Good morning, Mets fans! Welcome back to another rumor roundup! If you have come in search of news about top-tier free agents receiving interest – but not signing – you’ve found the right place.
Padres “Checking in” on Prized Free Agents
Jon Heyman from Fancred Sports has reported that the San Diego Padres have touched base with a quartet of high profile free agents featuring Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Mike Moustakas, and Marwin González. Per Heyman, it remains unclear whether or not the Padres’ engagement renders them the oft-alluded to “mystery team” in the bidding for Machado and Harper, seeing as no details have come about regarding potential offers. Nonetheless, Heyman contends that “they could move up the timetable with one big buy” as they prepare to push the chips in for a 2020 playoff run.
Neither Machado nor Harper has actually progressed closer to signing with a club since we last left off with the Chicago White Sox’ dubious seven-year, $175MM offer for Machado. Both superstars have drawn interest from the White Sox as well as the Philadelphia Phillies and (in Harper’s case) Washington Nationals. While the New York Yankees have been affiliated with Machado throughout the offseason, they don’t expect to pursue him further with the addition of DJ LeMahieu. His father, Manuel, recently told Héctor Gómez of Z101 Deportes that “the team you will probably less think about is the one that’s gonna sign [him].” A team in San Diego that has been in an intent rebuild across the last three years and has not made the playoffs since 2006 checks out as a perfect underdog in the Machado sweepstakes.
Regarding Moustakas, Heyman had previously reported that the Philadelphia Phillies had been considering pursuing the two-time All-Star as a potential fallback if their bid for Machado were to fall short. Despite a career-high 38 homers and 85 RBI in 2017, the 30-year old Moustakas trudged his way back to the Kansas City Royals on an absurdly cheap $5.5MM contract, turning in a .251/.315/.459 line this past year. He is one of the few remaining third basemen on the free agent market to grade out positively in terms of both oWAR and dWAR.
MLB.com‘s Richard Justice had the most recent insight on the utilityman González, who has been linked to the Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians, and Atlanta Braves. Following DJ LeMahieu’s departure from the free agent market two weeks ago, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic had speculated that González (who is still just 29 years of age despite six years of big-league experience) could hold out for a four-year deal in the range of the $56MM Ben Zobrist and the Chicago Cubs agreed to following the 2015 season. It’s worth noting that while Zobrist compiled a 12.1 bWAR from 2013-2015 prior to signing with Chicago, González checks in a few steps behind at a cumulative 8.1 since 2016.
Giants Sign Pomeranz
Per Larry Krueger of KNBR-AM, the San Francisco Giants and left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz have agreed to a one-year deal – just a week removed from their re-signing of fellow lefty Derek Holland. ESPN‘s Jeff Passan has the big-league deal at an estimated $1.5MM, with Ken Rosenthal adding that the contract offers another $3.5MM in incentives.
Pomeranz, 30, was an All-Star for the San Diego Padres just two years ago, and following a deadline trade that carried him through a full season with the Boston Red Sox in 2017, he dazzled with a 17-6 record, 3.32 ERA, and 2.52 K/BB ratio in 32 starts. 2018 made for a much more frustrating story, however, as Pomeranz stumbled over a 6.08 ERA, 5.43 FIP, and 1.77 WHIP held up largely by a career-high average of 5.4 BB/9 in 11 starts and 15 relief appearances. Righties torched him to a .301/.401/.546 line, and his 2.00 WHIP in the first inning made for the third-worst in the American League.
Holland first came to the Giants on the heels of a similarly dreadful end to his career with the Texas Rangers, so there may be reason to believe the organization can steer Pomeranz in the right direction as well. That said, the current rotation doesn’t figure to include Pomeranz, and considering he lost both two mph in fastball velocity and practically all feel for his curveball, the odds are much slimmer – hence the short financial leash.
Reliever Market Set to Stir
In a final piece of news, there’s a chance that the acquisition of Pomeranz – especially following deals between the Los Angeles Angels and Cody Allen and New York Yankees and Adam Ottavino – is a sign of things to come regarding the current relief pitcher market. Jeff Passan writes that teams are expected to “comb the one-year market,” with such names as Ryan Madson and Brad Brach drawing particularly strong interest at this time.
Madson, 38, made 58 appearances last year between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers (his fourth-straight season of 55 or more appearances), struggling with a 5.47 ERA and 1.405 WHIP, though a 3.97 xFIP and 24.2% soft-contact rate suggest bad luck may have been a culprit. With a career-high 95.9 mph in average fastball velocity this past year, it’s safe to say Madson has something left in the tank.
Brach, 32, took a step back in 2018, as his 2.14 K/BB ratio made for his worst since 2013. That said, he definitely picked up the pieces after being traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Atlanta Braves at the July deadline. He lowered his walk and homer-rates from 4.4 and 0.9 to more tolerable figures at 3.4 and 0.4, respectively, while posting a 1.52 ERA. An All-Star setup man to Zach Britton as recently as 2016, Brach struggled largely due to a busted changeup at 4.6 runs below average. Over the prior three years, Brach had compiled 10 runs above average with the same pitch – good for 12th in the majors in that span.
Though a closer of Craig Kimbrel‘s stature, for example, may continue to wait out a more lucrative offer, it can be expected that some of the higher-quality setup men and/or specialists like Bud Norris, Adam Warren, Shawn Kelley, and Justin Wilson will receive similar interest in the coming weeks, assuming teams follow what their sources have indicated.
