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Rays Outright Andrew Kittredge, Vidal Nuno

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The Rays have outrighted right-hander Andrew Kittredge and lefty Vidal Nuno from their 40-man roster after both cleared waivers, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). The former was assigned to Triple-A while the latter has elected free agency.

Kittredge, 28, suffered mightily in the majors in 2018, getting torched for 33 earned runs in 38 1/3 innings. He fared much better at Triple-A, however, and has generally impressed of late in the upper minors. It seems reasonably likely he’ll get another shot at some point if a need arises.

As for Nuno, the 31-year-old was quite effective in his brief time in the majors, allowing just six earned runs in 33 innings over 17 appearances. He also had a solid showing in a starting role at Triple-A. While the Rays obviously did not want to commit to keeping him around, plenty of other teams will be glad to give him a look in camp in 2019.

Rays Sign Sandy Gaston

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The Rays have formally announced the signing of hard-throwing Cuban pitching prospect Sandy Gaston. The 16-year-old (17 in December) showcased for big league clubs at Marlins Park alongside Victor Victor Mesa and Victor Mesa Jr. in early October and, as of last week, was reported to be nearing a deal with the Tampa Bay organization. Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald has previously reported that the would-be agreement was believed to include a hefty $2.6MM signing bonus. Slightly more specifically, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that the official bonus checks in at $2.61MM.

At last check, the Rays were reported to have about $3.5MM in their international bonus pool, meaning the signing of Gaston will account for the majority of their remaining resources. In return for their investment, the Rays will secure the rights to a young pitcher who ranked 16th among international prospects, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, and 24th on this year’s class in the eyes of Baseball America’s Ben Badler.

Already listed at 6’3″ and 205 pounds, Gaston’s greatest asset is a blazing fastball that routinely sits in the upper 90s and has reached 100 mph. His secondary offerings are said to lack consistency, as one might expect from a still-developing arm in his teens, and he’s still working to refine his command. Badler’s report on him notes that some scouts who’ve seen Gaston more recently have come away with the impression that his delivery is more under control, though he still notes that Gaston bears similarity to another flamethrowing teenager who has yet to pan out — former Marlins No. 2 overall draft pick Tyler Kolek. That’s not an indictment on Gaston’s future, of course, but rather a means of illustrating that there’s a fair bit of risk associated with Gaston despite his considerable upside.

 

Rays Claim Oliver Drake From Twins, Outright Jesus Sucre, Adam Moore

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The Rays have claimed right-hander Oliver Drake off waivers from the Twins, per an announcement from the Twins Additionally, Tampa Bay has outrighted catchers Jesus Sucre and Adam Moore off the 40-man roster, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The Rays’ 40-man roster is now at 37 players, while the Twins’ is at 36.

The 31-year-old Drake looked as though he may have finally found a home with the Twins late in the 2018 season. Minnesota, incredibly, was the fifth Major League team for which the Naval Academy product suited up in 2018 and the only team with which he found real success. In 20 1/3 innings out of the Minnesota ’pen, Drake worked to a 2.21 ERA with an impressive 22-to-7 K/BB ratio and a 50 percent ground-ball rate.

Beyond the five teams with which he saw MLB action in 2018 (Twins, Blue Jays, Angels, Indians, Brewers), Drake came up with the Orioles back in 2016. In all, he’s seen time with six Major League clubs over the past two seasons. Tampa Bay, if Drake survives the offseason on the 40-man roster, would be a seventh. Drake is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to break camp with the Rays (or another club) next spring or else be exposed to waivers yet again. While his overall results in the big leagues aren’t impressive, the fact that six different teams have tried to pass him through waivers and all have failed speaks to the fact that many clubs believe him to be capable of succeeding in the Majors.

Sucre, 30, appeared in 73 games with the Rays this past season and hit .209/.247/.253 through 198 plate appearances — numbers not far off from his career rates through 654 PAs. With more than three years of big league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Moore, 34, went 4-for-18 in eight games with the Rays. He’s seen Major League action in parts of nine seasons and batted .199/.239/.312 in 312 plate appearances. The journeyman backstop has a lifetime .266/.325/.408 line in more than 2400 Triple-A plate appearances.

Rays Suffering Coaching Losses

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The Rays’ reputation for creative thinking is somewhat making the team a victim of its own success in 2018, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  The Rays have already lost two members of their coaching staff to managerial jobs (Charlie Montoyo with the Blue Jays and Rocco Baldelli with the Twins), while senior VP Chaim Bloom was a finalist for the Mets’ GM job and has been mentioned as a possible candidate to run the Giants’ baseball operations department.  For now, Tampa has two coaching vacancies to fill, though the responsibilities of Baldelli’s old infield coordinator role could be altered, as that job was specifically tailored for Baldelli’s skillset.  Topkin wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one new coach from outside the organization hired, though the Rays do have a long track record of promoting from within the organization.

Blue Jays Hire Charlie Montoyo As Manager

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3:03pm: The Jays announced the hiring. Montoyo received a three-year contract with a club option for a fourth season.

1:53pm: The Blue Jays will hire Rays bench coach Charlie Montoyo as their new manager, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Montoyo will become the second member of the Rays’ staff to be hired away today, as the Twins named Tampa Bay Major League field coordinator Rocco Baldelli their new manager this morning.

Charlie Montoyo | Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Montoyo, 53, is a decorated minor league skipper who has spent a hefty 18 seasons managing in the Rays’ minor league ranks. He joined the big league coaching staff in December 2014, initially serving as the organization’s third base coach before being named Tom Foley’s successor as bench coach last offseason. His experience and the generally strong reputation the Rays’ staff has within the organization helped to make Montoyo a popular managerial candidate this offseason, as he also interviewed with the Reds and was linked to other vacancies as well.

Born in Puerto Rico, Montoyo was a sixth-round pick of the Brewers back in 1987 and had a 10-year playing career in the minors. He received the briefest of calls to the Majors with the 1993 Expos, appearing in four games and tallying just five trips to the plate. His playing career wrapped up in 1996, and he joined the Rays organization almost immediately thereafter, first being hired on Oct. 31 that year.

Montoyo is only three years younger than the man he’ll replace, John Gibbons, but he comes from a different background, having spent more than two decades with an organization that has often spearheaded experimental tactics and strategies. He’ll give the Blue Jays a bilingual skipper with considerable experience running a clubhouse (albeit at the minor league level) and a deep understanding of the increasing role that data plays not only in informing roster construction but also in the day-to-day performances and training regimens of a big league roster. It’s not yet clear what his hiring will mean for the remainder of the Blue Jays’ coaches, though it’s typical for newly hired skippers to bring in some of their own hires to round out their staffs.

The Jays are at a pivotal crossroads as an organization, as while they haven’t fully declared any intention to embark on a rebuild, they’re also faced with the reality that the core which brought them to the ALCS just a few years ago has faded away. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion have departed. Josh Donaldson was traded in August, and Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and Kevin Pillar are suddenly just two years from free agency.

Given that level of turnover and a stacked division featuring a pair of 100-win teams and the 90-win Rays team from which Toronto is hiring Montoyo, it seems likely that a youth movement is on the horizon for the league’s lone north-of-the-border club. That likely made it all the more imperative for GM Ross Atkins and president Mark Shapiro to hand-pick a leader to develop a unified vision for the organization’s culture and direction moving forward.

Twins Name Rocco Baldelli Manager

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9:40am: The Twins issued a press release formally announcing Baldelli as their new manager.

7:08am: The Twins are set to hire Rays field coordinator Rocco Baldelli as their new manager, with an announcement expected later today, as FOX 9 Sports in the Twin Cities reported late last night (Twitter link). La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune first indicated that Baldelli, 37, had separated himself from the pack in the Twins’ search for a replacement for recently dismissed manager Paul Molitor.

Rocco Baldelli | Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Baldelli had previously been in consideration for several managerial vacancies, with both the Blue Jays and Rangers reported to have him among their top candidates. Incumbent Twins bench coach Derek Shelton was also said to be a finalist, and Neal notes that Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde was the team’s other top choice. It seems quite possible that Shelton, who served on the Rays’ coaching staff with Baldelli until being hired by the Twins last offseason, could remain on hand as the bench coach, given his familiarity with Baldelli.

While he’s never managed at any level previously, Baldelli spent three seasons as the Rays’ first base coach (2015-17) and was also in charge of the team’s outfield instruction in that time. The organization created the new role of Major League field coordinator for Baldelli in 2018 — a role in which he assisted manager Kevin Cash and bench coach Charlie Montoyo with a heavy focus on player development at the MLB level.

Of course, Baldelli is better known for his career as a big league outfielder. Injuries ruined what looked to be an exceptionally promising career for the former No. 6 overall pick (Rays, 2000), who debuted in the Majors as a 21-year-old back in 2003. Baldelli hit a combined .285/.326/.425 with 27 homers and 44 steals through his first 292 big league games, flashing the potential to emerge as a true five-tool asset for a still-young Rays franchise. He suffered an ACL tear in the 2004-05 offseason, however, and also required Tommy John surgery on his right elbow before he was able to make it back to the field.

Those injuries cost Baldelli the entirety of the 2005 season, but he returned looking none the worse for the wear in 2006 when he batted .302/.339/.533 in 92 games. But Baldelli’s career took a mysterious downturn the following season, and doctors initially diagnosed him with a rare mitochondrial deficiency and, eventually, a condition called channelopathy. In essence, his body was not metabolically capable of producing the energy necessary for his muscles to recover from the rigors of playing baseball at a professional level. Although he managed a few brief returns to the field, Baldelli made just 429 career plate appearances following that brilliant 2007 return effort. He played his final game in the Majors at just 29 years of age.

Baldelli will come to the Twins from one of the most progressive organizations in baseball. While manager Paul Molitor was more than open to data and modern baseball strategies — evidenced by the Twins’ aggressive shifting in his tenure and usage of “the opener” in 2018 — Baldelli has spent the past seven years immersed in an analytic-based culture with the Rays. At 37 and only eight years removed from serving as a player, he’ll likely be touted as a candidate more capable of connecting with younger players while also possessing a more natural comfort level with the data-driven decisions that increasingly permeate today’s game.

It’s a radical shift for a Twins organization that has previously opted to hire from within the organization. Minnesota has long been among the most loyal organizations in baseball, perhaps to a fault at times, as evidenced by the fact that Baldelli will incredibly be just the fourth Twins manager in the past three decades. Tom Kelly was hired by Minnesota in 1986 and held that role until being succeeded by one of his coaches, Ron Gardenhire, in 2001. Gardenhire, in turn, held onto the Twins’ managerial post until 2014 and was replaced by Molitor, who’d served on his own coaching staff.

The Pohlad family, who owns the Twins, has a reputation for maintaining the status quo, but Jim Pohlad has shown more of a willingness to shuffle the deck following the passing of his father, Carl, in 2009. Pohlad dismissed both Gardenhire and longtime GM Terry Ryan amid a prolonged run at the bottom of the AL Central earlier this decade and has since hired chief baseball officer Derek Falvey away from the Indians and general manager Thad Levine away from the Rangers in an effort to overhaul and modernize what was perceived as one of the game’s most “old school” organizations. Hiring the 37-year-old Baldelli is the next step in that effort.

Coaching changes figure to follow, and there’s significant work for Falvey and Levine to do on the roster following a disappointing 2018 season. But Falvey and Levine look to have settled on the voice they hope can lead the organization back to prominence in a weak American League Central division that features multiple rebuilding clubs.

Rays Reportedly Nearing Deal With Sandy Gaston

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The Rays appear to be closing in on a deal with Cuban right-hander Sandy Gaston that will pay him a $2.6MM bonus. Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald (Spanish-language link) reports that the sides are already in agreement, though Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times hears (Twitter link) they are still working toward a finalized deal. MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweeted last night that the sides were nearing agreement on a deal.

If the contract hits the books, the 17-year-old Gaston will absorb the bulk of Tampa Bay’s remaining international spending pool, which had stood at $3.5MM. It is not entirely clear to what extent the organization’s proximity to Gaston’s homeland played into the decision, but it surely did not hurt their odds.

For their money, the Rays will get a player who was rated as the 24th overall international prospect by Ben Badler of Baseball America. Gaston is best known for his big velocity, which he showed off in a recent showcase for MLB clubs. That’s a loud tool for a young hurler, but Badler also notes that Gaston otherwise lacks polish. His offspeed offerings and ability to consistently command the baseball remain in question, though certainly he has plenty of time to iron things out.

Gaston will join several other highly-regarded players to round out the Tampa Bay recruiting class. Per Badler’s signing tracker, the Rays have also landed 13th overall prospect Alejando Pie as well as four other top-fifty talents and a variety of additional players.

With the news, the Orioles have now missed out on the three top prospects left on the international market — at least, by general reputation. The Marlins recently wrapped up deals with Victor Victor Mesa and Victor Mesa Jr., fellow Cuban players who had held a showcase with Gaston.

It’s a rather curious situation, as the Baltimore organization had prioritized the aggregation of bonus pool availability of late and has a hefty $6.5MM still left to spend, by far the largest sum in baseball. At last look, the club was said still to be chasing Gaston, even as it seeks a new leader for its baseball operations department. Ebro notes that there was close competition for the intriguing young hurler. The Orioles’ back-up plans remain unclear.

AL Notes: Eovaldi, Gaston, Castellanos, Astros

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As he prepares for the World Series, Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi says he has yet to have any talks with the club regarding a deal that would keep him off of the open market, John Tomase of WEEI.com reports. The hurler says he’d “love to be back,” though unsurprisingly it looks as if he’ll test the open market first. It’s certainly possible to imagine a fit with Boston, though the same could be said of quite a few other organizations as well.

Here’s more from the American League:

  • There’s some belief that the Rays will land Cuban righty Sandy Gaston, according to MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro (Twitter links). Two other top players, the Mesa brothers, landed with the Marlins today. The Orioles had been seen as a chief competitor for these and other top young players who are eligible to sign rather than entering the draft. To date, though, the club has largely kept its war chest intact. Frisaro says it’s believed that it would cost Tampa Bay around $2MM to secure the amateur.
  • The lack of a suitable defensive position has long been the primary concern with Tigers slugger Nicholas Castellanos. As Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes, GM Al Avila says the current plan remains to keep Castellanos in right field, where he has “made some strides.” As Fenech writes, though, there are some good practical reasons to consider utilizing Castellanos at first base, where he’d be less of a concern defensively and wouldn’t clog up a spot in the outfield for other other players the club would like to get a look at. Of course, the first base position is spoken for, at least for part of the time, by Miguel Cabrera.
  • Despite a disappointing end to the 2018 season, the Astros enter the winter with a great deal of confidence in their existing roster, as Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports. Unsurprisingly, though, GM Jeff Luhnow identified starting pitching and catching as two areas that will need to be addressed. In other Astros news, the organization is expected to retain all of skipper A.J. Hinch’s coaches, Luhnow tells Rome (via Twitter). All are already under contract, per the GM. Of course, bench coach Joe Espada has received strong interest from other organizations as a managerial candidate, so it’s still possible the club will need to make a new hire.

International Notes: Kikuchi, Gaston, Jimenez

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It’s already been reported in Japan that the Seibu Lions intend to post ace left-hander Yusei Kikuchi for Major League teams this offseason, but the pitcher himself said after his team was eliminated from the postseason that he has not yet made a firm decision (link via Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times). “Well, the season just ended,” Kikuchi said. “…Regarding the future, it’s not all up to me. I haven’t had a chance to talk with the team.” Kikuchi, 27, added that he needs to spend time with his family to ponder the decision before making any firm request. Coskrey writes that the Lions have publicly acknowledged that they would honor Kikuchi’s request if he ultimately wishes to be posted. Kikuchi turned in 163 2/3 innings of 3.08 ERA ball with 8.4 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 for the Lions this season. In 1035 1/3 career innings in Japan, the three-time All-Star has a 2.81 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 — including a combined 2.58 ERA over the past four seasons.

If he is posted, Kikuchi would be free of international spending restrictions and could negotiate with all 30 MLB clubs on a contract. The new posting system between MLB and NPB would require Kikuchi’s new team to pay a fee equal to 20 percent of his contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5 percent of his next $25MM and 15 percent of anything beyond that (including incentives, option buyouts, etc.).

A few more notes on the international market…

  • The Marlins spent virtually all of their international bonus pool on brothers Victor Victor Mesa and Victor Mesa Jr., meaning right-hander Sandy Gaston almost certainly won’t be joining the Miami organization. Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald reports that Gaston’s camp is seeking a bonus north of $2MM for the 17-year-old flamethrower, with both the Orioles and Rays listed as potential landing spots. Baltimore has a reported sum of near $6.5MM left to spend on international amateurs, while Tampa Bay’s remaining international pool is in the $3.5MM range at present.
  • The White Sox have signed infielder Enoy Jimenez, the 17-year-old younger brother of top prospect Eloy Jimenez, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America (via Twitter). Scouting information on the younger Jimenez brother is virtually nonexistent, though it should be noted that the White Sox are barred from spending more than $300K on any international amateur signing due to their pool-shattering $26MM agreement with Luis Robert from the 2016-17 signing period, meaning Enoy couldn’t have received an especially large bonus. That certainly doesn’t mean that Enoy isn’t without upside — many high-profile Latin American players sign for only a few thousand dollars — but whatever the exact amount of the bonus was, it undoubtedly falls well shy of the $2.8MM the Cubs paid to sign Eloy back in 2013.

Despite Inexperience, Rocco Baldelli A Quality Managerial Candidate

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  • Even though he has never managed at any level, Rays coach Rocco Baldelli has interviewed with five skipper-needy teams in recent weeks. Despite his inexperience, it’s no surprise the 37-year-old has drawn serious interest from teams seeking a manager, argues the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin, who notes Baldelli packages youth, intelligence, communication skills and a knowledge of analytics. That’s a coveted blend in the modern game, and as Topkin points out, it doesn’t hurt that a.) Baldelli comes with front office/scouting experience and b.) is part of a club that just wrapped up a successful season under his boss, manager Kevin Cash. The Cash-led Rays plan to return the same coaching staff in 2019, Topkin reports, though they may have to replace Baldelli.
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