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Robert Stock Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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Free-agent Robert Stock will sign with the Doosan Bears of the KBO for $500K in guaranteed money over one year. He can earn an additional $200K in incentives, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (via Twitter).

News first broke of Stock’s potential signing on New Year’s Day. As noted in this initial write-up from MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald, Stock posted solid numbers in Triple-A with the Cubs and Mets last season, though he was slowed by injuries.

In his fourth consecutive season seeing time in the bigs, Stock made three starts in the Majors, one for the Cubs, and a pair with the Mets. In Triple-A, however, he managed to post a very good strikeout rate of 26.2% and an acceptable walk rate of 8.1%, as well as an overall 3.57 ERA over 35 1/3 innings.

Stock has mostly been a reliever throughout his career. His three starts this season were his first in 55 games of big-league experience. Even in the minors, he has just 13 career starts. The 32-year-old seems likeliest to pitch out of the bullpen for the Bears, though he wouldn’t be the first player to re-invent himself upon arrival in the KBO. That said, the Bears reportedly like Stock’s big arm, with a fastball that averaged more than 96 mph and the ability to hit triple digits.

Mets Close To Hiring Joey Cora As Third Base Coach

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The Mets are finalizing a deal with Joey Cora to make the 56-year-old their next third base coach, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post. He’ll replace Gary DiSarcina, who was let go after the season and has since taken on the same role with the Nationals.

Cora has spent the past five seasons as the Pirates third base coach, a stint that overlapped with those of a pair of managers (Clint Hurdle and Derek Shelton). After the season, Pittsburgh announced that Cora would not be brought back, eventually promoting field coordinator Mike Rabelo to take over the position.

New Mets skipper Buck Showalter is apparently set to bring Cora to Queens in what’ll be his first coaching hire. A big league second baseman from 1987-98, Cora began his coaching career as a skipper in the Mets farm system. He made the jump to a big league staff under Ozzie Guillen with the White Sox in 2003, serving as the third base coach on the South Siders 2005 World Series-winning club. Cora, the older brother of Red Sox manager Alex Cora, also spent some time on the Marlins staff.

Showalter and the Mets front office still have plenty of work to do in building out the staff over the coming weeks. Jeremy Hefner, who served as pitching coach under former skipper Luis Rojas, is retaining that position with Showalter. Yet bench coach, hitting coach, first base coach and bullpen coach all remain to be filled.

Puma names a pair of potential candidates for the bench coach vacancy, suggesting John Russell and Clayton McCullough as possibilities. Russell, who managed the Pirates from 2008-2010, spent the 2011-18 seasons on Showalter’s staffs with the Orioles. The bulk of that time came as bench coach. McCullough, meanwhile, is currently the Dodgers first base coach. He interviewed for the Mets managerial vacancy last month. While he obviously didn’t land that position, Puma writes he made a favorable enough impression the team could look to add him to the staff as Showalter’s top lieutenant.

Cameron Maybin Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league outfielder Cameron Maybin announced his retirement this evening. The 34-year-old appeared in fifteen major league seasons, suiting up with ten different clubs between 2007-21. He spent the bulk of that time — four seasons apiece — with the Padres and Marlins.

“I’ve played this game since I was 4 years old,” Maybin wrote as part of his announcement, the full text of which is available on Twitter. “Three decades later, my love for baseball is only matched by the love I have for the family that’s supported me every step of the way. … Although my journey as a professional baseball player ends here with the announcement of my retirement, my work in this game is just getting started. I’m excited for what lies ahead, including my work with the Players Alliance in our effort to provide access and opportunity for the next generation of Black ballplayers.”

Maybin was a first-round pick back in 2005, selected tenth overall by the Detroit Tigers. At just 19 years old, Maybin made quick work of his minor league competition and drew praise from a number of publications. Baseball America regularly ranked the speedy outfielder among the top ten prospects in the game, doing so from 2007 until he exhausted prospect eligibility in 2009.

Though he made his Major League debut for the Tigers in 2007, a franchise-altering trade sent Maybin, along with a young Andrew Miller and others, to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Irregular playing time but continued minor league dominance made Maybin a target of another trade just a few years later, when the Padres acquired him to be their starting center fielder for relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica.

San Diego took well to their new center fielder, as Maybin broke out with a 40-steal, 103 OPS+ showing in his first year on the West Coast. That performance, combined with Maybin’s stellar glove up the middle, resulted in a 5-year $25MM extension before the 2012 season. Before the contract’s expiration, Maybin was dealt in yet another high-profile trade. In this deal, new Padres general manager A.J. Preller made his presence felt by acquiring closer Craig Kimbrel in an Opening Day-beating deal with the Braves.

After a year in Atlanta, Maybin bounced around between eight teams, providing clubs with speed and modest offense in the outfield and off the bench. During this stretch, Maybin had a resurgent year when he reunited with the Tigers in 2016, sporting a 118 OPS+ in 94 games. He pushed his offense to new heights in 2019, with a strong .285/.364/.494 (127 OPS+) showing in 82 games for an injury-ravaged Yankees team.

Maybin was set to look for 2022 opportunities as a veteran depth option for clubs. Instead, he’ll eschew a complicated free agent market and retire a career .254/.323/.374 hitter with 187 steals.

MLBTR congratulates Maybin on an excellent career, and wishes him the best of luck with his Players Alliance endeavors and elsewhere.

Mets Had Contact With Jeurys Familia Before Lockout

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Jeurys Familia has spent parts of ten seasons with the Mets, making up the vast majority of his career thus far. The only time he spent with another organization was when they traded him to Oakland prior to the deadline in 2018, but he re-signed with the Mets on a three-year deal in the following offseason. With that deal now completed, Familia has returned to free agency, and the Mets have interest in re-signing him yet again. Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that, prior to the lockout, the Mets had “maintained contact with the right-hander’s camp.”

The Mets were one of the busiest teams prior to the lockout, handing out contracts to Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, bolstering their rotation and their lineup, and vaulting their 2022 Opening Day payroll up above $263MM. But one area of the team that has yet to be addressed is the bullpen.

The team’s relievers performed adequately in 2021, coming in 9th in MLB in ERA, 10th in fWAR, 6th in strikeout rate and 13th in walk rate. However, the bullpen lost one of its most productive members, Aaron Loup, who parlayed an incredible 0.95 ERA in 2021 into a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels.

Familia, now 32, also had a good year for the Mets, throwing 59 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.94, with an excellent strikeout rate of 27.5%. His walk rate of 10.3% was a bit higher than the league average of 8.7%, but it was still a marked improvement for Familia, as he had been above 15% in each of the previous two seasons.

Quick Hits: Santana, Nimmo, Bedell

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After receiving a PRP injection in October, Carlos Santana said that “Now, I feel 100 percent” in the wake of an injury-plagued season, the Royals first baseman told The Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy.  This tracks with the 4-6 week timeline Santana initially gave in the wake of the injection, which was meant to help treat the Grade 2 quad strain that plagued the veteran slugger during the last six weeks of the season.  Between the quad and other leg problems, Santana clearly wore down in 2021, batting only .185/.217/.284 over his last 351 plate appearances.

With this rough season lingering, Santana said that he is “working on a couple things that I need to help me, my swing and my body.  That’s the only thing I changed.  I started early, working out, compared to the year before.”  Now entering his age-36 season, Santana has posted two below-average offensive years (as per the wRC+ metric) since his 2019 All-Star campaign, which is a little ominous for a Royals team that still owes Santana $10.5MM in 2022.  While Santana has bounced back strongly from disappointing years in the past, 2021 was the worst of his 12 big league seasons by just about every metric, so Santana will have more of a climb to recapture his old form.

More from around the baseball world as we enter 2022….

  • Brandon Nimmo is a free agent next winter, and “the expectation is” that the Mets will pursue a contract extension, The New York Post’s Mike Puma writes.  Nimmo has a strong .266/.393/.445 slash line over six career MLB seasons, yet he has only 1695 PA and 457 games on his big league resume due to a variety of injuries.  Given this checkered health history, one wonders how much of a long-term commitment New York would be willing to make to Nimmo, or if the Mets might only be willing to offer an extension at a relatively team-friendly price.  From Nimmo’s perspective, he will have to weigh locking in some form of a guaranteed payday, or perhaps betting on himself to stay healthy and productive, thus potentially setting him up for a much richer free agent contract from the Mets or another team in the 2022-23 offseason.  Hypothetically, the incentive-heavy extension between the Twins and another oft-injured outfielder in Byron Buxton could serve as something of a model for a Nimmo extension, if likely at a lower price point than the $100MM in guaranteed money that Buxton will receive.  (Interestingly, Nimmo and Buxton are more comparable than one might think, in terms of fWAR.)
  • Cardinals prospect Ian Bedell is set to make some light throws off a mound this week, according to Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  This marks Bedell’s first work off a mound since he underwent Tommy John surgery back in May, and the 22-year-old has been able to continue his rehab normally with minor league staff, as Bedell and minor league team personnel aren’t subject to the lockout.  The right-hander is tentatively still on schedule to return to action by May 2022, as Bedell is eager to resume a pro career that has already been set back by the pandemic and now his TJ procedure.  Bedell was a fourth-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2020 draft, and he tossed only 2 2/3 innings for the team’s high-A affiliate before being shut down for surgery last season.

Pitching Notes: Scherzer, Matzek, Schmidt

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A dead arm kept Max Scherzer from pitching in Game Six of the NLDS, which Scherzer believes was due to pitching fewer innings in the lead-up to the postseason.  However, as the ace right-hander told Jorge Castillo of The Los Angeles Times, Scherzer doesn’t hold the Dodgers at fault for the situation, nor was the postseason a factor in his decision to sign with the Mets rather than return to Chavez Ravine.  The Dodgers tried to limit their starters’ innings in order to keep them fresh for October, and Scherzer went into the playoffs assuming (and he told the club as much) that he was able to keep up the same workload as in 2019, when he helped lead the Nationals to the World Series.  But, he and the Dodgers “never took that variable into consideration” of how pitching less heading into 2021 postseason would impact his arm.

“I bear more brunt of that because of me having those discussions with [manager Dave Roberts] about that, about how I can be used in the postseason and coming up short on that, on my end, of saying I can do something and then it didn’t happen,” Scherzer said.  He also noted that his upcoming free agency didn’t weigh into his scratched start: “It’s literally my arm’s health.  When you can’t throw, you can’t throw….Throwing in Game 6, I would’ve been rolling the dice on sustaining a substantial injury.”

More from other pitchers around the game…

  • Tyler Matzek didn’t appear in a single big league game from 2016-19, as the southpaw found his career all but halted due to control issues and a case of the yips.  It took a long time and a lot of work for Matzek to feel comfortable on and off the field, as The Ringer’s Jordan Ritter Conn details, but Matzek returned to become a strong contributor out of the Braves bullpen over the last two seasons, culminating in his role in Atlanta’s World Series title.  While Matzek’s control issues haven’t entirely gone away (he has a 12.2% walk rate in 2020-21), he has posted a 2.64 ERA and 31.2% strikeout over 92 regular season innings, plus an excellent 1.48 ERA over 24 1/3 postseason frames.
  • One of the Yankees’ more prominent pitching prospects, Clarke Schmidt’s big league career has been limited to 12 2/3 innings, due in large part to an elbow injury that sidelined him for much of 2021.  “It just didn’t respond like we expected it to and it took forever for it to get right,” Schmidt tells The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler about his injury, an extensor strain that Schmidt described as “basically the same thing as tennis elbow.”  Once finally recovered, Schmidt was able to pitch 38 innings of minor league ball and then 6 1/3 innings with the Yankees at the MLB level, and most importantly he says he is feeling healthy heading into the 2022 campaign.  Some adjustments have already been made to his offseason training plan, however, as Schmidt feels that overwork led to last year’s injury.  “I just pushed the gas pedal a little bit too much too early and I learned my lesson,” he said.  It seems like that New York will start Schmidt in Triple-A to give him a bit more seasoning (he has only 25 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball under his belt), but for a Yankees club that can always use pitching depth, Schmidt could be an important arm to watch as the season proceeds.

Mets Promote Ben Zauzmer To Assistant GM

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The Mets are promoting Ben Zauzmer to assistant general manager, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (on Twitter). He becomes the Mets third assistant general manager, joining Ian Levin and Bryn Alderson.

It’s a fairly rapid promotion for Zauzmer, who joined the organization in January as director of baseball analytics. Before his stint in Queens, the Harvard graduate spent six seasons in the Dodgers baseball operations department. (Jon Morosi of MLB.com spoke with Zauzmer in February about his hobby of using data models to predict Oscars results).

During his first year in Queens, Zauzmer apparently made a strong impression on Mets brass. Club president Sandy Alderson remains on hand after stepping into the role last offseason. He’ll work alongside first-year GM Billy Eppler at the top of the New York front office.

Mets Looking To Trade Jeff McNeil, Dominic Smith?

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With both Jeff McNeil and Dominic Smith coming off disappointing 2021 seasons, “there is some expectation within the industry the Mets will trade” at least one of the duo after the lockout, Mike Puma of The New York Post writes.  Back in late November, MetsMerized’s Michael Mayer tweeted that “multiple teams” had been in touch with the Mets about a McNeil trade.

Since the Mets bolstered their everyday lineup by signing Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar, there has been plenty of speculation about what the club would do with a suddenly-crowded mix of position players.  Between the three new faces and Robinson Cano returning from suspension, McNeil, Smith, and J.D. Davis suddenly looked to be short on regular playing time.  Even if the National League does adopt the DH in the next collective bargaining agreement, there might be a greater chance that the free-spending Mets fill that extra lineup spot with another established star, Puma notes.

This is far from the first time that either McNeil or Smith have figured into trade rumors.  Smith drew plenty of trade buzz following his big performance (over 197 plate appearances) in 2019, as the Mets’ glut of first base and outfield talent seemed to leave Smith without a position.  Injuries and the NL’s use of the DH in 2020 opened up more space for Smith in 2020, however, and he responded with even bigger numbers.

Smith hit a cumulative .299/.366/.571 with 21 home runs in 396 PA in 2019-20, but that production dropped sharply last year, with only a .244/.304/.363 slash line and 11 homers over 493 PA.  While Smith benefited from a .368 BABIP in 2020, that number dropped to .298 in 2021, and Smith’s isolated power also dropped from .299 to only .119.  Less hard contact in general could be the reason so few of Smith’s flyballs translated to homers or doubles, and rival teams also increased their usages of defensive shifts against the left-handed hitter.  After posting big numbers against the shift in 2019-20, Smith only had a .265 wOBA against shifts last season, with teams deploying the shift 60.1% of the time (as per Statcast).

McNeil looked like a future lineup staple over his first three seasons in Queens, highlighted by an All-Star appearance in 2019.  However, the super-utilityman also had a lot less batted-ball luck in 2021, with a .280 BABIP following a .342 BABIP from 2018-20.  While McNeil continued to be one of the harder players in the league to strike out, he didn’t make much hard contact even in his three good years, which finally caught up to him last season.  Injuries may have also been a factor, as McNeil missed over a month of the season due to a strained hamstring.

Beyond just the on-the-field struggles, McNeil also had a highly-publicized altercation with Francisco Lindor on May 7, resulting in Lindor reportedly grabbing McNeil by the throat before teammates pulled the two apart.  The incident created some belief that the Mets were simply ready to part ways with McNeil, though naturally the team isn’t going to just give him away for nothing on the trade market.

Both Smith and McNeil are controlled through the 2024 season, with Smith in his second year of salary arbitration (as a Super Two player) and McNeil in his first.  Smith is projected to earn $4MM in 2022 and McNeil $2.8MM, and thus both players would be bargains if they could regain their pre-2021 form.  Between this controlability and their recent success, Smith and McNeil both still have a solid amount of trade value, even if suitors would have some justifiable question marks in the wake of their respective down years.  That said, an argument could be made that either McNeil or Smith might benefit from a change of scenery away from the drama that has swirled around the Mets in recent years.

McNeil is heading into his age-30 season and is over three years older than Smith, but he might have more overall value due to his defensive versatility.  McNeil has seen quite a bit of time as a second baseman, third baseman, and corner outfielder over his four years in New York, whereas Smith hasn’t looked good defensively in the outfield and has been only passable at first base.  Pete Alonso has Smith blocked at first base, of course, so the DH slot might be Smith’s best shot at getting regular playing time if he does stay with the Mets.  In terms of trade interest, teams might not be too willing to part with a premium return for a first base-only player, especially one coming off a lackluster season at the plate.

It stands to reason that moving one of McNeil, Smith, or Davis would help the Mets address other roster needs, but an argument can also be made that the team could or should simply retain that entire trio for the sake of depth.  Since injuries and unforeseen issues like Cano’s suspension left the Mets so shorthanded in 2021, figuring out ways to raise the talent floor should be a priority for new GM Billy Eppler.  Also, new manager Buck Showalter is no stranger to figuring out ways to juggle playing time and maximize the skills of every player on his roster.

Mets, Daniel Palka Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Mets have agreed to a minor league contract with first baseman/corner outfielder Daniel Palka, according to Palka’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. The left-handed hitter has appeared in a pair of major league seasons, suiting up with the White Sox from 2018-19.

The bulk of Palka’s playing time came in the first of those years. He tallied 449 plate appearances with the South Siders in 2018 and popped an impressive 27 home runs, showcasing big power potential that had made him an interesting prospect coming up through the Diamondbacks’ and Twins’ systems. Yet he also struck out in 34.1% of his trips to the dish, and his resulting .240/.294/.484 slash line was only a touch above the league average.

Palka’s strikeout troubles continued the following year, and he was eventually outrighted off Chicago’s 40-man roster. The South Carolina native signed with the KBO’s Samsung Lions in 2020 but hit just .209/.272/.367 over 217 plate appearances there. He returned stateside last winter, signing a minor league deal with the Nationals.

Assigned to Triple-A Rochester, Palka had an impressive showing in 2021. He hit .256/.364/.472 with 18 homers in 420 attempts. That was the latest quality minor league showing from Palka, owner of a .260/.350/.480 line over five seasons at the minors’ top level. Yet the Nationals never gave him a big league look, and he elected minor league free agency after the season. He’ll now try to crack the roster of the division-rival Mets, although New York already has a strong group of corner bats (Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, Brandon Nimmo, Mark Canha, etc.) due for regular playing time, barring trades.

Mets Hire Buck Showalter As Manager

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After weeks of speculation, the Mets have hired their new manager.  New York announced on Monday that they’ve hired veteran skipper Buck Showalter. It’s reportedly a three-year contract that’ll go down as the largest investment in a manger in franchise history, topping the $9.4MM earned by Art Howe.

“Buck has been one of the best baseball minds for the last two decades and he makes teams better,” owner Steve Cohen said in the team’s statement. “We have a lot of talent on this team and Buck is the right manager to take us to the next level and lead us to sustained success. I am excited he is our new manager.”

It had already been reported that Showalter had advanced past the initial pool of candidates and moved onto the second round of interviews for the managerial opening. This represents another close call at helming a dugout for the other two finalists, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro and Houston’s Joe Espada. Despite reverence around the league for the latter two coaches, industry insiders quickly tabbed Showalter as the frontrunner for the Mets position.

The veteran skipper will now take over a Mets dugout that has been something of a revolving door since Terry Collins’ seven-year run as manager ended after the 2017 season.  Mickey Callaway was fired after two seasons, and following the short-lived hiring of Carlos Beltran, bench coach Luis Rojas took over the manager’s mantle heading into 2020.

The past two seasons saw Rojas sport a 103-119 record, a disappointing sum for a team with so much star power. While Rojas can hardly be pinned as the sole reason for the team’s struggles (the cross-town Yankees promptly hired Rojas as a coach following his dismissal, speaking to his abilities), he did oversee a collapse this past season. After spending 114 days in first place, the Mets were no longer able to weather injuries and under-performance, ultimately limping to a third place finish in their division.

While Rojas, Beltran, and Callaway were first-time MLB managers, Showalter is a known commodity.  Over the course of 20 seasons and 3069 games, Showalter sports a .506% winning percentage and has taken home Manager of the Year hardware with three different clubs (1994 Yankees, 2004 Rangers, 2014 Orioles).

While Showalter has never won a World Series as a manager, many around the league have cited his leadership skills as a reason teams become postseason contenders. Most recently, during his 2010-2018 run with Baltimore, Showalter helped turn a rebuilding club into one of the American League’s winningest teams. After a 69-win inaugural full season with the club, Showalter quickly saw the team post non-losing records in the next 5 seasons. The Orioles made the playoffs three times during that stretch, including once as a first place team— no small feat considering the financial powerhouses that reside in the AL East.

It’s been some time since Showalter managed one of those very powerhouses, last managing the Yankees in 1995. Improbably, he’ll now helm a team with even greater resources at its disposal. In a series of win-now moves, the Mets have launched their 2022 payroll to new heights. RosterResource pegs the Mets to open next season with a franchise-high $263MM payroll, a number that is handily the highest in all of baseball, and was more astonishingly reached with months (and plenty of free agents) left in the offseason.

With the likes of Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar already joining the Mets this offseason it’s become imminently clear the NL’s New York club isn’t content to idle under .500.  Pair these additions with star holdovers Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso and the Mets are teeming with top-shelf talent. That collection of players, plus all of the other bounce-back talent on the roster, will give the team’s new manager plenty of firepower to claim a division that has belonged to Atlanta the past four years.

In the ensuing weeks Showalter will round out his coaching staff, while the Mets may still add players to their club after the lockout is lifted. Whatever changes are made before the 2022 season starts however, many pundits and fans will point to this hiring as the team’s key move of the offseason. Hiring a widely-respected stabilizer may be just what the Mets need to capitalize on their potential and get to the postseason for the first time since 2016.

Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported Showalter’s deal was a three-year contract. Mike Puma of the New York Post reported the deal was the largest for a manager in franchise history.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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