Twins Outright Kohl Stewart
The Twins have outrighted righty Kohl Stewart, per a team announcement. The club also confirmed a host of other, more significant transactions that had previously been reported.
Stewart has elected free agency, officially bringing an end to a seven-year tenure with the Minnesota organization. Now 25 years of age, he landed with the club as the fourth overall pick of the 2013 draft.
Though he drew top prospect grades for some time after being drafted, Stewart ran into trouble in the upper minors. He did ultimately crack the majors but hasn’t shown much ability to get swings and misses from MLB hitters. In 62 total frames, he carries a 4.79 ERA with 4.9 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9.
Mets Select Blake Taylor, Claim Stephen Gonsalves
The Mets have announced the addition of two left-handed hurlers to their 40-man roster. Blake Taylor‘s contract was selected from Triple-A while the club claimed Stephen Gonsalves off waivers from the Twins.
Taylor, 24, has been a member of the Mets organization for more than a decade. The 2013 second-round pick of the Pirates joined New York in the teams’ 2014 swap centering on Ike Davis. Taylor was a somewhat highly touted prospect during his draft class, of course, though he hasn’t climbed above the Triple-A level yet. He did dominate in Double-A ball this year, though, as the left-hander posted a 1.85 ERA/2.61 FIP with 10.38 K/9, 2.77 BB/9 and a 50.5 percent groundball rate in 39 innings.
It hasn’t been long since Gonsalves, 25, was a top 100 prospect, and now the southpaw’s days with the Twins are over after a lengthy run as a member of the organization. Gonsalves had been with Minnesota since it grabbed him in the fourth round of the 2013 draft. However, control problems have haunted Gonsalves in recent years, especially during his only taste of the majors in 2018, and he barely pitched at all this season. Elbow and forearm problems limited Gonsalves to a total of 13 innings among three different minor league levels in 2019, but the Mets will nonetheless take a chance on the once-promising hurler.
Cubs To Add Colin Rea To 40-Man, Outright Allen Webster
The Cubs have added righty Colin Rea to their 40-man roster, as first reported by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). That move will allow the organization to retain his rights, rather than losing him to minor-league free agency.
Righty Allen Webster was outrighted, the club added in its announcement. As was already a given, the team picked up its $16.5MM option over first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
Rea inked a minor-league deal with the Cubs and spent the entire 2019 season at Triple-A. In 148 innings there, he pitched to a 3.95 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9. The Cubs will be able to control Rea for the league-minimum salary in 2020; while he has enough overall MLB service time for Super Two status, he didn’t spend any time on the active roster last year and is therefore ineligible.
Twins To Decline Option On Martin Perez
The Twins will decline their option over southpaw Martin Perez, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). He’ll receive a $500K buyout on his way out the door.
Coming into the season, there was some buzz about Perez, who had been showing improved velocity and an intriguing new cutter — both of which contributed to the Twins’ decision to give him a somewhat surprising MLB deal. While those new tweaks served him well in the early stages of the season, it seems the league quickly adjusted to the changes he’d made.
Perez had moments at times in 2019 — he shut the Astros out over eight innings on May 1 and followed that with seven scoreless frames in Toronto — but he was never consistently effective enough to warrant the $7.5MM price tag of the option year. In fact, following that brilliant pair of scoreless outings, Perez’s results mirrored the form that led to him being jettisoned by the Rangers. Over his final 24 starts of the season, he pitched to a sky-high 5.88 ERA with an ugly 96-to-51 K/BB ratio and 21 home runs allowed in 124 innings. He finished the season with a 5.12 ERA and averages of 7.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 through 165 1/3 innings.
Lefties who average 94.1 mph on their heater in a starting role don’t grow on trees, and Perez regularly demonstrates above-average ground-ball tendencies as well. He’s still just 28 years old, too, so teams will continue to be intrigued not just by his raw abilities but by his youth relative to other freely available pitchers. He’ll head into the open market looking for another opportunity elsewhere and quite likely find a number of clubs with interest — though he may have to accept a lesser base or even a minor league contract.
Athletics Claim T.J. McFarland
The Athletics announced that they have claimed lefty T.J. McFarland off of waivers from the Diamondbacks. It appears the Arizona organization outrighted him from the 40-man after declining a club option.
It’s a bit of an unusual situation. McFarland’s 2019 arbitration agreement included an option value for 2020. The $1.85MM price was deemed too steep. But McFarland remained eligible for arbitration.
Now, the A’s will have a decision to make. McFarland actually projects to earn more than the option value, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz pegging his arb value at $2.1MM. That’s all subject to negotiation, of course. The Oakland org might seek to work out a deal at its price tag and move on if that can’t be accomplished.
McFarland was in many respects much the same pitcher as he was in a successful 2018 season, with the 30-year-old producing loads of groundballs and minimal strikeouts. But he allowed more hard contact and more home runs. The A’s obviously they believe McFarland can benefit from some positive regression and/or tweaks to his approach.
Braves Decline Options Over Teheran, Hamilton; Issue Qualifying Offer To Josh Donaldson
The Braves announced today that they have declined options over righty Julio Teheran and center fielder Billy Hamilton. In other news, the club made a qualifying offer to third baseman Josh Donaldson.
In Teheran’s case — the most interesting one of the three — the club will pay a $1MM buyout rather than picking up the option at $12MM. It isn’t entirely surprising to see that the Braves are ready to move on from the long-time rotation stalwart, but it had been possible to imagine the team exercising the option and then trading him.
Teheran has never been the ace that some once expected him to be. But he has generally been quite effective, with a 3.67 lifetime ERA and sub-4.00 marks in each of the past two campaigns. And Teheran has been freakishly durable, scarcely missing a single outing and averaging 191 innings since his first full season in 2013.
It’s debatable just how much interest Teheran will draw on the open market. But it’s plenty possible to imagine teams considering multi-year offers. Beyond his excellent health record, Teheran is still just 28 years of age.
As for Hamilton, claimed off waivers in August, there was never any chance his mutual option would be exercised by the team at a $7.5MM price tag. He’ll take a $1MM buyout with him as he goes back onto the open market.
It was equally obvious that Donaldson would receive the $17.8MM qualifying offer at $17.8MM. The Braves paid him more than that for one season already and got everything they bargained for. There’s no question Donaldson will turn down the offer and take to free agency.
Yankees Outright Jake Barrett, Tyler Lyons
The Yankees have outrighted righty Jake Barrett and lefty Tyler Lyons, per the club. Lyons has rejected the assignment in favor of free agency.
Barrett, 28, will evidently remain with the New York organization for the time being. He only made two MLB appearances after being claimed but showed quite a bit of promise in 15 1/3 Triple-A innings. He has had little trouble dominating batters in the upper minors in recent years, but hasn’t consistently recorded outs in the bigs and spent much of the 2019 campaign on ice owing to elbow issues.
As for Lyons, he did compile an eyebrow-raising 12:2 K/BB ratio in 8 2/3 innings in New York. He also coughed up three long balls in that sample and has generally struggled in limited opportunities over the past two seasons.
Lyons, 31, had projected to earn $800K in arbitration. Trimming him from the roster will knock out that potential payout. But the Yankees decided not to move first baseman Greg Bird off of the 40-man today. He projects to earn $1.3MM after another forgettable campaign. Whether or not he’ll be tendered — and, if so, remain with the Yanks — remains to be seen, but is still an open possibility.
Twins To Issue Qualifying Offer To Jake Odorizzi
The Twins will issue a qualifying offer to righty Jake Odorizzi, Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM reports (Twitter link). This year’s qualifying offer value is $17.8MM.
While not unexpected, this move sets the stage for an interesting decision for Odorizzi. He’ll have ten days to weigh his options, during which time he can negotiate with the Twins. Odorizzi and his reps at Excel can also chat with other organizations that have interest, helping them to gauge the marketplace, though any deal with another organization would need to await final resolution of the QO.
The Minnesota organization would obviously be glad to see Odorizzi return for a one-year commitment, even at that hefty price point. After all, they could lose not only Odorizzi but also Michael Pineda, Kyle Gibson and Martin Perez to free agency, leaving them with a huge offseason undertaking on the starting staff. If he hits the open market instead of accepting, the Twins will stand to recoup draft compensation if Odorizzi signs elsewhere. They’d receive a choice after the second round — unless Odorizzi secures more than $50MM in guaranteed money, in which case it’d be after the first round. Meanwhile, signing teams will modify their offers (or withhold them altogether) to account for the loss of their own draft capital.
Odorizzi, who’ll turn 30 next March, quietly built himself a strong case as a qualifying offer recipient. The right-hander has long been a durable and generally useful rotation cog, but some mechanical adjustments led to increased velocity in 2019, and his focus on working at the top of the zone helped to up his strikeout levels. When all was said and done, Odorizzi had compiled 159 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with an even better 3.36 FIP. The righty averaged a career-best 10.1 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9, and his 0.9 HR/9 mark was particularly impressive for a fly-ball pitcher, considering the 2019 juiced ball.
The top of this year’s pitching market features bona fide aces Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, while Zack Wheeler and Madison Bumgarner are both in the next tier of arms. There’s an argument for Odorizzi to at least approach that second tier, but at the very least, he’s among the more appealing arms in the market’s third tier.
Red Sox Outright Juan Centeno
The Red Sox have announced that catcher Juan Centeno was outrighted from the 40-man roster. He elected free agency.
Soon to reach his 30th birthday, Centeno will go out searching for the best possible opportunity this winter. He has appeared in the bigs in each of the past seven seasons, but still has only appeared in 118 games in total.
Centeno offers a relatively rare left-handed bat from the catching position, but hasn’t hit much in his opportunities. In 371 plate appearances in the majors, he carries a .223/.278/.323 batting line. Centeno slashed .248/.321/.350 in his 301 Triple-A plate appearances this season.
Indians Outright Four Pitchers
The Indians announced today that they have outrighted four pitchers from their 40-man roster. Lefty Tyler Olson and righties Cody Anderson, A.J. Cole, and Danny Salazar all elected free agency in lieu of a minor-league assignment.
That’s a rather notable group of arms for the pitching-rich Cleveland organization to cast out onto the open market. Olson was still a bit shy of arbitration eligibility, but the three right-handers would have qualified. Anderson and Cole each projected to earn $800K, while Salazar could have anticipated a repeat of his $4.5MM salary.
Olson, 30, had shown a surprising leap in swinging-strike rate in 2018. While he still allowed more earned runs than you’d like to see, the club understandably believed he’d be a useful hurler — particularly as a lefty specialist. As it turned out, Olson fell back to earth with a big velocity drop. He ended the campaign with 30 2/3 innings of 4.40 ERA ball and 8.2 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9.
The 29-year-old Anderson has long struggled with health issues but was able to return to the bigs for the first time since 2016. Unfortunately, he was knocked around in 8 2/3 innings at the game’s highest level.
Cole delivered an intriguing stat line on the surface, with a 3.81 ERA and 30:8 K/BB ratio over 26 innings. He’s still 27 years of age, averaged just under 95 mph with his fastball, and has maintained about a 14% swinging-strike rate in a relief role over the past two seasons. It’s tough to argue with the Indians front office when it comes to pitching decisions, but it’ll be interesting to see whether Cole is claimed.
As for Salazar, the best-known name on this list, his time in Cleveland will finally come to a close. That was a foregone conclusion by now. The injury-riddled former All-Star did show intriguing strikeout ability in his minor-league rehab run and made it back to the majors for one outing. But he ended up back on the injured list thereafter and eventually asked to be excused from the organization while struggling in yet another rehab effort.