- The Dodgers are also interested in closer Justin Wilson, who would add another big left-handed arm to the L.A. bullpen. Wilson may be one of the most sought-after arms at the deadline, and given the premium on relief pitching, some believe the Tigers might get more for Wilson than they would for Martinez (Wilson is controlled through 2018, while Martinez is a free agent this winter). The Nationals have also had a scout following the Tigers this week, and Wilson is known to be one of their top potential trade targets as Washington looks to fix its ailing bullpen.
[SOURCE LINK]
Nationals Rumors
Nationals To Sign First-Rounder Seth Romero
The Nationals have finalized a deal with first-rounder Seth Romero, who has passed his physical and officially signed a contract, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (Twitter links). He’ll take home a $2.8MM bonus that comes in a bit above his $2,530,400 draft slot, Heyman adds. Romero was advised by and is now represented by agent Scott Boras.
A left-handed pitcher out of the University of Houston, Romero would likely have gone higher in the draft than the 25th overall selection (where Washington took him) had it not been for significant makeup concerns. Romero was kicked off the team in Houston a month before the draft after repeated off-field incidents, including a failed drug test, a physical altercation with one of his teammates and being photographed holding a bong in full uniform, per a separate pair of reports from the Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte.
Romero ranked 24th on MLB.com’s list of the top 200 draft prospects, while Baseball America ranked him 27th on their top 500, Fangraphs ranked him 36th and ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him 59th. The aforementioned makeup issues factored into each of those rankings, as BA and Law both called him a top 10 talent based purely on his pitching acumen. Romero’s fastball sits in the 92-95 mph range and reaches 97, and the pitch is complemented by a plus slider and potentially above-average changeup. BA also notes that he’s advanced enough to help out a big league bullpen later this year, though the Nats told reporters after the draft that they view Romero as a starter.
Nationals Have Interest In Raisel Iglesias
- The Reds may or may not have much interest in dealing away 27-year-old reliever Raisel Iglesias, but other teams are surely eyeing the quality righty and his appealing contract. It’s unsurprising to hear, then, that the closer-needy Nationals have at least some degree of interest in Iglesias, as MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets. On paper, the fit is plenty clear. But it remains to be seen what kind of asking price the Reds will place on Iglesias — who is currently sitting on a 1.59 ERA while maintaining a jump in velocity this year — and whether the Nats will be willing to offload significant prospects to get him.
Nationals Sign Ryan Jackson To Minors Deal
- The Nationals signed infielder Ryan Jackson to a minor league contract. Jackson appeared in 42 Major League games with the Cardinals and Angels between 2012-15 and has since bounced around with a few different organizations. This is Jackson’s third minors deal of 2017 alone, as he previously inked deals with the Marlins and Mariners (plus a stint with the independent Sugar Land Skeeters). Jackson is a career .269/.344/.354 hitter over 3336 minor league plate appearances, and he’ll provide more minor league infield depth for Washington in the wake of Trea Turner’s injury.
Nationals Outright Jacob Turner
- Nationals righty Jacob Turner has accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers, per a team announcement. Still just 26, Turner has given the Nats some badly needed innings this year, though his ERA stands at 5.08 after 39 frames of action. He is expected to resume working as a starter in case he’s needed in that role at the major league level.
Shawn Kelley Shut Down After Setback
The Nationals have halted the throwing program of righty Shawn Kelley, according to a report from Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. While the veteran reliever was progressing at last look, he has since suffered a setback in his efforts to work through pain in his neck and upper back area.
According to Janes, Kelley is headed for a new medical check-up today. It’s possible he could receive an injection, she notes, but the approach is yet to be decided.
As things stand, then, it’s uncertain when the Nats can expect Kelley back in action. Even if he’s able to resume throwing in relatively short order, it may be optimistic to expect he could rebuild strength, complete a rehab stint, and return to the majors to show the team his form before the trade deadline.
The injury questions only enhance the broader concern with Kelley, who had been a major contributor in 2016 and is under contract through next year. In his 18 innings this season, he has allowed 14 earned runs — due in no small part to the fact that he has allowed nine homers already (matching a career high).
Though he is still checking in with a robust 15.0% swinging-strike rate on the year, Kelley carries a career-worst 4.5 BB/9. And opposing hitters are squaring him up at a prodigious rate when they do make contact, with a 46.4% hard-hit rate and 26.5% HR/FB.
As the Nats continue to peruse the market for relief pitching, then, the organization will need to account for the fact that it cannot firmly count on two key righties, Kelley and Koda Glover. With Blake Treinen and (especially) Joe Blanton also failing to deliver consistent results, surprising journeyman Matt Albers stands as the lone steady righty in the Nationals’ pen. While adding a closer remains an obvious focus, the need for a quality right-handed setup option at the deadline seems greater now than ever.
2017 Opt-Out Clause Update
It’s been more than a month since we last looked in on the crop of eight players that can opt out of their current contracts and reenter the free-agent market following the 2017 campaign. With more than half the season in the books, a few cases look relatively certain, but there are plenty of questions surrounding several such players…
[Related: 2018 Vesting Options Update]
- Greg Holland, RP, Rockies: Holland’s $10MM mutual option became a $15MM player option when he finished his 30th game of the season for the Rox a little more than a week ago. His recent brush with wildness is of mild concern, but Holland has a ridiculous 1.48 ERA with 11.9 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a 39.7 percent ground-ball rate. In a year when homers are being hit more than ever and he’s tackling Coors Field for the first time, Holland has managed to limit opponents to just one big fly in 30 1/3 innings. So long as his arm holds up for the remainder of the season — no sure thing considering this is his first year back from 2015 Tommy John surgery — he’ll 100 percent turn down that player option in search of a huge multi-year deal. Agent Scott Boras will undoubtedly look to vault Mark Melancon’s four-year, $62MM pact and could seek a five-year deal.
- Johnny Cueto, SP, Giants: Cueto is still a workhorse, by today’s standards, as he’s on pace to reach 200 innings for the fourth straight year if he can make 33 starts. He’s logged a 3.97 ERA in eight starts since we last looked at the opt-out crop, though he continues to be abnormally homer prone (though that’s a league-wide trend, as homers are up across the board). Cueto has a 4.26 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 2.7 40BB/9 and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate. If he can rediscover his pinpoint control and/or his grounder rate from previous years (1.8 BB/9, 50.2 GB% in 2016), he could make this an easier decision come October. Cueto still ranks third on MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings, and FanRag’s Jon Heyman has reported that he’s still planning to opt out of the remaining four years and $84MM on his deal. I think there’s a decent chance he once again hits the open market in search of a five-year deal in the Jordan Zimmermann mold.
- Welington Castillo, C, Orioles: Castillo’s bat has seen a precipitous decline in effectiveness since our mid-May check-in on opt-out clauses, as he’s batted .205/.250/.349 in 88 plate appearances since that time. He perhaps deserves somewhat of a pass, given the cringe-inducing groin injury he suffered on an ill-placed foul ball deflection that landed him on the DL for 10 days in late May/early June. His overall .272/.307/.439 slash is solid for a catcher, and he’s thrown out a ridiculous 48 percent of opposing stolen base attempts (12-for-25). Framing will probably never be his strong suit, but he’s made some incremental improvements in recent years (though he still grades out below average). With a fairly small one-year, $7MM player option on his deal, it’s certainly plausible that Castillo hits free agency this winter and scores a better payday than that option would afford.
- Justin Upton, LF, Tigers: I understand the doubt around the possibility of Upton turning away an extra four years and $88.5MM to once again test free agency this winter; he’s 30 years old with questionable defensive value and a strikeout that has soared since his peak year in Arizona. Corner-limited sluggers also fared quite poorly on last year’s market, for the most part. Nonetheless, Upton is having his best offensive season since 2014 and is hitting .267/.351/.500 with 15 homers. Dating back to last year’s All-Star break, he’s slashing .264/.344/.537 with 37 bombs in 575 plate appearances. He’d need a big finish to be confident enough to top four years and $88MM, but that’s the same mark Hanley Ramirez signed for in Boston when he was a year older. If Upton’s camp feels that there’s a chance to approach the $110MM that Yoenis Cespedes received on a four-year pact last winter (again, when he was a year older than Upton), Upton’s reps could elect to search elsewhere. He can’t receive a qualifying offer this time around.
- Matt Wieters, C, Nationals: Wieters is hitting .205/.224/.328 through 125 plate appearances since the last time we checked in on this group. Overall, he’s batting .244/.293/.384 with a substandard 22 percent caught-stealing rate and the worst framing marks of his career. It’s possible that the one year, $10.5MM player option on his contract is still beatable in a thin market for catching this coming winter, but opting into the deal and remaining with a competitive team is going to look pretty appealing if he can’t get his bat going once again.
- Masahiro Tanaka, SP, Yankees: Tanaka has picked a poor time to have the worst season of his career, though he’s showing signs of life on the mound. He’s tossed 14 innings with a 14-to-4 K/BB ratio and a huge ground-ball rate in his past two starts and also gone without a home run allowed in that brief stretch. Tanaka is still sitting on a 5.56 ERA with an awful 2.1 HR/9 mark, but he’s averaging 8.9 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 with a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate. xFIP is much more favorable than his ERA at 3.87, and SIERA agrees with a 3.91 mark. Three of his past four starts have been brilliant, and if he can continue that momentum he could still do better than the three years and $67MM remaining on his contract and hit the open market in search of a larger deal. Age is on his side as well. He’ll turn just 29 this winter.
- Ian Kennedy, SP, Royals: The 32-year-old Kennedy’s walk and strikeout rates have gone in the wrong direction by a substantial amount this season, and he’s more homer-prone than ever (1.9 HR/9). Starting pitching is almost always in heavy demand on the free-agent market (as Kennedy’s five-year, $70MM deal and opt-out clause illustrate), but he’s sporting a 4.72 ERA with FIP, xFIP and SIERA marks all well north of 5.00. Barring a miraculous turnaround, he’s not topping the remaining three years and $49MM on his deal as a free agent this winter, so expect him to stay in Kansas City.
- Wei-Yin Chen, SP: Marlins: Chen hasn’t thrown a single pitch since we last checked in on May 22, as he continues to attempt to work his way back from a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. With three years and $52MM remaining on his contract, he’s a lock to forgo his opt-out provision.
Rizzo: Nats Exploring Bullpen Market, Unlikely To Pursue Shortstop Trades
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo appeared on today’s Baseball Tonight Podcast with Buster Olney (audio link) to discuss an number of topics, ranging from Ryan Zimmerman’s return to prominence in the National League to his team’s plans at the trade deadline to his own personal philosophies on making trades (Rizzo joins the show at roughly the 26-minute mark, though the entire podcast is a good listen).
The Nationals, of course, lost standout young shortstop Trea Turner for the foreseeable future last week when the 23-year-old suffered a nondisplaced fracture in his right wrist after being hit by a pitch. However, while there’s been some speculation about the Nats pursuing a trade for a shortstop (including some from myself here on MLBTR), Rizzo threw cold water on that notion.
“I don’t think so,” he said when asked by Olney if the Nationals would pursue shortstop help outside the organization. “Right now, we like the leadership, and we like the veteran presence that Stephen Drew gives us. He’s a very competent, steady defensive shortstop. … We know we have to protect his legs. He’s got the ankle issue that he’s had for a couple years now. We think with the combination, the mixing and matching that Dusty [Baker] will do with Stephen Drew and with [Wilmer] Difo, I think that we can weather the storm until Trea gets back.”
Of course, it wouldn’t exactly behoove Rizzo to broadcast that his team is actively seeking shortstop assistance, so perhaps he’s a bit more open then he let on. A number of shortstops (or at least shortstop-capable players) figure to be available, including Zack Cozart, Jed Lowrie and Eduardo Nunez.
Then again, Rizzo also had no reservations in acknowledging that he not only plans to seek bullpen help but has already actively been doing so. While the Washington GM characterized his current status as “testing the market,” he added that he’s already spoken to a number of GMs around the league to see where they’re at in the process.
“It’s no secret that we’re going to be looking for upgrades in the bullpen,” Rizzo stated. “With that said, people aren’t going to want to help us out of the goodness of their hearts. We’re going to have to see what deal makes sense for us in the long-term and short-term, and see if we can do our part, do my part, to improve this bullpen.”
Whether that means acquiring a top-end closer or simply bolstering the ’pen with one or more quality setup types remains to be seen and is “going to be a fluid decision,” as Rizzo characterized the matter. “The good thing is that we have a good team and we know what our flaws are,” he added. “They’re pretty clear. We’re going to have a strategy to see if we can improve it.”
As for a timeline of a move, Rizzo expressed an openness to getting something done in the near future but also suggested that other clubs may not be on that timeline just yet.
“I’ve always been willing to move,” he stated. “When I see a deal that I like, that works for us, I’m willing to make a move. I don’t need a lot of conversations or meetings with our staff. I’m constantly in conversations with my people. … I hate wasting other GMs’ time with deals that never come to fruition. For every deal you do, there’s 20 deals that you put just as much work into and don’t get done. To me, the most frustrating thing is if we were to talk about a trade, and I’m serious about the trade, and then it falls through and all this work is done, then that’s bad business for both guys.”
Olney suggested to Rizzo, however, that a number of people to whom he’s spoken are anticipating a late-moving trade market in 2017 due to the extreme level of parity in the American League. The Rays currently hold the second Wild Card spot in the AL, for instance, but there are six teams within two games of staking that claim. Rizzo agreed with the sentiment, suggesting that even though some contenders may be willing to move right now, other teams are going to “take most of that month of July to assess where [they’re] at and what [their] ownership wants to do.”
The entire interview with Rizzo spans about 10 minutes and includes insight into his strategies and tactics when negotiating with other clubs as well as his own assessment of the 2017 Nationals. It’s well worth checking out for Nats fans but also anyone who closely follows trades in baseball, as Rizzo’s thoughts on doing business with other clubs offer interesting perspective into the life of a GM this time of year.
Nationals Rumors: Madson, Doolittle, Reed
- Another reliever, the Mets’ Addison Reed, could also end up on the move. Odds are, though, that he won’t head to the Nationals, writes Cafardo. The Mets apparently aren’t open to helping the NL East rival Nats fix their bullpen issues.
[SOURCE LINK]
- The Athletics are likely to trade relievers Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle, according to Cafardo, who names the Nationals and Yankees as potential suitors. Madson, who’s on a $7.5MM salary both this year and next, has bounced back from a so-so 2016 to post a 2.53 ERA, 8.72 K/9, 1.69 BB/9 and a 53.6 percent ground-ball rate in 32 innings this season. The oft-injured Doolittle has only thrown 16 1/3 frames, but he has been highly effective (3.31 ERA, 12.67 K/9, 1.1 BB/9); what’s more, he’s controllable for reasonable prices through 2020.
- Another reliever, the Mets’ Addison Reed, could also end up on the move. Odds are, though, that he won’t head to the Nationals, writes Cafardo. The Mets apparently aren’t open to helping the NL East rival Nats fix their bullpen issues.
Nationals Designate Jacob Turner For Assignment
The Nationals announced that they’ve designated right-hander Jacob Turner for assignment and activated left-hander Sammy Solis from the disabled list.
[RELATED: Updated Nationals Depth Chart]
Turner, an offseason minor league signing, cracked the Nationals’ rotation in early May but ended up doing most of his work out of the bullpen before his designation. The 26-year-old wasn’t part of the solution for the Nats’ beleaguered relief corps, though, as he pitched to a 5.20 ERA and yielded a .288/.355/.545 batting line in 27 2/3 innings from their bullpen. All told, Turner has recorded a 5.08 ERA, with 5.31 K/9 and 3.46 BB/9, in 39 frames, making this the latest disappointing major league season for the 2009 first-round pick of the Tigers and former high-end prospect.
Meanwhile, if his output from 2015-16 is any indication, Solis’ return actually could be a significant boon to Washington’s bullpen. Solis was especially brilliant last year, when he registered a 2.41 ERA, 10.32 K/9 and 4.61 BB/9 in 41 innings, though he got off to a rough start this season before going on the DL in late April with elbow inflammation. The 28-year-old has given up four earned runs on four hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings in 2017, but that’s obviously a small sample and he still owns a 3.11 ERA in 66 2/3 career frames. That type of run prevention would be a godsend for the Nats, whose relievers rank second last in the majors in both ERA and fWAR.
