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Yankees Remain Interested In Blake Snell

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The Yankees made an offer to star southpaw Blake Snell last month, but pivoted to a deal with veteran right-hander Marcus Stroman shortly after due to a significant gap between the sides in negotiations. While it’s been unclear to this point whether negotiations between the sides have continued since the Yankees landed Stroman, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported this morning that the Yankees continue to have “serious interest” in Snell, though they’re currently waiting for his asking price to drop.

Snell, 31, entered the offseason as the #2 starting pitcher on the market behind now-Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It’s easy to see why, as the reigning NL Cy Young award winner enjoyed an incredible 2023 season where he posted a majors-leading 2.25 ERA over 180 frames while striking out a whopping 31.5% of batters faced. Those incredible numbers came in spite of Snell leading the majors in walks as he issued free passes to 13.3% of batters faced. Snell’s dominance on the mound is belied somewhat by the inconsistency he’s struggled with in recent years, however. In the four years between his two Cy Young campaigns, he posted the numbers of a mid-to-back of the rotation arm, with a 3.85 ERA and a 3.44 FIP in a combined 413 2/3 innings of work.

That combination of dominance and inconsistency surely has played a role in the gaps Snell is facing between his camp and interested teams. One solution Nightengale floats as a possibility for Snell and the Yankees is a shorter deal, which MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald discussed the merits of early this week. Nightengale suggests that such a deal could come with a yearly salary “in excess of” $35MM. That would seemingly leave Snell likely to beat the short-term, opt-out laden deals signed by right-hander Trevor Bauer and fellow Boras client Carlos Correa in recent years. Bauer’s three-year, $102MM guarantee is a particularly interesting comp for Snell given that both hurlers flashed Cy Young caliber performances when at their best but also struggled with consistency, often posting results closer to the league average in down seasons.

Even as New York remains interested in Snell, the club has the makings of a solid rotation even if they enter Opening Day with their current options. Gerrit Cole is among the league’s best starters, and both Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes have enjoyed front-of-the-rotation caliber seasons in the past despite difficult 2023 campaigns. Stroman, meanwhile, is a reliable veteran arm who sports a 3.32 ERA dating back to the 2019 season. The fifth spot in the rotation should the Yankees not add another arm figures to go to right-hander Clarke Schmidt, who posted decent back-of-the-rotation numbers in his first season as a full-time starter last year. While the club would certainly benefit from adding Snell and allowing Schmidt to step into a depth role that the likes of Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Jhony Brito vacated after being dealt to San Diego in the Juan Soto trade, the addition of Stroman created a credible five-man rotation in the Bronx, at least on paper.

Likewise, the Yankees are far from the only potential suitor for Snell’s services, particularly if the price comes down over the course of the coming weeks. The Angels are a frequently-discussed potential suitor for both him and fellow Boras southpaw Jordan Montgomery, while the likes of the Giants, Phillies, and Blue Jays have all been rumored to have potential interest in Snell should the price of his services falls into a range they’re comfortable with. It’s also possible that, in the event that Snell begins to entertain shorter-term offers at a higher AAV, new clubs that had not been tied to the southpaw previously emerge as potential suitors, as was the case with Correa and the Twins during the 2021-22 offseason.

Yankees Claim McKinley Moore From Phillies

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The Yankees claimed right-hander McKinley Moore off waivers from the Phillies, per announcements from both clubs. The Yanks put right-hander Lou Trivino on the 60-day injured list to open up a roster spot.

Moore, 25, was designated for assignment by the Phils earlier this week when they signed Spencer Turnbull. Originally a draftee of the White Sox, he came to the Phils in the 2022 Adam Haseley trade. Moore has shown a powerful arsenal but has also struggled to harness that stuff.

Last year, he made his major league debut, which didn’t turn out to be the dream scenario. He issued five walks and allowed seven earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. That means he currently sports a gruesome earned run average of 18.90 in his career. But that’s obviously a tiny sample size and he at least averaged a potent 97.2 miles per hour on his fastball in that time.

Looking at his minor league work, he threw a combined 120 2/3 innings over the past three years at various levels. He posted a 3.88 ERA in that time, giving out walks to 13.1% of opponents but also striking out 32.9% of them. The Yankees are known to favor ground ball guys and Moore has kept about half of balls in play in the dirt throughout his career.

The righty is obviously not a finished product but he has a couple of option years remaining and just a few days of service time. He’ll provide the bullpen with a bit of depth that can be summoned from the minors when needed, while they will presumably try to help him rein in the command.

As for Trivino, the 32-year-old was just signed a couple of days ago, but the club was well aware that he underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year. He’ll now be officially ineligible to come off the IL until late May, which likely wasn’t going to be a possibility anyway.

Brian Cashman Discusses Possible Extensions, Current Roster

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Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke with the media this week and addressed various topics. Notably, he downplayed the possibility of an extension for either outfielder Juan Soto or infielder Gleyber Torres, both of whom are impending free agents. He also indicated it’s still possible for roster additions, with pitching a likely target area.

“The odds are this is a one-year situation,” Cashman said about Soto, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “I don’t see too many things stopping him from reaching free agency.” That assessment of the situation tracks with publicly-available information, as well as logic. Soto is just 25 years old but already has six years of elite production in the major leagues. Most free agents don’t reach free agency until they are around 30 years old but Soto is on track to get there around his 26th birthday, which will be at the end of October.

Despite his youth, he’s already hit 160 home runs in 779 career games, while also drawing walks more often than he strikes out. He’s hit .284/.421/.524 overall for a wRC+ of 154 and has never posted a wRC+ lower than 143 in any individual season. That combination of youth and talent has long made it seem as though a trip to free agency would be fairly inevitable. While with the Nationals in 2022, Soto reportedly rejected a $440MM extension offer, which is what led to him being dealt to the Padres.

The Yankees sent five players to the Padres this winter to get Soto and Trent Grisham, likely knowing full well that it was probably going to be a one-year proposition, with Cashman’s comments today reflecting that. Now that Soto has moved closer to free agency, his earning power has only increased since he turned down that $440MM offer, making the odds of keeping him from the open market even lower. The Yanks will have a chance to bring him back via free agency, but they will have to compete with the other clubs around the league in what is sure to be a hotly contested market.

As for Torres, it was reported back in November that the club had not engaged Torres on any extension talks. The infielder even replied “I wish” when asked about the possibility. Cashman confirmed to Greg Joyce of The New York Post this week that the club has not had any extension talks with him. Torres has been a solid player for the Yanks, hitting 123 home runs in his 734 contests thus far. His .267/.334/.454 batting line translates to a 116 wRC+. His defense at second base has been passable at times, though it was graded poorly last year.

While he’s set to be a key piece of the 2024 club, the Yanks likely feel they can pivot to a post-Torres era fairly easily. Oswald Peraza was still considered a top 100 prospect before he exhausted his rookie status last year, but he’s blocked from his natural shortstop position by Anthony Volpe. Peraza still has one option year remaining and could perhaps take over the keystone when Torres hits free agency. They also have multi-positional guys like Oswaldo Cabrera and DJ LeMahieu who could factor in at that spot.

As for the rest of the roster, Cashman said that it’s not “pencils down,” per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. “I guess it’s always pitching,” he added about a concerning area. The Yankees project to have a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Marcus Stroman, Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt. That’s a good rotation if healthy but that’s a big “if” as each of Rodón, Cortes and Stroman missed significant time last year. The club also subtracted from their depth when they included four possible starting pitchers in the Soto deal.

Adding to that group would be sensible but the finances may be tight. Roster Resource has the club’s competitive balance tax number at $307MM right now, well beyond the top tier of $297MM. As a third-time payor at that level, any additional spending comes with a 110% tax. Since they have five rotation spots allocated and they effectively have to pay double on any future signings, they may stick to depth signings on minor league deals, though a significant injury can always change that calculus.

Yankees Discussing Advisory Position With Corey Kluber

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Corey Kluber announced last Thursday that he was wrapping up a playing career that spanned parts of 13 seasons in the big leagues. The two-time Cy Young winner might not be out of baseball for long.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters this evening that the team has had a “brief conversation” with Kluber about a special advisor position (relayed by Mark Didtler of The Associated Press). Newsday’s Erik Boland first reported the talks (on X) this morning.

Kluber spent the 2021 season in pinstripes. He inked an $11MM free agent pact over the 2020-21 offseason. Kluber started 16 games for the Yankees, pitching to a 3.83 ERA across 80 innings. He twirled the 12th no-hitter in franchise history that May. A shoulder strain cost him a good chunk of the second half, but he was productive when able to take the mound. He clearly impressed the front office and coaching staff with his work habits to lay the foundation for a potential post-playing role.

It’s unclear precisely what that would involve, although it’s likely Kluber would be part of instructional work in Spring Training. Boland notes that the three-time All-Star was at the team’s spring complex in Tampa earlier in the week.

Yankees Sign Lou Trivino To Major League Deal

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The Yankees announced they’ve brought back right-hander Lou Trivino on a one-year deal with a club option for 2025. Outfielder Jasson Domínguez was placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Trivino, a client of Pro Edge Sports Management, is guaranteed $1.5MM for the upcoming season. The club option is valued at $5MM. The deal also contains various escalators and performance bonuses.

His 2024 salary reportedly increases by $100K for every fifth appearance between 15 and 35 games, potentially reaching $2MM. Hitting those same thresholds would also escalate the value of next year’s club option by $200K, pushing the option value to $6MM if Trivino pitches in 35 games this year. If the Yankees exercise the option, Trivino could earn another $400K in 2025 based on games finished that season.

Trivino, 32, was acquired by the Yankees at the 2022 deadline in the same deal that brought Frankie Montas to the Bronx. He was excellent in pinstripes, posting a 1.66 earned run average over 25 appearances after that trade. His 10.8% walk rate in that time was a tad high but his 23.7% strikeout rate was solid and his 51.7% ground ball rate very strong.

The Yanks kept him around for 2023 by agreeing to a $4.1MM salary, avoiding arbitration. Unfortunately, it would prove to be a lost season for the righty. He was diagnosed with an elbow sprain during Spring Training and began the year on the injured list, ultimately requiring Tommy John surgery in May.

The Yanks could have retained him via arbitration again for 2024, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting another $4.1MM salary after he missed the entire 2023 campaign. The Yankees non-tendered him instead, sending him out to free agency. They’ll circle back at a lower cost and tack on the option to potentially keep him in the fold for 2025.

Domínguez is going to be out until the summer due to his Tommy John rehab. Trivino himself could move to the 60-day IL if he is on the 40-man. Given that Tommy John rehab generally takes 14 months or longer, he likely won’t be able to rejoin the club until the summer himself. But once healthy, he could provide a nice boost to the relief mix. The club has an affinity for ground ball pitchers and he would certainly qualify. In his 285 career appearances, Trivino has a 3.86 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 47.4% ground ball rate.

The New York Post’s Greg Joyce first noted that Trivino was in the Yankee clubhouse. Andy Martino of SNY confirmed the sides had reached an agreement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the $1.5MM guarantee, the $5MM option value, and the various incentives/escalators.

Don Gullett Passes Away

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The Reds announced that former big leaguer Don Gullett passed away today at the age of 73. “Don dedicated 24 years to this franchise as a player, coach and minor league instructor,” Reds CEO Bob Castellini said in a statement. “An anchor on the pitching staff of one of the greatest baseball teams in history, his contributions to our rich tradition, our city and his community will never be forgotten.”

Born in Lynn, Kentucky in 1951, Gullett went on to be a three-sport athlete at McKell High School in South Shore, Kentucky, including excelling in baseball as a left-handed pitcher. He was selected by the Reds in the first round of the 1969 draft.

Despite being just 19 years old, he was able to make his major league debut with the Reds in 1970. That was the first of seven seasons he spent with the Reds, suiting up for them from 1970 to 1976. He appeared in 236 games for the Reds over that stretch, including 156 starts, logging 1,187 innings. He allowed 3.03 earned runs per nine frames in that time, with a record of 91 wins, 44 losses and also recording 11 saves.

This was a great era for the club, as the Reds won the National League West in five of those seven seasons. They won the NL pennant in four of them and hoisted the World Series trophy in 1975 and ’76. In the ’75 World Series, Gullett started the first game for the Reds and kept the game scoreless through six innings. But things came off the rails in the seventh, with the Red Sox scoring six and eventually holding on to win 6-0. Gullett got the ball again in the fifth game, with the series now knotted at two games apiece. He tossed 8 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs as the Reds won 6-2. After a travel day, three days of heavy rain delayed Game Six, which was eventually won by Boston thanks to Carlton Fisk’s legendary home run. In Game Seven, Gullett started and allowed three earned runs over four innings, with the Reds eventually emerging victorious 4-3.

In ’76, Gullett started Game One and allowed one run over 7 1/3, with the Reds eventually sweeping the Yankees. That was his last appearance as a Red, as he reached free agency and signed with the Yankees. In ’77, he made 22 starts for the Yanks with a 3.58 ERA. The Yanks won the East and got by the Royals in the ALCS, earning a spot in the World Series against the Dodgers. Gullett started Game One and went 8 1/3, allowing three earned runs, with the Yanks eventually winning 4-3 in 12 innings. He started again in Game 5 with the Yankees up 3-1 in the series but was lit up and didn’t get through the fifth. The Yanks lost that game but won the series in Game Six, with Reggie Jackson’s historic three-homer performance highlighting the clincher.

Gullett returned to the Yanks in ’78 but shoulder problems limited him to just eight starts in what would eventually be his final season in the big leagues. His playing career finished with him having a record of 109-50 after having tossed 1,390 innings with a 3.11 ERA. He added another 93 frames in the postseason with a 3.77 ERA while winning three straight World Series rings. Later in life, he served as the Reds’ pitching coach from 1993 to 2005.

We at MLBTR join the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to Gullett’s family, friends, fans and many associates through the game.

Brewers Trade Clayton Andrews To Yankees

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The Yankees have acquired left-hander Clayton Andrews from the Brewers in exchange for minor league righty Joshua Quezada, the teams announced Wednesday. New York transferred righty Scott Effross, who’s recovering from December back surgery (that was just announced today), to the 60-day injured list. Milwaukee designated Andrews for assignment last week.

Andrews, 27, made his big league debut with Milwaukee in 2023, though things didn’t go as he’d hoped. He pitched just 3 1/3 innings but was torched for ten earned runs on the strength of three homers in that brief cup of coffee.

Ugly as that tiny sample was, Andrews had much more encouraging results in the minors. He spent the bulk of the 2023 campaign with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, pitching to a tidy 2.53 ERA in 57 frames out of the bullpen. Andrews fanned a hefty 31.1% of his opponents in Nashville and posted a solid 45.7% grounder rate, but his 13% walk rate was an eyesore that’ll clearly need improvement if he’s to carve out a big league role for himself.

A 17th-round pick by the Brewers back in 2018, Andrews still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, which will give the Yankees some flexible depth in the bullpen. He’s a three-pitch lefty who averaged 94.8 mph on his heater in 2023 and also mixed in a changeup and slider. Andrews’ changeup is considered his best pitch, hence the reverse splits he showed in ’23; righties hit him at just a .215/.312/.349 clip while fellow lefties managed a healthier .233/.337/.438 slash.

As for the Brewers’ end of the swap, they’ll pick up a 19-year-old righty who’s entering just his second professional season. Quezada signed with the Yankees out of Nicaragua during last year’s international amateur free agency period. He spent the season with the Yankees’ short-season affiliate in the Dominican Summer League, where he pitched 46 1/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball. The 6’2″, 185-pound Quezada fanned exactly one quarter of his opponents and issued walks at a 9.4% clip. Quezada wasn’t one of the team’s high-profile signings on last year’s international market and didn’t rank among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects, but he turned in a nice debut campaign and will give the Brewers a lottery-ticket arm to stash in the lower levels of their system.

Scott Effross Out Several Months Due To Back Surgery

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone provided updates to the media today on several players on the roster. Notably, right-hander Scott Effross had back surgery in December and likely won’t be ready until the summer, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. In a more benign update, catcher Jose Trevino had a calf strain a few weeks ago and is a bit behind but is still expected to be ready by Opening Day, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic.

Effross, 30, once looked like a nice pickup for the Yankees. The sidearmer made his debut in the majors with the Cubs in 2021 and was flipped to the Yankees at the 2022 deadline, with Hayden Wesneski going the other way. Between the two clubs, Effross made 74 appearances over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, allowing just 2.78 earned runs per nine innings. He struck out 27.9% of batters faced, walked just 5.6% of them and got grounders on 45.1% of balls in play. He even looked to be moving towards a closer’s role, earning four saves and 19 holds in that time.

But he’s been on the shelf since late 2022 and now seems to be staying there. He landed on the injured list in August of 2022 due to a shoulder strain. In October of that year, it was announced that he would require Tommy John surgery, wiping out his entire 2023 season. Now this back surgery is going to prevent him from pitching in the first half of the 2024 campaign.

It’s an unfortunate series of events for a pitcher who was on such a positive trajectory. Assuming he is able to return at some point this summer, he’ll be looking to get back on track after a layoff of almost two full years. The Yanks will likely place him on the 60-day injured list once they need a roster spot. He’s slated to qualify for arbitration for the first time after this year and is on pace for free agency after 2027.

Without Effross, the high-leverage roles in the Yankee bullpen will go to Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loáisiga, Tommy Kahnle and Caleb Ferguson. Since the surgery happened months ago, the club has surely been aware of it and it shouldn’t suddenly lead to a change in their roster-building plans. But if they do decide to add to the relief mix, guys like Ryne Stanek, Brad Boxberger, Brad Hand and Aaron Loup are still available in free agency.

Trevino, 31, is projected to form part of the club’s catching duo alongside Austin Wells. He only played 55 games in 2023 due to wrist surgery but will be looking to get back on track to the form he showed in 2022. He played 115 games that year with roughly average offense for a catcher but his superlative defense led to him being valued as worth 3.8 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs,.

Yankees Claim Jordan Groshans, Designate Matt Krook

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The Yankees announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed infielder Jordan Groshans off waivers from the Marlins. New York designated lefty reliever Matt Krook for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Miami designated Groshans for assignment last Tuesday as the corresponding transaction when they traded for fellow infielder Jonah Bride. Groshans heads back to the AL East, the division in which he began his career. A highly-regarded talent in high school, he was drafted 12th overall in 2018 by the Blue Jays. His stock had dipped by the 2022 trade deadline, when Toronto flipped him to the Fish for relievers Anthony Bass and Zach Pop.

Groshans got to the big leagues not long after that trade. He appeared in 17 MLB contests, hitting .262/.308/.311 with one home run through his first 65 plate appearances. Miami optioned him back to Triple-A to open the 2023 campaign. Groshans spent the whole year there, thanks in large part to a mediocre offensive season.

The right-handed hitter put up a .243/.339/.330 slash line over 528 trips to the plate. He showed strong awareness of the strike zone, walking at a 12.5% clip while striking out only 17.4% of the time. Groshans provided very little impact when he made contact, though, hitting just six home runs, 20 doubles and a triple. He split his defensive work between the two corner infield spots, playing mostly third base. Groshans had experience in the middle infield early in his career but was always viewed by most prospect evaluators as a better fit at the hot corner.

Last year was Groshans’ first minor league option season. New York can still send him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the next two years if they keep him on the 40-man roster. He slots in at the back of an infield depth chart that also features Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera and Jorbit Vivas behind the starting group of Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Volpe.

Taking a flier on Groshans could come at the expense of Krook, a 29-year-old who made his major league debut last season. The Oregon product pitched in four MLB games, walking six batters and allowing 11 runs in four innings. While that’s obviously a dismal small-sample showing, Krook turned in a 1.32 ERA through 34 frames in Scranton. He punched out 39% of batters faced in Triple-A.

The 6’4″ southpaw clearly has swing-and-miss potential, yet he has never thrown strikes at a tenable rate. Krook walked over 18% of opposing hitters with the RailRiders last season. He’d issued free passes at a 12.1% rate there the year before that, leading New York to move him to the bullpen by 2023. That didn’t result in the necessary step forward in his command, but it’s possible another team takes a flier given the gaudy minor league whiff rates. The Yankees have a week to trade Krook or attempt to run him through waivers.

Quick Hits: Roster Sizes, Phillies, Yankees, Burnes

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Each offseason veteran players with experience at the upper levels of the minor leagues and in the majors routinely qualify for minor league free agency and test the open market in search of fresh minor league agreements with clubs willing to offer them an invite to major league Spring Training. Such arrangements have been increasingly difficult to come by this winter, however, and Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper recently explored a significant reason why.

As noted by Cooper, the new collective bargaining agreement between MLB and minor league players gave the league the right to limit the total number of domestic minor league players to just 165 ahead of the 2024 season, with a limit of 175 players during the offseason. Cooper notes that reduced figure slashes a total of 450 roster spots around the league or 15 per club. That limited roster flexibility gives clubs far less opportunity to offer minor league free agents deals that have long been considered “no-risk fliers,” as now clubs will often times be forced with potentially cutting a younger minor league player early in their professional career to make room for an interesting veteran journeyman.

While minor league deals are typically regarded as low-risk signings that are relatively unlikely to result in a given player making an impact at the big league level, one needn’t look very hard to find examples of players heading to camp on minor league deals only to provide considerable value to that club throughout the year. Dodgers outfielder Jason Heyward and Rangers outfielder Travis Jankowski are two examples of veteran hitters who came into camp on minor league deals last year, earned a spot on the Opening Day roster, and played well enough to earn a big-league deal with their respective clubs after returning to the open market this winter.

More from around Major League Baseball…

  • The Phillies have long been known to be on the hunt for another relief arm after losing veteran closer Craig Kimbrel in free agency this past winter, with the likes of Phil Maton and Jakob Junis reportedly on the club’s radar prior to the pair signing with the Rays and Brewers, respectively. That being said, Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer indicated this afternoon that the club is unlikely to pursue further bullpen additions this winter after adding depth starter Spencer Turnbull on a big league deal earlier today. While Turnbull has options remaining, he has enough service time at this point in his career to a refuse a minor league assignment. That leaves Philadelphia with minimal flexibility in their bullpen which would only be further reduced by the addition of another veteran arm. According to Lauber, six arms are all but locked into the club’s relief mix already, leaving just two spots for a group that includes non-optionable hurlers Turnbull, Connor Brogdon, Dylan Covey as well as optionable pieces like Yunior Marte, Kolby Allard, and Michael Rucker.
  • USA Today’s Bob Nightengale this morning indicated that the Yankees discussed right-hander Corbin Burnes with the Brewers prior to the ace being traded to their division rival in Baltimore, though the club “rebuffed” Milwaukee in talks once the club requested outfield prospect Spencer Jones in return for Burnes’s services. The 22-year-old Jones was the club’s first-round pick in the 2022 draft and has generally impressed to this point in his minor league career, though he struggled with a .261/.333/.406 in a 17-game stint at the Double-A level last year. Previous reporting indicated that New York was unwilling to include Jones in a package for White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, so it’s not necessarily a surprise that the club also passed on parting with the youngster for a rental arm like Burnes.
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