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Julio Lugo Passes Away

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Former major league infielder Julio Lugo has passed away after suffering what is believed to be a heart attack, his family tells Enrique Rojas of ESPN. He was 45 years old.

Lugo played in twelve major league seasons, suiting up for the Astros, Devil Rays, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals, Orioles and Braves between 2000-11. He was the primary shortstop on the Red Sox’s 2007 World Series-winning team, part of a seven-year run as a regular at the position.

Lugo appeared in 120+ games in six of seven seasons between 2001-07 before transitioning into a utility role later in his career. Altogether, the slick-fielding infielder appeared in 1352 MLB games, hitting .269/.333/.384 with 80 home runs over 5338 plate appearances.

MLBTR sends our condolences to Lugo’s family, friends, teammates and loved ones.

Marlins Acquire Louis Head From Rays

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The Marlins have acquired right-hander Louis Head from the Rays in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.  Miami has designated outfielder Brian Miller for assignment in a corresponding move to create roster space.

Head made his MLB debut in 2021 and impressed in terms of bottom-line numbers, posting a 2.31 ERA over 35 innings out of Tampa’s bullpen (with two “starts” but as an opener).  Advanced metrics like a 4.03 SIERA and 23.9% strikeout rate weren’t as impressive and Head did benefit from a .216 BABIP, but he also did a very good job of limiting hard contact.

Perhaps moreso than his solid numbers, Head might be the poster child for the Rays’ penchant for shuttling pitchers back and forth from Triple-A.  Head was called up and sent down a whopping 12 times last season, as the Rays constantly looked to move fresh arms in and out of their bullpen.

Head turns 32 in April, and was originally an 18th-round draft pick for Cleveland in 2012.  After eight seasons in the minors with the Guardians and Dodgers, Head was on the verge of leaving baseball entirely before catching on with the Rays this past offseason.  He’ll now go to Miami with presumably a better chance of sticking in the majors for a slightly more extended period of time, adding another live arm to a Marlins bullpen that was quietly pretty solid in 2021.

From the Rays’ perspective, they have the relief depth on paper to account for Head’s departure, and Tampa now also opens up another 40-man roster spot before Friday’s deadline to set rosters in advance of the Rule 5 draft.  The Rays made another roster clearance-type of deal yesterday, sending utility infielder Mike Brosseau to the Brewers.

Miller also made his Major League debut this past season, receiving 11 plate appearances over five games.  Miller was selected 36th overall in the 2017 draft, but a modest .284/.338/.360 slash line over 1759 PA in the Marlins’ system kept him from truly establishing himself as a part of the team’s future.  Miller does boast plenty of speed, which has led to 119 stolen bases out of 155 chances and the defensive versatility to handle any of the three outfield positions.

Brewers Acquire Mike Brosseau From Rays

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The Brewers have acquired utilityman Mike Brosseau from the Rays in exchange for minor league right-hander Evan Reifert.  Both teams have officially announced the trade.

One of many multi-positional players coming through the Rays’ pipeline, Brosseau was an undrafted free agent who rose through Tampa’s ranks to appear in 143 games over the last three seasons.  Brosseau hit .284/.343/.500 with 11 homers over 240 plate appearances in 2019-20, and looked to be on the verge of becoming a regular in the Rays’ infield mix before struggling in 2021.

Brosseau never seemed to get on track in the early going, and then found himself frequently shuttled back and forth between Tampa Bay and Triple-A Durham.  An oblique strain in July further hampered his season, and overall, Brosseau hit only .187/.266/.347 over 169 PA for the Rays.  This apparently made Brosseau an expendable piece for a Rays team deep in infield depth, and as broadcaster Neil Solondz notes, the Rays now also open up a roster spot in advance of the 40-man roster deadline on November 19.

The Brewers have a pattern of seeking out versatile players, and Brosseau has plenty of experience at multiple positions.  He has mostly played second base and third base throughout his pro career, but also has seen a decent chunk of action as a shortstop, first baseman, and corner outfielder.  A right-handed hitter, Brosseau can serve as a complement to lefty swingers Kolten Wong at second base or Rowdy Tellez at first base.  With Brosseau now in the fold, it could increase the chances that Milwaukee parts ways with at least one of Daniel Vogelbach or Jace Peterson prior to November 19, or the December 2 non-tender deadline.

Reifert is also technically an undrafted player, as though he was a 30th-round pick for the Rangers in 2018, he opted to attend college rather than begin his pro career at that stage.  He instead signed with the Brewers in 2020, as Reifert wasn’t selected in the shortened five-round 2020 draft.

The 22-year-old righty looked good in his first season, posting a 2.10 ERA with a stunning 40.23% strikeout rate over 60 combined relief innings with the Brewers’ high-A and A-ball affiliates.  Those missed bats came with some shaky control, however, as Reifert’s walk rate was a concerning 14.06%.  Reifert possesses an upper-90s fastball, so if the Rays can improve his command, the team will have yet another hard-throwing bullpen weapon at their disposal in the next season or two.

Adam Conley Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

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Left-handed pitcher Adam Conley, who was recently designated for assignment by the Rays, has cleared waivers and elected free agency per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

The 31-year-old Conley pitched effectively for a dominant Rays team after signing a surprise minor league deal in May. The jarring nature of Conley’s contract with the Rays came after he backed out of a deal with NPB’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, citing pandemic-related concerns.

For all the tumult of the reliever’s offseason though, the effects weren’t particular pronounced on his bottom-line results. Conley pitched to a 2.29 ERA across 19+ innings for Tampa Bay, albeit with less shiny peripherals and minor league numbers (4.35 ERA in 31 Triple-A innings). Some good BABIP fortune largely explains the hurler’s pristine ERA, but even when factoring that in his ability to limit walks and avoid hard contact were definite pluses. Another team will likely sign Conley to a low-risk deal to serve as depth in the coming months, perhaps eyeing a bit of upside if his effectiveness in this year’s small sample size proves sustainable.

Brewers Hire Ozzie Timmons, Connor Dawson As Hitting Coaches

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The Brewers announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Ozzie Timmons and Connor Dawson as co-hitting coaches. They’re also planning to hire an assistant hitting coach to work underneath Timmons and Dawson, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. They’ll replace Andy Haines, whose contract was not renewed last month.

Timmons has spent the past four seasons on the Rays’ coaching staff. He’d split his time between base coaching and serving as Tampa Bay’s assistant hitting coach before getting a bump to full-time assistant hitting coach last month. Just a few weeks later, he’ll land a more significant role in Milwaukee. An outfielder in his playing days, the 51-year-old Timmons appeared in parts of five big league seasons from 1995-2000.

Dawson comes over from the Mariners, where he’d been Seattle’s minor league hitting coordinator. The 28-year-old had previously spent a couple seasons coaching in the M’s system and now gets his first job on a big league staff.

Phillies To Hire Anirudh Kilambi As Assistant GM

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The Phillies are hiring Anirudh Kilambi as the team’s new assistant general manager, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  The 27-year-old Kilambi comes to Philadelphia after working as the Rays’ assistant director of baseball research and development, and according to The Athletic’s Matt Gelb, Kilambi will now oversee the Phils’ research and development division.

Kilambi began interning with the Rays front office in 2015, and worked his way up to his AD role in a little over three years’ time.  In a piece from last August, Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times named Kilambi as one of the many organizational figures instrumental in the Rays’ ability to find and develop a seeming unending stream of quality relief pitchers.

As evidenced by the long list of Tampa executives who have gone on to lead or work within other front offices, teams are forever curious to learn some of the Rays’ secrets.  If Kilambi can duplicate his magic in Philadelphia, it will be a particular boon to a team that has been plagued by a severe lack of reliable relief pitching in recent years.

Rays Pick Up Option On Mike Zunino

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The Rays have exercised their $7MM club option to keep Mike Zunino in the fold for 2022, as reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Also, Topkin reports that the club has selected catcher Rene Pinto to the 40-man roster and designated left-handed pitcher Adam Conley for assignment.

After a mediocre showing in 2020, the Rays declined a $4.5MM club option on Zunino for 2021, but then re-signed him to a new deal. It paid him $2MM for the year, as well as a $1MM buyout on a club option for 2022, which had a base value of $4MM but could increase as high as $7MM if Zunino played 100 games on the campaign. In the end, he got into 109 games and thus increased the option to its maximum value of $7MM.

Along the way, he had arguably his best season, hitting 33 home runs and slashing .216/.301/.559. Combining that offensive production with his strong defensive numbers, he was worth 4.5 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, just shy of his personal best of 4.6 from 2017. That level of production made it a no-brainer for the Rays to pick up the option and keep him around.

However, with the perpetually-frugal Rays, you can never discount a player being sent packing via trade, no matter how good they’ve been. They’ve never had an opening day payroll higher than $77MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. In the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, their 2022 payroll is already hovering in that range. That might mean this offseason sees the Rays engage in more of their usual creative maneuverings to keep the team competitive under their self-imposed limits.

This year’s crop of free agent catchers is quite weak, meaning Zunino would be of great interest to other clubs if the Rays were to shop him around. But then again, that would leave the club with a big hole behind the plate, as Francisco Mejia would be the only catcher on the 40-man roster with big league experience.

The 25-year-old Pinto was added to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency in a few hours. He split this season almost evenly between Double-A and Triple-A. Overall, he played 93 games, slashing .274/.325/.500, good enough for a wRC+ of 121.

As for Conley, the 31-year-old logged 19 2/3 innings for the Rays this year, with an ERA of 2.29. He was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $900K through arbitration, but the club will instead subtract him from the roster. Teams will now have seven days to claim Conley or work out a trade with the Rays. If he clears waivers, he can elect free agency as a player with more than three years’ service time.

Phillies Claim Ryan Sherriff From Rays

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The Phillies have claimed left-hander Ryan Sherriff off waivers from the Rays, per a club announcement. Should he stick around, Sherriff will look to help solidify a leaky Phillies ’pen that pitched to a 4.60 ERA (sixth-worst in the bigs) and 4.61 FIP (fourth-worst) in 2021. Sherriff posted a mediocre 5.52 ERA across 14 2/3 innings (16 appearances) this year, albeit with 16 Ks and a 3.65 FIP that suggest he may have suffered from a bit of bad luck. For his career, the lefty has been good for a 3.65 ERA (3.98 FIP) in 44 1/3 innings.

Originally a 2011 28th-rounder of the Cardinals, Sherriff debuted in the majors in 2017, making 18 relief appearances in St. Louis before undergoing Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2018 season. The Cards released him shortly thereafter, and he landed in Tampa on a minor-league pact shortly thereafter. He didn’t get back to the bigs until midway through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season but put up by far the best numbers of his career when he did, not giving up a single earned run in 9 2/3 innings — albeit while striking out only 2. He also covered two scoreless innings for the Rays in the 2020 World Series.

Though he made the opening day roster, Sherriff spent the season on the Triple-A shuttle, covering nearly twice as many innings for Durham as he did for Tampa. With just over a year in aggregate service time, Sherriff comes with considerable control and could become a mainstay for the Phils if he manages to establish himself in Philadelphia. How he’ll be asked to slot in remains to be seen, but sticking around in the Phillies’ notoriously leaky bullpen should prove a much easier task than it had been at the back end of Tampa’s stable of high-end arms.

Tampa Bay has also outrighted right-handers Oliver Drake, DJ Johnson and Chris Mazza in addition to lefty Cody Reed. All four of Drake, Johnson, Mazza and Reed will become free agents.

Kevin Kiermaier Undergoes Arthroscopic Knee Surgery

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The Rays announced that center fielder Kevin Kiermaier recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee (relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Recovery is expected to take four-to-six weeks, so Kiermaier shouldn’t have much issue being ready for the start of Spring Training.

While the surgery doesn’t seem likely to impact Kiermaier’s readiness for next season, it does at least add a bit of uncertainty to his outlook in an offseason where he figures to come up in trade rumors. Kiermaier is guaranteed another $14.5MM under the terms of the extension he signed in March 2017. He’ll receive a $12MM salary next season and is due at least a $2.5MM buyout on a $13MM club option covering the 2023 campaign.

That’s not an outlandish sum for a player of Kiermaier’s caliber, but it’s a large portion of the payroll for a Tampa Bay club that always winds up among the league’s lowest spenders. He’s come up in trade discussions numerous times in the past — including the lead-up to this summer’s trade deadline — and the Rays’ front office figures to discuss him with other clubs again this winter. That’s all the more likely in light of the staggering nineteen arbitration-eligible players on the roster.

Kiermaier has only once eclipsed 130 games in a season, with his high-effort style of play frequently taking a physical toll. That said, the all-out mentality is also a big driver of elite defensive marks that perennially place Kiermaier among the game’s best outfielders. That was again the case in 2021, with Defensive Runs Saved crediting the 31-year-old as 13 runs better than average in 894 2/3 innings in center field. Combined with league average offense (.259/.328/.388 over 390 plate appearances), Kiermaier was valued at around three wins above replacement by both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

Rays Expected To Receive Fourth Option On Brendan McKay

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The Rays are expected to receive a fourth option year on left-hander/first baseman Brendan McKay, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. If that indeed proves to be the case, Tampa Bay would be able to option McKay to the minor leagues through the end of next season.

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