Mike Clevinger Declines Option With White Sox
Mike Clevinger has declined his half of a $12MM mutual option on his deal with the White Sox, the team announced. He receives a $4MM buyout and qualifies for free agency. Chicago also confirmed their previously-reported decision to buy out righty Liam Hendriks.
Clevinger spent one season on Chicago’s south side. He inked a $12MM guarantee last winter, collecting an $8MM salary and the buyout. He worked to a 3.88 ERA over 12 starts before biceps inflammation sent him to the injured list on June 16. The injury cost him six weeks and, arguably more importantly, a chance to pitch his way into trade candidacy. Clevinger was only able to make one start between his reinstatement from the injured list and the deadline.
That left the Sox to retain him for the remainder of a noncompetitive season. Chicago attempted to offload Clevinger’s salary by placing him on waivers in August. He went unclaimed, presumably because no other team wanted to take on the option buyout. The right-hander had an excellent August before a middling September. He concluded the year with a 3.77 ERA across 131 1/3 innings. Clevinger struck out a slightly below-average 20% of opponents against a solid 7.3% walk rate.
Turning 33 in December, he has a good chance to land a multi-year contract this offseason. While a two-year deal seems likely, it’s not out of the question he finds a three-year pact. That made it a fairly easy call for his camp to pass on the net $8MM deal with Chicago.
The White Sox will need to add multiple starting pitchers this winter. Dylan Cease may be the only pitcher certain to occupy a spot in the Opening Day five. Michael Kopech figures to battle for a job, while Garrett Crochet has angled for a rotation opportunity. Jesse Scholtens and Touki Toussaint occupied back-end roles for the stretch run.
Guardians Select Johnathan Rodriguez
The Guardians announced they’ve selected outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez onto the 40-man roster. He lands a spot for the first time in his career.
Cleveland selected Rodriguez in the third round of the 2017 draft. A right-handed hitter out of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez moved slowly through the minors. He spent his first four-plus seasons at various rookie or A-ball levels. He reached Double-A late in 2022, struggling in his first 28 games there.
Rodriguez unsurprisingly went unselected in last winter’s Rule 5 draft. He put himself on the radar for a 40-man spot with a breakout year in his first full season at the upper levels. Rodriguez spent the bulk of the season at Double-A Akron, hitting .289/.364/.512 in 88 games. He continued that pace after a bump to Triple-A Columbus, where he ran a .280/.376/.560 slash. Overall, the 23-year-old (24 tomorrow) hit .286/.368/.529 with 29 home runs over 565 trips to the plate. While a 28.8% strikeout rate is an alarming figure, he hit for enough power and drew sufficient free passes to earn a 40-man spot.
The impetus for Cleveland is the looming minor league free agent period. Players who have spent parts of seven seasons in the minors will qualify for free agency on Monday unless they’re on a 40-man roster. Cleveland ensured they wouldn’t lose Rodriguez via that process. He has a full slate of option years and could still be sent back to Columbus for the foreseeable future. If he holds the 40-man spot all offseason, he’d have a good chance of making his MLB debut at some point next year.
Report: MLB Grants Yariel Rodriguez Free Agency
Right-handed pitcher Yariel Rodriguez has officially been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball, reports Francys Romero (X link). He is now free to sign with an MLB team.
Rodriguez became one of the more intriguing options on the pitching market when he was granted a release from his contract with NPB’s Chunichi Dragons a month ago. He has been conducting showcases for MLB clubs in the few weeks since but was barred from officially signing with a major league team until today. There’s nothing to suggest he’ll sign imminently, of course, but this removes the procedural hurdle he still needed to clear.
A native of Cuba, Rodriguez turns 27 in March. That’s atypically young for a free agent pitcher. He worked out of the bullpen over parts of three seasons with the Dragons. Rodriguez had a dominating showing in 2022, when he pitched to a 1.15 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate over 54 2/3 innings. He worked as a starter for his home country during the World Baseball Classic. Once that event concluded, Rodriguez decided not to report back to the Dragons. He sat out the remainder of the 2023 season — the team placed him on the restricted list — before his camp secured his release.
MLB teams figure to have differing evaluations on Rodriguez’s viability as a starter. He’s an intriguing arm with promising stuff and success at the second-highest level of professional baseball in the world. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported last month that the Rays were among 15 teams with scouts in attendance for one of Rodriguez’s recent workouts in the Dominican Republic. This afternoon, Romero listed (on X) 10 clubs that had shown interest in the hurler: the Astros, Yankees, Rangers, Pirates, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Phillies, White Sox, Mets and Giants.
Justin Turner Declines Player Option
The Red Sox announced a pair of option decisions Friday evening. Infielder Justin Turner has declined his $13.4MM player option in favor of a $6.7MM buyout. Meanwhile, the team declined its $11MM provision on right-hander Corey Kluber.
Turner signed with Boston last offseason. He inked a two-year, $21.7MM guarantee that always looked likely to send him back to the market after one season. Turner locked in an $8.3MM base salary, an extra $1MM in incentives, and the hefty buyout — which only required he’d top $6.7MM on his next contract to come out on top.
There’s no doubt he’ll beat that number after another strong season. The right-handed hitter posted a .276/.345/.455 line while connecting on 23 home runs over 626 plate appearances. The presence of Rafael Devers and Triston Casas at the infield corners consigned Turner primarily to designated hitter work. It raises questions about whether he could be an everyday third base option for another team as he enters his age-39 season.
Despite his age, there’s little doubt that Turner still projects as one of the better hitters in the class. He has topped 20 homers in two of the past three seasons, running a .277/.352/.455 slash since the start of 2021. Turner still has plus contact skills and good plate discipline.
The Kluber signing worked out a lot less favorably. Boston inked the two-time Cy Young winner to a $10MM guarantee. Kluber had turned in 164 innings with a 4.34 ERA for the Rays a season ago. His stint in Boston didn’t go well, as he was tagged for a 7.04 ERA through 55 frames. The right-hander struggled both during an early-season stint from the rotation and following a bullpen transfer in May.
Making matters worse, Kluber landed on the injured list on June 21 with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He suffered a setback a month later and never returned to the big league club, although he did pitch twice for Triple-A Worcester in September. There was never any chance the Sox were going to retain him for $11MM. Assuming he wants to continue playing, the 38-year-old could conduct some offseason showcases in hopes of finding a major league contract elsewhere.
White Sox Outright Trayce Thompson, Clint Frazier
The White Sox have sent outfielders Trayce Thompson and Clint Frazier through outright waivers, the team announced. They’re each eligible to elect free agency, although the club didn’t indicate if either player has yet done so. Both players would have qualified for arbitration and seemed easy non-tender decisions.
It is very likely that both will head back to the open market. Thompson, a former Sox draftee, rejoined the team midseason in the Lance Lynn/Joe Kelly deal with the Dodgers. He was on the injured list at the time. Chicago reinstated Thompson on August 3. He hit .171/.261/.232 with a massive 43.5% strikeout rate in 92 plate appearances.
Between the two clubs, he finished the year with a .163/.285/.294 showing while punching out 43% of the time. Thompson had been a key contributor for Los Angeles in the second half of 2022. He’d connected on 13 homers with a .268/.364/.537 slash in 74 games, albeit with a 36% strikeout rate.
Frazier signed a minor league deal with Chicago at the end of April. The club selected him onto the MLB roster a month later. The former #5 overall pick nevertheless spent much of the season on optional assignment to Triple-A Charlotte. He hit .231/.363/.442 with a 26.6% strikeout rate at the top minor league level. Frazier got into 33 MLB games this year, running a .197/.303/.242 slash.
Padres To Interview Carlos Mendoza
The Padres will interview Carlos Mendoza this weekend as part of their managerial search, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Yankee bench coach has also sat down with the Mets and Guardians about their respective vacancies.
According to Acee, Mendoza is the fourth candidate to meet with San Diego brass since Bob Melvin left the organization. Internal options Ryan Flaherty and Mike Shildt have already interviewed. The other appears to be Angels infield coordinator Benji Gil, as Acee notes the Friars were impressed by Gil during a sit-down earlier in the week. Former Angels skipper Phil Nevin is reportedly of interest, although it’d seem he has yet to officially interview.
Mendoza, 43, has never managed in the majors. The Venezuela native managed for two seasons in the low minors with the Yankees in the early 2010s. He has otherwise worked in various coaching capacities for New York since concluding his minor league playing career in 2009. He joined Aaron Boone’s MLB staff as infield coach going into the 2018 campaign and has held the bench coach title for the last four seasons. In addition to Cleveland and the Mets, Mendoza has earned managerial consideration from the White Sox and Red Sox in previous offseasons and from the Giants this fall before they hired Melvin.
San Diego is one of six teams with a current vacancy. The Angels, Astros and Brewers are also presently without a bench boss. Acee writes that the Padres could tab their new skipper within the next week.
Matt Carpenter Exercises Player Option
Matt Carpenter has exercised the $5.5MM player option in his contract with the Padres, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link). He’ll play out the second season of a two-year, $12MM guarantee.
Triggering the option was likely an easy call for the left-handed hitter. Carpenter had a tough 2023 campaign, hitting .176/.322/.319 with five home runs through 276 trips to the plate. He seemed to fall out of favor with the coaching staff as a result, often going extended stretches without an at-bat. His season ended in mid-September when he landed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.
Clearly, that wasn’t what the front office envisioned when signing Carpenter a year ago. The longtime Cardinals second baseman had struggled mightily from 2020-21. When a minor league deal with the Rangers didn’t result in a big league opportunity, he considered retirement. Yet he absolutely raked over 47 games when he got a look from the Yankees in May 2022. Carpenter blasted 15 homers in 154 plate appearances, hitting .305/.412/.727. A foot fracture kept his time as a Yankee rather brief, leaving the Padres to gamble on him maintaining some kind of strong offensive form after that relatively small-sample performance.
It didn’t happen in year one. The Padres could give Carpenter another crack at securing a job on the bench, although it doesn’t seem guaranteed he’ll spend the entire offseason on the 40-man roster. In any event, he is assured of next year’s salary. With Seth Lugo making the similarly easy call to decline his option yesterday, the Padres are down to their two more borderline options on right-handers Michael Wacha and Nick Martinez.
Angels Decline Options On Aaron Loup, Eduardo Escobar
The Angels announced that they have declined club options on left-hander Aaron Loup and infielder Eduardo Escobar. Both will now become free agents, with Loup receiving a $2.5MM buyout instead of a $7.5MM salary for 2024, while Escobar receives a buyout of $500K instead of a $9MM salary.
Neither move comes as a surprise. Loup posted a remarkable 0.95 ERA in 2021 and parlayed that into a two-year, $17MM deal going into 2022. His first year with the Halos was fine, resulting in a 3.84 ERA, but that figure jumped to 6.10 in 2023. There may have been some bad luck in his poor results this year, with a .373 batting average on balls in play and 63.6% strand rate, but his strikeout rate has also been declining. He fanned 26.1% of batters in that strong 2021 campaign but that rate dropped to 20% and then 19.5% in the two most recent seasons. He also finished the 2023 campaign on the injured list with a left shoulder strain.
The Halos acquired Escobar in a midseason trade with the Mets. They hoped the veteran switch-hitter would stabilize an infield that had been wrecked by injury. It didn’t go as planned, with Escobar stumbling to a .219/.259/.303 slash in 189 plate appearances. Combined with a slow start in Queens, he managed just a .226/.269/.344 line over 100 games on the season.
Lefty relief and third base both stand as areas the Angels could try to address this offseason. They don’t have any left-handers who are guaranteed spots in the season-opening bullpen, with the likes of Kolton Ingram and Kenny Rosenberg projecting as their top options. Anthony Rendon is the ostensible starter at third base, although he’s coming off another disappointing year marred by injury.
White Sox To Decline Option On Liam Hendriks
The White Sox are declining their club option on right-hander Liam Hendriks, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Instead of retaining him for 2024 with a $15MM salary, they will pay him a $15MM buyout but spread over the next ten years in annual instalments of $1.5MM. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery in August and is likely to miss the 2024 season.
Hendriks, 35 in February, signed with the Sox going into 2021. The three-year deal came with a three-year, $54MM guarantee. He would make $39MM over the first three years, with the $15MM option/buyout for 2024. He continued to pitch well over the first two years of the deal, racking up 75 saves over those two seasons with a 2.66 ERA, 39.4% strikeout rate and 4.6% walk rate.
But 2023 provided Hendriks with some significant challenges. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the offseason and had to miss the start of the year undergoing treatment. By the end of April, he was cancer free and began ramping up for a return to the club. He was activated in late May, making five appearances before landing on the injured list due to elbow inflammation, which eventually led him requiring Tommy John surgery.
Since he’s likely to miss the upcoming campaign, it’s understandable that the Sox would take the buyout. Though it’s the same amount as the salary of the option, it’s easier to pay it over 10 years than in one, especially with inflation reducing the value of currency over time. Also, there’s no injured list between the World Series and Spring Training, meaning Hendriks would require a roster spot all winter if the option were picked up. By taking the buyout, the Sox free up a spot for the coming months.
Now Hendriks will head to the open market and be free to sign with any club. Though he still has a lengthy rehab process in front of him, players in this situation often sign two-year deals. The players gets some cash to cover the rehab process while the club gets control over one post-rehab season.
Righty Tommy Kahnle signed one such contract when he and the Dodgers agreed to a two-year deal going into 2021. Kahnle was guaranteed $4.75MM plus incentives. He didn’t have the same track record as Hendriks and that winter’s market was generally deflated after the lost revenues of 2020, so it seems fair to expect Hendriks to be able to top that guarantee.
Craig Counsell Reportedly Looking To Reset Market For Managerial Salaries
With Craig Counsell no longer under contract as manager of the Brewers and strong interest from other clubs, there has been much speculation about what factors he will be taking into account in deciding where to go for 2024. Per a report from Curt Hogg and Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he is looking to reset the market for managers in terms of salary. Though the interest from the Mets will likely lead to a hefty offer, it seems he will give the Brewers a chance to match that figure.
Counsell is in high demand due to his successful track record as a skipper. He took over as the bench boss for Brewers when they were at a weak point and saw the results gradually improve in his first few seasons, winning 61, 73 and 86 games in his first three campaigns from 2015 to 2017. Since then, the club went on to qualify for the postseason in five of the past six years, despite the club generally having payrolls on the lower end of the league.
That success had garnered him interviews with the Mets and Guardians for their managerial vacancies. The Astros also have interest but it seems they are planning to take their time in their hiring process, which may prevent them from having a shot with Counsell. The fit with the Mets has been speculated upon since David Stearns left the Brewers to become president of baseball operations with the Mets. Given that Stearns and Counsell spent so much time working together, it’s been assumed by many that Stearns would poach Counsell and bring him to Queens.
Despite that outside interest, there would be logic to Counsell preferring to stay in Milwaukee, given his longstanding ties to the region. He grew up in Wisconsin and his father worked for the Brewers. Craig then spent part of his playing career with the club before his managerial career began.
Per the report from Hogg and Rosiak, Counsell is motivated by pushing the market forward in terms of manager salaries, particularly in smaller markets. Although Joe Torre once secured a salary of $8MM when managing the Yankees in the past, the market has apparently softened since then. It has been reported that Terry Francona had the highest salary of any manager in the league in 2023. Previous reports stated his contract with the Guardians had an average annual value of $4.5MM but Hogg and Rosiak relay that it was an even $5MM in 2023.
Counsell himself wasn’t too far off, getting $3.5MM from the Brewers in 2023, but he is now looking to “at least double” that figure next year, per Hogg and Rosiak. It wouldn’t be a shock if the Mets stepped up with the offer of $7MM that Counsell appears to be seeking. Owner Steve Cohen has quickly earned a spendthrift reputation since buying the Mets, seemingly to have little hesitation about plonking down money when he wants something.
But that may not be enough in this case. Per the report, Counsell will return to Milwaukee with whatever offer he has in hand and give the Brewers a chance to match it. If they are willing to do so, he will “almost certainly” stay in Milwaukee, but he doesn’t appear willing to take a hometown discount. The Brewers reportedly offered him a raise at the end of the season but it seems it wasn’t enough to prevent him from sniffing around and seeing what else is available to him.
Whether the Brewers will match the Mets is a fair question to ask. The club generally walks a fine line when it comes to payroll, occasionally having to make tough roster decisions based on money rather than targeting optimal on-field alignments. The most infamous example of this was the trade of Josh Hader, who was flipped to San Diego as his salary increased, with the club hoping the less-expensive Taylor Rogers could pick up the slack while other cheaper players bolstered other parts of the roster.
It has been speculated that another such trade could be coming this winter, with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Willy Adames each about to enter their respective final arbitration seasons with projected eight-figure salaries. Woodruff’s injury may complicate that matter, but the point remains that it may be tough for a penny-pinching club to have the most expensive manager in the league.
Resolution may not take much longer, as a decision is “likely” by the end of the general manager meetings, which run from November 7 to 9.