The turnover is great in the majors.
There were 380 players who appeared in a game in 2022 who did not register an inning in 2023.
Some of those were players lost to injuries for the entirety of the season who should be back next year, such as Walker Buehler, Edwin Diaz, Rhys Hoskins and Gavin Lux.
There also were retirements for players such as certain Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, probable Hall of Famer Yadier Molina and players somewhere lower on the career food chain such as Lorenzo Cain, Jed Lowrie and David Phelps.
But for this week’s “Roster stuff maybe only I notice,” I wanted to highlight 10 players who were out of sight and maybe fell out of mind because they did not play in 2023. But when I saw the name again, it kindled something:
1. Chris Archer: He turned 35 last month. He made 25 starts last year for the Twins, but totaled just 102 2/3 innings and registered a 4.56 ERA. There was some talk early in the season about the righty latching on somewhere. But he never did.
2. Pedro Baez: The guy most emblematic of taking too long to deliver a pitch, never made it back in the year the majors instituted a pitch clock.
3. Zack Britton: Remember all the noise late in the offseason that the Mets needed to add another lefty reliever and about Britton because he had once been a star for Buck Showalter in Baltimore. Well, the Mets never signed him — nor did anyone else. He turns 36 in December.
4. Robinson Cano: His 10-year contract concluded with the end of the season, removing the albatross from the Mets’ payroll. It is probably safe to assume his career is over, which would mean one year down on the five needed before Cano becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame. How much support will one of the most productive second basemen ever receive after two PED-related suspensions?
5. Didi Gregorius: He is not even 34 yet. He signed a two-year, $28 million contract with the Phillies following his first season in Philadelphia in 2020. He played in all 60 games in the pandemic campaign with a 120 OPS-plus. He fell apart after that, managing to produce a 68 OPS-plus between 2021-22 before being released on Aug. 2 last year. The Phillies went on to win the NL pennant with Edmundo Sosa and Bryson Stott playing shortstop. Gregorius signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in June, but never made it back to The Show.
6. Michael Pineda: The righty made 11 starts with a 5.79 ERA for the Tigers in 2022. He also is just 34 (he turns 35 in January). Despite the dearth of starting pitching in the majors, he did not resurface this year.
7. David Price: He never announced his retirement, but it was understood when he didn’t sign last offseason that he was basically done. Price had produced a 2.45 ERA in 40 relief appearances for the Dodgers in 2022. An overall No. 1 pick in 2007, Price won a Cy Young Award and finished second twice.
8. Miguel Sano: In the international signing period of 2009, the two big hauls were Sano getting $3.15 million from the Twins and Gary Sanchez signing for $3 million with the Yankees. And they both enjoyed early success. Sano beat Sanchez in the 2017 Home Run Derby before losing in the finals to Aaron Judge. Sano hit 77 homers from 2019-21 (16th most in the majors). But the game was shifting away from all-or-nothing, unathletic types such as Sano and Sanchez. He batted .083 in 60 at-bats in 2022, tore his meniscus and has not played since. He is younger than Michael Conforto and Kyle Schwarber.
9. Justus Sheffield: Remember when the Yankees were saying Sheffield was as big a piece to them as Clint Frazier in their trade of Andrew Miller to the Guardians? But in parts of five seasons from 2018-22, Sheffield could not establish himself as a starter or a reliever. He pitched in the Mariners and Braves systems this year in his age-27 season, never making it back to the majors.
10. Andrelton Simmons: He seemed like the type who would stick around for a long time because his glove at shortstop was so dynamic. But his defense slipped some and his offense just kept getting worse and worse. It was defense in particular that allowed Simmons to rank ninth in Wins Above Replacement (Baseball Reference) from 2013-18, coming in between Cano and Jose Altuve. He would have played at 33 this year had he played in the majors.
Whose career do you got?
I want to admit upfront to you fine folks that I am not exactly sure where I am going with this, but as I watched the first two rounds of the playoffs, I kept wondering whether Kyle Schwarber is the healthier, lefty version of Giancarlo Stanton — albeit with extra points because he is so much a part of the leadership fabric for the Phillies in a way that Stanton is not for the Yankees.
Stanton came up as a good hitter, not just a good power hitter. Don Mattingly, Stanton’s manager with the Marlins when he won the 2017 NL MVP and now a coach with the Blue Jays, mentioned to me recently that Stanton was an adept hitter in that time in Miami. Stanton hit .268 in eight seasons with the Marlins and actually batted .266 in his first Yankees season.
When the Cubs used the fourth overall pick in 2014 on Schwarber, they believed they were drafting a complete hitter with power. That never really has been the case, but his sinking batting average, high strikeouts and lots of homers have become greater than ever in two years with the Phillies.
In the past two years, only Aaron Judge (99) has more homers than Schwarber’s 93, and no one has more strikeouts than Schwarber’s 415. His batting average in that time is .207. And, like Stanton, his outfield defense is poor enough that he is best used as a DH.
Schwarber has way more plate appearances (3,968) in his entire career than Stanton has since he joined the Yankees in 2018 (2,317). But their OPS-plus for those periods are an identical 121. Schwarber has averaged a homer every 16.13 plate appearances, Stanton as a Yankee every 17.16. Schwarber has struck out in 28.6 percent of his plate appearances, Stanton as a Yankee in 29.3 percent.
And both have been clutch postseason performers. In 59 postseason games, Schwarber has 16 homers — including a leadoff blast in Monday night’s NLCS Game 1 — and an .852 OPS. In 27 postseason games, Stanton has 11 homers and a .963 OPS.
But Schwarber plays — 155 games last year and 160 this year in his age-30 season. Stanton appeared in 110 games last year and 101 this year in his age-33 season.
Being younger plus the durability, the left-handedness and the leadership gives Schwarber the edge. But there is a lot of Stanton in Schwarber’s game.
My totally made-up trade
Brandon Drury and Patrick Sandoval for Brett Baty and Jose Butto
So I guess I have to do this again: THIS IS A MADE-UP TRADE.
This is designed to 1) highlight some areas of need for teams, 2) discuss who might be available and why and 3) have some fun. You know, fun. The emotion we had before the internet.
For the record, I do not have a pro scouting department and analytics wing providing input.
Anyway, I offer this proposal because one veteran agent told me recently that if the Angels do not re-sign Shohei Ohtani, he believed they would pivot and become sellers. I have difficulty seeing that under owner Arte Moreno. He has never seemed the type to face the reality of his roster or to be able to play three-dimensional chess.
But the Angels are a team that should be in rebuild mold. They can’t do that if they retain Ohtani — there is no sense to spend what it would take to keep him and then not try to win. However, even an Angels roster with Ohtani is likely to be no better than the fourth-best in the AL West behind the Astros, Rangers and Mariners — just like it was this year.
The Angels are at a decade-plus of conning themselves with a high-priced, star-driven philosophy that has been a lot of money for nothing for players such as Josh Hamilton, C.J. Wilson, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon. The Angels have persistently lacked depth and enough quality pitching. Nothing has changed.
They are tied with the Tigers for the majors’ longest active playoff drought (since 2014), and I would argue they are closer to being a strong contender by tearing it down now than by continuing to try to upgrade by spending at the margins. And in many ways they have pieces right now that they may be able to obtain $1.25 for $1 worth of talent.
But first let’s deal with the gorilla in the room. Mike Trout has seven years at $248.15 million left on his contract. He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retires today. But if he is a free agent today, he is not getting close to seven years at $248.15 million. Not entering his age-32 season. Not when he has played fewer than 50 percent of games over the past three years combined. Not when his strikeout rates are climbing and the impact of his speed has all but vanished.
He is now a distressed asset. The Angels would have to eat some contract to make him appealing in a trade and/or take on a bad contract(s) and/or tie a prospect to him. And that is all assuming he would waive his no-trade clause. I have seen some speculation about him going to the Phillies, the team for which he rooted growing up. Phillies owner John Middleton has shown a penchant for the big move, and to have Trout and Bryce Harper in the same lineup all these years later would be great theater.
Trout is likely to be a more productive player than Nick Castellanos. But would I rather have Castellanos at $60 million over three years or Trout at $248.15 million over seven? If it was Castellanos and Kyle Schwaber for a combined $100 million, again, I think I would just rather have both of their bats for the next few years than Trout as he ages toward 40. Want to throw in the three years at $54 million owed Taijuan Walker? Again, you might make a case that Castellanos, Schwarber or Walker are overpaid. But, if so, not obscenely. They each have value to the Phillies, though they might like to reallocate Walker’s dollars for a different pitcher next year. But, again, he is not a horribly distressed asset. The Phillies can be very comfortable with having Castellanos, Schwarber and Walker next season.
So why don’t we assume Trout will be back with the Angels, as will Rendon, who has three years at $114 million left and has lost so much in ability and reputation during his seven-year, $245 million deal that I do not believe he would get two years at $14 million on the open market.
So let’s focus on what the Angels could move.
Drury is owed $8.5 million for 2024. He offers some power and the ability to play multiple positions, and has a cumulative 118 OPS-plus over the past three seasons. In our made-up trade, I would imagine Drury playing third base for the Mets next season. I could imagine him playing regularly at a bunch of different positions for a lot of teams. He is not a star, but a strong complementary player for a contender.
Then we come to starting pitching. The Angels probably would love to move the two years at $26 million owed to Tyler Anderson. And the starting pitching need is so great that it is in play. Anderson pitched well in 2022 for the Dodgers (2.57 ERA). So some team good at maximizing pitching might ignore his 5.43 ERA with the Angels, who are not known for getting the best out of personnel.
But Anderson will not return much. So that brings us to Sandoval, Reid Detmers and Griffin Canning. Now, these are just the type of pitchers — with lots of time until free agency with perhaps some more ceiling to reach — whom the Angels should be looking to obtain rather than to deal.
But let’s return to this: The starting pitching need is great. The free-agent market worsened in recent months with, among other things, Ohtani certain not to pitch next year after Tommy John surgery and Julio Urias’ playing future in doubt as he is investigated for alleged domestic violence.
So if you have young controllable starters, you should be able to maximize return in this offseason market. Because we are talking about the Mets as the kind of team who would be interested in this type of starter, here comes a bit of wow: Acquiring Sandoval, Canning and Detmers stand as among the best moves of Billy Eppler’s five years as Angels GM.
Sandoval was obtained from the Astros for Martin Maldonado in July 2018. Canning was a second-round pick in 2017. Detmers was Eppler’s final first-round pick in 2020.
Sandoval had a disappointing season in 2023, and if the Mets are giving up Baty, they probably would want Detmers. But if Detmers got on the market, there would be a real frenzy for a lefty who will pitch at 24 next year, is not yet arbitration-eligible and struck out 26.1 percent of the batters he faced in 2023. Teams would imagine what could be done with him within a high-end pitching program.
Again, I do not imagine Moreno would be imaginative enough to see whether he could build an elite farm system by using these starters at the same time he was running out Rendon’s albatross contract. And if he did, the Mets would have all kinds of competition for these pitchers.
But the Mets now have prospect depth. Internally, do they truly believe that Baty will be a third baseman, or is he destined for first base or the outfield? If so, even if it is not Sandoval, will they use him at some point soon in a trade?
Can they use Butto, Tylor Megill or David Peterson in deals because they believe a next generation with Dominic Hamel, Christian Scott, Tyler Stuart, Blade Tidwell and Mike Vasil is about to become useful — or more — in the major leagues.
It is part of a question the Mets have to ask and answer: Do they want to begin to use their prospect base yet to upgrade the major league club? And, if so, how deeply will they cut?
Last licks
I wonder whether Brandon Woodruff’s injury that might cost him all of next season now makes it much more likely that Corbin Burnes is put on the trade market by the Brewers.
Let’s try a line of thinking: By having Burnes and Woodruff plus Freddy Peralta, the Brewers have had a trio of starters who gave them not just a chance in the NL Central, but a belief they could win playoff rounds.
Even with everyone healthy, the Brewers were going to face questions about what to do with their three big players who would enter their walk years in 2024: Burnes, Woodruff and shortstop Willy Adames.
The Brewers operate in a market and under the kind of budget that means they must be proactive in this area. So even in that healthy scenario, the Brewers might have traded one or two or all three players.
But with Woodruff having suffered a tear in the anterior capsule of his throwing shoulder with an expectation he will miss most of next season at minimum, the Brewers’ chances to win in 2024 diminished.
Does that just push them to take a step back next year to build for a better near future?
As mentioned in the previous item, teams are going to be hungering for difference-making starting pitchers. The Mets, Dodgers, Cardinals, Red Sox and others might need multiple starters. Burnes is one of the majors’ best pitchers. Even for just one year of his services, the Brewers could instigate a bidding war to get a strong return. And if they are going to do that, they might as well deal Adames, too.
Would that level of sell-off — if that is what Milwaukee is planning — do anything to motivate manager Craig Counsell not to return as manager, when industry speculation continues to run strongly that he will ultimately follow David Stearns from the Brewers to the Mets?
That is something to keep an eye on. Also, it will be interesting to see whether the Brewers even tender a contract to Woodruff. If he will hardly pitch next year and then be a free agent, why would Milwaukee pay him roughly $10 million? Perhaps a two-year deal could be worked out in which Woodruff rehabs next season and then returns in 2025 to re-establish himself for the free-agent market.
But what the Brewers decide to do with Burnes — who is likely to finish in the top seven of NL Cy Young voting for a fourth straight year — is the most compelling issue.
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