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Latest On Salvador Perez Extension Talks

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Extension talks between the Royals and Salvador Perez are ongoing, writes Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star. According to Mellinger, the team has an openness to working something out that hasn’t necessarily been present in the past. For his part, Perez expressed to Mellinger a desire to follow the path of George Brett and Alex Gordon, spending his entire career in the Royals organization. Perez feels a sense of loyalty to the club that gave him the chance to break into the big leagues, but his agent, Rafa Nieves of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, explained to Mellinger that it’ll be hard to offer much of a discount. “He left so much on the table in his present deal,” said Nieves of the five-year, $7MM deal (with three club options) brokered by Perez’s former agents. “He can’t afford to leave a lot more on the table in his next deal. So that’s where we’re at.” Mellinger notes that a rival executive expressed some disbelief that a small-market club could be willing to renegotiate a contract that favors the club so heavily.

Indeed, Jeff Todd and I have noted multiple times on the MLBTR Podcast that there’s significant risk for the Royals, who control Perez through 2019 at a total of $16.75MM via those club options. Perez is one of the largest catchers in baseball, and considering his enormous workload behind the plate (137 games caught, on average, per season from 2013-15), locking in Perez’s 2020 salary four years in advance is a tremendous risk, as there’s no way of definitively knowing how his body will hold up.

  • Royals second baseman Omar Infante could miss some time early this spring as he recovers from offseason surgery that removed bone spurs from his right elbow, writes the Star’s Blair Kerkhoff. Infante is taking batting practice but isn’t throwing to bases at this point, per manager Ned Yost. As Kerkhoff notes, Infante will be in a battle for the regular second base job this offseason — far from the outcome for which the club had hoped when signing him to a four-year, $30.25MM deal. Infante lost the second base job to Ben Zobrist this past July and will have to beat out Christian Colon for the job in 2016. In his first two years with Kansas City, Infante has batted .238/.268/.329.

AL Central Notes: Moore, Holland, Avila, Twins

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As you might expect, Royals GM Dayton Moore doesn’t accept the conventional wisdom that his club is primed to contend only over the next two seasons.  “Sure, it’s important that we maximize our current situation,” Moore tells MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan.  “People ask me about [the two-year window] and I say, ’Our window is right now.’ But we feel that way every year now. And that will mean trying to keep our internal players.”  Such key stars as Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Wade Davis will all hit free agency after the 2017 season, though Moore said it’s wrong to assume there will be a mass exodus.  The Royals will make an effort to re-sign as many of those free agents as they can, Moore said, pointing out that the Royals stepped up to re-sign Alex Gordon this offseason.  Even if some players do leave, K.C. hopes to replace them via a strong minor league pipeline to keep the team in perpetual contention.  Here’s more from around the AL Central…

  • The Royals are still interested in re-signing Greg Holland, Moore tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star.  There hasn’t been much buzz around Holland this offseason, which isn’t surprising given how the former All-Star closer underwent Tommy John surgery in September.  The Royals non-tendered Holland in the wake of that surgery but had interest in bringing him back on a multi-year deal so he’d be ready to pitch for them when he’s healthy in 2017.
  • Letting catcher Alex Avila go to the White Sox in free agency made sense from a baseball standpoint for Tigers general manager Al Avila, though it was obviously a tougher personal decision for the elder Avila to part ways with his son, Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today writes.  “I miss my son. I wish he was here because I’d get to see him every day,” the GM said. “In fact, last spring training we roomed together.  This year I’m by myself.  You would think my wife would be here with me today, but she’s actually in Arizona with him and the grandkids.  And now I have family members wearing Chicago White Sox gear.”
  • The Twins have interest in “several” Cuban free agents, 1500ESPN.com’s Darren Wolfson hears from a source (Twitter link), though high asking prices are an obstacle.
  • Fernando Abad’s minor league deal with the Twins will pay him $1.25MM if he makes the Major League roster and he has another $100K available in incentives, as per Wolfson and Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter links).

AL Central Notes: Molitor, Royals, Minor, Fulmer, Greene, Tribe

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The Twins haven’t had any talks with Paul Molitor about a contract extension, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.  Molitor exceeded expectations in his first year as a Major League manager, leading the Twins to a surprising 83-79 record.  There isn’t necessarily a lot of urgency to get a new deal done — not only is Molitor still under contract through the 2017 campaign, “the expectation at this point is that” the Twins will give Molitor “every opportunity to” continue managing, Berardino writes, especially as long as Terry Ryan is the GM.  Here’s some more from around the AL Central…

  • The Twins will likely wait to see how their bullpen situation develops in Spring Training before checking out any free agent relievers, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tweets.
  • Given how Ned Yost, Dayton Moore and J.J. Piccolo all have ties to the Braves, it’s maybe no surprise that the Royals have picked up so many former Atlanta pitchers as reclamation projects, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick writes.  Kris Medlen proved to be a very sound investment for K.C. last winter and now Peter Moylan and Mike Minor have both joined the Royals this offseason looking to re-establish their value. The ties between the pitchers themselves also played a role — Medlen and Moylan trained and rehabbed together in 2014 when both were recovering from Tommy John surgery.
  • Minor said that pitching at Kauffman Stadium and the Royals’ offer of two guaranteed years were big reasons he signed with the team, the lefty tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link).
  • Shane Greene’s first season with the Tigers was riddled with injuries, including a scary situation involving an aneurysm that caused blood clots in his fingers, ESPN’s Katie Strang writes.  Greene underwent shoulder surgery to address the problem in August, and while the blood clots have yet to dissolve (which may not happen for years), Greene said he’s feeling much better and is looking forward to competing for a spot in Detroit’s rotation.
  • Michael Fulmer drew heavy interest in trade talks this offseason, Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press reports, though the Tigers didn’t bite on dealing the highly-touted young righty.  It’s no surprise that GM Al Avila was keen to keep Fulmer, given that the right-hander was the centerpiece of the trade package received last summer for Yoenis Cespedes.
  • “The Indians are always sneaky about” working on contract extensions, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, so it wouldn’t surprise him if the Tribe inks at least one player to a multi-year deal this spring.  Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer make sense as possible extension candidates since both become arbitration-eligible next winter, and Hoynes also thinks the Tribe could extend Cody Allen.
  • Hoynes’ mailbag piece covers several other Indians-related topics, including Hoynes’ belief that the Tribe won’t exercise their $12MM club option on Carlos Santana for the 2017 season.  I tend to agree, unless Santana rebounds from something of a down year in 2015.

Moore: Minor Won't Be Ready Until Six To Eight Weeks After Opening Day

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  • Left-hander Mike Minor, who inked a two-year contract with the Royals earlier today, will be unavailable for the first six weeks to two months of the regular season, general manager Dayton Moore told reporters, including Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link). That Minor will be sidelined for some time to open the season isn’t unexpected, as the former Braves hurler is recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

Royals Sign Mike Minor

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The Royals have officially signed free agent lefty Mike Minor to a two-year deal worth a reported $7.25MM. After promising Minor $2MM for 2016 and $4MM for the following campaign, the contract includes a mutual option for 2018 that’s valued at $10MM with a $1.25MM mutual buyout.

Aug 22, 2014; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Mike Minor (36) pitches during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

The deal also includes extensive performance incentives, MLBTR has learned. Minor can earn $175K roster bonuses upon reaching 30, 60, 90, and 120 days of service for the coming season. He can also pick up $165K apiece upon hitting his 11th through 20th starts, and another $165K for every five innings tallied between 75 and 120. (Each of those provisions, in other words, could earn Minor up to $1.65MM.)

Minor can also reach incentives for 2017, though they’ll require him to be more active. He stands to earn $225K upon reaching his 12th start, with another $225K due for every other start thereafter (capping out with his 30th). And he gets $225K for every ten innings accrued between 110 and 200. As above, then, Minor can hit each of those paydays ten times apiece.

Add it all up, and Minor can take down up to $4MM for the coming season — $700K via service-time bonuses and $3.3MM based on starts and innings. And he can boost his 2017 salary by as much as $4.5MM, if he turns in at least thirty starts and 200 frames. The deal also includes award bonuses.

Notably, Minor will follow another injury-limited former Braves pitcher in seeking a rebound in Kansas City. Kris Medlen signed a similar contract before the 2015 campaign, successfully making his way back to the mound with the Royals. (The club did something similar with Luke Hochevar, as well.)

Like Medlen, Minor was non-tendered after arm troubles disrupted an extremely promising start in Atlanta. He was projected to earn $5.6MM in arbitration from the Braves, and seemed likely at one point to receive it. But reported setbacks in his recovery from shoulder surgery caused the team to change course, leaving Minor a free agent.

Kansas City will hope that Minor can follow players like Medlen, Hochevar, and Ryan Madson in reviving their careers and providing excess value in the process. The most recent results from the lefty weren’t promising, as he struggled to a 4.77 ERA in 145 1/3 innings back in 2014 before missing all of last season.

But the strong ceiling is evident. Originally taken with the seventh overall pick, Minor ran up 466 2/3 innings of 3.72 ERA pitching over 2011-13. Though he’s never had much velocity, Minor has managed to carry solid strikeout and walk rates when his shoulder has cooperated.

Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com tweeted the contract terms, with MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes clarifying the total guarantee on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Dodgers Sign Louis Coleman

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The Dodgers have signed veteran righty Louis Coleman to a one-year deal, his representatives at Frontline Athlete Management announced. He’ll receive $750K in the MLB contract, per Devan Fink (via Twitter).

Set to turn 30 on Opening Day, Coleman has spent his entire career to this point with the Royals, but was designated and eventually released earlier this winter to clear the way for Ian Kennedy. He had agreed to a $725K arbitration contract, meaning that Kansas City will remain on the hook for thirty days of salary (or a shade less than $119K). Los Angeles will also have the chance to control him for two more years via arbitration.

Coleman appeared in only four big league games last year and struggled in 2014 as well. But he posted strong results at Triple-A, with a 1.69 ERA and 8.9 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 over 64 frames, and has put up some interesting results in the past.

Over a three-year run from 2011-13, Coleman was rather quietly excellent. He tallied 140 1/3 innings of 2.69 ERA pitching, racking up 10.3 K/9 vs. 3.7 BB/9 while surrendering less than seven hits per regulation game. Though his fastball sits in the 89 to 90 mph range and he otherwise relies heavily on just one offspeed pitch (a slider), Coleman has been able to generate huge swing and miss numbers at times.

Royals Sign Barmes, Duensing, Ohlendorf To Minor League Deals

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2:39pm: Duensing would receive a $2MM base salary upon making the club, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

1:35pm: The Royals announced that they have signed infielder Clint Barmes, left-hander Brian Duensing and right-hander Ross Ohlendorf to minor league contracts with invitations to Major League Spring Training.

Barmes, 37 in March, will compete for a job as a backup infielder in Kansas City. The 13-year veteran spent the 2015 season with the Padres and struggled at the plate, batting just .232/.281/.353 in 224 plate appearances. Barmes has never been too much of a threat with the bat, as his .231/.285/.340 slash over the past five seasons indicates, but he has an excellent defensive reputation and can serve as a backup at either shortstop or second base if necessary. Omar Infante and his contract are entrenched at second base, while Alcides Escobar is slated to man shortstop and Christian Colon figures to be the primary utility option, but Barmes could play his way onto the roster with a solid spring showing.

Duensing, 33 this weekend, is an Omaha native and former college roommate of Royals icon Alex Gordon from the pair’s days at the University of Nebraska. He’s spent his entire career with the Twins since being selected in the third round of the 2005 draft. After struggling as a starter early on, Duensing carved out a spot as a lefty reliever and put up solid bottom-line numbers with Minnesota in 2013-14, logging a 3.67 ERA with 6.9 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9. However, he slipped to a 4.25 ERA last season and averaged just 4.4 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in 48 2/3 innings with the Twins. If Duensing lands with the Royals out of camp, it’ll likely be due to his ability to control left-handed hitters; opposing southpaws have managed just a .238/.289/.325 batting line against him throughout his career, although the flipside of that is that righties have roughed him up at a .292/.352/.462 clip. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN reports (on Twitter) that Duensing’s contract can max out at $2.6MM if he’s in the Majors all season, though the specifics of his base salary aren’t known.

The 33-year-old Ohlendorf spent the 2015 season with the Rangers, posting a 3.72 ERA in 19 1/3 innings out of the Texas bullpen to go along with a 4.17 ERA in 36 2/3 innings for Triple-A Round Rock. Ohlendorf spent a pair of seasons in the Pirates’ rotation from 2009-10 but struggled with the Bucs in 2011 and continued to struggle with the Padres in 2012. He’s enjoyed reasonable success as a swingman in his past two big league stints — 3.39 ERA in 79 2/3 innings between the Nats and Rangers — and will look to land a similar job with the defending World Series champs in 2016.

Royals Extend Ned Yost, Dayton Moore

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The Royals announced on Thursday that they have extended the contracts of manager Ned Yost and GM Dayton Moore. Yost will receive a two-year extension through the 2018 season, while the length of Moore’s contract was not disclosed.

Both Yost and Moore had been entering the final seasons of their respective contracts, with Yost having signed a one-year extension prior to the 2015 season and Moore having inked a two-year deal spanning the 2015-16 campaigns. Fresh off a World Series victory in 2015, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see ownership lock up its top baseball operations decision-maker and on-field leader.

Yost, 61, is entering his sixth full season as manager of the Royals and also managed the club for about three quarters of the 2010 season as well. In his time with Kansas City, he’s compiled a 468-469 record, although the team has clearly taken a turn for the better in the past two seasons, as evidenced by a pair of World Series appearances (and their 2015 victory in that regard). Yost has drawn his share of criticism for his bullpen management and penchant for bunting, though his supporters will be quick to point out that the on-field results speak far louder than the critics. Yost is beloved among his players, as many of them explained to the New York Times’ Bruce Schoenfeld at the end of the regular season in 2015, and he’ll now be presented with the opportunity to guide the Royals back to the postseason for at least three more seasons.

As for Moore, he’s been the club’s general manager since the 2006 season. Moore made a name for himself as an executive with the Braves and was thought to be a GM-in-waiting. With Moore atop Kansas City’s baseball ops hierarchy, the team has drafted the likes of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, traded for Lorenzo Cain, James Shields and Wade Davis, and signed free agents such as Kendrys Morales, Edinson Volquez and Jason Vargas. Of course, like any GM, Moore has had his misses (Jose Guillen, Omar Infante and a number of others would all be fair game to point out), but the Royals appear poised for a sustained run as contenders thanks in large part to their now-signature brand of baseball — defense, speed, contact and elite relief pitching — that is largely attributable to the two men whose contracts were extended today.

Clayton Mortensen, Royals Agree To Minor League Deal

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  • Right-hander Clayton Mortensen, 31 in April, is back with the Royals on a minor league deal for the second consecutive season, according to Eddy. Another former top pick (36th overall in 2007), Mortensen was one of the players sent from the Cardinals to the A’s in the 2009 Matt Holliday trade. Mortensen posted solid big league numbers (3.59 ERA in 100 1/3 innings) from 2011-12 with the Rockies and Red Sox but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2013. He’s worked to a 5.12 ERA in 184 2/3 innings for Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate across the past two seasons.

Royals Reach Two-Year Extension With Mike Moustakas

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The Royals are closing in on a two-year deal with third baseman Mike Moustakas, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports (Twitter links), with Jon Heyman tweeting that it’s a done deal. He is expected to be guaranteed $14.3MM in the contract, per Flanagan, with $5.6MM coming in 2016 and $8.7MM for the following year.

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With the move, Kansas City has avoided an arbitration hearing with the 27-year-old and precluded any need for future arb negotiations. Moustakas could still partake in long-term talks, of course, but this agreement buys up all of his remaining arbitration eligibility without adding any team control.

In that regard, Moustakas joins teammate Lorenzo Cain in locking in a raise but failing to reach a lengthier accommodation with the reigning World Series champs. Josh Donaldson, J.D. Martinez, and A.J. Pollock are other prominent players who have landed two-year, arb-only pacts as a way to help bridge 2016 salary disputes.

The $5.6MM price point set for the coming season represents the exact midpoint between the sides’ $7MM and $4.2MM filing figures. And it lands just a shade below the $5.7MM salary that MLBTR projected earlier in the winter. Moustakas, a client of the Boras Corporation, had earned $2.64MM in his first turn at the arb process last year.

Moustakas was long considered a significant prospect, but largely disappointed in his first four years in the majors. But a late surge for the surprising 2014 Royals raised hopes that he’d found his groove, and his 2015 campaign suggests he did. Moustakas not only turned in another strong defensive campaign, but surged to a .284/.348/.470 slash and career-high 22 home runs in a performance that dwarfed anything he’d done previously.

With age and glovework on his side, a repeat of that strong effort won’t be needed for K.C. to make out on this new contract. But there’s every hope that Moustakas has matured at the plate and established a new performance baseline, having decreased his reliance on pulling the ball and found success against left-handed pitching.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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