MLB Names Theo Epstein Consultant To Commissioner’s Office
Major League Baseball announced today that former Red Sox general manager and Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has joined the commissioner’s office as a consultant to Rob Manfred. Specifically, Epstein will focus his efforts on “on-field matters,” including (but presumably not limited to) the effects that proposed rule changes would bring about. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score first reported (via Twitter) that Epstein, who stepped down from his post with the Cubs earlier this winter, would be named to the new post. Epstein turned away interest from other clubs who had interest in hiring him for a new baseball operations jobs.
“Theo is one of the most accomplished and thoughtful people in our sport,” commissioner Manfred said in a statement announcing the news. “I am grateful that he has accepted our invitation to complement our ongoing efforts and provide his insights on making the best game in the world even better for the next generation of fans.”
From the moment Epstein stepped down from his position with the Cubs, there’s been speculation about him eventually taking a position with the league. Epstein acknowledged at the time that he had played an inadvertent role in damaging the sport’s aesthetic by helping to pioneer an analytics push that has curbed in-game action. He’s also often been an advocate for expanding the reach and appeal of the game. Some have suggested that Epstein himself may even be an eventual successor for Manfred, although Manfred’s current contract runs through the 2024 season.
“It is an honor to assist the efforts by Major League Baseball and the Competition Committee to improve the on-field product, and I appreciate Commissioner Manfred asking me to be a part of these important conversations,” said Epstein in his own prepared statement. “As the game evolves, we all have an interest in ensuring the changes we see on the field make the game as entertaining and action-packed as possible for the fans, while preserving all that makes baseball so special. I look forward to working with interested parties throughout the industry to help us collectively navigate toward the very best version of our game.”
There’s no indication yet as to whether this is a temporary post or a gateway to a more permanent position within the commissioner’s office. Epstein said when he stepped away from the Cubs and rebuffed interest in new baseball ops ventures that he hoped to spend more time with his family. His status as a consultant with the league will keep him involved in the game but afford him more time at home. Presumably, given Epstein’s track record, other clubs will come calling in future offseasons whether he’s under contract or not — but his status as a consultant at least ostensibly leaves the door open for a return to a club’s front office at some point.
NPB’s Seibu Lions Re-Sign Cory Spangenberg
The Saitama Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have re-signed infielder/outfielder Cory Spangenberg, as first reported by Sponichi in Japan. Spangenberg, a client of Jet Sports Management, spent the 2020 season with the Lions as well — his first year in NPB. The one-year contract guarantees Spangenberg $1.4MM and carries another $400K of available incentives, MLBTR has learned.
The 29-year-old Spangenberg was the No. 10 overall draft pick by the Padres back in 2011 and spent parts of five seasons with the Friars. From 2014-18, he appeared in 387 games and batted .258/.318/.391 through 1278 plate appearances in San Diego. He never quite settled in as an everyday player, topping out at 486 plate appearances in 2017, but Spangenberg was an oft-used utility player, logging significant time at second base, third base and in left field. He signed with the Brewers prior to the 2019 campaign but struggled in a small sample of 102 trips to the plate.
Spangenberg suited up for 111 games with the Lions and turned in a solid .268/.326/.482 batting line this past season. In 445 trips to the plate, Spangenberg connected on 26 doubles, eight triples and 15 long balls, adding a dozen steals in 14 tries while on the bases. He appeared in 75 games in the corner outfield and another 54 at the hot corner, and it’s likely that the Lions will use him in a similar infield/outfield role again in 2021.
Molina Mentions Possibility Of Retirement As Free Agency Lingers
Cardinals icon Yadier Molina remains in a staredown of sorts with the only team he’s ever known, seeking a two-year deal while the Cards idle amid budgetary uncertainty. Molina noted earlier in the winter that he’s heard from as many as five other clubs, but his preference has clearly been to return to the Cardinals.
Now, in an interview with La Vida Baseball’s Polo Ascencio (hat tip: Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Molina suggests that if he doesn’t receive the right offer, he feels he could retire with his head held high after a terrific 17-year career. Molina made clear that he’s still working out, getting ready as if he’ll play in 2021.
It’s hard to imagine Molina walking away when he’s previously been so adamant about continuing his career, but the Cardinals haven’t been aggressive in their efforts to retain Molina or longtime teammates Adam Wainwright and Kolten Wong — both free agents themselves (Wong after having his 2021 club option declined).
The rest of the market for Molina’s services, meanwhile, may have changed a bit since receiving that early interest. The Mets signed James McCann, taking them out of the market for another catcher. Molina previously mentioned interest from the Padres, but they picked up Victor Caratini from the Cubs. The Yankees are still in a staring contest of their own with DJ LeMahieu and don’t appear willing to spend elsewhere until there’s resolution on that front. The Angels, another club mentioned by Molina himself, could still be a fit but are surely looking at the pitching market and perhaps at J.T. Realmuto, who also remains unsigned. The Phillies would make another on-paper fit, but they, too, are intently waiting to see where Realmuto’s market goes. Goold notes that the Nationals have also been in touch with Molina, but they’ve been focused on adding more thump to their lineup to this point.
At the very least, it seems likely that once Realmuto is off the board, Molina will receive strong one-year interest as the clear best alternative on the market. Whether that pushes the Cardinals or another club toward the two-year term he prefers can’t be known at this time, nor can the level of potential gamesmanship in his comments about retirement be known. However, with about $155MM in career earnings under his belt already, Molina won’t feel financially obligated to simply take the best offer out there if he doesn’t feel he’s being valued appropriately on the market.
There’s no denying that Molina’s bat has tailed off over the past two seasons. He remains extremely difficult to strike out (13 percent) but has posted a combined .268/.310/.388 batting line since Opening Day 2019 — a pronounced decrease from the .282/.330/.434 output he notched from 2016-18. Molina’s bat is still roughly in line with that of the league-average catcher (by measure of wRC+), however, and he’s still revered for his ability to call a game, frame and block pitches, and control baserunners.
Corey Kluber, Steve Cishek, Anthony Swarzak Throw For Teams
Jan. 14: ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that Kluber’s market could come together rather quickly with one throwing session for teams in the books. He’s not expected to require a second showcase to further demonstrate his health.
Jan. 13: Free-agent right-hander Corey Kluber held a showcase for interested teams today, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that relievers Anthony Swarzak and Steve Cishek both threw for teams as well. (All three are clients of Jet Sports Management, so it’s natural that they’d host the workout together.) As many as 25 teams were present, per The Atheltic’s Britt Ghiroli (Twitter link).
ESPN’s Jeff Passan notes that Kluber’s velocity topped out at 90 mph, though given where he is in the rehab process from last year’s injuries, it wasn’t expected that he’d be up to peak velocity just yet. Eric Cressey, whose strength and conditioning facility hosted the showcase, told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers yesterday that Kluber was at 87-89 mph in the prior session. Cressey suggested that Kluber is already ahead of many pitchers who’ve not yet ramped up their throwing to this point. Kluber averaged 92 mph on his heater back during his excellent 2018 campaign.
The full list of teams in attendance isn’t known, although given that this was an open look at a two-time Cy Young winner and a pair of relievers with considerable late-inning MLB experience, it’d be more notable to learn which few teams weren’t in attendance than to know which clubs were. Still, it’s at least worth noting that each of the Mets, Yankees, Nationals, Red Sox, Rays, Twins, Cubs, Rangers, Marlins, Tigers, Pirates, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Indians were all reported to be attending the showcase. Obviously, it’s not an all-encompassing list.
Broadly speaking, if Kluber is indeed at a point in his rehab that inspires confidence, one would imagine the market for him will be robust. The extent to which clubs are willing to bet on a guaranteed contract on the two-time Cy Young winner will vary, but he should easily command a big league deal with plenty of incentives on top of whatever base the highest bidder will commit.
Kluber may be something of a lottery ticket at this point, but few gambles come with such pronounced upside. From 2014-18, the right-hander was one of the game’s premier pitchers, working to a combined 2.85 ERA while striking out 28.5 percent of the hitters he faced against just a 5.2 percent walk rate. Only three of the 179 qualified starting pitchers in that time period — Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer — topped Kluber’s 23.3 K-BB%.
Since that time, however, he’s been limited to 36 2/3 innings by a fractured forearm (sustained when he was hit by a line drive), an oblique strain and a teres major strain. Traded from Cleveland to Texas last winter, Kluber pitched just one inning for the Rangers in 2020.
While most of the focus is understandably on Kluber, the presence of Swarzak and Cishek is certainly notable as well. Both righties are looking for rebounds of their own. Swarzak signed with the Phillies last winter but was released at the end of summer camp and didn’t sign with another club. A two-year, $14MM deal he signed with the Mets prior to the 2018 season proved regrettable, as shoulder issues torpedoed both of those seasons. However, back in 2017 Swarzak tossed 77 1/3 frames with a 2.33 ERA with 91 punchouts against just 22 walks.
Cishek, meanwhile, rattled off four straight seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA from 2016-19, leading to a $6MM deal with the White Sox last winter. He didn’t last on Chicago’s South Side, however, as he was roughed up for a 5.40 ERA in just 20 innings. Cishek’s control has been trending in the wrong direction the past couple of seasons, but he missed bats at his typical levels and didn’t see a velocity dip in 2020.
Pitching Notes: Soria, Zimmermann, Sale, Price, LeBlanc
It seems veteran hurler Joakim Soria is drawing quite a lot of interest from the American League West. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that the Angels, Astros, Athletics, and Rangers are all pursuing Soria to some degree. Of course, most teams could stand to add an experienced late-inning reliever coming off of a quality season, so it stands to reason that just about every club in a competitive division would give a look. Soria, 36, registered a strong 2.82 ERA last year in Oakland, though that’s hardly a determinative measure on its own for a reliever in a shortened season. The well-traveled hurler managed only a 9.6% swinging-strike rate, his lowest in quite some time, and suddenly shifted to being a heavy flyball pitcher (though he wasn’t punished with many home runs in the short sample).
More from the pitching market:
- After wrapping up a greatly disappointing tenure with the Tigers, Jordan Zimmermann is taking quite a different free agent journey than his first one. It’s fair to wonder whether he’d consider retiring, but the 34-year-old tells MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link) that he’s instead preparing for another campaign. Zimmermann is sure to draw interest, but not on a guaranteed big-league pact. He has largely been ineffective since coming to Detroit five seasons back and is now also recovering from a forearm injury.
- The Red Sox could soon get a good sense of the return timeline for star lefty Chris Sale. Per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter), Sale is expected to throw from a mound at some point in the next two weeks or so — if all goes as planned. It’s promising that he’s already nearing that milestone, having undergone his Tommy John procedure at the end of March of 2020. It is hard to imagine that Sale will be ready for the start of the season, but perhaps he could resume competitive pitching relatively early in the 2021 campaign.
- Also on his way back is Sale’s former teammate David Price. He posted a video on Twitter showing that he’s hard at work preparing for the upcoming season. The Dodgers will surely be interested to see how the ball is coming out of the once-great lefty’s hand after a long respite. Price, who was acquired in a blockbuster nearly one year ago, has yet to take the ball with his new team. He opted out of the 2020 season.
- Teams looking for a spot starter and long reliever will soon have another option to consider. Southpaw Wade LeBlanc is still plugging away despite suffering a tough elbow injury last year. Per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link), LeBlanc is in good enough form that he’s now preparing for a showcase. LeBlanc posted a resurgent 2018 season but has struggled more recently, so he’s sure to land a non-guaranteed deal when he does sign.
Minor MLB Transactions: 1/13/21
Let’s catch up on the latest minor moves from around the game …
- Right-hander Branden Kline announced his retirement Wednesday on Instagram. Kline, a hard-throwing Maryland native, joined the Orioles as a second-round pick in 2012 and ranked as one of their most promising prospects early in his career. But four arm surgeries, including the Tommy John procedure Kline underwent in 2015, slowed him, and his injury issues kept him out of minor league action until 2018. Kline did rebound well enough to appear majors from 2019-20, pitching to a 5.48 ERA with a 20.2 strikeout percentage and a 10.8 walk percentage in 46 innings, but the Orioles outrighted him last fall.
- If Kline’s retirement came surprisingly early, the opposite might be said of former MLB righty Manny Corpas. Panamanian journalist Aurelio Ortiz conveys Corpas’s decision to hang up his spikes, via Twitter. Though he’s far removed from his time in the majors — he last appeared in 2013 — the 38-year-old has until now continued to ply his trade in the indy ball and international ranks. Corpas wraps up his career with 374 1/3 frames of 4.14 ERA pitching at the game’s highest level.
- Corner outfielder Dillon Thomas has an agreement with the Mariners, per Robert Murray of Fansided (Twitter link). The minor-league accord includes an invitation to participate in MLB Spring Training. Thomas, 28, is a former fourth-round pick who has only briefly reached the highest level of the minors. In 2019, he turned in a .265/.339/.434 slash over 504 Double-A plate appearances.
Astros To Sign Pedro Baez
7:22pm: Baez is promised a total of $12.5MM, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (Twitter links). That includes a $500K signing bonus, successive salaries of $4.5MM and $5.5MM, and with a $2MM buyout of a $7.5MM club option.
The pact also contains some other financial provisions. Baez could add up to $1MM to his 2022 salary depending upon how many innings he throws. He could boost the buyout to $2.5MM and the option price to $8MM through innings-pitched-based escalators.
6:22pm: The deal includes an option for a third year, escalators and a buyout, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who tweets that the total value could range from $12MM to $14MM. It’s a team option, per Mark Berman of Fox 26.
5:05pm: The Astros have agreed to a two-year contract with free-agent reliever Pedro Baez, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports. Financial details aren’t yet known, and the deal is pending a physical. Baez is a Kelvin Nova client.
The Astros are landing a proven late-game option in the right-handed Baez, who recorded a 3.03 ERA with a 25.3 percent strikeout rate and an 8.2 percent walk rate over 356 innings as a Dodger from 2014-20. Baez put up a 3.18 ERA during his last season with Los Angeles, though he notched a much less encouraging 4.98 SIERA along the way and easily registered career-worst numbers in average fastball velocity (94.4 mph), strikeout rate (18.6) and swinging-strike percentage (12.4). The year before that, Baez managed 96 mph velo, a strikeout percentage of 25.0 and a 15.0 percent swinging-strike rate.
Addressing the relief corps has been a known point of emphasis this offseason for Astros general manager James Click, who signed former Ray and Marlin Ryne Stanek before agreeing to the Baez deal. The club was also in on Liam Hendriks before he agreed to a pact with the White Sox and has been linked to Brad Hand, Trevor Rosenthal and Alex Colome. Any of the latter three would seemingly be more impactful additions than Baez and Stanek, so the Astros may not be done trying to upgrade a bullpen that dealt with significant health issues in 2020 and finished a middle-of-the-pack 15th in the majors in ERA (4.39).
Latest On Marcus Semien
Over two months into free agency, shortstop Marcus Semien remains without a team. It’s not for lack of interest, however, as Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets that the Athletics, Phillies, Reds and Red Sox have all been part of negotiations with Semien “to some extent.” It’s isn’t known how serious any of those discussions have gotten, however.
Semien, 30, spent the previous six years in Oakland, where he was regularly an average or better starter. He reached a new level in 2019, an MVP-caliber season in which he didn’t miss a game and posted 7.6 fWAR with a .285/.369/.522 line and 33 home runs, but wasn’t able to replicate those otherworldly stats last year. Semien bounced back to a major degree as the year progressed, however, evidenced by a 64 wRC+ in the first half and a 126 mark in the second.
Even though the A’s made it known on multiple occasions during and after the season that they wanted Semien back, they did not give him an $18.9MM qualifying offer. Now, considering he could price himself out of the team’s range in free agency, it seems doubtful low-budget Oakland will win the bidding for Semien. Thanks in part to the pandemic, the A’s don’t seem as if they’ll spend much this winter.
Philadelphia and Cincinnati appear to be more realistic fits for Semien, who would certainly address their gaping holes at shortstop. The Phillies could plug him in to replace Didi Gregorius, another notable veteran shortstop who’s currently a free agent. Freddy Galvis is a free agent for the Reds, meanwhile, leaving Jose Garcia as at least the temporary front-runner to start for them next season. Garcia doesn’t appear ready for that role, though: He never played above High-A ball before last year, when he reached the majors and batted .194/.206/.194 with no home runs, 26 strikeouts and one walk in 68 plate appearances.
Unlike Oakland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, Boston is targeting Semien as a second baseman, per Bowden. That isn’t surprising, as it was reported last month that teams have shown interest in Semien as an option at the keystone this offseason. Boston already has a set left side of the infield with shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers, but it still has to sort out second – a position that isn’t foreign to Semien. He played 77 games there as a minor leaguer and another 29 in the bigs with the White Sox from 2013-14.
Along with where he’ll go, an obvious question centering on Semien is how much it will take to sign him. When the offseason began, MLBTR predicted Semien would reel in a one-year, $14MM contract, but as Steve Adams wrote in November, others have been far more bullish in regards to his forthcoming deal. If teams are confident Semien is more the player he was in 2019 and in the second half of 2020, he could indeed collect a substantial payday over multiple years.
Mets Have Looked At Albert Almora
Free agent Albert Almora Jr. is among the available center fielders on the Mets’ radar. The club has “looked at” him, Andy Martino of SNY reports.
The extent of the Mets’ interest in Almora isn’t clear, but it may not be thrilling news for fans of a team who are still holding out hope for a George Springer signing. Unlike Springer, one of the best hitters in baseball, Almora hasn’t shown much on offense since debuting with the Cubs in 2016. While Almora has posted six Defensive Runs Saved in center, he owns a much less appealing lifetime .271/.309/.398 mark and wRC+ of 85 in 1,316 plate appearances, and was especially subpar during the previous two seasons.
After Almora hit .167/.265/.200 over 34 PA in 2020, the Cubs non-tendered the 26-year-old in lieu of giving him a $1.575MM projected arbitration salary for 2021. In doing so, the Cubs gave up potential control over Almora through 2022, meaning any team that signs him could keep him for at least two years. He’s now part of a free-agent class that doesn’t feature many solutions in center beyond Springer and Jackie Bradley Jr.
As a Met, Almora could vie for the role of fourth outfielder behind Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo and Dominic Smith, but it seems too early to speculate on how the group will look with Springer still on the open market. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that Almora has a connection to the Mets in new general manager Jared Porter, who was part of the Cubs’ front office for the first two seasons of the outfielder’s tenure in Chicago.
Padres Still Open To Rotation Additions, Have Looked Into Tanaka, Perez
3:02pm: Lefty Martin Perez is another name on the Padres’ radar, tweets Rosenthal. San Diego general manager A.J. Preller played an integral role in signing and developing Perez during his days with the Rangers.
While connections between GMs and players they’ve drafted/signed/developed with prior organizations don’t always carry tons of weight, Preller has frequently shown an affinity for former Rangers since taking the reins in San Diego. Not only did he acquire Darvish earlier this winter, but he’s also acquired Jurickson Profar, Mitch Moreland and Carl Edwards Jr. in past trades and signed Ian Kinsler on a two-year free-agent deal.
None of that makes Perez any sort of lock to land in San Diego, of course, but his price tag seems more in line with the back-of-the-rotation depth role that appears available in San Diego than does Tanaka’s expected price point.
Perez, who once rated as one of the game’s elite pitching prospects, has yet to justify the considerable prospect fanfare attached to his name as a minor leaguer, but he’s a durable fifth starter who had a decent showing with the Red Sox in 2020 when he posted a 4.50 ERA in 68 innings. Beyond the ERA, there wasn’t much to like about Perez’s season: 5.43 SIERA, 6.9% K-BB%, career-low 38.5 percent grounder rate. Perez, however, has yet to turn 30, and the lone arm injury he’s suffered since 2015 Tommy John surgery came when he sustained an offseason injury in his non-throwing elbow on his ranch in Venezuela.
2:00pm: The Padres have already overhauled their pitching staff since the 2020 trade deadline, adding Mike Clevinger, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell in a trio of trades. (Clevinger, of course, is expected to miss the bulk of 2021 following Tommy John surgery.) Despite those acquisitions, the Padres still at least open to further additions and are doing “background work” on multiple candidates, including righty Masahiro Tanaka, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required).
It’s been relatively quiet in terms of Tanaka chatter this winter. There’s been plenty of speculation about a possible reunion with the Yankees, given his dependability and success in the Bronx, but the team’s focus has been squarely on DJ LeMahieu to this point. A Tanaka reunion still seems plausible, particularly if LeMahieu ultimately goes elsewhere. As Rosenthal points out, the 32-year-old Tanaka is no stranger to Padres pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who served as the right-hander’s pitching coach with the Yankees from 2014-18. And based on his track record, Tanaka ought to have plenty of other suitors. He’s also left the door open for a possible return to Japan.
Tanaka started 10 games for the Yankees in 2020, pitching to a 3.56 ERA and 4.07 SIERA while striking out 22.3 percent of the hitters he faced against a 4.1 percent walk rate — the latter being the second-best mark of his career. While Tanaka may not be the ace that Yankees fans hoped he could become when he was initially signed to a seven-year contract, he’s become a rock-solid mid-rotation starter who could deepen just about any staff in baseball. Over the past three seasons, Tanaka has pitched to a 4.06 ERA and near-identical 4.03 SIERA with a 16.9 K-BB%.
At the moment, the San Diego rotation figures to be headlined by Darvish, Snell, Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack. Young lefty Adrian Morejon could be the early favorite for the fifth spot, and uber-prospect MacKenzie Gore looms on the horizon as an expected addition at some point in 2021. Still, Lamet missed the postseason due to elbow troubles, and signing Tanaka could help the Padres to limit the workloads of not only Lamet but also touted youngsters like Morejon and Gore. It’s expected that clubs will look for ways to prevent major workload spikes from 2020’s 60-game slate to what is currently hoped to be a full 162-game set in 2021; signing Tanaka or another veteran arm would certainly help a win-now Padres club work toward that end.
The larger question for the Padres could be one of spending capacity. The Friars are already in line to open the season north of $160MM both in present-day payroll and luxury tax obligations. Both are franchise records for the San Diego organization at a time when most other clubs throughout the league are looking to offset revenue losses from this past season. Signing Tanaka would quite likely push the Padres beyond $170MM.