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Rangers Pick Up Jeff Banister’s 2019 Option

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The Rangers announced that they have exercised their club option over manager Jeff Banister for the 2019 season. He was already under contract for next season.

Banister originally signed in advance of the 2015 season. He had agreed to a deal last winter in which the club picked up an original 2018 option and added a new option for the following season. This time around, it seems, no new option year was tacked on at the end. Nonetheless, he’ll head into the 2018 campaign with more job security as he looks to get the Rangers back to the postseason after coming up short in a 78-84 season in 2017 — the first losing season in his three-year tenure in Arlington.

Overall, Banister’s Rangers have performed well since he took the helm three years ago. The 53-year-old Banister helped Texas to an 88-74 record in his first season as a Major League manager, winning 2015 American League Manager of the Year honors in the process. The 2016 Rangers took another step forward with a 95-67 mark, capturing their second AL West crown in as many years under Banister. All told, Texas is 261-225 under his watch.

While the majority of Banister’s coaching staff will remain intact, the Rangers did shuffle up the staff a bit; bullpen coach Brad Holman will not have his 2018 club option exercised and won’t return to the organization next season. He’ll be replaced by Rangers first base coach Hector Ortiz, who will serve as both bullpen coach and catching instructor next season. Texas, it seems, will be on the lookout for a new first base coach to join Banister’s staff in the coming weeks, as no replacement for Ortiz was announced. The Rangers did announce that pitching coach Doug Brocail, third base coach Tony Beasley, bench coach Steve Buechele, hitting coach Anthony Iapoce and assistant hitting coach Justin Mashore will all return to the team in 2018.

Cardinals Interested In Japanese Closer Yoshihisa Hirano

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Intent on fortifying their bullpen for the 2018 season, the Cardinals have interest in Japanese closer Yoshihisa Hirano, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Set to turn 34 years of age next March, Hirano has long been a dominant closer in Japan, amassing 143 saves with a 2.62 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 through 271 1/3 innings from 2013-17. Hirano started his career in the Buffaloes’ rotation, and like many starters who struggle early in their career eventually found new life as a member of the Orix bullpen. Since shifting to a relief role full time in 2010, he owns a 2.32 ERA and a 564-to-123 K/BB ratio in 515 1/3 innings, although this season’s 7.5 K/9 mark was his lowest since becoming a full-time reliever.

Hirano easily exceeds the age and experience limitations to qualify as a professional under Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, meaning he won’t be subject to international bonus pools. He’s also spent 11 seasons pitching professionally in Japan (all with the Buffaloes), giving him the requisite service time in Nippon Professional Baseball to qualify as a free agent that is exempt from the posting system. In other words, Hirano is free to sign with any professional club on the planet for any amount this offseason.

The Cardinals are no stranger to dipping into the international market to bolster their relief corps, having done so two offseasons ago when signing right-hander Seung-hwan Oh. Certainly, their level of interest figures to be preliminary at this stage. The NPB season is still in progress over in Japan, and the Cardinals have no way of knowing exactly what type of contract Hirano will be seeking, nor do they know how he’ll fit in alongside the asking prices of the upcoming winter’s crop of free-agent relievers. Given his success in the Orix bullpen over the past several seasons, however, Hirano will be a name worth remembering as the offseason wears on and teams explore all possible avenues to deepen their pitching staffs.

Other teams figure to at least kick the tires on Hirano this offseason, as they’ve had no shortage of opportunities to scout the righty over his lengthy NPB career. C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer doesn’t explicitly state that the Reds have interest in Hirano, though he does note (Twitter link) that GM Dick Williams’ most recent trip to Japan was likely for the purposes of scouting more than just Shohei Otani, specifically listing Hirano as an example of another player that Williams could have been evaluating.

Julio Teheran Switches Agencies

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Braves right-hander Julio Teheran has changed representation and is now a Wasserman client, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).

Set to turn 27 in January, Teheran is coming off the worst full season of his professional career by most statistical measures. While he continued to demonstrate durability with his fifth straight season of 185 or more innings, Teheran saw his strikeout, walk and home-run rates all trend in the wrong direction. In 188 1/3 innings, he averaged 7.2 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 with an ugly 1.48 HR/9 mark en route to a 4.49 ERA. That ERA was the highest of his career, and metrics like FIP (4.95), xFIP (4.96) and SIERA (4.89) actually painted an even more troublesome picture.

Teheran did pitch better away from the newly constructed and homer-friendly SunTrust Park, though the discrepancy between his performance wasn’t quite as large as his 5.86 home ERA and 3.14 road ERA would suggest at first glance. His K/BB numbers and batted-ball profile were all relatively similar, but he enjoyed an unsustainable 83.7 percent strand rate on the road that helped to buoy his bottom-line run prevention numbers. On the plus side, Teheran is nowhere near the top of the leaderboard for average exit velocity or number of 95+ mph balls yielded, as measured by Statcast, so perhaps there’s some hope for better fortune with the long ball in 2018 and beyond.

He’ll have plenty of time to work on reestablishing himself as a quality mid-rotation piece moving ahead, as Teheran is still under contract through at least the 2019 season thanks to the six-year, $32.4MM contract he inked prior to the 2014 campaign. He’s slated to earn $8MM in 2018 and $11MM in 2019, and that contract contains a $12MM option ($1MM buyout) for the 2020 season as well. Even if the Braves — or a team to which he’s theoretically traded — exercise the option, Teheran would still hit the open market as a 29-year-old on the brink of his age-30 campaign.

His switch in representation has been noted in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains agent information on more than 2,500 Major League and Minor League players. If you come across any errors or omissions in the database, let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Quick Hits: Dusty, Upton, Giants, Mets, Eiland

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Dusty Baker’s contract is up after the Nationals’ postseason run is over, though his future as manager isn’t contingent on a first-round playoff victory, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes as part of a reader mailbag piece (with fellow Post scribe Jorge Castillo).  Nats ownership likes Baker and wants him to keep managing if he’s still willing and able, though an extension hasn’t been worked out since that just isn’t how the Lerner family handles business with managers.  Baker told Janes and other reporters today that he was informed that “we’re gonna wait til after the season” to discuss a possible new deal.

Here’s more from around baseball as the Yankees are off to the ALDS…

  • It is “increasingly likely” that Justin Upton will choose to opt out of the remaining four years and $88.5MM remaining on his contract, a source tells MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi.  Upton’s outstanding 2017 season gives him a strong case to look for a larger deal in free agency this winter, though opting out doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll leave the Angels.  Morosi notes that Upton could use the opt-out clause as a way to leverage an extension from the Halos, as C.C. Sabathia did with the Yankees six years ago.
  • Power and outfield defense are both needs for the Giants this winter, though as team executives told reporters (including Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle and MLB.com’s Jonathan Hawthorne) today, the team won’t sacrifice the latter for the sake of the former.  “We don’t want to get too far away from our game,” GM Bobby Evans said.  “We’re a pitching and defense team.  If we compromise too much in the area of power and give up to much defensively, that can hurt us as much as the benefit of adding the power.”  A younger and more athletic outfield seems like a priority, and Schulman feels this might rule out a run at 31-year-old free agent Lorenzo Cain.  In my view, Cain’s excellent glove would seem to make a good fit for the Giants, though his defensive metrics did decline (from great to “merely” quite good) in 2017.
  • The Giants will look to add at all three outfield positions, as incumbent outfielders Denard Span and Hunter Pence could be in line for position changes.  Span, according to manager Bruce Bochy, is “all in” about moving from center to left field.  This wouldn’t seem to leave much room for Pence to move from right field, though Schulman suggests that Span and Pence could both share a position.  That would be a very expensive solution considering that Span and Pence will combine to earn $30.5MM in 2018, though since both also have notable injury histories, a time-share could help keep both players healthy.
  • Outgoing Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland looks like a candidate for the Mets’ own pitching coach vacancy, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets.  Eiland has spent the last six years with the Royals and has some prior experience in the Big Apple, serving as the Yankees’ pitching coach from 2008-10.

Marlins Notes: Jeter, Sherman, Special Assistants

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New Marlins owners Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter held their introductory meeting with media today, discussing their vision for the team.  Here are some highlights from their comments, as per a transcript by Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel…

  • Meetings have yet to take place with president of baseball operations Michael Hill about the offseason’s direction, though “we do have to rebuild the organization,” Jeter said.  “It starts with player development, scouting.  We have to be strong in those areas, because if you’re going to have a sustainable organization over time, you need that pipeline of young players that can come in.  So we’re going to focus on everything.  We’re going to build it from the top down, bottom up, however you want to say it.”
  • This would seem to imply that the Marlins and their fans could be in for more trades of veterans and payroll-cutting, though Jeter stopped short of confirming such moves were coming, as per his upcoming discussions with the baseball operations department.  “And look, the best way I can put it is, I don’t like the word ‘teardown.’  Moving forward, there’s going to be at times unpopular decisions that we make on behalf of the organization,” Jeter said.  “Just understand that every decision we make is for the betterment of this organization. We have that in mind.  The word teardown and rebuild — yeah, we are rebuilding a franchise.  But I think a lot of times people associate those words with losing.  You never go into a situation and the message is that ‘We’re going to lose.’ “
  • In other Marlins news, Jeter personally contacted recently fired long-time team special assistants Jeff Conine, Andre Dawson, Jack McKeon and Tony Perez to say he’d be interested in keeping them on for unspecified roles with the organization, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports.  No reason was reportedly given for Jeter’s change of heart, or why each of the men was initially told they were dismissed almost two weeks ago.  Outgoing Marlins president David Samson was asked by Jeter to inform the four of their dismissal, though Heyman confirms that Jeter’s initial instruction was clear about the firings, so it wasn’t simply a case of miscommunication between Jeter and Samson.  It isn’t yet known how many, if any, of the four are willing to return.

GM Ross Atkins On Blue Jays’ Offseason Needs

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Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins met with reporters (including Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm) today to discuss his team’s season and how the Jays plan to move forward going into the winter.  Some highlights…

  • The Jays will be “open to trades” and “open to any possible way we can make our team better,” Atkins said, stressing the need for added depth and versatility.  The GM reiterated that the Jays aren’t looking to trade from their Major League roster unless they find a deal that improves the big league team.
  • The Blue Jays want to “add one impact arm and one impact position player for sure,” though Atkins wasn’t necessarily sure that the position player would play right field, which is the only clear opening in the lineup.  Teoscar Hernandez has “certainly earned the right” to compete for the everyday right field job in the wake of an impressive September.  The “impact arm” also could be either a starter or a relief pitcher.
  • Lack of team speed “is a clear issue for us,” though one that Atkins admitted is “really hard to [address] in free agency” given that most of the available veterans are generally on the older side and lacking in quickness.
  • Middle infield is an area of concern, as “we can’t rely that we will have an absolutely healthy Troy Tulowitzki and Devon Travis for the entire year, and we need to build depth around them.”  Injuries limited Tulowitzki and Travis to just 116 games combined last year, and both players have exhibited a lack of durability over the last few seasons.
  • Atkins confirmed that the Jays will not be exercising their end of Jose Bautista’s mutual option for 2018.  (Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi recently reported that Bautista was informed of the team’s decision a few weeks ago.)  It is “very unlikely,” Atkins said, that Bautista will return to the Jays even on a smaller deal in 2018, though the door isn’t closed on the longtime slugger eventually returning to the franchise.  “When he comes back here, he will be celebrated in a very strong way,” Atkins said.
  • No changes are coming to the coaching staff, and there weren’t any strong rumblings about a possible managerial change, Atkins confirmed that John Gibbons would also return to the dugout.  “I feel strongly that he’s a part of our solution, and I love going to work with him every day,” Atkins said about the manager.

Central Notes: Brewers, Tigers, McCutchen, Kluber

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Second base is “a position we’re going to have to take a long look at,” Brewers GM David Stearns said during the team’s end-of-season meeting with reporters (including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).  Jonathan Villar’s struggles required the Brew Crew to trade for Neil Walker in August, and now with Walker headed for free agency and Eric Sogard (another free agent) perhaps best suited for utility duty, a decision will need to be made about giving Villar another chance or perhaps looking for another addition.  Starting pitching is another need given the uncertainty surrounding Jimmy Nelson’s return from a labrum procedure, though manager Craig Counsell said it was too early to consider whether Josh Hader could be moved into a rotation role.

Here’s more from both the NL and AL Central…

  • The Tigers will interview Marlins third base coach Fredi Gonzalez and White Sox bench coach Joe McEwing this week about the managerial vacancy, MLB.com’s Jason Beck reports.  Angels bench coach Dino Ebel is also on Detroit’s list of candidates, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets.  Several other internal (coaches Lloyd McClendon, Omar Vizquel, Dave Clark) and external (Phil Nevin and Charlie Montoyo) have already been linked to the Tigers’ search, which reportedly began with around 50 names in consideration.
  • Andrew McCutchen is the key figure of this Pirates offseason, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, as the team faces a big decision about trading the long-time star outfielder.  Dealing McCutchen would essentially mark the end of an era for the franchise, though it would free up $14.5MM in payroll for 2018 (Brink rightly figures McCutchen’s club option is sure to be exercised by the Pirates) that could then be used to fill other roster holes.  McCutchen turns 31 next week and is coming off a solid 2017 season that revived his value following a very disappointing 2016 campaign.
  • Corey Kluber was a promising but unheralded young arm in the Padres farm system when he was acquired by the Indians in July 2010, as Cleveland.com’s Bud Shaw revisits the trade that gave the Tribe its ace.  Kluber was acquired as part of a three-team deal that saw the Cardinals send Ryan Ludwick to the Padres, while St. Louis picked up Jake Westbrook from Cleveland and Nick Greenwood from San Diego.  Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, then the team’s GM, said they received good scouting reports and “great analytical information” on Kluber that caught their interest, but “at the same time, no one sat there and said we were trading for a future Cy Young winner. We had no idea.”

Cardinals Notes: Offseason, Closers, Hitting, Fowler, Lynn

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Some items from the Cardinals’ season-end press conference, as per MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch (link one, link two)…

  • The Cards will be looking for a middle-of-the-lineup slugger this winter to boost the lineup.  “For us, we have a talented team, but when you look at our club, no one stood out as an All-Star, that threat,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said.  Seven Cards regulars were above-average run-creators in 2017 as per the wRC+ metric, though injuries and a lack of regular playing time impacted that group.  Josh Donaldson has been rumored to be one of the Cardinals’ offseason targets, and would certainly fit the bill as a big lineup upgrade if St. Louis is able to pry him away from the Blue Jays.
  • With Trevor Rosenthal sidelined by Tommy John surgery, the Cards will look into adding ninth-inning help, even if they’re wary of shopping at the high end of the free agent closer market. “Ideally, you don’t pay retail for closers if you can avoid it, and we’ve been lucky for the last long period of not having to dip into that end of the market.  But we don’t have an heir apparent at the moment, so we will have to evaluate what our options are,” GM Michael Girsch said.
  • Flexibility seems to be the key word for this Cardinals’ offseason, as with so many multi-positional players on the roster, the club has several options in deciding who could potentially stay or go.  (And who could be added, in regards to acquiring that big bat.)  Mozeliak said that catcher Yadier Molina is the only position player who has his spot on the field firmly established for 2018.  This means that Dexter Fowler could potentially move out of center field, which Mozeliak said will likely be discussed in the coming weeks.  2016 was the only season of Fowler’s career that saw him post positive numbers in the Defensive Runs Saved and UZR/150 categories, as he struggled to minus-18 DRS and -9.9 UZR/150 last year over 933 1/3 IP in center field.
  • The Cardinals have yet to decide whether or not to issue a qualifying offer to free agent starter Lance Lynn.  If Lynn rejected the QO, the Cards would be in line for compensation (an extra draft pick just prior to the third round) if he signed elsewhere.  If he accepted, then he’d return to St. Louis on a one-year deal worth in the neighborhood of $18.1MM.  After missing all of 2016 due to Tommy John surgery, Lynn returned to post very solid numbers this season and pitched 186 1/3 innings, which could quiet concerns about his post-surgery durability.  Even with such a major recent injury on his record, Lynn is likely to find a good multi-year deal on the open market, so one would think he’d reject a QO.

Andy MacPhail On Phillies’ Offseason, 2018 Plans

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Phillies president Andy MacPhail discussed his team’s winter plans in an end-of-season press conference today at Citizens Bank Park.  Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Daily News and Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia (two links) have the details….

  • The Phillies will likely continue to have a “relatively low payroll” in 2018, a year after slightly topping the $100MM in their Opening Day payroll.  With only around $6MM on the books for next season, however, that gives the club plenty of room to spend if necessary.  The team will at least be open to creative spending, as MacPhail said that ownership “did not react extraordinarily well in the beginning” to the news of another low-payroll campaign.  “Ultimately, they’re OK with it with one proviso: that if an opportunity presents itself, we do not exclude it. They understand the program,” MacPhail said.
  • One possibility is that the Phillies could use some of their payroll space to take on bad contracts from other teams.  “Most of you guys have written about how the ’18 (free-agent) class is a little on the light side, all the big guns come out in ’19. It may well be that teams that want to compete in that ’19 arena shed some salary that we won’t anticipate right now in ’18. So we have to keep our eye out for that, as well,” MacPhail said.  The club took on payroll last winter while acquiring Howie Kendrick, Pat Neshek, and Clay Buchholz in trades, and flipped Kendrick and Neshek in midseason trades for prospects.
  • While the rotation needs some serious upgrades, MacPhail hinted that the Phillies were likelier to obtain pitching via trades than in free agency.  “There are times when you’re going to have to dive into that [free agent] pool and just take a risk.  But it’s not my favorite place to be,” the president said.  “We get inundated with stories across the game about how everybody is looking for starting pitching.  ’Just get two quality starters, and we’ll be all set.’ Well, you might as well look for a unicorn at the same time.  It’s tough.  You don’t want to be paying for past performance.”  MacPhail also noted that the possibility exists that the Phils could deal from their farm system to add help for the big league roster.
  • The club hopes to have a new manager hired before the GM Meetings in early November.
  • The Phillies will continue to build and spend money on their analytics staff, which MacPhail mentioned has grown from a one-person department to a 14-person team.  Pitch-framing is one specific area that MacPhail said the Phillies are looking to improve on an organization-wide basis in 2018.  Baseball Prospectus was very unimpressed by the framing abilities of Cameron Rupp and Andrew Knapp, respectively ranking the two Philadelphia catchers 110th and 115th out of 116 MLB catchers.

Coaching Changes/Notes: Rays, Cards, Mariners, Eiland, Mets, Brewers

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Since the Mets shook up their staff earlier today, a flurry of other coaching changes have been announced by teams that didn’t make the playoffs. We’ve also gained some insight into the hunt to fill some of the sudden coaching vacancies. Here’s what we’ve learned so far…

Latest Updates

  • The Rays intend to promote Triple-A pitching coach Kyle Snyder to the big league job, and also move third base coach Charlie Montoyo to bench coach, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).  Snyder spent parts of five seasons with the Royals and Red Sox from 2003-08, including tossing 54 1/3 relief innings for Boston during its World Series championship season in 2007.  Snyder has been a pitching coach in the Rays organization since 2012 and he has been at Triple-A Durham since 2015.  Montoyo has been part of Tampa’s organization since 1997, serving at a minor league manager at all levels before taking the third base coaching job in 2015.  The Tigers and Mets have both reportedly shown interest in Montoyo as a managerial candidate, so his promotion to bench coach could presumably be short-lived if he is offered a managing job.
  • Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey won’t return to his position next year, as he and the team have mutually decided to part ways, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (via Twitter).  One of the game’s longest-tenured pitching coaches, Hickey has been with the Rays since November 2006, overseeing the development of several notable Rays arms.  Prior to coming to Tampa, Hickey served as the Astros’ pitching coach for two and a half season, plus over eight more years as a pitching coach in Houston’s minor league system.

Earlier Today

  • Tom Foley will not return as the bench coach for the Rays in 2018, Mark Topkins of the Tampa Bay Times reports. The decision was mutual. Foley has been a coach for Tampa Bay since 2002; he’ll now reportedly take on a different role within the organization.
  • Derek Lilliquist has been informed that he will not be the Cardinals’ pitching coach next year, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The search for his replacement is ongoing, but Goold adds in a separate tweet that Cardinals’ Triple-A pitching coach Bryan Eversgerd is a potential candidate. In yet a third tweet, Goold mentions that bullpe coach Blaise Ilsley also did not have his contract renewed, but that president of baseball ops John Mozeliak expects that all other coaches will return.
  • Mariners bench coach Tim Bogar and first base coach Casey Candaele will not return in 2018, the team announced in a press release. In addition, bullpen coach Nasusel Cabrera will shift to another job within the organization that has yet to be determined. Third base coach Manny Acta will serve as the team’s new bench coach, while assistant coach Scott Brosius will replace Acta as third base coach. Special projects coach Chris Prieto, who was also responsible for replay in 2017, will replace Candaele as the first base coach for the Mariners. Edgar Martinez and Mel Stottlemyre will return as the team’s hitting and pitching coaches, respectively.
  • After being let go from his position as the Royals’ pitching coach yesterday, Dave Eiland wants to “jump right back into it,” according to a tweet from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. With six seasons in Kansas City and another three years as the Yankees’ pitching coach under his belt, Eiland seems quite likely to find other opportunities elsewhere.
  • In addition to the changes made earlier today, Mets GM Sandy Alderson has forecasted a “major changes” at Triple-A Las Vegas, James Wagner of the New York Times reports via Twitter. In another tweet, he quotes Alderson saying that hitting coach Kevin Long will be given “strong consideration” for the Amazins’ managerial opening.
  • Brewers GM David Stearns announced in an end-of-season press conference that the team will retain its entire coaching staff for 2018.

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