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Adley Rutschman Earns Full Service Year With Rookie Of The Year Runner-Up

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Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman finished runner-up in this year’s American League Rookie of the Year balloting. While the honor went to Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez, the runner-up placement is a key development for Rutschman.

In order to disincentivize service time manipulation, the league and Players Association agreed to the so-called “prospect promotion incentive” in the most recent collective bargaining agreement. Any player with less than 60 days of MLB service coming into the season who placed on at least two preseason Top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline now receives a full year of service time if they finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year balloting. Rutschman meets that qualification, meaning he’ll earn a full year of service for the 2022 campaign. That moves his path to arbitration and free agency up a year, as he’ll now qualify for arbitration after the 2024 season and is on track to reach free agency after the 2027 campaign.

Rutschman coming up short of the hardware was more a matter of timing than any possible indictment of his performance. The first overall pick in the 2019 draft, the switch-hitting backstop was banged up in Spring Training and eventually started the year in the minors. He played 20 minor league games before getting his first big league call in late May, a time when Rodríguez had already cemented himself among the AL favorites.

As soon as he got to the big league level, Rutschman emerged as Baltimore’s top position player. He hit .254/.362/.445 with 13 home runs across 470 plate appearances. Among 29 catchers with at least 300 plate appearances, Rutschman trailed only Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk in on-base percentage and finished eighth in slugging. The former Oregon State star also threw out 11 of 36 attempted base-stealers, rated as 18 runs above average with the glove by measure of Defensive Runs Saved and immediately stepped in to lead a generally young pitching staff.

Rutschman is arguably already one of the sport’s top three catchers, and his arrival helped kick off an incredible midseason turnaround for the O’s. 16-24 at the time of his promotion, Baltimore went 67-55 after his call-up and shocked much of the baseball world by flirting with Wild Card contention into September. They didn’t make the postseason, but they were far better than most expected and have positioned themselves for a more active offseason than they’ve had since starting their rebuild. Rutschman isn’t responsible for the Orioles turnaround alone, but he’s no doubt the biggest part of what’s an increasingly promising team.

Unlike the Mariners, the Orioles will not receive a bonus draft pick for Rutschman’s finish. Seattle earns an extra selection because Rodríguez, who also met the criteria as a consensus top prospect preseason, would have qualified for a full year of service independent of the award finish based on the team carrying him on the MLB roster for at least 172 days. Rutschman was on the roster for 138 days and would not have earned a full service year in 2022 if not for his top-two finish.

Julio Rodriguez Wins American League Rookie Of The Year Award

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Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez has won the Rookie of the Year award in the American League for 2022, according to an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman finished second in the voting, while Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan checked in third.

This year’s rookie class in the Junior Circuit was remarkable, headlined by Rodríguez and Rutschman. The pair of top prospects both hit the ground running against MLB pitching. Seattle carried Rodríguez on the roster as their Opening Day center fielder, looking to build off their surprising 90-win campaign in 2021. The young outfielder got off to a tough start, thanks in part to a number of questionable strike calls in the early going, but he eventually emerged as the best position player on a good Seattle club.

Over 560 plate appearances, Rodríguez posted a .284/.345/.509 line. He connected on 28 home runs and swiped 25 bases in 32 attempts, one of just four players (Kyle Tucker, Adolis García and Marcus Semien being the others) to reach 25 longballs and steals apiece. Rodríguez was particularly electric in the second half, putting up a .303/.361/.576 line coming out of the All-Star Break to help Seattle cruise to its first postseason appearance in more than two decades.

Rodríguez also impressed on the other side of the ball, starting 130 games and playing 1126 2/3 innings in center field. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast credited him with above-average defense, no small feat for a player whom some prospect evaluators suggested might be a better fit for right field. The 21-year-old looks to have put any questions about his defensive home to bed for the time being.

While Rodríguez is surely thrilled to secure Rookie of the Year honors on its own merits, the selection has a tangible effect on the team as well. The new collective bargaining agreement contained measures designed to counteract service time manipulation through the so-called “prospect promotion incentive.” Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year. That’s a moot point for Rodríguez, who’d have qualified for a full service year after tallying 172-plus days on the MLB roster regardless. He also signed a massive contract extension midseason that overwrites his path to arbitration and free agency.

The second portion of the PPI does come into effect, though. A team that promotes a player for a full service year who meets the aforementioned prospect criteria and entered the year with less than 60 days of MLB service who subsequently finishes top two in ROY balloting (or top three in Cy Young or MVP voting during their pre-arbitration seasons) earns a bonus draft pick after the first round. Seattle carried Rodríguez on the roster all year, so they’ll collect an extra pick in the 2023 draft in recognition of his achievements.

Rutschman and Kwan check in as runners-up after very strong years in their own right. Baltimore’s catcher hit .254/.362/.445 with 13 home runs in 470 plate appearances. His second-place finish earns him a full year of service time as well. Kwan doesn’t that get that honor for third place, but he earned a full service year after breaking camp in Cleveland regardless. Rutschman’s former teammate at Oregon State, Kwan hit .298/.373/.400 across 638 plate appearances to help the Guards to a division title.

Rodríguez received 29 of 30 first-place votes, while Rutschman collected the other. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, the lone voter to place Rutschman ahead of Rodríguez, explained his thought process in a well-reasoned Twitter thread. Rodríguez was the only player to be named on all 30 ballots. Rutschman was selected on 28 ballots, while Kwan earned 24 combined second or third-place votes. Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña and Mariners righty George Kirby also picked up some support.

Full vote breakdown found here.

Nationals Release Seth Romero After DWI Charge

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The Nationals have released left-hander Seth Romero after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Texas, reports Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. This is Romero’s second DWI charge of year, with the first coming in January.

Romero is a former first-round pick. Despite being twice suspended and eventually dismissed from the University of Houston baseball team during the spring of his draft year, the southpaw landed in Washington with the 25th overall pick in the 2017 draft. Baseball America’s scouting report at the time noted Romero could’ve gone in the top 10 if not for questions about his maturity level, as he boasted a mid-90s fastball with an excellent slider.

The 6’3″ hurler was slowed by injuries on his way up the minor league ladder, including a 2020 surgery to repair a right hand fracture and an extended absence to start this past season on account of a left calf strain. Romero did make it to the big leagues in Washington but only briefly, appearing in three games and tossing 2 2/3 innings of relief during the shortened 2020 season. His fastball averaged just 91.7 MPH in short stints, a notable dip from where he’d sat at the peak of his prospect hype.

Romero had held his spot on Washington’s 40-man roster until today, although he’s spent the past two years either on the injured list or on optional assignment to the minor leagues. He made five starts this year at Double-A Harrisburg, allowing six runs and walking 11 but striking out 25 in 13 2/3 innings. His upper minors inconsistency could’ve had him on the roster bubble this winter independent of the legal issues he’s now facing, but the Nationals decided to officially move on after he was reportedly arrested yesterday. He’ll be placed on waivers and, if he goes unclaimed, will become a free agent.

The move opens a spot on the Nationals 40-man roster. That count now sits at 38 heading into tomorrow’s deadline to add players to the roster to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft.

Twins, Kyle Garlick Avoid Arbitration

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The Twins and outfielder Kyle Garlick have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Garlick will make a salary of $750K, pre Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com.

Garlick, 31 in January, was outrighted off the Twins’ roster a year ago but earned his way back on by the middle of April. He only got into 66 games on the season due to various injuries. He went to the IL four times, with the causes ranging from a right calf strain, a left hamstring strain, a right ribcage contusion and a left wrist sprain.

Despite all those ailments, he was still able to be an above-average hitter at the plate on the season. He hit nine home runs in that limited playing time and produced an overall batting line of .233/.284/.433. That amounted to a wRC+ of 104, indicating he was 4% better than the league average hitter. The Twins likely envision him for a platoon role, as he was much better against lefties. Six of his nine homers were against southpaws and his overall production against them finished at .243/.305/.500, wRC+ of 128. Against righties, it was just .224/.263/.368 and a wRC+ of 79.

The Twins have a couple of lefties in their outfield mix in Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach. Given Garlick’s abilities with the platoon advantage, he could take some at-bats away from that crew from time to time. All three of them also made multiple trips to the IL in 2022 and could create a larger opening for Garlick if they got hurt. There’s also the oft-injured Byron Buxton in the mix in center, creating another reason for the Twins to keep Garlick around as depth.

Garlick qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player, his first time being eligible for the process. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Garlick for a salary of $1.1MM but he has settled for less than that. It’s not uncommon for such deals to come out at this time of year. Thursday is the deadline for teams to decide whether or not they will tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Garlick was a candidate to be non-tendered and sent back to free agency but has instead agreed to a salary with a modest raise.

Last year’s minimum was $700K and next year’s will be $720K, meaning Garlick gets a small bump and the Twins have secured a player they could find useful at a rate barely above minimum. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, arbitration salaries weren’t guaranteed until Opening Day but the new CBA does guarantee them as long as the player doesn’t go to a hearing. That means Garlick has that $750K locked in.

Chuck Carr Passes Away

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Former big league outfielder Chuck Carr passed away yesterday, according to an announcement from his family on Facebook. He was 55 years old.

Selected by the Reds in the ninth round of the 1986 draft, he eventually made his MLB debut with the Mets in 1990. He got very brief chances in New York that year and in 1991, as well as with the Cardinals in 1992. His first real opportunity for an extended look came in 1993, after the Marlins selected him in their expansion draft.

In 142 games in the inaugural Marlins season, he hit .267/.327/330 and stole 58 bases, enough to lead the National League that year. He stayed with the Marlins for the next two seasons, never providing much power but continuing to be a speed-and-defense contributor. He stole another 32 bags in 1994 and 25 in 1995, despite both of those seasons being shortened by the 1994-1995 strike.

He spent the next couple of seasons with the Brewers and Astros, getting to play in the postseason for the first time with the latter club in 1997. In Game 3 of the NLDS against the Braves, he hit a home run off John Smoltz. Atlanta won the game and the series and Carr didn’t play in the bigs again, meaning that home run eventually proved to be the last at-bat of Carr’s MLB career, finishing it off with a bang.

Altogether, Carr got into 507 games over eight seasons, finishing with a .254 batting average, 435 hits, 81 doubles, seven triples and 13 home runs. He crossed the plate 254 times, knocked in 123 runs and swiped 144 bags.

MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones, former teammates and associates.

Cubs Release Jason Heyward

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The Cubs announced Monday that outfielder Jason Heyward has officially been granted his unconditional release. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer announced in August that the team would release Heyward in the offseason. Heyward is still owed $22MM next year under the terms of his eight-year, $184MM contract, which covered the 2016-23 seasons.

After a lengthy rebuild where the Cubs finished last in the NL Central for five straight years from 2010 to 2014, they finally turned the corner in 2015. Their 97 victories only resulted in a third place finish in the NL Central and a Wild Card berth, though they were able to defeat the two teams that finished ahead of them in the postseason, getting by the Pirates in the WC game and then the Cardinals in the NLDS. They were then swept by the Mets in the NLCS but it was clear that the rebuild was over and it was time to contend.

As such, the 2015-16 offseason was a busy one for the club. They gave $56MM to Ben Zobrist, $32MM to John Lackey and a few one-year deals, but their big strike was Heyward. He and the club agreed to an eight-year, $184MM deal that afforded him potential opt-outs after 2018 and 2019. Those chances to opt out were especially significant given Heyward’s young age, as he was only going into his age-26 season at the time. It was a huge investment for the Cubs at a crucial time in the history of the franchise, but Heyward had proven himself to be an all-around contributor. His defense was excellent and he had hit at an above-average level, in addition to stealing over 20 bases three time in his career already.

Unfortunately, Heyward’s production slumped immediately. After hitting .293/.359/.439 with the Cardinals in 2015, he produced a batting line of .230/.306/.325 in 2016. While the former line amounted to a wRC+ of 121, or 21% above league average, his first year as a Cub resulted in a wRC+ of just 72, or 28% below league average. In spite of the down year from Heyward, the Cubs went 103-58, winning the Central by 17 1/2 games over the Cardinals. Heyward’s bat was even worse in the playoffs, as he hit just .104/.140/.167. Regardless, the Cubs went on to break their century-old curse by winning the World Series. Despite Heyward’s poor on-field results, he supposedly contributed by rousing the club’s spirits with a rain delay speech in Game 7 against Cleveland, though Cub fans can debate among themselves how much credit he deserves for that.

Heyward continued to provide quality outfield defense for years to come but his bat never really properly recovered. Since joining the Cubs, the only season in which he was above-average at the plate, according to wRC+, was the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Based on that diminished performance, he never seemed a threat to trigger his opt-outs and thus stayed on with the Cubs. Over the length of the deal, the team eventually entered another rebuilding period and traded away most of their core performers from the curse-breaking years. After the brief 2020 resurgence, Heyward’s offense plummeted yet again over 2021 and 2022. With the club gradually filling out the roster with younger players that they hope to form the next competitive core, they decided it was time to move on. Heyward was on the IL due to a knee injury in August when Hoyer announced that he would be released in the offseason, which has now indeed come to pass.

Heyward will now become a free agent again, available to sign with any team in the league. Despite his poor track record in recent seasons, he could attract interest as a no-risk candidate. The Cubs will be on the hook for the $22MM remaining on his deal, meaning that any signing club would only have to pay him the league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what the Cubs pay. Despite his extended time a big leaguer, he’s still just 33 years old.

The legacy of Heyward’s time with the Cubs is already divisive among the club’s fans and will surely continue to do so. There’s no disputing the fact that Heyward was never the superstar that the Cubs paid him to be. Some will wonder about what could have been if those resources were committed to a different player. Others will take the “Flags Fly Forever” approach and point to the World Series title as all they need to declare the deal a success. Either way, today’s move is another symbolic move towards a new era of Cubs baseball. With various trades over the years, the recent free agency of Willson Contreras and now Heyward’s release, Kyle Hendricks is left as the last member of that championship core who’s still on the roster.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Athletics Outright Daulton Jefferies

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The Athletics announced Monday that right-hander Daulton Jefferies has been outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. That indicates that Jefferies, who underwent Tommy John surgery in September and thoracic outlet surgery in June, had already been passed through waivers unclaimed.

Jefferies, 27, was the No. 37 overall draft pick out of Cal Berkeley back in 2016. He ranked among the organization’s top prospects throughout the entirety of his minor league tenure, making his Major League debut with a pair of innings during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and also logging 15 solid innings during the 2021 campaign. Jefferies ranked as high as the Athletics’ No. 3 prospect in 2021, per Baseball America, whose scouting report on the righty lauded his plus changeup and plus command.

The 2022 season looked to be a major opportunity for Jefferies to establish himself in Oakland. The A’s shipped out veteran starters Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt as part of last offseason’s fire sale, and while Frankie Montas remained on the roster to begin the season, the widespread expectation that he’d eventually be traded as well indeed came to pass. Jefferies was among several younger options the A’s were hoping to evaluate as potential long-term fits on the starting staff, but injuries intervened.

Jefferies made just eight starts in 2022, yielding an ugly 5.72 ERA in 39 1/3 innings. This year’s 92.8 mph average fastball velocity was down a full two miles per hour from his 2020 debut, and by the end of May, he’d been diagnosed with symptoms suggesting thoracic outlet syndrome.

The combination of TOS and Tommy John surgery is a brutal one for any pitcher but is particularly ominous when the two operations are performed in such rapid succession. Matt Harvey is perhaps the most prominent recent example of a pitcher to undergo both operations, and while he resurfaced to produce some seasons as an innings eater, he quite obviously never returned to the peak form he showed early in his career. Every pitcher’s recovery is different, of course, and Jefferies could yet enjoy a recovery and carve out a nice career for himself. A return the mound will have to wait until the 2024 season at the earliest, however, which left little doubt that the A’s would eventually pass the righty through waivers.

Jefferies will spend the entire 2023 season rehabbing from the pair of surgeries, which means by the time the 2024 season rolls around, he’ll have had roughly 19 months to rehabilitate from the two operations. He’ll face an uphill climb to get back into consideration for a spot on the big league pitching staff, but the current rebuild in Oakland suggests that the A’s might still have plenty of open spots and opportunities for Jefferies even a couple years into the process.

Martin Perez Leaning Toward Accepting Qualifying Offer

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Players have until tomorrow afternoon to make decisions on their one-year, $19.65MM qualifying offers, and as things currently stand, Martin Perez is “likely” to accept his offer, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Morosi hedges by suggesting that a late change in Perez’s market could prompt him to change his thinking, but it’s still of some note to see where things stand for Perez at present, after several days of fielding interest from other teams.

Perez, 32 in April, returned to the Rangers on a one-year, $4MM contract this season and quickly became one of baseball’s best bargains. The former top prospect finally delivered the type of season the Rangers envisioned during his minor league days, finishing tenth in the Majors with 196 1/3 innings and posting a 2.89 ERA that ranked 14th in the Majors. Perez’s success was due in no small part to a career-high 77% strand rate and to a level of home-run prevention (0.50 HR/9) he hasn’t shown since an injury-shortened 2015 season. However, the Rangers saw enough to make that weighty one-year offer, ostensibly comfortable with the idea that even in the event of some regression, Perez can be a serviceable innings eater in an otherwise perilously thin rotation mix.

Accepting the one-year offer wouldn’t necessarily preclude an eventual multi-year deal with the Rangers. While Perez would be locked in at $19.65MM for the 2023 season (and ineligible to be traded, without his consent, prior to June 15), that agreement could be torn up in favor of a new multi-year extension. The two parties would be free to continue negotiating on a possible multi-year pact, and Texas has reportedly already put forth a two-year offer to Perez — presumably at a notably lighter annual value than the $19.65MM rate of the QO.

From a payroll vantage point, even if that $19.65MM salary is something of an “overpay” for Perez, the Rangers likely don’t mind. Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez projects them for a payroll just shy of $122MM at the moment, so Perez would take them to about $141.5MM. Texas has run its payroll as high as $174MM, back in 2017, and that was before they had a brand new ballpark from which to draw revenue. GM Chris Young has said that payroll is expected to rise over its 2022 levels, when the Rangers’ $142MM Opening Day payroll is right in the vicinity where they’d be in the event of Perez accepting the QO.

If he does indeed accept, Perez would join Jon Gray, Dane Dunning and newly acquired Jake Odorizzi as options in the rotation. Texas is widely expected to pursue high-end starting pitching in free agency, having already been linked to the likes of Jacob deGrom, Carlos Rodon and NPB star Kodai Senga, who is available (sans posting fee) as a true international free agent this winter.

Seth Lugo Drawing Interest As Starter

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Right-hander Seth Lugo reached free agency for the first time in his career last week and has already drawn plenty of early interest as teams begin charting their offseason gameplan. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that more than a dozen teams — but not the Mets, yet — have reached out to Lugo. That shouldn’t be surprising for a consistently solid setup man, but what’s more interesting is Sammon’s note that some of those clubs have expressed interest in putting Lugo back into a rotation.

Lugo, 33 this week, has bounced between the Mets’ rotation and bullpen at various times in his career but has been a full-time reliever in each of the past two seasons. In that time, Lugo sports a 3.56 ERA with a sharp 26.6% strikeout rate, a 7.9% walk rate and a 44% ground-ball rate. He’s averaged 94.4 mph on his heater in that time, and Lugo regularly sits near or at the very top of leaderboards for the spin rate on his curveball. Since 2018, FanGraphs’ run values peg Lugo’s fastball as the fifth-most valuable four-seamer among 279 qualified relievers; his curveball ranks seventh, just behind Ryan Pressly.

Generally speaking, Lugo has been a quietly effective member of the Mets’ bullpen for the bulk of his time as a reliever. In exactly 300 career innings out of the bullpen, the right-hander’s ERA sits at 2.91. He’s fanned 27.9% of his opponents and walked 6.9% of them, relying primarily on that fastball/curveball pairing but also mixing in a sinker, occasional slider and a very seldom used changeup (which has been particularly rare in recent seasons).

That mix of four to five pitches, however, is likely what gives some teams the belief that Lugo could find success in a return to a lengthier role. It’s also worth pointing out that while Lugo struggled immensely as a starter in 2020, his overall body of work coming out of the rotation is solid. He’s thrown 194 innings as a starting pitcher in the Majors and pitched to a 4.35 ERA in that time. His  20.9% strikeout rate as a starting pitcher is far lower than his 27.9% mark out of the ’pen, but his 6.3% walk rate is slightly better than his 6.9% rate as a reliever.

Lugo might’ve stuck in the Mets’ rotation for the long haul were it not for some health issues that cropped up early in his big league tenure. Most notably, he was diagnosed with a “slight” tear in his right elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament back in 2017. Any tearing of the UCL, even in minor cases, leads to fear of Tommy John surgery. However, Lugo received a platelet-rich plasma injection in the elbow at the time, opted for rest and rehab rather than surgery, and has not incurred subsequent issues with his elbow ligament. Even in 2021, when he underwent surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow, Lugo indicated that upon examining the MRI results to diagnose the spur, his surgeon “was really impressed with how [the UCL] wound up” (link via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo).

Lugo tossed just 65 innings in 2022 and has a career-high of 101 1/3 innings pitched — a total he reached in both 2017 and in 2018. As such, it’s fair to question just what type of workload he might be able to build up to in 2023 if he indeed opts to sign as a starting pitcher. That said, there are surely plenty of teams also eyeing Lugo in what has become his traditional late-inning setup role — one in which he’s thrived over the past several years. Interest as a starter could well prove to be a moot point, but it’s a good reminder of the outside-the-box approach that a number of clubs will take when it comes to building out their rotations.

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