Quick Hits: Tillman, Tigers, O’s, New York, G. Torres, Tebow
The Tigers remain on the lookout for a starter, which could lead to a Chris Tillman signing, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets. Tillman threw for the Tigers on Saturday, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun adds (via Twitter). Both Heyman and Encina note that Tillman is deciding among three teams and likely to sign within the next day or two, and they agree that a return to the Orioles is a legitimate possibility.
More from Baltimore and a few notes on the two New York franchises:
- The Orioles will more likely sign a left-handed-hitting outfielder than trade for one, GM Jim Duquette told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com and other reporters Sunday (Twitter links). A move is unlikely to come today, however.
- The Mets’ Jason Vargas signing will likely conclude their heavy lifting for the offseason, general manager Sandy Alderson suggested Sunday (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, on Twitter). “With Jason’s signing, we’re pretty much where we want to be,” said Alderson, who has been rather active in free agency since last season ended. Vargas was the sixth big league signing of the offseason for the Mets, who previously added or re-upped Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, Anthony Swarzak, Adrian Gonzalez and Jose Reyes.
- The Yankees would buy themselves an extra year of control by having infield prospect Gleyber Torres spend at least 16 days in the minors this year, but that’s not going to factor into whether he earns a roster spot, according to GM Brian Cashman (via David Lennon of Newsday). “It’s not part of my evaluation process,” Cashman told Lennon. “We’re trying to win. If we feel that somebody could benefit from more time in the minors, we’ll make that decision at the end of camp. But I’ll take all the information from what I see and factor that into the evaluation. Every win for us is valuable.” Torres, one of the game’s top prospects, may well emerge as the Opening Day second baseman for the Yankees, who lack an obvious solution there. That would be especially impressive given that Torres is still just 21 and has only totaled 235 plate appearances above the High-A level. He raked over that sample size last year, with a .287/.383/.430 line between Double-A and Triple-A, before undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery on his left (non-throwing) elbow in June. Torres has fully recovered from the procedure.
- The Mets actually have “modest expectations” that minor league outfielder Tim Tebow will eventually earn a major league call-up, Alderson revealed (Twitter link via James Wagner of the New York Times). “He’s great for baseball. He was phenomenal for minor league baseball last year,” Alderson said of the former Denver Broncos starting quarterback and ex-University of Florida football star. Prior to last season, which the 30-year-old divided between Single-A and High-A and hit .226/.309/.347 in 486 PAs, Tebow hadn’t played organized baseball since high school.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/18/18
The latest minor moves from around baseball:
- The Marlins have outrighted right-hander Severino Gonzalez, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com tweets. Miami acquired Gonzalez from Philadelphia in a minor trade last month. The 25-year-old spent the 2017 season in the minors (mostly Double-A) and recorded a 4.82 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 80 1/3 innings. Gonzalez worked out of the Phillies’ bullpen from 2015-16 and yielded a 6.68 ERA across 66 frames, despite strong strikeout and walk rates (8.45 K/9, 1.91 BB/9).
Angels Sign Chris Young To One-Year Deal
The Angels have signed outfielder Chris Young to a one-year, major league contract, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports (Twitter links). The deal comes with a $2MM base salary plus incentives for the CAA Sports client.
The 34-year-old Young brings experience at all three outfield spots and has been a plus defender in his career (19 Defensive Runs Saved, 8.5 Ultimate Zone Rating). He hasn’t seen much action lately in center field, though, and that’ll be the case again this year if Mike Trout stays healthy. Playing time could be hard to come by in the corners, too, given that the Angels also feature established starters in left field (Justin Upton) and right field (Kole Calhoun). Young logged 363 innings in the corners with the Red Sox in 2017 and accounted for minus-4 DRS and a minus-3.4 UZR.
Young is known more for his work on the offensive side, where he has produced a .237/.316/.430 line with 185 home runs and 140 stolen bases across 5,188 plate appearances with several teams. Given that the righty-swinging Young has become a southpaw-hitting platoon player as his career has progressed, the former 30-home run hasn’t racked up great counting stats in recent years. However, he tends to make his playing time count, evidenced by a .262/.361/.466 slash in 1,366 PAs versus left-handers. Young was uncharacteristically poor against lefties last year, though, en route to a .235/.322/.387 overall line and a minus-0.2 fWAR in 276 trips to the plate.
The Angels are obviously betting on a bounce-back showing from Young, who was a terrific bench option for the Yankees in 2015 and the Red Sox in ’16. If he returns to his lefty-mashing ways in 2018, it’d be a boon for an Angels offense that scuffled versus southpaws last season (.240/.332/.356).
West Notes: Hosmer, CarGo, Rox, Mariners, D-backs, Giants
The Padres’ signing of Eric Hosmer “is the most inexplicable move of the offseason,” Keith Law of ESPN opines (Insider required). Despite only bidding against the Royals for Hosmer, the Padres significantly overpaid for Hosmer in handing him an eight-year, $144MM guarantee, writes Law, who doesn’t expect the player to justify the cost. Hosmer has endured an inconsistent career, hasn’t lived up to the considerable hype he had as a prospect, and isn’t enough of an impact player to help turn around the Padres’ fortunes, Law contends. Further, adding Hosmer and bumping Wil Myers from first back to the outfield is unlikely to benefit the latter, who “will probably become an adequate-not-good player” in the grass, as opposed to the “good-not-great player” he was at first base, Law offers. While Law is bullish on the Padres’ overall direction, he regards this signing as a “baffling misstep” by their front office.
More from the majors’ West divisions:
- The Rockies have continued to keep in touch with Scott Boras in regards to free agent outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, general manager Jeff Bridich told Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on Sunday (Twitter link). Ian Desmond, Gerardo Parra and David Dahl rank as the Rockies’ most prominent corner outfielders at the moment, but all three come with question marks. Desmond was subpar last year, Parra is out several weeks after undergoing hand surgery (and hasn’t been particularly good as a Rockie) and Dahl didn’t play in the majors at all in 2017 on account of a rib cage injury. Meanwhile, Gonzalez posted the worst season of his career – which helps explain why he’s still available – though he went on a tear in September (.377/.484/.766 in 93 plate appearances) to end on a high note.
- Injuries tore through the Mariners’ rotation last season, and their starting depth is already being put to the test early this year. Right-hander Erasmo Ramirez has been shut down for two weeks with a minor lat strain, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times was among those to report (Twitter links). It’s only a precautionary measure by the Mariners, according to Divish, though it obviously makes for a less-than-ideal start to the year for their staff. The Mariners haven’t done anything to upgrade their rotation since last season concluded, but GM Jerry Dipoto has insisted he’s content with the group. If healthy, Ramirez will slot in fourth in the quintet in front of either Marco Gonzales or Ariel Miranda and behind James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Mike Leake. Ramirez made 19 starts with the Mariners and Rays last year and pitched to a 4.74 ERA/4.71 FIP across that 100 2/3-inning span.
- Diamondbacks left-hander Patrick Corbin was featured in trade rumors over the winter, but no deal has materialized to this point. Corbin’s “glad” to still be with the team, he tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. One reason the D-backs didn’t pull the trigger on a trade is because they were concerned about finding an adequate replacement, Piecoro notes. Corbin was a key part of their staff last year, when he totaled 3.0 fWAR and recorded a 4.03 ERA in 189 2/3 innings.
- The friendship relievers Mark Melancon and Tony Watson forged during their time together in Pittsburgh from 2013-16 helped the Giants land Watson, Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News writes. Melancon explained Saturday that he had been trying to recruit Watson since last fall, saying: “I think I did, I’ve been pitching at him for the entire offseason and even prior to that. When he was in LA, I was like, ‘We need you over here now.’ So since September of last year I think.” Now that he’s teammates again with Watson, Melancon “couldn’t be more ecstatic.”
Angels To Sign Chris Carter
The Angels have agreed to a minor league deal with first baseman Chris Carter, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. He’ll rake in $1.75MM if he makes the Angels’ roster and could earn up to $600K in incentives, Jon Heyman of FanRag reports.
The 31-year-old Carter could provide the Angels a replacement for fellow first baseman C.J. Cron, whom they traded to the Rays on Saturday. But Carter will have to spend the next several weeks rebuilding his stock in camp after he fared horribly in the majors with the Yankees last season. The powerful Carter hit just .201/.284/.370 with eight home runs and a .168 ISO over 208 appearances with New York before the club jettisoned him. Carter then caught on with Oakland on a minor league pact, but he didn’t return to the majors with the A’s. He instead took 154 PAs at the Triple-A level and batted .252/.357/.511.
Of course, the righty-hitting Carter isn’t far removed from leading the National League in home runs (41) as a Brewer in 2016, so he could emerge as a quality buy-low pickup for the Angels. While Carter has always been prone to strikeouts (he owns a career 33.3 percent K rate) and low batting averages, his .217/.312/.456 line across 2,853 big league PAs has still been 9 percent better than average, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric (Cron has been 7 percent above in 1,475 PAs). Carter’s power (.239 ISO, four seasons with at least 24 HRs) and patience (11.5 percent walk rate) are to thank for that.
In the event Carter does find his way to Anaheim, he’ll join a team whose first base/designated hitter options were among the majors’ worst last year. Albert Pujols and Luis Valbuena are the Halos’ most prominent holdovers at those positions from 2017, and they’ve since added DH candidate/potential ace Shohei Ohtani.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Expansion, Free Agency, Bucs, Jays, Giants, O’s, Mets
This week in baseball blogs…
- Expos Reloaded urges MLB to add multiple expansion teams.
- Nyrdcast searches for the causes of the slow free-agent market and the increase in arbitration hearings this offseason.
- Pop Fly Baseball names the most underrated team in each league.
- Pirates Breakdown reacts to David Freese‘s critical assessment of the club.
- BP Toronto notices a trend with respect to pitchers the Blue Jays have signed to MLB contracts in recent offseasons.
- Know Hitter agrees with the Giants’ win-now approach.
- Stats Swipe analyzes Lance Lynn.
- Camden Depot weighs in on the Orioles’ signing of Andrew Cashner.
- Good Fundies compares new Met Todd Frazier to Jason Kipnis, whom they nearly acquired.
- Chin Music Baseball lists six dark-horse MVP candidates for 2018.
- The K Zone looks for the secret to Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage’s success.
- World Series Dreaming explains how the Cubs could divvy up innings with various rotation setups.
- Baseball Takes argues against the notion that the Indians’ window is closing.
- Call to the Pen names three Phillies entering make-or-break seasons.
- Clubhouse Corner touches on labor unrest and teams that could be in for rough years.
- Underthought looks beyond the traditional saves stat to determine how closers performed in 2017.
- STL Hat Trick has five reasons for optimism regarding the Cardinals’ offseason.
- Motor City Bengals, using Baseball Reference’s player comparison tools, predicts how each Tiger will fare this year.
- Hardball Via Hardcore shares its Mariners spring training preview.
- Dodgers Way offers a position-by-position breakdown of the team’s farm system.
- The Point of Pittsburgh explains why the Pirates may not be able to extend Josh Bell or Jameson Taillon.
- Puckett’s Pond is OK with the Twins coming up short in the Yu Darvish sweepstakes.
- District On Deck lists five spring training storylines for the Nationals.
- Jays Journal looks at PECOTA and FanGraphs projections for Toronto.
- DiNardo’s Dugout (podcast) discusses the Cubs’ new-look rotation and other subjects.
- The Sports Tank expects Rick Porcello to bounce back this year.
- Rox Pile highlights two things already learned about the Rockies this spring.
- The Runner Sports (links: 1, 2, 3, 4) responds to the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi pickup, ranks the A’s top 25 prospects, delves into some recent Justin Verlander comments, and reacts to Goose Gossage’s bashing of Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
- NY Yankees Digest predicts the AL award winners for 2018.
- The Junkball Daily ranks the top 10 third basemen from 2017.
- The 3rd Man In profiles and interviews draft prospect Griffin Conine, son of former major leaguer Jeff Conine.
- Big Three Sports talks with Vancouver Canadians pitching coach Jim Czajkowski about Blue Jays prospect Nate Pearson.
- East Village Times interviews Padres pitching prospect Nick Margevicius.
- Pinstriped Prospects names seven non-40-man Yankees who could debut in the majors this year.
- Notes from the Sally previews the West Virginia Power, the Pirates’ South Atlantic League affiliate.
- Rotisserie Duck uses SABR Defensive Index to see if the right players won Gold Gloves last season.
- Jays From the Couch has high expectations for young catcher Danny Jansen.
- The Giants Cove calls the team’s front office an “embarrassing circus.”
- Keith’s Mustache projects the Mets’ season-opening roster, while Bronx Bomber Ball does the same with the Yankees.
- Everything Bluebirds sees Curtis Granderson as the Blue Jays’ best leadoff option.
- Mets Daddy believes the club needs to add another reliever capable of handling left-handed hitters.
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Extra Innings UK wraps up the week’s headlines and articles in international baseball.
Submissions: ZachBBWI @gmail.com
White Sox Outright Dylan Covey
The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Dylan Covey to Triple-A Charlotte, thus opening up a spot on their 40-man roster, James Fegan of The Athletic reports on Twitter.
A fourth-round pick of the A’s in 2013, Covey spent the first few years of his professional career in Oakland’s system before joining the White Sox in the December 2016 Rule 5 draft. The 26-year-old Covey ended up playing a fairly prominent role in Chicago last season, but he struggled mightily in his first taste of major league action.
Across 70 innings (18 appearances, 12 starts), Covey logged a 7.71 ERA/7.20 FIP with 5.27 K/9 and 4.37 BB/9. While Covey did keep the ball on the ground at a respectable clip (48.5 percent), the fly balls he allowed tended to lead to disaster. In fact, he surrendered 2.57 home runs per nine – the worst mark on the team and the third-worst figure in the majors among those who amassed at least 70 frames.
Latest On Pirates’ Josh Harrison
After the Pirates traded franchise cornerstones Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole last month, utilityman Josh Harrison suggested he’d like to play elsewhere if “the team does not expect to contend this year or next.” The Pirates haven’t done anything to assuage Harrison since then, he explained to reporters (including Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) when he showed up to camp on Sunday.
Regarding a conversation he had with general manager Neal Huntington, Harrison said: “At the end of the day there wasn’t anything said or done that was like, aw man, I can breathe easy. He talked to me, said he wants to win and this or that. At the end of the day I said it’s about action, not speaking.”
Harrison also knocked the Pirates for a lack of transparency – “Some of it goes with not knowing the direction. I understand the business side. Every year, there’s going to be guys coming in and going out. You just want to know where we stand as a team, where you stand as a player” – and backed up teammate David Freese‘s recent comments criticizing the Bucs for an absence of “accountability.”
“I don’t care how we do it, but things need to be done,” Harrison declared. “As Freese said the other day, it’s got to be urgent and not just from a couple guys, a couple people in the office. It has to be top to bottom. You talk about Freese, he’s a World Series MVP. The guy’s been there. He knows what it takes to win. I think it will go without saying that he and I, even some of the comments he mentioned, had been conversations we’ve had during the season. It’s been brought to light.”
Although Harrison isn’t content with the state of the Pirates, it’s unclear whether they’re interested in trading him or whether there’s even a market for his services at this point. The New York teams and Toronto have shown the most reported interest in Harrison since last season ended, but both the Mets and Blue Jays have made several moves to address their infield and outfield in recent weeks. Consequently, both teams are likely out of the running for Harrison.
The Yankees still don’t have a proven second or third base solution, meanwhile, and credible free agent options are dwindling. However, the Yankees only have in the neighborhood of $10MM to $15MM in spending room as they try to stay under the $197MM luxury tax line, which could help prevent a deal from occurring even if the Pirates are open to trading Harrison.
While Harrison’s $6.825MM luxury tax number for 2018 is affordable, it still might not be palatable for the Yankees, who have recently passed on similarly valuable, similarly compensated free agent infielders (Todd Frazier and Eduardo Nunez, for instance) and could use their remaining money to address their rotation – which is an area they’ve prioritized. Passing on expensive veteran infielders would enable the Yankees to allow promising prospects Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar to sink or swim at second and third, respectively. Torres could start the year in the minors, in part because it would give the Yankees an extra year of control over him, but they’d only need to wait until mid-April to promote him.
If no trade materializes by Opening Day, the 30-year-old Harrison will start his eighth season in Pittsburgh. Harrison is in the last guaranteed season of the four-year, $27.3MM extension he signed with the Pirates in 2015. He’ll earn $10MM this year and could make up to $21.5MM over the following two seasons, depending on whether his employer picks up his options for 2019 and ’20.
Braves Working To Sign Peter Moylan; Royals Remain Interested
11:20am: Moylan to the Braves might not be a foregone conclusion. The Royals remain interested in re-signing him, per Bowman (Twitter link).
8:37am: The Braves are attempting to complete a deal with free agent reliever Peter Moylan, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. It’s unclear whether it’ll be a major league pact for the 39-year-old Moylan, who already has two stints with the Braves under his belt (2006-12 and 2015).
The right-handed Moylan spent the previous two seasons in Kansas City and combined for a 3.46 ERA with 6.92 K/9 and 3.55 BB/9 across 104 innings, including 59 1/3 (his most since 2010) in 2017, when he led all pitchers in appearances (79). The sinker- and slider-throwing Moylan notched a superb 61.3 percent groundball rate to rank eighth among qualified relievers during that two-year span.
Moylan’s success with the Royals was particularly surprising after he combined to throw fewer than 40 big league innings with the Braves and Dodgers from 2011-15, owing to a laundry list of injuries. The Australia native dealt with back, shoulder and elbow problems at various points during that stretch, and he missed all of 2014 after undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career. Moylan then rejoined the Braves prior to the 2015 campaign on an unconventional deal, one in which they picked him up as a player/coach.
If he’s able to catch on with the Braves for a third time, Moylan will become the elder statesman of a bullpen that hasn’t added any other proven commodities since finishing last season 26th in ERA (4.58) and 27th in fWAR (1.1). Braves relievers especially struggled versus right-handed hitters, who slashed .264/.339/.450 against them. Moylan, meanwhile, limited righties to a meager .161/.244/.236 mark and has held them in check throughout his career (.204/.269/.295). Although lefty-swingers have roughed up Moylan (.296/.422/.430), he has nonetheless managed a 3.00 ERA during his 390 1/3-inning career.
NL East Notes: Braves, Nats, Gio, Phillies
The Braves are attempting to add an outfielder, Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets. With soon-to-be ex-Ray Corey Dickerson now available, Morosi wonders if Atlanta could emerge as a suitor for him. The Braves currently have two entrenched starting outfielders in center fielder Ender Inciarte and right fielder Nick Markakis, and all-world prospect Ronald Acuna is charging toward the majors and should take over left in the near future. Speculatively, after Acuna comes up, Dickerson could bump Markakis from a starting role. Not only is Dickerson likely the better of the pair, but he’s much younger (28 to 34) and comes with two years of control to Markakis’ one.
Now for the latest on a couple of Atlanta’s division rivals:
- Given that he’s in the last year of his contract, left-hander Gio Gonzalez realizes he may not be in a Nationals uniform in 2019, Jamal Collier of MLB.com writes. Gonzalez would like to remain in Washington, though. “I’ve been here for seven years. To me, this is home,” he said. “That being said, I have to do my part.” If he’s unable to work out a new deal with the Nats in the next year, Gonzalez would hit the open market at the age of 33 – a prospect that’s not too appealing these days, Collier notes. “To see these guys get a team, it would make you feel a little more comfortable, a little more safe,” Gonzalez said of all the unsigned veterans remaining with spring training underway.
- Right-hander Joe Ross, one of Gonzalez’s teammates, is making encouraging progress in his recovery from the Tommy John procedure he underwent last July, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports. Ross is currently throwing off flat ground from 75 feet and aiming to return to the Nationals sometime after the All-Star break. “That’s in my head, for sure,” the 24-year-old said of potentially making an impact in 2018. “My arm will dictate that. But that’s how I feel, and I’m looking forward to helping the team in the second half.”
- If the Phillies don’t acquire starting pitching help, there’s a chance they’ll turn to a nine-man bullpen at times this year, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic (subscription required). It doesn’t appear the Phillies have a rotation capable of working deep in games, observes Gelb, who points out that they’ll be able to shuttle most of their relievers between the majors and minors throughout the season. Further, rookie manager Gabe Kapler is known for outside-the-box thinking and comes from a Dodgers organization that’s unafraid to use its bullpen rather often. Kapler admitted Saturday that a nine-man relief corps may be an option for Philly. “I can envision a couple of different scenarios that would allow us to carry nine in the ‘pen,” Kapler said. “Now a lot of that is a little too early to X and O about, but how cool would it be to have that level of depth and those many mix and match options to go after the opposition? That would be a pretty cool thing for us.”