Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Brown: Astros “Having Conversations” About Bullpen Additions

By | at

Astros GM Dana Brown made an appearance on MLB Network Radio this afternoon to discuss where the club stands with a matter of weeks left until Opening Day. In doing so, Brown suggested that the club is mostly set in terms of the lineup and starting rotation, and that his primary focus at this point in the spring is looking to solidfy the club’s bullpen. While Brown expressed confidence in the quartet of Josh Hader, Ryan Pressly, Bryan Abreu, and Rafael Montero, he added that the club still needs to “figure out” how to handle the middle innings following the departures of Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton, and Hector Neris this winter. The GM went on to suggest that the club is even looking at external options as it evaluates its bullpen mix.

“We are talking to clubs about trades,” Brown said, “I can’t get into that, but we definitely are having conversations about trades… we’re always looking at ways and avenues that we can get better, and if we can get better we’re going to make moves.”

With the aforementioned four relievers presumably locked into bullpen spots ahead of Opening Day, that leaves four spots in the relief corps available entering the 2024 campaign. One of those jobs appears likely to go to out of options right-hander Brandon Bielak, who posted a solid 3.83 ERA in 80 innings of work last year while swinging between starting and relief and figures to occupy a long relief role with the club this year. Other likely contenders for spots in the club’s bullpen include right-hander Dylan Coleman and southpaw Bennett Sousa, both of whom earned praise from Brown at the start of camp last month.

Looking at other options on the 40-man roster, Ronel Blanco pitched to a 4.50 ERA in 17 appearances with the club last year including seven starts, though it’s fair to wonder whether the Astros would prefer to keep him stretched out as starting pitching depth at the Triple-A level to open the season with Justin Verlander expected to open the season on the injured list. Seth Martinez, Oliver Ortega, and Parker Mushinski are other relief options with big league experience currently on the club’s 40-man, with the likes of Wander Suero and Joel Kuhnel in camp as non-roster invitees.

One potential x-factor who has yet to make his MLB debut is former top prospect Forrest Whitley, who is also already on the club’s 40-man roster. The club’s first-round pick in the 2017 draft was once a consensus top-10 prospect in the sport but has battled injuries and ineffectiveness in recent years, prompting a move to the bullpen. That being said, Whitley has battled finger inflammation this spring and was shut down from throwing in late February, potentially impacting his availability on Opening Day.

While the club certainly has a number of potentially viable options at its disposal, that group of arms vying for spots in the middle of the Houston bullpen offers little in the way of certainty. Given that, it’s easy to see why Brown would look to potentially bolster his relief corps ahead of Opening Day. That said, it’s unclear which teams could look to part with bullpen depth at this late stage in the offseason. While the Red Sox have reportedly shopped Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin this winter, the duo have been slowed by injuries this spring and are veteran, high-leverage arms who would be a significant step up from the type of middle relief relief arm Brown indicated the club is looking for. Jansen, in particular, comes with a whopping $16MM salary for the 2024 season that Houston would be unlikely to be interested in paying given their full late-inning mix.

Even as there aren’t any obvious fits for what the Astros appear to be looking for in the rumor mill at the moment, it’s not difficult to imagine an arm not yet on the radar as a trade candidate becoming available as Opening Day draws near. After all, the majority of clubs have far more bullpen options currently in camp than they can afford to roster entering the season. It’s always possible that an out-of-options reliever squeezed off another club’s roster or a non-roster invitee who isn’t breaking camp with their current organization could catch the club’s attention and prompt Brown to attempt to swing a deal, even if a more significant deal isn’t being worked on behind the scenes.

NL West Notes: Ahmed, Luciano, Machado, Otto, Treinen, Graterol

By | at

The Giants entered camp seemingly poised to hand longtime top prospect Marco Luciano the keys to the shortstop position entering the 2024 season. With that being said, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle recently indicated that the tides could be shifting in that regard, noting that non-roster invitee Nick Ahmed has “taken the lead” in the race to be the club’s Opening Day shortstop.

Ahmed, 34 later this week, spent the past ten seasons in Arizona as a regular fixture at shortstop, earning back-to-back Gold Glove awards for his superlative defense in 2018 and 2019. He’s struggled to stay on the field in recent years, drawing just 264 trips to the plate between the past two seasons, and in that time slashed a paltry .216/.258/.332. Rough as his last two seasons were, Ahmed’s non-roster deal with the Giants came with the opportunity to earn a regular role in San Francisco, and the veteran has made the most of that opportunity by slashing an incredible .556/.667/1.222 in his 12 trips to the plate this spring without recording a strikeout across his four appearances.

Luciano, by contrast, has hit a paltry .071/.188/.071 in six games this spring, striking out in 56.3% of his plate appearances without recording an extra-base hit. While numbers during Spring Training must be taken with a grain of salt for a number of reasons and it’s worth noting that Luciano was slowed by a hamstring issue early in camp, it would nonetheless be understandable if the Giants felt that Luciano’s weak results this spring indicated that the 22-year-old needs more development time at the Triple-A level. Luciano made his big league debut with San Francisco last year but struggled at the plate in his cup of coffee, hitting just .231/.333/.308 with a 37.8% strikeout rate in 45 trips to the plate.

More from around the NL West…

  • Padres star Manny Machado is a “pretty safe” bet to be limited to DH duties during the Korea Series in Seoul later this month, manager Mike Shildt recently told reporters (including Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). Machado underwent elbow surgery back in October and is coming off a relative down season by his standards, having slashed “just” .258/.319/.462 with a wRC+ of 114, a step down from the 140 wRC+ he posted across the previous three seasons. With Machado likely restricted to DH at-bats to open the season, the Padres appear likely to rely on a utility fielder like Matthew Batten or Eguy Rosario at the hot corner to open the season.
  • Sticking with the Padres, Acee also reports that right-hander Glenn Otto, who the club claimed off waivers from the Rangers back in September, came out of the offseason likely to compete for a spot in the club’s rotation this spring but has been sidelined during camp by a teres major strain. Acee notes that he’s “progressing” toward a return to the mound but does not elaborate on what the righty’s timetable for return is. Otto, who will celebrate his 28th birthday tomorrow, was a fixture of the Rangers rotation back in 2022 with a 4.64 ERA in 27 starts but has generally struggled in the majors with a career 5.62 ERA and a walk rate north of 10%.
  • While Dodgers right-hander Blake Treinen left yesterday’s game after being struck in the torso by a comebacker, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez) that the veteran had avoided a major injury from the incident. Treinen was diagnosed with a bruised lung, which Roberts added should be healed within three to five days. That leaves Treinen likely to be available for Opening Day as a veteran option for the L.A. bullpen alongside the likes of Ryan Brasier and Daniel Hudson. Treinen has spent almost all of the past two seasons on the sidelines but owns a career 2.86 ERA and posted a 1.99 figure as recently as the 2021 season.
  • Sticking with the Dodgers, The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya notes that right-hander Brusdar Graterol will not be joining the Dodgers for the Korea Series in Seoul later this month, as he’s been sidelined much of the spring by hip tightness and shoulder soreness, though Graterol downplayed the latter issue to reporters recently. Graterol added in conversation with reporters (including Ardaya) that he figures to resume throwing on Tuesday and hopes to be ready to join the Dodgers in time for their stateside opener against the Cardinals on March 28. Graterol was one of the club’s most effective relievers last season, pitching to a sensational 1.20 ERA in 68 appearances.

Jonny DeLuca Suffers Right Hand Fracture

By | at

Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca was hit by a pitch during today’s game against the Red Sox, which took place in the Dominican Republic as part of this spring’s Dominican Republic Series. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, DeLuca was diagnosed with a broken right hand after undergoing an x-ray at a local hospital. Though Topkin notes that DeLuca is expected to undergo further evaluation when the club returns to Florida, he also adds that the typical recovery time for such an injury is “at least” 4-6 weeks.

The injury news is a notable blow to a Rays that club figured to carry DeLuca as a right-handed complement to the likes of Jonathan Aranda and Josh Lowe in the outfield and DH mix headed into the regular season. Acquired from the Dodgers alongside right-hander Ryan Pepiot in the Tyler Glasnow trade back in December, DeLuca has just 45 big league plate appearances under his belt after hitting a roughly league average .262/.311/.429 in a cup of coffee with the Dodgers last summer but figured to have a larger role with the Rays this season, particularly given the departures of outfield options Luke Raley and Manuel Margot via trade this winter. Those plans have been scuttled for the time being, however, as DeLuca now figures to miss at least the first few weeks of the regular season.

With DeLuca out of action to open the season, the Rays may find themselves less inclined to move right-handed slugger Harold Ramirez, who saw his name enter the rumor mill this winter but has remained in Tampa to this point. While the Rays are hardly averse to late-spring deals, having acquired Ramirez himself from the Cubs just before Opening Day 2022, the loss of DeLuca leaves the Rays short on outfield options to pair with the starting trio of Randy Arozarena, Jose Siri, and Josh Lowe. Ramirez can offer some insurance at the outfield corners while pairing well alongside Aranda at DH; while Aranda is a left-handed hitter who has hit a paltry .077/.250/.077 in limited playing time against southpaws in the big leagues, Ramirez crushed them to the tune of a .387/.411/.555 slash line last year.

Of course, Ramirez was already all but assured of a roster spot entering the season unless the club managed to work out a trade, taking a spot on the bench alongside Amed Rosario and a back-up catcher such as Francisco Mejia or Alex Jackson. While DeLuca previously appeared to be a strong contender for that final spot on the bench, the club may now look to a young infielder such as Curtis Mead or Osleivis Basabe to replace DeLuca’s right-handed bat on the bench. Both Mead and Basabe made their major league debuts last year but posted below-average offensive numbers in brief cups of coffee with the big league club.

If Tampa is content with Ramirez and Rosario as bench options against southpaws, however, the club could instead look to shore up its outfield mix by turning to a lefty-swinging outfielder such as Richie Palacios or Greg Jones for its final bench spot. The switch-hitting Jones has yet to make his major league debut but hit well at the Triple-A level last year with a .278/.344/.468 slash line in 51 games, while Palacios impressed with a 120 wRC+  in 102 trips to the plate with the Cardinals last year. Both Jones and Palacios boast experience in both the infield and the outfield, offering positional flexibility that could improve their value in a bench role for the club.

Joey Votto Discusses Blue Jays, Reds, Free Agency

By | at

Now that Joey Votto is officially a member of the Blue Jays, he spoke with multiple reporters (including the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, and The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath and C. Trent Rosencrans) to discuss his trip through free agency, and his eventual landing spot with his hometown team.

After a long offseason of waiting, the first baseman’s contract seemed to come together pretty quickly, as Votto said he called Jays GM Ross Atkins last week to discuss the eventual minor league deal.  Though Votto felt he might’ve been able to land a guaranteed contract elsewhere, the idea of a minors deal with the Jays in particular proved tempting as a challenge.

“I need the time to prepare and resharpen my game.  A goal of mine is to be fully prepared the second I return to major league competition.  The major league level is about execution,” Votto told McGrath and Rosencrans in a text message.

To this end, Votto is fully open to starting the season in Triple-A if he needs more time to ramp up.  In fact, he told Nicholson-Smith and company that he “signed the deal assuming that that was going to be the case.  I’m trying to prove I’m still a capable player and the last couple of seasons were not real.  And I have confidence that that will be the case.”

The six-time All-Star is entering his age-40 season, so there are some obvious questions about whether or not Votto can still be productive as he looks towards what would be his 18th Major League season.  It already seemed like Votto was starting to decline when he posted (by his past standards) subpar numbers in both 2019 and 2020, but he then rebounded with another big campaign in the 2021 season.  However, his performance dipped after over the last two seasons, seemingly due in part to a longstanding shoulder issue that became too painful for Votto to ignore.  He underwent rotator cuff surgery in August 2022, and hit only .204/.317/.394 over 618 total plate appearances over the last two seasons.

Perhaps the most important aspect is that Votto is feeling healthy as he enters spring camp, and that he is viewing his new assignment with the Blue Jays as a completely fresh start.  “I get to once again move towards, for the second time in my professional career, (trying to) make it to the major leagues.  And it excites me,” Votto said.  “It excites me to be in a hotel room in Florida, to take a shuttle or an Uber to the ballpark and be a minor-league player with an unknown number just trying my very best to make a team.  It invigorates me.  It’s what I feel I’ve been about, and it brings me great joy….I just I want to work and I want to compete and I want to fit in. I want to get along with guys, I want to be liked and I want to represent myself, my family and my country well.  And this is the perfect opportunity.”

While Votto has embraced being a minor league signing, he did think such an offer was going to eventually come from the Reds.  He told both McGrath/Rosencrans and Wittenmyer that his initial aim was to spend his entire career in Cincinnati, and even after the Reds declined their $20MM club option on his services for 2024, he figured he would eventually be offered a minors contract or a big league deal with a small guarantee by his longtime organization.

Instead, it seemed like the Reds were ready to move on to their next generation of young talent, as president of baseball operations Nick Krall even outright said in late January that “we don’t plan to bring [Votto] back as of now.”  Votto doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings, noting that “the Reds team is STACKED and there didn’t appear to be playing time for me so we had to pivot.”

As it turned out, Votto ended up being “grateful for the free agent experience,” as he told Wittenmyer.  “The vast majority of it was growth and learning about myself and things I need to change.”  Simply being on the open market was new for Votto, who never been a free agent due to his two prior extensions (a three-year, $38MM deal and his big ten-year, $225MM contract) with Cincinnati.

“There was a part of me that was scared, because it becomes uncharted waters for me,” Votto told Wittenmyer.  “It’s intimidating because I’d never as an adult been by myself.  I was always tied to an organization and specifically [the Reds].  But quickly, I was like, ’No, this is good.  You need this as a man, as an individual.  You need this to grow.  And what is the next step you need to take  Are you done?’ I answered that quickly: No.  So what’s the answer?  Let’s get to work.”

Mariners Sign Ryne Stanek

By | at

TODAY: The Mariners officially announced the signing after Stanek passed his physical.

MARCH 8: The Mariners and right-hander Ryne Stanek have agreed to deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It will be a $4MM guarantee for Stanek, per Feinsand, with $2MM in bonuses also available. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reports that the MVP Sports Group client will report to Peoria tomorrow to take his physical and sign the contract. Divish also relays that it will be a one-year deal. The Mariners will need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move whenever the Stanek deal becomes official.

Stanek, 32, will jump across the American League West after spending the past three years with the Astros. He had solid results in that time, serving as a setup man for closer Ryan Pressly. Stanek made 186 appearances for Houston in that three-year span, racking up 41 holds and three saves. He allowed 2.90 earned runs per nine innings and struck out 27% of batters faced. The 12.2% walk rate in that time was certainly high but he was effective in spite of it.

Last year, he got that walk rate down to 9.9%, a personal best for his career. But his strikeout rate also dipped to 23.9%, barely above the 23.6% league average for relievers in 2023. His 4.09 ERA was more solid than great but the overall track record of his time in Houston is nonetheless strong. He also tossed 18 postseason innings for the club over those past three years with an ERA of 3.00.

Beyond the results, Stanek is also appealing for his stuff. His fastball averaged 98.2 miles per hour last year and he also has a splitter and a slider, throwing each of the latter two pitches around 18% of the time last year. Stanek received plenty of attention this offseason, as the Astros reportedly had some interest in a reunion while clubs like the Mets, Cubs and Red Sox were connected to him at various points.

Ultimately, he will land with the Mariners, which is a logical spot. Seattle is set to go into the season with Andrés Muñoz as their closer but the setup group has been dealing with a batch of injury concerns here in Spring Training.

Matt Brash was shut down a couple of weeks ago with an elbow issue and once seemed like he was facing a season-long absence, though he was cleared to resume throwing last week. Similarly, Gregory Santos was shut down due to some discomfort near his teres major muscle but has since started ramping things back up. Just yesterday, it was reported that Jackson Kowar will be meeting with a doctor to have his arm evaluated. None of those three situations seem disastrous in a vacuum but it appears there’s enough general uncertainty that the Mariners decided to reach out and add another arm into the mix and Stanek was the best one still out there.

RosterResource estimates the Seattle payroll is currently $136MM. That’s just barely under last year’s Opening Day figure of $137MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Previous reporting has suggested that uncertainty around the club’s TV revenue situation would limit them to a modest bump over last year’s spending. Adding Stanek’s salary bumps their payroll to $140MM, slightly beyond where they were a year ago.

The club’s Opening Day bullpen mix will largely depend on health at this point. Muñoz will certainly be in one spot and Stanek in another, while Brash and Santos will take two more if they are healthy. Kowar seemed to be trending to taking a spot before his health issues cropped up. Options for filling out the rest of the group include Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, Tayler Saucedo, Austin Voth, Carlos Vargas, Mauricio Llovera and others.

For clubs still looking for bullpen upgrades at this late stage of the offseason, Stanek coming off the board leaves Brad Hand, Aaron Loup, Brad Boxberger and Mark Melancon as some of the most accomplished hurlers that remain unsigned.

Marlins Sign Mychal Givens To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Marlins have signed right-hander Mychal Givens to a minor league contract, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports (X link).  The deal will become official when Givens passes a physical, and the veteran reliever will receive an invite to Miami’s big league spring camp.

2023 was essentially a lost season for Givens, who was limited to only four big league innings over six appearances with the Orioles, and 15 more frames in the minors.  The righty battled knee inflammation at the start of the season, and then quickly had to go on the injured list again due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder.  Baltimore opted to designate Givens for assignment and ultimately release him in August when Givens was activated from the 60-day IL.

It wasn’t much a return on what was a $5MM investment for the O’s last winter, between a $3MM salary and then a $2MM buyout on the Orioles’ end of a mutual option.  That said, the logic behind the signing was quite sound, as Givens has generally been a very solid reliever over his nine big league seasons.  Givens has a 3.47 ERA over 461 2/3 innings with five different teams, mostly the Orioles in his prior stint with the club from 2015-20.

Walks have been a consistent problem for Givens throughout his career, and his 12.1% career homer rate is on the high side (if inflated by a couple of particularly rough years in 2019-20 in terms of keeping the ball in the yard).  On the plus side, Givens has posted consistently above-average strikeout rates, and his signature four-seamer has plenty of spin.  The velocity of that fastball, however, has dropped from 94.8mph in 2021 to 93.5mph in 2022, and then to just 91.5mph last year though obviously in a very small sample size.

Assuming the 33-year-old is back to full health, Givens has some quality upside as a non-roster invite to Miami’s camp.  Since A.J. Puk is now slated to join the rotation, Steven Okert was traded to the Twins, and Dylan Floro and David Robertson both left in free agency, the Marlins’ projected bullpen is lacking in experience behind Tanner Scott and JT Chargois.  Yonny Chirinos and Matt Andriese are also in camp on minor league deals, though might be utilized as swingmen rather than as true relievers.

Giants Place J.D. Davis On Waivers

By | at

The Giants have placed third baseman J.D. Davis on waivers, FanSided’s Robert Murray writes (via X).  The move comes just a week after San Francisco signed Matt Chapman, which seemed to make Davis an odd man out in the team’s corner infield picture.

With Chapman now at third base, Jorge Soler at DH, and LaMonte Wade Jr. and Wilmer Flores slated as a platoon tandem at first base, there wasn’t much room for Davis to find everyday playing time, making him something of an overqualified bench piece.  Chapman’s contract came after months of speculation that he would eventually land in San Francisco to re-unite with his former manager Bob Melvin, so really, trade rumors have been surrounding Davis for much of the offseason.

The waiver-wire move indicates that a trade couldn’t be found, yet that doesn’t mean that there isn’t interest in Davis’ services.  It could be that rival clubs weren’t willing to meet whatever asking price Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was seeking, and were content to wait and see if Davis would just end up available to be claimed.  By that same logic, it seems possible that Davis might also clear waivers entirely if no team wants to assume the $6.9MM salary he is owed for the 2024 season, after an arbitration panel ruled in Davis’ favor at a hearing last month.

The fact that Davis went to a hearing provides an interesting wrinkle to his salary situation, as per the terms of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Salaries for arbitration-eligible players are not fully guaranteed until they make the Opening Day roster, or (as noted by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area) unless they agree to a salary without going to a hearing — your standard “team and player have avoided arbitration” situation.

However, in going to a hearing, Davis could be subject to the CBA clause stating that San Francisco can part ways with him for a prorated portion of his $6.9MM salary.  That prorated sum will be 30 days’ worth of termination pay if Davis is released earlier than 16 days prior to the start of the Giants’ season (their first game is on March 28), and 45 days’ worth of pay if he is released after that 16-day checkpoint.  Davis might well have grounds for a grievance if the Giants try this tactic, as he has been tearing it up at the plate in Spring Training, and could therefore argue that he isn’t being released “for failure to exhibit sufficient skill or competitive ability,” as detailed in the CBA wording.

Barring a potential grievance, the Giants would save roughly $5.793MM by releasing Davis before the 16-day threshold.  It isn’t an insignificant sum, especially for a team that is approaching luxury tax status.  RosterResource projects the Giants for a tax number of just under $231.3MM, leaving the club with only a little breathing room before hitting the $237MM tax line.  Given how the Giants have pursued several high-salaried stars in recent years, paying the tax altogether probably isn’t seen as a huge barrier for ownership or the front office, yet naturally the team would ideally like to pay as little tax as possible.  San Francisco could potentially still be adding another big salary to the ledger before Opening Day, as the Giants remain linked to top starters Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery on the rumor mill.

Davis hit .248/.325/.413 with 18 homers over 546 plate appearances with San Francisco in 2023, as hot starts and finishes to the season bookended a pretty severe slump over the summer months.  The offensive production translated to a 104 wRC+, which is drop from the 118 wRC+ Davis posted over his first six MLB seasons with the Astros, Mets, and Giants.

While Davis’ bat has long been pretty solid, he has been something of a man without a defensive position.  The public metrics give him decent grades over 287 2/3 innings as a first baseman, though Davis’ work at third base has generally been considered subpar.  His 2023 performance drew at least mixed reviews, as Outs Above Average (+5) and UZR/150 (+0.8) had a positive view of his third base glovework, while the Defensive Runs Saved (-11) metric was much less impressed.

On paper, the Cubs, Brewers, Blue Jays, Rays, Nationals, Rangers, Guardians, Mariners, White Sox, Athletics, and Padres are teams that all have clear or hypothetical needs at either corner infield position or at DH, so any could potentially fit as Davis’ next landing spot.  Even a relatively modest $6.9MM salary could provide an obstacle in some of these situations, and the presence of such other free agents (such as J.D. Martinez, Brandon Belt, or Evan Longoria) who could fill at least one of Davis’ positions might further complicate his market.

NL East Notes: Alcantara, Robles, McNeil

By | at

Injured Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara took a major step forward in his rehab from Tommy John surgery today, as The Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson notes that the right-hander played catch this afternoon, marking the first time he’s thrown a baseball since going under the knife back in October. While that still leaves Alcantara a long way from a return to the mound, manager Skip Schumaker seemed optimistic regarding the 28-year-old’s rehab process as he noted to reporters that Alcantara is “probably three or four weeks ahead of schedule.”

Even with Alcantara potentially as much as a month ahead of schedule, it’s still all but guaranteed that he won’t pitch in the majors during the 2024 season. While he first went on the shelf on September 6 with a flexor strain, he wasn’t diagnosed with a UCL sprain until the following week and was only shut down for the season on September 23 before undergoing surgery shortly thereafter. Even the most favorable estimates for a return to the mound following Tommy John surgery require at least a year of rehab, and it seems unlikely that the Marlins would have any interest in rushing Alcantara back to the mound. While the right-hander had a down season in 2023 with a rather pedestrian 4.14 ERA in 28 starts, his incredible 2022 campaign saw him post a sterling 2.28 ERA with a 2.99 FIP while leading the majors with 228 1/3 innings pitched.

While Alcantara being ahead of schedule won’t have an impact on the Marlins in 2024, it’s a positive sign for his odds of being ready to pitch come Opening Day 2025. In the meantime, the club figures to rely on the likes of Eury Perez, Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett, Trevor Rogers and Edward Cabrera in 2024. The Marlins reportedly fielded trade offers on some of their young rotation arms this winter, and while a deal didn’t ultimately come together, it remains at least possible that the club will ship one or more pitchers out from its rotation mix before Alcantara returns to the mound in 2025, whether that be ahead of this summer’s trade deadline or at some point next offseason.

More from around the NL East…

  • Nationals center fielder Victor Robles left today’s game early due to hamstring tightness, as noted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco. Manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Blanco) after the game that Robles was dealing with a “knot” in his hamstring after being hit by a pitch in that area during a game against the Marlins earlier this week. Robles, 27 in May, was once a consensus top-5 prospect in the entire sport but has struggled to establish himself at the big league level. He was off to a hot start last year before his 2023 campaign was cut short by injury, leaving him to appear in just 36 games all season. Headed into 2024, Robles appears to be the favorite for regular reps in center field, though Martinez suggested previously that 24-year-old rookie Jacob Young would have the opportunity to earn playing time in center.
  • Mets manager Carlos Mendoza indicated to reporters, including Andrew Crane of the New York Post, recently that infielder Jeff McNeil remains at least a week away from receiving any sort of game action this spring. McNeil suffered a partially torn UCL in his left arm back in September and spent the offseason rehabbing the injury, which has caused the club to proceed with caution regarding a bout of left biceps soreness that first cropped up last week, though McNeil had already not appeared in Grapefruit League games yet since camp opened last month. That said, Crane adds that McNeil made some progress recently when he took dry swings early today without any pain in his biceps. Once healthy, McNeil will look to rebound as the Mets’ starting second baseman in 2024 on the heels of a 2023 campaign that saw the two-time All Star slash a pedestrian .270/.333/.378 in 648 trips to the plate.

Free Agent Faceoff: Adam Duvall/Tommy Pham

By | at

The Dodgers and Padres are set to kick off the regular season with the Korea Series in Seoul less than two weeks from today, and MLB’s 28 other clubs will follow suit the week afterwards. At this late stage of Spring Training, it’s rare for free agents of particular note to remain available on the market, but a handful of quality players linger on the open market nonetheless. That group is led by front-of-the-rotation southpaws Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, though there’s a crop of interesting lower-level pieces available as well, ranging from veteran slugger J.D. Martinez to right-handed hurler Michael Lorenzen.

While the market is deepest in starting pitching at this point in the winter, there’s one other position where teams with a need will find a number of options worth consideration still available: the outfield. Michael A. Taylor is generally regarded as the best player remaining on the market in that group due to his superlative center field defense and a strong platform season in Minnesota that saw him slug a career-best 21 home runs. With that being said, a pair of veteran bats also remain available for teams hoping to add a bit more pop to their lineup or bench mix at this late stage in the offseason: Adam Duvall and Tommy Pham. The pair are both right-handed hitting outfielders with ten seasons of MLB experience under their belt across a combined ten different clubs. The duo also both took one-year deals last winter following a down 2022 season before bouncing back in 2023 to post above-average production at the plate, and are only five months apart in age.

Similar as they are, there are some key differences between the two. Pham has been the much more consistent regular of the two throughout his career, with his 481 trips to the plate in 2023 being his lowest figure in a 162-game season since he became a full-time player in 2017. Duvall, by contrast, has reached 450 plate appearances in a season just three times in his career, most recently during the 2021 season. In addition to having more experience under his belt, Pham has been the better hitter overall for his career with a triple slash of .259/.351/.435 (116 wRC+) as opposed to Duvall’s career .232/.291/.472 (98 wRC+) slash line. The difference in the pair’s career numbers is particularly noticeable against southpaws, whom Pham has posted an .834 OPS against for his career compared to Duvall’s .770 OPS against.

While availability on the field and career numbers seem to clearly favor Pham, Duvall isn’t without advantages of his own. Despite the disparity in career numbers, he’s actually been a slightly superior hitter in recent years, with a .231/.288/.487 slash line that translates to a 104 wRC+ since the start of the 2020 season. Over that same time period, Pham has slashed just .238/.325/.392 with a 99 wRC+. In addition to the slightly stronger offensive production in recent seasons, Duvall also offers the ability to play center field, with 1,070 2/3 innings of work at the position over the past three seasons. By contrast, Pham has stuck almost entirely to the outfield corners during that same time frame, starting just 14 games in center since the start of the 2021 season. While Duvall’s glove in center has generally been panned by defensive metrics (-5 DRS, -4 OAA in 2023), the ability to handle the position is surely notable for clubs that value positional flexibility or have a need in center.

While Duvall has been the slightly better offensive player in recent years, his lead over Pham in that regard is hardly commanding. Strong as Duvall’s recent offensive performance has been, his low on-base percentages and 31.5% strikeout rate since the start of the 2021 season leave him reliant on power output for his production at the plate. That’s suited him just fine, as he’s slugged a combined 71 homers over the last three years including a whopping 38 as a full-time regular during the 2021 season. Even so, it’s certainly fair to wonder if teams in search of a regular fixture in their outfield mix would prefer Pham’s more consistent production and stronger plate discipline, with a 24.1% strikeout rate and a strong 10.9% walk rate over the past three seasons in spite of his paltry .158 ISO over that same period.

Advanced metrics certainly look more fondly on Pham’s approach, as evidenced by Pham’s .361 xwOBA in 2023 which not only outstrips his relatively pedestrian .332 wOBA, but also Duvall’s .347 figure. By contrast, Duvall’s xwOBA last season left something to be desired as he posted a figure of just .306. That disparity between Duvall’s strong results and iffy peripheral numbers can be explained in part by his torrid start to the season that saw him slug ten extra-base hits in just eight games, and his relatively pedestrian numbers afterwards that saw him post a wRC+ of just 93 following his return from injury. While it’s certainly possible that Duvall’s wrist injury sapped some of his power upon his return to the field, it’s also worth noting that Duvall’s post-injury numbers are fairly similar to his 2022 performance, where he posted a lackluster 87 wRC+ with peripheral numbers to match.

Given the pair’s number of similarities, the choice between the two players could simply come down to fit on their hypothetical new club for many teams. Organizations looking to bring in a potential regular may be more likely to choose Pham thanks to his track record as an everyday player and more reliable approach at the plate. That being said, a team looking for a contributor off the bench could be more drawn to Duvall’s recent experience at all three outfield spots and his titanic power which can allow him to change the game with a single swing. If your team was to add one of the two veterans to its outfield mix ahead of Opening Day, who would you rather have?

Which Outfielder Would You Rather Have For 2024?
Adam Duvall 58.84% (2,382 votes)
Tommy Pham 41.16% (1,666 votes)
Total Votes: 4,048

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top