Royals Agree To Terms With Clay Buchholz
The Royals have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty Clay Buchholz, a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today indicates (Twitter links). If the deal is finalized, Buchholz can earn at a $1.5MM rate in the majors.
Buchholz can also reach up to $250K in incentives. He’d earn $25K apiece for making his tenth through 19th starts, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets. The contract also includes an opt-out opportunity on May 1st.
Kansas City seems like a good spot for the veteran hurler to attempt a comeback. After all, the team’s rotation is not exactly overflowing with depth and the Royals have good cause to seek some low-risk upside after adding a few veterans on one-year deals.
[RELATED: Royals Depth Chart]
Buchholz, 33, missed virtually all of the 2017 season with a partially torn flexor pronator mass. The Phillies had acquired him from the Red Sox and assumed his $13.5MM salary. (Boston had picked up its club option over Buchholz in the final year of control under the extension the sides agreed to back in 2011.)
It’s tough to say what the Royals will get out of Buchholz, who had plenty of ups and downs even before his injury. He compiled 113 1/3 innings of 3.26 ERA ball in 2015, then struggled for much of the ensuing season while showing declines in strikeouts (6.0 K/9) and groundball induction (41.2% groundball rate). Yet Buchholz also finished the 2016 season on a tear, running up 44 frames of 2.86 ERA ball to close out the year.
First, though, the veteran starter will need to earn his way back to the majors. Presumably, he won’t be a candidate for the Opening Day roster, given that he has missed almost all of camp. But Buchholz could present an option if and when a rotation need arises.
Quick Hits: Brewers, Yankees, Red Sox, Royals
The minor league contract left-hander Wade Miley signed with the Brewers last month contains a March 22 opt-out clause, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. Miley can ask for his release if the Brewers don’t inform him that he has made the club by then, McCalvy adds. The latest we’ll know Miley’s fate is March 24, as he’s an Article XX(B) free agent whom Milwaukee must either cut loose or put on its roster by that date. The 31-year-old Miley has a legitimate chance to win a spot in the Brewers’ rotation, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentintel suggested Saturday.
- More on the Brewers, who are “monitoring the catching market,” according to Haudricourt. Their backstops at the moment are Manny Pina and Jett Bandy, while Stephen Vogt will open the season on the disabled list, manager Craig Counsell told McCalvy and other reporters Sunday. Assuming the Brewers don’t change their minds and release Vogt, his $3.065MM salary will become guaranteed on Opening Day. Vogt has been out since late February with a capsule strain in his right shoulder. He has a fan in Brewers general manager David Stearns, who said (via Haudricourt): “We want him here. Stephen brings a lot to this team.”
- Even after acquiring Brandon Drury from the Diamondbacks in late February, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the team would give Miguel Andujar a chance to win its starting third base job. That bid officially came to an end Sunday, as the Yankees optioned the highly touted Andujar to Triple-A, setting up Drury to start at the hot corner. The 23-year-old Andujar held his own during spring action, though, with a .916 OPS in a team-leading 42 at-bats.
- Red Sox infielder Deven Marrero is drawing interest from other clubs, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. Marrero’s out of options, meaning the Red Sox will have to roster him, deal him or risk losing him for nothing in the coming week-plus. The 27-year-old saw action across the infield with the Red Sox from 2015-17, but he produced a meager .208/.259/.309 batting line over that 258-plate appearance sample size.
- Before reliever Justin Grimm signed with the Royals on Sunday, he consulted with his friend, former Cubs teammate and ex-KC closer Wade Davis, per Maria Torres of the Kansas City Star. Davis, a Royal from 2013-16 (and a World Series champion in ’15), offered glowing reviews for the franchise and the city, which helped the Royals reel in Grimm. “He had really nice things to say about the city of Kansas City, the organization, the training staff, the coaches, from the top down,” Grimm said. “That’s one guy that I look up to … It definitely swayed my decision.”
Royals Sign Justin Grimm, Designate Sam Gaviglio
12:52pm: Grimm’s deal comes with a $1.25MM salary and up to $300K in performance bonuses, Rustin Dodd of The Athletic tweets. Those bonuses start at 30 games and max out at 55, per Jon Heyman of FanRag.
12:25pm: The Royals have signed right-handed reliever Justin Grimm to a one-year, major league contract and designated fellow righty Sam Gaviglio for assignment, Maria Torres of the Kansas City Star reports. Grimm is a client of the Bledsoe Agency.
It wasn’t a long stay in free agency for Grimm, whom the Cubs released on Thursday. The 29-year-old had been in line to collect a $2.2MM salary, but the Cubs saved most of that money (minus $541K in termination pay) in cutting him. They deemed Grimm expendable in the wake of a rough 2017 that saw him pitch to a 5.53 ERA/5.36 FIP with 9.6 K/9, 4.39 BB/9 and a 43.1 percent groundball rate across 55 1/3 innings. Grimm’s run prevention issues were thanks largely to a 22.2 percent home run-to-fly ball rate, more than twice the mark he logged in Texas and Chicago from 2012-16 (10.5).
When Grimm was able to limit homers earlier in his career, he was a useful cog with the Cubs, particularly when he recorded a 1.99 ERA with 12.14 K/9 during a 49 2/3-inning 2015 campaign. The Royals surely aren’t expecting that type of production on the heels of his ugly 2017, but last year’s version of Grimm still offered good velocity and an 11.4 percent swinging-strike rate. That mark fell right in line with the overall figure he put up during his four-year Cubs tenure (11.9). He’ll now be part of a Royals bullpen that’s set to feature a couple other established relievers seeking bounce-back years in Kelvin Herrera and Brandon Maurer.
Gaviglio, 27, joined the Royals on a waiver claim from the Mariners last September. He closed the season by throwing 12 decent innings in Kansas City, where he allowed four earned runs on 13 hits and five walks, with nine strikeouts. Between KC and Seattle last season, his first in the majors, Gaviglio tossed 74 1/3 innings (16 appearances, 13 starts) and registered a 4.36 ERA/5.81 FIP with 5.93 K/9, 3.15 BB/9 and a 49.4 percent grounder rate.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
AL Central Notes: Jimenez, Mejia, Dozier, Reyes, Lynn, Reyes
The White Sox announced on Wednesday that they’ve optioned top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez to Double-A Birmingham. The 21-year-old homered twice and hit a triple in nine spring plate appearances with the Sox, but he was never viewed as a candidate to break camp with the team. Jimenez has just 18 games of Double-A ball to his credit and has yet to play Triple-A, so he’ll head to the minors for additional development. The centerpiece of last summer’s Jose Quintana blockbuster with the crosstown Cubs, Jimenez figures to be a critical long-term piece on the South Side of Chicago, though ChiSox fans will likely have to wait at least a few months before getting a look at him in the Majors. That’s just fine with Jimenez, as Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com writes, though the youngster also made clear he thinks he is ready to play at the game’s highest level.
More from the division…
- Another top prospect, Indians catcher Francisco Mejia, could actually end up seeing some action in the outfield as part of a plan to utilize him in the majors in the near term, Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer reports. Mejia has previously been tried out at the hot corner, which Hoynes says “didn’t take,” so clearly the Cleveland organization isn’t fully committed to keeping him behind the dish. Regardless, he’s seen as a high-quality hitting prospect who could soon make an impact. The impression made by outfielder Abraham Almonte was not quite as positive, Hoynes notes, as he is not in shape and has already been optioned despite toting a $825K arb contract into camp.
- At one point, Hunter Dozier of the Royals had that kind of lofty billing. But the eighth overall pick of the 2013 draft has seen his star fade over the years. As MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes, the organization now seems to see Dozier mostly as a first baseman, which doesn’t necessarily boost his long-term value outlook as he prepares to open the season at Triple-A. That said, the organization is obviously focused primarily on finding a path for Dozier to contribute to the majors. That won’t happen out of camp, but the 26-year-old remains one of the Royals’ better-regarded prospects. Injuries robbed him of a full 2017 season, though he did impress with a .296/.366/.533 overall slash in the upper minors in the prior campaign.
- As many have observed, the Twins appear to be one of the prime beneficiaries of the collapse of free-agent demand this winter. Both Logan Morrison and Lance Lynn agreed to surprising one-year deals with Minnesota; as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reports, both elected to go there in no small part owing to the hope that their single season would be with a winning organization. While those two veterans surely anticipated quite a bit more earning power, it seems there are good vibes all around in Twins’ camp.
- The Tigers are deliberating over the fate of Rule 5 pick Victor Reyes, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Skipper Ron Gardenhire says it’s “honestly a really big one” — decision, that is — for the rebuilding organization. It could come down to Reyes and fellow outfielder JaCoby Jones, who has had a strong spring but can still be optioned. Interestingly, Fenech says the Tigers tried and failed to get Reyes in the J.D. Martinez trade, despite the fact that he came available just months later via the Rule 5. Gardenhire discussed the matter at some length, noting that Reyes could be a functional player even though he’s clearly not quite as polished as would be hoped. “I know where we’re at as an organization,” said Gardenhire. “We’re talking about developing and all those things so I think I can use him.”
Central Notes: Royals, Liriano, Cobb, Brewers
The Royals would still like to add help in either the rotation or the bullpen, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, but their payroll is elevated to the point where they have very little room for further additions. As such, a reunion with still-lingering free agent Greg Holland seems “extremely remote,” Nightengale adds. Over the past couple of weeks, the Royals have signed Lucas Duda ($3.5MM), Jon Jay ($3MM) and Mike Moustakas ($6.5MM) in a late trio of additions, pushing their payroll up into the $122MM range.
More from the central divisions…
- Francisco Liriano has been vying for a job in either the Tigers‘ bullpen or rotation, and Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes that it seems like he’s set to open the year as the team’s fifth starter. Manager Ron Gardenhire spoke confidently of Liriano’s ability to hold down one of those five spots. “As a veteran, experienced arm, I fully expect him to be in our rotation if he’s healthy and doing what he can do,” said Gardenhire. With Michael Fulmer, Jordan Zimmermann, Mike Fiers, and the out-of-options Matt Boyd all seeming likely to hold down rotation spots as well, that could very well be a signal that southpaw Daniel Norris is ticketed for Triple-A Toledo to open the season.
- Right-hander Alex Cobb is the last of the top free-agent starters who remains unsigned, and the Brewers have long been considered a fit for the righty. But Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets that he doesn’t expect Milwaukee to make a play for Cobb unless his asking price drops further. Milwaukee has been cited all winter long as a team that needs starters, but to date has only given guaranteed money to Jhoulys Chacin (two-years, $15.5MM) while also picking up Wade Miley and Yovani Gallardo on minor-league deals.
- Given their stance on Cobb, it seems the Brewers will see how things shake out with their current rotation mix while hoping that the anticipated mid-season return of Jimmy Nelson provides a boost. That strategy will require good health for the existing starters. Fortunately, right-hander Zach Davies looks to have moved past the minor oblique strain which was plaguing him. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that Davies pitched three innings in an intrasquad game, seemingly setting him up to ramp up in time to open the season at full strength.
Central Notes: Pham, Cards, Tigers, Royals, Moose, Reds, Senzel
The emergence of Tommy Pham was one of the best developments of 2017 for the Cardinals, who saw the former reserve deliver a stunningly great age-29 campaign (6.4 rWAR, 5.9 fWAR). Pham may not have been in position to break out as a Cardinal if not for their then-farm director, John Vuch, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details. Even though Pham suffered through injury-shortened seasons in the Cardinals’ minor league system in 2011 and ’12, Vuch remained bullish on the former 16th-round pick and convinced him to re-sign with the organization on a two-year minors pact entering 2013. Pham’s driving force then was to eventually get to the majors, which he did in 2014. He’s now trying to remain among the game’s premier players and, according to agent Eric Izen, “understands that he’s got a smaller window than a lot of players. He’s 30 years old.” Unfortunately for Pham, his age may prevent him from ever landing a huge payday in the league. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until next offseason. In the meantime, he’ll make $570K this season after the Cards renewed him for that rate this week. That came after discussions regarding a two-year deal failed to gain traction, Goold wrote earlier this week. “The numbers didn’t add up to me and my agency and the union. Nothing made sense,” Pham said. “I didn’t think. It’s business first and foremost. I didn’t like it. The numbers didn’t seem right. I wouldn’t sell myself short like that.”
More out of the Central divisions…
- The rebuilding Tigers won’t be adding any more free agents prior to the season, according to general manager Al Avila. “No, we’re done for now,” Avila told Jon Morosi of MLB Network on Saturday. “We said we were going to try to sign two pitchers, and we signed two pitchers. As far as free agents, we’re done” (Twitter link). Unsurprisingly, it was a modest offseason for Detroit; aside from those two pitchers (Mike Fiers and Francisco Liriano), its only other guaranteed contract went to outfielder Leonys Martin. Those three will earn a combined $11.75MM in 2018.
- Royals manager Ned Yost told reporters Sunday that he’s considering giving third baseman Mike Moustakas some looks at first base this spring, though he hasn’t talked to the player about it yet (Twitter links via Rustin Dodd of The Athletic and Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com). If Moustakas actually does see action at first during the season, it could open up playing time for third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert, Dodd points out. The re-signing of Moustakas figures to lead to a smaller-than-expected role for Cuthbert, though Yost said this week (via Dodd) that he’d like for Cuthbert to rack up at least 400 at-bats this season. Cuthbert encouraged as a rookie back in 2016, when he amassed 510 trips to the plate and hit .274/.318/.413, before experiencing a massive drop in PAs (153) and production (.231/.275/.322) last year.
- Back in early November, the Reds were aiming to use hyped infield prospect Nick Senzel all around the diamond in 2018. They’ve since abandoned that plan, manager Bryan Price explained to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. “You can’t do that. The game’s not that easy to take a young man that’s primarily been third base and move him all over the field,” Price said. “We’ve primarily kept him on the left side of the infield.” The Reds are unsure whether the 22-year-old’s primary spot will be third base or shortstop when he opens the season in the minors, but Senzel believes he’s already capable of playing short in the majors right now, per Sheldon. At least for the moment, that position belongs to Jose Peraza in Cincinnati.
Central Notes: Moose, Duffy, Royals, Twins, Lynn, Brewers, Reds
Before he re-signed with the Royals on Thursday, third baseman Mike Moustakas did not receive any other offers during his lengthy stay on the free agent market, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The Angels reportedly offered Moustakas a three-year, $45MM contract, but that’s not the case, according to Buster Olney of ESPN (Twitter link). It was an especially difficult trip to free agency for the 29-year-old Moustakas, who will make $5.5MM – $3.2MM less than last season – despite enjoying one of his best campaigns in 2017. Moustakas discussed his time on the market Saturday, telling Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com and other reporters that it was “frustrating.” Nevertheless, “it feels great” to be back with the Royals, he said.
More from KC and the majors’ Central divisions:
- The Twins agreed to a one-year contract with right-hander Lance Lynn on Saturday, but they were willing to make a greater commitment to the ex-Cardinal during the winter. Minnesota offered Lynn a tw0-year pact then, per Nightengale (Twitter link). As with Moustakas, it was a shockingly underwhelming trek to free agency for Lynn, whose new accord guarantees him $12MM – far less than anticipated when free agency opened in November.
- The Brewers were extremely active in upgrading their outfield during the offseason, as they added the star-caliber twosome of Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich. General manager David Stearns arguably didn’t do enough to bolster the team’s starting staff, on the other hand, having only signed the fairly cheap trio of Jhoulys Chacin, Yovani Gallardo and early spring success story Wade Miley. But Stearns seems largely content with the Brewers’ rotation options, he tells Richard Justice of MLB.com. “Because we don’t have a lot of names in our rotation, I think it’s easy to forget that our starting rotation was the strength of our team last year,” Stearns said. “One of the main reasons we got where we got was because of how good our starting rotation was, especially the second half, and all those guys are still here.” Milwaukee’s rotation was indeed among the league’s best in 2017 (eighth in fWAR, 10th in ERA), though that was thanks largely to emergent ace Jimmy Nelson, who will miss the first couple months of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery last September.
- There has been “brisk” trade interest in left-hander Danny Duffy, a Royals official tells Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Cafardo expects interest in Duffy to increase, though he writes that Kansas City wants “major prospects” back for the 29-year-old. That’s not surprising from Kansas City’s perspective, as Duffy is arguably its best trade chip. Duffy, whom the Royals extended in 2017, is under contract through 2021 at a reasonable total ($60MM), including $14MM in 2018. He tossed 146 1/3 innings of 3.81 ERA/3.46 FIP ball with 8.0 K/9 against 2.52 BB/9 in 2017.
- Reds lefty Joe Mantiply will undergo Tommy John surgery, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com tweets. Mantiply, 27, inked a minor league deal with the Reds in November after spending all of last season with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate and posting terrific numbers over 70 innings (2.83 ERA, 7.97 K/9, 2.31 BB/9 and a 49.3 percent groundball rate). His only MLB experience to date came during a 2 2/3-inning stint with the Tigers in 2016.
Royals’ Jorge Bonifacio Gets 80-Game Suspension
Major League Baseball has announced an 80-game suspension without pay for Royals outfielder Jorge Bonifacio, Joel Sherman of the New York Post was among those to report (Twitter link). Bonifacio tested positive for Boldenone, a performance-enhancing substance. His ban will open up roster space for third baseman Mike Moustakas, whom the Royals just re-signed.
In response to Bonifacio’s suspension, Royals general manager Dayton Moore said (via Rustin Dodd of The Athletic): “This obviously [is] a very disappointing situation for the Royals, our fans and Jorge. He is an incredible person who simple made a mistake. Jorge will have our full support as he deals with the consequences.”
The 24-year-old Bonifacio, formerly a well-regarded prospect, is coming off his first major league season. Across 422 plate appearances, the right-handed hitter slashed .255/.320/.432 with 17 home runs to essentially grade as a league-average offensive performer (99 wRC+). He also saw 808 innings in the outfield, mostly in right (743), and ended up with minus-3 Defensive Runs Saved and a plus-o.3 Ultimate Zone Rating.
Coming off a respectable rookie campaign, Bonifacio was the front-runner to start in right for the Royals on Opening Day, but the team will now have to make other plans for the first couple months of 2018. The club just signed veteran Jon Jay, who figures to join long-tenured Royal Alex Gordon in occupying starting spots. Other outfield options on the 40-man roster include Jorge Soler, Paulo Orlando, Hunter Dozier, former top prospect Bubba Starling (who’s dealing with an oblique injury) and perhaps second baseman Whit Merrifield, whom the Royals have tried in the grass in recent weeks. Kansas City also has Michael Saunders, Cody Asche and Tyler Collins on hand as experienced big leaguers who are in spring training as non-roster invitees.
In the event they’re not content with their in-house selections, the Royals could once again venture to free agency, where they’ve been active recently with the signings of Moustakas, Jay and Lucas Duda. There are some proven (albeit flawed) outfield options available via that route, with ex-Royals Melky Cabrera and Brandon Moss, Seth Smith, Jose Bautista, Jayson Werth, Andre Ethier and Matt Holliday among them. Infielder Neil Walker is also unsigned, and although he’s not an outfielder, he’d upgrade the Royals’ position player group in the wake of Bonifacio’s ban. The Royals showed interest in Walker recently.
Royals Re-Sign Mike Moustakas
FRIDAY: Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports tweets that Moustakas has passed his physical and is officially back with Kansas City.
THURSDAY: The Royals have struck a one-year deal with third baseman Mike Moustakas, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Jon Heyman and Robert Murray of Fan Rag had reported earlier that the Scott Boras client was nearing a deal to return to Kansas City.
The contract will guarantee Moustakas just $6.5MM — far shy of expectations heading into the winter. That comes in the way of a $5.5MM salary for the coming season and a $1MM buyout of a $15MM mutual option for the 2019 campaign. Moustakas can also earn up to $2.2MM via incentives for the coming season, per Passan. The bonuses begin at 225 plate appearances and would be maxed out at an achievable 450, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (Twitter links).
Clearly, Moustakas expected more when he turned down a $17.4MM qualifying offer from the Royals at the outset of the offseason. And for good reason: the 29-year-old was viewed by many as one of the best players on the open market. Indeed, MLBTR predicted the 29-year-old would secure an $85MM guarantee over a five-year term.
As things turned out, the market just never developed for Moustakas. Potential landing spots dried up throughout the winter as organizations signed other players, found cheaper alternatives, or decided largely not to add to their MLB rosters.
Meanwhile, the Royals spent much of their own offseason trimming costs and waiting to see if they could coax back Moustakas’s long-time corner infield mate, Eric Hosmer. That pursuit ended without a deal, seemingly leaving the Royals positioned to embark upon a full-blown rebuild.
Bucking the leaguewide trend, though, Kansas City has elected to dedicate some cash to put a quality product on the field in 2018. It may not be enough to make for a clear-cut contender, but the Royals have certainly added a lot of productivity in signing Lucas Duda, Jon Jay, and now Moustakas in short succession.
Better still, the team has improved its 2018 outlook quite a bit without tying its hands for the future. It still seems that a longer-term outlook will define the team’s approach, and it’s certainly possible that some of the new additions will end up being traded at some point in the coming season, but the Royals promise to be competitive for the coming season.
Signing Moustakas does come with a cost beyond the payroll hit. Since he returned to Kansas City after declining a qualifying offer, the organization will not add a compensatory draft choice that it would have if he had joined Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain in heading elsewhere. The Royals will still add two selections after the conventional first-round of the draft for those departures. As for Moustakas, he’ll re-enter the market next winter (assuming the mutual option is not exercised) without the hindrance of any draft compensation, though he’ll also face stiff competition in an anticipated market full of stars.
There’s plenty to digest about this signing, needless to say. Most broadly, it’s as clear a sign as any about the market’s valuation of power. As the ball flies out of the yard at record rates around the league, lofty dinger tallies just aren’t paying in free agency.
It was bad timing, then, for Moustakas, whose power stroke is his chief attribute. He launched a career-high 38 long balls in 2017 and finished with steadily above-average overall offensive production. Despite tepid output earlier in his career, Moustakas has been a .275/.329/.496 hitter over the past three seasons.
Of course, that’s something of the rosy version of his attributes as a hitter. Moustakas managed only a .314 OBP last year and carries an ugly .305 career mark. While he doesn’t strike out much, he also doesn’t draw many free passes; in 2017, he finished with a career-low 5.7% walk rate. And his 17.8% HR/FB rate from last year sits well above his career average of 10.6%. Any decline in that number could be problematic. Statcast suggests Moustakas was fortunate to fare as well as he did, crediting him with a .331 xwOBA that falls shy of the .355 wOBA he ended up posting.
Teams certainly may also have been a bit wary of Moustakas’s abilities in the field and on the bases. Fangraphs’ total baserunning statistic marks him as one of the league’s worst baserunners, with -5.4 runs tallied in both 2017 and 2015 — suggesting that his intervening ACL tear wasn’t solely to blame. Defensive metrics panned his glovework, too, with DRS (-8 runs) and UZR (-3.1) both casting Moustakas as a below-average performer despite previously rating him at times as a quality defender at the hot corner.
In any event, those facts and figures are of no real concern to the Royals, who are intimately familiar with a player they drafted (second overall in 2007) and developed into a productive big leaguer. Whatever qualms they may have about his long-term outlook are nullified in this agreement, anyway, and there’s no denying that Moustakas represents a remarkable bargain at this rate of pay for a single season’s commitment. (Compare to Pablo Sandoval (five years, $95MM) and Chase Headley (four years, $52MM).)
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
AL Central Notes: Escobar, Morrison, Robert, Merryweather, Mize
Alcides Escobar returns to the Royals with a not-so-lofty goal in sight, Rustin Dodd writes in a piece for The Athletic. Kansas City’s long-time shortstop wants to finish the season with an on-base percentage above .300 for the first time since the 2014 season. He says that he’s working on “taking a lot of pitches each at-bat” and trying to avoid swinging at bad pitches, both of which seem like obvious things to work on. Escobar owns a career OBP of just .294, and his .272 figure last year was the second-lowest among qualified MLB hitters (Rougned Odor‘s .252 was the lowest, for those keeping track). That .272 mark for “Esky” was the result of drawing just 15 walks, his lowest full-season total ever.
A roundup of some other news items out of the AL Central…
- Recent Twins signee Logan Morrison reportedly suffered a right glute strain while running the bases on Wednesday, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. He was held out of Friday’s game, and is expected to miss today’s matchup as well. However, the injury isn’t considered serious. Minnesota brought the former Tampa Bay first baseman into the fold with a $6.5MM guarantee that includes a vesting option. He hit .246/.353/.516 last season with the Rays while smacking a career-high 38 home runs.
- The White Sox are dealing with a more significant injury. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribute tweets that farmhand Luis Robert has a moderate thumb sprain. Daryl Van Schouwen provides further details on the situation with his own tweet, adding that GM Rick Hahn expects the young outfielder to be immobilized in a cast for six weeks, and to be held out of game action for ten. Robert hit a phenomenal .310/.491/.536 in Rookie ball last season; Baseball Prospectus ranks him as the South Siders’ fifth best prospect, and number 55 overall.
- Continuing with injury news, Indians prospect Julian Merryweather will officially undergo Tommy John surgery after recently being diagnosed with a UCL sprain in his throwing elbow, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. The right-hander was a fifth-round pick by the Tribe during a 2014 draft in which the club also landed Bradley Zimmer, Triston McKenzie and Bobby Bradley. Merryweather had been solid at all levels of the minors before struggling to a 6.58 ERA across 16 starts at Triple-A Columbus last season, though his 3.89 xFIP suggests he dealt with some unfortunate homer/fly ball luck.
- Auburn right-hander Casey Mize is “the name to watch” for the Tigers as we approach the 2018 June amateur draft, says Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. After skidding to a 68-94 record last season, Detroit owns the number one overall pick in the draft, and as Passan notes, the club loves big college arms. Mize threw a no-hitter last night and was throwing 96 MPH up through the ninth inning. Scouts in attendance say he was throwing a “filthy split” as well.