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Free Agency Notes: Braves, Turner, Folty, Jays, Red Sox

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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.

Cubs Seek Starting Pitching After Approval For Slight Payroll Increase

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The Cubs’ reported agreement with Joc Pederson this morning registered as something of a surprise, as much of the focus for the team this winter has been on paring back payroll and restocking the farm system. However, David Kaplan of NBC Sports Chicago reports (via Twitter) that owner Tom Ricketts recently gave president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his staff the approval to increase 2021’s payroll. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets that the Cubs are in pursuit of some veteran arms, again listing Carlos Rodon and Jeff Samardzija as two possibilities. Both will throw for the Cubs this weekend.

To be clear, there’s no indication that Ricketts has green-lighted a return to the Cubs’ $200MM+ payrolls. Asked by one follower about a potential move for Trevor Bauer, Kaplan characterized the chances as effectively nonexistent. But the Cubs’ 2021 commitments sit around the $150MM mark even after the Pederson agreement, and the news of even a modest payroll increase creates the possibility of at least adding some low-cost veterans.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers tweets that the Cubs could pick up one or two low-cost arms in the near future, adding that there’s interest in a reunion with Jake Arrieta. The former NL Cy Young winner was slated to throw for interested teams today. Even if a deal with Arrieta can’t be worked out for one reason or another, the market offers comparable buy-low opportunities that could provide the Cubs with some needed depth. Speculatively speaking, any of Rodon, Samardzija, Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz or Trevor Williams could fit that bill. Old friends Cole Hamels and Rich Hill remain unsigned as well.

Having traded Yu Darvish to the Padres, Chicago’s current rotation is likely to be fronted by Kyle Hendricks, Zach Davies and Alec Mills. Prospects Adbert Alzolay, Brailyn Marquez and Tyson Miller could all vie for starts as well, and the Cubs did ink former Twins prospect Kohl Stewart to a big league deal just yesterday (albeit with a near-minimum $700K guarantee). Former Cardinals/Braves star Shelby Miller will be in camp as a non-roster player this spring, too.

Clearly, beyond the top starters, that group lacks experience and/or recent success. Add in the limited workloads that all pitchers had in last year’s shortened slate of games, and the Cubs’ need to bring in some arms becomes all the more clear. Hendricks was one of MLB’s leaders with 81 1/3 innings pitched. Davies (69 1/3 innings) and Mills (62 1/3) also had relatively strong workloads, but no one else on the current Cubs roster reached even 30 MLB innings. Alzolay, Marquez, Miller and others were getting work in simulated games at the team’s alternate training site, but there has to be some concern about too radically increasing the workloads of the organization’s top prospects.

Daniel Murphy Retires

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Three-time All-Star and 2015 National League Championship Series MVP Daniel Murphy is retiring from baseball after a 12-year Major League career, he tells SNY’s Andy Martino.

Daniel Murphy | Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

“This is a beautiful game, and I really just feel humbled and blessed that it let me jump on the ride for a little bit,” Murphy tells Martino. “It’s beautiful. It can teach you about so many things. And all I can say is, thank you.” Mets fans, in particular, will want to read Martino’s interview for dozens of quotes, stories and reflections on his time in New York, as well as additional thoughts from teammate and captain David Wright.

A 13th-round pick by the Mets back in 2006, Murphy made his MLB debut just two years later at the age of 23. He solidified a spot on the Mets’ roster with a strong showing in both 2008 and 2009, but a knee sprain late in Spring Training 2010 and a subsequent torn MCL suffered on a Triple-A rehab stint later that year wiped out his entire 2010 campaign.

Murphy returned to the field in 2011 and had his best year yet, hitting .320/.362/.448 in 423 trips to the plate. His offense over the next few years took a step back, but he settled in as an above-average contributor capable of seeing time at multiple positions. Late in the 2015 season, however, as the Mets were driving toward the postseason, Murphy took his game to new heights. He slugged 10 home runs after the All-Star break while hitting .285/.318/.500 through 280 trips to the plate, but he saved the best for a legendary postseason run that brought the Mets to the brink of a championship.

Thirty years old at the time, Murphy was a man on fire that October. He appeared in all 14 of the Mets’ games and posted a combined .328/.391/.724 batting line, belting seven home runs and a pair of doubles while scoring 13 runs and knocking in 11. Incredibly, Murphy homered in six consecutive playoff games during that Herculean performance — including a go-ahead, sixth inning shot of Zack Greinke in the decisive Game 5 of the NLDS and one in all four games of the Mets’ NLCS sweep of the Cubs. Wright tells Martino that Murphy’s 2015 postseason was “one of the most impressive things I ever witnessed on a baseball field.”

Murphy parlayed that brilliant postseason effort into a three-year deal with the Nationals, and while the club didn’t win its World Series until after he’d departed, that was through no fault of Murphy’s. He had his best season in 2016, his first year with the Nats, hitting .347/.390/.595 en route to a second-place finish in National League MVP voting. He hit .329/.380/.550 in his two and a half seasons with the Nats before being traded to the Cubs (and continuing to rake) — more than justifying the $37.5MM price of his contract.

From there, Murphy would sign a two-year deal to serve as the Rockies’ primary first baseman, but injuries took their toll during his time in Colorado. Murphy suffered a significant fracture in his finger after just two games, and though he was expected to miss at least a month at the time, he returned to the lineup just shy of four weeks later. Murphy swung a hot bat early on, but it seemed clear that the hand was bothering him; his hard-hit rate and exit velocities dropped precipitously that year, and his power wasn’t close to its peak levels despite playing his home games at Coors Field. Murphy posted a .279/.328/.452 line on the whole that year, and he followed it up with a .236/.275/.333 showing in 40 games in 2020’s shortened schedule.

All told, Murphy is a three-time All-Star, NLCS MVP and two-time Silver Slugger with a second-place MVP finish on his resume. He played in a dozen MLB seasons, hitting a combined .296/.341/.455 with 1,572 hits, 178 home runs, 371 doubles, 29 triples, 68 stolen bases, 710 runs scored and 735 runs driven in. Murphy tacked on eight more home runs and an OPS just shy of 1.000 in 25 postseason games split between the Mets, the Nats and the Cubs.

FA Notes: Mets, Bauer, JBJ, Arrieta, Cubs, Shark

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While free-agent right-hander Trevor Bauer and center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. have frequently been connected to the Mets in recent weeks, no agreement appears imminent in either case. The club is “far apart” from deals with both of those players, Andy Martino of SNY says (video link). The race for Bauer could come down to the Mets and Dodgers, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who adds that the Padres showed interest before acquiring Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove in separate trades. The Padres presented a three- to four-year offer to Bauer, but that “didn’t fly,” according to Heyman.

As for Bradley, the Mets are more focused on a short-term deal, whereas the 30-year-old may want a longer pact, Martino suggests. The longtime member of the Red Sox is clearly the top center fielder left on a market that lost George Springer to the Blue Jays last week, so he may be in better position to secure a large guarantee.

  • Staying with the Mets, they will be in attendance for free-agent righty Jake Arrieta’s showcase on Friday, per Martino and Colin Martin of SNY. The former Cy Young winner disappointed with the division-rival Phillies from 2018-20, but Arrieta at least looks like a capable back-end starter at this point of his career. The Mets may have opened up a spot in their starting staff Wednesday when they traded lefty Steven Matz to the Blue Jays.
  • Free-agent righty Jeff Samardzija will work out for the Cubs “at some point in the next few days,” Bruce Levine of 670 The Score writes. This could lay the groundwork for a reunion between Samardzija and the Cubs, with whom he pitched from 2008-14 before a trade to the Athletics. The 36-year-old was a solid starter for the Cubs and has typically done a good job in that role with multiple teams, though he’s a free agent at an inopportune time after managing a miserable 9.72 ERA/7.35 SIERA over 16 2/3 innings and four starts last season.

Cubs, Kohl Stewart Agree To Major League Deal

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The Cubs have agreed to a major league contract for 2021 with free-agent right-hander Kohl Stewart, Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago was among those to report. The deal is worth $700K, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic tweets. Stewart is a Frontline client.

Now 26 years old, Stewart entered the pros as the No. 4 overall pick of the Twins in 2013. Although he did eventually reach the majors with the team, he could only put up a 4.79 ERA/5.21 SIERA with a subpar 12.7 strikeout rate against a 9.7 walk percentage in 62 innings from 2018-19. Stewart owns a similar 4.87 ERA over 136 2/3 innings in Triple-A ball.

Stewart signed with the Orioles before last season, but the type 1 diabetic ultimately opted out of the campaign because of concerns related to COVID-19. He’ll now try to get back on the mound in Chicago, which has questions in its rotation and its bullpen.

Central News & Rumors: E. Rosario, A. Rosario, Rodon, Lester, Kuhl

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The Brewers have shown interest in free-agent outfielder Eddie Rosario, according to Robert Murray of Fansided. Rosario, on the open market since the Twins non-tendered him in December, stands out as one of the most accomplished free-agent hitters remaining. The 29-year-old is a three-time 20-home run hitter who belted another 13 during a shortened 2020 season, though it’s unclear where he would fit in Milwaukee. The Brewers already appear to have their starting outfield figured out with Christian Yelich and Avisail Garcia flanking Lorenzo Cain, but if the universal designated hitter sticks around in 2021, Rosario could play a big role there.

  • Indians shortstop Amed Rosario is garnering trade interest, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. Cleveland acquired Rosario from the Mets as part of the teams’ Francisco Lindor trade earlier this month, but as Puma notes, the Indians also picked up fellow shortstop Andres Gimenez in that deal. As such, New York may be open to moving Rosario, once a star prospect whose major league career hasn’t gone according to plan so far. The 25-year-old has batted .268/.302/.403 with 32 home runs and 50 stolen bases in 1,564 plate appearances since he debuted in 2017.
  • The Cubs will be in attendance for free-agent left-hander Carlos Rodon’s workout this week, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score writes. Rodon has spent his entire career thus far in Chicago, where he has pitched to a 4.14 ERA/4.32 SIERA with a 22.6 percent strikeout rate and a 9.6 percent walk rate in 536 2/3 innings as a member of the White Sox. Rodon looked like a solid mid-rotation type earlier in his career, but the 28-year-old has declined since 2018 because of shoulder troubles and Tommy John surgery. He became a free agent when the White Sox non-tendered him in December.
  • If signed, Rodon could help the Cubs replace veteran southpaw Jon Lester in their rotation. Lester officially joined the Nationals on Wednesday, when he revealed to Bob Nightengale of USA Today and other reporters that the Cubs did make a late push to re-sign him. The details on the Cubs’ offer aren’t known, but the Nationals brought him in on a one-year, $5MM guarantee. Lester signed a six-year, $155MM deal with the Cubs before 2015, and he and the team enjoyed great success during that contract.
  • It’s a matter of when, not if, the Pirates will trade righty Chad Kuhl, per Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic. Kuhl had a middling 2020 campaign after missing all of the prior season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, as he logged a 4.27 ERA/5.29 SIERA and recorded a 22.3 percent strikeout rate against an unappealing 14.2 percent walk rate in 46 1/3 innings. He has two years of control left and will earn $2.13MM in 2021.

Infield Notes: Phillies, Simmons, Wong, Tigers, Paredes

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The Phillies narrowed their focus on Andrelton Simmons before he signed with the Twins this afternoon, writes Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Didi Gregorius remains in play to return, but he may not be so keen on another one-year deal. Regardless, the Phillies prefer not to move Jean Segura back to short, notes Lauber. Even with Gregorius more-or-less the only remaining starting shortstop on the market, Segura’s presence, as well as Scott Kingery, means they don’t have to panic on an overpay. Should they ultimately strike out on Gregorius, Jonathan Villar and Hanser Alberto lurk as free agents, or the Phils could turn to the trade market to make a play for either Trevor Story of the Rockies or Javier Baez of the Cubs. Neither club has seemed particularly likely to move their star shortstop, but Phillies’ president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski might be the guy to convince them. Let’s check in on some other infield news…

  • With middle infielders flying off the shelves, Kolten Wong is seeing an uptick in interest, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). The ace defensive second baseman has seen at least preliminary interest from the Tigers, Mariners, Rays, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals, with whom he’s spent his entire career. Wong’s power disappeared in 2020, slashing .265/.350/.326, but he won a second consecutive Gold Glove Award and continued to be an on-base presence for the Cardinals. Wong has quietly posted 3.3 bWAR per 600 plate appearances throughout his career, and as he enters his age-30 season, he could prove one of the more impactful free agents remaining on the market.
  • The Tigers plan on experimenting with Isaac Paredes at second base, writes Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Paredes is penciled in as the Tigers’ everyday third baseman, but manager A.J. Hinch said basically that there is no harm in expanding the 21-year-old’s skill set. He’s been on fire playing winter ball, and with Jeimer Candelario having a big season in 2020 (and Spencer Torkelson on his way to claim one of the infield corners,) it’s certainly worth testing the limits of Paredes’ defensive abilities.

 

Cubs Sign Austin Romine

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TODAY: The Cubs have officially announced the signing.

JANUARY 22, 10:31am: Romine’s deal comes with a $1.5MM guarantee, tweets Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago.

10:00am: The Cubs have agreed to a one-year contract with free-agent catcher Austin Romine, reports MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link). The deal is still pending a physical.

Romine, 32, gives the Cubs an experienced backup option to Willson Contreras, replacing Victor Caratini, who was traded to the Padres as part of the Yu Darvish deal. Romine spent the 2020 season in Detroit — his first professional season anywhere outside the Yankees organization — but managed just a .238/.259/.323 batting line in 135 trips to the dish.

The longtime Yankees backup has never provided much in the way of offense, evidenced by a lifetime .239/.278/.361 slash through 1251 plate appearances. He did turn in a more impressive .281/.310/.439 output during his final year with the Yankees, but that production looks more like an outlier than the start of a new norm for Romine.

Defensively, Romine has generally been regarded as an above-average pitch framer, though his numbers have dipped over the past couple seasons. His career 23 percent caught-stealing rate is south of the roughly 27 percent league average, although Romine reached as high as 30 percent in that regard as recently as 2019. Baseball Prospectus typically rates him as average or better at blocking balls in the dirt.

Romine is standard-fare backup catcher who’ll give the Cubs an experienced option that allows promising youngster Miguel Amaya to open the season in the minor leagues. Should the team still move Contreras, which they’re reportedly open to doing, they’ll need to bring in another catcher, however — one with more upside and the potential to serve as a regular option.

With Romine in the fold, the Cubs’ payroll climbs, modestly, to about $145MM. They’re nowhere near the $200MM+ marks they carried over the past couple seasons (prior to prorating, of course, in 2020), but ownership’s mandate to scale back payroll has been readily apparent for quite some time now.

Matt Dermody To Join Seibu Lions

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Southpaw Matt Dermody will join Japan’s Seibu Lions for the 2021 season, MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports on Twitter. It’s a single-season pact, the financial particulars of which remain unknown.

Dermody had been slated to return to the Cubs after briefly appearing with the organization last season. The Chicago organization granted him his release to pursue what is in all likelihood a better earning opportunity in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

It’s a good outcome for Dermody, a thirty-year-old hurler who has accrued only minimal MLB experience to this point (26 1/3 innings over three seasons). He was relegated to indy ball action in 2020 until the Cubs came calling with an offer.

Though he has some experience starting games in the low minors, Dermody has mostly functioned as a reliever as a professional. Over 87 1/3 total Triple-A innings, he carries a 4.12 ERA with 74 strikeouts and 23 walks.

Pitching Rumors: Hand, Jeffress, Anibal, Teheran

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The Dodgers have been linked to free-agent lefty Brad Hand over the past week or so, but they’re more on the “periphery” of his market, writes Fansided’s Robert Murray. The Mets are still in talks with Hand and his representatives, while both the Astros and Blue Jays are also involved to varying extents. Reports that Hand was closing in on a deal with the Mets last week proved a bit premature, although it seems they’re still squarely in the mix for the former All-Star closer. As for the Dodgers, even if they’re not major players in the Hand market at the moment, Murray suggests they’d still like to add another reliever to the bullpen.

A few more notes on the free agent pitching market as it starts to percolate…

  • MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that Jeremy Jeffress is on the radar of several clubs, including the Red Sox, Cubs, Astros, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Nationals and Blue Jays. It’s a wide field, though the level of interest of each team surely varies. The 33-year-old Jeffress was dominant back in 2018 but hasn’t replicated that form since. He did post an aesthetically pleasing 1.54 ERA and 54.4 percent grounder rate in 23 1/3 innings with the Cubs last year, but the rest of his numbers were something of a mess. Jeffress’ 13.6 percent walk rate was his worst since establishing himself as a consistent presence in MLB bullpens, while his 19.3 percent strikeout rate was 10 percent lower than his 29.8 percent clip from that brilliant 2018 campaign. Last year also saw Jeffress post career-worsts in average fastball velocity (93.3 mph), average exit velocity (89.9 mph) and hard-hit rate (45.6 percent). If Jeffress can rediscover his ’18 form, he’d be a premium late-inning option, but last year’s ERA was propped up by a .161 average on balls in play that is miles south of his career .308 mark.
  • Anibal Sanchez and Julio Teheran will be throwing in front of scouts during a showcase today, and several teams will have personnel on hand.  The list of confirmed attendees includes the Rays (as per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times), Twins (SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson), Marlins (MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola), and Mets (the New York Post’s Mike Puma).
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