2019-20 Offseason News, Rumors, Trades

jon abbey

jon abbey

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Kole Calhoun, Arizona native and ASU alum, signs with the D'Backs for 2 years plus a 2022 team option, no money yet.
 
TheDivision

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That’s a good deal for a reliever who can dominate. I guess there were questions surrounding his health.
 
jon abbey

jon abbey

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TheDivision said:
That’s a good deal for a reliever who can dominate. I guess there were questions surrounding his health.
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I think he could have maybe gotten more elsewhere but he wanted to stay in NY (where he grew up) and the Yankees never seemed too interested in bringing him back. There is a lot of buzz on Twitter that NY continues to push hard for Hader, we’ll see.
 
TheDivision

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jon abbey said:
I think he could have maybe gotten more elsewhere but he wanted to stay in NY (where he grew up) and the Yankees never seemed too interested in bringing him back. There is a lot of buzz on Twitter that NY continues to push hard for Hader, we’ll see.
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Yeah, he's all about NY.

“I love New York,” said Betances. “I grew up in Manhattan. Went to high school in Brooklyn. Played minor league ball in Staten Island. Made it to the big leagues in the Bronx. Now, I’m excited to go win a World Series with the Mets in Queens. Thanks to Fred and Jeff, Brodie, and all the other Mets staff who worked so hard to make possible this next step in my New York journey. Merry ChristMets! Let’s Go METS!” Source.
 
Minneapolis Millers

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A little bummed about Calhoun. Thought he could be a cheap guy to target if the Sox trade JBJ (while keeping/moving Mookie to CF).
 
jon abbey

jon abbey

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Encarnacion to the White Sox for 1/12, three team race this year in the Central.
 
jon abbey

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Once the White Sox call up Robert and Madrigal:

Robert 8
Anderson 6
Abreu 3
Moncada 5
Encarnacion DH
Grandal 2
Jimenez 7
Mazara 9
Madrigal 4
 
67YAZ

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jon abbey said:
Encarnacion to the White Sox for 1/12, three team race this year in the Central.
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With a second year club option at the same salary.

The White Sox are very high in 2019 first round pick Andrew Vaughn, a righty who plays 1B. He put up an .832 OPS in 55 games across rookie, A, and hi-A ball last year. The hope is that Vaughn breaks in in 2021 or 2022 that Encarnacion can walk away & Abreu moves to DH.
 
jon abbey

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I don't agree much with Mike Axisa (formerly the River Ave Blues guy, now writes for CBS), but this seems pretty dead on after those signings, unless of course they sign Donaldson.

"The Twins followed up a very fun and exciting 101-win season with a giant fart noise of an offseason."
 
E5 Yaz

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Yeah, they're not spending a lot here. They might not be done ... Axisa hot-takes aside
 
jon abbey

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E5 Yaz said:
Yeah, they're not spending a lot here. They might not be done ... Axisa hot-takes aside
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They might not be done but they did miss/pass on all the top FA SPs, which was what they really needed. They have Berrios, Odorizzi (man were they lucky he took the QO), Pineda (suspended the first 39 games), and now Bailey and Hill (out for a lot of the season recovering from surgery). They lost Gibson and Perez from last year's rotation.
 
E5 Yaz

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jon abbey said:
They might not be done but they did miss/pass on all the top FA SPs, which was what they really needed. They have Berrios, Odorizzi (man were they lucky he took the QO), Pineda (suspended the first 39 games), and now Bailey and Hill (out for a lot of the season recovering from surgery). They lost Gibson and Perez from last year's rotation.
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They were never getting Cole. Bumgarner, from what has come out since he signed, had his sights set on Arizona. Ryu, I guess, was a possibility ... although I don't know how his fastball plays in the AL, particularly in that park.

I'm not sure how many other top-tier guys there were
 
nattysez

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$7m for a guy who hasn't thrown 200 innings or had an ERA+ over 100 since 2013. Yikes.

Passan said they are looking to "get innings" from Bailey. That's the most charitable description I can imagine of a reasonable expectation from Bailey.
 
jon abbey

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E5 Yaz said:
I'm not sure how many other top-tier guys there were
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Wheeler, Keuchel, Hamels. I'm just saying they needed to upgrade the rotation this offseason if at all possible if they hope to win a playoff round, and as of now it is sideways at best.
 
Sad Sam Jones

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The Twins signing Homer Bailey is the best move for the Indians this off-season.

(Obviously good news for ChiSox fans as well, but they've at least made some real improvements of their own)
 
SemperFidelisSox

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Cheap ownership. That’s always been the Twins problem. They may not be a big market team, but their owner Jim Pohlad has a net worth higher than most of the owners in the league, including John Henry. Won’t spend a dime to put a 100 win team over the top.
 
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nattysez said:
$7m for a guy who hasn't thrown 200 innings or had an ERA+ over 100 since 2013. Yikes.

Passan said they are looking to "get innings" from Bailey. That's the most charitable description I can imagine of a reasonable expectation from Bailey.
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Bailey's career seems completely unique. He's pretty much been considered a bust since day one, yet he's entering his 14th season and if he gets a major league contract in 2021, he'll likely make over $100M in his career. Not only has he not put up an ERA+ of 100 or more since 2013, but 2012 (when he reached a career-best 112) is the only other time he's done it in his career. He spent more than a decade with his original team and was despised by its fans for the vast majority of those years. There were eight other players selected in the 1st round of the 2004 draft who have compiled a higher career WAR, but Justin Verlander and Neil Walker are the only ones still playing.
 
nattysez

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Ford Frick's Asterisk said:
Bailey's career seems completely unique. He's pretty much been considered a bust since day one, yet he's entering his 14th season and if he gets a major league contract in 2021, he'll likely make over $100M in his career. Not only has he not put up an ERA+ of 100 or more since 2013, but 2012 (when he reached a career-best 112) is the only other time he's done it in his career. He spent more than a decade with his original team and was despised by its fans for the vast majority of those years. There were eight other players selected in the 1st round of the 2004 draft who have compiled a higher career WAR, but Justin Verlander and Neil Walker are the only ones still playing.
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The irony of a pitcher named Homer is just too much for GMs to resist.
 
nattysez

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Plympton91 said:
I know 100 is a nice round number, but he had an ERA+ of 99 in both 2014 and 2019.
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Ok, so he's been at best slightly below league average without eating innings in any significant way for the last 5 seasons. Last year was his first year with positive WAR since 2014.

Paying that guy $7m to be your fifth starter when you have room under the cap and championship aspirations is foolish.
 
nattysez

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The White Sox are going to be the MLB equivalent of a "League Pass team" in the NBA. So much exciting young talent on that roster. Curious to see if they can put it all together.
 
jon abbey

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He also has big career home/road splits (OPS .995/.799) but we have learned in recent years that playing for the Rockies hurts your road hitting as much as it helps your home hitting, which is why LeMahieu was undervalued last winter. The same metrics that rated LeMahieu very highly before last season had Arenado as the second best player in baseball behind Trout, and he was closer to Trout than you'd expect.
 
jon abbey

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SemperFidelisSox said:
The Braves, Nationals, and Twins have each made a four-year offer to Donaldson worth around $100 million.
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You have to credit that kind of thing so we know how believable it is, in this case it is via Mark Feinsand on MLBN who is generally pretty solid.
 
jon abbey

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3/24, big commitment for an older reliever but he was awesome last year.

Donaldson is going to be a huge swing player wherever he decides to sign, ATL/WAS/MIN are all very good already but would go another notch up with JD.
 
67YAZ

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jon abbey said:
3/24, big commitment for an older reliever but he was awesome last year.

Donaldson is going to be a huge swing player wherever he decides to sign, ATL/WAS/MIN are all very good already but would go another notch up with JD.
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I’m surprised the NL teams are in on him at $100m, but we don’t know the structure of the deals. Given Donaldson’s history of calf and hip injuries, I’d think an AL team would regularly rotate him at DH to manage wear and tear.
 
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jon abbey

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Big week for Castros, Starlin signs with WAS for 2/12. Good luck with his defense.
 
JimRiceHOFer

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"Big week for Castros, Starlin signs with WAS for 2/12. Good luck with his defense."

Seeing how the Nationals have lived with the defense of Daniel Murphy and Brian Dozier at 2B, it shouldn't be too different
 
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