January 12th, 2021: LeMahieu, Chacin, Lyons, Cole, Prospects

Quick reminder: Friday is the open of the international signing period and also the deadline for teams and their arbitration-eligible players to submit salary figures. I’ll preview both events Friday. Just know there’s actual baseball news on the way, not that those are the most exciting events in the world. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Latest hot stove action. In normal times we would just now be entering the dog days of the offseason. With the exception of one or two stragglers, the top free agents would have signed by now, and teams would have handled their major business. That is certainly not the case this offseason. The tippy top free agents are all unsigned and there’s lots of work to be done around the league, and especially in the Bronx. Here are the latest hot stove developments and what they mean for the Yankees.

LeMahieu frustrated with slow negotiations

According to Tim Brown, DJ LeMahieu has “become dismayed by the slow-play tactics of the Yankees, along with other clubs,” and “asked his representatives to re-engage with teams that have previously shown the most interest.” Last we heard the Yankees and LeMahieu were one year and about $25M apart, though that was several weeks ago.

I’m sorry, but what exactly have LeMahieu and his representatives been doing these last few weeks if he’s just now instructing them to re-engage with interested teams? Just sitting around waiting for the Yankees to up their offer out of the kindness of their heart? That’s never going to happen. They won’t bid against themselves and this report pretty much confirms the Yankees have the best offer on the table, though it’s short of LeMahieu’s asking price.

This is the point of the slow-play negotiation tactics that have taken over MLB. Wait out the player and frustrate him until he takes your offer. The risk is you sour your relationship and push him elsewhere, but the Yankees have made it clear LeMahieu is their top priority. If he leaves, he’ll probably have to take less money to do so. This won’t be a Robinson Cano situation, where another team comes in with an offer far greater than what the Yankees have on the table.

My hope is this report means LeMahieu will sign soon. He’s frustrated and he doesn’t want to drag this out much longer, so a deal could come together quickly once his agent makes the rounds and finds no offer better than what the Yankees have put out there. We might soon hear the Yankees are shifting gears and showing interest in other infielders (Cesar Hernandez? Kolten Wong?), though that’s just part of the “negotiate through the media” game.

It is now mid January. Spring Training is less than five weeks away and the Yankees have done nothing to improve their roster this offseason (sorry, Greg Allen). They need a middle infielder, LeMahieu or otherwise, and at least one starting pitcher. I’d prefer two. From there, the Yankees could look into bench and bullpen upgrades, and overall depth additions. There’s still a lot of work to be done before pitchers and catchers report to Tampa.

I get LeMahieu’s frustration, I do, but the Yankees are so committed to re-signing him that they've passed on several Grade-A opportunities (Carlos Carrasco, Yu Darvish, Francisco Lindor, Lance Lynn, Tomoyuki Sugano, etc.) just to make sure they can afford him. The Yankees badly want LeMahieu back. They’re just not willing to pay more than necessary to make it happen. If LeMahieu wants to get them back to the table, he needs to find another offer that forces them to do so.

Nationals sign Schwarber

You can tell the Yankees are committed to their “we’re not doing anything until LeMahieu signs” strategy because they let Kyle Schwarber sign with another team (I kid, but only kinda). The Nationals signed Schwarber to a one-year deal worth $10M guaranteed over the weekend, the team announced. He gets $7M in 2021 with a $3M buyout of an $11M mutual option for 2022.

The Yankees have long liked Schwarber -- they wanted him in the Aroldis Chapman trade, not Gleyber Torres -- and they had some interest in him earlier this offseason, after the Cubs non-tendered him. Here’s what Schwarber said about the Yankees during his introductory conference call Saturday (via Peter Botte):

“I guess there was some interest there, there were some talks there early on, just checking in, things like that, seeing where I was at. But nothing really came to fruition there,” Schwarber said when asked about the Yankees on a Zoom call. “Obviously, the Yankees are the Yankees, and it would have been entertaining to hear what would have happened there and see if something could have happened. But it didn’t, and I’m really happy where I’m at.”

Schwarber said the Nationals were his “first choice” because he has a good relationship with manager Dave Martinez, who was the Cubs bench coach 2015-17. It doesn’t hurt that they’re expected to play him everyday, even against lefties, or that they’re paying him more than his $7.9M arbitration projection. (To be fair, 2020 threw a wrench into arbitration models, so $7.9M should be taken with a grain of salt.)

The Yankees have an open bench spot and, at best, Schwarber would’ve been a platoon left fielder and backup DH (and backup first baseman and emergency catcher?). Yes, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton get hurt a lot and injuries would open playing time for Schwarber, but he turns 28 in March and is trying to get his career back on track. “Sign with the Yankees and wait for someone to get hurt” isn't the best way to do that.

Could the Yankees have signed Schwarber and traded Clint Frazier for pitching? Of course. The problem is pretty much all the good trade candidate pitchers have been traded already (Carrasco, Darvish, Lynn, Blake Snell, etc.), and would the Yankees really spend $10M or so on a new left fielder? I think they’d sooner bring back Brett Gardner for half that.

Schwarber is a year removed from hitting .250/.339/.531 (120 wRC+) with 38 home runs, so he does possess considerable offensive upside. His defensive limitations made him a suboptimal fit for the roster though, and I feel like there are other quality lefty bats out available (Brad Miller, Tommy La Stella, etc.). Also, the Nationals offer a clearer path to playing time. Schwarber would have made sense with a different roster. Not so much with the 2021 Yankees.

Yankees sign Chacin

Say hello to the new depth starter. The Yankees have signed veteran righty Jhoulys Chacin to a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman. He’ll make $800,000 at the MLB level with another $200,000 in incentives. Chacin celebrated his 33rd birthday last Wednesday, then signed with the Yankees and became a U.S. citizen on Thursday. Not a bad 48 hours for him.

Chacin got into two games with the Braves last year, allowing four runs in five innings. In 2019, he pitched to a 6.01 ERA (5.88 FIP) with meh strikeout (21.5%), walk (9.8%), and ground ball (37.5%) rates in 103.1 innings. The rocket ball really did a number on him: 25 homers in those 103.1 innings. It works out to 2.18 HR/9 and 21.0% HR/FB. Eek.

Chacin was last an effective big leaguer with the Brewers in 2018, when he threw 192.2 innings with a 3.50 ERA (4.03 FIP) and again middling strikeout (19.6%), walk (9.8%), and ground ball (42.2%) rates. The home run rate was a much more normal 0.84 HR/9 (9.3% HR/FB). Chacin was Milwaukee’s No. 1 starter in 2018. By midseason 2019, they released him.

Earlier in his career Chacin threw a ton of four-seam fastballs while mixing in a few sinkers and sliders. As his career has progressed, his pitch selection has basically reversed. Now he throws a ton of sliders and sinkers, and only a few four-seamers (he uses a splitter as his primary offspeed pitch). Check it out:

Both fastballs sit right around 91 mph, and the slider sits in the low-80s with a good spin rate. Chacin has long had trouble with lefty batters, even during that 2018 season with the Brewers: .178/.244/.284 (.234 wOBA) against righties and .261/.351/.430 (.338 wOBA) against lefties that year. He’s had a similar split throughout his career.

Chacin had lower back and oblique problems in 2019, which may have contributed to his terrible season, then last year he barely got a look. As far as veteran starting pitchers on minor league contracts go, Chacin is about as good as it gets. Only two starters signed minor league deals last offseason and were above replacement level in 2020 (Tommy Milone and Trevor Cahill). Chacin has as good a chance to do it in 2021 as anyone.

The Yankees still need at least one (preferably two) big league starters. Someone they can comfortably plug into the rotation behind Gerrit Cole. Chacin is not that guy. He’s a roll of the dice for the back of the rotation, or maybe even as a swingman. He likely won’t turn back the clock to 2018 because that’s usually not how these things go, but it’s worth seeing what he’s got.

Yankees re-sign Lyons

Welcome back, Tyler Lyons. The Yankees have re-signed him, according to the official site. Safe to assume it's a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. Lyons is turning into the left-handed David Hale in that he always seems to find his way back to the Yankees on a minor league deal. This is three straight seasons they’ve signed him now.

Lyons, 33 next month, spent last season at the alternate site and did make one appearance with the Yankees (four runs in 1.2 innings). In 2019, he struck out 12 and allowed four runs in 8.2 innings, which was enough to land him on the postseason roster. Lyons faced five batters in the postseason, retired them all, four via strikeout. Huh. Who knew?

Anyway, I don’t have much to say about Lyons, who is trying to hang on as a lefty matchup guy in the three-batter minimum era. His fastball sits in the upper-80s and his bread and butter is a very high spin breaking ball he’ll throw anywhere from 75-82 mph. Decent depth arm to stash in Triple-A but probably not someone who should spend significant time on a contender’s roster.

The Yankees have now signed seven players to non-roster deals: Chacin, Lyons, lefty Nestor Cortes, outfielder Socrates Brito, utility man Andrew Velazquez, and righties Matt Bowman and Adam Warren. Bowman is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and will miss 2021.

2. Cole’s sticky situation. MLB’s latest cheating scandal has arrived, though I doubt it will resonate the same way as the sign-stealing scandal (it certainly hasn’t in the early days). Over the weekend Mike DiGiovanna (subs. req’d) reported on a lawsuit filed by a former Angels employee who alleges widespread foreign substance use that was ignored by the team.

Long story short, MLB issued a memo last February informing teams they will crack down on pitchers using illegal substances to improve their grip. Soon thereafter the Angels fired Brian “Bubba” Harkins, their visiting clubhouse manager, claiming he provided pitchers with illegal substances. Harkins responded with the lawsuit -- he doesn’t deny providing foreign substances, he just says he’s being made a “public scapegoat” -- and named names, and brought receipts.

Among the names: Gerrit Cole, Felix Hernandez, Corey Kluber, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright, and pretty much everyone who pitched for the Angels at some point in the last decade or so. A text message Cole sent Harkins in Jan. 2019 made it into DiGiovanna’s report:

“Hey Bubba, it’s Gerrit Cole, I was wondering if you could help me out with this sticky situation,” the pitcher wrote, adding a wink emoji. “We don’t see you until May, but we have some road games in April that are in cold weather places. The stuff I had last year seizes up when it gets cold.”

Gerrit, dude, if you’re going to break the rules, don’t leave a paper trail and definitely don’t use your real name in the text message. For such a smart guy, that was pretty dumb.

Anyway, it is an open secret many pitchers use something to improve their grip. It is against the rules, but MLB has left enforcement up to the teams, and teams rarely call each other on it because every club has pitchers who use something, and no one wants to open that can of worms. Michael Pineda was called on it a few years ago only because it was so blatant. Use illegal substances The Right Way and everyone will let it slide.

The timing of MLB’s memo leads me to believe the league was trying to avoid another cheating scandal so soon after the sign-stealing scandal, and now that the lawsuit is public knowledge and everyone knows what’s going on (there’s no chance Harkins was the only person employed by an MLB team giving pitchers foreign substances), rule changes could be forthcoming.

Cracking down on foreign substances and enforcing the current rule is one option, though I’m not sure it’s all that realistic. Not sure you can take grip enhancers away from a generation of pitchers who grew up with them. This isn’t one or two bad apples. It’s a significant chunk of the league. The toothpaste is already out of the tube. (Also, do we really want to slow the game down even more with umpires checking for foreign substances regularly?)

The best solution is using a sticky ball like Japan. Nippon Pro Baseball baseballs are tackier than MLB baseballs and provide a better grip. Pitchers don’t need foreign substances in NPB. From what I understand, MLB has looked into a sticky ball at various points but has not yet found a ball to its liking (or its specifications). Maybe they’re still working on it. I dunno.

Absent a sticky ball, I think the best solution is approving some foreign substances. Pitchers are going to use them, so rather than look the other way and hope fans don’t notice or care, MLB can make certain substances legal. Harkins says he had a special mix of pine tar and rosin. Maybe that’s over the line, but the BullFrog sunscreen many pitchers use? Sure, why not.

I’m on the fence about approving foreign substances. On one hand, pitchers are going to use something to improve their grip no matter the rule, and making certain substances legal is the easiest way to avoid a scandal. Some hitters say they’re fine with pitchers using substances because it improves their grip and reduces the risk of hit-by-pitches, so who am I to argue? (I wonder whether that’s true, or just them trying to cover for friends and teammates.)

On the other hand, do we really want to give pitchers even more of an advantage? Pitching is so outrageously good these days. It seems like every team has four or five guys who throw in the upper-90s with wicked breaking balls. The league average strikeout rate was 23.4% in 2020. It was the 13th consecutive season MLB set a new strikeout rate record. Do we really want to give pitchers another advantage? Hitting is hard enough.

I guess the counterargument is many pitchers are already using something to improve their grip, so that’s already baked into the strikeout rate cake. Approve select substances and level the playing field (in theory, anyway). We’ll see what MLB does. Now that his lawsuit is public, I don’t think the league can handle this behind closed doors, which is what they tried to do initially with the memo.

3. Remembering a random Yankee: Brennan Boesch. This week’s random Yankee comes by request and was one of a then-franchise record 56 different players to suit up for the 2013 Yankees. Here's the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Following three productive seasons at Cal Berkeley, the Tigers made Boesch their third round pick in 2006, and it took him less than four years to reach the big leagues. He made his debut in April 2010 and was very good, so good he won Rookie of the Month in his first two months as a big leaguer. Boesch finished the year with 14 homers, tops among American League rookies.

That performance earned Boesch a full-time lineup spot in 2011 and he was very good, at least until a torn ligament in his hand ended his season in August. Two years into his career, Boesch was a .269/.330/.436 hitter with 30 homers. Things didn’t go well in 2012, however. Boesch hit .240/.286/.372 with 12 homers, and gradually lost playing time to Andy Dirks and Avisail Garcia.

Detroit signed Torii Hunter in Nov. 2012 and they committed to Dirks in 2013. That cost Boesch his roster spot. The Tigers released him on March 13th, 2013 -- the timing of the release meant they only owed him 30 days termination pay of his $2.3M salary -- and the Yankees wasted no time picking him up. They signed him to a $1.5M Major League deal the very next day.

“I wasn’t looking at depth charts or opportunities. When my agent told me (the Yankees) were interested, I told him to get it done and I’m here,” Boesch told Dan Martin at the time. “They were definitely the first team on my list … (The Tigers) did me a favor.”

The Yankees signed Boesch because they were getting hit hard by injuries. J.A. Happ broke Curtis Granderson's forearm with a pitch a few weeks earlier and Mark Teixeira tore the tendon sheath in his wrist a few days earlier. Boesch was freely available, optionable to Triple-A, and his pull heavy lefty swing suggested he could take advantage of the short porch. It was an obvious fit.

“I feel there’s nothing but upside. The only downside is wasting time and a small amount of money,” Brian Cashman told Martin. “... Gene Michael taught me to sift through the nuggets and separate the gold from the rest of the debris. We’re trying to get as much sifting as we can get and hopefully run into some gold.”

Then 28, Boesch made the 2013 Opening Day roster and was used in a strict fourth outfielder’s role early on. Vernon Wells, Brett Gardner, and Ichiro Suzuki were the starting outfield in April. Boesch made his Yankees debut in the second game of the season -- he pinch-hit for Chris Stewart late in a blowout loss -- and he started only five of the team’s first 18 games.

Boesch hit his first home run as a Yankee on April 9th, late in a blowout win (video), and his second on April 28th (video). That one opened the scoring in an eventual one-run win. If Boesch had a signature moment as a Yankee, it came on May 8th. He drove in the game-winning run in the top of the ninth inning against the Rockies with a pinch-hit infield single (video). (That was the game Wells played third base.)

"I thought I was safe," Boesch told the Associated Press about barely beating out the play to get the winning run run home. "But I kind of lost my balance trying to run as hard as I could and I had that really pretty crash landing. I don't think (then-rookie Nolan Arenado) has been in the league very long so maybe I think he thought he had more time.”

Boesch remained with the Yankees until May 13th, when he was sent down to make room for Granderson’s return. He’d been 9-for-43 (.209) with two homers on the season up to that point. The Triple-A stint didn’t last long. Boesch returned to the Yankees on May 24th, after an errant pitch broke Granderson’s hand. He went 5-for-28 (.179) in seven Triple-A games in the interim.

It didn’t take long for Boesch to make an impact. In his first at-bat back, he dunked a pinch-hit double into left field to score a ninth inning run against Fernando Rodney and the Rays (video). The double got the Yankees to within one, then Gardner drove in Boesch with a single to tie the game. The Yankees went on to win the game in extra innings on a Lyle Overbay homer.

Four days later, Boesch had his best individual game as a Yankee, going 3-for-4 with a homer in a loss to the Mets. He went 1-for-3 the next day, then was sent back to Triple-A to make room for Andy Pettitte, who returned from injury. On June 5th, Boesch went 1-for-2 with a double in his first Triple-A game since the demotion. He also tore something in his shoulder in that game.

The shoulder injury sent Boesch to what was then called the disabled list. He never did play another game in the Yankees organization. They released him on July 19th to clear a 40-man roster spot for Brent Lillibridge. All told, Boesch hit .275/.302/.529 (125 wRC+) with three home runs in 53 plate appearances as a Yankee. The total contribution was +0.1 WAR.

"The Yankees' decision to release Brennan Boesch is a matter of timing, not talent," Boesch’s agent told Jon Heyman after he was released. "Brennan's rehab on his shoulder is going well and he expects to be full strength and able to make a meaningful contribution to a Major League team in August."

Another Major League opportunity never came in 2013. Boesch went unsigned the rest of the year, played winter ball in the Dominican Republic to show he was healthy, then signed a minor league deal with the Angels in Jan. 2014. He spent most of that season in Triple-A -- Boesch went 14-for-75 (.187) with the Halos -- then spent most of 2015 in Triple-A with the Reds.

The Red Sox signed Boesch to a minor league deal in Jan. 2016 and he had the inside track on an Opening Day roster spot, but he broke his wrist on a shoestring catch gone wrong in Spring Training, taking him out of the running for a bench job. “I'm very disappointed for him,” Red Sox coach Torey Lovullo told Paul Hagen following the game.

Boesch returned to action in late June and finished out the season in Triple-A. He announced his retirement in Jan. 2017, at age 31. Boesch retired as a .250/.303/.400 (89 wRC+) hitter with 48 homers in 481 big league games (23 games as a Yankee). Not sure what he’s up to these days. I looked. Couldn’t find anything.

4. Rapid fire thoughts. Baseball Prospectus (subs. req’d) released their top 10 Yankees prospects list last week. The entire thing is behind the paywall, so I can’t give too much away, but two things caught my eye. First, the write-up says outfielder Kevin Alcantara, my preseason No. 10 prospect, began “controlling the zone better while cutting down on the big movements in his swing” and it is “now more repeatable and plays much better against all pitch types.” No idea how that can be confirmed seeing how Alcantara was not even at the alternate site last year, but it sounds good to me. Among position players, I think Alcantara has the highest upside in the farm system behind Jasson Dominguez. And second, catcher Josh Breaux, my preseason No. 26 prospect, was “showing improvements across the board defensively” last year, while “fine-tuning his swing mechanics to try and cut down on inconsistencies and whiffs, which has so far been positive.” I assume those notes stem from his quick five-game stint with the Eastern Reyes del Tigre of the independent Constellation Energy League, otherwise who knows? I worry reports like these from the alternate site or "home" workouts will be like the “best shape of his life” or “he’s added a new pitch” or “he’s tweaked his swing” reports we see every Spring Training. The reports that get everyone excited because so and so may be improving, and then it doesn’t amount to anything and he’s the same player as always. I guess we’ll find out eventually … Baseball America (subs. req’d) published their first 2021 mock draft recently. They have the Pirates taking Vanderbilt righty Kumar Rocker with the No. 1 pick. With the No. 20 pick, they have the Yankees taking Georgia righty Jonathan Cannon. Here’s a snippet of the write-up:

He has a silky smooth, effortless delivery and a 6-foot-6 frame that screams upside. While he was used strictly as a reliever in the shortened 2020 season, he should take a prominent role in Georgia's rotation after RHPs Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox left for the draft. He’s thrown just 11.1 collegiate innings, but if he handles a starting role this spring, he could easily fit in the first round.

Needless to say, the draft is still months away and a lot will change between now and then, so I wouldn’t get too caught up in mock drafts right now. The Yankees have gotten away from their Southern California affinity in recent years and now target prospects who check the analytical boxes, like Clarke Schmidt and his spin rates, or Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells and their exit velocities. MLB.com ranks Cannon the No. 27 prospect in the draft class and he’s supposedly a big fastball spin rate guy, so I guess he fits in that sense ... And finally, Bob Nightengale reports commissioner Rob Manfred told owners "they should be preparing for Spring Training to start on time in February and to plan on a full 162-game season being played." I'm not sure what else Manfred is supposed to tell them, honestly. The MLBPA is not going to agree to delay the season without full pay, and a government ordered shutdown isn't happening. Hopefully this means MLB and MLBPA will get serious about finalizing the rules -- with the pandemic still raging, seven-inning doubleheaders and the extra-innings rule figure to stick around in 2021 -- and teams will start signing free agents since they, you know, have to field teams.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)