The best remaining MLB free agents as camps open
The runners for the coming Major League Baseball season have been called to their starting blocks. Spring Training begins this coming week, and a number of teams (read, the Dodgers) are probably feeling pretty confident. However, dozens of MLB free agents are still without contracts, and perhaps it’s time to take a crack at the remaining players who could be signed earlier than later.
It’s OK to think of the following players as the “best” remaining, but it’s probably more accurate to think of them as the “most useful” or “best considering certain teams’ current circumstances.”
No. 1 Trevor Rosenthal
That Trevor Rosenthal is still unsigned at this point may seem mystifying, but it’s a matter of decent reasoning that Rosenthal and/or his agents are still seeking too much money. Clearly, a number of teams have been sniffing around the fire-balling reliever, and there are a number of articles floating around the internet about how important he could be to a team’s bullpen.
Among the MLB free agents left, Trevor Rosenthal is probably at the top of the pile.
Having apparently fully recovered from Tommy John surgery (finally), Rosenthal pitched well enough after being traded from Kansas City to San Diego last summer that Mike Petriello cautiously calls him, despite less than 24 innings last season, “the best remaining free-agent reliever” available.
And with writers implying that fans of the Phillies, Angels, Cubs, Royals, Padres, and Yankees would be delighted with Rosenthal, the begging question appears to be: Is he asking for just too much money for those ERA-perfect ten innings for San Diego?
Or is there some analytical something else? Recall, as Petriello recounts, that the 2019 season was a disaster for Rosenthal. This followed a year off following his TJ procedure. Was there something buried in his sparkling Padres performance that the film-and-data guys have unearthed?
This seems unlikely. It is quite difficult to post a 0.00 ERA for even one MLB game, let alone 10 innings spread out among nine games. Moreover, Rosenthal’s aggregate WHIP for his two teams last season was 0.845.
Trevor Rosenthal will be crossed off the MLB free agents list before Spring Training rolls very far along – or even starts.
No. 2 Taijuan Walker
Like Rosenthal, Taijuan Walker is seemingly recovered from a 2018 Tommy John procedure; like Rosenthal, Walker is a ranked among ESPN MLB free agents – he is 13 slots below Rosenthal’s no. 18. Unlike Rosenthal, Walker is a career-long starter.
This is for the benefit of East Coast fans, minus those in Toronto, since Walker pitched so long in MLB’s two western conferences, for Seattle and Arizona. The big right-hander, who leans heavily on his fastball, curve, and a newly adopted split-fingered pitch, posted a 4-3 record and 2.70 ERA between the Mariners and Blue Jays last season.
The split seems to have replaced his change-up, adding a wrinkle (he hopes) to a pitch thrown about as hard. Walker’s split and his change (which has been completely abandoned, according to Fangraphs) both clock speeds about five to six mph below his fastball.
That pitch has been a remarkably consistent 93-94 mph for the hurler’s entire career, including the shortened year of his surgery and the following, quite shortened campaign.
Entering his age-28 season, Walker seemingly projects as neither a rotation’s ace, nor its no. five starter. The most encouraging sign on the back of his baseball card is last season’s ERA, which included a 1.37 figure after his move into the AL East.
This would seem to argue for the Blue Jays re-signing Walker. His contract last season called for $2 million, so common sense would suggest a bit more is not nutty at all for the Jays.
However, Walker’s price tag might also make him the most attractive among all MLB free agents for a team like the Phillies, whose rotation is weakish once they pass Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler.
The Tigers are also supposedly interested in Walker.
No. 3 Jackie Bradley, Jr.
Jackie Bradley Jr. is out of sorts. And that’s not only because the acrobatic center fielder is still unsigned among this winter’s MLB free agents.
In the past couple of days, Bradley has notably posted a photo on Instagram, which has widely been seen as “sad,” even by headline writers. In it he is pictured with former, fellow Red Sox outfielders of the past, Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi. Betts and Benintendi were, of course, both lost via free agency to the Dodgers (Betts, last season) and the Royals (Benintendi, for the coming season).
With them all together, the Red Sox had a very fine defensive outfield, with both Bradley and Betts four points over the league fielding average for their careers, and Benintendi a point over. At one time, all three of them likely looked forward to working together for quite a while.
That was then. This is now.
And Bradley, despite an All-Star selection and Gold Glove on his career scoreboard, is still without a job.
But that isn’t the only thing Bradley is somewhat miffed about. Back in October, when an MLB.com writer rushed to the outfielder’s defense after he hadn’t even been nominated for a Gold Glove for the abbreviated season, Bradley sort of waved the writer’s argument away.
When Sam Dykstra pointed out JBJ’s “outs above average” figure, Jackie Jr. tweeted, “I just don’t understand, and I have yet to have anyone from any analytics department explain to me how they ‘calculate’ the ‘numbers’ or better yet how can you physically improve on them as a player….”
That’s a little like Lady Gaga saying, “You know, I’m not all that impressed with singers’ costumes.”
The latter part of Bradley’s remark deserves some further discussion someday, but it is also an indicator of, perhaps, a developing crustiness on the veteran’s part as he moves into his age-31 season. Also, maybe he’s feeling himself a little after his .283 batting average last season.
That was 16 points above his previous career high, and a full 44 points above his career BA.
The bottom line is that Jackie Bradley Jr. is a first-rate outfielder, one of those center fielders who shouldn’t have to move to left anytime soon, and perhaps he’s also learning to hit. (The jury’s out on all 2020 overachieving, MLB free agents until they all play something more like a full season.)
Jackie Bradley Jr. will be signed by someone. Book it.
No. 4 and No. 5: Jose Alvarez and Brad Miller
Moving along quickly in order to beat some signings, perhaps, here are two others in quick discussions who are likely be signed because neither is going to be outrageously expensive, and both are definitely useful.
As with all unsigned MLB free agents, one needs to ask why neither of these players is signed because Jose Alvarez’ numbers say he should get a job, and Brad Miller’s presumed price should get him a roster spot.
Alvarez, the former Tigers, Angels, and Phillies left-handed reliever, was struck in the groin last season by a vicious line drive, which ended his season after eight appearances.
He had posted a 1.42 ERA despite a 1.579 WHIP, but then Alvarez has always, seemingly, put a few too many people on base. His career WHIP is 1.336 WHIP, but his career ERA is 3.59, largely in the American League.
So, is Alvarez fully recovered from his injury? If he is, he deserves a contract. Men on base don’t bother him. He knows he’s not going to throw all that many pitches on any given day.
Brad Miller, to continue a dash to the finish and “predict” a signing, is likely to be signed fairly soon by the Phillies. The utility man played his last full season with the Phillies, and he garnered positive reviews after quite decent offensive numbers, including 12 home runs and a .941 OPS.
Miller also became a clubhouse favorite after bringing a bamboo plant into the dressing room to change the club’s luck (or some such similar nonsense that athletes enjoy – all such things are “you had to be there” sorts of occurrences, but that’s all good.)
If Miller comes off the MLB free agents list and ends up in Clearwater, FL for Phillies Spring Training, it should be expected that he will compete with Matt Joyce for the left-handed, bench-bat “position.”
Next. Turner back with Dodgers. dark
Oh, and to be perfectly honest, veteran writer Jim Salisbury is the one predicting this signing.