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Mariners Hire Edgar Martinez As Hitting Coach For Rest Of 2024

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The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Edgar Martinez as hitting coach for the remainder of the season. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times first reported (X link) yesterday that the Hall of Famer was going to join new manager Dan Wilson’s staff. The role was unreported, but in tandem with Seattle’s dismissal of hitting coach Jarret DeHart yesterday, it wasn’t hard to read between the lines.

While the M’s made clear that Wilson is their full-time manager, Martinez’s status after the year is up in the air. Seattle’s press release specified that Martinez has only taken the job for the final couple months of this season. The M’s would presumably be happy to keep him around beyond this year, but the 61-year-old has previously cited a desire for a less demanding position than a regular coaching role.

Few hitters are more accomplished than Martinez. He won two batting titles and three Silver Slugger awards during his 18-year big league career. Martinez made seven All-Star teams and finished his playing days with a .312/.418/.515 slash line. He spent his entire career with the M’s and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame within three years of his retirement after the ’04 season. While it took more than a decade, he eventually earned the sport’s highest honors with election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2019.

Wilson was an All-Star catcher who played for the Mariners from 1994-2005. He overlapped with Martinez for all but the final season. The two have both remained involved with the organization in their post-playing days. Martinez worked as hitting coach on Lloyd McClendon’s and Scott Servais’ staffs between 2015-18. He stepped down after the ’18 campaign and moved into a less intensive role as organizational hitting advisor — a position that enabled him to work with both minor league and MLB players. Wilson had been a special assistant for player development for seven years before moving into the manager’s office yesterday.

Padres Reinstate Yu Darvish From Restricted List

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The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish has been reinstated from the restricted list and will join the club tonight, though he has been returned to the 15-day injured list. Infielder Matthew Batten was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for him.

Darvish, 38, began his season strong. He made 11 starts through the end of May, allowing 3.20 earned runs per nine innings, but his campaign has been on pause since then. He landed on the 15-day injured list June 1, retroactive to May 31, due to a left groin strain. He was supposed to return on June 25 but then was sidelined by some inflammation in his throwing elbow.

On July 6, he was transferred to the restricted list due to an undisclosed family matter, with no details about that situation having been made public. Last week, it was reported that Darvish set up a live BP session at a high school, trying to keep himself somewhat ready even while he was away from the club and perhaps demonstrating that he had put his injuries behind him. Whatever the family situation was, it now seems it has been resolved enough for the veteran to turn his attentions back to baseball.

However, he may not immediately join the big league club, as he is still on the injured list. After so much down time, he will likely need some kind of rehab assignment to build back up. Still, the fact that he is back from the restricted list at least provides some clarity and some expectations to a situation that was previously difficult to predict.

The Padres just optioned struggling knuckleballer Matt Waldron, leaving them with a rotation consisting of Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Martín Pérez. Whenever Darvish is in game shape, he will jump back into that mix. Until then, the club may need to call upon Randy Vásquez or Jhony Brito to cover Waldron’s spot, or perhaps deploy a bullpen game or two.

Batten, 29, was added to the club’s roster in June of 2022. He has largely been on optional assignment in the two-plus years since then, having appeared in 59 big league games with 164 plate appearances. He has hit .239/.337/.345 in those for a wRC+ of 96. His minor league work has actually been worse, as he has hit .242/.333/.372 at Triple-A El Paso since the start of 2023. In the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that translates to a wRC+ of 75.

He is in his final option year and will be out of options by next season. With the trade deadline having passed, the Friars will have to place him on waivers in the coming days. Despite the lack of offense, some club may be attracted to his other attributes. He has racked up double-digit steal totals in each minor league season since 2021 and has played every position on the diamond except catcher, including some mop-up duty on the mound. He has less than a year of service time and therefore could potentially be retained for six seasons beyond this one.

Mariners Fire Scott Servais, Hire Dan Wilson As Manager

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The Mariners are making a change as they try to salvage their playoff hopes. Seattle announced Thursday evening that they’ve fired manager Scott Servais and tabbed Dan Wilson as their new skipper. The M’s also dismissed hitting coach Jarret DeHart. They did not announce an immediate replacement at hitting coach, although Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports (on X) that franchise icon Edgar Martinez will join the coaching staff in an unspecified role. The M’s have not officially announced Martinez’s hiring.

“We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. “Dan knows our team and has been a key member of our organization working with players at every level over the past 11 years. He is well respected within and outside of our clubhouse and we are confident he will do a great job in leading our group over the final six weeks of the season and moving forward.” Dipoto subsequently thanked Servais for his passion and work over a nearly nine-year run in Seattle.

Servais, 57, has been the skipper in Seattle since he was hired after the 2015 season. The club has had its share of ups and downs in that time but the move seems to be related to the club’s recent slide in the standings. The Mariners were cruising at the beginning of the season while clubs like the Astros and Rangers were slow getting moving. As recently as June 18, the M’s had a ten-game lead over the Astros in the American League West.

But things have flipped since then, with the Mariners hitting a bad skid as the Astros have course corrected. The M’s are now exactly .500 at 64-64, putting them five games back of Houston and 7.5 games back in the Wild Card race.

Whether a club’s failings can be placed on the manager is always a matter for debate, but it’s not uncommon for them to be scapegoated when things go bad. Seattle has a strong pitching staff but the hitters have a collective batting line of .216/.301/.365 this year, which translates to a wRC+ of 96. The team-wide 27.7% strikeout rate is easily the worst in the majors, with Colorado second-worst at 26.1% and every other club below 25%.

Whether that has something to do with Servais or the club’s overall roster construction, or some combination, is something for each fan to decide for themselves. Either way, it seems the decision makers have opted to shake things up with just over a month remaining on the schedule.

The club has stuck by Servais through some other ups and downs, though some of those were clearly planned. The Mariners hovered around .500 in his first three years, including an 89-73 finish in 2018, but then the front office decided to embark on a rebuild. They traded away players like Robinson Canó, Edwin Díaz, James Paxton, Jean Segura and others going into 2019. They finished below .500 that season and in the shortened 2020 season as well.

Things have been much better lately. They won 90 games in 2021, just narrowly missing the playoffs. Another 90-win season followed in 2022, which was enough for a Wild Card spot that year, the club’s first playoff berth since 2001. Last year, they slipped slightly to 88 wins, missing the playoffs by just one game.

Despite a fairly strong three-year run, the ongoing collapse this year has prompted the M’s to pivot to Wilson. It’s a curious choice, as midseason managerial firings usually see the club pivot to another key member of the staff such as the bench coach, but that’s not the case this time.

Wilson played in the big leagues from 1992 to 2005 as a catcher, most of that with the Mariners. The M’s hired him as a minor league catching coordinator in 2013. He has never been part of a big league coaching staff, nor been a manager at any level. According to the M’s press release, Wilson has spent the past seven years as a special assistant for player development.

Notably, the team’s press release lists Wilson as the 18th full-time manager in franchise history. There is no interim tag. Dipoto confirmed that the M’s view him as the permanent manager (via Daniel Kramer of MLB.com). The team did not announce the length of Wilson’s contract.

The aforementioned run scoring issues also led the team to move on from DeHart. Seattle dismissed first-year offensive coordinator Brant Brown just two months into the season. They’ll try to jumpstart the offense with another midseason change. DeHart had been on Seattle’s major league staff since 2019. He has held the title of director of hitting strategy and hitting coach for the past two-plus seasons.

Martinez, one of the greatest hitters in MLB history, was the M’s hitting coach between 2015-18. He stepped down after the ’18 campaign to take a less demanding role with the organization. Now that he’s returning to the coaching staff, he’ll presumably have a significant say in hitting instruction regardless of his specific title. Assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph is now the top in-house staffer on that side of the ball.

Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig of the Athletic first reported that Servais would be fired and that the Mariners would hire Wilson in his place.

Angels Sign Perry Minasian To Two-Year Extension

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The Angels are opting for continuity atop the front office. The Halos announced on Thursday that they’ve signed general manager Perry Minasian to an extension that runs through the 2026 season. There’s reportedly a club option for ’27.

“Over the last four years, Perry and his baseball operations staff have begun to lay the foundation for a bright future of Angels baseball,” owner Arte Moreno said in a release. “We have been impressed by the steps Perry has taken to infuse our major league team with young and exciting talent while also revamping our player development process. We believe this extension will allow him to continue the vision of building sustainable success throughout the Angels organization and deliver a championship for our fans.”

Minasian is also quoted in the press release: “I am incredibly thankful to Arte and Carole Moreno for their continued trust and support,” he says. “I would also like to thank [Angels president] John Carpino for the tremendous working relationship we have developed over the last four years and I look forward to continuing our plans of bringing the Angels back to being a consistent championship contender.”

Minasian was named the general manager of the Angels in November of 2020, following the firing of Billy Eppler. He had previously worked as a scout for Toronto and assistant general manager for Atlanta and was able to secure a four-year pact in his new gig with the Halos. This is the final season of that deal but the club is satisfied enough with his performance to keep him around.

That might seem a little strange, as things haven’t been going especially well for the Angels. Despite having two superstars on the roster in Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout in recent years, the club hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014 and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2009. They are 54-73 this year, ahead of only the White Sox in the American League standings.

It’s a matter of debate as to how much blame Minasian can take for that, as it doesn’t appear as though he’s been given a lot of rope to work with in building around those guys. Looking at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the club hasn’t been a huge spender since he was brought aboard. The four-year, $58MM deal they gave to Raisel Iglesias has been the biggest deal of his tenure, both in terms of years and guarantee. They already had big contracts on the books for Trout, Anthony Rendon, Albert Pujols and others when he came aboard, and seemingly didn’t want to add much more to that. Moreno plainly stated that he was paring back payroll going into 2024.

The franchise has seemingly had a mandate against significant investments in starting pitching, something that seems to come from ownership since it predates Minasian’s tenure.  Since a five-year, $77.5MM deal for C.J. Wilson late in 2011, things have been kept fairly modest. Joe Blanton got a two-year, $15MM deal at the end of 2012 and then it took a decade for the club to give out another multi-year deal for a starter. At the end of 2022, Tyler Anderson got a three-year, $39MM deal, still fairly modest in terms of rotation investments.

Minasian and his front office have seemingly tried to get around these limitations by drafting players they could fasttrack to the majors, which they have actually had a bit of success with. Zach Neto was the club’s first-round pick in 2022 and Nolan Schanuel in 2023. Both players were up in the majors by last year and having good results. Chase Silseth, taken in the 11th-round in 2021, was pitching in the majors by 2022. Ben Joyce, taken in the third round in 2022, was in the big leagues last year and could now be the club’s closer. Christian Moore, just taken 8th overall last month, is already thriving in Double-A.

That’s not to say that there’s nothing to criticize in Anaheim. Due to rushing all their prospects to the majors, the club’s farm system is generally considered one of the worst in the league. Baseball America recently put them dead last, FanGraphs and ESPN have them in the bottom as well, while MLB Pipeline has them 29th, ahead of only the Astros. The major league roster is obviously lacking, given their poor results lately. There’s actually an argument that they have one of the worst long-term outlooks of the 30 clubs in the league.

But there is some controllable talent on the roster alongside Trout, with guys like Neto, Schanuel, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Logan O’Hoppe and others all slated to stick around through 2026 or longer. They could have made some of those players available this summer and kicked off a notable rebuild but didn’t do it. It’s not known whether that was a front office decision or something that came from ownership. The light spending in recent years means that the future payroll is starting to clear up. Despite having two massive contracts on the books between Trout and Rendon, RosterResource has the club’s guarantees at $109MM next year and $89MM in 2026. By 2027, Rendon, Anderson and Robert Stephenson will all be off the books, leaving Trout as the club’s only significant investment.

Moreno has clearly placed some constraints on Minasian but is evidently pleased with the way he has worked within them, so he’ll keep him around for another couple of years to see how things progress.

Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was first to report the Angels and Minasian had agreed to a multi-year extension. Roger Lodge of Three Point Media first reported the ’27 option year.

Dodgers Designate Jason Heyward For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that they have designated outfielder Jason Heyward for assignment. His roster spot will go to infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor, who has been activated from the injured list. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the Heyward DFA on X prior to the official announcement.

Heyward, 35, engineered a solid bounceback season with the Dodgers last year. After struggling with the Cubs for many years, he got into 124 contests with the Dodgers in 2023 and hit .269/.340/.473 for a wRC+ of 120. He also continued to get solid grades for his outfield glovework, mostly in right field but with some time in center as well.

He and the club reunited on a one-year, $9MM pact, though his results have tailed off a bit this season. He has had a couple of stints on the injured list, one due to lower back tightness and one due to a left knee bone bruise. Around those, he has hit .208/.289/.393 for a wRC+ of 91.

That is hardly disastrous production but the Dodger roster is strong enough that even decent players are getting squeezed off. The club acquired Amed Rosario at the deadline but he was nudged off the roster a couple of weeks later when Mookie Betts returned from his stint on the IL.

Speaking of Betts, his return to right field likely played a role in Heyward getting pushed out. Betts had started the year in the middle infield but it was decided to move him back to his customary right field position when he recently returned. The Dodgers acquired Kevin Kiermaier as a glove-first center fielder between the big bats of Betts and Teoscar Hernández in the corners.

The club has seemingly given a priority to flexibility in its bench spots. Guys like Taylor and Enrique Hernández aren’t having amazing seasons at the plate but are capable of playing all over the diamond. Tommy Edman, recently acquired from the Cardinals, has missed most of the season recovering from wrist surgery but can also bounce around to multiple different positions. Heyward can play a bit of center, as mentioned, but is mostly a corner guy with some lackluster results this year, so he is the odd one out.

With the trade deadline now passed, the Dodgers will have to put him on waivers in the coming days. Given his mediocre season and notable salary, it’s possible that he goes unclaimed. If that comes to pass, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while keeping all of that salary on the table. Perhaps that will see him on the free agent market in the coming days.

If that comes to pass, the Dodgers would remain on the hook for what’s left of his salary. Heyward would then be free to sign with any other club, with that team only responsible for paying him the prorated version of the $740K league minimum for any time Heyward spends on the roster, which would be subtracted from what the Dodgers pay.

Assuming he signs elsewhere before September 1, he would be postseason eligible with his new club. He is likely to garner interest given the low-cost investment that would be required and his competent play. His offense has a bit a bit below par this year but was quite strong as recently as last year and his glovework is still solid. He would likely appeal to a club that’s weak against right-handed pitching, given his notable platoon splits. He’s hit .265/.350/.432 against righties for a 114 wRC+ in his career, whereas he has a line of .231/.301/.344 and 78 wRC+ without the platoon advantage.

Orioles Option Trevor Rogers, Designate Bruce Zimmermann

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The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder Emmanuel Rivera, recently claimed off waivers, has been added to the roster. They also selected the contract of right-hander Matt Bowman and recalled lefty Nick Vespi. To open spots for those three, they optioned left-hander Trevor Rogers, right-hander Colin Selby and infielder Liván Soto to Triple-A Norfolk. To open a 40-man spot for Bowman, lefty Bruce Zimmermann has been designated for assignment.

Just over three weeks ago, the Orioles acquired Rogers from the Marlins in a pre-deadline trade, sending youngsters Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to Miami. The O’s have been having a strong season overall but keeping the rotation intact has been a challenge. All three of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells required surgery to address their respective ulnar collateral ligaments in their elbows earlier this year. To bolster the group, they added both Zach Eflin and Rogers prior to the deadline.

It was a buy-low situation with Rogers, who had posted a 2.64 earned run average with the Marlins in 2021 but struggled since. He dealt with various injuries in 2022 and finished that year with a 5.47 ERA. In 2023, he was only able to make four starts due to a left biceps strain and a partial tear in his right lat.

Here in 2024, he was healthy enough to stay on the mound, making 21 starts for the Fish prior to the deal. His velocity was down but the results were passable, as he had a 4.53 ERA in those 21 outings. A few days after the deal, the lefty said he had already received more analytical information relating to his pitch mix and mechanics than during his entire time with the Marlins, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner on X. Perhaps the O’s felt there was a path to getting Rogers back to his 2021 form via those analytics, or simply him getting healthier as he moved further away from his injuries.

It has not gone to plan so far, as Rogers hasn’t fared well in his first four starts with the O’s. He has allowed 15 earned runs in 19 innings, leading to a 7.11 ERA. His 13.3% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate are both well below league average and nowhere near his previous work.

It seems the O’s have decided that a reset in Triple-A is in order. Perhaps that will give him a chance to work on their suggested tweaks in a lower-stakes environment. He can still be retained via arbitration for two more seasons after this one, so they have some time to figure out a path forward. This isn’t a service time manipulation situation, as he already crossed four years of service time earlier this year.

Still, it’s obviously less than ideal for the club to be subtracting one of its key deadline pickups in the middle of a playoff race. The O’s are still in comfortable position with a 74-54 record, just half a game behind the Yankees in the East and currently possessing the top Wild Card spot. But the Royals and Twins are just 2.5 games back and the Red Sox trail the O’s by only six games, so nothing is set in stone with more than a month left to play.

The rotation continues to be an issue as now both Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are on the injured list, Eflin due to some shoulder discomfort and Rodriguez due to a lat strain. With Rogers now intentionally removed from the mix, the rotation is now down to Corbin Burnes, Dean Kremer, Albert Suárez, Cole Irvin and Cade Povich. Burnes is great but there are plenty of questions with the others. Kremer and Irvin are essentially back-end guys, with the latter having been passed through waivers a few weeks ago, recently being added back to the roster. Suárez keeps putting up good numbers but is a 34-year-old journeyman who is in the majors for the first time since 2017. Povich has just nine major league starts and a 5.77 ERA in those.

Ideally, the club will be hoping to get Rodriguez and Eflin back for the end of the regular season and then the playoffs as well, but they will have to try to get by with this group for now. Perhaps Rogers can also work his way back into the mix with some quick adjustments in the minors, but he can’t be recalled for the next 15 days unless replacing someone going on the injured list.

Bowman, 33, was signed to a minor league deal a week ago. That pact contained an upward mobility clause today and an opt-out next week. It seems the O’s didn’t want him to get away or simply wanted to add some a fresh arm to their bullpen, so he’s been added to their roster today.

As soon as he gets into a game for the O’s, it will be his fourth club of the year, as he’s already suited up for the Twins, Diamondbacks and Mariners. Since he’s out of options, he’s continually been squeezed out of his opportunities. Whenever he has cleared waivers, he has elected free agency and signed a new deal with fresh opt-outs, seemingly having a strong preference for flexibility.

While bouncing around, he has thrown 15 major league innings with a 5.40 ERA, 15.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate. But he’s also thrown 33 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.87 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and grounders on more than half of the balls in play he’s allowed.

That minor league performance has seemingly led to plenty of interest around the league, with Baltimore being his latest stop. If he can perform like that at the major league level, he could be a nice asset for a Baltimore bullpen that hasn’t been strong this year. Their relief corps has a collective 4.18 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of the league. If things click, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration, but based on the way his year has gone, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bouncing around again soon.

Zimmermann, 29, has been in the Orioles’ organization for more than six years now. He came over from Atlanta in the July 2018 trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day the other way. He appeared in 38 games over the 2020-23 seasons, logging 158 1/3 innings with a 5.57 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 41.1% ground ball rate.

He’s been on optional assignment for all of 2024 so far, having tossed 69 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.41 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. With the trade deadline now passed, the O’s will have to put Zimmermann on waivers in the coming days.

This is his final option year, so he’ll be out of options next year. A claiming club could potentially stash him in the minors for the rest of this season but he would need an active roster spot by next year. He has less than two years of service time, so any claiming club could control him for five seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through outright waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the O’s in a non-roster capacity.

Astros To Sign Héctor Neris

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The Astros are signing right-hander Héctor Neris, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X. The righty was released by the Cubs earlier this week. Assuming it’s a major league deal, the Astros will need to make corresponding moves to get the righty onto their active and 40-man rosters once the deal is made official.

Neris, 35, returns to an organization that he has had success with. After many successful years with the Phillies, Neris joined the Astros going into 2022. He signed a two-year, $17MM deal with a club option for 2024, though he could vest that into a player option based on the number of appearances he made for the club during the life of the contract.

Over those two years in Houston, Neris got into 141 regular season contests, allowing 2.69 earned runs per nine. He struck out 29.1% of batters faced and gave out walks at a 9% clip. He earned five saves and 56 holds in that time. He also made 15 postseason appearances over those two years, including eight in 2022 with a 1.50 ERA, helping Houston win its second World Series title.

By July of 2023, he had made his 110th regular-season appearance with the club, thus converting the club option into a player option. He eventually decided to turn that down, taking the $1MM buyout and returning to free agency, rather than agreeing to the $8.5MM salary.

He eventually signed with the Cubs for the 2024 season, a one-year, $9MM guarantee. Again, there was a club/player option provision, this time with a $9MM salary on the table for 2025. It would begin as a club option that could become a player option with 60 appearances or 45 games finished in 2024.

His time as a Cub was mixed. He made 46 appearances for them this year with a 3.89 ERA that doesn’t look too bad at first blush. However, his 23.5% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate were both significant drop-offs from his previous work. He managed to dance around those free passes a bit with a 76.9% strand rate that’s on the lucky side, perhaps why his 4.09 FIP and 4.36 SIERA were a bit worse than his ERA.

The Cubs decided to set him loose, releasing him earlier this week. That was likely a reflection of his diminished performance but also the Cubs not wanting him to unlock that player option. Since Neris was released and no club grabbed him off waivers, that option is now dead and won’t carry over to any new deal he signs.

Though he hasn’t been as crisp this year, it’s a sensible pickup for the Astros. For one thing, there’s no real financial cost. Because they released him, the Cubs are on the hook for the majority of his 2024 salary that is still to be paid out. The Astros only have to pay him the prorated version of the $740K league minimum salary for any time Neris spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay.

The Astros have also taken a few hits in their bullpen. Kendall Graveman, Penn Murfee, Oliver Ortega and Bennett Sousa are all currently on the 60-day injured list, with each of them undergoing a significant surgery earlier this year. Righty Ryan Pressly also landed on the 15-day IL a few days ago due to a low back strain. There’s nothing to suggest Pressly is slated for a lengthy absence, but it’s another gap in the relief corps until he comes back.

Perhaps a return to a familiar environment can get Neris back on track after some wobbles this year. Even if that doesn’t quite come to pass, it’s a low-cost signing that lengthens the club’s depth for the stretch run and postseason.

Joey Votto Announces Retirement

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Joey Votto has stepped away from baseball. The star first baseman, who had been on a minor league contract with the Blue Jays, announced his retirement on Instagram on Wednesday evening. He didn’t get to the majors with his hometown team but played an illustrious 17-year career with the Reds.

Votto provided a lengthy statement alongside a brief video of him departing Sahlen Field, home of the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo. Votto thanked his family, various former teammates and coaches, and the fans. He expressed some regret that he wasn’t able to make it to the big leagues with the Jays, adding that he’s “just not good anymore” before thanking the Canadian fanbase for their support and expressing his love for Cincinnati. “I was myself in this sport. I was able to be my best self. I played this sport with every last ounce of my body, heart, and mind. Thank you for everything,” he concluded.

The Reds drafted Votto out of a Toronto prep school in 2002. He’d emerged as one of Baseball America’s top 50 prospects by the time he hit his way to Triple-A five years later. Votto debuted as a September call-up in ’07. He hit the ground running in 24 games and would break through as their everyday first baseman the following year.

Votto hit .297/.368/.506 with 24 homers and 32 doubles in his first full season. He finished runner-up to Cubs catcher Geovany Soto in Rookie of the Year balloting. Votto emerged as an elite hitter by year two, hitting .322/.414/.567 with 25 longballs and 38 doubles. He finished in the top 10 among qualifiers in all three slash stats.

That kicked off a nearly decade-long run during which Votto was among the game’s best players. He had arguably his best season in 2010. Votto led the majors with a .424 on-base percentage and topped the National League with an even .600 slugging mark. He hit .324 with 37 homers and a career-best 113 runs batted in. It was a dominating performance by counting and rate stats alike that nabbed him a rather convincing win over Albert Pujols and Carlos González in NL MVP balloting. Votto was the best player on a Cincinnati team that won 91 games and an NL Central title.

It was the first of four straight seasons in which the lefty hitter topped the NL in on-base percentage. He led the league in walks every year from 2011-13. His extraordinarily patient approach occasionally made him a target of criticism among some fans who preferred he were more aggressive, but Votto also filled a prototypical run producer role. He ranked 20th in RBI and 21st in homers among MLB hitters between 2010-13. Among hitters with 1500+ plate appearances, only Miguel Cabrera and Joe Mauer hit for a better average. Votto led the majors in OBP and ranked seventh in slugging. Votto made the All-Star Game in all four seasons and thrice finished in the top 10 in MVP voting. Cincinnati made the playoffs in three of those years, although they never advanced past the Division Series.

Midway through that run, the Reds committed to Votto as the face of their franchise. They signed him to a 10-year, $225MM extension early in the 2012 season. It remains the biggest investment in the organization’s history. While the team didn’t have a ton of success over the decade, that’s not any fault of their first baseman. He remained an impact hitter until the tail end of the contract.

A quad injury wiped out the bulk of Votto’s 2014 campaign. He returned at full strength the following year, hitting .314/.459/.541 to snag a third-place MVP finish. He would lead the NL in on-base percentage in each of the three seasons after that, earning two more top 10 MVP placements in the process. Between 2015-18, he hit .312/.442/.525 with 106 homers while walking more often than he struck out.

The 2018 season was the final of Votto’s six All-Star campaigns. His production tailed off between 2019-20 and it seemed he’d firmly entered the decline phase of his career. While that was the case to some extent, Votto had one more excellent year ahead of him. He rebounded with a surprising 36-homer outburst (tied for the second-most he hit in any season) with a .266/.375/.563 slash in 2021. That proved to be his last strong season, as he stumbled to replacement level numbers while battling shoulder issues between 2022-23.

Votto earned a well-deserved salute from Cincinnati fans in his final game at Great American Ball Park last September. The guaranteed portion of his contract wrapped up and the Reds made the obvious call to buy him out in lieu of a costly club option for 2024. Votto signed the minor league deal with the Jays during the only free agent trip of his career. He suffered an ankle injury in his first Spring Training game, keeping him on the IL well into July. Votto returned to action midway through the month but hit .143 in 15 Triple-A contests before deciding it was time to move on.

While that keeps him from ever appearing in a Jays uniform at Rogers Centre, it allows him to retire having spent his entire MLB career with one team. He’s one of the best players in Reds’ history and is among the most productive first basemen in league history. Votto will surely garner serious Hall of Fame consideration when his name appears on the ballot in five years.

By Jay Jaffe’s JAWS metric (designed to provide a comparison point for players against Hall of Famers), Votto ranks 12th among first basemen. The 11 players above him are either in the Hall of Fame or, in the cases of Pujols and Cabrera, locks for induction when first eligible. The player just behind Votto, Rafael Palmeiro, is not in the Hall, largely because of his ties to performance-enhancing drugs. The following three players — Willie McCovey, Todd Helton and Eddie Murray — were all inducted.

Votto didn’t provide quite the level of power associated with a Hall of Fame first baseman. He steps away with 356 homers (29th at the position) and 1144 runs batted in (49th). Those are no small accomplishments for the vast majority of players, of course, but Votto’s overall excellence was driven primarily by his on-base ability. He finishes his career with a .294 average and a huge .409 on-base percentage. He led the NL in the latter category on seven occasions.

While Votto surprisingly never won a Silver Slugger award — overlapping in the NL with Pujols and Paul Goldschmidt during his prime played a role — he had six top 10 MVP finishes. He earned a Gold Glove in 2011 and the aforementioned MVP honors the year prior. Baseball Reference valued Votto’s career around 64 wins above replacement, while FanGraphs credited him with 59 WAR. That’s right at the threshold at which position players tend to receive legitimate Hall of Fame consideration.

Votto would certainly have offers to stay involved in the game if he wishes to do so. He complemented his litany of on-field accomplishments with a cerebral approach to hitting and a sarcastic wit that’d no doubt provide coaching or media opportunities if he wanted to take them. Votto didn’t tip his hand in his retirement announcement about any plans for the future. We at MLBTR congratulate him on a fantastic career and wish him the best in his post-playing days.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Astros Activate Justin Verlander

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Justin Verlander is back. The Astros announced Wednesday that the 41-year-old right-hander has been reinstated from the injured list. Fellow righty Seth Martinez was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land in his place. Verlander will start today’s home game against the visiting Red Sox — his first appearance since June 9.

Verlander opened the season on the 15-day IL after some shoulder discomfort popped up during spring training and slowed his progression through the annual exhibition season. He was activated on April 19 and made 10 starts out of the Houston rotation before heading back to the 15-day injured list, this time with a neck issue that has kept him out a fair bit longer than originally anticipated.

At the time of his placement on the IL, Verlander noted that he’d been dealing with the issue for weeks but added: “If this was playoff time, I’d like to think I’d be out there.” Despite that confidence, Verlander wound up missing more than two months with the injury.

When healthy, Verlander has been a solid but not dominant piece of the Houston rotation. He’s pitched 57 innings with a 3.95 earned run average, displaying a lower-than-usual 21.3% strikeout rate and an uncharacteristic susceptibility to home runs (1.74 HR/9). Verlander has seen a slight but hardly major bump in his homer-to-flyball ratio, but the larger problem is that he’s simply allowing more flyballs than ever before. This year’s 57% flyball mark trounces both the career 42% mark he carried into the season and last year’s 44.8% mark.

Even if Verlander doesn’t recapture his Cy Young form this season, the current version of the right-hander is still plenty helpful for an Astros rotation that has been stretched thin by a massive wave of injuries. Verlander’s strikeout rate is only about a percentage point shy of average, and his command remains quite strong (7.1% walk rate). He was averaging just over 5 2/3 innings per start prior to his second IL placement of the season.

Verlander will step back onto a starting staff that also includes Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, deadline acquisition Yusei Kikuchi and rookie Spencer Arrighetti. The plan for Houston moving forward seems to be to adopt a six-man rotation. That will help to mitigate concerns regarding Verlander’s neck as well as workload concerns for Blanco, who’s already set a new career-high for innings pitched, and Arrighetti, who’ll likely establish a new career-high during his next start.

Rotation depth beyond the six presently healthy starters in Houston is scarce. Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this season. J.P. France underwent shoulder surgery. The ’Stros recently announced that righty Luis Garcia will not pitch this season. He’d been expected to return in the second half after undergoing his own Tommy John procedure early in the 2023 campaign, but did not recover as quickly as hoped. Lance McCullers Jr., who underwent flexor surgery last summer, was also expected to be a second-half reinforcement but is now similarly viewed as unlikely to return in 2024.

The extended length of Verlander’s stint on the injured list has effectively eliminated the possibility that he’ll be able to trigger the vesting player option in his contract. Had Verlander stayed healthy enough to reach 140 innings this year, he’d have triggered the right to pick up a $35MM player option for the 2025 season. The Astros would only have been on the hook for half of that sum, with the Mets covering the other $17.5MM as part of the trade that sent Verlander from Queens to Houston last summer.

Now, Verlander will simply become a free agent at season’s end. So long as he plans to continue pitching — he’s previously said he hopes to pitch into his mid-40s — there’ll likely be mutual interest in a reunion, but it won’t be as straightforward as Verlander picking up that pricey player option that’ll no longer come into play.

Cardinals Release Brandon Crawford, Option Jordan Walker

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The Cardinals announced today that infielder Matt Carpenter has been reinstated from the injured list while fellow infielder Luken Baker has been recalled from Triple-A Memphis. In corresponding moves, the club optioned outfielder Jordan Walker and granted infielder Brandon Crawford his unconditional release.

Crawford, 37, signed with the Cardinals in the offseason, a one-year deal with a modest $2MM salary. It seemed as though he was a bit of veteran insurance for rookie Masyn Winn, who the club was planning to have as their everyday shortstop. That was a sensible move at the time, as Winn had just 37 games of major league experience coming into the year and hit just .172/.230/.238 in those.

But here in 2024, Winn has delivered on his prospect hype. He has 11 home runs and a slash of .274/.324/.419, which translates to a wRC+ of 108. His glovework has led to 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 3 Outs Above Average at shortstop, and he has also stolen 10 bases. His all-around contributions have led to FanGraphs crediting him with 2.8 wins above replacement, which is third among National League rookies, just behind Jackson Merrill and Tyler Fitzgerald.

As Winn has been doing all of that, Crawford has hardly been used. Though he has been on the active roster all season, he has only appeared in 29 games and has only been sent to the plate 80 times. In that sporadic playing time, he has struck out at an uncharacteristic 32.5% rate and slashed .169/.263/.282 for a wRC+ 58. Perhaps it was difficult for Crawford to get into a groove with so little time in the lineup, but that rough performance is actually not too far off from last year, when he hit .194/.273/.314 for the Giants and produced a 62 wRC+.

Regardless of the cause, that performance from Crawford and the emergence of Winn have gotten him bumped off the roster. That will likely leave utility player Brendan Donovan as the Cardinals’ backup for Winn at the shortstop position. Perhaps Baker can give a jolt to the lineup, as he has hit 32 home runs in Triple-A this year and walked at a 14.8% clip.

For Crawford, rather than put him on waivers and be forced to go wherever he’s claimed, the Cards have given him a bit of agency over his next steps by releasing him instead. His brief time in St. Louis will seemingly be destined to a future bit of esoteric trivia for the Giants’ legend.

Any team could now sign Crawford for the prorated league minimum, with that amount subtracted from what the Cardinals pay. The level of interest is likely tempered by his recent string of poor results, but he also has a lengthy track record. Since debuting with the Giants back in 2011, he has just under 1700 games of major league experience with roughly league average offense and very strong defensive grades. In the offseason, he seemed to at least give some thought to retiring before getting the deal with the Cards, which could perhaps be on the table again if he doesn’t get a tempting opportunity in the coming weeks.

As for Walker, this is the latest in his up-and-down treatment from the Cards. He was recalled just over a week ago with Carpenter landing on the IL and is now back to Memphis after getting one hit in 12 plate appearances while Carpenter was out.

Last year, he rode a wave of excitement to the club’s 2023 Opening Day roster but his performance was inconsistent throughout the year. Though he was optioned for a spell last summer, he was recalled and hit .277/.346/.455 from the start of June to the end of the year, leading to a 119 wRC+.

But here in 2024, he struggled out of the gate and was optioned before the end of April. His .257/.321/.426 batting line in Triple-A this year leads to a subpar 92 wRC+ but he still got recalled to cover for Carpenter briefly.

It’s a strange spot for him to be in as he is still looking to properly break through and cement himself at the major league level but there’s a bit of a ticking clock now. Because he burst onto the roster last year but has been optioned in two straight seasons, he’ll have just one option remaining after this one even though he’s only 22 years old. If he exhausts his final option next year, he could perhaps be out of options by 2026, which will be just his age-24 season.

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