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Dexter Fowler Announces Retirement

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Former All-Star center fielder and 2016 World Series champion Dexter Fowler announced via Instagram and Twitter this morning that he’s retiring after a 14-year Major League career. The 36-year-old offered the following statement:

“It’s here. I’m hanging up my cleats. From an 18-year-old draft pick in Colorado to a ’vet’ in Anaheim — there are a few things I will never forget. Getting THAT call to the big leagues in September 2008. Wow. My world was spinning. My first ’you’ve been traded to Houston’ heart pounding call.

The feeling of bliss while hearing the words ’All-Star’. Never knew what it felt like to be that guy! Forever grateful. Soaking wet and freezing on the field with tears in my eyes after winning the World Series in Chicago. The comfort of calling St. Louis home and being a Red Bird. Today is one of those moments where you metaphorically step down from your throne with a standing ovation, a tip of the cap, and the world stops spinning. I’m mostly proud to look back at my career knowing that I played the game the right way and did my best to make a positive impact beyond the win.

Denver, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis and Anaheim. My family, friends, teammates and staff. Thank you for 14 years. I gave you my all.”

Fowler will go down as one of the best 14th-round picks in the sport’s history. (The only 14th-rounders with more career WAR are Dave Parker, Bob Welch, Rick Honeycutt and Keith Foulke, for those keeping score.) Selected out of Milton High School in Georgia back in 2004, Fowler was in the Majors four years later, enjoying a 13-game cup of coffee with the Rockies that year before cementing himself as a big leaguer the following season when he slashed .266/.363/.406 in 135 games and landed an eighth-place finish in National League Rookie of the Year voting.

Over the next eight years, Fowler averaged 541 plate appearances and 130 games per season, batting a combined .269/.368/.443 with the Rockies, Astros, Cubs and Cardinals. Twice traded along the way, Fowler went from Colorado to Houston and from Houston to Chicago before reaching free agency.

It originally looked as though Fowler’s stop in Chicago would last just one year. He slashed .250/.346/.411 in a career-high 156 games while tallying a career-best 690 plate appearances before setting out into free agency. Reports of an agreement with the Orioles emerged but were shot down by both parties, and Fowler kept quiet until stunning his teammates and the baseball world at large when he walked into Cubs spring training with a new one-year contract to return for a second season (Bally’s Kelly Crull tweeted video of Fowler’s stunning return at the time).

That twist of fate reinstalled Fowler atop the Cubs’ lineup — the same position in which he found himself eight months later when he became the only player to ever lead off Game 7 of the World Series with a home run. The 2016 season proved to be the best of Fowler’s career, as he batted .276/.393/.447, made his lone All-Star appearance, and hit .250/.280/.444 with three home runs and five doubles throughout a 17-game march to the Cubs’ curse-breaking World Series victory in Cleveland.

Fowler parlayed that outstanding season into a five-year, $82.5MM deal with the division-rival Cardinals, who enjoyed a strong first year from their new center fielder before injuries began to take their toll. Fowler appeared in just 271 games over the next three seasons of the deal — one of which was the shortened 2020 campaign — and batted a collective .218/.320/.370 in that time. The Cardinals traded him to the Angels in Feb. 2021, and Fowler suffered a torn ACL just seven games into the season with the Halos. He rehabbed the injury and latched on with the Blue Jays on a minor league pact prior to the 2022 season, but Fowler was granted his release after just three games in Triple-A.

All told, Fowler’s career will draw to a close with a lifetime .259/.358/.417 batting line, 127 home runs, 253 doubles, 82 triples, 149 stolen bases, 817 runs scored, 517 runs batted in and a total of 1306 hits. That batting line was seven percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference peg Fowler’s career at 19.5 wins above replacement — a total that surely would’ve been higher had it not been for the tear in his wrist, the fractured foot and the torn ACL that eventually combined to wear Fowler down in what would be his final seasons.

Fowler will be fondly remembered for his role in the Cubs’ historic 2016 World Series win — both his regular season production and his Game 7 long ball — and for the gregarious personality and charismatic smile he so frequently brandished throughout his career. Congrats to Fowler on a lengthy and productive career, and best wishes in whatever the next chapter holds. As Fowler himself said in his retirement announcements today: “Stay tuned for what’s next.”

Mets Sign Jeff McNeil To Four-Year Extension

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Jan. 31: The Mets formally announced McNeil’s extension this morning. He’ll be paid $6.25MM in 2023, $10.25MM in 2024  and $15.75MM in both 2025 and 2026, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The club option for 2027 is also valued at $15.75MM, and it comes with a $2MM buyout.

Jan. 27: The Mets and second baseman Jeff McNeil are in agreement on a four-year, $50MM contract extension, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. The contract contains a club option for a fifth season, which could allow the extension to max out at $63.75MM over five years. The deal buys out the final two arbitration seasons for the Paragon Sports International client, and the Mets will gain control over what would’ve been McNeil’s first three free-agent seasons.

Unable to come to terms on a one-year salary for the upcoming season, McNeil and the Mets appeared headed toward an arbitration hearing. He’d filed for a $7.75MM salary on the heels of his first National League batting title in 2022, whereas the Mets had countered with a $6.25MM figure. Those sums can now be thrown out, as McNeil’s final two arbitration years are locked in. If we count 2023 at the $7MM midpoint of those two sums and figure McNeil could’ve earned anywhere from $12-13MM in what would’ve been his final arbitration season, the Mets are guaranteeing somewhere in the vicinity of an additional $30MM to lock in two more free-agent seasons and secure a reasonably priced club option on a third free-agent year.

McNeil, 31 in April, is now locked in through at least his age-34 campaign and possibly his age-35 season. He’s fresh off one of the finest seasons of his career, having turned in a .326/.382/.454 batting line with nine home runs, 39 doubles, a triple and four stolen bases in 589 plate appearances. Unsurprisingly, that season earned him a second career All-Star nod and won him Silver Slugger honors in the National League — his first such award.

McNeil was one of the toughest strikeouts in the Majors, fanning in a career-low 10.4% of his plate appearances. He’s never walked much and didn’t change that in 2022 (6.8%), but it’s difficult to argue with the results. McNeil benefited to an extent from a career-high .353 average on balls in play, but even if that mark regresses toward the .324 mark he carried into the 2022 season, his bat-to-ball skills and penchant for finding the gaps will allow him to remain the well above-average hitter he was for the majority of the 2018-21 seasons.

The 2022 season was also very arguably the finest defensive season of McNeil’s career. Each of Defensive Runs Saved (3), Ultimate Zone Rating (3.5) and Outs Above Average (7) pegged him as a strong handler of the glove at second base. He also logged some brief time in the outfield corners (278 innings) and drew average or better reviews for his work there, and he even chipped in a lone inning at third base for good measure. Second base will continue to be his primary home on the diamond, but McNeil has shown in the past that he’s a capable third baseman, left fielder or right fielder, which only adds to his value for the Mets.

Of course, since we’re discussing the Mets, the financial ramifications of the contract extend well beyond the $50MM that McNeil himself will receive. The Mets are already over the fourth and final luxury-tax barrier this season, meaning any dollars they spend are taxed at a 90% clip. Had McNeil won his arbitration hearing and secured a $7.75MM salary, that would’ve meant the Mets would’ve paid $6.975MM in taxes on his salary — bringing the total expenditure to $14.725MM. Instead, the Mets will now be taxed based on the $12.5MM average annual value of McNeil’s contract. That means they’ll pay $11.25MM in taxes on McNeil’s contract this year — an increase of $4.275MM over what they’d have paid him had he won an arbitration hearing.

There’s some down-the-road tax benefit to extending McNeil — even beyond the obvious value in keeping an excellent player at a reasonable rate for the next half decade. Had McNeil won an arbitration hearing next month — and coming off a batting title, he’d have had a strong case — he’d have landed that $7.75MM salary. With another strong season, he’d quite possibly have been in for a raise beyond the $12.5MM AAV of his current contract in his final arb season, when the Mets will likely again be in the top tier of luxury penalization (with overages being taxed at a 110% clip). The extension, then, could wind up saving the Mets $1MM or so off their luxury ledger for the 2024 season — assuming McNeil has a healthy and productive 2023 campaign.

Setting aside any such minutiae, the primary benefit to the Mets is simply keeping a two-time All-Star and paying an annual rate that, with good health for McNeil, will likely clock in below his true open-market value by the time the 2024-25 offseason rolls around. There’s certainly some risk for the Mets, as one need only look at McNeil’s pedestrian .251/.319/.360 batting line from 2021 to see that his lack of power (outside of the juiced ball campaign in 2019) leaves him with a fairly tepid floor. The Mets already had control over McNeil’s age-31 and age-32 seasons, and it’s always possible that preemptively buying out a player’s age-33 through age-35 seasons could look regrettable in hindsight.

That said, the aforementioned ’21 campaign is the lone below-average offensive season of McNeil’s career, and his contact skills and defensive aptitude at multiple positions figure to make him a perennially useful player even into his mid-30s. It’s not realistic to expect him to replicate his 2022 production in the years ahead, but there’s little reason to think this deal will turn into some form of egregious misstep, either.

McNeil now joins Max Scherzer ($43MM), Justin Verlander ($43MM), Francisco Lindor ($34.1MM), Brandon Nimmo ($20.5MM), Starling Marte ($20.75MM), Edwin Diaz ($21.25MM), Kodai Senga ($15MM), Jose Quintana ($13MM) and Tomas Nido ($2.1MM) as players locked into their 2024 salaries.

Assuming an even distribution of McNeil’s salary, that’d come out to just over $225MM guaranteed to 10 players, with another four club options (Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Brooks Raley, Darin Ruf), two player options (Omar Narvaez, Adam Ottavino) and a nine-player arbitration class headlined by Pete Alonso all potentially adding to the bill.

Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier

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The Red Sox and Marlins swapped relievers Monday afternoon, with righty Matt Barnes dealt to Miami for southpaw Richard Bleier. Boston is also reportedly sending a little more than $5.5MM in cash in the deal to make the transaction nearly cash-neutral.

Barnes, 32, was designated for assignment by the Red Sox last week following the completion of a one-year, $7MM agreement with outfielder Adam Duvall. He served as Boston’s primary closer in 2021, earning a team-leading 24 saves. The 2021 campaign, however, was something of a tale of two seasons for Barnes. He dominated to the tune of a 2.25 ERA and a 42% strikeout rate through Aug. 4. Barnes was impressive enough that the Sox inked him to a two-year, $18.75MM extension in early July.

Over the final two months of the 2022 season, however, Barnes not only struggled but melted down in catastrophic fashion. He pitched just 10 2/3 innings from Aug. 5 onward, yielding a dozen runs on 17 hits and nine walks with 16 strikeouts along the way. It was a calamitous end to a what had begun as one of the best seasons among all Major League relievers.

Barnes hoped to right the ship in 2022 but promptly lost the closer’s job early in the year when he stumbled to a 7.94 ERA through the end of May.  The right-hander was always going to be much lower among the team’s high-leverage considerations in 2023, following the December additions of Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin — a pair of moves that was in large part necessitated by Barnes’ struggles.

Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that Barnes finished on a high note that likely intrigued Miami and other clubs. He was on the injured list from early June through early August due to shoulder inflammation, and upon returning, he looked much more like the Barnes of old. Beginning on Aug. 4 — the same point at which he began to struggle a year prior — Barnes pitched 22 2/3 innings of 1.59 ERA ball and picked up four saves. His 21.1% strikeout rate was half that of his dominant 2021 form, but it was still an encouraging note on which to end the season.

Barnes might eventually get a fresh chance to carve out some save opportunities in Miami, though Dylan Floro is the current projected frontrunner for that gig. Floro worked to a 3.02 ERA across 53 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2022, and he has successfully converted 25 save attempts over the last two years. Barnes tallied only eight saves in 2022 and finished with a 4.31 ERA in 39 2/3 frames. He’ll add quite a bit more bat-missing potential to a team that ranked 13th among MLB clubs with a 24% strikeout rate from its relief corps in 2022, though the downside is obvious.

Bleier, meanwhile, can fill the Sox’s need for left-handed bullpen help, even as he enters his age-36 season. The veteran southpaw has registered a 3.09 ERA in 125 1/3 innings since the beginning of 2020, and he’s held left-handed batters to a .225/.260/.313 slash line since he first reached the major leagues with the Yankees in 2016. Boston traded lefty Josh Taylor to the Royals in exchange for Adalberto Mondesi, sent veteran Jake Diekman (signed through 2023) to the White Sox at last year’s trade deadline and lost Darwinzon Hernandez to the Orioles via waivers earlier this offseason — all of which had thinned out the team’s left-handed depth in the ’pen.

They’ll get some quality left-handed innings out of Bleier, although despite his strong track record there are some red flags of note. The soft-tossing southpaw has never missed many bats, but last year’s 14.4% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2019. Bleier has, in the past, offset his lack of whiffs with enormous ground-ball rates. However, while last year’s 52.5% mark was strong relative to the league-average, it was nowhere close to the 63.5% career mark he carried into the 2022 season. Bleier has also regularly avoided hard contact, but last year’s 89.6 mph exit velocity and 40.8% hard-hit rate were both his worst showings since the aforementioned 2016 debut.

Barnes will make $7.5MM in 2023 and is due at least a $2.25MM buyout on a 2024 club option valued at $8MM. Bleier is due $3.25MM for the upcoming season and has a $3.75MM club option with a $250K buyout for next year. Barnes is guaranteed $9.75MM from here on out while Bleier will make at least $3.75MM. The Sox are covering the bulk of that $6MM gap with the $5.5MM+ cash consideration.

The Sox will save a minuscule amount of money and bring in a middle reliever with a solid overall track record and some particularly encouraging numbers against fellow lefties — even if Bleier comes with some potential areas of concern. That he can be controlled through 2024 via that affordable $3.75MM option is icing on the cake.

As for the Marlins, they’ll add more late-inning upside to their bullpen with this swap at almost no additional cost. Fans may bristle at shipping out the reliever with better surface-level numbers for what amounts to a Barnes reclamation project, but the Fish are willing to gamble on the younger, harder-throwing Barnes in hopes of unlocking a high-leverage reliever who can be controlled affordably through the 2024 season via that $8MM option. And, if Barnes is indeed able to round back into form, he’ll give Miami an interesting arm to put on the market this summer if they’re decisively out of postseason contention.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Marlins were acquiring Barnes. Craig Mish of SportsGrid reported that Boston was acquiring Bleier in return. Jordan McPherson of the Herald was first to relay that Miami was receiving cash considerations, which Mish pegged in the $5MM range. Chris Coitllo of MassLive was first to report the cash involved was a little above $5.5MM.

Darren O’Day Announces Retirement

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Right-hander Darren O’Day announced his retirement from baseball on his personal Twitter account on Monday morning.

“The mental, physical, and time demands have finally outweighed my love for the game,” wrote the 40-year-old submarine reliever. “When I started in 2006, I didn’t know if I was good enough to compete in MLB, but I was determined to keep going until someone told me otherwise. I hope anyone out there who does things a little different can find inspiration in my story.”

O’Day went undrafted after a solid NCAA tenure at the University of Florida, but he quickly latched on with the Angels and made his MLB debut with that organization in 2008. He wound up pitching for six total teams — Angels, Mets, Rangers, Orioles, Braves and Yankees — during his impressive 15-year major league career and will hang up his cleats having registered a collective 2.59 ERA with 637 strikeouts, 166 holds and 21 saves in 609 frames at baseball’s highest level. Baseball-Reference has his final career earnings wrapping up just shy of $50MM.

O’Day’s best year on the mound was 2015, when he earned his lone All-Star nod and delivered an overall 1.52 ERA and 82 strikeouts (with only 14 walks) in 65 1/3 innings for the O’s, who then signed him to a four-year, $31MM contract the following winter. The unconventional right-hander was obviously far more than just a one-hit-wonder given how long he lasted in the bigs and how many different clubs saw him as a fit for their respective bullpen mixes along the way. Between the 2009-2021 campaigns, he posted a 2.37 ERA in 586 appearances and collected 21 saves. He also logged 30 postseason appearances in that timeframe, including four in the World Series in 2010 with the Rangers.

O’Day signed a minor league contract with the Braves last winter and put up a 4.15 ERA and 26-to-10 K/BB ratio across 21 2/3 innings in the first half of the 2022 regular season. He suffered a calf injury just before the All-Star break and then a season-ending sprain of his right big toe in September. His last pitch as a major leaguer came on July 11 against the Mets.

MLBTR wishes O’Day well in the next chapter of his life.

Braves Extend Manager Brian Snitker Through 2025

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The Braves announced Friday they’ve signed manager Brian Snitker to an extension through the 2025 season. He’d been headed into the final guaranteed year of his contract, which also contained an option for 2024. Atlanta has preemptively triggered that option and tacked on an additional season for the Illinois native.

It’s familiar territory for Snitker, who has signed a handful of short-term extensions since taking over the dugout midway through the 2016 season. An organizational lifer who has spent more than four decades with the franchise, he stepped into almost immediate success as skipper. Snitker won the NL’s Manager of the Year award by his second full season at the helm after overseeing an 18-win improvement between 2017-18.

That 2018 campaign saw the Braves win 90 games and an NL East title. It kicked off a stretch of five years (and counting) atop the division, one which has seen the club play at a 90-plus win pace in four of those seasons (including the shortened 2020 schedule). The lone exception, an 88-73 showing in 2021 that looked like a relative “down” year, was more than salvaged in October. Despite carrying the worst regular season record of any playoff team, Atlanta knocked off the Brewers and Dodgers before winning a six-game World Series over the Astros.

It was the Braves’ first World Series win since 1995. The club rewarded Snitker by exercising a 2023 option on his contract a year early. They didn’t replicate their playoff success last season but had their best regular season showing in nearly two decades. Atlanta won 101 games, topping the triple-digit mark for the first time since 2003. An otherworldly second half was capped off with a late-season sweep of the Mets to all but clinch the division, erasing a deficit that had reached as high as 10 1/2 games at the beginning of June. Unfortunately for Braves’ fans, it was the third-place Phillies who made the deepest playoff run among NL East clubs, with Philadelphia eliminating Atlanta in four games during their Division Series.

While it obviously wasn’t the manner in which the Braves envisioned their season ending, there’s no question of the success they’ve had under Snitker. The club has gone 542-451 in parts of seven seasons with him at the helm, a 54.6% win percentage. Only the Dodgers, Astros and Yankees have a longer active postseason streak than Atlanta. No other club has won its division in five straight years.

The 67-year-old Snitker has certainly had the fortune of working with extremely talented rosters. No manager is exclusively or even primarily responsible for a club’s successes and failures, and the Braves’ strong run is primarily thanks to their core of young stars. Yet Snitker has helped keep the club remarkably consistent over the past half-decade, and the front office is clearly confident in his ability to continue doing so over the next few years.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Sign Pete Fairbanks To Extension

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The Rays announced Friday afternoon they’ve signed reliever Pete Fairbanks to a three-year extension with a 2026 club option. The deal buys out his three remaining seasons of arbitration eligibility, while the club option covers what would’ve been his first free-agent season.

Fairbanks, a client of Republik Sports, is reportedly guaranteed $12MM over the next three seasons (including a $1MM buyout on the 2026 option). Fairbanks will be paid $3.666MM annually between 2023-25, while the option comes with a $7MM base value. The deal also contains various incentives and escalators that could max it out at $24.6MM over four seasons.

Fairbanks and the Rays had yet to settle on a salary for the upcoming season, as he’d filed for a $1.9MM figure in his first time through the arbitration process, while the team countered at $1.5MM. Fairbanks would’ve been in line for another pair of raises in 2024 and 2025, but those salaries are now locked into place. In exchange for a guarantee that could err toward the high end of what he might’ve earned going year to year, Fairbanks will give the Rays control over his first free-agent campaign — his age-32  season.

The 29-year-old Fairbanks, acquired from the Rangers in a straight-up swap for infielder/outfielder Nick Solak back in 2019, has become one of the Rays’ top late-inning options. Tampa Bay doesn’t typically deploy one set closer, but Fairbanks is among the favorites to lead the club in saves during the upcoming season. Over the past three years, he’s pitched to a 2.70 ERA with a 33.8% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate in 93 1/3 innings.

Injuries have kept Fairbanks from working a full slate of innings over a 162-game season, however. In 2021, he twice landed on the injured list due to shoulder troubles — first a strained rotator cuff, then a bout of inflammation — missing roughly a month each time. He missed more than three months of the 2022 season due to a lat strain.

Though there are some durability concerns, Fairbanks’ 2022 campaign, in particular, illustrate the potentially dominant arm the Rays are locking up on this deal. Fairbanks averaged a blistering 99.2 mph on his heater while pitching to a 1.13 ERA with a comical 43.7% strikeout rate, a brilliant 3.4% walk rate and a well above-average 53.3% ground-ball rate. He also registered a 17% swinging-strike rate that ranked 16th out of the 546 pitchers who tossed at least 20 innings in 2022. Fairbanks didn’t allow a run over his final 22 innings of the season.

It’s the second multi-year extension this week for the Rays, who exchanged arbitration figures with a whopping seven players ago two weeks ago on exchange day. Southpaw Jeffrey Springs agreed to a four-year, $31MM contract that bought out two arbitration seasons and two free-agent years earlier in the week. The Rays, like many other clubs, have taken a file-and-trial approach to arbitration in recent years — effectively cutting off talks on one-year deals once figures are exchanged. Those clubs will typically remain open to working out multi-year arrangements if the player is amenable, and otherwise, an arbitration hearing is the typical outcome.

The Rays still have another five players with unresolved cases. Infielder Yandy Diaz (requested $6.3MM to the Rays’ $5.5MM), first baseman/outfielder Harold Ramirez ($2.2MM vs. $1.9MM), lefty Colin Poche ($1.3MM vs. $1.175MM), righty Ryan Thompson ($1.2MM vs. $1MM) and righty Jason Adam ($1.775MM vs. $1.55MM) all exchanged figures with the team on Jan. 13 after being unable to come to terms on a one-year salary figure.

With the recent rash of extensions over the past year-plus — Wander Franco, Tyler Glasnow, Manuel Margot and Springs also agreed to multi-year deals — and the Rays’ signing of Zach Eflin to a three-year contract, Tampa Bay is in the rare position of having a decent bit of cash already on the books two years down the road. The Rays already have $65.666MM guaranteed to seven players for the 2024 campaign, and that’s before factoring in what’s currently slated to be 13 arbitration-eligible players, league-minimum players to round out the group and, of course, any forthcoming additions via trade or free agency over the next 12 months or so.

The Rays have never opened a season with a payroll higher than last year’s $83.8MM total. That won’t change in 2023, barring an unexpected late addition to the roster, but barring a major trade or trades, they look like locks to set a new franchise record in player payroll in 2024. And with each of Diaz, Ramirez, Poche, Thompson and Adam all still unsettled, it’s possible Tampa Bay could yet add a few more guaranteed salaries to that ledger by hammering out additional multi-year pacts with the currently outstanding members of their arbitration class.

Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report the Rays and Fairbanks had agreed to a three-year, $12MM guarantee with a fourth-year club option. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the option’s base value and buyout. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the contract’s maximum value and specific salary breakdown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Royals Sign Aroldis Chapman To One-Year Deal

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The Royals announced Friday they’ve signed left-hander Aroldis Chapman to a one-year deal. The lefty will reportedly make a base salary of $3.75MM but could earn an extra $4MM in performance bonuses. Chapman is a Wasserman client.

Chapman, 35 in February, spent over a decade as one of the most feared closers in baseball but has slipped from those heights in the past couple of years. From 2010 to 2020, he made 563 appearances with the Reds, Cubs and Yankees, posting a 2.25 ERA while racking up 276 saves. His 11.5% walk rate in that time was certainly on the high side, but he paired that with an incredible 41.2% strikeout rate. Only Craig Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen had more saves in that time and only Josh Hader bested him in terms of strikeout rate, minimum 100 innings pitched, though Hader didn’t debut until 2017 and did that over a much smaller sample.

In 2021, however, Chapman’s already shaky command seemed to get even worse, as he walked 15.6% of batters who came to the plate. He still posted a huge 39.9% strikeout rate but his 3.36 ERA was his highest in a season since 2011. Things got even worse last year as his walk rate jumped to 17.5% and he only struck out 26.9% of batters faced. That latter number was still above average but a huge drop from his previous form. When combined with the control issues, his ERA jumped to 4.46. His fastball, which used to average in the triple digits, dropped to an average of “just” 97.5 mph.

The issues with Chapman weren’t limited to his on-field performance either. He had already drawn the disapproval of many people in the baseball world years ago when a domestic violence allegation led to a 30-game suspension. More recently, he also drew the ire of many Yankee fans by missing time due to an infection from a tattoo. He then skipped a team workout between the regular season and postseason, leading the club to leave him off their playoff roster.

Despite the off-field issues and diminished performance, Chapman still drew interest from a few clubs around the league, including the Padres and Marlins. The Fish even held a private workout with him, with video shared by Alvarez on Twitter. However, they apparently didn’t make him an offer, per Craig Mish of the Miami Herald and Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase.

Instead, it will be the Royals who take a chance on Chapman and hope for a return to form. This fits in with similar moves the club has made in recent years, giving deals to veteran hurlers in an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle. They signed Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland going into 2020 and then Wade Davis the year after.

The Royals have a young roster overall and the bullpen is no exception. Chapman is now the only player with more than six years of MLB service time, while Amir Garrett and Scott Barlow are the only others with more than four. The new addition gives them a veteran but, perhaps more importantly, a midseason trade candidate. The Royals won just 65 games last year and finished in the bottom of the American League Central. If they endure a similarly frustrating campaign this year but Chapman is in good form, he’ll like be flipped this summer for prospects. Chapman and Garrett give the club at least a pair of lefties in the bullpen, with Richard Lovelady and Anthony Misiewicz also on hand to further stretch the club’s southpaw contingent.

Financially, this deal brings the club’s expenditures to $89MM, per the calculations of Roster Resource. That’s still shy of the $95MM figure the club had an Opening Day last year, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, and well shy of their $143MM record high. They could use some upgrades elsewhere on the roster but might not spend much more, with general manager J.J. Picollo explaining in November that the budget might be tight this winter.

Alfre Alvarez of Con Las Bases Llenas first reported that a deal was close and also added the $4MM value for the bonuses (Twitter links). Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported that an agreement was in place and also first had the $3.75MM base salary (Twitter links).

Athletics Sign Jesús Aguilar

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Jan. 27: The Athletics have announced the signing of Aguilar to a one-year contract. Yesterday’s trade of lefty Cole Irvin to the Orioles opened a spot on the 40-man roster, so there’s no need for a further corresponding move.

Jan. 24: The A’s and first baseman Jesús Aguilar are in agreement on a deal that will pay him $3MM. The deal for the MVP Sports Group client is pending a physical. The A’s have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once the deal is made official.

Aguilar, 33 in June, has appeared in the past nine MLB seasons, having a mercurial career so far. He didn’t produce much in his first three campaigns while with Cleveland, only getting into 35 games over that three-year stretch as the club kept him mostly in the minors. He was claimed off waivers by the Brewers going into 2017 and made the most of his new opportunity. Aguilar hit 51 home runs over the next two seasons, producing a batting line of .271/.344/.527 over 2017 and 2018. His 127 wRC+ in that time indicates he was 27% better than the league average hitter.

He then experienced a downturn in 2019, as he was sitting on a line of .225/.320/.374 and an 82 wRC+ when the Brewers traded him to the Rays at that year’s deadline. He righted the ship somewhat in Tampa down the stretch, hitting .261/.336/.424 for a wRC+ of 105. Despite that uptick, the Rays put him on waivers after the season and the Marlins put in a claim.

He had a couple of solid years with the Fish in 2020 and 2021, batting .265/.336/.458 over that period for a 113 wRC+, but another swoon came in 2022. He struggled over the beginning of the season and was released by the Marlins in August. He jumped to the Orioles for the final month of the season and finished the campaign with a .235/.281/.379 line and an 86 wRC+.

Defensively, Aguilar has made very brief appearances at third base but is primarily a first baseman. His work in the field has been considered near average, having produced 4 Defensive Runs Saved, -3 Outs Above Average and a 0.6 score from Ultimate Zone Rating. Since he has just a single stolen base in his career and limited defensive value, he needs to be producing at the plate in order to be a useful player. That’s occasionally been the case but his work with the bat has dipped often enough to bounce him off rosters a few times.

For the A’s, they have stripped down their roster over the past year, sending out most of their established players for prospects. They do still have Seth Brown on the roster who would be the most logical option for everyday reps at first base. However, he hits from the left side and Aguilar the right, so dividing up the playing time in a platoon could be a logical move. Aguilar has fairly even platoon splits for his career but Brown has struggled against southpaws, producing a 52 wRC+ against them for his career while posting a 122 mark against righties. Brown can also play the outfield and the club doesn’t have a strict designated hitter on the roster, making it fairly easy for manager Mark Kotsay to fit both players into the lineup if he so chooses. If Aguilar can get back in a good groove at the plate, he could serve as a trade chip for the A’s since they are unlikely to return to contention this season.

Financially, the deal brings the club’s payroll to $79MM, per the calculations of Roster Resource. It’s unclear how much the A’s plan on spending between now and Opening Day but they’re already way beyond last year’s $48MM figure, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle first reported that the two sides were close to an agreement. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that a deal was in place, pending a physical. Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported the $3MM salary.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles Acquire Cole Irvin From A’s

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The Orioles have acquired left-handed pitcher Cole Irvin in a trade with the Athletics, per announcements from both clubs. Right-handed pitching prospect Kyle Virbitsky will also head to Baltimore while infield prospect Darell Hernaiz is heading to the A’s.

On one hand, this move comes as a surprise, since there had been no previous indication the A’s were shopping Irvin or that they were talking to the Orioles. On the other hand, it’s not shocking to see the club continue tearing down the roster, since they’ve been aggressively committed to that path for the past year. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt were all traded just before the 2022 campaign, while Frankie Montas was dealt midseason and Sean Murphy this winter.

With the club seemingly willing to strip the roster down to the studs, any established Oakland player is at least a speculative trade candidate. There was no real rush to move Irvin, since he still had four years of club control remaining, but he will qualify for arbitration at the end of this season and would start to make a more significant salary. It appears that they received an offer they liked enough to pull the ripcord early and jettison Irvin from the roster in yet another future-focused move.

The Orioles have been looking for rotation upgrades all winter and were reportedly still on the hunt earlier this week. They haven’t been running out huge payrolls in recent years so Irvin’s low salary and years of cheap control were surely appealing to them. They made one modest upgrade to their rotation this offseason by signing veteran Kyle Gibson to a one-year, $10MM deal but have otherwise been quiet until today. Irvin will quickly become the club’s second-most experienced starter behind Gibson.

Irvin, 29 next week, was a Phillies’ draftee and made his MLB debut with them. He made 19 appearances over 2019 and 2020 but with a bloated 6.75 ERA in that time. But his minor league results were much better and the A’s took a shot by sending cash considerations to Philadelphia to get him. The change of scenery went very well for him, as he made 62 starts over the past two seasons with a 4.11 ERA over 359 1/3 innings.

This new change of scenery will have risk for the O’s, though. Irvin has succeeded in Oakland over the past couple of years with a low-strikeout, pitch-to-contact approach. He’s only walked 5.2% of the batters he’s faced over those two campaigns, which is a very strong number. For reference, the league average for starters last year was 7.5%. But he’s only punched out hitters at a 16.8% rate for Oakland, well below last year’s 21.6% league average. His 37.6% ground ball over that span was also a bit below par. That kind of profile has worked for him in the pitcher-friendly confines of Oakland Coliseum but might not be as effective in different conditions. It’s perhaps notable that Irvin has posted a 3.44 ERA at home over the past two years but a 4.88 mark outside of Oakland.

The O’s are apparently undeterred by those splits and have added Irvin to their starting mix, where he and Gibson should take two of the spots. The rest of the rotation will be less certain, with options like Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, Bruce Zimmermann, Mike Baumann and Spenser Watkins on the 40-man. Each of those guys have a bit of MLB experience but inconsistent results have prevented them from truly establishing themselves as big leaguers. There’s also Grayson Rodriguez, who is considered one of the best pitching prospects in the sport but he’s yet to make his MLB debut and missed most of last year due to a lat strain. John Means could be a factor down the line but likely not until midseason due to undergoing Tommy John surgery in April of last year. It’s a group with a lot of unknowns but the club will hope to get some reliability out of Irvin and Gibson while they sort through the rest and see who separates themselves from the pack. In addition to Irvin, the O’s will add Virbitsky to their system. The 24-year-old was a 17th round draft pick in 2021. He posted a 4.63 ERA last year between Class-A and High-A, striking out 25.7% of batters faced while walking 5.5%. He’ll add some starting depth to the lower levels of their system.

By letting go of Irvin and Virbitsky, the A’s are adding an intriguing young player in Hernaiz. The 21-year-old was a fifth-round selection of the O’s in 2019. Baseball America ranked him the #25 Orioles prospect going into 2020, highlighting his athleticism but noting that the lack of power could be an issue for him. That seems to have played out in his minor league time so far. After the minors were canceled in 2020, Hernaiz spent 2021 in Class-A, hitting six home runs in 94 games. He did steal 22 bases but his .277/.333/.358 batting line was a bit below average, with his wRC+ coming in at 92. In 2022, he shot up three levels, going from Class-A to High-A and Double-A. He got into 105 games between those three levels and stole 32 bases with 12 home runs. His combined batting line of .273/.341/.438 resulted in a 112 wRC+. He’s split his time between second base, third base and shortstop and will slot into Oakland’s infield prospect mix. He struggled in his first 13 Double-A games and will likely head back to that level to start this season. He’ll be Rule 5 eligible at the end of the upcoming season.

The O’s have plenty of infield prospects, with the likes of Gunnar Henderson, Coby Mayo, Joey Ortiz, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg and Connor Norby some of the exciting youngsters in the system. It seems they felt they could part with Hernaiz and still be in good shape there, whereas the A’s have continued to bolster their farm by subtracting from their major league club. Without Irvin, their rotation will consist of offseason signees Shintaro Fujinami and Drew Rucinski, incumbents Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian, as well as a huge pile of unestablished options who will be jockeying for playing time as the season rolls along.

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the deal before the official announcement (Twitter links).

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Astros Name Dana Brown General Manager

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The Astros have hired Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown as their new general manager, the team announced Thursday. He’ll replace James Click, who held the position from 2020-22 but departed after the season.

“We are excited to have Dana join our organization,” Astros owner Jim Crane said in today’s press release. “He brings championship caliber experience to our team and is the right fit for us to continue to deliver a winning franchise on and off the field. We welcome Dana and his family to the Astros family.”

Brown has been the Braves’ vice president of scouting for the past four seasons, overseeing drafts that netted the Braves talent such as Spencer Strider, Michael Harris, Vaughn Grissom, Shea Langeliers and Bryce Elder. Prior to being hired by Atlanta in 2019, he was a special assistant in the Blue Jays’ front office for nine years — overlapping with current Braves president of baseball operations (and former Toronto GM) Alex Anthopoulos for a substantial portion of that tenure. Brown spent the nine preceding seasons as the director of scouting for the Expos/Nationals and was an area supervisor and crosschecker in the Pirates’ scouting department for eight years in the 90s.

Even six months ago, the notion of the Astros needing to hire a new general manager would’ve registered as a surprise. There were reports of growing friction between Crane and Click late in the 2022 season, but winning tends to cure all, and the Astros not only made a deep postseason run but took home their second World Series title in the past six seasons — Click’s first in just his third year on the job.

However, while 73-year-old skipper Dusty Baker was content to take a one-year extension despite having just secured a championship, Click understandably sought a multi-year offer with his original three-year contract drawing to a close. Crane put forth what was widely viewed as a token one-year extension offer — Click’s World Series counterpart Dave Dombrowski, for comparison, was extended through 2027 by the Phillies — which was swiftly rejected by Click. The Astros announced Click’s departure two days later and, on the same day, fired assistant GM Scott Powers, whom Click had hired away from the Dodgers back in Jan. 2022.

The Astros have operated without a general manager throughout the offseason. Crane has personally taken a large role in baseball operations, negotiating Rafael Montero’s three-year, $34.5MM deal to return to the club and Jose Abreu’s three-year, $58.5MM contract. Assistant GMs Bill Firkus, Andrew Ball and Charles Cook have all retained roles near the top of the hierarchy, and former Astros star and current front office advisor Jeff Bagwell has also reportedly influenced the team’s baseball operations decisions.

Brown will now step to the top of the Astros’ baseball operations department, ostensibly with full autonomy over the team’s roster decisions moving forward. Reports have indicated that Crane was more involved than most owners even prior to Click’s departure — he nixed a deadline trade that would’ve sent Jose Urquidy to the Cubs for Willson Contreras — and only time will tell whether he has a more hands-off approach with his newly minted general manager.

Brown’s appointment as general manager marks at least something of a philosophical shift from recent regimes. Former president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow, who was fired in the wake of the 2017 trashcan scandal, was among the foremost voices in bringing about the analytical revolution in modern baseball front offices. Click, meanwhile, came from a similarly data-driven Rays organization, where he’d served as vice president of baseball operations and, per the Rays (at the time of his hiring in Houston) had “a focus on baseball research and development” and “baseball systems,” among other responsibilities.

That’s not to say that neither Luhnow nor Click had any scouting acumen themselves, just as it’s not to say that Brown is unfamiliar with many of the data-oriented principles that guide modern front offices (to varying extents). Nonetheless, Brown’s background is rooted in more traditional types of player evaluation; the Astros, under Luhnow, moved away from in-person scouting to put a greater focus on video scouting. That had already begun to change under Click, who worked hard over his final year to replenish some of the scouting resources lost under the prior regime’s shift.

Just as we can’t yet know whether Crane’s more hands-on approach will change with Brown in the GM’s chair, it’s impossible to state whether the Astros will pivot to a more scouting-heavy focus — or at least a more balanced blend between data-based and scouting-based evaluations. Brown and Crane will surely speak on the matter in the near future; the Astros have called a 2:30pm press conference to formally introduce their new general manager.

Mark Berman of FOX 26 first reported that Brown would be Houston’s new GM (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of the Houston Astros.

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