Free Agents
• Justin Verlander touched 95-96 mph in his latest tryout.
Free agent Justin Verlander has reached 95-96 mph in recent bullpen sessions, as Harold Reynolds said this morning on @MLBNetwork. Verlander, who turns 39 before next season, has said he wants to pitch until age 45. @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) November 8, 2021
Mariners
• Even if healthy, Evan White might start the season the minors.
1B Evan White (signed through 2025, club options for ’26, ’27, ‘28)
White’s recovery from left hip surgery in July will be one of the biggest storylines entering Spring Training, especially given that Dipoto wasn’t sure if the 25-year-old would be 100 percent healthy by then. Given his $24 million contract, Seattle is invested in his future. But his spot at first isn’t necessarily written in ink like it was after he first signed that deal — and the Mariners won’t have any hesitation playing him at Triple-A Tacoma if his bat needs more work.
Free Agents
• Seiya Suzuki of Japan’s Hiroshima Carp might get posted this winter.
The Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball could make top outfielder Seiya Suzuki available to Major League teams via the posting system this winter, according to a report from Yahoo Japan. The Carp have begun taking some of the necessary steps, per the report, conducting a recent MRI for updated medical records and beginning to put together the requisite paperwork.
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Hernandez quotes a big league scout calling Suzuki a “five-tool guy” and “the best player in Japan the last few years.” Sung Min Kim 김민, who’s written for both FanGraphs and The Athletic, tweets that several MLB Pacific Rim scouts have considered Suzuki the top NPB or KBO player with a realistic chance of being posted in recent years.
Suzuki is an interesting add for leagues where every player is rostered. I looked around for some projections or MLE’s and no one has any yet. Once they become available, I’ll post them here. Read the rest of this entry »
Angels
• The six-man rotation is staying with Patrick Sandoval and José Suarez in the rotation.
The Angels are expected to use a six-man rotation next year with Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval and José Suarez essentially locks to be part of it.
For those in early season draft-and-holds and best balls, Sandoval and Suarez are reasonable mid to late-round options. Read the rest of this entry »
Blue Jays
• Nate Pearson pitched with a hernia this year and he’s still being considered as a starting pitching option.
Former No. 1 prospect Nate Pearson is meeting with a doctor today to assess whether he’ll need a procedure to address a sports hernia he pitched through in 2021, though Atkins said the big right-hander felt strong physically as the season ended. Atkins also said that he envisioned an “extended outing, closer to a starter look” for Pearson in ’22.
“We have to factor in workload, factor in development and doing what’s best for him,” Atkins said. “It’s just too hard to say exactly what it will look like, but on the spectrum of things, I hope it looks a lot more like a starter than a reliever, but we’ll be open to all roles and all ways to have him help us win.”
Angels
• Matt Thaiss is moving back to catcher.
Maddon reiterated Thursday that the organization views Thaiss as a catcher in the long term. He threw out 21 percent of 28 would-be base stealers this season, and registered five passed balls in 461 1/3 innings behind the plate.
He’s currently working with Angels catching coach Jose Molina, and Maddon said the reports back have been positive. Thaiss didn’t single out any one thing he needed to improve, but said he’s worked on just being able to handle the duties the position requires in a competitive game.
He might be a nice draft-and-hold dart in the later rounds. I could see him being the backup. Read the rest of this entry »
Blue Jays
• Hang in there with this story about Robbie Ray. First, I thought he might be worth taking a chance because his velocity was up in Spring Training
Velocity notes from spring training (all based on Statcast avg pitch velocity):
Gerrit Cole: 98.2 (2021) / 96.7 (2020)
Robbie Ray: 94.8 / 93.9
Mitch Kellar: 95.4 / 93.9
Corbin Burnes: 97.5 / 96.0
Freddy Peralta: 94.1 / 93.0
Not sure how accurate?
cc: @jeffwzimmerman
— BatFlip Crazy (@batflipcrazy) March 2, 2021
With an ADP of 294, I thought why not roster him. If things turn south, I could let him go.
In his first two starts, he posted an 8.1 BB/9 leading to a 1.60 WHIP. I couldn’t stand the walks and dropped him for … Josh Fleming.
Oopsie. This move probably cost a few hundred dollars. Rostering the league’s likely Cy Young winner would have been helpful. The deal is that I should have had a little more patience since Ray missed some time with a bruised elbow and it took a while to heal.
It took one start in spring training for Ray to feel like the work he put in over the winter would pay off. When his season began — albeit slightly delayed after he bruised his elbow after a fall — he felt confident about where he was. As the season has progressed, it has only gotten better.
So I’ve come up with a set of simple rules to handle desirable players coming back from injuries.
It will always be more of art than a science threading that line from having the patience to hold on too long to an injured and/or underperforming player. For myself, I need to get the hurt ones a little more time. Read the rest of this entry »
Guardians (maybe)
• Bradley Zimmer has been working on his swing.
Van Burkleo noted that Zimmer’s hand placement has been instrumental during his recent surge, as well as getting “his lower half engaged and started on time.” It all works in concert, Zimmer said, to improve his contact point so he can make solid, timely contact.
“I have long arms,” Zimmer said, “so it’s a blessing and a curse. The theme, motto of the year for me is just ‘short to the ball.’ You work on that stuff in the cage and it translates eventually.”
Astros
• For José Urquidy to join the rotation, he’ll need to be fully stretched out.
All signs point to Urquidy’s being activated shortly after active rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September. The question will then become how the Astros manage six starting pitchers in the regular season’s final month leading into the postseason.
“You’ve got to come back first. … We’ll start thinking about that the closer he gets,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said Sunday. “I certainly want him back as soon as possible. But I don’t want him back to only go four or five innings because that puts a lot more pressure on my bullpen. I’ve already got two guys who are kind of five-inning guys. We need a seven-inning guy, potentially a seven-inning guy.”
In his first AAA start, he threw 49 pitches (4.0 IP). Read the rest of this entry »
Angels
• Dylan Bundy has reworked his delivery.
The suggested solution from Angels pitching coach Matt Wise was to revamp his arm motion. Instead of bringing his arm all the way back, Bundy would have more of a snap throw. The look of a short-armed toss.
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This is at the root of why he started to look for speed with a longer delivery. And while it may have added a tick to his velocity, it also added a lot of movement and, thus, an inconsistent arm path.
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Wise hadn’t orchestrated this type of change at the big-league level. But he said other coaches have told him that it’s an eight-week process. It’s been exactly six weeks since Bundy vomited behind the Yankee Stadium mound. He was immediately pulled from the game — and, after, from the rotation entirely.He ended up making the change in just four weeks — half the time Wise expected.
He has performed better since rejoining the rotation but not great. Before moving to the bullpen, he made 14 starts with a 6.72 ERA (4.46 xFIP) and 1.42 WHIP (.305 BABIP). In the four starts since leaving the bullpen, he has a 3.72 ERA (5.34 xFIP) and 1.03 WHIP (.182 BABIP). I guess he’s “better”.