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Nightengale: Manny Machado Wants To Play For Yankees

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Orioles infielder Manny Machado “wants to be a Yankee and the feeling is mutual,” Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes. The Yankees were among the teams that tried to trade for Machado over the winter, so it’s no surprise that they’re continuing to eye him a year before he hits free agency. Regarding offseason trade rumors, Machado said, “Thank God nothing went down and I was able to come back, and see my guys that I’ve been with for seven years.” Although the 25-year-old is content to be an Oriole for now, it seems highly unlikely he’ll remain with them past this year, considering the massive contract he’d land on the open market. And while the longtime third baseman plans to spend the rest of his career at shortstop, where New York has a quality starter in Didi Gregorius, the Yankees would find spots for both of them, Nightengale suggests.

More from the American League…

  • The Indians announced Friday that right-hander Danny Salazar “experienced an onset of right shoulder rotator cuff inflammation” last month during his offseason throwing program. The 28-year-old is “a couple weeks” behind the rest of the pitchers in Indians camp, per the announcement, though he has at least resumed throwing. It certainly doesn’t appear as if Salazar is presently dealing with a major injury, but the shoulder trouble isn’t entirely insignificant. Salazar missed roughly six weeks of the 2017 season due to shoulder troubles, and he has a history of right elbow issues as well. He’s also seen his name pop up in occasional trade speculation, most frequently being linked to the Brewers, though one would imagine that ongoing shoulder issues would temper some of the interest that other clubs may have in Salazar.There’s not yet any indication that Opening Day would be in jeopardy for Salazar, whom the Indians have penciled into a rotation spot alongside Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer. Josh Tomlin and Mike Clevinger are both on hand as options for the fifth spot. Injuries limited Salazar to just 103 innings last season, during which time he posted a 4.28 ERA with a gaudy 12.7 K/9 mark against 3.8 BB/9.
  • Before he joined the Phillies on a three-year, $60MM contract in November, longtime Indians first baseman Carlos Santana proposed a five-year, $75MM deal to Cleveland, the player told Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. However, “the Tribe was never seriously engaged with him at all this winter,” Castrovince tweets. Shortly after Santana left the Indians, they added replacement Yonder Alonso on a much cheaper pact (two years, $16MM).
  • Texas had interest in re-signing Andrew Cashner before he accepted Baltimore’s two-year, $16MM guarantee Thursday, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels confirmed to TR Sullivan of MLB.com. However, not only did the Orioles make Cashner a better offer, but it seems he wouldn’t have been a lock to remain a starter with the Rangers. “We talked to him and gave him a range of what we were thinking,” Daniels said. “He got a better deal. We even asked him if he would pitch in the bullpen, but he got a commitment to start, a multi-year deal, a good deal from Baltimore.” In 2017, his only year with the Rangers, Cashner paced their starters in ERA (3.40) and finished second in innings (166 2/3), though his success came in spite of a league-worst K/BB ratio (1.34).

Steve Adams contributed to this post.

Orioles Notes: Machado, Schoop, Liriano

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Orioles standout Manny Machado showed up to camp Saturday and told reporters (including Bob Nightengale of USA Today, via Twitter) that he and the team have not discussed a long-term extension. Interestingly, the soon-to-be free agent added that he’d like to line up at shortstop for the rest of his career. Machado, 25, has played the majority of his career at third base since debuting in 2012, but the O’s decided to move him back to shortstop – his original position – last month. “This is where my heart has always been,” Machado said of short (Twitter link via Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com). Barring an unlikely extension before next offseason, Machado will easily be the premier shortstop option available in a star-studded free agent class. In the meantime, if he thrives at short this year, Machado will have a chance to earn a bit more than his $16MM salary. He’d make an extra $100K by winning a Gold Glove Award and $250K by taking home Platinum Glove honors, Nightengale tweets.

A couple more notes on Baltimore…

  • Like Machado, second baseman Jonathan Schoop may not be long for Baltimore (he’s in his penultimate year of team control). However, Schoop “would be open to an extension,” Ghiroli tweets. And while there was reportedly some frustration between him and the Orioles during the arbitration process, Schoop indicated there’s no bitterness on either end. To this point, there haven’t been any extension talks, but Schopp said he’s “not disappointed” in that (Twitter link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). He’ll make $8.5MM this season after posting a career year in 2017.
  • Kubatko has the latest on the Orioles’ search for starters, writing that they’re monitoring free agent left-hander Francisco Liriano. On the other hand, the Orioles have “cooled on” free agent right-hander Trevor Cahill, whom they were interested in earlier in the offseason, per Kubatko. Fellow righties R.A. Dickey and Scott Feldman (an ex-Oriole) are options for Baltimore, Kubatko suggests, though he notes that the former may end up retiring instead of pitching in 2018.

Chris Tillman Nearing Decision

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Free-agent righty Chris Tillman is weighing offers and preparing to make a decision in short order, according to Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun. The Orioles are joined by the Twins and two other organizations in the picture for Tillman’s services, per the report, which also suggests that Tillman is willing to take an incentive-laden contract as he looks to return to form after a miserable 2017 season. With the Minnesota organization also said to be involved on some other hurlers, its ongoing involvement is especially interesting to note — though it’s also fair to wonder whether the team’s reported agreement with another bounceback candidate (Anibal Sanchez) will dampen its interest. We’ve seen real movement on the starting pitching market of late; with Tillman also seemingly nearing a deal, it’ll be interesting to see whether the same holds for some other free agents.

Orioles Have Not Made Offer To Tillman

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  • Free-agent righty Chris Tillman had multiple offers in hand as of yesterday afternoon, per MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli (Twitter link), though the Orioles had not yet made him a formal offer to return at that point. Baltimore has been linked to Tillman, its longtime top starter, throughout the offseason. The Orioles still have a pair of open rotation spots even after signing Andrew Cashner to a two-year contract. Tillman, 30 in April, turned in a catastrophic 7.84 ERA in 93 innings last year in a season that was largely derailed by shoulder injuries. He’s also been linked to the Twins, Blue Jays and Phillies over the past month or so, although the Jays may be off the table now after signing Jaime Garcia to a one-year deal yesterday.

Orioles Sign Andrew Cashner

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The Orioles have announced an agreement with free-agent righty Andrew Cashner. It’s a two-year, $16MM contract, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). Cashner is represented by CAA Sports.

Cashner will receive consecutive salaries of $5MM and $8MM, Kubatko reports (Twitter links). The remaining $3MM is a signing bonus that will be deferred to 2020 through 2022, according to Kubatko and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (Twitter link).

There’s also a $10MM vesting option on the contract, in addition to $5MM available in yearly incentives, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (links to Twitter). The option becomes guaranteed if Cashner throws 340 innings over the first two seasons of the deal. It’d become a $10MM player option for Cashner in the event that he reached 360 total innings from 2018-19. Cashner has topped 170 innings in a season only twice, making those fairly lofty goals for a pitcher with his lack of durability. He’d need replicate his career-best 2015 workload (184 2/3 innings) in consecutive years to obtain the player option.

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Cashner, 31, will give the Orioles some desperately needed depth for their rotation, as the only locks for starting jobs until this pickup were righties Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy. He’s made at least 27 starts in each of the past three seasons and is coming off a 3.40 ERA through 166 2/3 innings with the Rangers, albeit with less-impressive marks of 4.6 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9.

Cashner averaged 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in 2015-16 with the Padres and Marlins, but he somewhat bizarrely saw that number plummet upon signing on with the Rangers. The right-hander did significantly decrease the usage of his four-seam fastball in favor of cutter/sinker, so it’s possible that his pitch selection in 2017 played a large role in his decline in strikeouts. Cashner’s fastball velocity, after all, continued to average better than 93 mph. Still, his 6.1 percent swinging-strike rate and 4.6 K/9 mark were among the bottom two marks among all qualified starters.

Whatever the reasons behind it, the sudden lack of missed bats has to be considered somewhat of a red flag, especially moving into an AL East division that is stacked with some fairly potent lineups. Cashner should give the Orioles a more steadier option to occupy the third slot in the rotation than virtually any of the team’s internal candidates, though he currently profiles more as a back-of-the-rotation arm than mid-rotation starter. The O’s have reportedly been striving to add three starters this winter, including one lefty, so it’s quite possible that Cashner is the first of multiple additions for Baltimore in the weeks to come as Spring Training progresses.

It’s been a rather bleak scene for all free agents outside of the relief market thus far in the offseason, but while Cashner surely waited longer than he’d have hoped to land a deal, his $16MM guarantee falls pretty well within the parameters of reasonable expectations. Heading into the offseason, MLBTR listed Cashner 27th among free agents in terms of earning capacity and pegged him for a two-year, $20MM pact.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

O's Could Have $43MM In Available Payroll Space?

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  • Now that the Orioles have avoided arbitration with Kevin Gausman, the team has settled all its offseason arbitration business, allowing Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun to calculate how much the O’s may have left to spend this offseason.  With roughly $121.2MM now on the books for 2018, the Orioles have over $43MM in available payroll space assuming they’re willing to spend as much as they did last season.  That, of course, is no given, since the team hasn’t gotten much in return from recent big expenditures, and have now gained some financial relief now that some big contracts (i.e. Ubaldo Jimenez, J.J. Hardy, Chris Tillman, Wade Miley) have expired.  Still, the O’s have some major needs that need to be addressed, most notably in the starting rotation.

Orioles Will Attend Lincecum Showcase

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  • More than 10 teams are set to attend Tim Lincecum’s showcase on Thursday, it seems. Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com respectively report that the Tigers, Twins and Orioles will have scouts in attendance (all Twitter links). Heyman adds another handful of clubs, listing the Rangers, Phillies, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Brewers, Padres and Braves as attendees (links to Twitter for the last three), in addition to the previously reported Giants. If anything, it’s perhaps more notable which clubs have elected not to attend the showcase, as there’s no real downside to at least taking a look and the showcase is shaping up to be reasonably well-attended. To that end, the New York Post’s Kevin Kernan wrote over the weekend that the Mets aren’t planning to have a scout in attendance.

Orioles Avoid Arbitration With Kevin Gausman

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The Orioles have avoided arbitration with righty Kevin Gausman, per a team announcement. He will earn $5.6MM for the coming season, per Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter).

As MLBTR’s 2018 MLB Arbitration Tracker shows, Gausman had been the last remaining Orioles arb agreement to be hammered out. The sides had been scheduled for a hearing tomorrow, with Gausman set to seek $6.225MM and the club countering with a $5.3MM price tag.

Rather than trudge out of camp to go before a panel, Gausman and the O’s have settled their differences. He had projected at a lofty $6.8MM after earning $3.45MM as a Super Two last year, but clearly neither player nor team thought that was a realistic price point.

While the 27-year-old did complete a career-high 186 2/3 innings in 2017, the results failed to match his output from the season prior. He ended up with a 4.68 ERA and 8.6 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9.

Orioles Notes: Non-Roster Targets, Wright, Gausman

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  • The Orioles have discussed the possibility of a non-roster invitation to Spring Training for Pedro Alvarez, Michael Bourn, Colby Rasmus and Michael Saunders within the past week, according to Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. It’s a bargain-hunter’s collection of names, considering the fact that higher-profile left-handed bats such as Logan Morrison, Carlos Gonzalez, Jon Jay and Jarrod Dyson remain available in free agency. (Morrison, of course, isn’t an outfielder at this point in his career, though the same is true of Alvarez.) The O’s have been interested in Rasmus and Saunders in prior offseasons, Encina notes, though it’s not clear what Rasmus’ plans are at present. The veteran outfielder stepped away from the game for personal reasons last July, and there hasn’t been much mention of him this winter.
  • While he still expects the Orioles to acquire at least one starter via trade or free agency, Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com also indicates that he expects right-hander Mike Wright to get another opportunity to prove himself in the rotation in April. The 28-year-old Wright is out of minor league options, Connolly notes, adding that the Orioles do not want to give up on Wright despite a lack of results in the Majors. Wright has a paltry 5.86 ERA, 5.46 FIP and 5.16 xFIP in 144 2/3 big league innings, but he’s been considerably better in Triple-A, where he owns a lifetime 3.53 ERA in 389 2/3 frames — including a flat 3.00 ERA in 240 1/3 innings across the past three seasons.
  • Beyond all the other uncertainties permeating the game this spring, there are still a fair number of unresolved arbitration cases, as our 2018 MLB Arbitration Tracker shows. As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca notes on Twitter, Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman had his hearing yesterday, though results aren’t yet known. Meanwhile, Orioles starter Kevin Gausman is still hoping to work something out rather than heading for a hearing tomorrow, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets.

Orioles Have Contacted Astros About Collin McHugh

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The Orioles have inquired about the availability of Astros right-hander Collin McHugh, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com hears. Although McHugh could be the odd man out of a loaded Houston rotation this year, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the reigning champions aren’t in a rush to trade him. Nevertheless, with multiple holes in their rotation and a reported unwillingness to spend big to address their staff, it makes sense that the Orioles are interested in McHugh. After all, the 30-year-old has been a quality starter with the Astros since 2014 and is under arbitration control at affordable prices through 2019. He’ll earn in the neighborhood of $5MM this season.

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