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Quick Hits: A’s, Phillies, Yankees, Mets

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Checking in on a few MLB teams…

  • Athletics owner John J. Fisher made the widely panned decision last week to stop paying minor leaguers at the end of May. Industry sources told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle they’re of the belief that “the front office was tremendously disappointed” in A’s ownership’s call. It’s a choice that Slusser notes could have a negative effect on the A’s after next week’s five-round draft, as various minor leaguers and agents told Slusser the A’s would not be their No. 1 choice. However, as Slusser writes, Oakland still has a chance to land talent if it’s willing to pay enough, and if it presents the best opportunity to the player.
  • With no season underway yet, the Phillies are in cost-cutting mode. Owner John Middleton told full-time employees in an email Monday that the team’s projecting losses of “substantially more than $100 million” in 2020, Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. As a result, anyone in the team’s business department who’s on a $90K salary or above must take a pay cut. The Phillies will continue to provide health insurance, pension and 401(k) benefits to their full-time staff. However, because there may not be fans in the stands this year, the team’s facing “an enormous financial challenge” according to Middleton, who wrote that “approximately 40% of our total annual revenue is generated by attendance — tickets, food and merchandise concessions, parking and sponsorships.” Of course, the lack of fans is one of the reasons the owners have pushed for a far smaller schedule this year. They and the players have not been on the same wavelength in negotiations, though.
  • Teams are expected to have a few extra rosters if there is a season in 2020. Between that and likely a lack of a minor league campaign, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News has been profiling Yankees pitching prospects who could get to the majors sooner than expected this year. Right-handers Deivi Garcia (link) and Clarke Schmidt (link) are among them. Garcia (No. 3) ranks a bit below Schmidt (No. 2) on Baseball America’s list of Yankees farmhands, and the scouts Ackert spoke with are optimistic they’ll turn into capable major league contributors.
  • The Mets have reopened their spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to players for the first time since late March, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes. Four to six players, including catcher Wilson Ramos, have resumed training at the facility. It’s an encouraging sign that they’re getting back to work, though DiComo points out that the players must follow “MLB, CDC, and local and state safety protocols.”

Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez Still Working On Mets Bid

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Three weeks ago, it appeared Alex Rodriguez no longer had any hope of purchasing the Mets. However, it now looks as if he and famous fiancee Jennifer Lopez have re-entered the picture. According to Thornton McEnery of the New York Post, Rodriguez, Lopez and some of JPMorgan Chase’s “very senior bankers” are working on putting together a bid to buy the franchise from current owners Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon.

This is clearly a serious attempt from Rodriguez and Lopez, who McEnery hears are putting in “hundreds of millions” of their own dollars to land the Mets. It’s unclear exactly who else would be part of a Rodriguez-Lopez ownership group – Wayne Rothbaum was said to be in the mix earlier, but it doesn’t seem that’s the case anymore – though they have been talking with New England Patriots owners Bob Kraft and Jonathan Kraft. The Krafts don’t want to buy a baseball team, yet they’re “very intrigued” with the plans Rodriguez and Lopez have to breathe new life into Citi Field and its surrounding areas, McEnery details in his piece.

Regardless of whether the Krafts do accompany Rodriguez and Lopez, a source told McEnery that “the money is there,” that “a bid is coming,” and odds are the Mets will go for less than $2 billion if they do change hands. Furthermore, while the Wilpons have been reluctant to give up any part of the SNY television network in a sale, it seems they’re more open to it now. The Wilpons would still want to keep some portion of SNY in giving up the Mets, however, McEnery reports.

The coronavirus shutdown could continue to lead to major financial losses for the Wilpons, who may reportedly lose up to $150MM even during a half-season. That could increase their urgency to sell the team, and it now looks possible that Rodriguez and Lopez will swoop in if the Wilpons do step away.

Latest Minor League Releases

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Minor League Baseball has never faced greater uncertainty than it presently does, with contraction widely expected later this year and significant doubt as to whether a 2020 minor league campaign will even be able to take place. Over the past several days, we’ve seen wide swaths of minor league releases due to myriad reasons. It’s common for players to be released late in Spring Training, but those cuts didn’t happen this year. Between that, the likely absence of a minor league season and the typical wave of releases that precede the annual MLB draft, cuts have been abundant.

The Score’s Robert Murray tweets several clubs who’ve made undetermined numbers of releases: the Brewers, Reds, Nationals, Rays, Cardinals and Blue Jays among them. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Diamondbacks have released a whopping 64 players in recent days. In all likelihood, all 30 teams will make significant cuts. The Orioles, White Sox, Rockies and Mariners are already known to have done so.

Most of the players who’ve been cut loose have yet to be named — and the majority of them won’t be especially recognizable to any but diehard fans of a particular organization. We’ll track some former big leaguers and other notable names in this post and update as more information comes to light…

  • The Mets cut 39 players loose this week, with first baseman Joey Terdoslavich and right-handers Nick Rumbelow and Rob Whalen among those let go, according to Roster Roundup. Newsday’s Tim Healey had previously reported an unspecified number of players were being cut loose. Each of Terdoslavich, Rumbelow and Whalen has big league experience. Terdoslavich, 31, was at one point a fairly well-regarded farmhand with the Braves, for whom he appeared in 2013-15. Rumbelow pitched with the Mariners in 2018-19 but hasn’t replicated the high-end performance he showed in Triple-A when working back from Tommy John surgery. Whalen, 26, had announced his retirement at one point but opted for a comeback this past winter. He logged 36 innings between the Braves and Mariners from 2016-18.
  • The Red Sox announced Friday the release of 22 minor league players. While none of the bunch has appeared in the Majors, there are some notable names in there all the same. Infielder Nick Lovullo, 26, is the son of former Sox bench coach and current D-backs skipper Torey Lovullo. He’d been with the organization since being selected in the 20th round of the 2016 draft. Boston also cut ties with infielder Juremi Profar — the younger brother of Padres second baseman Jurickson Profar. Boston inked the younger Profar brother to a minor league pact back in November after he’d spent seven years in the Rangers organization. The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham tweeted the whole list for those interested.

Latest News, Notes On Minor League Pay

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The manner in which teams are — or, in some cases, aren’t — continuing to pay their minor league players has drawn increased attention as the end of the month draws near. Major League teams agreed back in March to pay minor league players $400 per week through the end of May, but most minor league players now face ongoing financial uncertainty. The Dodgers have already committed to continue that $400 weekly stipend through the end of June, but veteran left-hander David Price is stepping up to add a helping hand, pledging $1,000 to each non-40-man Dodgers minor leaguer, according to a report from Francys Romero (Twitter link). That includes more than 220 minor leaguers, per MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. It’s a similar gesture to the one Shin-Shoo Choo made with the Rangers back in April.

Of course, the very fact that veterans such as Choo and Price even feel it necessary to step up to help out minor leaguers speaks to the manner in which minor league players are under-compensated. While some clubs — the Marlins and Padres — are reportedly set to pay out that $400 weekly stipend through the end of the minor league season, the Athletics are cutting off the stipend at month’s end. Others have extended the stipend through June but have not committed further.

Here’s how a few other clubs are handling the matter…

  • The Mets, Rays, Brewers, Cardinals, Giants and Indians are all extending the $400 weekly stipend through the month of June, per reports from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (tweet), the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak (tweet), the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (tweet) and Kyle Glaser of Baseball America (tweet). “This money right now, especially for guys who aren’t as well off, this is a huge deal,” Rays minor league catcher Chris Betts tells Topkin. “…I’m beyond excited about it, and I’m honestly just more stoked and proud that the organization I play for took this route more than anything.”
  • The Athletics have, unsurprisingly, drawn a wide array of harsh criticism for their wide-ranging furlough and the full cutoff of minor league payment, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Slusser notes that owner John Fisher repeatedly used the word “family” in his letter to fans explaining the cutbacks, but many impacted by the cuts don’t feel the effects of that word. “It’s very hard to preach family and then not act like it when times are difficult,” Class-A pitcher Aiden McIntyre tells Slusser. Triple-A outfielder Jason Krizan added: “…[I]t hurts to see the Marlins continue to pay their players when they made the least in baseball last year,” though he noted he’d rather remain an Athletic and receive benefits than otherwise. Other players, past and present, voiced similar criticisms to Slusser, as did a big league agent and an executive with another club. Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein writes that termination of the stipend saves the Athletics an approximate $1.3MM.

Which 15 Players Should The Mets Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR – just for the fun of it!  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

The American League results are in!  Click here to see who’s protected and who’s available for each AL team.

So far, we’ve covered the Marlins, Braves, Cardinals, Pirates, Brewers, Reds, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Rangers, Mariners, Athletics, Angels, Astros, Twins, Royals, Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles.  The Mets are up next.

First, we’ll begin by removing free agents Jed Lowrie, Rick Porcello, Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Wilson, Michael Wacha, Marcus Stroman, Jake Marisnick, Wilson Ramos, Brad Brach, and Dellin Betances from consideration.  The latter three have 2021 options, but we will consider them free agents for this exercise.  Robinson Cano and Jacob deGrom will make the protected list by virtue of their no-trade clauses.  We’ll protect a total of a dozen players out of the gate:

Robinson Cano
Jacob deGrom
Pete Alonso
Jeff McNeil
Noah Syndergaard
Michael Conforto
Amed Rosario
Brandon Nimmo
J.D. Davis
Steven Matz
Edwin Diaz
Seth Lugo

That leaves three spots for the following 12 players.  Be sure to check out the Mets’ contract statuses here.

Tyler Bashlor
Jeurys Familia
Robert Gsellman
Luis Guillorme
Walker Lockett
Tomas Nido
Corey Oswalt
Jacob Rhame
Paul Sewald
Dominic Smith
Drew Smith
Daniel Zamora

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly three players you think the Mets should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft.  Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Did The Mets Rob The Astros?

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Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has come under fire at times since the team hired the former agent after the 2018 season, but BVW has nonetheless had his high points atop their front office. One of his best decisions in New York came in January 2019, when he acquired a player who’s now among the Mets’ most valuable hitters in a trade with the Astros.

Sixteen months ago, Van Wagenen and then-Astros GM Jeff Luhnow worked out a swap that sent infielder/outfielder J.D. Davis and INF Cody Bohanek to the Mets for the trio of second baseman Luis Santana, outfielder Ross Adolph and catcher Scott Manea. Nobody from that quintet looked like a high-end asset at the time, and Davis was the only member of the group with major league experience.

Davis, a third-round pick of the Astros in 2014, hit a miserable .194/.260/.321 in 181 plate appearances in their uniform from ’17-18. However, Davis did have his way with Triple-A pitchers, against whom he slashed .335/.400/.589 with 22 home runs in 450 trips to the plate.

Davis’ success at the highest level of the minors impressed the Mets, who now look as if they acquired a terrific hitter at a low price. Davis got his first extensive look in the majors last season, his age-26 campaign, and ran with it.

Across 453 PA, Davis batted a strong .307/.369/.527 (136 wRC+) with 22 home runs in his Mets debut. The righty swinger showed no vulnerability against either same-handed or southpaw pitchers in the process, and his Statcast numbers don’t suggest his success was fluky. On the contrary, Davis finished in the league’s 80th percentile or better in barrels, exit velocity, expected slugging percentage, hard-hit rate, expected weighted on-base average and expected batting average. His xwOBA (.383) outdid an already impressive real-life mark of .373 and ranked 21st in the league, placing him among a slew of big names.

As great as Davis’ offense was last season, defensive woes tamped down his value. He lined up at third and in left field, where he combined for minus-20 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-6.3 Ultimate Zone Rating. Still, thanks to his offensive breakout, the overall package was worth an above-average 2.4 fWAR. That’s especially good for someone who looked like a lottery ticket when the Mets got him, and for someone who made a minimum salary in 2019. Davis won’t be eligible to reach free agency until after 2024, which means he could be an important piece of New York’s offense for several more years (perhaps especially if the NL adds a DH).

Unlike Davis, Bohanek hasn’t shown a ton of potential so far, and the 24-year-old turned in fairly nondescript numbers at the High-A level last season. The Astros don’t seem as if they’ll miss him, but what about their return? Here’s how it has panned out through one season…

  • Luis Santana: The Mets’ 19th overall prospect at MLB.com when the trade occurred, Santana’s now the outlet’s 22nd-ranked Astros farmhand. The 20-year-old hit just two homers last season, batting .267/.339/.352 in 186 Low-A attempts and .228/.333/.263 in 66 PA at the Double-A level.
  • Ross Adolph: The 23-year-old outfielder combined for a .228/.357/.366 line with seven homers in 460 PA between Single-A and High-A ball last season. Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel recently wrote for FanGraphs that he could amount to a role player in MLB.
  • Scott Manea: The 24-year-old offered a .235/.347/.387 line with 12 HRs and 389 PA at the High-A level last season. He’s not regarded as a notable prospect.

This looks like anything but a can’t-miss package for the Astros, though it’s still way too early to throw dirt on the careers of anyone they picked up. The Mets, meanwhile, can’t be anything but thrilled with what they’ve gotten from Davis.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Teams’ Plans For Second Spring Training

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While the league and the MLBPA have yet to reach a formal agreement on either player compensation or health/safety protocols for a rebooted 2020 season, teams are still preparing for a shortened restart of “Spring” Training — ideally beginning in mid-June. The goal is for a three-week training period to lead into an 82-game season that kicks off in early July. The latest on plans for a few NL clubs…

  • The Mets will likely hold their version of Spring Training 2.0 at their spring facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. rather than at Citi Field in New York, Tim Healey of Newsday reports. New York City remains the U.S. epicenter for the coronavirus, and beyond the pure health aspect of the decision, staging their training camp in Florida gives the Mets access to multiple fields. As Healey notes, the Mets completed a $57MM renovation project at Clover Field back in February, which has improved the overall quality of the facilities and equipment available to Mets players — several of whom are already in Florida.
  • The Phillies are likely to remain in Philadelphia for their second wave of Spring Training, per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. The Phillies’ Urban Youth Academy, across the street from Citizen’s Bank Park, has two full-size fields that could be made available, and Salisbury notes that the Phils have ownership stake in their nearby Triple-A and Double-A affiliates, which could allow those parks to be used as well. Both affiliates are fewer than 70 miles away from Citizen’s Bank Park.
  • The Diamondbacks have opened Chase Field for individual workouts, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Unlike other clubs, the D-backs have the luxury of their home field and spring facility being a mere 20 miles apart. Nightengale notes that in addition to Chase Field opening up, some players are also reporting to the Salt River Fields spring facility in preparation for a second Spring Training.

Former Star & Top Prospect Headline Mets’ DH Options

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National League teams didn’t build their rosters with the expectation of a universal designated hitter slot for 2020, but most are capable of filling the job from within. Some teams could really benefit from the anticipated temporoary rule change … among them, the Mets.

The advantage for the New York organization is multi-faceted. It’s not just about stuffing more hitting ability into the daily lineup in the upcoming truncated season, though that’s a factor as well. The DH would also create some important near-term roster flexibility and possibly open additional long-term strategic options.

It really all comes down to two guys: hobbled former superstar Yoenis Cespedes and one-time top prospect Dominic Smith. Without a DH slot, both face questionable roster prospects. Cespedes is working to return from major leg injuries. Nobody really knows how he’ll look at full speed in the outfield grass. Smith is all but fully blocked at first base by emergent star Pete Alonso. The Mets already know how Smith looks in the outfield and would rather not see much more of it.

The Mets are already crossing their fingers with outfield defense. J.D. Davis isn’t exactly a glove-first roster piece. The club will rely upon Brandon Nimmo for most of the action in center field; he’s a palatable but hardly exceptional performer there. Jake Marisnick can cover a lot of ground, but he’ll be a reserve. And Michael Conforto will be an everyday presence in the lineup, so there’s not much space anyway.

Under the circumstances, it’s a bit of a luxury to carry a guy like Smith. But what other choice do the Mets have? He can still be optioned, true, but that’s a heck of a way to treat a guy that turned in an eyebrow-raising .282/.355/.525 batting line in 197 plate appearances over an injury-limited 2019 season. And Cespedes? We don’t know when he’ll be ready, but he has now had ample additional time to work back to full health while the game has been paused. You can safely assume he’ll be clamoring for a return to the MLB roster as soon as possible, particularly with a newly incentive-laden contract and free agency beckoning after 2020.

Somehow fitting both of these guys on the same roster? It’s a bit tough to imagine, but the Mets could possibly make it work since Davis can play in the infield. With a DH slot, it’d at at least be plausible. And that would open the door to a potentially explosive offense, with depth to spare as injuries or performance issues arise. It’s sort of silly to consider these two talented players in a DH platoon, but if it comes to that … well, it’s a first-world problem.

The broader roster management benefits are perhaps even more significant here. Smith needs a full shot at the majors; perhaps the DH will clear a sustainable path for him in the organization or pave the way to an eventual trade. And having that bat-only position to utilize makes it much easier for the Mets to deal with, and even benefit from, the final season of the Cespedes contract.

Bartolo Colon Still Hopes To Pitch One More Year In MLB

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Just days shy of his 47th birthday, Bartolo Colon isn’t quite ready to step away from the game. The big righty spoke to ESPN’s Marly Rivera this week, telling her that he’s holding out hope for one final run in the Majors — ideally with the Mets. “Big Sexy” praised the organization from top to bottom, lauding everyone from the front office to the clubhouse staff while delivering some heartfelt memories of the Amazins’ fanbase:

Mets fans are the best. In the beginning, when they laughed at me every time my helmet fell off, at first I felt uncomfortable. But when I saw how much the fans enjoyed it, I asked for a bigger batting helmet so that it would fall more because it was so much fun for them!

That said, Colon made clear that he’s willing to pitch with any team, in any role, so long as it means one more run in the Majors. The well-traveled righty has already suited up for 11 clubs to this point in his big league career: the Indians, Expos, White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, Athletics, Mets, Braves, Twins and Rangers.

Colon didn’t pitch in the big leagues last season and last appeared with the 2018 Rangers, tallying 28 games (24 starts). However, he hasn’t had an above-average campaign on the mound since his age-43 season with the Mets back in 2016 (191 2/3 innings, 3.49 ERA, All-Star appearance). Over his past two seasons in the big leagues, Colon has worked to an ERA just north of 6.00 while soaking up 289 1/3 frames for Atlanta, Minnesota and Texas. To his credit, Colon had plenty of sharp outings with both the Twins and Rangers — they were just mixed in with numerous clunkers that outweighed much of the good he did when at his best.

Seeing Colon back in the big leagues is a long shot at this point, but teams will need more depth than ever as rosters expand to accommodate a shortened ramp-up period to the 2020 season. And Colon was already set to play in the Mexican League prior to the pandemic shutting down pro sports around the globe, so perhaps he’d explore alternatives if a deal with a big league organization can’t come together.

How A 1967 Draft Pick Led The Mets To David Wright

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  • The Mets drafted David Wright with the 38th pick of the 2001 draft, beginning the long association between the Amazins and their future captain.  More indirectly, however, the Mets got Wright because they….drafted Jon Matlack fourth overall in 1967?  MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo takes an entertaining deep dive through the transactional path that began with the Matlack pick and ended with Mike Hampton leaving the Mets to sign with the Rockies in the 2000-01 offseason, thus netting New York the compensatory pick that resulted in Wright’s selection.
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