took questions from MLBTR readers today, covering a wide range of topics including being traded, pitching in Korea, being on the 2012 Tigers, and his juice and smoothie recommendations.  Click here to read the transcript!

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to host you for a future chat!  It only takes one hour, and you get to choose which questions to publish and answer.  Contact us here!

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher Cory Wade

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Righty Cory Wade was drafted by the Dodgers in the 10th round in 2004 out of Kentucky Wesleyan College “after setting the career record for strikeouts at Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple High,” according to Baseball America.  He broke into the Majors in late April of 2008 as a 24-year-old, tossing a scoreless inning against the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.

As Wade’s stellar rookie season continued, he gained the trust of manager Joe Torre.  He finished the regular season with a 2.27 ERA in 71 1/3 innings, ranking third among all relievers.  Wade was a key part of the Dodgers’ NLDS sweep of the Cubs in ’08, pitching well out of L.A.’s bullpen in all three games.

Unfortunately, Wade’s Dodgers career was derailed by shoulder surgery.  He battled to get back to the Majors, opting out of a minor league deal with the Rays in the summer of 2011 and signing with the Yankees.  Wade jumped straight into the Yankees’ big league bullpen on June 15th, posting a 2.04 ERA on the season that was bested by only a handful of AL relievers, including pen-mates Mariano Rivera and David Robertson.  Under manager Joe Girardi, Wade once again found himself getting crucial postseason innings, putting up two scoreless against the Tigers in the second game of the ALDS.

Wade moved around after his time with the Yankees, pitching in Triple-A for the Rays, Cubs, Mets, and Royals organizations.  After retiring from pitching, Wade spent nine years as a pro scout for the Padres.  He recently left that job to help start a sports scouting app called ScoutUs Pro.

Despite an average fastball velocity shy of 90 miles per hour, Wade showed impeccable control and wound up as one of the league’s better relievers in his work with both the ’08 Dodgers and ’11 Yankees.  His strikeout victims included Chipper Jones, Bobby Abreu, and Todd Helton.

Cory answered questions from MLBTR readers for over an hour today, touching on topics such as modern baseball analytics, scouting, bouncing back from injuries, and much more.  Check out the transcript here!

If you’re a current or former MLB player and you’d like to host an hour-long chat with our readers, contact us here!  It’s easy and fun!

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Catcher Michael McKenry

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Michael McKenry is next up in our MLB Player Chat series!  Michael was drafted by the Rockies as a catcher in the seventh round back in 2006 out of Middle Tennessee State University, after starring at Farragut High School in Knoxville.

Four years later, McKenry made his MLB debut with the Rockies.  Not long after, the Rockies traded him to the Red Sox for Daniel Turpen.  The Red Sox flipped McKenry to the Pirates a few months later.

As a rookie in 2011, McKenry led the Pirates in innings caught, pairing with Ryan Doumit.  He split duties the following year with Rod Barajas, and then worked behind Russell Martin on the 2013 Pirates.

McKenry had a two-home run game in 2013, victimizing the Reds’ Mat Latos and Jonathan Broxton in an April win at PNC Park.  A few months later McKenry had a four-hit game at Marlins Park.  That Bucs team won 94 games, ended the franchise’s 20-year losing streak, and emerged victorious in the Wild Card game against Johnny Cueto and the Reds.

The 2013 season was cut short for McKenry by a knee injury, and the Pirates non-tendered him in December.  He inked a minor league deal to return to the Rockies and serve as Wilin Rosario’s backup in 2014.  In 192 plate appearances that year, McKenry batted a robust .315/.398/.512 – one of the finest batting lines featured by a catcher.

McKenry finished his MLB career with the Cardinals, snagging a couple last MLB plate appearances in 2016.  He also spent time in the Red Sox, Braves, Rangers, Brewers, and Rays organizations.  McKenry’s MLB career wrapped up with more than 2,000 innings behind the dish.  He paired up with Pirates standout pitchers such as Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, Charlie Morton, and A.J. Burnett.

McKenry hit 29 home runs in his 953 career plate appearances, including shots off Johan Santana and Jonathan Papelbon.  He also had the pleasure of hitting a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 11th off the Mariners’ Mayckol Guaipe for the Rockies in 2015.  That same year, McKenry nabbed his lone career stolen base off Derek Norris.  The man nicknamed “The Fort” managed a fine wRC+ of 109 at the plate back in 2012, plus an excellent 140 mark in 2014.

Today at age 37, Michael serves as a pregame, postgame, and color analyst for the Pirates, as well as a speaker, mentor, and consultant.  You can follow him on Twitter @theFortMcKenry.

Michael was kind enough to volunteer some time to take questions about his career, the Pirates’ future, his work in the broadcast booth and quite a bit more in a chat with MLBTR readers today. You can read the transcript of his chat here.

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to have you for a chat with our readers!  It’s a great way to interact with fans for an hour (or longer, as Michael did today!), and you get to choose which questions you publish.  Click here to contact us.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Former MLB Pitcher Jacob Turner

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Considered the “consensus top high school righthander available” by Baseball America back in 2009, Jacob Turner was drafted ninth overall by the Tigers out of Westminster Christian Academy in Missouri.  He stood at 6’5″, 210 lbs and touched 98 with his fastball.   Adviser Scott Boras was able to get the 18-year-old Turner a $5.5MM Major League contract, most of which came in the form of a signing bonus.

After two years in the minors, MLB.com ranked Turner the 15th prospect in the game, ahead of future stars such as Nolan Arenado, Zack Wheeler, and Francisco Lindor.  Turner made his MLB debut at the age of 20, pitching well against the Angels for Jim Leyland’s Tigers.  At that point in late 2011, Turner profiled as a future number two or three starter in the Majors.

The following year, Turner picked up his first big league win on July 22nd against the White Sox.  The 2012 Tigers would go on to win the pennant, but they’d do so without Turner.  The day after that first career W, they sent him packing to the Marlins for more immediate help in the form of Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante.

By late May 2013, Turner had secured a spot in a Marlins rotation that also featured Jose Fernandez, Tom Koehler, Ricky Nolasco, Nathan Eovaldi, and Henderson Alvarez.  Turner’s age-22 season would turn out to be his best, as he put together 20 starts with a 3.74 ERA that year.

Things took a turn in 2014, as Turner lost both his rotation and 40-man roster spots with the Marlins, joining the Cubs on a waiver claim.  An elbow injury spoiled Turner’s 2015 season, which ended in a crosstown waiver claim by the White Sox.  Turner went on to a stint with the Nationals, followed by returns to the Marlins and Tigers.  For the 2019 season, Turner moved to KBO’s Kia Tigers.

Turner’s time in MLB was over before his 30th birthday, certainly not the career some expected of him back when he was starring in high school and the low minors.  But he still competed for parts of seven seasons in the bigs, pitching 369 innings and making 56 starts.  The 22-year-old kid was pretty darn good in the Majors in 2013, going at least seven innings five different times that year.  One career highlight: a one-run, complete game victory over the Padres that year.  Across those seven seasons, Turner punched out many of the game’s stars, including Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Carlos Beltran, Jose Bautista, Nolan Arenado, David Wright, and Freddie Freeman.

Still only 31 years old, Turner now runs a company that “helps educate athletes around money and helps them be good stewards of the money earned in their careers,” as he puts it.  He’s on Twitter @TheSuddenWealth, where he posted a thread last summer about his experiences that ended up going viral.  Jacob notes that people can DM him on Twitter to get in touch, and you can view his website here.

Jacob took questions from MLBTR readers earlier today.  Click here to read the transcript!

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to have you for a chat with our readers!  It’s a great way to interact with fans for an hour, and you get to choose which questions you publish.  Click here to contact us.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Knuckleballer Mickey Jannis

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MLB player chats are back!  Last year, MLBTR readers chatted with 13 different former and current MLB players, and it was a blast.  This year, we’ve got more than 25 on tap.  If you’re a former or current MLB player, we’d love to host you for a chat!  It’s a great time, and you get to choose which questions you publish and answer.  Click here to contact us.

Today’s chat guest, pitcher Mickey Jannis, is a study in perseverance.  Mickey was drafted by the Rays in the 44th round out of California State University, Bakersfield – a draft round that doesn’t even exist anymore.  By 2012 he found himself in independent ball, at which point he converted to a knuckleball pitcher.  After grinding it out for four years with teams like the Lake Erie Crushers, Bridgeport Bluefish, and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Jannis managed to land a minor league deal with the Mets.

Jannis honed his craft for three years in the Mets organization, reaching Triple-A.  He then inked a deal with the Orioles, only to see the minor league season cancelled in 2020.  Jannis stuck with the O’s, and was rewarded with his lone big league opportunity to date in 2021.  On June 23rd, 2021 at Camden Yards, Jannis entered the losing side of a 6-0 game against the heart of the Astros’ order.  His first opponent was the dangerous Yordan Alvarez, and Jannis caught him looking.  Though Jannis was not able to make it through the rest of the outing unscathed, he’d made it to the big leagues as a 33-year-old rookie knuckleballer after 12 years of minor league baseball.

19 months later, Jannis remains the last knuckleballer to pitch in the Major Leagues.  The knuckleball is a lonely road and often a last resort for a pitcher, but this spinless wonder has given us multiple Hall of Famers and All-Stars.  The most recent major success with the pitch was R.A. Dickey, who won the NL Cy Young award in 2012 and pitched successfully through 2017, his age-42 season.

MLB teams haven’t cracked the code on the knuckleball, and most seemingly have not figured out a way to teach the pitch.  Who knows, maybe the pendulum will swing and the lowest possible spin rate will become the new market inefficiency.  For Mickey Jannis’ sake, we’d love to see it.  As Mickey puts it, he’s “currently working out for teams, trying to keep the knuckleball alive!”  You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @mickeyjannis.

Today, Mickey answered questions from MLBTR readers for over an hour.  Click here to read the transcript.

Are You A Current Or Former MLB Player?

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Last offseason during the lockout, 13 current and former MLB players conducted live chats with MLBTR readers.  If you’ve played in MLB, there’s a chance you’ve been teammates with one of them: Christian Colón, Dan Straily, Chad Cordero, Caleb Joseph, Jody Gerut, Paul Sewald, Chipper Jones, Alex Hinshaw, Shea Hillenbrand, Will Ohman, Tyler Danish, Christian Bergman, and Jonny Gomes.  You can check out transcripts from all of those chats here.

When I started this site, Rich Hill was a rookie, and now he’s the oldest player in baseball!  So we’ve been around for a while.  In MLB Trade Rumors’ 17-year-existence, I’ve heard many anecdotes about players reading this website in the clubhouse.  I still think that’s awesome!  If you’re reading this and you’ve played Major League Baseball, we’d love to have you do a one-hour online chat with our readers.

What’s in it for you?  First, it’s a really cool way to have positive interactions with fans in a controlled setting.  Hundreds of questions will be submitted, but you get to scroll through and pick which ones to publish and answer.  Last offseason, the response to this project was overwhelmingly positive, and many players enjoyed it so much they chatted well beyond their allotted hour.  These chats are done on a computer, kind of like a chat room, so there’s no setting up cameras.  Second, MLBTR reaches a wide audience, and we’re happy to link to your favorite charity or whatever project you’re currently working on.

To get in touch with us, you can reach out through MLBTR’s contact form.  Or, if you’re on Twitter, you can reply to one of our tweets and we can direct message there.

2023 MLB Arbitration Tracker

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Today is the deadline for players and teams to exchange figures in arbitration — an annual deadline that leads to a slew of one-year deals and, typically, a handful of multi-year deals.  In all likelihood, more than 100 players will agree to their salary for the 2023 season within the next few hours.  MLBTR is planning to make improvements on our old Arbitration Tracker tool, but that’s a goal for next year.  For 2023, we’ll put all of the agreements in this post.

Each player’s service time is in parentheses, and you can of course check back to see each player’s projected salary from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.  We’ll keep this updated throughout the day — refresh for updates — and break off some of the larger, more prominent agreements in separate entries.

Angels (9)

Astros (8)

Athletics (3)

Blue Jays (12)

Braves (8)

Brewers (14)

Cardinals (10)

Cubs (6)

Diamondbacks (6)

Dodgers (10)

Giants (10)

Guardians (7)

Marlins (9)

Mariners (6)

Mets (8)

Nationals (8)

Orioles (6)

Padres (8)

Phillies (8)

Pirates (6)

Rangers (5)

Rays (14)

Red Sox (8)

Reds (7)

Rockies (5)

Royals (9)

Tigers (4)

Twins (8)

White Sox (5)

Yankees (12)

2022-23 MLB Free Agents

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The following players are currently eligible for free agency. Players’ ages for the 2023 season are listed in parentheses.  Generally, the cutoff for this list is at least 50 plate appearances or 20 innings pitched in 2022.

Updated 3-28-23

Catchers

Robinson Chirinos (38)
Kevin Plawecki (32)
Austin Romine (34)
Gary Sanchez (30)

First Basemen

Franchy Cordero (28)
Miguel Sano (30)

Second Basemen

Robinson Cano (40)
Charlie Culberson (34)
Cesar Hernandez (33)
Andrelton Simmons (33)
Jonathan Villar (32)

Shortstops

Alcides Escobar (36)
Didi Gregorius (33)
Andrelton Simmons (33)
Dee Strange-Gordon (35)
Jonathan Villar (32)

Third Basemen

Charlie Culberson (34)
Phil Gosselin (34)
Jonathan Villar (32)

Left Fielders

Albert Almora (29)
Franchy Cordero (28)

Center Fielders

Albert Almora (29)
Odubel Herrera (31)
Rafael Ortega (32)

Right Fielders

Albert Almora (29)
Luis Barrera (27)
Kole Calhoun (35)
Travis Demeritte (28)
Nomar Mazara (28)

Designated Hitters

Gary Sanchez (30)
Justin Upton (35)

Starting Pitchers

Chris Archer (34)
Dallas Keuchel (35)
Mike Minor (35)
Michael Pineda (34)
Anibal Sanchez (39)

Right-Handed Relievers

Archie Bradley (30)
Jhoulys Chacin (35)
Kyle Crick (30)
Ken Giles (31)
Will Harris (38)
Corey Knebel (30)
Reyes Moronta (30)
Garrett Richards (35)
Hansel Robles (32)
Joe Smith (39)

Left-Handed Relievers

Zack Britton (35)
Ross Detwiler (37)

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