Quick Hits: Scully, Trumbo, Yankees, Urshela, Cardinals
Vin Scully’s final game behind the mic at Dodger Stadium was a memorable one, as the Dodgers clinched the NL West with a 4-3 win over the Rockies, fueled by a 10th-inning walkoff homer from Charlie Culberson. The legendary announcer has already said he won’t be calling any Dodger postseason action, so the final three games of Scully’s 67-year career will come on September 30-October 2, when the Dodgers head to San Francisco for the last three games of the regular season.
Some stray items from around baseball…
- 2016 is quietly on pace to be one of the biggest home run seasons in the game’s history, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan writes in his weekly “Ten Degrees” column. Hitters are on pace for the second-highest single-season homer total ever, behind only the 2000 season. With power on the rise and more readily available than in recent seasons, Passan notes that Mark Trumbo‘s free agent stock could be hampered. Teams will look harder at Trumbo’s lack of defense or OBP if homers are no longer seen as quite a rare commodity.
- The Yankees have been rumored to be interested in a reunion with Aroldis Chapman, and the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff notes that Dellin Betances‘ recent struggles could exacerbate the Yankees’ need for another big bullpen arm. Betances has only “struggled” since August 1 (3.48 ERA and a 32:9 K/BB rate in 20 2/3 innings) by his high standards, though fatigue could be an issue given how much Betances has pitched both this season and over the last three years on the whole. Signing Chapman in free agency and moving Betances back to a setup role would again give the Yankees an elite end-game pairing, if not quite the uniquely great trio they had earlier in the season with Andrew Miller also in the mix.
- As part of a reader mailbag piece, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer opined that the Indians probably aren’t likely to shop Giovanny Urshela this season now that Jose Ramirez looks like an answer at third base. Urshela is a gifted defender but he has posted just a .608 OPS over his 288 career PA in the majors and a .269/.302/.402 career slash line over eight minor league seasons. Other teams may not be willing to give up much in a trade for a player who has shown so little at the plate.
- The Cubs completely rebuilt their roster from scratch to become a powerhouse team both this season and potentially for years to come, though Cardinals GM John Mozeliak tells ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon that such an extensive rebuild would be unlikely for his club. “They were able to do so without being overly concerned about how they finished for a couple years….I’ve always said St. Louis has been a place that demands winning,” Mozeliak said. “[Owner Bill] DeWitt Jr. and myself, we’re not ever looking at a season where we want to take a timeout or two and try to reshuffle the deck.” Mozeliak implied that the Cards would only explore such a strategy if their minor league system totally dried up, which doesn’t seem like an impending issue given how well St. Louis has drafted and developed young players over the last two decades.
Indians Roster Notes: Thatcher, Gorzelanny, Joba, Urshela
Here are a few quick notes on recent Indians roster decisions:
- The Indians have told veteran lefty Joe Thatcher that he will not make the team, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian writes. Thatcher was an Article XX(B) free agent, so he will get a $100K retention bonus and a June 1 opt-out date if he accepts a minor-league assignment. He has until Tuesday to decide if he’ll do so. Thatcher allowed just one run in 6 2/3 innings in Spring Training and also got fairly good results in a partial season with the Astros last year, but that apparently wasn’t enough to earn a spot.
- The Indians have also told one of Thatcher’s competitors for a bullpen job, Tom Gorzelanny, that he won’t make the team either, Bastian tweets. Gorzelanny, too, was an Article XX(B) free agent, but as the Akron Beacon Journal’s Ryan Lewis tweets, the Indians are hoping he winds up with them at Triple-A. The 33-year-old Gorzelanny was coming off a rough season in Detroit and struck out only three batters in 7 2/3 innings in Spring Training, during which he allowed three runs. If the Indians do carry a bullpen lefty, it appears it will be either Kyle Crockett or Ross Detwiler.
- One veteran reliever who has made the team is righty Joba Chamberlain, Bastian tweets. The Indians signed Chamberlain to a minor-league deal in December after a mediocre 2015 season in which he posted a 4.88 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 27 2/3 innings with the Tigers and Royals. Chamberlain also walked five batters in eight Spring Training innings this season. At 30, though, he’s fairly young, and he’s demonstrated mid-90s velocity.
- The team also optioned infielder Giovanny Urshela, pitcher Austin Adams, outfielder Joey Butler and infielder Erik Gonzalez. The most notable of those is Urshela, who played in 81 big-league games last season and hit well this Spring but didn’t figure to make the team thanks to the presence of Juan Uribe and Jose Ramirez.
AL Central Notes: Perez, Infante, Indians, Anibal, Rodon
Extension talks between the Royals and Salvador Perez are ongoing, writes Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star. According to Mellinger, the team has an openness to working something out that hasn’t necessarily been present in the past. For his part, Perez expressed to Mellinger a desire to follow the path of George Brett and Alex Gordon, spending his entire career in the Royals organization. Perez feels a sense of loyalty to the club that gave him the chance to break into the big leagues, but his agent, Rafa Nieves of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, explained to Mellinger that it’ll be hard to offer much of a discount. “He left so much on the table in his present deal,” said Nieves of the five-year, $7MM deal (with three club options) brokered by Perez’s former agents. “He can’t afford to leave a lot more on the table in his next deal. So that’s where we’re at.” Mellinger notes that a rival executive expressed some disbelief that a small-market club could be willing to renegotiate a contract that favors the club so heavily.
Indeed, Jeff Todd and I have noted multiple times on the MLBTR Podcast that there’s significant risk for the Royals, who control Perez through 2019 at a total of $16.75MM via those club options. Perez is one of the largest catchers in baseball, and considering his enormous workload behind the plate (137 games caught, on average, per season from 2013-15), locking in Perez’s 2020 salary four years in advance is a tremendous risk, as there’s no way of definitively knowing how his body will hold up.
Here’s more from the AL Central…
- Royals second baseman Omar Infante could miss some time early this spring as he recovers from offseason surgery that removed bone spurs from his right elbow, writes the Star’s Blair Kerkhoff. Infante is taking batting practice but isn’t throwing to bases at this point, per manager Ned Yost. As Kerkhoff notes, Infante will be in a battle for the regular second base job this offseason — far from the outcome for which the club had hoped when signing him to a four-year, $30.25MM deal. Infante lost the second base job to Ben Zobrist this past July and will have to beat out Christian Colon for the job in 2016. In his first two years with Kansas City, Infante has batted .238/.268/.329.
- Young third baseman Giovanny Urshela could be ticketed for Triple-A in 2016 following the Indians‘ agreement with Juan Uribe on a one-year deal, writes MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. However, Urshela is currently in a holding pattern as Uribe works through visa issues that have delayed his arrival in the United States and, subsequently, his physical exam with Cleveland. Urshela batted just .225/.279/.330 in 288 plate appearances with Cleveland last season, but he drew strong marks for his glovework and has batted .275/.326/.473 in 514 PAs at the Triple-A level. Manager Terry Francona says he’s already spoken with Urshela about the way in which the Uribe deal could impact him, though Francona declined to get into specifics, as Uribe’s deal hasn’t been finalized.
- Anibal Sanchez underwent an MRI this week after experiencing discomfort in his triceps during a mound session on Monday, writes MLB.com’s Jason Beck. However, the Tigers right-hander was relieved to learn that the MRI revealed only inflammation and that the injury isn’t tied to the rotator cuff issue that cost him the final seven weeks of the 2015 season. Various injuries have landed Sanchez on the DL in each of the past three seasons, Beck notes.
- In searching for comparables for White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon, Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs found that Rodon’s slider bears a striking resemblance to that of Clayton Kershaw in terms of velocity, horizontal movement and vertical movement. That, of course, doesn’t mean that Rodon is on the cusp of becoming the best pitcher in baseball, but it offers a glimpse into the upside that he carries if he can improve his fastball and changeup. Alternatively, Sullivan found that the entirety of Rodon’s arsenal looks very similar to that of Francisco Liriano when looking the pair’s arsenals through the lens of PITCHf/x values. Sullivan concludes that Liriano is a more accessible upside for Rodon if he can make improvements to his changeup in the coming season, noting that Rodon will serve as somewhat of an X-factor in what should be a tightly contested AL Central division.