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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.

Athletics Re-Sign Yusmeiro Petit

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Feb. 19: The A’s have officially announced the signing. Oakland opened a 40-man roster spot by placing right-hander Frankie Montas on the Covid-19 related injury list. A’s manager Bob Melvin revealed this week that Montas had tested positive for Covid-19 (link via Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News). He’s been dealing with symptoms and will be delayed in his arrival to Spring Training.

Feb. 14: The Athletics have re-signed right-hander Yusmeiro Petit to a one-year contract, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  The deal will be official once Petit passes a physical.  MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports that Petit will earn $2.55MM in guaranteed money, with another $450K available in incentive bonuses.  Petit is represented by Godoy Sports.

Petit returns for his fourth season with Oakland, a tenure that has been nothing but successful for both parties.  Petit has a 2.73 ERA over 197 2/3 innings in an A’s uniform, and has been a workhorse out of the bullpen — 154 appearances in 2018-19 and then 26 appearances during the shortened 2020 season.

Petit is far from a Statcast darling and doesn’t record many strikeouts, as evidenced by his below-average K% over the last three years.  However, Petit’s 4.14% walk rate over that same stretch is elite, and he doesn’t allow much hard contact.  All in all, Petit has continually outperformed his peripherals; his 3.89 SIERA from 2018-20 is over a run higher than his actual ERA over his past three seasons.

Not that many free agent relievers drew a ton of attention this winter, but there wasn’t much in the way of public buzz about Petit, perhaps due to his advanced metrics and his age (36).  The righty previously inked a two-year, $10MM deal with Oakland in November 2017 that ended up being a three-year, $14.5MM pact after the Athletics exercised their club option on Petit for the 2020 season.

Between Petit and new acquisitions Sergio Romo and Adam Kolarek, Oakland has suddenly added a lot of bullpen reinforcement over the last three days.  Relief pitching was a major strength for the A’s in 2020 but it was a position that needed to be addressed since Liam Hendriks and Joakim Soria departed in free agency.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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A’s Start Jesus Luzardo Facing Elimination

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The Oakland A’s will send Jesus Luzardo to the hill tonight to try and save their season. Down 2-0 to the Astros, the A’s now need three consecutive wins to advance to the ALCS.

Luzardo gave up 3 earned runs across 3 1/3 innings in game one of the wild card round against the White Sox. The A’s lost that game. Per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, manager Bob Melvin isn’t worried about how that tough outing might affect Luzardo. In fact, he’s encouraged by it, saying “I really believe when he has a tough outing, it doesn’t affect his confidence – it’s more of a learning experience for him. We think he’s going to have a good outing for us.”

Not to mention, those White Sox ended the year undefeated against left-handed starters. The Astros haven’t fared quite as well, slashing .232/.299/.403 against lefties as a team. That’s an on-base percentage 19 points worse than against right-handers, notes Slusser.

If Luzardo does get into trouble early, Melvin will likely turn to Yusmeiro Petit or J.B. Wendelken to “clean up any early mess,” per Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle. The only real certainty is that closer Liam Hendriks is going to see action. He could come in earlier than usual, but after not appearing in the first two games, the A’s won’t wait overlong to get perhaps their best reliever into the game.

Hendriks is one of a number of A’s players who will be free agents at the end of the season. Mid-season additions Mike Minor and Tommy La Stella are both heading to free agency, as are Petit, wormkiller T.J. McFarland, outfielder Robbie Grossman, Mike Fiers, Joakim Soria, and star shortstop Marcus Semien. Of that group, Hendriks and Semien are going to be the most difficult for Oakland to bring back simply from a financial demand perspective. With just about one-third of their overall roster heading to free agency, today might be this group’s last opportunity to pull out a big win.

If they do pull of the W tonight, manager Bob Melvin implied that Frankie Montas would get the start in game four, per MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos (via Twitter). On choosing between Luzardo and Montas, Melvin said, “We’re hoping they both pitch. One one day, one the other.” That said, today is a must-win, and they do have Fiers on the roster who could start game four if need be.

Athletics Scratch Frankie Montas

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AUG. 15: Manager Bob Melvin said Montas will throw Saturday and could start Sunday, Shayna Rubin of the Mercury News tweets.

AUG. 14: The Athletics have scratched righty Frankie Montas from his scheduled start this evening. Southpaw Jesus Luzardo will take the ball instead.

Montas is said to be dealing with upper back tightness. It’s not evident at this point how serious the injury is.

It’s disappointing to see Montas hit the shelf given his recent successes on the mound. Over twenty starts dating back to the start of the 2019 season, he owns a sparkling 2.42 over 119 frames.

10 Players Switch Agencies

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Agent Rafa Nieves’ newly-founded Republik Sports agency will represent several players formerly represented by Nieves at Wasserman.  A video published earlier today on Republik’s official Twitter feed reveals the names of 11 players who will continue to be represented by Nieves at this new firm.

We already heard last night that Nationals outfielder Victor Robles (a Nieves client at Wasserman) was joining Republik, and the other ten names cited in the video include a mix of prominent veteran and up-and-coming stars.  The list consists of Indians infielder Jose Ramirez, Reds right-hander Luis Castillo, Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco, Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas, Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, Rockies righty Antonio Senzatela, Padres outfielder Franchy Cordero, Marlins catcher Francisco Cervelli, and White Sox relievers Alex Colome and Kelvin Herrera.

As we’ve seen in several past cases of representatives changing agencies or starting new agencies, it’s quite common for players to continue using the same agent even after that rep becomes part of another company.  We saw this in 2017 with Nieves himself, as several of the aforementioned players (namely Ramirez, Robles, Herrera, Colome, Cervelli, Polanco, and Montas) all went with Nieves when the agent moved from the Beverly Hills Sports Council to Wasserman.

The 10 changes have all been updated in our Agency Database.  If you see any notable errors or omissions within the database, please let us know via e-mail: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Athletics Reinstate Frankie Montas, Designate Beau Taylor For Assignment

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The Athletics announced Wednesday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Frankie Montas from the restricted list now that his 80-game PED suspension has been completed. Oakland had a full 40-man roster, so catcher Beau Taylor was designated for assignment in order to open a spot for Montas’ return. Montas won’t be postseason-eligible because of that suspension, but he’ll take the ball and start tonight’s game against the Angels.

Montas, 26, hasn’t pitched since June 20 after testing positive for the banned substance Ostarine. As with virtually all players who fail a drug test, Montas claimed to have been unaware he’d taken a banned substance, blaming the positive test on a “contaminated supplement” which he “purchased over-the-counter at a nutrition store here in the United States.” Regardless of intent (or lack thereof), he served out the full 80-game ban that first-time offenders face.

It’s not clear what type of workload Montas will be able to handle, although general manager David Forst indicated earlier this month that the A’s have kept Montas stretched out with a series of simulated games. Whatever volume of innings Montas can handle, they’ll all be pivotal at this point; the A’s are in the thick of a three-team AL Wild Card race with the Indians and Rays.

If the A’s get anything close to the form Montas displayed from March until late June, then they’ll be in excellent shape for tonight’s contest. Through 90 innings earlier this season, Montas pitched to a pristine 2.70 ERA with a similarly strong 2.91 FIP and a 3.42 xFIP. He averaged 9.7 strikeouts, 2.1 walks and 0.7 homers per nine innings pitched while keeping the ball on the ground at a healthy 50.8 percent clip.

Of course, skeptics will attribute that apparent breakout to Montas’ failed drug test, and there’ll be nowhere near enough time in 2019 for him to prove that he’s capable of sustaining that level of pace post-suspension. He’ll surely have a place earmarked in Oakland’s 2020 rotation, at which point he’ll strive to continue upon this year’s breakout and distance himself from that suspension as best he can. He’ll presumably be joined by Sean Manaea and Mike Fiers in that regard. Righties Chris Bassitt, Daniel Mengden and Jharel Cotton will compete with top left-handed pitching prospects Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk for the final spots in Oakland’s rotation.

Montas, who’ll turn 27 next March, lost more than half a season’s worth of service time but will still ever-so-narrowly eek out enough service to reach two full years of big league service in 2019. As such, he’s still controlled through the 2023 season and remains on track to be arbitration-eligible following the 2020 campaign.

As for the 29-year-old Taylor, this won’t be the first time he’s been cut loose by the A’s. Oakland outrighted him off the 40-man roster following the 2018 season but re-signed him to a minor league deal, and the Athletics also designated Taylor for assignment earlier this year. He landed with the Blue Jays via a waiver claim but was eventually DFA’ed by Toronto and returned to Oakland on a second waiver claim.

Taylor is 5-for-30 with a pair of homers in a tiny sample of 36 MLB plate appearances. He’s spent parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level and batted a combined .256/.373/.385 there. He’s been about a percentage point below average in terms of caught-stealing rate for his pro career and has drawn average or better pitch-framing grades in the past few seasons.

Frankie Montas To Rejoin A’s Next Week

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Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas will return from suspension during the club’s series against the Angels, which begins Tuesday, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reports. Montas will be eligible to pitch Wednesday, but it’s not yet clear whether the 26-year-old will start or relieve during his late-season comeback.

With a 2.70 ERA/2.90 FIP and 9.7 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 in 90 innings, Montas has unquestionably been the A’s most effective starter this year. However, a shocking 80-game performance-enhancing drug ban on June 21 cut off his breakout campaign and will stop him from participating in the playoffs. The A’s aren’t locks to reach the postseason, but at 92-61 and two games up on the AL’s No. 1 wild-card spot, they look to be on their way. Whether from their rotation or their bullpen, Montas could further bolster the A’s chances of a second straight playoff trip over the last week of the season.

Thanks in part to Montas’ absence, this is the second consecutive season the A’s rotation’s trying to battle through adversity and reach the top of the mountain in baseball. Multiple injuries have also added to the difficulty for Oakland, but its starting staff has found some late-season stability. Trade deadline pickups Homer Bailey and Tanner Roark have provided solid results since coming over in July; Sean Manaea has been nearly unhittable since he made a long-awaited return from injury Sept. 1; and Mike Fiers and Brett Anderson have defied unspectacular peripherals en route to ERAs in the low-4.00s this year.

Quick Hits: Montas, Laureano, JDM, Yankees, Mendez

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Once the ace of the Athletics’ rotation, Frankie Montas has been something of a forgotten man since being issued an 80-game PED suspension on June 21.  Montas will be eligible for the last five games of Oakland’s regular season, however, could still help the A’s get into the playoffs.  GM David Forst told Chris Townsend of the A’s Cast podcast (partial transcript from Ben Ross of NBC Sports Bay Area) that the team is prepared to use Montas as either a starter or reliever, and has kept him stretched out in simulated games in case a start is required in one of those five games.  Montas could also get a minor league game under his belt if Oakland’s Double-A or Triple-A affiliates advance in the postseason, as Montas is eligible to begin a rehab assignment beginning on September 10.

Montas was in the midst of a breakout campaign at the time of his suspension, with a 2.70 ERA, 9.7 K/9, and 4.62 K/BB rate over 90 innings.  Though he won’t be eligible for the postseason if the Athletics are able to claim a wild card, Montas could certainly still be a valuable x-factor during what could be a very tense final week of action as the A’s, Indians, and Rays battle for the two wild card slots.

Some stray items from around baseball…

  • After returning from the injured list just yesterday, Ramon Laureano left the Athletics’ 10-2 win over the Tigers tonight due to what the A’s described as a right leg cramp.  After a leadoff double in the sixth inning, Laureano made it into second base despite “limping right out of the box,” as MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos described the situation.  Manager Bob Melvin told Gallegos and other reporters that he hoped Laureano would be back on Monday, as the outfielder was already scheduled for a planned day off on Sunday.  Laureano missed over five weeks due to a stress reaction in his right shin, and another absence would be the last thing he and the A’s need as the club chases down a wild card berth.
  • Amidst the speculation about whether or not J.D. Martinez will exercise the opt-out clause in his Red Sox contract after the season, Ken Rosenthal (in his latest video report for FOX Sports) points out that Martinez doesn’t necessarily have to decide right now if he wants to leave Boston.  The slugger also has opt-out clauses after both the 2020 season and (assuming he can avoid another Lisfranc-related right foot injury) 2021 season, so he could perhaps wait one more year to see if his market evolves.  Despite Martinez’s hitting prowess, there aren’t too many obvious suitors for a mostly DH-only player….unless the National League were to become involved, as Rosenthal wonders if Martinez would stay in his contract to see if the NL adopted the designated hitter in the next collective bargaining agreement.
  • Also from Rosenthal’s video, he makes a case for why Didi Gregorius could be “the odd man out” for the Yankees even if he performed well for the remainder of the season.  New York might simply prefer to use Gleyber Torres at shortstop in 2020 rather than re-sign Gregorius, who is almost seven years older than Torres.  Recovery from Tommy John surgery kept Gregorius from playing until June 7, and he is one of the few Yankees not tearing the cover off the ball, with a .252/.282/.462 slash line and 14 homers over 280 plate appearances (for a below-average 90 wRC+).  If the Yankees did decide to move on from Gregorius, however, Rosenthal figures the team would still need to extend another veteran infielder, as DJ LeMahieu (who’d play every day at second base if Gregorius departed) is only under contract through the 2020 season.
  • The Rangers and Yohander Mendez will learn in the offseason whether the left-hander’s one remaining minor league option will still be retained for 2020.  Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram details the situation, as the league already granted Mendez a fourth option for this season, though the lefty only made his 2019 debut today after missing the first five-plus months rehabbing a sprained UCL.  This means Mendez hasn’t accumulated the 20 days of optional minor league assignment necessary to burn an option year.  If Mendez is ruled to be out of options, the Rangers would then have to designate him for assignment (and thus expose him to a waiver claim) if they wished to remove him from the 40-man roster.

Frankie Montas Gets 80-Game PED Suspension

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In stunning news, Major League Baseball has issued an 80-game suspension to Athletics ace Frankie Montas for performance-enhancing drug use, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Montas tested positive for banned substance Ostarine, according to Sam Dykstra of MLB.com.

“The A’s were disappointed upon learning of this suspension,” the team said in a statement. “We fully support MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and we will welcome Frankie back after the discipline has been served.”

Montas issued a statement of his own (via MLBPA Communications), saying, in part, “While I never intended to take any prohibited substance, I unfortunately and unknowingly ingested a contaminated supplement that I had purchased over-the-counter at a nutrition store here in the United States.”

The 26-year-old added that he accepts responsibility for the ban and hopes to contribute to the A’s later in the season.

Montas, who’s earning $560K this year, won’t be paid during his suspension. More importantly for Oakland, though, he won’t be eligible for the postseason if the team clinches a berth. At 40-36, the A’s are just one game out of the AL’s second wild-card spot.

The A’s are in contention this season thanks in no small part to Montas, who performed like an ace in 2019 prior to this shocking development. In what will go down as his last start for at least a few months, the hard-throwing right-hander tossed eight innings of one-run, nine-strikeout ball in a win over the Rays on Thursday. It was the fourth straight quality start for Montas, owner of a sterling 2.70 ERA/2.86 FIP with 9.7 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and a 50.8 percent groundball rate in 90 innings this season.

Should they stay in contention leading up to the July 31 trade deadline, the Athletics will have a chance to acquire starting help. However, it’s hard to believe anyone they’d acquire would make an impact similar to that of Montas, who’s near the top of the majors in most starting stats this year. The club does have important injury reinforcements working back – including Sean Manaea and Jesus Luzardo – who figure to make life easier for the Athletics once they return. However, any way you look at it, the loss of Montas is a devastating shot to the A’s rotation. It could have a significant effect on the AL playoff race as a result.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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