East Notes: Braves, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees
As the Braves remake their player personnel asset base, the team continues to make changes in other areas. Atlanta recently announced the hiring of Ted Simmons, Matt Kinzer, and Leon Wurth as MLB scouts. Simmons, an outstanding catcher in his playing days, recently served as a special assistant to the GM with the Mariners. Kinzer was an important Marlins scout, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today notes on Twitter, while Wurth recently finished a 13-year run with the Brewers. Also joining the Braves is former Fangraphs prospect analyst Kiley McDaniel, who’ll become the team’s assistant director of baseball operations.
Here are more notes from the eastern divisions:
- The Phillies are working hard as they approach a key draft for the organization, MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes. Philly holds the top pick in next year’s draft, and amateur scouting director Johnny Almaraz is continuing to canvas the crop of talent that will be making the leap to the professional ranks. Almaraz says that the team will be patient and allow players to develop before reaching a final decision. He added that the Phils will also look to be “creative” to take full advantage of their draft position and overall pool money.
- The Red Sox announced a series of front office promotions today in the scouting arena. Most notably, perhaps, was the bump up of Eddie Romero to VP of international scouting. The team says that the 35-year-old Puerto Rican native has been with the Boston organization since 2006. Romero most recently played an important role in the team’s efforts to sign highly-regarded Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada. And as Ben Badler of Baseball America notes on Twitter, Romero has had a hand in adding several other key prospects as well.
- While signing a second baseman is an obvious route for the Yankees to take in bolstering their chances in 2016, Chad Jennings of the Lohud Yankees Blog writes that it isn’t quite that simple. If the organization’s recent history is an indication, says Jennings, an in-house route could be more likely than a new signing, and the recently-acquired Dustin Ackley could pair with homegrown Rob Refsnyder, with Jose Pirela also on hand. “I think we have at least some comfort knowing that I have Ref [and] I maybe have Ackley if we get a better feel for what he can provide on the defensive standpoint,” explained GM Brian Cashman. “We have Pirela who had a hell of a year at Triple-A (but) has not really shown that yet at the Major League level. I think we have some candidates here that as we move forward, we can say we have something, unless something presents themselves as being better.”
Yankees Notes: Price, Offseason, Nova, Zobrist
With the Yankees’ offseason now underway, Joel Sherman of the New York Post breaks down the team’s needs, specifically mentioning rotation stability and versatility. While he notes that in the George Steinbrenner days, lavish spending to bring in names such as David Price, Ben Zobrist and Yoenis Cespedes might’ve been the expectation, but Hal Steinbrenner has no interest in pushing an already-high payroll toward the $300MM mark. The younger Steinbrenner also doesn’t wish to dole out any further mega-contracts until some of the large, existing contracts come off the books. As such, Sherman writes that we can likely rule out an earnest pursuit of David Price. Signing Price for $30MM annually — and Price may command even more than that — would cost the Yankees $45MM annually in the deal’s early stages due to luxury tax purposes. Sherman suggests that instead, making a strong push to acquire Sonny Gray (listing Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo and Gary Sanchez as possible trade chips) is a better fit for the Yankees. Sherman also feels that trades for Martin Prado and/or Enrique Hernandez as well as a signing of Zobrist would give the Yanks a deep, versatile crop of players to keep aging veterans fresh and match up well against pitchers regardless of handedness.
Some more Yankees items…
- Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News takes his own shot at getting the Yankees to the next step this offseason. Feinsand lists five things decisions that the Yankees should make, opining that Justin Upton is a fit that should be signed but that the Yankees should steer clear of a substantial commitment to Price.
- Sherman also reports that the Yankees are planning to tender right-hander Ivan Nova a contract for the 2016 season. Nova, projected by MLBTR to earn $4.4MM in arbitration, struggled to a 5.07 ERA in 94 innings in 2015 — his first season back from Tommy John surgery. Despite the fact that he didn’t look like his 2013 self (3.10 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 in 139 innings), Nova’s 93 mph fastball velocity was right in line with his career mark. The team views him as a back-of-the-rotation option, and a $4.4MM price tag on such a commodity would hardly be exorbitant. Nova is a free agent after the 2016 season.
- General manager Brian Cashman told reporters last night that he passed on the opportunity to acquire Zobrist from the Athletics in exchange for second baseman Rob Refsnyder and right-hander Adam Warren, tweets Chad Jennings of the Journal News. Zobrist would eventually be traded to the Royals in exchange for right-hander Aaron Brooks and highly touted pitching prospect Sean Manaea. He went on to hit .284/.364/.453 with seven homers in 264 plate appearances for Kansas City. As the New York Daily News’ Anthony McCarron adds, Cashman said he has no regrets about not making a deal in July. “I’d be piling guys on top of guys that didn’t have a place to play, other than second base,” said Cashman, stating that Zobrist was the only available second base option that interested him.