I’m encouraged at the sense that they are actually going to spend some money this offseason, but I will remain skeptical until the press conferences.
Cross posted this from the Soto thread, bc I feel my response will fit better in here since it has very little to do with Soto.
I was encouraged. Like a lot of other people I bought into the different tone surrounding the team. Not just from Kennedy (bc who believes them anyway) but from the local and national reporters. Now here we are, and the interest kings seem to be back.
They apparently were in on Snell, Kikuchi and Adames. They were apparently in the thick of things for Crochet and aggressive in the trade market. Of course they landed none of those players, and are now just on the periphery for Crochet. Also seemingly one AL team has turned down an overture of Casas for young pitching.
They basically never sign top of the market free agent SP to cover their mid to late 30s on long term deals (as in 92% of the time they haven’t), and apparently have also now decided not to bother with mid tier rotation pitchers and instead waste dollars and seasons on guys that can only command one year deals.
On the hitting side, outside of seemingly taking Story bc nobody else wanted him or (even more concerning), targeting he and Yoshida and paying them both far more than the market was offering up.
I really want to be wrong (and to be clear, I think they are legitimately trying their hardest to get Soto), but I get the feeling we’re getting closer and closer to an off season of all one and two year deals to pieces like Patrick Corbin, Justin Turner and Chris Martin along with Chapman just do they can say they spent $40m ”improving the team” and headed straight toward an 82-80 campaign.
I really want to be wrong, but I see no chance they actually sign Fried or Burnes (and Nightengale saying they’re in on Fried makes me even more confident there is no shot there). Then they’ll convince themselves they’re better off with “flexibility” to sign Guerrero Jr next year, only to repeat this with situation - but losing out bc NYM give him x+$50m to either a) pair with Soto or b) make up for NOT getting Soto.