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Royals Designate Collin Snider For Assignment

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 1:51pm CDT

The Royals announced Monday that they’ve designated right-handed reliever Collin Snider for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to veteran lefty reliever Will Smith, whose previously reported one-year deal with Kansas City is now official.

Snider, 28, has appeared in each of the past two seasons with the Royals — his first two years of big league experience. In 54 2/3 innings spread over the life of 60 appearances, he’s pitched to a 5.93 ERA with a 13.4% strikeout rate against an 11.4% walk rate. He walked more hitters (13) than he struck out (11) in 20 1/3 innings this past season.

It’s been a tough first look in the majors for Snider, who’s also scuffled in parts of three Triple-A seasons. He averages 95.7 mph on his sinker, however, and has racked up ground-balls at an impressive 51.9% clip in the big leagues. That hasn’t helped him to keep runs off the board, but Snider is a hard-throwing 28-year-old with strong ground-ball tendencies and a minor league option remaining — and his slider also received strong reviews later during his prospect days in the Royals’ system.

The Royals will have a week to either find a trade partner for Snider or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. His velocity, ground-ball rate, slider and remaining option might be interesting enough for another club with more 40-man space to take a look. If not, he’ll very likely be assigned outright to Triple-A Omaha and remain with the organization as a non-40-man player.

Royals Have Had Discussions With Michael Wacha, Jack Flaherty

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 12:57pm CDT

The Royals’ wide-ranging search for rotation help has led to discussions with free agents Michael Wacha and Jack Flaherty, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Kansas City has also been linked to free agents Marcus Stroman, Lucas Giolito and Seth Lugo within the past week.

Royals general manager J.J. Picollo has said on multiple occasions this winter that he’s hoping to bolster his starting rotation, and he recently acknowledged that his club has at least $30MM to spend this offseason. The Royals aren’t likely to be serious players for top-of-the-market arms like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, but the list of names to which they’ve already been tied suggests they’re quite active in the second and third tiers of the market for starting pitching help.

Both Wacha and Flaherty figure to be in the Royals’ price range, landing annual values that fall well shy of that rough $30MM annual rate. Wacha’s two-year, $32MM club option was bought out by the Padres at season’s end, but after posting consecutive seasons with 125-plus innings and ERAs of 3.32 and 3.22, he has a case for a three-year pact — albeit perhaps at a lesser rate than the $16MM which San Diego declined to pay (or pick up and attempt to trade him at).

Over the past two seasons, between the Red Sox and Padres, Wacha has posted a combined 3.27 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. Despite being more of a fly-ball pitcher, he’s allowed a manageable 1.14 homers per nine frames. His 88.1 mph average exit velocity and 35.4% hard-hit rate are both a bit lower than this past season’s leaguewide averages (89 mph, 39.2%), which helps to mitigate the impact of a below-average strikeout rate. Wacha has dramatically reduced his reliance on a four-seam fastball over the past two seasons. He’s steadily increased his usage of a sinker and changeup in that time, posting new career-high usage rates for each pitch in both 2022 and 2023.

The broader question with Wacha is one of durability. He’s been placed on the injured list nine times in his MLB career — five of them due to right shoulder issues. Wacha landed on the IL with a stress reaction in his shoulder back in 2014, and he’s since had shoulder-related IL trips in 2016, 2020, 2022 and 2023. He’s also missed time with one-off oblique, hamstring, knee and intercostal injuries. Most recently, he missed six weeks of the 2023 summer with shoulder inflammation. However, he also posted a 3.88 ERA in 48 2/3 innings after returning and closed out the year with consecutive seven-inning gems (two total runs allowed on nine hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts).

Turning to Wacha’s former Cardinals teammate, Flaherty isn’t that far removed from looking the part of a blossoming ace. A first-round pick and top prospect before his big league debut, the right-hander logged a 3.34 ERA through 151 innings during his first full MLB campaign back in 2018. He was even better in 2019, tossing a career-best 196 1/3 innings with a brilliant 2.75 earned run average, excellent 29.9% strikeout rate and lower-than-average 7.1% walk rate. Unfortunately, he battled shoulder troubles of his own while pitching just 154 1/3 innings combined from 2020-2022.

This past season, Flaherty split the year between the Cardinals and Orioles, enjoying his healthiest year since 2019 but also displaying rather pedestrian results. Flaherty’s 4.99 ERA stands as an obvious eyesore, and his 22.8% strikeout rate was more or less in line with the league average. His 10.6% walk rate was a good bit worse than average. His fastball, which averaged 94.5 mph in that brilliant 2019 season, sat at 93.2 mph in 2023.

It obviously wasn’t Flaherty’s best work, but even with the downturn in results and durability concerns, there’s reason to believe he could yet command a multi-year deal. Flaherty only turned 28 in October, and a team might view him as a prime-aged rebound candidate who could pitch near the top of a rotation in a best-case scenario. He’d be an upside play based more on his prior heights than his 2023 output, but even if things don’t pan out, a two- or three-year deal likely wouldn’t break the bank.

Recent three-year deals for pitchers in this tier have generally landed around $12-13MM per season (e.g. Anthony DeSclafani, Yusei Kikuchi, Zach Eflin). It’s similarly feasible that Flaherty might just prefer a one-year deal that’d allow him to return to market next winter — although he could also get there via an opt-out. There are various contractual forms he can and likely is considering, but he’s unlikely to be prohibitively expensive in any of those scenarios, given Picollo’s prior comments regarding the team’s payroll flexibility.

Kansas City’s rotation currently projects to include Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and veteran innings eater Jordan Lyles. Candidates for the final two spots include Daniel Lynch, Jonathan Heasley, Angel Zerpa, Alec Marsh and Max Castillo, among others, but the Royals are hoping to add at least one, if not two veteran arms to supplement the bunch.

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Re-Sign Ronnie Dawson

By Darragh McDonald | December 11, 2023 at 12:45pm CDT

The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have re-signed outfielder Ronnie Dawson, as relayed and translated by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net. The outfielder will get a $550K salary with $50K of incentives also available.

Dawson, 29 in May, has four games of MLB experience, three with the 2021 Astros and one with the 2022 Reds. In April of 2023, he signed with the Lexington Counter Clocks of the Atlantic League and hit a solid .282/.363/.512 in 64 games for that club.

He was able to parlay that into a job with the Heroes in July, then got into 57 games for that club in the second half. He hit just three home runs but was hard to get out, as he slashed .336/.399/.454. He also stole nine bases while getting caught just twice and lined up defensively in center and left field.

Based on that performance, the Heroes will keep him around for 2024. If Dawson continues to perform well, he could earn himself continued opportunities in Korea or perhaps a jump to Japan or a return to North America down the line.

Rangers, Jesus Tinoco Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 11:15am CDT

The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Jesus Tinoco, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Presumably the Rep 1 client will head to big league camp this spring.

It’s a reunion between the two parties, as Texas was also Tinoco’s most recent MLB club. He pitched 20 2/3 innings of 2.18 ERA ball for the 2022 Rangers, fanning 21.4% of his opponents against a more concerning 11.9% walk rate. Tinoco’s run with the Rangers was mostly solid, but he’ll also forever be remembered by many as the pitcher who had the distinction of serving up Aaron Judge’s record-setting 62nd home run late in the ’22 campaign.

Tinoco, 28, spent the 2023 season with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He notched a tidy 2.38 earned run average with the Lions but did so with a below-average strikeout rate (18.2%) and a shaky walk rate (12.5%) that resembled his 2022 marks in Texas. Tinoco, who was famously traded alongside Jose Reyes and Miguel Castro in the 2015 blockbuster that send Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins from Colorado to Toronto, has a career 4.05 ERA in 66 2/3 big league frames.

The Rangers have a few spots at the back of the bullpen solidified, where Jose Leclerc, Josh Sborz, Brock Burke, Cody Bradford and recently signed Kirby Yates all seem likely to have roles. But there’s still competition for the remaining few spots and likely will be, even if GM Chris Young and his staff still make another veteran addition or two before the end of the offseason.

Dodgers Trade Victor Gonzalez To Yankees

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 11:03am CDT

11:03am: The two teams have announced the trade.

9:48am: The Yankees are acquiring left-handed reliever Victor Gonzalez and minor league infield prospect Jorbit Vivas from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Trey Sweeney, reports Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the Yankees were acquiring a pair of 40-man players from the Dodgers in exchange for a prospect not on New York’s 40-man. The trade clears a pair of spots on L.A.’s roster to accommodate the signings of Shohei Ohtani and Joe Kelly.

Gonzalez, 28, has a minor league option remaining but also comes to the Yankees with a solid MLB track record. He’s capable of stepping directly into manager Aaron Boone’s bullpen and will likely be viewed as a favorite to do so. He has far more big league experience than fellow southpaw Matt Krook, making Gonzalez an option to join Nick Ramirez as a second southpaw option for Boone.

Gonzalez missed the 2022 season due to an elbow injury that required an arthroscopic debridement procedure, but he’s logged 89 1/3 innings for the Dodgers from 2020-23, pitching to a 3.22 earned run average with solid strikeout and walk rates (23.2% and 8.4%, respectively) in addition to a massive 58.1% grounder rate. The Yankees tend to gravitate toward relievers with plus ground-ball rates and better-than-average velocity, and Gonzalez checks both boxes, averaging just under 95 mph with a sinker that tops out in the upper 90s.

Gonzalez’s 2023 season wasn’t as sharp as his dominant 2020 MLB debut, but he still posted a 4.01 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that were actually improvements over their 2021 levels. The lefty is also among the game’s best in terms of inducing weak contact, evidenced by a career 84.9 mph average exit velocity and 30.7% hard-hit rate — both drastically lower than this past season’s respective league averages of 89 mph and 39.2%.

The Yankees can control Gonzalez for an additional three seasons. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just a $1MM salary in 2024 and will be due subsequent raises building off that foundation in 2025 and 2026 before reaching the open market in the 2026-27 offseason. Gonzalez offers a similar skill set to that of free agent Wandy Peralta, whom the Yankees have reportedly had interest in re-signing, but Gonzalez will come at a fraction of the fiscal cost.

New York also acquires the 22-year-old Vivas, who’s generally considered one of the better prospects in a deep Dodgers farm. MLB.com pegs him tenth in the system, while FanGraphs had him 11th and Baseball America ranked him 20th. All of those rankings are dated by a few months now, but there’s little that Vivas did during his 2023 campaign to radically drop his stock. He posted an excellent .280/.391/.436 slash with 12 homers, 21 steals and more walks than strikeouts in 109 games as a 22-year-old against older competition in Double-A last year.

Vivas jumped to Triple-A late in the season and turned in a lackluster .225/.339/.294 showing at the top minor league level, but that came in a tiny sample of 121 plate appearances and still came with elite walk (12.4%) and strikeout (15.7%) rates. He’s seen time at both second base and third base, though scouting reports on him question whether he’ll have the arm to ultimately handle the hot corner in the Majors. Even if he doesn’t, Vivas is a close-to-MLB-ready second base prospect with a plus hit tool, double-digit home run power and solid baserunning instincts.

In exchange for an affordable Peralta replacement and a quality second base prospect, the Yankees will surrender Sweeney, whom they selected with the No. 20 overall selection in the 2021 draft. Sweeney briefly reached Double-A as a 22-year-old in 2022, but the 2023 season was his first year with notable experience at that level. The 23-year-old handled himself well, batting .252/.367/.411 in a generally pitcher-friendly setting, popping 13 homers and swiping 20 bases with a gaudy 13.8% walk rate and lower-than-average 19.1% strikeout rate.

Sweeney is a well-regarded prospect himself, but perhaps a step below the rung many Yankees fans would expect based on his draft pedigree. FanGraphs ranked him third in the Yankees’ system, but MLB.com had him eighth and Baseball America tabbed him 15th. Sweeney is a bat-first prospect whose long-term future hinges on whether he can stick at shortstop, move to third base on a full-time basis, or settle in as a utility infielder who can bounce around the diamond. He’s a relatively near-MLB addition to the Dodgers’ system, effectively replacing Vivas but doing so without requiring a spot on the 40-man roster until next offseason.

Mets Sign Rylan Bannon To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 11, 2023 at 10:53am CDT

The Mets announced Monday morning that they’ve signed infielder Rylan Bannon to a minor league contract. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be invited to big league camp in spring training.

Bannon, 27, has appeared in parts of two big league seasons and appeared with three clubs despite only tallying a total of 21 plate appearances. He’s collected just two hits in that time, both coming with the Orioles. He’s also had very brief stints with the Braves and Astros.

A former eighth-round pick by the Dodgers, Bannon was once a fairly well-regarded prospect who went from Los Angeles to Baltimore as one of five prospects in the 2018 Manny Machado swap. He spent all of last season with the Astros organization, batting .241/.360/.449 with a dozen homers and steals apiece in 408 trips to the plate. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Bannon carries a .232/.344/.426 batting line with a huge 13.8% walk rate against a 22% strikeout rate.

Bannon has primarily played third base in his professional career, logging more than 3100 innings at the hot corner between the minors and the big leagues. He also carries more than 1300 innings at second base, however, and is viewed as a viable option at either position. He’s more of an emergency option at shortstop, where he’s played 86 career innings.

Newly hired president of baseball operations David Stearns has primarily completed on depth signings in his first several weeks on the job, though the Mets are reported to be in pursuit of several more notable free agent and trade targets. Bannon joins Cole Sulser, Jose Iglesias, Taylor Kohlwey and Andre Scrubb as former big leaguers to sign minor league deals with the Mets in recent weeks. New York has also claimed Cooper Hummel, Tyler Heineman and Zack Short off waivers and signed Jorge Lopez, Joey Wendle, Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin to low-cost deals that put them on the 40-man roster.

The Opener: Ohtani, Pending Trade, Relief Market

By Nick Deeds | December 11, 2023 at 8:48am CDT

On the heels of baseball’s $700MM man making his decision, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Fallout of Ohtani’s decision:

Shohei Ohtani is set to become a Dodger on a record-shattering $700MM deal. With the biggest question of the offseason answered, there’s plenty of ripple effects that will impact the remainder of the offseason. It’s not yet clear whether Ohtani has undergone a physical and his contract with the Dodgers has been finalized, and L.A. will need to clear a spot on its 40-man roster to accommodate the addition of Ohtani once those final steps have happened. Looking beyond the Dodgers, the teams that missed out on Ohtani — the Blue Jays, Angels, Cubs, and Giants are among the teams that were involved in the bidding process — will need to look elsewhere as they attempt to improve ahead of next season. That could allow the markets for other top players, such as center fielder Cody Bellinger, right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and left-hander Blake Snell, to come into focus over the coming days.

2. When will the rumored Dodgers-Yankees deal be completed?

An unusual report surfaced yesterday, with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal indicating that the Dodgers and Yankees were working on a trade that would send two players on L.A.’s 40-man roster to the Yankees in exchange for a prospect in the Yankees organization who is not on the 40-man. The deal would clear the aforementioned roster spot needed to finalize Ohtani’s contract while also making room for right-hander Joe Kelly. Joel Sherman of the New York Post heard the same, adding that the Yankees will pick up an “end of roster pitcher” who could provide depth lost by the inclusion of depth arms Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito in the Juan Soto trade while also adding an additional prospect. It seems likely that the specifics of the deal should be available in the near future.

3. Could the relief market be picking up?

Yesterday saw a pair of veteran free agent southpaws come off the board as left-hander Andrew Chafin reunited with the Tigers in Detroit while Will Smith rejoined the team for whom he made his major league debut in Kansas City. With those two arms off the board, will the relief market continue to heat up? Closer Josh Hader headlines the class, while flamethrowing 27-year-old Jordan Hicks, breakout righty Robert Stephenson and NPB relief ace Yuki Matsui are among the other notable names who’ve yet to sign. The Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, and Rangers are among the many teams known to be searching for relief help at this point in the offseason.

Royals Interested In Marcus Stroman

By Mark Polishuk | December 10, 2023 at 11:12pm CDT

Marcus Stroman is among the many pitchers the Royals “appear to [have] on their radar,” the New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes (X link). Rotation help is a stated goal of the Kansas City offseason, and the club has been linked to such other free agents as Seth Lugo, Lucas Giolito, and the now-signed Sonny Gray and Erick Fedde, as well as trade targets on teams like the Mariners and Marlins.

Stroman is another name that would pretty much instantly become the de facto ace of a largely unproven K.C. rotation. Cole Ragans looked tremendous after being dealt to the Royals in the Aroldis Chapman trade, but Ragans has only 136 Major League innings on his resume. The rest of the Royals’ homegrown young arms struggled across the board, as did veterans Jordan Lyles, Zack Greinke, and Brad Keller. With the latter two now free agents, the 2024 rotation currently lines up as Ragans, Lyles, Brady Singer, and then question marks.

It wasn’t exactly a clean season for Stroman either last year, as injuries spoiled what was initially shaping up to be a very strong 2023 campaign. Stroman had a 3.95 ERA over 136 2/3 innings, which broke down as a 2.96 ERA in 112 2/3 frames prior to the All-Star break, and then a 8.64 ERA over his final 24 innings of the season. The right-hander missed about six weeks due to hip inflammation and then a cartilage fracture in his right ribcage, and thus the Cubs limited to Stroman to shortened starts and bullpen work after he returned from the injured list in September.

With injuries also hampering Stroman in 2022, some durability questions naturally have to be asked as the righty enters his age-33 season. That said, Stroman chose to bet on himself by exercising the opt-out clause in his contract with the Cubs, leaving behind a $21MM salary for 2024 in search of a larger pact in the free agent market.

MLBTR predicted a two-year, $44MM deal for Stroman, who ranked 18th on our top 50 free agents list. This projection acts as reflects his recent injury history while still locking in some extra money and security. Of course, only the market will determine how accurate this prediction was, and if Stroman’s price tag does approach a $22MM average annual value, it might put him out of Kansas City’s spending range.

GM J.J. Picollo recently said that the Royals have at least $30MM available on free agents this winter, as ownership is willing to allocate a bit more payroll than usual in order to address the club’s pitching needs and simply to help right the ship after a dreadful 106-loss season. Stroman making over $20MM would alone eat up a good portion of that budget, but the fact that the Royals are even considering Stroman, Lugo, or even Gray indicates that Kansas City is prepared to make a relatively big splash for a larger upgrade. Likewise, it should be noted that the Royals could also still look to obtain pitching help in trades, though giving up prospects would represent a different kind of cost than simply spending on a free agent.

Picollo made a point of noting how the Royals (and other rebuilding teams) need to work harder to convince veteran free agents to join a club that doesn’t look like a contender for 2024 or perhaps even in the near future. That said, Stroman was willing to join the Cubs two years ago when Chicago was in the midst of a rebuild, so he could perhaps be amendable to joining the Royals if the price is right and if Stroman has confidence that the franchise is on the right track. It also can’t be ruled out that Stroman might view K.C. as something of a stopover, whether via a trade at the deadline or perhaps another contractual opt-out clause.

NL West Notes: Lee, Padres, Soto, Giants, Rockies

By Mark Polishuk | December 10, 2023 at 10:09pm CDT

The Padres’ interest in Jung Hoo Lee is well known, though the large amount of interest in Lee’s services threatens to push him out of San Diego’s price range, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin writes. MLBTR projected five years and $50MM for Lee in his first Major League contract as he made the jump from the KBO League, yet Lin hears that the the 25-year-old outfielder could land closer to $90MM, without counting the posting fee a team would additionally owe to the Kiwoom Heroes, Lee’s KBO League club.

Finances have been an big subplot of the Padres’ offseason, as the team’s debt-driven need to reduce payroll has already resulted in Juan Soto’s trade to the Yankees, as well as the seeming unlikelihood of a reunion with such high-profile free agents as Blake Snell, Josh Hader, or Seth Lugo (and Nick Martinez has already signed with the Reds). San Diego has roughly $155.7MM on the books for 2024 according to Roster Resource, yet with several roster holes to fill and a rough payroll limit of around $200MM, spending more than expected on Lee will make it more difficult for the Padres to properly address every need. Lee’s agent Scott Boras isn’t in the habit of giving pseudo-hometown discounts, even if San Diego holds particular appeal to Lee since he is best friends with Ha-Seong Kim.

Blue Jays Made Competitive Offer To Shohei Ohtani

By Mark Polishuk | December 10, 2023 at 9:28pm CDT

Shohei Ohtani’s decision to sign with the Dodgers for a record-breaking ten-year, $700MM deal sent shockwaves around the sports world, though a particularly heavy dose of the impact settled in Toronto. Blue Jays fans (and possibly the team itself ) spent much of Friday wondering if Ohtani had decided on the Jays as his next destination, and a pair of now-debunked media reports only added to the fever of speculation.

The full story of the Jays’ pursuit of the two-way star might not be known for some time, yet in pure financial terms, it seems as though the club at least came close to the final asking price. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith hears from a source that the Blue Jays’ offer to Ohtani was “right there,” so it doesn’t appear as though the Dodgers’ $700MM deal was too far removed from what the Jays (or potentially other suitors) put on the table.

Given how Ohtani’s contract is so far beyond the normal stratosphere for baseball contracts or sports contracts in general, it is fair to assume that teams’ approach also differed greatly from a normal free agent courtship. This was already apparent with the immense level of secrecy requested by Ohtani and his agent Nez Balelo, as every detail (true or exaggerated) that leaked out about Ohtani’s intentions was heavily scrutinized.

As Nicholson-Smith notes, there have already been conspiracy theories launched that Balelo and CAA used the Jays’ interest as a smokescreen to get the Dodgers to up their offer at the last minute since Los Angeles was Ohtani’s preferred choice all along. Or, perhaps the simplest answer is true — the Blue Jays did enough to make themselves a genuine consideration in the two-time AL MVP’s mind, regardless of where the Dodgers may or may not have ranked for Ohtani heading into the offseason.

Learning that the Jays got within the ballpark of signing Ohtani probably doesn’t ease much or any of the sting for Toronto fans. The fact that the Blue Jays were willing to spend perhaps upwards of $650MM, $675MM, or whatever the final bid was also doesn’t necessarily mean that the team has that much to spend in general this offseason, considering the special nature of Ohtani’s on-field ability and starpower.

Still, the Jays haven’t been shy about spending over the last few seasons, and the team has also been linked to such major free agents as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Cody Bellinger, former Jay Matt Chapman, and a host of other players on the free agent and trade markets. GM Ross Atkins has typically looked to at least check in on just about every notable free agent of the last few years, so this broad strategy could help the Blue Jays make a quick pivot as they explore their backup plans.

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