Mining the News (11/28/24)

American League

Angels

Astros

• The GM expects outfielder Jacob Melton to contribute next season.

Melton split last season between Double-A Corpus Christi (58 games) and Triple-A Sugar Land (47 games) and slashed .253/.310/.426 with 15 homers and 30 stolen bases. His numbers were a tad better at Double-A, which is to be expected, posting a .748 OPS with Corpus Christi and .719 with Sugar Land. He spent time at all three outfield spots last season but played most in center field.

“Melton’s another guy that could be a big piece for us,” Brown said last month. “He’s a really good defensive outfielder with power. He has a chance to make an impact.”

Orioles

• The GM expects Jorge Mateo to contribute once healthy.

A week ago, it seemed that Jorge Mateo was a possible non-tender, but in last week’s video conference call to discuss the new left-field dimensions, Elias brought up Mateo.

“I think he was an underrated absence for us in the second half,” Elias said. “He had a reconstructive elbow surgery. Whether he’s 100 percent full-go on the first day of spring training is still TBD, but suffice to say, he’s going to have a very full, if not 162 games, something close to that season. He’s really somebody that we’re able to plan around fully more or less in 2025, and that hasn’t changed.”

Rays

• The team’s president of operations stated that Jonny DeLuca will be their new centerfielder.

Moving Siri creates an opening in center field that will primarily be filled by Jonny DeLuca, Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said Tuesday night. DeLuca had seven hits and 10 RBIs in his first five games with Tampa Bay, struggled through the summer, then hit .265/.315/.392 while playing high-quality defense over his final 50 games.

“His history of just what he’s been able to do with more reps, given what a good athlete he is, he’s just continued to get better. And I think we saw that the last few months,” Neander said of DeLuca. “When we look ahead to next year, we felt better about leaning on him to take the majority of the reps in center field. And once we made that decision, then you start considering how to make the most of your roster spots around that, and we felt like this was in the best interest of our club.”
…

The Rays could use Richie Palacios or Josh Lowe to back up DeLuca in center field, Neander said. Or they could consider Jake Mangum, the switch-hitting center fielder who was added to their 40-man roster on Tuesday after an excellent season with Triple-A Durham to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

National League

Dodgers

• Walker Buehler reworked his fastball to be more effective in the post season.

But Buehler’s four-seamer lost its explosiveness amid his injuries. Even though it was still sitting at 95 mph, it got shelled in the 2024 regular season. Buehler allowed a .342 batting average and .696 slugging percentage against his four-seamer, with nearly as many home runs against it (eight) as strikeouts with it (nine).

So it’s no wonder Buehler threw his heater a career-low 29% of the time. He couldn’t trust it.

But in the playoffs, he started to figure something out. Buehler started generating more rise on his four-seamer, and hitters started swinging and missing at it. More “rise” on a fastball just means the pitch is dropping less on its way to the plate, often because the pitcher is throwing it with true backspin, making a hitter more likely to swing under the ball.

Phillies

• The team’s president of operations mentioned Taijuan Walker, Nick Abel, Seth Johnson, and eventually Andrew Painter as rotation options.

The Phillies added righties Mick Abel, Moisés Chace and Jean Cabrera to their 40-man roster Tuesday to prevent them from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 draft. All three have been starters in the minors. They’ll join Tyler Phillips, Seth Johnson and Alan Rangel in the current mix to compete this spring for a rotation job.

The Phillies have various needs to address this offseason — the outfield and bullpen, specifically — and those would outweigh the need for a Painter stopgap. But that won’t stop them from pursuing a rotation upgrade.

“We’ve got four solid starting pitchers that we like,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said earlier this month. “I really don’t have a fifth starter right now. Painter will be that eventually. I hope Taijuan Walker will be better. But we’re not going to anoint him on that. We have some other arms that we like in the organization. We think Abel can jump at any time. We like Seth Johnson.