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Nationals Decline Options On Casey Janssen, Nate McLouth

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The Nationals announced that they’ve declined their 2016 options on right-hander Casey Janssen and outfielder Nate McLouth. Washington will pay a $1.5MM buyout on Janssen’s $7MM mutual option, whereas McLouth will receive a $750K buyout on his $6.5MM club option. James Wagner of the Washington Post first reported (via Twitter) that Janssen’s option would be bought out, though the move isn’t surprising on the heels of a disappointing year for the former Toronto closer.

Janssen, who turned 34 in September, signed a one-year, $5MM contract with the Nationals last winter that contained the $7MM mutual option which was bought ought today. The former closer opened the season on the disabled list due to tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, which subsequently limited him to 40 innings of work this year. In those 40 frames, Janssen tallied just a 4.95 ERA with 6.1 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a career-low 29.4 percent ground-ball rate. His fastball velocity, which registered between 91 and 92 mph at Janssen’s peak with the Jays, sat an average of just 88.5 mph this year.

Last season, Janssen struggled tremendously in the second half after coming down with a dreadful case of food poisoning that caused him to lose eight pounds in less than 12 hours. Matters weren’t helped by the fact that he spent two days on an IV to regain fluid in his body and then proceeded to pitch on five of the next eight days for Toronto. The hope was that an offseason of regular rest and workouts would get him back to the form he displayed from 2011-13 when he compiled a 2.46 ERA in 172 innings of work despite Toronto’s hitter-friendly home environs, but he instead was another piece to an underwhelming bullpen that served as one of a disappointing D.C. team’s greatest flaws.

As for McLouth, who turned 34 in late October, the 2015 season was a lost cause. He spent the year recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder and didn’t appear in a game. That’s obviously not the way that the Nationals or McLouth hoped to see his two-year, $10.75MM contract end — especially considering the fact that shoulder woes limited him to a .173/.280/.237 batting line in just 162 plate appearances for the 2014 club. Given the injuries to Denard Span this season, a healthy McLouth would’ve served as a valuable depth piece for since-dismissed manager Matt Williams, but McLouth will instead likely be looking at a minor league deal this offseason as he hopes to make a roster in Spring Training and restore some value with a healthy 2016 season.

Cardinals Decline Jonathan Broxton’s Option, Outright Pete Kozma

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The Cardinals announced on Monday that they have declined their $9MM club option on right-hander Jonathan Broxton. He’ll instead be paid a $2MM buyout and hit the open market, where he’s free to sign with any club. Additionally, the Cardinals announced that they have outrighted shortstop Pete Kozma off the 40-man roster along with catchers Ed Easley and Travis Tartamella.

Acquired from the division-rival Brewers in exchange for minor leaguer Malik Collymore at this year’s trade deadline, Broxton enjoyed an excellent turnaround in St. Louis after an ugly start in the Milwaukee ’pen. Sporting a 5.89 ERA at the time of the trade, Broxton worked to a 2.66 ERA with a 26-to-12 K/BB ratio in 23 2/3 innings with the Cardinals. While his ERA, strikeout rate and ground-ball rates took a notable turn for the better following the trade, Broxton’s control was actually better with the Brewers. Overall, ERA estimators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged him for an ERA in the mid- to low-3.00 range. (xFIP and SIERA, specifically, liked his work, giving him a pass on what looks to have been a fluky homer-to-flyball ratio that inflated his ERA and FIP.)

Kozma, 27, received 111 plate appearances for the Cardinals in 2015 but batted just .152/.236/.152. Known for his defensive wizardry, it’s been two seasons since Kozma was the team’s regular shortstop. That 2013 campaign proved to be the only in Kozma’s five-year career in which he’s received regular at-bats, to this point. The former first-round pick batted just .217/.275/.273 that season, which was weak enough for him to grade out as replacement level despite being one of the game’s better defenders at shortstop.

The 29-year-old Easley and 27-year-old Tartamella each made their big league debuts in 2015, though Easley went 0-for-6 and Tartamella just 1-for-2 in their brief cups of coffee. Easley is a lifetime .289/.360/.420 hitter in nearly 300 games at the Triple-A level and has enough minor league experience to qualify as a free agent. Tartamella, too, has the minor league service to become a free agent, though he doesn’t have the offensive track record that Easley carries. Tartamella is a .229/.276/.289 hitter in his Triple-A career, though he’s regarded as a solid defender behind the dish.

Cardinals Exercise Jaime Garcia’s Option

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NOV. 2: The Cardinals announced that they have indeed exercised their option on Garcia (Twitter link).

NOV. 1: The Cardinals have informed Jaime Garcia’s representatives that they will be picking up his $11.5MM option for 2016, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes.  Had the Cardinals declined his option, Garcia would have received a modest $500K buyout.

Garcia’s option wasn’t a given to be picked up, but comments from GM John Mozeliak back in October seemed to hint that the club was leaning in that direction.

“You think back to Garcia, and the impact that he made on our roster was extremely positive,” said Mozeliak. “If we were having this conversation in February, I don’t think any of us would have thought he was going to contribute, especially the way he did.”

Garcia, 29, pitched to a 2.43 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 across 20 big league starts this season.  Despite his rough outing in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, the left-hander gave the Cardinals solid pitching overall, no small feat considering that he began the year on the disabled list.  As Strauss notes, Garcia’s talent has never really been in question, but his durability has been.  Garcia has made more than 30 starts in a season only once (2011) and he took the hill only 16 times between 2013 and 2014.

Garcia’s deal is only guaranteed through 2016, though he could be brought back to St. Louis on a second option year in 2017.  Next year, the Cardinals will have the option of retaining Garcia for $12MM or instead buying him out for $500K.

Blue Jays Name Tony LaCava Interim GM

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1:15pm: Shapiro announced LaCava as the interim GM at today’s press conference and said there’s no timetable yet for finding a permanent solution for the position (links to Twitter via Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson Smith).

12:24pm: The Blue Jays will name assistant general manager Tony LaCava the team’s interim general manager, Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun first reported this weekend. The Blue Jays are holding a press conference today to formally announce president Mark Shapiro today, so it seems likely that LaCava will be announced as the GM — at least on a temporary basis — today as well.

Toronto’s GM position was vacated last week when now-former GM Alex Anthopoulos turned down a new contract and resigned due to reported differences with incoming president Mark Shapiro. Blue Jays ownership also reportedly promised Shapiro full authority over player personnel decisions, meaning Anthopoulos’ extension essentially came along with a demotion in terms of his standing within the organization.

As Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi writes today, LaCava’s ties to Shapiro date back to 2002, when he served as a national cross-checker with Cleveland during Shapiro’s time as general manager there. LaCava joined the Blue Jays’ front office that October as a special assistant to then-GM J.P. Ricciardi. He was named assistant GM in 2007 and has since gained traction as a GM candidate around the league, interviewing for the Angels’ GM vacancy this summer. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel reminds that LaCava, a Pittsburgh native, interviewed for the Pirates’ GM job in 2007 before Neal Huntington was hired (Twitter link).

The Jays face many questions this offseason, including whether or not to exercise R.A. Dickey’s $12MM club option or pay him a $1MM buyout — they’re reportedly planning to exercise it — and whether or not to make a qualifying offer to Marco Estrada, as Davidi notes. However, the Blue Jays are also faced with the possibility of having to fill three rotation spots if Estrada and David Price depart and Mark Buehrle retires, as many expect. Both Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna, who came through the minors as starters, are options, but shifting one or both to the rotation will create holes in the ’pen and raise 2016 innings concerns.

Marlins Announce Don Mattingly As Manager

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The Marlins have formally announced the hiring of Don Mattingly as their new manager. Mattingly will receive a four-year contract, the club announced, although the new skipper said today at his introductory press conference that he hopes to manage in Miami for at least 10 years (via the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson).

Don Mattingly

Incredibly, the 54-year-old Mattingly becomes the Marlins’ eighth man to manager the Marlins since the 2010 season, although that does count bench coach Brandon Hyde, who managed just one game on on interim basis in 2011. Mattingly will replace GM-turned-skipper Dan Jennings, who bizarrely transitioned from the front office to the dugout in nearly unprecedented fashion earlier this year after Mike Redmond was fired as manager. (Jennings has since been dismissed from the Marlins after initially being asked to return to the front office.) The Marlins will pay Redmond through the 2017 season and only recently had Redmond’s predecessor, Ozzie Guillen, come off the books, as his four-year contract expired upon completion of the 2015 season despite the fact that he was fired three years ago.

Since word of the agreement broke, reports have indicated that Mattingly hopes to bring Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt with him to Miami. While it’s not clear whether either man will officially make the transition, Mattingly did say today that he thinks Wallach will join him as bench coach with the Marlins (via the Herald’s Clark Spencer, on Twitter).

Mattingly expressed great interest in taking on a different challenge with a smaller-payroll club: that of being forced to develop more talent than with a larger-market team. “That was the single biggest thing I was intrigued with coming to Miami is chance to develop, teach, help mold a young club,” said Mattingly (via Jackson’s piece above). “…This is a place we are going to have to develop through the minor league system, continuing to teach, develop at all time. … Also understanding the challenges of this market. It’s not a New York or L.A. where you can go endless finances. It’s a situation where you have to continue to build.”

The Marlins interviewed a wide variety of candidates, though reports throughout the interview process indicated that owner Jeffrey Loria would consider Mattingly the favorite were he to part ways with the Dodgers. That scenario came to fruition last week, when Mattingly and the Dodgers mutually parted ways. Mattingly is said to feel that the team didn’t want to commit to him for the long haul, though some form of extension was discussed prior to his departure. (Speculatively speaking, it seems plausible that the Dodgers only offered Mattingly a one-year extension of his contract, which would’ve extended it through the 2017 season.)

Though Loria is notoriously fickle with his managers — as evidenced by the fact that seven men have filled that role from 2010-15 — the New York native is said to be a huge fan of Mattingly dating back to Mattingly’s days as a six-time All-Star first baseman with the Yankees. Perhaps, then, that will buy Mattingly more leeway than was afforded to the men he is succeeding in his new role.

In five seasons as manager of the Dodgers, Mattingly posted a 446-363 record, guiding his club to the NL West Division title in each of the final three years of his term. While the team won only one postseason series in four attempts under Mattingly, he recorded a winning record in each of his five seasons and was generally well-regarded by his players. Notably, Mattingly managed in an extremely high-pressure market while juggling a large number of highly paid players on his roster, many of whom had been reduced to part-time roles. Managing the number of egos and dealing with the L.A. media undoubtedly took a toll on Mattingly, and he’s likely to encounter a more low-key environment in Miami.

Molly Knight of Vice Sports first reported the four-year agreement between the two sides.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

The MLB Offseason Begins

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Congratulations to the Kansas City Royals, who rode what has become a signature late-inning comeback in last night’s Game 5 at Citi Field to the end of a 30-year World Series drought. The Royals were masterful in late innings, as ESPN’s Buster Olney points out (Twitter link), scoring 40 runs in the eighth inning or later this postseason (no other team scored more than five). While many — myself included — were skeptical of Kansas City’s ability to make another World Series run, the Royals silenced critics and can bask in their victory all winter. That will be easier said than done for the team’s players than their front office, however, as like every other baseball operations department, Kansas City GM Dayton Moore and his staff now must turn their focus to the offseason.

Here’s a schedule of the most important dates facing front offices this winter…

  • Nov. 2: First day of an exclusive five-day negotiation window which all teams have with their free-agent-eligible players.
  • Nov. 6: Final day for teams to extend qualifying offers to free agents. Qualifying offers must be submitted by 5pm ET.
  • Nov. 7: Players become eligible to sign with any team.
  • Nov. 13: Deadline for players to accept or reject qualifying offers. Players must formally make their decision by 5pm ET.
  • Nov. 9-12: GM Meetings are held in Florida. While not as active as December’s Winter Meetings, the groundwork for many trades and free-agent signings will take place here, and a few moves figure to be completed.
  • Dec. 2: Deadline for teams to decide whether or not 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. 7-10: Winter Meetings in Nashville. These four days are 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 July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. MLBTR will be providing 24-hour, around-the-clock coverage while the Winter Meetings are in effect. It should be noted that the Rule 5 Draft will be held on the final day of the Winter Meetings.

Of course, we’ve already begun our best effort to prepare for the offseason here at MLBTR. Our list of 2015-16 free agents has been up since last September and is up to date (though please let us know via the contact form if there are any omissions). MLBTR’s Free Agent Tracker launched in late October and will be updated throughout the winter as agreements are reached. Those wanting to get a head start on plotting out potential courses of action for their favorite teams will want to keep our Arbitration Projections (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) in mind and check out our 2015-16 Offseason Outlook series as well. We’ve also been breaking down the top names available and will continue to do so in our Free Agent Profile series.

A more comprehensive look at the top free agents will be available on Friday evening, after qualifying offer decisions have been made. At that point, we’ll launch our annual Top 50 free agent list and Free Agent Prediction contest. This year’s list will come fully equipped with not only team predictions for each player on the list but also contract predictions as well for the entire Top 50 as well.

This winter features one of the deepest classes of free agents in recent memory, which should make for a highly interesting offseason. We’re looking forward to the action and will cover it to the fullest extent. Happy offseason!

Latest On Dodgers’ Managerial Search

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The Dodgers have parted ways with manager Don Mattingly in what appears to be a mutually agreeable divorce. That leaves the organization searching for a new skipper, marking an important hire for president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. We’ll keep tabs on the hiring process right here:

  • The Dodgers will interview Darin Erstad for the position, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Erstad currently serves as the head coach at the University of Nebraska. While it would be unusual for a big league club to hire a skipper directly out of the college ranks, Erstad was a long-time major leaguer.
  • Padres bench coach Dave Roberts, who was a finalist in the Mariners’ managerial search, will interview for the Dodgers, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Roberts, of course, had a 10-year playing career as an outfielder and stole one of the most famous bases in recent history in the 2004 ALCS. He’s been coaching for the Padres since 2011, beginning as a first-base coach.
  • Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that he’s spoken to a number of people in the past day who said they’d be stunned if anyone other than Kapler is named manager in Los Angeles.

Earlier Updates

  • Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles tweets that he’s hearing Mets bench coach Bob Geren will be in the mix for the Dodgers’ opening. Geren, 54, managed the Athletics from 2007-11, so Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi is plenty familiar with him.
  • Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler is a “serious frontrunner” for the job, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com, who acknowledges that the process is only just beginning. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported earlier this morning (via Twitter) that Kapler was considered a candidate. While he only has minimal managerial experience in the low minors, Kapler is a highly respected former player who has long been viewed as a budding managerial prospect.
  • Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times lists some names to keep an eye on, with Kapler among them. Other strong possibilities to come under consideration by the Dodgers, per Shaikin, include former Rays and current Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, former Padres skipper Bud Black, current Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach, and recently-hired Dodgers third base coach Ron Roenicke.

Daniel Norris Has Successful Surgery For Thyroid Cancer

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OCTOBER 29: Norris has announced on Instagram that his surgery was successful and that he is considered cancer-free. That’s obviously outstanding news. Hopefully, the surgery has not only secured Norris’s long-term health, but also will allow him to resume his promising career in short order.

OCTOBER 19: Tigers lefty Daniel Norris announced today on Instagram that he has been diagnosed with cancer in his thyroid. He will undergo surgery soon to remove the malignant growth.

Needless to say, the news is shocking, particularly given that Norris is just 22 years of age. On the bright side, of course, many of the factors that made him a top pitching prospect  — youth, physical strength, and mental toughness — will serve him well as he battles this new foe.

Also providing hope for a good prognosis is the fact that Norris played out the season despite receiving the diagnosis several months back. He indicates in his announcement that he got the news prior to his trade from the Blue Jays to the Tigers, but was advised that it was safe to hold off on having the procedure. Remarkably, Norris performed quite well in a late-season run of eight starts with Detroit.

MLBTR extends its very best wishes to Daniel, who was kind enough to join the MLBTR Podcast back in early August. Already an inspirational figure for his approach to life, he’ll no doubt continue to set an example as he tackles cancer.

Padres Name Andy Green Manager

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5:42pm: The Padres have announced the hiring, making it official. It appears that Green has received a three-year deal, MLB.com’s Corey Brock tweets.

11:53am: Although the Padres were said to be down to Ron Gardenhire and Rick Sofield in their search for a new manager, it appears they’ve made a last-minute audible, as Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller is now reporting that Diamondbacks third base coach Andy Green will be San Diego’s new skipper (Twitter link). The Padres have issued a press release to inform the media that they’ll formally announce a new manager at 3pm PT. (San Diego did not name Green in the release). Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets that Gardenhire was the runner-up to Green, who was offered the position late last night.

Andy Green

The 38-year-old Green will instantly become one of the youngest managers in baseball (though Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash is still younger). That’s not to say, however, that he comes without managerial experience. To the contrary, Green has four seasons of minor league managerial experience in spite of his young age. From 2011-14, he managed in the D-Backs’ minor league system, including a pair of postseason berths for the Double-A Mobile Bay Bears in 2013-14. Green was named Southern League Manager of the Year in each of those two seasons.

Green played parts of four seasons in the Major Leagues, with his fourth and final appearance coming in 2009 when he saw action in just four games with the Mets. A second baseman/third baseman by trade, Green appeared in 140 big league games and received 265 plate appearances, though he batted just .200/.282/.265 in that short time. The former 24th-round pick was a strong minor league hitter in parts of 10 seasons (.295/.375/.444) and also had a bit of experience in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball as well.

In addition to Green, Gardenhire and Sofield, the Padres are known to have interviewed D-Backs Triple-A manager Phil Nevin, former Major Leaguer and veteran winter ball manager Alex Cora, Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach, former big league pitcher Tom Gordon, former Angels assistant GM Scott Servais (who was instead hired to become the new manager of the Mariners) and current Padres hitting coach Mark Kotsay.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Marlins Dismiss Dan Jennings

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5:44pm: The Marlins have announced that Jennings has been relieved of his duties. Miami won’t hire a replacement, but will instead shift his former responsibilities over to Hill while also increasing Berger’s role.

Jackson also provides more detail on the split, writing that Jennings wanted to stay on as manager but was told he’d instead be offered a return to the GM role. The then-skipper and owner Jeffrey Loria had butted heads over how he was running the club, says Jackson, “including whether to play Marcell Ozuna.”

Per the report, Jennings was preparing to report back to the organization on October 19 when he was told instead to stay home. Club president David Samson advised Jennings that he’d first need to talk things over with Loria — a conversation which seemingly never occurred.

Samson issued the following statement in a team press release:

“We want to thank Dan for his dedication and loyal service to the Marlins organization over the last 13 years. This is the continuation of the restructuring of our baseball operations department and we look forward to moving in a unified direction to reach our goal of becoming a championship-caliber ballclub that our fans richly deserve.”

5:06pm: The Marlins have decided to “dismiss” now-former general manager and manager Dan Jennings, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports on Twitter. Jennings, of course, was still under contract for three more seasons, meaning that Miami will likely remain on the hook for the $5.6MM left on his contract (though it could be offset when he’s hired elsewhere).

Jennings, 55, has been with the Miami organization since 2002. He served as the club’s general manager — working alongside president of baseball operations Michael Hill — from 2013 through the middle of 2015. After the team fired manager Mike Redmond in May, Jennings moved into the skipper’s seat in an eyebrow-raising move that didn’t pan out.

Though Jennings wasn’t able to turn around a disappointing club that he had a major hand in compiling, he is said to have managed to earn the trust of his players in spite of the odd situation. And while the Fish weren’t able to match their (arguably unreasonable) expectations, Jennings remains a highly-respected executive. Indeed, Bob Nightengale of USA Today notes on Twitter that Jennings has already drawn interest from other teams looking for assistant general managers.

While the move is somewhat surprising, given Jennings’s deep ties to the Miami organization and owner Jeffrey Loria, Nightengale adds that Jennings was hoping to be released from his obligations to pursue new opportunities. It appeared that his front office standing may have been marginalized while he was in the dugout, with the club having handed off some of his duties to VP and assistant GM Mike Berger. Club president David Samson said just weeks ago that Jennings was still the general manager, but it seemed even at that time that there was a lot to be worked out for the relationship to continue.

During his time in the GM chair, Jennings played a key role in a number of big moves. Most notably, perhaps, the club extended outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich, with the former receiving a record $325MM guarantee.

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