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AL East Notes: Red Sox, Tepera, Norris, Trumbo

By George Miller | March 24, 2019 at 2:07pm CDT

Chris Sale’s freshly-inked 5-year contract extension will leave the Red Sox searching for answers to a number of questions as they move forward, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI. With Sale’s contract including an opt-out after 2022, the Red Sox could find themselves in a tricky situation at that time. Bradford notes that the contracts of fellow starters Nathan Eovaldi and David Price expire after 2022, and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez is controllable through 2021, meaning that if Sale chooses to exercise his opt-out clause, the team could find itself wanting for starters. Of course, it’s far from a foregone conclusion that Sale will opt for free agency after the third year of his new contract, but it is certainly a situation that Red Sox brass will monitor as that time draws nearer. Pressure could be on the Red Sox to find and develop a new guard of young pitchers to fill the shoes of big-name Boston starters.

Some other notes from the AL East…

The Blue Jays received some encouraging news today, with manager Charlie Montoyo informing reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) that right-handed reliever Ryan Tepera, who has recently been dealing with elbow inflammation, will not require surgery. Having been cleared, Tepera will resume throwing on Tuesday. Montoyo added (Twitter link) that fellow right-hander Bud Norris is expected to be ready to play on Opening Day and will pitch an inning today.
Orioles designated hitter Mark Trumbo will begin the season on the IL, reports Dan Connolly of The Athletic. After undergoing knee surgery last September, the slugger will have to wait to make his 2019 debut. With Trumbo on the shelf, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde may look to allocate DH at-bats by committee, though Trey Mancini appears the most obvious candidate to fill that role. While it remains unclear just how much time Trumbo will miss, he said that it could be a month or more before he’s able to take the field (via MASN’s Roch Kubatko on Twitter).
The Rays will get right-handed pitcher Sam McWilliams back, according to Juan Toribio of MLB.com (Twitter link). McWilliams had been selected by the Royals in December’s Rule-5 Draft, but will be returned to his prior club after failing to crack Kansas City’s Opening Day roster. McWilliams, who is not on the Rays’ 40-man roster, will report to minor league camp with the Rays.

Red Sox, Chris Sale Agree To Extension

By Steve Adams | March 24, 2019 at 1:43pm CDT

TODAY, 1:43pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today adds (via Twitter) that Sale’s vesting option for 2025 will be exercised if Sale earns a top-10 finish in AL Cy Young voting in 2024 and does not finish the year on the IL.

SATURDAY, 8:12am: The Red Sox have officially announced Sale’s new contract.

FRIDAY, 9:01pm: Sale has passed his physical, Rosenthal tweets, so all that remains is for the contract to be announced. Sale will earn $30MM in each of the first three seasons of the deal, after which time he has the right to opt out of the remaining two seasons. Those campaigns are valued at $27.5MM, meaning Sale will be deciding on two years and $55MM versus a trip onto the open market.

There’s further upside in the deal as well, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter links). It includes a vesting option at a floating value (minimum $20MM) based upon games started. There are also Cy Young-based escalators in years 2021-24 and in the option year. Sale receives full no-trade protection beginning in the middle of the 2020 season.

There are competing reports on the accounting of the deal. Rosenthal and others say the deal will wrap in Sale’s preexisting 2019 salary, creating a readjustment of his luxury tax hit for the present season (and pushing the team into the highest level of penalties). That’s not the case, though, per Speier (Twitter link). He reports that the Boston organization will elect to keep the ’19 season separate, which will avoid immediate tax entanglements but increase the luxury tax hit over the new years of the deal, potentially leading to future luxury obligations.

2:30pm: The Red Sox and ace Chris Sale are closing in on a contract extension, as first reported by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Sale, a client of Jet Sports Management, will receive $145MM over five seasons (2020-24) if he passes a physical, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (Twitter links).

Earlier this spring, both Sale and the Red Sox expressed mutual interest in working out a long-term arrangement that’d keep the left-hander, who is slated to become a free agent at season’s end, in Boston for the long term. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd recently broke down several possible scenarios when exploring what a Sale extension would cost the Sox.

Sale, 30 next week, has been among the game’s elite starters since moving to the rotation with the White Sox back in 2012. He’s made seven consecutive All-Star teams and registered six consecutive Top-5 finishes in American League Cy Young voting, though he’s somewhat incredibly never taken home a Cy Young trophy himself.

Since being traded to Boston in the 2016 blockbuster that sent Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz to Chicago, Sale has pitched to a brilliant 2.56 ERA while averaging 13.2 strikeouts and just 1.9 walks per nine innings pitched. That level of K/BB excellence is nothing new for Sale, who holds the all-time Major League records for both K/9 (10.88) and K/BB ratio (5.31) among pitchers with at least 1000 innings pitched.

Any extension for Sale would begin in his age-31 season — he’ll pitch the 2019 season at age 30 — and figures to come with as much as a 100 percent increase over this year’s $15MM salary. The length of the contract was surely a sticking point in negotiations between Sale and the Sox, given last season’s shoulder troubles that limited him to 158 regular-season innings. Beyond that, his age likely gives Boston some degree of pause, as teams have become increasingly reluctant to guarantee players — particularly pitchers — significant salaries into their late 30s.

The luxury tax also undoubtedly plays a factor in negotiations, as the Red Sox’ payroll currently carries about $240.8MM in annual values that count against the tax ledger (as MLBTR recently examined when highlighting the unlikelihood of a Craig Kimbrel reunion). Should the Sox cross the $246MM threshold, they’d move into the top bracket of luxury penalization, which would include a 75 percent tax on any dollars spent beyond that point and would also cause their top pick in the 2020 draft to be pushed back by 10 spots, though for the Sox, keeping Sale from testing the open market looks to have been deemed worth of incurring that level of penalization.

It’s still possible that the Sox manage to lessen the luxury hit, though; Boston is reportedly shopping catcher Sandy Leon and his $2.475MM salary, and trimming that off the books would lighten the sting in terms of luxury payments on a new contract for Sale. A theoretical $30MM annual value for Sale would effectively take his luxury hit from $15MM (his current one-year salary, as options are treated in the CBA) to $27.5MM (the five-year, $150MM term plus this year’s $15MM salary divided over a six-year span). That $12.5MM increase currently stands to put the Red Sox about $6.5MM over the top luxury line, so shedding Leon’s contract could ultimately leave Boston’s luxury commitments at about $250-251MM. That’s still a huge penalty, but they’d only be paying the 75 percent tax on about $4-5MM of expenditures in that scenario.

Sale is far from the lone key Red Sox player who is (or was) slated to hit the open market following the 2019 season, but given the luxury implications another extension would present, he may be the only one to sign a long-term deal. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and right-hander Rick Porcello are also free agents following the 2019 campaign, while designated hitter J.D. Martinez has the ability to opt out of the remaining three years and $62.5MM on his contract. Looking further down the line, reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts will become a free agent following the 2020 season, though Betts flatly stated this week that he doesn’t expect to sign an extension before free agency.

In the now likely event that a Sale extension is finalized, it would mark the 17th contract extension signed by a player this spring alone, including the sixth by a would-be free agent and the fifth worth greater than $100MM in total guarantees (as shown in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker). Players throughout the league have become frustrated with the slow pace of free agency and the lack of spending outside of the very top tiers of the free-agent market. Rather than test what has become a largely stagnant market, many players are simply opting into long-term arrangements with their current club, thus forgoing the stress and oft-disappointing outcomes free agency has presented over the past two years.

Cardinals Extend Paul Goldschmidt

By Jeff Todd | March 24, 2019 at 1:39pm CDT

1:38pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today adds details (via Twitter) on the incentives package included in Goldschmidt’s new contract. The slugger can earn $250k for being named an All-Star, $250k for winning a Gold Glove award, and $1.5M for winning the NL MVP. As Saxon reported earlier, Goldschmidt’s yearly earnings will tally $26MM, which comprises a $22MM yearly base salary in addition to a $20MM signing bonus that will be spread evenly across the five years of the contract.

10:17am: Goldschmidt will earn $26MM per season from 2020-24, The Athletic’s Mark Saxon reports (Twitter link).

TODAY, 8:04am: The deal is done, and the Cardinals will officially make the announcement at a press conference this morning, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports (Twitter link).

THURSDAY: The Cardinals are closing in on an extension with first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). If he passes a physical, Goldschmidt will remain a Cardinal for five additional seasons at a price of $130MM, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Twitter), thus setting a new contractual record for the storied St. Louis franchise.

Goldschmidt is already slated to earn $14.5MM in 2019, the final season of the extension he signed earlier in his career. With five new seasons tacked on, he’ll now be under contract through the 2024 season. The new deal will afford Goldschmidt full no-trade protection but will not include any opt-out opportunities, Rosenthal tweets.

The Cards are now set to accomplish what they set out to do when they acquired Goldschmidt earlier this winter. The club made no secret of its desire to hammer out a long-term arrangement with its new first bagger. Indeed, achieving exclusive negotiating rights likely motivated the St. Louis organization to part with starter Luke Weaver, catcher Carson Kelly, minor league infielder Andy Young and a Competitive Balance Round B selection to land Goldy in the first place.

Getting the deal done now means that both the Cardinals and Goldschmidt (along with his representatives at Excel Sports Management) need not think about alternatives next winter. It surely would have been interesting to see how the star performed on the open market. It’s hardly an optimal time for a defensively limited slugger to reach the open market. The Chris Davis deal (seven years, $161MM) is scarcely three years old, but seems a relic in retrospect. We’ve seen a steady reduction in earning expectations for such players in recent years. Still, significant money has still been there for the very best players. J.D. Martinez took down $110MM over five years despite profiling as a DH. Carlos Santana and Edwin Encarnacion each commanded $20MM annual salaries over three-year terms. And first bagger Eric Hosmer — a much younger but lighter-hitting first baseman — went for eight years and $144MM.

There’s an argument to be made that Goldschmidt could have earned more on the open market. He’d have faced little competition at the top of the first base market outside of the older Jose Abreu, though there are a few notable other players available next winter. But it’s frankly difficult to argue with the decision to sign onto this contract, particularly with another year of health and performance risk still separating Goldschmidt from free agency. The Cards obviously were quite fond of their new acquisition — and, perhaps, felt no small amount of pressure to get something done. It’s no small achievement in this climate for a first baseman to secure a $26MM AAV over a five-year term that begins in his age-32 season.

Goldschmidt, of course, is no ordinary first baseman. Comparing him to his peers at first base, in fact, isn’t quite the right scope. Over the past three years — that is, not including his personal-best 2015 campaign — Goldy has been among the dozen top position players by measure of fWAR. He’s in a dead heat with Freddie Freeman and Joey Votto in that regard. Now, he’ll join that pair of star performers in securing a large and lengthy contract extension.

While the Cardinals haven’t had much time to watch Goldschmidt up close, he really doesn’t have much of anything to prove. Somehow only an eighth-round draft pick back in 2009, Goldschmidt has been an offensive sensation ever since he reached the professional ranks. He destroyed minor-league pitching while racing to the majors, showing well in his 2011 debut. Thereafter, he emerged as one of the game’s best hitters and has rarely wavered from that standard.

All told, Goldschmidt carries a .297/.398/.532 slash (144 wRC+) through 4,708 plate appearances. That’s more or less exactly what he posted last year, when he ran up 690 plate appearances of .290/.389/.533 hitting with 33 long balls. Goldschmidt didn’t have his best showing in terms of plate discipline, but his 13.0% walk rate and 25.1% strikeout rate were hardly problematic and largely reflect his career levels. He continued to sting the ball, with a career-best 46.2% hard-contact rate (per Fangraphs), though he also made soft contact with greater frequency (16.9%) than ever before.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Notes: Chen, Gyorko, d’Arnaud, Kendrick

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 12:58pm CDT

Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen will open the year in the Marlins’ bullpen, Wells Dusenbery of the Sun Sentinel tweets. It’s the latest less-than-ideal development in what has been a subpar Marlins tenure for Chen. The 33-year-old did take this setback in stride, though, per Dusenbery. Now in the fourth season of a five-year, $80MM contract, Chen has pitched to a 4.75 ERA/4.38 FIP with 7.33 K/9 and 2.49 BB/9 in 289 2/3 innings since going from Baltimore to Miami. Fifty-three of Chen’s 57 Marlins appearances have come as a starter, including all 26 last season.

Elsewhere in Miami’s staff, the club has shut down Rule 5 pick Riley Ferrell because of biceps tendinitis, according to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. The Marlins had been leaning toward keeping the 25-year-old right-hander, whom they plucked from Houston in December. Ferrell could factor into the Fish’s bullpen plans this season if he’s healthy and retained.

The latest on a few other NL teams…

Cardinals infielder Jedd Gyorko is likely to start 2019 on the 10-day injured list, which will lead to roster spots for Yairo Munoz and Drew Robinson, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com reports. Gyorko has been dealing with a calf problem throughout the month. He’ll be an important bench player for the Cardinals when he returns, having posted three straight above-average offensive seasons with the club over a combined 1,321 plate appearances.
Likewise, Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud seems ticketed for the IL, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com relays. The oft-injured d’Arnaud is still working back from the Tommy John surgery he underwent on his right elbow last May. With d’Arnaud out and Devin Mesoraco having failed to make the team, it appears Tomas Nido will open the season as Wilson Ramos’ backup. Aside from d’Arnaud and Ramos, Nido is the lone catcher on the Mets’ 40-man roster.
Infielder/outfielder Howie Kendrick won’t begin the year on the Nationals’ roster, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. Kendrick will instead remain in Florida to continue rehabbing from the hamstring strain he suffered two-plus weeks ago. It’s unclear when Kendrick will rejoin the Nationals, but when he does, he’ll be in line for his first major league action since incurring a ruptured right Achilles last May. That catastrophic injury derailed what was shaping up to be another quality offensive campaign for Kendrick.

Cubs Sign Tim Collins, Designate Brian Duensing

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 11:59am CDT

The Cubs have signed left-handed reliever Tim Collins to a one-year, major league deal and designated fellow southpaw reliever Brian Duensing for assignment, Jesse Rogers of ESPN tweets. Collins, an Octagon client, will report to Triple-A with his new team.

Collins hit the open market Friday when the Twins released him, ending a short stay with the team that signed him to a minors pact in early February. The 29-year-old, who broke in as a quality reliever with the Royals back in 2011, has barely seen action in recent seasons on account of significant injury troubles (including multiple Tommy John surgeries). But Collins did return to the majors last year for the first time since 2014 and accrue 22 2/3 innings as a member of the Nationals, with whom he logged unspectacular numbers (4.37 ERA/5.76 FIP with 8.34 K/9 and 4.76 BB/9). Collins was neither tough on lefties nor righties last year in the majors, though he did perform well at the Triple-A level, where he put up a 3.94 ERA/2.71 FIP with 9.56 K/9 against 4.22 BB/9.

Collins will give the Cubs some lefty relief depth behind Mike Montgomery and along with the injured Xavier Cedeno. Duensing had been filling that role, and it’s possible he’ll continue to if he stays in the organization. The 36-year-old would first have to get through waivers unclaimed, which is a distinct possibility given that he’s due a $3.5MM salary this season. Duensing’s set to close out a two-year, $7MM contract, which he earned entering 2018 on the heels of a standout season in Chicago. Unfortunately for the two parties, though, Duensing struggled to a disastrous 7.65 ERA/6.35 FIP with equally unappealing strikeout and walk rates (5.73 K/9, 6.93 BB/9) in 37 2/3 frames last year.

Giants Designate Jose Lopez

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 11:12am CDT

The Giants have designated right-hander Jose Lopez for assignment, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tweets. His roster spot will go to catcher Erik Kratz, whom the Giants acquired from the Brewers on Sunday.

It was a short stay on the Giants’ 40-man roster for Lopez, a 25-year-old who joined the team via waivers from the Reds on Feb. 12. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote at the time: “A year ago, Lopez was considered to be one of the more promising pitching prospects in Cincinnati’s system. The righty was fresh off a 2.57 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 44 percent ground-ball rate in 147 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A and was added to the Reds’ 40-man roster in order to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. In 2018, however, Lopez turned in a 4.47 ERA with 7.5 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.21 HR/9 and a diminished 29.1 percent ground-ball rate in 141 innings at the Triple-A level.”

Lopez struggled during 3 1/3 spring frames as a member of the Giants, with whom he yielded five earned runs on seven hits and three walks, with three strikeouts. Despite his difficulties dating back to last year, it’s possible Lopez will once again fail to clear waivers, as he has a pair of minor league options remaining.

Astros Extend Justin Verlander

By Jeff Todd and Ty Bradley | March 24, 2019 at 10:35am CDT

SUNDAY: Houston has announced the extension.

SATURDAY: The Astros have reached an agreement with right-hander Justin Verlander on a two-year, $66MM extension, Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston reports. The deal will keep Verlander, a client of ISE Baseball, in Houston through the 2021 season.

It has been a remarkable few seasons for Verlander, who’s set to complete the final season of a five-year, $140MM extension signed prior to the ’13 campaign. Lagging velocity and some health issues led to messy 2014 and 2015 seasons, but Verlander recovered admirably, finishing out his Tigers tenure in good form before being shipped to the ’Stros.

Verlander has now reached his 36th birthday, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he pitched last year. Over 214 frames, he worked to a 2.52 ERA with 12.2 K/9 against just 1.6 BB/9. And it wasn’t just the work of a crafty veteran who somehow managed to squeeze out one last good season from what was left of his stuff. Verlander averaged over 95 mph with his dominating fastball and jumped to a 14.5% swinging-strike rate — easily the highest mark of his storied career.

There’s an argument to be made that Verlander was never better than in 2018. He didn’t tally the same volume of great innings that he did in the vintage seasons of his youth, but Verlander’s insane 30.4% K%-BB% was nearly twice his career average. That level of unadulterated dominance is typically reserved for elite late-inning relievers who mostly unleash their arsenal in one-inning bursts. Statcast actually felt that Verlander was unlucky to permit opposing batters a paltry .260 wOBA. The contact they made against him was so weak that the advanced system credited those hitters with a .236 xwOBA.

Locking up Verlander – the third in a series of late-spring Astros extensions – brings at least some degree of clarity to a future rotation mix that seemed hazy at best. With both Verlander and Gerrit Cole set to hit the market after the upcoming campaign, and emerging frontliner Lance McCullers Jr. on the shelf until at least Opening Day 2020, Houston’s level of concern vis-á-vis the top end of the rotation had reached urgent heights. Collin McHugh was lassoed back from the bullpen, but none of the club’s glut of emerging arms – Cionel Perez, Framber Valdez, Josh James, Forrest Whitley, Corbin Martin, and J.B. Bukauskas among them – would likely be prepared to lead a staff in the upcoming seasons, especially one with designs on another AL crown.

The club still has more to work to do, of course (old friend Dallas Keuchel is still out there), but with just $108MM on the 2020 books even with the extensions divvied to Verlander, Alex Bregman, and Ryan Pressly, there should be plenty of room with which to maneuver. A Cole deal seems further off, and riskier still given his third-starter track record in the two seasons prior to ’18, but the club’s tech-blazed path to improvement with so many of its hurlers, centered on bolstering spin rates with pitches both fast and slow, should certainly be a mark in its favor. Houston, under Jeff Luhnow, has always been loath to part from the cream of its crop, so a high-profile trade for a top-end arm wouldn’t seem to be in the cards.

Regardless, with ace now in tow, the Astros have widened their window considerably. In addition to Cole, only George Springer, among the team’s stars, is set to hit the open market between now and when Verlander’s contract expires at the end of 2021, and the team has its floodgates set wide open in hopes that another homegrown star or two will wash ashore.

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was the first to report the two sides were “moving toward” an extension (via Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first with the proposed figures (Twitter link). Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants Acquire Erik Kratz

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 10:02am CDT

10:02am: Kratz is indeed going to San Francisco for Hinojosa, per an announcement from the Brewers.

9:40am: The Brewers will acquire shortstop C.J. Hinojosa from the Giants, Robert Murray and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic report. Milwaukee may send veteran catcher Erik Kratz to San Francisco, Murray and Baggarly suggest.

Hinojosa had been with the Giants since they took him in Round 11 of the 2015 draft. He spent the majority of 2016-18 at the Double-A level, where he owns a .259/.321/.345 line in 951 plate appearances. The 24-year-old offered roughly league-average minors production across 283 PAs last season in a return from a late-2017 Achilles tear; however, he also missed 50 games after testing positive for a drug of abuse for the second time.

As recently as last May, Hinojosa ranked as the Giants’ 16th-best prospect, per FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, who wrote that the ex-Texas Longhorn “projects as a utility man trending upward with contact skills.” In return for him, the Giants are landing the well-traveled Kratz, an out-of-options 38-year-old who has appeared in the majors in each season since 2010. He’d immediately replace catcher Rene Rivera, whom the Giants released Saturday, and would join Aramis Garcia and Stephen Vogt as another potential backup to Buster Posey.

While Kratz is a plus defender who quickly became a respected figure in Milwaukee after it acquired him from the Yankees last May, a lack of offensive upside helped seal his fate with the Brewers. Kratz is just a .211/.258/.363 hitter across 858 major league PAs. The Brewers have two far better offensive backstops in Yasmani Grandal and Manny Pina.

Orioles Notes: Catchers, Cobb, Hays

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 9:35am CDT

Here’s the latest out of Baltimore:

Neither Andrew Susac nor Carlos Perez will make the Orioles’ roster, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports (Twitter links). The two out-of-options catchers had been vying for a roster spot on a team whose only 40-man catchers are Chance Sisco, the just-claimed Pedro Severino and the injured Austin Wynns. Even Sisco isn’t guaranteed a 25-man spot, as he may open the season at the Triple-A level, according to Trezza. That could open the door for fellow backstop Jesus Sucre, though there’s no word yet on his fate, per Trezza. The Orioles have to decide by Monday whether to keep Sucre, whose minor league deal includes an upward mobility clause. Should another team make Sucre an offer, he’d take it, Trezza suggests.
Thanks in part to the Orioles’ murky situation behind the plate, their entire Opening Day battery is in question. While right-hander Alex Cobb’s penciled in to start Thursday’s opener against the Yankees, he’s now dealing with a strained right groin, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com writes. Cobb’s no longer a certainty to take the ball in Game 1, though he indicated Saturday it’s not a serious injury, and he didn’t undergo an MRI. Cobb will throw a bullpen session Monday or Tuesday to determine whether he’ll be able to start Thursday. Whenever Cobb makes his initial start of the year, he’ll hope it’s the beginning of a bounce-back campaign. In 2018, the first season of a four-year, $57MM contract, he stumbled to a 4.90 ERA/4.80 FIP across 152 1/3 innings.
In other unwelcome news for Baltimore, outfield prospect Austin Hays suffered a left thumb injury Saturday, Dan Connolly of The Athletic relays. Expectations are that the 23-year-old will undergo an MRI on Sunday or Monday, according to Connolly. In the meantime, the O’s are left to cross their fingers this isn’t another costly injury for Hays, who endured a truncated 2018 because of ankle issue. While Hays’ production at Double-A last year was nothing to write home about as a result, he’s still one of the O’s most promising prospects, and he nearly hit his way to a major league roster spot this spring. The Orioles elected to option Hays, however, because they believe he needs more seasoning in the minors. Now, if Hays has to start the year on the shelf, it’ll further delay a big league promotion.

NL Notes: Rendon, Freeman, Dodgers, Padres

By Connor Byrne | March 24, 2019 at 8:42am CDT

Even though it’s extension season in Major League Baseball, a new deal between the Nationals and contract-year third baseman Anthony Rendon doesn’t appear imminent. General manager Mike Rizzo said Saturday there isn’t anything new to report vis-a-vis Rendon, nor does the recent flood of extensions across the majors have any effect on the two sides’ talks, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets. Rendon spoke about his future earlier in the week and didn’t sound particularly optimistic about an extension coming together. As things stand, Rendon’s on track to be one of the rare high-end players available in next winter’s free-agent class, which has rapidly lost its shine because of the extension trend.

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