MLB Trade Rumors and News: White Sox sign Keuchel, Twins bring on Clippard

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• Julio Teheran had spent his entire career up until this offseason with the Atlanta Braves. While there had been an outside chance that he would still end up back in Atlanta, that chance is now gone as he signed a one year deal with the Angels where he seems like a really good fit.
• The White Sox have signed Dallas Keuchel to a three-year deal with a vesting option for 2023, per report. The southpaw will be making $55.5M over the course of those three years, with that extra vesting year potentially bringing him up to $74M. Not a bad pay raise, if you ask me. the 2015 Cy Young winner will sure to give a very lack luster AL Central a jolt of energy. Hopefully that same energy can be found in the White Sox lineup. While the start is admirable and exciting, Chicago has much more work ahead of them if they want to even breathe in the direction of a pennant race.
• The Brewers are in a weird spot as a team, but at the very least they have replaced Eric Thames on the roster. Justin Smoak, another guy with a questionable hit tool but real power, inked a deal with the team that guaranteed to be at least one year and worth $5 million with a club option for 2021.
• Former Phillies’ third baseman Maikel Franco has gone from a promising young player to, well, not in the span of about five seasons. After decent seasons in 2015 and 2016, Franco has fallen off in a pretty significant way and the Phillies finally parted ways with him this offseason. He now has a new team as the Royals signed him to a one year, $3 million deal.
• The Twins have signed Tyler Clippard to one-year deal, per the team’s statement. While the move is less than groundbreaking by any means, Clippard provides a high reward at a very little cost for Minnesota. He’ll also bring the trademarked “veteran bullpen presence” to the team, while tossing lefty batters to the club like he did last season. And lets be real, all one-year deals are pretty decent deals, right?
• The Cardinals have experienced quite a bit of success finding players in East Asia since the turn of the century, with So Taguchi, Seung-hwan Oh, and Miles Mikolas among the players they’ve brought stateside. They’ll hope to find similar success with their latest move, as they’ve signed 31-year-old lefty Kwang-hyun Kim to a two-year, $8 million deal. Kim posted a 3.27 career ERA over 12 seasons with SK Wyverns of the KBO.
• Avisail Garcia had himself quite the year with Rays last season as he posted a near .800 OPS. He is now betting on himself again to get an even bigger deal down the line, signing a two-year deal with the Brewers worth around $20 million. It sounds like the plan is that he wanted a shorter deal so that he can hit the market sooner rather than later and land an even bigger deal. One has to appreciate the confidence here.
• We ask about the Mets a lot but mostly it’s concerning what they’re doing. This has not stopped this offseason, or even for matters not concerning baseball. What is even happening with this Mets holiday video? Happy Holidays and remember this in therapy.
• Just a few years ago, this would have been a much bigger signing as Sergio Romo was one the better relievers in baseball. However, at 37 years old, Romo still did quite well for himself as he got a deal with the Twins for one year and $5 million with a club option that could net him as much as $10 million.
• Madison Bumgarner and the Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to five year, $85M deal. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic notes that the Giants’ new and controversial manager, coconut oil-loving Gabe Kapler, hadn’t even spoken to MadBum as of the Winter Meetings, a telltale sign that the World Series champion wouldn’t be back in San Francisco. Now this opens up a whole new marketing for the Diamondbacks, who are incredibly self serving. They could very well deal Robbie Ray at a higher cost than before do to the sheer amount of pitchers who’ve gone off the market in the past week. Genius? Perhaps. Oh, and did I mention that $15M of that is in deferred payments? Evil genius.
• Rather than go for the splashy moves that they did last offseason, the Mets have been far more measured this offseason. Case in point: to help shore up their rotation, the team signed Rick Porcello, known innings eater, to a one-year, $10 million deal. Again, not earth shattering, but his addition does soften the loss of Zack Wheeler to free agency a little bit.
• The Marlins are attempting to make some postseason waves this winter in trying to work out a contract with catcher Francisco Cervelli, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Cervelli only saw 48 games for the Pirates and Braves last season due to concussion symptoms, an ongoing issue that would be the biggest cause of concern for Miami. However that doesn’t negate any stats the veteran catcher slashed before that, hitting .259/.378/.431 with 12 homers over 404 plate appearances for Pittsburgh in 2018. He would be a quick grab for the Marlins, and with a scarcity of decent catchers on this year’s market, they better get this show on the road.
• Yoenis Cespedes has agreed to a heavily restructured contract with Mets. This comes after the Mets attempted to withhold salary from him and potentially void his contract as a whole. Cespedes missed most of the 2019 season after fracturing his ankle on his farm...a few months after having a double ankle surgery that made him miss the latter half of 2018. It seems the negotiations ended without too much carnage, as the Mets have toned down their “I’ll turn this contract around” drama and Cespedes has agreed that maybe he shouldn’t have been taking his horse down Cespedes Ranch Road while two of his vital joints were still vulnerable. He’ll be getting a contract makeover that includes a serious pay cut. Moral of the story? Don’t fall into holes.
• Anthony Rendon was the best position player among the free agent class this offseason. The “was” is an important word there as the Angels were able to close a deal with him worth $245 million over the next seven seasons. If the Angels get a bit more pitching, they could make a lot of noise next season and beyond.
• Josh Lindblom has twice taken his talents overseas to play baseball. Over the last couple of seasons, he had fashioned himself into one of the best pitchers in Korea and now, he can now enjoy the fruit of that labor in the majors. The Brewers inked Lindblom to a three-year deal worth at least $9.125 million with incentives that could net him significantly more cash. Never give up on your dreams, kids.
• Our Andersen Pickard is examining the players selected in this year’s Rule 5 draft. Don’t think the Rule 5 draft is important? (Or don’t know what it is?) Consider this: Johan Santana, Dan Uggla, and Shane Victorino were all Rule 5 draft picks, so yes, it does matter.
• Not much about Tanner Roark’s last couple of seasons really jumps off the page and makes you think that he is a guy that should be making eight figures a year. However, that is exactly what he got as he signed a two-year, $24 million deal with the Blue Jays.
• This offseason’s biggest free agent found a new home during the Winter Meetings, as Gerrit Cole agreed to a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees. Cole’s contract is the largest ever for a pitcher — breaking the record that Stephen Strasburg set just over a day earlier — and the second-largest overall in MLB history, trailing only the $330 million deal Bryce Harper signed last offseason.
• Didi Gregorius decided to bet on himself (albeit in a rather lucrative fashion), agreeing to a one-year, $14 million contract with the Phillies. Sir Didi will look to re-establish himself as one of the better shortstops in the majors after a down 2019 season that was partially wiped out by his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and he’ll reunite with his former manager Joe Girardi.
• After successfully flipping reclamation project Drew Pomeranz at the trade deadline last season, the Giants found themselves another starter to try to rehab and perhaps flip in 2020, signing Kevin Gausman to a one-year deal worth $9 million plus up to $1 million in incentives. While Gausman struggled in 2019, he has a big arm and his peripheral numbers were actually pretty good, so he’s at least worth taking a gamble on.
• The Gausman deal wasn’t the only interesting thing the Giants did at the Winter Meetings, as they also acquired veteran infielder Zack Cozart and, more significantly, 2019 Angels first-rounder Will Wilson from the Halos in exchange for cash considerations. By taking on the remaining $12.67 million on Cozart’s deal, the Giants effectively buy themselves the No. 15 pick in this year’s draft, and it’s perhaps still possible that they’ll also be able to get some value out of the former All-Star after two down seasons in Anaheim.
• Some pretty big news here regarding how MLB’s drug policy will be changing: MLB will now provide treatment for opioids and other drugs instead of punishment. Minor leaguers, God willing there are still any left, will also no longer be tested for marijuana. One small step for man, one giant leap for keeping baseball players safe and sticking to what matters: helping someone get through a potential drug problem rather than blindly harming them.
• Did... did the Mets do something right? New York is bringing back Brad Brach (say that ten times fast) on a one year, $850,000 deal. Spending time with two different clubs last season, the 33-year-old found the most success in Queens, posting a 3.68 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP while striking out 15 over 14.2 innings — a stark contrast to the 6.13 ERA over 42 innings with the Cubs earlier in the season. The Mets’ bullpen is in desperate need of resurrection, and with a contract that is almost entirely incentive based, Brach is a decent foundation to try to revamp that on.
• The Braves have stayed active throughout this offseason, and that continued when they signed veteran Cole Hamels to a one year, $18 million deal. There is not really such a thing as a bad one-year deal, and Hamels definitely has a pedigree that seems worth taking a chance on, but $18 million for a guy that is pretty clearly on the decline does carry some risk.