[Shortstop]

Ex-No. 1 pick to join Rangers after prison release

The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with Matt Bush, the first overall draft pick in 2004 who recently finished 3½ years in prison.

Do you think the Rangers will assign Josh Hamilton as his mentor?

My bad, I hope he cleans himself up and has a nice career...

[Chi_archie]

Bush going to be a pitcher or position player now?

[Wrigley]

this was a good thread almost time for the 2016 one..thanks

[koz-man]

this was a good thread almost time for the 2016 one..thanks

Yep.

SS will open/start a new thread on New Years day.

[BigSpoon]

Yep.

SS will open/start a new thread on New Years day.

I wonder if any of the top free agent hitters (Davis, Upton or Cespedes) will sign before the end of 2015.

[Andy117]

I would have liked to see them get Cespedes too, but since they say they aren't next best is Davis.
.

That's not happening for the same reason Cespedes isn't happening.

[EmpireMaker]

That's not happening for the same reason Cespedes isn't happening.

I think you are right on this but they haven't said a firm no on Davis yet so I can hope for a little while longer.

[koz-man]

I would have liked to see them get Cespedes too, but since they say they aren't next best is Davis.
.

I think who ever signs Cespedes are going to be happy in the long run.

Feel once he settles in somewhere . He will produce ever better numbers. imo

[El Nino]

I think who ever signs Cespedes are going to be happy in the long run.

Feel once he settles in somewhere . He will produce ever better numbers. imo

Guy gets passed around like a Kardashian.

[Chi_archie]

Yep.

SS will open/start a new thread on New Years day.

annual thing

[BigSpoon]

I think who ever signs Cespedes are going to be happy in the long run.

Feel once he settles in somewhere . He will produce ever better numbers. imo

I'd only want Cespedes when he's in his contract year.

[Shortstop]

Who are the best free agents still left?

Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, Ian Desmond, Dexter Fowler, Daniel Murphy, Denard Span, Gerardo Parra for position players.

Scott Kazmir, Yovani Gallardo, Wei-Yin Chen, Doug Fister, Ian Kennedy for starters.

Great post, Spoon!

[Shortstop]

I wonder if any of the top free agent hitters (Davis, Upton or Cespedes) will sign before the end of 2015.

I have a feeling something will happen before Friday...

[Shortstop]

The Pittsburgh Pirates sign John Jaso to a 2-year contract worth $8 Million.

I simply continue to shake my head and wonder what the hell is going on...

[Andy117]

I think you are right on this but they haven't said a firm no on Davis yet so I can hope for a little while longer.

I don't think they've even given his agent a call.

[EmpireMaker]

Last night, news broke of an Al Jazeera TV news documentary (that aired tonight) which alleged that Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman, Taylor Teagarden and several NFL stars all received illegal PEDs. Denials have been issued by many of the parties named in the report, including Howard and Zimmerman to Al Jazeera and their mutual attorney to MLBTR. The Nationals released a statement earlier today in support of Zimmerman, and the Phillies released a statement tonight regarding Howard:
“Ryan Howard has vigorously denied the allegations contained in tonight’s airing of Al Jazeera’s report titled ‘The Dark Side.’ Ryan has spent his whole career with the Phillies and, during that entire time, has been an extremely well respected member of our team and an outstanding contributor to our community. We will fully cooperate with any investigation conducted by Major League Baseball and will refer all further questions to them concerning the Al Jazeera report.”
Dr. Dale Guyer, of the Guyer Institute, also denied the allegations made by former intern Charles Sly (that have since been recanted) that NFL legend Peyton Manning received HGH from the clinic under his wife’s name. Guyer made his statement on his website, as passed on by Nat Newell, Zak Keefer and Justin L. Mack of the Indianapolis Star:
“I have no reason to believe these allegations are based in fact or have any truth. In fact, I can say with absolute certainty they are not. I find it extremely disturbing that the source of Al Jazeera’s story, a former unpaid intern named Charles Sly, would violate the privacy of Mrs. Manning’s medical records and be so callous and destructive as to purposely fabricate and spread stories that are simply not true.
“I would emphasize that Mr. Sly was never an employee of the Guyer Institute and his brief three-month internship occurred in 2013 during which time Peyton was not even being treated or present in the office. I am proud to have treated Peyton and helped him through his rehabilitation. Mr. Manning is one of the most honorable and upstanding individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing.”
You can follow more details on the NFL side of the story on Pro Football Rumors, MLBTR’s sister site. Here’s more from around the NL East…

• While Trea Turner has a ton of upside, the Nationals weren’t going to go into the season with an unproven rookie at short and Danny Espinosa as the everyday second baseman, MASNsports.com’s Byron Kerr writes. The signing of Daniel Murphy answers the Nats’ clear need for an experienced veteran at second who has a proven postseason track record, since Washington fully expects to contend. With the pennant race in mind, the Nats had no time to let Turner learn on the job in April or May.
• The Murphy signing, the Nationals’ scuttled trade for Brandon Phillips and the Mets’ trade for Neil Walker are all addressed by Fangraphs’ David Laurila, who feels New York ended up in the best shape after all these second base shuffles. The Mets benefited by adding Walker for one contract year rather than the Nats signing Murphy for three, Laurila opines, and he also feels the Nats would’ve been better off with Phillips (who has two years remaining on his contract) than Murphy. I disagree with Laurila on that point, as Murphy is both three years younger than Phillips and has been the better player over the last three seasons.
• Braves prospect Austin Riley is profiled by David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the wake of the 18-year-old’s first pro season. Riley was taken 41st overall in the 2015 draft, a selection that surprised some pundits who had Riley much lower on their board. He was still drawing a lot of attention from teams, including some who saw him as a pitcher, though the Braves instead shifted him from short to third and focused on his power potential. Riley hit .304/.389/.544 with 12 homers over 252 combined plate appearances for two Rookie League teams.

[BigSpoon]

R.I.P. Dave Henderson. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/sp...t-57.html?_r=0

[Chi_archie]

R.I.P. Dave Henderson. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/sp...t-57.html?_r=0

wow, too young

[EmpireMaker]

Yankees Acquire Aroldis Chapman

By Steve Adams | December 28, 2015 at 3:31pm CST
After months of trying to add a third dominant reliever to their bullpen, the Yankees on Monday announced the acquisition of left-hander Aroldis Chapman from the Reds in exchange for a quartet of minor leaguers. Third baseman Eric Jagielo will head to Cincinnati, as will second baseman Tony Renda and right-handers Rookie Davis and Caleb Cotham. Chapman will presumably slide into the Yankees’ closer role, combining with fellow southpaw Andrew Miller and right-hander Dellin Betances to create perhaps the most formidable bullpen trio in all of Major League Baseball next season.

Chapman, 27, is arguably baseball’s best relief pitcher, but he comes with significant off-field baggage in the form of domestic violence allegations that ultimately halted a trade to the Dodgers from being finalized earlier this month. Chapman is currently being investigated by the league, and there’s a very real chance that he’ll serve some form of suspension from commissioner Rob Manfred under the league’s newly implemented domestic violence policy. What type of suspension is up to Manfred, though as many have pointed out, there are service time implications in any suspension that could impact Chapman’s free agency; if Chapman misses more than 45 days of the regular season due to suspension, he’ll fall shy of reaching six years of Major League service, which would prevent him from becoming a free agent next winter. A suspension would also lessen the financial commitment for Chapman in 2016; MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz currently projects the lefty to earn $12.9MM in 2016 after earning $8.05MM in 2015.
Strictly looking at Chapman’s on-field resumé, the results are astounding. In 2015, he worked to a 1.63 ERA with 15.7 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 37.1 percent ground-ball rate. Over the past four seasons in Cincinnati, the Cuban-born phenom has delivered an exceptional 1.90 ERA while averaging 16.1 strikeouts and 3.8 walks per nine innings to go along with an average of 36 saves per season. Chapman is known for his blistering fastball; the left-hander averaged 100.3 mph on his heater in 2014 and followed that up with a similarly incredulous 99.5 mph average this past season. His addition could free the Yankees to trade Miller or Betances, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post hears that the team’s initial plan is to keep all three in an effort to effectively shorten games to six-inning affairs (Twitter link). That’s a bit hyperbolic in nature, of course, but probably not as much as skeptics might think; as MLB.com’s Andrew Simon points out (on Twitter), the Yankees now possess the pitchers with the three highest strikeout percentages in all of baseball from 2014-15 in Chapman (46.3 percent), Miller (41.6 percent) and Betances (39.5 percent).
That trio will be important for a Yankees team that is rife with uncertainty in the rotation. The club’s starting five currently projects as Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia. (Ivan Nova could be in the mix as well, though he is reportedly being shopped.) Tanaka pitched through a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow in 2015, while Pineda has a long history of shoulder issues and Sabathia struggled through knee injuries before ending the season in rehab for alcohol abuse. Even Severino, who was dominant in his rookie showing, has never thrown more than last season’s 161 2/3 innings in a single season. The ability to shorten games with an elite bullpen triumvirate would lessen the expectations placed on what looks to be a potentially shaky rotation.
The Reds will be adding two minor leaguers from the Yankees’ second tier of prospects (Jagielo and Davis) in addition to a pair of prospects that didn’t crack the Top 30 lists of either MLB.com or Baseball America (Cotham, Renda; hat tip to BA’s John Manuel, on Twitter). BA considers Davis the best of the bunch, having recently ranked him sixth in the Yankees’ farm system. MLB.com, meanwhile, has Jagielo sixth and Davis rated 10th.
Jagielo, 23, was selected in the first round of the 2013 draft out of Notre Dame. A knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery shortened his 2015 season, but when he was healthy, he batted .284/.347/.495 with nine homers in 58 games/248 plate appearances at the Double-A level. MLB.com’s scouting report notes that Jagielo is strong and has “good loft in his swing,” giving him the ability to drive the ball to all fields. His penchant for strikeouts (23.3 percent in 2015; 24.4 percent in 2014) is a red flag, but MLB.com notes that he draws enough walks to post sound OBP numbers even if his batting average is lackluster. The question surrounding Jagielo is whether he’ll stay at third base or move across the diamond to first, as questions about his range and arm strength are oft-cited strikes against him. Despite those potential issues, MLB.com did rate him as the No. 7 third-base prospect in the game.
As for Davis, Norris notes in his scouting report over at BA that alterations to his delivery led to a breakout of sorts in 2015. Davis pitched to a combined 3.86 ERA with 8.9 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 in in 130 2/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. The mechanical changes resulted in increased velocity, per Norris, who writes that Davis sits 93 to 95 mph with his heater — a pitch that is complemented by a sharp mid-70s curve and a low-80s changeup. BA indicates that he could be a mid-rotation starter, while MLB.com notes that he has good control but spotty command (i.e. throws strikes but doesn’t command the pitches within the strike zone) and could be best suited for a relief role, where his velocity could approach triple digits.
The Yankees acquired Renda, 24, from the Nationals this past season in exchange for right-hander David Carpenter. The fleet-footed infielder batted .269/.330/.358 in 532 Double-A plate appearances between the two organizations, adding three homers and 23 steals (in 29 attempts). Renda rated 12th among Nationals farmhands last season and was 22nd on MLB.com’s Top 30 at the time of the trade to the Yankees in early June. BA praised his compact swing and line-drive stroke in last winter’s scouting report, noting that his bat has a chance to be above-average, and he’s tough to strike out. He’s drawn praise for his makeup and work ethic as well, and last offseason Fangraphs’ scouting report praised his advanced bat control while noting that he lacked power.
Cotham, who turned 28 in November, made his big league debut with the Yankees this past season but struggled, yielding seven runs on 14 hits (four homers) and a walk with 11 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings. That 11-to-1 K/BB ratio is encouraging, however, as is the 1.74 ERA that Cotham recorded in 31 innings at the Triple-A level, where he struck out 30 batters and walked just five. Cotham worked exclusively out of the bullpen between Double-A and Triple-A in 2015, totaling a 2.21 ERA with 9.6 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. He could potentially step directly into the Reds’ bullpen, where he’d bring a fastball that averaged 92.6 mph in his brief big league tenure this past season.
Ultimately, the Reds added mid-level prospects and an MLB-ready bullpen arm in exchange for one year of the game’s best closer, it would seem. While the return is somewhat disappointing in a vacuum, it’s clear that Chapman’s domestic violence allegations rightly lowered the asking price and prevented Cincinnati from maximizing his value in a trade. It’s easy to speak now with the benefit of hindsight, but the reported offer of Braden Shipley plus a pair of other Top 10 prospects from the Diamondbacks in July does appear to be a stronger package than the one received by Cincinnati today. However, with the reason for Cincinnati’s reduced leverage in trade talks being entirely out of the team’s control, it’s not fair to simply state that they should have taken that deal. Jose Peraza, after all, was said to be heading to the Reds from the Dodgers as part of the trade package with L.A. before Chapman’s off-field issues derailed those discussions.
For the Reds, who have also traded Todd Frazier this winter (in a trade that was met with lukewarm reviews, at best, for Cincinnati’s return), the Chapman trade seems unlikely to spell the end of their offseason rebuilding efforts. Cincinnati has also attempted to move second baseman Brandon Phillips, though he reportedly elected not to waive his no-trade protection to approve a deal to the Nationals. Right fielder Jay Bruce is also no stranger to trade rumors, either, and could see his name circulate on the rumor mill with increased frequency as the Reds seek to stockpile more young talent.

[koz-man]

R.I.P. Dave Henderson. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/sp...t-57.html?_r=0

Wow.... heart attack @ 57.

Way to young, Makes ya what to live every day to its fullest!!!!!

[Shortstop]

R.I.P. Dave Henderson. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/sp...t-57.html?_r=0

wow, too young

Wow.... heart attack @ 57.

Way to young, Makes ya what to live every day to its fullest!!!!!

Wow! Sad to hear about this!

[MexicanStallion]

I'm intrigued with Rookie. He seems to be the centerpiece. Hoping the Reds got some good players this off season. I liked the pickups from last year.

Reds acquired RHP Rookie Davis from the Yankees in the Aroldis Chapman trade.

Davis had a breakthrough season in the Yanks' system in 2015, posting a 3.86 ERA and 129/26 K/BB ratio over 130 2/3 innings. The 22-year-old was recently ranked by MLBPipeline.com as New York's No. 10 prospect.

[EmpireMaker]

The Yankees have a helluva bullpen to end games now, all they need to do is get some more solid starters 1 or 2 more solid starters will make them very tough.

[Shortstop]

Chapman to the Yankees. At least he's out of the NL Central...

[Shortstop]

The Yankees have a helluva bullpen to end games now, all they need to do is get some more solid starters 1 or 2 more solid starters will make them very tough.

Very true!

It will be interesting to see how he performs in a new, higher pressure, environment...

[EmpireMaker]

Chapman will definitely be under a much bigger microscope in NY.

[El Nino]

Chapman will definitely be under a much bigger microscope in NY.

I bet he melts under the bright lights.

[Chi_archie]

Chapman to the Yankees. At least he's out of the NL Central...

My first thoughts too!

happy the bucks don't have to see him as much

[BigSpoon]

The Yankees have a helluva bullpen to end games now, all they need to do is get some more solid starters 1 or 2 more solid starters will make them very tough.

Betances, Miller & Chapman is pretty nasty.

[koz-man]

I'm intrigued with Rookie. He seems to be the centerpiece. Hoping the Reds got some good players this off season. I liked the pickups from last year.

Reds acquired RHP Rookie Davis from the Yankees in the Aroldis Chapman trade.

Davis had a breakthrough season in the Yanks' system in 2015, posting a 3.86 ERA and 129/26 K/BB ratio over 130 2/3 innings. The 22-year-old was recently ranked by MLBPipeline.com as New York's No. 10 prospect.

The yanks were able to land Chappy without giving up their top prospect...

Becaz of his domestic problems. I hope he gets suspended for 60 games.

[EmpireMaker]

Nats are killing themselves.

The Nationals have struck a deal to sign infielder Stephen Drew, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). Drew will reportedly receive a $3MM guarantee and can earn up to $1.25MM via incentives in the contract.

[yisman]

Betances, Miller & Chapman is pretty nasty.

overkill

strange move for them to go after chapman

[EmpireMaker]

• While there are a variety of notable names still available in free agency Boras suggests that isn’t any cause for concern for those players. As he put it: “in free agency, I’m not sure you can put a calendar on it.” Boras went on to note that, of the $1.6B or so in free agent spending thus far, about $1.2B has gone to pitching. If you’re interested in more details on the current market setting, we broke down the spending to date and the outlook for still-unsigned players in a post yesterday.
• While he attributed the big starting pitching salaries this year to a natural reflection of last year’s Max Scherzer contract, Boras says there has been a “definite advance in the relief market.” He attributes that observation to a copycat phenomenon as teams seek to emulate the success of the Royals.
• As for his own clients that still remain on the market, Boras called slugger Chris Davis a “rare opportunity.” That’s due in large part to his undeniable power, but also — per Boras — because he can hit opposing lefties and provides more defensive versatility than one might think. Interestingly, Boras also noted that several American League East clubs (the Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Yankees) are presently reliant on aging power sources that will hit free agency or retirement in the near future — hinting that those teams should be considering Davis not only for his immediate impact but also future organizational need.

[Chi_archie]

The yanks were able to land Chappy without giving up their top prospect...

Becaz of his domestic problems. I hope he gets suspended for 60 games.

they might want that too

then they have an extra year of contract control

[koz-man]

Chapman will definitely be under a much bigger microscope in NY.

I bet he melts under the bright lights.

This will be interesting to watch.

I think he will being over throwing a lot more & have control issues esp early in the season.