Nationals Notes: Espinosa, Harper, Johnson
Dan Kolko of MASNsports.com writes that last night's loss was "a kick in the gut" for the Nationals because it came after their most reliable reliever, Tyler Clippard, blew a rare lead. As Kolko notes, manager Davey Johnson has long said that he feels 90 wins will get the team to the postseason, but the Nats will need to finish 21-4 to reach that mark. Here's more out of the nation's capitol…
- Danny Espinosa should be among the team's September callups, argues Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. The Nats opted not to bring Espinosa to the big leagues again this season, but Kilgore opines that he'd be a valuable defensive replacement and the expanded rosters would allow them to carry Espinosa's glove without exposing the weak bat he's shown this season. Kilgore adds that keeping Espinosa off the Major League roster likely prevents him from becoming arbitration-eligible as a Super Two player, but the $1MM or so in financial savings isn't a good reason to keep him off the roster. Recent reports have indicated that the Nationals are looking to trade the switch-hitting middle infielder.
- Unbeknownst to Johnson, Bryce Harper has been receiving treatment for a hip injury recently, the manager told reporters (including Amanda Comak of the Washington Times). Johnson said that he is "disturbed" by the fact that he was not informed of the issue by Harper or the medical staff, but he plans to continue playing Harper as long as the injury doesn't worsen.
- For those who missed it, MLBTR reported last night that right-hander Mark Lowe has opted out of his minor league contract with Washington and is now a free agent.
Mark Lowe Opts Out Of Contract With Nationals
Mark Lowe has opted out of his contract with the Nationals and is now a free agent, MLBTR has learned. The right-hander signed a minor league deal with Washington in June and already passed one opt-out date back on July 31. Lowe is represented by Frye McCann Sports.
Lowe has signed minor league deals (and parted ways) with three different organizations this season after signing with the Dodgers in February, the Angels in late March and then the Nats in June. The 30-year-old righty posted a 9.26 ERA over 11 2/3 relief innings with the Halos but was much more effective with the Nationals' Triple-A affiliate, posting a 3.14 ERA, 11.6 K/9 and 3.70 K/BB over 28 2/3 IP with Syracuse.
Prior to this season, Lowe had amassed a 3.94 ERA over 262 2/3 innings with the Mariners and Rangers from 2006-12. Over his career, he has held right-handed batters to a .223/.309/.332 slash line.
Phillies Notes: Aumont, Franco, Kendrick, Bernadina
Here are some items from the City of Brotherly Love…
- Right-hander Phillippe Aumont wasn't included in the first round of September callups and "faces an uncertain future" with the Phillies, writes Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Aumont has posted a 3.97 ERA over 34 innings with the Phils over the last two seasons, racking up strikeouts (33) but also walking 22 batters. Aumont has issued 36 walks over 34 2/3 IP at Triple-A this season. The Mariners took Aumont with the 11th overall pick of the 2007 amateur draft and was dealt to the Phillies as part of the Cliff Lee trade in December 2009. Aumont was ranked as a top-100 prospect by Baseball America every year from 2008-10.
- Also from Gelb, the Phillies didn't call up top prospect Maikel Franco because the team wants to look at Cody Asche at third base this month. GM Ruben Amaro did say that a Franco promotion was at least "discussed internally" among team officials.
- Kyle Kendrick will probably end up with roughly a $7.5MM salary for 2014 following his final offseason of arbitration eligibility, projects David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News. That's a reasonable price for a pitcher of Kendrick's caliber, Murphy feels, given how some other pitchers earning similar money in 2013 have been disappointments. It hasn't been a great year for the right-hander (4.51 ERA, 5,2 K/9, 2.36 K/BB), though he's on pace to throw a new career high in innings and his advanced metrics (3.93 FIP, 4.16 xFIP, 4.39 SIERA) indicate that Kendrick has been a bit unlucky. His 49% ground ball rate also makes him a valuable asset pitching at Citizens Bank Park.
- Roger Bernadina went 1-for-3 for the Phillies in today's 3-2 win over the Nationals, the first time Bernadina had faced his former team since being released two weeks ago. Before the game, Bernadina told reporters (including MLB.com's Bill Ladson) that he "was a little bit shocked" at his release but enjoyed his time in Washington and now enjoys being a Phillie.
Nationals Trying To Trade Danny Espinosa
SATURDAY, 3:48pm: The Nationals have informed Espinosa that he will not receive a September call-up, reports the Washington Post's Adam Kilgore. Assuming that holds true, Kilgore notes, Espinosa will likely not be arbitration-eligible next season. Instead, he will earn league minimum and cede an additional year of team control.
Espinosa had 2.033 years of service time coming into the season, and appears to have logged 79 days this year before he was optioned on June 19th. If he accrues no more service time, then, Espinosa will obviously fall short of three years of service. Neither will he have enough service for Super Two status, and would not qualify anyway because he did not stay on the active roster for the requisite 86 days this season.
While a late-season renaissance would have been even better, these service considerations certainly increase Espinosa's trade value. An acquiring team would have ample, low-cost flexibility to allow Espinosa — who still has options – to try and regain his form. And that team would receive additional upside if Espinosa regains his once-promising career arc. Those same factors, of course, increase his value to the Nats as well. Indeed, Kilgore notes that the organization still has not lowered its asking price on Espinosa and seems disinclined to sell him at a discount.
WEDNESDAY, 12:10pm: The Nationals are in the process of deciding whether or not they will include struggling infielder Danny Espinosa in this year's crop of September call-ups, and MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports that the team is looking to trade the 26-year-old.
Ladson's source said he doesn't anticipate that Espinosa will play a Major League game this season and the Nationals' efforts to trade him have been stifled by the switch-hitter's poor performance since being demoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Espinosa played through a fractured wrist for a month this season and batted just .158/.193/.272 in 167 plate appearances. Since his demotion, he's hitting just .208/.271/.283 in 292 plate appearances.
Espinosa's agent, Scott Boras, said that his client has dealt with a lingering thumb injury for several weeks at Syracuse. It's also worth noting that he played through a torn rotator cuff in 2012, which could obviously still have a lingering effect on his production at the plate. Boras told reporters that other teams do have interest in Espinosa:
"Every park that I go into will ask me about Danny. They want to know what he is doing. So the guy has real value."
Interested teams undoubtedly look at Espinosa's 20-homer power and 20-steal speed as well as his plus defense at second base and shortstop. However, those positives also come with the injury concerns and a long-standing problem with strikeouts; Espinosa has whiffed in 27.1 percent of his career plate appearances and has a whopping 96 strikeouts at Syracuse this season after leading the NL with 189 punchouts in 2012.
Espinosa hit .242/.319/.408 with 38 homers and 37 steals as a regular for the Nats from 2011-12, so trading him at this point would unquestionably be selling with his value at an all-time low. However, this is the second time there have been reports regarding a potential trade of Espinosa, as rival evaluators speculated back in June that playing him at shortstop at Triple-A was an attempt to showcase him as a trade chip. Espinosa has played 32 games at shortstop and 39 at second base since his demotion.
Union Has Concerns Over Contract Language
The MLBPA has fought hard to secure and maintain guaranteed contracts across the board for its players. At the same time, teams are looking to reduce their risk in deals and some have taken to adding guarantee language to contracts, which could theoretically void the contract if a player is in violation of conditions in the clause. It's an issue that has yet to blow up, but it was of enough concern to the MLBPA that they discussed it at length in a New York City summit last year, sources tell Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.
At the time, the Cubs, Yankees, and Nationals were among the teams that were putting additional language into their contracts to help protect them against certain off-the-field occurrences. That doesn't sit well with the union as they would argue that punishment for harmful behaviors is already covered under the collective bargaining agreement. Ultimately, the union was worried that teams could look to 86 contracts over things like PED use and misrepresentation of age. While this hasn't really been an issue yet, sources assure Passan that the Yankees have discussed turning to guarantee language to go after Alex Rodriguez.
In total, Passan counts four instances of teams attempting to use guarantee language to convert a deal from guaranteed to non-guaranteed in an effort to ostensibly void a deal. Three of those cases were settled for close to 90 cents on the dollar owed, sources said, before an arbitrator could rule on any grievance. The other case was when the Padres tried to void LaMarr Hoyt's deal entirely when he was caught smuggling drugs across the Mexican border, but they were unsuccessful.
Passan's article includes a look at the list of prohibited activities under the Cubs' standard guarantee language. The list is comically lengthy and covers everything ranging from hot air ballooning to bobsledding to participation in a show like the Battle Of The Network Stars, just in case that gets a reboot. However, agents have asked the Cubs to back off of that language and they have agreed. The bigger concern for the union is that the Cubs contract calls for a conversion in the event of things such as attempted suicide, contraction of HIV, criminal acts, and PED use. The MLBPA believed teams were broadening the conversion clause to potentially punish PED users beyond the discipline called for in the joint drug agreement.
While there is obviously some disagreement between the two sides on this issue, both tend to agree that truly standard guarantee language would go a long way toward fixing the issue. That was an idea that was brought up during the last CBA talks, but was too far down the priority list and wasn't addressed. That's something that could change ahead of 2016 when the league will have a new JDA. At that point, PED penalties will likely increase and the incentive to go after users will be even greater.
NL East Notes: Mets, Kendrick, Phillies, Nats
After a week in which the Mets lost Matt Harvey for the season and traded Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pirates, GM Sandy Alderson sent out a letter to team season ticket holders. The letter, which was passed along by Kristie Ackert of the Daily News, re-iterated the club's desire to win as many games as possible in 2013, even though they won't be playoff bound. "This offseason, we will explore every possible way of improving our club. Trades and free agent signings always seem to get the most attention, but helping our current players also will be a key to improving in 2014 and beyond," Alderson wrote. Here's more out of the NL East..
- David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News explains why another year of Kyle Kendrick at about $8MM would be a good deal for the Phillies. Kendrick's two-year, $7.5MM deal expires this season, leading to his final year of arbitration eligibility. Kendrick, 29, owns a 4.40 ERA with 5.2 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 on the year.
- The Phillies officially signed Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez today and GM Ruben Amaro Jr. sounds confident that the deal is a worthwhile risk for the club despite health concerns, writes CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury.
- Nationals manager Davey Johnson told 106.7 The Fan that he feels this is a good time for him to "ride off into the sunset," writes Patrick Reddington of Federal Baseball. However, it sounds as though the 70-year-old still wants to work in baseball in some capacity.
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney (video link) explains why the Marlins' Jose Fernandez should be the Rookie of the Year.
Quick Hits: Kubel, Athletics, Twins, Harper
The Athletics should consider claiming outfielder Jason Kubel, InsideBayArea.com's John Hickey argues. The Diamondbacks designated Kubel for assignment Tuesday afternoon. After losing Josh Reddick to a wrist injury, the A's are short an outfielder. Their current plan is to slide Brandon Moss to the outfield and have Daric Barton play first base, but Hickey thinks it might be better to keep Moss at first and play Kubel in an outfield spot instead. He notes that exchanging Barton for Kubel would be a defensive downgrade, however, and it's questionable how much more offense Kubel might provide. He hit .220/.288/.324 for the Diamondbacks this year, and would have to make a significant rebound in the direction of his 2012 form to be an upgrade. Here are more notes from around the Majors.
- Josh Willingham of the Twins says August waivers are "no big deal," Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports (via Twitter). The Twins placed Willingham on recovable trade waivers earlier today, raising the possibility (even if it isn't an incredibly likely one) that Willingham could be dealt. Willingham tells Miller he's in no hurry to leave Minnesota. The outfielder is hitting .214/.348/.393 this season.
- It's still not impossible that the Twins could trade Justin Morneau. But Morneau is a free agent after the season, so even if the Twins dealt him, they could bring him back for 2014. That decision could be based on how often they want Joe Mauer to play first base, 1500ESPN's Phil Mackey argues (on Twitter). Mackey argues that, in any case, the Twins shouldn't consider more than a one-year deal for Morneau, who appears to be past his prime and doesn't stack up particularly well against other first basemen.
- Scott Boras, who represents the Nationals' Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, half-jokingly says he prefers "12-year deals" for his players, MASNsports.com's Dan Kolko reports. "I'm more into 12-year deals for young players," says Boras. "The M.O. is that you want to keep within the franchise, you want him there for a long time and you want to be there for the fans and be a marquee for them. … You're going to have to do something different if you're going to be a team of distinction." Boras was in Washington for the Nationals' game against the Marlins, and he seemed to be talking about Harper, although he did not name him directly.
Rosenthal On Nationals, Cruz, Peralta
Here's the latest from FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal:
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo says he did not make a mistake in claiming David DeJesus, as some speculated at the time. "I wasn’t concerned about being stuck with David, as I like him a lot," says Rizzo. "The player from Tampa Bay is not nearly a sexy prospect, but we had solid reports on him and he will be, at worst, added depth. I would have liked (DeJesus) to go unclaimed — I think I could have made a better deal with several interested teams." After claiming DeJesus, the Nationals quickly sent him to the Rays for a player to be named.
- One reason the Nationals might not be in any hurry to trade Dan Haren, Rosenthal suggests, is that they're still nominally in the playoff hunt. The Nats are currently eight games back of the last playoff spot, but they have a weak schedule down the stretch. Besides, Rosenthal notes, there hasn't been much interest in Haren in the first place.
- Nelson Cruz has been working out at the Rangers' facility in the Dominican Republic. Cruz isn't forbidden to do that, even though he's currently serving a suspension for his involvement with the Biogenesis scandal. The Rangers want to have the option of turning to Cruz in the postseason.
- The Tigers, meanwhile, have "not even discussed" using Jhonny Peralta in the playoffs, according to Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski.
NL East Notes: Harvey, Davis, Phillies, Werth
The baseball world got some terrible news today when Mike Francesa of WFAN radio in New York reported that Mets ace Matt Harvey has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and will be placed on the disabled list (hat tip: Ken Rosenthal on Twitter). A torn UCL, of course, is usually a precursor to Tommy John surgery, which would mean Harvey would miss most — if not all — of the 2014 season. It will also greatly impact the Mets' strategy for 2014, as the team had planned to make a big push for immediate contention this offseason. Here's more on the Mets and the rest of the NL East…
- "First base is in flux," one Mets official told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. The Mets are currently unsure as to who will man the position in 2014. Martino profiles their in-house options — Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, Josh Satin and Wilmer Flores — but also notes that general manager Sandy Alderson could seek a first baseman outside the organization. Martino adds that Davis' poor play almost earned him a second demotion to Triple-A earlier in the summer.
- Roy Halladay thinks brighter days are ahead for the Phillies, writes Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News. Said Halladay: "…we have some young players who are really kind of coming into their own and some veteran guys who are starting to produce again. I think there's just a few pieces that if we can add we're right there." Halladay, of course, is a free agent at season's end. He made his return to the Phillies' rotation over the weekend, allowing two runs on four hits and a pair of walks with two strikeouts in six innings of work.
- Many things have gone wrong for the Nationals this season, but Matt Klaassen of Fangraphs points out that Jayson Werth is having a fantastic season and earning the value of his salary this year. While the contract is still likely to be "ugly" by the end, in Klaassen's opinion, Werth is a good bet to provide above-average production for the next couple seasons if he remains healthy.
Quick Hits: Sabathia, Red Sox, Indians, Cardinals
C.C. Sabathia's deal with the Yankees could turn out to be an ugly one, Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com writes. "That contract might not be a disaster of A-Rod-ian proportions, but unless Sabathia finds a way to turn it all round, it might turn out to be the next-worst thing," Matthews writes. Sabathia has three years left on his contract, plus a vesting option for 2017 that the Yankees can avoid only if Sabathia has a left shoulder injury. All told, the Yankees are likely to be on the hook for $96MM after this season. Sabathia's season arguably isn't as bad as his 4.81 ERA makes it look — his peripherals are indicative of ERA about a run lower. But his declining velocity is a serious concern. Here are more notes from around the big leagues.
- The Red Sox's huge trade of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers one year ago gave them the payroll flexibility to acquire Ryan Dempster, Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew, Koji Uehara, and Jonny Gomes, Scott Miller of CBS Sports writes. But that doesn't mean the Dodgers are unhappy with their end of the deal — Miller notes that it "changed the path of both franchises." Miller also quotes Dodgers manager Don Mattingly noting that his team likely would have pursued Victorino (for whom they had traded in July 2012) as a free agent if they hadn't acquired Crawford.
- The trade also gave the Sox the flexibility to acquire Jake Peavy, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal notes. Peavy's matchup against Chris Capuano on Sunday reminds MacPherson that the Red Sox made a "desperate attempt" to acquire Capuano from the Mets in 2011. The talent gap between Peavy and Capuano is significant, and MacPherson argues that the trade with the Dodgers made the difference in acquiring Peavy this time.
- There will be interest in Asdrubal Cabrera and Chris Perez this offseason if the Indians want to trade them, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes. Cabrera has struggled this season, hitting .237/.292/.389, and he's set to make $10MM in the last year of his contract in 2014. Perez, meanwhile, is set to earn a raise in arbitration on his $7.3MM 2013 salary before becoming a free agent after 2014. His pitching hasn't been stellar in 2013 — he has a 3.30 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. Hoynes may be right that the Indians could deal Perez if they wanted to. For example, the Red Sox's offseason trade for Joel Hanrahan, a pitcher with a similar salary and contract situation, perhaps shows that teams are always willing to deal for an established closer. But that deal also demonstrates just how volatile closers can be, and Perez has never been dominant in the way Hanrahan once was.
- As the August trade deadline approaches, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says that his team is unlikely to make a trade, Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch tweets. That makes it unlikely that the Cards will wind up with Dan Haren of the Nationals. The Cardinals recently lost Jake Westbrook to injury and have replaced him in the rotation with Tyler Lyons, at least for now.