Sean Manaea

Mets Sign Sean Manaea To Two-Year Deal

By Nick Deeds | January 7, 2024 at 8:06am CDT

The Mets announced the signing of left-hander Sean Manaea to a two-year contract. It’s reportedly a $28MM guarantee for the Boras Corporation client, who can opt out following the 2024 season. Manaea will make $14.5MM next season, leaving him with a $13.5MM call on the ’25 option.

Manaea, 32 in February, was a first-round pick by the Royals back in 2013 and was swapped to the A’s alongside Aaron Brooks in the 2015 deal that brought Ben Zobrist to Kansas City. The southpaw made his big league debut in Oakland early in the 2016 season and fashioned a solid rookie year for himself with a 3.86 ERA and 4.08 FIP across 144 2/3 innings of work. Manaea continued to provide mid-to-back end of the rotation consistency for Oakland over the next few seasons, and he owned a career 3.94 ERA (105 ERA+) and 4.15 FIP in 464 innings by the end of the 2018 season. Unfortunately, the lefty’s success was interrupted by shoulder surgery late in the 2018 campaign and he missed nearly all of 2019.

Upon his return to action late in the 2019 season, Manaea more or less picked up right where he left off. In 48 starts from 2019-21, the left-hander posted a solid 3.73 ERA (111 ERA+) with a strong 3.64 FIP. During this stretch, Manaea saw his strikeout rate climb considerably. Though he entered the 2019 season with a rate of just 19.2% for his career, the lefty struck out 24.8% of batters faced over the next three seasons while walking just 5.2% and generating a 43.8% groundball rate that was a near match for his 44.1% figure in the first three seasons of his career. With just one year left before the lefty would hit free agency and the team going nowhere in 2022, the A’s shipped Manaea to San Diego as the Padres in a four-player deal, netting a pair of prospects for the left-hander’s services.

Unfortunately, Manaea began to struggle upon departing Oakland. The lefty’s lone season in San Diego was something of a disaster as he struggled to a 4.96 ERA, 24% worse than league average by ERA+, with a 4.53 FIP. Manaea’s strikeout rate dipped to 23.2%, his walk rate climbed to 7.5%, and he generated grounders at a career-worst 38.2% clip. While the southpaw mostly looked like himself in the first half of the season, with a 4.11 ERA and 4.07 FIP in 100 2/3 innings of work (17 starts), that production fell off a cliff down the stretch as he allowed a whopping 6.44 ERA over his final 13 contests. Those struggles led Manaea to sign a two-year, $25MM deal with the Giants last offseason that gave him the option to return to the free agent market this winter.

At first, Manaea’s time with the Giants saw similarly disastrous results as his final outings with the Padres the previous year. The lefty was booted from the club’s rotation in early May and by mid-June had put together a 5.84 ERA in 49 1/3 frames as opposing batters teed off to the tune of a hefty .474 slugging percentage. However, as MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald noted in a recent profile of Manaea, the lefty added a sweeper to his repertoire at the end of May and found massive success with it. Hitters struggled to a .140/.161/.163 slash line against the pitch, swinging and missing at it 35.1% of the times it was thrown.

After adding the sweeper, Manaea quickly found more success with the Giants. He pitched to a solid 3.78 ERA with a fantastic 3.26 FIP in his final 81 frames of the season, and excelled in a late-season return to the rotation with a 2.25 ERA and 3.21 FIP in four September starts. After adding the sweeper midseason, Manaea punched out 24.2% of batters faced while walking 6.6% and generating grounders at a 44% clip reminiscent of his days in Oakland. While the majority of that success came in multi-inning relief, the lefty nonetheless flashed the form that made him a successful mid-rotation arm earlier in his career.

The strong late-season results led Manaea to decline his $12.5MM player option with the Giants and return to the open market. The decision worked out well for the southpaw, as his $28MM pact with the Mets comes with an AAV of $14MM and the ability to return to opt out of the deal once again next winter should he choose to do so. Manaea slightly outperformed the two-year, $22MM prediction MLBTR offered when ranking him 35th on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, earning an additional $3MM annually over the same term. The deal is mostly in line with the market for back-end starters this offseason, which has seen the likes of Nick Martinez ($26MM) and Kenta Maeda ($24MM) earn similar guarantees on two-year arrangements.

By adding Manaea, the club adds another veteran arm to a rotation mix that parted ways with both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the trade deadline last summer. The southpaw figures to return to starting full-time in joining the Mets, slotting into the middle of the club’s rotation behind incumbents Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana and ahead of fellow offseason additions Luis Severino and Adrian Houser. The addition of Manaea allows the club to utilize the likes of Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and Jose Butto as depth options at the Triple-A level or in the club’s bullpen. The same figures to go for lefty David Peterson when he returns from offseason hip surgery sometime next summer.

The Mets were already over the highest luxury tax threshold of $297MM prior to signing Manaea, That means his full $14MM is part of the Mets’ overage coming into 2024. Assuming they remain over the highest tax threshold all season, the club figures to pay $15.8MM in taxes on Manaea’s salary next season, meaning the club effectively figures to pay $29.8MM for the lefty’s services in 2024. Of course, that’s unlikely to be much of a concern for the Mets as the club paid over $100MM into the luxury tax this past season. With the club’s rotation mix now likely settled, the Mets figure to continue searching for help at third base, DH and in the bullpen going forward.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the Mets were signing Manaea to a two-year, $28MM guarantee with an opt-out. The Associated Press reported the salary breakdown.

Mets Showing Interest In Various Starting Pitchers

By Darragh McDonald | January 5, 2024 at 1:14pm CDT

The Mets are interested in rotation upgrades and appear to be casting a wide net in that search. Jon Heyman of The New York Post lists Hyun Jin Ryu, Sean Manaea and Shota Imanaga as pitchers they are considering. A report from Joel Sherman of The New York Post echoes those names while also adding Dylan Cease and Brandon Woodruff to the list.

The club has already made a couple of moves to bolster a rotation that has changed a lot in the past year. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were traded at last year’s deadline, then Carlos Carrasco reached free agency. The depth also took a hit when it was reported that David Peterson required hip surgery that would prevent him from being with the club at the start of the upcoming season.

That left Kodai Senga and José Quintana as the two leading incumbents at the start of the offseason, with pitchers like Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi also on hand as options. The Mets have signed since Luis Severino to a one-year deal and acquired Adrian Houser in a trade with the Brewers. Those two likely push Megill and Lucchesi into a battle for the fifth spot in the rotation, but Sherman relays that the club would like to add one more arm and push those two further into depth roles. Both pitchers are still optionable and don’t need to be on the active roster if the pitching staff if strengthened.

New president of baseball operations David Stearns is plenty familiar with Woodruff from his time in Milwaukee. He would be more of a long-term play though, unlikely to help the 2024 club too much. He underwent shoulder surgery in October and is slated to miss most of the upcoming campaign, which led the Brewers to non-tender him. But with the Mets looking at 2024 as a sort of transition year with an eye towards more aggressive contention in 2025, perhaps the two sides can line up on some kind of two-year deal. That would allow Woodruff to bank some money while rehabbing and then give the Mets the upside of bolstering their club next year.

If Woodruff can overcome his shoulder woes and return to his previous form, he would upgrade any rotation in the league. He has a career earned run average of 3.10 in 680 1/3 innings dating back to his 2017 debut. He has struck out 28.9% of batters faced in that time while walking just 6.5% of them and keeping 42.8% of balls in play on the ground. Health has been a bit of an ongoing issue, as he’s never been able to throw 180 innings in a big league season, but the results on a rate basis have clearly been excellent.

As for Cease, his ERA flared up to 4.58 in 2023 but his peripherals were still above average, including a 27.3% strikeout rate and 13.6% swinging strike rate. Over the past three years, he has made 97 starts with a 3.54 ERA and 29.8% strikeout rate. He tallied 12.6 wins above replacement over those three seasons, according to FanGraphs, which puts him eighth on the pitching leaderboard for that stretch.

He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a salary of $8.8MM this year and will be due one more raise before becoming a free agent after 2025. That means he will be paid way less than a pitcher of similar skill who is looking for a free agent deal, but it also means the White Sox are setting a very high asking price. It was reported last month that they asked the Reds for four of that club’s top prospects in exchange for Cease. The Reds seem to have given up on the pursuit, signing Frankie Montas instead.

For the Mets, giving up a significant prospect package like that would be a surprise. They have been open about their desire to build a strong prospect pipeline in order to ensure continuous contention and have been even more focused on the long-term plan this offseason. Though Sherman says the Mets continue to check in with the White Sox, the Mets aren’t considered as likely to land him as a team flush with prospects like the Orioles.

Ryu, 37 in March, would line up with the club’s offseason M.O., as they have given out one-year deals to Severino, Harrison Bader, Joey Wendle, Jorge López, Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin. It appears to be a strategy of spreading money around and improving depth while not committing any future money. It’s also possible that any player in this batch who plays well will end up on the trading block if the Mets are out of contention a few months from now.

Given Ryu’s age and recent health history, he is likely looking at a one-year deal as well. He missed most of 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery, though he did return last year and toss 52 innings for the Blue Jays with a 3.46 ERA. His 17% strikeout rate was below average but he limited walks to a 6.3% rate and kept 45.6% of balls in play on the ground. He may have been a bit lucky to keep as many runs from scoring as he did, given his .272 batting average on balls in play and 77.6% strand rate. ERA estimators such as his 4.91 FIP and 4.69 SIERA weren’t as enthused with his performance. On the other hand, perhaps he could shake off some more rust and have better results this year now that he’s further removed from his surgery. As recently as 2020, he finished in the top three in American League Cy Young voting.

Manaea, 32 in February, is coming off a couple of shaky years in terms of results. He has been a solid mid-rotation option in his career but his ERA jumped to 4.96 in 2022 and was at 4.44 last year. Digging into his most recent campaign provides more reason for optimism, something recently explored here at MLBTR. Notably, Manaea added a sweeper to his arsenal in late May and had significantly better results, 6.61 ERA before and 3.60 ERA after adding that pitch. At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Manaea could land a two-year, $22MM deal this winter.

As for Imanaga, he stands out from the other names on this list as he seems slated for a far more lengthy commitment, though the Mets have been connected to him in the past. MLBTR predicted he could land a five-year, $85MM contract, but with recent reporting suggesting he has enough interest to push past $100MM. Sherman throws a bit of cold water on that today, however, suggesting there are concerns around a 2020 shoulder surgery and also how his tendency to work up in the zone might make him homer prone in the majors.

If the market drops, perhaps the Mets will sense an opportunity to bolster their long-term rotation outlook, in contrast to their other moves this winter. Quintana, Severino and Houser are all set to be free agents after 2024, so they have very little rotation certainty going forward. The 30-year-old Imanaga has a 3.18 ERA in his NPB career and just posted a 2.80 mark in 2023. In addition to the Mets, he’s had interest from clubs like the Red Sox, Giants, Yankees and Cubs, though Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported today that the Cubs aren’t seen as a likely landing spot for the lefty. Imanaga’s posting period end on January 11, giving him less than a week to get a deal done.

Free Agent Profile: Sean Manaea

By Darragh McDonald | January 2, 2024 at 9:42am CDT

Left-hander Sean Manaea has a lengthy track record of being a decent mid-rotation starter, but the past couple of years have been challenging. Overall, he has an earned run average of 4.10 in just over 1,000 career innings at the major league level. He has struck out roughly a quarter of batters faced in each of the past four full seasons and has never had a walk rate higher than 8.4%.

But in 2022, his performance dipped, as his ERA jumped to 4.96 with the Padres. His peripherals were still pretty strong, as he struck out 23.2% of batters faced and walked just 7.5%, but it was nonetheless a poor time for diminished results as he was heading into free agency for the first time.

The Giants took a shot on Manaea, giving him a two-year, $25MM deal that allowed him to opt out after the first season. The club was aggressive in deploying openers, only giving Manaea 10 actual starts, but he logged 117 2/3 innings on the year over 37 appearances. He finished with a 4.44 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. Though those results were more decent than spectacular, he still decided to trigger his opt-out and return to the open market.

Things get a little more interesting when digging deeper into his season, which may give more insight into his decision to try free agency again. Notably, Manaea added a sweeper this year and had great results with it. Per Statcast data, he first threw the pitch on May 30 and ultimately tossed it 214 times, 10.4% of his pitches thrown on the season overall. He felt comfortable throwing it to both righties and lefties, with a perfect split of 107 sweepers thrown to each. That resulted in a huge whiff percentage of 35.1% and a batting line of .140/.161/.163. Even when batters did make contact, the 82.8mph average exit velocity was easily the lowest of any of his offerings.

The impact on his overall results is quite clear. In his first 11 appearances of the year, prior to introducing the sweeper, he had a 6.61 ERA, 28.9% strikeout rate, 12.5% walk rate, 32.6% ground ball rate and eight home runs in just 32 2/3 innings. The rest of the way, he had a 3.60 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate, 44% ground ball rate and six home runs in 85 innings. The Giants gave him four actual starts to finish the year and he posted a 2.25 ERA in those, averaging six innings per start.

This is still a fairly small sample size of results but the change in his arsenal at least gives some reason to believe that it may not just be a fluke. Last month, Driveline tweeted some video of a session with Manaea which showed him also trying out a splitter, perhaps suggesting Manaea is still trying to find yet another gear going forward.

MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents predicted Manaea for a contract of two years and $22MM, an average annual value of $11MM. That’s roughly the going rate for a back-end innings eater these days. MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows that Lance Lynn got $11MM while Kyle Gibson got $13MM. Jack Flaherty got $14MM and Luis Severino $13MM despite a poor platform seasons, while Frankie Montas got $16MM even though he missed almost all of the year recovering from shoulder surgery. Tyler Mahle got $22MM over two years even though he’s going to miss at least part of the upcoming campaign while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

If Manaea can maintain the results he showed over the final four months of 2023, he could be a bargain, especially with pitchers like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery set for nine-figure deals. The need for starting pitching is still high and just about every club would benefit from the kind of performance Manaea seems capable of. His market has been very quiet this winter, with the Giants reportedly interested in a reunion but no other suitors publicly mentioned.

NL West Notes: Snell, Dodgers, Manaea, Giants, E-Rod

By Mark Polishuk | December 16, 2023 at 11:08am CDT

“The Dodgers are showing interest in seemingly every pitcher but Blake Snell,” Jon Heyman of The New York Post writes, running counter to Heyman’s own report from a month ago suggesting that Los Angeles was one of the teams in on the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner. While Heyman didn’t go into specifics about why Snell may no longer be on the Dodgers’ radar, obviously much has changed for L.A. within the last month — namely the Shohei Ohtani signing and (on the more immediate pitching front) the impending trade and extension involving Tyler Glasnow.

Since Los Angeles exceeded the luxury tax last season, the Dodgers had to give up $1MM in international bonus pool money and their second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2024 draft as compensation for Ohtani, who rejected the Angels’ qualifying offer. Snell also rejected a QO from the Padres, so the thought of giving up two more picks to add Snell might simply not be palatable for the Dodgers. While Snell’s market has been a little less clear than other top pitchers on the free agent market, such clubs as the Giants, Red Sox, and Padres have all been linked to Snell at various points, and it remains to be seen what other suitors might emerge once the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Jordan Montgomery are off the board. The Dodgers continue to be involved in the hunt for Yamamoto, and could pursue other trade options beyond Glasnow in order to address the lack of proven depth in their rotation.

Zaidi: Giants Plan To Pursue Rotation Help, Defensive Upgrades In Outfield

By Steve Adams | November 7, 2023 at 3:33pm CDT

The Giants head into the offseason in search of ways to bolster a team that has produced just one winning record in the past seven seasons. San Francisco flirted with Wild Card contention for much of the 2023 campaign, but a 9-19 finish to the season dashed any hopes of returning to the playoffs. Not only that, but the team’s late collapse doomed manager Gabe Kapler, who was dismissed after four years on the job and replaced by future Hall of Fame skipper Bob Melvin.

The Giants’ hiring of Melvin dovetailed with an extension for president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi, both of whom are now signed through 2026. Zaidi kicked off his winter with a fair bit of transparency, candidly acknowledging in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea that his team is “going to be in the starting pitching market” and that he’ll also be on the lookout for ways to augment his outfield alignment. Specifically, Zaidi hopes to improve his outfield’s glovework. “We’ll look to add a little bit more speed, a little bit more range to the outfield,” Zaidi tells Shea.

At least as far as the outfield upgrades are concerned, the trade market will present more options than free agency. Cody Bellinger is the top outfielder (and top non-Shohei Ohtani) free agent of the offseason, and the former Dodgers star is quite familiar to Zaidi, who served as the general manager in Los Angeles before being hired away by the division-rival Giants. That said, Scott Boras will surely be seeking a massive contract for Bellinger on the heels of a resurgent season, and given the dearth of quality hitters on the market, competition for him could be steep.

Other outfield options with plus gloves include Kevin Kiermaier, Harrison Bader and Michael A. Taylor (to name a few). Kiermaier and Bader come with plenty of injury concern, however, and all three have inconsistent offensive track records (at best). Perhaps for those reasons, Zaidi at least alluded to the possibility of operating on the trade market — noting that younger (and thus more athletic players) tend to come via that market rather than free agency. KBO star Jung Hoo Lee, who’ll be posted by the Kiwoom Heroes this winter, could bring some of that youth and athleticism to the table, as he’s just 25 years of age. However, his season ended early with an ankle injury, and MLB evaluators are split on the extent of his defensive value in the outfield.

The Giants’ current outfield alignment figures to include some combination of Mike Yastrzemski, Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto, who exercised an $18MM player option yesterday and will now return for a second season at Oracle Park. Alternative options on the 40-man roster include Austin Slater, Luis Matos, Heliot Ramos, Wade Meckler and Blake Sabol. That group was lackluster in the field, ranking 22nd in the Majors with -7 Defensive Runs Saved and 27th with -13 Outs Above Average.

As far as the pitching is concerned, it’s a natural and obvious need for the Giants to pursue. Ace Logan Webb will return to front the rotation, and the Giants picked up their $10MM club option on righty Alex Cobb (a net $8MM decision when factoring in the option’s $2MM buyout). Top prospect Kyle Harrison made his MLB debut in 2023 but has just seven big league starts to his name. Ross Stripling picked up a player option and will be back in the mix next year, though he’s plenty familiar working in a swingman capacity. Righty Anthony DeSclafani is signed through 2024 under a three-year, $36MM contract, but he’s pitched just 118 2/3 innings of 5.16 ERA ball during that deal due to ankle and forearm injuries — the former of which required surgery.

For much of the season’s second half, the Giants operated with only a pair of traditional starters. Bullpen games were a frequent tactic, with Stripling, Sean Manaea (who declined a player option) and Keaton Winn among the pitchers who were tasked with working long relief stints in such settings. Given the lack of established rotation talent, starting pitching is an obvious area of focus the team.

Zaidi acknowledged that he expects to talk with Manaea and his agents at the Boras Corporation about a potential return, but the starting pitching market is generally considered to be a deep one this offseason. Beyond Ohtani (who won’t pitch in 2024), 25-year-old NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto headlines this year’s class. Countryman Shota Imanaga is also well-regarded and available for MLB teams to sign. More known commodities include Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, Sonny Gray and Eduardo Rodriguez, though as shown on yesterday’s Top 50 Free Agent List here at MLBTR, the options beyond those top tiers are plentiful.

Giants To Exercise Club Option On Alex Cobb; Sean Manaea Opts Out Of Contract

By Mark Polishuk | November 5, 2023 at 6:40pm CDT

The Giants intend to exercise their $10MM club option on Alex Cobb’s services for the 2024 season, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). In another notable Giants pitching development, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports (via X) that Sean Manaea has elected to opt out of the final year of his contract, foregoing a $12.5MM salary to test free agency.

It was widely expected that Cobb’s option would be picked up, though a possible wrench was thrown into the mix with last week’s news that Cobb was undergoing hip surgery. Though Cobb might not be able to return to a big league mound until May at the earliest, the Giants decided that the $8MM net decision (Cobb’s option contained a $2MM buyout) was still worth the investment. Obviously the surgery was no surprise to the team, as Cobb has battled hip problems for much of the season and had his year officially ended by a 15-day injured list placement in late September.

Cobb signed with San Francisco in November 2021 on what is now a three-year, $28MM deal with the option exercised. The results have been more than solid, as Cobb has a 3.80 ERA over 301 innings for the Giants, and he was even an All-Star this past season. His strikeout rate, barrel rate, and total barrels declined sharply from 2022 to 2023, though Cobb also improved his walk rate and his fastball velocity from season to season. Cobb also has a 59.4% grounder rate across the last two seasons, and a .327 BABIP indicates that his numbers might’ve been better if it wasn’t for the Giants’ subpar infield defense.

Injuries have also been a factor, as Cobb has been on the IL four separate times during his Giants tenure. That said, Cobb still brought some durability to the rotation since he and Logan Webb were the only two starters San Francisco used in a normal starting role for much of the 2023 season. The Giants addressed the other rotation spots in a number of ways, ranging for actual starts, piggyback-style pitcher usage, or an opener/bulk pitcher mix.

Manaea was one of the many Giants pitchers used in this fashion, as he started only 10 of his 37 appearances. However, Manaea often found himself in a bulk pitcher or piggyback role, and he finished with 117 2/3 innings pitched while posting a 4.44 ERA and an above-average 25.7% strikeout rate. It was a pretty decent course-correction for Manaea after some early struggles cost him a full rotation job, and it was a good bounce-back after a down year with the Padres in 2022.

Despite that down year, Manaea landed a two-year, $25MM deal with the Giants last winter, with the opt-out built into the contract so Manaea could quickly re-enter the market if he had a better platform year. While not a hands-down breakout year on paper, the left-hander should be able to find another multi-year deal heading into his age-32 season, likely with a team that wants him in a full-time starting role.

Heading into 2024, San Francisco’s rotation consists of Webb, Cobb (when healthy), DeSclafani (if healthy), Stripling (who passed on his own opt-out opportunity), and Kyle Harrison, with Tristan Beck, Jakob Junis, and Keaton Winn on hand as depth options. The Giants might well use at least one rotation spot for another mix-and-match assortment of pitchers, but the club is known to be looking for pitchers to bring more stability to the starting five. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is known to be on the Giants’ radar, and depending on how aggressive the team plans to be, any number of top free agent or trade options could be explored.

NL West Notes: Conforto, Manaea, Sewald, Dodgers

By Mark Polishuk | October 15, 2023 at 9:30pm CDT

Michael Conforto and Sean Manaea can each opt out of the final year of their contracts with the Giants, with Conforto owed $18MM in 2024 and Manaea $12.5MM. Neither player has yet decided whether or not they’ll opt out, with Conforto telling NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic that “I think the good thing is it’ll be a hard decision, but I don’t think there’s a bad outcome really. It will be tough, just because I’m very close with these guys and the uncertainty there could give you a little bit of anxiety, but again, there are a lot of conversations that have to happen before I’m even close to knowing what I want to do.”

Conforto hit .239/.334/.384 over 470 plate appearances in a season shortened by a hamstring injury, while Manaea posted a 4.44 ERA over 117 2/3 innings while working as a starter, long reliever, and bulk pitcher behind an opener. Manaea might be the likelier of the two to find a larger deal on the open market, as Pavlovic notes that a multi-year agreement could be possible since teams are forever in need of pitching. Conforto could remain with the Giants and hope for a better platform year before re-entering the market next winter, though he’d be rejoining an outfield/DH picture that already looks crowded, and the Giants might still be making more moves to the outfield to add both athleticism and hitting pop.

Here’s more from around the NL West…

The Diamondbacks’ acquisition of Paul Sewald has proven to be one of the trade deadline’s most impactful moves, as The Arizona Republic’s Theo Mackie writes that the Snakes’ once-unsteady bullpen has turned into a strength. From August 19 until the end of the regular season, Arizona relievers combined for a 2.94 ERA, with Sewald himself delivering a 2.84 ERA over 12 2/3 innings in that stretch, closing out nine of 10 save chances. As noted by Mackie and D’Backs GM Mike Hazen, establishing Sewald as the closer allowed the team to stick to a pretty set formula for their bullpen usage, and this routine has helped the Diamondbacks both reach the playoffs and advance to the NLCS.
The Dodgers’ roster is broken down by J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group, with an eye towards whether or not several players could be back in Los Angeles in 2024. Among the free agents, Hoornstra likes the chances of a reunion with Enrique Hernandez, as the utilityman’s multi-positional ability could help add depth if a DH-only player (i.e. Shohei Ohtani) were to join the roster. On the other hand, David Peralta is basically limited to just left field and only against right-handed pitching, so it seems like L.A. might prefer internal options. There also seems to be a chance the Dodgers will re-sign Jason Heyward, which could make Peralta further “redundant” since Heyward is also a left-handed hitter and a more versatile outfielder.

Giants Less Likely To Trade From Rotation After DeSclafani Injury

By Anthony Franco | August 1, 2023 at 10:28am CDT

Within the past week, multiple reports have emerged about the Giants receiving interest on their starting pitchers. There was some thought that San Francisco could deal a back-end starter for help elsewhere on the roster.

President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi downplayed that possibility when meeting with the SF beat last night (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Area). Pointing to the recent placement of Anthony DeSclafani on the 15-day injured list (plus an injury to Triple-A righty Keaton Winn), Zaidi said the front office is “kind of in a different position than we were even a week ago” with regards to the pitching. As a result, he stated “it’s less likely we explore something there. It kind of feels like we have just enough pitching to be comfortable and to have some options, but we’ll see what happens over the next day.”

At the same time, it doesn’t seem the Giants are anxious to add rotation depth either. Asked about that possibility, Zaidi noted the club’s success when deploying openers and/or bullpen games. He’s also spoken previously about his comfort with the likes of Alex Wood, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and Jakob Junis behind staff ace Logan Webb. At the beginning of July, the baseball operations leader said the Giants were likely only to get involved for potential top-of-the-rotation arms — which are generally lacking in supply this deadline season anyhow.

Still, the loss of DeSclafani deals something of a hit to the group. The righty hasn’t had a great season, carrying a 4.88 ERA with a below-average 18.9% strikeout rate. He trails only Webb and Cobb on the team in innings pitched, though. DeSclafani is battling a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. The team announced last night the righty was headed for a second opinion (relayed by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). There’s a possibility the injury will end his season, though the results of further imaging will obviously determine that.

While the Giants might be quiet on the pitching front, they’ll surely continue working the phones over the next six-plus hours. San Francisco has been searching for middle infield help for some time. Thairo Estrada is headed out on a minor league rehab stint, perhaps reducing the urgency to add there, but there’s still room for an acquisition given Estrada’s and Brandon Crawford’s recent health concerns.

Giants Could Deal From Rotation Depth

By Steve Adams | July 31, 2023 at 1:42pm CDT

The Giants have drawn interest in their starting pitchers, and while ace Logan Webb rather clearly figures to be off the table in any discussions, San Francisco has a handful of shorter-term options that could make for more realistic trade possibilities. FanSided’s Robert Murray wrote last week that lefty Alex Wood could be an option to change hands, and Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic have now similarly mentioned the possibility of trading Wood or another bulk-innings option as a means of acquiring either middle infield help or prospect depth.

A free agent at season’s end, the 32-year-old Wood has voiced a preference to remain with the Giants (link via Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News). However, he’s also made clear he wants to start games, and San Francisco has frequently used him as a bulk option behind an opener. Four of Wood’s past six appearances have come in relief of an opener. He hasn’t reached six innings in an appearance all season and hasn’t recorded an out in the sixth inning since May 26.

The Giants have been careful about limiting the number of times Wood faces opponents in a game, and with good reason. In 2022, when the lefty was deployed solely as a starter, he held opponents to a .241/.300/.344 batting line on the first trip through the order and a .256/.307/.399 slash the second time around. In the 95 plate appearances where Wood turned a lineup over for the third time, opponents exploded for a .326/.368/.573 batting line. He had similarly problematic splits in 2021, too.

Wood could certainly still be of interest to clubs seeking help at the back of the rotation, although he currently looks like something of a buy-low candidate and might need to be swapped out for an infielder in similar standing with his organization. The veteran southpaw has a pedestrian 4.75 ERA on the season, and his 18.8% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate, 43.6% ground-ball rate and 1.19 HR/9 mark have all gone in the wrong direction, relative to his 2021-22 output. Wood is pitching in the second season of a two-year, $25MM deal and will reach free agency again following the season. About $4.167MM of this year’s salary remains to be paid out.

San Francisco has other arms to peddle in similar scenarios. Right-hander Ross Stripling and lefty Sean Manaea are both in the first season of two-year deals that guarantee them the same $25MM promised to Wood. Both, however, can opt out at season’s end. Neither has pitched up to his career standards, but both have been considerably better after a tough start to the year. Since returning from the injured list in late June, Stripling carries a 3.64 ERA and a sensational 22-to-1 K/BB ratio in 29 1/3 innings. Manaea, since a full-time move to multi-inning relief work, has 4.03 ERA with a 29.2% strikeout rate against just a 5.9% walk rate. The recent trends are encouraging, but the Giants might still have a tough time extracting present-day value in a trade — and it’s quite possible one or both will forgo his opt-out opportunity at season’s end. That’ll depend largely on how the final two months play out.

It’s worth noting that since reports about interest in the Giants’ rotation depth first emerged, right-hander Anthony DeSclafani was placed on the injured list. An MRI revealed a Grade 1 flexor strain, and DeSclafani is expected to miss a “few weeks” with the injury, at the very least. That, coupled with his prior struggles leading up to the IL placement (21 runs in his past 23 1/3 innings), figures to all but remove him as a trade candidate.

Mike Yastrzemski To Undergo MRI For Hamstring Strain

By Mark Polishuk | April 30, 2023 at 10:11pm CDT

Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski suffered a left hamstring strain while diving for a fly ball in the eighth inning of today’s game with the Padres. Matt Carpenter’s fly to shallow center field fell in for what ended up as the game-winning two-run double in San Diego’s 6-4 victory, as Yastrzemski made a long run for the ball and fell just short of a highlight-reel catch. After the play was over, Yastrzemski left the game after a visit from team trainers.

Speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser and other reporters after the game, Yastrzemski said the injury occurred on the second step of his run towards the ball. The outfielder will undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of the strain, but a trip to the 10-day injured list certainly seems likely.

After seemingly breaking out with the Giants in 2019-20, Yastrzemski was roughly a league-average hitter (102 wRC+) over his next two seasons, batting .219/.308/.424 with 42 homers over 1090 plate appearances in 2021-22. Teams increasingly played the shift against the left-handed hitting Yastrzemski in those two seasons, so it isn’t surprising that he has been off to a much more promising start in 2023, given the new rules limiting defensive shifts. Yaz has hit .292/.333/.521 with five home runs in his first 102 PA, and while below-average strikeout and walk rates and a notable gap in his wOBA (.364) to his xwOBA (.327) indicate he is somewhat outperforming his peripherals, Yastrzemski is still making plenty of hard contact.

Since Bryce Johnson is still on the seven-day concussion IL, Slusser figures that Brett Wisely (just called up as the Giants’ extra player for their two-game series in Mexico City) will probably stick with the team to get a chunk of the center field work with Yastrzemski sidelined. Austin Slater also just recently returned from the injured list, making a Slater/Wisely platoon the likeliest answer in center field until Yastrzemski or Johnson are back.

The two games in Mexico City provided plenty of injury drama for the Giants, as Brandon Crawford and Sean Manaea each picked up knocks on Saturday. Crawford left the game in the fourth inning due to some right calf tightness and didn’t play today, but told Slusser and other reporters that hopes to be back in action for Monday’s date with the Astros. Manaea was hit on the leg by a Nelson Cruz line drive on Saturday and lasted only 2 2/3 innings, but appeared to be okay today.

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