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Willie McCovey Passes Away

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The Giants issued a heavy-hearted statement Wednesday, announcing that Hall of Famer and franchise icon Willie McCovey has passed away peacefully at the age of 80 “after losing his battle with ongoing health issues.”

“San Francisco and the entire baseball community lost a true gentleman and legend, and our collective hearts are broken,” CEO Larry Baer said in a press release announcing the loss of one of baseball’s all-time greats. “Willie was a beloved figure throughout his playing days and in retirement. He will be deeply missed by the many people he touched.  For more than six decades, he gave his heart and soul to the Giants – as one of the greatest players of all time, as a quiet leader in the clubhouse, as a mentor to the Giants who followed in his footsteps, as an inspiration to our Junior Giants, and as a fan cheering on the team from his booth. Willie’s greatest passion was his family and our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife, Estella, and his daughter, Allison, and her children Raven, Philip, and Marissa.”

A former National League Rookie of the Year, a National League MVP and a six-time All-Star, McCovey was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame after hitting .270/.374/.515 with 521 home runs, 353 doubles, 46 triples, 1229 runs scored and 1555 runs batted in. In addition to spending 19 seasons with the Giants, McCovey played three seasons with the Padres and also spent part of the 1976 season with the Athletics.

McCovey’s name has become synonymous not only with the San Francisco Giants — who retired his No. 44 and named right field’s “McCovey Cove” at AT&T Park in his honor — but with baseball greatness. Rest in peace, Stretch.

Astros Decline Option On Brian McCann, Outright Jandel Gustave

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The Astros announced that they’ve declined their $15MM option on catcher Brian McCann and sent right-hander Jandel Gustave outright to Triple-A after he cleared waivers. Both players will become free agents. Their 40-man roster currently has seven open spots.

McCann, 34, gave the Astros a much-needed quality option behind the plate in 2017 following an offseason trade from the Yankees. But after hitting .241/.323/.436 with 18 home runs in his first season with Houston, his production fell off in 2018. This past season saw the seven-time All-Star and 14-year veteran bat just .212/.301/.339 with seven homers in 216 trips to the dish. McCann spent significant time on the disabled list in ’18 as well, logging more than two months on the shelf due to knee issues that required surgical repair.

Gustave, 26, missed the 2018 season recovering from Tommy John surgery performed back in late June of 2017. Certainly, the Astros were hoping that he’d be able to return to the club late in the 2018 campaign — hence rostering him all last offseason — but he’ll now hit free agency and have the ability to sign with any team of his choosing. Of course, he could very well opt to re-sign a minor league deal in Houston, which is the only organization he’s known outside of brief spells with the Royals and Padres following his selection in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft.

The hard-throwing Gustave has a 3.98 ERA in 20 1/3 big league innings and worked to a 3.79 ERA with a 55-to-23 K/BB ratio as a 23-year-old in his lone Triple-A campaign (2016).

Blue Jays Decline Option On Yangervis Solarte

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The Blue Jays announced that they’ve declined their $5.5MM club option on infielder Yangervis Solarte, per a team announcement. He’ll instead earn a $750K buyout. However, because Solarte does not yet have six full years of Major League service, he’ll remain on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster as an arbitration-eligible player for the time being. It seems decidedly unlikely, though, that he’ll reach arbitration with the Jays. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Solarte for a $5.9MM salary through arbitration, and it’d obviously make little sense for Toronto to buy out an option that was already cheaper than what he might otherwise earn in arbitration.

Solarte, 31, was acquired from the Padres last offseason in exchange for prospects Jared Carkuff and Edward Olivares. At the time, he was coming off a fairly productive four-year run to open his big league career, having batted a combined .267/.327/.419 (105 OPS+) through 2061 plate appearances with the Yankees and Padres (with most of that work coming as a Padre, where pitcher-friendly Petco Park was his home).

Solarte seemed poised for a solid offensive season but instead faceplanted with a .226/.277/.378 slash in 506 PAs with Toronto. He did swat 17 home runs, but his OBP woes and career-worst defensive ratings led WAR to view him as a sub-replacement-level player in 2018. It’s possible that Toronto could try to cut Solarte loose and try to bring him back at a lower rate, but it’s also possible that he’ll simply be passed through waivers and, upon clearing, hit the open market as a free agent.

Athletics Exercise Club Option On Fernando Rodney

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5:20pm: MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets that performance bonuses met by Rodney in 2018 actually increased the value of his option to $5.25MM.

5:09pm: The Athletics announced that they’ve exercised their club option on right-hander Fernando Rodney. Rodney, who will turn 42 during Spring Training, will earn a $4.25MM base salary next season under the contract.

The veteran Rodney joined the Athletics in an August waiver trade that sent right-handed pitching prospect Dakota Chalmers to the Twins. He’d opened the season as the closer in Minnesota but served as a setup man to breakout closer Blake Treinen in Oakland, enjoying relative success in both settings (though he did pitch better with the Twins than with the A’s). In all, Rodney turned in a 3.36 ERA with 9.8 K/9 against 4.5 BB/9 in 64 1/3 innings between the two clubs.

Despite his age, Rodney hasn’t shown much in the way of obvious signs of decline. His average fastball still checked in at a solid 94.2 mph in 2018, while his 11.1 percent swinging-strike rate and 29.2 percent chase rate on out-of-zone pitches were both within striking distance of league average (slightly above average in terms of swinging-strike rate and slightly below on his chase rate). Opponents did up their hard-contact rate against Rodney by a hefty five percent, thanks largely to a notable spike with the A’s.

Still, Rodney continued to generate results, and his modest price tag made the decision a fairly easy one — especially when considering the continually rising prices of bullpen help in free agency. He’ll return to the A’s alongside Treinen, Lou Trivino, Yusmeiro Petit and Ryan Buchter as part of a quality group of late-inning options for recently extended skipper Bob Melvin.

Reds Hire Pitching Coach Derek Johnson Away From Brewers

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4:57pm: MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that Milwaukee general manager David Stearns has confirmed that Johnson is leaving the organization. The Brewers had “extensive” negotiations in an effort to retain Johnson, Stearns said, but it seems the two sides ultimately could not reach an agreement.

4:50pm: The Brewers are set for yet another coaching change, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that pitching coach Derek Johnson is leaving the organization to join the Reds in the same capacity. Milwaukee previously saw hitting coach Darnell Coles step down, and he was announced as the new hitting coach for the Diamondbacks earlier today.

To this point, the entirety of Johnson’s coaching career in pro ball has come in the National League Central. He spent the 2013-15 seasons as the Cubs’ minor league pitching coordinator and has served as Milwaukee’s pitching coach from 2016-18 before jumping ship to the division-rival Reds. Prior to that, he spent 11 seasons as the pitching coach at Vanderbilt, working with numerous future big leaguers, including first-rounders David Price, Mike Minor and Sonny Gray.

Johnson will be the first staff hire under newly minted skipper David Bell on a Reds staff that figures to see its own fair share of turnover following the early-season dismissal of Bryan Price and the recent departure of interim manager Jim Riggleman.

Mariners Outright Ryan Cook, Justin Grimm

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The Mariners announced Wednesday that right-handers Ryan Cook and Justin Grimm have been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma after clearing waivers. Both relievers have enough Major League service time to elect free agency and will surely do so. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now at a total of 35 players.

Both Cook and Grimm would’ve been arbitration-eligible this offseason, making the early outright of each player an effective non-tender. Cook was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1MM, while Grimm was projected at $1.6MM.

Cook, 31, has seen his once-promising career largely derailed by injury issues but returned to the Majors for the first time since 2015 this past season. He allowed 10 runs in 17 innings (including four homers), but he did post a rather impressive 23-to-7 K/BB ratio in that short time. He was also quite impressive in Triple-A, logging a 2.16 ERA, 10.0 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in 33 innings.

Grimm, meanwhile, landed with the Mariners after opening the season with the Royals. He allowed just one run in 4 2/3 innings in Seattle but was clobbered for 19 runs in just 12 2/3 innings with the Kansas City organization after previously being released by the Cubs in Spring Training. The 30-year-old Grimm was terrific in his first two season with the Cubs in 2014-15 before seeing his results slip in 2016 and crater in 2017.

Nate Karns Elects Free Agency

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The Royals announced that right-hander Nate Karns has rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A Omaha after clearing waivers. He’ll elect free agency instead and can now sign with any team.

Karns, 31 next month, didn’t make it back to the mound in 2018 after seeing his 2017 season cut short by surgery to alleviate throacic outlet syndrome. The righty has shown promise as a potential back-end starter at times in the Majors, including a 2015 campaign in which he notched a 3.67 ERA with 8.9 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 in 147 innings with the Rays. Those 147 frames stand out as a career-high in the Majors for Karns, though, and while he gave Kansas City a respectable 4.17 ERA in 45 1/3 innings in 2017, his last time on a big league mound was nearly 18 months ago (May 19, 2017).

The Royals agreed to pay Karns a $1.375MM salary for the 2018 season last winter, avoiding arbitration in his first offseason of eligibility. But he’d have been arb-eligible for a second time this winter and would’ve received that same sum while carrying considerably more uncertainty as pertains to his health.

Yankees Announce New One-Year Agreement With Brett Gardner

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The Yankees announced Wednesday that they’ve agreed to terms on a new one-year contract with outfielder Brett Gardner after declining the $12.5MM club option on his previous contract. In other words, the veteran Gardner, a client of Pro Star Management, will return to the Yankees organization on a more affordable one-year pact. Specifically, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (on Twitter) that he’ll earn $7.5MM in 2019 under the new arrangement.

Brett Gardner | Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Gardner’s club option came with a $2MM buyout as part of the $52MM guarantee on that four-year pact, so by picking up the option, the Yankees would’ve promised him an additional $10.5MM. In essence, then, the new contract will save the Yankees $3MM over simply exercising the option as previously constructed.

Gardner turned 35 in August and is coming off his worst offensive season as a big league regular, having batted .236/.322/.368 through 609 plate appearances. But he remained a disciplined hitter, walking in 10.7 percent of his trips to the plate and striking out just a 17.6 percent clip even as his power faded a bit. Gardner’s 12 home runs were his second-fewest of the past half-decade, while his 16 steals were tied for his lowest mark in that same span.

Even though he swiped fewer bags, however, Fangraphs credited him as one of the game’s elite baserunners based on his efficiency (caught just twice) and his ability to take extra bases on balls in play (first to third, second to home, etc.). Both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference credit Gardner at roughly 2.5 wins above replacement despite a relatively shaky performance at the plate.

Gardner again figures to pair with Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the Yankees’ outfield rotation. If Jacoby Ellsbury is able to make it back to the field after missing the entire 2018 season, then he’d also be in the mix for playing time. Prospect Clint Frazier, whose season was shortened by concussion issues, remains in the upper levels of the organization as a depth option and a potential starter down the line. Gardner and Hicks can both become free agents next season.

There’s been plenty of talk about the possibility of Bryce Harper landing with the Yankees for the past few years, and while the return of Gardner to the Bronx crowds the outfield mix, it also surely wouldn’t stand in the way of the Yankees pursuing a deal if they felt the price was right. As last winter’s addition of Stanton to an already solid outfield illustrated, many teams will pursue top-end talent even if there isn’t a glaring need. (Milwaukee’s additions of Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich stand out as another of the many examples.) That’s not to say that Harper is Bronx-bound, of course, but rather to underscore that the Yankees’ reunion with Gardner almost certainly doesn’t preclude them from pursuing Harper or any other marquee addition.

Cubs Exercise Jose Quintana’s Option, Claim Jerry Vasto From Royals

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The Cubs announced Wednesday that they’ve exercised their $10.5MM club option over left-hander Jose Quintana and claimed left-handed reliever Jerry Vasto off waivers from the Royals organization. It’s the first of two options that the Cubs hold on Quintana, who’ll turn 30 in January. Chicago also has an $11.5MM option on the lefty for the 2020 season.

While Quintana may not have performed at quite the level the Cubs had hoped, picking up his option was a flat no-brainer, as even in a “down” season (by his standards), he turned in 174 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA ball with 8.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and 1.29 HR/9 with a 43.2 percent ground-ball rate. Durable and largely consistent year over year, Quintana took the ball on 32 occasion for the Cubs, marking his sixth consecutive season with 32 or more games started. Even if he doesn’t return to the peak form he showed with the White Sox, having Quintana on a one-year deal with an affordable club option for the 2020 season is still quite a nice value for the Cubs.

Vasto, 26, made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2018 but appeared in just one game and tossed only two-thirds of an inning before being traded to Kansas City in exchange for backup catcher Drew Butera. Vasto was hit hard in his first season of Triple-A duty in 2017 but has turned in considerably more promising results with Colorado’s top affiliate in 2018: a 3.16 ERA, 10.7 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 0.73 HR/9 and a 43.5 percent ground-ball rate in 37 innings. The southpaw tossed just one scoreless inning with Kansas City’s Triple-A club before joining the Major League bullpen, where he allowed one earned run with three strikeouts and one walk in 3 2/3 innings of work.

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