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Yankees Sign Jose Peraza To Minor League Deal

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Catching up on a minor league signing that flew under our radar last month, the Yankees signed infielder Jose Peraza to a minor league deal, per the transaction tracker at MLB.com.

Peraza was a highly-touted prospect in the early stages of his career, showing up on a few top 100 lists in 2015 and 2016, which led to him being acquired in a couple of notable trades. He went from Atlanta to Los Angeles as one of the 13 players involved in a massive deal between the Dodgers, Braves and Marlins, a trade which also involved Mat Latos, Alex Wood and Bronson Arroyo, just to name a few. After a seven-game cup of coffee with the Dodgers, he then went to the Reds as part of the three-team deal that sent Todd Frazier to the White Sox.

Peraza’s prospect status was largely based on his speed and bat-to-ball skills, with teams hoping he would eventually mature, both physically and as a hitter. He doesn’t strike out much, as evidenced by his 13.1% career rate, but he also only walks at a 4.1% rate for his career. Combined with a lack of power, that’s led to a meager career slash line of .266/.306/.372, wRC+ of 78. He has 79 stolen bases but hasn’t reached double digits in that department since 2018.

After four years in Cincinnati, Peraza spent the past couple seasons as a bench/utility player for the Red Sox in 2020 and Mets in 2021. His 2021 slash line was .204/.266/.380 over 154 plate appearances. Despite the fact that he hasn’t put it all together yet, Peraza is still only 27 years old, turning 28 in April. The Yankees have let some of their depth infield options depart in recent weeks, sending Tyler Wade to the Angels and releasing Rougned Odor, who eventually landed with the Orioles. Peraza could be a candidate to fill a similar to role to those players, bouncing around to different positions, as needed. He’s gotten most of his major league playing time at second base and shortstop, but has also seen some limited action at third base and all three outfield positions.

Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox Reportedly Most Aggressive Suitors For Seiya Suzuki

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On November 22, Seiya Suzuki was posted by the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, freeing him up to negotiate with all 30 MLB teams for 30 days. However, it was reported that the recent implementation of a lockout that has led to a transaction freeze has also frozen Suzuki’s 30-day clock. That means that, at the conclusion of the lockout, he will still have around 20 days to work out a deal with an MLB team. At that point, there’s a decent chance of Suzuki winding up in the AL East, according to a report from Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal. “One major league source reports the Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox have been the most aggressive in pursuit of Suzuki,” McAdam writes.

The fact that Suzuki is garnering interest is not surprising, given his talents. Suzuki came in 20th on MLBTR’s list of Top 50 Free Agents and was predicted to get a contract of $55MM over five years. The 27-year-old seems capable of stepping right into the middle of an MLB lineup, while also providing solid right field defence. Over nine seasons in the NPB, he has hit .315/.414/.570, with that production only growing over time.

The Red Sox make for a fairly logical landing spot, especially when considering the recent trade of Hunter Renfroe. Suzuki could potentially fill the right field vacancy left by Renfroe, with Verdugo manning left field and center field covered by some combination of Jarren Duran, Enrique Hernandez or Jackie Bradley Jr., who was part of the return in the Renfroe deal. That trade seemed to be about adding defence by subtracting offence, but the addition of Suzuki could be a way of replacing that lost offence. Kyle Schwarber, who was acquired by the Red Sox last year and would be a logical Renfroe replacement for 2022, is reportedly looking for a three-year, $60MM deal, meaning Suzuki could potentially be about half as costly on an annual basis, if MLBTR’s prediction is correct.

The fit with the Yankees is a bit less smooth, given that they have a number of outfield options already on hand. On paper, the outfield consists of Joey Gallo in left, Aaron Hicks in center and Aaron Judge in right, with designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton available for the occasional appearance on the grass and prospect Estevan Florial on hand as depth. However, they may be reluctant to rely on Hicks as an everyday option, given that he’s now 32 years old and has dealt with injury setbacks in recent years, including only playing 32 games in 2021. Although he did play 54 of the team’s 60 games in the shortened 2020 season, his last significant action over a full season was 137 games in 2018. Judge, Gallo and Suzuki all have seen limited action in center field, making it at least possible for the club to have all three across the outfield at times. However, none of them are really considered an everyday option at the position, making it something of an awkward arrangement over a full season.

Similar to the Yankees, the Blue Jays also seem to have their outfield accounted for on paper, with George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk all pencilled in. However, it was recently reported that the Jays had discussions with the Brewers about a trade centered around Grichuk and Bradley Jr., before the latter was traded to the Red Sox last week. It would appear the club is open to moving on from Grichuk and coming up with a different outfield arrangement. The Blue Jays had a potent offence in 2021 but have since lost Marcus Semien to the Rangers, perhaps motivating them to look to Suzuki as a way to replace Semien’s bat. That would still leave them with a weakened infield, however, as the departure of Semien leaves the club with Cavan Biggio and Santiago Espinal pencilled into second and third base.

Yankees Add Dillon Lawson, Desi Druschel To Coaching Staff

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The Yankees are making two in-house promotions to their big league coaching ranks, The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler reports.  Dillon Lawson will become the team’s new hitting coach, after previously working as a minor league hitting coordinator.  In addition, Desi Druschel will go from being the team’s minor league manager of pitch development to an assistant pitching coach role on Aaron Boone’s staff.

New York GM Brian Cashman said earlier this offseason that the club was planning to have three pitching and hitting coaches each in place for 2022, in order to better reflect how other teams have expanded and broadened coaching responsibilities beyond the traditional duties.  Druschel joins Matt Blake and Mike Harkey on the pitching side, while Lawson will have two assistant hitting coaches that have yet to be hired.  After the season, the Yankees didn’t retain former hitting coaches Marcus Thames or P.J. Pilittere.

Lawson worked as a hitting coach at the University Of Missouri and in the Astros’ farm system before he joined the Yankees three years ago.  Since Lawson’s initial contract was up this winter, the promotion could be a way of keeping him in the fold, as Adler noted that there was some feeling other teams would try and hire Lawson away.

Despite all of the big names in New York’s lineup, the Bronx Bombers lacked some of their usual pop in 2021, finishing 17th of 30 teams in slugging percentage, 19th in runs scored, and 23rd in batting average.  Only five teams had a worse collective strikeout rate than the Yankees’ collective 24.5% mark, as the team was often criticized for relying too much on a “three true outcomes” style.  New York’s lineup also was, and still is, heavy on right-handed bats, making it somewhat easier for rival teams to construct gameplans.  Aside from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, pretty much the entire Yankee lineup underachieved last year, so Lawson and his assistants will have plenty of work to do in getting those hitters back on track.

Druschel joined the Yankees in 2019 after a long stint at the University Of Iowa.  Druschel worked as Iowa’s director of baseball operations, and also worked three years as the team’s pitching coach.

Yankees Interested In Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Andrelton Simmons

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The Yankees have shown interest in a trade for Rangers infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, according to Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News.  SNY’s Andy Martino (Twitter link) also notes the Bronx Bombers’ interest in Kiner-Falefa, and adds that free agent Andrelton Simmons continues to be on the Yankees’ radar as the team explores shortstop possibilities.

This isn’t the first time the Yankees have been linked to either player.  Grant notes that New York has asked about IKF in the past, while Martino reported in October that the Yankees talked to the Twins about landing Simmons prior to this summer’s trade deadline.

Kiner-Falefa is under arbitration control through the 2023 season while Simmons could quite possibly be signed for just a one-year contract, and thus both players represent the type of short-term shortstop additions New York is reportedly looking to acquire.  While the Yankees’ need at shortstop immediately generated headlines due to the presence of so many big names in the free agent market, the team may already have either Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza ticketed as the shortstop of the future.  Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, and Chris Taylor are the remaining top-tier shortstop candidates on the market, but barring a collapse in their market to the point that they would take a one-year stopgap contract, the Yankees don’t seem to be interested in any of the major names.

Taking nothing away from Kiner-Falefa or Simmons, of course, as they would both bring some value to the Yankees’ shortstop position.  While neither player excelled at the plate in 2021, both are tremendous fielders, and Simmons obviously has a track record as one of the better defenders in the history of the shortstop position.

As per the Outs Above Average (16) and Defensive Runs Saved (15) metrics, Simmons kept up that spectacular form over his 1091 2/3 innings at shortstop last year.  The UZR/150 metric delivered only a -1.1 score for Simmons, however, while Kiner-Falefa also had an outlier in the form of a -7 OAA.  Kiner-Falefa otherwise graded well in his first season as a full-time shortstop, with a +10 DRS and +1.1 UZR/150 over 1360 innings.

Kiner-Falefa also won a Gold Glove as a third baseman in 2020, so the Yankees would have some extra flexibility in how they chose to deploy him in the lineup.  Gio Urshela can also play some shortstop and DJ LeMahieu can be used at third, second, or first base.  Simmons has never played anywhere other than shortstop during his MLB career, so he would be more of a traditional everyday answer at the position.

With Corey Seager and Marcus Semien now locked into the Texas infield for the next decade, the Rangers could make Kiner-Falefa expendable at the right price, though he also has some natural import to their 2022 plans.  Top prospect Josh Jung is expected to make his MLB debut next year and seems like a long-term answer at the hot corner, but Kiner-Falefa could certainly stick around to handle third base until Jung is ready, or if Jung struggles in his first taste of Major League action.

Tender Deadline Signings: 11/30/21

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With the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players looming tonight at 8pm ET — the MLBPA and MLB jointly agreed to move the deadline up a couple days due to the looming expiration of the collective bargaining agreement — we’ll likely see a slew of arbitration-eligible players signing one-year deals.

It’s commonplace for a large batch of players to sign deals in the hours leading up to the tender deadline. “Pre-tender” deals of this nature often fall shy of projections due to the fact that teams use the looming threat of a non-tender to enhance their leverage. Arbitration contracts at this juncture are often take-it-or-leave-it propositions, with the “leave it” end of that arrangement resulting in the player being cut loose. Given the widely expected lockout, there could be more incentive than usual for borderline non-tender candidates to take those offers rather than being cast out into free agency just hours before a transaction freeze is implemented.

As a reminder, arbitration contracts are not fully guaranteed. In a typical year, a team can cut a player on an arb contract at any point before the halfway point in Spring Training and only be responsible for 30 days’ termination pay (about one-sixth of the contract). Releasing a player in the second half of Spring Training bumps the termination pay to 45 days of his prorated salary.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for each team’s arbitration-eligible players last month, although for many of the players listed below, this isn’t so much avoiding arbitration as it is avoiding a non-tender. Here’s a look at today’s agreements…

  • The Yankees have agreed to deals with infielder Gio Urshela and right-hander Domingo German, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter links). Urshela will make $6.55MM, while German has agreed to a $1.75MM deal. Urshela has two seasons of control remaining; German is controllable for three years. Urshela is coming off a .267/.301/.419 showing while playing third base and shortstop. German tossed 98 1/3 innings of 4.58 ERA ball.
  • The Twins have signed three arbitration-eligible pitchers, per reports from Feinsand and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (on Twitter). Right-hander Jharel Cotton signed for $700K, reliever Caleb Thielbar lands $1.3MM and reliever Tyler Duffey signs for $3.8MM. Thielbar and Duffey were both productive members of the Minnesota relief corps in 2021. Cotton was recently claimed off waivers from the Rangers.
  • The Giants have agreed to terms with outfielder Austin Slater on a $1.85MM deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). The 28-year-old (29 next month) appeared at all three spots on the grass while hitting .241/.320/.423 over 306 plate appearances in 2021.
  • Reliever Emilio Pagan and the Padres have agreed on a $2.3MM deal, reports Rosenthal (on Twitter). The 30-year-old worked 63 1/3 innings of 4.83 ERA/3.93 SIERA ball this past season.
  • The Diamondbacks agreed to a $2MM deal with left-hander Caleb Smith, reports Zach Buchanan of the Athletic (via Twitter). The 30-year-old posted a 4.83 ERA/4.68 SIERA across 113 2/3 innings in a swing capacity in 2021.

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Yankees Tender Contract To Gary Sanchez

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The Yankees announced Tuesday that they will tender a contract to all of their arbitration-eligible players, including catcher Gary Sanchez. Sanchez has come up as a possible non-tender candidate in each of the past two offseasons but he’ll be offered a contract and remain with the club for the time being. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.9MM in 2022 — his final season of arbitration eligibility.

Sanchez, 29 this week, has become a polarizing player among Yankee fans given his near-unparalleled power at the catcher position but also his low batting averages, high strikeout rates and shaky defensive skills. The former top prospect looked like a star in the making from 2016-17 but has since ridden a roller coaster of productivity to a composite .201/.299/.444 slash with a 28.1% strikeout rate.

Poor batting average notwithstanding, Sanchez’s ability to draw a walk and immense power clearly are valued by the Yankees (and likely would be by other clubs as well). Metrics like wRC+ and OPS+ (both at 99 from 2018-21) suggest that the walks and power are enough to bring Sanchez right up to the cusp of league-average production, though the path he takes to get there is a rather unpopular one among fans. Still, when Sanchez is on a hot streak, his bat can carry a team. Those frequent but brief flashes of potential serve as a reminder of the overall upside and the reason that the Yankees have stuck with him despite the ups and downs.

That said, it’s not as though New York chose not to explore the market for alternatives. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Yankees explored the free-agent and trade markets for catching help in recent days before opting to simply stick with Sanchez. It’s a thin free-agent market for catching options, however, with Yan Gomes standing out as the lone starting-caliber option behind the dish. The trade market, meanwhile had a few potential options, but GM Brian Cashman was ostensibly either nonplused with the available names themselves or the asking prices attached. New York was at least speculatively linked to 2021 Gold Glove winner Jacob Stallings, but he was traded from Pittsburgh to Miami yesterday in exchange for a three-player package.

All that said, while Sanchez is at least in line to serve as the team’s primary backstop in 2022, it’s more written in pencil than etched in stone. Arbitration contracts are only partially guaranteed, as teams can cut a player on an arb contract and owe them only 30 days’ termination pay (i.e. prorated salary) so long as the move is made prior to the halfway point in Spring Training. Cutting a player in the second half of camp boosts that number to 45 days’ prorated salary, and the contract becomes fully guaranteed on Opening Day.

It seems unlikely that New York would simply release Sanchez, of course, but the Yanks could conceivably reinvestigate the catching market to see if there are new trade possibilities — both in terms of players to acquire and teams with interest in Sanchez — in the days following the likely lockout. The smart money is on Sanchez reprising his role as the Yankees’ primary catcher next season, of course, but it remains possible that an unexpected opportunity will prompt the Yanks to pivot.

Backing up Sanchez will quite likely be Kyle Higashioka, who bore some similarities to Sanchez in 2021 — at least offensively. While Higashioka is a better defender, his .181/.246/.389 slash struck a familiar chord: plenty of pop and a respectable number of walks but low average/on-base marks fueled by a lofty strikeout rate. Higashioka is out of minor league options, so if the Yankees wanted to find a different skill set to back up Sanchez, they’d likely need to expose the 31-year-old Higashioka to waivers, as it’s unlikely they’d carry three catchers on the roster.

Jack Curry of the YES Network first reported that Sanchez would be tendered a contract.

Yankees, Blue Jays Among Teams With Interest In Freddie Freeman

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2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman is one of the top free agents on the market this winter, and he’s unsurprisingly drawing interest from a few of the game’s higher-spending organizations. The Yankees and Blue Jays are among the teams to have reached out to the five-time All-Star, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link).

Many around the industry expect Freeman will eventually re-sign with the Braves. The star first baseman has been a member of the organization for nearly a decade and a half, and it’d be a bitter pill for the fanbase to swallow if Freeman departs on the heels of Atlanta’s first World Series title since 1995. No deal has yet gotten done, though, with the Braves’ reluctance to offer a sixth guaranteed year reportedly the hold-up in talks so far. Heyman adds that Freeman had been seeking a guarantee in the $180MM range. Entering the offseason, MLBTR indeed projected a six-year, $180MM pact for the three-time Silver Slugger award winner.

It’s certainly not out of the question Freeman and the Braves will eventually bridge their gap. Heyman notes that some other organizations in pursuit are still skeptical about the possibility the 32-year-old leaves Atlanta. There’s no harm for clubs to reach out to Freeman’s representatives at Excel Sports Management in case the Braves aren’t willing to meet his ultimate ask, though.

Were Freeman to seriously entertain the possibility of leaving Atlanta, it stands to reason other clubs would get involved. Both Heyman and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic have floated the possibility of the Dodgers making a run at the Southern California native. Los Angeles has already lost Corey Seager and could see Chris Taylor also depart. Signing Freeman while bumping Max Muncy over from first to second base would go a long way towards replacing the offensive production they’ve lost this winter.

Broadly speaking, any big-market team could poke around the Freeman market. The Jays have no need for a first baseman, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking to have made the jump to perennial MVP candidate. Toronto could free up at-bats at designated hitter to accommodate Freeman, though, and other high-spending clubs could similarly move incumbent pieces around to make a signing work. Freeman is one of the game’s most consistently productive hitters, having been at least 32 percentage points better than average at the plate (by measure of wRC+) in each season since 2013.

Yankees Release Chris Gittens; Gittens Expected To Pursue NPB Opportunity

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The Yankees have released Chris Gittens, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Lindsey Adler of the Athletic reports (on Twitter) that the hulking first baseman is likely to pursue an opportunity with a team in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The move opens a spot on New York’s 40-man roster, which now sits at 39.

This kind of move isn’t uncommon for players on the fringes of a 40-man roster. Teams in South Korea or Japan are often willing to put forth a loftier guaranteed salary than players like Gittens would receive shuttling between the majors and Triple-A. Assuming he’s indeed signing with an NPB club, Gittens is likely to find himself in a more financially stable situation than he’d have been in with the Yankees.

Gittens, 28 in February, earned his first brief big league look this past season. He only tallied 44 MLB plate appearances and didn’t perform especially well, but he had an otherworldly year with their top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Over 184 trips to the plate at the minors’ top level, the right-handed hitter mashed at a .301/.440/.644 clip with 14 homers. Given that dominant run against high level pitching, it’s easy to understand why he caught the attention of evaluators in foreign pro leagues.

It’s not out of the question Gittens makes a return to the U.S. over the coming seasons. Eric Thames, Merrill Kelly, Miles Mikolas and Josh Lindblom are a few fairly recent examples of former big leaguers who raised their stocks with strong showings in Asian professional leagues. Those players all returned to the U.S. on guaranteed big league deals later in their careers. That’s not to say it’s a given every one-time major leaguer will have that kind of success, but it’s also not out of the realm of possibility Gittens follows a similar path.

Rangers Making Push For Corey Seager

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The Rangers have already agreed to terms with one of the five big free-agent shortstops, hammering out a seven-year, $175MM deal with Marcus Semien. They’re reportedly still in the market for another infield upgrade, however, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that they’re making a “big push” to sign Corey Seager.

Both Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported last night (Twitter links) that the Rangers were in play for Seager even after agreeing to the Semien deal, with Sherman adding that Seager is hopeful he’ll choose a new club today. And Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote earlier today that the Rangers remained “very much” in the hunt for Seager as of this morning.

SNY’s Andy Martino reported this morning that both the Rangers and Dodgers were more much more involved in the Seager market than the Yankees, who aren’t believed to have been as aggressive on the 27-year-old. That meshes both with the idea of Texas still being a serious player for Seager and with recent reports suggesting that the Yanks might not sign any of the big-name free agent this winter.

It’s far from clear that Seager’s market is a two-horse race between the Dodgers and Rangers at this point. That said, both parties can certainly afford to sign Seager long-term, and the Dodgers did just tap out during the bidding for ace Max Scherzer, who’s headed to the Mets on a record-setting three-year contract. Seager, like Scherzer (and Semien), is represented by the Boras Corporation, so it’s perhaps possible now that with Scherzer and Semien resolved, the focus will turn to finding a landing spot for Seager.

Seager rejected an $18.4MM qualifying offer from the Dodgers at season’s end and is widely expected to cash in on a contract that spans upwards of a decade in length. The former first-round pick and NL Rookie of the Year has posted a combined .306/.381/.545 batting line with 31 homers through his past 147 games/641 plate appearances.

While the Rangers already have Semien in tow and have another capable defensive shortstop in Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the defensive flexibility both Semien and Kiner-Falefa bring to the table allows Texas to be rather nimble in its offseason pursuits. Seager could conceivably play either shortstop or third base, while both Kiner-Falefa and Semien can handle any of third, short or second base. Signing Seager would headline what’s been a highly aggressive offseason thus far for a Rangers club that has not only signed Semien but also agreed to deals with righty Jon Gray (four years, $56MM) and outfielder Kole Calhoun (one year, $5.2MM).

Pirates’ Jacob Stallings Drawing Trade Interest

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Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings is generating trade interest from clubs seeking help behind the plate, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He lists both the Marlins and Yankees as possible matches in a trade.

Stallings, 32 next month, won’t wow anyone with his offensive numbers but is widely regarded as one of the best defensive catchers in the sport — if not one of the best defenders at any position. Over the past three seasons, he’s posted a .251/.331/.374 batting line with 17 home runs, 32 doubles and a triple in 780 plate appearances. That’s about nine percent worse than the league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, though it’s right in line with the leaguewide average for catchers, specifically.

It might be tempting to assume that Stallings’ on-base percentage has benefited from hitting eighth in front of Pirates pitchers, but that’s not necessarily the case. Stallings has spent a good chunk of time in the eight spot, but he’s spent more time hitting fifth, sixth and seventh in the Pittsburgh lineup and actually has better walk rates out of those slots than he does in the eight hole.

Where Stallings truly shines, however, is with the glove. He’s ranked as one of the game’s best defenders for the past few seasons and finally got his well-deserved credit in 2021 when he took home his first NL Gold Glove Award. Stallings posted a massive 21 Defensive Runs Saved mark in 2021 and has racked up an outstanding 42 DRS dating back to Opening Day 2019.

Stallings has consistently delivered plus framing marks according to each of Statcast, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus, and he draws perennially strong marks for his pitch-blocking skills at Baseball Prospectus as well. In terms of controlling the running game, Stallings had something of a down season in 2021 (21% caught-stealing), though the pitching staff surely shared some of the blame in that regard; Stallings had a huge 36.2% caught-stealing rate from 2019-20.

The other element of Stallings’ appeal is his affordable salary and remaining club control. Because he doesn’t pile up the counting stats that portend significant arbitration salaries, he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a highly reasonable $2.6MM in 2022. He’s controlled another two seasons beyond that, so any club to acquire Stallings would be bolstering its catching corps through the 2024 season.

Pittsburgh doesn’t have an immediate heir-apparent to take the reins if Stallings is dealt. Between that fact and the combination of his salary, club control and excellent defense, Stallings may have higher trade value than some would expect when glancing solely at his offensive numbers. That said, the lack of an immediate successor in Pittsburgh shouldn’t necessarily dissuade the Bucs from jumping if a strong offer is presented. The Pirates aren’t contending in 2022 anyhow, and the free-agent market has a number of veteran options who could be plugged in as a stopgap while the team waits on 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis to develop in the minors.

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