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Cubs, Kris Bryant Agree To Record Pre-Arb Deal

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The Cubs have agreed with star third baseman Kris Bryant on a record-setting pre-arbitration salary, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports. Fresh off of a year in which he won the National League’s Most Valuable Player award, Bryant will take home $1.05MM.

Chicago also shared some of its World Series wealth with righty Kyle Hendricks, who’ll earn a hefty $760,500, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Hendricks was another key performer for the Cubs, turning in an outstanding campaign that saw him land third in the N.L. Cy Young voting. Larger-than-usual salaries are also on tap for Addison Russell ($644K), Javier Baez ($609K), and Kyle Schwarber ($565,500), per Wittenmyer’s report.

Bryant’s payday doesn’t blow the prior record out of the water, but does land a bit north of Mike Trout’s 2014 salary of $1MM. Recently, standout Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts was renewed at $950K after his own high-quality season. Notably, unlike Trout and Betts, Bryant has yet to achieve his second full year of MLB service — owing to the team’s controversial decision to delay his MLB debut in 2015.

The 25-year-old star will reach arbitration next year, though, as he’ll easy qualify for Super Two status. If he posts anything approaching the numbers from his first two season — including a composite .284/.377/.522 batting line and 65 total home runs — Bryant will earn a massive raise in his first trip through the arb process.

If the sides discuss a larger contract, Trout could again provide a target. His six-year, $144.5MM pact, which replaced the above-noted arb deal in 2014, was the second-largest contract ever given to a 2+ player. Buster Posey still holds the record for that service class at $159MM over eight years. Odds are that the Scott Boras-repped Bryant would be looking for quite a bit more money than either of those two players; certainly, it’s arguable that the market has moved northward since that time, and the Trout contract seems a notable bargain in retrospect for a player of that quality (even given the remaining club control the organization had).

Hendricks, 27, was in the 2+ arb class, but fell well shy of Super Two eligibility. After a solid 2015 effort, he turned one of the most surprising campaigns in the league last year. Over 190 frames, Hendricks worked to a National League-leading 2.13 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. He, too, will be in line for big first-year arb earnings if he can replicate that success.

Follow @pfrumors On Twitter For Today’s NFL Free Agency News

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NFL free agents can’t officially ink their deals with clubs until this afternoon, but the transaction frenzy is already in full swing.

The Patriots shocked everyone by signing cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the Browns landed wide receiver Kenny Britt, and the Bears have agreed to pay quarterback Mike Glennon upwards of $45MM on a three-year deal.   Meanwhile, defensive lineman Calais Campbell is apparently waffling on a rumored deal with the Jaguars and could sign with the Broncos.  Some big names have come off the board, but tons more remain including Texans free agent cornerback A.J. Bouye, Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, and Chiefs defensive tackle Dontari Poe.

On top of that, we still don’t know where superstars Tony Romo and Adrian Peterson will wind up, and the Patriots just might complete their second trade of the week by acquiring stud wide receiver Brandin Cooks from the Saints.

If you haven’t been following NFL free agency to this point, you can get a quick crash course by checking out PFR’s Free Agent Power rankings, which are based on the potential earning power of each player on the open market.  We’ve also broken down the top offensive and defensive free agents by overall ability.

Whether you’re an NFL diehard or just a casual fan, you won’t want to miss out on all of this.  Follow @pfrumors on Twitter and head to ProFootballRumors.com now to get up-to-the-second updates on everything going down.

Sonny Gray Shut Down Three Weeks Due To Lat Strain

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Athletics right-hander Sonny Gray has been shut down for three weeks with what the club is terming a “moderate” lat strain, tweets MLB.com’s Jane Lee. The setback means that Gray will open the year on the disabled list and may not pitch until late April, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics Depth Chart]

The news is obviously disheartening for the A’s and for Gray, who missed significant time in 2016 due to a strained trapezius muscle and a strained right forearm. Those injuries contributed to the worst year of Gray’s young career. The 2015 Cy Young candidate limped to a 5.69 ERA in 2016 while registering an elevated walk rate and a 1.4 HR/9 rate that was twice as high as the 0.7 mark he posted a year prior.

With Gray on the shelf for what could be nearly a month of the season (in a best-case scenario), the Opening Day assignment in Oakland likely falls to Kendall Graveman or Sean Manaea. Both young starters are considered locks for the rotation, where they’re likely to be joined by another young arm in the form of Jharel Cotton. To this point in camp, there’s been a competition for the fifth spot in the rotation behind Gray and that young trio, but it now appears as if two spots will be up for grabs. Jesse Hahn, Andrew Triggs, Frankie Montas and Paul Blackburn are all 40-man options for manager Bob Melvin.

The Gray injury represents the second notable hit to the Athletics’ rotation depth in the past month. Back in early February, the A’s announced that right-hander Daniel Mengden, who started 14 games for the team last year, underwent foot surgery that would keep him in a walking boot for at least six weeks. While Oakland has some obvious depth in the rotation (as evidenced by the names listed above), one can imagine that the agents for currently unsigned free agents like Colby Lewis, Doug Fister and others will now circle back with president of baseball operations Billy Beane to determine if the latest setback for Gray creates any urgency to add an arm to the mix.

From a broader perspective, the injury to Gray could potentially hurt the Athletics beyond the thinning of their rotation early in the season. Gray has been an oft-speculated trade candidate for more than a year now, but an early injury in 2017 on the heels of an injury-ruined 2016 campaign makes it more difficult for the A’s to cite that 2016 campaign as an aberration. Even if Gray were to return to peak form upon returning from the disabled list, it’s unlikely that interested parties would completely disregard the recent run of injuries that have slowed the talented young righty.

Of course, Gray still has three years of club control remaining (including the 2017 campaign), so there’s little urgency for the Athletics to trade him in the near term anyhow. The 27-year-old agreed to a one-year, $3.575MM deal this winter to avoid arbitration — his first trip through the arbitration process.

Jeffrey Loria Likely To Sell Marlins This Year

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Contrary to a report from February stating that Marlins Jeffrey Loria had a “handshake agreement” to sell the franchise to New York-based real estate developer Joshua Kushner, he hasn’t yet reached a deal with anyone, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. However, Loria is ready to move on from baseball and poised to part with the team sometime this year, reports Jackson.

Loria is currently in discussions with four groups, both from Miami and elsewhere, about selling the Marlins and has also had talks with two others. Major League Baseball knows the identities of the potential buyers, Jackson adds.

Based on prior reports, it seems the Marlins could sell from between $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion, which would be quite a boon for the much-maligned Loria. Now 76, Loria bought the franchise for a relatively meager $158MM in 2002. The Marlins won their second World Series a year later, but they haven’t made the playoffs since and Loria has come under fire for, among other things, his reluctance to spend to improve the on-field product and the opening of a $634MM, taxpayer-funded stadium in 2012. Loria did sign outfielder Giancarlo Stanton to a $325MM contract in 2014, but he’d escape the remaining $309.5MM on the pact by selling the Marlins.

Should Loria leave baseball behind, he could become the United States ambassador to France under President Donald Trump, who’s the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, Joshua’s brother. The Kushner group issued a statement last month saying it wouldn’t pursue a purchase of the Marlins if Trump appoints Loria to that post. Regardless of whether that proves true, it does appear the Marlins will soon change hands.

White Sox Request Release Waivers On Brett Lawrie

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In a surprising move, the White Sox announced on Friday that they’ve requested release waivers on infielder Brett Lawrie. Assuming Lawrie clears waivers — a fair bet, given his $3.5MM salary for the 2017 season — he’ll become a free agent upon clearing in 48 hours. The Sox, it should be noted, won’t be on the hook for the entirety of that salary. Arbitration contracts aren’t fully guaranteed until Opening Day, so the Sox will only be on the hook for about one-sixth of that salary (30 days’ termination pay) — or about $574K.

The 27-year-old Lawrie made MLBTR’s list of non-tender candidates back in early December on the heels of a poor first year with the South Siders. The ChiSox, though, elected to tender him a contract and Lawrie agreed to take an extremely rare arbitration pay cut (he earned $4.125MM in 2016) in order to avoid being cut loose. Acquired from Oakland last winter, Lawrie hit .248/.310/.413 with a dozen homers. Park-adjusted metrics like OPS+ (99) and wRC+ (92) thought his offense ranged anywhere from about league average to eight percent below the output of an average hitter.

Though Lawrie is a more experienced third baseman than second baseman, Chicago played him at second last season due to the acquisition of Todd Frazier. Defensive metrics weren’t kind to Lawrie in the largest single-season sample of work he’s received at second base, with Defensive Runs Saved pegging him at -4 and Ultimate Zone Rating pegging him at -5.5 runs.

A former first-round pick (16th overall by the Brewers in 2008), Lawrie once rated as one of baseball’s very best prospects and appeared poised to deliver on that hype upon debuting as a 21-year-old rookie in 2011. In that debut campaign with the Blue Jays — Milwaukee traded him to Toronto in exchange for Shaun Marcum in 2010 — Lawrie tallied 171 plate appearances and turned in a robust .293/.373/.580 batting line with nine homers and seven steals. His sophomore campaign wasn’t nearly that impressive, but he showed promise by hitting .273/.324/.405 as a 22-year-old. Since that time, though, his offensive output has never really taken off. And, in recent years, Lawrie has gone from a very low 15.4 percent strikeout rate to a lofty 28.4 percent mark in 2016.

David Price Seeking Second Opinion Following Elbow MRI

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March 3: Farrell said the Red Sox won’t get further word on Price’s elbow until at least the late afternoon today, tweets Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com.

March 2, 3:43pm: Price will receive opinions from both Andrews and ElAttrache in Indianapolis tomorrow, tweets Britton. (The renowned surgeons are both there for this week’s NFL combine.) Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald tweets that Farrell said the initial MRI revealed some swelling and fluid buildup but offered “inconclusive” results overall. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets that Price himself is optimistic that the injury isn’t serious.

9:48am: There is “serious concern” that Price may require Tommy John surgery, Bowden tweets.

8:46am: The Red Sox are holding their breath after sending in key lefty David Price for an MRI, as Jim Bowden of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). For now, Price will just be held out of his next scheduled start while he heads for a second opinion.

The broader outlook is not known, but manager John Farrell says there is concern given the degree of soreness Price is experiencing. And while it’s far from clear whether there’s reason yet to believe he could be headed for surgery, the veteran lefty is already slated to see one or both of the game’s foremost Tommy John experts — Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache — for a second opinion, per Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (via Twitter).

Price, 31, signed a record-setting seven-year, $217MM with the Red Sox last winter. The agreement includes an opt-out opportunity after the 2018 campaign. He has earned only $30MM of the total thus far; needless to say, Boston has a lot riding on the lefty, both now and in the future.

While his first season with the Red Sox didn’t pan out quite as hoped, with Price recording only a 3.99 ERA, he still managed to throw a typically robust 230 frames. Boston has hoped that he and newly added starter Chris Sale would provide a historically excellent 1-2 lefty punch, with reigning AL Cy Young winner Rick Porcello rounding out a top-flight front of the rotation.

If the worst case comes to pass for Price, then the club does have three arms to round out the staff — Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz, and Steven Wright (assuming all remain on track with their respective health issues) — but little in the way of certainty beyond that. Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski previously shipped out veteran Clay Buchholz, but he has expressed confidence in the team’s remaining depth.

Jung Ho Kang Sentenced In DUI Case

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March 3: Pirates president Frank Coonelly has issued a statement on Kang’s sentencing, via press release, which reads as follows:

“Now that Jung Ho’s legal case in Korea has concluded, we will continue to work with him and his representatives in an effort to secure his work visa so that he may resume his career as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  We look forward to meeting with Jung Ho as soon as he is able to travel to the United States and having a serious discussion with him on this issue and how he has and will change those behaviors that led to the very serious punishment that has been levied against him in Korea.  We will withhold judgment on what Club discipline, if any, is appropriate until we have had an opportunity to have that discussion.  We will also withhold from further comment until we have an opportunity to meet with Jung Ho.  Regardless of our decision on the disciplinary issue, we will do everything that we can as an organization to assist Jung Ho as he works to change his behavior and grow into the man that we know he can be.”

March 2: Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang has been sentenced in the DUI case in which he admitted guilt, as Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News reports. Kang received an eight-month sentence, but it has been suspended for two years, clearing the way for him to return to Pirates’ camp.

Kang can avoid any jail time if he does not violate the terms of the suspended sentence. He has two prior DUI arrests in his native South Korea, though still managed to stay clear of a prison this time around. Whether or not he’ll face any discipline from Major League Baseball remains to be seen.

Clearly, there’s a broader issue of maturity at play here for Kang, who has endangered others with his poor decisionmaking. He has also been accused in the United States of sexual assault, though it’s not clear at present whether those allegations have any merit, and whether there’s any chance of prosecution.

On the baseball side of the ledger, there’s no doubting Kang’s importance to the Pirates. The 29-year-old has been a steady producer when healthy, providing Pittsburgh with a cumulative .273/.355/.483 batting line and 36 home runs over 837 plate appearances over the past two seasons. The Bucs guaranteed Kang just $11MM in total for his four-year deal, which also includes a $5.5MM club option for 2019.

No Timetable For David Wright To Resume Throwing

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Mets third baseman David Wright was diagnosed with a shoulder impingement earlier this week, and he told reporters today that a second opinion confirmed the diagnosis of an impingement and instability in his right shoulder (via Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News). More troubling was the fact that Wright said there’s no time frame for his return to baseball activities. Per the New York Post’s Mike Puma (on Twitter), Wright says he is embarking on an “aggressive, time-consuming rehab” of the shoulder.

Originally, Wright was said to be shut down from throwing for at least the next two weeks, though today’s meeting with the media suggests a substantially lengthier absence. He can continue to hit in a batting cage as he rehabs his shoulder.

With Wright on the shelf for an indeterminate amount of time, third base duties will fall to Jose Reyes. While the former shortstop has also been taking some reps in center field to enhance his versatility during Spring Training, he figures to land the majority of the work at the hot corner, with Wilmer Flores and perhaps T.J. Rivera also serving as options. Given the uncertainties across the diamond, where first baseman Lucas Duda has received cortisone injections in both hips after being slowed by pain early this spring, each of Reyes, Flores and Rivera could be in line for larger roles than initially expected. Jay Bruce has been getting a look at first base this spring as well.

[Related: New York Mets Depth Chart]

Wright said today that he still plans to return to the field this season, and per Newsday’s Marc Carig, he made no indication that he’s considering this latest injury the beginning of the end (Twitter link). Per Carig, right called the rehab process “well worth it.”

Once one of the game’s elite players, Wright batted a combined .302/.384/.505 with 208 homers, 177 steals, seven All-Star nods, two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers from 2005-13. His consistent excellence prompted the Mets to sign Wright to an eight-year, $138MM extension, spanning the 2013-20 seasons. However, since a terrific but injury-shortened 2013 season, Wright has batted a more pedestrian .266/.339/.396 in 924 plate appearances across three seasons. He’s averaged 70 games per year over the past three campaigns and battled through a series of injuries, most notably including spinal stenosis and a herniated disk in his neck that required surgical repair last year. He’s owed a total of $67MM over the remaining four seasons on his contract.

MLB, MLBPA Announce Rule Modifications For 2017 Regular Season

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Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association jointly announced modifications to a series of rules today, all of which have been approved and will be implemented for the 2017 season (Twitter link). The most notable of the bunch include approval of an automatic intentional walk that does not require any pitches to be thrown, a 30-second limit for a manager to request a replay review, and a “conditional” two-minute guideline for officials to reach a determination on a review case. (The announcement notes that there are “various exceptions” but does not elaborate.) Additionally, Crew Chiefs can now invoke replay reviews of non-home-run calls even after a manager is out of challenges beginning in the eighth inning, as opposed to the seventh inning.

Over the course of the 2016-17 offseason, a number of potential rule changes have been floated — ranging from fairly mild in nature (e.g. today’s implementations) to extreme (e.g. Jeff Passan’s report of placing a runner on second base to open an inning at a certain point in extra innings and Jayson Stark’s report of potential strike zone alterations). While the elimination of the traditional four-pitch intentional walk has drawn its fair share of ire from fans and from some players, last season saw an intentional free pass issued just over once every third game during the regular season, so the change isn’t exactly radical. Then again, because of the infrequency of intentional walks, there’s also some merit to the argument that the change doesn’t impact the pace of play enough to merit implementation.

Beyond those two rules, there was also an amendment made in regard to the positioning of base coaches prior to the delivery of a pitch. (Effectively, they must be positioned at the intersection of the coaching box line that is closest to the plate and the line that runs parallel to the foul line when the pitch is delivered but are free to move to signal a player when a ball is in play). It is also now expressly forbidden to use any type of on-field markers that could serve as a reference for the positioning of defenders. And, the league made an addition to Rule 5.07, which seems to carry a direct correlation to Carter Capps’ unorthodox and controversial delivery.

Per the league’s announcement, the rule now “stipulates that a player may not take a second step toward home plate with either foot or otherwise reset his pivot foot in his delivery of the pitch.” Doing so with the bases empty will result in an illegal pitch, while doing so with runners aboard will result in a balk.

As Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Twitter links), Capps’ “hop-drag” delivery has been interpreted consistently by the league in recent years. Today’s rule change was a formalization of that interpretation. MLB.com’s A.J. Cassavell tweets that the team (and, based on Lin’s tweets, the league) interpret this to mean that Capps can legally drag his foot during his delivery so long as he does not pick the foot up and reset it.

Visit Pro Hockey Rumors For NHL Trade Deadline Coverage

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The NHL Trade Deadline is upon us, and Pro Hockey Rumors has you covered! With Matt Duchene still available will Colorado make the big splash fans have been waiting for? Carolina has made a young forward available, and legendary winger Jarome Iginla is still out there. How far will the fire sale in Detroit go? Visit Pro Hockey Rumors now and make sure to follow us @prohockeyrumors on Twitter for all the breaking action!

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