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MLBTR Poll: Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Market

By Anthony Franco | December 13, 2023 at 10:06am CDT

With Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto off the board, one of the next big questions of the offseason is what awaits NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The three-time defending Sawamura Award winner as Japan’s top pitcher is widely regarded as the best remaining free agent. Hitting the open market at a nearly unprecedented age of 25, he is generally viewed as a top-of-the-rotation starter.

Yamamoto is coming off a season in which he turned in a 1.21 ERA across 164 innings. He fanned nearly 27% of opposing hitters while issuing walks at a meager 4.4% clip. It was arguably the best season in an illustrious NPB career that has seen the 5’10” righty post a 1.82 ERA in just under 900 innings at baseball’s second-highest level.

The Athletic’s Eno Sarris examined Yamamoto’s repertoire on a pitch-by-pitch basis yesterday. Sarris raved about Yamamoto’s fastball, split, curveball combination and praised the strong command he showed when pitching in the World Baseball Classic last spring. He concurred that Yamamoto projects as a top-flight starter, an assessment shared by evaluators with whom MLBTR spoke at the start of the offseason.

MLBTR predicted Yamamoto would receive a nine-year, $225MM guarantee. Recent indications are that he’ll surpass that mark. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote last week that there’s growing belief within the industry that an MLB team’s expenditure on Yamamoto will top $300MM.

Passan’s suggestion of a $300MM+ investment includes the posting fee which an MLB team would owe to the Orix Buffaloes. (MLBTR’s contract prediction was separate from the posting fee.) That’s calculated as 20% of a contract’s first $25MM ($5MM), 17.5% of the next $25MM ($4.375MM) and 15% of any further spending. A $275MM guarantee for Yamamoto, for example, would come with a $43.125MM posting sum that’d push the overall investment by the MLB club to $318.125MM.

As shown on MLBTR’s contract tracker, Gerrit Cole’s nine-year, $324MM deal with the Yankees is the only $300MM+ contract for a one-way pitcher in MLB history. There’s a chance Yamamoto becomes the second pitcher to cross that threshold and at least an outside shot that he beats Cole’s guarantee to establish a new high-water mark.

It doesn’t hurt to have essentially every large-market franchise enamored with his upside. Yamamoto has seemingly been the top target for the Mets all offseason. He’s now the #1 priority for the Yankees and Dodgers after their respective splashes for Soto and Ohtani. The Giants and Blue Jays missed on Soto and Ohtani and are still motivated to make significant splashes. San Francisco made one such move yesterday by signing star KBO outfielder Jung Hoo Lee to a six-year deal, but even after that hefty expenditure the Giants should still have the payroll and luxury-tax space to accommodate Yamamoto.

Yamamoto hosted Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns in Japan last week. The pitcher is now on a North American tour of his own. He reportedly visited the Giants on Sunday and sat down with Yankee officials on Monday. He met with the Dodgers last night and is slated to meet with the Blue Jays and Red Sox later in the week. One or two others could still be involved.

The Buffaloes posted Yamamoto on November 20. That technically gives him until January 4 to sign, although the process isn’t expected to take that long. Both Passan and Will Sammon of the Athletic suggested last week the touted pitcher is likely to sign well before his posting window closes. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he has chosen his MLB team before Christmas.

How does the MLBTR readership anticipate Yamamoto’s bidding playing out? Where will he land and how lofty a guarantee will he secure?

How Much Will Yamamoto Be Guaranteed (Excluding Posting Fee)?
$301-325MM 27.43% (5,257 votes)
$276-300MM 21.81% (4,180 votes)
$251-275MM 13.89% (2,663 votes)
$226-250MM 10.73% (2,056 votes)
$326-350MM 10.09% (1,933 votes)
$200-225MM 6.64% (1,272 votes)
More than $350MM 6.63% (1,270 votes)
Less than $200MM 2.79% (535 votes)
Total Votes: 19,166

 

Where Will Yamamoto Sign?
Yankees 22.48% (3,933 votes)
Dodgers 21.92% (3,834 votes)
Mets 17.29% (3,024 votes)
Giants 13.31% (2,329 votes)
Red Sox 11.96% (2,092 votes)
Other (specify in comments) 6.91% (1,209 votes)
Blue Jays 6.12% (1,071 votes)
Total Votes: 17,492

 

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Ronny Mauricio Diagnosed With Torn ACL, Will Undergo Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | December 12, 2023 at 1:40pm CDT

Mets infielder Ronny Mauricio has a torn ACL in his right knee and will require surgery, reports Andy Martino of SNY. A timeline for his recovery hasn’t been publicly reported but he’s likely to miss a notable amount of the upcoming campaign. Martino reported last night that Mauricio suffered the injury while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

Mauricio, 23 in April, made his major league debut as a September call-up a few months ago. He hit just .248/.296/.347 in his first taste of the big leagues, but in a small sample of just 26 games. He has been considered one of the top 100 prospects in the league for years, hitting 20 homers in the minors in each of the past three years. He also has some speed, stealing 24 bags in the minors this year and another seven in the majors.

He’s generally considered to be a passable shortstop but the Mets have moved him elsewhere due to their specific circumstances. Francisco Lindor is under contract through 2031 and is still considered one of the best defensive shortstops in the league, so the club has had Mauricio line up at second base, third base and left field.

Just last week, president of baseball operations David Stearns said that the club would stick with internal options for third base, with Mauricio set to compete with Brett Baty and Mark Vientos for playing time there. None of those three players have established themselves as viable big leaguers yet, but the club was seemingly content to go into 2024 hoping that one of them would pull away from the other two.

Now that calculation could change in light of this new development. It’s still unclear how long the club expects Mauricio to be out, but it will likely be the majority of the upcoming season. For reference, Rhys Hoskins tore his anterior cruciate ligament in Spring Training earlier this year and still wasn’t able to rejoin the Phillies by the time they were eliminated in the NLCS in late October. Mauricio will have a few extra months on Hoskins since his injury occurred in December, but he’s still probably looking at a late-season return in a best-case scenario.

That will leave the club with Baty and Vientos as their third base options in the short term. Baty was also a top 100 prospect on his way up to the majors but has underwhelmed in the majors thus far, having hit .210/.272/.325 in his first 431 plate appearances with subpar defense. Vientos is fairly similar, with a line of .205/.255/.354 in 274 plate appearances at the big league level.

The club has added some infield depth by signing Joey Wendle to a major league deal and claiming Zack Short off waivers from the Tigers. Martino suggests the club is likely to add some extra insurance at the hot corner and floats Justin Turner as a speculative fit. It may be a bit of a tricky calculus as they won’t want to completely cut off Baty, Vientos or Mauricio from playing time throughout the year. Each has performed extremely well in the minors and the club is planning a sort of transition year in 2024, making it the perfect time to give some rope to such players. The injury to Mauricio will obviously lessen his ability to take advantage of those circumstances in the coming campaign but the Mets might still want to see if either Baty or Vientos can run with the third base job.

That makes this the second straight offseason wherein the Mets are potentially losing a player for the entirety of the upcoming campaign due to a knee injury. Closer Edwin Díaz required surgery on his patellar tendon back in the spring after injuring himself during the World Baseball Classic. He attempted to rehab throughout 2023 but pumped the brakes on that when the club fell out of contention, eventually sitting out the entire season.

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Mets Sign Rylan Bannon To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 10:53am CDT

The Mets announced Monday morning that they’ve signed infielder Rylan Bannon to a minor league contract. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be invited to big league camp in spring training.

Bannon, 27, has appeared in parts of two big league seasons and appeared with three clubs despite only tallying a total of 21 plate appearances. He’s collected just two hits in that time, both coming with the Orioles. He’s also had very brief stints with the Braves and Astros.

A former eighth-round pick by the Dodgers, Bannon was once a fairly well-regarded prospect who went from Los Angeles to Baltimore as one of five prospects in the 2018 Manny Machado swap. He spent all of last season with the Astros organization, batting .241/.360/.449 with a dozen homers and steals apiece in 408 trips to the plate. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Bannon carries a .232/.344/.426 batting line with a huge 13.8% walk rate against a 22% strikeout rate.

Bannon has primarily played third base in his professional career, logging more than 3100 innings at the hot corner between the minors and the big leagues. He also carries more than 1300 innings at second base, however, and is viewed as a viable option at either position. He’s more of an emergency option at shortstop, where he’s played 86 career innings.

Newly hired president of baseball operations David Stearns has primarily completed on depth signings in his first several weeks on the job, though the Mets are reported to be in pursuit of several more notable free agent and trade targets. Bannon joins Cole Sulser, Jose Iglesias, Taylor Kohlwey and Andre Scrubb as former big leaguers to sign minor league deals with the Mets in recent weeks. New York has also claimed Cooper Hummel, Tyler Heineman and Zack Short off waivers and signed Jorge Lopez, Joey Wendle, Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin to low-cost deals that put them on the 40-man roster.

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NL Notes: Alonso, Yamamoto, Dodgers, Brewers

By Nick Deeds | December 9, 2023 at 10:47pm CDT

The Mets and first baseman Pete Alonso have not engaged in extension talks this offseason, according to Tim Healey of Newsday. Healey adds that it’s as of yet unclear if the club intends to broach the subject of a long-term deal with Alonso this winter.

Reports last month indicated that Alonso hopes to surpass recent long-term deals signed by the likes of Matt Olson and Freddie Freeman, and the 29-year-old changed representation to the Boras Corporation earlier this offseason. For his part, Scott Boras told reporters (including Healey) at the Winter Meetings that he’s spoken to president of baseball operations David Stearns and that he and Alonso are “all ears” regarding potential negotiations. Healey goes on to suggest that Alonso could be on track to follow in the footsteps of teammate Brandon Nimmo. Much like Alonso, Nimmo switched representation to Boras in the final offseason before he hit the open market. Any contract discussions with the Mets that offseason didn’t result in an extension, leaving Nimmo to hit free agency that winter. Upon hitting the open market, he re-upped with the Mets on an eight-year, $162MM contract.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Nimmo went through that process at a time when the Mets were a staunchly win-now team that ultimately won 101 games during his 2022 walk season. While the club has made clear that they plan for Alonso to be part of the Opening Day roster next season and that they hope to compete in 2024, the club’s focus appears to be on building for the future and it would hardly be a shock if Alonso were to find himself traded midseason if the Mets were to fall out of the race once again in 2024. Whether as a trade candidate or an extension candidate, Alonso is an attractive target as one of the game’s premiere power hitters. His 192 home runs lead the majors since he made his debut back in 2019, while only Aaron Judge, Olson, Kyle Schwarber, and Shohei Ohtani have crushed more dingers over the past three seasons than Alonso’s 123.

More from around the National League…

  • While the Dodgers made waves earlier today by agreeing to a record-setting $700MM deal with Ohtani, Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicates that landing the winter’s biggest fish won’t stop the club from pursuing other marquee free agents. Heyman indicates that even after factoring in Ohtani’s massive deal, the Dodgers still have both the desire and the necessary payroll capacity to sign NPB star Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto, 25, is moving stateside on the heels of three consecutive sub-2.00 ERA campaigns in Japan. A report earlier this week suggested that the Dodgers were among seven teams considered to be finalists for the right-hander’s services, and Heyman even suggests that LA could be ahead except the Mets and Yankees in their pursuit of Yamamoto. The young righty is an obvious fit for a Dodgers roster with an otherworldly lineup but little certainty in the rotation. Sophomore right-hander Bobby Miller is joined by Walker Buehler as the only starters locked into the club’s Opening Day rotation as things stand, though even Buehler will be pitching for the first time since early 2022 after undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career.
  • The Brewers are continuing to finalize their coaching staff under new manager Pat Murphy, who was promoted from his role as bench coach following the departure of longtime manager Craig Counsell earlier this offseason. To that end, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that the club is moving assistant director of player development Charlie Greene from the front office to the big league coaching staff, where he’ll take over as Milwaukee’s bullpen coach. Greene will take over for Jim Henderson, who in turn is becoming the club’s assistant pitching coach.
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Latest On J.D. Martinez’s Market

By Nick Deeds | December 9, 2023 at 8:16pm CDT

Among the top free agents on the market his offseason, one could argue that no player has had his market impacted more by the presence of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani than veteran slugger J.D. Martinez. After all, the Dodgers declined to extend Martinez a qualifying offer last month despite interest in a reunion due to the complications that would arise if the club landed both Martinez and Ohtani. With Ohtani now signed in LA on a record-shattering $700MM deal, its hard to imagine the Dodgers-Martinez reunion both sides appeared to have interest in coming together. To that end, Jon Heyman of the New York Post provided an update regarding Martinez’s market, suggesting that the Angels, Mariners, Mets and Diamondbacks could be among the teams in play for his services now that he’s unlikely to return to Chavez Ravine. Among that group, only Arizona had previously been connected to the veteran slugger this winter.

The Angels certainly make plenty of sense as a suitor for Martinez now that they know Ohtani won’t be returning to Anaheim in 2024. After all, the club has made it clear they have no plans to launch a rebuild this offseason as the club dismissed speculation that Ohtani’s impending departure could lead to a trade of Mike Trout this offseason. With Ohtani moving on in 2024 and a 2023 record of just 73-89, the club has a lot of work to do if it hopes to compete for a playoff spot next season.

Of course, improved health from the likes of Trout, Logan O’Hoppe and Anthony Rendon could represent internal avenues toward improvement, but it’s hard to imagine the Angels competing without an external offensive addition to help mitigate the loss of Ohtani. Martinez, who slashed .271/.321/.572 with 33 home runs and a 135 wRC+ last season, was outclassed only by Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna among regulars at DH last season and would go a long way toward filling the offensive hole left by Ohtani.

As for the Mariners, the addition of Martinez would surely benefit a lineup that has lost Teoscar Hernandez, Jarred Kelenic, Eugenio Suarez, and Mike Ford this offseason without a clear everyday replacement for any of those bats. What’s more, the club has shed plenty of payroll this offseason and has previously been connected to fellow righty slugger Jorge Soler this offseason. Martinez, 36, posted a stronger offensive season than the 31-year-old Soler in 2023 and could potentially be a more impactful addition to Seattle’s lineup next season.

With that being said, the Mariners have made clear their desire to improve their lineup’s contact skills headed into 2024, and Soler’s 25.7% strikeout rate figures to be much more palatable than Martinez’s 31.4% mark last season. What’s more, while MLBTR projected Soler for a $45MM guarantee that clocks in higher than Martinez’s $40MM figure on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, it’s worth noting that Soler’s relative youth could allow him to secure a longer contract than Martinez, which would tamp down the average annual value of the deal and potentially allow the Mariners to more room in their budget for further offensive additions.

The Mets are perhaps the most curious fit for Martinez among the listed teams. While the club received a mediocre 100 wRC+ from their DH slot (the 12th-worst figure in the majors) last season and subsequently parted ways with Daniel Vogelbach at the non-tender deadline last month, it’s worth noting that the club has plenty of young bats such as Mark Vientos and Brett Baty who could command playing time next season and that adding a 36-year-old DH to a club that’s more focused on the future than 2024 may not be the best use of the club’s resources. On the other hand, the only Mets regulars to post above-average seasons by measure of wRC+ last season who will remain with the club in 2024 are Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo. Adding the bat of Martinez to the middle of the club’s lineup next season would add some much-needed offensive firepower and help the club compete in what is shaping up to be the final year before Alonso heads into free agency next winter.

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Mets Sign Taylor Kohlwey To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 8, 2023 at 2:28pm CDT

The Mets have signed outfielder Taylor Kohlwey to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training, the team announced Friday.

A 21st-round pick by the Padres back in 2016, Kohlwey made his big league debut this season and went 2-for-13 with a pair of singles. The 29-year-old has minimal big league experience but a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, evidenced by a career .296/.387/.444 slash in parts of four Triple-A seasons. Kohlwey has walked in 12.1% of his Triple-A plate appearances and fanned at a lower-than-average 17.5% rate.

He’s played primarily left field in his professional career but also has nearly 1800 innings in right field, more than 750 innings in center and more than 800 innings at first base. He marks yet another depth pickup for new president of baseball operations David Stearns, who’s been active in minor league free agency, on the waiver wire and with big league signings on the fringes of the Mets’ 40-man roster early in the offseason. The Mets have yet to make any major splashes under Stearns, though they’ve been connected to several of the top remaining free agent names — most notably NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

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Mets To Sign Jorge Lopez

By Anthony Franco | December 7, 2023 at 10:05pm CDT

The Mets are in agreement with free agent reliever Jorge López on a one-year contract, reports Carlos Rosa (X link). It’s a $2MM guarantee, per Jeff Passan of ESPN (on X).

It’s another low-cost bullpen flier for a New York team that has also brought in Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin this offseason. López had a rough 2023 campaign, allowing a 5.95 ERA in 59 innings. He split the year between a trio of clubs. The righty opened the year with the Twins, was flipped to the Marlins for Dylan Floro in a swap of struggling relievers, then landed with the Orioles on waivers.

The 30-year-old (31 in February) didn’t find much success at any of those stops. He was tagged for more than five earned runs per nine with all three teams. López struggled with home runs in Minnesota and Baltimore and posted generally lackluster strikeout and walk numbers. His strikeout rate rebounded in his 12-inning stint with the O’s but sat below 18% in Minnesota and Miami.

Overall, López concluded the 2023 campaign with a modest 18.4% strikeout percentage. His swinging strike rate sat at only 9.3%. The Puerto Rico native had also struggled late in the 2022 campaign after being traded from Baltimore to Minnesota. Since that deadline deal, he carries a 5.54 ERA through 81 2/3 innings.

That makes it moderately surprising that López secured a major league contract. The Mets still clearly remain intrigued by the form he showed in the first half of the ’22 campaign. He had tossed 48 1/3 frames of 1.68 ERA ball with a near-28% strikeout rate for the Orioles before being traded. López saved 19 games in that time and earned an All-Star nod.

While his production has plummeted in recent years, his velocity has not. He averaged 96.8 MPH on his sinker last season and just above 84 MPH on his breaking ball. The sinker velocity is down only slightly from the 97.7 MPH he’d brandished in 2022; his curveball speed is exactly the same. The Mets will try to harness that stuff and find better results than López has managed over the past 18 months.

With over five years of MLB service, López can’t be optioned to the minor leagues. He’ll almost certainly get a spot in the season-opening middle relief corps. The Mets are in the third tier of luxury tax penalization and will pay the tax for the third straight season in 2024. As a result, they’re taxed at a 95% rate. The total cost amounts to a $3.9MM roll of the dice.

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Seven Teams Emerge As Top Suitors For Yamamoto

By Anthony Franco | December 6, 2023 at 5:24pm CDT

While the baseball world awaits movement on Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto, NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto has emerged as the #3 name on the offseason market. The right-hander is the most popular starting pitcher in free agency and has been tied to virtually every big spender (and a few less traditional suitors).

Will Sammon of the Athletic reports that seven teams have stepped forward as the key players in the Yamamoto bidding. That group includes (listed alphabetically) the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Giants, Mets and Yankees. Two other “mystery teams” are also involved.

None of those teams come as a surprise. They’ve all previously been linked to Yamamoto, while a few have openly discussed him as a target. Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns recently flew to Japan to sit down with the 25-year-old righty. Yamamoto will make his own trip this weekend, when he’s scheduled to come to the U.S. to chat with interested teams.

At the beginning of the offseason, MLBTR predicted a nine-year, $225MM contract. It seems that could end up being light. In an appearance on Foul Territory yesterday, Ken Rosenthal noted there’s a general expectation that Yamamoto’s deal will land “considerably higher” than $200MM.

Yamamoto is coming off a third consecutive Sawamura award as Japan’s top pitcher. He turned in a 1.21 ERA over 164 innings while striking out 169 batters. Evaluators are nearly unanimous in projecting Yamamoto as at least a #2 caliber starter in the majors with a shot to be an ace. Between that dominance and nearly unprecedented youth for a free agent pitcher, he’s one of the most appealing in recent history.

That has made him a target for virtually all the big-market clubs. It stands to reason the Jays’ interest is contingent on Ohtani’s decision. (Toronto general manager Ross Atkins told reporters this week they didn’t plan to add two players from the top of the market.) The Giants and Dodgers are also believed to remain in the race for Ohtani, who could sign in the next few days. The Yankees are reportedly on the verge of acquiring Soto but still seem to be engaged on Yamamoto, while the Mets have made no secret of the fact that Yamamoto is their top offseason priority.

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Eduardo Rodriguez Narrows Decision To Two Teams

By Steve Adams | December 6, 2023 at 2:15pm CDT

Free agent left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez has been at the Winter Meetings in Nashville this week, where he’s held sitdowns with multiple interested clubs. It seems that slate of meetings will soon produce a deal, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that Rodriguez has narrowed his possibilities to two teams and will decide between that pair of offers by tomorrow.

Beyond the fact that he’s known to have been in Nashville to meet with clubs, it’s been a relatively quiet offseason on the Rodriguez front. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported last month that any geographic preferences that may have been in place at the trade deadline are now out the window, as the left-hander has expressed an openness to pitching anywhere.

Logically speaking, teams that are deep into pursuits of Shohei Ohtani and/or Yoshinobu Yamamoto might not want to make a commitment of this size before either of those names comes off the board. That’s largely speculative, to be clear, although SNY’s Andy Martino reported this morning that the Mets haven’t even shown interest in Rodriguez at or prior to the Winter Meetings — largely for that specific reason; they’ve been focused squarely on Yamamoto to this point. That certainly seems to take them out of play as one of the two apparent finalists.

Rodriguez, 31 in April, opted out of the final three years and $49MM on his contract with the Tigers at the beginning of the offseason. There’s been no indication that a return is off the table, even after Detroit’s signing of veteran righty Kenta Maeda to a two-year contract. Tigers president of baseball ops Scott Harris was clear after that agreement that the Tigers remain in the market for starting pitching. Whether that includes putting forth a lengthier and larger commitment than the one from which Rodriguez just opted out isn’t clear, although it bears mentioning that Rodriguez was signed by Harris’ predecessor, Al Avila, and not the current Detroit front office regime.

The 2023 season was the second of a five-year, $77MM deal that had mixed results. Rodriguez was away from the Tigers for an extended period during year one of the contract, citing a marital issue, and posted a 4.05 ERA with diminished strikeout numbers when on the field. He bounced back early in 2023 and was one of the American League’s best pitchers for much of the first half. From April 12 through May 28, Rodriguez rattled off nine starts (57 1/3 innings) with a 1.40 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate.

A ruptured pulley tendon in his pitching hand sent Rodriguez to the injured list from late May through early July, and he wasn’t as sharp upon his return. The lefty improved as the summer wore on, but his 4.24 ERA in 85 innings post-injury list was decidedly less intriguing than his pre-injury output.

Overall, Rodriguez still finished out the season with 152 2/3 innings of 3.30 ERA ball, adding in a 23% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate, 41% ground-ball rate and 0.88 HR/9. MLBTR ranked Rodriguez 11th on our annual Top 50 free agent rankings and predicted a four-year, $82MM deal for the veteran southpaw.

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Mets Sign Michael Tonkin

By Mark Polishuk | December 6, 2023 at 1:55pm CDT

December 6: Tonkin will earn $1MM, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post.  Feinsand adds that Tonkin’s deal is actually a split contract, so the $1MM salary will be prorated over the time Tonkin spends on the big league roster. Tim Britton of The Athletic relays that Tonkin will make $400K in the minors. The Mets also officially announced the deal today.

December 5: The Mets have signed right-hander Michael Tonkin to a Major League contract, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via X).

After posting a 4.43 ERA over 146 1/3 innings with the Twins from 2013-17, Tonkin didn’t play in the majors until resurfacing with the Braves last season.  The five-year odyssey saw Tonkin pitch in Japan, the Mexican Leagues, the independent Long Island Ducks, and within the affiliated minors with the Braves, Diamondbacks, and Brewers.  That stint with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate occurred in 2019 when David Stearns was still running the Brewers’ front office, so today’s deal reunites Tonkin with the Mets’ new president of baseball operations.

Tonkin’s return to the big leagues was a success, as he posted a 4.28 ERA over 45 appearances and 80 innings last year.  Atlanta often used Tonkin in a multi-inning capacity, giving him a valuable role on a team that often had to figure out how to patch together innings in the wake of multiple rotation injuries.  A .241 BABIP did provide some help to Tonkin’s efforts, though his 3.87 SIERA was actually lower than his ERA, and his 7.1% walk rate was well above the league average.

Since Tonkin’s peripherals were otherwise pretty lackluster, that could explain why Atlanta opted to non-tender him, despite a modest $1MM arbitration projection.  The Braves were aggressive in moving a lot of arbitration-eligible players who were either obvious non-tenders or only borderline roster candidates for 2024, yet Tonkin didn’t linger in free agency long before catching on with another NL East team.

It would seem like Tonkin’s role in New York will resemble his assignment last year, as he’ll be called on to eat innings for a Mets club that currently has a lot of question marks on the pitching staff.  The Mets signed Luis Severino and have been rumored to be pursuing some big-name talent on the free agent market, yet for now there isn’t much certainty in the rotation beyond Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana.  The return of Edwin Diaz will fill the biggest hole in the Amazins’ bullpen, yet Tonkin will add a necessary long relief option to the mix.  Tonkin joins Austin Adams (who signed a split contact) and minor league signings Cole Sulser, Andre Scrubb, and Kyle Crick as relief signings for the Mets over the last few weeks.

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    Anthony Volpe Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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