Angels Sign Luis Garcia
The Angels announced the signing of reliever Luis García on a one-year contract. He’ll reportedly make $4.25MM.
An 11-year big league veteran, García is set for a second stint with the Halos. The right-hander spent the 2019 campaign in Orange County, turning in a 4.35 ERA across 64 appearances. That was amidst a difficult three-year run spanning 2018-20, but García has generally turned things around over the past couple seasons.
After pitching to a 3.24 ERA in 34 games with the Cardinals in 2021, the Dominican Republic native inked a two-year pact with the Padres. He had a strong first year at Petco Park, tossing 61 innings of 3.39 ERA ball while working in a high-leverage role. García’s second season wasn’t as impressive. His ERA jumped to 4.03 while his strikeout rate dropped from a quality 26.3% mark to a middling 19.9% clip. As his production tailed off, the Padres deployed him in mostly low-leverage situations.
Despite that dip, there are still a few clear positives for the Halos front office. García has an extended track record of keeping the ball on the ground. He has allowed fewer than one home run per nine innings in three straight seasons and racked up grounders at a massive 61.5% rate this year. Even as he enters his age-37 campaign, he’s still one of the harder throwers available. García’s sinker sat north of 97 MPH.
It’s the second grounder specialist whom the Halos have added this offseason. They signed left-hander Adam Kolarek to a $900K guarantee a few weeks ago. García also steps into the middle innings mix alongside younger, more volatile arms like Ben Joyce and José Soriano. The Halos still seem likely to look for a clearer setup option to bridge the gap to closer Carlos Estévez.
The signing brings the Angels’ 2024 payroll projection to roughly $156MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. They’re upwards of $50MM from last season’s Opening Day payroll and around $70MM shy of the luxury tax threshold.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported the Angels and García were in agreement on a one-year, $4.25MM deal.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Yankees Acquire Alex Verdugo
The Yankees and Red Sox have lined up on a rare major trade. The teams announced a deal sending outfielder Alex Verdugo to the Bronx for reliever Greg Weissert and minor league pitchers Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice.
Verdugo, who turns 28 in May, has spent the past four seasons in Boston. The Sox acquired him from the Dodgers as the key piece of the Mookie Betts trade return. The left-handed hitting outfielder never quite lived up to that lofty billing. Verdugo has settled in as a solid regular without emerging as an impact player on either side of the ball.
Over his time with the Red Sox, Verdugo hit .281/.338/.424 in a little more than 2000 plate appearances. His strongest season was the shortened 2020 campaign. After posting a .308/.367/.478 slash, he has hit at a league average level for three years running. Verdugo owns a .277/.334/.417 mark since the start of 2021. This past season’s .264/.324/.421 line over 602 plate appearances fit that recent body of work.
Verdugo doesn’t have prototypical home run power for a corner outfielder. He has hit between 11 and 13 longballs in each of the last three years. Verdugo has topped 30 doubles in each season, however. He has always had excellent bat-to-ball skills and generally shows an all-fields approach. Aside from a 15-game debut showing in 2017, he has hit .260 or better in every year of his big league career.
Bringing in a hit-over-power lefty bat seems a deliberate effort by the New York front office to add balance to the lineup. The Yankees have skewed right-handed and leaned heavily on power hitters in recent years. They’ve found themselves generally lacking in consistent offensive production beyond Aaron Judge and, to a lesser extent, Gleyber Torres.
Verdugo isn’t an impact lineup presence, but he checks a box which general manager Brian Cashman had identified as a priority. Cashman expressed a desire for two outfielders to join Judge, preferably ones who hit from the left side. Top center field prospect Jasson Domínguez will be out into the middle of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, while left field has been a significant problem for the past couple years. 22-year-old Everson Pereira might be a longer-term solution there but limped to a .151/.233/.194 line in his first month as a big leaguer.
The desire for multiple outfield additions still leaves the Yankees very much in play for bigger stars. New York has been tied to Juan Soto in trade rumors and Cody Bellinger on the free agent market. Various reporters (including Andy Martino of SNY) unsurprisingly relay that the Yankees are still involved on Soto. Talks between the Yankees and Padres reportedly slowed over the weekend after San Diego demanded a pitching-heavy return built around Michael King and prospect Drew Thorpe.
Verdugo won’t take them out of that mix (or presumably impact a run at Bellinger if they can’t line up on a Soto deal). However, it could require the Yankees to lean on Judge in center field for a season if they were to acquire Soto. Verdugo hasn’t played center field since 2021. He has generally received solid marks for his glove in right field. Verdugo has one of the game’s better arms, although his speed and overall range are closer to average.
The outfield alignment is to be determined based on future moves. Verdugo steps in a short-term acquisition who’ll solidify one position while buying time for Domínguez to rehab and Pereira to see more action in Triple-A. The veteran outfielder is a year away from free agency. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz forecasts him for a $9.2MM salary in his final season of arbitration.
That pushes the Yankees’ projected spending to roughly $246MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. Their luxury tax number sits right at the $257MM line that marks the second tier of penalization. Since they’re paying the CBT for what’d be a third consecutive season, the Yankees are taxed at a 50% rate on spending between $237MM and $257MM. That’ll push their overall tab on Verdugo into the $14MM range, while they’re sure to continue adding to the roster (with accompanying higher penalties beyond the $257MM mark).
On the other side of the equation, Boston offloads Verdugo’s salary projection. They’re moving on from a player who, while reasonably effective, had a somewhat disappointing overall run at Fenway Park. In addition to the leveling off in his performance, Verdugo occasionally came under fire with the organization for perceived effort questions.
Beyond that, it’s not uncommon for an incoming baseball operations leader to reshape a roster. This is the first significant trade of Craig Breslow’s tenure as chief baseball officer. It leaves a vacancy in right field, where the Sox seem likely to look to free agency or the trade market. Boston has left-handed hitting Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida in the outfield mix, so the pursuit of a righty bat might make the most sense.
They’ll also add controllable pitching help, with Weissert standing as the most immediate upgrade. The 28-year-old righty has pitched at the MLB level in each of the past two seasons. Weissert has worked 31 1/3 innings, allowing a 4.60 ERA. His underlying numbers are more intriguing. The Fordham product has averaged around 94 MPH on his sinker and four-seam fastball. He has struck out a solid 24.4% of batters faced while keeping the ball on the ground at a 47.3% clip.
Weissert also had an excellent year in Triple-A in 2023. Over 40 1/3 frames, he pitched to a 2.90 ERA while punching out more than 34% of batters faced. Control has been an issue throughout his career, but Weissert has consistently shown the ability to miss bats in the minors. He still has two option years remaining and won’t reach arbitration for three seasons, making him an affordable and flexible bullpen piece.
Fitts, who turns 24 in a few weeks, is the more intriguing of the minor leaguers involved. An Auburn product, he was drafted in the sixth round in 2021. The 6’3″ righty had an impressive year at Double-A Somerset, working to a 3.48 ERA across 152 2/3 innings. He punched out nearly 26% of batters faced against a tidy 6.8% walk percentage. Prospect evaluators praise Fitts’s slider and overall command, projecting him as a potential back-end starter. Boston doesn’t need to add him to the 40-man roster until next offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, but it’s possible he pitches his way into the MLB rotation mix at some point during the summer.
Judice was an eighth-round pick this year out of UL-Monroe. The 6’8″ hurler had posted a 3.74 ERA over 53 innings in his draft year. BA’s draft report praised his potential plus slider and mid-90s velocity. Judice projects as a reliever and is a low minors development flier.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the trade terms. Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
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The 2024 MLB Winter Meetings are upon us! Team executives and agents are ready to make some deals in Nashville. The top storyline this year is two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, only the biggest free agent in MLB history. On top of that we’ve got a pair of 25-year-old stars on the market: ace righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been posted by Japan’s Orix Buffaloes, and Padres left fielder Juan Soto could be traded.
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Marlins Looking To Add Shortstop Help, Jazz Chisholm To Remain In Center Field
Joey Wendle and Garrett Hampson have already signed with other teams, as the free agent departures left the Marlins further thinned out at a shortstop position that was already something of a weak link. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix is looking to address the position this winter, telling MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters that “I’d like to increase the number of options that we have who can play shortstop.”
Utilityman Jon Berti is the top choice at the moment, as manager Skip Schumaker told the media. Jacob Amaya, Xavier Edwards, and the recently-acquired Vidal Brujan provide further depth. Brujan and Edwards are former top-100 prospects looking for a big league breakout, while Amaya is a defensive standout acquired from the Dodgers in the Miguel Rojas trade last offseason.
It makes for an interesting mix, and Bendix noted that “I think we have a few people on the roster, off the roster, who are pretty good options, but nobody who’s the clear, ‘This is our everyday shortstop.’ So we’d love to add that, and really just adding long-term value to the organization — whether that is players at the Major League level with control, whether that is prospects. Ideally, it’s both. It’s supplementing the 2024 club, just building on what’s a competitive team already, but also keeping that eye on the future.”
Finding a long-term shortstop answer is obviously easier said than done, and landing such a player would require a significant return on Miami’s part. For instance, the Fish have continued to get lots of interest in their starting pitching, yet considering how injuries and other trades have cut down on their rotation depth over the last two years, it remains to be seen if Bendix will be open to trading more arms when the Marlins are no longer dealing with a surplus. Bendix was somewhat non-committal about the idea of moving the team’s own pitchers, and even implied that Miami could look to add hurlers due to the basic credo of “you always need more pitching.”
In terms of other in-house shortstop candidates, it doesn’t appear as though Miami will be turning to its former shortstop. Asked whether or not Jazz Chisholm Jr. might be moved back to shortstop, Schumaker said “I don’t see that happening yet. Jazz really took off kind of the second part of the season in the outfield as our center fielder, so I don’t anticipate that happening just yet.”
Since Chisholm had another injury-shortened season, the first priority is just to get him healthy as he recovers from an October turf toe surgery. Between his toe problems and an oblique strain, Chisholm was limited to 97 games in 2023, extending his unfortunate streak to three consecutive injury-plagued years.
Chisholm hasn’t played any shortstop since the 2021 season, as he played second base in 2022 before being shifted to the outfield last winter. The position change was made to both accommodate Luis Arraez as the new everyday second baseman, and also to see if Chisholm could be an answer to the Marlins’ longstanding need in center field. Considering both his injuries and the fact that it was the first time Chisholm had ever played as an outfielder in his pro career, the results were somewhat respectable — a +4 in Outs Above Average, though other public defensive metrics (a -6.6 UZR/150 and -9 Defensive Runs Saved) weren’t impressed.
As Schumaker noted, Chisholm naturally looked more comfortable with the more experience he gained at the position, so it makes sense that Miami wouldn’t want to switch his position yet again when he might still be something of an untapped resource as a center fielder. There’s also the fact that moving Chisholm would again create an outfield vacancy for the Marlins to address, and adding something of a supplementary shortstop alongside Berdi and company is probably an easier task than landing a new regular center fielder.
AL East Notes: Red Sox, Holliday, Yankees
The Red Sox have been focused on pitching help first and foremost this offseason, yet that isn’t the team’s only target area. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters (including MLB.com’s Ian Browne) that the Sox are looking at second basemen on both the trade and free agent markets, though a new infielder is likeliest to come via trade. Breslow implied that the Red Sox would first like to address their pitching needs, so it may be some time yet before a second-base answer comes into focus.
A whopping 11 players saw at least a little time at second base for the 2023 Red Sox, but this revolving door combined for 0.0 bWAR, as only three teams got less production from their second basemen. Enmanuel Valdez, Pablo Reyes, Bobby Dalbec, or (when he isn’t in center field) Ceddanne Rafaela all look like the top internal candidates for the keystone heading into the offseason, but Boston would clearly like to better solidify the position. With a somewhat thin free agent class of midfielders available, it isn’t surprising that Breslow would prefer to bring in a higher-caliber upgrade in trade talks.
More from around the AL East…
- Former first overall pick Jackson Holliday has been nothing but impressive over his two pro seasons, to the point that Orioles GM Mike Elias said it is “a very strong possibility” that Holliday could be on Baltimore’s Opening Day roster. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but he had an historic first full season in the minors….He’s going to be treated in this major league camp not like a prospect where we’re kind of having fun and having him in camp for the experience of it, but like a guy trying to make the team,” Elias told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com and other reporters. Holliday has played mostly shortstop with some second-base time in the minors, and Elias said the 20-year-old will continue at those two positions in Spring Training. Often seen as the Orioles’ shortstop of the future, Holliday’s exact position isn’t yet known due to the sheer glut of talent Baltimore has in the pipeline and on the MLB roster, particularly in the infield. To this end, Elias isn’t concerned about finding playing time for everyone or keeping Holliday at a set position, since defensive versatility is “part of baseball now and it provides a lot of value. There’s very, very, very, few players that just stand in the same spot and nowhere else.”
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave reporters (including The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty) updates on the offseason progress of some players plagued by injuries in 2023. Nestor Cortes was limited to 63 1/3 innings due to two rotator cuff strains, but Boone said the southpaw has now started a throwing program. Anthony Rizzo is expected to have a normal offseason program after being cleared of post-concussion syndrome, hopefully concluding a bizarre sequence of events that saw Rizzo keep playing for more than two months after suffering an apparent concussion in late May. Rizzo was placed on the IL in early August and then shut down for the season at the start of September, though Boone said that the first baseman was “probably game-ready and ready to go” by the end of the season. Jose Trevino‘s season was ended by wrist surgery in July but the catcher is expected to be set for the start of Spring Training.
Latest On Christopher Morel, Tyler Glasnow
7:45pm: Nightengale tweets that while Morel’s name has come up in discussions on Glasnow, the Cubs are reluctant to move him for a player with one year of team control. Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic, on the other hand, write that Morel has not come up in any recent discussions about Glasnow.
3:34pm: The Cubs are one of many clubs to have known interest in Rays’ right-hander Tyler Glasnow and Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports today that Christopher Morel‘s name has surfaced in those talks.
It’s unclear which club decided to make Morel part of the negotiations but it was reported last month that the Cubs were willing to make Morel part of the return in a potential Pete Alonso trade. Perhaps Morel has been squeezed out of the plan in Wrigley and the club is shopping him around to see what he could bring in return.
The tricky thing with Morel is that he has tremendous power in his bat but doesn’t have a perfect spot to fit onto the Cubs’ roster. He’s hit 42 home runs in his first 854 plate appearances, despite a 31.6% strikeout rate. His .241/.311/.471 batting line thus far translates to a wRC+ of 114. But attempts to have him line up defensively at shortstop, third base or the outfield haven’t gone well. His work at second base is passable but the Cubs have a set middle infield of Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner.
It was reported about a month ago that the Cubs would get Morel some first base reps in winter ball, though that wouldn’t be an ideal fit for him either since he has 99th percentile arm strength. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said at that time that “another team might be able to put him” at second base.
It seems as though the Cubs may feel as though the best use of the talent on their roster is to explore trades for Morel and perhaps address first base in some other way. He still has five years of club control remaining and hasn’t yet reached arbitration, which should give him plenty of appeal. It was reported earlier today that the club is discussing various contract structures with first baseman Rhys Hoskins. If they can get something done there and also flip Morel for some pitching help, perhaps that is a preferable path to paying for pitching and using Morel at first base.
That will naturally depend on how the talks proceed and whether the Rays want Morel to be the center of any Glasnow return. The Rays have a solid second baseman in Brandon Lowe. He has missed some time due to injuries in the past two seasons but has still been able to hit at an above-average rate. He’s also controlled at an affordable rate through 2024 with a couple of reasonable club options after that. The club also has Isaac Paredes and Jonathan Aranda as guys on the roster capable of playing second.
Acquiring Morel is probably not the first choice for the Rays, given their incumbent infield options. Though they are considering moving Glasnow and his $25MM salary, they have obvious rotation needs and will need to think about bringing in cheaper pitching in the event they pull the trigger on a trade. With each of Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs set to miss most or all of the 2024 season due to elbow surgeries, the rotation isn’t in great shape. They still have Glasnow, Zach Eflin and Aaron Civale but some question marks beyond that. But Glasnow’s salary and perpetual payroll concerns in Tampa might lead them to try to balance saving money while still running out a talented roster.
The Rays are generally unafraid to make deals and could perhaps also flip Lowe for pitching in addition to acquiring Morel in a Glasnow deal, though that would require further conversations with other clubs and it might be easier if they just have an offer that involves a younger pitcher coming to them directly in a Glasnow deal. It’s also possible that the Cubs and Rays discussed larger trade scenarios involving more than just Glasnow and Morel, as clubs often consider all kinds of plausible scenarios at this time of year.
The Rays have also received interest from clubs such as the Cardinals and Reds while there are also plenty of other speculative fits. Some of those clubs may be pursuing big free agents like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery and may pivot to the trade market if they come up short there. Perhaps the Rays will wait to see if they can get a few more clubs on the line after the free agent market moves a bit more, but they could also strike quickly if they find a deal that they truly like.
Cardinals Expect To Add Bullpen Help Via Free Agency
The Cardinals have made no secret of their desire to add to the bullpen. Having accomplished their goal of bringing in three starting pitchers, St. Louis is prioritizing the relief corps.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak suggested this evening the organization is likelier to add to the bullpen via free agency than in trade (relayed by Katie Woo of the Athletic). That’s a little surprising considering the Cards have been open about their willingness to trade a position player — Mozeliak candidly admitted they’re fielding offers on Tyler O’Neill yesterday — for pitching help.
Of course, noting that a free agent acquisition is more probable than a trade doesn’t close the latter avenue completely. The front office is surely exploring both paths. On the free agent front, reports have loosely linked St. Louis to Phil Maton, NPB closer Yuki Matsui and old friend Jordan Hicks.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (on X) that the Cards have also discussed KBO pitcher Woo Suk Go. The LG Twins have made Go available to MLB teams via the posting system. A 25-year-old righty, Go turned in a 3.68 ERA over 44 innings this past season. He struck out an excellent 31.1% of opposing hitters but walked an elevated 11.8% of batters faced.
Go has until January 3 to decide whether to sign with a major league club or stay in South Korea. He’s not expected to command the same level of contract as either Maton or Matsui (and certainly won’t approach what it would cost to reunite with Hicks). The Cardinals project for a payroll in the $180MM range, according to Roster Resource. That’s a little above this year’s approximate $177MM Opening Day mark.
Mozeliak has previously suggested the Cards would keep their payroll steady, so they could be fairly close to their budgetary limit. The front office head unsurprisingly confirmed last night that the Cards were not going to top the $237MM luxury tax threshold (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Roster Resource projects the franchise’s CBT number around $208MM, a fair bit south of the base tax tier.
Pirates Planning To Increase Payroll
Never known for their big spending, the Pirates are planning some level of a payroll increase in 2024, GM Ben Cherington told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey and other reporters. “I’d anticipate us ending up above where we landed last year,” Cherington said. “Generally speaking, we expect that as we get better, the payroll will continue to climb with us. To some extent, it’s motivation for us is if we can actually push that as we get better.”
This isn’t different from statements Cherington has made in the past about the Bucs’ spending, and in some sense, there’s really nowhere to go but up for a team that has traditionally been at or near the back of the pack in payroll even during its last playoff seasons (2013-15). According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Pirates’ Opening Day payroll hasn’t ranked higher than 27th in the league in any of the last six seasons, with last year’s Opening Day number sitting at just under $73.28MM.
That 2023 payroll figure represented a notable jump from the Pirates’ $55.76MM figure at the start of the 2022 season, which might provide some hint about what kind of increase we might be able to expect this winter. A similar-sized bump would bring the Bucs into a payroll range of around $91MM, and since the 2024 payroll ledger sits at roughly $53MM at the moment, Cherington and company could have a comparably large amount of money to work with as they look for roster upgrades.
Expecting quite such a payroll increase is far from a lock, of course, and the Pirates are one of many teams around baseball whose revenues are impacted by TV broadcasting uncertainties. Mackey recently explored the Pirates’ situation, as the team seems to have the option of either letting MLB handle broadcast rights, or airing games on SportsNet Pittsburgh, the recently-rebranded channel that has been the Pirates’ cable TV home for years.
After losing 201 games in 2021-22, Pittsburgh’s 76-86 record represented a solid step forward in the team’s rebuilding process. The team’s extension with Bryan Reynolds in April was another important turning point, as both the biggest contract in franchise history and a clear sign that the Pirates want to start turning towards contending. Expecting the Bucs to make that leap in 2024 is perhaps a tall order, yet stranger things have happened, and there might be some particular opportunity within an unsettled NL Central.
It is hard to imagine this current Pirates pitching staff carrying a contender, however, and it seems clear that the bulk of whatever dollars Pittsburgh has available this winter will be focused on rotation help. Given the ever-rising cost of pitching and the Pirates’ multiple needs in the staff, it is safe to assume that the team will go after multiple mid-tier starters rather than splurge on a Jordan Montgomery-esque ace at the very top of the market. Reports surfaced earlier today that Jack Flaherty was a target of interest for the Pirates, with the former Cardinals standout looking for a one-year deal as he tries to rebound from a few underwhelming and injury-plagued seasons.
White Sox, Erick Fedde Agree To Two-Year Contract
The White Sox are in agreement with right-hander Erick Fedde on a two-year, $15MM contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). The deal is pending a physical. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported last night that Fedde, a client of the Boras Corporation, was nearing a two-year pact and named the White Sox and Mets as finalists.
Fedde returns to the majors after one season in South Korea. He’d signed a one-year, $1MM pact with the KBO’s NC Dinos last December. A few weeks earlier, Fedde had been non-tendered by the Nationals, with whom he’d spent his entire pro career up to that point. Within 12 months, he has dramatically raised his profile.
The 30-year-old righty turned in an excellent season for the Dinos. He pitched to a 2.00 ERA in 180 1/3 innings covering 30 starts. He struck out an excellent 29.5% of batters faced while walking under 5% of opposing hitters. As a result of that dominant showing, he was named the KBO’s Most Valuable Player.
Before his move to Korea, Fedde had a fairly nondescript run in Washington. The 6’4″ hurler was a first round draft choice in 2014. He received some Top 100 prospect attention as a potentially quick-moving college starter. Fedde got to the majors midway through the 2017 season but didn’t solidify himself in the rotation for a few years. He spent time on the injured list with shoulder inflammation during the 2018 campaign and bounced between the nation’s capital and Triple-A in ’19.
Fedde carved out a spot in the Nats rotation during the shortened 2020 campaign. He’d hold that role for the next three seasons, combining to log 310 2/3 innings over 67 appearances. The results weren’t great, as he posted a 5.42 ERA with a middling 18.1% strikeout rate. Rather than meet a projected $3.6MM arbitration salary last offseason, Washington moved on.
While surely a tough pill to swallow at the time, Fedde has come out ahead following the non-tender. This past August, he told the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty that he’d developed more horizontal action on his slider and tweaked the grip on his changeup as part of an overhauled approach in the pitching lab.
Between the repertoire adjustments and the dominance in a hitter-friendly KBO, Fedde secured the largest guarantee for a former affiliated pitcher returning from Korea. Each of Josh Lindblom, Merrill Kelly and Chris Flexen landed multi-year guarantees. Fedde is the first to cross the $10MM threshold, doing so rather handily.
The $7.5MM average annual value is a strong deal for the righty, although it could still turn out to be solid value for the Sox if Fedde can turn in league average results in the majors. Chicago is in desperate need of starting pitching. Dylan Cease had been the only pitcher on the roster who was clearly assured of a rotation spot and he’s widely expected to be traded. Fedde is almost certain to get a spot in the starting five, while Michael Kopech and trade pickup Michael Soroka have a decent chance at rotation roles. Jared Shuster, Jesse Scholtens and Touki Toussaint are also in the mix.
That’s still a lackluster group, particularly if the Sox wind up moving Cease. First-year general manager Chris Getz and his front office are likely to continue searching for starting pitching. The specific breakdown of Fedde’s contract has yet to be reported. If it’s distributed evenly, a $7.5MM salary would bring the Sox’s projected payroll (courtesy of Roster Resource) around $144MM. Getz has already suggested they’re not planning to approach their franchise-record spending mark, which topped $193MM, but they’re still more than $35MM shy of this year’s approximate $181MM Opening Day figure.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mets, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Royals Interested In Lucas Giolito
Free agent right-hander Lucas Giolito is getting a lot of attention, with Jon Morosi of MLB.com reporting that the Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, and Royals are interested in him. The interest from the Dodgers was already reported but the four other clubs are new mentions.
Giolito, 29, is one of the hardest free agents to value. From 2019 to 2021, he made 72 starts and tossed 427 2/3 innings with a 3.47 earned run average. He struck out 30.7% of batters faced in that time while walking just 8%. His 11.3 wins above replacement in that stretch, per FanGraphs, was seventh among all pitchers in the league.
Things took a bit of a downturn in 2022, at least in terms of results. His ERA jumped to 4.90 and his strikeouts dropped a bit, though his 25.4% rate was still above league average. His .340 batting average on balls in play that year stands out as a clear outlier, as he’s never had that figure finish higher than .274 in any other season. His 4.06 FIP and 3.79 SIERA both suggested he was actually more in line with his previous track record than the ERA would indicate.
He seemed to be back on track in the first half of 2023, making 21 starts for the White Sox with a 3.79 ERA. But things went downhill for him after he was traded to the Angels prior to the deadline. He took the ball six times for the Halos, posting an ERA of 6.89 in those. As that club fell out of contention, he was put on waivers and claimed by the Guardians. Six more starts with that club yielded an even worse ERA of 7.04. His walk rate jumped to 10.8% in the 12 starts after being traded and he also allowed 20 home runs in just 63 1/3 innings.
That poor stretch of play represents such a small sample in a career that now includes over 1,000 big leagues innings, but was unfortunately timed right before his first trip to free agency. MLBTR predicted he would get a two-year, $44MM with an opt-out that lets him potentially return to free agency with a stronger platform.
Each of the four clubs now connected to him are sensible fits since they each are known to need pitching. The Diamondbacks have Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly in two rotation spots with Brandon Pfaadt likely to be somewhere behind them, but there’s not much certainty beyond that. General manager Mike Hazen has been open about the club’s desire to upgrade the rotation this offseason.
The Mets have added Luis Severino to a rotation that also features Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana, but there are question marks for the back end and even Severino is no guarantee after his poor 2023 campaign.
The Red Sox have plenty of options but none of them concrete. Chris Sale should be in one spot but he hasn’t reached 105 innings pitched in a season since 2019 due to various injuries. Brayan Bello had a decent 2023 season overall but faded later in the year with a 5.49 ERA in the second half. Each of Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock and Kutter Crawford have oscillated between the rotation and bullpen without permanently cementing a spot. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said at the Winter Meetings that the club would be “aggressive” in pursuing upgrades.
The Royals have plenty of questions in their rotation. Cole Ragans had a strong finish after coming over in the Aroldis Chapman trade but Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles each had disappointing seasons. General manager J.J. Picollo said this week that the club has about $30MM to spend and adding a starter is one thing on their to-do list. Signing someone like Giolito would likely eat up a decent chunk of that budget and leave little for bullpen upgrades, but it’s at least feasible that they could dedicate more of their resources to the rotation.