AL Notes: Royals, Yankees, Athletics
The Royals have once again shuffled their coaching staff in hopes of sparking a dormant offense, reports Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter). Dale Sveum will take over for Pedro Grifol as the hitting coach, with Grifol becoming the catching instructor and Mike Jirschele taking over at third. Oddly, the news comes just one day shy of the anniversary of the club’s shake-up last year, in which Hall of Famer George Brett temporarily took over as the batting instructor. (For what it’s worth, the Royals had a 21-29 record when they tapped Brett — who held the role for about two months — and ended up finishing the year ten games over .500.)
Here’s more from the American League:
- Contrary to popular opinion, the Yankees have the prospect pieces necessary to pull off one or more significant trades, rival GMs tell ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden (Insider subscription required). Bowden says he expects the team to be most interested in adding rotation help, and lists a few hypothetical targets. On the other side of the ledger, says Bowden, New York can offer up young power arms like Dellin Betances and Adam Warren, though those players are obviously useful at the MLB level. Otherwise, potential trade pieces include catchers Gary Sanchez and Peter O’Brien, 20-year-old righty Luis Severino, and the team’s three first-round picks from last year’s draft.
- The Athletics have essentially done the opposite of the prevailing turnaround model of collecting and developing prospects, then selling them off when they get expensive, writes R.J. Anderson for FOX Sports. Since the end of 2012, Oakland GM Billy Beane has repeatedly swapped top prospects for useful, non-star big leaguers who generally did not come with extended team control. While that could lead to a talent deficit in future years, Anderson says that the club should be applauded for aggressively seeking to build a winner rather than waiting and hoping that its young talent pans out.
Red Sox Expect Further Extension Talks With Jon Lester
The Red Sox are still holding out hope of keeping staff ace Jon Lester from reaching the open market, club president and CEO Larry Lucchino indicated in an appearance this morning on WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan (audio link). Lester, 30, owns a 3.45 ERA through 73 innings as he plays out the last year of an earlier extension.
Lucchino said that he “certainly expect[s]” to engage in further extension talks with Lester’s representatives at ACES before the big lefty becomes a free agent. Lucchino also downplayed the importance of the club’s reported offer to Lester of $70MM over four years, suggesting that it was a starting point rather than a maximum figure. “I think it’s a mistake to discuss the status of ongoing negotiations as it is a mistake to get fixated on an opening offer,” he said.
A late-breaking extension would hardly be unprecedented. The Phillies retained fellow top southpaw Cole Hamels just before the trade deadline two years ago, for instance. And last year, the Giants pulled off new deals with a pair of veterans who had all but reached the open market, extending Hunter Pence at the tail end of the regular season and locking up starter Tim Lincecum just before he would have officially become a free agent.
Rangers To Acquire Jason Donald From Royals
TODAY: Cash considerations are going back to the Royals in the deal, reports Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter).
YESTERDAY: The Rangers have agreed to acquire utilityman Jason Donald from the Royals, a source tells MLBTR. Hunter Samuels of Kings of Kauffman first reported the trade via Twitter.
Donald, 29, owns a career .257/.309/.362 line in 603 career MLB plate appearances, which he compiled with the Indians over 2010-12. He has spent each of the last two seasons at the Triple-A level, slashing .219/.268/.319 in 271 plate appearances with the Reds organization in 2013 and putting up a .231/.271/.308 line through 85 trips to the dish this year at Omaha.
The versatile Donald has seen most of his professional time at short, but also has spent time at second, third, and the outfield. Presumably, he will serve as minor league depth in the Rangers organization. A client of the Boras Corporation, Donald was a 3rd-round draft pick of the Phillies back in 2006.
Quick Hits: Tommy John, Commissioner, Mock Drafts
For those interested in seeking to understand the root of the elbow injuries that have plagued the game this year, you’ll want to take a look at this position statement from the American Sports Medicine Institute (hat tip to Peter Gammons). The statement closely ties professional ligament injuries to risky throwing patterns in amateur baseball, including over-use, throwing while fatigued, and pitching year-round. Latin American pitchers have experienced a similar incidence of TJ as have their North American counterparts, the statement also says.
Here are some more notes from around the game:
- As the search for a new commissioner picks up steam, sitting commish Bud Selig said today that it was possible that a successor could come from outside the game, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark reports. “That’s a judgment call,” said Selig. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation in some stories. But that’s a judgment call this group will have to make. Understanding the culture of the sport is very important.” He emphasized that it “has to be an inclusive process,” though “people will have to make their own judgments on whether or not you want to stay inside baseball.”
- A familiar trio of the pitchers sits at the top of the most recent mock draft of ESPN.com’s Keith Law (Insider link). In that scenario, Law sees the Cubs looking to strike a below-slot deal with a player like college outfielder Michael Conforto with the fourth overall choice. Some well-regarded prep arms could fall into the sandwich and second round, Law notes, where teams that saved on their first picks will pick them with intentions of spending over slot.
- Attempting to approach the top ten picks of the draft as if he were the general manager making the final call, ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden (Insider link). While clubs often say they just want the best player available, Bowden says that few follow through with that. Clubs do draft with their needs (even at the major league level) in mind, says Bowden, in addition to financial, medical, and makeup considerations. Carrying through on his general observations, Bowden sends Evansville lefty Kyle Freeland to the Twins with the fifth overall pick and LSU righty Aaron Nola to the Phillies in the seven slot.
NL Notes: Diamondbacks, Mets, Zimmerman, Purke
As previously reported, before hiring Tony LaRussa, the Diamondbacks considered other candidates to slot in atop the club’s baseball operations structure or to take over directly for Kevin Towers as general manager. One candidate was former Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, who notes that it is likely (but not certain) that Beinfest would have slotted into the GM role. Arizona also spoke with Braves advisor John Hart, says Rosenthal, though that was purely for purposes of dispensing advice.
Here’s more from Arizona and the rest of the National League:
- The April 2012 shoulder injury to then-Diamondbacks outfielder Chris Young had widespread ramifications both for player and club, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Young, who had been off to a hot start that season, has never really been the same since. And the injury also led to then-teammate Justin Upton playing through a thumb injury. Upton’s step back that year, which could well have been injury-related, ultimately played a role in his departure, Piecoro observes.
- If Young’s current team — the Mets — want to improve its offensive performance, the club needs to boost its spending, opines ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Insider subscription required). With David Wright and Curtis Granderson eating up much of the team’s payroll space at its current spending levels, which reduces the team’s flexibility to add talent creatively without increasing its budget.
- Confirming recent suggestions, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the Nationals are planning to rotate Ryan Zimmerman between third, first, and left field when he returns from the DL. In addition to increasing the club’s ability to optimize the deployment of its position players, Washington hopes that Zimmerman’s future value to the team will see a boost from increased flexibility. The one-time stalwart at the hot corner, who has seen his defensive performance wane with shoulder issues, is in the first year of a six-year, $100MM extension that was agreed to before the 2012 season.
- Nationals prospect Matt Purke will undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow, reports Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post (via Twitter). The 23-year-old lefty has largely disappointed since the Nats gave him a $4.15MM bonus in 2011 to sign out of TCU. As Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com notes on Twitter, Purke — who signed a big league deal — will be out of options by the time he recovers from the procedure.
AL Notes: Lester, Burnett, Santana, Suzuki, Polanco
Red Sox players made news this winter by campaigning openly for the re-signing of Mike Napoli. And Dustin Pedroia even agreed to defer salary in his extension, in part to free payroll space to make a run (which ultimately proved unsuccessful) at retaining Jacoby Ellsbury. As WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford writes, staff ace Jon Lester — one of the players who pushed to keep Napoli — will almost certainly benefit from much the same treatment. The clubhouse clearly wants Lester to be kept in Boston, says Bradford, who notes that there was “some grumbling” after reports emerged of the club’s somewhat underwhelming extension offer.
Here’s more out of the American League:
- Southpaw Sean Burnett, who signed a two-year, $8MM deal with the Angels before the 2013 season, learned today that he has suffered a torn UCL for the second time in his career, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Burnett had just worked his way back from an elbow injury that cut him down after just 13 appearances in 2013, and now seems destined to miss the rest of the year. That makes it rather likely, of course, that the club will decide to pay him a $500K buyout rather than picking up his $4.5MM option for 2015. The Halos currently feature only one lefty in the pen in Wade LeBlanc. Though the team has some options stashed in the upper minors, such as Nick Maronde and Buddy Boshers, none has Burnett’s track record.
- As expected, the Orioles are working to secure an extension of the June 1 opt-out date in starter Johan Santana‘s minor league deal, reports Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com. Assuming that can be worked out, Baltimore hopes to set Santana on a course that could bring him back to the majors as soon as June 18.
- Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki said he would be open to extension talks if the club is interested, reports Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “It’s something that I think you’d be crazy not to listen,” he said. “You’re always open to those things.” Berardino notes that Minnesota previously extended former backstop Ryan Doumit at a similar point in the 2012 season, after originally signing him to a one-year deal as a free agent (as was the case with Suzuki). Nevertheless, a source says that it is still “too early” to consider a new deal for Suzuki, who could also be setting himself up as a nice trade piece with his .297/.363.405 start.
- While the Twins seem to have made the right call in locking up Suzuki to a modest deal, they missed out on an even bigger opportunity back in 2009 — though the club was not alone in that respect. As Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets, Minnesota was among about ten other clubs that made offers to outfielder Gregory Polanco which came in just under the Pirates’ winning bid of $175K.
Rangers Claim Phil Irwin
The Rangers have claimed right-hander Phil Irwin off waivers from the Pirates and optioned him to Triple-A Round Rock, executive vice president of communications John Blake announced (on Twitter). The Rangers’ 40-man roster is now full, Blake adds.
The 27-year-old Irwin is one of three players to have been designated for assignment by the Pirates in the past week, as Wandy Rodriguez and Vin Mazzaro both found themselves victim of the DFA as well. Irwin has a strong minor league track record, including a 3.25 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 445 1/3 innings since being selected in the 21st round of the 2009 draft.
Irwin pitched well in his Triple-A debut as a 25-year-old and was solid in 10 innings there last season as well (0.90 ERA). However, he missed most of the 2013 season after undergoing surgery to correct a nerve issue in his elbow and had allowed 21 runs in 21 1/3 innings at Triple-A this season. Irwin has one Major League appearance, which came last season when he made a spot start for the Bucs and allowed four earned runs on six hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.
Orioles Showing Most Early Interest In Samardzija
2:27pm: Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun adds to the story, reporting that the Cubs had one of their top talent evaluators — one who is not typically assigned to low-level minor league games — present at one of Harvey’s most recent start for Class-A Delmarva.
Connolly asked Orioles executive VP Dan Duquette about the timeline for trades, and Duquette replied by pointing out that the team just made a trade to acquire Nick Hundley this weekend. Duquette added that he and his staff are constantly talking to other teams, though naturally, he declined to comment on Samardzija specifically.
Of course, as Connolly points out, even if the O’s are being aggressive, it doesn’t necessarily behoove the Cubs to deal early. They could potentially extract more from a deal by getting other teams involved in the bidding to drive up the eventual return.
10:42am: While we’re still more than two months from the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, multiple sources have indicated to Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago that the Orioles are the “leading team of interest” in the early stages of the Jeff Samardzija sweepstakes. According to Levine, there’s mutual interest between the two teams, which isn’t surprising given the Orioles’ wealth of young pitching.
Baltimore has built up a strong crop of top-tier pitching prospects in the form of Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Hunter Harvey (who, as a 2013 draftee, is ineligible to be dealt until after this year’s draft) and Eduardo Rodriguez. Each of those players ranked inside the game’s top 61 prospects, per Baseball Prospectus. While Harvey didn’t crack the Top 100 lists of Baseball America or MLB.com, the other three are all present on those lists as well. That crop makes the O’s a particularly logical trading partner for the Cubs, who are stocked with high-end hitting prospects in their well-regarded farm system but lack potential high-impact arms.
Those names might seem a steep price to pay for Orioles fans, but it’s likely that the Cubs would ask for two from that list, in my opinion. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports recently reported that the Cubs asked for Drew Hutchison and one of Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez from the Blue Jays this winter, and that was before Samardzija got off to the best start of his career.
The 29-year-old Samardzija ranks second only to Adam Wainwright with a 1.68 ERA among qualified starters (Wainwright, at 1.67, has only been nominally better in terms of ERA). He’s racked up 75 innings while averaging 7.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 to go along with a career-best 51 percent ground-ball rate. The Chicago ace is affordable, as he’s earning just $5.35MM after avoiding arbitration last winter, and he’s controllable through the 2015 season. Sabermetric estimators agree that Samardzija’s start has been outstanding, with FIP pegging him at 2.79 and xFIP estimating 3.27.
Last summer, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer and president Theo Epstein were able to extract a package of C.J. Edwards (now the game’s No. 28 ranked prospect, per BA), Mike Olt, Justin Grimm and Neil Ramirez for two months of Matt Garza. It seems logical that Chicago’s front office will look to exceed that package in order to deal a pitcher with more team control that is off to a better start and comes with far less injury concern than the one they traded away last summer.
Baltimore currently sits just 3.5 games back in the AL East, thanks largely to the team’s offense. Orioles starters have combined for a 4.57 ERA this season, which ranks 25th in the Majors.
Padres Acquire Ronald Herrera To Complete Kyle Blanks Trade
The Athletics announced (on Twitter) that they have traded right-hander Ronald Herrera to the Padres as the player to be named later in the Kyle Blanks trade. That deal, which was reached on May 15 this month, also sent outfielder Jake Goebbert to San Diego.
Herrera, 19, has spent the season in the rotation for Oakland’s Class-A affiliate in Beloit, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 50 2/3 innings of work. The Venezuelan hurler ranked 16th in the A’s farm system, according to MLB.com. Baseball America ranked Herrera 17th among A’s prospects prior to the 2014 campaign.
The A’s signed Herrera for just $20K out of Venezuela back in 2011 (as MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo notes in his free scouting report on Herrera). Mayo writes that Herrera is exceptionally polished for his age and features three pitches, including a fastball that touches 94 mph despite his small frame (he is listed at 5’10” and 168 pounds). Mayo also writes that Herrera’s changeup shows more promise than his curveball, and his fastball features some nice sink. Baseball America agreed in their 2014 Prospect Handbook, noting that Herrera has outstanding command and “has the makings of a solid big league starter” down the line.
Minor Moves: Johnny Monell, Nationals
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Dodgers have acquired catcher Johnny Monell from the Orioles, reports Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish (Twitter link). In a followup tweet, he adds that “future considerations” are being sent to the Orioles in exchange, likely indicating cash. The 28-year-old Monell is hitting .209/.280/.286 with a homer in exactly 100 plate appearances for Triple-a Norfolk this season. He has limited Major League experience, as he appeared in eight games for the Giants last year, collecting one hit in nine trips to the plate. Monell will serve as catching depth and head to Triple-A Albuquerque for the Dodgers.
- MLB.com’s Bill Ladson tweets that the Nationals have released a trio of minor leaguers: right-hander Andy Santana, left-hander Niko Spezial and outfielder Hayden Jennings. None of the three had progressed to full-season ball since joining the Nats organization, though Spezial did pitch at short-season Low Class A last year.