- The Nationals are trying to move Derek Norris but finding it difficult to drum up interest in the catcher at his current $4.2MM salary, writes Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. Castillo reports that the Angels, White Sox and Brewers are all wary of paying that type of money to a catcher that slashed just .186/.255/.328 last season. As FanRag’s Jon Heyman suggested yesterday, the Nats could ultimately just release Norris, as they’d only be on the hook for one-sixth of his salary (about $688K) due to the fact that arbitration salaries aren’t fully guaranteed prior to Opening Day. As for Norris himself, he acknowledged to Castillo that his D.C. days might be numbered but said he’s simply preparing to play the 2017 season somewhere. “It doesn’t change much for me other than the fact that it may or may not be the teammates I’ll be playing with,” said Norris. “So on my end it’s control what I can control. Go out there and play my games and get ready for a season.”
White Sox Rumors
White Sox Notes: Robert, Abreu, Jones, Frazier
Cuban outfielder Luis Robert, a 19-year-old prospect who’s hoping to be cleared to sign during the current July 2 period, has a variety of possible suitors, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. But the White Sox may be the team most likely to land Robert, per the report, given their current approach to the international market. Badler goes on to profile the talented youngster in detail in the post, which also includes some video.
Here’s more on the South Siders:
- Hopefully, Robert’s process of moving to the majors won’t be nearly as wild as the experiences of many other Cubans, including White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, who testified yesterday in the human trafficking trial of former agent Bart Hernandez and trainer Julio Estrada. As the Associated Press reports (via ESPN.com), Abreu said that he literally ate the fake passport he used to board a plane to the United States while on board. The slugger is set to take the stand for further testimony today.
- Right-hander Nate Jones gave the White Sox a bit of a scare when he had to exit yesterday’s game after being hit on the leg by a one-hop comebacker, but the Chicago setup man has been diagnosed with a bruised knee, per Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune. That’s certainly good news for the club, as Jones could end up representing quite an interesting trade chip at the deadline this summer (if not before). The high-powered reliever, who’s controlled through 2021, could also step into the closer’s role if David Robertson is dealt.
- The White Sox still don’t have a timetable for third baseman Todd Frazier’s return from an oblique strain, as MLB.com’s Barry Bloom reports. That’s due in part to the fact that it’s spring, with Frazier noting there’s “plenty of time” left for him to make it into competitive action. For now, the veteran is working out but making “slow progress.” The situation seemingly makes it less likely that the White Sox will strike a late deal involving the veteran, though rushing him back would run the risk of spurring a much bigger problem.
Make Or Break Year: Avisail Garcia
MLBTR is rebooting its “make or break year” series, in which we analyze players who enter the season with up-and-down track records but also an opportunity to stake a claim to significant future earnings.
As you may have heard, the White Sox are entering a rebuilding phase. For 25-year-old Avisail Garcia, that may be a good thing. Otherwise, he might already have been pushed out of his current spot atop the South Siders’ depth chart in right field.
Before this winter, the Chicago front office’s last significant selling move came at the 2013 trade deadline, when the team landed Garcia and three other prospects in the swap that sent Jake Peavy to the Red Sox and Jose Iglesias to the Tigers. The hope at the time was that Garcia would step right into the MLB lineup and make himself a fixture.
Despite his evident tools, Garcia has thus far fallen well shy of hopes. There has been no shortage of opportunity — he has taken over 1,500 trips to the plate in the majors — but the results just haven’t been there.
In the aggregate, Garcia has slashed a modest .258/.310/.385 while striking out at a 23.8% clip and walking just 6.2% of the time. Though he carries a solid 14.4% HR/FB rate, Garcia has put the ball on the ground quite a bit, carrying a 53.2% goundball rate. Despite the power potential, and a healthy .320 career BABIP, Garcia just hasn’t reached base enough or hit for enough power to rate as even an average corner outfielder.
Adding to the concern is the fact that Garcia has never shown polish in the other aspects of his game. Over his career, he has rated as a well-below-average baserunner and fielder. In the aggregate, Garcia has posted -1.4 fWAR and 0.1 rWAR for his career — anemic tallies considering the amount of time he has received.
If there’s a ray of hope, perhaps it can be found in the improvements Garcia did make in 2016. He drew positive metrics for both his glovework and baserunning for the first time; if that can be maintained, it would significantly boost his floor. Of course, the offensive work — .245/.307/.385 — hardly gave added cause for optimism. But Garcia has long been valued most for the upside in his bat, and he has yet even to reach his 26th birthday.
As noted, that background likely wouldn’t be sufficient for Garcia to enter the season with a regular job were it not for the fact that the White Sox already committed to a rebuild. With little in the way of roster pressure, he ought to receive a fair bit of rope to establish himself.
But there could well come a point where the White Sox decide to cut bait, particularly if they feel other, yet younger players are more deserving of an opportunity. Garcia’s contractual upside is limited, after all, and not just because he’s owed $3MM this year. Much like former top prospect Jurickson Profar, another younger player who isn’t fully established in the bigs, Garcia will enter the 2017 season with just two more years of club control remaining thereafter.
It’s not altogether clear whether Garcia has much of a future with the White Sox, whether or not he can pull himself out of his malaise. Perhaps the best-case scenario for Chicago is one in which Garcia plays well enough to turn himself into a solid trade candidate, freeing the organization to move him either this summer or next winter. For Garcia, though, there’s still plenty of opportunity both to build off of a nice platform arb salary and to develop a case for a free-agent payday after the 2019 campaign, which he’ll play at just 28 years of age.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hahn: No Timing Pressure To Move Quintana
In an interview with MLB.com’s Scott Merkin, White Sox GM Rick Hahn again stated that there’s “no economic pressure” and “no timing pressure” to trade left-hander Jose Quintana. “It’s more about making sure if we were to make a major move, that we are getting an appropriate return,” Hahn continued. While the Sox have had numerous trade discussions centering on Quintana this winter, Hahn noted that there’s yet to be an offer presented to the team that made the front office think, “Boy we better move now or we are going to be kicking ourselves.” The South Side GM also once again touched on a few significant trades that fell through at the eleventh hour, noting that the “frustration lingers a little longer than the satisfaction of getting a deal done.”
Latest On Jose Quintana's Market
Although left-hander Jose Quintana was the subject of trade rumors throughout the offseason, he remains with the White Sox as the 2017 campaign approaches. However, the 28-year-old is still in high demand around the majors, according to CBS Chicago’s Bruce Levine, who writes that the Astros, Yankees, Cardinals and Pirates are “dug into” the Quintana sweepstakes. With the exception of the Cardinals, Quintana has drawn frequent connections to each of those reported suitors in recent months. The Redbirds suffered a blow earlier this month when they lost standout prospect and rotation candidate Alex Reyes for the season because of a torn UCL, but they’re reportedly unlikely to make a significant splash in response. If true, that would rule out the acquisition of Quintana.
White Sox, Nationals Could Revive Robertson Talks
- At last check, talks between the Nationals and White Sox regarding David Robertson were in “stalemate,” but Cafardo writes that there’s a chance they could be revived. He echoes earlier reports that the White Sox would have interest in Pedro Severino, the youngest member of the Nats’ current catcher logjam.
Quick Hits: International, Org Rankings, GMs On Strategy, Buehrle, Bard, Ankiel
International prospects are among the most mysterious — but potentially impactful — elements of the baseball transactional world. If you’re interested in learning more about this year’s class, and have a Baseball America subscription (as we’d heartily recommend), then be sure to check out Ben Badler’s round-up of the latest array of young talent. Per Badler, the Rays and Twins are expected to land two of the top players in this year’s class: switch-hitting shortstops Wander Franco and Jelfrey Marte. The new CBA rules will be in effect as of the new July 2 signing period, and you can find details of those here.
Here are a few more stray notes from around the game:
- The BA staff has also released its spring organizational prospect rankings, with the Braves, Yankees, and Astros receiving the three highest grades. The Dodgers and White Sox round out the top five, while the Diamondbacks, Angels, and Marlins received the lowest overall ratings for pre-MLB talent.
- Over at Fangraphs, David Laurila spoke with several general managers about strategic decisionmaking. You’ll want to read the piece in its entirety, of course, but it’s interesting to note the subtle variations in thinking. Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti emphasizes that every market imposes different limitations on a team’s front office. Jerry Dipoto of the Mariners says that his front office has worked to acquire and develop certain types of players. Several execs noted the difficulty of committing to a rebuild, while also emphasizing the need to avoid being stuck in a middle-ground. For White Sox GM Rick Hahn, who has launched a rebuilding effort, “staying the course is essential once you pick a direction.”
- Speaking of the White Sox, former lefty Mark Buehrle discussed the team’s just-announced decision to retire his number. As Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports, the veteran hurler says he’s “blown away and floored” at the honor — though he’s also apprehensive of the public-speaking duties that will come with it. Buehrle says he more or less decided he’d retire not long after signing his last contract, a free-agent deal that took him away from the Chicago organization for the first time as a professional. “The reason I didn’t say anything, I didn’t want all the attention,” he said of his quiet exit from the sport, which had left many wondering whether he’d pitch again. “I’ve always told people I was a young guy that came into the big leagues unknown. Kind of snuck into the big leagues and I wanted to kind of sneak my way out.”
- Whereas Buehrle entered the game quietly and steadily flourished, righty Daniel Bard flashed great promise before washing out of the majors with sudden control problems and injuries. Now, he’s back in camp with the Cardinals, and as GammonsDaily.com reports (with a video), Bard hasn’t lost any of his arm strength even as he works on a new delivery.
- Bard’s career path mirrored somewhat that of former Cardinals hurler Rick Ankiel — who later reinvented himself as an outfielder. As Derrick Good of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, Ankiel has decided to tell his story of dealing with the sudden inability to command the baseball. That’ll be available in full on April 18th, when Ankiel and Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown will release a book titled “The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch That Changed My Life.” For now, you can check out that article and a recent podcast with Goold’s interview of the former phenom.
Todd Frazier Resting Minor Oblique Injury
- White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier, meanwhile, is dealing with what he describes as a minor oblique issue, as Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago reports. Frazier, who is considered day-to-day for the time being, says he’ll likely just sit for a few days while the tightness hopefully subsides. “It’s something I’ve dealt with before,” says Frazier, who remains a potential trade chip in his final year of team control. “But at the same time, from what I’ve heard they’re not anything to mess with. So let’s take a couple days and see how it is after a couple days and go from there.”
White Sox To Retire Mark Buehrle’s Number
The White Sox are set to retire Mark Buehrle’s #56 jersey this summer, the team announced. As Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago notes on Twitter, that would appear to suggest the the lefty himself is also hanging up his spikes for good — though there’s been no official word to that effect as of yet.
Last we heard, around this time last spring, Buehrle was still pondering his future. But he decided against pitching in 2016, and we’ve heard no indication since that he was planning a return. Today’s news seemingly confirms that the famously fast-working and incredibly durable southpaw is finished after 16 highly productive seasons in the majors.
Though he ended his career elsewhere, Buehrle spent his first dozen seasons in Chicago. He was a model of consistency there, providing 2,476 2/3 innings of 3.83 ERA ball while averaging 5.1 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. Despite being taken only in the 38th round of the 1998 draft, Buehrle cracked the majors in 2000, his age-21 season, after just a season and a half in the minors.
Arguably his best season came in 2005 — the club’s World Championship campaign — when he came in fifth in the American League Cy Young voting upon compiling a 3.12 ERA over 236 2/3 frames. That represented the second-straight season in which he led the league in innings and the fourth in a row in which he retired the side at least 230 times. Buehrle had many fine moments in Chicago, among them a no-hitter in 2007 and one of just 23 perfect games ever pitched (on July 23, 2009, against the Rays).
Buehrle departed the White Sox after the 2011 season, joining the Marlins along with a crop of other free agents. After one solid year in Miami, he was dealt to the Blue Jays as part of the blockbuster trade that also shipped veterans Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes (among others) to Toronto. Buehrle was productive til the end, providing the Jays with 604 1/3 innings of 3.78 ERA ball in his final three campaigns.
Even in his age-36 season, which appears now to be his last, Buehrle managed 198 2/3 innings and led qualifying AL pitchers with a 1.5 BB/9 walk rate. That broke a string of 14 consecutive seasons in which the exceedingly durable hurler racked up at least 200 frames.
In the end, Buehrle racked up 51.9 fWAR and 59.2 rWAR over his career. By Fangraphs’ measure, only four other pitchers — Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Randy Johnson, and Roy Oswalt — were as productive over Buehrle’s active seasons, over which he paced all of baseball in total innings. In that span, he received five All-Star nods and picked up four Gold Gloves, while never failing to make at least thirty starts in each of his full MLB seasons.
Assuming this is in fact the end, MLBTR congratulates Buehrle on his excellent career and extends its best wishes to him in his future endeavors.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
White Sox, Nationals Were Close To David Robertson Trade, Now In “Stalemate”
FEB. 21: Chicago would trade Robertson and possibly eat some of his salary if the Nationals were to give up catcher Pedro Severino, according to Phil Rogers of MLB.com (Twitter links). Both MLB.com and Baseball America rank the 23-year-old Severino as one of the Nats’ top 10 prospects. As written below, Washington isn’t eager to deal more young talent; unsurprisingly, then, it would rather move Derek Norris than Severino, per Rogers.
FEB. 12: The White Sox and Nationals seemed to be closing in on a trade that would’ve sent David Robertson to Washington last week, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale and Jose L. Ortiz report. According to a Nats official, however, “the two sides have hit a stalemate and no trade is imminent.” The Sox, for their part, continue to feel “optimistic” that a trade will be finalized.
It isn’t known what caused this holdup in talks, though earlier this week, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that Nationals ownership didn’t want to absorb the $25MM owed to Robertson over the next two seasons, nor did the front office want to give up quality minor leaguers. The Nats already surrendered several top prospects to the White Sox earlier this offseason as part of the trade that brought Adam Eaton to Washington; the Nats tried to include Robertson along with Eaton as part of that trade package but were unsuccessful.
On the surface, one could argue that the White Sox could be asking for too much in demanding that the Nationals (or other suitors for Robertson) pay a big price in both prospects and in taking on the closer’s entire contract. That said, Chicago has already scored a massive influx of young talent in the Eaton trade and in dealing Chris Sale to the Red Sox — Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Michael Kopech are all ranked within the top 32 on Baseball America’s 2017 listing of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Between these deals and the asking price for Jose Quintana, White Sox GM Rick Hahn has clearly put a premium on his top trade chips as part of his effort to bring a “critical mass” of talent into Chicago’s organization.
Unless Robertson gets injured or has a dip in form, the Sox can also bide their time and wait until the trade deadline to find a suitable return for the closer. Given the Nationals’ uncertainty at the back of their bullpen, Washington may not have that luxury. As Nightengale and Ortiz point out, however, the Nats could make do with Blake Treinen or Shawn Kelley as closer for now and then pursue another ninth-inning option later in the season, as they did in acquiring Mark Melancon from the Pirates at last summer’s deadline.
