Padres Extend Wil Myers
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Rockies, Nolan Arenado Agree To Two-Year Deal
The Rockies and third baseman Nolan Arenado have agreed to a two-year deal that comes with a guaranteed $29.5MM, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter links). ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that Arenado will earn $11.75MM in 2017 and $17.75MM in 2018. Arenado will be arbitration-eligible one final time after this two-year deal is up, and he can become a free agent after the 2019 season.
That two-year rate constitutes a slight bump over the $28.65MM deal worked out last winter between Josh Donaldson and the Blue Jays. While Arenado doesn’t have the MVP award that Donaldson brought into his second year of arb eligibility as a Super Two, the former was working from a higher first-year arb salary ($5MM).
MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz had projected that Arenado would earn $13.1MM this year. Instead, he’ll take slightly less, and will perhaps give up some upside for the following season, in exchange for the certainty of the two-year arrangement.
Arenado is a highly valuable all-around player, delivering value with his glove and his bat. It’s the latter skill that pays through the arb process, though, and Arenado showed plenty in 2016. With Coors Field helping to boost his counting stats somewhat, Arenado turned in a second-straight season in which he led the National League in home runs and RBI. Though it isn’t a particularly notable factor in arbitration, it’s worth noting too that Arenado’s OBP also rose (from .323 to .362) as he significantly improved in the plate discipline department by doubling his walk tally from 34 to 68.
Astros Avoid Arbitration With Dallas Keuchel
The Astros have avoided arbitration with left-hander Dallas Keuchel by agreeing to a one-year deal worth $9.15MM, reports MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart (via Twitter). The 2015 Cy Young winner is represented by Frontline Athlete Management.
Keuchel earns a raise over the $7.25MM salary he earned last year — a record for a first-time-eligible pitcher in arbitration — and will be arbitration-eligible once more next winter before hitting the open market following the 2018 season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $9.5MM salary for Keuchel.
The 29-year-old Keuchel wasn’t able to replicate his dominant 2015 effort, but he still took the ball for the Astros 26 times and tallied 168 innings of 4.55 ERA ball to go along with 7.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a robust 56.7 percent ground-ball rate in 2016. Health may have been a factor for the downturn in Keuchel’s performance, as he shoulder troubles limited him to just seven starts after the All-Star break. Keuchel didn’t make an appearance after Aug. 27 this past season, though there’s been no word that the effects of that injury will linger into 2017, and Keuchel never required surgery to correct the issue.