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Nationals To Re-Sign Howie Kendrick

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9:00am: The two sides have finalized a one-year deal that promises Kendrick a $6.25MM guarantee, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link). It’s the same guarantee that Steve Pearce received from the Red Sox on the heels of his own postseason heroics following the 2018 World Series.

8:47am: The Nationals are “closing in” on a deal to bring postseason hero Howie Kendrick back to the team, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports (via Twitter). It’ll be a one-year deal with a mutual option for the Reynolds Sports client once completed, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets, adding that Kendrick spurned guaranteed two-year offers to return to Washington.

Kendrick, 36, has been nothing short of outstanding with the Nats over the past two seasons, hitting a combined .331/.375/.541 with 21 homers, 37 doubles and a triple through 530 plate appearances. With Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Adams, Brian Dozier and Asdrubal Cabrera all entering free agency, the Nats have some uncertainty at first base and second base, making a reunion with Kendrick a rather sensible pursuit.

Of course, as good as Kendrick has been during the regular season, it was his postseason heroics that truly endeared him to fans and entrenched his place in franchise lore. Kendrick’s 10th-inning grand slam against the Dodgers in the NLDS put Washington up for good and sent them toward a date with the Cardinals in the NLCS, where Kendrick was named the series MVP after hitting .333/.412/.600 in a four-game sweep. And in the World Series, it was Kendrick’s remarkable Game 7, opposite-field shot off the foul pole that put the Nationals ahead by a 3-2 margin they’d never relinquish.

More to come.

Cubs To Sign Dan Winkler

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The Cubs and free-agent righty Dan Winkler are in agreement on a one-year, Major League contract, Robert Murray reports (via Twitter). The MVP Sports Group client elected free agency at season’s end after being outrighted off the Giants’ 40-man roster.

Dan Winkler | Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

Winkler, 30 in February, was one of the players sent from Atlanta to San Francisco in the Mark Melancon salary dump. He lasted only a day on the Giants’ 40-man roster, though, further underscoring that the trade was primarily a financially motivated transaction.

But while Winkler struggled through 21 2/3 innings at the MLB level in 2019 (4.98 ERA, 22-to-11 K/BB ratio), he was a very effective bullpen piece with the Braves just a year prior. In 2018, Winkler returned from a grueling injury absence to post 60 1/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball with 10.3 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9.

Winkler had previously gone down to Tommy John surgery in 2014 and, upon returning to the mound in 2016, sustained another gut-wrenching injury when he (audibly) fractured his elbow while throwing a pitch. From 2015-17, he totaled just 41 1/3 innings between the big leagues and the minors thanks to those injuries, but the right-hander is seemingly healthy now. In addition to his work in the Majors last year, Winkler tossed 30 2/3 innings in Triple-A (with a 2.93 ERA, 29 strikeouts and a troubling 23 walks).

If Winkler is able to return to form with his new team, the Cubs will be able to control him through the 2021 season via arbitration.

Twins To Sign Alex Avila

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The Twins have agreed to a one-year contract with free-agent catcher Alex Avila, ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets. The Excel Sports client will take home a $4.25MM guarantee on the new deal, per the report.

Alex Avila | Rob Schumacher/The Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK

Avila, 33 in January, is no stranger to the AL Central, having spent parts of eight seasons with the Tigers plus another year with the White Sox. He’ll give the Twins a left-handed-hitting complement to 2019 breakout star Mitch Garver and, ostensibly, replace Jason Castro, who seems likely to land a starting gig elsewhere in free agency.

The veteran Avila is somewhat of a divisive player, as some view his perennially low batting average and lofty strikeout totals as too detrimental to provide consistent value. Others will point to his sky-high walk rates and above-average power in suggesting that more traditional metrics undersell his value at the plate. Indeed, Avila had one of the game’s more bizarre stat lines in 2019 when he slashed .207/.353/.421 with a 17.9 percent walk rate (third among hitters with 200+ plate appearances) and a 33.2 percent strikeout rate (12th among that same subset of hitters).

Garver, 28, still stands out as the obvious starter in Minnesota after exploding with a .273/.365/.630 batting line and 31 home runs in 2019. Even if next year’s ball is corrected to be less conducive to home runs, the Twins assuredly want to plug Garver into the lineup as often as possible after a such a stout performance. He’ll see time against lefties and righties alike, but Avila will be a more than capable stand-in when Garver needs a breather and a righty is on the hill. For his career, Avila is a .241/.358/.417 hitter (15.3 BB%, 28.7 K%) when holding the platoon advantage, although his .212/.307/.311 career line against lefties is all one needs to see to steer him away from opposing southpaws. If Garver needs a day off when a left-hander is on the mound, the Twins could perhaps look to plus super-utility man Willians Astudillo and his right-handed bat into the lineup at catcher. Astudillo himself could’ve been deployed as a backup catcher in 2020, but in Avila, the Twins have found a drastically better source of on-base percentage and a better defensive option that allows Astudillo to continue on in a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none role.

Avila has long been adept at controlling the running game (career 30 percent caught-stealing rate), but he was particularly impressive in 2019 with Arizona. Although he was only a part-time catcher there as well, Avila nabbed 11 of the 21 men who attempted to run on him (52 percent), and he was 9-for-30 (30 percent) a year prior. Avila’s framing rated poorly in 2017, but the D-backs’ efforts to improve him in that regard were successful, as he was above-average in both his seasons with Arizona, per both FanGraphs and Statcast. Baseball Prospectus, meanwhile, rated him as one of the game’s best at blocking pitches in the dirt in 2019.

Minnesota still has substantial work to do this offseason — namely augmenting a rotation that currently looks too similar to its 2019 iteration — but adding Avila to the fold crosses a more minor need off the to-do list at a reasonable price point. The one-year term of the deal continues with the Derek Falvey/Thad Levine-led front office’s penchant for short-term investments as well, thus maintaining future payroll flexibility. If the Twins hope to truly bolster the rotation, they’ll probably need to eschew that preference, but for smaller-scale moves like this it’s sensible to minimize contractual length.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/6/19

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball have reached an agreement with right-hander Gabriel Ynoa, Jim Allen relays. A former Met and Oriole, Ynoa was hammered last season in his most extensive major league action to date. Across 110 2/3 innings for Baltimore in 2019, he posted a 5.61 ERA/6.20 FIP with 5.45 K/9 and 2.11 BB/9. Home runs were a major problem for the 26-year-old Ynoa, who gave up 29 on the season.
  • The Dodgers have signed left-hander Casey Crosby to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Thanks in part to injuries, the 31-year-old Crosby has only appeared in the majors in one season – back in 2012 – since the Tigers picked him in the fifth round of the 2007 draft. Crosby divided last year between the independent American Association and the Atlantic League, combining for 46 2/3 dominant innings in which he logged a 1.74 ERA with 14.5 K/9. However, the hard-throwing Crosby struggled with control, as his lofty walk rate of 6.6 per nine shows.
  • The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization re-signed outfielder Jared Hoying this week, per the Yonhap News Agency. The ex-Ranger, 30, spent the previous two years as a member of the Eagles, with whom he has been far more successful than he was during his brief run in the majors from 2016-17. Hoying has put up a .296/.355/.519 line with 48 home runs in 1,115 plate appearances since he departed for Korea.

Giants Hire Donnie Ecker As Hitting Coach

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New Giants manager Gabe Kapler has made an important addition to his staff. Reds assistant hitting coach Donnie Ecker will take over as San Francisco’s hitting coach, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune was among those to report. It’ll be a homecoming for Ecker, who Gonzales notes hails from the Bay Area.

Just 33 years old, Ecker’s a former professional infielder whom the Rangers selected in the 22nd round of the 2007 draft. Ecker didn’t get past the Single-A level with the Rangers, and he spent the final couple years of his career on the independent circuit, but he has carved a niche for himself as a coach since he last played in 2010.

Ecker’s an ex-high school and college coach who also worked for the Cardinals before the Reds hired him prior to 2018. They made Ecker their director of hitting before last season, and now he’ll try to help turn around a San Francisco offense that ranked among the majors’ worst in ’19. Ecker will replace prior hitting coach Alonzo Powell, who accepted a coaching position in Japan last month.

Along with Ecker, the Giants are adding Jim D’Aloia to the organization, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. D’Aloia, who had been the Mets’ pro scouting director, will work in a scouting capacity with the Giants, per Puma. He was a major opponent of the Mets’ decision to include stud outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic in their trade for then-Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano and closer Edwin Diaz last winter, Puma notes. That reflects well on D’Aloia, as that trade has been disastrous for the Mets thus far.

Rays, Padres Agree To Tommy Pham-Hunter Renfroe Trade

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FRIDAY, 2:00am: It appears the Rays will also land another prospect in the deal, per Juan Toribio of MLB.com.

12:27am: The Padres will also acquire minor leaguer Jake Cronenworth in the trade, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports. The 25-year-old Cronenworth enjoyed an eminently successful year at the Triple-A level in 2019, when he hit .334/.429/.520 with 10 HRs and 12 steals in 406 trips to the plate. Cronenworth’s primarily a middle infielder, but the 2015 seventh-rounder can also pitch. He put up 7 1/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and four hits allowed at the minors’ highest level in 2019, though the righty hurler did surrender eight walks.

THURSDAY, 10:55pm: The teams have agreed to the trade, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. However, it won’t be announced until medical reviews of all the involved players are completed Friday.

10:42pm: The Rays and Padres are deep into talks on a trade that would see Tampa Bay outfielder Tommy Pham and San Diego outfielder Hunter Renfroe switch clubs, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Rays would also land Single-A shortstop Xavier Edwards, while the Padres would pick up an unnamed prospect to go with Pham.

This is already the second major outfield trade of the winter for the Padres, who acquired Trent Grisham from the Brewers last week. Pham is far more proven than Grisham, as the former is coming off yet another outstanding season at the plate. The 31-year-old Pham, whose first full season came with the Cardinals in 2017, has somewhat quietly been among the majors’ most effective outfielders over the past three campaigns. He has totaled 13.6 fWAR, including 3.3 in 2019, dating back to his initial full season. Typically one to post high on-base percentages, Pham’s coming off a year in which he slashed .273/.369/.450 with 21 home runs and 25 stolen bases across 654 plate appearances.

In Pham, the Padres – led by under-fire general manager A.J. Preller – are getting a player with two years’ control remaining. Pham, who’s slated to earn a projected $8.6MM next season, will join Grisham, Manuel Margot, Wil Myers, Franchy Cordero and prospect Taylor Trammell as the Padres’ most prominent outfielders.

While Pham looks like an intriguing addition for the Padres, they’re giving up a powerful and affordable outfielder at the same time. Renfroe, soon to turn 28, entered the bigs as a first-round pick of the Padres in 2013. He has hit at least 26 homers in each season since debuting in earnest in 2017, including 33 this year, though injuries helped undermine him after a hot start in 2019. Renfroe wound up slashing .216/.289/.489 over 494 PA, and he earned elite marks in 998 innings divided among all three outfield positions (22 Defensive Runs Saved, 10.1 Ultimate Zone Rating).

Never a team to boast a high payroll, the Rays are saving quite a bit of money in this swap. Renfroe should only make around $3.4MM next season, which will be his first of four arbitration-eligible years. He’ll presumably accompany Austin Meadows and Kevin Kiermaier as the Rays’ starting outfielders in 2020, thus replacing free agent Avisail Garcia.

Along with Renfroe, the Rays are getting a quality farmhand in Edwards, a 2018 first-rounder whom FanGraphs ranked as the Padres’ 14th-best prospect in a loaded Padres system back in May. Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel wrote then that Edwards “is a high-effort offensive catalyst who knifes at defenses with line drives and well-placed bunts,” adding that second base or center field could be in his future. The 20-year-old divided 2019 between both middle infield positions and batted .322/.375/.396 with just a single homer in 596 PA at the Single-A and High-A levels.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Angels Have Met With Stephen Strasburg

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The Angels have often been connected to right-hander Gerrit Cole, the No. 1 free-agent starter available, but they’re considering the second-best starter on the market as a contingency plan. The club has held a face-to-face meeting with Stephen Strasburg, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports.

Strasburg, like Cole, is a a Southern California native, but that probably won’t matter if the Angels don’t put forth an extremely competitive offer. In Strasburg’s case, that could mean a proposal approaching $200MM. The Angels already acquired one starter earlier this week, as they landed righty Dylan Bundy in a trade with the Orioles, but there’s still plenty of work left to fix their rotation. To many, this offseason could go down as a failure for the long-suffering Angels if they don’t reel in a front-line starter such as Cole or Strasburg.

Of course, whether Strasburg will leave his only team to date – the Nationals – remains in question. He and third baseman Anthony Rendon are two enormously important free agents for the reigning World Series winners, but Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner has suggested the Nats are only capable of retaining one of the two. If that one free agent proves to be Rendon, it could lead to a Strasburg-Angels union. Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, hasn’t gotten along well with Angels owner Arte Moreno in the past, though it seems the two have moved past their differences. That may prove to be hugely important for the Angels, as they need a No. 1-caliber starter and the two top rotation options – Cole and Strasburg – are Boras cliients.

Tigers Interested In Addison Russell

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The Tigers are among the teams interested in free-agent middle infielder Addison Russell, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Russell joined the open market when the Cubs non-tendered him Monday.

There is no denying Russell is a major league-caliber middle infielder, but the significant baggage he comes with likely helped influence the Cubs to move on from him. The 25-year-old Russell sat out the early portion of last season after the league issued him a 40-game suspension for a violation of its domestic violence policy in October 2018. Once Russell came back from that alarming ban, opposing pitchers handled him. The former top prospect managed a weak .237/.308/.391 line with nine home runs across 241 plate appearances.

The Cubs, led by president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, have spoken well of Russell since they moved on from him. Nevertheless, he probably won’t do all that well in free agency, which helps make the rebuilding Tigers a fit for Russell. They don’t figure to spend that much in free agency after a 47-win campaign. General manager Al Avila has indicated that utilityman Niko Goodrum’s the favorite to man short in 2020, but even if that’s true, the Tigers have a clear need at second base. Russell has significant experience at both positions.

Dodgers Notes: Treinen, Greinke, Free Agents

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The latest from Chavez Ravine…

  • The Dodgers have interest in Blake Treinen, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link).  Treinen was non-tendered by the Athletics earlier this week in the wake of a rough 2019 season and a projected $7.8MM arbitration salary, though Treinen figures to get a lot of attention on the open market since he’s only a year removed from an all-world performance in 2018.  The former A’s closer would be a particularly good fit for a Dodgers team that got somewhat shaky results from Kenley Jansen and Joe Kelly last year.
  • This offseason could be “the perfect storm” for the Andrew Friedman-led front office to finally splurge on a major free agent, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes (subscription required).  While L.A. has been in the mix for several big names over the years, the Dodgers’ biggest expenditures under Friedman have come in the form of re-signing its own players to free agent contracts or extensions.  With the likes of Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, or even Josh Donaldson (who is comparatively much less expensive than the first three) all available in free agency, and such talents as Francisco Lindor or Kris Bryant available in trades, Rosenthal feels “the only debate for the Dodgers should be over which superstar they should acquire.”
  • Rosenthal’s piece an interesting companion to this what-if item from his Athletic colleague Andy McCullough, who looks back at everything that could have been different for the Dodgers if they had re-signed Zack Greinke in the 2015-16 offseason.  It would’ve been another case of Friedman being willing to spend on a known quantity, as he had tabled a six-year offer worth close to $160MM to the free agent righty, only to be shocked when the Diamondbacks blew away expectations by offering Greinke $206.5MM over a six-year pact.  “Had it been closer, I think it would have been a really difficult decision,” Friedman said about the opportunity to counter Arizona’s offer.  “I’m not sure how things would have played out.  But it was a pretty seismic gap.”  The fallout of Greinke re-signing with Los Angeles would’ve been immense, though given how the club was able to re-invest that planned money into some other noteworthy players, it’s not a slam dunk that having Greinke would have meant a World Series title over the last four years.

Padres Finalize Coaching Staff

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The Padres have promoted Damion Easley to hitting coach, the team announced. Additionally, Skip Schumaker will take over as the Padres’ associate manager and Rod Barajas will grab the reins as their catching and quality control coach.

Easley, a longtime major league infielder, served as the Padres’ assistant hitting coach/infield coach in 2019. It was the first season on a major league staff for the 50-year-old Easley.

Schumaker, an ex-major league utilityman, spent last season as the Padres’ first base coach. He then drew interest from the Mets as they sought a new manager this offseason, but they elected to hire Carlos Beltran instead. Now, with the Padres as another team with a rookie manager (Jayce Tingler), Schumaker has moved up in their pecking order to become an even more important assistant.

The Padres interviewed Barajas to take over as their next manager after they fired Andy Green, but he’s among several candidates who lost out to Tingler. Barajas, a former major league catcher, served in multiple roles for San Diego in 2019. He was the team’s bench coach before grabbing the reins as interim manager when it let go of Green toward the end of September.

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