Notes

AL East Notes: O’Neill, Grichuk, Holmes, Rays

By Mark Polishuk | December 8, 2024 at 9:46am CDT

At the end of last season, both Tyler O’Neill and Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow expressed interest in the possibility of O’Neill returning to Boston on a new contract. That possibility is now officially off the board after O’Neill signed a three-year, $49.5MM deal with the Orioles yesterday, and as per WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (Bluesky link), the Sox “were not very aggressive” in their attempts to re-sign the outfielder. Boston’s pursuit of Juan Soto simply took precedence, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes, as since the Red Sox are one of the teams still waiting on Soto to make his decision, the Sox didn’t make O’Neill any offers.

Mariners Notes: Bellinger, Hoerner, Payroll

By Darragh McDonald | December 6, 2024 at 5:59pm CDT

The Mariners have been connected to a couple of Cubs recently, with recent rumors that they had discussed both infielder Nico Hoerner and first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times took a look at those talks and some other Mariner topics ahead of next week’s Winter Meetings.

Both players are sensible targets for the Mariners, who have infield vacancies and have been trying to cure their strikeout woes for a while. The club’s hitters were punched out at a 25.9% clip in 2023, with only the Twins having a higher rate that season. The M’s moved on from players like Teoscar Hernández, Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic in an attempt to improve this but the plan backfired. New additions like Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger and Jorge Polanco all struggled with strikeouts themselves, so the M’s actually saw the team-wide rate jump to 26.8% in 2024, tied with the Rockies for the highest in the majors.

Hoerner has only been punched out in 12% of his plate appearances thus far. Bellinger has a higher career strikeout rate of 21.1% but he’s finished each of the past two seasons at 15.6%. Beyond the contact stuff, both players could also fit Seattle’s need for infielders. They turned down a club option on Polanco and non-tendered Josh Rojas. They traded Ty France last year and Justin Turner became a free agent at season’s end.

They are reportedly looking to add at both corners, supplementing shortstop J.P. Crawford. At second base, they are reportedly content enough with using Dylan Moore and Ryan Bliss until prospect Cole Young forces his way into the picture.

Luke Raley could be part of the first base solution, though he struggles against lefties and would need to be platooned. He could also be moved to outfield if the M’s add an everyday first baseman. They have interest in re-signing Turner or reuniting with old friend Carlos Santana, but it makes sense that they would consider Bellinger with the Cubs reportedly determined to move either him or Seiya Suzuki and free up their position player mix.

However, pre Jude’s report, the financial components of a Bellinger trade are a factor. The Mariners are reportedly planning to increase payroll next year, but not by much. Jude pegs their spending range at $150-155MM and says they have about $15MM of room at the moment. Cot’s Baseball Contracts pegged the club’s Opening Day payroll at $140MM last year, so that range tracks as a modest bump. RosterResource currently projects the club for a $146MM payroll next year, which seems to be just a tad higher than what Jude is suggesting.

Bellinger’s current contract wouldn’t fit into those parameters. He’s slated to make $27.5MM this year and then will have to decide between a $5MM buyout or a $25MM salary for 2026. As such, Jude suggests that the Mariners would have to include Haniger or Garver in the deal to balance out the money a bit. The Cubs wouldn’t have much interest in Haniger, since they already have an outfield surplus. On top of that, he’s coming off a poor season and is going to make $15.5MM next year.

Garver is a better fit for the Cubs since his primary defensive position is catcher, a spot they are looking to upgrade. However, he’s been injured quite often and become more of a designated hitter over time. He’s also coming off a rough campaign and will make $11.5MM next year, plus a $1MM buyout on a 2026 mutual option.

Perhaps the contract situation will stand in the way of a deal coming together. There’s also Bellinger’s inconsistency and opt-out situation to consider. After some rough seasons where Bellinger was seemingly held back by injuries, he had a nice bounceback in 2023. He hit 26 home runs, slashed .307/.356/.525 and stole 20 bases, leading FanGraphs to credit him with 4.4 wins above replacement. But he couldn’t repeat that in 2024, producing a .266/.325/.426 line while stealing just nine bases and spending less time in center field due to the emergence of Pete Crow-Armstrong. His fWAR tally was just 2.2 this year, half of the prior year despite playing in the same number of games.

Bellinger declined to trigger an opt-out in his contract at the end of that middling season but has another opt-out next year. That makes him a tricky gamble for any acquiring club. The best case scenario is that you get him back in good form and he leaves after year one, but even that scenario costs $32.5MM. The downside is that he doesn’t get back to that level and sticks around as an overpaid part of the 2026 roster.

As for Hoerner, it was recently reported that the Mariners had discussed him with the Cubs, but it wasn’t clear how interested they were. Today, Jude says the M’s “covet” Hoerner, so it seems the interest is real from Seattle’s end.

He would be an interesting fit as he is mostly a glove-first player. He has hit .278/.338/.381 in his career for a 102 wRC+. But thanks to his excellent defense and baserunning, he was been worth roughly 4-5 fWAR in each of the past three seasons.

He came up as a shortstop but has been mostly playing second base in deference to Dansby Swanson. He’s generally perceived as capable of returning to shortstop on another club, but the Mariners already have Crawford. Unless the M’s have designs on moving Crawford, then it seems they view Hoerner as a good option to help with their uncertainty at third or perhaps second base.

In terms of salary, Hoerner is going to make $11.5MM next year and $12MM in 2026. That makes him a far better financial fit than Bellinger. Per Jude, the Cubs are looking for MLB-ready help whereas the Mariners would rather surrender prospects. There has been a lot of trade speculation around the Seattle rotation since it’s so strong but the depth is actually not great and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has said that surrendering a big league starter is “Plan Z”.

NL East Notes: Phillies, Harper, Finnegan, Alcantara

By Mark Polishuk | December 1, 2024 at 5:05pm CDT

The Phillies are known to be looking for outfield help this winter, though moving Bryce Harper from first base back into the outfield doesn’t appear to be a consideration. Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer wonders if the Phils could possibly re-evaluate this stance, as Lauber feels the first base market (for both free agents and trade possibilities) is much deeper than this winter’s outfield market. Of the top outfielders in free agency, Juan Soto seems likely to be going to one of the other big-market clubs, while Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Santander each have the strikeout or chase rate issues that the Phillies are already looking to correct within their current lineup. Philadelphia did have interest in Hernandez back at the 2023 trade deadline when the slugger was still a member of the Mariners, but Lauber notes that the Phils passed on Hernandez under the similar logic that Hernandez’s power wouldn’t offset his tendency to swing and miss.

Harper’s first full season as a first baseman was a success, as he posted strong defensive numbers and kept up his usual high standards at the plate. These results have understandably left all parties satisfied with just keeping Harper at the cold corner, though Harper has expressed an openness to playing the outfield again and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski didn’t entirely close the door on the possibility (“I can’t say that we’d never do it, but it’s not something that we are thinking of or wanting to do“) when discussing the subject at the GM Meetings last month.

If Harper did return to his old spot in right field, Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas would likely become the Phillies’ new center field platoon, and Nick Castellanos would presumably be shifted over to left field. This arrangement wouldn’t exactly make for the strongest defensive outfield, even if the Phillies tried to balance out the situation by adding a stronger defender at first base. Trading Castellanos to clear space in the outfield might be the ideal outcome, though that is obviously easier said than done considering the two years and $40MM remaining on the veteran’s contract.

Quick Hits: Snell, Orioles, Brash, Cubs

By Nick Deeds | November 30, 2024 at 6:53pm CDT

The Orioles had “legitimate interest” in southpaw Blake Snell before he landed with the Dodgers on a five-year deal that became official earlier today, per a report from Roch Kubatko of MASN. Kubatko notes, however, that it’s unclear how advanced talks between Baltimore and Snell’s camp became before he settled on Los Angeles. Previous reporting indicated that the Orioles could get involved in the Snell sweepstakes, but Kubatko’s report is the first confirming Baltimore’s interest.

As the club looks to either reunite with right-hander Corbin Burnes or replace his production at the top of their rotation following his departure for free agency earlier this month, it’s hardly a surprise to hear that the club took a hard look at Snell while he was available. The two-time Cy Young award winner has been even better than Burnes from a run prevention perspective over the past three years, with a 2.82 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 412 innings. Burnes, meanwhile, lags behind in rate stats with a 3.08 ERA and 3.49 FIP, but his 590 innings of work dwarf Snell in terms of volume. That volume figures to be particularly attractive to an Orioles club that has serious health question marks surrounding a number of its starters, including Kyle Bradish as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery that figures to keep him out of action for at least the first half of 2025.

While Burnes seems likely to remain the Orioles’s top choice in free agency this winter, they’ve also been connected to southpaws Max Fried and Garrett Crochet in free agency and via trade respectively. It seems as though they’re also looking at mid-rotation arms as well, however, as they were recently linked to veteran righty Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi projects to be much less expensive than Burnes and Fried in free agency this winter, but that affordability comes with a much less impactful track record as the 34-year-old has a solid but unremarkable 3.75 ERA and 3.63 FIP across the past five seasons. The Orioles are quite familiar with Eovaldi, of course, as he spent seven seasons in the AL East with the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox from 2015 to 2022.

More tidbits from around the baseball world…

Mariners fans got an encouraging update on the status of right-hander Matt Brash recently, as Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported earlier this week that the right-hander is ahead of schedule as he rehabs from his early May Tommy John surgery. Per Jude, the Mariners are “optimistic” that he could return to the club’s bullpen by the end of April this coming season, just under a year after he first went under the knife. Brash’s return would surely be a major boost for Seattle, as he established himself as one of the most exciting young arms in the club’s arsenal during a breakout 2023 campaign. After being moved to the bullpen partway through the 2022 season, Brash’s first full campaign as a reliever saw him lead the majors with 78 appearances while posting an excellent 3.06 ERA with an even better 2.26 FIP. He struck out an eye-popping 34.7% of batters faced that year, and if he can post numbers anything like that in 2025 he’ll be a phenomenal complement to closer Andres Munoz at the back of the Mariners bullpen next year.
The Cubs have yet to announce their finalized coaching staff for the 2025 season, but Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reported earlier this week that at least one more vacancy has been filled. After assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos departed the organization to become the Marlins’ pitching coach, the club is promoting internally to replace Moskos by hiring Casey Jacobson. Jacobson has been in the Cubs organization since October 2019 and has spent the past two years as the senior coordinator of pitching development for the club in the minor leagues. Now, he’ll get the opportunity to work on a big league coaching staff for the first time in his career with a number of young arms such as Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, and Porter Hodge expected to play roles for Chicago next year.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Brown, Cardinals

By Nick Deeds | November 28, 2024 at 9:26pm CDT

The Pirates are making some changes to their front office, per a report from MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf notes that director of coaching and player development John Baker is moving into a new role with the club that will see him oversee the club’s performance team. While the move has not been announced by the club to this point, Stumpf adds that the search for a new farm director is already underway as Baker vacates the position.

A former player who spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Baker retired from his playing career in 2015 and caught on with the Cubs in their front office that offseason as a special assistant. Baker eventually stepped into the role of mental skills coordinator with Chicago and remained in that role with the club until he departed for Pittsburgh during the 2020-21 offseason to take on his aforementioned role as director of coaching and player development. As Stumpf notes, the Pirates began implementing more individualized development plans for their players under Baker’s leadership.

With Baker now changing roles, the Pirates will need to fill both the farm director role. As Stumpf notes, that’s not the only high-level role that’s as of yet unfilled in Pittsburgh as the club will also need to hire a new director of pro scouting after moving him to a different, unspecified role within baseball operations. Those yet-to-be-named farm and pro scouting directors will join a wave of personnel hires by the Pirates this winter that already includes international scouting director Max Kwan, VP of research and development Kevin Tenenbaum, hitting coach Matt Hague, and assistant pitching coach Brent Strom.

More notes from around the NL Central…

Cubs fans received some good news yesterday when Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that right-hander Ben Brown has been cleared for a normal throwing program this offseason. The 25-year-old was acquired by the club at the 2022 trade deadline in the deal that sent right-hander David Robertson to Philadelphia but didn’t make his big league debut until this year. The youngster looked quite good for the Cubs early in the season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work while swinging between the rotation and bullpen. He struck out 28.8% of opponents faced against a walk rate of 8.6% but saw is time in the majors cut short by a stress reaction in his neck that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Chicago reportedly plans to add a starting pitcher to the rotation alongside Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon this winter, which could leave Brown to either compete with Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring or else spend the year in the bullpen.
The Cardinals are hiring Matt Pierpont as their director of pitching, as Pierpoint himself noted on X (h/t to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). Pierpont, 33, pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons before catching on with the Mariners as a coach prior to the 2021 season. Since then, he’s risen within the organization to the role of pitching coordinator. Now, he’s been promoted again as he moves on to St. Louis, where he’ll be tasked with working to improve the club’s internal pitching options. Andre Pallante and Sem Robberse are among the young pitchers at or near the major leagues, while top prospect Tink Hence dominated the Double-A level and could also look to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.

Angels Notes: Detmers, Further Additions, Anderson

By Nick Deeds | November 28, 2024 at 7:43pm CDT

With the Angels’ recent signing of left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal now officially announced, GM Perry Minasian spoke yesterday to reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) about the club’s 2025 rotation and their plans for the rest of the winter.

Of note, Minasian suggested that with the addition of Kikuchi and fellow offseason addition Kyle Hendricks to the club’s rotation mix, the Angels currently have those two veterans, Tyler Anderson, and Jose Soriano penciled into the first four spots in their rotation for 2025. Notably, that leaves left-hander Reid Detmers fighting for a spot in the rotation alongside less established arms like Chase Silseth and Jack Kochanowicz. 2024 was a brutal season for Detmers, as the lefty surrendered a disastrous 6.70 ERA across 17 big league starts.

Weak as that production was, however, Detmers’s underlying metrics suggest his performance may have been slightly better than it looks on paper. His 27.9% strikeout rate was actually the best of his career, while his 9.7% walk rate was certainly elevated, but more or less in line with his 2023 performance. Detmers’s 4.72 FIP was “just” 13% worse than league average by measure of FIP-, and some metrics were even more bullish on his underlying numbers. His 3.86 xFIP was actually 6% better than league average, and a 3.77 SIERA actually places Detmers 43rd among 138 starting pitchers who threw at least 80 innings out of the rotation this past season.

While underlying metrics that compared Detmers to Corbin Burnes (3.75 SIERA) and Gerrit Cole (3.79 SIERA) in 2024 certainly don’t tell the whole story by themselves, they do provide enough optimism about Detmer’s future that it’s a surprise to hear he isn’t guaranteed a rotation spot next year. After all, the lefty posted a solid 4.15 ERA and 3.97 FIP across 53 starts in 2022 and ’23, and is just a few years removed from being the Halos’ first-round draft pick when they selected tenth overall in 2020. With that being said, it’s easy to imagine Detmers’s performance after coming back to the majors back in September raising red flags in the front office’s mind. While he struck out an eye-popping 34.2% of opponents in five starts down the stretch, he also struggled badly with the long ball, surrendering 8 homers and an untenable 15.6% barrel rate.

Minasian also didn’t rule out making further additions to the club’s rotation. “We’ll continue to look, from a free agent standpoint, from a trade standpoint,” he said, as relayed by Fletcher. “If there’s an upgrade, from a rotation standpoint, we’ll look to do it.”

With that being said, it seems as though upgrades to the rotation may take a backseat to upgrading other areas of the roster as the Angels look ahead to the remainder of the winter. Specifically, Minasian noted that they’d like to add depth to their bench and bullpen while focusing on lengthening the lineup with another bat. The club has already added Jorge Soler as an everyday DH and Travis d’Arnaud poised to act as a backup to Logan O’Hoppe behind the plate, but holes remain in a lineup that posted just a 90 wRC+ that was 25th in baseball last year.

Nolan Schanuel, Luis Rengifo, and Zach Neto figure to have regular roles on the infield, with Schanuel in particular seemingly locking up first base. Neto is sure to be the everyday shortstop when healthy, but he could miss the start of the season after going under the knife earlier this month. Kevin Newman and Scott Kingery have already been brought in to shore up the club’s infield depth on the bench, but another infield bat could help lessen the club’s reliance on oft-injured Anthony Rendon while also backing up Neto early in the season.

There’s also room in the outfield for another bat. Taylor Ward figures to be the club’s everyday left fielder, and Mike Trout will of course be an everyday player in the outfield when healthy enough to take the field. Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell currently figure to platoon in right field when everyone’s healthy, but upgrading that spot in the lineup could improve the roster, particularly if the addition was capable of playing center at least occasionally to lessen the defensive workload on Trout.

One other possibility Fletcher floats is the Angels considering a trade of Anderson. Anderson came up in the rumor mill ahead of the trade deadline over the summer, but no deal ultimately came together as the Angels reportedly preferred to hold onto players controlled beyond the 2024 season. Given that hesitance just a few months ago, it’s unclear if trading Anderson is something the Halos would seriously consider this winter, and it would hardly be a surprise to see him stay put.

The veteran southpaw is entering the final year of his contract with the Angels in 2025 following a decent season in 2024 where he posted a solid 3.81 ERA despite lackluster peripherals. Even if clubs project him to post numbers closer to his 4.66 FIP and and 4.37 xERA next year, his ability to eat innings (179 1/3 frames across 31 starts in 2024) could make him an attractive back-of-the-rotation candidate to teams in need of pitching and a deal would clear the final year and $13MM of his contract off on the Angels’ books to address other areas of the roster.

Of course, moving Anderson would be a step backwards in terms of depth for an Angels club that has already parted ways with Griffin Canning and Patrick Sandoval this winter. Removing Anderson from the club’s rotation would leave them with Kikuchi, Hendricks, Soriano, and Detmers as their front four starters with Kochanowicz, Silseth, and depth options like Sam Aldegheri in the mix for the fifth spot. With that being said, it’s at least plausible the club could listen to offers on him if they were to land a third external starter to join Kikuchi and Hendricks in the Anaheim rotation next year, whether that be in trade or free agency.

Free Agent Notes: Stratton, Martin, Hill, De Jesus

By Mark Polishuk | November 24, 2024 at 11:02pm CDT

The Pirates have non-tendered Hunter Stratton in each of the last two offseasons, and after re-signing him to a minor league contract last winter, a team source tells Justin Guerriero of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the Bucs want to do the same this time around. Stratton suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in late August after a freak injury that saw the right-hander stumble into the stone wall behind home plate at PNC Park while pursuing a loose ball.

A subsequent knee surgery ended Stratton’s season, and he was given a recovery timeline of 7-10 months. In the very best-case scenario, Stratton would be able to return on Opening Day, but the longer end of that timeline would keep him out until the end of June. A clearer return date might emerge once Stratton gets deeper into his rehab, which also might impact when the Pirates or any other team might ink him to a new contract. Stratton has a 3.26 ERA over 49 2/3 career bullpen innings over the last two seasons with Pittsburgh, with an impressive 4.9% walk rate and excellent soft-contact numbers.

More notes on some other players on the open market….

Chris Martin has suggested that 2025 will almost certainly be the final season of his career, and MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam believes Martin “likely looking to pitch closer to his Texas home.” The 38-year-old Martin has spoken about his desire to spend more time with his growing family, so this could factor more into his decision-making process than necessarily chasing the biggest offers available. Martin was born in Arlington and already pitched with his hometown Rangers during the 2017-18 seasons, and naturally the Astros would also be a logical destination if geography is Martin’s chief concern. Martin figures to draw a lot of attention from teams all over the map, as he posted a 3.45 ERA and an elite 1.7% walk rate in 44 1/3 innings for the Red Sox in 2024.
Speaking of pitching close to home, Rich Hill told MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (X link) that he is open to pitching anywhere as he weighs whether or not to return for a 21st Major League season. Hill lives in the greater Boston area and he pitched for the Red Sox in 2024, though the locale didn’t directly factor into Hill’s decision to join the Sox for the fourth different time in his career. Hill’s desire to coach his son’s Little League team did impact his strategy of waiting until the second half of the 2024 season to sign, as he only landed a minors deal with the Sox in August. When discussing his future plans earlier this month, Hill hinted that he would likely pursue a full-season schedule this time, though he hadn’t yet decided if he was going to pitch into his age-45 campaign.
Also from Morosi in another X entry, left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus is drawing interest from two unnamed Major League teams. De Jesus posted a 3.68 ERA, 24.45% strikeout rate, and 6.04% walk rate over 171 1/3 innings with the KBO League’s Kiwoom Heroes in 2024, but the Heroes won’t be offering him a new contract for the coming KBO season. The southpaw has a 4.01 ERA across 749 1/3 career innings and nine seasons in the affiliated minors, mostly with the Red Sox before pitching in the Giants organization in 2022 and the Marlins organization in 2023. De Jesus’ only MLB experience came with Miami during that 2023 season, as he pitched 6 1/3 innings over two appearances and was hit hard for an 11.57 ERA. While De Jesus worked more as a swingman in 2021-22, he has largely pitched as a starter throughout his career, including starting all 30 of his games with the Heroes. A return to the KBO League with another team might be in the cards if De Jesus strictly wanted to start, or he could be open to a variety of roles if he is pursuing a path back to North American baseball.

AL East Notes: Romano, Loaisiga, Hays, Rays

By Mark Polishuk | November 24, 2024 at 6:01pm CDT

The Blue Jays didn’t make Jordan Romano a contract offer before the closer was non-tendered this week, the Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm reports. This apparent lack of interest in retaining Romano at any price (let alone his projected $7.75MM arbitration salary) probably closes the door on any chance of a reunion between Romano and the Jays, so the two-time All-Star will almost surely be pitching elsewhere in 2025. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that Romano was non-tendered, given his high price tag and the uncertainty over his health situation after his injury-riddled 2024 campaign.

Romano didn’t pitch after May 29 and he underwent an arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow in July. As Chisholm notes, Romano told the Toronto Star’s Mike Wilner earlier in November that he was soon going to start throwing off a mound, and “that he was feeling great” in the recovery from his surgery. While more specifics on Romano’s health are sure to emerge over the offseason, it is clear that the Jays didn’t share the reliever’s confidence in his elbow. Finding a new closer is now the latest item on Toronto’s lengthy winter to-do list, and the Jays already had a lot of work to do in fixing a bullpen that was one of baseball’s worst last season.

Personnel Notes: Nakken, Giants, Guardians, Pirates

By Nick Deeds | November 23, 2024 at 7:01pm CDT

Major league coach Alyssa Nakken has departed the Giants and taken a new role with the Guardians in player development, as noted by Maria Guardado of MLB.com.

Nakken, perhaps best known for being the first woman to serve as a full-time coach in MLB history, was hired as an assistant coach by then-Giants manager Gabe Kapler prior to the 2020 season. She remained with the club for five years in that role, even interviewing to replace Kapler during the 2023-24 offseason after he was fired just before the end of the 2023 regular season. The Giants ultimately decided to go with Bob Melvin in that role, but she remained on staff for the 2024 season in the same position she held under Kapler.

Now that the sides have parted ways, she’ll be joining former Giants coaches Craig Albernaz and Kai Correa in Cleveland under sophomore manager Stephen Vogt for the 2025 season. As noted by the Associated Press, Nakken will be an assistant director of player development with the Guardians, though her exact duties have yet to be determined. That could include determining whether or not she’ll travel with the team; after traveling with the Giants on road trips under Kapler, Nakken stayed in San Francisco during most road trips under Melvin after giving birth to her first child, Austyn, back in January.

Nakken’s departure is the latest among a number of coaching departures in San Francisco this winter. Pitching coach Bryan Price stepped down earlier this winter, while hitting coaches Pedro Guerrero and Justin Viele both departed the club to take jobs with other organizations. Price’s role has been filled by the promotion of assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez, but the Giants remain in the market for a hitting coach to partner with Pat Burrell and may now be in the market for a replacement for Nakken as well.

More personnel notes from around the majors…

Sticking with the Guardians, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the club has hired Bobby Kinne to serve as director of baseball operations in the club’s front office. Cleveland hired Kinne away from the Rays, for whom he served as the club’s major league pitching strategist. Kinne got his start in baseball with Tampa as an intern back in 2018 and worked his way up the organizational ladder over six years with the club, serving as a scout and a coordinator of major league operations before landing in the pitching strategist role he held for the 2024 season. Now, Kinne will get the opportunity to work with one of the better pitching staffs in the big leagues as Guardians pitchers ranked third in the majors with a 3.61 ERA this year, behind only the Braves and Mariners.
The Pirates are promoting bullpen catcher Jordan Comadena to the role of major league catching coach, according to Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Comadena joined the Pirates back in 2016 and Stumpf notes that he’s worked closely with former first overall pick Henry Davis on his defense behind the plate over the past year and a half. Davis, 25, has struggled in the majors at the plate and has moved back behind the plate after coming up as a catcher but getting his first MLB experience as an outfielder in 2023. He’ll likely be a potential option for the Pirates at catcher next year alongside Joey Bart, Endy Rodriguez, and Jason Delay.

Reds Notes: Martinez, Offseason, De La Cruz

By Steve Adams | November 20, 2024 at 11:43am CDT

Nick Martinez accepted the Reds’ $21.05MM qualifying offer this week, making him the lone player of the 13 who received a QO to accept that one-year deal. The two parties talked about a potential multi-year deal before the 34-year-old righty accepted, and while talks on a multi-year deal are reportedly on hold for now, Martinez suggested that he’s still open to such an arrangement and has received no indication from the club that talks won’t pick up down the line (links via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic).

“Accepting the qualifying offer doesn’t limit us from talking, so I’m definitely still open to it if that helps mitigate costs for this year or sign more guys,” Martinez said yesterday (via Rosecrans). Via Sheldon (on BlueSky), he added: “To my understanding, [discussing a multi-year deal] is still on the table.”

Martinez’s $21.05MM salary puts the Reds right back at their 2024 payroll level, per RosterResource’s projections. Reds COO Doug Healy said last week that the 2025 payroll would be “at or above” last year’s roughly $100MM level. A $21MM salary for Martinez doesn’t leave tons of wiggle room, and the Reds haven’t divulged just how far “above” that $100MM level they’d be comfortable spending. Working out a two- or three-year deal with Martinez that might reduce his 2025 salary would give the Reds more flexibility and also allow them to further extend their control over a player who president of baseball ops Nick Krall called a “great team guy” and a “lead-by-example guy.”

Prior to the Reds’ surprise decision to tender a QO to Martinez, MLBTR had penciled Martinez in for a three-year, $39MM contract on our annual Top 50 Free Agent rankings. The Athletic’s Tim Britton offered a very similar three-year, $40MM prediction. A deal in that range could allow the Reds to trim several million off Martinez’s 2025 salary — perhaps even more, if the team is willing to backload the deal so Martinez’s salaries are greater in 2026-27, when other contracts will be coming off the books. Emilio Pagán is earning $8MM in 2025 but is a free agent at season’s end. Jeimer Candelario is signed for two more years and earning more in ’25 ($15MM) than in ’26 ($12MM).

Among the Reds’ other goals in free agency are adding a bat to the lineup, deepening the bullpen and, per Sheldon, improving the team’s overall defense. Landing a corner outfield bat has long seemed like a viable target for the Reds, with Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernández, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar, Michael Conforto and Max Kepler among the non-Soto tier of free agent possibilities. Again, bringing Martinez back at a weighty price point complicates the pursuit of such hitters, but all should sign contracts that are within reasonable proximity to the Reds’ prior free agent thresholds. Cincinnati has in the past signed both Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas to four-year, $64MM free agent deals, for instance. Santander will very likely command a larger guarantee than that, but the others should come in at or below (well below, for Conforto and Kepler) that type of total commitment and/or annual value.

One other area of focus for the Reds this winter will be making incremental improvements to Elly De La Cruz’s already impressive game, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. One of the game’s most dynamic talents and still just 22 years old, the 6’5″ De La Cruz wowed with 25 homers, 67 steals and a .259/.339/.471 batting line while playing 160 games and spending every inning he was in the lineup at shortstop. Krall specifically voiced a desire to work with De La Cruz on whittling away at his 31.3% strikeout rate — a mark that’s already down a bit from his 33.7% rate as a 21-year-old in 2023.

Interestingly, Krall noted that “a lot of our guys” are in that same boat, perhaps foreshadowing one of the traits he’ll look for as he looks to bolster his lineup this winter. With regard to De La Cruz, however, both Krall and GM Brad Meador emphasized to Wittenmyer that even with a crowded infield mix and prospect Edwin Arroyo on the rise, De La Cruz is the team’s shortstop for the foreseeable future. Krall and Meador spoke of working with De La Cruz to tighten up his defense on routine plays and scale back outs made on the basepaths, though the team is surely thrilled with the overall quality of their budding star shortstop’s performance. De La Cruz is under club control for at least five more seasons and likely won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason.

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