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Astros Sign Jared Hughes

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FEBRUARY 18: Hughes would earn $1.5MM in the majors and has a March 18th opt-out opportunity, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.

FEBRUARY 17: The Astros have signed right-handed reliever Jared Hughes to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, per Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’s repped by ISE Baseball.

Hughes, 34, pitched to a 4.04 ERA with 6.8 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 1.64 HR/9 and a hefty 59.2 percent ground-ball rate in 71 1/3 innings between the Reds and Phillies in 2019. That ERA was his highest since way back in 2013, as Hughes has quietly racked up sharp bottom-line results for the Pirates, Brewers and Reds for much of the past decade.

From 2014-18, Hughes worked to a combined 2.41 ERA between those three NL Central foes. He totaled 329 innings in that time, but his lack of missed bats (5.8 K/9, 15.9 percent strikeout rate) seemingly limited his appeal. The Pirates released Hughes at the end of Spring Training in 2017, and after quickly signing with the Brewers, Hughes was non-tendered the following offseason. He posted nearly identical ERAs of 3.02 and 3.03 in each of the two seasons prior to being cut loose.

Hughes has never thrown particularly hard in the first place, but the 91.4 mph average on his sinker in 2019 was still a career-low. The spin on that sinker has been lower than virtually any other heater in the game (first percentile in ’18, second percentile in ’19), which is a good thing for sinkers (as opposed to with four-seamers, where a high spin rate is optimal). As such, it’s no surprise to see that Hughes has been a ground-ball machine throughout his career (61.5 percent). That should bode well for a team that boasts a quality group of defensive infielders in Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel. He’ll need to earn a spot in the bullpen first, of course, but there are enough inexperienced arms in the ’pen mix to think that Hughes will have a solid shot at making the club with a good spring effort.

MLBTR Poll: Stripping The Astros’ 2017 Title

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It doesn’t take a die-hard baseball fan to know the past few weeks have been an utter nightmare for the Astros. The club was among the game’s elite from 2017-19, but its accomplishments from that span are now in question as a result of a sign-stealing scheme. That scandal has forced major changes in the front office and in the dugout, with the Astros having let go of suspended GM Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch in favor of James Click and Dusty Baker, respectively. At their most successful, Luhnow and Hinch oversaw the Astros’ first-ever World Series-winning team in 2017. But that seven-game victory over the Dodgers is now tarnished in the eyes of many around the game.

Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger, a member of the 2017 runners-up and the reigning NL MVP, went so far as to declare last week that the Astros “stole” a championship from him and his teammates. However, Major League Baseball did not formally strip the Astros of the title they won (it obviously would have been a drastic measure for MLB), and commissioner Rob Manfred explained why over the weekend.

“First of all, it had never happened in baseball,” Manfred said.  “I am a precedent guy.  The 2017 World Series will always be looked at as different, whether not you put an asterisk or ask for the trophy back.  Once you go down that road as for changing the result on the field, I just don’t know where you stop.”

Manfred went on to state, “The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act.” That didn’t sit well with one of Bellinger’s teammates and another member of the Dodgers’ 2017 team, Justin Turner. The third baseman fired back that Manfred set “a weak precedent” with his punishment of the Astros, continuing: “For him to devalue [the trophy] the way he did yesterday just tells me how out of touch he is with the players in this game. At this point, the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says ’Commissioner’ on it.”

“Now anyone who goes forward and cheats to win a World Series,” Turner added (via Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times), “they can live with themselves knowing that, ’Oh, it’s OK. … We’ll cheat in the World Series and bring the title back to L.A. Screw [manager] Dave Roberts and screw [general manager] Andrew [Friedman]. It’s just those guys losing their jobs. I still get to be called a champion the rest of my life.’ So the precedent was set by him yesterday in this case.”

Strong comments, to say the least. Which side are you on here? Would Manfred have gone too far in taking away the Astros’ championship?

(Poll link for app users)

Francis Martes Suspended Full Season For PED

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Astros righty Francis Martes has been suspended for 162 games after testing positive for the banned performance enhancing drug baldenone. It was his second such test; he had previously served an 80-game suspension during the 2019 season.

Martes was once considered a high-grade prospect and still owns a 40-man roster spot. He was working back from Tommy John surgery, which would’ve cost him all of last year even were it not for the suspension.

It has now been quite some time since Martes enjoyed success on the field. He reached the majors in 2017 but didn’t stick after throwing 54 1/3 innings of 5.80 ERA ball with 11.4 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9. Martes has only made it through 25 minor-league frames over the past two campaigns.

Martes’s future is now very much in doubt. At the same time, he only reached his 24th birthday in November. He’ll obviously need both to reevaluate his decisionmaking process and rediscovery his form on the mound if he’s to carve out a big league career.

GM James Click: Astros Under No Spending Restrictions

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The Astros sent out some mixed messages about how much the club was willing to spend this offseason, though newly-hired general manager James Click told the Houston Chronicle’s Brian T. Smith (Twitter link) and other reporters that Astros owner Jim Crane didn’t put any restrictions on future expenditures, and gave the front office the go-ahead to spend if necessary.

Houston’s projected Competitive Balance Tax payroll sits at roughly $231.5MM (as per Roster Resource), a number that is already over the second penalty level of $228MM.  Since the Astros have never before exceeded even the first luxury tax threshold, they will be taxed at the “first-timer” rate of 20% on every dollar spent above the $208MM threshold, as well as an additional 12% surtax for everything spent between the $228MM and $248MM.  Using Roster Resource’s $231.5MM projection, the Astros currently face a tax bill of $5.1MM.

Such a relatively small sum should hardly be a major impediment to roster-building, as Crane said last fall that while he would ideally “prefer not to” pay any luxury tax bills, “we may win the World Series, so you never know.”  A one-time overage might not be too much to swallow, especially since a lot of salary could come off the books after the 2020 season since George Springer, Michael Brantley, Yuli Gurriel, and Josh Reddick are all free agents.  Looking even further ahead, Houston has only $42MM in committed payroll beyond the 2021 season

Of course, the major x-factor here is how the emotional calculus has changed for Crane now that his franchise has been implicated in one of the biggest controversies in baseball history.  Given how Crane so clearly wishes to turn the page on the sign-stealing scandal, he might figure the best way to do so is by fielding another World Series contender in 2020, to “prove” that the Astros can win in an untainted fashion (though it will surely take more than a single year for the Astros to regain trust around the game).

With all of this in mind, it is somewhat difficult to view any potential Astros moves from a pure baseball perspective, not to mention the fact that Click might wait until he has actually settled into his new job before making any big transactions.  In the short term, however, discussing contract extensions with Springer or any of the other pending free agents would seem like a logical step to take now that Spring Training is underway.  In terms of new additions, Click could wait to spend until closer to the trade deadline, when he could more clearly access what final pieces might be required to put Houston over the top in a pennant race.

Rob Manfred Addresses Astros Scandal

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In an interview with ESPN’s Karl Ravech and during a press conference at the Braves’ Spring Training camp earlier today, commissioner Rob Manfred discussed a number of topics surrounding the game, but the bulk of attention was directly on the ongoing fallout from the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

Asked by Ravech why no Astros players were suspended or fined as part of the league’s investigation, Manfred said that “in a perfect world it would have happened.  We ended up where we ended up in pursuit of really, I think, the most important goal of getting the facts and getting them out there for people to know it.”

Players were given immunity so that the league could freely acquire information on the details of the now-infamous sign-stealing process, which involved Astros players alerting (using signals ranging from whistling to banging a trash can) teammates at the plate as to what pitches were coming, after the Astros used real-time video technology to observe rival catchers’ signs.  Such use of available video was forbade in a memo sent from the Commissioner’s Office to teams in 2017, but Manfred said Astros players weren’t made aware of the seriousness of the offense.

“The memorandum went to the general manager, and then nothing was done from the GM down,” Manfred said. “So we knew if we had disciplined the players in all likelihood we were going to have grievances and grievances that we were going to lose on the basis that we never properly informed them of the rules.  Given those two things, No. 1, I knew where, or I’m certain where the responsibilities should lay in the first instance and given the fact we didn’t think we could make discipline stick with the players, we made the decision we made.”

Since the league’s ruling on the Astros’ punishment last month, Major League Baseball has faced widespread criticism from both fans and rival players about not only a seeming lack of discipline directed towards Houston players, but also at the franchise itself.  While the Astros were fined $5MM and lost four draft picks, the fact that the organization wasn’t formally stripped of its 2017 World Series title has not sat well with many around the sport.

As Manfred told the Associated Press and other journalists, the league considered such a singular measure but decided against taking the championship away from the Astros.

“First of all, it had never happened in baseball,” Manfred said.  “I am a precedent guy.  The 2017 World Series will always be looked at as different, whether not you put an asterisk or ask for the trophy back.  Once you go down that road as for changing the result on the field, I just don’t know where you stop.”

In regards to Astros players, Manfred told Ravech that the outrage directed at the team has served as a measure of additional punishment unto itself.  “I think if you watch the players, watch their faces when they have to deal with this issue publicly, they have paid a price,” Manfred said.  “To think they’re skipping down the road into spring training, happy, that’s just a mischaracterization of where we are.”

The early response to Manfred’s comments have not been positive, with particular criticism directed towards his rather flippant description of the Commissioner’s Trophy (as Manfred told Ravech, “The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act“).  As much as the league and the Astros would like to put the incident behind them, that outcome doesn’t seem possible in the near future given the amount of attention that several of the game’s biggest stars continue to focus on the situation.  It also doesn’t help that Astros management and players continue to dig themselves into deeper public relations holes on a near-daily basis, whether it’s giving non-specific apologies during awkward press conferences, being unduly outraged at being accused of different methods of cheating during the 2017-19 span, and all the while insisting that the 2017 World Series was legitimately won.

The heated comments between the Astros and rival players has troubled Manfred, particularly statements from such pitchers as Ross Stripling and Mike Clevinger that Astros players might be hit by pitches as retaliation.  Manfred met with several MLB managers today, and told reporters at Sunday’s press event that, “I hope that I made it extremely clear to them that retaliation in-game by throwing at a batter intentionally will not be tolerated, whether it’s Houston or anybody else.  It’s dangerous and it is not helpful to the current situation.”

In addition, Manfred told Ravech that the league is preparing “a memorandum about intentionally throwing at batters.  It’s really dangerous.  Completely independent from the Astros investigation, we’ll be issuing a memorandum on hit by pitches which will increase the disciplinary ramifications of that type of behavior.  I think that will be a tool for dealing with whatever flows from the Houston situation.”

If the Astros controversy wasn’t enough, there’s also the other ongoing league investigation into another championship team’s alleged improper use of video equipment, namely the 2018 Red Sox.  Manfred said that he hopes that investigation will be concluded within two weeks’ time.  It isn’t known what punishment could await the Boston organization, though as with the Astros case, Red Sox players were also given immunity in exchange for their insight on the matter.

Carlos Correa Defends Jose Altuve’s MVP, Astros’ 2017 Title

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As the Astros have bungled their apologies for the sign-stealing scandal that has dominated this offseason, Carlos Correa has perhaps been the organization’s most forthright member. In response to the most recent backlash around the game, Correa came out with a passionate defense of the organization- and teammate José Altuve– in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic.

“José Altuve was the one guy that didn’t use the trash can,” Correa told Rosenthal. “The few times that the trash can was banged was without his consent, and he would go inside the clubhouse and inside the dugout to whoever was banging the trash can and he would get (upset). He would get mad. He would say, ’I don’t want this. I can’t hit like this. Don’t you do that to me.’ He played the game clean.”

“The reason José Altuve apologized to the media was for being part of the team and for not stopping it,” Correa continued. “But he’s not apologizing for using the trash can. He’s not apologizing for cheating because he did not cheat … José Altuve earned that MVP, and he’s been showing that for years.”

Correa’s defense of Altuve came in response to Cody Bellinger, who sounded off on the scandal Friday. Bellinger argued the Astros “stole” the 2017 World Series from the Dodgers and that Altuve “stole an MVP from (Aaron) Judge.” Bellinger also referenced the unsubstantiated rumors that Astros’ hitters wore electronic buzzers the last few years, made famous by Altuve’s refusal to take off his shirt after his 2019 ALCS-clinching home run off Aroldis Chapman. The Astros have categorically denied using buzzers, and Correa doubled down on that yesterday.

“2019, nobody wore buzzers. That’s a lie,” Correa told Rosenthal. He continued, “(Altuve) hit that home run off Chapman fair and square. He was not wearing buzzers. That’s a story that a fake account on Twitter broke, and then people just got on that wagon and started talking about the buzzers. Like, no. Nobody thought about buzzers. Nobody was using buzzers.”

Instead, Correa gave a pair of explanations to Rosenthal for Altuve’s unwillingness to have his shirt ripped. First, he says, Altuve’s wife had previously told him not to remove his shirt on the field. Somewhat comically, Correa added that Altuve was embarrassed about a “horrible” unfinished collarbone tattoo he wished to keep hidden from public view.

To be clear, Correa did not shy away from all criticism related to the scandal. He admitted to Rosenthal that hitters who used the trash can system in 2017 gained an improper, unfair advantage over opposing pitchers. (In that respect, he disagreed with Astros’ owner Jim Crane, whom Correa says “doesn’t know what kind of advantage we have…because, from afar, it looks hard“). Rather, his defense of the organization’s legacy lies in their postseason success.

Correa argued that the club often struggled to decode signs from the center field camera during the postseason due to opposing teams’ improved countervailing efforts, citing numerous key hits he claims were unsupported by sign stealing. That not every hit was sign stealing-aided, even if true, isn’t enough to say definitively that the Astros would or wouldn’t have won the 2017 World Series without the scheme, though.

Additionally, Correa pointed to the commissioner’s office finding no evidence the club continued the sign stealing efforts in 2019. Last year’s AL pennant, the shortstop argued, was “clean baseball all around.” Of course, some fans and opposing players will roll their eyes at that assertion; the organization has hardly earned the benefit of the doubt on this issue.

Yet Correa’s most passionate defense seemed to be of Altuve, in particular. Clearing his double play partner’s name, it seems, was the main impetus for Correa’s interview with Rosenthal, which is worth reading in full.

For what it’s worth, signstealingscandal.com, which attempted to log every trash can bang during Astros’ 2017 home games, recorded bangs on just 2.8% of pitches (24 bangs on 866 pitches) thrown to Altuve, never more than two in any particular game. These, again, were against Altuve’s wishes, according to Correa. That’s clearly not definitive proof Altuve didn’t participate in the scandal (and as both Correa and Altuve admitted, he deserves some blame for doing little to stop it). Nevertheless, it’s at least partially supportive of Altuve’s legacy and the legitimacy of his 2017 MVP.

The Astros’ Apologies Did Little To Repair Their Image

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Shortly after Astros owner Jim Crane, new manager Dusty Baker and players Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve addressed the media in a press conference regarding their sign-stealing scandal yesterday, the clubhouse was opened up for the entire roster to offer comments on the ordeal. Their comments created quite the contrast with those still emerging from others around the league.

George Springer, Josh Reddick, Bregman, Altuve and Yuli Gurriel were among the many Astros players to express varying levels of contrition. Most spoke in general terms, though, and the key phrases throughout left many of the sentiments feeling more rehearsed than genuine. Springer, Bregman and Verlander repeatedly referenced the “remorse” felt by the team, while virtually everyone interviewed spoke of the need to “move forward.”

Asked if he understood the anger that’s been expressed by players from other teams, Reddick stated: “At a point, you kind of see where it’s coming from, but you really don’t know how everybody feels about it.” Indeed we don’t have exhaustive knowledge of the views of all the league’s players, but that characterization still seems at odds with the prevailing sentiment we’re seeing early in camp. There has been an unprecedented public backlash from players and members of other organizations. (More on that below.)

The typically outspoken Verlander favored brevity Thursday, telling reporters, “I wish I’d said more” but sidestepping the question of what, if anything, he actually did say at the time: “That’s between myself and my teammates.” Both Verlander and Reddick declined to comment on how they’d have felt to be on the opposite side of the scheme.

Shortstop Carlos Correa perhaps offered the most forthcoming and reflective comments, plainly acknowledging that the sign-stealing operation gave Astros hitters an advantage. Correa also admitted that the Astros had their infamous trash-can setup in place during the World Series “if we had a chance” but added that the noise level at Minute Maid Park and the Dodgers’ usage of multiple signs rendered the system difficult to use.

Correa further denounced a recent report that Carlos Beltran spearheaded the outfit while younger players were reluctant to stand up to the veteran, emphasizing that the blame shouldn’t rest on any one player but rather the group as a whole.

“We all had a say in everything that we were doing in there,” said Correa. “We had the chance to stop it as a team. Everybody — everybody — had the chance to say something, and we didn’t.” Gurriel and Bregman offered similar sentiments regarding Beltran and the culpability of the entire team.

Astros players, like Crane, were unified in suggesting that the cheating scandal shouldn’t tarnish their World Series title from the 2017 season.

Asked if the Astros would’ve won the World Series without cheating, Springer replied, “I believe so. I believe in our team.” Lance McCullers Jr. spoke about the “great baseball” the Astros needed to play as a team to win the World Series and praised Houston’s “great pitching” against the Dodgers. Reddick, a former Dodger himself, said he “[doesn’t] feel like we should” have to reach out to any members of the Dodgers, Yankees or other teams they toppled en route to their 2017 championship. Even Correa, despite acknowledging that the trash-can system was set up, wouldn’t agree that the team’s title was tainted, citing the “special group” Houston had in 2017.

Looking beyond the Astros’ spring complex, former Houston lefty Dallas Keuchel, now of the White Sox, told reporters: “We’re always going to be World Series champs, because we were talented … To me, we earned the right to be World Series champs.” J.D. Davis struck a different chord, telling Mets reporters today that he is “ashamed” to have participated in the system. “Whoever gets crowned World Series champion has to earn it,” said Davis. “It’s unfair to the peers, it’s unfair to the fans, it’s unfair to you guys, the writers, as well. It’s terrible for baseball.”

Around the game, players and members of other organizations generally recoiled at the Astros’ apology efforts. Sean Manaea, Whit Merrifield, Andrew Heaney, David Freese and Dave Roberts were among the many names to speak up. Freese tweeted that the Astros’ media sessions were a “[expletive] joke,” while Roberts merely told reporters that he “believes in karma.” Merrifield told the Kansas City Star that the scandal “discredits everything those players have ever done” and pulled no punches in laying out the manner in which he’s lost all of the respect he once held for Astros players. Cody Bellinger spoke perhaps the strongest words of all, saying that Altuve “stole an MVP from [Aaron] Judge” and that the Astros “stole the ring from us.”

Crane’s inane comments seemed to spark particular ire. The Astros’ owner sounded more like Michael Scott than a contrite piece of the puzzle in making yesterday’s tone-deaf assertion: “I don’t think I should be held accountable.” And while he can continue his efforts to distance himself from the scandal and place blame on the leadership that he fired — GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch — those leaders were in place because of Crane’s own doing. Whether he was genuinely in the dark on the sign-stealing scheme or merely ignorant, the only people who seem to buy Crane’s lack of awareness work in the Astros organization or in Manfred’s office.

Crane later doubled down on his lack of accountability, stating that he believes the sign stealing “didn’t impact the game.” Less than a minute later, he claimed that he “didn’t say it didn’t impact the game.” His similarly clumsy closing remark that sign-stealing “could possibly [impact competition]” or “could possibly not” only further exemplified the extent of his dishonesty or delusion about the effect of his team’s actions. Yankees manager Aaron Boone appeared exasperated (video link) when asked about Crane’s statement that the Astros’ cheating didn’t impact the game, calling it “quite a reach.”

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Manaea torched the Astros for “skating by” and was particularly critical of Crane’s claims: “What’s the point of cheating then? Why as a team did you collectively do it? Why did no one stop it? You’re not cheating to get worse or be the same. You’re cheating to win.”

Merrifield agreed: “It definitely [tainted their championship] because they didn’t feel like they could do it by going out and playing the game. … So if they don’t think they could have won it, why should we think they could’ve won it in 2017?”

Joining the party this afternoon was Reds righty Trevor Bauer. The ever-opinionated hurler offered some well-reasoned and forcefully delivered remarks, as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Given his history with some of the Houston players, and prior comments on this matter, it was hardly surprising to hear Bauer label the Astros “filthy,” “hypocritical,” and “underhanded.” He reserved added animosity for Crane, with Bauer labeling him a liar.

Executives have also weighed in. Nationals president of baseball ops Mike Rizzo and Yankees GM Brian Cashman made no secret of their disdain for the Astros’ actions, as MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman (link) and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (link) report. Rizzo said he feels the Houston organization must acknowledge that it cheated and called for a fully complete investigation. Cashman was a bit less strident but did acknowledge being upset. Both leaders also noted a need to move forward, though it still seems there’s some cleanup left for the league.

Looking back to the Houston organization itself … on the whole, the scene at Astros’ camp seemed almost satirical. Crane sat at a press conference in which he sought to absolve his players of any responsibility before immediately making them available to apologize for the same scandal he proclaimed not to be their fault. Early Thursday morning, it’d have been difficult to imagine the Astros walking away from the day somehow looking worse, but whatever contrition was displayed in the Astros’ clubhouse was overshadowed by the head-in-the-sand reaction of their owner. Perhaps Jim Crane’s master plan was to distract from his players’ role in the whole ordeal by flaunting his own public relations ineptitude. Mission accomplished, if that’s the case, but the organization looks no better today than it did before addressing the public yesterday.

Astros Slow Brad Peacock’s Throwing Program After Setback

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Astros righty Brad Peacock entered camp as a candidate to take home a rotation spot, but he’s had a recurrence of the nerve issue in his neck that plagued him last year, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Peacock is throwing from 90 feet, but his overall program has been slowed down for the time being, lessening his chances of seizing a starting job.

Peacock, 32, has been a solid arm for the Astros in both the rotation and bullpen across the past four seasons, pitching to a combined 3.48 ERA with 10.7 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 in 320 1/3 innings of work. He’s posted a better ERA and much higher strikeout rate when working in short relief than out of the rotation, but Peacock’s 3.62 ERA and 3.72 FIP in 218 2/3 innings as a starter certainly suggests that he could be a capable back-end starter.

At present it seems to be more a question of just what his body will allow him to handle. Peacock missed significant time with shoulder and neck troubles late in the 2019 season, making only six regular-season appearances after June 27. After a month-long stint on the injured list, he returned for three appearances before quickly being placed back on the IL for close to another month. He did toss 5 2/3 innings between the ALCS and the World Series, though he walked four batters in that time.

The Houston rotation looks more vulnerable than it has in quite some time. Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke will pair to create a formidable one-two punch, and the return of Lance McCullers Jr., who had Tommy John surgery in 2018, should be a boost if he can recapture his form. Right-hander Jose Urquidy is the front-runner to nab the fourth spot, and with Peacock slowed down, newcomer Austin Pruitt could be the favorite to land the final spot to open the year. Houston has plenty of other options with starting experience — Josh James, Framber Valdez and Rogelio Armenteros among them — so the back of that group could yet change composition.

For Peacock personally, it’s a rough start to a pivotal year. The right-hander will cross the six-year threshold in terms of Major League service time in 2020, meaning he’ll be a free agent at season’s end. If he’s able to quickly put these issues behind him, Peacock could yet build a strong free-agent case, but it’s a somewhat ominous start to the new season in light of last year’s health troubles.

AL West Notes: Rangers, Dyson, Hamilton, Taijuan, Diaz, A’s

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The Rangers talked with Jarrod Dyson and Billy Hamilton before the two veteran outfielders respectively signed with the Pirates and Giants, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes.  The Rangers didn’t have any talks with Kevin Pillar prior to Pillar’s agreement with the Red Sox.  Center field is still something of a question area for Texas heading into the 2020 season, as utilityman Danny Santana is slated to handle the position, but with Scott Heineman, Joey Gallo, and perhaps Nick Solak on hand to share in some of the center field duties.

Additional help may not be imminent, as GM Jon Daniels told Wilson and other reporters “there’s nothing that is front-burner right now that I’m expecting to come to a head this spring.  There will be a lot of conversations, I’m sure.”  This doesn’t close the door on a new acquisition, of course, even if that new player may be more of a part-timer than a star (such as Kris Bryant, who has also been widely linked to the Rangers on the rumor mill.)  The versatile Santana is the answer in center field for the time being, though “we have to decide how we’re going to go about it,” Daniels said.  “I think Danny comes in with the expectation he’ll get the bulk of the playing time out there, but we also like him in that versatile role.  There’s a little bit of give there.  We have to make a call.”

More from around the AL West…

  • Taijuan Walker is back with the Mariners after signing a one-year deal with the club worth $2MM in guaranteed money, rejoining the team that originally drafted him in 2010 and, after four MLB seasons, dealt him to the Diamondbacks in the 2016-17 offseason.  Looking back on his initial stint with the M’s, “I had a lot of stuff to learn,” Walker told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other media.  “I don’t think I did very good job here of doing what I need to do become the best pitcher I could be.  I definitely slacked off and just didn’t put the work in.”  The trade inspired Walker to work harder in Arizona, plus he was further motivated by “good vets that kept on me — just having Zack Greinke over there, a bunch of guys who were really hungry and ready to work.”  It could be said that Walker’s injury problems have also aided in the maturity process, as the right-hander has tossed only 14 innings totals over the 2018-19 seasons due to both Tommy John surgery and shoulder issues.  The need to re-acclimate himself to pitching played a role in Walker’s decision to sign with Seattle, since “I’m comfortable here.  I haven’t pitched in two years, so I wanted somewhere where I can come in and kind of take my time.  I don’t have to rush.”  Another positive factor was the Mariners’ hire of Kyle Torgerson as head athletic trainer, as Torgerson previously worked for the Diamondbacks and is already familiar with Walker.  “I’m comfortable with him.  He knows my body.  He knows what I have to do to stay healthy,” Walker said.
  • The arbitration hearing between Aledmys Diaz and the Astros is scheduled for February 17, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan tweets.  This is Diaz’s first of three trips through the arb process, and the utilityman submitted a $2.6MM figure while the team countered with $2MM.  Acquired from the Blue Jays for Trent Thornton last winter, Diaz hit well (.271/.356/.467 with nine homers) in his first year in Houston but was limited to 247 plate appearances and 69 games, largely due to a hamstring injury that sidelined him for almost two months.  Diaz is one of two Astros players who didn’t reach an agreement with the club prior to the filing deadline, though the Astros sidestepped a hearing with George Springer by agreeing to a one-year, $21MM deal with the star outfielder last month.
  • The Athletics brought a catcher to their Major League spring camp, though it was non-roster invite and former Oakland Double-A backstop Collin Theroux rather than one of the well-known veterans the club reportedly has under consideration.  “It probably looks like we go forward with the group we have right now,” manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser and other reporters, with Theroux joining Austin Allen, Jonah Heim, Carlos Perez, Ronnie Freeman, and presumptive starter Sean Murphy at Spring Training.  There isn’t much collective MLB experience in this group, which is why the A’s have looked into the likes of Russell Martin as a seasoned backup (and mentor) to Murphy, who the A’s see as their catcher of the future.
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