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Players Avoiding Arbitration: 11/29/21

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With the non-tender deadline on the horizon, expect quite a few players to agree to contracts for the 2022 season over the next 24 hours, avoiding arbitration in advance. In many (but not all) cases, these deals — referred to as “pre-tender” deals because they fall prior to the deadline — will fall shy of expectations and projections. Teams will sometimes present borderline non-tender candidates with a “take it or leave it” style offer which will be accepted for fear of being non-tendered and sent out into an uncertain market. Speculatively, such deals could increase this offseason due to a desire among players to avoid the potential uncertainty of a lockout and accompanying transactions freeze after the current collective bargaining agreement expires Wednesday evening.

View projected salaries by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz:

Today’s Agreements

  • The Athletics have agreed to deals with utilitymen Chad Pinder and Tony Kemp, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (via Twitter). Pinder will make $2.725MM, while Kemp lands a $2.25MM salary. Pinder, a career-long member of the organization, is headed into his final season of arbitration control. Kemp remains controllable through 2023. Pinder hit .243/.300/.411 in 2021; Kemp’s coming off a very productive .279/.382/.418 showing.
  • The Pirates announced they’ve agreed to terms with outfielder Ben Gamel. The 29-year-old will receive a $1.8MM guarantee, with the opportunity to earn an additional $200K in incentives based on plate appearance thresholds, reports Rosenthal (on Twitter). Gamel is entering his final year of club control, coming off a .247/.347/.388 showing over 400 plate appearances between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
  • The Nationals announced agreement with outfielder Andrew Stevenson. He’ll receive an $850K salary, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (on Twitter). The 27-year-old qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and will remain under club control through 2025 so long as he sticks on the 40-man roster. He hit .229/.294/.339 with five homers over 213 plate appearances this past season.

Brewers To Sign Brett Sullivan To Major League Deal

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The Brewers are signing catcher/corner outfielder Brett Sullivan to a major league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Sullivan, who has yet to appear in the major leagues, became a minor league free agent earlier this month after seven seasons in the Rays’ farm system. The Brewers’ 40-man roster now sits at 38.

Sullivan was selected by Tampa Bay in the 17th-round of the 2015 draft coming out of the University of the Pacific. He’s never appeared on an organizational prospects ranking at either FanGraphs or Baseball America, but the left-handed hitter has typically performed well in the minor leagues. Sullivan posted above-average offensive numbers up through Double-A, very rarely striking out. He’s not drawn many walks or hit for a ton of power, but Sullivan’s ability to put the ball in play allowed him to consistently run high batting averages before 2021.

This past season was a bit of a struggle, as Sullivan sputtered to a .223/.302/.375 line with nine home runs over 345 plate appearances with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham. Those numbers were depressed by a career-low .244 batting average on balls in play, though. Sullivan only punched out in 15.7% of his Triple-A plate appearances. That mark, while the highest rate of his career, is around seven percentage points lower than the big league average.

Sullivan becomes the third catcher on the 40-man roster, joining starter Omar Narváez and prospect Mario Feliciano. Longtime Brewer Manny Piña departed to join the Braves a few weeks ago. It’s possible Milwaukee continues to hunt for a more experienced backup, but Sullivan has an opportunity to factor into that mix. (It stands to reason the Crew would prefer to get Feliciano everyday reps at Triple-A Nashville as opposed to having him play sporadically in the majors behind Narváez). Sullivan has all three minor league option years remaining, so the Brewers can shuttle him on and off the active roster for the extended future so long as he holds onto a 40-man spot.

Braves Sign Kirby Yates

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The defending champion Braves have made an addition in the bullpen, announcing a two-year, $8.25MM guarantee for free agent reliever Kirby Yates. The team announced that’ll take the form of a $1MM salary in 2022, a $6MM salary in 2023 and at least a $1.25MM buyout on a 2024 club option valued at $5.75MM. (The Braves are among the teams that publicly disclose contract terms). Yates is a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Yates is coming off a lost season. After signing with the Blue Jays last offseason, he suffered a flexor strain in Spring Training that required Tommy John surgery. That procedure is expected to keep him out until midseason 2022, which explains the contract’s backloaded structure. That came on the heels of a 2020 campaign also wrecked by injury, as he was limited to just 4 1/3 frames with the Padres that season.

Because it’s been a few years since we’ve seen Yates over an extended period, it might be easy to forget how great he was at his best. A late bloomer who bounced around the league on waivers through the first few years of his MLB career, he took his game to a new level upon landing with the Padres in 2017. Over the next three seasons, the right-hander pitched to a combined 2.31 ERA across 179 1/3 innings of relief, striking out a brilliant 38.7% of batters faced while walking just 6.8%. Yates led all of baseball with 41 saves in 2019, a season that also saw him earn an All-Star nod and finish seventh in National League Cy Young award voting.

Yates turns 35 years old next March, so there’d be some risk for Atlanta even independent of his spotty recent health history. But he was utterly dominant the last time he was at full strength, and that ceiling prompted the front office to take a shot on a rebound.

We’ve seen similar deals of this ilk in the past. Tommy Kahnle and Ken Giles signed two-year contracts with the Dodgers and Mariners, respectively, last winter despite both being expected to miss the entirety of the 2021 campaign recovering from TJS. Yates offers the potential to contribute to a playoff push down the stretch next year before logging a hopefully healthy 2023 campaign. The Braves also pick up some additional upside in the form of the 2024 club option, which would look like an abolsute bargain if Yates does manage to return to anything resembling his 2017-19 form.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Braves and Yates were in agreement on a two-year, $8.25MM guarantee with a $5.75MM club option for 2024.

Marlins Acquire Jacob Stallings From Pirates

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The Marlins have announced the acquisition of Gold Glove catcher Jacob Stallings from the Pirates. In exchange, Pittsburgh acquires righty Zach Thompson in addition to right-handed pitching prospect Kyle Nicolas and outfield prospect Connor Scott. Miami was connected to Stallings earlier this morning.

Jacob Stallings | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The 31-year-old Stallings (32 next month) will come to the Marlins with three years of club control remaining and give the Fish a standout defensive catcher to pair with their burgeoning young pitching staff. While his offensive numbers don’t stand out — Stallings has batted .251/.331/.374 with 17 homers, 32 doubles and a triple in 780 plate appearances dating back to 2019 — the 2021 Gold Glover is one of the best defensive players in the sport, regardless of position.

Over the past three seasons, Stallings has racked up 42 Defensive Runs Saved, including 21 DRS this past season. He notched an imposing 36.2% caught-stealing rate from 2019-20 and has a career 27% mark, though it’s worth noting that he slipped to 21% in that department this past season. Each of Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs and Statcast peg Stallings as an above-average pitch framer, and Prospectus credits his ability to block pitches in the dirt as plus as well.

Projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a $2.6MM salary in 2022, Stallings is highly affordable in terms of salary — and he can be controlled via arbitration through the 2024 season. For a low-payroll club that is building around what it hopes will emerge as a dominant young pitching staff, Stallings is a highly sensible addition. Sandy Alcantara, Trevor Rogers, Sixto Sanchez, Edward Cabrera, Elieser Hernandez, Max Meyer and others will all likely benefit from his framing and game-calling prowess.

Looking to the Pittsburgh’s return, they’ll add an immediate rotation piece (Thompson) in addition to a pair of promising young arms. The 28-year-old Thompson proved to be an outstanding pickup on a minor league deal last winter after the White Sox allowed him to become a free agent.

Thompson, a former fifth-rounder, gave the Marlins 75 innings of 3.24 ERA/3.69 FIP ball over the life of 26 appearances, including 14 starts. His 21% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate aren’t exactly dominant numbers, but Thompson thrived in terms of generating weak contact; his 87.6 mph average exit velocity ranked in the 76th percentile of MLB hurlers, while his 33.9% hard-hit rate checked into the 82nd percentile. The spin rate on his four-seamer is also in the 92nd percentile.

Zach Thompson | Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports

While Thompson won’t be mistaken for a top-of-the-rotation arm, he’ll give the Bucs six years of club control and won’t be eligible for arbitration until at least the 2023-24 offseason. (At 121 days of service in his debut season, he’ll be on the bubble of Super Two status, barring fundamental changes to the arbitration system in collective bargaining negotiations.) As it stands right now, Pittsburgh controls Thompson all the way through the 2027 season.

Nicolas, 22, was Miami’s second-round pick in the 2020 draft and ranked 23rd among their prospects on Baseball America’s midseason Top 30 list. He landed 16th at MLB.com and 18th among Miami farmhands on Eric Longenhagen’s rankings at FanGraphs. The Ball State product pitched to a combined 4.18 ERA through 99 innings of Class-A Advanced and Double-A ball this season, pitching more effectively at the more advanced of those two levels. Nicolas punched out 32% off his opponents this year, albeit with a somewhat bloated 11.5% walk rate. Miami has developed him as a starter to this point, but with a heater that reaches the upper 90s and a plus slider, it’s possible he’ll ultimately move to the bullpen.

Scott, meanwhile, was Miami’s first-round pick back in 2018. While he still landed in the middle tiers of the Miami system at both FanGraphs and MLB.com, Scott’s stock has dipped a bit since that lofty selection. (The lack of a minor league season in 2020 surely didn’t help his development.) Scott spent the 2021 season in Class-A Advanced, where he posted a solid .276/.333/.446 batting line with 10 homers and 14 steals, and reports on him suggest that he’s capable of playing a quality center field and hitting near the top of the lineup if things pan out. Scott only recently turned 22, and with a pretty good showing at Class-A Advanced under his belt, he could be ticketed for Double-A Altoona in 2022.

Pittsburgh doesn’t have an immediate heir-apparent to take the reins if Stallings, but the lack of an immediate successor in Pittsburgh served as little deterrent from jumping at what they surely view as a strong offer. The Pirates aren’t contending in 2022 anyhow, and the free-agent market has a number of veteran options who could be plugged in as a stopgap while the team waits on 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis to develop in the minors.

It’s a different story in Miami, where they’ve been on the hunt for a catcher for the better part of the past year. Miami has designs on stepping out of the NL East cellar and into playoff contention, and a move to both sharpen the team’s overall defense and help maximize the pitching staff is a strong step in that regard. Stallings won’t do much to bolster a lineup that was already lacking in power, but he’ll draw plenty of walks and provide the type of sage catcher that clubs often seek when building around young rotations.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Marlins were nearing agreement on a deal to acquire Stallings. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported the Pirates were acquiring Thompson, Nicolas and Scott in return.

Photos courtesy of Imagn/USA Today Sports.

Pirates Designate Colin Moran For Assignment

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The Pirates announced this evening they’ve designated first baseman Colin Moran for assignment. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for Yoshi Tsutsugo, whose previously-reported one-year deal has been made official.

Moran’s spot on the roster looked tenuous once Pittsburgh agreed to terms with Tsutsugo. General manager Ben Cherington has already indicated the club viewed Tsutsugo primarily as a first baseman. While Moran broke in as a third baseman, he’s played almost exclusively first over the past two years — particularly since the Bucs broke in highly-touted youngster Ke’Bryan Hayes at the hot corner late in 2020. There wouldn’t seem to be room on the roster for two left-handed hitting first basemen. Even if the National League adopts a designated hitter in 2022, teams have generally preferred to cycle multiple players through that position unless they have an elite bat to plug in at DH everyday.

Moran’s a capable hitter, but he’s not a middle-of-the-order presence. He’s coming off a .258/.334/.390 showing across 359 plate appearances. That’s roughly league average production, right in line with Moran’s overall numbers. He’s a career .267/.329/.418 hitter in parts of six seasons — the past four of which have come as a regular in Pittsburgh.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Moran for an arbitration salary in the $4MM range. Today’s designation functions as something of an early non-tender, although it’s possible another club swings a trade before tomorrow’s non-tender deadline. If Moran passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the right to elect minor league free agency.

Pirates Designate Steven Brault For Assignment

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The Pirates announced they’ve designated southpaw Steven Brault for assignment. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for José Quintana, whose previously-reported one-year deal has been made official.

Brault had been eligible for arbitration, so today’s DFA will function as an early non-tender. He’d been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2.2MM salary. That’s not an exorbitant sum, but Brault’s coming off a tough season — one in which he missed a few months on account of a forearm strain. The 29-year-old ended up making just seven starts, working 27 2/3 innings of 5.86 ERA ball with a below-average 15% strikeout percentage.

That tough 2021 showing looks as if it’ll bring an end to Brault’s six-season tenure in Pittsburgh, but he’s only a year removed from being a capable member of the Bucs’ rotation. He started ten of his eleven appearances in the shortened 2020 season, pitching to a 3.38 ERA across 42 2/3 frames. That strong run prevention mark wasn’t entirely supported by ERA estimators, which pegged Brault as more of a back-of-the-rotation type. The sinkerballer induced grounders on nearly half the balls in play against him that year, though, and he’s typically done a solid job keeping the ball on the ground over the past few seasons.

Pittsburgh will now have to trade or waive Brault in the coming days. If another team were to acquire him via one of those avenues, he’d remain under control via arbitration for the next two seasons. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, Brault would have the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency.

Blue Jays Sign Seven Players To Minor League Deals

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The Blue Jays announced Monday that they’ve signed the following seven players to minor league deals: right-handers David Phelps, Jose De Leon and Casey Lawrence; outfielders Mallex Smith and Nathan Lukes; left-hander Matt Gage; and catcher Kellin Deglan. Phelps will earn a $1.75MM salary if he makes the club, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.

Phelps, 35, seemed on his way to an interesting year for the Blue Jays in 2021 until surgery for a lat strain ended his season in May.  Phelps hasn’t pitched 35 innings in a season since 2017, but he has bat-missing ability once fully recovered from surgery.  Phelps’ best year was 2016, when he posted a 2.28 ERA in 86 2/3 innings for the Marlins.

De Leon, 29, was once considered one of the 30 best prospects in all of baseball as a member of the Dodgers organization.  He was dealt to the Rays for Logan Forsythe in January 2017, beginning a four-year period in which he pitched only 12 2/3 innings in the Majors in large part due to March 2018 Tommy John surgery.  The Reds traded for De Leon in November 2019.  Though he made the Reds’ Opening Day rotation this year, De Leon was quickly bumped to the bullpen and was released by July.  The Red Sox picked him up on a minor league deal in August, but he made only two appearances for the club’s Florida Complex League team.

Lawrence, 34, worked 78 2/3 big league innings in 2017-18 for the Blue Jays and Mariners, posting a 6.64 ERA.  He spent 2019 with the Hiroshima Carp, and then landed a minor league deal with the Twins prior to the 2020 season.  He soaked up 86 innings for the Jays’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in ’21.

Smith, 28, led all of MLB with 46 steals for the Mariners in 2019.  He ranked 23rd in MLB that year in sprint speed, but was unable to recapture the magic of his career-best 2018 season with the Rays.  In that campaign, Smith posted a 118 wRC+ and 3.5 WAR.  After ’18, the Rays traded Smith and Jake Fraley to the Mariners for Mike Zunino, Guillermo Heredia and Michael Plassmeyer.  Smith was booted from the Mariners’ 40-man roster in September 2020, subsequently landing minor league deals with the Mets, Reds, and Blue Jays that have yet to lead to a return to the Majors.

Lukes, Gage, and Deglan do not have Major League experience.  Lukes, a 27-year-old outfielder, posted a 115 wRC+ for the Rays’ Triple-A club this year.  Deglan is a 29-year-old catcher who toiled for the Yankees’ and Blue Jays’ Triple-A clubs in ’21.  Gage, 28, is a lefty reliever who posted a 5.57 ERA for the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A team this season.  He recently found his way to the Venados de Mazatlan in the Mexican Pacific Winter League.

Braves, Darren O’Day Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Darren O’Day, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Presumably, the Ballengee Group client will be in Major League Spring Training and hope to secure a roster spot in what would be a return bid with Atlanta.

O’Day, 39, signed a one-year deal with the Yankees back in January.  He was limited to only 10 2/3 innings in 2021 due to a rotator cuff strain as well as a season-ending hamstring injury that required surgery in July.  Despite the injury, O’Day chose a $700K buyout over his $1.4MM player option with the Yankees.  O’Day will make a $1MM salary if he’s in the Majors, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, so he still has a chance to come out ahead.

O’Day, a side-arming righty, is a 14-year MLB veteran with a 2.53 ERA in 587 1/3 career innings.  He began his pro career as an undrafted free agent back in 2006, joining the Mets’ bullpen in 2009 as a Rule 5 pick from the Angels.  He was quickly claimed by the Rangers and ascended to the club’s setup job in short order.  After a lost 2011 season that included hip surgery, O’Day joined the Orioles on a waiver claim.  He went on to post a 1.92 ERA over the next four seasons, making the 2015 All-Star game and landing a four-year, $31MM contract to remain with Baltimore.

At the 2018 trade deadline – with O’Day out for the season due to hamstring surgery and still owed $9MM in 2019 – the Orioles shipped him to Atlanta as a salary dump along with Kevin Gausman.  Though O’Day only pitched 21 2/3 innings for Atlanta from 2019-20 due to injuries, he must have enjoyed his time there.  O’Day hasn’t topped 20 innings in a season since 2017.  He was death on righties in his heyday, but had difficulties with lefties even back then.  Specialists can be difficult to employ in the three-batter minimum era, but O’Day will have a crack at joining Atlanta’s 2022 bullpen.  The current Braves pen includes Tyler Matzek, Will Smith, A.J. Minter, and Luke Jackson, plus the recently-acquired Jay Jackson.  Richard Rodriguez, with a potential arbitration salary north of $3MM, is a threat to be non-tendered or traded by tomorrow’s non-tender deadline.

Phillies Claim Yoan Lopez, Designate Roman Quinn

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Braves and cleared a roster spot by designating outfielder Roman Quinn for assignment.

The 28-year-old Lopez had a solid run with the Braves’ top affiliate, Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time. Atlanta never gave him a look in the Majors after acquiring him in a small, late-May swap with the D-backs, however, and Lopez was designated for assignment when the Braves picked up righty Jay Jackson from the Giants last week.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. He has a pair of minor league options remaining and will give the Phillies some bullpen depth if he survives the offseason on their 40-man roster.

Quinn, 28, long ranked as one of the better prospects in the Phillies’ system, but the speedster has been oft-injured and, to this point, generally unproductive at the MLB level. The fleet-footed switch-hitter batted just .173/.306/.288 in 62 MLB plate appearances this past season and owns a .228/.306/.355 batting line through 512 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.

To his credit, Quinn has swiped 39 bases in just 178 MLB games and has drawn solid defensive ratings across all three outfield positions. He’s also compiled a solid .286/.351/.407 batting line in Triple-A. However, Quinn is out of minor league options as well, and he’d been projected to receive a modest bump to $700K in arbitration. The dollar amount surely wasn’t of concern to the Phillies so much as the fact that Quinn simply wasn’t viewed as part of the outfield puzzle moving forward.

The Phillies are known to be in the market for center field upgrades, having previously been tied to Starling Marte (now with the division-rival Mets) and Byron Buxton (who signed a seven-year extension and received a full no-trade clause from the Twins). Presumably, the Phils will continue to explore alternative options in the outfield, eyeing at least a new center fielder if not a pair of outfielders to pair with reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper.

Grayson Greiner Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

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The Tigers announced Monday that catcher Grayson Greiner went unclaimed on outright waivers and has declined an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Greiner had the right to do so, as a player with more than three years of Major League service time.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a modest raise to $800K for Greiner, but the Tigers have ample depth at catcher and effectively non-tendered Greiner with today’s move. Detroit already acquired Tucker Barnhart to serve as their starting catcher on day one of the offseason, and the Tigers also have Jake Rogers and Eric Haase on the roster — to say nothing of 2020 second-rounder Dillon Dingler, who clobbered Class-A pitching in 2021 before struggling upon a promotion to Double-A.

Greiner, 29, was the Tigers’ third-round pick back in 2014 but hasn’t hit much in parts of four big league seasons. From 2018-21, Greiner received 477 Major League plate appearances but posted just a .201/.274/.309 batting line with a 32.1% strikeout rate. He’s been a bit better in Triple-A, where he’s a .233/.314/.347 hitter in 388 plate appearances. Behind the plate, Greiner has been a bit below average, but passable, in terms of framing and also boasts a strong 31% caught-stealing rate in his career. He’ll likely get some opportunities to join a club as upper-level depth with a fair bit of MLB experience.

Detroit’s 40-man roster is now at 38 players.

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