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Astros Not Expected To Issue Charlie Morton Qualifying Offer

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The Astros are not planning to issue a qualifying offer to right-hander Charlie Morton, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That’s a rather surprising turn of events for the veteran hurler, who has excelled over the past two seasons in Houston.

What’s most interesting about this news is that it would appear to suggest the Astros are ready to move on. That’s not entirely clear from this decision alone, to be sure, but it seems from an outside perspective that Morton would be a good buy at $17.9MM for a single season. Given his stated uncertainty about pitching much longer, and his interest in returning to Houston, Morton may well have been a candidate to accept a QO.

This call could, then, open the door for a few other teams to get in on Morton. He has made clear he’d like to land in the mid-Atlantic, owing to family considerations. If that preference holds, then most of the contending teams on the eastern seaboard figure to place calls. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Morton will now evidently be available without the need to surrender draft compensation.

Rangers Decline Club Options Over Chirinos, Fister, Moore, Perez

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The Rangers have declined club options over catcher Robinson Chirinos and pitchers Doug Fister, Matt Moore, and Martin Perez. That’s a surprising move on the veteran backstop, though all three hurlers seemed destined to be sent onto the open market.

The Texas organization has also announced a long list of players who were outrighted from the 40-man roster. Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Clayton Blackburn, Brandon Mann, Carlos Perez, and Ryan Rua are all weighing outright assignments after seemingly clearing waivers.

Chirinos, 34, had seemed a fairly easy choice to remain behind the dish in Texas. His option had risen in value to $4.5MM due to plate-appearance escalators, Joel Sherman of the New York Post notes on Twitter, but the team will pay him $1MM just to walk away.

While Chirinos is not noted for his skill behind the dish — in particular, he slipped to dreadful framing ratings in 2018 — he’s a highly respected player. And he also has consistently delivered much more offensive than the average catcher, with a .233/.324/.438 career slash and 35 home runs over the 735 plate appearances he has accrued since the start of 2017.

All three pitchers will be looking for bounceback opportunities after forgettable seasons. Fister will receive a $500K buyout; his option was priced at $4.5MM. The Moore deal included a $750K  buyout, which he’ll take home in lieu of a $10MM payday. Perez, meanwhile, gets $1MM in total buyouts as the club passes on its chance to keep him in 2019 ($7.5MM) and 2020 ($9MM).

Blue Jays Outright Shafer, Cruz, Guerrieri, Petricka

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The Blue Jays announced today that they have outrighted four players from their 40-man roster. Justin Shafer will remain in the organization after clearing waivers, while fellow right-handed hurlers Rhiner Cruz, Taylor Guerrieri, and Jake Petricka were all sent into free agency after going unclaimed.

Shafer, 26, made his big league debut in ’18 but allowed three runs in 8 1/3 innings while issuing a troubling seven walks in that time. He struggled as a starter in the low minors but has posted solid ERA marks as a reliever in Double-A (2.75, 75 1/3 innings) and Triple-A (1.49 ERA, 42 1/3 innings). Shafer has still averaged under eight punchouts per nine innings and walked nearly four per nine innings in the upper minors, though.

Cruz, 32, has bounced around the league on minor league deals since he was a top pick in the 2011 Rule 5 Draft. He posted an ERA north of 6.00 in his rookie season with the Astros following that selection and has never found his footing in the big leagues, as he owns a 5.20 ERA in 79 2/3 frames.

Guerrieri was one of the top prospects in baseball with the Rays before arm injuries tanked his status. He posted video game numbers between Class-A Advanced and Double-A as a 22-year-old in 2015 but has yet to find success in the upper minors (4.86 ERA in 66 2/3 Triple-A innings) since making it back to the mound. He threw 9 2/3 innings with the Blue Jays this year and allowed five runs on nine hits and four walks with eight strikeouts.

Petricka has the most experience of the names in question here, and he posted a 4.53 ERA with a respectable 8.1 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 45 2/3 frames out of the Toronto ’pen in 2018. The longtime White Sox reliever has a lifetime 3.98 ERA in 223 2/3 MLB frames but would’ve been arbitration-eligible this winter. The Blue Jays, rather than pay him a raise on 2018’s $1.3MM base salary, opted to cut him loose early and give him a jump start on finding a new club in free agency.

Mariners Outright Erasmo Ramirez, Nick Vincent

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TODAY: Ramirez and fellow righty Nick Vincent have each been outrighted after clearing waivers. Both players have elected free agency.

The 32-year-old Vincent has appeared in over sixty contests in each of the past three seasons with Seattle. He owns a cumulative 3.62 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Though Vincent still seems likely to spend plenty of time in a major-league pen in 2019, his projected $3.5MM arbitration salary was obviously deemed too steep.

YESTERDAY, 8:34pm: Morosi now tweets that Ramirez is indeed already going through the waiver process.

8:24pm: Right-hander Erasmo Ramirez is “likely” to be removed from the Mariners’ 40-man roster either via waiver claim or by clearing outright waivers and electing free agency, reports MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (on Twitter). That would suggest that Ramirez, 28, has already been placed on outright waivers, as both of those outcomes involve the team attempting to pass him through the waiver process.

Ramirez has split his career to date between the Mariners and Rays organizations, enjoying success at times with both team but struggling mightily in the most recent season. The Nicaraguan-born righty rejoined the Mariners in 2017 after being traded back to Seattle from Tampa Bay and threw quite well for his original club down the stretch. The 2018 campaign, however, was another story entirely. Ramirez was clobbered for a 6.50 ERA in 45 1/3 innings, allowing a stunning 14 home runs in that brief time while working with a diminished strikeout rate.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected Ramirez to earn $4.4MM via the arbitration process this winter, even spite of those alarming struggles, making him a clear non-tender candidate. Rather than waiting until the non-tender deadline at the end of the current month, it seems the Mariners are opting to remove Ramirez now. If he clears, which seems likely, he’ll elect free agency, and the early outright will have granted him some additional time to explore the open market in search of a new opportunity.

For all of Ramirez’s struggles he’s not far removed at all from being a useful big league arm. In 385 1/3 innings from 2015-17, the righty worked to a 3.97 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9. Ramirez was bothered by a teres major strain in 2018, spending more than three months on the disabled list with that injury, so with a return to health in 2019 he could be an affordable rotation option or long reliever for a new organization.

Angels Claim Austin Brice

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The Angels have claimed right-hander Austin Brice from the Reds, per the Cincinnati organization.

Brice, 26, has not exactly distinguished himself in the majors to this point. Through 84 innings over the past three seasons, he carries a 5.68 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9.

Clearly, though, the Halos like Brice’s arm. He works in the mid-nineties with a pair of heaters and also has shown two varieties of breaking balls. That arsenal has allowed the former ninth-round pick to compile a 2.70 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in his 53 1/3 total innings at the highest level of the minors.

Reds Claim Matthew Bowman From Cardinals; Dilson Herrera, Mason Williams Outrighted

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The Reds announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Matthew Bowman off waivers from the division-rival Cardinals. Additionally, infielder Dilson Herrera and outfielder Mason Williams have cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Louisville.

Bowman, 27, was a quality middle-relief option for the Cards from 2016-17, working to a 3.70 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and 0.6 HR/9 in 126 1/3 innings. He stumbled in 2018 however, requiring multiple DL stints for ongoing blister issues and generally performing poorly when on the field. In 23 innings this past season, he posted a 6.26 ERA with a career-best 10.2 K/9 mark but also a career-worst 4.1 BB/9 mark. Bowman does have a minor league option remaining, so he could be a flexible ’pen option for the Reds in 2019.

The 24-year-old Herrera went unclaimed after hitting .184/.268/.414 in 97 plate appearances for the Reds late in the 2018 season. It’s been a couple of years since he was the centerpiece of the trade that sent Jay Bruce from Cincinnati to the Mets, but Herrera’s late cup of coffee was actual his team debut. The former top prospect’s career has been utterly derailed by shoulder troubles, and while he finally surfaced in the Majors with the Reds, he didn’t do enough to secure a roster spot for the 2019 season. Because he’s previously been outrighted by the Reds, he can now elect fre agency, leaving the Cincinnati organization with nothing to show for that Bruce swap; lefty Max Wotell, the only other player in the trade, was cut loose earlier this season.

The 27-year-old Williams is a former top prospect in his own right, though it’s been quite some time since he was perceived in that light. He inked a minor league pact with Cincinnati and made his way to the big league roster, hitting .293/.331/.398 in 132 PAs. Solid as that showing was, he couldn’t stick on the 40-man nor did another team claim him, so he, too, can head to the open market as a minor league free agent by virtue of that fact that he’s also been outrighted previously (by the Yankees in 2017).

Padres Outright Alex Dickerson, Designate Kazuhisa Makita

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The Padres announced today that they have dropped two players form their 40-man roster. Outfielder Alex Dickerson was outrighted after clearing waivers, while reliever Kazuhisa Makita was designated for assignment.

It’s no surprise to see Dickerson bumped from the 40-man after being activated from the 60-day DL. Unfortunately, the former third-round pick has been sidelined by injuries (to his back and elbow) in each of the past two seasons. He showed plenty of promise in 2016, but will now have to battle for his next shot at the majors.

As for Makita, who’ll soon turn 34, his two-year deal has thus far been a dud for the Friars, who owe him another $1.9MM for the coming season. The submariner managed only a 5.40 ERA in his 35 frames in 2018, allowing seven long balls but also showing a solid 37:12 K/BB ratio.

Makita was able to generate a strong 12.2% swinging-strike rate and lofty 23.7% infield fly percentage, so he has shown some interesting skill. Unfortunately, he also gave up a lot of line drives (a whopping 39.4%, per Fangraphs) long balls (18.4% HR/FB), so he’ll obviously need to make some corrections to succeed.

Tigers Claim Dixon From Reds, Fernandez From Blue Jays

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve claimed infielder Brandon Dixon off waivers from the Reds and left-handed reliever Jose Fernandez off waivers from the Blue Jays.

It stands to reason that the Detroit organization will continue to look for ways to find value from roster castaways from other organizations. In this case, they’ll take a look at a pair of players who earned first-time MLB promotions in 2018 but failed to impress at the game’s highest level.

Dixon, 26, raked in his second attempt at Triple-A but racked up 43 strikeouts and limped to a .574 OPS in his first 124 plate appearances in the big leagues. The former third-rounder is capable of playing the corners in both the infield and outfield but also has experience at second base, potentially making him a versatile piece if he can earn a shot with the Tigers.

As for Fernandez, he’ll turn 26 right as camp opens, just in time to push for a job in the Detroit pen. He’s exclusively a reliever and occasionally threw multiple innings in the upper minors last year, working to a 2.97 in 60 2/3 frames over 44 appearances. Though he has allowed a few too many free passes in recent years, Fernandez gets some swings and misses. He also showed a 94+ mph heater from the left side.

Yankees Claim Hanser Alberto From Rangers

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The Yankees announced that they’ve claimed infielder Hanser Alberto off waivers from the Rangers. Their 40-man roster is up to a total of 37 players.

Alberto, 26, will give the Yankees a bit of infield depth after the loss of Didi Gregorius to Tommy John surgery last month. He’s far from a certainty to survive the season on New York’s 40-man roster, however, as he’s only a career .192/.210/.231 hitter through 192 plate appearances. On the other hand, Alberto hasn’t had much big league time to date and has been impressive in parts of four Triple-A campaigns, hitting .309/.330/.438 through exactly 1000 plate appearances. He has notable experience at every infield slot other than first base.

Dodgers Nearing Extension With Clayton Kershaw

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2:37pm: The sides have discussed  new contract that would add just one more guaranteed season, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It is believed that the total guarantee would stay under nine figures, though Rosenthal cautions the “final terms might be different.”

If that turns out to be the case, it seems the sides would be more or less adding another season at the same average annual value that Kershaw has been playing on under his prior extension. Of course, it’s also quite possible that there are other provisions under discussion.

1:30pm: The Dodgers and left-hander Clayton Kershaw are nearing an extension that’ll keep him in Los Angeles, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (on Twitter). Passan notes that the deal is said to be “very close.” Kershaw had an opt-out clause that allowed him to forgo the remaining two years and $65MM on his contract and had until 4pm ET today to make a decision on that clause.

There’s been speculation for quite some time that rather than opt out of the contract, Kershaw would push for an additional couple of years to be added onto the contract. That, it seems, may very well come to be. Reports have indicated all along that the Dodgers hoped to keep the future Hall of Famer.

While Kershaw’s durability has come into question in recent seasons due to a string of back injuries, there was never reason to believe that he’d forgo the opt-out clause. It’s true that those back issues have sent him to the DL in three consecutive seasons, but he’s nonetheless remained among the game’s most talented arms when on the mound. Furthermore, Kershaw has averaged 25 starts and 162 innings per season over the past three years (191 innings per season when factoring in the playoffs), so it’s not as if he’s missed half a season on a regular basis.

The 30-year-old has notched a ridiculous 2.26 ERA since 2016, and although this past year’s 2.73 ERA wasn’t up to par for a player with his credentials, it’s nonetheless a brilliant mark that was accompanied by an even more impressive 155-to-29 K/BB ratio in 161 1/3 innings. If this “diminished” Kershaw is what the Dodgers can realistically expect for the foreseeable future, then they’d still be signing up for a top-tier arm to lead their rotation. It seems plausible that he might take a hit in terms of average annual value in exchange for tacking on another couple of seasons to the deal, but that’d be a worthwhile trade-off for locking in another two-plus seasons of guaranteed pay.

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