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AL Central Notes: White Sox, Uribe, Urshela, Freese, Rosario

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Here’s the latest from around the AL Central…

  • The White Sox and Cubs have both contacted the Rays about their pitching and outfield surplus, CBS Chicago’s Bruce Levine reports.  The Cubs’ discussions with the Rays have been well-documented this winter, though the Sox are a new entry among the many teams to touch base with the Rays about their young arms; Levine notes that at least 11 teams have asked Tampa Bay about pitchers.  The White Sox have needs at both corner outfield positions and at the back end of their rotation.  The all-lefty trio of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Carlos Rodon will headline the Pale Hose rotation, while John Danks, Jacob Turner and Erik Johnson are the current competitors for the fourth and fifth starters’ jobs.
  • The White Sox went on a seven-game winning streak from July 23 to July 29 last season, though this hot stretch right in the leadup to the trade deadline didn’t really change the team’s plans, GM Rick Hahn tells MLB.com’s Scott Merkin.  The decision to keep Jeff Samardzija at the deadline, for instance, wasn’t made because of the win streak; “nothing materialized and nothing was done in principal” in terms of a possible Samardzija trade, though the Sox were discussing him with teams.  “Those [talks] don’t necessarily happen July 27, 28, 29 and 30th. Those are going on for several weeks,” Hahn said.
  • The Indians have offered Juan Uribe around $3MM, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports as part of his latest subscription-only column.  Uribe has been linked to the Tribe and a few other teams, though salary will depend on whether or not Uribe is slated for a starting or backup role.  Cleveland seems likely to use Uribe and Giovanny Urshela in a time-share at third, so Uribe wouldn’t get the lion’s share of playing time.
  • Speaking of Urshela, Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at the Indians’ incumbent at the hot corner, noting that it’s too soon to write off the 24-year-old as an all-glove, no-bat player.  While Urshela’s minor league numbers aren’t impressive overall, he did post an .825 OPS over 528 PA at Double-A and Triple-A in 2014.  Pluto notes that Urshela battled injuries in 2015 and was probably promoted too quickly.  Urshela’s glove is so impressive that he can be a very useful everyday player if he hits even just a little, though Pluto notes that there are enough questions surrounding Urshela that the Tribe is justified in looking for an upgrade, especially in a season when team plans to contend.
  • The Indians are leaning more towards Uribe than David Freese to address their third base need, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes as part of a reader mailbag.  Freese entered the winter as the best of a fairly thin free agent third base market but there’s been very little news about him this winter, aside from some talks with the Angels before they acquired Yunel Escobar.
  • Randy Rosario was something of a surprising addition to the Twins’ 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft, but as Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes, the Twins are impressed by the young left-hander’s promise.  Rosario, 21, missed much of 2014 recovering from Tommy John surgery before returning to pitch 53 2/3 innings in A-ball last season.  The Dominican Republic product signed an $85K contract with the Twins in 2010.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/5/16

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • The Yankees added outfielder Jared Mitchell on a minor league pact, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Mitchell has been playing in the upper minors for quite some time after moving quickly upon being taken as the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft, but he’s yet to crack the majors. He spent most of last year with the Angels after breaking in with the White Sox, and owns a .213/.329/.338 batting line with 12 home runs and 10 stolen bases over 695 total plate appearances in parts of four seasons at Triple-A.
  • Meanwhile, the division-rival Rays are evidently working on a new pitching angle after adding converted catcher Jeff Howell on a minor league deal, as Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets (with an assist from Mick Reinhard of PennLive, on Twitter). He joins fellow knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa in the Tampa Bay organization, which has also recently added former big league knuckler Charlie Haeger to its instructional staff. Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see how this apparent experiment pans out.
  • The Rays also picked up righty Adam Reifer on a minors deal, per Eddy. The 29-year-old reliever owns a 4.35 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 over 176 total minor league frames.

Rays Interested In Tyler Clippard

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The Rays are among the teams considering a run at Tyler Clippard late in the offseason, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). As Topkin notes, Clippard was raised in Florida — he attended high school roughly 40 miles from Tropicana Field — and would also benefit from Florida’s lack of an income tax.

The lack of a market for Clippard has been surprising to many, although the right-hander certainly isn’t without red flags. His velocity has dropped each season since 2013, and he posted his lowest full-season strikeout rate in 2015 while also recording the third-worst full-season walk rate of his career. Clippard was also the game’s most extreme fly-ball pitcher last season; his 60.6 percent fly-ball rate was the highest among any pitcher that threw at least 20 innings, and it wasn’t particularly close. Teams may also be concerned about the huge workload on Clippard’s right arm; no reliever is within even 50 innings of the 464 1/3 innings that Clippard has tallied since the 2010 season.

Of course, that durability can also be perceived as a positive. Clippard has never been on the disabled list, and he’s made at least 72 appearances with at least 70 innings pitched in each of the past six seasons. Given the volatile nature of relief pitcher’s, Clippard’s consistent ability to take the mound — and pitch effectively, no less — is nothing short of remarkable. Dating back to that previously mentioned 2010 season, Clippard has a 2.67 ERA with 10.1 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9. He’s always been a fly-ball pitcher — though rarely to the extreme that he displayed in 2015 — but has managed to average less than a home run per nine innings (0.9 HR/9) in that stretch as well.

The question with which teams are faced, then, is whether or not the decline in Clippard’s K/BB numbers and velocity are due to that heavy workload or are elements of his game that can be corrected. Given the fact that he’s the last big-name relief arm left on the market, it would seem that there is indeed some level of trepidation surrounding him, but that could create the opportunity for a team to get something of a bargain rate on a player that has typically yielded high-quality results.

The Rays, in particular, could make sense as a landing spot for a reputable setup man, as the team has traded both Kevin Jepsen (to the Twins) and Jake McGee (to the Rockies) in the past six months or so, creating a potential late-inning opening. Clippard would theoretically join names like Danny Farquhar and Alex Colome as right-handed setup pieces serving as a bridge to closer Brad Boxberger.

Drew Smyly Wins Arbitration Hearing Over Rays

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Left-hander Drew Smyly and his agents at Frontline Athlete Management have won their arbitration hearing against the Rays, reports Jon Heyman (on Twitter). Because of the arbitration panel’s ruling, Smyly will earn $3.75MM in 2016 as opposed to the $3.2MM figure that had been submitted by the team.

This will be Smyly’s second trip through the arbitration process. As a Super Two player, he landed a $2.65MM salary last offseason and will be eligible for arbitration twice more before qualifying for free agency. Because his future salaries will be based off of his 2016 salary, that fact that he received the higher of the two possible sums in this hearing means that not only will he receive a greater salary in 2016, but his future salaries, too, will be based on a considerably more favorable launching point.

The sum in question at the hearing may seem relatively trivial to onlookers, although as several GMs and assistant GMs explained to MLBTR last year at this time, teams feel a responsibility to manage the arbitration market, as it is shared by all 30 clubs. Because all arbitration cases are built on recent historical comparables, the slight increases would eventually compound and become more significant were every team simply to give in to what appear, on the surface, to be relatively trivial amounts.

Rays, Drew Smyly Had Arbitration Hearing Today

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The Rays and left-hander Drew Smyly had an arbitration hearing today, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). A hearing is expected to come tomorrow, per Topkin, at which time an arbitration panel will award Smyly either a $3.75MM salary for the 2016 season (the figure he submitted) or a $3.2MM salary (the figure submitted by the Rays).

The 26-year-old Smyly came to the Rays by way of 2014’s three-team David Price blockbuster. Smyly had a dominant finish to that 2014 campaign following the trade — 1.70 ERA across seven starts — but lost a significant portion of his first full season with the Rays due to shoulder problems. After opening the year on the DL due to shoulder tendinitis, Smyly was activated in late April and made three starts before being diagnosed a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder. Smyly elected not to undergo surgery, which allowed him to pitch again i 2015 but also required a three-month stay on the disabled list. He returned in strong fashion, though, posting a 3.24 ERA with a 56-to-17 K/BB ratio in 50 innings across his final nine starts.

This will be Smyly’s second trip through the arbitration process. As a Super Two player, he landed a $2.65MM salary last offseason and will be eligible for arbitration twice more before qualifying for free agency. Because his future salaries will be based off of his 2016 salary, the outcome of the hearing carries much farther-reaching ramifications than the $550K that the two sides are presently debating.

The sum in question may seem trivial to some, although as several Major League executives explained to MLBTR last year at this time, teams feel a responsibility to manage a market that is shared by all 30 clubs. Because all arbitration cases are built on recent historical comparables, the slight increases would eventually compound and become more significant were every team simply to give in to what appear, on the surface, to be relatively trivial amounts.

Smyly is one of 16 arbitration cases around the league that remains unresolved, as MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker shows. While some of those will be resolved prior to a hearing, it does appear that there will be a handful of cases settled via hearing in 2016.

Corey Dickerson And Steve Pearce Could Form A Productive Platoon

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  • Of course, small market clubs will always need to be more creative than their larger-budget brethren, and August Fagerstrom of Fangraphs explores one key method that most employ: taking advantage of platoons. Fagerstrom looks at projected platoons around the league to identify the combinations with the most promise. Three teams have reasonable expectations of 3+ WAR platoons, should they decide to use them: the Mets (Neil Walker and Wilmer Flores), Red Sox (Jackie Bradley Jr. and Chris Young), and Cardinals (Kolten Wong and Jedd Gyorko). Of course, none of those teams are light spenders, but there are numerous other examples throughout the post, including the possible combination that the Rays just set up with Corey Dickerson and Steve Pearce.

AL East Notes: Ramirez, Navarro, Rays, Cashman

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Ramon Ramirez, an infield prospect in the Orioles system, died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday in the Dominican Republic.  The 23-year-old Ramirez signed with the O’s in 2014 and played second, third and shortstop in 55 games at the Rookie League and low- and high-A ball levels over the last two seasons.  “Our entire organization is deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic death of Ramon Ramirez. As a member of the Orioles organization, Ramon worked tirelessly to make the most of his opportunity to play professional baseball. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, teammates, and coaches as we mourn this unimaginable loss,” Orioles executive VP Dan Duquette said in a statement today.  We at MLB Trade Rumors join the Orioles and the baseball world in expressing our condolences to Ramirez’s loved ones.

Some news from around the AL East…

  • The Orioles’ acquisition of first baseman/outfielder Efren Navarro adds some depth and gives Baltimore some roster flexibility, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes.  With Navarro now in the mix as a first base backup behind Chris Davis, the O’s could use young first basemen Christian Walker or Trey Mancini as trade chips.  Since Navarro is a well-regarded defender at first, Kubatko also wonders if Davis could see more time in the outfield.  Davis said he’s “always open to doing whatever it takes to win,” though noted that he’s much more comfortable in right field than left.
  • Now that the Rays have traded Jake McGee, their next move could be to acquire a replacement setup man, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  Alex Colome and Xavier Cedeno form a righty-lefty setup combo at the moment, though Topkin thinks the Rays could sign another veteran bullpen option (though not a big name like Tyler Clippard) or potentially trade for a reliever by dealing from their outfield surplus.  Brandon Guyer or Desmond Jennings could be trade chips in that scenario, Topkin opines, though interested teams may need to see that Jennings is healthy in Spring Training following his injury-plagued 2015 season.  The Rays still aren’t generating any trade buzz on James Loney, despite their willingness to cover part of his salary.
  • The only team yet to sign a Major League free agent this offseason has been, of all teams, the Yankees.  While GM Brian Cashman tells Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News that the club “explored all avenues” to upgrade the roster, the Bronx Bombers have been much more focused on trades rather than free agent signings over the last two offseasons.  This winter, such major names as Aroldis Chapman, Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks joined the team.  “There’s a lot of different ways to climb the mountain. This winter took us to trades. We spent money, but it was acquiring contracts through trades. We’ve traded talent from our system to do that,” Cashman said.
  • There’s little question that Blue Jays fans want Jose Bautista to sign an extension, as evidenced by a very pro-Bautista response at a recent “Pitch Talks” speaker series event in Toronto.  FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, one of the speakers at the event, used the response to illustrate the sometimes stark difference in perspective between fans and front offices.  While there are solid baseball reasons to keep Bautista (as outlined by Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling at the event), general front office logic would dictate that extending a veteran slugger past his age-35 season isn’t necessarily a wise move.  While many fans understand this reasoning, that doesn’t stop the more general sentiment amongst the fanbase that the Jays should keep a player who has been such a huge star for the franchise.  I outlined the tricky situation the Jays face with Bautista in an Extension Candidate entry last November.

Reactions To The Corey Dickerson Trade

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Here’s a roundup of links on the Rays’ recent acquisition of Corey Dickerson and minor league third baseman Kevin Padlo from the Rockies for Jake McGee and pitching prospect German Marquez.

  • Dickerson adds to what’s becoming a large collection of candidates to play outfield, first base and DH for the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. That group includes Dickerson, Kevin Kiermaier, Desmond Jennings, Steven Souza, Brandon Guyer, James Loney, Steve Pearce and Logan Morrison. Of those, Dickerson, Pearce and Morrison are new additions, and Jennings essentially will be a new addition as well, having missed most of the 2015 season due to a knee injury. “It’s hard to predict how it’s going to actually turn out, but having this group gives us a lot of confidence that we’re going to score the runs that we need to this year,” says Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman.
  • Rockies GM Jeff Bridich says that, in addition to adding a potential closer in McGee, they’ve improved their defense and baserunning by replacing Dickerson with Gerardo Parra, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. Of course, they’ll be losing Dickerson and his career .299/.345/.534 line, a good one even in Colorado. “Offensively, I’m not sure how it improves our outfield,” Bridich says. “Corey is a very talented offensive player. The things he always needed to work on at the major-league level were his outfield defense and his baserunning. And I think those two places are two places of strength for Gerardo.”
  • Dickerson for McGee is a “weird trade” from the Rockies’ perspective, FanGraphs’ Dave Cameron writes. The Rockies are giving up four years of control of a talented young hitter in exchange for two years of a reliever, and they could have moved Dickerson to first base, where they have a vacancy. And adding a short-term relief acquisition makes little sense for a team that doesn’t seem poised to contend, Cameron argues. For the Rays, Dickerson wasn’t exactly a necessity, but they added talent in the deal and can figure out what to do with their OF/1B/DH surplus later.

AL Notes: Bullpens, Perez, Rays

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The Yankees and Red Sox are among the seven teams this offseason that kept their closer but also added another team’s closer, ESPN’s Jayson Stark writes. “It’s been the wave. Let’s face it,” says Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who made a huge trade for Craig Kimbrel in November. “A lot of clubs have improved the depth in their bullpen. And it has paid off.” Of course, the most recent template for this kind of bullpen stockpiling came from the Royals, who rode a weak rotation and a dominant bunch of late-inning relievers to a World Series win last season. But Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo points out that the Reds’ “Nasty Boys” bullpen of a quarter-century ago was similarly potent. “We didn’t invent this,” he says. “[W]e just stumbled upon it.” Here’s more from the American League.

  • Royals catcher Salvador Perez confirms that he and his team have been working on an extension, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com writes. Jon Heyman reported earlier this week that the two sides were working on a new deal. “I got my agents they are talking to. We’ll see,” says Perez. “We have to wait for it. I’m happy either way. I’m happy no matter what. I’m here to play the game.” Perez, of course, is signed to one of baseball’s most team-friendly contracts — he’s set to make just $2MM next season and then has three club options after that, none of them exceeding $6MM.
  • The Rays’ offseason moves have focused on fixing an offense that finished 14th in the AL in runs scored last season, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The team’s recent additions of Corey Dickerson and Steve Pearce (to go along with Brad Miller and Logan Morrison, who they’d previously acquired) give the Rays a wider variety of offensive options. It remains to be seen, however, how they’ll deploy them. As Topkin points out, one victim of all the Rays’ additions could be first baseman James Loney. With Desmond Jennings, Kevin Kiermaier and Steven Souza in the outfield, Dickerson could play DH while Pearce and Morrison share first base.

Rays Sign Steve Pearce

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The Rays announced on Thursday that they have signed corner outfielder/first baseman Steve Pearce to a one-year deal. The Excel Sports Management client will reportedly receive a $4.75MM guarantee with a the opportunity to earn more through playing time incentives. Pearce can earn $125K for reaching 400 and 425 plate appearances and an additional $250K for reaching 500, 525, 550 and 575 plate appearances. All told, he can earn a total of $6MM between his base salary and playing-time incentives, and he’ll also pick up a $250K bonus if he’s traded.

Steve Pearce

A deal with the Rays represents a homecoming of sorts for the 33-year-old Pearce, who is a native of Lakeland, Fla. — about an hour northeast of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Pearce enjoyed a monster 2014 season with the Orioles but saw his production come back down to Earth in 2015. His strikeout and walk rates trended in the wrong direction this past season, but the larger factor behind Pearce’s 2015 struggles was likely a 90-point drop in BABIP. Pearce did see a fairly notable dip in his percentage of hard contact (34.6 percent in 2014, 30.1 percent in 2015), but that shouldn’t result in such a drastic drop in his fortune on balls in play, so there’s good reason to believe that he can bounce back to some extent in 2016.

While expecting a return to 2014’s mammoth .293/.373/.556 levels of production isn’t realistic, the cumulative sum of his efforts across the past two seasons is a .258/.335/.494 batting line, and if Pearce can approach anything resembling that production, he’d be an excellent pickup for the Rays on a one-year pact. Pearce’s track record, admittedly, is rather spotty, but as a player with 31 homers over his past 592 Major League plate appearances, there’s certainly upside to be had.

Pearce gives manager Kevin Cash a platoon option with either Logan Morrison or James Loney at first base/designated hitter, and he can see time in the outfield as well in the event of further injuries to Desmond Jennings, Steven Souza and the newly acquired Corey Dickerson. Pearce also spent some time at second base last season in Baltimore, although that was a rather curious decision considering the fact that Pearce had never started a regular season game at that position prior to 2015. Nonetheless, Pearce added 18 games’ worth of experience at second to his bag of tricks and could conceivably be used there on occasion in a pinch. It should also be noted that Pearce isn’t necessarily just a platoon option. While he’s done more damage against left-handed pitching over the past two seasons, he’s also hit right-handers quite well, slashing .258/.336/.481 against same-handed opponents.

While he’s entering his age-33 season, the upcoming campaign could be an important one for Pearce, who has spent the entirety of his career playing on one-year deals to this point. If he’s able to produce at a consistent level, he’ll enter a weak class of free agents coming off a three-year stretch that includes a pair of highly productive seasons. Heading into his age-34 campaign in 2017, a multi-year deal wouldn’t be out of the question.

Because the Rays traded two players that were on the 40-man roster — Jake McGee and German Marquez — in the Dickerson trade and only received one 40-man player in return (Dickerson), the Rays do not need to make a move to clear space for Pearce.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the agreement (Twitter link). Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the financial terms (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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