Rays Trade Greg Jones To Rockies
The Rockies announced the acquisition of infielder/outfielder Greg Jones from the Rays in exchange for minor league left-hander Joe Rock this morning. Colorado designated outfielder Sam Hilliard for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Jones, 26, was the Rays’ first-round pick back in 2019 — the 22nd overall selection that year. He climbed as high as sixth on the team’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America, heading into the 2022 season, but he’s seen his stock dip since that time. Jones hit just .238/.318/.392 in Double-A that season and followed with a 2023 campaign that saw him bat .244/.318/.432 between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s touted as an 80-grade runner (on the 20-80 scale) and excellent athlete with a plus arm but has defensive concerns at shortstop. Tampa Bay began getting him work in the outfield last year in order to bolster his versatility.
The switch-hitting Jones still has two minor league option years remaining but increasingly looked like he’d been pushed down the organizational depth chart — both in the infield and in the outfield. With the Rockies, he’ll have a clearer path to playing time, particularly in the outfield, where elite-fielding Brenton Doyle is ticketed for regular center field work but will need to improve upon last year’s woeful debut showing at the plate. In theory, an outfield alignment with both Doyle and Jones would give the Rox two elite runners who could cover considerable ground in Coors Field’s expansive outfield grass.
Jones could also give the Rockies some long-term cover in the infield. Touted prospect Ezequiel Tovar is slated to get a continued audition as the everyday shortstop this season but has yet to prove he can hit in the big leagues. At second base, Brendan Rodgers is looking to bounce back from a rough showing in his return from a shoulder injury. He’s only controlled for two more seasons, though, so it’s feasible that Rodgers could emerge as a trade candidate this summer if he’s able to recapture something closer to his 2021-22 form. That’d open further opportunities for Jones.
For the time being, Jones will have an outside chance at cracking the Rockies’ roster. Manager Bud Black told Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (X link) that he couldn’t rule out an Opening Day nod for his team’s newest acquisition but also acknowledged that the window to take a look at the speedster is quite short.
In exchange for their 2019 first-rounder, the Rays will receive the Rockies’ 2021 Competitive Balance Round B pick. Rock, 23, was the No. 68 overall pick that summer and climbed as high as the Triple-A level last year — just for a couple innings late in the season.
Heading into the 2024 season, Rock ranked 26th among Colorado farmhands at Baseball America. He spent the bulk of the 2023 season in Double-A Hartford, where he logged 90 innings with a 4.50 ERA, an impressive 27.3% strikeout rate, a solid 8.1% walk rate and a 44.4% grounder rate that’s a couple ticks better than average. Rock was plagued by a .343 BABIP and proved slightly homer-prone (1.30 HR/9), but it was a generally encouraging season for the Ohio product, who’ll give the Rays some upper-level pitching depth and could make his way to the majors at some point in 2024.
MLB.com’s already-updated prospect rankings slot Rock into the No. 19 in Tampa Bay’s system. Scouting reports from BA, MLB and FanGraphs all give Rock the chance for three average or better pitches — two-seamer, slider, changeup — but note that his arsenal is undercut by below-average command. That hasn’t been apparent yet through Rock’s minor league walk rates, but there’s an important distinction between “control” (consistently throwing strikes) and “command” (precisely locating the ball within the zone).
If Rock has more of the former than the latter, that could be exploited by more advanced hitters who take advantage of mistakes within the zone. Then again, the Rays have a reputation for maximizing pitcher performance, so it’s always possible he’ll find another gear following a change of environs and exceed the modest back-of-the-rotation projection he draws on most scouting reports.
For the Rays, adding an upper-minors, close-to-MLB-ready arm like Rock is plenty sensible. Tampa Bay just lost Taj Bradley for a yet-to-be-determined stretch as the promising young righty deals with a pectoral strain. They’ll also be without Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Shane McClanahan to begin the season — and likely for the entire season in McClanahan’s case. Rasmussen had an internal brace procedure last July. Springs had Tommy John surgery last May. McClanahan had Tommy John in August. Touted young right-hander Shane Baz is also still working his way back from late-2022 Tommy John surgery.
Tampa Bay signed old friend Jake Odorizzi to a minor league deal earlier this month after the Bradley injury. He could be the favorite to take the fifth spot in the rotation early in the season, but he signed late enough that he might not be ready for an Opening Day roster spot. As it stands, the Rays have four pitchers locked into rotation spots: Zach Eflin, Aaron Civale, Zack Littell and Ryan Pepiot. At least early in the season, swingmen Tyler Alexander and Chris Devenski could make some spot starts. Both were stretching out to three innings in camp even before Bradley’s injury.
Hilliard only just returned to the Rockies earlier this month after the Orioles placed him on waivers. Baltimore had claimed him from Atlanta earlier in the offseason. He appeared in 40 games and hit .236/.295/.431 through 78 plate appearances with the Braves, fanning in an eye-popping 42.3% of his plate appearances. A heel injury wound up costing him the bulk of the 2023 season.
From 2019-22, Hilliard appeared in 214 games as a Rockie, playing all three outfield spots and batting a combined .212/.294/.423 with 29 homers, 15 steals, a 10% walk rate and an ugly 32.7% strikeout rate over a total of 639 plate appearances. Strikeouts have long been an issue for Hilliard, who touts an impressive .265/.346/.570 slash and 62 homers in just 942 Triple-A plate appearances but has punched out at an unsightly 28.5% clip at that level. The Rockies will have a week to trade Hilliard, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Robert Murray of FanSided was first to report the Rockies and Rays were swapping Rock for Jones.
Reds Acquire Santiago Espinal
The Reds acquired infielder Santiago Espinal from the Blue Jays for minor league righty Chris McElvain, both teams announced. Cincinnati has a full 40-man roster but did not immediately reveal the corresponding move.
Acquiring an infielder a week before Opening Day probably wasn’t what the Reds anticipated entering camp. For most of the offseason, it seemed likelier that Cincinnati’s infield depth would lead them to trade someone away. That was particularly true after they added corner infielder Jeimer Candelario on a three-year free agent pact.
Things have changed rather quickly. Top prospect Noelvi Marte was suspended for 80 games after a positive test for the performance-enhancing substance Boldenone. That cleared everyday third base reps for Candelario, who had previously been ticketed for action between both corner spots and designated hitter. Perhaps even more alarming than the Marte suspension was today’s announcement that expected second baseman Matt McLain received an MRI on his injured left shoulder.
The team hasn’t provided a timeline on McLain, but manager David Bell told reporters this evening that he wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season. Bell had rather ominously left open the possibility that McLain could require surgery this morning, although the team hasn’t announced anything on that front. The UCLA product is headed for a second opinion before there’ll be an official timetable.
That the Reds went outside the organization for another infielder wouldn’t seem to point towards them expecting McLain’s return in short order. While they await official word on his injury, they add a quality defender who can serve as a depth piece at any of second base, third base or shortstop.
Espinal, 29, rode a surprisingly strong first half to an All-Star selection in 2022. His overall track record suggests he’s more of a high-end utility player than a regular on a contender, though. Espinal has plus contact skills with below-average power. His career .273/.331/.367 batting line is right around league average, as measured by wRC+, but he’s coming off a down year.
The righty-hitting Espinal turned in a .248/.310/.335 slash with two homers over 254 plate appearances last season. He lost a couple weeks to right hamstring inflammation but otherwise spent the year as a versatile infielder off the bench. Espinal saw most of his action at second and third base. He has graded as an above-average to plus defender at both spots in the eyes of public defensive metrics. He’s capable of playing shortstop but wasn’t asked to do so often in Toronto, where Bo Bichette has been an everyday lineup fixture for three years.
Espinal still has a pair of minor league options, so the Reds can move him to Triple-A Louisville, but they presumably would not have parted with a pitching prospect if they didn’t anticipate him being on the major league roster. He’ll back up Jonathan India, Elly De La Cruz and Candelario while Marte and McLain are out. His acquisition doesn’t bode well for the chances of non-roster invitee Erik González breaking camp. The Reds also had Josh Harrison and Tony Kemp on minor league deals this spring. Both players opted out and returned to free agency after being informed they wouldn’t make the team.
In January, the Jays and Espinal agreed on a $2.725MM salary to avoid an arbitration hearing. That’s a fully guaranteed deal which Cincinnati agreed to absorb. RosterResource calculated their payroll around $102MM before the trade; they’re up to roughly $105MM after the deal. Espinal has a little under four years of major league service. Cincinnati can control him via arbitration for another three seasons.
Toronto offloads a few million dollars from a payroll that had been projected around $236MM. Their luxury tax number sat around $249MM. That’ll also fall by $2.725MM. As second-time tax payors, they owe a 30% fee on spending between $237MM and $257MM. Shedding Espinal’s salary also saves them around $818K in tax commitments.
Moving Espinal clears a path for the out-of-options Ernie Clement to secure a spot on the Opening Day roster. As a contact-oriented righty hitter with infield versatility, he offers a similar profile to Espinal. The Jays feared that Clement would be claimed off waivers if they tried to send him to Triple-A, particularly on the heels of a huge showing this spring.
They’ll add McElvain as a flier to the lower levels of the system. An eighth-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2022, he worked as a starter between two A-ball levels last season. McElvain pitched to a 3.75 ERA through 96 innings, albeit with a slightly below-average 21.1% strikeout rate and a walk percentage just south of 10%. He was not among Cincinnati’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America and didn’t receive a mention on Keith Law’s analysis of the system for The Athletic.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Dodgers Place Four Pitchers On Injured List
The Dodgers finalized their roster for the Seoul Series this evening. Los Angeles didn’t make any 40-man transactions but did place four pitchers on the 10-day injured list: Walker Buehler, Emmet Sheehan, Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen.
None of those is all that unexpected. The Dodgers announced early in camp that they’d start Buehler on the IL so as not to push him too quickly after missing last season working back from his second Tommy John procedure. The team announced Sheehan’s injury as forearm inflammation. That’s a little surprising at first glance, considering they’d previously said he was dealing with shoulder discomfort. Fortunately, Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic reports (on X) that this isn’t a new injury and Sheehan is throwing to hitters.
Graterol and Treinen were each banged up in spring. Graterol has been delayed by hip tightness and inflammation in his throwing shoulder. The Dodgers announced the latter injury as the reason for the IL placement. Treinen suffered a bruised lung when he was hit by a comebacker in a Spring Training game on March 9.
None of the injuries seem all that serious, as the Dodgers appear to be playing things cautiously with this series. The placements could afford an opportunity for righty Landon Knack to make his major league debut. He’ll get a spot in the season-opening bullpen after the Dodgers selected his contract over the winter.
Knack, 26, was a senior sign out of East Tennessee State in 2020. The former second-round pick has posted strong numbers in his minor league career. He turned in a 2.51 ERA over 22 starts between the top two minor league levels last season.
Of course, L.A.’s more anticipated first big league outing will come on Thursday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is tabbed to start the second game of the season opposite Joe Musgrove. It’ll be Yu Darvish and Tyler Glasnow kicking things off on Wednesday.
Padres Select Jackson Merrill, Tyler Wade
The Padres announced their active roster for the upcoming Seoul Series against the Dodgers. As was previously reported, San Diego officially selected the contracts of prospects Jackson Merrill and Graham Pauley. The Friars also added minor league signee Tyler Wade to their 40-man roster, which is up to 39 players.
San Diego placed a trio of players on the injured list. Infielder Tucupita Marcano landed on the 10-day IL. He tore his ACL last August and is nowhere near ready. Pitchers Luis Patiño and Glenn Otto each went on the 15-day injured list. Otto has a teres major strain in his throwing shoulder; Patiño is battling elbow inflammation. San Diego also optioned reliever Woo-Suk Go to Triple-A El Paso. He won’t be on the roster for the team’s series in his home country after allowing six runs in 4 1/3 innings this spring.
Merrill, 20, will open the year as San Diego’s starting center fielder. The top prospect earned that assignment with a .351/.400/.595 showing in 13 Spring Training contests. Merrill hit .277/.326/.444 with 15 homers in 511 plate appearances between High-A and Double-A a season ago. That’s impressive production given his youth, and Merrill was regarded as one of the better pure hitters in the minors.
There’s nevertheless plenty of risk with the move. Merrill didn’t log a single inning in center field in his minor league career and has yet to play above Double-A. San Diego hasn’t been afraid of aggressively promoting its top minor league talents in recent years. Merrill should slot between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jurickson Profar in the Opening Day lineup. San Diego is still looking into the possibility of a left field upgrade, as they were reportedly in contact with Tommy Pham over the weekend.
Wade, 29, gets back to the majors for what’ll be the eighth straight season. The lefty-hitting utilityman has primarily worked off the bench over his career with the Yankees, Angels and A’s. He appeared in 26 games with Oakland last season, hitting .255/.309/.314. Wade has a middling .217/.293/.300 batting line in just over 700 major league plate appearances.
He earned a season-opening roster spot with an impressive showing this spring. Wade hit .294/.351/.471 over 14 exhibition contests. The Padres aren’t counting on him to make much of an impact offensively, but he provides a speed and defense element off the bench. Wade can play virtually anywhere aside from catcher. He’ll offer a complement to Pauley at third base and Merrill in center field late in games. Wade is out of options, so now that he secured a 40-man spot, the Padres would need to expose him to waivers if they wanted to take him off the major league roster.
Rule 5 pick Stephen Kolek nabbed a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. He should soon get an opportunity to make his major league debut, perhaps against the team that drafted him. Kolek was an 11th-round pick of the Dodgers in 2018. L.A. dealt him to the Mariners for cash early in the 2021 campaign. Kolek turned in a 3.76 ERA over 69 1/3 innings of relief between the top two minor league levels last season. He tossed 5 2/3 scoreless frames this spring, albeit with four walks.
Padres Select Graham Pauley
Infield prospect Graham Pauley made the Padres’ Opening Day roster, reports Dennis Lin of the Athletic (X link). San Diego will need to formally select his contract. They have multiple vacancies on the 40-man roster to do so.
Pauley will join Jackson Merrill in making his major league debut, perhaps as soon as tomorrow morning. Like Merrill, he’ll make the jump directly from Double-A. Pauley is in his second full season as a professional. The Padres selected him in the 13th round of the 2022 draft. That looks like an excellent find, as the Duke product quickly hit his way to the majors.
A left-handed batter, Pauley raked across three minor league levels a year ago. He started with a .309/.422/.465 slash with as many walks as strikeouts over 62 games in Low-A. While he didn’t maintain that pristine strikeout and walk profile upon a bump to High-A, his power numbers exploded after his move to the Midwest League. He popped 16 home runs in just 45 games to earn another promotion to Double-A. Pauley continued to impress, closing the season with a .321/.375/.556 slash in 20 contests.
Overall, Pauley finished his first full minor league schedule with an excellent .308/.393/.539 line in 551 plate appearances. He ripped 32 doubles, five triples and 23 homers. As a college draftee, he should acquit himself well against low minors pitching, but his production was so strong that it put him firmly on the prospect radar. Baseball America and The Athletic’s Keith Law each ranked him 11th among San Diego prospects this winter, praising his advanced offensive ability. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted Pauley sixth in the system in January — he’d be up to fourth after the inclusion of Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte in the Dylan Cease trade — and similarly praised his overall offensive aptitude.
The 23-year-old picked up where he’d left off this spring, hitting .314/.400/.486 with five walks and nine strikeouts in 40 trips to the dish. He convinced the front office of his readiness to take on major league pitching. Prospect evaluators are less enamored of Pauley’s defense, with reviews on his glove ranging from average to well below. Pauley is primarily a third baseman but has limited experience at second base and in the corner outfield.
He should get run early in the season at the hot corner. Manny Machado is expected to work as a designated hitter early in the year as he continues to build back after undergoing elbow surgery last October. Pauley should step in as the primary third baseman, with Eguy Rosario and Tyler Wade on hand as potentially superior defensive options late in games.
Giants Sign Blake Snell
The Giants have made another Spring Training strike. San Francisco has officially announced the signing of Blake Snell on a two-year, $62MM contract that allows him to opt out after the upcoming season. The Boras Corporation client will receive a $15MM salary in 2024 and has a $17MM signing bonus that will not be paid until January 2026. Snell will receive the bonus even if he opts out, so that decision essentially amounts to a $30MM player option for the ’25 season. If Snell does not opt out, half of his salary for the second season would be deferred until 2027.
San Francisco adds the defending NL Cy Young winner to the top of a staff that also includes last year’s runner-up, Logan Webb. A two-year deal certainly isn’t what Snell had in mind at the beginning of the winter. The 31-year-old hit free agency coming off an otherworldly finish to the 2023 campaign. Snell’s platform season actually started shakily, as he allowed 15 runs over his first 23 frames. From the start of May onward, he was the best pitcher in the majors. Snell allowed only 1.78 earned runs per nine through 27 starts and 157 innings after April.
Despite the tough first month, the southpaw finished the year with an MLB-best 2.25 ERA across 180 frames. He punched out 31.5% of opposing hitters, a mark surpassed by only Spencer Strider and Tyler Glasnow among pitchers with at least 100 innings. No other starter missed more bats on a per-swing basis. Opponents made contact on just 64.2% of their swings against Snell, narrowly better than Strider’s 64.3% figure for the lowest rate in the majors.
As a result, Snell cruised to the second Cy Young of his career. He received 28 of 30 first-place votes. He’d won the American League Cy Young as a member of the Rays five seasons earlier behind an AL-leading 1.89 ERA over 31 starts. He joined Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom as active pitchers with multiple Cy Young wins.
The 2018 and ’23 seasons are, rather remarkably, the only seasons in which Snell has appeared on Cy Young ballots. That points to some amount of inconsistency over the course of his career, which is mostly attributable to scattershot control. Snell has walked nearly 11% of batters faced over his seven-plus big league seasons. Last season’s 13.3% walk percentage was the highest rate of his career. Snell led the majors with 99 free passes, the first pitcher to do so in a Cy Young-winning campaign in more than 60 years.
Snell has never been a bad pitcher, but the inconsistent strike-throwing has kept him from turning in ace production on an annual basis. He posted an ERA ranging from 3.24 to 4.29 in the four seasons between his award-winning campaigns. While Snell fanned over 30% of opposing hitters every year, working deep counts kept him from logging massive workloads. He has averaged a little less than 5 1/3 innings per start over the course of his career. He reached the 180-inning mark in each of his Cy Young campaigns but didn’t surpass 130 frames in any other season.
It seems the market didn’t value Snell as a clear-cut ace despite the strength of his platform year. The only other publicly reported offer which he received was a six-year, $150MM proposal from the Yankees back in January. When Snell didn’t accept, New York inked Marcus Stroman to a two-year deal. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Yankees took their offer off the table last month and declined to reengage over the weekend.
Given that Snell ultimately settled for a two-year guarantee at a marginally higher annual rate, there’s a strong argument that his camp erred in not accepting New York’s offer. At the very least, he’s taking more risk in going with a short-term pact for the chance to retest the market next winter. Still, it’s not all that surprising he didn’t jump on a $150MM guarantee.
That’s well below the seven-year, $172MM deal which Aaron Nola secured from the Phillies earlier this offseason. It’s also shy of the six-year, $162MM pact that Carlos Rodón landed from New York a year ago. Snell and Rodón are broadly similar pitchers — power lefties with questions about their ability to consistently log huge innings totals — but the former was coming off a better year than Rodón posted in 2022.
It’s possible Snell received similar or better offers from other teams that went unreported. In any case, he clearly didn’t find the kind of long-term pact that he envisioned. That seemed increasingly unlikely the longer he remained unsigned. The incumbent Padres were never a factor as they sliced payroll this winter. Teams like the Mets and Red Sox jumped out of the market fairly quickly. As the offseason dragged along, more teams downplayed the possibility of making a top-of-the-market splash. Beyond the Yankees, Snell reportedly drew interest from the Angels. The Astros were a late entrant last week before balking at an annual commitment above $30MM.
Snell joins fellow Boras Corporation clients Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman in settling for guarantees well below what most people expected entering the offseason. They’ll all have the ability to retest free agency next winter. Bellinger and Chapman inked three-year deals with opt-outs after 2024 and ’25. Jordan Montgomery, the last unsigned member of the so-called “Boras four,” has reportedly continued to hold out in search of a long-term deal. With a week and a half until Opening Day, it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to find anything close to that.
It’s yet another huge free agent strike for the Giants, who have attacked the late stages of free agency with a vengeance. After a few offseasons of missing out on their top targets, San Francisco has successfully slow-played this year’s market. Since the beginning of Spring Training, they’ve added Jorge Soler, Chapman and Snell. Soler’s three-year, $42MM deal was around pre-offseason expectations. The latter two contracts were well below what the Giants could’ve envisioned in November.
Snell puts the finishing touch on a winter that also saw San Francisco shell out $113MM for KBO star Jung Hoo Lee and $44MM for reliever turned starter Jordan Hicks. The Giants also pulled off a major trade with the Mariners that sent Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani to Seattle for rehabbing starter Robbie Ray. The 2021 AL Cy Young winner won’t be a factor until around the All-Star Break, but he could eventually add another high-ceiling arm to the rotation.
It’s still a potentially top-heavy group, but there’s now a ton of upside. Snell and Webb should form an excellent 1-2 punch. Top prospect Kyle Harrison will occupy the #3 role. Giving Hicks a starting job despite his injury history and below-average control is a gamble, but his power arsenal at least makes that an intriguing flier. Veteran righty Alex Cobb could be back from last fall’s hip surgery by May. Prospects Keaton Winn and Mason Black are back-of-the-rotation depth options early in the year.
Snell’s late signing date could have him a bit behind schedule. He has been throwing and reportedly tossed four simulated innings in front of scouts last week. There’s not a ton of time to build rapport with catcher Patrick Bailey before Opening Day, but that shouldn’t be an issue too deep into the season. Snell is at least plenty familiar with manager Bob Melvin, his skipper for the last two years with the Padres.
San Francisco’s late-offseason aggressiveness has pushed them into luxury tax territory for the first time since 2017. While the delayed payment of the signing bonus reduces the team’s commitment in the short term, the $31MM average annual value is the relevant number for tax purposes. RosterResource calculates the club’s competitive balance tax number right around the $257MM line that marks the second tier of penalization. For teams that didn’t pay the tax the preceding season, the fees are fairly modest. In contrast to the Yankees (who would’ve been taxed at a 110% rate as a third-time payor that is in the top bracket), the Giants are only hit with a 20% fee on spending between $237MM and $257MM.
The Snell deal comes with a roughly $4MM tax bill. They’ll be taxed at a 32% clip for future spending up to the $277MM mark with escalating fees thereafter. While it’s likely this marks their last major investment of the winter, they’re surely hopeful of being in a position to add at the trade deadline.
Snell declined a qualifying offer from the Padres. The Giants already forfeited their second-round pick and $500K of international bonus pool space to add Chapman. They’ll lose their third-rounder (#87 overall) and another $500K from their international bonus pool for Snell. San Diego paid the CBT a year ago, so they’re limited to the lowest compensation for losing a qualified free agent: a selection after the fourth round. The Padres received the #135 pick for losing Josh Hader and will now get another selection in that range.
Paying the CBT and parting with draft capital are costs the Giants are happy to pay to get Chapman and Snell on short-term deals. San Francisco was comfortable with similar contract structures for Rodón and Michael Conforto in previous offseasons. Both players could walk next offseason for nothing — they’re ineligible to receive another qualifying offer in their careers — but that’s a risk worth taking to continue loading up in a division full of star talent with four legitimate threats to make the playoffs.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported Snell and the Giants agreed to a two-year, $62MM deal with an opt-out. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported the signing bonus and salary breakdown.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blue Jays Sign Mike Mayers To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays announced that they have signed Mike Mayers to a minor league deal. The right-hander has also received an invite to major league Spring Training.
Mayers, 32, is coming off a rough couple of seasons. He signed a minor league deal with the Royals last year and was added to their big league roster to serve in a swing role, but posted an earned run average of 6.15 in 26 1/3 innings over six appearances. His 8.4% walk rate was fine but his 14.3% strikeout rate was well below average. He was outrighted off the roster in June and later traded to the White Sox, putting up poor numbers for the Triple-A affiliates of both clubs, finishing with a combined 6.12 ERA at that level.
With the Angels the year before, he tossed 50 2/3 innings with a 5.68 ERA. His 20.2% strikeout rate was better in that season but 20.8% of his fly balls allowed went over the fence, almost double his 12.1% rate from 2023.
The Jays will undoubtedly be hoping for Mayers to return to his 2020-21 form. Over those two seasons, he made 101 appearances for the Halos and logged 105 innings. He posted a 3.34 ERA in that time, striking out 30.5% of opponents while walking just 8%. He moved up the bullpen chart for the Angels in that time, earning four saves and 22 holds.
Per the data at Statcast, his velocity ticked down as his results went south. His fastball velo was above 94 miles per hour in 2020 and 2021 but dropped to 93.5 mph in 2022 and 92.9 mph last year. His slider, cutter and changeup also lost a tick or two over the past two seasons, while his curveball went up slightly in 2022 before dropping in 2023.
Mayers has recently been getting some work in with Driveline Baseball, as they tweeted out some footage of him throwing, as relayed by Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. It seems the Jays were intrigued enough by his recent form to bring him into camp.
That may have been at least partially motivated by some recent developments to players on their roster. Per Matheson, righties Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson are dealing with arm issues, right elbow inflammation for the former and forearm tightness for the latter. Each player underwent an MRI without finding any structural issues, but the club may be precautious with them in the meantime.
If either or both of those guys miss time, the club will have to rely on its depth. Mayers will now jump into that mix and try to earn his way onto the roster. If he does so, he is out of options but he has just under five years of service time. That means the Jays could retain him for 2025 via arbitration if he earns a roster spot and things go especially well this year.
Reds Release Tony Kemp
The Reds have released infielder/outfielder Tony Kemp, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously signed a minor league deal with the club and that pact allowed him to opt out if not on the roster by March 23. The Reds announced yesterday that he had been reassigned to minor league camp.
Whether he triggered his opt-out or the club proactively let him go to find his next club, the end result is the same. Kemp is now a free agent again and will look around to find his next gig.
The Reds have a fairly crowded position player mix, even though infielder Noelvi Marté was recently hit with an 80-game PED suspension and outfielder TJ Friedl is set to miss extended time due to a wrist fracture. They still have Jeimer Candelario, Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to take regular infield roles, as Spencer Steer, Jake Fraley and Will Benson could be taking the outfield playing time. Jonathan India could be moving between the infield and outfield while all that group rotates through the designated hitter spot. Players like Stuart Fairchild and Nick Martini are on the roster and could take on bench/depth roles.
With all of those options on hand, a couple of veterans on minor league deals have been squeezed out. Another veteran utility guy, Josh Harrison, opted out of his minor league deal yesterday after being informed he wouldn’t be making the club. Both he and Kemp will be hoping to find new clubs in the coming days, presumably ones with cleaner paths to playing time.
Kemp, 32, had a solid run with the Athletics over the past four years. He limited his strikeouts to a very low rate of 11.7% while also drawing walks at a healthy 10.5% clip. He didn’t do too much damage, hitting just 20 home runs in 1,488 plate appearances, but his contact approach led to a .240/.330/.345 batting line and 97 wRC+.
Unfortunately, his most recent season was the weakest of those four, as he hit just .209/.303/.304 last year for a 77 wRC+. But he still proved useful in other ways, stealing 15 bases while splitting his time between second base and left field. His glovework has been considered around average in left with the metrics split on his defense at the keystone. He has eight Outs Above Average as a second baseman in his career but -17 Defensive Runs Saved.
Jackson Chourio To Make Brewers’ Opening Day Roster
The Brewers will carry top outfield prospect Jackson Chourio on their Opening Day roster, reports Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He is already on the 40-man roster after signing an eight-year extension over the offseason.
Chourio, who was born in March 2004, will very likely be the youngest player in the majors. It’s nevertheless not all that surprising that he’s breaking camp after signing an $82MM extension in December. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, that’s by far the largest guarantee for a player who had yet to make his MLB debut. Chourio only has six games of Triple-A experience but turned in above-average numbers in the Double-A Southern League a season ago.
The right-handed hitter put together a .280/.336/.467 slash with 22 home runs and 43 steals over 559 plate appearances. That came against much older competition in a league where testing of the pre-tacked baseball led to increased break on pitches and proved a challenge for hitters. Chourio fared better in the second half after the league reverted to the traditional baseball, including a scorching .388/.447/.718 showing in July.
That firmly established him among the sport’s top handful of minor league talents. Chourio ranked second or third on Top 100 lists from Baseball America, FanGraphs, ESPN, The Athletic and MLB Pipeline this offseason. He’s a potential franchise center fielder with a rare combination of power and athleticism.
To the extent there’s risk with Chourio, it’s that he has shown an aggressive plate approach. He walked at a modest 7.3% clip in Double-A, although that’s hardly an overwhelming concern given his youth. Chourio kept his strikeouts to a solid 18.4% rate and showcased his physical gifts.
In 13 games this spring, he’s hitting .283/.313/.348. He has three doubles, no homers, and a 10:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. They’re not overwhelming numbers, but it has been an impressive enough performance to reaffirm to the front office that he’s ready for an aggressive major league assignment. There’d be little reason to call him up if the club weren’t confident he can hold down the everyday center field job.
The Venezuela native will be at the center of a talented outfield at American Family Field. Christian Yelich should see the bulk of his time in left field with sporadic work at designated hitter. Former first-round pick Garrett Mitchell could slide to right field, where Milwaukee could also turn to Joey Wiemer or Sal Frelick. Their stockpile of outfield talent was enough that the Brewers have considered moving Frelick to third base, although the acquisition of Joey Ortiz in the Corbin Burnes trade gives them the flexibility to keep the Boston College product on the outfield grass if they like.
With a pair of club options tacked onto the end of his eight-year guarantee, Milwaukee already controls Chourio well beyond his six-year service window. The Brewers could still benefit from the Prospect Promotion Incentive if he performs well enough to merit award consideration.
Assuming Milwaukee keeps him in the majors for a full service year, Chourio would earn the Brewers an extra draft pick at the end of the first round if he wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in MVP balloting within his first three seasons. That’s certainly not an easy task. He faces an uphill battle in a Rookie of the Year race where Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands as the favorite and a top-three MVP finish is a tough ask of even the sport’s elite players.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
A’s Release Angel Felipe
The Athletics released reliever Angel Felipe, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. He’d been designated for assignment over the weekend.
Once the A’s took Felipe off the 40-man roster, a release was all but inevitable. The 26-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery last week. Injured players cannot go on outright waivers. After the DFA, the only options were to trade Felipe or release him. They weren’t going to find a trade partner due to the injury.
Felipe lost his roster spot when Oakland announced the J.D. Davis signing. The A’s could have placed him on the 60-day injured list, but that would’ve required paying him a $740K salary for the upcoming season. They’d very likely have run him through waivers at the start of next winter anyhow — players can’t stay on the injured list during the offseason — so releasing him instead made sense.
Of course, that’s a tough blow for Felipe. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent. The A’s could try to bring him back on a two-year minor league deal at that point, but he’d have the freedom to evaluate other opportunities. Oakland grabbed him off waivers from the Padres last June. Felipe debuted with 14 big league outings late last season, allowing seven runs with 19 strikeouts and 13 walks over 15 frames. He has a mid-90s fastball but hasn’t consistently thrown strikes in the minors. Felipe has a walk rate north of 15% over parts of eight minor league seasons, in which he owns a 4.65 ERA.