Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Royals Designate Anthony Misiewicz For Assignment

By | at

The Royals announced that left-hander Anthony Misiewicz has been designated for assignment.  The move creates roster space for Zack Greinke, whose one-year deal with Kansas City was officially announced today.

A veteran of three MLB seasons, Misiewicz was acquired from the Mariners in a pre-deadline trade last August, after Seattle had also DFA’ed the southpaw.  Misiewicz posted a 4.61 ERA and only a 14% strikeout rate over 13 2/3 frames with the Mariners last year, but at least got on track on the strikeout front by delivering a 4.11 ERA and 29.7 K% in his first 15 1/3 innings in Kansas City.

It was a promising return to form for Misiewicz, who had a 4.05 ERA and 30.1% strikeout rate over 20 innings in his 2020 rookie season with the Mariners, but both his ERA (4.61) and his ability to miss bats both declined during 54 2/3 frames of work in 2021.  Misiewicz posted respectable but not eye-opening strikeout totals during his minor league career, though naturally some uptick in K’s was to be expected after he moved to relief pitching.  The left-hander was almost exclusively a starter from 2015-19, but shifted into a full-time bullpen role upon making his debut in the big leagues.

Misiewicz isn’t a particularly hard thrower for a relief pitcher, though he does have some good spin on his pitches, particularly his curveball.  Between this skillset, his decent numbers at the MLB level, and the general need for left-handed pitching around the sport, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another club pluck Misiewicz off the DFA wire.  Misiewicz is also controllable through the 2026 season, providing another benefit for any interested teams.  The Royals have Amir Garrett and new acquisitions Aroldis Chapman and Josh Taylor all lined up as the top left-handed options in their bullpen, so while Misiewicz became expendable from the team’s perspective, K.C. would probably prefer that he sneaks through the waiver wire so he can be retained as minor league depth.

The Opener: Dodgers, Arbitration, Greinke

By | at

As the return of baseball continues to grow closer, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:

1. Dodgers FanFest is tomorrow

For the first time since the the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020, Dodgers FanFest is set to return to Dodger Stadium. The free fan event will take place from 10am to 4pm local time on Saturday. In addition to interviews with players, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts both typically make themselves available to media at the event. The FanFest returns after an unusually quiet offseason for the Dodgers, who spent most of the offseason appearing to operate with the goal of ducking under the luxury tax this year to reset their penalties. The club weathered losses such as Trea Turner, Justin Turner, and Tyler Anderson, but Trevor Bauer’s reinstatement from suspension threw a wrench in those tax-reset plans, with Friedman saying he doesn’t expect to deal salaried players to get back under the tax for 2023.

2. Could more arbitration results be on the way?

Both of the past two days, we’ve heard the results of an arbitration hearing. Diego Castillo lost his case against the Mariners on Wednesday, while yesterday Luis Arraez won his case against the Marlins. More arbitration case results will trickle in throughout the next few days, including such big names like Bo Bichette and Max Fried, still waiting to finalize their 2023 contracts. Up until the last minute, teams and players are always free to agree to a deal to avoid arbitration, whether it’s on a one-year contract or on a multi-year extension — we’ve also seen such players as Jeff McNeil, Dylan Moore, and Yandy Diaz all sign extensions in recent days.

3. Will the Greinke deal be made official at last?

Ever since Zack Greinke re-signed with the Royals on a one-year deal, the wait has been on for the contract to become official. MLB.com’s Anne Rogers has said the signing can be expected to be made official this week, and whenever the move is made, the Royals will need to make a corresponding transaction to clear 40-man roster space. The Royals hope Greinke will help stabilize the rotation, as the veteran returns to pitch his ninth season in Kansas City and the 20th overall season of his excellent career. Though durability is a concern at Greinke’s age (39) and over 3247 innings of mileage on his arm, the right-hander has still delivered solid production. He posted ERA+ of 111 in 2022, marking his seventeenth consecutive season with an above-average mark in that metric.

Mets Notes: Senga, DH, McNeil, Extensions

By | at

One of the bigger moves of the Mets’ active offseason was the signing of starter Kodai Senga to a five-year, $75MM guarantee. The 30-year-old righty is making the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he posted a 2.59 ERA across 11 seasons. Senga was one of the highest-upside hurlers available in free agency, though there’s naturally some amount of performance risk until he translates his production against MLB competition.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports the Mets also expressed some concern about Senga’s medical evaluations before finalizing the contract in December. Further details aren’t clear, though Heyman notes Mets personnel have expressed confidence in Senga’s health prognosis for the upcoming season. That’s hardly surprising, as whatever concerns the organization had raised didn’t deter them from agreeing to the fourth-largest deal for a free agent pitcher this offseason. That contract also affords Senga an opportunity to opt out and retest the market after the 2025 season, though the Associated Press reports that’s contingent on the righty throwing a combined 400 innings over the next three years.

In other news out of Queens:

  • The Mets never pursued a full-time designated hitter upgrade this offseason partially out of a desire to preserve a path to at-bats for their younger hitters, writes Andy Martino of SNY. Top prospects Francicso Álvarez and Brett Baty each reached the majors late in the 2022 season. Each is a polished hitter but faces questions about their defense at catcher and third base, respectively. That’s also true of corner infielder Mark Vientos, who’s not quite the same caliber of prospect as Álvarez or Baty but earned an MLB look with a .280/.358/.519 showing at Triple-A Syracuse. Martino suggests the Mets aren’t likely to give them early-season looks at DH in hopes of each continuing to show progress defensively, though there could be a path to bat-only reps later in the year — or for veteran Eduardo Escobar to slide to DH if Baty seized the third base job at some point. Lefty-swinging veteran Daniel Vogelbach earned the larger share of a DH platoon to open the year with an excellent .261/.382/.497 showing against righties anyhow. Offseason signee Tommy Pham or last summer’s deadline pickup Darin Ruf are righty bats who could shoulder the load against southpaws. Ruf’s second-half struggles give Pham the upper hand in that regard, but Martino writes the Mets are at least likely to carry Ruf on the roster into Spring Training.
  • New York locked up one of their homegrown stars last Friday, signing Jeff McNeil to a four-year, $50MM extension to potentially buy out a trio of free agent years. General manager Billy Eppler addressed the deal earlier this week, expressing broad openness to negotiations with other important players who are early in their careers (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). First baseman Pete Alonso is the most logical candidate for those kinds of talks as he enters his penultimate season of arbitration control, though neither Eppler nor Alonso’s representatives at Apex Baseball have indicated publicly whether discussions might take place over the coming weeks. Discussions with McNeil, at least, were a long time running before culminating in a deal. Will Sammon of the Athletic reports Eppler and McNeil’s camp at Paragon Sports International first opened extension talks in November 2021, just before the lockout froze communications between teams and 40-man roster players until March.

Latest On Pirates, Bryan Reynolds

By | at

Perhaps the biggest offseason storyline in Pittsburgh has been the saga involving center fielder Bryan Reynolds. The All-Star outfielder requested a trade after extension talks between his camp and the Bucs fizzled out in December. Reports suggested the Pirates had offered more than the $70MM they guaranteed Ke’Bryan Hayes but the specific numbers under discussion had been unclear.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post now reports Pittsburgh had put forth a six-year offer that would’ve guaranteed $76MM. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported last month the sides had been roughly $50MM apart in negotiations, suggesting Reynolds’ camp was seeking somewhere around $126MM.

The 28-year-old Reynolds has between three and four years of big league service. He’s set to make $6.75MM for the upcoming season and will be eligible for arbitration twice more before qualifying for free agency after the 2025 campaign. Sean Murphy, who’s also 28 and in the same service bucket, inked a six-year, $73MM extension with the Braves in December. Pittsburgh’s offer was right in that range, making for an interesting comparison point.

It’s fair to debate which of Murphy or Reynolds is the better player. The Atlanta catcher is coming off a .250/.332/.426 line in a pitcher-friendly environment in Oakland. That brought his career line up to .236/.326/.429 in 1260 plate appearances, offense that’s 16 percentage points above league average as measured by wRC+. Reynolds is a better hitter, owning a career .281/.361/.481 line that rates as 26 points above average. He’s coming off a .262/.345/.461 showing in 2022.

That said, Murphy has the edge on the other side of the ball. He’s among the game’s top few defensive catchers, with two-way production at the position that’s among the best in the league. Reynolds also plays up the middle but rated as a below-average center fielder last season. He’s capable of playing center and likely would be a plus defender in the corner outfield, but that’s less valuable than elite defense behind the dish.

Given the terms of the Murphy extension, Pittsburgh’s reported offer to Reynolds is defensible. Yet Reynolds had an edge over Murphy in earning power during their arbitration seasons, with Murphy’s originally projected $3.5MM arb salary for 2023 more than $3MM below what Reynolds will make. That difference — attributable both to Reynolds’ gaudier offensive counting stats and qualification for early arbitration last offseason as a Super Two player — would’ve likely held or compounded over the next two years if both players had gone year-by-year through that process. That’s because a player’s arbitration salaries are generally designed to escalate relative to the prior year’s figure.

Freddie Freeman holds the record for the largest extension among players in the 3-4 year service bucket. The first baseman signed an eight-year, $135MM pact with the Braves nine years ago. Whether Reynolds’ camp was seeking to beat that number or merely approach it isn’t clear, though the reported gap in negotiations suggestions they were well closer to that figure than to the $76MM the Pirates had put on the table. While Reynolds’ camp could argue that’s a dated precedent, Freeman represented a safer long-term bet than Reynolds does. Freeman was nearly four years younger at the time of his deal and coming off a .319/.396/.501 showing in 2013 that rivals Reynolds’ career-best season (.302/.390/.522) from 2021.

Once Reynolds rejected the Bucs’ offer and registered his trade request, most public attention turned to the possibility of him changing teams. However, Heyman writes Pittsburgh continues to have interest in negotiating an extension. There’s no indication of any plans to reopen talks, nor is it known if Reynolds’ camp would even be open to doing so at this point, but the team’s continued desire for a long-term deal supports the numerous reports of an astronomical ask from other teams in trade discussions.

The Rangers, Marlins, Yankees, Rockies, Braves and Red Sox have all been at least loosely linked to Reynolds at points this offseason. All six of those clubs still has some level of uncertainty in its outfield. Heyman writes Miami, in particular, has been among the most aggressive suitors — the continuation of longstanding interest on the Fish’s part that dates back at least to last winter.

The Marlins are planning to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to center field after acquiring Luis Arraez to man second base. That could diminish any desire to meet Pittsburgh’s ask, though there’s still room to upgrade a left field mix likely to consist of some combination of Jesús Sánchez, Bryan De La Cruz and JJ Bleday. A Reynolds trade this offseason still appears a long shot, however, with no indication the Pirates plan to lower their demands as the start of Spring Training approaches.

Jharel Cotton Signs With NPB’s Orix Buffaloes

By | at

The Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced last week they’ve signed right-hander Jharel Cotton for the 2023 season. The team also announced the previously-reported acquisition of former Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel. Reports out of Japan first emerged in December the Buffaloes were in discussions with Cotton.

It’ll be the first overseas stint for the 31-year-old hurler. The East Carolina product has spent a decade in the affiliated ranks, initially entering pro ball as a Dodger draftee in 2012. Cotton debuted with the A’s in 2016, shortly after being acquired as part of the Rich Hill deadline deal between L.A. and Oakland. He made 29 starts over the next two seasons in green and gold but didn’t reappear in the big leagues until 2021 as a member of the Rangers.

Cotton spent the bulk of last year with the Twins. Shuttled on and off the 40-man roster as a depth reliever, he made 25 MLB appearances with Minnesota. Cotton posted a strong 2.83 ERA that was built largely on the strength of an unsustainable .183 average on balls in play against him. He posted much better peripherals through 22 games with their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, striking out a massive 37.1% of opponents en route to a 2.88 ERA over 25 innings of relief for the Saints.

Towards the end of the year, the Giants snagged Cotton off waivers from Minnesota. He pitched five times for San Francisco, working eight innings of seven-run ball. At season’s end, the Giants ran him through outright waivers to take him off the 40-man roster. Cotton elected minor league free agency at that point.

He’ll now make the jump to Japan’s top level. Cotton has worked solely as a reliever the past two seasons but was a starting pitcher throughout his early minor league and MLB tenure. It’s possible the Buffaloes give him a shot to stretch back out into rotation work in NPB. Regardless of whether he works as a starter or out of the bullpen, Cotton has a chance to resurface on the MLB radar a year or two down the line if he performs well against NPB hitters. Veteran reliever Scott McGough, for instance, secured a two-year deal from the Diamondbacks this offseason after a four-year stint in Japan.

Miguel Sano To Hold Workout For Interested Teams

By | at

Free agent first baseman Miguel Sanó will host a showcase for interested clubs next Tuesday, repots Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (Twitter link). That marks the first update on the 6’4″ slugger since the Twins bought him out at the beginning of the offseason.

Sanó is searching for a new team after 12 years in the Minnesota organization. Praised as a prospect for his prodigious power potential, he’s shown middle-of-the-order upside at his best. Sanó has four 25-plus homer seasons on his résumé, including 34 longballs in just 105 games in 2019. The Twins signed him to a three-year, $30MM extension after that monster year.

That extension didn’t go as the club envisioned. Sanó’s longstanding strikeout concerns peaked in 2020, when he reached base at just a .278 clip while going down on strikes almost 44% of the time. He rebounded with a 30-homer season in 2021, albeit with a slightly below-average .312 OBP. Sanó’s last season in the Twin Cities was a disaster, as a pair of right knee injuries limited to just 20 games and 71 plate appearances of .083/.211/.133 hitting. He didn’t play after July 29.

It’s clearly not the manner in which the former All-Star envisioned testing the open market for the first time. He’s a bounceback target for teams seeking to bolster their first base depth. He’ll be limited to a low base salary on a big league deal at best and it doesn’t seem out of the question he may need to accept a minor league contract with a non-roster Spring Training invite.

Sanó turns 30 in May and has a career .234/.326/.482 line over parts of eight MLB campaigns. An extreme three-true-outcomes hitter, he’s walked at a quality 11.6% clip and struck out at a massive 36.4% rate while averaging 34 homers per 600 plate appearances (roughly the equivalent of one season of playing time).

Sanó is one of a handful of buy-low first basemen still lingering on the market. Former AL batting champ Yuli Gurriel and MLB home run king Luke Voit are also looking for bounceback opportunities after disappointing 2022 showings, while multi-positional players like Mike Moustakas and Donovan Solano also have ample first base experience.

Mets Sign DJ Stewart To Minor League Contract

By | at

The Mets announced a number of non-roster Spring Training invitations this evening. Among those included was corner outfielder DJ Stewart, indicating he’s signed a minor league contract with the club.

Stewart joins the second organization of his career. A first-round selection of the Orioles in 2015, he hit well in the minors and reached the big leagues roughly three years after being drafted. Stewart appeared in parts of five seasons with the O’s, working mostly as a role playing left-handed bat in the outfield rotation. He played in 100 games and tallied 318 plate appearances in 2021 but otherwise didn’t top 44 MLB contests in any season.

Altogether, Stewart has taken 622 trips to the dish at the big league level. In a bit more than one season’s worth of playing time, he’s hit 26 home runs and walked at an excellent 13.2% clip. That’s been largely offset by a higher than average 26.8% strikeout percentage and a modest .256 batting average on balls in play. Overall, he owns a .213/.327/.400 line against MLB pitching. He has rated as a below-average defender in both left and right field.

Baltimore outrighted the 29-year-old off their 40-man roster last April after he’d tallied just three big league plate appearances on the season. He was on and off the minor league injured list throughout the remainder of the year, only getting into 29 games for Triple-A Norfolk. He hit .256/.390/.488 in limited action for the Tides, bringing his career Triple-A mark up to .255/.358/.449 in a little under 900 plate appearances.

Stewart brings a patient plate approach and some power upside to the Mets’ organization. He joins Tim Locastro, Abraham Almonte and former Reds’ farmhand Lorenzo Cedrola among non-roster outfielders who’ll be in big league camp. If Stewart gets to the 40-man roster at any point, the Mets could bounce him between Flushing and Triple-A Syracuse for the rest of the season by virtue of his remaining minor league option year.

Angels Have Shown Interest In Elvis Andrus, Michael Wacha, Gary Sánchez

By | at

The Angels didn’t make any earth-shattering moves this offseason but have nonetheless been busy adding complementary pieces to their squad. They’ve signed utility player Brandon Drury, left-hander Tyler Anderson, righty Carlos Estévez and outfielder Brett Phillips, in addition to trading for infielder Gio Urshela and outfielder Hunter Renfroe. With just over a week until Spring Training, it seems they are still not done, with Jon Heyman of The New York Post reporting they’ve been in touch on Elvis Andrus, Michael Wacha, Gary Sánchez, Andrew Chafin and Zack Britton.

The interest in Britton was reported last week but those four other names show that the club is casting a wide net in its continued search for upgrades to the roster. The interest in Chafin makes plenty of sense since he and Britton are both left-handed relievers. They are in very different positions as free agents, however, with Britton coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons that followed a lengthy run as one of the best relievers in the league.

Chafin, on the other hand, has been fairly consistent for a few years and has been even better recently. Even though he had a rough showing in the shortened 2020 campaign, he’s still posted a 3.05 ERA over the past six seasons. Isolating that to just 2021 and 2022, his ERA was 2.29 with a 25.7% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 47.9% ground ball rate. Either of those two, or any of the other southpaw relievers still available, would be a logical addition for an Angels club that currently has 35-year-old Aaron Loup as its best option in that department. Loup posted a ridiculous 0.95 ERA with the Mets in 2021 but saw that number jump to 3.84 last year. The interest in those pitchers seems to be wide, however, with at least 10 teams seemingly in the running.

Andrus, 34, is a veteran shortstop who has appeared in each of the past 14 seasons. Generally considered to be a strong defender and baserunner, his bat has been inconsistent, though he’s coming off a strong platform in that regard. From 2018 to 2021, he hit just .255/.302/.360 for a wRC+ of 74, but he launched 17 home runs last year and slashed .249/.303/.404 for a wRC+ of 105. When combined with his glovework and 18 steals, he was worth 3.5 wins above replacement on the season. His market has been fairly quiet so far, with the Red Sox the only other club connected to him this offseason.

The Angels don’t really have a clear shortstop at the moment, with David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo and Urshela potential options there. All three of them have spent more time at other positions so far in their careers. Fletcher would be the strongest defensive option of that bunch, having received strong grades from advanced metrics. However, he’s generally fared poorly at the plate, outside of the shortened 2020 season. His career batting line is currently .278/.324/.360, wRC+ of 87. Rengifo and Urshela were both above average at the plate last year but got poor marks for their work at short. If Andrus were brought in, he could firm up the position and bump those guys into spending more time at second or the corners. Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh should take third and first base, respectively, but both are question marks after injury-marred seasons. Having Urshela, Fletcher, Rengifo and Drury on the roster for one second base job and bench roles would be crowded, but any one player going to the IL would quickly free up some opportunities, and some of them are capable of playing the outfield as well.

Wacha, 31, is considered by many to be the top starting pitcher still unsigned based on his strong 2022 season, but his work prior to that season is mixed. With the Red Sox last year, he posted a 3.32 ERA over 127 1/3 innings, striking out just 20.2% of opponents but keeping his walks down to a 6% rate. He made multiple trips to the injured list on the year, however, which is likely a concern for interested clubs. He hasn’t hit the 130-inning mark since 2017 and has seen his results oscillate wildly since then. He had a 3.20 ERA in 2018 but made only 15 starts that year. That was followed by ERAs of 4.76, 6.62 and 5.05 over the next three years before the solid 2022 campaign.

That shakiness aside, there is a fit with the Halos. The club currently has five solid rotations options in Shohei Ohtani, Anderson, Reid Detmers, José Suarez and Patrick Sandoval. However, they have generally used a six-man rotation with Ohtani around, in order to limit his overall workload with him also playing in the lineup almost every day. That arrangement could suit Wacha well, since he hasn’t been able to stay healthy over a full season in recent years. He’s reportedly looking for a two-year deal and has also been connected to the Orioles and Twins, though that was before those clubs acquired Cole Irvin and Pablo López, respectively.

Sánchez, 30, had an extreme profile early on his career, tearing the cover off the ball but not getting great reviews for his glovework. Those extremes have been sanded down in recent years, as his work at the plate has cooled but his defense has seemingly been less concerning of late. With the Twins last year, he hit .205/.282/.377 for a wRC+ of 89, was considered above average by Defensive Runs Saved and got positive marks for his framing from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. He was connected to the Giants at one point this offseason but that was before they agreed to terms with Roberto Pérez.

The club has a couple of catching options in Max Stassi and Logan O’Hoppe. However, they were connected to Willson Contreras earlier this winter and seem open to bolstering that area of the roster. Stassi was great in 2020 and 2021 but is coming off a down season at the plate where he hit just .180/.267/.303. O’Hoppe is a highly-touted prospect that came over to the club in the Brandon Marsh trade. He had an excellent year but has played just five major league games and none in Triple-A yet. It’s possible he just hits the ground running this year but it wouldn’t hurt to have another option since not all prospects immediately click at the big league level.

Financially, the club is in record territory but it doesn’t seem as though they’re maxed out. Their previous high for an Opening Day payroll was last year’s $189MM figure, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They’re currently around $206MM for the upcoming campaign, per Roster Resource, with a competitive balance tax figure of $220MM. That latter number is somewhat close to the lowest tax threshold of $233MM, though general manager Perry Minasian has said there’s no mandate from ownership to stay under that line.

It’s unlikely that the Angels will ultimately land all or even multiple members of this group, but there’s logic to the varied approach. The club already has star players in Mike Trout, Ohtani and, if healthy, Rendon. What they have lacked in recent years is strong depth to cover for injuries or underperformance elsewhere on the roster. It seems the club has some awareness of that fact and is setting its sights on packing the roster with various quality players so that cavities don’t develop throughout the year. Speaking of Rendon, Heyman reports that he’s feeling fantastic. He was excellent for the Angels in 2020, the first year of his deal with the club. He hit .286/.418/.497 for a wRC+ of 152. However, injuries have limited him to just 102 games combined over the past couple of seasons, with diminished production when on the field. If his health cooperates, he could be a difference maker for the club this year, but it also seems like they’re planning to have plenty of fallback options around the roster. It will be an interesting season for the Angels since it’s the last year before Ohtani is slated to reach free agency, with fans of many rival clubs hoping that he’s available at the trade deadline. For now though, it seems like the club is still committed to putting together a strong team and avoiding that path.

Sorting Through The Orioles’ Rotation Options

By | at

The Orioles headed into the winter intent on adding a pair of veterans to the rotation, and while there was a substantial layoff between their first and second additions, with Kyle Gibson signing a one-year deal back on Dec. 5 and Cole Irvin not joining the staff until last Friday’s trade. That gives the O’s a pair of veterans who are plenty capable of eating up innings while still also leaving a fairly wide-open window for several younger arms to pitch their way into the team’s plans.

In all likelihood, the Orioles will wind up using ten or more starters over the course of the season. It’s commonplace for teams to cycle through far more than the five (or six) members of the Opening Day rotation — particularly younger teams like Baltimore, where the rotation will be composed primarily of yet-unproven starters and/or prospects whose workloads will be handled with care.

Locks

Kyle Gibson, RHP: Whether by design or by happenstance, the decision to bring in Gibson over 2022 staff innings leader Jordan Lyles wound up being a cost-neutral gambit, which will lead to inevitable comparisons between the two. The Orioles bought Lyles’ $11MM club option out for $1MM, then turned around and invested the exact same $10MM they saved into a one-year deal with Gibson.

The 35-year-old Gibson, like Lyles, is a workhorse by today’s standards. He’s averaged 29.875 starts per 162-game season, dating back to 2014, and made a full slate of 12 starts in the shortened 2020 season. He has a below-average strikeout rate with solid command and above-average ground-ball tendencies. The O’s are going to count on him for 30-plus starts and 160-plus innings, although if they’re not in contention when the trade deadline rolls around, it’s easy to see them putting Gibson on the market.

Cole Irvin, LHP: For the second time in as many weeks, I’m listing Irvin as a “lock” in a team’s rotation while profiling their various options on the back end of the staff. As noted on that rundown of the A’s rotation, there was always a chance that Irvin could be moved, though a midseason deal felt likelier. The O’s instead jumped to add Irvin as a durable source of innings.

Over the past two seasons, he’s made 62 starts of 4.11 ERA ball with a well below-average 16.8% strikeout rate but a superb 5.2% walk rate as a member of Oakland’s rotation. That’ll be the type of production they’re looking for not just this year but for the next several seasons. Irvin is controlled for another four years and won’t even be arbitration-eligible until next offseason.

There’s some risk in acquiring Irvin, who’s had far more success at the spacious Oakland Coliseum than on the road. Dating back to Opening Day 2021, the lefty owns a 3.44 ERA pitching in Oakland, where opponents have batted just .243/.288/.355 against him in nearly 800 plate appearances. In that same timeframe, Irvin’s road ERA is a more alarming 4.88, and opponents have pounced on him for a .285/.330/.491 slash. The O’s recently made their left field dimensions quite a bit more pitcher-friendly, but Irvin will still be facing some righty-heavy lineups within the AL East.

Pitchers who made 15+ starts in 2022

Dean Kremer, RHP: Kremer, 27, finished second on the Orioles with 125 1/3 innings pitched and notched a tidy 3.23 ERA last season despite a tepid 17% strikeout rate. Kremer, acquired from the Dodgers in the Manny Machado trade, doesn’t miss bats or keep the ball on the ground, but he has a better-than-average walk rate. Any regression in his 0.79 HR/9 mark or his 77.8% left-on-base rate — he entered the season at 2.12 and 65.1%, respectively — could spike his ERA closer to his 4.54 SIERA. That said, Kremer at least looks the part of a back-of-the-rotation arm. And, now that he’s poised to take on a larger workload, he should at least be a decent source of average-ish innings.

Kyle Bradish, RHP: One of four minor leaguers acquired in the trade sending Dylan Bundy to the Angels, Bradish ranked third on the 2022 O’s with 117 2/3 innings pitched. He missed more bats and generated more grounders than Kremer but was also more prone to both walks and home runs. Bradish’s 4.90 ERA isn’t much to look at, but while fielding-independent metrics feel Kremer had some good fortune in ’22, the opposite is true of Bradish, whose FIP, SIERA, etc. are all quite a bit lower than his earned run average. Both pitchers seem capable of turning in an ERA in the low- or mid-4.00s over 150-plus innings.

Spenser Watkins, RHP: A former 30th-round pick by the Tigers, Watkins signed with the O’s as a minor league free agent in Jan. 2021 and debuted as a 29-year-old rookie later that season. He tallied 105 1/3 innings for the 2022 Orioles, posting a 4.70 ERA along the way. Among the 156 pitchers with at least 150 innings thrown since 2021, no one has posted a lower strikeout rate than Watkins’ 13.7%. His 7.9% swinging-strike rate is fifth-lowest among that group. Watkins has good command and has posted solid numbers in Triple-A over the past two seasons, but he feels like more of a depth option based on his big league work to date.

Tyler Wells, RHP: Baltimore’s most effective starter for much of the 2022 season, Wells carried a 3.09 ERA through his first 16 starts but needed a .225 average on balls in play to get there. That minimal BABIP and a 16.7% strikeout rate made the ERA look fairly dubious, and Wells indeed struggled mightily over his final few starts of the season. It should be noted that he missed more than a month due to a side injury and landed back on the shelf due to shoulder trouble to close out the year, but he nonetheless yielded a 7.39 ERA over his final 28 innings (seven starts). None of Wells, Kremer or Bradish miss bats at a particularly high level, nor do they possess elite command or ground-ball tendencies. They each have some appealing traits, however, and any of this trio could be a viable fourth/fifth starter.

Austin Voth, RHP: Continuing on that trend, Voth is another fly-ball pitcher with passable but not eye-catching strikeout and walk numbers. Claimed off waivers from the Nationals in early June, Voth made 17 starts and five relief appearances, pitching to a 3.04 ERA in that time. He’s not going to keep stranding 82% of the baserunners he allows — that’s 10 percentage points above the league average and above Voth’s career mark prior to 2022 — but he has the makings of a back-end starter, as he’s shown on occasion with the Nats in the past. Voth is out of minor league options, so he’s going to be on the roster either as a starter or as a swingman.

The Top Prospects

Grayson Rodriguez, RHP: The arm on which so many Orioles fans are pinning their hopes, the 23-year-old Rodriguez might have already made his big league debut were it not for a lat strain that sidelined him for half the 2022 season. Rodriguez, selected with the No. 11 pick of the 2018 draft, ranks among the sport’s top 15 overall prospects at each of Baseball America (6), MLB.com (7), ESPN (12) and The Athletic (15). A 6’5″, 220-pound righty armed with a four-pitch mix that’s headlined by an upper-90s heater and elite changeup, Rodriguez has genuine front-of-the-rotation potential.

Rodriguez is regarded as one of the sport’s five best pitching prospects, and now that the new CBA actually reward teams for promoting prospects via potential draft compensation based on Rookie of the Year voting, Rodriguez will have a legitimate chance to make the Opening Day rotation. The O’s may want to be cautious, as that lat strain limited him to just 75 2/3 innings in 2022 and a jump to a full season of MLB starts would probably more than double that total. Rodriguez might be the organization’s best starter right now, even though he hasn’t made his MLB debut. He posted a combined 2.62 ERA across three minor league levels and did so with a mammoth 36.6% strikeout rate against a 9.3% walk rate. He’s going to make his MLB debut in 2023 — it’s just a matter of when.

DL Hall, LHP: Unlike Rodriguez, Hall has already made his debut at the MLB level, although it didn’t go as the team had hoped. The former No. 21 overall pick pitched in 11 games — 10 of them relief appearances — but was tagged for nine runs on 17 hits and six walks. The resulting 5.93 ERA wasn’t particularly encouraging, but Hall fanned 19 opponents (29.7%) and issued walks at a lower clip in the Majors than he had in Triple-A (9.4% versus 14.2%).

Command issues have long been the primary flaw scouts see in Hall — a 6’2″ lefty with a heater that averaged 96.4 mph during that MLB debut and multiple plus or better secondary pitches. Baseball America pegs Hall’s fastball as an 80 on the 20-80 scale, while also crediting him with a plus-plus slider, a plus curve and a plus changeup. Unfortunately, all of that is accompanied by well below-average command. Hall has walked 13.4% of his opponents in the minors, and in his 18 minor league starts this past season, he completed six innings just once. Some of that is the Orioles being cautious with an arm they hold in high regard, but Hall averaged 75 pitches per outing despite averaging under four innings per start. Certainly, he could stand to be more efficient.

Last year’s 98 innings were a career-high for Hall, who’s also missed ample time due to injury in his pro career. Between the lack of innings and the shaky command, many scouting reports feel he’s likelier to be a dynamic reliever than a starter, but the O’s will likely give him some considerable leash as a starter because the ceiling is so high.

Other options on the 40-man

Mike Baumann, RHP: The 27-year-old Baumann was one of the organization’s best pitching prospects as recently as two years ago, but a flexor strain cost him time and he hasn’t topped 100 innings in either of the past two seasons. The O’s have begun working Baumann out of the bullpen more frequently, and given the number of rotation options the organization has, that could be a better path to the big leagues for him. There’s benefit to keeping him stretched out as a starter, of course, but Baumann made just 13 starts to 20 relief appearances last year.

Bruce Zimmermann, LHP: A local product the O’s acquired in the trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Braves back in 2018, Zimmermann has pitched in parts of three seasons for the O’s but never posted an ERA south of 5.00. In 145 MLB frames, he carries a 5.69 ERA (5.78 FIP, 4.43 SIERA) with a low 17.6% strikeout rate but a strong 5.7% walk rate. Zimmermann has averaged just 91.3 mph on his heater, and opponents have teed off on both that pitch and his changeup, clubbing an average of 2.23 homers per nine innings against the southpaw. Zimmermann still has a pair of option years remaining and has been good in Triple-A over the past two seasons, but he needs to find a way to curtail his issues with the long ball.

Drew Rom, LHP: The O’s selected Rom to the 40-man roster back in November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. The 2018 fourth-rounder split the 2022 season between Double-A and Triple-A, logging a combined 4.43 ERA with a 27.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and solid ground-ball tendencies. He’s not an overpowering lefty, but he’s pretty close to big league ready and the O’s clearly felt he’d have been poached in the Rule 5 had he gone unprotected. There are a lot of candidates for innings in Baltimore, but he’ll be in the mix to debut this year.

Recovering from injury

John Means, LHP: Baltimore’s best starter from 2019-21, Means logged a 3.73 ERA in 345 1/3 innings during that time and was named the Orioles’ Opening Day starter in 2022. He made just two starts last year before an elbow injury shelved him, however, and Means underwent Tommy John surgery in late April. That’ll take him out of the equation early in the year, but the O’s can hope for Means to return at some point over the summer. He only has two years of club control remaining.

—

As things stand, the Orioles have two veteran locks (Gibson, Irvin), a series of righties who achieved solid results despite middling K/BB and batted-ball profiles in 2022 (Kremer, Bradish, Wells, Voth) and a pair electric prospects (Rodriguez, Hall) — the former of which is arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball.

It’s a promising group, but the O’s will need to convert on Rodriguez and either see Hall improve his command or another young arm (e.g. Cade Povich) take a pronounced step forward in 2023. Baltimore’s system is rife with high-end bats but less stocked with arms. A rotation featuring Rodriguez (assuming he hits the ground running) and a host of No. 4 types is enough to compete, but it’s still a bit surprising that the team didn’t land a higher-profile arm this winter in an effort to bolster the starting staff. Perhaps the O’s are confident that an incumbent arm is on the cusp of a breakout, but right now Baltimore’s lineup looks more formidable than its rotation.

Friedman: Dodgers Won’t Trade From Roster To Avoid Luxury Tax

By | at

The Dodgers have had a quieter offseason than in recent years, limiting their acquisitions primarily to veterans on short-term deals so far. Many had speculated that the club was planning to dip under the competitive balance tax threshold in order to avoid paying the tax for a third year in a row and enter 2024 as a “first-time” payor. If they had any designs on that kind of approach, they largely went out the window when Trevor Bauer’s suspension was reduced, putting $22.5MM back onto their ledger.

That led some people to wonder if the club would then pivot to trading some salaried player to reduce their tax number, but Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has denied that will be a consideration. “No,” Friedman responded to the suggestion, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. “We’re doing all we can to win a championship this year.”

Roster Resource currently calculates the club’s CBT number at $238MM, just $5MM over the $233MM threshold. Trading some salary to dip back under could be theoretically possible, though it would come with challenges. Blake Treinen is a name that has been speculatively floated by some as a candidate for such a trade, given his $8MM salary this year. However, he underwent shoulder surgery in November with an estimated 10-month recovery time. The Dodgers would have to include some kind of prospect to convince any team to take on that kind of money for a guy likely to miss the whole season. Others have floated Chris Taylor as a candidate for a salary-dumping deal, since he’s still owed $45MM over the next three years. But moving him now would be selling low after he had a subpar .221/.304/.373 showing last year. It would also subtract from an outfield that already appears to be somewhat thin. Even if the club did pull off some kind of move to limbo under the line, they would then be handcuffed by what moves they could make during the season, as making a notable deadline deal could get them right back over again.

Though they apparently aren’t going to avoid the tax this year, they have still kept their moves modest this winter. They’ve signed some veterans to one-year deals in Clayton Kershaw, J.D. Martinez, Noah Syndergaard and Shelby Miller, as well as acquiring Miguel Rojas from the Marlins, who has just one year remaining on his deal. Regardless of the financials involved, it seems the club is hoping for their prospect pipeline to feed their big league roster in a significant way this winter, with names like Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney having departed via free agency.

James Outman has just four big league games under his belt but could potentially get a significant run in the outfield this year. Miguel Vargas has played 18 major league games but could be the club’s everyday second baseman if he’s playing well and Gavin Lux is successful in moving over to shortstop. Infield/outfield prospect Michael Busch has yet to make his debut but reached Triple-A last year and could push himself into the picture. Outfield prospect Andy Pages hasn’t made it to the big leagues yet either but spent all of last year at Double-A and should be on the cusp this season.

The club’s rotation seems in solid shape with Kershaw and Syndergaard joined by Julio Urías, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May. Of course, pitcher injuries are inevitable and a path will eventually open up for prospects here as well. Ryan Pepiot has already made his major league debut, getting into nine games last year. He’s a bit ahead of Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone, who aren’t on the 40-man yet, though they each reached Triple-A last year and could have roster spots before long.

That tempered offseason means the club is just barely over the CBT line, but they will still be facing a steep tax rate. Since they also paid the tax in 2021 and 2022, they will be considered a third-time payor this year if they stay over. That means they will be paying a 50% tax on all spending over that threshold and that rate jumps to 62% if they eventually get above the $253MM line. Currently, that only amounts to paying about $2.5MM in taxes, but the final tally will depend on how the rest of the year plays out.

Though resetting their tax status doesn’t seem to be in the cards this year, it’s possible that the opportunity will arise again after the upcoming season. Since their additions have been limited to veterans who will reach free agency in November, there’s a decent amount of money coming off the books later this year. Kershaw, Martinez, Syndergaard, Miller, Rojas and Urías are all slated to hit the open market. The club has an option for Treinen for 2024 with the value falling somewhere between $1MM and $7MM based on his health and other factors. Since he’s going to miss most or all of the upcoming season, it will likely be on the cheap end of that spectrum. Then there’s Bauer’s deal, which will be off the books as well since 2022 is the last year of his contract. Max Muncy and Daniel Hudson have club options for 2024, though at reasonable salary numbers that seem likely to be triggered if they’re healthy.

That will give the club plenty of payroll flexibility next year but will also create roster holes. How much work the club has to do next winter will depend on how many of those gaps can be filled internally. The departures of Kershaw and Urias will be a blow to the rotation, but Walker Buehler will return from his August 2022 Tommy John surgery at some point and perhaps one of the prospects grabs hold of a job. Martinez and Rojas will be subtracted from the position player side of things, but maybe one of the youngsters emerges there as well. It will make 2023 an interesting season to watch, both for the season itself and its future implications, which will be followed by an offseason where the top available free agent could be Shohei Ohtani.

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

hide arrows scroll to top