Neil Walker Open To Re-Signing With Marlins
Curtis Granderson isn’t the only veteran Marlins role player who’s open to a reunion with the club, it seems. Infielder/outfielder Neil Walker tells MLB.com’s Bill Ladson that he’s “not going to close the door” when it comes to re-signing with the Fish. Like Granderson, Walker relishes the opportunity to share more than a decade’s worth of big league experience with an up-and-coming wave of young players in the Miami clubhouse. “You feel like it’s necessary to share with the younger generation,” said Walker.
While it can’t be certain that any veteran in his mid- or late-30s will find interest in the current free-agent climate, Walker would seem to have a better case for a shot with the Marlins or another big league club in 2020 than Granderson — at least based solely on the pair’s on-field performance. The switch-hitting Walker, who just turned 34, has had a solid year at the plate, hitting .261/.346/.386 with seven homers, 18 doubles and a triple in 373 trips to the plate. He’s primarily served as a first baseman with the Marlins (510 innings) but has also logged 162 innings at third base. Walker, of course, has boatloads of experience at second base, where he’s amassed nearly 9000 innings at the MLB level. Walker also saw some time in the outfield corners during his 2018 stint with the Yankees.
Walker was able to secure a modest one-year, $2MM contract with the Marlins for the 2019 season despite a tepid .219/.309/.354 slash line with the Yankees last year. Given that he’s coming off a much better season at the plate, it stands to reason that Walker should be able to find at least another one-year pact to occupy a bench role — particularly with MLB rosters set to expand from 25 to 26 players beginning next season.
That said, if Walker isn’t able to find offers to his liking this coming winter, he’s already looking ahead to the future. Walker made clear that once he’s done as a player, he’d be interested in calling big league games — be it on TV or on the radio. Eventual broadcast aspirations aside, Walker seems like he has enough left in the tank at the plate to help a club in 2020 — particularly if said team is comfortable moving him around the diamond a bit more than the Marlins did this year. At the very least, it’s not hard to imagine another rebuilding club bringing him aboard as a low-cost bench piece.
NL Notes: Mets, Posey, Alcantara
While there have obviously been some bright spots for the Mets this year, Joel Sherman of the New York Post rejects the idea that it’s just another season. Having dealt away significant prospects and bypassed opportunities to recoup others, the Mets made a win-now gambit that hasn’t paid out. That makes this year a distinct waste, Sherman argues. There’ll surely be long-term impacts that haven’t yet fully been felt. Most immediately, Sherman posits that skipper Mickey Callaway is likely to be bounced from the dugout — an approach that would be supported heartily by MLBTR readers.
More from the National League:
- There has long been debate as to whether and when Giants catcher Buster Posey would begin spending more time at first base. But that’s no longer really a relevant inquiry, Kerry Crowley of The Mercury News writes. Posey remains a steady presence behind the dish as his first decade in the majors draws to a close, but his bat has distinctly fallen off its former pace. The 32-year-old is slashing just .256/.320/.368, marking the first below-average offensive campaign of his career. What of top prospect Joey Bart, who is nearing MLB readiness? Crowley argues that he’s the better candidate to spend part of his time at first base once he reaches the bigs.
- Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara has increasingly impressed over the course of the season, as MLB.com’s Bill Ladson explores. The 24-year-old’s latest outing drew his earned run average south of four per nine over a 191 1/3-inning sample. Alcantara has outpaced his peripherals, but it’s still quite a promising showing for a young hurler. Manager Don Mattingly says that Alcantara “has turned the corner” as he has increased his confidence and aggressiveness. Alcantara will not be eligible for arbitration until 2022.
Curtis Granderson Hopes To Continue Playing In 2020
Marlins outfielder/pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson will turn 39 next March and is struggling through the worst offensive season of his career, but he tells Bill Ladson of MLB.com that he hopes to continue his career beyond the 2019 season. The veteran is open to a reunion with the Marlins, should the club have interest in re-signing him.
Granderson acknowledges that it’s not a “slam dunk” for a player of his age to find interest from any of the clubs in the league. This time last year, he was finishing up a season in which he hit .242/.351/.431 with 13 home runs between the Blue Jays and Brewers. Despite that solid production and his highly regarded clubhouse presence, Granderson had to settle for a minor league contract.
Now, Granderson will carry an eyesore of a batting line (.186/.286/.355 at present) into free agency. To his credit, the Grandy Man does have 11 home runs, 17 doubles and a triple under his belt this year. And his 26.9 percent strikeout rate, while higher than the league average, is only a modest increase from last season’s 26.3 percent clip. He’s still walking at an 11.6 percent rate, hasn’t seen his infield-fly rate jump and has slightly improved his hard-contact rate from 34.3 percent to 35 percent, per Statcast. Silver linings aside, it’s hard to hide from struggles of this magnitude. If Granderson lands back with the Marlins or with a new club, it seems likely that it’d be on another minor league pact with an invitation to Major League Spring Training.
If there’s one thing working in Granderson’s favor, it could be that the standard Major League roster size is set to expand from 25 players to 26 players, beginning next season. Big league clubs will have an additional roster spot at their disposal, and it’s not out of the question that the Marlins (or perhaps another rebuilding club) would want to take advantage of that by rostering a veteran of 16 Major League seasons to help mentor emerging big leaguers.
To that end, the Marlins’ decision to extend manager Don Mattingly can’t hurt Granderson’s chance of suiting up for a second season in South Beach. Mattingly gushed praise for the veteran outfielder and the influence he’s had on the Marlins’ young players, calling him “one of the keys” to the Marlins’ clubhouse. “He is willing to give these guys advice, help a guy grow up,” Mattingly said.
Three Needs: Miami Marlins
We’re bringing back our “Three Needs” series, in which we take a look at the chief issues to be addressed for clubs that have fallen out of contention. We’ve already focused on the Mariners, Tigers, and White Sox. Now we’re on to the lowly Marlins, the National League’s worst team …
1. Give Away Fewer Corner OF/IF Plate Appearances
The Marlins are not good, and that’s not surprising. There wasn’t a path to being good in 2019 and there isn’t a path to being good in 2020, either. But that doesn’t mean the team ought to be plugging in replacement-level, low-ceiling players — especially in areas of the field where there’s opportunity.
There’s value in having some veteran clubhouse members and perhaps also in rewarding some hustling, marginal major leaguers. But the Marlins need to be maxing out their opportunities to dig up interesting talent and develop their own players. And in 2019, they dedicated a few too many outfield and corner infield plate appearances to less-than-promising players.
The Marlins did give chances to potentially interesting late-bloomers Garrett Cooper and Harold Ramirez with generally middling results. But it’d be nice to see the organization take chances on more and younger players with so many possibilities flying around the waiver wire. No doubt there are some underappreciated bats out there just waiting for an opportunity. In 2019, the Fish have handed over a thousand total plate appearances at corner positions to Neil Walker, Curtis Granderson, Martin Prado, Isaac Galloway, and Peter O’Brien.
2. Chase Upside With Extensions
We know the Marlins are willing to do multi-year deals with existing players since they just inked one with shortstop Miguel Rojas. But that was more about locking in a solid, internally valued veteran for a brief stretch than it was the pursuit of a value-laden contract with a young talent.
Not every rebuilding team is in a position to consider lengthy pacts with young players. The Marlins are. They’ve surely seen enough good things from Brian Anderson to pursue a deal. There’s a strong argument for talking with Jorge Alfaro, who’s also entering his final winter before arbitration. On the pitching side, Caleb Smith and Sandy Alcantara are interesting targets.
It might seem premature to begin committing future payroll space when the Marlins still don’t know when they’ll be able to compete again. But this isn’t just (or even primarily) about locking in pieces for this organization. It’s about attempting to make good assets even better ones — even if that entails some risk — whether for a future Miami contender or for trade bait.
3. Load Up The Bullpen With Interesting Arms
It took some doin’, but the Marlins managed to finish the season with the worst bullpen in the NL East — and the rest of baseball as well, if that needed to be specified — by measure of fWAR. And that’s including Nick Anderson and Sergio Romo, who logged 1.5 fWAR before being traded away. Absent those two hurlers, this was a remarkable -3.7 fWAR unit.
That’s not the be-all, end-all measure of relief work. Rebuilding teams don’t really need reliable bullpens. But it’s awfully dispiriting to a team (let alone a fanbase) to watch winnable games melt away. And, more importantly, it points to an opportunity.
The Marlins know the drill here. They already cashed in on the aforementioned Anderson, who was acquired for a song. And they just picked up lefty Josh Smith on a similar premise. There ought to be more where that came from. In addition to waiver targets, the Marlins can consider bounceback veterans with some degree of upside along with minor-league free agents.
NL Notes: Zobrist, Sierra, Inciarte
The Cubs have, amazingly, lost five consecutive one-run decisions after another gut-wrenching loss to the Cardinals this afternoon. While much of the conversation regarding the end of their season will focus on this incremental collapse, the Cubs final games are also significant in that they may mark the last occasions on which Ben Zobrist will suit up for the team. A star of the club’s curse-breaking 2016 World Series team, Zobrist spoke at length with The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma about what may be his last days in Cubbie blue–and about the struggles his team has faced in 2019 (link).
“I think so much of it has to do with momentum,” Zobrist told Sharma. “I’m a big believer in momentum. If you get it early in the season, you can be 10 games up at the All-Star break. When I look at every year, there’s this ebb and flow. It just seems like no matter how good the team is, if you don’t start out fast like that, and kind of push ahead in the division early on, it’s hard to keep that momentum and get to a point where you clinch on Sept. 15.”
The Cubs began this year 2-7 and were without the help of the 38-year-old Zobrist for a sizable chunk of the season as he tended to family matters. Since returning to action on Sept. 3, the versatile former Ray has hit .320/.404/.460 across 57 plate appearances–production which should, if nothing else, entice rival front offices considering him for a contract next season.
More notes from around the National League…
- Outfielder Magneuris Sierra had been in the midst of his first extended success in a Marlins uniform, but it appears that a hamstring strain suffered in today’s game will cut his campaign a bit short, according to a tweet from Wells Dusenbury of the Sun-Sentinel (link). The 23-year-old Sierra, who a lifetime ago was a key component of the Marcell Ozuna trade, did some nice things in 14 September games for Miami, with a .324 batting average across a small sample of 38 plate appearances. That came on the heels of an uneven 2019 minor league campaign, in which he amassed a .282/.337/.365 line in 48 Double-A games before Triple-A exposure mellowed him out a bit (.271/.304/.399 line in 81 games). He did log 36 steals across three levels this year, which should aid him in trying to crack Miami’s outfield mix in 2020.
- Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte was previously said to be expected back this Tuesday, but the veteran may instead return this Friday, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com (link). It’s fair to wonder if the Braves are feeling a little less urgency now that they’ve clinched the NL East, but Inciarte will nonetheless be a welcome component of Atlanta’s postseason roster. Inciarte, who has been downed with a bad hammy since August, has only logged a -1 DRS figure in 63 games on the grass this year–a far cry from the +17 DRS he recorded for the Braves last year. Speedster Billy Hamilton, Inciarte’s replacement as of late, is 8-for-29 at the plate for Atlanta this year.
NL Notes: Mattingly, Freeman, Diamondbacks, Lamb
When Marlins manager Don Mattingly signed his freshly-inked two-year contract extension, he may have taken a significant pay cut to keep his position in the Miami dugout, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. While the precise financials of the contract have not been released to the public, Rosenthal’s sources have indicated that Mattingly will make roughly $2MM annually to stay in Miami—a considerable downgrade the $2.8MM figure that he’s earned this season. While the Marlins are notorious for their conservative spending, Rosenthal argues that Mattingly’s salary reflects an industry-wide trend that has driven managers’ salaries down. A veteran like Mattingly may have found it hard to match his previous salary had he elected to go job-hunting elsewhere in the Majors, where teams increasingly favor younger—and therefore more affordable—analytically-driven managers. That’s not to discount Mattingly’s work with the rebuilding Marlins, who have praised his ability to work with young players; however, it’s notable just how much the landscape of baseball has changed that a lifer like Mattingly is no longer a sought-after skipper.
- Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has been battling through a bone spur in his elbow, was again bothered by the elbow today, according to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. With his Braves having already clinched the NL East, he’ll play it safe and take the next few days off before rejoining the club on Friday for the series against the Mets. The hope is that four days of rest and treatment will have Freeman ready to go for the rest of year—it’s worth noting that, after the game, manager Brian Snitker said that Freeman would be in the lineup if the playoffs were starting tomorrow.
- With the offseason approaching, there will be no shortage of questions surrounding Diamondbacks infielder Jake Lamb, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Lamb has struggled through a second consecutive disappointing year after an All-Star campaign in 2017. He’ll be eligible for arbitration this winter, and the organization may opt to non-tender Lamb in favor of more affordable, less risky investments. Injuries to his shoulder and quad have robbed Lamb of regular at-bats, making it difficult to regain the swing that produced 30 home runs just two years ago. Unfortunately for Lamb, those injuries have opened doors for others in the organization, and he may now find himself squeezed out of the D-Backs’ plans.
Marlins Extend Don Mattingly
Sept. 22: Mattingly’s new contract comes with a rather significant pay cut, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. While Mattingly’s previous deal came with a $2.8MM salary for 2019, this pact is believed to pay him $2MM or less annually. The Marlins declined to formally announce the terms.
Sept. 20: The Marlins have formally announced the extension. It’s a two-year deal with a mutual option for the 2022 season.
Sept. 19, 9:46pm: It’s a two-year deal with an option, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.
8:38pm: The Marlins and manager Don Mattingly have agreed on a contract extension, as per Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (Twitter link). The deal will be officially announced tomorrow at a press conference.
Mattingly’s four-year contract was set to expire after the season, and there had been a great deal of speculation that the skipper’s time in Miami was coming to a close. Mattingly was a holdover from Jeffrey Loria’s ownership, and new CEO Derek Jeter said just last month that upper management hadn’t yet made a decision about whether or not to retain Mattingly beyond the 2019 campaign.
While Jeter and company have largely cleaned house within the Marlins’ organization since Bruce Sherman’s ownership group bought the team in 2017, some key personnel have been retained, most notably Mattingly and president of baseball operations Michael Hill. Their contracts could have played a role (Hill is also under a long-term deal that runs through 2020), though the fact that Mattingly is now staying is certainly acknowledgement that Jeter’s regime isn’t entirely doing away with holdovers from the Loria days.
Indeed, it’s hard to blame Mattingly for the 272-364 record he carries as the Marlins’ manager. A respectable 79-82 campaign in 2016 was marred by the tragic death of Jose Fernandez near the end of the season, 2017 was a 77-85 writeoff dominated by the impending team sale and rumors of yet another fire sale of the Marlins’ top players, and the miserable 116-197 record of the last two seasons have borne the results of that fire sale. The Fish are on pace to crack the 100-loss threshold for the third time in franchise history.
Somewhat surprisingly, Mattingly’s 636 games in the dugout already make him the longest-serving manager the Marlins have ever had, which speaks to the tumult this organization has more or less faced since day one. Mattingly’s retention will provide some sense of stability as the Marlins put together a new core group of young talent in their latest rebuild.
One of the game’s biggest stars of the 1980’s during his playing days with the Yankees, the 58-year-old Mattingly is about to complete his ninth year as a manager. Miami’s struggles brought Mattingly’s career managerial record (718-727) under the .500 mark, as he enjoyed five years of winning baseball with the Dodgers from 2011-15 that included three NL West titles.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
NL East Notes: Marlins, Mets, Nationals, Kendrick
With the Marlins reaching the vaunted 100-loss mark, CEO Derek Jeter spoke on Friday about his team’s approach to the impending offseason, with the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson speculating on what the winter may hold. This season, the club ranked second-to-last in payroll, dishing out just $70MM in total salary expenditures. However, with Martin Prado slated to hit free agency and the team likely to decline Starlin Castro‘s club option, a considerable portion of that number will come off the books following the season, leaving the Marlins with just about $31MM in guaranteed contracts for the 2020 season, per Roster Resource. That number will rise as the team inks players under team control, but the point stands that the Fish will have significant room to seek upgrades in the offseason. After a trade deadline that saw them bolster the farm system through the acquisitions of Lewin Diaz, Jazz Chisholm, and Jesus Sanchez, the Marlins now find themselves with one of the Majors’ better farm systems, featuring a solid crop of position-player prospects, though few in that group will be ready to contribute in the coming season. With that in mind, Jeter sees his team as needing to strike a balance between seeking positional upgrades and developing youngsters: “You want to give [prospects] enough time to continue to develop but you don’t want to block their way,” he said on Friday. The team has needs all over the diamond, though outfield, first base, and the bullpen stand out as perhaps the most glaring. Jackson lists a number of potential free-agent targets to keep an eye on, including big-name hitters with south Florida roots like Jose Abreu and Nicholas Castellanos; however, it remains uncertain whether the team will target big fish, since projections of increased revenue have yet to actualize, though attendance-related issues may be remedied by making a splash in the offseason.
Here are the latest tidbits from the ever-competitive NL East…
- Just over a week ago, the Mets found themselves at the heart of quite a controversy when Mets starter Noah Syndergaard expressed his proclivity for catchers not named Wilson Ramos, who has been the most productive hitter out of the Mets’ catching group. For the first time, Ramos offered his thoughts on the situation, as relayed by Mike Puma of the New York Post. Evidently, the veteran catcher isn’t bothered by the drama, understanding that there are times when pitchers feel a heightened comfort with a particular catcher. Ramos, who’s been around since 2010, is certainly no stranger to the dynamics of a big-league clubhouse and is instead choosing to focus his energy on getting the Mets into the postseason. Coming off a win last night, his club finds themselves 3.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot with nine games left to play—a deficit that, while not insurmountable, makes them a longshot to play in October. After making a pair of starts with Ramos behind the dish, Syndergaard got his wish on Wednesday, when he threw to Rene Rivera, though that combination didn’t yield much better results. With his next start scheduled to come on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see whether Mickey Callaway turns again to Ramos.
- One of the unsung heroes of the Nationals bid for the postseason has been veteran Howie Kendrick, who has excelled as a pinch-hitter and occasional infielder. As Todd Dybas of NBC Sports writes, he’s enjoying a career year that might not have happened if he weren’t under contract for 2019 following an Achilles tear suffered early last season. Of course, the free agent market has been notoriously cruel to players in their 30s, and Kendrick, 36, may not have gotten another chance in the Majors after such a significant injury. However, with a $4MM salary already in place for 2019 after inking a two-year deal with Washington, Kendrick has carved out a nice role and now projects to play an instrumental part in a potential Nats playoff run, all while setting himself up to draw interest for yet another contract this coming offseason.
Marlins Extend Miguel Rojas
Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas will be reaching free agency a bit later than initially projected, as the organization formally announced a two-year contract extension for the 30-year-old defensive standout Friday. Rojas, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will reportedly be guaranteed $10.25MM in total. The contract also comes with a vesting option that’d take the deal north of $15MM, if triggered.
The new contract buys out Rojas’ final season of arbitration, guarantees one free-agent season and gives Miami an option for what would be the second free-agent season for Rojas, who’ll turn 31 in February. Rojas earned a $3.155MM salary in 2019 and would’ve been eligible for arbitration for the final time this winter — although his relatively timid offensive profile would’ve prevented him from cashing in on a substantial raise.
The timing of the contract talks are a bit unusual, but the Miami organization is no stranger to September extensions. The Marlins previously worked out a three-year, $40MM extension for Martin Prado as well as a much smaller one-year extension with Greg Dobbs in the final month of a season (not that either deal panned out particularly well for them). Beyond that, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweeted this week that Rojas has “made it clear” to the Marlins that he wants to stay in Miami. The two sides apparently preferred to skip the potentially contentious arbitration process and proactively work out a multi-year arrangement.
Rojas has quietly become a versatile and fairly valuable player in South Florida, logging time at all four infield positions over the past few seasons while proving to be a difficult strikeout at the plate. He’s currently hitting .288/338/.388 with five homers, 27 doubles, a triple and eight steals in 2019, and he’s put together a serviceable (albeit still below average) .274/.327/.368 slash through 1316 plate appearances dating back to 2017. In that time, he’s punched out in only 12 percent of his plate appearances.
Though he’s spent the bulk of his time at shortstop over the past two seasons, Rojas grades out as an above-average defender all over the diamond. He’s generated elite numbers at the shortstop position, where he’s been credited with +26 Defensive Runs Saved and a +14 Ultimate Zone Rating dating back to 2017, which has helped to offset his lack of power and limited on-base skills.
Looking ahead, Rojas now appears poised to serve as the Marlins’ primary shortstop in both 2020 and 2021 — depending on the timeline of prospect Jazz Chisholm. For now, Rojas will likely be joined on the left side of the diamond by continually improving Brian Anderson, with well-regarded prospect Isan Diaz the favorite at second base. Garrett Cooper will likely round out the 2020 infield, although trades and free-agent acquisitions can certainly impact that composition. Rojas had previously been a somewhat under-the-radar trade asset, but a multi-year deal quite likely takes him off the market — at least in the short term.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman first reported the deal (Twitter links). Barry Jackson and Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald added some financial context, and Heyman tweeted final details.
NL East Notes: Realmuto, Mattingly, Mets
Here’s the latest on a trio of clubs from the NL East:
- Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, who has proven to be one of the most valuable acquisitions of last offseason, suggested back in July that he’d be open to signing an extension with the club. While a deal hasn’t come together yet, it looks as if the team’s interested in locking up Realmuto for the long haul, according to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lauber notes Realmuto could soon become the game’s latest nine-figure catcher, which would place him in company with the likes of the Giants’ Buster Posey and now-retired Twins icon Joe Mauer. Realmuto, a former Marlin, has been superb in 2019 – his age-28 campaign – and has continued to make a case for one of the richest paydays in the history of his position. With just one more season of control left after this one, the Phillies will have to act fast if they’re going to prevent Realmuto from leaving over the next year-plus. Having traded elite pitching prospect Sixto Sanchez for Realmuto over the winter, it stands to reason the Phillies will make a serious attempt to keep the two-time All-Star backstop in the fold.
- In an interview with Andre Fernandez of The Athletic (subscription required), Marlins manager Don Mattingly once again indicated he’d like to manage the club in 2020. But if a new agreement between Mattingly, whose contract is set to expire, and the Marlins doesn’t come together after the season, he’ll be willing to go elsewhere. Mattingly said it’s his “mindset” to manage someplace in 2020, whether it’s Miami or another MLB city. The 58-year-old is in his fourth season in Miami, and though the win-loss results haven’t been pretty, Mattingly’s respected enough to potentially end up on other teams’ radars if the Marlins don’t retain him.
- Mets first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith and right-hander Robert Gsellman are still hoping to return this season, per Tim Healey of Newsday. Time is obviously running out on the injured pair, however. Smith hasn’t played since July 27 on account of a stress reaction in his left foot, but the 24-year-old was among the Mets’ most effective hitters of 2019 before then. Gsellman has been down for just under a month with a partial lat tear – an injury that cut off an unspectacular campaign for the 26-year-old reliever.