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Padres To Sign Drew Pomeranz

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Nov. 30: Rosenthal adds that Pomeranz’s $8MM signing bonus is deferred and will be paid between November 2020 and November 2023.

Nov. 27, 4:02pm: Pomeranz received an $8MM signing bonus and will be paid annual salaries of $4MM in 2020, $6MM in 2021 and $8MM in 2022-23, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter).

1:54pm: Pomeranz will be guaranteed $34MM over a four-year term, pending a physical, Murray tweets.

1:20pm: Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Pomeranz has been promised a rather stunning four-year guarantee (Twitter link). Robert Murray adds that it’ll pay him $8-9MM annually.

10:20am: The Padres have struck a deal with free agent lefty Drew Pomeranz, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). The signing of the CAA client adds to what is quickly becoming a barn-burner of a day for the Friars, who have already struck a four-player swap with the Brewers.

Drew Pomeranz | Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports

Details remain unknown, but it seems fair to guess the southpaw has done quite well for himself — likely on a multi-year pact — in a surprise return to San Diego. The 31-year-old had an excellent, but brief run with the organization back in 2016 before being flipped to the Red Sox in a trade for then-top prospect Anderson Espinoza. Pomeranz has had some ups and downs as a starting pitcher since that time, but he finished the ’19 season riding high in a return to a relief setting.

Just a few months ago, the notion of Pomeranz being considered a top-tier free agent would’ve seemed unthinkable. He’d been booted from a pedestrian Giants rotation after posting a 5.97 ERA through 18 starts, but Pomeranz morphed into one of baseball’s most dominant bullpen weapons down the stretch. In 28 relief appearances, he not only posted a 1.88 ERA but also punched out a staggering 50 of the 106 batters he faced (47.2 percent). The Brewers were clearly intrigued by Pomeranz’s early work out of the ’pen, acquiring him and flamethrower Ray Black in a deadline swap that sent infield prospect Mauricio Dubon to San Francisco.

The addition of Pomeranz will give the Padres a dynamic back-end bullpen duo, as he’ll team with right-hander Kirby Yates, who has emerged as one of baseball’s premier relievers since joining the Padres via waiver claim early in the 2017 season. Yates figures to continue handling ninth-inning duties, with Pomeranz serving as a top setup man, although today’s signing does give the San Diego organization even greater flexibility to shop Yates around as he enters his final year of club control. That said, the Padres have made a clear shift toward more of a win-now ideology after a grueling rebuild, and the Yates/Pomeranz pairing unequivocally makes them more formidable.

Quick Hits: Mariners, Narvaez, Stewart, Padres, Pomeranz

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Shake off your tryptophan coma with a few quick bursts of baseball-related action…

  • The availability of catcher Omar Narvaez in trade talks can be directly linked to the Mariners’ recent extension with first base prospect Evan White, suggests Greg Johns of MLB.com (link). While that may seem like a logical leap at first glance, White’s forthcoming presence on the club’s major league roster should allow GM Jerry Dipoto to utilize Austin Nola as a backup catcher. Nola, a catcher by trade, was mostly used in combination with Daniel Vogelbach at first last season. Johns also notes that the club’s recent signing of Patrick Wisdom, though minor in nature, gives the club yet another option at first in the event of an injury to White. As explored earlier, the bat-first Narvaez should only look more appealing as a trade target as this offseason progresses; as of Friday, open market catchers Yasmani Grandal, Travis d’Arnaud, Tyler Flowers, and Yan Gomes have all been spoken for.
  • Carter Stewart’s foray into the Nippon Professional Baseball ranks is covered in a recent profile from Jim Halley of Baseball America, with several interesting notes on the youngster’s on-and-off-field adjustments in Japan. Beyond the obvious cultural adjustments that a nineteen-year-old American would face in moving to Japan, Matt Skrmetta, a scout with Stewart’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, relays that the right-hander is currently adapting to the league’s more contact-oriented hitters.  For those who may not remember, the 6’6 Stewart was originally the 8th overall draft pick of the Braves in 2018, although a longstanding wrist injury led the club to only offer him a signing bonus at less than half of the pick’s $4.98MM slot value. The righty spurned that offer and spent a year pitching in the JuCo ranks before a lack of interest at the top of the 2019 draft led Fukuoka to come calling with an unprecedented long-term deal.
  • For the time being, the Padres are penciling in Drew Pomeranz and Kirby Yates as their back-end bullpen options, conveys The Athletic’s Dennis Lin in a recent mailbag. While there were Twitter rumblings this week that Pomeranz’s acquisition only made an offseason trade of Yates more likely, Lin notes that an extension with the 32-year-old Hawaiian is still an entirely plausible scenario. For what it’s worth, Pomeranz and Yates compiled 89.1 innings of a combined 1.41 ERA as relievers last year, potentially setting San Diego out with a thoroughly effective–if pricey–backend. MLBTR projects Yates to receive a $6.5MM award in a final pass through arb, while Pomeranz’s deal included an $8MM signing bonus in advance of a $4MM 2020 salary.

Quick Hits: Jays, Gibson, Padres, Quiroz

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After you get your turkey in the oven, feel free to check in on a few notes from around baseball.

  • The Blue Jays made an offer to right-hander Kyle Gibson before he signed with the Rangers, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. It’s unclear exactly how much Toronto was willing to put on the table, but it was presumably less than the $30MM over three years Gibson got to head to Texas. With Gibson off the market, the Jays now have to look elsewhere to fill out an uncertain rotation mix. That figures to include at least one free agent on a short-term deal, Davidi notes, and Toronto has to this point cast a wide net in its quest for starters. Not getting Gibson could also spur the Jays to work out an agreement with Matt Shoemaker, Davidi adds. The team has been discussing a deal with the arbitration-eligible righty in advance of Monday’s non-tender deadline.
  • The Padres brought in a noteworthy outfielder and reliever in separate moves yesterday. Even after acquiring Trent Grisham and Drew Pomeranz (as well as starter Zach Davies), the Friars could be on the hunt for additional outfield and bullpen depth, per Peter Gammons of the Athletic (via Twitter). Second base, too, stands as a target area, which makes sense considering the Padres parted with Luis Urías to acquire Grisham and Davies. Whatever will be addressed first, there’s “more to come” in San Diego, one Padres executive tells Gammons.
  • While the Padres figure to look externally for second basemen, they do have some internal options who remain in the mix. Ian Kinsler is still on hand, although he’s coming off a disappointing season. One under-the-radar name to monitor is Esteban Quiroz, as Jon Paul Morosi of MLB Network adds (via Twitter) that his presence in the organization played some role in the team’s comfort parting with Urías. Soon to turn 28, Quiroz is atypically old for a prospect. However, he had a long track record of above-average production in the Mexican League before entering the affiliated ranks in 2018 with the Red Sox. The Padres acquired Quiroz in a minor trade just over a year ago, and he continued to show well in the high minors. In 366 plate appearances with AAA El Paso last season, Quiroz slashed .271/.384/.539. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel wrote in May that Quiroz “has a chance” to be an everyday-caliber second baseman.

MLBTR Poll: Grading The Brewers/Padres Trade

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Yesterday, the Brewers and Padres linked up on an interesting four-player swap. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd discussed the players involved in the immediate aftermath of the deal, but it’s worth pondering a little further.

San Diego sent middle infielder Luis Urías and left-hander Eric Lauer to Milwaukee in exchange for outfielder Trent Grisham and right-hander Zach Davies. It’s the rare swap involving four current MLB players, three of whom have yet to even reach arbitration. Unlike many deals where a current contender trades future value to a rebuilding club to upgrade the roster in the short-term, this swap hinges mostly on the talent of the players involved. As Padres GM A.J. Preller put it (via MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell), “sometimes, there are deals because of salary issues. Sometimes, there are deals because someone’s getting toward free agency, because clubs are contending or not contending. In this case, it’s just a good baseball trade.”

For the most part, the deal turns on which of Urías and Grisham one prefers. Each has been a top 50 overall prospect in the past, per Baseball America, but Urías entered 2019 as the more acclaimed of the two. Grisham had a breakout season in the high minors last year, with a cumulative .300/.407/.603 slash in 441 plate appearances between AA and AAA before making his MLB debut in August. Urías, too, mashed in AAA last season (.315/.398/.600 in 339 PA), but scuffled in limited big league action. Grisham was a bit better in his small sample of MLB time, even if a misplay in right field in the NL Wild Card game ended the season on a sour note.

Of course, that one play was not the reason Milwaukee pulled the trigger on this deal, as Brewers GM David Stearns told reporters (including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). On the whole, reviews of Grisham’s defense in the corner outfield tend to be positive, even if, despite 93rd percentile sprint speed, he’s not viewed by many public outlets as a long-term option in center. Urías offers more defensive value as a middle infielder, although reviews tend to be mixed on him at shortstop, where he figures to play in Milwaukee with Keston Hiura locking down the keystone.

It’s a bit tougher to get too excited over the pitchers involved, although both are certainly useful big leaguers. Davies has the stronger bottom line results, with a 3.91 career ERA and an even better 3.55 mark in 159.2 innings in 2019. He’s never posted a 20% strikeout rate or a 10% swinging strike rate in a full season, though, and the soft-tossing contact manager has generally fallen out of favor in today’s game. Lauer’s profile isn’t dramatically different. His strikeout and walk rates are higher than Davies’ but each is lower than average. Lauer, though, hasn’t had the success Davies has had to this point keeping runs off the board. Davies is more expensive ($5MM arbitration projection) and comes with three fewer seasons of team control, but neither hurler figures to threaten either team’s bottom line moving forward.

How would you grade this deal for both teams?

First, Milwaukee..

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And San Diego…

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Padres Designate Pedro Avila, Announce Drew Pomeranz Signing

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The Padres announced that they’ve designated right-hander Pedro Avila for assignment. His exit will make room for the signing of left-hander Drew Pomeranz, whose deal is now official.

The 22-year-old Avila made his major league debut in 2019, throwing 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball in a start against the Diamondbacks in April, but that’s his only MLB appearance to date. He also combined for just 24 innings among three minor league levels this past season, and saw his year come to an early end in late August when he underwent Tommy John surgery. As a result, Avila won’t factor in much (if at all) in the majors or minors next season.

Prior to his surgery, Avila was considered a promising prospect for the Padres, as FanGraphs ranked him 28th in a loaded San Diego farm system back in May. But Avila’s pro experience has largely been limited to High-A ball, where he has put up a 4.45 ERA with 10.1 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 174 innings.

Padres, Brewers Agree To Four-Player Trade

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2:00pm: The Brewers have formally announced the deal. They’ll also receive a player to be named later or cash from the Padres, per a team press release.

9:57am: The Padres and Brewers have broken open a quiet trade market with an interesting swap of young big leaguers. Outfielder Trent Grisham and righty Zach Davies are heading to San Diego, with second baseman Luis Urias and southpaw Eric Lauer going to Milwaukee in exchange.

This is a rare need-for-need, value-for-value trade. For the Friars, Grisham could pair with Manuel Margot in center field and ultimately move to a corner spot when top prospect Taylor Trammell is ready. Both he and Urias have debuted but not yet accrued a full season of MLB service. Meanwhile, Davies will represent a sturdy rotation piece. He’s projected to earn $5.0MM in his second-to-last season of team control.

On the other side, the Brewers now appear to have a double-play partner for Keston Hiura. Indications are that the club will utilize Urias at shortstop. Whether there’s still room for Orlando Arcia remains to be seen. The 24-year-old Lauer could deliver solid innings for years to come. While he’s not as established as Davies, the southpaw has shown well early in his career and remains under control through the 2024 season.

For the most part, 2019 was a bit of a dream season for Grisham. The former first-rounder finally turned the corner at the plate, raking in the upper minors (.300/.407/.603) to earn his way up to the majors.

Grisham ended up seeing significant time in the big leagues for the postseason-qualifying Brewers. He wasn’t exactly an instant star, but turned in a palatable .231/.328/.410 slash in 183 plate appearances while contributing highly graded defense. Unfortunately, the season ended on a sour note, as Grisham committed a costly error that cemented the Brewers’ Wild Card meltdown.

It feels funny to treat Davies as a secondary piece in this deal; that’s certainly not the case. Still just 26 years of age, he spun 159 2/3 innings of 3.55 ERA ball last year. True, Davies wasn’t exposed often to lineups for a third time. And there’s probably some good fortune embedded in those results. Davies will never be much of a strikeout pitcher, with a career K rate of 6.4 per nine. But he has proven over the years that he can produce good results despite his limitations, with a 3.91 ERA in 614 1/3 career innings.

In Urias, the Brewers see a compelling young hitter that just hasn’t quite found his footing in the majors. He’s just 22 years of age and carries a .305/.403/.511 slash over 887 Triple-A plate appearances. Urias has succeeded largely with his strong plate discipline (108 walks, 172 strikeouts) and excellent bat-to-ball skills. But there’s a bit of pop in the bat as well, as he has 28 long balls during his time at the highest level of the minors.

That said, there are some questions — there’s a reason that Urias has spent so much time at Triple-A while some other Padres players have breezed through and never returned. The initial MLB returns were tepid. Urias owns a .221/.318/.331 batting line in 302 plate appearances in the bigs. It seems reasonable to suppose he’ll improve upon that, but to what extent remains to be seen.

There are also some questions whether Urias can handle the shortstop position with sufficient aplomb at the game’s highest level. He spent the majority of his time in the minors at second base and has graded better there than at short in his limited MLB time at both spots. But the Brew Crew has been willing to rely upon its infield placement to help cover up any range issues.

It’d be easy to lose sight of Lauer here, but he’s a notable asset in his own right. The former first-rounder has thrown 261 2/3 MLB innings over the past two seasons, working to a cumulative 4.40 ERA. Nothing jumps off the page about him — 8.2 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 38.9% groundball rate, 1.20 HR/9 — but he could bring steady innings at a cheap rate. The Brewers will likely plan to utilize Lauer in a somewhat flexible role to maximize his utility, as they have other hurlers that might not quite warrant traditional starter usage.

Jon Morosi of MLB.com (Twitter link) broke the deal, with Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter) and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link) adding key details.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Kazuhisa Makita Signs With Rakuten Golden Eagles

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Right-handed hurler Kazuhisa Makita is heading back to his native Japan. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have announced his signing.

Makita jumped the Pacific in 2017-18, landing a two-year deal with the Padres. While he was able to generate quite a few more strikeouts in the majors (9.5 per nine) than he averaged over his prior tenure in Japan (5.0), the submariner was also prone to the long ball and surrendered a 5.40 ERA over 35 innings in his debut campaign.

While the Friars lost their bet that Makita’s low-eighties sinker would sufficiently befuddle MLB hitters, he was quite effective last year in the upper minors. In 70 1/3 frames across 43 Double-A and Triple-A appearances, he worked to a 3.33 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9. The showing did not convince the San Diego organization to give him another crack at the majors.

Now, Makita will attempt to pick up where he left off in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. But he’ll do so with a rival of his former team. Before coming to the bigs, Makita had compiled 921 1/3 innings of 2.83 ERA pitching over seven seasons with the Seibu Lions.

Reds Acquire Justin Shafer, Nick Martini

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The Reds have announced a series of additions to their 40-man roster. Righty Justin Shafer comes over via trade from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations. The Cincinnati club has also claimed outfielder Nick Martini off waivers from the Padres.

To create 40-man roster space, the Reds designated outfielder Brian O’Grady and righty Jimmy Herget for assignment. They’ll be in DFA limbo for up to ten days.

Shafer was just designated himself, but drew enough interest to land on a 40-man roster and even generate a bit of a trade return. The 27-year-old, a former eighth-round pick, worked to a 3.86 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9 in 39 2/3 innings last year with the Jays.

There are some things to like here. Shafer averaged close to 95 mph with his heater and drew swings and misses on nearly a twelve percent of his MLB pitches. He was even more effective — 3.52 ERA, 35:8 K/BB ratio — in 30 2/3 frames in the tough International League.

If he can hold onto the roster spot, Shafer figures to compete for a role in camp. Martini could also be a candidate for a reserve gig in Cincinnati, depending upon what other moves the team ends up making.

Martini struggled last year in limited opportunities with the A’s and Padres. But the left-handed hitter had posted a strong .296/.397/.414 batting line over his first 179 MLB plate appearances in 2018. And Martini was quite tough on Pacific Coast League hurlers last year, recording nearly as many walks as strikeouts and generating a .328/.432/.482 output over 329 plate appearances at Triple-A.

Padres Hire Ryan Flaherty As Quality Control Coach

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The Padres have hired longtime utilityman Ryan Flaherty as their new quality control coach, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (Twitter link).  The news would seem to indicate that the 33-year-old Flaherty has decided to retire after eight Major League seasons.

As Olney notes, Flaherty will join Bobby Dickerson and Wayne Kirby as members of San Diego’s coaching staff with ties to Manny Machado.  Dickerson and Kirby were both longtime coaches with the Orioles when Machado played for the club, while Flaherty and Machado are ex-teammates.

Drafted 41st overall by the Cubs in 2008, Flaherty never suited up for the organization, as the Orioles selected him during the 2011 Rule 5 Draft.  He made his big league debut and appeared in 77 games for the O’s the next season, kicking off a six-year stint as as important and versatile member of Baltimore’s bench.

Flaherty was able to play all over the field for the Orioles, spending most of his time at second or third base and posting plus grades (as per UZR/150 and Defensive Runs Saved) for his career glovework at both positions.  Flaherty also saw significant action at shortstop, first base, and both corner outfield slots, plus he even tossed an inning of mop-up relief work during an August 2016 game.

With only a .215/.284/.345 slash line and 37 home runs over 1474 career plate appearances, Flaherty wasn’t known much for his bat, though he took some nice swings during Baltimore’s playoff runs in 2012 and 2014.  Over those two Octobers, Flaherty posted an .830 OPS and two homers over 36 PA.  Flaherty is the first player born in Maine to ever hit a home run in an MLB postseason game.

Flaherty spent his last two seasons with the Braves in 2018 (reaching the postseason again), and then with the Indians last season, spending much of the year at Triple-A Columbus and appearing in only 14 games with the Tribe.  He’ll hang up his glove after 547 MLB games over eight seasons, and just over $6.71MM in career earnings, as per Baseball Reference.  We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Flaherty on his career and wish him the best as he moves into the coaching ranks.

Latest On Zack Wheeler

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The White Sox made the biggest splash of the young free agency season on Thursday, signing the best catcher available, Yasmani Grandal, to a long-term contract. The four-year, $73MM guarantee the White Sox handed Grandal stands as the largest deal in franchise history, but it might not be long before the team doles out an even richer pact. The White Sox remain among those after free-agent right-hander Zack Wheeler, per reports from Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Jon Morosi of MLB.com (video link) and Andy Martino of SNY. They first showed interest in Wheeler well before signing Grandal.

If MLBTR’s five-year, $100MM prediction proves accurate, Wheeler could become the first nine-figure player in White Sox history. The longtime Met and former Tommy John surgery patient made a case for that type of payday during the previous two seasons with 8.9 fWAR over 377 2/3 innings, thereby putting three straight injury-ruined years behind him. Along the way, Wheeler recorded a terrific 3.65 ERA/3.37 FIP with 8.91 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 and averaged a blazing 96.8 mph on his four-seam fastball.

Now, should Wheeler end up on the South Side of Chicago, he’d give the club at least two frontline-caliber starters from the get-go. Although 2019 was yet another dismal season in the standings for the White Sox, they did see Lucas Giolito emerge as a star atop their rotation. And Giolito’s hardly the lone promising starter on hand, as Chicago also boasts Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease. Meanwhile, Michael Kopech could factor into the club’s rotation from the outset of next season after missing 2018 because of a Tommy John procedure, and fellow TJ patient Carlos Rodon figures to return at some point in 2020.

Considering the 29-year-old Wheeler is the third-best starter on the open market, trailing only Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, there’s predictably substantial interest in him so far. The Angels, Padres and Twins are also among those who have been connected to him thus far. Anybody that signs Wheeler will have to surrender draft compensation, as he rejected a $17.8MM qualifying offer from the Mets a week ago. The White Sox and Angels would each give up their second-highest pick in 2020 and $500K of their international signing bonus pool, while the Padres and Twins would lose their third-highest selection.

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