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Quick Hits: Bitsko, Tanaka, Moskos, Draft Prospects

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Nick Bitsko was originally slated to be part of the 2021 draft class, so when the young righty took some extra courses to graduate high school after his junior year and thus become eligible for the 2020 draft, the Rays didn’t have a ton of fresh information available, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  The Rays were limited to a three-inning showcase last August, “plus a 50-pitch March bullpen session at a small indoor facility and an hour-long Zoom call last week,” yet were still impressed enough to make Bitsko the 24th overall pick, just days before Bitsko’s 18th birthday.

Working largely off limited video from Bitsko’s high school games, some throwing-session footage posted by Bitsko himself online, and cellphone footage shot by scout Zach Clark during the bullpen session, the Rays became comfortable in the right-hander’s ability.  Clark is still the only Rays employee to speak to Bitsko or his parents in person, as Bitsko’s next meeting with team officials came during the online conversation.  “I think the Zoom call sent it over the top for our guys,” Clark said.  “Listen to Nick talk about pitching, preparation, what he’s done in the past, you’re like, ’Man, it’s really hard to believe you’re talking to a 17-year-old.’ ”

More from around baseball…

  • Of the Yankees’ three veteran impending free agent starters, Masahiro Tanaka is “the favorite to return” to the Bronx in 2021, George A. King III of the New York Post opines.  Tanaka will turn 32 in November, though James Paxton shares almost the exact same birthday and will carry a much more checkered injury history into the open market, while J.A. Happ turns 38 in October and is coming off a rough 2019 season.  Of course, there’s nothing stopping the Yankees from re-signing only one of these hurlers, and there’s also nothing to say that New York couldn’t let all three walk.  The latter scenario seems less likely, however, as that would leave the team with quite a young and unproven rotation mix behind Gerrit Cole, unless the Yankees acquired another veteran starter.
  • Fangraphs’ David Laurila recently caught up with Daniel Moskos, the fourth overall pick of the 2007 draft and currently the pitching coach for the Yankees’ A-ball affiliate in Charleston.  Despite his lofty draft status, Moskos’ MLB career consisted of only 24 1/3 innings for the Pirates in 2011 before elbow problems and a Tommy John surgery took their toll.  After bouncing around the minors, the Mexican League, and independent ball, Moskos followed the lead of several pitchers in recent years by visiting the Driveline facility to try and get his career on track.  As it turned out, it led to a career change entirely, as Moskos retired in order to take a job as coach and trainer at Driveline.  That position led to a lot of interest from other organizations about coaching roles, leading to Moskos being hired by the Yankees last November.
  • While teams are now eligible to begin signing undrafted free agents, some notable players who weren’t selected have opted to go back to school rather than take a $20K offer.  The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino reports (Twitter link) that right-hander Tommy Mace will return to Florida for his senior year, which isn’t surprising given that Mace was a consensus top-75 prospect as per this year’s draft projections.  (The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Mace as the 46th-best player in the class, with Fangraphs not far behind in placing Mace 47th.)  As Tolentino notes, another good year from Mace could make him in the top-15 range for the 2021 draft.
  • Infielder Darren Baker will also forego a free agent contract and return to Cal next season, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  Baker, the son of Astros manager Dusty Baker, was rated 184th in Baseball America’s draft prospect rankings.

Amateur Draft Signings: 6/14/20

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We’ll round up the latest draft signings around the league:

Latest Signings

  • The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with fifth-rounder Gavin Stone, as the right-hander announced himself on his Twitter feed.  Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) reports that Stone will receive a $100K bonus, which is significantly below the $327.2K slot price attached to the 159th overall pick.  Stone was the second-last player chosen in this year’s abbreviated draft, and wasn’t prominently featured in any pre-draft rankings apart from a 303rd-place spot on Baseball America’s top 500 draft prospects list.  The Central Arkansas product pitched well in his first real season as a starting pitcher, including a no-hitter in his final start of the year.

Earlier Today

  • Angels fourth-rounder Werner Blakely is expected to sign with the club for $900K, as first reported by Mason McRae of Prospects 365 (via Twitter) and confirmed by Robert Murray (Twitter link). Blakely, a prep shortstop from Michigan, ranked as the #297 prospect in the class on Baseball America’s pre-draft top 500. BA lauds his projectable 6’3″ frame, athleticism and power potential, but cautions that he’s exceptionally raw on both sides of the ball, perhaps not unexpected for a cold weather high schooler. Blakely’s draft position, #111 overall, comes with a slot value of just over $522K, so the Angels will go well over slot to woo the 18-year-old away from his commitment to Auburn.
  • The Angels have also inked third-round choice David Calabrese, according to McRae. He’ll earn a signing bonus of $744K, the slot value of the #82 selection with which he was chosen. Calabrese is an outfielder from the Canadian high school ranks, and was regarded as the top Canadian prospect in this year’s draft class. An Arkansas commit, he’s just 17 and is therefore one of the youngest players in his class thanks to his reclassification for this year. He’s a small outfielder who provides high-class speed on the bases, though he doesn’t offer much in the way of power. Most scouts think his speed and instincts will allow him to play center field in the long-term.

Undrafted Free Agent Signings: 6/14/20

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With the amateur draft limited to five rounds this year, hundreds of youngsters who would normally have been selected in a 40-round draft are now available to be signed by any Major League team for a $20K maximum bonus.  Many of these players will end up continuing (or beginning) their college careers in the hopes of being drafted in 2021 or beyond, but many will also sign in the coming weeks and months.  Baseball America has a full list of all agreements, and we’ll be highlighting some of the most notable deals here:

  • The Royals signed catcher Kale Emshoff, D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reports (Twitter link).  Emshoff appeared on pre-draft prospect listings from MLB.com (146th) and Baseball America (174th), with BA’s scouting report citing his “plus-plus raw power.”  After missing all of the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery, Emshoff was off to a strong start in Arkansas-Little Rock’s first 17 games prior to the shutdown.

Court Orders MLB, Yankees To Unseal 2017 Letter Regarding Rules Violations

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A New York district court judge has ordered MLB and the Yankees to unseal a 2017 letter sent by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees GM Brian Cashman regarding rules violations that occurred in 2015-16, as first reported by Evan Drellich of the Athletic. As Drellich suggested, the Yankees are likely to appeal the ruling, hear Greg Joyce and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The suit, brought by a collection of daily fantasy players against MLB, the Astros, and the Red Sox, was dismissed in April and is pending appeal to the Second Circuit. The Yankees are not a party in the action.

Given the Astros’ and Red Sox’s high-profile sign stealing scandals that arguably called into question the legitimacy of their respective 2017 and 2018 World Series titles, many will immediately raise their eyebrows at hearing the sport’s most prominent organization tied to similar allegations. However, it is important to note that the court’s decision to unseal the letter appears to be standard litigation procedure, not any sort of indictment of the letter’s contents.

In 2017, the Yankees were fined by MLB for wrongfully using their dugout phone. The league also investigated claims by the Red Sox that the New York club had used YES Network cameras to steal opposing teams’ signs. MLB could not substantiate those allegations. It seems the plaintiffs’ hope is to find evidence MLB permitted rampant sign stealing leaguewide, arguing the letter shows the commissioner was aware that the Yankees “engaged in a more serious, sign-stealing scheme” than MLB publicly let on, writes the court. Beyond the plaintiffs’ allegations, there is no evidence of such a scheme.

Indeed, the court writes that “much of the letter’s contents have already been revealed in the 2017 Press Release” that announced the Yankees’ punishment for dugout phone misuse, relays Drellich. An attorney for the Yankees reiterates that position, arguing that “the press release is accurate and states MLB’s conclusions.”

As part of a robust discovery process, correspondence between the league and teams potentially relevant to the proceedings would typically be turned over. However, MLB and the Yankees maintained this letter should remain sealed, arguing that unsealing it could result in “significant reputational injury” to both the league and club. Exactly what injury they fear is unclear, but the court noted that any reputational harm suffered would be “modest at best,” Drellich says.

Surely, some fans will take interest in the result of the Yankees’ forthcoming appeal and the letter’s contents. However, there’s very little beyond the allegations of an interested litigant that the Yankees participated in a sign stealing scheme at all, much less one that rivals the Astros’ (and to a lesser extent, Red Sox’s) violations.

Amateur Draft Signings: 6/13/20

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Let’s kick off this Saturday morning by checking in on some of the latest post-draft signings from around the league. We’ll update this post periodically throughout the day as more news trickles in…

Latest Signings

  • Cardinals fourth-rounder Ian Bedell will sign with the team, the right-hander told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers.  Terms of the agreement weren’t revealed, though the 122nd overall selection has a $469K slot value.  “I would have gone back to school if the signing bonus wasn’t there, but they made a good offer, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Bedell, who grew up as a Cards fan.  Draft pundits had a pretty wide range of opinions on Bedell’s draft stock (The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him as the 58th-best prospect in the draft class, Fangraphs 85th, MLB Pipeline 88th, and Baseball America 105th), though those rankings still represent somewhat of a steal for the Cardinals with the 122nd pick.  Bedell drew praise for his command and control of his pitches rather than his pure arsenal, and he pitched very well in the Cape Cod League last summer.

Earlier Today

  • The Phillies and third-rounder Casey Martin have reached an agreement, Martin told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb (subscription required).  The 87th overall pick has a $689.3K slot price attached, and while Martin didn’t specify the terms of his contract, the Arkansas shortstop said the deal was a “fair amount for where I was picked and for my value.”  Martin didn’t play well before the 2020 college season came to an abrupt end, which may explain why he fell to the third round despite late-first/early-second round grades from prospect analysts (MLB Pipeline ranked Martin as the 30th-best prospect available in the draft).  There are questions surrounding Martin’s ability to avoid strikeouts and whether or not he could remain at shortstop in the long term, though he carries a lot of hitting potential and outstanding 70-grade speed.
  • The Astros have agreements in place with a couple of their draft picks from this week’s abbreviated MLB draft. Fourth-round selection Zach Daniels has an agreement in place, though the terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. The Astros also came to terms with shortstop Shay Whitcomb from UC San Diego, who was the 160th and final pick of this draft (Mark Berman of KRIV Fox 26 had the report).  Though Whitcomb was the final player chosen, the slot value of that pick is still $324.1K, a significant bump from what those undrafted players can command. Players who went undrafted can sign with any team of their choosing, but only for a maximum payout of $20K. 
  • Orioles fifth-round selection Carter Baumler has plans to sign with Baltimore, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. Baumler is a 6’2″ right-handed pitcher hailing from Dowling Catholic High School in Iowa. The 133rd overall pick of the draft carries a slot value of $422.3K. Baumler’s deal will come in well above slot at $1.5MM, tweets Mason McRae of Prospects 365 (confirmed by Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register). As Birch writes in a full piece, Baumler turned down two other teams before agreeing to sign with the Orioles. Had he not received an offer to his liking, Baumler was ready to play college ball for Texas Christian.
  • Rangers second-rounder Evan Carter will sign his first professional contract rather than attend Duke University, according to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. Carter is a lefty-swinging outfielder out of Elizabethton High School in Tennessee, and was picked by the Rangers with the 50th overall pick in the draft. The financials of his deal have not been disclosed, but the slot amount for the 50th overall selection is $1,469,900.

MLBPA Rejects Latest League Proposal For 2020 Season; No Counter-Proposal Planned

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10:46PM: Correcting an earlier report, USA Today Bob Nightengale tweets that there won’t be any counter-offer from the league to the players.

9:12PM: Major League Baseball has also released a statement in regards to today’s news…

We are disappointed that the MLBPA has chosen not to negotiate in good faith over resumption of play after MLB has made three successive proposals that would provide players, Clubs and our fans with an amicable resolution to a very difficult situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The MLBPA understands that the agreement reached on March 26th was premised on the parties’ mutual understanding that the players would be paid their full salaries only if play resumed in front of fans, and that another negotiation was to take place if Clubs could not generate the billions of dollars of ticket revenue required to pay players.  The MLBPA’s position that players are entitled to virtually all the revenue from a 2020 season played without fans is not fair to the thousands of other baseball employees that Clubs and our office are supporting financially during this very difficult 2020 season.  We will evaluate the Union’s refusal to adhere to the terms of the March Agreement, and after consulting with ownership, determine the best course to bring baseball back to our fans.

6:23PM: As expected, the MLB Players Association has turned down the owners’ latest proposal for the 2020 season, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  No counter offer is coming, as MLBPA executive director Tony Clark indicated in a public statement that players will now turn their attention towards preparing for whatever type of regular season Commissioner Rob Manfred decides to impose.

The rest of Clark’s statement…

Players want to play.  It’s who we are and what we do.  Since March, the Association has made it clear that our No.1 focus is playing the fullest season possible, as soon as possible, as safely as possible.  Players agreed to billions in monetary concessions as a means to that end, and in the face of repeated media leaks and misdirection we made additional proposals to inject new revenues into the industry — proposals that would benefit the owners, players, broadcast partners, and fans alike.

“It’s now become apparent that these efforts have fallen upon deaf ears.  In recent days, owners have decried the supposed unprofitability of owning a baseball team and the Commissioner has repeatedly threatened to schedule a dramatically shortened season unless players agree to hundreds of millions in further concessions.  Our response has been consistent that such concessions are unwarranted, would be fundamentally unfair to players, and that our sport deserves the fullest 2020 season possible.  These remain our positions today, particularly in light of new reports regarding MLB’s national television rights — information we requested from the league weeks ago but were never provided.

As a result, it unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile. It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.

As definitive as Clark’s statement is, more last-second negotiations between the two sides can’t be entirely ruled out.  (After all, the owners allegedly weren’t planning to make any further counters after an earlier offer in June, though the two sides continued to swap proposals after that so-called final offer.)  Barring an eleventh-hour breakthrough, however, it appears as though there won’t be any agreement to begin the 2020 season under conditions that both the union and the league could at least tolerate, if not fully embrace.  As such, Manfred can now make a unilateral decision about the length of the 2020 regular season, as was decided back in March in the initial agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA about how to proceed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league’s most recent proposal offered the players a 72-game regular season and 70 percent of their prorated salaries, with the prorated salary number jumping to 83 percent if the postseason was completed in its entirety.  While the offer contained several other details, it’s clear that the issue of prorated salary was the main sticking point, as the MLBPA has steadfastly maintained that they were owed their full share of prorated salaries, as per their interpretation of the now infamously vague March agreement.  Owners, by contrast, have insisted that paying these full prorated salaries would create too much of a financial burden (over $4 billion in losses, by the league’s calculations) given that these games are expected to be played without any fans in attendance.

To say these negotiations haven’t gone smoothly is an understatement.  There has been quite the public war of words between players, owners, and league and union officials in the last several weeks, ranging from social media barbs to controversial interviews to increasingly pointed communiques between the two sides.  None of this back-and-forth has seemingly brought the league and players any closer to a deal, and has largely served only as a PR battle that has brought a ton of public criticism directed at both parties.

As per earlier offers from the league, Manfred could wind up imposing a regular season of roughly 50 games — reportedly all the owners can financially manage given the MLBPA’s insistence on full prorated salaries.  According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link), the union wants to see the league’s plans for beginning the season by Monday, as per a letter from union negotiator Bruce Meyer to deputy commissioner Dan Halem.

Should the league’s plans indeed come so quickly, we could be on track for baseball’s return by roughly mid-July, factoring in time for players to ramp up their preparation in a “Spring Training 2.0” camp before beginning what will surely be the strangest season in baseball’s long history.  Even beyond such details as the formats of the regular season and postseason, roster construction, transactions, etc., there is also the looming spectre of COVID-19, and how the league will implement health and safety procedures to best protect players, coaches, staff, and other involved parties.

Player, Pitching Coach Test Positive For Coronavirus

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An unnamed Major League pitching coach and a player on a 40-man roster have both tested positive for COVID-19, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports.  As per Sherman’s sources, the player contracted the coronavirus relatively recently, but there is “belief that he has not infected anyone else involved in the game.”  As for the pitching coach, he is thankfully now recovered after contracting the virus “weeks ago.”

It’s quite possible we might never know the identity of either person, though given what we know about the spread of COVID-19, it’s safe to assume that far more team-affiliated personnel than just these two have gotten the disease.  Some people with COVID-19 can never experience any symptoms and thus don’t even know they have the coronavirus, which puts them at greater risk of unknowingly spreading the disease to others.  Since the league shutdown in March, teams have asked personnel to provide regular medical updates to staff, in order to best manage and treat any potential or confirmed COVID-19 cases.

As Sherman notes, these two positive cases only underline the difficulties faced by the league in figuring out how to keep all players, coaches, staffers, and other personnel as protected as possible during any games played in 2020, no matter how many health and safety procedures are enacted.  While there is no such way to ensure 100 percent safety, there is also the threat of a second wave of coronavirus cases later in the year or even before the summer is out, which could result in renewed wide-scale lockdowns and no baseball whatever.

Orioles Notes: Minor League Pay, Kjerstad, Draft

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The latest from Camden Yards…

  • On Friday, the Orioles announced that they will continue paying the $400 weekly stipend to their minor league players through the first week of September (or what would have been the end of the minor league season).  All 30 teams have publicly committed to paying their minor leaguers through at least the end of June, with clubs such as the Twins, Royals, Padres, Mariners, Reds, Astros, Red Sox, Marlins, and — after some controversy — Athletics all joining Baltimore in keeping the stipend going for the entire season.
  • The Orioles went against conventional wisdom when they selected Heston Kjerstad with the second overall pick of the amateur draft, as Kjerstad was generally projected to fall somewhere in the 9th-12th pick range.  As Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun writes, the Arkansas outfielder on the team’s radar for a while — area scout Ken Guthrie has known Kjerstad’s family for years and Guthrie took note of Kjerstad’s hitting potential when he was still a high schooler.  The Orioles continued to observe Kjerstad as he developed into a star at Arkansas, with both analytics and pure numbers revealing his improvement at the plate.  “It’s a really special bat in our opinion.  He took some steps forward this year,” GM Mike Elias said.  “I think had he been able to finish that season, he probably would have just continued to cement it.  I think if we hadn’t taken him, he was going to go pretty quick after us.”
  • Of course, signability also played a role in Baltimore’s choice, as Kjerstad might be willing to agree to take less than the second pick’s recommended $7,789,900 slot price.  As per Meoli, the Orioles “explored similar such deals” with other top prospects such as Nick Gonzales (who went seventh overall to the Pirates) and Zac Veen (ninth overall to the Rockies).

MLB, Turner Sports Reach Billion-Dollar Deal To Broadcast LCS

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5:17PM: The new broadcast contract covers the 2022-2028 seasons, with Turner Sports paying roughly $470MM per season, as per John Ourand and Eric Prisbell of Sports Business Daily.  In addition to the one LCS, Turner will also have the rights to two Division Series and one wild card game per year.  This is notable given that expanded playoffs have been a prominent part of negotiations between players and owners for the 2020 and possibly the 2021 season as well.  “The expectation is that this deal does not include rights to any additional playoff games, which would have to be negotiated separately,” Ourand and Prisbell write.

4:23PM: MLB has reached an agreement on a billion-dollar deal with Turner Sports that will allow the network to continue broadcasting a postseason package that includes one League Championship Series, reports Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. Though the length and precise terms of the deal remain unknown, it’s expected to be a considerable increase over the $350MM Turner had been paying annually under their current agreement.

The two sides have agreed to a deal in principle, but it is not finalized and has not yet been voted on for approval by the owners.

The network’s current deal expires following the 2021 season, so it will remain in place for this season with the new deal’s term beginning a few years from now.

While the deal itself is no doubt notable for the sport, its announcement comes at an awkward time for the league, given the state of negotiations between the owners and the players. And although the consummation of a new contract won’t have any real ramifications on this season in particular (it won’t kick in until 2022), the sheer value of the TV revenue on tap may cast doubt on MLB’s stance that it would be unable to shoulder revenue losses with no fans in the stands this year—especially in light of Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt’s claims that baseball “isn’t very profitable.”

In negotiations between the players’ association and MLB, owners have been insistent on offering players less than their full prorated salaries, a concession that the players have thus far been unwilling to accept. Needless to say, this development doesn’t strengthen the league’s posture. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the parties can come to an agreement that puts 2020 baseball back on the menu.

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