AL Notes: Yankees, Orioles, Rays
The Yankees bullpen has been a consistent source of strength for this iteration of Bronx contender, and it should continue to be even with one-time rock Dellin Betances now in Flushing, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Aroldis Chapman remains one of the most feared closers in the game. He’ll be buttressed by Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino in the late innings, while Chad Green and Luis Cessa ought to continue in their swing roles. Of course, the biggest addition to the bullpen should be Gerrit Cole, whose length will take some pressure off a bullpen unit that’s largely been expected to carry the Yanks in recent seasons. Still, there’s some room for someone from the group of Jonathan Holder, Jonathan Loaisiga, Brooks Kriske, Michael King, Ben Heller, and Jordan Montgomery to step up and earn a role.
- The Orioles are set to have close to 66 players invited to camp this spring, and they’re not capping the number there, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Manager Brandon Hyde is excited about having a competitive atmosphere in his second season on the job. Baltimore has more opportunity than most camps with few set roles on their 25-man roster. For those interested in wide-open camp battles, this is the one to watch.
- Jose Alvarado is the man to watch in Rays‘ camp, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Alvarado can be a difference-maker in the Rays’ bullpen, but he’s coming off an uneven season. Elbow inflammation ended his 2019 early, but his season had derailed long prior. A strong first two months better represents what the Rays expect from Alvarado, who continued to miss bats all season long, even when his command faltered (8.1 BB/9). Alvarado certainly has the potential to be a big piece in an impressive Rays bullpen, but he’ll have to earn his place. Nick Anderson and Emilio Pagan emerged as lockdown options for Tampa, but Alvarado can and should be their primary lefty again. Topkin offers a quote from Rays’ pitching coach Kyle Snyder, who said, “He very easily could be as good as any reliever in the game (this) year. That’s the thing.”
Orioles Claim Travis Lakins, Designate Stevie Wilkerson
The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve claimed righty Travis Lakins off waivers from the Cubs. Infielder/outfielder Stevie Wilkerson was designated for assignment in a corresponding roster move.
Lakins, 25, was designated for assignment by the Red Sox earlier this winter and subsequently traded to Chicago for cash. Although he’d consistently ranked in the No. 15-25 range of a thin Boston farm system, the Ohio State product has yet to put together a particularly strong showing in the Majors or in the upper minors. Lakins made his big league debut this past season, yielding a 3.86 ERA with a lackluster 18-to-10 K/BB ratio in 23 2/3 innings for Boston. His work in Triple-A has been rather similar, as he’s compiled a 3.82 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and slightly below-average grounder rates in parts of two seasons there. Lakins worked as a starter earlier in his career but has pitched primarily out of the bullpen the past couple of seasons.
Wilkerson, 28, is a career .219/.279/.365 hitter in 410 plate appearances — most of which came this past season in Baltimore. He’s spent time at all three outfield positions with the O’s in addition to second base and third base, although he’s most likely remembered by many for his absurd home run robbery against Jackie Bradley Jr. at Fenway Park this past season (video link). He also holds the distinction of being the first position player to earn a save, which he did when pitching the 16th inning of a marathon win over the Angels on July 25 of this past season.
The switch-hitting Wilkerson hasn’t spent much time in Triple-A but has had some success there, hitting .294/.340/.478 through 153 trips to the plate. Wilkerson has generally been a versatile defender with respectable batting average/on-base percentage marks but limited power in the minors; since being drafted out of Clemson in the eighth round back in 2014, he’s hit .268/.342/.371 in six minor league seasons.
Orioles Claim Pat Valaika, Designate Branden Kline
The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve re-claimed infielder Pat Valaika off waivers from the Diamondbacks and designated right-hander Branden Kline for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Baltimore designated Valaika for assignment earlier this month, surely hoping to pass him through waivers and retain him without dedicating a 40-man roster spot to the 27-year-old. Instead, the Diamondbacks claimed him and briefly hung onto him until needing a roster spot of their own following the acquisition of Starling Marte. The O’s have been on the lookout for infield depth since losing Valaika, and they’ll now welcome him back into the organization at Kline’s expense.
A career .214/.256/.400 hitter who has shown plenty of pop from the right side of the dish, Valaika has experience at each of second base, shortstop and third base. However, he’s also punched out in nearly 29 percent of his trips to the plate in the big leagues, which has contributed significantly to his inability to reach base at a passable rate. Valaika does have a minor league option remaining and a career .275/.315/.498 slash 695 Triple-A plate appearances, making him a reasonable depth option for the rebuilding Orioles to carry on the roster even if he doesn’t break camp with the club this spring.
The 28-year-old Kline made his MLB debut in 2019 but was hit hard, logging a 5.93 ERA and a 34-to-19 K/BB ratio in 41 innings of relief. He averaged a hearty 96.3 mph on his four-seamer in that time but generated below-average spin and yielded hard contact at far too great a clip (49.2 percent, per Statcast). Kline has had some success up through the Double-A level but has yet to post strong numbers in limited time with Triple-A Norfolk or in the Majors.
Quick Hits: Flores, Scooter, Nats, Zimmerman, Orioles
The market for free-agent infielder Wilmer Flores has started moving, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets. It’s unclear which teams are interested in Flores, but he does look like one of the most intriguing players left in a constantly thinning class of unsigned players. Still just 28 years old, Flores is coming off a season in which he batted a robust .317/.361/.487 with nine home runs in 285 plate appearances as a member of the Diamondbacks. The righty-hitting Flores did most of his damage against left-handed pitchers, which has been a regular occurrence throughout the ex-Met’s career, but he has typically been playable against same-handed hurlers. He also carries a fair amount of experience at each infield position.
- Free-agent second baseman Scooter Gennett recently held a workout that “a number of teams” attended, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score writes. That jibes with the latest on Gennett from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who tweets that roughly six clubs (including the Cubs) are interested in the former standout. The Cubs have been the lone team linked to Gennett in the rumor mill since the Giants released him in late August. San Francisco cutting ties with the 29-year-old less than a month after acquiring him in a trade with the Reds put an end to a nightmarish season for Gennett. While he was quite productive with the Reds from 2017-18, Gennett could only muster a .226/.245/.323 line with two home runs in 139 plate appearances during an injury-limited 2019.
- The Nationals have officially re-signed franchise icon Ryan Zimmerman for another year, but he’s not committed to playing beyond then. Zimmerman told reporters Tuesday that he and the team will continue to evaluate their union on an annual basis going forward, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post relays. That said, while Zimmerman’s due to become a free agent in another year (he’ll be 36 then), it seems doubtful Mr. National will ever put on another team’s uniform. Zimmerman’s playing time with the Nats has declined as his career has advanced, in part because of a variety of injuries, but he said he’s “okay with” his part-time role in D.C.
- The Orioles made a small move to address their weak rotation when they signed southpaw Wade LeBlanc to a minors pact on Tuesday. The agreement came after the 35-year-old LeBlanc, who spent most of last season as a reliever in Seattle, turned down other teams’ offers in hopes of earning a spot in the Orioles’ rotation, per Joe Trezza of MLB.com. While LeBlanc could indeed take on a role as one of the O’s starters in 2020, they’re not done shopping for help in that area, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Notably, Baltimore was connected to one of its former SPs, righty Andrew Cashner, this past weekend.
Orioles To Sign Wade LeBlanc
The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-hander Wade LeBlanc, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’ll be in Major League camp during Spring Training and would stand to earn an $800K base salary upon cracking the MLB roster.
Baltimore represents a prime location for a 35-year-old veteran on this type of contract to make a legitimate bid for a roster spot. The Orioles have already traded away Dylan Bundy this winter, leaving their rotation with a composition of John Means, Alex Cobb (health permitting) and journeyman Asher Wojciechowski. The Orioles’ only other rotation moves this winter have been to sign former Twins prospect Kohl Stewart to a big league deal and to select righty Brandon Bailey from GM Mike Elias’ former Astros organization in the Rule 5 Draft. Other internal candidates for starting gigs include right-hander David Hess, who struggled substantially in 2019, and left-hander Keegan Akin, who has yet to make his MLB debut.
It’s the sort of woeful rotation mix one would expect from an organization that is more intent on securing the first overall pick in the 2021 draft than on winning games in the upcoming season. And while that may not be good news for O’s fans, it does provide an avenue for a veteran like LeBlanc to seek out a bounceback opportunity.
LeBlanc was harmed as much as any starter in the game with last year’s juiced ball, as he yielded a staggering 2.1 homers per nine innings pitched and saw his ERA balloon by nearly two full runs over its 2018 levels (5.71 in ’19 versus 3.72 in ’18). In spite of the poor bottom-line run prevention (or lack thereof), the veteran southpaw still maintained similar K/BB tendencies to the ones he showed in a solid three-year stretch that preceded the 2019 season.
From 2016-18, LeBlanc tossed 292 innings (35 starts, 66 relief appearances) and pitched to a 3.91 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 1.4 HR/9 between the Mariners and the Pirates. His soft-tossing arsenal will face a tough task in the American League East if he does land on the big league roster, as he’ll be moving from the spacious T-Mobile Park and a division that generally skews a bit more toward the pitcher-friendly side of things to the cozier Camden Yards and hitter-friendly AL East. The lack of competition for a starting spot in Baltimore, though, should give LeBlanc a legitimate chance to land a roster spot this spring.
Orioles Have Interest In Andrew Cashner
With the Orioles looking to add an inexpensive veteran arm to their rotation, Andrew Cashner is “one of the free agents under consideration,” MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes. GM Mike Elias said on Saturday that the O’s would be more likely to acquire a Major League starter through free agency than through the trade market, and Kubatko recently reported that the Orioles were looking at adding a starter on a one-year contract.
There is no shortage of familiarity between Cashner and the O’s, as the right-hander pitched for the team in both 2018 and 2019 before being traded to the Red Sox last July. Cashner originally signed a two-year, $16MM deal in the 2017-18 offseason and posted a 4.73 ERA, 1.76 K/BB rate, 6.0 K/9 over his 249 1/3 innings in the orange-and-black. Those numbers line up with Cashner’s overall inconsistent performance over the last five seasons, as his low-strikeout, grounder-heavy (except in his aberration of a 2018 season that saw him post a career-worst 40.4% ground ball rate) arsenal leads to a lot of variance.
Cashner was pitching pretty well for Baltimore in 2019, however, posting a 3.83 ERA over 96 1/3 innings after largely removing his sinker from his mix of pitches. After being dealt to Boston, however, Cashner posted an 8.01 ERA over six starts before being moved to the bullpen for his first extended dose of relief work since 2012. Between the start of the 2013 season and the end of that six-start stint for the Red Sox, Cashner started 182 of 188 games pitched.
As expected, the Red Sox declined their $10MM club option on Cashner for the 2020 season, and the righty’s trip into free agency hasn’t resulted in much buzz. It could be that any interested teams are perhaps waiting until later in the offseason or during Spring Training to fully access their rotation options before signing a pitcher that projects best as a depth option at this point in his career.
The 33-year-old Cashner does offer a fair amount of durability at the back of a rotation, as he has averaged 157 IP over the last five seasons. There isn’t much certainty within a projected Orioles rotation that consists of John Means, Alex Cobb, Asher Wojciechowski, and several younger options vying for the final two slots, so bringing a veteran innings-eater like Cashner could help matters. There’s also a chance that returning to Camden Yards could help Cashner regain his form from early 2019, and perhaps make him a candidate for another deadline trade this summer.
Free Agent Spending By Team: American League
As we covered earlier this week, almost all of the prominent free agents in this year’s class have already exited the board. Because of that, we’ll see more and more minor league signings and fewer and fewer major league deals in the weeks leading up to the start of the regular season. This has been an aggressive offseason in terms of spending, though. To this point, which teams have handed out the most guaranteed money via the open market? We’ll examine both leagues, but let’s begin with the AL (reminder: This exercise excludes trades, club options, extensions, waiver claims and Rule 5 selections)…
Yankees: $336.5MM on two players (Gerrit Cole and Brett Gardner; top 50 MLBTR signings: two)
Angels: $260.85MM on three players (Anthony Rendon, Julio Teheran and Jason Castro; top 50 signings: three)
White Sox: $196.5MM on six players (Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, Steve Cishek and Gio Gonzalez; top 50 signings: five)
Twins: $151.8MM on eight players (Josh Donaldson, Michael Pineda, Jake Odorizzi, Homer Bailey, Sergio Romo, Alex Avila, Rich Hill and Tyler Clippard; top 50 signings: four)
Blue Jays: $114.35MM on four players (Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Shun Yamaguchi and Travis Shaw; top 50 signings: two)
Rangers: $62.25MM on five players (Kyle Gibson, Jordan Lyles, Robinson Chirinos, Joely Rodriguez and Todd Frazier; top 50 signings: two)
Tigers: $17.8MM on four players (C.J. Cron, Jonathan Schoop, Austin Romine and Ivan Nova; top 50 signings: one)
Astros: $15.65MM on three players (Joe Smith, Martin Maldonado and Dustin Garneau; top 50 signings: zero)
Rays: $12MM on one player (Yoshitomo Tsutsugo; top 50 signings: zero)
Red Sox: $9.9MM on three players (Martin Perez, Jose Peraza and Kevin Plawecki; top 50 signings: zero)
Athletics: $7.5MM on one player (Jake Diekman; top 50 signings: zero)
Royals: $6.95MM on two players (Alex Gordon and Maikel Franco; top 50 signings: zero)
Indians: $6.25MM on one player (Cesar Hernandez; top 50 signings: zero)
Orioles: $3MM on one player (Jose Iglesias; top 50 signings: zero)
Mariners: $2.95MM on two players (Kendall Graveman and Carl Edwards Jr.; top 50 signings: zero)
Orioles Sign Brady Rodgers, Taylor Davis
The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Brady Rodgers and catcher Taylor Davis to minor league contracts. Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register first reported that Davis had landed a deal with the O’s (Twitter link).
That Rodgers would land in Baltimore isn’t a huge surprise, given that he was long ranked as one of the Astros’ more promising pitching prospects during now-Orioles GM Mike Elias’ stint in the Houston front office. Injuries, however, have significantly slowed the righty’s career. He appeared poised to step into the big leagues for a full-time audition in 2017 after pitching to a 2.86 ERA in 132 innings of Triple-A ball in 2016. Instead, he underwent Tommy John surgery that May and was sidelined for more than a year.
Since going under the knife nearly three years ago, Rodgers has been limited to 116 2/3 innings between the big leagues and the minors. He’s been clobbered for 23 runs in 13 2/3 innings in the Majors but does possess a career 3.67 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 1.9 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 365 Triple-A frames. Rodgers generated strong ground-ball marks earlier in his career but has been more of a fly-ball pitcher since returning from surgery. The Astros selected Rodgers in the third round of the 2012 draft when Elias was a key figure in their scouting department — he ascended to scouting director the following year — and the Orioles have a clear need for pitching depth.
As for Davis, he’s a longtime Cubs farmhand with a bit of MLB experience. The 30-year-old backstop is signing on for his first season outside the Cubs organization after compiling a .277/.350/.385 clash through 1595 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. Davis has also logged 39 plate appearances in 20 MLB games, hitting at a .222/.256/.333 clip in that tiny sample.
In addition to his time as a catcher, Davis has logged more than 1000 innings at first base in his career and 292 frames across the diamond at the hot corner. He has a career 25 percent caught-stealing rate as a catcher and a track record of very strong framing numbers in the upper minors, per Baseball Prospectus. Beyond his solid play in Triple-A, Davis is perhaps best known for the myriad GIFs that were born of his penchant for locking eyes with the television cameras at any and all opportunities during Iowa Cubs games, dating back to the 2016 season.
Orioles Interested In Tim Beckham
This has been a quiet winter for the rebuilding Orioles, but they’re now showing interest in a familiar free agent. They’ve discussed a minor league contract for infielder Tim Beckham, Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com reports.
There’s history between Baltimore and Beckham, a former No. 1 overall pick of the Rays who played with the Orioles from 2017-18. Beckham was successful in the first of those seasons in Baltimore, stumbled during the latter and then signed a major league contract worth $1.75MM with the Mariners last winter. That deal didn’t work out great for either side, however.
Even though Beckham got off to a strong start in a Mariners uniform, his production and playing time dipped as the season progressed. The 29-year-old wound up posting a .237/.293/.461 line with 15 home runs in 328 plate appearances before MLB issued him an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in early August.
Beckham has already served a sizable portion of his ban, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the Mariners from non-tendering him earlier this offseason. The suspension has also likely stopped him from landing a guaranteed deal this offseason. If he does head back to Baltimore, though, Beckham could eventually grab an infield role on a last-place team that’s projected to start Jose Iglesias at shortstop, Hanser Alberto at second base and Rio Ruiz at third.
Checking In On Last Season’s Worst Bullpens
We’ve gone over how the five worst offenses and rotations of last season now look with the offseason nearing completion. We’ll do the same here with the quintet of bullpens that had the most difficulty preventing runs in 2019. Judging a bullpen just by ERA is an admittedly crude method, though each of the relief units in question here also posted subpar fielding-independent metrics. The bottom line is that they struggled. Let’s see how they stack up now…
Baltimore Orioles (5.79 ERA/5.38 FIP; current depth chart)
- No surprise to see the Orioles at the bottom, considering the rebuilding outfit’s myriad difficulties last season. The Orioles didn’t get particularly impressive production from any of their relievers. Even their No. 1 option, Mychal Givens, had trouble at times, though he did strike out better than 12 batters per nine. Givens is on track to open the season with the Orioles, but he could certainly be an in-season trade candidate. If they move him, it would further weaken a bullpen that hasn’t added anyone of note this offseason.
Washington Nationals (5.68 ERA/4.94 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Nationals proved last season that you can have a bottom-of-the-barrel bullpen from a statistical standpoint and still win the World Series. However, general manager Mike Rizzo’s in-season tinkering with the group proved effective, especially the acquisition of flamethrowing closer Daniel Hudson at the trade deadline. Hudson remains in the fold, having re-signed in free agency for two years and $11MM. In an even bigger move, the Nationals signed Will Harris – a former Astro whom they upended in the Fall Classic – to a three-year, $24MM pact. With those two and the returning Sean Doolittle, Washington appears to be in nice shape late in games, but it’ll need more from Hunter Strickland, Roenis Elias, Wander Suero and Tanner Rainey.
Colorado Rockies (5.18 ERA/5.12 FIP; current depth chart)
- There were few oft-used bright spots last season in Colorado’s bullpen, which didn’t get much from anyone but Scott Oberg and Carlos Estevez. The good news is that it’s hard to imagine Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee pitching much worse in 2020 than they did last season. And even if they do, they’re all entering the final guaranteed season of their onerous contracts, so they shouldn’t be the Rockies’ problem for much longer. In the meantime, the Rockies are going to need bounce-back efforts from them because they haven’t meaningfully addressed their late-game setup this offseason.
Kansas City Royals (5.07 ERA/4.55 FIP; current depth chart)
- Kansas City’s another team that has been quiet in the past few months, despite its less-than-stellar output a year ago. There are a couple bullpen trade candidates on hand in Ian Kennedy and Tim Hill, arguably the Royals’ two best relievers, but nothing has materialized on those fronts thus far. Kennedy was terrific last season in his first year as a reliever, though the fact that he’s due $16.5MM in 2020 has likely scared off interested teams.
New York Mets (4.99 ERA/4.71 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Mets were extremely busy in trying to repair their bullpen last offseason, when they traded for ex-Mariners star Edwin Diaz and signed Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson. The latter pitched well during an injury-shortened campaign, but Diaz and Familia fell off a cliff, which is why the Mets are on this list a year later. At least in Diaz’s case, though, it would be reasonable to expect a much better performance in 2020. He struck out over 15 batters per nine and maintained his 97 mph velocity last year, after all, and isn’t going to surrender home runs on 27 percent of fly balls again this season. Regardless of how he does, the Mets have added some notable support to their relief unit in the past several weeks. They signed former Yankee Dellin Betances, one of the elite relievers in recent memory (albeit one coming off an injury-ruined year), as well as the accomplished Brad Brach. They also have the newly signed Michael Wacha as a potential long relief option, not to mention holdovers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman.