Reds Rumors: Torres, Gregorius, Castillo
Shortstop stands out as an area of need for the Reds at the moment, and owner Bob Castellini has indeed pushed the front office to address it this offseason, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The Reds even asked the Yankees for shortstop Gleyber Torres and then some in talks centering on right-hander Luis Castillo, but New York turned Cincinnati down, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
Cincy’s shortstop reps primarily went to Freddy Galvis and Jose Garcia in 2020, but the team can’t count on either as its solution in 2021. Galvis is a free agent, after all, while the 22-year-old Garcia may not be ready for prime time just yet. Garcia hadn’t advanced past High-A ball before the Reds promoted him last year, when he batted .194/.206/.194 without a home run in 68 plate appearances. He also notched far more strikeouts than walks (26 to one), and his 3 wRC+ ranked second to last among 388 major leaguers who amassed at least 60 trips to the plate.
Garcia’s first-year struggles seemingly set the stage for the Reds to at least find a veteran stopgap at short, though it’s unclear how aggressive they’ll be during what has so far been a payroll-cutting offseason in which they’ve already said goodbye to the likes of Raisel Iglesias and Archie Bradley. Moreover, several of their notable players – Castillo, Sonny Gray, Mike Moustakas, Nick Castellanos and Eugenio Suarez among them – have come up in trade speculation, while reigning Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer is a free agent who seems likely to sign with another team before next season.
The good news for the Reds is that this offseason’s free-agent class features a few proven starting shortstops, with Galvis, ex-Red Didi Gregorius, Marcus Semien and Andrelton Simmons leading the charge. Gregorius is a possibility for the team at this point, Rosenthal relays. Reuniting with Gregorius would be a significant move in an NL Central division whose teams have made more notable subtractions than additions this offseason. As of now, aside from the last-place Pirates, it seems like just about anyone’s division to win.
Castillo, meanwhile, will “very likely” remain a Red, Heyman writes. There’s no reason for the Reds to part with Castillo for anything but an enormous offer, as he’ll make just $4.2MM in 2021 and has two more years of team control remaining after that.
Dodgers Have Considered Marcus Semien At Third Base
The Dodgers were in the mix for DJ LeMahieu prior to his agreement to return to the Yankees, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic cautions that L.A.’s miss on LeMahieu doesn’t guarantee a reunion with Justin Turner at third base. The Dodgers are mulling potential alternatives at the hot corner, per Rosenthal, including longtime A’s shortstop Marcus Semien.
There’s surely an aspect of due diligence at play here. President of baseball ops Andrew Friedman and his crew wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t consider all avenues, but Semien nevertheless creates an interesting option for the Dodgers — particularly if he’s signed to a multi-year deal. Corey Seager wouldn’t be displaced for Semien in 2021, Rosenthal notes, but Seager is a free agent next winter. Semien would give the Dodgers a fallback in the event that Seager signs elsewhere upon reaching the open market. As a Scott Boras client, he seems unlikely to sign an extension this spring.
The market for Semien has yet to fully take shape, as is the case with most position players in this glacial free agency period. The Reds and Phillies are among the teams known to be looking for a shortstop, and the Twins have increasingly been reported to be considering shortstop additions as well. Fansided’s Robert Murray reported awhile back that Semien had garnered interest at other positions; his ability to play an above-average shortstop should carry over and allow him to play quality defense at a less-demanding position like second or third.
The question regarding Semien, of course, is what to expect from him at the plate. His 2020 season didn’t come close to his MVP-caliber 2019 campaign, although it’s also at least anecdotally worth pointing out that Semien improved after a slow start to the year and raked through Oakland’s eight-game playoff run. That’s a small sample, of course, but that’s true of the entire 2020 season.
In many ways, Semien exemplifies the difficulty in evaluating a player during this year’s two-month slate of games. His agents at Wasserman surely will argue that 2019 was the beginning of a breakout and that his torrid finish to the year shows he was on his way to replicating that production over a larger sample. More skeptical teams might point to the fact that Semien was more of a league-average bat prior to 2019. An average hitter capable of providing above-average defense at shortstop is still a very good player, but there’d be a major gap between how that player and the 2019 Semien are compensated.
There’s no evidence that Semien is any sort of priority for the Dodgers at the moment, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear that they’ve also considered a handful of other options. Turner, after all, is reported to be seeking a four-year contract that’d run through his age-39 season, so it’s more than understandable if the Dodgers and other clubs are mulling alternatives.
It’s also worth noting, too, that the Dodgers appear willing to spend at the position. Pat Ragazzo, who first reported the terms of LeMahieu’s agreement to return to the Bronx, also reported that the Dodgers offered LeMahieu a four-year deal worth a total of $60MM. That’s two years and $30MM shy of where he landed, of course, but we don’t know when that offer came in, either. A reunion with Turner seems likelier than a deal with Semien, but it’s still of some note that Los Angeles was seemingly willing to go multiple years at a significant rate for an infielder other than Turner.
Phillies Looking At Further Bullpen Additions
Since Dave Dombrowski was named the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, the club has acquired Jose Alvarado from the Rays and signed former D-backs closer Archie Bradley. (Philadelphia also picked up lefty Sam Coonrod in a deal with the Giants.) At today’s press conference to introduce Bradley, Dombrowski made clear that his club is still open to further augmenting the bullpen (YouTube link).
“I think we’ve improved ourselves, but we can continue to work on improving ourselves, too,” said Dombrowski. “I think we’re open-minded to future additions as we continue to talk in this free-agent market. We’ll continue to work on it, but I do think we have significantly improved ourselves.” Neither Dombrowski nor manager Joe Girardi dubbed Bradley the team’s closer just yet, and Bradley himself enthusiastically said he’s open to pitching in any role.
Dombrowski wouldn’t delve into specifics regarding the team’s budget, but acknowledged that he has a “pulse” of where owner John Middleton is comfortable drawing the payroll line. The Phils still have room to make a few moves, per Dombrowski, who also suggested that further rotation depth would be “ideal.” Some of that depth could come in the form of non-roster invitees to Spring Training, he added.
Of course, the key factor in determining the Phillies’ budget for the upcoming season is whether the club is able to reel J.T. Realmuto back into the fold. The Phillies reportedly put forth a new five-year offer worth more than $100MM total in the past few days, and while Dombrowski unsurprisingly declined to comment on negotiations, he confirmed that the team is still hoping to keep the two-time All-Star behind the plate.
At the moment, the Phillies’ projected payroll clocks in at roughly $152MM, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez, with their luxury-tax obligations at a slightly heftier $157MM. That’s a ways shy of last year, when the Phils were in line to carry about a $187MM payroll prior to the prorated season — a mark that would’ve been a franchise record. That said, after a season without any gate revenue, it’s not clear how aggressively Middleton and the rest of the club’s ownership group are willing to spend.
Were the Phillies to head into the 2021 season with the current group of relievers, the newly acquired trio of Bradley, Alvarado and Coonrod would be complemented by holdover Hector Neris, swingman David Hale and likely some youngsters from the group of Connor Brogdon, Ranger Suarez, Cole Irvin and Ian Hamilton. (Brogdon, specifically, was mentioned during today’s press conference.) Certainly, there’s room for more veteran help to be brought in — be it on a guaranteed deal or, as Dombrowski alluded to when discussing the rotation, on a non-roster pact.
More broadly, Dombrowski rejected the manner in which some have characterized the 2021 season as a transitional year for his club. The Phillies simply have “too many good players … to be thinking about transitioning,” said Dombrowski, adding that the team’s focus is solely on competing for a playoff berth. The veteran front office exec acknowledged that the Phils won’t be perceived as the favorites but mentioned on multiple occasions that there are still about four weeks until camp opens, while also pointing to the increased frequency of free agents signing after Spring Training begins.
Red Sox Trade C.J. Chatham To Phillies
The Phillies have acquired minor league infielder C.J. Chatham from the Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later, per announcements from both teams. Right-hander Victor Arano has been designated for assignment in order to clear a roster spot, the Phillies added. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo reported (via Twitter) that Chatham was likely headed to Philadelphia just prior to the announcement.
Chatham, 26, was the Red Sox’ second-round pick back in 2016, during Dave Dombrowski’s time as the team’s president of baseball operations. It seems as though Dombrowski, now heading up the Phillies’ baseball ops department, is still a firm believer in Chatham’s skill set. Chatham has yet to make his big league debut but spent the 2020 season at Boston’s alternate training site, where he continued to build on a solid 2019 showing in the upper minors. In 467 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A that year, Chatham hit .298/.333/.408 while logging time at both middle infield positions.
Both Baseball America and MLB.com ranked Chatham 14th among Boston farmhands this past summer. BA tabs him as at least a bench piece in the Majors and perhaps even a passable regular option at second base. Chatham has fanned in just 18.2 percent of his minor league plate appearances and has an all-fields, contact-oriented approach at the plate due to a lack of power, per those scouting reports. He’s a versatile defender who could handle any infield spot, and Chatham still has a pair of minor league options remaining, which gives the Phils some flexible depth for the next couple of seasons.
From Boston’s vantage point, a roster spot was needed to make Martin Perez‘s new one-year deal with the team official. The Sox have yet to announce the Perez signing, but that’ll happen once he passes a physical.
As for the 25-year-old Arano (26 next month), he spent the 2020 season in the Phillies’ 60-man player pool but didn’t make it to the Majors. Arano was limited to just three appearances in 2019 due to elbow surgery, and he missed a chunk of the 2018 campaign due to shoulder issues — rotator cuff inflammation, more specifically. He made his big league debut back in 2017 but has still managed to tally just 74 1/3 frames, in large part because of injury.
Of course, Arano has also been impressive when he’s been healthy enough to take the hill. In those 74 2/3 innings, he boasts a 2.65 ERA and 3.38 SIERA. He’s also punched out 26.3 percent of the hitters he’s faced and walked a very manageable 7.6 percent of opponents. Arano is a fly-ball pitcher with average fastball velocity (93.6 mph) who leans heavily on his slider that has helped him to post an impressive 16.6 percent swinging-strike rate in his young career. The Phils have a week to trade Arano, release him or place him on outright waivers.
Latest On Masahiro Tanaka
As rotation options continue to come off the board in free agency — albeit at a slow pace — Masahiro Tanaka remains one of the market’s top unsigned options. With Corey Kluber set to join the Yankees’ rotation, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that although Tanaka and the Yanks are still in touch, there’s a “good chance” he’ll be pitching elsewhere in 2021. Recently, according to SNY’s Andy Martino, Tanaka has been seeking a one-year deal worth $15MM or more.
Heyman said on MLB Network today (video link) that Tanaka and the Yankees had discussed a two-year deal, although at this point that wouldn’t be possible without exceeding the luxury tax limit. Kluber’s $11MM deal and the $15MM annual value on DJ LeMahieu‘s six-year deal bring the Yankees within just a few million dollars of the $210MM luxury barrier, which the Yankees reportedly hope to avoid. The moment Kluber agreed to terms, a new landing spot for Tanaka appeared to be in the cards (barring a change of heart from the Yankees on the tax line).
Tanaka himself recently indicated that a return to his native Japan wasn’t out of the question, and Heyman suggests that there’s “strong interest” from teams in Nippon Professional Baseball, where he may find a larger deal than in North America. Martino tweeted late last week that several around the industry view a return to Japan to be increasingly likely for Tanaka.
At the outset of free agency, a two- or even three-year deal for Tanaka, a steady workhorse in the Yankees’ rotation, appeared to be within reach. Multi-year deals for starting pitchers have been virtually nonexistent to this point, however. Mike Minor‘s two-year, $18MM contract with the Royals is the lone multi-year deal that has been signed by an established starting pitcher so far this offseason. Japanese righty Kohei Arihara (Rangers) and former Mets righty Chris Flexen (Mariners) both signed small two-year arrangements, but those were speculative low-cost fliers based on their work overseas — not the type a known commodity with Tanaka’s track record would seek.
If Tanaka is indeed seeking a one-year pact at the aforementioned annual rate, it’s hard to blame him. After all, Kluber secured $11MM despite pitching just 36 1/3 innings in 2019-20 combined. Drew Smyly turned five starts with the Giants last year into his own $11MM guarantee. Charlie Morton, five years older than Tanaka, commanded a $15MM sum on a one-year deal even though he spent nearly a month of last year’s shortened schedule on the injured list due to shoulder troubles.
The 32-year-old Tanaka missed his first two starts of the 2020 season due to a concussion sustained when he was hit by a comebacker during Summer Camp, but he went on to make 10 starts for the Yankees with a 3.56 ERA and 4.07 SIERA. The UCL tear that Tanaka sustained early in his MLB career but rehabbed without Tommy John surgery continues to loom over him, but at this point it’s hard to question his durability. From 2016-19, the righty averaged 30 starts per season and six innings per start.
Outside the Yankees, interest in Tanaka hasn’t been widely reported on, though he’s surely fielded interest. The Padres were said last week to have considered Tanaka, and any team that missed on Kluber could certainly look to Tanaka as an alternative. A one-year deal would be nice way to keep his options open, but it doesn’t appear out of the question that Tanaka could command a more lucrative contract in NPB — not after Tomoyuki Sugano agreed to a four-year, $40MM deal with opt-outs after each season.
Phillies Designate Kyle Garlick For Assignment
The Phillies announced Monday morning that they’ve designated outfielder Kyle Garlick for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Archie Bradley, whose previously reported signing to a one-year deal has now been confirmed by the club.
Garlick, 29 next week, was acquired from the Dodgers last February in exchange for minor league left-hander Tyler Gilbert (whom the Dodgers lost to the D-backs in the minor league phase of this year’s Rule 5 Draft). Garlick spent most of the 2020 season at the Phillies’ alternate site in Lehigh Valley, though he did appear in a dozen games. He went just 3-for-22 with a double and seven strikeouts in that time, however.
Garlick showed a bit of promise with the Dodgers in 2019 when he made his big league debut and hit .250/.321/.521 with three long balls and four doubles in a small sample of 53 plate appearances. He’s a career .281/.332/.568 hitter in 645 Triple-A plate appearances and does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s not out of the question that a team that is particularly thin on upper-level outfield depth could place a claim on the right-handed hitter.
Phillies Sign Archie Bradley
Jan. 18: Bradley has passed his physical, and the contract has been formally announced by the Phillies.
Jan. 14: The Phillies are signing free-agent reliever Archie Bradley, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets. It’s a one-year, $6MM pact for the right-hander, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Alden Gonzalez and Jeff Passan of ESPN.com were first to report that Bradley was nearing a deal with a team. Bradley is a client of BBI Sports Group.
Bradley has been on the open market since the Reds non-tendered him Dec. 2 in lieu of paying him a projected $4.3MM to $5.7MM in arbitration. The move was particularly surprising when combining Bradley’s solid track record with the fact that the Reds acquired him from the Diamondbacks for two players – utilityman Josh VanMeter and young outfielder Stuart Fairchild – at last August’s trade deadline.
The Bradley trade did pay off initially for Cincinnati, as he gave the playoff-bound club 7 2/3 innings of one-earned run ball with six strikeouts, no walks and four hits allowed during the regular season. Bradley didn’t fare as well in his lone playoff appearance, though, surrendering the only run in a 13-inning defeat to the Braves in Game 1 of a wild-card round that Cincy went on to lose.
The seventh overall pick of the Diamondbacks in 2011, Bradley was regarded as a premium prospect over the ensuing few years, But he couldn’t put it together as a big league starter in Arizona from 2015-16. The proverbial light bulb went on the next season when the Diamondbacks shifted Bradley to their bullpen. Bradley enjoyed a serious increase in velocity that year (from 92 mph-plus to upward of 96) and pitched to a 1.73 ERA across 73 innings. Although Bradley’s results weren’t as dominant from 2018-19, he continued to keep runs off the board at a good clip while eating innings (over 70 in both seasons) and throwing better than 95.
Bradley’s average fastball velo dipped to around 94 last year, but it was still one of his most effective seasons yet. The 28-year-old notched a 2.95 ERA/3.44 SIERA and recorded a 24.7 percent strikeout rate with a personal-best 4.1 percent walk rate in 18 1/3 innings. Bradley’s 9.4 percent swinging-strike rate was a bit above his career average of 8.7, while the .274 weighted on-base average he allowed wasn’t too far from his .297 expected wOBA.
Now with the Phillies, his third organization, Bradley should provide some much-needed help to a bullpen that helped cost the team a playoff berth in 2020. The Phillies’ relief corps finished last in the majors in ERA (7.06), and the tandem of new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Sam Fuld have tried to improve the group with the acquisitions of Bradley, Jose Alvarado, Sam Coonrod and Ian Hamilton this winter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mariners Interested In Joakim Soria
The Mariners are the latest team to show interest in free agent reliever Joakim Soria, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets. Seattle joins the Twins, Blue Jays, and all four of the Mariners’ AL West rivals as teams linked to Soria’s market at some point during the offseason.
Naturally, the entire AL West got a good look at Soria when he pitched for the Athletics in 2019-20, and the amount of interest isn’t surprising considering how Soria has continued to deliver results as he approaches his age-37 season. Soria posted a 2.82 ERA over 22 1/3 innings in 2020 and did a very good job of keeping the ball in the park (one home run allowed) and limiting hard contact (particularly in terms of barrel percentage). On the flip side, Soria’s 25K% was middle of the pack, his 10.4 BB% ranked only in the 31st percentile, and his 4.36 SIERA painted a much less impressive picture than his ERA.
Still, even with some expected regression baked in, Soria’s track record of durability is solid enough that a team can expect him to be a positive addition to a bullpen. Soria worked in a setup role in Oakland and would likely assume similar duties on his next team — though it has been some time since his heyday as a closer with the Royals, Soria could also be called upon for the occasional save opportunity if need be.
The bullpen has been more or less the primary focus of the Mariners’ offseason thus far, as the M’s have acquired Rafael Montero from the Rangers, signed Keynan Middleton, and re-signed Kendall Graveman. Adding Soria would add an even more experienced and durable relief arm to the mix, perhaps a wise investment considering that Montero, Middleton, and Graveman have all undergone Tommy John surgery within the last three years.
Cubs To Sign Shelby Miller
The Cubs have agreed to a deal with right-hander Shelby Miller, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (via Twitter). The non-guaranteed contract will pay Miller $875K if he makes Chicago’s big league roster, with another $600K available in bonus money. The signing will be official when Miller passes a physical.
Miller signed a minor league deal with the Brewers last winter but didn’t see any action, as he opted out of the 2020 season in August. Since the start of the 2017 season, Miller has tossed only 82 big league innings, thanks in large part to a Tommy John procedure that sidelined him for much of 2017 and 2018.
Still only 30 years old, Miller will be joining his sixth different organization in a pro career that has seen major highs and lows. Drafted 19th overall by the Cardinals in 2009, Miller posted very strong numbers over his first three MLB seasons — with St. Louis in 2013-14 and with Atlanta in 2015, after Miller was swapped to the Braves as part of a noteworthy trade that saw Jason Heyward go to the Cards. Unfortunately for Miller, he was part of another blockbuster trade a year later, going to the Diamondbacks and then never again regaining his early-career form.
There isn’t much risk for the Cubs in adding Miller as a reclamation project, as Miller could be one of a few veterans brought into camp on low-cost or non-guaranteed contracts as Chicago looks for veteran rotation depth. Beyond Kyle Hendricks and Zach Davies, the Cubs’ other rotation candidates don’t have much experience — projected third and fourth starters Adbert Alzolay and Alec Mills, and then a plethora of young arms competing for a look as the fifth starter.
Pitching Notes: Castillo, Reds, Anibal, Red Sox, Cora
Much of the Reds‘ offseason has been focused around moving players (i.e. trading Raisel Iglesias, non-tendering Archie Bradley) rather than adding, and eyebrows were raised last month when it was reported that Luis Castillo‘s name was coming up in trade talks. There wasn’t any indication that those talks were serious, however, and Reds VP/general manager Nick Krall issued a firm denial on the subject to reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon). According to Krall, speculation about a Castillo trade is “completely false. We intend to have [Castillo] as a member of our rotation for 2021.”
Castillo and the Reds recently agreed to an arbitration-avoiding $4.2MM contract for 2021, and the right-hander is still under team control through 2023 thanks to two more years of arbitration eligibility. Between this affordability, the three years of control, and Castillo’s front-of-the-rotation ability, there isn’t really any pressing reason for Cincinnati to move Castillo. Since the Reds seems to be focusing on cutting payroll this winter, an argument could be made that Castillo could be attached to a deal that would get a bigger contract (i.e. Mike Moustakas, Nick Castellanos) off the books, but that would seem like an awfully extreme move. One would imagine Castillo wouldn’t be traded unless the Reds were reversing course entirely and now looking to rebuild.
More pitching notes from around the league…
- Julio Teheran‘s showcase on Tuesday will include another Mato Sports Management client, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link) reports that Anibal Sanchez will also be throwing for scouts. Like Teheran, Sanchez is looking to rebound from a rough 2020 season, as Sanchez posted a 6.62 ERA over 53 innings for the Nationals last year. The Phillies were recently linked to Sanchez, but it has been an otherwise quiet winter for news about the 36-year-old. Considering Sanchez was still delivering solid results as recently as 2019 (for the World Series champion Nats, no less), his market could start to pick up if scouts like what they see on Tuesday. The Red Sox will have scouts on hand to see Sanchez and Teheran, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo tweets.
- Speaking of the Red Sox, manager Alex Cora noted that his team is still exploring more rotation additions. “I’m going to keep saying it all the way until April 1 [Opening Day], this puzzle is not completed. We have to be patient,” Cora said in an interview on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link). That being said, Cora is also pleased with the current group of hurlers in Boston’s organization, saying that the Sox have more pitching depth now than they had in either the 2019 or 2020 seasons. “Little by little, the front office did a good job during the season last year and [in] the offseason to add some quality arms, some intriguing arms,” Cora said.