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Arte Moreno No Longer Pursuing Sale Of Angels

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The Angels announced that the Moreno family is ending the exploratory process to sell the team and will continue ownership throughout the 2023 season and beyond.

“During this process, it became clear that we have unfinished business and feel we can make a positive impact on the future of the team and the fan experience,” owner Arte Moreno says in a statement released by the club. “This offseason we committed to a franchise record player payroll and still want to accomplish our goal of bringing a World Series Championship back to our fans. We are excited about this next chapter of Angels Baseball. We are grateful to Galatioto Sports Partners for their outstanding efforts throughout the process that allowed us to meet with a number of highly qualified individuals and groups who expressed strong interest in the Club. However, as discussions advanced and began to crystallize, we realized our hearts remain with the Angels, and we are not ready to part ways with the fans, players and our employees.”

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred also released a statement on the matter, as relayed by Sam Blum of The Athletic. “Despite strong buyer interest in the Angels, Arte Moreno’s love of the game is most important to him. I am very pleased that the Moreno Family has decided to continue owning the team.”

Moreno, now 76, announced in August that he would explore a sale of the team. There weren’t many details of the sales process reported in the interim, though Manfred did say in December that the club was hoping to have the sale completed by Opening Day. It appears that Moreno either didn’t find an offer to his liking or had a change of heart and will keep hold of the team for the foreseeable future.

He purchased the team from the Walt Disney Company for $184MM in April of 2003. The Angels were reigning champions at that time, having won the 2002 World Series. They qualified for the postseason a few times in the next few years but have since gone into a dry spell. They have made the playoffs just once since 2009, getting swept by the Royals in the 2014 ALDS and not making it back since. That’s come despite having some superstar players on the roster in those years, include current Angels Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The club’s payroll has regularly been in the top 10 in the league in Moreno’s tenure but he’s garnered a reputation as being one of the owners more likely to meddle in baseball decisions, which has made him a divisive figure among the Angels’ fans.

This offseason, despite the potential sale hanging over the club, they have been quite active in pursuing upgrades. They traded for Gio Urshela and Hunter Renfroe while signing free agents Brandon Drury, Brett Phillips, Tyler Anderson and Carlos Estévez. That’s bumped the club’s payroll up to $206MM, per Roster Resource, with a competitive balance tax calculation of $220MM. That payroll would indeed be a franchise record as Moreno stated, with Cot’s Baseball Contracts having their previous high as last year’s $189MM figure. Whether that’s enough for the club to break its postseason drought remains to be seen. They will be looking to chase the Astros, who have dominated the division for years and just won the World Series. The young and resurgent Mariners just grabbed a Wild Card spot last year and the Rangers have been extremely aggressive in pursuing upgrades over the past couple of years.

The continuation of the Moreno regime will lead to various questions that will need to be resolved in the years and months to come. From on-field perspective, the biggest unknown is the future of Ohtani. The unprecedented two-way superstar is entering his final year of club control before he’s slated to reach free agency. Many have been speculating about whether a new owner would be motivated to give Ohtani a mega deal to stay an Angel or would prefer to start fresh by clearing house and beginning a rebuild. Now those questions will have to be directed towards Moreno and whether they can find common ground on a deal or if Ohtani is determined to spend the next part of his career elsewhere.

Off the field, there will be questions about the issues that perhaps led to Moreno pursuing a sale in the first place. A company created by Moreno was attempting to purchase the 150-acre Angel Stadium site from the city of Anaheim with a goal of using the land to develop commercial space, housing, restaurants and more. A tentative agreement was reached at a $320MM price point but the potential sale drew heavy criticism from many in the area and a federal investigation was launched into alleged corruption, violations of state laws, and insider information being shared as part of the deal. Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu was personally cited in the investigation and ultimately resigned. Anaheim City Council later voted against the deal in May of 2022. The club’s lease on the stadium runs through the end of the 2029 season with a club option to extend that lease through 2038.

There will also be league-wide questions to be answered, as the Angels were one of two teams exploring sales this winter. The other is the Nationals, though that situation appears to be mired in TV rights issues and nowhere near a resolution. For any groups interested in getting into the MLB ownership game, those two paths that appeared open a few months ago now appear to be closed or perhaps untenable. The league has expressed interest in expanding from 30 to 32 teams though Manfred has repeatedly said that he would like each of the A’s and Rays to resolve their respective stadium situations before expansion will be on the table.

Alex Anthopoulos Discusses Braves’ Shortstop Situation

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The Braves watched Dansby Swanson depart in free agency this winter. They’ll enter the season with something of a question mark at shortstop for the first time in six years as a result.

As things stand, shortstop looks like a two-man battle between young infielder Vaughn Grissom and utilityman Orlando Arcia. Grissom, 22, is seemingly the organization’s shortstop of the future. He has just 41 MLB games under his belt and comes with some questions about his ability to handle the position defensively, as many prospect evaluators have suggested he’d be a better fit for second base or left field. Arcia has a much longer MLB track record but owns a modest .243/.295/.369 line in just under 2200 career plate appearances.

Veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus remains unsigned and would seem a viable fit on paper for a win-now Atlanta team in a competitive division. There’s no indication the Braves have explored the possibility of adding a stopgap shortstop, though. Atlanta has placed a decent amount of trust in their highly-touted young players in recent seasons, and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos expressed optimism about the in-house candidates over the weekend.

Anthopoulos acknowledged that some have defensive concerns with Grissom but noted that well-respected infield coach Ron Washington has offered strong reviews on his offseason work. “I can see how the scouting community might have questions about Vaughn. I had questions about Vaughn when I first saw him,” Anthopoulos said (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “And I’ve been wrong plenty of times. The difference is we have a guy in Ron Washington who’s unbelievable with this stuff. He wouldn’t just say something to say it. … And, look, we don’t know how Vaughn’s going to hit. He’s got to earn the job. Orlando Arcia can do it, too. But Wash really believes in Vaughn. We believe in Vaughn, too, but we’re going to go with who we think the expert in that area is, and I don’t know anybody better in the game than Ron.”

Certainly, the Braves would love for Grissom to seize the position out of the gate. The right-handed hitter impressed during his first crack of major league action, hitting .291/.353/.440 with five home runs over 156 plate appearances. He showed an aggressive approach but quality bat-to-ball skills. Grissom played mostly second base with Ozzie Albies injured last season, with public defensive metrics painting him a couple runs below average in 347 innings of work.

Albies will be back at the keystone, while Austin Riley has third base secured. The only non-shortstop position in the lineup that’s unsettled is left field, where a hodgepodge of players led by Eddie Rosario look to be competing for reps. Skipper Brian Snitker stressed over the weekend that Grissom wouldn’t factor into the corner outfield during exhibition play, with the club viewing him solely as an infielder (via David O’Brien of the Athletic).

The 28-year-old Arcia is a lower-upside veteran fallback. He’s coming off the best offensive showing of his career in a part-time role, hitting .244/.316/.416 with nine homers through 234 trips to the plate. That was the first above-average slash line of his seven big league seasons. Arcia made hard contact at a career-high 42.5% clip to collect 18 extra-base hits over 68 games. It was a nice year for the 28-year-old to at least put himself in the mix for the shortstop position if Grissom falters, although his modest career track record at the plate raises questions about whether he could maintain his 2022 production over a full year of everyday shortstop reps.

Rays Continuing To Explore Market For Offensive Help

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Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander told reporters during his season-closing press conference back in October that the club wanted to add a big bat this winter — particularly of the left-handed-hitting variety — after Tampa Bay’s offense managed to score only one run over 24 innings in that marathon two-game Wild Card Series ouster versus the Guardians.

Rays hitters combined for a .686 OPS during the 2022 regular season, which ranked 25th among all 30 major league clubs. And against right-handed pitching, their combined team batting line was just .234/.305/.373 across a sample size of 4,580 total plate appearances.

Nothing overly exciting has come together for the Rays up to this point, and Neander acknowledged in a recent chat with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that it’s probably too late to make a meaningful offensive addition from what’s left on the open market.

“As the winter went on, and as we spoke publicly, I think the focus was more on an established player, ideally left-handed, being the right type of player for our group,” Neander told Topkin. “We feel really good about the assortment of breakthrough and bounce-back players we have on our roster currently. It was really more about adding an established, consistent offensive player, and there aren’t that many of them out there that are available.”

There was chatter about a number of possible pursuits to help the cause — the Rays were linked at various points to free agents like Josh Bell and Andrew McCutchen. They were also said to be in the hunt for Sean Murphy before the Athletics dealt him to the Braves as part of a three-team swap that also involved the Brewers. Topkin writes that Tampa Bay also made runs at Michael Brantley and Brandon Belt before those players signed elsewhere.

The hope is that a trade for run-scoring help might come together sometime this spring, or better yet before the Rays even roll into camp in Orlando, Florida. Neander also plans to keep his ear open for in-season moves in 2023, should those “breakthrough and bounce-back players” — think Wander Franco, Josh Lowe, and Jonathan Aranda — fail to come through over the course of the first half.

It’s all quite daunting in an AL East that features the Blue Jays (3rd in combined OPS last year at .760) and the Yankees (4th in combined OPS at .751), but Topkin suggests the Rays could have room to add to a roughly $70MM payroll as the baseball calendar moves toward the summer months.

Maybe there could be a circle-back with the A’s, who always seem to be open for business and would likely listen on Seth Brown even after he cranked 25 home runs in 150 games last year. Or perhaps there might be a match with Twins on Max Kepler given Minnesota’s recent addition of Michael A. Taylor from the Royals. One thing the Rays do have is prospects, both low-level and the more MLB-ready types, and Tampa Bay’s front office has certainly never lacked for creativity in finding ways to pull off under-the-radar improvements.

Michael Hill Withdraws Name From Astros’ GM Search

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The Astros have been without a general manager since James Click was surprisingly dismissed just days after the club won the World Series. Reporting last week indicated that Michael Hill, former president of baseball operations for the Marlins, was one of the candidates for the position. However, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports today that Hill has removed himself from consideration (Twitter links).

Hill, 51, would have brought plenty of experience to the role, having joined the Marlins in 2002. He worked his way up through various positions, including assistant general manager, general manager and president of baseball operations, holding that latter title until his contract wasn’t renewed following the 2020 season.

He has since been working for Major League Baseball as senior vice president of on-field operations. He’s been connected to various front office openings over the past few years, including with the Angels, Mets, Phillies and now the Astros. However, Heyman reports that Hill is happy in his role with the league and would like to stick around as the new rules are implemented. The 2023 season will see the league implementing a pitch clock as well as limits on defensive shifts and pickoff attempts. It seems the Houston job isn’t enough to tempt Hill away from overseeing the transition to this new brand of baseball.

That leaves two known candidates connected to the job in Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown and former Giants general manager Bobby Evans. It’s possible that owner Jim Crane is considering others that haven’t been reported yet but it seems like Hill can be crossed off the list. Crane himself has seemingly been leading the baseball decision making since his disagreements with Click led to the vacancy a couple of months ago.

Aaron Slegers Announces Retirement

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Aaron Slegers announced his retirement from baseball on his personal Twitter account last week, citing an “ongoing shoulder injury” that has led to him “calling it a career” at age 30.

Slegers was selected by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Indiana University and went on to make his big league debut with Minnesota in 2017 before then bouncing between the Rays and Angels. The sinkerballer’s best season came with Tampa Bay in 2020, when he posted a 3.46 ERA through 26 innings during the shortened season. Slegers made three playoff appearances during the Rays’ run to an American League pennant, providing Kevin Cash with five innings of one-run ball during the postseason.

Over parts of five MLB seasons, the right-hander worked to a 5.46 ERA with 59 strikeouts and 28 walks across 89 total major league innings, operating mostly in relief. He induced grounders on a solid 51% of batted balls over the course of his career.

Slegers struggled with the Angels in 2021 and was outrighted off their roster in August. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays for 2022 but made it through only 2 2/3 innings in the rookie-level Florida Complex League before his shoulder began barking again. He threw his last pitch on July 2022 against the FCL affiliate of the Braves.

“I know baseball has blessed me with talents far wider than the skills on the field and has molded me into who I am as a person,” Slegers wrote in his retirement post. “Thank you to all who have supported me.” MLBTR wishes Slegers the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Twins Designate A.J. Alexy For Assignment

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After officially announcing their acquisition of Michael A. Taylor from the Royals, the Twins have designated right-hander A.J. Alexy for assignment.

Alexy was acquired from the Nationals earlier this month — on the same day as Carlos Correa’s thoroughly-covered physical with the Twins — but the 24-year-old is now off the 40-man roster in Minnesota and moves again into DFA limbo.

An 11th-round pick by the Dodgers in the 2016 MLB Draft out of a Pennsylvania high school, Alexy made his big league debut with the Rangers in 2021 and showed pretty well in his first cup of coffee before getting lit up for nine earned runs over seven innings last year with Texas. He was claimed off waivers by Washington in December but was part of that organization for less than a month.

Alexy’s stint on the 40-man roster in Minnesota lasted less than two weeks, though he could feasibly pass through waivers unclaimed this time around and would then have to accept an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul.

Twins Acquire Michael A. Taylor From Royals

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The Twins added some outfield depth Monday evening, announcing the acquisition of Michael A. Taylor from the division-rival Royals. Minor league relievers Evan Sisk and Steven Cruz are headed back to Kansas City. Right-hander A.J. Alexy was designated for assignment to clear a spot for Taylor on the 40-man roster.

Taylor has spent the past two years in Kansas City. Initially signed to a one-year, $1.75MM guarantee over the 2020-21 offseason, Taylor impressed Royals’ brass with his excellent outfield defense. The rangy center fielder proved a perfect fit for spacious Kauffman Stadium and an organization that places a premium on defense. He secured his first career Gold Glove in 2021 and earned himself a $9MM extension covering the 2022-23 campaigns late in that season.

During the first season of that new two-year deal, Taylor continued his typically excellent defensive play. He logged just over 1000 innings of center field work, with Defensive Runs Saved pegging him as 19 runs better than average at the outfield’s most demanding position. It was the second consecutive year in which DRS graded him at +19 runs, making him far and away the game’s most valuable defensive outfielder by that metric. Since the start of 2021, no other center fielder has tallied more than 21 total DRS — with second-place Myles Straw well behind Taylor’s cumulative +38 mark.

Statcast wasn’t quite as enthusiastic last season, though it also rated him as an above-average center fielder. Its Outs Above Average metric put Taylor at +5 runs last year after rating him 14 runs above average the previous season. Straw narrowly edges him out over the two-year stretch by that measure, but Taylor still checks in second at the position going back to the start of the ’21 season.

Byron Buxton, of course, is one of the few outfielders in the game who’s as good or better than Taylor defensively. He hasn’t the same opportunity to vault to the top of the league in cumulative defensive metrics, however, as injuries have kept him off the field. Buxton has played 955 center field innings over the past two years, fewer than Taylor has reached in each individual season. He’s suffered strains in his right hip in each of the last two seasons and missed a couple months in the second half of 2021 after fracturing his left hand on a hit-by-pitch. Buxton also played through a right knee injury last season, one that required season-ending surgical repair once the Twins fell out of playoff contention.

The All-Star outfielder shows MVP-caliber upside when healthy and will obviously remain Minnesota’s starting center fielder. He’s only once topped 100 games in a season, however, so it’s understandable the Twins want to fortify their depth behind him. Gilberto Celestino was the top reserve option last year, but he hit only .238/.313/.302 with a pair of home runs in 347 trips to the plate. Celestino is a quality defender but not at Taylor’s level. With a minor league option year still remaining, the 23-year-old could open the season in Triple-A St. Paul now that he’s been jumped on the depth chart.

Right fielder Max Kepler is athletic enough to handle center field if needed, though there’s no guarantee he’ll even be on the roster come Opening Day. Minnesota has a number of left-handed hitting outfielders, raising the possibility of them dealing from that group to address other areas like first base or the bullpen. Kepler, as the oldest player in the group and the one with the least amount of remaining club control, would be the most straightforward candidate for such a move.

The Twins traded for an outfielder in spite of that seeming surplus, though Taylor’s right-handed bat will help to balance things. He’s posted below-average overall offensive numbers throughout his career, carrying a .241/.296/.381 line over parts of nine big league seasons. Aside from a solid .271/.320/.486 showing with the Nationals in 2017, he’s been a subpar hitter in every year. That has been the case regardless of pitcher handedness, though he’s predictably been a little better when holding the platoon advantage. Taylor carries a .257/.310/.412 career line against left-handed pitching, compared to a .235/.290/.369 mark against righties.

Strikeouts have been the primary issue for the 31-year-old. He’s punched out in 29.4% of his career trips to the plate while walking at a meager 6.9% rate. To his credit, Taylor did take a bit of a step forward in that department last season. His 23.9% strikeout rate was a personal low, only a couple percentage points higher than the league mark. He seemed to sacrifice a little in the way of impact to do so, with last season’s 32.3% hard contact rate representing the lowest figure of his career.

Taylor obviously won’t be counted upon to provide much of an offensive jolt. He brings some lineup balance, joining Celestino as the only righty-swinging outfielders on the 40-man roster. More importantly, he’ll offer manager Rocco Baldelli a quality defensive option either off the bench or if needed in the event Buxton misses time.

It’s an affordable addition for the Twins, who’ll assume the $4.5MM Taylor’s due during the upcoming season before hitting free agency. That brings Minnesota’s projected payroll to $155MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’ll be a franchise-record mark, with the club opening last year in the $134MM range. The Twins had been fairly quiet this offseason until the calendar flipped to 2023, but they’ve re-signed Carlos Correa, flipped Luis Arraez for Pablo López and prospects and now brought in Taylor within a matter of weeks. Minnesota figures to continue to scour the market for upgrades, at least around the margins, as they battle the Guardians and White Sox in the AL Central.

The Royals, meanwhile, ship away a veteran for future help on the heels of a 65-win season. Taylor looked like one of the better trade candidates on the roster as an impending free agent. Kansas City set a fairly significant ask initially, reportedly targeting right-hander Josh Winder in talks with the Twins. Minnesota balked and the sides eventually pivoted to a pair of minor leaguers.

Sisk, 26 in April, entered the professional ranks as a 16th-round pick of the Cardinals in 2018. The College of Charleston product landed in Minnesota at the 2021 trade deadline in the deal that sent J.A. Happ to St. Louis. A left-handed reliever, Sisk split the season between Double-A Wichita and St. Paul. He threw 63 innings through 50 appearances, posting a brilliant 1.57 ERA while punching out an excellent 29.8% of batters faced. Yet he also walked an alarming 11.4% of opponents and has shown scattershot control throughout his time in the minors.

It’s a similar story with Cruz, a 6’7″ right-hander. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017, he’s pitched 192 1/3 frames through five minor league seasons. Cruz spent the entire 2022 season in Wichita, showing a similar high-strikeout, high-walk approach as Sisk. The 23-year-old fanned 28% of opponents but walked batters at a near-14% rate. Baseball America wrote last season that Cruz can touch triple-digits and owns an upper-80’s slider that gives him a chance to carve out an MLB bullpen spot if he can better hone the strike-throwing.

Neither Sisk nor Cruz are on the 40-man roster. Both players were left unprotected for and went undrafted in this offseason’s Rule 5 draft. They’ll give the Kansas City player development staff a pair of upper-level bullpen possibilities with the clear ability to miss bats. Both pitchers could get a look at some point in 2023. Cruz would be eligible for minor league free agency if he’s not added to the 40-man roster by next offseason.

Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN first reported the Twins were acquiring Taylor. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported Sisk and Cruz were heading back to Kansas City.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Cubs, Jordan Holloway Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs signed right-hander Jordan Holloway to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, MLBTR has learned.

Holloway was limited to just 2 2/3 major league innings with the Marlins last season — and he also logged only 23 2/3 innings in the minors — because of a fractured bone spur in his pitching elbow that was ultimately repaired by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in September. The 26-year-old has flashed a powerful arsenal when healthy, and the expectation is that he will be 100 percent when he arrives at Cubs camp in Arizona next month.

With experience as both a starter and reliever, Holloway could get tapped for a swingman-type role on the North Side of Chicago at some point along the way in 2023. A number of Cubs pitchers were used in that capacity, to a surprising level of success, down the stretch in 2022. It all aided in a post-All-Star break record of 39-31, guided by the third-best rotation ERA (2.89) in the majors over that span. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was given the go-ahead to make several aggressive moves on the offensive side this winter, but there would seem to be openings in long relief and for emergency starting help.

Holloway, a 20th-round pick by Miami in the 2014 MLB Draft, currently carries a career 3.92 ERA with 38 strikeouts (and 28 walks) through 39 total big league frames.

Padres Sign Nelson Cruz To One-Year Deal

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Jan. 23: Cruz passed his physical in the Dominican Republic and the Padres formally announced the contract on Monday.

Jan. 11: The Padres and slugger Nelson Cruz are in agreement on a one-year deal. The deal is pending a physical but the client of Primo Sports Group is slated to receive a $1MM guarantee.

Once Cruz gets into a game, it will be the 19th straight season for the veteran, who will turn 43 in July. He’s long been one of the most consistent sluggers in the league but he’s coming off a down season. From 2008 to 2021, he hit 434 home runs, the most of anyone in the majors in that time. His batting line over that stretch was .280/.350/.536 for a wRC+ of 136, indicating he was 36% better than league average in that time.

However, the most recent part of his career has been a different story. After being traded from the Twins to the Rays at the deadline in 2021, his production slipped. He hit just .226/.283/.442 after the deal for a wRC+ of 95. He signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Nationals for 2022 and tried to get back on track but actually fell further. He hit .234/.313/.337 last year, finishing with a wRC+ of 85.

As the season was winding down, Cruz told reporters that he was going to undergo eye surgery, since he had been dealing some inflammation that was blocking his vision. He said that it had been affecting him for about a year and a half, which lines up with the period in which his production cratered. Assuming the operation was a success, it’s possible that he could get back to his previous levels of production. But given that he’s old by professional athlete standards, it’s possible that typical age decline could also be a factor.

There’s certainly some risk involved, but it seems to be one that Padres’ president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is willing to take. Preller has shown a tendency to give chances to players he previously employed when he was with the Rangers and Cruz fits that bill. He was a Ranger from 2006 to 2013, the time when he broke out and had some of his best seasons. If the gamble pays off, it will add a potent bat to a San Diego lineup that is already quite dangerous.

Cruz is strictly a designated hitter at this point in his career, having taking the field only once in the past four seasons, which was seven innings of first base action for the Rays in 2021. It’s possible that Cruz and the left-handed hitting Matt Carpenter could platoon in the designated hitter role, but Carpenter is also capable of playing some first base and outfield, giving manager Bob Melvin some ability to get them both into the lineup, if he’s so inclined.

Financially, the Padres have shot their payroll up to new heights this winter. Roster Resource calculates their spending at $250MM, which would easily be a franchise record. The figures at Cot’s Baseball Contracts have their previous high at $211MM, which was last year. Perhaps more importantly, the club is set to be a luxury tax payor for a third straight season, having also paid the competitive balance tax in 2021 and 2022. Roster Resource pegs their CBT number at $267MM, well beyond the $233MM base threshold and the second $253MM threshold. As a third-time payor in the second tax bracket, they’re currently slated for a 62% tax on any extra spending. If they go beyond the third line, which is $273MM, the rate jumps all the way to 95% and their top pick in the 2024 draft would be dropped by ten slots.

Héctor Gómez of Z101 Digital first reported the two sides were in agreement on a one-year deal. Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the $1MM salary.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Krall: Reds Unlikely To Make Further Roster Additions

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With about three weeks until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, there are still some notable free agents on the board but it doesn’t seem like the Reds are planning to be active in that department. The club kicked off their caravan tour today and Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer was there to talk to team personnel including general manager Nick Krall, who said that the roster is “pretty much set,” though the club could still bring in some more non-roster invitees.

There are certainly some areas of the roster where additional investment would be justified, but it doesn’t seem like the resources are there for the rebuilding club. It’s not exactly a shocking revelation as Krall has been downplaying the likelihood of significant upgrades since October. Since that time, the club has traded for Kevin Newman, Casey Legumina and Nick Solak while signing free agents Wil Myers, Luke Weaver, Curt Casali and Luke Maile. After those moves, the club’s payroll is just under the $100MM line, according to Roster Resource. That would be their lowest Opening Day figure since 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but it seems they’re committed to leaving plenty of runway to let their young players battle each other for future roles on the team. “We’ve got a solid group of guys both on the big league club and in our minor league system,” Krall said. “We have a lot solid young players at the big league level. It’s just continuing to develop out of our system.”

The rotation is perhaps the most intriguing part of the roster at the major league level. Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft all debuted last year and flashed good stuff, but with some polishing perhaps still required. Greene struck out 30.9% of batters faced but posted a 4.44 ERA, perhaps due to allowing 24 home runs in 125 2/3 innings. Ashcraft only struck out 15.3% of batters faced but got ground balls at a healthy 54.5% clip en route to a 4.89 ERA. Lodolo missed almost three months due to a lower back strain but was able to post a 3.66 ERA with a 29.7% strikeout rate when healthy. Those three will be joined by reclamation project Weaver, with Luis Cessa, Connor Overton and Justin Dunn among the options to fill out the back end. It’s possible that yet another highly touted prospect could join them at some point as Brandon Williamson finished last year at Triple-A.

The bullpen could also potentially be an interesting group for the club. Alexis Díaz debuted last year and posted a 1.84 ERA, taking over the closer’s job by season’s end. Lucas Sims and Tejay Antone both showed lots of potential over 2020 and 2021 but they each were set back by injuries last year. If they can both get healthy and back on track this year, it’s possible there’s a strong relief corps to build on in Cincinnati.

On the infield, it’s possible that the club will have some tough decisions to make down the road as most of their best youngsters play on the dirt. Baseball America recently released its top 100 list for this year, with infielders Elly De La Cruz, Noelvi Marte, Edwin Arroyo and Cam Collier being the four Reds on the list. None of those players have reached Triple-A yet and won’t be able to help out immediately, but they will eventually join an infield currently manned by Kevin Newman, Jonathan India, Spencer Steer, Alejo López, Jose Barrero and Joey Votto. Newman seems like a placeholder and Votto is in the final guaranteed year of his contract, but the rest of that group are young and controllable for years to come.

The outfield is more of a hodgepodge of players who have had sprinklings of MLB time but without fully cementing themselves as viable solutions. Myers will give them one solid veteran next to Solak, TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, Nick Senzel, Stuart Fairchild and Michael Siani. Behind the plate, Tyler Stephenson will be the primary catcher but he missed significant time due to various injuries in 2022, leading to the club bring in Maile and Casali so that Stephenson’s workload can be managed.

It’s unlikely that the Reds will find themselves in contention this year, but the individual performances of all these players could still shape the future of the franchise. There’s a decent amount of money coming off the books at the end of this year, as it’s the final guaranteed season for Votto and the now-released Mike Moustakas. That means there’s close to nothing on the books for 2024 and beyond. It’s possible the club could become more aggressive at that time, and how they dedicate those resources down the line will depend on how these players perform between now and then.

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