Quick Hits: Rangers, Posey, Dodgers
Here are a few more notes from around baseball:
- Former Rangers hurler C.J. Wilson discussed the "communication issues" with the Texas front office that, he says, led him and other free agents to leave the club, reports Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com. "When you're a free agent and the team that you're with tells you that they don't think you're that good or whatever, it doesn't give you any incentive to sign back," said Wilson. "They've played the whole wait-and-see card. It didn't really work with [Josh] Hamilton and it didn't work with me, either." A glance at MLBTR's Extension Tracker shows that Texas has been willing to pay its own in some circumstances, giving large extensions to players like Matt Harrison, Ian Kinsler, and Derek Holland.
- The Giants entered their huge extension with backstop Buster Posey knowing that there is a good chance he will have to change positions, writes ESPN's Buster Olney. Posey, a former shortstop, could be moved to third or first in as few as two years, notes Olney. In the meantime, the club can let the situation evolve and see what happens with talented younger players like Brandon Belt and Pablo Sandoval. For his part, Posey says he would be willing to change positions if "it's something that'll help the team," but that his "passion is being behind the plate,"tweets John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- There are a dozen big league skippers on the hot seat this season, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Don Mattingly of the Dodgers, Mike Scioscia of the Angels, and Terry Collins of the Mets all made Rosenthal's list.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
NL Central Notes: Lohse, Brewers, Wainwright, Willis
After recapping the Pirates' offseason, let's take a look at the rest of the NL Central..
- The Collective Bargaining Agreement meant that Kyle Lohse had to wait longer than expected to sign this winter, but he can be a real game changer in the NL Central for the Brewers, writes Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. The veteran will pitch alongside Yovani Gallardo and Marco Estrada in front of the National League's best offense in 2012.
- Fresh off of signing a five-year, $97.5MM contract extension, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright says that he is ready to be the club's undisputed ace, writes MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. Aside from being an impact player on the mound, Wainwright is also looked up to by the other hurlers on the team.
- The Cubs did some spring cleaning today and made some minor league cuts, including 2010 first-rounder Hayden Simpson and Dontrelle Willis, according to Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune (on Twitter).
A’s Claim Josh Stinson Off Waivers From Brewers
The Athletics claimed Josh Stinson off of waivers from the Brewers, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (on Twitter). Milwaukee exposed the right-hander to waivers this week as they wanted to free up a spot on their 40-man roster.
Stinson, 25, has made 19 relief appearances and one start for the Brewers and Mets across the last two seasons, posting a 4.43 ERA with 4.4 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9. In 24 starts and five relief appearances for the Brewers' Double-A affiliate last season, Stinson posted a 3.16 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9.
Minor Moves: Olivo, Rays, Murphy
We'll keep track of today's minor moves here..
- Catcher Miguel Olivo has asked for and been granted his release by the Reds, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). It was previously reported that Olivo was mulling whether to accept a $100k bonus and report to Triple-A, or instead test the market. Olivo could be an option for the Marlins, writes Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.
- The Rays have released minor leaguer righties Nick Barnese and Joe Cruz, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times on Twitter. Barnese, a third-rounder from 2007, threw 56 2/3 innings over 12 starts in Double-A last year and mustered only a 5.72 ERA with 4.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9.
- Infielder Donnie Murphy exercised his out clause with the Brewers today and took his release, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The 30-year-old hooked on with Milwaukee in December and hit hit .216/.281/.379 in 129 plate appearances with the Marlins last season. Murphy is a .205/.270/.373 career hitter in 640 big league plate appearances and a .285/.351/.556 career hitter 738 Triple-A plate appearances.
Jeff Todd contributed to this post.
NL Notes: Garland, Cook, Puig, Brewers, Soriano
Making his first start in a Rockies uniform tonight, recently-signed Jon Garland made such an impression with his groundball-inducing ways that the club tweeted his groundout to flyout ratio (2.5:1) through five innings.
- Garland has substantial incentives in his contract with the Rockies that could raise its total value to $3.1MM, explains Troy Renck of the Denver Post. In addition to his base $500k deal, which will fully vest if he stays on the 25-man roster for 45 days, Garland can earn up to $1.35MM for innings pitched (the pay starts at 105 IP and increases up to 195 IP) and up to $1.25MM for starts made (with the incentives kicking in at 20 starts and continuing to 32 starts).
- The Rockies are expected to consider the possibility of inking righty Aaron Cook, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweeted earlier today. Cook, who was released earlier today by the Phillies, is (like Garland) known as a groundball artist.
- In spite of being sent to Double-A today by the Dodgers, Yasiel Puig has been so impressive that he may enable the club to effectively buy even more young talent from other clubs, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. As Rosenthal explains, if L.A. is able to replace either Carl Crawford or Andre Ethier with Puig, they could then offer to pay for much of the balance of the contracts of those expensive veterans to extract quality prospects from a trade partner. According to an unnamed rival executive, "It's smart actually — the only way to really build a farm system under the new rules. And you can only do it if you've got big dollars."
- The Kyle Lohse signing was a substantial investment for the Brewers at three years and $33MM, but owner Mark Attanasio says that it will not prevent the club from "being able to make another move," reports Rosenthal. In particular, Attanasio expects to be in a position to re-sign first-baseman Corey Hart, who falls just outside the top 10 anticipated 2014 free agents in MLBTR's TIm Dierkes's 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings. While the Brewers sought to add to their rotation without losing a draft pick when they made an offer to Ryan Dempster before he joined the Red Sox for two years and $26.5MM, Attanasio explained that, "at the time we made the Dempster decision, we thought Kyle would go at a higher price." Finally, Rosenthal notes that Lohse can earn three separate paydays totalling an additional $1MM for reaching 190 innings pitched over each of the next three seasons.
- Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano has been a popular topic of trade speculation, with the presumption being that Chicago would try to get whatever prospects and/or salary relief it could. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times wonders, however, whether Soriano is now too valuable for the team to consider dealing. For his part, Soriano raves about the team's new front office and coaching staff, explaining how they changed the culture from one in which he felt singled out for the team's failings to one in which, "if we lost, we lost like a team; if we won, we won like a team."
Brewers Sign Yuniesky Betancourt
The Brewers signed infielder Yuniesky Betancourt to a Major League deal, according to a press release from his agency. He'd been the team's starting shortstop in 2011, and now he'll serve in a utility role.
Betancourt, 31, hit .228/.256/.400 in 228 plate appearances for the Royals last year, playing mostly second base. He was on a minor league deal with the Phillies this spring, but opted out a few days ago.
Kyle Lohse Signing Reactions
Kyle Lohse's long winter ended yesterday, as the 34-year-old righty signed a three-year, $33MM deal with the Brewers. According to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Lohse will receive $4MM in 2013, with $7MM deferred in 2016-18, and $11MM salaries in '14 and '15. The players' union values the Lohse deal at $31.95MM over three years, factoring in the deferred money, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Brewers also had to surrender the 17th overall pick in the June draft, while the Cardinals gained the 28th for their loss. Lohse has been throwing bullpens and simulated games, and will begin the season on the Brewers' active roster. Let's check out some Lohse reactions and links:
- Olney doesn't think the Lohse signing made sense for the Brewers, as the loss of the draft pick means they are "drifting into more talent debt." The Brewers "pushed forward at a time when it really needed to take a step back," writes Olney.
- Keith Law, also at ESPN, feels the contract is "pretty reasonable relative to market values for starters of his caliber." Law also feels the Brewers are "sliding out of contender status," but notes that the contract seems tradeable later on. Lohse did not receive a no-trade clause, noted Rosenthal.
- Agent Scott Boras "doesn't lose, even if he didn't exactly win" on the Lohse deal, writes Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs. Lohse should have gotten a higher average annual value, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but he's not convinced the new draft pick compensation system needs an overhaul.
- "When you have a system that does not reward performance, you know we have something corrupt in the major league process," Boras told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Boras says baseball should remove the financial motivation for teams to lose, as the worst teams receive the largest pools of draft dollars. The current system allows bad teams to make up ground on the good ones, which wasn't possible before, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow said on Law's podcast a few weeks ago. Is it fair, though, that the Astros have significantly more draft dollars to spend than the Nationals? It's good for parity, though teams don't necessarily lose because of their market size.
- "Losing the first-round pick is tough, but that's a decision we had to make," GM Doug Melvin told reporters including Haudricourt.
Orioles Acquire Jairo Asencio From Brewers
7:53pm: Asencio will not be placed on the 40-man roster and will likely be assigned to Triple-A, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports (Twitter link). The Orioles' interest in Asencio dates back to last season.
7:36pm: The Orioles have acquired right-hander Jairo Asencio from the Brewers in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations, according to Rich Dubroff of CSN Baltimore (on Twitter).
Asencio, 28, split the 2012 season between the Indians and Cubs, pitching to a 4.91 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in 40 1/3 innings of relief work. He's been flat-out dominant at the Triple-A level, compiling a 2.52 ERA, 10.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 139 1/3 innings, though that's yet to transfer over to the big league level.
Asencio has averaged 92.3 mph on his heater throughout his career and owns a 40.8 percent ground-ball rate. He pitched previously under a false name: Luis Valdez.
Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Chris Young
MONDAY: The Blue Jays, Orioles, Twins, Indians, Cubs, Cardinals, Red Sox, Brewers and Mets all have scouts on hand for Young's start against the Astros today, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). However, as he's quick to note, that doesn't necessarily mean that each team is there to scout Young specifically.
For what it's worth, Young was terrific in his outing, scattering two hits, a walk and an unearned run over four innings to go along with a pair of strikeouts.
SUNDAY, 2:10pm: The Pirates are intrigued by Young, tweets the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Rob Biertempfel. However, Biertempfel wonders whether the Pirates can assure Young he'd be on roster the whole year and, if not, whether or not Young would be interested.
11:25am: The minor league deal that Chris Young signed with the Nationals last month contains an opt-out clause that he can exercise today. However, Young is scheduled to pitch in a Grapefruit League game tomorrow. Dan Kolko of MASNsports tweets that Young is planning on making that start tomorrow and then making a decision. Young says he has received interest from other teams, and it was reported on Friday that Young likely won't make the roster.
The Washington Post's Adam Kilgore adds that the Nationals hope to retain Young and view him as the clear favorite for a rotation spot if one of their starting five were to suffer an injury. Young is interested in staying in the organization in the event that he can't find a Major League job elsewhere.
The 33-year-old Young posted a 4.15 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 115 innings for the Mets last season. However, teams in smaller ballparks will likely be wary of Young's alarming 58.2 percent fly-ball rate. Among pitchers with 100 innings or more, Young's fly-ball rate was far and away the highest in baseball, while his 22.3 percent ground-ball rate was far and away the lowest.
Edward Creech contributed to this post.
Brewers Sign Kyle Lohse
The long wait is over: Kyle Lohse has officially signed a three-year, $33MM contract with the Brewers that includes an additional $1MM in performance bonuses. The Boras Corporation client passed his physical this afternoon and will join his team for the remainder of Spring Training. "This signing makes us a better club today than we were yesterday," said general manager Doug Melvin in a team-issued press release that confirmed the signing.
The Brewers will forfeit the 17th overall pick and the accompanying slot money in the June draft, while the Cardinals will gain the 28th overall pick. Lohse will reportedly earn just $4MM in 2013, followed by salaries of $11MM in 2014-15. The contract contains $7MM worth of deferred money that will be paid out from 2016-18.
Lohse, 34, seemed en route to a large contract after posting a 2.86 ERA, 6.1 K/9, 1.6 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9, and 40.5% groundball rate in 211 regular season innings for the Cardinals in 2012, and pitching well the year prior. Turning down the Cardinals' one-year, $13.3MM qualifying offer seemed the right call in November for a player I considered the 10th best free agent available. However, partially because of the draft pick compensation issue, Lohse languished on the market nearly until Opening Day. Agent Scott Boras, whose contract demands were the other major factor in Lohse's wait, told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick in January, "It doesn't really matter what time dinner is when you're the steak." Lohse had been throwing simulated games in Arizona, but it's unclear when he'll be Major League-ready.
Having traded Zack Greinke midseason and lost Shaun Marcum to free agency, the Brewers were hurting for a veteran rotation presence behind Yovani Gallardo. It seems likely that Boras made his appeal at the Brewers' ownership level, convincing Mark Attanasio to make the win-now signing and give up the draft pick.
The Rangers were the runner-up for Lohse, though they never made an official offer, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports was the first to report the agreement (Twitter link). USA Today's Bob Nightengale tweeted the financial details, while ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reported the details on Lohses's incentives (via Twitter). MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported the breakdown of Lohse's salary and deferred money (on Twitter).
Steve Adams contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.