A’s Re-Sign Mike Fiers
Having freed up some money in today’s earlier trade, the A’s put some of that money immediately to use by bringing starter Mike Fiers back into the fold. Fiers and the A’s have agreed to a one-year, $3.5MM deal, per the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (via Twitter). Fiers is a client of BASH Baseball.
The A’s were the only team to make an offer to Fiers, notes Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, though Fiers had also made clear his desire to return to Oakland. Given Fiers’ notoriety as the whistleblower of the Astros sign-stealing scandal, it’s interesting to note the lack of league-wide interest, though Fiers also doesn’t own the pitching profile that typically generates bidding wars in free agency.
The 35-year-old righty is coming off a 4.58 ERA/5.41 SIERA season over 59 innings for the A’s with a 35 percent groundball rate, a very low 14.4 strikeout rate, and an above-average 6.2 percent walk rate. As a contact-friendly flyball artist, Fiers’ game is particularly well-suited for the spacious confines of the Coliseum in Oakland. Since joining the A’s mid-season in 2018, Fiers’ raw run prevention numbers have routinely outperformed SIERA and fielding independent pitching metrics, thanks largely to low BABIP numbers.
At his best, Fiers can bedevil opponents with his arsenal, as evidenced by two career no-hitters. But overall, the Athletics will be pleased if Fiers can continue his 2019-20 performance level, and especially if Fiers can eat up some innings at the back of the rotation. Averaging 172 innings per season from 2015-19, Fiers offers some durability to an Oakland pitching staff that has been hit by a lot of injuries in recent years.
Athletics Sign Deolis Guerra To Minor League Deal
The Athletics have signed right-handed reliever Deolis Guerra to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, the team announced.
Guerra, 32 in April, put up decent numbers with the Angels back in 2016-17 — 78 1/3 innings, 3.68 ERA, 17.8 percent strikeout rate, 5.8 percent walk rate — but he’s received few opportunities in the big leagues since that time. He spent the 2018 season with the Rangers and pitched well in Triple-A but didn’t get a call to the Majors. He was hit hard in a combined 10 games between the Brewers and Phillies in 2019-20.
Overall, Guerra owns a lackluster 4.81 ERA in 103 Major League innings, though his 3.94 SIERA is a bit more promising. His career 18.8 percent strikeout rate is noticeably south of the MLB average at this point, but his career 5.4 percent walk rate is better than average as well. Guerra has appeared in parts of eight Triple-A seasons and pitched to a strong 3.36 ERA through 343 frames there, carrying a much stronger strikeout rate (26.8 percent) with a slightly higher walk rate (6.9 percent) than he’s had in the big leagues.
Given the turnover in the Oakland bullpen, Guerra could have an opportunity to win a spot this spring. Closer Liam Hendriks has already signed with the White Sox, while each of Yusmeiro Petit, Joakim Soria and T.J. McFarland are free agents.
Athletics Acquire Cole Irvin From Phillies
1:17 pm: Both teams have announced the trade. Oakland’s 40-man roster is now full.
11:00 am: The Athletics are picking up left-hander Cole Irvin in exchange for cash considerations in a deal with the Phillies, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). Irvin’s departure will clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Matt Moore, who agreed to terms on a one-year deal earlier this week. Another move will need to be made to accommodate Didi Gregorius‘ addition to the roster once his two-year deal is finalized.
Irvin, 27 tomorrow, has picked up nineteen MLB appearances (three starts) over the past two seasons. Across 45.2 innings, he has a 6.75 ERA/4.87 SIERA. He doesn’t miss many bats; his 17.2% strikeout rate is well below the league average of 23.4%. However, Irvin compiled a long track record of throwing strikes in the minors and has continued to do so at the highest level, walking only 6.9% of opposing hitters as a big leaguer.
The southpaw twice ranked among Baseball America’s top thirty prospects in the Phillies’ system. He still has a minor-league option remaining, meaning the A’s can shuffle him between the majors and Triple-A Las Vegas if he survives the offseason on the 40-man roster.
Minor MLB Transactions: 1/29/21
The latest minor transactions from around the game…
- The Rockies have re-signed utilityman Chris Owings to a minor league deal, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The 29-year-old slashed .268/.318/.439 with two home runs over 44 trips to the plate as a Rockie in 2020. In all, Owings – a former Diamondback, Red Sox and Royal – has hit .241/.285/.367 with 36 homers and 76 steals in 2,346 plate appearances as a major leaguer.
- The Athletics have re-upped catcher Carlos Perez to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Perez will earn a $650K salary if he makes it to the majors. The 30-year-old appeared in the majors in each season from 2015-18, but he hasn’t gotten back to the bigs since then. A former Angel, Ranger and Brave, Perez has batted .215/.257/.319 with 11 home runs in 670 plate appearances.
- The Pirates have outrighted outfielder Troy Stokes Jr. to Triple-A Indianapolis, per reports from Jake Crouse and PittsburghBaseball.com’s John Dreker. The team previously designated Stokes for assignment Jan. 24, less than two weeks after it claimed him from the Tigers via waivers. Stokes, who will turn 25 on Feb. 2, has batted .250/.351/.411 with 57 HRs and 129 steals in 2,355 PA at the minor league level.
Athletics Rumors: Semien, Olson, Chapman, Fiers
The Athletics lost stalwart shortstop Marcus Semien to the Blue Jays via free agency this week, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Oakland never made a formal offer before Semien signed in Toronto for $18MM. Rather, the A’s “floated” the concept of a one-year deal at a $12.5MM guarantee. Given that $12.5MM would represent a pay decrease, Semien was never likely to consider that in the first place, but Rosenthal further adds that a whopping $10MM of that sum would’ve been deferred over a period of 10 years.
No one expected the A’s to spend much this winter, but a contract structure of that nature feels borderline insulting to a player like Semien, who has been a constant on the A’s roster over the past six seasons. That’s all the more true when Semien had a clearly stronger offer from the Blue Jays and, seemingly, a stronger offer from the Twins (via The Athletic’s Dan Hayes). If the A’s are that strapped for cash, it’s both hard to envision them making any serious additions this winter and unsurprising that fellow infielder Tommy La Stella found a greater offer across town from the Giants.
Some more notes on the A’s…
- Despite those payroll concerns and the escalating prices of third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson, the A’s aren’t discussing either of their corner infielders in trades, Rosenthal further reports. Chapman agreed to a $6.49MM deal for the upcoming season, while Olson will earn $5MM. Both sluggers figure to be in line for considerable raises next winter, however, and it’s an open question as to just how long the A’s can hang onto them. Oakland controls both through the 2023 season, but it’s not unreasonable to think that one or both sluggers could vault close to the eight-figure range in 2022 or even exceed that threshold (particularly in Chapman’s case).
- Free-agent righty Mike Fiers tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that he hopes to return to the Athletics in 2021. “I had the best time there,” Fiers told Slusser. “I felt like I could be myself, just be the guy I am and help people and play for Bob Melvin, who is obviously one of the best managers in baseball and a guy that really wants to win and does everything he can to win.” Fiers added that while he’s pitched for several franchises, the A’s felt like “home.” The righty is open to a one-year deal, which almost feels like a prerequisite given the Athletics’ aversion to spending this winter, but it remains to be seen if they’ll even put forth an offer of any type to the righty. Fiers’ fastball dipped to a career-low 88.4 mph in 2020 — a 2.4 mph decrease from his 2019 velocity. He was still serviceable, however, with a 4.58 ERA in 11 starts and 59 innings. Since being traded to Oakland in 2018, Fiers has an even 4.00 ERA in 296 2/3 innings with the A’s. He’s logged a below-average 17.6 percent strikeout rate, but his 6.5 percent walk rate is much better than the league average of 8.6 percent.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21
The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.
We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.
I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.
Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)
- Rockies outfielder Raimel Tapia avoided arbitration with a $1.95MM deal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. The team also reached an agreement for $805K with reliever Robert Stephenson, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
- The Tigers have deals with infielder Jeimer Candelario ($2.85MM), outfielder JaCoby Jones ($2.65MM) and righty Jose Cisnero ($970K), Chris McCosky of the Detroit News relays.
- The Yankees and reliever Chad Green settled for $2.15MM, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports.
- The Marlins and lefty Richard Bleier have a deal for $1.425MM, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets.
- The Dodgers reached a $3.6MM settlement with lefty Julio Urias, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Angels announced a deal with righty Dylan Bundy for $8.325MM.
- The Tigers and southpaw Matthew Boyd have settled for $6.5MM, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News tweets.
- The Yankees have deals with catcher Gary Sanchez ($6.35MM), first baseman Luke Voit ($4.7MM), third baseman Gio Urshela ($4.65MM), shortstop Gleyber Torres ($4MM) and outfielder Clint Frazier ($2.1MM), per Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.
- The Rays and outfielder Manuel Margot avoided arbitration with a $3.4MM agreement, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
- The Padres and outfielder Tommy Pham have a deal for $8.9MM, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. Reliever Dan Altavilla settled for $850K, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets.
- The Angels and righty Felix Pena have come to terms for $1.1MM, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Red Sox and third baseman Rafael Devers have reached a $4.575MM agreement, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
- The Mets and outfielder Brandon Nimmo have come to a $4.7MM agreement, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets.
- The Reds and righty Luis Castillo have settled for $4.2MM, Robert Murray of FanSided relays.
- The Rays reached a $2.25MM agreement with infielder Joey Wendle and a $1.175MM settlement with righty Yonny Chirinos, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.
- The Cardinals and flamethrowing reliever Jordan Hicks have an agreement for $862,500, according to Heyman.
- The White Sox and ace Lucas Giolito avoided arbitration with a $4.15MM agreement, James Fegan of The Athletic reports.
- The Pirates and righty Joe Musgrove have reached an agreement for $4.45MM, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. They also made deals with second/baseman outfielder Adam Frazier ($4.3MM), third baseman Colin Moran ($2.8MM) righty Chad Kuhl ($2.13MM) and lefty Steven Brault ($2.05MM), per reports from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Adam Berry of MLB.com.
- Hard-throwing right-hander Reyes Moronta agreed to a $695K deal with the Giants after missing the 2020 season due to shoulder surgery, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided.
- The Tigers agreed to a $2.1MM deal with infielder Niko Goodrum, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided. They also inked lefty Daniel Norris for a $3.475MM salary, tweets Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
- The Pirates agreed to a $1.3MM deal with catcher Jacob Stallings and a $1.1MM deal with righty Chris Stratton, per Robert Murray of Fansided (Twitter links).
- Athletics right-hander Lou Trivino agreed to a $912,500 salary for the 2021 season, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided.
- Right-hander Richard Rodriguez and the Pirates agreed to a $1.7MM deal, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Catcher Jorge Alfaro and the Marlins agreed to a $2.05MM deal, tweets Craig Mish of SportsGrid.
- The Reds agreed to a $2.2MM deal with right-hander Tyler Mahle, tweets Fansided’s Robert Murray. Cincinnati also signed lefty Amir Garrett for $1.5MM, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
- The Indians agreed to a $2.4MM deal with newly acquired shortstop Amed Rosario and a $975K deal with righty Phil Maton, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic.
- The Tigers and righty Buck Farmer settled at $1.85MM, tweets Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
- The Marlins agreed to a $1.9MM deal with right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
Pirates Trade Nik Turley To Athletics
The Pirates have traded left-hander Nik Turley to the Athletics in exchange for cash, per an announcement from the A’s. Pittsburgh designated Turley for assignment earlier this week upon claiming outfielder Troy Stokes Jr. from Detroit.
Turley, 31, tossed 21 2/3 innings with the Pirates this past season but struggled to keep runs off the board and to limit free passes. Between that Pirates stint and a similarly brief look with the Twins back in 2017, the southpaw carries a career 7.78 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 19 walks in 39 1/3 frames.
Unsightly as those numbers may be, Turley has elite spin rates on his curveball and particularly on his four-seam fastball, which checked in at an average of 94.5 mph in 2020. He’s also posted strong numbers in the upper minors. His 2017 minor league output with the Twins was particularly encouraging, as he worked to a 2.05 ERA with a superlative 124-to-29 K/BB ratio in 92 innings. Turley struck out a whopping 34.5 percent of hitters he faced between Double-A and Triple-A that season while walking just 8.1 percent of his opponents.
Turley hasn’t pitched in the minors since that 2017 showing, however. An 80-game PED suspension wiped out the first half his 2018 season after the Pirates claimed him from the Twins, and he was immediately placed on the 60-day injured list upon being activated thanks to an elbow strain he sustained while ramping up toward the end of his suspension window. He ultimately required Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2019 campaign as well.
Turley is out of minor league options, so if he survives the winter on Oakland’s 40-man roster, he’ll have to break camp with the club or else again be exposed to waivers. He’ll give the A’s another lefty to pair with Jake Diekman, who could be the favorite for ninth-inning work now that Liam Hendriks has departed for the White Sox in free agency.
Pitching Notes: Soria, Zimmermann, Sale, Price, LeBlanc
It seems veteran hurler Joakim Soria is drawing quite a lot of interest from the American League West. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that the Angels, Astros, Athletics, and Rangers are all pursuing Soria to some degree. Of course, most teams could stand to add an experienced late-inning reliever coming off of a quality season, so it stands to reason that just about every club in a competitive division would give a look. Soria, 36, registered a strong 2.82 ERA last year in Oakland, though that’s hardly a determinative measure on its own for a reliever in a shortened season. The well-traveled hurler managed only a 9.6% swinging-strike rate, his lowest in quite some time, and suddenly shifted to being a heavy flyball pitcher (though he wasn’t punished with many home runs in the short sample).
More from the pitching market:
- After wrapping up a greatly disappointing tenure with the Tigers, Jordan Zimmermann is taking quite a different free agent journey than his first one. It’s fair to wonder whether he’d consider retiring, but the 34-year-old tells MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link) that he’s instead preparing for another campaign. Zimmermann is sure to draw interest, but not on a guaranteed big-league pact. He has largely been ineffective since coming to Detroit five seasons back and is now also recovering from a forearm injury.
- The Red Sox could soon get a good sense of the return timeline for star lefty Chris Sale. Per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter), Sale is expected to throw from a mound at some point in the next two weeks or so — if all goes as planned. It’s promising that he’s already nearing that milestone, having undergone his Tommy John procedure at the end of March of 2020. It is hard to imagine that Sale will be ready for the start of the season, but perhaps he could resume competitive pitching relatively early in the 2021 campaign.
- Also on his way back is Sale’s former teammate David Price. He posted a video on Twitter showing that he’s hard at work preparing for the upcoming season. The Dodgers will surely be interested to see how the ball is coming out of the once-great lefty’s hand after a long respite. Price, who was acquired in a blockbuster nearly one year ago, has yet to take the ball with his new team. He opted out of the 2020 season.
- Teams looking for a spot starter and long reliever will soon have another option to consider. Southpaw Wade LeBlanc is still plugging away despite suffering a tough elbow injury last year. Per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link), LeBlanc is in good enough form that he’s now preparing for a showcase. LeBlanc posted a resurgent 2018 season but has struggled more recently, so he’s sure to land a non-guaranteed deal when he does sign.
Latest On Marcus Semien
Over two months into free agency, shortstop Marcus Semien remains without a team. It’s not for lack of interest, however, as Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets that the Athletics, Phillies, Reds and Red Sox have all been part of negotiations with Semien “to some extent.” It’s isn’t known how serious any of those discussions have gotten, however.
Semien, 30, spent the previous six years in Oakland, where he was regularly an average or better starter. He reached a new level in 2019, an MVP-caliber season in which he didn’t miss a game and posted 7.6 fWAR with a .285/.369/.522 line and 33 home runs, but wasn’t able to replicate those otherworldly stats last year. Semien bounced back to a major degree as the year progressed, however, evidenced by a 64 wRC+ in the first half and a 126 mark in the second.
Even though the A’s made it known on multiple occasions during and after the season that they wanted Semien back, they did not give him an $18.9MM qualifying offer. Now, considering he could price himself out of the team’s range in free agency, it seems doubtful low-budget Oakland will win the bidding for Semien. Thanks in part to the pandemic, the A’s don’t seem as if they’ll spend much this winter.
Philadelphia and Cincinnati appear to be more realistic fits for Semien, who would certainly address their gaping holes at shortstop. The Phillies could plug him in to replace Didi Gregorius, another notable veteran shortstop who’s currently a free agent. Freddy Galvis is a free agent for the Reds, meanwhile, leaving Jose Garcia as at least the temporary front-runner to start for them next season. Garcia doesn’t appear ready for that role, though: He never played above High-A ball before last year, when he reached the majors and batted .194/.206/.194 with no home runs, 26 strikeouts and one walk in 68 plate appearances.
Unlike Oakland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, Boston is targeting Semien as a second baseman, per Bowden. That isn’t surprising, as it was reported last month that teams have shown interest in Semien as an option at the keystone this offseason. Boston already has a set left side of the infield with shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers, but it still has to sort out second – a position that isn’t foreign to Semien. He played 77 games there as a minor leaguer and another 29 in the bigs with the White Sox from 2013-14.
Along with where he’ll go, an obvious question centering on Semien is how much it will take to sign him. When the offseason began, MLBTR predicted Semien would reel in a one-year, $14MM contract, but as Steve Adams wrote in November, others have been far more bullish in regards to his forthcoming deal. If teams are confident Semien is more the player he was in 2019 and in the second half of 2020, he could indeed collect a substantial payday over multiple years.
Red Sox Discussing Andrew Benintendi In Trade Talks
JANUARY 12, 7:23pm: A rival executive told Mark Feinsand of MLB.com that he will be “shocked” if the Red Sox don’t trade Benintendi before the end of the weekend.
4:26pm: The Red Sox have discussed Benintendi with more teams than the ones mentioned below, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. One of those clubs “has discussed trading big-league pitching depth for Benintendi,” Speier writes.
1:51PM: “Another American League team not mentioned has had deeper discussions” about Benintendi, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford tweets. A source also tells Bradford that the Rangers aren’t in on Benintendi.
12:35PM: The Astros, Athletics, and Rangers have all been in touch with the Red Sox about Benintendi, Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal reports (Twitter link). A source tells McAdam that Benintendi could be on the move soon, though it won’t be to the Marlins, another club previously linked to the outfielder in reports.
JANUARY 9: The Red Sox have been in “serious trade talks” about the possibility of moving left fielder Andrew Benintendi, writes The Athletic’s Jim Bowden (via Twitter). The Red Sox have a particular interest in pitcher and outfielder prospects, notes Bowden, but that’s likely a starting point more than a mandate. However serious discussions have been thus far, there is no deal pending.
There may be some bombast to Bowden’s report, which is only to say that there is a wide range of interpretations for “serious trade talks.” That could speak to an earnestness on Boston’s part in terms of their willingness to deal Benintendi, or it could reference a specific exchange of names, or something else entirely. Regardless, it’s not a shocking development for Benintendi’s name to emerge on the hot stove. Boston would be selling low on their 26-year-old outfielder, however, who is coming off a 43 wRC+ showing in 14 games in an injury-shortened 2020. Interested teams, however, are paying more attention to his 2019 production (100 wRC+, 2.0 fWAR) than 2020, adds Rob Bradford of WEEI.com (via Twitter).
His 2020 performance aside, there is some concern that Benintendi has declined in foot speed, which could have major repercussions on his game. He has not yet boasted the explosive power traditionally associated with a corner outfielder (.162 career ISO). Per Statcast, Benintendi’s sprint speed has slowed from 28.6 feet per second as a 22-year-old in 2016 to 27.7 ft/s as a 24-year-old in 2018 to 26.6 ft/s as a 26-year-old in the short sample of 2020. That’s a rather stunning fall from the 89th percentile to the 43rd percentile.
If anything, the decline in speed could threaten his viability as a centerfielder. Benintendi hasn’t played much center in his career, but he hasn’t needed to with Jackie Bradley Jr. manning the middle in Boston. With Bradley a free agent, the Red Sox are looking at a starting outfield of Benintendi, Alex Verdugo, and Hunter Renfroe. All three have traditionally fit better in the corner. Hypothetically, if Boston didn’t think Benintendi was a good fit in center, they could look to move him to give more playing time to Verdugo and Renfroe. At the same time, Renfroe was a part-time player with the Rays last season, and he could continue in that capacity this season. Jarren Duran could make the Major League team at some point, and he might fit better in center than anyone else currently on the Boston roster. All of which merely speaks to why Boston might view Benintendi as an expendable asset, not necessarily why they would or should desire to move him.
As a prospect, Benintendi possessed a monster hit tool with the possibility for big power, and his game hardly predicated solely on his foot speed (though he was viewed more as a gap-to-gap hitter than a home run leader). Remember, he was the No. 1 ranked prospect in the game as recently as 2017 per Baseball America, who wrote in their prospect report after he made his debut in 2016: “Multiple evaluators believe that Benintendi has a chance to be a perennial all-star who competes for batting titles. ‘He’s a once-in-a-decade hitter,’ one said. Benintendi combines excellent hand-eye coordination with the pitch recognition to avoid strike zone expansion. His precisely-tuned swing, with his strong forearms and core along with a rare knack for putting the bat on the ball, allow him to drive the ball with surprising authority given his diminutive stature.” Those skills at peak development still play even if he doesn’t run as well as before. Certainly, a team that sees even a portion of that upside would have more than enough cause to make a run at Benintendi, depending on Boston’s asking price.