Heyman On Cespedes, Parra, Davis
There could be more great star free agents still available as we head into the New Year than ever before, in the estimation of CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. The question now is – where will they land? Here’s the latest from Heyman:
- Angels owner Arte Moreno has indicated that he’s not going to make a major free agent splash between now and Opening Day, but Heyman hears that the Halos have been in contact with Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and perhaps Alex Gordon as well. It’s not clear how serious they are about signing one of the three, however.
- Gerardo Parra is said to have “seven or eight” teams in on him and the Rockies are in “serious” pursuit. Colorado has been considering trades involving Carlos Gonzalez and their other outfielders, so a Parra signing could be a part of a serious outfield overhaul for them. Parra slashed .291/.328/.452 in 2015 and he boasts a strong reputation as a defensive outfielder, though his fielding statistics took a big step backward last season. The Royals are also known to have interest.
- When asked about free agent slugger Chris Davis, one person connected to the Astros said the player is “not in our plans.” Davis would be a strong fit for Houston, in theory, but he is out of their price range. The 29-year-old Davis is the top power bat on the open market, as he has led the Majors in homers over the past three seasons.
- When approached, the Yankees asked the Astros for Lance McCullers Jr. in exchange for Andrew Miller, and Houston quickly rebuffed that attempt. The Yankees are seeking a No. 1 pitcher in order to part with Miller, so it seems unlikely that he’ll go anywhere.
- Word is that new Yankees reliever Aroldis Chapman is unlikely to serve a lengthy suspension for his alleged domestic violence incident. Heyman reasons that the Bombers wouldn’t have made the deal if they felt that Chapman was in store for a long ban.
- The Padres still need a shortstop but one person with Padres connections wondered whether an investment of “$60MM to $70MM” (his estimate) made sense for them given that they are not expected to contend this year. However, Heyman notes that president Mike Dee and GM A.J. Preller are aggressive and they might not want to pass up on the chance to ink a player like Desmond at a sensible number. Heyman also IDs the Rockies and White Sox as dark horse teams for Desmond.
- The Cardinals were another club that downplayed the possibility of a major move, but GM John Mozeliak went out and signed Mike Leake after publicly stating that he wasn’t going to make any “dynamic” moves. Could they have another significant move in store? Heyman has heard buzz that the Cards may also be looking again at a big bat at first or in the outfield.
- When asked about the possibility of Cespedes, one Nationals-connected person said, “Probably not, at least not at the moment.” That doesn’t make a signing likely by any means, but it also doesn’t rule out a pursuit.
- There are still “about six to seven teams involved” when it comes to Cespedes, Heyman writes.
- The Dodgers are still looking around after signing Scott Kazmir, so they are not out on Japanese star Kenta Maeda. The Yankees, meanwhile, can be crossed off the list as they are not interested. Maeda, 28 in April, is widely considered to be one of the best pitchers in Japan. He just wrapped up a season in which he pitched to a 2.09 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 across 206 1/3 innings, marking his sixth consecutive season with an earned run average of 2.60 or better.
- Marlins president president David Samson contends that owner Jeffrey Loria still has “no interest” in selling the club.
Braves To Sign Kyle Kendrick
1:20pm: Kendrick’s deal will call for him to earn a $2MM base if he makes the big league roster and incentives can boost the total value to $6MM, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com tweets.
10:09am: The Braves announced that they have signed right-hander Kyle Kendrick to a minor league deal. The pact includes a non-roster invite to spring training.
Kendrick, 31, is coming off a poor season with the Rockies after signing a one-year, $5.5MM contract last winter. As a fifth starter that doesn’t miss many bats, Kendrick and Coors Field always seemed like a poor fit, but he presumably went with the largest guarantee offered to him last winter.
In 142 1/3 innings with the Rockies, Kendrick limped to a 6.32 ERA. His K/9, BB/9 and ground-ball rates each trended in the wrong direction in his lone season in Denver, and he finished the year with respective marks of 5.1, 2.9 and 38.8 percent in those regards. While Kendrick’s season was easily the worst of his career and likely hampered his 2015-16 market, he did have a track record as a serviceable source of 25 to 30 starts per year in a different hitter-friendly environment: Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.
From 2010-14, Kendrick worked to a 4.33 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate near 46 percent in 835 2/3 innings. He missed some time this past year with inflammation in his right shoulder and has previously spent time on the DL (2013) for the same injury.
Earlier this month, the Pirates were mentioned as a club with interest in Kendrick and that pairing would have made a lot of sense given the club’s reputation for restoring the values of veteran pitchers who have stumbled. Instead, however, Atlanta has picked him up on a low-risk deal.
Orioles Notes: Span, Kazmir, Kim
Earlier this week, a report listed the Orioles as one of the favorites to land free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. However, a team source later told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com that there’s no real chance of the O’s going anywhere near MLBTR’s projected $140MM price tag on Cespedes. On the other hand, the Orioles have reportedly been willing to lay out a similar amount of money to retain Chris Davis.
While we wait to see if the O’s step up their pursuit of Cespedes or offer up more cash to Davis, here’s a look at the latest from Baltimore:
- The Orioles have done their homework on Denard Span, but Kubatko gets the sense that they are unlikely to go beyond a one-year deal for him. Baltimore has concerns about Span’s durability and the club also wonders if he can pass their physical. Span, who is coming up on his 32nd birthday, has been excellent when healthy, slashing a combined .301/.358/.421 over the past two seasons with 42 stolen bases in 943 plate appearances.
- Dan Duquette’s disdain for opt-outs is understandable, but it will be interesting to see if he bends on his policy against them at some point, Rich Dubroff of CSNMidAtlantic.com writes. Dubroff points out that the Orioles long refused to give four-year deals to free agent pitchers, but they folded for Darren O’Day and Ubaldo Jimenez. The Orioles missed out on pitching target Scott Kazmir this winter when the veteran inked a three-year deal – including an opt-out – with the Dodgers.
- On Wednesday, we rounded up some news on the Orioles, including an item on new Korean signee Hyun Soo Kim.
Quick Hits: Shapiro, Kendrick, Chapman, Parra
Mark Shapiro’s tenure as president of the Blue Jays hasn’t exactly been met with a full embrace by the team’s fans, but he tells John Lott of the National Post that he’s focused on the job at hand rather than worrying about criticism. “I think it’s just inefficient for me to spend a lot of time and energy on that,” says Shapiro. “What I think fans ultimately want is for me to work for this team and make it as good as it can possibly be. If I spend my energy worrying about how to be popular, it’ll be time away from doing the job. That’s not what I’m going to do.” The piece offers a lengthy and interesting look at the veteran executive, and is well worth a full read.
Here are a few more stray notes from around the game:
- When asked about free agent second baseman Howie Kendrick today, Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi said that the organization “feel[s] pretty set” at the position at this point, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. The Dodgers will utilize Chase Utley and Kike Hernandez there, he said, indicating that there’s little reason for the club to pursue a reunion with Kendrick. Otherwise, per Zaidi, the team could still add another starter and is “still evaluating” its options in the bullpen (via J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group, on Twitter).
- Zaidi also addressed the Dodgers‘ reported deal with the Reds for Aroldis Chapman, via another Shaikin tweet. Los Angeles wasn’t “comfortable making the move” and “moved on” after allegations of a domestic dispute involving Chapman surfaced.
- Unsurprisingly, Gerardo Parra is expected to wait to sign until the top of the outfield market sheds some names, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets. He is still drawing interest from the Royals, Nationals, Giants, and Angels, per the report.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post takes a broader look at the outfield market and wonders what teams could be readying to spring. The Nats top his list, followed by four AL clubs: the White Sox, Orioles, Tigers, and Angels. I agree with Sherman’s assessment that the market will still likely pay these players, as I recently wrote. As an anonymous GM told Sherman: “You will have some owners soon say, ‘Wow, we can have this guy rather than what we have now.’ That is when the aggressiveness comes back in.”
Braves To Sign Alex Torres
The Braves have struck a minor league deal with lefty Alex Torres, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports on Twitter. He’ll receive an invitation to big league training camp this spring.
Torres just turned 28 in December and has seen fairly consistent time in the big leagues over the past three years. But he was designated for assignment by the Mets last August.
At the surface, that was a puzzling move for New York, which had acquired Torres over the prior winter and received 34 1/3 innings of 3.15 ERA pitching with 35 strikeouts. But a closer look revealed the obvious cause: Torres also permitted 26 free passes in that span and was ineffective against opposing lefties, who touched him for a .268/.406/.393 batting line.
Atlanta will hope that Torres can return to the form he showed over 2013-14. While he was still wild at times — especially in the latter season — he did put up 112 innings of 2.49 ERA pitching while posting 9.1 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9.
The route back isn’t immediately clear. Torres hit the strike zone with just 41.0% of his pitches in 2015, but that was actually up from his 2014 campaign. The biggest issue, it seems, was a drop in his swinging strike rate — from nearly 13% in the prior two years to 9.2% — that occurred as batters made more frequent contact while chasing less of his offerings outside of the zone.
If the Braves and Torres can figure things out, there’s some potential future upside for the team — and not just through the possibility of a mid-season flip. Torres will enter the year with just 2.095 days of service, meaning he could be controlled for up to three more seasons via arbitration.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/30/15
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Tigers have added righty Michael Crotta and outfielder Chad Huffman on minor league deals, per a club announcement. (Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press first tweeted the former’s signing.) Both players have briefly reached the majors in the past and spent the last two seasons playing in Japan. Crotta, 31, posted a 6.59 ERA in 28 2/3 frames last year for the Nippon Ham Fighters while struggling badly with his control (6.0 BB/9). But he allowed just 2.62 earned per nine in his 58 1/3 frames in the prior season. And the 30-year-old Huffman received only eleven turns at bat for the Chiba Lotte Marines this year, though he slashed .270/.354/.443 over 210 plate appearances for the club in 2014.
NL Notes: Dews, Nationals, Desmond, Baez, Reds
The Braves organization suffered a difficult loss over the weekend, as long-time coach, advisor, and instructor Bobby Dews passed away at 76 years of age. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman explains how deeply embedded he was in the team’s fabric, even as he spent less time around the ballclub in recent years. We join all those around the league in tipping our cap to Dews and offering our condolences to his family and friends.
A few notes from the National League …
- Following the Nationals‘ reported agreement with Stephen Drew on a one-year deal, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post breaks down what the club’s bench could look like. As Janes notes, the addition of Drew will give first-year Nationals manager Dusty Baker four left-handed bats on the bench (Jose Lobaton, Clint Robinson and Matt den Dekker being the others, as things stand). His versatility, as well as the versatility of fellow newcomer Daniel Murphy (who can also handle third base, first base and, in a pinch, left field) gives Baker plenty of options to mix and match. A significant addition may or may not be coming, Janes writes, noting that the pursuit of top free agents such as Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist at least indicates that the club has money to spend. However, even if the team doesn’t land an additional center field option, the much-needed addition of some left-handed options in recent weeks has brightened the 2016 outlook.
- Former Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond has long been rumored to be dabbling in the idea of signing as a Zobrist-esque super-utility player, and ESPN.com’s Buster Olney suggests the Giants could be a fit for him in such a role. Desmond could be the regular left fielder, even see time in center, and function as a reserve or injury replacement in the infield, Olney reasons.
- Speaking of converting infielders to the outfield grass, Cubs youngster Javier Baez has seen time in center field in the Puerto Rican winter league, MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat noted recently. It doesn’t seem that the organization is looking to press him into regular duty there, at least at present, but would at least like to have the option of deploying him in the outfield on occasion.
- The Reds‘ two Rule 5 picks have a solid chance of sticking with the club, C. Trent Rosecrans writes for Baseball America. Outfielder Jake Cave (from the Yankees) makes for a good fit because he hits from the left side, assistant GM Nick Krall tells Rosecrans. And Krall adds that southpaw Chris O’Grady (via the Angels) has shown an ability to retire batters on both sides of the box, with good command helping to make up for average stuff.
Dodgers Sign Scott Kazmir
The Dodgers announced on Wednesday that they have signed left-hander Scott Kazmir to a three-year contract. The contract will reportedly guarantee Kazmir a total of $48MM, but he also obtains an opt-out clause after the first season, and there are reportedly deferrals in the deal. Kazmir is said to receive a $5MM signing bonus and a $3MM salary in 2016, with annual payments of $8MM in each of the next five seasons (or, in the case of an opt out, a second payment of $8MM next year).
Kazmir, a client of The Legacy Agency, will fill a void in the Dodgers’ rotation and give them yet another lefty starter to pair with Clayton Kershaw, Brett Anderson, Alex Wood and, if healthy, Hyun-jin Ryu, creating the potential for an entirely left-handed starting five.
In Kazmir, the Dodgers will secure some rotation stability that has eluded them to this point in the offseason. Los Angeles aggressively pursued a reunion with 2015 Cy Young runner-up Zack Greinke but lost out on their co-ace to an eleventh-hour push from the division-rival Diamondbacks. When that deal fell through, L.A. made a strong push for Hisashi Iwakuma and agreed to terms at three years and $45MM, but concerns about his physical prompted the Dodgers to try to restructure the deal. With that hefty guarantee no longer on the table, Iwakuma returned to Seattle on a one-year deal with a pair of vesting options, sending the Dodgers back to the drawing board.
Kazmir, 32 next month, was one of the top remaining starters on the market and should provide the Dodgers with a sizable upgrade over their internal options to round out the rotation. Formerly one of the game’s most promising young pitchers, Kazmir’s career went south in a hurry last decade due to myriad injuries, and he was absent from Major League Baseball entirely from 2011-12 with the exception of 1 2/3 innings with the Angels. However, Kazmir reinvented himself on the independent circuit and emerged with the Indians in 2013 to throw 158 quality innings. That prompted a two-year deal with Oakland, which he completed in 2015 (as a member of the Astros, following a trade).
Since returning to the Majors, Kazmir has compiled a 3.54 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate of roughly 43 percent. He’s faded down the stretch somewhat in each of the past two seasons but delivered an overall strong body of work in that time, positioning himself for a sizable commitment on the open market. Kazmir reportedly had multiple three-year offers in the range of $13MM annually, but he was able to secure not only a larger annual value but an opt-out clause. While he was said to be hoping for four guaranteed years, the opt-out clause could potentially make this contract more valuable than a four-year pact anyhow, as Kazmir will now have the opportunity to enter the 2016-17 market as perhaps the second-best starter available, trailing Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg. If, on the other hand, injuries sideline him or he struggles in his first-ever taste of the National League, Kazmir can still collect a hefty guarantee for the 2016-17 seasons. From the Dodgers’ vantage point, the silver lining in the event of an opt-out after just one season would be compensation in the form of a 2017 draft pick, assuming Kazmir rejects a qualifying offer.
Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times reported the guarantee (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of CBS Sports was the first to report the opt-out clause (Twitter link). Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that Kazmir’s salaries would be deferred evenly over a six-year term.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Rangers Sign Michael McKenry, Donnie Veal To Minor League Contracts
The Rangers announced that they have signed catcher Michael McKenry and left-handed reliever Donnie Veal to minor league contracts. McKenry will receive an invitation to Major League Spring Training, per the announcement.
McKenry served as a reserve backstop for the Rockies over the last two seasons, slashing a combined .268/.367/.464 in 344 plate appearances. That’s quite an impressive batting line, even when adjusted for Coors Field, but it’s important to bear in mind that most of the damage was done in 2014, when he carried a .381 BABIP and 18.2% HR/FB rate.
The veteran McKenry’s defensive skills aren’t held in terribly high regard, either, which helps to explain why Colorado was willing to cut him loose. But he certainly makes for a useful depth option, at least, and will join the competition this spring with Robinson Chirinos, Chris Gimenez, and Bobby Wilson.
As for the 31-year-old Veal, last year marked his fifth season of MLB action, though he received just five appearances with the Braves. Veal was quite good at Triple-A, however, as he allowed just four earned runs in 41 1/3 innings with an even forty strikeouts against just eleven walks. All told, he’s thrown 69 frames in the majors, working to a 5.48 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 6.4 BB/9.
Dodgers Designate Daniel Fields For Assignment
The Dodgers announced that they have designated outfielder Daniel Fields for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for the newly signed Scott Kazmir.
Fields, 25 next month, has spent the majority of the past two seasons at the Triple-A level, where he’s batted a combined .225/.312/.358 with 13 homers and 25 steals in 825 plate appearances. Baseball America has ranked him among the Tigers’ Top 30 prospects in each of the past six offseasons (26th last winter) since he received a $1.625MM bonus to forgo his college commitment to Michigan. Their latest scouting report noted that he has fringy arm strength and is a fringe-average runner, making him better suited to play left field than center field. He does have average raw power, per BA, but he’s also prone to swinging and missing.