Rockies To Select Elias Diaz, Drew Butera
10:34pm: The Rockies will also select Butera, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweets.
7:55pm: The Rockies are planning to select the contract of catcher Elias Diaz and carry him on their Opening Day roster, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Manager Bud Black has since confirmed as much, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding tweets. It’s possible still that the Rox will select Drew Butera as well and carry three backstops to begin the season, though it sounds like no final decision has been made on that front just yet.
Diaz, 29, was a rather well-regarded catching prospect when rising through the Pirates’ system and has had some success in Pittsburgh, most notably in 2018 when he appeared to break out with a .286/.339/.452 slash and 10 homers in 277 plate appearances. That set the stage for a more prominent role in 2019, but Diaz was unable to capitalize on his increased playing time. In 332 plate appearances, he mustered only a .241/.296/.307 line.
Problems at the plate weren’t the only issue for Diaz, however, as he also struggled defensively. While his career 28 percent caught-stealing rate is solid, Diaz ranked as baseball’s second-worst pitch framer last year, per Statcast. FanGraphs agreed with those framing woes, and in all he checked in at a staggering -21 Defensive Runs Saved in just 706 innings.
Diaz had never struggled to such extremes on either side of the ball and actually graded out only slightly below average with the glove in that strong 2018 showing. It’s worth noting that he missed all of Spring Training and the first month of last year’s regular season due to a bacterial infection in his stomach, which surely didn’t do him any favors when he returned in late April.
Whether Diaz was actually ready to return when he did, the results spoke for themselves, however. They also convinced the Bucs to non-tender him rather than pay a projected $1.4MM salary in arbitration (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). He’ll now have a chance to prove that last year’s showing was an aberration and that he’s far better than was on display in his illness-shortened 2019 campaign. He’ll likely begin as a backup to Wolters, but given Wolters’ dismal offensive track record, it’s possible that Diaz could play his way into a bigger role.
Reds Add Hunter Greene, Mark Kolozsvary To 60-Man Player Pool
The Reds have announced a few roster moves, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic was among those to report. They have two new additions to their 60-man player pool in right-hander Hunter Greene and catcher Mark Kolozsvary. The club also selected the contract of reliever Nate Jones, who will make its season-opening roster, and optioned infielder Alex Blandino.
Greene may be the most notable name in the group, as he went second overall in the 2017 draft and then signed with the Reds for a record-setting $7.23MM bonus. Unfortunately, though, Greene’s coming off a major injury. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2019, thereby preventing him from pitching at all last season and building on his 2018 effort. While the hard-throwing Greene only pitched to a 4.48 ERA across 68 1/3 innings in Single-A ball that year, he did notch a 3.29 FIP with 11.72 K/9 and 3.03 BB/9.
Kolozsvary, 24, was also part of the Reds’ 2017 draft class. The former seventh-rounder has topped out so far in High-A ball, where he put up an unconventional line of .188/.341/.321 with six home runs in 291 plate appearances last season.
Dodgers Extend Mookie Betts
7:24pm: Betts’ contract includes a massive $65MM signing bonus, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (via Twitter). The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal adds that the contract contains $115MM in deferrals, and the salaries are backloaded such that Betts will be paid $17.5MM in 2021 and 2022. There are no opt-outs in the deal, which does not come with a no-trade clause, per Rosenthal.
4:01pm: Mookie Betts is a Dodger for the long haul. The team announced this afternoon that Betts has signed a 12-year extension through the 2032 season. It’ll reportedly guarantee him a whopping $365MM in new money on top of this year’s $27MM salary (which has been prorated to $10MM due to the shortened 2020 season). Betts is represented by the VC Sports Group.
The contract represents the largest amount of new money ever promised to a Major League player on an extension or free-agent signing, topping Mike Trout‘s previous highwater mark of $360MM (over a shorter 10-year term). Trout was already signed at two years and $66.5MM, so his total of 12 years and $426.5MM tops Betts’ 13-year, $392MM figure, but the $365MM new-money benchmark is a notable record nevertheless.
The Betts extension, somewhat remarkably, marks the first time that the Dodgers have guaranteed in excess of $100MM to a player under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Though the team is known for its enormous — at times seemingly limitless — spending capacity, the Friedman regime has worked diligently to shed some prior undesirable commitments and creatively limbo underneath the luxury-tax bar. Doing so paved the way for the Dodgers to issue a historic contract to a premium talent.
After missing out on a free-agent pursuit of Gerrit Cole this winter, the team shifted its focus to acquiring Betts, who came to L.A. alongside David Price in a blockbuster trade that sent Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong to Boston. There was plenty of talk about the team’s hope for extending Betts, but he’d been outspoken about his desire to test the open market. Paired with the economic uncertainty stemming from this year’s unprecedented revenue losses, there was real reason to wonder whether a deal would get done.
Perhaps that economic turmoil made Betts more amenable to taking a deal now rather than testing the market, or perhaps he was simply willing all along to sign if a team exceeded Trout’s new-money guarantee. His exact thinking likely won’t ever be fully known, but the end result is that Betts now appears poised to spend the remainder of an already excellent career in Dodger blue.
Still just 27 years of age, Betts has produced at star-caliber levels since a 52-game MLB debut back in 2014. A career .301/.379/.519 hitter, Betts is already a four-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger winner, a former American League MVP and batting champion, and a four-time Gold Glove winner. He’s clubbed 139 home runs and swiped 126 bases in 794 Major League games, showing off an impressive blend of power and speed, and his 13.5 percent walk rate over the past two seasons is nearly the same as his paltry 14.5 percent strikeout rate. Add in that Betts is regarded as an otherworldly defender — he’s third among all players in Defensive Runs Saved since 2015, regardless of position — and it’s easy to see why Betts is regarded among the game’s elite players.
The Dodgers already boasted at least one of those elite talents: reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger. Betts and Bellinger will pair to form what could be baseball’s best one-two punch for at least the next four seasons, as Bellinger is controlled through at least the 2023 season. Out-of-nowhere slugger Max Muncy is also inked through the ’23 campaign on a highly reasonable three-year, $26MM pact, so that trio should continue thriving in the heart of the order for the foreseeable future. The hope is that rising young talents like infielder Gavin Lux and catcher Will Smith will add to that long-term core. Looking shorter-term, the Dodgers are stacked with above-average contributors, including Corey Seager (controlled through 2021), Justin Turner (through 2020), Chris Taylor (through 2021) and Enrique Hernandez (through 2020).
From a payroll and luxury-tax standpoint, the Dodgers can afford to both sign Betts and still pursue a megadeal with Bellinger, should they see fit. Betts’ contract comes with a $30.4MM annual luxury hit (or $30.1MM, if they roll it into the current deal), which is sizable but still only represents about a seventh of next year’s $210MM luxury cap. (That number could well rise in 2021 CBA negotiations, too.) Los Angeles already has more than $152MM in luxury commitments on the 2021 books, including this new deal for Betts, but that number plummets to $73MM in 2022. Betts is the only Dodger on a guaranteed deal for the 2023 season (although Bellinger, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias will all be arbitration-eligible).
With today’s agreement, Betts, Bellinger and Buehler look like the long-term faces of the Dodgers franchise, though the club has boundless young talent, a knack for high-profile trades and as previously noted, plenty of money to spend even with Betts pulling in more than $30MM on an annual basis. The Dodgers have won seven straight NL West titles, and the Betts deal is a strong step toward continuing that trend. That, of course, won’t be enough to satisfy Betts, though. As the star put it during today’s introductory press conference: “I’m here to win some rings.”
WEEI’s Lou Merloni reported earlier today that Betts was closing in on an extension worth more than $300MM. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the agreement and the terms just prior to the team’s announcement (Twitter thread).
Dominic Leone, Mike Freeman, Cam Hill Make Indians’ Opening Day Roster
The Indians have informed several players, including three who aren’t currently on the 40-man roster, that they’ve made the Opening Day club, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal tweets. Right-handers Dominic Leone, Cam Hill, James Karinchak and Phil Maton; infielders Mike Freeman, Yu Chang and Christian Arroyo; and outfielders Greg Allen and Bradley Zimmer have all made the roster to begin the year. Leone, Hill and Freeman will each need to be added to the 40-man roster.
The team has also informed a quartet of players that they won’t open the year on the 30-man roster. That includes first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers and righties Jefry Rodriguez, James Hoyt and Hunter Wood. That Wood won’t be on the Opening Day roster is of particular note, as he is out of minor league options and thus cannot be sent down to alternate camp without first being run through outright waivers.
It seems likely, then, that some form of 40-man move involving Wood will help to pave the way for the three non-roster players who’ve made the squad. Cleveland currently has 39 players on the 40-man roster, and Delino DeShields isn’t counting against the group either while on the Covid-19 injured list.
The 28-year-old Leone has the most big league experience of the bunch, having logged 243 1/3 innings of relief dating back to his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2014. Leone’s past two seasons with the Cardinals went poorly, as he worked to a combined 5.15 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 64 2/3 frames, but the righty was excellent for the Jays as recently as 2017, when he pitched 70 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA and better than 10 punchouts per nine frames. In all, Leone joins the Indians’ bullpen with a career 3.92 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 43.6 percent grounder rate.
Freeman, who’ll turn 33 early next month, should be a familiar face for Cleveland fans after suiting up for 75 games there in 2019. Last year with the Indians, Freeman played second base, shortstop, third base, left field and even pitched two innings. Along the way, Freeman hit .272/.362/.390 with four homers and eight doubles — good for a 97 OPS+. That’s a solid showing from a part-time player, and although he had to work his way back on another minor league deal, Freeman clearly impressed the club enough to stick around as a depth piece.
Hill, meanwhile, has never pitched in the Majors, so this’ll mark the 26-year-old’s debut season. A 17th-round pick by the Indians back in 2014, Hill has just a 4.81 ERA in 43 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level but impressed the club with a strong effort this spring (five innings, one run) and summer. He ranked near the back of the organization’s top prospect list at FanGraphs this year, where Eric Longenhagen wrote that Hill has “nasty” stuff but sub-par control that causes some concern.
Wood, 26, has plenty of success with the Rays in his first season-plus at the MLB level before being traded to Cleveland alongside Arroyo last summer. He posted decent numbers with the Indians following the trade and carries a career 3.32 ERA and 4.04 FIP in 86 2/3 MLB frames, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the outside looking in. It’s quite possible that another club with more questionable bullpen depth would have interest in swinging a deal for Wood, who has high-end spin and above-average velocity on his four-seamer. Barring that, he could generate interest on the waiver wire.
Cardinals Release Brett Cecil
The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve released left-hander Brett Cecil. The veteran reliever was entering the final season of a four-year, $30.5MM deal that proved to be a substantial misstep. The Cardinals also placed infielder/outfielder Brad Miller on the 10-day IL due to bursitis in his right ankle.
From 2013-15, Cecil was quietly one of baseball’s best lefty relievers, pitching to a 2.67 ERA and an even better 2.54 FIP while averaging 11.5 strikeouts, 3.4 walks and 0.53 HR/9 with a 52.2 percent ground-ball rate in 168 1/3 innings. A triceps injury shortened his 2016 season, but Cecil still posted generally solid results in 36 2/3 frames — parlaying that excellent four-year run into the aforementioned Cardinals deal. The size of the contract was viewed as a surprise at the time, but most pundits had agreed that Cecil had a legitimate case at a lucrative three-year deal, and the four-year term was reflective of wide interest in his services in free agency.
Unfortunately for both the Cardinals and Cecil, things went south in a hurry. Cecil lost a mile off his fastball in his first season with the Cards — a year in which he pitched 67 2/3 frames with a respectable 3.88 ERA but diminished strikeout numbers. A shoulder strain and a foot injury limited Cecil to just 32 2/3 innings of 6.89 ERA ball in 2018. Few would’ve thought that with two years to go on the contract, Cecil had thrown his last pitch as a Cardinal, but he missed all of 2019 after undergoing surgery to relieve carpal tunnel syndrome and now won’t get the opportunity to bounce back in 2020 — at least not with the Cardinals.
Cecil had been throwing during Summer Camp with the Cardinals and was even trying out a new sidearm delivery that he hoped would help him to regain his effectiveness. Cecil turned 34 earlier this month, so it’s not as though he’s too old for a bounceback effort to be plausible. That said, it’s been a half decade since he was last an elite reliever and more than two full seasons have passed since he was last serviceable. The hope is obviously that he can bounce back, but it seems unlikely that another club will sign him and immediately test him out in the high-leverage situations in which he once excelled.
The Cardinals had been set to pay Cecil a $7MM salary in the final season of that four-year pact. Prorated, that came out to just shy of $2.6MM — a sum they’ll still owe to the lefty even after cutting him loose. Any club can sign Cecil at this point, and he’d only be owed the prorated league minimum for any time spent on another club’s Major League roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Cardinals owe Cecil, but regardless of how the year plays out, they’re on the hook for the vast majority of what he’s owed.
As for Miller, he inked a one-year, $2MM deal with the Cards late in the offseason and was expected to fill an infield/outfield utility role — perhaps also seeing some time at designated hitter against right-handed opponents. There’s no timetable for his recovery just yet.
Mets Release Melky Cabrera, Gordon Beckham
The Mets have released veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera and infielder Gordon Beckham, per a team announcement. Both signed minor league pacts with the organization shortly after MLB’s transaction freeze was lifted. The Mets also confirmed their recently reported minor league deals with center fielder Juan Lagares and second baseman Brian Dozier. The team’s 60-man player pool stands at 57 players.
Cabrera, 35, initially drew interest from the Mets back in Spring Training but didn’t get a deal with the team done until after the designated hitter was announced in the NL for the 2020 season. The switch-hitter hasn’t batted lower than .273 in the past decade and routinely posts average or better on-base percentages as a result of those contact skills — even though he rarely walks. Cabrera’s power has dipped in his mid-30s, however, and his defensive skills have deteriorated even more greatly. Last year’s .280/.313/.399 may look passable on the surface, but it checked in well south of the league average in last year’s supercharged offensive environment (85 wRC+, 88 OPS+).
Beckham, meanwhile, had hoped to make the club as a bench option. The 33-year-old spent the 2019 campaign with the Tigers, hitting .215/.271/.372 with six homers, a dozen doubles and a pair of triples in 240 trips to the plate. The former No. 8 overall pick has never replicated his strong rookie season with the White Sox, hitting at a combined .233/.294/.355 in 10 years since that time.
Mets Sign Juan Lagares, Brian Dozier
The Mets have struck minor-league deals with outfielder Juan Lagares and infielder Brian Dozier, according to reports from Deesha Thosar of the New York Post (Twitter link) and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). Both will join the 60-man player pool.
It’s certainly an interesting mix of new additions for the New York club. Both players ended up back on the open market after they failed to stick with the Padres. Each has a history in the division.
Lagares has still yet to suit up for a team other than the Mets for regular season action. The 31-year-old spent seven seasons with the team but departed over the winter. Now, he’ll take up a spot on the depth chart but likely won’t have an opportunity in the majors other than as a fill-in player. Lagares owns a .254/.297/.361 slash in over two thousand career plate appearances.
As for Dozier, he’s fresh off of a season with the NL East-rival Nationals. The veteran second baseman turned in a useful .238/.340/.430 batting line over 482 plate appearances, but was largely displaced late in the season. He is now several seasons removed from his days as a star slugger with the Twins but still looks to be a nice insurance policy for the Mets.
Amateur Draft Signings: 7/21/20
Here are the game’s latest draft signings, courtesy of Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter links):
- The Cubs have signed third-round outfielder and No. 88 overall pick Jordan Nwogu for the full slot value of $678,600. Nwogu played college ball at Michigan, where he slashed .334/.430/.545 with 20 home runs in 525 plate appearances. Prior to the draft, Keith Law of The Athletic ranked Nwogu as the 68th-best prospect available, calling him “a plus runner with plus raw power” and declaring he could be a 20-20 type in the majors if everything comes together.
- The Marlins have inked fifth-round right-hander Kyle Hurt for $300K, way down from the $418,200 slot value of the 134th overall selection. Hurt posted uninspiring results at USC, where he pitched to a 5.06 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 5.6 BB/9 in 172 2/3 innings. But Law rated Hurt as the No. 96 prospect in the draft, thanks to a repertoire that includes a 96 mph fastball, an “above-average changeup” and a “12/6 curveball.”
Angels Outright Jacob Rhame
The Angels announced Tuesday evening that right-handed reliever Jacob Rhame has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to the team’s alternate training site. He’ll remain with the organization and in the 60-man player pool, but he’ll no longer occupy a spot on the club’s 40-man roster.
The Halos claimed Rhame, 27, off waivers from the Mets earlier this month. The hard-throwing righty has struggled in parts of three seasons with the Mets but boasts a heater that averages 95.8 mph, elite spin rates on his heater and curveball, and impressive swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates. The bottom-line results for Rhame have been poor — a 6.23 ERA in 47 2/3 MLB frames — but his raw abilities to spin the ball, generate velocity and miss bats appealed to Angels GM Billy Eppler and his staff. Rhame had ulnar nerve transposition surgery last August but he’d progressed to throwing off a mound by the time the Angels claimed him.
The Angels have had some luck in converting low-cost, low-risk bullpen pickups in recent years. Closer Hansel Robles came to the club via waiver claim (also out of the Mets organization), and they’ve had success with bargain pickups of veterans like Jim Johnson, Bud Norris, David Hernandez, Blake Parker and Yusmeiro Petit over the past few seasons. Because Rhame has been passed through waivers, he won’t be given an opportunity to join that line of successful reclamation projects, but with the depth that’ll be required to get through this year’s 60-game sprint, it’s conceivable that he’ll get another look in the big leagues before the end of September.
Josh Harrison Granted His Release By Phillies
The Phillies announced Tuesday evening that veteran infielder/outfielder Josh Harrison requested and was granted his release. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.
Harrison, 32, was a fixture in the Pirates’ lineup from 2014-17, hitting a combined .290/.331/.428 with 37 homer and 59 steals in 2063 plate appearances. He bounced all over the diamond, lining up at third base, second base, shortstop and both outfield corners. The versatile Harrison twice made the All-Star team in that stretch and was even rewarded by the Bucs with a four-year, $27.3MM extension back in 2015.
Things began to go downhill for Harrison in 2018, when he sustained his second fractured hand in as many months of play. Harrison broke his left hand and missed the final month of the 2017 season, and he broke the same hand early in 2018 when he was hit by a Jose Urena fastball. Upon returning, Harrison slumped to a .250/.293/.363 line. His 2019 option was bought out by the Pirates, and he lingered in free agency for much of the winter before signing a one-year, $2MM deal with the Tigers. Hamstring issues limited him in Detroit, and his time with the Tigers resulted in a career-worst .175/.218/.263 slash in just 140 plate appearances.
With the Phillies, Harrison had been vying for a utility job, although he was part of a crowded competition. The Phillies also inked veterans Neil Walker, Logan Forsythe, Phil Gosselin, Ronald Torreyes and T.J. Rivera to minor league contracts with invitations to camp. Of that bunch, Walker has already been informed he’ll make the Opening Day roster. Forsythe was released earlier this week, and Rivera was cut loose in late May. Gosselin and Torreyes remain with the team in hopes of securing an Opening Day roster spot.