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Falvey: Twins Plan To Reallocate Money Saved In Polanco Trade

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The Twins pulled off a significant trade this evening, sending second baseman Jorge Polanco to the Mariners for a four-player return. While Minnesota brought back a pair of MLB players — Justin Topa and Anthony DeSclafani — in the deal, that’s coming at a fairly modest financial cost.

DeSclafani is due $12MM for the upcoming season. The Giants agreed to pay $6MM in the trade that initially sent the veteran righty to Seattle. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports that the M’s are sending that $6MM plus an unspecified portion of the $6MM they’d owed to DeSclafani themselves. Dan Hayes and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic report that Seattle is sending an additional $2MM, bringing the cash considerations to $8MM in total.

Polanco is set to receive $10.5MM, while Topa is making $1.25MM. There’s a $9.25MM gap between those two salaries, and the Twins are taking on $4MM owed to DeSclafani. The deal saves Minnesota $5.25MM in payroll room.

Falvey told reporters Minnesota expects to reallocate those savings into the roster (relayed by Dan Hayes of the Athletic). He suggested the team was likely to look for help on the position player side after acquiring a reliever and a rotation option in the Polanco trade (via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com).

The front office leader didn’t specify any players or positions of interest. At the beginning of the offseason, Falvey suggested the club would evaluate the first base market. They haven’t made any additions there thus far and are presently set to count on Alex Kirilloff, who has had wrist and shoulder surgeries in his career.

Speculatively speaking, a right-handed hitting outfielder would also make sense. Minnesota has a corner outfield group consisting of left-handed bats like Max Kepler, Matt Wallner and Nick Gordon. Gold Glover Byron Buxton is optimistic about his chance of moving back to center field after knee injuries limited him to DH in 2023. The Twins could still look for a center field option to back up Buxton given his injury history. Last year’s primary center fielder, Michael A. Taylor, remains unsigned.

In November, Hayes reported that Minnesota expected to open the season with a player payroll in the $125-140MM range. Roster Resource projected their spending around $124MM before tonight’s trade. Moving Polanco reduces those commitments to roughly $119MM.

Note: This post initially indicated that Seattle was covering $6MM of DeSclafani’s salary in addition to the $6MM included by San Francisco. The specific amount being covered by the Mariners beyond the initial $6MM from the Giants is $2MM. MLBTR apologizes for the error.

Quick Hits: Int’l Signings, Cooper, Correa, Barnes

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Earlier this week, reporter Nathanael Pérez Neró of Diario Libre reported that Major League Baseball voided over 50 official and unofficial agreements between teams and international prospects.  In a follow-up piece for The Athletic, Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal wrote that the league is trying to again crack down on a spate of suspected age and identity fraud cases within the international signing circuit, as some Dominican Republic-based trainers (known as buscones, who scout and help develop future prospects) have figured out how to work around a past set of guidelines established around 15 years ago.

International prospects can only be officially signed at age 16, yet is widely known that teams line up these deals sometimes multiple years ahead of a prospect’s eligibility period, which can lead to some paperwork confusion (at best) or outright fraud as worst.  In several of the 50-odd scuttled agreements, teams including the Astros, Athletics, Mets, Red Sox, Royals, Twins, and Yankees learned that they were scouting or had agreements to sign prospects who were years older than their reported ages, including some who were lined up for hefty bonuses in future int’l signing windows.

More from around baseball as we start a new week….

  • The Red Sox have some level of interest in first baseman Garrett Cooper, with MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo (links to X) describing Cooper as a backup plan if the Sox can’t re-sign Adam Duvall.  Cooper has some right field experience but has played only first base and DH over the last two seasons, so Duvall is perhaps the better fit as a right-handed hitter who could complement any of Boston’s lefty-swinging outfield options.  Known for his solid production as a member of the Miami lineup, Cooper’s slash line dipped to .251/.304/.419 over 457 plate appearances with the Marlins and Padres in 2023
  • Coming off a down year that involved an ongoing battle with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, Carlos Correa is feeling fully recovered, as the Twins shortstop told the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Gavin Dorsey and other reporters.  Correa got an early start to his usual offseason work due to both his effort to entirely rehab his foot, and to make changes to his swing mechanics.  It is a marked difference from last offseason, when Correa’s unusual free agent situation and concerns about a past ankle injury resulted in his taking about a month off to prevent any further injuries to impact his market.  As a result, Correa said “coming into spring training, I didn’t feel like I was prepared….This year, I do feel ready.”
  • Free agent reliever Matt Barnes is planning to throw for scouts next week, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (X link).  Barnes entered the market in November when the Marlins spent $2.25MM to buy out Barnes’ $9MM club option for 2024 — an expected move, considering Barnes had a 5.48 ERA over 21 1/3 innings before his season was cut short by hip surgery.  An All-Star as recently as 2021, Barnes usually posted numbers in the Red Sox bullpen from 2016-21, but injuries and inconsistency have cropped up over the last few years.

AL Notes: Red Sox, Twins, deGrom

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While adding to the front of the rotation once appeared to be a top priority for the Red Sox this winter, they’ve largely come up short in that regard as they simply swapped Chris Sale out for Lucas Giolito in their rotation mix. More recently, it appears the club has begun looking for other options in their quest to improve the club’s pitching staff. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reported recently that the club has interest in right-handers Jakob Junis and Codi Heuer.

Junis, 31, defied the odds as a 29th-round pick by the Royals in the 2011 draft and managed to make the majors during the 2017 season. In the years since then, the right-hander has managed to put together a solid career while swinging between the bullpen and the rotation for both Kansas City and San Francisco. While he typically offered roughly league average production for most of his career, Junis enjoyed a career year with the Giants this past season as he pitched to a 3.87 ERA with a 3.74 FIP in 86 innings of work. In 40 appearances for San Francisco last year, Junis struck out a career-best 26.2% of batters faced while walking just 5.7%.

Impressive as Junis was last season, the right-hander is unlikely to be an impactful addition to the Red Sox rotation mix if signed as he tended to pitch most effectively in shorter bursts last year. The righty surrendered a 5.32 ERA in 31 innings of work across nine appearances where he threw 50 pitches or more last year. By contrast, Junis posted a strong 2.95 ERA across 39 2/3 innings of work in 26 appearances where he threw 40 pitches or less. Junis’s success in shorter appearances could make him an interesting relief option for the Red Sox, particularly if the club parts with closer Kenley Jansen before Opening Day.

Heuer, meanwhile, would be more of a speculative addition by the Red Sox. The right-hander last pitched in the majors back in 2021 due to Tommy John surgery and a fractured elbow, but sports a solid 3.56 ERA and 3.66 FIP across 91 innings of work in the majors between the White Sox and Cubs. The righty was nothing short of dominant for the south siders during the 2020 season in particular, as he paired a 50% groundball rate with a upper-90s heater that allowed him to strike out 27.2% of batters faced in 21 appearances. The Cubs non-tendered Heuer earlier this offseason, likely thanks to his two-year layoff from pitching while rehabbing from multiple elbow issues. Still, the 27-year-old hurler has flashed set-up caliber skills during his limited big league appearances and could be a savvy add to the Boston bullpen if healthy.

More from around the American League…

  • The Twins are lacking in starting pitching depth after losing right-handers Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, and Tyler Mahle in free agency earlier this winter, and GM Thad Levine acknowledged that concern during a recent appearance on MLBNetwork Radio. During the appearance, Levine noted that the club feels comfortable with its current starting five of Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, and Louie Varland, but that hasn’t stopped the club from exploring both the trade and free agent markets for other rotation options. Bolstering the club’s rotation mix would not only provide the club with much-needed depth to safeguard against injury but could also give Varland competition for the fifth-starter role, allowing him to return to the multi-inning bullpen role in which he thrived late last season. Michael Lorenzen, Mike Clevinger, and Hyun Jin Ryu are among the mid-level rotation options still available this winter.
  • Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom made just six starts for the reigning World Series champions before undergoing Tommy John surgery last spring, but optimism remains at the oft-injured ace will be able to contribute to the club at some point during the 2024 campaign. As noted by Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, deGrom provided a health update to reporters during the club’s FanFest this weekend. The righty indicated that his arm is feeling good seven months removed from going under the knife and that he currently plans to begin throwing again “sometime this spring.” While deGrom did not mention a timetable for his return to the big league mound, the update tracks with previous comments from the right-hander back in October, which indicated he was targeting a return to the majors in August of 2024. Among the most talented pitchers of his generation, it’s hard to overstate the potential impact deGrom could have for the Rangers this year if he’s available for the stretch run and a potential playoff push. Over his past 108 starts dating back to the 2018 season, deGrom has posted a 2.08 ERA with a near-matching 2.11 FIP and a whopping 921 strikeouts in just 675 2/3 innings of work.

Byron Buxton Planning To Return To Center Field In 2024

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As noted by Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Twins center fielder Byron Buxton assured fans at this weekend’s TwinsFest that the club’s star defender would be back in center field for the 2024 campaign.

Buxton, 30, was limited to DH-only duties during the 2023 campaign as he battled knee issues before ultimately undergoing knee surgery in October. The nagging injury woes, in addition to stopping Buxton from playing defense last year, may have contributed to his diminished results at the plate last season. In 347 trips to the plate, Buxton slashed a modest .207/.294/.438 that was roughly league average by measure of wRC+. That’s a far cry from the .258/.316/.558 slash line he compiled from 2019 to 2022. The offensive potential Buxton showed during that four-year stretch, when combined with his elite defensive abilities and quality baserunning, made the outfielder one of the league’s most valuable players on a rate basis.

Buxton’s potential has been limited, however, by constant struggles with injuries over the years. Across nine seasons as a big leaguer, Buxton has only appeared in 100 games once, during his 140-game 2017 campaign. Since then, he has averaged just 65 games a season while never appearing in more than 92 in a single campaign. Given his long-standing struggles with staying on the field, the club hoped that by making Buxton their full-time DH in 2022 they would be able to keep him on the field more frequently. That, of course, didn’t pan out, and returning their star center fielder to his natural position has long been acknowledged as the ideal scenario for the club in 2024.

Earlier this offseason, reports indicated that Buxton was fully healed from his autumn knee surgery and was expected to return to baseball activities before the end of the 2023 calendar year, with club officials hoping he would be able to return to regular work in center field in 2024. Since then, Helfand notes that Buxton has resumed baseball activities on a daily basis. Evidently, the return to activity has gone well enough to this point that Buxton and the Twins are confident he’ll be able to act as the club’s every day center fielder to open the year. That may help to take pressure off the club’s front office to find a replacement for center fielder Michael A. Taylor, who stepped in as a regular at the position last year while Buxton was unable to take the field. Internal options to back up Buxton in center currently include the likes of Austin Martin, Nick Gordon, and Willi Castro.

As noted by Helfand, Buxton isn’t the only Twins position player recovering well from offseason surgery. Both first baseman Alex Kirilloff and outfielder Jose Miranda under went surgery back in October and have been progressing well in the run-up to Spring Training. Both youngsters indicated that they hope to be ready to go once camp opens next month. Miranda’s big league career kicked off with a bang in 2022 when he impressed with a .268/.325/.426 slash line in 125 games, but his sophomore season didn’t go nearly as well as he was limited to just 40 games in the big leagues by injuries and ineffectiveness. Kirilloff, meanwhile, enjoyed something of a breakout season in 2023 as he slashed a respectable .270/.348/.445 in 88 games while splitting time at first base with Donovan Solano and Joey Gallo.

Twins Sign Caleb Boushley To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have signed right-hander Caleb Boushley to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty has been assigned to Triple-A St. Paul for now but could perhaps receive an invite to major league Spring Training.

Boushley, 30, got to make his major league debut towards the end of the 2023 season. The Brewers selected his contract September 29, after they had already clinched the National League Central. He ended up pitching 2 1/3 innings in that day’s game, finishing a 10-inning contest against the Cubs. He struck out five and walked two, allowing one hit and one earned run. The Brewers won it on Carlos Santana’s walk-off double, video courtesy of MLB.com. Boushley was able to earn the win, leading to the obligatory post-game bath. He was outrighted off the club’s roster at the end of October and elected free agency.

Apart from that one memorable MLB outing, he spent the year in Triple-A. He tossed 135 2/3 innings over 26 starts and three relief appearances, allowing 5.11 earned runs per nine frames. He struck out 18.9% of opponents while walking 8.8%. That’s generally been the shape of his minor league production over the years, as he has struck out 20.7% of hitters on the farm over his professional career but only walked 6.6%.

The Twins’ rotation is in a weaker spot than it was last year, with Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda having reached free agency. Chris Paddack has recovered from Tommy John surgery and could soften the blow a bit, but the group is a whole is still a notch below the 2023 squad. Paddack will join Pablo López, Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan in the front four. Louie Varland could perhaps be in the number five spot but he had significant home run issues in his debut. The roster also has Simeon Woods Richardson, Matt Canterino and Brent Headrick aboard as optionable depth pieces.

The club is seemingly working with diminished resources this offseason due to uncertainty around the broadcast revenue situation. They’ve had a fairly quiet offseason so far, not yet having done anything to try to compensate for the losses of Gray or Maeda. Boushley will give them a non-roster depth arm, joining guys like Randy Dobnak and A.J. Alexy.

Twins Claim Bubba Thompson

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The Twins claimed outfielder Bubba Thompson off waivers from the Yankees, per an announcement from the Yankees. He’d been designated for assignment last week in order to open space on the roster for right-hander Luke Weaver. The Twins had a pair of open spots on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary.

Thompson, 25, is the game’s fastest player by measure of Statcast’s average sprint speed metric (30.4 ft/sec). He’s also one of the sport’s lightest hitters. In 241 career plate appearances at the big league level — all coming with the Rangers, who originally took him in the first round of the 2017 draft — Thompson is a .242/.286/.305 hitter. That modest slash line comes in spite of a hefty .351 average on balls in play and masks (to an extent) a career 29.9% strikeout rate. Thompson’s top-of-the-scale speed is countered by bottom-of-the-scale ratings in terms of average exit velocity (career 84.1 mph) and hard-hit rate (21.9%).

As one might expect for a player with such prodigious wheels, Thompson grades as a sound defender in his limited MLB action. He’s logged 595 innings in the outfield and been credited with a +1 from both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average. The former high school football star has drawn praise for off-the-chart athleticism dating back to his amateur days, and Baseball America has previously credited him as a plus-plus runner and plus defender in center field while also cautioning that he’s a below-average hitter who lacks consistency from at-bat to at-bat.

It hasn’t yet manifested in game settings, but Thompson draws praise for his above-average raw power. He’s never topped 16 home runs in a single season, however, and he’s only reached double-digit home runs twice in his pro career. He hit six home runs in 362 plate appearances in 2023 — all coming in the minors. Thompson is a career .284/.347/.440 hitter in 677 Triple-A plate appearances and a .268/.329/.436 hitter overall in the minors.

Thompson will give the Twins some depth in center field and a strong defensive alternative in the event that perennial injury risk Byron Buxton isn’t able to suit up in the outfield. Knee surgery limited Buxton exclusively to DH work in 2023, though the organization’s hope is that he can return to the outfield in 2024. As it stands, lefties Matt Wallner and Max Kepler are expected to man the corners at Target Field, although Kepler’s name has once again been floated as in trade rumblings throughout the offseason as Minnesota looks to pare back payroll and Kepler enters the final season of his contract.

Thompson still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so the Twins can freely shuttle him between Triple-A St. Paul and the big league team this coming season — assuming he sticks on the 40-man roster for the remainder of the offseason. If things go well, he can take help to offset the loss of free agent Michael A. Taylor, though Thompson has a long ways to go before proving he has enough bat to stick on a big league roster with any degree of consistency. If the Twins can succeed in coaxing more out of him at the plate, he can be controlled for another six seasons.

Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, Todd Helton Elected To Baseball Hall Of Fame

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The Hall of Fame announced this evening that Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton have been elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America. They will be elected alongside Jim Leyland, who was selected by the Era Committee last month.

Beltré received 95.1% of the vote, Helton 79.7% and Mauer 76.1%. Billy Wagner got 73.8%, just shy of the 75% threshold. This was his ninth year on the ballot, meaning next year will be his last. Gary Sheffield received 63.9% of the vote in his 10th year on the ballot and will therefore not be present on next year’s. The full results can be found at this link from the BBWAA.

Beltré was an international signing of the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic. He debuted in the majors in 1998 when still just 19 years old. Though it took him some time to realize his full potential, he would eventually go on to have an incredible career in just about every respect.

He eventually played in parts of 21 seasons with the Dodgers, Mariners, Red Sox and Rangers. In 2,933 career games, he had 3,166 hits, which included 636 doubles, 38 triples and 477 home runs. He was also considered to be an excellent third baseman, tallying 200 Defensive Runs Saved even though that metric didn’t exist for the first few years of his career. He also stole 121 bases over the years.

Due to the combination of his offense, defense and longevity, he produced 83.8 wins above replacement in eyes of FanGraphs while Baseball Reference has him a 93.5. He was on four All-Star teams, won five Gold Glove awards and four Silver Slugger Awards. This was his first year on the ballot.

Mauer’s career exploits were many, but there was also a poetic connective tissue in that he was so specifically tied to one franchise. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he entered the 2001 Major League Baseball draft and the Twins used the first overall pick to select him.

He would go on to play his entire career for the Twins, which lasted from his 2004 debut through the 2018 season. He played in 1,858 games, with injuries reducing his playing time and eventually moving him from catcher to first base. But he still managed to notch 2,123 hits and finish his career with a .306 batting average.

Of the seven batting titles won by catchers, Mauer has three of them. That included his 2009 season, wherein he hit .365 and won Most Valuable Player in the American League. He finished his career with 53 fWAR and 55.2 bWAR. He was selected to six All-Star teams, won three Gold Glove awards and five Silver Slugger Awards. This was his first year on the ballot.

Todd Helton

Helton also spent his entire career with one organization, having been drafted eighth overall by the Rockies in 1995. He would make his major league debut in 1997 and stick with the Rockies through 2013.

In his 2,247 games, he tallied 2,519 hits, including 1,521 doubles and 369 home runs. In 2000, he hit .372 with 40 home runs, then followed that up by hitting 49 homers with a .336 batting average the year after. He made five All-Star teams, won three Gold Glove awards and five Silver Sluggers. He has career tallies of 54.9 fWAR and 61.8 bWAR. This was his sixth year on the ballot.

Per the BBWAA, this was the 10th time they elected three players, the last being when Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Iván Rodríguez were elected in 2017.

Latest On Twins’ Trade Discussions

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The Twins have been candid all throughout the offseason about their plans to reduce player payroll this winter, and they’ve largely been successful in that endeavor. RosterResource projects the club for a payroll of just $124MM in 2024, which would represent a $35MM haircut relative to last year’s payroll. Given that reality, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that the club does not plan on engaging in a “salary-dump” trade this winter.

That’s surely heartening news for Twins fans, given rumors that swirled earlier this offseason indicating that the likes of second baseman Jorge Polanco, outfielder Max Kepler, and infielder Kyle Farmer were available in trade this winter. While Hayes left open the possibility of a trade coming together, he made clear that the club doesn’t plan on dealing those players in order to clear salary or add prospects. Instead, the Twins are angling to bring back major league talent in any deal as they look to build on a 2023 campaign that saw the club win its first playoff series in two decades.

Hayes also indicates that the club would prefer to move Polanco and/or Farmer rather than Kepler, adding that the “expectation” entering the offseason was that Minnesota would move two infielders from their big-league roster to lessen the club’s positional logjam. Setting aside Polanco and Farmer, the club employees Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, and Edouard Julien as likely regulars with the likes of Jose Miranda, Austin Martin, Nick Gordon, Willi Castro and top prospect Brooks Lee all likely to spend at least some time on the infield dirt as well next season. The same goes for Alex Kirilloff, who figures to factor heavily into the club’s first base mix but has plenty of experience in the outfield as well. By contrast, the club’s outfield mix is much less crowded, with Kepler, Byron Buxton, Matt Wallner, and Trevor Larnach making up the club’s primary options though Kirilloff, Martin, Gordon, and Castro all also have experience on the grass as well.

Despite the club’s apparent willingness to deal from its surplus, Hayes suggests that a deal doesn’t appear likely to come together anytime soon. While he notes that the club has identified potential trade partners and begun talks with them, many of those teams are still waiting to see how the rest of free agency plays out. That’s not necessarily a surprise given the number of positional free agents, ranging from Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman to Justin Turner and Whit Merrifield, are still available at this point in the winter.

If the club hopes to add big league talent in exchange for parting with an established veteran like Polanco or Farmer, it’s not hard to see what areas of the roster they could target. The departures of Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda have left the club unusually thin in the starting rotation. While a quintet of Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Chris Paddack, Bailey Ober, and Louie Varland would be a viable group to carry into Opening Day, there’s plenty of room for improvement in that group and the club lacks much in the way of depth. Should any of the team’s starting five suffer an injury early in the season, the Twins currently figure to lean on an unproven arm like Brent Headrick or Simeon Woods-Richardson to take the ball every fifth day.

MLBTR took a look at possible trade partners for the Twins regarding Polanco last month, and many of those same teams could also benefit from the addition of Farmer as well. The Mariners, Cubs, Blue Jays, Giants, and Marlins were among the clubs mentioned who could stand to add another bat to their infield mix while also having the sort of MLB-ready pitching depth that the Twins could be interested in from which to deal. Speculatively speaking, a team like the Dodgers or Angels could also benefit from bolstering their infield depth given the uncertain shortstop situation in L.A. and the many injuries Anaheim’s infielders suffered last season. Both clubs also have controllable pitching options who could theoretically be moved this winter, such as Gavin Stone and Chase Silseth.

Twins, Matt Bowman Agree To Minor League Deal

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January 19: Bowman’s deal contains an opt-out clause, Darren Wolfson of SKOR North. The timing of that opt-out isn’t known at this time. Wolfson adds that Hobie Harris, who also signed a minor league deal with the Twins, does not have an opt-out.

January 18: The Twins are adding reliever Matt Bowman on a minor league contract with a non-roster Spring Training invite, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (X link). The ZS Sports client would lock in a $925K salary if he secures a spot on the MLB roster.

Bowman, 32, got back to the big leagues late last season after an extended injury absence. The sinkerballer had thrown over 180 innings with the Cardinals and Reds between 2016-19. He was a generally solid middle innings arm during that stretch. The Princeton product turned in a sub-4.00 ERA in three of his four seasons while keeping the ball on the ground on more than 55% of batted balls allowed.

That’s when injuries intervened. An elbow sprain cost Bowman the shortened 2020 season. After a few months trying unsuccessfully to rehab the injury, he required Tommy John surgery that September. Bowman wound up missing another two full seasons after going under the knife. That spanned a two-year minor league pact with the Yankees, but Bowman returned to the organization on another non-roster deal last winter.

Finally healthy, he spent most of the year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Bowman had fairly typical results for the RailRiders. He allowed 3.99 earned runs per nine across 58 2/3 innings behind an above-average 51.9% grounder rate. He fanned a nearly average 22.6% of opponents. An 11.7% walk rate was higher than ideal, but it’s not uncommon for pitchers to battle some command issues early in a return from Tommy John surgery. In his MLB career, he owns a decent 8.1% walk percentage.

Bowman showed enough in the minors to get a brief look in Aaron Boone’s bullpen. New York added him to the 40-man roster shortly after the All-Star Break to keep him from becoming a free agent after he triggered an opt-out in his minor league deal. The Yankees didn’t actually recall him until September. He pitched three times, tallying four innings of four-run ball with three strikeouts and a pair of walks. Bowman averaged 93.1 MPH on his sinker in that limited look.

The Yankees outrighted him from the 40-man roster at season’s end, sending him back to free agency. He’ll now battle for a spot in a Minnesota relief group that was a league average unit in 2023. Bowman is now out of options. If the Twins call him up, they’d need to keep him in the majors or again designate him for assignment.

Latest Details On Diamond Bankruptcy

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The Diamond Sports Group saga took another turn yesterday when the broadcasting company announced a restructuring agreement that’d see debt holders invest $450MM to keep the company afloat. As part of the deal, Amazon would receive streaming rights for the NBA, NHL and MLB teams for which Diamond currently holds those rights.

While there’s an agreement in place between Diamond and Amazon, it’s worth emphasizing that the plan can’t become official without approval from the bankruptcy court. That’ll take time as the court and Diamond’s creditors sort through the details.

Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov of the Athletic report that Amazon would pay $115MM, with an additional $50MM investment possible. While that’d entitle them to streaming rights for every NBA and NHL team that contracts with Diamond, it’s only applicable to five MLB teams. Diamond has streaming rights for the Royals, Tigers, Marlins, Brewers and Rays. Those clubs would still be broadcast on cable on Diamond’s Bally Sports networks, but in-market streaming access would move to Prime Video. MLB has opposed selling additional streaming rights to Diamond, but Alden González of ESPN reports that Amazon’s involvement is not conditional on further streaming acquisitions.

Until this week, it had seemed likely Diamond would abandon the regional sports network entirely after the 2024 MLB season. The agreement with Amazon represents a significant shift and leaves a few MLB teams in a state of continued uncertainty.

Diamond holds broadcasting deals with 11 MLB teams. The corporation’s attorney said yesterday that nine of those clubs — the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals and Tigers — will be paid in full for the ’24 campaign (relayed by González). The company is seeking to renegotiate its deals with two others, the Guardians and Rangers, at lesser fees. It is also in discussions with the Twins, whose previous contract with Diamond expired at the end of last season — leaving them as something of a broadcasting free agent.

The Diamond attorney informed the court yesterday that the company has offered terms to each of the Cleveland, Texas and Minnesota organizations to continue broadcasting their games in 2024 (via The Athletic). He said the company expects answers from all three franchises by the start of February. A hearing scheduled for tomorrow morning has been postponed indefinitely so the sides can review the framework of the streaming deal, per Drellich and Vorkunov.

None of the Rangers, Guardians or Twins are obligated to accept reduced rights fees. If they decline, however, it seems likely Diamond will drop the Texas and Cleveland contracts and leave Minnesota without a deal. Diamond already showed a willingness to abandon unprofitable terms during the 2023 season, when it dropped agreements with the Padres and Diamondbacks.

That leaves Texas, Cleveland and Minnesota without a ton of leverage. Diamond’s attorney said one of the organizations (without specifying which) plans to negotiate a deal that would even extend beyond next season, as relayed by The Athletic.

The uncertainty has been reflected in those franchises’ activity, or lack thereof, in free agency. Minnesota declared they were cutting payroll at the start of the offseason. They allowed Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda to depart and have thus far signed one free agent to a major league contract. That was a $950K guarantee for reliever Josh Staumont, who is rehabbing from thoracic outlet surgery.

Texas is coming off a World Series that’d normally spur a team to act aggressively in the offseason. Instead, GM Chris Young indicated they wouldn’t be as active as they’d been in previous winters. The Rangers have signed a few free agents — most notably a two-year, $22MM pact for Tyler Mahle — but they haven’t splurged at the top of the class. The broadcasting situation is commonly cited as a reason they haven’t brought back Jordan Montgomery, who remains on the open market.

Cleveland is never a big spender, so the lack of activity on their end is characteristic. Still, the club is seemingly operating with limited flexibility. They’ve taken on some salary in the Scott Barlow trade and signed Austin Hedges to a $4MM free agent deal.

Whether all those teams can reach a new contract with Diamond should become clear in the next few weeks. Even if they stay on the networks for next season (and potentially beyond), it’d come with some kind of hit to their revenues. Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com reported the Guardians made $55MM in local rights fees last season. It was a similar amount for Minnesota, whom Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports received $54MM in 2023. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote yesterday the Rangers’ deal has paid around $111MM annually.

If any of those teams don’t reach an agreement, they’d join a trio of clubs likely to operate without an RSN deal this year. MLB stepped in to handle in-market broadcasting for Arizona and San Diego last season. While MLB subsidized a portion of the D-Backs and Padres deals last season, commissioner Rob Manfred has made clear they won’t do so next season. Allowing MLB to handle the broadcasts would likely be less profitable for the teams than if they land a new deal with Diamond.

It seems MLB is also going to handle broadcasts for the Rockies, whose contract was dropped by AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain at the end of 2023. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reported this month that MLB is expected to stream Colorado games in-market on its MLB.tv platform, as it is doing with the D-Backs and Padres. The Rockies made roughly $57MM off their broadcasting deal a year ago, Saunders adds.

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