Red Sox Notes & Rumors: JBJ, Mookie, Porcello, Holt, Front Office
The Red Sox are “actively” attempting to trade center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets. The Mets had been among the teams in on Bradley, per Abraham, but they addressed their need in center field last week with the addition of Jake Marisnick from the Astros. Bradley’s a fine player who has generally performed well with the Red Sox, but moving him (and his projected $11MM salary for 2020, his last year of team control) would help the team shave payroll in an effort to get under the $208MM luxury tax next season. Newly minted chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Monday that it remains a goal for the franchise to spend below the threshold in 2020, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com.
More from Boston…
- Like Bradley, fellow Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts is going into his final season of arbitration control. Betts, who’s projected to make a whopping $27.7MM in 2020, has made it known in the past that he intends to test free agency next winter. However, that hasn’t stopped the Red Sox from being in touch with Betts “multiple” times in regards to a long-term contract, according to Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe. This is setting up as a fascinating offseason for the 27-year-old Betts, a one-time AL MVP who looks like an extension candidate and perhaps a trade candidate.
- Right-hander Rick Porcello and utility player Brock Holt are among the Red Sox’s most prominent free agents. Even though a report Sunday suggested the Red Sox are at least interested in a reunion with Porcello, Abraham downplays the possibility he or Holt will be back with the club next season. The Red Sox have simply kept tabs on Porcello and Holt, and they’re not “actively involved with” those two or any of their other free agents.
- The Red Sox announced extensions for key front office personnel Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero and Zack Scott on Monday. Each received multiyear deals, and they’ll all hold the title of Executive Vice President/Assistant General Manager. Those duties will come with “expanded responsibilities within the baseball operations department,” per the team. Those three, along with now-GM Brian O’Halloran, helped steer the ship in Boston between the end of president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski’s run in early September and the hiring of Bloom just under two months later.
Central Rumors: Royals, Pirates, Frazier, Indians, Ramirez
Royals general manager Dayton Moore said Monday that they have held “international discussions” in regards to an extension for slugging outfielder Jorge Soler, Alec Lewis of The Athletic tweets. To this point, though, the Royals have not talked with Soler’s representation about a possible extension, but as Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports, they are keeping some of their limited payroll space available in the event a new deal does come together. The 27-year-old Soler, fresh off a breakthrough season in which he slammed 48 home runs and then hired new representation, is slated to earn $11.2MM in 2020 – his penultimate arbitration-eligible campaign. He’ll first have to opt out of his $4MM salary for 2020 in order to reach arbitration, though that seems like a given.
Along with a possible Soler contract, the Royals are keeping some ink dry for fellow outfielder Alex Gordon. It’s unknown whether the career-long Royal, 35, will continue his career in 2020. But the team’s prioritizing a Gordon re-signing, according to Moore (Twitter links here via Lewis and Flanagan). Meanwhile, although the likes of Soler, Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy and Tim Hill have garnered trade interest this offseason, Moore indicated he’s not looking to move any of them. In the case of Hill, a reliever, Moore said that the Royals want to “add to the bullpen, not detract from it.”
More from the game’s Central divisions…
- The Pirates have gotten calls on second baseman/outfielder Adam Frazier, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relays. It’s unclear how open the Pirates, led by new general manager Ben Cherington, are to trading the soon-to-be 28-year-old Frazier. He’s under control via arbitration for the next three seasons, and is projected to make an affordable $3.2MM in 2020. Frazier, roughly a league-average hitter since he debuted in 2016, is coming off a year in which he recorded a career-high 2.2 fWAR and batted .278/.336/.417 with 10 home runs across 608 trips to the plate.
- Southpaw Brady Aiken is taking time off from baseball, and the Indians are unsure whether he’ll resume his career when the spring rolls around, per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. Aiken’s a two-time former first-round pick, but his career hasn’t gotten off the ground to this point, in part because of injuries. He wound up with the Indians in 2015, when he went 17th overall, a year after the Astros made him the first selection in the draft. However, Aiken elected against signing with Houston, which chose now-superstar third baseman Alex Bregman at No. 2 in 2015 with the compensatory pick it landed for failing to reel in Aiken. Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Aiken hasn’t advanced past the Single-A level thus far.
- Sticking with the Indians, president Chris Antonetti indicated Monday the team’s preference is for Jose Ramirez to remain at third base – not move to second – in 2020, Mandy Bell of MLB.com reports. If that proves true, the club could “maybe add at second,” Antonetti stated. The Indians don’t look primed to spend a lot this winter, but there are plenty of satisfactory free-agent second basemen whom they should be able to afford.
Winter Meetings Chatter: Phillies, Braves, Duffy, Kelly, Nava, Coke
The Phillies’ “main focus” at this week’s Winter Meetings in San Diego is to find infield help, general manager Matt Klentak said Monday (via Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer, on Twitter). Klentak added that the club expects high-end third base prospect Alec Bohm to arrive in the majors sometime next year. That could affect the Phillies’ offseason plans, but as of now, they appear to have openings at third and at least one middle infield position (depending on where they want 2019 shortstop Jean Segura to line up). They’ve shown interest in the best shortstop on the open market, Didi Gregorius, and signing him would presumably bump Segura to second.
- The Braves, one of Philly’s rivals, are also looking to address their infield. Third base is high atop the team’s wish list, GM Alex Anthopoulos revealed, as David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets. Ideally, the club will land a “big bat” there (Josh Donaldson, one of the Braves’ premier players in 2019, is a free agent). They’re also seeking a defensively capable backup at the hot corner. If the Braves aren’t able to find a high-impact hitter for the position, though, Anthopoulos indicated they’re open to adding one in their outfield.
- Matt Duffy has drawn interest from a variety of organizations, some of which may view him as a utility option, per MLBTR’s Steve Adams (Twitter link). Duffy, whom the Rays released toward the end of last month, has experience at both middle infield spots, third base and the outfield corners. The 28-year-old has had a couple successful major league seasons as a hitter, but injuries helped limit him to a punchless .252/.343/.327 line with one home run over 169 plate appearances in 2019.
- Righty Casey Kelly seems primed for a return to the majors, with MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweeting that he’s “drawing interest” from MLB teams. Once an elite prospect with the Red Sox, Kelly largely floundered in the majors in parts of four seasons with the Padres, Braves and Giants from 2012-18. However, the 30-year-old Kelly may have put himself back on the big league map in the Korea Baseball Organization in 2019, when he logged a 2.55 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 180 1/3 innings as a member of the LG Twins.
- Outfielder Daniel Nava is in San Diego lobbying for a return to the bigs, per John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston. Nava, known for his on-base skills in the majors from 2010-17, didn’t play at all in 2018 because of injuries and then didn’t suit up in affiliated ball last season. The 36-year-old instead spent almost all of 2019 as a member of the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent American Association.
- Like Nava, left-hander Phil Coke is at the meetings trying to drum up major league interest, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. Coke, who says he’s healthy after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018, had a respectable MLB run with several teams from 2008-16. He hasn’t pitched professionally since suiting up in the Mexican League in 2018.
NPB Notes: Akiyama, Tsutsugo, Rays, A. Sanchez
A couple notes related to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball…
- The Rays have “expressed interest” in free-agent outfielders Shogo Akiyama and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Unlike Akiyama, the 28-year-old Tsutsugo was posted by his Nippon Professional Baseball team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, so any major league team that signs him would have to pay a release fee determined by the size of his MLB deal. His 30-day posting window ends Dec. 19. Tsutsugo’s coming off a years-long run as one of Japan’s most powerful sluggers, as he eclipsed the 20-home run mark seven straight times and combined for 139 HRs over the past four seasons. Still, he didn’t crack MLBTR’s list of the top 50 free agents before the offseason, whereas Akiyama came in at No. 45 and is projected to earn a two-year, $6MM guarantee. Akiyama showed some power in Japan over the past half-decade in his own right, as he bashed 94 home runs and slashed .320/.398/.497. The 31-year-old also added 78 stolen bases, though he’s currently recovering from a broken foot suffered in October.
- Righty Angel Sanchez has inked a multi-year deal with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants, per Robert Murray (via Twitter). Interestingly, Murray says that Major League teams were willing to pay more than the $5.5MM over two years that Merrill Kelly received from the Diamondbacks last winter. However, Sanchez’s contract with the Yomiuri club topped those offers also. The hard-throwing Sanchez, who briefly appeared in the majors with the Pirates in 2017, was a successful part of SK Wyverns’ pitching staff in Korea Baseball Organization over the previous two seasons.
AL Rumors: Yanks, Gardner, Dellin, Rays, A’s, Hill, Shaw, Jays, BoSox
Multiple teams are showing interest in free-agent outfielder Brett Gardner on a multiyear contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. However, Gardner continues to prefer re-signing with the Yankees, according to Heyman, who adds that the two sides are “still talking.” Indeed, as of a few days, Gardner and the Yankees were continuing to negotiate a new contract. Should they reach an agreement, the 36-year-old Gardner would continue as the longest-tenured player on the Yankees’ roster. Until then, he’ll remain as arguably the most appealing center field-capable player on a market which is weak in that regard.
- Sticking with the Yankees, they’ve “engaged” with another of their longtime contributors, free-agent reliever Dellin Betances, Jack Curry of the YES Network tweets. But so have one of their division rivals, the Rays. Wherever Betances ends up, it’s “likely” he’ll sign a one-year contract in an effort to rebuild his value, per Curry. Although the 31-year-old Betances is one of the game’s most successful relievers in recent memory, injuries to the right-hander’s shoulder, lat and Achilles prevented him from making any meaningful contributions in 2019. Nevertheless, MLBTR expects Betances to land a $7MM payday over one year (with the Rays).
- The Athletics are showing interest in Royals southpaw Tim Hill, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. This isn’t the first trade chatter we’ve heard on the 29-year-old, who turned in 39 2/3 innings of 3.63 ERA ball last year. Why the interest from AL contenders in a player that most fans have never heard of? Hill didn’t carry overwhelming overall K/BB numbers (39:13), but did generate a healthy 29.2% K rate against righties while delivering an excellent 57.3% groundball rate. That combination of tools is all the more interesting given the soon-to-be-minted three-batter minimum rule.
- Free-agent infielder Travis Shaw, on the market since the Brewers let him go at the non-tender deadline a week ago, has garnered interest from the Blue Jays, Jon Morosi of MLB.com relays. Additionally, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com relays that the third baseman/second baseman has expressed a willingness to return to the Red Sox, his first MLB team, though it’s unclear if they’re open to a reunion. Shaw, whom the Red Sox traded to the Brewers in December 2017, had a pair of highly productive years in Milwaukee before his numbers fell off a cliff this past season. That caused the Brewers to move on from Shaw, leaving the 29-year-old as a buy-low candidate this winter.
Quick Hits: Souza Jr., Ha-seong, Giants Coaching Staff
After missing much of 2018 and all of 2019, outfielder Steven Souza Jr. will be looking for a place to reboot his career in 2020. Souza was recently non-tendered by the Diamondbacks, but he insists he is finally healthy and cleared for game action. One club he wouldn’t mind spending the 2020 season with is the Tampa Bay Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The best seasons of Souza’s career were with Tampa in 2016 and 2017, but outside of a particularly strong 2017 in which he posted a 121 wRC+, Souza has largely performed within arm’s reach of league average – from both above and below. The spotty record combined with the injuries of the past two seasons means Souza will likely have to settle for a prove-yourself type of deal, which could put the Rays among interested teams. That’s all speculation for now, however, as the market for Souza isn’t likely to take shape with any immediacy. While we wait, let’s check out a couple other quick bits of news from around the baseball world…
- Kiwoom Heroes shortstop Kim Ha-seong of the KBO intends to be posted after the 2020 season, per Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency. Ha-seong is a career .292/371/.487 hitter in the KBO, pairing stolen base ability with strong power numbers. If posted after 2020, he would be ready for a stateside appearance in his age-25 season. The total package is certainly enough to make Ha-seong an intriguing name to keep in mind for this time next year. If nothing else, his bat flip skills are certainly ML-ready.
- The San Francisco Giants are getting younger – in the dugout if not on the field. New manager Gabe Kapler is set to add another young coach to his staff. Justin Viele, 29, would join 33-year-old Donnie Ecker to form the team of hitting coaches, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. Viele has been a hitting coach in the Dodgers’ minor league system, so President of Baseball Ops Farhan Zaidi is no doubt familiar with his work. Viele did play 126 games of minor league ball, including a stint as a teammate of current Giant Mike Yastrzemski.
Winter Meetings Previews: Rays, Spending
In advance of Monday’s Winter Meetings kickoff, let’s take a moment for a few anticipatory notes…
- The Rays, as Juan Toribio of MLB.com rightly notes, will head into San Diego’s Manchester Hyatt hotel with a laundry list of roster items in need of attention. GM Erik Neander may be looking for a backup catcher, while the offense was already in need of a boost before the departure of Tommy Pham. But Toribio notes that trading from the club’s ample middle infield depth might be the most obvious course of action for the trade-happy Rays. The reporter (smartly) doesn’t mention the likely untouchable Wander Franco in his piece but suggests that Vidal Brujan and Lucius Fox would be “attractive” to other teams. Brujan, this observer notes, is ranked as the 15th-overall prospect in the game by Fangraphs but may be hard-pressed to find an MLB role in a system featuring Brandon Lowe, Willy Adames, Michael Brosseau, Daniel Robertson, Franco, and (now) Xavier Edwards. Still, a Brujan trade can hardly be called a likely outcome–while this winter has provided us with a refreshing amount of activity on the trade and free agent fronts, Edwards’ trade to the Rays marked the first time a “consensus” top-100 prospect has changed hands this offseason.
- Speaking of increased activity, front offices had committed $449MM in new contracts and extensions heading into the Winter Meetings at this time last year; as of Sunday morning, $609MM in new-money guarantees have been made so far this offseason, as notes Rob Bradford of WEEI.com (link). As a site that specializes in transactional news, we’d like to thank MLB front offices for their willingness to get Christmas shopping done early. Secondly, it’s worth noting that there are still a number of top players who could make headlines with new deals this week, as notes Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Anthony Rendon, and Josh Donaldson are all still in need of homes, while Gerrit Cole reportedly has the Yankees frothing at the mouth. With increased early movement and a deep market of available players, this could be a red-letter week in San Diego.
AL Notes: Sale, Mariners, Gordon
Let’s check in on a few notes from the American League:
- Red Sox ace Chris Sale finished the 2019 season on the injured list with inflammation in his throwing elbow. However, there’s “no doubt” he’ll be ready for spring training, he told reporters (including Adam Fisher of the Fort Myers News-Press). Sale was cleared to begin throwing last week, and he offered a few details on his offseason program yesterday. Currently, Sale is throwing three times a week, he said, and he plans to up his workload soon before moving to long-toss and, eventually, mound work. Sale’s peripherals were dominant again last season, but his 147.1 innings of 4.40 ERA ball no doubt made for some disappointing results. The Sox will be hoping for more typical bottom line numbers from the star southpaw in 2020.
- The Mariners don’t plan on making any noteworthy additions on the position player side in free agency, GM Jerry Dipoto indicated to reporters (including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). “We have very likely the position player club you are looking at right now, barring the potential for a trade, which is always possible,” Dipoto said. While Dipoto didn’t mention any specific trade possibilities, Divish notes the organization would like to find a taker for Dee Gordon to open second base up full-time for Shed Long. Doing so, though, would be a difficult task, with Gordon due $13.8MM in 2020 and coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons.
- Nevertheless, the Mariners could be in line for some modest upgrades on the pitching staff, Dipoto suggested to Divish in the same piece. “We do have some ongoing conversations with potential free-agent additions,” Dipoto said, presumably referring to pitching upgrades given his declaration that the position player grouping was largely set. Dipoto added that any acquisitions are likely to be flyers on bounceback players, in a similar vein to the club’s earlier signings of Carl Edwards, Jr. and Kendall Graveman. Speculatively speaking, players like Michael Wacha, Blake Treinen, or Pedro Strop all have strong track records but are coming off disappointing 2019 seasons. All three figure to command a higher guarantee than was necessary to bring in Edwards ($950K) or Graveman ($2MM), though.
Winter Meetings Previews: Royals, White Sox
In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams from the American League Central…
- The Kansas City Royals will look for value buys on the free agent market, per Lynn Worthy of The Kansas City Star. Given the sale of the team and the managerial transition underway, the Royals have more justification than usual for patience this offseason. With Kansas City, however, there’s often a sense that internal valuations of the talent on hand differs from those of the general public. The Royals continue to present the idea that they are happy with their core, an impression bolstered by the “moon, sun, and stars” type packages the Royals are demanding for players like Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy. Senior VP of Baseball Ops & GM Dayton Moore refined his fence-walking trick recently while saying both, “…we’re very encouraged with where we are based on how our players performed individually last year,” and also, “I think we’ve got to upgrade everywhere, really.” Pitching is definitely a target, and Moore has been active in trade discussions already, enough to have a sense of where trades might happen – though from Moore’s comments, it seems the Royals are disinclined to be major players on the trade market unless opposing GMs become more amenable to Moore’s ask(s). They do have four open spots on the 40-man roster and should be active in the Rule 5 draft, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis.
- After being spurned by Zack Wheeler, the White Sox remain in the hunt for starting pitching, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. Chicago was also among the teams in on Jordan Lyles before the righty signed with the Rangers, tweets the MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Their rotation candidates are currently made up of high-ceiling but largely-unestablished youngsters, fronted by 2019 breakout superstar Lucas Giolito. Speculatively, Dallas Keuchel fits nicely from a culture perspective as the perennially-attention-starved White Sox have already added Yasmani Grandal from the nobody-believes-in-us free agent pool – and they like playing with a chip on their shoulder on the southside. As for position players, Chicago boasts close to a full house now that Grandal and Jose Abreu are officially on board. With prospects Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal expected to play a large portion of 2020 in the big leagues, they have one of the more intriguing groups on that side of the ball. Still, there’s definitely room to tinker around the edges, especially in the outfield, where Luis Alexander Basabe, Daniel Palka, Leury Garcia, Adam Engel, and Luis Gonzalez make up the flexible collection of candidates to join Eloy Jimenez and Robert in the outfield.
Winter Meetings Preview: Rangers, Rockies
In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams out west…
- The Texas Rangers have their sights laser-focused on Anthony Rendon, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Recent additions have more-or-less locked their rotation class, with Kolby Allard, Joe Palumbo and Brock Burke looking like the 5 through 7 options behind Lance Lynn, Mike Minor, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles. Should prices drop on starters like Dallas Keuchel or Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Rangers could add further pitching in the right deal and potentially explore flipping Lynn or Minor, tweets Grant, though that’s less a strategy and more of the “open to anything” ethos employed by most front offices. Otherwise, the group of internal candidates, if expanded, would include Taylor Hearn and Tyler Phillips, plus any vets they are able to grab on minor league deals in the mold of Edinson Volquez (though Volquez himself is more likely ticketed for the pen if he makes the team). The Rangers reportedly offered Zack Wheeler a $100MM contract before he signed with Philadelphia, so the pursestrings have been loosed. For now, however, they’re stuck in traffic waiting to see if the “Adrian Beltre treatment” can sell Rendon on playing the latter half of his career in Arlington.
- The Colorado Rockies need for starting pitching is clear, but they are highly unlikely to walk away from the winter meetings with a new arm atop their rotation, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Irrespective of the financial crunch – which is significant and detailed in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook – the history of Coors Field continues to scare away free agent pitchers. Not to mention, the haunted past of big-ticket hurlers signed by past regimes in Colorado is no less an impediment to building through free agency. Denny Neagle, Mike Hampton, and Darryl Kile can all profess their tale of woe, but Kile’s case is particularly damning given the success he enjoyed in St. Louis once freed from Coors. Speculatively speaking, the Rockies aversion/inability to add frontline pitching via free agency could be a factor in their bearish resistance to trading Jon Gray. If internal development is the only path to roster improvement, trading a talent like Gray would be an even greater white-flag move than under most circumstances.