Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Nationals Rumors

Free Agent Rumors: Wieters, Beltran, Dunn, Masterson

By | at

Matt Wieters’ poor ratings in terms of pitch-framing are weighing down his market, writes ESPN’s Buster Olney (ESPN Insider required). Olney spoke to multiple evaluators who believe that Wieters’ defense declined in 2016, and as he notes, a number of executives around the game are placing a greater emphasis on framing, which is perhaps why Jason Castro just landed a three-year deal despite poor offensive production dating back to the 2014 season. Per Olney, while both the Twins and Rays are interested in Castro, it’s not clear that either has any interest in Wieters. Olney lists the Orioles and Nationals as potential landing spots for Wieters and also adds that the Braves have expressed some interest, “but probably for far less than what [agent Scott Boras] wants.” Also worth a brief mention with regard to Wieters: Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com reports that he suffered a laceration to his non-throwing arm in a household mishap this offseason. The wound required stitches, and Wieters is wearing a protective shield for the time being, but he’s expected to be able to resume baseball activities in January. The injury shouldn’t see any delay in his readiness for Spring Training.

More on the free-agent market…

  • Executives with interested teams are beginning to get the sense that Carlos Beltran’s market is coming down to the Yankees, Astros and Red Sox, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Rangers, too, could be “lurking” in the background and contemplating a more earnest attempt to retain him, although WEEI’s Rob Braford reported that Texas wasn’t in the running as of last week. Though he turns 40 next April, Beltran obviously enjoyed a strong 2016 season split between the Yankees and Rangers. The Yankees and Red Sox have the clearest paths to playing time for him, from my vantage point, as the Astros also have Evan Gattis on a guaranteed $5.2MM salary to spend a considerable amount of time at DH. However, if the Astros are comfortable deploying Gattis more sparingly or giving Beltran some time in the outfield, the fit could still work. And, of course, it’s never bad to have significant significant depth options.
  • The Marlins are still in the mix to retain left-hander Mike Dunn, according to MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro, but the recent four-year, $30.5MM contract that the Cardinals gave to Brett Cecil may have skewed the market for left-handed relief help. Dunn’s representatives could push for an annual value north of $5MM, which may be more than Miami was hoping to spend. Like Cecil, Dunn has had some success against right-handed hitters in his career and may not be deployed as a pure lefty specialist by the team that ultimately signs him. However, Dunn is 14 months older than Cecil and also battled a forearm strain this season. Beyond that, he simply hasn’t been as good as Cecil in recent years; Cecil owned a 2.90 ERA with 11.5 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 50.2 percent ground-ball rate from 2013-16. Dunn, meanwhile, had a 3.38 ERA with 9.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 35.4 percent ground-ball rate in that same time.
  • Former Indians right-hander Justin Masterson said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM today that his agent, Randy Rowley, is talking with a few teams as he looks for a landing spot (Twitter link). “It’s looking for a situation that will fit,” said Masterson. “I feel healthy. I feel strong.” Masterson spent most of the 2016 season with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate and didn’t perform particularly well, pitching to a 4.97 ERA with a 32-to-26 K/BB ratio in 54 1/3 innings. While he’s still young enough for a rebound (32 in March), Masterson hasn’t delivered above-average results since his All-Star 2013 season with Cleveland. In the interim, he’s been sidelined by myriad knee and shoulder injuries.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/22/16

By | at

Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Nationals announced yesterday that they’ve signed former Blue Jays right-hander Dustin Antolin to a minor league deal and invited him to Major League Spring Training. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Jays in 2016, tossing two innings and surrendering three runs in his lone appearance. Antolin was tremendous during his time with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, pitching to a 2.04 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 53 innings. However, he didn’t reach the Triple-A level until his age-26 season and also displayed some control issues, walking 28 batters (4.8 BB/9) and hitting another three batters as well. The Hawaiian-born Antolin has a career 4.16 ERA in the minors and has averaged eight strikeouts against four walks per nine innings pitched.
  • The Orioles announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder David Washington to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Washington, who turned 26 on Sunday, had a big year in 2016, hitting a combined 30 homers between the Cardinals’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. His .259/.359/.532 slash line is impressive, but Washington is no stranger to strikeouts, as he whiffed in a bit more than 34 percent of his plate appearances last season. Since being selected in the 15th round of the 2009 draft, Washington has punched out in 30.6 percent of his professional plate appearances. Still, his power is intriguing, and he’ll give the O’s a depth piece as they seek out potential options in right field.
  • Shortstop Wilfredo Tovar appears to have signed what is presumably a minor league deal with the Cardinals, as the infielder himself tweeted a thank you to the organization for his latest opportunity. The 25-year-old Tovar came up through the Mets system and made a pair of brief MLB appearances in 2013-14, collecting three hits in a tiny sample of 22 plate appearances. Once rated as one of the Top 15 prospects in the Mets’ system by Baseball America (and thrice rated as that system’s best defensive infielder), Tovar spent the 2016 campaign with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate, where he served as their primary shortstop. Defensive prowess aside, Tovar doesn’t bring much to the table offensively; he hit .249/.301/.327 with one homer in 494 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, although he did chip in 29 steals (in 38 attempts) when he managed to reach base.

Nationals Sign Four To Minor League Deals

By | at

9:07am: In addition to Snyder, Washington has signed left-hander Braulio Lara, right-hander Derek Eitel and infielder Corban Joseph to minor league pacts with spring training invitations, per a team announcement. The only member of the trio with major league experience is Joseph, who collected seven PAs with the Yankees in 2013.

8:38am: The Nationals have signed free agent utilityman Brandon Snyder to a minor league contract, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. The deal contains an invitation to big league camp, where Snyder will have a chance to compete for a roster spot on next year’s Nats.

Snyder, who played high school baseball in Northern Virginia, landed on the open market when the Braves outrighted him in mid-October. He was successful last season with Atlanta in a 47-plate appearance sample, though, posting an unusual batting line of .239/.255/.652 with four home runs. In a combined 205 career major league PAs with the Orioles – who chose him in the first round of the 2005 draft – Rangers, Red Sox and Braves, Snyder has slashed .242/.279/.459 with nine long balls. Snyder has seen far more action at the Triple-A level, where he has batted an uninspiring .259/.319/.411 in 1,837 trips to the plate.

The right-handed Snyder, who will turn 30 on Wednesday, could catch on with a Nationals team that currently has an unsettled bench, as Zuckerman notes. Most of Snyder’s major league time has come in the corner infield, though the Nats are set at third base as long as Anthony Rendon stays healthy. First base is perhaps a different story, however, as both Ryan Zimmerman and Clint Robinson are coming off dreadful seasons.

Nationals Re-Sign Chris Heisey

By | at

TODAY: The Nationals have officially announced the signing.

NOVEMBER 11: The Nationals have agreed to a one-year, $1.4MM to bring back outfielder Chris Heisey, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The contract includes various performance incentives as well.

[RELATED: Updated Nationals Depth Chart]

Heisey, 31, provided Washington with a solid, right-handed-hitting presence from the bench last year. He ended with a .216/.290/.446 slash over 155 plate appearances, with nine home runs. There’s a fair bit of swing and miss in his game — he posted a 28.4% K rate last year — and Heisey has been an essentially average fielder and baserunner. But he obviously impressed the Nats, and it probably didn’t hurt that he came up with a big home run in the NLDS.

Looking at the roster, locking in a right-handed-hitting outfielder probably doesn’t dictate many other moves. Heisey has traditionally carried reverse splits, and will be expected to play a relatively minor role as a spot starter and pinch hitter. The signing probably doesn’t help Michael Taylor’s chances of cracking the Opening Day roster, and makes it appear somewhat unlikely that the club will sign a more significant fourth outfielder, but otherwise the primary needs remain the same.

Players Added To The 40-Man

By and | at

We’ll use this post to keep track of the players being added to their teams’ respective 40-man rosters today, which is the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. Players must be added to the big league roster within either four years (if they were 19 or older at the time of their original signing) or five years (if 18 or younger) of their signing year in order to be shielded from selection.

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo took a look at some of the biggest names who face roster decisions, though most of those won’t be much in question. At the fringes, teams must also consider the major league readiness of the player, since that factors heavily into whether they’ll be taken and kept. Any drafting team, of course, must keep a player on its active MLB roster for the full season (with certain exceptions relating to the DL) in order for their control rights to vest. Adding a player to the 40-man too early can have its own risks, because it limits flexibility and could require a team to expose that player to waivers if a need arises. With 26-man rosters reportedly under consideration, the Rule 5 draft could be quite intriguing this year, and that may bleed into today’s decisions as well.

Below is a division-by-division rundown of the names that were added to each team’s 40-man roster (plus the various waiver claims that spawned from teams trying to outright players to protect Rule 5-eligible prospects). We won’t delve into each player’s background, but if you’re looking to a little more about the names that were added, I’d highly recommend this tremendous, in-depth examination of each team’s additions by Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper. If you want to see how the moves look in the context of a team’s roster, head over to Roster Resource for your club’s depth chart.

Onto the moves…

American League West

American League Central

American League East

National League West

National League Central

National League East

Mike Trout, Kris Bryant Win MVP Awards

By | at

Mike Trout of the Angels and Kris Bryant of the Cubs won the most valuable player awards in their respective leagues, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced tonight.

If Trout’s win is a surprise, it’s only because many wondered of the impact of the fact that his team wasn’t in contention. Looking only at his numbers, the case was rather clear, and he got 19 of 30 first-place votes. It may have been only a typical season for Trout, but a .315/.441/.550 batting line, 29 home runs, and 30 steals (combined with outstanding baserunning and quality defense in center) represented the best all-around output in baseball. This is his second MVP, and the fifth consecutive year he has finished in the top two of the voting.

Mookie Betts was the other top contender for the American League prize, and he was Trout’s equal in most offensive areas excepting OBP (.363), but his context-adjusted output wasn’t anywhere near as good (171 wRC+ for Trout, 135 for Betts). That said, Betts was every bit as good on the bases, and graded better defensively, but still finished over 1 WAR behind. He received nine first-place votes. Star Astros second baseman Jose Altuve came in third in the race.

On the National League side, it was long apparent that Bryant would win. He very nearly did so unanimously, but second-place finisher Daniel Murphy garnered one top nod. In just his second season in the majors, Bryant blasted 39 home runs, put up a 149 wRC+, and made a difference with his glove and legs. That he was the best player on the best team in the game surely didn’t hurt.

It was a truly great campaign for the Nationals’ Murphy, too, who slightly topped Bryant in overall offensive production (156 wRC+) but wasn’t nearly as good in the other areas of the game. Corey Seager of the Dodgers, who took the Rookie of the Year award, finished an impressive third.

Market Notes: Braves, Nats, Sale, S-Rod, Hernandez, Santana, Rosario

By | at

The Braves are “aggressively swapping offers” with other organizations for starters, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Twitter link). Atlanta has been rumored to have inquired on basically all of the quality, young, controllable arms that might be available, and it seems that the organization is serious about pursuing a major strike. One such pitcher, of course, is White Sox lefty Chris Sale, who has also reportedly been asked about by the Braves’ division rivals to the north. Adding a starting pitcher isn’t exactly a priority for the Nationals, at least from the perspective of need, but Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post argues that the team ought to push hard for Sale. By Svrluga’s reckoning, the team has the prospect arsenal needed to get something done; after another postseason disappointment, he says, adding another ace could get the team over the hump.

Here are a few more notes on the developing market:

  • There are five teams in on free agent utilityman Sean Rodriguez, reports Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). One is the Pirates, who have said they’re interested in a reunion, and the Dodgers are also intrigued, per Robert Murray of Fan Rag. MLBTR rated Rodriguez as the 35th-best free agent available after his productive 2016 campaign.
  • We’ve heard discussion about the possibility of the Phillies dealing Cesar Hernandez, particularly after the team acquired second-base-capable Howie Kendrick, and CSNPhilly.com’s Corey Seidman takes a look at his possible trade market. His productive 2016 and cheap control make him an interesting option for other organizations, though the question remains whether he can sustain his breakout. Seidman discusses some players who could hold appeal to Philadelphia, suggesting that the club would be most interested in a major league return.
  • Lefty Johan Santana may not be done yet, Cotillo adds on Twitter. He’s planning on winter ball in Venezuela in hopes that he can land an opportunity with a major league organization. This certainly isn’t the first time that Santana, now 37, has had a crack at a return, but his prior efforts have all been thwarted by injury. The two-time Cy Young winner has not seen major league action since 2012.
  • Free agent slugger Wilin Rosario is still hopeful of landing with a major league club after spending a year in Korea, Cotillo tweets, but he’s not committed to playing in North America. A return to the KBO could also be a consideration, per the report. Rosario, 27, may no longer be an option behind the dish, but his power should intrigue regardless. Over 532 plate appearances last year with the Hanwha Eagles, he posted a .321/.367/.593 batting line with 33 long balls, though of course the KBO is a notably friendly league for hitters.

Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello Win Cy Young Awards

By | at

Max Scherzer of the Nationals and Rick Porcello of the Red Sox have won the Cy Young Awards in their respective leagues, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced tonight.

That’s the second time the 32-year-old has taken home the hardware, though his prior award came in the American League (in 2013, with the Tigers). Scherzer led the N.L. with 228 1/3 innings, twenty wins, and a 0.968 WHIP. He ended the year with 2.96 ERA with 11.2 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9.

That showing was good enough to beat out Cubs hurlers Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks — who finished second and third, respectively. Scherzer ended up with 25 of the 30 first-place votes, reflecting a strong consensus, but in truth it was a widespread field full of worthwhile contenders. That includes the absurdly dominant Clayton Kershaw, who probably would have run away with the award had he not missed a dozen starts due to injury, and the dearly departed Jose Fernandez, who garnered down-ballot consideration after a dominant season that ended in tragedy.

Porcello’s win came over fellow finalists Justin Verlander of the Tigers and Corey Kluber of the Indians. All were worthy contenders in a year in which nobody put up a truly dominant year. The best A.L. pitchers on a rate basis was reliever Zach Britton, who managed a fourth-place finish despite the innings limitations inherent to his job.

The vote came with its share of controversy. Verlander received 14 of the 30 available first-place votes, but narrowly missed the award when he was left off of two ballots altogether. The 33-year-old threw 227 2/3 innings of 3.04 ERA ball, with 10.0 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9, whereas Porcello racked up 223 frames of 3.15 ERA pitching on the back of 7.6 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9. The difference, perhaps, was that the ultimate victor managed a sparkling 22-4 win-loss record, whereas Verlander carried a less notable 16-and-9 mark.

East Notes: Holland, Encarnacion, Sale, Reddick, Bruce

By | at

The Red Sox are one of the most aggressive pursuers of free agent reliever Greg Holland, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports. But there are multiple other organizations that have keen interest in the veteran hurler, who is looking to return following Tommy John surgery. Boston, of course, wouldn’t be able to offer Holland much of a path toward a closing job; presumably, he’d be expected to serve in a set-up capacity in front of Craig Kimbrel. Whether or not other organizations would hand Holland the ninth — or, perhaps, at least provide a chance for him to get there at some point — isn’t known, and it’s also not clear to what extent that really matters in his decisionmaking process.

  • There are numerous opportunities for the Red Sox to consider this winter — with free agent Edwin Encarnacion, perhaps, being the most intriguing. Bradford reports that the organization has yet to engage Encarnacion’s camp in earnest, however, and certainly the public signals given by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski suggest that he’s not a top target. That could be posturing, or a nod to the still-uncertain CBA talks, but Bradford argues that Boston ought to be in on Encarnacion.
  • The Nationals have spoken to the White Sox about ace lefty Chris Sale, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. But Chicago has not undertaken serious talks with any clubs about Sale to this point, he adds. While it’s certainly reasonable to think that the Nats would be interested in knowing what it might take to add the talented southpaw, it seems at this point there’s no reason to view the chatter as more than due diligence.
  • The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are looking for a lefty outfield bat and are exploring options in both trade and free agency, Jim Bowden of ESPN.com said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). Josh Reddick is one possible target, per the report, and Toronto has also chatted with the Mets about Jay Bruce — who, perhaps, would be shopped if New York were to add a certain, significant free agent.

Corey Seager, Michael Fulmer Win Rookie Of The Year Awards

By | at

Corey Seager of the Dodgers and Michael Fulmer of the Tigers have been named the Rookies of the Year in their respective leagues by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Seager followed Kris Bryant in taking the National League RoY award by a unanimous vote. The only question with his candidacy is whether the trophy will be joined on his shelf by a 2016 N.L Most Valuable Player award. (Bryant stands as perhaps his strongest competition for that top honor.)

There were quality competitors, though. The Nationals’ Trea Turner might’ve made things interesting had he played at the major league level for the entire season — and managed to sustain his partial-season excellence for the long haul. As it turned out, he edged Dodgers hurler Kenta Maeda for second place. Three hurlers — Jon Gray of the Rockies, Steven Matz of the Mets, and Seung-hwan Oh of the Cardinals — received one third-place vote apiece.

The 22-year-old Seager had already taken the game by storm last year, but his 27-game run didn’t use up his rookie eligibility. He was great from start to finish in 2016, compiling a .308/.365/.512 batting line and knocking 26 long balls over 687 plate appearances. And he did all that at the plate while providing quality defense at shortstop, making him one of the game’s most valuable performers (and, given his cheap control, one of its top assets).

Things were a bit tighter on the American League side. Fulmer seemed to be running away with things before Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez emerged late in the year. Like Turner, he was just too late to make up the ground in the award hunt — but that doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm for his future. Indians outfielder Tyler Naquin came in third, with Astros hurler Chris Devenski landing in fourth.

Fulmer enjoyed a breakout campaign in his first major league action. The 23-year-old ran up 159 innings of 3.06 ERA pitching, with 7.5 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9. For a Detroit organization that is looking to get younger and add assets with greater control, Fulmer — who came over in the 2015 deadline deal that sent Yoenis Cespedes to the Mets — is a cornerstone.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top