American League

Athletics

• The team isn’t sure what position Miguel Andujar will play next season.

A’s general manager David Forst, who met with Andujar’s agent at the annual GM Meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week, spoke highly of the 28-year-old.

“He had a fantastic year at Triple-A for the Pirates,” Forst said. “This is still a young man. He obviously was highly regarded when he came up with the Yankees. It’s a hard place to come up in New York and a lot of attention was paid to his defense at the time and whether he could play third base. I think we believe he’s still a Major League hitter.

“He’s done a nice job transitioning to the outfield. He played both left and right field in Triple-A last year. He’s played some at first base as well, which is a nice option to have because we’re very left-handed at first base between [Ryan] Noda, [Seth] Brown and [Tyler] Soderstrom. I think the bat is a really good fit for us. It’ll remain to be seen where he fits overall on the roster. But there’s a lot of people here who believe he is a Major League hitter.”

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• Here is the average age (per batter faced) for all the pitchers in the league. The age went up even with several high-profile rookies being promoted to the majors. I suspect even more prospects to be promoted to bring the average age down some.

American League

Astros

• Jake Meyers made some mid-season swing adjustments.

Meyers made some swing adjustments during the season, but still slashed just .227/.296/.382 in 341 plate appearances. His average exit velocity dropped to 86 mph — in the fifth percentile among major-league hitters — and he didn’t make enough contact to allow his speed to shine.

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Note: I’m reading through some articles on certain players that were published right before the season ended and I didn’t have time to process them at the time. I know the articles are dated but the info is still useful for next season.

American League

Athletics

• Ken Waldichuk believes he can come back next season with better velocity and control.

Even with my [velocity] being down this past month, I think if I come back with better stuff next year, I think I’ll see some success.”

…

One area Waldichuk will look to improve for next season is limiting walks. Entering Friday, his 4.5 walks per nine innings was fifth-worst in the Majors this season among pitchers with at least 130 innings.

“Being in the zone is the biggest thing,” Waldichuk said of his takeaways from the season. “Know how to attack guys and figure out what they’re looking for based on reading them and knowing what to throw them based off that.”

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American League

Blue Jays

• Alek Manoah has not requested a trade and will be fighting for a rotation spot next year.

The GM also said Manoah hasn’t requested a trade. Realistically, the Blue Jays might explore deals for the starter, but his trade value is at an all-time low, so the return may not be better than the upside of hoping he can rebound in 2024. Odds are, Manoah will be competing for a spot in Toronto’s rotation next spring.

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• Yuki Matsui is considering signing with an MLB team.

Star closer Yuki Matsui looks to be interested in a potential move to Major League Baseball, as a Yahoo Japan report (Japanese language link) indicates that Matsui has exercised his international free agent rights, as well as his rights to freely negotiate with other Nippon Professional Baseball clubs.

• Here is a full list of all players with some form of an opt-out that must get decided this winter.

• Rich Hill plans on signing after the season has started, hopefully with a contending team.

Hill might not sign over the winter, however. While he’d previously expressed an intent to play in 2024, the 43-year-old (44 in March) now tells Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune he’s giving some thought to waiting until midway through the campaign before joining a new team.

…

There are a few reasons behind Hill’s decision-making. The most straightforward one is health. MLB’s oldest active player, Hill conceded to Acee he has “a pretty good gauge and a monitor on my body” and considers “half a season … much more palatable than a full season.” Hill also pointed to a desire to spend more time with his family, noting that he’d like to watch his 12-year-old son play during his final year of Little League baseball next spring. By waiting until midseason, he’d also have a chance to survey the competitive landscape and look to land a spot with a playoff contender.

If a contending team signs Hill, they won’t be contending for long. Read the rest of this entry »

• Jung-hoo Lee 이정후 might get posted this offseason.

Lee doesn’t have Yamamoto’s high profile and he’ll come at a significantly lower price tag, but Lee could very well land a healthy contract himself during an offseason that is generally short on premium free-agent position players. Like Yamamoto, Lee is also 25 years old, would be subject to a posting fee, and has impressed observers over seven seasons of international ball.

Lee has hit .340/.407/.491 over 3946 career plate appearances for the Heroes, with 65 homers and 244 doubles. His resume includes KBO League MVP honors in 2022, five KBO Gold Gloves for his defense (mostly in center field), and a standout performance for South Korea’s team in the last World Baseball Classic.

• Reliever Yariel Rodriguez is now a bullpen option for teams to consider.

Per reporter Francys Romero, Cuban right-handed reliever Yariel Rodriguez has been granted his release by the NPB’s Chunichi Dragons. Rodriguez figures to apply for MLB free agency in the near future, which could put him on the radar to sign with a big league club ahead of the 2024 season. The Dragons have not confirmed the report.

He pitched for Cuba during the WBC but took this past season off.

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• A great article by the Athletic on a player from each team who took a major step forward this past season. For example, here is a bit on Ryan Jeffers reworking his swing.

Jeffers slashed .210/.285/.390 across his first three seasons and then watched the Twins sign free agent catcher Christian Vázquez to a three-year, $30 million contract. His response? He re-tooled his swing and transformed into one of the best offensive catchers in baseball while playing a part-time role, putting up an .841 OPS in 92 games.

Jeffers always showed some pop in his 6-foot-4 frame. But he’s cut down on his swing and miss while increasing his plate discipline. He’s hitting well against both righties and lefties, but as you might expect, he’s doing big-time damage against left-handed pitching.

I can’t do a cut and paste so read it all.

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American League

Angels

• Shohei Ohtani did not have the traditional Tommy John surgery.

In chatting quickly with a few people about the description attributed to ElAttrache in the statement, this was not a traditional Tommy John surgery with a reconstruction. It was a repair.

Still won't pitch till 2025, but does speed up the rehab slightly on the hitting side.

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) September 19, 2023

He should be able to return to the team faster since it’s not the full operation. Read the rest of this entry »

• An article by The Athletic covers a breakout player on every team. Give the entire piece a read-through since I can’t highlight all the comments.

• Korea’s Jung-hoo Lee 이정후 is expected to sign with a major league club this offseason.

Kim and Jung-hoo Lee, who is expected to be posted by the Heroes this offseason, belong to a different group of players.

…
It remains to be seen whether Kim stays an outlier or represents the beginning of a new pipeline. Lee, his close friend and the 2022 KBO MVP, could be next, and Kim has spoken openly about his interest in a reunion. San Diego, not coincidentally, is viewed as a strong candidate to sign the outfielder.

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• Shōta Imanaga will likely be posted this offseason.

Sources: LHP Shōta Imanaga will be posted to @MLB teams this offseason by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.

Imanaga, who won gold at @WBCBaseball, has a career-best 8.21 SO/W ratio in 133 1/3 IP this year.

Imanaga joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the top NPB stars available.@MLBNetwork

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 6, 2023

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