Cubs Claim Conor Mullee, Outright Three Players
The Cubs have claimed righty Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees, per announcements from the team. Chicago also selected the contract of righty Jose Rosario while outrighting three players: right-handers Dallas Beeler and Andury Acevedo as well as catcher Tim Federowicz.
Fresh off a World Series win, the Cubs will enter the winter in earnest with just 34 of its 40-man roster spots accounted for. That space allowed the team to take a flier on Mullee, who has had arm issues over the years and required elbow surgery in 2016.
Despite the injuries, and a less-than-inspiring (albeit brief) major league debut last year, Mullee has shown some intriguing numbers in the minors. Most recently, he ran up 37 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.19 ERA and 11.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
Chicago will presumably give Mullee a shot in camp along with the 26-year-old Rosario, who has yet to crack the bigs but has an intriguing power arm. Pitching at the three highest levels of the minors last year after missing 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, Rosario worked to a cumulative 2.50 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
Otherwise, the 27-year-old Beeler lost his roster spot after shoulder injuries cut his season short. Acevedo, who was signed to the 40-man last winter, missed almost all the year with a torn ACL. And the 29-year-old Federowicz saw time briefly with the Cubs, but didn’t have much of a shot at the roster in 2017 with a deep group of catchers ahead of him. After showing well at Triple-A, though, he’ll surely get a crack somewhere in Spring Training.
Coppolella On Braves’ Offseason Plans
In each of the last two years, the Braves completed a major trade (dealing Jason Heyward in 2014 and Andrelton Simmons in 2015) soon after the completion of the GM Meetings. General manager John Coppolella tells David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the club is prepared to again move quickly if another interesting offer comes along, saying that “we’re not going to wait around for any type of artificial date. I couldn’t care less about (waiting for) the Winter Meetings or whenever. The best time to make a trade is when a good trade is offered to you. We’re always trying to find ways to get better.” Here’s more from Coppolella…
- Starting pitching is clearly the Braves’ biggest winter need, though Atlanta is only looking for starters on short-term deals so none of the team’s young starters are blocked. Not that this winter’s free agent market has a true proven ace anyway, but even if it did, Coppolella noted that this type of pitcher wouldn’t be a target. “You don’t buy No. 1 starters, you grow them. You draft them, you develop them,” the GM said. “For us, it’s not efficient for us to go out and buy a No. 1 starter. Unless something drastically changes, you won’t see us going after a No. 1 starter.”
- Barring an offer of “something crazy” from another team, Coppolella isn’t looking to deal outfielders Ender Inciarte, Matt Kemp or Nick Markakis. Not only are the Braves “not out there shopping” these players, “in fact we’re not really even listening on guys. Because these are players that we really like and we feel like they fit us well on the field as well as off the field.”
- While Atlanta could pursue a catching upgrade in free agency, Coppolella reiterated that the team would be satisfied with its current Tyler Flowers/Anthony Recker tandem for 2017. The Braves could also look to trade for a catcher, though a deal to bring Brian McCann back to Atlanta seems unlikely. Earlier reports claimed the Yankees asked for either Inciarte or Mike Foltynewicz as part of a trade for McCann, and O’Brien reports that, in fact, New York wanted both Inciarte and Foltynewicz. Needless to say, talks didn’t get very far.
Quick Hits: Rockies, Brewers, Yankees, Mariners
Royals bench coach Don Wakamatsu is no longer in the running for the Rockies’ managerial job, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. Both the Rockies and Diamondbacks interviewed Wakamatsu, whose previous experience as a manager came with Seattle from 2009-10. Arizona ended up hiring Torey Lovullo, leaving Colorado as the majors’ only skipper-less team.
Here’s more from around baseball:
- Tampa Bay police arrested Brewers center fielder Keon Broxton on a misdemeanor trespass charge Friday morning, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Broxton’s arrest came after the 26-year-old refused to leave the area of a fight. According to the police report, Broxton was “extremely intoxicated,” “hostile” and had “visible injuries to his face but declined medical attention.” Broxton got out of jail on $500 bond a few hours after his arrest and later issued a statement apologizing to the Brewers, their fans and law enforcement officials. “I will learn from this incident and I will certainly make better decisions moving forward,” he said (Twitter link via Haudricourt).
- Yankees catcher Brian McCann could end up on the move via trade this offseason, but general manager Brian Cashman is bullish about keeping him as the team’s main insurance behind young star Gary Sanchez. “Based on his success the past season, Sanchez is the everyday catcher,’’ Cashman told George A. King III of the New York Post. “[McCann] can DH and catch a minimum of two games a week. We have two power-hitting catchers, one right and one left who hit 20 homers.’’ The Yankees highly value McCann, having reportedly asked the Braves for underrated center fielder Ender Inciarte or promising right-hander Mike Foltynewicz in return. Even if the Braves were amenable to giving up one of those players, McCann – who’s owed $34MM through 2018 – has a full no-trade clause and would have been able to veto the deal. “If we need to address something from the Yankees, they will let us know,’’ McCann’s agent, BB Abbott, told King via email. “Until then, we are allowing the club the space to run and build their club.’’
- The Mariners concluded the 2016 season with a payroll near $150MM, a franchise record, and owner John Stanton told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times he’s unsure if the club will spend more than that next year. However, Stanton would be open to a payroll increase if general manager Jerry Dipoto were to insist on one. “If Jerry came to us and said there was the one piece that I think we needed to be successful, I think we’d go out and get it,” said Stanton, who took over the Mariners in August. “I just hate to lose,” he added. The Mariners have now gone a league-worst 15 straight years without a playoff berth, though they did finish with a respectable 86-76 record this past season. Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource estimates that the M’s have roughly $129MM committed toward next year’s team.
Giants, Red Sox, Rangers, Yankees Among Teams Set To Watch Greg Holland Showcase
SATURDAY: The Yankees will also send representatives to watch Holland on Monday, according to George A. King III of the New York Post.
FRIDAY: The Red Sox are also showing some interest and will attend the showcase, which is scheduled for Monday, per WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. Likewise, the Rangers will be on hand, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets.
THURSDAY: The Giants are “legitimately intrigued” by former Royals closer Greg Holland and will scout his upcoming showcase, Andrew Baggarly of the Bay Area News Group tweets. Holland’s agent, Scott Boras, recently said Holland was throwing in the low 90s and would hold a showcase within the next week.
Holland missed the 2016 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery near the end of the 2015 season. He understandably struggled somewhat that year while pitching through a UCL tear, posting a 3.83 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and a too-high 5.2 BB/9 while throwing his fastball an average of about two MPH slower than the mid-90s heater he’d thrown previously. Before that, though, he was dominant, posting a combined 1.86 ERA, 12.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 from 2011 through 2014.
If Holland is now mostly or fully healthy, it’s for the first time in awhile. But it’s easy to see why the Giants (and, surely, many other teams) would have significant interest. He has an extremely impressive track record, and he’ll be far enough removed from surgery by next March that it’s easy to imagine he could reemerge as an effective, or even terrific, reliever if everything goes well. The Royals have also been connected to Holland, and it seems likely other teams besides San Francisco and Kansas City will enter the fray too.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/4/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Orioles declined the team’s previously unknown option over righty Logan Ondrusek, as BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Dan Connolly was among those to tweet. Ondrusek had signed with the Orioles out of Japan in the middle of the 2016 season, but was outrighted in late August after a brief stint. It was essentially a formality at this point for the team to decline the option (which was for an unknown amount). Baltimore had hoped that adding Ondrusek would represent a creative way to bolster their relief corps in the middle of the season, and brought him back stateside after he continued to produce good results for the NPB’s Yakult Swallows.
- The Reds announced that utilityman Ivan De Jesus has been outrighted off of the 40-man roster. He has been a fairly significant part of the major league team over the last two years, playing in 180 total games. But his batting output dwindled in 2016: despite a slightly higher batting average and identical .311 OBP in comparison to his 2015 line, De Jesus slugged only .312 in his 243 plate appearances.
- Two recently outrighted Mariners — lefty Charlie Furbush and catcher Steve Clevenger — have both elected free agency rather than accepting a minor league assignment, per MLB.com’s Greg Johns. The team is still waiting to learn what righty Ryan Cook will do; he, too, was recently cut from the 40-man.
- Lefty Ricky Romero will remain with the Giants on a minor league deal, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America (via Twitter). Soon to tun 32, Romero is now well removed from his days as an effective major league starter. He only appeared in two games in 2016, both at the Triple-A level, and has thrown just 53 2/3 total innings professionally since 2013 — the last season in which he reached the big leagues.
- The Yankees selected the contracts of catcher Kyle Higashioka and right-hander Domingo German, adding them to thee 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft. Though he’s already 26, and has been Rule 5-eligible before, Higashioka is coming off of his most promising season as a professional. Over 416 plate appearances at Double-A and Triple-A, he slashed .276/.337/.511 with 21 home runs. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old German pitched last year at the Class A and High-A level after missing all of 2015 due to Tommy John surgery. He ended up starting ten games and posting a 3.81 ERA over 49 2/3 innings, with 6.9 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9, but will look to get fully back on his promising track next year.
Earlier Updates
- The Tigers announced that they have selected the contracts of right-hander Myles Jaye and left-hander Chad Bell from Triple-A Toledo. The 24-year-old Jaye split the 2016 season between Detroit’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, working to a combined 3.95 ERA with 7.5 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 53.3 percent ground-ball rate in 161 2/3 innings (28 starts). MLB.com ranks Jaye as Detroit’s No. 26 prospect, writing that he has a 91-93 mph and a solid three-pitch mix but also noting that he lacks an out pitch. Their report pegs his ceiling as a fourth or fifth starter and says he’s not far from Major League readiness. Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Bell posted a 3.29 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 and a 52 percent ground-ball rate in 98 1/3 innings at Triple-A between the Rangers and Tigers organizations. Detroit picked him up from Texas in the May trade that sent catcher Bobby Wilson to the Rangers. Bell worked more as a reliever than a starter and held opposing lefties to a .605 OPS, including a .286 slugging percentage. He’ll join Kyle Ryan, Blaine Hardy and Joe Mantiply as options to serve as a second lefty behind Justin Wilson in Detroit’s bullpen next year.
Cubs Claim Conor Mullee From Yankees
The Cubs were busy winning their first World Series since 1908 on Wednesday, but that didn’t stop them from adding to their 40-man roster. The club claimed right-hander Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees.
Mullee, 28, had been a member of the Yankees organization since going in the 24th round of the 2010 draft. Injuries have been highly problematic during his professional career, unfortunately, as he missed nearly all of the 2011-13 campaigns because of various surgeries – including a Tommy John procedure. Remarkably, Mullee persevered through those issues to make his major league debut in 2016, tossing three innings of one-run ball with the Yankees. However, he once again underwent surgery – this time to repair a nerve issue in his elbow – thus ending his season in August.
Over 162 career minor league frames, including 40 at the Triple-A level, Mullee has pitched to a stingy 2.00 ERA with impressive strikeout and walk rates of 9.1 and 2.6 per nine innings. That terrific body of work has helped earn Mullee a place on the World Series champions’ 40-man roster, at least for now.
This Date In Transactions History: Derek Jeter
On November 1st of 2013, the Yankees did one of the most natural things imaginable for the organization, deciding once again that Derek Jeter would be the shortstop for the following season. At the time it wasn’t clear, but it turned out to be the final time the organization would make that call, as Jeter announced just before 2014 Spring Training that it would be his final campaign.
The one-year, $12MM contract struck between the Yanks and their aging franchise icon kicked off a dramatic farewell tour, brought Jeter’s fantastic career to a close, and wrapped up an interesting transactional history between the two sides. His first big contract — ten years, $189MM — came one year after the sides had seemingly agreed to a lesser deal that ultimately wasn’t consummated by owner George Steinbrenner.
In the 2010-11 free agent period, Jeter was already a Yankee legend but was coming off of a poor season as he entered the open market. It took a bit of gamesmanship — MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk called it a “tug-of-war” before the month of November was out — before the sides finally agreed to a three-year, $56MM deal. (GM Brian Cashman said this on November 23, 2010: “He should be nothing but a New York Yankee,” Cashman said. “He chooses not to be.”) There was drama even after that deal was struck, too, with chatter about moving Jeter to the outfield (see here and here) and discussion of hurt feelings.
Heading into 2013, it seemed that Jeter might again command a multi-year pact. He was fresh off of a productive and healthy 2012 in which he slashed .316/.362/.429. But the aging star managed to appear in only 17 games in 2013, with a variety of leg injuries keeping him off the field.
Complicating matters was a player option that was ultimately valued at $9.5MM by operation of incentives provisions. Negotiations weren’t contentious this time around, but nevertheless proved as complicated as anything the sides had previously arranged due to CBA considerations that still seem unclear in retrospect. (Want to have a crack at understanding it? You can check out all the contemporaneous reporting right here.)
Ultimately, the deal didn’t pay off from an on-field perspective. Though Jeter made his 14th All-Star game, that was an honorary nod — albeit one that delivered some memorable moments. He did still play nearly every day, wrapping up his career with a .256/.304/.313 batting line over 634 plate appearances. And New York’s second place finish in the AL East wasn’t enough to snag a Wild Card spot.
Of course, that tepid finish did little to change the fact that Jeter enjoyed an unbelievable run with the game’s most iconic franchise. All told, he took over 12,000 plate appearances over two decades and compiled a lifetime .310/.377/.440 batting line with 260 home runs. He helped lead the organization to five World Series titles, and racked up 71.8 wins above replacement by measure of both fWAR and rWAR. Jeter is a surefire first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, with the only question now is whether he’ll become the first player to receive unanimous support in his first year of eligibility.
World Series Notes: Trades, Rizzo, Martinez, Rebuilding
Andrew Miller has thrived with the Indians and Aroldis Chapman has done well with the Cubs, but that doesn’t change the Yankees‘ sides of the trades that sent those relievers packing, writes the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. Even if the Indians and Cubs had missed the World Series, the Yankees had two top-notch relievers to deal and needed to get peak value from them. The Yankees need to hit on their acquisitions of Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield and Gleyber Torres, but the spotlights on Miller and Chapman shouldn’t cause Yankees fans to become increasingly impatient. Sherman notes that many key Indians players (including Corey Kluber, Carlos Santana, Michael Brantley, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer and Bryan Shaw) were acquired in veterans-for-prospects deals much like the ones the Yankees made in dealing Miller and Chapman. Here’s more on the World Series, and what, if anything, teams that aren’t in the Series can learn from the teams that are.
- The Cubs had similar success in veterans-for-prospects trades, getting Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, Addison Russell, Pedro Strop and Travis Wood in such deals. But just as important was the 2012 deal that sent Andrew Cashner and a minor leaguer to the Padres for Anthony Rizzo and a prospect, as SB Nation’s Grant Brisbee notes in a list of key trades for both World Series teams. For awhile, Cashner looked like one of the NL’s better young starters, but the deal eventually tilted in the Cubs’ favor as Cashner struggled despite his excellent stuff and Rizzo became a force in the middle of Chicago’s lineup.
- It’s doubtful whether Theo Epstein would have been able to rebuild the Red Sox the way he did with the Cubs, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal writes. The Red Sox faithful would not have shown much patience for such a rebuild, MacPherson argues. Of course, Boston has had its share of losing seasons in recent years, but never were such losing seasons part of a broader rebuilding project, and MacPherson highlights the differences between some of the big trades the Cubs have made during losing periods and those of the Red Sox. When they traded Jon Lester, Jon Lackey and Miller in 2014, for example, the Red Sox got veterans like Yoenis Cespedes, Joe Kelly and Allen Craig. They did get youngster Eduardo Rodriguez in the Miller deal, and had success with the Lester deal too, in that they traded Cespedes and Alex Wilson for Rick Porcello. But it’s clear the Red Sox took a fundamentally different approach. Of course, it’s arguable that a full rebuild wasn’t necessary for the Red Sox at that time — by 2014 they were one year removed from a World Series victory and were already in the process of integrating youngsters like Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley into their lineup, and they had an excellent season of their own in 2016, just two years later.
- Regardless of what happens in the World Series, the Cubs plan to ask coaches to return in 2017, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers writes. They are, however, considering the possibility that bench coach Dave Martinez could depart, since Martinez appears to be a candidate for the Rockies‘ open managerial job. Maddon says Martinez’s current job has prepared him well. “When the guy does the bench coaching properly, I absolutely believe it sets him up to be a manager,” says Maddon. “He should be there to let the manager intellectualize the day.”
Quick Hits: Fernandez, Pillar, Tanaka, Yankees, M’s
Some news from around baseball…
- According to toxicology reports released today, Jose Fernandez had cocaine in his system and a blood-alcohol level that was twice the legal limit during the boat crash that took the lives of the Marlins ace, Eduardo Rivero and Emilio Jesus Macias on September 25, David Ovalle of the Miami Herald reports. Authorities have yet to determine who was driving the boat at the time of the crash — neither Rivero or Macias were legally drunk, though they both had alcohol in their systems. (Rivero was also found to have cocaine in his system.)
- Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar underwent surgery this week to repair a torn thumb ligament, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports. The defensive standout is expected to be fine by Spring Training. Pillar hurt his thumb while stealing a base on August 6 and spent some time on the DL before playing through the injury throughout the rest of the regular season and Toronto’s postseason run.
- The Yankees should listen to offers for Masahiro Tanaka this winter, Mike Axisa of the River Ave Blues blog opines, though obviously it would take a big haul for New York to actually trade its ace away when the Bombers are themselves looking for quality pitching. Tanaka can opt out of his contract after the 2017 season, which seems like a very likely possibility assuming he stays healthy and keeps delivering his usual strong performance. Tanaka would be hitting the free agent market heading into his age-29 season and would score well beyond the three years/$67MM owed on his Yankees deal through 2020. If New York only has one year left of control of Tanaka, it makes sense for the club to see what it could potentially get back for the right-hander in a deal. Axisa’s mailbag piece covers other several Yankees-related topics, including how the Yankees’ prospect return in the Aroldis Chapman trade was better for the club than if they had swung the rumored Andrew Miller-for-Kyle Schwarber deal at the deadilne.
- The Mariners aren’t likely to make a big splash in free agency, MLB.com’s Greg Johns opines as part of a reader mailbag. Seattle already has $88.5MM locked up in just five players (Robinson Cano, Felix Hernandez, Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager and Hisashi Iwakuma) so there isn’t much remaining payroll room for another big contract. Johns thinks GM Jerry Dipoto will instead spread funds around to address several needs, improve depth and continue to raise the Mariners’ talent floor.
Indians Notes: Santana, Kluber, Miller, Lucroy
The Indians are at least opening the door to the possibility of utilizing Carlos Santana in left field when the World Series moves to Wrigley Field and takes the DH off of the table, as Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer reports. It doesn’t seem as if there are any clear plans to play him there — he hasn’t roamed the outfield grass since the minors — but the team is getting him some reps just in case. Even if Cleveland won’t start Santana in left just in order to get his and Mike Napoli‘s bats into the same lineup, it’s not impossible to imagine a late-game substitution scenario that calls for such a bold move.
Here’s more from Cleveland with the fall classic set to get underway:
- How exactly did World Series Game 1 starter Corey Kluber end up with the Indians? Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch compiles something of an oral history of the 2010 trade that brought the relatively unknown righty to Cleveland. With the Padres and Cardinals each looking for veteran assets, the Indians were able to facilitate their needs by taking Kluber. Then-Cleveland GM Chris Antonetti said at the time that he preferred not to be on the prospect end of such trades, though certainly that move helped set up the team’s current run — which included a deal that sent young talent out for the player who’s the subject of the next bullet.
- We’ve increasingly heard chatter — as is typical this time of year — about how postseason teams can serve as a model for other organizations in the ensuing winter. While I’d argue that the value of premium relief arms seems worth paying attention to, it does seem curious to hear discussion of whether teams could look to emulate the specific pen usage of roving Indians out-machine Andrew Miller. That approach isn’t likely to carry over into the regular season, Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus suggests (subscription required — and recommended) in a detailed and interesting analysis. Relievers are simply not as effective when they re-appear for a second inning of work, Carleton finds, and managers rightly need to be more judicious in deploying their most valuable relief-pitching-innings — those handled by their best relievers — over the course of a long season. Unless and until some team decides to really push the boundaries of how much of an innings workload a reliever can handle, he says, we’ll likely continue to see a lot of one-inning relievers in relatively well-defined roles (for the bulk of the year, at least).
- When the Indians went and got Miller, it sent a meaningful message to the team’s players, second baseman Jason Kipnis tells MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (Twitter link). But it came at a real price that could end up hurting down the line — as is the nature of deadline deals (see Kluber, Corey). Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports that Cleveland offered much more than any other team to grab Miller. But that was what it took to pry him loose, since the Yankees were under no obligation to swing a deal for a player with two more seasons of control remaining. With the Giants unwilling to move Joe Panik and the Nationals not interested in boosting their offer of young pitching talent, New York would’ve held pat had the Indians not offered up a prospect package made up of outfielder Clint Frazier, southpaw Justus Sheffield, and right-handers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.
- Before getting that deal done, of course, the Indians had a pact in place for catcher Jonathan Lucroy that only fell through when he exercised his no-trade protection to nix it. As ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports, Lucroy doesn’t regret utilizing the clause — even with the Indians now in the World Series. The veteran receiver landed in a good spot, helping the Rangers lock up an AL West title, and he’s not interested in revisiting things now. “I’m not worried about it at all,” he said. “It’s over with and in the past.”