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Randal Grichuk Switches Agencies

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Cardinals outfielder Randal Grichuk has changed agencies and is now represented by Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports (on Twitter).

Grichuk, 24, came to the Cardinals alongside Peter Bourjos in the 2013 trade that sent David Freese and Fernando Salas to the Angels. Grichuk was one of two first-round picks by the Angels in the 2009 draft, going 24th overall as compensation for the loss of Francisco Rodriguez to the Mets. (The Angels took Mike Trout with the following selection.) While he never cemented himself as a consensus top prospect around the league, Grichuk had a very strong rookie campaign with St. Louis last year (after a so-so MLB debut in 2014) when he slashed .276/.329/.548 with 17 home runs in 350 plate appearances. That production was aided by an inflated .365 batting average on balls in play, and Grichuk has come back to Earth in that regard early in 2016. However, he’s also made significant strides in his walk rate (6.3 percent in 2015, 13.6 percent in 2016) and strikeout rate (31.4 percent in ’15, 25.8 percent in ’16), so there’s reason to believe that he can improve on this year’s .228/.333/.439 line if he can sustain some of those gains.

With a year and 61 days of service time, Grichuk is controllable through the 2020 season and won’t reach arbitration eligibility until the conclusion of the 2017 campaign. He’ll fall a good bit shy of Super Two designation assuming he’s in the Majors to stay, so he’ll be arb-eligible the standard three times. While it’s impossible to say exactly what type of impact an agency change will have on a player’s long-term status with an organization, Cardinals fans may be interested to see that Excel Sports has brokered its fair share of extensions over the years, negotiating long-term pacts for the likes of Alex Gordon, Freddie Freeman, Chris Johnson and, most recently, Brandon Belt (MLBTR Extension Tracker link). Grichuk’s own teammate and fellow Each of those deals came when the player had already reached arbitration eligibility.

In addition to the players listed above, Excel represents a wide swath of players, including Zack Greinke, Jason Heyward, Dexter Fowler and Masahiro Tanaka, among others. All of that info can be found in the MLBTR Agency Database, which contains information on more than 2,500 Major League and Minor League players. If you see any notable omissions or errors within the database, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Jason Heyward On Return To St. Louis

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Jason Heyward received a bit of a rough welcome back to St. Louis today, as he appeared there for the first time since leaving the Cardinals for the rival Cubs. But that didn’t seem to bother him; as he told reporters, including MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat (Twitter link): “If somebody boos me here, that means they weren’t happy to see me leave. I’m glad people weren’t happy to see me leave.” He’s already covered his decision to move on to Chicago in some detail, of course, but the occasion offered a chance to revisit the winter market once again. As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, Heyward ultimately spurned the Cards not out of any failure to see eye-to-eye on a contract, but because he had found another spot he preferred. “It came down to Chicago was really where I would like to be at the time,” Heyward said. “… I feel like [the Cardinals] had every intention of keeping me here. They said that. And they followed that through with their actions. It didn’t come down to contract. Whether it was the opt-out, whether it was the full no-trade (clause), or what have you — it came down to taking the opportunity to be where I wanted to be and for the first time in my life having the choice.”

Cardinals Notes: Oh, Grichuk

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  • Former Korean and Japanese league reliever Seung-hwan Oh has made a seamless transition to the Cardinals’ bullpen in his first year in the majors and is primed to earn more responsibility, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The South Korea native has allowed a mere one hit in 6 2/3 scoreless innings, adding a whopping 11 strikeouts against five walks. The righty threw two shutout frames Saturday and successfully retired one of the game’s premier left-handed hitters, the Reds’ Joey Votto. With first base open, Oh could’ve pitched around Votto, but he challenged the first baseman and ultimately retired him on a fly out. “We like his stuff against lefties,” manager Mike Matheny said. “We’re going to get more opportunities to see (it).” More Oh could mean less Seth Maness, who has an unimpressive K/BB (1.5) and bloated 8.31 ERA in 4 1/3 innings this year.
  • After beginning the season in a 1-for-15 funk with eight strikeouts and no walks, Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk has since gone 6 of 17 with four extra-base hits (two home runs, two doubles), eight walks and four K’s. Thanks in part to his work with a pitching machine called a Hack Attack, Grichuk is now seeing pitches better. Prior to his turnaround, Grichuk stood in the cage at Turner Field last week and watched nearly 50 sliders from the machine. “The first few, maybe five to 10, I just took. The last 30 to 40 I would call out if it was a ball or strike as soon as I could pick it up,” he told Goold. Said assistant hitting coach Derrick May, “Just seeing pitches and building the strength of their eyes with work. What better to do it than with a slider machine?”

Adam Wainwright Not Worried About Struggles

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  • After missing nearly all of last season with a torn Achilles, longtime Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright’s return hasn’t gone according to plan. In 5 1/3 innings Saturday, Wainwright allowed 10 hits and seven earned runs while striking out just two hitters in a 9-8 loss to the Reds. The 34-year-old walked only one batter – a big improvement over the combined eight free passes he issued in his first two starts – but he now owns an 8.27 ERA in 16 1/3 innings this month. Nevertheless, he expects to break out of his funk. “What I will and can say is I will come out of this, and I will be a very, very good pitcher. I’m just not there right now,” he said, according to Joe Harris of MLB.com. Wainwright will try to right the ship against the offensively challenged Padres next Friday.

NL Central Notes: Diaz, Kang, Cards, Hazelbaker, Cubs

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The Pirates have shut down top catching prospect Elias Diaz due to concern over lingering soreness in his right elbow, tweets Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Diaz is seeking “multiple opinions” on the injury, but as Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets, there’s concern about structural damage. The 25-year-old Diaz spent last season at Triple-A Indianapolis, where he batted .271/.330/.382 in 363 plate appearances. Baseball America, MLB.com and Keith Law of ESPN rank Diaz as the Pirates’ No. 10, No. 8 and No. 14 prospect, respectively. Each of the scouting reports notes that his defensive prowess gives him a high floor, but his bat, too, has come around recently and given him a chance to be an everyday catcher at the Major League level.

More from the NL Central…

  • There’s better news on injured Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang, as MLB.com’s Adam Berry tweets. Kang has been cleared to play extended Spring Training games without any restrictions or limitations. He’s played five innings on consecutive days to this point but can now take his progress another step further. Kang is recovering from torn ligaments in his knee suffered late in the 2015 campaign when he was injured on a takeout slide by then-Cubs utilityman Chris Coghlan.
  • Turning to another Diaz within the NL Central, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch writes that the strong early play of Aledmys Diaz has probably taken away some playing time from Spring Training signee Ruben Tejada, who is nearing his regular season Cardinals debut after straining his left quadriceps in the team’s Grapefruit League finale. “We signed Ruben to give us depth,” GM John Mozeliak tells Langosch. “One of the things we wanted to do was allow Diaz to play. At the time, the thinking was to give him at-bats at Memphis and let him continue to grow. Well, guess what? That didn’t happen. He had to come here and now he’s getting a chance to play at the Major League level and he’s taking full advantage of that.”
  • Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports spoke to Mozeliak, Cardinals outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker and agent Joe Bick (who represents Hazelbaker) about the 28-year-old’s improbable journey from being released by the Dodgers in May 2015 to being one of the biggest stories of the early 2016 season. While Hazelbaker, who entered play today 10-for-19 with two homers and two steals, is of course due to come back down to Earth, he did make some notable adjustments to his swing mechanics upon signing a minors deal with St. Louis last season, which may have contributed to the best minor league numbers of his career. Hazelbaker was a minor league free agent at season’s end and received quite a few offers, and Mozeliak admits that the club gambled somewhat by not promising him the 40-man roster spot Hazelbaker and Bick sought. The Cards did offer him a hefty minor league salary, and injuries to Tejada and Tommy Pham created an opportunity on the big league roster. After thinking his career could be over last May, Hazelbaker says he has a vastly different outlook on the game. “I treat every game like it’s my last,” says Hazelbaker. “The last diving catch I’m going to have, the last flyball, the last stolen base or at-bat … that’s kind of how I go about it now.” 
  • Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and his staff could have assembled one of the most disciplined teams ever, writes Fangraphs’ August Fagerstrom. While these Cubs won’t walk as much as some clubs did during higher-offensive eras like the late 90s and early 2000s, walks in today’s game are exponentially harder to come by. Fagerstrom looks at the Cubs’ early walk rate and uses ZiPS and Steamer projections relative to those numbers for the rest of the league to note that the Cubs are three standard deviations above the mean and are as far from the second-place team (Oakland) as that team is from the 11th-place team. Wearing pitchers down with a disciplined approach has long been a trademark of Epstein clubs, Fagerstrom notes, and this year’s team is no exception.

Cardinals’ Marco Gonzales To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Cardinals left-hander Marco Gonzales will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak confirmed to reporters, including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Gonzales has reportedly been weighing surgery to repair an elbow problem, though the specific nature of the surgery, to this point, had not been definitively reported.

The 24-year-old Gonzales was St. Louis’ top pick in the 2013 draft (19th overall) and made his Major League debut with the Cardinals the next season, appearing in 10 games (five starts) and recording a 4.15 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 5.5 BB/9 and a 36.3 percent ground-ball rate in 34 2/3 innings. Gonzales, who rates as the Cardinals’ No. 7 prospect at MLB.com and No. 5 according to Baseball America, missed a significant portion of the 2015 season due to shoulder troubles. He pitched at Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A, compiling a 4.69 ERA in the minors. Gonzales also tossed 2 2/3 innings in the Majors last year.

The Cardinals’ pitching ranks have been thinned out substantially in the past nine months, with Gonzales and right-hander Lance Lynn each falling to Tommy John procedures. Beyond that, No. 1 prospect Alex Reyes, a right-hander, received a 50-game suspension back in November. The Cards added right-hander Mike Leake on a five-year deal in the offseason to replenish some of the depth in their rotation, which presently features Leake, Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Jaime Garcia. Left-hander Tim Cooney, who made six starts for St. Louis last season, is the likeliest candidate to be recalled and step into the rotation should a need arise.

Cardinals Thin On Pitching Depth

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  • Injuries have done a number on the Cardinals’ minor league pitching depth, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, as Marco Gonzales is considering elbow surgery and Tim Cooney has been battling with a sore shoulder.  “When you look at what we have going on at [Triple-A] Memphis, it’s not as strong as we thought we were.  But, that’s not to say we are in a panic mode by any means,” Cards GM John Mozeliak said, noting that top prospect Alex Reyes could be an option in a couple of months.  Reyes is currently serving a 50-game suspension after testing positive for marijuana in November.  Mozeliak also provides updates on a few other injured Cardinals within Frederickson’s piece.

Marco Gonzales Contemplating Elbow Surgery

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  • Cardinals lefty Marco Gonzales is deciding whether to undergo elbow surgery after consulting with doctors, including renowned orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache, tweets Saxon. It’s unknown what type of surgery Gonzales is considering, writes Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. If the 24-year-old undergoes Tommy John surgery, he’d face a 12- to 18-month recovery, Langosch notes. Prior to notifying the Cardinals’ medical staff of elbow discomfort during the final week of Spring Training, Gonzales was expected to serve as rotation depth for the club this season. Gonzales, who dealt with shoulder issues last season, has logged a 4.82 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9 in 37 1/3 MLB innings.

Betts, Schoop, Ray, Others Move To The Legacy Agency

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Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts has changed agencies, staying with his representative — Steve Veltman — as he moved to The Legacy Agency, as Robert Murray of Baseball Essential was first to report (via Twitter). He’s not alone, as players including Jonathan Schoop of the Orioles and Robbie Ray of the Diamondbacks are also making the move, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports, with player rep Ed Cerulo accompanying Veltman to a new home.

Betts, still just 23, has emerged as one of the game’s most exciting young talents. He followed up a highly promising partial season in 2014 with an outstanding campaign last year in which he put up a .291/.341/.479 slash over 654 plate appearances with 18 home runs and 21 steals. Of course, Betts is also a high-quality and versatile fielder and excellent baserunner.

Boston has plenty of cheap control remaining, as Betts won’t even reach arbitration eligibility until 2018 and doesn’t stand to hit the open market until 2021. He certainly profiles as an extension candidate, though, and his new agency will quite possibly field interest from the Sox.

Other quality 1+ outfielders have signed lengthy deals — including, recently, Gregory Polanco ($35MM) and Christian Yelich ($49.57MM) — but it seems fair to expect that Betts would command a good bit more given the floor and ceiling he’s shown to this point. And the price will likely only rise, as his service clock continues to run and he pads the stat sheet.

Schoop and Ray also rate as promising young players, but have more to prove at this stage than Betts. Other big leaguers joining The Legacy Agency, per Rosenthal, include Cody Anderson and Rajai Davis (Indians), Trevor May (Twins), Kevin Siegrist (Cardinals), Carter Capps (Marlins), Jerad Eickhoff (Phillies), and Tony Wolters (Rockies). Several unnamed prospects are also changing agencies.

As always, you can find reported player representation in MLBTR’s Agency Database.

Orioles Acquire Left-Hander Jayson Aquino From Cardinals

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The Orioles announced this morning that they’ve acquired left-hander Jayson Aquino from the Cardinals in exchange for cash considerations. Aquino, who turned 23 in November, was on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster and will therefore bring the Orioles’ 40-man roster count to 38. Per the O’s, the newly acquired southpaw has been optioned to Double-A Bowie.

Though Aquino has never pitched in a big league game, he’s an intriguing enough arm that he’s made his way around the league on the fringes of multiple 40-man rosters. Originally signed as an international free agent by the Rockies in 2010, Aquino was designated for assignment by Colorado in January 2015 and traded to the Blue Jays shortly thereafter. The Jays designated Aquino in May and traded him to the Pirates (also for cash), who subsequently flipped him to the Indians on July 31 (once again, for cash considerations). Upon being designated by the Indians this offseason, Aquino was claimed by the Cardinals. While Aquino has been designated several times over the past 15 months, the fact that he’s only been exposed to waivers once (and didn’t clear) indicates that a number of clubs believe that he has enough upside to merit placement on a 40-man roster.

Last season, Aquino split the season between the Class-A Advanced affiliates of the Blue Jays, Indians and Pirates, working to a combined 3.80 ERA with 5.6 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 137 1/3 innings. Baseball America ranked Aquino near the back end of Colorado’s Top 30 prospects four times during his Rockies tenure, most recently praising a “well above average” changeup but noting that he throws the pitch too often and doesn’t field his position or hold runners well. The southpaw works in the upper 80s with his fastball, per BA, and also features a solid-average curveball.

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