Cardinals Claim Buddy Kennedy From Athletics
October 26: Right-hander Adam Wainwright has officially retired, per the transactions tracker at MLB.com. That appears to have opened up the 40-man roster spot to make this claim possible. Wainwright announced coming into the 2023 season that it would be his last.
October 25: The Cardinals announced that they have claimed infielder Buddy Kennedy off waivers from the Athletics.
Kennedy, 25, has a small amount of major league experience, getting into 40 games over the past two seasons with the Diamondbacks. He hit .206/.293/.299 in his 123 plate appearances while playing second and third base. He was claimed off waivers by the A’s in September, though they kept him in the minors on optional assignment.
The infielder has fared far better in the minors, including in 2023. He hit .318/.444/.481 in 417 Triple-A plate appearances while with the D’Backs, walking more than he struck out and producing a 133 wRC+. He slumped after getting claimed by the A’s, though in a small sample size of just 46 trips to the plate. In addition to playing second and third base, he also saw some time at first base and left field in the minors.
The Cardinals have plenty of multi-positional players on the roster but never seem to have enough, with players like Taylor Motter, José Fermín and Juniel Querecuto getting playing time in 2023. It is speculated that the Cards will put some of their position players on the trading block this winter, since they are in dire need of starting pitching upgrades. If that indeed comes to pass, adding Kennedy to the roster gives them an extra layer of depth to call upon when the time comes. Kennedy still has one option season remaining.
A’s Claim Anthony Kay
The A’s announced they’ve claimed lefty reliever Anthony Kay off waivers from the Mets. New York had attempted to outright him off the 40-man roster last week.
Kay, a UCONN product, was selected by the Mets with the #31 pick in the 2016 draft. The Mets sent him to the Blue Jays as part of the Marcus Stroman deal. Kay pitched parts of four seasons with the Jays, working to a 5.48 ERA through 70 2/3 innings. Toronto lost him on waivers to the Cubs last offseason.
While Chicago quickly ran Kay through waivers themselves, they added him back to the roster in mid-June. He pitched 13 times for the Cubs, allowing eight runs in 11 1/3 innings. The Mets snagged him back via waivers with a couple weeks left in the season. He made four appearances with his original organization, working 3 2/3 frames of three-run ball to close the year. Kay’s fastball sat just under 95 MPH on average, yet he managed just an 11:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio between the two clubs.
The 28-year-old has yet to find much major league success. He has allowed 5.67 earned runs per nine, striking out an average 22.4% of batters faced against a lofty 12% walk rate. Kay showed some intriguing swing-and-miss numbers in Triple-A this year, combining for a 3.76 ERA while fanning over a third of opponents in 40 2/3 frames. While a 13.3% walk percentage still hints at real control woes, the solid minor league season and his decent velocity intrigued the A’s front office.
Kay is out of options, so the A’s can’t send him to the minors without first running him through waivers (at which point he’d have the ability to elect free agency). If they keep him on the 40-man roster all offseason, he’d need to secure a job in the MLB bullpen.
Coaching Notes: Giants, Angels, Athletics
Bob Melvin’s upcoming interview with the Giants has only increased the speculation that the Padres manager could soon be taking over in San Francisco’s dugout, to the point that Melvin’s prospective coaching staff might already be coming into view. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, Melvin “would be likely” to bring Padres third base coach Matt Williams along with him from San Diego to San Francisco. Williams was a four-time All-Star with the Giants during his playing career, and two other former Giants players are also under consideration for coaching roles — Pat Burrell as a new hitting coach, and Ryan Vogelsong as the new pitching coach.
Justin Viele, Pedro Guerrero and Dustin Lind are the Giants’ trio of incumbent hitting coaches, yet given the club’s lackluster offense in 2023, it isn’t surprising change might be coming. The pitching staff’s results were more up-and-down, yet Slusser notes that pitching coach Andrew Bailey “is extremely well regarded” and has often been considered by other teams for jobs in their organizations. If Vogelsong did become pitching coach, the Giants could look to retain Bailey as bench coach or as the director of pitching, but Bailey also might prefer a new role with a team nearer to his family on the East Coast. Vogelsong has been working as a roving instructor within the Giants organization, while Burrell has been the hitting coach for the Giants’ Single-A affiliate.
More on other coaching situations around baseball…
- The Angels have hired Dom Chiti as a minor league pitching coordinator, The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via X). Chiti previously worked for Los Angeles as a special assistant and then as bullpen coach from 2020-22, before joining the Mets as their bullpen coach for the 2023 season. The 64-year-old Chiti has over four decades of experience in a variety of coaching and front office roles with the Angels, Mets, Rangers, Indians, and Orioles.
- The Athletics are parting ways with bullpen coach Mike McCarthy, Fangraphs’ David Laurila writes. 2023 was McCarthy’s first year on Oakland’s coaching staff, and his first year on a big league staff altogether. Before joining the A’s, McCarthy spent five seasons coaching for the Triple-A affiliates of the Padres and Twins.
A’s Notes: Front Office, Stadium, Lacob
The A’s have been frequently compared to the Rays in recent years, as both clubs typically run payrolls at or near the bottom of the league, struggle with attendance issues, and have been the focus of relocation rumors in recent years due in part to dilapidated stadiums. One area where the two teams couldn’t be further apart, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, is their respective analytics departments.
While the Rays run a low player payroll relative to the league’s norms, they’re among the highest spenders when it comes to investing in their analytics department. As noted by Shea, the club had 44 full-time employees in the department during 2023, the most in all of baseball. Meanwhile, Oakland has largely neglected to invest in their analytics department, with their eight-person staff being the smallest in the majors last year.
Shea notes that the club plans to add to the department this offseason with four new full-time hires increasing the total staff to 11 after accounting for the impending departure of advanced scouting analyst Leo Pollack, who Shea relays will not return to the club in 2024. The 11-person staff would still leave them tied with the Rockies and Marlins for the smallest analytics department in the majors. It’s also unclear if the A’s will have any members of the analytics department travel with the team next year, as Shea notes Pollack was the only member of the department who did so in 2023.
Oakland is coming off a brutal 50-112 season that saw it post the second-most losses in franchise history, outpaced only by the 117-loss Philadelphia Athletics back in 1916. The club’s second consecutive 100-loss campaign comes on the heels of a protracted tear-down that saw the club trade away a core of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy, Frankie Montas, Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea that led the club to four consecutive winning seasons from 2018-2021 and playoff appearances in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Those trades have largely yet to bear fruit, though players like catcher Shea Langeliers and outfielder Esteury Ruiz have shown some level of promise at the big league level.
Shea notes that GM David Forst would “love” to have a more robust analytics staff, though payroll constraints have limited the department’s ability to expand much as they left Forst unable to retain Oakland’s core of successful players as the team cut payroll from $92MM in 2019 to just $47MM come 2022 and $56MM this year. It’s certainly fair for A’s fans to wonder if the club could have fared better in 2022 and 2023 if a larger analytics staff had been employed as the club searched for potential trade targets over the past two offseasons.
More rumors from around Oakland and the A’s…
- Per a recent report from Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority’s board of directors will meet with Athletics brass this week to discuss the team’s planned ballpark. Akers adds that the meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday, will see presentations on community engagement, benefits, and the lease agreement from both the A’s and the project’s construction manager. Though relocation has yet to be put to an official vote among MLB owners, the scheduled vote next month is expected to be little more than a formality, leaving completing agreements with the stadium authority as a primary focus for the club as they continue to pursue relocation. A 30-year non-relocation agreement, financial commitments to the community, terms of the lease, and stadium naming rights are among the topics that Akers notes are expected to be discussed during Wednesday’s meeting.
- As the A’s continue moving ahead with their relocation effort, a report from Shea earlier this month indicates that Joe Lacob, owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, remains interested in pursuing ownership of an MLB club in the bay area even as the A’s prepare to move out. Lacob spoke about the matter at a recent news conference, telling reporters (including Shea) that he’s been “very interested” in acquiring the A’s in the past, and that “if, for whatever reason, (A’s owner John Fisher) decided it wasn’t going to work, sure, we might be interested” in acquiring the A’s and keeping them in Oakland. Lacob also left the door open to a potential bid for ownership of a different MLB team, adding that he “might” be interested if an ownership opportunity presented itself, whether or the A’s or another team.
21 Players Elect Free Agency
With the offseason quickly approaching, a number of players elect minor league free agency on a regular basis. Separate from MLB free agents, who reach free agency five days after the World Series by accumulating six years of service time in the big leagues, eligible minor league players can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season comes to a close. Each of these players were outrighted off of their organization’s 40-man roster at some point during the season and either have been outrighted previously in their career or have the service time necessary to reach free agency since they were not added back to their former club’s rosters. For these players, reaching free agency is the expected outcome, and there will surely be more in the coming weeks. Here at MLBTR, we’ll provide occasional updates as players continue to elect minor league free agency.
Here is the next batch, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Pitchers
Trevor May Announces Retirement
Right-handed reliever Trevor May announced his retirement from professional baseball on his Twitch channel earlier today. His full comments can be found here. The 34-year-old spent the 2023 campaign with the Athletics, pitching to a 3.28 ERA with a 4.71 FIP in 49 games.
“I have a thousand things that I want to do, a million things… everything that I do outside of the game has just lit me up, and I really enjoy doing it,” May said during his announcement, “I love talking pitching, I love talking about the game, I love teaching people about the game… this is not the end of my relationship with the game of baseball, I just want to go out on my own terms.”
Drafted by the Phillies in the fourth round of the 2008 draft, May made his big league debut as a starting pitcher with the Twins in 2014. His time in the rotation did not go well, as he posted a 5.85 ERA across 26 career stars, almost exclusively concentrated in his first two seasons with Minnesota. After converting to the bullpen in July of 2015, May saw his results improve significantly, as he posted a 3.15 ERA and 3.25 FIP in 34 1/3 innings for the remainder of the season.
That revelation late in the 2014 season led May to convert to the bullpen full-time from 2016 onward, and May went on to be a solid relief option for the Twins over the next five seasons. Though he missed the 2017 season due to Tommy John surgery, May posted a 3.76 ERA and 3.63 FIP in 155 2/3 innings of work while striking out 32.7% of batters faced from 2016 until 2020, his final year in Minnesota. The most impressive of those seasons was May’s 2019 campaign during which he posted a sterling 2.94 ERA, 55% better than league average by measure of ERA+, with a solid 3.73 FIP.
Upon departing the Twins, May signed a two-year deal with the Mets. His first campaign with the club went quite well, as he posted a 3.59 and 3.74 FIP in 62 2/3 innings of work with the club as one of the primary set-up men for closer Edwin Diaz. Unfortunately, 2022 saw May struggle with injuries, as a stress reaction in his humerus sidelined him for most of the season. Ultimately, May departed New York following the 2022 campaign having thrown 87 2/3 innings of 4.00 ERA (100 ERA+) ball with a 3.78 FIP and a 30% strikeout rate.
That led May to the A’s, where he received his first opportunity to act as a club’s primary closer, though he had already picked up 12 saves over his years in Minnesota and Queens. After a difficult start to the season, May spent a month on the injured list due to issues pertaining to anxiety. Upon returning just before Memorial Day, May finished the season in dominant fashion with a 1.99 ERA and 3.92 FIP in 40 1/3 innings of work, though his full-season strikeout (19.5%) and walk (14.1%) rates did not reflect his excellent results. Despite the shaky peripherals, May took to the closer’s role with aplomb, going 21-for-22 in save opportunities throughout the remainder of the season.
Altogether, May posted a 4.24 ERA and 3.79 FIP in 450 1/3 innings of work across nine major league seasons. He finished 102 games while picking up 33 saves and punched out 520 batters in just 358 career games. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate May on a fine career, and wish him well in all of his post-playing endeavors.
Giants, Athletics Discussed Offseason Trade Involving Sean Murphy, Marco Luciano
The Giants and Athletics usually don’t combine for many trades, but the two Bay Area rivals got deep into talks about a possible blockbuster last winter, according to Tim Kawakami and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. Kawakami reported back in July that the two teams “apparently were closing in on a deal” that would’ve involved Sean Murphy heading to the Giants, and star shortstop prospect Marco Luciano going to the A’s. In a piece today, Baggarly reports that San Francisco was willing to move Luciano, but talks fell apart when the Athletics asked for pitching prospect Kyle Harrison as part of the deal.
The specifics of the trade proposal or any other players involved isn’t known, nor is it known if the A’s wanted Harrison instead of Luciano as the centerpiece of a trade package, or wanted both Harrison and Luciano in the deal. The former scenario seems likelier, as the Giants probably would’ve walked away a lot earlier had Oakland demanded both of San Francisco’s top prospects.
Oakland instead dealt Murphy as part of one of the offseason’s biggest trades — a three-team, nine-player deal between the A’s, Braves, and Brewers that saw Murphy go to Atlanta and William Contreras to Milwaukee. Murphy lived up to expectations in his first year in Atlanta, making the All-Star team and hitting .251/.365/.478 with 21 homers over 438 plate appearances. The Brewers were also big winners in the trade, since not only did Contreras shine offensively while making big strides with his glovework, reliever Joel Payamps suddenly emerged as a top-tier setup man. The A’s bought some new young talent on board in their latest rebuild, most prominently the addition of American League stolen base leader Esteury Ruiz.
Beyond the incredible speed, however, Ruiz’s overall offensive profile is still a little shaky, making him less than a true cornerstone piece for the Athletics. Some criticism has been leveled at the A’s front office for their returns on the trades of Murphy, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, and others during this latest fire sale, with the most common argument being that the Athletics seemed to aim for quantity over true top-drawer quality. Though we don’t know the exact nature of the deal the A’s and Giants were proposing, the inclusion of Luciano (or Harrison) would’ve brought one clear-cut top prospect to Oakland’s organization.
The three-team trade had such an immediate impact on the 2023 season that it would’ve created quite the ripple effect had Murphy instead ended up in San Francisco. It can be argued that the Brewers might not have won the NL Central without Contreras carrying an otherwise shaky lineup, or without Payamps combining with closer Devin Williams to form a lockdown combo at the end of games. Without those pieces in place, maybe the door is open for the Cubs or Reds to win the NL Central instead.
The Braves’ stacked lineup perhaps might not have missed a beat with Contreras instead of Murphy behind the plate, and Atlanta’s pursuit of Murphy was considered something of a surprise whatsoever since Contreras and Travis d’Arnaud were already in the fold. That said, the Braves obviously felt they were getting an upgrade over the long term, considering they liked Murphy enough to almost immediately sign him to a six-year extension soon after the trade. Such an extension might not have been on the table for Contreras. While the Braves have a penchant for locking up their players, the fact that they dealt Contreras indicates some level of reservation, even if it might’ve been ultimately more a case of Atlanta particularly liking Murphy more than “disliking” Contreras, per se.
By that same dint, the Giants’ apparent willingness to move Luciano shouldn’t be an indication that the Giants are somehow down on the young shortstop. In fact, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is heading into 2024 aiming to give Luciano at least “the chance“ to be the starting shortstop, underlining the 22-year-old Luciano’s importance to the organization as a building block. Pundits have considered Luciano has been regarded as at least a top-37 prospect in each of the last four seasons, and he only just made his MLB debut this season, making 45 plate appearances in 14 games.
Dealing away a blue chip prospect like Luciano likely wouldn’t have been a possibility for the Giants at all if a unique trade opportunity (i.e. a controllable high-level catcher like Murphy) hadn’t been available. The exact timing of the talks with the Athletics were also probably a factor, as the Giants might’ve been more willing to move Luciano if they’d thought Carlos Correa was joining the roster, yet Correa’s 13-year, $350MM agreement with San Francisco ended up falling through due to medical concerns on the Giants’ end.
Had the Giants acquired Murphy, they would’ve landed the signature star they were searching for without success last winter, after the Correa deal collapsed and after Aaron Judge re-signed with the Yankees. Perhaps adding Murphy might’ve been the spark San Francisco needed to get over the line in the wild card race, as in this alternate reality, the Giants have both Murphy and perhaps another MLB-caliber regular they received in a Patrick Bailey trade. It is fair to wonder whether Bailey would’ve been shipped out in a world where Murphy is a Giant, instead of our world where Bailey emerged as a rookie and now looks like he’ll be San Francisco’s catcher of the present and future.
It makes for a fun cascade of what-if scenarios, and Bailey’s potential availability then stretches the web beyond just what might’ve happened with the Giants, A’s, Brewers, and Braves. San Francisco fans may rue missing out on Murphy, though if Bailey continues to develop and Luciano lives up to the hype, the team might end up coming out ahead.
Athletics Outright James Kaprielian, Sam Long, Carlos Pérez
The Athletics outrighted three players, according to the transaction tracker at MiLB.com. Right-hander James Kaprielian, left-hander Sam Long and catcher Carlos Pérez have all been sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. It wasn’t previously reported that these players were removed from the roster, so this opens up three spots on the Oakland 40-man.
Kaprielian, 29, had a frustrating season in 2023. He was able to toss 253 1/3 innings over 2021 and 2022 with a solid 4.16 earned run average but required shoulder surgery in December and never really got on track after that. The early results were poor and he wound up being used as a frequently-optioned depth arm throughout the first half. He then landed on the injured list in June due to a shoulder strain and required yet another surgery in August. He finished the year with a 6.34 earned run average in 61 innings.
The righty is just shy of three years of major league service time but was set to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a salary of $1.5MM but it seems the A’s weren’t planning to tender him a contract. Any of the 29 other teams could have stepped up and claimed him off waivers but it seems they all passed, based on this outright. This is his first career outright and he is just shy of three years of major league service time, meaning he technically can’t reject this outright assignment immediately. But he will qualify for minor league free agency on the fifth day after the World Series, as a player with parts of seven seasons in the minors.
Long, 28, was acquired from the Giants in a cash deal in April. He tossed 45 innings for the A’s this year with a 5.60 ERA, 16.1% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate. This is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, meaning he doesn’t have the right to reject this assignment right now. But like Kaprielian, he’ll qualify for minor league free agency in a few weeks.
Pérez, 33 this month, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in March and quickly cracked the roster. He got into 68 games this year, his first major league action since 2018, hitting .226/.293/.357 with subpar defensive metrics. He was eligible for arbitration with a projected $1.2MM salary but the A’s and the other clubs in the league passed on the chance to tender him a contract. He has over three years of service time, which gives him the right to elect free agency right away if he so wishes.
Athletics Outright Four Players To Triple-A
TODAY: Neal and Rios each elected free agency rather than accept the outright assignment, as per MILB.com’s official transactions page.
OCTOBER 4: The A’s cleared some space off their 40-man roster, announcing today that right-handers Austin Pruitt, Zach Neal, and Yacksel Rios, and left-hander Richard Lovelady were all outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. There hadn’t been any public knowledge that the quartet had been designated for assignment, yet all four passed through the waiver wire and (for now) will remain in Oakland’s organization.
Pruitt, Neal, Rios have each have the option of electing free agency rather than accepting the assignment to Triple-A, since they’ve previously been outrighted during their careers. Pruitt and Rios are both eligible for salary arbitration this winter and will probably be non-tendered, so they’re likely to just hit the open market now rather than wait for an official release.
Neal signed a minor league contract with the A’s in April, and posted a 6.67 ERA over 27 innings at the big league level. This marked Neal’s first MLB action since he pitched with the Dodgers in 2018, as Neal had in the interim pitched three seasons in Japan and then with the Rockies’ Triple-A club in 2022 without receiving a call up to Colorado’s active roster.
Pruitt, Rios, and Lovelady all finished the season on the injured list. Pruitt had seen the most action (48 1/3 innings in 38 appearances) before a right forearm strain ultimately ended his season on August 17. It doesn’t appear as though Pruitt’s injury is a long-term issue, as he had started a throwing program and had advanced to throwing live batting practices in September.
That’s some good news for a pitcher who has already had one major injury setback in his career, as Pruitt missed all of the 2020 season and half of the 2021 season recovering from a hairline fracture in his right elbow. Pruitt posted a 4.83 ERA over 207 MLB innings with the Rays, Astros, and Marlins from 2017-21 before catching on with the A’s on minor league deals in each of the last two seasons. Pruitt had a 4.23 ERA in 55 1/3 frames for Oakland in 2022 and then a 2.98 ERA this past season, giving him some solid bottom-line results even if his advanced metrics (4.32 SIERA in 2022-23) indicated that he benefited from some good fortune.
The Athletics acquired Rios in a June trade with the Braves, and after the righty’s contract was selected from Triple-A, he made only three appearances before heading to the 15-day (and then shortly thereafter the 60-day) injured list. Rios has Raynaud’s Syndrome, and was feeling numbness in two fingers caused by a reduction in blood flow to his hands. A surgery in July removed an axillary branch aneurysm from Rios’ shoulder, which should help him ultimately heal up even if it meant the end of his 2023 season.
Rios is a veteran of six Major League seasons, with a 6.32 ERA over 98 1/3 career innings with five different teams. He didn’t pitch in the majors in 2022 while playing in the White Sox organization, and inked a minors deal with Atlanta last winter.
Lovelady also came to the A’s from the Braves, as Oakland selected him off waivers in April. Lovelady had a 4.63 ERA in 23 1/3 relief innings for the Athletics before being shut down after suffering a pronator strain in his throwing forearm in July. This new injury comes in the wake of a 2021 Tommy John surgery that caused Lovelady to miss the entire 2022 season while rehabbing. The southpaw had a 5.62 ERA in 41 2/3 innings over parts of the 2019-21 seasons with the Royals, and Kansas City traded him to the Braves a couple of weeks before Oakland’s waiver claim.
29 Players Elect Free Agency
October brings postseason play for a handful of teams and their fanbases. Just over two-thirds of the league is now in offseason mode after being eliminated, however. As the season comes to a close, a number of veterans will hit minor league free agency.
These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.
Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. The first group, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:
Catchers
- Zack Collins (Guardians)
- Caleb Hamilton (Red Sox)
- Francisco Mejia (Rays)
Infielders
- Matt Beaty (Royals)
- Brandon Dixon (Padres)
- Josh Lester (Orioles)
- Taylor Motter (Cardinals)
- Kevin Padlo (Angels)
- Cole Tucker (Rockies)
- Tyler Wade (A’s)
Outfielders
- Abraham Almonte (Mets)
- Kyle Garlick (Twins)
- Derek Hill (Nationals)
- Bryce Johnson (Giants)
- Cody Thomas (A’s)
Pitchers
- Archie Bradley (Marlins)
- Jose Castillo (Marlins)
- Chase De Jong (Pirates)
- Geoff Hartlieb (Marlins)
- Zach Logue (Tigers)
- Mike Mayers (White Sox)
- Tyson Miller (Dodgers)
- Tommy Milone (Mariners)
- Reyes Moronta (Angels)
- Daniel Norris (Guardians)
- Spencer Patton (A’s)
- Peter Solomon (Orioles)
- Duane Underwood Jr. (Pirates)
- Spenser Watkins (A’s)