Latest On Twins’ Rotation Targets
Even after signing left-hander J.A. Happ to a one-year, $8MM contract late last month, the Twins may not be done addressing their rotation. They remain in touch with one of their own free agents, right-hander Jake Odorizzi, and were in attendance for righty Jake Arrieta‘s throwing session last Friday, La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports. The Twins will stay in touch with Arrieta, according to Neal.
Odorizzi spent the previous three seasons with the Twins and combined for a 4.11 ERA/4.34 SIERA in 337 innings. In his best season, 2019, Odorizzi earned an All-Star nod and pitched to a 3.51 ERA/4.14 SIERA with a a career-best 27.1 percent strikeout rate and an 8.1 percent walk rate over 159 frames. The Twins then handed Odorizzi a $17.8MM qualifying offer, and he accepted it instead of trying his luck in free agency.
Minnesota was no doubt expecting another quality showing from Odorizzi when it gave him the QO, but it wasn’t to be in 2020. Injuries, including to his back, chest and right middle finger, limited him to 13 2/3 innings of 10-run ball. Odorizzi doesn’t seem to be a free agent at the ideal time, then, but considering his positive track record with the Royals, Rays and Twins, he could still land a solid multiyear payday this offseason. Other than the Twins, Jon Morosi of MLB.com lists the Angels, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Giants and perhaps the Mets as teams vying for the soon-to-be 31-year-old.
Either Odorizzi or Arrieta would fill out a Twins rotation that currently has Happ, Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda and Randy Dobnak comprising its top five. Of course, unlike Odorizzi, Arrieta probably isn’t in line for better than a one-year contract. While Arrieta is a former NL Cy Young winner (2015) with the Cubs, he’s now on the market after a pair of disappointing seasons with the Phillies. Arrieta, 35 in March, put up his worst ERA since 2012 last year (5.08) in 44 1/3 innings. He also logged a meager 16.8 percent strikeout percentage – one of the worst of his career – though he did record an above-average walk rate of 8.4 percent and a 51.8 percent groundball rate.
Dustin Pedroia Announces Retirement
Red Sox second baseman and former American League MVP Dustin Pedroia announced his retirement from baseball Monday. The 37-year-old was still under contract for the 2021 season but had managed to play in just nine games over the past three seasons due to a string of devastating knee injuries that required multiple surgeries. Notably, Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal tweets that Pedroia will still be paid his $12MM salary in the upcoming season, and his $13.3MM average annual value will count against the luxury tax for the Red Sox.
“Dustin is so much more than his American League Most Valuable Player award, his All-Star Game selections, and the Gold Gloves he amassed throughout his impressive 17-year career in our organization,” Red Sox owner John Henry said in a press release announcing the move. “Dustin came to represent the kind of grit, passion, and competitive drive that resonates with baseball fans everywhere and especially with Red Sox fans. He played the game he loves in service to our club, its principles and in pursuit of championships. Most of all we are forever grateful to him for what he brought to our club and to our region as an important role model showing all of us how much one can accomplish with determination and hard work.”
Pedroia was a second-round pick out of Arizona State during the same 2004 season in which the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino with their first World Series win in 86 years. They couldn’t have known it at the time, but that ’04 draft would play an integral part in further distancing themselves from said “curse,” as Pedroia was a key cog in the engine of two more World Series-winning rosters.
Barely two years after being signed, Pedroia made his big league debut in August 2006. His initial 31-game cup of coffee produced middling results, but Pedroia quickly put a lackluster debut behind him when he batted .317/.380/.442 en route to a runaway win in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Pedroia had a slow start in the postseason that year, but he picked up steam in the ALCS and played key roles in the postseason’s final two rounds.
Pedroia one-upped that marvelous rookie season just a year later when he was named American League MVP. In just his second fill big league season, Pedroia posted an excellent .326/.376/.493 slash with 17 home runs, an MLB-leading 54 doubles and 20 stolen bases. Pedroia also led the Majors with 213 hits that season, and his 118 runs scored paced the American League. He also took home the first of four career Gold Gloves and made the first of four All-Star Games during that brilliant season.
From 2007-17, Pedroia was quite simply one of the best all-around players in Major League Baseball. During that time, he put together a composite .302/.368/.442 slash with 138 home runs and steals apiece, all while playing high-quality defense for a near-perennial contender. He hit .301/.372/.415 with the Red Sox in 2013, again playing a huge role as the club secured a third World Series win in a span of 10 years.
Unfortunately for Pedroia, the Red Sox and their fans, he was hampered by left knee troubles throughout his 2017 season, and after three trips to the injured list eventually underwent a cartilage restoration procedure. He returned in 2018 after missing the start of the season, but troubles in his surgically repaired knee shelved him again after just three games. Pedroia didn’t play again in 2018, and he was limited to six games the following year due to continued setbacks. He underwent a “joint preservation” operation on that knee and did not appear at all the following year in 2020.
Pedroia revealed in a Zoom conference call with reporters today that he underwent a partial knee replacement in December and isn’t currently able to run, though he is at least walking pain-free for the first time in awhile (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Chad Jennings and the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier). Pedroia said he did “everything possible” to try to get back to the field, but the latest procedure finally made it a physical impossibility.
“I’m glad none of you guys got a chance to see me (last year),” said Pedroia. “I wasn’t in a good place. I grinded every day just to be able to play with my kids and live a normal life.”
The series of knee injuries is a disheartening way to see one of the current generation’s best talents wrap up a career. At one point, Pedroia looked to be marching toward Cooperstown. Because of his incredible peak, the individual hardware and his World Series rings, he’ll still have some supporters when he finds himself on the ballot, though he’ll be a more borderline case than most would’ve expected even a few years ago. His case will likely be an oft-debated one, but for a solid decade there’s little arguing that Pedroia was among the game’s elite.
All told, his career will draw to a close with a .299/.365/.439 batting line, 140 home runs, 394 doubles, 15 triples, 138 stolen bases, 1805 hits, 922 runs scored and 725 runs batted in. In addition to his Rookie of the Year and MVP honors, Pedroia made four All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves and took home a Silver Slugger Award. Baseball-Reference credits him with 51.6 wins above replacement, while FanGraphs values him at 46.6 WAR. Pedroia earned more than $127MM in career earnings and stands alongside David Ortiz as a defining player in this generation of the Red Sox. Though the two couldn’t be more different in physical stature, both will go down as veritable titans in Red Sox lore. Best wishes to Pedroia in retirement.
AL East Notes: Vazquez, Angels, Tanaka, Blue Jays, Taillon
The Angels signed Kurt Suzuki this offseason, and with a catching corps of Suzuki, Max Stassi, and Anthony Bemboom, adding an upper-tier backstop “would be a luxury and not a necessity” for the team, FanSided’s Robert Murray writes. However, the Halos have at least checked in on some prominent catchers, including Christian Vazquez of the Red Sox. No deal appears to be close, as the Sox naturally want quite a lot for Vazquez and “there are doubts whether the Red Sox will entertain trading him” whatsoever.
Vazquez is entering his final guaranteed year of the contract extension he signed in March 2018. He’ll earn $6.25MM in 2021, and the Red Sox hold a $7MM club option ($250K buyout) on his services for 2022. It’s a very affordable price for one of the game’s better defensive catchers, not to mention a catcher who has swung an increasingly dangerous bat — Vazquez has hit .278/.327/.472 with 30 homers in 710 plate appearances since the start of the 2019 season. He does turn 31 in August, so the Sox could think about moving him at a high point in his trade value, but the Angels or any suitor would have to step up with a very big offer to get Boston’s attention.
More from the AL East…
- In a press conference announcing his return to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Masahiro Tanaka implied that he could return to Major League Baseball even before his two-year deal with the Eagles is up. “I feel I have unfinished business in America, and I haven’t given up on that, so they agreed on terms that would keep those options open,” Tanaka said. This could seem to hint at an opt-out clause after the 2021 season, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post notes, and quite possibly a return to the Yankees in 2022. With the Yankees intent on resetting their luxury tax penalty limit this winter, the team opted to spend its resources elsewhere rather than re-sign Tanaka at his desired asking price. Come next offseason, however, the Yankees might well be willing to exceed the tax threshold (and pay only a first-timer penalty fee) in order to acquire Tanaka and other roster upgrades.
- Also from Robert Murray, Blue Jays outfielders Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk are drawing trade interest. The addition of George Springer has created a surplus in Toronto’s outfield, with Grichuk seemingly relegated to fourth outfielder duty as Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez are slated for the corners. It’s safe to guess that Gurriel is the more sought-after player, since Gurriel is over two years younger than Grichuk and has a less-expensive contract — Gurriel is owed $13.4MM through the 2023 season, while Grichuk is owed $29MM. One of the outfielders could be dangled a way of obtaining pitching, since the Jays continue to look for both rotation and bullpen help.
- The Rays were one of the other suitors trying to obtain Jameson Taillon from the Pirates, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Taillon ended up traded to the Yankees, and as Topkin points out, the Rays had interest in both Taillon and Corey Kluber, New York’s two main pitching acquisitions of the offseason.
Free Agency Notes: Braves, Turner, Folty, Jays, Red Sox
The Braves are one of the teams that have checked in on free-agent third baseman Justin Turner, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. It’s unclear whether the Braves are among the reported four finalists for Turner, whom the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Brewers have also courted. Turner, 36, spent 2014-20 as a Dodger and was one of the majors’ most valuable third basemen in that span. There’s a clear need at the position for the Braves, who received awful production there from Austin Riley, Adeiny Hechavarría and Johan Camargo in 2020. They’ve done nothing to upgrade the spot this winter.
- Free agent right-hander Mike Foltynewicz held a showcase for interested teams Friday, Heyman reports. Foltynewicz threw between 90 and 92 mph, which checks in well below the 95.5 mph average he posted in Atlanta from 2014-20. The Braves cut Foltynewicz from their 40-man roster last July after he put up terrible results in his lone outing and averaged less than 91 mph on his fastball. But he does own a 4.33 ERA/4.26 SIERA in 686 big league innings, so there’s reason to expect a bounce-back effort in the future. The Cubs were one of the teams at his showcase, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets.
- The Blue Jays are looking to continue their active offseason by adding another pitcher, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. That could take the form of a high-leverage reliever or an additional starter. Among the players under consideration, per Murray, is right-handed reliever Trevor Rosenthal. The hard-throwing Rosenthal had a fantastic rebound campaign in 2020, tossing 23.2 innings of 1.90 ERA/2.31 SIERA ball with the Royals and Padres.
- The Red Sox have interest in reuniting with corner infielder Travis Shaw and right-handed reliever Brandon Workman, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com and Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com report. Shaw was last with the Red Sox in 2016, after which they traded him to the Brewers. He was a member of the Blue Jays in 2020, and though Shaw was a solid hitter earlier in his career, he has been less productive of late. The 30-year-old slashed .239/.306/.411 in 180 plate appearances with the Blue Jays last season. As for Workman, he has spent most of his career with the Red Sox, but they dealt him to the Phillies prior to last year’s trade deadline. Workman was excellent at times in Boston bullpen in parts of 2013-19, but he could only muster a 5.95 ERA in 19 2/3 innings between the two clubs a year ago.
Red Sox, Matt Carasiti Agree To Minors Deal
The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Matt Carasiti, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training.
Carasiti, 29, last pitched in the Majors with the Mariners in 2019, when he tossed 9 2/3 innings and yielded five runs on 11 hits and five walks with 10 strikeouts. He’s also spent time in the big leagues with the Rockies, who drafted him in the sixth round back in 2012. The right-hander may have been in the mix for some innings with the Giants last year had he not required Tommy John surgery after a handful of Spring Training appearances.
Carasiti is a Connecticut native who brings to the Red Sox a career 3.15 ERA in 100 Triple-A innings, where he’s punched out 26.2 percent of the hitters he’s faced against a 9.9 percent walk rate. The righty also spent a year with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yakult Swallows in Japan, working to a 4.18 ERA in 94 2/3 frames. Given the timing of his Tommy John surgery, he probably won’t be ready to pitch come Spring Training, but he’ll give the Sox some Triple-A depth with a bit of big league experience once he’s ready to take the mound.
Red Sox Notes: Ottavino, Luxury Tax, Bradley Jr.
Red Sox’ Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom addressed a number of questions about the offseason moves they have (and haven’t) made so far this winter, per the reporters present, including Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, and the Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. The call was prompted by the club’s recent (and rare) transaction with their chief rival. Bloom noted that they looked “under the hood” at Adam Ottavino‘s 2020 numbers and believe the assumption of his poor performance in 2020 may be misguided. In particular, he notes one particularly poor outing against the Blue Jays in which he surrendered six earned runs without recording an out. Take out that September 7th appearance, and Ottavino’s ERA drops from 5.89 to 2.95. Of course, that outing did happen. Even so, there’s a positive read in Ottavino’s 2020 stat line: 3.52 FIP, 3.62 SIERA, 29.4 percent strikeout rate, and 10.6 percent walk rate suggest the right-hander was close to the same guy he ‘d been in 2019, when he formed an important part of the Yankees’ bullpen. Ottavino figures to play a heavy role in the back-end of Boston’s bullpen, though the dispersal of responsibilities between Ottavino and incumbent closer Matt Barnes is TBD. More from Bloom…
- The Yankees moved Ottavino to trim enough salary to duck the $210MM luxury tax line, but according to Bloom, it’s not a foregone conclusion that the Red Sox will do the same. With Ottavino in the fold, the Red Sox luxury tax payroll appears to be around $206MM, which certainly doesn’t leave very much room to spare. While the plan is to avoid the tax, that’s not a firm mandate, Bloom notes.
- Even taking Bloom at his word, it’s hard to imagine the Red Sox going over the luxury tax when so many teams these days work so diligently to avoid it – especially in a season where the Red Sox are largely projected to be an afterthought to the Rays, Yankees, and Blue Jays in the AL East. The Red Sox aren’t probably quite as quick to write off their 2021 season, of course. Still, it’s fair to wonder if they have the funds remaining to bring back Jackie Bradley Jr. The team remains in contact with Bradley, however, and plans to do so “until his free agency resolves.” Though your read may differ, Bloom’s passive word choice doesn’t project the picture of an aggressive forthcoming attempt to woo Bradley back to Fenway, despite his point here being that a reunion remains possible.
Yankees Trade Adam Ottavino To Red Sox
1:15pm: The teams have announced the trade.
11:45am: In an ultra-rare swap between AL East rivals, the Yankees have reportedly traded right-hander Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox in exchange for cash or a player to be named later. Boston will receive Ottavino and minor league right-hander Frank German from the Yankees in a move that amounts to a salary dump for the Yanks and the purchase of pitching prospect and a bullpen rebound candidate for the Red Sox.
After acquiring Jameson Taillon from the Pirates and agreeing to terms with DJ LeMahieu and Corey Kluber, the Yankees found themselves with roughly one million dollars separating them from the tax threshold, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. Ottavino came with a $9MM luxury hit by virtue of the three-year, $27MM free-agent deal he signed two years ago, and the Yankees will now shave the bulk of that sum from their luxury obligations. ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that they’re sending $850K to the Red Sox as part of the deal, so the Yankees are freeing up $8.15MM of luxury breathing room.
That space will prove vital, given ownership’s apparent mandate that the front office stay under the tax threshold. The Yankees have recently spoken to Brett Gardner‘s camp about a reunion, and the club could yet be in the hunt for affordable rotation depth even after adding Kluber and Taillon. Both are coming off injury-ruined 2020 seasons, after all, and the rest of the team’s rotation comes with similar workload concerns.
The trade between the two teams is the first in six and a half years, when they swapped Stephen Drew and Kelly Johnson in 2014. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand points out that this is only the second trade that Yankees GM Brian Cashman has ever made with his organization’s top rival.
While finances are the clear driving factor in this trade, it’s unlikely the Yankees would’ve made the move had Ottavino not struggled through a dismal showing in last year’s shortened season. The 35-year-old appeared in 24 games but totaled just 18 1/3 innings of work, yielding a dozen runs on 20 hits and nine walks with 25 punchouts in that time. Ottavino’s 5.89 ERA was his highest since debuting as a rookie with the Cardinals back in 2010, although fielding-independent metrics were more bullish on his work (3.52 FIP, 3.62 SIERA).
Control has never been a strong point for Ottavino, but he dropped his walk rate from 13.8 percent in 2017-19 to 10.6 percent last year. It’s easy to call his ERA a result of a sky-high .375 average on ball in play, but Ottavino’s struggles appeared to be more than a function of simple bad luck. In spite of his improved control, the right-hander’s strikeout rate dipped a bit (31.5 percent to 29.4 percent), and Ottavino yielded hard contact at a career-high rate (90.6 mph average exit velocity; 50 percent hard-hit rate). Ottavino was a high-quality reliever as recently as 2018-19 between the Rockies and Yankees, however, when he logged a combined 2.19 ERA and 33.8 percent strikeout rate through 144 innings of work.
Boston surely hopes that Ottavino will return to form, but the Sox are also using available payroll flexibility to add a pitcher who isn’t viewed as being too far from MLB-ready. The 23-year-old German was a fourth-round pick out of college and a late riser on draft boards in 2018, as Eric Longenhagen wrote last year at FanGraphs. German added muscle to a projectable frame between his junior and senior years of college and saw his velocity spike late in the 2018 NCAA season. He’s continued to add velocity in pro ball, per Longenhagen, though there are concerns about his secondary offerings. MLB.com previously ranked German 24th among Yankees prospects, so he’ll settle somewhere into the middle tiers of the Red Sox’ rankings now.
In many ways underscores, this unexpected trade speaks to how both clubs view Boston’s chances of competing in 2021. If the Red Sox genuinely expected to compete for a division title, would they help the Yankees by giving them further payroll space to operate underneath the tax threshold? And if the Yankees viewed the Red Sox as a threat, would they risk sending a talented reliever — albeit one in need of a rebound — to their nemesis? The optics of a revitalized Ottavino playing a key role in a Red Sox bullpen that marches to the postseason would be brutal for the Yankees.
That’s not to write off the Red Sox entirely, of course. There’s still a very talented core group of players in Boston, but the team’s chances of contending in 2021 are largely dependent on a number of unknown elements breaking their way. The Sox don’t yet know how Chris Sale will look in his return from Tommy John surgery, for instance, nor are they certain what they can expect from Eduardo Rodriguez after he missed the 2020 season due to Covid-19 and a subsequent myocarditis diagnosis. Key lineup pieces like J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi are in search of their own rebounds after downturns in 2020, and the Sox lack proven options at first base, in the back of the rotation and the back of the bullpen. Ottavino merely adds another question mark to that lengthy list.
Lindsey Adler of The Athletic first reported (via Twitter) that Ottavino had been traded to Boston. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman added details on the other elements of the swap.
Free Agency Notes: Mets, Richards, Red Sox, Profar, Bench Bat
The Mets made a play for Garrett Richards before the veteran righty signed with the Red Sox, notes MLB Insider Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The Mets have made their rotation a project this offseason. They are seemingly in a good place even without Richards, however. Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, and Marcus Stroman make for a very strong top three, and hopes remain high that David Peterson will maintain a spot behind them. Noah Syndergaard plans to join that group at some point, and even if Seth Lugo returns to the bullpen, the Mets have no shortage of depth options – foremost of which might be the recently-acquired Joey Lucchesi. Beyond the ex-Padre, Steven Matz, Robert Gsellman, Franklyn Kilome, Corey Oswalt, and Jerad Eickhoff surely have eyes for the rotation. In other news…
- The Red Sox themselves were runners-up in an attempt to sign Jurickson Profar, per the San Diego Union-Tribune. Boston, of course, ended up with Kiké Hernández on a similar, but shorter contract. It’s not clear if the Red Sox preferred Profar to Hernandez, though Hernández signing merely hours after Profar re-upped with San Diego is notable. Still, one does not necessarily follow the other. All we can say for certain is that Profar’s returning to San Diego thinned Boston’s market for versatile utility types. That the Red Sox engaged in parallel negotiations with similar players doesn’t actually speak to their priorities where those players are concerned.
- After all, they may very well have been interested in signing both players, as Boston remains on the hunt for a lefty bench bat. In a perfect world, the Red Sox would find someone who could complement Bobby Dalbec at first, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). Cotillo floats Marwin Gonzalez, Brad Miller, and Mitch Moreland as some players that might fit the bill. Boston’s bench leans heavily to the right at present, with Jonathan Arauz as one of very few organizational options as a lefty bat off the bench unless Jarren Duran makes the team out of spring training.
Free Agent Notes: Ozuna, Semien, Simmons, Miller, Moreland, Richards
The latest buzz from the free agent market…
- The Dodgers, Brewers, Yankees, and Red Sox are among the teams interested in Marcell Ozuna, according to Hector Gomez of Deportivo Z 101 (via Twitter). These four clubs are new additions to Ozuna’s market, while the Twins and Mets (also mentioned by Gomez) were linked to the slugger earlier this winter. Ozuna is looking for at least a four-year contract, Gomez writes. While financial demands weren’t mentioned, it can be assumed that Ozuna is looking for enough money to put the Dodgers and Yankees well over the $210MM luxury tax threshold, so it’s possible their interest is somewhat limited. Such a signing would also put Boston close to the threshold, and while the Brewers are nowhere near the tax line, it would represent a very bold move by a Milwaukee team that wasn’t expected to spend much this winter. It has been a relatively quiet offseason for Ozuna on the rumor mill, as his market may be dependent on whether or not the NL has a designated hitter spot available in 2021 and beyond.
- Didi Gregorius, Marcus Semien, and Andrelton Simmons “are viewed within the industry as similar enough that no team is compelled to set the market with a contract,” according to Matt Gelb and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, This has created a lot of uncertainty about when any of the shortstop trio might sign, what their next deals might be worth, or what teams will eventually make the leap. Gelb and Rosecrans discussed the three shortstops with nine evaluators, who broke down the pros and cons of each player and ranked them 1-2-3 on a ballot.
- In other news about the shortstops, the Red Sox are likely no longer a fit for Semien now that Enrique Hernandez is heading to Boston. The Sox were reported to have interest in Semien as a second baseman, but MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links) hears from a source who believes “Semien still wants to sign as a shortstop,” despite interest from teams at other infield positions. Boston is still looking to add a left-handed hitter to the bench mix, with Cotillo reporting that Brad Miller and Mitch Moreland are possibilities.
- The Blue Jays were known to have interest in Simmons back in November and in the leadup to the trade deadline, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that Simmons is still on Toronto’s radar.
- Garrett Richards is one player who seems to no longer to be under consideration for the Blue Jays, as Cotillo reports that the Jays aren’t one of the teams still looking to sign the free agent righty. “At least other teams” besides the Red Sox are still vying for Richards, Cotillo writes, though Boston seems to be relatively far along in discussions with Richards’ camp.
AL News & Rumors: G. Richards, BoSox, Twins, Cruz, Angels, Astros
The Red Sox and free-agent right-hander Garrett Richards “are in active discussions,” Jon Morosi of MLB.com writes. However, there has been more than one team talking with Richards as of Friday, Morosi adds. The starter-needy Red Sox were rumored to be pursuing Richards as of a week ago. Richards was once at the front end of the Angels’ rotation, but a series of injuries limited him from 2016-19. The 32-year-old stayed healthy and produced decent results with the Padres last season, though, throwing 51 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA/4.55 SIERA ball and averaging 95 mph on his fastball. [UPDATE: Talks between the Red Sox and Richards “are active and evolving,” according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.]
- The Twins have increased the value of their one-year offer to free-agent designated hitter Nelson Cruz, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets, though Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News reports that actually happened earlier in the offseason. Cruz was looking for a two-year contract at the beginning of the winter, but even for someone who’s as dominant as he is at the plate, that could be difficult to obtain for a 40-year-old. Of course, with no official announcement on whether the universal DH will remain in place in 2021, Cruz probably isn’t in a hurry to sign anywhere.
- The Angels are “very active” in their pursuit of starting pitching, general manager Perry Minasian told Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and other reporters Friday. While Minasian did sign veteran left-hander Jose Quintana to a one-year, $8MM contract this week, adding him to a group led by Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning and perhaps Shohei Ohtani, there still appears to be room for improvement. In light of Minasian’s comment, it’s worth noting that the Angels reportedly remain in the mix for two of the best starters on the market in Trevor Bauer and Jake Odorizzi.
- Speaking with reporters Friday, Astros GM James Click suggested the team doesn’t expect to be that aggressive for the rest of the offseason, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com tweets. The Astros agreed to re-sign outfielder Michael Brantley and reunited with catcher Jason Castro this week, but their roster took a hit with the loss of outfielder George Springer to the Blue Jays. Otherwise, the bullpen has come up as a potential area of the need for the team (it did address it by signing Ryne Stanek and Pedro Baez in free agency), but the Astros don’t necessarily feel a sense of urgency to address it further. It’s possible they will enter 2021 without someone who has extensive experience as a closer, per Click (via McTaggart).