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Travis Wood

AL Notes: Rodriguez, A’s Closer, Phegley, Adcock, O’s, Wood

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Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez was cleared for his first pen session of the spring after suffering a minor knee injury in winter ball action, as Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com reports. There was added concern given the trouble Rodriguez experienced with the same joint last year, but he was able to throw 40 pitches without incident today. Boston has some depth in the staff, with Rodriguez slated to compete with Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright for the final two rotation jobs, though maintaining that depth will hinge in no small part upon the ability of the 24-year-old to stay healthy throughout the coming season.

Here are a few more notes from the American League:

  • The Athletics may not go with a single closer in 2017, skipper Bob Melvin told reporters including MLB.com’s Jane Lee (Twitter link). Lefty Sean Doolittle and righty Ryan Madson have both handled the job in the recent past for Oakland, while the just-signed Santiago Casilla did the same for the cross-town Giants in recent years and John Axford also has spent plenty of time in the late innings. It’s perhaps imaginable that the less-experienced Ryan Dull could see some chances after a strong 2016.
  • There was some good health news out of Athletics camp, as catcher Josh Phegley was cleared for full duty behind the plate, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Phegley had struggled with knee inflammation after undergoing surgery, causing him to miss the second half of the 2016 season, but a change in his stance will hopefully resolve that issue. Oakland is counting on a bounceback campaign from the 29-year-old.
  • Righty Nate Adcock will not join Orioles camp as expected, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com was among those to report on Twitter. The 28-year-old righty was hoping to make it back from Tommy John surgery, but now it’s unclear what his next steps will be.
  • Meanwhile, the Orioles are still on the market for lefty relief help, Kubatko also tweets. At present, the team’s top two southpaw relievers (outside of closer Zach Britton) are Donnie Hart and T.J. McFarland. With the best remaining free agents all recently leaving the board, only two southpaws (Chris Capuano and Charlie Furbush) remain available among players who qualified for MLBTR’s list of available free agents.
  • The Royals’ signing of lefty Travis Wood was due in part to the unfortunate injury suffered by southpaw Brian Flynn, with GM Dayton Moore telling Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link) that club owner Dan Glass authorizing a payroll bump to make it happen. From Wood’s perspective, the chance to compete for a starting job played a big role in his decision to sign with Kansas City, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports via Twitter.

Royals Sign Travis Wood

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FEBRUARY 15: Wood’s signing is official, with K.C. also announcing that the pact includes a mutual option for the 2019 season. He’ll earn $4MM in 2017 and $6.5MM in 2018, Heyman tweets. There’s a $1.5MM buyout on the option, which can be exercised at $8MM. Wood can also earn $1MM in incentives (either as a starter or as a reliever) in each year of the deal.

FEBRUARY 13, 5:07pm: Wood will receive a $12MM guarantee, per Heyman (via Twitter).

4:12pm: The Royals have agreed to a deal with free-agent lefty Travis Wood, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter links). The Frontline client will receive a two-year guarantee, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (Twitter link). Financial terms remain unreported.

[RELATED: Updated Royals Depth Chart]

Wood, 30, is expected to receive a chance to compete for a rotation job in Kansas City, though it seems he won’t be guaranteed a particular role entering camp. The organization recently signed righty Jason Hammel to take the spot that opened with the tragic death of Yordano Ventura. The staff already included Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, and Jason Vargas, and the Royals added Nate Karns to the mix earlier in the winter. Presumably, Wood and Karns will battle for the final rotation slot with veteran Chris Young, with the others heading to the bullpen. (In Karns’s case, he could also open at Triple-A.)

Aug 6, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Travis Wood (37) pitches against the Oakland Athletics in the ninth inning at O.co Coliseum. The Cubs won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY

With this latest move, Royals GM Dayton Moore has perhaps largely completed an interesting offseason in which he sought to balance salary limitations, a large slate of core players on the brink of free agency, and the unimaginable loss of Ventura. Moore and his staff engineered deals that shipped out quality, short-term assets (Wade Davis and Jarrod Dyson) in exchange for controllable MLB players who come with upside but aren’t yet fully established (Jorge Soler and Karns). With the unexpected need to move on Hammel, the club has already driven its payroll right up to its record-setting 2016 level, and the signing of Wood will seemingly push it past that previous high-water mark.

Though he waited quite a while to sign, Wood drew strong interest throughout the winter. Clubs were seemingly intrigued by his ability to provide quality innings out of the pen or return to the rotation. Last year, he ran up a 2.95 ERA in his 61 frames for the Cubs — an exact match for his earned run average when working out of the pen in the prior year, when he made the transition after scuffling early as a starter. Of course, the real advance that Wood showed in 2015 was a leap in his swinging-strike (9.8%) and strikeout (10.6 K/9) rates. Both were easily career highs, but Wood fell back to typical numbers in his most recent season (6.5%; 6.9 K/9).

There’s little question that Wood was fortunate last year in the batted ball department, too, as opposing batters reached base on just .215 of the balls they put in play. And he still coughed up a few too many walks (3.5 BB/9) while generating a pedestrian groundball rate (37.4%). But there were some positives beyond the bottom-line results. In particular, as MLBTR’s Connor Byrne has noted, Wood exceeded his typically strong performance in generating infield pop-ups, posting one of the game’s best rates (17.8%). He also averaged just over 90 mph with his fastball, which is an unremarkable number in its own right but matched a career high for the soft-tossing southpaw. And Wood continued to baffle opposing lefties, who have compiled a paltry .206/.276/.316 slash against him over 949 total plate appearances.

Wood’s history as a starter likely contributed just as much to his value on the market. To be sure, it has been some time since he turned in a fully productive season out of the rotation, and his excellent 2013 season (exactly 200 innings of 3.11 ERA ball) looks more like an aberration than any kind of reasonable expectation going forward. But Wood has demonstrated an ability to churn out useful innings from the rotation, and seems to be a good bet to continue his strong health record over the two years of his new contract.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Travis Wood’s Market

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FEB. 13: FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets that Wood is expected to make a decision on his new team in the very near future — possibly as soon as today.

FEB. 12: The Cubs have made contract offers to Travis Wood, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links), though the Padres and two other teams are also still in the mix for the free agent lefty.  The Yankees aren’t one of the other teams; New York reportedly checked in on Wood recently, though the Yankees weren’t considered to be top candidates for his services.

Wood’s market has begun to generate more buzz in recent days, though the veteran southpaw has seen his name pop up in rumors for much of the winter.  Besides the Yankees, Padres and Cubs, the Marlins and Blue Jays were also linked to Wood at different times this offseason, and either of those clubs still makes sense as one or both of the mystery teams pursuing the left-hander (though Miami has made a number of other pitching additions).

Wood’s history as a starter has drawn interest from multiple teams looking at him as rotation help, with the Padres included in that list.  The Cubs would be looking to use Wood as a swingman, while it isn’t known what role the other two suitors intend Wood to fill.

For the first five seasons of his big league career, Wood was a durable and mostly effective starter for the Reds and Cubs before transitioning into a relief role for Chicago during the 2015 season.  He posted tremendous numbers as a reliever in 2015 and continued to get good results last year, posting a 2.95 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 1.96 K/BB rate over 61 bullpen innings.  Thanks to such factors as his low strikeout rate and a .215 BABIP, however, advanced metrics (4.54 FIP, 4.83 xFIP, 4.46 SIERA) painted a less-impressive picture of Wood’s season.

Looking at the Cubs’ left-handed options, Mike Montgomery and Brett Anderson are vying for the fifth spot in the rotation, with Brian Duensing and Rob Zastryzny in line for potential bullpen jobs with the loser of the fifth starter battle.  The Cubs could feel more comfortable with a familiar face like Wood in a swingman or spot starter role rather than relying on several other more inexperienced depth options (Zastryzny, Eddie Butler, Alec Mills, Ryan Williams).

Padres Considering Travis Wood, Jered Weaver

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The Padres are still working to add another arm to their rotation mix, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Lefty Travis Wood has joined righty Jered Weaver among the arms under consideration, per the report.

San Diego has steadily rebuilt its rotation on the cheap this winter, signing Jhoulys Chacin, Clayton Richard, and Trevor Cahill to budget-friendly, one-year deals. Evidently, the club remains interested in bolstering its depth with a fourth signing.

In all likelihood, says Rosenthal, the club would add just one of those two pitchers. Another previously rumored potential match, former Friars star Jake Peavy, could still be a fit but appears to be less likely at this juncture.

While we’ve heard plenty about the interest in Weaver over recent months, Wood is a new addition to the Padres’ picture. Recent reports suggest that multiple organizations are pursuing him as a starter, and he ought to hold appeal to others as a reliever, so it stands to reason that he’ll command a fair bit more money than the other arms San Diego has gathered thus far.

Wood, who just turned 30, has succeeded most recently as a reliever, posting 61 innings of 2.95 ERA ball last year for the Cubs. That said, metrics felt he was somewhat fortunate to generate those results. He failed to follow up on a jump in his strikeout rate that came with his move to the bullpen in 2015, falling from 10.5 K/9 that year to 6.9 K/9 in 2016, and posted unremarkable walk (3.5 BB/9) and groundball (37.4%) rates while benefiting from a .215 batting average on balls put in play against him.

Still, the Padres are among the teams that obviously feel Wood can not only contribute as a reliever, but return to being a useful starter. He has ample experience working from the rotation, having carried a 4.19 ERA over 776 frames between 2010 and 2015. As MLBTR’s Connor Byrne recently noted in discussing the Yankees’ interest in the veteran lefty, Wood has long made his flyball-heavy approach work by generating a healthy number of harmless infield flies. In 2016, he racked up those easy outs on 17.8% of batted balls, one of the highest rates in the majors.

 

Yankees “Have Checked In On” Travis Wood

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With no established major league starters beyond Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia and Michael Pineda on their roster, the Yankees “have checked in on” free agent left-hander Travis Wood, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. However, the Yankees “don’t necessarily seem at the forefront of talks” for Wood, whose market has heated up in recent days.

Wood, who turned 30 on Monday, worked exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen last season, but “multiple teams” have offered him opportunities to return to a starting role this winter. That could include the Yankees, who are currently set to have Luis Severino, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Cessa and Adam Warren battle for their final two rotation spots during the spring. Those five have combined for just 68 big league starts, whereas Wood piled up nearly twice as many (133) with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15. Wood was fairly effective during that six-year, 776-inning span, too, as he recorded a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9.

While Wood is coming off a career-best season in terms of run prevention (2.95 ERA in 61 innings), he also had the good fortune of pitching in front of the Cubs’ all-world defense. His ERA masked a subpar K/BB ratio (1.96; well below the 2.53 league-average mark for relievers), and advanced metrics like FIP (4.54), xFIP (4.83) and SIERA (4.46) weren’t particularly impressed with his performance. Further, Wood generated ground balls at a meager 37.4 percent clip, and his careerlong trend of relying on fly balls – not to mention his below-average velocity and struggles against right-handed hitters – could make him a poor fit for Yankee Stadium and the AL East. To his credit, Wood has somewhat offset his lifetime 33.6 grounder percentage with an 11.9 percent infield fly rate, which climbed to a lofty 17.8 percent in 2016.

Regardless of whether it’s with the Yankees, Wood seems likely to land a deal soon. With spring training closing in and former Cubs teammate Jason Hammel now off the market, Wood is arguably the top starting-caliber arm available in free agency.

Pitching Notes: Wood, Brewers, Braves, Astros

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Free agent left-hander Travis Wood worked almost exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen over the previous two seasons, but he could return to the rotation with a new club in 2017. “Multiple teams” are offering Wood a chance to start, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). Wood, who will turn 30 on Monday, combined for 133 starts with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15 and registered a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9 in that 776-inning span. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported Friday that Wood could sign sometime this weekend.

More pitching-related notes:

  • Right-hander Chase Anderson and his representatives don’t expect to avoid arbitration with the Brewers, who are employing a file-and-trial approach, a source told Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The two sides are set to argue their cases sometime before Feb. 14, which would be the Brewers’ first arbitration hearing since 2012. Anderson, who’s arbitration eligible for the first time, is seeking $2.85MM as his 2017 salary, while the Brewers have offered $2.45MM (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $3.1MM award entering the offseason). The 29-year-old is coming off a season in which he amassed 151 2/3 innings, totaled nine wins and recorded a 4.39 ERA – the three statistics arbitrators examine when dealing with starting pitchers.
  • The Braves are loaded with bullpen options going into the spring, opines MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, who expects there to be plenty of “buzz” centering on left-handed prospect A.J. Minter. A second-round pick in 2015 (a few months after he underwent Tommy John surgery), the hard-throwing Minter received his first professional action last season and laid waste to hitters at both the Single-A and Double-A levels.
  • David Laurila of FanGraphs had a lengthy, pitching-focused chat with Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias. The two discussed the value of in-person scouting, the Astros’ curveball usage and the risk associated with drafting high school pitchers, among other subjects. On 6-foot-7 righty Forrest Whitley, whom the Astros selected 17th overall out of high school in last year’s draft, Elias observed: “When you see a kid that long and lean be as coordinated, and able to repeat his delivery as well as he was, at the age of 18… that’s a big reason we took him with our first pick. We were really impressed with how he coordinates himself when he’s going down the mound. And he goes down the mound pretty aggressively.”

Market Notes: Trends, Wood, Rays, Rockies

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Looking at this winter’s free-agent market broadly, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (Insider link) that it produced generally poor results from the players’ side. The trend, he and the agents he spoke with suggest, is one of elite players continuing to earn while others are increasingly forced into one-year pacts. That could, in turn, continue to suppress the market for sub-elite players next year, since there’ll again be a larger pool of talent. This certainly seems to be an area that warrants a closer look once the market fully settles out. As of three years ago, the trend had been in favor of multi-year deals as teams competed to land talent on the open market.

Here are some more market notes:

  • With southpaws flying off the board, things are “heating up” for Travis Wood, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). It’s possible he’ll choose his landing spot by the end of the weekend, per the report, though it’s still not clear whether he’ll be heading for a rotation or pen spot (let alone where that might be).
  • Despite picking up Logan Morrison and Rickie Weeks, the Rays still intend to remain involved on some of the better hitters still available, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (links to Twitter). In particular, slugger Chris Carter and even catcher Matt Wieters seemingly remain of interest to Tampa Bay. Another righty bat, notes Topkin, might step into a platoon in the first base and DH spots. The club could take a look at Byung Ho Park, who was just designated by the Twins, and others under consideration include Mike Napoli and Franklin Gutierrez (who’d spend time in the outfield).
  • The Rockies are unlikely to make further additions to their major league roster, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding suggests in response to a fan inquiry. Even if someone like starter Jason Hammel represents a screaming value, Harding hints, the organization may not have the roster or payroll flexibility to give out a MLB deal.

Travis Wood Drawing Interest As Starter

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Left-hander Travis Wood has been a plausible rotation candidate all offseason despite his recent work as a reliever with the Cubs, and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets that Wood is indeed drawing interest as a starter. The veteran has “at least one Major-League contract offer” from a team that wishes to use him in the rotation, per Morosi.

Wood, who’ll soon turn 30, produced good results in the pen last year for Chicago, throwing 61 innings of 2.95 ERA ball — though he did so with just 6.9 K/9 to go with 3.5 BB/9 and benefited from an extremely low .215 BABIP. Despite the sub-3 ERA, those numbers are actually a bit disappointing. Wood had produced a jump in his swinging-strike and strikeout rates upon moving to a relief role in 2015, but essentially reverted to his prior levels (which came as a starter).

Of course, Wood’s history as a starter is a feather in his cap rather than a demerit. He did scuffle in 2014, but ran up exactly two-hundred innings of 3.11 ERA pitching the year prior. All told, he has made 133 big league starts, over which he has allowed 4.19 earned runs per nine.

That being said, there’s also reason to believe that Wood can be a more useful weapon — to a contending team, at least — while working from the pen. He obviously can take on multiple innings if needed, but also has a track record of stifling opposing lefties, making him an excellent match-up option. Over his career, right-handed hitters own a .749 OPS against the southpaw, while same-handed batsmen sit below .600. Those splits were even more severe last season.

That track record at least suggests that Wood can present a depth option, even if he’s signed with intentions of being used in the pen. But it seems there’s at least one team that would be willing to promise him not only a roster spot, but a place in the rotation. Whether that club is also the high bidder, of course, isn’t known.

 

Latest On The Market For Left-Handed Relievers

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The agents for Jerry Blevins and Boone Logan are signaling to interested teams that each left-hander will be able to land two-year, $12MM deals or better, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. That two-year, $12MM figure — the same contract inked by Antonio Bastardo with the Mets last offseason — was recently used a potential template for both Blevins and Logan by one executive that spoke with Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Nicholson-Smith recently reported that the Jays remain in contact with Blevins, and Rosenthal lists the Dodgers as another club that’s interested in his services. As is the case with their interest in Joe Blanton, though, the Dodgers are interested in a one-year deal, which could make it difficult to secure one of the top remaining names on the relief market. The New York Post’s Kevin Kernan writes that the Mets are checking in with Blevins’ camp on a daily basis. The Yankees are also in touch with the representatives for the remaining lefty relievers, Rosenthal adds, though they’re only interested in one-year deals with a low base salary or even minor league deals with Spring Training invites. That, it would seem, removes the likes of Blevins and Logan from the Yankees’ realistic options.

Both Blevins and Logan averaged better than 11 strikeouts per nine innings this past season, though Blevins did so with a lower ERA (2.79 to 3.69) and better control (3.2 BB/9 to 3.9 BB/9). That strikeout rate represented an easy career-best for Blevins, while Logan has averaged better than 11 K/9 in each of the past five seasons with the Yankees and Rockies.

Meanwhile, Craig Breslow’s recent showcase, which was attended by roughly half the league, has thrust him into the conversation of available lefties. Breslow’s new arm slot was said to pique the interest of some clubs, and he represents a significantly more affordable option than other southpaws that have yet to sign with a new team. Rosenthal reports that the Indians, Mets and Dodgers each had multiple evaluators in attendance, and WEEI’s Rob Bradford reported recently that the Rockies, Blue Jays and Cubs were all in attendance as well. Kernan notes that he spoke to a scout who was in attendance for Breslow’s workout and came away impressed.

Travis Wood, too, is still seeking a new home this winter, but Nicholson-Smith notes that many in the industry still expect Wood to seek a starting job due to his experience in the rotation. That makes him a tough fit for the Blue Jays, and the fact that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers aren’t looking to break the bank, in my mind, makes either club seem like a long shot as well.

Pitching Notes: Diekman, Imhof, Mets, Jays, Reds/Arroyo, Marquis, Urias, Nats, Harris

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Rangers lefty Jake Diekman underwent successful surgery to remove his colon, with several more procedures to come as he battles ulcerative colitis. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has the latest, including video diary entries from Diekman himself. It’s well worth a watch to learn more about the unfortunate affliction and Diekman’s fight. We hope to see him back on the mound as soon as possible.

There won’t be a return in the offing for Phillies lefty Matt Imhof, who lost his eye in a terrible accident involving exercise bands. As Imhof himself writes in a moving piece for ESPN.com, he’s returning to finish his degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and will retire from the sport. He says it’s not just due to the injury, though; as he writes, “the truth is I need a change of pace after 20 years of doing the same thing.” You’ll want to give a full read to the southpaw’s powerful story of coming to grips with — and not being defined by — his injury.

As we wish the best to Diekman and Imhof, here’s the latest on the market for pitching:

  • As the Mets look to bolster their bullpen, the team is still weighing a variety of free agents, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). In addition to keeping open the possibility of a reunion with lefty Jerry Blevins, the Mets are also considering righties Sergio Romo and Joe Smith.
  • The Blue Jays are also keeping in touch with Blevins, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. Toronto’s search for a southpaw reliever has also led it to consider Craig Breslow, per the report. The team was among those to check out his new mechanics recently.
  • The Reds are exploring a reunion with former starter Bronson Arroyo, as Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Unsurprisingly, the team is not interested in guaranteeing him a roster spot, as Arroyo is two full years removed from appearing in the majors and has dealt with significant arm issues of late. GM Dick Williams confirms that the team has watched Arroyo throw and is weighing a signing, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (Twitter links). Beyond a move on Arroyo or other candidates for minor-league deals, Cincinnati is done with its free-agent signings, Williams adds.
  • Speaking of longstanding veterans weighing returns, righty Jason Marquis suggested in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link) that he’s open to reviving his career. The 38-year-old last appeared in a nine-start stint with Cincy in 2015, but he’s set to pitch for Team Israel in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
  • While Dodgers lefty Julio Urias showed plenty in 2016 to warrant a rotation spot in the coming season, innings considerations may hold him back to start the year. As Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets, skipper Dave Roberts says that the organization may keep him in extended Spring Training at the beginning of the 2017 campaign. Such an approach would not only ensure that Urias is available for good once he does make it up, but would afford more opportunities for the organization to see what it has in its variety of interesting, injury-plagued arms. Over at Fangraphs, Craig Edwards takes a look at what’s shaping up to be a fascinating staff.
  • There’s an argument to be made that the Nationals not only need to address their closer situation, but also ought to bolster their rotation depth, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. While the team’s five-man starting unit is likely set, which perhaps limits their ability to promise opportunities to free agents, a swingman could make sense. Janes mentions Travis Wood as at least a hypothetical match, and he would indeed seem to make a sensible fit.
  • 31-year-old Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris is hoping to join former teammate Seth Maness in bouncing back from a “primary repair” procedure to his right elbow, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Harris last pitched competitively in 2015, but will be ramping up for a full spring after undergoing the surgery last summer. Because his surgeon was able to attempt that less-invasive approach, as opposed to a full UCL replacement, there’s a possibility of a much swifter return to the hill — though Harris will first need to earn his way into MLB camp after failing to receive an invite.
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