Be honest: you didn’t think A.J. Preller was done with headline-making this offseason, did you? The Padres have built a team through outrageous swings — trades that no one else in baseball would attempt and free-agent signings that make opposing teams whine with envy. After signing Xander Bogaerts earlier this offseason, though, it seemed like even Preller might be out of moves. There was no one left to sign, no one left to trade for.

The joke’s on us, though, because the Padres found a new way to make news: they signed Yu Darvish to a six-year extension worth $108 million, as MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reported. The deal replaces the final year of his existing contract, which would have ended after this year. Instead of hitting free agency, Darvish will remain a Padre, presumably for life at this point.

Darvish has long been one of my favorite pitchers thanks in large part to his dizzying array of pitches. He threw six different ones at least 5% of the time last year and even dabbled with two more. Six pitches, six years: I know an article setup when I see one. If you’ll indulge me in some gratuitous gif-posting, I’ll walk you through six ways to think about this contract. Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 1011

This week, we sit down with one of the bright baseball minds in Baltimore before getting our lead prospect analyst’s backstory.

• At the top of the show, David Laurila welcomes Sig Mejdal, vice president and assistant general manager of the Baltimore Orioles. Mejdal tells us about breaking into baseball with the Cardinals, and what his day-to-day with Mike Elias and former podcast guest Eve Rosenbaum is like. Mejdal also shares his thoughts on analytics and data, and what his team of analysts are working on in Baltimore. Finally, David asks about spending a season in the minors, seeing Albert Pujols in his prime, and how difficult it was to trade Trey Mancini. [3:32]
• After that, Ben Clemens is joined by Eric Longenhagen for the latest edition of FanGraphs Backstories. Eric tells us about interning with his hometown IronPigs, taking up writing because he got mono, working at Baseball Info Solutions, and eventually ending up at FanGraphs. Ben also asks Eric about his favorite baseball memories, which include dressing up as Mark McGwire for Halloween and going to Veterans Stadium for his first major league game. The duo also discuss the Super Bowl being in Arizona and how going to Eagles training camp had an impact on Eric’s path. [24:20]

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour 15 minute play time.)

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For the past two weeks, the American sports landscape has been held in the thrall of the Super Bowl. It’s secular American Christmas. The event so indelibly planted in our cultural consciousness advertisers get around the trademark by calling it “the Big Game,” and everyone knows what they mean. The Chiefs and the Eagles (Go Birds!) testing their mettle for 60 minutes on the largest stage our country has to offer (interrupted periodically by commercials and musical interludes).

No, I haven’t suffered some kind of episode and forgotten that this site is devoted entirely to a different sport. Because, you see, if you watch the Super Bowl you’ll get to see some baseball players: Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Eagles receiver A.J. Brown.

Mahomes affinity for baseball is well known, given that he is 1) one of the most famous athletes in the country 2) a minority owner of the Kansas City Royals and 3) the son and namesake of an 11-year major league veteran. In fact, two of the Chiefs’ three quarterbacks are sons of 11-year big league veterans; third-stringer Shane Buechele is the son of former Rangers and Cubs third baseman Steve. (Unfortunately, I don’t know what Chad Henne’s father’s profession is.) Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Yu Darvish’s extension, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Los Angeles Angels (10:11) with The Athletic’s Sam Blum and the Boston Red Sox (59:32) with The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, plus a Past Blast (1:47:29) from 1967, an impromptu chat between Ben and former MLB umpire Joe West about whether/why West edited his own Wikipedia page (1:50:12), and a few follow-ups (2:11:42).

Audio intro: Lord Huron, “Not Dead Yet”
Audio interstitial: The Thrills, “This Year”
Audio outro: Frank Sinatra, “Maybe This Time”

Link to MLBTR on Darvish
Link to MLBTR on Yamamoto
Link to Baumann on FA pitchers
Link to FG team projections
Link to payroll rankings
Link to Angels offseason tracker
Link to Angels depth chart
Link to Sam on Neto
Link to Sam’s previous EW episode
Link to Petriello on the Angels
Link to Heyman on Moreno
Link to Sam’s author archive
Link to Red Sox offseason tracker
Link to Red Sox depth chart
Link to Alex’s author archive
Link to Alex on Devers
Link to Alex on the bullpen
Link to Alex on Yoshida
Link to Eno on the volatile Sox
Link to Homegrown
Link to 1967 article source
Link to other 1967 article source
Link to Stanky Draft EW episode
Link to David Lewis’s Twitter
Link to David Lewis’s Substack
Link to Joe West Reddit thread
Link to West’s Wikipedia page
Link to Crewchief22 talk page
Link to Carew ejection story
Link to NFLPA logo
Link to baseball exceptionalism wiki
Link to guest/predictions spreadsheet
Link to prediction averages spreadsheet

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The 2022–23 offseason got off to a faster start than we’ve seen in years. For the first time in the (albeit short) history of the FanGraphs top 50 free agents list, our entire top ten was off the board by Christmas. In such a busy time, it was inevitable that certain transactions would fly under the radar. Few among us dwelled on Pierce Johnson’s deal with the Rockies after Carlos Correa (supposedly) came to terms with the Giants that same day, or Scott McGough’s deal with the Diamondbacks, which dropped mere hours before Carlos Rodón became a Yankee.

Two months ago, I doubt anyone was all that bothered FanGraphs overlooked those signings. But at the quietest point of the offseason, I want to give them their due. Read the rest of this entry »

Termarr Johnson and Endy Rodriguez are the top two prospects in the Pirates organization. An 18-year-old middle infielder, Johnson was drafted fourth overall by Pittsburgh last summer out of an Atlanta high school. Meanwhile, Rodriguez, a 22-year-old catcher from Santiago, Dominican Republic, was acquired by the Pirates from the Mets in the January 2021 three-team trade that included David Bednar and Joe Musgrove.

I asked Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington about the highly-regarded duo during November’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas.

———

David Laurila: Pirates fans and prospect nerds are quite familiar with Termarr Johnson, but a lot of fans around the country probably aren’t. What can you tell me about him?

Ben Cherington: “I think a good place to start is that he is currently in the Dominican, participating in our Dominican instructional program, which I think is a cool thing for a high first-round pick to do. It’s something that he wanted to do. Termarr wanted to go down there and be part of that experience, and to get to know potential future teammates who are young Latin players. He’s a full participant in our Dominican program.” Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the third year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.

A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.

All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

Software Engineering Associate, Baseball Systems

Location: Citi Field – Queens, New York

Job Description:
The New York Mets are seeking a Software Engineering Associate. This associate will design, build, test, and deploy mobile and web applications that enrich the Mets data ecosystem and inform decision-making within Baseball Operations. The ideal candidate would be an engineering generalist with prior experience. Prior experience in or knowledge of baseball is a plus but is not required.

Pay Rate:
$18.15/hr

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develop exciting user-facing features
• Collaborate with a variety of internal stakeholders to validate designs and facilitate clean rollouts and deployments of new products
• Integrate with a variety of third-party APIs to enrich the New York Mets data ecosystem
• Document technical architectures and baseball-specific systems
• Maintain and update a broad collection of internal applications that enhance player development, scouting, and executive decision making
• Job will include mentorship, hands-on production coding, building and fixing tools for baseball stakeholders

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field
• 1+ years of relevant work experience
• Some experience in Javascript (including React, React Native, and/or Node.js frameworks)
• Some cloud experience (AWS, GCP, etc)
• SQL experience
• Familiarity with modern agile practices and development tools
• Ability to work collaboratively with others
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Prior experience in baseball is a plus

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

Product Design Associate, Baseball Systems

Location: Citi Field – Queens, New York

Job Description:
The New York Mets are seeking a Product Design Associate. This designer will work with Baseball Systems to help design the user experience of mobile and web applications that enrich the Mets data ecosystem and inform decision-making within Baseball Operations. This position requires a designer that is comfortable designing low- and high-fidelity mockups for a wide array of stakeholders within Baseball Operations. The ideal candidate would have a strong grasp of modern design tools with prior experience rapid prototyping and working collaboratively within a software engineering team. Prior experience in or knowledge of baseball is a plus but is not required.

Pay Rate:
$18.15/hr

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Day-to-day design production working with product managers, engineers, and designers, leveraging our design system to maintain brand consistency across products and optimize the full product life cycle
• Create UX related design assets such as wireframes, sitemaps, user stories, user journeys, and prototypes to help illustrate solutions
• Take part in qualitative and quantitative data collection across the organization to validate the development and adoption of new tools and features
• Stay up to date on UX/UI best practices, patterns, and disciplines
• Take part in design reviews and feedback sessions where you will present your work as well as provide feedback to others
• A willingness to learn, and a hunger to problem solve

Qualifications:

• 1+ years of relevant experience in UX or product design
• Portfolio of UX and product design projects with an eye toward process and collaboration
• Strong proficiency in Figma and other collaborative design and prototyping tools
• Ability to work cooperatively with others
• Familiarity/experience within an agile environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Prior experience in front-end development, including CSS, is a plus
• Prior experience in baseball is a plus

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

Product Management Associate, Baseball Systems

Location: Citi Field – Queens, New York

Job Description:
The New York Mets Baseball Systems Department is seeking a Product Management Associate that will help reinforce the product development lifecycle in partnership with teams across baseball operations to the build-out of internal products in collaboration with Software Engineering and Design.

Pay Rate:
$18.15/hr

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Help lead the development and implementation process for products throughout the product development lifecycle
• Facilitate broad collaboration with clear communications and documentation
• Collect and analyze relevant feedback and take action accordingly
• Drive and track key results, success criteria, and performance metrics in order to leverage insights on product performance and user needs
• Develop and execute plans under a set of implementation and delivery time constraints, optimizing for a blend of cost, schedule, and features
• Analyze current user experiences to identify friction points in order to create simple and effective experiences
• This opportunity will allow you to identify investment opportunities, evaluate tradeoffs, and drive the product roadmap

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree is strongly preferred
• Strong analytical capabilities coupled with good business savvy
• Attention to detail without becoming lost in the details
• Strong communication, organization skills, mentality, and eagerness to learn
• Ability to operate in an environment of ambiguity with diverse partners
• Strong knowledge pertaining to information technology including proficiencies with Excel and other Microsoft Office software.
• Interest or experience in leading projects with a strong organizational mindset
• Spanish speaking skills are a plus
• SQL/Analytical experience is a plus
• Ability to work evenings, weekends, or holiday hours.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the New York Mets.

Associate, Minor League Analytics (Dominican Republic)

Location: New York Mets Complex – Dominican Republic

Job Description:
The New York Mets are seeking a DR Associate Analyst in Baseball Analytics. This analyst will be based in the Dominican Republic Academy. The Analyst will spend the full year at the Academy, from Spring Training through the end of the season.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Drive the direction of Player Plans by working with the Player Development & Performance departments to choose the right individual development focus and find ways to measure progress 
• Interpret data and model-based results on internal reports and websites to help coaches use the information to work with their players 
• Help young players learn their strengths and areas for improvement by educating them on how to use data to enhance their development 
• Work with the other affiliate analysts to help improve each other’s understanding of the game and our minor league players, especially as players transfer from one affiliate to another 
• Modify existing codebase and develop new automated reports to be used by coaches and players before games 
• Develop a strong understanding of the various types of technology that are used throughout Player Development 
• Provide feedback to the rest of Baseball Analytics and Baseball Systems on reports, models, and tools that relate to Player Development 
• Collaborate with members of Player Development, including coordinators and the coaching staff, to help the affiliate prepare for games and to help the players develop their skills 
• As time permits, analysts will be assigned additional coding and/or statistical modeling projects relating to Player Development 
• Additional ad hoc requests from Baseball Analytics and Player Development in line with these job responsibilities 

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field or equivalent experience 
• Fluency in Spanish 
• Firm understanding of modern baseball technology 
• Basic proficiency in R, Python, or similar, as well as proficiency in SQL 
• Strong communication skills 
• Statistical modeling experience is a plus 
• Ability to work cooperatively with others 
• Willingness to spend the season at the DR Academy throughout the duration of the season, which includes working nights, weekends, and holidays as dictated by the team’s schedule 

The above information is intended to describe the general nature, type, and level of work to be performed. The information is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for this position. Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. The individual selected may perform other related duties as assigned or requested.

The New York Mets recognize the importance of a diverse workforce and value the unique qualities individuals of various backgrounds and experiences can offer to the Organization. Our continued success depends heavily on the quality of our workforce. The Organization is committed to providing employees with the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the New York Mets.

When a pitcher throws the third ball of a plate appearance, it can start to feel like his back’s against the wall quickly. First base starts to seem awfully close without any more pitches to spare and a walk lingering. The batter knows this, too, and he’s digging in looking for a juicy pitch, thinking about doing more damage than just a walk if he sees it. It’s a stressful position for any pitcher: aim for the edge of the plate, and you risk a miss and a free pass; catch a little more of the plate, you risk getting clobbered by the barrel of an increasingly comfortable and aggressive hitter.

In 2022, the Guardians didn’t get the memo. In plate appearances that reached three balls, opposing hitters posted a .197/.500/.311 batting line, good for a best-in-baseball wOBA of .397. There’s a big difference between production levels on 3–0, 3–1, and 3–2, but Cleveland handled each about as well as anybody else; its .336 wOBA on 3–2 counts and .512 mark on 3–1 were each second in baseball, and its .630 clip on 3–0 ranked fourth. The club’s starters were even better, limiting opponents to a .165/.464/.289 line and a .371 wOBA. With all unintentional walks coming on three-ball counts, these are still ultimately pretty productive lines — ask (almost) any major leaguer if he’d sign up for a .371 wOBA next year — but by comparison with staffs across the league, Cleveland’s was able to limit damage in these tight spots better than any of its peers.

Baseball Reference carries a nifty splits statistic they call sOPS+, which compares a player’s OPS (or in pitchers’ cases, opponent OPS) under the conditions of a certain split to his peers, with 100 representing league average. It’s a helpful way to contextualize splits — that Trea Turner had a .601 two-strike OPS in 2022 is less intuitive than his 137 sOPS+ with two strikes, which tells us he was 37% more productive with two strikes than the league average. By sOPS+, Guardians pitchers were again the strongest in the league with their backs against the wall. In three-ball counts, they had an sOPS+ of 75, the seventh-lowest in 300 team seasons over the last decade. Read the rest of this entry »