Steve Pearce “Unofficially Retired”
Hard-hitting utilityman Steve Pearce appears to be putting the wraps on his playing days. He tells Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that he’s “unofficially retired” from baseball.
Pearce surpassed ten years of MLB service last year, as Bradford notes. That entitles him to a full pension, an achievement that once seemed exceptionally unlikely. An eighth-round pick in 2005, Pearce made it to the majors with the Pirates and appeared briefly with the Bucs in five major league campaigns. But he departed the organization with little fanfare and struggled to find a new home elsewhere.
Through 2012, Pearce had managed just 709 MLB plate appearances of 82 OPS+ hitting in stints with four clubs. He showed a bit of life in a 44-game sample in his age-30 season, but still ended up being designated for assignment early in the ensuing campaign.
That’s when Pearce morphed from a little-known 4-A player to a sudden star hitter. He made the unusual decision to reject a late-April claim in order to return to the O’s after the DFA. And then he raked. Pearce finished the 2014 campaign with a .293/.373/.556 batting line and 21 home runs over 383 plate appearances.
Pearce ultimately appeared in 13 MLB campaigns, logging 2,555 plate appearances of .254/.332/.440 hitting. There were some peaks and valleys, and quite a few injury layoffs, along the way. He never once reached 400 plate appearances in a given season. But Pearce will finish off his career having produced solidly above-average offensive numbers.
Never regarded much for his glovework, Pearce nevertheless proved capable of stepping in all over the diamond, allowing teams to shoehorn his bat into the lineup. He saw action at first base, left field, right field, second base, and third base (in that order of frequency).
When he wasn’t working back to health or going through a rough patch, Pearce provided big output at times for the Orioles, Rays, Blue Jays, and Red Sox. He also appeared earlier in his career with the Yankees, making him the rare player to have donned every uniform in a single division. Pearce will no doubt be remembered most in the long haul for his indelible mark on Boston sports history, as his three-homer output in the 2018 World Series earned him an MVP award on the game’s biggest stage.
Pearce returned to the Red Sox in 2019 but struggled badly before back and knee injuries wrecked his season. While he isn’t yet ready to file his paperwork, it seems the 36-year-old won’t actively pursue a job this winter. That’s plenty understandable, as he’d no doubt need to earn his way onto a big-league roster on a minor-league deal. Pearce is to be congratulated for persisting through early-career setbacks and frequent health problems. MLBTR wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
Orioles Notes: Cashner, Gausman, Joseph
The Baltimore Orioles are looking for a slew of rotation candidates to push the holdovers in competition for their two to three open slots this winter. John Means and Alex Cobb appear locked into their turns, and Asher Wojciechowski has a spot to lose. MASN’s Roch Kubatko quoted GM Mike Elias recently, on Wojiechowski: “…if the season started today I think he’d absolutely project for a rotation spot if he shows up in good health at spring training.”
Still, from everything Elias has said so far this winter, his primary goal is to add enough pitching depth at the major league level such that they don’t get caught promoting prospects up the totem pole before they’re ready. Baltimorebaseball.com’s Rich Dubroff explores potential retreads, casting Kevin Gausman as likely out of Baltimore’s price range, while he sees an Andrew Cashner reboot as within the realm of possibility. Cashner does check a lot of boxes in that he won’t cost much, he’s good for 150 innings or so a year, and he won’t be cowed by having to wear one here and there for the rebuilding Orioles. The Athletic’s Dan Connolly adds his own list of potential rotation options like Martin Perez, Shelby Miller, Drew Smyly, Chad Bettis, and other reclamation projects of that ilk.
Caleb Joseph is another ex-Oriole who could return. Elias won’t necessarily be drawn to former Orioles the way others in the building might, but he is on the lookout for a veteran backstop to complete their catching quartet. Pedro Severino, 25, is a lock for one roster spot after a mini breakout at the plate that saw him put up a .249/.321/.420 line while starting just over half of Baltimore’s games. Statcast ranked his glovework in the bottom half of the league in both poptime and framing, while by Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average, a -13.8 FRAA mark landed him next to last (Josh Phegley).
Chance Sisco should have a chance to claim the other spot, though his defensive marks didn’t grade out much better (-11.1 FRAA). Austin Wynns rounds out the group as presently constituted, though he spent most of last year in the minors.
The other well-known area of focus simply from the standpoint of needing to roster enough bodies to make it through a 162-game season is the middle infield. Hanser Alberto figures to see significant playing time at second, while Stevie Wilkerson, Dilson Herrera, Pat Valaika, Jose Rondon and Richie Martin make up the contenders, though nobody from that group is guaranteed – or even necessarily favored – to secure an Opening Day roster spot.
Padres Not Playing At Top Of Free Agent Market
The Padres, along with the Braves, have thus far born the brunt of the burden in stoking the hot stove fire, but San Diego doesn’t anticipate being players at the top of the free agent market, per The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee. Given the enormity of the task ahead of them – dethroning the Dodgers from their perch atop the NL West – it was natural to assume GM A.J. Preller might go for the hat trick and score another big ticket free agent. Plus, hometown kid and confirmed playoff ace Stephen Strasburg is taking meetings, and the Padres could use a slide-stopping ace to stabilize their young rotation. But alas, the Padres don’t plan on meeting Scott Boras about either Gerrit Cole or Strasburg.
Two nine-figure free agents and the promotions of top prospects like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Chris Paddack could not stop the string of losing season for the Padres in 2019. They stretched their streak to nine while reaching 90 losses for the fourth consecutive year. The good news for Padres fans is that even though they don’t plan on attracting another top tier free agent – help is on the way. Per Acee’s sources, Preller doesn’t feel compelled to sign a top free agent ace is because he is confident in their ability to grow them from the ground up. Both MacKenzie Gore and Luis Patino have the potential to join Paddack atop the rotation in the next couple years.
Gore, 21 by Opening Day, made five starts in Double-A after blistering High-A with a 1.02 ERA in 79 1/3 innings. That’s not a typo. The young southpaw gave up just 36 hits, 20 walks, and 9 earned runs while playing for the Lake Elsinore Storm. He struck out 110 batters, good for 12.5 K/9. He is baseball’s 4th best prospect per Baseball America and MLB.com, #5 by Fangraphs.
Patino ranks as the 30th best prospect in the sport by MLB.com, 26th by Fangraphs, 29th by Baseball America. Though eight months younger than Gore, they’re on the same development track as of now. Patino registered a 2.69 ERA in High-A while little more than four years younger than league average.
Needless to say, the future is bright in San Diego, but there are pressing concerns for the present still on the docket. Preller is on the lookout for at least one reliever, potentially a starting catcher, while adding another rotation arm remains in the mix. Financially, it’s tight. They may look to shed some salary in the coming days. The payroll has already climbed north of $140MM. Per Cot’s Contracts, they ran a $97MM payroll on Opening Day last year and only once have they opened a season with a payroll over $100MM (2015).
Winter Meetings Preview: Nationals’ Trade Chips
The World Champion Washington Nationals are waiting with the rest of us for the major free agent dominoes to fall, but in the meantime, there’s work to do. One such task might be finding trade partners for any number of current Nationals who are out of minor league options. Michael A. Taylor, Wilmer Difo, Adrian Sanchez, Raudy Read, Erick Fedde, Joe Ross, and Austin Voth are all potential trade candidates, per MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
The players listed above can no longer be shuttled back and forth between the minor leagues without being exposed to waivers – they either make the Opening Day roster, get traded elsewhere, or the Nats will risk losing them for nothing through the waiver claim process. Granted, this isn’t exactly Anthony Rendon or Stephen Strasburg. Washington can take their chances and not be overexposed. But if there’s value to return, GM Mike Rizzo might do well to look for it this week in San Diego.
On the position player side, there’s not much to offer. Taylor has become somewhat of a folklore “postseason specialist,” and there’s room for him on the roster as a fourth outfielder. But he’ll turn 29 in March, and his bygone ceiling as a second division starter has been replaced with legitimate questions about whether he carries enough bat to make the 26-man roster. He’s somewhat inexplicably beloved by a large contingent of fans in the DMV, but the Nationals may very well explore finding another option as insurance should Juan Soto, Victor Robles, and Adam Eaton not prove as healthy as they were in 2019. Taylor is a capable defender and baserunner, but he’s also due over $3MM, carries a career .240/.294/.393 batting line across over 1700 big league plate appearances, and he’s coming off a season spent almost entirely in Double-A (though for Washington, Double-A served as a holding grounds for potential call-ups, since their Triple-A team was located across the country in Fresno).
Difo is of a similar mold, but in the infield and without the postseason heroics. Neither Difo nor Sanchez are likely to bring back anything via trade, nor should they really be relied upon by the Nats. Difo will turn 28 this year, Sanchez 30, and there’s just not much upside to mine. Read is a 26-year-old catcher with pop who is out of options despite only 22 big league plate appearances. His power numbers in Triple-A last year (.546 SLG) are enough to crane a neck or two, and the Nats are probably fine with Tres Barrera serving as their emergency third catcher.
Where this gets interesting is with the trio of pitchers who rotated in and out of the Nats’ fifth starter spot. Fedde, Ross, and Voth all experienced some degree of success in 2019, though not one is a sure thing to make the roster.
Ross’ overall numbers (5.48 ERA/4.59 FIP) are ugly, but they’re largely attributable to a horrid run in the bullpen. As a starter in the second half, Ross went 4-2 with a 3.02 ERA, showing signs of finally returning to the mid-rotation form he flashed as a younger player. Though high heat is in vogue, Ross hit his stride when his sinker became a primary offering as it had been before injuries derailed his career. Call me crazy – and this brand of breakout is hardly normative enough to form an archetype – but there’s hints of Jake Arrieta here. Ross is just two years from free agency, and even his second half performance is probably more than should be expected moving forward – but after a 1.05 ERA across five starts in August, Ross certainly became a guy a front office can dream on.
There was a time when those within the Nats’ organization were aligned on Voth as nothing more than organizational filler, and he was the last guy on the Nats’ 40-man roster to get a look in the show last year, but he added a couple ticks to his fastball and pitched to a 3.30 ERA/3.70 FIP across 43 2/3 inning worth 1.2 bWAR. Should Strasburg return to Washington, Voth and Ross are probably dueling for the fifth starter spot. It’s also hard to imagine the Nats defending their title with both in the rotation even if Strasburg departs. Still, given the strides shown by Ross and Voth last season, it’s not inconceivable.
Fedde could be the odd man out, but there’s enough of a pedigree to at least explore his value on the trade market. The 26-year-old right-hander was a top-4 Nationals prospect by Baseball America from 2014 to 2017, topping out as the #82 prospect in baseball following the 2015 season. He’s a former first round pick with a Tommy John surgery already in the rearview. The results the last few seasons have been mixed (4.50 ERA in 2019), but there’s no major trauma, and speculatively speaking, he’d be a good fit every fifth day for a younger team like the Blue Jays or Orioles.
Quick Hits: Souza Jr., Ha-seong, Giants Coaching Staff
After missing much of 2018 and all of 2019, outfielder Steven Souza Jr. will be looking for a place to reboot his career in 2020. Souza was recently non-tendered by the Diamondbacks, but he insists he is finally healthy and cleared for game action. One club he wouldn’t mind spending the 2020 season with is the Tampa Bay Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The best seasons of Souza’s career were with Tampa in 2016 and 2017, but outside of a particularly strong 2017 in which he posted a 121 wRC+, Souza has largely performed within arm’s reach of league average – from both above and below. The spotty record combined with the injuries of the past two seasons means Souza will likely have to settle for a prove-yourself type of deal, which could put the Rays among interested teams. That’s all speculation for now, however, as the market for Souza isn’t likely to take shape with any immediacy. While we wait, let’s check out a couple other quick bits of news from around the baseball world…
- Kiwoom Heroes shortstop Kim Ha-seong of the KBO intends to be posted after the 2020 season, per Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency. Ha-seong is a career .292/371/.487 hitter in the KBO, pairing stolen base ability with strong power numbers. If posted after 2020, he would be ready for a stateside appearance in his age-25 season. The total package is certainly enough to make Ha-seong an intriguing name to keep in mind for this time next year. If nothing else, his bat flip skills are certainly ML-ready.
- The San Francisco Giants are getting younger – in the dugout if not on the field. New manager Gabe Kapler is set to add another young coach to his staff. Justin Viele, 29, would join 33-year-old Donnie Ecker to form the team of hitting coaches, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. Viele has been a hitting coach in the Dodgers’ minor league system, so President of Baseball Ops Farhan Zaidi is no doubt familiar with his work. Viele did play 126 games of minor league ball, including a stint as a teammate of current Giant Mike Yastrzemski.
Winter Meetings Preview: The Dodgers’ Infield
The Los Angeles Dodgers have unsurprisingly been asked about the availability of Gavin Lux, the Dodgers’ minor league player of the year for 2019. Thus far, understandably, suitors have been turned away, per MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman. Granted, this isn’t shocking news in and of itself, but it is telling of the Dodgers’ mindset on the eve of the winter meetings.
Lux, 22, is coming off a monster season that saw him hulk out for a .347/.421/.607 line in 113 games across Double-A and Triple-A (which included a monstrous-even-for-the-PCL .719 SLG and 188 wRC+ in 49 games in Triple-A). He didn’t disappoint in a cup of coffee with the big league club, holding his own at .240/.305/.400 in 23 games of uneven playing time. He proved capable enough to make the playoff roster and earn the start in games 2 and 4 in the NLDS versus the Nationals.
It’s not surprising that the Dodgers would make a point to hang onto the young star, but doing so doesn’t exactly jibe with their rumored interest in free agent Anthony Rendon. Justin Turner has made clear his openness to moving around the diamond, and while it’s certainly nice to be reminded that chivalry is not yet dead, it’s not obvious where Turner would move if the Dodgers are indeed intent on making Lux a part of their core moving forward.
A Corey Seager trade could open a spot with Lux taking over at short, Max Muncy taking full-time duties at second and Turner moving to first. Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, and NL MVP Cody Bellinger are capable of filling in around the infield as needed. But as good as Rendon is, Seager himself was a 4.0 bWAR player in 2019, and it would seem that the Seager/Lux/Muncy/Bellinger/Taylor/Hernandez/Turner septet already provides the perfect amount of wholesale injury coverage and star power. Swapping in Rendon for Seager cuts their shortstop options by one, and while they’d still probably be two injuries away from any real panic, it’s still a little hard to fathom why swapping in Rendon and his presumably monstrous contract makes sense – unless the goal is simply to keep the development train moving by restocking the lower levels via trade.
They could certainly sign Rendon – or Josh Donaldson, for that matter – and shop one of their other infielders, but there’s not a natural fit on that front either. Turner and Muncy have been central figures to the culture and success of the Dodgers in recent seasons, and it’s frankly jarring to imagine either one suiting up elsewhere. Moving Taylor or Hernandez neither frees up at-bats nor brings back a significant prospect haul.
The logical conclusion is that the Dodgers’ interest in Rendon is probably more smoke than fire. President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman has made a point of avoiding lavish and reactionary spending, and a Rendon signing would appear to qualify as both. Luxury tax estimates (per Roster Resource) peg the Dodgers at around $176MM for the upcoming season, which would make it difficult to fit Rendon under the tax line. Their longer-term financial picture is more flexible, however, with only ~$93MM on the books for 2021 and ~$33MM the year after.
The Dodgers did suffer a particularly tough playoff defeat in 2019, and after seven years of making the playoffs and coming home without a ring, it’s fair to wonder if the disciplined roster building that’s become the brand of these Los Angeles Dodgers might finally break under the strain of those playoff defeats. Andrew Friedman is also one of the more creative thinkers in the game and if there’s a way to make this work, he’s sure to find it. But it’s also not hard to see why they’d keep on keeping on with business as usual.
Cubs Have Had Discussions With Josh Lindblom
The Chicago Cubs have been in contact with free agent right-hander Josh Lindblom, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (via twitter).
The possibility of a signing seems far fetched, however, as Morosi notes that other teams are further along in their discussions with Lindblom at this point. Not to mention, of course, the Cubs are notably frugal these days, making a quick strike signing for Lindblom unlikely. There is some interest on the Cubs’ part, however, and one would think Lindblom – an Indiana native – would be intrigued by the possibility of calling Wrigley Field home.
Though he’s not exactly among the most sought after nor bankable free agent arms on the market, Lindblom does come with an intriguing amount of upside after an MVP season in the Korean Baseball Organization. He was a 20-game winner in the KBO with a 2.50 ERA in 194 2/3 innings, this on the heels of a 15-4 season that carried a 2.88 ERA in 168 2/3 innings. That said, Lindblom is set to turn 33 in June, and his major league career prior to his success in the KBO consisted of a series of fly-by-night affairs. From 2011 until 2017, Lindblom suited up for the Dodgers, Phillies, Rangers, A’s, and Pirates. He did manage a palatable 4.10 ERA/4.27 FIP in 147 innings spread across five seasons.
There are a number of pitchers ahead of Lindblom in the free agent pecking order, but there’s enough need league-wide that he should have no trouble finding a home. MLBTR predicted he would secure a two-year, $8MM contract with the Astros, Brewers, Dodgers, Twins, Cubs and Angels all seeming like viable fits. Considering the scuttlebutt coming out of Chicago, however, even that modest commitment might be too rich for the Cubs until they shed some payroll.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/8/19
The latest minor moves from around the baseball world…
- The Kiwoom Heroes of South Korea’s KBO League announced that righty Jake Brigham has been re-signed to a new contract (hat tip to Jee-Ho Yoo of Yonhap News). Brigham, who turns 32 in February, will earn $950K in guaranteed salary in the one-year deal, with more money available in incentives. After nine seasons in the minors (and 12 MLB games with the Braves in 2015), Brigham has spent the last four years pitching abroad, with one season in Japan, and the last three in the KBO League with the Heroes. 2019 saw Brigham impress by posting a 2.96 ERA, 2.83 K/BB rate, and 7.4 K/9 over 158 1/3 innings.
Dodgers Interested In Re-Signing Hyun-Jin Ryu
Hyun-Jin Ryu has drawn looks from multiple teams this offseason, though the Dodgers have also considered a reunion and are “in” on the southpaw, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman writes (via Twitter). The Blue Jays and Twins are among the other clubs known to have some degree of interest in Ryu, who has pitched only for the Dodgers since coming to Major League Baseball prior to the 2013 season.
As Heyman notes, the Dodgers are also pursuing Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, so it could be that L.A. views Ryu as something of a fallback if both Cole and Strasburg sign elsewhere. Ryu isn’t exactly a bad consolation prize, coming off a season that saw him post a 2.32 ERA, 6.79 K/BB rate, and 8.0 K/9 over 182 2/3 innings and finish second in NL Cy Young voting. Then again, Ryu will also be 33 years old on Opening Day and comes with a lengthy injury history, placing something of a ceiling on his next contract. The left-hander entered the offseason hoping to land a three- or four-year contract, and MLBTR projected three years and $54MM in our ranking of the winter’s top 50 free agents (Ryu finished ninth in our listing).
Ryu accepted a qualifying offer to remain with Los Angeles last winter, which means that he can be signed by any team this offseason without any draft compensation tied to his services. That will increase the chances that he and agent Scott Boras can land that fourth year, as while teams might hesitate at committing to such an injury-plagued pitcher through his age-36 season, Ryu will only become more attractive to pitching-needy teams as other top arms drop off the board.
For instance, if the Dodgers do miss out on both Cole and Strasburg, they could opt to offer a fourth year to ensure that they can land at least Ryu and beat out other teams who didn’t sign the top two pitchers on the market. Or, a non-contender like the Blue Jays might be willing to offer the fourth year in order to lure Ryu to a team that isn’t lined up to compete in 2020. The added wrinkle to this entire situation is that Boras represents Ryu, Cole, Strasburg, and (another notable pitcher in the “second tier” of free agent arms) Dallas Keuchel, so the agent will have intimate knowledge of what teams are willing to offer his clients.
MLBTR Chat Transcript: Bryant, Lindor, HOF, Cole, ChiSox
Click here to read the transcript of tonight’s live baseball chat, moderated by MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk