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Cubs Re-Sign Dexter Fowler

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In a stunning reversal, the Cubs have re-signed outfielder Dexter Fowler to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2017, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. He’ll receive $8MM in 2016. The mutual option is for $9MM with a $5MM buyout (tweet). The Cubs have placed Zac Rosscup on the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster.

Recent reports had Fowler agreeing to a three-year, $33MM deal with the Orioles, but Fowler denies he ever agreed to terms per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (tweet). Jon Morosi of Fox Sports (tweet) confirms the Orioles did not believe they had a deal in place with Fowler.

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The signing reportedly fell through when Fowler demanded an early opt out after one season, tweets Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com. Per Jon Heyman (tweet), the Orioles did not want to lose a first round pick (compensation for Wei-Yin Chen) to sign a player for one season. When Baltimore balked, he turned down the $33MM guarantee for $13MM from Chicago.

The re-acquisition of Fowler also puts a new light on the Chris Coghlan trade which was announced about a half hour ago. The Cubs will now lose their second round draft pick for signing John Lackey. When Fowler appeared to be Baltimore-bound, they would have lost the associated compensation pick.

The addition of Fowler will give the Cubs plenty of outfield flexibility. They could opt to move Jason Heyward to his natural position of right field. Jorge Soler and Kyle Schwarber may share left field or another arrangement could be reached. Given that Fowler isn’t viewed as a positive defensive center fielder, it’s possible Heyward will remain penciled in up the middle. The club now has a wealth of outfield depth with Ben Zobrist and Javier Baez also in the mix for reps. At the press conference announcing the deal, GM Theo Epstein told reporters, “this is it. We’re not trading anyone else. We feel great about our outfield mix.”

Fowler’s high OBP profile should fit well anywhere within the Cubs lineup. Heyward and Zobrist are also candidates to bat first and second with Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Schwarber, and Soler as middle of the order threats. Fowler batted .250/.346/.411 with 17 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 2015. The switch-hitter has a history of better on base percentages including a career .363 OBP. His return takes pressure off Schwarber and Soler to perform at high levels.

It’s interesting to note that Fowler is now guaranteed less than the $15.8MM qualifying offer. The mutual option as structured appears very unlikely to be triggered by both sides. Way back in November, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes predicted a four-year, $60MM contract for Fowler. Assuming the option is declined, Fowler will re-enter free agency prior to his age 31 season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Athletics Acquire Chris Coghlan From Cubs For Aaron Brooks

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The Cubs have traded outfielder Chris Coghlan to the Athletics for pitcher Aaron Brooks, the Cubs announced via press release.

Coghlan, 30, won the Rookie of the Year award in 2009. Last season, he hit .250/.341/.443 in 503 plate appearances. The lefty hitter was mostly used against right-handed pitching. He has fairly substantial career platoon splits.

Owed $4.8MM in his final season of club control, Coghlan will add more depth to the A’s outfield. Khris Davis, Josh Reddick, and Billy Burns are penciled in as the starters with Coco Crisp, Mark Canha, and Sam Fuld in the mix too. Given his success against right-handed pitching, Coghlan could platoon with Canha as the team’s designated hitter. He also has experience at second and third base.

Brooks, 25, was acquired by the A’s late last season in the Ben Zobrist trade. He made nine starts for the A’s in 11 appearances with forgettable results. His 6.71 ERA was a sight worse than his 6.18 K/9 and 2.47 BB/9. The righty will likely serve as bullpen and rotation depth for the Cubs.

Interestingly, Coghlan appeared to be the Cubs fourth outfielder. Now Arismendy Alcantara and Matt Szczur are the top backup outfielders on the depth chart. Of course, that also overlooks Javier Baez who is expected to be used in a super utility role. The trade could indicate confidence in Baez’s conversion.

It’s possible the Cubs are narrowing on a free agent outfield acquisition. Top available names include Austin Jackson, David DeJesus, and Shane Victorino. Ian Desmond could also be viewed as an option.

Orioles, Yovani Gallardo Agree To Restructured Deal

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7:54am: The Orioles have announced the deal. A press conference is scheduled for 1:45pm. In a related move, Baltimore has designated Efren Navarro for assignment.

FEB 24, 6:24pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the option would bring the deal’s total value to $33MM, if exercised. Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports that Gallardo will earn $9MM in 2016 and $11MM in 2017 (Twitter link). The option is a $13MM club option with a $2MM buyout.

6:14pm: Jon Heyman reports that the new contract will guarantee Gallardo $22MM over two years (Twitter link).

5:52pm: The Orioles and right-hander Yovani Gallardo have agreed to a restructured contract, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (links to Twitter). The new contract is a two-year deal that contains a club option for a third year, per Kubatko, who adds that the contract “is done.” The Octagon client had originally agreed to a three-year, $35MM pact, but his physical exam revealed a shoulder issue that reportedly gave the Orioles trepidation about those terms.

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Gallardo, 30 on Saturday, will slot into an Orioles rotation that was in desperate need of some stability. While he won’t give Baltimore the front-end starter that many feel it requires (and that Gallardo looked to be earlier in his career), he’ll provide manager Buck Showalter with a durable arm to deploy alongside fellow right-handers Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Miguel Gonzalez and Ubaldo Jimenez. The addition of Gallardo likely pushes right-hander Vance Worley out of the rotation, creating somewhat of a crunch in the bullpen, where T.J. McFarland had been poised to be the team’s long man.

The 2015 campaign marked Gallardo’s first season in the American League after having spent his entire career with the Brewers. The Mexican-born righty worked to a strong 3.42 ERA in 184 1/3 innings of work, though his strikeout rate (5.9 K/9) and walk rate (3.3 BB/9) each took notable steps back from his final season with Milwuakee. That decline in strikeout rate marked the third consecutive season in which Gallardo’s K/9 rate had dipped, having fallen all the way from 9.0 back in 2012 to last year’s rate; on a perhaps related note, the 90.4 mph which Gallardo averaged on his fastball in 2015 was a career-low and a considerable departure from the 92.4 mph he averaged from 2009-12.

Statistical red flags aside, Gallardo maintained the improved ground-ball rate that he’s displayed over the past three seasons and he once again avoided the disabled list. Gallardo has never been on the DL due to an arm injury — his most notable injury was a torn ACL suffered in 2008, though he recovered and pitched excellently in the four seasons to follow — and he’s made 30 or more starts in each season since 2009. Critics will note that Gallardo, while durable, doesn’t necessarily profile as an innings eater due to the fact that he doesn’t go particularly deep into games (indeed, he averaged just under 5 2/3 innings per start last year), the Orioles do possess a rather solid bullpen that can help to mask any per-start innings questions that arise with Gallardo.

Once official, the Gallardo signing and the reported agreement with outfielder Dexter Fowler will mean that the Orioles are forfeiting their top two picks in the 2016 Rule 4 Draft this June. (The Rangers, in turn, will receive a compensatory pick between the first and second round of the draft.) For a club that recently rated among the worst farm systems in the game according to ESPN and Baseball America, that’s a significant blow, but the Orioles’ clear offseason message is that present-day winning takes precedence over the club’s minor league system at time. Baltimore has re-signed Chris Davis to a seven-year, $161MM contract, re-signed Darren O’Day to a four-year, $31MM contract, agreed to a three-year, $33MM deal with Fowler, seen Matt Wieters accept a $15.8MM qualifying offer and signed Korean outfielder Hyun Soo Kim to a two-year, $7MM pact. Add in Gallardo’s $22MM, and that creates a total free-agent spend of $269.8MM, which doesn’t even include the $9.15MM in payroll that Baltimore absorbed in trading for presumptive designated hitter Mark Trumbo.

Much has been and will continue to be made of the Orioles’ stringent standards when it comes to the requisite physical exams that come along with free-agent signings, but their physical being tough to pass is nothing new. As recently as the 2013-14 offseason, the O’s scrapped a two-year deal for reliever Grant Balfour and a one-year deal for Tyler Colvin due to concerns that arose with the duo’s medical evaluations, and their history of either restructuring contracts or backing out of them entirely based on physicals dates all the way back to their 1998 pursuit of right-hander Xavier Hernandez. Kubatko took a lengthy look at the club’s history of controversial physical exams this morning.

Jose Bautista Reportedly Seeking More Than Five Years/$150MM

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Yesterday, Jose Bautista denied a report from TSN’s Rick Westhead that his apparently non-negotiable asking price was an extension of five years and $150MM.  What that figure raised eyebrows around the baseball world, it may actually have been too modest, as both the Toronto Star’s Richard Griffin and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman have reported that Bautista’s contract demand was actually higher.  Griffin suggested that the number could be higher if Bautista’s $14MM salary for the coming season was included as well, though Heyman says that Bautista is looking for both more years and more money.  FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal puts the dollar figure at less than $180MM, however, as the average annual value of a six-year deal wouldn’t have cracked the $30MM threshold.

Needless to say, this is high demand for any player and a stunning one coming from a player entering his age-35 season.  When I looked at Bautista as an extension candidate last November, I reasoned that he would certainly land at least a $20MM average annual value in a new contract, perhaps even something in the range of a four-year/$100MM deal for his age 36-39 seasons (2017-2020).  Only seven players in history have ever received an AAV north of $25MM per season, and six of those contracts began when the players were much younger than 36 years old.  (The exception was Roger Clemens’ one-year, $28MM deal with the Yankees when he was 44, an altogether unique situation.)

Given the size and unprecedented nature of this contract, it’s hard to see the Blue Jays meeting Bautista’s demand.  The Jays already have expensive commitments to Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin on the books, Edwin Encarnacion is also a free agent this winter and the club will certainly at least explore extending Josh Donaldson before he hits free agency after the 2018 season.  Bautista pointedly mentioned on Monday that Rogers Communications, the Jays’ parent company, has derived huge financial boosts from the team’s recent success, so he doesn’t seem willing to accept an argument that ownership couldn’t put more resources into re-signing him or into the club in general.

Payroll commitments aside, it could be argued that it would be unwise to sign any 36-year-old to such a massive deal.  While Bautista is universally considered to be an excellent athlete who keeps himself in prime shape, he’s also had some injury issues in his career and his defensive metrics in right field took a sharp decline in 2015.  If Bautista is already becoming the type of player who only provides value with his bat, then he’d have to keep his elite hitting numbers through his age-41 season to live up to the value of such a big contract.

Would Bautista land such a deal on the open market as a free agent?  At first glance it would seem unlikely that any team would make such a huge commitment to a 36-year-old, and yet the 2016-17 free agent class is notably thin.  Bautista’s performance in 2016 will obviously play a major factor in his next deal, and another superstar-level season would help boost his case.  Bautista told reporters on Monday that he wasn’t going to budge from his asking price, though it’s possible that this was a negotiating tactic and that he’d be willing to go lower if the Blue Jays or another suitor countered with something at least in the ballpark of the initial demand.

Possible Snag In Deal Between Orioles, Yovani Gallardo

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TUESDAY: The Orioles are expected to try and restructure their agreement with Gallardo, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link), and it’s unlikely that the matter will be resolved quickly.  It’s a rather risky move on the Orioles’ part, as Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun observes that Gallardo’s camp may well not be willing to renegotiate terms.  The team would have to be confident it has the internal pitching depth to fill the rotation spot Gallardo would’ve filled, as other available free agent starters will likely come with more injury red flags than Gallardo and may have an even harder time passing the Orioles’ strict physical standards.

7:26pm: The Orioles’ issue with Gallardo is concern over his shoulder, according to Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun (links to Twitter). However, as Encina notes, Gallardo doesn’t have a history of shoulder problems, and it’s rare that a 30-year-old pitcher’s shoulder will be 100 percent clean. He further tweets that the Orioles are likely being “super cautious” due to the draft pick forfeiture that is associated with Gallardo, and if Gallardo did not come with that price, the shoulder may not be perceived as a significant issue. Kubatko tweets that the Orioles hope to get the results of additional testing on Gallardo back tomorrow.

2:29pm: It isn’t known whether the Orioles could try to restructure their agreement with Gallardo or back out of it altogether, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links).  Beyond the $35MM commitment, the Orioles are also concerned at having to surrender the 14th overall pick for a player they may feel isn’t up to par physically.

11:23am: The status of the three-year, $35MM agreement between the Orioles and right-hander Yovani Gallardo is “unclear” following some questions that have arisen in Gallardo’s phyiscal, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter).  MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko tweeted word from a source that there was “more work to do” on the physical before anything was made official between the two sides, and the team wanted another look at Gallardo’s MRI.

As Passan noted, the Orioles are “notorious medical sticklers,” so it could that this is simply another case of the team being very careful before committing to a major contract.  While it’s unusual for a player physical to extend over two days, it’s perhaps not unexpected given Baltimore’s history.

This offseason’s signing splurge notwithstanding, the O’s have generally been hesitant about any sort of major free agent signing under Peter Angelos’ ownership.  On several occasions, the Orioles have backed out of agreements with players such as Will Clark, Aaron Sele, Grant Balfour and Jair Jurrjens due to complications that arose from those players’ physicals.  As Ken Rosenthal related in a 2013 column about the Balfour controversy, the now-standard practice of teams insisting on physicals before signing players stemmed from the Orioles voiding a 1998 contract with Xavier Hernandez when a post-signing examination revealed Hernandez had a torn rotator cuff.

It isn’t known what specific issue Baltimore has with Gallardo’s physical, as he has been more or less injury-free since a pair of knee injuries in 2008.  In fact, Gallardo has been one of the game’s more durable starters in recent years, averaging 191 innings per season since 2009.

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Orioles To Sign Dexter Fowler

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7:15pm: Jon Heyman tweets that Fowler’s contract is worth $33MM over three years.

6:27pm:  In a full column, Kubatko adds that there is also not an opt-out clause in the deal, which is still pending the ever-important physical.

6:13pm: The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck tweets that Fowler’s contract doesn’t contain any options. He also notes that the deal with Gallardo may yet survive the issues with his physical.

5:37pm: The Orioles and outfielder Dexter Fowler have agreed to terms on a three-year deal, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (via Twitter). The contract will be worth about $35MM in total, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (on Twitter). Fowler is a client of Excel Sports Management.

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Fowler becomes the second potentially significant free agent addition for the Orioles over the past week, as the team also agreed to a three-year pact with right-hander Yovani Gallardo over the weekend. However, there’s said to be a holdup in that deal relating to Gallardo’s medicals. It at least bears mentioning that Fowler’s agreement would seem to fall closely in line with the three-year, $35MM deal to which Gallardo agreed. However, a deal in this range for Fowler was rumored to be a possibility before the Orioles even reportedly agreed to terms with Gallardo, and there is not yet any indication that Fowler’s deal is some kind of reallocation of the funds that were to be allotted to Gallardo. Should both deals remain in place, the pair of late agreements will hearken back to the Orioles’ February additions of Nelson Cruz and Ubaldo Jimenez in 2014.

Fowler, 30 in March, should be penciled in as the everyday right fielder in Baltimore, as Adam Jones is locked into center field and offseason signee Hyun Soo Kim is said to be the team’s left fielder. (Baltimore reportedly doesn’t feel Kim has the arm strength for right field.) Fowler will bring to the top of the Orioles’ lineup a strong history of getting on base as well as moderate power and speed. The switch hitter is coming off a season in which he batted .250/.346/.411 with a career-best 17 home runs to go along with 20 stolen bases for the Cubs. He tacked on another pair of homers and another steal over the life of 39 postseason plate appearances with the Cubs, during which time he posted an .816 OPS. All told, Fowler is a career .267/.363/.418 hitter in 3830 Major League plate appearances. While he was at one time believed to be a product of Coors Field — his home park throughout the first four full seasons of his big league career — Fowler has quieted some of that talk by maintaining solid levels of production in Houston and Chicago after being traded in each of the past two offseasons.

From a defensive standpoint, metrics such as Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved have never been bullish on Fowler’s work in center field, though he could certainly profile more favorably with the shift to an outfield corner. Even if he doesn’t prove to be a standout defender in right field, he should provide superior glovework to internal candidates such as Mark Trumbo, Nolan Reimold and Ryan Flaherty.

If a deal is completed, the Orioles would forfeit their top unprotected draft pick by adding Fowler to the fold. Should the deal for Gallardo also be completed, Baltimore would be sacrificing the 14th and 28th overall picks in the upcoming Rule 4 Draft (their current second pick, No. 29 overall, would improve to No. 28 upon forfeiture of the No. 14 pick). The Cubs, in turn, would pick up a draft pick at the end of the first round. The loss of those two picks for the Orioles certainly further damages Baltimore’s minor league system, which was recently rated among the worst in the league by outlets such as Baseball America and ESPN. Then again, the Orioles are in a clear win-now mode after re-signing Chris Davis and Darren O’Day this offseason (to say nothing of the Kim signing and Matt Wieters’ acceptance of the qualifying offer); the organization’s current focus, as evidenced by the agreements with Gallardo and Fowler, is on the present-day roster and making a run at the AL East.

Furthermore, as I recently outlined in the MLBTR Mailbag and discussed with Jeff Todd on the MLBTR Podcast, the Orioles could always shift course and aim for an aggressive rebuild midway through the 2017 season or in the 2017-18 offseason if the next two years don’t go as planned. With Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Jones, Fowler and Gallardo all lined up to hit free agency following the 2018 campaign, they’d have a huge number of short-term assets to be flipped for long-term gain. And, if the Orioles enjoy a strong run buoyed by this pair of late signings, the hit to the farm system will become little more than a footnote.

Should both deals ultimately come to fruition at the reported $35MM price tag, the Orioles will finish up the offseason as baseball’s most prolific spenders. The price tags on Fowler, Gallardo, Davis ($161MM), O’Day ($31MM), Wieters ($15.8MM) and Kim ($7MM) would bring the team’s free-agent expenditures to a staggering $284.8MM, to say nothing of the $9.15MM worth of salary added in acquiring Trumbo from the Mariners and avoiding arbitration with him on a one-year deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jose Reyes Placed On Administrative Leave Pending Completion Of Criminal Proceedings

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Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office announced today that Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes, who has an April 4 trial set in connection with his offseason domestic violence allegations, has been placed on paid leave until his hearing has been resolved, at which point Commissioner Manfred will make a decision on potential disciplinary measures against Reyes (i.e. a suspension). The official release announcing the move reads as follows:

“Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. announced today that Colorado Rockies’ shortstop Jose Reyes has been placed on paid leave pending completion of his criminal proceedings in Hawaii, pursuant to Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Section III.C.2 of the Policy permits the Commissioner to impose a paid suspension pending resolution of the legal proceedings or an investigation. Upon resolution of Reyes’ criminal proceedings and the completion of the Commissioner’s Office’s investigation into the incident, Commissioner Manfred will make a decision whether to impose discipline on Reyes. The Commissioner’s Office will have no further comment on this matter until a final disposition is announced.”

The administrative leave means that Reyes will miss the entirety of Spring Training with the Rockies and will not be with the club for the team’s opener on April 4 — the same day as his hearing. In mid-January, Reyes plead not guilty to charges alleging the assault of his wife at a Hawaii hotel on Oct. 31. If he’s found guilty in his hearing, it stands to reason that he’ll face a fairly weighty suspension under the domestic violence policy. The policy states that Manfred can issue discipline so long as there is “just cause,” which, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post recently noted, means that the criminal hearing will not necessarily be the sole deciding factor.

The Major League Baseball Players Association has also weighed in on the matter and issued a statement. Via the MLBPA’s press release:

“We are closely monitoring the proceedings in Hawaii, as well as the Commissioner’s actions under the Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.  If further discipline is issued, or if Mr. Reyes’ paid suspension is not resolved in a timely fashion, the Players Association will work with Mr. Reyes to ensure that all of his rights under the Policy are protected.  Pursuant to the confidentiality provisions of the Policy, the Players Association will have no further comment at this time.”

Reyes is one of three players facing potential discipline under the domestic violence policy, as both Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman and Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig are under investigation as well. However, neither Chapman nor Puig had charges filed against him, and as such, there’s no hearing set for either player (and, subsequently, no need for administrative leave). A decision from the Commissioner’s Office on those two cases is still pending.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that Reyes would be placed on paid leave until his legal proceedings had been resolved (links to Twitter).

Agent: Cliff Lee Not Expected To Pitch In 2016

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Cliff Lee was reportedly considering a comeback earlier this winter, but as his agent Darek Braunecker now tells FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link), “We don’t anticipate him playing at this point.”

Lee last pitched on July 31, 2014 and has since been sidelined due to elbow problems and then a partially torn flexor tendon in his throwing shoulder.  After receiving a clean bill of health in December, however, Lee was looking to return to the mound and drew interest from at least 15 teams.  There were some caveats to Lee’s comeback attempt, however, as Braunecker said in January that his client would require “a perfect fit” to return.  Lee was looking for a one-year Major League deal with a contender reportedly in the range of $6MM-$8MM in base salary, plus incentives.  The left-hander also didn’t reach the point of throwing for teams or holding a showcase, so clubs had several questions about the health of Lee’s shoulder, or when in the season he’d be able to pitch.

At age 37 and already 18 months removed from his last game, it’s hard to see Lee mounting another comeback attempt next offseason.  If this is indeed the end of Lee’s 13-year Major League career, he’ll go down as one of the best left-handed starters of his era.  Lee’s impressive resume includes the 2008 AL Cy Young Award, four All-Star appearances, stints on two pennant winners (the 2009 Phillies and the 2010 Rangers) and a 2.93 ERA over his last 1415 innings.  He also banked over $143.3MM over his career, most of it earned from the five-year, $120MM contract he signed with Philadelphia in the 2010-11 offseason.

Three-Team Jay Bruce Deal With Reds, Angels, Blue Jays “Dead”

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TUESDAY: The medical concerns were in regard to a Blue Jays minor leaguer involved in the deal who was presumably going to the Reds, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  With this trade at least temporarily off, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan wonders if other teams could approach the Reds with offers for Bruce since they seem open to dealing him for a fairly low price.

11:15pm: Talks are “dead” for the time being, Olney tweets.

11:06pm: The reason for the holdup is that one of the teams found an issue with one of the players’ medicals, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan tweets, clarifying that the player in question was not Bruce. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, meanwhile, tweets that someone close to the talks believes the problem is Saunders’ knee, an injury to which caused him to miss most of last season.

10:47pm: Some of the parties discussing the deal now doubt it will come to fruition, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets. The reasons for the hitch are currently unclear.

8:44pm: The three teams are reviewing medical records of the players involved, tweets Rosenthal.

8:20pm: The deal is nearing completion, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets.

6:36pm: The current deal has Bruce going to Toronto, Saunders heading to Anaheim and prospects going to the Reds, Heyman tweets. That suggests the Angels, who have a very weak farm system, will be providing the prospects.

6:13pm: Bruce does not currently have the Jays on his no-trade list, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets.

6:03pm: Heyman tweets that the proposed deal between the Jays and Reds actually also involves the Angels, with Saunders heading from Toronto to Anaheim in the deal. The Jays and Reds also discussed a three-team deal with the Athletics, but that trade is no longer on the table, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan tweets.

5:44pm: Reds outfielder Jay Bruce remains on the trade market, and they could be in the process of trading him to the Blue Jays, Jon Heyman tweets. If the Jays were to acquire Bruce, he would likely play mostly left field, with Jose Bautista in right. Toronto’s top left field options currently include Michael Saunders, who missed most of last season due to injury, and 23-year-old Dalton Pompey.

For the Reds, Bruce would be the latest in a long string of veteran departures that has also included Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake, Marlon Byrd, Todd Frazier and Aroldis Chapman. Bruce would be unlikely to command a large return, since he’s hit just .222/.288/.406 in the last two seasons. He might, however, be in line for somewhat of a resurgence in 2016 if his batting average on balls in play (which was just .251 last season) improves a bit. When he does make contact, he has largely retained his ability to hit for power, hitting 26 home runs last season.

Still, Bruce will make $12.5MM in 2016, plus a $1MM buyout or a $13MM option in 2017, and while those figures aren’t exorbitant, he’s far from a bargain at that price. The Orioles have also recently been connected to Bruce, although at last check, their interest wasn’t particularly strong.

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