Blue Jays are going to make Canada proud this year.
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Lots of players getting signed for Korean baseballComment -
Has Trevor Bauer gone to jail yet?Comment -
The Nationals have signed third baseman Maikel Franco to a minor league deal, reports Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. Franco is a client of Octagon. Although transactions involving the 40-man roster are frozen during the ongoing lockout, minor league deals are still permitted.
This is the second minor league deal the Nats have given to a veteran infielder in as many days, as they signed Dee Strange-Gordon yesterday. The club has a fairly open infield for 2022, after trading away Trea Turner and Josh Harrison during last year’s deadline fire sale. They’ve since re-signed Alcides Escobar and Cesar Hernandez on major league deals, before adding Strange-Gordon into the mix, to compete with youngsters Luis Garcia and Lucius Fox for middle infield playing time.
Franco, however, should be considered as an option at third base, given that’s where he’s spent the vast majority of his big league time. (He’s also played 15 games at first base in his career, but never more than five in a single season.) Youngster Carter Kieboom seems likely to be Plan A for the Nats at third, despite his struggles at the MLB level thus far. In 106 big league games over the past three seasons, Kieboom has hit .197/.304/.285. However, his Triple-A line is much more impressive, coming in at .286/.400/.464. Given his youth, 24, and prospect pedigree, he’s likely to get an extended run at the hot corner, especially when considering that Washington is likely to spend at least a year retooling after their big selloff. Franco’s presence in the system can offer a veteran fallback plan, should Kieboom continue experiencing growing pains.
Franco has had an inconsistent stretch of late, oscillating wildly from year to year. According to FanGraphs’ wins above replacement, he was worth at least 1.1 fWAR in the past three even-numbered seasons, but was in negative territory during the odd-numbered years. After some of those up-and-down years in Philadelphia, he was non-tendered following the 2019 season and latched on with the Royals. He had a solid showing in the shortened 2020 campaign, hitting .278/.321/.457 for a wRC+ of 106 and 1.3 fWAR in just 60 games. Despite that, the Royals decided not to tender him a contract for 2021, which led to Franco signing with the Orioles. Unfortunately, his yo-yoing continued, as he slumped to a line of .210/.253/.355 in 104 games for Baltimore.
Franco was released in August and signed a minor league deal with Atlanta, but didn’t get another shot at the big leagues. For the Nationals, there’s no harm in having him around to see if he can turn the tide once again. He’s only 29 years old and has shown himself capable of solid production in the past. Even if Kieboom and Franco both get hot at the same time, there’s the likelihood of the National League using the designated hitter in 2022, giving the team some more plate appearances to spread around.Comment -
They better play or many fans will find other stuff to do.Comment -
I truly hope Dodgers didn’t have to honor that contract.Comment -
The Marlins headed into the offseason looking for at least one outfield upgrade and checked one addition off the box prior to the lockout when securing Avisail Garcia on a four-year, $53MM contract. They’re still hoping to add “at least one more” outfielder when the current transaction freeze lifts, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald writes, which meshes well with recent reports tying the Fish to myriad outfield options.
They were linked, to varying extents, free-agent options such as Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Eddie Rosario even after adding Garcia. On the trade front, they’re reported to have interest in D-backs star Ketel Marte. One note of importance in their search to add to the outfield mix, via a second column from McPherson, is that general manager Kim Ng suggested the team believes the newly signed Garcia can play regularly in center field, if needed.
Miami doesn’t have a true, everyday center fielder at present, and at least ostensibly, the Marlins look to be carrying quite a few corner-only outfielders (e.g. Garcia, Jesus Sanchez, Garrett Cooper). Deadline acquisition Bryan De La Cruz has some experience in center (629 innings between MLB and the minors), but a good portion of that (199 innings) came out of necessity with the Marlins late last season. Meanwhile, he has just shy of 3000 career innings in right field and another 723 in left field, suggesting that the Astros –who traded him to Miami in the Yimi Garcia deal this past July — viewed him as mostly a corner option, at the very least.
A willingness to play Garcia in center field would open up the Fish to adding another corner option. To that end, it’s worth noting that MLB Network’s Jon Heyman suggested last week on his Big Time Baseball Podcast that Miami “may end up with Rosario” being their preferred option as a second outfield pickup. Both Rosario and Garcia have played a fair bit of center field in their careers, so if the former indeed joins the latter in Miami, perhaps both could see occasional time there.
Following the Marlins’ signing of Garcia and their pre-lockout trades to acquire catcher Jacob Stallings and infielder Joey Wendle, Miami has $23.8MM in guaranteed payroll and a projected Opening Day payroll of about $69MM, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez (including arbitration-eligible players and pre-arb players). That’d be a jump of about $12MM from last year’s stripped-down roster, but even for a typically low-payroll club like the Marlins, there’s room to add onto that mark. The Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter ownership group has in the past been reported to be planning a gradual payroll uptick as the team emerges from a rebuilding effort. The Garcia signing, the Sandy Alcantara extension and the acquisitions of some arb-eligible players with salaries of relative note (Stallings, Wendle) all support that line of thinking.Comment -
You ever look at Yimi Garcia's number's closely?
Rock solid WH/IP's with horrendous HR ratio's
Good thing he doesn't walk many while serving up those gopher balls.Comment -
I’ll take 130 games or more this year. Less would be bad.Comment -
I wouldn't mind a 130 game season as long as there is a season. It might actually be a good thing to reduce the number of regular season games. Something tells me though that this lockout will get resolved as quickly as possible and they will play ball sooner rather than later because the owners realize that a shortened season would be horrible for everyone involved.Comment -
The Rockies find themselves in something of an unenviable spot, coming off a 74-win season likely losing two of their most talented homegrown players — Trevor Story and Jon Gray — in free agency. Gray has already inked a four-year deal with the Rangers, and Story is widely expected to sign elsewhere, leaving the Rockies with a compensatory draft pick. They’re also staring up from fourth place at a pair of 100-plus win teams in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as one of baseball’s most aggressive front offices (and largest payrolls) in San Diego.
Many clubs in this spot would rebuild, but the Rockies (despite a thin farm system) have signaled no intent to do so. Quite to the contrary, newly minted GM Bill Schmidt seems keen on attempting to put together a competitive club next year. The Rox already re-signed first baseman C.J. Cron and extended righty Antonio Senzatela and catcher Elias Diaz. They resisted trading not only Story and Gray but controllable pitchers like German Marquez and Kyle Freeland at the July 30 deadline. As recently as two weeks ago, they were reported to be among the teams with interest in signing Kris Bryant.
If the Rockies are going to contend, they’ll need upgrades at various spots on the roster, with shortstop, the outfield and the bullpen standing out as potential areas of need. Still, despite that outfield need, both Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post and Nick Groke of The Athletic have at least raised the possibility of trading an outfielder away when the current transaction freeze is lifted: Raimel Tapia.
The 27-year-old Tapia (28 in February) has taken the lion’s share of playing time in left field for the Rox over the past three seasons, hitting at a combined .282/.327/.394 batting line (solid on the surface but a 79 wRC+). Tapia has just 16 home runs through 1186 plate appearances in that time, but he’s swiped 37 bags (with a 77.1% success rate). His 6.3% walk rate over the past three seasons is well below the league average, but he also rarely strikes out (17.5%, including a career-best 13.1% in 2021).
Tapia has received solid marks in left field from metrics like Defensive Runs Saved (4), Ultimate Zone Rating (6.0) and Outs Above Average (7) since emerging as a regular in the lineup at Coors Field. He’s at least capable of playing center in a pinch, having logged 189 innings there in his career (15 this past season, none in 2020, 83 in 2019).
He’s not the star the Rox might’ve hoped for when he ranked among the sport’s 50 best prospects in the 2016-17 offseason, but Tapia is a solid defender with above-average speed and good bat-to-ball skills. With two years of club control remaining and a projected $3.9MM salary in 2022 (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz), he’s also plenty affordable.
Perhaps that makes him something of an odd candidate to be moved, given the Rockies’ desire to compete, but it also wouldn’t be a surprise for the Rox to seek more punch in an outfield that was one of the least-productive in MLB last year. Rockies outfielders ranked 29th in MLB with an 82 wRC+, leading only the Royals (81). Only the D-backs (43) received fewer home runs from their outfielders as a group than Colorado (46, tied with Kansas City and Cleveland).
If the Rockies indeed secure an offensive upgrade in the outfield, it’s going to be tougher to find at-bats for Tapia. Charlie Blackmon, who’ll be paid $21MM next season, will remain a fixture in right field. Colorado has given Tapia all of 15 innings in center over the past two seasons even as Blackmon has moved off the position, suggesting that they prefer Tapia to remain in left. That’s where the vast majority of remaining free-agent outfielders would need to slot in, and if Colorado doesn’t want to play Tapia in center, he’d be left without a big role. He’s out of minor league options as well, so sending him down is out of the question.
The Rockies could always carry Tapia as a reserve outfielder, but they also have Sam Hilliard, Garrett Hampson, Yonathan Daza and Connor Joe as options. All four will earn less than Tapia in 2022, and Daza, like Tapia, out of minor league options. Carrying a pair out-of-options outfielders on the bench obviously wouldn’t be an optimal setup, and the right-handed-hitting Daza better complements lefties like Blackmon and Hilliard than Tapia, a fellow lefty hitter.
The return on Tapia wouldn’t figure to be enormous. He could net the Rox some secondary prospects or perhaps be swapped for an arm to slot directly into the big league bullpen. With many teams needing some help in the outfield — the Phillies, Guardians, White Sox, Marlins and Nationals, to name a few — it stands to reason that an affordable 28-year-old with two years of remaining club control would generate interest. Tapia isn’t a middle-of-the-order bat, but his blend of speed, defense, bat-to-ball skills and affordable club control ought to be enough for a few other teams to inquire on the former top prospect as they look to round out their own outfield mixes.Comment -
When would a shortened season start May?Comment -
I'll give them to the end of April maximum to settle, if not settled I walk too.
Not backing down this time.Comment -
I have an idea, I'll start a petition type letter to Manfred's stooges on Park Ave. tell them we're not average fans, something like that.
Who would sign it,Comment -
Would be terrible if they try to play without the actual MLB players.Comment -
In the meantime, I'm gonna watch some Jomboy videosComment -
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Remember the Kevin Mitchell barehanded catch. I remember his rookie card catching fire after thatComment -
Just read some disturbing stuff on Omar Vizquel. Sounds like that guy is a first class d bag. Sexually harassing his bat boy and an abuser. Him and Addison Russell both the same.Comment