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Yan Gomes

Cubs Release Yan Gomes

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The Cubs have released veteran catcher Yan Gomes, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment last week. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.

Gomes is a veteran with over a thousand games in the majors and a 37th birthday coming up next month. He has spent most of that as a solid defender behind the plate with some inconsistent but potent offense. He doesn’t draw a lot of walks and can be strikeout prone, but he’s generally been a reliable source of double-digit home runs whenever he gets regular playing time.

Going into the 2022 season, the Cubs signed him to a two-year deal with a $13MM guarantee and a $6MM club option for 2024. His first season with the Cubs was a bit of a disappointment but he hit 10 home runs last year and slashed .267/.315/.408 for a wRC+ of 95. That means he was 5% below league average overall but that’s a strong result for a catcher.

The Cubs picked up the option for 2024 but the results from Gomes took a nosedive. In 96 plate appearances with the Cubs this year, he slashed .154/.179/.242. He walked just 2.1% of the time while getting punched out at a massive 37.5% clip and the defensive metrics soured on him as well.

The club was also seeing significant struggles from youngster Miguel Amaya, turning the catching position into a black hole on the roster. Amaya is just 25 years old and has five years of club control beyond this one, so the Cubs weren’t likely to give up on him based on a few rough months, but he has exhausted his option years and can’t be sent down to the minors. That left Gomes squeezed off the roster with a few months left on his contract.

No other club was going to acquire Gomes based on how rough he’s been this year, as doing so would involve absorbing what’s left of his salary, just over $3MM. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so the Cubs have released him, which leaves them on the hook for the remainder of that money.

Any of the other clubs can now sign him while only paying him the prorated version of the major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay. Despite his rough season, perhaps that will spur some team to take a low-cost chance on him based on his track record. He has 137 career home runs and a .246/.295/.412 slash line overall, with that translating to an 89 wRC+.

Cubs Sign Tomas Nido, Designate Yan Gomes For Assignment

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10:20am: The Cubs have made the moves official.

9:55am: The Cubs are making a change behind the plate, signing veteran catcher Tomas Nido to a big league contract and designating Yan Gomes for assignment, as first reported by Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami. Nido, an ACES client, was released by the Mets on Monday after being designated for assignment last week. The Mets are on the hook for the majority of this year’s $2.1MM salary. The Cubs will only owe Nido the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

The 30-year-old Nido inked a two-year, $3.7MM contract prior to the 2023 season, buying out his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster last season following a dismal .125/.153/.125 start through 61 plate appearances but chose to accept a Triple-A assignment due to the fact that electing free agency would’ve required him to forfeit the remainder of the guaranteed money on his contract.

Nido was selected back to the big leagues this season when Francisco Alvarez hit the injured list with a thumb injury that required surgery. During his most recent stint with the Mets, Nido surpassed five years of MLB service time, which allowed him to reject his latest outright assignment in favor of free agency while still retaining the remainder of his salary. He batted .229/.261/.361 through 90 plate appearances with the Mets this season.

That level of production is par for the course for Nido, a career .214/.251/.313 hitter in 895 trips to the plate at the big league level. Offense has never been the focal point of Nido’s game, however. He’s an high-end defensive backstop who draws plus grades for his framing and pitch-blocking, coupling those skills with a career 21% caught-stealing rate that’s right in line with this year’s league average.

Even Nido’s lackluster 2024 output at the plate or his similarly uninspiring career batting line would be an upgrade over what the 36-year-old Gomes has mustered this season. Gomes was near league-average at the plate just last season (.267/.315/.408, 10 homers, 95 wRC+) but has cratered with a career-worst .157/.179/.242 batting line in 96 plate appearances this season. Gomes fanned in just 18% of his plate appearances with the 2022-23 Cubs and entered 2024 with a career 23.1% mark in the majors, but he’s whiffed a massive 36 times this season (37.5%).

Like Nido, Gomes has a strong defensive reputation, but the numbers don’t bear that out this year. He’s thwarted just three of the 24 runners who’ve attempted to steal against him (12.5%) — well shy of his excellent 32% career mark. The Brazilian-born backstop’s once-premium framing numbers are below-average for a second straight season, meanwhile, and Statcast also pegs him below-average at blocking pitches in the dirt in 2024.

As is the case with Nido, Gomes is playing out the final season of a guaranteed contract. Chicago signed him to a two-year, $13MM pact in the 2021-22 offseason. Gomes’ performance last year made it a straightforward call for the team to exercise a $6MM club option (a net $5MM decision, given the option’s $1MM buyout). Even Gomes’ detractors couldn’t have reasonably predicted a decline of this magnitude, however. Gomes’ struggles are a major reason that Chicago backstops have been the third-worst in all of baseball at the plate, leading only the White Sox and Marlins in that regard.

The Cubs will still be on the hook for the remainder of Gomes’ $6MM salary once he inevitably becomes a free agent. (No team is going to trade for or claim what’s left on the contract). Once he’s released, Gomes will be free to sign with any club. A new team would only owe him the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Cubs owe him through season’s end.

Craig Counsell Discusses The Cubs’ Struggling Catchers

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The Cubs have received dismal production from the catcher position this year, a topic that manager Craig Counsell openly discussed recently, as relayed by Sahadev Sharma in an article at The Athletic.

“Frankly, our catchers’ offense has been a struggle,” manager Counsell said. “We’re going to need to have better offense from our catchers to have a good offense. To have spots in your lineup that aren’t producing stops rallies.”

The Cubs have given all of their playing time behind the plate this year to Yan Gomes and Miguel Amaya, but both are hitting poorly, as Counsell admitted. The 36-year-old Gomes has plenty of good seasons on his résumé, hitting double-digit home runs eight times, but he has just two long balls this year. He has a 23.5% strikeout rate in his career, which is roughly average, but is currently being punched out at a 40% clip and has a batting line of .148/.176/.235. The 25-year-old Amaya isn’t quite as bad but his .194/.255/.274 line isn’t pretty either.

The problems don’t stop with the offense, as laid out by Sharma. Gomes has -6 Defensive Runs Saved this year and negative framing marks from FanGraphs, Statcast and Baseball Prospectus, while Amaya is hovering close to league average in those categories. The running games has also been a problem, with the Statcast catcher throwing leaderboard featuring ranking Amaya as one of the worst among qualified backstops while Gomes is in the middle of the pack. As Sharma highlights, the Cubs have caught just 13% of attempted base stealers, which has them tied for last in that department.

As noted by both Counsell and Sharma, pitchers play a role in that part of the game, but catchers obviously do as well. “Our catchers, you have to help to do that,” Counsell said. “You have to have help to be good at that. I think we’re going to continue to try to do a better job helping those guys be successful there.”

With struggles on both sides of the ball, the Cubs might have to think about making some kind of change. Clubs are sometimes reluctant to make midseason alterations to the roster at the catcher position due to the challenge of a new backstop having to learn the pitching staff in short order, but Sharma reports that Counsell doesn’t have those hesitations.

Actually pulling off such a switch would be somewhat complicated, as neither Amaya nor Gomes can be optioned to the minors. Amaya has exhausted his option years and has long been seen as the proverbial catcher of the future for the Cubs, meaning they likely don’t want to lose him based on a few rough months, especially when he’s likely to grow in time. “Big league at-bats for Miguel are a great teacher right now,” Counsell said. “At his experience level, he will improve.”

Gomes is far older and an impending free agent, but the Cubs are committed to him financially. They signed him to a two-year, $13MM deal going into 2022, with a $6MM club option for 2024. Gomes had a solid season in 2023, prompting the Cubs to trigger that option. Given his struggles and that salary, he would have no trade appeal, so the Cubs would likely have to eat that money and release Gomes if they wanted to pivot. Carrying three backstops would technically be possible but would involve bumping someone like David Bote or Patrick Wisdom from the roster and therefore cutting into the club’s depth at other positions.

Despite the challenges, it seems like Counsell is open to some kind of change. The Cubs could possibly find help from within, as Alí Sánchez is in the organization on a minor league deal and playing well. He has stepped to the plate 121 times for Triple-A Iowa this year and drawn a walk in 14% of those while hitting three home runs, leading to a line of .262/.372/.437 and a 113 wRC+. He has a sliver of major league experience and hit well in Triple-A last year with Arizona, slashing .311/.375/.492.

The Cubs could also look outside the organization to the trade market, but the options there may be limited. The Blue Jays are struggling a bit this year and have impending free agent Danny Jansen. He is very talented, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently highlighted, but the Jays are still in the playoff race. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported this week that the club isn’t planning to commit to either buying or selling until the All-Star break, which is still over a month away. Players like Carson Kelly of the Tigers or Victor Caratini of the Astros could make sense, but like the Jays, those clubs probably want to wait a few more weeks before deciding to sell useful players. Elias Díaz makes sense as a trade candidate on paper but the Rockies are notoriously reluctant to part with players even when logic supports such a move. Martín Maldonado of the White Sox is probably attainable but is playing worse than either Amaya or Gomes this year, with a batting line of .076/.124/.120.

Perhaps the Cubs will wait and see if Gomes or Amaya can put together a good stretch in the next month or so and then move to the trade market if that doesn’t happen. There’s some sense in such a path but also risk. The club is in the thick of an incredibly tight National League playoff race. Atlanta has a pretty firm grip on the top Wild Card spot but there are nine clubs within three games of each other in the battle for the final two. Despite a 31-32 record, the Cubs are atop that pile at the moment but it’s a situation where every game matters. This is something the Cubs know well as they finished 2023 just one game behind the final postseason spot.

Cubs Exercise Club Options On Kyle Hendricks, Yan Gomes

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The Cubs have exercised their $16.5MM club option on the services of veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Hendricks, the club’s longest-tenured player, is now set to return in 2024 for his 11th season with the major league team and his 13th season as a member of the Cubs organization as a whole. Rogers also reports that the club has picked up their $6MM club option on veteran catcher Yan Gomes, who will return for his third season in Chicago.

Chicago’s decision to retain Hendricks is hardly a surprise, given comments earlier this fall from both president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and club chairman Tom Ricketts that indicated Hendricks would return to the Cubs in 2024. The decision was likely made even simpler by veteran right-hander Marcus Stroman’s decision to opt out of the final year of his contract and return to the open market. By keeping Hendricks in the fold, the Cubs have a proven veteran starter to pair with Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon in the club’s rotation next season with youngsters like Jordan Wicks, Javier Assad, Hayden Wesneski, and perhaps even top pitching prospect Cade Horton all also in the mix for starts next season.

Of course, the most important factor in Hendricks’s option being picked up was the veteran righty’s strong bounceback campaign in 2023. The soft-tossing righty was among the most effective starters in all of baseball for the first seven seasons of his career with a sterling 3.12 ERA and 3.53 FIP across 175 games. Among the 68 pitchers who threw at least 700 total innings between 2014 and 2020, Hendricks’s ERA ranks 7th. Unfortunately, Hendricks’s performance took a turn for the worse over the next two seasons; he posted a 4.78 ERA and 4.87 FIP across 48 starts those two seasons before being shut down last summer due to a shoulder capsule injury.

Rehabbing from that shoulder injury left Hendricks unavailable to open the 2023 campaign, but he looked rejuvenated upon his return in late May. In 24 starts for the Cubs this season, Hendricks was able to provide a steady, veteran presence in the middle of the club’s rotation with a 3.74 ERA and 3.81 FIP in 137 innings of work. Though Hendricks struck out just 16.1% of batters faced- a low mark even by his soft-tossing standards- he made up for it by walking a microscopic 4.7% of batters faced while generating groundballs at a 46.3% clip. Altogether, Hendricks’s performance and the rising prices of pitching on the free agent market in recent years seems to have made picking up the 2024 option on his services a fairly easy decision for the Cubs.

As for Gomes, the 36-year-old veteran rebounded in a big way from a down year offensively in 2022. After slashing just .235/.260/.365 in 293 trips to the plate while serving as the club’s primary backup to Willson Contreras behind the plate last year, Gomes stepped into the role of Chicago’s primary catcher after Contreras departed for the Cardinals in free agency. Gomes took to the role quite well, slashing a respectable .267/.315/.408 in 419 trips to the plate, good for a 95 wRC+ that ranked 26th among the 69 catchers who had at least 100 trips to the plate in the majors this year.

In addition to his solid bat for the position, Gomes has generally been well-regarded as a catcher defensively throughout his career. Though his framing marks slipped somewhat in 2023 from where they had been in previous years, Gomes ranked in the 81st percentile for Blocks Above Average behind the plate and the 66th percentile for CS Above Average in 2023. Given his solid performance both at and behind the plate in 2023, it’s hardly a surprise that the Cubs would retain Gomes for a third season behind the plate, though it’s possible he’ll end up in more of a timeshare with youngster Miguel Amaya in 2024 after Amaya showed flashes of being a potential regular behind the plate in 53 games in the majors this year.

Cubs Still Evaluating Deadline Trajectory

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The Cubs beat their crosstown rivals this evening, pulling themselves within two games of .500 in the process. The North Siders now sit at 49-51, six games behind the Brewers in the NL Central and 4 1/2 back of the three teams (Arizona, San Francisco and Philadelphia) tied for the last couple Wild Card spots.

With the club on the fringe of contention, the front office continues to evaluate whether it’s more prudent to add for a playoff push or move short-term veterans for future value. Before tonight’s win, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote that the Cubs had yet to commit to a direction with the deadline a week off.

If Chicago were to entertain offers, they’d be able to market two of the top players available. Aside from Shohei Ohtani, no impending free agent hitter with a chance to move would be more impactful than Cody Bellinger. While he hasn’t quite recaptured his MVP heights, Bellinger has bounced most of the way back from two middling seasons to finish his Dodgers’ tenure. He’s hitting .314/.363/.540 over 292 trips to the plate and typically rates as an above-average to plus defensive center fielder.

Marcus Stroman would be one of the top pitchers on the market. The 32-year-old has struggled in July but still carries an excellent 3.09 ERA over 122 1/3 innings. He’s picking up ground-balls at a 57.8% clip, continuing his career track record of stifling opponents’ power output.

Both players are likely headed for free agency. Bellinger is sure to decline his end of a mutual option. Barring injury, Stroman will do the same with a $21MM player option. Stroman has angled for a contract extension, but the Cubs are reportedly holding off on such talks as they consider trade options. Bellinger will be one of the top hitters in a free agent class light on impact bats. With top center field prospects like Kevin Alcántara and Pete Crow-Armstrong in the farm system and Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ on multi-year contracts, there’s an argument for the Cubs to prioritize players other than Bellinger past this season.

It has generally been assumed the Cubs would either trade both Bellinger and Stroman or neither player (depending on whether they decide to sell). However, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic wrote this evening that Chicago could also consider dealing Stroman while hanging on to Bellinger. That’s a result of the players’ respective qualifying offer status.

Stroman already received and accepted a qualifying offer in his career. Players can be tagged with a QO a maximum of one time. Bellinger has never received the offer. If the Cubs hold both through season’s end, they’d only be able to tender the QO to Bellinger. They’d get a draft choice if Bellinger signed elsewhere but no compensation if Stroman departed.

Beyond that duo, the Cubs have a handful of potential trade candidates. Kyle Hendricks is controllable for another season on a $16MM team option and carries a 3.38 ERA over 11 starts. Yan Gomes is a solid veteran catcher; his contract contains a $6MM club option for 2024. Michael Fulmer is an affordable rental reliever who has pitched well over the past six weeks.

Whether any of those players move could well be determined by the on-field results of the next six days. The Cubs wrap their series with the White Sox tomorrow. They’ll go to St. Louis for a four-game set through the weekend and play one game against the Reds (one of the teams they’re trying to track down) before the deadline.

Upcoming Club Option Decisions: NL Central

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We’re roughly a third of the way through the 2023 season. Players have had a couple months to build something of a performance track record that’ll play a role in their future contracts. With that in mind, MLBTR will take a look over the coming days at players whose contracts contain team or mutual options to gauge the early trajectory for those upcoming decisions.

This series kicked off with the NL West last night. Today, we move to the Central.

Chicago Cubs

Hendricks has only made two starts this season. The sinkerballer was diagnosed with a capsular tear in his throwing shoulder last August. That required a lengthy rehab process that lingered into this month. The former ERA champion hadn’t been nearly as effective in the two years leading up to the shoulder issues as he was over his first seven seasons. Going back to the start of the 2021 campaign, he owns a 4.75 ERA over 274 2/3 innings. Between that back-of-the-rotation production and the injury, the Cubs seem likely to reallocate the $14.5MM difference between the option price and the buyout.

Gomes signed a two-year guarantee with Chicago going into the 2022 campaign. Initially tabbed to pair with Willson Contreras, he’s gotten the majority of the playing time alongside Tucker Barnhart this season. Gomes struggled to a .235/.260/.365 line in 86 games during his first season on the North Side. He’s playing better this season, hitting six home runs with a .273/.297/.445 batting line over his first 118 trips to the plate. The $5MM decision is a reasonable price for a veteran backstop hitting at that level, even if Gomes is more of a timeshare player than a true regular at this stage of his career.

Boxberger signed with Chicago after being bought out by the Brewers. The righty has had a tough first couple months. He allowed nine runs with a 13:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 14 2/3 innings. He hit the 15-day injured list with a forearm strain a couple weeks ago. Boxberger is throwing again but figures to miss a decent chunk of action. This is trending towards a Cubs’ buyout.

Cincinnati Reds

Votto is a franchise icon. He’s played his entire 17-season career in Cincinnati and it’s hard to envision him in another uniform. If he’s to stick with the Reds beyond this year, though, it’d almost certainly be at a cheaper price point than the option value. Votto had a below-average .205/.319/.370 batting line last season and hasn’t played this year as he works back from last August’s rotator cuff surgery.

  • Wil Myers: $12MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)

Myers’ first season as a Red hasn’t gone as planned. The offseason signee has started his Cincinnati career with a .189/.257/.283 batting line with three home runs over 141 plate appearances. Perhaps he’ll play well enough this summer the Reds can recoup something in a trade around the deadline. Cincinnati isn’t going to exercise their end of this option short of a massive turnaround, though.

Casali is part of a three-catcher group in Cincinnati. The veteran backstop has only a .157/.259/.157 line in 60 trips to the plate during his second stint as a Red. The club looks likely to decline their end of the option for the journeyman backstop.

Milwaukee Brewers

Wilson underwent Tommy John surgery last June. The Brewers signed him to a big league deal with an eye towards the second half and potentially the ’24 campaign. He’s on the 60-day injured list. This one’s still to be determined.

Pittsburgh Pirates

García landed in Pittsburgh after being non-tendered by the Giants last winter. His Bucs’ tenure hasn’t gotten off the ground. He suffered a biceps injury in Spring Training, was shut down from throwing entirely for more than a month, and has spent the year on the 60-day injured list. There’s no public clarity on his status.

St. Louis Cardinals

Six weeks ago, this looked like a no-brainer for the Cardinals to buy out. DeJong’s offensive production had absolutely nosedived since 2020. He hit only .196/.280/.351 in over 800 plate appearances between 2020-22. He struggled so badly last season the Cards optioned him to Triple-A for a spell.

The Cards continued to resist calls to move on from DeJong entirely, however. The front office has held out hope he could recapture the productive offensive form he showed through his first few seasons. They’ve been rewarded for their patience to this point in 2023. DeJong has had a surprising resurgence, popping eight home runs in 31 games. His bat has faded a bit in May after a scorching April, but the overall .234/.311/.495 line is 21 percentage points above league average by measure of wRC+. DeJong’s defense has always been above-average, and the offensive bounceback has gotten him back in the starting lineup at shortstop.

DeJong will need to maintain this form over an extended stretch before the Cards get to a point where it’s worthwhile to trigger the option. Tommy Edman and top prospect Masyn Winn are in the organization as potential replacements. Yet DeJong is performing better than any of the impending free agents in a weak shortstop class. That there’s a chance the front office might have to think about this one is a testament to his strong start.

Cubs Notes: Hendricks, Gomes, Sampson

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Veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks has rejoined the Cubs in Chicago to work with the coaching staff midway through his current rehab assignment, as noted by Gordon Wittenmeyer at the Chicago Tribune. Hendricks struggled mightily in two rehab appearances at the Triple-A level last week, surrendering 10 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings of work. Despite those results, though, Hendricks has seen his velocity tick up as high as 90 mph. That marks a return to form for Hendricks, who had seen his fastball velocity decline in recent years, concluding with a fastball that sat 86-87 mph last season.

Entering the 2021 season, Hendricks was not just the most reliable starter in the Cubs rotation, but among the most reliable starters in all of baseball. From 2014 to 2020, only six pitchers with at least 1,000 innings pitched had a lower ERA than Hendricks’s 3.12 figure: Clayton Kershaw, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Zack Greinke, and Chris Sale. Despite that elite company, however, injuries and ineffectiveness have plagued Hendricks since the start of the 2021 season, as the soft-tossing right-hander posted a 4.78 ERA and 4.87 FIP in 265 1/3 innings over the past two campaigns with strikeout, walk, and groundball rates all worse than his career average.

Hendricks saw his 2022 season come to an end early as he underwent surgery to repair a capsular tear in his shoulder last July. He began the season on the injured list as the Cubs decided to take his recovery slowly, though he appears to be nearing a return, with Mark Gonzales noting the club plans for him to return to Triple-A Iowa for rehab starts on Tuesday and Sunday. Upon his return, Hendricks will factor into a rotation that currently sports Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, Drew Smyly, Jameson Taillon, and Hayden Wesneski.

Also noted by Gonzales is that catcher Yan Gomes has resumed baseball activities. Gomes was placed on the 7-day concussion IL, who was hit in the head by a backswing last week, opening the door for catching prospect Miguel Amaya to make his big league debut. Amaya has shared time behind the plate with Tucker Barnhart while Gomes has been on the shelf, but Gomes figures to take the lion’s share of playing time once he returns from injury.

A less positive injury update came from Cubs manager David Ross regarding right-hander Adrian Sampson, as noted by Wittenmeyer. The 31-year-old journeyman underwent debridement surgery on his right knee on Friday. No timetable has been announced for Sampson’s return to action. After a solid pair of partial seasons with the Cubs that saw him post a 3.03 ERA and 4.28 FIP in 139 2/3 innings since the start of the 2021 season, Sampson was in the mix to be the Cubs’ fifth starter this spring, though he ultimately lost out on the role to Wesneski. Sampson has yet to pitch in the majors for the Cubs this season, but figures to be a depth option for them whenever he returns to the mound.

Cubs Designate Ryan Borucki For Assignment

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The Cubs have made a couple of roster moves today, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. They have recalled catcher Miguel Amaya and designated left-hander Ryan Borucki for assignment.

This series of moves was prompted by an injury to Yan Gomes, who was hit in the head by a backswing yesterday and removed in the second inning. That left Tucker Barnhart as the only healthy backstop on the roster, which led the Cubs to call on Amaya.

The 24-year-old has had a long journey to get here, having been signed as an international amateur out of Panama back in 2015. He’s been considered one of the club’s more notable prospects for quite some time, with Baseball America ranking him #2 in the system in 2019. He was added to the club’s 40-man roster at the end of that year in order to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.

The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Amaya only played 23 games in 2021, eventually requiring Tommy John surgery that wiped out a lot of his 2022 as well. Due to those factors, he’s only played 76 minor league games since the end of 2019, missing out on a big chunk of development time.

He’s off to a great start here this year, having hit .273/.411/.659 in 13 Double-A games. The injury to Gomes will give him a chance to skip Triple-A, at least for the moment, and make his major league debut as soon as he’s put into a game. Gomes is still under evaluation, per Montemurro, and the extent of his injury will likely impact how long Amaya is up in the majors.

As for Borucki, he was just selected to the club’s roster on the weekend and now gets designated for assignment without even getting into a game. A former starter with the Blue Jays, he’s converted to relief in recent years with mixed results. He had a 2.70 ERA in 2020 but that jumped to 4.94 and 5.68 in recent years as his strikeout rate dipped in kind, going from 28.8% to 21.4% and 18.9%.

The Cubs will have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers though the interest might be muted given his struggles in recent years. He’s also posted an ERA of 12.00 in Triple-A so far this year. In the event he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency, both on account of having a previous career outright and having more than three years of major league service time.

2023-24 Player Option/Opt-Out Update: April Edition

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Not long ago, any given year in Major League Baseball might have seen a handful of players have player options to decide upon at the end of a season. Opt-out clauses have slowly worked their way into normalcy among contract negotiations, however, and what was once a perk typically reserved for star players has become more commonly used as a means of either sealing a deal with mid-range free agents or in many instances, gaming the luxury tax. Player options are considered guaranteed money, after all, so it’s become common for clubs on the precipice of luxury penalization to negotiate complex player options that tamp down a contract’s average annual value even though they’re unlikely to ever be exercised.

For the purposes of this look around the league, there’s little sense in separating opt-outs from player options. The two are effectively the same, though “opt-out” typically refers to an out clause where there are multiple years remaining on the contract and “player option” generally refers to an individual decision on the forthcoming season. Both are considered guaranteed money for luxury purposes, and both ultimately come down to the player’s preference, risk tolerance, etc.

At their core, opt-out provisions aren’t particularly different from the much longer-accepted club options that teams have negotiated for years. Teams guarantee a certain number of dollars over a certain number of years, and if the player continues performing at a high enough level, they’ll exercise a club option that’s typically locked in at a below-market price. If not, the player will be bought out and sent back to free agency. Player options and opt-outs are merely the inverse; the player/agent negotiate a certain length and annual value but reserve the right to opt back into the market if the player continues to perform at a high level. It’s two sides of the same coin.

There are more players with the opportunity to opt out of their contract this offseason, by way of a one-year player option or a multi-year opt-out, than ever before. As such, we’ll be keeping tabs on these situations throughout the season. Short of a major injury, performance this early in the season isn’t likely to have a major impact on a player’s likelihood of opting out or forgoing that right, but it’s worth listing out which players will have the opportunity, what their contracts look like, and at least taking an early glance at how they’re performing.

Note: All stats through play on Tuesday.

Position Players

  • Tucker Barnhart, C, Cubs ($3.25MM player option): Barnhart’s deal was announced as a two-year, $6.5MM contract, though he also obtained the right to opt out after 2023, effectively rendering 2024 a player option. He’s 5-for-16 with a walk and four strikeouts through just 17 plate appearances as the backup to Yan Gomes. Barnhart got this guarantee on the heels of a dismal .221/.287/.267 showing with the Tigers in 2022, so with even a decent season he’ll have reason to opt out and try his luck again amid a thin group of free-agent catchers.
  • Josh Bell, 1B/DH, Guardians ($16.5MM player option): Bell limped to the finish line with the Padres after being traded over from the Nationals alongside Juan Soto in last summer’s blockbuster, and he hasn’t yet found his footing in 76 plate appearances with the Guardians. It’s a small sample, but Bell’s .203/.316/.344 slash looks quite similar to the .192/.316/.271 he mustered with San Diego in 2022. Bell hit 37 homers in 2019 and 27 in 2021, but he hits the ball on the ground far too often for someone with his power and lack of speed. Only one qualified hitter in MLB (Masataka Yoshida) has a higher ground-ball rate than Bell’s staggering 66.7% mark.
  • Trey Mancini, 1B/OF, Cubs ($7MM player option, if he reaches 350 plate appearances): Like Bell, Mancini saw his offensive production crater following a deadline trade (to the Astros) last summer and has not yet recovered in a new setting. Through 60 plate appearances, he’s hitting just .196/.220/.250. While his contract is a two-year, $14MM deal, Mancini can opt out if he reaches 350 plate appearances (i.e., the second year becomes a player option). He isn’t hitting yet, but Mancini is playing regularly and appears to be trending toward earning that right.
  • Javier Baez, SS, Tigers (can opt out of remaining four years, $98MM): After turning in a tepid .238/.278/.393 batting line in 590 plate appearances during his first season as a Tiger, Baez would need quite the season to walk away from this kind of cash. So far, he’s hitting .193/.254/.246 in 64 trips to the plate, however. When Baez gets hot, he can go on hot streaks for the ages, but he certainly doesn’t look like he’ll be opting out at season’s end.
  • Justin Turner, 3B/DH, Red Sox ($13.4MM player option): Turner hasn’t found his power yet in Boston, but he’s out to a .277/.385/.385 start with nearly as many walks as strikeouts. His $13.4MM player option comes with a hefty $6.7MM buyout. He’ll turn 39 in November, but as long as he hits reasonably well, he should have more earning power than that $6.7MM net decision.
  • Jorge Soler, OF/DH, Marlins ($9MM player option): Soler’s three-year, $36MM deal in Miami pays him $12MM in 2022, $15MM in 2023 and $9MM in 2024, but he had the right to opt out after each season of the deal. He hit just .207/.295/.400 with 13 homers in 306 plate appearances last year, so there was no way he was taking the first opt-out. He’s already clubbed five dingers in 62 plate appearances in 2023. His .263/.323/.649 slash translates to a 155 wRC+, and his exit velocity and hard-hit rate are through the roof, so his .256 average on balls in play should at least hold steady. Soler is an extremely streaky hitter, so time will tell how much of this early heater he can sustain, but there’s plenty to like about his start, including a reduced strikeout rate.
  • Michael Conforto, OF, Giants ($18MM player option, if he reaches 350 plate appearances): As with Mancini, Conforto is on a two-year deal but gains the right to opt out after one year if he reaches 350 plate appearances. You can call it an opt-out or a player option, but it’s the same mechanism; if Conforto is healthy, he’ll likely get the right to opt out. So far, he’s hitting .220/.373/.439 with a trio of homers in 51 trips to the plate. Conforto has walked nine times in those 51 plate appearances (17.6%), and his chase rate is actually down, so he still has good knowledge of the zone. However, a year-long layoff due to shoulder surgery is perhaps making itself known with a 74.5% contact rate on pitches in the strike zone, as that’s nearly 10 percentage points below his career mark of 84%. Unsurprisingly, Conforto’s 31.4% strikeout rate is a career worst. Some rust was inevitable, though, and the plate discipline and hard contact when he has made contact (94.4 mph exit velo, 52.5% hard-hit rate) are encouraging.
  • Matt Carpenter, 1B/DH, Padres ($5.5MM player option): Carpenter’s stunning return with the Yankees last year was one of the best stories of the summer, but he’s out to a sluggish .152/.317/.273 start with the Padres. He’s chasing off the plate at a 30.3% clip after doing so at a 20.7% rate last summer, and his contact rate on swings off the plate has plummeted from 62.5% to 36.4%. It’s a small sample and there’s time to turn things around, of course, but he’s had a tough start.

Pitchers

  • Andrew Heaney, LHP, Dodgers ($13MM player option): Heaney’s first Rangers start was one to forget (seven earned runs), but his second start was dominant, as he tied an AL record by fanning nine consecutive hitters. If Heaney tops 150 innings and doesn’t finish the year with an injury that’d likely keep him out for the first 60-plus innings of the 2024 season, the value of that player option jumps to $20MM. He hasn’t reached 150 innings since 2018.
  • Seth Lugo, RHP, Padres ($7.5MM player option): Lugo’s return to the rotation has been solid. He’s posted a 2.70 ERA through 16 2/3 frames with strikeout and walk ratios that look similar to his numbers out of the bullpen (24.3% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate). It’s anyone’s guess how many innings Lugo will tally after throwing just 228 innings combined from 2019-22, when he was primarily a reliever, but a solid run out of the rotation will position him to turn down that player option in search of a multi-year deal in free agency.
  • Sean Manaea, LHP, Giants ($12.5MM player option): The early ERA isn’t much to look at (4.76 in 11 1/3 innings), but the Giants have Manaea averaging 94.7 mph on his four-seamer. That’s a career-high by a wide margin, as he sat 91.7 mph on a now-scrapped sinker in 2021-22 and 91.1 mph on his four-seamer in 2017-20. Any major velocity gain of this nature is worth keeping an eye on.
  • Nick Martinez, RHP, Padres (team has two-year, $32MM club option; if declined, Martinez has two-year, $16MM player option): Martinez’s strikeout rate, walk rate, home-run rate and velocity have all gone the wrong direction through his first three starts. It’s just 17 2/3 innings, so it could be rendered a footnote if he rebounds and the Padres pick up their hefty option on the righty. Still, it’s not the start he or the Padres wanted.
  • Eduardo Rodriguez, LHP, Tigers (can opt out remaining three years, $49MM): E-Rod hasn’t missed bats anywhere near his Boston levels since signing with the Tigers. The lefty still showed good command both in 2022 and so far in 2023, but his 8.7% swinging-strike rate and 20.4% strikeout rate are well shy of the respective 11.6% and 26% marks he posted in his final four years with the Red Sox. Rodriguez’s velocity in 2023 is back up after a slight dip in 2022, but if he can’t get back to missing bats at his prior levels it’ll be an easy call for him to forego that opt-out provision.
  • Max Scherzer, RHP, Mets ($43.333MM player option): Scherzer hasn’t gotten out to his best start, but he posted a 2.29 ERA with gaudy strikeout and walk rates (30.6% and 4.2%) in 145 1/3 frames with the Mets in 2022. He was at the center of controversy after being ejected from today’s start after failing a foreign substance check, though that’s not likely to have any effect on his opt-out decision. Scherzer has already suggested that his opt-out was negotiated in part to ensure that he’d have an opportunity to look elsewhere if the Mets didn’t remain fully committed to winning. That hasn’t been the case under owner Steve Cohen, who’s currently financing the largest payroll and luxury-tax bill in MLB history.
  • Ross Stripling, RHP, Giants ($12.5MM player option): Stripling has been ambushed for 10 runs in his first 12 1/3 innings of work and had been set to operate primarily out of the bullpen before the injury to Alex Wood. It’s not a great start considering the weighty $25MM guarantee on his deal, but he has time to turn things around. A stunning six of the 13 fly-balls Stripling has yielded in 2023 have cleared the fence for a home run, and that rate will surely stabilize over a larger sample. Still, if he’s relegated to long-relief duty for too long, it’ll become difficult for him to even consider his opt-out.
  • Marcus Stroman, RHP, Cubs ($21MM player option): Stroman took a rather atypical contract structure for a 31-year-old free agent, inking a three-year guarantee at a premium annual value with an opt-out after year two. It’s more common to see pitchers that age push for the longest deal possible, but it might work out in Stroman’s favor. He’ll bank $50MM through the contract’s first two seasons, and after a nice 2022 season (3.50 ERA, 3.74 SIERA in 138 2/3 innings), he’s come roaring out of the gates with a 0.75 ERA and vastly improved 26.9% strikeout rate through his first 24 frames. Stroman’s walk rate is also up, and it’s all a small sample for now anyway, but it’s a promising start all the same. He’ll turn 33 in 2024, and if he continues anywhere near the pace he’s set since 2019 (3.15  ERA in 520 innings), he should have no problem topping that $21MM in free agency. He’ll also be ineligible for a qualifying offer, having already received one earlier in his career.
  • Michael Wacha, RHP, Padres (two-year, $32MM club option; if declined, Wacha has $6.5MM player option and $6MM player options in 2025-26): Wacha’s four-year, $26MM deal was effectively just the Padres manipulating the luxury tax by meeting Wacha’s price tag on a multi-year deal but spreading out the term to tamp down the AAV. Wacha’s total guarantee is the type of money one might’ve expected him to land over a two- or perhaps three-year term. By spreading it to four, the Padres could end up avoiding the third luxury-tax bracket. Wacha has a 6.06 ERA through three starts and posted an ERA of 4.76 or worse each season from 2019-21. If he can wind up replicating his strong 2022 results, the Padres might consider picking up their end of the option, but the likelier scenario is that they decline, leaving Wacha with a remaining three years and $19MM, but opt-outs after each season.
  • Chad Green, RHP, Blue Jays (three-year, $27MM club option; if declined, Green has $6.25MM player option; if both decline, team has two-year, $21MM option): Green may have the most convoluted contract of the entire free-agent class. That’s reflective both of his considerable talent and the broad range of outcomes as he works back from last May’s Tommy John surgery. We won’t know have an inkling of how this’ll play out until at least the summer, as Green needs to finish off his rehab. If he can return to peak form (1.83 ERA, 40.7% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate) for three or so months down the stretch, perhaps the Jays would actually consider the three-year, $27MM option. But that’s premium setup man money, and Green will be coming back from a year-long absence with a major surgery on his recent resume. He’ll have a $6.25MM player option if that three-year team option is declined, and that seems far more plausible. The two-year, $21MM option if both parties decline their first options feels only slightly more viable than the Jays’ original 3/27 decision.

Cubs Designate Clint Frazier For Assignment

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The Cubs announced a series of roster moves to reporters, including Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Lefty Wade Miley, catcher Yan Gomes and infielder Jonathan Villar have all been reinstated from the injured list, while righty Chris Martin has been reinstated from the restricted list, which he joined after being on the bereavement list beyond the seven-day minimum. To make room for those four players, righty Marcus Stroman was placed on the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation, first baseman/outfielder Alfonso Rivas and righty Michael Rucker have been optioned, while outfielder Clint Frazier has been designated for assignment. The DFA of Frazier opens a spot on both the active and 40-man rosters for Martin.

Selected fifth overall by Cleveland in the 2013 draft, Frazier was a highly-touted prospect as he rose through the minors, eventually headlining the Yankees’ return when they traded Andrew Miller at the 2016 deadline. Frazier showed plenty of signs of his potential while wearing pinstripes, especially in 2020. During that pandemic-shortened season, he played 39 games and hit a tremendous .267/.394/.511 for a wRC+ of 149. Unfortunately, he underwent a miserable 2021 campaign where he hit just .186/.317/.317, 82 wRC+, and didn’t play after July due to vertigo-like symptoms.

After the season, the Yankees designated him for assignment, with Frazier then signing with the Cubs. The one-year contract came with a $1.5MM base salary and $1MM of incentives, though the Cubs would also be able to keep him around for another couple of seasons through arbitration. However, it now seems they are moving on after just a couple of months.

Frazier missed some time this year due to appendicitis and has only gotten into 19 games on the year so far. In that time, he’s hit .216/.356/.297. That unbalanced line is thanks to a 15.6% walk rate but no home runs on the year. All told, that adds up to a wRC+ of 95, which is 5% below league average but hardly disastrous. Given that he’s still just 27 years old and comes with prospect pedigree and a track record of some MLB success, he’s sure to find another opportunity elsewhere. The Cubs will have a week to work out a trade or put him on waivers.

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