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Rays Designate Osleivis Basabe For Assignment

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The Rays announced Monday that they’ve designated infielder Osleivis Basabe for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to newly acquired righty Alex Faedo, whose previously reported trade from Detroit to Tampa Bay has now been formally announced by the clubs.

Basabe, 24, made his big league debut with Tampa Bay in 2023, which now stands as his lone season with MLB work. He appeared in 31 games and tallied 94 plate appearances, hitting .218/.277/.310 during that span. It certainly wasn’t a great debut effort, but the .296/.351/.426 slash (95 wRC+) Basabe had posted in Triple-A Durham was a good bit more encouraging — particularly for someone whom scouting reports praise as a solid defender at either position on the left side of the infield.

The 2024 campaign, however, saw Basabe take a step back in virtually every meaningful category. Those offensive rate stats plummeted to .248/.293/.336 in Triple-A — a drop that left him about 36% worse than league-average at the plate, by measure of wRC+. His walk rate fell from 7.3% to 4.9% as his strikeout rate climbed from 15.5% to 18%. Basabe averaged 89 mph with a 39.7% hard-hit rate with Durham in 2023 but was only at 86.3 mph and 31.3%, respectively, in 2024.

Though Basabe’s 2024 season was nightmarish, he’s only a year removed from ranking as a top-10 prospect in a strong Rays system. He also has a minor league option remaining, so any team that acquires him would be able to send him to the minors without first needing to pass him through waivers. He’s capable of playing any of shortstop, third base or second base, which should add to his appeal. Basabe hits from the right side but has traditionally had more consistent offensive production in right-on-right matchups than he has versus lefties.

The Rays will have five days to trade Basabe. At that point, he’d need to be placed on waivers, as outright waivers are 48-hour process themselves and the maximum window for a DFA to be resolved is one week.

What Other Competitive Balance Round Draft Picks Could Be Traded This Winter?

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The Competitive Balance Rounds are a pair of bonus rounds within the MLB draft, designed to give an extra pick to the game’s smaller-market teams.  Teams that fall within either the bottom 10 in revenues and market size are eligible, and since 2017, the league determined the eligible teams based on a formula involving market score, revenues, and winning percentage.  The first of the two Competitive Balance Rounds (CBR-A) comes right before the start of the second round, and CBR-B comes right after the second round.  For the 2025 draft, a total of 15 teams will gain an extra pick, and their order within their respective round is determined by their win totals in the 2024 season.

With that explanation out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff — these picks can be traded.  Specifically, a CBR selection can traded exactly once, and to any team in the league.  Since these are the only MLB draft picks that are eligible to be dealt, it has become increasingly common to see teams move these extra selections as part of larger trade packages for established talent.

Three CBR picks in the 2024 draft changed hands due to trades, most prominently the Orioles’ inclusion of the 34th overall selection as part of the trade package sent to the Brewers for Corbin Burnes.  This offseason has already seen three CBR picks in the 2025 draft dealt, and this post will explore the possibility that some other teams with CBR selections might move these picks to fill a more immediate need.

To cover the broad reason why any of these teams might not make a trade, it’s simply that draft picks are a very valuable asset unto themselves.  Controllable young talent is particularly important for lower-revenue clubs that usually don’t splurge on expensive free agents or trade targets, which is part of the reasons why the Competitive Balance Rounds exist in the first place.  Clubs are naturally pretty reluctant to move these CBR picks unless the right opportunity presents itself on the trade market.

(First, some notes on the draft order.  The first 75 places in the 2025 draft have largely been established, since the remaining free agents who rejected qualifying offers all played for teams who were either luxury-tax payors in 2024, or aren’t revenue-sharing recipients.  That means that if Nick Pivetta signs elsewhere, the Red Sox will get their compensation pick after CBR-B.  If Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman sign elsewhere, the Mets’ and Astros’ compensation picks will fall after the fourth round.  Also, because the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers all exceeded the second luxury-tax tier in 2024, their first-round picks were dropped by 10 spots in the draft order.  This means that these three big spenders are all technically selecting within CBR-A, but obviously these aren’t official CBR picks.  The only potential change would be if a team that signs Alonso, Bregman or Pivetta surrenders its second-round pick to do so.)

Onto the selections….

Brewers (33rd overall, CBR-A): Milwaukee is actually making consecutive picks in the draft, as they received a compensatory pick when Willy Adames rejected the team’s qualifying offer and signed with the Giants.  Owning the 32nd overall pick might make the Brew Crew slightly more opening to trading the 33rd overall pick, perhaps to add pitching or to the infield in the wake of Adames’ departure.  The Brewers could considering adding their CBR pick as a sweetener to try and move Rhys Hoskins’ contract, yet it’s less likely that the team moves a valuable draft selection just as part of a salary dump.

Tigers (34th overall, CBR-A): The Tigers are considered to be one of the top suitors remaining for Alex Bregman, and signing a qualified free agent would cost the Tigers their third-highest pick in the 2025 draft.  Losing the 63rd overall pick means the Tigers almost surely wouldn’t also deal their CBR pick.  If Bregman signed elsewhere, it’s more plausible that Detroit could consider trading its CBR pick for a big right-handed bat, but still probably on the unlikely side.

Mariners (35th overall, CBR-A): It was almost exactly a year ago that the M’s traded their CBR-B pick in the 2024 draft to the White Sox as part of the Gregory Santos deal.  Santos’ injury-plagued first season in Seattle could make the Mariners more hesitant to an even higher CBR selection, yet this tradable pick might an asset the M’s can use within an overall difficult offseason market for the team.  The Mariners are working with limited payroll space and most every team in baseball would prefer win-now help over prospects, seemingly leaving the M’s dealing with a lot of offers for their starting pitchers.  With Seattle so reluctant to deal from its excellent rotation, offering up the 35th overall pick in trade talks might help get things moving.

Twins (36th overall, CBR-A): Speaking of front offices without much financial flexibility, Minnesota has had a very quiet offseason, with most of the headlines focused on a potential sale of the franchise rather than any significant roster moves.  With reportedly around only $5MM or so in payroll space, the Twins might have to make some trades just to free up more money for more trade possibilities.  Moving the CBR-A pick could be added to the Twins’ list of possibilities, but the team has enough potential trade candidates on the active roster that moving a big league-ready player is probably their preference over dealing away a draft pick.

Rays (37th overall, CBR-A): It might not come as much surprise that Tampa is the team that has acquired the most CBR picks over the last seven seasons.  As you’ll see shortly, the Rays added to that total with the 42nd overall pick of the 2025 draft.  Like with the Brewers and the Adames compensatory selection, having an “extra” pick in a sense might make the Rays more open to dealing this pick here, but that hasn’t been Tampa Bay’s style.

Reds (now Dodgers, 41st overall, CBR-A): This pick was already moved, as Cincinnati traded its selection along with outfield prospect Mike Sirota to Los Angeles in exchange for Gavin Lux.

Athletics (now Rays, 42nd overall, CBR-A): Another swapped pick, as the A’s moved the 42nd overall pick to Tampa Bay as part of the Jeffrey Springs trade.  This move in particular highlights the speculative nature of this post, since going into the offseason, the Athletics seemingly wouldn’t have been on the radar as a team likely to trade its CBR pick.

Marlins (43th overall, CBR-A): There’s basically zero chance the Fish move a draft pick in the midst of their extensive rebuild.

Guardians (70th overall, CBR-B): The reigning AL Central champs have generally gone chalk with their CBR selections, not acquiring or trading any picks until this year.  Adding an experienced outfielder or middle infielder for the 70th pick might work on paper, as the Guards are another team with two CBR selections and not much spending capacity to address its roster needs.

Orioles (71st overall, CBR-B): The idea for this post came about after writing another piece yesterday about how the O’s might be well-suited to trade this pick.

Diamondbacks (now Guardians, 72nd overall, CBR-B): Arizona sent the 72nd pick and Slade Cecconi to Cleveland to bring Josh Naylor to the desert.

Royals (73rd overall, CBR-B): Kansas City traded its CBR-A selection just hours before the 2024 draft began, moving the 39th overall pick and third base prospect Cayden Wallace to the Nationals for Hunter Harvey.  While Harvey battled injuries and wasn’t much of a help in the Royals’ run to the ALDS, the fact that the team made such an aggressive midseason deal in pursuit of a playoff spot might hint that the front office is willing to make another bold swap involving this pick.  Outfield help remains the Royals’ biggest need at this point in the winter.

Cardinals (74th overall, CBR-B): Outgoing president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has spoken about wanting to leave a “clean slate” for new PBO Chaim Bloom.  Between that and the Cardinals’ stated goal of refocusing on player development, it seems unlikely St. Louis would look to move its CBR pick.

Pirates (75th overall, CBR-B): The Bucs have had a relatively quiet offseason, with the team’s typical lack of big spending.  In theory, trading a CBR pick might be a helpful way for the Pirates to add talent without breaking the budget, though Ben Cherington has yet to explore this tactic during his time as Pittsburgh’s general manager.

Rockies (76th overall, CBR-B): While the Rockies aren’t technically in an official rebuild, they’re not exactly building up after losing 204 games over the last two seasons.  Using this pick to add another young player to the farm system seems far more likely than the Rox trading the pick away.

Rays Granted Fourth Option Year On Jonathan Aranda

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The Rays have been granted a fourth option year on infielder Jonathan Aranda, according to a report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Typically, players have three option seasons with one used each season during which the player spends at least 20 days on optional assignment in the minor leagues. A player is considered to be on optional assignment when on a club’s 40-man roster but sent to the minor leagues while not on a rehab assignment. Aranda, 27 in May, was added to the club’s 40-man prior to the 2022 season and has been optioned to the minor leagues in each of the past three campaigns, with at least 20 days in the minors each season. Under normal circumstances, that would leave him out of options headed into the 2025 campaign, meaning the Rays would have to expose him to waivers before attempting to return him to the minor leagues.

Occasionally, however, teams are granted a fourth option year on certain players, typically due to the player missing significant time with injury. MLB.com explains that players with less than five full professional seasons (defined as at least 90 days on a major or minor league active roster) are eligible for a fourth option year. That applies to Aranda, who played full-season ball for the first time during the 2021 season. Fourth option years are typically granted to teams on players who have missed significant time due to injury during their option years, which also applies to Aranda after he spent three months on the IL last year between multiple trips to the injured list.

The fourth option year affords the Rays additional flexibility regarding their positional mix this year as they look to bounce back from a difficult 2024 season. Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe, Danny Jansen, and Ben Rortvedt are the only players locked into Opening Day roster spots for the Rays who cannot be optioned to the minors, though that group will also include non-roster slugger Eloy Jimenez if he makes the team out of camp. With a number of intriguing youngsters in the upper levels of the minors like infielders Curtis Mead and Osleivis Basabe as well as outfielders Kameron Misner and Jake Magnum, it’s easy to imagine the Rays trying to maximize their roster by shuffling between those youngsters and their optionable major leaguers. Aranda is now included in that group, and with just 333 big league plate appearances under his belt to this point in his career it’s certainly feasible that the Rays utilize that fourth option year in the event he faces the sorts of struggles that many players do early in their big league careers.

That’s not to say Aranda doesn’t figure to be a key part of the club’s lineup, of course. The infielder currently figures to serve as the club’s Opening Day DH given the presence of Diaz and Lowe at first and second base respectively, but his solid .234/.308/.430 slash line (113 wRC+) in 44 games for the Rays last year was promising even for that role. More exciting than Aranda’s slash line was the improvements he made relative to 2023, as he cut his strikeout rate from 30.1% to just 22.4% while also hitting for more power has his barrel rate jumped from 5.3% to a fantastic 16.5%. That massive barrel rate would have been fifth in the majors last year if he had enough plate appearances to qualify and may not be entirely sustainable over a full season, but it’s simultaneously easy to imagine last year’s .264 BABIP coming up significantly given that it was a drop of more than 60 points relative to 2023.

Barry Larkin Joins Group Attempting To Get MLB Franchise In Orlando

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The Orlando Dreamers announced earlier this week that Hall of Famer Barry Larkin has joined the organization, which has the goal of getting an MLB franchise in the city. Larkin, who now lives in Orlando, has the title of MLB ambassador with the Dreamers. Pat Williams, the late former executive for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, co-founded the Dreamers in 2019 as an effort to get an MLB franchise. While Williams passed away last summer, the organization has continued that goal.

“I spent considerable time talking to key people in Major League Baseball, including Commissioner Manfred, before committing to join the Orlando Dreamers’ effort,” Larkin said in the press release. “There were many phone calls to (co-founder Jim Schnorf), asking detailed questions concerning the approach, the accomplishments to date, and the strategies moving forward. It became immediately apparent that Orlando has the most compelling market in the country to be the next MLB franchise location. … At this stage in my career, nothing could be more exciting than being a key part of this effort in my adopted home of Orlando, Florida.”

Larkin is a Cincinnati native who spent his entire 19-year big league career with his hometown Reds. He won the 1995 NL MVP award behind a .319 average and Gold Glove defense at shortstop. Larkin made 12 All-Star teams, won the Silver Slugger award on nine occasions, and collected a trio of Gold Glove awards. He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA in 2012, his third year on the ballot.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said on multiple occasions that he hopes to finalize plans for expansion from 30 to 32 teams by the end of his tenure. He plans to retire when his current contract expires in January 2029. While it’s highly unlikely that expansion teams would be on the field by the ’29 season, it’s possible that host cities could be settled by that point with the league moving to 32 teams early in the 2030s. Manfred has suggested that expansion would be on the back burner until the A’s and Rays’ stadium situations were finalized.

The A’s plan to be in Las Vegas in time for the 2028 season. The Rays seemed to have a long-term stadium plan in St. Petersburg, but the devastating hurricane in the area last fall has thrown those plans into question. That combined with a changed county council makeup after Election Day led the county to delay approval of bonds that’d finance the stadium. The Rays have claimed that makes it impossible to have the new stadium complete for the 2028 season. The team is responsible for cost overruns on the project, which it says will be exorbitant with construction going until 2029.

While Pinellas County approved the bonds last month, the Rays reiterated that the delay has proven too costly. They’re pushing for more public funding as a result, which the county has indicated it is unwilling to approve. The Rays have until March 31 to meet various construction benchmarks on the project or the bond agreement will automatically be nullified. They are committed to play at Tropicana Field through the 2028 season. The Trop was severely damaged by the hurricane and it is unclear whether it’ll be playable by 2026. The Rays will play their ’25 home games at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field, home of the Yankees’ Low-A affiliate.

Larkin said at his introductory press conference that the Orlando group is open to pursuing both an expansion franchise or a potentially relocated one (alluding to the Rays’ situation). Manfred was asked about the possibility of relocating the Rays in November. He replied that MLB remained “focused on our franchise in Tampa Bay.”

Rays Sign Jonathan Hernandez To Minor League Deal

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The Rays announced their list of non-roster invitees to MLB camp. Reliever Jonathan Hernández signed a minor league deal today and will be in big league Spring Training. He’d elected free agency at the start of the offseason.

Hernández, 28, joins the third organization of his career. He’d been a career-long member of the Rangers until last summer. Hernández signed with Texas as an amateur free agent and got to the big leagues in 2019. He had a strong showing in the shortened 2020 season, working to a 2.90 earned run average over 31 innings. An elbow injury required Tommy John surgery early the following year.

That kept Hernández out of action into the second half in 2022. He returned to post a 2.97 ERA through 30 1/3 frames, picking up his four career saves along the way. Hernández’s strikeout and walk rates were underwhelming, which proved a precursor for regression in the coming seasons. He has allowed 5.40 earned runs per nine in each of the last two years.

Texas pushed Hernández off the roster at last year’s trade deadline. He carried a 5.05 ERA over a career-high 41 innings at the time. The Mariners claimed him off waivers. Hernández allowed three runs over 2 1/3 innings with Seattle before the M’s designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers that time around and spent the rest of the season in Triple-A.

Since the start of 2023, Hernández owns a 5.40 ERA across 75 frames. His 21.5% strikeout percentage is slightly below average, while he has walked nearly 13% of batters faced. Hernández has kept the ball on the ground on half the batted balls he has allowed, though. He averages nearly 97 MPH on his sinker but hasn’t found success with that pitch; opponents have respectively hit .350 and .323 against it over the past two seasons. Hernández has fared a lot better with his slider, which he uses roughly half the time, and his infrequently deployed changeup.

Rays Acquire Brandon Eisert

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The Rays have acquired left-hander Brandon Eisert from the Blue Jays, according to announcements from both clubs. The Jays, who designated Eisert for assignment earlier this week when they signed Anthony Santander, receive cash considerations in return. The Rays had an open 40-man spot and don’t need to make a corresponding move.

Eisert, 27, joins the second club of his career. Selected by the Blue Jays in the 18th-round of the 2019 draft, he worked his way up to make his major league debut last year. To this point, his big league track record is minimal. He tossed 6 2/3 innings for the Jays last year, allowing three earned runs.

The Rays are surely more interested in the southpaw’s minor league numbers, which have generally been strong. Over the past four years, he has logged 264 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.76 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.

Despite the strong minor league results, Eisert lacks the power arsenal clubs are usually looking to get from relievers these days. His fastball only averaged 91.2 miles per hour during his brief major league work. It was a tick lower in Triple-A, coming in at 90.2 mph last year. Perhaps the Jays expected that the relatively lower velocity would prevent him from succeeding in the majors as much as he did in the minors.

The Rays had an open roster spot and will use it to get a close-up look at Eisert. He still has options, which is surely appealing for a club that regularly rotates arms on and off its roster throughout the season. Garrett Cleavinger is the top lefty reliever on the club right now. They gave Mason Montgomery some work in the big league bullpen last year but he’s mostly been a starter in the minors. Eisert and Montgomery both have options, so it wouldn’t be a surprise for Tampa to have them taking turns on the big league roster as the second lefty behind Cleavinger, while shuttling to Triple-A from time to time.

Rays, Taylor Walls Avoid Arbitration

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The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Taylor Walls to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season. In doing so, the two parties avoided an arbitration hearing. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Walls will earn a $1.4MM guarantee: a $1.35MM salary this coming season with a $50K buyout on a $2.45MM option for the ’26 campaign. The price of that option would be bumped by $50K, to $2.5MM, if Walls tallies 450 plate appearances, Topkin adds. Walls is represented by Vayner Sports.

Walls and Tampa Bay had exchanged figures last week, with the shortstop filing for a $1.575MM salary to the team’s $1.3MM submission. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $1.3MM salary for Walls.) It’s the first trip through the arbitration process for the infielder, who’s under team control through 2027 regardless of the outcome of that 2026 option.

The 28-year-old Walls had a brutal season at the plate in 2024 but is a talented infield defender capable of handling multiple positions. In 252 plate appearances, he slashed only .183/.282/.248 with one homer, five doubles, three triples and 16 steals (in 20 attempts). Walls did continue to show a disciplined approach, walking in 12.3% of those 252 turns at the plate — right in line with his career 12.1% mark. His contact profile was sub-par, however. Walls averaged only 86.2 mph off the bat with a bleak 24% hard-hit rate, and he punched out in 26.6% of his plate appearances.

Defensive metrics are divided on Walls, who’s primarily been a shortstop (1983 big league innings) but also has ample experience at second base (524 innings) and the hot corner (419 innings). Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating think he’s a flat-out plus with the glove. DRS, in particular, credits Walls with a whopping career mark of +35 at shortstop alone (plus another 15 DRS between second and third). Statcast has generally favored his work at third base but is down on Walls at shortstop, pegging him at two outs below average in each of the past two seasons.

The Rays clearly feel Walls is better than Statcast measures him to be. At least insofar as making the plays he’s supposed to, there’s good evidence to back that up. Walls was charged with only three errors in last year’s 625 innings of defense. He made a combined eight errors across three positions in 792 innings in 2023.

Even if the Rays decline Walls’ option for the 2026 season, he’d be under team control and arb-eligible a second time. They’d likely only do so if they felt Walls comfortably projected for less than the 75% raise his option value represents — although in that scenario, he’d be a potential non-tender candidate as well.

For now, Walls is the favorite to open the 2025 season at shortstop, though he’ll have some competition from fellow middle infielder Jose Caballero. In all likelihood, one will start the year at short and the other will fill a utility role, although Osleivis Basabe could get himself back into the mix if he shows signs of a rebound from a dreadful 2024 season this spring.

The Opening Day assignment doesn’t necessarily carry as much weight as who’ll finish the season at shortstop, though. Walls, Caballero and to a lesser extent Basabe will all be in the mix, but all eyes will be on 2021 first rounder Carson Williams, whom Baseball America just this morning tabbed as MLB’s No. 11 overall prospect. Williams, regarded as a plus defender at short, posted a .256/.352/.469 slash in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting this past season, putting him about 42% better than average in that league, by measure of wRC+. The 21-year-old (22 in June) is likely ticketed for Triple-A to begin the season and could make his MLB debut at some point this summer, depending on how he fares early on.

Rays, Andrew Wantz Agree To Minor League Contract

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Jan. 17: It’s a two-year minor league contract for Wantz, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The two-year term of the contract — and the lack of a 2025 spring invite — are due to the fact that Wantz is recovering from that elbow procedure and won’t be ready to pitch this spring anyhow.

Jan. 16: The Rays have signed righty Andrew Wantz to a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction log. A client of Beverly Hills Sports Council, Wantz elected minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason.

Wantz has pitched in parts of four seasons out of the Angels bullpen. He got a decent amount of run in middle relief between 2021-23. Wantz topped 20 appearances and threw at least 25 innings in each of those seasons. He combined for a 3.85 earned run average while striking out more than a quarter of batters faced across 117 frames.

The 29-year-old righty didn’t get much work last year. He only made one big league appearance, tossing 1 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Wantz worked as a starter for six of his seven outings at Triple-A Salt Lake, his biggest stretch out of the rotation since he was in Double-A in 2019. He allowed a 6.17 ERA over 23 1/3 frames. Wantz punched out an excellent 31.8% of opponents but issued walks to an untenable 14% of batters faced.

An elbow injury ended his season in June. Wantz underwent some form of season-ending surgery, though it was not a full Tommy John procedure. The Halos opted not to carry him on the 40-man roster after that injury and waived him at the end of the season. Once he returns to health, Wantz can compete for a spot in Kevin Cash’s middle relief group or stretch back out as rotation depth on a Tampa Bay team that is frequently willing to convert relievers to starting pitchers.

AL East Notes: Morton, Rays, Neander, Yankees

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As has been the custom over his last few seasons, veteran right-hander Charlie Morton talked things over with his wife after the 2024 campaign to figure out whether or not he would again try to ramp up for another run.  This time, however, Morton might’ve on some level made his decision even before his 2024 season was over.  Morton told MLB.com’s Jake Rill and other reporters that in his final start of the regular season with the Braves, “I remember walking off the field and just this like sinking feeling in my stomach — it just didn’t feel right.  I’m sure a lot of guys toward the end of their careers, they think about retiring, shutting it down, and you really want to walk off the field the last time and feel good about it.  And a lot of guys don’t get that opportunity.  I just didn’t feel good about it.  I felt like I could have done better.  I felt like I still had the tools to be a good pitcher in the big leagues.”

Now set to begin his 18th big league season, the 41-year-old Morton signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Orioles.  It was an ideal fit for Morton both because the O’s are a contender, and for important off-the-field reasons.  Morton and his wife Cindy each have family relatively near the Baltimore area, and the Orioles’ Spring Training camp in Sarasota is near the Mortons’ home in Bradenton, Florida.

More from around the AL East…

  • Erik Neander said “we’ll look for those opportunities” to further bolster the position-player side, but the Rays’ president of baseball operations told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times believes the team’s offense can improve based on in-house sources alone.  “You’re counting on some players internally to take that next step forward or bounce back from where they’ve been, and that was similar to ’22 and obviously ‘23 offensively….There are an assortment of players we have that we think there’s good reason to believe they will be better than where they were last year, and/or just as a unit, that we can be a little bit more better….just kind of using history as a guide,” Neander said.  When considering adding veterans to the mix, Topkin notes that along with salary cost, the Rays also weigh whether or not that veteran could take at-bats away from a younger player that might well deliver similar production with the same playing time.
  • The Yankees have lost a total of 14 coaches, coordinators, and player-development personnel to other teams since the offseason began, with the New York Daily News’ Gary Phillips running through the full list of departed names throughout the organization.  As VP of player development Kevin Reese admits, this is an “unusually high” amount of turnover, though “when other teams are coming after them and getting promotions and bringing guys to the big leagues, that speaks well to the people that we had.  We take a lot of pride in having good people and continuing to build it.”  The depth of personnel may have contributed to the departures, as “there are only so many spots for people to move up before there’s a logjam,” said Rick Guarno, who is now the Mets’ Triple-A hitting coach after previously working as the hitting coach with the Yankees’ high-A affiliate.

17 Players Exchange Filing Figures

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This evening’s deadline to exchange filing figures has come and gone. The majority of arbitration-eligible players agreed to contracts to avoid going to a hearing. There were 17 instances where the player and team did not come to terms.

Technically, nothing prevents players and teams from continuing to negotiate. However, virtually every team takes a “file-and-trial” approach to the process. Clubs will mostly refuse to continue talks about one-year deals after this date. They’ll often make exceptions for discussions involving multi-year contracts or one-year deals with a club/mutual option. It’s unlikely that all of these players will end up getting to a hearing, but the majority probably will.

If the sides go to a hearing, a three-person arbitration panel will either choose the player’s or the team’s filing figure. They cannot pick a midpoint. That’s designed to prevent the parties from anchoring by filing at extremely high or low figures. Teams’ preferences for the file-and-trial approach follows a similar logic. The idea is to deter players from submitting a higher number from which they could continue to negotiate until the hearing begins.

The list of players who could go to a hearing this winter (service time in parentheses):

Angels

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Dodgers

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Pirates

Rays

Red Sox

Yankees

—————————————

Tucker and the Cubs have the biggest gap in filing figures at $2.5MM. He’s one of the top two free agents in next year’s class and is unlikely to sign an extension, so they’re almost certainly headed to a hearing. King, who will be one of the best pitchers on the open market next winter, is the only other player with more than $1MM at stake depending on the results of the hearing. The smallest divide is the paltry $150K gap between Rengifo’s and the Angels’ respective filing figures. Hearings are scheduled to begin on January 27 and could run through February 14.

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