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Nationals Interested In Bud Norris

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The Nationals are showing interest in free agent reliever Bud Norris, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Per the report, the club would still like to stay beneath the luxury tax line with any new additions.

With bullpen issues jumping up right out of the gate this year, the Nationals are understandably looking to find reinforcements. While superstar closer Craig Kimbrel remains available, he’ll still cost quite a bit. Otherwise, the market is largely devoid of appealing options outside of old friend Ryan Madson, who never seemed to be pursuing a contract in earnest.

Norris dealt with some forearm fatigue this spring after signing late. He was cut loose recently by the Blue Jays when he and the team did not see eye to eye on his readiness for MLB action. He had signed a minor-league deal with the Toronto organization — quite a surprising result after he turned in a solid 2018 season.

Working as the Cardinals closer for much of the ’18 campaign, Norris pitched to a 3.59 ERA with 10.5 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 over 57 2/3 innings. He sat at 95 with his four-seam fastball and carried a 12%+ swinging-strike rate for the second consecutive season.

2018 Rule 5 Draft Update

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Let’s check in on the players chosen in the 2018 Rule 5 draft …

Still On MLB Roster

Richie Martin, SS: The first overall selection, moving from the Athletics to the Orioles, Martin is about as intriguing a future asset as we see available in the Rule 5 these days. He has been overmatched early, with a rough showing in camp and 11 strikeouts in his first 26 MLB plate appearances. But the O’s seem all but certain to hang tight and achieve permanent rights over the 24-year-old shortstop.

Reed Garrett, RHP: The Tigers provided Garrett plenty of innings this spring and saw him cough up eight walks to go with 11 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings. But they liked the upper nineties heat, which Garrett combines primarily with a cutter. He’s through two clean outings in the majors and seems likely at least to receive a long look — if he’s ever offered back to the Rangers at all.

Travis Bergen, LHP: The Giants were another club with eyes for the Rule 5 this year. They’ve cycled through a few players but only Bergen remains on the 40-man. He’ll be kept from the Blue Jays unless he stumbles. The results so far have been quite encouraging. Bergen was strong this spring and has been thrown right into the mix early, handling himself well in five appearances thus far.

Elvis Luciano, RHP: One of the more surprising Rule 5 decisions this spring involved Luciano, a high-powered but raw hurler who was snagged from the Royals by the Blue Jays. Luciano turned 19 at the outset of camp and looked every bit his age in spring action. But the talent proved too tantalizing to resist for the Toronto organization. That could still change, but this has all the makings of a situation where a non-contender is determined to keep a Rule 5 player it really likes.

Kyle Dowdy, RHP: A 26-year-old left unprotected by the pitching-rich Indians, Dowdy had a marginal spring performance that left the contending Mets unwilling to hang onto him. But the Rangers were there to scoop him up. The numbers have never really jumped off the page for Dowdy, but the Texas organization will see if his varied pitch mix can work in a pen role — with the idea that he could ultimately also represent a rotation depth piece.

Brandon Brennan, RHP: When the Mariners were snubbed by Brennan, who signed a minors deal with the Rockies early in the offseason, they just shrugged their shoulders and grabbed him in the Rule 5. The 27-year-old has already thrown 6 2/3 innings over five appearances, putting up blanks on the scoreboard while recording seven strikeouts against just one walk.

Injured List

Riley Ferrell, RHP: The Marlins were set to give the former Astros third-round pick a look in hopes that he’d finally tamp down on his walk issues and capitalize on his high-K arm. Biceps soreness drove Ferrell to the injured list, an injury that may ultimately make it somewhat easier for the Miami organization to hold onto his rights while limiting his immediate MLB exposure.

DFA Limbo

Connor Joe, INF/OF: Picked by the Reds, then acquired by the Giants, Joe got a look to begin the year in San Francisco. But he managed only one hit in 16 plate appearances and was cast off of the 40-man roster to make way for Tyler Austin. Joe will now be offered back to the Dodgers if he clears waivers.

Chris Ellis, RHP: Plucked from the Cardinals, Ellis moved from the Rangers to the Royals on Rule 5 draft day. He hung on through Opening Day and got his first taste of MLB action, but lost his roster spot thereafter. The Royals evidently liked what they saw from Ellis, so it’s possible they’ll try to work something out with the St. Louis organization if he clears waivers.

Drew Jackson, INF: Another draft-day mover, Jackson was selected by the Phillies from the Dodgers and was promptly shipped to the Orioles for international draft bonus capacity. A power burst last year at Double-A created enough intrigue for Jackson to hang on through Opening Day, but he was moved off the 40-man early on and will be offered back to Los Angeles unless he’s claimed by another club.

Returned

Sam McWilliams, RHP: The second overall selection didn’t last with the Royals, who sent him back to the Rays after an exceedingly rough showing in camp (eight earned runs, 2:6 K/BB ratio in 4 2/3 innings).

Jordan Romano, RHP: Another player that had a look with the Rangers, Romano was dealt to the Texas org by the White Sox after being selected from the Blue Jays. He had solid numbers last year at Double-A but obviously didn’t impress the Rangers’ brass in camp, when he worked to a 3.86 ERA with six strikeouts and five walks in 9 1/3 frames.

Nick Green, RHP: The Diamondbacks sent Green back to the Yankees after watching the 24-year-old struggle through 13 1/3 innings in camp (11 walks vs. 8 strikeouts).

Drew Ferguson, OF: One of many outfielders to get a look from the Giants this spring, Ferguson was sent back to the Astros organization after scuffling badly in Cactus League action (.111/.294/.111 in 34 plate appearances).

NL Notes: Lester, Kershaw, Urias, Dahl

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The Cubs’ offense clicked in today’s home opener, but there’s still some cause for concern. Left-hander Jon Lester exited the game in the third inning due to tightness in his left hamstring, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Lester had singled and scored in the prior frame, and Wittenmyer notes that the southpaw was slow to get up after sliding safely into home plate. More will be known after an MRI tomorrow, as Wittenmyer tweets. While Lester says he’s optimistic and isn’t even counting out making his next scheduled start, it seems safe to assume he’ll miss at least one outing. If that comes to pass, the Cubs would likely have to turn to righty Tyler Chatwood to make a start, given that Mike Montgomery is currently on the injured list due to a lat strain.

Here’s more from the NL …

  • Clayton Kershaw will make what is expected to be his final rehab start tomorrow for the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate, tweets Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. If Kershaw is indeed ready to be activated after that outing, he’ll step back into the rotation in place of fellow southpaw Julio Urias, Pedro Moura of The Athletic tweeted last night. Los Angeles hasn’t exactly felt Kershaw’s absence in the win-loss column, as they’re sitting at 8-2 on the season, but he’ll nevertheless be a boon to an already dangerous roster that sports baseball’s best run differential (+36). Urias has shown a velocity uptick to open the new season, but the Dodgers will be happy to take things slow given that he only returned from injury in time to record 15 2/3 total innings last year.
  • Rockies left fielder David Dahl exited last night’s game early due to an abdominal injury sustained on a swing, writes MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. While the outfielder himself doesn’t believe he’ll need to miss an extended period of time, manager Bud Black offered a more cautious outlook, simply stating that the Rox have their “fingers crossed” and are hoping for a slight tweak as opposed to something like an oblique strain that would require a trip to the injured list. Dahl has been brilliant to start the 2019 season for the otherwise offensively challenged ballclub, raking at a .343/.385/.629 clip and getting a look as the team’s cleanup hitter. Should he require an IL stint, Raimel Tapia would figure to fill in during his absence.

Trump Administration Overrides MLB Deal On Cuban Player Transfers

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The Trump Administration has rejected an agreement between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation regarding the movement of Cuban ballplayers, as Vivian Salama and Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal report. For the time being, the preexisting state of affairs will continue to govern any Cuban players that seek to join MLB organizations.

When the agreement was announced late last year, the hope was it would end the awkward, often-dangerous process by which Cuba’s best baseball talent made its way to the glory and riches of professional baseball. Generally prohibited from departing the island to sign with MLB clubs, Cubans wishing to play in the affiliated ranks must defect, establish residency in another country, and then seek clearance from the league. That set of circumstances — extra-legal in many aspects — leaves players exposed to human traffickers and other shadowy operators.

The new arrangement was designed with the same essential framework of MLB’s agreements with baseball leagues in Japan and Korea, with a percentage of the player’s contract to be paid as a release fee. In this case, though, the dollars were destined not for a foreign ballclub, but for Cuba’s government-run governing body, the aforementioned Cuban Baseball Federation. In negotiating an agreement involving a Cuban governmental entity, MLB had been relying upon an interpretation of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations — issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control late in Barack Obama’s presidency — that it was permitted to make such payments despite the broad Cuban embargo.

All along, there was a risk that OFAC would reenter the picture with a reinterpretation that would preempt any agreement. That’s just what has taken place. The present administration determined that “a payment to the Cuban Baseball Federation is a payment to the Cuban government,” effectively shutting the avenue for making a deal within the existing legislative and regulatory systems.

From a hot stove perspective, the result is that a slate of international players who had been anticipating near-term signings will now remain in Cuban — unless and until they elect to roll the dice on defecting. It’s a notable change for MLB teams as they plot their international acquisitions. For the players, it’s a potentially life-changing turn of events with repercussions that can’t entirely be foreseen. There were many potential problems with the new rights transfer system that had been negotiated, but it did at least hold out the hope of all but halting the human trafficking that lies at the heart of the present state of affairs.

Luis Severino Headed For MRI

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Yankees starter Luis Severino is slated to undergo an MRI and further medical examination, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters including George A. King III of the New York Post (via Twitter). Severino has been on the injured list since the start of the season for inflammation in his rotator cuff.

Severino’s rehab was “stalled” over the past week, as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News puts it (Twitter link), with Severino not yet feeling up to mound work. The lack of progress was evidently worrying enough that Dr. Christopher Ahmad — a noted surgeon and the Yankees’ head physician — will take a closer look.

Notably, there’s no indication that Severino has experienced new discomfort or a specific setback. That’s the silver lining. But this is obviously a suboptimal development for a club that has been racked by injuries and would prefer to have Severino leading the rotation.

The hope all along has been that Severino would rest up a bit, work through a progression, and make it back to the MLB hill by early May. The timeline hasn’t yet changed significantly, but it seems he’s now behind schedule. And it remains to be seen what the imaging will show.

Giants Acquire Tyler Austin

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The Giants announced Monday that they’ve acquired first baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin from the Twins in exchange for minor league outfielder Malique Ziegler. To open a spot on the roster, they’ve designated fellow first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe for assignment.

Austin, 27, will add a powerful but strikeout-prone bat to the Giants’ outfield mix while providing some insurance should Brandon Belt incur an injury. The former Yankees prospect was at one point looked at as a potential pairing with Greg Bird in the Bronx, but the Yankees flipped him to the Twins last July in the trade that sent Lance Lynn to New York. The Twins, cognizant of the potential retirement of Joe Mauer, viewed Austin as a possible option at first base until they managed to land C.J. Cron on waivers when the Rays dumped his salary. Both Cron and Austin are right-handed hitters, and Minnesota’s signing of Nelson Cruz to man the DH spot in the lineup made Austin, who is out of minor league options, somewhat redundant.

Last season in 268 plate appearances between the Twins and Yankees, Austin batted a combined .230/.287/.480 with 17 home runs and 10 doubles. Seventeen long balls in just 268 PAs and a .250 isolated power (slugging minus batting average) speak to Austin’s ability to make loud contact, but Austin also punched out in a whopping 35.4 percent of his trips to the plate.

Austin has been more of a first baseman than an outfielder throughout his career and, in fact, has only seen 36 frames of action on the outfield grass in the Majors. He’s logged over 2600 innings of time in right field across parts of seven minor league seasons, however, so despite a lack of recent experience, he’s no stranger to the position. That said, Austin does not run well, and his lack of range is a tough fit in the spacious Oracle Park.

Joe, 26, made his big league debut with the Giants this season but managed just one hit and a walk in 16 plate appearances before being jettisoned from the roster. The Reds selected Joe out of the Dodgers organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft but traded him to San Francisco late last month. He’s still carrying Rule 5 status, so any team that acquires Joe would need to carry him on the MLB roster. The Giants will have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers, and if he goes unclaimed, they’d be required to offer him back to the Dodgers for $50K. Considering Joe’s outstanding .299/.408/.527 batting line between Double-A and Triple-A last season, it’s possible that another organization will want to speculate on his potential.

The Twins, in return for Austin, will add another athletic outfielder to the lower levels of their minor league system. The 22-year-old Ziegler was a 22nd-round pick by the Giants in 2016 and split last year between the Rookie-level Arizona League and the Class-A South Atlantic League, batting a combined .237/.340/.370 with four homers, 12 doubles, a pair of triples and eight steals in 250 plate appearances. He’s not considered a top prospect in a thin Giants farm, though Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen did make mention of him in his pre-2018 overview of the Giants’ system: “Ziegler is a lithe, athletic outfielder who was a late pick out of an Iowa Juco in 2016. He makes explosive use of his lower half during his swing but his barrel control and raw strength are questionable.”

Offseason In Review: Cincinnati Reds

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This is the latest post of MLBTR’s annual Offseason in Review series, in which we take stock of every team’s winter dealings.

The Reds promised to grow their payroll and backed up their bawdy talk with three significant trades.

Major League Signings

Trades and Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

[Cincinnati Reds Depth Chart] [Cincinnati Reds Payroll Outlook]

Needs Addressed

After four straight last-place finishes and five consecutive years of declining attendance, the Reds entered the offseason with a deserved sense of urgency. At 20,116 fans per game in 2018, the Reds drew roughly 5,000 less fans than local United Soccer League team FC Cincinnati, who not only set USL attendance records for the third straight year, but also became the first Cincinnati franchise to win a playoff series since 1995. Cincinnati craves a winner, and the Reds promised to move in that direction by raising their payroll by upwards of $30MM this winter. President of baseball operations Dick Williams’ bolstered the claim with an aggressive offseason strategy of proactive player acquisition.

The Reds checked all their boxes and proved true to their word with perhaps the splashiest move of the offseason, acquiring Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood, Matt Kemp and Kyle Farmer from the Dodgers for Homer Bailey, Josiah Gray and Jeter Downs. For a team struggling to draw crowds, adding an entertainment machine like Puig was a pretty nifty way to squeeze an extra few drops of value from the final $28MM owed Bailey, and they did so without compromising future spending. With Wood, Puig, and Kemp all on expiring deals, the Reds only took on about $7MM in payroll while turning one -1.5 rWAR player into three more viable contributors. That counts as a win in most books, even if it did cost them two promising (though not upper echelon) prospects.

Wood slots right into the middle of their rotation (when healthy), becoming the second new addition to the rotation after having swapped Tanners with the Nats earlier in the winter (giving up Rainey for Washington’s Roark). Puig becomes the new starter in right, and though Kemp’s resurgence was short-lived, he still provides ample right-handed power off the bench. Not for nothing, but Farmer is a piece, too. Admittedly, he’s no spring chicken at age-28 with only 97 big league plate appearances to his name, but he’s brought his bat to every level of the minors, including last year when he slashed .288/.333/.451 in Triple-A. Maybe that doesn’t knock your socks off, but grade it on a curve for catchers and he’s a fine depth option to stash in Triple-A.

As for the rotation, neither Wood nor Roark are world-beaters, but they fortify the base of an annually rickety starting crew and take some pressure off Luis Castillo. Still, after reportedly hunting many big-names stars this winter — Corey Kluber, J.T. Realmuto, Noah Syndergaard, James Paxton and free agent Dallas Keuchel — snagging a crowd of useful non-stars probably doesn’t match the highs of fan expectation after such bawdy talk from ownership.

The acquisition of embattled Yankees starter Sonny Gray thusly became their most significant get, especially given the three-year, $30.5MM extension that keeps him in Cincinnati through 2022. Moving from the AL East to a more subdued environment in Ohio should help as the Reds try to work their Matt Harvey magic to rehab Gray in the wake of a difficult stint in New York. Granted, the back-to-back 200-inning, sub-3.10 ERA seasons he posted with Oakland were way back in 2014-15, and the bandbox that is Great American Ballpark does him no favors. Nonetheless, this is a former All-Star with a top-three Cy Young finish and a 3.74 career FIP across 900 2/3 big-league innings. Teaming Gray with Castillo, Wood, Roark and Anthony DeSclafani, the Reds finally have a rotation that doesn’t include picking a name out of a hat every fifth day.

Charged with leading this crew is first-year manager and third-generation Cincinnati Red David Bell. The Giants’ former VP of Player Development returns home after having managed in the Reds system from 2009 to 2012. Though he’s an old-school baseball lifer, he plans to engage analytics and contemporary tactics, at the very least regarding usage of the newly-extended Raisel Iglesias. While nominally the closer, Iglesias will be Bell’s fireman, deployed wherever and whenever he’s needed most. The bullpen also added affordable lefty Zach Duke to a sneaky good group that includes David Hernandez, Jared Hughes, Amir Garrett, and Michael Lorenzen on the second line behind Iglesias. Minor league signees Bass, Boshers, Krol and Despaigne are depth options who can each claim at least some degree of success at the big league level.

The offense, meanwhile, was mostly settled at the outset of winter. Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, Jose Peraza and Eugenio Suarez were in line to get the majority of infield at-bats, though a late-spring injury to Gennett has altered those plans for the time being. Tucker Barnhart will take the bulk of time behind the plate. Curt Casali reprises his role as the backup after nailing the trial run with a .293/.355/.450 output in 156 plate appearances in 2018. Adding Puig and Kemp to Scott Schebler and Jesse Winker means there’s plenty of bodies in the outfield, and top prospect Nick Senzel should join that mix once his injured ankle mends (and, perhaps, once he gets some more minor league reps in center field under his belt).

Off the bench, the additions of Iglesias and Dietrich complement the starters nicely. Iglesias completes the skill sets of Peraza and Genett as a glove-first option at short, and his presence is all the more important with Gennett potentially out into the month of June. Iglesias will log significant time at shortstop for the foreseeable future as the versatile Peraza slides to the other side of the bag in place of Gennett. Dietrich, too, will see some time at second base, giving the Reds a bat-first option there; he was nine percent better than the league average with the bat last year (and for his career) by measure of wRC+. Cincinnati is already plenty deep in the outfield, but Dietrich has his share of experience there as well should the need arise.

Questions Remaining

Let’s put this bluntly: the Reds don’t have a center fielder. What they have is a crew of potential contenders vying for the honor to learn the position on the fly. The spot may be earmarked for Senzel, but he’s a converted infielder who is still new to the position. Schebler entered the season with 358 career innings in center. Kemp is no longer an option there, and Puig has been primarily a right fielder. On Fangraphs’ Effectively Wild seasons preview, C. Trent Rosencrans of the Athletic called reliever and two-way hopeful Michael Lorenzen the best defensive center fielder currently on the Reds’ roster. The Reds will use him out there occasionally after seeing him hit .290/.333/.710 with four home runs in 34 plate appearances last season, but he won’t be a regular.

Senzel, currently Baseball America’s 10th ranked prospect overall, already transitioned from third base to second base in Triple-A, and there’s no shortage of examples of players who have made the jump from infield to outfield. Trea Turner learned center field on the fly for the Nationals after only a six-game tryout in Triple-A. Ketel Marte is making the transition for the Diamondbacks this season. There was hope the Reds fervor for contention would push them to buck current trends and start Senzel in center from the jump, but alas, Senzel was set to begin the year in Triple-A even before incurring the aforementioned ankle injury.

Without a true center fielder on the roster, the Reds turned to Schebler to begin the season there. If his .255/.337/.439 line across 107 games last year doesn’t inspire you, neither will his defense. He does have familiarity with the position having started and even earned passable defensive marks with -1 DRS, -0.9 UZR over what is, admittedly, a small sample size over the past three years. What’s disconcerting is he has not graded well defensively in right field in his career (0 DRS, -4.8 UZR), and that’s over more than 2000 frames compared to the sum total of 358 1/3 innings in center.

The most intriguing part about this race is there is no safety net. The Reds are all-in on this current arrangement, however it shakes out. Phil Ervin has some experience in center but has spent more time in the corners over the past few seasons in Triple-A. (He also hasn’t hit much in Triple-A or the minors.) Jose Siri, Stuart Fairchild, and TJ Friedl may be the next in line, but none had even played a game in Double-A prior to Opening Day. Taylor Trammell is among the game’s most highly regarded minor leaguers, but he’s at least a year and maybe two away. Schebler is the safe option, but Senzel figures to take over at some point. An eventual timeshare seems most judicious, but you’d like to see a high-end defensive options in the mix as well.

Aside from center, the biggest questions remain, remarkably, in the rotation. Absent from the rotation conversation above is the fact that Wood opened the season on the injured list. Tyler Mahle is a fine short-term replacement, and Wood shouldn’t be out long. Regardless, one of Bell’s first tests as a manager will be managing the workload of his new staff and keeping this crew healthy. Roark has been a workhorse, but the others haven’t surpassed 170 innings in a season since 2015 (if ever). Both Gray and Roark are also in need of a rebound season, and if that doesn’t pan out, the Reds’ alternatives lie in the same slate of internal options that prompted them to acquire three starting pitchers this offseason.

2019 Season Outlook

It’s been a miserable start to the season, although if there’s consolation for the 1-8 Reds, it’s that the Cubs (2-7) and Cardinals (4-5) haven’t exactly stormed out of the gates either. The Reds should be competitive enough for the rest of the year to lure more traffic through the turnstiles, but to outlast a deep field in the National League, they’ll need the starting staff to fire on all cylinders. That means Gray has to get right, Wood has to get healthy and, in a perfect world, Castillo would take a step towards acedom.

Although they increased payroll, the Reds’ offseason additions weren’t reckless. The numerous expiring contracts double as a kind of ejector seat for this early attempt at contention should the slow start turn into a true tailspin. Moving Puig, Wood, and/or Roark (among others) at the deadline could recoup some of the prospect capital it cost to acquire them. That’s a worst case scenario, really, and given their recent history, consider it a step in the right direction.

How would you grade their offseason? (Link for app users.)

How would you grade the Reds' offseason?
B 46.85% (1,919 votes)
C 23.88% (978 votes)
A 15.82% (648 votes)
D 8.40% (344 votes)
F 5.05% (207 votes)
Total Votes: 4,096

Orioles Outright Matt Wotherspoon

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The Orioles announced over the weekend that right-hander Matt Wotherspoon has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, thus freeing a spot on the 40-man roster. Baltimore had only recently selected Wotherspoon’s contract, but the 27-year-old’s first exposure to the Majors and to a 40-man roster both proved brief.

A 34th-round draft pick of the Yankees back in 2014, Wotherspoon appeared in just one game with the Orioles, pitching two innings and yielding three runs on four hits and a walk. He’s spent parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level, where he owns a combined 3.55 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and 1.0 HR/9 159 2/3 innings of work. Baltimore originally acquired the righty under former general manager Dan Duquette, when they traded a portion of their international bonus pool to the Yankees in exchange for Wotherspoon.

With the move, the Orioles’ 40-man roster is now at 39 players.

Quick Hits: Extensions, Boras, Acuna, Dodgers, Pujols, Cards, Giants

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Agent Scott Boras, who brought you the term “swellopt,” has now concocted a phrase to describe team-friendly extensions young major leaguers sign, per Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. “Great young players are getting what I call ‘snuff contracts,’” Boras told McCullough. “And a snuff contract is that they’re trying to snuff out the market. They know the player is a great player, and he’s exhibited very little performance. So they’re coming to him at 20 and 21, and I’m going to snuff out your ability to move, to go anywhere, to do anything, and your value. And I’m going to pay you maybe 40 cents on the dollar to do it. What’s my risk?” In Boras’ estimation, the eight-year, $100MM guarantee Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., 21, signed this week is “the king of the snuff contracts,” as it hampers the outfielder’s career earning power while giving Atlanta what looks like a sweetheart deal for a franchise player in the making.

Acuna’s accord is one of a whopping 27 multiyear extensions doled out across the majors since Jan. 21, though the Dodgers haven’t joined the party, McCullough observes. Extensions have been almost nonexistent in Los Angeles under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who has only given out one (Clayton Kershaw’s three-year, $93MM deal after last season) since taking the reins in 2014. But Friedman told McCullough he “wouldn’t be surprised if within the next 12 months we do some.” McCullough points to Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Corey Seager, Enrique Hernandez, Max Muncy, Joc Pederson and Chris Taylor as potential extension candidates for Friedman & Co.

  • Speaking of Kershaw, the ace left-hander appears to be nearing his 2019 debut. Kershaw will make a minor league rehab start Tuesday, which could set him up for a Dodgers return Sunday, Jorge Castillo of the LA Times tweets. The three-time NL Cy Young winner, 31, has been shelved on account of shoulder troubles since late February. Consequently, this will be the fourth straight injury-shortened campaign for Kershaw, whose 162 innings-per-season average from 2016-18 fell well shy of the 215-frame mean he put up over the previous seven years.
  • First baseman Albert Pujols dominated headlines in 2011 when he elected to leave St. Louis, where he spent the first 11 seasons of his Hall of Fame career, for the Angels’ 10-year, $254MM offer. Pujols’ decision came after the Cardinals and Marlins also proposed decade-long contracts worth upward of $200MM. Now 39 years old and with $87MM remaining on his deal, Pujols recently reflected on his choice to leave the Cardinals, telling Graham Bensinger (via ESPN.com): “I felt that the approach that they took wasn’t showing me that they wanted me to be a longtime Cardinal. I believe I made the right decision.” If his rapid deterioration in Anaheim is any indication, St. Louis dodged a bullet in losing Pujols, even though he won three NL MVPs and two World Series as a Cardinal. Pujols slashed an incredible .328/.420/.617, averaged more than seven fWAR per year and never appeared in fewer than 143 games in a season while with the Redbirds. On the other hand, the Anaheim version’s a .260/.315/.452 hitter who has been worth one win above replacement a year and has twice missed at least 45 games in a season.
  • As is often the case with minor league contracts, catcher Stephen Vogt’s agreement with the Giants includes a June 1 opt-out chance, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. The Giants already have three backstops – Buster Posey, Erik Kratz and Aramis Garcia – occupying 40-man roster spots, which seems to decrease the 34-year-old Vogt’s odds of earning a promotion from Triple-A Sacramento. However, San Francisco’s a fan of the two-time All-Star’s bat and could summon him at some point, Schulman suggests. The former Ray, Athletic and Brewer hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2017, having missed all of last season because of shoulder surgery.

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