MLB Offseason 2020 News & Notes

RIrooter09

Alvin
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I remember the halcyon days of Cuevas in the eighth, Noe in the ninth, and Cuervo for a fifth after another one-run loss. However, Ramirez has been significantly better over the past two seasons than Brasier and Brice, both of whom the Red Sox elected to tender a contract to. He could be described fairly as fungible but Ramirez is not worthless, even before considering that Hand’s production can be expected to exceed that of Iglesias.
Ramirez has been around replacement level every season except 2019. That looks like the outlier to me. I'm not sure you can expect Hand to be better than Iglesias next year either, they were both elite last season and Iglesias cut his walk rate significantly. We'll see if he can keep that up.
 
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Sad Sam Jones

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Carlos has been a favorite of mine since my days of watching him win the Eastern League MVP his first full season in the Tribe system. It also helped that he was acquired for Casey Blake, who I really, really hated. The 2020 schedule was a really bad break for him since he usually does almost all of his damage after the first 50 games of a season. I was still hoping Cleveland could him back athough I knew it wasn't likely, and I'm not going to enjoy seeing him as an opponent that many times per season… at least in KC he'll still be behind the Indians in the standings.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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Ok, I realize there’s a scarcity factor to consider, but if Santana (better O, lesser D) is getting 2/$17M, is JBJ getting much more? That’s exactly the range I was thinking he should fall in: 2/$16-18M.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Well there goes the talk he’d be waiting it out in Nashville. He bought a house there too.
He's 64. He might not have enough time left to wait for a Nashville team to materialize. That and Philadelphia probably made him an irresistible offer. They've handed out some big contracts the last couple years and don't have a ton to show for it.
 

Oppo

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Who can Bloom send him to satisfy the win-now mantra?
Eovaldi/Barnes/Vazquez?
 

DanoooME

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Dombrowski and the Phillies are closing in on making him president of baseball ops

There goes the Phillies' prospects out the door.

Edit: And they had one of the worst bullpens in the majors last year. Would love to see how much worse he can make it.
 

sean1562

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There goes the Phillies' prospects out the door.

Edit: And they had one of the worst bullpens in the majors last year. Would love to see how much worse he can make it.
Considering the last guy gave us potential actual value for Workman and Hembree, he cant be much worse than him, right?
 

Humphrey

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The last guy was a local man, Matt Klentak (Medfield/Xaverian HS). In that regard, sorry he's out, but it seems like it was his time to go.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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I wasn't a big fan of the White Sox signing Grandal last year when they had a perfectly good catcher and needed pitching. I no longer feel bad for McCann though... I wonder if he actually benefited in the long run. This past season he seemed to show that his 2019 breakout season wasn't a fluke, but as the 2nd string catcher in the year of COVID, he had less than 100 at-bats. Playing full-time, his numbers may have dipped and cost him some money. Even if he had another good full season, I wouldn't guarantee that many years at that amount to a 30-year-old catcher with two good seasons.
 

Yelling At Clouds

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I’m just going to note in this space that Jackie Bradley Jr. would be a perfect fit for the now Dombrowski-led Philadelphia Phillies.
 

jon abbey

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I’m just going to note in this space that Jackie Bradley Jr. would be a perfect fit for the now Dombrowski-led Philadelphia Phillies.
The Steve Cohen-led Mets still need a CF also, if they don't end up with Springer.
 

VORP Speed

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Rays re-sign Zunino for 1 yr/2m + 1m buyout of club option for 2022 (4-7m based on playing time). They turned down his 4.5m club option for this year, so saved a few bucks.
 

VORP Speed

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Rays sign Michael Wacha. 1 yr/$3m. Hoping for a bounceback after pretty dismal 2020. He’s still only 29 despite being in the majors for 8 seasons.

It was really too clever by half to turn down Morton’s option in the hope of re-signing him for slightly less.
 

jon abbey

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The WAS system is pretty bad (so those prospect rankings aren't as exciting as they look), but Bell also is not nearly as exciting as his name/reputation. He was amazing for the first half of 2019, and has around a .725 OPS since as a bad defensive 1B. He is a switch-hitter but hits righties much better than lefties. For his career, he has just a 2.6 total bWAR in 1900 ABs.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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The WAS system is pretty bad (so those prospect rankings aren't as exciting as they look), but Bell also is not nearly as exciting as his name/reputation. He was amazing for the first half of 2019, and has around a .725 OPS since as a bad defensive 1B. He is a switch-hitter but hits righties much better than lefties. For his career, he has just a 2.6 total bWAR in 1900 ABs.
Not to mention that the market is pretty saturated with 1B options, so demand for him wasn't going to be all that high. Even with those prospects not looking that exciting, the Pirates might still have made out okay on the deal.
 

jon abbey

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Trevor Bauer’s agent told Jim Duquette that he is no longer considering single year deals given the interest so far.
 

Petey Bienel

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Josh Bell to Nats for two pitching prospects. Both were in WAS's top 10 in the organization, you can see why PIT pulled the trigger. Wil Crowe is a 26 year old, 2nd round pick in 2017, but due to arrive in majors next season, other pitcher is a 19 year old international FA flyer. Bell has 2 years of control left.

View: https://twitter.com/feinsand/status/1342183963683655687?s=21
There's a feeling that Eddy Yean is the higher end prospect of the two. Doesn't turn 20 until next summer, $100,000 signing out of the DR. Only got to short season in 2019, then was in the alternate site last year. Throws 95. Wil Crowe was thought of as a back of the rotation starter, but was Carolina League pitcher of the year in 2018. Throws low 90s with a good curveball. His body is Joe Blanton-esque.

Bell is a nice fit for the Nats in part because they have a cheap platoon partner in Ryan Zimmerman who they can re-sign if they want to go that route. Even if you throw out 2019, Bell has hit righties. As for the Nats system, their top 5 prospects are righty pitchers now and their next 3 are lefties. If they do trades, they will give pitching.
 

nvalvo

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There's a feeling that Eddy Yean is the higher end prospect of the two. Doesn't turn 20 until next summer, $100,000 signing out of the DR. Only got to short season in 2019, then was in the alternate site last year. Throws 95. Wil Crowe was thought of as a back of the rotation starter, but was Carolina League pitcher of the year in 2018. Throws low 90s with a good curveball. His body is Joe Blanton-esque.

Bell is a nice fit for the Nats in part because they have a cheap platoon partner in Ryan Zimmerman who they can re-sign if they want to go that route. Even if you throw out 2019, Bell has hit righties. As for the Nats system, their top 5 prospects are righty pitchers now and their next 3 are lefties. If they do trades, they will give pitching.
Good post!

It's kind of like Bell takes over the Howie Kendrick/Eric Thames role, but with a younger player with more upside. Gambling on the age 28-29 seasons of a kid who has 40 HR potential makes sense for a team with Scherzer under contract for one more season. They can put the farm back together after the window closes.
 

sean1562

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Good post!

It's kind of like Bell takes over the Howie Kendrick/Eric Thames role, but with a younger player with more upside. Gambling on the age 28-29 seasons of a kid who has 40 HR potential makes sense for a team with Scherzer under contract for one more season. They can put the farm back together after the window closes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/02/17/mlb-execs-vote-nationals-max-scherzer-the-worst-free-agent-signing-in-espn-poll/?utm_source=reddit.com
That contract is easily one of the best FA deals of the last 20 years. Crazy how great he has been for them.
 

jon abbey

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jon abbey

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Not much of a gamble, love Alvarado’s upside. TB needed to clear a 40 man spot to finish the Snell deal, good snag by new GM Sam Fuld.
 

soxhop411

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