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Orioles Acquire Jonathan Heasley From Royals

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The Orioles have acquired right-hander Jonathan Heasley from the Royals in exchange for minor league right-hander Cesar Espinal, per announcements from both clubs. This appears to be the corresponding move for right-hander Michael Wacha, whose deal with the Royals was officially announced by that club earlier today. Jeff Passan of ESPN relayed the deal prior to the official announcements. Baltimore’s 40-man count is now at 38.

Heasley, 27 in January, was a 13th-round pick of the Royals in 2018 but seemed to increase his stock with a strong 2021 campaign. That year, he tossed 105 1/3 innings in Double-A with a 3.33 earned run average, striking out 27.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at just a 7.9% clip. He was added to the Kansas City roster in mid-September and went into 2022 with a bit of helium. FanGraphs and Baseball America each ranked him the club’s #13 prospect for 2022.

He hasn’t found much success since then, however, serving as a frequently-optioned depth arm. In his 133 2/3 major league innings to this point, he has a 5.45 ERA and 14.5% strikeout rate. In 134 Triple-A innings over the past two years, he has a 6.11 ERA, though his 22.6% strikeout rate at that level is more encouraging. He still has an option so the O’s can continue to develop him without having to give Heasley a spot on the active roster. He has worked both as a starter and reliever in recent years, though it’s unclear if the O’s have a particular role in mind for him.

Espinal, 18, is not a prospect of note as of right now. He has 53 2/3 innings of minor league experience thus far, pitching in the Dominican Summer League in the past two years. He has a 4.02 ERA in that time, along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate.

Royals Sign Michael Wacha

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December 18: The Royals have now officially announced the deal.

December 15: The Royals’ active offseason is continuing, as Kansas City has agreed to terms with free agent righty Michael Wacha, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a two-year, $32MM contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds. The second season is a player option, so Wacha will have the opportunity to opt back into free agency next winter. The contract pays the CAA client an even $16MM in each season, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, and Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that Wacha can earn an additional $500K via incentives in each season of the deal.

It’s the second notable free-agent pickup of the day for the Royals, who also agreed to a two-year $13MM deal with Hunter Renfroe earlier this morning. Kansas City has also added righty Seth Lugo on a three-year, $45MM pact that contains an opt-out after the second season. Wacha and Lugo, who were teammates with the Padres in 2023, will join a Royals rotation that includes Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles. Depth options include Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic (recovering from Tommy John surgery), Max Castillo, Alec Marsh and Jonathan Heasley, among others.

Wacha’s two-year, $32MM deal matches the exact terms of a two-year club option that the Padres declined earlier this offseason. The inclusion of an opt-out provision and some modest incentives makes this a stronger deal for the righty, however. Kansas City will be Wacha’s sixth team in six years, as his trips to free agency have routinely resulted in either a one-year pact (Mets, Rays, Red Sox) or a multi-year deal with options and/or opt-out opportunities (Padres).

Over the past two seasons, between the Red Sox and Padres, Wacha has posted a combined 3.27 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. Despite being more of a fly-ball pitcher, he’s allowed a manageable 1.14 homers per nine frames. Pitching his home games at the spacious Kauffman Stadium should help him continue to avoid the long ball at an acceptable rate despite his pronounced fly-ball tendencies.

In those two seasons, Wacha has changed up his pitch selection, reducing his reliance on a four-seamer while increasing the usage rates on his sinker and changeup. He threw both pitches at a career-high rate in 2022 and then set a new career-high in usage again in 2023. While the more frequent sinker usage hasn’t shown up in Wacha’s ground-ball rates, he’s posted improved batted-ball metrics; last year’s 88.1 mph average exit velocity and 35.4% hard-hit rate were both lower than the league averages of 89 mph and 39.2%, respectively. That’s helped Wacha to offset his slightly below-average strikeout rate.

The number of innings that the Royals can expect from Wacha is perhaps the biggest question mark surrounding him. Wacha has been placed on the injured list nine times in his big league career, with five of those IL placements stemming from shoulder troubles (including a six-week absence in the 2023 season). Wacha has also had IL stints for oblique, hamstring, knee and intercostal strains. While the shoulder is an obvious concern, Wacha did manage a solid 3.88 ERA in 48 2/3 innings after returning from this past season’s shoulder issue. He closed out the year with a pair of particularly impressive outings, tossing consecutive seven-inning gems (two total runs allowed on nine hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts).

With Wacha, Renfroe, Lugo, Will Smith, Chris Stratton and Garrett Hampson all signing major league deals in Kansas City this month, the Royals have committed $105MM in total free-agent dollars in a span of just over two weeks. It’s unlikely all of those dollars will end up being paid out, as each of Wacha, Renfroe, Stratton and Lugo received player options/opt-outs within their respective contracts. Still, it’s a hefty slate of investments by Kansas City’s standards — one that’s added an additional $47MM in payroll to the team’s 2024 roster (a net $45.75MM, when factoring in that Taylor Clarke and his $1.25MM salary were traded to the Brewers to make roster space for Lugo).

The relatively heavy investment in free-agent arms represents something of an acknowledgement from the Kansas City front office that its previous efforts to rebuild a homegrown rotation with a heavy focus on college arms in the draft simply hasn’t panned out. Singer, Lynch, Bubic, Marsh, Jackson Kowar and Asa Lacy were at one point focal components of the Royals’ hopes for the future, but only Singer remains locked into the rotation but is in need of a bounceback campaign after he was unable to carry his 2022 breakout into the 2023 season. Kowar was traded to the Braves for injured starter Kyle Wright (who’ll miss all of 2024). Lacy has yet to reach the Majors. Lynch and Marsh haven’t established themselves. Bubic showed some promise before tearing his left ulnar collateral ligament and undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Kansas City’s new-look rotation should represent a massive improvement over last year’s group, which pitched to a combined 5.12 ERA, ranking 27th in the big leagues. Gone from that mix are Brad Keller, Ryan Yarbrough and (at least for now) Zack Greinke. Other key names in 2023, Lynch most prominently, have been pushed down the depth chart. It’s not yet clear what lies ahead for the Royals and Greinke. The future Hall of Famer spent the past two seasons back with his original organization and at least ostensibly seemed poised to close out his career there. It’s possible the two parties still come to terms on another one-year pact, as Greinke is preparing to pitch in 2024, but that would likely push Lyles to the bullpen (or perhaps prompt the Royals to explore a potential trade of the veteran innings eater).

Diamondbacks Claim Collin Snider

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The D-backs announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Collin Snider off waivers from the Royals, who designated him for assignment last week. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.

The 28-year-old Snider has seen action in the Majors in each of the past two seasons with the Royals, totaling 54 2/3 innings in that time. He’s struggled with a 5.93 ERA, 13.4% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate in that time. Snider, however, averages 95.7 mph on his sinker and has piled up grounders at a 51.9% clip in his young MLB career. He has a minor league option remaining as well, so the D-backs can shuttle him between Phoenix and Triple-A Reno in 2024 — if he lasts on the 40-man roster long enough to make it into the season, of course.

Snider walked more batters than he struck out in 20 1/3 MLB frames with K.C. this past season, but he also excelled in minimizing hard contact. The right-hander yielded a dismal 86.6 mph average exit velocity, and his 28.2% opponents’ hard-hit rate is nothing shy of excellent. It’s all small-sample theater, given Snider’s relative lack of MLB experience, but the Snakes surely don’t mind adding an optionable righty with some MLB experience and a power sinker to their stash of bullpen options for the upcoming 2024 campaign.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/17/23

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Some minor league moves from around the baseball world…

  • The Royals released Cody Poteet, according to the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page.  Poteet underwent a Tommy John surgery in August 2022 and as a result missed almost all of the 2023 season, save for two innings of work in one game with Triple-A Omaha in late September.  Kansas City signed Poteet to a minors deal last winter in anticipation that he’d spend most of the season in recovery, and the 29-year-old will now enter free agency again with at least a more optimistic health situation.  Poteet’s MLB resume consists of a 4.45 ERA over 58 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2021-22, as well as a 3.80 ERA in 521 2/3 career minor league frames.
  • The Dodgers signed outfielder Austin Beck to a minor league contract, as Beck revealed via his X account.  Beck selected sixth overall by the Athletics in the 2017 draft, though his eight games with Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate in 2021 represents his highest step on the minor league ladder.  Multiple injuries have set back Beck’s progress, most notably a torn ACL that cost him the entire 2023 season.  The Dodgers will take a flier on Beck to see if there’s any late-bloomer potential now that he’s healthy, and Beck is still only 25 years old.

Picollo: Royals "Content" With Offseason Additions

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  • The Royals have gone on something of a spending spree this offseason, adding Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo to their rotation, Chris Stratton and Will Smith in the bullpen, and Hunter Renfroe to their outfield mix. That’s a combined outlay of more than $100MM in guaranteed money, and the additions have left them with a projected payroll of $112MM for the 2024 campaign according to RosterResource. That being said, GM J.J. Picollo indicated to reporters (including Anne Rogers of MLB.com) that the club has likely done most of its heavy lifting for the offseason. Picollo noted that the club “would be content” with the additions they’ve made this offseason if they were to enter Spring Training with their current group of players, though Picollo did note that the club is going to continue to explore ways to strengthen its depth throughout the remainder of the offseason.

Jesús Luzardo Drawing Trade Interest

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8:57pm: In a separate column, Rosenthal reports that Miami and the Royals discussed the framework of a trade that would’ve sent the southpaw to Kansas City and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino to South Florida during the Winter Meetings. It doesn’t appear that those conversations are still going, as the Royals instead addressed their rotation with free agent adds of Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha.

Pasqunatino, who owns a .272/.355/.444 slash in 558 career plate appearances, saw his second big league season cut short by surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder. He remains under team control for five years.

12:28pm: Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo is drawing trade interest, per a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

The Miami rotation has been a frequent nexus point of rumors in recent years, which has continued into this winter. Just last month, Rosenthal reported on the same concept, highlighting Edward Cabrera and Trevor Rogers as possible trade candidates. At that time, Rosenthal portrayed Luzardo as likely off-limits, but his report from today seems to suggest it may not be totally off the table after all.

Rosenthal suggests that Peter Bendix, the club’s new president of baseball operations, might have more willingness to consider a trade than now-former general manager Kim Ng. As Rosenthal points out, Bendix came to the Marlins from the Rays, a club that has generally been unafraid to trade players at peak value. For instance, in 2018, they traded Chris Archer to the Pirates for Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz. They later sent Meadows to the Tigers for Isaac Paredes and are in the process of trading Glasnow to the Dodgers at this very moment.

If Bendix has any intention of bringing a similar operating style to Miami, then considering a Luzardo deal can become plausible in that light. He has three years of club control remaining, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a salary of $5.9MM in 2024. He will be due raises in the two following seasons before he’s slated to reach free agency after 2026. Since he’s going to get more expensive as his control dwindles, his trade value right now is likely as high as it will get.

Of course, beyond the contractual situation, there is the on-field stuff to consider. Luzardo posted a 3.32 earned run average in 18 starts last year, then a 3.58 ERA in 32 starts here in 2023. He struck out 28.7% of batters faced over those two years while walking just 7.9% and keeping 40.1% of balls in play on the ground. That kind of performance, along with his relatively modest salary and years of control, should combine to give him a tremendous amount of trade value.

But that also makes him incredibly valuable to the Marlins and it’s worth pointing out that their situation is more precarious than in past years. Sandy Alcántara underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of the most recent season and is slated to miss all of 2024. The club also subtracted Pablo López from the mix by flipping him to the Twins last offseason. If they were to trade Luzardo, they would be down to Eury Pérez, Braxton Garrett, Cabrera, Rogers and Max Meyer.

Pérez and Garrett make for a strong front two, but Pérez might be on a workload limit next year due to his youth and quick ascent. Cabrera has significant control problems while Rogers struggled in 2022 and then missed almost all of 2023 due to injury. Meyer has just two MLB starts and missed all of 2023 due to his own TJS. The club is reportedly planning to stretch out relievers A.J. Puk and George Soriano in the spring but there’s no guarantee that transition will work.

Given the uncertainty in the rotation, they may not want to subtract a talented pitcher like Luzardo, and there’s nothing to suggest they are actively shopping him. But if the right offer comes in, the club may have to consider it. Roster Resource currently projects the club’s 2024 payroll at $98MM. Bruce Sherman bought the team at the end of 2017 and, per the data from Cot’s Baseball Contracts, we can see the club’s Opening Day payroll dropped from $115MM that year to $100MM the year after. It hasn’t been higher than $93MM since.

The club could use some upgrades to its lineup, particularly in the middle infield, and may not have many resources available to do so. Even if they were willing to spend a bit more money, the best free agents available are guys like Whit Merrifield, Tim Anderson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. While trading a pitcher would come with the risk of further weakening the rotation, it’s possible it could be their best path forward. Clubs like the Reds, Twins, Rays, Cardinals and Orioles are flush with position players and could use some pitching, perhaps allowing them to line up with the Marlins.

Pirates Acquire Edward Olivares From Royals

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The Royals have traded outfielder Edward Olivares to the Pirates for minor league infielder Deivis Nadal, according to team announcements. Kansas City needed to clear a 40-man roster spot after their previously-reported deal with right-hander Chris Stratton.

Olivares, 28 in March, will be joining the fourth organization of his career. An international signing of the Blue Jays, he was traded to the Padres as part of the 2018 Yangervis Solarte trade and then to the Royals as part of the 2020 Trevor Rosenthal deal.

He got to play in the big leagues in a part-time role from 2020 to 2022 but got his most extensive action in the most recent campaign. He got into 107 games with the Royals in 2023, hitting 12 home runs and stealing 11 bases. He only walked in 5.7% of his plate appearances but he also limited his strikeouts to a 16.6% clip. His overall batting line of .263/.317/.452 translated to a wRC+ of 105, indicating he was a bit above league average.

That season matches a lot of his career. He doesn’t walk much but also doesn’t have terrible strikeout rates. He has a bit of power but nothing astounding. His highest home run total is the 20 he hit in 2021, 15 in Triple-A and five in the majors. He has speed, with Statcast putting him in the 83rd percentile, but doesn’t steal a ton of bases and his glovework has been graded poorly. He has career tallies of -15 Outs Above Average, -21 Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of -7.9 from Ultimate Zone Rating. His arm strength is considered to be in the 90th percentile.

There are some intriguing tools in there, which is surely why so many clubs have taken a chance on him. But there are also some warts, which is probably why he has bounced around a bit. He qualified for arbitration for the first time this winter, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $1.8MM. The Royals tendered him a contract but it seems he was on the roster bubble. The club agreed to a deal with Hunter Renfroe today, adding him into an outfield mix that also includes Nelson Velázquez, MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, Drew Waters and Dairon Blanco.

For the Pirates, they have Jack Suwinski and Bryan Reynolds in two outfield spots but one of them is fairly wide open. Catcher Endy Rodríguez recently underwent UCL/flexor tendon surgery, opening the catcher spot for Henry Davis to perhaps get a lengthy audition there. Joshua Palacios, Connor Joe, Ji Hwan Bae and Canaan Smith-Njigba are on the roster and options to slot next to Reynolds and Suwinski.

Joe will probably bounce between first base, the outfield and the designated hitter spot, while none of the others have established themselves at the major league level. Olivares will be jockeying with them all for playing time, but he still has an option if he loses out.

Nadal, 22 in February, has played the three infield positions to the left of first base and each outfield spot as well. He has spent each of the past two seasons playing in Single-A. In 2023, he struck out in 33% of his plate appearances but also walked at a 15.1% clip and stole 33 bases. His .212/.344/.377 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 101.

The Royals still have to make their deals with Renfroe and Michael Wacha official, so they will need to open two more roster spots.

Anne Rogers of MLB.com first reported the trade terms.

Royals Finalizing Two-Year Deal With Hunter Renfroe

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The Royals are reportedly finalizing a deal with outfielder Hunter Renfroe, which is pending a physical. The McKinnis Sports client will get $13MM over two years, with $500K in incentives also available each year. He will make $5.5MM in 2024 and $7.5MM in 2025, but can opt out after the first season.

It’s been a busy week for the Royals, who have signed pitchers Seth Lugo and Will Smith, while also reportedly agreeing to a deal with Chris Stratton. They also had known interest in buttressing their outfield, having been connected to Tyler O’Neill in recent rumors. But the Cardinals flipped O’Neill to the Red Sox and it seems the Royals have pivoted to the free agent market.

Renfroe, 32 in January, has been incredibly nomadic in recent seasons, which is likely a reflection of his enticing power but limited overall profile. He began his career with the Padres but has subsequently bounced to the Rays, Red Sox, Brewers, Angels and Reds, meaning he’s worn six jerseys in the past five years, with this deal set to make it seven in six.

Since becoming a full-time player in 2017, he has hit at least 20 home runs in each full season, as well as eight in the shortened 2020 campaign. He’s also reached the 30-homer plateau twice. But he also doesn’t have huge batting average or on-base percentages. His career batting line of .239/.300/.478 amounts to a wRC+ of 106, indicating he’s been a bit above league average on the whole.

But that’s come in fairly inconsistent fashion on a year-to-year basis. In 2019, he hit 33 home runs, but that was the “juiced ball” season. Since he struck out in 31.2% of his plate appearances and had a .289 OBP, he was actually a smidge below league average, 99 wRC+. He was flipped to Tampa and then had significant struggles in 2020, despite the eight homers. The Rays traded him to the Red Sox, which led to a bounceback season and Boston flipping him to the Brewers for prospects, taking on Jackie Bradley Jr. in the process. Renfroe hit 60 homers over those seasons with Boston and Milwaukee, slashing .257/.315/.496 for a wRC+ of 118.

Yet another trade to the Halos preceded yet another downturn. He hit 19 homers but his .242/.304/.434 line had his wRC+ at 99 again. As the club fell out of contention, they put multiple players on waivers to try to dip below the luxury tax. Renfroe was one one them and he was claimed by the Reds. In 14 games with that club, he hit a dismal .128/.227/.205 and was released.

Renfroe isn’t a burner on the basepaths, having stolen just 14 bases in his career and none in 2023. Defensively, he’s generally been subpar. He has a career tally of -9 Outs Above Average as an outfielder while Ultimate Zone Rating has given him a grade of -5.1. Defensive Runs Saved has him at +13 but most of that is due to a +19 grade in 2019, which looks like a clear outlier.

Though Renfroe hasn’t been an all-around performer, his strengths have been enough for him to have value. Per FanGraphs’ versions of Wins Above Replacement, he produced between 1.5 and 2.5 wins in the four full seasons prior to 2023. He’s definitely coming off a weaker platform season, 0.6 fWAR, but he was at 1.1 before the waiver claim and hasty move to Cincinnati.

The Royals had plenty of questions in their outfield and don’t need Renfroe to be a superstar for him to count as an upgrade. Their outfielders hit a collective .228/.294/.393 in 2023 for a wRC+ of 83. Nelson Velázquez earned himself a role in 2024 with a power surge in 2023, but he could perhaps see some DH time since his glovework isn’t strongly rated. MJ Melendez could be in a corner but he’s coming off a disappointing season and has been in trade rumors, with some clubs perhaps willing to move him back to catcher. Center fielders Kyle Isbel and Drew Waters are good defenders but both are coming off poor seasons offensively. Edward Olivares and Dairon Blanco are also in the mix but have limited track records.

For a club coming off a 106-loss season, there’s merit to adding a guy like Renfroe who has a decent chance of being a solid regular. If he does so and the club remains a non-contender over the course of the deal, he could perhaps turn into a trade chip at some point. For Renfroe himself, he was able to lock in a decent chunk of change while also securing the ability to return to the open market a year from now if he can have a better platform.

This is the third time the Royals have given an opt-out this winter, with Lugo and Stratton also getting one in their deals. Perhaps the club is using this as a bit of an edge to lure players to a club that may not be the first choice of some free agents. The club hasn’t been a huge spender traditionally and has been producing poor results in recent years, but perhaps giving players some extra contractual agency has allowed them to overcome some of those obstacles.

General manager J.J. Picollo recently threw out $30MM as a ballpark figure for what the club could spend this winter to upgrade the 2024 club. The deals with Lugo, Smith, Stratton and Renfroe add up to $29.5MM. But news is now breaking about a deal with Michael Wacha, which also has an opt-out, so it seems the club wasn’t rigidly tied to that spending level.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first had the two sides nearing agreement on what was expected to be a one-year deal plus a player option. Anne Rogers of MLB.com relayed that the deal is still pending a physical. Jon Heyman of The New York Post confirmed the two-year/opt-out structure and relayed the $13MM guarantee and incentives. Feinsand then relayed the specific financial breakdown.

Royals Sign Seth Lugo To Three-Year Deal

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The Royals announced the signing of right-hander Seth Lugo to a three-year deal that allows him to opt out after the 2025 season. It’s reportedly a $45MM guarantee for the Ballengee Group client. He’ll receive equal salaries of $15MM in each season, meaning he’ll collect $30MM before making the opt-out decision.

Lugo, 34, came up as a starter with the Mets but wound up spending most of his time as a reliever for that club. He reached free agency for the first time a year ago and was able to secure a gig with the Padres that allowed him to try his hand at starting again. It was a two-year, $15MM pact that allowed him opt out after the first year if his return to a rotation went well.

The move could hardly have gone much better. Lugo’s arm held up under the new workload conditions, as he made just one trip to the injured list all year, missing about a month due to a left calf strain. He took the ball 26 times and logged 146 1/3 innings with an earned run average of 3.57. He struck out 23.2% of batters he faced, walked just 6% and kept 45.2% of balls in play on the ground. That made his opt-out decision an easy one, as he left $7.5MM on the table and returned to the open market, with MLBTR predicting he could secure a three-year, $42MM deal this offseason.

Starting pitching has reportedly been in high demand this winter but Lugo’s market was never going to go too crazy due to his age. But given that he would be limited to a relatively modest deal, he was a plausible fit with far more clubs than the top names. Last month, it was reported by Robert Murray of FanSided that “more than half the league” was interested. The Tigers, Dodgers and Red Sox were some of the specific clubs named with interest in his services, but so were the Royals.

Starting pitching has been an ongoing issue in Kansas City for a few years now, with their plans for a homegrown pitching staff largely falling short of expectations. In 2018, the club had five picks in the first 58 selections of the draft and used all of those on pitchers: Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch IV, Kris Bubic and Jonathan Bowlan. None of those picks looks amazing at the moment.

Singer looked to break out in 2022 when he posted an ERA of 3.23 but that jumped to 5.52 this year. Kowar has been rocked for an ERA of 9.12 in his first 74 innings and was traded away this offseason. Lynch has a 5.18 ERA through his first 252 MLB innings. Bubic hasn’t been great for most of his career. He showed some encouraging signs of development at the start of 2023 before requiring Tommy John surgery after just three starts. Bowlan has just three major league innings but his minor league ERA has been just under 6.00 in the past two seasons.

The struggles of those drafted players, as well as from free agent signee Jordan Lyles, led to the club’s starters posting a collective ERA of 5.12 in 2023. Only the Reds, Athletics and Rockies were worse. General manager J.J. Picollo clearly stated that adding starting pitching was a goal this offseason and that the club should have about $30MM to spend on upgrading the 2024 club. This deal will accomplish the goal of adding to the rotation while using half of the available funds. For Lugo, he obviously made some wise decisions, both in returning to the rotation and returning to the open market this winter.

One bright spot in the club’s rotation last year was the breakout of Cole Ragans. After being acquired from the Rangers in the deadline deal that sent Aroldis Chapman the other way, Ragans posted a 2.64 ERA in 12 starts for his new club. He and Lugo should be atop the club’s rotation next year. Singer should be in there as well, looking to bounce back into something closer to his 2022 form. Lyles is in a comparable position, having registered a 4.42 ERA in 2022 but a 6.28 in the most recent season. He’s still owed $8.5MM and hasn’t been on the injured list since 2019 so he will probably get another opportunity to eat some innings. Pitchers like Lynch, Alec Marsh, Ángel Zerpa and others could be options for the back end but the club could also look for more external additions as the offseason continues.

As mentioned, Picollo used $30MM as a ballpark figure for available funds. The club also agreed to a deal with reliever Chris Stratton today, which comes with a $4MM guarantee, and a $5MM deal with Will Smith on the weekend. When combined with Lugo’s $15MM salary next year, that’s $24MM agreed to in the past few days.

Anne Rogers and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported that the two sides were nearing agreement on a deal. Jon Morosi of MLB.com first reported the three-year term and Jon Heyman of The New York Post had the $45MM guarantee. Feinsand first reported on the opt-out while Robert Murray of FanSided relayed the even distribution of the money.

Royals Trade Taylor Clarke To Brewers

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The Brewers and Royals have agreed to a trade sending right-handed reliever Taylor Clarke from Kansas City to Milwaukee in exchange for minor league righty Ryan Brady and minor league infielder Cam Devanney, the teams announced Thursday. The trade of Clarke opens a spot on the Royals’ 40-man roster for newly signed Seth Lugo, whose three-year $45MM contract (the third year of which is a player option) is now official. Neither Brady nor Devanney is on the 40-man roster.

Clarke, 30, has spent the past two seasons in Kansas City after opening his career with a three-year stint in Arizona. He enjoyed a solid 2022 campaign with the Royals, tallying 49 innings of 4.04 ERA ball out of the bullpen with a roughly average 23.6% strikeout rate and a brilliant 3.9% walk rate.

That success didn’t carry over to the 2023 season, however. Clarke pitched 59 innings — his highest total since working as a starter with the D-backs as a rookie in 2019 — but was clobbered for a 5.95 ERA. His 24.4% strikeout rate was a slight improvement over the prior season, but walk rate more than doubled to 9%. Clarke also found himself far more susceptible to unfavorable contact; his opponents’ “barreled” ball rate more than doubled from 6.2% to 12.6%, and his HR/9 mark accordingly exploded, soaring from a manageable 1.10 to 1.83.

Rough season or not, Clarke averages 95 mph on his heater, can miss bats at an average or better rate and has a minor league option remaining. That makes him a decent depth pickup for a Brewers club that tends to rotate quite a few arms through the final couple spots in the bullpen. Clarke and the Royals agreed to a pre-tender deal in November, one that commits $1.25MM to the righty. That avoided a hearing in his second season of arbitration eligibility, and he’ll remain under team control through the 2025 campaign.

Brady, 25 in March, joined the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2022. The former BYU righty has delivered excellent results since turning pro, albeit primarily against younger competition. Brady debuted with Milwaukee’s affiliate in the Arizona Complex League in 2022 and split the 2023 season between High-A (49 innings) and Double-A (28 innings). He’s posted a sub-3.00 ERA at each stop, working to a composite 2.67 earned run average with a 24.2% strikeout rate, 6% walk rate and 50% ground-ball rate in 81 professional innings. Brady wasn’t ranked among the Brewers’ top prospects on any major publication, but he’ll bring a solid track record to the upper levels of Kansas City’s system.

Devanney, 27 in April, was Milwaukee’s 15th-round pick back in 2019. He’s played primarily shortstop in pro ball (1728 innings) but also has considerable experience at third base (730 innings) and second base (515 innings) in addition to brief looks at first base and in left field.

Devanney spent the 2023 season with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville, where he batted .271/.362/.461 in 390 plate appearances. That was about seven percent better than average, by measure of wRC+, in a hitter-friendly setting. Devanney walked at a healthy 11.8% clip against a lower-than-average 18.2% strikeout rate. He’s improved his bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline in recent seasons while also showing more power. Devanney entered the 2022 season with 12 career home runs, but he popped 23 long balls in 2022 and connected on another 11 this past season. He’s a right-handed hitter who torched lefties at a .318/.400/.534 clip this year and a .307/.384/.526 clip the year prior. Devanney isn’t a threat on the basepaths and has more pedestrian numbers versus righties, but he could be a lefty-mashing utility infielder if things go well.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Brewers were acquiring Clarke. Jon Heyman of the New York Post added that two minor leaguers were going to the Royals in the deal.

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