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Phillies Acquire Pat Neshek

By Jeff Todd | November 4, 2016 at 4:23pm CDT

The Phillies have struck a deal to acquire reliever Pat Neshek from the Astros, as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle first reported (via Twitter). Houston will receive a player to be named later or cash in the swap.

Neshek, 36, was controllable for the coming season through a $6.5MM club option. Philadelphia has exercised that option, as it announced along with the trade. The Astros were reportedly considering a trade of the veteran righty with his option decision coming due, and found a willing partner in a Phillies organization that has a need for bullpen depth.

The sidearming Neshek primarily delivers a sinker-slider combo has been rather effective over the past few years. While he hasn’t matched his output from a breakout 2014 stint with the Cardinals, Neshek is fresh off a year in which he contributed 47 innings of 3.06 ERA pitching with 8.2 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9.

Neshek has never carried much velocity, and has maintained his average fastball over recent years, so his age isn’t a significant concern. The biggest issue is his performance against lefties, who torched him for a .250/.321/.646 batting line and four home runs in 55 plate appearances last year. Of course, Neshek was exceedingly stingy when facing righties, who managed an anemic .172/.209/.254 batting line against him in 2016.

Those dramatic splits make Neshek somewhat unlikely to challenge for the Phillies’ somewhat unsettled closer’s role. But he could take an important spot in the pecking order for late-inning setup opportunities. Neshek provides the team with a veteran pen piece to help lock down winnable games as the Phils seek to move back towards contention — just the kind of target posited in our offseason outlook for the organization. He could also turn into a deadline trade chip. With only a single-season commitment required, and very little on the Philadelphia books, it was a fairly easy risk to take.

[RELATED: Updated Phillies Depth Chart]

For the Astros, whose bullpen was one of the game’s very best last year, it obviously made more sense to re-allocate the cash that might otherwise have gone to Neshek. Houston has plenty of options on hand to take over Neshek’s innings, and is already busying itself with building out the rest of its roster as it seeks to return to the postseason following a disappointing 2016 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Volquez, Morales Decline Mutual Options; Royals Decline Option On Medlen

By Steve Adams | November 4, 2016 at 1:48pm CDT

The Royals announced today that designated hitter Kendrys Morales and right-hander Edinson Volquez have declined their halves of their 2017 mutual options. Additionally, the team has declined its half of the mutual option on right-hander Kris Medlen. All three players will enter the free-agent market. It’s still possible that the Royals could make a $17.2MM qualifying offer to either Volquez or Morales, though Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star tweets that neither is likely. (That’s no surprise in the case of Volquez, though there was a bit more of a possibility in Morales’ case.)

Morales, 33, will enter the offseason with the strongest free-agent case. After an ice-cold start to the season, the switch-hitting slugger caught fire in June and finished out the year with a torrid .302/.364/.547 batting line and 24 homers in his final 404 trips to the plate. While that endpoint is admittedly arbitrary, Morales’ scorching summer demonstrated that he’s still capable of performing at a high level. That he’ll hit the market without being burdened by a qualifying offer should allow him to find at least a healthy two-year deal this winter — likely to serve as a DH and occasional first baseman elsewhere in the American League.

The Royals will have a hole at DH, of course, bur a reunion doesn’t seem to be in the cards given GM Dayton Moore’s statements about the team’s payroll regressing in 2017. The Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, White Sox and Rangers are among the American League clubs that could have a first base/DH opening in 2017.

Volquez, also 33, had a strong first season in Kansas City (3.55 ERA in 200 1/3 innings) but was unable to replicate that success in the second season of his two-year, $20MM pact with Kansas City. The 2016 campaign, Volquez’s worst since 2013, saw the veteran right-hander limp to a 5.37 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 51.2 percent ground-ball rate. His year was in some ways the inverse of Morales’ 2016 season. The righty got off to a nice start (3.74 ERA through May 29) but saw his season completely collapse from that point forth. Volquez was tattooed for a 6.27 ERA over his final 122 innings, yielding 85 earned runs on 147 hits and 53 walks (plus six hit batsmen) in that time.

Given that dreadful skid, it’s at least somewhat surprising that Volquez was the one who declined his end of a $10MM mutual option, but given the dearth of quality rotation options on the open market this winter, he could still come away with a nice contract. He’s one season removed from a two-year stretch in which he posted a collective 3.30 ERA in 393 innings, and even in a dreadful 2016 season, Volquez logged 189 1/3 frames. Durability pays on the open market, and Volquez’s camp can pitch him as the most reliable source of 190+ innings available in free agency in an offseason market where the headliners include Rich Hill, Jeremy Hellickson and Ivan Nova.

Medlen, meanwhile, was signed prior to the 2015 season as a reclamation project on the heels of his second career Tommy John surgery, but his two-year deal ultimately provided little to return on Kansas City’s $8.5MM investment. After tossing just 58 1/3 innings in 2015, Medlen was slowed by a pair of shoulder injuries in 2016 and managed to take the hill for just 24 1/3 frames of 7.77 ERA ball. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Medlen looked to be blossoming into a potential front-of-the-rotation starter with the Braves, but the 2.47 ERA he posted in 335 innings over a two-year span came all the way back in 2012-13. It’s now been three full seasons since Medlen was an effective Major League pitcher, and while some teams figure to look at him as a low-cost roll of the proverbial dice this winter, he may have to earn his roster spot and earn a significant portion of his 2017 salary via performance incentives.

Angels Acquire Cameron Maybin, Exercise His Option

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2016 at 11:00pm CDT

The Angels wasted no time in filling their left field need this winter, as they announced on the first afternoon of the offseason that they’ve acquired Cameron Maybin from the Tigers in exchange for minor league righty Victor Alcantara and exercised Maybin’s $9MM club option for the 2017 season.

After an aggressive 2015-16 offseason, the Tigers shifted course recently, with GM Al Avila saying the team was going to prioritize getting younger and would no longer “play above its means.” Moving Maybin allows the Tigers to trim some money off the 2017 ledger without losing the talented outfielder for nothing, and they’ll now not only save his $9MM salary but also the $1MM they’d have paid by simply buying the option out. It remains to be seen what the Tigers are receiving in exchange, though the Angels notoriously have one of the league’s worst farm systems (if not the worst). Nonetheless, the Tigers can still pick up a piece or two to add to the farm system and better position themselves for the future.

Maybin, 30 in April, was originally drafted by the Tigers in the first round back in 2005 but found himself traded to the Marlins as one of the centerpieces of the Miguel Cabrera blockbuster (Andrew Miller was the other headliner). After bouncing around the National League a bit for the next several years, Maybin ended up back with the Tigers last season in a trade that sent Ian Krol and Gabe Speier to the Braves. A fractured wrist and a sprained thumb cost Maybin nearly half the season, but in the 94 games that he was healthy, he was quite productive, batting .315/.383/.415 with four home runs and 15 stolen bases. Defensive metrics have been down on Maybin’s work in center field for the past couple of years, but a move to left field should yield more favorable ratings.

Maybin will line up in the Halos’ outfield alongside superstar Mike Trout in center field and the highly undervalued Kole Calhoun in right field to give the Angels a talented and athletic trio of outfielders. With left field taken care of on the first day of the offseason, the Angels can quickly shift their focus to other areas of need this winter, namely second base, catcher and the pitching staff. As for the Tigers, the subtraction of Maybin will leave the team looking for center field help, although they could also turn to young JaCoby Jones in center field.

The 23-year-old Alcantara spent this past season with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate and logged a 4.30 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 4.6 BB/9 and a 55.6 percent ground-ball rate in 111 innings (20 starts, nine relief appearances). MLB.com rates Alcantara as the Halos’ No. 8 prospect and gives him a plus fastball and above-average slider on the 20-80 scouting scale. He’s been a starter for most of his minor league tenure, though the MLB.com report on him notes that Alcantara may not have the command or third pitch required to be a starter in the Majors and could instead be a highly effective reliever. Baseball America pegged him fourth among Angels farmhands in their midseason update and noted that his fastball velocity has dipped as he’s developed a more controlled delivery that is easier to repeat.

MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link) first reported that the Tigers were exploring trades for Maybin, and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that the Angels were acquiring him (Twitter link). Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reported that Alcantara would head back to the Tigers (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Tigers Exercise 2017 Option On Francisco Rodriguez

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2016 at 5:55pm CDT

The Tigers announced today that they’ve exercised their $6MM club option on closer Francisco Rodriguez. That option came with a $2MM buyout, effectively making this a $4MM decision for the Tigers.

Rodriguez, 35 in January, enjoyed a strong first year with the Tigers in 2016 after being acquired from the Brewers in exchange for minor league infielder Javier Betancourt. The active saves leader (430 in his career), Rodriguez picked up 44 saves in the Motor City and pitched to a 3.24 ERA with 8.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 to go along with a career-best 54.7 ground-ball rate in 58 1/3 innings.

The Tigers were faced with two option decisions this offseason and elected to pick up their option on K-Rod while trading center fielder Cameron Maybin to the Angels in exchange for minor league righty Victor Alcantara. That would appear to be the first step in GM Al Avila’s stated goal of getting younger while scaling back the team’s payroll. However, while Rodriguez looks to be in the fold next season for now, there’s no guarantee that he won’t be shopped around later this winter.

If K-Rod is indeed back with the Tigers, he’ll join hard-throwing setup man Bruce Rondon in the bullpen along with lefty Justin Wilson and right-hander Alex Wilson. The Tigers also possess one of the game’s more intriguing bullpen prospects in minor league strikeout machine Joe Jimenez, giving the team the foundation for a potentially strong bullpen next season. (Alcantara, acquired in the Maybin deal, could potentially factor into that mix at some point as well.)

Astros Claim Nori Aoki From Mariners

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2016 at 4:34pm CDT

The Astros announced today that they’ve claimed outfielder Nori Aoki off waivers from the Mariners. As MLB.com’s Greg Johns pointed out earlier today (on Twitter), there’s been a public misconception that Aoki is eligible for free agency because his option didn’t vest and because his previous contracts allowed him to hit free agency upon their completion. That doesn’t appear to have been the case with the one-year deal he inked in Seattle last offseason, and he’ll now be controllable by the Astros via arbitration for the 2017 season.

[Related: Updated Houston Astros depth chart]

Aoki, 35 in January, will give Houston an option to take some at-bats in left field next season in the wake of Colby Rasmus’ impending departure. He’ll bring a contact-oriented approach to the Astros that represents something of a departure from the strikeout-prone bats with which Houston has been comfortable in recent years. Aoki hit .283/.349/.388 in 467 plate appearances and struck out at just a 9.6 percent clip with Seattle last year after signing a one-year deal in the offseason.

That contract guaranteed Aoki $5.5MM and came with a vesting option for the 2017 season, but Aoki fell 13 PAs shy of triggering that guaranteed 2017 payday. It would appear that the Mariners sought to outright Aoki, thereby allowing him to re-enter the free agent market, but he’ll now head to Houston as an arbitration eligible player. Presumably, he’s the front-runner for everyday at-bats in left field right now, where he’ll bring a career .286/.353/.387 slash and minuscule eight percent strikeout rate to the table. That’ll position the Astros to deploy an outfield with Aoki in left in budding star George Springer in right field. As it currently stands, defensive standout Jake Marisnick will get the bulk of the at-bats in center field, although the Astros have a number of versatile pieces that could allow them to pursue a variety of avenues this offseason.

Springer, for instance, could shift over to center field — especially now that Tal’s Hill has been removed from Minute Maid Park — and allow the Astros to pursue a big-time corner outfield bat. Alternatively, Houston could give Alex Bregman and/or Yulieski Gurriel some time in left field with Aoki covering right field and Springer taking some turns in center, thus freeing up more room for a corner infield/designated hitter addition.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Red Sox Exercise Clay Buchholz’s Option, Decline Option On Ryan Hanigan

By Connor Byrne | November 3, 2016 at 2:30pm CDT

8:09pm: The Red Sox have also announced that they’ve picked up their 2017 option on David Ortiz. The move is a formality, since Ortiz is expected to retire.

2:30pm: Drellich also writes that the Red Sox plan to pick up Clay Buchholz’s $13.5MM club option, and Heyman tweeted that the team will indeed do so. Buchholz had a $500K buyout on the option, so the decision boiled down to a $13MM call for Boston. (The team has announced both option decisions.)

Buchholz, who turned 32 in August, struggled with the Red Sox for much of the season and at one point lost his spot in the starting rotation. However, despite a brief demotion to the bullpen, Buchholz finished the year quite strongly, logging a 3.14 ERA in 28 2/3 innings in September and a 2.86 ERA over his final 44 innings. He’s also a season removed from 113 1/3 innings of 3.26 ERA ball that came with outstanding peripherals. Given the lack of quality options on the free-agent market and the fact that Buchholz generated summer trade interest even before his strong finish to the year, there was an argument to exercise Buchholz’s option even if he’s traded elsewhere this offseason, as MLBTR detailed a couple of weeks ago.

1:56pm: The Red Sox have declined catcher Ryan Hanigan’s $3.75MM option for 2017 in favor of an $800K buyout, according to FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reported earlier Thursday that the Red Sox were likely to let Hanigan go.

Hanigan joined the Red Sox in December 2014 in a trade that sent third baseman Will Middlebrooks to the Padres, with whom Hanigan never actually played a game. The Red Sox didn’t lose much in dealing Middlebrooks, but Hanigan was still a disappointment in Boston. After establishing himself as a defensively capable backstop with solid offensive skills in Cincinnati and Tampa Bay, Hanigan batted just .219/.298/.294 in two years and 319 plate appearances with the Red Sox. He finished third among Boston’s catchers this year in PAs (113), trailing Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez, and posted an unusable .171/.230/.238 line. That was poor enough for Boston to wave goodbye to Hanigan, who will try to hook on elsewhere in free agency.

In addition to Leon and Vazquez, the Red Sox also have Blake Swihart as a potential catcher option for next season. The outfield/backstop missed most of this year with an ankle injury. Alternatively, Boston could look to free agency for help, especially if it doesn’t trust Leon’s unexpected breakout.

Mets Intend To Make Qualifying Offer To Neil Walker

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2016 at 1:04pm CDT

The Mets intend to make a $17.2MM qualifying offer to impending free agent Neil Walker, reports ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin. Around this time last month, Rubin reported that Walker would likely receive the QO so long as his recovery from the season-ending back surgery he underwent in September progressed well. It would seem, then, that Walker’s rehab remains on track.

Walker, 31, came to the Mets from the Pirates last winter in a one-for-one swap that sent Jon Niese to Pittsburgh. New York clearly got the better end of the deal, as Walker was one of the team’s best hitters, batting .282/.347/.476 and tying a career-high with 23 home runs. While his defense has been questioned in the past, he drew strong marks from both Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved in 2016 and was a slam-dunk qualifying offer candidate prior to undergoing the aforementioned back surgery.

While some may question the Mets’ wisdom, if Walker’s recovery from the operation is going well, he’s a strong candidate to receive a multi-year deal that will guarantee him considerably more than he’d earn by accepting the QO. A sizable four-year deal seemed likely for Walker before his surgery, and while four years doesn’t feel as likely in the wake of his operation, a three-year pact at a considerable annual value would still be a more lucrative offer than a one-year deal at a higher rate. If Walker does decline the qualifying offer, any team that wishes to sign him will forfeit its top unprotected draft pick (the top 10 overall selections in the draft are protected), and the Mets will receive a compensatory pick at the end of the first round.

In the event that Walker departs, the Mets aren’t short on internal options to replace him at second base. Jose Reyes’ league-minimum option will be exercised by the team, and Wilmer Flores has plenty of experience at second base as well. Beyond that, rookie T.J. Rivera emerged from Triple-A Las Vegas and showed well in September this season, giving the Mets a variety of options to vie for playing time in 2017.

Twins Hire Rangers’ Thad Levine As GM

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2016 at 10:45am CDT

The Twins have announced the hiring of former Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine as their new senior vice president and GM. Though he’ll receive a promotion in terms of title, Levine will still serve as second-in-command to newly tabbed executive vice president/chief baseball officer Derek Falvey in the Twins’ baseball operations hierarchy.

“I couldn’t envision a better partner to help return championship-caliber baseball to Minnesota,” said Falvey. “Thad’s leadership and management experiences across all facets of baseball operations make him the perfect fit for the role, and I’m looking forward to executing our vision together.”

Levine, who will turn 45 on Nov. 12, had been with the Rangers since the 2005 season. His responsibilities in Texas included assisting GM Jon Daniels with player acquisition, roster composition, contract negotiations and statistical/financial analysis. He also oversaw the team’s international scouting operations. The veteran baseball executive also previously served as the senior director of baseball operations with the Rockies. He’ll bring to the Twins an executive with a long background in player development but also one who is quite familiar with more modern trends in statistical analysis.

According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minnapolis Star Tribune, the Twins had interest in now-former Red Sox vice president of international scouting Amiel Sawdaye before he followed colleague Mike Hazen to Arizona. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the Twins’ offer to Sawdaye was an assistant GM position, so he apparently was never in the running for the No. 2 spot that ultimately went to Levine. The fact that Minnesota was offering additional AGM slots to outside hires, though, does suggest that there could be further changes to the Twins’ front office even after adding Falvey and Levine.

Neal and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News first reported that the Twins would hire Levine. FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported Thursday that Levine’s hiring was imminent.

Cardinals Extend Mike Matheny Through 2020

By Connor Byrne | November 3, 2016 at 10:21am CDT

The Cardinals and manager Mike Matheny have agreed to a three-year contract extension that runs through the 2020 season, the team announced.

Matheny was previously in danger of entering the 2017 campaign as a lame duck, though owner Bill DeWitt Jr. gave the 46-year-old a vote of confidence in late September.

“Mike’s done a really good job for us,” said DeWitt. “There’s no thought that we’re going to go in any different direction.”

In terms of wins and losses, the five-year Matheny era has been a productive one for the Cardinals, who have finished with no fewer than 86 victories in any individual season and have made the playoffs four times. Overall, the club has gone 461-349 in the regular season under Matheny, whose crowning playoff achievement is a National League pennant in 2013. St. Louis missed the postseason this year, but general manager John Mozeliak doesn’t blame Matheny for that.

“Mike takes a lot of heat, and I’ve defended him and I will continue to,” Mozeliak said late in the regular season. “I really feel like some of the things that we’re dealing with aren’t fair to put on the manager.”

While Matheny has indeed taken heat from outside the Cardinals organization, it’s clear the team’s front office values the job he has done as the manager. If Matheny sees his extension through, it’ll give him 14 combined years with the franchise as a player and manager. The longtime major league catcher was the Cardinals’ primary backstop from 2000-2004.

The MLB Offseason Begins

By Connor Byrne | November 3, 2016 at 7:25am CDT

The 2016 Major League Baseball season ended Wednesday at Progressive Field in Cleveland with one of the most memorable Game 7s in the history of the sport. It took four-plus hours, 10 innings and a rain delay, but the Cubs defeated the Indians, 8-7, to overcome a 3-1 series deficit and break their 108-year World Series drought.

One of many heroes for Chicago was left fielder Ben Zobrist, who delivered a tie-breaking double off Indians reliever Bryan Shaw in the top of the 10th. That was the 10th hit of the Fall Classic for Zobrist, who took home World Series MVP honors. After winning a title with the Royals last November, Zobrist joined the Cubs in free agency on a four-year, $56MM deal during the offseason. The Zobrist acquisition will go down as one of seemingly countless great moves by the Cubs’ front office, led by president and chief architect Theo Epstein. Having now put so-called curses in Boston and Chicago to rest, Epstein has cemented his place in Cooperstown.

While Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and the rest of the Cubs’ executives will savor this triumph, their work won’t stop. With the major league offseason already starting Thursday, the Cubs will spend the next several months trying to put their roster in position to repeat in 2017. Meanwhile, the majors’ other 29 franchises will attempt to make the moves necessary to overtake the Cubs. Maybe one of those teams will even sign next fall’s version of Zobrist during the upcoming winter.

With that preamble out of the way, here are some of the offseason’s key dates:

Nov. 3: Beginning at 9 a.m. ET, teams will have an exclusive five-day negotiation window with their impending free agents.
Nov. 7: By 5 p.m. ET, teams must submit qualifying offers to their upcoming free agents. The QO is worth $17.2MM, up from $15.8MM last year. This is also the deadline for clubs to exercise their 2017 options over players whose contracts include them.
Nov. 8-10: General managers’ meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz. While not as active as December’s Winter Meetings, the groundwork for many trades and signings will take place here, and a few moves figure to be completed.
Nov. 8: Free agents become eligible to sign with any team.
Nov. 14: Players must choose to accept or reject qualifying offers by 5 p.m. ET. Those who decline will become free agents.
Dec. 1: The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union expires. Click here for the latest on CBA negotiations.
Dec. 2: Deadline for teams to decide whether to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. The free agent market should expand to some degree on this day, albeit with relatively minor names.
Dec. 4-8: Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Md. This period is among the most chaotic of the year for those who follow trades and free agency — often even more so than the days leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline. MLBTR will provide extensive coverage while the Winter Meetings are in effect. The meetings with conclude with the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 8.

If you’d like to prepare for the madness ahead, check out the free agent list Steve Adams and Tim Dierkes have been updating since March 2015 (please let us know via the contact form if there are any omissions). MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’s arbitration projections are a must-read every year, as is the writing staff’s Offseason Outlook series. We’ll also check in on some soon-to-be available players with our Free Agent Profile series, and Tim will rank the 50 best free agents of this year’s class by potential earning power and predict where each will sign. Although the open market won’t be rife with appealing free agents this offseason, the next few months will still feature plenty of excitement. We’re looking forward to covering the action.

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