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Weekly Hit Ground Ball: The race is on

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WHGB11After close to thirty years spent languishing between false hope and no hope, fans of the Kansas City Royals have entered this September in an unfamiliar competitive position.

The unfamiliar encourages a sense of excitement but also trepidation.

However much Royals are trying to outwardly enjoy this season, inwardly there is bound to be a sense of foreboding. Good things don’t happen to their team. This isn’t really happening. It’s all about to come crushing down.

Watching Danny Duffy leave the mound at Yankee Stadium on Saturday after throwing a solitary pitch was the moment when those fears were realised.

Look beyond the largely irrelevant 8-11 win-loss record and you’ll see that Duffy has been excellent for Kansas City this season. It’s not just been the way Duffy has pitched but also that he’s finally broken through after years of promise since he was drafted back in the 2007 amateur draft.

He was one of a crop of young players that were hailed as the answer to the Royals’ many years in the doldrums and, up until now, like most of the rest he had failed to live up to the billing. This season, in deed and in the sense of hope, Duffy has personified the way that things have finally turned around for Kansas City.

Seeing him grimace in discomfort and exit early with a sore shoulder was the last thing the Royals needed, again both in terms of actual impact (losing him for the game and potentially the foreseeable future) and the demoralising effect this blow could have on the team.

Kansas City went on to lose that game against the Yankees 6-2 to compound their misery and yet there was a chink of light from Detroit where the Tigers failed to capitalise. Despite having their recently-acquired ace David Price on the mound – an addition thought at the time to hammer another nail into the Royals’ coffin – Detroit lost 5-4 to the surging San Francisco Giants, keeping Kansas City two games ahead at the top of the AL Central.

Duffy’s condition will be assessed further over the next few days to determine whether it was a mere blip or something that could see him miss extended time, potentially the rest of the season. If he is out for the year then he’ll be a big loss, yet maybe it won’t be a sign of things inevitably going wrong for the Royals and instead will show that this is destined to be the year playoff baseball returns to Kansas City, regardless of the obstacles that come their way.

The Royals’ emergence in the AL Central, where many – including myself – predicted another season of Detroit domination, is one of many great stories building to a crescendo this month.

Baltimore look set to win the AL East division for the first time since 1997, whilst in the AL Wild Card race the Seattle Mariners may just turn their offseason splurge on Robinson Cano into a first playoff appearance since 2001.

The Mariners are even catching up the Oakland A’s who looked certainties for a third consecutive AL West title before a startling collapse over the last month that has seen a rampant LA Angels team fly past to gain not only a lead in the division but the best win-loss record in the Majors.

The A’s were able to snatch a walk-off win on Saturday against the Houston Astros, turning around a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, and that’s the sort of win that could spark an all-important change in fortune as we head into the last few weeks of the season. That’s what this A’s is clinging to, at least.

In the National League it’s been the Milwaukee Brewers playing the role of the A’s, plummeting from an unexpected stay at the top of the Central and seeing the St. Louis Cardinals resuming normal service at the summit. The Brew Crew have won only three of their past 16 games and now need to forget about what has gone. They are still firmly in the Wild Card race, a position they would have been delighted with if offered it before the season began, and need to somehow find a way to make that their mindset.

And as the regular season begins to wind down, the Philadelphia Phillies reminded us all on Monday that there’s something to play for every time you take the field. Their combined no-hitter was a rare enjoyable moment in what has been yet another poor season for a team that enjoyed so much success between 2007 and 2011.

The Texas Rangers are another team to quickly hit hard times after a recent run of excellent seasons. They were the first time to be eliminated from playoff contention this season and questions were already being asked about manager Ron Washington’s future before he stepped down for personal reasons on Friday. Wash had his game-management called into question at times, but there’s no doubt he was a manager that his players fought for and it’s one of the harsh realities of sport at the highest level that his time in charge will be remembered for the two World Series championships his time narrowly missed out on, rather than all of the other regular season success they had.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Dizzying deadline day

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WHGB11It’s the nature of most things these days that they are hyped to the moon. Promising something good isn’t good enough. It has to be the biggest, the best, the most controversial or outrageous to be worthy of anyone’s attention, apparently.

All of which leaves any sane person viewing any ‘big event’ with a healthy dose of scepticism. If you’re guaranteed excitement and drama, the chances are it will not live up to the billing; you might as well accept it to begin with and not get sucked in by the hype.

And yet every now and then that scepticism proves to be misplaced. The drama foretold really does unfold.

That’s exactly what we enjoyed last Thursday evening from the MLB trade deadline.

The British football transfer deadline is, ‘thanks’ to Sky Sport News, a ridiculous farce in which every minor potential deal is talked about as a major news story. ASBOs in waiting crowd around a gormless reporter at a dark training ground and get excited about a distinctly average player signing for an inflated fee who will soon become forgettable. Still, for that fleeting moment he gives the team the feeling that they are at least doing something and that’s all the matters.

It is still exciting if your team does happen to land a player who will genuinely improve the team, but there’s a lingering thought that most of the players couldn’t care who they play for anyway. The majority of transfers are characterised – fairly or not – by a player forcing his way out of the club, demanding his contract to be paid up in full alongside a loyalty bonus so that he can get a signing-on fee and a bigger salary at another team.

Nothing summed it up better than the sight of striker Peter Odemwingie sat in his car outside Loftus Road having driven himself to the club he wanted to join despite his present team, West Brom at the time, not having actually agreed to sell him. In that case ‘player power’ didn’t rule the day: Odemwingie’s move fell through and he was left looking like a prat and condemned forever more as the butt of many a joke.

In complete contrast, most trades in MLB happen without a player’s say-so. Austin Jackson was merrily standing in centrefield at Comerica Park on Thursday playing for the Detroit Tigers, the team he’s been with since the start of 2010, before he was called off the field mid-game and told he had been traded to the Seattle Mariners.

There was nothing he could say or do other than hug his team mates and start to pack his bags.

Asdrubal Cabrera was at Progressive Field, the place he’s called home since 2007, looking ahead to his team’s game against the Seattle Mariners when he found out that he wouldn’t be donning the Cleveland uniform that day after all. Instead, he sat on his own in the concourses outside the clubhouse and quietly took in the news that he would be moving to Washington.

That photo sums the emotions up well. Cabrera is moving to the current NL East division leaders and so it’s a good opportunity for him – rather than being traded away to a cellar-dweller as can sometimes happen – yet that doesn’t soften the initial blow of leaving behind the people and places you’ve become so accustomed to being part of your daily life.

Before we feel to guilty about taking such pleasure in players being cast hither and tither, they are of course doing what they love and getting paid very handsomely for the privilege.

In fact, it’s sometimes the amount that they are getting paid – or soon will be upon signing a free agent contract – that leads to a team trading them away.

Jon Lester’s preference clearly was to be a lifelong Red Sox player, yet he was unable to come to agreement with the team on a contract extension so he was traded to the Oakland A’s in the first shot of a thrilling deadline day of dealing. Both Lester and Boston have stated that their separation may not be forever and that they could still be reunited this offseason when he becomes a free agent; however you have to assume that if Boston couldn’t find a figure they liked when negotiating exclusively with the pitcher, they’re even less likely to once other suitors get involved.

There was even less chance of David Price staying with the team that drafted him and for whom he’s played his entire career so far. The Tampa Bay Rays probably couldn’t even afford his 2015 salary in his final year before free agency, so he was dealt in a three-team trade to the Detroit Tigers (the Seattle Mariners being the other team involved). The Tigers are not exactly shy at spending big on players, although as with Boston and Lester they were unable to agree a contract extension over the past off-season with Max Scherzer.

Acquiring Price will make it easier to part ways with Scherzer this offseason, both in having a ready-made replacement for 2015 and giving them another opportunity to sign an ace-level pitcher to a multi-year contract.

Seeing where Lester and Scherzer end up over the offseason, and if the Tigers can reach a deal with Price, will be fascinating, but the free agent market will struggle to match up to this past trade deadline.

Waiver deals

And don’t forget that the trade deadline is only a partial deadline, as deals can still be completed, just not in such a straightforward one-on-one team negotiation process. MLB Trade Rumors explains the process well here.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Second half begins

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WHGB11With the All-Star festivities behind us, we move into the unofficial ‘second half’ of the MLB season and a six-week period where teams compete – on the field and off it – to get themselves into a promising position before September and the final month of the regular season.

The off-field competition comes in the form of the battle for reinforcements, as teams look to add an extra piece or two that could make the difference between a playoff spot or sitting at home throughout October.

Trades on the way?

So far the trade market has been quiet besides the Oakland A’s two-pitcher swoop at the beginning of July. The A’s AL West rivals the Los Angeles Angels are the only other team to make a notable move of late in signing Huston Street (who started his career in Oakland) from the San Diego Padres on Friday.

Talk continues to surround the Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher David Price as the most lusted after potential prize. The Rays have found a bit of form of late – winning 14 of their last 19 games prior to Saturday – to keep alive some vague hopes of staying in the playoff hunt in what’s been a very trying season, yet realistically they are firm outsiders to get back to the postseason.

Whether Price stays with the Rays will be determined by another team’s willingness to part with a couple of leading prospects and a useful Major League player. Seattle, in part with the A’s and Angels in mind, are the team most frequently linked with Price at the moment, although doubts over Price’s desire to sign long-term in Seattle could be a determining factor on the Mariners’ confidence in giving up the necessary package of players to acquire him.

Mariners moves?

Seattle are an interesting team to keep an eye on in the stick-or-twist stakes.

There’s a measure of pressure on them to reinforce their extravagant off-season capture of Robinson Cano. Whilst the long-term nature of that deal means 2014 isn’t the be-all and end-all, the second Wild Card gives them an opportunity to immediately put a big mark on the plus side of the ‘Cano gamble’ ledger.

Heading into Saturday’s games, the Mariners sat third in AL West, nine games behind the division-leading A’s, but their 51-45 record was good enough to see them sitting in the second Wild Card seat, 2.5 games ahead of a gang of four competitors. It took a glance at their section on the Baseball-Reference website to remind me that the M’s haven’t made it to the postseason since their great 116-win campaign of 2001.

They don’t appear to have a particularly deep roster when you search far past the leading lights of Cano, Kyle Seager, Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma, yet strong performances from those players and decent contributions from the supporting cast could be enough to keep ahead of a pack of teams that also have their share of weaknesses, if Seattle could add one extra significant player.

Having waited since 2001 to get back to the playoffs, it’s not unreasonable to expect a bit of impulsiveness to creep in and for the Mariners’ Front Office to decide now is the time to take a shot.  Whether they do or not, and whether it works out for them, will be one of the most interesting storylines to follow as the 31 July trade deadline quickly approaches.

All-Star action

The American League representative in this year’s World Series will benefit from home field advantage this year after the AL’s 5-3 victory in the All-Star game at Target Field.

Much of the event was dominated by Derek Jeter as many took the opportunity to celebrate his career before he retires at the end of this season. It was an enjoyable moment seeing the fans, and the players, applauding Jeter as he came to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning.

We can all take our own view on the ‘groove-gate’ saga, both on whether Adam Wainwright did deliberately give Jeter a good pitch to hit and – if so – whether that was the right thing to do, but it did reinforce the point that the All-Star game is an exhibition and that’s how it should be.

The idea of ‘making the game count’ to reduce the number of players that opted out may have been well-intentioned, but when we get to October the fact that home-field advantage was decided by the game will once again feel wrong. I would revert back to it going to which of the two teams had the best win-loss record of the regular season, although the emerging idea of using the overall interleague play record could work too.

The long goodbye

Keeping on the Jeter theme, the Yankees announced that they will be holding a special pre-game ceremony on 9 September to honour the Captain. With CC Sabathia done for the season due to a knee injury and Masahiro Tanaka landing on the Disabled List with a dreaded elbow problem, it may be that the ‘long goodbye’ will be the central focus for Yankee fans by the time we get to the end of September in the Bronx.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Spring Training begins

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We’re into March already and whilst some may be left wondering how the first two months of the year have flown by, us baseball fans have no need to get weighed down by such trivialities.

March means Spring Training, which means baseball is finally back for another year after the long winter months.

The games began on Wednesday with the Blue Jays and Phillies meeting in the first contest shown on MLB.TV.

Whilst the MLB.TV service is generally fantastic, it isn’t faultless all of the time and many fans eager to start their baseball-watching year were left frustrated by paid-for subscriptions not registering and apps failing to show the presence of any live games on a variety of connected devices.

Thankfully most of the problems were ironed out within an hour or so and we were able to get on with enjoying the games.

Just as good as you imagined

With a more limited selection of televised games to watch during Spring Training, it’s a good time of the year to get reacquainted with the joys of listening to radio commentary of ballgames via MLB Gameday Audio. The best crews bring a sense of fun to the occasion whilst painting a vivid picture of the events unfolding, allowing you to use your imagination to create the scenes.

Sometimes when you get to see the TV replay you find that a play wasn’t quite as spectacular as you envisioned it. There was no danger of that being the case with the two highlights from the Oakland A’s spring opener against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.

The A’s lead radio commentator Ken Korach was sounding quite matter of fact when describing Michael Morse’s flyball to right field, even getting most of the way through his “and this one is …” call before stopping himself from saying the final word. He couldn’t say “gone” because it wasn’t. Instead. he said “did he catch it?”, with an air of incredulity, before shouting “HE DID! AN INCREDIBLE CATCH SCALING THE WALL!”

There was nothing forced about the call, no hint that he was hyping it to the hills like the best (or worst, depending on your viewpoint) Sky Sports commentator. You knew Josh Reddick has just pulled off a stunning catch, which was quickly backed up by various A’s writers taking to Twitter to: a) state how incredible it was, and b) to bemoan the lack of TV cameras which meant you’d just have to take their word for it.

What they didn’t know initially was that the ballpark did have one TV camera filming from behind home plate. Barely a few hours into the 2014 baseball season and we already had one of the best fielding plays we’re likely to see all year. Reddick then proved it wasn’t a one-off by doing it again, to the same unfortunate Morse, later in the game.

Not your average Spring Training game

Spring Training games are normally a low-key affair, but not when they involve a Japanese star making his North American debut.

Japanese baseball reporters were out in force on Saturday to see Masahiro Tanaka’s first appearance for the Yankees and he showed plenty of poise in two score-less innings. The highlight of his outing came when he used his much-talked-about splitter to strike out the Phillies’ Ben Revere. The early signs are that Revere will be the first of many hitters flailing at that pitch with two strikes against their name.

Say it ain’t so, Sano

Long-term injuries are always a sad part of the game, but it feels all the more cruel to happen to an exciting young player. The Minnesota Twins were hoping 2014 would bring some positive developments as they try to build themselves into a contender again; however it’s started in the worst possible way with third base prospect Miguel Sano needing to undergo Tommy John surgery.

The rehabilitation process following the elbow surgery isn’t quite as lengthy for position players as it is for pitchers, but Sano will be out for the whole season and will already have next year’s Spring Training camp as his focus, rather than potentially competing for a Major League roster spot this season.

Greinke grounded

Dodger fans held their collective breath on Thursday when pitcher Zack Greinke lasted only four pitches before leaving the team’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks with an injury.

Fortunately the ailment was a minor calf strain that shouldn’t hold him back for long. Greinke appeared to suffer the injury on the mound, although he perhaps might have done it whilst putting his foot in his mouth over his less-than-enthused comments on the prospect of going to Australia. The injury may make it less likely he will be heading Down Under, potentially avoiding the risk of some of the locals giving him the Stuart Broad treatment.

Setbacks for Seattle

Seattle Mariners fans that hadn’t made the trip to Arizona got their first chance to see Robinson Cano playing in their uniform on Saturday, courtesy of MLB.TV.

That was where the good news ended as it was confirmed on the same day that pitchers Hiashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker are both unlikely to be ready for Opening Day due to lingering injury concerns. The Mariners need to see an improvement on the field after investing so heavily in Cano; however he’s only one piece in the puzzle and the team will be desperate for their pitching rotation to be at full strength as soon as possible.

If the Face fits

Finally, the MLB Network decided to run a strange competition this past week in which fans were asked to vote for ‘the Face of MLB’. Quite why anyone would want to declare one single player as the face of MLB is a bit of a mystery, but in the face of such absurdities sometimes the internet can come up trumps.

The A’s bespectacled fringe infielder Eric Sogard became the subversive vote and his #nerdpower campaign got him all the way to the final where he was just beaten, some would say suspiciously so, by the New York Mets’ David Wright.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Jeter to retire

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One of the joys of this time of year is that none of us really knows what the season will bring; the possibilities are endless in Spring.

However, we do already know one thing that 2014 will be remembered for.

One more year for Jeter

The announcement on Wednesday that this will be Derek Jeter’s final season was a major news story and, particularly considering it was telling us something that’s not actually going to happen until later in the year (my instant reaction to the mass coverage was to mis-read it and I thought he was retiring there and then), that goes to show just how big an impact he has had on the game.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark summed it up by drawing on research last August that overwhelming placed Jeter as the recognised ‘face of MLB’. As Stark put it:

“How does any sport replicate what Derek Jeter has meant to baseball over the last decade and a half — and still does? Is that even possible?

Oh, the Yankees will find another shortstop. There’s a 100 percent probability of that. And Jeter will find stuff to do that probably doesn’t involve spending 14 hours a day curled up in a chair playing Sudoku.

But where does baseball find the next Derek Jeter? Good luck on that”.

It’s difficult to judge from the U.K., where generally you are either a dedicated baseball fan or don’t pay it any attention whatsoever, but clearly Jeter has meant a lot to baseball in terms of its image to the casual fan in the States and, with so many entertainment options out there competing for people’s eyes, ears and money, that’s an important factor that MLB needs to grapple with.

Yet the very nature of sport means that legends come and go. Even if there isn’t necessarily a ready-made, obvious replacement – as Stark suggests is the case here – other players will emerge in time to take on the mantle. MLB will produce new icons, but it won’t be so easy for the Yankees to find another Jeter and what he represented.

He was part of a group of players that created a new era in the rich history of the New York Yankees. There are some similarities here to Manchester United’s ‘Class of ‘92’, documented in the film released last December.  In both cases, you had a group of very talented young players who came through together and, for a period, personified the team. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and co became Man Utd, just as Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Posada and co became what you thought of when you thought of the Yankees.

Not only was that felt by the fans, particularly of the respective teams, but you got a sense that it was felt by players that joined the teams too. Star players coming into the dressing room or clubhouse generally had to fit in with the culture and example that was set by those core players.

Jeter is the last of the fabled ‘core four’ and whilst the Yankees may well use their spending power to put together championship-contending teams in the years to come, it will be a while before they, or potentially any other team, brings through such an incredible group of players that define an era quite like this group has.

A.J. to the Phillies

A.J. Burnett won a World Series with Jeter and the Yankees in 2009 and in 2014 he’ll be pitching for the team that they beat. The Philadelphia Phillies have continued their offseason trend of adding veteran players by bringing in the 37-year-old pitcher on a one-year deal.

If he pitches as well as he did in the past two years with the Pirates then the Phillies will be more than happy with their $16m investment, yet it’s difficult to shake the feeling that the deal would make more sense for a team with a genuinely good shot at making the playoffs this year.

And it’s difficult to shake the feeling that the Phillies’ General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is misjudging his roster if he’s putting his team in that category.

Hamels hobbled

The Phillies certainly have some reason to hope that they could get in the Wild Card race, but they need their ageing roster to stay healthy and they suffered a blow this week when Cole Hamels, one of the younger veterans at 30 years old, revealed he has a shoulder injury that could see him miss most of the first month of the season.

Iwakuma injured too

Injuries to pitchers is a depressingly familiar theme each Spring and the Seattle Mariners are also cursing their bad luck early in Spring Training. Hisashi Iwakuma, who had such an impressive season in 2013, has injured his right middle finger and will miss 4 to 6 weeks, meaning he won’t be ready for the start of the season.

The Mariners do have some talented young pitchers to call on and my favourite scouting work of the week came from their ace Felix Hernandez, who described James Paxton as “a funky lefty dealing over the top, throwing 97 [mph]” and Taijuan Walker as “a big dude throwing cheese”.

The Mariners also lost outfielder Franklin Gutierrez for the coming season due to a recurrence of a “gastrointestinal problem”, or as new manager Lloyd McClendon put it: “his health was not cooperating with him”.

Late start for Latos

The Cincinnati Reds’ Mat Latos is another pitcher who started Spring in exactly the way he hoped he wouldn’t. Latos felt a twinge in his left knee during some workouts on Tuesday and underwent minor arthroscopic surgery on Friday. The Reds hope it will only sideline him for 10 days or so, but any setback is a worry for a team that had a relatively quiet offseason and is mainly relying on the players they had last year combining to have a better year in 2014.

Contract extensions

Ending on a more positive note, two young players had a very good opening week to Spring Training by agreeing contract extensions with their respective teams.

Outfielder Michael Brantley signed a four-year contract extension with the Cleveland Indians worth $25m, whilst pitcher Julio Teheran agreed a six-year, $32.4m extension with the Atlanta Braves. The deal with Teheran follows the eight-year contract extension signed by first baseman Freddie Freeman recently as the Braves try to keep hold of their core young talent for years to come.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Season Number Eight

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Baseball is on its way. The Superbowl has been and gone, MLB.TV subscription details have been announced and teams are starting to head to their Spring Training camps in Arizona or Florida.

The long winter months are tough to get through, but we’re over the worst of it and can now look ahead to what is certain to be another incredible MLB season.

I’ve been covering MLB in a weekly column, ‘Weekly Hit Ground Ball’, since 2007 and will do so again in 2014. It’s undergone various format changes over the years to hopefully keep it fresh, including changing from being published on a Sunday to a Monday.

This season as standard I’ll be going almost full circle and returning to something close to the initial format where I used the column to bring together all of the major stories, plus other things that caught my eye, in one bundle.

That approach is going to be flexible, so if one major story dominates the news agenda in a given week then I’ll devote the entire column to that, but by and large I’ll try to touch plenty of bases in the column and will chip in with a post or two during the rest of the week if a particular story deserves to be covered there and then rather than waiting for Monday (or Sunday, as I’ll occasionally be putting it online a day earlier, such as this weekend).

With that explained, let’s head on to the main stories of the last few days.

Arizona extensions

I mentioned last week that I had picked up the Baseball Prospectus 2014 book and the first two team essays – on Arizona and Atlanta – have proved quite prescient.

The Diamondbacks were the first team to open their Spring Training camp due to their participation in the early MLB season opener in Australia.

The BP essay focused on the futures of General Manager Kevin Towers and Manager Kirk Gibson. Both were due to enter this season with only one year remaining on their contracts and with some question marks over whether they would be with the team in 2015.

It was thought that they would need to use the 2014 season as an extended trial to prove they were the men to take the team forward in the coming years; however those thoughts were pushed aside this week as both received contract extensions.

The D-Backs are in an interesting position having finished dead on .500 in each of the last two seasons and with the Dodgers’ spending making them strong favourites for the NL West division again.

Arizona need to find a way to take the next step and to push for a Wild Card spot and if they don’t it would call into question whether the contract extensions, Gibson’s in particular, were a good decision. Acting early does at least mean there will be no distractions if the season doesn’t start brilliantly for them, so in that sense clearing up the issue could work in their favour.

Arizona have improved their chances of a mounting a decent challenge by agreeing to a two-year deal with Bronson Arroyo. Their starting rotation was in need of support and Arroyo’s brand of solid if unspectacular work should meet the need well.

Eight years for Freeman

The Atlanta Braves’ chapter in BP 2014 centred on their young core of players and impending dilemmas the team would face in trying to keep hold of as many as possible.

Stage one in that process was completed this week as the team agreed an eight-year, $135m contract extension with first baseman Freddie Freeman. It’s the most lucrative contract in the team’s history and shows how much faith they have in the 24-year-old.

His age is crucial to the deal for the Braves. Freeman finished fifth in the NL MVP voting process last season and yet you could have a long argument over whether he’s really an elite young player worthy of $135m or ‘just’ a very good one. The key point is that either way it represents good value because the Braves are going to be paying that money when he’s in his prime.

The Braves also agreed a two-year, $13.3m deal with outfielder Jason Heyward. He was already under contract with the team for those years, and it may prove difficult for Atlanta to keep hold of him beyond this point, but this at least puts to bed any arbitration wrangling.

Which camp?

There are still a number of free agents who don’t yet know which Spring Training camp they will be heading to.

It was presumed that A.J. Burnett would be staying at home and beginning retirement, but in the past couple of weeks it has emerged that he fancies giving it at least one more year. A return to the Pirates does not appear to be on the cards, leaving the Orioles, Phillies and Blue Jays as the likely main contenders for his signature.

Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana are also on the radar of teams seeking an additional starting pitcher. Jimenez has been heavily linked with a move to Toronto although no deal has been struck just yet.

Seattle bound

Fernando Rodney reportedly has found a new team in time for the beginning of Spring Training after agreeing a two-year contract with the Mariners.

Seattle are also seen as the team keenest to end outfielder Nelson Cruz’s stay on the free agent market.  Cruz has been characterised as the booby prize this offseason with the assumption being that one team desperate for a right-handed bat will hand the 33-year-old a multi-year contract they’ll soon come to regret.

After taking their $240m plunge with Robinson Cano there’s a sense that the Mariners need to add at least one more bat to the mix in 2014 and that they may be the team to pay Cruz.

Another victim

Sadly it’s always only a matter of time in Spring Training before a pitcher’s season is cut cruelly short before it has even begun as their elbow gives way and Tommy John surgery is required.

This spring’s first victim, the Padres’ Cory Luebke, is doubly unfortunate as he is undergoing the operation for a second time after his recovery from the first operation didn’t go to plan. Luebke has been out of action since May 2012 and it will be 2015 before he has any chance of getting back out onto the field.

Good news at last

Finally, that rarest of things: a news story about Alex Rodriguez that is good for baseball. Rodriguez has dropped his lawsuit and accepted a season-long ban for his alleged part in the Biogenesis drug case. The game didn’t need the sideshow of an ongoing bitter legal dispute this year and we can now all concentrate on positive news such as the teams heading back to Spring Training camps.

Offseason so far: AL West

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After looking at the AL East and AL Central, today we complete a round-up of the offseason so far in the American League by reviewing the comings and goings from the AL West division.

Oakland A’s

There’s rarely a quiet offseason in Oakland as General Manager Billy Beane knows that his team, more than most, cannot afford to stand still whilst those with more money (which is pretty much every other team in the Majors) can outspend them.

The A’s have won the division in each of the last two years and, although they haven’t made any major moves, they’ve shuffled the pack to try and make it three on the spin. Oakland normally can’t afford to keep hold of players that hit free agency and, sure enough, Bartolo Colon (Mets) and Grant Balfour (still to find a team) will not be with the club in 2014. However, these losses didn’t start an Oakland firesale; in fact they immediately replaced those two key players with Scott Kazmir and Jim Johnson, the latter acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles.

The A’s have traded away several players – including Seth Smith to the Padres, Brett Anderson to the Rockies and Jerry Blevins to the Nationals – but they’ve done so mainly to improve their options for the current roster, rather than as part of a rebuilding project. Outfielder Craig Gentry (from the Rangers) and reliever Luke Gregerson (Padres) are the main two new recruits likely to be regulars on the team.

Texas Rangers

The last two seasons haven’t been completely disastrous in Texas, yet they’ve certainly been a disappointment with a Wild Card game loss in 2012 and missing the playoffs completely last year.

The Rangers hope that some better luck with injuries will lead to an improvement in their pitching, so their offseason so far has been geared towards improving the batting lineup.

They did this in one surprising swoop when they traded away second baseman Ian Kinsler to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers. Fielder was only two years into a nine-year contract in Detroit, but he became something of a target from Tiger fans when logging just one extra base hit (a double) in 11 postseason games after ending the season with the lowest home run total of his career (25). A change of scenery could work out extremely well for Fielder and the Rangers.

He’ll be joined in the lineup by outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, who signed a 7-year, $130m contract with the team in mid-December. Choo will take over from Nelson Cruz, a free agent still searching for a new team, whilst Neftali Feliz is likely to return to being a closer after Joe Nathan left for the Tigers as a free agent.

Los Angeles Angels

After the big-ticket offseason signings of 2011/12 (Albert Pujols) and 2012/13 (Josh Hamilton), the Angels have been relatively quiet this time around. Their big hope is that they’ll be able to add fit, healthy and productive versions of those two players to their lineup regularly in 2014.

David Freese has been acquired from the Cardinals to take over at third base, whilst slugger Mark Trumbo has been traded away to the Diamondbacks. Trumbo is really a home-run-hitter who provides little else and having traded away such a player they arguably acquired another one in 42-year-old veteran Raul Ibanez, who’s not much of a fielder and had just a .306 OBP last season, but did hit 29 homers in 124 games for the Mariners.

Jason Vargas has left the team as a free agent to join Kansas City. Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs, who was reacquired from the D-Backs having been traded to them in August 2010, will join the battle for a rotation spot, with Joe Smith signed as a free agent to be the set-up man for Ernesto Frieri.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners haven’t been leading players in offseasons of recent years, but they’ve made the biggest move of all so far in 2013/04. Rumours that they were genuine contenders for the signature of Robinson Cano seemed fanciful right up to the point when the New York Yankees admitted defeat in their attempt to keep hold of their second baseman.

For all of the excitement generated by their $240m investment in Cano, everyone knew that Seattle needed more than one player, however talented, to be genuine playoff contenders after finishing 25 games behind the A’s last year.  They’ve acquired Logan Morrison in a trade with the Marlins and signed Corey Hart, who missed all of 2013 with a knee injury, but you still feel they are several players short and that may well mean their offseason work is far from over, especially in adding to the pitching staff.

The main free agent departures have been Ibanez’s above-mentioned move to the Angels and the anticipated departure of Kendrys Morales, who is yet another player still seeking a team.

Houston Astros

The rebuilding work continues in Houston where even the most optimistic Astros fan will see a winning season as being beyond them this year.

They have moved towards signing some established Major League players though. The main feature of their offseason work has been compiling what looks to be a good bullpen thanks to the acquisitions of Jesse Crain, Chad Qualls and Matt Albers.

Scott Feldman has been brought in on a three-year contract to lead a young rotation, whilst the Astros swung a trade with the Rockies to make Dexter Fowler their new centrefielder.

Rounding the Bases: More deals

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The week of the MLB Winter Meetings had a lot to live up to after the transaction bonanza of the preceding week.

Consequently it was a slightly underwhelming few days relative to what had come before, but there was still a series of signings worth catching up on.

Hello Cano

The major event of the week came in Seattle where second baseman Robinson Cano was officially unveiled as a Mariner, having agreed a staggering 10-year, $240m contract with the AL West team.

Such monumental investments carry a significant amount of risk, as discussed a week ago, but any concerns can be pushed to one side right now for Mariners fans as the revel in the excitement of their team acquiring one of the very best players in the Majors.

It is great to see a team like Seattle making a bold signing and further shows how competitive MLB is.

Every year, the vast majority of teams will start the season with genuine reason for optimism that they could be in the running for a playoff place, with the main exceptions being teams, such as the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Miami Marlins, who have deliberately chosen to take steps backwards to reload for better days in years to come.

Only ten teams can make it to the postseason in a given season, so those hopes will not be realised for many, but it is hope that keeps fans going and MLB has done a great job in creating an environment where most teams can offer this.

The Mariners’ next big task is to make further improvements to supplement the addition of Cano, particularly in the batting lineup. Former Milwaukee Brewer Corey Hart has been signed on a one-year deal after he missed all of the 2013 season due to knee surgery. If he’s healthy, Hart should add some much-need power to the lineup, and he’ll be joined by Logan Morrison, who was acquired in a trade with the Miami Marlins.

Seattle are unlikely to end their recruitment drive there and they continue to be linked with outfielder free agent Nelson Cruz, although his price tag may prove to be too rich following their spending so far this offseason.

Yankees still shopping

The sight of Robinson Cano smiling in a Mariners uniform didn’t just drive home the impact of his signing for Seattle, but also for his former team in the Bronx.

The Yankees have a Cano-shaped hole to fill at second base and that hasn’t started very well, with one potential target slipping away from them this week.

Omar Infante has reportedly agreed a four-year, $30.25m contract with the Kansas City Royals after the Yankees refused to increase their offer of a three-year deal worth $24m. The 32-year-old isn’t a superstar and holding firm at three years isn’t an overly questionable decision, but solid second baseman aren’t easy to find and there’s no doubt that the Yankees have a pressing need for such a player.  There were rumours of a potential trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Brandon Phillips early last week, but no deal was agreed and apparently talks have ceased for now, with New York turning their attention to Darwin Barney of the Chicago Cubs.

The Royals presumably will take a modicum of satisfaction from outbidding the Yankees for Infante after the Bronx Bombers did the same thing to them with Carlos Beltran.

Three teams, six players

We did get one Winter Meeting specialty last week: the three-team trade. The Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels combined in a deal including six players.

The best-known name of the bunch was Mark Trumbo. He will take his homer-hitting skills (although arguably supplemented with little else) from the Angels to the D-Backs, whilst Adam Eaton moves from Arizona to Chicago. The Angels are reunited with young pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who they drafted in the first round of the 2009 amateur draft but then traded to Arizona in August 2010 as part of a deal to acquire Dan Haren, and received another starting pitcher in the form of Hector Santiago from the White Sox.

Back to where they were

Several teams and players have decided to stage a reunion.

Juan Uribe has agreed a two-year, $15m deal to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Uribe struggled badly with the Dodgers in 2011 and 2012 and his hack-happy approach at the plate has never endeared him to connoisseurs of the science of hitting. However, he did a good job for the Dodgers in 2013 and, with limited options available, a reunion was always a decent possibility.

Former Dodger James Loney has also rejoined his 2013 team, agreeing a three-year, $21m contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Loney doesn’t offer much power for a first baseman, yet he’s a good hitter and he enjoyed a comeback in 2013 with the Rays as a change of scenery from L.A., where he looked a little weighed down by not meeting the lofty expectations placed on him, worked out well.

That could have proved a problem for the Rays as good players tend to end up moving out of their price range (David Price being a prime example, although at time of writing his expected trade away from the Rays hasn’t materialized), yet in this case they’ve been able to come to an agreement to keep hold of one of their free agents.

Elsewhere, Clint Barmes has returned to Pittsburgh, whilst Mike Pelfrey has decided to stay in Minnesota. The Twins have now added three pitchers to their rotation, Pelfrey being joined by Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes, and they may still be in the conversation to sign former Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo too. None of these hurlers are aces, but they all have their plus points and if they can find some form at Target Field then the Twins may be able to reverse their recent run of disappointing seasons and at least get back on the right path.

Pitchers changing places

Pelfrey wasn’t the only pitcher agreeing terms on a new contract this past week.

Bartolo Colon will try to continue to defy the ageing process after signing a two-year, $20m contract with the New York Mets. Colon performed brilliantly for the Oakland A’s over the last two seasons and a move to another pitcher-friendly home ballpark should increase the odds that he can keep that run going, although moving to the non-DH league where he may have to find his way around the basepads may be a problem for the Mets, and a source of laughter for the rest of us.

The A’s have continued their recent activity by trading away Brett Anderson to the Colorado Rockies and Jerry Blevins to the Washington Nationals. Anderson has been beset by injuries in recent seasons and Coors Field isn’t the first place a pitcher would pick to get their career back on track, but A’s fans will wish him well whilst hoping that former top prospect Drew Pomeranz (selected fifth overall by the Cleveland Indians in the 2010 draft) is a gamble that pays off in return. Blevins should usefully fill a hole in the Nats’ bullpen as a reliable lefty, with the A’s receiving speedy outfield prospect Billy Burns in return.

Another reliever changing teams this week was Joba Chamberlain. Much-hyped as a New York Yankee prospect, Chamberlain never quite lived up to his billing in the Bronx and a move to the Detroit Tigers as a free agent could be just what he needs to get his career going again.

Doc calls it a day

Finally, Roy Halladay announced his retirement this week, signing a one-day deal so that he could retire as a Toronto Blue Jay. His dominating run of seasons from 2002 to 2011 were the equal of some of the very greatest the game has seen and although he doesn’t have all of the impressive counting stats that you’d normally associate with a Hall of Fame player (‘only’ 203 career wins, for example) he was an exceptional pitcher for a significant period of time and should receive serious consideration for a place in Cooperstown.

Rounding the Bases: Deals completed with more on the way

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The New York Yankees may have been leading the way, but there were plenty of other MLB teams making moves last week.

Seattle stunner

No one made a more impressive statement of intent than the Seattle Mariners. The 10-year, $240m contract agreed with Robinson Cano is the joint-third highest in MLB history, matching the contract the Los Angeles Angels agreed with Albert Pujols two offseasons ago and only trailing the Alex Rodriguez contracts of $252m and $275m.

Although they’ve been down on their luck in recent seasons, the Mariners are not a small market team and so the fact that they believe they can afford such a lucrative contract should not be shocking. The element of surprise came in part through them outbidding the Yankees and in part by the timing. Even adding a great player like Cano leaves them with an underwhelming batting lineup to go alongside an admittedly impressive 1-2 starting pitching punch of Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma. Why invest so much money in Cano if there isn’t the talent around him to win?

Well, the simple answer is that if you want to improve, adding one of the best players in baseball is a good way to start. The Mariners are now being linked with a host of other names – including a potential trade for the Rays’ David Price – and whilst money certainly talks loudest when free agents decide on their new home (and understandably so), players do want to win too and Cano will be a very handy selling point to show that they are serious about being contenders.

The other point to note is that this is a multi-year commitment, not a one-year rental. Of course the Mariners will want to make the playoffs in 2014 and they’ll attract some criticism if they don’t, but it will be far from disastrous if 2014 sees the Mariners take a positive step forward to then set up an offseason recruitment exercise in a year’s time to make them genuine contenders.

And finally it’s worth learning a lesson from the recent trade of Prince Fielder to remind us all that nothing is ever as certain as it may seem. The Cano contract is a monumental commitment by the Mariners, but it’s quite possible (maybe even probable) that he will not be a Seattle player for that entire period. If one of the biggest risks is that he won’t be worth the money in the last few years of the contract – and it is – well, the chances are the Mariners might only be on the hook for a percentage of that salary while he plays for someone else anyway.

The Mariners need some more pieces to give themselves any chance of a playoff push in 2014; however it looks like they’re trying to add them and, even if they don’t, Seattle fans have every reason to be excited about what the coming years may bring.

A’s add several pieces

The Oakland A’s are two-time reigning AL West champions but it’s their lot to continue to go under the radar and be overshadowed by their rivals. Whilst they haven’t signed Robinson Cano or traded for Prince Fielder, the A’s were the most active team of the week and made a series of moves that should all prove beneficial in their quest to make it three division titles in a row.

Bartolo Colon and Grant Balfour are set to leave the A’s as free agents, so General Manager Billy Beane filled those holes with the signing of free agent Scott ‘comeback kid’ Kazmir and trading for the Baltimore Orioles’ closer Jim Johnson. Reliever Luke Gregerson (from the Padres) and outfielder Craig Gentry (from the Rangers) were also acquired in trades.

Red Sox rally from Ellsbury departure

In the AL East, the Boston Red Sox are doing a good job of hiding any disappointment they have in losing Jacoby Ellsbury to those damn Yankees. They’ve agreed a two-year deal to bring back Mike Napoli, added former Cardinal Edward Mujica to their bullpen and replaced the departed Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who’s signed for the Marlins) with veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who will be keen to bounce back from a relatively disappointing one-year stay in Texas.

Nathan in, Fister out

The Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox’s 2013 American League Championship Series opponents, have ensured there will be no repeat of the closer confusion of last season as they signed Joe Nathan on a two-year contract. Meanwhile Doug Fister has been traded away to the Washington Nationals, possibly in part to clear some space on the payroll for Nathan.

The Tigers do have Drew Smyly as a ready-made replacement in the rotation, but it’s surprising that they didn’t get more of a return (utility player Steve Lombardozzi being the main player of three acquired) for a solid starter, one that the Nationals will be more than happy to have on their pitching staff in 2014. The Nationals made another move last week too, adding outfielder Nate McLouth.

Wilson returns

Brian Wilson was the other main closer candidate being considered by the Tigers. After Detroit opted for Nathan, Wilson decided to return to the L.A. Dodgers in a set-up role behind Kenley Jansen. That’s certainly not going to be the last move made by the Dodgers and much of their offseason plans may revolve around whether the rumours come true and they trade away either Andre Ethier or Matt Kemp.

Grandy stays in New York

Outfielder Curtis Granderson wasn’t in the Yankees’ grand spending plans this offseason but he will stay in New York regardless after signing a four-year deal with the Mets. Former Oakland A Chris Young had previously signed a one-year deal with the Mets as they seek to upgrade their outfield and start the process of getting back into contention in the NL East.

And that’s just for starters!

Last week’s transaction news may just be the first course in a baseball feast. This week the great and good of the baseball world will gather at the annual Winter Meetings, where rumours go into overdrive and, occasionally, major trades and free agent signings are agreed. If we’ve learned anything over the past seven days it’s that we should be prepared for a shock or two.

 

Rounding the Bases: The Yankees’ section

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Player transaction news can never fully replace the drama and excitement of actual games; however this past week got as close as possible to making baseball fans forget that currently we’re not able to enjoy watching any on-field action.

The most important thing to remember when following the transaction rumours and news stories is that no move happens in isolation. Each decision is the product of a series of events and has a knock-on effect too.

Over the last offseason it was the newly-cash-rich Los Angeles Dodgers that were the leading protagonist. Everyone knew they were going to be the dominant force and other teams were either trying to get in ahead of them, or waiting to see what options would be available once the Dodgers started making their moves.

This offseason it’s the New York Yankees who have returned to their seemingly rightful position of the market-setter. They wanted to get their payroll below the luxury tax threshold of $189m, but that was before an 85-77 regular season and a watching brief during a postseason that ended with their arch rivals the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series.

The Yankees are a team that wins and, just as importantly in New York, a team that wins with stars. With club legends Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte retiring, Derek Jeter battling injuries and the inevitable ageing process, and Alex Rodriguez being a one-man soap opera, there was precisely no way whatsoever that the Yankees were going to make a few helpful little deals and let their farm system of young players develop.

Robinson Cano was always going to be the intriguing storyline in all this. Cano became a free agent this offseason as arguably the Yankees’ one star still in his prime. In other words, he was exactly the type of player they wanted on their roster for 2014 and beyond and losing him to another team was almost – although not quite – unthinkable.

Yes, the Yankees were making noises through ‘sources’ that they weren’t going to stretch to a ten-year contract or anything near $200m, but ultimately this story was going to end in someone paying an excellent player a lot of money, and that was surely too much of a Yankee thing to do for them to resist.

Even when Cano arrived in Seattle for talks with the Mariners, it was seen not as the first step of him leaving New York, more the next step in pushing the Yankees to up their offer to keep him.

And yet, on Friday it was there on every MLB news site you cared to check just in case the rest had somehow got it wrong: Cano had agreed a 10-year, $240m contract with the Mariners.

Earlier in the week the Yankees had given Jacoby Ellsbury a seven-year, $153m contract to move to New York after winning a World Series with the Red Sox (the Johnny Damon path, as it should be known). It seems that this wasn’t an early admission of defeat in the Cano stakes and that in agreeing the deal they still felt they could keep their second baseman, but it was a decent consolation prize to secure just in case the Mariners’ dollars overwhelmed them (and isn’t that a strange situation to behold).

The Yankees had already agreed a five-year, $85m contract with former Atlanta Brave Brian McCann to make a big upgrade at the catcher position and they’ve now successfully convinced pitcher Hiroki Kuroda to sign on for another year on a $16m contract.

Additionally it looked like free agent Carlos Beltran would be making a return to his first team, the Kansas City Royals but as soon as Cano was a lost cause, the Yankees relented and improved their two-year contract offer to three years to match the Royals. Beltran will now be wearing pinstripes and testing out the theory that the short right-field porch in Yankee Stadium will be tailor-made for him, whilst Royals fans can bemoan the Mariners’ largesse for ruining Beltran’s KC homecoming.

Checking the Yankees’ offseason roster on MLBDepthCharts (an essential offseason resource) tells you that they’re not finished with spending money either. We can expect another good everyday infielder, starting pitcher (possibly Japan’s Masahiro Tanaka depending on whether he’s posted by his team) and reliever or two.

The Yankees are back being the Yankees again, despite losing Cano. There are many other teams looking to improve their rosters too this offseason and they will be the subject of tomorrow’s article.