Javier Lopez Retires
Veteran left-hander Javier Lopez has decided to retire, he tells Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
“More than anything, it’s just time,” the 39-year-old Lopez tells Rosenthal. “It’s a young man’s game. Although I think I can compete, it’s getting harder and harder to get ready for spring.”
A former fourth-round pick back in 1998, Lopez was a key member of four World Series teams: the Red Sox in 2007 and the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014. While he struggled with the Rockies early in his career, Lopez eventually solidified himself as a durable, dependable weapon against left-handed opponents and enjoyed a very nice 14-year career in that role.
He’ll finish his career with a 3.48 earned run average, 30 wins, 14 saves, 178 holds and a 358-to-230 K/BB ratio in 533 1/3 regular-season innings. Beyond that, Lopez tossed another 18 postseason innings, recording a 3.50 ERA in addition to his four World Series rings.
Lopez earned more than $28MM in his Major League career, per Baseball-Reference.com. He tells Rosenthal that he’s not certain what’ll come next for him beyond his playing days, but we at MLBTR wish him the very best in whatever lies ahead.
Twins Designate Byung Ho Park For Assignment
FEB. 8: Park has been placed on waivers, per Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (on Twitter), so he won’t be traded.
FEB. 3, 1:17pm: La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tweets that the expectation is that Park will clear waivers due to the remaining salary on his contract and report to Spring Training as a non-roster invite. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes that there’s no plan from Park’s camp to return to Korea.
11:11am: In a fairly surprising move, the Twins announced that they’ve designated first baseman Byung Ho Park for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Matt Belisle, whose one-year deal with the team is now official.
Park’s DFA comes just one year into a four-year, $12MM contract signed with Minnesota last winter (which came on top of a $12.85MM posting fee paid by the Twins to acquire negotiation rights with the former KBO slugger). He’s still guaranteed $9.25MM over the life of the next three seasons, so there’s a good chance that Park will clear waivers if the Twins go that route. At that point, he’s be able to work on his swing in Triple-A and potentially return at some point in 2017.
The 30-year-old Park arrived in Minnesota with lofty expectations after blasting a combined 105 home runs in his final two KBO seasons. While Park’s power was as advertised — he homered 12 times and posted a .219 ISO in 244 plate appearances — strikeouts also proved to be a problem, as he punched out in 32.8 percent of his plate appearances.
Overall, Park posted a disappointing .191/.275/.409 batting line with the Twins, although it’s certainly worth noting that he ultimately proved to have a wrist injury that required surgical repair. And, Park did bat .257/.339/.578 with nine homers through his first 124 plate appearances in Minnesota (albeit with 38 strikeouts) in addition to showing well in a number of Statcast categories, including exit velocity and barreled balls (as recently examined by Fangraphs’ Travis Sawchik).
The Twins could also explore trade scenarios involving Park. While he’s unlikely to carry significant value given his poor debut season, a team looking to acquire a right-handed bat at first base/DH could consider Park a reasonable roll of the dice. He’s controlled for three years at what figures to be a comparable price to the one Mike Napoli will command in free agency, so there’s certainly a degree of financial upside present, as one can only assume that the cost of acquisition would be low at this juncture.
Further expounding upon that point, the Twins themselves have been a rumored landing spot for Napoli in recent weeks, and jettisoning Park from the 40-man roster creates one potential avenue of adding a more veteran right-handed bat to the picture in Minnesota.
Royals Designate Alec Mills For Assignment
The Royals have designated right-hander Alec Mills for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for newly signed Jason Hammel, tweets Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star.
Mills, 25, is a semi-surprising DFA casualty for the Royals, as he made his MLB debut in 2016 on the heels of a solid season split between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. In 125 2/3 minor league innings, Mills logged a 3.22 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9. While the former 22nd-round pick showed better in Double-A (2.39 ERA) than in Triple-A (4.19), his K/BB numbers at each level were both solid, and they were accompanied by roughly league-average ground-ball tendencies.
MLB.com has yet to issue its newest list of top Royals prospects, but Mills rated eighth among Kansas City farmhands on their most recent iteration, which was updated throughout the 2016 season. He didn’t crack the organization’s top 15 prospects, as recently laid out by ESPN’s Keith Law, but Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen did note him just outside the Royals’ top 20 back in December. Longenhagen writes that Mills is “purely a relief prospect,” noting that he could be a solid middle relief piece or a sixth starter/long man. Baseball Prospectus’ Jeffrey Paternostro didn’t include Mills in the top 10 but praised his above-average sinker.
While Mills isn’t a standout prospect, he seems like the type that could very well end up claimed if exposed to waivers, so perhaps the Royals will be able to generate some trade interest. Mills does have two minor league options remaining, which should add to his appeal.
Royals Sign Jason Hammel
The Royals have added a veteran arm to their rotation, announcing on Wednesday that they’ve signed right-hander Jason Hammel to a two-year deal with a mutual option for the 2019 season.
The 34-year-old ACES client will reportedly receive a $16MM guarantee that includes a $5MM salary in 2017, a $9MM salary in 2018 and a $2MM buyout on his option. He can also earn an additional $250K per season for reaching 200 innings pitched.
[Related: Updated Kansas City Royals Depth Chart]
Hammel’s long offseason began when the Cubs allowed him to decide whether he wanted them to exercise his $12MM 2017 option or give him a $2MM buyout. The Cubs ultimately declined the option, already an unusual decision on a reportedly healthy pitcher coming off a solid 3.83 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 season as a back-end starter, and Hammel hit the open market, only to linger there for almost four months. That long period on the market included a change of agencies, from Octagon to ACES.
The $16MM guarantee Hammel will receive over two years has to qualify as a disappointing outcome for him, at least relative to his likely expectations earlier in the offseason. While this offseason was a slow one for starting pitchers in general, Hammel compares favorably to several starters who received similar or greater amounts, either in total contract value or average annual value, including Charlie Morton (two years, $14MM), Bartolo Colon (one year, $12.5MM) and former Royal Edinson Volquez (two years, $22MM).
A fit with the Royals seemingly emerged following the tragic death of Yordano Ventura in a car wreck in the Dominican two weeks ago. Hammel represented the top available starting pitcher on the free agent market at that point. Now he’ll enter a Kansas City rotation picture that will also feature Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Nate Karns, Jason Vargas and Chris Young.
With the exception of an ugly 2013 season in Baltimore, Hammel has generally posted consistently solid results since leaving Colorado in prior to the 2012 campaign — he’s eaten 771 innings in that time, with a slightly-above-average 3.88 ERA to go with 8.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9. Those peripheral numbers slipped a bit last season with Chicago, to 7.9 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9, but he was still generally effective, with a 3.83 ERA. He relies heavily on his very good slider, a pitch he threw more frequently (35.1%) than any other qualified starter last season except Michael Pineda, Chris Archer and Ervin Santana.
Hammel turned 34 in September, so his new deal will cover his age-34 and age-35 seasons, with the mutual option covering his age-36 campaign. A large number of Royals (including Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and Vargas) are eligible for free agency next winter, so Hammel’s addition will help the club bridge the gap between next season and the immediate future beyond it. As Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star tweets, the Royals’ late deals with Hammel and Brandon Moss have sent their payroll north somewhat, although those increases have been offset in part by the departures of Wade Davis and Jarrod Dyson, as well as Duffy’s extension, which reduced the 2017 salary he would have received through the arbitration process.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement (Twitter link). Hammel will receive $16MM guaranteed, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports tweeted the terms, and Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reported the year-to-year breakdown (via Twitter). MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reported the deal’s incentives (via Twitter).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Red Sox To Sign Carlos Quentin
SATURDAY 9:57am: Quentin can make $750K in the Majors, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald tweets.
WEDNESDAY 2:00pm: There’s no invite to Major League camp on Quentin’s deal with the Red Sox, reports WEEI’s Rob Bradford, so it seems he’ll head to minor league camp and open the season in Triple-A. Bradford cites a lack of depth in the team’s current minor league outfield options as well as the fact that Quentin has dropped 40 pounds behind the signing.
12:52pm: The Red Sox have agreed to a deal with veteran slugger Carlos Quentin, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). It’s all but certain that the deal is of the minor-league variety, though it’s not clear whether Quentin will receive an invite to MLB camp.
Quentin last appeared in the pages here at MLBTR when he took his free agency from the Twins last spring. After failing to crack the Minnesota roster out of camp, he asked for his release rather than taking a spot at the Triple-A level.
That brought an end to Quentin’s most recent comeback attempt, but it seems he has at least one more try left in the tank. Now 34, the right-handed-hitting outfielder has not seen the majors since 2014, when he struggled in a fifty-game stint with the Padres.
Despite the recent layoff and long-running knee problems, Quentin does have a long track record of quality offensive production. Between 2008 and 2013, he posted a .260/.356/.503 batting line with 136 home runs over 2,638 plate appearances.
Rays Acquire Jesus Sucre From Mariners
The Mariners announced that catcher Jesus Sucre has been traded to the Rays in exchange for a player to named later or cash. The 28-year-old Sucre had recently been designated for assignment and outrighted off the 40-man roster, so he’ll head to camp with the Rays as a non-roster invitee.
Sucre has hit for average in the minors, batting .279/.312/.341 across parts of four Triple-A seasons, but he’s never been able to produce at the plate in the Majors. In parts of four seasons with Seattle, he owns a collective .209/.246/.276 batting line in 264 trips to the plate. There may be some temptation to assume that the pitcher-friendly Safeco Field has played a role in those struggles, but Sucre’s .640 OPS at home in his career dwarfs his .415 road mark.
Though he’s struggled at the plate, Sucre has proven to be an adept defender, throwing out 35 percent of attempted base thieves in his big league career. He’s routinely received average to above-average grades for his pitch-framing skills as well. Dating back to his prospect days with the Braves, Sucre has been touted as a strong overall defender, with Baseball America previously calling his arm a “cannon” and rating him as the best defensive backstop in Atlanta’s system in 2010.
The Rays signed Wilson Ramos earlier this offseason with the hope that he can eventually shoulder the load behind the plate following last September’s ACL tear. He’ll miss at least a couple of months of the 2017 campaign, leaving Curt Casali and Luke Maile to handle the bulk of the catching duties early in the year. Sucre could conceivably challenge that pair for playing time in Spring Training, or he could simply head to Triple-A as a defensive-minded depth piece.
There have also been rumors connecting the Rays to free-agent catcher Matt Wieters, although at this point there’s been nothing to suggest that Tampa Bay is in serious pursuit of the former Oriole or that any form of offer has been made.
Daniel Mengden Undergoes Foot Surgery
The Athletics announced today that righty Daniel Mengden has undergone surgery on his righty foot after suffering a fracture during a home bullpen session. He’ll require a walking boot for at least six weeks, with further rehab presumably required beyond that point.
Clearly, Mengden won’t be able to participate in Spring Training, which is set to open for A’s pitchers and catchers in less than a week. Even if he’s able to get back on the hill not long after the boot comes off, he’ll need some time to build back his arm strength. Odds are, then, that Mengden won’t be an option for Oakland until at least a month or so into the 2017 season.
The expectation had been that Mengden, who’ll soon turn 24, would battle for a spot in the rotation. He cracked the majors for the first time in 2016 after a quick run through the minors, but scuffled to a 6.50 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in his 72 innings. Still, the strikeout rate was fairly promising and Mengden’s track record suggests that the control won’t continue to be an issue.
Given the injury, he’ll now need to reestablish his spot in the pecking order and hope that an opportunity arises at some point during the year. In the meantime, the organization now seems likely to turn to Kendall Graveman, Jharel Cotton, and Andrew Triggs to round out a staff fronted by Sonny Gray and Sean Manaea. The other 40-man members who could compete for a starting job are Jesse Hahn, Frankie Montas, and Paul Blackburn.
Giants To Re-Sign Gordon Beckham
The Giants have agreed to a minor-league deal to bring back infielder Gordon Beckham, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). He’ll earn at a $1.25MM annual rate if he cracks the MLB roster, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
Beckham, 30, landed in San Francisco late last year — September 27th — as the team sought to bolster its depth down the stretch. Though he didn’t manage a hit in six plate appearances, and wasn’t eligible for the postseason, he left a good impression on the organization, per Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area (via Twitter).
Before that, Beckham turned in a .217/.300/.354 batting line in his 273 plate appearances with the Braves, who had signed him to a one-year deal last winter. The former first-round draft pick had spent the vast bulk of his career to that point with the White Sox, though he also had a brief stint with the Angels.
For the Giants, Beckham figures to enter a camp battle for roster spots and playing time in the infield. Though Joe Panik will likely command the bulk of the reps at second, he did struggle against left-handed pitching last year. And there’s plenty up for grabs at third, with Eduardo Nunez perhaps best suited to a utility role. Beckham could end up jockeying for position with fellow right-handed hitter Jae-gyun Hwang, with lefty swinging Conor Gillaspie also representing a factor.
Top 10 Remaining Free Agents
Last we looked, there were a fair number of players left from MLBTR’s pre-winter top 50 list. As might’ve been expected, though, the free-agent herd has thinned considerably. With about a week to go before the start of spring camp, these are the best remaining free agents (by order of MLBTR’s ranking, where applicable; “HM” refers to honorable mention, “NR” to players who weren’t mentioned in that list):
16. Matt Wieters. We’re mostly still hearing crickets on the market for Wieters, though some the chirping continues to hint ongoing interest from organizations like the Nationals, Rays, and perhaps the incumbent Orioles.
24. Travis Wood. There’s plenty of chatter surrounding the next name on the list. With several clubs reportedly interested in Wood as a starter, and others valuing his swingman capabilities out of the pen, it seems there’s still some bidding taking place.
31. Joe Blanton. Clubs interested in righty setup men won’t find any who outperformed the aging but resurgent Blanton last year. He made good on his one-year pact with the Dodgers by turning in eighty frames of 2.48 ERA pitching in 2016.
49. Chase Utley. Another steady veteran who most recently plied his trade in Los Angeles, Utley is said to be weighing multiple offers. It seems unlikely he’ll land an everyday second base job, but could provide plenty of value as a platoon player.
HM. Angel Pagan. Despite a solid bounceback season, the 35-year-old Pagan hasn’t generated much buzz this winter. As a switch hitter who has plenty of experience in center, though, he could add plenty of function to a variety of clubs.
HM. Pedro Alvarez. As the market for sluggers finally sorts itself out, there remain a few big lefty bats available. Alvarez remains a limited player — he’s best used as a DH against righty pitching — but only just turned thirty and hit a productive .249/.322/.504 last year.
HM. Adam Lind. Though he’s older (33) and wasn’t nearly as good as last year as Alvarez, Lind has a higher established ceiling as a hitter. From 2013 to 2015, he slashed an outstanding .291/.364/.478 in 1,411 plate appearances.
HM. Colby Lewis. At 37 years of age, Lewis doesn’t come with huge expectations. But he turned in a 3.71 ERA over 19 starts in 2016, showing he can still provide some sturdy innings even as he missed time with a lat injury.
NR. Michael Bourn. Something of a forgotten man entering the year, Bourn found a shot with the Diamondbacks and then thrived in a brief stint with the Orioles. Whether he can sustain the momentum from his 24-game run in Baltimore remains to be seen, but he might represent a useful speed-and-defense-oriented fourth outfielder for the right club.
NR. Doug Fister. A 2016 stint with the Astros didn’t represent the comeback that the 33-year-old Fister hoped for. But while he struggled to a 4.64 ERA, he did make all 32 starts while topping 180 innings for the first time since 2013. Teams in need of rotation depth will surely have interest.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres Agree To Minor League Deal With Tony Cruz
The Padres have agreed to sign catcher Tony Cruz to a minor league deal, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter).
Cruz, 30, spent the 2007-15 seasons in the Cardinals organization before playing the 2016 campaign in the Royals’ system. Though he totaled just five big league plate appearances with Kansas City, Cruz logged a solid .264/.347/.387 batting line in 92 Triple-A contests last season. Prior to that, he appeared in 259 games for the Cardinals from 2011-15 while serving as a backup to Yadier Molina, though he’s never provided much in the way of offense in the Majors. Across 638 big league plate appearances, Cruz is a .218/.260/.308 hitter, but it bears mention that he has a .732 OPS in the minors and a .724 OPS in parts of three Triple-A campaigns.
From a defensive standpoint, Cruz has halted 27 percent of stolen base attempts against him in the Majors, and his career 43 percent minor league mark in that regard is quite impressive. Though he once graded poorly in Baseball Prospectus’ pitch-framing metrics, he’s progressed to be a roughly average receiver, by that measure, in recent years.
Austin Hedges and Christian Bethancourt figure to be the primary backstops in San Diego this coming season, but with Bethancourt perhaps shifting into a hybrid catcher/outfielder/relief pitcher role, there could be some room to carry a third catcher on the roster, if Cruz proves worthy of a spot. Others that will be in the mix are Rule 5 pick Luis Torrens and non-roster invitees Hector Sanchez and Rocky Gale.