2023 Offseason MLB News/Rumors Thread

[ThePrideofShiner]

Padres hire Mike Shildt as their new manager.

Jeff Passan

@JeffPassan

The San Diego Padres are hiring Mike Shildt as their new manager, sources tell ESPN. Shildt, 55, has been a senior adviser with the team and was 252-199 as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. He takes over for Bob Melvin, who left to manage the Giants this winter.

 

[Wingack]

Cards signing up all the warm bodies they can find.

View: https://twitter.com/bnightengale/status/1727037558675378409?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ

 

[simplicio]

Gibson and Mikolas are like the same guy. Cards have millions of mediocre innings on lock. Don't know if this translates into wins but it's going to be one fresh bullpen at least.

 

[JM3]

St. Louis:

Come for the cold beer. Stay for the lukewarm bodies.

Looks like a 1/$12m deal with a '25 team option.

View: https://twitter.com/JesseRogersESPN/status/1727042774518927749

 

[Wingack]

it doesn't really feel like they have fixed the problems. I would be upset if I was a Cards fan.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

1 year, $12 million is basically nothing for a free agent SP in this market. I doubt anyone who is likely to start the season in a rotation takes much less than that.
Not that Gibson is good, but he does eat innings. Averaged 5.8 IP per start in 33 starts. 17 Quality Starts. Bello led the Red Sox with 15 last year.

QS isn't a great stat, but does count up the times a pitcher was decent over 6+ IP.
I was just curious, so I looked it up-- looks like the last time the Sox had a starter with 17 QS in a season was 2018, when Price had 21, Sale 17. Porcello added 16 and Eovaldi 10.

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

There was this tweet from a few days ago that sums up the Cardinals problem.

View: https://twitter.com/jmjones/status/1726307105936916793?s=46

 

[Sad Sam Jones]

It seems like the Cardinals are moving solidly into the range of having neither a shot at the 2024 playoffs nor a high draft pick in 2025.

 

[mauf]

I’m kinda jealous of the Kyle Gibson signing. There’s a chance he’ll fall off a cliff at age 36, but if he’s the average to slightly below-average innings eater he has been for the past three years, that’s a good value — and would’ve been a nice pickup for a Sox team that needs all sorts of pitching help.

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

Is Chaim Bloom working for the Cards?

 

[YTF]

Agents must be telling these guys to take the early $$$, lest they Wacha and Eovaldi all over themselves.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Mariners trade their starting third baseman to the DBacks.

Ryan Divish

@RyanDivish

Per sources Mariners are getting Carlos Vargas and Seby Zavala for Geno Suarez

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

More info from Passan:

Jeff Passan

@JeffPassan
·
23s

Trade news, per ESPN sources: Arizona Diamondbacks acquire third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Seattle Mariners acquire reliever Carlos Vargas and catcher Seby Zavala. Diamondbacks get their third baseman. Mariners move money off the books and get a live arm and backup catcher.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Salary-dumping Suarez seems like a(nother) bad sign for their offseason. Open the wallet, Stanton!

 

[Scoops Bolling]

How the hell did Suarez hit better at Safeco than away? I was going to say this could help resurrect his numbers, and it still could in that Arizona ballpark, but now I'm much less sure of that.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Salary-dumping Suarez seems like a(nother) bad sign for their offseason. Open the wallet, Stanton!

The Mariners are the dumbest franchise. They make tons of money in revenue each year, finally reached the damn playoffs, are poised to becoming the hottest ticket in Seattle and then last offseason their big acquisition was AJ Pollock.

Plus, they traded their closer at the deadline!

This is not a poor franchise money wise, but it is a poorly run franchise.

 

[stp130]

Suarez didn't have a great year and strikes out a lot, but that's an extremely unimpressive return.

 

[Ale Xander]

Mariners : Dbacks :: KC Athletics : NY Yankees

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

The Mariners are the dumbest franchise. They make tons of money in revenue each year, finally reached the damn playoffs, are poised to becoming the hottest ticket in Seattle and then last offseason their big acquisition was AJ Pollock.

Plus, they traded their closer at the deadline!

This is not a poor franchise money wise, but it is a poorly run franchise.

The Sewald trade and now this trade are the moves you find yourself making when ownership won’t increase payroll and you have a bunch of needs to fill. Probably not a coincidence that the one time they didn’t mess around with these little margin-tinkering moves was also the year they made the actual playoffs.

 

[Wingack]

Seattle has been in the rumor mill for Ohtani, maybe they are just trying to clear up some payroll to make a big offer.

 

[Scoops Bolling]

Seattle has been in the rumor mill for Ohtani, maybe they are just trying to clear up some payroll to make a big offer.

MLB had a report out within the last week that the Mariners are not expected to be in the running for Ohtani.

 

[DeadlySplitter]

That's pretty brutal from the Mariners' end. Don't expect Seattle ownership to reallocate much of that money. And it puts Urias at 3rd where he could be awful defensively.

View: https://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1727409230783656286?s=46&t=YG4ofOIr1fcT4fX1a3qY3A

 

[LogansDad]

I don't understand these two moves. Are they tanking all of a sudden?

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

Seattle as a team was #2 in strikeouts last season. Suarez was only one behind Schwarber for most in the league.Teoscar Hernandez was #3 and did not recieve a qualifying offer. You can certainly criticize the return for Suarez, but Seattle seems to be trying to cut down on strikeouts while saving money.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Seattle has been in the rumor mill for Ohtani, maybe they are just trying to clear up some payroll to make a big offer.

The only way this makes sense is if they're trying to clear some money for a shopping spree - it's certainly possible that's what happening, but unless you're grabbing someone like Soto, it's not clear to me whether they're actually upgrading the team if they've got Urias and Rojas still covering 2B and 3B in some combination. And even then, this is a really light return.

 

[Ale Xander]

I don't understand these two moves. Are they tanking all of a sudden?

Houston and Texas are good but how can you give up in November? (Not you, their management) It’s at least 9 months too early to give up.

 

[jon abbey]

The only way this makes sense is if they're trying to clear some money for a shopping spree - it's certainly possible that's what happening, but unless you're grabbing someone like Soto, it's not clear to me whether they're actually upgrading the team if they've got Urias and Rojas still covering 2B and 3B in some combination. And even then, this is a really light return.

Gleyber is likely very available if they want.

 

[Max Power]

The only way this makes sense is if they're trying to clear some money for a shopping spree - it's certainly possible that's what happening, but unless you're grabbing someone like Soto, it's not clear to me whether they're actually upgrading the team if they've got Urias and Rojas still covering 2B and 3B in some combination. And even then, this is a really light return.

Wouldn't you try to clear salary after the guy you want to spend it on accepts your offer? It's not like you're signing checks in the offseason. They're running a real risk of having a lot of cash and nobody willing to take it.

 

[jon abbey]

Wouldn't you try to clear salary after the guy you want to spend it on accepts your offer? It's not like you're signing checks in the offseason. They're running a real risk of having a lot of cash and nobody willing to take it.

If you do it your way, you run the risk of no one taking Suarez, maybe ARI would have pivoted to Candelario or someone else.

 

[Wingack]

I think your guys take on Seattle is too harsh. Let the offseason play out. They have a stacked, young, rotation and a good bullpen, without Sewald.

I am sure they are going to try to add offensive upgrades. It's silly to say they are giving up.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Gleyber is likely very available if they want.

I hear Cashman wants an outfielder who bats left-handed, how would you feel about a certain former top-ten prospect patrolling right field for the next couple of years? He's maybe got a little bit of an anger problem, but other than that...

 

[jon abbey]

I hear Cashman wants an outfielder who bats left-handed, how would you feel about a certain former top-ten prospect patrolling right field for the next couple of years? He's maybe got a little bit of an anger problem, but other than that...

Heh we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, no way Cashman sends him to BOS to possibly bite him in the ass.

 

[chawson]

Swapping out Suarez for Urias just seems like a good bit of business for Seattle. I don’t know why people are calling it a salary dump.

Their Steamer projections for ‘24:

EG: .221/.313/.406 | .314 wOBA
LU: .230/.327/.383 | .314 wOBA

Mariners’ hitters had the 2nd highest K% in baseball. This helps. Suarez is also six years older, certainly no less defensively challenged, and makes 2.5x as much in 2024.

I don’t know if Suarez was a fan favorite or anything — maybe locals are upset? Who knows if it works but on paper it looks like they may have marginally improved and saved $6M.

 

[Wingack]

Swapping out Suarez for Urias just seems like a good bit of business for Seattle. I don’t know why people are calling it a salary dump.

Their Steamer projections for ‘24:

EG: .221/.313/.406 | .314 wOBA
LU: .230/.327/.383 | .314 wOBA

Mariners’ hitters had the 2nd highest K% in baseball. This helps. Suarez is also six years older, certainly no less defensively challenged, and makes 2.5x as much in 2024.

I don’t know if Suarez was a fan favorite or anything — maybe locals are upset? Who knows if it works but on paper it looks like they may have marginally improved and saved $6M.

Yep, I think it is a shrewd little upgrade. Let's see what else they do.

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

I don't understand these two moves. Are they tanking all of a sudden?

Didn’t we love Urias like a week ago?

 

[DeadlySplitter]

I don’t know if Suarez was a fan favorite or anything — maybe locals are upset?

Absolute yes to this.

I also think Urias will be much worse than on paper, just based on the eye test I got watching him with the Sox for two months. Let's see if the eye test passes for me this year.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Heh we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, no way Cashman sends him to BOS to possibly bite him in the ass.

Oh, heh - I meant Jarred Kelenic!

 

[jon abbey]

Oh, heh - I meant Jarred Kelenic!

Oh, I don't know too much about him but after a couple minutes of research, I think I'd probably jump at that and even throw in Kyle Higashioka if SEA wanted, to make it match better on BTV (Kelenic-12.5, Gleyber 6.9, Higgy 4.5). Should I call DiPoto or wait until after the holiday?

 

[Murby]

Twins already looking to dump Christian Vazquez & that salary. Yikes. Another good move by Chaim.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/twins-have-discussed-christian-vazquez-trades.html?utm_source=twitter

 

[InsideTheParker]

Didn’t we love Urias like a week ago?

We? I didn't like him ever.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Oh, I don't know too much about him but after a couple minutes of research, I think I'd probably jump at that and even throw in Kyle Higashioka if SEA wanted, to make it match better on BTV (Kelenic-12.5, Gleyber 6.9, Higgy 4.5). Should I call DiPoto or wait until after the holiday?

Oh it’s a bad trade for Seattle on paper for sure, but I think this is the rare time I’d believe in “addition by subtraction” as a real thing. I have real trouble getting past this, which maybe isn't fair, but I think both parties would benefit from separating at this point.

Now, it's maybe true that they could find a better partner than the Yankees and Torres+, but I don't really want to spend a lot of time researching that. They need a right-handed corner OF and a 1B/DH type (LH preferred but not necessary), and probably also another infielder, too. And, like, actual MLB production, not "no, seriously, these guys are going to break out!" Franchy types.

(I've mentioned this before, but my original idea was to package JK with Bryce Miller and Harry Ford for Juan Soto and Cronenworth's contract. Unlikely, to say the least!)

 

[E5 Yaz]

While we wait, just a wonderful story about Ichiro at 50
https://theathletic.com/5080876/2023/11/24/ichiro-suzuki-baseball-pitching/

 

[RedOctober3829]

Howie Rose, voice of the Mets on the radio, is hearing there may be some Ohtani news today.
https://x.com/howierose/status/1728088509926219927?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

I doubt Rose has any sources with the Ohtani camp or other organizations. This is likely Ohtani meeting with the Mets or them being out on him.

 

[jon abbey]

Howie Rose backed off of that report pretty quickly, don't think he's ever had breaking news of any kind.

 

[Wingack]

This is incredible if you are a DBacks fan.

View: https://twitter.com/talkinbaseball_/status/1728538776027160656?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ

 

[Van Everyman]

This is incredible if you are a DBacks fan.

View: https://twitter.com/talkinbaseball_/status/1728538776027160656?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ

How much would it cost for the Red Sox or Yankees to offer something like this? $600? $700?

 

[Wingack]

How much would it cost for the Red Sox or Yankees to offer something like this? $600? $700?

I think you are missing some zeros.

 

[AlNipper49]

This is incredible if you are a DBacks fan.

View: https://twitter.com/talkinbaseball_/status/1728538776027160656?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ

That’s cheaper than the season tickets for the Greenville Drive

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Gonna piss off existing season ticket holders. I expect good seats won’t be available at that price.