Rays Designate Pedro Figueroa For Assignment
The Rays have designated southpaw Pedro Figueroa for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for the recently signed Grant Balfour, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).
Tampa claimed the 28-year-old Figueroa off release waivers from the A's earlier this month, designating Jerry Sands for assignment to clear space on the roster for the Dominican hurler. Figueroa allowed four runs in just three innings for Oakland in 2013 and pitched to a 4.10 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9 in 59 1/3 innings for their Triple-A affiliate. Figueroa held opposing left-handers to a .671 OPS in 2013 between the Majors and Minors, but he struggled against opposite-handed batters, yielding a .929 OPS.
Mariners To Re-Sign Endy Chavez
TODAY: Chavez will earn $750K if he makes the big league roster, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post, and the deal includes up to $450K in incentives tied to plate appearances. He can request his release on June 1st if he is not on the MLB roster.
YESTERDAY: The Mariners have agreed to a minor league deal with outfielder Endy Chavez, ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reports (Twitter link). Chavez, a Legacy Agency client, will receive an invitation to Seattle's big league Spring Training camp.
Chavez, who turns 36 in February, signed a minor league deal with the M's last March and ended up playing in 97 Major League games, seeing time at all three outfield positions and hitting .267/.290/.327 in 279 PA. Chavez joins a crowded outfield situation in Seattle, as he'll be battling Franklin Gutierrez, Willie Bloomquist, Abraham Almonte and Dustin Ackley for either bench jobs or even a regular share of starting time in left field.
Marlins Want To Extend Giancarlo Stanton
The Marlins have told star Giancarlo Stanton that they wish to sign him to a long-term extension, GM Dan Jennings told Jim Bowden of Sirius XM MLB Network Radio (Twitter link). Miami hopes to work out a deal sooner rather than later, according to Jennings.
Needless to say, the contract situation of Stanton has been one of the most watched in the game. He recently agreed to a one-year, $6.5MM deal to avoid arbitration, but reports have suggested that extension talks were not underway. Stanton is currently set to reach free agency before the 2017 season. If the Fish can lock up their best position player, he would join young ace Jose Fernandez as a franchise cornerstone under team control for the foreseeable future.
Royals To Sign Jon Rauch
The Royals have agreed to terms with reliever Jon Rauch on a minor league deal, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. MLBTR’s Zach Links reported last night that the towering righty was close to signing.
Rauch, 35, struggled last year with a 7.56 ERA in just 16 2/3 innings with the Marlins. The Turner Gary Sports client has maintained a solid track record over his career, however, with a net 3.78 ERA in his 547 1/3 big league innings as a reliever, supported by a 2.80 K:BB ratio when working out of the pen.
Kansas City becomes Rauch’s eighth big league stop (he also played at the Triple-A level for the Orioles organization last year). He has only spent more than two seasons with one franchise — the Expos/Nationals, where he played for parts of five seasons.
Mets Tried To Land Balfour
2:24pm: A club official says that the team did not beat the Rays' offer on Balfour, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter links.) Though the Mets had "dialogue" with Balfour, the source said, only a "real creative" contract would have been possible for the club.
The Mets made an equivalent offer to that of the Rays, tweets Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com.
2:17pm: The Mets offered Grant Balfour a larger deal than the two-year, $12MM pact he signed with the Rays, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The closer instead chose Tampa because of its proximity to his Clearwater, Florida home, says Rosenthal, and may also have considered the impact of Florida's lack of state income taxes.
The news is most interesting for what it says about a Mets organization that has already guaranteed nearly $90MM in free agent signings. With Bobby Parnell expecting to resume his duties as closer to start the year, and the club seemingly already controlling enough pieces for the pen, the interest in Balfour rates as a surprise. That is especially so given that Balfour is already 36, and the Mets will play the coming year without ace Matt Harvey to help lead a renaissance. If nothing else, it would appear that the Mets still have money to spend on the market, if any other players carry sufficient appeal for GM Sandy Alderson.
Pirates Preparing To Enter Spring Without Burnett
Pirates president Frank Coonelly says that the club does not expect to have A.J. Burnett for the coming season, reports ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. This confirms the recent statements of pitching coach Ray Searage indicating that Burnett seemed likely to retire.
"We'd love to have A.J. back," said Coonelly, "but right now we've turned the page and we're heading to Bradenton thinking he's not going to be with us. But if he surprises us and calls up tomorrow and says he wants to pitch again, we'd love to have him." Coonelly confirmed that, if Burnett does indeed decide to pitch (and, presumably, agrees to do so at the Bucs' price), the team would still "have the flexibility to bring him back."
Ervin Santana’s Latest Asking Price In $60MM Range
At least as of one week ago, free agent starter Ervin Santana indicated that he was seeking a four-year deal in the $60MM range, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). Though Santana had been said to be seeking a much larger contract earlier in the offseason, Passan wonders whether even the lowered asking price will be achievable at this point.
Santana, 31, has two major factors working against him: first, he suffered through a terrible 2012 season before finding redemption last year in Kansas City. And second, he comes with draft pick compensation attached since he declined the Royals' qualifying offer after the season.
With Matt Garza signing today for just four years and $52MM, it is fair to ask whether Santana can land a substantially larger contract. He may not be quite as good a pitcher as Garza, although he does not have the recent durability issues that the latter came with. But Santana, unlike Garza, will require his new team to give up a draft pick, and he remains on a market that has a competing arm in Ubaldo Jimenez.
Brewers In Discussions With Matt Garza
The Brewers are in discussions with Matt Garza on a deal believed to be for four years and $52MM, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). News of the club's pursuit of Garza was first reported by MLB.com's Brewer Nation blog.
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Release Bryan LaHair
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball league of Japan have released former big leaguer Bryan LaHair, reports Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (via Twitter). LaHair was transferred to the Hawks from the Cubs after the 2012 season, agreeing to a two-year, $4.7MM deal that included an opt-out provision.
LaHair had a breakout 2012 season as a 29-year-old, posting huge first-half numbers that led to an unlikely All-Star appearance. But he faded in the back half of the year, ultimately ending up with a .259/.334/.450 line for the season, including 16 home runs, over 380 plate appearances. In Japan last year, LaHair matched that tally of homers over a similar 389 plate appearances, but saw his line dip to .230/.306/.428.
The left-handed swinging LaHair has seen time at both first and the corner outfields, increasing his versatility. He was limited almost exclusively to facing righties in his big 2012 season, and has only 96 career MLB plate appearances against southpaws, over which he has a meager .380 OPS. In his last full season in the minors, 2011, LaHair posted a 1.120 OPS against righties and a .875 mark against same-handed hurlers.
LaHair joins a thin group of corner options with left-handed power, and could prove attractive to MLB clubs looking for some pop off of the bench.
Scherzer Hopes To Reach Extension With Tigers
Cy Young winner Max Scherzer is optimistic on his contract situation, reports Jason Beck of MLB.com, and hopes to reach agreement on a new deal with the Tigers before the start of the season. Scherzer will not participate in contract talks after Spring Training, Beck adds.
Scherzer is playing out his last arbitration-eligible season on a one-year, $15.525MM deal that broke the record for a raise by a five-year service time pitcher. The 29-year-old was outstanding last year for Detroit, posting a 2.90 ERA with 10.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 214 1/3 innings. He figures to headline a strong class of free agent starters next year, if a new deal is not reached first.
The two major recent pitching deals could have an impact on Scherzer's negotiations with Detroit. Though it obviously cannot be argued that Clayton Kershaw is a fair comparable for Scherzer — or anyone else, for that matter — his seven-year, $215MM deal raises the ceiling for the market. Indirectly, Kershaw's absence from the 2015 free agent class transfers some leverage to Scherzer, who would stand to be the best starter available.
More relevant, perhaps, is the seven-year, $155MM Masahiro Tanaka signing, which rises to the $175MM level when the $20MM release fee is included. Though Tanaka is obviously much younger than Scherzer, he has never thrown a pitch in North America, let alone landed a Cy Young. It is not hard to imagine Scherzer's agent, Scott Boras, arguing that his client deserves a larger guarantee than the Japanese ace.
As I explained back in December, the Tigers have cleared a substantial amount of future payroll space over recent months. Whether or not an extension for Scherzer was part of the reason for those maneuvers, Detroit certainly has additional flexibility to fit a new deal.
For his part, Scherzer says that he is excited by the prospect of free agency, but that Detroit "is a place where I want to be." "Going forward, I'm hopeful we can come to some terms on what we can do in the future," said Scherzer. "But if it doesn't happen in the near term, I'm sure we can get it done in the offseason."