A lot of Bloom's moves kind of feel Duquetteish to me. He's kicking the tires on a lot of guys who used to be good and suddenly stopped being good for unclear reasons or injury reclamation projects.
Red Sox acquire Adam Ottavino and RHP prospect Frank German from Yankees for PTBNL
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
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He would do a lot better with an automated strike zone, his stuff is so insane that it seems to fool the ump fairly frequently.
Heyman says the Sox are still in on him, so there are probably still some moving parts.
His last two years he's had his lowest average velocity on his sliders. Could be why he's getting fewer swings at pitches out of the zone.
View: https://twitter.com/jonheyman/status/1353755684601556994?s=21
Heyman also says this, which is interesting and invites some speculation.
So depending on the source, the Sox were somewhere between $11.5 and $14 million under the CBT cap before this deal, which would put them $3-5 million under it after this deal.
Unless they are willing to exceed the cap, this certainly seems to eliminate any other significant FA acquisitions, including JBJ. They might be able to sign a cheap LHH backup for 1B, but that would be it, unless there are trades to free up some cap space (Benintendi or Barnes), as noted above. In that sense this is a curious move.
Unless, of course, they are willing to exceed the cap this year - which would be odd given their approach thus far this offseason, and the current state of their roster. It would open the door for resigning JBJ, or signing Ozuna, but I don't see this happening.
Unless they are willing to exceed the cap, this certainly seems to eliminate any other significant FA acquisitions, including JBJ. They might be able to sign a cheap LHH backup for 1B, but that would be it, unless there are trades to free up some cap space (Benintendi or Barnes), as noted above. In that sense this is a curious move.
Unless, of course, they are willing to exceed the cap this year - which would be odd given their approach thus far this offseason, and the current state of their roster. It would open the door for resigning JBJ, or signing Ozuna, but I don't see this happening.
I know it has been a while since seeing a Yankees game, but why is he pitching in his pajamas?
View: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1165793164495609857
No JBJ, no Marcus Semien... looks like potentially pretty big holes at 2B and CF (beyond the whole bullpen and rotation thing).
I have no problem with a reset year, but I think it's time to call it what it likely is.
I have no problem with a reset year, but I think it's time to call it what it likely is.
I'd be less worried if there wasn't significant cash tied up with some of these - you can trade mediocrities for salary relief, but it's hard to do it without sweetening the pot with a prospect. . .oh, hey!
More seriously, in isolation it's a sensible trade/risk though. But I hear you.
Hernandez has 2B or CF covered. We need one of those two filled and a cheap LHH 1B.
So the Sox have recently added/signed
SP Martin Perez - decent back-end of the rotation guy
SP Garrett Richards - decent back-end of the rotation guy with some upside
IF Kiké Hernandez - modest player but who can play multiple positions
RP Adam Ottavino - solid reliever with upside
That's not terrible. None are earth-shattering, but they're building perhaps a respectable baseball team.
SP Martin Perez - decent back-end of the rotation guy
SP Garrett Richards - decent back-end of the rotation guy with some upside
IF Kiké Hernandez - modest player but who can play multiple positions
RP Adam Ottavino - solid reliever with upside
That's not terrible. None are earth-shattering, but they're building perhaps a respectable baseball team.
Besides the fact that it's money and they're likely losing a lot of it without ticket sales, I don't see any baseball-related reason not to exceed the cap this year. We have so much money coming off the books by the end of 2022 -- everyone but Sale and Bogaerts (who'll likely opt out). Unless they're bumping their luxury tax reset year to 2024 to time with Devers' last arb year, then 2020 was the reset year and 2023 likely will be too.
If you're not all-in why go over? The rules will be new starting next year with the cba, so you will start fresh with the new rules, your foundation will be much better, and you can start playing in the major free agent class.
It sucks, but is reality. The super teams this year are staying under this year, which is pathetic.
It sucks, but is reality. The super teams this year are staying under this year, which is pathetic.
Isn't being on the opposite side of a trade with Cashman akin to being a European central bank fighting George Soros?
This makes me think Ottavino is on the downslope of his career, and Bloom really wanted German.
This makes me think Ottavino is on the downslope of his career, and Bloom really wanted German.
The super teams are staying under because they've already been over and the penalties are higher for them, right?
It's John Henry's money and maybe that's the deciding factor, but I don't see any real baseball benefit staying under given the contracts we currently have. Especially if you're mostly adding salary on short-term deals that expire after 2022. We have more than $115M coming off the books by the end of the 2022 season, and another $20M more if Bogaerts opts out.
There seems to be a market opportunity for us right now with other teams constrained. Going over in 2021 doesn't put us in any worse condition for next year's FA class unless our payroll somehow exceeds $250M. There's 40-man and Rule 5 eligibility management to consider of course, but acquiring players means you have more assets to potentially flip for prospects.
Another reason I don't like the "start fresh" plan of waiting a year to spend is that if the CBA penalties stay roughly equal, it puts us on the same reset year track as the Yankees, who typically can outbid us.
I dont know about the former, but the latter is quite likely true. And since I have always thought that paying big for any relief pitcher that isnt at or near the top is a fools errand, I hope he's right about German.
From 2017 to 2019 among 197 qualified relievers he had the 8th lowest EV allowed at 85.6. Very consistent those three years too. Hoping 2020 was a blip and sounds as though it may have been based on posts above.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2017-01-01&enddate=2019-12-31&sort=16,d&page=7_30
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2017-01-01&enddate=2019-12-31&sort=16,d&page=7_30
What do we think this says about the impending CBA? Does seem like a renewed focus by large teams to stay under.
Some more context for his stats from 2020, from McAdam: Ottavino’s ERA skyrocketed in large part because of a poor outing against the Blue Jays in which he allowed six runs without recording an out. Minus that appearance, Ottavino’s ERA was 2.98.
Yeah. I believe that this signing, in addition to the non-JBJ signing, will kill my enjoyment of the team, which was teetering on the brink anyway. Oh, well.
Fangraphs has slotted him at #25, just above Jacob Wallace who we got for Pillar and five spots above Whitlock. They have him as the 6th best arm in the system behind Mata, Houck, Bazardo, Bello and Ward.
Relievers, particularly those with some success in the past, can be notoriously back and forth ... as can bullpens in general. Ottavino could be off the rails, or he could have a good year. Either way, what he did with the Yankees doesn't matter much to me going forward.
Mostly one year deals though aren't they? Overpaying for a year is irrelevant if you stay under the tax threshold.
I don't really get this thinking, at least with regard to Ottavino specifically. If he's pitching in high-leverage innings, that means at minimum he is better than the other options for the Sox. And if he's really bad, he won't be pitching in high-leverage innings. So there isn't really a scenario where having Ottavino on the team will make them significantly less enjoyable than they would have been otherwise, regardless of how good or bad he is.
Love the somewhat outside the box thinking here, and it's low risk to boot. L'Chaim, Mr. Bloom.