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Bullpen Notes: Miller, O’Day, Soria, Madson

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The Yankees are reportedly open to nearly any scenario this winter, and according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, that includes trading Andrew Miller. While Heyman is careful to note that the scenario isn’t likely and the Yankees aren’t actively shopping their excellent closer, other clubs have said that Miller’s name is “out there a bit,” as Heyman puts it. Andy Martino of the New York Daily News applauds GM Brian Cashman’s open-mindedness (Twitter link). He speculates that the Yankees could flip Miller for immediate help and then trade prospects to acquire Craig Kimbrel from the Padres, leaving the 2016 club improved overall. The Yankees already have a dominant late-inning arm that could step into the ninth inning in place of Miller, of course, in Dellin Betances, though there’s certainly something to be said for having a pair of shutdown arms to handle the final two-plus innings of a game.

A few more notes from the relief market as the GM Meetings get underway…

  • Preliminary interest in Darren O’Day is “steep,” tweets Heyman, who adds that the Tigers, Cubs, Nationals, Red Sox, Royals and Dodgers are all in at this stage. The 32-year-old O’Day is probably the top relief arm on the market, as he’s coming off a dominant stretch in which he posted a 1.92 ERA in 263 innings over a four-year stretch spanning 2012-15. O’Day landed 33rd on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent list, with Tim Dierkes projecting a three-year deal worth about $22.5MM.
  • The Tigers will meet with the representatives for right-hander Joakim Soria at the GM Meetings this week, according to Tony Paul of the Detroit News (links to Twitter). The Tigers traded Soria to the Pirates at this summer’s non-waiver deadline, but that move was carried out by the since-departed Dave Dombrowski, and it stands to reason that new GM Al Avila, who is known to be seeking bullpen upgrades, could want Soria back in the ninth inning in Detroit. Paul adds that the Tigers’ preference between O’Day and Soria could come down to who is more willing to sign first, as the team will want to move onto other needs/targets relatively quickly.
  • Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star tweets that Ryan Madson, who picked up a World Series ring and emphatically re-established himself as a quality big league setup man with the Royals this season, is seeking a multi-year deal on the free agent market. That’s not a huge surprise given the lack of elite relief arms on the free agent market this season and the strong results he delivered in 2015. Madson tallied a 2.13 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 63 1/3 innings with Kansas City this season. He struggled in the ALDS and ALCS before turning in three very strong World Series innings. Tim pegged Madson for a three-year deal in the $15MM range in the aforementioned Top 50 list.

Latest On Byung-ho Park

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8:52am: Yahoo’s Jeff Passan tweets that the White Sox aren’t the winner, either. That leaves the Brewers and Twins in addition to the Cubs and Reds, though the latter duo doesn’t have much of a spot for Park to play (unless Cincinnati feels he can handle left field). Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN reported last week that the Twins have scouted Park quite a bit, though the Brewers seem to be a better fit from a roster standpoint, in my eyes.

8:37am: Heyman also eliminates the Rockies and the Phillies from the mix (via Twitter). That leaves the Brewers, Reds, Cubs, White Sox and Twins as the remaining options. As I noted before, the presence of Joey Votto in Cincinnati and Anthony Rizzo on the Cubs’ roster makes that pair of NL teams seem like long shots, to say the least. The White Sox and Twins each have long-term first base options in Jose Abreu and Joe Mauer, though Park could certainly split time at first and DH with either player.

8:22am: The Astros didn’t submit the winning bid for Park, either, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

NOV. 9, 7:29am: We’re down to seven possibilities on the mystery team for Park, as ESPN’s Buster Olney (Twitter link) and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel (Twitter link) report that the Pirates have not won the bidding.

There have been reports eliminating all but seven teams from the Park bidding, leaving the Phillies, Brewers, Reds, Cubs, White Sox, Twins and Astros as possibilities. And while the Reds and Cubs are technically possibilities, it’d be surprising to see either NL club post the winning bid on a first baseman, given the stars that each has entrenched at that position. The Rockies haven’t been completely ruled out, though the report below seems to indicate they’re more of a long shot than anything else at this point.

Alan Nero, Park’s agent at Octagon, tells Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that even he does not yet know which club won the bidding, adding that both league offices were closed over the weekend (Twitter link).

NOV. 8, 9:51pm: The winning bid wasn’t posted by the Royals or Braves, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (Twitter links).  “It’s safe to assume” the Rays didn’t have the winning bid either, the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin tweets.

9:10pm: The Athletics and Marlins also didn’t have the top bid, Heyman tweets.

7:24pm: The Mariners and Diamondbacks didn’t place bids on Park, as per tweets from CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman and Zach Buchanan of AZCentral.com.  Also, the Giants can be eliminated from contention, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.  The Rockies might also be out, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding doesn’t “think anything is happening there.”

2:39pm: Italian artist Michelangelo is famously misquoted as saying that he sculpted the historic David statue by chipping away the parts that did not look like David.  Perhaps that is how we will whittle down the field of suitors for first baseman Byung-Ho Park until we unravel the mystery team that submitted the winning bid to negotiate with the Korean star.  Failing that, we might just have to wait until Monday, when the announcement is formally made.

On Friday, Korea’s Nexen Heroes accepted a $12.85MM bid on the rights to negotiate a big league contract with Park.  As of today, we still don’t know which MLB club won the posting process, but one team out there now has a thirty day window with which to hammer out a deal with one of the winter’s most intriguing and mysterious free agents.

The Blue Jays are not the winning team, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter), and the winning bid was not submitted by the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, or Angels, either (link),  The Cardinals, who are looking at various first base options, tendered an unsuccessful bid for the 29-year-old, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  James Wagner of the Washington Post (on Twitter) heard that the Nats did not have interest.  Late last week, the Indians, Tigers, Rangers, Orioles, Padres, and Red Sox were also crossed off the list by various reporters.

If Park and his new club do not reach agreement on a contract, Nexen will lose out on the posting fee and the winning team will have to move on to a Plan B at first base.  The reported $12.85MM fell shy of the $25MM+ posting amount commanded by lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu, but it easily tops what the Pirates paid Nexen last year (~$5MM) for the rights to reach a deal with infielder Jung-Ho Kang. After the team-to-team transfer was arrived at, Kang and the Bucs agreed to a four-year, $11MM guarantee.

In the recently-released list of MLBTR’s top fifty free agents, Tim Dierkes predicted that Park would command a $10MM posting fee and a five-year, $40MM contract from the winning team. The first part of that was close, but it remains to be seen how negotiations will proceed.

Quick Hits: Yankees, Bundy, Green, Mets

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No free agent has ever accepted a qualifying offer, and if all 20 of this winter’s QO players reject their offers as well, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal figures it may inspire changes to the free agent process in the next collective bargaining agreement.  (The current CBA expires on December 1, 2016.)  The large number of QOs in play, Rosenthal reasons, might actually make some teams with their own qualifying offer players less hesitant to give up draft picks to sign such free agents.  The Royals, for instance, would only drop a few spots in the draft order if they gave up their 27th overall pick to sign a QO free agent and then let Alex Gordon leave, thus netting them a supplemental first-rounder back.  Here’s some more from around baseball…

  • The Yankees generally haven’t made recent free agent splashes unless they had money coming off the books and could recoup surrendered draft picks via their own departing free agents, so Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders if the Bombers could be fairly quiet this winter, especially when it comes to qualifying offer players.  While the draft pick compensation is certainly a concern, I’m not sure the payroll is necessarily an obstacle.  As I noted in my Yankees Offseason Outlook piece, the club could sign a major free agent to a backloaded deal, as Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and C.C. Sabathia will all have their contracts end within the next two years.
  • The Orioles have been very active in the Rule 5 draft in recent years, though MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko notes that the club may not be able to pick a reliever this year due to Dylan Bundy’s situation.  The former top prospect is out of options and recovering from a spate of injuries, so the O’s could ease Bundy back in via a bullpen role.  It would therefore be difficult for the club to manage with two pen spots filled with a rehab project and a raw minor league talent.
  • New Padres manager Andy Green is profiled by MLB.com’s Corey Brock, detailing Green’s playing career in the Majors and Japan, his move into coaching and his funny negotiation with then-Diamondbacks executive Mike Rizzo after being drafted in 2000.
  • Mets fans often clamor for their team to be bigger players in free agency, though Mike Puma of the New York Post notes that the club hasn’t had much success on the open market under Sandy Alderson’s tenure.
  • Also from Puma’s piece, he writes that the Mets could be open to re-signing Bartolo Colon if the veteran is willing to pitch as a swingman, and if the team is able to deal Jon Niese to create rotation space.
  • ESPN’s Keith Law (Insider-only link) provides his ranking of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, complete with contract valuations based on what Law would feel comfortable giving each player, not what they’ll actually receive in the open market.  For instance, Law would only offer Yoenis Cespedes a three-year, $60MM contract due to concerns about his on-base skills and a desire to avoid Cespedes’ decline years — MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes’ Top 50 Free Agents list, which predicts real-world contract values, has Cespedes receiving over twice Law’s number at six years and $140MM.

AL East Notes: Blue Jays, Yankees, Rays

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Alex Anthopoulos’ abrupt departure from the Blue Jays came as a surprise to team president Mark Shapiro, but finding a new GM is now just one of many tasks ahead of him, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm writes. Chisholm notes that Shapiro seems happy with interim GM Tony LaCava for now. “I’m comfortable in Tony guiding our baseball operations staff,” says Shapiro. “It’s not just Tony, just like it wasn’t me, not just Alex. There’s a strong group of people in that room.” Anthopoulos’ departure right before the beginning of free agency was inconvenient, but Shapiro (who is, of course, himself a former GM) sounds confident that it won’t hold the Jays back. Here’s more from the AL East.

  • Yankees GM Brian Cashman is “open to anything” as he sees how the winter unfolds, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. Last offseason, Cashman traded several players he had no particular intention of dealing, including Shane Greene, Manny Banuelos and Martin Prado.  “You have to be pretty aggressive and open to trade a good young pitcher under team control (Greene), a left-handed prospect (Banuelos) or a guy like Prado who fits you like a glove,” says Cashman. Cashman adds that he’s not looking to trade top young players Luis Severino, Greg Bird or Aaron Judge, but emphasizes that his ears are open to all possibilities.
  • The Rays still see Brad Miller, acquired in a recent six-player deal with the Mariners, as a potential starting shortstop, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. “We’ve been impressed by his work at shortstop, and it’s always a plus to have a left-handed-hitting middle infielder,” says president of baseball operations. “We’ll take him and the many other guys we have and head into Spring Training feeling good about our situation in the middle infield.” The Rays are likely to use Logan Morrison at DH. “He certainly has the type of bat that fits in the DH role, and we’re excited about that bat,” says Silverman. “You add him to our lineup and we’re immediately more formidable, especially against right-handed pitching.”

AL East Notes: Bradley, Sox, Gardner, Park, O’Day

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Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was a recent guest on WEEI’s Hot Stove Show, and WEEI’s John Tomase has transcribed some of the highlights from his talk (while also providing a link to the full audio). Regarding Jackie Bradley and Rusney Castillo, Dombrowski said that as it stands right now, “there’s no question” that the duo will enter next season as starters in the Boston outfield. “Jackie’s one of the best defensive outfielders I’ve ever seen,” said Dombrowski. “So that’s a plus, and Castillo’s got the all-around game.” Dombrowski noted that each has strides to make to reach his potential, however, and I’ll point out that we, of course, cannot rule out the fact that one of the two is traded this winter. (Boston has, after all, recently been linked to free agent Alex Gordon.) Speaking about Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts, Dombrowski stopped short of putting the “untouchable” label on either, though he did so as a means of saying he doesn’t consider any player untouchable. “If you have Miguel Cabrera, somebody may offer you two Miguel Cabreras,” said Dombrowski. “Probably not going to happen, probably never will happen, but unless you listen, you don’t know.” He went on to say he’d be “very surprised” if Bogaerts and Betts aren’t in the team’s lineup next season. Dombrowski also discussed exercising Clay Buchholz’s option, the perils of signing an ace in free agency and revealed that Matt Barnes will head to camp as a reliever next year. His full comments are well worth a read for Boston fans.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes that while there’s been speculation that the Red Sox could trade Clay Buchholz now that they’ve exercised his $13MM option, the team might be wise to hold off on that front. Lauber notes that many in the industry believe Dombrowski will make a run at David Price, and while dealing Buchholz would free up some 2016 money for Price or another ace, the uncertainty throughout the rest of the rotation should give Boston pause when listening to offers on Buchholz. While Buchholz can’t be relied upon for 30+ starts and 200+ innings, it’s reasonable enough pencil him in for 100+ innings as a high-quality No. 2 starter based on his 2013 and 2015 performances.
  • Brett Gardner’s woeful second half of the season was caused in part by a wrist injury suffered early in the year, Yankees hitting coach Alan Cockrell believes (via the Journal News’ Chad Jennings). Cockrell said that Gardner was hit on the wrist early in the season, and the pain bothered him on and off throughout the season. While it might seem odd to blame an April HBP for Gardner’s struggles in August and September, Cockrell explained that players are only allowed to receive three cortisone injections over the course of a given season. Gardner received his three cortisone shots, which alleviated the pain considerably, at unspecified intervals prior to Aug. 1. When he could no longer receive that treatment, Jennings notes that his production plummeted to .203/.288/.290 over the season’s final two months.
  • The Orioles have scouted Korean first baseman Byung-ho Park and are believed to hold interest in signing him, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. Park was posted by Korea’s Nexen Heroes on Monday, and teams have until Friday to submit blind bids on the 29-year-old, who has bashed 105 home runs over the past two seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization. Unlike the posting agreement with Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball where multiple teams can negotiate with a player, though (assuming there are multiple winning bids of the maximum $20MM), only the winning team can negotiate with Park. That might make it difficult for Baltimore to bid heavily on Park at this time, as the team may still have hopes of being able to work out a deal with Chris Davis. Of course, Park could still be slotted at DH if the Orioles were to somehow win the bidding and still re-sign Davis, though that level of spending seems highly unlikely. I’d imagine that if the O’s win the bidding on Park, it’s a clear signal that Davis will sign elsewhere (though that’s the wide expectation regardless of the Park outcome).
  • Kubatko also reports that there’s been little in the way of traction between the Orioles and Darren O’Day in talks of a new contract. Baltimore has exclusive negotiation rights with O’Day through Friday, after which he, like all other free agents, will be free to sign with any club. Kubatko was told that “all is quiet” right now after talks have failed to progress much, and he speculates that O’Day could possibly receive four-year offers in free agency.

Coaching Notes: Maddux, Yankees, Gardenhire, Angels

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The Nationals announced yesterday that they’ve hired recently departed Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux to fill the same role in their organization under new manager Dusty Baker. (MLB.com’s Bill Ladson first tweeted that the hire was likely.) In luring Maddux to D.C., the Nationals landed one of the game’s more respected coaches of any discipline, and they paid accordingly. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Maddux will become the highest-paid pitching coach in baseball with the Nationals, adding that the team’s pursuit of Maddux began as soon as the Rangers provided him the opportunity to listen to offers from other teams. Washington’s pursuit lasted more than two weeks, and Nightengale hears that the Nationals’ plan was to hire Maddux as pitching coach regardless of who was eventually named manager.

A few more coaching notes from around the league…

  • The Yankees announced this week that 2015 assistant hitting coach Alan Cockrell has been promoted to hitting coach. Cockrell has previously served as Mariners’ hitting coach and was also the Rockies’ hitting coach during their 2007 World Series run. Meanwhile, recently retired Marcus Thames, who had a productive 2010 season as a part-time outfielder for the Yankees, has been named assistant hitting coach. Thames, still just 38, has spent the past three seasons as a hitting coach with three different Yankees’ minor league affiliates (Tampa, Trenton and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre).
  • Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Padres have offered the bench coach position to former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who finished runner up to Andy Green in the team’s managerial search. Multiple sources told Lin of the offer, he notes, while another source said the Padres also offered the position to Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach. All of this seems to indicate that current bench coach Dave Roberts could indeed depart in 2016, though Lin hears that the organization isn’t shutting the door on keeping Roberts. Rather, they’d assign him a new coaching position if he were to return. Roberts has been interviewing for managerial gigs and is believed to be the favorite to land the Dodgers’ managerial position at this time. Gardenhire, for his part, was diplomatic and wouldn’t confirm the offer in a recent MLB Network Radio appearance, but he spoke highly of GM A.J. Preller (links to Twitter). “A.J. is a brilliant young man,” said Gardenhire. “He’s pretty cool, a baseball junkie, loves to go out and scout. I like those things.” Gardenhire called the San Diego group as a whole “unbelievable.”
  • The Rangers will hire the Astros’ Doug Brocail as their new pitching coach, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Brocail, a former big league right-hander, has served as Houston’s pitching coach previously and more recently been working in the team’s front office. As Grant notes, he’ll bring an analytic point of view to Texas, which will mesh with second-year manager Jeff Banister’s philosophies. Grant also reports that Triple-A pitching coach Brad Holman will be the Rangers’ bullpen coach in 2016.
  • The Angels announced this week that former D-Backs pitching coach Charles Nagy has been hired as the club’s new pitching coach. The 48-year-old Nagy enjoyed a 14-year Major League career spent almost entirely in Cleveland, and he served as a special assistant in the Cleveland front office this past season. He was Arizona’s pitching coach from 2011-13.
  • Additionally, the Angels announced that they’ve promoted Dave Hansen from assistant hitting coach to hitting coach and named Paul Sorrento assistant hitting coach. Each hitting instructor spent more than 10 years in the Majors. Hansen has previously been hitting coach for the Mariners and Dodgers, and he’s held his assistant role in Anaheim since 2014. Sorrento has been working in the Angels’ minor league system.
  • The Brewers this week formally announced the previously reported hires of Derek Johnson as pitching coach and Pat Murphy as bench coach. Murphy, of course, was the Padres’ interim manager from June through season’s end and has a close relationship with Milwaukee skipper Craig Counsell, whom he coached in college.

Yankees Release Chris Martin To Pursue Opportunity In Japan; Bailey Elects Free Agency

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7:47pm: Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that Martin signed a two-year, $1.7MM contract that contains $300K worth of performance bonuses (Twitter link).

5:51pm: The Yankees announced on Wednesday that they’ve released right-hander Chris Martin so that he can sign a contract with the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The Yankees will receive $750K from the Fighters as compensation, while Martin, a client of SSG Baseball, will sign a contract of yet-unknown length and for yet-unknown salary. Additionally, the Yankees announced that Andrew Bailey has elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment.

Martin, 29, logged 20 2/3 innings with the Yankees this season but recorded a disappointing 5.66 ERA. In 36 1/3 career innings between the Rockies and Yankees, Martin has a 6.19 ERA but a more encouraging 32-to-10 K/BB ratio in that time. Earlier this year, Ronald Blum of the Associated Press wrote about Martin’s unlikely journey to the big leagues, noting that the righty was playing slow-pitch softball and working in an appliance warehouse after he believed that a shoulder injury had ended his career. When his colleague broke out a catcher’s mitt one day, Martin threw to him and discovered his shoulder to be healthy, with his colleague, Jordan Bostick, telling Blum that Martin’s pitches “nearly took my thumb off.” Martin’s fascinating journey will now take another step, as he experiences baseball in a foreign country.

As for Bailey, the 31-year-old tossed 8 2/3 innings for the Yankees this season but allowed eight runs in that time. He’s spent the past two years in the Yankees’ minor league system, battling back from shoulder injuries that have halted the former Rookie of the Year and American League All Star’s career. Bailey notched a tidy 2.57 ERA with 10.8 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 35 innings across four minor league levels this season as he worked his way back to the Majors. He’ll hope for a more immediate opportunity in the Majors next year, though I’d imagine that he’ll need to sign a minor league pact and hope to break camp with a club in Spring Training.

Option Decisions: Qualls, Ryan, Bailey, Ziegler, Collmenter

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We’ll cover the day’s major option decisions in separate posts, but here are some of the relatively less impactful calls being made by teams around the league:

  • The Astros have declined the option of right-hander Chad Qualls, the club announced. He’ll receive a $250K buyout rather than the $3.5MM option price. Qualls,  37, worked to a 4.38 ERA over 49 1/3 innings last year in Houston, with 8.4 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 and a 59.9% groundball rate. That earned run mark was unlucky, if you believe metrics like FIP (3.52), xFIP (2.99), and SIERA (2.60). There ought to be no shortage of clubs interested in the veteran, who functioned as Houston’s closer at times in 2014. His peripherals give some cause for optimism, though he did lose a tick on his fastball and allowed a 17.1% HR/FB rate.
  • Also announcing some option decisions were the Yankees, who say that infielder Brendan Ryan has exercised his $1MM player option. The 33-year-old has not been terribly productive since coming to New York, taking just 289 plate appearances  and compiling a poor .201/.244/.271 batting line over his three years with the team. Ryan is valued most for his glove, of course. He could find himself lacking a roster spot at some point, depending upon how the team proceeds in filling its second base and reserve infield roles.
  • Meanwhile, the Yankees declined their $2MM option on righty Andrew Bailey. He had returned to the club after it declined a 2015 option, and his new deal also apparently contained such a provision. While Bailey did make it back to the big leagues for the first time since 2013, he struggled with his command, though that was in a sample size of less than ten innings. The righty was able to put up rather dominant numbers in the minors during his rehab stint. As Chad Jennings of LoHud.com notes on Twitter, the club can still control Bailey through arbitration. MLBTR projects him to take home a $900K salary through that process, if he’s tendered.
  • The Diamondbacks have officially exercised their option on righty Brad Ziegler. The 36-year-old was even better than usual last year. He spun 68 innings of 1.85 ERA ball, even as his strikeout rate dropped to just 4.8 K/9. Metrics like FIP and xFIP were less impressed, but that’s always been the case with Ziegler, whose sidearmed sinker/curve/change mix produced a ridiculous 72.8% groundball rate this year. Long a quality set-up man, Ziegler moved seamlessly into the closer’s role when Addison Reed faltered. He’ll earn $5.5MM next year in his final season of control, which is quite an attractive price given his track record.
  • Likewise, the Diamondbacks picked up their option on Josh Collmenter. His drop in strikeouts is arguably more concerning, particularly as it came in a year in which he spent a lot of time working from the bullpen (in addition to making 12 starts). The 29-year-old threw 121 total innings, posting a solid 3.79 ERA. But with his K rate dipping below five-per-nine and a groundball rate that typically lands in the mid-thirty-percent range, there’s concern going forward. Collmenter will take home $1.825MM, which is affordable enough that the team can roll the dice on a rebound. He is also controllable for 2017 via mutual option.

Free Agent Notes: Leake, Yankees, Young, Iwakuma

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The Giants have yet to talk contract with free agent righty Mike Leake, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Twitter links). That doesn’t mean that he won’t be a target, of course, but Schulman explains that it does suggest he’ll be fully testing the market before making a decision. Generally, says Schulman, San Francisco has indicated it will be more tight-lipped about its pursuit of pitching than it was last offseason, when the club openly chased Jon Lester.

Here are some more notes as the free agent market begins to take shape:

  • While the Yankees might not go after the biggest free agent names, the club could be active in the second base market, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch writes. New York has a variety of in-house options to be considered there, of course, but will also look at players such as Daniel Murphy, Ben Zobrist, and Howie Kendrick, per the report.
  • It remains to be seen how active the Yankees will be, but adding to the rotation figures to be one area of focus. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com writes (in a broader notes column) that Jeff Samardzija and Wei-Yin Chen are two names that have come up in internal discussions.
  • The Royals have interest in a reunion with righty Chris Young, Heyman adds. The 36-year-old delivered plenty of value to the club after signing late in the offseason last year, of course, though he’ll figure to draw wider interest after contributing 123 1/3 frames of 3.06 ERA pitching in a swingman capacity.
  • New Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has made clear that bringing back Hisashi Iwakuma is a priority for the club, and Bob Dutton of the Seattle Times explains that his status will be important for determining the rest of the club’s winter. Re-signing the veteran would allow the team to approach the rest of the rotation market with patience while focusing elsewhere. If not, Seattle may be forced to spend more in adding another starter.

Outrighted: Schafer, Hellweg, Jimenez, Moreno, Santos

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Here are the day’s outright assignments:

  • As teams continue paring back their 40-man rosters in anticipation of a busy offseason, the Brewers were the latest to announce a group of outrights. Righty Johnny Hellweg, lefty Cesar Jimenez, catcher Juan Centeno, first baseman Matt Clark, and outfielder Logan Schafer all lost their roster spots. Hellweg hasn’t seen the big leagues since his first-ever MLB action back in 2013, and he struggled badly with his control in the minors this year. Jimenez, a late-season waiver claimee, was projected to earn $1MM in arbitration. He’s had solid results, and greatly improved his K:BB ratio this year, but will presumably look for another opportunity elsewhere. Centeno has received only spot duty in the majors over the last three seasons and is mostly a light-hitting depth piece. Clark has been quite productive in the upper minors in recent seasons, but did not get another trip to the show after a brief stint in 2014. As for the 29-year-old Schafer, he has produced a meager .212/.286/.319 batting line in 646 career plate appearances in Milwaukee, most of them coming over the last three years.
  • The Yankees announced that they’ve reinstated right-handers Sergio Santos and Diego Moreno from the 60-day disabled list and outrighted each. The veteran Santos has already elected free agency and will look to latch on with a new club this winter. The former White Sox/Blue Jays closer posted a 4.96 ERA with an 18-to-7 K/BB ratio in 16 1/3 innings between the Dodgers and Yankees this season. Moreno, meanwhile, acquired four years ago in the trade that initially sent A.J. Burnett to the Pirates, made his MLB debut in 2015 but yielded six runs in 10 1/3 innings. The 28-year-old has enough minor league service time to elect free agency as well.
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