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Angels Sign Anthony Rendon

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FRIDAY: The signing is now official, per an announcement from the Angels.

WEDNESDAY: Yet another superstar free agent has come off the board in what has turned into the fastest-moving offseason in recent memory. The Angels reached a seven-year, $245MM agreement with free-agent third baseman Anthony Rendon on Wednesday, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. The deal includes a full no-trade clause, but there are no opt-outs, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The contract doesn’t include any deferrals, according to Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that it’s “slightly” backloaded. The value checks in just above the seven-year, $235MM prediction MLBTR made for Rendon entering the offseason.

Rendon’s the third Scott Boras client to land a $200MM-plus contract this week. He, Gerrit Cole ($324MM) and Stephen Strasburg ($245MM) will combine for a jaw-dropping $814MM in guarantees. Rendon’s now leaving Strasburg and the Nationals, with whom he won a World Series in 2019. Despite the Nationals’ deep pockets, though, owner Mark Lerner expressed doubt last week about the team’s chances of re-signing both of its marquee free agents. Once Strasburg re-signed, the likelihood was that Rendon would leave.

Other teams, including the Dodgers and Rangers, aggressively pursued Rendon over the past few days. However, he has chosen to team with the game’s foremost player, Angels center fielder Mike Trout, to make up one of the premier tandems in baseball. At $35MM per season, the soon-to-be 30-year-old Rendon is now second only to Trout in average annual value for position players.

Rendon earned his enormous payday – one that outdoes the seven-year, $234MM extension Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado signed last winter – with a superb tenure in Washington. The 2011 sixth overall pick debuted two years later and proceeded to post four seasons with upward of 6.0 fWAR as a member of the Nationals. Somehow, though, he didn’t earn an All-Star nod until 2019. That will go down as his best and most memorable Nats campaign, as he slashed a remarkable .319/.412/.598 with a personal-high 34 home runs and a career-best 7.0 fWAR during the regular season. Rendon carried his excellence into the postseason, where he was an integral part of the team’s improbable run to a championship. On the game’s biggest stage, Rendon logged a 1.003 OPS with three homers. His Game 7 World Series HR against the Astros woke up the Nationals in the seventh inning, helping lead to a title-winning comeback.

As was the case when outfielder Bryce Harper left D.C. to accept the Phillies’ mega-offer last winter, Rendon’s departure no doubt stings for the Nationals. If it’s any consolation to the club, though, it will receive some compensation for his exit because it issued him a qualifying offer after the season. The Nats will collect a 2020 draft pick between Competitive Balance Round B and Round 3. They now figure to turn their attention toward replacing Rendon at third base, where they’ve been connected to Josh Donaldson – now the No. 1 free agent left in an ever-shrinking marketplace. They’ll have plenty of competition in that regard, though, with various reports linking the Rangers, Dodgers, Phillies, Twins and Braves to Donaldson.

The Angels, meanwhile, will surrender their second-highest pick next year and lose $500K of their international bonus pool for adding Rendon. But that’s a small price to pay for the Halos, a team desperately seeking a return to the playoffs after five straight failed seasons. Owner Arte Moreno and general manager Billy Eppler entered the offseason looking to make an enormous splash, evidenced previously by their interest in Cole, Strasburg, Donaldson and now-Phillie Zack Wheeler, and they pulled it off by reeling in Rendon.

With Rendon, Trout, shortstop Andrelton Simmons, second baseman David Fletcher, left fielder Justin Upton and designated hitter/right-hander Shohei Ohtani making up the majority of their lineup, the Angels have a strong core of hitters in place. However, there remain obvious need areas on the club, including in its rotation (which should benefit from Ohtani’s return from Tommy John surgery and the acquisition of Dylan Bundy) and at catcher.

The Angels still seem poised to patch both of those holes, as Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (Twitter links) that they remain focused on finding “significant” starting help and adding a new backstop. Even with Rendon’s salary factored in, the Angels appear to have the money to pick up at least one more high-end contributor and stay under the $208MM luxury-tax line in 2020, with Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimating their current CBT payroll at $177MM-plus.

Brewers Sign Brett Anderson

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The Brewers have announced a one-year deal with lefty Brett Anderson. The GSE Worldwide client will be guaranteed $5MM with up to $2MM in potential incentives, per ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter).

Anderson, who his closing in on his 32nd birthday, becomes the latest addition to the Milwaukee pitching staff. The club recently agreed to terms with Josh Lindblom.

This probably isn’t the high-impact rotation move some would like to see the Brewers make. But that has simply not been the way GM David Stearns has operated.

Anderson did put in a strong effort in 2019, throwing 176 innings of 3.89 ERA ball over 31 starts with the Athletics. He averaged just 4.6 strikeouts per nine, but was quite stingy with the free passes (2.5 BB/9) and delivered a typically strong 54.5% groundball rate.

It remains to be seen just what role Anderson will occupy. With the Brewers’ flexible approach to deploying pitchers, it’s possible that he will start but perhaps not be asked to go deep into games. In 2019, opposing hitters ramped up against Anderson as the game went on, with >100 OPS point jumps each time through the order (.631, .735, .841).

The Brewers will presumably still be seeking additional arms. While they’ve added Eric Lauer along with Lindblom and now Anderson, the team has also seen the departures of Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Jimmy Nelson, Jordan Lyles, and Gio Gonzalez.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Tigers Sign Austin Romine

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The Tigers signed their first free agent of the winter Friday, announcing a one-year pact with catcher Austin Romine. The Moye Sports Associate client will reportedly be guaranteed $4.1MM and looks to be in line to see an increased workload with the Tigers — the same club that employed his brother, Andrew Romine, from 2014-17.

Austin Romine

“Signing an experienced catcher was high on our list of offseason priorities, and we believe Austin will have an impact both on the field and in the clubhouse,” GM Al Avila said in a press release. “He’s a proven leader and game caller who has earned respect around the league for the tenacious and passionate manner in which he plays the game.”

Romine, 31, has been a steady contributor to the Yankees for some time now. While he was the clear number two in New York, he got a good bit of action in recent years when Gary Sanchez was sidelined. Though he carried a dismal track record with the bat until recently, Romine has trended up in the past two seasons, slashing .262/.302/.428 with 18 long balls in 505 plate appearances since the start of the 2018 season.

Romine has graded as a below-average framer but obviously impressed the Yanks with his overall abilities on the defensive side of the equation. He’s thwarted 28 percent of stolen-base attempts against him over the past two seasons while posting above-average numbers in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt, per Baseball Prospectus. Romine will surely be called upon to handle a big chunk of the time behind the dish in Detroit while helping younger backstops Grayson Greiner and Jake Rogers learn the ropes.

George A. King III of the New York Post first reported the deal (via Twitter). MLB.com’s Jason Beck and MLive.com’s Evan Woodberry added financial details (Twitter links).

Phillies Sign Didi Gregorius

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Didi Gregorius and Joe Girardi have officially been reunited. The Phillies announced Friday that they’ve signed Gregorius, the longtime Yankees shortstop, to a one-year contract that will reportedly pay him $14MM before he returns to free agency next winter. Gregorius is represented by Excel Sports Management.

This is the latest noteworthy free-agent strike for general manager Matt Klentak and the Phillies, who signed right-hander Zack Wheeler to a five-year, $118MM contract earlier this offseason. They spent an incredible amount of money on free agents Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen and David Robertson just a year ago, but those moves didn’t lead to the club’s first playoff berth since 2011. The Phillies instead limped to an 81-81 record, which cost manager Gabe Kapler his job. The team has since replaced Kapler with Girardi, who happened to manage Gregorius with the Yankees from 2015-17.

Gregorius, who missed the first few months of the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in Oct. 2018, will look to rebuild some free agent stock after a lackluster return effort from that procedure. Upon returning to the Yankees in June, the 29-year-old slashed just .238/.276/.441 with 16 home runs in 344 plate appearances, which prevented the Yankees from issuing him a qualifying offer worth $17.8MM.

However, as hands down the most promising shortstop in this winter’s class of free agents, MLBTR predicted Gregorius would receive a three-year, $42MM contract. While Gregorius did draw interest from at least a few teams, he opted to pursue a short-term deal in hopes of cashing in on a lengthier deal next winter. If his gamble pays off, it’s not hard to envision Gregorius commanding a four-year pact on the 2020-21 open market, although he may have a qualifying offer hanging over his head next time around.

For the Phillies, adding Gregorius should mean pushing 2019 starter Jean Segura to second base to replace the non-tendered Cesar Hernandez. With Gregorius, Segura, first baseman Rhys Hoskins and presumably Scott Kingery at third, the Phillies look to be in good shape in the infield. They’ve shown interest in the two best free-agent third basemen available in Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson, but Rendon is now off the board after agreeing to a seven-year, $245MM deal with the Angels. And between the Gregorius and Wheeler pickups, they’re closing in on the first level of the luxury tax of $208MM, which could make a Donaldson pursuit too pricey (although Kingery could shift to center field if owner John Middleton authorizes the front office to pursue Donaldson and exceed the luxury tax barrier). Before the Gregorius agreement, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource and FanGraphs had the Phillies at just over $186MM in luxury-tax payroll.

As for the Yankees, they’re saying goodbye to an accomplished player who had been a key part of their roster since they acquired him from the Diamondbacks before the 2015 season. But the Yankees do look well-equipped to move on from Gregorius, as they could move star second baseman Gleyber Torres to shortstop and use DJ LeMahieu as their primary second baseman in 2020.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post first reported the agreement. Sweeny Murti of WFAN added the length of the contract, and Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported the financial terms.

Giants Acquire Zack Cozart

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Dec. 12: The Angels announced that they’ve acquired left-hander Garrett Williams from the Giants as a player to be named later, thus completing the Cozart swap. Sending him out as a player to be named later seems likely have been a measure of ensuring that Williams wasn’t selected in today’s Rule 5 Draft.

Williams, 25, was the Giants’ seventh-round pick back in 2016 and just completed his second season at the Double-A level, where he posted a 3.60 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 5.0 BB/9, 0.49 HR/9 and a 55.7 percent ground-ball rate in 110 innings (20 starts, nine relief outings). Williams, who was the Giants’ No. 29 prospect at MLB.com and landed outside the top 29 at FanGraphs, draws praise for a plus curveball but is obviously lacking in the command department. He’s averaged 4.9 BB/9 in his pro career to date, including a 5.7 mark in two seasons of Double-A ball.

Dec. 10: The Giants have acquired infielder Zack Cozart and shortstop prospect Will Wilson from the Angels for cash considerations or a player to be named later, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports. San Francisco will pay all of Cozart’s $12.167MM salary for 2020, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Cozart joined the Angels as a high-priced free-agent signing two winters ago, when he inked a three-year, $38MM contract after a career campaign with the Reds. But Cozart was neither healthy nor effective as a member of the Angels, with whom he consistently struggled to perform and dealt with injuries. The 34-year-old took just 107 plate appearances in 2019, when he slashed a horrid .124/.178/.144 without a home run and missed the majority of the season with shoulder problems. Cozart’s year came to an end in mid-July when he underwent what the Angels called an “arthroscopic debridement of his left shoulder.”

Getting rid of Cozart looks like a major score for the Angels, who could use his money to further improve their chances of landing a major free agent (Gerrit Cole? Anthony Rendon?). In the Giants’ case, it’s unclear how much playing time Cozart will receive next season. They already have Evan Longoria at third base and Brandon Crawford at shortstop, after all, with youngster Mauricio Dubon possibly in line to garner the lion’s share of reps at second base.

Considering Wilson’s involvement, this may be a case of the Giants essentially buying a prospect. The 21-year-old Wilson, formerly with North Carolina State, is just months removed from joining the Angels as the 15th pick in the 2019 draft. The Angels paid $3.4MM to lock up Wilson at the time, but they’ve now deemed him expendable in an effort to get Cozart’s money off the books.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Yankees To Re-Sign Brett Gardner

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The Yankees have struck a deal with outfielder Brett Gardner, per George A. King III of the New York Post (via Twitter). It’ll pay him a guaranteed $12.5MM. There’s a $2MM signing bonus and $8MM 2020 salary, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). The Yanks also have a $10MM club option in 2021, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (Twitter link), with the alternative of a $2.5MM buyout (via King, on Twitter).

There was never much doubt that Gardner would end up returning to New York. The 36-year-old has already been with the club for a dozen seasons and has been rumored all offseason to be in talks for another. Gardner reportedly drew multi-year interest from other organizations but evidently didn’t have much appetite for change at this point in his career.

It is easy to overlook just how big a role Gardner has played over the years for the Yanks. Excepting his injury-ravaged 2012 campaign, he has appeared in at least 140 games for the team in every season for the past decade. Gardner is one game and five plate appearances shy of tallying 1500 games-played and six thousand PAs with the Bronxn Bombers.

The formula remains much the same now as ever. Gardner is an outstanding defender and baserunner who has consistently delivered league-average offensive production. He has grown into power over the years, though it remains to be seen whether he can repeat last year’s career-high 28 long balls and .503 slugging percentage. (Those stood out even in a year of leaguewide power enhancement.)

The Yankees will certainly need Gardner quite a bit out of the gates with Aaron Hicks slated to miss time. Just how roles will be sorted once Hicks is back will remain to be seen. The health and performance statuses of quite a few other players — including sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton — will surely factor heavily. Having the dependable Gardner, along with 2019 breakout performer Mike Tauchman, will leave the Yanks plenty of options for filling in or mixing and matching if and when the roster is at full strength.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rockies Extend Scott Oberg

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The Rockies have reached a contract extension with reliever Scott Oberg, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. It’s a three-year, $13MM deal with an $8MM club option for 2023. However, the pact contains escalators that could push the value to $15MM over three years and $26MM for four, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Oberg is a client of agent Brian Charles of Big League Management Company, LLC.

Prior to this extension, Oberg had been projected to earn $2MM via arbitration in 2020. That will still be the case, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, who adds that Oberg will be guaranteed $4MM in 2021 and and $7MM in ’22. This extension will overlap with his final two arbitration-eligible campaigns and, if the option is exercised in a few seasons, buy out two free-agent years.

The fact that Oberg has become a core piece for the Rockies is fairly remarkable, as the team didn’t invest much in him (a 15th-round pick) when it drafted him in 2012. The right-handed Oberg became a regular out of the Colorado bullpen in 2015, but he didn’t truly blossom until 2018.

Oberg has quietly been one of the game’s most effective relievers since his breakout season, having relied on a fastball-slider combo to log a 2.35 ERA/3.20 FIP with 9.03 K/9, 2.75 BB/9 and a strong 52.7 percent groundball rate across 114 2/3 innings. Looking at Oberg’s home/road splits, it’s clear pitching at the hitter-friendly Coors Field hasn’t really fazed the 29-year-old in recent seasons.

Oberg did see his overall production plummet as 2019 progressed, but he was dealing with significant health worries then that affected his numbers. He didn’t take the mound past Aug. 16 on account of blood clots in his right elbow, which forced him to undergo surgery to address the issue. That was the second time Oberg has battled blood clots during his career, but there doesn’t seem to be any concern on the part of him or the Rockies that it’ll be an ongoing problem.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

White Sox Acquire Nomar Mazara

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12:15am: Both teams have announced the trade.

11:05 pm: The Rangers and White Sox have agreed on a trade that will send outfielder Nomar Mazara to Chicago, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Outfielder Steele Walker is going to Texas in return, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter).

This move represents a bet on Mazara’s long-lauded talent for the South Siders, who’ll hope he can finally break out at the plate after languishing just shy of league average to this point of his career. Mazara is just 24 years of age but is already in his second-to-last season of arbitration eligibility. MLBTR projects a $5.7MM salary.

Mazara has received ample opportunity ever since breaking into the bigs in his age-21 campaign. But through more than two thousand plate appearances at the game’s highest level, he’s hitting just .261/.320/.435 with a steady diet of ~20 home run seasons. That’s certainly not what you’d like to see out of a corner outfielder who isn’t a standout in the field. Mazara has yet to reach 2 WAR for his career. If you’re looking for evidence that Mazara is about to hit his stride, his power did jump in 2019, with a .469 SLG and .200 ISO both career highs. As he approaches his age-25 seasons, there’s certainly time for another developmental leap.

The Chicago organization has announced its intentions to press towards contention in 2020, upping the stakes for this move. Mazara will presumably be asked to handle the lion’s share of the time in right field, joining Eloy Jimenez as a corner outfield regular. No doubt the front office has visions of a breakout, youthful trio emerging when Luis Robert is deemed ready to man center field. Leury Garcia could hold down center to open the season and then step back into a reserve role.

As for the 23-year-old Walker, he’s a recent second-round pick who reached the High-A level last year with the Chicago organization. The former Oklahoma University star slashed .269/.346/.426 in 441 plate appearances for Winston-Salem in 2019. Walker is viewed as a high-quality hitting prospect who has a shot at sticking up the middle. He’s generally considered one of the ten best prospects in a strong White Sox farm. Walker will begin the season in Double-A, per John Blake, the Rangers’ Executive VP of Communications.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Adam Jones Signs With Japan’s Orix Buffaloes

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Longtime major league outfielder Adam Jones’ time in the bigs may have just drawn to a close. Jones announced on Twitter that he’s signing with Japan’s Orix Buffaloes. He inked a two-year, $8MM contract with a club option for 2022, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The deal could max out at $15.5MM if Jones’ option is exercised and the CAA Sports client earns the $2MM in incentives that are part of the pact.

The fact that Jones is heading to Japan now means he’ll avoid a protracted stay on the open market. As a free agent last offseason, the 34-year-old Jones was a victim of a league that has become more and more averse to signing aging players to guaranteed contracts. Jones went without a deal for several months, finally inking a $3MM pact with the Diamondbacks.

Even though Jones jumped out to a great start in Arizona, his numbers and his playing time declined as the year progressed. He wound up turning in a .260/.313/.414 line (good for a below-average wRC+ of 87) with 16 home runs in 528 plate appearances. In the field, the former defensive standout earned negative marks for the fourth straight year (minus-4 DRS, minus-2.2 UZR).

Despite his subpar numbers, Jones’ lauded leadership skills were surely valued in Arizona. Major league teams could have considered signing him to act as a mentor to their younger players in 2020. However, he would have had to settle for either a low-paying big league contract or a minors agreement. As a result, Jones made the decision to head to Nippon Professional Baseball for a much larger payday.

If this is the last we’ve seen of Jones in the majors, he’ll be remembered as a standout with the Orioles for a significant portion of his career. Jones was the 37th overall pick of the Mariners in 2003, but they ultimately traded him to the Orioles in 2008 in a swap that blew up in Seattle’s face and couldn’t have worked out much better for Baltimore. Jones debuted as an Oriole in 2008, the beginning of an eminently successful 11-season run in which the former center fielder batted .279/.319/.459 with 263 home runs, 90 steals and 29.5 fWAR, earned five All-Star nods and won four Gold Gloves.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Twins Sign Alex Avila

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DEC. 10: The Avila deal and the re-signing of Michael Pineda are now official, the Twins announced. They now have 37 players on their 40-man roster.

DEC. 6: The Twins have agreed to a one-year contract with free-agent catcher Alex Avila, ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets. The Excel Sports client will take home a $4.25MM guarantee on the new deal, per the report.

Alex Avila | Rob Schumacher/The Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK

Avila, 33 in January, is no stranger to the AL Central, having spent parts of eight seasons with the Tigers plus another year with the White Sox. He’ll give the Twins a left-handed-hitting complement to 2019 breakout star Mitch Garver and, ostensibly, replace Jason Castro, who seems likely to land a starting gig elsewhere in free agency.

The veteran Avila is somewhat of a divisive player, as some view his perennially low batting average and lofty strikeout totals as too detrimental to provide consistent value. Others will point to his sky-high walk rates and above-average power in suggesting that more traditional metrics undersell his value at the plate. Indeed, Avila had one of the game’s more bizarre stat lines in 2019 when he slashed .207/.353/.421 with a 17.9 percent walk rate (third among hitters with 200+ plate appearances) and a 33.2 percent strikeout rate (12th among that same subset of hitters).

Garver, 28, still stands out as the obvious starter in Minnesota after exploding with a .273/.365/.630 batting line and 31 home runs in 2019. Even if next year’s ball is corrected to be less conducive to home runs, the Twins assuredly want to plug Garver into the lineup as often as possible after a such a stout performance. He’ll see time against lefties and righties alike, but Avila will be a more than capable stand-in when Garver needs a breather and a righty is on the hill. For his career, Avila is a .241/.358/.417 hitter (15.3 BB%, 28.7 K%) when holding the platoon advantage, although his .212/.307/.311 career line against lefties is all one needs to see to steer him away from opposing southpaws. If Garver needs a day off when a left-hander is on the mound, the Twins could perhaps look to plus super-utility man Willians Astudillo and his right-handed bat into the lineup at catcher. Astudillo himself could’ve been deployed as a backup catcher in 2020, but in Avila, the Twins have found a drastically better source of on-base percentage and a better defensive option that allows Astudillo to continue on in a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none role.

Avila has long been adept at controlling the running game (career 30 percent caught-stealing rate), but he was particularly impressive in 2019 with Arizona. Although he was only a part-time catcher there as well, Avila nabbed 11 of the 21 men who attempted to run on him (52 percent), and he was 9-for-30 (30 percent) a year prior. Avila’s framing rated poorly in 2017, but the D-backs’ efforts to improve him in that regard were successful, as he was above-average in both his seasons with Arizona, per both FanGraphs and Statcast. Baseball Prospectus, meanwhile, rated him as one of the game’s best at blocking pitches in the dirt in 2019.

Minnesota still has substantial work to do this offseason — namely augmenting a rotation that currently looks too similar to its 2019 iteration — but adding Avila to the fold crosses a more minor need off the to-do list at a reasonable price point. The one-year term of the deal continues with the Derek Falvey/Thad Levine-led front office’s penchant for short-term investments as well, thus maintaining future payroll flexibility. If the Twins hope to truly bolster the rotation, they’ll probably need to eschew that preference, but for smaller-scale moves like this it’s sensible to minimize contractual length.

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