Click here to view the transcript from MLBTR Chat With Jason Martinez: November 23, 2016
Latest On The Yankees’ Offseason
The Yankees’ top relief target this winter is their own former closer Aroldis Chapman, but they have made contact with other stars at various positions as well, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag Sports writes. The Yankees have also been in touch with closer Kenley Jansen (although they prefer Chapman, since he’s pitched for them before and since signing him wouldn’t cost them a draft pick) as well as hitters Carlos Beltran, Edwin Encarnacion, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Bautista, as has been previously reported. They’ve also likely spoken to representatives for starters Rich Hill (in whom top Yankees exec Brian Cashman has stated interest) and Jason Hammel (about whom the Yankees were previously known to be gathering information).
Encarnacion, Heyman writes, could be a high priority for the Yankees, although he also reports that the team has spoken with Cespedes’ agent up to five times already. As has been previously noted, the Yankees are involved in Beltran’s market, along with the Astros, Red Sox and perhaps Rangers.
Heyman also adds a few new names to the mix: those of Dexter Fowler, Matt Holliday, Mike Napoli and Brandon Moss. The Yankees currently have Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Judge in the outfield and Tyler Austin at DH, but Judge and Austin are inexperienced, and the Yankees could trade Gardner to clear playing time and payroll space for an impact bat.
Heyman cites Napoli, who is coming off a solid .239/.335/.465 season in Cleveland, as one option who could be particularly intriguing. Napoli or Holliday could help the Yankees at DH, while Fowler would likely play the outfield, and Moss could help in the outfield or first base, or at DH. Either way, it’s unclear to this point whether the Yankees are looking for one player for outfield and DH or two.
Report: Lockout On The Table As CBA Nears Expiration
4:33pm: There is optimism that a lockout can be avoided, ESPN’s Jayson Stark writes. Stark cites two sources who tell him there is a “path to a deal.” Both sides, however, seem to believe that the lockout suggests December 1 is a “hard deadline” to reach an agreement. If there were to be a lockout in December, it wouldn’t necessarily result in missed games, but it could delay the progress of the offseason and cut off player benefits.
TODAY, 12:32pm: ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (Insider link) that there’s no particular reason to think that the saber-rattling will lead to a significant interference in labor relations, stating his own “educated guess” that compromise will be found. Sources do tell him that the league side is indeed “incredibly frustrated” by the union’s foot-dragging and unwillingness to move on issues like the international draft. And that could still lead to a standoff that impacts the progress of this winter’s trade and free agent markets. But as Olney explains, there’s relatively little at stake in the talks (in relation to the immense amount of money that both sides are making) and plenty of time before the owners and union would risk interfering with the 2017 season.
YESTERDAY: Major League Baseball’s owners “will consider” instituting a player lockout if a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the MLB Player’s Association can’t be found, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The current CBA is set to expire on December 1st, and the sides are said to be at an impasse over several matters.
This is the first time we’ve heard a firm report suggesting that there could be a work stoppage — though, of course, there’s no imminent threat to actual baseball games with Spring Training not set to begin until mid-February and the regular season still four months off. It has long been assumed that the owners and union would resolve any differences, particularly given that the game has continued to experience growth in revenue, but talks have dragged on longer than expected.
In considering a lockout, the owners would be threatening to interfere with the conduct of the offseason’s business, much of which remains to be completed. Some have suggested that a failure to reach agreement by the new deadline might result in a continuation of the status quo; presumably, that’s still also a possibility. But if a deal can’t be struck and the owners take a hard line, it might well result in a freeze on transactions right before the Winter Meetings.
It’s important to bear in mind that there are strategic reasons for suggesting the possibility of a lockout, which would require a vote of ownership to be instituted. And with just over a week left to finish negotiations, there’s still time for a resolution. Commissioner Rob Manfred says he’s still “committed to the idea that we’re going to make an agreement before expiration,” while union chief Tony Clark declined comment.
The sides are certainly jockeying for position on the remaining issues; no doubt, each is familiar with the other’s positions at this stage. The key matters yet to be determined are, however, rather notable. According to Rosenthal, the owners offered to get rid of any tying of free agents to draft compensation (as currently embodied in the qualifying offer system), but requested an international draft in exchange. The union, it seems, has lined up behind the idea that the draft would be too onerous.
There’s also disagreement regarding the competitive-balance tax and the Joint Drug Agreement. As to the former issue, it seems largely a matter of divvying up dollars and figuring out ways to ensure that teams put any subsidies into their major league roster. With regard to the latter, it seems that all are agreed on the need to add force to the JDA, but the players are asking to be compensated in exchange.
Rosenthal spoke with sources to get a read of the situation, and his article is well worth a full read. The takeaway seems to be that there’s still a path toward completing an agreement before the CBA expires, but the players are also prepared to dig in their heels. There’s certainly much to be lost for both sides in the event of a serious labor dispute, and that fact remains the best reason to retain hope that a lockout can be avoided. While this bit of brinkmanship is hardly determinitive, though, it’s also a notable sign that there have been real difficulties in seeing eye to eye.
Indians Outright Michael Martinez, Sign Daniel Robertson To Minors Deal
The Indians have announced that they’ve outrighted utilityman Michael Martinez. They’ve also signed outfielder Daniel Robertson to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.
Martinez, 34, spent 2015 and part of 2016 in the Indians organization before heading to the Red Sox in a minor trade last July. He then headed back to the Indians in August on a waiver claim. He made sporadic appearances with Cleveland throughout its playoff run, collecting three plate appearances and scoring once in the World Series. (His last plate appearance was the ground out that clinched the Cubs’ Game 7 victory.) In the regular season, he appeared at six positions and batted .238/.267/.307 in 106 plate appearances. He was set to make a projected $600K in the arbitration process, a relatively paltry sum, but he still figured to be a non-tender candidate due to his light bat. The Indians still hope to keep Martinez, though — as Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com tweets, they’ve offered him a minor league deal to remain in the organization.
The 31-year-old Robertson spent 2016 in the Mariners organization, batting .287/.357/.412 for Triple-A Tacoma and briefly appearing in the big leagues. Robertson has batted a mere .273/.322/.325 in parts of three seasons in the Majors, but he can play all three outfield positions and has fared reasonably well at the Triple-A level, with an offensive game built heavily around walks and a .362 career Triple-A on-base percentage.
Brewers Claim Blake Parker, Designate David Goforth
The Brewers have announced that they’ve claimed reliever Blake Parker off waivers from the Angels, who designated him for assignment last weekend. To clear space on their 40-man roster, they’ve designated fellow righty David Goforth for assignment.
The 32-year-old Parker has been a fixture in the transactions pages recently — he began the 2016 season with the Mariners, then headed to the Yankees and then Angels via waiver claims. He hasn’t pitched more than 21 innings in the big leagues in a season since 2013 with the Cubs, but it’s easy to see why a variety of teams have shown interest in him, since he posted an outstanding 2.72 ERA, 12.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 39 2/3 innings with Triple-A Tacoma in 2016. He also pitched 17 1/3 innings in the big leagues, posting a 4.67 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 while registering an average fastball velocity of 92.2 MPH. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt tweets, Brewers pitching coach Derek Johnson is likely quite familiar with Parker, since Johnson was the Cubs’ minor league pitching coordinator for several years while Parker pitched in the Cubs’ system.
The 28-year-old Goforth struggled in both Triple-A and the big leagues in 2016, allowing 14 runs in 10 2/3 innings in the Brewers bullpen. He held his own in the Majors in his rookie season in 2015, but has since struggled to replicate that modest success — which isn’t a huge surprise, given control problems that have plagued him in parts of four seasons in the high minors.
Angels Designate Jose Valdez, Blake Parker, Abel De Los Santos
WEDNESDAY: The Angels have announced that they’ve outrighted Valdez and De Los Santos to Triple-A Salt Lake. As we’ve noted elsewhere, the Brewers claimed Parker off waivers.
FRIDAY: The Angels announced that they’ve designated right-handed pitchers Jose Valdez, Blake Parker and Abel De Los Santos for assignment and also outrighted infielder Rey Navarro off the 40-man roster. The moves pave way for the addition of left-hander Nate Smith and right-handers Keynan Middleton, Austin Adams and Eduardo Paredes to the 40-man roster.
Valdez, 26, posted a respectable 4.24 ERA in 23 1/3 innings with the Angels this season and averaged a robust 95.3 mph on his heater, making him at least an intriguing future option for the Halos next season. However, he also issued 16 walks, hit a batter and uncorked a pair of wild pitches in that brief time with the Angels, demonstrating enough of a control issue that the team didn’t see fit to dedicate a 40-man roster slot to him this winter.
Parker, 31, split the 2016 season between the Mariners and Yankees, totaling 17 1/3 innings of 4.67 ERA ball with 15 strikeouts against eight unintentional walks. The Angels claimed him back in earlyt October, on the heels of a season in which he actually averaged a career-best 92.2 mph on his fastball this season and does come with a 3.67 career ERA in 90 1/3 innings at the Major League level. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher and has averaged 10.5 K/9 in parts of nine seasons at Triple-A but has also averaged 4.2 walks per nine innings there.
De Los Santos was also an offseason waiver claim by the Angels, out of the Reds organization. De Los Santos tossed 20 1/3 innings in Triple-A this season and logged a 3.54 ERA with a 26-to-13 K/BB ratio, and he has a lifetime 3.03 ERA in Double-A as well. He has just 7 1/3 innings of big league experience under his belt, during which he’s allowed eight runs.
Among the four players added to the 40-man roster, Smith is perhaps the most interesting. The lefty had a 4.61 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 150 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level last year, which doesn’t really stand out, but he does rank as the top pitching prospect in the organization, per MLB.com. The Halos will enter 2017 with Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, Tyler Skaggs and Ricky Nolasco locked into rotation spots, health permitting, leaving the fifth spot up for grabs among Smith, Jesse Chavez, Alex Meyer and Daniel Wright (plus any further offseason additions).
Padres Part Ways With Mike Dee, Randy Smith
NOVEMBER 23: The Padres have issued a statement regarding Dee’s departure. It reads: “The Padres and Mike Dee have amicably parted ways. We thank Mike for his contributions and wish him and his family all the best. Consistent with our policy not to comment on personnel matters, we have no further comment.”
“I wish to thank Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler for the opportunity to lead the Padres over the last three years,” says Dee. “I wish them and the entire organization well in what I believe is a very bright future that lies ahead.”
OCTOBER 13: Team sources insist that the move on Dee was not related to the health disclosure controversy, Lin reports in a further update on the story. Though Seidler recently defended Dee, who was under contract for at least another year, it seems that other factors were at play.
San Diego will not be hiring a president of baseball operations over Preller, Lin adds, though it’s also not clear whether Dee’s role — in which he oversaw business and baseball ops — will be occupied fully by a single new hire. The Padres also fired vice president of strategy and innovation Ryan Gustafson, per the report.
OCTOBER 12, 5:14pm: The Padres also dismissed senior advisor Randy Smith yesterday, Lin reports (via Twitter). Smith had spent more than two decades in the Padres organization, though not all in succession. The veteran baseball exec was the Padres’ GM back from 1993-95 (initially named GM at the age of 29) and spent the 1996-2001 seasons as the Tigers’ general manager. In his most recent run in San Diego, Smith had served as the Padres’ VP of player development and director of player development in addition to at one point overseeing the club’s international operations. He’d been a senior advisor to Preller for the past two seasons. The decision to dismiss Smith, according to Lin, is unrelated to Dee’s departure.
Additionally, Lin tweets that while there’s been some speculation of this nature, the Padres won’t hire a president of baseball operations. That would, of course, effectively be a demotion for Preller, but it would seem there’s no such plan at this time.
12:10pm: The Padres have parted ways with president and CEO Mike Dee, according to a report from Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune which the team has confirmed in an announcement. He had held down his role since 2013.
It remains unclear at this point what precipitated the move and just how Dee’s departure came about. The move was not spurred directly by the recent controversy surrounding the organization’s failure to disclose medical information in trade talks, Lin reports. An investigation from Major League Baseball led to the thirty-day suspension of general manager A.J. Preller, but the club has stood by him. Today’s news also doesn’t change Preller’s status, according to Lin, who writes that the controversial GM isn’t in danger of losing his job.
Still, that episode my have played a role. As Lin adds (Twitter links), the embarrassing suspension of the team’s top baseball operations man may have functioned as a “tipping point.” But other areas of discord had evidently already eroded the relationship between Dee and the ownership group.
All said, the departure represents another jolt to a club that has seen its fair share of turmoil of late. “My goal and our organization’s objective is to have stability and long-term tenure in our front office, but sometimes these changes are inevitable,” said Padres managing partner Peter Seidler.
Dee’s job duties, which included hiring Preller and running numerous important business initiatives, were obviously of critical importance to the Friars. “Mike’s departure creates a position we will need to fill, and the search will begin immediately,” executive chairman Ron Fowler said. “In the meantime, we will work closely with our talented and trusted senior executives to lead the organization forward.”
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/23/16
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Rockies have brought back infielder Josh Rutledge on a minor league deal, per the MLBRosterMoves Twitter account. He receives a camp invitation in the contract. Rutledge, 27, cracked the majors with Colorado and has taken most of his plate appearances there. After a minor league stint with the Angels, he returned to the majors with the Red Sox in each of the last two seasons, posting a cumulative .276/.338/.358 batting line over 141 plate appearances. Rutledge missed the bulk of the past season due to knee issues and took free agency after being outrighted by Boston.
Earlier Moves
- Outfielder Jaff Decker has signed on with the Athletics on a minor league pact, agent Tom O’Connell announced on Twitter. The deal includes an invitation to participate in MLB camp next spring. Deckr, 26, has seen scattered action in each of the last four major league campaigns, but has mostly plied his trade at the highest level of the minors in recent years. At Triple-A last year with the Rays, he slashed .255/.366/.421 with a dozen home runs and 18 stolen bases over 417 plate appearances.
- The Angels have struck minor league deals with outfielder Shane Robinson and infielder Rey Navarro, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports via Twitter. Both spent the 2016 season in the Halos organization, and will return for another run in 2017. Robinson, 32, hit just .173/.257/.235 over his 111 MLB plate appearances with Los Angeles, but brings a decent bit of major league experience (he’s appeared in seven seasons, though has only taken 760 trips to the plate) and provides a depth option all over the outfield. The 26-year-old Navarro, a glove-first utility piece, hit .227/.253/.325 in his 175 plate appearances at Triple-A last year.
- Righty David Buchanan has been given his release by the Phillies, per a club announcement. He was designated for assignment recently as the team overhauled its 40-man roster. Buchanan ought to draw interest from teams looking for rotation depth. He pitched to a 3.75 ERA over twenty big league starts in 2014, though he was hammered to the tune of a 6.99 earned run average in his 15 starts in the following year. Buchanan fared better at Triple-A in 2016, though, posting a 3.98 ERA over 167 1/3 innings.
- The Royals requested release waivers on catcher Tony Cruz, who was also recently designated, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets. The 30-year-old will surely head onto the open market, as he’d otherwise be eligible for arbitration (with a projected $1MM salary). He spent most of 2016 at Triple-A, slashing .264/.347/.387 in 363 plate appearances.
Yankees, Mariners, Cubs Pursued Brett Cecil
The Yankees, Mariners, and Cubs were among the organizations that pursued free agent lefty Brett Cecil, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Cecil ultimately struck a four-year, $30.5MM pact with the Cardinals.
Those three teams figure as plausible landing spots for other top southpaws. Indeed, per Sherman, the Yankees are looking to bolster their left-handed setup corps. One possibility, he says, is high-K southpaw Boone Logan, who played in New York before departing for the Rockies and is now again a free agent. Though the report doesn’t further address the situations in Seattle and Chicago, both organizations lack impact lefties in their otherwise solid bullpens and could sensibly pursue alternatives after missing on Cecil.
[RELATED: Yankees, Mariners & Cubs Depth Charts]
While the Yankees never made Cecil an offer, the team is said to have kept a close eye on him up until the Cards emerged with a significant contract. The team is still seriously interested in bringing back Aroldis Chapman, notes Sherman. Since Chapman would likely slot in as closer, it stands to reason that another lefty could still be added even if the fireballing star lands in New York.
All told, it seems there are several possible approaches in mind with regard to the Yankees’ bullpen. The ultimate moves could be impacted in some part, too, by whether the organization is able to land the high-profile bat that it reportedly seeks. Last we heard, New York was pushing for Carlos Beltran and dabbling in the markets for top sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Yoenis Cespedes (see here and here) — all while still weighing a move for starter Rich Hill and other rotation pieces.
Spencer Patton Signs With Yokohama BayStars
Right-hander Spencer Patton is headed to Japan’s Yokohama BayStars, per a club announcement (via the Japan Times). The Cubs sold Patton’s contract to Yokohama, per MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat (Twitter link), and released him from the big league roster to facilitate the move.
The 28-year-old reliever has shown swing-and-miss stuff at the major league level, but hasn’t yet translated that to effective innings. Over his 54 2/3 frames in the bigs over the past three seasons, Patton has worked to a 6.26 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9. Those free passes have combined with a few too many home runs and an unfortunate 58.5% strand rate to produce the inflated earned-run tally.
Though Patton doesn’t have a huge fastball, his slider allows him to generate plenty of whiffs, and he has long posted double-digit K/9 rates in the minors. He was rather dominant last year in his 36 Triple-A frames, posting a 0.75 ERA with 14.8 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9 while allowing just 21 base hits.
Originally a 24th-round pick by the Royals, Patton was dealt to the Rangers in the deal that sent veteran righty Jason Frasor to Kansas City in July of 2014. He ended up in Chicago in exchange for infielder Frandy De La Rosa in a swap last November.
