There wasn’t much news on Adam Jones’ market this winter, though ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets that the Giants and other teams were interested in the veteran outfielder earlier this winter at a price tag of around $2MM-$3MM on a one-year contract. Jones was looking for more at the start of the offseason, though ultimately landed a contract in that range, agreeing to a one-year, $3MM deal (with $2MM more available in incentives) with the Diamondbacks. The Giants were a logical suitor for Jones given their unsettled outfield, and San Francisco ended up landing a number of veteran outfielders (Gerardo Parra, Cameron Maybin, Craig Gentry) to minor league contracts, rather than give Jones a guaranteed Major League deal. Given the timing, it seems like the Giants decided to move on from Jones rather than wait to see if his price dropped.
Here’s more from the western half of the baseball map…
- Felix Hernandez is entering the last season of his seven-year, $175MM contract, and while the veteran righty obviously won’t receive anything close to that salary in his next contract, it increasingly seems like it will be his last year altogether with the Mariners. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times puts it, “neither side seems interested in continuing the relationship” beyond 2019, creating the possibility of an awkward exit for one of the franchise’s greatest players. After injuries hampered Hernandez’s effectiveness in 2016-17, the 32-year-old suffered through the worst season of his career in 2018, posting a 5.55 ERA over 155 2/3 innings. As a result, Hernandez has been dropped to the fifth spot in Seattle’s rotation, thus ending his streak of 10 consecutive Opening Day starts. There appears to be some hard feelings on Hernandez’s part about missing the opener, admitting to reporters that he was upset about the decision, though adding “I’ve got no comment to that,” when asked to give further details.
- Mariners rookie right-hander Gerson Bautista left today’s game after suffering an injury to his upper arm and/or pectoral muscle. (MLB.com’s Greg Johns was among those to report the details.) There’s no word yet on the severity of the injury, though Bautista left the mound in visible discomfort. Bautista was part of the trade package acquired from the Mets as part of the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade, and the 23-year-old has been making a good case to win a bullpen job during an impressive spring.
- Top Angels prospect Jo Adell will be out of action for 10-12 weeks after suffering both a Grade-2 right ankle sprain and a Grade-1 left hamstring strain, the team announced (Twitter link). Adell was a consensus top-14 prospect in preseason top-100 rankings, with Baseball Prospectus going as far as to rank Adell as the second-best prospect in all of baseball. The outfielder was expected to begin the year at Double-A, though Adell will now be force to miss a a big chunk of his third pro season.
- Tyler Skaggs missed today’s scheduled Cactus League outing due to forearm fatigue, Angels manager Brad Ausmus told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group). As worrisome as any forearm issue is for a pitcher with Skaggs’ Tommy John history, the injury doesn’t appear to be too serious — Skaggs merely overworked himself while experimenting with a new pitch. An MRI revealed no problems, and Skaggs is expected to be back on the mound in a few days’ time. (A follow-up tweet from Fletcher even showed a picture of Skaggs playing catch after his start was shelved.)
