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Poll: The Braves’ Outfield

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The Braves will enter the 2016-17 offseason with a pair of veteran outfielders — Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp — under contract through 2018 and 2019, respectively, as well as a pair of fleet-footed defensive stars — Ender Inciarte and Mallex Smith — that the team has hoped can become long-term pieces. And, in looking at the potential logjam, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that it’s “likely” that veteran Jeff Francoeur will be back in the fold with the Braves to once again fill a bench role.

With a quartet of outfielders that could factor into the starting mix, there figures to be plenty of chatter about the Braves trading an outfielder this offseason, so let’s take a look at the possibility of each…

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A.J. Preller Suspended Thirty Days For Failure To Disclose Medical Information

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SEPT. 16: Lin reports that in addition to suspending Preller for 30 days, MLB has also fined the Padres an undisclosed amount (Twitter link).

SEPT. 15, 6:33pm: Despite the fact that other teams also complained, no additional punitive action is expected to be taken against Preller or the Padres, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune reports on Twitter.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports adds a detail on the underlying issues, via Twitter. San Diego failed to disclose oral medications taken by Pomeranz and other traded players, he says.

6:12pm: The Padres have released a pair of statements on the matter. Preller says that he “accept[s] full responsibility” but claims “there was no malicious intent … to conceal information or disregard MLB’s recommended guidelines.”

Meanwhile, executive chairman Ron Fowler, managing partner Peter Seidler and president/CEO Mike Dee issued a joint statement. The club “accept[s] the discipline” and says it “will leave no stone unturned in developing comprehensive processes to remediate this unintentional, but inexcusable, occurrence.” The group of top officials state that they do not believe there was any effort “to mislead other clubs.”

The release also confirms that Preller will remain in charge of the baseball ops department. The trio of top officials say they will “work closely with him upon his reinstatement to ensure that this unfortunate set of circumstances does not happen again.”

5:15pm: Preller isn’t at risk of losing his post with the Padres, a “high-ranking club official” tells Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The GM has the “full support” of the team, per the source.

4:21pm: Major league baseball has announced a thirty-day suspension without pay for Padres GM A.J. Preller. The punishment was handed out as a result of a determination that he had failed to disclose required medical information in the trade that sent lefty Drew Pomeranz to the Red Sox in exchange for prospect Anderson Espinoza.

The league was looking into San Diego’s medical documentation and disclosure practices after questions arose at this summer’s trade deadline. San Diego already agreed to an unusual trade unwinding a portion of its swap with the Marlins, taking back injured righty Colin Rea after Miami learned about undisclosed medical information.

In a stunning report earlier this afternoon, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney documented an alleged decision by the Padres’ front office to maintain two separate databases of player health information. Treatment for ailments that did not require disabled list stints, it seems, were not logged in the central information repository that is utilized by teams in the course of trades — with training staff reportedly told expressly that the reason was to gain an advantage in trade talks.

Notably, the punishment apparently relates only to the Pomeranz deal. According to Olney’s report, at least three other clubs complained to the commissioner’s office about San Diego’s actions over the summer. It is not clear at this point whether further discipline could be pursued. This isn’t the first time that Preller has been reprimanded by the league, as he was also suspended back when he was an assistant GM for the Rangers. That case involved the international signing rules.

It seems fair to wonder at this point whether Preller will continue on at the helm of the Padres. In addition to the fact that he’ll seemingly be out of commission entering an important offseason, it’s fair to wonder whether the situation would impact Preller’s ability to interact with rival executives on future trades. It doesn’t help his cause that the club has struggled badly over the last two years, though the upper-level leadership of the organization has seemingly supported its youthful GM’s farm system rebuilding project, which seemed to be gaining some positive momentum of late.

As for the Red Sox’ interest in the matter, the league called the matter “closed.” And prior reports suggested that there was no effort on Boston’s behalf to revisit the terms of that deal or otherwise seek recompense.

Logan Morrison To Undergo Surgery For Wrist Injury

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SEPT. 16: Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports that Morrison will indeed undergo surgery to repair the tear in his wrist, though it seems that even with that disheartening news, Morrison has caught somewhat of a break (links to Twitter). The extent of Morrison’s tear is relatively minimal, according to Passan, meaning that the slugger can begin swinging a bat in about 12 weeks and should be ready to go for Spring Training. A more significant tear, Passan adds, could have sidelined LoMo entirely for the next six months.

SEPT. 15: Rays first baseman Logan Morrison has been diagnosed with a torn left wrist sheath, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports on Twitter. Though he’ll receive a second opinion, it seems that surgery will likely be required.

The injury was already believed to be season-ending, but Morrison hoped that he wouldn’t need to go under the knife. While some form of rehab was already inevitable, this certainly doesn’t appear to be the best-case scenario.

Without question, the news will impact Morrison’s market, as it’s a reasonably significant surgery. For instance, Jose Bautista missed the second half of 2012 after an operation to repair his wrist sheath in mid-July. Plus, Morrison lost the chance to finish out the season and pad his batting line.

At first glance, the 29-year-old Morrison had an underwhelming season for Tampa Bay, which acquired him over the winter. But his overall results are weighed down by an unbelievably slow start. Prospective suitors for Morrison got their last looks at him during a 303 plate appearance run to end the year. In that span, he put up a .275/.350/.498 slash and has knocked 14 long balls.

All told, there ought to be plenty of pursuers for a fairly youthful slugger who has had success in the majors in the past. But it’s tough now to imagine him generating the kind of multi-year interest that might have been hoped for with a healthy finish to the year.

Matt Klentak Discusses The Phillies’ Future

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At 65-82, the Phillies’ season may not stand out as a as one that many fans would consider a significant step forward. That Philadelphia is in the midst of a significant rebuild was a widely known fact entering the year, and few expected a major improvement in the standings this season. However, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak, hired to that post just last year, spoke to reporters (including Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com) before yesterday’s game to explain that the organization feels that there was plenty of progress made in 2016.

Among the players to draw praise from Klentak were catcher Cameron Rupp, first baseman Tommy Joseph, second baseman Cesar Hernandez and shortstop Freddy Galvis. While Klentak acknowledged that players like Galvis and Joseph (and really, most of the team) need to continue to work on developing their approach at the plate in order to work counts and boost on-base percentage at an individual and at a team level, he also noted the unexpected pop from each player — Joseph due to his status as a non-roster player entering the season and Galvis due to a lack of track record of power — has been a boon for the Phillies.

“Really for any position, but especially for a shortstop, to be approaching 20 homers in a season is pretty impressive,” said Klentak shortly after praising Galvis as “one of the most reliable, dependable shortstops in the league” from a defensive standpoint. While he didn’t directly state the fact, Klentak suggested that he’s cognizant of the fact that Galvis has never walked much and may never do so, explaining that lineups can contain such players as long as it’s not a trait from top to bottom. “The answer to that question may depend on what the rest of the lineup is doing,” the GM responded when asked if Galvis’ defense and power outweighed his .270 OBP.

Galvis’ future standing with the club, of course, has a direct impact on the team’s plans for top prospect J.P. Crawford — the former No. 16 overall draft pick that has risen to become one of the game’s consensus top 10 prospects. While Crawford is viewed as a potential franchise cornerstone at the position, Klentak didn’t shy away from stating that Galvis performed well enough in 2016 that, “Right now … he’s our shortstop.”

The first-year GM pointed to the fact that Crawford still has work to do to develop in the minors, even though he impressed as one of the youngest players at both the Double-A level and Triple-A level in 2016. “Even a 21-year-old at Double-A but certainly Triple-A is aggressive,” said Klentak. “I think he’s proven at both levels that he still has the ability to control the strike zone as well as anybody in our organization and probably the best in Minor League Baseball. I think his defense has taken a step forward. He’s still 21 years old. He still needs to get stronger. He still has some things he needs to work on.”

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Three Needs: Milwaukee Brewers

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MLBTR will provide a broader view of each club’s winter plans when our annual Offseason Outlook series kicks off at the end of the regular season.  Until then, the Brewers are the latest team to be featured in our quick look at this season’€™s non-contenders. We’ve already covered the Angels.

Milwaukee GM David Stearns has continued to engineer a rebuild that was kicked off by his predecessor, Doug Melvin. The payroll is way down and the high-priced veterans have mostly been cleared out, but it has taken place in a fairly methodical manner thus far with largely positive results (despite the anticipated, subpar record). Here are three needs for the organization as the offseason approaches:

[Brewers Depth Chart]

1. Trade Ryan Braun.

I know, very edgy choice. Braun is the last remaining Brewers player who is promised money past the 2017 season, making him an obvious trade candidate. (Only one other — Matt Garza — has a guaranteed contract next year.) On the one hand, that means, that the club doesn’t need to move Braun just to pare down the costs; even with him this year, the payroll sat at just over $60MM on Opening Day and has receded since.

The key here, though, is timing. Milwaukee has prospered immensely from selling at the right moment on players such as Carlos Gomez (traded before a fall-off) and Jonathan Lucroy (traded after he rebuilt value). You could argue the same, in varying ways, of hurlers Mike Fiers, Jeremy Jeffress, and Will Smith.

With Braun, the question has never been talent or productivity. But he has a sketchy injury history, carries the stain of a PED melodrama, and turns 33 in two months. The $76MM left on his contract over four years remains a bit of a limiting factor, but is a pretty fair price for a player who owns a .306/.371/.537 slash with 27 home runs and 15 steals.

It’s unlikely at this point that Braun’s value will ever be higher, and there’s a chance it could tumble. Whether he goes to the Dodgers or elsewhere, the coming offseason is probably the time to finish clearing the books. (Moving Garza, too, could make sense — either in a winter bereft of open-market pitching talent or after giving him a chance to boost his value in the first half of 2017.)

2. Find the next Junior Guerra …

Or the next Jonathan Villar. Or, really, just the next Chris Carter or even Aaron Hill. Stearns’s first move as a GM — plucking Guerra off the waiver wire — remains his most impressive. But he has proven adept at finding hidden gems from free and cheap talent pools. All the guys he’s tried out haven’t worked, but plenty have. Better still, the most notable success stories thus far have not only been cheap, but have had service time remaining, greatly increasing the upside/expense ratio.

So, who’s the next candidate? If I knew that, I’d probably be peddling the information to a major league team. But while organizations desperate for near-term production will feel compelled to plunk down several million dollars for the best-bet bounceback veterans, odds are that Stearns will be mining the ranks of underappreciated journeymen who have shown a spark and intriguing young players who aren’t going to keep roster spots with their organizations.

These players have plenty of function just by showing up, because they help prop up the quality of the on-field production at virtually no cost. What will be most interesting to see, though, is whether Milwaukee can begin to parlay these bargain finds into real value — either by flipping some of the players in trades or deploying them during a winning season.

3. Chart out an ascension plan. 

Call me crazy, but I think things could move fairly quickly for the Brewers. Unlike other recent tear-down situations, Milwaukee has not really had to offload huge and burdensome contracts; the veterans they have dealt have been appealing players who brought good, high-level young talent.

To be sure, I’m not advocating for the club to ramp up spending in anticipation of contending in 2017. But there are some benefits to planning for an optimistic scenario, which might include something in the vicinity of a .500 record next year with some more upward mobility to follow. Doing so in a measured way would allow the club to build toward contention without weighing down the future balance sheet.

With that in mind, perhaps the Brewers don’t need to keep a perfectly pristine balance sheet for the entirety of the near-future. Adding some well-conceived, reasonably youthful talent through free agency or trade isn’t only a strategy for larger-budget rebuilders — at least when a team’s payroll is already low. In Milwaukee’s case, there are a few arb raises to account for in 2017, but none that figure to make much of a dent. Perhaps being willing to pay a bit for one or more mid-level, health-concern/bounceback free agents — Luis Valbuena, Neil Walker, Charlie Morton, Andrew Cashner, or (dare I say it) Carlos Gomez are a few who come to mind — could be a viable strategy.

Heyman’s Latest: Dodgers, Puig-Braun, CarGo, Cespedes, EE, Santana, Red Sox, Mariners

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Dodgers righty Kenley Jansen says he is grateful to the team for all it has done for him, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports, but notes that he fully intends to explore the open market this winter. “We’ll have to see what’s good for the family,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough decision. It’s not going to only be me.” Infielder Justin Turner, meanwhile, says he’d “love to stay” in Los Angeles, as Heyman provides in his weekly notes column. Both figure to be targets for the Dodgers in free agency, but also ought to draw wide-ranging interest from other organizations.

Here are some of the other highlights from Heyman’s latest post:

  • Heyman pushes back on recent reports suggesting that the Dodgers nearly shipped Yasiel Puig to the Brewers as part of a package to acquire Ryan Braun. A source tells him that “there was a lot of dialogue but [a swap] was never close.” Regardless, it seems that there’s still merit to the idea that the teams could revisit the scenario this winter.
  • “No great offers” emerged last winter for Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, according to the report. But Colorado may be wise to shop him again in a few months, Heyman writes, as the team’s glut of left-handed-hitting outfielders could represent an opportunity to improve in other areas. Gonzalez is hitting a productive .300/.350/.523, even if it is aided by playing at Coors Field, and is owed a reasonable $37MM over the next two seasons. It’s worth noting, too, that the club could potentially not only turn that contract into some intriguing, younger assets, but would also free up a good bit of payroll space to deploy on the open market.
  • The upcoming market for free agents is obviously short on star power, but Heyman provides some preliminary guesses on the contracts for the top players. He suggests four years and $100MM for Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets as the biggest deal that could be had (assuming, as seems likely, that he’ll opt out of his deal). From my perspective, another star campaign from Cespedes has likely boosted his market beyond that level. The Cuban slugger rates as the top overall free agent on the free agent power ranking of MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes.
  • Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays is fourth on Dierkes’s most recent list — he rates Aroldis Chapman and Jansen higher — while Heyman rates him second to Cespedes. But the veteran slugger is headed for a monster contract regardless, and Heyman notes that the continued belief around the game is that Toronto won’t extend itself to retain him. Instead, the Jays seem to be angling to put together a younger roster.
  • Whether Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons is interested in staying on with more change possibly afoot remains to be seen, but Heyman says that the club has been impressed with his work. An internal team source suggests that the team will attempt to retain him — at least as long as a postseason berth is secured — and sources with ties to the skipper say that he likely prefers to stick in the position rather than hunting for another opportunity elsewhere.
  • Carlos Santana is highly likely to return to the Indians, per the report. His $12MM club option is a “no-brainer” for the club, a source says. The 30-year-old never seemed very likely to be allowed to test the market: he carries a .243/.353/.471 batting line with 31 long balls and has struck out only one time more than he has walked thus far in 2016.
  • The Red Sox are expected to pursue relief help on the upcoming free agent market, Heyman says. That’s not surprising to hear, of course, as depth and quality have both been in question at times and the team is set to watch pitchers such as Brad Ziegler, Koji Uehara, and Junichi Tazawa depart via free agency.
  • With a group of talented, high-performing players on hand, the Mariners are “talking behind the scenes” about taking advantage of a window of contention, according to Heyman. That could position the club to strike out on the free agent market in search of a “complementary piece,” he says. There are several areas the team could target, but I wonder whether the time may be right to add a slugging first baseman; there are several available, and the team is set to lose its primary tandem of Adam Lind and Dae-ho Lee to free agency.

Alex Reyes Moves Into Cardinals’ Rotation; Trevor Rosenthal Activated

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The Cardinals are set to make some changes to their pitching staff, with rising young righty Alex Reyes taking the rotation slot of Jaime Garcia, as MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch was among those to tweet. Garcia is slated for a move to the bullpen.

[Related: Updated Cardinals Depth Chart]

Also heading to the major league relief corps is former closer Trevor Rosenthal, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter. He had been sidelined by elbow and shoulder issues, but will be activated in advance of tonight’s contest.

The Cardinals’ pen certainly has a different make-up than would have been anticipated at the outset of the year. Garcia is accompanied by Michael Wacha in moving into a different role, though the latter’s switch occurred primarily because his injury issues did not allow time for him to ramp up to make it back to the rotation. Both, though, have had their share of troubles this year.

Tonight’s moves have some broader implications as well. Reyes will potentially make three starts, which could drive his innings up — when one includes his extended spring training work — to a level that could be uncomfortable if the Cards make a deep postseason run. Dealing with that issue would probably be a luxury, though, as the team faces a tough test to qualify.

Certainly, it’ll be interesting to see how Reyes fares while handling critical outings from the rotation. He only just turned 22, and has enjoyed star-caliber results thus far, allowing only four earned runs with 34 strikeouts while surrendering just 16 hits in 28 frames (including two starts). But he has also handed out 16 free passes and unleashed three wild pitches, so there still seems to be some polishing left to his mound work.

Garcia may be the most interesting element to consider. He has finally been healthy enough for a full season for the first time since 2011, but carries only a 4.65 ERA over his 164 2/3 frames. That’s rough enough to raise questions about his $12MM club option for 2017, but with a barren market for starters this winter, that’s probably a reasonable-enough price tag for the veteran southpaw.

As for Rosenthal, reports of his progress have been encouraging. But he had been a major question mark before the injury issues came to light. Despite striking out 13 batters per nine innings, Rosenthal lost his hold on the closer role with a 5.13 ERA and troubling 7.3 BB/9 over 33 1/3 frames on the year. He’ll be due a raise on his $5.6MM arbitration salary, making for an expensive tender decision. It still seems likely that St. Louis will take the risk on a pitcher who has been excellent for the bulk of his major league career, but any ongoing struggles or added injury concerns might conceivably shift the analysis.

Derek Falvey “Finalist” For Twins Front Office Job

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The Twins view Indians assistant general manager Derek Falvey as a “strong candidate” for a front office job, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (links to Twitter). Indeed, he is said to be a finalist to join the Minnesota brass.

Falvey has worked for the Cleveland organization for eight years prior to this one. He received a promotion to the AGM level last October at just 32 years of age. That move up the ladder coincided with the rise of Chris Antonetti to president of baseball operations and Mike Chernoff to GM.

The Twins are said to be looking at employing both a PBOp and GM, and it isn’t immediately clear whether Falvey is under consideration for the top post in the Minnesota baseball ops hierarchy. While many organizations have taken to utilizing the title of president of baseball operations, it isn’t applied in a uniform manner. Still, it would be somewhat novel for an executive to take that title without first serving as a GM.

Regardless of the nomenclature, Falvey joints a still largely unknown group of names under consideration. The Twins interviewed Royals AGM JJ Picollo, and are said to have interest in Jason McLeod of the Cubs (among other young Chicago baseball ops personnel). But it’s not yet clear what other candidates can be considered finalists for a gig with the Twins.

MLB Nearing Completion Of Investigation Into Padres’ Medical Processes

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Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Padres’ medical information practices is nearing its completion, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney, and the Friars could face penalty as a result of the findings. Olney reports that multiple sources have informed him that the Padres instructed their medical staff to compile two separate reports on each player — one for industry usage (i.e. medical reviews in trade talks) and one to be kept internal.

The difference between the two files, according to Olney, would be that the file for industry consumption would only contain information on injuries that required trips to the disabled list, whereas the in-house file would contain data on more minor injuries/maladies and preventative treatments that occur over the course of a given season. Three teams with which the Padres executed trades — the Red Sox (Drew Pomeranz), White Sox (James Shields) and Marlins (Andrew Cashner, Colin Rea, Fernando Rodney) were “enraged” and felt they were knowingly deceived by San Diego, Olney writes, adding that a fourth unspecified club filed a complaint with the Commissioner’s Office as well. Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald tweets that punishment for the Padres should be expected, adding that a common point he’s hearing in digging on this matter is that Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski “is [the] wrong guy to cross.”

The Marlins’ case, of course, is the most well-publicized. Rea departed his first start as a Marlin in the fourth inning due to elbow discomfort, and a subsequent MRI revealed ligament damage that ultimately required a platelet-rich plasma injection and may eventually lead to Tommy John surgery. The Padres ultimately traded highly touted minor league right-hander Luis Castillo back to the Marlins in exchange for Rea, and Olney now reports that Rea revealed to the Marlins that he’d been receiving treatment on his elbow for weeks leading up to the trade. That information, according to Olney, was not contained within the Padres’ medical records on Rea, therefore giving the Marlins no opportunity to back away from the deal due to concerns surrounding the young right-hander’s elbow.

As Olney explains, virtually any form of treatment — everything from DL trips down to the use of aspirin and anti-inflammatory medications — is supposed to be logged in a player’s medical file, and those files are logged to MLB’s central database and are available for review in trade talks. One source told Olney that an average team will have filed somewhere in the vicinity of 60 submissions to the database by the All-Star break, but the Padres had filed fewer than 10 submissions this season.

Perhaps most damning, Olney cites multiple sources with direct knowledge of meetings held by the Padres in Spring Training in reporting that the team specifically told its training staff that keeping separate files on the players would ultimately prove beneficial in trading efforts. If proven to be true, this would be far from the first controversy surrounding general manager A.J. Preller’s career as a Major League executive. Preller was suspended for violating signing guidelines and practices while heading up the Rangers’ international department and, per Olney, has also been reprimanded by the league since joining the Padres for violating industry regulations while conducting a workout with an unsigned player.

Those interested in the story are highly encouraged to read Olney’s full column, which goes into considerably greater detail on the matter and contains quotes from multiple unnamed executives on the Padres scandal.

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