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Craig Stammen

Padres To Re-Sign Craig Stammen To Minor League Deal

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The Padres are in agreement with veteran reliever Craig Stammen on a minor league contract, reports Dennis Lin of the Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Stammen would lock in a $1.5MM base salary if he cracks the MLB roster, and the deal contains another $2MM in potential incentives.

It’ll be a seventh straight season in the organization for Stammen, who turns 39 before Opening Day. After spending his first seven years as a member of the Nationals, he spent the 2016 campaign in the minors with Cleveland. After that season, Stammen landed with the Padres on a minor league contract. That proved the start of a fruitful relationship, as he’s effectively soaked up a number of innings out of the bullpen over the last six years.

The righty pitched 80 1/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball for the Friars during his first season. That earned him a two-year deal the following offseason. Stammen posted similar numbers over the course of that contract, throwing 161 combined frames with a 3.02 ERA for a total cost of $4.5MM. San Diego retained him on another two-year pact thereafter, this time with a $9MM guarantee and a $4MM club option covering the 2022 campaign.

Stammen struggled during the abbreviated 2020 season but rebounded with a 3.06 ERA over 88 1/3 innings the next year. San Diego exercised their option and brought the Dayton product back. Stammen ran into some uncharacteristic struggles last year, particularly thanks to the home run ball. He surrendered nearly two homers per nine innings and posted a 4.43 ERA over 40 2/3 frames. He missed a couple months in the second half thanks to inflammation in his throwing shoulder before returning to health in early September.

A ground-ball specialist, Stammen thrives on command and movement rather than overpowering velocity. He leans heavily on a low-90s sinker and upper-80s cutter to keep the ball on the ground. He induced worm-burners a bit more than half the time last year while only walking 5.6% of opponents. His 19.8% strikeout rate was a few points below league average, down more than three percentage points relative to his 2021 mark.

The non-roster pact means Stammen will have to earn his way back for a 14th big league campaign. He’ll get a chance to do so in Spring Training and presumably has a good shot at cracking the roster given his familiarity to the front office and coaching staff.

Which Remaining Free Agent Relievers Are Coming Off The Best Seasons?

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The offseason floodgates opened this month, with an avalanche of free agent activity once the Winter Meetings got underway. Things have quieted down in recent days thanks to the holidays, but clubs are likely to again get back to attacking the free agent market in earnest this week.

Most of the winter’s top names are off the board, leaving teams to mostly look through lower-cost options as they search for upgrades on the margins of the roster. There are still a number of experienced options available, particularly for teams seeking to round out the bullpen. Using MLBTR’s free agent list, we find 47 pitchers who tossed at least 20 innings out of a team’s bullpen in 2022 and remain unsigned.

We’ll sort the remaining free agent relievers by various metrics of 2022 performance to identify some of the top arms. There are obviously other factors for teams to consider — quality of raw stuff, pre-2022 track record, the player’s injury history, etc. — but a brief snapshot on the top bullpen arms by last year’s performance should provide a decent starting point for players teams might target moving forward. (All figures cited, including league averages, are looking solely at pitchers’ outings as relievers).

ERA (league average — 3.86)

  1. Matt Moore (LHP), 1.95
  2. Alex Young (LHP), 2.08
  3. Matt Wisler (RHP), 2.23
  4. Wily Peralta (RHP), 2.72
  5. Brad Hand (LHP), 2.80
  6. Andrew Chafin (LHP), 2.83
  7. David Phelps (RHP), 2.87
  8. Ralph Garza Jr. (RHP), 3.34
  9. Jackson Stephens (RHP), 3.38
  10. Michael Fulmer (RHP), 3.39

Strikeout rate (league average — 23.6%)

  1. Daniel Norris (LHP), 30%
  2. Darren O’Day (RHP), 27.7%
  3. Andrew Chafin, 27.6%
  4. Matt Moore, 27.3%
  5. Aroldis Chapman (LHP), 26.9%
  6. Steve Cishek (RHP), 25.8%
  7. Chasen Shreve (LHP), 25.4%
  8. Will Smith (LHP), 24.9%
  9. David Phelps, 23.9%
  10. Noé Ramirez, 23.7%

Strikeout/walk rate differential (league average — 14.5 percentage points)

  1. Andrew Chafin, 19.8 points
  2. Daniel Norris, 19 points
  3. Darren O’Day, 17 points
  4. Chasen Shreve, 16.7 points
  5. Steve Cishek, 16.4 points
  6. Craig Stammen (RHP), 15.7 points
  7. Will Smith, 15.3 points
  8. Matt Moore, 14.8 points
  9. Ross Detwiler (LHP), 14.8 points
  10. Luke Weaver (RHP), 13.8 points

Ground-ball rate (league average — 43.5%)

  1. Luis Perdomo (RHP), 62.5%
  2. Joe Smith (RHP), 57.5%
  3. Alex Young, 55.7%
  4. Alex Colomé (RHP), 55.6%
  5. T.J. McFarland (LHP), 53%
  6. Craig Stammen, 52.6%
  7. Garrett Richards (RHP), 52.4%
  8. Bryan Shaw (RHP), 51.8%
  9. Andrew Chafin, 51.3%
  10. Jacob Barnes (RHP), 50.7%

FIP (league average — 3.86)

  1. Luke Weaver, 2.46
  2. Alex Young, 2.65
  3. Matt Moore, 2.98
  4. Andrew Chafin, 3.06
  5. David Phelps, 3.11
  6. Garrett Richards, 3.16
  7. Jackson Stephens, 3.45
  8. Michael Fulmer, 3.57
  9. Brad Hand, 3.93
  10. Darren O’Day, 4.04

Innings Pitched

  1. Matt Moore, 74
  2. Caleb Smith (LHP), 69
  3. Steve Cishek, 66 1/3
  4. Michael Fulmer, 63 2/3
  5. David Phelps, 62 2/3
  6. Hunter Strickland (RHP), 62 1/3
  7. Will Smith, 59
  8. Andrew Chafin, 57 1/3
  9. Bryan Shaw, 54
  10. Jackson Stephens/Hirokazu Sawamura (RHP), 50 2/3 each

Padres Notes: Shortstops, Turner, Stammen

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The Padres have been rumored to be a surprise entrant in the market for the “Big Four” shortstops and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic says this could “possibly even” include Trea Turner.

Since the Friars were recently connected to the shortstop market generally and Xander Bogaerts specifically, it’s not shocking that they would have some degree of interest in Turner as well. However, despite the “Big Four” shortstops often being lumped together, there’s a difference between them. MLBTR predicted Turner and Carlos Correa to earn $32MM per season or higher while Bogaerts is projected at an average annual value of $27MM and Dansby Swanson at $22MM.

Those might seem like small differences but they are magnified for a Padres team that paid the competitive balance tax in each of the past two years. The CBT system features escalating penalties for repeat payors, with a third consecutive year over the line resulting in a 50% tax for every dollar over. The Padres currently have a CBT number of $230MM, according to Roster Resource, just $3MM shy of this year’s lowest luxury tax threshold of $233MM. The second threshold is $253MM, something that the Padres would certainly go over if they add one of the top shortstops, at which point their spending would be subject to a 62% tax.

Since the Padres are also looking to upgrade their rotation, it’s always seemed hard to picture them laying out a huge contract for a shortstop and paying such a tax premium to do so. There’s also the on-field fit, which isn’t super smooth since they have Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr. as shortstop options. It’s been suggested they could add a shortstop and play Kim at second, Jake Cronenworth at first base and Tatis in the outfield, but it’s probably easier to just sign a first baseman or a left fielder.

Elsewhere in Padres news, Rosenthal reports in a separate column that the club is likely to re-sign reliever Craig Stammen. The veteran, who turns 39 in March, recently spoke about his desire to return in 2023 despite dealing with a shoulder injury in the second half of the season. He’s been in San Diego for six seasons now and it seems like there’s interest on both sides in making it seven.

Craig Stammen Plans To Pitch In 2023

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Right-hander Craig Stammen is a free agent and will turn 39 years old in March. However, that doesn’t mean he’s hanging up his spikes. “I just love playing,” Stammen tells Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “I wasn’t ready. I want to go out a little better than I went out last year. I’m going to try to give it another go.”

Stammen has been a mainstay of the bullpen in San Diego over the past six years. In the four full seasons from 2017 to 2021, he logged at least 79 innings in each campaign and kept his ERA between 2.73 and 3.29. He doesn’t generally get huge strikeout totals, but he does induce a lot of ground balls and limits free passes. He hasn’t had a walk rate above 5.6% since 2017 and has posted a ground ball rate of 45% or higher in each season of his career.

He seemed on track for another solid year in 2022 before a shoulder injury got in the way. He had a 3.34 ERA through 32 1/3 innings when he went on the IL in July due to right shoulder inflammation. He missed about two months, returning to the team in September, but didn’t finish strong. He logged another 8 1/3 innings down the stretch but posted an 8.64 ERA in that time.

It’s possible that he was still dealing with some lingering effects of the injury or was perhaps just rusty after the absence. Stammen himself doesn’t seem to think so, however. “I felt great at the end of the season,” Stammen said. “I’ve continued to throw. … I feel too good to not keep playing.”

It’s possible that Stammen returns to the Padres club he’s been with for the past six years, but Acee also notes that Stammen has begun the process of speaking to other teams. The free agent market for relievers has been robust in the early parts of this offseason, with Edwin Diaz getting $102MM over five years, Robert Suarez getting $46MM over five years and Rafael Montero getting $34.5MM over three. Not all teams will want to spend at that level, however, and some will inevitably look to other options. The last time Stammen was a free agent was going into 2020, when he and the Padres agreed to a two-year deal with a $9MM guarantee and a club option for 2022 that they eventually exercised. Based on Stammen’s age and shoulder injury, he will likely be limited to one-year deals this time around.

Padres Designate Tayler Scott For Assignment, Activate Craig Stammen

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The Padres have announced a series of roster moves, with right-hander Craig Stammen reinstated from the 60-day injured list.  To create room on the active roster, righty Nabil Crismatt was optioned to Triple-A El Paso.  Right-hander Tayler Scott was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

With Pierce Johnson and now Stammen coming off the 60-day IL in consecutive days, the Padres have bolstered their relief corps with a pair of solid right-handers.  For Stammen, he last pitched on July 4 before right shoulder inflammation led to an extended stint on the sidelines.

Now in his sixth season with the Padres, Stammen was delivering his usual solid work at the time of his injury.  The righty has a 3.34 ERA/3.27 SIERA over 32 1/3 innings, with a 51.5% grounder rate and an elite 3.6% walk rate.

Scott posted a 6.75 ERA over 12 innings for San Diego after his minor league deal was initially selected to the active roster in July.  This marked Scott’s first MLB action since 2019, as he has spent the last two seasons pitching in Japan for the Hiroshima Carp.  The righty has been on the 15-day IL since mid-August due to a finger laceration, so the Padres first had to activate Scott from the injured list before designating him for assignment.

Padres Place Craig Stammen On 15-Day IL, Dinelson Lamet Recalled

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The Padres placed right-hander Craig Stammen on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation.  (The placement is retroactive to July 6.)  Righty Dinelson Lamet has been called up from Triple-A to take Stammen’s place on the active roster.

A fixture in San Diego’s bullpen for the last six seasons, Stammen is having another good year, with a 3.34 ERA/3.25 SIERA over 32 1/3 innings.  The home run ball has been a bit more of an issue for Stammen this season, yet the 38-year-old is still generating plenty of outs thanks to a lot of soft contact, a 51.5% grounder rate, and his typically excellent control.  Stammen’s 3.6% walk rate is in the 97th percentile of all pitchers, and he has been in at least the 91st percentile in each of the last five seasons.

With Steven Wilson, Robert Suarez, and now Stammen all on the 15-day IL, the Padres have lost some key arms from what has been a very solid relief corps.  None of the injuries are thought to be overly serious at this point, and Wilson and Suarez are already throwing bullpen sessions.

However, there is an opportunity for Lamet to re-establish himself as a player to watch.  A fourth-place finisher in NL Cy Young Award balloting in 2020, Lamet has struggled to stay healthy, and now may be ticketed for bullpen work in an attempt to avoid further IL trips.  Working only as a reliever this season, Lamet has a 9.72 ERA over 8 1/3 innings in the big leagues, but he has looked sharper in minor league action.

Given the close proximity to the trade deadline, Lamet’s recall might also be the Padres’ way of showcasing the righty to potential trade suitors.  San Diego was known to be discussing Lamet with other teams earlier this year, perhaps as a way of giving the Padres a bit of extra luxury-tax breathing room.

Padres Announce Several Option Decisions

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The Padres have announced that they exercised their club options over right-handed relievers Pierce Johnson and Craig Stammen for the 2022 season. Johnson will be retained for $3MM while Stammen will return on a $4MM salary.

While the two relievers offer differing skillsets, it was an easy call to hold onto both players for similar salaries. In 2021 Johnson posted a solid 3.22 ERA and again mystified the opposition with a 31.6% strikeout percentage that ranks as firmly above average. While the right-hander gives up too many free passes (11.1 BB%) and doesn’t induce many groundballs (33.3 GB%) he has proven adept at avoiding home runs when opponents are actually able to put the ball in play against him.

Stammen, meanwhile, rebounded nicely from an uncharacteristically poor 2020 season where he sported a 5.63 ERA after 24 innings. It’s worth noting that his performance there was impacted by some bad BABIP luck, as the durable reliever’s underlying peripherals largely resemble this year’s successful campaign. Regardless, this recent season saw the BABIP pendulum swing the other way while Stammen’s strikeout rate ticked upward and his 55.1% groundball rate remained typically robust. The 38-year-old will look to replicate this year’s 3.06 ERA next season in what will be his sixth season of a very strong Padres tenure.

They’ve also declined their options over right-handed reliever Keone Kela and outfielder Jake Marisnick. San Diego could have paid Kela $800K and Marisnick $4MM to stay aboard next season, but clearly felt between their respective injury and underperformance neither was worth the entirety of that investment. Marisnick will receive a $500k buyout before heading to free agency.

The Kela decision registers as the greater surprise here, as a strikeout-happy reliever with a career 3.33 ERA on its face seems like a bargain with a sub-$1MM price tag. Still, the 28-year-old is recovering from Tommy John surgery and wasn’t thought to be available until midway through next season. After tallying just 42 1/3 innings over the past three seasons, and some declining bottom-line results, the Padres clearly didn’t feel the fiery right-hander was worth the half-season gamble.

Marisnick, meanwhile, was a no-brainer to have his option declined after an ill-fated midseason deal with the Cubs landed him on the west coast. As a glove-first, center field-capable player Marisnick provided adequate production at the plate in Chicago, delivering a .731 OPS. That number cratered following the trade however, as a subsequent .472 OPS contributed to the Padres year-end skid and negated a good deal of the value Marisnick had built for himself earlier in the year.

Additionally, the team confirmed that utility-man Jurickson Profar has exercised his $7.3MM player option for the upcoming season while right-handed closer Mark Melancon has declined his $5MM player option in favor of a $1MM buyout and trip to free agency. The result of both player options are largely formalities at this point, considering the platform years both players posted.

By measure of bWAR Profar was the definition of a replacement-level player in 2021. The one-time top prospect bounced around five positions and upped his walk-rate to a cool 11.9% across 137 games. Unfortunately, that versatility was undercut by generally poor reviews of Profar’s glovework across 4 of his 5 positions. Furthermore, an inability to hit the ball with much authority meant those 137 games worth of plate appearances led to a punchless .227/.329/.320 slash line. Profar will look to tap into some of the upside that he’s shown flashes of throughout his career before making a call on next year’s $8.3MM player option.

Lastly, the 36-year-old Melancon proved to be one of last offseason’s thriftiest pickups. In return for a $3MM guarantee the veteran gave the Padres outstanding production at the back of their bullpen, leading the league with 39 saves in his fifth All-Star campaign. Some batted ball luck worked in Melancon’s favor this season, suggesting his 2.23 ERA is due for some regression, but a very strong groundball and home run rate— plus a spike in strikeout rate from last season— indicate that Melancon remains a plenty serviceable option as a high leverage reliever.

Padres Re-Sign Craig Stammen

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JANUARY 17: The Padres have announced the deal.

JANUARY 4: The Padres have agreed to a multi-year contract with free-agent righty Craig Stammen, reports Robert Murray. It’s a two-year deal that will guarantee Stammen $9MM through the 2021 season with a team option for a third year, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. If exercised, that $4MM option would raise Stammen’s earnings to a total of $12MM over three years—otherwise, he’ll collect a $1MM buyout. The deal, pending a physical, also includes $500K in yearly incentives (Twitter link), bringing the overall potential payout to $13.5MM. Stammen is represented by Paragon Sports International.

Stammen, 35, has spent the last three seasons with San Diego and has been an indispensable piece in a solid bullpen unit, with the Padres relying heavily on his right arm in the late innings: his 241 1/3 innings pitched since 2017 are the second most among all relievers during that span, with only Yusmeiro Petit pitching more in relief.

Not only has he been durable, but Stammen has quietly been one of the best bullpen arms in baseball since joining the Padres, posting a 3.06 ERA with the team; Fangraphs’ WAR metric ranks him as the 36th-best reliever over the last three years. He has served as a stellar second fiddle to relief ace Kirby Yates, with the pair anchoring a bullpen that was among the best in the National League in 2019.

Last year, Stammen notched a 3.29 ERA (4.12 FIP) in 82 innings for the Friars, striking out 73 batters and walking just 15. He’s proven to excel at preventing bases on balls, but he’s had some trouble preventing home runs, with opponents averaging 1.4 HR/9 against him. Not surprisingly, his best season came in 2018 when he allowed just three homers all year, but that was buoyed by a perhaps abnormally low 4.9% HR/FB rate.

The San Diego bullpen looks to once again receive top marks in 2020, with Stammen and Yates returning and free-agent signee Drew Pomeranz adding a solid lefty to the late-inning blueprint. There are a couple of wild cards in the mix, but the likes of Pierce Johnson, Matt Strahm, and Andres Muñoz have the potential to alleviate the workload of the high-leverage arms. If the offense, bolstered by Tommy Pham and (fingers crossed) a full year of Fernando Tatis Jr., can take a leap forward, one hopes that the likes of Yates and Stammen will more often be put in a winning position.

Stammen will play the 2020 season at age 36, so while he will no doubt remain a key cog in that San Diego ’pen, it’s reasonable to expect a slightly lighter workload for the veteran moving forward. He missed nearly all of 2015 with an elbow injury, but he’s quelled any lingering concerns about his durability with a weighty role in recent years. His new contract falls right about in line with the two-year, $10MM deal MLBTR projected for Stammen at the beginning of the offseason, and he’ll of course have the chance to tack on another year if he can keep up his current production.

FA Rumors: Ozuna, Braves, J. Castro, Stammen, Peraza, Grandy

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The Braves are interested in free-agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna, Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets. This isn’t the first connection between the sides, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last month that the Braves were one of the clubs in on Ozuna. Now, though, it seems the Braves are willing to aggressively pursue the 29-year-old qualifying offer recipient. In the event third baseman Josh Donaldson leaves Atlanta for another team, the Braves would regard Ozuna as a viable fallback option, Morosi suggests. MLBTR predicts Ozuna will reel in a three-year, $45MM guarantee, and if he lands anywhere near that neighborhood, he should fall well short of Donaldson’s next contract. That said, replacing Donaldson’s bat with Ozuna’s would still leave a sizable hole at third base for the Braves.

Here’s the latest on several other free agents…

  • The Angels, Astros, and Rangers are among the organizations with interest in backstop Jason Castro, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). With Yasmani Grandal and Travis d’Arnaud off the market, the 32-year-old Castro could be the best catcher left on the board. The pitch-framing savant’s coming off a strong season in Minnesota, where he batted .232/.332/.435 in 275 plate appearances and earned positive grades in Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average metric.
  • Several teams appear to be in the market for reliever Craig Stammen. The right-hander’s most recent team, the Padres, as well as the Astros, Diamondbacks, Reds, White Sox, Blue Jays and Cardinals have all expressed interest, per Morosi (Twitter links). Stammen, whom MLBTR projects for a two-year, $10MM guarantee, has put together a strong career divided between Washington and San Diego. The 35-year-old logged a 3.29 ERA with 8.01 K/9, 1.65 BB/9 and a 50.8 percent groundball rate in 82 innings last season as a Padre.
  • The Reds are one of the teams with interest in Japanese center fielder Shogo Akiyama, president of baseball operations Dick Williams revealed (via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Clubs have until Dec. 19 to sign Akiyama, who had an impressive run with the Seibu Lions from 2011-19. It’s unclear what a potential Reds-Akiyama union would mean for Nick Senzel, their starting center fielder last season. Senzel could perhaps move to the corner outfield, which does look like a need area for the Reds.
  • The Cardinals are interested in re-signing backup catcher Matt Wieters, according to general manager Michael Girsch (via Goold). Whether it’s Wieters or someone else, the team seems intent on adding a veteran to play behind Yadier Molina. Wieters could wind up in Oakland if he doesn’t go back to St. Louis, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Athletics have shown interest in the 33-year-old to back up Sean Murphy. This is the second straight offseason in which Wieters has landed on the A’s radar.
  • The Orioles and Indians are two of the four teams that have shown interest in infielder Jose Peraza, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). The Reds non-tendered Peraza last week on the heels of an unproductive season, but he’s only a year removed from a respectable showing. The 25-year-old’s also controllable via arbitration through 2022.
  • Although he hopes to play next season, there has been little interest in outfielder Curtis Granderson, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The soon-to-be 39-year-old Granderson is a revered clubhouse presence who has enjoyed an outstanding career, but he’s a free agent at an inopportune time. Granderson struggled to a .183/.281/.356 line with minus-1.4 fWAR in 363 plate trips with the Marlins last season.

Deadline Day Bullpen Rumors: Padres, Diekman, Halos

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It’s a buyers’ market for bullpen help with just over two hours until the non-waiver trade deadline, as there’s a significant supply of arms thought to be available on the market. Here’s some of the latest chatter as contenders look to bolster their relief corps:

  • The Cubs had scouts on hand to watch the Padres — likely relievers Kirby Yates and Craig Stammen — last night, tweets Dennis Lin of The Athletic. Chicago was tied to Brad Ziegler recently but didn’t land the submariner, as he instead went to the D-backs recently. Lin’s colleague, Ken Rosenthal, tweets that the A’s also have interest in Stammen. Rosenthal also tweeted earlier today that the Pirates watched Yates before acquiring Keone Kela. The addition of Kela could take them out of that market, of course, but the Pirates could speculatively still be in the market for another arm. Both relievers are controlled beyond the 2018 season.
  • The Rangers have accelerated their efforts to move lefty reliever Jake Diekman, tweets Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Texas has already moved Cole Hamels, Jesse Chavez and Kela in the days leading up to the deadline, and Diekman represents perhaps the top remaining trade chip they have — certainly the top remaining rental, especially with Adrian Beltre unlikely to approve a deal. Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweeted recently that the Phillies have checked in on Diekman.
  • USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Angels are drawing “serious interest” in lefty Jose Alvarez and Blake Parker, though as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register pointed out earlier today, it’d be tough for the Halos to part with either controllable reliever (Twitter links). The Angels hope for better health and a return to contention in 2019, and each of Alvarez, Parker and Cam Bedrosian could factor prominently into those plans. Fletcher notes that perhaps the organization would be more apt to move one of those relievers if it meant landing a nar-MLB commodity at a thin position such as catcher.
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