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AL West Notes: La Stella, Mariners, Heim, Rangers, Andrus, A’s

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Before Tommy La Stella signed a three-year, $18.75MM deal with the Giants, the infielder drew some attention from the Mariners, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  La Stella would’ve been an intriguing add for Seattle, providing a mostly right-handed hitting lineup with some addition balance from the left side.  La Stella likely would have slotted in as the everyday second baseman — supplanting the planned Ty France/Shed Long/Dylan Moore timeshare at the position — and also seen some activity at first base or even third base when Kyle Seager required an off-day.

It isn’t known if the M’s were specifically keyed in on La Stella, or if they could still be looking for another regular infielder.  There isn’t much in the way of infeld options remaining in free agency that would provide as clear an upgrade over the France/Long/Moore trio, though one would suspect Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is as open as ever to trade possibilities.  Surprisingly, “Trader Jerry” has only swung one deal this offseason, acquiring Rafael Montero from the Rangers.

More from the AL West…

  • Athletics GM David Forst spoke to reporters (including Shayna Rubin of the Bay Area News Group and Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle) about today’s big five-player trade with the Rangers.  Oakland first touched base with the Rangers about Elvis Andrus back in November, and quickly circled back to Andrus after the A’s top shortstop option (re-signing Marcus Semien) was no longer a reality.  Catcher Jonah Heim had drawn interest from Texas for the last two years, Forst said, so the young backstop was a natural inclusion in the trade.
  • While Forst didn’t confirm today’s reports of an agreement between the Athletics and Mike Fiers, he did say that “pitchers are a target for us right now” in both the rotation and bullpen.  “I made a lot of calls on relievers today.  There’s a lot of talent at the end of the bullpen and not a lot of experience, and we feel like there’s some options that can add to the experience,” Forst said.  “We are shopping a little late, but we have some targets in mind and are excited to add to the team.”  As for other positions, Forst said the team is pretty satisfied with its current second base mix of Chad Pinder, Tony Kemp, Vimael Machin and Sheldon Neuse heading into Spring Training, so another infield addition doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
  • In other division news from earlier today, the Astros and Carlos Correa avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a contract for the 2021 season.

Infield Notes: Phillies, Simmons, Wong, Tigers, Paredes

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The Phillies narrowed their focus on Andrelton Simmons before he signed with the Twins this afternoon, writes Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Didi Gregorius remains in play to return, but he may not be so keen on another one-year deal. Regardless, the Phillies prefer not to move Jean Segura back to short, notes Lauber. Even with Gregorius more-or-less the only remaining starting shortstop on the market, Segura’s presence, as well as Scott Kingery, means they don’t have to panic on an overpay. Should they ultimately strike out on Gregorius, Jonathan Villar and Hanser Alberto lurk as free agents, or the Phils could turn to the trade market to make a play for either Trevor Story of the Rockies or Javier Baez of the Cubs. Neither club has seemed particularly likely to move their star shortstop, but Phillies’ president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski might be the guy to convince them. Let’s check in on some other infield news…

  • With middle infielders flying off the shelves, Kolten Wong is seeing an uptick in interest, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). The ace defensive second baseman has seen at least preliminary interest from the Tigers, Mariners, Rays, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals, with whom he’s spent his entire career. Wong’s power disappeared in 2020, slashing .265/.350/.326, but he won a second consecutive Gold Glove Award and continued to be an on-base presence for the Cardinals. Wong has quietly posted 3.3 bWAR per 600 plate appearances throughout his career, and as he enters his age-30 season, he could prove one of the more impactful free agents remaining on the market.
  • The Tigers plan on experimenting with Isaac Paredes at second base, writes Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Paredes is penciled in as the Tigers’ everyday third baseman, but manager A.J. Hinch said basically that there is no harm in expanding the 21-year-old’s skill set. He’s been on fire playing winter ball, and with Jeimer Candelario having a big season in 2020 (and Spencer Torkelson on his way to claim one of the infield corners,) it’s certainly worth testing the limits of Paredes’ defensive abilities.

 

Starting Pitching Rumors: Odorizzi, Paxton, Arrieta, Walker

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Right-hander Jake Odorizzi’s current market includes the Angels, Giants, Blue Jays, Twins and Red Sox, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Most of those clubs have been at least speculatively linked to Odorizzi at some point this winter, although it’s of at least some note that there’s still interest after those teams have added other pieces to their rotation already. The Angels agreed to a deal with Jose Quintana earlier this week, and the Twins inked J.A. Happ on a matching one-year deal. The Red Sox have brought back Martin Perez, while the Giants have brought in Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood. Odorizzi is still seeking a three-year deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He and the Twins are still not seeing eye to eye in terms of the length of a potential contract or the total guarantee, Heyman adds.

A few more notes on the market for starting pitchers…

  • Lefty James Paxton is among the rotation targets the Blue Jays are taking a look at, tweets Heyman. A link between the two sides seemed almost inevitable given that the Jays have been tied to most free agents as they cast a wide net amid an aggressive offseason and given that Toronto is regularly at least speculated upon as a landing spot for Canadian-born free agents. Paxton, who threw for teams late last month, missed the bulk of the 2020 season due to February back surgery and then a forearm strain this past summer. Beyond being limited to 20 1/3 ineffective frames while battling those injuries, Paxton saw a drop of more than three miles per hour in his average heater last year. Of course, if he’s healthy, the 32-year-old would rank among the most impactful arms on the open market. From 2017-19, “Big Maple” tossed 447 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with a near-identical 3.45 SIERA. He also posted an outstanding 30.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate that sat comfortably south of the league average. At his best, he’s a playoff-caliber starter, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see hopeful contenders pursuing short-term deals with Paxton in weeks to come.
  • From one Scott Boras client to another, right-hander Jake Arrieta is planning to throw for interested teams a week from today, Heyman tweets. Arrieta missed his final few starts of the season due to a hamstring injury — his second straight year truncated by injury. The former Cy Young winner underwent arthroscopic surgery near the end of the 2019 campaign after attempting to pitch through bone spurs in his elbow for much of the season. Overall, Arrieta’s three-year, $75MM deal with the Phillies didn’t pay dividends. After a solid first year in Philly, he logged just 180 innings of 4.75 ERA/4.82 SIERA ball with an 18.1 percent strikeout rate that was nowhere near his 27 percent peak with the Cubs. The Twins plan to watch Arrieta’s bullpen session next week, tweets SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson, although he adds that Minnesota is represented at nearly all showcases of this nature, so this is perhaps more due diligence than it is keen interest in Arrieta specifically.
  • The Mariners have yet to approach right-hander Taijuan Walker with a serious offer to bring him back to the organization, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. At the time of Walker’s trade to the Blue Jays over the summer, Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto suggested that he might look to bring the righty back to the team in the near future (Twitter link via Jessamyn McIntyre). That has yet to happen, it seems, although it’s also worth noting that Divish reported earlier in the week that Mariners ownership has limited the front office’s payroll flexibility “more than expected” this winter. The Mariners may yet add another arm to the rotation mix, but depending on the extent to which spending is limited, a multi-year deal candidate like Walker might be out of reach.

Mariners Notes: Payroll, Flexen, Bullpen, Haniger

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The Mariners have just $51.5MM committed to 11 players for the upcoming season and are just shy of $14MM in guaranteed contracts on the books come 2022. (They also owe the D-backs $5MM this year as part of the Mike Leake trade.) Despite their wide-open payroll outlook, however, they haven’t been major players in free agency. That, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, is due in part to ownership placing unexpected limitations on the team’s spending this winter. Divish cites multiple sources in indicating that the current limitations are being put into place with an eye toward spending next winter, when the free-agent class is deeper and when the club has even fewer commitments on the books.

There’s still an argument to be made that the Mariners should still jump the market, given the remaining slate of appealing free agents and the seemingly limited market for some of the leading names. General manager Jerry Dipoto reiterated to reporters this week, after all, that competing for a playoff berth is something the club hopes to be possible. Adding even some mid-tier free agents could go a long way toward making that a reality, given the context of the AL West, but it doesn’t sound as though any major expenditures are in the offing at this time.

A few notes from Divish, 710 ESPN’s Shannon Drayer, and The Athletic’s Corey Brock after Dipoto’s media availability this week…

  • Newly signed right-hander Chris Flexen will be penciled into the Mariners’ rotation to begin the season, Dipoto revealed this week. Far from a household name, the 26-year-old Flexen was an up-and-down member of the Mets from 2017-19 before posting a dominant season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears in 2020. The righty tossed 116 2/3 innings of 3.01 ERA ball, striking out 28 percent of his opponents against just a 6.4 percent walk rate. Flexen’s 21-start workload figures to be extra vital to the Mariners, given that most MLB pitchers were limited to around half that many starts. Seattle again plans to use a six-man rotation in 2021, per Dipoto. Drayer notes that the GM is “open” to adding another starter, with only four spots locked in right now (Flexen, Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield and Yusei Kikuchi).
  • Brock notes that right-hander Rafael Montero, acquired earlier this month in a trade with the Rangers, is the current favorite to open the season as the Mariners’ closer. Like Flexen, Montero is a former Mets prospect — a far more well-regarded one, having ranked among the game’s top 100 at one point — who didn’t find his footing in New York but has found success elsewhere. After missing a season due to Tommy John surgery, Montero landed in Texas on a minor league pact and returned to the big leagues to toss 46 2/3 innings of 3.09 ERA (3.34 SIERA) ball from 2019-20. Averaging a career-best 95.6 mph on his heater as a Ranger, Montero posted a 28.6 percent strikeout rate and a 5.9 percent walk rate. He’s controlled another two years and will give the Mariners a power option to lock things down.
  • “We continue to be connected to free agents we think can make us better, and specifically we would like to add a little bit more depth to that bullpen, if that’s possible,” Dipoto said (via Divish). There’s no clear indication of the number at which ownership has capped payroll, so the extent of the Mariners’ free-agent targets is a bit tough to gauge. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported earlier this week that the M’s are interested in veteran Joakim Soria, although he’s presumably just one of many potential targets.
  • In some good news on the injury front, the Mariners expect right fielder Mitch Haniger to be ready to take the field when camp opens. Dipoto noted that a healthy Haniger is the team’s “best player,” adding that he looks “terrific physically.” It’s been a brutal road of freak injuries for Haniger, whose health woes began in 2019 when he sustained a ruptured testicle due to a terribly placed foul ball. Haniger required surgery to address that injury, and while he began a rehab assignment two months later, he was quickly shut down due to back discomfort. As it turned out, Haniger tore an adductor muscle off the bone during that rehab stint, leading to subsequent core muscle and microdiscectomy surgeries. If he is indeed able to suit up to begin the year, it’ll mark a nearly two-year road back to the Mariners’ big league roster. The now-30-year-old Haniger appeared on the cusp of stardom for the Mariners as recently as 2018, when he made the All-Star team and slashed .285/.366/.493 with 26 home runs, 38 doubles, four triples, eight steals (in ten tries) and 10 Defensive Runs Saved in right field.

Mariners Interested In Joakim Soria

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The Mariners are the latest team to show interest in free agent reliever Joakim Soria, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets.  Seattle joins the Twins, Blue Jays, and all four of the Mariners’ AL West rivals as teams linked to Soria’s market at some point during the offseason.

Naturally, the entire AL West got a good look at Soria when he pitched for the Athletics in 2019-20, and the amount of  interest isn’t surprising considering how Soria has continued to deliver results as he approaches his age-37 season.  Soria posted a 2.82 ERA over 22 1/3 innings in 2020 and did a very good job of keeping the ball in the park (one home run allowed) and limiting hard contact (particularly in terms of barrel percentage).  On the flip side, Soria’s 25K% was middle of the pack, his 10.4 BB% ranked only in the 31st percentile, and his 4.36 SIERA painted a much less impressive picture than his ERA.

Still, even with some expected regression baked in, Soria’s track record of durability is solid enough that a team can expect him to be a positive addition to a bullpen.  Soria worked in a setup role in Oakland and would likely assume similar duties on his next team — though it has been some time since his heyday as a closer with the Royals, Soria could also be called upon for the occasional save opportunity if need be.

The bullpen has been more or less the primary focus of the Mariners’ offseason thus far, as the M’s have acquired Rafael Montero from the Rangers, signed Keynan Middleton, and re-signed Kendall Graveman.  Adding Soria would add an even more experienced and durable relief arm to the mix, perhaps a wise investment considering that Montero, Middleton, and Graveman have all undergone Tommy John surgery within the last three years.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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Minor MLB Transactions: 1/13/21

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Let’s catch up on the latest minor moves from around the game …

  • Right-hander Branden Kline announced his retirement Wednesday on Instagram. Kline, a hard-throwing Maryland native, joined the Orioles as a second-round pick in 2012 and ranked as one of their most promising prospects early in his career. But four arm surgeries, including the Tommy John procedure Kline underwent in 2015, slowed him, and his injury issues kept him out of minor league action until 2018. Kline did rebound well enough to appear majors from 2019-20, pitching to a 5.48 ERA with a 20.2 strikeout percentage and a 10.8 walk percentage in 46 innings, but the Orioles outrighted him last fall.
  • If Kline’s retirement came surprisingly early, the opposite might be said of former MLB righty Manny Corpas. Panamanian journalist Aurelio Ortiz conveys Corpas’s decision to hang up his spikes, via Twitter. Though he’s far removed from his time in the majors — he last appeared in 2013 — the 38-year-old has until now continued to ply his trade in the indy ball and international ranks. Corpas wraps up his career with 374 1/3 frames of 4.14 ERA pitching at the game’s highest level.
  • Corner outfielder Dillon Thomas has an agreement with the Mariners, per Robert Murray of Fansided (Twitter link). The minor-league accord includes an invitation to participate in MLB Spring Training. Thomas, 28, is a former fourth-round pick who has only briefly reached the highest level of the minors. In 2019, he turned in a .265/.339/.434 slash over 504 Double-A plate appearances.

Mariners Hire Hisashi Iwakuma As Special Assignment Coach

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Former Mariners right-hander Hisahi Iwakuma is rejoining the franchise in a new position. The Mariners announced Tuesday that they have hired Iwakuma as a special assignment coach. He’ll report to general manager Jerry Dipoto.

“In his new role, Iwakuma will work with Mariners pitchers and pitching instructors at all levels,” the team explained. “He will periodically visit the team’s minor league affiliates during the season, as well as spending time with the Major League team.” Additionally, Iwakuma will assist Mariners scout Manabu Noto in his homeland of Japan.

Based on his decorated playing career in Japan and in Seattle, the well-respected Iwakuma should have plenty to offer as a coach. Now 39 years old, Iwakuma excelled in Japan for over a decade before joining the Mariners in 2012. The union worked out beautifully for both sides, as Iwakuma wound up pitching his entire major league run with the M’s (through 2017). He recorded a 3.42 ERA in 883 2/3 innings, earned an All-Star nod and threw a no-hitter along the way.

While Iwakuma did continue trying to pitch after 2017, injuries hampered his efforts. He threw just two innings in a return to Japan in 2019 and didn’t take the mound at all last year. Iwakuma then decided to retire.

Mariners Sign Roenis Elias, Paul Sewald To Minor League Deals

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The Mariners announced that they have signed left-hander Roenis Elias, righty Paul Sewald and infielder Jantzen Witte to minor league contracts.

This will be the third Mariners stint for Elias, who was previously with the team from 2014-15 and again from 2018-19. Formerly a starter, the 32-year-old has put up a 3.75 ERA over 377 innings in Seattle to this point. He has also taken the mound for the Red Sox and Nationals, though Elias has not pitched in the majors since 2019, owing in part to a flexor strain he suffered last season. Overall, Elias has logged a 3.97 ERA with a strikeout percentage of 19.7 and a walk percentage of 9.0 during his 388-inning big league career.

Sewald spent the first four seasons of his MLB tenure as a Met, but the 30-year-old struggled to a 5.50 ERA in 147 1/3 frames during that span. Witte, 31, has not played in the majors yet. The former Red Sox farmhand took 1,227 plate appearances at the Triple-A level for them and hit .261/.333/.370.

Mariners Sign Jimmy Yacabonis To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners are in agreement on a minor league deal with right-handed reliever Jimmy Yacabonis, per an announcement from the team’s player development department.

Yacabonis, 28, tossed 2 1/3 innings for the Mariners in 2020 before being dropped from the 40-man roster in mid-September. He’d opened the season in the Padres’ 60-man player pool but was traded to Seattle for cash in mid-August.

The 2020 season marked Yacabonis’ first big league experience outside of Baltimore. The former 13th-round pick pitched extensively out of the Orioles’ bullpen each season from 2017-19 but struggled to a 5.75 ERA through 101 2/3 frames. Yacabonis doesn’t have much of a big league track record, but he gets well above-average movement on his pitches, which has been enough to pique the interest of several clubs. He also has solid velocity and above-average spin on his four-seamer, although he scrapped that pitch entirely in favor of a sinker during his brief 2020 showing with the Mariners. He’ll likely head to Triple-A Tacoma to open the season and give the M’s some depth should a need arise.

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