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Astros, Martin Maldonado Finalizing One-Year Extension

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The Astros are finalizing a one-year contract extension with catcher Martin Maldonado, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter). The new pact would also contain a vesting option for the 2023 season. Maldonado is a client of MVP Sports Group.

The 34-year-old Maldonado is in his second different stint with the Astros since they acquired him from the Angels for left-hander Patrick Sandoval leading up to the July 2018 trade deadline. Maldonado divided some of the next year between the Royals and Cubs, only to return to the Astros in a 2019 deal that sent infielder/outfielder Tony Kemp to Chicago. The Astros were impressed enough with Maldonado’s work that they prevented him from exiting in free agency with a two-year, $7MM guarantee.

Maldonado typically hasn’t offered much as a hitter, evidenced by his lifetime .217/.291/.352 line in 2,541 plate appearances, though he did put up a career-best .215/.350/.378 last year. Maldonado’s off to a dreadful .094/.121/.094 start with 15 strikeouts against one walk in 33 PA this season, but the Astros are willing to roll the dice for another year, no doubt owing in large part to the veteran’s history of well-regarded work behind the plate. Maldonado has earned extremely high lifetime marks from Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average metric, piled up 75 Defensive Runs Saved and thrown out an easily above-average 36 percent of would-be base thieves since debuting with the Brewers in 2011.

Barring any behind-the-plate changes in Houston, it’s slated to bring back its two current catchers – Jason Castro is the other – in 2022. Castro inked a two-year, $5MM contract in free agency, though he has only taken seven trips to the plate this season. Of course, considering Maldonado and Castro for a cheap duo, the Astros could still seek an upgrade(s) in the coming months if Maldonado and Castro don’t produce to the club’s liking.

James Paxton To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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April 13: Servais confirmed today that Paxton will undergo season-ending surgery (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Corey Brock).

April 10: Paxton hasn’t yet decided on surgery and will seek a second opinion on his injury, Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer).

April 8: Tommy John surgery has been recommended for Mariners left-hander James Paxton, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. If Paxton undergoes the procedure, he’ll miss the rest of this season and at least some portion of the 2022 campaign.

Paxton began his career with the Mariners, who used a fourth-round pick on him in 2010, though after spending 2013-18 in their uniform, they traded him to the Yankees. But Paxton, 32, returned to Seattle in free agency this past offseason on a one-year, $8.5MM deal. Unfortunately, the Big Maple exited his first (and potentially lone) start of 2021 on Tuesday because of forearm troubles. The Mariners then placed Paxton on the 10-day injured list.

While Paxton has typically pitched well in the majors, evidenced by his 3.59 ERA/3.62 SIERA over 137 appearances (all starts) and 754 2/3 innings, various injuries have haunted him since he entered the league in 2013. He has never thrown more than 160 1/3 innings in an individual season, and he totaled just 20 1/3 frames last year while dealing with back issues and a flexor strain. The Yankees then elected against bringing Paxton back, though he did draw substantial interest from teams on the open market before returning to the Mariners. It doesn’t appear the reunion will be fruitful for either side, however.

The Mariners entered the season with Paxton as a key part of their six-man rotation, but it looks as if they will have to make other plans for the rest of the year. At least for now, Nick Margevicius will take Paxton’s spot in the M’s starting staff, complementing Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Justus Sheffield, Chris Flexen and Justin Dunn.

2021 Trade Deadline Will Be July 30

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This year’s trade deadline will be slightly earlier than usual, with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reporting that it’ll fall on July 30 rather than the customary July 31. Major League Baseball preferred to have the 4pm ET deadline fall on a day where afternoon games aren’t scheduled to take place, so as to avoid scenarios where players head out to the field as the hours until the deadline dwindle. Doing so eliminates some injury risk and uncomfortable scenarios where a player could be injured during play as a trade surrounding him is completed.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen the deadline moved up or pushed back a day in order to avoid that situation, and it’s unlikely to be the last. For instance, the league pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 in 2016, the last time it was slated to fall on a Sunday, when nearly every team in the league was scheduled for games in the early to mid-afternoon. With the 2022 deadline also set for a Sunday, that type of shift could happen next year. It’s also possible that the upcoming wave of collective bargaining negotiations could bring about a more substantial change.

Obviously it’s a minor shift for the 2021 campaign, but it’s nevertheless notable for the league’s 30 teams. Today, more than ever, we tend to see Major League teams wait until the last possible minute to determine whether it’s appropriate to acquire help, sell off some veteran pieces or take some form of hybrid approach. It’s also feasible that even a marginally earlier deadline could afford a team an extra start from a pitcher it plans to acquire, which could have a minor impact on the manner in which a trade candidate is valued.

Diamondbacks Sign Josh Reddick To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed outfielder Josh Reddick to a minors contract, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).  Reddick will receive $750K in guaranteed salary if he makes the team’s Major League roster.

It was a quiet offseason for Reddick news, as there weren’t any publicly-known reports of teams interested in the 34-year-old’s services on the free agent market.  Reddick’s contract with the D’Backs could have been aided by a couple of personal connections — as Piecoro notes, both GM Mike Hazen and assistant GM Ariel Sawdaye were both working in the Red Sox organization when Reddick began his career in Boston.

A veteran of 12 big league seasons with the Red Sox, Athletics, Dodgers, and Astros, Reddick comes to Arizona on the heels of a four-year, $52MM free agent contract with Houston signed prior to the 2017 season.  Reddick arguably delivered on that commitment in the first season alone, hitting .314/.363/.484 over 540 PA to help the Astros capture the 2017 World Series title.

Over the last three years, however, Reddick has produced at a below-average (92 OPS+, 96 wRC+) pace, hitting .258/.318/.400 over 1247 PA.  He also became essentially a reverse-splits player, with his left-handed bat doing better against southpaws than against right-handed pitching.

Reddick will provide some outfield depth to a D’Backs team that is missing its best player in Ketel Marte, who is on the injured list with a strained hamstring.  Reddick could theoretically see a bit of center field action in a pinch, but is better served as a corner outfielder, though his right field defense took a big dropoff last season in the view of the Outs Above Average (-5), Defensive Runs Saved (-3) and UZR/150 (-22.3) metrics.  The Diamondbacks don’t have much in the way of experience among their backup outfield options, though like Reddick, Josh Rojas, Josh VanMeter, and Pavin Smith are all left-handed hitters.  (Corner outfield starters David Peralta and Kole Calhoun also swing from the left side of the plate.)

Jonathan Hernandez Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Rangers right-hander Jonathan Hernandez underwent Tommy John surgery on Monday, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. He won’t return to the mound until sometime in 2022. Meanwhile, fellow Rangers righty reliever Matt Bush will miss at least 12 weeks with a flexor strain.

It’s an unfortunate but not unexpected development for Hernandez, who has been on the shelf since March 9 with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. The surgery will at least temporarily derail a promising career, as Hernandez established himself as a key part of the Texas bullpen last season. Thanks in part to a fastball that averaged about 98 mph, the 24-year-old Hernandez registered a 2.90 ERA/3.67 SIERA with a 24.8 percent strikeout rate and a 6.4 percent walk rate over 31 innings – by far the most of any Rangers reliever.

While Bush doesn’t need surgery at this point, it doesn’t mean he’ll avoid going under the knife, with Grant writing that the Rangers will re-evaluate him in six weeks. Bush has already undergone two Tommy John surgeries in the past, and another could be a fatal blow to the 35-year-old’s career. A No. 1 overall pick of the Padres in 2004 and an ex-infielder, Bush reinvented himself as a reliever and had a strong run with the Rangers from 2016-17. But Bush threw just 23 innings from 2018-20 – none during the latter two seasons – and only logged three innings this year before suffering another arm injury.

Dexter Fowler To Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

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11:41AM: Fowler isn’t considering retirement, telling Jack Harris of the L.A. Times and other reporters that “I’m telling everybody, ’Comeback season has commenced.’ “

10:44AM: Angels outfielder Dexter Fowler suffered a torn left ACL, the team announced.  Fowler will undergo surgery that will keep him out of action for the next 6-9 months, thus prematurely ending his 2021 season.

Fowler suffered the injury in Friday’s game with the Blue Jays, as he made an awkward step onto second base to beat out a throw from Bo Bichette on a forceout attempt.  Fowler was in obvious pain and had to be carted off the field, and though the Angels’ initial diagnosis when placing him on the 10-day injured list yesterday was only a sprained knee, further tests revealed the true severity of the injury.

The devastating news could end Fowler’s tenure with the Angels after only seven games.  Since Fowler just turned 35 years old, it isn’t out of the question that the injury could spell the end of his impressive 14-year career, though it is too soon to speculate given that the surgery has yet to even take place.

The Angels acquired Fowler in a trade with the Cardinals last February that was essentially a salary dump on the Cards’ part.  For the price of a player to be named later, Los Angeles is paying only $1.75MM of the $16.5MM owed to Fowler (counting salary and signing bonus installments) in the final year of his original five-year, $82.5MM free agent contract with St. Louis.  The Halos’ plan was to start Fowler as the everyday right fielder, at least until star prospects Jo Adell or Brandon Marsh received big league promotions later in the season.

With Fowler sidelined, however, manager Joe Maddon told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) that the team will use a platoon of Jose Rojas and Juan Lagares in right field, with Jared Walsh also seeing some time in right.  Besides Adell and Marsh, the Angels also have veterans Jon Jay and Scott Schebler in the organization on minor league contracts, and 2015 first-rounder Taylor Ward could also be a candidate for playing time.  Looking at the ripple effect over the rest of the roster, Walsh playing right field could open up more time for Albert Pujols at first base.

The Angels are the fifth team Fowler has suited up for at the big league level, as part of a career that includes an All-Star appearance in 2016 and a World Series ring that same season with the Cubs.  He signed his big free agent deal with St. Louis in the aftermath of that big 2016 campaign, though Fowler never quite got on track during his four years with the Cardinals.  Injuries limited to Fowler to 389 games and an even 1500 PA, as he hit .233/.334/.408 and generated roughly league-average production (98 OPS+, 100 wRC+) and only 3.0 total fWAR.

MLB Inspecting “Suspicious Baseballs” From Trevor Bauer’s Latest Start

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10:41pm: If the league attempts to punish Bauer, the union “would challenge any discipline not covered under current rules,” Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets.

8:09pm: Major League Baseball announced last month that it plans to crack down on pitchers doctoring baseballs. Now, one of the game’s highest-profile pitchers, Dodgers right-hander Trevor Bauer, is under the league’s microscope, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.

Bauer started against the Athletics on Wednesday, when he yielded two earned runs on 10 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. The umpires from that game have since collected multiple “suspicious baseballs” that Bauer threw, according to Rosenthal, who writes that they “had visible markings and were sticky.” As Rosenthal notes, though, the league may not be able to prove whether it was Bauer who doctored the ball, so it’s unclear whether it will discipline him.

Of course, the fact that the league’s looking at Bauer is especially intriguing when considering some of the past comments the outspoken 30-year-old has made in regards to potential cheating. He accused Astros pitchers of using illegal means in 2018 in an effort to increase their spin rate, and he then called the team “hypocrites” and “cheaters” last year.

Bauer had a career campaign in 2020 as a member of the Reds, with whom he won the National Cy Young, before signing a three-year, $102MM guarantee with the Dodgers in free agency. The returns so far have been promising, as Bauer has posted 20 strikeouts against three walks while giving up six runs on six hits in 13 innings, though this latest development is unwelcome for him and the Dodgers.

Trevor Rosenthal Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

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APRIL 8: Rosenthal underwent thoracic outlet surgery Thursday, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com tweets. He’ll be re-evaluated in eight weeks.

APRIL 7: After opening the season on the injured list due to a shoulder problem, Athletics closer Trevor Rosenthal could now require thoracic outlet surgery to address the injury, manager Bob Melvin announced to reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News). It’s a sudden and troubling development for a struggling A’s club. The procedure would come with “at least” a 12-week recovery time, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. The right-hander is weighing his options and is expected to make a decision in the near future.

Rosenthal, 30, spent much of the offseason seeking a lucrative multi-year deal after turning in an absolutely dominant performance between the Royals and the Padres last season. However, when he wasn’t able to find a long-term deal to his liking, the hard-throwing righty opted for a one-year deal at a strong $11MM rate to serve as the closer at the pitcher-friendly O.Co Coliseum.

It was a surprise investment for an A’s club that spent most of the winter idling on the sidelines as teams throughout the league sifted through the free-agent market. Only after the A’s were able to shed a notable portion of Khris Davis’ contract did they enter the free-agent waters, and even then, their initial expenditures were modest, one-year commitments to Yusmeiro Petit, Sergio Romo and Mitch Moreland. Rosenthal was an entirely different type of spend, and it’s now an open question whether they’ll get any real return on what was a major splash by their standards.

Thoracic outlet syndrome is the latest in a series of setbacks for Rosenthal, who broke into the league as one of the game’s most dominant young relievers with the Cardinals but has since struggled to stay healthy. Tommy John surgery wiped out Rosenthal’s entire 2018 season, and when he returned with the Nationals in 2019, he developed a sudden case of the yips. Rosenthal walked 26 of the 85 batters he faced between Washington and Detroit that season. He also hit another four batters and snapped off nine wild pitches in just 15 1/3 innings. He tried to find himself with the Yankees’ Triple-A club but faced just five hitters with Scranton, issuing three walks, hitting a fourth batter and throwing another wild pitch.

Those immense struggles made Rosenthal’s comeback in 2020 all the more remarkable. Not only did he rediscover some big league success, he emerged as one of the most dominant relievers in all of baseball. Through 23 2/3 innings between Kansas City and San Diego, Rosenthal notched a 1.90 ERA with an overpowering 41.8 percent strikeout rate, a strong 8.8 percent walk rate and a fastball that averaged 98.1 mph. It was vintage Rosenthal.

From here, the future is sadly muddied once again. The track record for pitchers coming back from thoracic outlet surgery is generally poor, and few pitchers have undergone both Tommy John surgery and a TOS procedure in such close proximity. Matt Harvey is the most prominent example of a pitcher to undergo both operations in a short time, missing the 2014 season due to Tommy John and then undergoing TOS midway through the 2016 campaign. Obviously, he’s been unable to rediscover the dominant form he displayed early in his career.

There are certainly success stories among pitchers who’ve had surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. Recently retired righty and current Rangers general manager Chris Young credited the procedure with saving his career, and Rosenthal’s former Cardinals teammate, Jaime Garcia, enjoyed a productive three-year stretch upon returning from his own TOS operation.

For the Athletics, the new development on Rosenthal means they’ll be extra reliant on veterans like Romo, Petit and Jake Diekman in the late innings. Right-handers Lou Trivino and J.B. Wendelken have had their share of success in the big leagues as well; Wendelken in particular has been quietly dominant dating back to 2018. The A’s also have a former top 10 overall pick, left-hander A.J. Puk, as an intriguing option in the ’pen this year as he looks to put his own injury woes in the rearview mirror.

Blue Jays Sign GM Ross Atkins To Five-Year Extension

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9:32am: Atkins’ contract begins at the end of this season, so it covers the 2022-26 campaigns, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweets. He’s now signed one year longer than Shapiro.

8:37am: The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve signed general manager Ross Atkins to a five-year extension. The exact length of Atkins’ prior contract wasn’t publicly known, though he last inked an extension in June 2019. This new five-year pact lends some clarity to his contractual status and cements that Atkins and president Mark Shapiro, who was extended through the 2025 season earlier this year, will continue to head up Blue Jays operations for the foreseeable future.

Ross Atkins | Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports

Originally hired as the team’s general manager in Dec. 2015, Atkins has spent the past five years heading up Toronto’s baseball operations department. There were some lean years for the Jays from 2017-19 as Atkins, Shapiro and their front office team turned over the farm system and worked to compile a core upon which they could build. The Jays currently have the game’s third-best farm system, according to both Baseball America and The Athletic. The fruits of those efforts to restock the farm already began to manifest in 2020, when the Jays nabbed a playoff spot in last year’s expanded field.

With the likes of Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez all coming together at the big league level, the Jays began supplementing that core on the free-agent market heading into the 2020 season. Hyun Jin Ryu inked a four-year, $80MM deal to head up a rotation that had vaunted pitching prospect Nate Pearson on the horizon, and the Jays made a larger splash this past offseason when they inked George Springer to the largest deal in franchise history: a six-year, $150MM contract.

Some of the current roster — Guerrero, Rowdy Tellez, Danny Jansen — was acquired prior to the hiring of Atkins. As is the case with most front-office shuffles, there’s some groundwork laid by the prior group that continues to shape the long-term direction of the club and some continuity from regime to regime. Tony LaCava, for instance, was an assistant GM under Alex Anthopoulos and still holds a key position (senior vice president of player personnel) in the current group.

[Related — GM Trade History: Blue Jays’ Ross Atkins]

Acquiring Hernandez from the Astros in exchange for Francisco Liriano is likely the most notable success on the trade market under Atkins, while key international signings like Gurriel and Alejandro Kirk have begun to provide value at the MLB level as well. Time will tell whether the investment in Springer proves fruitful, but the Ryu investment has paid off so far and it’s hard to fault a one-year pact for a player of Marcus Semien’s caliber. There have certainly been missteps along the way — the Randal Grichuk trade worked out nicely; his extension did not — but Atkins has clearly commanded the confidence of ownership and is now being rewarded with a lengthy extension for his efforts.

For all of the Jays’ recent spending, the affordable nature of their young core gives them the flexibility to continue being aggressive on the market next winter. There was a clear stopping point this winter, as the Jays cooled their spending despite some a relatively questionable rotation composition. But the Jays only have about $65MM committed to the 2022 roster at present, and the only sizable arbitration raises on the docket figure to be Hernandez (who’ll get a bump from this year’s $4.325MM salary) and Guerrero (who’ll be arb-eligible for the first time).

The Blue Jays aren’t considered division favorites in 2021, but they have one of the game’s top farm systems, a promising core of controllable young big leaguers upon which to build, and considerable payroll flexibility heading into a historically strong class of free agents next winter. The future looks bright.

Yankees Acquire Rougned Odor

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4:58pm: The Yankees will pay Odor the prorated minimum this year ($570,500) and next, but that money will not count against their luxury tax bill, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

2:32pm: The teams have announced the trade. The Rangers acquired outfielders Josh Stowers and Antonio Cabello in return for Odor and cash. Notably, Texas announced Cabello as a catcher/outfielder, though he’s played exclusively the outfield in his minor league career to date. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN ranked Cabello as the Yankees’ 18th-best prospect, tweeting that he has the necessary tools for both center field and catcher. Cabello, whom the Yankees signed out of Venezuela for $1.4MM in 2017, hasn’t climbed above rookie ball yet, though he’s still just 20 years old. He owns a .251/.344/.409 line with eight home runs in 443 professional plate appearances.

Stowers, 24, has now been part of two trades during his career. He was originally a second-round pick of the Mariners in 2018, but they dealt him to the Yankees as part of a three-team deal that also included the Reds and centered on righty Sonny Gray. Stowers slashed an impressive .273/.386/.400 with seven homers and 35 steals in Single-A ball in 2019, his lone season in the New York organization. However, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote over the winter that he doesn’t expect Stowers to max out as more than a fourth outfielder in the bigs.

1:22pm: The Yankees are sending a pair of prospects to the Rangers in the deal, tweets Sherman.

1:05pm: The Yankees and Rangers are finalizing a trade that will second second baseman Rougned Odor to New York, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). The Rangers designated Odor, who has two years and $27MM remaining on his contract, for assignment prior to Opening Day. Given that substantial commitment and the Yankees’ general aversion to paying the luxury tax, the Rangers are surely offsetting the majority of Odor’s contract in some capacity. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the two sides have agreed to a deal.

It’s a bit surprising to see the Yankees taking on Odor, although it’s hard to imagine a park better suited for the 27-year-old lefty hitter’s pull-happy approach than Yankee Stadium. Odor’s strikeout rates have climbed continually since he signed an ill-fated six-year, $49.5MM extension with the Rangers, and generally been a poor all-around performer due to significant on-base deficiencies.

However, Odor’s power has never really been in question. He has three 30-homer seasons in the past five years and swatted 10 long balls in just 148 plate appearances last year. The trade-off for that pop has been a strikeout rate that has soared north of 31 percent in the past two seasons and an overall .215/.279/.418 batting line through 1915 plate appearances dating back to 2017.

Odor figures to join a Yankees bench that currently features catcher Kyle Higashioka, outfielder Mike Tauchman, outfielder Brett Gardner and infielder Tyler Wade. The only one of the bunch who has a minor league option remaining is Wade, and given that he’s also the only infielder of that group, it seems likely that he’ll be bumped to accommodate Odor’s acquisition. That would make Gio Urshela the primary backup to Gleyber Torres at shortstop, with Odor likely handling third base should Urshela be pressed into action at short for any reason.

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