White Sox Sign Cheslor Cuthbert
1:35PM: The White Sox have officially announced Cuthbert’s signing. It is a minor league deal, with an invitation to the team’s Major League Spring Training camp.
1:07PM: The White Sox have reached an agreement with free agent infielder Cheslor Cuthbert, according to reporter Robert Murray (Twitter link). Cuthbert hit the open market in early December after the Royals chose not to tender him a contract.
Cuthbert was projected to earn $1.8MM in his second year of arbitration eligibility, though Kansas City decided to move on in the wake of a season that saw Cuthbert hit .246/.294/.379 with nine homers over 330 PA. It was a performance almost exactly on par with the .250/.300/.378 slash line Cuthbert has posted over 1160 career plate appearances, all with the Royals from 2015-19.
Most of Cuthbert’s time in K.C. was spent as a third baseman, and he stepped into a virtual everyday role in 2016 when Mike Moustakas spent much of the season on the injured list. Despite posting some solid numbers that year, Cuthbert’s production badly tailed off in the subsequent three seasons and he became little more than a bench piece.
Aside from his work at the hot corner, Cuthbert also has played a lot of first base and a handful of games at second over his career. Second base could potentially be Cuthbert’s best path to playing time in Chicago, as while star rookie Nick Madrigal is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2020, the White Sox will need some kind of veteran stopgap until Madrigal is ready. Yolmer Sanchez was non-tendered, leaving rookie Danny Mendick as the current top choice for the Opening Day lineup. It seems likely that Cuthbert could be one of many veteran infielders brought into Chicago’s Spring Training camp to compete for the second base job, and Cuthbert’s versatility could give him a path to staying on the roster as a utility infielder once Madrigal is called up.
Brewers To Sign Justin Smoak
9:38am: Smoak will earn $4MM in 2020 and has a $1MM buyout on a $5.5MM option for the 2021 season, Passan tweets.
9:27am: The two sides are in agreement on a one-year, $5MM contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. There’s also a club option for the 2021 season, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The deal is pending a physical.
9:09am: The Brewers are closing in on a contract with free agent first baseman Justin Smoak, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Smoak is represented by the Bledsoe Agency.
This is the latest in a string of short-term acquisitions for the Milwaukee organization, which has almost completely turned over its infield over the past six weeks. The club has installed Eric Sogard and Luis Urias in the middle infield mix while picking up Ryon Healy and now Smoak to help cover the corners. Keston Hiura, of course, will factor prominently into the mix as well after impressing with the bat in his rookie season.
Beyond that, president of baseball ops David Stearns said after this week’s signing of Avisail Garcia that Ryan Braun will likely see some time at first base in 2020 as well (Twitter link via Andrew Wagner of the Wisconsin State Journal). It’s a layered collection of veterans and young upside hitters, and the precise manner in which playing time will be sorted remains to be determined in Spring Training.
Smoak made a long-awaited break-out at the plate in 2017 and followed that up with a strong ’18 effort. In combination, he slashed .256/.353/.495 with 63 home runs in 1,231 turns with the bat in those campaigns. Unfortunately, he hit the skids a bit in the just-completed season. The switch-hitting 33-year-old is coming off of a .208/.342/.406 effort, but the underlying metrics on his season are far more interesting than his surface-level .208 batting average.
In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest that the Brewers could hit gold with this signing. As explored here at MLBTR back in September, Smoak’s .323 wOBA lagged the .366 xwOBA he registered with Statcast, indicating there could be some positive regression in the batted-ball department. He also drew walks at an exceptionally healthy 15.8% rate while striking out just 21.2% of the time.
As highlighted in that September exploration of his odd season, Smoak chased pitches outside the strike zone less than nearly any hitter in MLB, and he ranked among the game’s best in terms of pitches per plate appearance. He’s an extremely disciplined hitter who should make opposing pitchers work even if he continues to hit for a low batting average. And, supposing Smoak can turn balls in play into base hits at an increased rate — his .223 BABIP was certainly an outlier — he could bounce right back into being a productive hitter.
Milwaukee undeniably lost some key pieces this winter, with Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas departing for four-year deals with the White Sox and Reds, respectively. Eric Thames, meanwhile, was bought out and sent into the free-agent market. Smoak will in many ways replace Thames at a slightly reduced cost — likely bringing better glovework to the table but lesser production against right-handed pitching.
Smoak will come in at $1.5MM less than Thames would’ve earned — a slight savings that exemplifies the Brewers’ risk-averse mentality and focus on the margins when building out a roster. This depth-forward approach both safeguards against injury and allows for slightly reduced workloads that, in theory, lessen the overall risk of injury and keeps their position players fresher. It also leads to a great deal of turnover, which can be frustrating for fans at times but has resulted in three straight winning seasons and two consecutive postseason appearances.
Cubs Sign Ian Miller To Minors Deal
The Cubs have signed outfielder Ian Miller to a minor league contract, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets.
Now 27 years old, Miller entered the pro ranks as a 14th-round pick of the Mariners in 2013. He stuck with the franchise until it traded him to Minnesota for cash considerations last August. Miller never appeared in the majors as a Mariner, but he did get a cup of coffee as a member of the Twins, with whom he totaled three hits (two singles and a double) over 17 plate appearances.
While Miller doesn’t bring much experience in the bigs, he has been a mainstay in Triple-A ball dating back to 2017. The speedy Miller owns a .263/.334/.370 line with 81 stolen bases across 1,169 trips to the plate at the minors’ highest level.
Rockies, Mike Gerber Agree To Minor League Pact
The Rockies are in agreement with free-agent outfielder Mike Gerber on a minor league contract, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.
The 27-year-old Gerber spent the 2019 season in the Giants organization but didn’t find any success in a limited big league stint. The former Tigers farmhand went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants. However, Gerber did put together an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. He’d previously struggled quite a bit in limited time at the Triple-A level, but the Rockies will take a no-risk look as they gauge whether the strides he took were more attributable to genuine improvement or to this year’s video-game-esque offensive environment in Triple-A.
Both Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl are entrenched in the Colorado outfield, while Sam Hilliard impressed quite a bit in his brief MLB debut in 2019. Longtime prospect Raimel Tapia is out of minor league options, so stumbled through a rough 2019 showing, he seems likely to have a good shot at cracking the MLB roster. Garrett Hampson, meanwhile, struggled early in the year and has played more infield than outfield, but he was logging time in center during a torrid stretch September and could be in line for outfield time next season. Yonathan Daza, 25, represents another 40-man option that Gerber would have to leapfrog in order to make the roster, but there’s enough uncertainty on the Rockies’ 40-man unit at present that he could conceivably earn a look at some point.
Twins, Danny Coulombe Agree To Minor League Deal
The Twins have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. He’ll likely head to big league camp this spring in search of a roster spot. Coulombe is represented by Elite Sports Group.
A veteran of five MLB seasons, the 30-year-old Coulombe spent the 2019 season with the Triple-A affiliates for the Yankees and Brewers, where he posted huge strikeout numbers but was among the countless Triple-A hurlers to struggle with the juiced ball. Coulombe yielded nine long balls in 36 1/3 innings (2.2 HR/9) but also punched out an eye-popping 61 hitters in that limited sample (15.1 K/9, 36.0 K%).
Coulombe has never had great control — although he’s improved in recent seasons — but has a long track record of missing bats in the minors. Last year’s heights were unprecedented, however, and the Twins will hope they can continue to work with him in that regard — ideally at the MLB level eventually. In 143 1/3 innings at the MLB level, Coulombe has a 4.27 ERA (4.09 FIP, 3,73 SIERA) with 8.4 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9 and a hefty 56.8 percent ground-ball rate.
Left-handed relief is a clear area of need for the Twins, who have little in that regard behind closer Taylor Rogers. They’ve recently added Blaine Hardy and Caleb Thielbar on minor league pacts, and Coulombe will become the latest (and arguably most interesting) entrant into the Twins’ list of non-roster invitees to Spring Training. He only has two full years of MLB service time, so if he can piece things together, he’s technically controllable through 2023.
Diamondbacks, Kyle Crockett Agree To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks and left-handed reliever Kyle Crockett are in agreement on a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).
Crockett, who turned 28 over the weekend, was in camp with the Athletics last spring but didn’t make the team and didn’t pitch in affiliated ball during the 2019 season. A fourth-round pick by the Indians back in 2013, he blitzed through the minors and debuted with Cleveland barely a year after being selected. Crockett’s rookie campaign was nothing short of brilliant, too, as he tossed 30 innings with a 1.80 ERA (3.23 FIP) and turned in a 28-to-8 K/BB ratio out of the bullpen.
The University of Virginia product might’ve looked like a potential bullpen fixture at that point, but things didn’t play out that way. Rather, Crockett was given just 17 2/3 innings in the Majors the following year in 2015 and, in 28 2/3 Triple-A innings with Columbus that season, barely kept his ERA south of 6.00. In all, since that eye-opening MLB debut in ’14, Crockett has tossed 44 2/3 frames in the Majors with a 5.04 ERA. To his credit, his 45-to-17 K/BB ratio and mere two home runs allowed are encouraging aspects of his work in that time.
The D-backs could pick up some more experienced left-handed help in free agency or on the trade market, but as the roster is currently constructed, Crockett looks like he’ll at least have an opportunity to vie for a job this spring. Andrew Chafin is the lone left-handed reliever on the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, unless the team plans to move 2019 rotation member Alex Young to the ‘pen in 2020.
Nationals To Sign Fernando Abad
The Nationals are in agreement with lefty reliever Fernando Abad on a minor league contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Octagon client will presumably be in Major League camp once Spring Training opens.
Abad, who turned 34 yesterday, appeared in 21 games with the Giants in 2019, totaling 13 innings of 4.15 ERA ball with nine strikeouts against three walks. He was terrific in the exorbitantly hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League as well, logging a 3.07 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 0.8 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9 and a 44.4 percent ground-ball rate in 44 innings of work there.
This will be the second tour of duty with the Nats for Abad, who tossed 37 2/3 innings of 3.35 ERA ball over the life of 39 games for Washington back in 2013. Abad has bounced all over the league for the better part of a decade, pitching with the Astros, Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Red Sox and Giants in a career that began with Houston in 2010. He didn’t pitch in affiliated ball in 2018 thanks largely to an 80-game PED suspension.
While he’s never really settled in as a steadying presence in any one club’s bullpen, he’s generally been an effective reliever; Abad has a career 3.67 ERA in 330 2/3 innings as a big leaguer — including a 3.18 ERA (3.97 FIP) with 7.9 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 dating back to the aforementioned 2013 season. He’s held left-handed opponents to a lifetime .234/.238/.378 batting line, while right-handers have handled him a bit better with a .257/.338/.412 slash to show for their efforts.
Phillies, Mikie Mahtook Agree To Minor League Deal
The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Mikie Mahtook, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The CAA client will be in Major League Spring Training and would earn an $850K base salary upon making the big league roster.
Mahtook, 30, showed well through 115 plate appearances as a Rays rookie in 2015 and posted a solid season with the Tigers in 2017 (.276/.330/.457 in 379 plate appearances). Outside of those two efforts, however, he hasn’t performed well in parts of five seasons in the Majors. The former first-rounder is a career .235/.292/.405 hitter with a 6.1 percent walk rate and a 26.4 percent strikeout rate through 965 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.
Mahtook will give the Phils an experienced right-handed-hitting option at all three outfield positions — one who does have a more solid .269/.342/.441 career line in parts of five Triple-A seasons (1818 plate appearances). The outfield in Philadelphia will assuredly feature Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen in the corners, but center field lacks clarity after Odubel Herrera was suspended for half the season under MLB’s domestic violence policy. Alternative in-house options include Adam Haseley, Scott Kingery (if he’s not deployed at third base) and Roman Quinn.
Yankees Sign Gerrit Cole
The Gerrit Cole sweepstakes has reached an end just over a month after the start of free agency. The Yankees have agreed to sign the ace right-hander to a nine-year, $324MM contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. It includes a full no-trade clause and an opt-out clause after the fifth year, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
It’s a historic pact for Cole, a Scott Boras client who has landed the largest deal ever for a pitcher and the second-greatest payday in the history of major league free agency. Cole has smashed the seven-year, $245MM contract righty Stephen Strasburg signed with the Nationals earlier this week, and he nearly matched the $330MM guarantee outfielder Bryce Harper received from the Phillies last offseason. But Harper’s money will come in over 13 years, meaning Cole has easily eclipsed him in average annual value. Cole will take home a whopping $36MM per year.
For the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman, the addition of Cole brings to an end a years-long pursuit of the Southern California native, who was a fan of the club growing up. The Yankees selected Cole in the first round of the 2008 draft, but he elected to attend UCLA instead. It proved to be a wise decision for Cole, who further improved his stock as a Bruin and wound up as the No. 1 overall pick of the Pirates in 2011.
Cole, who debuted in the majors in 2013, generally thrived in Pittsburgh through 2017. However, the Pirates knew they wouldn’t be able to reach an extension with Cole, so they traded him to Houston prior to the 2018 campaign. The Yankees were among the teams the Astros upended to acquire Cole, which proved costly for New York. Thanks in large part to Cole, the Astros took down the Yankees in this fall’s American League Championship Series, though Houston fell to Strasburg and the Nationals in the World Series.
The Yankees couldn’t beat Cole, but he’ll now join them after he found another gear in Texas. Cole became a truly elite pitcher as a member of the Astros, with whom the flamethrower posted back-to-back 200-inning seasons of sub-3.00 ERA ball. He was particularly amazing in 2019, when he amassed a jaw-dropping 326 strikeouts with a 2.50 ERA/2.64 FIP across 212 1/3 frames. That performance wasn’t enough to defeat then-teammate Justin Verlander for AL Cy Young honors, but it was enough to help earn Cole an absolutely massive payday. This deal blows past the eight-year, $256MM that MLBTR predicted Cole would receive this offseason.
The Yankees now have a lights-out workhorse to accompany Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka as their top four starters, and the Cole signing indicates they and owner Hal Steinbrenner aren’t concerned about paying the luxury tax going forward. With Cole’s money factored in, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates the Yankees are on track to spend just under $250MM in 2020, which is without having made any other additions. If that holds up, the Yankees will exceed the highest tax penalty of $248MM next season. Doing so would subject the Yankees to a 42.5 percent overage tax for outspending the threshold by $40MM or more. It’s possible, however, that the Yankees will shave off some of their tax bill if they’re able to trade $17MM left-hander J.A. Happ, a rumored candidate for a change of scenery who now looks all the more likely to exit now that Cole is in the fold.
The Cole pickup represents an act of free-agency aggression that late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would have saluted. It’s also a sign the Yankees are all-in toward returning to the top of the major league mountain for the first time since 2009. Not only does Cole look as if he’ll greatly strengthen their roster, but it’s a major blow to their biggest AL competition, the Astros. Undoubtedly, Cole’s decision is also an enormous disappointment to both Los Angeles-based teams, who all along joined the Yankees as the most obvious-looking fits to sign him. Those two teams will now have to look elsewhere in a free-agent market that has moved much quicker than in recent years, and has already seen several of its best players sign in a matter of weeks.
While Cole should have a hugely positive effect on the Yankees’ near-term chances, it’s clear this deal presents a sizable risk for the club. Assuming Cole doesn’t opt out after the fifth season, the 29-year-old will pitch almost the entirety of his 30s on this contract. The good news for the Yankees is that Cole has never had anything as major as Tommy John surgery. However, he did miss a large portion of 2016 with injuries, including to his elbow. Cole has since bounced back with three consecutive 200-inning seasons, though signing pitchers to long-term, big-money contracts is nonetheless risky, which will leave the Yankees to hope he continues to hold up as he ages.
Should Cole exercise his opt-out provision in the 2024-25 offseason, the Yankees will have the opportunity to void that decision by extending him for an additional year and $36MM, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). Cole would need to be willing to walk away from four years and $144MM at age 34 for that clause to be relevant, and the Yankees would likewise need to be willing to pay him a total of $180MM for his age-34 through age-38 seasons to void the opt-out decision. It doesn’t seem particularly likely that the clause will come into play, but in the event that it does, Cole would earn $360MM over a decade-long term with the Yankees.
While all free agents bring some level of concern, that hasn’t stopped Boras from securing a windfall of cash for his clients this offseason. After helping get Harper his contract last year, Boras has seen Cole and Strasburg collect a combined $569MM this winter. He may help negotiate yet another $200MM-plus deal next for third baseman Anthony Rendon, who just took over as the No. 1 free agent available now that Cole’s off to the Bronx.
White Sox To Sign Ross Detwiler
The White Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-hander Ross Detwiler, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll return to the ChiSox after appearing in 18 games for them during the 2019 campaign.
Detwiler, 33, was once the No. 6 overall pick in the draft and, earlier in his career, was a fine back-end starter for some competitive Nationals clubs. His 2012 season included 164 1/3 innings of 3.40 ERA ball, and his overall body of work between the rotation and bullpen from 2010-14 was sound: 394 1/3 innings with a 3.61 ERA, 4.14 FIP, 5.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
Things have gone south for Detwiler since, however. He’s floundered through brief stints with Texas, Cleveland, Atlanta, Seattle and the White Sox, pitching to a combined 6.60 ERA in 182 2/3 innings of work since being traded away from the Nationals prior to the 2015 campaign. Detwiler did pitch well in eight Triple-A starts for the White Sox in 2019 and has had successful indie ball stints in 2018-19, but it’s been a half decade since his last solid run in the Majors. He’ll give the Sox some depth in both the rotation and in the bullpen for the upcoming season, but the Chicago front office surely remains in pursuit of more impactful additions.