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Brewers Have Had Recent Talks With Craig Kimbrel

By Steve Adams | March 20, 2019 at 1:32pm CDT

TODAY: Discussions are “pretty serious,” per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter).

YESTERDAY, 11:26pm: While the two sides have indeed spoken, there’s no agreement close at the time being, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Haudricourt adds that the team’s payroll is already “stretched” after signing Grandal and Moustakas.

8:43pm: The Brewers are in discussions with free-agent reliever Craig Kimbrel, Ken Rosenthal and Robert Murray of The Athletic report (via Twitter).

Should a deal come to fruition, the signing would seem similar to the team’s previous agreements with Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas in that both landed in Milwaukee on shorter-term deals than anticipated. A match between Kimbrel and the Brewers, at least on paper, has looked plausible the longer his market seemed to stagnate. While the bullpen isn’t necessarily a need for a team that already has Josh Hader, Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress, the latter of that trio is currently battling shoulder weakness, and Kimbrel would obviously deepen any team’s ’pen by pushing out its seventh- or eighth-best relief arm.

Kimbrel, 30, reportedly entered the offseason in search of a record contract that’d promise him six years and a total dollar value in excess of $100MM. Those terms, if indeed accurate, likely scared off a number of suitors early in free agency and led to Kimbrel’s stay on the open market lasting far longer than most would’ve anticipated. Certainly, that type of contract is unattainable for him now, though it’s still possible that Kimbrel could establish some type of record payday for a reliever. Currently, Wade Davis’ $17.33MM annual rate is the highest ever for a bullpen arm, and Kimbrel could still conceivably topple that mark.

That’d be serious money for a typically low-spending Brewers club that is already projected to open the season with a franchise-record $127.5MM payroll. Owner Mark Attanasio, however, has already given president of baseball operations David Stearns the green light to guarantee Grandal an $18.25MM salary on a one-year deal with a mutual option. And, the Brewers have every incentive to increase their spending given their recent NLCS run that provided increased revenue while simultaneously raising expectations surrounding the team.

Milwaukee has already surrendered its third-highest selection in the 2019 draft for signing Grandal, who rejected the Dodgers’ $17.9MM qualifying offer after the season. The Brewers would surrender their next-highest pick in order to sign Kimbrel, who also rejected a qualifying offer. The Brewers, though, are very much in a win-now mode, and their status as a non-luxury-tax-paying recipient of revenue sharing means they face a lower penalty for signing qualified free agents than CBT payors and teams that do not benefit from revenue sharing.

Astros Extend Ryan Pressly

By Steve Adams | March 20, 2019 at 10:26am CDT

TODAY: This deal is now official. The option vests with sixty appearances apiece in 2021 and 2022, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic tweets.

YESTERDAY, 8:35pm: The vesting option is based on appearances and is worth $10MM, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.

8:11pm: The two sides have an agreement in place, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets.

8:01pm: The Astros and right-hander Ryan Pressly are close to finalizing a two-year extension worth a guaranteed $17.5MM, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports. The deal would kick in beginning with the 2020 season, paying him $8.75MM that year and again in 2021, with a vesting option for a third season. He’s already earning $2.9MM in 2019 after avoiding arbitration and was set to become a free agent at season’s end. Pressly is represented by the Ballengee Group.

Pressly, 30, joined the Astros in a midseason that sent prospects Gilberto Celestino and Jorge Alcala to the Twins in July. Already in the midst of a strong season in Minnesota, Pressly became an all-out buzzsaw in the late innings with Houston. Pressly, who attributed his breakout to the Astros’ analytics department and its presentation of data to players, pitched to a 0.77 ERA with a 32-to-3 K/BB ratio in 23 1/3 regular-season innings following the trade. He tacked on another five innings and allowed one run in the postseason.

A former Rule 5 pick by the Twins out of the Red Sox system, Pressly steadily improved his K/BB numbers from 2015-18, and his improvement in ’18 has the look of a potential elite weapon for the Astros moving forward. No reliever in baseball topped Pressly in terms of curveball spin rate — Garrett Richards was the only pitcher in all of MLB to best him in that regard — and the spin rate on Pressly’s fastball ranked in the 98th percentile of MLB pitchers.

He also ranked in the top five percent of the league in terms of overall strikeout percentage and several Statcast metrics (including expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected weighted on-base average). Whether looking at traditional stats or newer metrics, Pressly was an overpowering force in 2018, and the Astros apparently had no interest in letting him get to the open market.

While that dominance hasn’t been sustained over a multi-year stint yet, there’s still an argument that Pressly could’ve reached free agency next winter as the market’s most desirable reliever. He hasn’t yet reached even $7MM in career earnings, so it’s easy to see why would take the security of a guaranteed payday worth two and a half times what he’s banked since his MLB debut. But, the relatively short-term nature of the deal and the $8.75MM annual rate could both have been topped with a similarly strong 2019 campaign; Adam Ottavino, for instance, parlayed a 2018 season that was not as dominant as Pressly’s into a three-year deal worth $27MM. Extensions are always a question of risk tolerance, though, and Pressly’s annual value is commensurate the annual rates attained by Ottavino and Joe Kelly (three years, $25MM with the Dodgers).

Rays Extend Brandon Lowe

By Steve Adams | March 20, 2019 at 9:34am CDT

TODAY: Tampa Bay has announced the deal. It could top out at $49MM in total value if both options are exercised and all incentives are reached, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported.

YESTERDAY: The Rays have agreed to a six-year, $24MM contract extension with infielder/outfielder Brandon Lowe, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). The contract contains a pair of club options that would buy out a pair of would-be free-agent seasons as well. Lowe is a client of the Bledsoe Agency.

Lowe has just 43 games of Major League experience under his belt but is widely regarded as one of the Rays’ most promising prospects. Baseball America rated him as the game’s No. 93 prospect this offseason, while Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs ranked him 46th overall.

The early returns on Lowe in the Major Leagues were relatively promising. The 2015 third-rounder reached the Majors for the first time at the age of 23 and batted .233/.324/.450 with six home runs, six doubles, a pair of triples and two stolen bases (in three attempts). Context-neutral metrics like OPS+ (112) and wRC+ (113) felt his bat was 12 to 13 percent better than that of a league-average hitter when adjusting for league and home park.

Lowe’s 25.6 strikeout rate was likely a bit higher than the Rays would prefer, but he showed power and drew walks at a 10.8 percent clip in his first crack at MLB opposition. That production came on the heels of a sensational .297/.391/.558 slash between Double-A and Triple-A, creating further optimism that Lowe can be an integral part of the Rays moving forward.

Defensively, Lowe has spent the bulk of his career as a second baseman, though he got his feet wet with more than 500 innings of work in the outfield corners last season (between the Majors and minors). Scouting reports have generally projected him as a potentially average defender at second, though he’s considered to be more of a bat-first player.

It’s unusual but not unheard of for teams to lock up players with such minimal MLB experience, and the Rays in particular have done so in past years with both Evan Longoria and Matt Moore. Lowe’s deal will line up identically to the Phillies’ six-year, $24MM deal with Scott Kingery — a contract signed before Kingery even played an MLB game.

There’s certainly risk to committing to a player so early in his professional career, but the $24MM risk is one all the more worth taking for a low-payroll club like the Rays that typically has a great deal of difficulty hanging onto quality players as their arbitration earnings increase. For Lowe, he could potentially have earned more over the course of his three arb seasons — and the option years are sure to be at an affordable rate — but the allure of locking in a sizable guaranteed payday when his first arbitration season is still three years away is understandable. If both of the club options on the deal are ultimately exercised, he’ll reach free agency a few months after his 32nd birthday.

Lowe now joins Kevin Kiermaier as the only Rays players to be guaranteed anything beyond the 2020 season. Charlie Morton, set to earn $15MM in both 2019 and 2020, is the only other player whose contract for the 2020 season is guaranteed at the moment. Of course, given the Rays’ wealth of young talent, it’s quite likely that they’ll explore further extension possibilities between now and Opening Day.

Michael Fulmer To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

By Jeff Todd | March 20, 2019 at 8:07am CDT

TODAY: Fulmer will indeed undergo the procedure, he tells reporters including Evan Woodberry of MLive.com (via Twitter).

YESTERDAY: Tigers righty Michael Fulmer has received a recommendation that he undergo Tommy John surgery, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports on Twitter. He’d stand to miss the entire 2019 season and in all likelihood a portion of the 2020 campaign as well.

Fulmer’s medical status has been a bit of a mystery of late, but this news comes as a surprise. He had been shut down recently, purportedly to work on mechanical issues tied to his recovery from last season’s knee surgery, but obviously was dealing with something else entirely. Fulmer had shown a worrying loss of velocity this spring after turning in a subpar, injury-marred 2018 campaign.

It’s not yet certain that Fulmer will go under the knife, but that seems to be far and away the likeliest outcome. Per the Tigers, both a team doctor and noted surgeon Dr. James Andrews have already recommended that Fulmer receive a full replacement of his ulnar collateral ligament.

This is hardly the news anyone wanted for Fulmer, who reached his 26th birthday just days ago. Fortunately for the righty, he already agreed to a $2.8MM salary for the coming season. On the bright side for the club, they won the arbitration hearing and thus avoided a larger payout.

In all likelihood, the Tigers will end up paying Fulmer that $2.8MM both this season and next, while hoping he’ll be able to contribute by the middle of the 2020 campaign. Fulmer is controllable in 2021 and 2022 as well. His earning power in those years will depend upon what he’s able to do in ’20; it’ll unquestionably be diminished by the lengthy absence.

The Detroit organization has thus far centered its rebuilding effort on young pitching, with a series of interesting arms moving up through the ranks. It seemed through his first two seasons in the majors that Fulmer might be a veteran anchor for the next great Tigers staff — or, instead, a big trade chip who’d reel in loads of young talent.

That outlook already changed last year, as Fulmer struggled to a 4.69 ERA in 132 1/3 innings. During his excellent debut campaign and solid follow-up effort, Fulmer’s unexciting strikeout numbers were explained away by some. The line was that his overpowering arsenal and ability to induce weak contact made it unnecessary for Fulmer to rack of Ks. The narrative shifted over the course of the 2018 season. Even as hard contact rose (39.5%), his groundball rate (44.2%) and home run suppression (1.29 per nine innings, 14.5% HR/FB rate) dove despite steady 96 mph velocity readings on his fastball.

Perhaps Fulmer would have found his way back to being a high-quality starter had he not encountered knee issues that ultimately resulted in a meniscus procedure. The connection between that joint, his reduced velo this spring, and his problematic elbow isn’t completely clear, but it certainly seems plausible that all are interrelated. He’ll now have a lengthy absence to work through the varying health issues. If all goes well, Fulmer could return to be a quality hurler once more.

Yankees Sign Gio Gonzalez

By Jeff Todd | March 19, 2019 at 3:20pm CDT

The Yankees have bolstered their pitching depth in a substantial way, adding veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez. General manager Brian Cashman announced to reporters Tuesday that Gonzalez has passed his physical and reported to camp (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch). Rather stunningly, the contract is a minor league deal that reportedly comes with a $3MM base salary in the Majors and pays Gonzalez an additional $300K per start (topping out at $12MM). He can also opt out of the contract on April 20.

This outcome was hard to foresee when the market opened. While Gonzalez hardly seemed likely to break the bank, he’s an accomplished, still-useful, exceptionally durable starter. MLBTR graded him the 27th-best free agent available and predicted a two-year, $24MM contract.

As it turns out, many mid-level free-agent starters have failed to land that second promised year. And Gonzalez will still need to earn his way onto the MLB roster. Even if he makes it, he’ll be playing on a base rate of pay that lags a long list of other rotation pieces that signed this winter.

Gonzalez, 33, was long a highly valuable starter with the Athletics and Nationals. While he was often chided for inconsistency on a start-by-start basis, he was one of the steadiest hurlers in the majors in the aggregate for a lengthy span. Between 2010 and 2017, Gonzalez threw over 1,500 innings of 3.41 ERA ball, only once failing to make thirty starts in a season.

As recently as 2017, Gonzalez was capable of a sub-3.00 ERA, 200+ inning campaign. Even then, his peripherals reflected a decline in his stuff. Over the past two seasons, Gonzalez’s fastball has sat just over the 90 mph line. He still generated a 9.5% swinging-strike rate last year, right at his career average, but surrendered more hard contact and more home runs than he did in his prime.

Despite the downturn, Gonzalez remained a sturdy MLB hurler in 2018. He contributed 171 frames and ended with a 4.21 ERA. Gonzalez struggled in two postseason outings but provided the Brewers with five useful starts down the stretch after a late-season trade.

While his earning upside was always going to be limited by his age and reduced repertoire, it’s hard to fathom this outcome. It’s certainly possible that other teams offered guaranteed deals with less overall earning capacity. Even that’s unclear at this point, though.

The Yankees, it seems, don’t necessarily even plan to utilize Gonzalez to fill in while Luis Severino works back from his injury issues. Per the New York Post’s Joel Sherman (Twitter links), the club seems inclined to rely upon a trio of young hurlers — Luis Cessa, Domingo German, Jonathan Loaisiga — before turning to Gonzalez. That could certainly change before the opt-out date. But it’s notable that the deeply established southpaw will evidently be working just to obtain an MLB opportunity, particularly with so many teams preparing to rely upon untested pitchers at the outset of the season.

It also remains to be seen just when Gonzalez will even be ready to join the Yankees’ rotation. Manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday that Gonzalez made 80 pitches in a simulated game just yesterday and could appear in the Yankees’ Grapefruit League game on March 23 (Twitter link via Hoch). He still isn’t likely to be ready for the season opener, though, which point to an early April debut, at the earliest.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the sides were close to a deal (via Twitter). Sherman reported that it was a minor league pact (Twitter link), while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal added financial details (via Twitter). Heyman added further details regarding the contract’s heavy slate of incentives (via Twitter).

Indians Sign Carlos Gonzalez

By Connor Byrne | March 19, 2019 at 2:35pm CDT

MARCH 19: The deal has now been announced.

MARCH 16, 6:31pm: It’s a minor league deal that includes an early April opt-out date, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The contract comes with a $2MM major league salary and $1MM in incentives, per Heyman.

6:16pm: The Indians are closing in on a deal with free-agent outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Jorge Urribarri first reported the connection.

Prior to Saturday, it had been a quiet few months for Gonzalez, a Boras corporation client who seemingly hasn’t drawn much serious interest since he reached free agency last November. The 33-year-old is coming off a mostly successful tenure in Colorado, though, having batted .290/.349/.516 with 227 home runs and 118 stolen bases over 5,069 plate appearances since 2009 – his first season with the Rockies. The three-time All-Star has typically fallen short outside of the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, however, evidenced by his .323/.381/.592 lifetime slash at home against a .251/.307/.420 showing on the road. Moreover, the left-handed Gonzalez has underwhelmed against same-sided pitchers, who have held him to a .261/.297/.434 mark.

It was more of the same in 2018 for Gonzalez, who slashed a decent .276/.329/.467 with 16 homers in 504 PAs but did most of his damage at home and against right-handed pitchers. Meanwhile, CarGo was a mixed bag in upward of 1,000 innings in right field, where he recorded a woeful DRS (minus-eight) but a strong UZR (4.8) and a respectable Outs Above Average mark (one). Historically, Gonzalez has performed well in the outfield, as shown by his 16 DRS and 26.2 UZR in 1,271 career appearances.

Gonzalez, who was with the Diamondbacks and Athletics prior to his Rockies stint, is now joining his fourth major league organization. Even though Gonzalez didn’t land a guaranteed deal with the Indians, he still may have a realistic shot to crack their roster early in the season. The outfield has been a glaring weakness in Cleveland for a while, after all, yet the club didn’t make any major additions to it before signing Gonzalez; further, the Indians lost Michael Brantley, Lonnie Chisenhall, Brandon Guyer and Melky Cabrera in free agency, and Bradley Zimmer is still on the mend from July 2018 shoulder surgery. As a result, the Indians are projected to open the season with the unspectacular Leonys Martin–Jake Bauers–Tyler Naquin–Jordan Luplow quartet, which seems to leave room for Gonzalez to work his way back to the majors in short order.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

MLB, MLBPA Announce Single Trade Deadline, Changes To Roster Size

By Steve Adams | March 14, 2019 at 10:10am CDT

10:10am: The league and Union have formally announced the changes. A full rundown of the new rules is available, but here’s a more concise overview:

Effective Immediately

There will be no trades after July 31. August trade waivers have been eliminated, though players can still be placed on and claimed from outright waivers, as they would throughout the rest of the year.
All-Star voting will still be conducted by fans online, but the top three players at each position, in each league, will now participate in an All-Star Election Day. The top three vote-getters at each position, in each league, (top six in the case of outfielders) will receive bonus payments.
The Home Run Derby will now come with $2.5MM of prize money, including a $1MM prize for the winner.
The maximum number of mound visits per game will be reduced from six to five.
Commercial breaks between innings are reduced to two minutes in length for all games.
The MLB and MLBPA will form a “Joint Committee” to discuss further issues and rule changes.

Effective Beginning in 2020

The standard roster size in regular season games and postseason games will increase from 25 to 26 players. Beginning on Sept. 1, roster size will expand further to a 28-player maximum (as opposed to the current 40). A maximum number of pitchers will be designated by the Joint Committee. (Passan reported that the league has proposed no more than half a team’s players can be pitchers.)
Position players are only eligible to pitch in extra innings or when a team is leading or trailing by seven or more runs. Certain position players may be designated as “two-way players,” but to be eligible, they’ll need to have accrued at least 20 innings pitched and started 20 games as a position player/designated hitter in the current season or the preceding season (including at least three trips to the plate in each of those lineup appearances).
A pitcher must face at least three batters per appearance unless he is removed due to injury or the half-inning in which he is pitching ends before three batters have come to the plate.
The minimum length of stay for pitchers who are optioned to the minors or placed on the injured list will increase from 10 days to 15 days. This change is still “subject to input” from the newly formed Joint Committee.

March 14, 7:10am: Passan has several updates this morning, adding that there’ll be cash prizes in the annual Home Run Derby beginning in 2019, including $1MM to the winner, as an enticement for the league’s top talent to participate. Commercial breaks between innings are being shortened for a second time as well.

Pitchers will be required to face a minimum of three batters beginning in 2020, barring injury (previous reports on that possibility suggested that said ruling would also exempt cases in which a pitcher finishes an inning). More controversial issues among fans, including the implementation of a 20-second pitch clock and a universal DH, have been tabled for now but will continue to be discussed.

March 13: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached an agreement on a series of changes regarding roster construction, per both Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required) and Jeff Passan of ESPN. While it seems that this wave of agreed-upon changes will not technically impact actual in-game rules, the two sides have agreed to make July 31 a hard deadline for the completion of trades, thus doing away with the convoluted August waiver system. That change will go into effect for the 2019 season, and beginning in 2020, the standard roster size will expand from 25 to 26 (with a 13-pitcher maximum). September rosters, meanwhile, will shrink from 40 to 28 (with a 14-pitcher maximum).

As Passan details, the All-Star Game selection process will also be getting a facelift in 2019. Fans will still be permitted to cast votes online, but the top three players at each position will then be included in a newly implemented All-Star “Election Day” which figures to provide new avenues to marketing the game’s top talent both in mainstream media and via social media.

The precise manner in which the singular trade deadline will impact action on the summer trade market won’t be known for certain until we have multiple seasons of data, but from a distance it figures to heighten July trade activity. Contending clubs, one would imagine, will be forced to be more aggressive when seeking to acquire talent, while borderline teams who would previously have waited until mid- or late-August to sell off assets in a series of waiver claims will now be forced to make a decision much sooner. The idea is divisive among the GMs to whom Rosenthal spoke, but it seems that the Union’s hope is that pushing up the final date for in-season improvements will also prompt expected contenders to be a bit more aggressive in the offseason.

The broadest, most far-reaching development comes from Passan. As part of the recent agreement, both the league and the Union have already agreed to “imminently” begin discussing the labor issues that have been thrust to the forefront of the industry despite the fact that the current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until 2021. Among the topics to be discussed will be the state of free agency, service time manipulation and the luxury tax.

The MLBPA, player representatives and players themselves have become increasingly frustrated with the current state of free agency, lamenting the stagnant market (particularly for second- and third-tier free agents). While many are quick to point out that in some instances, players have harmed their own markets by aiming too high early in the offseason (e.g. Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel), one of the greater issues on the player side has been the slow disappearance of the so-called “middle class” of free agency. Players such as Adam Jones (via USA Today’s Bob Nightengale), Matt Wieters (via MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch) and Brad Brach (via The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney) are among the many who’ve been open about frustrating forays into the open market. Veterans Justin Verlander, Marcus Stroman and numerous others have been active on social media in calling out the glacial pace of free agency.

While commissioner Rob Manfred has staunchly dismissed suggestions that a significant portion of the league is no longer attempting to win, players and Union officials have decried widespread tanking/rebuilding efforts that have created decreasing levels of parity and discouraged teams from venturing into free agency amid record MLB revenues.

It’s an exorbitantly layered conversation and one to which there’s no clear and easy fix, so it’s promising that the two sides have agreed to at least begin even preliminary discussions that could lead to a system which all parties find more palatable. Certainly, there won’t be any resolution on those issues anytime in the near future, but the early efforts to maintain labor peace will assuredly be among the more fascinating storylines to follow in the months and possibly years to come.

Nationals Sign Tony Sipp

By Jeff Todd | March 14, 2019 at 9:08am CDT

March 14: The Nats have formally announced the deal, and Sipp has reported to camp. Because they already had an open 40-man spot after releasing Solis, no corresponding move was necessary to accommodate the addition of Sipp.

March 13: The Nationals have a deal in place with free agent reliever Tony Sipp, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter links). It’s a one-year, $1.25MM contract that includes a $250K buyout on a $2.5MM mutual option, per reports from Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter links) and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Sipp, a 35-year-old southpaw, bounced back in the results department last season after two rough campaigns in Houston. He finished 2018 with 38 2/3 innings of 1.86 ERA pitching over 54 appearances — quite an improvement over the 5.33 ERA he had maintained over his prior 81 frames. As Sipp’s low innings tallies suggest, he has been used primarily as a left-on-left specialist. That also means the earned runs outcomes probably aren’t the best means of measuring his usefulness on the hill.

Looking beneath the hood, Sipp has generally maintained solid K/BB numbers throughout his career. In five years in Houston, he carried 9.9 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 and rarely strayed too far from those means. The difference between his good and bad years, more than anything else, has been his ability to limit the long ball. Sipp hit his stride in Houston when he improved upon early-career problems in that regard, then slipped when he allowed more than two dingers per nine innings in those ugly 2016-17 seasons. Last year, only a single opposing hitter left the yard against him.

Though that surely isn’t sustainable — a 2.6% HR/FB rate is sure to rise — it shows that Sipp was able to adjust. He still has the same underlying stuff and ability that led the ’Stros to give him a three-year deal in the 2015-16 offseason. Last year, he maintained a 13.7% swinging-strike rate and maintained a fastball in the 92 mph range, both of which are at or above his career levels. The Statcast numbers were quite promising: hitters entering the box against Sipp maintained a meager 22.1% hard-contact rate and mustered only a .258 wOBA that actually lagged expectations (.252 xwOBA) based upon contact quality.

Sipp is likely to be deployed primarily as a southpaw specialist in D.C. He held opposing left-handed hitters to an anemic .188/.263/.294 batting line last year after finally dealing with the gopher ball infestation. Over his career, though, Sipp has actually maintained quite neutral platoon splits. Through about a thousand plate appearances each against left-handed and right-handed hitters, the former group carries a .308 wOBA and the latter a .311 mark.

It’s a bit difficult to pinpoint just what allowed Sipp to regain his effectiveness. A re-aligned release point is certainly notable; perhaps it enabled deeper changes (sequencing? tunneling?) to boost the effectiveness of his repertoire. Poor competition in a stratified American League and lower-leverage usage were surely also factors, though it’s fair to note that Sipp ended up with a career-best 1.24 win-probability added and was ultimately called upon to pitch in three ALCS contests.

The Nats probably aren’t expecting premium results from Sipp, given the late-stage signing and meager guarantee. But it’s an easy risk to take on a player who can reasonably be expected to represent an upgrade over the just-released Sammy Solis. The club avoided all but a sixth of the $850K arb deal it had in place with Solis, which accounts for about half of the new obligation. Sipp will serve as a LOOGY and middle relief option for the Washington club, boosting a bullpen depth chart that has its fair share of questions.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

White Sox Option Eloy Jimenez To Triple-A

By Steve Adams | March 13, 2019 at 5:03pm CDT

In what has been a widely anticipated move, the White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez to Triple-A Charlotte. The move was one of nine spring cuts by the ChiSox, who also optioned out top pitching prospect Dylan Cease, catcher Seby Zavala and outfielder Micker Adolfo.

Jimenez, 22, is not only considered to be among the game’s premier prospects but is also largely believed to be ready for MLB action. The Dominican-born slugger obliterated Double-A and Triple-A pitching in 2018, posting ridiculous slash lines of .317/.368/.556 and .355/.399/.597 at those respective levels.

Jimenez’s demotion will stand out as one of the more blatant examples of service time manipulation this spring, as the decision to send him to Triple-A is surely motivated more by the desire to gain an extra season of club control over the player rather than to further his development. This year’s regular season is 186 days long, and a player would gain a full season of MLB service by spending 172 of those days at the MLB level (be it on the active roster or the injured list). In other words, by keeping Jimenez in the minors for just 15 days, the Sox will be able to control him for seven seasons as opposed to the six seasons for which they’d control him by bringing him to the Majors to open the year.

It’s a maddening and counter-intuitive side effect of a system that has prompted pundits, players, agents and fans to call for change. For a team in the White Sox’ situation — unlikely to contend this season but optimistic that their ongoing rebuild is nearing the finish line — it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint to trade two weeks of Jimenez in a noncompetitive season for a full extra year of control over a potential premium player. For Jimenez, however, the current structure of service time and free agency delays his path to his most significant potential payday, while the fans are asked to accept that their team won’t bring the 25 best players in camp north to open the season. It’s a system in which there’s arguably no true winner, as the even White Sox’ front office will surely face a negative wave of backlash from fans and onlookers.

For the time being, Jimenez will be asked to continue honing his skills in the minors. Perhaps the Sox will opt not to call him up on the very first day on which he’d fall a year shy of big league service, using the delay as a means of further claiming that the move was a developmental decision rather than one driven by service time. It’s likely that they’ll point to Jimenez’s .154/.154/.346 slash in Spring Training as justification of the move, though few would find it plausible that 26 spring plate appearances are more indicative of MLB readiness than the 456 PAs during which Jimenez laid waste to minor league pitching in 2018. Furthermore, the move would surely have happened regardless of his performance; the White Sox, after all, declined to give Jimenez a September call-up in 2018 despite his aforementioned mastery of minor league pitching and despite the fact that he was already on the 40-man roster.

Regardless of the specific timing, it seems quite likely that Jimenez will be in the Majors very early in the 2019 campaign. Cease and the others who were sent out aren’t as far along in their development and will be on a more uncertain timeline to the big leagues.

To be fair to the White Sox, they’re far from the only club to take this route. The Braves held back Ronald Acuna’s promotion to the Majors last season under similarly dubious circumstances, while others who’ve been subject to this form of service time manipulation include Kris Bryant and Maikel Franco (among many others). It was a foregone conclusion that the Blue Jays would send Vladimir Guerrero Jr. down to the minors in the exact same fashion, though Guerrero’s recent oblique injury actually gave the Toronto organization a legitimate reason to do so.

Royals Sign Martin Maldonado

By TC Zencka | March 11, 2019 at 4:03pm CDT

March 11: The Royals have announced the signing. To make room on the 40-man roster, Perez has been placed on the 60-day injured list.

March 9: The Royals are in agreement with free agent catcher Martin Maldonado on a one-year, $2.5MM contract, per the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (via Twitter). Maldonado can earn up to $1.4MM in incentives. The deal is pending a physical.

This union was destined ever since the Royals lost starter Salvador Perez for the season to Tommy John surgery. The Royals were left with only Cam Gallagher and Meibrys Viloria atop their depth chart, which easily would have been the most inexperienced duo in the league. The Maldonado signing likely gives Viloria more time to season in the minors, as he had not appeared above High-A before getting 29 plate appearances with the Royals last season.

While Maldonado has a good chance of becoming a trade chip before the end of July – he’s a good one, one of the most accomplished defensive backstops in the game, and he should help buoy a young Royals staff.

As MLBTR’s own Steve Adams wrote just two days ago: “That Maldonado remains unsigned has seemed an oddity in recent weeks; while he’s unequivocally a below-average hitter, the 32-year-old is also among the game’s premier defenders at his position. As I noted about three weeks ago when Maldonado was linked to the Mariners, the 2016 Gold Glover ranks third among all active catchers in Defensive Runs Saved dating back to the 2012 season, trailing only Buster Posey and Yadier Molina — each of whom has caught at least 2000 more innings than Maldonado in that span. He’s also a perennially strong pitch framer with a career 38 percent caught-stealing rate, including a ridiculous 49 percent mark in 2018 (17-for-35).”

Considering the prevalence of time shares at the catching position these days, it was indeed surprising that it took Maldonado so long to find a home. With the Brewers, Angels and Astros, he has a career batting line of .220/.289/.350, but that shouldn’t have been much of a deterrent in an ecosystem that lacks elite offensive production from the catching spot. Playing devil’s advocate here, Maldonado’s 0.9 fWAR in 2018 places him tied for 25th among catchers last season, on par with names like Matt Wieters and Nick Hundley, both of whom had to settle for minor league deals this winter. Maldonado was rumored to have received a two-year, $12MM offer from the Astros early in the winter, but according to his former agent Scott Boras, they never received a formal offer from Houston, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).

Interestingly, the deal comes just a few days after Maldonado switched representation, hiring Dan Lozano of the MVP Sports Group. Maldonado had spent just a few months (since August) with the Boras Corporation. Still, it appears this contract was put in place before the switch, as Boras will collect commission on the deal. Rosenthal (via Twitter) quotes Boras as saying, “The Kansas City deal was in place and finalized without us knowing Maldonado had switched agents.”

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