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Juan Lagares

Injury Notes: Moscot, Medlen, Lagares

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Reds right-hander Jon Moscot appears to be done for the season, writes MLB.com’s Robert Bondy. The rookie starting pitcher suffered a dislocated left (non-throwing) shoulder in his most recent outing while tagging out Anthony Gose in a rundown. Moscot will require surgery to repair what has been termed “significant” damage in the shoulder. Manager Bryan Price told Bondy and others that it would be “optimistic” to expect Moscot to pitch again in 2015, making the 23-year-old righty latest addition to a rapidly growing list of injured Reds. Homer Bailey is out for the season following Tommy John surgery, and Zack Cozart will miss the remainder of the year due to torn ligaments and tendons in his knee. Marlon Byrd is presently sidelined with a fractured wrist, and a hip impingement has prevented Devin Mesoraco from playing for nearly the entire season. In three starts this season, Moscot allowed six runs in 11 2/3 innings for the Reds, striking out six and walking five. With Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake looking like probable trade candidates, a strong early impression from Moscot could have potentially positioned him to remain in the rotation for the duration of the 2015 season. The good news for Moscot is that, according to Price, he’s expected to be ready for the 2016 campaign.

A couple more notable injury updates from around the league…

  • Kris Medlen is slated to begin a rehab assignment with the Royals’ Double-A affiliate on Friday, which will commence a 30-day window to complete a rehab assignment, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Medlen is said to be “all systems go” at this point in his recovery from a second Tommy John surgery. The Royals will hope that he’s healthy enough to join what has been a lackluster rotation in the season’s second half and help the team remain atop of a close race with the Twins, Tigers and Indians in the AL Central.
  • Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters on Thursday that Juan Lagares is playing through an elbow ailment that could be fixed by either rest or Tommy John surgery, but the Record’s Matt Ehalt writes that surgery is not on the table for Lagares at this time. Both Collins and GM Sandy Alderson said that the injury is something that Lagares can play through, with Collins adding that “a lot of guys” have previously played through this particular ailment. “We just have to be careful he doesn’t get crazy and make an awkward throw or try to overthrow too much,” said Collins. Alderson added that the injury is “not an issue” and that surgery is “not on our radar.”

Mets Notes: Harvey, Duda, Lagares, Wheeler

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The Mets will keep Matt Harvey on a rough limit of 90 pitches for his April starts, manager Terry Collins told reporters (including Adam Rubin of ESPN New York) following Harvey’s final Spring Training start today.  The club’s plans to be fairly cautious with Harvey in his return from Tommy John surgery haven’t changed, GM Sandy Alderson said, despite how Harvey has dominated opposing batters in spring competition.  Harvey threw four shutout innings of work today to drop his Spring Training ERA down to 1.19 over 22 2/3 innings.  Here’s the latest on the Amazins….

  • It seems “unlikely” the Mets and Lucas Duda will reach agreement on an extension before Opening Day, a source familiar with the talks tells CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman.  Another source says there has been “not a lot of movement” in negotiations, and both the player and team have set the opener as the unofficial deadline for talks.
  • Alderson told Adam Rubin that “I think that’s hard to say” when asked to comment on the progress of the Duda negotiations.  “There will be resolution by Monday, one way or the other,” Alderson said.
  • The Mets’ four-year, $23MM extension with Juan Lagares is “pretty much a can’t-lose” deal for the team “even if he never gets better than he was in 2014,” Joel Sherman of the New York Post opines.  I agree with Sherman that Lagares’ new deal is a pretty reasonable price to pay for elite-level center field defense.
  • Andy Martino of the New York Daily News also likes the Lagares contract, and between that extension and recent trades for Jerry Blevins and Alex Torres, Martino feels the Mets are entering the season on a positive note.
  • Zack Wheeler also had surgery to repair a torn tendon in addition to his Tommy John procedure this winter, so the right-hander need more time than usual to recover, he told Newsday’s Marc Carig.  The combination of the two procedures could push his return back to June or July 2016, though Wheeler hesitated to cite a firm date this early in his rehab process.

Mets Extend Juan Lagares

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After a largely quiet offseason, the Mets have sprung into action by acquiring a pair of left-handed relievers and now formally announcing a four-year extension with center fielder Juan Lagares. Lagares’ new contract reportedly calls for a $23MM guarantee. New York will also pick up a $9.5MM club option ($500K buyout) for an additional season.

MLB: San Francisco Giants at New York Mets

Lagares, 26, is represented by ACES. The annual breakdown of the deal is as follows: $2.5MM in 2016, $4.5MM in 2017, $6.5MM in 2018 and $9MM in 2019. As that indicates, the contract does not kick in until meaning that New York has locked in salaries for all of Lagares’s arbitration years while picking up a club option over his first season of free agent eligibility. Lagares entered the offseason with 1.160 years of service, meaning he’d almost certainly have qualified for Super Two eligibility next year. All told, New York will stand to gain control over Lagares through his age-31 season.

Lagares established himself last year with an outstanding campaign in the field and solid effort at the plate. There is no doubt that his primary value comes with the glove: Lagares led all qualifying outfielders with 25.3 UZR/150, with Defensive Runs Saved and scouting reports concurring in his excellence.

Of course, Lagares had already showed that kind of capability in center. What last year did more than anything was show his capacity on the offensive side of the equation. Lagares slashed .281/.321/.382 over 452 plate appearances, an approximately league average line, while contributing four home runs and 13 stolen bases.

There may not be much upside left in the bat given his age, but the aggregate package has obvious appeal. Lagares was worth 4 fWAR and an even more impressive 5.5 rWAR last year, making him the type of well-above-average player that any team hopes to be able to lock in up the middle.

In terms of the payday, which is yet to be reported precisely, Lagares obviously had some reasonably anticipated caps on his earning capacity since his skillset is presently not valued highly in arbitration. The most obvious comp for this deal is the recent Adam Eaton extension — a five-year, $23.5MM pact (plus two club options) for a center fielder who had one less year of club control but who was on track to qualify for arbitration just three times. Eaton is also 26, and both players have missed some time due to injuries over the last few years. While they profile differently, and appear to have agreed to differently-structured deals, the overall value of the two players is arguably fairly similar.

Another way of looking at it, though, would be to compare this agreement to the Andrelton Simmons extension from last winter. Simmons, of course, is also an elite defender whose bat is slightly below average to average. The Braves cornerstone, then 24, got seven years and $58MM in exchange for his age-24 through age-31 seasons. With this deal, the Mets appear set to control Lagares through his age-31 season with a more modest annual guarantee and lower overall risk.

ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden first reported the deal and its parameters (links to Twitter). Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported the final terms (via Twitter; web link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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