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Phillies Interested In Corey Knebel, Kyle Schwarber

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The Phillies have “serious interest” in free agent reliever Corey Knebel, report Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of the Athletic (on Twitter). Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia adds that the club is “making progress” in discussions with the right-hander and his representatives at Excel Sports Management.

The Dodgers acquired the former All-Star closer from the Brewers last offseason. Knebel missed a good chunk of the year on account of a right lat strain, but he was very effective when healthy enough to pitch. He tossed 25 2/3 innings over 27 appearances, working to a 2.45 ERA with a strong 29.7% strikeout percentage and an average 8.9% walk rate. Knebel also induced ground-balls at a solid 45.9% clip.

It was an all-around strong bounceback showing for the 30-year-old, who was limited to just 13 1/3 ineffective innings between 2019-20 on account of an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. Perhaps most encouragingly, his average fastball velocity bounced back to 96.3 MPH after dipping to 94.3 MPH during his immediate return from TJS in 2020. Not coincidentally, his swinging strike rate rebounded from 7.2% to a 12.7% clip that’s only a touch below where Knebel worked during his peak seasons.

Were the Phillies to come to an agreement with Knebel, he’d be a key addition to a bullpen that stands out as one of the weaker areas on the roster. The outfield might be the other area of greatest need, and Salisbury adds that Philadelphia has interest in free agent corner outfielder Kyle Schwarber. After a down 2020, the former fourth overall pick rebounded to mash at a .266/.374/.554 clip across 471 plate appearances between the Nationals and Red Sox.

A run at Schwarber would be far more expensive than a pursuit of Knebel, of course. MLBTR forecasts a two-year, $18MM deal for Knebel, while Schwarber’s projected deal checks in at four years and $70MM. Schwarber, who was ineligible to be tagged with a qualifying offer by virtue of a midseason trade from Washington to Boston, has again been linked to both of his 2021 clubs as a free agent. The division-rival Marlins have also been floated as a possibility as they try to rebuild their own outfield.

Phillies Claim Yoan Lopez, Designate Roman Quinn

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Braves and cleared a roster spot by designating outfielder Roman Quinn for assignment.

The 28-year-old Lopez had a solid run with the Braves’ top affiliate, Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time. Atlanta never gave him a look in the Majors after acquiring him in a small, late-May swap with the D-backs, however, and Lopez was designated for assignment when the Braves picked up righty Jay Jackson from the Giants last week.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. He has a pair of minor league options remaining and will give the Phillies some bullpen depth if he survives the offseason on their 40-man roster.

Quinn, 28, long ranked as one of the better prospects in the Phillies’ system, but the speedster has been oft-injured and, to this point, generally unproductive at the MLB level. The fleet-footed switch-hitter batted just .173/.306/.288 in 62 MLB plate appearances this past season and owns a .228/.306/.355 batting line through 512 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.

To his credit, Quinn has swiped 39 bases in just 178 MLB games and has drawn solid defensive ratings across all three outfield positions. He’s also compiled a solid .286/.351/.407 batting line in Triple-A. However, Quinn is out of minor league options as well, and he’d been projected to receive a modest bump to $700K in arbitration. The dollar amount surely wasn’t of concern to the Phillies so much as the fact that Quinn simply wasn’t viewed as part of the outfield puzzle moving forward.

The Phillies are known to be in the market for center field upgrades, having previously been tied to Starling Marte (now with the division-rival Mets) and Byron Buxton (who signed a seven-year extension and received a full no-trade clause from the Twins). Presumably, the Phils will continue to explore alternative options in the outfield, eyeing at least a new center fielder if not a pair of outfielders to pair with reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper.

Nick Castellanos Reportedly Seeking Seven- Or Eight-Year Deal

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10:08am: The Phillies have had recent talks with Castellanos, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. As he points out, Philadelphia president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was GM in Detroit when the Tigers selected Castellanos with the No. 44 overall draft pick.

7:36am: As a strong season for Nick Castellanos progressed in Cincinnati, it became increasingly obvious that the slugger would opt out of the remaining two years and $34MM on his contract in favor of a return to the free-agent market. Castellanos, however, is perhaps seeking an even larger payday than most would expect; MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that Castellanos and agent Scott Boras are eyeing a contract of seven or even eight years in length. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted this morning that the Marlins still have interest in Castellanos even after landing Avisail Garcia, though Feinsand suggests Castellanos’ asking price is too rich for Miami’s liking.

The 29-year-old Castellanos (30 in March) posted a huge .309/.362/.576 slash with 34 home runs, 38 doubles, a triple and three steals through 585 plate appearances this past season. Castellanos briefly missed time due to a microfracture in his wrist, but he shook off the rust almost immediately upon returning and closed out the year on a .294/.335/.606 heater through the final six weeks or so of play (176 plate appearances).

Excellent as Castellanos is and has been at the plate, seven and eight years are stills jarring numbers. Castellanos’ glovework has been consistently panned by defensive metrics — both at his original position (third base) and since moving to right field on a full-time basis in 2018. The 2021 season was no exception, as virtually any metric (-7 Defensive Runs Saved, -1.9 Ultimate Zone Rating, -7 Outs Above Average) framed Castellanos as a liability in right. He also rejected a qualifying offer from the Reds, meaning any team that signs him will be subject to draft-pick forfeiture.

To his credit, Castellanos is far from a one-year wonder — even if the 2021 season was his most productive to date. While a poor three-week finish in the shortened 2020 season tanked his season numbers, he still finished with league-average output, per both wRC+ and OPS+, and he’s been consistently strong at the dish outside that season. Both wRC+ and OPS+ suggest Castellanos has been about 22 percent better than the league-average hitter dating all the way back to 2016, and his bat truly soared to new heights upon being traded from the Tigers to Cubs. Even when including that average 2020 output, Castellanos carries a .292/.346/.571 batting line (134 wRC+) through 1052 plate appearances since leaving Detroit.

It’s commonplace for agents to aim for the moon in free agency, and while it can oftentimes burn a player, there are also deals of surprising magnitude each winter. (Few would’ve expected Marcus Semien to command a seven-year deal this winter, for instance.) It’d be a surprise to see Castellanos command such a weighty commitment, but he’s arguably the best bat available in free agency this offseason and would clearly benefit from the widely expected advent of the universal designated hitter.

Phillies Claim Scott Moss From Guardians

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The Phillies announced they’ve claimed left-hander Scott Moss off waivers from the Guardians. The 27-year-old was one of seven players Cleveland designated for assignment last week. The Phils’ 40-man roster is now full.

Moss has yet to make his major league debut. A former fourth-round pick of the Reds, the southpaw has appeared on the back two-thirds of Cincinnati and Cleveland organizational top 30 prospects lists at Baseball America in each of the past four seasons. Entering 2021, BA wrote that Moss can run his fastball up to 94 MPH and has a plus slider but inconsistent control.

His minor league numbers largely reflect that profile, as Moss has typically run strong strikeout rates but issued far too many walks. The 6’6″ southpaw has a 3.13 ERA in 112 Double-A frames and a 4.62 mark over 39 innings at Triple-A. At the minors’ top level, he’s fanned an impressive 30% of opponents but also doled out free passes at an alarming 13.3% clip. While Moss has worked almost exclusively as a starting pitcher to this point in his pro career, those control woes could hint at a big league future in the bullpen. He has one minor league option year remaining, meaning the Phils can keep him at Triple-A Lehigh Valley through the end of next season so long as he remains on their 40-man roster.

Bullpen Rumors: Givens, Rogers, Familia

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The Phillies have had “substantive” talks with free-agent reliever Mychal Givens as they continue their quest to bolster the back end of their bullpen, per NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury. The hard-throwing righty is a first-time free agent and coming off a 3.35 ERA in 51 frames between the Rockies and Reds this past season. Givens, 31, punched out a quarter of his opponents in 2021 but also walked 12.5% of the batters he faced. Givens has long been a steady reliever, as evidenced by a 3.41 ERA in nearly 400 MLB innings, but he’s seen his strikeout and walk rates trend in the wrong direction over the past couple seasons, while his HR/9 mark has more than doubled from 0.73 in 2015-18 to 1.65 from 2019-21.

Some more bullpen rumblings from around the game…

  • The Mets officially bid farewell to a key lefty reliever this week when Aaron Loup signed a two-year contract with the Angels, and one name they’re intrigued by as they search for alternatives is Twins closer Taylor Rogers, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link). The 30-year-old Rogers (31 next month) has been one of the game’s best lefties since a breakout 2018 season, pitching to a combined 2.91 ERA with a huge 31.2% strikeout rate and a tiny 4.9% walk rate. There’s no firm indication that the Twins would be open to moving Rogers, but he’s in his final offseason of arbitration eligibility and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $6.7MM in 2022. That’s plenty reasonable for a reliever with Rogers’ track record, but the lefty saw his 2021 season end with a lengthy IL stint due to a damaged ligament in his pitching hand. Rogers surrendered six runs in his final 3 2/3 frames before landing on the IL just prior to the July 30 trade deadline, and he was unable to return thereafter.
  • Speaking of Mets free agent, right-hander Jeurys Familia is on the Red Sox’ radar, reports WEEI’s Rob Bradford. The 32-year-old righty enjoyed a solid season with the Mets in 2021, pitching to a 3.94 ERA in 59 1/3 frames while matching a career-high 27.5% strikeout rate. Familia also cut back on 2019-20’s career-worst 15.5% walk rate, though last year’s 10.3% clip was still well north of the league average. Familia has plenty of closing experience, evidenced by 125 career saves, but is also no stranger to pitching in a setup capacity. He’d give the Sox another viable late-inning option in the event that incumbent closer Matt Barnes’ alarming second-half decline carries into the 2022 campaign.

Astros Trade Garrett Stubbs To Phillies

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The Phillies announced Friday that they have acquired catcher Garrett Stubbs from the Astros in exchange for minor league outfielder Logan Cerny. Stubbs becomes the second backup catching option acquired by the Phils tonight, who also added minor league backstop Donny Sands in a trade with the Yankees.

Stubbs, 28, has spent parts of three seasons in the Majors with the ’Stros, hitting at a combined .182/.238/.247 clip — albeit through a tiny sample of 87 plate appearances. It’s obviously not an impressive line, but Stubbs has a far better track record in Triple-A, where he hit .265/.418/.363 this season and carries a career-long line of .272/.369/.404 in parts of four seasons.

The Phils obviously don’t have a need for a starting catcher, not with J.T. Realmuto entering the second season of a five-year contract, but Stubbs will join Sands as a backup option. The former eighth-rounder has a strong defensive reputation, having posted a massive 41% caught-stealing rate in his pro career and strong framing rates (via Baseball Prospectus) throughout his minor league tenure. Stubbs also has a minor league option remaining, giving the Phils some flexibility if they choose to acquire a more established backup option to Realmuto. That said, Stubbs seems plenty capable of filling a backup role — he just hasn’t had the opportunity in recent seasons with the Astros leaning heavily on Martin Maldonado and Jason Castro.

As was the case in the Phillies’ trade with the Yankees, they tapped into their recent draft class to add some depth options rather than dealing more experienced farmhands from a thin minor league system. It’s not a bad strategy in moderation, particularly given that all of the players acquired in today’s pair of deals — Stubbs, Sands and righty Nick Nelson — can both be immediate depth options and be controlled for several years.

Cerny, 22, obviously isn’t one of the Phils’ top prospects given his status as a recent 10th-round pick, but he turned in a .291/.377/.529 in three seasons at Troy University. He hit .200/.349/.286 in 43 pro plate appearances following the draft.

Phillies Acquire Nick Nelson From Yankees

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander Nick Nelson and catcher Donny Sands from the Yankees in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield and minor league lefty Joel Valdez, per announcements from both clubs.

Nelson, 26 next month, has seen action in parts of two big league seasons with the Yankees, pitching to a combined 6.43 ERA in a small sample of 35 innings. The former fourth-rounder has whiffed 23.8% of his career opponents against a problematic 16.1% walk rate in that time. It hasn’t been an illustrious start to his career, but Nelson has averaged 96.6 mph on his heater with a solid 12.5% swinging-strike rate — and he carries a solid track record in the upper minors as well.

Outside of a brief run in Rookie  ball back in 2016, Nelson has posted at least a 26.2% strikeout rate at every level, topping out with a 4.07 ERA in 73 Triple-A frames to this point in his still relatively young career. The righty has also kept the ball on the ground at a 48% clip in the Majors while averaging just 1.03 HR/9. With a pair of minor league options remaining and extensive work both as a starter and a multi-inning reliever, Nelson can be a useful depth piece for the Phils for the next couple seasons at least — even if he doesn’t cement himself as a regular on the big league roster.

The 25-year-old Sands spent the 2021 season in Double-A and Triple-A with the Yankees, logging a combined .261/.326/.466 with 18 homers and 16 doubles. Sands also has corner infield experience — albeit mostly coming in the low minors — and he has the potential to step up as an immediate backup option to J.T. Realmuto now that Andrew Knapp is no longer with the Phils.

Rumfield, 21, was the Phillies’ 12th-round pick just this past summer, meaning he only just became eligible to be traded following the season. He was assigned to the Phils’ Class-A affiliate out of the draft, where he hit .250/.426/.263 with a double, 21 walks and 11 strikeouts in his first 107 pro plate appearances. Given his status as a recent 12th-round pick, he’s obviously not regarded among the Phillies’ best farmhands, but he’ll give the Yankees a lefty bat with some obvious plate discipline to plug into the low levels of their minor league system.

Valdez, meanwhile, has yet to advance beyond the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. He’s posted a 2.62 ERA with a 70-to-32 K/BB ratio in 75 2/3 professional frames, albeit against considerably younger competition. Valdez pitched this last season at 21 — more than two full years older than the average competition in the DSL.

At the end of the day, the move for the Yankees boils down to parting with some depth options to open a pair of 40-man roster spots and backfilling at the low levels of the system. Both Nelson and Sands give the Phillies some present-day depth options at positions where their own organization was thinner than the Yankees.

Phillies Claim Kent Emanuel From Astros, Select Three Players

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The Phillies announced Friday that they’ve claimed lefty Kent Emanuel off waivers from the Astros and selected the contracts of three minor leaguers: infielder Luis Garcia, outfielder Jhailyn Ortiz and righty James McArthur. The Phils now have 36 players on their 40-man roster, and all of today’s additions are protected from the Rule 5 Draft.

Emanuel, 29, is a 2013 third-rounder who’d pitched to a 2.55 ERA with a 13-to-4K / BB ratio through his first 17 2/3 MLB innings. However, I have underwent a primary repair surgery on his left elbow back in June and missed the remainder of the season. Based on past primary repair cases, Emanuel could be reacy early in the 2022 season. That Emanuel’s debut campaign came at age 28 is in part due to the fact that a previous Tommy John surgery wiped out a good chunk of his 2015-16 campaigns.

Emanuel has also missed time with an 80-game PED suspension, though he’s among the growing number of players to raise issue following a positive test of trace amounts of DHCMT (seven picograms, in his case). The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond explored  the issue at length last year, and Emanuel himself posted an 11-minute video  on Instagram  discussing his bewilderment over the positive test. Many fans will be skeptical of any player claiming innocence following a positive PED test, but it’s certainly worth reading Diamond’s column and watching Emanuel’s video for those who didn’t track the story at the time.

Garcia, 21, ranked on the back end of Baseball America’s Top 100 list in the 2018-19 offseason but saw his stock crater after he posted a .516 OPS in 2019. After a lost minor league season in 2020, the switch-hitter bounced back to some extent in 2021, slashing .243/.353/.414 across two Class-A levels.

Ortiz was a headlining international signing by the Phillies back in 2015, landing a $4MM bonus on the strength of his plus raw power. Now 23 years of age, Ortiz slugged 19 long balls in just 303 plate appearances with Class-A Advanced before scuffling mightily in a tiny sample of 88 Double-A plate appearances. The Phils, not wanting to lose a slugger who’s received 70 grades on his raw power (on the 20-80 scale), will dedicate a 40-man spot to keep him.

McArthur, a 2018 12th-rounder, spent most of the season in Double-A, where he pitched to a 4.48 ERA with a 24.4% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 48.3% ground-ball rate. FanGraphs gives him a chance at three above-average pitches but feels there’s a good bit of work left to be done in terms of his command. With 78 innings of respectable Double-A work under his belt, McArthur could be in the mix for a big league look at some point in 2022, should injuries necessitate a dip into the upper levels of the farm system.

Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani Win MVP Awards

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Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani have been named the respective league Most Valuable Players, according to announcements from the Baseball Writers Association of America. It’s the second MVP of Harper’s career, while Ohtani’s a first-time winner.

Harper led all hitters (minimum 500 plate appearances) by measure of wRC+ this past season. His .309/.429/.615 line checked in 70 percentage points above the league average. The Phillies star ranked sixth in the National League with 35 home runs and paced the league with 42 doubles, leading to an NL-best slugging percentage. Harper also drew plenty of walks, as he does on an annual basis, leading to the second-highest on-base percentage in the Senior Circuit.

The six-time All-Star was especially great down the stretch. Over the season’s second half, Harper mashed at a .338/.476/.713 clip, helping him earn his second career Silver Slugger award as well. Harper didn’t rate particularly well defensively, but that sheer offensive excellence was enough to take the crown. This kind of season is no doubt what the Phils had in mind when signing him to a record-breaking $330MM free agent contract. He’ll remain in Philly through 2031, and the organization and fanbase can hope for a few more seasons of this ilk from the likely future Hall of Famer.

Harper appeared on all 30 ballots, garnering 17 first-place votes. That was enough to edge out the Nationals’ Juan Soto and the Padres’ Fernando Tatís Jr., the other two NL finalists. Soto picked up six first-place votes after posting a .313/.465/.534 line and pacing the league in on-base percentage. Tatís bopped a league-best 42 homers while playing a good chunk of the season at shortstop, a performance that earned him two first-place votes. Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford and Nationals/Dodgers infielder Trea Turner were the other players to receive first-place nods, enough to finish in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Voting in the American League was far more resounding, as Ohtani claimed the award unanimously. It’s easy to understand why, as he’s coming off a season unlike any we’ve seen in recent memory. As a hitter, the 27-year-old mashed at a .257/.372/.592 clip. He popped 46 home runs, a mark that trailed only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Salvador Pérez in the AL. Only Guerrero had a higher slugging percentage (again minimum 500 PA), while Guerrero, Yuli Gurriel, Yoan Moncada and Aaron Judge were the group to top Ohtani in on-base percentage.

That work at the plate alone would have been enough to get Ohtani on MVP ballots, but his additional contributions on the mound made him an easy choice for voters. After injuries limited his pitching workload over his first two big league seasons, Ohtani stayed mostly healthy in 2021 and logged a career-best 130 1/3 frames. He pitched to a 3.18 ERA that was ninth-lowest among the 64 AL hurlers with 100+ innings. Ohtani’s 29.3% strikeout rate checked in sixth among that same group, while he placed fifth in strikeout/walk rate differential (21 percentage points) and sixth in SIERA (3.61). He’s controllable through 2023 via arbitration, although it stands to reason the Angels would love to work out an extension to keep the two-way star in the fold for the long-term.

While Ohtani’s historic showing took the suspense out of the result, that’s not to say there weren’t worthy challengers. Guerrero led the AL in both on-base and slugging en route to a second-place finish. 29 voters placed Guerrero second on their ballot, with the only other second-place nod going to Pérez. Guerrero’s teammate with the Blue Jays, Marcus Semien, easily finished in third place, followed by Judge and Carlos Correa.

Full balloting results available.

Images courtesy of USA TODAY Sports.

Latest On Starling Marte’s Market

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We’ve seen an unusual number of high-profile free agents come off the board in the first few weeks of November, though they’ve all been pitchers to this point. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman suggests, however, that the market for Starling Marte is strong enough that he could also sign this month, prior to the Dec. 1 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.

That the 33-year-old Marte would command robust interest is only logical, given his longstanding track record and a brilliant 2021 campaign. While he’s a older than your typical free agent thanks to the club-friendly contract he inked early in his career, Marte has shown no signs of slowing down. To the contrary, his 2021 season was arguably his best yet. In 526 plate appearances between the Marlins and A’s, Marte turned in a .308/.381/.456 with a dozen home runs, 27 doubles and three triples — all while going 47-for-52 in stolen base attempts. He’s also perhaps the lone everyday center field option on the market.

Even if conventional wisdom suggests that the fleet-footed Marte will eventually slow down and move to a corner in a few years’ time, he still grades out as a plus runner and a respectable defensive option in center for the time being. Both Outs Above Average (2) and Ultimate Zone Rating (1.0) graded Marte as slightly above average, whereas Defensive Runs Saved was a bit below-average at minus-4. Make what you will of defensive metrics, which can of course be spotty on a year-to-year basis, but Marte has generally been passable in center and plus in left field. He also still ranks in the 83rd percentile of MLB players in terms of average sprint speed (28.4 ft/sec).

Given the scarcity of Marte’s skill set, the number of teams looking for help in the outfield (center field, in particular) and the lack of qualifying offer attached to him (he was ineligible by virtue of being traded), it’s no wonder that his market has quickly picked up steam. Prior reports have linked the Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Yankees and Giants to Marte, and Heyman tweeted this week that the Rangers — whom most expect to be quite aggressive in free agency — have also been weighing a run at Marte. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds this morning that the Astros, fresh off re-signing Justin Verlander, are being aggressive in their own efforts to sign Marte.

As we noted when ranking Marte 13th on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 free agent rankings, the list of teams with interest in bringing Marte aboard will be quite long. He’s been widely expected to command at least a three-year deal in free agency — the Marlins offered a lowball, three-year deal in the $30-39MM range prior to trading him — and with a number of recent free agents commanding premium salaries through age-36, we pegged him for a four-year deal at a total of $80MM.

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