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Latest On Yoenis Cespedes

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Free-agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes held a showcase in Florida that 11 teams attended on Tuesday, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The Yankees, White Sox, Brewers, Blue Jays, Tigers (one of Cespedes’ ex-teams), Padres, Rays, Reds, Marlins, Cubs and Braves were all on hand to watch Cespedes, per Davidoff.

As Davidoff notes, it’s interesting that the majority of clubs that scouted Cespedes are in the National League, which doesn’t appear likely to feature the designated hitter position in 2021. DH seems like the logical spot for Cespedes if he’s going to continue his career, as he hasn’t played the field since 2018, he’s aging (35), and he’s coming off four straight abbreviated seasons because of health issues. The two-time All-Star, most recently with the Mets, played in just 127 of a possible 546 regular-season contests from 2017-20.

Cespedes opted out of last season in August over COVID-19 concerns, but heel and ankle problems dogged him before then and helped make the four-year, $110MM guarantee he received from the Mets in November 2016 a disaster for the club. The two sides agreed to an amended contract in December 2019 that reduced Cespedes’ base salary from $29.5MM to $6MM, but New York didn’t get any bang for its buck out of that.

While Cespedes comes with question marks, he won’t land an expensive deal, which is one of the reasons so many clubs are considering him. When healthy, Cespedes has been a force at the plate, where he has batted .273/.327/.497 (124 wRC+) with 165 home runs in 3,490 trips. That track record could make him a worthwhile buy-low pickup for someone.

Lucas Giolito On Potential Extension

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After a difficult start to his career, White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito established himself as a bona fide top-of-the-rotation starter over the previous two seasons. The 26-year-old now looks like a long-term cornerstone for the franchise, though it doesn’t appear either side has aggressively pursued a contract extension.

“There haven’t really been discussions about an extension, which is fine,” Giolito, a CAA Sports client, told James Fegan of The Athletic. “I think the organization knows that I value myself. I know kind of what I’m worth.”

Fortunately for the White Sox, they’re in no imminent danger of losing Giolito, who has three years of arbitration control remaining. However, they have shown in recent years that they’re willing to lock up their core players for the long haul. To name a few prominent examples, the team has signed shortstop Tim Anderson, third baseman Yoan Moncada, and outfielders Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert to extensions dating back to 2017. Giolito certainly ranks up there with that group in terms of his importance to the club.

This year, Giolito will earn $4.15MM, which is a major bargain for what he has brought to the table dating back to 2019. While Giolito was one of the worst starters in baseball in 2018, during which he logged a 6.13 ERA/5.37 SIERA in 173 1/3 innings, the light bulb has since gone on for the former star prospect. Giolito notched a 3.43 ERA/3.55 SIERA with a 32.7 percent strikeout rate against an 8.6 percent walk rate across 249 innings over the prior two seasons, and he finished seventh in the American League Cy Young balloting a year ago.

COVID Notes: Abreu, Montas, Happ, Cordero

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The latest notes from MLB regarding COVID-19:

  • Reigning AL MVP José Abreu returned to team workouts yesterday (per Scott Merkin of MLB.com). The White Sox first baseman had been sidelined after testing positive for the coronavirus, which Abreu believes he contracted back in January. Abreu says he’ll need a few extra days to get his timing back after quarantining, so he probably won’t see any game action until the middle of next week.
  • Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas discussed his COVID diagnosis with reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com and Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News). Montas said he previously experienced headaches and body aches and continues to feel some tightness in his chest. Fortunately, he has progressed to running and throwing after being set back by those symptoms.
  • Twins left-hander J.A. Happ is feeling well after testing positive for the coronavirus during intake last weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters yesterday (via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). Happ still needs to clear testing protocols before returning to the field, and he’s expected to begin the screening process tomorrow, per Helfand.
  • New Red Sox outfielder Franchy Cordero tested positive for the virus and remains in the Dominican Republic, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Cordero was placed on the COVID-19 injured list last week, although it wasn’t known at the time whether that was due to a positive test or mere exposure. The hope is that Cordero will be able to join camp by the middle of next week, per Speier.

Michael Kopech To Begin Season In Bullpen

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  • White Sox manager Tony La Russa confirmed Friday that righty Michael Kopech will open the season in the team’s bullpen, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score relays. The highly touted Kopech made his major league debut in 2018, throwing 14 1/3 innings, but he had to undergo Tommy John surgery in September of that year, and he hasn’t appeared in the bigs since. Kopech missed 2019 while recovering the procedure and then sat out last season because of COVID-19 concerns. The 24-year-old continues to rank as one of baseball’s most promising prospects, though, with MLB.com placing him 39th overall.

White Sox Sign Mikie Mahtook To Minors Deal

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  • The White Sox have signed outfielder Mikie Mahtook to a minor league contract, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. Mahtook did not receive an invitation to major league spring training. The 31-year-old was most recently with the Phillies organization, but he did not appear in the majors last season. Mahtook saw big league action in each season from 2015-19, which he divided between the Rays and Tigers, and batted .235/.292/.405 with 33 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 965 plate appearances.

Kelvin Herrera Announces Retirement

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Two-time All-Star and 2015 World Series champion Kelvin Herrera announced today, via Twitter, that he is retiring after spending parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues.

Kelvin Herrera | Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

“I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my career, starting with the Kansas City Royals organization who believed in this kid from Tenares, Dominican Republic and gave him a chance to do something meaningful with his life,” Herrera wrote in his announcement. “From ownership, to the Front Office, the staff, my teammates and last but not least, the fans, I owe you guys everything.”

Herrera goes on to thank both the Nationals and White Sox organizations for welcoming him as well. For the time being, Herrera says he plans to focus on his family and the next chapter of his life.

It’ll no doubt surprise some readers to see that Herrera is still just 31 years old. He’s been around the Majors for a decade due to the Royals calling on him for his Major League debut at just 21 years of age.

Herrera pitched in just two games late in that 2011 season, but the right-hander was an immediate success in 2012 — his first full season at the MLB level. In 84 1/3 innings, he worked to a pristine 2.35 ERA with 19 holds, three saves and a heater that averaged a blistering 98.5 mph. In a normal year, that overwhelming success would’ve no doubt garnered Rookie of the Year consideration, but 2012 happened to also be the rookie season for Mike Trout, Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish, who commanded nearly every top-three vote on the ballot that year.

Even without any Rookie of the Year love, Herrera had established himself as a dominant late-inning arm in short order, and that’s the exact role he’d over the next half decade as a steady presence at the back of some elite Kansas City bullpens. From 2012-16, Herrera pitched 354 1/3 regular-season innings with the Royals and notched a collective 2.57 ERA with 106 holds and 17 saves.

The bullpen was in many ways the backbone of the Royals’ back-to-back World Series runs in 2014-15, and Herrera joined teammates Wade Davis, Greg Holland and (in 2015) Ryan Madson in forming a juggernaut late-inning group that gave opposing lineups absolute fits. Each of Herrera, Davis and Holland posted ERAs south of 1.50 and appeared in at least 65 games during the 2014 season. Herrera was as untouchable during the postseason as he was in the regular season, combining for 28 2/3 innings of 1.26 ERA ball in his playoff career.

With the Royals out of contention during Herrera’s final year of club control in 2018, they made the decision to trade him to the Nationals for a package of young players including Kelvin Gutierrez, Blake Perkins and Yohanse Morel. Herrera was injured for part of his time with the Nats, going down with a Lisfranc tear in his foot, but he gave them 18 1/3 innings of 4.34 ERA ball before reaching free agency and signing a two-year pact with the White Sox. Things didn’t pan out in Chicago, as Herrera was tagged for 39 runs in just 53 2/3 innings across his two seasons there.

Herrera’s peak was brief but absolutely dominant, and he’ll go down in Royals lore as an absolutely vital member of a bullpen that fueled a baseball renaissance in Kansas City and brought home the club’s first title in three decades. He’ll hang up the spikes with a career 3.21 ERA, 119 holds, 61 saves and 510 strikeouts in 513 2/3 innings of regular-season work — plus the aforementioned sterling postseason track record. Best wishes to Herrera and his family in whatever the future holds.

White Sox Hire Todd Steverson As Special Assistant

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  • The White Sox have hired Todd Steverson as a special assistant to executive vice president Ken Williams, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. Steverson spent 2014-19 as the team’s hitting coach – a role he held with the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate last season. He’ll focus on scouting in his new job with the White Sox, per Fegan.

Covid Notes: Jose Abreu, Andrew Miller

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Major League Baseball announced last Friday that just 13 of the 4,336 tests performed during the first wave of Spring Training intake testing revealed positive Covid-19 results: nine players and four staff members spread across 11 big league teams. The broad-reaching hope, of course, is that the league and players will be able to navigate a full slate of games as successfully or more successfully than they did during last year’s 60-game sprint. A few updates of note on players who are or were delayed in their arrival to camp…

  • Reigning American League MVP Jose Abreu will be away from the White Sox for the time being due to a positive Covid-19 test, the team announced Wednesday. GM Rick Hahn told Daryl Van-Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times and other reporters that Abreu is asymptomatic and “believes he contracted a mild case of the disease in January, which is reinforced by the presence of COVID antibodies in additional testing.” Abreu is expected to join the White Sox “in the not-too-distant future,” Hahn added. The 34-year-old Abreu posted a monstrous .317/.370/.611  slash with 19 home runs and 15 doubles while appearing in all 60 games during 2020’s shortened schedule.
  • Cardinals lefty Andrew Miller detailed his own recent bout with Covid-19 to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Miller wasn’t one of the 13 positive tests for the league, as he tested positive 10 days prior to the date on which Cardinals pitchers and catchers were set to report. His arrival was then further delayed by a few days, in accordance with league protocols. The 35-year-old quarantined in his house’s guest room, away from his wife and children, thankfully dealing with only mild symptoms (namely a loss of smell). Miller did acknowledge that he’s dealing with some fatigue now, though he believes it is “basically from being shut down” while isolating in that bedroom. “I thought I did a pretty good job of protecting myself,” said Miller. “The vaccine is right around the corner but I didn’t quite make it there.”

White Sox Notes: Vaughn, Fry, Crochet, Kopech, Roster

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White Sox general manager Rick Hahn met with reporters yesterday as pitchers and catchers reported to camp, touching on a number of topics pertaining to a bolstered 2021 roster. Perhaps most notably, Hahn indicated that top prospect Andrew Vaughn, the No. 3 overall pick from the 2019 draft, is “very much in the mix” to make the Opening Day roster (Twitter link via Daryl Van-Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Chicago was at times connected to potential DH candidates throughout the winter, but part of the reason the Sox opted not to bring in a dedicated DH was due to their belief that Vaughn could emerge as early as this season.

While the 22-year-old still has just 55 professional games under his belt thanks to the absence of minor league play in 2020, Vaughn fared well in that time, slashing a combined .278/.384/.449 with six homers, 17 doubles and nearly as many walks (30) as strikeouts (36). Vaughn’s numbers at Cal teetered on absurd, as he batted .374/.495/.668 with 50 long balls in 745 plate appearances. He’s universally ranked among the game’s Top 30 or so prospects, and once he makes the roster he could split time with Jose Abreu between first base and designated hitter.

More on the South Siders…

  • The White Sox will be without lefty Jace Fry for the first month of the season, Hahn also announced this week (Twitter link via James Fegan of The Athletic). The 27-year-old underwent a back operation over the offseason and isn’t expected to be an option until at least May 1. Fry has been a high-strikeout, high-walk part of the Chicago ’pen for the past few seasons, working to a combined 4.43 ERA and 3.92 SIERA with a 29.6 percent strikeout rate but a 13.7 percent walk rate. Between Aaron Bummer and 2020 first-round pick Garrett Crochet, the Sox should still have a pair of lefties to put in the bullpen.
  • Speaking of Crochet, while the organization views him as a starter in the long run, Hahn indicated that the lefty could be used in multiple roles, including a bullpen setting, for the coming season as the club monitors his workload (via MLB.com’s Scott Merkin, on Twitter). The same is true of top prospect Michael Kopech, who’ll be back in the mix for a spot on the pitching staff this spring. Kopech, also regarded as one of the game’s best pitching prospects, underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2018 season, missed all of 2019 and opted out of the 2020 campaign.
  • Though there are still more than a few unsigned players of note, Hahn suggested that the bulk of the White Sox’ offseason work is complete, Merkin tweets. While the Sox are still in touch with several free agents, Hahn said that the “expectation is that any additions would be more of the non-roster invite variety if at all.” The ChiSox added Liam Hendriks and Adam Eaton via free agency over the winter and also swapped out righty Dane Dunning for Lance Lynn in a trade with the Rangers. While they’ve been connected to other potential free agents along the way, though, it seems their roster is largely set.

White Sox Announce Series Of Minor League Deals

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The White Sox announced the additions of fourteen players on minor league contracts with MLB spring training invitations this week. Among the signees not previously-reported are infielder Matt Reynolds; right-handers Ryan Burr, Tayron Guerrero, Alex McRae, Connor Sadzeck and Mike Wright; and left-handers Jacob Lindgren and Kodi Medeiros.

Reynolds and McRae have the most recent MLB experience of this contingent, having played in the big leagues last season. Reynolds appeared in three games for the Royals. Also a former Met and National, the right-handed hitter has compiled a .212/.282/.323 slash line across 251 plate appearances in parts of four seasons. McRae tossed a pair of scoreless relief appearances for Chicago in 2020. The right-hander has a 7.50 ERA/5.64 SIERA in 36 MLB innings with the Pirates and White Sox over the last three years.

Burr, Guerrero and Sadzeck are all righty relievers who last pitched in the majors in 2019. Each brings a power arm and has flashed some bat-missing ability (Guerrero and Sadzeck especially), but all three have been plagued by control problems. Wright was a swing option early in his career with the Orioles and can serve as a potential rotation or long relief depth piece for the Sox. He spent last season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, where he started 29 games and posted a 4.68 ERA with below-average strikeout (17.9%) and walk (9.1%) rates. Nevertheless, Wright managed to pitch 157.2 innings last season, perhaps giving him a leg up from a durability perspective on pitchers who spent last year in the United States, where a shorter season led to drastically curtailed innings totals.

Lindgren and Medeiros were both well-regarded prospects at one point whose careers have since been sidetracked. Lindgren has been through a series of injuries and hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2015, although he’s still only entering his age-28 season. Medeiros, once a top fifteen overall draft pick by the Brewers, has never consistently performed in the minors and has yet to play in the big leagues.

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