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Blue Jays Re-Sign Jose Bautista

By Jeff Todd | January 18, 2017 at 12:10pm CDT

12:05pm: The deal includes attendance bonuses as well, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). In each year of the deal, Bautista can earn up to $900K depending upon how the club draws. He’ll take home $150K for every hundred-thousand fans through the gate between 3.5 and 4.0 million.

It’s not known just how attendance will be calculated, but per ESPN.com, the Jays drew 3,392,299 guests to the Rogers Centre last year.

9:58am: The Blue Jays have now formally announced that they’ve re-signed Bautista (via press release). One of the few teams to publicly disclose the financial details of their contracts, the Jays announced that Bautista will earn $18MM next season. His 2018 option is a mutual option worth $17MM which comes with a $500K buyout that is paid out if either side declines their half of the option. Bautista’s deal also contains a $20MM vesting option for the 2019 season.

JAN. 18, 7:36am: The final guarantee is $18.5MM, Passan tweets. An official announcement is expected in short order.

JAN. 17, 3:45pm: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that Bautista’s 2017 salary will be $18MM, but the buyout on the second-year option will tack another $500K to $1MM onto the overall guarantee (Twitter links). Bautista will have mutual option for the 2018 season and a vesting option for the 2019 season, according to Passan. The two sides are still finalizing the details surrounding the vesting option, he notes, but there’s a framework in place for the agreement.

2:35pm: Bautista receives an $18MM guarantee, per Steve Phillips of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). The maximum value of the deal — with incentives and the consecutive mutual options — is $60MM.

The 2017 salary remains unknown, but buyouts on the option years help contribute to the total guarantee, Bob Nightengale of USA Today notes on Twitter.

1:53pm: The Blue Jays have agreed to a deal with free-agent outfielder Jose Bautista, according to reports from Baseball Prospectus Toronto (Twitter link) and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). It’s a one-year deal that includes at least one mutual option, and could reportedly extend to three total seasons in duration. Bautista will receive a guarantee that exceeds the $17.2MM qualifying offer value, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter), assuming he passes his physical.

[RELATED: Updated Blue Jays Depth Chart]

Bautista was said to be nearing a reunion with the Jays, who’ll plug his bat back into the middle of their order for at least one more season. At the outset of the offseason, Bautista had declined a QO from the organization, which set the stage for Toronto to recoup draft compensation if he signed elsewhere. Instead, the team will give up that possible first-round pick in order to fill the noticeable void that remained in right field.

The signing brings to an end — for now, at least — what has been a lengthy dance between the organization and the player who was perhaps most singularly associated with it. Both Bautista and fellow slugger Edwin Encarnacion were reclamation projects that turned into stars in Toronto. After performing admirably under their respective extensions, both hit the market when they were unable to reach new long-term accords. Though the Jays pursued Encarnacion, he spurned their initial efforts and ended up joining the Indians when Toronto pivoted to add DH Kendrys Morales.

Bautista, though, will be back in the fold. Now, the attention will turn back to the field of play. The 36-year-old has long delivered a potent blend of top-end plate discipline and outstanding power. But while he maintained the former in 2016, his power output dipped. He ended the year with 22 home runs and a .217 isolated slugging percentage — each of which represented his lowest marks since 2009, the year before his remarkable breakout.

Of course, that was still a plenty productive offensive campaign; Bautista checked in at about 20% above the league-average hitter. Though he made more soft contact than has been his custom (21.3%), he also posted a career-best 41.0% hard-contact rate. If he’s able to maintain the lion’s share of his pop while continuing to display an impeccable batting eye and excellent contact ability, then Bautista ought to continue to produce. If he can boost the power back to its typical levels, then there’s plenty of upside here for the Jays. Of course, there’s also a slight downside scenario — though it’s curbed by the nature of the arrangement — in the event that 2016 represents a turning point for an aging player.

Really, there’s plenty of reason to bet on Bautista’s bat, at least to some extent. The real question is whether there’s enough left there to make up for his declines elsewhere. Typically a solid defender in right, Bautista has drawn negative reviews from both UZR and DRS for his glovework in each of the last two seasons. And he checked in with a very poor -5.2 BsR rating for his efforts on the bases last year.

Bautista did need to rehab and return from a mid-season toe injury, which surely didn’t help. Aside from that malady and a 2012 wrist injury, both of which were acute issues, he has been a pillar of fitness and durability. Though there has been plenty of debate about the wisdom of a long-term investment, given Bautista’s age, those concerns largely go out the window in that shorter-term, flexible scenario that the sides seemingly landed at.

Of course, Bautista was long said to be hoping for a much greater guarantee. He and the Jays’ then-new front office engaged in extension discussions this time last year, but he wasn’t willing to move off of a number well in excess of $100MM over five years. While there was little chance that he’d reach that level of contract after his relatively unsuccessful 2016 season, Bautista still seemed a reasonable bet to achieve a strong, multi-year commitment heading into the offseason. MLBTR predicted he could command $51MM over three years, while noting that a one-year, make-good scenario remained a plausible outcome.

Toronto seems likely to plug Bautista back into right field, though perhaps he’ll also see time at first base — which is currently set to be manned mostly by Justin Smoak, who typically struggles against left-handed pitching. Fellow signee Steve Pearce might also get some time in right and at first, with Morales likely occupying the DH slot on a more-or-less full-time basis while Ezequiel Carrera and Melvin Upton form a platoon in left alongside regular center fielder Kevin Pillar.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Athletics Sign Trevor Plouffe

By Steve Adams | January 18, 2017 at 11:11am CDT

JANUARY 18: The A’s have announced the deal. Plouffe gets a $5.25MM guarantee, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (Twitter link). He can also earn $150K upon reaching 350 plate appearances, another $300K if he gets to 450, and then $300K more if he reaches 525 trips to the plate, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). There’s also a one-time, $250K trade bonus.

JANUARY 11: Plouffe is expected to receive around $5MM of guaranteed money in the deal, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). There are also incentives, though details remain unknown.

JANUARY 10: The Athletics have an agreement in place with free agent infielder Trevor Plouffe, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). The deal, which is pending a physical, will be a one-year agreement, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links). She adds that Plouffe is likely to see the bulk of the playing time at third base for the A’s next season, with Ryon Healy shifting to designated hitter and first base. Plouffe is represented by CAA Baseball.

[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics Depth Chart]

Prior to this new deal with the A’s, the 30-year-old Plouffe had spent his entire career in the Twins organization. A first-round pick by Minnesota back in 2004, Plouffe took quite some time to blossom into an everyday Major Leaguer but cemented himself as the Twins’ everyday third baseman beginning in 2012. That season saw Plouffe belt 24 homers in 119 games, and while that mark still stands as a career-best, Plouffe has consistently shown solid pop from the right side of the plate over the life of his big league career. In his first four seasons as a regular, he proved to be a roughly league-average bat, hitting .248/.312/.426 and averaging 23 homers per 162 games played. A right-handed hitter, Plouffe has been significantly more productive against lefties (career .268/.344/.465) than righties (.239/.294/.403).

This past year, Plouffe hit .260/.303/.420 with 12 homers in an injury-ravaged season that included three trips to the disabled list for an intercostal strain, a fractured rib and an oblique strain. Those three maladies combined to limit Plouffe to just 84 games and 344 plate appearances — both his lowest marks since establishing himself as a regular with the Twins. The three trips to the DL, Plouffe’s projected $8.2MM price tag in arbitration (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) and a stacked corner infield/DH scene in Minnesota prompted the new Twins front office to part ways with Plouffe following the season rather than tender him a contract in arbitration.

Despite possessing fairly notable platoon splits, it seems that Plouffe will be in line for near-everyday at-bats, as was the case during his tenure with the Twins. Plouffe never rated as an exceptional defender at the hot corner, but the converted shortstop went from dreadful Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating marks to above-average grades over the course of his time in Minnesota as he grew more accustomed to his new position. (His 2016 defensive metrics were poor, though certainly one can imagine his persistent injuries impacting his mobility on the field.)

From 2014-15, Plouffe posted a +5 DRS and +8.4 UZR, so with better health there’s reason to believe he can return to form with the glove. That would be an improvement over the younger Healy, who was below average per DRS (-2) and UZR (-9.4). Though Healy may not see many reps at third base in 2017, it seems logical to expect that the A’s will want to keep his bat in the lineup as much as possible. The 25-year-old compiled a .305/.337/.524 slash with 13 homers through 72 games as a rookie, suggesting that he could be a 20-homer bat for the A’s even if his .352 BABIP is bound to regress to some extent.

Plouffe also reportedly drew interest from the Red Sox, Braves and Royals, and he was speculatively linked to the Marlins as well. Instead, he’ll opt for a homecoming of sorts, returning to his home state (albeit a few hundred miles north of his Los Angeles area roots) and a presumably larger role as he takes aim at a healthier season in 2017.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Padres Extend Wil Myers

By Jeff Todd | January 17, 2017 at 4:43pm CDT

It’s been an eventful two years for Padres fans, and while the organization is in the midst of a rebuilding phase, San Diego locked up its most important player on Tuesday, announcing a six-year extension for first baseman Wil Myers. The new contract is the largest in Padres history and will reportedly guarantee Myers a total of $83MM. The Padres will also pick up an option for the 2023 season, giving them a potential seven years of control over Myers, who is represented by CAA Baseball.

Myers, 26, will reportedly receive a hefty $15MM signing bonus and will earn a $2MM salary in each of the next two seasons. He’ll then earn $3MM in 2019 and $20MM from 2020-22. The club option for the 2023 season is valued at $20MM and comes with a $1MM buyout.

[Related: Updated San Diego Padres Payroll Outlook]

The new contract covers Myers’ remaining three years of arbitration eligibility and locks in three would-be free agent years (while also providing an option for a fourth). Entering his first trip through the arb process, Myers was projected to earn $4.7MM by MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz. Instead, he’ll take home a much heftier stack of cash in exchange to contractual rights through his age-32 season.

The total package falls well shy of the top recent comparable: Freddie Freeman’s eight-year, $135MM deal with the Braves. Both players were in the three-plus service bracket and were projected for similar first-year arb salaries at the times of their deals. Of course, Freeman’s deal also covered two additional free-agent-eligible campaigns, so Myers figures to have an earlier chance to test the open market.

In total guarantee, this contract would fall closer to the recent agreement between the Giants and Brandon Belt. That deal promised Belt — a four-plus service-class player who signed his new deal right at the start of the 2016 season — $72.8MM over five years. If you include his 2016 arb salary in the total, it worked out to a six-year, $79MM package.

Myers, long considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball, put it all together in 2016 for the Padres, who gave up Trea Turner and Joe Ross to acquire him in a three-team blockbuster before the prior campaign. After two injury-shortened seasons, Myers compiled 676 plate appearances and batted a healthy .259/.336/.461 while providing 28 home runs and 28 stolen bases. That garnered the former Rookie of the Year his first All-Star nod. With quality glovework and outstanding overall baserunning mixed in, Myers was worth 3.8 fWAR and 3.2 rWAR on the year.

From a payroll standpoint, the Padres can more than afford to lock Myers into a long-term deal of this magnitude. The only other player on the current roster with a guaranteed contract that extends beyond the upcoming 2017 season is infielder Yangervis Solarte, who also recently inked a new contract with the Friars (two years, $7.5MM plus a pair of club options). The remainder of San Diego’s guaranteed deals are all one-year contracts, which should position the Padres to explore long-term extensions with other key young contributors as they emerge. Beyond that, the Padres will be well-positioned to take advantage of improved free-agent crops both next winter and especially following the 2018 campaign.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that a deal was close and floated a roughly $80MM figure (via Twitter). Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweeted that there was a “basic agreement” that would guarantee Myers $83MM. Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune reported the annual breakdown as well as Myers’ assignment bonus in the event of a trade (Twitter links).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jake Diekman To Undergo Surgery, Miss Significant Portion Of 2017 Season

By Jeff Todd | January 17, 2017 at 12:39pm CDT

Rangers reliever Jake Diekman is expected to miss “at least half” of the 2017 season after undergoing surgery to “help alleviate ulcerative colitis,” according to Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter). That’s certainly frightening news for the 29-year-old; MLBTR extends its best wishes to him for a full recovery.

News of the surgery is most unwelcome for both Diekman and the Rangers. It’s a significant blow to the Texas organization’s late-inning bullpen mix. While there’s solid depth overall, Diekman is clearly the team’s top relief southpaw. Alex Claudio now stands as Texas’s top setup lefty.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic condition that can come with a variety of side effects, ranging from the unpleasant to the debilitating. Diekman has long battled the ailment, and it seems that a surgical course was finally deemed necessary. If you’re interested in learning more about the condition and Diekman’s charitable efforts involving it, click here.

Diekman had just agreed to a $2.55MM salary to avoid arbitration with the Rangers, and he’ll stand to receive all of that unless the team changes its mind before the start of the season. Odds are, Texas will take its chances on a return. The hope is, it seems, that Diekman will make it back in 2017, and he’s controllable for one more year through the arb process. Missing such a lengthy stretch will obviously dent his future arb earnings, it’s also important to point out.

Texas will no doubt miss Diekman’s presence for whatever stretch he is out. Last year, he worked 53 frames and posted a 3.40 ERA. Though he continues to struggle with command at times, Diekman is tough to square up. Relying mostly on a mid-nineties sinker, which he combines with a slider and little-used change, he typically produces plenty of groundballs and strikeouts. Diekman carries nearly a 50% grounder rate to go with 11.0 K/9 for his career.

Blue Jays, Jose Bautista Nearing Agreement

By Connor Byrne | January 17, 2017 at 10:31am CDT

TODAY: There’s still work left between Bautista and the Jays, and both Cleveland and Tampa Bay remain interested, Heyman adds on Twitter.

YESTERDAY, 6:45pm: Bautista is expected to take home more than the qualifying offer value ($17.2MM) if the one-year-plus-option scenario is indeed adopted in a finalized deal, Heyman tweets. Indications still are that the sides are leaning toward that arrangement.

2:07pm: Rosenthal tweets that the deal, if completed, will be a one-year contract with a mutual option.

9:38am: A one-year deal is also still a consideration, as are other scenarios tweets Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. Heyman tweets that the current expectation is that the two sides will agree to a deal worth about $37MM over two years, though there’s nothing final. Both the Indians and Rays have bid on Bautista recently as well.

9:15am: Passan reports that the two sides are in the final stages of working out an agreement that will pay Bautista close to $40MM over a two-year term.

7:50am: Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports hears that the two sides are discussing a two-year contract (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal agrees, tweeting that Bautista and the Jays are discussing a two-year pact in the $35-40MM range. That’s a departure from Passan’s report, though it should be noted that Passan’s tweets were around 2am, so there’s certainly been enough time for talks to have changed course.

JAN. 16, 7:13am: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that the two sides have discussed multiple iterations of a deal but are currently focused on a one-year pact (Twitter links). A deal isn’t quite done yet, but each side is optimistic that something will be completed.

JAN. 15: The Blue Jays have emerged as the front-runners for free agent right fielder Jose Bautista’s services and are nearing an agreement with the slugger, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (Twitter link). Details regarding the potential pact aren’t yet known, but Toronto hadn’t been willing to give the Octagon/Jay Alou client a deal worth more than the one-year, $17.2MM qualifying offer as of late December.

Bautista has been on the open market since rejecting a qualifying offer from Toronto in November, though the 36-year-old’s venture into free agency hasn’t gone according to plan. Despite serving as one of the majors’ foremost offensive weapons since an out-of-nowhere breakout in 2010, serious interest in Bautista has been scarce this offseason. Bautista has been willing to consider a one-year deal as a result, but it seems having to surrender a first-round pick to sign him has scared off potential suitors.

It also hasn’t helped Bautista’s cause that he’s coming off a disappointing season, one that featured multiple stints on the disabled list and an offensive decline. While Bautista hit a more-than-respectable .234/.366/.452 with 22 home runs in 517 plate appearances, those numbers represented a stark drop-off from the ones he has typically posted as a Blue Jay. After toiling in anonymity with various teams from 2004-09, Bautista slashed a stellar .268/.390/.555 with 227 homers as a Jay between 2010-15.

Thanks to that otherworldly six-year run, Bautista was reportedly seeking a half-decade-long extension worth $150MM last winter. Toronto unsurprisingly balked at that asking price, and the club’s decision was clearly wise given Bautista’s production in 2016. It’ll look that much better if the team is able to bring back Bautista at what should be a palatable price on a short-term contract.

The Blue Jays have already lost one of the longtime faces of their franchise, first baseman/designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion, to free agency this offseason. Encarnacion landed in Cleveland, which knocked the Jays out of the playoffs last year and has also shown interest in Bautista. But it doesn’t appear the two will reunite this offseason, which is welcome news to a Jays club that’s in dire need of corner outfield help.

Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource is currently projecting that the light-hitting Ezequiel Carrera will man Bautista’s spot in right, while free agent pickup Steve Pearce is slated to start in left. Pearce is far better suited for first base, though, and the Jays could stand to upgrade over Justin Smoak there. Re-upping Bautista would enable them to shift Pearce and their most significant offseason acquisition to date, Kendrys Morales, between first and designated hitter and perhaps platoon Carrera and Melvin Upton Jr. in left.

While retaining Bautista would be a boon to Toronto’s offense (and likely the morale of its fans), he does come with drawbacks. In addition to his offensive regression last season, Bautista continued to fall off in the field, as he finished with negative grades in Defensive Runs Saved (minus-6) and Ultimate Zone Rating (minus-5.6) for the second year in a row. He also failed to provide value on the base paths, making Bautista a one-dimensional player at this stage of his career. That dimension is rather effective, though, and is apparently going to lead him back to Toronto, where he’s an icon. Keeping Bautista will cost the Jays the compensatory first-round pick they’d have netted had he headed elsewhere, but the club seemingly values what he could bring in future years more than that selection.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Royals Extend Danny Duffy

By Steve Adams | January 16, 2017 at 1:05pm CDT

The Royals have a number of key players hitting the open market next winter, but left-hander Danny Duffy will no longer be among them. The Royals announced on Monday that they’ve signed Duffy to a five-year deal that runs through the 2021 season and will reportedly guarantee him $65MM. The contract doesn’t afford Duffy, an ACES client, any sort of no-trade protection and doesn’t contain any options. Duffy will reportedly take home $5MM in 2017, $14MM in 2018, $15.25MM in 2019-20, and $15.5MM in 2021.

Duffy’s new contract will buy out four free agent years and keep him in Kansas City through his age-32 season (assuming he isn’t traded down the line, of course). He had filed for an $8MM salary in arbitration, while the team countered at $7.25MM. Using the $7.625MM midpoint between those two figures as a presumptive would-be salary for the upcoming campaign, Duffy sold off four free-agent years for a total of $57.375MM.

[Related: Updated Kansas City Royals Payroll Information]

Certainly, that’s an appealing payday for a player that had previously earned less than $8MM in his career. While Duffy could have taken aim at a massive payday next winter with further improvement in 2017, waiting an additional year would also have come with the risk of injury or a decline in performance. Either of those scenarios would have severely hampered his free-agent stock and made that $57.375MM figure unattainable over the next four seasons.

This contract effectively pays him at an Ervin Santana level for his first four free-agent years, and while some will opine that he could’ve done better with another strong year, that type of trade-off is the nature of nearly every extension. And, in Duffy’s case, it seemed as if his strong preference was always to remain in Kansas City. When the two sides first began talking about a long-term pact back in November, Duffy wasn’t shy about his feelings. “I want to stay with the Royals long term,” he told MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. “One hundred percent. For sure.”

The extension for Duffy, who turned 28 in December, comes on the heels of a breakout season that saw the former third-round pick and top prospect pitch to a 3.51 ERA in a career-high 179 1/3 innings. Duffy averaged 9.4 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 to go along with a 36.4 percent ground-ball rate and a fastball that averaged a robust 94.8 mph.

That type of upside has long been in the cards for Duffy, who rated among the game’s Top 100 prospects per both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus prior to the 2011 season. Duffy debuted that season at the age of 21 and struggled considerably (5.64 ERA in 105 innings), but he looked to be on his way to an improved sophomore campaign in 2012 after turning in a 3.90 ERA through six starts. Those six games would be the only contests in which he’d pitch that year, though, as Duffy underwent Tommy John surgery that summer and didn’t return to a big league mound until Aug. 2013. Since that time, he’s seen action in both the bullpen and the rotation, but his excellent work in 2016 and this new contract should ensure that he’ll be in the team’s starting mix for years to come.

Joining Duffy in the rotation in 2017 will be Yordano Ventura, Jason Vargas, Ian Kennedy and one of Matt Strahm, Nate Karns, Chris Young or Mike Minor. Of that bunch, Ventura also represents a long-term option, as he’s controlled through 2021. Kennedy, too, could stick around for several more years, though he has the opportunity to opt out of the final three years of his contract following the 2017 campaign. Young and Minor are both free agents this coming winter, while Strahm has less than a year of service time and is controllable through the 2022 season.

Entering the offseason, Duffy was one of many Royals that was set to hit free agency following the 2017 season. That fate is still on the horizon for the likes of Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar, while others such as Wade Davis and Jarrod Dyson have already been traded (for Jorge Soler and Karns, respectively). By trading Davis and Dyson for a pair of cheaper Major League assets and also agreeing to an extension with Duffy that will pay him less in 2017 than he’d have earned on a one-year deal in arbitration, GM Dayton Moore has succeeded in lowering his 2017 payroll without completely stripping down the core of a potential contender. The Indians remain the on-paper favorite to capture the AL Central title in 2017, but keeping Duffy in the fold for several years to come will help Kansas City remain competitive even as the team transitions to a new core of players.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported the agreement and the terms (via Twitter). FanRag’s Jon Heyman added that the deal does not have a no-trade clause or any sort of option (Twitter link). Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reported the annual breakdown of the deal (via Twitter).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Padres To Sign Trevor Cahill

By Steve Adams | January 16, 2017 at 8:35am CDT

MONDAY: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Padres will indeed sign Cahill to a one-year deal worth $1.75MM. Cahill had interest elsewhere as a reliever but passed on those opportunities for a chance to work out of the rotation in San Diego, he adds.

Cahill can earn up to $1MM in total incentives, per Heyman (via Twitter). There’s also a $250K trade bonus in the deal.

SATURDAY: Cahill still needs to take his physical to complete his deal with the Padres, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. First, though, he’ll travel to the White House to celebrate the Cubs’ World Series victory with the rest of his old team.

FRIDAY 8:50am: Cahill’s deal, if completed, will come with a guarantee in the vicinity of the $1.75MM guarantees received by Richard and Chacin, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Richard’s deal came with additional incentives based on games started, and it’s possible that Cahill could be eyeing a similar setup.

7:17am: The Padres are closing in on a contract with right-hander Trevor Cahill, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune. The 28-year-old is expected to be given the opportunity to win a job in the rotation, according to Lin.

A second-round pick by the A’s back in 2006, Cahill reached the Majors as a 21-year-old in 2009 and by 2011 had inked a five-year, $30.5MM contract with Oakland on the heels of a 2.97 ERA across 196 2/3 innings in his sophomore season. From 2010-13, Cahill pitched like a solid mid-rotation arm for the A’s and the Diamondbacks (following a trade), logging a 3.72 ERA and averaging 30 starts and 188 innings per season. While he was never a prolific strikeout pitcher (6.3 K/9 in that successful stretch), Cahill routinely ranked among the league-leaders in ground-ball rate, mitigating some of the lack of strikeouts.

Cahill’s career looked to be headed in the wrong direction a couple of years ago, though, as he experienced a rapid decline with the D-backs and pitched poorly enough to be released by the Braves following a 2015 trade. However, he reinvented himself as a reliever in the Cubs’ bullpen late in the 2015 season and pitched quite well with Chicago in a bullpen role again in 2016. In the past two seasons with the Cubs, Cahill has worked to 2.61 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and a 57.4 percent ground-ball rate. Given his youth — Cahill is still just 28 (29 in March) despite being an established name for quite some time — there’s plenty of reason to believe that he can return to form.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported back in December that Cahill’s preference was to land somewhere that came with an opportunity to return to the rotation, and his strong relief work with the Cubs was enough to convince the Padres to make that offer, it seems. He’ll join a muddled rotation picture that has little in the way of clarity in San Diego.

Right-hander Luis Perdomo’s solid second half in 2016 likely earned him a spot in the 2017 rotation, and lefty Christian Friedrich appears poised for a rotation spot despite struggling in the final three months of the 2016 campaign. San Diego also re-signed left-hander Clayton Richard with an eye toward returning him to the rotation following a successful nine-start stint (2.41 ERA) to finish out the year. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, too, signed a low-cost one-year deal with the Padres this winter and figures to be in the rotation mix, as does right-hander Paul Clemens, who fared well in a dozen starts with San Diego late last year.

Also in San Diego’s rotation competition will be right-hander Jarred Cosart, who has struggled in the past two seasons and underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow following the 2016 campaign. Waiver claim and former top prospect Tyrell Jenkins could also get a look in Spring Training despite struggling in his MLB debut and in Triple-A last season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today’s Sports Images.

Padres Sign Yangervis Solarte To Two-Year Deal

By Jeff Todd | January 14, 2017 at 12:20pm CDT

SATURDAY: Solarte will receive a $7.5MM guarantee, Fan Rag’s Robert Murray tweets. He’ll get a $250K signing bonus, $2.5MM next season and $4MM in 2018. In addition, the options will be worth $5.5MM and $8MM, with a $750K buyout attached to each. (Heyman tweeted information about the signing bonus and buyouts.)

FRIDAY: The Padres have announced a two-year deal with infielder Yangervis Solarte. He’ll pick up guaranteed money for the next two seasons while giving the club a pair of options for the 2019 and 2020 campaigns.

It’s an unusual contract structure for the 29-year-old, who was eligible for arbitration for the first time as a 3+ service-class player. The options will cover his final season of arb eligibility and one would-be free agent campaign.

Solarte had been projected by MLBTR to earn $2.7MM through the arb process, but he was set to earn a bit more. He filed at $3.2MM with the team countering at $2.8MM, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeted. But that never seemed likely to matter, as various reports suggested that a lengthier arrangement was in the works.

The contract comes on the heels of a year in which Solarte posted a career-best .286/.341/.467 batting line with 15 home runs over 443 plate appearances. He has hit at better than the league-average rate in every one of his three MLB campaigns since emerging as a surprisingly useful player as a minor-league signee of the Yankees.

Though Solarte has typically drawn average or slightly below average grades for his glovework, he’s capable of playing both second and third base and has also seen a bit of time at shortstop and the corner outfield. That makes him a versatile piece for San Diego, which has a variety of options but little in the way of sure things in its current infield depth chart.

Solarte joins first baseman Wil Myers in securing multi-year deals from the Padres today. While his is surely to come in well shy of the $80MM+ that Myers is reportedly set to receive, it’ll add to the future obligations of an organization that had nothing on its future books except for salary owed to previously traded players.

Orioles Avoid Arbitration With Britton, Machado, Tillman

By Steve Adams | January 13, 2017 at 1:48pm CDT

1:48pm: The Orioles and Tillman have also avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $10.05MM deal, tweets Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com.

12:20pm: Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports that Manny Machado also avoided arb with an $11.5MM deal (Twitter link). That checks in $300K north of his projection from Swartz.

11:11am: The Orioles and superstar closer Zach Britton have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a hefty $11.4MM salary for the 2017 season, reports Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (on Twitter). The Scott Boras client’s salary is an exact match with the $11.4MM projection of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Britton will be arb-eligible once more next winter before becoming a free agent after the 2018 season.

Britton, 29, is coming off one of the most dominant seasons of any reliever in history. One of the best relievers in baseball (and arguably the best), Britton led the American League in saves with 47 and posted a comically low 0.54 ERA with 9.9 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 67 innings of work. He also posted an outrageous 80 percent ground-ball rate that is the highest mark in Major League history of any qualified starter or reliever dating back to 2002 when the stat was first tracked.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s 2017 Arbitration Tracker, Britton was one of nine Orioles players that’s eligible for arbitration. The team has six players remaining, in the form of Kevin Gausman, Chris Tillman, Brad Brach, Jonathan Schoop, Caleb Joseph and T.J. McFarland.

Nationals, Bryce Harper Avoid Arbitration

By Steve Adams | January 13, 2017 at 1:05pm CDT

The Nationals have avoided arbitration with right fielder and 2015 NL MVP Bryce Harper, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that Harper will receive a hefty $13.625MM salary — a massive raise over his $5MM salary from the 2016 season. Harper’s raise shattered the $9.3MM projection of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz and stands out as the largest raise ever given to a position player that is entering his third year of arbitration eligibility. Harper will be arb-eligible once more next winter and is a free agent following the 2018 season.

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