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Universal DH Will Be Implemented For 2020

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After months of return-to-play discussions, a shortened 2020 season looks to be upon us — and with it comes the long-anticipated and highly divisive implementation of the universal designated hitter. National League fans and baseball traditionalists recoil at the idea, but both polls we’ve conducted on the universal DH have shown that fans are pretty evenly split on the notion. In our poll earlier this spring, some were open to the idea for 2020 alone if that was one of the health/safety conditions necessary to bring about a 2020 season of some form.

That proved to be the case. And while there was talk about implementing the DH in 2021 as well, that was only on the table in the jointly negotiated season proposals between MLB and the MLBPA. The 2021 universal DH went out the window when no agreement was reached and commissioner Rob Manfred implemented a 60-game season. The two sides could — and very likely will — revisit a 2021 implementation this winter. Most expect that the DH will be here to stay, although for the time being, it’s still a temporary quirk to the upcoming campaign.

The expected lifting of the transaction freeze on Friday could lead some clubs to add a new bat to this mix — Yasiel Puig remains unsigned, and trades will again be allowed — but here’s a high-level look at each club’s options (with links to more in-depth explorations)…

NL West

NL Central

NL East

Rockies, Zac Veen Agree To Terms

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The Rockies have agreed to terms with first-round pick Zac Veen, Carlos Collazo of Baseball America reports (via Twitter). He’ll take home a $5MM bonus that checks in slightly north of his No. 9 overall selection’s $4.949MM slot value. Veen had been committed to Florida but will forgo that commitment to embark on his pro career.

A high school outfielder out of Florida, Veen was a consensus top 10 talent in this year’s draft based his 6’5″, 200-pound frame, plus raw power, potential for an above-average hit tool and above-average speed. Veen is a center fielder right now, though many scouting reports on him project that he’ll move to a corner as he fills out (and, perhaps, adds more power to his game). The Athletic’s Keith Law calls Veen the “best combination of probability and upside” among this year’s crop of high school bats.

The 18-year-old Veen ranked no “worse” than seventh in this year’s class on any of the rankings from Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, ESPN or The Athletic, and the Rockies were surely pleased to be able to select him with the ninth overall pick. Both Baseball America (No. 75) and FanGraphs (No. 80) already have Veen as a top-100 prospect in MLB on their updated rankings, so he’ll add some much-needed talent to what is regarded as a thin Rockies farm system.

 

Looking At The Rockies’ Post-2020 Payroll

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2020 salary terms may finally be sorted out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Prior entries can be found here. Next up is the Rockies:

*Nolan Arenado may opt out after 2021

*Includes Charlie Blackmon 2022 & 2023 player options

*Includes buyouts on club options over German Marquez, Ian Desmond, Daniel Murphy, Jake McGee, and Bryan Shaw

*Includes buyout on mutual option in Wade Davis contract

 

(click to expand/view detail list)

MLB Transaction Freeze Lifts This Friday

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The Major League Baseball season now has a target date for players to report to “Summer” Training (July 1) and for a truncated 60-game season to at last begin on July 23-24. Starved baseball fans finally have some dates to look forward to — and teams throughout the league suddenly have some work to do.

Major League Baseball rosters have been frozen since late March, but that freeze will come to an end this Friday at noon ET, and any club looking to bring in new players will want to give those players as much notice as possible. Plus, with a universal DH and with Opening Day rosters expanding to 30 players (and shrinking to 28 and 26, respectively, 15 and 29 days into the season), it’ll be all the more critical for teams to have depth.

What can we expect? The trade deadline is Aug. 31, and there’s no indication that there are any restrictions on making swaps prior to the season. Perhaps that’ll prove to be the case, but to this point it seems that player movement can come back in full force in just over 48 hours. And, between some lingering names from the offseason market and the sweeping releases made by teams in the past several weeks, there are some recognizable names out there.

Still Unsigned From 2019-20 Offseason

Yasiel Puig is the big name to watch, of course. The longtime Dodgers slugger recently drew interest from a KBO team but told their GM he preferred to take another shot at latching on with an MLB team in 2020. Just last night, Puig tweeted: “Baseball is back and God knows I’m ready #letthewildhorseloose”.

Puig isn’t the only one though. Among the notable names: Russell Martin, Scooter Gennett, Melky Cabrera, Jacoby Ellsbury, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Trumbo, Clay Buchholz, Andrew Cashner, Marco Estrada, Matt Harvey, Danny Salazar, Aaron Sanchez, Jason Vargas, Matt Albers, Pat Neshek, Fernando Rodney, Arodys Vizcaino, Tony Cingrani, Zach Duke, Tony Sipp and Jonny Venters.

Released in Recent Weeks

Many teams throughout the league cut more than 30 minor leaguers beginning in late March, and while most were lower-level names that have no big league experience, there were some recognizable names among the bunch. Teams in need of depth could take a look at the likes of: Edwin Jackson, Shane Carle, Tim Melville, Carlos Asuaje, David Huff, Brock Stewart, Deck McGuire, Brooks Pounders, T.J. Rivera, Aaron Blair, Dalton Pompey, Jake Elmore, Travis Snider and others.

Spring Opt-Outs/Releases

Just prior to the shutdown, veteran righty Jared Hughes opted out of his deal with the Astros, making him available to sign anywhere as well. Among players who were cut loose or opted out prior to the shutdown, he may be the best of the bunch based on recent track record, but there are others. Veteran righties Hunter Strickland and David Hernandez were cut loose by the Nats but have both had their share of success in the big leagues. Right-hander Sam Tuivailala was released by the Mariners as well after some velocity red flags in camp, but he has youth on his side and was a promising young reliever before injuries sidetracked him for the past couple years.

Trade Scenarios to Consider

We don’t know precisely how teams will react to being able to exchange players with each other once again. Some clubs will likely look to unload salary early on after experiencing unprecedented revenue losses — but buyers could be reluctant for similar reasons. At the same time, might the shortened 60-game season embolden less-concrete contenders to make bold plays early on? Teams like the White Sox and Reds were among the most aggressive in free agency this winter; would they take their foot off the pedal now? That seems unlikely.

The opposite could hold true as well. Normally, a team getting out to a slow start wouldn’t be seen as a nail in the coffin — the 2019 World Champs say “hello!” — but three- or four-week slump to start the 2020 campaign could push clubs into “sell” mode early. A team that starts the season 8-13, for instance, would be through 35 percent of its games and could feel forced to begin mulling tough decisions.

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There’s so much that’s unknown still about just how transactions will look. The league and players union may very well still be hammering out some of these specifics. We know that each club will submit a 60-name list of players who can participate in Spring Training by Sunday, but the very fact that trades and transactions are permitted suggests that there’s room for those lists and taxi squads to be adjusted throughout the season (just as would be the case with the 40-man roster under normal circumstances). However the specifics play out, fans can ready for some actual player movement beginning this weekend.

Nationals Finalize Deals With All Six Draft Picks

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The Nationals agreed to a well-above-slot deal with second-round pick Cole Henry, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports. The Louisiana State righty signed for a $2MM bonus that checks in nearly $700K north of the $1.307MM value of his No. 55 overall slot. Washington also agreed to a $500K bonus with third-rounder Holden Powell, per MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (via Twitter). That checks in a bit shy of the UCLA closer’s $618,200 slot value at No. 94. With those two signings in place, the Nats have wrapped up their entire draft class — which they formally announced last night.

A draft-eligible sophomore, Henry was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 44 player in the class but regarded as a potentially tough sign (hence the over-slot deal). His collegiate career will come to a close with just 77 1/3 innings in the books, in part due to his sophomore status and the 2020 season shutdown but also due to some arm troubles his freshman year. He’s been great when on the mound, posting a 3.03 ERA with 95 punchouts against 24 walks.

Scouting reports give Henry credit for three average or better offerings, and he landed no worse than 72nd overall on any of the draft rankings from BA, MLB.com, FanGraphs, ESPN or The Athletic. That said, all scouting reports on him acknowledge that he could eventually land in the bullpen, with The Athletic’s Keith Law pointing to his “max-effort” delivery and freshman elbow soreness.

Powell is already a bullpen prospect but a good one. He’s been a buzzsaw since the start of his sophomore season in 2019, pitching to a 1.54 ERA with a gaudy 85-to-29 K/BB ratio in 58 1/3 frames. That includes an even more impressive (and, admittedly brief) showing in 2020, when he notched a 20-to-2 K/BB ratio in 9 1/3 innings. Both BA and MLB.com tab him as a pure reliever who won’t be tried as a starter. Thanks to his high-end fastball/slider combo, Powell could move quickly through the Nats’ system and knock on the door to the Majors sooner than most draft prospects.

The Nationals’ deals with first-rounder Cade Cavalli and comp pick Sammy Infante were already known, as was the case with their signings of fourth-round pick Brady Lindsly and fifth-rounder Mitchell Parker.

MLB, MLBPA Reach Deal On Health And Safety

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10:07pm: Any player or manager who comes within 6 feet of an umpire to argue a call could receive a suspension, per Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.

8:27pm: The league issued a statement (via Mark Feinsand of MLB.com) saying it expects to start the regular season on July 23 or 24. Players will be able to opt out of the season, but only those who are at high risk of contracting the coronavirus (or living with a high-risk person or pregnant spouse) will be able to do so while earning full and service time, according to Nightengale, who reports the league will have the right to relocate teams to neutral sites during the regular season and playoffs for health and safety reasons. Also, Nightengale notes that the regular IL will be 10 days for all players. As was reported earlier, there will also be a COVID-19 IL with no specific length.

8:02pm: Teams will play 40 games against divisional opponents and 20 interleague contests versus geographic counterparts (East v. East, for example), Heyman reports. As expected, there will be a DH in the NL, Nightengale relays. Camp will begin July 3, but players will have to show up for spring training no later than July 1, Nightengale adds.

7:33pm: The league and union have reached a deal on health and safety, Karl Ravech of ESPN reports. Players will head to camp before July 1 in order to undergo coronavirus testing, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The next round of spring training will take place in teams’ home cities.

5:32pm: Even though they have made progress, the two sides aren’t guaranteed to reach a deal on health and safety tonight, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. But if they do come to an agreement, the league would “likely” lift its freeze on transactions five days before the players report, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.

4:45pm: Major League Baseball and the MLBPA are continuing to discuss health and safety protocols for a potential 2020 season, but it doesn’t appear the players will stand in the way of an agreement. The union has informed the league that the players intend to report to spring training 2.0 by July 1, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. A 60-game regular season would begin anywhere from July 24-26.

After months of squabbling between the league and the players, this is finally a welcome bit of good news for those hoping to see a baseball season this year. Because it was unable to reach an agreement on a season with the union, the league decided Monday to announce a 60-game season – which the game’s 30 owners unanimously approved. Meanwhile, the MLBPA stated: “While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.”

The hope is that will happen, though it’s unclear how a season could look. For instance, we don’t know whether some or all teams will play in their home ballparks (that appears especially unlikely for the Blue Jays) because of the coronavirus, which has victimized a slew of people around the sport over just the past few days. And if a season does occur, it looks as if there will be at least a few notable changes to the way things are typically done. The bottom line, though, is that signs continue to point to the start of the 2020 campaign in just a few weeks.

Charlie Blackmon, 2 Other Rockies Test Positive For Coronavirus

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Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon, left-hander Phillip Diehl and righty Ryan Castellani have tested positive for the coronavirus after recently working out at Coors Field, Kyle Newman of the Denver Post reports. Only one of the three showed symptoms, though his identity is unknown.

Aside from Blackmon, Diehl and Castellani, the other players who have been working out at the stadium tested negative. As a result of the positive tests, which Newman writes “came late last week,” the facility has been closed for the week.

Even though Major League Baseball and the players reached an agreement on health and safety protocols Tuesday, paving the way for a 60-game regular season, this is another reminder of how challenging it will be for all involved to get through the campaign unscathed.

Blackmon, a four-time All-Star, is the highest-profile major leaguer to date who we know has tested positive for COVID-19. However, Colorado certainly isn’t the only team that has been affected by it. Just in the past few days, the virus has also impacted the Phillies, Yankees, Angels, Astros, Giants and Blue Jays, not to mention at least a few unnamed clubs.

Latest On Yasiel Puig

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8:25pm: The Giants expect to be contenders to sign Puig when the league lifts its transaction freeze Friday, Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets. They were connected to Puig on multiple occasions over the winter.

11:01am: Prior to their deal with former Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization spoke to outfielder Yasiel Puig about a potential deal for the 2020 season, Heroes GM Kim Chi-hyun tells Jee-ho of the Yonhap News Agency (Twitter link). Ultimately, Puig’s preference was to take another shot at latching on with a Major League team once play resumes.

As entertaining as it might’ve been to see what type of numbers Puig could post in the KBO (to say nothing of the bat flips he might unleash), it’s not much of a surprise that he prefers to wait to see what type of interest he might garner on a big league deal at this point. Puig doesn’t appear to have been thrilled with the offers he received over the winter and surely won’t find a better deal now amid enormous revenue losses throughout MLB, but there’s plenty of reason to think he might yet find his way onto a roster.

Not only are teams are expected to expand active rosters to 30 players — plus a taxi squad of up to perhaps 20 players — but the universal DH is expected to be implemented for the 2020 season. That’s not to say that Puig is a poor fielder or prime DH candidate. To the contrary, he graded out as an average right fielder in 2019 and has a track record of above average performances. But the added bat to each lineup of the 15 NL clubs still makes it easier for any of them to justify signing him, whether to serve as a primary DH, to push a lesser defensive outfielder into a DH role or simply to add him to a corner outfield/DH rotation. The truncated 60-game schedule might give some clubs hope of fielding a competitive club under an “anything can happen” mentality.

Financially speaking, Puig it doesn’t seem likely that Puig would field particularly lucrative offers once the transaction freeze is lifted. That said, he might still stand to earn more than he would’ve in the KBO, where the maximum salary for a first-year foreign player is $1MM (and where he’d be playing on a prorated deal  as well, since the season is already underway). Plus, in order to sign with the Heroes or any other KBO team, he’d have had to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arriving in South Korea. At this point, assuming MLB is actually able to begin play on July 24-26 as hoped, the timeline for Puig to get into an MLB game and the timeline to get into a KBO game might not be all that different.

Padres, First-Rounder Robert Hassell III Agree To Deal

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On a day loaded with first-round signings, the Padres have become the latest team to reach a deal with their top pick. The Padres announced that they’ve come to terms with outfielder Robert Hassell III, the eighth overall selection in this year’s draft. Hassell will earn $4.3MM, down from the $5,176,900 slot value of his pick, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

The 18-year-old Hassell committed to Vanderbilt before the draft, but the Padres managed to stop the Commodores from landing a highly promising prospect. MLB.com, FanGraphs, Baseball America, ESPN.com and The Athletic all ranked Hassell in the draft’s top 20 prospects entering the proceedings. Nobody was more bullish than ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, who ranked Hassell sixth of those available, wrote that he may “have the best hit tool in the prep class” and noted that he has drawn comparisons to high-end Braves outfield prospect Drew Waters.

Royals Sign Asa Lacy & Rest Of Draft Class

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7:09pm: Lacy signed for $6.67MM, Jim Callis of MLB.com tweets.

2:13pm: The Royals announced Tuesday that they’ve officially signed left-hander Asa Lacy. The former Texas A&M ace was the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft after compiling a career 2.07 ERA with 13.3 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 152 total innings of college ball (21 starts, 21 relief appearances). He’s the highest pick to come to terms so far, and while his bonus figure wasn’t announced by the club, the No. 4 slot comes with a $6.664MM value.

The Kansas City organization didn’t stop there. It also added shortstop Nick Loftin on a $3MM bonus, Jim Callis of MLB.com reports on Twitter. That’s a far sight higher than the $2,257,300 allocation that came with the competitive balance round A selection with which he was chosen. Loftin decided to go pro rather than returning for another year at Baylor.

Righty Ben Hernandez, an Illinois high-schooler chosen in the second round, agreed to a $1.45MM bonus. (Via Callis; Twitter links.) That freed up nearly $400K to help cover the amount due to Loftin. The Royals also saved a bit on third-rounder Tyler Gentry, an outfielder out of the University of Alabama, who inked for $750K ($818,200 slot value). The Royals also agreed to as-yet-unreported bonuses with Christian Chamberlain, LHP, Oregon State (4th round) and Will Klein, RHP, Eastern Illinois (5th round).

The Royals also announced seven undrafted player signings, rounding out a widely heralded incoming class of amateur talent:

While there’s plenty of promise from multiple new prospects, Lacy remains the crown jewel. He was the consensus top pitcher available, which made it rather surprising to see him fall to the Royals at the fourth selection. Virtually all draft pundits graded him as one of the three best prospects up for grabs in 2020.

The Royals will be especially excited with Lacy because of the team’s long-stated intention to engineer a quick rebuild. Having gone heavy on advanced college pitching prospects in recent drafts, with promising early returns, the K.C. club can now look forward to another fast-rising youngster. Lacy possesses and commands an impressive four-pitch arsenal and has already proven himself against top college competition.

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