TORONTO — All-Star third baseman Matt Chapman was acquired by the Toronto Blue Jays from the payroll-shredding Oakland Athletics for four players on Wednesday.
A five-year veteran and three-time Gold Glove winner, Chapman hit .201 with 27 home runs and 72 RBI in 151 games for the Athletics last season. He was a first-time All-Star in 2019.
Since the end of the lockout, the A’s also dealt All-Star righty Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets and first baseman Matt Olson to Atlanta. The three trades cut Oakland’s projected payroll by about $30 million.
Oakland received right-hander Gunnar Hoglund, Toronto’s top pick in the 2021 amateur draft, minor league left-hander Zach Logue, left-handed reliever Kirby Snead, and infielder Kevin Smith.
Chapman is eligible for arbitration this season and next. He earned $6.54 million in 2021, including a $50,000 bonus for Gold Glove.
Chapman is the latest addition in a busy offseason for the Blue Jays, who went 91-71 last year but finished one game behind Boston and New York in the AL wild-card race. Toronto also signed right-hander Kevin Gausman, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, and right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia.
PHILLIES: Kyle Schwarber agreed to a four-year deal with the Phillies worth about $80 million, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
A 29-year-old slugging outfielder, Schwarber split last season with Washington and Boston. Schwarber agreed to a $10 million, one-year contract with Washington last January that included a $7 million salary and an $11.5 million mutual option with a $3 million buyout. He was traded to the Red Sox in July.
He hit .266 with 32 home runs and belted a grand slam for the Red Sox in the AL Championship Series.
Schwarber will likely spend time as the Phillies designated hitter with time in the outfield and first base.
ROCKIES: Veteran slugger Kris Bryant has agreed to a $182 million, seven-year deal to join the Colorado Rockies, according to a person familiar with the agreement.
Bryant is headed to his third team in eight months after spending his first six major league seasons with the Chicago Cubs, who traded him to San Francisco last July.
BRAVES: The Atlanta Braves signed outfielder Eddie Rosario, the 2021 NLCS MVP, to a two-year contract with $18 million guaranteed .
The defending World Series champion Braves added more outfield depth by signing Alex Dickerson to a $1 million, one-year deal that is not guaranteed.
CUBS: The Chicago Cubs and star Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki have agreed to an $85-million, five-year deal, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The 27-year-old Suzuki was a five-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner over nine seasons with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Nippon Professional Baseball. He batted .317 with 38 home runs and 88 RBI in 132 games last season and had nearly as many walks (87) as strikeouts (88). He is a career .315 hitter with 182 homers and 562 RBIs for Hiroshima.
COVID-19: Major League Baseball is dropping regular COVID-19 testing for all but symptomatic individuals while maintaining an ability to move games if the public health situation in an area deteriorates.
ROYALS: The Kansas City Royals agreed with six-time All-Star Zack Greinke on a $13 million contract for this season, reuniting the left-hander with the club that drafted him in the first round two decades ago, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
Greinke could earn up to $2 million in performance bonuses.
The 38-year-old Greinke was the sixth overall pick of the Royals in the 2002 amateur draft, and he spent his first six-plus seasons with the club, winning the Cy Young Award during his standout 2009 season. He was traded to the Brewers the following year for a package of players that ultimately formed the basis of the Royals’ back-to-back AL champion teams.
Greinke spent just over a season in Milwaukee before his he was traded to the Angels, then he spent three seasons across town with the Dodgers, where he finished second in Cy Young voting in 2015. Greinke went on to pitch four seasons for the Diamondbacks before spending the past three seasons with the Astros.
PADRES: All-Star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres had surgery on his broken left wrist.
General Manager A.J. Preller said earlier this week that the $340 million superstar is expected to miss three months.
ANGELS: Right-hander Griffin Canning won’t be ready for Opening Day after a setback in his recovery from a back injury.
Canning said the setback occurred a few weeks ago. He was expected to be a strong candidate for the sixth spot in the Angels’ rotation this spring.
ASTROS: Outfielder Niko Goodrum has agreed to a $2.1 million, one-year contract with the Houston Astros..
WHITE SOX: Two-time All-Star Josh Harrison has finalized a $5.5 million, one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox.
CARDINALS: Shoulder issues will likely keep pitchers Jack Flaherty and Alex Reyes from being available for the St. Louis Cardinals’ opener against Pittsburgh on April 7.
SCHEDULE: Major League Baseball has scheduled 30 additional doubleheaders to make up some of the 91 games postponed by the lockout that delayed Opening Day until April 7.
MLB released a revised schedule, extending the last day of the regular season by three days to Oct. 5. The first game of the season will be the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox at 1:05 p.m., the first matchup of the rivals to open a big league schedule since 2005.
Five games were rescheduled for Thursday, July 21, the second day after the All-Star Game. Doubleheaders with the Yankees at Houston and Detroit at Oakland plus a single game with Texas at Miami join San Francisco at the Dodgers as the only game on the original schedule announced last Aug. 4.
The Tigers and Athletics will play an unusual doubleheader at Comerica Park on May 10, with Oakland the home team in the opener to make up a game from April 4 and Detroit the home team in the nightcap to make up a game moved from May 10.
The only doubleheader on the original schedule, a day-night encounter between the Twins and Tigers in Detroit on July 23, was changed to a single game because the Tigers now have a doubleheader at Oakland on July 21. Detroit and Minnesota will play a day-night doubleheader at Comerica Park on May 31.
Nine games are scheduled for April 7, a week after the season was to have started on March 31. Other games on the first day include Milwaukee at the Chicago Cubs, the New York Mets at Washington, Cleveland at Kansas City, Seattle at Minnesota, Pittsburgh at St. Louis, Cincinnati at World Series champion Atlanta, Houston at the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego at Arizona.
Eleven games are scheduled for April 8, when openers include the Chicago White Sox at Detroit, Oakland at Philadelphia, Baltimore at Tampa Bay, Colorado at the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco at Miami and Texas at Toronto.
Fifteen games are scheduled for April 9.
BREWERS: Andrew McCutchen is heading back to the NL Central after agreeing to a one-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.
ORIOLES: Rookie catcher Adley Rutschman has a strained right triceps and probably won’t be ready to start the season.
YANKEES: Luke Voit has gone from home run champ to seemingly the odd man out at first base with the New York Yankees.
The Yankees reached agreement with Anthony Rizzo on a $32 million, two-year contract Tuesday night, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. Rizzo would get $16 million annually and has the right to opt out after this season.
“I know they want to be left-handed.” said Voit, the 2020 AL home run champion whose 2021 seaason was wrecked by injury. “Obviously with our team coming to spring I know we’ve been pretty righty-dominated. It’s a business, I get it.”
A three-time All-Star first baseman, Rizzo was acquired by the Yankees from the Chicago Cubs on July 29. He hit .248 with 22 homers, 61 RBI and a .783 OPS last season, including .249 with eight homers, 21 RBI and a .768 OPS in 49 games for New York.
“Someone’s got to come in and fill that spot, and he did do a good job last year,” said Voit, limited to 68 games last year. “My job is to go out and play baseball everyday and not to figure who is playing what position. I’m just going to control what I can control, be positive, go out and work, be there for the guys and just get ready for the season.”
Rizzo and outfielder Joey Gallo, a strikeout-prone left-handed hitter, were New York’s primary acquisitions at last summer’s trade deadline. Before the deals, DJ LeMahieu had been getting significant playing time at first.
ROYALS-REDS: Kansas City traded left-hander Mike Minor to the Cincinnati Reds for left-hander Amir Garrett.
MARINERS: The Seattle Mariners signed veteran outfielder Steven Souza Jr. and catcher Chance Sisco to minor-league deals.
DIAMONDBACKS: Ian Kennedy and the Diamondbacks finalized a $4.75 million, one-year contract that returns the right-hander to Arizona.
RANGERS: Three-time All-Star reliever Greg Holland and right-hander Dan Winkler signed minor league contracts with the Texas Rangers.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
