Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Former MLB Pitcher Jacob Turner
Considered the “consensus top high school righthander available” by Baseball America back in 2009, Jacob Turner was drafted ninth overall by the Tigers out of Westminster Christian Academy in Missouri. He stood at 6’5″, 210 lbs and touched 98 with his fastball. Adviser Scott Boras was able to get the 18-year-old Turner a $5.5MM Major League contract, most of which came in the form of a signing bonus.
After two years in the minors, MLB.com ranked Turner the 15th prospect in the game, ahead of future stars such as Nolan Arenado, Zack Wheeler, and Francisco Lindor. Turner made his MLB debut at the age of 20, pitching well against the Angels for Jim Leyland’s Tigers. At that point in late 2011, Turner profiled as a future number two or three starter in the Majors.
The following year, Turner picked up his first big league win on July 22nd against the White Sox. The 2012 Tigers would go on to win the pennant, but they’d do so without Turner. The day after that first career W, they sent him packing to the Marlins for more immediate help in the form of Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante.
By late May 2013, Turner had secured a spot in a Marlins rotation that also featured Jose Fernandez, Tom Koehler, Ricky Nolasco, Nathan Eovaldi, and Henderson Alvarez. Turner’s age-22 season would turn out to be his best, as he put together 20 starts with a 3.74 ERA that year.
Things took a turn in 2014, as Turner lost both his rotation and 40-man roster spots with the Marlins, joining the Cubs on a waiver claim. An elbow injury spoiled Turner’s 2015 season, which ended in a crosstown waiver claim by the White Sox. Turner went on to a stint with the Nationals, followed by returns to the Marlins and Tigers. For the 2019 season, Turner moved to KBO’s Kia Tigers.
Turner’s time in MLB was over before his 30th birthday, certainly not the career some expected of him back when he was starring in high school and the low minors. But he still competed for parts of seven seasons in the bigs, pitching 369 innings and making 56 starts. The 22-year-old kid was pretty darn good in the Majors in 2013, going at least seven innings five different times that year. One career highlight: a one-run, complete game victory over the Padres that year. Across those seven seasons, Turner punched out many of the game’s stars, including Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Carlos Beltran, Jose Bautista, Nolan Arenado, David Wright, and Freddie Freeman.
Still only 31 years old, Turner now runs a company that “helps educate athletes around money and helps them be good stewards of the money earned in their careers,” as he puts it. He’s on Twitter @TheSuddenWealth, where he posted a thread last summer about his experiences that ended up going viral. Jacob notes that people can DM him on Twitter to get in touch, and you can view his website here.
Jacob took questions from MLBTR readers earlier today. Click here to read the transcript!
If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to have you for a chat with our readers! It’s a great way to interact with fans for an hour, and you get to choose which questions you publish. Click here to contact us.
Nationals Outright Andrés Machado
The Nationals announced that right-hander Andrés Machado has cleared outright waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. He was designated for assignment last week when the club signed outfielder Corey Dickerson.
Machado, 30 in April, tossed 59 1/3 innings for the Nats last year with a 3.34 ERA. Despite those solid results, there were reasons for the Nats to be bearish. Machado’s 17.6% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate were both worse than league average, with a .267 batting average on balls in play helping him keep runs off the board. The opposite was true in the minors, as a .375 BABIP led to a 5.82 ERA in 17 Triple-A innings.
Beyond the work on the mound, Machado is also now out of options. The Nats optioned him seven times over the past couple of seasons, clearly valuing his ability to move on and off the roster as needed. That was no longer going to be possible this year, giving him a little less hold on a spot at the fringe of the roster.
Machado will now stick in the organization and serve as depth but without occupying a roster spot. Players with more than three years of MLB service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but Machado is still shy of the two-year mark.
MLBTR Poll: The NL East Favorite
The National League East is shaping up as one of baseball’s more competitive divisions in 2023. The defending champion Braves, Mets and Phillies have all made big moves to bolster their already strong rosters, while the Marlins will lean on a quality rotation to try and be competitive. The Nationals are, of course, in full rebuild mode and won’t be among the division’s best this year.
There’s still a chance of one or two significant moves to be made in this division. It’s been reported that Miami has made four of their starting pitchers available in trades, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them ship out a starter to bring in an offensive upgrade, possibly an outfielder.
Nonetheless, let’s take a look at each team’s off-season to see how they stack up in this division heading into the new season (teams listed in last year’s standings order).
Atlanta Braves (101-61)
In: C Sean Murphy, LHP Lucas Luetge, OF Jordan Luplow, OF Eli White, LHP Kolby Allard, RHP Joe Jimenez.
Out: SS Dansby Swanson, RHP Kenley Jansen, RHP Darren O’Day, RHP Luke Jackson, OF Adam Duvall, C William Contreras, C Manny Pina.
The Braves big splash of the off-season was their trade for Murphy. In typical Braves fashion, they wasted little time in extending him as well, signing him to a six-year, $73MM pact to lock him in as their catcher of the future. The Braves weren’t struggling at catcher, but the arrival of Murphy is still an upgrade over Contreras and Pina, who were both shipped out in the deal. He’ll join a lineup that is largely the same as the one that won 101 games last season. The big hole remains at shortstop and in left field. Swanson departed for the Cubs in free agency, and the team could either rely on Orlando Arcia or rookie Vaughn Grissom to take over. Eddie Rosario was worth -1.1 fWAR in 2022, but the Braves are paying him $9MM this year and it seems likely he’ll be back as the starter in left. Luplow could get some opportunities to take the starting job on his new team, but he posted a wRC+ of just 78 last season.
In the rotation, Max Fried will be back to lead a starting corp that also features Kyle Wright, Spencer Strider and veteran Charlie Morton. A wretched run of Achilles injuries meant Mike Soroka has only made three starts in the past three seasons, but he’s back and if he can stay fit and return to his 2019 performance he gives the Braves a quality fifth option. The acquisitions of Luetge and Jimenez gives the Braves another couple of quality relief arms to cover the departure of Jansen in free agency.
All told it’s a quality roster that doesn’t appear to be weaker the 2022, but will it be enough to hold off other teams in the division?
New York Mets (101-61)
In: RHP Justin Verlander, LHP Brooks Raley, RHP Zach Greene, LHP Jose Quintana, RHP David Robertson, RHP Kodai Senga, C Omar Narvaez, SS Danny Mendick, RHP Stephen Ridings, RHP Elieser Hernandez, RHP Jeff Brigham.
Out: RHP Jacob deGrom, RHP Chris Bassitt, RHP, Seth Lugo, RHP Trevor May, RHP Trevor Williams, OF Tyler Naquin, LHP Joely Rodriguez, RHP Taijuan Walker, 1B Dominic Smith, RHP Mychal Givens, C James McCann.
The Mets effectively had to overhaul their rotation and bullpen this winter, after a series of major departures in both areas. In a fashion befitting the Steve Cohen-era Mets, they did so in expensive fashion. The Mets quickly offset the departures of deGrom, Bassitt and Walker by signing Verlander, Quintana and Senga to big deals and ensuring their rotation is at least as strong as last year. In the bullpen they re-signed Adam Ottavino, brought in David Robertson and made a series of smaller trades and waiver claims to rebuild their relief group.
Offensively, the Mets didn’t have too many moves to make. The big hole was in the outfield, but the team addressed that by bringing back Brandon Nimmo on an eight-year, $162MM deal. They came close to adding Carlos Correa, but that move broke down over the much-publicized medical concerns. Correa would’ve certainly been a boost to their offense, but they’re still in a good spot without him. They could probably still do with another outfielder, and it’s been reported that they’re interested in the remaining free agent options there (Tommy Pham, Adam Duvall etc).
The Mets led the East for the majority of 2022 and they’ll again be up there in ’23. Perhaps one more major move (like Correa) would’ve sealed them as division favorites, but they’re still in a very good spot as is.
Philadelphia Phillies (87-75)
In: LHP Gregory Soto, INF Kody Clemens, RHP Craig Kimbrel, RHP Taijuan Walker, LHP Matt Strahm, SS Trea Turner, OF Jake Cave,
Out: OF Matt Vierling, INF Phil Maton, C Donny Sands, INF Jean Segura, RHP Noah Syndergaard, LHP Brad Hand, RHP Chris Devenski, RHP Kyle Gibson, RHP David Robertson, RHP Zach Eflin, RHP Corey Knebel.
The Phillies went all the way to the World Series in 2022, but they still finished 14 games back of the Braves and Mets in the division so had a bit of work to do to try and close that gap going into this season. The addition of Turner gives them a superstar at the top of their lineup alongside Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and co. If youngsters Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh can take a step forward at the plate this year they’ll have a much deeper lineup. They’ll hope they can do enough to stick with the Braves and Mets in the first half of the season, before welcoming back star Bryce Harper from injury at some stage mid-season.
On the pitching side of things, Walker slots in as a quality third option behind Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler in the rotation. The bullpen lost a number of players this winter, but the additions of Strahm, Soto and Kimbrel to a group that already has Seranthony Dominguez, Jose Alvarado and Andrew Bellatti should make that area of the team a strength in season.
All told, the Phillies do look a better unit than they were to start 2022, but it remains to be seen whether or not that’ll be enough to make up 14 games on the Braves and Mets – who certainly haven’t taken a step backwards themselves this winter.
Miami Marlins (69-93)
In: INF Jacob Amaya, INF Jean Segura, OF Jake Mangum, RHP JT Chargois, SS Xavier Edwards, RHP Johnny Cueto.
Out: SS Miguel Rojas, RHP Elieser Hernandez, RHP Jeff Brigham, 3B Brian Anderson, RHP Nick Neidert.
The Marlins have had a quiet off-season, but they could be one of the busiest teams in all of baseball, let alone the NL East, between now and the start of the season. That’s because they’ve reportedly made four of their starters – Pablo Lopez, Trevor Rogers, Edward Cabrera and Jesus Luzardo – available in trades. That speculation has only intensified in the wake of them agreeing to a deal with veteran starter Johnny Cueto.
As such, it makes sense to start with a look at their rotation as things stand. Sandy Alcantara isn’t going anywhere and he’ll be back to lead the rotation after winning the Cy Young award in 2022. Beyond Alcantara will be Cueto and then some combination of the four previously mentioned starters. The fact team also has Sixto Sanchez returning as well as Braxton Garrett available shows how deep their rotation options are, but also that they could feasibly deal two starters and still be in a good position in the rotation. In any event, pitching should be a strength for the Marlins in 2023.
Presumably any trade of a starter would be to add a bat to their lineup. The signing of Segura likely filled out their infield, but the team could certainly do with an outfield upgrade. Bryan Reynolds is the highest profile option there, but other options on the could include Max Kepler or a free agent addition such as Pham or Duvall.
The Marlins do look capable of topping last year’s 69-win total as is, but it’d be interesting to see how they’d go with a deeper lineup, and whether or not a swing-for-the-fences-type move such as trading for Reynolds would propel them into the Wildcard conversation.
Washington Nationals (55-107)
In: OF Corey Dickerson, 1B Dominic Smith, SS Jeter Downs, RHP Trevor Williams, OF Stone Garrett, 3B Jeimer Candelario.
Out: 1B/DH Luke Voit, RHP Steve Cishek, RHP Will Harris, 2B Cesar Hernandez, RHP Joe Ross, DH Nelson Cruz, LHP Sean Doolittle, RHP Anibal Sanchez, RHP Erick Fedde, RHP Tommy Romero, RHP A.J. Alexy.
After eight-straight winning seasons between 2012-19 culminated in a championship in 2019, the Nationals are in full rebuild mode. They lost 107 games in 2022, and wouldn’t be a surprise to see them lose a similar amount in 2023. While the new schedule calls for fewer divisional matchups, the Nats certainly won’t be helped by regularly playing in a division with a number of quality teams.
Offensively, the Nationals will look for contributions from youngsters CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz – two players they’ll hope to build their next playoff roster around. They’ve also brought in a couple of cheaper bounceback candidates in Smith and Candelario, and both could turn themselves into trade chips at the deadline. It’s a similar story on the pitching side, where they’ll hope Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Cade Cavalli can show they can be long-term rotation pieces for the team.
While the Nationals are the clear favorite to prop up the group, it should be an interesting battle in the NL East, particularly with the Braves, Mets and Phillies. What do you think? Who will finish top of the East? Have your say in the poll below.
Who Will Win The NL East In 2023?
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Atlanta Braves 49% (6,766)
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New York Mets 29% (3,968)
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Philadelphia Phillies 18% (2,454)
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Washington Nationals 3% (361)
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Miami Marlins 2% (215)
Total votes: 13,764
Nationals’ Sales Process Still Not Near Resolution
The Nationals have been on the market for a good portion of the past year. The Lerner family first announced in April they were looking into sale possibilities for the franchise. Subsequent reports suggested the family was hopeful of completing the process by the early-December Winter Meetings.
That obviously did not happen, and it doesn’t seem a resolution is imminent. The Talk Nats blog reported Tuesday afternoon that negotiations were not close to the finish line. That aligns with their reporting from late November, when Talk Nats wrote the franchise’s uncertain local broadcasting situation related to the ongoing MASN dispute was keeping the Lerners from settling on an agreeable price point with the Ted Leonsis group that had emerged as the frontrunner in discussions.
TV rights remain the biggest issue in the Washington sale. As part of the relocation efforts to move the franchise from Montreal to Washington nearly two decades ago, MLB (which owned the Expos/Nationals at the time) agreed to tie its local broadcasting rights to the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. MASN is jointly owned by the Nats and Orioles, but the Orioles’ ownership share is roughly 77% while the Nats own around 23%. That agreement, a condition of the franchise’s relocation into the Orioles’ geographic territorial rights, caps the Nationals’ TV revenue by making it impermissible for them to sell broadcasting rights to a regional sports network.
Leonsis owns NBC Sports Washington and would almost certainly prefer to broadcast Nationals games on that network if he took control of the franchise. Doing so would require negotiating a way out of the MASN contract with the Orioles, though, and it’s not clear whether the Baltimore organization has any interest in doing so. MLB has gotten involved in an attempt to broker a settlement between the franchises, but there’s no indication they’ve made progress to this point.
Uncertainty about future local TV revenues is an obvious concern for a possible buyer. Against that backdrop, it’s now a real question whether the Lerner family will sell a majority stake at all. Talk Nats suggested it’s possible the Lerners pivot to selling a minority share of the franchise. Chelsea Janes and Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post echoed that sentiment this evening, writing that the Lerners now seem likelier to take on a minority partner than sell the franchise entirely. Nothing has been formally decided. Both Talk Nats and the Washington Post suggest possibilities range from no change in the ownership structure at all to a deal of a minority share or a sale of the controlling stake coming together.
Janes and Svrluga suggest a middle ground may be to sell a minority share with a path to that buyer taking over majority ownership down the line. The Dolan family took that tack with the Guardians last summer, immediately selling roughly 25-30% of the franchise to David Blitzer in a deal that reportedly gives Blitzer the option to purchase majority control six years thereafter.
It’s an ongoing saga that obviously hasn’t resolved as the Lerner family had envisioned. There are still myriad possibilities that’ll hang over the franchise for as long as this process remains up in the air. The franchise is amidst a full rebuild and ran out the worst team in the majors last season. They’ve made a few short-term free agent investments this winter, bringing in Dominic Smith, Corey Dickerson, Jeimer Candelario and retaining Erasmo Ramírez on one-year contracts worth a combined $10.25MM. Their biggest investment of the offseason was a two-year, $13MM pact for starter Trevor Williams.
Roster Resource projects the franchise’s player payroll around $104MM. That’s $31MM south of last season’s Opening Day figure. It’d be the franchise’s lowest season-opening payroll since 2012, although it’s possible GM Mike Rizzo and his staff have some more spending room to add another veteran target or two to supplement a young roster.
Nationals Designate Andrés Machado For Assignment
The Nationals have officially announced their deal with outfielder Corey Dickerson. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, reliever Andrés Machado was designated for assignment.
Machado, 30 in April, has spent the past two years with the Nats as a depth reliever, getting frequently optioned and recalled as needed. He’s thrown 95 innings over those two seasons with a solid 3.41 ERA. His 9.9% walk rate and 43.6% ground ball rate in that time were both roughly average, but his 18.3% strikeout rate was a few ticks below par.
Machado’s opponents have registered a .264 batting average on balls in play against him, which is on the low side. For example, the league average in 2022 was .289, a 25-point difference. A pitcher can sometimes earn a lower BABIP than average by minimizing hard contact, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Machado. Statcast only places him in the 23rd percentile among qualified pitchers in terms of average exit velocity, 15th in hard hit rate and 27th in barrel rate.
It’s possible that good luck was helping Machado keep earned runs off the board. Whether that’s true or not, he’s now out of options, giving the club less versatility in using him on the roster. They will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. If another team were to acquire him, he has between one and two years of service time and has yet to reach arbitration. Though he hasn’t racked up huge strikeout numbers in the big leagues, he did average over 95 mph on his fastball in 2022. He also struck out 26.6% of Triple-A batters faced in the past two years.
Twins Acquire A.J. Alexy From Nationals
The Twins have acquired right-hander A.J. Alexy from the Nationals, according to announcements from both clubs. Alexy had been designated for assignment by the Nats last week. In exchange, right-hander Cristian Jimenez will be going to the Nats. In order to open a spot on their 40-man roster, the Twins have designated righty Oliver Ortega for assignment.
Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who went to the Rangers in the 2017 Yu Darvish trade. Since then, he’s posted some strong results in the minors but struggled to be as successful in the majors. He missed much of 2019 due to injury and then the minor leagues were canceled in 2020, but he showed promise in 2021. He tossed 65 minor league innings between Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 1.66 ERA along with a 29.8% strikeout rate. The 10.6% walk rate was certainly high but it was still a solid enough showing to get him into the majors.
Alexy posted a 4.70 ERA in 23 MLB innings that year, despite matching strikeout and walk rates of 17.5%, with both of those numbers being worse than league average. In 2022, he was limited to just seven innings in the show, getting tattooed for an 11.57 ERA in that short time. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A with a 5.91 ERA, getting strikeouts at a healthy 23.6% clip but with the walks still high at 12.8%.
The Rangers overhauled their rotation this winter and designated Alexy for assignment in the process. Despite his struggles in the majors so far, he’s still young and has some solid results in the minors to build from. He also still has an option year remaining, allowing a team to keep him in the minors as starting depth. The Nats grabbed him off waivers from the Rangers but he got bumped from their roster when they signed Dominic Smith. He’ll now head to the Twins and enter their rotation mix.
The Twins have a solid group of starters with Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle and Bailey Ober the likely front five. However, there are injury concerns scattered throughout that crew. Maeda didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, whereas the other four all made at least one trip to the IL in 2022 for various ailments. Alexy can now join Josh Winder, Simeon Woods Richardson and others as depth options on Minnesota’s roster.
By claiming Alexy and hanging onto him for a few weeks, the Nats will receive Jimenez for their troubles. He’s still quite young, not turning 19 years old until May. He spent 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, posting a 3.38 ERA over 37 1/3 innings with a 30.2% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate and 57.9% ground ball rate.
Ortega, 26, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels last week. He split his time between the majors and Triple-A in 2022, posting matching 22.3% strikeout rates at each level. His 6.6% walk rate in the minors was almost doubled in the majors at 12.2%, yet his major league ERA of 3.71 was somehow a couple runs better than his 5.96 mark in Triple-A. That was probably just bad luck, since his minor league BABIP was almost 100 points higher on the farm and his strand rate was 8% lower. He’s still young and has a couple of option years, making him appealing for any club looking for extra pitching depth. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers.
Nationals Sign Corey Dickerson
1:14pm: The Nationals have officially announced their signing of Dickerson.
7:30am: The Nationals and free-agent outfielder Corey Dickerson are in agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.25MM, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The Excel Sports Management client can earn another $750K via performance incentives. The Nats Report first reported that Dickerson and the Nationals were in agreement on a deal.
Dickerson, 33, will join his eighth big league team with this agreement — and his third in the National League East, having played prior stints with both the Phillies (2019) and Marlins (2020-21). His 2022 season was spent with the Cardinals, where he logged a .267/.300/.399 slash with six homers, 17 doubles and a triple in 297 plate appearances. That slash is at least somewhat skewed by an awful start to the season which saw him bat .180/.237/.213 through his first 97 plate appearances; from June 1 through the end of the 2022 campaign, Dickerson recorded 200 trips to the plate and posted a hefty .307/.330/.484 batting line.
In reality, Dickerson’s true talent level likely lies somewhere between the two extremes. The 2017 All-Star and 2018 Gold Glove winner is a lifetime .281/.324/.481 hitter but has settled in closer to a league-average bat since the 2020 season, slashing .266/.313/.403 in 872 turns at the plate.
The left-handed-hitting Dickerson carries a fairly sharp platoon split, with the majority of his power coming versus right-handed pitching. Dickerson’s 25.8% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate against lefties are also demonstrably worse than his respective 18.9% and 6.1% marks when holding the platoon advantage. Overall, Dickerson has held his own in terms of batting average against lefties (.259) but has paired that with a bleak .299 on-base percentage and just a .394 slugging percentage. Against righties, however, he’s slashed .287/.331/.505.
For a rebuilding Nationals squad with an all-right-handed-hitting outfield of Alex Call, Victor Robles and Lane Thomas, adding Dickerson on an affordable one-year deal is eminently sensible. His days as a center fielder should be behind him, but Dickerson can take plate appearances against right-handed pitching off the plates of each of his new fellow outfielders. Robles, in particular, was anemic against righties in 2022, slashing just .188/.238/.258 in 240 plate appearances. It’s also worth noting that Call was a 27-year-old rookie in 2022, and while his production in the upper minors (and in his 47-game MLB debut) certainly merited the promotion, he’s not exactly locked in as an established, everyday big leaguer just yet.
Dickerson could also see some time at designated hitter, and the Nationals will surely mix in 2022 breakout slugger Joey Menseses — another right-handed hitter. Meneses could log time at first base, spelling recent signee Dominic Smith against lefties, and he’s an option in the outfield corners and at designated hitter.
There should be plenty of at-bats to go around, and given the short big league track records of Call, Thomas and Meneses — to say nothing of Robles’ continued offensive struggles that now span the past three seasons — Dickerson should fit in nicely and raise the floor for a lineup that’s light on proven hitters. He’ll also give the Nationals a potential trade chip at the deadline. Dickerson alone isn’t going to fetch a prominent, top-tier prospect, but he can still net the Nats some minor league talent if he’s healthy and performing well.
With Dickerson in the fold, the Nationals’ payroll will inch beyond the $104MM mark. It’s a far cry from the $197MM Opening Day payroll the team trotted out in 2019, when they went on to win the World Series. However, this iteration of the Nationals is more focused on building up the farm and setting the stage for future seasons, and the front office’s rebuilding effort is taking place in conjunction with ownership’s exploration of a potential sale of the team.
Be that as it may, the generally slashed payroll leaves the Nats with plenty of latitude for additional spending, should further deals to their liking present themselves. Beyond Dickerson, Washington has thus far agreed to Major League deals with the aforementioned Smith (one year, $2MM), third baseman Jeimer Candelario (one year, $5MM), swingman Erasmo Ramirez (one year, $1MM) and right-hander Trevor Williams (two years, $13MM) in free agency. There’s still room for another veteran starter, and the bullpen has plenty of uncertainty that could be offset by the addition of a more reliable name.
Reed Garrett Elects Free Agency
The Nationals announced that reliever Reed Garrett, who was designated for assignment last month, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Since he had previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency. The announcement from the Nats indicated that he has indeed done so and is now a free agent.
Garrett, 30, was a Rangers draftee but got selected by the Tigers in the 2018 Rule 5 draft. He got into 13 games for the Tigers in 2019 through the middle of May but posted an 8.22 ERA and was returned to the Rangers. He then spent the next couple of years pitching for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, posting a solid 3.46 ERA over 106 2/3 innings there.
He attempted a return to North America for 2022, signing a minor league deal with the Nats. He pitched well enough in the minors to get selected back to the club’s roster but didn’t manage to perform well in the big leagues. In seven appearances for the Nats last year, he posted a 6.75 ERA while walking more hitters than he struck out. In 47 1/3 Triple-A innings, his ERA was a much nicer 3.04 while striking out 27% of batters faced, walking 9% of them and getting grounders on 47.4% of balls in play.
Garrett will now head into the open market in search of his next opportunity. He did post solid results in Triple-A last year but that wasn’t enough for any club to put in a waiver claim and commit a roster spot to him. That means he will likely be looking for a minor league deal in the coming weeks.
Nationals Sign Anthony Banda, Francisco Perez To Minor League Deals
The Nationals announced three minor league deals today, one of which was the previously-reported deal with infielder Michael Chavis. The other two were for left-handers Anthony Banda and Francisco Pérez. All three players will receive invitations to major league Spring Training.
Banda, 29, has seen sporadic major league time in each of the past six seasons, suiting up for the Diamondbacks, Rays, Mets, Pirates, Blue Jays and Yankees. Over the past two seasons, he’s thrown 60 1/3 innings with a 5.37 ERA while striking out 21.5% of batters faced and walking 9% of them. Those peripherals are fairly close to league average and it’s possible he wasn’t quite as bad as that unsightly ERA might suggest. A .387 batting average on balls in play in that stretch probably hurt him, as his 4.74 FIP and 4.11 SIERA suggested he deserved better.
Banda is out of options and has bounced around to various teams via small transactions in recent years. He began 2022 with the Pirates before getting designated for assignment and traded to the Jays for cash. The Jays also gave him the DFA treatment shortly thereafter, which was followed by a minor league deal with the Mariners, a major league deal with the Yankees and an outright. If he can make his way onto Washington’s roster and have some good results, he has just over two years of service time and can be retained via arbitration for the foreseeable future.
Pérez, 25, has spent most of his career in Cleveland’s system, with that club selecting him onto their 40-man roster in 2021. He only made four big league appearances that year but tossed 53 innings between Double-A and Triple-A with a 1.86 ERA and 38.1% strikeout rate. His walks were certainly high at 13.5% but it was an encouraging season nonetheless. He was claimed off waivers by the Nationals after that campaign, but things didn’t go as smooth in 2022. He posted a 7.27 ERA over 10 big league appearances and a 4.82 ERA over 45 Triple-A appearances. He still got strikeouts on 29.9% of Triple-A batters faced, but he walked 15.7% of them and also 18.8% of those he faced in the majors.
Pérez was outrighted at season’s end and elected free agency but has now returned to the Nats without taking up a roster spot. He still has an option year remaining and can be shuffled between the majors and minors if he earns his way back onto the 40-man. He also has less than a year of service time and could be controlled for years to come if the Nats so choose.
The Nationals currently have four left-handers on their 40-man roster, with Patrick Corbin and MacKenzie Gore both likely ticketed for rotation jobs. That leaves Jose Ferrer and Matt Cronin as the two lefty options for the bullpen. Both of them were just added to the club’s roster in November to protect against selection in the Rule 5 draft, meaning neither has any MLB experience. Banda and Pérez give the club some more-experienced options for southpaws to plug into their bullpen for the upcoming campaign.
Nationals Designate A.J. Alexy For Assignment
The Nationals announced Wednesday that right-hander A.J. Alexy, whom they claimed off waivers from the Rangers last month, has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to first baseman Dominic Smith, whose previously reported one-year deal is now official.
Alexy’s stay with the Nats could prove quite brief. The 24-year-old, originally a Dodgers draft pick who went to Texas as part of 2017’s Yu Darvish trade, has pitched 30 innings in the big leagues over the past two seasons, logging a combined 6.30 ERA with more walks (26) than strikeouts (23). However, he’s just one season removed from outstanding results in the upper minors, as he pitched to a combined 1.66 ERA with a 29.9% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate in 65 innings between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock.
The 2022 season was rough all-around for Alexy, evidenced by a 5.91 ERA in 96 Triple-A frames and nine runs in seven big league innings. He averaged a solid 94.4 mph on his heater, though, and has above-average (but not elite) spin on his slider. In recent seasons, he’s favored that slider over a curveball he once used more frequently, but Alexy has a four-pitch mix that could intrigue some other clubs. He also has a minor league option year remaining, so any team that picks him up will be able to send him to Triple-A without needing to pass him through waivers.
Washington will have a week to trade him or else attempt to pass him through waivers themselves, a month after the Rangers were unsuccessful in doing so. The Nats pounced on Alexy with the top position in waiver priority, so there’s a decent chance another club will want to take a look.