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Blue Jays Designate Julian Merryweather For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have made their signing of Brandon Belt official, announcing the move today. To open a spot for him on the 40-man roster, right-hander Julian Merryweather has been designated for assignment.

Merryweather, 31, has spent the past three seasons in the Blue Jays’ bullpen after being acquired in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson from Toronto to Cleveland in 2018. He’s shown flashes of potential as a hard-thrower with near top-of-the-line velocity and above-average spin on his heater. However, even though Merryweather has averaged better than 97 mph on that fastball, he’s posted a below-average 21.8% strikeout rate in his career while logging a 5.64 ERA in 52 2/3 frames.

Merryweather’s 7.4% walk rate has been sharp, but he’s also been quite homer-prone in his big league career, yielding eight long balls in those 52 2/3 Major League innings. It’s tempting to assume that’s due to the hitter-friendly nature of his home park, but Merryweather has allowed more long balls on the road (five) than in Toronto (three) in a nearly equal number of plate appearances. Opponents have regularly made hard contact against the 6’4″ righty, evidenced by average exit velocities of 90.3 mph in each of the past two seasons and hard-hit rates of 47.4% and 44.8% in 2021 and 2022.

Because he’s out of minor league options, Merryweather will need to either stick on a team’s Opening Day roster or else be passed through waivers in order to be sent to Triple-A. The Blue Jays themselves will have the opportunity to attempt to pass him through waivers, though they can also take the next few days to gauge interest in a trade before taking that step.

Nationals Designate Andrés Machado For Assignment

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The Nationals have officially announced their deal with outfielder Corey Dickerson. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, reliever Andrés Machado was designated for assignment.

Machado, 30 in April, has spent the past two years with the Nats as a depth reliever, getting frequently optioned and recalled as needed. He’s thrown 95 innings over those two seasons with a solid 3.41 ERA. His 9.9% walk rate and 43.6% ground ball rate in that time were both roughly average, but his 18.3% strikeout rate was a few ticks below par.

Machado’s opponents have registered a .264 batting average on balls in play against him, which is on the low side. For example, the league average in 2022 was .289, a 25-point difference. A pitcher can sometimes earn a lower BABIP than average by minimizing hard contact, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Machado. Statcast only places him in the 23rd percentile among qualified pitchers in terms of average exit velocity, 15th in hard hit rate and 27th in barrel rate.

It’s possible that good luck was helping Machado keep earned runs off the board. Whether that’s true or not, he’s now out of options, giving the club less versatility in using him on the roster. They will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. If another team were to acquire him, he has between one and two years of service time and has yet to reach arbitration. Though he hasn’t racked up huge strikeout numbers in the big leagues, he did average over 95 mph on his fastball in 2022. He also struck out 26.6% of Triple-A batters faced in the past two years.

Twins Acquire A.J. Alexy From Nationals

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The Twins have acquired right-hander A.J. Alexy from the Nationals, according to announcements from both clubs. Alexy had been designated for assignment by the Nats last week. In exchange, right-hander Cristian Jimenez will be going to the Nats. In order to open a spot on their 40-man roster, the Twins have designated righty Oliver Ortega for assignment.

Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who went to the Rangers in the 2017 Yu Darvish trade. Since then, he’s posted some strong results in the minors but struggled to be as successful in the majors. He missed much of 2019 due to injury and then the minor leagues were canceled in 2020, but he showed promise in 2021. He tossed 65 minor league innings between Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 1.66 ERA along with a 29.8% strikeout rate. The 10.6% walk rate was certainly high but it was still a solid enough showing to get him into the majors.

Alexy posted a 4.70 ERA in 23 MLB innings that year, despite matching strikeout and walk rates of 17.5%, with both of those numbers being worse than league average. In 2022, he was limited to just seven innings in the show, getting tattooed for an 11.57 ERA in that short time. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A with a 5.91 ERA, getting strikeouts at a healthy 23.6% clip but with the walks still high at 12.8%.

The Rangers overhauled their rotation this winter and designated Alexy for assignment in the process. Despite his struggles in the majors so far, he’s still young and has some solid results in the minors to build from. He also still has an option year remaining, allowing a team to keep him in the minors as starting depth. The Nats grabbed him off waivers from the Rangers but he got bumped from their roster when they signed Dominic Smith. He’ll now head to the Twins and enter their rotation mix.

The Twins have a solid group of starters with Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle and Bailey Ober the likely front five. However, there are injury concerns scattered throughout that crew. Maeda didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, whereas the other four all made at least one trip to the IL in 2022 for various ailments. Alexy can now join Josh Winder, Simeon Woods Richardson and others as depth options on Minnesota’s roster.

By claiming Alexy and hanging onto him for a few weeks, the Nats will receive Jimenez for their troubles. He’s still quite young, not turning 19 years old until May. He spent 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, posting a 3.38 ERA over 37 1/3 innings with a 30.2% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate and 57.9% ground ball rate.

Ortega, 26, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels last week. He split his time between the majors and Triple-A in 2022, posting matching 22.3% strikeout rates at each level. His 6.6% walk rate in the minors was almost doubled in the majors at 12.2%, yet his major league ERA of 3.71 was somehow a couple runs better than his 5.96 mark in Triple-A. That was probably just bad luck, since his minor league BABIP was almost 100 points higher on the farm and his strand rate was 8% lower. He’s still young and has a couple of option years, making him appealing for any club looking for extra pitching depth. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers.

Nationals Sign Corey Dickerson

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1:14pm: The Nationals have officially announced their signing of Dickerson.

7:30am: The Nationals and free-agent outfielder Corey Dickerson are in agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.25MM, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The Excel Sports Management client can earn another $750K via performance incentives. The Nats Report first reported that Dickerson and the Nationals were in agreement on a deal.

Dickerson, 33, will join his eighth big league team with this agreement — and his third in the National League East, having played prior stints with both the Phillies (2019) and Marlins (2020-21). His 2022 season was spent with the Cardinals, where he logged a .267/.300/.399 slash with six homers, 17 doubles and a triple in 297 plate appearances. That slash is at least somewhat skewed by an awful start to the season which saw him bat .180/.237/.213 through his first 97 plate appearances; from June 1 through the end of the 2022 campaign, Dickerson recorded 200 trips to the plate and posted a hefty .307/.330/.484 batting line.

In reality, Dickerson’s true talent level likely lies somewhere between the two extremes. The 2017 All-Star and 2018 Gold Glove winner is a lifetime .281/.324/.481 hitter but has settled in closer to a league-average bat since the 2020  season, slashing .266/.313/.403 in 872 turns at the plate.

The left-handed-hitting Dickerson carries a fairly sharp platoon split, with the majority of his power coming versus right-handed pitching. Dickerson’s 25.8% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate against lefties are also demonstrably worse than his respective 18.9% and 6.1% marks when holding the platoon advantage. Overall, Dickerson has held his own in terms of batting average against lefties (.259) but has paired that with a bleak .299 on-base percentage and just a .394 slugging percentage. Against righties, however, he’s slashed .287/.331/.505.

For a rebuilding Nationals squad with an all-right-handed-hitting outfield of Alex Call, Victor Robles and Lane Thomas, adding Dickerson on an affordable one-year deal is eminently sensible. His days as a center fielder should be behind him, but Dickerson can take plate appearances against right-handed pitching off the plates of each of his new fellow outfielders. Robles, in particular, was anemic against righties in 2022, slashing just .188/.238/.258 in 240 plate appearances. It’s also worth noting that Call was a 27-year-old rookie in 2022, and while his production in the upper minors (and in his 47-game MLB debut) certainly merited the promotion, he’s not exactly locked in as an established, everyday big leaguer just yet.

Dickerson could also see some time at designated hitter, and the Nationals will surely mix in 2022 breakout slugger Joey Menseses — another right-handed hitter.  Meneses could log time at first base, spelling recent signee Dominic Smith against lefties, and he’s an option in the outfield corners and at designated hitter.

There should be plenty of at-bats to go around, and given the short big league track records of Call, Thomas and Meneses — to say nothing of Robles’ continued offensive struggles that now span the past three seasons — Dickerson should fit in nicely and raise the floor for a lineup that’s light on proven hitters. He’ll also give the Nationals a potential trade chip at the deadline. Dickerson alone isn’t going to fetch a prominent, top-tier prospect, but he can still net the Nats some minor league talent if he’s healthy and performing well.

With Dickerson in the fold, the Nationals’ payroll will inch beyond the $104MM mark. It’s a far cry from the $197MM Opening Day payroll the team trotted out in 2019, when they went on to win the World Series. However, this iteration of the Nationals is more focused on building up the farm and setting the stage for future seasons, and the front office’s rebuilding effort is taking place in conjunction with ownership’s exploration of a potential sale of the team.

Be that as it may, the generally slashed payroll leaves the Nats with plenty of latitude for additional spending, should further deals to their liking present themselves. Beyond Dickerson, Washington has thus far agreed to Major League deals with the aforementioned Smith (one year, $2MM), third baseman Jeimer Candelario (one year, $5MM), swingman Erasmo Ramirez (one year, $1MM) and right-hander Trevor Williams (two years, $13MM) in free agency. There’s still room for another veteran starter, and the bullpen has plenty of uncertainty that could be offset by the addition of a more reliable name.

Pirates Trade Zach Thompson To Blue Jays

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The Blue Jays have acquired right-hander Zach Thompson from the Pirates in exchange for minor league outfielder Chavez Young, per a team announcement. Toronto has designated right-hander Junior Fernández for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Thompson, who’ll provide the Jays with some further rotation depth. Thompson was designated for assignment by the Pirates last week.

Thompson, 29, was drafted by the White Sox back in 2014 but was never added to their roster and reached minor league free agency after 2020. He then signed a minor league deal with the Marlins just in time for his breakout campaign. He cracked Miami’s roster that year and ended up making 26 appearances, 14 of them starts. He tossed 75 innings with a 3.24 ERA, 21% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 43.4% ground ball rate.

After that nice surprise campaign, the Marlins sold high and flipped Thompson to the Pirates as part of the Jacob Stallings deal. Unfortunately, the move to Pittsburgh didn’t go well for Thompson, who was deployed in a swing role. He made 22 starts and seven relief appearances, posting a 5.18 ERA over 121 2/3 innings. He still got grounders at a solid 45.3% rate but his strikeout rate dipped to 16.6%. The Bucs designated him for assignment last week when they made their signing of Rich Hill official.

Despite that poor season, there’s little harm for the Jays in taking a flier on him. Thompson still has a full slate of options and can be kept in the minors until he’s needed. The Jays have four rotation spots spoken for, with Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos firmly entrenched. The fifth spot is a bit less certain, but they have plenty of options, including Yusei Kikuchi, Mitch White and Nate Pearson. Thompson will jump into that mix and give the club another layer of depth. He has between one and two years of MLB service time, meaning he still hasn’t reached arbitration and can be cheaply retained for the foreseeable future.

In order to get that extra pitching depth, the Jays are parting with Young. The 25-year-old will jump to a new organization for the first time, having spent his entire career in the Jays’ system until now. He was selected in the 39th round of the 2016 draft, drafted out of the Bahamas. Since then, he’s climbed his way up the minor league ladder, hitting well at each stop until he got to Triple-A. In 78 Double-A games in 2021, he hit .265/.350/.409 for a wRC+ of 109. In 65 Triple-A games last year, his production dropped to .234/.331/.350, 86 wRC+. He’ll look to take a step forward at the plate with his new team, but he provides a solid floor to the Bucs from his speed and defense regardless. He’s played all three outfield positions, including plenty of center field, and has stolen at least 20 bases in each of the past four minor league seasons.

The Jays are also relinquishing Fernández, whom they just grabbed on waivers from the Yankees last week. The right-hander has huge velocity but has yet to figure out how to properly harness it. He averaged 98.8 mph on his four-seamer this year and 98.7 mph on his sinker last year but struck out just 16.7% of batters faced while walking 14.3% of them. 2022 was his last option year and he’s become a popular target on waivers in recent months. After being designated for assignment by the Cardinals in September, he’s been claimed off waivers by the Pirates, Yankees and Blue Jays. The Jays will now have a week to trade him or put him back on waivers yet again.

Mariners, Colin Moran Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent corner infielder Colin Moran, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (Twitter link). He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training.

Moran, 30, spent the 2022 season with the Reds after signing a one-year deal in early March. Cincinnati, however, cut the former Astro and Pirate loose after he appeared in 42 games and posted  a lackluster .211/.305/.376 batting line in 128 plate appearances.

In parts of four seasons with the Pirates (2018-21), Moran was a roughly average hitter, turning in a combined .269/.331/.419 batting line with 44 home runs, 71 doubles and a pair of triples in 1527 plate appearances. At times, particularly in the shortened 2020 season, it’s looked as though the former No. 6 overall draft pick might have more in the tank.

Moran posted a massive 91.9 mph average exit velocity in 2020 and put a whopping 47.2% of his batted balls in play at 95 mph or more. He belted 10 home runs in just 200 plate appearances that season and posted career-best marks in slugging percentage (.472) and ISO (.225). That now looks like an outlier, however, as his batted-ball data since that time has fallen back in line with his solid but unspectacular career rates.

The Mariners have a pair of right-handed-hitting corner infielders in third baseman Eugenio Suarez and first baseman Ty France. Both rank among the Mariners’ most productive hitters and are likely to be in the lineup regardless of matchup, but Moran could feasibly make the club as a bench option and spell either in the case of injury or on days where the Mariners want to load up as many lefties as possible against a right-hander with particularly pronounced platoon splits. He could also step into the lineup at designated hitter from time to time.

Moran has been primarily a first baseman and designated hitter over the past two seasons, but he has more than 2000 career innings at the hot corner and has still spent more time there than anywhere else on the diamond. If he doesn’t crack the Opening Day roster and if his deal doesn’t contain a spring opt-out (relatively common for veterans of this status), he could head to Triple-A Tacoma and give the Mariners some depth.

Don Mattingly Named Advisor To Nashville Stars Baseball Group

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The Nashville Stars, a hopeful expansion franchise led by a group including former big league pitcher and D-backs GM Dave Stewart, announced Tuesday that Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly has been named an advisor to the organization’s ownership group (officially titled Music City Baseball, LLC). The Stars/Music City Baseball also count Tony La Russa and Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin among their baseball advisors. Stewart, La Russa and Dave Dombrowski joined the Nashville group back in July 2020, and the Stars’ web site still lists Dombrowski as an advisor even after his hiring as Phillies president of baseball ops in Dec. 2020.

Mattingly will still serve as the Blue Jays’ bench coach this coming season. The Stars’ press release indicates that he will “provide counsel on key strategic matters and work to gain support in bringing a Major League Baseball franchise to Nashville.”

“Simply put, Don Mattingly knows baseball,” Stewart said in a statement within today’s press release. “He was a pure hitter, played near-flawless defense, and has been successful as a manager and coach because of his baseball mind. He is well-respected around the game of baseball, and we are lucky to have him with us.”

Mattingly, indeed, has an immensely impressive baseball resume spanning 14 seasons as a player and another dozen as a manager. The 1985 American League MVP, Mattingly was named to six All-Star teams and also won nine Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger Awards. He retired after his age-34 season with a career .307/.358/.471 batting line, 222 home runs, 442 doubles and vastly more walks (558) than strikeouts (444).

Since retiring, Mattingly has served as both the hitting coach and bench coach for the Yankees, as well as the hitting coach for the Dodgers. Following the 2010 season, the Dodgers tabbed Mattingly as the successor to manager Joe Torre. He managed in L.A. from 2011-15 and in Miami from 2016-22. Mattingly remained at the Marlins’ helm through a sale of the franchise and a front office overhaul, but he and the team agreed to part ways late in the 2022 season. The 2023 campaign will be his first as the Blue Jays’ bench coach, and he’ll provide some valuable experience to John Schneider in his first full season as a Major League manager.

In addition to Mattingly, La Russa, Corbin and Dombrowski, some of the current and former advisors to the Stars/Music City Baseball include Bruce Bochy, R.A. Dickey, Mike Shildt, Barry Zito, Jarrod Parker and Todd Jones, per the Stars’ web site. There’s no clear timetable for when the league might earnestly seek to expand beyond its current slate of 30 teams. Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated at multiple times in the past that he indeed hopes to bring about further expansion of the league, though he’s also indicated that the long-running stadium issues for both the A’s and Rays must be addressed.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported that Mattingly had been named an advisor to the Stars’ ownership group.

Royals, Matt Beaty Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Royals are in agreement on a minor league contract with first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Beaty, a client of the Ballengee Group, will be invited to Major League Spring Training.

Beaty, 29, has spent his entire career to date in the National League West. A 12th-round pick by the Dodgers back in 2015, he made his debut with Los Angeles four years later and appeared in the Majors with the Dodgers each season from 2019-21. The Dodgers designated Beaty for assignment and traded him to the Padres last winter, but Beaty appeared in just 20 games and took only 47 plate appearances with San Diego.

The 2022 season proved to be the least productive of Beaty’s big league career, although small-sample caveats obviously apply. In those 47 trips to the plate, he went 4-for-43 with a double and a triple. That’s a far cry from Beaty’s generally solid production in three years with L.A., which saw him post a combined .262/.333/.425 batting line in 556 plate appearances. On the whole, Beaty is a .249/.320/.405 hitter in 603 Major League plate appearances, and he carries a solid .290/.383/.407 batting line in 435 plate appearances at the Triple-A level as well.

Defensively, Beaty has experience at all four corner positions, though he’s barely played any third base over the past few years. He’s primarily a first baseman and left fielder at this juncture, and given that he, like Kansas City first basemen Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto, swings left-handed, he’ll likely have a hard time getting into the lineup at first base.

The outfield mix in Kansas City is far less settled, however. Michael A. Taylor will reprise his role as the everyday center fielder, barring a trade, but the corner-outfield picture is fairly muddy at present. Veteran Hunter Dozier could mix in on occasion, and the Royals also have younger options in the form of Kyle Isbel, Edward Olivares and prospects Drew Waters and Nate Eaton all on the 40-man roster. Each of Eaton, Dozier and Olivares bats right-handed, while Isbel is a lefty and Waters is a switch-hitter.

There’s perhaps room for Beaty to find his way into that crowded mix — particularly if the Royals are more bullish on his ability to return to the hot corner on occasion. If he doesn’t crack the big league roster this spring, he’ll likely head to Triple-A Omaha and give the Royals some depth with a pretty decent track record both in Triple-A and the Majors — last year’s dismal results with the Friars notwithstanding.

The Opener: Belt, Correa, MLBTR Chat

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After a busy morning on the free agent market, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Belt, Blue Jays deal to be made official.

Susan Sussler of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that longtime Giant Brandon Belt, who landed in Toronto last night on a one-year deal, will be officially announced by the Blue Jays today. Because the Blue Jays have a full 40-man roster, the club will need to announce a corresponding move to clear space for the slugger. Belt, who will play next season at age 35, has passed his physical and is good to go for the 2023 season after undergoing knee surgery in September, per Slusser. The addition of Belt should help the Blue Jays in their quest to balance their lineup, which was heavily right-handed in 2022. He joins Kevin Kiermaier and Daulton Varsho as lefty bats the club has added to their position player mix this offseason.

2. Is a Correa conclusion on the horizon?

Last night brought an update on Carlos Correa’s free agent saga, as reports began to swirl that talks between Correa and the Twins are accelerating. Correa initially agreed to a deal with the Giants last month before a snag in negotiations caused by Correa’s physical caused the shortstop’s camp to pivot to a new deal with the Mets to play third base. The Mets, too, flagged an old injury in Correa’s physical as cause for concern, and the sides have spent the past few weeks trying to finalize the agreement. Whether Correa ultimately ends up in New York, Minnesota, or somewhere else entirely, it seems likely that Correa’s rollercoaster free agency could be finally approaching its conclusion.

3. MLBTR Chat Today

MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be taking questions from readers today when he hosts a live chat at 1pm CT. You can submit a question in advance, and the same link will take you to the chat when it begins later today if you would like to participate live.

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