- Former big league righty Barry Enright is heading back to a MLB organization, taking a minors deal with the Padres, as Chris Jackson of MiLB.com reported on Twitter. Enright had been pitching for the Mexican League’s Tijuana Toros (and also spent time with the Hermosillo organization in 2015). He joined MLBTR’s podcast at the outset of that stint, and went on to turn in two productive seasons as a starter in Mexico. In 2016, Enright pitched to a 3.19 ERA with 5.2 K/9 and 1.1 BB/9 over 127 frames. Also signing on with San Diego, per Jackson, is outfielder Nick Buss. The 30-year-old appeared in 36 MLB games last year for the Angels, but hit just .198/.247/.346. He did have a productive year at Triple-A, however, slashing .290/.345/.462 in his 372 plate appearances.
Padres Rumors
Latest On Padres' Rotation
- The Padres offered Jered Weaver more than the $1.75MM that they guaranteed to each of Jhoulys Chacin, Trevor Cahill and Clayton Richard, but whatever sum they offered didn’t get the job done. San Diego still “clearly” is looking for someone to lead an uncertain rotation, though, Heyman writes. As it stands, the starting five for manager Andy Green will be a competition between Richard, Cahill, Chacin, Luis Perdomo, Christian Friedrich, Paul Clemens, Tyrell Jenkins and Cesar Vargas. Jake Peavy would still love to land back in San Diego, per Heyman, though he “may be further down [the Padres’] list.”
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NL Notes: Straily, Marlins, Padres, Nationals/Wieters
Parting with righty Dan Straily wasn’t particularly easy for the Reds, who surely valued the cheap innings he might have provided, but as GM Dick Williams explains and MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon reports, the team finally found an offer it couldn’t say no to from the Marlins. Per Williams, the team “identified some of [the acquired prospects] as guys we were absolutely targeting,” informing Miami “that we wouldn’t go forward if we couldn’t get access to those guys.” While the Fish initially declined, says Williams, they steadily upped their offer over a span of several months. While the team wasn’t keen to give up Straily, Williams says it “just couldn’t pass on” the chance to add “impact talent” in the form of right-handers Luis Castillo and Austin Brice along with outfielder Isaiah White.
Here are a few more notes out of the National League:
- The Marlins’ stockpiling of arms this winter — including, most recently, the acquisition of Straily — may result in atypical pitcher usage patterns, president of baseball operations Michael Hill says (via Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, on Twitter). Miami may look to rely heavily on what it considers to be a deep pen, Hill suggested. “There may be situations where the starter is out in the fourth or the fifth, and a bridge guy takes you to the sixth, and you’ve got a setup man in the seventh and the eighth, and a closer in the ninth,” he explained, dubbing the expected approach “non-traditional.”
- Another team that has already added a few hurlers, the Padres, could still be in the market for more, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com (via Twitter). It’s not considered a major need, though, as the club intends to open up the team’s five rotation spots to as many as nine possible competitors this spring.
- It has long been debated whether the Nationals will (and should) pursue free-agent catcher Matt Wieters, whose market has seemingly languished. Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post updates the situation from the Nats’ perspective, noting that there may be some truth to the chatter that the front office hasn’t yet been given the green light to spend more heavily. But while there may be some posturing at play, it also seems that the team just isn’t all that interested in Wieters. Janes writes that “the Nationals have never been particularly high on Wieters internally … and harbor concerns about his defense and his health.”
Padres Designate Jabari Blash
The Padres have designated outfielder Jabari Blash for assignment, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Twitter links). His roster spot will go to righty Trevor Cahill, whose previously reported signing is now official.
Blash, 27, has long been an intriguing talent. He struggled in limited MLB opportunities last year, though he has continued to thrive in the upper minors. In 646 total plate appearances at the Triple-A level, he owns a .246/.364/.550 batting line with 45 home runs.
San Diego had taken Blash in the Rule 5 draft, but couldn’t hold him on the major league roster after his tepid start to the year. The club ultimately acquired his rights permanently via trade, but evidently doesn’t see him as a likely part of the 2017 outfield mix. The Friars have a host of other interesting, largely inexperienced players set to vie for playing time this spring.
[RELATED: Updated Padres Depth Chart]
As for Cahill, you can read more about his deal here. It’s for $1.75MM, and Lin notes that there are also incentives. The particular bonuses available depend upon whether he is utilized as a starter or a reliever, which will presumably be sorted out this spring (and as the season progresses).
Padres Extend Wil Myers
It’s been an eventful two years for Padres fans, and while the organization is in the midst of a rebuilding phase, San Diego locked up its most important player on Tuesday, announcing a six-year extension for first baseman Wil Myers. The new contract is the largest in Padres history and will reportedly guarantee Myers a total of $83MM. The Padres will also pick up an option for the 2023 season, giving them a potential seven years of control over Myers, who is represented by CAA Baseball.
Myers, 26, will reportedly receive a hefty $15MM signing bonus and will earn a $2MM salary in each of the next two seasons. He’ll then earn $3MM in 2019 and $20MM from 2020-22. The club option for the 2023 season is valued at $20MM and comes with a $1MM buyout.
[Related: Updated San Diego Padres Payroll Outlook]
The new contract covers Myers’ remaining three years of arbitration eligibility and locks in three would-be free agent years (while also providing an option for a fourth). Entering his first trip through the arb process, Myers was projected to earn $4.7MM by MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz. Instead, he’ll take home a much heftier stack of cash in exchange to contractual rights through his age-32 season.
The total package falls well shy of the top recent comparable: Freddie Freeman’s eight-year, $135MM deal with the Braves. Both players were in the three-plus service bracket and were projected for similar first-year arb salaries at the times of their deals. Of course, Freeman’s deal also covered two additional free-agent-eligible campaigns, so Myers figures to have an earlier chance to test the open market.
In total guarantee, this contract would fall closer to the recent agreement between the Giants and Brandon Belt. That deal promised Belt — a four-plus service-class player who signed his new deal right at the start of the 2016 season — $72.8MM over five years. If you include his 2016 arb salary in the total, it worked out to a six-year, $79MM package.
Myers, long considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball, put it all together in 2016 for the Padres, who gave up Trea Turner and Joe Ross to acquire him in a three-team blockbuster before the prior campaign. After two injury-shortened seasons, Myers compiled 676 plate appearances and batted a healthy .259/.336/.461 while providing 28 home runs and 28 stolen bases. That garnered the former Rookie of the Year his first All-Star nod. With quality glovework and outstanding overall baserunning mixed in, Myers was worth 3.8 fWAR and 3.2 rWAR on the year.
From a payroll standpoint, the Padres can more than afford to lock Myers into a long-term deal of this magnitude. The only other player on the current roster with a guaranteed contract that extends beyond the upcoming 2017 season is infielder Yangervis Solarte, who also recently inked a new contract with the Friars (two years, $7.5MM plus a pair of club options). The remainder of San Diego’s guaranteed deals are all one-year contracts, which should position the Padres to explore long-term extensions with other key young contributors as they emerge. Beyond that, the Padres will be well-positioned to take advantage of improved free-agent crops both next winter and especially following the 2018 campaign.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that a deal was close and floated a roughly $80MM figure (via Twitter). Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweeted that there was a “basic agreement” that would guarantee Myers $83MM. Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune reported the annual breakdown as well as Myers’ assignment bonus in the event of a trade (Twitter links).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres To Sign Trevor Cahill
MONDAY: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Padres will indeed sign Cahill to a one-year deal worth $1.75MM. Cahill had interest elsewhere as a reliever but passed on those opportunities for a chance to work out of the rotation in San Diego, he adds.
Cahill can earn up to $1MM in total incentives, per Heyman (via Twitter). There’s also a $250K trade bonus in the deal.
SATURDAY: Cahill still needs to take his physical to complete his deal with the Padres, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. First, though, he’ll travel to the White House to celebrate the Cubs’ World Series victory with the rest of his old team.
FRIDAY 8:50am: Cahill’s deal, if completed, will come with a guarantee in the vicinity of the $1.75MM guarantees received by Richard and Chacin, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Richard’s deal came with additional incentives based on games started, and it’s possible that Cahill could be eyeing a similar setup.
7:17am: The Padres are closing in on a contract with right-hander Trevor Cahill, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune. The 28-year-old is expected to be given the opportunity to win a job in the rotation, according to Lin.
A second-round pick by the A’s back in 2006, Cahill reached the Majors as a 21-year-old in 2009 and by 2011 had inked a five-year, $30.5MM contract with Oakland on the heels of a 2.97 ERA across 196 2/3 innings in his sophomore season. From 2010-13, Cahill pitched like a solid mid-rotation arm for the A’s and the Diamondbacks (following a trade), logging a 3.72 ERA and averaging 30 starts and 188 innings per season. While he was never a prolific strikeout pitcher (6.3 K/9 in that successful stretch), Cahill routinely ranked among the league-leaders in ground-ball rate, mitigating some of the lack of strikeouts.
Cahill’s career looked to be headed in the wrong direction a couple of years ago, though, as he experienced a rapid decline with the D-backs and pitched poorly enough to be released by the Braves following a 2015 trade. However, he reinvented himself as a reliever in the Cubs’ bullpen late in the 2015 season and pitched quite well with Chicago in a bullpen role again in 2016. In the past two seasons with the Cubs, Cahill has worked to 2.61 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and a 57.4 percent ground-ball rate. Given his youth — Cahill is still just 28 (29 in March) despite being an established name for quite some time — there’s plenty of reason to believe that he can return to form.
ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported back in December that Cahill’s preference was to land somewhere that came with an opportunity to return to the rotation, and his strong relief work with the Cubs was enough to convince the Padres to make that offer, it seems. He’ll join a muddled rotation picture that has little in the way of clarity in San Diego.
Right-hander Luis Perdomo’s solid second half in 2016 likely earned him a spot in the 2017 rotation, and lefty Christian Friedrich appears poised for a rotation spot despite struggling in the final three months of the 2016 campaign. San Diego also re-signed left-hander Clayton Richard with an eye toward returning him to the rotation following a successful nine-start stint (2.41 ERA) to finish out the year. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, too, signed a low-cost one-year deal with the Padres this winter and figures to be in the rotation mix, as does right-hander Paul Clemens, who fared well in a dozen starts with San Diego late last year.
Also in San Diego’s rotation competition will be right-hander Jarred Cosart, who has struggled in the past two seasons and underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow following the 2016 campaign. Waiver claim and former top prospect Tyrell Jenkins could also get a look in Spring Training despite struggling in his MLB debut and in Triple-A last season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today’s Sports Images.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: Saturday
The filing deadline was yesterday, but deals to avoid arbitration continue to trickle in. Here are the latest contracts from around the league.
- The Padres have agreed to deals with lefties Christian Friedrich for $1.79MM and Brad Hand for $1.375MM, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. Both pitchers have three-plus years of service and are going through the arbitration process for the first time. The 29-year-old Friedrich joined the Padres on a minor-league deal prior to the 2016 season and posted a 4.80 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over 129 1/3 innings. Despite those somewhat unimpressive numbers, the Padres elected to tender him a contract, perhaps thinking of the lack of depth in their 2017 rotation. MLBTR projected he would receive $2MM through the arbitration process this season. The 26-year-old Hand arrived in San Diego in April via a waiver claim and was very useful out of the bullpen, with a 2.92 ERA, 11.2 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 in a league-leading 82 appearances. MLBTR projected he would make $1.4MM in 2017, landing very close to his actual salary.
Padres Sign Yangervis Solarte To Two-Year Deal
SATURDAY: Solarte will receive a $7.5MM guarantee, Fan Rag’s Robert Murray tweets. He’ll get a $250K signing bonus, $2.5MM next season and $4MM in 2018. In addition, the options will be worth $5.5MM and $8MM, with a $750K buyout attached to each. (Heyman tweeted information about the signing bonus and buyouts.)
FRIDAY: The Padres have announced a two-year deal with infielder Yangervis Solarte. He’ll pick up guaranteed money for the next two seasons while giving the club a pair of options for the 2019 and 2020 campaigns.
It’s an unusual contract structure for the 29-year-old, who was eligible for arbitration for the first time as a 3+ service-class player. The options will cover his final season of arb eligibility and one would-be free agent campaign.
Solarte had been projected by MLBTR to earn $2.7MM through the arb process, but he was set to earn a bit more. He filed at $3.2MM with the team countering at $2.8MM, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeted. But that never seemed likely to matter, as various reports suggested that a lengthier arrangement was in the works.
The contract comes on the heels of a year in which Solarte posted a career-best .286/.341/.467 batting line with 15 home runs over 443 plate appearances. He has hit at better than the league-average rate in every one of his three MLB campaigns since emerging as a surprisingly useful player as a minor-league signee of the Yankees.
Though Solarte has typically drawn average or slightly below average grades for his glovework, he’s capable of playing both second and third base and has also seen a bit of time at shortstop and the corner outfield. That makes him a versatile piece for San Diego, which has a variety of options but little in the way of sure things in its current infield depth chart.
Solarte joins first baseman Wil Myers in securing multi-year deals from the Padres today. While his is surely to come in well shy of the $80MM+ that Myers is reportedly set to receive, it’ll add to the future obligations of an organization that had nothing on its future books except for salary owed to previously traded players.
Padres Avoid Arbitration With Brandon Maurer
- Brandon Maurer and the Padres have settled at $1.9MM (compared to $1.7MM projection), per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Maurer, who posted a 3.09 ERA with 13 saves after taking over as the team’s closer in early July, is under control through 2019.
Padres Avoid Arbitration With Carter Capps
The Padres have agreed to a $987.5K salary to avoid arbitration with righty Carter Capps, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). That’s a repeat of Capps’s first-year arb salary, owing to the fact that he missed the entirety of the 2016 season due to Tommy John surgery.
Capps, 26, landed in San Diego as part of the deadline deal that sent Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea to the Marlins. (Rea ended up being shipped back to Miami owing to health disclosure issues, though that didn’t impact Capps.) He continued to rehab his surgically replaced ulnar collateral ligament — the procedure occurred in early March of 2016 — and will be expected make his way back to the majors at some point in the 2017 season.
While the injury obviously put a big dent in his value, Capps brings plenty of intriguing upside with him to the Padres. He was absurdly dominant in 2015, pitching to a 1.16 ERA over 31 frames while racking up 58 strikeouts against just seven walks. While he had never before been nearly as successful at keeping runs off the board, Capps had run up impressive impressive peripherals in several prior seasons. It remains to be seen, perhaps, whether he’ll be able to maintain his elbow health in the long run while still employing the unorthodox, hopping delivery that drove his success (and also generated some controversy).
