Even though the Padres non-tendered right-hander Tyson Ross last week, there’s “mutual interest” in a reunion, general manager A.J. Preller revealed Monday (via A
Padres Rumors
Padres Notes: Feliz, Aybar, Solarte, Richard
Here’s the latest from sunny San Diego…
- The Padres and Blue Jays are two of the teams who have shown interest in righty reliever Neftali Feliz, FOX Sports’ Jon Paul Morosi reports (via Twitter). Feliz was bothered by some arm problems late in the season, though he posted a solid 3.52 ERA, 10.2 K/9 and 2.9 K/BB rate over 53 2/3 innings out of the Pirates bullpen. The addition of Feliz would further bolster what is already looking like a strong Padres relief corps, though the Friars may not have the payroll resources of the Jays or the Nationals (another known Feliz suitor).
- The Padres have some talks with Erick Aybar as they look to once again add a shortstop, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reports, though GM A.J. Preller said that the team is primarily looking to the trade market for help at short. Luis Sardinas is the incumbent at the position in San Diego, though Preller himself mused that the situation is “pretty fluid,” as the Padres weigh finding competition for Sardinas, making a short-term signing or perhaps a larger transaction.
- Preller denied reports that the team was “aggressively shopping” third baseman Yangervis Solarte and said he would be fine with keeping Solarte in a Padres uniform. “He’s a guy that we definitely get hit on from other clubs,” Preller said. “I think from our standpoint, we’ll listen, but we’re not actively out there trying to drum up a market or anything like that.”
- The Padres have reached out to some of the six players they non-tendered earlier this week about returning on minor league deals, Cassavell reports. It would seem like Hector Sanchez is one of those contacted, as he is a candidate to return and Preller said the team is looking to add catching depth.
- In a tweet from Cassavell, the Padres will be meeting with Clayton Richard’s agent this week and remain interested in a reunion. Negotiations between the two sides are “still in early stages.” After being released by the Cubs in August, Richard signed on with San Diego and pitched well in 11 outings (nine starts), posting a 2.52 ERA over 53 2/3 innings, though his peripherals weren’t too impressive.
Padres, Dodgers Discussing Yangervis Solarte
- The Padres are “aggressively shopping” infielder Yangervis Solarte, and the NL West rival Dodgers are among the teams discussing him with San Diego, relays FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). The Dodgers have openings at both second and third base, two places Solarte has seen action. Most of Solarte’s work has come at the hot corner, where the expectation is the Dodgers will re-sign Justin Turner.
Padres Shopping Yangervis Solarte
- The Padres are “aggressively” shopping Yangervis Solarte. The third baseman has posted solid numbers over the last two seasons, including hitting .286/.341/.467 with 15 homers over 443 plate appearances last year. The 29-year-old Solarte is projected by MLBTR to earn $2.7MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and his three years of remaining team control would make him an intriguing trade chip for teams in need of infield help.
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Padres Nearly Traded Tyson Ross To Cubs In 2015
- The Cubs made attempts over the past couple years to acquire right-hander Tyson Ross from the Padres and could pursue him in free agency, according to Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago. “The Padres were close to trading Ross to the Cubs for Starlin Castro,” a major league source who worked for one of the teams told Levine. “San Diego execs were mixed on asking for Castro or Javier Baez. The deal went down to the wire in late July of 2015 but never got to the point of exchanging medicals.” Ross was a front-of-the-rotation starter at that point, but he only threw 5 1/3 innings last season and is currently recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. The Padres non-tendered him Friday.
Padres Non-Tender Tyson Ross, Five Others
8:44pm: Ross is so early in his surgery rehab that his progress wasn’t a factor, GM A.J. Preller tells AJ Cassavell of MLB.com (links to Twitter). San Diego is open to a return, at a lower price. Obviously, a trade didn’t come together, but Preller says that discussions were explored.
7:18pm: The Padres have non-tendered righty Tyson Ross and five other players, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on Twitter. Also cut loose were Alexi Amarista, Jon Edwards, Erik Johnson, Jose Pirela and Hector Sanchez.
Ross, 29, easily becomes the most prominent player to be non-tendered this year. Excellent as he has been when healthy, he missed virtually all of 2016 and is still working back from shoulder surgery.
Still, the wide assumption had been that San Diego would roll the dice on Ross returning to form, perhaps hoping he’d emerge as a trade candidate as soon as the spring — or, if not, by the mid-season market. After all, he compiled a 3.03 ERA over 391 2/3 innings in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, with a strong 9.4 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9.
Ross is typically a very strong groundball pitcher, with a lifetime 56.0% mark. But his velocity had been falling of late, and then the shoulder issues arose in full force. While it seemed at various times as if he’d make it back in 2016, after making just a single start (on Opening Day), he ultimately required thoracic outlet surgery in mid-October.
Given the risk — and, perhaps, the unknown medical reports the team has received — perhaps the move isn’t as surprising as it seems at first glance. MLBTR projected Ross to repeat his $9.6MM salary from a year ago, and that’s no small amount to stake on a single season. Still, organizations searching for upside on a thin market will no doubt take a long look at a pitcher who’s a top-of-the-rotation piece when healthy.
Among the other players, Amarista ($1.6MM projection) and Sanchez ($900K) were also eligible. They’ll also save the team money; San Diego already parted with Derek Norris and his projected $4.0MM salary earlier today via trade.
The others will mostly depart to open roster space. All came with questions. Edwards, a converted outfielder, has a big arm but threw just one competitive inning last year. Johnson, who came over in the James Shields trade, underwent Tommy John surgery in early October. And Pirela was once a highly regarded prospect, but hasn’t stayed healthy and didn’t hit much last year at Triple-A.
Nationals Acquire Derek Norris
The Nationals have dealt for catcher Derek Norris from the Padres, per a club announcement. Righty Pedro Avila will head to San Diego in return.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Norris, who was once a well-regarded prospect in the D.C. system before being shipped to Oakland in the deal that landed Gio Gonzalez. Now, he joins righty A.J. Cole in finding his way back to the Nationals organization via trade.
Norris never suited up at the major league level with the Nationals, but he’ll surely do so in 2017. The organization was looking for a replacement for Wilson Ramos to pair with incumbent reserves Jose Lobaton and Pedro Severino. Odds are that the organization is planning some form of timeshare, presumably featuring Norris against left-handed pitching while Lobaton (a switch-hitter) gets the bulk of his time against righties. Severino still has options and will likely begin the year at Triple-A.
Washington will obviously tender Norris a contract, and can expect to pay him in the neighborhood of a projected $4.0MM arbitration salary. He can be controlled for one more season via the arbitration process.
The move almost certainly spells the end of Ramos’s tenure in D.C. In conjunction with the new deal just given to Lobaton, it likely also means that the Nats won’t chase free agent Matt Wieters or an alternative option behind the dish.
In Norris, the Nationals are taking a gamble on a return to form offensively. The 27-year-old posted an anemic .186/.255/.328 batting line over 458 plate appearances last year for San Diego, though he did manage to tie a career high with 14 home runs. But he was a near-average hitter in the season prior, and carried a strong 115 OPS+ in the 2013-14 seasons with the Athletics. As we noted in reviewing the organization’s offseason outlook, Norris seemed a reasonable candidate to roll the dice on given this year’s weak crop of available receivers.
The concern with Norris isn’t so much that he had a rough year — after all, his .238 BABIP figures to improve — but that his approach has eroded rather drastically. In his heyday with the A’s, Norris drew walks at about a 12% clip while striking out in around a fifth of his plate appearances. Both numbers have moved in the wrong direction in San Diego, though; last year, he posted a 7.9% walk rate (improving upon his 6.3% from the year prior) and jumped up to a 30.3% strikeout rate. Norris is both chasing pitches out of the zone and swinging and missing far more often than he had previously. Despite the anemic BABIP last year, he did post a career-best 34.4% hard-hit ratio and put the ball on a line as much (21.9%) as he ever had previously.
While the Nationals would surely love to see improvement with the bat, that’s not the only basis for the move. Norris has turned into one of the game’s better pitch framers (2016; 2015) after previously rating poorly in that area. And he rates as approximately average in other defensive areas. Plus, Norris can add some value with his legs, as he swiped nine bags last year and made an above-average overall baserunning contribution.
For the Padres, parting with Norris opens the door for top prospect Austin Hedges behind the dish. Though Christian Bethancourt remains on hand as a reserve, he has been dabbling in the idea of becoming a part-time pitcher, and certainly does not profile as anything like a regular.
The Friars also add an interesting arm in the 19-year-old Avila. A native of Venezuela, he has shown some swing-and-miss ability in the lower minors. At the low-A level in 2016, Avila ran up a solid 3.48 ERA over 93 frames across twenty starts, with 8.9 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9. As Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser writes, the young righty has a slight frame and lacks a huge heater, but makes up for that with a solid three-pitch mix and “an excellent feel to pitch.” He did end the year with an injury of some kind, the details of which remain unknown.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Prospect & International Notes: AFL, Rule 5, Draft, Trafficking
With the Arizona Fall League wrapping up, the MLB.com Pipeline team broke down the top players at each position. Perhaps no single prospect impressed to the extent of Gleyber Torres, the Yankees shortstop who was acquired in the Aroldis Chapman trade. Live-armed Red Sox righty Michael Kopech and Indians outfielder Bradley Zimmer were among the other high-profile young players who impressed, but a variety of lesser-known names also drew attention.
Here are some more prospect and international notes from around the game:
- Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper broke down the top Rule 5 draft candidates. Teams always have to balance roster needs with their assessments of young players who are eligible for the draft, and every year at least a dozen or so players who aren’t added to a 40-man roster will be plucked by another organization. This time around, as usual, many of the most plausible Rule 5 options are pitchers. But two position players warranted mention from Cooper as well: Pirates third baseman Eric Wood and Mets utility infielder Phillip Evans. Both have posted much better numbers of late, but apparently did not do quite enough to convince their organizations of their value — or, perhaps, of their ability to stick on another team’s active roster for a full season.
- The first player that Cooper notes, Padres righty Yimmi Brasoban, seems an intriguing candidate for the Rule 5 since he possesses a big fastball and quality slider that could make him a useful bullpen piece. But San Diego’s decision to leave him unprotected may well be due to elbow issues, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on Twitter. The young reliever is undergoing stem cell and platelet-rich plasma treatments, suggesting he may be trying to stave off a surgical option. We have seen injured players go in the Rule 5 before; if they aren’t able to meet the active-duty requirements in the season following the draft, they can reach it in future campaigns.
- Ben Badler of Baseball America argues that Major League Baseball would be better served to increase its current bonus pool limitations for international players than to institute an international draft. Low-revenue clubs are able to compete for top talent in the current system, he explains, so there’s no compelling reason in that regard to move to a draft. The problem, per Badler, is that the current signing levels are just too low, which has led many teams in baseball to exceed the limitations and accept future bonus limitations. His solution is to significantly boost the overall pool bonus amounts, make them equal for all teams, and increase the penalties for exceeding the pool. That — or some other hypothetical system — would still allow for cost containment while also serving other interests, Badler argues, including competitive balance and equal opportunities for all teams and players.
- There are new details in the human trafficking case against agent Bart Hernandez, as Jose Pagliery of CNN.com reports. Hernandez was allegedly involved in a scheme with a violent smuggler, the government alleges, with tens of millions of dollars flowing to the masterminds after Cuban ballplayers such as Jose Abreu and Yoenis Cespedes landed large bonuses with major league organizations. While the players were treated more humanely than the average citizens who were also being moved in the alleged conspiracy, they were nevertheless treated like prisoners and coerced into signing with Hernandez, per the charges.
Padres Part Ways With Mike Dee, Randy Smith
NOVEMBER 23: The Padres have issued a statement regarding Dee’s departure. It reads: “The Padres and Mike Dee have amicably parted ways. We thank Mike for his contributions and wish him and his family all the best. Consistent with our policy not to comment on personnel matters, we have no further comment.”
“I wish to thank Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler for the opportunity to lead the Padres over the last three years,” says Dee. “I wish them and the entire organization well in what I believe is a very bright future that lies ahead.”
OCTOBER 13: Team sources insist that the move on Dee was not related to the health disclosure controversy, Lin reports in a further update on the story. Though Seidler recently defended Dee, who was under contract for at least another year, it seems that other factors were at play.
San Diego will not be hiring a president of baseball operations over Preller, Lin adds, though it’s also not clear whether Dee’s role — in which he oversaw business and baseball ops — will be occupied fully by a single new hire. The Padres also fired vice president of strategy and innovation Ryan Gustafson, per the report.
OCTOBER 12, 5:14pm: The Padres also dismissed senior advisor Randy Smith yesterday, Lin reports (via Twitter). Smith had spent more than two decades in the Padres organization, though not all in succession. The veteran baseball exec was the Padres’ GM back from 1993-95 (initially named GM at the age of 29) and spent the 1996-2001 seasons as the Tigers’ general manager. In his most recent run in San Diego, Smith had served as the Padres’ VP of player development and director of player development in addition to at one point overseeing the club’s international operations. He’d been a senior advisor to Preller for the past two seasons. The decision to dismiss Smith, according to Lin, is unrelated to Dee’s departure.
Additionally, Lin tweets that while there’s been some speculation of this nature, the Padres won’t hire a president of baseball operations. That would, of course, effectively be a demotion for Preller, but it would seem there’s no such plan at this time.
12:10pm: The Padres have parted ways with president and CEO Mike Dee, according to a report from Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune which the team has confirmed in an announcement. He had held down his role since 2013.
It remains unclear at this point what precipitated the move and just how Dee’s departure came about. The move was not spurred directly by the recent controversy surrounding the organization’s failure to disclose medical information in trade talks, Lin reports. An investigation from Major League Baseball led to the thirty-day suspension of general manager A.J. Preller, but the club has stood by him. Today’s news also doesn’t change Preller’s status, according to Lin, who writes that the controversial GM isn’t in danger of losing his job.
Still, that episode my have played a role. As Lin adds (Twitter links), the embarrassing suspension of the team’s top baseball operations man may have functioned as a “tipping point.” But other areas of discord had evidently already eroded the relationship between Dee and the ownership group.
All said, the departure represents another jolt to a club that has seen its fair share of turmoil of late. “My goal and our organization’s objective is to have stability and long-term tenure in our front office, but sometimes these changes are inevitable,” said Padres managing partner Peter Seidler.
Dee’s job duties, which included hiring Preller and running numerous important business initiatives, were obviously of critical importance to the Friars. “Mike’s departure creates a position we will need to fill, and the search will begin immediately,” executive chairman Ron Fowler said. “In the meantime, we will work closely with our talented and trusted senior executives to lead the organization forward.”
Padres, Rays, Athletics Interested In Eric Thames
Free agent outielder Eric Thames has drawn interest from the Padres, Rays and Athletics (as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle previously reported), according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. Thames, who has starred in Korea since 2014, previously saw major league action with the Blue Jays and Mariners from 2011-12.
Thames, 30, was so-so in his two-year major league stint, hitting .250/.296/.431 with 21 home runs in 684 plate appearances, but he could cash in this winter thanks to his phenomenal showing with the NC Dinos of the hitter-friendly KBO. Thames swatted at least 37 homers in each of the previous three seasons, including 47 in an MVP-winning 2015, giving him a combined 124 since he immigrated to Korea. All told, he has slashed a videogamelike .348/.450/.720 in 1,634 plate appearances and also added 64 stolen bases on 78 attempts since leaving America.
Assuming he returns to the States, MLBTR projects a two-year, $10MM deal for Thames (from the Rays, in fact), but one National League executive told Crasnick he could fare even better than that.
“Look at some of the money that Cuban players have gotten,” said the exec. “What’s the difference here? I think somebody is going to bite, and he’ll get a contract for two years and $12 million, or three years and $15-18 million.”
Thames, a California native, acknowledged that he has contemplated another major league go-around.
“Yes, the thought has crossed my mind a few times,” Thames told Crasnick via email. “I’m wondering about how my new mindset could transfer over. Next year feels like light years away! Who knows where I will end up.”
Re-signing in Korea or heading to Japan are also possibilities for Thames, who might not exclusively play the outfield in a second major league stint. Thames moved to first in Korea, notes Crasnick, and the lefty-swinger would likely spend time there, in the outfield and, if he signs with an American League team, at designated hitter. With Wil Myers at first and no DH, the Padres would have to to utilize Thames in the outfield, while the hitter-needy Rays and A’s would have more flexibility in deploying him.
