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Kole Calhoun

AL West News & Rumors: Paxton, Walker, Angels

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Here’s the latest from around the AL West…

  • Mariners lefty James Paxton was two outs away from a complete game victory yesterday when he was hit on his throwing elbow by an Andrelton Simmons line drive.  Fortunately for Paxton and the M’s, x-rays were negative and manager Scott Servais told reporters (including Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune) that he’s hoping Paxton may not even miss a start, thanks to an off-day this week in Seattle’s schedule.  The injury has been diagnosed as a deep bruise, and Paxton will be able to pitch if the swelling subsides.  Paxton has been a big part of the Mariners rotation, posting a 3.53 ERA, 4.06 K/BB rate and 8.04 K/9 over 81 2/3 IP this season, and any missed time for Paxton would undoubtedly be a blow to Seattle’s wild card hopes.
  • In other Mariners pitching news, Taijuan Walker was optioned to Triple-A to create a 25-man roster spot for the newly-acquired Arquimedes Caminero.  Ariel Miranda will continue in the Mariners’ rotation filling Walker’s spot.  [Updated Mariners depth chart at Roster Resource.]  Walker got off to a strong start this season that fueled his solid year-long stats (4.10 ERA, 8.0 K/9, 4.0 K/BB rate), though he has had trouble pitching deep into games.  Walker has also struggled in his last two outings, sandwiched around a month-long DL stint due to right foot tendinitis, and the M’s couldn’t allow for Walker time to regain his form with the team in a playoff race.  “His last 13 starts, he’s had three quality starts.  It may be different if we were 10 or 15 games below .500.  We’re not,” Servais told Dutton and other reporters.
  • Despite the demotion, the Mariners haven’t given up on Walker and aren’t looking to trade him, Dutton tweets in response to a reader question.  Walker received a lot of attention from other teams prior to the trade deadline but GM Jerry Dipoto said the young hurler wasn’t available.
  • With the Angels already looking ahead to 2017, both MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez and the Los Angeles Times’ Pedro Moura addressed the team’s future in separate mailbag pieces.  Gonzalez believes the Halos will have an offseason similar to last, when they look to upgrade with relatively low-cost or cost-neutral moves since the payroll will still be bogged down by several large contracts (albeit with some relief since C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver will be off the books).  Aiming for contention in 2018 may be a wiser move since Josh Hamilton’s contract will also be up, and Gonzalez feels Kole Calhoun could be an interesting trade chip to address other needs, though Calhoun is obviously a valuable piece of the current roster.
  • Moura’s mailbag addresses such topics as whether or not Arte Moreno would consider selling the team (Moura doesn’t believe so), the possibility of Yunel Escobar being traded and Kaleb Cowart possibly stepping in as a low-cost third base option in his place, plus how Angels GM Billy Eppler really can’t be judged on his job performance since Eppler is still dealing with poor organizational decisions made prior to his hiring.

AL West Notes: Gattis, Trout, Calhoun, Hill, Felix

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The Astros have optioned Evan Gattis to Double-A, where he’ll get comfortable behind the plate, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports (links to Twitter). Houston has yet to utilize the 29-year-old as a catcher, but he broke into the league in that position. With the organization one of several struggling with receiving depth, it seems he’ll have a chance to don the tools of ignorance once again. Gattis, who’s off to a rough start at the plate (.213/.269/.328), says that he’s excited at the development. Kaplan suggests that Gattis is unlikely to spend more than the requisite ten days on optional assignment.

Here’s more from the AL West:

  • Angels GM Billy Eppler made clear that the organization is not going to begin entertaining the idea of trading superstar Mike Trout after the awful pitching news received today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. The Halos are looking hard at options for the rotation, he says, and still believes in its chances. “This team was up against a lot of adversity last year and fought to the end,” says Eppler. “We’ve got a lot of character, a lot of the same guys on the club. They will not back down from a fight.” Some aren’t so sure that’s the right approach for the Angels. Dave Cameron of Fangraphs argues that the team’s near-term outlook, depleted farm, and continued payroll constraints provide cause to at least consider taking offers on Trout, who’d surely draw unprecedented trade interest. ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield, meanwhile, draws on that piece and looks at a few organizations that could plausibly make a run at a player whose immense productivity and appealing contract make him the single most valuable asset in the sport.
  • The Angels have another quality young outfielder in Kole Calhoun, and Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times profiles his unlikely path to the majors. Long overlooked despite his performances as an amateur, Calhoun has turned into an eighth-round hidden gem for the Halos. “I don’t know what all of professional baseball was thinking,” said former scouting director Eddie Bane. “We were just dumb.”
  • Former Angels prospect Hunter Green is sticking with his plans to retire, Mike DiGiovanna writes for Baseball America. The wiry lefty dealt with significant injury issues, and ultimately decided to hang ’em up after failing to get back on track. While the organization tried to convince him to stick with it, the former second-rounder has apparently decided to move on from the sport.
  • Having seemingly come from out of nowhere to where he is now — a quality starter for the Athletics — Rich Hill’s back story remains of interest. According to Orioles catcher Matt Wieters, Hill showed plenty of signs back when he caught the southpaw in the upper minors, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. “The stuff for a left-hander, I always thought was something you don’t see much with the type of pitches he could throw,” said Wieters.
  • Felix Hernandez has provided the Mariners with typically productive innings, but there’s some cause for real concern, Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs writes. The veteran righty has seen his velocity steadily decline in years past, but now he’s experienced a sudden drop-off that’s left him sitting below 90 mph with his average fastball. Meanwhile, he’s also struggling to hit the zone. While Hernandez has thus far managed to generate plenty of soft contact, the 30-year-old certainly doesn’t look like the same pitcher he has been in years past. Whether he can continue to put up ace-like results remains to be seen.

AL Notes: Colabello, Encarnacion, Calhoun, Richards, Collins

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Suspended Blue Jays first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello maintains that he has no idea how he ended up with prohibited PEDs in his system, as Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet.ca reports. The 32-year-old says that he only ever took supplements provided by the organization, was meticulous in avoiding uncertain substances, and has gone to great lengths to try to figure out how the banned substance ended up in his system. The piece offers necessary context to go with Colabello’s extensive comments on the matter, and is a must-read for anyone interested in his story or the broader issue of performance enhancing drugs.

Here’s the latest out of the American League to round out the evening:

  • While initial extension talks this spring weren’t fruitful, the Blue Jays told slugger Edwin Encarnacion that they’d consider re-opening things over the summer, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports (Twitter links). A deal to keep Encarnacion off of the open market still seems unlikely, of course, particularly given where things ended up. Per Heyman, Toronto offered a two-year pact with multiple vesting options. While the veteran’s camp didn’t counter, he’s expected to seek four or five guaranteed seasons in free agency. He’s off to a bit of a slow start, but that still seems eminently achievable if he ends up with anything approaching his recent levels of production.
  • Meanwhile, Angels GM Billy Eppler says that the organization has yet to engage outfielder Kole Calhoun or starter Garrett Richards in extension talks, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. Explaining that he’s still “just feeling everybody out,” Eppler did acknowledge that he’s at least considered the idea. “I would be lying to tell you that the thought hasn’t crossed my mind,” he said. “But we’re not at that point. It’s just not something I want to talk about while they’re playing; while they’re trying to perform.” The new GM also noted that the high-budget Halos have the luxury of waiting. “That’s a factor,” he said. “You might be able to afford going year to year in certain situations, just because of your own circumstances.”
  • Major League Baseball will not suspend Tigers outfielder Tyler Collins for flipping the bird to booing fans, MLB.com’s Jason Beck tweets. That’s good news for Detroit, which would have had to go a man short during any time that Collins would have missed.

Angels Avoid Arbitration With Kole Calhoun

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While the majority of the 156 players that filed for salary arbitration last week have agreed to terms with their teams, either on a one-year deal for 2016 or on an extension, the cases of more than 20 players remain unresolved. You can track the status of each case using MLBTR’s 2016 Arbitration Tracker, and we’ll keep track of all of today’s smaller deals to avoid arbitration in this post (all referenced projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)…

  • The Angels and right fielder Kole Calhoun have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year contract worth $3.4MM, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. Calhoun, whom Swartz projected to earn $3.6MM, had filed for a $3.9MM salary, while the team had countered with a considerably lower $2.35MM sum. His eventual salary comes in a good bit north of the $3.125MM midpoint between those two sums. The 28-year-old Calhoun qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player by the narrowest of margins this offseason, as he finished the year with two years, 130 days of service time, meaning he landed precisely on the cutoff. As such, this will mark the first seven-figure salary of his young career. However, if the quietly solid outfielder continues at his current trajectory, there will be plenty more to come. Over the past two seasons, Calhoun has batted .263/.316/.435 with 43 home runs and high-quality defense in right field, resulting in his first Gold Glove Award in 2015. With Calhoun’s case now resolved, the Halos have avoided arbitration with all of their eligible players.

List Of 2016 Super Two Qualifiers

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Presented below is the list of players who have qualified for Super Two status for arbitration purposes this year. (Service time in parentheses.) As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently tweeted, the service time cutoff is 2.130. You can find arbitration salary projections for these players right here.

Click here to read more about how the Super Two concept works. Note that, as the link shows, the originally projected service time cutoff moved down as things played out over the course of the season. That brought some notable names into early arbitration qualification — namely, Calhoun and Rendon — which could have a big impact on their earning power in potential extension scenarios.

It’s also important to bear in mind that several of the players listed above have already agreed to long-term extensions: Gyorko, Lagares, and Archer. Notably, the size of the guarantee provided by Archer’s contract is dependent upon his Super Two status. By reaching it (as had been expected), he keeps a $25.5MM overall guarantee. That total would have been reduced to $20MM otherwise.

That contract structure reflects the importance of reaching Super Two status. Doing so not only bumps a player’s salary a year early, but sets a higher floor for future paydays.

Extension Candidate: Kole Calhoun

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The Angels’ farm system hasn’t won much praise recently, but it seems to have produced a hit in Kole Calhoun. The outfielder sped through the minors despite a relatively modest pedigree (he was an eighth-round pick as a college senior in 2010), skipping Double-A and making it to the big leagues in two years. Last season, in his first extended shot in the Majors, he hit .282/.347/.462 in 222 plate appearances, and this year he’s proven that was no fluke, hitting .294/.349/.485 so far. Offensively, Calhoun combines high batting averages with good power, and he also provides reasonable baserunning and corner outfield defense.

Since he’s already nearly 27, Calhoun’s opportunities to cash in on his early-career success might be somewhat limited. He can’t become a free agent until the 2019-2020 offseason, by which point he’ll be 32. With so much time remaining before free agency, and after receiving a very modest $36K signing bonus out of college, it would probably behoove Calhoun to consider the security of a long-term deal. A pre-free agency extension might represent the best chance for Calhoun and his agent, Page Odle, to land a big contract.

USATSI_8000156_154513410_lowresGiven that the Angels already control what are likely to be Calhoun’s prime years, an extension need not be such a priority for them. And since he isn’t exceptionally athletic and already plays corner outfield, betting on him continuing to be productive well into his thirties seems excessive, from the Angels’ perspective. Signing Calhoun to an extension would, however, have the benefit of controlling his arbitration salaries while possibly also giving the Angels options to control a year or two more than they do now.

Extensions for players with between one and two years of service time used to be somewhat rare, but they’ve become increasingly common since Paul Goldschmidt and Anthony Rizzo signed deals in Spring 2013. Via MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, seven players with between one and two years of service have agreed to extensions this year: Julio Teheran, Andrelton Simmons, Jose Quintana, Starling Marte, Yan Gomes, Jedd Gyorko and Sean Doolittle.

Since Marte is an outfielder, his six-year, $31MM deal (which also includes two options) is the most obvious precedent that might guide a long-term deal for Calhoun. Before that, the last extensions for outfielders with between one and two years of service time were those of Jose Tabata (2011) and Denard Span (2010). Both contracts are now too ancient to really matter, with contracts for players like Simmons and Freddie Freeman reshaping the extension landscape since then.

The problem with using Marte’s deal as a precedent, though, is that a Calhoun contract would have a slightly different purpose. Marte was a toolsy, high-upside 25-year-old at the time of his deal, so for the Pirates, his contract was about retaining him long term. Calhoun is older and may have already reached his upside. On the other hand, his offense-heavy profile is more likely than Marte’s was to get him paid in arbitration. Therefore, we might expect a Calhoun contract to be a bit shorter than Marte’s, and perhaps a bit less option-heavy. We might also expect Calhoun to make more than Marte in his seasons of arbitration eligibility.

The possibility of Calhoun becoming a Super Two player following the 2015 season is also a factor. Calhoun entered the 2014 season with 130 days of service. This year’s projected Super Two threshold is two years and 128 days of service time, which means Calhoun could end up on either side of the line. Quintana had one year and 133 days of service when he signed his extension before the season, and his contract with the White Sox contains a clause that pays him an extra $5.5MM if he becomes Super Two eligible. Perhaps a Calhoun extension could include a similar clause.

Of course, Super Two eligibility would not affect Calhoun’s free agency timeline. A five-year deal (beginning in 2015) with one team option might make sense for both Calhoun and the Angels — such a deal would buy out all of Calhoun’s pre-free-agency seasons while giving the Angels the rights to his first season of free agency eligibility. Calhoun would become eligible for free agency as a 33-year-old at the latest, potentially giving him another shot at a multi-year deal if he continued to hit.

Given that the Angels already control one or perhaps two of those five years at the league minimum, the total guaranteed figure for a Calhoun extension need not be huge. Marte will make $21MM over the course of his contract if one leaves aside the last guaranteed year (including his signing bonus and a $2MM buyout on his option in 2020). Calhoun might get a little more than that guaranteed over a five-year deal if he is not Super Two eligible (including a buyout on the Angels’ option for a sixth year), perhaps with a clause bumping his contract to $27MM-$30MM if it turns out he is.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kole Calhoun To Miss Four To Six Weeks

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Kole Calhoun will join fellow Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton on a lengthy DL stint, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter). An ugly-looking ankle turn last night resulted in a bad ligament sprain that will put Calhoun on the shelf for four to six weeks, according to manager Mike Scioscia.

Early in his second season of substantial MLB action at the age of 26, Calhoun was off to a .250/.297/.500 start in 64 plate appearances, with three home runs and two stolen bases to his credit. Last year, Calhoun provided to be a nice surprise in Los Angeles, providing a .282/.347/.462 line in 222 plate appearances while knocking eight long balls and swiping two bags. Though defensive metrics saw him as slightly below average at the corner outfield last year, Calhoun has graded out quite well in a small sample thus far in 2014. With 130 days of MLB service to his name entering the year, Calhoun could qualify for Super Two status after the 2015 season.

Replacing Calhoun on the MLB roster in the immediate term is minor league free agent Brennan Boesch, who was called up today with Calhoun hitting the 15-day DL. Boesch will join J.B. Shuck and Collin Cowgill as outfield options to flank star Mike Trout while Calhoun and Hamilton are on the shelf. The Halos could be one of several teams with interest in adding Sam Fuld, who is still in DFA limbo after being designated by Oakland on Saturday, according to a tweet from Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. It is difficult to see the team making a more impactful move unless one or both of its injured regulars fall off track in their recovery.

Angels Notes: Dipoto, Scioscia, Hanson, Calhoun

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The Angels haven't lost more than two consecutive games since being swept by the Indians on Aug. 19-21. Since that time, the Halos are 18-6, boosting their overall record to 73-77. While that's hardly an impressive overall number, it likely bodes well for both GM Jerry Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia to finish on a high note. Both have seen their job security come into question over the past several months. Here's more on that pair and the rest of the Angels…

  • Scioscia is expressing confidence to friends that he will return as the Halos' manager in 2014, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports within his latest column. Previous reports have indicated that either Scioscia or Dipoto will be replaced, and Rosenthal points out that firing Dipoto would be a trickier move from an organizational standpoint. Dipoto has made several hires in scouting and player development that would likely be replaced, and the same goes for assistant GM Scott Servais.
  • Tommy Hanson could very well be non-tendered, writes MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez, but Hanson told Gonzalez that he's not thinking about the possibility of a non-tender this offseason. His focus is on putting together a strong finish to a disappointing year. Scioscia said he wouldn't guarantee Hanson, who re-joined the club yesterday, another start this season and wondered what happened to the Hanson who showed up in his first start off the disabled list: "The one game he came back off the DL, his stuff was eye-opening, and he hasn't repeated that." Hanson allowed one run on four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings that day.
  • More from Gonzalez, who wonders about the trade value of J.B. Shuck and Kole Calhoun as opposed to Peter Bourjos after another injury-shortened season, noting that he feels the Angels would sell high on Calhoun and Shuck (Twitter link). Calhoun would have considerably more vaule in a trade than Shuck, in my opinion.

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