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Cardinals Extend Stephen Piscotty

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The Cardinals have formally announced a new long-term pact with another key contributor: outfielder Stephen Piscotty has signed a six-year extension with an option for a seventh season.

Stephen Piscotty | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Piscotty, who is represented by CAA Sports, will reportedly be guaranteed $33.5MM on the deal. That includes a $2MM signing bonus, salaries of $1MM in 2017-18, $7MM in 2019-20 and $7.25MM in 2021-22. There’s also a $1MM buyout on a $15MM option for the 2023 season. Furthermore, Piscotty will earn $500K if traded prior to the completion of the 2021 season and $1MM if he is traded thereafter. Performance escalators can boost the value of the option, giving him a chance to top out at $50.5MM over seven years.

The Piscotty contract marks the third notable extension since the end of the 2016 campaign for Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak and his staff. St. Louis has also extended burgeoning ace Carlos Martinez this winter, and franchise icon Yadier Molina wrapped up a three-year contract extension of his own over the weekend.

The 26-year-old Piscotty was the 36th overall selection in the 2012 draft and has blossomed from one of the Redbirds’ top prospects to their everyday right fielder over the past two seasons. In that time, Stanford product has established himself as a well-above-average bat, hitting a combined .282/.348/.467 with 29 home runs through his first 216 MLB games (905 plate appearances).

From a defensive standpoint, Piscotty has been four runs above average in right field per both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating to this point in his young career. He’s also demonstrated a bit of versatility, logging 76 innings in center field and 57 at first base over his first two seasons. While he’s probably not going to see much time in center field moving forward — Dexter Fowler is signed to a five-year deal, and left fielder Randal Grichuk would probably slide over in the event of a Fowler injury — the ability to occasionally spot Piscotty there or at first base certainly carries a bit of value for the Cards.

Piscotty has just one year, 76 days of Major League service time, meaning he wouldn’t have been eligible for arbitration until the completion of the 2018 season and wouldn’t have been a free agent until the 2021-22 offseason. Piscotty falls shy of the current record for a player in the one-plus service class, which is held by Andrelton Simmons at seven years and $58MM (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker). Christian Yelich’s seven-year, $49.57MM pact is tops among all one-plus outfielders. Piscotty falls shy of both of those marks, though he’s also two to three years older than either of those players were when they inked their respective deals.

Today’s extension means that Piscotty can’t become a free agent until the completion of his age-31 season and, if he remains productive, that he likely won’t reach the open market until he is entering his age-33 campaign. That certainly limits his future earning power, though one can hardly fault a 26-year-old that is still five full years from reaching the open market and two years from reaching arbitration for electing to lock in his first eight-figure payday. Piscotty’s deal is the eighth-largest ever signed by a player with one-plus years of service, so while he didn’t establish any new sort of precedent, the deal falls within the range of reasonably plausible outcomes.

Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported that the two sides were progressing on a deal (Twitter link). FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted that the two sides had reached an agreement and also tweeted the guaranteed portion of the contract. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first suggested the six-year term (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal provided the year-to-year breakdown (Twitter links).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

East Notes: Red Sox, Yankees, Osuna, Marlins

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With the likes of Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley, Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi all controlled for at least another three seasons, the Red Sox are positioned to have an excellent core of young position players for the next several years. Team president Sam Kennedy spoke recently on the CSNNE Baseball podcast about his club’s desire to keep that core intact, and CSN’s Evan Drellich provides a number of highlights from that talk. Kennedy stated that extensions for that collection of young players is “something that we talk about a lot,” though he neglected to elaborate on any specifics. Kennedy further explained the various voices that weigh in on such matters, noting that CFO Tim Zue plays an integral part in evaluating the long-term financial ramifications for the team. Kennedy called Zue the Red Sox’ “Godfather of business analytics,” and Drellich adds that Zue works closely with the Red Sox’ baseball analytics head, Zack Scott, with regularity.

More from the game’s Eastern divisions…

  • Yankees GM Brian Cashman tells Travis Sawchik of Fangraphs that he and Cubs president of baseball ops Theo Epstein agreed to the framework of last summer’s Aroldis Chapman trade about three days before the trade actually went through. According to Cashman, he had to wait 72 hours for ownership approval from Hal Steinbrenner as he mulled the situation over with his family and other key Yankees staffers. Cashman reveals to Sawchik that this past summer was not the first time he’s strongly recommended employing a rebuilding approach — within the column he suggests that the Yankees should have traded Robinson Cano before he hit free agency — but the 2016 campaign marked the first time in which ownership conceded. Cashman adds that he doesn’t fault Steinbrenner for not green-lighting past rebuilding efforts, telling Sawchik: “[Steinbrenner] says, ‘Cash, you’re the director of baseball operations, you get to look at things at 5,000 feet. But as a pilot, I’m in charge of network ratings, ticket sales, advertising commitments to our sponsors, a whole host of things.’ So he had to look at things at 30,000 feet. Sometimes those decisions don’t match up with what I’d recommend, and I understand and respect that. Being an owner is not easy.” The entire interview is well worth a full read for Yankee fans or any readers that are interested in the baseball operations/ownership dynamic.
  • The Blue Jays aren’t expecting Roberto Osuna’s stay on the disabled list to be lengthy in nature, tweets MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm. Per general manager Ross Atkins, the Blue Jays don’t think Osuna will require more than the minimum 10-day stay that is provided by the new disabled list this season. That’s excellent news for a Jays team that, on paper, carries plenty of question marks surrounding its relief corps. In Osuna’s absence, veteran Jason Grilli and sophomore reliever Joe Biagini will handle whatever save opportunities arise.
  • Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports that veteran outfielders Brandon Barnes and Matt den Dekker did not exercise the opt-out provisions in their minor league deals with the Marlins at the end of Spring Training (Twitter link). As such, both figure to head to Triple-A New Orleans, where they’ll serve as depth options that could surface in the Majors should the Fish incur an injury or look to add some versatility to the bench down the line. Barnes, a career .242/.289/.356 hitter, posted just a .426 OPS in Spring Training but was solid in Triple-A last season. Meanwhile, den Dekker hit .281/.306/.596 in Spring Training and is a lifetime .236/.318/.359 hitter in the bigs. Both can play all three outfield positions.

Offseason In Review: Colorado Rockies

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This is the latest entry in MLBTR’s Offseason In Review series. The full index of Offseason In Review posts can be found here.

The Rockies obviously see an opportunity to contend in 2017, and made some hefty commitments over the winter to bolster that possibility. But ongoing pitching questions and a slate of spring injuries have clouded the outlook somewhat.

Major League Signings

Trades And Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

Rockies Depth Chart; Rockies Payroll Information

Needs Addressed

After addressing the open managerial job with the hiring of Bud Black at the opening of the offseason, the Rockies had a wide-open slate of possibilities. The team could conceivably have pursued a variety of trade scenarios involving such established stars as Carlos Gonzalez and Charlie Blackmon. Instead, the club ended up keeping its core intact and adding the old-fashioned way: through some pretty big spending on the open market.

Mar 9, 2017; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Colorado Rockies first baseman Ian Desmond against Puerto Rico during a 2017 World Baseball Classic exhibition game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

There were two major openings on the position-player side entering the winter: first base and catcher. Colorado elected to plunk down a lot of cash to add a productive veteran, but the player chosen came as quite some surprise. When the news broke that Ian Desmond was headed to the Rockies, it was generally assumed that he’d be playing in the outfield, with one of the team’s left-handed hitters — Gonzalez, Blackmon, Gerardo Parra, or perhaps even David Dahl — likely to be traded to address another need. Instead, the Rox stuck to their initial suggestion that Desmond would play first, though the organization notes that it values his versatility now and into the future. (More on that below.)

Behind the dish, the Rockies bypassed opportunities to pursue veterans via trade or free agency, where names like Matt Wieters, Jason Castro, Welington Castillo and (on the trade front) Brian McCann were available. Instead, the organization decided to rely on Tony Wolters, Tom Murphy, and Dustin Garneau. Murphy, who seems to have the greatest upside of the bunch, will be on the DL to open the year, so the Rockies made a late move to add veteran Ryan Hanigan.

Alexi Amarista was added to replace departing utilityman Daniel Descalso, but otherwise a bunch of friendly faces will be taking the field at Coors. In addition to the outfielders named above, high-power/high-strikeout shortstop Trevor Story is back from injury; Nolan Arenado and 2016 NL batting champion DJ LeMahieu will look to repeat their strong 2016 seasons at third and second base; and Mark Reynolds will return to first base (he re-signed on a minors deal) until Desmond, who suffered a fractured finger in Soring Training, is healthy. Rounding out the bench is Stephen Cardullo, an indy ball find who surprisingly spent time in the bigs last year.

Of course, the lineup was always seen as a strength for Colorado. Entering the winter, most expected the club to focus on pitching. Though the rotation finally had shown signs of life, it wasn’t exactly overloaded with established arms, and the bullpen had some clear holes.

The latter group got the attention that was expected, and then some. In addition to tendering a contract to Jake McGee despite his poor first year with the organization, Colorado gave Mike Dunn a surprising three-year deal and beat the market to roll the dice on Greg Holland, the once-elite reliever who’ll be returning from Tommy John surgery. That makes for one pricey relief corps. When you add the 2017 salaries of those three pitchers to what’s owed Adam Ottavino, Jordan Lyles, Chad Qualls, and the just-designated Jason Motte, the tab for this season alone lands just under $30MM.

But the rotation was another story. Content to keep its lefty-heavy outfield mix intact, and enamored of the relatively untested options on hand, the Rox did not add a single starter over the offseason.

Questions Remaining

The Rockies were arguably justified in staying their hand on adding another piece to the rotation. Entering camp, four spots were firmly accounted for (by Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson, Tyler Chatwood, and Chad Bettis). Beyond that quartet, there were quite a few contenders for the final job. Though adding a veteran to bolster the competition would have been nice, perhaps an appealing target couldn’t be enticed given the arms on hand and the prospect of pitching at Coors Field. And while the trade route surely was at least considered, either a lack of suitable matches or a differing strategy may simply have led the Rockies to a different approach.

Taking that course, though, always meant there’d be a lot of pressure on quite a few young pitchers. Teams know they’ll use more than five starters over the course of a season, so their depth charts must go at least eight or ten arms deep. In the case of the Rockies, outside of the top four arms listed above, the only potential starter in the organization who has more than eight MLB appearances under his belt is Chris Rusin, who thrived last year in a relief role. Prospects Jeff Hoffman and German Marquez are the only others who have seen any major league action at all, with each getting a taste of the bigs last year.

The situation worsened significantly with the terrible news that Bettis would require chemotherapy after his testicular cancer unexpectedly spread. Though he says it’s possible he could return this year, everyone’s first priority will remain Bettis’s well-being. Clearly, the team can’t count on a contribution from the steady performer in 2017.

Thus it was that the Rockies found it necessary to pluck two fresh arms from the farm to open the 2017 season. It seems that Antonio Senzatela (22) and Kyle Freeland (23) will get those jobs, with Marquez functioning as a swingman to open the season. The former was oustanding at Double-A in 2016, but he threw only 34 2/3 innings as the team exercised plenty of caution with a shoulder issue. While he had reached 154 frames in the prior season, asking for 32 starts would be a reach. Freeland, meanwhile, was the eighth overall pick in the 2014 draft. However, he only reached the upper minors last year and didn’t exactly dominate with a 3.89 ERA over 162 innings with 6.0 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9. Also of note: that innings tally represented a big jump after two consecutive partials seasons.

Whenever the next need opens up, the Rockies can turn to Rusin (once he’s healthy), Marquez, Hoffman, and perhaps Lyles. They’ll also be able to dip further into the farm, which includes pitchers such as 40-man members Shane Carle, Yency Almonte, and Zach Jemiola. That may well be sufficient depth, but the Rockies set to tap into an unusually youthful reservoir of starting pitching for an organization that has its sights set on contention.

The ’pen faces its own questions, but they’re mostly of the typical kind. Overall, the unit has a fair bit of upside despite the recent health issues faced by pitchers such as Holland, McGee, Ottavino, and Qualls; those hurlers will be looking to return while others (Marquez, Carlos Estevez, and Miguel Castro, if he clears waivers) will try to convert impressive raw stuff into effectiveness.

You could say the same of the bulk of the lineup, which has a nice overall blend of stars, solid pieces, and role players. There may be minor quibbles about the lefty-heavy outfield mix — top prospect Raimel Tapia also hits from the left side — and the catching mix is as unestablished as any in baseball. The organization, though, seems to believe in the current catching options. And overall, the the collection of position players seems to be a good one.

Deal Of Note

That includes Desmond, the presumptive first baseman. He ought to be fine there, after all. If he’s a slightly above-average hitter and great baserunner, as he has been, and perhaps adds some value with the glove, he should be a solid-enough performer for the position.

But this is a club that enters the season with a record-setting $120MM payroll — prior to 2015, it had never even reached nine figures — and designs on more than competence. Desmond was the marquee addition, clearly. And teams generally accept that when they sign long-term deals with free agents — at least, those that aren’t abnormally youthful — they’re accepting that they’ll pay a premium later (in the post-prime years of the deal) in order to get a quality, established player on the MLB roster right away.

While we’ve heard plenty of explanations from the Rockies, and from observers, as to why Desmond will work at first base, it still seems an odd decision. Even granting that Desmond is a uniquely high-character player and that he could at least be an average hitter for the slugger’s position (though he’s only a league-average hitter for his career), the move represents a relatively enormous investment that just doesn’t come with much upside up front.

If the Rockies were so enamored of Desmond as a player and a person, perhaps the team ought to have lined up a trade for one of its left-handed-hitting outfielders. It’s reasonable to think that’d have had a reasonable chance of resulting in a pitching upgrade, at least. And it would have allowed the Rockies to take advantage of a free-agent market that was selling quality power bats for next to nothing.

While there’s admittedly some hindsight involved in that assessment, the awkward fit (barring trade) was apparent from the moment the deal was struck. And while Desmond’s future flexibility does carry value, but certainly not enough for that consideration alone to drive the signing. There’s still every chance that the contract will work out for Colorado. But every free-agent signing is a bet, and this one doesn’t seem particularly well-conceived.

Overview

This might all work out; even if not, it’s hard to criticize the Rockies too harshly for pushing some chips in. It’s always good to see a moribund franchise up its investment at an opportune time. And the unique circumstances of Coors Field certainly factor in, too, albeit in hard-to-discern ways. But from here, it doesn’t seem as if the organization got quite as much bang for its hundred-million bucks as perhaps it should have.

What’s your take on the Rockies’ winter? (Link to poll for mobile app users …)

How would you grade the Rockies' winter?
C 36.60% (643 votes)
B 35.52% (624 votes)
D 15.08% (265 votes)
F 6.94% (122 votes)
A 5.86% (103 votes)
Total Votes: 1,757

Quick Hits: Feeney, Zaidi, Blue Jays, Votto, Padres

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Former MLB executive Katy Feeney passed away Saturday at age 68, the league announced. (There’s a remembrance by Richard Justice of MLB.com.) Feeney served as MLB’s senior vice president of scheduling and club relations until her retirement just last December. In that role, she worked on league scheduling and organized news conferences for big events such as postseason series. She grew up in baseball, as the daughter of Chub Feeney, the former Giants GM and National League president. “All of us at Major League Baseball are shocked and saddened by the news of Katy’s passing. She was one of the game’s most dedicated executives. Overseeing the schedule, Katy long held one of the most challenging positions in the sport,” said the league in a statement. Though Feeney wasn’t well known by the public, she was evidently greatly respected and liked by beat writers throughout the game, many of whom offered heartfelt tributes and expressions of sadness on Twitter. Our condolences to Feeney’s family and friends.

Here’s more from around the league.

  • Rarely do we get as much insight into a baseball executive’s life as Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times divulges in a meticulously crafted profile of Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi. Zaidi’s reputation is mostly that of a young, new-school GM in the same vein as his boss, Andrew Friedman. But here we also learn how Zaidi feels about being a Muslim living in the US; about a childhood spent in Canada, the Philippines, and Pakistan; and about his love for 1990s Britpop. Also included are details about Zaidi’s acumen within baseball, including, for example, the tidbits that it was Zaidi who, as an executive with the Athletics, pushed the team to sign Yoenis Cespedes and promote Brandon Moss. McCullough’s piece is well worth a read.
  • As the season begins, executives from all 30 teams reveal their No. 1 concerns to ESPN’s Jim Bowden. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of them say they worry most about their team staying healthy, but some execs relay concerns that are more specific, and more telling. Mark Shapiro of the Blue Jays, for example, says, “The drop-off from our top five starters to our sixth starter is a big one. And we have a gap in our high-ceiling prospects in starting pitching in Triple-A.” (The Jays currently have a rotation of Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada and Francisco Liriano, with pitchers like Casey Lawrence, Lucas Harrell, Jarrett Grube and T.J. House as potential replacements.)
  • The Reds are in the midst of a rebuild, but this year their lone superstar, Joey Votto, will play at age 33. Votto remains under contract through 2023 with a club option for 2024, but it’s unclear if he’ll still be producing superstar-caliber numbers by the time the Reds are ready to contend, as the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Zach Buchanan writes. Buchanan notes that it’s difficult to find comparable players for someone as good as Votto, but some of the more obvious ones — such as Jeff Bagwell, Todd Helton and Lance Berkman — suggest Votto could begin to wilt sooner rather than later, perhaps playing as a lesser version of his former self just as the Reds hope their young talent begins to blossom.
  • About half the Padres’ Opening Day payroll of around $67MM will be owed to players who aren’t with the team anymore, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Current members of the Padres’ active roster and DL make about $33MM, with 21 players making less than $1M. That’s partially a function of the youth of the roster, which we chronicled here earlier this weekend — the Padres are having three Rule 5 picks start the season with them, along with a host of other inexperienced players. Their highest-paid players are Wil Myers and Jered Weaver, both of whom are making just $3MM. The Padres are also paying a total of $34MM to James Shields, Melvin Upton Jr. and Hector Olivera. Shields is currently with the White Sox, while both Upton and Olivera are free agents. Lin notes, though, that the Padres have invested a remarkable total of about $80MM (plus taxes for exceeding their bonus pool) on international prospects since July.

Padres Release Brett Wallace

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The Padres have released infielder Brett Wallace, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. The Padres had reassigned Wallace to the minors last week after he batted .179/.273/.256 in Spring Training.

That showing continued a run of poor recent hitting from last season, when he batted just .189/.309/.318 in 256 big-league plate appearances. The Padres outrighted Wallace last November, then re-signed him to a minor-league deal a month later.

Wallace, now 30, was once a first-round draft pick of the Cardinals, as well as one of the keys to the 2009 trade that brought Matt Holliday to St. Louis. Since then, though, Wallace has struggled to get established in the big leagues as he hasn’t balanced his below-average defensive performances at the corner infield spots with the level of offensive production once expected from him. In parts of five career seasons spent with Houston and San Diego, he’s batted a modest .238/.316/.389 with 40 home runs and a cumulative fWAR of -1.4.

Brewers Sign Jared Hughes

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The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed righty Jared Hughes to a one-year deal. Hughes will receive $950K plus a possible $250K in incentives based on games pitched, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Hughes is arbitration eligible for the last time next winter, meaning the Brewers have the ability to control him for two years. He is represented by SSG Baseball.

Hughes came available when the NL Central rival Pirates released him Thursday. Adding Hughes would give the currently shorthanded Brewers a full 25-man roster. The club is under the limit after demoting fellow relievers Rob Scahill and Tyler Cravy on Saturday.

In the 31-year-old Hughes, the Brewers would land a pitcher who has gotten positive results in the majors, having logged a 2.82 ERA and a 61 percent ground-ball rate in 309 1/3 innings. Hughes has done that in spite of a subpar K/9 (5.5), and he’s coming off a season in which his BB/9 increased from the mid-twos over the previous two years to 3.34. He also generated fewer swinging strikes than ever, though his 9.6 percent rate in 2016 wasn’t a significant drop from his 10.3 percent career mark. Nevertheless, he managed a 3.03 ERA over 59 1/3 frames and, based on his history of preventing runs, could give the Brewers an effective option alongside former Pirates teammate Neftali Feliz and Corey Knebel, among others.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com was first to tweet that Hughes and the Brewers were nearing a deal. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first tweeted that a deal had been struck.

Reactions To The Yadier Molina Extension

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Here’s a collection of reactions to the Cardinals’ new three-year, $60MM extension with Yadier Molina:

  • The Cardinals originally wanted Molina’s extension to be a two-year deal, while Molina’s camp preferred four to five years, Fan Rag’s Jon Heyman writes. The two sides met in the middle at three years. Heyman acknowledges the deal is long and expensive for a catcher in his mid-30s, but says if the Cardinals were going to bend the rules for anyone, it should be for a “legend” like Molina.
  • Many fans seem to think the Cardinals overpaid, but Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports disagrees. Like Heyman, Rosenthal argues that Molina’s value is greater than statistics like WAR would suggest, given the hard-to-quantify value Molina creates in his work with the Cardinals’ pitching staff. Rosenthal also points out that the Cardinals franchise and the game in general are awash in money, and he describes Molina’s new deal as being partially a reward for what he’s already accomplished for the team. That last argument, of course, seems unlikely to sway fans who believe the Cardinals overpaid, although there’s no arguing his point that the Cardinals can afford to pay Molina a robust salary.
  • Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also points out that the Cardinals’ new $1 billion television contract should insure the Cardinals against worries that they can’t afford Molina. Hochman describes the deal as a “statue signing” and links Molina to a line of all-time-great catchers that also includes Johnny Bench and St. Louis native Yogi Berra.
  • The deal is not a “legacy contract,” says Cardinals GM John Mozeliak, via USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “We believe he can compete at the highest level, and we still feel that Yadi is one of the best catchers in the game,” Mozeliak says. “Today is not about a sun-setting career. This is about us retaining the greatest catcher ever to wear the Cardinals uniform.”

Cafardo’s Latest: Santana, Howard, Red Sox, Baker, Papelbon

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Here are highlights from the latest from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

  • Ervin Santana of the Twins could soon become a sought-after trade target due to his talent, experience and affordability, one AL scout opines. Santana makes just $13.5MM this season and next, with a $14MM option that can vest under certain conditions. Jose Quintana attracted plenty of attention over the offseason, but Santana should emerge as a big name too if the Twins make him available — which they haven’t yet, according to Cafardo.
  • Slugger Ryan Howard would like to continue playing, but has not yet received any opportunities, Cafardo writes. Howard did, of course, struggle through most of the past several seasons in Philadelphia, and he batted just .196 last year. He did hit 25 home runs in 362 plate appearances and bat .262/.324/.608 in the second half. It appears there aren’t any teams out there swayed by those numbers, however.
  • Thanks to Allen Craig ($11MM) and Rusney Castillo ($10.5MM), the Red Sox’ affiliate in Pawtucket will have the largest Triple-A payroll ever. Neither are on the 40-man roster. Craig played sparingly for Pawtucket last year and hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2015; he’s in what should be the last year of the $31MM contract he signed with St. Louis prior to the 2013 campaign. The Red Sox will almost certainly pay him a $1M buyout on his 2018 option once the season is over. Castillo was outrighted last season and is still owed $46MM through 2020.
  • Nationals manager Dusty Baker, whose two-year contract with the club expires after the 2017 season, says he would like to continue managing beyond that. (As of last week, there weren’t any pending extension talks between Baker and the Nats.) On an unrelated note, Baker also shares his take on whether a manager can tell whether his team will be good or bad at this point in the season. “There are too many variables like injuries and different things that happen in players’ lives,” he says. “One thing though, you know when you have a bad team. When you leave spring training you know when you have a bad team and you know when you have a good team. Just hard to predict how good sometimes.”
  • Former star closer Jonathan Papelbon still hasn’t decided whether he’s going to keep playing, Cafardo writes. Papelbon didn’t sign this winter while dealing with a family matter.

Quick Hits: Tigers, Giants, Sox, Astros, Brewers, Rays, Orioles

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The Tigers will “look into” signing just-released outfielder Melvin Upton Jr., according to general manager Al Avila, though Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press relays that a deal sounds unlikely (Twitter links). With J.D. Martinez on the shelf because of a foot injury, Upton’s brother, Justin Upton, will enter the season as Detroit’s only established outfielder. The Uptons played together in both Atlanta and San Diego from 2013-15, but it doesn’t seem as if they’ll reunite in the Motor City. Meanwhile, it doesn’t appear the Giants will even consider signing Melvin Upton. He’s not on their radar, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.

More from around baseball:

  • Well-regarded Cuban outfield prospect Luis Robert held a showcase Thursday in the Dominican Republic, and “high-ranking team officials” from several major league clubs were on hand, according to Ben Badler of Baseball America (click to watch footage of Robert). “Nearly all teams” sent someone to watch Robert, per Badler, who reported in March that the White Sox seem to be the likeliest landing spot for the 19-year-old. The White Sox sent special assistant Marco Paddy to observe Robert, and they have scheduled a private workout with him for next week. The Astros will also work out Robert, though they’ve already exceeded their 2016-17 international bonus pool.
  • Brewers reliever Tyler Cravy threatened to retire after his demotion to the minors Saturday, but the 27-year-old quickly walked back those comments, writes Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. “I don’t plan on quitting,” tweeted Cravy, who noted he’ll “continue to work hard” and allow his performance to “do the talking.” Cravy remains less than thrilled with the organization, it seems, as he added that he’s “still not aware” why he didn’t make Milwaukee’s roster.
  • The Rays have made “steady” progress toward a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area, owner Stuart Sternberg announced Sunday (Twitter link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Sternberg is “very optimistic” something will get done to replace Tropicana Field, which opened in 1990 and has been the Rays’ home since 1998, their inaugural season.
  • The Orioles tried to make a trade with the Red Sox to keep Rule 5 pick Aneury Tavarez, Baltimore GM Dan Duquette told reporters, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, on Sunday (Twitter link). The division rivals couldn’t agree to a deal, though, so the Orioles had to return Tavarez to the Red Sox. Duquette revealed that there was less urgency to retain Tavarez because of the emergence of 22-year-old outfielder Cedric Mullins, whom MLB Pipeline ranks as the Orioles’ 19th-best prospect. Mullins will start the season with Double-A Bowie.

Offseason In Review: Seattle Mariners

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Check out all the published entries in our Offseason in Review series here.

The Mariners took steps toward relevance last season, when they finished with the seventh-best record and the fourth-best run differential in the American League. Still, at 86-76, they fell short of the playoffs for a major league-worst 15th year in a row. Team brass is ready to draw that ignominious streak to a close in 2017. Amid an aggressive, trade-packed winter, general manager Jerry Dipoto proclaimed in January that the Mariners are “plainly” in “’win-now’ mode.” Then, just after the start of spring training in February, club president Kevin Mather declared, “It is time to play October baseball in Seattle.”

Major League Signings

Trades And Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

Walker, Marte, Karns, Nuno, Seth Smith, Nori Aoki, Franklin Gutierrez, Dae-ho Lee, Adam Lind, Drew Storen, Chris Iannetta, Tom Wilhelmsen, Arquimedes Caminero

Mariners Roster; Mariners Payroll Information

Needs Addressed

In his second offseason at the helm of the Mariners, Dipoto swung a whopping 15 trades, several of which figure to hugely impact the team’s chances this year. None should carry as much weight as the late-November, four-major leaguer swap that saw the Mariners give up high-potential right-hander Taijuan Walker and unproven shortstop Ketel Marte for a fellow shortstop who has shown flashes of brilliance, Jean Segura, and untested outfielder Mitch Haniger.

Jean Segura

In theory, Segura shouldn’t have difficulty serving as an upgrade over Marte, whose .259/.287/.323 batting line in 466 plate appearances made him one of the majors’ least valuable shortstops last season. However, Segura posted a near-identical line as a Brewer from 2014-15 (.252/.285/.331 in 1,141 PAs) before stunningly breaking out in Arizona last year. His success as a Diamondback came thanks in part to better pitch selection (he swung at fewer pitches than ever, both in and out of the strike zone, yet still made contact at a rate in line with career norms) and an emphasis on elevating the ball. Segura’s ground-ball rate dropped roughly 6 percent from the previous two years, while both his fly ball and line drive marks rose. That led to more hard contact and a sizable uptick in power, evidenced by career bests in home runs (20) and ISO (.181), and a stellar .319/.368/.499 line in 694 trips to the plate.

Both Segura’s production with the bat and his baserunning prowess (he stole 33 of 43 bags and ranked 15th in FanGraphs’ BsR metric) made him of the premier second basemen in baseball in 2016. Now, with superstar Robinson Cano locking down the keystone, Segura will play shortstop in Seattle. The 27-year-old has plenty of experience at short, where he lined up in Milwaukee and graded as a passable defender (two Defensive Runs Saved, minus-10.6 Ultimate Zone Rating in 4,253 innings). Segura’s work at the plate will draw more scrutiny, though, and if the gains he made last year prove sustainable, he and Cano will give the Mariners an elite middle infield.

As the most established players in the deal, Segura and Walker understandably drew the lion’s share of attention when Seattle and Arizona consummated the trade. But don’t sleep on Haniger, who will open 2017 as the Mariners’ right fielder. Haniger, 26, got his first taste of major league action last season and hit a forgettable .229/.309/.404 in 123 PAs, though he wasn’t necessarily overmatched (he did log approximately average strikeout and walk rates to go with a slightly above-average ISO). Plus, Haniger has a history of raking at the minor league level. At Triple-A Reno last year, he slashed a video game-like .341/.428/.670 in 312 attempts. It’s true that Haniger posted those numbers in the notoriously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but wRC+ indicates his line was an incredible 85 percent better than the PCL average. Dipoto took notice.

“By the numbers, (Haniger) was able to show that he was the best offensive player (last year) in the minor leagues at any level,” Dipoto told Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune in January. “He’s also a right-handed batter, and we acquired him for that reason. Mitch is also the one that brings with him a skill set that includes power, and he’s got on-base ability.”

While it’s up in the air how much Haniger will boost the Mariners’ offense this season, odds are he’ll at least help their defense. Back in November, Kyle Glaser of Baseball America (subscription required and recommended) wrote that Haniger is a “good athlete” with “good range” and an “above-average arm.” The Mariners lacked quality defense in right last year, when their primary options – Seth Smith, Franklin Gutierrez and Nelson Cruz – combined for minus-10 DRS and a minus-9.1 UZR.

Seattle was even worse off in left, where Nori Aoki and Smith racked up minus-12 DRS and a minus-10.3 UZR between them. Those two are now out of the organization, and another trade acquisition, ex-Royal Jarrod Dyson, will take over as the Mariners’ No. 1 left fielder. The pickup of Dyson typifies the Mariners’ win-today philosophy – the 32-year-old is only signed through this season, while the player they gave up for him, 29-year-old righty Nate Karns, is controllable through the 2020 campaign.

In previewing Seattle’s offseason in October, I wrote, “Ideally for the Mariners, they’ll upgrade their position player group during the offseason with better defenders and baserunners who can also contribute offensively.” Dyson certainly checks two of those boxes. He’s not much of a hitter (.260/.325/.353 line in 1,539 lifetime PAs), but his defensive and baserunning excellence should combine to make him a valuable addition for the Mariners. Going back to 2012, the first year in which he saw extensive big league action, Dyson has amassed 53 Defensive Runs Saved and a 55.5 UZR – both of which rank among the league’s top seven outfielders over the past half-decade. On the base paths, the speedster swiped between 26 and 36 bags in each of the previous five seasons. He also finished last year with a 5.4 BsR, which placed 19th in the majors.

The other notable newcomer to the Mariners’ starting lineup is Danny Valencia, whom they acquired from the AL West rival Athletics for nondescript pitching prospect Paul Blackburn. The plan was for the right-handed Valencia to platoon with the lefty-hitting Dan Vogelbach at first base, but the former will instead open the season as the everyday option there in the wake of the latter’s minor league demotion. It’s possible the Mariners’ faith in Vogelbach will come back to haunt them. Their offseason belief that he was ready for the majors stopped them from pursuing affordable left-handed hitters like Mitch Moreland, Brandon Moss and Pedro Alvarez, any of whom could have teamed with Valencia to form a satisfactory platoon. On the other hand, Valencia won’t need a partner if his recent success against same-handed pitchers continues. Once unusable versus righties, the 32-year-old combined for a .795 OPS in 602 PAs against them from 2015-16. With his performance against lefties factored in, Valencia quietly hit a tremendous .288/.346/.477 in 895 PAs during the previous two years. That type of production would certainly play at first, where the Mariners will try to hide the defensively challenged third baseman/outfielder.

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