Latest On Orioles’ Ownership, Lease Situations
One of yesterday’s top stories was a Bloomberg report that private equity mogul David Rubenstein had been in contact with the Angelos family about purchasing some portion of the Orioles. It comes at a time of ongoing uncertainty about the franchise’s lease at Camden Yards, which runs through December 31.
In late September, the Orioles and the Maryland governor’s office jointly announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding that would, if approved, extend the Camden Yards lease by 30 years. As part of that framework, the O’s would receive a 99-year development rights agreement to build around the stadium with visions of a ballpark village.
That latter aspect has found some pushback in the state legislature. Rubenstein’s reported discussions about the franchise only made the situation more complex. State senator Bill Ferguson released a statement on Friday afternoon expressing opposition to the memorandum.
“Fundamentally, I believe that the long-term lease for the use of the ballpark should not be conditioned on whether or not a private owner receives a 99-year ground lease to develop land owned by Maryland taxpayers. This is more relevant today, as recent news has heightened uncertainties about the future ownership of the team,” Ferguson said (via the Associated Press).
Jeff Barker, Hayes Gardner and Emily Opilo of the Baltimore Sun write that while the governor’s office and the Orioles had reached a tentative 30-year lease agreement, the governor has put that on hold in response to Ferguson’s comments. According to the Sun, the governor’s office had been briefing elected officials about the framework of the lease agreement as recently as this morning. Once Ferguson made his statement in the afternoon, the governor’s office reversed course and halted the deal. Neither the governor nor the Orioles made any public announcement.
Whether Ferguson would have intervened if not for the reported discussions between Rubenstein and the Angelos family isn’t clear. (The Sun notes that Ferguson had expressed opposition to giving the O’s land development rights as far as back as August.) Still, it seems the Bloomberg report played some role in the renewed opposition. Andy Kostka and Pamela Wood of The Baltimore Banner write that Ferguson’s concerns were heightened by the possibility of an ownership change.
To that end, the Angelos family has sought to downplay that possibility. Kostka and Wood report that O’s chairman John Angelos spoke with Maryland governor Wes Moore on Thursday night and reassured him the family had no plans to sell a majority stake in the franchise. The Sun observes that the Angelos family would be subject to notable capital gains taxes if they sell while longtime owner Peter Angelos, 94, remains alive.
The respective reports from The Sun and The Banner contain myriad details about the lease framework that seemed to be in place before the governor’s office’s change of heart. Next steps aren’t entirely clear, but it stands to reason the sides will act quickly to try to modify the agreement to overcome the legislature’s objections before year’s end.
Tigers Sign Anthony Bemboom, Brenan Hanifee To Minor League Deals
The Tigers have agreed to minor league contracts with catcher Anthony Bemboom and right-hander Brenan Hanifee. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported (on X) the Bemboom deal, while Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press reported Hanifee’s signing. Both players will be in camp as non-roster invitees.
Bemboom has spent the past two seasons as a depth catcher with the Orioles. He played in 22 games two seasons back but only got into six contests this summer. The left-handed hitter saw most of his action in Triple-A, where he had a league average .288/.365/.417 batting line through 148 trips to the plate.
The Creighton product has appeared at the big league level in each of the last five years. Bemboom has suited up with the Angels, Rays and Orioles and hit .161/.236/.260 over 82 MLB contests. He has a more impressive .252/.343/.395 slash through parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level. Bemboom will turn 34 before Opening Day.
Hanifee, 25, made his MLB debut with three outings for the Tigers in September. He worked five innings of three-run ball. A minor league signee going into 2023, he’d pitched in a swing capacity at Triple-A Toledo. Hanifee posted a 4.38 ERA with a modest 20.5% strikeout rate while demonstrating strong control over 90 1/3 innings for the Mud Hens. Detroit non-tendered him at the start of the offseason. He returns to the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot, which he’ll work to reclaim next spring.
Felix Pena Re-Signs With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles
The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization have re-signed righty Félix Peña (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). The former big leaguer will collect a $200K signing bonus and a $650K salary with an additional $200K available in incentives.
Peña has spent a year and a half in Korea. He first signed with the Eagles midway through the 2022 campaign. After posting a 3.72 ERA down the stretch, he re-signed on an $850K guarantee last winter. Peña was a durable rotation piece for the Eagles, taking the ball 32 times and tossing 177 1/3 innings. He worked to a 3.60 ERA despite a middling 19.6% strikeout rate.
The 6’2″ righty pitched for the Cubs and Angels over an MLB career that spanned 2016-21. His best season came with the Halos in 2018, when he turned in a 4.18 ERA over 92 2/3 innings. Peña has allowed 4.66 earned runs per nine over his 260 2/3 career big league frames. He’ll turn 34 in February.
Giants Agree To Deals With Daulton Jefferies, Yoshi Tsutsugo
Daulton Jefferies is in agreement on a deal with the Giants, the right-hander announced this morning. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle confirms it’s a minor league pact with an invitation to Spring Training. Additionally, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo has agreed to terms with San Francisco (X link). It seems fair to presume that’s also a minor league deal with a non-roster invite.
Jefferies sticks in the Bay Area. A Berkeley product, he was selected by the A’s with the 37th pick of the 2016 draft. Jefferies made his big league debut with one appearance in 2020. He pitched five times the following season and on eight occasions in 2022. In 14 career outings (10 starts), he has worked to a 5.75 ERA through 56 1/3 frames. He has a middling 15.2% strikeout rate while walking fewer than 6% of opponents.
The 28-year-old has lost most of the last two seasons to injury. He underwent thoracic outlet surgery in June 2022 before requiring a Tommy John procedure that September. Oakland ran him through waivers and off the 40-man roster last offseason. Jefferies missed all of last season and elected minor league free agency at year’s end. He’ll get a look in camp with former Oakland skipper Bob Melvin. Jefferies still has an option remaining, so the Giants could freely send him to Triple-A even if he earns a 40-man roster spot.
Tsutsugo, who recently turned 32, spent time in the San Francisco system this year. He signed with the Giants out of independent ball in August, playing in 17 games between Double-A and Triple-A. Tsutsugo, who hit .197/.291/.339 over 640 big league plate appearances from 2020-22, had posted a .249/.380/.432 line with Texas’ top minor league affiliate in the first half of last season.
Royals Exploring Pitching Market, Have Interest In Seth Lugo
The Royals have been “aggressive” in their search for rotation help this offseason and made an offer to right-hander Sonny Gray before he signed with the Cardinals, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Rosenthal further writes that the Royals are among the teams showing strong interest in right-hander Seth Lugo, who’s drawn widespread interest this winter.
Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo has made no secret about his desire to add to his rotation, plainly stating early in the offseason that “one of our goals is to get starting pitching.” The Royals need at least one arm and could well look to add multiple pieces to the rotation between now and Opening Day. The Royals got a breakout showing from Cole Ragans after acquiring him from the Rangers in exchange for Aroldis Chapman this past summer, and right-hander Brady Singer is likely locked into a rotation spot even after an up-and-down year (and, more broadly, up-and-down big league tenure in terms of performance). Beyond that, the Royals have veteran innings eater Jordan Lyles signed for next season and are surely still hopeful of getting some quality innings from former top prospects Kris Bubic (recovering from Tommy John surgery) and Daniel Lynch.
That said, the Royals have been hoping for the quartet of Singer, Lynch, Bubic and Jackson Kowar to eventually emerge at the MLB level for several seasons. That group comprised the nucleus of a vaunted 2018 crop of college arms around whom the Royals hoped to build, but their development hasn’t panned out. Singer had a brilliant 2022 season and took a step back in 2023. Bubic had Tommy John surgery early in 2023. Kowar has been twice traded this offseason and is now in the Mariners organization.
Rosenthal suggests that in their quest to find rotation upgrades, the Royals have been willing to talk about trades of former top catching/outfield prospect MJ Melendez, infielder Michael Massey and catcher Freddy Fermin. Melendez and Massey, however, are coming off dismal 2023 campaigns. The former is a .227/.314/.396 hitter in 1136 MLB plate appearances and has posted bottom-of-the-scale defensive grades both behind the plate and in the outfield corners. The latter got his first full-time look in ’23 but managed only a .229/.274/.381 slash with mixed defensive ratings (-9 Defensive Runs Saved, +3 Outs Above Average). Both players still have five seasons of remaining club control.
Fermin, meanwhile, looks to be a late-blooming option capable of handling a regular workload behind the dish, be it for the Royals or another club. He entered the 2023 season with just seven MLB plate appearances but wound up tallying 235 trips to the plate with a .281/.321/.461 output and nine home runs. Defensive Runs Saved credited Fermin at a hearty mark of +8, and both FanGraphs and Statcast credited him as an above average framer. Statcast also tabbed Fermin as league-average in terms of blocking balls in the dirt, and his 31% caught-stealing rate checked in 10 percentage points above the league average.
Age and lack of big league track record notwithstanding, there’s plenty of intrigue surrounding Fermin and his breakout rookie season. However, that also makes him quite valuable to a Royals club that has an aging Salvador Perez behind the plate. Perez’s defensive ratings have been in a freefall for the past few seasons, and his production at the plate has also begun to wane. The 33-year-old (34 in May) team captain still smacked 23 home runs last year, but his overall .255/.292/.422 batting line was his weakest since 2018. Perez still caught 91 games last year (against 29 at DH), but at some point the Royals could begin playing him more regularly at DH, which would open time for Fermin. Perez is still signed for another two years at a total of $44MM.
Since Rosenthal reports that Kansas City has spoken with the Marlins and Mariners about pitching-related trades, Miami might stand out as a logical team that could have interest in Fermin’s services. The Fish are in need of catching help, and seem to be open to the idea of dealing more pitching, after already parting ways with a decent chunk of their rotation depth in other trades over the last couple of years.
As for the team’s free-agent pursuits, Lugo is a sensible and logical target both due to his strong platform season and the fact that the Royals also reportedly had interest in him a year ago. After spending the bulk of his career as a reliever with the Mets, Lugo signed a two-year, $15MM deal with the Padres, who offered him a chance to start and even included an opt-out in the event that he showed well in a starting role.
That’s exactly how things played out. Lugo took the ball 26 times and posted a 3.57 ERA with a 23.2% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate in a career-high 146 1/3 innings. He’s already 34, but Lugo figures to command a much nicer multi-year deal this time around — perhaps reaching three years in length. That the length of his deal will likely be capped due to age should be appealing to the Royals, who typically operate on a tight budget but do have some spending flexibility this winter. Picollo has already said that his club should have at least $30MM to spend.
Diamondbacks Sign Eduardo Rodriguez To Four-Year Deal
After falling to the Rangers in the World Series, the upstart Diamondbacks have acted quickly and decisively to bolster their rotation. Arizona announced the signing of left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez to a four-year contract with a conditional option for 2028. It’s reportedly a four-year, $80MM guarantee for the Mato Sports Management client.
The deal is slightly backloaded, with Rodriguez making $14MM in the first year, followed by salaries of $20MM, $21MM and $19MM. He’s guaranteed a $6MM buyout on a mutual/vesting option for 2028. The option would vest at a $17MM salary if Rodriguez pitches 150 innings in 2027 or 300 innings between 2026-27. It would vest at $18MM if the southpaw gets to 175 innings in ’27 or 350 frames in ’26-’27. The option price can escalate based on Rodriguez’s Cy Young finishes, while the deal contains a 10-team n0-trade list.
For the reigning NL champions, Rodriguez provides a third playoff-caliber arm to pair with 2023 NL Cy Young award finalist Zac Gallen and veteran right-hander Merrill Kelly. Despite excellent performances from the club’s top two arms, who combined for a 3.39 ERA across 64 starts, the club’s overall rotation ranked just 21st in the majors last season with a 4.67 ERA. That’s thanks to a dearth of quality options behind Gallen and Kelly. Arizona relied on the likes of Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson, and Zach Davies in the rotation for much of the year, each of whom posted ERAs north of 5.00 — though Pfaadt had a solid finish and was excellent during the postseason.
Adding Rodriguez to the mix should help the club’s run prevention efforts considerably. The 30-year-old southpaw enjoyed a career year in 2023 as a member of the Tigers, finishing the season with a 3.30 ERA and 3.66 FIP across 152 2/3 innings of work while striking out 23% of batters faced against a walk rate of just 7.7%. Those strong overall numbers on the season well may have been even stronger had Rodriguez managed to stay healthy all season, as the lefty cruised to a 2.13 ERA and a 25.5% strikeout rate across his first eleven starts of the season.
Unfortunately, Rodriguez subsequently suffered a ruptured pulley tendon at the end of May that wound up sidelining him for the entire month of June. Upon returning in early July, Rodriguez struggled to match his excellent first half performance. The southpaw delivered decent results, with a 4.24 ERA and 4.08 FIP over his final 85 frames, though his strikeout rate dipped to just 21.2% while his walk rate climbed to 8.9%. Fortunately, Rodriguez bounced back down the stretch to post a solid 3.60 ERA in September. Assuming the left-hander is fully healthy entering the 2024 campaign, he would be a strong addition to most any rotation in the majors.
Rodriguez’s strong platform campaign landed him the #11 spot on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, where we projected him for a four-year, $82MM deal. He’ll land right in that range, though Rodriguez managed to secure additional incentives that could raise the value of the contract further. While Rodriguez was the seventh-highest rated pitcher on our list, he actually edged out veteran right-hander and fifth-highest rated pitcher Sonny Gray‘s total guarantee with the Cardinals by $5MM. That being said, Gray’s contract comes with a substantially higher AAV.
The Diamondbacks have shown a willingness to operate at this level of the rotation market in the past. Setting aside the six-year, $206.5MM megadeal the club signed Zack Greinke to prior to the 2016 season, the largest free agent contract the Diamondbacks have offered to a pitcher was a five-year, $85MM contract for left-hander Madison Bumgarner. That contract proved to be a disaster for Arizona, as Bumgarner posted a 5.23 ERA and 5.17 FIP across 69 starts for the Diamondbacks over the life of the contract before being released early in the 2023 campaign despite remaining on the books for the 2024 season.
The deal pushes Arizona’s payroll into uncharted territory, with RosterResource projecting the club’s 2024 payroll at $114MM prior to the addition of Rodriguez. Factoring in the club’s new addition, they Diamondbacks are on the hook for $134MM in salary commitments for the 2024 campaign, just barely edging out the club’s all-time high payroll of $131MM back in 2018 (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts). The Diamondbacks have made no public indications about their financial limits this offseason, so it’s unclear how much more room, if any, the club has to maneuver for future additions. If the club has more payroll space to work with, an additional rotation arm to shore up the back of the club’s rotation could make sense, as well as a right-handed hitter to slot in at DH. To that end, the club has recently been connected to Lucas Giolito, Seth Lugo, Justin Turner, and J.D. Martinez, though it’s unclear if the club’s interest in the aforementioned starters remains following the signing of Rodriguez.
Jon Morosi of MLB.com first reported that the D-backs were a finalist to sign Rodriguez. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides had agreed to a four-year deal worth around $20MM annually. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal broke the exact guarantee and value of the vesting option. Robert Murray of FanSided was first with the specific salary structure and vesting provisions.
White Sox Outright Edgar Navarro
The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Edgar Navarro, with Scott Merkin of MLB.com among those to relay the news. The 40-man roster is now at 39 though their deal with righty Erick Fedde has yet to be made official.
Navarro, 26 in February, just got his roster spot a few months ago, getting selected in July. He has thrown 8 2/3 innings in the majors thus far with a 7.27 earned run average in that small sample.
The righty was something of a late bloomer, signing as an international amateur out of Venezuela at the age of 20, whereas most amateurs out of Latin American sign at age 16. Since then, he has been pitching in the minors, getting plenty of ground balls but also dealing with control issues. He has kept at least 45.5% of balls in play on the ground in every stop of his career but has also walked 13% of minor leaguers he’s faced overall.
Since he was outrighted, that means he passed through waivers unclaimed. He will stick with the White Sox as a bit of non-roster depth and try to earn his way back to the majors in 2024.
Rays Acquire Jake Mangum As PTBNL From Bruján/Faucher Trade
The Rays announced that they have acquired outfielder Jake Mangum as the PTBNL in last month’s deal that sent infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján and right-hander Calvin Faucher to the Marlins. The Rays received minor league infielder Erick Lara, right-hander Andrew Lindsey and a player to be named later, which is now revealed to be Mangum. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reported the transaction shortly before the official announcement.
Remarkably, Mangum was also a PTBNL in a deal almost exactly one year ago. On December 7 of 2022, it was reported that he would go from the Mets to the Marlins as the PTBNL in the deal that sent Elieser Hernández and Jeff Brigham to Queens.
He spent 2023 in Triple-A, getting into 119 games at that level. He only struck out in 17.7% of his plate appearances but also only drew walks at a 5.4% clip and hit just five home runs. His .298/.346/.425 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 93. But Mangum is considered a plus defender and baserunner, stealing 16 bases on the year. His bat has also been in better shape before, such as hitting .306/.363/.441 in the minors in 2022 across multiple levels.
The Rays have a solid big league outfield at the moment but guys like Manuel Margot and Randy Arozarena have been in trade rumors this winter. Whether they subtract an outfielder or not, Mangum will give them an extra bit of non-roster depth.
Mets Sign Taylor Kohlwey To Minor League Deal
The Mets have signed outfielder Taylor Kohlwey to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training, the team announced Friday.
A 21st-round pick by the Padres back in 2016, Kohlwey made his big league debut this season and went 2-for-13 with a pair of singles. The 29-year-old has minimal big league experience but a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, evidenced by a career .296/.387/.444 slash in parts of four Triple-A seasons. Kohlwey has walked in 12.1% of his Triple-A plate appearances and fanned at a lower-than-average 17.5% rate.
He’s played primarily left field in his professional career but also has nearly 1800 innings in right field, more than 750 innings in center and more than 800 innings at first base. He marks yet another depth pickup for new president of baseball operations David Stearns, who’s been active in minor league free agency, on the waiver wire and with big league signings on the fringes of the Mets’ 40-man roster early in the offseason. The Mets have yet to make any major splashes under Stearns, though they’ve been connected to several of the top remaining free agent names — most notably NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Royals, Mariners Have Shown Trade Interest In Tyler O’Neill
The Cardinals have been exploring trade scenarios involving outfielder Tyler O’Neill — president of baseball operations John Mozeliak acknowledged as much at this week’s Winter Meetings — and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that the Royals and Mariners are two of the several teams who’ve spoken to the Cards about the 28-year-old O’Neill.
A two-time Gold Glove winner in left field, O’Neill had a monster 2021 season that netted him an eighth-place finish in National League MVP voting but has battled injuries throughout his career. He slashed .286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs. He walked at a below-average 7.1% clip and fanned at a lofty 31.3% rate, but it was an undeniably excellent campaign all around. The two seasons since have been decidedly less than that.
From 2022-23, O’Neill has appeared in just 168 games and totaled 649 plate appearances with a .229/.310/.397 slash. Along the way, he’s dealt with shoulder, hamstring, foot and back injuries. Staying on the field has been a problem throughout his big league tenure; since making his MLB debut back in 2018, O’Neill has been placed on the injured list on 12 different occasions, owing to a wide variety of ailments. He’s controlled for just one more year before becoming a free agent, and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects O’Neill to earn a reasonable $5.5MM salary this coming season.
The Cardinals have been seeking bullpen help on the trade market, and it stands to reason that even one year of O’Neill could land them that. Goold notes that they’re also open to packaging him in a larger deal to acquire a front-end rotation upgrade, though such a deal would be far harder to orchestrate. Excellent as O’Neill was in 2021, that was two years ago, and he’s now a one-year bounceback rental. He wouldn’t be a prominent factor in any package for a high-end starter.
As for the two reported suitors, both make some degree of sense. The Mariners could use a right-handed bat to replace free agent Teoscar Hernandez and Eugenio Suarez, whom they traded to the Diamondbacks earlier in the offseason. Whether O’Neill fits the Mariners’ stated preference of adding more contact to the lineup, however, is an open question. He fanned at 25.2% clip last year — far lower than the 30%-plus marks posted by both Suarez and Hernandez. However, O’Neill whiffed in more than 31% of his plate appearances in his best season and has a career 30% mark.
That said, Seattle’s interest is only natural, considering the Mariners are the team that selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft. That predates president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s time with the team — and it was Dipoto who traded O’Neill to St. Louis in exchange for Marco Gonzales — but there are some longtime holdovers who surely still view O’Neill in a favorable light.
In reporting on the Mariners’ interest in Jorge Soler this morning, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic suggested that the M’s might want to spread their remaining financial resources out among multiple targets. O’Neill would allow them to do that more than Soler, who’ll likely command a salary two to three times as large as O’Neill in free agency. Then again, it’s also possible the M’s could sign Soler to DH and acquire O’Neill to play left field in place of Jarred Kelenic, who was traded to the Braves earlier in the week. The Mariners’ payroll projection right now checks in under $120MM, and Dipoto has spoken on record about how payroll can increase over last year’s $140MM mark.
As for the Royals, they’re lacking in the way of any established big league outfielders. Royals outfielders combined for a lowly .228/.294/.393 batting line in 2023, with the resulting 84 wRC+ ranking 29th in the Majors. O’Neill fits the Royals’ longstanding preference for premium defensive players, and the upside of his 2021 season at the plate is the type of production that the budget-conscious Royals typically can’t afford to pursue in free agency.
At present, the Royals’ outfield mix consists of MJ Melendez, Drew Waters, Kyle Isbel, Edward Olivares and Nelson Velazquez. The latter of that quintet surely earned a full look in 2024 with a huge power showing following his acquisition from the Cubs at last year’s deadline, and Melendez has long been one of the organization’s top prospects. None from that bunch has had any sustained MLB success, however, and Melendez — also a catcher — grades out quite poorly from a defensive standpoint.
The Royals are known to be in the market for rotation help, but general manager J.J. Picollo also said earlier in the offseason that a bat who could hit somewhere from third to sixth in the middle of his order would be nice to add. A healthy O’Neill is absolutely that type of bat, and his projected salary fits comfortably within the $30MM+ that Picollo acknowledged he has to spend this winter.