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Mariners Claim Luke Weaver, Designate Derek Hill

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander Luke Weaver off waivers from the Royals. Outfielder Derek Hill was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Weaver, 29, was a highly-touted prospect as he made his way through the system of the Cardinals, who drafted him in 2014. He showed some potential in his first tastes of the big leagues and eventually became a key piece of the trade that sent Paul Goldschmidt from Arizona to St. Louis. Weaver made 12 good starts in the desert in 2019 but has since been held back by injuries and underperformance.

He was able to make 12 starts in the shortened 2020 season but put up an ERA of 6.58 that year. He was better in 2021 but a shoulder injury limited him to just 13 starts over that full season. This year, the D-Backs tried moving him to the bullpen, which didn’t really work. He registered a 7.71 ERA before getting flipped to the Royals at the deadline. He was slightly better in KC, but still had a 5.59 ERA after the deal.

There wasn’t any public indication the Royals had placed Weaver on waivers, though it appears they had been quietly performing some roster maintenance. Many teams are facing roster crunches soon, as there’s no injured list between the World Series and Spring Training. Since most teams have at least a few players on the 60-day IL, those players will soon have to retake roster spots or else be cut. Weaver is arbitration-eligible and has been projected for a salary of $3MM by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Instead, it seems the Royals have cut him loose and will use his roster spot for other players.

For the Mariners, they are evidently more enamored of Weaver than the Royals. It’s not outlandish to think that Weaver could find better results than what he saw in 2022. His .429 batting average on balls in play and 58.6% strand rate are both much worse than league averages. As such, all advanced metrics thought him deserving of much better than his 6.56 combined ERA between the D-Backs and Royals. Weaver’s 3.64 SIERA, 2.69 FIP and 3.82 xFIP all suggest he was better than he might have seemed, though xERA is a bit more skeptical with a 5.45.

In order to take a chance on Weaver, the M’s are risking losing Hill. The 26-year-old was just claimed off waivers from the Tigers in August, having served as a depth piece for both clubs. However, he is now out of options and unable to be easily sent down to the farm going forward. He got into 31 MLB games this year, all with Detroit, and hit .229/.270/.289 for a wRC+ of 60. In 68 minor league games, he slashed .220/.294/.386, 73 wRC+. Despite that tepid offensive output, Hill might find interest from other clubs given his speed and defensive skills. If he clears waivers, he would be eligible to elect free agency based on having spent parts of seven seasons in the minors.

Jose Rojas Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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Oct 26: Rojas’ deal with Doosan has been made official, per Yoo Jee-ho of Yonhap News. It’s a one year deal that will pay Rojas $1MM, including a $50k signing bonus.

Yoo also notes that Rojas will replace Jose Miguel Fernandez in the Bears’ lineup. Fernandez, 34, has long been a strong contact hitter, and he led the KBO in hits in 2019 and 2020. He saw a drop in power last season, hitting just six home runs after slugging 21 in 2020, but he still maintained an average north of the .300 mark. Overall, Fernandez’ four seasons in the KBO produced a very respectable .329/.392/.458 line.

It’s unclear yet whether Fernandez intends to latch on with another team in Korea, or seek a return to the US. Fernandez previously had a brief stint in the majors with the Angels, hitting .267/.309/.388 across 123 plate appearances in 2018. After four highly productive seasons in the KBO, MLB teams will surely have some interest in giving the Cuban second baseman another look, although a minor league deal seems more likely.

Oct 21: Infielder/outfielder Jose Rojas has been getting attention from multiple Korea Baseball Organization teams, and Rojas looks to be nearing a deal with the Doosan Bears, according to a Naver Sports report (Korean language link).  Rojas elected free agency after than accept an outright assignment to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in September, after clearing DFA waivers.

That stint on San Francisco’s roster was brief, as the Giants had only just claimed Rojas off waivers from the Angels two weeks prior.  Rojas didn’t see any time in the majors during his short run as Giant, and he was changing organizations for the first time in his pro career, after being a 36th-round pick for Anaheim in the 2016 draft.

Rojas now looks to be making a much bigger change of scenery in joining the KBO League.  Entering his age-30 season, Rojas made his Major League debut in 2021 and appeared in 61 games with the Angels, before playing in only 22 MLB contests this past season.  The versatile Rojas saw time at five different positions with the Halos — both corner outfield positions, second base, third base, and two appearances at first base.

Over 241 career plate appearances in the Show, Rojas has hit .188/.245/.339 with six home runs.  Rojas has swung a much mightier bat in the minors, with a .286/.347/.503 slash line and 92 homers over 2327 career PA down on the farm.  There seems a decent chance Rojas can carry this production over to the KBO League, hence the number of teams interested in his services.  KBO clubs have three roster spots open to non-Korean players, and players new to the KBO League are limited to one-year contracts.

13 Players Elect Free Agency

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With the World Series kicking off on Friday, we’re only a couple weeks from the opening of the offseason. It’s customary each offseason for dozens of players to hit the open market, separate from the players who reach MLB free agency at the end of the World Series based on the expiration of their contracts while having six-plus years of MLB service time.

Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of MLB service, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minor leagues has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group falls under that umbrella. The majority will take minor league deals over the winter, although one or two could find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

In recent weeks, we’ve provided periodic updates on players qualifying for minor league free agency. Here are the latest, courtesy of the MiLB.com transactions tracker.

Pitchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Beau Burrows Elects Free Agency

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After being sent outright to Triple-A by the Dodgers, pitcher Beau Burrows has elected free agency, per his MLB transactions page. As Burrows has already been outrighted more than once in his career, he had the opportunity to reject the assignment and opt for free agency.

Burrows, 26, pitched the entire 2022 season at the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma, posting a 7.18 ERA across 100 1/3 innings. He initially worked out of the starting rotation, but his struggles saw him demoted to the bullpen. As has been the case for much of his short career, he struggled to keep the ball in the park, surrendering 18 home runs during the season. He also walked batters 20% of the time against a 12.7% strikeout rate.

The 2015 first-round pick for Detroit has had brief stints in the majors for both the Tigers and Twins in 2020 and 2021. Neither of those stints proved successful, as he pitched to a combined 10.70 ERA across 17 2/3 innings with eight home runs given up in that time.

The former top-100 prospect will hit the open market and hope to latch on with another team as a minor league depth option in 2023.

Rangers Hire Bruce Bochy As Manager

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The Rangers have hired Bruce Bochy as the club’s next manager, announcing that Bochy has signed a three-year contract.

There was increased speculation in recent days linking Bochy to the job, especially when Rangers GM Chris Young (who played under Bochy on the 2006 Padres) visited the veteran manager at his home in Nashville, rather than a formal interview.  Interim Rangers manager Tony Beasley was the only other candidate known to receive an interview, further adding to the idea that the team had narrowed its focus towards bringing Bochy back to the dugout after three years away from the game.

Bruce BochyIn the team’s official press release, Bochy said he is “incredibly excited to be joining the Texas Rangers.  Over the last several days, I’ve had extensive conversations with Chris Young and other individuals in the organization, and I had the chance to meet with [co-owner] Ray Davis.  Their vision and commitment to putting together a club that can contend and win year in and year out is impressive, and I became convinced I wanted to be a part of that.  If I was going to return to managing, it had to be the right situation.  I strongly believe that to be the case with the Rangers, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Bochy brings 25 years of experience as a Major League skipper, managing the Padres from 1995-2006 and then the Giants from 2007-2019.  During his long career, the 67-year-old Bochy has overseen rebuilding clubs, contenders, and teams that took dips in performance and then returned to contention — there have been enough ebbs and flows that Bochy actually has a career losing record, at 2003-2029.

However, Bochy’s resume also includes some major successes.  The Giants won three World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014 under Bochy’s leadership, as the “Even Year” mini-dynasty brought the organization back to championship glory for the first time since 1954.  (Ironically, the 2010 Giants defeated the Rangers in the Series.)  Bochy also managed another NL pennant winner in the 1998 Padres, which marked the last time that San Diego reached the World Series.

The hire represents a change in direction for the Rangers, as the club tended to hire first-time managers when Jon Daniels was in charge of baseball operations.  (Interim manager Don Wakamatsu ran the team for 10 games in 2018, and was the only one of the last six Texas managers to have any previous MLB experience as a skipper.)  Of course, Daniels was himself fired in August, shortly after ex-manager Chris Woodward was also let go.

Daniels’ firing reportedly even caught Young by surprise, as Young suddenly found himself in charge of an organization that is eager to start winning.  Texas spent big last winter in signing Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Jon Gray, and while the team itself felt 2023 might be a more realistic target date for a return to contention, the 2022 club didn’t show much progress in posting a 68-94 record.  This clearly wasn’t good enough for Davis and the Rangers’ ownership group, who didn’t even wait until the end of the season before overhauling the front office.

With Texas sitting at six consecutive losing seasons, there is certainly pressure on Young and Bochy to start delivering some better results in 2023.  The Rangers are again expected to be aggressive this winter, whether that manifests itself as more splashy free agent signings, or trades for proven veterans.

The Royals, White Sox, and Marlins are now the only teams looking to fill managerial vacancies.  In addition to Bochy’s hiring, the Blue Jays (John Schneider), Angels (Phil Nevin), and Phillies (Rob Thomson) all officially signed their interim skippers from 2022 for the full-time positions.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Blue Jays Hire John Schneider As Manager

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The Blue Jays have officially removed the interim label from John Schneider, announcing today that the 42-year-old has been hired as the team’s manager.  Schneider was signed to a three-year contract, with a club option for the 2026 season.

A longtime member of the Jays organization, Schneider was promoted to the bench coach job prior to the 2022 season, but he took over as interim manager when Charlie Montoyo was fired on July 13.  Toronto held a 46-42 record at the time of Montoyo’s firing, but had played inconsistent baseball to that point, and was in the midst of a major slump that cost Montoyo his job.

This opened the door for Schneider, who stabilized matters by leading the Blue Jays to a 46-28 record over the remainder of the season.  Toronto captured the top wild card spot in the American League, though the Jays’ playoff trip was both short-lived and painful — the Mariners swept the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series, as the Jays were shut out in Game 1 and then suffered a major bullpen breakdown in Game 2.

Despite the postseason disappointment, there was a sense that Schneider had done enough to earn the full-time managerial job.  He reportedly has plenty of support from within the clubhouse, and while Jays GM Ross Atkins left a bit of wiggle room during his recent end-of-season meeting with the media, he also stated that “it will be very difficult for us to find better than John Schneider” as the team’s next bench boss.

Schneider has spent his entire pro career with the Blue Jays, starting when he was a 13th-round pick for the club in the 2002 draft.  After six seasons in the minors, Schneider retired from playing due to injuries and moved into the coaching ranks, slowly working his way up the organizational ladder.  Schneider managed the Blue Jays’ rookie ball affiliate, both A-ball affiliates, and the Double-A affiliate from 2008-18, before receiving a promotion to the big league coaching staff prior to the 2019 season.  As it happened, Schneider’s climb coincided with the progress of several of Toronto’s young stars, so he was a familiar face in the dugout once the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Jordan Romano, and others arrived in the big leagues.

The early returns on Schneider as a Major League manager are promising, and the three-year deal represents the front office’s confidence in their new skipper.  However, Schneider faces immediate pressure as the leader of a team that has World Series aspirations, yet fell so devastatingly short in 2022.  Schneider’s own decision-making drew criticism following the epic Game 2 collapse, though in the view of the front office, the outcome of one game (important as that game was) wasn’t enough to erase Schneider’s work as manager over the previous three months.

Schneider becomes the third interim manager to receive a full promotion for 2023, following the Phillies’ Rob Thomson and the Angels’ Phil Nevin.  With Toronto finalizing their managerial situation, that leaves the White Sox, Royals, Marlins, and Rangers as the teams still looking to find a new skipper.

Jharel Cotton Elects Free Agency

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Giants right-hander Jharel Cotton recently cleared waivers and elected free agency, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.

Cotton, 31 in January, spent most of the season bouncing on and off the Twins’ roster, frequently going unclaimed on waivers and sticking with Minnesota. However, the Giants swooped in for an interception in September, claiming Cotton for the final few weeks of the season. Between the two clubs, he tossed 43 innings this year with a 3.56 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, 11% walk rate and 29.4% ground ball rate.

The Giants, like many clubs at this time of year, are facing a roster crunch. They have placed numerous players on the 60-day injured list throughout the season, which those players not occupying a roster spot while on the shelf. However, there’s no IL between the World Series and Spring Training, meaning they will soon have many players needing to retake their spots and leading to some cuts.

Cotton was eligible for arbitration and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to get a raise to $1.1MM. The Giants evidently weren’t planning on tendering him a contract and placed him on waivers instead. Any player with three years of service time or a previous career outright has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Cotton qualifies on both counts and will now return to the open market.

Danny Coulombe Outrighted By Twins, Elects Free Agency

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The Twins have outrighted left-hander Danny Coulombe, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Coulombe cleared waivers and elected free agency.

Coulombe, 33 next week, has been on and off the Twins’ roster over the past few years. He was signed to a minor league deal prior to the 2020 season, got his contract selected but was designated for assignment shortly thereafter. He signed another minors deal for 2021 and spent a few months with the team before losing his roster spot at year’s end again.

A third straight minor league deal followed prior to 2022, with Coulombe getting selected to the big league team once again. He tossed 12 1/3 innings with a 1.46 ERA despite a 17% walk rate but made two trips to the IL due to a hip impingement that eventually required surgery. For his career, he’s thrown 192 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 22.1% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 52.5% ground ball rate.

The Twins suffered a large number of injuries this season, leading to them placing many players on the 60-day injured list. However, since there’s no IL between the World Series and Spring Training, those players will soon have to take up roster spots once again. In anticipation of that, the club has been placing some players on waivers in recent weeks, having lost Caleb Hamilton to the Red Sox, Jake Cave to the Orioles and Jermaine Palacios to the Tigers, in addition to outrighting Jhon Romero, Devin Smeltzer and now Coulombe. Players who have more than three years of MLB service time or who have been previously outrighted in their career are eligible to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Coulombe qualified on both counts.

Given that Coulombe and the Twins have continued to re-engage each other in recent years, it’s entirely possible that they do so again. However, Coulombe will be free to pursue other opportunities for the time being, while the club will likely wait and see how the lefty recovers from his surgery.

Orioles Outright Louis Head

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The Orioles have sent reliever Louis Head outright to Triple-A Norfolk, per his transactions page at MLB.com. Head was designated for assignment by the team on Friday.

Head, 32, was claimed off waivers by the Orioles in July after spending the first half of the season in Miami. Originally an 18th round selection by Cleveland back in 2012, Head spent nine years in the minor leagues before the Rays gave him a shot in the big leagues in last year.

At Tampa Bay, Head pitched to a 2.31 ERA across 35 innings. While he was never a big strikeout guy, Head kept the walks and home runs in check to provide strong innings out of the Rays bullpen, although he also benefited from a .216 opponent batting average on balls in play. The Marlins to acquired him in the off-season, but the results went south after the trade. Head’s walk rate jumped significantly to 9.9% while his home run rate more than doubled from his time at the Rays. As a result, he pitched to a 7.23 ERA across 23 2/3 innings before the Marlins exposed him to waivers in July.

Head only pitched five innings in Baltimore, but struggled in his time at Triple-A Norfolk as well, pitching to a 7.04 ERA. While Head has less than three years of service time and is being outrighted for the first time, as a player who has spent parts of seven seasons in the minor leagues, he can elect free agency.

Pirates Claim Ali Sánchez, Beau Sulser; Designate José Godoy

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The Pirates have made a pair of waiver claims, according to their transactions tracker at MLB.com. Catcher Ali Sánchez was claimed from the Tigers and right-hander Beau Sulser was claimed from the Orioles. Additionally, the Pirates designated catcher José Godoy for assignment.

Sánchez, 26 in January, has a very limited MLB track record, getting into five games with the Mets in 2020 and two games with the Cardinals in 2021. The Cards kept him in the minors this year, before he went to the Tigers on a waiver claim in June. The Tigers also stashed him in Triple-A as depth, before designating him for assignment last week.

He is known as a glove-first catcher but showed some encouraging signs at the plate this year, walking in 12% of his plate appearances. His batting line in 291 trips to the plate this year was .262/.354/.389 for a wRC+ of 101, or 1% above league average.

The Bucs have a fairly wide open catching mix for next year, Jason Delay and Tyler Heineman getting the bulk of the work down the stretch in 2022. Neither of them hit much but they both posted strong defensive numbers. Delay hit .213/.265/.271 while Heineman slashed .217/.276/.268. They also have Zack Collins, though he spent more time at first base than behind the plate for Pittsburgh. Sánchez will be out of options next year and thus won’t be able to be sent to the minors without first being passed through waivers.

He seems to have replaced Godoy, 28, in the club’s catching plans. Godoy got into 10 MLB games this year between the Twins and Pirates, spending the bulk of his time in Triple-A. He only hit .197/.272/.299 down on the farm for the Twins but a much better .333/.357/.590 in Indianapolis. Still, it seems that wasn’t enough to hold onto a roster spot. Since he has been previously outrighted in his career, he would have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers again.

Sulser, 29 in May, began the year with the Pirates but went to the Orioles on a waiver claim in May. Between the two clubs, he threw 22 1/3 innings with a 3.63 ERA, 47.1% ground ball rate, 19.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. In 56 2/3 Triple-A innings, he had a much stronger strikeout rate of 24.3%. He will still be optionable in 2023, meaning he can shuttled between Triple-A and the majors again next year.

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