2021 MLB offseason - news and notes
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The Tigers are shaping up nicely. Should have a good rotation, lineup going in the right direction. Still an awful, awful bullpen though. Avila is very much Dombrowski's protegee.
Castellanos 100 mil for 5 years to Philly.
View: https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1505024127547101190?cxt=HHwWjMCyzYre9eIpAAAA
View: https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1505024127547101190?cxt=HHwWjMCyzYre9eIpAAAA
A lot of buzz now that TEX may grab a third of the big SSs in Story, who grew up 15 minutes from Arlington.
View: https://twitter.com/purplerow/status/464552824391868416?s=21
View: https://twitter.com/purplerow/status/464552824391868416?s=21
Yes, the resemblance is amazing. Here's some trivia, Cromwell's Cromwell's wife divorced him because he called her Babe.
I am mystified that this was best offer on the table. I’d love to know what he turned down.
edit - saw JA’s post. Makes sense but still crazy that he’s likely to go again next year. I suppose there may be additional suitors, including a couple we know well.
If I ever have enough money to buy a team, I am naming them “mystery team”. Maybe they can play near Area 51 as well.
Maybe Detroit is the final destination (after the trade deadline) of all of the LHRPs the Sox are bringing in (*ducks*)
The Correa deal is a real head-scratcher. I can see it from his angle – he wanted a Lindor deal that wasn't out there, so he got exactly one million more than Lindor this year + the opportunity to try again next year while having another two years of insurance... but I can't comprehend why the Twins want to be the GFIN team that facilitates this for him.
Minnesota needs to add two above average starters yet to go along with Sonny Grey or they're just a mediocre team with a fun lineup. It seems they must be pinning a lot of expectations on Joe Ryan, who isn't really considered a future top-of-the-rotation guy in the first place. Also, if Correa has a career-altering injury or simply puts up a performance well short of $30M/year, then the Twins are stuck with a large contract that starts blocking their top prospect.
Minnesota needs to add two above average starters yet to go along with Sonny Grey or they're just a mediocre team with a fun lineup. It seems they must be pinning a lot of expectations on Joe Ryan, who isn't really considered a future top-of-the-rotation guy in the first place. Also, if Correa has a career-altering injury or simply puts up a performance well short of $30M/year, then the Twins are stuck with a large contract that starts blocking their top prospect.
I am a little surprised the Yankees didn’t get in on this if a contract like this could have been done. Short term, his prime years, I would have been much more in favor of this than a 10 year deal.
I don't know about "above average", but I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins think they have the pitching behind Gray in house. Joe Ryan has great minor league numbers and was effective enough in his MLB debut last year, Bailey Ober looked adequate in his debut as well. Josh Winder appears pretty close to ready and Jordan Balazovic isn't "too far" behind (only got up to AA last year, but I got to see him 3 times in person and he's a guy who I think could make a pretty big leap this year). Who knows what they get out of Dobnak, but is he can find a way to be in the high 4/low 5 ERA range, that offense is enough to help him get some wins, and the bullpen looks pretty solid (although there are definitely a couple question marks).
I think the 6th playoff team keeps just about any team not named Baltimore, Pittsburgh or Oakland from thinking they are out of it before the season starts, so I'm not surprised about some of these team making moves that may have been questionable as recently as a season ago.
Edit: Correa is also a pretty big upgrade for them defensively which should help their pitching staff, at least a bit, as well.
They do have a pretty good SS prospect who could be trade bait now if they want to go after Montas or somebody.
The Yankees were probably the key to this deal, since I don’t know if the Twins would have been willing to commit this much to Correa without first clearing Donaldson’s salary.
Royce Lewis seems unlikely to be a serious contributor this year anyway since he missed last season to an ACL tear and only had the alternate site to play at in 2020 after struggling for a month at AA in 2019. So Correa isn't really blocking him short-term. Long-term I don't think it makes a lot of sense to trade to trade your #1 prospect now when Correa is most likely a one year (incredibly expensive) rental. I'll grant you though that they are the team most obviously desperate to deal for one of the A's pitchers now.
It's just really weird to sink $30M+ into a shortstop for one year while letting your pitching staff ride on the hopes that multiple kids with no MLB experience will have sudden success. It would probably require a trade for Montas or similar right now + hoping that carries you to the trade deadline to pick up another.
It's just really weird to sink $30M+ into a shortstop for one year while letting your pitching staff ride on the hopes that multiple kids with no MLB experience will have sudden success. It would probably require a trade for Montas or similar right now + hoping that carries you to the trade deadline to pick up another.
I think Minnesota is still looking for SPs and a trade is quite possible, if not likely. Look, they came into the off-season with everyone expecting them to sign another stopgap SS, and no one wanting to relive the Andrelton Simmons Experience. The #1 FA suddenly appears willing to sign a short term deal, and the Twins of all teams win the bidding. Even short term, this is the biggest FA deal in their history, it fills an obvious need, and allows them not to rush Lewis. There’s downside with the opt outs, but much less than if they’d given him a 10 year deal, which is what people expected him to get at the start of the offseason. There’s no reason a Twins fan should be anything other than ecstatic about this. Frankly, I think Houston screwed up by not matching this.
Jomboy has been whining about the Yankees' offseason constantly. Yankee Twitter in general is pretty awful - it's mostly your stereotypical Spoiled Yankee Fans. They were all demanding Correa and/or Freeman.
I don't have a problem complaining about that. The Yankees traded for a 36-year-old third baseman owed $50 million the next two years and could have had a 27-year-old shortstop for similar money.
That is a crappy tradeoff.
That is a crappy tradeoff.
I don't care to get into an argument about it, but you are way oversimplifying things there. But I'm biased - I never expected them to sign Correa, and I'm very happy not to root for him anyway.
I'd be shocked if the Yankees realistically had that opportunity. I'm not sure Correa considers a deal like that until enough major players are off the board.
It's his schtick, which is why as much as I enjoyed him at first, and as smart as he is, I quickly grew out of being entertained by him. There's enough outrage that watching a guy who is pretty smart about baseball be outraged over baseball is just too much for me.
But, like @ThePrideofShiner says, he's not wrong here.
Yea, these deals from Freeman and Correa are agents mismanaging their clients, not teams mismanaging their payrolls. The story of Freeman giving the Braves a 24 hour ultimatum are pretty interesting.
More than any other offseason, it feels like so many teams have changed their rosters in a significant way.
This has been the Twins MO for a long time. They know they “can’t afford” to get quality pitching (Which they obviously view as a risky investment) so they load up on hitting and make a splashy acquisition every couple of years (Donaldson, Correa) to keep press off their backs and from accusations that they “aren’t trying.” Then they compete enough in the soft AL Central that fans show up all season. Then they miss the post season by a few games or lose in the first round, but fans and local press have hope that THIS offseason, they’ll get a good starter to get them over the hump next year.
35/35/35 (with player optouts) is not similar to 23/23/16 (8M buyout), plus if they don't trade for Donaldson, they are still paying Gio and Sanchez $15M combined this year.
Yup. Having lived in the Twin Cities for four years (albeit ages ago), I'll add that the other piece of this is a local sports culture that facilities the approach by being the exact opposite of Boston sports culture to the furthest extent imaginable. There's a kind dopey "root root root for the home team" ethic that precludes any serious criticism from casual fans and allows management to peddle a middling "scrappy" product to the masses. It's an incredibly forgiving audience.
Yup. At worst, the local scribes pen some form of “Come on Twins, fans deserve a winner!” Piece at the end of a disappointing year. But even that is always couched with some “But they have exciting players in …..” which undoes whatever good It might have done.
Smyly to the Cubs, Pineda to the Tigers on one year deals.
Assume Sox are standing pat with the current rotation.
Assume Sox are standing pat with the current rotation.
I can't help but wonder how the CBA would have played out if this offseason had unfolded prior to the negotiations. It's a small sample size but a very good free agent class is getting way less than anyone expected.
Who specifically has gotten less? To me it seems like everyone but the top few have gotten huge deals relative to their value, and those guys and their agents all seem to have somewhat overplayed their hands in trying to both maximize money and ideal destination, although Correa will likely get his $300M+ deal next winter instead of this.
For instance, Castellanos just turned 30, a great hitter who shouldn't play the field, he got 5/100. JD Martinez is also a great hitter who shouldn't play the field and who had just turned 30 in his FA year, he got 5/110 in Feb 2018. JDM career OPS when signing was .857, Castellanos' is .814.
You got me before I was able to edit which basically says what you said. I meant to say post-CBA. Freeman, Correa, and assuming Story. You figure Story will be somewhere in the 100-150 range now, so that could change. But Castellanos and Bryant got pretty good deals. Suppose the Correa situation is just blowing me away, no matter where he ends up.