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NL Central Links: Lohse, Arrieta, Sveum

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The NL Central has morphed into one of the game's toughest divisions, with three teams ticketed for October baseball in the form of the Cardinals, Reds and Pirates. Here are some notes on the division's non-playoff teams…

  • Kyle Lohse picked up a $350K bonus tonight for reaching the 190-inning mark, tweets Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Lohse signed a three-year, $33MM contract in Spring Training and has delivered nearly 200 innings of a mid-3.00 ERA for the Brewers.
  • Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago writes that the Cubs' 2014 rotation is beginning to take shape, and Jake Arrieta has cemented a spot for himself among the team's core of starting pitchers with his solid performance after coming over from the Orioles in the Scott Feldman trade. Manager Dale Sveum told Rogers the only uncertainty in the rotation, in his mind, circles around the No. 5 spot. Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood and Edwin Jackson will join Arrieta in the rotation next season.
  • Speaking of Sveum, David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune opines that the right thing for Cubs president Theo Epstein to do is bring his manager back for the 2014 season (subscription required). Firing Sveum with one year left on his contract would send the wrong message, writes Haugh. He's been given little Major League talent to work with and has done nothing to embarrass the organization.

Central Notes: Chen, Konerko, Brewers, Axford

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For the first time since 1992, the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to the postseason.  The Buccos and Reds each clinched playoff spots tonight, though it remains to be seen if those two clubs will face each other in the Wild Card game, or if one of them can catch the Cardinals for the NL Central lead.  Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis all won on Monday, so the Cards retained their two-game lead.

Here's the latest from both the NL and AL Central divisions…

  • Bruce Chen loves pitching for the Royals and wants to re-sign the team this winter, the veteran southpaw tells Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.  Chen said that he hasn't yet sat down with agent Scott Boras to determine his market and that the Royals "haven’t talked to me" about a new contract, but Chen said he hopes to pitch for at least another four or five seasons.  The 36-year-old has a 3.13 ERA, 5.7 K/9 and 2.30 K/BB ratio in 109 1/3 IP this season, making 13 starts and 19 appearances out of the bullpen.  Dutton shared some more Royals items earlier today.
  • Paul Konerko won't decide on his playing future until after the season, a source tells ESPN Chicago's Bruce Levine.  Konerko has been toying with the idea of retirement all season, though he has reportedly told friends he intends to play in 2014.
  • Norichika Aoki earned a $250K bonus upon making his 140th start of the season tonight, MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reports.  This ups Aoki's salary to $1.5MM for the season, and he can earn $0.5875MM for playing in one more game this year.  The Brewers have already gotten a huge bargain from Aoki's original two-year, $2.5MM contract and they hold a $1.5MM team option on the outfielder for 2014.
  • In other Brewers contract news from McCalvy, right-hander Kyle Lohse will earn a $350K bonus on Wednesday when he retires his first batter and reaches the 190-inning mark for the season.
  • John Axford is "open to discussing something with the Cardinals" about a new contract this offseason but for now is just looking forward to the postseason, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.  Axford has posted a 1.93 ERA in 9 1/3 IP since joining the Cards three weeks ago but he could be a non-tender candidate due to his high arbitration number.  Axford is arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter and will earn a raise on his $5MM salary, plus he has two more arb years remaining after that as a Super Two player.

Quick Hits: Beckham, Lind, Tejada, Sveum, Ravin

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Tim Beckham, the first overall pick in the 2008 Draft, entered the Rays' game as a pinch-hitter against the Rangers Thursday night and singled in his first big-league at-bat. It marked a milestone for the infielder, who crawled through the minor leagues, never hitting all that impressively at any level, before posting a line of .276/.342/.387 in 2013 for Triple-A Durham. All of the 20 players drafted immediately after Beckham made it to the big leagues before he did. (Many, of course, were drafted out of college; Beckham came out of high school.) Remarkably, as Baseball America's John Manuel notes (via Twitter), Beckham is the first player drafted by the Rays since 2007 to make it to the big leagues with them. That's surprising, given how vital young players are to a low-payroll team like the Rays and how successful they've been in recent years. Here are more notes from around the Majors.

  • Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos has implied to first baseman Adam Lind that there's a good chance the team will pick up Lind's 2014 option, but nothing is certain yet, SportsNet.ca's Shi Davidi reports. "You know Alex pretty well, it’s pretty much the explanation I anticipated," says Lind, who will get either $7MM to play for the Jays or a $2MM buyout. The Jays also have options on Lind's services for 2015 and 2016. Lind has hit .282/.352/.486 so far this season. The team isn't required to make a decision about his option until shortly after the World Series ends.
  • Mets manager Terry Collins wants Ruben Tejada to take command of the shortstop position next season, Anthony DiComo and Chris Iseman of MLB.com write. "My message is real simple: this job is his," says Collins. "But he's got to show everybody that he wants it desperately." That doesn't rule out the possibility that the Mets could pursue a shortstop from outside the organization. The offseason free-agent market isn't a strong one, but a trade might be a possibility. Tejada has hit .202/.259/.260 in 227 plate appearances this season.
  • The Cubs aren't ready to say whether Dale Sveum will remain their manager in 2014, but the notion that the Cubs would fire Sveum is "laughable," says Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times. Morrissey raises the possibility that the Cubs hesitation on Sveum may have something to do with big-name managers like Joe Girardi and Ron Gardenhire being free agents this offseason. He argues that Sveum shouldn't be blamed for the struggles of Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro this season, suggesting that the pair might simply not be as good as the Cubs and their fans hoped.
  • The Brewers claimed pitcher Josh Ravin off waivers from the Reds today, and MLB.com's Adam McCalvy compares Ravin to Joe Nathan, noting that Ravin can throw in triple digits (Twitter link). Ravin wouldn't be the first player to find success as a reliever in the Majors after an unimpressive minor-league career, but Joe Nathan is a lofty name to drop when discussing a 25-year-old who posted a 5.82 ERA with 6.7 BB/9 in the minors this year.
  • Dodgers lefty Onelki Garcia is now represented by BHS Sports Council, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter). Garcia posted a 2.90 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9 in the upper levels of the minors in 2013, and he made his big-league debut last week.

Brewers Designate Blake Lalli For Assignment

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The Brewers have designated Blake Lalli for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Josh Ravin, whom they claimed off waivers from the Reds earlier today, according to MLB Daily Dish's Chris Cotillo (Twitter link).

Lalli, 30, went 3-for-24 with three singles for Milwaukee this season and is 5-for-39 in his brief Major League career. The catcher/first baseman has a much stronger track record at Triple-A, where he has a solid slash line of .268/.312/.420 with 19 homers in 651 plate appearances. Lalli attended Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C. and signed with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent in 2006.

As always, you can track the status of Lalli and every other recently designated player using MLBTR's DFA Tracker.

Brewers Claim Josh Ravin

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The Brewers have claimed Josh Ravin off waivers from the Reds, according to Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (via Twitter).  The right-hander took to Twitter himself to confirm the transaction. 

Ravin was designated for assignment by Cincinnati earlier this week.  The 25-year-old posted a 5.82 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 6.7 BB/9 in 51 innings of relief between Double-A and Triple-A this season.  He boasts a career 8.1 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 across parts of eight minor league seasons.

To keep up with the status of all players in DFA limbo, be sure to check out the MLBTR DFA Tracker.

Hart Would Give Brewers Discount To Stay In Milwaukee

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Corey Hart hasn't played a game for the Brewers this season but he hopes to make it up to them in 2014.  The outfielder/first baseman says that his preference is to stay in Milwaukee when his contract expires after the season, and he is willing to take a pay cut to make that happen, writes Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"I told them I would be very generous to stay here. I wouldn’t sit there and ask for anything outlandish. I’d definitely take a discount to stay here because I think I owe it to them to stay here and be a cheaper player," Hart said. "Nobody wants to play for free but I basically sat there and watched all season. I owe it to them and the fans to come back at a cheaper price."

Hart has been sidelined for all of 2013 while undergoing surgery on both knees and even when taking the loyalty out of the equation, it didn't seem likely that he'd find a deal to match his $10MM salary from this season.  While Hart has told the club "numerous times" that he wants to stay put, he has yet to have discussions about a new deal.  

For his career, the 31-year-old owns a .276/.334/.491 slash line across nine seasons with two All-Star selections in 2008 and 2010.

Central Notes: Brewers, Carpenter, Baker, Twins

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The Brewers front office held individual meetings with the coaching staff, as part of the team's annual season-ending evaluations, while in St. Louis for a series against the Cardinals this past week. "It's more on what's going on and what we can do better, and do we need to change anything in Spring Training, do we need to do anything in the season differently?" manager Ron Roenicke told reporters, including MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. "Kind of, 'What went wrong?' We know the injuries, we know what. But what else can we do to help?" This week, the front office and the coaching staff will meet as a group to discuss plans for 2014. Elsewhere from MLB's Central divisions:

  • Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel breaks down the Brewers' roster position-by-position.
  • Chris Carpenter is concentrating on mentoring the Cardinals' young starters and not on whether he will be able to resume his career in 2014, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'll start working out before Spring Training, get off the mound like I always do and see what happens — and it's not time to say whether or not I want to do that. That's not on my mind right now." Carpenter said. "I'm going to enjoy this time with the guys, my family, and at the end of it we'll sit down and process where we're at, where we want to go forward as a family."
  • Scott Baker will make one more start for the Cubs on Friday before being shut down for the remainder of the season, reports MLB.com's Carrie Muskat. Baker, who underwent Tommy John surgery 17 months ago, has allowed just one run and five hits with a 5.0 K/BB ratio in his two starts (11 innings) since being activated from the disabled list. 
  • Baker's performance has impressed manager Dale Sveum, who would like to see Cubs re-sign the right-hander, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Baker, finishing off a one-year, $5.5MM contract, is also interested in a return engagement. "It's definitely an interesting place for me to be next year," said Baker. "I love the city and I love the organization as a whole. But obviously, we'll just have to see because there's a lot of moving parts. They've got a master plan and we'll just see if I'm part of it."
  • Twins manager Ron Gardenhire may or may not be back in 2014, but he does know the team needs to acquire better starting pitching, writes MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger. "I don't think we have enough ready arms to step into this rotation," Gardenhire said. "We have lots of candidates. But are these guys ready to turn you around? I don't think so."
  • Within the same piece, Gardenhire also expressed his disappointment in some players' work ethic, as the franchise plots its course for 2014. "A lot of these guys have to understand this means a lot right now to how this roster is going to shape up next year," said Gardenhire. "Hopefully, they'll figure it out. We've been beating it into their heads that there's still something to play for." 

Brewers Claim Jose De La Torre

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The Brewers have claimed right-hander Jose De La Torre off waivers from the Red Sox and optioned him to their Rookie-level affiliate in Helena, which is currently in the Pioneer League playoffs, according to Brewers senior director of media relations Mike Vassallo (on Twitter). De La Torre was designated for assignment by Boston on Tuesday to clear roster space for Clay Buchholz, who was returning from an extended stay on the 60-day disabled list.

De La Torre will turn 28 in October after enjoying a solid season for Triple-A Pawtucket in 2013. The Puerto Rican hurler fired 52 1/3 innings of 2.75 ERA ball with 10.1 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9, though he didn't fare as well at the big league level. Making his Major League debut this season, De La Torre allowed eight runs pn 10 hits and 10 walks in 11 1/3 innings (6.35 ERA). He did manage to strike out 15 batters in that brief time and generate a 13.5 percent swinging-strike rate despite a fastball that averaged just 91.5 mph.

De La Torre can serve as bullpen depth on a Brewers' 40-man roster that has traded away Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford this season and will see lefty Mike Gonzalez depart via free agency at season's end.

Central Notes: Duncan, Brewers, Garcia, McCutchen

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Former Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan isn't sure whether he wants to return to baseball, but he's listening, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. "I’ve had several clubs call me and talk to me not so much about coaching, but joining them in some other capacity," says Duncan. "I really don’t think I would coach again — not right now, anyway. But if someone is interested, I’d listen to whatever they’re thinking about." Duncan left the game in January 2012 as his wife Jeanine was suffering from cancer. Duncan still has an excellent reputation as a pitching coach, but he does not want to return to coaching, calling it "a grind." Here are more notes from the Central divisions.

  • It's unclear whether the Brewers will go with Scooter Gennett or Rickie Weeks at second base next season, Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel writes. Haurdicourt wonders if Weeks' $11MM 2014 salary might be a factor. (Weeks also has a vesting option for 2015.) Weeks has struggled all season, hitting .209/.306/.357 with poor defense, while Gennett has hit brilliantly in his rookie year.
  • Leury Garcia, who the White Sox acquired from the Rangers last month in the Alex Rios deal, is impressing his new teammates, Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com writes. His defense at second base has played well so far, and although he hasn't yet provided much offense (he's hitting .214/.303/.214 in a small sample of 33 plate appearances so far), manager Robin Ventura says he thinks that will improve.
  • Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who experienced four losing seasons in Pittsburgh before the Bucs finally broke through this year, advises Cubs players to worry about their own play and let management take care of the rest, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports. The Cubs are 22 games below .500, but McCutchen suggests players remember that, one day, things might be different. "When you lose for so long, you hope those things that happen in the minors, that those guys get the work they need to get done so when they get the chance to come here and play, they're ready to go," says McCutchen. "It's not fun when you are losing, but it's a process that down the road that things are going to get better.''

Extension Candidate: Jean Segura

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Early in the season, the Brewers reportedly offered shortstop Jean Segura an extension. As FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported, though, Segura's agent, Joe Klein, had limited interest in an extension for his client, in part because Segura had so little big-league experience that it was hard to tell what he was worth. "[W]ith a guy this young, it’s hard to figure out what the right numbers would be," said Klein. "It would be good, be nice if it was possible to do. But I don’t know. It’s way, way on the drawing board.” USATSI_7315030

Segura is making close to the league minimum this season, and one would think he would be highly motivated to sign an extension. "God give me the opportunity to be professional baseball player and you know, this tough decision to make, but I just wanted to be successful to help my family be good. You know?" Segura told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May. "And I think this is the only way that I can help them, quickly, you know?"

Still, an extension negotiation so early in the season would have put Klein in a tricky spot. Segura only had about 300 big-league plate appearances to that point, and an extension, even though it would have provided Segura and his family with financial security, would have had every chance of quickly turning into a bargain for the Brewers. In recent years, there have been only three long-term extensions for players with less than a year of service time: Evan Longoria's 2008 deal with the Rays, Matt Moore's deal with the Rays three years later, and Salvador Perez's five-year pact with the Royals. Longoria's contract was unquestionably a great deal for his team, and Moore's and Perez's look like they will be as well.

Now that the season is almost over, there's no indication that Segura and the Brewers have talked again, but Klein's worries about the lack of information about his client should be less of an issue. Klein also now has more leverage, since Segura is closer to arbitration eligibility. Segura now has more than twice as many big-league plate appearances as he did when the two sides reportedly talked early in the season. While Segura cooled down after a very hot start, his abilities to hit for average, steal bases and play shortstop make him an asset worthy of a long-term deal. At age 23, he has been one of the better shortstops in baseball this season.

Jose Altuve's recent four-year, $12.5MM contract with the Astros provides an obvious precedent for an extension for a middle infielder with between one and two years of service time, but Segura is a far better player. According to MLBTR's Extension Tracker, other recent examples of extensions for players with one to two years of service time include Paul Goldschmidt (five years, $32MM), Madison Bumgarner (five years, $35MM) and Carlos Santana (five years, $21MM). All four deals include at least one team option.

Segura is unlikely to produce the sort of power numbers that would have made Goldschmidt lots of money in arbirtation, but a deal weighted toward the low end of these three extensions might work. Currently, Segura is eligible for arbitration after the 2015 season and for free agency after 2018. A five-year deal, therefore, would buy out all of his remaining pre-free-agency service time. The Brewers would certainly want to include a team option or two in exchange for assuming greater risk. A five-year deal, plus an option, for around $20MM-23MM guaranteed might make sense.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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