Astros Acquire Brian McCann
The Astros have acquired catcher Brian McCann from the Yankees, per team announcements. Prospects Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman will head back in return. The Yankees will pay $5.5MM of McCann’s $17MM annual salary for the two guaranteed years remaining on his deal, Buster Olney of ESPN.com tweets.
Houston has promised a bold offseason, and this acquisition certainly delivers on that promise. The veteran slugger will add a power left-handed bat and shore things up behind the plate for the ‘Stros, who had been in need with Jason Castro now a free agent. McCann, who waived his no-trade clause to facilitate the deal, will pair with Evan Gattis behind the dish. Both will likely also to see time in the DH role. Joel Sherman of the New York Post spoke with McCann’s agent, B.B. Abbot, who says that the catcher was told he’d have the opportunity to shoulder the bulk of the load behind the dish. (Links to Twitter.)
[RELATED: Updated Astros Depth Chart]
McCann, 32, has been solid since joining the Yankees before the 2014 season, but hasn’t quite delivered the top-quality offensive production for which he was known before signing a five-year, $85MM contract. In 1,565 plate appearances with New York, McCann has slashed .235/.313/.418 and swatted 69 home runs. He also has continued to rate well as a pitch-framer, while also doing a solid job of controlling the running game and handling balls in the dirt.
Houston will be on the hook for $11.5MM in each of the following two seasons under the new arrangement. The Astros will take full responsibility for McCann’s 2019 option, which stands as a $15MM club option but could convert to a player option if he meets certain playing time requirements. (Specifically, it vests if he has 1,000 plate appearances in 2017-18, starts at least 90 games behind the plate in 2018, and doesn’t end that year on the DL.)
The move won’t spell an end to Houston’s offseason, of course. The club already added starter Charlie Morton, but is looking to do more to boost their offensive production, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
For the Yankees, McCann became expendable with the emergence late last year of touted youngster Gary Sanchez. While he could still have functioned as a DH and part-time receiver, McCann was a rather expensive insurance policy given that the team also has Austin Romine on hand behind the dish. With strong market demand, the opportunity to add young assets again held appeal.
[RELATED: Updated Yankees Depth Chart]
That doesn’t mean, of course, that New York is packing things in for 2017. Far from it. Olney tweets that the club will look to redirect some (or all) of the savings on McCann to a better-hitting slugger. He says that the Yanks have interest in bringing back Carlos Beltran, who has drawn wide interest in the early-going.
While financial considerations surely played a role in the swap, the Yankees were no doubt intrigued by the two player they received. Abreu is the more highly regarded of the two; as J.J. Cooper of Baseball America explains, he throws a live fastball that occasionally nears the triple-digits. With a four-pitch arsenal, he perhaps has a chance to stick as a starter. Still, he only just turned 21 and struggled with his command last year at the Class A and High-A levels.
Guzman, meanwhile, has even more velocity, with his heater ticking up to 102-103 mph at times. Cooper notes, though, that he’s more effective when he’s operating at a slightly lower velocity (in his case, the upper-nineties). While the long-term outlook suggests that Guzman will end up in the pen, he is said to have a promising slider and also a change-up that’s in the works. The 20-year-old has yet to move past Rookie ball, but showed big strikeout ability (12.2 K/9) in his time in the Gulf Coast and Appalachian leagues last year.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Latest On CBA Talks On Roster Size
One key element of the current collective bargaining talks is whether there will be any change to the number of players who can be carried on a roster. Negotiations are entering their final phases with the current agreement set to expire on the first of December.
There has reportedly already been consideration of going from 25 to 26 players on the active roster. (Here’s our story from two weeks back; the reporting came via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.) And that concept is still under discussion even as the time nears for the league and the MLB player’s association to wrap up talks, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
There’s little question that the 26th man would be a boon to the player’s union, though MLBTR contributor Ryan Spilborghs has argued that it would be beneficial for teams as well. Balancing the cost of thirty new MLB salaries, sources tell Rosenthal, could come in part from new limitations on the size of the active roster in September.
Currently, of course, organizations can utilize anyone on their 40-man roster during the month of September, as Spilborghs also recently discussed. The new rule under consideration might limit clubs to 28 players for any given game during the final full month of the season, with additional provisions allowing that group to be modified — but not every single day.
It’s easy to see the merit in paring back the strange rule that significantly changes the game beginning on September 1. There likely wouldn’t be much of an impact on the transactional world, and it’s hard to imagine any fans taking issue. Adding a 26th man for the full season, though, might shake things up a bit. It would potentially reduce the exposure of players to serious injury, make it easier for clubs to employ specialized players at the major league level, and make the Rule 5 draft a more feasible means of snaring young talent.
Braves Sign Bartolo Colon
NOV. 17: The Braves have now announced the signing of Colon to a one-year deal. “We are thrilled to add a veteran of Bartolo’s caliber to our club,” said GM John Coppolella in a press release announcing the move. “He will be valuable to us both on the field and in the clubhouse and it will be exciting to watch him chase baseball records during a historic season for the Braves franchise.”
NOV. 11: The Braves set out to acquire at least two starting pitchers this offseason, and in a span of 24 hours they’ve added two of the most durable innings eaters on the market. After signing R.A. Dickey to a one-year deal on Thursday, they’ve now reportedly agreed to a one-year, $12.5MM deal that will pry free agent right-hander Bartolo Colon away from the Mets. Colon is represented by Wasserman.
Colon, 44 next May, has spent the past three seasons with the division-rival Mets and will undoubtedly leave many New York fans feeling jilted with this new deal. For the Braves, he’ll join Dickey in adding another veteran source of innings to what was previously a young and highly inexperienced rotation. While some Atlanta fans may question the decision to ink a pair of pitchers that are a combined 85 years in age, both have been highly durable workhorses in recent years.
Colon has averaged 195 innings per season over the past four seasons, logging a collective 3.59 ERA with 6.1 K/9 against a pristine 1.3 BB/9. In that same span, Dickey has averaged 206 innings per year with a 4.05 ERA while pitching in the AL East. Both hurlers will fill in the rotation behind Atlanta’s top starter Julio Teheran and young right-hander Mike Foltynewicz, leaving the final spot up for grabs among a number of young arms highlighted by Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair.
The Mets are “disappointed” to see Colon go, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman, but they were cognizant of the fact that he could receive superior offers and a chance at greater innings by signing elsewhere. Despite having a seemingly full rotation heading into the 2016 campaign, the Mets re-signed Colon on a one-year $7.25MM contract to pitch in the back of the rotation while Zack Wheeler finished his Tommy John rehab. Most believed that Colon would eventually slide into the bullpen, but instead he remained in the rotation all season as the Mets were ravaged by injury. Wheeler never pitched in 2016, while Matt Harvey underwent thoracic outlet surgery, Jacob deGrom had his ulnar nerve repaired and Steven Matz went down with an elbow spur and a shoulder impingement.
However, New York expects each of those arms to be healthy in 2017, and they’ll be joined by ace Noah Syndergaard with emergent right-handers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman serving as valuable depth options should a need arise. That grouping makes it difficult to see how Colon could’ve reasonably expected to pick up many innings in 2017, but he’ll have a clear path to doing so in Atlanta. With 233 wins in his career, Colon is just 10 shy of Hall of Famer Juan Marichal’s 243 victories — a Major League record for a Dominican-born pitcher. Colon has openly spoken in the past about how much it would mean to him to surpass that mark, and a regular role in Atlanta’s rotation will certainly afford him the opportunity to do so.
Adding Colon and Dickey on one-year commitments also lessens the need to rush prospects such as Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis to the Majors, and it can also give Blair and/or Wisler further opportunity to hone their skills in the minors after struggling through their brief big league tenures thus far.
Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports first reported that Colon had agreed to sign with an unnamed team that was not the Mets (Twitter link). MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported that the Braves were the team with which Colon had agreed to terms (via Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that it was a one-year deal that did not contain an option (Twitter links). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal reported Colon’s 2017 salary (Twitter link).
Diamondbacks Name Ron Gardenhire Bench Coach
The D-backs announced today that they’ve hired former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire as their new bench coach. Rounding out Arizona’s new wave of coaches will be Tony Perezchica (third base), Mike Fetters (bullpen) and Robby Hammock (quality control).
Gardenhire will join the D-backs coaching staff and serve as top lieutenant for new manager Torey Lovullo, who was actually a candidate to replace Gardenhire in Minnesota prior to the hiring of Paul Molitor before the 2015 season. He’ll bring 13 year of managerial experience at the Major League level and another 11 years of Major League coaching experience to the Diamondbacks organization. This past season, Gardenhire served as a special assistant to GM Terry Ryan in the Twins organization, and prior to that he was a finalist in the Padres’ managerial hunt but lost out to Andy Green. He’ll have at least one familiar face on the D-backs roster, as the new job will reunite him with Chris Herrmann, who had somewhat of a breakout season in 2016 (in a limited role) after being traded from Minnesota to Arizona last winter.
Perezchica has spent 15 years in the D-backs organization and has most recently spent the past three years as Arizona’s minor league field coordinator. Fetters was the team’s quality control coach prior to moving up to bullpen coach, and he’ll be replaced by Hammock, who played for the Diamondbacks for parts of six seasons between 2003-11 and served as the manager for the team’s Double-A affiliate for the past two seasons.
Arizona also announced that hitting coach Dave Magadan, first base coach Dave McKay, pitching coach Mike Butcher and coach/interpreter Ariel Prieto will all return to the coaching staff in 2017. Magadan and Butcher are returning for their second seasons, while Prieto will be embarking on his third with the organization and McKay will be entering his fourth in 2017.
Marlins Sign Kyle Lobstein, Caleb Thielbar, Frank Garces To Minors Deals
The Marlins have added a trio of left-handed relievers to their depth chart by agreeing to minor league pacts with Kyle Lobstein, Caleb Thielbar and Frank Garces, as MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes. Miami has also picked up outfielder Moises Sierra and catcher Carlos Paulino on minors pacts. Each of the three lefties will come to Spring Training with the opportunity to join Hunter Cervenka and Jarlin Garcia as southpaw options on the 40-man roster.
[Related: Miami Marlins Depth Chart]
Lobstein, 27, spent the bulk of the 2016 season in the Pirates organization and totaled 25 innings with the Bucs across 14 relief appearances, pitching to a 3.96 ERA with a 15-to-12 K/BB ratio. Prior to this past season, he’d been up and down with the Tigers, providing rotation depth in the form of 17 starts between the 2014-15 seasons. Lobstein is a quintessential soft-tosser, having averaged just 87.2 mph on his heater in the Majors. That’s led to plenty of struggles against right-handed hitters, who have clobbered him at a .305/.363/.484 pace in the Majors. However, lefties have been continually befuddled by Lobstein, hitting just .209/.295/.284 against the former second-rounder (Rays, 2008).
Thielbar, meanwhile, joins the Fish out of the independent league St. Paul Saints. The 29-year-old (30 in January) Minnesota native pitched not only on the indy ball circuit in his home state but also spent parts of three seasons in the Twins’ bullpen. Thielbar had a brilliant rookie season back in 2013 when he posted a 1.76 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 across 46 innings. An extreme fly-ball pitcher, Thielbar took a step back in 2014 (3.40 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 in 47 2/3 innings) and had a short-lived stint with Minnesota in 2015, tossing five innings and surrendering three runs. Thielbar’s averaged just a but over 89.3 mph on his fastball in his career and had success against both righties and lefties in his fairly limited time in the Majors.
Garces, 27 in January, last appeared in the Majors with the 2015 Padres. He has a 4.60 ERA in 47 big league innings and has averaged 7.7 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 with a 34.5 percent ground-ball rate. He spent 2016 with San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate and logged a 4.41 ERA in 114 1/3 innings, making 18 starts and 19 relief appearances.
The 28-year-old Sierra spent parts of three seasons in the Majors with the Blue Jays and White Sox, hitting .243/.296/.383 with nine homers across 489 plate appearances. He spent the 2016 campaign with Miami’s Double-A affiliate and batted a robust .336/.414/.519 in 307 plate appearances, although he was obviously facing younger, less experienced competition for the most part.
Paulino, 27, returns to the organization that originally signed him out of the Dominican Republic. He’s spent time with the Pirates and Twins organizations since departing the Marlins and is a career .242/.305/.290 hitter in parts of four seasons at Triple-A.
John Fisher Replaces Lew Wolff As Athletics’ Managing Partner
Lew Wolff is stepping down as the managing partner of the Athletics and will sell the majority of his stake in the team to the remaining partners, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Wolff will be chariman emeritus moving forth, per Slusser, and majority owner John Fisher will assume his previous role as the team’s managing partner.
Furthermore, Slusser reports that Michael Crowley will no longer serve as the team’s president and will become a senior advisor to the ownership group. Dave Kaval, president of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, will become the new team president in Oakland, according to Slusser.
“I want to thank Lew for his leadership over the last 11 years,” said Fisher in a press release formally announcing the ownership shakeup. “His initiative and love of the game of baseball brought my family to the A’s, and we would not be involved without him. Lew has given the organization all of his energy and experience for the last 11 years and I look forward to a new chapter in our working relationship and friendship. It is a privilege for me to steward the A’s at this important moment for the franchise.”
The exact ramifications that this transition will have on Oakland’s hunt for a new stadium remain to be seen, but Kaval briefly addressed the issue in a statement of his own: “Given my longstanding love of baseball and my experience building Avaya Stadium (the Earthquakes’ home stadium), I am enthusiastic to join the Athletics as the Club pursues a world-class ballpark in Oakland for the best fans in baseball.”
Marlins Targeting Kenley Jansen
The Marlins’ top target in free agency is not a starting pitcher, but rather right-hander Kenley Jansen, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Recognizing the difficulty they’ll face in building out a rotation that is still reeling from the shocking death of Jose Fernandez — there are few options in free agency and Miami’s woeful farm system makes trades difficult — Miami could instead look to build out a “super pen” to help shorten games and prevent leads from escaping when their starters provide them. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick wrote earlier this week that with few rotation options available to them, the Marlins could look to upgrade the back of the bullpen instead.
Obviously, the Marlins aren’t exactly frequent shoppers at the very top of the free-agent market, and the team’s perennially low payroll is a significant strike against their chances at landing Jansen this winter. However, Miami did spend $80MM to add left-hander Wei-Yin Chen last offseason, and while the results of that deal (in year one, anyway) weren’t what the team had hoped, their willingness to spend at that level was a departure from their most recent free-agent ventures. Jansen could very well match or exceed that $80MM sum — we at MLBTR pegged him for a five-year, $85MM deal this winter — but with Miami only one year removed from spending that type of money and forfeiting a draft pick to do so, it’s tough to definitively rule out an earnest pursuit.
Jansen, as Heyman notes, is plenty familiar with Miami skipper Don Mattingly from the pair’s days together in Los Angeles, and Miami’s proximity to his native Curacao could be another minor point in the Marlins’ favor. There’s probably some allure based on those factors, though it seems unlikely that Jansen would concede any type of significant discount based on familiarity or geography.
Miami already has a the makings of a terrific bullpen in 2017, with right-handers A.J. Ramos, Kyle Barraclough and David Phelps all having contributed ERAs of 2.85 or better to go along with impressive K/9 rates (14.0 for Barraclough, 11.8 for Phelps and 10.3 for Ramos). Phelps, of course, could conceivably move back into the rotation out of necessity, though the Marlins’ plans for him are seemingly undetermined at this point. Adding Jansen and his lifetime 2.20 ERA and 13.9 K/9 to that group, with or without Phelps, would make for an imposing group to finish out games for the Marlins, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll be comfortable spending at the assuredly record rate it’ll take to land Jansen.
Minor MLB Transactions: 11/17/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Cardinals have signed right-hander Kendry Flores and outfielder Todd Cunningham to minor league deals with invitations to Major League Spring Training, tweets MLB.com’s Jen Langosch. Flores, 25 next week, made one appearance with the Marlins in 2016 and has totaled 15 1/3 innings in Miami over the past two seasons, logging a 4.02 ERA with 10 strikeouts against seven walks (one intentional). He has a career 3.78 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 150 innings at the Triple-A level and has made 124 minor league starts, so he can give St. Louis some rotation depth with a bit of MLB experience. Cunningham, meanwhile, spent the 2016 season with the Angels but posted just a .438 OPS in 29 MLB plate appearances. The former Braves prospect, who will turn 28 in March, hasn’t hit much in the Majors but is a .274/.349/.368 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons and can play all three outfield positions.
- The Rangers announced this week that they’ve signed right-hander Allen Webster to a minors deal and invited him to Spring Training. Webster, 27 in February, was a big-time prospect with the Dodgers and Red Sox but never found his footing in the Majors. He went from L.A. to Boston in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford blockbuster and then from Boston to Arizona alongside Rubby De La Rosa in exchange for Wade Miley. Through 120 1/3 Major League innings, Webster has a 6.13 ERA and a 76-to-66 K/BB ratio. He spent last season with Samsung Lions in the Korea Baseball Organization and didn’t fare much better, posting a 5.70 ERA in 12 starts.
- Left-hander Evan Grills has agreed to a minor league deal with the Rockies, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (on Twitter). The Canadian-born southpaw has spent his entire career in the Astros organization to date and pitched at three levels in 2016 (Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A), working to a combined 3.71 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9 in 135 2/3 innings.
Coaching Notes: Cora, Redmond, Sherlock
Here’s the latest on coaching changes around the majors:
- Former big league infielder Alex Cora will take over the Astros‘ vacant bench coach position, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported on Twitter. Long noted as a potential future MLB manager, Cora will return to uniform alongside Houston skipper A.J. Hinch. Since his 14-year major league career ended in 2011, Cora has served as an ESPN analyst and worked for Puerto Rico’s national team; he is the general manager of the team’s 2017 World Baseball Classic entrant. Hinch spoke of his new bench coach’s potential to provide “impact an entire roster of players,” as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports. Cora will take over for Trey Hillman, who left the Astros to manage in the KBO.
- The Rockies have hired Mike Redmond as bench coach, per a team announcement. He’ll be a top lieutenant to new skipper Bud Black. The 45-year-old, a long-time major league catcher, managed the Marlins from the 2013 season through early in the 2015 campaign. Redmond will join Black in attempting to steer Colorado back to a winning record. The organization has signaled that it’ll boost its payroll and seems intent on competing after a relatively hopeful 2016 season.
- Glenn Sherlock has joined the Mets as their new third base coach, replacing Tim Teufel, the club announced. Tuefel will be re-assigned if he chooses to stick with the organization. As for Sherlock, he’ll not only wave runners home but will be tasked with working with the Mets’ catchers. He has long worked with the Diamondbacks in a variety of coaching capacities. A former minor league backstop, Sherlock will be looked to as a key figure in the development of Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki. That pair of touted catchers has yet to deliver consistently at the major league level, and their continued growth figures to be an important factor for the Mets in 2017 and beyond.
Market Notes: Braves, Nats, Sale, S-Rod, Hernandez, Santana, Rosario
The Braves are “aggressively swapping offers” with other organizations for starters, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Twitter link). Atlanta has been rumored to have inquired on basically all of the quality, young, controllable arms that might be available, and it seems that the organization is serious about pursuing a major strike. One such pitcher, of course, is White Sox lefty Chris Sale, who has also reportedly been asked about by the Braves’ division rivals to the north. Adding a starting pitcher isn’t exactly a priority for the Nationals, at least from the perspective of need, but Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post argues that the team ought to push hard for Sale. By Svrluga’s reckoning, the team has the prospect arsenal needed to get something done; after another postseason disappointment, he says, adding another ace could get the team over the hump.
Here are a few more notes on the developing market:
- There are five teams in on free agent utilityman Sean Rodriguez, reports Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). One is the Pirates, who have said they’re interested in a reunion, and the Dodgers are also intrigued, per Robert Murray of Fan Rag. MLBTR rated Rodriguez as the 35th-best free agent available after his productive 2016 campaign.
- We’ve heard discussion about the possibility of the Phillies dealing Cesar Hernandez, particularly after the team acquired second-base-capable Howie Kendrick, and CSNPhilly.com’s Corey Seidman takes a look at his possible trade market. His productive 2016 and cheap control make him an interesting option for other organizations, though the question remains whether he can sustain his breakout. Seidman discusses some players who could hold appeal to Philadelphia, suggesting that the club would be most interested in a major league return.
- Lefty Johan Santana may not be done yet, Cotillo adds on Twitter. He’s planning on winter ball in Venezuela in hopes that he can land an opportunity with a major league organization. This certainly isn’t the first time that Santana, now 37, has had a crack at a return, but his prior efforts have all been thwarted by injury. The two-time Cy Young winner has not seen major league action since 2012.
- Free agent slugger Wilin Rosario is still hopeful of landing with a major league club after spending a year in Korea, Cotillo tweets, but he’s not committed to playing in North America. A return to the KBO could also be a consideration, per the report. Rosario, 27, may no longer be an option behind the dish, but his power should intrigue regardless. Over 532 plate appearances last year with the Hanwha Eagles, he posted a .321/.367/.593 batting line with 33 long balls, though of course the KBO is a notably friendly league for hitters.