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Bruce Bochy To Retire After 2019 Season

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Giants manager Bruce Bochy announced today that he will retire at the end of the 2019 season (Twitter link). Baseball’s longest-tenured skipper, Bochy is entering his 13th season as the Giants’ manager. In that time, he’s overseen three World Series championships (2010, 2012 and 2014) and helped guide the Giants to a 979-965 record.

A surefire Hall of Famer, the 2019 season will be Bochy’s 25th as a Major League manager, as he also previously enjoyed a 12-year run at the helm for the Padres. The 63-year-old surprisingly only took home one NL Manager of the Year title in those 24 seasons (1996 with the Padres), but his track record is among the most impressive of any manager in the past three decades. As MLB.com’s Jon Morosi points out, Bochy is one of only 10 managers to win three World Series titles, and the other nine are in the Hall of Fame (Twitter link).

As for his future, Bochy indicated that he’ll still be involved in the game in some capacity (Twitter link via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic). He’s already spoken with CEO Larry Baer about alternative roles with the Giants organization and didn’t sound as if he had much interest in pursuing a role with another club, plainly stating: “I’m a Giant.”

With general manager Bobby Evans recently dismissed from his post and Brian Sabean moving into more of an advisory capacity with the team, the departure of Bochy will be the next major step in an organizational overhaul. Ownership tabbed former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi as the organization’s new president of baseball operations early in the offseason, and after the 2019 season, Bochy’s retirement will give the Giants’ new front office an opportunity to handpick a replacement to serve as a new voice for the next generation of Giants.

Padres Reportedly Offering $250MM Or More To Machado, Harper

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8:08PM: Rival general managers have been told that Machado’s offer from the Padres is at least eight years/$240MM with deferred money, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter links).  Some other GMs, however, have been told that Machado has been offered $280MM.

7:42PM: The Padres are thought to have offered Manny Machado a contract in the neighborhood of eight years and $250MM, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link), while the club has reportedly issued an even larger offer to Bryce Harper.  The exact total of the Machado offer is, as Heyman noted, an estimate, as that deal could include deferred money or some adjustment based on California’s higher taxation rates.  Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (also via Twitter) believes the Padres’ offer to Machado is beyond the $250MM mark, though Acee isn’t certain about the number of years involved in the contract.

While still short of the potential record-setting numbers thrown around for both Harper and Machado prior to the start of free agency, and even seemingly still shy of the $300MM threshold, it’s worth noting that only three contracts in baseball history (Giancarlo Stanton’s record $325MM deal with the Marlins, and Alex Rodriguez’s deals with the Rangers and Yankees) have topped the $250MM plateau.  The Padres’ two offers are more akin to the type of long-term deals many expected the two free agent superstars to receive en masse this winter.

Either deal would represent easily the biggest contract in the history of the Padres franchise, far outpacing the $144MM signed by Eric Hosmer last offseason.  While San Diego has never traditionally been a big spender, MLBTR’s Rob Huff recently made the case that the team is capable of handling the giant contract required to land Machado or Harper.  Hosmer and Wil Myers (at admittedly hefty salaries) are the only contracts on the books beyond the 2020 season, plus the Padres have an inexpensive core of talent headed to the big leagues in the form of their top-rated minor league system.  Between some creative contractual measures like deferrals, opt-outs, a dual option (a recent favorite of Scott Boras, Harper’s agent), there certainly seems to be room to fit a mega-contract under San Diego’s payroll going forward.

Padres executives have personally met with both Harper and Machado in recent weeks, and San Diego’s late entry as a suitor for both players seems to have been inspired by the fact that both are still on the market this deep into the offseason.  In short, the Padres could be a classic “mystery team” scenario — the unexpected club that emerges as a late bidder and potentially walks away with a star.  It should be noted that the Padres surprised many by signing Hosmer last year, and also when they landed James Shields in February 2015, during A.J. Preller’s news-making (and ultimately ill-fated) first offseason as San Diego’s general manager.

Reports from earlier today suggested that the Phillies were considered as the favorites to sign Harper, though connected teams like the White Sox, Giants, and Nationals hadn’t yet been ruled out.  Machado’s market has been more limited, with only the Phillies and White Sox known to be clear bidders, and the Yankees perhaps on the outskirts looking for a shorter-term deal.  The White Sox had reportedly made a bid of seven years and $175MM to Machado, though his agent strongly denied those numbers were accurate.

Giants Sign Gerardo Parra To Minor League Deal

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TODAY: Parra has passed his physical, as per a team announcement (The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly was among those to tweet the news).

TUESDAY: The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran outfielder Gerardo Parra, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link). The Octagon client will head to Major League Spring Training in hopes of earning a spot on San Francisco’s Opening Day roster. If he can, Parra would earn a $1.75MM salary, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link), with $250K in incentives tied to plate appearances.

Parra, 31, wrapped up a three-year, $27.5MM with the division-rival Rockies in 2018 — one that did not pay the dividends the Colorado organization had hoped when signing Parra in the 2015-16 offseason. During his three years with the Rox, Parra posted a .283/.320/.407 slash that looks solid on the surface but checked in well south of the league average when adjusting for park and league. Weighted metrics such as OPS+ (82) and wRC+ (77) felt that Parra’s bat was anywhere from 18 to 23 percent worse than that of an average-hitter over that span. And last season, Parra turned in the least-powerful campaign of his 10-year Major League career (six homers, 17 doubles, no triples, .087 ISO in 443 plate appearances).

Defensively speaking, Parra has a steady track record as a quality corner glove. Though defensive metrics weren’t kind to him in his first year with Colorado, that season now looks anomalous in nature. Parra tallied +11 Defensive Runs Saved and a 10.2 Ultimate Zone Rating from 2017-18. Statcast pegged him as a roughly scratch defender in that time (+1 outs above average).

Overall, Parra is a useful defender in the outfield corners — one who has long shown solid contact skills and managed to get on base at a respectable clip, as evidenced by a career .278/.325/.405 slash. All of that offensive output has come while playing his home games in a hitter-friendly setting (Diamondbacks, Orioles, Rockies, Brewers), but with a career strikeout rate of just 17 percent, Parra undeniably has quality bat-to-ball skills that could help him to earn a spot in a currently barren Giants outfield mix.

Young Steven Duggar is returning from shoulder surgery and will hope to lay claim to regular center field duties at the newly renamed Oracle Park, but he didn’t hit especially well in his rookie debut last season. Depending on the health of his shoulder and his early production, it’s certainly possible that he’d still need some further development. Beyond Duggar are Austin Slater, Chris Shaw and the out-of-options Mac Williamson — none of whom has solidified himself as a big league regular.

Of course, the potential for a radical shift in the Giants’ outfield mix still looms large, with the team recently reported to be in the mix for Bryce Harper. Certainly, adding Parra on a non-guaranteed deal does nothing to lessen the Giants’ chances of landing Harper, though ultimately signing Harper would obviously hinder Parra’s chances of cracking the roster in San Francisco.

CC Sabathia Officially Announces Retirement After 2019 Season

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In a press conference in front of the Steinbrenners, most of the Yankee roster and his wife and kids, C.C. Sabathia has officially announced his intentions to retire at the conclusion of the 2019 season.

Included in a statement released by the team was written statements from a wide-ranging collection of voices, including Derek Jeter, Joe Girardi, LeBron James, Fat Joe, Steve Kerr, the major of Sabathia’s hometown Bob Sampayan, Tiki Barber and more. It’s quite the show of support for Sabathia, whose storied career will come to an end after 2019, his 19th year in the league. In a career that included stops with the Indians, Brewers and Yankees, Sabathia has thus far amassed 246 wins in 3,470 innings across 538 regular season appearances, all starts. Presently, he trails Bartolo Colon by one win for the lead among active players.

Sabathia is a 6-time All-Star and American League Cy Young award winner in 2007. He was named MVP of the ALCS in 2009 after going 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in helping the Yankees down the Los Angeles Angels to win the pennant.  The Yanks, of course, won the World Series that season, with Sabathia earning his keep in two World Series starts against the Phillies, though the Yanks split the two games in which Sabathia started. Though Sabathia’s career can largely be viewed as a two-part story – the first part in Cleveland, the second with the Yankees – his most memorable performance might be the work he put in for half a season in Milwaukee in 2008. He famously went 11-2 down the stretch with a 1.65 ERA and an insane 7 complete games and three shutouts in 17 starts. Going on short rest multiple times, Sabathia put on a show of endurance and durability plucked from a different era. In doing so, he also became the only pitcher of the Modern Era (since 1900) to record 120 strikeouts with two teams in a single season.

We could spend all day lauding Sabathia’s many accolades, and he’s not done yet. For now, Sabathia is fifth in AL history with 2,858 strikeouts, the most ever by a lefty. He is the active leader in that category, as well as innings pitched and quality starts. He has a good chance of overtaking Colon at some point this season for the active lead in wins. The Yankees are likely to closely monitor Sabathia’s workload this season, though he continues to pitch well deep into his thirties, taking 29 turns last year with a 3.65 ERA in 153 innings. Today’s announcement grants Sabathia, 38, the opportunity of a farewell tour as he makes his final starts in ballparks around the league.

Yankees Extend Luis Severino

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4:48pm: The Yankees have now announced the agreement.

11:00am Severino’s fifth-year option is worth $15MM and comes with a $2.75MM buyout, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’ll earn a $2MM signing bonus, a $4MM salary in 2019, $10MM in 2020, $10.25MM in 2021 and $11MM in 2022. In all, Severino can earn up to $52.25MM if the option is exercised.

As has been the case with numerous recent extensions — Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Whit Merrifield — Severino’s deal is more front-loaded than conventional extensions. That’s been agreed upon in some cases as a means of protection against a potential work stoppage upon completion of the current CBA in 2021.

10:41am: The Yankees and right-hander Luis Severino have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a multi-year contract, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter links). The new contract is pending a physical. Severino, a client of Rep 1 Baseball, will be guaranteed $40MM over a four-year contract that contains a club option for a fifth season.

Luis Severino |Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The first major payday comes as an early birthday present for Severino, who’ll turn 25 next Wednesday. It’s a well-earned contract for the Dominican-born righty, who to this point in his career has turned in a 3.51 ERA in 518 innings of work. Over the past two seasons, Severino has been both excellent and consistent, compiling a combined 3.18 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 0.94 HR/9 and a 46 percent ground-ball rate in 384 2/3 innings of work. Though he’s yet to find success in the postseason spotlight, the Yankees’ strong core should afford Severino ample opportunities to do so over the life of this contract.

Severino had been arbitration-eligible for the first time as a Super Two player, meaning he was already controlled for those four seasons. However, the new contract arrangement affords the team with control over what would have been the right-hander’s first season of free agency.

Severino’s camp filed for a $5.25MM salary against the Yankees’ submission of $4.4MM (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker), so this contract promises him what would be at least an additional $35.6MM for his three subsequent arbitration seasons (or an additional $34.75MM in the scenario where he had won that case). Heading into arbitration, Severino and righty Aaron Nola were viewed as similar cases, and the similarity between the pair of extensions they signed this week — Nola inked a four-year, $45MM pact on Wednesday — further speak to the comparable nature of their cases.

The most notable difference between the pair of right-handers, though, was that Nola had already surpassed three year of service, while Severino was a Super Two. So while the Phillies gained control over an additional two seasons of Nola (in exchange for an additional $5MM in guarantees), the Yankees are buying out just one free-agent year. Severino will now hit the open market in advance of his age-30 season.

As was the case with the Nola deal, there’s some risk baked into this new pact for Severino. While one can hardly fault him from wanting to secure a first life-altering contract, Severino is also forgoing the opportunity to reach free agency heading into his age-29 campaign — an age at which Patrick Corbin received a six-year, $140MM contract. Granted, he’s only pushing the free-agent clock back by one season, but teams have shown an increased reluctance to pay a premium as players enter their early and mid-30s. It’s also quite possible that with at least $4.4MM (and potentially as much as $5.25MM) already banked, Severino could’ve handily topped $40MM in total earnings over the course of his four arbitration seasons.

Of course, those risks apply to virtually any early-career extension, and Severino’s new arrangement provides him with a nice safety net in the event that he incurs a serious injury or unexpected decline — either of which could radically alter his earning capacity in a scenario where he’d opted to go year-to-year through the arbitration process.

Looking at historical precedent, the contract, like Nola’s, is somewhat of a half measure. Severino isn’t fully betting on himself, surrendering his earliest opportunity at free agency in exchange for an immediate payday, but his camp also opted not to go for broke in terms of establishing a new precedent for Super Two starting pitcher extensions.

As shown in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, Gio Gonzalez’s now seven-year-old extension with the Nationals (five years, $42MM and two club options) still stands out as the largest contract ever signed by a pitcher with between two and three years of service time. Severino did top Corey Kluber’s $38.5MM deal with the Indians by a slight margin, but Kluber wasn’t Super Two eligible and was four years older at that point than Severino is now. Of course, both Gonzalez and Kluber agreed to five-year guarantees with multiple club options as part of those contracts, whereas Severino only surrendered five years of control in total. With that in mind, it’s likely that the Yankees would have wanted (at least) an additional year of control over Severino in order to firmly set a new precedent — something to which Severino’s camp may simply not have been amenable.

Historical context aside, Severino’s contract will push the Yankees’ 2019 payroll to just north of $202MM and come with a $10MM hit on their luxury tax payroll, which is calculated by contracts’ average annual value as opposed to their year-to-year salaries. The Severino extension, then, brings New York’s 2019 luxury tax ledger to a bit more than $222MM, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez, which checks in about $16MM north of the $206MM luxury threshold. Looking beyond the current season, the Yankees now have nearly $146MM committed to the 2020 payroll and more than $161MM on their 2020 luxury ledger.

Marlins Sign Sergio Romo

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Feb. 15: The Marlins have formally announced the signing. To make room on the 40-man roster, young right-hander Julian Fernandez, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Feb. 12: The Marlins are in agreement on a one-year contract with veteran reliever Sergio Romo, pending a physical, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (via Twitter). Romo will be guaranteed $2.5MM and can earn additional money on top of that via incentives. Talks between Miami and the veteran righty were reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jon Heyman of MLB Network earlier this afternoon. Romo is represented by Meister Sports.

Sergio Romo | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Set to turn 36 early next month, Romo will give the Marlins a veteran anchor to pair with younger less-experienced arms such as Drew Steckenrider, Adam Conley and Tayron Guerrero late in games. While he helped the Rays to pioneer the “opener” strategy last season, Romo’s best work with Tampa Bay came in his more familiar role as a reliever and closer. When pitching out of the ’pen for the Rays, Romo turned in a solid 3.88 ERA with 9.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 34.3 percent ground-ball rate.

Home runs were somewhat of an issue for Romo, an extreme fly-ball pitcher, as he served them up at an average of 1.47 per nine innings pitched. However, he also maintained a 13 percent swinging-strike rate and generated a swing on a third of the out-of-zone pitches he threw to opponents — both strong marks that create some optimism about his ability to continue missing bats. A move to the National League — specifically to the cavernous Marlins Park — should help to curtail some of the troubles he had with the long ball last year.

While the Marlins could yet leave the ninth inning open for competition between Romo, Steckenrider and Guerrero in camp, it’s fair to call the veteran Romo the favorite to close games in Miami. He tallied 25 saves for Tampa Bay a year ago and has compiled 109 saves across an 11-year Major League career.

If he can once again thrive in a ninth-inning capacity for the Marlins, his tenure with the organization could prove to be a short one. While Romo’s market was oddly tepid in free agency — the Twins and Rangers were reportedly willing to offer him a minor league deal, while the Blue Jays were interested at the MLB level — the demand for affordable bullpen help is always at its greatest leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline. Given that the Marlins are the clear cellar dwellers in a stacked NL East division, Miami seems likely to make Romo available to other clubs in need of relievers this summer.

Padres Met Recently With Manny Machado

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The Padres held a meeting earlier this week with star free agent Manny Machado, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. It does not appear that an agreement is imminent, but it seems fair to say that there’s still serious interest from the San Diego organization.

While the Friars have long been connected to Machado, it has never been clear how serious the team was about pulling off a surprise blockbuster. As the club continues to look for ways to move from a rebuilding phase to contention, it has also held a recent sit-down with Bryce Harper, the other shockingly unclaimed prize of the free agent market.

[RELATED: Projecting Payrolls: San Diego Padres]

Padres GM A.J. Preller is said to have met with Machado and his wife. It is not known whether anyone else participated in the meeting. Neither is it clear what level of contract the Padres are willing to put on the table — or whether they have in fact issued a formal offer. Clearly, though, the fact that a meeting occurred at this stage of the proceedings indicates that the connection is a serious one.

Twins To Extend Max Kepler

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3:40pm: Heyman tweets the full breakdown. Kepler earns successive salaries of $6MM, $6.25MM, $6.5MM, $6.75MM, and $8.5MM and will then receive either a $10MM salary or $1MM buyout. That 2024 option year salary can increase by up to $1MM based upon awards.

11:25am: It’s a five-year deal worth $35MM for Kepler, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The deal also contains a club option for a sixth season, which is valued at $10MM, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link).

10:25am: The Twins are nearing the completion of a new contract with right fielder Max Kepler, Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. If and when the deal is completed, it’d be the second long-term deal hammered out by the Twins this week, as the team is also reported to be finalizing a five-year pact with shortstop Jorge Polanco. The Twins, notably, have scheduled a press conference for 10am tomorrow morning. Kepler is represented by Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon.

Max Kepler | Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Kepler has already agreed to a $3.125MM deal for the 2019 season as a Super Two player, though a new long-term arrangement could potentially supersede that prior agreement. The German-born 26-year-old has spent the past three seasons as Minnesota’s primary right fielder, batting a combined .233/.314/.418 (96 OPS+) with 56 homers, 82 doubles, eight triples and 16 steals in 1626 plate appearances. He’s proven himself to be a strong defender in that time (+15 Defensive Runs Saved, +11 Ultimate Zone Rating, +32 Outs Above Average) and has drawn favorable reviews for his baserunning as well, even if his stolen-base totals are lacking (+8.1 BsR, per Fangraphs).

While Kepler’s overall production in his three years as an MLB regular doesn’t immediately stand out, there’s reason to believe that he could yet deliver a more impressive level of offensive output. For the first few seasons of his career, Kepler struggled mightily against left-handed pitching but turned in strong output against righties. From 2016-17, he hit .262/.336/.477 when holding the platoon advantage but mustered just a .177/.243/.280 slash against left-handers. This past season, though, Kepler delivered a much-improved .245/.323/.422 line against lefties and dramatically improved his strikeout and walk rates against them. Unfortunately, he saw his average on balls in play against right-handers crater, leading to diminished overall results.

If Kepler can bounce back in terms of BABIP against righties and maintain some of last year’s gains against lefties, there’s reason to expect the outfielder’s best season yet. Beyond that fairly rudimentary look at Kepler’s splits, he improved his walk rate to a career-high 11.6 percent in 2018 while slashing his strikeout rate to a career-low 15.7 percent. It’s also worth noting that the Berlin native also has less overall experience with baseball than most young players at his age, given baseball’s lack of popularity in his home country.

As things stand, Kepler will reprise his role as the everyday right fielder, with Eddie Rosario lining up in left and Minnesota once again hoping to see former No. 2 overall pick and top overall prospect Byron Buxton solidify himself at the Major League level. Buxton looked to be well on his way to breaking out as a star in 2017, but a series of injuries torpedoed his 2018 season and rendered him a question mark in 2019. He’ll get the first crack at regular work in center field, though the Twins also have Jake Cave on hand should Buxton struggle or be slowed by injuries once again. Both Kepler and Rosario can handle center field, as well.

A look at recent comparables in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker — specifically, Super Two outfielders with two to three years of service — Ender Inciarte stands out as a potentially relevant data point. The Braves’ center fielder signed an extension at the same age Kepler is now and with nearly identical service time, agreeing to a five-year pact worth $30.525MM prior to the 2017 campaign. Something in that range for Kepler could very well be plausible, though presumably his camp would like to top that mark in any negotiations.

As noted when looking at Polanco’s soon-to-be-finalized extension, the Twins don’t have a single guaranteed contract on the books beyond the 2019 season. Polanco and Kepler would change that fact and give the Minnesota organization additional cost certainty as it looks to supplement a roster that is largely comprised of young assets who are still years from reaching the open market. It’s possible that additional extensions could yet come to fruition, with Rosario and Jose Berrios standing out as prominent young Twins who the organization would surely like to retain for a longer period of time.

Twins To Extend Jorge Polanco

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2:15pm: Polanco will earn $3.583MM in 2019, $3.833MM in 2020, $4.333MM in 2021, $5.5MM in 2022 and $7.5MM in 2023, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).

His 2024 club option is valued at $10.5MM with a $1MM buyout, while the 2025 option is worth $12.5MM with a $750K buyout. The first of those two options is also a vesting option that would automatically trigger if Polanco tallies 550 plate appearances in 2023. His base salaries on the option years can increase based on All-Star nominations, Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers.

9:45am: Polanco’s deal will pay him $25.75MM over the next five years, and it also includes club options for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, per Jim Bowden of The Athletic (Twitter link).

8:34am: ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the contract will cover a total of seven seasons, at least five of which are guaranteed. The deal will indeed be in the range of Ramirez’s extension with Cleveland, though it’s expected to exceed that $26MM guarantee by a bit.

7:50am: The Twins and shortstop Jorge Polanco are nearing the finalization of a contract extension, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (via Twitter). La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported earlier this week that Minnesota was optimistic about reaching perhaps multiple contract extensions in the near future. The 25-year-old Polanco is represented by Octagon.

Jorge Polanco | Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The switch-hitting Polanco was already under control for another four seasons and was not yet eligible for arbitration, but the new arrangement in question will presumably keep him in the fold longer than that. To this point in his career, the former top prospect has compiled a .272/.329/.420 slash line with 23 home runs, 64 doubles, 11 triples and 25 steals through 1167 plate appearances.

Polanco, long touted as a potential infield fixture for the Twins, got off to a dreadful start to his 2017 season, hitting just .213/.265/.305 through his first 310 plate appearances. He rebounded with a torrid final two months, hitting .316/.377/.553 to close out the year, though that production was met with some skepticism when Polanco was suspended for 80 games to open the 2018 season after testing positive for a banned substance (Stanozolol). Polanco hit well in his return from that suspension, though, slashing .288/.345/.427 with 27 extra-base hits in 333 plate appearances to close out the season.

While Polanco doesn’t post huge walk rates (7.5 percent in each of the past two seasons as well as in his overall career), he draws enough free passes and is a tough enough strikeout (16.2 percent) that there’s little doubt in his ability to consistently get on base. At the very least, he should be a useful source of batting average and on-base skills with modest pop and a bit of speed, though if he can tap into a bit more power, there’s perhaps room to take his game to another offensive level.

Defensively speaking, there was some question surrounding Polanco’s home on the diamond as he rose through the Twins’ system. While he was consistently given work at shortstop, some scouting reports felt he was best-suited for either second base or third base and would eventually have to move to either position. He hasn’t been a star defender at short thus far, but he’s held his own there over the past two seasons, with Defensive Runs Saved (-2) pegging him as below average but passable. Ultimate Zone Rating has been less kind (-8).

For the time being, with Jonathan Schoop at second base and Miguel Sano at the hot corner, Polanco will reprise his role as the team’s shortstop. It’s not difficult to envision a different alignment in the near future, however, with former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis soaring through the system and barreling toward the Majors with top 10 overall prospect fanfare. While Lewis is quite likely more than a year from reaching the game’s top level, he could usurp Polanco at shortstop when that happens, pushing him to either second base (depending on the status of former first-round pick Nick Gordon) or to third base (with Sano potentially slotting in at first base or DH).

Terms of the would-be extension aren’t yet known, but a look in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker could provide some useful context. Taking a look at other middle infielders with two to three years of service, Polanco has nearly the same service time that a pre-breakout Jose Ramirez had with the Indians when he signed a five-year deal worth a guaranteed $26MM (plus two options). Ramirez, to that point in his career, was a .275/.331/.404 hitter — numbers that closely resemble Polanco’s own .272/.329/.420 line.

From a payroll perspective, the Twins have zero issues fitting Polanco — or virtually any player in baseball — onto the long-term ledger. Minnesota is the only organization in MLB that doesn’t have a single guaranteed contract on the books for the 2020 season, with the only dollars they’re technically committed to beyond 2019 coming in the form of a $300K buyout on Nelson Cruz’s one-year contract.

The Polanco extension and any others — Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario and Jose Berrios are among other candidates for multi-year deals — will change that outlook, though chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine will nonetheless have ample payroll space to make any moves they wish in the near future given that largely blank slate. If anything, the cost certainty added from a Polanco deal and any other extensions will only make it easier for the team to look at adding pieces from outside the organization, as they’ll paint a clearer picture of exactly how much money is being spent over the next several years.

Doug Fister Retires

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Veteran right-hander Doug Fister has elected to call it a career after spending parts of 10 seasons in the Majors, agent Page Odle tells Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Fister, 35, received multiple Major League contract offers this winter, according to Odle, but is instead making a “100 percent family-driven” decision to spend time with his wife and two children.

A seventh-round pick of the Mariners back in 2006, Fister ascended to the Majors as a largely unheralded prospect with the Mariners in 2009. After establishing himself as a quality starter over his first 378 frames with the Mariners, Fister was flipped to the Tigers in a 2011 trade deadline deal, where he’d go on to thrive over another three seasons. Fister, in fact, was somewhat quietly one of the game’s better starters from 2011-14, pitching to a 3.11 ERA (129 ERA+) with 6.5 K/9, 1.7 BB/9 and 0.7 HR/9.

A 2015 forearm strain led to diminished velocity and diminished results for Fister, though he managed to make 32 starts for the 2016 Astros and served as a stabilizing force in their rotation. Hip and knee injuries slowed Fister in his most recent run with the Rangers, with the latter of the two issues ultimately ending his season after 66 innings.

All in all, Fister will walk away from his baseball career with a lifetime 83-92 record, a 3.72 ERA, 6.1 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 1422 1/3 big league innings. The towering 6’8″ righty also amassed an impressive postseason resume, tallying 56 2/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball with a 41-to-17 K/BB ratio in five separate postseasons runs (three with the Tigers, one with the Nats and one with the Red Sox). He made one World Series start, with the Tigers in ’12, where he tossed six innings of one-run ball against the Giants.

Fister earned more than $36MM in player salaries over the life of a career that both Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs value at 20 wins above replacement. Best wishes to the former Tigers, Mariners, Nationals, Astros, Red Sox and Rangers righty in his life beyond baseball.

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