Mets Interview Clayton McCullough
The Mets have interviewed Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough as part of their ongoing managerial search, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. It’s expected to be their final interview of the first round of the search to replace Luis Rojas.
McCullough joins Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren as the second member of Dave Roberts’ staff to interview for the Mets’ vacancy. The other four known candidates are veteran skipper Buck Showalter, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Astros bench coach Joe Espada and former Tigers/Angels skipper Brad Ausmus.
The 2021 season was the first on a Major League coaching staff for the 41-year-old McCullough, a former minor league catcher who’d previously spent close to a decade as a minor league coach and manager in the Blue Jays system. The Dodgers hired him as their minor league field coordinator in 2015 and promoted him to the big league coaching staff this past season. McCullough also interviewed for the Giants’ managerial vacancy prior to the team’s hiring of Gabe Kapler.
While the first wave of interviews was conducted via Zoom by new general manager Billy Eppler, per SNY’s Andy Martino, the second round of interviews will be conducted in person and will include owner Steve Cohen. He adds that the field is expected to be whittled down to three finalists prior to in-person interviews. At the moment, Showalter is seen as having a “strong chance” to secure the position, per Martino, but it seems as though two more candidates will have the opportunity to sway Eppler and Cohen before anything is finalized.
Giants Acquire Tanner Andrews From Braves
The Giants have acquired minor league right-hander Tanner Andrews from the Braves in exchange for cash, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News). Atlanta had selected Andrews from the Marlins in yesterday’s Minor League Rule 5 Draft.
Major League transactions are on hold during the ongoing lockout, but yesterday’s Rule 5 Draft, this trade and a series of minor league free-agent signings around the league this week serve as a reminder that minor league transactions (for non-40-man players) are alive and well even as MLB and the MLBPA remain locked in a contentious set of collective bargaining negotiations.
[Related: 2021 Minor League Rule 5 Draft results]
Andrews, who recently turned 26, pitched just 5 2/3 innings this season. He landed on the IL early in the year with an elbow injury that led to him undergoing Tommy John surgery on July 7. He’ll miss a large portion of the 2022 season as a result, though if all goes well, he should be able to get some innings under his belt late in the year.
While the elbow injury will put his development on hold for awhile, Andrews still gives the Giants a 2018 tenth-rounder with a career 3.78 ERA, 21.6% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and a 42% ground-ball rate through 164 1/3 pro frames. Most minor league Rule 5 selections prove to be depth options, but every so often, a name or two eventually breaks through to the Majors. Andrews will hope to add his name to that list, but he has a fair bit of rehab ahead of him before starting back down that road.
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Reds Sign Kyle Dowdy To Minor League Deal
The Reds have signed right-hander Kyle Dowdy to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, per a team announcement.
Dowdy, 28, has 22 1/3 innings of big league experience under his belt — all coming with the 2019 Rangers after he’d been plucked from Cleveland in the Rule 5 Draft. He struggled to a 7.25 ERA in that time, however, issuing more walks (18) than strikeouts recorded (17) before being designated for assignment and returned to his original club upon clearing waivers.
This past season, Dowdy spent the year in Triple-A Columbus, where he worked to a 4.80 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate against an ugly 14.6% walk rate. The righty does average better than 95 mph on his heater, and he posted a respectable 12.1% swinging-strike rate in Triple-A this past season.
From a results standpoint, Dowdy’s numbers don’t stand out, but the raw stuff has been intriguing enough for the Indians to trade for him in 2018 and for two teams to take a look at him during his Rule 5 season; the Mets first selected Dowdy in the Rule 5 Draft, and Texas picked him up on waivers after he was cut from Mets camp near the end of Spring Training.
KBO’s Lotte Giants Sign DJ Peters
Dec. 9: The Giants have announced a one-year deal with Peters, per MyKBO’s Dan Kurtz (Twitter link). He’ll receive a $600K base salary and can earn up to $80K worth of incentives.
Dec. 3: Outfielder DJ Peters is nearing agreement on a contract with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Daniel Kim (Twitter link). While Kim cautions the deal is not yet completed, he relays that it is “getting closer.”
Peters was recently outrighted off the Rangers’ 40-man roster. He didn’t have the requisite service time to elect free agency, but it’s not uncommon for MLB teams to grant players their release to pursue opportunities in a foreign professional league. In these instances, the player typically receives a better salary in the foreign league than they’d make spending the 2022 campaign in Triple-A — or even bouncing between the majors and the minors. To get to that point, Peters would have needed to play his way back onto Texas’ 40-man roster.
The 25-year-old (26 later this month) was long a prospect of some regard in the Dodgers’ farm system. Scouts credited the right-handed hitting Peters with big raw power and enough athleticism to play center field, but he struggled with strikeouts throughout his minor league tenure and had major questions about his hit tool.
That evaluation largely played out during the 2021 campaign, Peters’ first as a major leaguer. He popped 13 home runs in just 240 plate appearances between Los Angeles and Texas, sporting an impressive .224 ISO (slugging minus batting average). Yet the former fourth-round pick also fanned in 34.2% of his plate appearances en route to a .197 batting average. Paired with a tiny 5% walk rate, Peters simply made too many outs to be consistently productive. Altogether, his .197/.242/.422 line was around 29 percentage points below league average by measure of wRC+.
Assuming a deal is reached, Peters will spend the 2022 campaign with the Busan-based Giants. It’s not out of the question the Southern California native could pursue another opportunity in the United States down the line. Numerous players have landed guaranteed big league deals after putting together strong seasons in both the KBO and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the past few years, and Peters is young enough to be a desirable free agent a year or two from now if his performance merits.
Rockies Name Clint Hurdle Special Assistant To GM
The Rockies are bringing former manager Clint Hurdle back to the organization as a special assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt, as Tracy Ringolsby first reported at Inside The Seams. He’ll start his new role Jan. 1, per Ringolsby. MLB.com’s Thomas Harding adds that Hurdle will focus, in particular, on player development.
As is so often the case with Rockies, their latest front-office hire is a key figure who is well known by owner Dick Monfort. Hurdle managed the Rockies from 2002-09, during which time Colorado appeared in its lone World Series (2007). Prior to that, he’d served as the team’s Major League hitting coach and a minor league hitting instructor.
Hurdle’s Rockies couldn’t recapture that 2007 form in 2008, finishing the season with a 74-88 record as they tried to weather injuries to both Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki. After an 18-28 start to the ’09 season, Hurdle was dismissed as the team’s skipper and offered a new role elsewhere in the organization. Ultimately, however, the two sides parted ways. Just two seasons later, Hurdle was managing the Pirates, where he’d serve as skipper from 2011-19 — an even lengthier run than the one he enjoyed in Colorado.
The Athletic’s Nick Groke chatted with Hurdle back in June, gauging the former skipper’s interest to returning to a Rockies organization that was now in transition. Hurdle wouldn’t directly confirm interest from the team or a willingness to return, though he alluded to both in calling Denver a “special place” and noting that there were “only a couple places that I would leave my family and my home to embark on something new.”
Ringolsby notes that Hurdle’s new role will still allow the now-64-year-old former skipper to spend time with his family in addition to his role with the team. He’ll still bring an experienced voice — it’s been more than 45 years since the Royals drafted Hurdle with the No. 9 overall pick in 1975 — to a Rockies front office that has seen a good bit of turnover in recent months.
Jeff Bridich was ousted as general manager early in the season, and assistant GMs Zach Wilson and Jon Weil left the organization not long after. Schmidt, the longtime scouting director in Colorado, was elevated to interim GM and then formally named GM on the penultimate day of the regular season — before the Rockies even had the opportunity to talk with candidates from other organizations.
D-backs Hire Jason McLeod As Special Assistant
The Diamondbacks have named former Cubs, Padres and Red Sox executive Jason McLeod a special assistant to general manager Mike Hazen, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). McLeod’s contract with the Cubs expired at the end of the 2021 season.
A move to Arizona for McLeod is in some ways natural, as both he and Hazen have roots in the Red Sox organization. McLeod and Hazen worked together in Boston from 2006-09, when Hazen was the team’s director of player development. However, McLeod jumped to the Padres in 2009 when Jed Hoyer was named GM in San Diego, and he reunited with Hoyer and president Theo Epstein (formerly the GM in Boston) when the Epstein/Hoyer regime took the reins in the Cubs’ front office.
With the Cubs, McLeod served as a vice president overseeing player development, amateur scouting and player personnel at various points (though not all simultaneously). In addition to Hazen, McLeod is no stranger to D-backs assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye, who was Boston’s assistant director of amateur scouting from 2005-09.
McLeod has previously been seen as a candidate for various general manager vacancies, interviewing with the Twins in 2016, with Mets in 2018, with the Giants in 2018 and with the Angels in 2020. McLeod was reportedly a finalist for that Halos vacancy, though the Angels eventually went with Perry Minasian as their new baseball ops leader. McLeod’s role with the D-backs is somewhat nebulous — as is often the case with special assistants of this nature; Rosenthal suggests he’ll contribute “in a variety of areas,” although as a special assistant, McLeod won’t oversee any one specific department like he did in Chicago.
Brewers Sign Three To Minor League Deals
The Brewers announced Thursday morning that they’ve signed catcher Jakson Reetz, outfielder Garrett Whitley and right-hander Moises Gomez to minor league contracts. All three received invitations to Major League Spring Training as well.
Reetz, 26 next month, made his big league debut with the Nationals in 2021, appearing in two games and collecting a double for his first (and, to date, only) Major League hit. A third-round pick by the Nats back in 2014, Reetz ranked among Washington’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America each year from 2015-21, topping out at No. 14 (2015-16) and ranking No. 25 heading into the 2021 season.
While he’s regarded as a solid defender thanks to his receiving and pitch-blocking skills, Reetz has yet to hit much in pro ball. He posted a combined .189/.297/.317 slash in 300 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this past season and carries a career .230/.347/.355 batting line through 472 minor league games in total. Reetz showed some promise with a .253/.370/.441 and 13 homers in High-A back in 2019, but his return to competitive play and debuts in Double-A and Triple-A this past season didn’t go well from an offensive standpoint.
Whitley, 25 in March, has an even loftier draft status. Selected with the No. 13 overall pick by the Rays back in 2015, Whitley ranked among the top-10 farmhands (per BA) in a perennially loaded Rays system each year from 2016-18. Whitley hit .255/.370/.510 and walked at a 12.6% clip in 237 Double-A plate appearances this past season, but he also whiffed in 28% of his trips to the plate at that level. He struggled mightily upon a bump to Triple-A, where he hit just .172/.269/.301 and fanned in a third of his 108 plate appearances (against a diminished 8.3% walk rate).
Like Reetz, Whitley has drawn positive reviews for his defensive skills. He’s a center fielder touted for 60- or even 70-grade speed (on the 20-80 scale) with an above-average throwing arm. Large strikeout rates have plagued him throughout his minor league tenure, even as he’s generally walked at a strong clip. In all, Whitley is a .234/.343/.407 career hitter in pro ball.
Gomez, who’ll turn 25 in February, split the 2021 season between the Mariners’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, pitching well for the former but being hit hard with the latter. The gap between Gomez’s 1.23 ERA in 29 1/3 Double-A frames and 5.94 ERA in 16 1/3 Triple-A innings might not be as great as one would expect, however.
Gomez actually posted better strikeout and walk percentages in Triple-A (23.7% and 5.3%, respectively) than in Double-A (21.2%, 5.9%). However, the righty was blown up for a sky-high .392 average on balls in play during his brief run with Triple-A Tacoma, and his left-on-base percentage fell from 87% to 57.9%. A drop of that magnitude in strand rate is only natural when so many balls in play are falling for hits. The results in Triple-A certainly don’t look appealing, but Gomez has an upper-90s heater and has never posted an ERA north of 3.30 at any minor league level outside of last year’s 13-game cup of coffee in Triple-A.
Free Agent Danny Duffy Targeting June Return Following Flexor Surgery
Although veteran left-hander Danny Duffy was a fairly notable deadline pickup by the Dodgers back in July, the soon-to-be 33-year-old didn’t throw a pitch in Los Angeles following the trade. Acquired while on the injured list due to a forearm strain, Duffy suffered a setback while rehabbing with L.A. and never made it back to a big league mound.
The Dodgers and Duffy were both rather quiet on his outlook. The left-hander now reveals to Andy McCullough of The Athletic that after initially fearing what would’ve been his second career Tommy John surgery, he instead required surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his left arm. That procedure, performed in October, comes with a months-long rehabilitation process. Duffy is targeting June for a return to a big league mound and expects to pitch out of the bullpen in 2022 before hopefully moving back into a rotation thereafter.
Of course, the team for which Duffy will throw remains entirely uncertain. The left-hander hit free agency for the first time in his career at season’s end and did not agree to terms with a club prior to the expiration of the 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement. It stands to reason that either the Dodgers, who traded for him, or the Royals, who drafted and developed him, would have interest in bringing him back.
Then again, Duffy has a lengthy track record of big league success and ought to be of interest to a variety of contenders and non-contenders alike on a short-term deal. Most clubs figure to be interested on a one-year deal, though as we saw with Kirby Yates earlier in the offseason, its feasible that a team could try to lure Duffy on a heavily backloaded two-year arrangement.
Duffy appeared in 13 games for the Royals this past season, all but one of them as a starting pitcher. In 61 frames he notched a tidy 2.51 ERA, albeit with less-favorable reviews from fielding-independent marks like FIP (3.40) and SIERA (4.14). This season’s 93.8 mph average heater was his best mark since 2016, while his 25.8% strikeout rate was a narrow career-high mark over 2016’s rate of 25.7%.
Pair Of Pirates’ Relievers Should Attract Trade Interest Once The Transactions Freeze Is Lifted
Coming off their third consecutive last-place season, the Pirates remain mired in a massive rebuild. Contending in 2022 looks far-fetched, and it remains to be seen if there’s enough internal talent to be competitive by 2023. Aside from perhaps Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh figures to at least be willing to entertain offers for anyone on the current big league club. Once the lockout concludes, it seems likely they’ll draw calls from rivals on a pair of their top relievers: David Bednar and Chris Stratton.
Bednar’s a fairly recent trade acquisition, one of five young players Pittsburgh added last offseason in the deal that sent Joe Musgrove to the Padres. That proved to be an adept pickup for general manager Ben Cherington and his staff, as Bednar was rather quietly one of the league’s better relievers in 2021.
Over 60 2/3 innings, the now 27-year-old Bednar pitched to a 2.23 ERA. That was buoyed a bit by both a strand rate (84.9%) and opponents’ batting average on balls in play (.259) that might be tough to maintain. Yet it’s not as if Bednar’s success was a complete fluke. He struck out 32.5% of batters faced while walking only 8%. That’s a strong combination of punch outs and control, as the 24.5 point gap between his strikeout and walk percentages ranked 15th among the 138 relievers with 50+ innings pitched. His ERA checked in 17th among that group, while his 2.92 SIERA ranked 19th.
In addition to those strong results, Bednar boasts the kind of power stuff teams love in the late innings. His fastball averaged just shy of 97 MPH, according to Statcast, a personal high over his three MLB seasons. He backed that up with a solid splitter and a curveball against which batters made contact only a bit more than half the time they swung. Behind that three-pitch arsenal, Bednar generated whiffs on 15.5% of his offerings. That’s nearly four points higher than the 11.7% league average for bullpen arms, ranking 18th among those with 50 or more frames.
The Pirates certainly don’t have to trade Bednar this winter. The 2021 campaign was his first full season as a big leaguer, and he remains under team control through 2026. That includes the next two seasons at pre-arbitration salaries, making the right-hander an affordable option for the Bucs’ relief corps. (Alterations to the service time structure in the next collective bargaining agreement could affect that timeline, of course, although he’d come with at least two years of remaining control under any system that has thus far been reported to be under consideration in CBA talks).
That said, relief pitching can be volatile. Because Bednar didn’t settle into a big league bullpen until he was already 26, he’ll likely be 28 or 29 years old by the time the Pirates can reasonably expect to contend. Even if they don’t need to actively shop Bednar, the front office could be willing to pull the trigger on a deal if another team put enough young talent on the table.
There’s comparatively more urgency for the Bucs to trade Stratton. The righty is already 31 years old and has four-plus years of service under his belt. Without changes to the service time setup, he’d be controllable another two seasons via arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Stratton for a salary in the $2.2MM range for the upcoming season.
Stratton wouldn’t bring back as strong a return as Bednar could. Not only does he come with less remaining club control, he’s not as dominant. Yet Stratton is coming off a nice season of his own, his second straight solid year. He absorbed 79 1/3 innings of 3.63 ERA ball in 2021, posting capable strikeout and walk numbers (25.5% and 9.8%, respectively). That came on the back of a 12.4% swinging strike rate, his second consecutive season with better than average swing-and-miss numbers.
Going back to the start of 2020, Stratton owns a 3.70 ERA/3.61 FIP over 109 1/3 frames of relief. That’s come with above-average strikeout and swinging strike rates and roughly league average control. Opposing hitters own a .232/.306/.363 line against him in that time. Stratton isn’t an impact piece, but he’s a solid reliever who’d upgrade the middle or late innings for plenty of more immediate contenders around the league. Pittsburgh wouldn’t bring back a franchise-altering return, but his solid two-year run should allow the front office to recoup a mid-tier prospect on the trade market.
Stratton looks likelier of the Pirates’ top two relievers to wind up elsewhere over the next few months, but a Bednar move would involve a more significant return. It stands to reason teams will call the Pirates to gauge the asking price on both hurlers. Moving one or both of Bednar and Stratton could serve as the Bucs’ next step in their continued efforts to strengthen the farm system in anticipation of a contention window a few years down the road.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.