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AL East Notes: Bautista, Donaldson, Chavez, Gallardo, Betts

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Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista indicated that he’s very open to holding contract talks before reaching free agency after the season, as Gregory Strong of the Canadian Press reports. Bautista said it would be an honor to end his career in Toronto, though obviously there’s a long way to go to make that happen. He noted that he had recently sat down with new club president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins, but also suggested that true negotiations haven’t occurred. “I have to have something to consider at some point if I’m going to make that decision, which hasn’t happened yet,” said Bautista. “So I’m going to continue to go about my business just like any other year and any other day because I don’t really have a decision to make right now.”

Here’s more out of the AL East, including a few other notable possible extension scenarios — a topic that Steve Adams and I tackled on today’s MLBTR Podcast.

  • Shapiro and Atkins are addressing their fanbase as we speak, and quotes continue to be reported. Josh Donaldson’s contract situation came up, as it appears he’s headed for a second arb hearing unless a multi-year agreement can be reached. (The club employs a file-and-trial approach.) Atkins indicated that there is real interest in a multi-year scenario, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter links), though it could well be an arb-only agreement. Nevertheless, the newly-minted general manager suggested that something more could at least be contemplated. “We want him here as long as humanly possible,” he said.
  • The team seemingly already went to an arb hearing with righty Jesse Chavez, Nicholson-Smith tweets. There’s only a $400K difference between the sides’ filings — $4MM vs. $3.6MM — so there isn’t a ton of money at stake. It’s certainly possible that both preferred to take their chances to bridging the gap. Either way, Chavez will fall shy of his $4.7MM projection.
  • Meanwhile, Shapiro says that it’s unlikely the team will make another major move before hitting camp, as Nicholson-Smith tweets. But the team has had “substantive conversations as recently as just a few days ago,” per Shapiro.
  • We’ve heard a lot of back-and-forth on the Orioles’ interest in signing free agent righty Yovani Gallardo — and giving up the 14th overall pick — and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says that the O’s are still monitoring things. If Gallardo’s asking price falls far enough, the team could be willing to punt the pick.
  • The Red Sox don’t have much reason to pursue an extension with blooming star Mookie Betts, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal argues. Boston already has five years of control over Betts, isn’t really in need of cost certainty, and may prefer to avoid shifting forward salary for purposes of luxury tax calculations.

Orioles Avoid Arbitration With Brian Matusz

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We’ll track the day’s arb deals here:

  • The Orioles have avoided arbitration with southpaw Brian Matusz for $3.9MM, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). Matusz had filed at $4.4MM, with the team countering at $3.5MM, so he’ll fall just on the low side of the midpoint. MLBTR had projected him to earn just $3.4MM in his final trip through the arb process, so he’ll do a fair bit better than that. The 28-year-old posted career-best results last year, working to a 2.94 ERA with 10.3 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 over 49 frames. Certainly, a repeat would put him in rather high demand on the open market.

Padres Trade Despaigne To Orioles, Announce Rodney Deal

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The Orioles and Padres are in agreement on a trade that will send right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne to Baltimore in exchange for minor league right-hander Jean Cosme, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com had first reported that Cosme was headed to the O’s in exchange for a pitcher off San Diego’s Major League roster.

San Diego also announced the previously-reported signing of reliever Fernando Rodney. The veteran, late-inning righty needed a 40-man spot, and he’ll take over for the departing Despaigne.

Despaigne, 28, is coming off a tough season with the Padres in which he posted a sky-high 5.80 ERA with 4.9 K/9, 2.3 BB.9 and a 50.5 percent ground-ball rate in 125 1/3 innings. While the ERA is certainly uninspiring, metrics such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged Despaigne more in the mid-4.00 range, with some of the ERA spike being attributed to an abnormally low number of runners stranded and a spike in his homer-to-flyball ratio. A year prior, Despaigne tossed 96 1/3 innings in his rookie season, compiling a considerably better 3.36 ERA with 6.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 52.5 percent ground-ball rate. Despaigne has experience both in the rotation and the bullpen and will give Baltimore another arm for its rotation mix or serve as a candidate to compete for a swingman job out of the bullpen. As Kubatko noted, Despaigne also has minor league options remaining (three of them, to be exact), so he can be sent down to Triple-A and stored at Norfolk as a depth piece in the event that an injury arises.

From the Padres’ vantage point, Despaigne probably became expendable when the team added Carlos Villanueva to serve as a swingman/long reliever. Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune points out (on Twitter) that the trade also frees up a spot on the 40-man roster for Fernando Rodney, whose one-year deal with San Diego has yet to be announced. Cosme is a 19-year-old out of Puerto Rico that Baltimore selected in the 17th round of the 2014 draft. He’s posted a 4.73 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 72 1/3 professional innings but did not rank among Baltimore’s Top 10 prospects this offseason, per Baseball America.

Of course, the broader move also ties in with the Rodney signing. He’ll join the Pads on an incentive-laden deal and look to rebound from a tough 2015 season. Soon to turn 39, Rodney’s ratios and results suffered last year. But he may have been somewhat unlucky in the volume of home runs he surrendered, and still brings a 95+ mph heater.

Orioles Designate C.J. Riefenhauser For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have designated left-handed reliever C.J. Riefenhauser for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne, who was acquired from the Padres in a trade.

Riefenhauser has had an active offseason, initially going from the Rays to the Mariners in the Nate Karns/Brad Miller swap but spending less than a month as a member of the Rays before heading to the Orioles alongside Mark Trumbo in a trade that netted Seattle catcher Steve Clevenger (and saved about $9MM). He’ll now hit DFA limbo for the first time this offseason, during which time Baltimore can explore trades for the still-promising left-hander or attempt to sneak him through outright waivers (although there’s certainly a chance that Riefenhauser would be claimed by another organization).

The 26-year-old Riefenhauser has struggled in his brief exposure to the Majors, to be sure, having logged a 6.30 ERA in a limited sample of 20 innings. However, he’s also excelled at the minor league level, where he’s authored an outstanding 2.15 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in parts of three seasons, totaling 113 innings of relief. Riefenhauser doesn’t light up the radar gun by any means, sitting around 89 mph, but that’s passable velocity for a southpaw, and there’s no denying that he dominated lefties between Triple-A and the Majors before a rocky 2015 season, holding them to a .430 OPS in what was a strong season. Scouting reports from Fangraphs, MLB.com and Baseball America have given Riefenhauser credit for at least an average fastball and average slider with a slightly below-average third offering in the form of his changeup. If he’s a two-pitch reliever, he could still carve out a role as a lefty specialist, one would think, though as MLB.com’s most recent scouting report on him indicated, he could take on a bigger bullpen role with some improvement in his changeup. Prior to the 2014 season, BA credited him with a plus heater/slider combo, though his velocity in the Majors has sat below the 91-93 mph mentioned in that scouting report.

Orioles, Padres On Verge Of Trade; Cashner Not Involved

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The Orioles have traded minor league right-hander J.C. Cosme to the Padres in exchange for a pitcher on San Diego’s Major League roster, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (via Twitter), although he notes that Andrew Cashner is not in this deal. Kubatko has previously reported that the Orioles have some interest in Cashner.

While the details of the transaction in question are certainly open-ended, it seems safe to say that the deal won’t necessarily net the Orioles a major rotation component, unless other pieces are involved in the deal. Cosme is a 19-year-old out of Puerto Rico that Baltimore selected in the 17th round of the 2014 draft. He’s posted a 4.73 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 72 1/3 professional innings but did not rank among Baltimore’s Top 10 prospects this offseason, per Baseball America. Additionally, Cosme didn’t crack MLB.com’s most recent list of Top 30 Orioles prospects, although that list is due to be updated later this month.

The pitcher coming back to the Orioles has a minor league option remaining, Kubatko further tweets, suggesting that it may not be an arm that will definitively crack Baltimore’s Opening Day roster.

Orioles, Hideki Okajima Agree To Minor League Deal

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FEB. 4: Okajima can earn $1MM+ if he makes the roster and meets incentives in his contract, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (on Twitter).

FEB. 3: The Orioles and left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. Okajima’s deal does not include an invite to Major League Spring Training, per Encina, so he’ll look to earn a spot in the bullpen at Triple-A Norfolk and eventually work his way back into the Major Leagues. Back in December, during the Winter Meetings, it was reported that Okajima was seeking a return to the Majors.

The 40-year-old Okajima’s deal marks his return to American baseball after spending the past two seasons in Japan. Were he to make the Orioles’ roster, it’d be Okajima’s first appearance in the Majors since a brief stint with the Athletics in 2013. Of course, Okajima is known much better for his time with the Red Sox, for whom he pitched from 2007-11. In parts of those five seasons, Okajima worked to a 3.11 ERA with 7.9 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 to go along with a 36.8 percent ground-ball rate. Okajima was lethal against left-handed batters, holding them to a paltry .216/.277/.323 batting line in his time with the Red Sox. While right-handed batters fared better against Okajima, their collective .246/.323/.397 batting line wasn’t exactly impressive in its own right.

Okajima returned to Japan following the 2013 season and posted outstanding numbers with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks — a 2.11 ERA with 36 strikeouts against 14 walks (four of which were intentional) in 42 1/3 innings. This past season, though, he threw just 7 1/3 innings with the Yokohama Bay Stars and surrendered seven runs.

It may take a particularly strong showing in Norfolk and/or some injuries around the organization to get Okajima a shot at the Major Leagues, as the Orioles have no shortage of lefties available. Southpaw Zach Britton has emerged as one of the game’s most effective closers, and the O’s have a number of left-handed options to bridge the gap from rotation to Britton in the form of Brian Matusz, T.J. McFarland and C.J. Riefenhauser. Beyond that, left-handers Chris Lee and Chris Jones are both already on the 40-man roster, and while each is a starter, it’s possible that Baltimore could bring either up and use them in the ’pen, temporarily, should the need arise throughout the year. Doing so would prevent them from having to make a 40-man roster move to add Okajima.

AL East Notes: Rays, Orioles, Lincecum, Buchholz

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Players aren’t the only ones hurt by the qualifying offer system, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, who uses the Rays as an example of a team that is in a position to add an impact free agent right now (Ian Desmond) but don’t feel comfortable doing so due to the importance of the No. 13 overall selection to the organization. Not only would the Rays be sacrificing that top pick, of course, they’d also be forfeiting the sizable portion of their draft bonus pool stems from owning that pick.

A few more notes pertaining to the AL East…

  • While much has been made of the Orioles’ questionable rotation (understandably so), Rosenthal tweets that the O’s are still also looking at right field upgrades. While the team’s preference is to sign an everyday right fielder, they may simply go with a left-handed bat that can serve as a platoon partner for Dariel Alvarez, he notes. (I’ll add that Nolan Reimold, also on the 40-man roster, strikes me as a perhaps better bet to be the other half of a platoon, but either player could capably fill that role.) Rosenthal lists Will Venable and David Murphy as options, both of whom make sense in the scenario he described.
  • MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko also examines the Orioles’ right field situation, noting that the team’s focus is indeed on finding a left-handed bat. Per Kubatko, there’s no reason to eliminate Murphy or Venable from the list of possibilities, as Murphy has been someone the O’s have liked for years. Meanwhile, the Orioles actually thought they had a trade for Venable completed before he went to the Rangers this past summer, according to Kubatko. He also lists David DeJesus and Matt Joyce, although those seem more speculative in nature.
  • The Orioles have inquired with right-hander Tim Lincecum’s camp about his health, reports Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. While their specific level of interest isn’t known, Encina notes, it stands to reason that the O’s would have some interest in watching Lincecum work out later this month as the team eyes rotation upgrades that could come at a reasonable cost. Encina points out, however, that the Orioles have been comfortable with incentive-laden minor league deals in recent years (e.g. Johan Santana), but Lincecum is seeking a Major League deal.
  • Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz was a guest on Rob Bradford’s podcast at WEEI and told Bradford that there was a time this offseason when he thought the Sox were going to trade him. “[David Price is] the horse that every team wants to have on their staff,” said Buchholz. “But given you do have someone like that, there obviously has to be one person that’s out of the mix. I was actually on the phone with Wade Miley talking about the whole Seattle thing, because my name was involved in that, and obviously his name.” Buchholz said that there was a week to two-week period where he was “non-stop texting” his agent for updates on the situation. In the end, however, Miley was the one traded to the Mariners, whose new GM, Jerry Dipoto, was the D-backs’ scouting director back when Miley was drafted.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/3/16

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Here are the latest minor moves of note:

  • The White Sox have re-signed righty Maikel Cleto and added outfielder Vinny Rottino, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. Cleto, 26, has been hit around in his limited MLB experience but has shown the ability to miss bats. He spent last year at Triple-A, working to a 3.00 ERA in 51 frames with 10.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9. The 35-year-old Rottino has not seen the majors since 2012. He slashed .266/.346/.390 over 514 plate appearances at Triple-A in 2015.
  • The Marlins have added first baseman Zach Lutz, per Eddy. Lutz saw only minimal time in the Mets system last year, but did briefly reach the majors with New York in the 2012-13 seasons.
  • Lefty Edgar Ibarra has joined the Phillies on a minors pact, Eddy adds. The 26-year-old cracked the bigs for the first time last year, but only made two appearances. At Triple-A, he worked o a 5.43 ERA over 66 1/3 innings with 9.1 /9 vs. 4.7 BB/9.
  • Fellow southpaw Chris Dwyer is going to the Orioles on his own new deal, according to the BA report. He had spent his entire career in the Royals organization, briefly making it up to the show in 2013. Dwyer was a fourth-round pick out of Clemson back in 2009.
  • The Braves reached agreement with Blake Lalli, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter), and expect to utilize him as one of the team’s catchers at Triple-A. The 32-year-old has served in just that role with the Diamondbacks over the last two seasons.

AL East Notes: Uribe, Yankees, Guthrie, O’s, Red Sox

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While many Yankees fans have speculated on the possibility of Pedro Alvarez coming to the Bronx as a replacement for the injured Greg Bird (a notion with which I disagree, as Bird wasn’t projected to be on the 25-man roster barring a Mark Teixeira injury, and Alvarez is undoubtedly seeking fairly regular at-bats), Joel Sherman of the New York Post opines that the Yankees should instead make a play for Juan Uribe. Adding Uribe to the mix would allow the Yankees to use Chase Headley at first base in the event of an injury to Teixeira, with Uribe slotting in at the hot corner in his stead. Additionally, Uribe’s ability to still capably play second base could make him an option there as well, should Dustin Ackley prove to be an unsuitable backup from a defensive standpoint. As Sherman notes, however, there’s competition for Uribe’s services — namely in the form of the Indians, as ESPN’s Buster Olney mentioned earlier today. There does appear to be room for a veteran infield addition on the Yankees’ roster, although Uribe would make it difficult to envision Rob Refsnyder having any kind of regular role with the team in 2016.

More on the Yankees and the rest of their division…

  • In a second column, Sherman spoke to Yankees GM Brian Cashman and asked whether the delayed diagnoses in the injury cases of Teixeira and Bird led to any concerns about the team’s medical evaluation process. “We deal with two of the biggest and best hospitals in the world – New York Presbyterian and the Hospital for Special Surgery,” said Cashman. “Both of them were completely on top of this and both saw it the same way. There is no second-guessing involved. Both [hospitals] saw [Bird] last May, they saw him in October and they both saw him now. Nothing was missed.”
  • As Spring Training draws nearer, it becomes increasingly likely that the Orioles will look internally to fill out their rotation, writes Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. Encina notes that a number of free agents remain as possibilities — Yovani Gallardo, Mat Latos and Tim Lincecum — but each comes with his own issues (draft pick compensation, character concerns and health, respectively). Encina hears that the Oriols have even considered a reunion with right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, although he characterizes that as an unlikely outcome. Encina goes on to profile the team’s top internal candidates for the back of the rotation, including Vance Worley, Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson and even Brian Matusz.
  • CSN New England’s Sean McAdam suggests three offseason moves that the Red Sox should have made but didn’t as well as some offseason decisions that he feels the team would have been better off not making. An extension for Mookie Betts tops McAdam’s list of suggestions for moves that the team should have made (there is, of course, still time for that to play out), while banking on Hanley Ramirez to be their everyday first baseman is a misstep in McAdam’s mind. He also mentions obtaining a second left-handed reliever and taking advantage of a deep outfield market would have been wise for the BoSox.

Latest On Orioles’ Rotation Search

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The Orioles have yet to address their rotation this offseason despite early offseason claims that it was the team’s top priority, writes MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. While the Orioles were at one point “deep” in negotiations with Yovani Gallardo, they now appear reluctant to part with the No. 14 overall pick to sign Gallardo. As an alternative, Kubatko writes that Padres right-hander Andrew Cashner is a name to watch, as the team has some interest in the free-agent-to-be.

Cashner, 29, was reportedly being shopped by the Padres earlier this offseason, although to this point, San Diego has elected to trade only from its bullpen (Craig Kimbrel, Joaquin Benoit, Marc Rzepczynski) as opposed to parting the three members of its rotation that have been oft-reported as available on the trade market (Cashner, Tyson Ross, James Shields). Cashner pitched a career-best 184 1/3 innings for the Padres in 2015, but he also took notable steps back in ERA (2.55 in 2014, 4.34 in 2015) and walk rate (2.1 BB/9 in 2014, 3.2 in 2015). Last season wasn’t all bad, however, as Cashner’s 8.0 K/9 rate was the highest in any of his full seasons as a starting pitcher, and his fastball velocity actually increased half a mile per hour over its 2014 average — rising from 94.3 to 94.8.

The Padres and Cashner agreed to a one-year, $7.15MM salary earlier this month, thus avoiding arbitration for the final time. Cashner is set to become a free agent following the season and as such would be a short-term acquisition for the Orioles (or any other team with trade interest). Baltimore, of course, has parted with a significant amount of its prospect depth in recent seasons, dealing names like Zach Davies, Eduardo Rodriguez, Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley, among others, in deadline and offseason trades. That Cashner has just one season remaining and saw a notable jump in his ERA this past season certainly figures to lower the cost of acquisition, but the fact that Padres were said to be “pushing” Cashner in trades at the Winter Meetings but still didn’t make a deal serves as a reminder that they’re probably looking for a notable return.

Trade talks in general have been difficult for the Orioles as they’ve sought to upgrade in the rotation, per Kubatko, as teams have persistently asked Baltimore for Kevin Gausman, who could be the club’s best shot at having a top-of-the-rotation-caliber starter himself. One alternative suggested by Kubatko is right-hander Mat Latos, who could likely be had on a one-year deal as he looks to rebuild his stock coming off a poor and injury-riddled 2015 season. The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo wrote a bit about Latos over the weekend, noting that one NL official felt a strong manager such as Buck Showalter (or Bruce Bochy or Dusty Baker) would benefit Latos, who can be “too outspoken for his own good.” Latos was excellent for the Padres and Reds from 2010-14, posting a combined 3.27 ERA across those five seasons, but a knee injury cost him about half of the 2014 season, and his peripheral stats slipped upon return. Last year, his ERA fell off as well, when he worked to a 4.95 ERA in 116 1/3 innings between the Marlins, Dodgers and a brief late cameo with the Angels.

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