Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Daniel Bard

Rockies Notes: Profar, Bard, Hollowell

By | at

Jurickson Profar made his Rockies debut in today’s 3-1 loss to the Padres, and as fate would have it, Profar’s first game with his new team happened to be against his former team.  Playing with the Padres “was everything to me,” Profar told Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and seemed to express some regret over opting out of his $7.5MM player option to stay with the Padres in 2023.  “If I was a normal free agent, not opting out, it’s different.  Opting out and free agency taking that long, I always wanted to stay….I didn’t want to (opt out), but I did,” Profar said.

The entry into free agency took a long time to resolve, as Profar didn’t reach an agreement with Colorado until March 19 on a one-year, $7.75MM deal.  Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens was a key recruiter in the process, as Meulens has been a longtime mentor to Profar dating back to the earliest days of his baseball career in Curacao, and Meulens managed Profar as part of the Netherlands’ team in the World Baseball Classic.  Profar is looking forward to now joining Meulens in the majors, and getting off a fresh start with his new organization.

More from the Mile High City, as the Rockies are 2-2 following their split of the season-opening series with the Padres…

  • Manager Bud Black told media (including MLB.com) that Daniel Bard threw a bullpen on Saturday, and hit 96mph during the session.  It’s a positive sign for the veteran reliever, who began the 2023 campaign on the 15-day injured list due to a return of the anxiety issues that put Bard’s career on hold for several seasons.  There isn’t yet any timetable for Bard’s return, as naturally the Rockies will give him all the time he needs.
  • The Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes placed Gavin Hollowell on the 10-day minor league IL today, and Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link) reports that the right-hander is dealing with forearm tightness.  While the severity of the injury isn’t yet known, any sort of forearm issue is naturally troubling for a pitcher, and it adds to a tough week of news for Hollowell — Allentuck notes that he just missed out on a spot in Colorado’s Opening Day bullpen.  A sixth-round pick for the Rockies in the 2019 draft, Hollowell made his MLB debut last season, posting a 7.71 ERA in seven innings over six appearances.  MLB Pipeline ranks Hollowell as the 24th-best prospect in the Rockies’ farm system, and feels the 6’7″ reliever’s strikeout potential gives him promise, though his control is a work in progress.

Daniel Bard To Begin Season On Injured List

By | at

Rockies right-hander Daniel Bard is going to begin the season on the injured list due to anxiety, reports Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette (Twitter links). Righty Jake Bird has been recalled to take Bard’s place on the active roster. Allentuck adds that outfielder Jurickson Profar is not yet with the team in San Diego, though he can’t be replaced on the active roster.

“It’s a hard thing to admit,” Bard tells Allentuck. “But I’ve been through this before. I have enough going on outside the game to realize what’s important … I’m extremely grateful to be in an organization that understands these things and is accepting.”

Bard, 38 in June, pitched for the Red Sox from 2009 to 2013 but a case of “the yips” caused him to struggle in the latter parts of that span. His walk rate shot up to 15.5% in 2012 and then was even worse the year after. He only made a couple of appearances at the big league level in 2013 before getting sent to the minors, eventually walking a third of opponents down on the farm the rest of the way.

He didn’t pitch in the majors for many years but resurfaced with the Rockies in 2020. He posted a 3.65 ERA in 23 appearances that season, striking out 25.5% of batters faced, walking 9.4% of them and getting grounders at a 48.5% clip. He took a bit of a step back in 2021, with his walk rate jumping to 11.8% and his ERA spiking to 5.21%. But he got back on track tremendously in 2022, with a 1.79 ERA and 10.2% walk rate. He also struck out 28.2% of batters faced, got grounders on 51.7% of balls in play and racked up 34 saves on the year. His name popped up in some trade rumors as he was set to his free agency after last year, but he and the Rockies agreed to a two-year, $19MM extension.

Though the Rockies surely don’t want to be without their closer, Bard’s comments indicate that they’re prioritizing his health now that his anxiety has reoccured. Thomas Harding of MLB.com relays that Bard is still with the team and doing his normal throwing. That means it’s possible he’ll return whenever he feels he has his anxiety managed. MLBTR wishes him the best in that process.

Quickly turning to Profar, he didn’t have much of a spring because he was playing with Team Netherlands during the World Baseball Classic while still unsigned. He eventually signed with the Rockies but was delayed in joining the club in camp due to visa issues. He eventually did report to the team’s facilities in Arizona and is apparently still there, per Harding, continuing to get at-bats in minor league games. Harding adds that the decision on when Profar joins will be done “by feel.” It seems the club will play with a shortened three-man bench until then.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

By | at

The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Rockies, Daniel Bard Agree To Extension

By | at

1:05pm: Bard’s contract will guarantee him “about $19MM,” Feinsand tweets.

12:52pm: The Rockies and closer Daniel Bard are finalizing a contract extension, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of the New York Post, meanwhile, reports that the Rockies have already reached an agreement on a two-year extension for Bard, a client of ISE Baseball (Twitter links).

Daniel Bard

All indications throughout the summer have been that the Rockies aren’t interested in trading the 37-year-old Bard and rather hoped to keep him beyond the current season. It now appears they’ve succeeded in that goal.

On paper, Bard seemed like the optimal trade candidate: a 37-year-old reliever on an expiring contract and in the midst of a dominant season for a last-place team. The Rockies, however, march to the beat of their own drum perhaps more than any team in the sport and have made a habit of hanging onto conventional trade candidates, even if it means losing key players for nothing, as they did last summer when declining to trade Jon Gray and surprisingly choosing not to issue him a qualifying offer.

Rockies owner Dick Monfort has outwardly spoken about his belief that the team has the makings of a winning club, even if the on-field results have overwhelmingly suggested otherwise in recent seasons. General manager Bill Schmidt, who was elevated from scouting director to the GM’s chair last year after GM Jeff Bridich’s dismissal, plainly told Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette earlier this month that he did not envision being a major seller at this year’s deadline because the organization believes in the talent on the roster. Manager Bud Black has echoed similar sentiments in recent days, rhetorically questioning why the team would trade a “Range Rover” (Bard) for a “Honda Accord” (a package of minor league prospects, presumably).

While it’s certainly fair to question the inherently risky decision to extend a 37-year-old reliever, it’s simultaneously easy to see how the Rockies have become enamored of Bard in the ninth inning. Merely making it back to the Majors after a seven-year absence would’ve been a feel-good story on its own, but Bard not only engineered one of the most improbable comebacks in recent memory — he’s quickly ascended to the ranks of the elite in MLB.

A late-season swoon sent Bard’s 2021 ERA soaring to 5.21 following the trade deadline, but he’s been an absolute powerhouse in Black’s bullpen this year, pitching to a 1.91 ERA with a 27.6% strikeout rate and a 53.8% ground-ball rate. Bard’s 12.2% walk rate is noticeably higher than the league-average mark of 9.1% among relievers, but his penchant for grounders and inducing generally weak contact (87.2 mph average exit velocity) has helped him to mitigate any damage that might arise from at-times spotty control. Bard is also averaging a blistering 98.1 mph on a sinker that can reach triple-digits and make hitters look downright foolish at times.

Relievers are volatile, as Bard himself has shown with his 2021 and 2022 results, so there’s plenty of risk that this deal turns out poorly for the Rockies. The current version of Bard, though, is about as good a reliever as you’ll find anywhere in the league — and the Rockies are clearly confident in his ability to sustain this output even as he approaches his 40th birthday.

From a payroll vantage point, Bard will add another notable salary to a 2023 roster that could well set a new franchise-record in payroll before the front office makes a single roster move. The Rox had $110MM on next year’s books already, and that was before factoring in Bard’s new extension and an $18MM player option that Charlie Blackmon seems likely to exercise. Colorado will also owe arbitration raises to each of Robert Stephenson, Garrett Hampson, Tyler Kinley, Peter Lambert, Austin Gomber and Brendan Rodgers. All of that should push the team right up against or somewhere beyond the current franchise-record mark of $145MM. Further additions this winter could send the Rockies into entirely new payroll territory.

The Rockies will take– and, based on social media reaction, already have taken — plenty of flak for their commitment to retaining a core of players that has generated only a .445 winning percentage dating back to the 2019 season. And while the team’s resistance to rebuilding and staunch belief that the makings of a contender are present can both fairly be questioned, it’s also somewhat refreshing to see a club continue to try to put together a winning club rather than lean into the type of arduous, multi-year rebuilds that have proliferated the sport in recent years. Even if this group never breaks through and emerges as a true postseason contender in future seasons, the Rockies are at least trying — and that’s more than several teams can say each season.

Rockies Remain Unlikely To Trade Daniel Bard, C.J. Cron

By | at

The Rockies have dropped seven of their last ten games, falling into last place in the NL West. They’re set to miss the postseason for the fourth consecutive year, but they remain opposed to any kind of dramatic overhaul. General manager Bill Schmidt flatly rejected the idea of a rebuild earlier this month, and it seems likely they’ll hold onto most or all of their shorter-term players as well.

Closer Daniel Bard and first baseman C.J. Cron have drawn reported interest over the past few weeks, but the Rox haven’t seemed especially urgent to move either player. That remains the case, as both Danielle Allentuck of the Colorado Spring Gazette and Nick Groke of the Athletic relay that neither is likely to be dealt. Both Allentuck and Groke write that Colorado is optimistic about its chances of signing the 37-year-old Bard to a contract extension that’d keep him from hitting the open market this winter as scheduled. Cron, meanwhile, is already under contract for next season at a modest $7.5MM salary.

Speaking with reporters yesterday, Colorado manager Bud Black metaphorically suggested the Rockies have been underwhelmed with the trade offers they’ve received on their veteran players. “We’re fielding calls. We’ve got some players who are desirable,” Black said. “And I can’t speak to it, but I’ll give you some perspective. Team A might call on one of our players and their front office might say, ‘We like this guy.’ And our front office will say, ‘Well, yeah, he’s a good player, you should be on that player. … But this happens a little bit, too. Hey, you guys have a Range Rover. We’ll take your Range Rover and we’ll give you our Honda Accord.’ And teams expect you to do that. Why would we do that? ‘How could you not trade your Range Rover?’ Because we might try to keep our Range Rover! Rather than trade it for your Subaru!”

The Rockies actions in recent seasons have reflected a similar sentiment. While most non-contenders are happy to take the best offer on the table for the bulk of their impending free agents, Colorado declined to trade any of Cron, Jon Gray or Trevor Story at last year’s deadline. It paid off in Cron’s case, as they eventually agreed to a two-year extension and have been rewarded with the slugger’s .280/.335/.521 showing this season. Gray and Story departed in free agency, however, and Colorado received no compensation for the former after surprisingly deciding against issuing him a qualifying offer.

They’re set to adopt a similar approach to this summer’s deadline. Groke writes that Colorado is also hoping to extend starter Chad Kuhl, who’s slated for free agency this winter himself. The righty has expressed openness to staying in Denver, and the organization shares the desire to keep him around. The 29-year-old signed a $3MM guarantee over the winter after being non-tendered by the Pirates. He’s made 19 starts and soaked up 98 innings with mixed results.

Kuhl had excellent numbers early on, carrying a 3.56 ERA through the end of May. He’s hit a major rough patch of late, though, allowing five-plus runs in three of his last five starts while failing to work into the sixth inning on any occasion. Since tossing a complete game shutout against the Dodgers on June 27, he’s allowed 22 runs in 20 2/3 innings. That has brought his season line up to a 4.78 ERA with a personal-low 16.6% strikeout rate.

Spotty recent run notwithstanding, there’s some merit to the Rox’s desire to hold onto Kuhl beyond this season. He’s handled himself well at Coors Field, pitching to a 4.17 ERA while holding opponents to a manageable .258/.313/.428 line through nine home starts. Largely thanks to a quality slider, he’s mostly done well against right-handed batters. Kuhl’s lack of a trustworthy changeup has always contributed to marked platoon concerns, but his sinker-slider mix generally aligns with those of pitchers (i.e. Gray, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela) whom the Rockies have relied upon in recent years. Depending on the price point, keeping Kuhl around as a lower-cost option at the back of the rotation is defensible — particularly since the trade demand from other clubs figures to be modest given his numbers this month.

Shortstop José Iglesias and right-hander Alex Colomé are each ticketed for free agency as well. Igleias, as a contact-oriented infielder, could hold modest appeal to contenders looking for utility depth. Colomé doesn’t miss many bats, but he’s a solid strike-thrower and ground-ball specialist in the middle innings. Whether Colorado will deal either for a lower-level prospect or two remains to be seen, although both Allentuck and Groke posit that Colomé is the likeliest player on the roster to be traded.

NL West Notes: Ohtani, Padres, Walker, Rodon, Giants, Bard

By | at

The Angels reportedly don’t have any interest in trading Shohei Ohtani, but that hasn’t stopped the team from at least listening to offers out of due diligence, Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post write.  The Padres are one of those teams who have called about Ohtani, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who adds that this is the type of aggressive move that has become typical of San Diego president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.  There doesn’t seem to be any indication that the Padres have caught the Halos’ attention, except in the broader sense that the Padres have the depth of premium young talent that the Angels would undoubtedly want if they actually did considering sending Ohtani elsewhere.

Frankie Montas and Luis Castillo have also been linked to the Padres in trade rumors, and as Rosenthal notes, it is noteworthy in itself that San Diego is looking at pitchers despite having plenty of rotation depth on paper.  However, MacKenzie Gore was recently placed on the injured list, Sean Manaea has struggled as of late, and the Padres could be trying to land a pitcher controlled through at least 2023 considering that Manaea, Joe Musgrove, Mike Clevinger, and Nick Martinez could all potentially enter the free agent market this winter.  Furthermore, someone like Blake Snell could be dealt to try and stay under the luxury tax threshold, as avoiding another tax payment is another consideration for Preller to manage as the deadline approaches.

More from around the NL West…

  • Also from Rosenthal, Diamondbacks officials are “doubtful” that Christian Walker will be traded.  The first baseman’s name has been mentioned in trade speculation, but the D’Backs understandably have a high asking price for an all-around productive player who is under team control through the 2024 season.
  • A seven-game losing streak has dropped the Giants to 48-50, but as of last night, the team wasn’t planning on selling at the deadline, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets.  Chasing down the Dodgers for first place is probably out of the question, but San Francisco is still only 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot, and a +26 run differential argues that the Giants are at least a little better than their losing record indicates.  That said, the Giants have several intriguing trade options, including Carlos Rodon (who can opt out of his deal after the season) as a rental piece.  SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson speculates that the Twins would be one of many interested parties if the Giants did shop Rodon, as Minnesota “were right there” in trying to sign Rodon last winter.
  • Rockies closer Daniel Bard is drawing interest from more than one team, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports.  Bard (who turned 37 last month) is enjoying a career revival as the Rockies’ ninth-inning man, recording 21 saves and posting a 1.91 ERA over 37 2/3 innings.  Despite these numbers and the fact that Bard is a free agent after the year, however, most of the buzz around Bard has focused on Colorado’s efforts to extend him, rather than shop him at the deadline.

Rockies Unlikely To Be Major Deadline Sellers

By | at

At 39-49, the Rockies are tied with the D-backs for last place in the National League West, sitting 18 games back from the division-leading Dodgers. Only eight teams in baseball have a worse winning percentage than Colorado, and several of those eight came into the 2022 season with no intention of competing as they progressed through rebuilds. The Rockies, as has become par for the course, seem to feel their club is underperforming and don’t envision a major sell-off. General manager Bill Schmidt replied with a simple “no” when asked by Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette if he expects to be a big seller at this year’s deadline.

It’s a familiar refrain for a Rockies club that has enjoyed just two winning seasons in the past decade and appears well on its way to a tenth sub-.500 finish in the past dozen seasons. The Rockies are 171-212 dating back to 2019 but have nevertheless generally eschewed even the trades of veterans on expiring contracts. They added Kevin Pillar and Mychal Givens at the 2020 deadline, for instance. The Rox eventually traded Givens last summer, but that was the sole deadline deal for a club that had Jon Gray, Trevor Story and C.J. Cron on expiring contracts — plus righty Daniel Bard, who is a free agent at the end of the current season.

On the one hand, it’s refreshing to see a team continue to try to turn its fortunes and win in the here-and-now without embarking on an arduous multi-year rebuild (which, in itself, is not the panacea it’s often framed to be). On the other, the Rox have continually expressed ardent belief that this core can be the nucleus of a winning club but have yet to see that faith manifest in the form of consistent wins on the field.

Zealous confidence in the core has been demonstrated through far more than just words. Colorado extended Cron, infielder Ryan McMahon, lefty Kyle Freeland, righty Antonio Senzatela and catcher Elias Diaz, traded for Randal Grichuk and signed Kris Bryant to an eye-popping seven-year deal in an effort to finally turn the corner this year. Smaller deals for Jose Iglesias, Alex Colome and Chad Kuhl were meant to further bolster the roster. But at with just 20 days until the trade deadline, they find themselves in a familiar spot, and the only names among those extensions and new acquisitions who’ve performed up to expectation are Cron, Kuhl, Colome and perhaps Iglesias.

Despite the lackluster results, Schmidt tells Allentuck that he “believe[s] in these guys,” adding confidence that the farm system will soon bring about some reinforcements. The Rox indeed have some nearly MLB-ready talent on the cusp of the Majors, but the system as a whole is ranked between 23rd and 25th among all 30 teams at each of Baseball America, MLB.com, The Athletic and ESPN. Schmidt, the scouting director-turned-GM, surely views his group more favorably, but as Allentuck explores in greater detail, nearly every one of the organization’s most promising pitching prospects has dealt with injuries of varying severity this winter.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that the Rockies should, at the very least, be open-minded about deals involving veterans who are set to be free agents at season’s end. That would include Bard, who’s been one of the better closers in the NL this season, as well as Kuhl, Colome, Iglesias and hard-throwing but mercurial righty Carlos Estevez.

However, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that the Rox hope to sign the 37-year-old Bard to an extension rather than trade him. Allentuck notes that a deal between the two parties isn’t close but similarly suggests that an extension is likelier than a trade. While Nightengale wrote the Rockies could listen to offers on Kuhl, the right-hander himself tells Allentuck that he’s also open to an extension and would prefer to stay in one place rather than bounce around the league. Schmidt seemingly hinted at this when noting that the most commonly speculated trade candidates in Colorado “are the guys that want to stay here.” Based on the team’s recent rash of extensions, it’s certainly possible Kuhl re-signs on a new multi-year deal rather than changing hands in the next three weeks.

There’d obviously be plenty of risk associated with extending Bard or Kuhl. Bard is already 37, and although he’s whiffed 29.5% of opponents, limited hard contact and notched a career-best 56.4% ground-ball rate en route to a 2.14 ERA, his 2021 campaign (5.21 ERA in 65 2/3 innings) is a reminder of the overall volatility of relief pitching. Add in Bard’s age and still-ugly 12.2% walk rate, and there’s definite downside, strong as his results to date have been.

Kuhl, meanwhile, has a 4.02 ERA through 87 1/3 innings — a total that’s already the second-highest mark of the oft-injured righty’s career. The 29-year-old’s 16.9% strikeout rate ranks 71st of the 79 pitchers in MLB with at least 80 innings so far, and his 29.4% opponents’ chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone ranks 73rd. His 41.7% hard-hit rate is the highest mark he’s ever yielded. Perhaps the return wouldn’t be enough to justify a trade, and it can’t be ignored that it’s rare for free-agent pitchers to voice a willingness (or in this case, even a preference) to call Coors Field home.

Still, keeping Kuhl would effectively lock the 2023 Rockies into relying on the same rotation that has produced a 28th-ranked 5.06 ERA in 2022 (plus a 24th-ranked 4.47 FIP and 28th-ranked 4.58 SIERA). In doing so, they’d be betting heavily on improvements from German Marquez, Freeland and Senzatela — although with all three now signed to lucrative multi-year deals, there’s little choice but for the organization to hope for just that.

Last year’s deadline was Schmidt’s first in the GM chair after more than 20 years in other front office roles with the Rockies, so there was no precedent for how he’d approach the trade market. Now, between what we saw last summer and the latest comments to Allentuck, it seems likely to expect a conservative approach that’ll leave the bulk of the roster intact.

That would ostensibly set the stage for another offseason of win-now transactions for the Rockies, but there are payroll considerations to keep in mind as well. Assuming Charlie Blackmon picks up next year’s $10MM player option, they’ll already have $120.5MM in guarantees on the books. That doesn’t include potential salaries for extension candidates Bard and Kuhl, nor does it include arbitration raises for Austin Gomber, Brendan Rodgers, Tyler Kinley, Garrett Hampson and Robert Stephenson. All of that will push the Rockies much closer to their franchise-record $145MM payroll, meaning it’ll be incumbent for the current group to right the ship if they’re to truly turn their fortunes in future seasons.

Rockies Reportedly Open To Trading Chad Kuhl, Alex Colome

By | at

With the August 2 trade deadline just over three weeks away, the Rockies are considering selling some short-term assets, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. He relays that the Rox are shopping reliever Alex Colome and starter Chad Kuhl, but not closer Daniel Bard. Despite Bard’s impending free agency, the Rockies will apparently try to extend him in the coming weeks instead of working on a trade.

As things currently stand, the Rockies are 38-48, tied with the Diamondbacks at the bottom of the NL West and eight games out of a playoff spot. Unless they can gain some ground in the coming weeks, they make on-paper sense as a team that could trade some players that are approaching free agency.

However, it’s worth considering that the Rockies haven’t allowed followed the obvious playbook in this regard. Last year, the club was in a similar situation and had a number of impending free agents, such as Trevor Story, Jon Gray, C.J. Cron and Mychal Givens. In the end, only Givens was traded, with Colorado hanging onto the other three. In Story’s case, the club evidently thought that they would  be better served by making him a qualifying offer and collecting a compensatory draft pick, as opposed to whatever trade offers they received. As for Cron and Gray, the club tried to work out contracts to keep them around, succeeding in the case of Cron but not Gray. All three of Kuhl, Bard and Colome are impending free agents this year and came in at #17, 22 and 27 respectively on MLBTR’s list of top trade candidates.

Colome, 33, was signed in the offseason to a one-year, $4.1MM deal. A veteran reliever with closing experience, he’s gradually transitioned from a strikeout guy to a ground ball guy in recent seasons. From 2016 to 2019, he threw 252 1/3 innings with a 2.78 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 46.9% ground ball rate. Over 2020 and 2021, he logged another 87 1/3 frames with a 3.30 ERA, 19.5% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and got grounders at a 53.4% clip. This year, he’s continued those recent trends, throwing 33 innings for Colorado with a 2.73 ERA, 16.8% strikeout rate and 54.6% ground ball rate. He has 159 career saves, including four this season. Just about every team in baseball will be looking to bolster their bullpen at the deadline, meaning Colome shoulder garner plenty of interest.

Kuhl, 29, spent the first five years of his career as a Pirate, throwing 439 2/3 innings with a 4.44 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate. After being non-tendered by the Bucs, he signed with the Rockies on a one-year deal worth $3MM plus incentives. Through 16 starts and 87 1/3 innings this year, he’s put up a 4.02 ERA, which would be a career best. However, his strikeout rate has dipped to 16.9% and his grounder rate has also dropped to 36.5%. The key thing helping Kuhl seems to be an 8.9% HR/FB rate, well below the 13.2% mark he had in previous seasons, despite moving to Coors Field. Kuhl surprisingly has a 3.27 ERA at Coors and a 4.70 ERA on the road this year. His barrel rate has dropped to 6.9% this year after being at 13.1% in 2020, so perhaps it’s not entirely just batted ball luck at play. Still, the advanced metrics place his work this season closer to his career norms, with SIERA giving him a 4.85 and FIP a 4.28.

Whether he’s taken a real step forward or not, many contenders will be looking for starting pitching this year and not all of them can acquire Luis Castillo. If the Rockies make Kuhl available, they will surely get interest. However, in a recent piece, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic notes that Kuhl is willing to stick with the Rockies and that the club generally tries to keep any pitcher that’s comfortable in their hitter-friendly environment.

As for Bard, he’s the most unusual of the bunch, having played with the Red Sox from 2009 to 2013 before a case of the yips cut him off from major league action. After several years in the wilderness, he incredibly made it back to the big leagues with the Rockies in 2020 as a 34-year-old. Since then, he’s become the closer in Colorado, racking up 44 saves over the past three seasons. Now 37 years old, Bard has thrown 32 2/3 innings this year with a 2.20 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate, 12.5% walk rate and 55.3% ground ball rate. Despite his age, the Rockies evidently think he still has something left in the tank, as Nightengale reports that they want to work out a contract that prevents him from reaching free agency.

Rockies Notes: Bryant, Schmidt, Pitching, Bard

By | at

Kris Bryant looks to be close to returning to the Rockies lineup, as manager Bud Black told reporters (including MLB.com’s Thomas Harding) that Bryant will return to the team for an evaluation on Monday.  If all goes well, Bryant could be activated from the injured list for tomorrow’s game against the Dodgers.

Bryant’s next appearance will be only his 18th game of the season, as the former NL MVP has twice been sidelined due to lower back strains.  Bryant’s first IL stint cost him just shy of a month of action, and after being reinstated, he played in only two more games before returning to the injured list.  All told, Bryant has made only 73 plate appearances and hit only .270/.342/.333 in his first season in a Rockies uniform.

Getting their prized free agent signing back onto the field is the first step in what the Rockies hope is a second-half turnaround.  Today’s 6-3 loss to the Twins dropped Colorado’s record to 31-42, and the team sits in last place in the NL West.

While the Rockies’ ownership and front office has often been overly optimistic about the team’s chances, GM Bill Schmidt took a more measured tone in accessing his club’s play, telling The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders and other reporters on Friday that the first goal was “just thinking about getting back to playing .500 baseball.”  In regards to the trade deadline, Schmidt said “we will always listen” to offers from other teams, but the priority is still “to try to win as many games as we can.”

It’s difficult to tell whether or not Colorado’s record could have any real impact on their status as deadline sellers, considering that last year, the Rox opted to retain such pending free agents as Trevor Story and Jon Gray.  If the Rockies are again prioritizing building around their core and not dealing players they think they can re-sign (i.e. how they re-signed C.J. Cron last fall), it could be another relatively quiet deadline for the team.

Case in point, Saunders feels the Rockies could try to extend closer Daniel Bard, since “they love his work ethic and his leadership and he’s become a second bullpen coach.”  If a deal can’t be struck, however, it is possible Bard could be a candidate to be moved by August 2.  Bard is enjoying a terrific season at the back of the Rockies’ bullpen, and is scheduled for free agency after the season, making him a tempting rental pick-up for any contender looking for relief help.

Given Bard’s unusual career path, he might be more open than most pending free agents to signing an extension.  He went more than six full seasons between MLB appearances, as Bard struggled at both the big league and minor league levels, and he also stepped away from the sport entirely for two years.  Bard’s comeback has now yielded three largely successful seasons with the Rockies, and Bard might welcome some long sought-after security in the form of a multi-year commitment to remain in Denver.

Schmidt seemed to downplay the idea of dealing any arms, saying that “I still say that our pitching is our strength, and it’s too hard for us to acquire pitching.  So we still have the core that we are going to build around, going forward.  That hasn’t changed.”  This would seem to rule out the idea of the Rox dealing any starters, and maybe also relievers like Bard or (another scheduled free agent) Alex Colome, though Colome seems likelier to be moved than Bard.

Beyond the hurlers, Saunders figures that veteran infielder Jose Iglesias is the likeliest trade candidate, and that there isn’t much chance Charlie Blackmon would waive his no-trade protection to allow a deal.  (Plus, the Rockies may not have the willingness or ability to deal Blackmon anyway.)  Interestingly, Saunders suggests that the Rox should at least be open to the idea of moving Cron, even though the first baseman is still under contract for the 2023 season.

Tender Deadline Signings: 11/30/21

By and | at

With the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players looming tonight at 8pm ET — the MLBPA and MLB jointly agreed to move the deadline up a couple days due to the looming expiration of the collective bargaining agreement — we’ll likely see a slew of arbitration-eligible players signing one-year deals.

It’s commonplace for a large batch of players to sign deals in the hours leading up to the tender deadline. “Pre-tender” deals of this nature often fall shy of projections due to the fact that teams use the looming threat of a non-tender to enhance their leverage. Arbitration contracts at this juncture are often take-it-or-leave-it propositions, with the “leave it” end of that arrangement resulting in the player being cut loose. Given the widely expected lockout, there could be more incentive than usual for borderline non-tender candidates to take those offers rather than being cast out into free agency just hours before a transaction freeze is implemented.

As a reminder, arbitration contracts are not fully guaranteed. In a typical year, a team can cut a player on an arb contract at any point before the halfway point in Spring Training and only be responsible for 30 days’ termination pay (about one-sixth of the contract). Releasing a player in the second half of Spring Training bumps the termination pay to 45 days of his prorated salary.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for each team’s arbitration-eligible players last month, although for many of the players listed below, this isn’t so much avoiding arbitration as it is avoiding a non-tender. Here’s a look at today’s agreements…

  • The Yankees have agreed to deals with infielder Gio Urshela and right-hander Domingo German, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter links). Urshela will make $6.55MM, while German has agreed to a $1.75MM deal. Urshela has two seasons of control remaining; German is controllable for three years. Urshela is coming off a .267/.301/.419 showing while playing third base and shortstop. German tossed 98 1/3 innings of 4.58 ERA ball.
  • The Twins have signed three arbitration-eligible pitchers, per reports from Feinsand and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (on Twitter). Right-hander Jharel Cotton signed for $700K, reliever Caleb Thielbar lands $1.3MM and reliever Tyler Duffey signs for $3.8MM. Thielbar and Duffey were both productive members of the Minnesota relief corps in 2021. Cotton was recently claimed off waivers from the Rangers.
  • The Giants have agreed to terms with outfielder Austin Slater on a $1.85MM deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). The 28-year-old (29 next month) appeared at all three spots on the grass while hitting .241/.320/.423 over 306 plate appearances in 2021.
  • Reliever Emilio Pagan and the Padres have agreed on a $2.3MM deal, reports Rosenthal (on Twitter). The 30-year-old worked 63 1/3 innings of 4.83 ERA/3.93 SIERA ball this past season.
  • The Diamondbacks agreed to a $2MM deal with left-hander Caleb Smith, reports Zach Buchanan of the Athletic (via Twitter). The 30-year-old posted a 4.83 ERA/4.68 SIERA across 113 2/3 innings in a swing capacity in 2021.

Read more

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows FOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top