Royals Announce Several Roster Moves
The Royals announced Tuesday that they’ve designated lefty Jake Brentz, right-hander Nate Webb and first baseman/outfielder Brent Rooker for assignment. Their roster spots will go to right-hander Alec Marsh, catcher Freddy Fermin and outfielder Diego Hernandez, each of whom has been selected to the 40-man roster in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft.
Kansas City also announced a one-year deal with non-tender candidate Ryan O’Hearn, avoiding arbitration and ostensibly locking him into a roster spot for the 2023 season. Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star reports that O’Hearn will be guaranteed $1.4MM and can earn another $250K of bonuses. O’Hearn was paid $1.3MM in 2022 and is controllable through the 2024 season via arbitration.
Brentz, 28, had a nice rookie season with the Royals in 2021 when he pitched to a 3.66 ERA with a 27.3% strikeout rate in 64 innings of relief. A 13.3% walk rate always served as a red flag, but as a bat-missing lefty with an average fastball of 97 mph and a 49% ground-ball rate, Brentz showed plenty of promise. His 2022 season was unfortunately blown up by injury, however. Brent tossed just 5 1/3 innings with a woeful 9-to-11 K/BB ratio and a 23.63 ERA (14 earned runs) before undergoing surgery to repair a torn UCL in his pitching elbow. That procedure, performed in late June, ended his season.
Webb, 25, was limited to just 33 1/3 innings across three minor league levels this season, struggling at each stop and spending more than two and a half months on the injured list. Although he was healthy to finish out the season, Webb concluded his 2022 campaign with a combined 9.99 ERA and 39-to-27 K/BB ratio in those 33 1/3 frames.
Rooker, acquired on Aug. 2 in a trade that sent backup catcher Cam Gallagher to the Padres, appeared in only 14 games with the Royals and went 4-for-25 with four walks and a double. Drafted by the division-rival Twins with the No. 35 overall pick back in 2017, Rooker was a bat-first prospect touted for his plus raw power but has managed just a .200/.289/.379 batting line in 270 Major League plate appearances. He’s a career .274/.387/.590 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, so it’s possible another club will take a look on waivers or in a minor trade — particularly since he still has a minor league option year remaining.
The Royals again opted against non-tendering the now-29-year-old O’Hearn, despite the fact that four full seasons have elapsed since his productive rookie effort in 2018. Since hitting .262/.353/.597 in 170 plate appearances as a 24-year-old rookie, the lefty-swinging O’Hearn has managed only a .211/.282/.351 slash in 901 plate appearances. Even with a pair of younger, highly touted first base prospects in Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto needing playing time next season, though, Kansas City will continue to hope O’Hearn can eventually recapture that rookie form and factor into the first base/DH mix.
Martín Pérez Accepts Qualifying Offer
Left-hander Martín Pérez has accepted the $19.65MM qualifying offer that was extended to him by the Rangers, his agent Gustavo Marcano of Octagon confirmed to Efraín Zavarce of IVC Networks. Pérez was one of 14 players to receive a QO, with the deadline for a decision being 3pm Central today.
Pérez, 32, was once a highly-touted prospect with Texas, considered one of the top 100 youngsters in the sport by Baseball America five years running from 2009 to 2013. It was the last of those five years that he seemingly arrived at the major league level, posting a 3.62 ERA over 20 starts and 124 1/3 innings.
However, since then, he struggled to live up to his potential, continuing to get opportunities but serving as more of a back-end innings-eater type. In the eight seasons from 2014 to 2021, his ERA was never lower than 4.38, a stretch that included some modest free agent contracts, all for just a single year. For 2019, he signed with the Twins for $4MM, followed by joining the Red Sox for $6MM in 2020 and re-signing with Boston for $4.5MM in 2021.
That pattern followed into 2022, with Pérez returning to the Rangers on a one-year, $4MM deal. Since the club was handing out mega deals to the likes of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the Pérez move was largely left in the shadows. However, he emerged into the spotlight by having the best season of his career at the age of 31. He made 32 starts and tossed 196 1/3 innings while posting a 2.89 ERA.
His 20.6% strikeout rate was a career high but only by a hair, and it was still below league average. He mostly excelled by keeping the ball on the ground and in the park. His 51.4% ground ball rate was about eight points better than last year and his highest since 2016. His 6.5% HR/FB rate was almost 1o points better than last year and the best of his career in a full season’s work.
Advanced metrics are somewhat skeptical that 2.89 ERA was earned or is sustainable, since they all pegged him to be a bit worse. However, his 3.27 FIP, 3.59 xERA and 4.08 SIERA are still solid numbers and a great fit for a Rangers rotation that has lacked stability for quite some time.
As the 2022 season was winding down, reports emerged that there was mutual interest in a reunion between Pérez and the Rangers. They were apparently discussing multi-year deals recently, presumably with lower annual salaries, but couldn’t get anything done prior to last week’s QO offer deadline. The club decided he was worth this year’s $19.65MM QO price tag and extended it last week. That would have entitled them to draft pick compensation if the southpaw had signed elsewhere, but that’s a moot point now that he’s returned. It’s still possible a multi-year arrangement could be worked out, with that new deal replacing the QO. Such a scenario played out three years ago when Jose Abreu accepted a $17.8MM QO but then subsequently agreed to a three-year $50MM extension. But for now, Pérez has guaranteed himself a nice payday that’s almost five times what he made in 2021.
With Pérez now officially back for 2023, the Rangers’ rotation looks stronger than it did just a few days ago, as the club also acquired Jake Odorizzi in a trade with Atlanta last week. Those two should be slotted next to Jon Gray for next year. Dane Dunning could be a candidate for the back end if he recovers from hip surgery in time for the start of the season. That gives them a decent group but one that is lacking in front-of-the-rotation potential. The club seems to be aware of that, however, as general manager Chris Young is considering a run at some of the top free agent starting pitchers in order to add an ace into the mix.
Whether they can do that will likely depend upon the payroll, with Pérez now adding $19.65MM to the ledger. That puts them around $141MM in spending for next year, in the estimation of Roster Resource. That basically puts them even with last year’s Opening Day figure, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, though Young has already indicated payroll will go up and they have been as high as $165MM in the past. If the rotation can move from a weakness to a strength next year, it could help the club see better results than their 68-94 record in 2022.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rays Release Brendan McKay, Hopeful Of Re-Signing Him To Minor League Deal
The Rays have released left-hander Brendan McKay, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The former fourth overall pick was outrighted off Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster last week.
McKay has had an unfathomable stretch of injury luck that has sidetracked what looked to be a very promising career. A two-way superstar in college, McKay increasingly focused on pitching as a professional. An excellent strike-thrower, he moved quickly through the minor leagues and reached the majors by 2019. He started 11 of 13 games during his rookie season, showing promising strikeout and walk marks through 49 innings.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to throw a single major league pitch in the three-plus years since then. He missed the shortened 2020 season on account of a shoulder problem that eventually required surgery. The rehab from that procedure kept him out of action until late June 2021. Just a few outings into a minor league rehab stint, McKay suffered a flexor strain in his forearm that again proved to be season-ending. He was then diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery to correct that issue last November.
McKay spent most of 2022 on the injured list recovering from the TOS procedure. He set out on a rehab assignment in mid-July and spent his allotted 30-day window pitching back to Triple-A. The Rays then formally reinstated McKay from the IL but kept him in Durham on an optional assignment. A few days later, he suffered a UCL injury while pitching with the Bulls. Tampa Bay announced in September he’d require Tommy John surgery, an injury that’ll cost him the entire 2023 season.
The Rays successfully ran McKay through waivers last week, and he didn’t have the service time to refuse the outright assignment at that time. Tampa Bay could’ve kept him in the farm system, but the 26-year-old (27 next month) would’ve reached minor league free agency at the end of the 2023 campaign if not added back to the 40-man roster, as he’d have tallied parts of seven years on a minor league roster.
With McKay unable to pitch for the entirety of next year, there’s little incentive for Tampa Bay to keep him in the organization on his current deal. Topkin reports the Rays are hopeful of inking him to a new, multi-year minor league contract — which would extend their window of team control a season without necessitating a 40-man roster spot at the start of the 2023-24 offseason. However, McKay will have an opportunity to explore interest elsewhere around the league if he’d like before making any move.
Nationals Release Seth Romero After DWI Charge
The Nationals have released left-hander Seth Romero after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Texas, reports Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. This is Romero’s second DWI charge of year, with the first coming in January.
Romero is a former first-round pick. Despite being twice suspended and eventually dismissed from the University of Houston baseball team during the spring of his draft year, the southpaw landed in Washington with the 25th overall pick in the 2017 draft. Baseball America’s scouting report at the time noted Romero could’ve gone in the top 10 if not for questions about his maturity level, as he boasted a mid-90s fastball with an excellent slider.
The 6’3″ hurler was slowed by injuries on his way up the minor league ladder, including a 2020 surgery to repair a right hand fracture and an extended absence to start this past season on account of a left calf strain. Romero did make it to the big leagues in Washington but only briefly, appearing in three games and tossing 2 2/3 innings of relief during the shortened 2020 season. His fastball averaged just 91.7 MPH in short stints, a notable dip from where he’d sat at the peak of his prospect hype.
Romero had held his spot on Washington’s 40-man roster until today, although he’s spent the past two years either on the injured list or on optional assignment to the minor leagues. He made five starts this year at Double-A Harrisburg, allowing six runs and walking 11 but striking out 25 in 13 2/3 innings. His upper minors inconsistency could’ve had him on the roster bubble this winter independent of the legal issues he’s now facing, but the Nationals decided to officially move on after he was reportedly arrested yesterday. He’ll be placed on waivers and, if he goes unclaimed, will become a free agent.
The move opens a spot on the Nationals 40-man roster. That count now sits at 38 heading into tomorrow’s deadline to add players to the roster to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft.
Twins, Kyle Garlick Avoid Arbitration
The Twins and outfielder Kyle Garlick have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Garlick will make a salary of $750K, pre Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com.
Garlick, 31 in January, was outrighted off the Twins’ roster a year ago but earned his way back on by the middle of April. He only got into 66 games on the season due to various injuries. He went to the IL four times, with the causes ranging from a right calf strain, a left hamstring strain, a right ribcage contusion and a left wrist sprain.
Despite all those ailments, he was still able to be an above-average hitter at the plate on the season. He hit nine home runs in that limited playing time and produced an overall batting line of .233/.284/.433. That amounted to a wRC+ of 104, indicating he was 4% better than the league average hitter. The Twins likely envision him for a platoon role, as he was much better against lefties. Six of his nine homers were against southpaws and his overall production against them finished at .243/.305/.500, wRC+ of 128. Against righties, it was just .224/.263/.368 and a wRC+ of 79.
The Twins have a couple of lefties in their outfield mix in Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach. Given Garlick’s abilities with the platoon advantage, he could take some at-bats away from that crew from time to time. All three of them also made multiple trips to the IL in 2022 and could create a larger opening for Garlick if they got hurt. There’s also the oft-injured Byron Buxton in the mix in center, creating another reason for the Twins to keep Garlick around as depth.
Garlick qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player, his first time being eligible for the process. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Garlick for a salary of $1.1MM but he has settled for less than that. It’s not uncommon for such deals to come out at this time of year. Thursday is the deadline for teams to decide whether or not they will tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Garlick was a candidate to be non-tendered and sent back to free agency but has instead agreed to a salary with a modest raise.
Last year’s minimum was $700K and next year’s will be $720K, meaning Garlick gets a small bump and the Twins have secured a player they could find useful at a rate barely above minimum. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, arbitration salaries weren’t guaranteed until Opening Day but the new CBA does guarantee them as long as the player doesn’t go to a hearing. That means Garlick has that $750K locked in.
Cubs Release Jason Heyward
The Cubs announced Monday that outfielder Jason Heyward has officially been granted his unconditional release. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer announced in August that the team would release Heyward in the offseason. Heyward is still owed $22MM next year under the terms of his eight-year, $184MM contract, which covered the 2016-23 seasons.
After a lengthy rebuild where the Cubs finished last in the NL Central for five straight years from 2010 to 2014, they finally turned the corner in 2015. Their 97 victories only resulted in a third place finish in the NL Central and a Wild Card berth, though they were able to defeat the two teams that finished ahead of them in the postseason, getting by the Pirates in the WC game and then the Cardinals in the NLDS. They were then swept by the Mets in the NLCS but it was clear that the rebuild was over and it was time to contend.
As such, the 2015-16 offseason was a busy one for the club. They gave $56MM to Ben Zobrist, $32MM to John Lackey and a few one-year deals, but their big strike was Heyward. He and the club agreed to an eight-year, $184MM deal that afforded him potential opt-outs after 2018 and 2019. Those chances to opt out were especially significant given Heyward’s young age, as he was only going into his age-26 season at the time. It was a huge investment for the Cubs at a crucial time in the history of the franchise, but Heyward had proven himself to be an all-around contributor. His defense was excellent and he had hit at an above-average level, in addition to stealing over 20 bases three time in his career already.
Unfortunately, Heyward’s production slumped immediately. After hitting .293/.359/.439 with the Cardinals in 2015, he produced a batting line of .230/.306/.325 in 2016. While the former line amounted to a wRC+ of 121, or 21% above league average, his first year as a Cub resulted in a wRC+ of just 72, or 28% below league average. In spite of the down year from Heyward, the Cubs went 103-58, winning the Central by 17 1/2 games over the Cardinals. Heyward’s bat was even worse in the playoffs, as he hit just .104/.140/.167. Regardless, the Cubs went on to break their century-old curse by winning the World Series. Despite Heyward’s poor on-field results, he supposedly contributed by rousing the club’s spirits with a rain delay speech in Game 7 against Cleveland, though Cub fans can debate among themselves how much credit he deserves for that.
Heyward continued to provide quality outfield defense for years to come but his bat never really properly recovered. Since joining the Cubs, the only season in which he was above-average at the plate, according to wRC+, was the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Based on that diminished performance, he never seemed a threat to trigger his opt-outs and thus stayed on with the Cubs. Over the length of the deal, the team eventually entered another rebuilding period and traded away most of their core performers from the curse-breaking years. After the brief 2020 resurgence, Heyward’s offense plummeted yet again over 2021 and 2022. With the club gradually filling out the roster with younger players that they hope to form the next competitive core, they decided it was time to move on. Heyward was on the IL due to a knee injury in August when Hoyer announced that he would be released in the offseason, which has now indeed come to pass.
Heyward will now become a free agent again, available to sign with any team in the league. Despite his poor track record in recent seasons, he could attract interest as a no-risk candidate. The Cubs will be on the hook for the $22MM remaining on his deal, meaning that any signing club would only have to pay him the league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what the Cubs pay. Despite his extended time a big leaguer, he’s still just 33 years old.
The legacy of Heyward’s time with the Cubs is already divisive among the club’s fans and will surely continue to do so. There’s no disputing the fact that Heyward was never the superstar that the Cubs paid him to be. Some will wonder about what could have been if those resources were committed to a different player. Others will take the “Flags Fly Forever” approach and point to the World Series title as all they need to declare the deal a success. Either way, today’s move is another symbolic move towards a new era of Cubs baseball. With various trades over the years, the recent free agency of Willson Contreras and now Heyward’s release, Kyle Hendricks is left as the last member of that championship core who’s still on the roster.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Athletics Outright Daulton Jefferies
The Athletics announced Monday that right-hander Daulton Jefferies has been outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. That indicates that Jefferies, who underwent Tommy John surgery in September and thoracic outlet surgery in June, had already been passed through waivers unclaimed.
Jefferies, 27, was the No. 37 overall draft pick out of Cal Berkeley back in 2016. He ranked among the organization’s top prospects throughout the entirety of his minor league tenure, making his Major League debut with a pair of innings during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and also logging 15 solid innings during the 2021 campaign. Jefferies ranked as high as the Athletics’ No. 3 prospect in 2021, per Baseball America, whose scouting report on the righty lauded his plus changeup and plus command.
The 2022 season looked to be a major opportunity for Jefferies to establish himself in Oakland. The A’s shipped out veteran starters Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt as part of last offseason’s fire sale, and while Frankie Montas remained on the roster to begin the season, the widespread expectation that he’d eventually be traded as well indeed came to pass. Jefferies was among several younger options the A’s were hoping to evaluate as potential long-term fits on the starting staff, but injuries intervened.
Jefferies made just eight starts in 2022, yielding an ugly 5.72 ERA in 39 1/3 innings. This year’s 92.8 mph average fastball velocity was down a full two miles per hour from his 2020 debut, and by the end of May, he’d been diagnosed with symptoms suggesting thoracic outlet syndrome.
The combination of TOS and Tommy John surgery is a brutal one for any pitcher but is particularly ominous when the two operations are performed in such rapid succession. Matt Harvey is perhaps the most prominent recent example of a pitcher to undergo both operations, and while he resurfaced to produce some seasons as an innings eater, he quite obviously never returned to the peak form he showed early in his career. Every pitcher’s recovery is different, of course, and Jefferies could yet enjoy a recovery and carve out a nice career for himself. A return the mound will have to wait until the 2024 season at the earliest, however, which left little doubt that the A’s would eventually pass the righty through waivers.
Jefferies will spend the entire 2023 season rehabbing from the pair of surgeries, which means by the time the 2024 season rolls around, he’ll have had roughly 19 months to rehabilitate from the two operations. He’ll face an uphill climb to get back into consideration for a spot on the big league pitching staff, but the current rebuild in Oakland suggests that the A’s might still have plenty of open spots and opportunities for Jefferies even a couple years into the process.
Omar Lopez To Remain With The Astros
Astros’ first base coach Omar Lopez will return to the coaching staff next season, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. It will be Lopez’s 25th year with the franchise, and comes shortly after bench coach Joe Espada‘s reported agreement with the franchise.
Lopez played three seasons of minor league baseball with the White Sox and the Diamondbacks before joining the Astros organization in 1999. He then spent the next eight years working as a scout and as a hitting and infield instructor in Venezuela, being one of the scouts to recommend Jose Altuve to the organization.
In 2008, he transitioned to a coaching role and led Class-A Quad Cities River Bandits until 2018. During that time, Lopez worked with former Astros’ shortstop Carlos Correa and starter Lance McCullers Jr. as they worked their way through the team’s system. Lopez would continue to Double-A Corpus Christi for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, earning the Texas League Manager of the Year award in 2018, before eventually joining Houston in 2020 as their first-base coach.
Joe Espada To Remain In Houston
Astros Bench Coach Joe Espada will return to Houston for the 2023 season, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Espada had recently interviewed with both the Marlins and the White Sox in their managerial searches but did not receive either role.
A second-round pick in the 1996 draft by the Athletics, Espada played nine minor league seasons, topping out in Triple-A before transitioning to coaching. Espada has been with the Astros since 2017, joining the club after spending time with the Marlins and the Yankees.
Over the past few years, Espada has been a managerial candidate for a handful of teams. Since 2018, he has been linked to leading roles with the Rangers, Cubs, Mets, and Giants, along with the more recent openings with the Marlins and the White Sox.
Braves Re-Sign Jesse Chavez
The Braves have re-signed right-hander Jesse Chavez, as announced by Chavez himself on Instagram. The Athletic’s David O’Brien reports that it is a minor league deal for the 39-year-old, and it presumably contains an invitation to the Braves’ big league Spring Training camp. Chavez will receive $1.2MM in guaranteed money if he makes Atlanta’s active roster, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter).
As he approaches what would his 16th Major League season, this would be Chavez’s fifth different stint with Atlanta. After appearing in 28 games with the Braves way back in the 2010 season, Chavez returned in 2021 and became a very effective weapon out of the bullpen for the World Series champions. He signed a free agent deal with the Cubs last offseason, but was then quickly dealt back to the Braves in April, and then traded again to the Angels as part of the trade deadline swap that sent Raisel Iglesias to Atlanta. Finally, the Angels released Chavez in August, and he returned to the Braves via waiver claim.
Even with all this movement, 2022 was another solid year on the mound for the veteran, as Chavez had a 3.76 ERA, 25.3% strikeout rate, and 6.8% walk rate over 69 1/3 combined innings. While Chavez did allow a lot of hard contact, his wOBA (.325) and xwOBA (.321) were virtually identical, and Chavez was actually on the bad end of the batted-ball fortune scale, as per his .333 BABIP. It has made for a nice late-career revival for Chavez, and while it didn’t translate into a guaranteed deal, it seems quite likely that he’ll turn up in Atlanta’s bullpen perhaps as early as Opening Day.
Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has a habit of moves relatively early in the offseason, and he has already added both Chavez and Nick Anderson (on a split contract) to the bullpen mix. Kolby Allard may also be an option for the relief corps, after the Braves re-acquired the southpaw from the Rangers in the Jake Odorizzi swap.