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Mets Notes: Cespedes, Bautista, Duda, Bullpen, Colon, d’Arnaud

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The Mets are hoping to have some clarity on Yoenis Cespedes’ intentions by the end of the Winter Meetings next month, general manager Sandy Alderson told reporters at the GM Meetings today (via ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin). “I think realistically, from our standpoint this year, things will probably have to resolve themselves a lot sooner than they did last year,” said Alderson in reference to Cespedes, who didn’t re-sign with the Mets last winter until Jan. 26. “…[C]ertainly, from our standpoint, between now and the winter meetings, and through the end of the winter meetings, would be the right time to get some of these issues resolved.” Alderson added that he’s already met with Cespedes’ representatives once, though no contract offers or financial figures were exchanged. He’ll meet with Cespedes’ agent again at the GM Meetings this week, and notably, he also stated that he doesn’t have a cap on the number of guaranteed years he’d be willing to offer Cespedes.

More from the Mets’ GM and more on the team…

  • One bat the Mets could turn to if Cespedes departs is apparently Jose Bautista. James Wagner of the New York Times tweets that the Mets have some degree of interest in Bautista and have already reached out to his representatives to set up a time to talk this week. That’s not the first time they’ve been connected to Bautista, either, as Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi listed the Mets as a possible landing spot for Bautista last week. While it’d certainly be a surprise to see Bautista, who is defensively challenged in right field at this stage of his career, land with an NL club, his bat would indeed balance out the lineup in the event of a Cespedes departure. Alderson mentioned (as noted in Rubin’s piece above) that the team would need to balance out the batting order should Cespedes leave, as the team is already too left-handed even with Cespedes in the fold.
  • Interest in Bautista would seem counter-intuitive with a trio of corner outfielders already on board in Michael Conforto, Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce, and while it’s fair to speculate that one of them could be moved to first base (Bautista and Bruce are the worst outfield defenders of the bunch by a wide margin), that doesn’t seem likely. Alderson said today that first baseman Lucas Duda will be tendered a contract, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post, which seemingly eliminates the possibility of shifting one of those players around. Of course, it should also be stressed that at this juncture of the offseason, the interest in Bautista is likely preliminary and one of a couple dozen avenues which the Mets could theoretically pursue.
  • Also via Sherman (Twitter links), Alderson said that the team was planning to target late-inning relief help even before domestic violence allegations were brought forth against closer Jeurys Familia, so it stands to reason that they’ll certainly be in that market now that a possible suspension could be given to Familia. However, he also added that the Mets were never inclined to play at the top of the market, so it doesn’t seem likely that names like Kenley Jansen or Aroldis Chapman will be on New York’s radar.
  • Sticking with Sherman, the New York Post scribe also tweets that Alderson repeatedly talked about the team’s current rotation depth, prompting Sherman to suggest that re-signing the beloved Bartolo Colon might not be a front-burner issue for the Mets, if it’s even a consideration for the team at all. From my vantage point, the depth is nice, but bringing back Colon on a one-year deal to provide depth and perhaps step into a swingman role if all of New York’s young arms make full recoveries still seems like a worthwhile pursuit. Speaking speculatively, however, if an earnest run at re-signing Cespedes and adding an impact late-inning arm are both on the docket as well, then perhaps the Mets feel Colon is more of a luxury than a priority.
  • Lastly, Sherman tweets that Alderson said the team has to figure out a way to make the catchers that are already in-house better, which does seem to indicate that Plan A, for the time being, is to stick with Travis d’Arnaud next year. Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera remain on the roster as backup candidates as well, though none of that trio hit especially well last season, and d’Arnaud has yet to shed the “injury-prone” label that has hung over him for most of his career. The free-agent market bears a few options in the form of Matt Wieters, Jason Castro and Nick Hundley (plus Wilson Ramos, although he’s recovering from a torn ACL and seems likely to be out for the first couple of months of the 2017 season), though each of that grouping comes with some question marks as well.

Twins Introduce Derek Falvey, Thad Levine

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It’s been an uncharacteristically jarring few months for the Twins organization. In the midst of just the second 100-loss season in the post-D.C. history of the franchise, the Twins parted ways with longtime executive Terry Ryan, breaking with their usual pattern of organizational continuity. Months later, they officially have two key new executives in place, and on Monday, they introduced their new hires, Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine, to the Minnesota media.

The Twins’ reputation for loyalty is a big reason why jobs with the organization are coveted in the industry, Levine said at today’s press conference. “People all over the game would like to work for the Twins,” Levine said. “But part of that loyalty from ownership means that it’s perceived as a difficult organization to get into as well.”

Twins CEO Jim Pohlad admitted to having virtually nothing to do with the Levine hire. “I had not met Thad until last night,” Pohlad said. “It was Derek’s entire decision to hire Thad, and we couldn’t be happier.” Pohlad added that he wouldn’t stand in the way of Falvey’s need to add resources to beef up the team’s analytics department, which currently is a three-person operation.

Falvey and Levine, along with as longtime assistant GM Rob Antony, will head out Monday evening to the general manager’s meetings in Arizona. If that seems a bit sudden, it’s because it is. The Twins had to wait to formalize hiring Falvey until his Indians were eliminated from the playoffs, per a handshake agreement between the two clubs. When that took seven games — plus a rain delay — to materialize, it meant the timing would naturally be a bit hurried.

Falvey said he wasn’t too worried about that, even if it would be a bit of a crash course over the next few days up to and after free agency formally opens on Tuesday. In his mind, it’s going to be good for the three minds to converge upon the offseason together, as he can bring the best of his information from the Indians organization, Levine the same from the Rangers and Antony from the Twins to blend it all into what ends up being their offseason path.

Falvey joins the Twins from the Indians organization, where he was third in command behind team president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff. Falvey joined the Indians in November 2007, and ascended quickly before settling in for the last year as the assistant general manager. 

Levine joins the Twins from the Rangers organization, where he’d spent more than a decade working under current GM Jon Daniels. Levine started in baseball with a brief stint with the Dodgers before joining the Rockies full-time in 1999, ultimately becoming Senior Director of Baseball Operations. 

There’s no question addressing the pitching staff will be paramount to whatever path Falvey and Levine take this offseason, and they’re keenly aware of it. The Twins ranked last in starting pitching ERA (5.39), and the bullpen wasn’t much better (4.63, 26th). With little in the way of MLB-ready pitching in the pipeline (considering the struggles of Jose Berrios and the relative lack of certainty with Stephen Gonsalves and Kohl Stewart), Falvey said he’s aware the team is going to have to get creative in supplementing the pitching staff.

“With pitching, I think you want to explore every avenue and opportunity to add talent,” Falvey said. “Whether that’s being opportunistic in the free agent market, or through trades, or through unique development philosophies, which I think are things that we will apply moving forward, there’s no one way to attack that. This year’s free agent market is a little lean on the pitching side, so I think we have to explore every opportunity that we have to develop the players we have internally, and figure out what it is that we need to do to develop the strengths into useful pieces at the major league level.”

Part of working on the pitching staff will be evaluating players in-house to determine what assets the club has to move around to acquire pitching in addition to what it might find on the market. Falvey wasn’t prepared to go down that road mere minutes into his tenure, but he did suggest the team would search high and low, internally and externally, to revamp the club’s woebegone pitching staff.

“I think we’ll spend time over the next week in Arizona to dig in and talk to other teams about needs and fits and what the landscape looks like for this offseason,” Falvey said. “We will commit to being collaborative in our approach to pitching development. It’s something I feel very strongly about. Utilizing different resources to help us develop the current pitchers that are on the staff and the players coming up through the minor leagues. We wouldn’t shut out any avenue to acquire or develop a player, and I expect that will be a slight change from how we’ve operated here, but I look forward to leading that.”

Falvey’s vision isn’t limited to the pitching side, though it can be easy to focus on that part. Not only are the Twins coming off an incredible run of subpar pitching — including carrying an MLB-worst K/9 every year from 2011-15 — but the Indians are coming off the seventh-best ERA in baseball. Beyond that, the Indians found some of their best pitchers in unlikely places. Corey Kluber came in the Jake Westbrook trade and was far from an instant success. The same can be said of Carlos Carrasco, who came over in the Cliff Lee deal with the Phillies and needed multiple years and even a stint in the bullpen to find his way. Mike Clevinger, who is one of the team’s more promising young pitchers, arrived in a deal for a broken-down Vinnie Pestano. That sort of resourcefulness, if Falvey can duplicate it in Minnesota, will only serve to make the search for pitching more interesting for Twins fans.

“The goal here is straightforward and measurable,” Falvey said. “It’s to build a sustainable and championship-caliber team and organization that Twins fans across Twins Territory will be proud of. Thad and I know there are no shortcuts to getting there. We intend to relentlessly identify, pursue and advance top-performing people, cultivate world-class process and build a culture that’s collaborative and transparent to achieve our goals.”

Falvey didn’t stop there, as he promised wide-sweeping changes to the “Twins Way,” which is such a key phrase that the organization made it the address when they opened Target Field at “1 Twins Way” in downtown Minneapolis.

“The Twins Way will be to thrive together,” Falvey promised at the outset of the conference. “That’s important to me. Both Thad and I have grown and experienced a measure of success within organizational cultures that understand the value in creating balanced systems, designing, implementing and evaluating processes and rewarding hard work and professional character, both on and off the field. We will root our decision making in evidence-based practices, both subjective and objective in nature, which means a commitment to understanding the metrics, but always making human decisions. That will never change. There is no substitute for the people and the input from our senior leadership group.”

Blue Jays Making Push To Re-Sign Edwin Encarnacion

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The Blue Jays are making a push to re-sign slugger Edwin Encarnacion, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. According to Davidi, the two sides have already had some “fruitful” contract discussions that have “given [Encarnacion] something to think about.” Davidi notes, too, that Encarnacion’s preference is to remain in Toronto, which obviously works in the Blue Jays’ favor. He does caution, however, that an agreement between the two sides is no sure thing, even though there’s apparently been some progress in negotiations.

The Jays extended a one-year qualifying offer to Encarnacion and teammate Jose Bautista earlier today, though there’s never a great chance that either — especially Encarnacion — would accept the $17.2MM pact for the 2017 season. While the QO can have an adverse effect on the market for some free agents, Encarnacion’s status as arguably the top available bat of the offseason makes it unlikely that he’d run into much difficulty even with the burden of draft pick compensation hanging over him.

The 33-year-old Encarnacion (34 in January) is coming off yet another excellent season at the plate, having slashed .263/.357/.529 with 42 home runs in 702 plate appearances. Since breaking out with the Blue Jays a half-decade ago, Encarnacion sports a robust .272/.367/.544 line with 193 home runs in 727 games — an average of 44 homers per 162 games played. It’s not clear whether Encarnacion’s camp would forgo a lengthier trip through free agency in order to quickly re-up with the Jays, but it’s worth noting, of course, that Encarnacion has yet to even be granted the right to negotiate with other clubs. The exclusive window for clubs to negotiate with their own free agents ends tonight at midnight, though, so Encarnacion could quickly get a sense of how Toronto’s current level of aggression stacks up with the rest of the market.

Yankees Already In Communication With Aroldis Chapman

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Already at this early point in the offseason, Yankees exec Brian Cashman confirms that the team has been in touch with former closer Aroldis Chapman, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News writes. Cashman has been in contact with representatives of other players as well, and seems to be focusing on pitching this offseason.

“There are certainly some names out there that are pretty good,” Cashman says. “It’s probably a thin starting pitching market, there are a number of different relievers in the market; certainly more relievers in this free agency than there are starters of quality. The trade route is obviously an area we’ll see what develops over time.”

The Yankees, of course, traded four players to the Reds for Cashman last offseason, and he posted a 2.01 ERA, 12.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 20 saves in 31 1/3 innings with New York before heading to Chicago for a package headlined by top infield prospect Gleyber Torres. Chapman was then even more dominant for the Cubs, becoming a key part of their route to the World Series.

The Yankees finished the season with Dellin Betances as their closer, and Betances struggled in the last few weeks of the season (although, like many players who started the 2016 campaign in the Yankees’ bullpen, he had a very strong year overall. Cashman says his interest in Chapman (and, perhaps, in other top relief targets) is not closely related to Betances’ performance as closer. Rather, Cashman says he just wants to add more good players. Last year’s excellent bullpen headed by Chapman, Betances and Andrew Miller perhaps shows that it’s hard to have too much of a good thing.

“I just want to bring in more talent,” Cashman says. “It’s too early to say who’s going to do what; it depends how the winter goes. [Betances] finished the season as our closer, so until or unless I find something better — which is pretty hard to do — he would be the closer if the season started today. But it’s not.”

Cashman also says he would like to add to the Yankees’ existing rotation talent, which includes Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia alongside a long list of less established possibilities.

“I’d rather have certainty,” says Cashman. “I’d rather feel like we have one of the best rotations in the game and I’d like to have one of the best bullpens in the game. It’s going to take some time, and in some cases, some growing pains.”

Angels Designate Cory Rasmus For Assignment

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The Angels designated 29-year-old right-handed reliever Cory Rasmus for assignment, according to Taylor Blake Ward of Scout.com.  Rasmus posted a 5.84 ERA, 6.2 K/9, 5.8 BB/9, 1.46 HR/9, and 30.4% groundball rate in 24 2/3 innings for the Halos this year.

Rasmus endured multiple DL stints for a groin strain this year, culminating in July surgery.  He returned in September and made five appearances to close out his season.  Cory, younger brother of free agent outfielder Colby Rasmus, was a first-round draft pick of the Braves in 2006 out of high school, back when he had a number two starter ceiling.  Rasmus was a supplemental pick the Braves had gained for the loss of free agent Kyle Farnsworth.  The Angels acquired Rasmus a few days before the 2013 trade deadline, shipping veteran reliever Scott Downs to Atlanta in a trade between GMs Jerry Dipoto and Frank Wren.  His best year in the Majors was 2014, when he posted a 2.57 ERA in 56 innings, including six starts.

Braves, Josh Collmenter Avoid Arbitration

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7:12pm: Collmenter will receive a $1.2MM base salary in 2017 and can earn up to $1.2MM via incentives as well, tweets O’Brien.

6:18pm: The Braves have agreed to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration with right-hander Josh Collmenter, reports David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). Atlanta acquired Collmenter in a rare September trade, and the longtime D-backs hurler spent enough time in the minor leagues this year to delay his path to free agency by a season. He’ll remain under control with the Braves into 2017 now and can serve as either a rotation piece or a swingman should the Braves add multiple arms to their rotation mix this winter, as general manager John Coppolella has stated as a goal. Details of Collmenter’s contract aren’t yet known, but MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $2.2MM salary for the Sparta Group client.

[Related: Atlanta Braves Depth Chart]

The 30-year-old Collmenter (31 in February) found himself released by the D-backs earlier this summer after recording a 4.84 ERA in 22 1/3 innings. Arizona’s 2015 Opening Day starter latched on with the Cubs on a minors pact and pitched well in four Triple-A starts for Chicago before Atlanta picked him up in a trade that didn’t grab many headlines but could yield benefits in the season to come. Collmenter went on to three starts for Atlanta in the season’s final weeks, posting a 2.37 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 42.3 percent ground-ball rate in 19 innings. In his career, Collmenter has a 3.50 earned run average, 6.3 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 36.1 percent grounder rate in 678 1/3 innings — all coming with Arizona and Atlanta.

As it stands, the Braves are set to enter the 2017 campaign with Julio Teheran atop their rotation, but the outlook behind him is decidedly less certain. Mike Foltynewicz has likely pitched his way into a spot, and former top prospect Matt Wisler logged 156 1/3 innings despite a lackluster 5.00 ERA. Fellow top prospect Aaron Blair also struggled in the Majors, so he’s probably not guaranteed anything heading into Spring Training next year. Other internal options for the Braves include John Gant, Tyrell Jenkins, Williams Perez and Rob Whalen, but as noted above, Coppolella appears set on deepening his team’s rotation picture with the addition of at least two starters (either via trade or free agency).

Cubs Claim Conor Mullee, Outright Three Players

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The Cubs have claimed righty Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees, per announcements from the team. Chicago also selected the contract of righty Jose Rosario while outrighting three players: right-handers Dallas Beeler and Andury Acevedo as well as catcher Tim Federowicz.

Fresh off a World Series win, the Cubs will enter the winter in earnest with just 34 of its 40-man roster spots accounted for. That space allowed the team to take a flier on Mullee, who has had arm issues over the years and required elbow surgery in 2016.

Despite the injuries, and a less-than-inspiring (albeit brief) major league debut last year, Mullee has shown some intriguing numbers in the minors. Most recently, he ran up 37 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.19 ERA and 11.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.

Chicago will presumably give Mullee a shot in camp along with the 26-year-old Rosario, who has yet to crack the bigs but has an intriguing power arm. Pitching at the three highest levels of the minors last year after missing 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, Rosario worked to a cumulative 2.50 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.

Otherwise, the 27-year-old Beeler lost his roster spot after shoulder injuries cut his season short. Acevedo, who was signed to the 40-man last winter, missed almost all the year with a torn ACL. And the 29-year-old Federowicz saw time briefly with the Cubs, but didn’t have much of a shot at the roster in 2017 with a deep group of catchers ahead of him. After showing well at Triple-A, though, he’ll surely get a crack somewhere in Spring Training.

Mets Make Qualifying Offer To Neil Walker

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The Mets have issued a qualifying offer to second baseman Neil Walker, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets. It’s no surprise to learn, too, that outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has also been extended the one-year, $17.2MM offer.

Walker was an obvious QO call before he underwent season-ending back surgery. But initial signs have been promising, with the veteran explaining that the procedure addressed a long-standing issue and ought to make it easier for him to perform going forward.

New York got exactly what it hoped for when it dealt Jon Niese to pick up the final season left on Walker’s deal. Now 31, the switch-hitting Walker provided 458 plate appearances of .282/.347/.476 hitting and popped 23 home runs on the year. It’s important to note, too, that Walker showed improvement in the field in 2016. Though he typically rates as a below-average defender, he ended the year with a neutral rating from DRS and a strong 11.1 runs saved by measure of UZR.

That overall output didn’t quite match the work of his predecessor, Daniel Murphy, who had a breakout year in his new digs in D.C. But it made Walker a quality everyday regular at a position of need, which is why he could end up returning. Whether the sides explore a multi-year arrangement over the coming week, while Walker considers the QO, remains to be seen, but a return could well make sense for both sides. If not, Walker will be an interesting free agent to watch, as teams weigh the injury uncertainty against his history of steady offensive production from an up-the-middle position.

Orioles Don’t Make Qualifying Offer To Matt Wieters

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The Orioles have made a qualifying offer to slugger Mark Trumbo but have passed on the chance to do the same with catcher Matt Wieters. Baltimore’s decision on Trumbo was reported by Roch Kubtko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter), with Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter) reporting on the decision not to extend the $17.2MM, single-season offer to Wieters. (Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball first tweeted that it was unlikely Wieters would receive the qualifying offer.)

Trumbo represented an easy call after he launched a league-leading 42 home runs. The 30-year-old continues to strike out a ton and isn’t much of an on-base threat — he ran up a .316 OBP last year and sits at just .303 for his career. He’s also a dreadful defender in the outfield, though he generally rates well at first and delivers enough power to represent a regular DH option. Ultimately, the long ball plays well in free agency, and he’s young enough that he ought to find multiple years in free agency even after declining the QO (as is widely expected).

It was a somewhat trickier call with regard to Wieters, long the franchise’s top backstop. Baltimore was surprised when he took the QO last year, but perhaps wasn’t too disappointed with the chance to retain him on a one-year commitment. The immediate outlook still cries out for a veteran receiver — prospect Chance Sisco probably isn’t ready, and Caleb Joseph had a terrible 2016 season — but that doesn’t mean the club is interested in taking on that kind of salary this time around.

Wieters, 30, struggled through what may be his final year with the O’s. The switch hitter ended with a .243/.302/.409 slash line over 464 plate appearances. Though he did hit 17 home runs, he fell well shy of the above-average offensive numbers he posted in prior years. Wieters also didn’t receive strong framing reviews, though he was solid with his arm by measure of Baseball Prospectus.

Still, without the QO weighing him down, Wieters will have a chance at a strong, multi-year deal in free agency. With Wilson Ramos injured, Wieters and Jason Castro are probably the top two candidates for teams looking to fill in immediately behind the dish.

Ten Players To Receive Qualifying Offers

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Major League teams had until 5pm ET today to extend qualifying offers to their impending free agents — a decision that could significantly impact the market for a number of players this winter. For those unfamiliar with the process, the collective bargaining agreement stipulates that teams can make a “qualifying offer” to free agents that spent the entire season on the roster — midseason trades and signings are ineligible — if they wish to secure draft pick compensation for the loss of that player. The QO is a set one-year value determined by averaging the salaries of the top 125 players in the league. This year, the value of that sum comes to $17.2MM.

A player will have one week to survey the market and determine whether he wishes to accept the QO or reject in search of a more lucrative free-agent deal. If a player accepts the offer — something that has happened only three times since the system’s implementation in 2012 (Matt Wieters, Colby Rasmus and Brett Anderson) — that player is considered signed for the following season at $17.2MM. The contract is considered a free-agent deal, and as such, that player is not allowed to be traded without his consent until June 15.

If the player rejects a QO, he’s free to sign with any team for any amount (including the team from which he rejected the QO). However, whichever team signs a player that has rejected a QO must surrender its top unprotected pick in the upcoming draft (unless the player re-signs with the team that made the QO). The first 10 selections are protected, so those clubs would only be required to part with their second-highest pick. A team that signs multiple players that have rejected a QO continues to forfeit its top unprotected pick for each subsequent signing. The team that lost the free agent in question, meanwhile, will receive a compensatory draft pick at the end of the first round. The order of comp picks, like the draft order itself, is determined based upon the previous year’s standings.

Last year there were a record 20 players to receive QOs (valued at $15.8MM based on 2015 salaries). There should be fewer this year, given the weak free-agent market, but there should still be a double-digit total of QOs extended. Here’s a list of who will reportedly receive qualifying offers thus far, and we’ll update this throughout the day and include the full list when the 5:00pm deadline has passed:

For a more in-depth explanation of the qualifying offer system, you can reference back to our post Explaining The Qualifying Offer System from last October. In the past, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has also spoken to both agents and general managers about the importance of avoiding the qualifying offer and the impact it has on teams’ decisions. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd, meanwhile, penned a pair of insightful posts in an effort to contextualize and assess the QO system and its purposes on the heels of the 2013-14 offseason.

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