Dodgers Rumors

Dodgers To Recall Ricky Vanasco, Landon Knack For MLB Debuts

By Anthony Franco | April 15, 2024 at 5:36pm CDT

The Dodgers are planning to recall right-handers Ricky Vanasco and Landon Knack from Triple-A Oklahoma City this week, reports Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. Should either pitcher get into a game, they’d be making their respective major league debuts.

Knack and Vanasco are both on the 40-man roster, so the Dodgers would only need to make corresponding active roster moves to bring them up. Knack has actually accrued a few days of major league service, as he was in the L.A. bullpen for their season-opening set against the Padres in Seoul. He didn’t get into a game and was optioned before the team’s domestic opener.

An East Tennessee State product, Knack was a second-round senior sign in 2020. He has worked as a starter throughout his minor league career, turning in a solid 3.44 ERA over 243 professional innings. That includes a stellar 2.51 mark over 22 appearances between Double-A Tulsa and OKC last season. Knack has taken the ball three times in Triple-A this year, posting a 16:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing seven runs through 15 2/3 frames. Baseball America ranked him the #11 prospect in the system this winter, pointing to a future as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Vanasco did not appear among L.A.’s top 30 prospects. However, the Dodgers liked him enough to sign him to a major league deal this offseason. That came a few months after L.A. had run him through outright waivers but within two weeks of his qualifying for minor league free agency for the first time.

The 25-year-old is a former Ranger draftee who once ranked among the better prospects in the Texas farm system. Control issues pushed him to the bullpen last season, but Vanasco has shown swing-and-miss stuff. He posted a 2.78 ERA with a near-32% strikeout percentage over 32 1/3 minor league frames last season. Vanasco has fanned eight hitters in four innings of Triple-A work this year, although he’s also walked six.

White Sox Promote Nick Nastrini

By Steve Adams | April 15, 2024 at 3:40pm CDT

3:40pm: The Sox have now made Nastrini’s promotion official and also activated outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the injured list. To open active roster spots for those two, they optioned right-hander Justin Anderson and infielder/outfielder Zach Remillard. To open a 40-man spot for Nastrini, they transferred catcher Max Stassi to the 60-day injured list. The backstop opened the season on the 10-day IL due to hip inflammation but was hit on the hand by a backswing while rehabbing recently, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. His exact timeline isn’t clear but he’s now ineligible to be activated until late May.

9:27am: The White Sox will call up right-hander Nick Nastrini to start today’s game in what will be his MLB debut, manager Pedro Grifol announced (link via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will need to open a spot for his contract to be formally selected.

Nastrini, 24, is widely regarded as one of the White Sox’ top pitching prospects. Acquired from the Dodgers in the trade sending Lance Lynn to Los Angeles last summer, the 2021 fourth-round pick has routinely posted massive strikeout numbers throughout his minor league tenure but has also battled sub-par command for much of his professional career.

Scouting reports at Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, The Athletic and ESPN all rank Nastrini eighth or better among ChiSox farmhands, with BA listing him third in the system. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Nastrini 76th on his 2024 top 100 list, touting him as a possible No. 4 starter and with the ceiling to become quite a bit more than that, given the strength of his secondary pitches.

There’s little doubting the quality of Nastrini’s stuff; he runs his fastball up as high as 98 mph and complements it with a slider, curveball and changeup that all project as potentially average to plus offerings. Nastrini features high-end spin rates on his heater and breaking pitches, and his changeup helped him limit lefties to a .226 average with a 29.7% strikeout rate between Double-A and Triple-A last season. (Righties hit .216 and punched out at a 26.1% clip.) Law touts the changeup, in particular, as a potential plus-plus pitch (70-grade on the 20-80 scale).

If Nastrini had better control of his electric arsenal, he’d undoubtedly grade as one of the game’s elite prospects. At 6’3″, 215-pound righty has the size and deep repertoire to profile as a starter, but he’s walked 11.1% of his career opponents. His penchant for missing the zone leads to plenty of deep counts as well; in 2023 he averaged about 4 2/3 innings per start. There’s still some refinement to be made, though he’s improved his command since college ball at UCLA and has also seen further gains in that field since being traded from L.A. to Chicago (9.5% walk rate in the Sox’ system).

The state of the White Sox’ roster amid their current rebuild gives Nastrini ample opportunity to show he can stick. The Sox are out to their worst start in franchise history, sitting at 2-13 on the season. The woeful state of their rotation has played a significant role in those struggles. Even with Garrett Crochet pitching like a borderline No. 1 starter through his first four turns, White Sox starters rank 26th in the big leagues with 72 1/3 innings pitched, 28th with a 5.60 ERA and dead last with a 5.20 FIP. Despite totaling MLB’s fifth-fewest innings, the rotation is tied for the MLB lead with 14 home runs allowed.

Nastrini will join Crochet, Erick Fedde, Michael Soroka and Chris Flexen in the rotation for the time being. Recently re-signed Mike Clevinger will join that group in a few weeks as well, once he’s sufficiently built up, and other prospects like Jake Eder, Jairo Iriarte and Jared Shuster (currently working as a long reliever in the big league ’pen) could eventually garner looks over the course of the season.

Even if Nastrini is in the big leagues to stay, he won’t accrue enough service time to reach a full year in 2024. Were it not for an illness that rendered Nastrini unavailable the first time Chicago needed a fifth starter, that may not have been the case, but he wasn’t healthy enough in the season’s first week to step onto the staff at the time. He’s still made just two starts in the minors this season, in part due to that illness. Further optional assignments could always alter his timeline anyhow, but for now, Nastrini will be controllable all the way through 2030.

Dodgers Shut Emmet Sheehan Down; Walker Buehler Could Return Soon

By Steve Adams | April 15, 2024 at 2:08pm CDT

Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan hasn’t pitched this season while rehabbing from a forearm injury. He’d recently resumed throwing to live hitters, but manager Dave Roberts told reporters last night that the 24-year-old righty has been shut back down because his arm “hasn’t been responding” the way Dodgers medical personnel hoped (link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Sheehan said he had another round of testing on his arm that didn’t reveal any structural damage, but Roberts still called his injury a “longer-term situation.” The Dodgers had already transferred him to the 60-day injured list at the end of March.

Sheehan entered the 2023 season as one of the Dodgers’ top pitching prospects and pushed his way into top-100 consideration with a strong minor league showing early last year. By mid-June, he was up in the big leagues for his debut. While the right-hander’s 4.92 ERA in a subsequent sample of 60 1/3 innings didn’t exactly cement him as a long-term fixture just yet, he entered camp as perhaps the favorite to land a rotation spot behind Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bobby Miller and James Paxton. That spot instead went to fellow righty Gavin Stone, who started his 2024 campaign with two shaky starts before an excellent third outing that saw him carry a perfect game into the sixth inning before running into trouble.

The setback for Sheehan creates further uncertainty in a Dodgers’ rotation that also has Miller, Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May on the injured list. Sheehan’s status on the 60-day IL already meant he was out until at least mid-May, but there’s no way to gauge how long he might be expected to miss right now.

The Dodgers still rank tenth in the majors in rotation ERA, thanks in no small part to a dominant start to the season from Glasnow. Some alarm bells sounded when Yamamoto was torched for five runs in one inning during his MLB debut, but he’s responded by rattling off 15 innings with just three runs allowed while posting a terrific 19-to-3 K/BB ratio. Paxton has quality run-prevention numbers, but his success isn’t sustainable if he keeps walking more hitters than he’s striking out. He’s issued 14 free passes in 16 innings, yielding a walk to a glaring 20.6% of his opponents on the season. He’s fanned just ten (14.7%).

In Glasnow and Paxton, the Dodgers are banking on a pair of oft-injured veterans to help lead the staff while awaiting the returns of Buehler, Kershaw and May. Buehler is expected to make another rehab start this Thursday, per Mike DiGiovanna and Jack Harris of the L.A. Times. His most recent rehab outing was cut short when a comebacker struck his pitching hand, but Buehler escaped that injury scare unscathed. Roberts indicated that Buehler is targeting 80 to 85 pitches in that scheduled Thursday outing. He’ll be reevaluated after that point. If the team feels he’s ready, that’d point to a return next week. If he needs one more rehab start following Thursday’s outing, he could still return in the final days of April.

NL West Notes: Padres, Yankees, Soto, Montgomery, Treinen, Bryant

By Mark Polishuk | April 14, 2024 at 4:38pm CDT

As one might expect, December’s blockbuster Juan Soto trade between the Padres and Yankees took on several different permutations before the two sides finally agreed on the seven players involved. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that the Padres had interest in 17 different Yankees players before finally agreeing on a package of four pitchers (Michael King, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe) and catcher Kyle Higashioka in exchange for Soto and Trent Grisham. Clarke Schmidt and Chase Hampton were two of the other pitchers known to be considered when reports began to surface about the trade negotiations, and Heyman adds that the Yankees agreeing to include Thorpe instead of Hampton was one of the turning points in getting the deal done.

Though San Diego ended up taking a pitching-heavy mix of players, Heyman writes that the Friars also asked about such noteworthy position-player prospects as Spencer Jones, Roderick Arias, and George Lombard Jr. Jones is a top-100 prospect and the 25th overall pick of the 2022 draft, and he has already drawn lots of trade buzz early in his pro career. The Yankees have thus far balked at moving Jones, even in past talks with the Brewers and White Sox about Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease, respectively.

Dodgers Place Bobby Miller On 15-Day Injured List

By Nick Deeds | April 13, 2024 at 10:12pm CDT

10:12pm: Per Ardaya, Miller has undergone an MRI which revealed no structural damage to the righty’s shoulder. Meanwhile, Harris adds that while Miller has been shut down from throwing for the time being, the Dodgers are “hopeful” that he’ll be able to build up at a normal rate once he resumes throwing.

9:51pm: The Dodgers announced this evening that they’ve placed right-hander Bobby Miller on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Right-hander Connor Brogdon has also been placed on the 15-day IL due to plantar fasciitis in his foot. Right-hander J.P. Feyereisen and left-hander Nick Ramirez have been called up to take the duo’s places on the active roster.

The news comes on the heels of a difficult start to the season for Miller. While the 25-year-old struck out 11 Cardinals in six scoreless innings for his first start of the year, since then he’s allowed a whopping seven runs on nine hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings of work across a pair of starts against the Cubs and Twins. A timeline for Miller’s return to action is not yet clear, though Jack Harris of the L.A. Times reports that the inflammation in the young righty’s shoulder is not considered “severe” by the club, with Harris adding that there is no need for surgery as things stand.

While that reporting removes the most worrisome outcomes from the table for the time being, it’s nonetheless disheartening news for Dodgers fans. The club’s first-round pick in the 2020 draft, Miller quickly grew to be a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport and impressed during his rookie season with a 3.76 ERA and 3.51 FIP across 22 starts with L.A. last year. Though he just celebrated his 25th birthday earlier this month, Miller already entered the season as a potential cornerstone for the Dodgers’ rotation alongside the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.

Those plans have now clearly been scuttled, at least for the time being, and the Dodgers will have to sort through their rotation options in order to replace Miller for what could prove to be an extended absence. With Gavin Stone already in the club’s starting five alongside Glasnow, Yamamoto, and James Paxton, right-hander Walker Buehler may spring to mind as the obvious candidate to take Miller’s spot in the rotation. After all, the 29-year-old righty was long one of the most effective pitchers in the sport and has already begun a rehab assignment as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery.

Unfortunately, it’s unclear how realistic an option Buehler is in the short term. As The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reported last night, Buehler’s most recent rehab outing was cut short after the righty took a comebacker off his pitching hand. David Vassegh of Sportsnet LA relays that manager Dave Roberts has indicated Buehler is “fine” following the incident and should be ready to make his next rehab start, but the abbreviated outing last night could extend Buehler’s time away from the club long enough for the Dodgers to need an interim option. Right-handers Kyle Hurt and Landon Knack are among the arms who the club could rely on to make a spot start or two while Buehler completes his rehab.

As for Brogdon, the right-hander hits the shelf just one week after the Dodgers acquired him from the Phillies in exchange for minor league lefty Benony Robles. Brogdon has made just one appearance in a Dodgers uniform to this point, allowing two runs on two hits in an inning of work against the Twins during which he did not record any walks or strikeouts. With Brogdon headed to the injured list and Miller’s replacement in the club’s rotation not yet needed on the roster, the Dodgers bullpen receives a pair of reinforcements in the form of Feyereisen and Ramirez.

Feyereisen, 31, joined the Dodgers during the 2022-23 offseason in a trade with the Rays after he had already undergone shoulder surgery that would end up keeping him from pitching at all in 2023. He made his Dodgers debut during the Seoul Series against the Padres but struggled, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk while striking out one in a single inning of work. That rough performance was enough for the Dodgers to leave Feyereisen off their stateside Opening Day roster, though now he’ll get another opportunity with the big league club.

As for Ramirez, the Dodgers acquired the lefty this past winter in a cash deal with the Yankees earlier this month. The southpaw made his big league debut with the Tigers back in 2019 and posted middling during his first three seasons in the majors, pitching to a league average 4.55 ERA and 4.60 FIP in 110 2/3 innings of work split between Detroit and San Diego. Ramirez didn’t pitch in the majors during the 2022 season but resurfaced with the Yankees last year as a key contributor to the club’s bullpen with a 2.66 ERA and 2.94 FIP in 40 2/3 innings of work.

That made the southpaw something of a surprising cut from New York’s Opening Day roster, though the club ultimately decided to give his roster spot to fellow lefty Tanner Tully instead of retain him for the 2024 campaign. Now with the Dodgers, Ramirez figures to provide the club with a multi-inning option out of the bullpen while also giving the club an addition lefty to pair with Alex Vesia and Ryan Yarbrough.

Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Charged With Bank Fraud Due To Theft Of Over $16MM

By Darragh McDonald | April 12, 2024 at 12:55pm CDT

April 12: Mizuhara surrendered to federal authorities this morning, per Alden González of ESPN. González adds that Mizuhara is scheduled to appear in court at 1:00 p.m. Pacific, or 3:00 p.m. Central, with the expected outcome of being let out on bond at some point.

April 11: U.S. attorney Martin Estrada announced today that Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with bank fraud to finance a “voracious appetite for illegal sports betting,” per Sam Blum of The Athletic. Mizuhara is alleged to have transferred more than $16MM from Ohtani’s account to an illegal sports book, per Alden González of ESPN. The full 37-page complaint against Mizuhara was relayed by Meghann Cuniff of The Washington Post.

Per Blum, Estrada says the account was set up by Mizuhara in 2018 and he began illegal gambling in 2021. “The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball,” Estrada says. “At this point Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” Estrada added, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. “Mr. Mizuhara lied to the bank to access the account … lied to them about being Mr. Ohtani,” Estrada also said, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. When Mizuhara won a bet, the winnings would go into his own account and not Ohtani’s, per Blum. Estrada says investigators have viewed text messages from Mizuhara where he admitted to stealing from Ohtani, as relayed by Ardaya.

Last month, ESPN reported that more than $4.5MM had been wired from an account in Ohtani’s name to a sports gambling ring in California, where betting on sports is illegal. Mizuhara initially told ESPN that he was the one who racked up the debt but that Ohtani wired the money to help him pay it off. He later retracted that story and said Ohtani knew nothing about the gambling or the wire transfers. Ohtani later spoke on the matter, accusing Mizuhara of stealing money from him and lying about it, saying that he didn’t find out any of the details until the reporting had come out.

Both Mizuhara and Ohtani have said that Ohtani did not place any bets. Mizuhara has said that he did not bet on baseball and there’s not yet been any reporting to contradict that. As relayed by Jayson Stark of The Athletic, Mizuhara is alleged to have made about 19,000 wagers from December of 2021 to January of 2024, winning $142.27MM but losing $182.94MM for a net loss of $40.7MM.

It was reported last night that Mizuhara was in negotiations with federal authorities about pleading guilty. As part of that reporting, it was relayed that prosecutors had evidence Mizuhara disabled notifications that Ohtani would have received from his bank about transactions. The details from today go even farther, alleging that Mizuhara called the bank and impersonated Ohtani to access funds, per Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. He answered security questions related to Ohtani’s biographical information to wire funds to a bookmaker, saying it was for a car loan. Per Shaikin, Ohtani’s agent repeatedly asked about the account but Mizuhara told him it was “private” and that Ohtani didn’t want anyone else to monitor it.

Shaikin relays a text message exchange between Mizuhara and a bookmaker where he admits to the theft: “Technically I did steal from him. it’s all over for me.” The maximum penalty for these charges is 30 years, per Shaikin. Mizuhara will appear in federal court in the coming days, per Blum. Ohtani has cooperated fully in the investigation, per Shaikin, including providing access to digital devices.

MLB issued a statement on the matter, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN and others: “We are aware of the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office against Mr. Mizuhara for bank fraud after a thorough federal investigation. According to that investigation, Shohei Ohtani is considered a victim of fraud and there is no evidence that he authorized betting with an illegal bookmaker. Further, the investigation did not find any betting on baseball by Mr. Mizuhara. Given the information disclosed today, and other information we have already collected, we will wait until resolution of the criminal proceeding to determine whether further investigation is warranted.” MLB’s Department of Investigations (DOI) opened an investigation into the matter last month after the initial reports came out.

MLBTR Podcast: Reviewing Our Free Agent Predictions And Future CBA Issues

By Darragh McDonald | April 10, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Why did the 2023-24 offseason play out the way that it did? Was the slow offseason a trend or a blip? Looking at competitive balance tax and TV revenue issues. (2:40)
The decision between a middleground deal versus a short-term deal, focusing on Cody Bellinger of the Cubs but also other players who didn’t get the huge offers they were expecting (20:00)
There were very few long deals this winter, so can we glean anything about the trend of extending contracts to lower the average annual value? (34:50)
Why did we project big contracts for players with clear warts? (42:10)
Is the middle tier of the free agent market dying? (45:15)
With the next CBA negotiations coming after 2026, how will the players respond to recent events? (50:20)
Are the owners divided, with rich and poor teams getting pushed apart by the collapse of TV revenue streams? (59:05)
Is deferred money a real problem and is there any motivation to change the rules? (1:02:40)
Does MLB need more parity and what are the best ways to do it? (1:09:30)
Was Shohei Ohtani’s deferred money an extreme outlier or is it still a concerning trend? (1:13:10)
Will there be another lockout after 2026? (01:19:35)

Check out our past episodes!

Baseball Is Back, Will Smith’s Extension, Mike Clevinger And Jon Berti – listen here
A Live Reaction To The Jordan Montgomery Signing, Shohei Ohtani’s Interpreter, And J.D. Martinez Joins The Mets – listen here
Mutiny In The MLBPA, Blake Snell Signs With The Giants And The Dylan Cease Trade – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!

Report: Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara Negotiating Guilty Plea For Theft

By Anthony Franco | April 10, 2024 at 11:58pm CDT

Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is in negotiations with federal investigators about pleading guilty to charges of stealing from Ohtani’s bank account, according to a report from Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times. Ohtani has publicly accused Mizuhara — a longtime friend — of stealing from his accounts to pay off gambling debts which the interpreter had accrued.

A few weeks ago, ESPN reported that more than $4.5MM had been wired from Ohtani’s account to an illegal bookmaker in Southern California. The New York Times now reports that federal prosecutors have found evidence indicating that Mizuhara siphoned more than that initially reported $4.5MM figure, in part by disabling notifications that Ohtani would have received from his bank about account transactions.

The gambling debts first became public in late March while the Dodgers were playing the Padres in South Korea. Initially, Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani had wired the money to the bookmaker to cover the debt. Mizuhara subsequently retracted that statement, telling ESPN the next day that Ohtani had been unaware of the entire situation. The two-time MVP said the same, releasing a statement accusing Mizuhara of stealing the money and referring the matter to the authorities.

Both Ohtani and Mizuhara have stated that the two-way star did not place any bets. Mizuhara indicated that the bets were his alone but denied that he ever placed a bet related to baseball.

Tonight’s report from Arango and Schmidt adds context to the conflicting stories. According to the New York Times, Mizuhara and Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo of CAA, initially tried to manage the public relations fallout without informing Ohtani. The Times writes that Mizuhara first told Balelo that Ohtani had covered debts for an unnamed teammate. He then changed his story and admitted the debts were his own but still claimed that Ohtani agreed to pay them, which is the version of events he initially told ESPN.

According to the Times report, Mizuhara then provided that same account when speaking in English to the L.A. clubhouse. Ohtani, who was present for that clubhouse address, told reporters two weeks ago that he confronted his friend thereafter. At that point, according to Ohtani, Mizuhara admitted that he had stolen the money. The Dodgers fired him at that point.

The version of events laid out in the Times report aligns with Ohtani’s public declaration that he was unaware of Mizuhara’s activities and played no role in the gambling scheme. Of course, neither the legal process nor MLB’s investigation have been completed. Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor anyone from MLB has commented publicly since Ohtani’s statement on March 25. Arango and Schmidt report that Ohtani has met with authorities in recent weeks.

Dodgers Outright Dinelson Lamet

By Mark Polishuk | April 9, 2024 at 8:53am CDT

April 9: Lamet cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He has more than enough service time (nearly six years) to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, if he chooses.

April 6: The Dodgers announced that right-hander Dinelson Lamet has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a roster space for fellow righty Gus Varland, who has been called up from Triple-A.

Lamet’s minor league deal was selected to the active roster on April 1, and he has posted a 2.08 ERA over three appearances and 4 1/3 innings of work. While a small sample size, Lamet’s 16.7% strikeout rate was uninspiring, and he allowed a solo homer to Michael Busch during 1 1/3 frames in yesterday’s 9-7 Dodgers loss to the Cubs. If Lamet is the proverbial 26th man on the roster, Los Angeles seems willing to risk losing him on outright waivers in order to add a fresh arm in Varland, though it is certainly possible Lamet clears waivers and remains in the organization.

This cup of coffee with the Dodgers represents one of Lamet’s better stretches of pitching in the last four years, as he has a 6.63 ERA over 111 1/3 innings with four different big league clubs since the start of the 2021 campaign. Once a promising starter in the Padres’ rotation in 2019-20, Lamet has been set back by injuries and a consistent lack of control when facing MLB batters.

Jerry Grote Passes Away

By Mark Polishuk | April 7, 2024 at 9:07pm CDT

Longtime Mets catcher Jerry Grote passed away today at age 81. The Mets announced the news via a press release containing tributes from several former teammates who praised Grote as a teammate and as a defensive wizard behind the plate. In the words of former Mets southpaw Jon Matlack, “he was the best catcher I ever threw to. I don’t think I ever shook him off once. I had the pleasure of being his roommate on the road for a few years. It’s a sad day.”

Grote played in parts of 16 Major League seasons from 1963-1981, including a 12-year run with the Mets from 1966-77. He broke into the bigs with the Houston Colt. 45s (now the Astros) in the second and third years of the franchise’s existence, but a bit of a logjam on Houston’s depth chart saw Grote spend all of 1965 in the minors before he was dealt to the Mets.

The deal kicked off Grote’s long run in Queens, and his excellent defense helped him retain either the starting job or at least a timeshare of catching duties for almost the entirety of his Mets stint. Grote hit .252/.316/.326 over his 4844 career plate appearances, with a couple of solidly above-average offensive performances. His 112 wRC+ in 1968 was his personal best, and coincided with the first of Grote’s two All-Star selections (he was also named to the NL squad in 1974).

In 1969, Grote and his teammates become New York icons when the “Miracle Mets” won the World Series. After posting losing records in each of their first seven seasons in existence, the Mets suddenly broke out to win 100 games in 1969, then defeated the Braves in the first-ever edition of the NLCS before upsetting the powerhouse Orioles in the Fall Classic. Grote hit .311/.371/.406 over his final 119 plate appearances of the regular season to help New York surge its way into the playoffs, and his defense and management of the young Mets pitching staff was credited as a key factor in the triumph.

“[Grote] was the reason for my success,” said Jerry Koosman. “I have the photo in my home of me jumping into his arms after we won in 1969. I am heartbroken. No one was better behind the plate. He really controlled the game.”

The Mets dealt Grote to the Dodgers in 1977, and he returned to the postseason as the backup catcher on Los Angeles’ pennant-winning teams in both 1977 and 1978. Grote retired following the 1978 campaign before making a brief comeback in 1981 to play in 24 games (22 with the Royals and two with the Dodgers). His post-career endeavors included stints as a minor league manager and as a radio broadcaster.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Grote’s family, friends, and many fans.

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