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Rangers Near Deal With Scott Baker

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The Rangers are close to a deal with starting pitcher Scott Baker, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish initially reported (via Twitter) that the two sides were "making progress" on a deal. Baker is represented by Octagon.

Baker requested, and received, his release from the Mariners Monday. He made three starts with the Cubs in 2013 as he recovered from elbow issues that had kept him out of the Majors since 2011. The Rangers are trying to fill an increasingly injury-plagued rotation that currently includes Martin Perez, Tanner Scheppers, Robbie Ross and Joe Saunders. Yu Darvish, who's dealing with a neck injury, will not start Opening Day, and the team has recently ruled out Colby Lewis as a rotation candidate.

Rangers Seek Depth At Second And Catcher

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11:43pm: The Rangers are scouting the Cubs, MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan reports, and perhaps not just because of Kottaras. The Cubs also have infielders Darwin Barney and Donnie Murphy. The Rangers like Barney better, Sullivan writes.

4:50pm: In the wake of Soto's injury, the Rangers are considering acquiring George Kottaras of the Cubs, Bruce Levine of 670TheScore.com tweets. Kottaras currently projects to back up Welington Castillo in Chicago, but the Cubs are reportedly considering rostering John Baker instead. Kottaras, 30, hit .180/.349/.370 in 126 plate appearances for the Royals last year. In response to Soto's injury, the Rangers have already signed Chris Snyder to a minor-league deal.

The Rangers also looked at Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks today, Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel tweets. As Haudricourt notes, Weeks' $11MM salary could be an impediment to a trade. Weeks hit .209/.306/.357 in 399 plate appearances with the Brewers last year.

12:08pm: Texas has checked in with several clubs with catching depth, including the Yankees, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Though Francisco Cervelli may be available, Olney says that there does not appear to be a fit between those two clubs.

10:50am: The Rangers have had trade talks in a bid to add depth at catcher and/or second base, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. The expected starters at those two spots — catcher Geovany Soto and second baseman Jurickson Profar — are each expected to miss ten to twelve weeks to open the year.

While it would be pure speculation to guess at possible trade partners in this kind of scenario, we can look at the available free agent pool for other alternatives. With the list growing as final roster decisions are made, Texas could look to players like Tony Abreu, Ronny Cedeno, or Cesar Izturis for the middle infield. Meanwhile, available catching options include recently-released players like Ramon Hernandez, Chris Snyder, and Yorvit Torrealba.

Of course, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wrote yesterday, it could be that the greater concern is with the state of the rotation. That is all the more true now, with this morning's report (via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that ace Yu Darvish will miss his Opening Day start and undergo an MRI to determine the cause of his stiff neck.

Charlie Wilmoth contributed to this post.

West Notes: Dodgers, Baker, Rangers, Mariners

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The Dodgers have the highest projected payroll in baseball at $235MM, which means that, for the first time in 15 years, the Yankees do not have baseball's highest payroll, the Associated Press reports. Also, the Dodgers' Zack Greinke will top the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez for baseball's highest-paid player. Greinke will make $24MM in the second year of his contract, and MLB's accounting also includes a prorated portion of his signing bonus. Greinke would have counted as the highest-paid player in the game even if Rodriguez hadn't been suspended for the season. Here are more notes from the West divisions.

  • Pitcher Scott Baker is "making progress" on a deal with the injury-ravaged Rangers, Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com tweets. The Mariners released Baker yesterday. Baker, 32, has played sparingly in the Majors since 2011, due to elbow troubles.
  • The Mariners want to find a right-handed hitter, and they might not trade Nick Franklin unless they find one, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal tweets. A righty would help the Mariners balance a lefty-heavy lineup that includes Robinson Cano, Logan Morrison, Brad Miller, Kyle Seager, Dustin Ackley and Michael Saunders.
  • Veteran infielder John McDonald has made the Angels roster, and he's thinking about what could be his last season in the big leagues, writes MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez. "This could be my last year," McDonald says. "I'm not going to have a press conference to announce it. … You never know what can happen. I don't like putting a timetable on anything. I'm 39. I'm not foolish. There is only so long you can play." McDonald has never played more than 123 games in a season but, mostly thanks to his defense, he's managed to eke out a 15-year career with the Indians, Tigers, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Indians, Phillies, Red Sox and now the Angels. 

Rangers To Sign Chris Snyder

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The Rangers have agreed to a minor league deal with catcher Chris Snyder, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). Snyder was released just yesterday by the Nationals.

The 33-year-old will provide depth to the team while starter Geovany Soto works to return from knee surgery. Snyder's last substantial MLB action came in 2012 with the Astros, when he put up a .176/.295/.308 line in 258 plate appearances. He had a strong spring line in limited action, putting up a .294/.381/.529 triple-slash with one long ball in 21 plate appearances. The Rangers apparently preferred him to other available options, such as Ramon Hernandez and Yorvit Torrealba.

AL Notes: Almanzar, Athletics, Blue Jays

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After a busy transactional day yesterday, here are some American League notes that we did not quite get to:

  • The Orioles are trying to decide what to do with Rule 5 pick Michael Almanzar, who looks to be unlikely to make the club's Opening Day roster. One possibility is a trade of the rights to the former Red Sox third base prospect, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. But that scenario could be complicated by the fact that Almanzar is dealing with a knee problem that will require an MRI, as MLB.com's Adam Berry reports. Of course, if Almanzar were to require a DL trip to start the year, it would offer Baltimore some added time to sort things out. Manager Buck Showalter said the team would not use the injury as pretext, however, emphasizing that Almanzar would only go to the DL if the injury required it.
  • The Athletics raised some eyebrows by spending significant cash on relievers this offseason, taking on the salaries of Jim Johnson ($10MM) and Luke Gregerson ($5.065MM) while committing $7MM to Eric O'Flaherty over two years. For the notoriously tight-fisted, analytical ballclub, this spending pattern led to an obvious question: what edge had GM Billy Beane found this time? As Yahoo's Jeff Passan reports, the explanation may be fairly simple. With limited payroll to add to a ready-to-win roster, the club simply got the best "bang for its buck (Beane's words) while avoiding long-term commitments. Of course, as Passan notes, the team also knows that allowing Johnson to rack up the saves will result in arbitration savings on in-house relievers like Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle.
  • With just days remaining until the deadline to settle on an Opening Day roster, the Blue Jays still have several roster battles taking place. As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca writes, there still seems to be plenty of wiggle room in the final composition of the Toronto club. The rotation has two spots in play given J.A. Happ's struggles, the middle infield mix could be impacted by the recent injury to Jose Reyes, the backup catching situation is still not finalized, and the fourth outfielding spot is suddenly open to a last-minute competition between Moises Sierra and the newly-added Matt Tuiasosopo. Of course, as Nicholson-Smith notes, options will play a big role in the final determinations and no MLB roster is static throughout the season.

Minor Moves: Galarraga, Wada, Lim

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Here are today's minor moves:

  • The Rangers have released righty Armando Galarraga, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News reports (via Twitter). The 32-year-old of near-perfect-game fame had a 3.64 ERA in 121 Triple-A innings last year. In spite of the rash of starting pitching injuries in Texas, Galarraga never got a chance to throw in an MLB Spring Training game.
  • Just one day after releasing him, the Cubs have re-signed lefty Tsuyoshi Wada, according to the MLB.com transactions page. Wada was originally signed as an Article XX(B) free agent, and it appears that club and player merely used the release and re-sign as a procedural mechanism to reach different terms.
  • The Cubs have also released another reliever in Chang-Yong Lim, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Lim, 37, had already been re-assigned to Triple-A. Lim's contract was sold to the Samsung Lions of South Korea's KBO, tweets Gonzales. In six MLB games last year, he threw 5 innings and allowed three earned runs, walking seven and striking out five. He was solid in his first run at the Triple-A level after coming over from Japan, throwing 22 1/3 innings of 1.61 ERA ball with 9.7 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9. 

Geovany Soto Tears Meniscus, Out 10-12 Weeks

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Rangers catcher Geovany Soto has torn his lateral meniscus and will miss ten to twelve weeks recovering from surgery, reports Jeff WIlson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter). He becomes the latest in a series of Rangers to suffer significant injuries.

With Soto on the shelf, free agent signee J.P. Arencibia figures to handle most of the load in the earlygoing, though manager Ron Washington would not commit to giving the starting nod to the former Blue Jay regular. 29-year-old Robinson Chirinos is the only other player that Texas has under contract who comes with MLB experience (just 90 plate appearances).

With roster decisions being finalized in the coming days, it would not be surprising to find Texas in the market for another backstop. As MLBTR's Charlie Wilmoth wrote in reviewing the club's offseason moves, the veteran-laden club is firmly in win-now mode. The group of catchers was already below average, and now looks like it may well need a new addition.

Offseason In Review: Texas Rangers

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The Rangers won the offseason with high-profile acquisitions of Shin-Soo Choo and Prince Fielder, and they figure to compete again in 2014, but they've taken on two contracts that could be onerous in a few years, and now they're dealing with injury issues.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings 
Extensions
  • SP Martin Perez: Four years, $12.5MM, with three club options
Trades and Claims
Notable Losses 

Needs Addressed
 
The Rangers entered the offseason needing to improve at first base and relieve their middle-infield logjam, and they solved both problems with one fell swoop by trading Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for Prince Fielder and cash. Fielder will, clearly, be an upgrade over the Rangers' 2013 first basemen, mostly Mitch Moreland and Jeff Baker. Moreland will become the Rangers' primary DH, where he should be no worse than Lance Berkman was in his last season before retirement.

Meanwhile, Jurickson Profar, who was to become the Rangers' new second baseman, would have provided at least the chance that the team wouldn't miss Kinsler too much. Profar struggled in his first extended shot in the big leagues in 2013, but as a former elite prospect who only recently turned 21, he should have been able to take a step forward in 2014. The 31-year-old Kinsler, meanwhile, had declined both offensively and defensively since his outstanding 2011 season. Unfortunately, the Rangers announced on Sunday that Profar would be out ten to 12 weeks with a muscle tear.

Long-term, the Fielder-for-Kinsler swap is a complex proposition. Even with the $30MM the Rangers received from the Tigers in the deal, and even with Kinsler's own large contract heading the other way, the Rangers added $76MM in salary in the trade, and they'll effectively be paying Fielder $138MM ($168MM minus $30MM) through 2020. The Rangers will need to hope that Fielder's relatively pedestrian .279/.362/.457 2013 season wasn't the start of a trend. Given his deficiencies on defense and on the basepaths, that line made him worth just 2.2 WAR in 2013. And seven years is an awfully long commitment for a slugger who's about to turn 30, particularly given Fielder's physique.

The Rangers did, of course, rid themselves of Kinsler's contract, but there's reason to think that Kinsler, a more athletic player who maintains some defensive value, might decline more slowly than Fielder will.  Age can be unkind to big sluggers. The Rangers' Fielder acquisition suited their needs brilliantly in the short term. In the long term, his contract could become a big problem.

The Rangers also made what was nearly a challenge trade with their division rivals in Oakland, sending whiz defensive outfielder Craig Gentry and depth pitching option Josh Lindblom in return for outfield prospect Michael Choice and young middle infielder Chris Bostick. Lindblom lacks upside and Bostick is little more than a lottery ticket, given his strikeout issues in Class A. So the deal mostly boils down to Gentry for Choice. Gentry is clearly a valuable player, but the Rangers wanted Leonys Martin to play every day in center, and Choice, who's coming off a strong season in Triple-A Sacramento, should give the Rangers a good, cheap option in a corner or DH whenever they have space for him.

The Rangers needed to find not one but two catchers, with both A.J. Pierzynski and Geovany Soto eligible for free agency after 2013. Rather than splurging on top free agent option Brian McCann, the Rangers brought Soto back, this time as a starter, and signed J.P. Arencibia to be his backup. Given that the Rangers proved perfectly willing to spend money elsewhere, these were savvy moves, even though there's downside risk, particularly in Arencibia's case. Soto vanished into backup-catcherdom thanks to a bad 2012 season, even though he was still fairly young and had a long track record of providing value. After a .245/.328/.466 season as Pierzynski's caddy in 2013, the Rangers are paying barely over $3MM to have Soto start. He's still a credible starting catcher, and his cost is negligible by the standards of MLB free-agent contracts.

Their signing of Arencibia was also a clever move. Arencibia is coming off a disastrous offensive season in Toronto, and his inability to hit for average is a problem even in the best of circumstances. He is developing a great reputation as a pitch-framer, however, and he has outstanding power for a catcher. It's not hard to imagine a season in which he bats .210 but remains very valuable by helping Rangers pitchers and belting 15 home runs in a very power-friendly ballpark.

The Rangers also added an interesting relief arm in Miles Mikolas, giving up only Chris McGuiness, a left-handed first baseman who would be stretched as a starter and who served little purpose with both Fielder and Moreland available. Mikolas doesn't have any immediate role on the 2014 Rangers, but he throws hard and gets ground balls, and he held his own in a half-season with the Padres in 2012.

On the extension front, the Rangers signed young starter Martin Perez to a four-year, $12.5MM deal that buys out two pre-arbitration seasons and two arbitration seasons, while giving the Rangers reasonable options on Perez's last arbitration season and two free-agency years ($6MM or a $2.45MM buyout in 2018, $7.5MM or a $750K buyout in 2019, and $9MM with a $250K buyout in 2020). The deal is extremely favorable to the Rangers, since $12.5MM is such a meager sum and since the contract gives the Rangers so much flexibility with Perez's age-27 through age-29 seasons. Perez is already off to a good start in his big-league career, and if he can improve at all beyond his performance in 2013, his contract will turn into a bargain very quickly.

Finally, the Rangers added Tommy Hanson and Joe Saunders on cheap contracts, hoping to replenish their starting pitching in the wake of a significant injury to Derek Holland. Tanner Scheppers will now join Yu Darvish and Perez in the Rangers' rotation, with Saunders, Hanson, Robbie Ross and Colby Lewis competing for the final two spots, while Alexi Ogando moves to the bullpen to set up Joakim Soria.

Questions Remaining

The rotation with which the Rangers are about to enter 2014 probably isn't what they would have imagined for themselves in October, but they'll have to make do. Hanson struggled with the Angels in 2013 as the velocity and effectiveness of his fastball continued to decline. Saunders was somewhat better in 2013 than his 5.26 ERA with the Mariners suggested, and he might turn out to be a modest bargain for the Rangers, particularly given the minimal amount of risk they assumed. But he's still an average starting pitcher at best. Holland and Matt Harrison (who is also working his way back from injury) can't return quickly enough.

2013 closer Joe Nathan headed to the Tigers after declining his 2014 option. The Rangers should still have a decent bullpen, however. Soria will take Nathan's place after a strong spring; he was once one of baseball's best closers, and he'll only be 30 in May, so it's not unreasonable to hope he might be able to return to his prior heights. With Ogando, Neal Cotts and Jason Frasor, Soria will be reasonably well supported. Neftali Feliz and Michael Kirkman, along with a number of the Rangers' lower-profile offseason acquisitions (Shawn Tolleson, Rafael Perez, Pedro Figueroa, Ryan Feierabend, and others) will compete for the last few jobs in the bullpen.

With Profar now out, the Rangers have a hole at second base. Top prospect Rougned Odor might be a possibility, but he has little experience in the high minors. If not Odor, the Rangers could turn to Adam Rosales, Kensuke Tanaka or Josh Wilson. None of those solutions are ideal. That leaves the Rangers with potential question marks not only at DH, but at second base as well — not that Profar would have been a sure thing, of course. Catcher could also be an issue, with Soto recently having a precautionary MRI on his knee. (The injury bug has bitten the Rangers badly.) Also, with lefties Choo and Fielder anchoring the lineup, the Rangers are thin against left-handed pitching, particularly if Choice doesn't make the 25-man roster.

Deal of Note

USATSI_7814654Shin-Soo Choo's massive deal falls into the same category as the Fielder trade — it fits the Rangers' needs to a tee right now, but could become a problem in a relatively short time. The Rangers needed a right fielder given the imminent departure of Nelson Cruz, and it's hard to argue with Choo's spectacular .423 on-base percentage last season. It also makes sense for him to be back in right field, since he was a defensive liability in center for the Reds last season.

In the long term, though, seven years and $130MM is a huge commitment for a 31-year-old corner outfielder who doesn't have elite power and who already arguably should be platooned — Choo hit just .215/.347/.265 against lefties in 2013, with the walk as his only real weapon against them. Given that Choo isn't an outstanding defensive player either, it's easy to imagine that he'll be a tweener type three or four years from now, putting up strong OBPs against righties, but platooning and frustrating the Rangers with his defense as he starts to lose speed. Projection systems are much more optimistic about Choo than they are about Fielder. But Choo comes with warning signs, and seven years is a long time.

Conclusion
 
Even with talented youngsters in Profar and Perez (plus a number of very interesting low-minors prospects) in tow, the Rangers were a win-now team even before the offseason began, and the Fielder and Choo moves ought to be viewed with that in mind. There's a reasonable chance that both moves will look ridiculous in four years or so, but if the Rangers can bring home a World Series trophy sometime before 2017, they'll happily live with that.
 
Losing Holland and Profar for at least the first couple months of the season hurts, though, particularly because the rest of the AL West is more competitive than it once was. The Mariners obviously are much better after the addition of Robinson Cano. The Athletics will likely continue to be competitive, although, like the Rangers, they're struggling to keep their starting pitchers healthy. The Angels still have Mike Trout and are a very good bet to win more games in 2014 than the 77 they won last season. And the Astros, with the additions of Scott Feldman and Dexter Fowler, along with George Springer in June, aren't likely to be complete doormats this year.
 
Still, in the short term, Rangers fans have plenty of reason for optimism. The Rangers have everyone in their current core of Darvish, Holland, Perez, Fielder, Choo, Profar, Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre under control through at least 2016, which gives them three shots at a title. And their depth of lower-minors prospects also puts them in excellent position to add talent at the trade deadline — interesting Class A players make ideal trade pieces for a contending team, because they aren't likely to help in the short term and because the team trading the prospects knows much more about them than the team receiving them. The Rangers' path to the playoffs shouldn't be easy, but they're guaranteed to be entertaining over the next several years, at the very least.
 
Their outlook beginning in 2017 or so is far less clear. But 2017 is three years from now, and the Rangers have already had four straight 90-plus-win seasons. The good run they're on isn't going to get any easier, but they've got more than enough talent to keep chugging for awhile.
 
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
 

AL Notes: Pierzynski, Harang, Ichiro, Orioles, Rangers

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New Red Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski is virtually the peer of special advisor Jason Varitek — the two are only four years apart in age. But Pierzynski has still sought out Varitek's advice this spring, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes. "He’s one of those guys, he came before me, so you kind of always looked up to him," Pierzynski says. "To be able to be in the same organization and be able to talk to him and learn things from him, it's huge. You can always get better and he was one of the best, so anything he can bring to the table to help me I’m definitely going to take and use." Here are more notes from the American League.

  • The Indians have told starting pitcher Aaron Harang, who had been competing for their fifth starter job, that he won't make the team's 25-man roster, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian tweets. Harang has the ability to opt out of minor-league deal on Monday.
  • The Yankees are willing to eat part of Ichiro Suzuki's $6.5MM 2014 salary in the right trade, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman writes. No deal appears to be imminent, however. Ichiro, who hit .262/.297/.342 with the Yankees in 2013, does not have a starting role this season.
  • Orioles manager Buck Showalter says "vultures" are interested in his team's out-of-options players, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. "I know a lot of vultures are lurking around with our out-of-option guys. We've got quite an attendance here," Showalter says. "I get a list of the scouts every day, and if anything, it's gotten more. We had 17 here the other day." Two weeks ago, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes noted that the Orioles' out-of-options players included Edgmer Escalona, Chris Davis, Tommy Hunter, Troy Patton, Nolan Reimold, Chris Tillman, Zach Britton, David Lough, Brian Matusz, Steve Pearce, Francisco Peguero and Josh Stinson. Obviously, the Orioles are in no danger of losing someone like Davis, and Escalona and Peguero appear likely to start the season on the disabled list. But the Orioles will have to make decisions about players like Pearce and some of the pitchers. The team recently designated another out-of-options player, Kelvin De La Cruz, for assignment.
  • "I thought way too short term with the Garza deal last year.  That one's got a chance to haunt us and haunt me," Rangers GM Jon Daniels told Zach Buchanan of the Arizona Republic in reference to his trade with the Cubs.  Daniels gave up C.J. Edwards, Mike Olt, Justin Grimm and Neil Ramirez for Garza.  Olt could soon make an impact in the big leagues, but it's Edwards and Ramirez who might turn out to be the keys to the deal — Edwards was terrific down the stretch last year for Class A+ Daytona, and Ramirez has pitched well in spring training after posting a terrific strikeout rate in Double-A last season.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Jurickson Profar Out 10-12 Weeks

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The Rangers have announced that infielder Jurickson Profar will miss 10-12 weeks with a muscle tear, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. The Rangers would prefer to look internally for a replacement, tweets Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Rangers' big offseason trade of Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder and cash was based on the idea that Profar, once one of baseball's best prospects, would take over at second base. Now, though, the Rangers will need to turn to a backup plan. The Rangers do have an excellent second base prospect in Rougned Odor, but he just turned 20 and has played only 30 games above the Class A+ level.

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