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Dodgers Sign Jake McGee

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The Dodgers have announced the signing of lefty Jake McGee. McGee is signing right onto the 40-man roster and will presumably have a spot on the active roster to open the season.

Injured righty Jimmy Nelson has been placed on the 45-day injured list, thus freeing a roster spot. Nelson will miss the entire season after undergoing back surgery, as has been anticipated for several weeks.

McGee was just cut loose by the division-rival Rockies even as he prepared for the final guaranteed season of his contract. The Colorado org will remain on the hook for the pro-rated portion of his $9MM salary, less a pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any time he spends on the Dodgers active roster.

It’d certainly sting for the Rox to see McGee thrive in Los Angeles, but the southpaw will need to figure things out to make that happen. Soon to turn 34, McGee is coming off of a messy 2019 campaign in which he was likely fortunate to carry a 4.35 ERA despite permitting 2.4 home runs per nine innings.

McGee’s swinging-strike rate dropped to 8.6% as he continued to surrender fastball velocity to the hands of time. It’ll be interesting to see what the Dodgers have in mind to prolong McGee’s career, now that he’s no longer bringing the elite speed he once did. He turned increasingly to his slider last year with some success, but still went to his trusty heater in four of every five deliveries.

Rockies To Release Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee

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The Rockies have requested release waivers on relievers Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter) and Thomas Harding of MLB.com (Twitter link). Barring the extremely unlikely event of a claim, both players will return to the open market.

When last these veteran hurlers tested the waters, they found irresistible bait dangling from the Rockies’ line. Both were lured to Denver with three-year, $27MM deals in December of 2017. Closer Wade Davis followed soon after with a three-year, $52MM pact.

At the time, the hope was that installing a trio of established late-inning arms would put the Rox over the top. It’s not as if any of the hurlers took down much more than was anticipated entering the offseason. But it was a significant risk to add all three. The Rockies were obviously prepared to accept the downside scenario, but surely didn’t think it could work out as poorly as it did.

Shaw, long a high-quality setup man, has limped to a 5.61 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 over 126 2/3 innings in Colorado. The 32-year-old struggled in Cactus League action this spring. McGee, soon to turn 34, carries a 5.54 ERA in his 92 2/3 frames since re-signing. While he owns a sturdy-enough combination of 8.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9, he has allowed two dingers per nine over the past two years.

So, is Coors Field to blame? Shaw was actually quite a lot better at home than on the road last year, so it doesn’t seem to explain much in his case. The opposite is true of McGee. Then again, the more revealing split may be in the platoon department. He was tuned up by right-handed hitters (.326/.390/.663) in 2019.

This move won’t really save the Rockies any money, but it’ll clear the deck for other players and wipe out some final earning possibilities for each of the two veterans.

Shaw’s deal promised him $9MM this year, so he’s still due the pro-rated portion of that. He’ll also get a $2MM buyout on a $9MM option, which would’ve been guaranteed with just forty appearances (had it been a full 2020 season). McGee needed 65 appearances (full season) for his $9MM option to vest. Instead, he’ll earn a pro-rated portion of his $9.5MM salary for 2020 and will also still be due a $2MM buyout.

MLB, MLBPA Still Discussing Vesting Options, Retention Bonuses

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The length of the season, prorated salaries and protocols for health and safety are finally all set in place, but Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are still negotiating the manner in which contractual options, performance incentives/bonuses and escalator clauses will be handled, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required).

Fortunately, an agreement is believed to be “within reach,” per Rosenthal. The league had initially sought to prorate the value of 2021 options using the same formula as 2020 salaries, although the MLBPA obviously pushed back against that notion. There’s still some debate over the handling of vesting options — particularly those that are triggered by reaching a set number of games pitched or plate appearances over the life of multiple seasons. The two sides also must determine how those options would be treated in the event that the season is canceled at any point due to health concerns.

There aren’t too many vesting options in MLB this year, although some of the notable ones include:

  • Jon Lester, LHP, Cubs: Lester’s $25MM mutual option ($10MM buyout) for the 2021 season would become guaranteed with 200 innings pitched in a normal season.
  • J.A. Happ, LHP, Yankees: Happ’s $17MM club option for the 2021 season would’ve become guaranteed upon making 27 starts or totaling 165 innings in 2020.
  • Andrew Miller, LHP, Cardinals: Miller’s $12MM club option for 2021 would have been guaranteed if he totaled 110 games between 2019-20. As Rosenthal explores, there are various ways to interpret how many more games he’d need to pitch to trigger that option — some more beneficial to Miller and others to the Cardinals.
  • Charlie Morton, RHP, Rays: Morton’s option is another that comes with a multi-year criteria. His contract calls for a $15MM club option in 2021 if he spends fewer than 30 days on the injured list between 2019-20. The option value decreases if he spends additional time on the injured list. Morton avoided the IL entirely last year. Unlike Miller, who surely hopes the number of appearances he needs to make in 2020 can be prorated, it’d be beneficial to Morton for that number (30) to remain as is. That seems unlikely, but the disparity between the clauses of Miller and Morton illustrates that this isn’t exactly straightforward for the player side. The value of his option
  • Kelvin Herrera, RHP, White Sox: Herrera, too, needed 110 games between 2019-20 for his $10MM club option to become guaranteed. He pitched in 57 games last year, leaving him 53 shy of his target.
  • Wade Davis, RHP, Rockies: Davis’ $15MM mutual option would’ve converted to a $15MM player option in the event that he finished 30 games. He’d only need to finish out 11-12 games in the shortened 2020 season if the two sides go with a strictly prorated interpretation of the qualifiers.
  • Bryan Shaw, RHP, Rockies: Shaw has the same 110-game target for 2019-20 that Miller and Herrera have. He pitched 70 times in 2019 and needed just 40 appearances in 2020 to lock in a $9MM salary for the 2021 campaign.
  • Jake McGee, LHP, Rockies: With 60 games pitched or 40 games finished in 2020, McGee would’ve locked in a $9MM salary for the 2021 season. His contract also allowed the option to vest with a with 110 games between 2019-20, but he only pitched in 45 contests last year.
  • Stephen Vogt, C, Diamondbacks: Vogt’s contract included a $3MM club option that not only vests but increases to a $3.5MM base upon starting 45 games and appearing n a total of 75 games overall.
  • Dee Gordon, 2B/SS/OF, Mariners: Gordon would’ve been guaranteed a $14MM salary for the 2021 season with 600 plate appearances this year. That, of course, was extremely unlikely in the first place, though.

Beyond those options, there are myriad escalator clauses throughout baseball that could be impacted by the shortened schedule. It’s fairly common for club options and/or future salaries to be boosted by steady performance — particularly among players returning from injury. Take Dellin Betances, for instance. His contract with the Mets calls for the value of next year’s $6MM player option to increase by $800K upon pitching in 40 games. He’d receive additional $1MM boosts to that figure for appearing in 50, 60 and 70 games apiece.

The league and the union are also still discussing potential retention bonuses for six-year veterans on non-guaranteed deals. In a typical year, any player with six-plus years of service who finished the preceding season on a 40-man roster qualifies as an Article XX(B) free agent. Such players must either be added to the 40-man roster, released five days prior to Opening Day or paid a $100K retention bonus to remain with the club in the minor leagues. Many players in that situation are released and quickly re-signed to a new minor league deal, but that won’t be possible in 2020 due to the fact that players who are removed from a team’s 60-man pool become ineligible to return to that team this season.

One Trade The Rays Would Like To Have Back

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The Rays have a reputation for winning trades, with good reason. They’ve proven especially adept at picking up undervalued assets from other organizations. Just this month, MLBTR’s Connor Byrne has covered three key players on the current roster who were acquired either in minor deals or were seen as lesser-regarded players in a more notable swap.

There’s one prominent example, though, of a player whom the Rays gave up as a secondary piece in a bigger trade, only to watch blossom in his new surroundings: right-hander German Márquez. Even the smartest organizations have their share of misses.

At the time the Rays and Rockies completed their January 2016 four-player swap, it was generally seen as the Corey Dickerson–Jake McGee deal. Dickerson had put up fantastic offensive numbers in parts of three seasons in Colorado, hitting .299/.346/.532 (124 wRC+) with 38 home runs in 921 plate appearances. Even after adjusting for Coors Field, Dickerson looked like a fantastic hitter. There were questions about him defensively, but there was obvious appeal to adding a potential middle-of-the-order bat with four seasons of team control for Tampa Bay.

On the other side, the Rockies most visible acquisition was the final two arbitration seasons of McGee. He’d carved out a masterful run at the back end of the Rays’ bullpen in the four years prior. The Rockies envisioned a left-handed strikeout arm anchoring their relief corps. (That didn’t happen, as McGee has fallen off, particularly after signing an ill-fated three-year deal to return to Colorado as a free agent after 2017).

Despite McGee’s prior dominance, the deal seemed tilted in the Rays’ favor. Dave Cameron, then of Fangraphs, opined that the Dickerson-McGee framework “just doesn’t make any sense for the Rockies.” As MLBTR’s Steve Adams and Jeff Todd explained, “it’s somewhat surprising…the Rockies felt comfortable parting with four years of Dickerson for two years of a reliever, however excellent he may be, and one mid-level pitching prospect. Colorado, of course, may see considerably more in Marquez than others in the industry.” 

Maybe the Rockies were truly outliers in evaluating the then-20-year-old pitcher more favorably than the rest of the league. If they were, credit to them. Over the past four seasons, Márquez has handily been the most valuable player in the swap. He’s racked up between 10 and 12 wins above replacement despite not reaching the majors until that September. His curveball, merely projected to average as a prospect, has actually proven one of the better swing-and-miss offerings of its type leaguewide, per Brooks Baseball. Increased reliance on his slider in 2018 coincided with a second big uptick in his strikeout rate. Long an elite strike-thrower, Márquez now has bona fide swing-and-miss stuff to back it up. Colorado doubled down on their faith in him with a $43MM guarantee last spring that could keep Márquez around via club options through 2024.

On the other side, Dickerson was merely a good hitter over two years in Tampa, undone a bit by an aggressive approach. He hit .265/.310/.480 (109 wRC+) in 1177 plate appearances from 2016-17. With his arbitration costs rising, the Rays somewhat surprisingly shipped him to Pittsburgh for Daniel Hudson, whom they subsequently released, and second base prospect Tristan Gray. Both Gray and Kevin Padlo, the second player the Rockies sent to Tampa four years ago, remain in the system as decently-regarded prospects.

The Rays figure to recoup some long-term value from Padlo and Gray, but that’ll likely pale in comparison what Márquez has achieved in Colorado. He stands out as the one who got away for Tampa.

Latest On Rockies’ Relievers

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The Rockies have signed relievers Wade Davis, Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw to expensive contracts in recent offseasons. Those deals haven’t worked out for the team, though, and now buyer’s remorse may be setting in regarding at least a couple of those pitchers. The club’s “investigating trades” involving McGee and Shaw, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, though he notes it’s unclear whether the Rockies will be able to move either.

No member of the Davis-McGee-Shaw trio should be easy to trade. It may be close to impossible in the case of Davis, who’s coming off a shockingly awful season and is still owed $18MM (including a $1MM buyout for 2021). Meanwhile, McGee and Shaw are still due substantial amounts in their own right. McGee has $11.5MM left (including a $2MM buyout for 2021), and Shaw’s owed a $9MM salary this year with a $2MM buyout thereafter.

The left-handed McGee, 33, was coming off a mostly solid run with the Rays and Rockies before he re-signed with the latter entering the 2018 season. Since then, he has put up a pair of unimpressive years, most recently recording a 4.35 ERA (with a far worse 6.00 ERA) across 41 1/3 innings in 2019. McGee walked just 2.4 batters per nine along the way, but his K/9 (7.62) and groundball percentage (35.7) left plenty to be desired. He also finished with a swinging-strike percentage of 8.6, almost a career low.

Shaw, a 32-year-old righty, had about as much trouble retiring enemy hitters as McGee did last season. He stumbled to a 5.38 ERA/5.19 FIP wth 7.25 K/9 and 3.63 BB/9 over 72 innings during his second straight subpar showing since he joined the Rockies on a three-year, $27MM guarantee that matched McGee’s deal. The Rockies’ version of Shaw has paled in comparison to the one who held his own with the Diamondbacks and Indians in previous seasons.

Going forward, Shaw’s $9MM club option for 2021 will become guaranteed if he appears in 40 games this year and finishes the season healthy. So, if the Rockies are unable to find a taker for Shaw in a trade, it would behoove them to significantly reduce his workload after he averaged 65 appearances in his first two seasons in their uniform.

Rockies Promote Brendan Rodgers

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TODAY: The move is official, with Colorado also activating lefty Jake McGee from the injured list. Righty DJ Johnson and infielder Pat Valaika were optioned down to create active roster space.

YESTERDAY: The Rockies are expected to promote top prospect Brendan Rodgers, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Corresponding moves remain to be seen, but a recent injury to shortstop Trevor Story is said to have played a role in the decision.

The 22-year-old Rodgers has been considered an elite prospect ever since he went to the Colorado organization with the third overall pick in the 2015 draft. He has steadily marched up the club’s farm system, briefly reaching Triple-A late last year. Rodgers entered the current season with consensus top-thirty leaguewide prospect billing; MLB.com was most bullish, grading him the tenth-best prospect in the game.

Rodgers has shown himself more than ready for a MLB opportunity early in the 2019 campaign. He’s slashing .356/.421/.644 with nine home runs over 152 plate appearances thus far at Albuquerque — impressive numbers even in an offensively robust league with a launching pad for a home park.

The Rockies could certainly stand to receive a boost. They enter play today at two games under .500 and 7.5 back of the Dodgers in the NL West. Whether Rodgers can perform at a top-end level out of the gates remains to be seen. But it’s a shot worth taking for a club that has received little with the bat from its other options at second base — where he’ll presumably line up except when he plays short in relief of Story.

There’s no reason to believe that Story’s injury will sideline him for long, or even that he’ll require a trip to the injured list. But the middle-infield duo has lacked punch even with the established slugger at full health. Story has held up his end of the bargain, but Garrett Hampson, Ryan McMahon, and Pat Valaika have not. The Rox offensive output at second base has easily been the worst in baseball this year. Hampson was already optioned down recently; another of those players could be pushed out to make way for Rodgers. (Both can still be optioned.)

Harding indicates that the promotion will likely occur on Friday. If that indeed comes to pass, then Rodgers can record as many as 136 days of MLB service this season. That would set him up for potential Super Two qualification in the future, so long as he’s able to keep his roster spot.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rockies Place Jake McGee On Injured List

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The Rockies have placed lefty Jake McGee on the 10-day injured list, Nick Groke of The Athletic was among those to tweet. He’ll be replaced by Carlos Estevez on the active roster.

McGee, 32, has been diagnosed with a left knee sprain. He has had some difficulties in that joint in the past, including a 2015 procedure to resolve a torn meniscus. The severity and anticipated timeline are not yet known.

This is the latest concerning bit of news for a Rockies relief unit that has not performed up to the level of investment that it took to compile it. McGee is one of several veteran hurlers who has struggled on a long-term deal; in his case, he’s just starting the second season of a three-year, $27MM pact after limping to a 6.49 ERA in 51 1/3 innings last year.

There have been some positive signs for McGee, who had three strikeouts through his first two outings of the regular season after carrying a 9:2 K/BB ratio in seven frames this spring. But he also coughed up nine earned runs on a dozen hits (including two home runs) in Cactus League action.

Now, McGee will need to get back to health before he’s able to resume his quest to get back on track on the hill. He joins fellow southpaw Chris Rusin on the injured list, leaving Mike Dunn and Harrison Musgrave as the left-side options for Colorado skipper Bud Black.

Rockies Re-Sign Jake McGee

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The Rockies have officially agreed to bring back free agent lefty Jake McGee with a three-year deal that guarantees $27MM. McGee is represented by Wasserman.

McGee’s guarantee comes in the form of consecutive salaries of $7MM, $8.5MM, and $9.5MM. He’s then promised a $2MM buyout on a 2021 vesting/club option that’s priced at $9MM. The extra year vests if McGee appears in sixty games in 2020, finishes forty games in that year, or makes 110 total appearances over the 2019-20 campaigns. There’s also a health requirement for the option to vest, though details remain unclear. It seems the contract also contemplates incentives of up to $4MM annually; while the milestones aren’t known, that leaves some earning upside in McGee’s pocket.

Jake McGee | Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not surprising to see a multi-year deal with a strong guarantee based both on McGee’s quality efforts in 2017 and an aggressive market for relievers thus far. McGee will become the latest in a line of high-quality relievers to come off the board and joins right-hander Bryan Shaw at the back of the Colorado bullpen nw that their deals are finalized.

The 31-year-old McGee struggled in his initial season with the Rockies (2016) after coming over from the Rays in the Corey Dickerson swap, but he largely righted the ship with a solid 2017 season. In 57 1/3 innings, the hard-throwing McGee posted a respectable 3.61 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 and a 40.5 percent ground-ball rate.

McGee’s 37 percent hard-contact rate is certainly higher than one would like to see, though it’s worth pointing out that much of that hard contact came on grounders; Statcast indicates that McGee’s average exit velocity on balls in the air was among the lowest in baseball (as is borne out in his 0.63 HR/9 rate), but he ranked considerably higher in terms of exit velocity on grounders.

It’s been an up-and-down ride for McGee both in terms of health and bottom-line results since he established himself as a big league regular back in 2012. But the overall body of work is impressive, as he’s logged a combined 3.06 ERA with 10.4 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 329 2/3 innings over that six-year span.

At present, it’s not clear how the Rockies view the back of their bullpen taking shape. McGee has served as a closer in the past and could be asked to take the ball in the ninth inning most often for the Rox in 2018 and beyond. Shaw, who also has agreed to a three-year deal, is no stranger to high-leverage innings himself, having served as an eighth-inning setup man in Cleveland for several years.

Colorado GM Jeff Bridich and his staff may not yet be done adding to the bullpen, either. The Rockies have been linked to Zach Britton, Wade Davis and Greg Holland over the past few weeks, and while they’ve certainly spent aggressively to bring McGee and Shaw into the fold, they’re still somewhere in the vicinity of the payroll mark at which they opened the 2017 campaign. If ownership is willing to spend a bit more with a playoff berth in the rear-view mirror, the Rox could yet make further additions to the ’pen or elsewhere on the roster.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the signing (via Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic had tweeted that rivals anticipated the move. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links) and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (links to Twitter) had contract details.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cubs Notes: Epstein, Davis, Bullpen, Schwarber, Arrieta, Ohtani, Stanton

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Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein met with reporters (including The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma) on Monday to discuss a number of hot stove-related subjects.  The highlights…

  • Epstein alluded to the team’s agreement with Brandon Morrow without officially making a confirmation, saying the Cubs were “pretty close” to the signing.  The pitcher in question was described as someone the Cubs would be “comfortable” using as a closer, though “he’s the type of team player that would be willing to take any role depending on what the rest of the team looks like.”
  • In that vein, the Cubs could acquire a more established closer, and a reunion with Wade Davis is still a possibility.  Epstein said he planned to meet with Davis’ agent either during the Winter Meetings or just after.  Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweeted earlier today that the Cubs were open to bringing Davis back if an “affordable” deal could be worked out.  MLBTR predicted Davis for a four-year, $60MM free agent contract this winter, which might fall outside of the Cubs’ comfort zone if they can land a less-pricey arm to further reinforce their bullpen.
  • Sharma reports that free agents Bryan Shaw, Anthony Swarzak, and Jake McGee are also on the Cubs’ radar as they continue their wide-ranging search for bullpen help.
  • Epstein downplayed any Kyle Schwarber trade rumors, saying that “he’s always been someone that teams have had an interest in, I guess.  But we have probably the most interest.”  Reports from earlier this week identified the Red Sox as a team interested in the young slugger.
  • The Cubs will stay in touch with Scott Boras about Jake Arrieta in case there’s any path to the free agent righty returning to Wrigley Field.  It has been widely assumed that Arrieta would be signing elsewhere this winter, as the Cubs have already signed Tyler Chatwood to join Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester, and Jose Quintana in the rotation, and have been heavily linked to Alex Cobb.  Still, given the number of other teams pursuing Cobb, it makes sense that Chicago would remain open to Arrieta, even if his price tag would be significantly higher.
  • Of course, the Cubs almost made another big rotation splash as they were one of the seven finalists for Shohei Ohtani’s services.  Epstein was proud of his team’s presentation to Ohtani and came away impressed by how the Japanese star handled himself in meetings with Cubs officials.  Even getting into the final seven was an accomplishment in Epstein’s eyes, as the Cubs were neither a West Coast team or an AL team that could offer Ohtani DH at-bats.
  • Chicago was also one of the four teams Giancarlo Stanton would’ve waived his no-trade clause to join, though it doesn’t seem talks got very far between the Cubs and Marlins before Stanton was dealt to the Yankees.  “There wasn’t much interaction given the makeup of our roster, our future payroll commitments and some plans that we have,” Epstein said.  “Great player and great opportunity, but not necessarily the right one for us at the time.”

Morosi’s Latest: Rangers, Cards, Rockies, Phillies

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A few early morning free agent rumors from Jon Morosi of MLB.com…

  • The Rangers “have had preliminary contact” with right-hander Alex Cobb’s representatives, Morosi writes. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported earlier this month that the starter-needy Rangers covet Cobb, one of the top hurlers on the open market. Cobb returned in earnest from 2015 Tommy John surgery last season to turn in a career-best 179 1/3 innings of 3.66 ERA pitching, with 6.42 K/9, 2.21 BB/9 and a 47.8 percent groundball rate.
  • The Cardinals and Rockies are among teams with interest in reliever Brandon Kintzler, whose experience as a closer has executives wondering if a club will sign him to handle that role, according to Morosi. Both the Cardinals and Rockies need more than ninth-inning help, as each team has seen multiple key relievers hit free agency this month. The 33-year-old Kintzler has overcome a paucity of strikeouts to ride a low-walk, high-grounder combination to success throughout his career, including in a 2017 campaign that saw the righty amass a career-high 29 saves between Minnesota and Washington (28 with the Twins).
  • The Phillies are one of the teams eyeing left-hander Jake McGee, reports Morosi, who notes that the reliever was once teammates with new Philadelphia skipper Gabe Kapler in Tampa Bay. With Colorado in 2017, McGee, 31, posted a 3.61 ERA and logged 9.1 K/9, 2.51 BB/9 and a 40.5 percent grounder rate over 57 1/3 innings. Along the way, he was effective against both righty- and lefty-swingers, the latter of whom had their way against Phillies relievers (.270/.347/.459).
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