If it’s real, I have to imagine there’s a real chance he takes it. If Houston is back in, it could be an indicator the offers aren’t as big as anticipated.
2021 MLB offseason - news and notes
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I heard it suggested last week on SiriusXM, reasoning being that Baltimore’s gm was in Houston’s front office when he was drafted. Definitely sounds reasonable they could have interest
The big question would be is Correa interested? The other biggies would be is the offer front loaded, does Correa want to win and what years do the options begin?
Man, if the O’s kicked it to top Seager’s deal, I think he and Boras would almost have to take it.
If this is real, it’s almost like the rest of the owners put Angelos up to this as a punishment for the sign stealing scandal.
If this is real, it’s almost like the rest of the owners put Angelos up to this as a punishment for the sign stealing scandal.
It would be a larger version of when Pudge Rodriguez signed with DET after 2003, a tent pole veteran to build a young core around and to put everyone on notice that they’re back on the road of trying to be competitive.
You know, I think Baltimore makes sense. They have traditionally been an above-average spending team (top 10 in payroll in 2016 and 2017), but currently have virtually nothing on the books for long term payroll so it won't keep them from adding other pieces, there are some decent pieces in place, and they have on of the top farm systems in baseball, including the consensus #1 prospect in Adley Rutschman. Very easy to see Correa still being an all star when the youngsters start to gel. Maybe it would be better to do this in a year or two, but now is when the opportunity is in front of them.
I was actually having a little deja vu, weren't they bad when they laid out big money for Miguel Tejada?
or jayson werth with the nationals. A sign that the team was ready to push to compete.
Yes, and they continued to be bad. Signing Miggy helped them get from 71 to 78 wins in 2014, but then they never won more than 70 until after he was gone.
Pudge and Werth are good comparisons, but you don't have to go back nearly that far -- Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to the 60 win Rangers.
Don’t forget that this is the same team that didn’t trade Trevor Story, CJ Cron or other players with expiring contracts at the deadline last season in one of the most bizarre moves in recent seasons.
View: https://twitter.com/samueladams_12/status/1504222419757662209?s=21
Even more baffling with Jon Gray. Not only did they not trade him at the deadline, they didn't even extend him a qualifying offer to get the extra draft pick. You'd almost have to actively try to hurt yourself this much.
I really would have expected more. $150/5 with something like a mutual option for a 6 is really not horrible. I don't know why the Yankees would have walked from that if he signs with the dodgers there.
It looks like TB were the runners-up here offering 6/140 (less than ATL offered at some point, Jack Curry reported 5/140):
View: https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1504305713954308102?s=20&t=YqN5diCENe7Cy_BKLnF1-A
View: https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1504305713954308102?s=20&t=YqN5diCENe7Cy_BKLnF1-A
You also need to look at the one year AAV number since NY is not so far from their likely ceiling of 270M this year, 5/150 is $30M per, 6/160 just under $27M per. Rizzo and Manaea (if they can get him) will make $26M between them this year, and adding Manaea without subtracting anyone would put them around $262M. Freeman at $27M plus Manaea would put them around $273M, moving Voit would get them back under but not much wiggle room without also moving Green and/or Gleyber (and still not a lot).
View: https://twitter.com/kileymcd/status/1504307910058422272
BREAKING: Freddie Freeman has agreed to terms with the Dodgers on a six-year, $162 million deal according to
@JeffPassan
and me.
BREAKING: Freddie Freeman has agreed to terms with the Dodgers on a six-year, $162 million deal according to
@JeffPassan
and me.
I can’t see the Sox topping that offer. Even if Dombrowski was still running the show.
Or Heyman's been spoonfed a lie by Freeman's agent since the original asking price was rumored to be 6/200+, and Freeman had to come down when no team came close to that.
I don't trust Heyman any more, sorry.
I don't trust Heyman any more, sorry.
I don’t either but TOR’s payroll is only at 162 now, they could have made Vlad fulltime DH and Freeman is a Canadian citizen, both his parents are from there, so I think it’s pretty likely they topped 6/162, maybe NYY too.
Heyman is often full of shit, but Freeman focusing on getting the biggest deal possible from LA and leaving some money on the table seems plausible enough.
Either he's being spoonfed, or he's trying to justify his rumor-mongering about the Rays and Red Sox. No one else seemed to be pushing either one as serious contenders for Freeman.
With Freeman seemingly taking less than expected, is it possible that the mistake he made was waiting out the lockout? Could Correa and Story be in the same boat? I understand the logic of waiting and hoping that teams would have more money to spend with an raised luxury tax threshold (kinda paid off for Bryant), but at the same time, the compressed time frame to get everyone signed and in camp perhaps led to teams sitting in the first chair they saw rather than race for the best chair when the music stopped. If this were still December rather than mid-March, would the Yankees have "settled" for Rizzo? Obviously it's more complicated than that, but it really seems like Freeman's options dried up because most teams were justifiably impatient to get into a prolonged negotiation/bidding war.
I feel like a lot of teams were just wary about giving a 32 year old 1B a massive contract that will pay him well into his late 30s. Correa seems to be waiting for a contender to give him a massive deal, if that 10/300 deal from the Orioles is true, which doesn't appear to be happening. I have no idea what Story's market is like since he is a bit older. Story's contract will be a good comp for any Xander extension.
What worries me about Story is that he has a career .752 OPS outside of Coors. I guess a lot depends on how much you believe playing at Coors is a disadvantage when hitting on the road due to the changes in conditions, but I'd be weary of signing him to a big deal.
For some context/comparison, Bogaerts has a career .755 OPS outside of Fenway. I think Story makes sense on a short deal. Certainly wouldn't give him a long-term one.
I think this all really misunderstands the specific situation. Seager and Semien and Baez and Bryant just wanted the most money they could get, the specific situation didn’t matter much to them. Freeman pretty clearly wanted to pick his team, and he did, playing near where he grew up as part of an absolutely loaded lineup. We’ll see about Correa and Story.
I kind of find it hard to believe he would take less money for the privilege of being battered by California's insane income taxes.
If he did leave money, it probably wasn't very much. Being close to home and playing on a loaded team were probably bigger factors.
I doubt taxes figured into it much at all.
I doubt taxes figured into it much at all.
Freeman has something like $130M career earnings before this new deal, I’ve always been surprised more star athletes don’t focus on fit more than max deal offered, especially in the NBA where taking less could/should mean you end up with more talent around you.
This entire Defector piece is worth reading since it begins with an extended Simpsons reference -- Marge's line at "Itchy and Scratchy Land" when the robot Itchy displays the circuits in its head and Marge says to Homer "See all that stuff in there? That's why your robot never worked."
But contains details I didn't know... like the insane detail that other teams apparently didn't even know who to call in the Rockies front office to discuss a trade last season:
https://defector.com/the-rockies-are-doing-less-than-the-least/
Great signing at a bargain, and given the Giants track record, I fully expect them to coax a solid season out of Boyd who flashed upside in Detroit and has a wicked slider.
View: https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/1504495375834624005
This reads like an onion article about a dad who went to get "cigarettes" and never came back....
This reads like an onion article about a dad who went to get "cigarettes" and never came back....
Yeah, if LA was his ultimate destination why not use other teams to get the most that you can out of them?
I think there's a good chance they will bring him back once they have finished other moves and have a 40 man spot for him. He would love to be back and is presumably waiting for NY instead of signing elsewhere, NY's 4th OF candidates are currently guys like Locastro and Ender Inciarte, both of whom can go to AAA, so I think it's pretty likely.
View: https://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1504556562609807363?s=21
Been the best reliever on the board for awhile.
Been the best reliever on the board for awhile.
The optimism that a team other than the Yankees wants Brett Gardner is wild. His numbers are in consistent decline and he turns 39 in August. He's a lefty bench bat or depth signing. All he's got left is True Yankee™ intangibles maybe as a player-coach type for the FA's and youngsters.
Any interest in Trevor Rosenthal? He had thoracic outlet surgery and then hip surgery last year and missed the whole season. I can't get a good update on whether he is ready to pitch at this point.
Thoracic outlet has a lot of evidence of killing pitchers' effectiveness. We saw it with Tyler Thornburg.
Pass.
Pass.
I can't find the full text for free and the wording is a touch confusing, but that study also notes: "Pitching metrics demonstrated that pitcher ERA remained inferior postoperatively compared to baseline preoperative performance (3.66 vs 4.50, p = 0.03)"
I agree the wording is not clear, and would like to see the full numbers myself, but this is the conclusion.
Of the pitchers that got through rehab (or chose not to retire), and made it to live MLB games, we'd obviously expect performance to vary somewhat post-surgery, given that performance varies post any surgery.
Buster has a paywall article up on ESPN. The crux of it (reading others' account of the article) is that Freeman's camp gave an ultimatum of one hour for the Braves to take 6/175 (just over 29M AAV) or 5/165 (33M AAV). The Braves instead pivoted to Olson, and Freeman's market never got up to those demands in the end.
Additionally, it is now out that 57M of Freeman's Dodger contract will be deferred from 13 years after the contract ends, from 2028-40. According to the tweet (Feisand) the present-value of the contract decreases to about 140M, making Freeman's agents (headed by Casey Close) look even worse in the whole ordeal.
View: https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1504922319608815631
Additionally, it is now out that 57M of Freeman's Dodger contract will be deferred from 13 years after the contract ends, from 2028-40. According to the tweet (Feisand) the present-value of the contract decreases to about 140M, making Freeman's agents (headed by Casey Close) look even worse in the whole ordeal.
View: https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1504922319608815631