Marlins, Rangers Reportedly Finalists To Sign Pedro Strop
The chase for Pedro Strop may not rate as national news, but it’s an important situation in the context of the remaining relief market. Perusing the slate of still-available pen pieces should convince you of that.
The group of pursuers was defined recently and seems now to have been culled again. The Marlins and Rangers are the two final clubs in the bidding, according to Hector Gomez of Deportivo Z 101 (Twitter link), with the Brewers and Cubs evidently exiting the picture.
For the Fish, Strop would represent something of a finishing flourish to an offseason full of bullpen movement. The Miami organization has dumped a whole lot of talented but unreliable younger hurlers and obviously has interest in plugging in a late-inning veteran.
Should he land instead in Texas, Strop would help buttress a unit that still has some uncertainty. Jose Leclerc and a resurgent Rafael Montero provide some potential fire at the back of the unit, but it’d be nice to pair Strop with Jesse Chavez to lock in some sturdy frames.
Strop has been a steady performer for years now, though he’s coming off of a down 2019. With injuries limiting his availability and effectiveness, the 34-year-old managed only a 4.97 ERA. More than anything, he (like many of his peers) was suddenly prone to the long ball, allowing about twice as many per nine innings as he had over the preceding five years. And a fairly significant velocity decline gave some cause for concern. But it’s not hard to envision a quick bounce back if Strop is at full health, as he still proved capable of inducing an enticing mix of swings and misses and groundballs.
Orioles Interested In Tim Beckham
This has been a quiet winter for the rebuilding Orioles, but they’re now showing interest in a familiar free agent. They’ve discussed a minor league contract for infielder Tim Beckham, Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com reports.
There’s history between Baltimore and Beckham, a former No. 1 overall pick of the Rays who played with the Orioles from 2017-18. Beckham was successful in the first of those seasons in Baltimore, stumbled during the latter and then signed a major league contract worth $1.75MM with the Mariners last winter. That deal didn’t work out great for either side, however.
Even though Beckham got off to a strong start in a Mariners uniform, his production and playing time dipped as the season progressed. The 29-year-old wound up posting a .237/.293/.461 line with 15 home runs in 328 plate appearances before MLB issued him an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in early August.
Beckham has already served a sizable portion of his ban, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the Mariners from non-tendering him earlier this offseason. The suspension has also likely stopped him from landing a guaranteed deal this offseason. If he does head back to Baltimore, though, Beckham could eventually grab an infield role on a last-place team that’s projected to start Jose Iglesias at shortstop, Hanser Alberto at second base and Rio Ruiz at third.
Checking In On Last Season’s Worst Bullpens
We’ve gone over how the five worst offenses and rotations of last season now look with the offseason nearing completion. We’ll do the same here with the quintet of bullpens that had the most difficulty preventing runs in 2019. Judging a bullpen just by ERA is an admittedly crude method, though each of the relief units in question here also posted subpar fielding-independent metrics. The bottom line is that they struggled. Let’s see how they stack up now…
Baltimore Orioles (5.79 ERA/5.38 FIP; current depth chart)
- No surprise to see the Orioles at the bottom, considering the rebuilding outfit’s myriad difficulties last season. The Orioles didn’t get particularly impressive production from any of their relievers. Even their No. 1 option, Mychal Givens, had trouble at times, though he did strike out better than 12 batters per nine. Givens is on track to open the season with the Orioles, but he could certainly be an in-season trade candidate. If they move him, it would further weaken a bullpen that hasn’t added anyone of note this offseason.
Washington Nationals (5.68 ERA/4.94 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Nationals proved last season that you can have a bottom-of-the-barrel bullpen from a statistical standpoint and still win the World Series. However, general manager Mike Rizzo’s in-season tinkering with the group proved effective, especially the acquisition of flamethrowing closer Daniel Hudson at the trade deadline. Hudson remains in the fold, having re-signed in free agency for two years and $11MM. In an even bigger move, the Nationals signed Will Harris – a former Astro whom they upended in the Fall Classic – to a three-year, $24MM pact. With those two and the returning Sean Doolittle, Washington appears to be in nice shape late in games, but it’ll need more from Hunter Strickland, Roenis Elias, Wander Suero and Tanner Rainey.
Colorado Rockies (5.18 ERA/5.12 FIP; current depth chart)
- There were few oft-used bright spots last season in Colorado’s bullpen, which didn’t get much from anyone but Scott Oberg and Carlos Estevez. The good news is that it’s hard to imagine Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee pitching much worse in 2020 than they did last season. And even if they do, they’re all entering the final guaranteed season of their onerous contracts, so they shouldn’t be the Rockies’ problem for much longer. In the meantime, the Rockies are going to need bounce-back efforts from them because they haven’t meaningfully addressed their late-game setup this offseason.
Kansas City Royals (5.07 ERA/4.55 FIP; current depth chart)
- Kansas City’s another team that has been quiet in the past few months, despite its less-than-stellar output a year ago. There are a couple bullpen trade candidates on hand in Ian Kennedy and Tim Hill, arguably the Royals’ two best relievers, but nothing has materialized on those fronts thus far. Kennedy was terrific last season in his first year as a reliever, though the fact that he’s due $16.5MM in 2020 has likely scared off interested teams.
New York Mets (4.99 ERA/4.71 FIP; current depth chart)
- The Mets were extremely busy in trying to repair their bullpen last offseason, when they traded for ex-Mariners star Edwin Diaz and signed Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson. The latter pitched well during an injury-shortened campaign, but Diaz and Familia fell off a cliff, which is why the Mets are on this list a year later. At least in Diaz’s case, though, it would be reasonable to expect a much better performance in 2020. He struck out over 15 batters per nine and maintained his 97 mph velocity last year, after all, and isn’t going to surrender home runs on 27 percent of fly balls again this season. Regardless of how he does, the Mets have added some notable support to their relief unit in the past several weeks. They signed former Yankee Dellin Betances, one of the elite relievers in recent memory (albeit one coming off an injury-ruined year), as well as the accomplished Brad Brach. They also have the newly signed Michael Wacha as a potential long relief option, not to mention holdovers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman.
Minor MLB Transactions: 1/22/20
The latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Reds have added outfielder Boog Powell on a minor league pact, Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America reports. Powell has bounced around several organizations since Oakland chose him in Round 20 of the 2012 draft, but he hasn’t hit poorly during his brief major league experience. The 27-year-old owns a .262/.333/.383 line in 160 career plate appearances. Most of Powell’s at-bats in recent years have come in Triple-A ball, where he has hit .279/.368/.390 in 1,356 PA.
- The Marlins have released outfielder Brayan Hernandez, per Hilburn-Trenkle. Hernandez, who joined the Miami organization in a 2017 trade with Seattle centering on David Phelps, was a touted prospect when he came out of Venezuela in 2014. The 22-year-old didn’t perform well in the minors from 2018-19, however, and managed a miserable .461 OPS in 166 trips to the plate between Single-A and low-A ball last season.
- The Mariners have signed catcher Joe Hudson to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. Hudson entered the pro ranks as a sixth-round pick of Cincinnati in 2012, and he ended up appearing in the majors with the Angels in 2018 and the Cardinals last season. The 28-year-old collected just 13 plate appearances during that span, though. Hudson spent most of last year at the Triple-A level, where he hit .223/.293/.411 with 10 home runs in 222 PA.
NL Central Notes: Castellanos, Ozuna, Pirates
The Reds “remain a player” for free-agent outfielder Nicholas Castellanos, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The extent to which the Reds are interested is far from clear, though. Cincinnati has already signed Shogo Akiyama to a three-year deal and has Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker and Aristides Aquino atop an already deep list of incumbent outfield options. And, unlike the Rangers, who are also said to have interest in Castellanos, there’s no option of plugging him in at first base, where Joey Votto is entrenched in Cincinnati.
It’s difficult to envision much of a fit in Cincinnati unless Castellanos winds up taking a short-term deal along the lines of the one Marcell Ozuna signed in Atlanta just yesterday. Even if such an opportunity were to materialize for the Reds, they’d likely still need to move an outfielder to alleviate the logjam that’d come with signing Castellanos. Corner outfielders have had a hard time cashing in this winter, and the market for Castellanos looks rather limited at this point. If he and agent Scott Boras are willing to wait things out, it’s possible that an injury early in camp or a Cubs trade that sheds some cash will change his market’s landscape. At present, however, demand doesn’t exactly appear frenzied.
More from the division…
- Marcell Ozuna asked his agent to initiate extension talks with the Cardinals in late June, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, but the Cardinals seemingly didn’t have much interest in exploring such a deal. President of baseball ops John Mozeliak said over the summer that the team preferred to address Ozuna’s contract status in the offseason — even at a time when Ozuna was vocal in voicing that remaining in St. Louis was his “priority.” Tyler O’Neill and Lane Thomas as the top candidates to step into the left field void created by Ozuna’s absence, though Hummel adds that GM Mike Girsch listed first baseman/outfielder Rangel Ravelo and outfielder Justin Williams as players who’ll get consideration this spring. Cardinals fans can still hold out hope for a more notable addition, but owner Bill DeWitt Jr.’s recent comments strongly suggest that’s not on the horizon.
- Retired closer Joel Hanrahan will serve as the pitching coach for the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in 2020, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via Twitter). Hanrahan held the same position with the Pirates’ Double-A club in 2019 and was the pitching coach with the organization’s Class-A Advanced affiliate back in 2017. It’s the latest step in a fairly swift rise through the system for Hanrahan — one that comes in spite of the offseason shakeup in the Pittsburgh front office. It stands to reason that whether it’s in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, Hanrahan’s rapidly growing resume will earn him some consideration for a big league coaching spot.
Yankees Sign Tyler Lyons
The Yankees have brought back left-handed reliever Tyler Lyons on a minor league contract, according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America.
Lyons divided 2019 between the Pirates and Yankees, but New York outrighted him off its 40-man roster in November. Before that, Lyons – whom the Yankees signed in August – saw a bit of action at the major and minor league levels as a member of the organization. He finished the year with a combined 12 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh and New York. Although Lyons struck out 17 batters during that span, that was overshadowed by the nine earned runs he yielded on 13 hits and five walks. He was far superior in Triple-A ball, throwing 50 1/3 frames of 3.22 ERA ball with 10.7 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9.
At his best, the soft-tossing Lyons was outstanding for the Cardinals in 2017 – a 54-inning effort in which he registered a 2.83 ERA/2.86 FIP and struck out more than 11 hitters per nine. Lyons failed to revisit that form in the majors over the previous two years, but he’ll nonetheless try to work his way back to MLB as a member of a Yankees team whose bullpen includes two established southpaws in Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton. The Yankees subtracted some lefty depth when they traded Stephen Tarpley to the Marlins on Jan. 15, but they’ve signed Lyons and Luis Avilan as reinforcements since then.
Latest On Nolan Arenado
The future of Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been one of the dominant stories in baseball this week. Arenado has been the subject of trade speculation for weeks, but Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich shot down the possibility of a deal Monday, saying the Rox “have listened to teams regarding Nolan and really nothing has come of it.” Bridich added that he wants to put the Arenado rumors “to bed” and look ahead to 2020, though the five-time All-Star reignited the fire shortly after with some scathing comments regarding the Rockies.
Arenado stated that the Rockies have “disrespected” him this offseason, reportedly because he’s unhappy with the higher-ups’ lack of effort to improve a roster that suffered through a dismal 2019 season. Now, though, Arenado says he’s done talking about his relationship with Bridich or the ongoing trade rumors.
In a texted statement issued to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, Arenado wrote: “There has been a lot of stuff going on that nobody knows about and I was reacting to what was said, and (that) was out of character for me because I’m very private with my life. The Rockies have been talking to my agent and me this offseason about a number of things that will remain between us. I will not speak on these things anymore. I’m getting ready for the upcoming season. I’m working hard to get better for my teammates and fans.”
Whether this means the two sides will move forward together heading into the season remains to be seen. Arenado’s the Rockies’ franchise player, so even though he’s on a seven-year, $234MM contract with an opt-out clause after 2021, they’re not just going to give him away. Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported Tuesday that the Rockies have informed clubs they aren’t trading Arenado if a deal doesn’t improve their roster this year. The odds of that happening seem very slim, needless to say.
In the event the Rockies do get an offer to their liking, the soon-to-be 29-year-old Arenado – despite his full no-trade rights – might jump at the chance to play for a contender. Several playoff-caliber teams, including the Cardinals, Braves, Dodgers, Cubs, are among those that have shown interest in Arenado in recent weeks.
Who’s Left From MLBTR’s Top 50?
Free agency lost yet another marquee name when outfielder Marcell Ozuna signed a one-year, $18MM contract with the Braves on Tuesday. Ozuna was, of course, a prominent part of the top 50 list of free agents MLBTR put together when the offseason began in November. Since then, just about every member of that class has come off the board during what has been a much quicker-moving winter than the previous couple. To be exact, 46 of MLBTR’s top 50 have already found teams. Here’s a look at the four still out there with spring training creeping ever closer…
8. Nicholas Castellanos, OF (original prediction: four years, $58MM)
- The Rangers have been mentioned more than anyone else in connection with Castellanos lately, but the deal Ozuna inked could be a negative portent for the former’s earning power. He and Ozuna, who aren’t that different in overall value when they take the field, were projected to rake in lucrative multiyear contracts as the top two outfielders on the market. The good news for Castellanos is that he’s younger (28 in March; Ozuna’s 29) and, unlike Ozuna, not saddled with a qualifying offer.
37. Yasiel Puig, OF (original prediction: one year, $8MM)
- Puig your friend? Tell that to the teams in search of an outfielder. Interest in the former star has been scarce since he completed an underwhelming season in Ohio in 2019, and clear fits are hard to find with teams like the Braves, White Sox, Diamondbacks, Marlins and Reds having addressed their outfields this winter.
41. Brock Holt, UTIL (original prediction: two years, $8MM)
- The Holt rumor mill was silent until recently. Since last week, both the Reds and Blue Jays have sprung up as reported suitors for the former Red Sox utilityman. Considering Holt’s defensive versatility and passable offense, and the fact that he won’t cost a ton to sign, it’s not hard to see the appeal.
49. Pedro Strop, RP (original prediction: one year, $5MM)
- For the most part, Strop has been eminently effective since his career began in 2009. That said, his numbers trended downward last year. In what could go down as his final season as a Cub, he pitched to a 4.97 ERA/4.53 FIP with 4.32 walks per nine and a 93.6 mph average fastball velocity. Those figures all rank among the worst of his career. On a better note, Strop once again struck out double-digit hitters per nine and recorded another groundball rate upward of 50 percent. Still, relative to the rest of his time in the majors, it looks as if the 34-year-old Strop is a free agent at the wrong time. That doesn’t mean teams aren’t interested, though, as Strop’s said to be weighing offers from the Cubs, Marlins, Brewers and Rangers.
Braves Sign Peter O’Brien, Shane Robinson
The Braves announced Wednesday that they’ve signed first baseman/outfielder Peter O’Brien and outfielder Shane Robinson to minor league contracts with invitations to Major League camp this spring. Atlanta also confirmed previously reported minor league deals with outfielder Rafael Ortega; infielders Charlie Culberson, Pete Kozma and Yangervis Solarte; and pitchers Felix Hernandez and Chris Rusin. All will be in Major League camp as well.
Now 29 years old, O’Brien was once a well-regarded prospect with the Yankees and Diamondbacks, both of whom hoped that his significant power would outweigh the defensive question marks that plagued him behind the plate. Unfortunately, that never proved to be the case, and O’Brien shifted from catcher into an outfield/first base role. He’s appeared in 36 games for the Marlins over the past two seasons, hitting at a .231/.306/.426 clip with five homers but 41 strikeouts in 121 plate appearances. Defense and making contact have long been issues for the slugger, who carries a .250/.314/.495 slash in parts of five Triple-A seasons.
The 35-year-old Robinson has seen action in nine big league seasons — the most recent of which was the 2018 campaign with the Yankees. A career .221/.288/.292 hitter through 849 trips to the plate in the Majors, Robinson clearly isn’t much of an offensive threat. But he’s logged at least 111 games at all three outfield positions and has well above-average marks at each, per both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. In just under 1800 total innings in the field, DRS pegs him at +24, while UZR has him at +16.9.
Blue Jays Have Interest In Brock Holt
The Blue Jays are among the clubs with interest in free-agent infielder/outfielder Brock Holt, tweets MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. Holt was reported to be of interest to the Reds last week as well.
Toronto has been bringing in some veteran infield depth on minor league pacts in recent weeks, inking both Joe Panik and Ruben Tejada. Holt, however, would surely command a guaranteed deal after a strong finish to his seven-year tenure with the Red Sox. The 31-year-old tallied 662 plate appearances with Boston in 2018-19, hitting at a .286/.366/.407 clip with 10 homers, 32 doubles, four triples and eight stolen bases.
The starting infield in Toronto is full, with Travis Shaw at first base and a trio of second-generation youngsters — second baseman Cavan Biggio, shortstop Bo Bichette and third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — set to round out the quartet. Holt has ample experience at all four infield spots and across the outfield, though. He could not only capably back up any of that infield bunch, helping to safeguard against injury, but would also give the Jays a veteran fallback in the event that someone from that talented but still relatively inexperienced group takes a step back and finds himself in Triple-A.
At present, the top backup option on the infield is Brandon Drury, though he’s coming off a second consecutive poor showing, having batted just .218/.262/.380 in 447 plate appearances. Holt would give the Jays a left-handed bench option to pair with the right-handed-hitting Drury, thereby presenting manager Charlie Montoyo with defensive and lineup versatility. Toronto currently projects to a $107MM payroll, which is nearly $60MM shy of its franchise-record level of expenditure.